XRGC: Did Canceling Disney+ Work? Plus One Battle After Another and Task on HBO

Jason and Rosie are joined by Joelle in today’s group chat episode to break down the latest Paul Thomas Anderson film, theorize about a new crime thriller on HBO starring Mark Ruffalo, and discuss the return of Jimmy Kimmel. Plus Abu updates everyone on his trip to Paris.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Today's episode of XRG see contains spoilers for the new
PTA film One Battle after Another and t Esque on HBO,

(00:25):
Hello and it is Jason Concepcio and on Merseay Night
and welcome next our vision of the podcast where we
dive the video favorite shows, movies, comics of pop culture
company from our podcast where we're a prau few episodes
a week.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
In today's episode, we are doing a triple bill with
super producer Joel Money gets popcorn pop out one bottle
after another.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
How is it? Do you like it? Do you like
Paul Thomas Anderson?

Speaker 3 (00:51):
The people are going to have a conversation, and then
we're gonna have a timely.

Speaker 5 (00:56):
Discussion about the return of Jimmy.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
But first, One Battle after Another.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Okay, let's welcome in super producer Joel to talk about
the latest movie from the acclaimed Los Angeles native director
Paul Thomas Anderson. His soft adaptation of the Thomas Pincher
novel of Vineland is out in theaters soon. It is

(01:29):
called One Battle after Another, and it's stars Leo Diocaprio
and many many others, Tianna Taylor, Chase in Finniti, Bisi
del Toro, Regina Hall. We saw it. Yeah, we have thoughts.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Jason, what were your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I really loved it. I mean, first of all, I
think it's the most popcorn Paul Thomas Anderson movie since
Bogie Nights, the most sure watchable like sit down and
be entertained by a peace ta movie.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
M h.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
That has that he's done in a long time. Mileage
may vary, but I feel that way. And the second
of all, it feels timely in a way that's not like,
doesn't have its hands around your neck. You know, there's
messages here and there are things that feel pulled from

(02:27):
current events, but it's a movie. It's an action comedy
movie story. It's not like Paul Thomas Anderson's pet message
that he's trying to deliver to the masses. And I
really enjoyed it, and I've been thinking about it a
lot as well. You know, all your thoughts.

Speaker 6 (02:48):
I agree with you that it is a super commercial film.
It's really accessible for everybody. I think it's beautiful. There's
a car.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Chase scene in there that is going to leave you like,
just haunt it. You're like the Power film. It's so beautiful.
The suspense is so driving.

Speaker 6 (03:02):
It's really giving like seventies independent action film at times,
but then it's also giving you like sort of French
New Wave at other times. But then sometimes it's giving
you like post World War two Italian cinema. I kept
thinking about The Bicycle Thief a lot, just in The
Bicycle Thief is shot.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
A lot in the Ruins of Rome. I think.

Speaker 6 (03:23):
This film, to Jason's point, you're seeing a lot of
things that are culturally changing in America. There's the deportations,
the just general racism, like over policing. You see all
of that, but it's it's so.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Ingrained.

Speaker 6 (03:42):
It's like you're going to work every day and you're like, wow,
this is crazy. So it feels natural in that sense.
I think what pined for me afterwards because Jason and
I were relieve in theater. I was like, oh, this
was really good, Like it's clearly a masterpiece in just
a cinematic discussion, like it's it's.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Well, it's that performances we just film.

Speaker 6 (04:00):
It's driving, like tensions build while all of that is
so there's so much silence in this movie, which I
really appreciate.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
I am pinging.

Speaker 6 (04:09):
Against using black liberation as a backdrop for a story.
It bugs me, and it particularly bugs me because we
spend so much time with women in the black liberation
movement in this film, and yet they are never I
don't even want to say, like, the words that go
to mind are like essentially focused, but they shouldn't be.
They're not the story, and they it's not I don't

(04:30):
want them elevated to any kind of like hero or
worship status. That's not what I'm asking for, but a
better understanding of like the women who become involved in
these movements and what they do. They're Tiana's character so interesting.
I love how flawed she is. I wouldn't change anything
about that character. Regina Hall's character, though, is in here,
and she's amazing. Regina's she's so talented, but I don't

(04:52):
feel like she gets a full arc. I don't really
feel like I understood her, and I thought that she
might have been a really great representation for you know,
a lot of black liberation movie are built on the
backs of black women. They're the ones organizing, setting everything up,
making her like helping people get out of jail, talking
to lawyer like it's it's around them that these movements
happen even though you know, typically what we're seeing are
like a lot of black males sort of lifted up

(05:13):
to the status. And so I was just I was
found myself pinging and frustrated at the depiction of black women.
It's not because it's necessarily bad or negative, but because
you've used this culture as a significant backdrop. And I
think the film is trying to make this point of like,
you have so many battles to fight, both as a citizen,
as a parent, as a person who loves people, It's

(05:34):
okay to put it down when you need to. It's
okay to like center your family, your lovemes or whatever.
And I think it's a beautiful message. I think it's important. One,
it's human one.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
I just.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
It was.

Speaker 6 (05:49):
It was in the same way I think when we
were talking the other day about gen V it was
just pinging for me.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
I had trouble with it.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
I hear you, and I think you're right, But thinking
about the movie since I've seen it and listening to
what you're saying, I wonder if it's not if there
isn't a conscious decision on the part of Pta to
make the lens for instance, spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler, spoiler,

(06:16):
spoiler spoiler. The movie ends with Leo DiCaprio's character, Bob
Ferguson essentially hanging it up right. He's like, I'm too
old to be doing this revolutionary shit anymore. And his
daughter Willa is essentially taken up the mantle, and we
stay with Bob as she exits to go on her adventures.

(06:38):
And here's what I appreciate about this, while acknowledging how
erksom it can kind of feel, is that it feels
to me as if PTA said, here's my lens, my
lenses this white guy who is an ally. At the
same time, there are spaces he can't go, and there's

(07:01):
spaces I can't go that I don't understand. I actually
don't understand. And so we're gonna stay with Bob as
his daughter goes out the door. We're gonna stay with
Bob for most of the movie. Is stuff is going on.
We're gonna visit these spaces that seem incredible and vibrant
and dynamic, but like I don't I also don't belong here.

(07:21):
So we're gonna look at it, and then we're gonna
go back to Bob, and I wonder if that isn't
the choice that PTA made thinking about just the way
some of these scenes buy that to.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
An extent, because I think we get that so well.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
But I understand why that's but I also understand why
we get it really.

