November 27, 2025 • 26 mins
On the show today Em Vernem has a completely unhinged review (sent via voicemail) of a highly anticipated animated sequel that children will love, and adults might find a bit…sexy? Listen at your own risk to this one.
Plus, we’ve been waiting years for the final season of Stranger Things to drop on Netflix, and the day is finally here! So allow us to catch you up on everything you need to know before you dive into the new season
THE END BITS
Read about all of this week's best new shows from Mamamia's entertainment team HERE
Our podcast Watch Party is out now, listen on Apple or Spotify.
Support independent women's media
Follow us on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. And subscribe to our brand new Youtube channel.
Read all the latest entertainment news on Mamamia... here.
Discover more Mamamia Podcasts here.
Do you have feedback or a topic you want us to discuss on The Spill? Send us a voice message, or send us an email thespill@mamamia.com.au and we'll come back to you ASAP!
CREDITS
Hosts: Laura Brodnik and Em Vernem
Executive Producer: Monisha Iswaran
Audio Producer: Scott Stronach
Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
From Mom and Me.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I welcome to this bill, your daily pop culture fixed.
I'm Laura Brodnick, and I'm Tina Burke. Mama Me is
pop culture and social editor. So Tina is here for
two I would say equally important reasons. One is that
Emily is not here, and as much as I would
love to monologue into a microphone for a whole episode
by myself, I've been told that's not okay by our bosses.
(00:39):
And two, you have the inside track on one of
the biggest TV show releases of the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
And it's out this week.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You got to watch the screeners ahead of everyone else.
You are deep in the fandom law you interviewed the
cast huge, So we're going to get into that. But first,
Emily is not physically here, nor is she in the
state currently, But she refused to be left out of
the episode because a movie that she loves premiere this
week and she got to see it, so it's in
cinemas now.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Zoutopia too.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Welcome to Partners in Crisis. I am your therapy animal
doctor fusby Greg. We talked about that. What are we
making Merlin uncomfortable. Yes, okay. Unfortunately, Karen has chosen to
see Joel's smile as a sign of aggression. Tackles down, Karen, Karen,
(01:31):
tackles down.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Someone get the host, funny Fox.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
This is a make or break assignment failure, and I
will split you up.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
No snake has set foot in Utopia in Forever, Hops,
mild Wild and Hops the Dream Team.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Sorry, Paul, sorryful.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
The biggest cinematic release of twenty twenty. I forget your
Zootope fan. So here's what you and I here's well,
here's where I'm gonna judge you on that because you
say you love Zootopia. But this week you and I
had a little Sophie's choice to make because we went
invited to the prem of Zootopia too. We also got
invited by Netflix to the launch of the new season
of Stranger Things, where we could go to Sydney Harbor
(02:15):
and have a bevy of drinks and snacks and watch
this incredible installation that they did over the Harbor where
Vecna was literally floating over us. And because we're adults,
we chose to go to Strange Things.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
We did.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It was a Sophie's choice. Of course, it was a
very big deal to me.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
For me, I was like, I'm using and I.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Like to follow Laura everywhere she goes, so that was
an easy choice for me. But I had to see
stranger things through.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It was the end of a culmination of a personal
journey for me. And I can see Zutopia too in
my own time in the cinema. I can't recreate Vecna
on the Harbor, so true, and.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
That is what I thought.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So Emily couldn't be here today, but she wanted to
give you the spillers her honest review of z Utopia two.
Coming into this movie as an absolute fan, so she
has sent us a voice note with her review and
you and I are hearing this for the first time.
So I don't know what's about to happen, guys, but
here we go. Emily Vernam So.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Yeah, I went to see Zotopia two. Firstly, the premiere
was amazing. They served as Pinacolades. Was a big fan
of that. So Zotopia too. What it's about. So we
still have Judy and Nick, the Bunny and the Fox,
and now they're both police officers and their partners and
(03:27):
they have to kind of work on their partnership because
they're like complete opposites. And then while they're working on
their professional relationship, they're also I guess working on their
personal relationship, although it's not as I don't think it's
as sexy as Zutopia one, but they are a bit flirty,
so you still you still get some elements of that.
(03:47):
But anyway, Zootopia too. So you know how there's mammals
in Zotopia, Well, all mammals can't live together because they
all come from different environments. Like polar bears can't live
with rhinos because rhinos need heat and polar bears need cold.
So then this I think he's a snow cat. The
(04:10):
snow cat guy decides to make these big walls so
then all animals can live in harmony. So it's like
a quadrant. So you have like the desert area and
the snow area, and the jungle area and the water area,
and they can all live in harmony. But everyone forgets
about the reptiles. Where are the reptiles going to go?
(04:31):
So that is the whole I think I gave a
bit too much away. That's pretty much what the movie does,
is they have to find where the reptiles are going
to go. But I can't say too much because I'll
spoil it. So make sure you watch it because it's
really good. It happens to a business weekend.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I'll drop on my sword here because I was the
one who said to Emily, Hey, you're not going to
be here, but you really want to do this review
send us a voice note, And I do regret that
for many reasons.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
One thing about Emily Vernon that we love.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And also question is that she will watch entire movie
and it'll be her favorite movie, but she can't really
tell you the plot afterwards. And I feel like we
saw that here in her review of Zutopia Too good
to Know. There was good drinks at the premiere. Yeah,
that sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Good note.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Not as sexy as the first one, huge animated children's
movie that it is. But the fox is so sexy
everyone's talking about Yeah. So okay, So this is where you,
as someone who has seen the first Utopia, I might
have to kind of jump in. I'm here, I'm ready.
First of all, who she uses the fox? The fox
is Jason Bateman. The Fox is Jason, Yeah, and that's
why he's hot because he's slinky and he's Jason Bait.
Yeah people are so sexy and wears to sunglasses.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Who wouldn't be?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
But I get that. I mean for most millennials being
sexually attracted to a cartoon fox.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
This is not our first.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Radio No, it's not. We've seen Robinhood. We've seen the
Disney classic Robin Hood. We know with the Hot Fox,
foxes can be sexy. Yeah, don't put that anywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Don't put that.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Take it back to watch the Animals of farthing Wood. No,
oh my god, that is there a Hot Fox watch?
