FH Mini 139 - Tuboy Tube Talkin' (re)Turns!

[0:00] Hey, folks.

[0:01] Stuart Wellington of the Flophouse podcast here.

[0:03] Now, you're about to listen to a Flophouse mini episode that was recorded after Jimmy

[0:09] Kimmel had been suspended, but before ABC had decided to reinstate him.

[0:14] So some of the information may be a little out of date.

[0:17] Now, though the immediate threat may be averted, we here at the Flophouse feel the threat to

[0:24] freedom of speech continues on.

[0:26] So much of the material we talk about will still be valid.

[0:30] In any case, thank you for listening.

[0:33] Bye.

[0:35] Hey, everybody.

[0:39] This is Stuart Wellington of the Flophouse podcast, and this is another Flophouse mini

[0:43] episode, and I'm joined by my two co-hosts.

[0:47] Introduce yourselves.

[0:49] All the way from Los Angeles, California, we have Dan McCoy and Elliot Kalin, and I

[0:55] really hope that Alex was able to edit out the belch that happened right before he started

[0:59] saying hello to the audience.

[1:00] I hope he looped it.

[1:01] Yeah, so they can make it their ringtone.

[1:06] Yeah.

[1:07] Okay.

[1:08] So as now that I've established, this is an episode of the Flophouse, and it's a Flophouse

[1:10] mini.

[1:11] Let's get the real...

[1:12] Resolved.

[1:13] This is the Flophouse mini.

[1:14] Yes.

[1:15] Yes.

[1:16] Seconded.

[1:17] Let's get the real intro out of the way.

[1:19] music because we are doing another Two Boy talking tube to two dudes tonight.

[1:26] That's right.

[1:27] In this case, Two Boy refers to me, Stuart Wellington, aka Two Boy, and the two dudes

[1:32] I'm talking to are Dan and Elliot tonight because it's nighttime in New York.

[1:36] It's daytime where they're recording, and it's right because that's what we're doing.

[1:39] It's early evening where you are in New York.

[1:41] Okay.

[1:42] I didn't realize I was...

[1:44] I guess that's wrong.

[1:47] I won't want to get any Pinocchios on the podcast because you said 7-12 is nighttime.

[1:51] Yeah.

[1:52] This is all Pinocchios.

[1:53] This is an all Pinocchio episode.

[1:54] This is all goofs and sillies.

[1:56] This is our whoops, all goofs episode of the Flophouse.

[1:59] Oh, if only.

[2:00] If only we had one of those in us, but the thing is, our dedication to the truth and

[2:05] honesty overrules that.

[2:07] So I am here in New York City, and I am recording this with my two co-hosts who are all the

[2:12] way in La La Land, the place where television comes from.

[2:17] Oh, yeah.

[2:18] So I thought it'd be a great time for us to revisit a classic Stuart Wellington sub-mini

[2:23] premise to boy talk to two dudes tonight.

[2:25] To just talk about television.

[2:26] That's the premise.

[2:27] Just talking about television.

[2:28] Yeah.

[2:29] Yeah.

[2:30] Yeah.

[2:31] So I think everybody...

[2:32] It's not the most elaborate premise.

[2:33] Wow.

[2:34] I think everybody understands the premise.

[2:35] I don't know.

[2:36] I don't know that we need to keep burning, Stu.

[2:37] I know.

[2:38] I'm sorry.

[2:39] No, it's okay.

[2:40] It's all worked up.

[2:41] He's all prepared to...

[2:43] I'm thrown off by having Dan next to me, so I'm holding the hostility I would normally

[2:48] hit him with at you.

[2:49] Sorry, Paul.

[2:50] Yeah.

[2:51] Elliot's really nervous for a rush of shots at dinner tonight, I guess.

[2:54] Yeah.

[2:55] Well, that's the thing is, I know that I've got to build up some sins that I can atone

[2:58] for in a week and a half, so...

[3:01] Well, don't worry.

[3:03] You'll have Dan there to hold your hand the whole time, right?

[3:07] So that'll be fun.

[3:08] Okay.

[3:09] Yeah.

[3:10] I guess.

[3:11] Oh, it feels nice.

[3:13] It's so warm.

[3:14] They're somehow gentle, yet callous, like a working man's hands.

[3:16] So, since we're talking about television...

[3:18] I thought you said it was a fantasy.

[3:21] Sorry.

[3:22] So, since we're talking about television, and I'm talking with two television writers,

[3:27] I think it's important that we address one of the biggest stories in television right

[3:31] now, a fellow named Jimmy Kimmel, who has lost his job because the president put his

[3:36] thumb on the scale.

[3:37] Do you guys have opinions on this?

[3:39] Yeah, I'm anti-him.

[3:42] I think it's a sign of not just horrible authoritarian overreach on this part of the FCC and the

[3:50] federal government, but also cowardice and greed on the part of the corporations, which

[3:56] are the ones that ultimately took him away, because apparently every single fucking major

[4:00] media corporation in America is in the midst of merging with another media corporation

[4:06] and needs the FCC to approve it, which not only threatens the diversity of opinions and

[4:13] content that we can have, the diversity of material in entertainment, that's right off

[4:18] the bat, but also means that they are uniquely vulnerable to threats from the federal government

[4:24] to police the opinions and the types of statements and jokes that are made on their channels.

[4:30] It's all very bad.

[4:33] That's the not-so-secret sub-issue to the clear bullying by the government, which is

[4:39] that also we should have, for years, been more careful about the development of monopolies,

[4:47] because shit like this happens.

[4:49] They're not all run by friendly, rich-uncle-pennybags who've just given $10 out whenever he wants.

[4:54] I don't think he's that friendly.

[4:56] Look at his face when he's judging that beauty contest.

[4:59] When he wins the beauty contest, that's the thing.

[5:01] He's not judging it.

[5:02] He wins second prize.

[5:03] Yeah, I mean, he's pretty good-looking, but still.

[5:06] I will say, it shows the corruption of the system that rich-uncle-pennybags wins second

[5:10] place in the beauty contest.

[5:12] Yeah.

[5:13] Maybe a mustache contest.

[5:14] But it is true that for decades now, I think mergers in the entertainment—I mean, mergers

[5:19] in general have not been policed the way they should be, and tech companies have monopolies

[5:22] over so many parts of our lives.

[5:24] There's no real competition on them.

[5:27] For decades, entertainment mergers, I think, have been particularly not cared about, because

[5:31] entertainment is not seen as a serious business.

[5:33] It's seen as a goofy, fake, imaginary business that weirdos do, and celebrities, and who

[5:40] cares, and it's not treated as an industry where millions of people who are regular,

[5:46] ordinary people, who are not celebrities and wealthy, make a living and have to live off

[5:50] of and use so many different kinds of skills, and it's the kind of reason that we had a

[5:54] strike a couple years ago.

[5:57] Because of these types of—the fact that corporate work was not taken seriously as

[6:01] an issue, but now it's—

[6:02] All sorts of local affiliates, including their news departments, are overseen by hyper-conservative

[6:08] megacorporations, so that's probably pretty good for speech, right?

[6:13] Yeah, so I think—

[6:14] Yeah, I mean, there's—

[6:15] But you were saying you want to take the opposite—that you actually—you were glad to see people

[6:18] get his, like you said?

[6:19] Yeah, you're pro-crackdown speech.

[6:21] Yeah, I still have a chip on my shoulder since the Man Show, so I thought it was time he

[6:26] The—I think—I mean, so that makes the second late-night show that's going away.

[6:33] I think this highlights a very clear moment that this is not normal, right?

[6:38] Well, that—unfortunately, it highlights that this has become normal, that if there's

[6:42] three, then that just becomes regular MO, is that if two—

[6:45] A New York Times trend piece.

[6:47] What?

