Golf In 'Stick' Is Only a Game; 'Dept. Q' Played the Best with the Rules

This week, Blaine has a special guest to give the overview of the weekly episode (0:02) before he brings in co-hosts Adam and Donovan. Adam finally watched an episode of 'Your Friends and Neighbors' on Apple TV+ and he keeps it going with non-spoiler ideas on if he'll continue the series (0:49).

Also in the non-spoiler section is the other Apple TV+ show of the week with 'Stick,' which takes us into our golf adventures (5:35). Blaine and Donovan discuss broad ideas on if 'Dept. Q' succeeded its goal (12:58).

In the spoilers, it's back to 'Stick' and why it can't find balanced despite being a fun show (16:58). Finally, with all of the series now seen, Blaine and Donovan determine if the whole mystery was ever worth it (38:20).

Help the podcast! Show you care and enjoy! Here's a link to make a donation.

A lot more appears on The Alabama Take every week. Here is a link to see the more of it.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey, you're the voice thatsays an Alabama take production,
aren't you?
Oh, yeah, that's me.
What are you all talking aboutthis week?
Let's see.
We're going to talk about yourfriends and neighbors.
We're going to talk about theTV show Stick that's on Apple plus
and we're going to talk aboutDepartment Q in full.

(00:21):
That's the Netflix show.
Are you going to do spoilers?
Oh, no, no, no, no.
We start with non spoilersegment and then we take a break
and after the break we'll talkabout the spoilers related to those
shows.
Well, get Adamant and Donovanin here.
Let's do it.
Alabama take projection.

(00:46):
I have a note here that says,Adam, you watched one episode of
your Friends and Neighbors.
Well, that's enough podcaston, isn't it?
If we've learned anything inthe last 10 years in the American
Public Forum is that I am nowan expert on this program and can
just shoot from the hip with authority.
Yeah, no, there were a fewshows here and there where we fell

(01:09):
behind during like a two weekunplanned break earlier in the summer
and it's we're still payingfor it Catching up way we've yet
to discuss our quick binge ofMormon Wives.
Right, guys?
We.
We said that we were keeping that.
Between us as the Mormons do, just.
Like the Mormons do.

(01:30):
But the group chat was a safe place.
Guys, to all Mormons outthere, I'm really sorry for that
joke.
Every single one of you haveever met seems really nice.
Can I tell you what happenedwith me and Mormon wives?
This is a TV podcast.
It was on my home screen onHulu and I thought, what is all the
fuss?
And I hit play thinking it was going.
I don't know why I hadpictured Amish ladies on screen,

(01:55):
but it's this hot lady, liketalking about being married to, in
a way, other hot ladies.
This is a roundabout way ofyou telling us you're going to Utah
and.
We'Ll be broadcasting from Utah.
Yeah.
Anyway.
But yes, another one of thoseshows that we got a little behind
on was your Friends andNeighbors on Apple tv.

(02:16):
Like I mentioned, Adam didcatch one this week.
I'm still behind, but I dolove the show.
We're not in specifics territory.
Anyway, so non spoiler topicright here.
That's the one that stars JohnHam, Amanda Pete and Olivia Munn
as upper crust New York statepeople who each have some issues
on their own as well as as a group.

(02:37):
Most most notably John Ham whoPlays Andy Cooper.
But Adams watched one of the episodes.
Lay it on me, Adam.
Really interesting to see JonHam play what she said.
Upper crust New York.
Yeah.
What a strange that theirsocial lives are kind of weird and
their interior lives arefraught with peril and drama and
you know, who could haveguessed that he could play that character

(02:58):
so well?
You know, I mentioned thisshow three or four weeks ago when
it first came out.
No, it's been longer than that now.
But one of the things I saidthat it's.
It's.
There is this propulsive plotthat you're going to tune in for,
but you end up sticking aroundfor that internal stuff for the characters,
which is different than MadMen in that it's.

(03:19):
In 2025.
It is different.
It was funny, though.
I mean, I immediately textedyou and said they when you plop Jon
Hamm in your televisionprogram and you don't want me to
think of Don Draper.
Well, I don't.
I don't know if you do or you don't.
I assume that they have toplay with that on some level for
all time.
But having the opening beinghim sitting at a bar alone, drinking

(03:43):
whiskey and getting hit on bya younger woman, this is doing nothing
for me to suspend disbeliefthat this is not.
Not dawn here.
But as the show progressed.
We've only seen the one episode.
I thought it was a reallystrong opening episode.
Yeah, it's really good, isn't it?
We will be watching more.
I can vouch for the rest.
It doesn't drop in quality.

(04:06):
I think the.
And I'll tiptoe around it.
The actual thing that looks tobe the plot, I'm not as interested
in.
I am.
I'm very interested in the characters.
Yes.
It's a, It's a vibe show morethan a plot show.
Well, I've got big memes for you.
Does it stay vibey?
Yes, it seems to be 70%character, 30% this thing we're not

(04:31):
going to talk about.
Right.
I mean, I understand thatthings theoretically have to happen.
Yeah.
In mass media to make conflict.
Right.
And it can't be internal.
It can't just.
Just be internal.
Character based conflict inour world, maybe, is what you're
saying.
Yeah.
For an Apple TV show.
Yeah, I get it.

(04:51):
But again, you.
You put this man in the corneroffice of a New York skyscraper and
have him stare out a windowand I'm in.
I'm just in after he gets hiton by the woman.
His office is kaput after that.
Right.
Yeah.
That's like the first fewminutes and we're.
This is episode one from twomonths ago.
So I think we're okay.

(05:13):
Yeah, but we won't go much further.
Other than.
What were you gonna add?
Jeff was gonna talk about MadMen probably.
Like, like it like at anygiven point.
Right, Right.
I mean in my head right now,it's just the slow, like haunting
sound of it's always lurking.

(05:33):
Well, we will continue withApple as a streaming service.
I think they've been killingit of like knocking down threes in
a fast paced offense, if youask me.
Is that.
Is that a reference to anApple show?
No, that's a golf reference.
Golf.
Is it golf?
Shit no.
That might be baseball.
Is that basketball?
Cricket?
Do we know what a sport is?

(05:54):
We're gonna bring up stickhere in spoiler territory as well.
This is the one that is about golf.
It stars Owen Wilson.
He's a washed up pro who takesit upon himself to mentor a kid whom
he's trying to get in theprofessionals of golfing.
And we brought up this series,I think twice at this point.
This will be the third time,especially in non spoilers.

(06:15):
About the only place I'vebrought it up.
It is at its halfway pointwith episode five this week.
And we're all pretty much onthe same page.
Watched all five episodes.
Making the turn to the backnine, if you will.
Let's keep it going.
That's all I got.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I am basically likeDonovan was when we were in college

(06:35):
where he had like the one theyreally need to run the ball to open
up the.
The passing game.
Like, like that kind of thing.
That's all I really have for golf.
It's a rebuilding year.
You know, you're gonna.
Yeah, you know, that's whatyou say when they lose.
While we're on the topic, I dohave a very serious golf question
that neither of you guys cananswer, but related and it's.

(06:56):
It's a golf question.
True golfers who listen thispodcast, of which there are thousands,
I'm sure will laugh.
They're probably on the courseright now, earbuds in.
Yeah, they're gonna laugh meout of this podcast app.
But is it not an unfair sportand maybe even a true representation
of our society?
Because it's.
Is it not unfair to playagainst someone who may have 2000$3

(07:20):
wood versus the guy next toyou who might just have a 903 wood?
Like, you got these stellarclubs, but this other guy has maybe
just one a couple steps lowertier or even basic ones?
Shouldn't all PGA members playwith the same one?
Like all basketball playersshoot the same ball during the same
game.
They say it's not the girth,the size, the cost of the stick plane.

