December 17, 2024 • 54 mins
This week on Taking It Down, the hosts get into the emotional finale of HBO's 'Somebody Somewhere,' in broad ways in the non-spoiler section to begin the episode (1:08). Additionally, they discuss the second season of Apple TV+'s 'Silo,' as they now have mixed feelings on the show (5:48).
For the weekly spoiler section, they recount 'Somebody Somewhere' and its run on HBO with talk about its poignancy, grief, and trust of friendship (11:57). Then for more spoilers, it's a conversation on the the pacing, writing, and acting of the Apple TV+ series 'Silo,' where Adam questions if he should continue and why (34:33). To end the spoiler section, Blaine and Donovan quickly discuss the sixth and final season of 'What We Do in the Shadows' to set up its final episode next week (44:48).
The show is partnered with Descript. For the link mentioned in the podcast, go to this site: https://get.descript.com/31mu8d2mia99
For more from the podcast and the entire Alabama Take family, visit it here: https://www.thealabamatake.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hey everyone.
It is taking it down the TVand streaming podcast for the Alabama
Take website and production company.
We're going to be talkingabout three things.
The ending of Somebody somewhere.
We'll talk about a few of theepisodes from this season of Silo
on Apple tv.
Plus we'll also talk about thepenultimate episode of what we do
(00:25):
in the Shadows from FX and Hulu.
But you don't have to run offjust yet because we discuss things.
Spoiler Free to begin.
Alabama Take projection.
So abortion.
(00:46):
Surprisingly underrated.
It's exciting to be here thisweek because the Alabama Take was
nominated for best Indiewebsite of the year 2024.
And I just got word thatdoesn't exist because I just made
it up.
Breaking news Self nomination.
(01:07):
I'm still excited to be withAdam and Donovan.
No spoilers in this part.
Instead, we'll say goodbyebriefly here and then more thoroughly
later to the HBO seriesSomebody Somewhere, which ended its
third and final season last Sunday.
Where does season land for you?
And then you can even talkabout where it stands for you as
(01:29):
an entire three season show.
Well, my rating of this seasonis are you made of stone?
And one of the things I didlike about this season and the whole
thing is it really took.
It was kind of a movingforward story, but it was also like
a part of someone's life, partof several someone's life in three
(01:51):
distinct chunks.
So I really didn't feel likeit was like it's a three season show,
but I didn't really feel likeit was like a beginning, middle and
ending show.
I mean obviously the end, thefirst season kind of has to do some
setup.
Yeah, I don't know if thatmakes sense.
It was almost like threechapters in a book as opposed to
like we're starting and goingup and down and this is, this is
(02:13):
not a criticism, by the way.
I thought that was the kind oflike easy naturalism of that really
worked for me.
Yeah, I'll piggyback on thatand say that as it rounded the corner
and we knew that the plane wasabout to land, it really became clear
that the strength of the showis that I think if we went back to
(02:34):
season one and watched episodeone, two, whatever, we would be shocked
at the difference in therelationships that everybody has.
And at no point do you feellike major breakthroughs or bust
ups.
It's just a real life.
These people moved along andwe were there with them.
I suppose that if you wantedmore traditional drama from a show,
(02:57):
you may have complaints aboutseason three, but if this show is
for you.
And I'm with Donovan, meaningif you are not made of stone, then
I think that this was a verysuccessful landing of the plane.
I assume that the writers areworking on the spin off show where
Fred Rococo becomes Ken State,Kent State, Kansas State's defensive
(03:20):
coordinator.
Fantastic.
He got to go in the field.
I think he'd be good at it.
That going on the field bit,we praise the perfect realism and
nods to like the environmentsthat we grew up in.
But how many people do youknow who lived their entire lives
(03:40):
in, say, Tuscaloosa?
And they got to go on like apatch of grass that has been within
five miles of them at almostall points in their life.
And it's like it is the mountaintop.
You know, if it was during orright after a game, it's the mountaintop.
Yeah, he just delivered that line.
So to briefly praise some ofthe actors.
(04:03):
He just delivered that line soperfectly where it's just like, you
see, like, yeah, this is likethe players are like warming up or
whatever.
This is the biggest day ofFree Fred Rococo's life.
Murray Hill's got great energyas an actor.
Hilarious guy.
I've watched his.
Some of his, I guess you callit stand up.
He kind of just puts on aperformance or show.
I watched a few minutes ofthat on YouTube.
(04:23):
It's.
It's entertaining and put.
Put a smile on your face for sure.
Donovan mentioned, said theword naturalism.
What a great way of thinkingabout this show.
And it goes hand in hand withwhat Adam was saying about how if
you watch the first episode,there might be some relationships
you might not recognize.
And let's do that for a second.
(04:44):
Do you guys remember when Samcomes back to town, she.
She gets back on her feet byworking at like an act grade, essay
grading.
And that's how she meets Joel.
Yeah, it's how she meets Joel.
It just cracks me up because Igive the act at our school every.
It's like six times a year.
And I just gave it yesterday.
(05:05):
And it's just so funny to.
And I also teach, so I have tolike score these essays sometimes
just on my own.
But like, that was like a mini thing.
And it was such a.
I say mini thing.
That was a job for her.
And it's truly a job.
You just don't keep forever.
Probably if you're Sam, you don't.
The only type of person whokeeps that forever is like the supervisor
(05:27):
in that first season, youknow, where it's like, there might
be something kind of wrongwith you if you've made this your
career.
It's a very special kind of show.
It really hit for me thisseason especially.
And we'll get into why on the.
Yeah.
On the.
After the spoiler, because Iguess I have to pinpoint a few things
to explain myself.
(05:48):
We'll also get into the AppleTV plus series that's currently airing
its second season every Friday.
I think that's Silo.
This show is based off of atrilogy of books and stories by Hugh
Howie about a future societythat's forced into silos underground
due to circumstances with the earth.
The air's inhospitable to mankind.
(06:10):
Or something like that's happening.
Shoot.
Yeah.
You don't say.
I kid you not.
What does it do to everyone's butt?
That's a really fine questionthat's yet to be explored.
I feel like we're gonna findout pretty soon with all these drones.
Show stars Rebecca Ferguson isa mechanic from the lower part of
the silo and Tim Robbins asthe mayor in charge of the whole
(06:33):
shebang.
I almost said Tim Robinson andboy and boy.
Would that be a different show?
A very different show.
No.
I don't know how to drive.
I don't know what any of thisshit is, and I'm fucking scared.
Adam, is there anything youwant to mention here with no spoilers
about the show second season,or do you want to kind of just wait?
(06:54):
I'll say that this show has ahabit of boring me and making me
feel like we're out to sea andthen suddenly pulling me back and
I have to see the next episode.
Wow, that's so well said.
That's funny you said that.
Because I think that a lot andit frustrates me.
Yeah.
Okay.
And I think this may be aproblem with other Apple shows.
(07:15):
I started thinking about itspecifically with Silo and sort of
kind of going through my.
Previously watched on Apple tvand there's a lot that I only made
it two, three, four episodesinto and then bailed on and I don't
know what it is.
Well, okay.
Yeah, I don't know either.
But what is it about Apple TVshow that it's not nearly as good
(07:36):
in its second season?
Hmm.
Ted Lasso kind of dipped.
Not horribly, but it did.
You're really scared, Lane.
Because I'm really excitedabout severance.
Well, that's what I'm sayingnow we got severance.
I was building to that.
Yeah.
Gotta be worried.
It's interesting.
But, you know, Silo inparticular, not the other ones.
As much?
Well, shrinking.
(07:57):
But that's a odd comparison.
Here's what I'm getting at.
It's a.
It's a rush bit of TV for our age.
In a way, it's almost like howTV shows used to be.
You get a new season almost ayear to the day that the first season
started.
Silo did that.
And that might be what'scausing a few problems with this
show.
In particular, it has to be anexpensive series to produce.
(08:18):
It looks really realistic.
When we started discussionabout Silo earlier five weeks ago,
I compared it to how a coupleof Disney plus series.
It's hard to sometimes settlein and believe what's happening because
the sets look so cheaply madeat times.
But that's not the case with Silo.
(08:38):
I believe I'm in a Silo or,you know, underground, whatever.
It's well done, it's wellproduced, the sets look great.
But what's the dip?
Is it the.
Maybe the writing has to berushed and that could affect the
acting, which is something Ithink we'll get into a little bit
with this.
Some particular scenes on inthe spoiler section, but anything
(09:01):
else, I'll bite my tongue.
Until then, I suppose.
Let's do that.
Also.
Later, Donovan and I will getinto what we do in the Shadows, as
it too is winding down itstelevision run with its sixth and
final season.
I only have a couple questionsthere, really, to set up the finale,
because we are.
We just watched thepenultimate episode, so there's probably
nothing new I will say hereabout the FX Hulu comedy what We
(09:23):
do in the Shadows, other than.
I have been still beenrecommending this.
I just recommended ityesterday to someone who had no idea.
I've been trying to get mywife to watch it as well.
So that's two people recently.
And I've been like, you know,it's funny.
Don't be bothered by thepremise that it's vampires.
No, it's not.
It's not that kind of show.
It's not that kind of show.
Although if you got anyknowledge of the tropes of vampires,
(09:46):
that'll.
That'll tickle you.
It'll make you laugh.
I've been pleased with it.
I think even in this lastseason, it's been keeping up, like,
the quality of what it was,you know, not that, like, it's never
been.
Like, every episode's a knockout of the park.
But it's usually beenconsistently good.
And I think this one is stillconsistently good.
We've had some.
I'll get into some of my thoughts.
(10:08):
Once again, shame on me.
I should be able to talk aboutsomething without spoiling it, but
there's some specifics I wantto bring up.
Well, you get.
You get so deep intosomething, you've kind of said everything.
Non spoiler.
You can stay for after a minute.
Right.
That's fair.
I feel like FX has used all ofthe advertising budget for what we
(10:29):
do in the shadows that theyshould have used over these seasons,
like in the last three weeks.
I see commercials for that everywhere.
I mean, you should watch it.
Don't be slighted by thevampire stuff.
It's.
It's almost the.
In the vein.
Not almost.
It is in the vein of theOffice, this fake documentary.
But they're just filming thesethree vampires who are also roommates,
(10:52):
and they have a human helper who.
He's the guy who gives theside eye to the camera.
Like these fucking idiots.
Playing a straight man.
Yeah, he's a straight man andhe is.
Which it's funny because he'sgay and.
Yeah.
Anyway, that's another little joke.
But it's so funny.
It is good.
It is good.
They get good guest stars too, weirdly.
Oh, they do.
Good point.
Yeah.
Okay, this podcast, taking itdown in our home site, the Alabama
(11:18):
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All right, we're going to talkabout the last two episodes of Somebody
Somewhere of season three,likely its final season.
(12:04):
There has been questions popup online.
Is it truly the last season?
Will it get resurrectedsomewhere else?
It just seems to be its last.
Let's just treat it as such.
I'm of the school of thoughtthat it's okay for things to end.
So am I.
Especially when it seems likeit's on the creator's timelines,
(12:26):
you know, where it fits.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
And I've gotta be honest here,that I'm not 100% sure exactly how
it came to be.
Did they know it was endingvery much along the way of doing
the third season?
Like, they already hadeverything written and then it just
sort of worked out.
That will be fine for a seasonand series finale both.
(12:49):
But HBO decided that thatwould be its last season.
I don't think it was thecreators 100%.
It seems like it's working forhim, though.
Or.
Sorry.
They're working with it, Iguess, is what I really mean.
That's very true.
And.
But because they do somethingvery wise, their last episode of
any season could serve as anend to the story they're telling.
(13:13):
And that's probably how mosttelevision series should be.
Yeah.
