Oscars Outsider - The Good Shepard Sandoval w/ Tyler Penner (VPR S11E05, Summer House S08E02)

Episode Date: March 2, 2024

This week hosts Craig Midwinter and Dylan Ferguson are joined by Tyler Penner of the Prairie Dumpster podcast (@prairie.dumpster) to dig into S11E05 of Vanderpump Rules and Summer House S08E02. Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 01:29 - Vanderpump Rules Recap 36:51 - Summer House Recap 1:00:54 - Outro 🍸Featured Bravolebs: Vanderpump Rules: Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Schwartz, Tom Sandoval, Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney, Scheana Shay, Lala Kent, James Kennedy, Ally Lewber, Brock Davies Summer House: Kyle Cooke, Lindsay Hubbard, Carl Radke, Amanda Batula, Danielle Olivera, Paige DeSorbo, Ciara Miller, Gabby Prescod Jesse Solomon, West Wilson 📣 Stay Connected: Find Prairie Dumpster on youtube at @prairie.dumpster Find Dylan Ferguson on Substack at https://dylanferguson.substack.com/ Find Bravo Outsider on Instagram at ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bravooutsider https://www.bravooutsider.com 📖 Credits Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

Hello and welcome to the Bravo Outsider podcast. I'm your host, Craig Midwinter. Joined again by Dylan Ferguson. Dylan, how's it going? Going good. Thank you. It's so nice just to get a hello from people who are disgusted by your very essence. Yeah, absolutely.

It feels good. Yeah. You going to cry about it? Probably, yeah. Okay, we'll pause for a little bit so I can do a slow zoom in on you. Yeah. I'm planning to spend the full hour, Craig, actually. My listeners are ready for this.

I'm going to lead on to the mic will I do it, too. Just make sure every sob gets in there. Well, we're very excited to be welcoming back one of our past outsiders from the early days. And I think we covered Vanderpump rules last time he was on as well. It's Zen Penn, Tyler Penner of the Prairie Dumpster podcast. If you come for me, I'll send Jesus after you. Just a scary line. Yeah.

Scary line. You delivered it with a lot of intensity too. I was scared. I think Mary, the way she delivers it is still scarier. There's just something like innately scary about her. Yeah. Like she believed that she actually could do that. Like she.

Jesus, get them. You know, it's like, oh. Yeah. Awesome. So we put it out to our audience as to which show we're going to cover in addition to Vanderpump Rules. The options that we gave were Summerhouse, below deck, and the traders. And Summerhouse won by a pretty wide margin. So let's jump into the content we're covering because there's a lot to get through. Which of these shows did you find the most compelling? I mean, still Vanderpump Rules. I mean, it's like,

you know, I think I was telling you guys before, like just like, it's still top tier as far as this. There's so many different things going on. And having not seen an episode of the show since the last time we guys talked, like just to see the abrupt changes in the group dynamics, it's, it's crazy. And with summer hosts, like, I had never seen that show either. Right. Yeah, in the first like five minutes. I was like, okay, it's summer. They're in a house.

Sick. But again, a lot of stuff happening there too. It's, uh, they were both good watches. Don't get me wrong. It was good stuff. Yeah, totally. Okay. Well, let's get into Vanderpump Rules.

I think there's a lot to talk about in terms of the storytelling here. I'm wondering if either of you had anything that's still. out to you in terms of themes or storytelling devices? I mean, I'm just continuing to really enjoy Thomas Andeval's new vibe of just being extremely mopey and extremely pained and put upon constantly. It's just really entertaining to be. I love his body language, his physicality of like, you know, when they arrive at the house in Lake Tahoe and like Brock comes into the kitchen to talk to him.

And he's just like doing these like pain stretches on the counter. top and just like like really just melting that like physicality of like life is so hard right now everything is so difficult oh my god and just like you know occasionally playing with like axes and knives and stuff and just like it's just such uh like a child's idea of like being a tortured soul that it's like it's beautiful i adore every second of it i know it was crazy like just not having seen the episode how dark tom got over this past season because there's that one scene where he's talking with his assistant and he's like, how's this outfit look? Is it good if I get stabbed or punched or bloodied up?

And then his assistant's like, yeah, it'll hide the blood. And then he's like, yeah. And then she's like, yeah. Like, it was just super dark. I was like, what the hell's going on here? Tom, lighten up. Last time I saw you, he was just like opening a restaurant and then stuff. And now he's just like like singing cover songs.

and like that's on. Now we've got dark Sandoval. It's great. Yeah. It's like pretending to throw a knife at the other Tom or an axe. He's like, catch. But like he's not smiling while he does it. Like, holy cow.

Yeah. I love the juxtaposition of like Tom Schwartz talking in a confession about how he wants it to be like this fun time and not the shining. And we've got like Tom Sandoval asking to see the knives in this survivalist store and like pretending to throw an axe around. Wet Hot American Summer. Do you guys have any knives? And not like the shining.

Listen, no, you have to have a lot of conversations with a lot of people you probably don't want to. You don't have to have those if you don't want to. I think you should. But like, it's time to start looking forward. Just totally beautifully got together. Yeah, if you don't want it to be the shiting, you should really hide the axes from the tortured guy. Yeah. Yeah, totally.

Anything stand out to you storytelling-wise? Tyler? Well, I guess mainly just the whole, uh, kind of the whole theme of, uh, starting over and rekindling something. You know, uh, James renames the dog. You know, the dog comes back into his graham cracker. Now they're calling it hippie, even though the dog's 10 years old. He'll never adjust to his new name. James doesn't care. Your name's hippie now. Like, uh, okay. I like also how they're like, oh, like Rachel changed her name. Well, if she could change her name, then the engrave kid changes there. It's like, well, the difference is that you just. decided for the dog. Like the dog did to decide that himself. That's kind of the key difference there.