Speaker 6 (07:37):
Well beneath the Toro's character like that like I'm not
of an immigrant culture. Like here's this really interesting guy
who again I think has like a pretty nice I
don't say art because there's not a lot of change,
but you get a full scope of like who this
guy is, like, what he's willing to put on the line,
how he's gonna handle the law, all of these things
which I feel sort of missing for Regina Hollis Gy

(07:57):
just wish she had just maybe one more scene or
something to fill that out. And but you do definitely
feel like him being like this is my lane over here,
and this is where I can occupy, and I do
have some respect for that.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yes, well, I will say as well.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
When I interviewed Regina and Teyana and Chase over at
Den of Geek, Regina actually told me that there was
a scene that got cut that for her is like
was a really big part of the character, which is
you there was a scene where Perfidia calls Deandra and says,

(08:31):
I need you to take the baby, like this is
on you, this is the You're the person.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
I know in that moment of community, and there.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
Was a moment.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Exactly and I think so, I think it is in
the DNA of the.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
Movie, which is like, I love this movie, Joelle.

Speaker 4 (08:49):
I agree with you.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
I think it's very I think you are raising really
clear important points that were very obvious to me when
I first saw the movie as well, of like this
isn't going to be some you know, great real life
representation of like the work that black women put into
revolutionary movements. But what it is is it is in
that seventies old school kind of William Friedrich like style, Michael.

Speaker 5 (09:15):
Mann style, like Thief. It puts you in.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
The empathetic space of empathizing with someone that you are
not usually supposed to in those old movies. It's white
guys who are doing criminals in this at every point
throughout this movie, emotionally, the score, everything is putting you
into a place of being empathetic towards like a female

(09:38):
led black revolutionary movement. And I think that in itself,
as a Hollywood action movie that feels very accessible, that
feels like you're gonna get people into the movie theaters
to see this. I'm just I think that a movie
like this that's accessible, bombastic, crazy, fond, like this movie

(09:58):
is almost three hours long.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
It does not feel like it.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, And I think that the fact that this movie
opens and they're doing a direct action like freeing people
from an immigration prison, there's a power to that. Again,
this kind of goes to that ongoing conversation that we've
been having about text and subtext in twenty twenty five
and where the real life has caught up too fast.

(10:23):
But in that moment, like when I first saw that screen,
that that screening and that was the opening, and there's
this like romanticism to it and this power to it,
and I was like, Okay, this in itself just making
a movie that makes people understand the actions like this
are like revolutionary and freeing and important and heroic. Tho

(10:43):
movies are an empathy machine in that way. And I
felt like that for me was the really cool thing
about it. I didn't feel like it struggled to say
what it was trying to say or who you should
support in this. I felt like it was very clear
in these other people who are doing the world that
needs to be done, and I thought that was really
cool for a big Hollywood movie, you know.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
I think that another thing I appreciate about this movie
because it is a it is a black and brown
revolutionary movement that you're kind of entering through the lens
of Leo. At the same time, Leo is not a leader.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
He's a he's a two figure, but.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
He is not a leader. He don't plan any of
the stuff. He is the person who's like, Okay, I'll
do that. You want me to do that, That's what
I'll do. He he is not even like a logistician
like this is. I do wonder if this is not
PTA's most personal movie, you know, because it's really about

(11:47):
It's really about a white dad who loves his biracial
daughter and who, through a relationship with his black wife,
was involved and ally in a struggle that he doesn't
one hundred percent fully under. He's given a passport to

(12:11):
be there in a way, and he understands it. Like
when he starts saying some of the like revolutionary ideology
phrases and stuff, you have to roll your eyes right.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
Yeah, And they have him. They also have him have that.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Like ridiculous moment at the beginning way he's screaming about
how he loves black guys while he's making out with
that with the champagne, Like he is not some cool,
principled guy, Like he's some guy who is in love
with Teana Taylor, which is very realistic. He's gonna do
whatever you're gonna do in that situation and then maybe
learn from it.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
And I think that what we're seeing is, you know,
it's really about a father's relationship with his daughter and
the fact that she is going to go back into
this revolutionary world that again he is a visitor to
and a key figure in, but doesn't fully belong to.
And that what do we end with. We end with

(13:04):
the words of Perfidia, her mother who wasn't even around
for Will's entire life, pushing Willa out into the world
as Bob stays home. I don't know, it feels like
a very personal statement considering the familiar makeup of Ptah family.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
I was gonna say as well.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Also, he married Maya with Rudolph, you know, who is
a child of a famous black single you know, with
Ninnie Riperton, who is also biracial and who also then
you are. He is also like marrying into essentially like
a legacy, like a black music legacy. It's very I
think you're right, Jason, I think that is something very personal.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
I also, I.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
I can, you know, struggle with a Leonardo DiCaprio performance,
because often nowadays, I mean obviously, like when I was
growing up, Romeo and Julia and you know, like Basketball
Diaries like those were such formative films for me. I
really enjoyed this role for him. There's a silliness to

(14:12):
it that I think is so appealing with everything because
the movie does have like an absurdist sense of humor,
and there's gonna be stuff in here that robs people up,
like the stuff with Perfidia and the Sean Penn like
Lockjaw character, Whereas I think that they did an interesting
job of navigating something very strange and giving her the

(14:35):
power in that situation. It comes to me in the
same space as like Bob as being stoned, Like there's
like a silliness that Pta wants to imbue Bob with.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
That for me sold the movie.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Way. Let's talk about Perfidia and Sean Penn spoiler spoilers, spoilers.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
This movie is so.

Speaker 6 (15:03):
Like disgusted charming, which is to say you don't like
him at all, but you're so ingrained and like who
is this fucker?

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Like he's so.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
He's definitely getting a best support because it's no fowl
and so interesting.

Speaker 6 (15:16):
And then when you think about like Pete Heterson's pen like, wow,
you hate racist like you He's cackled, like their organization
is like Christmas something and everything.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
It's like, hi, guys, I couldn't.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Well that's another thing.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
Actually, let's I also do want to say, like that's
another element to this movie. Again, I think with the
trappings of genre and silliness, and maybe released at a
different time, even two years ago or something, it wouldn't
feel as crazy. But the baddies in this movie, like
the Stone called evil People, are white supremacists who are

(15:55):
essentially trying to make like a new version of the Klan,
and they have to give it a stupid name and
they talk about, you know, the purity of white snow
and and I thought that was another good element where
I was just like, yeah, like I this is the
rad Thomas Pinsion book I've actually read too, and This
is one of those things where like I feel like
if you read the book and you watch the movie,
I just don't see how this isn't the adaptation you want,

(16:18):
you know, Like I think like when you're adapting something,
you have to bring something to it. And yet for me,
there's just something. It's that I think you summed up Joel.
It's that like seventies kind of indie cinema.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
And this movie cost one hundred and forty million, so it's.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Like expensive, but it but it feels beautiful. It looks beautiful,
and I think that there are going to be so
many interesting conversations to be had, Like I'm so excited
to read all the brilliant black film journalists, but I love.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Talking about this movie like I don't honestly.