[6:48] It becomes a New York Times trend piece.

[6:49] It does become a New York Times trend piece.

[6:50] It's like my favorite—

[6:51] Speaking of another—

[6:52] My favorite style trend piece ever, which was, pot bellies are big in Brooklyn, and

[6:56] it was like, no, the guys are just getting older.

[6:58] But I think the fact that you've had twice this year companies that need approval for

[7:03] mergers throw away—cancel someone who is running afoul of the president, like that—it's

[7:09] the norm now, which sucks.

[7:10] I don't like living in that world.

[7:12] And they not only—they're not only canceling the host and the people, but it's like the

[7:17] huge group of people who work there.

[7:19] Hundreds of people who are employed.

[7:20] There's hundreds of people who are thrown out of work, and they—it's—that's not

[7:25] fair to them.

[7:26] It's not good for them.

[7:27] And the point was made, you know, back at the—when Colbert—this happened at Colbert,

[7:31] like, there's a whole local economy, too, around these shows.

[7:35] Like, it brings money to the city that it's produced in over and above, like, the people

[7:42] who are employed.

[7:43] Well, it's a—it's—I think there's been a—I mean, it's part of also a larger thing

[7:46] of, like, the government crowing about how it's fired so many people from the federal

[7:50] government.

[7:51] The federal government employs a lot of people, and those are people.

[7:53] They're American citizens who pay taxes, have bills to pay, have families.

[7:56] They're not this kind of, like, subspecies that we want to throw away and shoot into

[8:01] the sun.

[8:02] Or the movie Subspecies.

[8:03] If they were, that would be awesome.

[8:04] That would be awesome.

[8:05] It's this—the idea that the government then kind of crows about, yeah, we're kicking people

[8:10] out of work, you know.

[8:11] But I also think that if the things they are saying about AI are true, which I don't know

[8:15] really that they are, where they're like, oh, yeah, this will eliminate 50 percent of

[8:18] white-collar jobs, then I think we all have a revolution on our hands, and we'll have

[8:22] whole new issues to deal with.

[8:23] So once the middle class feels like it can no longer control its own life in any way

[8:28] or can't pay its bills, that's when, historically, they start to overthrow governments.

[8:32] So they may be sowing their own destruction.

[8:35] I mean, you don't feel the middle class is feeling that way?

[8:39] I mean—

[8:40] I think the middle class is feeling that way, but not—it has not hit the point of, and

[8:44] there's something I can do about it.

[8:46] At the moment, it feels like the middle class feels the way, and there's nothing I can do

[8:49] about it.

[8:51] Much like the—I mean, this is—much like the reason we have the programs from the New

[8:56] Deal that the Republican Party wants to destroy so badly is because things got so bad that

[9:01] people were like, we either have to change or we're going to have a revolution on our

[9:04] hands.

[9:05] And I think we're going to—we're now at a place where the people in charge are like,

[9:09] we don't want to change, and we don't care.

[9:12] And then you end up with a revolution.

[9:14] I'm not advocating a revolution because that's not good for families in general, and I have

[9:18] one.

[9:19] It's not good for like, I don't know, young guys who like to shoot people, which I'm not

[9:22] in favor of.

[9:23] And so I'm not advocating that, but I'm saying if you really make people feel like they cannot

[9:28] support themselves because you're eagerly throwing them out of work and making it impossible

[9:32] for them to pay their bills or feed their families, then it causes trouble.

[9:36] It's trouble with a capital T, and that rhymes with P, and that stands for pool.

[9:40] Pools of blood, Daniel, that will run down the streets.

[9:44] So the—in this specific case—

[9:47] Thanks for bringing this up, Stu.

[9:48] This is supposed to be a fun podcast.

[9:49] Hey, that's why we're doing it up top.

[9:53] We're eating our broccoli now so we can have dessert later.

[9:56] Yeah, yeah.

[9:57] Okay, now that we got the—

[10:00] out of the way we're gonna go move on to the next our next segment guys recently

[10:05] I don't know if you pay attention to this sort of thing but there was a thing

[10:08] called the Emmys and at least one of that one of us watched the Emmys

[10:12] ceremony can you guess which one it was Dan. I mean Elliot probably can because it

[10:18] wasn't him I'm assuming from the way he looks so what about expression your face

[10:25] like well it wasn't me so I assumed it was Dan yeah so yeah you know yeah I

[10:29] I'm like I don't see Stuart really watching it I didn't I know I didn't

[10:33] I mean Stuart likes award shows but instead of a werewolf it's who watched the Emmys as I I like

[10:41] award shows for movies because I like having an excuse to get excited and talk

[10:45] about movies in general I like award shows because I love glitz and glamour

[10:49] baby but I did not catch the Emmys but let's talk about some of the winning

[10:53] programs and I think we're going to play a sub game that I think we'll probably

[10:58] carry through most of today's mini episode which is has Elliot seen this

[11:03] show I think without Elliot answering yet Dan is gonna have to chime in on all

[11:08] these I have an advantage on that and for me it's more of a dom game than a

[11:12] sub game because I know the answers already so Dan I think you'll it this is

[11:15] you're playing this solo today what hmm Dan solo that was when Dan signed on to

[11:22] that StarCraft Starfreighter yeah yeah yeah he was fighting the Zerg okay so

[11:28] one of the big winners The Pit won things like best drama best actor I

[11:34] think maybe best writing best writing fight for Dale Keown the creator of The

[11:38] Pit yeah sure yeah that was the thing I watched the pilot and no fucking dude

[11:43] with crazy blade fingers showed up so I was like fuck this like where's the

[11:47] little kid with the monster with the long hair what's going on yeah did I did

[11:50] any of you guys that's that's for that's for 90s comics kids Dan's gonna

[11:56] get that reference to Dale Keown's The Pit Dan has Elliot seen The Pit I'm

[12:01] gonna say Elliot has not seen The Pit definitively judges has Elliot seen The

[12:05] Pit ding ding Elliot has not seen The Pit yeah I've only seen the I only saw

[12:10] maybe 20 minutes of the first episode Dan have you really I have seen all of

[12:14] The Pit I say this as a person who does not like medical shows the closest to a

[12:19] medical show I've watched in the past is House which is actually a mystery show

[12:24] yeah not really a medical mystery show but our friend Linda Holmes was so

[12:31] positive about The Pit I wanted to check The Pit out I started watching The Pit

[12:36] and my fear was that as someone who is has a lot of medical anxiety that the

[12:43] the show would freak me out whereas instead it comforted me it's kind of

[12:49] competency porn like a lot of bad things happen but it's you know a bunch

[12:53] of doctors who really care damn it yeah and are good at their jobs and so that

[13:00] it was you know it was a lot of fun it's gonna be a show about doctors screwing

[13:04] up constantly and leaving their keys inside people's kidneys and stuff like

[13:07] you know it's old-fashioned melodrama with a bunch of really good doctors who

[13:11] are good at their jobs yeah I we Charlene and I started watching it and I

[13:15] think we were watching it while eating something and we're like you know what

[13:18] this is not for us yeah we both of us have issues I have issues in hospitals

[13:25] and she has issues in hospitals and for some reason you can get those issues out

[13:29] of those hospitals yeah they're valuable yeah yeah

[13:32] fireman number one is that a hospital right now my death of Superman foil

[13:40] cover the pit number one why is it a hospital yeah thank you cuz it's called

[13:46] the pit so Dan would you say that this is a show that is worth worth the

[13:51] accolades is it worth the hype I think it's great it's a fit you know it's it's

[13:55] a very old-fashioned show in a lot of ways combined with sort of a newer

[14:00] fashioned morals well they're all nude it's a nude hospital well you know it's

[14:06] it clearly has a lot of ER and it's DNA to the degree that there was a lawsuit