(07:49):
Donovan, kudos to you for justopening with the joke and then working
backwards.
I think this is like any otherequipment based thing, right?
Like is.
Well, baseball players have touse a wooden bat.
That much I know.
Right.
But there's differences in.
In the bat.
In the bat.
In the.
Tennis.
Tennis, you would have different.
Okay.
Different players prefer different.

(08:11):
Not only racket size, like the.
The size of the face that youhit the ball with.
Some players like a biggerone, but you sacrifice some control
for that.
They have different tensionsfor the strings, all this stuff.
So I mean, I would assume interms of money as a restriction,
if you were like a wonder kin,like this.

(08:33):
This one of the maincharacters is in this.
I think you play your way intohaving the good stuff, right?
I guess so.
I mean, I just couldn't.
I thought back to Thomas Bradyand how he messed with the football
a little bit out of regulation.
I don't know.
It is interesting.
I thought of basketball, butthose are probably.
Maybe those are the two fewwhere the equipment is mandated.

(08:57):
As far as like what you're.
Whatever.
Football, soccer, basketball.
I mean, I would.
I know nothing about.
You can't mess with the ball.
Yeah.
I know nothing about hockey,but I assume that the sticks are
pretty customizable, but thepuck is not.
I mean, what more could you dowith a stick?
So where are you with this?

(09:18):
With stick.
Apple TV plus as a comedy,summertime viewing as what it's doing
so far.
You just laid out the keywords.
Comedy, summertime viewing.
Check.
Donovan, it's time.
Yeah, go ahead.
Say the word.
Say the line.
Donovan.
Which I don't know.
I can't remember.
America.
Do you like to laugh?

(09:39):
Oh, yeah.
Thank you.
I was like, it's my own line.
Yeah.
It dares to ask the question.
Dares to ask the question.
Bravely.
It's a very brave show.
Yeah.
This may be the ultimate.
I think I texted y' all.
Saturday in June, lunchtime viewing.
Do I want to commit anafternoon to it?
I'm not sure.

(09:59):
Am I going to make a sandwichand sit here anyway?
Yeah.
So I'll watch this show.
Compare that to another.
What's another summertimemiddle summer show?
I think Owen Wilson excels at these.
These are the.
The vehicle for Mr.
Wilson.
Absolutely.
Now that's not to say that Ihaven't seen him do excellent Work,
you know, with the.
The Wes Andersons of the world.

(10:20):
Yesterday, it's Saturday.
Crashers is on chapel tv.
There's nothing else on.
I'm not really paying attention.
I'm not even in the same roomwith the tv.
It's on.
They do some funny stuff whenI'm walking through.
That's great.
I find this to be very good.
Adam just described primarilybecause, like Owen Wilson, I think

(10:41):
his character over the coupleepisodes we've seen is like, he's
a basically nice guy who isgenuinely befuddled by a child and
that.
And with.
With Owen Wilson doing like anice guy, like sincerely trying to
connect with a kid and just,you know, that that's actually really
funny.
It's like he has no clue.

(11:02):
It brings to mind my favoriteparts really aren't even that he's
befuddled by the child, butthat he's befuddled by what's he.
What I'm doing is not thatwrong, is it?
Yeah, you know, gambling isnot that wrong, is it?
Does have some laughs, but Ifeel like episode five might be the

(11:23):
dog leg in the layout of the hole.
We're trying here, aren't we?
God damn.
I can't do it.
Can I play golf exactly five times?
Four times in my life.
I played golf once.
And on my best swing, my bestabsolute swing, I.
I did not grow up playing golf.
So I was trying to hit it likea baseball.

(11:45):
I wasn't holding my hips right.
And it's tough.
When I finally like stoppedand like got a sweet, sweet hit,
I just watched the ball arcthrough the air and head right towards
my friend Patrick driving thegolf cart where it hit with a thunk.
And I was like.
I had a moment where I waslike, it's gonna.
It's gonna take his eye out.

(12:06):
You're supposed to yell 4 ifyou know nothing.
I was too.
I was too stunned by horror.
I also.
I also put a golf ball throughthe roof of a golf cart once.
Yeah, you guys are a couplereal Santiago's here.
It was such a good hit.
Like, it really thunked it.
Like, it was like I had doneit exactly right.

(12:27):
I think my last game of golf,I broke my friend's dad's three wood
because I hit the groundinstead of the ball.
You ready for this?
I broke my father in law'sdriver twice.
Didn't hit the ground either.
To break a man's heart won't it?
I have no idea where it went.
One had like a fairlysentimental attachment for him too.

(12:49):
You're not invited toThanksgiving or Christmas anymore,
are you?
I'm not invited to the drivingrange anymore.
Another series we'll cover isone we began last week.
It's the Netflix crimethriller Department Q, starring Matthew
Good as a detective inEdinburgh who's been assigned to
a new department toinvestigate any cold case crime he
wishes.

(13:10):
They just kind of put.
They're just trying to get ridof his ass.
If that sounds familiar toyou, it's because it is.
Donovan and I unpacked all ofthose tropes last week, which there
are plenty.
And with only three episodesto watch last week, we couldn't quite
make the cough.
It transcended the genre ofyour standard crime thriller or your

(13:30):
who done it.
Well, Donovan, we've seenevery episode now, you and I, both
for Department Q.
Do we understand theresponses, the raving about the series?
I'm not sure that I understandthe raving, which sounds like I disliked
the show or liked it less thanI did because I did actually like
it.
When I'm watching it, I'mlike, I want to know what's happening

(13:51):
next.
I like the characters.
I think it set up a reallyfirm foundation for a couple good
seasons, too.
It's doing everything.
Or not.
Maybe not everything, but mostof what it's doing, it's doing just
about as good as you can.
For me, it did not.
It didn't transcend, but it'sa really, really great example of
the genre.
Does it transcend the genre, Ithink was one of the main questions

(14:15):
we tried to deduce last weekend.
No, I don't think it does either.
That's my stance, which is a lot.
To ask, honestly, of a show, but.
I think that it employs everytrope, every element of a crime thriller,
of a whodunit, and it says toaudiences, yeah, we're gonna do this,

(14:38):
but we're gonna do this betterthan maybe any show you've seen.
Yeah.
I guess when I say, like, it'sasking a lot for someone to transcend.
Yeah.
Is if you're not, like,there's no shame in, like, being
good at what you're.
What you're good at.
Yeah.
If that makes sense.
Like, that sounds like I'mbeing somewhat dismissive, but actually,

(14:59):
like, if you're.
If you're really good atsomething, that's, you know, you're
at the top of.
Your game and once again,almost like your friends and neighbors.
It's the character work, it'sthe character writing and the acting.
I want to see more of it.
So if Netflix does green lighta season two of this, are you.

(15:19):
Are you going to be excited?
Are you going to watch it?
I'd watch it.
Yeah.
I'm definitely going to watch it.
There's obviously they leftsome things unresolved with this,
with this first season.
Yeah.
So there's more to build on.
They left all the charactersat a place where we have gotten to
know them, but we can stillsee that we're gonna.
There's more space to learnabout their past and see how they

(15:41):
grow in the future.
Yeah, I'd watch it.
I enjoyed this.
Yeah, I would too.
I really did like thecharacters a lot.
They resolved plenty.
But you're right, there were there.
There's more to go.
There's.
There's stuff left to.
To build on for anotherseason, dear listeners.
And then spoiler free section.

(16:02):
I did not feel like cheated orthwarted by the resolution.
Oh, no, they did.
They scrapped up their seasonvery satisfactorily.
I agree with that.
So that should take us to ourspoiler section.
What we're gonna do is we'lltake a 30 minute, 30 second break,
then come back.
30 minutes.
That's time for activities.
Yeah, you could go play.

(16:23):
You could go practice your swing.