It's like, you know, thiscould be the end of this part.
You can imagine what happens next.
And I think that works here, too.
I think so, too.
I think that's almost kind of.
You said it, Blaine.
That's one of the strengths ofwhat they've done is it just puts
you in that space where it'slike, I don't have to answer all
(13:35):
the questions, but I canimagine maybe what would happen.
I can hope or not hope, whatever.
We sat on the penultimateepisode on purpose because we knew
we'd devote quite a bit oftime to the show.
I think we all loved it.
Would you.
Am I using too strong of aword here for the two of you?
It was really good.
(13:55):
I will struggle to rememberindividual episodes.
Sure.
Maybe not individual moments.
Cause there were some truly.
We work blue.
We're talking poop humor here.
There's a lot of good qualityshitter humor going on in this program
and some poignant moments as well.
It's almost like a feelingthat you take from the show instead
(14:16):
of, like, individual beatswhere, you know, when you're talking
about.
I think it's in your words,it's okay for shows to end.
And I agree.
Obviously, there's someoutliers where, you know, if they
had cut Game of Thrones offearly, there would have been pitchforks
in the street, that sort of thing.
But that's such a.
This is the opposite of that.
(14:37):
You know, this is plot driven,but in the way that, like, literary
fiction is plot driven.
That's a long answer to say,did I love this show?
I mean, yeah.
I mean, I think it's one ofthe better shows.
It almost takes time to, like,settle the dust on, say, the last
five years of television andsay, this was one of the better shows
(14:57):
in that.
That time period.
I can't think of a show thatwill replicate the feeling this show
gives me when I watch it.
And shortly after I've watchedit, I can't think of one that does
it.
Some movies do, but not.
Not a show.
It's really great in beingvibes based.
Well, not just like running onvibes, if that makes any kind of
(15:18):
sense.
Like there's actual substance there.
Yeah.
Well said.
Yeah.
If we may, I'd like to pullback a full episode.
Start with the penultimate ofthe season and series.
It was titled.
As much as I like not feeling so.
You might remember that line too.
The plot.
I think we all feel that way.
Yeah.
Love it.
The plot's more or less aboutJoel and his attempt to figure out
(15:40):
his own mini breakdown after.
Thank.
That perfect Thanksgivingepisode, his reconnection with Sam
and Sam's walk with theIcelandic fellow who has such a deep
voice.
We get more.
More lines from him than everin that one.
Is this the first time we'veever seen anybody listen to a podcast
on a show?
A specific one at that.
Like we get the top.
(16:00):
It's one I know of.
My wife listens to it some.
Joel backs into the car and like.
Because he was listening to a podcast.
That was funny.
Yeah.
It propels him to come to Sam.
Like I had this breakdown.
I've.
And it also has built up to methat I've had this wreck.
Yeah.
This fender bender.
Can I insert here the physicalhumor that is Joel crying.
(16:24):
Yes.
Like obviously that's thedouble edged sword of the show.
Right.
Is like this.
It can be funny and kind ofnot tragic, but important, emotionally
important at the same time.
Like it's so relatable.
Who hasn't?
You know, you got your shot of adrenaline.
But his whole freaking outafter the accident and like being
mad at the little old lady andthen she calls him like he does.
(16:46):
He does such a good.
Like you're laughing the whole time.
He does such a good job.
This is the episode that givesFred Rocco 3 minutes of screen time
and he kills it where he sayssingle line.
Sometimes I want to be a bad,bad boy because he's eating the hamburger.
Instead of the salad.
(17:07):
He lied that he was getting.
Yeah, he was lying about it.
I love it.
So good.
How many times have I done that?
A ton.
The music in this series wowsme on how perfect it slots into what's
going on.
It's designed by Amanda Jonesand there's a one I can name in this
episode between the scenewhere Trisha advises Sam to.
(17:27):
To change before seeing theIcelandic guy and she's yeah.
She's trying to figure out, isthis going to work?
Does it fit well?
And there's a, like a fivenote, maybe four note piano figure,
and that's it.
And it melted my heart.
It warmed me simultaneously somehow.
Anyway.
It just set me up to.
(17:48):
To really feel and see Sam'snervousness that created her indecision
there on what to wear.
I 100% have made a list ofconversations, especially for the
phone back in the day.
Oh, yeah, when you had to talkon the phone, I would have a list,
a little post it note and belike, oh, yeah, I want to.
(18:08):
And sometimes it was like, Idon't want to forget to say.
But sometimes it was like,okay, it's a girl I like.
I'm going to call her.
What.
What can I talk about?
Talking points.
Talking points.
Yes, of course.
I'm so glad that was portrayedon screen.
Her list, though, brings meto, like, this balance, which is
a good word for this show, forwhat it.
(18:30):
What it gives us.
It helps me forget that she'sbeen through turmoil, grief, and
that juxtaposes her hotspotand so many other facets of her life.
She's the woman who's gonnarub her boobs in your face, but then
she is also nervous and grief stricken.
(18:51):
Yeah, I agree.
It is a great job of someonewho uses, like, humor and theatricality
and has a big, outsizedpersonality, but is also, you know,
like.
Like many of us is like, hasparts that they're deeply, deeply
insecure about.
And I think, like, you know,in some ways, the whole show's kind
(19:11):
of been about, like, Sam being brave.
Brave enough to.
To let those more vulnerableparts be touched or touch others.
I think they did a really nice thing.
And I know that we'll probablytalk about this relationship specifically
as we continue on, but thesisters learning from each other
in this way, that's one of therelationships that I thought of at
(19:34):
the top of the show that youcould almost hardly believe how these
two relate to each other inthe final episode compared to episode
one, two, three.
Donovan, you saying kind ofbalancing the grief and with the
bluster, so to speak.
Whereas her sister is sopragmatic and I'm sure thought that,
(19:54):
oh, Sam, that's the one whodoes all the artsy stuff, you know,
whatever.
And by the end, they kind ofgrow towards each other in this really
nice way that those parts ofthe personality start to balance
out a bit or at least areappreciated by the other.
I loved for the two just howthey were able to like, kind of something
like we said with Joel in theThanksgiving episode, just like articulate
(20:16):
the things that theyappreciated about each other.
Yeah.
And that's.
That's.
I don't.
I mean, it's.
It's cool, it's powerful.
And that happens a couple oftimes with the characters, which
makes it a nice period on theend of this series is sentence.
Yes.
The Icelandic guy says, Idon't like how you always put yourself
down.
I liked how that was given afull beat.
(20:38):
I guess you could say it was.
Yeah, it was really good.
That scene also gave me twoother things that I found very, very
nice and well done.
Used the phrase emotional infrastructure.
What a phrase.
After she got.
She gets kissed.
But then it sets them up to beas far apart in the frame as possible.
(20:59):
It's beautiful shot becauseyou get this Winterfield behind them
and, you know, she's debatingon leaving.
And I just love it when youget these compositions that also
either help tell the story oralso tell the story.
So if you sent that in animage, you could probably guess some
of the emotions that arehappening there.
(21:20):
He's been an interesting guythis last season.
Not talking a lot.
It's what's not said.
It's.
You know, you're picking upthese little details and it's.
As we're talking now, I'm kindof thinking about, you know, Sam
arrives in town.
Do you guys remember where shecame from?
Because she's coming back from somewhere.
New York, right?
Was it New York?
(21:41):
Has she come back from NewYork to kind of tend to the family
business?
I want to say that's right.
She comes back a bit throughblown by the waves of circumstance,
you know, whereas he displaysthis emotional intelligence to say
something like, I don't likehow you put yourself down.
It's also there for completelysolid reasons.
(22:03):
Like, he's made a decision tobe where he is.
He's gone there to study agriculture.
Now he's doing this thing.
And there's, you know, Fredhas his own through line of like,
soil study and all of thisstuff that's, you know, for the nerds.
I'm raising my hand hereamongst fun to follow.
But she runs across this guywho just seems more grounded than
(22:24):
her in so many ways.
And they do such a good job ofthat with saying so little.
Like, for such a.
He is like a literal largepresence on screen, but he also just
seems completely comfortablein his skin.
It's funny you say he'sgrounded and he works with the ground,
as does Fred Rococo.
Who's also pretty grounded too.
Yeah.
And there's just a level ofintention where the other characters
(22:47):
are.
Maybe they stuck aroundsomewhere where they already, you
know, they grew up there.
They've just learned to makeit work.
And he has made a decision tobe there.
I feel like that has to mean something.
Yeah, it does.
Yeah.
I would completely agree withwhat Adam said.
I don't know if I canarticulate it well, but it worked
for me.
(23:07):
Probably sympathizing morewith the one who tends to bluster.
I liked that Iceland has thelike for Sam.
It's probably kind of reallyscary to get to reach out and try
and get to know him because hedoesn't seem like he needs anything.
No, he, you know, you're.
You're kind of vulnerable whenyou're dealing with someone who doesn't
(23:28):
really need anything.
Well.
And everybody in her life iskind of like a sparring partner conversationally.
Yeah.
You know, and like they'reobviously everybody's very intelligent.
They're talking to each otherboth like wit and empathy.
And he, he just doesn't seemas interested in the constant one
liners, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Yes.
Which made him in the firstepisode seem like he might be an
(23:51):
antagonist type figure.
I remember first episode ofseason three, I thought, oh, this
guy may not be very nice, butno, he's just kind of quiet and self
assured.
Yep.
I love the Debussy call backat the end of the episode.
It's my favorite classicalpiece of music.
One of the few I can recognizeand say, oh, that's debut.
(24:12):
Say, probably a lot of people can.
Yeah.
I started this third and finalseason about a month and a half after
my dad's death.
And I saw those frankconversations Trisha and Sam have
about Holly as the most real ground.
You know, that fear that youhave that you might forget somebody
is so visceral.
(24:35):
Yeah.
I still have my dad's voice inmy ear.
When I, when I used to callhim, the first thing he would say
was he would answer the phone.
Hey, son.
That was his line.
And I still hear it and I hangon to it.
And when they get into thelast episode when they start talking
about Trisha mainly, who'svery concerned she.
That her grief isn't up to par.
(24:57):
And it reminded me so muchthat this show is as much about grief
as it is friendship.
And I love that.
Yeah.
I liked that scene with thesisters very much.
I've never had anyone aspersonal as like a parent die, but
even just folks in my life whohave died.
Like, I felt.
(25:17):
I guess it must be universal, right?
Like, the fear of, like, I'mforgetting you, I'm going to forget
you.
And, like, you get to thepoint where you're like, oop, I had
a good moment and didn't thinkabout how I was sad.
That's.
That's on me.
That was a bad thing I did.
To me, that conversation feltlike the.
If you wanted the typical HBOswing for the fences kind of end
(25:41):
of a season, end of a show moment.
That was the heart, the meatof the whole thing to me, because
they.
I mean, do they talk abouttheir sister in the third season
otherwise?
Hardly.
Hardly.
Not much.
She's alluded, I mean, sort ofalluded to where, you know, Trish
starts to.
And I think this actually,like, perfectly sets up this scene
(26:04):
where Trish is like, no familyshould have to go through that.
Talking about cancer fundraisers.
She's like, well, you know,almost like she's forgotten that.
Of course, Sam knows.
We both know.
And I thought that was reallya good setup for this.
It does set up her positionreally well, too, because there's
a level of Remove from her ownemotions when she says that, because
she's clearly not identifyingit as the same thing that others
(26:28):
go through.
I mean, I know that's obvious,but it's such a nice prelude to what
I, Again, I think is kind ofthe most important conversation in
season three.
Yeah, we're shifting into thefinal episode, and there's such,
to me.
Profundity, I suppose.
Is that the word?
When Sam says the sadnessisn't her.
Yeah, that was meant to get one.