[14:13] originally developed as an ER but it also is kind of a more modern show where

[14:19] like it's each each hour of the show is one hour in the same day so it builds on

[14:25] itself that way but yeah it's it's a very well done version are there 24

[14:33] episodes well a whole shift is thankfully not 24 hours you don't usually

[14:39] wait for 24 hours I will say I haven't seen it I'm actually kind of more

[14:46] interested in watching it because everyone's like it's old-fashioned it's

[14:49] a throwback I've been saying for years now in pitches of shows that I've been

[14:52] pitching that there's a hunger for old-fashioned more traditional types of

[14:56] television shows that we've kind of gone as far as we need to at the moment in

[15:00] deconstructing what a television show is and making it more about I don't know

[15:05] artsy moments or whatever I love artsy moments but like sometimes you just want

[15:09] to sit down and watch a show that tells you a story and you're like oh what a

[15:11] story very satisfying well this is very artfully done but it is but it's not

[15:16] like it's not like oh now I've got to track the clues of this winding mystery

[15:20] or I've got to figure out what what the secrets are and I think there's I think

[15:23] it does not surprise me that in a world of instability where again we're on

[15:28] probably the edge of a revolution someday that people would hunger for

[15:32] something that is a traditional form of storytelling you know so speaking of

[15:36] more let's say aggressive storytelling we have with the next couple shows kind

[15:42] of touch on that another big winner was the studio which won for best comedy

[15:47] writing directing acting for mr. Seth Rogen have you guys has Elliot watched

[15:52] the studio Dan have I watched the studio I'm gonna say that there's there is a

[15:57] chance that Elliot has seen like an episode of the studio but I'm gonna say

[16:01] no judges and Elliot has seen three episodes at that point that I decided

[16:09] I've seen what this show can do maybe I'll come back to it sometime yeah you

[16:14] guys are both you guys both I would say have strong in opinions about comedy

[16:18] what do you feel about it coming out this November from the University of

[16:22] joke farming I think I may have seen three episodes maybe I actually seen

[16:36] less of the suit I might have just seen two I saw I saw I definitely saw the

[16:40] episode I think I saw up to the episodes Ron Howard's it's either the third or

[16:42] fourth episode and I saw the winner episode that everyone was talking about

[16:45] for a while yeah I you know the problem with I am into the studio I would watch

[16:50] more of the studio the problem with me watching the studio is Audrey finds it

[16:56] so like yeah stressful like it's it's built on such not it's not awkward

[17:02] comedy but it's comedy where you know everything's gonna go wrong there's

[17:05] never you're never wondering if Seth Rogen's gonna what's he gonna do to save

[17:08] the day this yeah no he's just gonna make it worse how's he gonna fuck it up

[17:11] and she finds it very stressful and I'm like you know I could watch the studio

[17:16] alone she's like no I'll watch the curse of the married man you can't watch the

[17:22] thing you want there's the eternal promise that you'll watch it but never

[17:25] yeah I think I think I'm kind of the same way like it is a little at least

[17:29] for me it's a little more like form over function and I I just like as much as I

[17:36] can watch and be like ah this is clever I don't I don't particularly enjoy hit I

[17:41] don't I think it's beautifully done there's stuff in it that's that I do

[17:46] find it funny like there's stuff in it that's funny yeah but like I never find

[17:50] it as funny as I find Seinfeld which I also have access to you know so the I

[17:56] feel like the structure I'll say my saying that the TV show Seinfeld is

[18:00] funny is in no way an endorsement of Seinfeld's the man's views on the

[18:03] Palestinian situation so don't write me letters about that I'm opposed to him on

[18:07] his views of what Israel should be doing but Seinfeld the sitcom I still

[18:12] find hilarious I'll bite often racist but it's still yeah I was just saying

[18:17] that I think that the studio is a thing where I like I appreciate how how well

[18:22] made it is and how like I appreciate the structure and everything but I don't

[18:27] have much of a I don't feel very connected to it I don't really view them

[18:31] as like characters well I think that's that's the issue for me is I feel like

[18:34] Seth Rogen does a real I think his comedy performance is really it's really

[18:38] funny but that character he doesn't like I don't maybe I need to watch more of it

[18:43] to find it but I don't watch it and be like oh yeah I love this character I

[18:46] want to see more of him instead I'm constantly like dude like just even more

[18:52] Catherine Hahn please and more yes outfits really funny in it yeah the

[18:58] Catherine's in it are great yeah it's got to the best Catherine's and

[19:01] especially because he's also on platonic right now which is not Emmy

[19:06] related but I think he at least is playing like a distinct character in

[19:10] that that feels like a human being with a like a complete life which he's

[19:16] certainly capable of like he's incredibly capable of it but he's

[19:19] playing more of a comic type in this show than he is playing a full character

[19:23] yeah okay so another I'm happy to see but I'm happy to see cut best comedy go

[19:28] to a show with jokes in it you know yeah yeah I would I would argue I am NOT

[19:33] though I don't love it I I'm like okay cool yeah I guess it's it's worth at

[19:39] least some of the hype yeah yeah I'll say that yeah another show that is very

[19:44] structure focused is that won a bunch of awards is adolescence Dan has Elliot

[19:49] seen adolescence episodes yeah but I'm gonna say no he has not seen an

[19:57] adolescence ding-ding you're right Dan I have

[20:00] I've seen Adolescence, everyone tells me it's really good.

[20:02] I'll see it eventually, I guess, I don't know.

[20:04] It's not what I need in my life right now.

[20:06] Yeah.

[20:07] You mentioned Wunners, the show's got some Wunners.

[20:09] It's got lots of Wunners.

[20:10] Isn't it all Wunners?

[20:11] I think it is all Wunners, that's what I've heard, yeah.

[20:13] Yeah.

[20:14] I've only seen part of the first episode.

[20:17] I got like 10 minutes in and then I was like,

[20:20] again, I'm like, I don't know,

[20:22] maybe Audrey will want to see this.

[20:24] It's like, you know, it's got British people in it,

[20:27] she likes that.

[20:29] Yeah, like is there a mystery?

[20:30] I've never watched it.

[20:32] If there's a mystery, it certainly isn't cozy.

[20:34] I do feel like Charlene and I watched it

[20:37] and by the end of the fourth episode,

[20:39] Charlene's like, why did we watch this?

[20:42] It just made you sad.

[20:44] Yeah, I mean, well, it's kind of sad

[20:46] and I feel like it doesn't necessarily,

[20:47] like part of the strength of it

[20:49] and it doesn't feel like it's,

[20:51] it doesn't feel like resolved in any way.

[20:54] Yeah, they got to leave it open for season two.

[20:56] Yeah, yeah, return, adulthood, I guess.

[21:01] But so I guess of the people who have,

[21:03] I've seen all of it, I would say, yeah,

[21:06] I mean, it's certainly like,

[21:07] if the idea of watching something

[21:08] that is structurally very interesting and complicated

[21:13] and it deals with some fairly heavy issues

[21:17] facing young people in our like modern world,

[21:22] yeah, I would say it's worth watching.

[21:24] It's tough.

[21:25] I've heard of all about the pressures

[21:26] that young people are feeling

[21:27] and I feel like that's, as a parent,

[21:29] I can relate to it.

[21:30] My son feels such pressure to catch them all.

[21:32] People say he's got to catch them all

[21:33] and yet it's impossible to catch them all, you know?

[21:35] You just can't.

[21:36] In this modern world, you can't.

[21:37] No, because that other team is always out

[21:39] trying to catch them and those guys are mean, you know?

[21:42] Team Rocket?

[21:43] Team Rocket.

[21:44] I mean, yeah, but they're like really hot.

[21:48] Which still makes it harder to catch them all.

[21:50] Yeah, I guess that's distracting.

