Pop Culture Happy Hour - Laid

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

The new Peacock series Laid is a very dark rom-com. Stephanie Hsu plays a young woman who discovers that all of her exes have started to die under mysterious, sometimes freakish, circumstances. This causes her to conduct a kind of sexual audit of her life, and she sets out to warn everyone she's ever slept with that they are about to die. It's funnier than it sounds, and makes for a good holiday hangover binge. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The new series Laid is a very dark rom-com, or sort of rom-com. It stars Stephanie Shue as a young woman who discovers that all of her exes have started to die under mysterious, sometimes freakish circumstances. This causes her to conduct a kind of sexual audit of her life, and she sets out to warn everyone she's ever slept with that they are about to die. It's funnier than that sounds and may make a good holiday hangover binge. I'm Glenn Weldon, and we're talking about the Peacock series Laid on this episode of Popcorn. Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is Christina Tucker. She's the co-host of the podcast, Wait Is This a Date?

Hey, Christina. Welcome back. Hello, hello. Hello. Also, with this is culture writer Margaret H. Willison. Hey, Margaret. Hi, Glenn.

Hey, this is the dream team. I watched this show and I was like, I want to talk about this on PCHH and I hope we can get Margaret. I hope we can get Christina. We felt the same way. Let's go. Let's do this. Laid stars Stephanie Shue as a Seattle event planner named Ruby.

she's maybe a little selfish, maybe a little glib, maybe even a bit obnoxious. What's for certain, however, is that everybody she's ever slept with has begun to die under some mysterious circumstances. Luckily, she's got her best friend AJ, played by Zasha Mamet, a true crime obsessive who is only too eager to help her get to the bottom of all this. This is a timeline of everyone you have ever had sex with in order, along with everything you ever said about them, the sex you had, quality, quantity, location, and how they died if they're dead. Throw in a solid joke hit rate and some high-quality guest stars like John Early, Kate Burlant, Simulieu, Chloe Feynman, and I think this is just worth noting Phineas O'Connell. That's right, Billy Elish's brother. All that plus lots of death, so much death. More death than in just about any sitcom you care to name. Happy holidays, everyone. All eight episodes are streaming now on Peacock. Christina kick us off. Would you make of Laid? I am generally pro-laid. I think it's a combination of, like, deeply acerbic, but really gonzo world building and tone made some things harder for me to, I think, land emotionally, but did make the world that it was in really fun and something I kept being like, well, I do want to watch the next episode. And I had just a fun time.

It's been a long time since we've had someone so unlikable on screen. And I kind of miss that, you know? Yeah. This could be a new start. the beginning of me making a change. A funeral is your new start. I am burying the old judgmental me as well as a literal man. And also a man I used to know.

Yes. You speak of my language. How about you, Margaret? I had a lot of the same feelings Christina did, but I think maybe my response to some of the gonzo stuff kicked me out of the narrative a little bit more than I wanted it to. I had a hard time figuring out if the show understood how terrible the main character really was. because it seemed to sort of vacillate in a lot of different directions. And I wanted there to be a little bit more like steadiness in that characterization. Like in an always sunny, everybody's terrible, but that's the joke, right?

Or the other two where it's like you can see how terrible they are. They sometimes can see how terrible they are. But you also get to see the emotional wreckage they're leaving behind them. This was sort of stuck maybe more almost in like a new girl space. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Like, this is not quirky.

This is monstrous. Yeah. That was a hard time for me. Okay. But great jokes, great guest stars. If I had not been watching it for PCHH, I don't know if I would have watched all eight episodes. But by the time I got to episode four, I was like, I'm in, I'm down. And again, just the year of Zasha Mamet.

She's so good. She's so good. So good. Because I was thinking how scary would it be if their initials sped out like a creepy word, guts or heads. or hang. I would scream, but they don't. So it's not that. Okay. I just have a different reaction to the whole likability question. I always have. I just always think likability is a movable feast because as soon as you start to worry about how likable your main character is, you turn your main character into oatmeal and everybody around them is interesting, right?

Because they're bouncing off the main character. The main character exists to be bounced off of. So I get how likability is concerned. I also get how it's not about likeability. it's about funny and this is a comedy. All anybody cares about is funny. And I think this show is funny. And also, this might just be my reaction. I also think Ruby is likable because Ruby is played by Stephanie Shue. Yeah, that's what makes it work.

This is what makes it work, right? That's the magic key. Stephanie Shue could kill and gut and eat a copy bar in front of my eyes. And I'd be like, well, let's see where she's going with this. You know what I mean? She's got that power. I think the jokes are funny. I think there's plenty of them.