I know. And apparently that dog already has huge emotional problems. And now it's like midway. Imagine your parents as a teenager just started calling you a different name. You'd be like, the hell's going on. You know, so this dog is just, dog has no trust. They're going to get, they're going to get hippie into the, the guided meditation session. And he's going to be a brand new dog just like Lisa Vanderpupup predicted. Throw them into the lake for a cleansing, as Tom called it. Yeah, I do love that we got so much like imagery and discussion around this idea of like a rebirth and a cleansing. And I thought it was really great.

There was another thing that stood up to me in terms of like the imagery and the symbolism that I really love. We got this like montage of pretty much everyone having fun in the water. and they end the scene with a shot of Tom Sandival just on the rocks with his arms back like he's been like crucified and it pans out and it just aligns so much with how he I feel like he views himself because all his talk is about how everyone should be thanking him for the sacrifice that he has made for the show and how they have all like profited off of you know, his suffering and sacrifice. And like to see him visualize as this like this Jesus figure as he sees himself as this, this martyr, I thought it was just like beautiful. I love it. It stood

out to me and I thought it was amazing. Yeah, it's like an image out of his own mind. Like you said, that's how he he wants everybody to see him. Yeah. He really is in his like teenage, you know, kind of goth edgy era. You know what I mean? Like he's really he's really milking this. Like you were saying, you know, Dylan, like his tortured soul phase right now. And it's like, bro. It's not a phase, Tyler. This is who he is now. This is my life.

Yeah. You know, I thought that like you identified this being like a very like juvenile mindset that he's in. And it's interesting to me how last episode we were talking about how Ariana seems to be channeling this like juvenile energy and how she's approaching these dynamics. Like she is saying things like, well, of you're friends with him, I can't be friends with you, which is like a very childish thing. And we're also seeing Tom Sandoval really revert to like a juvenile phase. Like we're taking on this like edgy energy and then also being like, well, you're wanting me to take

accountability, but you're not taking accountability. Just like that sort of childish way of like dealing with conflict. It's interesting to see the parallel there because I think like I think a lot of of people are framing the way that Tom Sandoval is handling this situation and the way Ariana is handling the situation is really different. But I think that they are actually fairly similar in terms of reverting to this childish way of navigating conflict. Yeah, totally. And at the same time, like, I can't, like, I find it hilarious, but I can't like totally blame them. Like, when you have, like, huge crises that happen in your life,

it's kind of normal to just kind of regress to a simpler version of yourself in a way. It's almost like a coping mechanism. And I get they've both been through shit and that's going to change the way you behave. I still find it really entertaining. It would really funny. I actually had a question about that where at some point Tom is like, you know, he's whining. He's like, you know, they want me to take accountability, but they won't take accountability for what they did. Spreading conspiracy theories on podcast.

They sold merch. And right there, I was like, what? They sold merch? Yeah, what kind of merch were they selling? There was lots actually. So, Arianna and Katie are trying to open a sandwich shop. That's like their storyline right now. Not their only storyline.

Obviously, Ariana's conflict with Tom is like the marquee storyline. But anyway, so they haven't opened this restaurant yet. But in the wake of Scandival, they decided to release a merch line and they made a ton of money off of it. And Ariana has got a whole bunch of. sponsorship from the fallout of this. Like her profile as a star has elevated so much. And Lala has profited hugely off this, the conflict that she has with Raquel, because on her podcast or whatever, she was talking about how Rachel's lawyers keep sending Lala personally

all the cease and desist memos. And she's like, send it to my lawyer, send it to Daryl. And like that became a catchphrase, send it to Daryl. And she, like, got it printed on hoodies and T-shirts and, like, made it. Terrible catchphrase, by the way. Yeah, clothing line of send it to Daryl. And because it was this huge cultural moment, I think it's something that people really latched on to. But, yeah, so they definitely have profited off of this.

I think Lala had said that within a day of releasing the send-it-to-daryl stuff, she had got enough for a down payment on a house. What? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like, like Craig said, is kind of like a signifying thing. I think for like especially people living in like West Hollywood or L.A. generally to be like, oh, I'm like supporting the good side in the fight.

And it's kind of like, I think for a lot of people who have like, you know, have been cheated on, which is, you know, so many people. It's just such a common human experience. It's like identifying with Ariana as like identifying with like Taylor Swift lyrics or something. It's being like, oh, you know, I stand in solidarity with it. So they want to wear the merch that show is like, I'm on this. this side and and they definitely made a lot of money out of it. And I understand why it's annoying to Sandival whose businesses took a hit because of it. And he was in like tough financial

straits and people were like review bobbing his restaurant and stuff. And he sees the other cast members like making bank off the other side of it. I mean, we were our podcast whenever we talked about like, you know, the, the Rachel of it all and being team Rachel, we would get like thumbs down on YouTube and like one star reviews on podcasting platforms. Like there was like. It's so hard guys. It's just. We're victims here too.

Do it at Christ pose right now. You crying, bro? Let's let's go into the Pump Rules poll quote. So if you could summarize this episode in one attention grabbing headline or poll quote, how would you do that, Tyler? You know what? It was actually the line. line off the top just to get a hello from people that are disgusted by your very essence.

It's nice, you know? That's all Tom wants. It's actually like the most rude piece of support I've ever heard one friend say to another. Like, just reinforcing like everybody hates you. But it's nice when they say hello, isn't it? You know, like Tom's like, bro, stop supporting me. This hurts more. totally um let's let's dive into our highlights siler what were your highlights from this episode i mean

there really was a couple first of all i just had a question quickly um what's up with lisa's husband you know every time half time we see him he's in a coma you know the other half we see him he's just walking around like a vampire i'm very intrigued by lisa's husband what does he do what's his deal It's a weekend at Bernie's situation, I think. Oh, Bernie? Does he anyone realize he's dead? Yeah, that's what it felt like. I'm like, dude, this guy's dead right now.

Yeah, he's not really fit for doing fucking anything, except maybe being president of the United States, but most things he's unfit for. But yeah, there were a couple of highlights. I enjoyed, well, the sledgehammer scene was, it got really awkward. where they're all taking their frustration out on the wall. And Tom does like 12 swings. And it's supposed to be cathartic, but it's just, it's not for anybody. It's just weird.

