Suggestible - Starstruck and Yellowjackets

Episode Date: February 24, 2022

Suggestible things to watch, read and listen to. Hosted by James Clement @mrsundaymovies and Claire Tonti @clairetonti.This week’s Suggestibles:01:20 Starstruck S211:02 Yellowjackets19:43 Inventing Anna28:42 Ali Wong's Don Wong38:51 The AlpinistSend your recommendations to [e-mail], 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.

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Uber Teen Accounts. Invite your teen to join your Uber account today. Available in select locations. See app for details. Bing bong, bing bing bong. Isn't it just? Wow, Claire. Thanks for inviting us all back to Suggestible for another week.

You're welcome. The show where Claire and I I not only are we married. My name is James. I said your name, didn't I? You did. I'm Claire Tanti. We also suggest things so much so that we do it a lot here. You were really bad at this intro.

No, no, no, no. Let me just find my footing. You need to let me do it. Let's just. Pipe down over there. So basically we take it in turns. This is a travesty. We've seen things and we say, hey.

If you're listening to this for the first time, you are turning off right this second. No, no, you'll love it. You're saying this guy's real because he sounds just like me. He's an idiot and I relate to that. That was the show where we recommend things to watch, read, and listen to, don't we, Claire? Yes, exactly. He took like five minutes to get we, Claire? That's what, yes, exactly.

He took like five minutes to get there but he landed there in the end, everybody. Yes. Excellent. So that's the whole premise of the show. Sometimes it turns into just a general whinge. Yeah, it does. About everyday parenting things. I've got a bunch of stuff to say.

I'll tell you how much. There you go. Well, I'm excited. I have two really cool things to talk about. Two really cool things. Both things that I've really bloody loved and have been waiting for a while to talk about. Oh, my goodness.

Thrilled. Well, let's hear it then. Smug, smug. Oh, my turn first? Yeah, let's help. I'm excited. Get ready. Strap yourselves in, peeps, fellows, countrymen,

or I don't know wherever you live. Anyway. Yeah, you're much better at this than me. We're really struggling tonight. All right. So what else is new, Emma, right? My first recommendation is Starstruck Season 2. Oh, my God.

It's your favorite show, Claire. Oh, my God. I love it. Because I don't know if anyone has noticed, but other than the whole my love of BBC British crime dramas, the other thing that I love more than anything, probably more than you, who knows, is rom-coms.

You know, I love a rom-com. Ah, yes, yes, yes. I love them. And I have to say this about the rom-com, right? I think people have got a lot of flack over the years, and by people, I mean women primarily, for rom-coms being like corny and like chick flicks and like whatever. Yeah, but it's no stupider than any other genre, you know.

Exactly. And that is what I'm really loving the pushback on now because more women are saying more things and creating more things and doing more things and I am no longer ashamed of my love of the rom-com. What is wrong with watching something that you know isn't going to end in a violent murder? You know, and I love the BBC for that reason, but also I just, well, sometimes you just want to be like schmaltzed away

and they're really hard to write really well, like any genre, right? I completely agree. And I bloody love this. So Starstruck, for those who haven't watched the first season, go back and do that, my goodness. It's written by Rose Matafayo, Alice Sneddon and Nick Samson. Now, Rose Matafayo is a hilarious New Zealand comedian. I just love her.

And she also stars in this show as Jessie, set in London. And it's kind of a flip on Notting Hill. And actually, if you're a diehard rom-com fan, there are just so many lovely little nods to lots of them. Are they ever like, this is like Notting Hill, this is like Sleepless in Seattle? No, they do not bring up a single one of them, but they do just kind of give you delicious sort of like Easter eggs.

Like a park bench, like a bookstore. Correct, exactly. Like a man running in the rain or something. Correct, like in the first season. You know in Notting Hill there's that famous dinner party scene? Yes, yes scene where he invites over the famous Julia Roberts character who's the actress and it's such a great scene, right, and the friends are like blown away

and it's all really lovely. So it kind of flips it on its head in this because Tom, who is played by Nikesh Patel, who is just brilliant in this, he does a really good job of playing kind of earthy, grounded, kind of dry sense of humour and quite funny but very sort of straight man to Rose's character, Jessie, who's just like all over the place and hilarious and complicated and funny and just talks a million miles an hour and he's just like a fairy.

So is he like a down-to-earth celebrity? He's not like a.... So is he like a down-to-earth celebrity? He's not like a. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So he's a celebrity but he kind of doesn't love the fame element. He's actually just a really nice guy. Oh. I know. Just like your favourite podcasters, Claire.

Oh, my God. What is happening here? Yeah, he just and so he's also kind of down on his luck a bit with love in some ways and he works really hard but he's clearly very lonely because he works so hard and he has an agent who's played by Minnie Driver. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, there's a rom-com throwback. Yeah, exactly.