And you've got, let's talk about this, both Stephanie Shue ends up and Mamet, selling the jokes by tossing them aside, by throwing them away. I think there's some overwritten jokes in this. I think there are some very complicated in terms of just their syntax. The only way jokes like that work is if you throw them aside. Yeah, I had the similar, like, I feel like this dialogue is going to be dinged for being overwritten, like, because of these jokes. And I was like, but it does, in fact, feel like how I talk with my friends, which is. A hundred percent. I mean, let that reflect whatever it does, I guess, to the audience. But I was like, Unfortunately, I have been clocked here.

Yeah. This is exactly what it was like when everybody was like about John Green. I was like, teenagers don't talk like that. And I'm like, oh, contrary, I do. I clipped one of the jokes where I was like, oh, this is an exchange that would absolutely happen between maybe even me and Christina. We don't want to be the people who know something and don't say something. We want to be Nisi Nash in Dahmer Monster, the Jeffrey Dahmer story. American Dahmer Monster, the Jeffrey Murder Story.

Ryan Murphy presents Jeffrey Crime Monster, American Murder Domer. Just like that, and I'll say unequivocally, the strongest thing about the show is the dynamic between those two actresses and the dynamic between those two characters. Absolutely, yeah. That is one thing that is baked all the way through and, like, I could eat it for years. Yeah. That feels easy and breezy and breathless. And like, it's just so fun to watch them, have fun with each other. And the second I heard that Dahmer clip, I was like, yep, that's Margaret Nye.

That's everyone on this call. I mean, absolutely, because I mean, like, Sasha Mammett, I don't want to Judy Greer her. I don't want to say she should only be playing this kind of part. But like, Margaret, we talked about the DeCamaran, the Netflix series of the DeCamaran. She's in that. She's great in that. So good. You watch her doing that and you're like, this is what you should be doing because you're so good at it.

It's not the only thing you can do, but this is you're in the zone. But when you watch, say, Madam Webb and Zasha Mammett turns up as like the hacker who's going to jack into the mainframe, you're like, what is going on? You turn up in this and everything. is right with the world. I also knew in the opening minutes that the show was from me because we get a different joke. We learn very early on

that the character played by Phineas O'Connell doesn't pay for Spotify. So there's sex music. Keeps getting interrupted by ads for what, everyone? Do we remember the poll? Do we remember the reference? Also, when I put on music, what was up with all those commercials for Ellsbeth?

You need to get Spotify without ads. It's only like 10 bucks more. I switched over and I'm happy. I'm happy. I made the choice. Elsbeth. No. It's interrupted by ads. for Elzbeth.

The Elzbeth reference. This is another thing I got a flutum for, which is the references to other media. Perfect. Again, I have another joke. It is when Zasha Mamet's character is arguing with her very recently ex-boyfriend about the fact that they are breaking up.

Please, AJ. I'm so sorry, but you cannot break up with me. Why? Because you have to get your own Paramount Plus subscription? No, I don't even watch Paramount Positive anymore. Ever since Rise of the Pink Ladies got canceled. Just rises the pink ladies. I didn't even remember that show existed. That one made me hoot and holler.

I was like, wow, we've been through a lot of TV in the world. To the mammoth point, I can't get enough of her playing best friend to like a wacky person who has like a trail of dead bodies in their wake. I think this is between flight attendant and this, she's really leaning into something beautiful. But thank you for bringing flight attendant forward because I feel like Kelly Cuoco has that same innate, like, lovable sparkle. You should be building a romantic. to comedy around this woman. But I feel like that show has a much better sense of how toxic she is and does a much better job of sort of like taking you on the journey to her figuring it out. And this show, I have to talk about a moment in the first episode because it's not about likeability.

It's about comprehensible characterization. And I need to talk with you both about the scene. Oh, I have a feeling. I know what it's going to be. You do. You do. Where for 85 seconds, we watch Stephanie Shoe sing Grace Land, get to the point of belting Graceland in a car with her dead college boyfriend's parents, his dog who is named after her, his current girlfriend, who looks exactly like her. And this scene baffled me so much that I went back to the. Australian series this was based on. Because I was like, maybe this is one of those things where they're like hewing too closely to the original show, but they don't recognize that like it hits so different when it's all Americans in the car.

Absolutely not. No. We have a clip here that will show you the volume the Australian character reaches. Right? That's just like we can't help sing you along. And then we have a clip that shows you the volume Ruby reaches. As if I didn't know that, as if I didn't know my own man. I just don't understand that character as a human being anymore.

85 seconds in a car, everyone's silent. And you are belting. Graceland like you are a Broadway star, which Stephanie Shue is. To be fair. Okay. To be fair. I'm glad you called that up. Okay, good.