Speaker 6 (16:53):
A little bit Bookie Okay, not that it's anyway totally
about Green Book.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Were leaving, there's somebody behind us.

Speaker 6 (17:01):
Was like about how this was, like this is the
part I'm talking about that so not the movie itself.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Not that had and what a broud is had and
what a broud is get ha did what a brod
has end up giving ptay billion dollars to make the
most Trump.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
That's your that's your us have like an imagination outside.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
It's also like.

Speaker 6 (17:26):
What white film critics tend to do. It's like if
anything is even a little bit political. Let's take the
reviews of him, for example, people were really like, oh,
it's it's not really making its point about like football
and CD. I'm like, was that the point of the
film or was that what you thought you were getting
Because this is a Jordan Peele produced film, and everything
that comes from Jordan Peele you think must have and Parry,
I don't think that's what the film was trying to do.

(17:47):
And I don't think that this is a film that's
really trying to be aggressively political. It is literally just
a reflection of our current society. I think that's fine
and good, but I do wonder if we're going to
head into an Oscar's Noma like, oh, this is like
the liberal like movie of the year and stuff. I
hope it's not that high.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Ironically, I think what's gonna happen is if it gets
into the Oscars, it is gonna have the edges kind
of you know, sanded off a little bit, just in
the way people talk about it. But I think that
it feels to me that this is the best kind
of movie about revolutions or revolutionaries. It sneaks in a

(18:33):
truth about America, about society, about revolutionary work, underneath an
entertainment level that is so high that when you are
on Rotten Tomatoes, pretty much every review is just like crazy, bombastic, giddy,
cinematic joy like pyrotechnics. It's a wild ride only PTA

(18:54):
could take you on. I don't agree with that one,
but I love PTA's take on this. But like, I
think people are kind of seeing it as this anarchically hilarious,
kind of furious film.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
I actually think it's more.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Likely that it's probably gonna get snobbed because the politics,
when you really dig into it, are a bit harder
to sanitize or claim are some kind of green bookie
like liberalism.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
With regards to that, With regards to the green bookiness,
I think there's no shot at there being a green
Book type Now, let me ask, first of all, when
you say a green Book type dynamic, what just you
mean just.

Speaker 6 (19:34):
The overpoliticizing of a movie, like when that when Green
Book came out, every white person was like, my god,
this movie is gonna say it like they did it
like it's it's beautiful and a perfect representation. Like again,
not anything that Pet or any of the filmmakers have
put on the screen. I don't think there's a comparison
between those two films, but just in the way we
handle and talk about films after they're released.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
My concern was that, like.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
I I think that here's my take on why that
Green Book and movies like it can create the dynamic
of the post Green Book backlash because and I want

(20:20):
to because movies that make way people feel good about
what they about racism and what and like how they
helped eradicate it often have this kind of trap inside
of it, where which this movie does not fall into

(20:41):
by making Bob a more central character in a wider
struggle than he deserves to be. He's here for his daughter,
he's here for his family, He's here to help his
family accomplish something. But he was not like this central
figure as in Green Book Book who helped break down

(21:04):
the racial barriers in the South, you know, as the spear,
you know, like driving down in a deep sound and
knocking down the wall like that is a kind of
trap that is easy because people want to feel good
that they did something good.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
I think once they imagine they would do something good
if they were around them.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Here's a thing that I know is true. Fast forward
twenty years from where we're sitting right now, people will
pretend that they were against all of this. Will they
will say that they I did this, that and the other,
and I said this that and the other, and I
did this thing and that thing and the other thing.

(21:47):
Because of this dynamic where you know, the things are happening,
they're terrible. People on a certain level want them them
to happen. But like, there's a reason that people are
ice agents are matt in the streets because they don't
want to say this shit with their whole chest.

Speaker 5 (22:03):
Yeah, they're just doing a job.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
And and there is nothing of that kind of.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
There isn't one feel good ice agent or something like Noah,
there's good white.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Characters that in this there's none of that.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
But Joelle, I definitely understand.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Where you're coming from because I did my my my
review on Letterboxed was they're gonna call Paul tamlis Anderson
woke and you're laughing, because that is like when I
came out of it, I was.

Speaker 4 (22:35):
Like, this is definitely like and also coming after a Licorice.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Pizza movie I did not love, and that I feel
like has many problems that could be well critiqued by
many different.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
People and have been.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
It's kind of was crazy to me to be like,
Okay and his next movie. If the right wanted to
and they understood what and they could be bothered to
sit down for three hours, they could be having the
biggest this is work clash ever, but they're not gonna
watch it. And and honestly good, Like, I'm fine with
that because I'm like, let's have I would rod that
we have famous white auteur directors making movies like this

(23:15):
that feel a little bit radical, feel a little bit revolutionary,
then just making like movies like Licorice Pizza.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
I'm like, yeah, move in this direction.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Man, I agree. This is PTA's Armageddon to me.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
Oh, I love that.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
That's a good you know Bee, I've said this before,
but By to me is the most entertaining right wing filmmaker. Yeah,
oh yeah, had you know? And Armageddon is a movie,
as I've said many times, that opens with uh, the
oil company workers shitting on green peace and then has

(23:49):
the oil companies saving the world from an asteroid in
return for never paying taxes like this is This is
and yet love that movie because it's so entertaining and
fun and really it's about relationships. This is this is
that for pta. Yeah, there are definite points of view here,

(24:10):
but it's really a family story that's so dynamically executed.
You mentioned the car I mean the car chis. It
might be the most original car chise I've seen since
like Ronin or something. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
No, it's really crazy how good the action and the
cinematography and the costuming, and you feel like you are
just fully in a who's.