And she's like. Not that that's all she's done. She's done many, many things. Lots of other things but no. But it's just Rose wrote in an article that she could not believe Minnie Driver said yes when she asked her to play the agent character. And it is just very like the agent's quite soulless and very funny, but it's clear that he's being exploited in lots of ways by her and just he's a really good actor, but he's

often playing in really terrible movies and the people around him are kind of vapid and awful. It's just really interesting. And then in season two, you see his family who really don't understand what he does and don't – Even though he's very rich and famous. Correct. And he's not the favourite brother.

His brother's like really awful and annoying but his mum loves his brother. Is he like a doctor or an academic or something? Yeah, exactly. So that kind of dynamic is really great too. Yeah, so for instance, I won't spoil all the Easter eggs, but in season two Jessie opens a present from him for Christmas and she waits till Christmas Day and opens it up and it's Joni Mitchell's CD, the same thing,

and she says that he's Alan Rickman-ter. You see, you're not looking at me, you have no idea. What are you talking about? So in Love Actually. Because she thinks it's like a better thing. Yeah, she thinks it's like a necklace or something really incredible and it's a CD. So they do reference rom-coms in this.

Yeah, they do, but they don't say Love Actually. They just like throw you lots of little things like that, which as a big rom-com nerd, I bloody love. This is like your Marvel Universe. Yeah, it totally is. They're like, this happened in another thing or whatever. Okay, what I will say about this as well that sets it apart from your standard kind of romantic TV series, I guess,

is that A, the writing is really clever and pithy and fun, but also they've done this really clever thing where, like, the first season is complete. So it all kind of, this is a spoiler, but it all ends with Jessie deciding she's going to leave to go home and then she decides to stay for Tom in the end and it finishes with them in the back of a bus sort of looking wryly at each other. Oh my God.

That's like that Dustin Hoffman movie or whatever. Correct, exactly. I recognise things. You did, you did it. Exactly right. And the whole thing. The graduate maybe. Correct.

And the whole thing is set like Notting Hill where there's like vignettes of like little windows of time where they get together, they're almost going to make it work and then it doesn't work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and it's that premise. And season two, because it kind of finished with this kind of happy ending necessarily, season two I think had a mammoth task to try and keep us engaged because they've done that thing

where it seemingly ended really well and they've got together. And what they do is land you straight back in that scene immediately when they're in the bus. It's not like. No, and they're both like having a WTF moment of what the hell do we do now and this is really weird and she has all this stuff and she's said to her mum she's going home to New Zealand and now she's not. She has to call her mum and it's like a really awkward.

So it's like what happens after. It's like, oh, I actually have a lot of things I now have to sort out. Exactly. Yeah, correct. Yeah, which is kind of like the Before Sunset series of films too. Those movies you haven't seen? Correct, exactly. But she wrote an article about how they're based on that

because it's the trajectory of a romance. That makes sense. Anyway, I just find it's just really funny. So has this got you jazzed for seeing the movie Marry Me with J-Lo and Owen Wilson? It totally has. I'm so jazzed. Because that's, I mean, there's your Notting Hill kind of scenario, isn't it? Oh, mate, I know.

I'm so jazzed. Apparently it's good. Yeah, I know. Everyone has been saying it's excellent. I'm telling you, it's the age of the rom-com. The rom-com is back. It's come back and I'm loving it so much. Good.

Yeah. I think also why they burnt out just quickly is because there's just not a lot of good ones. No, that's not true. There are a lot of bad ones. But that can be said for any movie genre. But I guess they weren't profitable enough to a point so they stopped making them. They weren't evolving whereas now I think they are evolving again. Yeah, I feel like they got stuck in a trope.

Yeah. And also I feel like they were casting the same people in all of them. It did feel like that. You know, which I think is a problem. So, know, and also I feel like they were casting the same people in all of them. It did feel like that. You know, which I think is a problem. So, yeah, there's definitely. Jerry Butler. I think also there's more women writing them now. Yeah, absolutely.

I think that makes a huge difference. I mean, Nora Ephron famously made When Harry Met Sally, which I think is still one of the best rom-coms there is. Well, I think it's actually a bit problematic actually. Well, and it is, but it's still amazing. Anyway, and I think, you know, when you watch like Love Actually, they're all problematic. Oh, my God.

So it's really nice to see fresh new perspectives on the same kind of genre. Yeah. The other thing I loved about it is there's sort of little ties to bridesmaids as well because Emma City plays Jessie's best friend Kate in this who's actually Rosemary's best friend in real life. Oh, that's cool. And you can see the chemistry because they're both so weird and they get so annoyed at each other and it's this like glorious sort of,

they're always wearing ridiculous costumes and getting into scenarios but Kate's also really lovable and tells everyone straight what she thinks about them and often she's absolutely dead on. But she has this, like, terrible boyfriend who wears this terrible hat everywhere. Anyway, I'm not selling this very well. No, no, I love a terrible hat. I'm in for the hat.

