Suggestible - It's a Sin

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

Suggestible things to watch, read and listen to. Hosted by James Clement @mrsundaymovies and Claire Tonti @clairetonti.Visit https://bigsandwich.co/ for a bonus weekly show, exclusive movie commentari...es, early stuff and ad-free podcast feeds for $9 per month.This week’s Suggestibles:Sound of MetalMr Holland’s OpusBumpIf Anything Happens I Love YouFraming Britney SpearsIt’s a SinWavesMagic Spoon (not a sponsor YET)Send your recommendations to suggestiblepod@gmail.com, we’d love to hear them.You can also follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook @suggestiblepod and join our ‘Planet Broadcasting Great Mates OFFICIAL’ Facebook Group. So many things. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 We can wait for clean water solutions, or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge indigenous cultures, or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth, or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Bing bong bing. Bing bong.
Starting point is 00:00:32 I'm bringing the bing bongs every week just for you, James. Thank you. I appreciate that. You are welcome. I need something to look forward to in my dreary life. Oh, your life's not so dreary. Oh, come on, Claire. It sucks. You know that.
Starting point is 00:00:41 You're losing your hair. Every day's a new adventure. It certainly is. That's what I love about getting old. Correct. Hello, we're Suggestible Pod. I'm Claire. He's James.
Starting point is 00:00:52 We're married and we talk to you about things to watch, read and listen to that you may or probably won't actually take us up on. That's right. But if somebody asks you about a particular thing, they're like, have you heard of this particular movie or book? You can say, yeah, no, I've heard it's good. Yeah. Or you can lie and say that you've watched it because you'll know
Starting point is 00:01:11 fact of facties about it and you'll be current and hot and full of the old pep with all the current pop culture knowledge you'll have in your old brain box. I actually lie. I do the opposite. If somebody asks me if I'm saying something or I know about something, I just go, no, I don't. Okay, I have a rant.
Starting point is 00:01:31 I've got a rant just bubbling up inside me. Is this about me? I am so sick of you being the bloody most miserable miser of the world, listeners. I don't know about that. I live with a guy who doesn't want anyone to know anything about him on any level, anywhere he goes. He doesn't want to talk to people.
Starting point is 00:01:50 He doesn't want them to know his order at a coffee shop. He doesn't like it when the green grocer says, hi, James, inexplicably in the place that he lives. We had two extra channels going. I'm just going to unplug them. Oh, is that why it was sounding so full on in my ears? Yeah, hang on. Oh, that was because the wonderful Andy and Al from Two in the Think Tank
Starting point is 00:02:11 came over the other night. So there might have been a bit of reverb on that, so apologies. But anyway, sorry, you were saying how terrible it was. Please continue. I just sometimes I just want to live in a house with someone that just, like, enjoys people and life and things. Are you saying?
Starting point is 00:02:29 Rather than living with someone who is constantly suspicious, like we're living in Russia and there are spies everywhere. Do you think? Everybody is out to get you all of the time. No one's out to get me. You always want to stay under the radar. Are you proposing a third person in our relationship? Is that what this is building up to?
Starting point is 00:02:48 Like a happy-go-lucky kind of like, pal, let's go. I've already packed the car. No, that's not something. You love packing the car. You could do a dad pack. I'll do that. That's your pride and joy. It's like the one joy that you talk about all the bloody time.
Starting point is 00:03:03 And I don't even like it. joy that you talk about all the bloody time. And I don't even like it. For example, last week, wonderful listener, Steffa Kieran wrote in to tell us all about the lawnmower. Yeah, yeah. He has discovered the joy of a Ryobi lawnmower and living with you is the reality that even though you have the best lawnmower, you still hate mowing the lawn.
Starting point is 00:03:25 And that, in a nutshell, is you. Let me put it this way. Your old grump, grumpity grump grumps. It's like being like, hey, guess what? This is the best pile of shit. Great. It's still a big pile of shit and I don't want anything to do with it. Well, you're a big pile of shit and I don't want nothing to do with you.
Starting point is 00:03:41 Thank you. Got him. Actually, I really love you. Sorry if you're listening to this show for the first time. I actually really love James a lot. But we live together. We work together. She's actually never admitted that.
Starting point is 00:03:51 We have two children together and sometimes I want to not be in the same room as you. But here's the thing though. You're deep down. You're like, oh, my God, sadness. It's in my core. No, you're dragging me down. You're dragging me down in your doldrums and over time you're just slowly
Starting point is 00:04:06 whittling my way, my joyful personality until I'll be a husk, a husk of a woman who just sits on the couch. Actually, no, who am I kidding? I'll never be a husk of a woman. I'm so full of joy. It's a bottomless pit of joy. Wow, this has come full circle. Anyway, let's get on with recommending stuff.
Starting point is 00:04:22 Oh, okay. Enough of this delightful banter that we're known for. This doesn't feel like a banter. This feels like somebody just fucking coming at you. It's also very late at night. I thought we'd finished, but we haven't. So let's get fucking on with the show. Let's do it.
Starting point is 00:04:38 Do you want to go first? I will go first. Why not? Why not? No, you go first. Are you sure? Yeah. I'm going to recommend The Sound of Metal.