So it's about a family of hot fox It's actually
a very sad, beautifully crafted animated series that I thought
all millennials had watched as children. But there's a lot
of foxes and wolves and whatnot in that that are
very sexy. But okay, so yeah, so I guess it's
an ongoing thing. But yeah, so the First Utopia teut Okay,
(06:18):
she has kind of described an element of the First
Utopia to review the First Utopia. We do see that
basically this Zutopia world animals they all live together in
harmony and like, so the animals that might like be
predators and hunt down other animals. They're all well behaved
and good in society. Like we're not killing each other,
the lions aren't attacking you know, the zebras. None of
(06:39):
that's happening in Dutopia. So it's like a beautiful utopia. Zutopia.
That's what I got to do. Did you realize that
for the first time or did you think that I
wasn't picking that up?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
A bit of both. You just realize that's what it's
called utopia. This movie's been up for like ten years.
I've never thought about this movie. I love this movie.
Shakira sings this song. It's so good.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I've never thought about that again. Okay, Wow, why is
it called Zutopia as a mystery for no one except you?
Cracks the case, Disney, I know. Okay, so that's the situation. However,
there's a lovely bunny. Her name is Judy Hops and
she always by voiced by Jennifer Goodwin. Yeah, incredible. I
(07:25):
just thought that so important because she's such an incredible actress.
There's Sonny movies. We loved her and he's just not
that into you. But most importantly that she was snow
White in One More Times TV series and She is
married to the guy who played Prince Charming in that series,
and they never bring their two sons to any events.
They keep them out of Hollywood. Their faces never seen.
And she brought them to the Zutopia two premiere because
(07:47):
she was like, this is for all of us. Cancel
me if I'm wrong, But like, I think they actually
voiced characters, the two kids.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I think.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
To do a little bit. Yeah, yeah, a little, a
little something. That's my inn. So she voices Judy, Yeah,
hops rabbit a.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Buddy, and she do you know why she's called Judy
Hobbs or has alluded to that one? I did pick
up that's subtlety disticking. I got that one. And so
she's always dreamed of being a police officer. She wants
to fight crime and make the world a better place.
She's really idealistic. And then she goes to the big
city and she know, you know, defies expectations and then
she becomes a police officer and she gets to go
to Zutopia, to the Metropolis and being the biggest precinct.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, so it's all very exciting.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
She was top of her class, but everyone still sees
her as like a dumb bunny, like, sorry, you're just
a little bunny.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
To realize Utopia was such a feminist tale.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, such an interesting one.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
But then she does go through the faction.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
So in the first movie you see kind of like
if you're a polar bear, you live in the snowy section.
They have a winter section, a summer section. Honestly, watching
the train go through all the sections in the first
movie as Shakira plays and she's like, oh, oh, oh, oh,
I'm not glad to see, but I did. It's really
nice and you see all the vibes. So I guess
they thought that everyone really liked that scene and that
maybe this time we'd get more into like wherever I lives,
(09:01):
because last time it was about the predators were being
shot with trunk guns and it was like micro a
kids movie. Yeah, it was like microdosing them to turn
into like predators and like attack. So it was all
like a hidden agenda from what was her name? She
was a little sheep and she worked in government and
just spoils Utopia for people haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Maybe let's cut that.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
But so yeah, then this one had like crime and
they were solving a crime, so she teamed up with
the sly fox who was not a police officer, and
everyone sees Fox as a slide.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
There's a lot of like.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Inherent racism in the animal community and these movies, and
it sounds like that fleeds into Utopia too, because now
it's the reptiles. Yeah, and they were left out, so
now we're seeing what to do with the reptiles.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Is I guess is Utopia too? Okay?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
A huge question from me as someone who hasn't seen
near the Utopia and also might never do the bunny
and the fox hook up.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Is there a love story?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's yes, so there's a flirt there's a flirtation chip
and we never Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
It was enemies to lovers, neither believed in each other.
What could we say? Ends with a big situation. He
gets like he's like, I'm gonna be a cop too?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Why not? I'm a detective? Yeah, and then we see
that they like each other.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And then I guess in this movie maybe maybe more
maybe romance and.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Really left that out of her review.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
It was like she's really explaining the factions of polar
bears and not telling us that the animal's hookups, So like,
did you know, lizards have blood, they warm blooded. I
don't know, so Zutopia too, Adam Cinemas. Now, I think
people are very excited for this because it was a
huge critical and box office success when it came out,
and people have been waiting and waiting and waiting with
Beta Bath of the sequel. I know Jennifer good One
(10:38):
just because I follow what she does. She always gets
asked about an interviews over the years when she's been
releasing movies and TV shows and things, and she always said,
I would love to do it, but there's nothing in
the works of the moment, and then it took so
long for it to come out. So I think this
is like like very exciting for fans. And we know
I'm something of a Disney adult myself, but like I've
seen a lot of the Disney adults I follow on TikTok.
They all got to do the early screenings and they
(10:59):
are blown away by the film.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They're loving it. They say animation is back. Well there
you go.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
The TikTokers and Emily Vernon two thumbs up from them,
not from us. We haven't seen it, but they go
a recommendation. Okay, Well, moving on to the real reason
Tinerberg is here not just to explain the intricacies of
online animated animal hookups, which is the fact that the
new season of Stranger Things, the first half of the
(11:25):
new season, is finally here. We have a plan.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
It's a bit insane.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, what could go wrong?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
No idea, but I think we should find out everyone in.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
I want to see Vector's heart on a platter.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
He knows where we are.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And you got to go finally here, And I have
waited for this day for so long. Yeah, how long
has it been between seasons? This season five? Right, this
is season five and it's been three years. The cars
were joking that there are some shows. Yeah, that wasn't
my summer I Turned Pretty. My book was joking about
the entirety of the summer I Turned Pretty. Has happened
while we waited for Strange while we were on a
(12:09):
break from Stranger Things, while we were on a break,
So you could forgive people for not remembering anything at all,
And like, you know that Netflix is really like dialing
in on that because they keep doing like recaps with
the cast and like trying to make sure everyone remembers
everyone's across what happened three years ago. Well, it was
this huge cultural moment, and it was when the show started.
But I think last season in particular, with the song
(12:29):
choices and where the characters went and being able to
sort of see more of Vecna's storyline, it became this
huge cultural moment. I know this is a really hard
thing to do, but for people who haven't watched it
in three years and have no memory of what happened,
can you give us like a inkling of where we
left off in the last season.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, just what.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
People need to know going into the new season. When
I tried to think about this, I then started describing No.
