The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Hijack’ Episodes 5-7 Recap

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Joanna Robinson and Van Lathan return to reflect on the second half of Apple TV+’s ‘Hijack,’ including its recent season finale. They discuss the show’s legacy as original IP, what a potential second season might look like, and more. Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Van Lathan Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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you asked for it. We're giving it to you. I'm Joanna Robinson. Joining me as Van Lathan. It is a complete Sopranos, rewatch, podcast. Just kidding. We're here to talk about the hijack. Oh, look at you. I love it. What a scamp. Joe, I love it when you bring your scampiness to the tape. Should we just hijack this podcast feed and make it and talk about the Sopranos for the next? We tell Bill we're doing different shows and then we just talk about white caps. Yeah. Now we're here to talk about the hijack season, maybe series finale. We'll discuss that at the end, whether or not they're going to cue us up for a second season. So that is up through episode seven.

Maybe you think you've watched, I guess a bunch of people thought it was only six episodes. And they thought the big twist that happens in episode six was this big ending for the show. It's seven episodes. Please make sure you've watched them all before you listen to this podcast because we're going to talk about plot details from the finale of the first season of hijack. you've not watched it, go watch it. That's your last morning. Else we're on the feed. Juliet Lippman and I just completed a

seven episode, four episodes of the podcast, seven episodes of the show. OC rewatch, like a mini rewatch of the beginning of season one of O.C. Van, did you ever fuck with the O.C? California! Here we come. So here's the thing. I've never watched it.

But you know that? I know that because it was so, It got to a point of ubiquity. Yeah. And everybody was talking about it. It was 902 and O for like a year or two. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, right. So you can listen to that. Mallory and I covered season one and two of only murders in the building, and we're going to be covering season, like, the beginning of season three next week. Rob Mahoney and I are covering Justified City Primeval. And as I mentioned, Van and I are here. to talk about the sparranos. I mean, hijack.

You got your spoiler warning. What more could you want? Let's start by talking about episode six, because this was like sort of the big moment that a lot of people were talking about. I got a text from you. I got a text from Bill. Everyone's like, holy shit, episode six,

the big Amanda twist. How did that land with you? I was shocked. Hijack really kept me on my toes. Yeah? Yeah. You know, it's, it was different.

It was a change of pace, right? Because I'm watching a lot of MCU fair, a lot of superhero fare, which because I'm so familiar with the source material that that stuff comes from, I kind of know how it's going to end. A lot of the time. Hijack was an interesting departure for me,

non-IP-based. I didn't know what's going to happen. And the show did something really smart was to set up the stakes to where you could see any of the characters dying. You kind of know in a show like this who's going to survive and who's not going to survive. But really, I could have seen anyone getting it. So when that twist comes, I was legitimately surprised. I thought we knew everything that we needed to know about our hijackers here.

And I thought we were dealing with these blokes for the rest of the show. These chaps. These chappies. But no, and the way that the pilot was just don't, boom. Shocking. So, yeah, no, I was into it. I dug it. That's what he gets for beating his co-pilot around the face at the beginning of the season, I suppose.

Yeah, I will say, here's my attitude about a hijack. Now that we've seen the first season, or perhaps the only season. I had a fun, fine time at the summer television. you know, just watching this. I think if you try to look at this show too closely or think about it too seriously, a lot of the wheels come off the plane, as it were. Like, our colleague, Ben Lindbergh has a really good article over on the Ringer.com. What a great website about all of his, like, questions about the finale.

Like, what happened here? What happened there? I'll talk about a couple of them. That's one way to watch hijack. And I love Ben. That's how Ben's brain works. I was mostly just letting the silliness. of it wash over me because there's a lot of moves that don't make any sense. But it's exciting.

And as we discussed when we covered up through episode five, just a great vehicle for Idrasilba to just dominate the screen and the show and our attention. You know what I mean? So I, you know, I had a good time with it. I don't think it's that serious. And I really don't want a second season. I think that would be a terrible idea. How do you feel, Van? Well, you're fucked, Joe, because I think they're going to do another one, okay? I think they're going to do another one.

I think they got themselves a surprise in terms of how much people were really into the show. And I think any time that there's a surprise that they're coming back. It's okay, well, here's the question. Let's say you're the god of television and you're deciding whether or not there's a second season of hijack. Are you doing another hijack? Or are you doing another season with Idris Elba?