(26:51):
That was moving and what Iperfectly well said, and I needed
to hear that.
And I bet there's a lot ofpeople out there that needed to hear
that.
It's a show about grief andloss and what to do about that, how
to move on from that.
But it's also tied into howfriends are there for you, whether
in the form of your sister or your.
(27:12):
Or just friends that aren't family.
Sam walking Joel to Church inthat final episode reminded me of,
you know, she's not into thatin the least, but she still takes
time to walk him there.
We've kind of alluded to it.
Maybe one day I'll reallyfigure out how to talk about it.
But I've loved the portrayalof Church in this show through Joel
(27:35):
and Brad.
That was one of the moments inthis last episode where it just felt
really profoundly not thateverything's gonna be okay, but that
you can move forward.
Like, you can move forward.
You can say the things thatare important to people.
Right.
Like when Sam leads him inthere and he sees the pastor, it
kind of reminded me of theparable of the prodigal son.
(27:56):
Right.
Because in the parable of theprodigal son, he runs away.
He spends all his money.
Well, he doesn't run away.
He leaves and spends all his money.
And he's there and he's like,oh, I'm so miserable.
Why am I eating dirt?
I could go and work for my dadagain and be a servant and have better
than this.
We're told that as the soncomes to the house, the father sees
(28:17):
him from a long way.
So the son's rehearsing whathe's going to say to apologize, basically,
and the father sees him from along way off and runs out to him.
And I just thought that wasexactly that with Joel, because it
was like he's in his head, andshe's like, I just missed you so
much.
I missed you.
I missed you and the personyou are.
I don't need your apology.
(28:38):
That's not what this is about.
And I thought that was justlike, it's not a big scene, but it
just really, really solidlyworked for me.
Yeah, it put a.
An institutional face on kindof the feeling of the whole thing
of, like, finding your peopleand that there are.
Sometimes you just know.
You know, and thatrelationship the two of them had
(28:59):
and he had to.
That church just encapsulatedthat, like, of course you're supposed
to come back where you been.
Right.
This is where you belong.
Yeah.
Just that kind of return.
Not that it's like, oh, I cameback and everything's reset, but
in the.
Like, I went through what Iwent through, and I'm.
And I'm back here and I'm.
That I'm the person who wentthrough what I went through.
(29:21):
Even.
Not even big.
Big field, just life.
And, you know, you lived yourlife, too, and now we're, you know,
we're stronger.
The actor who plays Brad had some.
Really great sport, good sport award.
Yes.
He had some really nice actingmoments that were very small but
wonderful.
First of all, of course, Bradgrades at home.
(29:43):
Yes.
You know, that's what a nice.
As someone who is married tosomeone who grades at home, because
where else do you grade?
I was like, this is veryfamiliar to me, this scenario where
one person has to grade andthe other person doesn't.
Blaine, do you grade at all?
There is one time a year whereI Have to.
And the rest of the time, Ihave made it a vow not to do that.
(30:06):
Very interesting.
Yep.
It's tough.
But the.
But Brad's grading, and helooks up and Joel tells him about
going to see Pastor Deb.
And he has.
The actor who plays Brad hasthis moment in his eyes.
I think his eyebrows lift uplike almost a blend of, oh, that's
great.
And, oh, what's coming next.
(30:26):
Yeah.
This whole series has been abunch of actors who should have been
in more stuff already.
Oh, yeah.
And maybe they will be.
It's great.
I hope so.
Everyone has just been so good.
But I applaud the show loudlyfor never resorting to flashbacks
of Holly.
And yet it still hit theemotional beats, I think, with that
(30:50):
part incredibly well.
Yeah.
I thought that this episode,this final episode really works well.
I will say.
I will say that the.
I will say the penultimateepisode, for me, might have been
the best of the series.
I'll throw out some notes herethat I think makes it a wonderful
ending.
The Jeep upgrade felt like anod to everything's going to be all
(31:15):
right and no longer dealingwith this Ford Ranger.
Not that it was a plot point,but you.
You can almost see it coming.
Well, it's also like anacceptance of my sister can help
me.
I will let her.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
I don't have to.
Not that she was paying apenance by driving the little old
truck, but she's got a littlemore luxury in her life now.
(31:39):
Yeah.
And just the.
Like, I can move forward.
Right?
Like, I can.
That's okay.
I'm not gonna explode.
She phone calls her dad.
It was almost anacknowledgement that Sam's going
to.
It's another acknowledgementthat she's gonna make it, that she
is doing well, and it allowsyou to say goodbye to these characters.
(32:02):
And then the final one was.
I thought it was a reallyintelligent move to have Sam volunteer
to sing, rather than all theseother times where she was asked to
and she put it off or him andhaunt about not wanting to sing or
someone made her.
There's a nice progressionthere to say, I think I'll sing for
y'all.
Felt like a gift she wasgiving, too.
(32:24):
Some of the vibe around thelast one, I was worried that she
had gotten bad news from a doctor.
I know that this is a weirdpull, but, like, you know how, like,
you're dealing with.
Fred is dealing with health things.
And then her doctor tells her,you got to get in shape or waiting
for more of your blood work tocome back.
Blah, blah, blah.
Because there was an element of.
She got some closure with her sister.
(32:46):
She got to tell Joel how muchhe means to her, all these things.
And then she sings the song.
It's like, is she.
Is she about to go to thehospital to start chemo or something?
Oh, wow.
I don't know why I felt.
Because this would not be thatshow at all, you know?
No, I don't think so.
I don't know why that was inmy head.
I think we kind of alluded tothis, right?
(33:08):
We did, yeah.
We worried that the brug'sgonna get yanked out from under.
You're afraid you're CharlieBrown with the football because this
has happened to you before.
Yeah, yeah.
This show has really just been.
This is what it's like to,like, live a life in the background
of all this stuff that's going on.
Like, yeah, you still have arthritis.
Yeah, you need to lose weight.
Ye.
There's unresolved stuff with,you know, Fred's wife and things
(33:30):
like that.
That's what life is, right?
Like, it never wraps up.
There's always something.
Yeah, that's true.
Are we going to Varsity Donuts?
Are we driving to Kansas?
Manhattan, Kansas.
The Little Apple.
Adam, have you ever been toManhattan, Kansas?
You're.
You're the traveling musician.
Like, I have this.
I feel bad that I'm going tosay probably, but I don't.
(33:52):
There are places that we just,like, stopped, you know, for a night
or something.
I've never played there.
I know that.
Oh, okay.
Well, then, okay, that's fine.
If you've never played thereand you.
And you don't remember, Ithink that's fair.
You know, I'd like some donuts.
But even more than that, I'dlike to be on the field while the
team warms up.
(34:13):
Yeah.
I thought you were going tosay, I'd like to be a part of catch
club.
I would break my neck.
I'm about Joel's level ofathletic ability.
Joel is a very good sportabout it.
You and I would fit right inwith their catch club.
Catch club is so funny with,like, Frederic Coco just absolutely
taking the dad role.
We're like, all right, good hustle.
Let's go.
So good.
(34:33):
Let's get into just a littleof Silo this second season.
Adam messaged me last nightthat he had problems with Silo the
second season.
And, I mean, I'm interested.
It's not even Festivus yet.
We're getting close.
But I'm interested to hearwhat you.
What problems you have yousaid it was bad acting was one of
them?
And first of all, I think Iwant to ask really broadly, what
(34:57):
is bad acting for you?
Like, can you differentiatebetween bad directing and bad acting?
Because sometimes I am curiouson if I'm getting it right.
That's a tough.
I mean, the short answer isno, I'm not qualified enough to tell
the difference.
But the longer answer and whatI would throw in is bad writing or
hurried writing or any ofthese things.
(35:18):
How many episodes are out now?
Five.
Five total.
Mm.
I'm complaining about episode two.
So we're right back to what Isaid about the top.
At the top of the show aboutwe do the whole song and dance of
we have the plate of food,it's dinner time, what are we gonna
watch?
This show rarely scraps to thetop of the heap, especially since
(35:39):
we've had somebody somewhereand say nothing and all this going
on.
So we finally watched episodetwo and looked at each other and
we're just like, what this is.
It has never been this.
It's that old cliche of, like,almost every character you thought
the actor was saying, I amgoing to act in this scene.
You know, just kind ofoverdone and didn't have the same
(36:03):
grounding that it's had in the past.
And especially after episodeone being kind of a one woman show.
Right.
Of her going through.
And I thought she did a reallygood job of that.
And I'm intrigued by all ofthe world building and the mechanics
and the big story.
Yeah.
And then it just kind of.
(36:25):
I don't know.
I didn't buy the beats inepisode two.
Episode two was the one thatdid not have Juliet in it.
She's not in it at all.
That might have been theproblem, you think?
I don't know, because thequestion's there.
So now both plot lines in andout of the silo have interesting
(36:47):
realities to deal with.
You know, like, I think it'sfascinating how power works because
the implication from the showis that for society to function,
someone has to be in chargeand make decisions for the collective
good.
And at some point, you know,spoiler, the collective good decision
(37:09):
was, we're gonna lock thatdoor and create whatever myth we
need to keep you from goingoutside, because it really will kill
you.
But they're not leveling withthe people about all of the details.
You end up with thisinquisition into how much nuance
the public can deal with andhow much information the public can
(37:30):
deal with, which I think is2024 going into 25 is an excellent
time to ask these questions.
Yeah, it really is.
And I think that there's ahuge opportunity there.
And then of course, you'redealing with.
With her, it's pure discovery,you know, that she is getting concrete
answers.
So there's like both a story,scientific world building set of
(37:53):
questions and a sociological set.
Yes.
And socioeconomical becausethere are the levels which are blatantly
there to represent class.
The mechanical are the lowerclass and they have to do the shit
work.
But at the same time they'rekeeping the silo running.
(38:14):
Right.
And you wonder too, like, didthey build the silo this way or does.
I mean, obviously they didbuild it.
You put the engine room in the bottom.
But like over time you'regiving more powerful people better
housing, better whatever.
Like, was it more egalitarianto begin with?
Are the things that I wonder.
(38:36):
So do you remember with thatsecond episode exactly who or was
it everyone?
You felt like this is kind ofbad acting.
This is bad writing.
Yeah, I was just curious.
I'm sorry, what?
Throughout.
Yeah, yeah.
Even Tim Robbins, because Ifeel like he does a pretty good job
in anything.
It pained me to say that Ithink there was bad acting in this
(38:56):
because I like Tim Robbins so much.
I find him interesting onscreen, even as a.
He's very, in this role,almost too straightforward of a villain.
Like, where's the nuance withthis guy?
Saying that might be some of it.
It could be.
But I would give him more of abenefit of the doubt on the character,
(39:18):
you know, that he's playingwithin certain guidelines.
Whereas like Common, I thinkis just.
Okay, you want to talk about him?
Because he, since day one,since episode one of this series,
he has not been good.
And I've just never found himto be that good of an actor.
I find it interesting thathe's chosen to be almost exclusively
(39:42):
an actor because he may needmore acting classes.
So he's not great.
Well, he's asked to do a lotin this show.
Yeah, he is.
And he.
And he just can't hold hisground with the rest of these.
He's a very one note, maybetwo note kind of actor anyway.
Yeah, I don't know, maybe.
Maybe I should shift someblame to the writing.
(40:02):
I felt like the stuff in the.
The little almost Spartacuskind of scene in the engine room
or in the mechanical level waskind of like.
I don't want to complain toomuch, only having seen the two episodes
and it's hilarious that I amvoicing an opinion at all here in
public about two episodes of aseason when there are five out.
(40:23):
So obviously, I'm not anactual informed viewer.
No, it's fair.
I think, you know, we'relimited on time.
We can only watch what we watch.
And I don't think you're wrong.