(16:56):
All right, listener, if you'rethis far, you may want to ease up
on the gas as we enter thespoiler part of the track.
That's a NASCAR metaphor.
We're gonna employ them all.
We're all the sports metaphors.
That what you're saying.
Okay.
Yeah.
Use your time steps to jump toeither Stick, which we're about to
begin, so that's not hard.
Or the Netflix seriesDepartment Q, which we know a lot

(17:19):
of you've watched.
All right.
Oh, now that we're in edgingtowards spoilers, guys, let me give
you a little taste of whatwe're going to talk about.
The Q stands for questionapartment Question.
Keep listening.
I don't have to say that thisis our favorite part of the podcast.
We get to say anything without reservation.

(17:41):
It's time to take a swing atStick on Apple tv.
Plus, has Donovan been holding back?
I think when Stick used a.
A story with a man namedWillie Gross Wiener, it really, really
moved me.
Inspired me.
All right, first question here.
Does Mark Marin as a sidekick,as former caddy, boost or hinder

(18:06):
your enjoyment of the episodes?
No.
When he got stuck in the bed,that was perfect.
It was pretty funny at first.
I was like, you know, not thatI like, dislike Marc Maron, but I'm
not like the biggest MarcMaron fan on the Planet, but he's
doing a great job playing agrumpy caddy and getting stuck in
the bed was really fun.
And also when he gives hispronouns as like a normal guy or

(18:28):
whatever, he just refuses togive his pronouns.
I'm enjoying him in this role.
First thing I think of withhim is his podcast at this point.
I think he would be fine withthat legacy.
You know, when he's riffing atthe beginning.
Not always my favorite part, obviously.
Same same feeling.
I do like that part sometimes.
It depends on, on his podcast,when he begins with his day or whatever.

(18:50):
Yeah, sometimes it's funny.
Like, if I'm driving.
This is a long road trip.
I don't really mind if Ireally just want to hear the interview.
I'm kind of like, okay.
But him in this role reigns ina bit of the insanity and just lets
him be grumpy.
But also like, he's kind oflike the voice of reason most of
the time.
Kind of the moral barometer sofar as well.

(19:13):
Is he too much of a curmudgeonto be appealing to everyone?
No, no, no, no.
I don't think so.
Not right.
I mean, this is like a prettyobvious show.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, yeah.
It's gonna have its beats.
Yeah, yeah.
He can be the caricature.
It's broad.
The characters are tropes.
Sounds dismissive, but, like, they're.
They're.
They're familiar characters.

(19:34):
Right.
And I.
And I think that the payoffworks, right?
Because it's like, not thatthis show is like, stupid or anything,
but it's like grumpy,curmudgeonly guy.
Stick him in a situation wherehe's out of control and can't handle
it.
Comedy ensues.
I mean, this is.
This is like easy listening television.
And that's fine.
Yeah, exactly.
What's up?
What the.

(19:54):
What the nicks?
What the fucksters?
I wonder if there isn't toomuch of an under performance when
it comes to Owen Wilson andespecially Judy Greer, because there
is this fact that they have achild who's passed away, and that's
heavy.
That's capital H heavy.
Something you should be ableto read in the faces or actions of

(20:15):
characters.
I'd say Owen Wilson gets a fewopportunities to do that or moments
that can be construed as thatlevel of pain, but, man, they did
not do Judy Greer any favors.
And she's not that bad of an actress.
You would not have known thatelement of their backstory if it
was just her Her.

(20:36):
Yeah.
I'm glad you brought up JudyGreer, because I think that she is
fantastic.
In this or in general?
In general.
Okay.
Yeah, for sure.
And I feel like they're notreally giving her anything to do.
Yeah, that's kind of here.
Besides kind of be.
She's not this stereotype,but, like, the closest thing to be,
like, almost like a nag herewhere it's like, get your life together.

(20:58):
You know?
I'm like, give her more to dothan that.
Yeah.
She's not mean.
I had a mean about it.
More subtle read on it thanyou guys, which I don't know if I'm
giving her more credit becauseI like her.
Mm.
Maybe.
Maybe the numbers become moreclear as time goes on, but, you know,
he's.
She asked for a divorce sevenyears ago.
They have this child togetherwho died.

(21:19):
You assume that this couldhave been, like, a decade since this
happened, and this is someonewho has worked, put in the work to
rebuild.
Okay.
You know, whereas Owen Wilsonis still shown to be very.
Yeah.
He's a man child.
Dismissive.
And I mean, you know, he'ssurrounded by empty bottles of alcohol
and him smoking the joint and.

(21:41):
Yeah, that was hilarious.
But it was also like, oh, thisis a guy who's hiding from something.
They're both dealing with itor not.
He's not confronting it.
She's moving on.
I just think she was in asmall role, and I wish they'd give
her more to do because I love her.
Yeah.
Yeah, that would be great.
She, to me, embodied theclassic Henry Francis line.

(22:03):
There are no fresh starts.
Lives go on, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not so sure.
He hasn't regressed.
His character is not supposedto be someone.
We think he might have had ittogether, and then his child passed
away, and then maybe he justwent straight back to man child.
Things have only ever goneright for you.

(22:24):
The classic everybody knows.
Everybody has a plan untilthey get hit in the mouth, you know,
like the first.
And obviously, that's about ashard as you could possibly get hit.
So if it was.
No, you know, if you're top ofthe world athlete, have a great marriage,
and then it all falls apart.
I'd say he's doing pretty well.
Maybe it blends thatheartbreak, but I just don't know

(22:47):
if the heartbreak's thereenough or if it doesn't want to be
that kind of show.
It wants to be a much moreeasy comedy.
And if that's the case, isthat the sort of baggage that Price
needs to be carrying Is itlacking its nuance for that kind
of plot line?
And now I see its obviouscomparisons to Ted Lasso, which I

(23:09):
did not get for the first four episodes.
I kept thinking that's not afair comparison.
But I see why some would saythat in that it's trying to.
It's trying in the same regardto blend some heaviness.
And comedy and team dynamicsare here.
Price and Santiago and.
And Mitt, you know, they'redown and out, but sometimes in stick,

(23:30):
I just don't think they canget to the gravity and the comedy
as well.
Not necessarily in the same scene.
It does have some moments ofwarmth, but gravity?
Not yet.
I was pretty shocked when theyrevealed that not only has he, you
know, he's behaving as if he'sgoing through a very difficult divorce

(23:52):
that he does not want tohappen, he's not necessarily behaving
as if he's lost a child.
And when they revealed that, Ithought, wow, this is about to be
a completely different showthan I thought it was going to be.
And then it immediately wentback to the type of show that I thought
it was going to be.
The end of season, sorry,season one, episode one, where he's
watching the home movies,almost feel like tonally is completely

(24:16):
out of whack with the rest ofthe show.
So heavy in a way that therest of the show hasn't really been
interested in being.
Episode five does tell youthat he's.
This has been hinted at aswell, that Price is just completely
100% in denial, just not.
This is his way of just nevermentioning it, never thinking about

(24:38):
it.
Can golf be a metaphor for grief?
You know, not only does Pricehave a elongated grief over a child
that he's not even dealingwith, but Mitts, his wife's also
died at some point in thehistory of the show.
Or maybe they just want, youknow, their characters to have some
depth and it's.
The nuance of it not quite there.

(24:58):
Although the comedy might bedefinitely still worth sticking around
for the death of the wife.
It seems a little more likehere's a guy who possibly wanted
to just go within himself, youknow, and now is forced to, like,
you know, he's got a new family.
Like that kind of clichething, that one you hate to say,

(25:21):
oh, the dead wife is a littleeasier than, at least in terms of
the narrative to think to putin, but he also seems like a.
An adult dealing with it.
Whereas Price is shown to be,like we've said a billion times,
man, child.
Francine's, death.
That's not hard to fit intothe story they're telling.
You're right about that.