Starting point is 00:04:46 It's directed by Darius. Ding! That's the sound it would make if you hit it with a glockenspiel. I don't know. Darius. Darius Marder. Ding! It's his debut film.
Starting point is 00:05:01 I'm sorry. It stars Riz Ahmed. As people might know, he's from many things, but he's from Star Wars. He's from Rogue One. Of course he's from bloody Star Wars. You know him. He's an incredible actor and he's a rapper. I'll show you this guy.
Starting point is 00:05:15 All right, in this audio medium. I'm glad you're showing me a visual image. I'm showing you so you have a frame of reference. Oh, yes. Yes, he's great. He's terrific. Great. He's in like The Night Of.
Starting point is 00:05:23 Do you remember The Night Of? Yes, I do. He's in Nightcrawler. He's great. He's terrific. Great. He's in like The Night Of. Do you remember The Night Of? Yes, I do. He's in Nightcrawler. He's great. He's really good. But so it's an Olivia Cooke and Paul Racky and he basically, it's about this guy and him and his partner, they're in a heavy metal band and he's the drummer, right?
Starting point is 00:05:38 This is Riz Ahmed. He's like his bloody love in drumming. But then he loses his hearing. So it's like a fraction of what it was it's like a five percent or whatever and the doctor's like you need to preserve your hearing you can't go and be a drummer anymore because if you do it again anyway so he does and he loses his hearing completely or pretty much completely so then his life it was always revolved around music that's that was his place that he that he went to know, that's, you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:06:06 It was everything. And then he has to kind of reassess what is he going to do? You know what I mean? It changes the relationship with everybody around him. He's like, do I save up to get some, like, some implants, which kind of fix my hearing to an extent. But he ends up moving in with this community. And a lot of the people within the community,
Starting point is 00:06:23 a lot of the actors who are in this are either heavily involved in the asl community or they are actually like they're hearing impaired so a lot of people so it's a lot of the film is a lot of it is just sign language with um with subtitles yeah which is the way which you can actually switch off because it's on prime but the way the filmmakers like intended to be is like you're experiencing the film how like a deaf person would watch a film normally. Do you know what I mean? So it's basically, yeah, so it's this guy just kind of reassessing everything he's ever done.
Starting point is 00:06:54 He's kind of shifted his priorities. He kind of falls out with people that he used to know and he's part of this new community, but he also kind of has this longing for the way things used to be. But it's also like you can't really ever kind of get that back. Do you know what I mean? And it does a really good job of sound design in particular because a lot of the time you kind of hear what he hears.
Starting point is 00:07:15 It also, when he's hearing is lost and when he's just trying to figure out sign language, you kind of feel the same way that he does. You feel like you're kind of almost like trapped in this world and this like sense of panic that you don't really know what's going on. But that slowly kind of evolves as the movie progresses. And Riz Ahmed apparently he learnt to drum for like six months prior and he learnt sign language, all of this, to make this movie.
Starting point is 00:07:39 It's really great. You should watch it. It's really good. It's got a very, very high Rotten Tomatoes score. Not that it necessarily means anything. But it's really like inspiring and uplifting and kind of awful but great and all things. It's a good movie, Sound of Metal.
Starting point is 00:07:53 That sounds amazing. It is amazing, Claire. Sounds amazing. Sounds of metal amazing. Yeah, it really sounds right up my alley. Yeah, I think you'd really like it. Yeah, and that whole world of sign language and Auslan. I know Jess Perkins from Do Go On Pod is learning Auslan.
Starting point is 00:08:09 That's awesome. And another of my good friends has learned Auslan too. Yeah. And I think it's just such an incredible way of communicating. Yeah. And I know it's a really old film, but do you remember the film Mr Holland's Opus? I do remember.
Starting point is 00:08:23 He's got a deaf son. Yeah, his son is deaf and he's a musician and a teacher and he always wants to aspire to be this famous musician and instead he ends up as a high school music teacher. Yeah, right. And it's kind of this sort of evolving story on one hand of him struggling and never quite getting there with his music and his compositions and the other hand being this incredibly
Starting point is 00:08:43 inspiring teacher who is also really struggling with the idea that he was sort of dreamed of being able to pass on his talent to his son and he can't communicate with his son the joy of music because it's such an audio medium. Yeah, of course. And then there's that end. I've watched that film so many times. I haven't seen it in years.
Starting point is 00:09:01 I don't think I've ever seen it. I know it but I don't, yeah. Oh, my gosh. You love a father and son thing. I love it. And you would, oh, my, the ending scene is, I'm going to cry now. He works out how to communicate music to his son through light. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:09:15 And so the end of the show, his opus ends up being all of the students he's taught playing in this orchestra and timing it to the music, to lighting. Yeah, right. And then he sings in sign language this song and he goes, this beautiful, beautiful boy. And it's this sort of the way he uses sign to sing to his son and communicate the music. And you just, they sort of repair their relationship and it's all the things
Starting point is 00:09:45 I love about music and like life and finding your passion and how in the end it's more about the connections you make with the people in your life and it's really inspiring. Anyway, yeah, it sounds really right. Whatever. This is who I am, remember? Oh, boo. I hate everything. I hate movies even.