But if I'm going to talk about season four an
instra worst Season three, no, No, I.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Can do it.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So season four was pretty much picking up in the
aftermath of this big summer they all had. I'll just
call it the big summer of Seson three, and that
was where we really saw the mind flawer and that
was like the next reveal of Mom's Right Season one
and season two Demigrgan's Demi Dogs, and then season three
is where we get the mind Player and it's like
infiltrating people's minds and it's big and scary. The really
(13:16):
big monster with the arms. Yeah, Cyril, in case you're
literally like, I don't recall it all. And that was
how Billy, which is Max's brother, that's how he died
was at the hands of the mind player.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I interviewed the actor who played him for that, right.
Yeah he was.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
No, he was I would say, lovely, polite, just dead
behind the eyes.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Okay, yeah, I just meant a do.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
We took a kick photo together. Afterwards you put his
arm around me, and I'm like, well, maybe you're fine.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Maybe not. Everyone needs to be smart and engaging. It's
no true, that's so true.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So season four was very much about, like Max is
in a state of obvious trauma and depression about the
fact that she's lost her brother to this monster. A
lot of people don't obviously, the town doesn't know what's
really happened. So she kind of really turns in on
herself and the group's all really worried about her, and
so she becomes one of the victims of this mysterious situation.
So they all know what the upside down is, but
(14:05):
what they don't understand is why some stuff starts happening
in the town. So that's how we sort of meet Eddie,
who all of our favorite team boys become friends with Eddie,
which was played by Joseph Quinn, who, yeah, since this
came out, has gone on to have a flourishing career.
Oh I do I know about that because I interviewed
him for a Fantastic four and he also didn't really
Can I just say.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Sometimes things boys not happy with Lauren?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
No, no, he was lovely to you, but he just
was a bit dead by thee Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And you know what, they'd flown to Australia. They were like,
we've had no no, no.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah, all these men, I'm going to say lovely because
I have interviewed some jerks, so they're not on the Joys,
They're not on the jerk list. They're just like a
bit kind of subdued an interview, which I get that,
we get it was exactly fine but lovely Joseph Quinn
don't come for me. Yeah, but again, like massive career
since then. But so he became Eddie, which was this
character that every single girl in the world who was
a stranger things fan fell in love with and really
(14:55):
blew up, like with the chrissy wake up nonsense. But
how he came into it was the fact that he
saw Chrissy, one of our first victims. In season four,
we really delved into like body horror, like next yeah,
like horrifying. It was so good, It was so incredibly
well done for the body horrogon right, so and just yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
So terrifying.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
And the show has always obviously been scary, but it
was a different place for us, and so we tried
to essentially as fans, work out what the hell's going on?
This girl's just died, who's she, who's he?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
What's happening?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
And over the course of season four, I think they
did a really phenomenal job of it. But they brought
together a few central storylines that we'd been slowly getting towards.
So we went back in time and saw what happened
with eleven when she was in the lab when she
was younger, and we met this mysterious blonde man played
by Jamie Campbell Bauer and his name was Number one
and we didn't know who he was. And then we
(15:45):
were simultaneously investigating our journalist Nancy. She was going into like,
who is Henry Krele, what's this story about? How does
it link to everything? And then we've also got people
like Chrissy. We had a few other victims around town,
and eventually Max being taken to the upside Down by
this creepy man named Vecna who's trying to kill all
of them, and.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We're like, how does this all tie together?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
And Season four culminates with us finding out that this
is all the same person, yeah, and that one is
Henry Creole and that he had been born with powers,
was sadistic, killed his family, was taken in by these
researchers and they used him to model all of their
numbers that they created, which is how Eleven was turned
into like the magical ethereal being with superpowers. And it
(16:25):
was Eleven who had banished him to the upside down,
and it turned out that by her doing that, so
he tricked her into releasing his powers. When he did,
he killed everyone who was in the Hawkens Lab, and
then she then banished him to the upside down, so
she created the portal. She's the one who sent him there,
and then he was sent there as this like disfigured
monster loss his powers, gained them back, and then that's
(16:46):
how he's been slowly like terrorizing the town and his
powers have been chatteled into things like the demic organs
like the mind flower got the so many monsters like
the mind Flawer, and he's now culminated all of this
into wanting to take over Hawkens. So he's picked his
four people as a way to like open a gate,
open a portal to get the other world underneath. So
(17:08):
it's a very it's really hard to explain. And then
Hopper was in Russia.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, and that's a side pop.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
We had a Russian prison side plot, but it's very
much about this monster and how like it was all
of these big reveals and it brought together all of
these stories and where we ended was the gang all
you know, went to the upside down. There was this
really complicated, convoluted plan to kill Wechner and Nancy was
once again wielding a gun. We had a gun, we
had fire, we had everything. We tried to kill him
(17:37):
the gang like maybe we did. And at the very
end of season four, Will told Mike, I know he's
not dead, like I can feel him. We're back in
Hawkins because another side plot they'd gone to California. We're
back in Hawkins and he goes, I'm here, I can
feel him. I know he's not dead, he's biting his time,
and now I know how he thinks. And it's like,
now we're all terrified for will what's gonna happen? Then
(17:58):
the group will come out and there's some random shit
falling from this guy. Well yeah, it's like the upside
down is merging in the real world. And then also
Max is like in a coma from that homer from
her vecnortech. But so they saved Max in a way
by realizing that like music was her connector to the world,
and so they played obviously we all know, they played
Running Up That Hill by Cape Bush Cultural Women and
in such a beautiful way where they like really got
(18:19):
the stranger things violins in there. The like edit of
that song is fantastic. And so she's in a coma
and we don't know what's going to happen to her.
But essentially now all of Hawkins knows something's going on
because it's no longer just the gang. It's no longer
just like Copper and Joyce being in on the tee.
Everyone in town knows. So that's where we left off. Well,
first of all, well done. I find a lot to
everyone if I butchered that was That was a lot
(18:40):
to tell, So the stakes could not be higher now
coming into season five, which is the final season, we
should also say as well of Stranger Things.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So it's quite.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Emotional because we've watched a lot of these actors when
they were daily little kids to now being full blown adults.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
So you interviewed a lot of.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
The main cast members, and is any little tidbits you
can share from that to tell us about what we
can expect this new season. Yes, so I spoke with
I like to call them the Gang of teens, but
we're all thirty two.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
But you know, actually Maya Hawk's not.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
So.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I spoke with Joe Keary, who plays Steve Harrington. Oh, okay,
everyone's just in love with that man, and I'm so
happy about it. And I am too too. He's one
of my favorites, like the weedy guys, but I'm into him.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Oh he's so beautiful. I love him so much. So
I spoke to him.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Charlie Heaton, who plays Jonathan Byers, Fine, he's a lovely boy.