Yeah. How do you expect it to be cathartic with the like things you're trying to vent and escape from are the people standing right next to you, like observing you do that? Like that's the opposite of cathartic. It was so awkward. Like we've, I think we've seen that gimmick on like at least other like Bravo shows me where they like release their rage by using a sledgehammer. But yeah, again, when everybody is there in the same space,

you're just making it worse, really, is what you're doing. But my favorite part of that whole thing was when he's like, Saddam was like, oh, Charles Manson. And everybody seems kind of confused. Then Lala just proudly chimes in. Oh, I called him Charles Manson. Charles Manson. I don't call him Charles.

And everyone was like smiling politely. They're like kind of laughing along. They're like ha ha ha ha ha. But then Lala is like laughing. She's like, yeah, but seriously, Tom, you should take accountability. Yeah. The whole thing was awkward. Hell yeah.

Tyler, did you have any other highlights? I mean, right off the top, I like James riding with Graham Cracker. You know, he got the dog back. And he's like, I love you. I love you. going and Graham, the dog could not care less. He's just like, all right, buddy. He's like, are you ready to meet your new mama? And the dog's like, you're all crazy. This is terrifying right now. So just the juxtaposition of James and the dog. I mean, I was putting voices into the dog,

but I'm pretty sure that's what the dog was feeling. I love the song that he was singing as he was driving me, Graham is my favorite boy. Graham is my favorite boy. Graham is my favorite boy. just working on a new single. But also the fight in the bikini store was kind of cool between Brock and what's her face? Sheena, yeah. This was a highlight for me. I love how real the like conflict between Sheena and Brock feels this season. Whenever they're at each other's throat, like it feels very authentic.

And yeah, Brock just knows how to push Sheena's buttons around the issue with like finding a nanny. And it seems like a legitimate. like hang up that Sheena has and that he's actually like really sore about. Yeah, that was really interesting. Like at first I felt like, oh, like, Brock's going a little too heavy here. Like he's getting a little too worked up for the situation. And then like when he kind of lays out how he thinks about Sheena's like psychological hang up with like letting other people look after ocean.

And he's like, you know, it's clearly because your mother like put so much pressure on you about like not being a good enough mother so that you like internalize that and you push that other people and then you don't feel like other people are good enough at being mother and stuff and I was like you know what that sounds like the right read on the situation I'm not going to pretend I know their life's well enough to like rubber step and it'd be like correct but it sounds correct like that his psychoanalysis like actually sounds right so at that point I was kind like oh you know what maybe Brock actually kind of is has a good read of the situation it isn't just being like pig-headed and aggressive.

Like so and he does apologize later too for like getting a little heated too. So I thought it was actually a pretty good showing for Brock, even if maybe he got a little too heated. I thought like he's showing that it does come from a place of actually being really attentive to, to Sheena's mindset and her needs. So I kind of like that from him actually. Yeah, at the same time, he's still at dude.

He's just like, hey, I don't want your mother-in-law at our house 24-7. Can you? Yeah. But I think the star of, you know, the star of that whole scene was the, the employee in the bikini shop who's just like lounging around hangers, just like kind of looking around while these two people, two strangers have this full blown down meltdown. I thought it was great. I was like, oh, that employee is great. Yeah. Folding the same like sundress three times.

Yeah. And great work by the production team to realize that I need to get like closeups of the like bikini shop employee just like being like, ha. I'm still here. Dylan, what were your highlights here? Yeah, those were kind of the big one. I'm interested to see where we go with James and Sandoval. I like that at the end of the episode, we get a little bit of them coming together,

kind of including even a friendship montage of like past highlights with our friendship, which is very fun. I'm really glad they included that moment where Sandoval terribly plays trumpets for a track that James is producing apparently where he just shows up in the studio and make some horrible noises and a trumpet. I'm really glad to included that. I look that James is like, well, nobody wants to hurt

anybody ever or something. I'm like, you of all people, James, know that. People often do want to hurt other people, actually. And like, that's not a real thing. Yeah. I still like Lala of the season two. I think Lala's been having a good season. I like the way that she deals with Sandoval.

And also, like, when they're talking about how real is Sandoval's penance and how real is actually being sorry and stuff. And she says, well, if it's all bullshit, who gives the fuck, we don't have to sleep in his head at night. Yeah. Like, you know, like, whatever.

It's worthwhile to like entertain it. And if he's actually lying, well, he's the one who's going to have to deal with himself afterwards. And he like, that'll be his punishment anyways. It's just being himself. I thought, um, Lisa was kind of stirring the plot a bit this episode. I mean, just by trying to. Oh, yeah.

She's having a great. season so far. I'm like loving it. She's like trying to bridge the gap between James and Tom or whatever, but like just forcing it way too heavy-handed like at the dinner scene. She's like, James, say something nice about Tom. And then everyone's like Lisa, can we not? I haven't even had a bite of my food yet. Yeah. Also, how stoked are you guys to make your first trip down to Lake Tahoe to go to Wolf? Oh, yeah. I cannot wait to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, I was. I was. I was. I was. I was. I was. I was. I was. I was. I was. I. drink in the sexy masculine atmosphere at wolf, which I think is really just what like Tahoe needs. Yeah. I love that scene where they were taking pictures of Lisa with the wolves and then like we get the behind the scene and then it shows the photo and it looks like AI generated it. Like I was like that's not. It looks like a green screen or AI. Yeah.

Totally. They retouched it so much. Like they show it right after as if like that's the stab shot they got on the moment when it's like obviously way too heavily retouched. Yeah. No, GPD4. Also, it's funny. I'm posing with a real wolf and it's just like this fat,

fluffy husky who's just like, like Pat do like, hey guys, who's going to throw me a ball? Yeah, that's not the killer we learned about it when it comes to wolves. Like, it was literally like a friendlier dog than Graham Cracker.