I will say the other person in this that is really like just a cameo appearance, Russell Tovey, the actor from Years and Years, plays the director in this and he directs Tom in a film. Oh, yeah, okay. And it just gives you that vibe of what it must be like to be – it's just a really comedic scene. Yeah.

And he's just this like really full of himself kind of over-the-top director that keeps gaslighting Tom. Is he British in it as well? Yes, he is. Because he's real-life British, isn't he? He is real-life British. Anyway, so that's Starstruck. All the episodes are now out on ABC.

I view if you are in Australia, but I'm sure you can get it on the BBC if you are in other places. Like the BBC land where that's from. I'm assuming. The big British country, I believe it's called. Right, correct. Exactly. Anyway, and there's been rave reviews of this season too.

It's just as glorious as the first one. That's always nice. There's an amazing, really romantic scene where they're doing, it's just always really unexpected, the writing, and at the end they're all at a hen's night and they've got, what's that thing, laser tag. Oh, okay, yeah. And they do this kind of really great scene with laser tag

because Ben, who is Jesse's ex-boyfriend, kind of enters back in and so they're dealing with different exes and dynamics there and will they, won't they get back together and there's all this stuff. Anyway, but yeah, the laser tag is really great. Very good. Cool. Here's something that I watched. It's ten episodes.

It's called Yellow Jackets. Oh, I have been meaning to watch this. It's by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson who are a team that have worked together on various projects. So I'll read you the synopsis and then from there I will continue to talk more about the show. In 1996. Now the premise of our show, James. I think so.

All in one. I will also say very quickly, listener Sean Kelly, shout out to you because you literally recommended Yellow Jackets to us this week. Well, Sean, you're too late. Where were you last week when I hadn't watched Yellow Jackets? We appreciate you writing in regardless. I'm sorry for getting so aggressive.

It's just I wasn't raised right. Anyways, in 1996, a team of New Jersey high school soccer players travelled to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashed. Vroom. Vroom. That's right. Their plane crashes deep in the wilderness and the remaining team members are left to

survive for 19 months. The series chronicles their attempts to survive while also tracking their current lives in 2021. Why are you reading it like that? Because it's fun. Just kidding. It's awful. In a good way.

So it stars, look, there's so many people in it and it's because it's set in two time periods. Two actors will play like the same person, you know, obviously. So it likes Melanie Linsky and Sophie, what was that, Nellis? You want to try that again? No, I don't. Tawny Cypress and Jasmine Savoy-Brown, Ella Purnell, Juliette Lewis is great, as is Sophie Thatcher,

who's our younger version. Christina Ricci. Ricci? Ricci. Ricci. Yeah. Christina Ricci. She's in it.

And Sammy Hanredy is the younger version of her. And so basically it's – what am I saying here, Claire? I don't know. I feel like Sean, our listener, would do a better job. Well, I'm going to keep going. You can read out Sean's email after and we'll judge and then we'll get everybody to write in except for Sean to see who did a better description of this.

So, look, being in, like, again, it's half the time in 1996, half the time in the present day. So you know from the present day that some of them, but not all of them, survived. Some of them, not all of them, like, are doing well, you know what I mean, considering all the things that happened to them, all the harrowing events. But more realistically, everybody who was involved in that, despite how they look like on the outside and what they're up to in their current lives, some are in politics, some

are now stay-at-home, you know, wives, some of them are drug addicts, some of them are whatever, you know. Despite all of that, they're all not doing well, like emotionally, because they had this terrible thing happen to them when they had to live in the woods. And on top of that, there's very early on hints, like, like first thing that happens is there's big hints towards like cannibalism, or they're hunting each other, there might be some kind of supernatural element to it. There's like what I didn't expect from it because it's loosely based off there was a soccer team that crashed in like the 70s.

There's a movie called Alive that was based on it I think. Sounds like Lord of the Flies as well. It's very Lord of the Flies as well, yeah, and everybody kind of slowly turns on each other. But the other thing is it's like spooky,. There's like spooky stuff in it. It's like, is there like a ghost or something? What's going on here? You know what I mean?

And it kind of dances around a lot of that also on top of PTSD, on top of like, hey, you did this thing to me in the woods 20 years ago, 25 years ago, and I'm mad about it. Also, they're kind of famous because you would be, obviously. And because it's only been one season so far, you don't know everything that happens. And beyond that, the general public know even less, you know, because they decide, those who made it out decided like, right, there are certain things that we are not going to talk about. We are going to stick to, you know, this certain set of, you know, this script

that we're all decided on. None of us are going to go public. We're all going to stay kind of pretty low key and live our lives, you know, as best as we can and we're going to try and put this behind us, which is obviously not possible because, you know, things are re-emerging and the like. I have two criticisms of this show. Two. One, Christina Ricci.

Ricci. Ricci. Ricci. She's supposed to play someone in the modern day who's like dowdy and like unlovable and ugly. And she does play like a terrible, annoying, and probably a sociopath kind of character. But just to be like, look at this plain-looking woman.

