Episode 288 - Mini Episode: The Rookie

Brad is back for a Mini Episode. Things got a little hairy for the Phillies, but they look back on track. Brad likes the Rookie and that is one of the reasons why the podcast is ending.

Episode Transcript

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From Geppetto Studios in New Freedom,Pennsylvania. Welcome to the Cosmic Geppetto podcast,
your home for inclusive, positive geekculture where we talk about movies,
comics, music, books, andwhatever else we feel like. Please welcome
your host, Prince of Eternia andDefender of the Secrets of Castle Grayskull,

(00:39):
Brad Mendenhall. Hey kids, itis episode to eighty eight of the Cosmic

(01:00):
Podcast, and it is another miniepisode where I drive around and talk into
my cell phone and then there's weirdnoises in the background. I sort of
enjoyed doing this the last time andwhen last we spoke, Honestly, I
really enjoyed it last time I didthis many episode, and when last I

(01:23):
was on, I was talking aboutthe Phillies because I am a lifelong Phillies
fan, to the point where myson is named Chase. And I may
have told this story on the podcastbefore, But how that happened is my
wife was expecting our first child.We knew we were having a boy.
We were bouncing around names, nothingwas really catching on. That was in

(01:48):
two thousand and nine. The Phillieswere a very good team. They were
the reigning World Champions and they wereon their way to a second World Series
appearance, where sadly they lost.But I was watching a Phillies game and
Chase Utley the best second basement everto play for the Phillies. He has

(02:15):
since retired because it was a whileago. In baseball years, he may
or may he's one of those onthe edge Hall of Famers. He just
was reading an article that made apretty compelling argument for him getting into the
Hall of Fame. But he's definitelynot a first ballot. Everyone votes him

(02:38):
in sort of Hall of Famer.He's not for a Phillies fan, Mike
Schmidt, Derek Jeter, Babe Ruth, whatever, those generational greatest players multiple
MVPs. That's not Chase Utley.He was a really good, grinding player
who was one of us, Ifeel, the smartest and most dedicated baseball

(03:01):
players ever saw. So Chase,that comes up the bat and my wife
his name comes up on the littlecairn at the bottom of the screen.
My wife says, hey, howabout the name Chase. I was like,
okay, Brad, be cool,be cool, don't be too excited
because then it'll change your mind.And that's how Chase got his name.
But anyway, when last week spoke, the Phillies were up to nothing.

(03:25):
A lot of talking heads and peoplemuch smarter in the world of baseball than
I could ever hope to be.We're talking about the momentum the Phillies had,
and they were talking about the Philliessweeping the League Series and going to
the World Series. The Phillies promptlywent to Arizona and lost two close games.

(03:46):
It didn't get blown out by anystretch, but they lost. They
lost two games in a row.And I think there's a thing as a
sports fan. When your team's winning, you feel like they'll know ever lose
again. And when your team loses, you feel like they'll never win again.
And I think that's how a lotof Phillies fans were feeling, myself

(04:12):
included, because as I am recordingit Sunday, last night, Saturday,
they had the third day straight playingin Arizona, and it's like, Oh,
they'll never get another hit, They'llnever get another run, they'll never
get another home run. Bryce Harperis going to forget which ended the back
to hold when he's swinging it,and they end up with not a blowout

(04:38):
but a comfortable win, and nowthey're going back to Philadelphia for the final
two games of the series should theybe required. The Phillies are a head
three two and they need one morewin to go to the World Series.
And Citizens Bank Park is one ofthe most intimidating ballparks in baseball to play

(05:00):
at. There's been all sorts ofstatistics, and I don't know if I
said it on the podcast, butit's an expression I definitely have used where
I think it might have been MarkTwain. It's definitely a Twenian thing to
say. But there are lies,damn lies and statistics, so you always
have to take them with a grainof salt. But statistically, I think

(05:24):
in the postseason Phillies win over sixtysixty percent of their home games. They
get a lot of energy, theyknow how to play that stadium. I
think the outfielders know all the anglesand all the weird bounces in the outfield.
And it's a great fandom. Philadelphiafandom gets a lot of criticism,