Speaker 6 (24:33):
Been in the spotlights, like like just around the spotlight,
but not like in it for a long time. And
I think her turn in this will hopefully get her
a lot more in the future.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah, it's definitely awards show awards worthy.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
I think we will see her getting it.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
It's complex, it's funny, it's scary, it's sexy, it's sad,
it's intricate, and it also doesn't try to answer any
questions about.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
The nature of like what you have to do to survive.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
It's That's a good point, Rosie, because I think one
of the things I appreciated about this film was that
there are multiple characters that snitch, that rat like turn
on their friends and their community, and yet you do
understand why they did it. It's you have a consations, yes,

(25:24):
and you demonize show it, but when you see the
pressure being put on them, you're also like, what would
I get it? And I really appreciate it. Good good movie.
I'm really excited to see what the okay action is
to this.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
I was gonna say, let's do a crazy I think
this could box office oh Man recommending. I think this
could open to as high as like fifty mili because
of the Leo and the CTA and the Benicio and
the crazy good reviews, and it's been a time of
people going back to the movie there. But I will
also say I think Warner Brothers is doing something very

(26:00):
interesting by putting Sinners back in the movie theaters in October,
because I feel like this is very much the same audience.
So who knows, maybe maybe we'll get that big. You know,
there's only four movie theaters that show VistaVision, so it's
not going to be like Sinners where everyone's trying to
go and see that in this division because there's only
four theaters that do it. But it is going to
be an IMAX. It's going to be in perfect imax.

(26:22):
It's going to be in seventy mil. So I think
it could have the big screen. We need to see
this cine file response that this year has kind of
inspired in people. So I'm going to say I think
it could open as high as fifty.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
Joel, what do you think?

Speaker 6 (26:34):
I'm gonna say thirty three. Uh feels like a safe bubble.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Same. I'm going to say, I'm going to say low thirty,
But I think word of mouth, air quotes, resistance, word
of mouth, I think.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
Will build yeah and leg I think it's got.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Legs, and I think the fact that the cast is
so good and dynamic will give it big legs. I
think people will. I think word of mouth is going
to power this movie forward. And So while I do
you think it's gonna be a slightly low opening for
what is a very expensive movie, you know, for what
it is, for what it is, I think it will.

(27:17):
I think it will keep going and going and going.
Alla Sinners.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting too, because I say, Pta
is definitely one of those guys that usually like me
and Jason will talk about in the same breadth as
like a Wes Anderson.

Speaker 5 (27:29):
It's like, are you making money from these movies?

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Bro?

Speaker 3 (27:31):
Like where is the money coming from? Like how much
do you spend on them?

Speaker 4 (27:34):
How do you not? Phantom Thread one of my all
time FAVD movies.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Not exactly a massive blockbuster hit, but this feels to
me like it could.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
Have all of the momentum.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
And and also I think part of the word of
mouth is gonna be if you live in Los Angeles
right now and if you are involved with helping out
your community.

Speaker 5 (27:53):
There are moments in this movie.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
There is like a ten minute one shot scene of
Benicio Delta Horror prepping everyone in his kind of storage
unit that they need to leave because they're going to
get raided by the police.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
And it felt so true to.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
La and the community of LA and the casual ease
with which people will choose to help each other out here,
and the way that kind of refuse to get sucked
up into like the trauma and the panic that the
government wants to put you in, and instead his character
is so easy and I feel like when people see
that sequence in particular, and I'm sure there's tons of

(28:33):
other sequences like that that I don't immediately like speak
to me in the same way. But I was like
texting people. I was like, this is to me, it's
crazy that this movie is still coming out right now
in the climate we're in. And I think one of
the cleverest things that Warner Brothers has done is to
just let the reviews.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
Speak for themselves. Let those.

Speaker 5 (28:55):
White critics that you expect say.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Oh, it's such a good blockbuster, not delay the movie
due to political issues, not delay and just let it
come out. And I think in that way it's also
going to make more of a splash. Me and my
editor at Den of Geek we were wondering whether when
that review embargo dropped, it was going to become a firestorm,
because there is the potential for it to be seen
very politically and in this moment and as an attack

(29:19):
on if people don't agree with this kind of movement.
But that conversation hasn't started, and I'm kind of loving it.
I'm kind I want it to have that big splash.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
I agree, and if people don't like it, go out
and go out and make the go out and make
the pro ice round them up movie.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
Yeah, exactly like, go for it. There's people making most
movies right now. That's fine.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
Yeah, that was great movie, Joelle. Thank you for coming
on and talking about it. I'm excited to hear more
as you're as you see it again. I want to
know when you see it with your dad, because we
all know he's a big cinephile.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
I'm very excited because I.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Feel like it's also one of my favorite reviews I
read by David Erlick, who is a great critic Indie Wire,
but oftentimes I don't like agree. We like different kinds
of movies. He did a great review about how this
is like an ultimate like dad core movie, and I
really really liked that read on it, and I think
that could be its kind of place in history. Like

(30:14):
my one of my interviews that I wrote up, I
started it by being like, what if you know your
dad cared about you? That's basically the whole plot line
of this movie is like what if your dad actually
cared and was willing to like do some stuff for you?

Speaker 4 (30:26):
And I was like, whoa man, that's kind of deep.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
Like, So I'm very excited to you talk about it more. Anna, Yes,
let's go to a break and after we come back, you.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
Will be joining us anyway to talk about a very
different kind of.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
Dad core show.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
And we're back to talk about Task. Task on HBO,
the new crime drama prestige television show created by Brad
Inglesby of Mayor of Easttown fame. Who didn't love the
who done it? Ness of Mayor of Eastown? I figured
it out by episode seven, but that's okay. I thought

(31:17):
it was extremely well made. He's back with Task, a
crime drama set in the Philadelphia Hinterlinz with a insane
cast including Mark Ruffalo, former soap opera actor Tom Pelfrey
in a breakout role, and a bunch of a bunch

(31:39):
of people from the British isles, including Amelia Jones, Faby
and Frankel and others. The show comes out on Sundays.
We have just had the third episode drop on Sunday
and we wanted to check.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
In on it.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Who's Who's got thoughts about Task? I'm loving the show.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
Yes, it's very dad core.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
I'm kind of loving these stories where you follow kind
of two I like the hook of it being about
these two men and then it kind of growing out
from there.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
That relationship is very interesting to me.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
I think that Mark Ruffalo is actually a deeply underrated
dramatic actor because of being.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
So well known now for being the Hulk. But if
you think about it, think.

Speaker 5 (32:27):
About Zodiac, another one of my favorite movies.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
By a white auta dude, like, I love that movie.
I think it's Finch's best movie. Maybe that or Gone
Girl or My two.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
I love them so much, and Ruffalo is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
In that movie.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
I rewatched Zodiac so.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
Much and as soon as you guys told me about
this and I put on that first episode and I
saw like the five minute kind of opening of him
starting his day.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
I was like, Okay, yep, this is the Ruffalo.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
You're like, it's like, sit the fuck down and watch
the show.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
It looks great. It looks so.

Speaker 6 (32:59):
Beautiful, one of the most beautiful and like even just
like just not even just like, oh, this is a
beautiful image, but like shot, arrangement and composition, like all
of it is just a constant build to like an
emotional familial space you just feel immediately for everybody.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
This is the.