No, that's not true, clearly. Like I was confused because I'm like, who is she supposed to be playing? This doesn't make any sense. I don't understand. What do you mean? But she's a good act at work. So I can't really complain. And the other thing is that because there's only like one season, it kind of ends very abruptly on a cliffhanger. And I'm like, man, I was really enjoying this. And now I'm going to have to wait a year plus to watch more of this show. But yeah, it's really

like, there's some really like striking imagery. It's quite gory as well in places i know you've talked about wanting to watch it but it's like it's pretty full-on for a lot of it you know what i mean a lot of like the survivalist stuff you see and what happens to somebody if they're in the woods and there's nobody around and they get attacked by a wolf what does that look like you know uh live houston's in it as well who's been in a well, who's Australian and been in a bunch of stuff as well, including Santa Clarita Diet and various rom-coms, and they're great. It's just very good. Who's it written by?

It's two people, Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson. I don't know whether they're writing partners and also partners' partners, but they certainly make a good team, Claire. I'll tell you that much. I'll tell you that much. I don't mind telling you, Claire. I don't mind telling you, Claire. I don't mind telling you that I enjoyed this show. I love that.

I mean, one of the reasons I want to watch it is because, thank goodness, I've heard, as you said, really good things. Your husband and wife, there you go. There you go. It's also a female cast. Yes. In a really. Not entirely.

There are some men who also crashed, but it's like a female-centric group, you know, who are making the decisions, you know. Yeah, and I think that's one of the reasons why, because I think it's very feminist in that way, even though it's awful and gory. And it's also like women can be terrible too, and I agree. I've been saying that for years, Claire. But honestly, that's one of the things I want to watch it for

because I think it's refreshing, even if it's awfully gory, to see women just being awful. Absolutely, yeah. And complicated. And I guess that's the thing. It's women being fully fleshed human beings. It's really interesting to see. Fully fledged.

Totally. Fully fleshed out. But it's really interesting to see how like they take, because they're all on a girls' soccer team, and how they all react to being out there and how some are coping better than others, like initially at least. Like there's one who's like the captain, who's kind of like the leader, but then put in the wilderness. All of her captaincy skills are useless,

and it's like she's just not an asset, you know what I mean? Like all the sassiness and her like pep talks and whatever, it doesn't mean anything if a bear walks into the camp, you know what I mean? Yeah. And it's just really like the character development and how and their interactions which is I guess all shows and life is just done very, very well.

It's on Paramount Plus in Australia. I don't know what it's on overseas, probably that I guess. I think it's now probably on because it's all done very, very well. It's on Paramount Plus in Australia. I don't know what it's on overseas. Probably that, I guess. I think it's now probably on, because it's all out now, it's probably out on, well, it's on Showtime as well apparently I'm seeing here. But I don't know, I'm just talking about in Australia. But you can probably rent it various places now I'd imagine depending,

you know, because after the full season is done then it's, you know, they throw it out to other platforms or whatever. But, yeah, well worth a look. Yellow Jackets, one word. One word. Excellent. All right, I'm totally, yeah, well worth a look. Yellow Jackets, one word. One word. Excellent. All right. I'm totally – that has been on my list.

Thank you, listener Sean, and thank you, James, but mainly listener Sean. What did Sean say? Oh, interesting. Would you like to hear? Yeah. All right. Cool.

So Sean said Lord of the Flies meets Lost. I should have said that. Yeah. A girls' soccer team is travelling to Nationals when they're playing crashes in the Ontario wilderness. The story is told in two time periods. You've said all of this. It gets real dark, y'all.

Y'all, yes, Jo. And it later follows a few survivors who are now in their 40s dealing with their shared trauma as a new crisis emerges, forcing them to work together when someone threatens to expose their past. He says it's got mystery, whodunit and thrills as well as coming of age storytelling. Wow, that's actually really good.

I'm going to put forth a petition that he replaces me on this show. Me too. Just in written form as well. So every week Sean writes in and says this is my suggestion and you read it out and then you give your suggestion and I just sit silently. I'm still on the show but I'm not allowed to say anything because I've been bested and I know when to step down.

Good, exactly. It's good to know when you're out of it. That's right. It's good to know. All right, well, thank you, Sean. And I've got my next suggestion. Can I do it? I would love to hear it.

Excellent. All right, so this one is called Inventing Anna. It's everywhere. Have you seen it? It's like trending on Netflix. Everybody's talking about it. Yeah, she's from Ozark. Correct.

The actress, Julia Garner. There you go. Correct. Exactly. Very good. My brain kept going, no, it's Jennifer Garner. And then, no, Julia Garner is the actress. Anyway, she's excellent, playing Anna Delvey,

who is actually called Anna Sorokin. So it's based on a true story. It's from Shonda Rhimes' team, so from Shondaland, her production company. Shonda Rhimes, Grey's Anatomy. Oh, okay. It's that crew, yeah. Yeah, she is just excellent and an amazing TV writer.