Yeah. Probably, actually. Yeah. Graham Crackers way more likely to bite you, I think, than that husky is. Yeah,

I noticed that Lisa put her face right next to the face of that dog, but not to Graham. So. Yeah. Which was those dogs. That's an underrated character, Graham Cracker, because like Tom telling, uh, you know, Tom telling, uh, didn't expect to hear that phrase. Yeah. Like when Tom told Ali about it, it's like, yeah, I know he did bite a couple of people. He got out of control. And then I was just like, dude, we got to follow this dog around

because there is drama. Yeah. Yeah. And everyone seems to know that there's an issue with Graham. because like Lisa asks Lala about Graham and Lala's like, yeah, it's like a completely different dog. Like obviously there was a huge issue with with this dog before. And I've seen a lot of talk online. I won't get too much into like the online discourse about this, but it's something that like really frustrates me. All these people are like praising James as being this like master dog trainer that's able to like rehabilitate this dog and like talking about how. stupid Rachel is and all the trainers that she tried to get to rehabilitate this dog, how stupid they are that they couldn't figure out the issue and solve it.

But James obviously has. And then we see on an episode like this, like James, this is your hero. He's like got absolutely no, when Ali brings up the fact that like she's worried about the cats, James just doesn't care. It's clear that he does not like care about the animal. animal's well-being and um alie's like well if he's going to like be aggressive towards the cats he's got to go back he's like he's he's got to go and james's like oh man like like yeah he's he's not this like caesar milan that the the band base is making him out to be you know he has no

authority and is like because like even when graham is like nipping at the cat and like barking at he's like no we're going to be friendly to the cat and then graham just like runs around like break something or something you know like James is not a good dog dad. So he might love the dog, but he's not training Graham properly, especially by just like a midlife name change. Hey, you're hippie now. It's like, this is not the proper way to raise a healthy dog. I'm sorry.

Yeah. I mean, I am not a dog training expert, but like I have a lot of dogs in my life and I've got cats. and I know that like when you're making an introduction between a dog and a cat the thing that you want to make sure that you don't do is allow them to have like a fight and engage in like like triggering the dog's chase thing in their head the and start a chase because then they're going to start seeing the cat as prey and James just like didn't care he's like oh no they should have this moment at this screen door and get into a fight I yeah it's it's so frustrating to see the lack of

regard that he seems to have for Allie's cat. Yeah, that's my James gripe for this episode. I just made an observation. And just this is from not having watched since last season, but Tom Schwartz is getting weird to me. Like the way he walks, the way he acts, like, it's almost like, I don't want to start any rumors or anything, but it's almost like, like, drug use. user behavior. He looks very nervous, very skittish.

Whoa. Shocker. Okay. All right. So this has been documented. Okay. Because just compare the last year. What are you talking about?

He's semi sober curious. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. He looks like he doesn't look healthy. I don't know. That's the main thing that I took away from Tom Schwartz. I'm like, you look weird. You know, I don't know.

Yeah. I can't think the only one seeing that. No, not at all. We've talked about this before, but Schwartz is just a. a really difficult position out because he's always been able to coast by on being like the like likeable goofy guy and like just having like you know friendly dorky dude energy and just like that like baseline likeability just let him kind of just coast through life and now that's been taken away from him he just doesn't seem to he's just having a hard time figuring out what to do and needs to like make decisions that he never had to make before and it's just like you could tell his life's kind of kind of. have been turned upside down and he's just been really struggling to adjust. Yeah, totally. I think it was a big misstep for Katie to not go on this trip because like the people that ended up going on this

trip are all free agents and they have kind of like fallen for what Schwartz is selling at least temporarily it seems like they're willing to bite. I feel like if there was someone like Katie that was there that's able to like temper and disarm his his charm. I think that that would have been really helpful to keep people on you know, the the pure team Ariana to my core and like the the Tom Sandibald freeze out. Yeah. And I think that shows how Ariana's extremely hardline, inflexible plan might backfire against her. You know, like she doesn't want to anybody even talking to Sandoval. So Katie feels like she can't even go on this trip, whereas, like you say, she could

have been like Ariana's surrogate on the trip, but, you know, she wouldn't dare do that because like Ariana's hard line is that you just don't interact with him, but that creates a situation where people feel like they can drift in and out of Sandoval's orbit, especially now that Lisa has given them permission, if not specific directions to do so. And it's just going to make it that much easier for them to start to enter Sandoval's orbit and not Arianas when she's putting down so many rules. And her strategy could backfire because it's so inflexible, I think. Yeah, totally. I think we covered most of my highlights.

There was one little piece of imagery that we got a little bit of a callback to. and I'm glad to see that this is going to be the subject of potentially some story or some evolution. And that was when we got Ariana itemizing all the stuff in her house that she wants to claim as her own, the Lego art piece was one of them. And that's something that we have called out as this symbol leading up to that. And the fact that she's like laying claim to this and there's discussion about this artist kind of reworking. this piece so that it just features only Ariana is really interesting. I'm curious to see whether she will do that and when she does that and how that aligns

with her arc in terms of becoming independent and launching away from the Scandival and being, you know, the post-scandival, Ariana, that, you know, what that person's going to be like and when is that going to happen. Yeah, that's going to be the, I can see that being the big, like, allegorical, you know, image at the end of the season, her just like slowly taking Lego pieces off of Tom's face and just throwing them in the trash. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Because that is basically the image that we started the season on. Let's get to our stars for this episode. Tyler, who are your stars? First, second and third. Sorry, the third star for me was Lisa's husband.

He made an impression. The second star for me was the female of the bikini store. And the first star, and of course these are joke stars. But it has to be Graham Cracker, now hippie, who is just a troubled character and now has a new family. And he's going to get the boot. That dog is not going to last in that house. Allie's not going to stand for it. And it's going to be a huge issue.