And I'm seeing some of this inepisode 5.
Though I will say I think itgets a little better.
My issues are what you saidmuch more succinctly at the beginning
(40:46):
of our episode today.
Every episode feels like threeor four episodes at once in a bad
way.
Like, there are many threadsthat they've decided to toss out
there, and for that to beconfined to a silo, it's a little
overwhelming.
And every episode seems to beabout 10 minutes too long.
(41:09):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Its pace is a little dilatoryat times.
It's just.
Now, I get that Juliet isgoing to take time to do what she's
got to do, but at the sametime, you're thinking you're not
telling me much about her orthe story where she is in the time
you're given.
(41:29):
But I find the story veryinteresting, mainly because of, you
know, what.
What are they trying to hide?
What are they trying to.
Why are they trying tomaintain control in.
In the Orwellian sense thatthey're doing?
What's wrong with just beingopen and honest?
Because that seems.
That would definitely controlme, you know, hey, Blaine, don't
(41:49):
go outside, because the airwill kill you.
Okay, then you're in charge.
Tell me what to do next.
But.
But there's something elsegoing on we're not getting.
And we know who you voted for.
That's funny because.
No, that's funny.
You got me there.
(42:09):
I.
I can still breathe outside,thank you.
You can now.
No, you know, it's a prettyOrwellian story, and how I'm interested.
It's not a vital piece oftelevision for me, but we all live
in.
Silos of our own making.
They have siloed people off inthis show, that's for sure.
(42:32):
Yeah.
Let me tell you about my mind silo.
Anyway, let's talk aboutdisclosure and if humanity is going
to be able to handle it.
You got simple question.
This is similar to what we doat the top, where you say, should
we watch this show, Blaine?
Should I keep watching?
Yeah, I think so.
I think I'm going to.
(42:52):
Yeah, but you're gonna get the.
I mean, this is not a spoilerfor you.
Everybody who's watched upthrough the five episodes won't be
spoiled either.
You're Gonna get the Steve Son character.
He's just dangling out therelike a damn carrot.
Well, they haven't shown himto you.
You get the.
Yeah, you get the hint of himat the end of episode one.
(43:13):
You don't return to Juliet inepisode two.
You're gonna get a lot of him.
And I think that he's got astory to tell.
He always does, doesn't he?
Yeah, well, he's playing avery Steve Zahn kind of character,
but at the same time, it's.
That's a little different.
I think you'll see.
You'll see.
Especially in episode five,the one I watched last night.
(43:34):
I was thinking about hischaracter and what he's gone through
and why he's saying what he's saying.
I don't know.
There's some interest there.
See, that's another.
They open the door of thischaracter who has chose not to go
out right.
With the rest of his silostayed behind.
And then it's like we talkedabout it after episode one.
(43:57):
It's a question of humanendurance in some way.
Like the will to live when.
Like, why.
Why are you living other thana natural desire to not die?
Yeah, I think about that a lotwith this show.
I mean, that's kind of thebasic motivation, which seems like
(44:18):
a, well, duh kind ofstatement, but especially somebody's
isolated underground forpotentially years.
So I, yeah, I want to hang outwith Steve Zahn and instead I had
to hang out with Common.
Good point.
What a terrible party thatwould be.
You know that he's holdingcourt on the other side of the room,
but you're stuck over here with.
(44:40):
He's like the column I justfinished Derry Girls.
He's the Common is the columnof the situation.
Right.
Donovan.
I know.
We'll discuss what we do inthe shadows next week because by
then it will have aired itsfinal episode of the series.
It'll be all.
All over.
Turn out the lights.
The party's over.
(45:01):
So this may be more of acompare and contrast bit to set up
next week's final episode.
Yeah, it's another show we'resaying goodbye to.
But has this season dipped in quality?
I don't think so, really.
Honestly, every season kind ofhad some episodes that I was like,
I don't care as much.
The highs have been high for me.
Okay, well, I did like theMadness of March.
I like the one.
(45:21):
That was a good one.
That was.
That was top notch.
The.
The one where they're filmingthe detective show.
That was pretty good.
And Nandor Convinced they'reunder attack.
Pretty good.
Okay, that gets me into whatI'm not.
Naja with the banana phone.
Oh, God.
That was an all timer for me.
So its primary purpose is tobe funny and I feel like the jokes
(45:41):
have dropped.
But when it's sort of selfcontained, it's really weird because
I'm very interested in thisthrough line.
It's managed to do and hold myinterest of Guillermo becoming a
vampire and still being a partof their crew without being a vampire
and also not being a familiar.
Where does he fit?
What are they gonna, you know,do with him?
(46:01):
And I am interested in thatthrough line story.
And it seems to have resolvedprobably last season, which might
be the problem.
But when it's a self containedepisode and it doesn't have much
to do with that at all, Ithink it.
The jokes land better.
Okay.
And except for the grouprunning from Jerry's the whole vampire
(46:24):
party and when Jerry gotkilled, Jerry the vampire.
This is another case where Idon't think it's funny to anyone
but me.
But like Colin Robinson quotesthe warriors to be annoying.
Oh, no, that's good.
And then it's actually the Warrior.
And then they actually do the Warriors.
And then they do the Warriors.
Yeah, okay.
Also Colin Robinson beinglike, you know, I can't fly, as he's
(46:45):
like running.
And also the gag of Laszloseeing a baseball bat and saying
bad.
He's like, I said I turnedinto a bat.
Because I said, well, there Idid it again.
Yes, that's a good one.
But I think the reason whythat episode didn't work as well
is because the group aren't ateach other.
(47:07):
They're, you know, they're,they're trying to get away from a
much larger, larger vampire group.
And they're, they're kind ofhaving to rely on one another and
be buddies.
They had to mildly pull together.
I like it when they're kind ofbickering, even if it's not harsh
at all.
It's just, just a slight bitof like Nandor left and created his
own army and we gotta, wegotta go get him and we have to bicker
(47:28):
with him a little.
That's funny.
I do think it is.
I think that this season hasdipped with its jokes because it's
relied on the monster way too much.
I don't mind him being there,but boy, he's taken up some joke
time.
Not screen time, but joke time.
It's not landing for me.
I'm a little annoyed by him.
(47:49):
The penultimate episode wasactually for me, probably the funniest
he'd been.
Cause I agree with you.
Like, it was.
It was.
It was.
He's been fine.
The stuff, like, the.
Him being, like, the head of.
Of the railroad.
That was good.
That was okay.
Yeah, it was pretty good.
And then I did, like, he goes.
Cries in the bathroom, and he's.
You know, Colin and Nandor are bickering.
(48:09):
Not Nandor.
Colin and Lazlo are bickeringover the monster.
Yeah.
They kind of both want to bethe dad.
And then it blatantlyreferenced in the elevator that they
are the dad.
And he tells them to kiss.
Kiss.
Some of that's okay, but Idon't know.
I don't know that I care aboutthe monster having feelings and crying
in the bathroom that much.
I don't care about it in asmuch as it's a funny joke.
(48:31):
I think the show does a prettygood job of having that plotline
of Guillermo, though, becauseI did.
I got kind of pumped seeingNandor stick up for.
I will say, like, for being ashow kind of about nothing.
That's right.
It really.
They really have actuallyalways kind of done a good job of
(48:51):
threading the needle.
That's Guillemo and Nandor's relationship.
Yes.
Where.
Especially with, like, Nandorcoming to this because he's a selfish,
immature immortal coming torealize that Guillermo would mildly
mean something to him.
That's true.
That would be sad if Guillermowasn't in his life and they've actually
done, like, if the finale isabout nothing, fine, Whatever.
(49:15):
But if it's gonna be aboutthis kind of little thing that they've
actually done an okay job ofteasing out without banging me over
the head with it, I'm finewith that, too.
If we just get a niceresolution for.
For Gizmo.
That's such a good gag.
It does seem like that mightbe where it's heading.
We'll find out.
We'll state more about it nextweek, but.
And I'm fine with that becausehonest, like, how do you end a show
(49:37):
like this?
Yeah, you just gotta.
You just gotta end it.
Yes.
At some point.
Choose an arbitrary thing thathappens, and that's the end.
Bye.
Nandor sticks up for Guillermowith the canon capital boss.
That's good.
Guillermo was one of my leastfavorite characters in season one,
and he has grown.
(49:58):
He's really grown on me.
On me so much.
He gets one of his greatestmoments in the penultimate episode
where he reveals to the bossthat the cameras are really part
of his crew, and he snaps hisfingers and points to them all and
they do this nice edit whereit's like power empowering Guillermo
in the moment.
(50:18):
I love that it's just himcollecting evidence about Canon Capital,
about all the illegal stuffthat's been going on.
Yeah.
He's going to report them tothe sec, which Nandor does not understand.
That was funny.
Also good.
But not.
It's not.
Again, it's not that funny.
But like, as Guillermo istrying to explain to Nandor, he's
(50:39):
just inventing Batman.
You know, as they leave.
Yeah.
He's like.
Like Robin.
Oh, no, I don't think weshould be Robin people.
And he gives the classic.
I don't know who that is.
Yeah, it's good.
It's good.
Was the peak probably seasonstwo through four or five for the
humor.
(50:59):
Well, the funniest episodewill of course always be.
I think that was season twowith Jackie Daytona, human bartender.
It was two or three.
Yeah, it was two or three.
Whenever he has to get.
But you know, they actuallylike the bits kind of kept me going.
Yeah.
Like the through fair of like.
Was that season four whereLazlo has to raise a baby?
(51:22):
Colin Robinson.
That was four in that.
Was it?
Yeah.
Was it four?
Actually.
That's good.
That actually works.
That actually really works.
No, it is a bunch of dislike.
There's a bunch of individualepisodes that really, really work.
Yeah.
I do wonder, are they going toreference the Jackie Daytona bit
again?
(51:42):
Because they have to realizethat's the fan favorite.
Yeah.
I will say too, that the waythat they built Guillermo's role
to be funnier.
I thought that actually builtthrough as the seasons went on.
Like the one where he was.
They figured out he has VanHelsing blood and they've got him
locked in the cage.
(52:02):
But it's really him trying tosave their egos while also protecting
them from.
I felt like that was in arising motion and that worked for
me.
Yeah.
I was curious if he could kind of.
Powers might not be the rightterm, but I was curious if he could
use his abilities againsthumans as well.
But then we see it with the balls.
He rips the disc.
(52:23):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, cool.
He can.
He's gonna get the boss there,but he's more in control of himself,
you know, he's our.
Guillaumer's a good guy.
Yeah.
One episode does not make a season.
But we will come back to thisand discuss, you know, the season
as a whole after next week.
Just to see where it.
How it ends, what it does asan ending.
(52:45):
That's probably how we'll viewit next week through that lens of
season as a whole.
Yeah.
I hope the finale makes me laugh.
I'm a little concerned that like.
Yes.
Putting extra expectation on it.
Yeah.
And honestly, like a show likethis really shouldn't have like a
load bearing episode, youknow, that's true.
And so I'm curious if that'll.
(53:07):
It'll be like, yeah, you know,it's the finale.
So we had the, you know, I.
Don'T know, the penultimateseemed to maybe take care of some
of that though, with Nandorsaying, hey, we're actually comrades
rather than.
Yes, you know, you're a partof my army.
You're my right hand man in myarmy for real.
I just have one last thing tosay, which is that America, we've
(53:30):
taken some wrong turns andthere's some people that we've decided
to view as less than human.
America, these are the queericons you need.
As Nandor explained to us,there are boy wives and girl wives.
That's good stuff.
So good.
We'll end with that.
Yeah, it's a good ending.
You can follow Taking it Downas well as our website, the website
(53:52):
that hosts us the Alabama Take.