We spoke with Maya Hawk who plays Robin, and we
spoke with Natalia Dyer who plays Nancy. So we spoke
to all four of them. It was crazy. It was
at a nice casual nine am, So I actually quite
like that. Yeah, so I got to wake up and
just like panic for hours and excited. And so we
spoke to them about the fact that obviously the show
(19:49):
is coming to an end, and I'd gotten to see
a few of the episodes before we spoke. But obviously
it's kind of a hard thing to ask people about
when you've got like a handful of minutes over zoom
and they're all in a chair and like the other
side of the world, like you know all about that obviously,
and you're just sitting in your house the most excited
you ever been, like ready to talk to them. So
the thing that I wanted to get their perspectives on is, like,
(20:09):
like you said, we've watched this show now for a decade,
and as much as they weren't the children children right
like they were the teens and then Maya joined in
season three, but they have grown up with this show
and it's been the thing that launched their careers and
it's been the thing that they've really given their time
to and I guess like a lot of years of
their lives because what we see is like, Okay, the
show's taken forever, but they've obviously gone into like the
(20:29):
script reading and then their film and then they come
out here and they do all their junkets and they
do everything. So I just spoke to them about how
they actually personally felt about their characters' storylines, because I
think when some of these big shows end, like you
see with like Amelia Clark and Game of Throats, she
was so unhappy with how her character ended. And we
obviously have a lot of fan theories floating around about
like who could die. People think Steve might die. Everyone
(20:51):
everyone Steve's gonna die that or Jonathan's gonna die, Like
they're like one of those boys dead as two boys
not walking out of there, two boys not living. So
obviously spoke to them about that, and Charlie Heaton said
that he felt really satisfied about the way that they
ended the show. He said, like he knows how hard
it is to type together, but that for so many
storylines and additions of like new characters and things that
(21:11):
were going on, that he just felt really satisfied about
the fact that they were able to end the show
in a way that felt like they wrapped it up perfectly.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
My boy Steve.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Joe said that he just felt like Steve was really
in the thick of it, but that he was really
happy to see how the pressure of the circumstances had
started to boil over into Steve's life and how quickly
that all kicks off for him, and the fact that
we see him deal with some I guess more and
having seen the episodes like some more serious themes, as
always were always on those serious themes, but we start
to see it really grow in the tension and the
(21:42):
relationship between him and Dustin off the back of last season,
because obviously Dustin's feeling quite sad and emotional the loss
of Eddiemunson and so he's in a weird place. And
for Maya, she gave a really exciting insight, which is
that she got to act with some of her favorite
characters on the show who she's never shared scenes with before,
and she said it was really special and fun and
that the balance was cool because she got to feel
(22:03):
like Robin was a real part of the group. And
she said that as an actress, she also felt that,
like as Maya, she let go of the idea that
she was a new kid too, so both in character
and in person, she felt like on the set this
time around that she'd actually gotten to really be you
know what of the gang. Yeah, that was something that
was maybe missing for her in the earlier seasons. But
what we do know about the fact that she's like
getting to hang out with someone else is that that
(22:25):
person is going to be Will.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So we've seen photos of them on set together, whether
or not you've kind of seen any of the episodes
yet now that they've dropped, like, we know that they're
hanging out a lot together, and we know that Robin
is a gay character. And we also know that many
of the theories and speculations are that this season is
going to have a lot to do with the idea
of Will struggling with his sexuality, right and the fact
that he does have a very big crush on his
best friend Mike. Yes, yes, because that's been like seeded
(22:50):
through the seasons, and so like Robin could die into that.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Oh so interesting. So many personal stakes and life or
death stakes there.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Okay, So to finish up, I just want to ask you,
so you're a Stranger Things super fan, you have now
watched the first lot of the new episodes a couple
of times because you want to walk to him early.
You're very spoiler free, but it's hard. I almost like
a little brilli honest of you, quick rapid fire like thoughts, opinions, vibes.
What do the people need to know? Okay? I understand
that a lot of people who were really big fans
(23:18):
of season one it was so tonally different, right, like,
it couldn't have been possible for them to keep that going.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
What I will.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Say is that the Duffer brothers have said they never
really knew with season one where it would get to, right,
They didn't know how big it could possibly get, because
you couldn't. It was an indie project. It they'd been
rejected a bunch of times. Netflix finally picked it up
with Shorn Leeby's buy in, and so they had a
vision of what they wanted the end to be, but
they didn't have all the parts worked out. And they
said they have worked so hard to ensure that in
(23:46):
season five they wrap everything up properly, that there's nothing
missed that they don't turn around and go we never
addressed why this thing happened or why this thing happened,
so they said a round. Season two, they really started
to figure out where it was going. And what I
feel about the episodes that I've seen so far is like,
I'm just so impressed. I'm so impressed by how we've
tied together different topics that I can't talk of. The
(24:07):
scale is massive. It's unlike anything we've seen them do before.
And I know that some people who, yeah, like I
was saying, enjoyed season one, don't like how big and
grand it got. That like it no longer felt like,
you know, a bunch of kids on their bikes out
running a monster and you know, playing D and D
in the basement, and that that's what so many people
loved about it. But the scale of this one is
just enormous. I think the cgi A budget didn't exist.
(24:28):
I just think they went go for gold. I think
the practical effects are fantastic.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Good.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, I think we're really seeing amazing storylines for everyone.
The pacing is a little difficult when you've got this
many main characters and this many main plot lines, but
it's so entertaining, and I will say that we're really
going to dive into the characters traumas this season. The
horror is fantastic. I think you major horror fans are
going to be wowed by some of the things that
have happened. None of us have seen the next part
(24:55):
and the big grand finale, but I really think they
are on the right track to absolutely nail the landing.
So the first four episodes, which is Part one, are
out on Netflix now. Then we're getting the next three,
which is in Part two, on Charismas Day, which the
cast we're like, good luck with that, and then we
are getting the finale on New Year's Eve, and they're
doing cinematic releases in some parts of the world as
(25:15):
well as a Netflix stop.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Okay love that. Well, yes, strange things dive in this
Weekend kids. There's your full review.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Well, thank you so much for listening to this special
episode of Weekend Watch. Thank you Tina for coming and
sharing all your fandom and celebrity connections. And we will
be back in your feed at three pm this afternoon
for one of the most important episodes.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Of the year that we have released.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It is our brutally honest review of Wicked for good
M's back and we say some things we probably shouldn't
have recorded, but it gets deep, it gets emotional, so
be looking for that in your feed at three pm today.