Speaker 6 (33:19):
Least propaganda police procedural I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Like it.

Speaker 6 (33:25):
Of like superiority about the police it doesn't try to
like elevate them at all.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
It's it's so ingrained in this.

Speaker 6 (33:33):
I think the idea of justice is where we're at
of like what what is justice?

Speaker 1 (33:38):
What does that mean?

Speaker 6 (33:38):
And in a world where we're really seeing like a
lot of people looking for like prison abolition and restorative
justice instead of just like an on the books justice system.
I think it's a really really compelling show from that angle.
And to have your lead be like a former preacher
who left not because of tragedy but because he found love,

(33:59):
and then who threw additional loving of people found himself
in tragedy, and it's trying to just make it like
to his next day every single day, like you can't
help but be completely like wrapped up in the narrative.
I didn't know what to expect from the commercials. I
was like, oh, you know, I think a lot of
times with HBO like mini series or like one season dramas,

(34:22):
sometimes I'm like this is just I just.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Then red with.

Speaker 6 (34:30):
Yeah, I was just they were just so depressing the
Night the Night of which again beautifully shot well performed
like wonderful, wonderful show, so sad, so depressing, or I
was like, I just don't even know if I can
hit play on the next episode.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
I'm so tired. This doesn't really have that vibe for me.

Speaker 6 (34:45):
It's heavy, but it's not in the way that I
don't feel like can digest it. There's enough life in
it that you're like, Wow, I really want to see
what happens to these people.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
So I'm loving task. I will be checking it out
weekly from now on.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
I One of the things.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
That I found very interesting about too, is like, I
don't know that I've ever watched the show about the
FBI or kind of a government, you know, law enforcement
agency that's about like what they probably actually do, so
committing like you've got to stop some robberies, targeting motorcycle
gangs like that to me was when I was like,

(35:19):
oh okay, I was like, wait a minute, this is
not you know, oh, there's a serial killer and you
have to find them on the loose, and it's not
the kind of procedure all you've seen before. And in
that way, I think almost the mundanity of what the
FBI is exploring allows it to move away from that
more kind of copaganda. CSI ncis kind of vibe.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
What I like about it as well. I mean the
first of all, performances are incredible, including oh my god,
uh you know the noted dramatic turn from Tom Pelfrey,
who he's so good I think was on the bold
and the beautiful and go right now, anyone listening to
this pod google Tom Pelfrey and look at any image
of him him and then compare it to what he

(36:02):
looks like a task it's nuts.

Speaker 4 (36:05):
And then.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
The acting is so good. The accents are for the
most part right on, except for Fabian Frankel, who's a
good enough actor that you kind of don't care. He's
just yeah, he's close. But that said, the thing that
I love about this is how I know this show
is so well crafted. First of all, if it was
five percent less good, it would be a soap opera

(36:28):
because the turns, the twists are straight out of General Hospital,
like tight, you know, the robbery and they take the baby,
they baby and his son killed his wife by accident, and.

Speaker 4 (36:42):
He's like, who's the leak. That's the big one we
need to know, is like who's the male?

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Who's the mangle? That's another thing is they have they waited?
You know with Mayor there was the immediate who done
it aspect? Right? Who killed the girl? With this show,
they've kind they they waited to kind of sneak in
this who's the mole kind of who done it aspect?

(37:06):
And now we're at a point in the story where
there is both the mole who is informing the robbers
about the movements of the motorcycle gang and where they're
putting their fence and all. And we've kind of, I
think cleared that up by now, and now there is
a secondary who done it, which is who is leaking
information from the FBI Task Force to the to the bikers.

(37:31):
And I have my theories. Okay, here's my here's my
top two. Okay, Number one suspect Kathleen McGuinty from the FBI.
Tom's boss, Martha Plimpton. You see her now. She is

(37:52):
known hold On, She's known Tom as for a long time.
He's there, She's there in the flashback scene when when
he's welcoming is the kids he's adopted into his home,
the kid one of whom will go on to cause
the death of his wife in a tragic fashion. And
so she's known this guy. She put him on the case.
She knows he's on his ass in a mess and

(38:13):
basically an alcoholic going through the worst time in his life.
Why not put this fucking hundred percent garbage dump on
this case because there's no way he'll figure it out.
That's my number one suspect.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
I like that a lot because also I do feel like,
if it's a murder mystery show, nine times out of
ten you can guess who the murderer is by the costing,
and Martha Plimpton is it's not unreal costing, you feel like, yeah, well, Also,
I think something that is really interesting is like you
do have your big names.

Speaker 5 (38:50):
But like that was the monologue with.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
Like Freddie the drug lord kind of guy talking about
like how he was racistly and how he wants to
change the percentages.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
With the money, and that moment.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Look, and I know this is crazy to say, and honestly,
we don't even really invoke this on the show a lot,
I think because of what we talk about, but obviously
all big fans of it here, but that moment was
giving the wire.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
Like when they did that, I was like, so oh,
I was like, wait.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
A minute, this could be a show that could expand
itself out and has it just in three episodes known
from seemingly being about just two guys to being about
this world that we never get to see.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
That leads me to my second suspect. Oh my god,
Aliah from the Task Force. What if just because and
it's only because of process of elimination Anthony Grosso DJ
Grosso too easy, Maybe she's so disconnected from even her

(39:53):
fellow state trooper cops that it's it's really hard to
believe that she would have any connections to motorcycle gangs.
And so here's my pitch. First of all, it would
be such a change up if it was a Leiah.
And next, what if she has some sort of neighborhood,

(40:17):
family social connection to the drug dealer who gots who
we meet who got I forget his name now you
mentioned it, Rosie, Yeah, Freddy Freddy who got stomped out
by the biker gangs. And so she has some sort
of connect finger into that world. But but honestly, for
me right now, a dark horse compared to Kathleen McGuinty,

(40:41):
I love the Kathleen McGuinty because also as well, I
think something the why I did and why we talk
about it so much, and something I really love about
this show so far.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
The humanizing of every single person in this everybody there
is no clear like even we know, like, let's be real,
American culture loves like a robber, you guys, love like
a burglar, a bank robber, a high It's like culturally beloved.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
So I think, exactly right. So I think that.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
Like the way that they're able to make the Tom
Polfree characters so engaging and believable is because everyone in
America has thought about what if I didn't have enough
money to pay bills for my family? Like I will
say this, guys, this is this. I think this is
a very icy, cold take. But if it's a hot take,
let me be roasted on it. But like I do

(41:32):
feel like a lot of the issues that modern America has,
and when it comes to poverty and when it comes
to crime, they are tied to the fact that people
have to pay for health and.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
Pay for health care, you know.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
And I think in a show like this, and why
I think that Marriby's Town was so fantastic and why
I think this is so fantastic is you rarely get
TV shows that are about like working class neighborhoods that
feel like real working class neighborhoods where people know each
other and have complex connections, and this show is reminding

(42:04):
me of that in a way that The Wire did
that felt like revolutionary then, and I still don't think
we get a lot of shows and movies that are
in that space. It's almost like give people a reality
of what it could be like.