But this feels like they're letting her sparkle use the show rather than using her sparkle for the show. Does that make sense? Fair. It does make sense. And I will say, like, that was a moment where I was kind of like, can I get on board? Like, I'm happy to watch unlikable, bad, whatever characters. Right. But is this a person who functions in the world as I know it to be true?

But I think that is a question kind of generally with the show, like, is this world one that I know to be true? Because, like, there's a lot of kind of surprising death that occurs. It really is. For the most part, people kind of just rolls right off the shoulders of most people. And it's a little shocking. See, that moment you're talking about Margaret is preceded by the realization that this family cares about her deeply because she made such a huge impression on this person that she dated in college very briefly. That was so absurd that that kind of keyed me into the surreal quality. Like the show hadn't been that absurd before.

It goes that absurd. And I'm like, okay, so I'm on a ride now. And then so something like that moment, I giggled through. It's keying you into what kind of show it's going to be with the kind of references it's making. What kind of guest stars it's getting? I'm sorry, you cast Josh Sugara in your pilot. That is a cheat code for Glens. That's how you get me on your side.

Kate Burlant, John Early. I think Kate Burlant, a little bit wasted. John Early perfectly deployed. Everything about that was flawless. John Early, stunning. Stunning work. I understand that there's no business class on this flight. I guess I'm curious as to why that is.

This is a sag issue. I mean, why did we even strike? It's something where you know, like, you suspect it was written for him. But let's talk about this. Then the deaths start piling up. I cannot think of a sitcom that deals this glibly with this much death before. If you're going to get kicked out of this, if you're not going to say, I want to binge this over the holidays with my family,

with my parents. That might be the reason I would point to. Terrible, he's dead. Yeah. Oh, his last Instagram is a photo of a dog. We should re-watch Clifford. Yes. I think it could be.

And I do think because the show is tonally kind of back and forth, they do ask you to kind of sit in the grief of whatever has just happened. And sometimes they're like, no, we don't have time for that today. So I think it could be kind of hard for like a family holiday binge to feel like, We're on a setty track here. White Christmas or this? I can think of another show that sort of deals with that almost this glibly. And it is search party.

Oh, sure. Okay. And I would say that this is someplace between search party and like Colin from accounts as far as the tonal balance goes. And I wanted it to figure out its allegiance a little bit better than it had. Well, let's talk about this then because this kind of augurs for if there's going to be a second season. We don't know as the time we tape this if there's going to be. but there is a mystery in this show why this is happening. It's based on that Australian

sitcom you mentioned Margaret that ran for two seasons. I gather I haven't seen it that the mystery is unfolding in this show slightly differently than it did in the Australian show. Based on the Wikipedia page, I think so. Exactly. We'll leave it at that. Given that and that the mystery is sort of

resolved but then maybe it isn't at the very end, would you recommend binging this show in an afternoon? Did it leave you satisfied? Would you recommend maybe waiting to see if we get a second season before watching. Let's do some service journalism for the folks here. I think wait until we see if we get a second season. It got me personally. I thought by the time I reached that last episode, what we learn in it was like satisfying and was interesting enough and made sense in the world enough that I was like, oh, I actually do need to know what a second season would look like kind of immediately. Honestly, I have to commend them. That's a bold ending without knowing you're getting season due. So go off, guys. You know, I think you know. If you want to see a show about bisexual Stephanie's shoe where theoretically she had sex with John early.

Like if that's you, you know who you are. I am also you. That calls to you. And those 85 seconds are long, my friends. But if you can get through them, I think there's value in those hills. Because I do like what they've suggested about how the mystery is going to unfold. I would love to see it. I guess I do have to say you guys need to watch it.

So thus I can get a second. season. So in that way, in that way, I say, my service journalism is service for me. Yeah, that's the missing reagent of this equation, right? If nobody watches it because we're telling him not to watch it until it's the second season, then we are defeating our own purpose here. I certainly think this is worth watching. I think this is a lot of fun. I think the jokes just keep landing and landing and landing, the more specific and the more weirdly media obsessed they become, the funnier I think the show is. Yeah, I mean, if you're like gay and media-brained, this is. is for you.

Yeah. Like it's kind of just a fact. That's true. There's no getting around it. Yep. That's true. You have to, your duty is to put your eyes on one episode and see what it does for you.

Yeah. What we're talking about here is the difference between a four quadrant hit and being ruthlessly targeted by a show. Yeah. I think in different ways, I think we all were. Maybe you will be too. We want to know what you think about Laid. When you see it, please see it. Find us at Facebook.com slash PCHH.

That brings us to the end of our show. Christina Tugger. Margaret H. H. Willison. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having us. Thank you. I knew this was the group. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Lennon Sherburn and edited by Mike Katzif.

Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy and hello. Come in, provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Glenn Weldon and we'll see you all tomorrow.