The Spill is produced by Minishi Esworm with sound production
by Scott Stronik. And We'll see you later bye.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Byelan Mumma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
We have recorded this podcast on the Gadigal people of
the Orination. We pay our respects to their elders past
and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and
Torrestrate islander cultures.
You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
From Mom and Me.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I welcome to this bill, your daily pop culture fixed.
I'm Laura Brodnick, and I'm Tina Burke. Mama Me is
pop culture and social editor. So Tina is here for
two I would say equally important reasons. One is that
Emily is not here, and as much as I would
love to monologue into a microphone for a whole episode
by myself, I've been told that's not okay by our bosses.
(00:39):
And two, you have the inside track on one of
the biggest TV show releases of the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
And it's out this week.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You got to watch the screeners ahead of everyone else.
You are deep in the fandom law you interviewed the
cast huge, So we're going to get into that. But first,
Emily is not physically here, nor is she in the
state currently, But she refused to be left out of
the episode because a movie that she loves premiere this
week and she got to see it, so it's in
cinemas now.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Zoutopia too.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Welcome to Partners in Crisis. I am your therapy animal
doctor fusby Greg. We talked about that. What are we
making Merlin uncomfortable. Yes, okay. Unfortunately, Karen has chosen to
see Joel's smile as a sign of aggression. Tackles down, Karen, Karen,
(01:31):
tackles down.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Someone get the host, funny Fox.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
This is a make or break assignment failure, and I
will split you up.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
No snake has set foot in Utopia in Forever, Hops,
mild Wild and Hops the Dream Team.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Sorry, Paul, sorryful.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
The biggest cinematic release of twenty twenty. I forget your
Zootope fan. So here's what you and I here's well,
here's where I'm gonna judge you on that because you
say you love Zootopia. But this week you and I
had a little Sophie's choice to make because we went
invited to the prem of Zootopia too. We also got
invited by Netflix to the launch of the new season
of Stranger Things, where we could go to Sydney Harbor
(02:15):
and have a bevy of drinks and snacks and watch
this incredible installation that they did over the Harbor where
Vecna was literally floating over us. And because we're adults,
we chose to go to Strange Things.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
We did.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It was a Sophie's choice. Of course, it was a
very big deal to me.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
For me, I was like, I'm using and I.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Like to follow Laura everywhere she goes, so that was
an easy choice for me. But I had to see
stranger things through.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It was the end of a culmination of a personal
journey for me. And I can see Zutopia too in
my own time in the cinema. I can't recreate Vecna
on the Harbor, so true, and.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
That is what I thought.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So Emily couldn't be here today, but she wanted to
give you the spillers her honest review of z Utopia two.
Coming into this movie as an absolute fan, so she
has sent us a voice note with her review and
you and I are hearing this for the first time.
So I don't know what's about to happen, guys, but
here we go. Emily Vernam So.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Yeah, I went to see Zotopia two. Firstly, the premiere
was amazing. They served as Pinacolades. Was a big fan
of that. So Zotopia too. What it's about. So we
still have Judy and Nick, the Bunny and the Fox,
and now they're both police officers and their partners and
(03:27):
they have to kind of work on their partnership because
they're like complete opposites. And then while they're working on
their professional relationship, they're also I guess working on their
personal relationship, although it's not as I don't think it's
as sexy as Zutopia one, but they are a bit flirty,
so you still you still get some elements of that.
(03:47):
But anyway, Zootopia too. So you know how there's mammals
in Zotopia, Well, all mammals can't live together because they
all come from different environments. Like polar bears can't live
with rhinos because rhinos need heat and polar bears need cold.
So then this I think he's a snow cat. The
(04:10):
snow cat guy decides to make these big walls so
then all animals can live in harmony. So it's like
a quadrant. So you have like the desert area and
the snow area, and the jungle area and the water area,
and they can all live in harmony. But everyone forgets
about the reptiles. Where are the reptiles going to go?
(04:31):
So that is the whole I think I gave a
bit too much away. That's pretty much what the movie does,
is they have to find where the reptiles are going
to go. But I can't say too much because I'll
spoil it. So make sure you watch it because it's
really good. It happens to a business weekend.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I'll drop on my sword here because I was the
one who said to Emily, Hey, you're not going to
be here, but you really want to do this review
send us a voice note, And I do regret that
for many reasons.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
One thing about Emily Vernon that we love.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And also question is that she will watch entire movie
and it'll be her favorite movie, but she can't really
tell you the plot afterwards. And I feel like we
saw that here in her review of Zutopia Too good
to Know. There was good drinks at the premiere. Yeah,
that sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Good note.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Not as sexy as the first one, huge animated children's
movie that it is. But the fox is so sexy
everyone's talking about Yeah. So okay, So this is where you,
as someone who has seen the first Utopia, I might
have to kind of jump in. I'm here, I'm ready.
First of all, who she uses the fox? The fox
is Jason Bateman. The Fox is Jason, Yeah, and that's
why he's hot because he's slinky and he's Jason Bait.
Yeah people are so sexy and wears to sunglasses.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Who wouldn't be?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
But I get that. I mean for most millennials being
sexually attracted to a cartoon fox.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
This is not our first.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Radio No, it's not. We've seen Robinhood. We've seen the
Disney classic Robin Hood. We know with the Hot Fox,
foxes can be sexy. Yeah, don't put that anywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Don't put that.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Take it back to watch the Animals of farthing Wood. No,
oh my god, that is there a Hot Fox watch?
So it's about a family of hot fox It's actually
a very sad, beautifully crafted animated series that I thought
all millennials had watched as children. But there's a lot
of foxes and wolves and whatnot in that that are
very sexy. But okay, so yeah, so I guess it's
an ongoing thing. But yeah, so the First Utopia teut Okay,
(06:18):
she has kind of described an element of the First
Utopia to review the First Utopia. We do see that
basically this Zutopia world animals they all live together in
harmony and like, so the animals that might like be
predators and hunt down other animals. They're all well behaved
and good in society. Like we're not killing each other,
the lions aren't attacking you know, the zebras. None of
(06:39):
that's happening in Dutopia. So it's like a beautiful utopia. Zutopia.