Speaker 6 (42:16):
It's giving sense of anarchy and a lot of it
is It's like, what if Opie was the main of
the show, he got a bad way, and then we
also follow this.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Mix with The Wire is not a terrible log line
honestly all.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
It's really serving on all fronts.

Speaker 6 (42:30):
It's a little to Jason's point about it being so
it's it's almost Shakespearean, and I imagine we're going to
build to a very dramatic conclusion. And I completely agree
with your theory, Jason, because that's the person it would
hurt the most coming from unless it's his his snobby
biological daughter that's doing it for some reason, that thing
absolutely knows sense. But she's the only one who could

(42:51):
maybe hurt him more. What agree I While we're talking
about what I love about the show so far, too
is like anytime somebody comes in for a single scene,
they're just smashing it, like, Oh, this is gonna be good.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
No, I know doubt. That's like twelve main characters.

Speaker 6 (43:03):
She's in here for seven minutes and she crushed this.
I was like, I hate you so much, and yet
I again, I understand your pain and where all of
this is coming. I could I understand why you're saying
all the terrible things you're saying.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
It's beautiful. The writing, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 6 (43:15):
Can We also talk about male friendships on television rare,
and when we do see them a lot of times
it's like, oh, we're bonding specifically just over violence, or
specifically over women, or we're only friends because we have
the same career or whatever. But like the cultural bonds
of male friendship in this show, I just find so
charming and sweet and then of course devastating later.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Yeah. Ten out of ten. On the writing. I hope
they get all the nominations this year.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
I want to talk about that because I love watching
the feature at the behind the episode scenes because again,
like eighty percent of this the cast is from the
British Isles.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
It's really funny.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
And first of all, they're all doing an incredible Like
the first feature it I'm like, oh them to like
and so it's incredible. But every single interview, it feels like,
is some version of this. Well, you know, I got
the I got the script, and I was heading out
to the launderette and so, you know, to get some

(44:17):
some cleaning done. And uh, I was supposed to go in,
but I made the bad choice of opening my script.
Our starts rates and I was just transported to a
world that on this Philadelphia millieu that I was, I
was sucked in. The writing was so amazing and it's

(44:39):
like that is every That's all anybody can talk about
in this future. They're right well excited to check back
in with this topic. Let's take a quick break and
we'll be back to talk about whether you should cancel
your Disney plus who at War?

Speaker 1 (45:11):
We back?

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Okay, let's talk about boycotts. Jimmy Kimmel's back on the
air after a four days cooling on the bench because
four days because of pressure from regional television networks that
are I mean, listen, it seems like seeking to curry
favor with the administration for a proposed merger, wanted to

(45:35):
pull a noted critic of the president off the air.
Many people were upset about this, as you can only
be upset when when a wealthy, funny, charming white guy
is pulled off of.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
His late night TV show that's been on for twenty years.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
But listen and truly and absolutely infuriating. Yeah, it was
an important, infuriating attack on free speech, and a lot
of pressure came out of that, including a spontaneous kind
of grassroots movement to cancel Disney Plus Hulu and kind
of that that suite of platforms. We saw it in

(46:15):
our discord, people talking about it, whether it's the right
thing to do, and it certainly does seem as if
that pressure, along with under pressure, got to Disney, and
thus Kimmel is back on the air, although still being
preempted in the what I thought the country that is
that it has these television networks. So I don't know.

(46:38):
I've just been thinking about it, like the efficacy of
boycotts specific to this kind of thing, Do they work?
And what should people do?

Speaker 3 (46:48):
So I think this is a really interesting conversation, and
I think it's right that we're having it right now,
because this does feel like over the years we've seen
many attempt at boycotts. There has been a lot of
conversation about weycotting during everything that is going on with
genocide in Gaza, like, there has been a lot of
stuff going on where we have to have these conversations.

(47:10):
But it is very rare that naturally organically you just
see loads of people who you don't usually see engaging
in political speech or political posts choosing to take down
their Disney plus choosing to unsubscribe. I've seen people do
this before, but I saw it in a way that
felt very widespread, though I felt like it was just

(47:33):
in my bubble, But I do believe that in this case,
I think that the amount of people who were willing
to do this surprised Disney and ABC, and I feel
like that's why the resolution was so quick. We have
not gotten like full numbers and we likely never will

(47:53):
about how many people canceled, but there are many different
people talking about the stock prices that dropped, you know,
the way that a boycott of an artist or a creator,
I mean one of the great kind of you know,

(48:14):
other huge moments in this that one of our super
producers pulled is like when Adidas had to drop Kanye West,
and they lost like one point three billion dollars in
yeasy shoe inventory that we haven't sold. And obviously we
can look at like as well, how racism impacts who
adidask does or does not decide to work with after that,

(48:34):
It's very complicated.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
But I think there.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
Are moments in time in the last five ten years specifically,
where these boycotts have kind of started and bubbled up,
but we haven't seen any direct impact. I think there
must have been some kind of direct financial impact that
was bigger than Disney had counted for, because they knew
people were gonna do this as some kind of response,

(49:00):
but I don't think they foresaw how many people would
care about it. That's my feeling on this one specifically.
I feel like in this case, it looks like it
at least scared them enough to speed up this process.

Speaker 4 (49:14):
Joelle, what do you think.

Speaker 6 (49:17):
I come to boycott's obviously through black liberation and civil
rights movements.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
This is my understanding of boycotts and where they come from.

Speaker 6 (49:24):
And I think when we think about boycotts are thinking
about like, what's the goal of a boycott.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
I don't think.