She writes hits and she's done it again with this. So it tells the story of the real-life fraud star Anna Delvey who posed as a German heiress and scammed thousands of dollars out of New York's elite. Garner's lead performance has captivated audiences with much attention given to how she delivered Anna Delvey's accent. So what's really interesting about this is the story is so unbelievable and the more that you delve into it,

I don't know if you remember seeing the court imagery of her when she was arrested. I don't, no. It basically goes back and forth around her court case. When did this happen? Yeah, so it happened between 2013 and 2017 and in 2017 she was finally arrested for defrauding banks, hotels and acquaintances in the United States for a total of $275,000.

Yeah. So she basically convinced the like New York elite, all of these incredible sort of artists and writers and really incredibly wealthy famous people plus banks, like big legitimate banks, that she was a German heiress with millions and millions of dollars. She nearly secured $40 million to start the Anna Delvey Foundation. Right.

So she was super close. She's an incredible businesswoman in a lot of ways and I think that's why this story captivated people. At one point she steals a plane and somehow manages to get into like Bill Gates, you know, big conference and go and visit, you know, who's the richest guy in the world? Is it Warwick? Warren? What's his name?

Warren Buffett. Yeah, Warren Buffett. Yeah, exactly. And so it's kind of incredible that this woman who actually was born in Russia and grew up in Germany and came from a very ordinary family sort of rose to this prominence and somehow taught herself the language of these people, the art, the culture, the clothes. She would wear the most incredible outfits. And some of the iconic images of her are of her wearing these incredible

like black glasses and kind of framing herself in these incredible outfits that would have cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Yeah. And she went viral over Instagram. She's become a celebrity in her own right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, she's got this show.

Yeah. Well, exactly. And that's what's interesting. She's only 31. Yeah. Like now she's 31. Yeah. So she was really young as well, super young.

What's clever about this is they actually frame the show around a journalist. Right. Who breaks her story open, which I find really interesting. So in this show, the journalist is called Vivian Kent and she's played by Anna Chlumsky, which is based on the real life character or real life journalist, Jessica Pressler. And their stories actually are closely linked. What I loved about this as well is that Jessica Pressler, while she was writing the story, was actually really heavily pregnant, just as Anna Chalomsky's character is in the show. And the reason the article meant so much to her was because one of her previous

articles turned out to be a hoax and she hadn't done the background research and she lost a really important job off air. And so the whole kind of show is centered around the desperation of the central journalist to kind of get this story written and break it open before she has her baby. And she's also trying to convince the editors of the magazine that it's a worthwhile story because it's about, you know, a 20, early 20 something socialite and the two blokes in charge keep pushing back on her and saying, no one's going to care about this story. But it becomes this global sensation once the story actually gets out there and it's still blowing up really because now this TV show has come out

and cleverly and kind of interestingly, Anna Delvey is making money from this TV show. Oh, really? Yeah. The long con it seems. The long con. And what's interesting because in terms of US law, she can't technically profit from a crime,

but she's managed to get her money from her Netflix deal because she's been a consultant on the show and she's used that money to pay back her debtors, to pay back the banks, you know, the money that she stole. And what's kind of interesting about her is that it all seemed, she's now out of jail. Her jail term was four to 15 years. She got out just before the four-year mark for good behaviour.

Yeah. And immediately set up a new Instagram account, new social media following, paid back, you know, all of that money. But just recently ICE has arrested her because she overstayed her visa from 2017. Ah, even though they kept her in jail. Yeah, exactly. Did she overstay her visa because she was in jail

or she'd already overstayed her visa? I don't know. It's unclear. It says that the visa was from 2017. So whether, yeah, maybe because she was in jail, maybe because she didn't address it when she got out. And, no, it seems kind of suspicious, doesn't it? Maybe they just want her out of the country.

I don't know. But, yeah, it's just a really, really compelling story and fascinating, like even just watching how the rich move and work and how she would just turn up in these hotels, pretend she was this heiress, and somehow con her way into having like this incredible suite and staying there for, you know, months on end without actually being able to pay. Yeah. And she would somehow get money wired to her probably

through a whole lot of different networks of credit cards. It was quite unclear. Right, okay. And, you know, paying one person to pay another person, you know, and stealing from someone to then pay someone else and all this stuff and then also mooching off her friends. And because she was so clever at making friends with wealthy people, they would then kind of fit the bill for her in lots of different ways.