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some deservedly, so they are definitelylunatics. But the plus side of lunatics
is those lunatics have a deep loveand passion for the game and the team,
so you never know. You cannever guarantee. The Diamondbacks are a

(06:11):
good team that have a couple ofyou know that that can win any game.
They can win any game. Sobut Monday night, I will definitely.
I wish I could say, Iwish I could say, have you
been watching the whole game? Iwon't. I'm an old man and I'm
very early to bed, early torise. These playoff games start at eight,

(06:32):
they go and they go until ten, ten thirty, and I'll stay
up and watch as long as Ican. And what has happened during these
night games is I'll stay up aslate as I can, but again I
wake up very early for my dayjob, and I end up going to
sleep, which is useless because thereI am watching the game on my cell

(06:57):
phone with my earbut in, andthen I get tired and fall asleep,
and then I wake up and openup the phone and you know, check
and usually I wake up after thegame is over. That is what happened
during the second game in Arizona,where they had a two or three run

(07:18):
lead going into the eighth inning,and next thing you know, they lost
by one run. Because the Diamondbacksare again a good team, and yeah,
that's that's that's sort of the game. But I am my heart is
filled with hope, and well,we'll see how it plays out. And

(07:39):
then of course all this starts allover again, where the Phillies could either
play the Texas Rangers, who werelooking very dominant. They were also up
to games to none, but theHouston Astros, who won the World Series
last year beating the Phills, theyhave come roaring back and now ihead three
games too, so the Astros justneeds one more win. Who knows how

(08:03):
this will shake out. It'll allstart all over again, me pacing and
following and trying to stay awake andthen waking up in the middle of the
night to check scores and yeah,so obviously nobody listens to this podcast to

(08:26):
hear my sports take. If you'reinterested in insightful views into the wild world
of sports, there are much betterpodcasts to listen to. Honestly, there
are better people involved with this showto listen to. Jeff is very insightful

(08:50):
and intelligent his views and sports,which is sort of fun because when Jarff
and I went to college, hedid not like sports at all. He
was sort of dismissive of it.I think he and I both suffered,
and this isn't fair of me togo do a deep vipe into his psychology,

(09:13):
but I think he and I bothsuffered from the thing where people who
had a love of geek culture,and there was definitely the geek versus jock
thing. But he and I,I remember he and I have been to
a couple of ball games together.He Jeoff and I went to an Oriols
versus Phillies game in Baltimore, andhe and I also went to a Nationals

(09:41):
game in Washington, d C.Jeff was able to speak so intelligently and
eloquently about sports. Also, JasonMoyle knows sports so well. Such a
well rounded individual. Jason is aan accomplished singer, a very good actor,

(10:05):
and also he participated in high schoolathletics. I know he has aspirations
two coach. As smart as heis, I have no doubt that he'd
be excellent. Jason's a little unfairbecause he's accomplished in the world of the

(10:30):
arts, accomplished in the world ofsports, is very intelligent about that and
also just being a very smart,kind eloquent It's a good hearted person.
Yeah, I would love to hearJarf or Jason have a sports centric podcast.

(10:52):
I'm not the guy for that.While I don't think I'm completely ignorant
on sports, I'm the pop cultureguy. And I've been asked a lot
about why the Cosmic Pedal podcast iswinding down, and one of the reasons,
and there's several, but one ofthe reasons is I found that part

(11:16):
of the things, part of thethings that would be something that be required
to be good at this, tobe a good up culture commentator is you
have to sort of be dialed intothe world of music, movies, and
television, and I'm not dialed intotelevision the way I'm used to. What's

(11:37):
popular in TV hasn't connected with me, and I think part of it is
TV has become very story arc driven. And it was a complaint that I
had with the Daredevil show, theNetflix Daredevil show, where I thought Daredevil

(12:01):
would have been very interesting to havemore standalone episodes. I thought sort of
almost having a legal show in theworld of the Marvel universe could be really
interesting, sort of law and order, but where cases involved superheroes. And
he actually saw a little bit ofthat in the Shee Holt program, but

(12:22):
because she Holt was a shorter show, more comedy centric, I don't think
they were able to sort of leaninto that the way an hour long drama
would have been able to so.But Daredevil didn't do that very much.
It wasn't a case. They neverdid a case of the Week, and
I thought that that was a missedopportunity. I think shows of TV programming