Speaker 6 (49:28):
People presume that, oh, if you're boycotts and then you
want it to end. It's almost never the case. It's
really about changing a behavior or a pattern or ending
a discriminatory practice. And so in that case, I think
they work really well. Like we oftentimes see. We can
look at Target. Currently, Target's hurting bad financially. Their headquarters

(49:50):
is in the city where George Floyd was killed. A
lot of black folks were really pissed when they rolled
back their DEI initiatives at the top of twenty twenty
five posts the Trump election, and every quarter they been down.
I have not been back to a Target since. I
don't know if I'll ever return. I used to be
so absolute Target. I used to be at Target multiple
times a week. I don't know if I'll ever go back.
And it happened like overnight, and so to that, I

(50:13):
think you're looking at like when do you jumping on boycott?
Like you can make the moral decision to be like,
I don't want to put money towards you. I know
a lot of people are doing their best to boycott Amazon.
Some of you have been very successful, some people are struggling.
But I find that boycotts tend to work best when
a you understand there's a longevity to it. Like one

(50:33):
of our most successful boycotts as a nation is the
Montgomery bus boycotts. It took a year to get changed
ratified over that, and that's really a year from the
Rosa Park sitting down, which is there are years before
that of trying to get change and adjusting things. And
so I think there's a lot to be said about like, hey,
I have a moral issue with you. I'm not going

(50:56):
to give you my money. I think boycott's work best
when it is a large group of people actively dedicated
to it. Like so when we're looking at what happened
with Kimmel and Disney, you know, Disney's being attacked from
the unions, which we have some of the strongest unions
in Hollywood, like.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Not to the Writers Guild Union.

Speaker 6 (51:12):
Is they're coming up against them. That's bad news for
you. You're losing sleep, Your lawyers are shit.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
Yeah, WGA is not afraid. You can't pook with that
statement out there and start it the.

Speaker 6 (51:22):
Fire and SAG very similarly and they did mm HM
and SAG is similarly very aligned and motivated, and so
from an industry perspective, that's really scary. Because they can
get people to stop showing up from work. Then from
you know, Disney Plus is really important to Disney as
a brand. Right now, they're shuddering Hulu to sort of
move it into this space if people don't have it.
You know, that's how we're funding a lot of our

(51:42):
shows right now. Like that's really harmful. So then now
you're on a customer thing that's difficult. But now they're
also facing from the other side, like their broadcasters are like, hey,
you can bring them back all you want, but we
will not be It's it's a clusterfuck of a place
to sit in. But I think that because you know,
if your workers and your customers are not on your
it doesn't really matter if your business partners want you
to do something else. You have to make money and

(52:05):
out of product. So yeah, I think Boycott's do work.
I think it not always, and really only when people
are actually dedicated long term to seeing that change made.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Yeah, I think it's tough. I wanted to call out
a comment that I saw in our discord. This person
wrote regarding canceling Hulu or Disneyplus and FX that suite
of platforms altogether. I have three kids with autism. My

(52:37):
youngest one loves Pixar cars and the first thing he
does when he gets home is watch his cars in
his specific order. And this person then went on to write,
you know how important these platforms are to her family,
and that it's just simply not feasible. And that's the
thing that you know, I've thought about a lot. I

(52:59):
am slightly on a pre preface what I'm about to
say by saying, like, I understand how the world works. Okay,
Jimmie Killble is a very famous guy. He's on Network TV.
People know who he is, people see themselves in him
because of his success and how mainstream he is. So
I get it that pulling O off the air is

(53:21):
going to scare the folks who maybe felt like, you
know what, this is terrible right now, But I'm not,
like really, I'm not actually getting touched like I think
this is terrible, but like more or less, like I
go about my day. And it has irked me a
little that it's like this is the thing that got

(53:42):
a wide swath of people like involved in saying no
more when people are literally being snatched off the streets
and dragged to unaccountable prisons to face possible deportation to
countries they don't even come from. That's like, it's crazy me.
I understand how the world works. And so that's the

(54:03):
thing I also wanted to just note is that but
we should use all the pressure that we have that
we can use, and that there's different lines for everybody.
There's simply different financial thresholds, different social thresholds, like I'll

(54:25):
never go into a target again. No target is also
not my only option.

Speaker 5 (54:31):
Exactly, and there we don't live where there's a food.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
And so just like recognizing that people are going about
resisting things that they are disagreeing with in different ways
and in ways that you know, it's the system that
is being applied right now is very very powerful, and
part of the way it gets its hands around you
is financially people simply can't afford to do more protesting,

(55:02):
to boycott this and that, or to not go to
the only store that's close to their home. And I'm
glad to see this worked and hopefully it will continue
to work, but it's not this easily cut and dried
thing where you know, I'm seeing a lot of people

(55:22):
say you've got you must cancel your and I agree
with that to it to an extent, but it's not
that easy. I guess.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
I'm trying to say I loved that you brought that up, Jason,
because I think something that you touch on is a
there's not one version of boycotting or direct action or
mutual aid that works for everybody. And there's going to
be people whose systems and security networks and spaces and
amount of money they have. Like when I was a

(55:50):
young person in London, I couldn't boycott nothing because I
didn't have any money.

Speaker 4 (55:54):
Yeah, So there's also that.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Element where it's like there is a survival aspect to
life where some people are going to be surviving. And
I don't think that there's any good that comes from
judging whether or not somebody else is doing what you
think they should do, don't you know that's kind of
I think, Yeah, go for it.

Speaker 6 (56:12):
I was just gonna say, in addition to that, you know,
I think we to Jason's way. It is entirely frustrating,
especially you know, we live in Los Angeles, so this
stuff is very much in our faces about like you know,
people are there pulled off the street.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
It's horrifying.

Speaker 6 (56:27):
But I would say we understand how to talk to
a network as a people, as an American people, we
know when you mess with our TV, like we know
how to boycott.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
We know how to bring you our TV shows back,
and we know how.

Speaker 6 (56:37):
Like here's a direct line of communication and a direct
dollar exchange which we can easily impact. That I think
makes that communication easier h versus something like immigration.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Where do you start, Like where do you Okay, Mountain
Street a marketing with people?

Speaker 6 (56:53):
Then what like I've offered a house and babysit this
is then what like it's just it's such a prolonged
multi problem is you But Jimmy Kimmel think it's just
so much.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
It's such an.

Speaker 6 (57:02):
Easier direct line of attack to to feel very easy. Yeah,
it's super It was super easy to like figure it.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
So also maybe I'm just hoping Joelle, let me know
what you think about this, but maybe the ease of
that solution can inspire people to understand that there are
different versions of it. It doesn't always it is constant work,
but there's little wins that you're going to be able
to have through organizations like this, but they're not the
only wins.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
And I think.