[21:52] Okay, so the next couple of shows

[21:53] we're gonna talk about mainly won

[21:55] like maybe one award here or there,

[21:57] but I still think they're worth mentioning.

[21:59] We got The Penguin, which won,

[22:01] Kristen Melati won for actress.

[22:05] She's lovely, amazing.

[22:06] Dan, has Elliot seen The Penguin?

[22:08] I'm gonna say almost with definite certainty

[22:12] that Elliot has not seen The Penguin.

[22:15] You're right, Dan, I have not seen The Penguin.

[22:17] I am on a, I think, Batman-related media moratorium

[22:20] personally.

[22:21] I heard that The Batman was good,

[22:23] but I kind of, I'm Batman-ed out for the moment.

[22:25] I don't need more Batman right now.

[22:27] I figured that was, Colin Farrell doing his like.

[22:31] I love Colin Farrell, I love Kristen Melati,

[22:33] but I don't know.

[22:34] Is Batman in it or no?

[22:36] He's not.

[22:37] No.

[22:38] Okay, maybe I'll watch it if Batman's in it.

[22:38] Again, maybe I'll watch it if I have any time

[22:40] in my life to watch The Penguin.

[22:41] I figured that was your policy,

[22:42] and like for me, the thing about The Penguin was like,

[22:45] well, I'm Batman-ed out on the one hand.

[22:48] On the other hand, do I need to see like

[22:50] a gritty crime drama,

[22:52] but except it's in like Batman world?

[22:55] We don't see Batman?

[22:57] I was like, I don't know,

[22:58] but then I kept hearing how good Colin Farrell was in it,

[23:01] how good everyone was in it,

[23:03] and I watched it, and sure enough, they are,

[23:05] and Kristen Melati is amazing in it.

[23:08] When you put incredibly talented performers

[23:11] into your project, they'll be really,

[23:13] you gotta work hard to make them bad in it.

[23:15] They'll be really good in it.

[23:16] And I think that's the thing,

[23:17] is it's like, there's a limit,

[23:21] and maybe this is me being a snob,

[23:21] maybe this is me and Martin Scorsese

[23:23] or Francis Ford Coppola or whatever.

[23:24] I love comics.

[23:25] I love superheroes.

[23:26] I feel like there is a limit to the seriousness

[23:29] of the issues of the world that can be addressed,

[23:33] or the aspects of the human condition

[23:35] that can be addressed in a gritty crime drama

[23:38] about The Penguin, and maybe I'm wrong about this.

[23:40] Maybe, does he use umbrellas in it or no?

[23:43] No, I don't remember any umbrella stuff.

[23:45] Okay, but I feel like there's a,

[23:48] if I wanna see a crime thing-

[23:51] He does drive a purple car, though.

[23:53] Yeah, I mean, but real people do that sometimes.

[23:56] Prince did that.

[23:56] He was a crime boss, right?

[23:58] Yeah.

[23:59] I think these, I think there's a-

[24:01] Batman adjacent.

[24:02] There's certain things that I get out of superhero stuff

[24:05] that I don't get elsewhere,

[24:07] but gritty crime, I can get elsewhere.

[24:09] I wanna say- Yeah.

[24:10] One funny thing I find about the character

[24:12] of The Penguin is, like,

[24:14] she is either, like, the dapperest little man

[24:17] you ever did see, or a gross brood of a man.

[24:20] Yeah.

[24:21] Like, there's, like, two ways you can go with The Penguin,

[24:23] and they're, like, fundamentally, like, on opposite ends.

[24:27] Which is what's kind of amazing about Danny DeVito

[24:30] in Batman Returns, he's kind of both.

[24:32] He's kind of both, but it's like,

[24:34] you can't do it where he has a little bit of style,

[24:36] and he's a little bit monstrous.

[24:38] He's gotta be extreme, you know?

[24:39] Yeah, yeah.

[24:40] That'd be boring, yeah.

[24:41] I just think it's funny that they created this character,

[24:44] who's like, I don't know,

[24:46] a Heisenberg uncertainty, like, particle, the Penguin.

[24:49] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[24:50] Like, yeah, the pitch meeting where they're like,

[24:51] okay, he's the grossest little monster,

[24:53] but he's also the dapperest little gentleman.

[24:56] He wears a tuxedo and tails all the time,

[24:58] but also he eats people's faces, and he lives in the sewer.

[25:02] I mean, now you've talked to me into wanting to watch it,

[25:04] if that's what happens in it,

[25:05] but I think there's a, and I don't want to,

[25:08] anyone who likes The Penguin, the TV show,

[25:10] this is not me casting, throwing shade at you,

[25:14] it's okay, it is not what I'm looking for

[25:15] in my life at this moment.

[25:16] Yeah, I liked it quite a bit.

[25:18] I think there's moments that, like,

[25:21] it could have been trimmed a little bit,

[25:23] but I feel like there's some really cool stuff in there,

[25:26] and I feel like for a pulp story,

[25:28] I think it was, I think it came at a time

[25:31] where I was, like, I needed something

[25:33] that was just gritty enough,

[25:35] but mainly just a fun pulp story to watch.

[25:37] I mean, maybe I would enjoy it if I watched.

[25:39] Right now, I'm at a point in my life

[25:41] where I do not know what I am looking for, particularly,

[25:44] and I'm, like, literally, I was looking at Tubi,

[25:46] at what they have, and they have all of Babylon 5 on there,

[25:47] and I'm like, I've never watched Babylon 5.

[25:49] Is this the period in my life

[25:50] where I really get into Babylon 5?

[25:52] Maybe I'll start going to conventions.

[25:54] Yeah.

[25:55] He won't tell us he's watching it,

[25:57] but there'll be signs of him making Babylon 5 references.

[26:01] I wanted to say, I was gonna say,

[26:02] I'll be making references to da-da-da,

[26:04] but I don't know even any of the characters in Babylon 5.

[26:06] I can't even fake a reference.

[26:08] But I think, so maybe these are shows

[26:10] that I don't know that I want right now,

[26:12] and I would realize if I started watching them.

[26:14] Okay, another show that won for writing was Andor.

[26:18] Dan, has Elliot seen Andor?

[26:22] I'm gonna say no,

[26:23] because I believe he is also Star Wars'd out.

[26:27] Dan, I watched much of the first season of Andor.

[26:30] Okay.

[26:31] Yeah, and I think I'll probably pick it up again

[26:33] at some point.

[26:33] Yeah.

[26:34] I watched a couple episodes of the first season.

[26:36] I liked it.

[26:36] I just did not feel like I was in a place

[26:38] to devote the time to it.

[26:41] But I did kind of have a similar attitude

[26:42] where I'm like, I don't know,

[26:43] do I need a gritty Star Wars?

[26:47] Dan, have you watched Andor?

[26:48] I watched all of the first season of Andor,

[26:50] and I am like, I have been for months,

[26:54] like three episodes away from finishing it.

[26:59] My problem with it was just like, yeah, I get it.

[27:03] You know, I get where this is.

[27:05] I've literally seen where this is going,

[27:07] and something about-

[27:08] Yeah, Rogue One.

[27:09] The second series where they did this thing

[27:12] where they would do like paired episodes

[27:16] and then a time jump and then paired episodes

[27:18] and then a time jump.

[27:18] Because they didn't want to spend years and years

[27:20] continuing the series, I think.

[27:22] Yeah, well, they knew they wouldn't have that time.

[27:25] Like, I think Disney made it clear to them

[27:26] that they weren't going to have that time.

[27:29] I think that that's good in certain ways

[27:31] because I don't want to be stuck with something

[27:34] for more time than maybe it needs.

[27:38] But I also found that it didn't have the sort of momentum

[27:42] that I wanted it to.