Starting point is 00:10:07 Anyway, that sounds great and I will definitely check that out. And you should also watch Mr. Holland's Opus. I will watch Mr. Holland's Opus. I've been meaning to watch Mr. Holland's Opus for 25 years. Ever since there was a guy at my school whose last name was Holland. And I used to, there was an ad where he'd go, I'm a teacher, Iris. And that's what I remember from the start. I used to say that to him all the time. And he's like, I hate you. And I'm like, I know, but I'm going to do this every day. You see me for six years. I'm going to do this every day to you. And I did, true to my word. I don't doubt that you would do that. You have nothing but consistent and persistent
Starting point is 00:10:37 at being supremely annoying. You know him actually, Dutchie. Oh yes, I know Dutchie. Yeah, yeah. There you go. All your mates are called by their surnames. One of them, I didn't know his first name for such a long time. We were friends for like six years before I figured out his first name. We still don't know his first name.
Starting point is 00:10:53 Nobody knows. Maybe he doesn't have one. All right. Is it my turn? Well, you just did Mr Holden's Opus, so it's my turn again. What? No, no. Yeah, here we go.
Starting point is 00:11:01 That's not how it works. It's my turn. No, what have you got? What have you got? Don't be ruining the rules of the game. Okay, so this show is called Bump and I loved it. It's a Stan original show from the creators of one of my favourite Australian TV series, Love My Way.
Starting point is 00:11:17 Oh, my God. You love, love, love, love my way. Oh, my gosh, that's a really old Australian show. I reckon I'm going to put it out there. It's one of the best Australian dramas. We don't tend to do drama overly well necessarily in Australia. It's not that old. It was from like 2004, yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:29 Yeah, it's pretty old. But it's absolutely heartbreaking, Love My Way. It's starring Claudia Carvin, who's one of my favourite Australian actors. For those people who don't know, she played Padme Amidala's sister in the deleted scenes from Star Wars Episode 2. Oh, well, there you go. There you go. She was also on Dancing with the Stars recently.
Starting point is 00:11:49 She was. I'm going to tie all these into Star Wars, but I'm going to do it. You will, totally. Anyway, so Love My Way is perfection, but what I'm recommending is Bump, which I think is just as good. It's got a fresh, funny, insightful heart and a lot of women on the writing team, which means the female character is are complex, flawed and articulate and it deals exceptionally well with new motherhood.
Starting point is 00:12:08 There are scenes in this that I feel haven't been done before. So the story basically revolves around a girl called Ollie Davis-Charmers, played by Natalie Morris, and Claudia Carvin plays Angie Davis, her mum. And Ollie's this kind of incredible feminist teenager. I'd say she's in like year 10, year 11 and she's, you know, the opening scene starts and she's got pictures of like Jacinda Ardern and Malala and all these incredible inspiring, you know, Hillary Clinton, everybody on her walls and you sort of get this sense
Starting point is 00:12:42 that she's going somewhere. She's a real nerdy geek. And then by the end of that first episode you find out that she had no idea she was pregnant and just goes into labour at school, in high school, and has a baby in the very first episode. And it's just this like incredible shock and the fallout of it. And when I heard the premise I thought, oh, that just doesn't seem like that would really happen.
Starting point is 00:13:07 Because it kind of, it looks, if you watch the trailers, it looks kind of wacky. Yeah. It's like, what are you going to do? You're going to make. Yeah, but it's not like that. It's got a lot more heart than you would think. It's very funny.
Starting point is 00:13:18 It's got that kind of wonderful sense of, I don't know, being a teenager at school. The cast is really diverse, scripting is really great, but it also just deals with a lot of things about early motherhood and new motherhood and relationships between family members and fractured kind of marriages and the complexity of growing up. And also surprisingly, which what made me really sort of get really emotional is Ollie's journey initially not wanting anything to do with her baby and then you slowly find out who the father is and it's not really spoiling anything.
Starting point is 00:13:59 You find out that the father is Santy. That sort of happens very apparently in the first episode and he's really gorgeous. find out that the father is Santy. So that sort of happens very apparently in the first episode. And he's really gorgeous. He's from a Chilean family. And he's kind of this like real jock kind of bloke who plays soccer and has this very kind of crazy loud family. And I think it reflects Australia, like an Australia I recognise. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:14:21 And he's also a comic book artist. And his dad doesn't want him to do that. He doesn't see any future in it. And so there are some beautiful moments where he communicates how he feels about Ollie and the baby in like comic book art. And that's really cool. I think the thing that surprised me the most about this show is that over time in a teenager like Ollie who was such a strident feminist having a baby,
Starting point is 00:14:45 it explores what happens to women when they have babies and how it can reframe and change what you're able to do in life. And it deals really well with other generations of women and how their lives have been affected by having kids and how their courses have been redirected and also how lightly the men seem to get off as opposed to the women in the story. Right, yeah. And even, and Ollie who was someone who had such a focus on her academics
Starting point is 00:15:14 and was wanting to work at the UN and how it kind of deals with her grappling with being a mother, falling in love, those priorities and then having to try and still reclaim herself and her identity and what happened to her mother and what happened to Santee's grandmother. Because her mother had her early as well. Yeah, yeah. And actually Angus Sampson, who's really hilarious, plays Ollie's father and he does it so well. He's kind of like a little bit of a drunk, a little bit of a messed up kind
Starting point is 00:15:46 of guy like he's splitting up with Claudia Carvin's character and living on a boat. And so that kind of storyline is quite fun too. Yeah, it's funny too. From what I've seen, you've obviously watched all of it. It's really funny. It's really, really funny. There's a great scene in like a drug den.