(25:42):
You look at that guy andyou're like, yeah, of course this
is.
Yeah, yeah, it fits.
It's really almost like a plotdriven debt in the sense that's like,
for this guy to be where heis, doing what he is, something needs
to have happened.
So his wife died.
If that makes it like, whywould he be running the scam with,
with.
Oh, okay, because his wifedied, so he's.

(26:04):
He's got no one to check him up.
Right, exactly.
He's just, you know, like, whyis he participating this?
Oh, because his wife died.
You know, so he'sbegrudgingly, like Adam said.
I don't know if you've seenany commenters online, but they have
bemoaned to the point of beingpretty rude about the addition of
Zero's character.
What's the, what's the hold up there?
What's the problem?

(26:24):
They just hate the character.
That's all you can get out ofthese commenters.
It's not a, you know, this isthe Internet.
It is not an in depth discussion.
They just say, I can't waittill she's gone.
That's what I'm reading, youknow, but you can't ask, I suppose,
why add her or them.
I like her on there.
I think that it kind of playedoff of one of my favorite things

(26:47):
here.
Like, one of the things that Ilike the most, and I'll give an example
from the first episode, is, isPrice's attitude towards him being
like a young kid.
And like, he seemed like hekind of keeps doing this.
So like there's a, there's abit where he's like trying to get
talked to Santi and he's like,say you need a smoke break.
Or like, what do you kids get?
Like, mental health break this.

(27:08):
And it's like, it's funny,but, like, because he's like, he's
genuinely not being a jerk.
He's like, he's asking in away that's really funny.
Like, that's the right thingto say now, right?
Mental health break.
And so to give, to give him acharacter that he, to interact with
that he just absolutely has nosense what's going on, you know,
at any point I found.

(27:29):
Very funny.
Yeah, I think he's doingpretty well for a guy who spent his
life on golf courses.
He's.
I mean, he's like.
And that's part of the comedyfor me is that he's like.
He's like, general, genuinelynice and trying.
He just has no clue.
And.
And it's.
And it's really funny.
And Gen Z is scary.
They are mean.
Yeah.
Adding them to the.

(27:49):
The RV percolator, if you will.
I mean, it just exaggeratesthe generational.
Thing, which is fun,especially with.
With Marin, too.
I was just gonna say he getsto play the straight man, you know,
old, old guy, straight man tokids that he doesn't.
He doesn't understand or careto understand.

(28:10):
I thought, will he have somegrudging respect for them at some
point?
I don't know.
Somewhere there's a writerbeing like, this show rates itself.
Yeah, it kind of does in a.
In a good and bad way.
Because.
Because Zero's Edition, I'mhappy with.
I.
Let's put one more characterin there and someone who's a little
different.
That's fine with me.
But you also can clearly seeshe's going to break up or leave,

(28:36):
and it's going to.
Makes Santiago absolutelymiserable and he's going to lose
his shit, much like Price did.
You know, you also.
You also know at some pointPrice is going to come back and get
into golf, or you kind ofhoping, I don't know, maybe they'll
play with these expectationsor these.

(28:56):
They'll subvert them.
But, I mean, that'll be thetough choice at the end, right?
Is he a player?
Is he a coach?
You gotta.
You gotta think if they'replanning two or three seasons of
this that they're gonna have.
Price and Santiago have to beon the same course for.
I don't battle it out for Augusta.
Good.
Good thing that you guys savedthese for the spoiler section because

(29:18):
he's, like, seeing into thefuture here.
I mean, what does it really.
You like the Oracle?
You know, it doesn't.
No.
I do love the show for makingSantiago a primary in a world of
rich white.
And it's not that Santi is aperfect kid who just so happens to
be a minority, but having aminority face down in rich white

(29:40):
dude territory is a nice sightin this economy.
I'll pop a thumbs up there, too.
With having his mom.
Exactly.
Be such a part of the show.
It makes it feel like it's notjust like a token or throwaway thing,
but it's like, here's.
Here's actual, you know, folkswho speak Spanish and are so usually

(30:01):
excluded from the.
I might be wrong.
Yeah, I get the sense thatshe's Puerto Rican.
And he's had folks that are often.
On the outside of this in thegolfing world.
You know, it just makes itpart of the character.
So kudos to them for doingthat and not making it feel like
a kind of cheap throwaway, atoken thing.
That would be an interesting.

(30:21):
I don't think it's the type ofshow that it is, but, you know, there
are.
We talked about the financialbarriers to getting clubs, you know,
at the top of the show.
Like, this is not a sport thatyou just show up at a court and start
shooting a basketball or, youknow, playing pickup football with
your friends.
There's a pretty seriousbarrier to entry for a.

(30:44):
Well, I guess she wasn't asingle mom at that point, but, you
know, there's a.
There's a story there.
Why golf?
You get the impression thatshe was married to a white guy.
Yeah.
Which is going.
And that's just another littlelayer that they've done, which is
a good layer.
You know, it fits perfectly.
When you.
When we find more out aboutthat, you know, we're going to meet

(31:06):
the dad at some point.
This is gonna be just likewater boy.
He's gonna show back up.
Oh, the addition of TimothyOliphant to the cast, I think that
ups the ante.
It ups the watchability factorfor me.
He hasn't been a villain in awhile, and seeing him have that nice,

(31:27):
rich, white asshole smirk ontv and then Marin just going off
because he's on the tv, that'sgood stuff.
When.
When he and Marin get in thescene together, I'm excited.
I hope it's soon.
I mean, he does look like thekind of mouth that would say something
that.
That gets you punched in the mouth.
I was going to say very punchable.
He's.
He's.
He's such.
He's such a slime on that TV commercial.

(31:49):
He's so good at that.
Well, yeah, that's going to be.
That's going to be good.
I think I do, too.
I think so.
There's.
There's some potential hereand there's.
There are layers here, eventhough it's not hitting the nuance
of the child who's passedaway, I think.
And then.
But that.
That's hovering overeverything like a specter, isn't
it?
Yeah, they had.

(32:10):
And they've had, like, some.
I think.
Yeah, they've kind of had a.
A hard job figuring out that vibe.
Right.
Yeah.
Like.
And sometimes they bring itin, and sometimes they're like, well,
he's in denial, obviously.
So we're, you know, we don'thave to have any subtext.
Right.
Particular subtext in this.
In this scene.

(32:30):
What Jason Keller and theother creators are trying to do with
that.
It's.
I think it's pretty obvious.
They're trying not to be toostereotypical and push it down your
throat and remind you every second.
But at the same time, they'realso not finding the balance.
But it doesn't hinder thewatching, the watchability of the

(32:53):
show, I don't think.
Yeah, I'll say.
I have extremely temperedexpectations for this show.
Yeah.
And it is a show.
Adam and Blaine, you havedemonstrated this amply.
Like, even if you know exactlywhat's going on, even if you know
every trick, you know exactlywhat's going on, you know what they're

(33:15):
doing basically in everyscene, it's still kind of fun to
watch if it's.
If it's done good enough.
I mean, there's not.
There's no.
There's no really mysteries orsurprises here, though.
I don't.
I don't think so, anyway.
It's kind of like watchingJordan at his height.
You knew he was gonna win.
It's just a good time, I don't think.
Yeah, if you're wanting more,I don't think that it has the depth

(33:38):
of.
Or the storytelling chops ofTed Lasso or a show like that, but,
you know, that's.
That's okay.
Yeah, it is.
In the Birdie Machine, themost recent episode, I loved Price's
conversations with Zero.
I love that that was thecentral struggle of the episode.
You know, he believes he'strying to help Santi and in Zero,

(33:59):
even to a degree.
But he hears Santi's backstoryabout, look, it's his dad.
His dad did this shit, and hefelt manipulated.
You know, sometimes there'snot a lot of difference between helping
and manipulating.
And I thought that they playedwith that little part nicely.
And I loved, you know, whatthey did.
It was very minor, but I wasjust like, oh, okay, this is pretty
good storytelling.