[27:43] Like, every time it felt like it was building up

[27:45] ahead of Steam, it was like, and now we're in the future.

[27:47] I'm like, okay.

[27:49] But it's a very well-done show.

[27:52] It's like, you know, I felt like I was Star Wars'd out,

[27:55] and it pulled me back in.

[27:56] It revived you.

[27:57] It is a well-made show.

[27:58] I mean, it's another, I feel like it's similar

[27:59] to what I was doing with Penguin,

[28:00] where I was like, it's a really well-made show,

[28:01] it's really well done, but it's like,

[28:03] I have other sources for this type of story

[28:06] that are not Star Wars.

[28:08] And maybe, again, this is me being a snob,

[28:10] but anyone who has watched as much

[28:11] Eastern European cinema as I have,

[28:13] you see a lot of stories about the compromises

[28:16] you have to make when you live under an authoritarian system.

[28:19] And I'm like, I'd rather get it that way,

[28:21] where it feels like it's coming from the people

[28:23] who have lived it, rather than in this kind of

[28:25] Star Wars world.

[28:26] But we're all gonna be living in that world pretty soon.

[28:29] So I'm gonna, we have a couple more Emmy winners

[28:32] I just want to mention real quick.

[28:35] Right up top, I want to give an extra shout-out

[28:37] to Jeff Hiller, winning for Somebody Somewhere.

[28:40] He gives a lovely performance.

[28:42] He's always a great performer.

[28:44] And did you guys catch any of Somebody Somewhere?

[28:47] I don't even know what that is.

[28:50] I watched all of it.

[28:51] It was, I think it was like,

[28:52] Audrey's favorite thing in the world.

[28:53] And I also enjoyed it quite a bit,

[28:56] although maybe not as much.

[28:58] And you know, he was a mainstay of the UCB theater.

[29:02] I would see him improvising all the time.

[29:05] It was good to see him successful.

[29:07] Yep.

[29:08] Also, two other shows that won a fair amount

[29:11] of acting awards.

[29:13] We have Hacks and Severance.

[29:16] Has Elliot seen Hacks or Severance, Dan?

[29:21] I'm gonna say he has not seen Hacks

[29:26] and maybe saw an episode of Severance.

[29:31] I have seen a handful of episodes

[29:33] of both of those series, Dan.

[29:34] Okay, yeah, well, Elliot wanted to learn

[29:36] what it's like to be a comedy writer,

[29:38] so he watched Hacks.

[29:40] And then he wanted to learn what it's like

[29:42] to work in an office, so he watched Severance.

[29:44] I assume accurate.

[29:46] I've seen none of Hacks and all of Severance.

[29:48] Oh, really?

[29:49] I've watched all of both,

[29:51] partly because I love Jean Smart

[29:53] and I'll watch Jean Smart in almost anything.

[29:56] And I think there's-

[29:57] And she's all over Severance.

[29:59] She's so silly.

[30:00] you see all over Severance.

[30:01] Those are both good shows.

[30:02] I mean, they're not, those are both good,

[30:03] like with Hacks, I think I just didn't keep up with it

[30:06] because it was hard for me to watch it being like,

[30:08] well, nitpicky about comedy and about the,

[30:12] not necessarily about the jokes on the show,

[30:14] but about just like that world.

[30:15] Well, yeah, certainly as soon as she gets a late night show,

[30:18] I'm like, well, I guess I can't text

[30:20] with my friends about this.

[30:22] And on Severance, there's the issue of like,

[30:25] I kept thinking if this was a movie

[30:27] and it was two hours long, I think I would love this.

[30:29] But to know that I'm gonna spend 10 to 20

[30:33] to who knows how many hours in this world,

[30:35] again, it was just like, I don't need this right now.

[30:37] Like, this is not what I want to do with,

[30:40] I don't wanna spend a lot of time in that world right now.

[30:42] But if it's a movie, I think I would have loved it.

[30:45] I think I'm with you.

[30:46] To me, it's a beautiful show

[30:48] and I think the performances are really interesting.

[30:50] Everyone's great in it.

[30:51] They did a really good job making it, yeah.

[30:53] There's a thing about the storytelling

[30:54] that feels like it's giving me vibes

[30:57] of like Lost and other puzzle box shows

[31:00] that I just don't have the fucking patience for anymore.

[31:03] Like, at least in a movie, I'm like, I got two hours,

[31:07] I'll enjoy this shit, then I'm done.

[31:09] Yeah.

[31:12] I'll watch it.

[31:13] If they don't give me answers,

[31:14] I'll at least have a story, maybe.

[31:15] But with TV, it's just spending a lot of time

[31:18] in that office.

[31:19] Like, I don't wanna spend a lot of time in that office.

[31:20] Again, and all things like, that may sound negative,

[31:24] but it really is, I'm like, this is a show

[31:28] that I feel like is just kind of not for me.

[31:30] I am glad it exists and if people get some enjoyment

[31:33] or some deeper meaning out of it,

[31:35] hey, that's awesome, enjoy that shit.

[31:37] It's a wonderful thing to feel like

[31:39] you live in an entertainment ecosystem

[31:41] where there are things for you

[31:42] and there are things for other people

[31:44] and everyone's got stuff they can enjoy

[31:45] and where you can feel safe saying like,

[31:47] this is not bad, but it's not what I wanna watch,

[31:49] you know, without feeling,

[31:51] I feel like maybe just because people are tired of,

[31:56] I don't know, the need to have to keep up on stuff,

[31:58] I feel like, at least in my life,

[31:59] I don't spend very much time online,

[32:00] so maybe that's for the reason.

[32:01] I feel like there's less of a sense of like,

[32:03] if you're not watching this thing,

[32:05] then you're insulting me for liking this thing.

[32:07] And it's nice to live in a world where like,

[32:11] different people have different things that they like

[32:12] and we don't all have to watch the same thing.

[32:14] You know, we're going to be going back into that world

[32:15] where I'll be watching the, you know,

[32:17] the same conservative show that airs 24 hours a day

[32:20] on every single network that just tells us,

[32:23] you know, to say our prayers and thank the God Emperor

[32:28] for his, you know, divine protection.

[32:31] But it's nice, until we live there,

[32:34] to be like, oh yeah, there are all these different shows,

[32:35] they're all well-made, I don't have to like all of them,

[32:37] but not because they're bad,

[32:38] but because they're just not my taste, you know?

[32:40] And that's fine.

[32:41] Yeah.

[32:42] ♪♪

[32:45] Amber Celeste Nash, welcome to the afterlife.

[32:49] Oh, snap.

[32:50] I have before me the record

[32:51] of all your worldly achievements,

[32:53] the voice of Pam Poovey on Archer.

[32:55] I must say, we're all big fans of yours up here.

[32:57] Great, swing open those pearly gates,

[33:00] you big-winged son of a bitch.

[33:02] Not so fast.

[33:03] It says here that you've never hosted your own podcast.

[33:05] I did some other cool stuff, but no,

[33:07] I never got around to making a podcast.

[33:09] You are hereby sentenced to relive your entire life,

[33:12] only this time, host a damn podcast.

[33:15] Okay.

[33:18] That's why we should do an Archer rewatch podcast.

[33:20] We should call it rephrasing,

[33:22] and we could even do it with maximumfun.org.

[33:25] Let's just do the podcast for normal reasons.

[33:28] Okay, grandma.

[33:30] The wizards answer eight by eight.

[33:34] The corn claves call to demonstrate their arcane gift,

[33:40] their single spell.

[33:42] They number 64 until a conflagration,

[33:48] 63 and 62 they soon shall be,

[33:55] as one by one the wizards die,

[33:59] till one remains to reign on high.