(12:48):
has gotten a little maudlin, humorless, and it just doesn't connect with me.
So I find myself instead of checkingout the hot new program I just
end up pulling up Hulu. I'llwatch an whole episode of Community, n

(13:09):
WHYPD Blue, or I'm Not Afraidto Go to starting to get pulled into
a Law and Order marathon, andespecially the original Law and Order where it
was it was very self contained,and even shows that did have the big

(13:31):
overarching story. Possibly a very famousexample of that would be X Files,
and I was a big X Filesfan, but I enjoyed the standalone X
Files that the Monster of the WeekX Files more than I did the let's
get into conspiracy and what is thecigarette smoking man? What is he up

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to? Honestly, I didn't thinkthose stories worked as well, and I
didn't think there was a great payoff. I find my self not getting into
TV, and there's a couple Thereare a couple of exceptions. One I
stole a Rick and Morty fan.I were as this episode is reading recorded.

(14:18):
They've had one episode of the newseason with the new voice actors.
I thought it was solid. Ididn't feel a big dropping quality obviously with
Rick and Morty. I don't thinkyou'll really understand. I don't think we'll
know that show jumps a shark withone episode. I think it'll be at
the end of the season. Ithink one day we'll be at the end

(14:39):
of a season of Rick and Mortyand we'll all everyone will look at each
other and say, oh, it'slost its fastball. But I don't think
you'll know that one or two episodesinto a season. The other show that
I that is ongoing currently out therethat I do watch, it's not a
prestige show. It's not Emmy Bait. I don't think it's on its own

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is gonna make anyone a star.Is The Rookie, starring Nathan Fillion as
LAPD's oldest rookie cop I'm a NathanFillion fan. I think he is his
generations Bruce Campbell, a guy whogood looking guy, handsome actor who can

(15:26):
successfully lead a TV show or movie, but he'll never be He'll never be
Harrison Ford, never be Brad Pitt, He'll never be Chris Evans, Chris
Hemsworth, Chris Pine, Chris Christofferson, what whatever have you. He's a
hero that you believe it when hegets beat up a lot, and he

(15:48):
seems to have a lack of egowhere he allows himself to play the fool,
to play the punching bag, toplay the underdog, which is a
lot of appeal in The show hasbeen on for I believe it's five seasons.
It is not a massive hit,although it is successful enough that it's
lasted that long. And it evenhas a spinoff, which I've watched a

(16:08):
handful of, is a Rookie FEDSwhere it's sort of a similar story,
except for it's an African American woman, Nissi Nash, who retires as being
a high school guidance counselor to becomean FBI agent, and she is a
rookie FBI agent. That show's fine. I don't, and while Nissi Nash

(16:33):
is a good actress, I thinkRookie FEDS doesn't have as strong a supporting
cast, not necessarily the actors whoare all solid, but I think Nathan
fillions the Rookie has a really strongcharacters supporting characters. In the writing,

(16:56):
they are well acted, but Ialso think they are well pled. The
Rookie is kind of is funny.The self contained episodes are very good.
They sometimes bounce around and play itaround with their format. They've had three
or four documentary style episodes that Ithink divide fans, but I like,

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especially because they don't go to thatconceit too often. The supporting players are
strong enough that they can carry thea plot line. So there's actually a
surprising amount of episodes of that programwhere Nathan Fillion is either a supporting player
or he is sort of the colead officer Chen Julie Chen, who was

(17:41):
another rookie who at the beginning ofthe show I think was in danger of
just being presented as Nathan Fillion officerNolan's love interest. They were dating at
the beginning of the show. Bythe end of that first season, they
had resolved that plot line pretty organicallyand pretty believably, and she's been able

(18:03):
to have several strong plot lines onher own. It's not a show that
sticks to your ribs, but itis one that I find myself looking forward
to, and recently I did arewatch of the earlier seasons on Hulu and
it holds up. It's kind offunny, although not laugh a minute.