That's what I got to do. Did you realize that
for the first time or did you think that I
wasn't picking that up?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
A bit of both. You just realize that's what it's
called utopia. This movie's been up for like ten years.
I've never thought about this movie. I love this movie.
Shakira sings this song. It's so good.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I've never thought about that again. Okay, Wow, why is
it called Zutopia as a mystery for no one except you?
Cracks the case, Disney, I know. Okay, so that's the situation. However,
there's a lovely bunny. Her name is Judy Hops and
she always by voiced by Jennifer Goodwin. Yeah, incredible. I
(07:25):
just thought that so important because she's such an incredible actress.
There's Sonny movies. We loved her and he's just not
that into you. But most importantly that she was snow
White in One More Times TV series and She is
married to the guy who played Prince Charming in that series,
and they never bring their two sons to any events.
They keep them out of Hollywood. Their faces never seen.
And she brought them to the Zutopia two premiere because
(07:47):
she was like, this is for all of us. Cancel
me if I'm wrong, But like, I think they actually
voiced characters, the two kids.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I think.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
To do a little bit. Yeah, yeah, a little, a
little something. That's my inn. So she voices Judy, Yeah,
hops rabbit a.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Buddy, and she do you know why she's called Judy
Hobbs or has alluded to that one? I did pick
up that's subtlety disticking. I got that one. And so
she's always dreamed of being a police officer. She wants
to fight crime and make the world a better place.
She's really idealistic. And then she goes to the big
city and she know, you know, defies expectations and then
she becomes a police officer and she gets to go
to Zutopia, to the Metropolis and being the biggest precinct.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, so it's all very exciting.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
She was top of her class, but everyone still sees
her as like a dumb bunny, like, sorry, you're just
a little bunny.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
To realize Utopia was such a feminist tale.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, such an interesting one.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
But then she does go through the faction.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
So in the first movie you see kind of like
if you're a polar bear, you live in the snowy section.
They have a winter section, a summer section. Honestly, watching
the train go through all the sections in the first
movie as Shakira plays and she's like, oh, oh, oh, oh,
I'm not glad to see, but I did. It's really
nice and you see all the vibes. So I guess
they thought that everyone really liked that scene and that
maybe this time we'd get more into like wherever I lives,
(09:01):
because last time it was about the predators were being
shot with trunk guns and it was like micro a
kids movie. Yeah, it was like microdosing them to turn
into like predators and like attack. So it was all
like a hidden agenda from what was her name? She
was a little sheep and she worked in government and
just spoils Utopia for people haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Maybe let's cut that.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
But so yeah, then this one had like crime and
they were solving a crime, so she teamed up with
the sly fox who was not a police officer, and
everyone sees Fox as a slide.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
There's a lot of like.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Inherent racism in the animal community and these movies, and
it sounds like that fleeds into Utopia too, because now
it's the reptiles. Yeah, and they were left out, so
now we're seeing what to do with the reptiles.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Is I guess is Utopia too? Okay?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
A huge question from me as someone who hasn't seen
near the Utopia and also might never do the bunny
and the fox hook up.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Is there a love story?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's yes, so there's a flirt there's a flirtation chip
and we never Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
It was enemies to lovers, neither believed in each other.
What could we say? Ends with a big situation. He
gets like he's like, I'm gonna be a cop too?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Why not? I'm a detective? Yeah, and then we see
that they like each other.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And then I guess in this movie maybe maybe more
maybe romance and.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Really left that out of her review.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
It was like she's really explaining the factions of polar
bears and not telling us that the animal's hookups, So like,
did you know, lizards have blood, they warm blooded. I
don't know, so Zutopia too, Adam Cinemas. Now, I think
people are very excited for this because it was a
huge critical and box office success when it came out,
and people have been waiting and waiting and waiting with
Beta Bath of the sequel. I know Jennifer good One
(10:38):
just because I follow what she does. She always gets
asked about an interviews over the years when she's been
releasing movies and TV shows and things, and she always said,
I would love to do it, but there's nothing in
the works of the moment, and then it took so
long for it to come out. So I think this
is like like very exciting for fans. And we know
I'm something of a Disney adult myself, but like I've
seen a lot of the Disney adults I follow on TikTok.
They all got to do the early screenings and they
(10:59):
are blown away by the film.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They're loving it. They say animation is back. Well there
you go.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
The TikTokers and Emily Vernon two thumbs up from them,
not from us. We haven't seen it, but they go
a recommendation. Okay, Well, moving on to the real reason
Tinerberg is here not just to explain the intricacies of
online animated animal hookups, which is the fact that the
new season of Stranger Things, the first half of the
(11:25):
new season, is finally here. We have a plan.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
It's a bit insane.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, what could go wrong?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
No idea, but I think we should find out everyone in.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
I want to see Vector's heart on a platter.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
He knows where we are.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And you got to go finally here, And I have
waited for this day for so long. Yeah, how long
has it been between seasons? This season five? Right, this
is season five and it's been three years. The cars
were joking that there are some shows. Yeah, that wasn't
my summer I Turned Pretty. My book was joking about
the entirety of the summer I Turned Pretty. Has happened
while we waited for Strange while we were on a
(12:09):
break from Stranger Things, while we were on a break,
So you could forgive people for not remembering anything at all,
And like, you know that Netflix is really like dialing
in on that because they keep doing like recaps with
the cast and like trying to make sure everyone remembers
everyone's across what happened three years ago. Well, it was
this huge cultural moment, and it was when the show started.
But I think last season in particular, with the song
(12:29):
choices and where the characters went and being able to
sort of see more of Vecna's storyline, it became this
huge cultural moment. I know this is a really hard
thing to do, but for people who haven't watched it
in three years and have no memory of what happened,
can you give us like a inkling of where we
left off in the last season.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, just what.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
People need to know going into the new season. When
I tried to think about this, I then started describing No.
But if I'm going to talk about season four an
instra worst Season three, no, No, I.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Can do it.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So season four was pretty much picking up in the
aftermath of this big summer they all had. I'll just
call it the big summer of Seson three, and that
was where we really saw the mind flawer and that
was like the next reveal of Mom's Right Season one
and season two Demigrgan's Demi Dogs, and then season three
is where we get the mind Player and it's like
infiltrating people's minds and it's big and scary. The really
(13:16):
big monster with the arms. Yeah, Cyril, in case you're
literally like, I don't recall it all. And that was
how Billy, which is Max's brother, that's how he died
was at the hands of the mind player.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I interviewed the actor who played him for that, right.