(34:20):
When they had Owen Wilsonexplain what was going on in a very
mini voiceover as they showedhole 17 for guys like me who don't
know that much about golf.
And they showed you, oh, okay.
And then they quickly wentback to him in Zero, and you could
read their expressions.
That was good TV making, I thought.
It does do a good job of.

(34:41):
You talked about the.
The very, very thin, blurryline between manipulation and teaching
or helping or whatever it is.
You know, they set Zero up tobe someone who questions everything
and Has a hot take on theagricultural industrial complex.
All these things.

(35:01):
Yeah.
But then for them to try toanalyze good intentions, you know,
it's.
It's like this lesson of like,well, not everything's black and
white, you know, that Ithought was pretty well done.
That moment where they decidenot to intervene in Santi's poor

(35:23):
decision making.
It's like, well, is it.
Are you.
Who are you helping here, you know?
Yeah.
Let him make the mistake onhis own and learn from it.
That's a tough, That's a toughthing to do as a dad.
But is zero even.
I'm not sure that they'recomputing it that way.
No, it's more just like I wastalking about Price on the sidelines
where he was just like, okay,he's, he's on fire.

(35:45):
Let's let him.
You know, I don't have to be the.
Oh, I think that that was justhim trying to logic out what he knew
was going to go poorly.
Yeah, of course it was.
Yeah.
I don't know, just the.
It's.
Since generational differencesseem to be coming to the fore.
I think that's a Gen Zparticularly seems so this is right.

(36:06):
This is wrong, this is absurd.
This is whatever, you know, Imean to.
They're more black and white,you think?
I mean, you're a teacher, youwould know better than me.
It just seems like the off thehip hot take is in as a society and
so young people are feelingthat maybe more than most.

(36:27):
So, like having to deal withcomplexity is a bit more of a challenge.
I don't know, maybe I'm out ona limb here for a show that is not
really out on a limb.
It's always safe to makebroad, sweeping statements about
generations that I don'treally know anything about.
Yeah, well, it fits perfectlywith what I thought was going on,
which was, you know, I thinkit's probably saying a little something

(36:48):
about how much do you listento others?
Maybe someone who's older thanyou or wiser than you or are the
right people, you know, howmuch do you listen to them?
To where it's not bad for you,but you're learning versus them manipulating,
you know, especially if it's aman child on the sidelines.
Well, I was going to say the.

(37:08):
How much are you going to.
Price really knows what he'stalking about with the golf, but
then everything elsecompletely undercuts any authority
that he would have.
So I understand theirreservations there and.
It brings us giggles just eventhinking about it.
So we'll Keep watching.
It's like Adam said, you'regonna be in front of your TV for
30 minutes almost no matterwhat happens.

(37:29):
Might as well turn this on.
Timothy Oliphant, Owen Wilson,Mark Marin.
And this young guy who'splaying Santiago, who I think's doing
great.
I think he's a believable kidwithout being.
He doesn't grate your nerves.
You know, a lot of timesthey'll write these teenagers to
where they're.
You just want to yell, shut up.
But he's never like that.

(37:49):
Zero is only kind of like that.
But when she is, it's kind of funny.
She's way over the top witheverything in that stereotypical
age.
Yeah, I think it's gonna be good.
Plus, there's no telling whothey'll get to play the dad once
he finally appears.
So tie it all together.
Apple tv, bring in John Hamm.

(38:11):
Jon Hamm's his dad, Luke Wilson.
Now we're.
Now we're talking.
Well, you know, doingguesswork here, that's definitely
what we were doing last week.
But we don't have to do anymore with Department Q.
We know we can double checkourselves after last week.

(38:31):
Like we said, it's a show.
It demands to be.
Take your best guess.
Anyway, same warning as before.
If you've not made it throughall the episodes of Department Q,
know that we're probably goingto go back and forth throughout these
episodes four through nine,all of them maybe.
Even so, just I can'tguarantee we're going to go episode

(38:51):
4, 5, 6 in the order that they are.
So you might just want to waituntil you're finished completely
for spoilers.
I can.
I can pretty much guaranteethat my brain won't just.
And this.
This is a.
A casualty of dropping all atonce on a streamer.
Yeah, if I.
If I watch something whereit's a couple in a row like that.
Yeah, I.
I lose track of happened.

(39:12):
When I think I watched one a night.
Anyway, with our spoilers forDepartment Q, everything's fair game.
We left off at episode three.
We ended episode three.
So we're gonna pick up withepisode four, probably.
You know what?
Something we don't off thinkabout or mention is opening credits.
I love these opening credits.

(39:33):
That song kept getting stuckin my head.
In a good way or bad way?
In a good way.
I liked it.
Yeah, I agree with you.
They're good.
They're good.
Some opening credits areeminently skippable.
This is just a good.
Like we're getting started.
Little, Little Red Explosionsof Carl.
That was perfect.
Demonstrated exactly whatyou're getting into, I think.

(39:55):
Yeah, exactly.
Episode four is the appearanceof the ex wife who comes and goes
almost as quickly as she'smentioned, but there she is being
all ex wifey.
A bit of what I'll bring uptoday a couple of times is a couple
of things I found unbelievablein Department Q.
Here's one with mysteries,with detective work, with those kinds

(40:17):
of shows, it is so hard to getevery single thing right.
This has nothing to do withthe mystery at all.
I just don't.
I can't conceive a lady wouldleave her son in the care of a man
that she dislikes, even if hewas a stepfather.
At one point.
Yeah, that was.
That just seems super weird to me.
And maybe this is fodder, butit's like I need to know more about

(40:39):
like the reason that they bothagreed it'd be better for him to
grow up with.
With Carl.
Carl.
Thank you.
I almost called him MatthewGood, which is his name.
But that is character's name,you know, so I'm like, it's like,
what's the backstory here?
Right.
Because.
And I think without morebackstory, I'm not buying it.
I think without backstory,what you're supposed to take away

(41:00):
as a viewer is that she sawsomething in Carl that we can't see
in episode four because he'sonly been angry and assholish mostly.
Yes.
So what is it, what is it thatyou're going to put Jasper in his
care for while you work with the.
With airplane.

(41:20):
You know, being on the airplane.
It's not stewardess anymore.
We're not supposed to callthem that.
What are they?
Flight attendant.
Flight attendants.
Thank you too much.
Mad Men.
Right?
You've been.
You've just poisoned your brain.
Yeah.
The best moment in episodefour is subtle.
I love subtle things, as youguys know.

(41:40):
And if it's been happeningthroughout, it's been happening throughout.
But episode four is the firsttime I caught it.
It's the aspect ratio.
Yeah.
For the screen.
It changes when it enters the tank.
I started noticing it aroundthat point too.
Uh huh.
You get more claustrophobic.
With merit.
And it's really noticeable inepisode eight and nine because there's

(42:03):
a back and forth between herand the person we knew as Sam Hague.
And his is full screen whenhe's looking in, talking to her and
then it flips to her talkingto him and it's confined.
Interesting choice there.
Fun choice.
But yeah, around episode four.
Get your.
Your Merit backstory.
It's implied here.
She could have gone back tothe island of Moore.

(42:26):
Still, her dead mom's necklace.
During the funeral of whoeverthe insane person was who injured
William, we found out it's.
It's.
It was an attack.
Of course, we also later foundout that's Harry's funeral.
Her buddy, her part time boyfriend.
It sets up Merit as a lady whois someone who's going to just be

(42:49):
having affairs.
Yeah.
The rest of her life.
I think it's kind of fun for a character.
She's not like the mostlikable person.
Right.
She's borderline bad person.
Yeah, borderline.
She might be a bad.
She's obviously good at herjob and.
Passionate, but she'spassionate about being a lawyer.
She takes care of her brotherat least.