Starting point is 00:16:01 Yeah. Which is quite funny with a lizard, with a blue-tongued lizard. Yeah, and there's just a lot of the cast of characters of the high school students are really funny. There's some LGBTQI kind of scenes as well, which I think are really great, exploring different sexuality and all that kind of stuff. There's even a sex scene involving breast milk, which sounds like very shocking, but it was kind of really delightful and affirming and not what you would expect.
Starting point is 00:16:26 And I think there's a lot of scenes in it like that where you think, I don't think I've seen it done before in that way from a woman's perspective and particularly from like a teenager who you just like. But even though she's a teenager being thrown into motherhood, it's the same sort of feeling even if you're an older woman doing it in a lot of ways. But you're still going to do all the things, don't you? Yeah, you're just kind of thrown in.
Starting point is 00:16:53 And the way that she's looking at all the stuff that happens to her body and herself and everything in this really like what the actual F is happening to me just felt very familiar. Anyway, I loved it. It was really fun. Don't be put off by the premise. I was and I only watched it because I was recommended it and I binged it. I watched it in like two minutes.
Starting point is 00:17:14 Are they doing another season? Yeah, they are. Yeah, they've been greenlit for another season. It's had a really good. Well, with all those people involved, that doesn't surprise me that it's really good. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:24 Yeah, and that team of involved, that doesn't surprise me that it's really good. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that team of producers, Claudia Carvin, and it was written by Kelsey Munro as well with a co-writing team of Jessica Tuckwell, Timothy Lee, Mithila Gupta and Stephen Arigata. And it's, yeah, hats off to all of them because they've done a great job. I agree. Agreed. All right, on to your next recommendation.
Starting point is 00:17:46 Here's another thing, my last thing for the week. Introducing Uber Teen Accounts, an Uber account for your teen with enhanced safety features. Your teen can request a ride with top-rated drivers and you can track every trip on the live map in the Uber app. Uber Teen Accounts, invite your teen to join your Uber account today. Available in select locations. See app for details.
Starting point is 00:18:08 Oh, here he goes. It's a Netflix short. It's called If Anything Happens, I Love You. And it's this beautiful 2D animated film by Michael Gorvia and Will McCormick. Sorry, it's 12 minutes long. And basically it deals with parents' grief after losing their daughter in a school shooting. So it kind of starts and it's very like stylised, so not like ultra-realistic.
Starting point is 00:18:30 But so it starts with them kind of, you know, they're sad in their house and they're like alone. And then the whole thing plays out where all the memories of the daughter start kind of flooding into the world. And it's kind of like almost like painting like a canvas of her life and the events that kind of like leads up to her death. The music is also like amazing. I wish I'd written down the composer, but I didn't.
Starting point is 00:18:54 And also the people involved in this met with real parents who had children who they lost in school shootings. And it was just this kind of like watching it really conveys really well this kind of grief that you cannot really comprehend, you know what I mean, but it gives you like a fraction of an insight kind of into that kind of world, you know what I mean? And you can see that like it's unspoken. There's no words in it but it's just like it pushes that message
Starting point is 00:19:21 so well of like the relationship between these people and kind of the gap that it's that it's left in their life but they're kind of haunted by like the memories and the specter of of their daughter but yeah it's great and it's look i know there's like we have american listeners and i'm sure people have opinions on guns and all of those things but my opinion has always been you shouldn't sell a gun that you can kill 30 kids with in a minute. Like that's, you know, being a school teacher like that, it's like it would be so easy to do. Do you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:19:52 Like and I know that's probably not a popular opinion for a lot of our listeners. But I think that regardless of what your stance is, I think that really military grade weapons in community, like school communities. Yeah, and I know a lot of people talk about that. Or suburbia, like that's insane. I know, I know. But look, it's a different culture and I know people say like,
Starting point is 00:20:15 well, it's all about freedom and et cetera and all of that and it's not everybody because obviously it isn't because most people have a weapon like that. Yeah, but you have the more, like there's a reason why Australia has very few shootings. Yeah, like none. If none. Yeah, but you have the more, like there's a reason why Australia has very few shootings. Yeah, like none. If none. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:28 None basically. And the other thing is like I guess to make a point in this area, you can get a gun here. You can get a gun. I could get a gun. I know people who have guns. You know what I mean? It's not impossible.
Starting point is 00:20:41 You just can't get certain guns, which, quite frankly, I fucking love it. It's great. Not having to think about that because when I was teaching and now that our, you know. We never had to ever do a drills for school shooting. And, of course, there's still danger. I know people talk about, like, violent crimes still occur because they just happen in different ways.