Yeah he was.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
No, he was I would say, lovely, polite, just dead
behind the eyes.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Okay, yeah, I just meant a do.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
We took a kick photo together. Afterwards you put his
arm around me, and I'm like, well, maybe you're fine.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Maybe not. Everyone needs to be smart and engaging. It's
no true, that's so true.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So season four was very much about, like Max is
in a state of obvious trauma and depression about the
fact that she's lost her brother to this monster. A
lot of people don't obviously, the town doesn't know what's
really happened. So she kind of really turns in on
herself and the group's all really worried about her, and
so she becomes one of the victims of this mysterious situation.
So they all know what the upside down is, but
(14:05):
what they don't understand is why some stuff starts happening
in the town. So that's how we sort of meet Eddie,
who all of our favorite team boys become friends with Eddie,
which was played by Joseph Quinn, who, yeah, since this
came out, has gone on to have a flourishing career.
Oh I do I know about that because I interviewed
him for a Fantastic four and he also didn't really
Can I just say.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Sometimes things boys not happy with Lauren?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
No, no, he was lovely to you, but he just
was a bit dead by thee Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And you know what, they'd flown to Australia. They were like,
we've had no no, no.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah, all these men, I'm going to say lovely because
I have interviewed some jerks, so they're not on the Joys,
They're not on the jerk list. They're just like a
bit kind of subdued an interview, which I get that,
we get it was exactly fine but lovely Joseph Quinn
don't come for me. Yeah, but again, like massive career
since then. But so he became Eddie, which was this
character that every single girl in the world who was
a stranger things fan fell in love with and really
(14:55):
blew up, like with the chrissy wake up nonsense. But
how he came into it was the fact that he
saw Chrissy, one of our first victims. In season four,
we really delved into like body horror, like next yeah,
like horrifying. It was so good, It was so incredibly
well done for the body horrogon right, so and just yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
So terrifying.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
And the show has always obviously been scary, but it
was a different place for us, and so we tried
to essentially as fans, work out what the hell's going on?
This girl's just died, who's she, who's he?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
What's happening?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
And over the course of season four, I think they
did a really phenomenal job of it. But they brought
together a few central storylines that we'd been slowly getting towards.
So we went back in time and saw what happened
with eleven when she was in the lab when she
was younger, and we met this mysterious blonde man played
by Jamie Campbell Bauer and his name was Number one
and we didn't know who he was. And then we
(15:45):
were simultaneously investigating our journalist Nancy. She was going into like,
who is Henry Krele, what's this story about? How does
it link to everything? And then we've also got people
like Chrissy. We had a few other victims around town,
and eventually Max being taken to the upside Down by
this creepy man named Vecna who's trying to kill all
of them, and.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We're like, how does this all tie together?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
And Season four culminates with us finding out that this
is all the same person, yeah, and that one is
Henry Creole and that he had been born with powers,
was sadistic, killed his family, was taken in by these
researchers and they used him to model all of their
numbers that they created, which is how Eleven was turned
into like the magical ethereal being with superpowers. And it
(16:25):
was Eleven who had banished him to the upside down,
and it turned out that by her doing that, so
he tricked her into releasing his powers. When he did,
he killed everyone who was in the Hawkens Lab, and
then she then banished him to the upside down, so
she created the portal. She's the one who sent him there,
and then he was sent there as this like disfigured
monster loss his powers, gained them back, and then that's
(16:46):
how he's been slowly like terrorizing the town and his
powers have been chatteled into things like the demic organs
like the mind flower got the so many monsters like
the mind Flawer, and he's now culminated all of this
into wanting to take over Hawkens. So he's picked his
four people as a way to like open a gate,
open a portal to get the other world underneath. So
(17:08):
it's a very it's really hard to explain. And then
Hopper was in Russia.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, and that's a side pop.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
We had a Russian prison side plot, but it's very
much about this monster and how like it was all
of these big reveals and it brought together all of
these stories and where we ended was the gang all
you know, went to the upside down. There was this
really complicated, convoluted plan to kill Wechner and Nancy was
once again wielding a gun. We had a gun, we
had fire, we had everything. We tried to kill him
(17:37):
the gang like maybe we did. And at the very
end of season four, Will told Mike, I know he's
not dead, like I can feel him. We're back in
Hawkins because another side plot they'd gone to California. We're
back in Hawkins and he goes, I'm here, I can
feel him. I know he's not dead, he's biting his time,
and now I know how he thinks. And it's like,
now we're all terrified for will what's gonna happen? Then
(17:58):
the group will come out and there's some random shit
falling from this guy. Well yeah, it's like the upside
down is merging in the real world. And then also
Max is like in a coma from that homer from
her vecnortech. But so they saved Max in a way
by realizing that like music was her connector to the world,
and so they played obviously we all know, they played
Running Up That Hill by Cape Bush Cultural Women and
in such a beautiful way where they like really got
(18:19):
the stranger things violins in there. The like edit of
that song is fantastic. And so she's in a coma
and we don't know what's going to happen to her.
But essentially now all of Hawkins knows something's going on
because it's no longer just the gang. It's no longer
just like Copper and Joyce being in on the tee.
Everyone in town knows. So that's where we left off. Well,
first of all, well done. I find a lot to
everyone if I butchered that was That was a lot
(18:40):
to tell, So the stakes could not be higher now
coming into season five, which is the final season, we
should also say as well of Stranger Things.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So it's quite.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Emotional because we've watched a lot of these actors when
they were daily little kids to now being full blown adults.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
So you interviewed a lot of.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
The main cast members, and is any little tidbits you
can share from that to tell us about what we
can expect this new season. Yes, so I spoke with
I like to call them the Gang of teens, but
we're all thirty two.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
But you know, actually Maya Hawk's not.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
So.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I spoke with Joe Keary, who plays Steve Harrington. Oh, okay,
everyone's just in love with that man, and I'm so
happy about it. And I am too too. He's one
of my favorites, like the weedy guys, but I'm into him.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Oh he's so beautiful. I love him so much. So
I spoke to him.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Charlie Heaton, who plays Jonathan Byers, Fine, he's a lovely boy.