(43:09):
Or at least has, you know,make sure he is taken care of in
a way.
She's not like some innocentin distress.
Right.
Like, she's done things that,like, people could legitimately be
angry at her for.
And yet there's still.
I like them still, like, well,we still have to try and find her
because that's our job andlike, that's what she deserves.

(43:31):
Oh, yeah.
That's like what a person deserves.
So I kind of like that aspecttoo, for in.
In this show.
So her first affair, we findout, is with co worker Liam, known
for his Speedos.
And.
And then this.
Sam Haig is, as we first knowhim, young and with a black and brown
eye.
But of course, that's.

(43:52):
That's Lyle Jennings, theinsane younger brother to Harry.
I'm glad that they actuallydid end up going in this direction
because there was a momentwhere I was like, I'm getting really
confused about Merritt andSam, like with the timeline when
they start.
And it's like, oh, you weresupposed to be confused because the
timeline doesn't make sense.
Because.
And here's why.

(44:13):
Yes, but I had a.
I had a moment where I waslike, I'm just not following this
very well.
I guess I.
I had to do some mentalacrobatics to.
To hang in there at times, butit was still good.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm not.
I'm not docking it for that.
In fact, if anything, that's a good.
That's well thought, well,well layered, well thought out.

(44:35):
Of course, it comes from abook, so maybe the thinking's there
for you.
But I.
I'd give a thumbs up and foryes, Blaine, I agree, you kind of
have to keep some things inmind, but I did Find that, like,
scene by scene.
You're kind of scene by scene.
It's an enjoyable show.
Oh, so.
So you're just.
You're just happy to be therefor the ride, too, which I think
is where it really works.

(44:56):
Like, you want to watch it.
Oh, apparently we've talked about.
It's a book.
Department Q.
You know, it's a Danish series.
It is.
So Department Q is apunishment in Danish.
That just doesn't reallytranslate to English, basically,
like, lost causes, lost things.
I like that.
Something with that in here,obviously, which is the perfect.
It's the queue on the bathroom wall.

(45:18):
Because it just doesn'ttranslate into English.
Well, that makes perfectsense, because that's exactly the
overarching idea here.
We get so many people with somany lost causes, or they may come
off at first as a lost cause episode.
I'm gonna jump up to episodesix, because, sure, here's where

(45:38):
some things become clear.
And I'm not just talking aboutthe crime of merit being kidnapped
as much as I am the series.
Why it's a standout.
I noted here in episode six,that, boy, this dialogue is crisp.
Yeah.
You know, it was heightenedabove so many other crime dramas.
I particularly love themetaphor between Akram and Karl,

(46:02):
whether they're doing thisvery blatant stakeout on purpose,
like, we want to be seen.
And he makes the tigermetaphor, but Akram flips it on him
and says, yeah, well, sometiger trainers get their arm eaten.
Yep.
And, boy, oh, boy, Akram.
Is this where we want to justsay MVP character of the season,

(46:24):
Unsung hero, too?
Because this whole show, I'mlike, Akrum seems to be doing a lot
of the work here.
My favorite character, Akram.
Yes.
I think Carl's still mine, butI do not.
I like the guys playing Akram, though.
Yeah.
Apparently, he's Russian.
And there's some complaintonline about not getting an actual

(46:45):
Syrian, too, to play.
Yeah, that's too bad.
That is too bad.
Yeah.
You know, the first threeepisodes revolved heavily around
these situations of men whoare abandoned by women in one way
or another.
And then we do find out thatAkram's wife has been dead.
You know, the series seems tohave home down on how trauma easily

(47:07):
creates fear, which can thensection off into rage or even disability.
I mean.
I mean, especially with, like, the.
Was that.
Was this sex, too?
When he talks to Jasper and.
And you kind of close.
Yeah.
Okay.
Right.
And I think they really pinthat with Carl.
Right.
Like, he's.
He's.

(47:28):
He's Angry because he's not.
He.
He really needs to see atherapist because he's not dealing
well with what he's seen.
But the things he's seen arethings people shouldn't see.
Yeah.
So, like, how do you know?
It's like.
It is the catch 22.
Right.
Like going crazy is the onlyrational response.
That means you're saying, andpoor Hardy, who's physically disabled.

(47:49):
Yes.
You know, not due to his ownfear or trauma, probably.
In fact, he seems like he hasa nice home life overall.
But then there's Rose, whocan't muster the ability to be normal.
She's lying to her mom.
She's a wreck when it comes tohaving to drive again.

(48:10):
That was actually kind of funny.
It was when they pull out,like, you can go faster.
Yeah.
But it's really sad, too.
It is really sad.
That's a good point.
Lyle Jennings, whose entirefamily is that of hurt and passing
down some sort of hurt anddrama to others because of their.
It's not that they haveabandonment of a mother figure or

(48:30):
a female person, but it'sbecause they had a horrible one.
Yeah.
I don't.
I don't have anything smart tosay about the relationship between
Lyle and his mother and theway he described the, like, the abuse
that she put him and hisbrother through.
And.
But I, like, there wassomething in me that was like, yeah,
this is very.
Right.
Like, this feels correct.

(48:52):
That did it.
That this kind of.
Yeah.
That this.
This woman was.
Would be able to turn on Meritlike that.
And that the.
The kind of messed up dynamicthere between mother and son.
That.
That it just worked for me.
And I wish I had somethingsmart to say about it because I can't
pull it apart.
But it was just like, yeah, I.
Wish you could, because that was.

(49:13):
That was.
You know, I talked about.
I'm going to mention a coupleof things that are unbelievable.
That was the.
One of the things I don'tnecessarily find unbelievable, but
I just needed more.
Like, what really she would goto this extreme to harm Merit?
Because she kind of, sort of.
Not kind of.
She blames.
She and Lyle both blame herfor Harry's death.
I mean, I.
You see this on shows wherethe wrong person gets or has to carry

(49:36):
the blame of someone else's death.
And you're like, well, it'sreally not their fault.
You see that all the time.
But to have someone go to suchtorturous extremes to punish them.
I was just like, I think Ineed something else about this mom.
Like, what the hell's up with her.
But that might have been overkill.
The part that always likestrains for me is like, okay, where
do you get the resources to do this?

(49:58):
And they actually.
No, they actually address someof that.
But like, this is a prettysophisticated thing to do.
Oh, the resources I was onboard with, you know.
But once they explain that,that was good for me.
Just knowing that there was ahistory of punishment past.
Yeah.
Mother and son.
Somebody's reaction to atragedy might be extreme and irrational

(50:24):
and to punish.
The whole time we were gettingready to talk about this, I was trying
to think of what I meant and Ireally just couldn't put it into
words.
Which is too bad because Ithink something there is.
Is catching my attention.
But I, I'm not.
Maybe, maybe, maybe in thefuture I'll be able to figure it
out.
But I haven't quite figured it out.
But it.
That actually, that workedvery well for me.

(50:46):
She was a cruel, evil woman.
Yeah.
Yes.
Our primary question last weekwas does it rise above crime thriller
genre?
And, and this is what I wastrying to eloquently state earlier.
My answer is no, it does not.
It absolutely does not.
Because that's not its goal.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Instead, it employs many, ifnot all the expectations of a crime

(51:11):
thriller genre and says we'regoing to do this.
The most amazing you've seenin at least several years.
Yeah, I'd agree.
It's.
There is absolutely nothingwrong with like following the rules
and painting a masterpiece.
Right.
Like, that's as, that's asvalid as breaking all the rules and
doing something.