Starting point is 00:20:59 But to me it's just like the most important thing to me is can you take a gun into a school and kill 30 kids in a minute? Like that to me is what I don't care about anything. Like I do care about other things but that to me is like where I'm kind of at because that's the world that I've kind of been in. It's really interesting. I watched AOC, Alexandria Cortez, who's a senator, and I just love her anyway. I saw her talking about what happened at the Capitol in Washington
Starting point is 00:21:27 and she sort of equated what they had to do. She was basically boarding up a room, one of the offices, and she said what they were doing was exactly what you would do in a school shooting drill. Yeah. And I just thought to myself, it hadn't even occurred to me watching those scenes, and this sounds stupid because obviously in America,
Starting point is 00:21:48 obviously they would have had guns, but it didn't occur to me that that kind of crowd could just be carrying weapons. It just hadn't occurred to me because in Australia I don't go to protests thinking people have guns. It just doesn't occur. And look. And maybe they are carrying guns, but we don't have a history of it. And look, it does happen.
Starting point is 00:22:09 There are shootings here. They're just few and far between. Oh, yeah. And mass shooting, very little mass shooting. My dad grew up shooting, you know what I mean, because he grew up on a farm and I can shoot a gun like I've done it. But, yeah, anyway, I didn't mean to turn this into an anti-gun thing. No, but I do think that's a good point to raise.
Starting point is 00:22:30 And I also think that sounds incredible. It's amazing. I really love watching something or absorbing something with no words sometimes in a different way. I think there's something beautiful about what art can do and what it speaks to without having to actually put words to it. So you can bring your own interpretation of what you're watching. And actually there's a little bit Santiago, the father in Bump,
Starting point is 00:22:57 his mother died when he was young and so he does this beautiful little comic with no words, just music, because he ends up being a really beautiful father to this baby and he had to fight for it because Ollie assumed he wouldn't want to be involved for a variety of reasons. And just to communicate to her how much he means to him to be a father, he shows her this beautiful little sort of comic movie and part of it is his mum dying. Yeah, right.
Starting point is 00:23:25 And there's no words to it but you really understand more of him. Love language. Love language. I listen to things. You do. You do. You do. I should stop making fun of you.
Starting point is 00:23:39 No, Claire, I want this every week to be you berate me. I want you to bottle up all the things you don't like about me and then unleash them on this podcast. Would you like me to start listing all the things I do like about you? It'll make you feel real uncomfortable. I've got enough people liking me on the internet. I don't need more of that. True, yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:53 This is right. That's a healthy way to build self-esteem. Don't believe me. I get the negative comments. They stick out more. You can notice that. And they also make me laugh. I just always think that in the end, and I don't know if you think this is true,
Starting point is 00:24:08 stuff people say on the internet is nothing compared to people that you know saying to your face something lovely or something. I think also the difference with me and someone who's actually famous, I guess, is doing this happened to me when I was, like I was in my 30s when we started doing this and we started to get some traction and I'd already been working. But this happened when I was like 16-ish. Yeah, I know. I've got on my list.
Starting point is 00:24:37 This is like a minor fraction of like an audience. You know what I mean? No, it's full on, isn't it? I've got on my list to watch the Britney Spears documentary. Yeah. Which I want to talk about next week. So that's something we'll talk about because, yeah, there's some really scary things when you start thinking about.
Starting point is 00:24:54 It was always so weird, wasn't it, though? Yeah. Because she's maybe a year or a couple of years older than me. I don't know. But as long as I can remember, it was always like, hey, Britney, when are you going to lose your virginity? Brittany, what do you think? And it's like, what is this?
Starting point is 00:25:08 And when you really start to think how young she was, like 16. She was 10 or something. Yeah, she was doing the Mouseketeers. Yeah, when some like creepy interviewer was like, oh, do you have a boyfriend when she's 10? Weird. You know, yeah, but I think it's the same and I've got something else to recommend.
Starting point is 00:25:25 Yeah, do you want to do that now? Yeah, yeah, but I think it's the same and I've got something else to recommend. Yeah, do that now. Yeah, I want to talk about it. But I'll just say this one thing. It's really interesting when you think about Britney Spears as like people, like women who are sort of cultural, I don't know, icon is the right word, and just talked about not as a real person but as a butt of jokes and as like a parody of a person. It's like that Monica Lewinsky thing.
Starting point is 00:25:46 Yeah, that's what I mean. I was going to compare it to Monica Lewinsky. And they become so in the vernacular that you forget that you're using that person's name to represent something in your common cultural language or whatever. And then when you reflect on it back through this lens that we have now, you think, my God, how could we ever think that it was okay to talk about a vulnerable young woman in that way?
Starting point is 00:26:11 Anyway, moving on. Let's move on. I guess. Last thing. What have you got? All right. So, oh, boy, this is huge. I started this thinking I would watch one episode and I was up at 1 a.m.
Starting point is 00:26:22 and watched the whole season sobbing on the couch. It's called It's a Sin. It's become wildly popular. I think it's been downloaded over 6 million times. That's a many time. That's a many time. Yeah, it's become super popular. It's a British television drama series written and created by Russell T Davies, who also created Years and Years. He did do, yeah, that's right. Yeah, Doctor Who, but Years and Years was the one that really got me in the kicker and is scary. So this is new, is it?
Starting point is 00:26:49 Yeah, it's new. I've got to watch this. It's so good. It's just so good. It's set from 1981 to 1991 in London and it's once heartwarming and heartbreaking depicting the lives of a group of young gay men and their friends who lived through the HIV AIDS crisis in the United Kingdom.