[34:05] Join us for Taz Royale,

[34:07] an Oops All Wizards Battle Royale season

[34:09] of the Adventure Zone,

[34:10] every other Thursday on maximumfun.org,

[34:13] or wherever you get your podcasts.

[34:16] And this podcast is brought to you in part by Factor.

[34:20] Fall is kind of like a reset season, you know,

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[34:30] you gotta worry about, you've got busier routines.

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[36:02] Okay.

[36:03] Wait, before we get back to talking about TV,

[36:04] I just wanna tell people there's two ways

[36:06] to get the Flophouse in a totally different way

[36:08] than this podcast.

[36:09] If you're in Chicago on Sunday, November 16th,

[36:12] we are performing at Sleeping Village.

[36:14] Our seven o'clock show is sold out,

[36:16] but don't worry, there's a late show that we added.

[36:18] Go to flophousepodcast.com slash events

[36:21] and you can buy tickets to that show.

[36:23] If you are in Chicago, it is a night of Jim Belushi movies.

[36:26] So if you come to the late show,

[36:27] you'll hear us talk about Canine,

[36:29] the movie where Jim Belushi is a cop with a dog.

[36:32] Can you believe it?

[36:34] If you can't get to Chicago-

[36:35] I can't.

[36:35] Yeah, yeah.

[36:36] If you can't get to Chicago, then I pity you.

[36:38] It's a great city.

[36:39] We're gonna have a great time there,

[36:40] but you can still watch the Flophouse on your computer.

[36:43] That's right, Flop TV is back the first Saturday

[36:45] of every month at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific.

[36:48] We'll be doing our one hour onscreen live broadcast

[36:52] of a Flophouse type show that we do.

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[36:58] It's the first Saturday of every month.

[37:00] Go to theflophouse.simpletics.com for tickets.

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[37:07] don't worry, your ticket gets you access

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[37:10] Those recordings will be available

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[37:15] Six episodes, get a season pass.

[37:17] It's six episodes for the cost of five.

[37:19] Just go to theflophouse.simpletics.com.

[37:22] Stuart, let's get back to talkin' tube

[37:25] with 2 Boy tonight, okay, let's go.

[37:27] Okay, so welcome back to 2 Boy talkin' tube

[37:30] to two dudes today, that's right.

[37:33] We'll find out, so we are on the back half,

[37:37] and so we are kind of doing a bit of a lightning round here.

[37:40] The first part is called Top of the Charts to Ya,

[37:43] where we talk about some of the most popular shows

[37:45] currently on streaming platforms.

[37:48] If you've seen it, again, Dan, you're gonna have to weigh in

[37:51] if Elliot has seen this show.

[37:53] You've not, your average has not been great so far, Dan.

[37:55] I think it's been pretty good.

[37:56] It's been, yeah, I've gotten more,

[37:58] listeners, more right than wrong.

[38:00] Okay, so one of the number one shows from Netflix

[38:03] is a streaming show called Black Rabbit,

[38:05] starring Jason Bateman and Jude Law.

[38:08] This is a new show, so there's a chance

[38:10] that even Dan hasn't seen this one.

[38:11] Dan, have you seen any of this show?

[38:13] I have not seen it, and there's absolutely no chance

[38:15] that Elliot has seen any of it.

[38:17] What I saw of it was I saw that there was

[38:18] a New York Times article about it,

[38:20] and there was, where they do that little bit of video

[38:22] that runs ad nauseum.

[38:23] I don't really read the Times much,

[38:24] but I check the headlines, and so I've seen

[38:26] that little bit of footage of Jude Law

[38:28] and Jason Bateman clowning around New York, you know.

[38:30] Yes, so I watched the pilot of it,

[38:34] and because I'm a sucker for anything

[38:36] that is set in New York, I mean,

[38:37] there's a fuckin' scene in the pilot

[38:39] where they're eating at Roland Roaster,

[38:40] and I'm like, oh yeah.

[38:42] But it is a show about a New York restaurateur

[38:46] that I feel does not capture that feeling very well,

[38:51] and Jason Bateman, for all his character

[38:53] being a dirtbag, again, doesn't feel 100% real.

[38:58] A lot of things feel kind of false about this show,

[39:01] so I think it's got, I may watch more of it,

[39:04] but so far, I think it's kind of a stinker.

[39:06] Also, the idea of Jude Law being a successful restaurateur

[39:10] who, at least from what I can tell in the show,

[39:13] does not have any experience working in restaurants,

[39:16] and his restaurant is mainly just like

[39:18] a cool hangout place, that doesn't feel right to me.

[39:21] I did see that scene where someone orders foie gras,

[39:23] and he goes, never heard of it,

[39:25] which seems strange for a successful restaurateur

[39:26] that's never even heard of foie gras, yeah.

[39:28] It seems very strange.

[39:30] Also, like-

[39:30] Can you get me a fork?

[39:31] What's that?

[39:32] Seems like if you run a restaurant business,

[39:33] you know what a fork was, yeah.

[39:34] And Jude Law looks like a man who knows his way around

[39:37] a fork and foie gras.

[39:39] Yeah.

[39:39] This is a guy who eats, people.

[39:42] He is not dead.

[39:44] So another show on the list is Task.

[39:47] This is from the Mayor of Easttown creator,

[39:50] so it's in that heavy Pennsylvania accent zone.

[39:54] Dan, has Elliot seen any of Task?

[39:56] No, Elliot has not seen any of Task.

[39:57] I have not even heard about Task.

[39:59] You're right, Dan.

[40:00] Mark Ruffalo in it.

[40:01] That's all I know about TASC.

[40:02] It does have Ruffalo in it.

[40:03] It's about some sort of TASC force, I believe.

[40:04] The guy who's like a ruffled buffalo, yeah.

[40:06] Uh-huh.

[40:07] Yeah.

[40:08] It's, uh...

[40:09] Yeah, I started watching it.

[40:10] I like it so far.

[40:11] So there's Black Rabbit and there's TASC, and you combine them to get TASC Rabbit.

[40:13] Yeah.

[40:14] Uh-huh.

[40:15] Let's do a crossover.

[40:16] Yeah, I mean, I like it so far.

[40:17] It's gritty.

[40:18] I love watching actors go fucking ham on a Pennsylvania accent, which is like, as far

[40:23] as regional accents go, is like not that noticeable, but like, apparently they're like, let's make

[40:28] a meal out of this fucker.

[40:29] I think the Pennsylvania ham is delicious.

[40:30] It is.

[40:31] So use that, too.

[40:32] Sure.

[40:33] Ham.

[40:34] Pan, we call it.

[40:35] Okay.

[40:36] And TASC is on HBO.

[40:38] From Amazon, we have The Summer I Turned Pretty.

[40:41] Dan, has Elliot seen The Summer I Turned Pretty?

[40:44] No.

[40:45] Elliot's not.

[40:46] You're right, Dan.

[40:47] I've not watched The Summer I Turned Pretty.

[40:48] I feel like Charlene and I tried to watch a couple episodes because we're suckers for

[40:50] that kind of garbage, but it wasn't our speed.

[40:55] But it is also a show that has like three or four seasons, so I'm like, is the summer

[40:59] still fucking going on?

[41:00] Like, is she still turning pretty?

[41:02] You know, endless summer, man.

[41:04] Yeah.

[41:05] It's like how MASH lasted longer than the war, you know?

[41:08] Yeah.

[41:10] Another hot show, Alien Earth.

[41:11] Dan, has Elliot seen any of Alien Earth?

[41:14] I'm going to say no, Elliot has not seen any Alien Earth.

[41:16] You're wrong, Dan.

[41:17] I've seen the first two episodes of Alien Earth.

[41:19] Oh, wow.

[41:20] More Alien Earth than I have.

[41:21] I've seen one episode of Alien Earth.

[41:24] I think I've seen like four or five.