(51:31):
You know, here are the parameters.
Let me do it as good as anyone has.
Yep, exactly.
In hindsight, you can see howit all begins as a.
A good crime thriller andslowly ratches up to something that's
impressively well written andwell thought.
The threads the show has toremember as well as keep specific

(51:52):
attributes and front andcenter in the viewer's mind as well
as well as have some deepcharacter work as well as have some
backstories that are mystery laden.
And it's not just Carl and Akram.
I mean, like I mentioned, RoseMerritt, these Jennings villains,
they.
How the show itself looks.
There's just mystery in these moments.
And so that was one of thethings that really worked for me

(52:14):
is how the show kind of what you're.
You were describing, Blaine,how the show opens up as the characters
open up.
That's very.
Getting as much of the show.
I mean it's just, it's.
It's really very well done tothe to the point where like my thinking
About Carl in 1, 2 and 3 isdifferent from my thinking about

(52:35):
him at the end of six.
Very much just because it'sturned and.
I think it opened up more.
I think it might be six whereCarl visits his ex therapist in a
restaurant where she awaits a date.
And it simmers.
That scene simmers with thesort of conflict.
I know that stereotypical.
But I just love it.

(52:55):
You know they're going to.
They kind of have a thing forone another but.
And that's the conflict.
And Carl had to stalk to findher very unquestionable means to
get to the end there.
Yeah.
He's.
You know, there's.
There's a completely other.
There's a completely differentconversation to be had and that's.
Carl is very casual aboutcivil liberties.

(53:21):
Which, you know, it's fine.
Right.
I mean, honestly, for this,this show.
Or maybe they'll do somethingwith this later.
I don' I don't think they arethough because it is so character
driven.
You do kind of get the likewe've seen enough.
You've.
We've given you enough about Carl.
So you know, he's the good guy.
So yes, he entered that housewithout permission.
But like don't worry about it.

(53:41):
But Akram is the same in that he.
Civil liberties.
There's certain parts we.
Parts of life we take forgranted in a free world that he negates
for people.
Yeah.
Do you process being one?
He is conversant with how toget unwilling people to do what you
want.
Them to do and you love himfor it.

(54:02):
I tell you what though, therewas some.
This is another thing.
This is completely out of left bank.
The.
Some of the violence wasactually like kind of surprising
to me in this show.
Talking about when Ockramflips the guy down the stairs and
his femur sticking out of his leg.
Which was kind of funny theway Akram's just calmly diagnosed
like this man's femur issticking out.

(54:23):
That's right.
Yeah.
He's.
But plays it that, that thekilling of the.
I'm really jumping around here.
No, I was going.
The killing of the.
The police chief.
You know, a couple of those.
I'm like, whoa, this isreally, actually really violent in
a way that kind of surprised me.
Yeah.
I do regret Having my 7 yearold watch this series.

(54:45):
She learned new words, newconcepts, new ways to kill a man.
She learned the perfect way touse with Carl off.
There's humor here though.
You know, the look Carl givesAckerman the notion that the criminal
driver, as Rose puts it, felldown the stairs.

(55:06):
He gives him that look.
But then there's.
There's Akram moving the gateafter Carl climbs up to it.
Now that's high comedy.
That was good.
It's so he just walks around.
But it's so good too, right?
Because you can almost see it.
It's almost like it's funny,but it's almost metaphorical for
the differences between their characters.

(55:26):
Whereas, like, Carl's chargingahead, going the.
The hard way, and Akram takesa moment, reflects and walks.
Walks around.
That's good.
Like, it works.
It works, but it, like it.
It's laugh out loud funny.
When you see, like, Iliterally laughed when.
When I saw it and then I waslike, actually, that was pretty insightful,
I thought.
Yeah, like, it works more aspart of me was like, why a gag here?

(55:49):
And I'm like, actually, yeah,it's reinforcing what we know.
What would this character door should do?
Exactly.
Which is, you know, when you've.
When you've done greatcharacter work and you're able to
say every scene with thecharacter is showing me what this
character would do in that situation.
You know, you're.
That.
That's.
That's when you're doing your job.

(56:10):
Carl's anger at those verydisturbing threats to Jasper in the
ice cream shop was a momentwhere I was cheering for his anger.
He's flawed, but in thatinstance, his flaws play for the
better of Jasper and others.
It was moving and very good onthe part of Matthew.

(56:30):
Good to see.
You know, we'd seen thisrelationship mostly only marked by
contention.
And at this, with that, wesaw, like, the fierce protectiveness.
There is a moment of, oh, thisis person that, like, the mother
knows will never hurt her son.
Yep.
You know, and we see.
And we see that.
I think he did a great job.
And honestly, I wouldn't mindif that guy did get kicked in the

(56:52):
face a little more.
Exactly.
You know, although that.
That was another thing that was.
I was kind of on the edge andI know it's like supposed to be the
money or whatever, but there'sno universe where he's not like,
fired from a cannon, likefrom, you know, after, after.
After two incidents and publicincidents like that, they're.
But it worked.

(57:13):
I mean, you know, you firehim, we don't have a show.
So, yeah, big moment whereit's telling and not showing.
I think it happens twice.
I'm going to mention once uphere, but I was thankful for it.
I was thankful the writers didit when Carl, Rose, and Ockram have
to explain everything bit bybit to Maura.
Yeah, I needed it around that time.

(57:33):
And I think we all did theexposition there.
I think it was toward the endof episode six.
And it was well done.
Right.
In a way, because it feltnatural instead of, you know, because,
like, the bad way to do thisis the classic, like, as you well
know, Dr.
So and so, you know, and even.
In, like a voiceover.
Exactly, exactly.

(57:54):
Whereas this felt naturalaround episode seven, Carl no longer
parks on the sidewalks.
Perhaps he's healing.
He's healing.
Plus, you know, he wears thatthick jacket less.
Yes, he does.
Which signals to the viewerthat he's removing a layer.
Maybe just a little.

(58:14):
He's thawing a little.
Yeah.
You know, the.
The thing.
And it's not stated, but thething that I liked is pretty clear
way that we see that it's not.
It's not that the work is goodfor him because it's not necessarily
good for him.
It's the work with the peoplethat he's working with.
That's what's good for him.
They are the ones that reallyget him back more on track.

(58:37):
You know, Hardy.
You know, his partner Hardy,Akram, Rose, all of them.
And then, you know, he starts.
And we see that he startstreating them with much more respect,
too.
Well, Hardy had alwaysrespected, but Akram and Rose, definitely.
And I really liked that.
It was not said, but clearlyit would.

(58:58):
Yes, that was definitely shownand not told.
I took a lot of pleasure inMerit almost escaping and knocking
the evil Jennings woman out ofher wheelchair after she took such
pleasure of Merit losing atooth and pulling it out her damn
self with pliers.
Another gruesome scene, butwhen she falls out of the wheelchair,

(59:20):
gets knocked out of thewheelchair, and a wig falls off.
You know, at that time, we didnot know she was a Jennings mother,
but I thought, oh, okay.
That's maybe why I felt likethat was a man dressed as a woman.
Because she is wearing a wig.
She had Mrs.
Doubtfire wig.
She had a Mrs.
Downfire wig going on.
Yeah.
Does take Merit to a memorywhere she loses a tooth as a kid,

(59:43):
naturally.
And her mom gives her anecklace and abandons her.
It made me think that surelyshe's not the captor.
I didn't really go there, but I.
I thought, okay, so thisseries has something to say about
mothers or the absence or bad mothers.
Yeah.
And with Merritt's mother,that was very sad.
Right.
Because she's killed in anaccident, if I remember correctly.