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The actors are strong enough to handlethe dramatic stuff, although it's you know,
it's never too dramatic or maudlin,even when they deal with some darker
subject matter, and they have killedoff several main characters, but they're able

(18:47):
to make it work. I wonderwhy this show works for me more than
say Blue Bloods, which I thinkis of a similar mindset, where first
off, just the fact that it'sin the twenty twenties and it's a show
that has a positive portrayal of thepolice force. It's not easy to do.

(19:15):
Cops, I don't think in popculture are automatically viewed as the good
guys. The rookie I think dealswith that pretty well because they are not
afraid to not only have certain membersof the force as the bad guys,
but also aren't afraid to criticize aspectsof policing that they feel are problematic.

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But the cops on that show arewell intentioned, and there's no main character
that you would view as or shadesof gray character. I when I sort
of look at the show and Itry to figure out why this works when

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so many other probably objectively better programswith more prestige. Why the Rookie is
the one that I follow. Partof it is I don't I think of
the the show was. There wasa legal show that was on HBO that

(20:38):
was produced by Robert Downey Jr.I'm trying to remember. It was a
repoot of a reboot of an existingIP, but it was this incredibly dark
show with the lead actor who wasin The Americans and I'm completely blanking on
it and I'm gonna wake up amill of night. But it was a

(21:00):
pretige show, Emmy caliber lead actorand HBO's budget and their ability to push
boundaries. And I watched two episodesand I was like, Oh, this
is just too much, and itbummed me out and it depressed me,
and I just couldn't do it.I don't need the darkest, most daring

(21:22):
program every time. Sometimes I justlike the Rookie where probably everyone's gonna be
okay, there's gonna be some laughs, there's gonna be a little bit of
action and well a little bit ofmystery, and it'll be fun. Hey,
everybody, this is Brad in theFuture. The show was Perry Mason.
It was an HBO show version ofPerry Mason. Also the show is

(21:47):
one of the creators behind it isHelen Pie. And that's not necessarily a
name that every household is familiar with, but she was an important place creatively
for the show Gilmore Girls, andin fact, and then I'm a Gilmore
Girls fan. That show was verywell written and had some really good acting.

(22:11):
Certainly an imperfect show, and thehundredth time you watch it, and
because my wife is a massive fanof that show, I have watched it
many many times, you do seethe cracks in the creative and the plotting
issues, but still a very good, very watchable show. And Helen Pie

(22:33):
was the basis for the character Lane. And in fact, some deep trivia
here for you, folks. Lanewas a drummer for a garage band on
Gilmore Girls that was called Pep Alienand Hep Alien is an anagram for Helen

(22:53):
Pie, So this sort of showsher importance, and I think her being
a behind the scenes force on theshow gives it a lightness, an intelligence,
a quirkiness, and a likability inthe characters and just giving them enough

(23:15):
color two make the program feel alittle bit more than it should be.
This is so I recommend checking itout if you just want something to watch,
you know, one weeknight when youcome home from work and you're feeling,

(23:36):
you know, you don't need somethingthat will rip your heart out.
I would watch The Rookie, butagain the fact that the only shows I
watch are The Rookie and Rick andMorty, and there aren't too many other

(24:02):
weekly programs that I'm really dying.I never saw squid games. I've gotten
I'm so backlogged on my Star Warsand my Marvel shows, and I realized
that was part of the reason whyI figured it might be time to hang
up my podcasting spurs, because probablyif you're a pop culture podcaster, that's

(24:25):
probably not enough. But I've I'mdefinitely having a lot of fun talking to
people and coming to the end ofthe show, and we have a lot
of great episodes banked not just theseshort many episodes where I drive around and

(24:48):
talk. But we also have someexcellent guests coming up, and I'll probably
be talking again. I think we'llhave another mini episode, hopefully me talking
about the Phillies going to the WorldSeries. And until then, in the
words of Jar Pardon see in thefunny Pages. Subscribe to the Cosmic Cheppetto

(25:26):
podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, orwherever quality podcasts can be found. Rate
and review us while there. Followus on Twitter at cosmic gpod, and
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Like us on Facebook at Facebook dotcom, forward slash Cosmic Geppetto. We
love hearing your ideas for upcoming episodes. Email us at Cosmicchuppetto at Comcast dot

(25:52):
net. I'll come again now you'rehere talking about you. Not know any

(26:51):
is not any. Thank