You follow all of us on socialmedia, reach out, say hello, and
then follow the podcast inyour favorite podcast app where you
listen to things and you'llsee us each Tuesday morning.
For Adam and Donovan, I amBlaine and we'll talk later.
Hey everyone.
It is taking it down the TVand streaming podcast for the Alabama
Take website and production company.
We're going to be talkingabout three things.
The ending of Somebody somewhere.
We'll talk about a few of theepisodes from this season of Silo
on Apple tv.
Plus we'll also talk about thepenultimate episode of what we do
(00:25):
in the Shadows from FX and Hulu.
But you don't have to run offjust yet because we discuss things.
Spoiler Free to begin.
Alabama Take projection.
So abortion.
(00:46):
Surprisingly underrated.
It's exciting to be here thisweek because the Alabama Take was
nominated for best Indiewebsite of the year 2024.
And I just got word thatdoesn't exist because I just made
it up.
Breaking news Self nomination.
(01:07):
I'm still excited to be withAdam and Donovan.
No spoilers in this part.
Instead, we'll say goodbyebriefly here and then more thoroughly
later to the HBO seriesSomebody Somewhere, which ended its
third and final season last Sunday.
Where does season land for you?
And then you can even talkabout where it stands for you as
(01:29):
an entire three season show.
Well, my rating of this seasonis are you made of stone?
And one of the things I didlike about this season and the whole
thing is it really took.
It was kind of a movingforward story, but it was also like
a part of someone's life, partof several someone's life in three
(01:51):
distinct chunks.
So I really didn't feel likeit was like it's a three season show,
but I didn't really feel likeit was like a beginning, middle and
ending show.
I mean obviously the end, thefirst season kind of has to do some
setup.
Yeah, I don't know if thatmakes sense.
It was almost like threechapters in a book as opposed to
like we're starting and goingup and down and this is, this is
(02:13):
not a criticism, by the way.
I thought that was the kind oflike easy naturalism of that really
worked for me.
Yeah, I'll piggyback on thatand say that as it rounded the corner
and we knew that the plane wasabout to land, it really became clear
that the strength of the showis that I think if we went back to
(02:34):
season one and watched episodeone, two, whatever, we would be shocked
at the difference in therelationships that everybody has.
And at no point do you feellike major breakthroughs or bust
ups.
It's just a real life.
These people moved along andwe were there with them.
I suppose that if you wantedmore traditional drama from a show,
(02:57):
you may have complaints aboutseason three, but if this show is
for you.
And I'm with Donovan, meaningif you are not made of stone, then
I think that this was a verysuccessful landing of the plane.
I assume that the writers areworking on the spin off show where
Fred Rococo becomes Ken State,Kent State, Kansas State's defensive
(03:20):
coordinator.
Fantastic.
He got to go in the field.
I think he'd be good at it.
That going on the field bit,we praise the perfect realism and
nods to like the environmentsthat we grew up in.
But how many people do youknow who lived their entire lives
(03:40):
in, say, Tuscaloosa?
And they got to go on like apatch of grass that has been within
five miles of them at almostall points in their life.
And it's like it is the mountaintop.
You know, if it was during orright after a game, it's the mountaintop.
Yeah, he just delivered that line.
So to briefly praise some ofthe actors.
(04:03):
He just delivered that line soperfectly where it's just like, you
see, like, yeah, this is likethe players are like warming up or
whatever.
This is the biggest day ofFree Fred Rococo's life.
Murray Hill's got great energyas an actor.
Hilarious guy.
I've watched his.
Some of his, I guess you callit stand up.
He kind of just puts on aperformance or show.
I watched a few minutes ofthat on YouTube.
(04:23):
It's.
It's entertaining and put.
Put a smile on your face for sure.
Donovan mentioned, said theword naturalism.
What a great way of thinkingabout this show.
And it goes hand in hand withwhat Adam was saying about how if
you watch the first episode,there might be some relationships
you might not recognize.
And let's do that for a second.
(04:44):
Do you guys remember when Samcomes back to town, she.
She gets back on her feet byworking at like an act grade, essay
grading.
And that's how she meets Joel.
Yeah, it's how she meets Joel.
It just cracks me up because Igive the act at our school every.
It's like six times a year.
And I just gave it yesterday.
(05:05):
And it's just so funny to.
And I also teach, so I have tolike score these essays sometimes
just on my own.
But like, that was like a mini thing.
And it was such a.
I say mini thing.
That was a job for her.
And it's truly a job.
You just don't keep forever.
Probably if you're Sam, you don't.
The only type of person whokeeps that forever is like the supervisor
(05:27):
in that first season, youknow, where it's like, there might
be something kind of wrongwith you if you've made this your
career.
It's a very special kind of show.
It really hit for me thisseason especially.
And we'll get into why on the.
Yeah.
On the.
After the spoiler, because Iguess I have to pinpoint a few things
to explain myself.
(05:48):
We'll also get into the AppleTV plus series that's currently airing
its second season every Friday.
I think that's Silo.
This show is based off of atrilogy of books and stories by Hugh
Howie about a future societythat's forced into silos underground
due to circumstances with the earth.
The air's inhospitable to mankind.
(06:10):
Or something like that's happening.
Shoot.
Yeah.
You don't say.
I kid you not.
What does it do to everyone's butt?
That's a really fine questionthat's yet to be explored.
I feel like we're gonna findout pretty soon with all these drones.
Show stars Rebecca Ferguson isa mechanic from the lower part of
the silo and Tim Robbins asthe mayor in charge of the whole
(06:33):
shebang.
I almost said Tim Robinson andboy and boy.
Would that be a different show?
A very different show.
No.
I don't know how to drive.
I don't know what any of thisshit is, and I'm fucking scared.
Adam, is there anything youwant to mention here with no spoilers
about the show second season,or do you want to kind of just wait?
(06:54):
I'll say that this show has ahabit of boring me and making me
feel like we're out to sea andthen suddenly pulling me back and
I have to see the next episode.
Wow, that's so well said.
That's funny you said that.
Because I think that a lot andit frustrates me.
Yeah.
Okay.
And I think this may be aproblem with other Apple shows.
(07:15):
I started thinking about itspecifically with Silo and sort of
kind of going through my.
Previously watched on Apple tvand there's a lot that I only made
it two, three, four episodesinto and then bailed on and I don't
know what it is.
Well, okay.
Yeah, I don't know either.
But what is it about Apple TVshow that it's not nearly as good
(07:36):
in its second season?
Hmm.
Ted Lasso kind of dipped.
Not horribly, but it did.
You're really scared, Lane.
Because I'm really excitedabout severance.
Well, that's what I'm sayingnow we got severance.
I was building to that.
Yeah.
Gotta be worried.
It's interesting.
But, you know, Silo inparticular, not the other ones.
As much?
Well, shrinking.
(07:57):
But that's a odd comparison.
Here's what I'm getting at.
It's a.
It's a rush bit of TV for our age.
In a way, it's almost like howTV shows used to be.
You get a new season almost ayear to the day that the first season
started.
Silo did that.
And that might be what'scausing a few problems with this
show.
In particular, it has to be anexpensive series to produce.
(08:18):
It looks really realistic.
When we started discussionabout Silo earlier five weeks ago,
I compared it to how a coupleof Disney plus series.
It's hard to sometimes settlein and believe what's happening because
the sets look so cheaply madeat times.
But that's not the case with Silo.
(08:38):
I believe I'm in a Silo or,you know, underground, whatever.
It's well done, it's wellproduced, the sets look great.
But what's the dip?
Is it the.
Maybe the writing has to berushed and that could affect the
acting, which is something Ithink we'll get into a little bit
with this.
Some particular scenes on inthe spoiler section, but anything
(09:01):
else, I'll bite my tongue.
Until then, I suppose.
Let's do that.
Also.
Later, Donovan and I will getinto what we do in the Shadows, as
it too is winding down itstelevision run with its sixth and
final season.
I only have a couple questionsthere, really, to set up the finale,
because we are.
We just watched thepenultimate episode, so there's probably
nothing new I will say hereabout the FX Hulu comedy what We
(09:23):
do in the Shadows, other than.
I have been still beenrecommending this.
I just recommended ityesterday to someone who had no idea.
I've been trying to get mywife to watch it as well.
So that's two people recently.
And I've been like, you know,it's funny.
Don't be bothered by thepremise that it's vampires.
No, it's not.
It's not that kind of show.
It's not that kind of show.
Although if you got anyknowledge of the tropes of vampires,
(09:46):
that'll.
That'll tickle you.
It'll make you laugh.
I've been pleased with it.
I think even in this lastseason, it's been keeping up, like,
the quality of what it was,you know, not that, like, it's never
been.
Like, every episode's a knockout of the park.
But it's usually beenconsistently good.
And I think this one is stillconsistently good.
We've had some.
I'll get into some of my thoughts.
(10:08):
Once again, shame on me.
I should be able to talk aboutsomething without spoiling it, but
there's some specifics I wantto bring up.
Well, you get.
You get so deep intosomething, you've kind of said everything.
Non spoiler.
You can stay for after a minute.
Right.
That's fair.
I feel like FX has used all ofthe advertising budget for what we
(10:29):
do in the shadows that theyshould have used over these seasons,
like in the last three weeks.
I see commercials for that everywhere.
I mean, you should watch it.
Don't be slighted by thevampire stuff.
It's.
It's almost the.
In the vein.
Not almost.
It is in the vein of theOffice, this fake documentary.
But they're just filming thesethree vampires who are also roommates,
(10:52):
and they have a human helper who.
He's the guy who gives theside eye to the camera.
Like these fucking idiots.
Playing a straight man.
Yeah, he's a straight man andhe is.
Which it's funny because he'sgay and.
Yeah.
Anyway, that's another little joke.
But it's so funny.
It is good.
It is good.
They get good guest stars too, weirdly.
Oh, they do.
Good point.
Yeah.
Okay, this podcast, taking itdown in our home site, the Alabama
(11:18):
Taker.
Thrilled to use the script ifyou have a podcaster.
If you're thinking aboutstarting one, but you're worried
about the time commitment,you're worried about editing.
Worry not.
Give Descript a try with thelink in the show notes.
Not only does Descript giveyou a trustworthy platform to record
your episodes, but it makesediting a breeze.
It takes each speaker's audioand video and transforms that into
(11:40):
a Word document, which you can edit.
It also provides the WAV files.
You can make yourself happywith a lot less time spent, but no
dip in quality with the script.
Use the link in the show notesand you'll be helping yourself as
well as supporting taking it down.
All right, we're going to talkabout the last two episodes of Somebody
Somewhere of season three,likely its final season.
(12:04):
There has been questions popup online.
Is it truly the last season?
Will it get resurrectedsomewhere else?
It just seems to be its last.
Let's just treat it as such.
I'm of the school of thoughtthat it's okay for things to end.
So am I.
Especially when it seems likeit's on the creator's timelines,
(12:26):
you know, where it fits.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
And I've gotta be honest here,that I'm not 100% sure exactly how
it came to be.
Did they know it was endingvery much along the way of doing
the third season?
Like, they already hadeverything written and then it just
sort of worked out.
That will be fine for a seasonand series finale both.
(12:49):
But HBO decided that thatwould be its last season.
I don't think it was thecreators 100%.
It seems like it's working forhim, though.
Or.
Sorry.
They're working with it, Iguess, is what I really mean.
That's very true.
And.
But because they do somethingvery wise, their last episode of
any season could serve as anend to the story they're telling.
(13:13):
And that's probably how mosttelevision series should be.
Yeah.
It's like, you know, thiscould be the end of this part.
You can imagine what happens next.
And I think that works here, too.
I think so, too.
I think that's almost kind of.
You said it, Blaine.