Speaker 6 (57:30):
That's you know, to Jason's point of just like you know,
yes it's frustrating, and yes you may feel like, well
it's so easy, why don't you just do it? But
people have a lot of different situations going on, and
so I think figuring out like where you can get
in and be most successful in your own lane is
really vital. Like I saw somebody else, They're like, I
feel like all I can do is like just post

(57:51):
that I don't like these things, and somebody else was like, yo, okay,
but I wouldn't have known about these things if you
hadn't posted them. It's been helpful to me, to be exactly.
And then that's just one more person, and that's not nothing.
So it seems insurmountable. I think the most important thing
to remember is like, long term, this is a long
term goals we have is going to launch a lot
of time to get things done and moved across the line,

(58:12):
and so just being patient and sticking with it is
really you know. I think that's the lesson we can
take away from boycotts is like patience inconsistency.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
Will absolutely well, let's take a quick break and we'll
be back with our Friday. We're back, Thank Glactus, it's Friday.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
Face up.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
We must ask the man from Paris.

Speaker 7 (58:48):
He's not the man from Paris, the man in Paris
and now back.

Speaker 4 (58:57):
No, this isn't your friend.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Now are of visually French now and we want to
know what who did in Paris? We tried to ask
him before the bikes went on. He said, I have
no thoughts about one of the most famous and now
we are affording it. We must know what did you

(59:21):
do in Paris that you enjoined? Wow?

Speaker 8 (59:24):
Wow, okay, I'll come up with some thoughts in real time.
Then I enjoyed a lot of things.

Speaker 7 (59:30):
So we did a I went with a group.

Speaker 8 (59:31):
Of friends and we did a croissant baking class, which
was so much fun. Actually, our instructor was so lovely.
Our instructor did bring up Charlie Kirk, but kind of
side stuffed it very quickly.

Speaker 4 (59:47):
So make.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
We don't even want to understand. I don't want to
know how that came up in the midst of a
croissant class.

Speaker 8 (01:00:00):
But it was a very small comment and we all
moved on very quickly. But no, it was such a
lovely chissant class. I learned some fun facts about how
in France, butter is different and butter is much better. Yeah,
something about it's eighty two percent fat is the limit
to be called butter. Eighty one percent is margarine, whereas

(01:00:21):
in the US butter is considered like sixty Anything with
like sixty percent fat is butter. So we just have
like shitty butter here and the French would call it margarine.

Speaker 7 (01:00:31):
Beyond the class. You know, I did the touristy stuff.
I'm a bit of a history buff.

Speaker 8 (01:00:36):
So Arc de Triomphe Napoleon's tomb, we did not Tre Dome.
I was telling everybody my hot take earlier that Notre Dame.

Speaker 7 (01:00:46):
Was like a little bit overrated. It's just like just
a church and a belt.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
It's the new build. It's been famously some years ago
and is just been rebuilt. Yeah, so it's the it's
a fresh rebuild.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
It's much like the ship of theseus, Like is it
even Notre Dame?

Speaker 7 (01:01:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:01:11):
I will say little fun facts that made the Notre
Dame visit fun for us is we showed up and
there was just like secret service everywhere and like boats
and like men with big guns walking around. And uh
then our tour guide informed us that Manuel Macrone was
scheduled to speak at Notre Dame later that day because

(01:01:32):
they were opening up the the I.

Speaker 7 (01:01:35):
Forget which tower west or east.

Speaker 8 (01:01:37):
One of the towers was done with the reconstruction, and
it was the grid opening of it. Marone was gonna
be there. We didn't see Macron. We didn't stick around
for that. We had other other Paris things to do
outside of that, a lot of shopping, a lot of
like really classic vacation stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
It was fun.

Speaker 7 (01:01:53):
Paris is great. I highly recommend what.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Is the best thing you ate?

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Mm?

Speaker 7 (01:01:58):
Okay? I oh god, okay.

Speaker 8 (01:02:04):
I get asked this every time I go on vacation,
and I every time I have to reveal that I'm
actually a picky eater.

Speaker 7 (01:02:10):
I'm not a foodie. I don't travel to eat.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
I know this is like an embrass literally.

Speaker 7 (01:02:18):
I had a macrone at McDonald's, so like outside the
Arc de Triomph, the McDonald's is.

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
Like, Okay, it was the McDonald's macarone delicious.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
It was not.

Speaker 8 (01:02:27):
I don't recommend go to any other but any other
machir own place. I had macarones from a number of
different places.

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
Okay, I gotta say.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Which which travel agent is gonna, you know, sponsor us,
so who can do honest tourism because I'm loving miss
I'm like, we gotta.

Speaker 7 (01:02:48):
I travel for the history.

Speaker 8 (01:02:50):
Like I went to Italy last year and I like
legitimately cried walking into the coliseum because I was just
like so in awe walking in.

Speaker 7 (01:02:59):
To a space like that.

Speaker 8 (01:03:00):
So like I travel for the I travel for the
sweet treats. There are definitely a lot of yummy pastries
in Paris. But yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not a foodie.
I really can't rattle off anything fancy.

Speaker 4 (01:03:13):
I I love this.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
I'm obsessed with McDonald's macaron. Well are you back in
are you back in America?

Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
Right now?

Speaker 8 (01:03:21):
I'm back in America unfortunately getting on a flight again
this weekend from my mom's birthday.

Speaker 7 (01:03:25):
So, like I have.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
A I was gonna say, what are you doing this weekend?

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Just flying again? Well let me ask you. Okay, so
one thing, Well we'll end We'll end this segment with this,
because I think this is enough of a of a
wonderful crack into the vacation to Paris that so many
of us dream of one thing that Paris does better
than New York that New York should do Paris.

Speaker 7 (01:03:52):
Okay, I think this is generally a europe thing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
But on the.

Speaker 8 (01:03:57):
Wh when it comes to like just plazas, I think
Europe really cracked the idea of a plaza where there's
like no cars, no bikes. It's just like a huge
area for people to walk around in and little shops
to dive into and cafes to sit there and like
smoke and eat and whatever. We just I miss that

(01:04:18):
when I come back to the US, I'm just like,
where can I just like not be surrounded by fucking
like cars and bikers, especially in New York City. Where
can I just go and quietly hang out in peace?
And So that's something that France and I think most
of Europe does better.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
Nice well more plaza. Welcome back to thank you, read
to be back then they need us, salute us, Welcome
back to the Greatest country on Earth takes in this
particular episode.

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
What's anyone else doing this weekend? Nothing?

Speaker 3 (01:04:57):
Just be enjoying the best country of the last Hey.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
Yeah. On the next episode of X ray Vision, we're
diving into the week's biggest news. Plus, you will hear
our interview with Dave Shilling the author of Horror's New
Wave fifteen years of Blumhouse. It's a really actually fastating conversation.
That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening, Bay, Goodbye.

(01:05:24):
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Spcion and Rosie
Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Our supervising producer is Abusafar.

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bay wag.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
Our theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kaufman.

Speaker 3 (01:05:44):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi.

Speaker 4 (01:05:48):
Our discord moderate though