Fit the bill? Yes, is that the word for it? Yeah, that's the word. Anyway, it's fascinating. I loved it so much and I really think that Anna Chalmsky steals the show because she just really sells what it's like to be a woman with a brain who wants to write and think and create and is pregnant. And not that she doesn't want to be pregnant, but that she really just picks that struggle of womanhood where you want to just keep doing the thing that you love to do and being your body kind of betrays you in some ways

and you have no control over it. Right, okay. What I also think is interesting is like if she was a person who like conned a bunch of regular people out of money through a pyramid scheme or some kind of crypto pump and dump or whatever, probably wouldn't have gone to jail. Probably still be walking around, you know what I mean? But when you attack people with wealth and make them look foolish,

then that is a big kind of, that's a taboo, you know what I mean? You can't, you don't do that. And that's actually one of the themes they explore in the show because it was the same time that Trump was on the rise. Okay. And so there's this idea, I mean, he's such a fraudster and full of it. Come on. And because he's come from money, he's able to hustle his way

into the presidency because he's got all these buffers around him and she came from no money at all. Yeah. And there's this kind of narrative like the lawyer that is also in the show defends her in a lot of ways and ends up really liking her because he admires, she's horrible to everyone, but he admires her tenacity and her ability to be like Robin Hood, right? I mean, Robin Hood, well, there was really no Robin Hood,

but you know what I mean. Yeah. He helped people. Yeah, I know, but I just mean in that she's stealing from the rich, from the people who don't even notice if you took a million dollars from them, they wouldn't even notice. Yeah. You know, that kind of level of wealth.

And I think there's also something about being a young woman in that space as well. It's like they're trying to take her down a few pegs. All of these incredibly connected wealthy people fell for it. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, she's embarrassed a lot of people. Yeah. At very high levels and almost got away with it. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, she's embarrassed a lot of people. Yeah. At very high levels and almost got away with it.

So it's, yeah, it's a really interesting conversation, I think, about that. She's looked at her Instagram. She's having a great time. Yeah, well, it looks like it anyway. Yeah, absolutely. I think she's back in jail though. Well, I saw a post from two days ago but I don't know, maybe she's got a brand, a person managing her account or whatever.

It seems like she is. She's very clever at spinning the story. I bet. I absolutely believe that to be true. Anyway, so, yeah. It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats.

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Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. That's it. I have one more thing to talk about, Claire, if you don't mind. You watch this too. Ali, just quickly, but Ali Wong has a new special on Netflix. I know, I've watched it, loved it. It's called Don Wong. And it's, as always, I love all of her specials. I think this is just as good as all the other ones. She's very consistent, I think, yeah. She's so mean and rude and that's what I like about her. She's just mean and rude and she says terrible things

and, like, graphic sexual acts and just, like, people she hates and people who hate her and how she's a dirtbag and what I just I don't know I just think she's really funny and really interesting yeah and good on her for making a bunch of money and she's also very open about like her success and I love she opens with a bit about how if you're an ugly comedian or you know an average looking comedian you know you get to date models. But if you're an average-looking, like, female comedian, the best you can do is a friend who is dating, like, just a magician.

And I would say it's not even an average-looking comedian. It's literally any female comedian. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's probably true as well, yeah. That's the point. Like, you can be an average to below-average-looking male comedian and date famous supermodels. Yeah, well, that's why they all do it probably. Yeah, exactly.

But you can be the most drop dead gorgeous female comedian and, yeah, be dating like a magician who got a two-star rating or something. Yeah, which, you know, may not be true also, that particular story. Yeah, but that's true, right? But when you think about it, you're like, yeah, that, no, because when I think about like the comedians that, you know, that I know of, yeah, that, no, because when I think about, like, the comedians that, you know, that I know of, yeah, that's not inaccurate. Yeah, they're always punching above their weight.

The thing that she said is true. Anyway, I don't really have anything else to say about it except it's very good and it's on Netflix and she's got three specials and she hates her husband. Or not really, though, at all. It's interesting. I've seen her interviewed where she says that in real life she's actually very polite and like not unassuming in lots of ways.

I would 100% believe that. Of course she couldn't walk around like that. She'd be like insufferable. No, which is so funny. What I did really love at the end of the special where she said that in the end what she loves about her husband is that he lets her be herself. Yeah. And being herself is being rude and mean about him too.

Yeah. Like she says like some pretty like full on things about how she wants to cheat on her husband and all that stuff. And I'm not even, like I generally don't like really like graphic like sexual like comedy, like the way it's described because it's normally dudes like whatever. Not even, it's not strictly dudes but look, it's mostly dudes. But there's something about the way that she delivers it

that it feels like fresh and new and like just really funny. Just a woman? Yeah, and I'm sure that's probably the main aspect of it. And the way she describes the sexual acts are from a female perspective. Yeah, well, that is true also, yeah. Which is also very original because, I mean, it's not as in like women have been having sex for thousands of years, but the fact that we get to talk about it in an explicit way that men have been

talking about for, you know, centuries, but women maybe talk about it with their friends but don't do it in such a public way. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's really interesting because what she also does really well, and to you it might be, oh, I just really enjoy her comedy, but she is saying what women might feel and think about sex, you know? Right, yeah. And not all women will think the way she does. It's a way that she sees sex but she talks about it in a way

where she's articulating her wants and desires. Yeah. And in a way where she's powerful and has autonomy in those situations. And that's really rare. Yeah. Like it's still very taboo really for women to want that, to want to have pleasure, to be able to claim that is actually really rare and often looked down upon.