That's one of the strengths ofwhat they've done is it just puts
you in that space where it'slike, I don't have to answer all
(13:35):
the questions, but I canimagine maybe what would happen.
I can hope or not hope, whatever.
We sat on the penultimateepisode on purpose because we knew
we'd devote quite a bit oftime to the show.
I think we all loved it.
Would you.
Am I using too strong of aword here for the two of you?
It was really good.
(13:55):
I will struggle to rememberindividual episodes.
Sure.
Maybe not individual moments.
Cause there were some truly.
We work blue.
We're talking poop humor here.
There's a lot of good qualityshitter humor going on in this program
and some poignant moments as well.
It's almost like a feelingthat you take from the show instead
(14:16):
of, like, individual beatswhere, you know, when you're talking
about.
I think it's in your words,it's okay for shows to end.
And I agree.
Obviously, there's someoutliers where, you know, if they
had cut Game of Thrones offearly, there would have been pitchforks
in the street, that sort of thing.
But that's such a.
This is the opposite of that.
(14:37):
You know, this is plot driven,but in the way that, like, literary
fiction is plot driven.
That's a long answer to say,did I love this show?
I mean, yeah.
I mean, I think it's one ofthe better shows.
It almost takes time to, like,settle the dust on, say, the last
five years of television andsay, this was one of the better shows
(14:57):
in that.
That time period.
I can't think of a show thatwill replicate the feeling this show
gives me when I watch it.
And shortly after I've watchedit, I can't think of one that does
it.
Some movies do, but not.
Not a show.
It's really great in beingvibes based.
Well, not just like running onvibes, if that makes any kind of
(15:18):
sense.
Like there's actual substance there.
Yeah.
Well said.
Yeah.
If we may, I'd like to pullback a full episode.
Start with the penultimate ofthe season and series.
It was titled.
As much as I like not feeling so.
You might remember that line too.
The plot.
I think we all feel that way.
Yeah.
Love it.
The plot's more or less aboutJoel and his attempt to figure out
(15:40):
his own mini breakdown after.
Thank.
That perfect Thanksgivingepisode, his reconnection with Sam
and Sam's walk with theIcelandic fellow who has such a deep
voice.
We get more.
More lines from him than everin that one.
Is this the first time we'veever seen anybody listen to a podcast
on a show?
A specific one at that.
Like we get the top.
(16:00):
It's one I know of.
My wife listens to it some.
Joel backs into the car and like.
Because he was listening to a podcast.
That was funny.
Yeah.
It propels him to come to Sam.
Like I had this breakdown.
I've.
And it also has built up to methat I've had this wreck.
Yeah.
This fender bender.
Can I insert here the physicalhumor that is Joel crying.
(16:24):
Yes.
Like obviously that's thedouble edged sword of the show.
Right.
Is like this.
It can be funny and kind ofnot tragic, but important, emotionally
important at the same time.
Like it's so relatable.
Who hasn't?
You know, you got your shot of adrenaline.
But his whole freaking outafter the accident and like being
mad at the little old lady andthen she calls him like he does.
(16:46):
He does such a good.
Like you're laughing the whole time.
He does such a good job.
This is the episode that givesFred Rocco 3 minutes of screen time
and he kills it where he sayssingle line.
Sometimes I want to be a bad,bad boy because he's eating the hamburger.
Instead of the salad.
(17:07):
He lied that he was getting.
Yeah, he was lying about it.
I love it.
So good.
How many times have I done that?
A ton.
The music in this series wowsme on how perfect it slots into what's
going on.
It's designed by Amanda Jonesand there's a one I can name in this
episode between the scenewhere Trisha advises Sam to.
(17:27):
To change before seeing theIcelandic guy and she's yeah.
She's trying to figure out, isthis going to work?
Does it fit well?
And there's a, like a fivenote, maybe four note piano figure,
and that's it.
And it melted my heart.
It warmed me simultaneously somehow.
Anyway.
It just set me up to.
(17:48):
To really feel and see Sam'snervousness that created her indecision
there on what to wear.
I 100% have made a list ofconversations, especially for the
phone back in the day.
Oh, yeah, when you had to talkon the phone, I would have a list,
a little post it note and belike, oh, yeah, I want to.
(18:08):
And sometimes it was like, Idon't want to forget to say.
But sometimes it was like,okay, it's a girl I like.
I'm going to call her.
What.
What can I talk about?
Talking points.
Talking points.
Yes, of course.
I'm so glad that was portrayedon screen.
Her list, though, brings meto, like, this balance, which is
a good word for this show, forwhat it.
(18:30):
What it gives us.
It helps me forget that she'sbeen through turmoil, grief, and
that juxtaposes her hotspotand so many other facets of her life.
She's the woman who's gonnarub her boobs in your face, but then
she is also nervous and grief stricken.
(18:51):
Yeah, I agree.
It is a great job of someonewho uses, like, humor and theatricality
and has a big, outsizedpersonality, but is also, you know,
like.
Like many of us is like, hasparts that they're deeply, deeply
insecure about.
And I think, like, you know,in some ways, the whole show's kind
(19:11):
of been about, like, Sam being brave.
Brave enough to.
To let those more vulnerableparts be touched or touch others.
I think they did a really nice thing.
And I know that we'll probablytalk about this relationship specifically
as we continue on, but thesisters learning from each other
in this way, that's one of therelationships that I thought of at
(19:34):
the top of the show that youcould almost hardly believe how these
two relate to each other inthe final episode compared to episode
one, two, three.
Donovan, you saying kind ofbalancing the grief and with the
bluster, so to speak.
Whereas her sister is sopragmatic and I'm sure thought that,
(19:54):
oh, Sam, that's the one whodoes all the artsy stuff, you know,
whatever.
And by the end, they kind ofgrow towards each other in this really
nice way that those parts ofthe personality start to balance
out a bit or at least areappreciated by the other.
I loved for the two just howthey were able to like, kind of something
like we said with Joel in theThanksgiving episode, just like articulate
(20:16):
the things that theyappreciated about each other.
Yeah.
And that's.
That's.
I don't.
I mean, it's.
It's cool, it's powerful.
And that happens a couple oftimes with the characters, which
makes it a nice period on theend of this series is sentence.
Yes.
The Icelandic guy says, Idon't like how you always put yourself
down.
I liked how that was given afull beat.
(20:38):
I guess you could say it was.
Yeah, it was really good.
That scene also gave me twoother things that I found very, very
nice and well done.
Used the phrase emotional infrastructure.
What a phrase.
After she got.
She gets kissed.
But then it sets them up to beas far apart in the frame as possible.
(20:59):
It's beautiful shot becauseyou get this Winterfield behind them
and, you know, she's debatingon leaving.
And I just love it when youget these compositions that also
either help tell the story oralso tell the story.
So if you sent that in animage, you could probably guess some
of the emotions that arehappening there.
(21:20):
He's been an interesting guythis last season.
Not talking a lot.
It's what's not said.
It's.
You know, you're picking upthese little details and it's.
As we're talking now, I'm kindof thinking about, you know, Sam
arrives in town.
Do you guys remember where shecame from?
Because she's coming back from somewhere.
New York, right?
Was it New York?
(21:41):
Has she come back from NewYork to kind of tend to the family
business?
I want to say that's right.
She comes back a bit throughblown by the waves of circumstance,
you know, whereas he displaysthis emotional intelligence to say
something like, I don't likehow you put yourself down.
It's also there for completelysolid reasons.
(22:03):
Like, he's made a decision tobe where he is.
He's gone there to study agriculture.
Now he's doing this thing.
And there's, you know, Fredhas his own through line of like,
soil study and all of thisstuff that's, you know, for the nerds.
I'm raising my hand hereamongst fun to follow.
But she runs across this guywho just seems more grounded than
(22:24):
her in so many ways.
And they do such a good job ofthat with saying so little.
Like, for such a.
He is like a literal largepresence on screen, but he also just
seems completely comfortablein his skin.
It's funny you say he'sgrounded and he works with the ground,
as does Fred Rococo.
Who's also pretty grounded too.
Yeah.
And there's just a level ofintention where the other characters
(22:47):
are.
Maybe they stuck aroundsomewhere where they already, you
know, they grew up there.
They've just learned to makeit work.
And he has made a decision tobe there.
I feel like that has to mean something.
Yeah, it does.
Yeah.
I would completely agree withwhat Adam said.
I don't know if I canarticulate it well, but it worked
for me.
(23:07):
Probably sympathizing morewith the one who tends to bluster.
I liked that Iceland has thelike for Sam.
It's probably kind of reallyscary to get to reach out and try
and get to know him because hedoesn't seem like he needs anything.
No, he, you know, you're.
You're kind of vulnerable whenyou're dealing with someone who doesn't
(23:28):
really need anything.
Well.
And everybody in her life iskind of like a sparring partner conversationally.
Yeah.
You know, and like they'reobviously everybody's very intelligent.
They're talking to each otherboth like wit and empathy.
And he, he just doesn't seemas interested in the constant one
liners, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Yes.
Which made him in the firstepisode seem like he might be an
(23:51):
antagonist type figure.
I remember first episode ofseason three, I thought, oh, this
guy may not be very nice, butno, he's just kind of quiet and self
assured.
Yep.
I love the Debussy call backat the end of the episode.
It's my favorite classicalpiece of music.
One of the few I can recognizeand say, oh, that's debut.
(24:12):
Say, probably a lot of people can.
Yeah.
I started this third and finalseason about a month and a half after
my dad's death.
And I saw those frankconversations Trisha and Sam have
about Holly as the most real ground.
You know, that fear that youhave that you might forget somebody
is so visceral.
(24:35):
Yeah.
I still have my dad's voice inmy ear.
When I, when I used to callhim, the first thing he would say
was he would answer the phone.
Hey, son.
That was his line.
And I still hear it and I hangon to it.
And when they get into thelast episode when they start talking
about Trisha mainly, who'svery concerned she.
That her grief isn't up to par.
(24:57):
And it reminded me so muchthat this show is as much about grief
as it is friendship.
And I love that.
Yeah.
I liked that scene with thesisters very much.
I've never had anyone aspersonal as like a parent die, but
even just folks in my life whohave died.
Like, I felt.
(25:17):
I guess it must be universal, right?
Like, the fear of, like, I'mforgetting you, I'm going to forget
you.
And, like, you get to thepoint where you're like, oop, I had
a good moment and didn't thinkabout how I was sad.
That's.
That's on me.
That was a bad thing I did.
To me, that conversation feltlike the.
If you wanted the typical HBOswing for the fences kind of end
(25:41):
of a season, end of a show moment.
That was the heart, the meatof the whole thing to me, because
they.
I mean, do they talk abouttheir sister in the third season
otherwise?
Hardly.
Hardly.
Not much.
She's alluded, I mean, sort ofalluded to where, you know, Trish
starts to.
And I think this actually,like, perfectly sets up this scene
(26:04):
where Trish is like, no familyshould have to go through that.
Talking about cancer fundraisers.
She's like, well, you know,almost like she's forgotten that.
Of course, Sam knows.
We both know.
And I thought that was reallya good setup for this.
It does set up her positionreally well, too, because there's
a level of Remove from her ownemotions when she says that, because
she's clearly not identifyingit as the same thing that others
(26:28):
go through.
I mean, I know that's obvious,but it's such a nice prelude to what
I, Again, I think is kind ofthe most important conversation in
season three.
Yeah, we're shifting into thefinal episode, and there's such,
to me.
Profundity, I suppose.
Is that the word?
When Sam says the sadnessisn't her.
Yeah, that was meant to get one.
(26:51):
That was moving and what Iperfectly well said, and I needed
to hear that.
And I bet there's a lot ofpeople out there that needed to hear
that.
It's a show about grief andloss and what to do about that, how
to move on from that.