I don't know why James is so attached to this dog. Like, I understand that it's a dog and they've got a lot of history, but I don't know. Like, I don't quite buy the emotional connection James has to this dog still. I don't know. I don't feel it. But that might be, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure that there is some authentic, like, emotional connection that he has with this dog because it was his dog for, the time that he was with

Rachel. But I think that there is more to it. It also is this like piece of social currency that he's got within the broader like structure of the group or how the fans perceive the group because you know, he's trying to make this is James, the season is James campaign to be the number one guy in the group. Like he

sees this opportunity to be like the number one guy on vanderpump rules and is looking for everything that he can build as big a case as he can and part of that is you know uh rescuing graham from uh from rachel and uh being this like person that rehabilitates graham and just being seen as this like uh savior um i think that that is a big part of why he's really attached to Graham. Yeah, and I think he was still like, he had a hard time getting over the end of his relationship with Rachel. And I think there's been a huge need on his part to show to everybody that like he's the good one,

she's the bad one, which is part of why he was like so eager to immediately jump on the fuck Rachel campaign when, when the scandal broke. And it's also, I think, part of the reasons. why he wants to be like, oh, I have rescued the dog from her evil clutches. You know, it's just another totem that he's clinging to to try to prove to everybody that, you know, he came out on top. He's the good one.

She's the bad one. Yeah, 100%. That's what kind of what I was, you know, was leading towards is that he's, I get the impression that he does love this dog, but at the same time, he's using it. Everybody loves their dogs, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's a dog. He'll love your dog.

but he's using this for other ends. You know what I mean? Like he, he wants to one up and be like, see, Rachel's a hideous beast who abuses dogs and I rescued it. James the good guy. And it's like,

all right, you've got motives here, bro. Yeah, totally. Dylan, who are your stars here? Let's see here.

I mean, Sandoval's doing a lot of the action, but I've given him a star already. in the past. I don't want to repeat myself. Let's, you know what, I, I kind of liked Brock, like I said. I think I underestimate Brock often just because he gives off such an Australian vibe of just kind of like a thoughtless meathead, which is great too. Like, I loved at the end of the previous episode where they went to a restaurant called like Beach and Beers. And he was so stoked. He's like, guys, guys, guys, beach and beers. Oh, yeah. Just like pumped that that's what it's called. So because he gives

such Australian meathead vibes. You kind of underestimate his intellectual ability sometimes, but I thought he showed like, you know, like I mentioned some good, some good point, some good awareness of, like psychological situations when he was talking to Shita. So why not? Let's give Brock a first star.

It's not going to happen often. So let's give him one of those. Yeah, let's give a, oh, give a second star to Lala, who continues to be good. And was the best at dealing with the awkwardness of the Sandoval situation. I thought she just handled that better than everybody else did, like just remained funny.

Yeah, instead of just kind of staring down at her plate awkwardly like most people did. And third star, I'll go with a different dog. Let's go off the board and let's go with that puffy husky dog. That was a very, very good boy. Hell yeah. Seem very likable, really want to pet him so bad. Yeah, props to you, buddy. And don't forget to check out Wolf as soon as it's

open to everyone. My stars, I'm going to go with number one, since no one gave Tom Sandoval's star, I have to. I think he deserves it. You know, he's doing a lot of the heavy lifting this season. I love that we got him making this call to Lisa Vanderpump just so that afterwards he can take off his sunglasses in order to cry and make sure that it's like on camera. I love that moment.

Jesus. You haven't got much of that in the past five months, I've never. Yeah. Crying? But shit. He doesn't work for the camera, that's for sure. Yeah.

He knows he is, he's very aware of what his body's doing, what his face is doing in terms of how it's going to be read by the camera. If there's one thing, you know, about Sandoval, it's that he is like a pro at being on TV. He finds his angles big time. Any time, you know, he'll find the, his, his spot. But I like Tom Schwartz's...

And he puts out a show. Yeah. He puts out a show. Tom Schwarz stole that scene though by just flat out being like, you crying, bro? Like, he was just so shocked that his friend was having an emotional moment. He's like, the hell? Like, just... My next star, I think, is going to be Allie. I was Allie Pilled this episode.

I just love the awkwardness that she is navigating this situation. I think that she's got such an experience. expressive face. I think one of the the criticisms that we saw of Rachel when she first emerged as James's partner was like she came across very flat on camera. I think that Ali has like a very flat way of talking, but she's very like expressive in her her face. Like she's, she gives a very good silent performance. Really, really love that. I thought that her line about like rebranding Graham just like trying to like turn this conversation

about Rachel rebranding into like rebranding Graham as hippie. Like it didn't land and she like immediately tried to recover. I love the like the fumble recovery where she's like, well you know, it's funny, but it's also kind of sad. Well, if Rachel can change your name, I can't grim. There you go. I'm the hippie.

There you go. New start for everyone. It's kind of sad, I know. Yeah. Like, she's just like this really awkward fumble recovery. And it just like it reads us very authentic. And so, yeah, I loved her. And I love that she legitimately was standing up for my third star, which is Mr. Banks.

If you guys are going to nominate the dogs, I'm going to nominate the cat. Love Mr. Banks. I am so sorry that he has a hippie now in his space. Yeah. He stood his ground, though. He stood his ground at the screen door, you know. So he's not backing down. Good for you, Banksie.

Yeah. All right. Let's move on to Summer House. We're going to start with a summer house headline. Tyler, if you can summarize this episode into a single attention-grabbing headline, what would that be? Oh, man. I mean, the only line that I wrote down here is, my dick's so dope. You don't even have to compare it.

Which doesn't have anything to do with the episode. Yeah. But really great quote. But I would probably say the headline, Lindsay absolutely insufferable. Like, I don't, like, man, I don't know. I've never seen this show before, but wow. Like, I do not like her off the dot. I think Carl's is a great guy.

And Lindsay is just like riding him and riding him and like cutting him off. Even that little conversation in the park, he makes a like a little offhand. joke and Lindsay just kind of like cuts him off and he's like sorry it was a joke it didn't land and she was like no it didn't and then they're talking about planning a wedding and then of course the final scene where Lindsay is hammered and she's just freaking out because she thinks carl's on coke and Carl's like I'm sober everyone knows I'm sober and and then the next morning when she sober's she doesn't just take the L and be like sorry I was a drunken lunatic she doubles down and gives Carl Moorecraft.