[41:27] Elliot, I absolutely want to hear your thoughts on Alien Earth.

[41:32] I mean, I guess I kind of like it.

[41:34] Any highlights?

[41:36] I mean, I love, I think, I wish the alien didn't look less man in a suit-y.

[41:40] It feels like the one place where the budget is falling down a little bit is the alien

[41:44] sometimes, but I mean, the alien's always a man in a suit, but just that.

[41:48] I love all the weird other aliens.

[41:51] These extra weird aliens.

[41:52] It's like that gross cat dragging itself around with that eye alien in it.

[41:55] The eyeball alien is king there.

[41:57] I also, I got to say, I didn't know if Timothy Oliphant could pull off playing Kirsch, the

[42:04] weird android.

[42:05] No, no, he's doing great.

[42:06] He's doing great.

[42:07] He's killing it because I think like he manages to mix, it's like a perfect midpoint between

[42:12] his like sleazeball characters and his like stoic cowboy characters.

[42:18] Yes, I agree.

[42:19] I agree.

[42:20] It's such a strange feeling performance, but on purpose, and I think he does it really well,

[42:25] but what I've seen of it, I think what's good, I think I'm like, it's one of those shows

[42:29] where I want to see more of it, but I don't find myself excited to like put it on, you

[42:35] know, necessarily, but I think part of it might be that it feels like Noah Hawley, and

[42:39] this is what he, he does this very well with other stuff too.

[42:42] I mean, I've liked his previous shows is it's like, I'm going to do an alien show.

[42:45] I'm really more interested in this other thing, but I'll put enough alien in it so I can call

[42:50] it an alien show.

[42:51] You know, he's really more interested, I think, in the idea of like corporations and trying

[42:55] to extend life in artificial ways and the consequences of that.

[42:58] And he's like, but I guess I'll throw an alien in there too.

[43:01] So I don't know, but I think I'm interested in it, you know?

[43:04] I also, I think it's, I don't know why, like I both appreciate the idea that like the episodes

[43:09] all end with like a nineties like hard rock song, but I'm also like, this feels weird

[43:15] and alien.

[43:16] Like all of a sudden I'm like hearing fucking Billy Corgan say the world's a vampire.

[43:21] Somebody starts blasting Dragula.

[43:23] It's a little bit like in, um, in this first Star Trek remake movie where he's listening

[43:28] to sabotage, right.

[43:29] While he's driving.

[43:29] And it's like, yeah, I guess 200 years in the future, this is still the sound of young

[43:32] rebellion is the Beastie Boys.

[43:34] Yeah, sure.

[43:35] Yeah, I guess, I guess so.

[43:39] I mean like that, I like just as like a joke, I assume on William Shatner's pronunciation

[43:46] of sabotage.

[43:48] Maybe I feel like that's a pretty, that's a pretty, that's a pretty deep in joke.

[43:52] Yeah, but yeah, no one, certainly no sci-fi nerd would put a deep in joke in something.

[44:01] You're right.

[44:02] You're right.

[44:02] But, uh, but yeah, Dan, what do you think about Alien Earth of the one episode you've

[44:04] seen?

[44:05] Um, it was fine.

[44:08] I haven't seen, uh, more.

[44:11] So that says something about it.

[44:12] I wasn't like, I have to immediately return to this and perhaps now I'll never see anymore.

[44:17] That's possible.

[44:17] Yeah.

[44:18] So, uh, in addition to some of those hot shows that are top of the charts, what are you guys

[44:25] watching these days?

[44:26] Either with your family, on your own?

[44:28] Are you watching any, anything on the small screen?

[44:32] Uh, uh, my wife and I have been watching, we've been slowly going through the second

[44:36] season of Poker Face, you know?

[44:38] Yeah.

[44:39] That's a fun show.

[44:41] Um, other than that, the only thing I've been watching that really counts as a TV show is,

[44:46] uh, the TV show version of The Trip Italy.

[44:48] After I finished watching the TV version of The Trip.

[44:52] Um, I have an issue where like, I don't get a lot of time to sit down and watch TV with

[44:55] my family.

[44:56] And the time, the little bit of, as everyone knows and listens, the little bit of time I

[45:00] do get to watch stuff is when I'm doing the dishes.

[45:02] Otherwise, I don't really have time to, to watch things.

[45:05] And I'd much rather watch a part of a movie.

[45:07] Like I just always rather watch a movie than a TV show, you know?

[45:10] If, if I'm by myself, I'm either watching a movie or I'm like painting models or I'm

[45:15] traveling the lands between in Elden Ring.

[45:18] Yeah.

[45:19] And I feel like I haven't found a show in a long time that hit me the way that like,

[45:24] um, that like the best of the like prestige early HBO shows, like The Sopranos or like

[45:29] Deadwood or stuff like that, where I was like, oh man, I got every week.

[45:32] I gotta watch it.

[45:33] Or like when Mad Men was on, I was always like, I gotta watch it.

[45:36] But I haven't found a show like that in a long time.

[45:38] And I think that says more about me and where I am in life than about television.

[45:42] Because there's certainly a lot of great shows that are on.

[45:44] But it's like, yeah, I'm like, uh, seeing, I was thinking about how Dan recommended,

[45:50] um, the Robert Altman Buffalo Bill, uh, movie, uh, recently.

[45:55] And I was like, I want to watch those Robert Altman movies that I haven't seen before.

[45:58] They're on Criterion Collection right now.

[45:59] And I was much more excited about the prospect of watching like Come Back to the Five and

[46:03] Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, than I was about watching any of the shows that are on right

[46:07] now, which I think, again, says more about me than it does about the shows, you know?

[46:11] Yeah, I, I have found less TV exciting lately, and mostly it's because I just want something

[46:21] fun.

[46:21] And that's always in a lower supply than it seems like it should be.

[46:26] Like, it feels like that should be.

[46:29] Well, it feels like when we were young, TV was where you went for dumb fun.

[46:33] And the movies were where you went for serious stuff.

[46:36] And it's totally flipped now where the movies that they make are like superhero movies and

[46:41] horror movies.

[46:41] And like, they don't make a lot of, I guess, movies are dumb, fun, like weapons.

[46:46] Yeah, well, they're like serious movies don't get as much that I feel like there's a smaller

[46:50] percentage.

[46:51] They don't get as much wide release, you know, serious movies are still being made.

[46:53] But like TV is suddenly like, well, this is the new novel.

[46:58] Adult dramas are TV now.

[47:00] Yes.

[47:00] Like, unless you're going to like, you can still go to the networks and watch, you know,

[47:03] like Tracker or something like that.

[47:04] Yeah, I'm trying.

[47:05] Like, mostly when I'm alone, too, I would rather watch.

[47:09] Yeah, we're going to talk about.

[47:12] I can't believe it took us this long into two boy talking to the two dudes tonight to

[47:16] bring up fucking Tracker.

[47:20] Tracks people.

[47:21] He's good.

[47:21] The Adventures of Coulter Shaw.

[47:22] Yeah.

[47:23] Yeah.

[47:23] Chet Tracker.

[47:24] No, but I will watch movies alone.

[47:26] And then, you know, Audrey will be more keen on watching television, although it's mostly

[47:32] her British mysteries.

[47:34] Like if we're watching something together, we've I don't know, we were just now finishing

[47:39] the last season of Shrinking.

[47:41] We're watching Peacemaker and we're going through not a sort of a compromise position,

[47:49] not a British mystery, but sort of elementary watching all of the old episodes of that CBS

[47:57] show, which I never watched at the time.

[47:59] And I do love hearing stories about from like James Gunn's perspective where they're like,

[48:05] yeah, we really want to time the release of Peacemaker season two, along with the like

[48:11] digital streaming release of the Superman movie.