But it's also tied into howfriends are there for you, whether
in the form of your sister or your.
(27:12):
Or just friends that aren't family.
Sam walking Joel to Church inthat final episode reminded me of,
you know, she's not into thatin the least, but she still takes
time to walk him there.
We've kind of alluded to it.
Maybe one day I'll reallyfigure out how to talk about it.
But I've loved the portrayalof Church in this show through Joel
(27:35):
and Brad.
That was one of the moments inthis last episode where it just felt
really profoundly not thateverything's gonna be okay, but that
you can move forward.
Like, you can move forward.
You can say the things thatare important to people.
Right.
Like when Sam leads him inthere and he sees the pastor, it
kind of reminded me of theparable of the prodigal son.
(27:56):
Right.
Because in the parable of theprodigal son, he runs away.
He spends all his money.
Well, he doesn't run away.
He leaves and spends all his money.
And he's there and he's like,oh, I'm so miserable.
Why am I eating dirt?
I could go and work for my dadagain and be a servant and have better
than this.
We're told that as the soncomes to the house, the father sees
(28:17):
him from a long way.
So the son's rehearsing whathe's going to say to apologize, basically,
and the father sees him from along way off and runs out to him.
And I just thought that wasexactly that with Joel, because it
was like he's in his head, andshe's like, I just missed you so
much.
I missed you.
I missed you and the personyou are.
I don't need your apology.
(28:38):
That's not what this is about.
And I thought that was justlike, it's not a big scene, but it
just really, really solidlyworked for me.
Yeah, it put a.
An institutional face on kindof the feeling of the whole thing
of, like, finding your peopleand that there are.
Sometimes you just know.
You know, and thatrelationship the two of them had
(28:59):
and he had to.
That church just encapsulatedthat, like, of course you're supposed
to come back where you been.
Right.
This is where you belong.
Yeah.
Just that kind of return.
Not that it's like, oh, I cameback and everything's reset, but
in the.
Like, I went through what Iwent through, and I'm.
And I'm back here and I'm.
That I'm the person who wentthrough what I went through.
(29:21):
Even.
Not even big.
Big field, just life.
And, you know, you lived yourlife, too, and now we're, you know,
we're stronger.
The actor who plays Brad had some.
Really great sport, good sport award.
Yes.
He had some really nice actingmoments that were very small but
wonderful.
First of all, of course, Bradgrades at home.
(29:43):
Yes.
You know, that's what a nice.
As someone who is married tosomeone who grades at home, because
where else do you grade?
I was like, this is veryfamiliar to me, this scenario where
one person has to grade andthe other person doesn't.
Blaine, do you grade at all?
There is one time a year whereI Have to.
And the rest of the time, Ihave made it a vow not to do that.
(30:06):
Very interesting.
Yep.
It's tough.
But the.
But Brad's grading, and helooks up and Joel tells him about
going to see Pastor Deb.
And he has.
The actor who plays Brad hasthis moment in his eyes.
I think his eyebrows lift uplike almost a blend of, oh, that's
great.
And, oh, what's coming next.
(30:26):
Yeah.
This whole series has been abunch of actors who should have been
in more stuff already.
Oh, yeah.
And maybe they will be.
It's great.
I hope so.
Everyone has just been so good.
But I applaud the show loudlyfor never resorting to flashbacks
of Holly.
And yet it still hit theemotional beats, I think, with that
(30:50):
part incredibly well.
Yeah.
I thought that this episode,this final episode really works well.
I will say.
I will say that the.
I will say the penultimateepisode, for me, might have been
the best of the series.
I'll throw out some notes herethat I think makes it a wonderful
ending.
The Jeep upgrade felt like anod to everything's going to be all
(31:15):
right and no longer dealingwith this Ford Ranger.
Not that it was a plot point,but you.
You can almost see it coming.
Well, it's also like anacceptance of my sister can help
me.
I will let her.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
I don't have to.
Not that she was paying apenance by driving the little old
truck, but she's got a littlemore luxury in her life now.
(31:39):
Yeah.
And just the.
Like, I can move forward.
Right?
Like, I can.
That's okay.
I'm not gonna explode.
She phone calls her dad.
It was almost anacknowledgement that Sam's going
to.
It's another acknowledgementthat she's gonna make it, that she
is doing well, and it allowsyou to say goodbye to these characters.
(32:02):
And then the final one was.
I thought it was a reallyintelligent move to have Sam volunteer
to sing, rather than all theseother times where she was asked to
and she put it off or him andhaunt about not wanting to sing or
someone made her.
There's a nice progressionthere to say, I think I'll sing for
y'all.
Felt like a gift she wasgiving, too.
(32:24):
Some of the vibe around thelast one, I was worried that she
had gotten bad news from a doctor.
I know that this is a weirdpull, but, like, you know how, like,
you're dealing with.
Fred is dealing with health things.
And then her doctor tells her,you got to get in shape or waiting
for more of your blood work tocome back.
Blah, blah, blah.
Because there was an element of.
She got some closure with her sister.
(32:46):
She got to tell Joel how muchhe means to her, all these things.
And then she sings the song.
It's like, is she.
Is she about to go to thehospital to start chemo or something?
Oh, wow.
I don't know why I felt.
Because this would not be thatshow at all, you know?
No, I don't think so.
I don't know why that was inmy head.
I think we kind of alluded tothis, right?
(33:08):
We did, yeah.
We worried that the brug'sgonna get yanked out from under.
You're afraid you're CharlieBrown with the football because this
has happened to you before.
Yeah, yeah.
This show has really just been.
This is what it's like to,like, live a life in the background
of all this stuff that's going on.
Like, yeah, you still have arthritis.
Yeah, you need to lose weight.
Ye.
There's unresolved stuff with,you know, Fred's wife and things
(33:30):
like that.
That's what life is, right?
Like, it never wraps up.
There's always something.
Yeah, that's true.
Are we going to Varsity Donuts?
Are we driving to Kansas?
Manhattan, Kansas.
The Little Apple.
Adam, have you ever been toManhattan, Kansas?
You're.
You're the traveling musician.
Like, I have this.
I feel bad that I'm going tosay probably, but I don't.
(33:52):
There are places that we just,like, stopped, you know, for a night
or something.
I've never played there.
I know that.
Oh, okay.
Well, then, okay, that's fine.
If you've never played thereand you.
And you don't remember, Ithink that's fair.
You know, I'd like some donuts.
But even more than that, I'dlike to be on the field while the
team warms up.
(34:13):
Yeah.
I thought you were going tosay, I'd like to be a part of catch
club.
I would break my neck.
I'm about Joel's level ofathletic ability.
Joel is a very good sportabout it.
You and I would fit right inwith their catch club.
Catch club is so funny with,like, Frederic Coco just absolutely
taking the dad role.
We're like, all right, good hustle.
Let's go.
So good.
(34:33):
Let's get into just a littleof Silo this second season.
Adam messaged me last nightthat he had problems with Silo the
second season.
And, I mean, I'm interested.
It's not even Festivus yet.
We're getting close.
But I'm interested to hearwhat you.
What problems you have yousaid it was bad acting was one of
them?
And first of all, I think Iwant to ask really broadly, what
(34:57):
is bad acting for you?
Like, can you differentiatebetween bad directing and bad acting?
Because sometimes I am curiouson if I'm getting it right.
That's a tough.
I mean, the short answer isno, I'm not qualified enough to tell
the difference.
But the longer answer and whatI would throw in is bad writing or
hurried writing or any ofthese things.
(35:18):
How many episodes are out now?
Five.
Five total.
Mm.
I'm complaining about episode two.
So we're right back to what Isaid about the top.
At the top of the show aboutwe do the whole song and dance of
we have the plate of food,it's dinner time, what are we gonna
watch?
This show rarely scraps to thetop of the heap, especially since
(35:39):
we've had somebody somewhereand say nothing and all this going
on.
So we finally watched episodetwo and looked at each other and
we're just like, what this is.
It has never been this.
It's that old cliche of, like,almost every character you thought
the actor was saying, I amgoing to act in this scene.
You know, just kind ofoverdone and didn't have the same
(36:03):
grounding that it's had in the past.
And especially after episodeone being kind of a one woman show.
Right.
Of her going through.
And I thought she did a reallygood job of that.
And I'm intrigued by all ofthe world building and the mechanics
and the big story.
Yeah.
And then it just kind of.
(36:25):
I don't know.
I didn't buy the beats inepisode two.
Episode two was the one thatdid not have Juliet in it.
She's not in it at all.
That might have been theproblem, you think?
I don't know, because thequestion's there.
So now both plot lines in andout of the silo have interesting
(36:47):
realities to deal with.
You know, like, I think it'sfascinating how power works because
the implication from the showis that for society to function,
someone has to be in chargeand make decisions for the collective
good.
And at some point, you know,spoiler, the collective good decision
(37:09):
was, we're gonna lock thatdoor and create whatever myth we
need to keep you from goingoutside, because it really will kill
you.
But they're not leveling withthe people about all of the details.
You end up with thisinquisition into how much nuance
the public can deal with andhow much information the public can
(37:30):
deal with, which I think is2024 going into 25 is an excellent
time to ask these questions.
Yeah, it really is.
And I think that there's ahuge opportunity there.
And then of course, you'redealing with.
With her, it's pure discovery,you know, that she is getting concrete
answers.
So there's like both a story,scientific world building set of
(37:53):
questions and a sociological set.
Yes.
And socioeconomical becausethere are the levels which are blatantly
there to represent class.
The mechanical are the lowerclass and they have to do the shit
work.
But at the same time they'rekeeping the silo running.
(38:14):
Right.
And you wonder too, like, didthey build the silo this way or does.
I mean, obviously they didbuild it.
You put the engine room in the bottom.
But like over time you'regiving more powerful people better
housing, better whatever.
Like, was it more egalitarianto begin with?
Are the things that I wonder.
(38:36):
So do you remember with thatsecond episode exactly who or was
it everyone?
You felt like this is kind ofbad acting.
This is bad writing.
Yeah, I was just curious.
I'm sorry, what?
Throughout.
Yeah, yeah.
Even Tim Robbins, because Ifeel like he does a pretty good job
in anything.
It pained me to say that Ithink there was bad acting in this
(38:56):
because I like Tim Robbins so much.
I find him interesting onscreen, even as a.
He's very, in this role,almost too straightforward of a villain.
Like, where's the nuance withthis guy?
Saying that might be some of it.
It could be.
But I would give him more of abenefit of the doubt on the character,
(39:18):
you know, that he's playingwithin certain guidelines.
Whereas like Common, I thinkis just.
Okay, you want to talk about him?
Because he, since day one,since episode one of this series,
he has not been good.
And I've just never found himto be that good of an actor.
I find it interesting thathe's chosen to be almost exclusively
(39:42):
an actor because he may needmore acting classes.
So he's not great.
Well, he's asked to do a lotin this show.
Yeah, he is.
And he.
And he just can't hold hisground with the rest of these.
He's a very one note, maybetwo note kind of actor anyway.
Yeah, I don't know, maybe.
Maybe I should shift someblame to the writing.
(40:02):
I felt like the stuff in the.
The little almost Spartacuskind of scene in the engine room
or in the mechanical level waskind of like.
I don't want to complain toomuch, only having seen the two episodes
and it's hilarious that I amvoicing an opinion at all here in
public about two episodes of aseason when there are five out.
(40:23):
So obviously, I'm not anactual informed viewer.
No, it's fair.
I think, you know, we'relimited on time.
We can only watch what we watch.
And I don't think you're wrong.
And I'm seeing some of this inepisode 5.
Though I will say I think itgets a little better.
My issues are what you saidmuch more succinctly at the beginning
(40:46):
of our episode today.