Because I do not think you can do both. You cannot put Sam, who is not, let's be clear, like a Hostin negotiator, he is a business negotiator. You can't put him in the middle of another hijack. I will just, it will break the premise of the show because he's supposed to be like, not a regular guy, but kind of a regular guy caught up in the situation, right? So do you do season two hijack this time? I'm on a train and a different person's involved,

or you do season two hijack. It's Idris Elba, but it's another crazy scenario that's happened to this regular guy. What do you think? You have to do some sort of revenge hijack. This is like Taken 2. I'm serious.

Okay. So in Taken 2, what happens? The Albanians want their get back. Now, taken 2 sucked, okay? But that's besides the point. Is it besides the point? It is. It's besides the point, because we got to print money.

You already know that Barbie 3 is greenlit. Yeah. I think they might make a sequel to Oppenheimer. What happens in Oppenheimer, too? I'm telling you, man, they could make a sequel to bring Oppie back. You know what I mean? So. But look, maybe the hijackers here try to get some get back on Sam and his family.

Maybe, maybe they, when they were not all in whatever office they're going to go to or whatever, there's an attack there, and then the building gets hijacked or something like that. So we're doing a reverse diehard. We started on a plane. Now we're going to Nakatomi Plaza. Now we're going to play. Something. They will come back with something else.

Will it be good? No. No. You know what I mean? No, it's not going to be good. But what are you, what's going on here, baby? This is what we do. You know, by the way, I'm against over-analyzing this first season project.

Right. But stand in a gap against it. Well, I mean, like, that's how Ben enjoys things. And I love Ben, so I love that for him. I just think it's a losing proposition to try to dig too deeply on a show like this. I think you're either along for the ride. or you're not. And I think you should enjoy it on the level that we enjoyed all those, like, sorry, it's weird to say enjoyed, but enjoyed all those hijacking movies that we watched in the 90s.

Like, I'm not going to go deep bunk on air or Air Force One or anything like that. It's just sort of like you're in for the writer or not. There's a difference between having like a week between episodes to think about something like this. But George Kay and Jimfield Smith gave an interview to the rap. This is what they said about season two. There's definitely. in loose ends, but what we want, what we wanted was for Sam to go on this seven-hour journey, it would be interesting to see Sam Nelson again and see how we might take that

lived experience and apply it elsewhere. Hopefully, some of that can live in the viewer's heads. But ultimately, we wanted this show to be satisfying and have a sense of closure at the end of it. We set out to make it as a limited series and that's where we left it, but it's been amazing. See, everyone loves the show. And, you know, we'll see what happens from there. We're back. That's under a bullet point in my notes that says,

Season two. No. Because, you know, you take something like the flight attendant of show that I loved in the first season because, again, it's like a regular person caught up in crazy antics. And then you try to put that person in an extreme situation again in the second season. Anyway, I liked hijack. I don't want a second season. That's, I think I've made my point. You are like, we're going to have it. It's not going to be good, but it's going to happen. Get over it sort of thing, right? Yeah, it's kind of like, it's a, for me, I'm looking at it. It's inevitable. So why don't I go into it with the Jackie Jackie thinking the wacky, wacky,

can come back again, you know? This was a wacky show. This show had wackiness all over it, you know. Episode 6 particularly I really enjoyed because of the wackiness of the young man in the house. He's making calls. Kai? He's a ninja. You know, they don't see him.

They don't think to check every room of the house thoroughly. Why would we check every cabinet? Why don't we just check some cabinets and then call it a day? Yeah, if I'm, they essentially hijacked this house. A lot of many hijackings in this show, by the way. We think of the plane as being hijacked. They hijacked a lot of stuff from a lot. See, Jovanna, this is what we do.

go deeper. Yeah. Okay. So a lot of people got their stuff hijacked here. But they didn't think about making sure

that nobody else was in the house. They were like, hey, I went upstairs, I looked around and it's over. Now, that would make sense if they were pressed for time.

But these motherfuckers was chilling. You know what I'm saying? Like, if they had like five minutes where they have to go through there and get something out of there or download the files,

get the Noculus, that'll be one thing. But they were, in there for a long time. And if you're going to be in there that long, I would think, let's just make sure nobody else is in there. You know what I mean? But it made for great suspense.