And so the fact that she is self-made, is so talented and so funny and clearly works so hard and is able to say what she says unafraid, you know, or even if she is afraid, she doesn't show it, is just so refreshing because I can imagine the kind of shit she must get in her DMs on her social media. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Vile, right? Vile. And so it is brave. It's bloody brave for a woman to stand up and say that kind of stuff, especially a woman of Asian descent as well, even more so. But I mean,

I think any woman to be gross and, and want stuff because men have been saying and talking like that forever. Like if you watch any even terrible one-night comedy stand-up, you know. There's like a saying in male comedy, like if you're a hack comedian, you do this thing called stool humping where like you get off the stool and you pretend to like have sex with it and it's kind of like a, do you know what I mean? It's like, I wouldn't even say it's gross. It's just like, well, it is, but it's like, it's just hack.

And also I should say a lot of the stuff she does say is gross. Like it's a gross thing to say. Yeah, it is. But the fact, the reason it's refreshing and great to watch is because women are gross. We're allowed to be gross maybe amongst our friends, maybe, but probably not even then. Men are just expected to be gross. We're allowed to be gross maybe amongst our friends, maybe, but probably not even then. Men are just expected to be gross. There's like Eliza Schlesinger, I think that's how I pronounce her name, does a really good bit about that, about how before a boyfriend gets there, you shove

everything under your couch and clean all your surfaces. And then as soon as they leave, you're like a gremlin coming out and you're just sitting on the bench going, I'm like shoving chips in your mouth and getting crumbs everywhere. Hells yes. You know, and I think that's, you know, women are allowed to be complex and some, you know, and messy and show up the way they show up, beautiful, put together, not put together. Anyway, I just love it because it gives other permission.

Ali Wong is giving women permission, which I think is happening with comedians like Celeste Barber as well is giving women permission, which I think is happening with comedians like Celeste Barber as well, giving women permission to not be just one thing and not have to fit into narrow boxes, you know, that we can be, you know, hilarious and gross. Cause I think some of the women in my life are the funniest people ever. I disagree. The amount of times I cannot, I do not find comedians that I've met, like professional comedians, funny. It's like it happens so often. But also like they're not on all the time.

No, but I've seen their stand-up. Oh, I thought you meant like in person. Well, both. And they're saying things and the rest of the room, all guys, are laughing and I think to myself that is the most unoriginal thing I've ever heard. Yeah. And it makes me frustrated when there's that tired trope that like women aren't funny and it's like maybe women aren't funny to you.

It's also just like it's just not true. No, it's just not true. Oh, my God. I still stand by the fact that I think some of the funniest people I know are women and that's just the human being, you know, being funny. But just there is something about the way our culture still does not get on board entirely with a funny woman that is really depressing to me.

Though it's changing, I think. I think so. Because the other, you know what's also great about Celeste Barber? She's doing the same thing that Ali Wong is doing. And for, you know, she has a hot husband, Celeste Barber, and she calls her husband her husband. She's like totally objectifying him. And a lot of her Instagram is just like videos of him making a coffee

and surfing. And it seems innocuous, but it's so powerful because it just flips that whole narrative on its head and maybe that's also problematic and I'm sure it is. But I know there's something about that idea that like, you know, Ali Wong has a kept husband. Yeah, absolutely. And I love how she's like he's living the life that i want to live yeah exactly

which i find so i love how she has that great line i don't want to lean in i want to lie down yeah and i still think about that a lot the other thing the funny thing she said about how women for centuries had been conning everyone that they were stupid so they could just lie around the house and now they've, done all this work to convince men that they're actually as smart as them and they've done themselves a disservice because now they have to work. Yeah. Which I find obviously is not true.

But I find it was just funny. Well, it's jokes, isn't it? And sometimes jokes don't have to be true. Exactly. But you know what has to be true? What, James? Your reviews that you leave for this show. Oh, look at your smart segue there.

Thank you. You're always surprising me. Let's see you writing this with a segue, Sean. Let's see how good your segues are. You can do it in app. It's so easy. You just open up your app, whatever you're doing, and you go bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop,

and you give it hopefully five stars and a little review. This is from It's Worn who said, Hey, Claire and Old Boot, I'm Izzy from Colorado, USA. Hello. I tried copying James' more successful podcast, but I failed. I made the Weasel Club podcast attempting to talk about pop culture stuff like James because I thought it would be easy, but I failed. So now I just listen to this great podcast and the Old Boot

and Mesa over the Weekly Planet pod. Five stars. Oh, both of them. On both of them. There you go. You should keep doing it though. You've just got to keep doing stuff, don't you, Claire? You do. People may have heard this podcast first, but I was doing other stuff,

wasn't I, Claire, before I was doing podcasting that all kind of built up to this. I was always running my mouth. Now I don't run my mouth that much because I run my mouth on this. I'm just having a distinct flashback to us in Africa with me standing in a sugar cane field with a dodgy camera filming you talking. That's right. Being like, what up, dogs?