Starting point is 00:27:08 It features a main cast consisting of Olly Alexander as Richie Tozer, Omari Douglas as Roscoe Babatunde, and Callum Scott Howes as Colin Morris-Jones. Jill Baxter is their best friend and is played by Lydia West and played beautifully by her. 80s London is initially just such a rollicking great time to visit. You really get a sense of the kind of joy and freedom that these boys discovered by moving to London
Starting point is 00:27:37 because each character moves to London from their hometown. Yeah, right. Where for lots of different reasons they were ostracised from their family or they were closeted and their parents didn't know about them. I think the storyline then kind of starts to explore what happens. They all kind of move into this great share house. There's these like just massive parties every night, incredible music, and you can see that like in order for them to fully be themselves,
Starting point is 00:28:04 they've had to let go and be removed from their families in some ways. And you forget and I think it's very easy to forget in some ways just how extraordinarily difficult it was to be queer and express yourself and be yourself at that time. Not only was it just looked down upon in families but it was also illegal or at least you could be arrested and just the, and it was so not long ago.
Starting point is 00:28:34 That's the 80s. We were born then. Yeah. So I think we've come so far when you think about it but I had, I just, it really took me into the heart of that and I'm speaking to my brother about it. He said it nearly broke him on the couch. And I could totally see that because someone who identifies
Starting point is 00:28:53 as, you know, like a straight white woman, it made you feel like you were sitting with some really close friends because they kind of create their own family and you get the sense that because they've sort of had to leave their own families and couldn't be themselves there, they've created their own family and it's gorgeous and funny and out there and there's a lot of raunchy sex scenes and, you know, you really get a vibe for how fun it was.
Starting point is 00:29:19 And then it's just... AIDS epidemic. AIDS epidemic. And just like COVID kind of crept in in this way where initially there's some rumours and people aren't sure about it and a lot of the, you know, different characters respond in different ways. Ollie, who's kind of one of the central characters,
Starting point is 00:29:37 just dismisses it and says, well, people were calling it the gay flu or whatever and how ridiculous is that and it's just another way for people to oppress us and, you know, all of those sorts of things. And then over time people start to get sick in the US first and then it comes to London. Right, yeah. And then slowly it starts to infiltrate into their group and then you start really understanding or at least building empathy
Starting point is 00:30:02 around how that must have felt to then start to question what was safe behaviour, what was not safe behaviour, as well as dealing with the shame and the fear that they'd kind of grown up with in their own families for different reasons. And there's one character, Colin, who's just this really sweet guy from Wales and his storyline is so heartbreak. I won't ruin it. I don't want to put any spoilers in.
Starting point is 00:30:28 But all I'll say is that he's so funny and sweet and, like, really naive and you just, like, you just want to hold him and, like, give him a big cuddle. Like, he's just such a cute character. What's it on? It's on Stan. Okay, cool. Awesome. Yeah, and don't be put off by the poster because I think I was a bit put off
Starting point is 00:30:46 by the poster and the only reason I clicked on it was. Stan do market things weird sometimes. He do. Because Bump's on Stan, isn't it? Yeah, and they both have not been marketed well because neither of those would I have clicked on if I hadn't been recommended them to me by someone else. Yeah, the soundtrack to this, it is amazing.
Starting point is 00:31:04 I think this is like because Russell T Davies is gay. Yeah, the soundtrack to this, it is amazing. I think this is like because Russell T Davies is gay. Yeah. And he's because he's 57 so he'd be about like the age. It is. It's sort of, it's a bit autobiographical in that I think his work, you can see through the film that he's really working out some of his own issues. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:22 Through it. And he did Queer as Folk as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it he did Queer as Folk as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's just beautifully drawn and I think there's a few issues, one of which is that the female characters do tend to be very side characters. Sure.
Starting point is 00:31:38 Like Jill who he created as like Ollie's best friend. So she's the one girl in the house. She's straight and she's there to kind of support them basically. Yeah. And it's beautiful what she does for them and she kind of, he, Russell T Davies wanted her to be like a testament to the women who supported gay men in that era and what they did in terms of information about AIDS because that's the other part of it.
Starting point is 00:32:05 The internet wasn't a thing. No. So Colin. And the government wasn't doing anything about it. No, that's what made me so cross because I was so heartbroken but angry. It's not a gay virus. Like it's an anybody virus, do you know what I mean, which is the crazy thing.
Starting point is 00:32:22 Yeah, exactly right, exactly right. And because of the culture at the time, yeah, the government didn't want to do anything and the people who then got HIV then felt a lot of shame in coming forward to get tested and all those sorts of things. And treatments and, yeah. Yeah, because they were really looked down upon. There's crazy scenes where characters that initially
Starting point is 00:32:43 they weren't sure what to do so they would just lock them in a room and separate them from everyone. Because they'd think, is it airborne? Yeah, they didn't know how it was contracted. And so, you know, these poor men were just dying in rooms on their own. It was only when like celebrities started to get it, like Magic Johnson got it and like movies like Philadelphia and you said started.