(01:00:06):
Oh, is that right?
She didn't abandon her.
Well, there was the bit whereshe was trying to go and get the
money for her children fromher family.
And if I remember correctly,she was killed in a car accident.
I gotcha.
So the necklace.
You have the absent motherwith the necklace who is actually,
even though she's absent, youknow, still loving, whereas you have

(01:00:27):
the present mother who is.
Is rancid and you know, for your.
For your.
For your emotional and mentalwell being.
So I thought there was alittle nice interplay there.
Yeah.
Department Q is the kind ofshow wants you to guess.
It had me pausing Sam Haggsfile as Hardy read it.
Yeah.
In order to determine if thatwas Sam, the Sam Hag we knew.

(01:00:50):
And I paused it, and it ishard to pause it because they show
it quick.
His picture of his death atthe bottom of.
Of the thing, but it was not him.
You can pause it and say,interesting things start coming together.
I did.
I didn't even notice that.
Yeah.
I was like, okay, is thatreally Sam?
The Sam Hague?
The dream begins episode eight.
We're getting near the end here.
Yeah.

(01:01:10):
Penultimate episode.
It felt really realistic andas the series has shown us thus far.
But did you for a secondbelieve Carl's shooting of the guy?
I.
Or was that the moment whereyou were like, this is a dream?
I was kind of like, I.
If they chose to do this, theinvestigation, etc.

(01:01:30):
In this way, I believe Carlcould do it because he's angry.
But I don't believe the showis doing it.
I think this is a dream.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because the idea here is thathe's improving.
And yes, it's.
It's following a little bit ofa trend.
You know, he no longer parkson the curves and the.
The symbolic code, if that'swhere you're seeing it.
And he's opening up.

(01:01:51):
This is, I think, where heopens up in a almost gentle way to
Jasper.
Yes.
I think this is the.
So it's episode eight where hesits him down and says, we gotta
talk about this man, or it'sgonna build up.
Almost.
Yeah.
Therapeutic.
For someone who seemedcompletely uninterested in therapy,

(01:02:13):
he's able to offer.
You know, you kind of wonder,like, is Carl punishing himself because
he was fine, he lost a toothand Hardy was paralyzed.
Is that.
Is he punishing himself intherapy where he's able to give Jasper
a grace that he's not willingto receive for himself or he's willing
to you know, help.
Help Jasper deal with his.

(01:02:33):
His feelings about somethingreally horrible that's happened.
I think that's right.
I think.
I mean, I think.
I think they play it.
They play it in such a waythat I think it's.
It's plausible, it's believable.
Yeah.
I'll get to my second big.
Okay.
Unbelievable thing.
I wasn't sold that LyleJennings, as crazy as he was, could

(01:02:55):
pass as Sam Hague, who issupposed to be as smart as he was.
Mm.
I don't think the serieshinges on adult Lyle being able to
pull off being quote unquotenormal, but an intelligent for that
long enough to sleep withmerit or her not recognizing him
as an adult, but a little unbelievable.

(01:03:17):
Yeah.
It's hard to recognize peopleeven if they're grown.
Yeah.
I.
I think I'd agree with you, Blaine.
Not that it's like a dealbreaker, but it's just one of those
things where it's like, okay,it happened for the mystery.
Does that you know more than.
Yeah.
Because we're looking at it,like in.
You know, because we thinkthis is really, really accurate.

(01:03:39):
And I was.
It's fine.
Right?
Like, as soon as you see it, you're.
As long as you're willing togo with the logic of the show, which
I think going with it isrewarded and the show is.
Is smart enough to make itworthwhile, then it's fine.
Final episode begins with Roserecounting her investigation on Elle
Jennings.
And I thought, is this another telling.

(01:04:00):
And not showing?
But no.
We did see her go to thattrailer slash house where the Jennings
live.
It was just such an earlierepisode that I had.
Yep.
I'd forgotten it because she'dhad the other police officer, the
son, drive her over.
That's right.
Nice reminder to have.
Remember.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice reminder to have islandpoliceman John, I think his name

(01:04:24):
was.
Was that it?
Yeah.
John or James.
Come to Elsa, mom of the yearJennings house to bring her mail,
follow up on an emergency call.
Now here to me was another,you know, again from the book, maybe
the show.
Yes.
It's a sign of goodstoryboarding, I thought you knowing
when to place each scene formaximum effect because you've got

(01:04:46):
the cop and as soon as hetakes off his radio, I thought, oh,
he's going to die in there.
Yeah.
He won't be able to get help.
But no, he had a hand in allof this.
Yeah.
He doesn't want.
Was that his radio or his body cam?
I think it may have been hisbike because I.
When I Saw him take it off.
I was like, he doesn't wantthis recorded.
Oh.
Which nothing.

(01:05:06):
Nothing good ever happens.
As we know, unfortunately fromreal life.
Nothing good ever happens whena police officer turns off his body
cam.
There's no.
Nothing good follows that.
We're talking phobias, fears,inescapable mental and emotional
wounds.
They are rampant in Edinburgh.
It's the weather, I thinkmight be what you think about.

(01:05:29):
What'd you make of moronsseeming to have arachnophobia suddenly?
Not suddenly, but the revealis a little sudden.
We'll see.
There's something going on there.
Okay.
They're building on somethingfor further seasons, I believe.
Okay.
I think there's something because.
Especially with connecting itso much with her.
Looking at the.

(01:05:49):
The.
The case where Carl and Hardywere shot.
There's more.
More to happen in there.
I believe I know where I stand.
I'm fine with it.
Are you?
You're fine with no overlapbetween Carl shooting and the investigation
of Merritt?
Yeah, I'm completely fine with that.
Yeah, me too.

(01:06:09):
They're both their own thingsand they're both doing different
things for the characters andthe shoot.
Carl's shooting.
I'm completely fine with itbeing a larger mystery.
Over the.
The course of.
Hopefully we see a little moreof this series.
I'd watch a second season.
I enjoyed it, definitely.
I hope we get one.
I thought it was touching.

(01:06:30):
Smart moment to have CarlMerritt only see one another in passing
and not over dramatize.
Yeah.
Neither of them knew.
Well, he knew what she looked like.
She didn't know what he looked like.
So that was.
But he didn't need that.
Right.
He just wanted to go back, getto work.
It tells you something abouthim, but it also doesn't get into
melodrama.
But I will say having Hardycome back into the office is enough

(01:06:52):
to draw some happy tears fromviewers, maybe.
Absolutely.
Especially as he funny sceneas he's at the top of the stairs
and he can't get down.
Yeah.
What the fuck is this?
Yeah.
Yeah.
But that also minimizes the dramatization.
Matthew Goode's reaction toHardy coming back.
It's such so well played toend the series.

(01:07:13):
Exactly.
Because, you know, he's like,thank God.
Thank God he's alive.
Thank God he's up and moving.
Thank God he's back at work.
It's all right there in thatslight, not even smirk.
The characters make this show.
The actors make this show.
The.
The scene placement makes it.
And you know, I'm sure a lotof it's borrowed from the books,

(01:07:34):
but it's so worth the time.
Very tight show.
Not a lot of fat on the bones here.
No unbelievable moment or two.
Yeah, maybe, but that's justgonna happen.
And maybe this is what we getwith the or this is the price we're
paying for unbelievable moments.
Because I did think thatanother good thing was with the show
was how, like, it does kind ofleave some things unresolved.

(01:07:57):
Like, I mean, there's someresolution, but, like, the guy in
Merit's case who killed hiswife, he gets away with it.
He's not in prison or anythingat the Finch.
Thank you.
He's not in prison or anythingat the end.
You know, there's a lot of,like, you win some, you lose some,
and life goes on.
Finch, played by the creepyguard in adolescence.

(01:08:21):
Isn't that him?
Well, that's the end of our episode.
We had a lot of fun.
Hope you did, too.
For Adam and Donovan, I'm Blaine.
And we hope that no one turnsoff their body cam on you.
Yeah.
All right, take care, everyone.
Talk to you next Tuesday.