So like, as a as a true outsider of the Bravo universe, like my first impression, Lindsay sucks. Yeah. It's lightning in a bottle. It's amazing. Well, it is amazing because the thing is like, so I've watched the first two episodes, and I'm also an outsider to summer house. I've never watched it before now. But like there's been a lot of like goodwill friendly vibes until Lindsay shows up. So when she shows up, it's kind of like, oh, great, we've got somebody who's just going to bring pure negativity.

We needed that. So I'm glad to see somebody totally negative. Just gets, get tossed into the group. No, I'm like, 100% I mean it when I say. Like, it's amazing. It's she is one of the best personalities on Bravo, in my opinion. She's definitely the best personality on Summerhouse out of the entire franchise history. I think like she just brings this like manic energy and negativity.

It's it's brilliant to watch. Just a hostile presence. Yeah. Yeah. She is out of control and just like just cranks the tension in the house. And one thing that I have liked about the first two episodes of Summer House is that we have seen this contrast of what it's like when Lindsay's not in the house versus what it's like when she is and just how it just. amps up the energy when she's there. So yeah, love to see it.

And yeah, she's, she is like pretty insufferable. But she needs to be. She's doing her job well. 100%. That's, that's probably exactly what it is. What I was feeling when I was watching the episode where I was like, shut up, Lindsay, take it easy. What are you talking about?

Like, that is exactly what they're or what, what Lindsay's supposed to do. And she's, she's, she's crushing it actually because she really pissed me. off. So. What I really like about the argument that we have between Lindsay and Carl is that like the main argument, whatever happens like at the club, we don't actually see that. And I really enjoy that it's all about like the fallout and like reactions to it with like the key event missing.

I really enjoy that dynamic when it's just reacting to something we weren't there for. So like we don't really know who said what to whom. We don't know if Carl maybe was being a total dick to Lindsay. I don't, like, we weren't there. We don't know it. Presumably, Carl was not actually doing drugs, but if he was, Lindsay has a point, right? But, you know, we weren't there for, like, the key moments.

We just have to, like, see what plays out after. Because if he wasn't doing drugs, yeah, she's being absolutely indefensible. Like, for somebody who's, like, become sober to just, like, start accusing them of doing drugs when they have it is, like, a horrible thing to do. And Lindsay's, like, wasted. So, I mean, like, Carl's just walking. around sober like hello and she's like whoa you're not wait like are you on coke or something he's like no i'm just not as hammered as you are lindsay what do you want for me so yeah i don't know

the evidence is not good for lindsay like we see the text messages he sends and they're like totally well written like we hear him speak on the phone he's like speaking very clearly so like yeah the evidence is not in lindsay's favor here yeah her friend that was consoling her in bed was like uh like hangs up the phone after the conversation he's like that sounded like a sober man. Yeah. I was like, yeah. Yeah, I really loved, like you mentioned, Dylan, how this was like, whatever actually

happened, happened off, off camera. Like the, we only get to see things from the perspective of the house. And this kind of goes into what I want to bring up in terms of the storytelling on summer house. One thing that I think Summerhouse does well or has done especially well this season is, is the way that they use the space or they show the space and they show things like side by side happening simultaneously and you get a real authorless sense of storytelling. You feel like you're just like passively watching on security cameras what is going on in this house. It reminds me of watching like Big Brother feeds and hopping around from like one spot to the next.

You get a sense of like the geography of the space and you get to see. and you get to like see where people are congregating and, um, you know, the way that people are navigating the, the space and where they're, they're coming together becomes part of like the storytelling and seeing the, the social dynamic. And we don't need to see the narrative really, like, spelled out to us in order to get a sense of what is going on when they tell a story this way. So I really, really love that. Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Um, anything else. that stands out to you guys storytelling wise? We did get some good mirror shots too

when Kyle was talking. I think he was talking with Danielle, yeah. And we get like, there's like one shot in particular where Danielle was speaking and we see Kyle responding to her as a mirror reflected behind her. So that they're like facing it opposite directions. Oh, yeah. That was like some pretty clever filmic there,

a bit of a, it's like the kind of thing you'd have in like a P.T. Anderson movie or something. It was like, it was kind of neat. Just having a, you know, it makes you really register the idea of like the listener absorbing what the speaker is saying. Instead of focusing on the speaker, you're focusing on their reaction from the, in this case, Danielle reacting to what, to what Kyle saying as he speaks. So just in terms of like a technique use, I really like that they took advantage of having a mirror in a room, which is usually, you know, an issue, right? You have to work around mirrors. And in that scene, they came up with a clever way to incorporate the mirror into the scene.

Pretty deep shot because I think five minutes earlier, he was pissing in a bush, crossing streams with the new guy. And I'm like, wow. That's so great. Great. So I like, I love Kyle right away. Like this is, like I said, I'm a newbie to Summerhouse. I'm just coming into this without knowing anything about it. I'm also an outsider.

I adore Kyle's like just like lovably stupid energy. Like he's just such a he's just such a cute moron. I just, I love how he's got that fucking giant Rasta banana that he got, he went at the carnival and it's just like just as attached to it as like a dog who got a new toy. Just wants to hold on to it and just do everything with it. Just like I think I never really understood it. when people like said like use that that term like golden retriever boyfriend before until like I saw Kyle like, okay, I see what they're talking about now. And there's a scene of him like just sitting in

the room with like the projector spinning lights and he's just sitting next to his Rasta Banada. Just like totally content. Just totally content to be sitting out of couch, drunk next to his Rasta banana. Me and my banana. All right. Yeah. But yeah, the prime moment of Kyle being an adorable dub ass was literally doing a pissing contest with Jesse Solomon. Does he say something at the end? Like, I still got a little bit left. My dick's so dope.

You don't have to compare it. I believe you. Yeah, buddy. Look at you. You're like, I still got a little more. Like weird flex, okay. Longer stream, bro. Just saying.