Starting point is 00:33:05 I mean, you know, and they weren't the first obviously, but do you know what I mean? When it became more mainstream and like understood then it was. Yeah, yeah. I guess it's like anything, right? Yeah. Like initially they weren't sure and because there wasn't enough research, I think, being put into because it wasn't affecting the main population
Starting point is 00:33:23 in the same way that it was affecting the gay men in that particular area. And I guess like if you're a straight white politician and you don't cheat on your wife or whatever, then it wouldn't affect you ever. Yeah, and I think that's the problem. But it's interesting when you put it through the lens of COVID because in a different way for COVID we're often wearing masks and everything to protect people who are immune compromised
Starting point is 00:33:47 or vulnerable in different ways. And that's a different portion of the community, the elderly. That's right. But it's the same, I guess, sort of thing, isn't it, that you're talking about a public health response and the lack of public health response was just staggering. Yeah, it was criminal. And, yeah, it was criminal.
Starting point is 00:34:04 And then, you know, there's elements there where families weren't told and then eventually they were told, and I didn't realise this, but it just breaks your heart. So these men had sort of built up these communities of people and their families and everything and their partners maybe of 20 years and then once the family finds out that their son is dying of AIDS, they come in and just kind of sweep their son back to their hometown and block his partner from being involved in anything or having any rights
Starting point is 00:34:35 or even knowing what happened to his, you know, partner of 20 years and having no say over property or, you know, any of his belongings either or being involved in like the funerals and, you know, there's a staggering amount of stories. So it is heartbreaking but also really funny and really great. Is it self-contained, I assume? Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:01 Really, really makes you think and makes you learn a lot about history. Yeah, there's some female characters, his mother in particular, I won't spoil it but, yeah, it's an interesting look at her particularly and what happens with her character. And he doesn't always paint the female characters in a brilliant light. Yeah. But it's, oh, God, it's gorgeous. So, yes, it's a sin on Stan.
Starting point is 00:35:28 It's a sin on Stan. All right. We've got an audio letter, don't we? We do. We do. So if you have a recommendation for the podcast, you can write in to tell us at suggestiblepod.gmail.com or like our lovely person, and I'm just going to bring it up here for you, Jimbo.
Starting point is 00:35:47 I'm ready. Aaron has done an email for us with a voice memo. A voice memo. Let's hear it. Yes, and poor Aaron said he hates the sound of his voice and he's so embarrassed. But I think he sounds a little bit like our favourite Normal People star. Oh.
Starting point is 00:36:03 What's the guy? Connor. Connor. Connor from Normal People. We'll be the judge of your voice, Aaron, what's the guy? Connor. Connor. Connor from Normal People. We'll be the judge of your voice, Aaron, if that is your real name. Connor. Correct. All right, are you ready?
Starting point is 00:36:12 Here we go. Ready. Still ready. Oh, no. Sorry, Colleen. I had my computer on mute because I didn't want to just make that weird ding-a-ding sound. I always do that. Okay, here we go.
Starting point is 00:36:22 Now, where are we really doing it? Hey, folks. Just finished listening to you talk about Promising Young Woman, a film I'll definitely go watch now, and just wanted to recommend another harrowingly beautiful movie because, you know, why would
Starting point is 00:36:36 we want to be happy when we could just be sad? Exactly. It's called Waves. I won't give anything away. Just kind of look it up yourselves. Love the banter And yeah, love the show See ya Waves, interesting
Starting point is 00:36:50 I know, it sounds really good What's it on, what is it? I don't know, we'll have to find out I'm more excited about the fact that Connor from Normal People has called into the show Oh my goodness, he's got a lovely voice He actually does have a lovely voice What did he say? What is it?
Starting point is 00:37:06 It's a film. Okay, right. It's a film called Waves but he doesn't want to give it away but it's wonderful and we should definitely and he recommended it in the context of Promising Young Woman. Okay. Yeah, which I think is really great. We're going to check this out.
Starting point is 00:37:21 This looks good. All right, I'm not going to watch the trailer though. Thank you. So, yes, send your voicemail. Literally you can just record a voice memo on your phone and there's a little square with an arrow in it. You just click on that and send it away to suggest for a pot of Jim and then we'll read it and judge whether it's good enough for the show,
Starting point is 00:37:38 which it probably will be. Correct. Because this show is absolute bullshit. But if you do want to review this bullshit show, you can. You can do it in-app. We really appreciate it. It helps us out big time if you want to give us five stars. That would be even greater.
Starting point is 00:37:53 This is by Rune Ekher says, I can't imagine a more successful podcast. Sincere and fun recommendations and hilarious banter between two great people. Always a fun time. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Excellent. We're loving all these reviews.
Starting point is 00:38:11 We do. I might be running out of reviews soon, so if we could get some more reviews, that would be great. Oh, mate. I think we might be a bit behind on reviews. We need some. Well, we have been on holidays. That's our own fault.
Starting point is 00:38:22 That's true. We were gallivanting, not recording podos. We were running around the countryside frolicking about. If you're thinking about giving us a review, do it in your phone, please. We really actually do need reviews. You could do it in your phone.
Starting point is 00:38:38 Yeah, you could. Anything else or is that it? That's it, Sonny Bob. Let's go do different things. And by different things, I mean you go to sleep and I have to finish watching Superman 3, which is the worst fucking movie in the world. You have a weird job. Hey, just on a side note, how's your expensive cereal going over there, mate? Okay, so it's flying, right?