We spoke with Maya Hawk who plays Robin, and we
spoke with Natalia Dyer who plays Nancy. So we spoke
to all four of them. It was crazy. It was
at a nice casual nine am, So I actually quite
like that. Yeah, so I got to wake up and
just like panic for hours and excited. And so we
spoke to them about the fact that obviously the show
(19:49):
is coming to an end, and I'd gotten to see
a few of the episodes before we spoke. But obviously
it's kind of a hard thing to ask people about
when you've got like a handful of minutes over zoom
and they're all in a chair and like the other
side of the world, like you know all about that obviously,
and you're just sitting in your house the most excited
you ever been, like ready to talk to them. So
the thing that I wanted to get their perspectives on is, like,
(20:09):
like you said, we've watched this show now for a decade,
and as much as they weren't the children children right
like they were the teens and then Maya joined in
season three, but they have grown up with this show
and it's been the thing that launched their careers and
it's been the thing that they've really given their time
to and I guess like a lot of years of
their lives because what we see is like, Okay, the
show's taken forever, but they've obviously gone into like the
(20:29):
script reading and then their film and then they come
out here and they do all their junkets and they
do everything. So I just spoke to them about how
they actually personally felt about their characters' storylines, because I
think when some of these big shows end, like you
see with like Amelia Clark and Game of Throats, she
was so unhappy with how her character ended. And we
obviously have a lot of fan theories floating around about
like who could die. People think Steve might die. Everyone
(20:51):
everyone Steve's gonna die that or Jonathan's gonna die, Like
they're like one of those boys dead as two boys
not walking out of there, two boys not living. So
obviously spoke to them about that, and Charlie Heaton said
that he felt really satisfied about the way that they
ended the show. He said, like he knows how hard
it is to type together, but that for so many
storylines and additions of like new characters and things that
(21:11):
were going on, that he just felt really satisfied about
the fact that they were able to end the show
in a way that felt like they wrapped it up perfectly.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
My boy Steve.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Joe said that he just felt like Steve was really
in the thick of it, but that he was really
happy to see how the pressure of the circumstances had
started to boil over into Steve's life and how quickly
that all kicks off for him, and the fact that
we see him deal with some I guess more and
having seen the episodes like some more serious themes, as
always were always on those serious themes, but we start
to see it really grow in the tension and the
(21:42):
relationship between him and Dustin off the back of last season,
because obviously Dustin's feeling quite sad and emotional the loss
of Eddiemunson and so he's in a weird place. And
for Maya, she gave a really exciting insight, which is
that she got to act with some of her favorite
characters on the show who she's never shared scenes with before,
and she said it was really special and fun and
that the balance was cool because she got to feel
(22:03):
like Robin was a real part of the group. And
she said that as an actress, she also felt that,
like as Maya, she let go of the idea that
she was a new kid too, so both in character
and in person, she felt like on the set this
time around that she'd actually gotten to really be you
know what of the gang. Yeah, that was something that
was maybe missing for her in the earlier seasons. But
what we do know about the fact that she's like
getting to hang out with someone else is that that
(22:25):
person is going to be Will.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So we've seen photos of them on set together, whether
or not you've kind of seen any of the episodes
yet now that they've dropped, like, we know that they're
hanging out a lot together, and we know that Robin
is a gay character. And we also know that many
of the theories and speculations are that this season is
going to have a lot to do with the idea
of Will struggling with his sexuality, right and the fact
that he does have a very big crush on his
best friend Mike. Yes, yes, because that's been like seeded
(22:50):
through the seasons, and so like Robin could die into that.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Oh so interesting. So many personal stakes and life or
death stakes there.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Okay, So to finish up, I just want to ask you,
so you're a Stranger Things super fan, you have now
watched the first lot of the new episodes a couple
of times because you want to walk to him early.
You're very spoiler free, but it's hard. I almost like
a little brilli honest of you, quick rapid fire like thoughts, opinions, vibes.
What do the people need to know? Okay? I understand
that a lot of people who were really big fans
(23:18):
of season one it was so tonally different, right, like,
it couldn't have been possible for them to keep that going.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
What I will.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Say is that the Duffer brothers have said they never
really knew with season one where it would get to, right,
They didn't know how big it could possibly get, because
you couldn't. It was an indie project. It they'd been
rejected a bunch of times. Netflix finally picked it up
with Shorn Leeby's buy in, and so they had a
vision of what they wanted the end to be, but
they didn't have all the parts worked out. And they
said they have worked so hard to ensure that in
(23:46):
season five they wrap everything up properly, that there's nothing
missed that they don't turn around and go we never
addressed why this thing happened or why this thing happened,
so they said a round. Season two, they really started
to figure out where it was going. And what I
feel about the episodes that I've seen so far is like,
I'm just so impressed. I'm so impressed by how we've
tied together different topics that I can't talk of. The
(24:07):
scale is massive. It's unlike anything we've seen them do before.
And I know that some people who, yeah, like I
was saying, enjoyed season one, don't like how big and
grand it got. That like it no longer felt like,
you know, a bunch of kids on their bikes out
running a monster and you know, playing D and D
in the basement, and that that's what so many people
loved about it. But the scale of this one is
just enormous. I think the cgi A budget didn't exist.
(24:28):
I just think they went go for gold. I think
the practical effects are fantastic.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Good.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, I think we're really seeing amazing storylines for everyone.
The pacing is a little difficult when you've got this
many main characters and this many main plot lines, but
it's so entertaining, and I will say that we're really
going to dive into the characters traumas this season. The
horror is fantastic. I think you major horror fans are
going to be wowed by some of the things that
have happened. None of us have seen the next part
(24:55):
and the big grand finale, but I really think they
are on the right track to absolutely nail the landing.
So the first four episodes, which is Part one, are
out on Netflix now. Then we're getting the next three,
which is in Part two, on Charismas Day, which the
cast we're like, good luck with that, and then we
are getting the finale on New Year's Eve, and they're
doing cinematic releases in some parts of the world as
(25:15):
well as a Netflix stop.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Okay love that. Well, yes, strange things dive in this
Weekend kids. There's your full review.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Well, thank you so much for listening to this special
episode of Weekend Watch. Thank you Tina for coming and
sharing all your fandom and celebrity connections. And we will
be back in your feed at three pm this afternoon
for one of the most important episodes.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Of the year that we have released.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It is our brutally honest review of Wicked for good
M's back and we say some things we probably shouldn't
have recorded, but it gets deep, it gets emotional, so
be looking for that in your feed at three pm today.
The Spill is produced by Minishi Esworm with sound production
by Scott Stronik. And We'll see you later bye.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Byelan Mumma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
We have recorded this podcast on the Gadigal people of
the Orination. We pay our respects to their elders past
and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and
Torrestrate islander cultures.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com