Yeah. But he's great. What was, I think I missed this. Why was Amanda so pissed at him? He was like talking, he was talking shit about her or something like that. Because like she woke up that morning and she was in a mood.

Oh, yeah. So she was like pissed that he was kind of just airing their dirty laundry. Like this, this argument that seems really central to what they're going through as a couple and his like, um, we've seen in past seasons where Kyle has like criticized, Amanda for being like lazy or procrastinating and all this all this stuff and uh it really bothers Amanda because it it resonates I think um and the fact that this is like now something

that's impacting their like um their their their journey to having a child and the fact that Kyle's airing this out to other people and not like dealing with it with her I think it just like completely set her off. But I do want to talk about Amanda here. She is someone that I think gets criticized a fair amount in the fan base as like not really bringing a lot to Summerhouse. And I need to stand up against that because I think that she's someone that I think of as being similar to Katie on Vanderpump rules where she's just this constant like presence that just makes things like kind of. easy just her dynamic with with kyle and being like this wet blanket on him who is really trying to always like do the heavy lifting of creating a party vibe in the house and she's just always there

to like rain on it i i think that that is kind of a core piece of the summer house puzzle we need that that dynamic between kyle and and amanda otherwise i feel like we'd be losing a lot of what makes the house work for um for reality tv um let's get into highlights uh tyler what were your highlights here well the Kyle pissing in a bush scene was lights out it was really good um but i will say i did like uh i like the sports writer the sports writer west yeah yeah and he's got vibes with the one girl and i kind of like to see how they're kind of, but not really, but sort of.

They might, but they might not. That was kind of intriguing. I'm like, I kind of want to see if they, these two actually go the distance. Yeah. Doesn't seem like it's going to happen anymore. Like, it felt like it really, I was also really interested in that storyline too.

Like, that was really interesting because it felt like starting, especially carrying over from the first episode, like, it seemed like West was like, was getting in like it was working he's working his charm he's working hard you know doing pretty much anything a miniature manlet of his stature can do until well then first you know jesse solubid shows up yeah and and he's like oh fuck he's got fucking wembignamma over here just fucking like dominating everybody's attention and and then i think where it really turned turned for him was when he had to ride the shark

and was like, oh, you know, I'm a southern guy who knows horses. This is, this is my turf. And it just, like, fell off right away. Yeah. And, and Sierra just like, something changed. Like, Sierra just like, like, went from being like totally flirting with him to be like, yeah, I don't know, man. I thought it was like really brutal for him at the very end when like they're going to bed. And she's like, she like, well, basically declines to sleep with him.

And then it's going off to her bed and said, I'll think of you. Like that just seems like very brutal to just like, yeah, for somebody who you, like, you thought you were in with to just say, I'll think of you as they go afterwards. The line that hurt me. Thoughts and prayers. Yeah.

Yeah, just the line that hurt me as a, as a comic was when she was like, he's funny, but I've had funny. I've hated funny. Okay, fine, you're funny. What else? And I'm like, oh, shit. You got to bring something else to the day. table, that's all I got.

Yeah, hang in there, West. You'll get her. Dylan, how would you? What were your highlights here? Yeah, that was, I mean, we've covered the main ones. I do like, I love like the dynamic between West and Jesse Solomon, which immediately just seems like a comparison between one guy who has to like put in so much effort to try to like come off as Charming to get another guy who's just like, I'm tall.

and just can enhance them. It could just enter the room and don't have to do anything. That was kind of a funny dynamic. And the idea that there seemed to be like becoming good friends too is also like kind of cute. It's interesting that Jesse Solomon reveals that he's a cancer survivor too and had to go through chemotherapy and everything. Before that it was he was kind of giving off the vibes of somebody who's like just coast through life without having any difficulties. That's like, okay, wait, you know, we've assumed too quickly. I guess.

So I did enjoy them together. Yeah, I mean, I'm just getting to know these characters. Definitely, this might seem like an obvious comment, but like the intelligence level seems to be a lot lower than on even most like Bravo shows.

Like there's a lot of dumbasses here, which is fun, which is fun. But I'm not sure how much like strategizing. We're going to get out of these people out. I don't know more than I do. We'll see. and also like who is page's partner is that a character in the show yeah so she just speaks about him like he's like a mentally deficient child yeah so he is on another bravo show uh southern charm and so he does make appearances on uh on summerhouse but um yeah i so i do want to talk about page because she probably has the most like strategic mind out of any of the characters here yeah that's kind of vibe i got too i think like Like you mentioned, strategy is not something that we see a ton of on summer hosts.

So I don't feel like this is maybe, it doesn't really serve her. And I don't think she's got a personality that's like a star personality. She can't like carry a show on her own. I think she realizes that. And that's why she has attached herself to Craig from Southern Charm, who also is debatably like doesn't have the same. Star Power, but together their relationship has a lot of like cachet

within the Bravo like universe. So I thought it was really interesting to see when like Jesse hit on page and she like the wall was immediately up and she was like shutting that down because she does not want anything like any spark of anything to seem like it's breaking through this relationship that is really serving her, especially with an unknown entity like Jesse Solomon who like she has no idea how the fan is the fan base is going to react to him. One thing that is like a little bit of a contrast that that we've seen on previous season was there was a character Andrea that was on Summerhouse that page was kind of like flirting with while she was

with Craig but the fan base really like took to Andrea they really liked him and so I think that like the strategic part of her saw that, you know, it's, it's okay. It's not necessarily a, um, like a step down. It's not going to put her in, in hot water if she just kind of playfully engages with, with, with, with Andrea. Yeah. I also really liked her line when she was like, when she was saying to Kyle, like, I just got to know, like, when you're in bed with Amanda, like, does she pull your hair? Like, does she grab that mullet? And then she says, like, I thought about that four times. Yeah. Just counting the number of times she thinks about Kyle's mullet and that.