Every episode feels like threeor four episodes at once in a bad
way.
Like, there are many threadsthat they've decided to toss out
there, and for that to beconfined to a silo, it's a little
overwhelming.
And every episode seems to beabout 10 minutes too long.
(41:09):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Its pace is a little dilatoryat times.
It's just.
Now, I get that Juliet isgoing to take time to do what she's
got to do, but at the sametime, you're thinking you're not
telling me much about her orthe story where she is in the time
you're given.
(41:29):
But I find the story veryinteresting, mainly because of, you
know, what.
What are they trying to hide?
What are they trying to.
Why are they trying tomaintain control in.
In the Orwellian sense thatthey're doing?
What's wrong with just beingopen and honest?
Because that seems.
That would definitely controlme, you know, hey, Blaine, don't
(41:49):
go outside, because the airwill kill you.
Okay, then you're in charge.
Tell me what to do next.
But.
But there's something elsegoing on we're not getting.
And we know who you voted for.
That's funny because.
No, that's funny.
You got me there.
(42:09):
I.
I can still breathe outside,thank you.
You can now.
No, you know, it's a prettyOrwellian story, and how I'm interested.
It's not a vital piece oftelevision for me, but we all live
in.
Silos of our own making.
They have siloed people off inthis show, that's for sure.
(42:32):
Yeah.
Let me tell you about my mind silo.
Anyway, let's talk aboutdisclosure and if humanity is going
to be able to handle it.
You got simple question.
This is similar to what we doat the top, where you say, should
we watch this show, Blaine?
Should I keep watching?
Yeah, I think so.
I think I'm going to.
(42:52):
Yeah, but you're gonna get the.
I mean, this is not a spoilerfor you.
Everybody who's watched upthrough the five episodes won't be
spoiled either.
You're Gonna get the Steve Son character.
He's just dangling out therelike a damn carrot.
Well, they haven't shown himto you.
You get the.
Yeah, you get the hint of himat the end of episode one.
(43:13):
You don't return to Juliet inepisode two.
You're gonna get a lot of him.
And I think that he's got astory to tell.
He always does, doesn't he?
Yeah, well, he's playing avery Steve Zahn kind of character,
but at the same time, it's.
That's a little different.
I think you'll see.
You'll see.
Especially in episode five,the one I watched last night.
(43:34):
I was thinking about hischaracter and what he's gone through
and why he's saying what he's saying.
I don't know.
There's some interest there.
See, that's another.
They open the door of thischaracter who has chose not to go
out right.
With the rest of his silostayed behind.
And then it's like we talkedabout it after episode one.
(43:57):
It's a question of humanendurance in some way.
Like the will to live when.
Like, why.
Why are you living other thana natural desire to not die?
Yeah, I think about that a lotwith this show.
I mean, that's kind of thebasic motivation, which seems like
(44:18):
a, well, duh kind ofstatement, but especially somebody's
isolated underground forpotentially years.
So I, yeah, I want to hang outwith Steve Zahn and instead I had
to hang out with Common.
Good point.
What a terrible party thatwould be.
You know that he's holdingcourt on the other side of the room,
but you're stuck over here with.
(44:40):
He's like the column I justfinished Derry Girls.
He's the Common is the columnof the situation.
Right.
Donovan.
I know.
We'll discuss what we do inthe shadows next week because by
then it will have aired itsfinal episode of the series.
It'll be all.
All over.
Turn out the lights.
The party's over.
(45:01):
So this may be more of acompare and contrast bit to set up
next week's final episode.
Yeah, it's another show we'resaying goodbye to.
But has this season dipped in quality?
I don't think so, really.
Honestly, every season kind ofhad some episodes that I was like,
I don't care as much.
The highs have been high for me.
Okay, well, I did like theMadness of March.
I like the one.
(45:21):
That was a good one.
That was.
That was top notch.
The.
The one where they're filmingthe detective show.
That was pretty good.
And Nandor Convinced they'reunder attack.
Pretty good.
Okay, that gets me into whatI'm not.
Naja with the banana phone.
Oh, God.
That was an all timer for me.
So its primary purpose is tobe funny and I feel like the jokes
(45:41):
have dropped.
But when it's sort of selfcontained, it's really weird because
I'm very interested in thisthrough line.
It's managed to do and hold myinterest of Guillermo becoming a
vampire and still being a partof their crew without being a vampire
and also not being a familiar.
Where does he fit?
What are they gonna, you know,do with him?
(46:01):
And I am interested in thatthrough line story.
And it seems to have resolvedprobably last season, which might
be the problem.
But when it's a self containedepisode and it doesn't have much
to do with that at all, Ithink it.
The jokes land better.
Okay.
And except for the grouprunning from Jerry's the whole vampire
(46:24):
party and when Jerry gotkilled, Jerry the vampire.
This is another case where Idon't think it's funny to anyone
but me.
But like Colin Robinson quotesthe warriors to be annoying.
Oh, no, that's good.
And then it's actually the Warrior.
And then they actually do the Warriors.
And then they do the Warriors.
Yeah, okay.
Also Colin Robinson beinglike, you know, I can't fly, as he's
(46:45):
like running.
And also the gag of Laszloseeing a baseball bat and saying
bad.
He's like, I said I turnedinto a bat.
Because I said, well, there Idid it again.
Yes, that's a good one.
But I think the reason whythat episode didn't work as well
is because the group aren't ateach other.
(47:07):
They're, you know, they're,they're trying to get away from a
much larger, larger vampire group.
And they're, they're kind ofhaving to rely on one another and
be buddies.
They had to mildly pull together.
I like it when they're kind ofbickering, even if it's not harsh
at all.
It's just, just a slight bitof like Nandor left and created his
own army and we gotta, wegotta go get him and we have to bicker
(47:28):
with him a little.
That's funny.
I do think it is.
I think that this season hasdipped with its jokes because it's
relied on the monster way too much.
I don't mind him being there,but boy, he's taken up some joke
time.
Not screen time, but joke time.
It's not landing for me.
I'm a little annoyed by him.
(47:49):
The penultimate episode wasactually for me, probably the funniest
he'd been.
Cause I agree with you.
Like, it was.
It was.
It was.
He's been fine.
The stuff, like, the.
Him being, like, the head of.
Of the railroad.
That was good.
That was okay.
Yeah, it was pretty good.
And then I did, like, he goes.
Cries in the bathroom, and he's.
You know, Colin and Nandor are bickering.
(48:09):
Not Nandor.
Colin and Lazlo are bickeringover the monster.
Yeah.
They kind of both want to bethe dad.
And then it blatantlyreferenced in the elevator that they
are the dad.
And he tells them to kiss.
Kiss.
Some of that's okay, but Idon't know.
I don't know that I care aboutthe monster having feelings and crying
in the bathroom that much.
I don't care about it in asmuch as it's a funny joke.
(48:31):
I think the show does a prettygood job of having that plotline
of Guillermo, though, becauseI did.
I got kind of pumped seeingNandor stick up for.
I will say, like, for being ashow kind of about nothing.
That's right.
It really.
They really have actuallyalways kind of done a good job of
(48:51):
threading the needle.
That's Guillemo and Nandor's relationship.
Yes.
Where.
Especially with, like, Nandorcoming to this because he's a selfish,
immature immortal coming torealize that Guillermo would mildly
mean something to him.
That's true.
That would be sad if Guillermowasn't in his life and they've actually
done, like, if the finale isabout nothing, fine, Whatever.
(49:15):
But if it's gonna be aboutthis kind of little thing that they've
actually done an okay job ofteasing out without banging me over
the head with it, I'm finewith that, too.
If we just get a niceresolution for.
For Gizmo.
That's such a good gag.
It does seem like that mightbe where it's heading.
We'll find out.
We'll state more about it nextweek, but.
And I'm fine with that becausehonest, like, how do you end a show
(49:37):
like this?
Yeah, you just gotta.
You just gotta end it.
Yes.
At some point.
Choose an arbitrary thing thathappens, and that's the end.
Bye.
Nandor sticks up for Guillermowith the canon capital boss.
That's good.
Guillermo was one of my leastfavorite characters in season one,
and he has grown.
(49:58):
He's really grown on me.
On me so much.
He gets one of his greatestmoments in the penultimate episode
where he reveals to the bossthat the cameras are really part
of his crew, and he snaps hisfingers and points to them all and
they do this nice edit whereit's like power empowering Guillermo
in the moment.
(50:18):
I love that it's just himcollecting evidence about Canon Capital,
about all the illegal stuffthat's been going on.
Yeah.
He's going to report them tothe sec, which Nandor does not understand.
That was funny.
Also good.
But not.
It's not.
Again, it's not that funny.
But like, as Guillermo istrying to explain to Nandor, he's
(50:39):
just inventing Batman.
You know, as they leave.
Yeah.
He's like.
Like Robin.
Oh, no, I don't think weshould be Robin people.
And he gives the classic.
I don't know who that is.
Yeah, it's good.
It's good.
Was the peak probably seasonstwo through four or five for the
humor.
(50:59):
Well, the funniest episodewill of course always be.
I think that was season twowith Jackie Daytona, human bartender.
It was two or three.
Yeah, it was two or three.
Whenever he has to get.
But you know, they actuallylike the bits kind of kept me going.
Yeah.
Like the through fair of like.
Was that season four whereLazlo has to raise a baby?
(51:22):
Colin Robinson.
That was four in that.
Was it?
Yeah.
Was it four?
Actually.
That's good.
That actually works.
That actually really works.
No, it is a bunch of dislike.
There's a bunch of individualepisodes that really, really work.
Yeah.
I do wonder, are they going toreference the Jackie Daytona bit
again?
(51:42):
Because they have to realizethat's the fan favorite.
Yeah.
I will say too, that the waythat they built Guillermo's role
to be funnier.
I thought that actually builtthrough as the seasons went on.
Like the one where he was.
They figured out he has VanHelsing blood and they've got him
locked in the cage.
(52:02):
But it's really him trying tosave their egos while also protecting
them from.
I felt like that was in arising motion and that worked for
me.
Yeah.
I was curious if he could kind of.
Powers might not be the rightterm, but I was curious if he could
use his abilities againsthumans as well.
But then we see it with the balls.
He rips the disc.
(52:23):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, cool.
He can.
He's gonna get the boss there,but he's more in control of himself,
you know, he's our.
Guillaumer's a good guy.
Yeah.
One episode does not make a season.
But we will come back to thisand discuss, you know, the season
as a whole after next week.
Just to see where it.
How it ends, what it does asan ending.
(52:45):
That's probably how we'll viewit next week through that lens of
season as a whole.
Yeah.
I hope the finale makes me laugh.
I'm a little concerned that like.
Yes.
Putting extra expectation on it.
Yeah.
And honestly, like a show likethis really shouldn't have like a
load bearing episode, youknow, that's true.
And so I'm curious if that'll.
(53:07):
It'll be like, yeah, you know,it's the finale.
So we had the, you know, I.
Don'T know, the penultimateseemed to maybe take care of some
of that though, with Nandorsaying, hey, we're actually comrades
rather than.
Yes, you know, you're a partof my army.
You're my right hand man in myarmy for real.
I just have one last thing tosay, which is that America, we've
(53:30):
taken some wrong turns andthere's some people that we've decided
to view as less than human.
America, these are the queericons you need.
As Nandor explained to us,there are boy wives and girl wives.
That's good stuff.
So good.
We'll end with that.
Yeah, it's a good ending.
You can follow Taking it Downas well as our website, the website
(53:52):
that hosts us the Alabama Take.
You follow all of us on socialmedia, reach out, say hello, and
then follow the podcast inyour favorite podcast app where you
listen to things and you'llsee us each Tuesday morning.
For Adam and Donovan, I amBlaine and we'll talk later.
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