[48:14] And I'm like the idea of being like, yeah, so a person is like, oh, I saw this Superman

[48:18] movie in the theater.

[48:19] It's so cool.

[48:20] What's the next DC thing to watch?

[48:22] Oh, the show where John Cena has an orgy in his house with a bald eagle.

[48:26] Like, yeah, I think it's great.

[48:28] I just think like Michael Rooker.

[48:29] The bald eagle's there.

[48:31] It's not really part of the orgy.

[48:32] Yeah, Eagly is.

[48:33] Yeah, yeah.

[48:34] It is funny.

[48:35] The same way that Sam the Eagle is technically at the Muppet Theater, but he's not taking

[48:39] part in the shenanigans.

[48:40] Yeah, I think it like it's I feel like Peacemaker might be the funniest comedy on TV right now,

[48:47] which is pretty funny.

[48:50] But speaking of like lighter things, Charlene and I are always.

[48:53] Dave Berg's the lighter side of.

[48:55] Yeah, sure.

[48:57] And I are always looking for kind of lighter material to watch to wind down at the end

[49:02] of the day when our lives are incredibly stressful, running too many businesses.

[49:06] And the two shows we've enjoyed lately, we finished, I'm guessing, the second and final

[49:12] season of this Australian sitcom called Fisk about a lawyer who is, if only a lawyer who

[49:21] wears very large suits and she works in like probate law.

[49:27] And I don't know.

[49:28] It's very dry.

[49:29] And there's not I guess there's jokes in it.

[49:31] It's funny.

[49:32] It's just very strange.

[49:34] So but we enjoy that quite a bit.

[49:36] And then we like the we just watched all of the new office spin off the paper.

[49:43] OK, where's that?

[49:45] I think it is absolutely fine.

[49:48] It is exactly like it serves up exactly kind of what you'd expect.

[49:53] The the one note, the one of the the thing that I think elevates it, that gives it a

[49:58] little bit of extra.

[50:00] is that they realize that one of the,

[50:02] I don't know if they realize this,

[50:03] but like one of the things about the original office

[50:05] is that like the British office

[50:08] is that Ricky Gervais' character, David Brent,

[50:10] is like a bad dude.

[50:12] Yes.

[50:13] Michael Scott is not a bad dude.

[50:14] He's just dumb.

[50:16] So they make a couple of the characters in the paper

[50:19] genuinely like kind of bad people.

[50:22] And one of them is played by Sabrina,

[50:25] I'm gonna fuck this name up,

[50:27] Sabrina M. Pecca-

[50:28] The Teenage Witch.

[50:30] Sabrina Teenage Witch.

[50:31] The actress who played the hotel manager

[50:34] in the second season of The White Lotus,

[50:36] the Italian woman.

[50:36] And she plays a very flamboyant Italian woman

[50:39] who works at a newspaper in Toledo, Ohio,

[50:43] which is very funny to me.

[50:44] And there's a great performance from a comic actor,

[50:49] Eric Rahill, who was in,

[50:53] he's collaborated with Tim Robinson

[50:56] and was in that movie Rap World with Conor O'Malley.

[51:00] And he just has a way of speaking.

[51:02] He has like a cadence of like burnout Midwesterner

[51:06] that like is so immediately triggering for me.

[51:09] Like it feels like I'm in a fucking house party

[51:11] back in Fort Wayne,

[51:12] listening to some weird dude

[51:14] that was two years above me in high school.

[51:17] So that's a thumbs up to the paper.

[51:18] So if that's a situation you're familiar with,

[51:20] Stewart says, run, don't walk to the paper.

[51:23] Yeah.

[51:25] I feel like I've kept you guys here long enough.

[51:27] Elliot has a rush on a dinner.

[51:29] I've got a rush on a dinner.

[51:30] Dan has to rush a homer to the hotel.

[51:33] Yeah, Dan is to live and die in LA.

[51:36] And I will say this,

[51:37] I think any negative things I've said about television

[51:40] or shows, take it with a grain of salt.

[51:42] At this point in my life,

[51:44] the thing that I'm like enraptured by

[51:46] and I can't wait to get,

[51:47] I like have to keep running back to

[51:49] is Italo Calvino's book, The Castle of Cross Destinies.

[51:52] So that's where I am right now.

[51:54] So take it just as me being a snob

[51:55] who's into not that.

[51:58] So it is no way a criticism of television

[52:00] or the shows being made.

[52:01] And take it as me finding no joy

[52:04] in the things that I used to enjoy

[52:06] because life is a bitter place.

[52:09] Oh, I mean, there's that too.

[52:10] Let's not forget, depression can keep you

[52:12] from enjoying television shows.

[52:14] I feel like the fact that both of you guys

[52:15] are closer to the world of TV creation.

[52:19] Oh, if only, Stewart.

[52:21] If only it were true.

[52:25] I would say is that you're at one point closer

[52:28] and now that distance causes an additional ache.

[52:33] It's like a phantom limb.

[52:34] Yeah, a lost love.

[52:36] It's hard to lose that feeling of envy

[52:40] when you're watching a show that's successful.

[52:42] Where it's like, well, yeah, I guess this is good,

[52:45] but I could do good stuff too, blah, blah, blah.

[52:47] And it's a thing that is a very human feeling

[52:49] that we have to push past.

[52:50] And coupled with the fact that it's easy

[52:52] to overlook the fact that your own,

[52:54] maybe your own struggles when working in the business,

[52:56] you forget that those people are probably

[52:58] going through the same fucking shit.

[53:00] Well, because that's the last thing we say

[53:02] because we do have to get to our dinners.

[53:04] But there is a, the entertainment industry

[53:07] only reports success.

[53:09] It only, in Variety and Hollywood Reporter,

[53:10] it only tells you when shows sell

[53:12] or when they're picked up or whatever,

[53:13] or when a movie script sells.

[53:15] They do not cover this pitch failed,

[53:18] this pitch didn't get picked up,

[53:19] this pilot didn't, you know,

[53:20] rarely do they talk about failures.

[53:22] And so it gives you the impression

[53:23] that there's a sea of success

[53:25] that you are standing on the shore of,

[53:27] and you just cannot figure out how to jump in,

[53:29] which is a fake value.

[53:31] And one of the things that I found

[53:32] very meaningful about the strike

[53:34] was finally writers were talking to each other

[53:36] about how failure is just a regular part

[53:38] of being a professional, creative person.

[53:41] Yeah, there's a sea of things not getting made

[53:44] in an island of success.

[53:45] Exactly, and so that's something for us to remember,

[53:48] you know, that everyone who is having a success now

[53:50] has probably failed and will fail again at some point,

[53:53] you know, so no one's immune to it.

[53:56] Okay, well, thank you so much

[53:57] for spending some time talking to me.

[53:59] I always love talking to you guys.

[54:01] Thanks for stepping into the dog house over here.

[54:03] I'm Stu Dog.

[54:03] I guess I'm Dan Dog.

[54:08] Yes, and that's E-Dog.

[54:10] And E-Dog, I guess this is an interesting framing

[54:12] to suddenly introduce in the last minute of the podcast.

[54:16] So, this podcast is part

[54:18] of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network.

[54:21] Go there, check out some shows, they're great.

[54:23] This show has been produced by Alex Smith,

[54:25] who hopefully cleaned this up

[54:26] and made it sound extra crispy.

[54:29] And I'd like to thank my two co-hosts.

[54:33] My name is Stuart Wellington, and they are?

[54:35] Dan McCoy.

[54:36] And E-Dog, Elliot Kalin.

[54:38] Okay, bow, wow, wow, see ya!

[54:41] Maximum Fun, a worker-owned network

[54:43] of artists-owned shows, supported directly by you.

FH Mini 139 - Tuboy Tube Talkin' (re)Turns!

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