I think Paige is funny, but she really needs like someone with her in order to make her likable and to like bounce off of. I think like she's got the kind of personality where, you know, or the sense of humor where it just helps to like riff with someone. So there was a character on Summerhouse, Hena Berner or Hanna Bernier, I don't know how she pronounces it, but she's got a podcast with Paige. And like she's a stand-up comedian and they've got like a really good back and forth and vibe together. And they've got a really popular podcast as a result. I think Paige really took a like a hit when Hannah was not asked back to Summerhouse because Hannah was made Paige more likable. and they were funny together. And, you know, Hanna was also this, like, crazy manic, toxic energy that stirred shit up.

And, yeah, I think that it just made Paige seem more stable as well. So, yeah, I think that that is what motivates her relationship with Craig a lot. Not to say that there isn't, like, true feelings there, but every scene that I've seen with Paige and Craig feels very, like, clinical. I don't see a ton of chemistry between the two of them, but that's just my take. And is he actually a total fucking moron or does she just talk about him that way? Well, debatably, I think he's got his his moments. I don't personally love him. I think that he plays the camera too much. That's my big criticism of him. He feels like very artificial in terms of how he navigates things and it just like reads as inauthentic and he tries to come across as like a very

down to earth type guy that is like he tries he's really trying to be a fan favorite I feel like and I feel like a page is also really wants wants that as well and I can feel the desperation on their relationship and the energy is just like something that doesn't doesn't vibe with me but he is like very well liked and he is not like a problematic figure. So, you know, he's

Craig. He's just, he's just a Craig. Just your regular Craig. Solidarity. Creeping in here. Just another one of those solid crags. Yeah. Big Craig vibes.

I think we cover most of my highlights here. as well. Did you guys have anything you wanted to circle back on before we get to our stars? No. I mean,

I just want to say that I think surf and turf is stupid because they're eating surf and turf. I just wanted to voice my objection to that whole idea of a dish. It's never been made sense to me. It's just a stupid way to make a dish too expensive

and have too much protein on it. I agree. And the way Carl brought it up was cool. He's like surf and turf. Do you like meat? And I was like, it's a weird way to,

I don't know. It's just a weird line. Do you like meat? Yeah. I guess. Yeah. I'm more down with West's cassidias that he made when he showed up than just showing up with a bunch of lobster and steaks. That's just me.

Awesome. Well, let's get to our stars for Summer House. Tyler, you want to lead us off? Who are your stars here? Yeah, sure. I mean, Kyle really likable. And I like West. Is it West?

It's West, I think, yeah, with a T. Cool. Yeah. West would be two. much of a name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So I like West. But I guess the star, now that we've covered her and that you guys have put her in the right context of what she's doing, I got to say Lindsay. I mean, she stole the show for me and that she really got me pissed off.

She was the one character that had me going like, shut up. Enough. But like, so, yeah, props to Lindsay. She's doing her job.

Even her, like when West is like, hey, do you mind if I grab the fan out of the room. And she's like, well, isn't that like the hannest room? It's like, let the guy have the fan. Like, come on, man. So she's crushing it because I hate her. Dylan, who are your stars? You know what? Kyle's great. Let's give it to Kyle. And a joint first star for Kyle and his banana. Well, I guess I could go two ways. We've talked about his dick too. So I will specify the

stuffed rasta banana. And let's go, let's give a second start to West. You know, he's been really entertaining, really interesting. It was such a great, I thought, image of the like vibe shift following Lindsay and Carl's arrival when like you mentioned, like they have to switch rooms. But then we have that moment where like they immediately start arguing in the room, Lindsay and Caldew. And West is like still there getting a.

stuff and he's like, and he's been like, he started out like just really succeeding with being like, oh, I've got the party vibes. I'm the funny man. Like I know how to keep things light and entertaining. And then we just see him like awkwardly standing in the doorway with his like,

you know, colored party glasses and like party hat and holding like a bundle of like Hawaiian shirts or something. Just like, and just like, oh, this is awkward. I'm just going to awkwardly cart out my party vibes and just kind of sneak past you because that seems to be done now. My window of opportunity is closed. I can feel now that the whole vibe has changed now that you're here.

And there's like hostility of the house. That was a really good image to me. So let's give West number two. And we'll give the third spot to Lindsay for changing the entire dynamic. Yeah. So yeah, my number one star has to be Lindsay. Number two is going to be Amanda, underrated performer on Summer House. Don't at me.

Or actually, do. That helps with the engagement. And number three is going to be Kyle because of all the reasons that you guys mentioned. Thank you so much for doing this, Tyler. This has been a blast.

Do you want to let everyone know where they can find you? Yeah, for sure. At Tyler Pinner Comedy on Instagram at prairie.dumster. Dot, pod. Prairie dumpster. Just Google it. That's my podcast.

Give it a follow. Give it a like. But thanks for having me, guys. This is great stuff. Yeah. Thanks for coming back. Dylan, how about yourself? You can find me writing about movies on Substack.

Look for Dylan Ferguson on Substack, D-Y-L-A-N-Fergson. I trust you with that one. I've just ranked the Best Picture nominees for the upcoming Oscars. And, you know, I love to talk about that. Love to talk about Oscar movies. Yeah, and we're going to be doing that next week at some point. Not sure what date it's going to be released. whenever I can get it cut together.

But we're going to do an Oscar preview show. Can talk about make our picks and talk about our favorites. I am so excited about it. I can't wait to really dive into it. It's such a good field this year. And yeah, it should be really good. Can't wait to talk about all of these movies, which I have lots of thoughts about. And also just like predictions for the show and shit and what's going to go down.

Because I am such a, I'm just such an Oscar slut. I just love that shit. totally um i'm craig midwinter you can find me on instagram at bravo outsider we're online bravo outsider dot com we have vr versions of our podcast now that you can watch so um if you're if you've got a headset check it out it's uh it's kind of fun uh but find us on youtube subscribe like uh rate and review on your favorite podcast platform of choice that helps us out a ton Tell your friends. Right to your congressmen.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Until next week. Higher local skywriters. Keep on wiping.