Starting point is 00:38:58 You've got another bloody box of them. I've got so much magic spoon it's gone insane. But I ordered a cereal and I'm going to read the name on it next week because I don't know. You know what? I'm going to find it and read it now, right? Oh, God. Let me just bring this up.
Starting point is 00:39:10 Here he goes. Because in Australia you can't get a lot of keto cereal, right, for some reason. Is keto like? It's like low carb and whatever. All right. Okay. Does it stand for garbage? Because that's what it tastes like.
Starting point is 00:39:22 I've seen this cereal. It should stand for garbage. Goodness gracious. Here we go. I've seen this cereal. It should stand for garbage. Goodness gracious. Here we go. I think it's an Australian product. I don't like to rubbish things, but Protein Flakes 100% Natural by Lupin's for Life is literally the worst thing I've ever eaten ever.
Starting point is 00:39:42 How dare they say this is food? And I'm not that picky, am I? You're like, you'll eat literally anything. It's like a fuel. You're literally eating cardboard circles from a box. This shit is fucking poison. I dare you to try and eat a bowl. I got one spoonful in.
Starting point is 00:39:57 No, I'm not. Because all you're eating is all this weird chemical shit. I don't know what's going into your food. Magic spoon is natural, Claire. They're natural flavors and colorings. Magic spoon is natural, Claire. They're natural flavours and colourings. Are they? Yes, Claire. Is it natural to like little – what food comes in tiny donut-sized bits?
Starting point is 00:40:13 Donuts. In different colours. Yeah, but they're not natural either. Coloured donuts. Why don't you go have a look at the box, Claire, and you tell me what's natural and what's not. I want to get sponsored by them one day. I don't want you rubbish-ing that cereal brand, all right?
Starting point is 00:40:24 All right. Fair enough. I want to get sponsored by them one day. I don't want you rubbishing that cereal brand, all right? All right. Fair enough. I want to get the Magic Spoon people on board. I went out of my way to get 12 boxes of a million. Yeah, and it cost you like a million dollars. In bloody, it's shipping alone. You do love it. It's so good. I can see you just like quietly excited
Starting point is 00:40:38 to have your cereal. I'm so excited. Because you're such a cereal boy and then because you're looking after your old trim thing. I'm trying to. You then could not have any cereal and you were sad, even though you sneakily ate a lot of cornflakes. I saw you. When? All the time before you got your magic spoon.
Starting point is 00:40:53 I do love cornflakes. Oh, man, cornflakes. Every day I'll drink cornflakes. Your favourite is cornflakes honey. A little bit of honey, yeah. On top. Exactly. I think it's too sweet for me.
Starting point is 00:41:02 Hey, listen, nobody cares, all right? You don't need to involve yourself in everybody else's cereal choices, all right? Stay out of it. I just like myself some natural oats and porridge. Nothing wrong with that. Some porridge. We're getting trim and terrific. We are getting trim and terrific.
Starting point is 00:41:17 I'm going to be a bridesmaid soon in a wedding. I have to get trim and terrific. I have to get into the bridesmaid outfit. Exactly. And I want to get really light so I can do more chin-ups. Oh, no. My laptop made that sound. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:41:30 I put it on silent. I'm sorry, colleagues. I put it on silent. We're going to go because I've got to finish watching Superman too. And I need to go to bed. Well, listener. We're going. I'm going.
Starting point is 00:41:40 We appreciate you. I'm literally leaving the room. James is going. But I love you and have a good week. I'm sure I'd love you if I knew you. But I'm going. We appreciate you. I'm literally leaving the room. James is going. But I love you and have a good week. I'm sure I'd love you if I knew you, but I don't. The captain from Sound of Music died this week. That sucks. Christopher Plummer, 91 though.
Starting point is 00:41:55 Good run. No. Farewell. So long. Farewell. There was a good idea for it. Christopher Plummer's great, by the way. He's in a bunch of stuff.
Starting point is 00:42:02 He's in this movie called, I think it's called Begin Again. They did it a few years ago where it's like a very, very old man and Ewan McGregor is his son. He comes out. So he's just like, I'm gay. He's like, I'm 80. I'm gay. Let's do this or whatever, which is apparently really great.
Starting point is 00:42:16 But he replaced Kevin Spacey in a movie a few years ago when all those things came out about how Kevin Spacey is awful and the worst. And so there was a petition to get him to replace a character in Deadpool. So like Deadpool's like best mate who turns out was like bad, like in real life, just be like, just put Christopher Plummer in. I'm like, oh, my God, I wish they did that and they never did it. Would have been amazing. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:40 I'm going. I'm really leaving. All right. So long, farewell, I'll be the same. It's not a great movie. It's not a music. I'm going I'm really leaving alright so long farewell love you this ain't a joke it's not a great movie sound of music to ya
Starting point is 00:42:49 and ya and ya he's really gone alright see you next week this podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network visit planetbroadcasting.com
Starting point is 00:42:56 for more podcasts from our great mates I mean if you want it's up to you introducing Uber Teen Accounts an Uber account for your teen with enhanced safety features If you want. It's up to you.

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