This is your boy. This is your boy, Jimmy. Oh, mate. It was bad, let me tell you. But I was supportive. Not only was it bad, Claire, it was very bad. But it was for friends and family. I knew you had talent. You didn't.

I knew you had talent. You never believed me. Are you serious? Until suddenly I got a very successful podcast and you're like, maybe we should make another podcast, but except with Mason, we should have me in it. Sure, sure, sure, sure. What have you got in terms of letters this week, Claire? Oh my god. Alright, so you can write to stressapod.gmail.com

Maybe I will. Just like Sean, but also Devesh Suhtaz. All right. It's called Hey Folks, Loving the Return for the New Year. On the last pod you talked about The Rescue, a very good suggestible, if I may say so myself. But you also mentioned that it was from the directors of Free Solo. Now, maybe I was too young to appreciate it when I saw it, but I might just be the only person who did not like that film for whatever reason.

Okay, fair enough. I think you might be. I really enjoyed it. Anyway, however, I recently came across a movie called The Alpinist. The Alpinist. Which I strangely really connected with and highly recommend you check out. It's quite similar to Free Solo, even having the man from that film show up to talk about the man this film focused on.

Primarily taking place in the snow, this film did a better job helping me to understand what makes this profession so appealing to climbers. Even just leaving quiet bits, just letting us watch this man overcome his problems. It's well worth giving a watch. Anywho, have a good one. You can watch it from YouTube now. It's only $5.99. There you go.

Thanks, Devesh. I'm going to check that out. That sounds real good. I hope you do, Claire. I'd hate for you to make a liar out of all of us. Correct, exactly. And I'm going to do the thing that I do every week now and summarise the things that we recommend to Jams.

Let's go. Also, Colling's links are below as well. He writes them all below. He certainly does. He certainly does. So I recommended the Netflix show Inventing Anna. That's right. And Starstruck Season 2 with Rose Matafayo.

And what did you recommend? I recommend Everybody Just Shuts Up. Everybody Just Shut Up. Okay. No, I recommend Yellow Jackets, the TV series. Uh-huh, Paramount+. And I also recommend Ali Wong's new special, Don Wong, which is on Netflix as of right now.

Correct, exactly. And I will say one more thing. A shout out to wonderful Maisie who is in our team. She's so excellent. She also admins our Facebook group for Planet Broadcasting. She has started a suggestible pod, Instagram, and she, well, there was a little one there. I wasn't really doing much of that.

You weren't doing anything. Nothing. And she has really done a whole lot of cool stuff. There's little surveys going on. You can give opinions about all the different suggestibles that we talk about. We'd love you to go and follow it over there. Please do.

It's real cool and she's awesome. Now I'm like, do I must follow this? I do follow this, yes. I do. Yeah, that's another reason to recommend it on the show. Yeah, so head on over there to follow that one. And also Tonspot is coming back for Season 2 very soon. Oh, my goodness, Claire.

I heard you. You've already recorded a bunch coming back for Season 2 very soon. Oh, my goodness, Claire. I heard you. You've already recorded a bunch of episodes, not to spoil any of them, but these are the guests. Here we go. No. And I heard you recording some stuff today for it because you're cutting together a trailer at the moment. Is that right?

Correct, I am. And I'm very excited for you to get back in the game, Claire. Thanks, mate. I'm trying. I'm giving it a red hot go. I'm a bit rusty, but, you know, you've got to get back on the horse. It's true. You've got to eat the lettuce. No matter how rusty you are, you've got to get back on the horse. It's true. You've got to eat the lettuce.

No matter how rusty you are, you've got to get back on that horse and eat the lettuce. Dogs in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I agree. A dog in the hand is worth more in the bush. You throw it in the bush. You throw it in the bush. It would be.

And out of the bush. It would be because otherwise you couldn't sell the dog. Like if someone was like, I'd like to buy a doggo for you, and you're like, it's in the bush, I don't know, they're not going to buy it. But if you have it on you, they could see the dog. Correct. Yeah. Exactly.

Is that what you're talking about? Correct, exactly. Don't shoot fish in a barrel full of cats. Yeah, no, you probably shouldn't do that. And I'm the shiniest tool in the shed. Yeah. I like your fake ones better, not fake ones. I like the ones you accidentally do, and you do at least one an episode.

I know I do. Anyway, I really don't mean to do that. You did one this episode, but I didn't pull you up on it. Oh, did you? I'm not going to tell you, Claire. All right, thanks, everybody. Bye. Thanks for calling us for editing.

Appreciate it. Thank you, Collings. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want. It's up to you. 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 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.