And if they were just like random thugs, you're like, sure. But these are like, they come with their cleaner outfit on. They're ready to like have a kill room set up if they need to and then clean it, like clear it all out and put it in their cleaning van and stuff like that. So these are highly professional assassins. In fact, so good at what they do that when the cops come to the, door and are like, there was a suspicious call from this house. And they're like,

and the most suspicious looking dude answers the door with the gun behind his back. And the cops like, yeah, no worries. We're not going to investigate it. And here's where our beloved ninja Kai, Sam's son, just wanders out of his hiding place

before the cops have even walked in the door and then gets himself apprehended by the assassins here. Yeah. Not not clutch by him First of all

Someone called 911 from the house And the 911 Operator Was audibly concerned We're gonna send somebody They had some kind of thing

Going back and forth The people get out there Bligh how And they just leave You know what I mean? So to me You know But

I say all this to say that... Why have we never covered British television before? Why have I been deprived of your Jim, Jim Chiru, Dick Van Dyke accent up until now? Incredible stuff. Love it. It didn't take anything away from the fact that I was actually on edge. I was on edge. I didn't think they were going to execute Kai in the show, but I was on edge about what was going to happen.

Whatever a show has to do to deliver to be good to make you... unsure of the twist and turns from one moment to a next. This show did it, and it wasn't hyper-cerebral about it, you know, but it still got it done. It got the job done. I liked it. I know that they tried to be really thoughtful about it based on the interviews that I've read, and I think one way they really succeeded to go back to this Amanda twist is they talked a lot about how they wanted to cast that role because something I complain a lot about,

not complain a lot about, but because you and I watch a lot of film and television, there's this thing I like to talk about, which is the casting spoiler, where like someone shows up and you're like, they didn't put an actor that good or that, you know, well known to me or whatever in a role that's small. That has to be the murderer. That has to be this, that, or the other thing. You know what I mean?

So they like, they put this actress, Halli Aird, who has done a lot of TV work, but it's just like the right level of fame where you could put her in there. She has this conversation with Sam early on. Idraselba, you know, talks to her sort of right after the hijacking starts. The first person he talks to is Amanda.

So we can get the core biographical details that he needs. And then we just like watch her be anxious the whole flight. And we think she's anxious because of the hijacking. But she's anxious because she knows she has to like make this move eventually. And we're constantly checking. There's like various people that we recognize. We mentioned this last time, like the teens or like that lady with

that business lady with the glasses who has no one to call if she's like at an eye or like all this or stuff like that. So I do think that Amanda Twist has done really well. Did not see it coming. Cast really well. No spoilers in the casting. And then she was great in the finale, I thought. You know what I mean?

So it's not like they cast like someone who couldn't do what she needed to do in the finale, which is convinces of her panic and also her competition. at the same time. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And take her from being somebody who

murdered one of the principal characters in cold blood to somebody who we have to identify with and root for pretty quickly. Okay, they did that pretty well. I actually was past the point of waiting for a sleeper on the plane. I thought that there might be one earlier on. But in the penultimate episode, you don't think that you're going to get a plane sleeper at that point. I thought that maybe that's too late for it to introduce a sleeper,

like a new plot thread. I feel like we have to pay off what we already got. So when that happened, I had subconsciously let go of the thought that there were any more accomplices on the plane, which is another reason why I got it. Now, I should have been thinking about the fact that something more had to happen to our pilot because he beat up a lady on TV.

He sure did. And that's never going to bowl well. He never showed remorse, by the way. He never showed remorse for doing what he did. But yet and still, it made me super intrigued for the finale, which was good. but not quite as good as episode six. It's so hard to let to not,

I'm not going to say land the plane. No, no, say, do it, Joe. It's so hard with these these British like six to eight episodes stories. Oftentimes the last episode, you're kind of like, like it's sort of like ridiculous, but it has to wrap up, like all this sort of stuff like that. This felt like it moved quickly enough that that didn't bother me.

here's what I do want to talk about, though. Van, what is the background photo, what is the lock screen photo on your cell phone right now? Not to get too personal about it. It's Bozeman, my dog. It's your dog. Yeah. And for me, it's like a really nice photo of the ocean that I took or whatever.

How many people do you know have themselves as their background photo? Or more to the point, a photo of themselves with the exact, details that you need in order to like get them to anyway they hand back the cell phones in this wildly weird way where we're just going to ham out to random people and try to get them to the right person like i didn't understand the only reason to do that is so that amanda's phone will land in someone else's hand and also sam's phone like goes to one of the teenagers or whatever and they know it's their phone because of the lock screen and we knew earlier the biographical detail about the hijacker who died because his mom was his lock screen.

So I just want to ask, maybe in future, if you're getting on a flight, change your lock screen to something not as useful to hijackers. Do you know what I mean? Or vice versa. Have I ever told you about Vans three rules of sociopath? Oh, please. Tell me. And I'm going to see how many apply to me.

Number one. Picture of yourself in your lock screen. Okay. Clear. don't like macaroni and cheese Claire Don't like dogs Leslie Claire

If you have all three of those You take one is cool Two is cool If there is somebody listening to this right now That has a picture of themselves on their lock screen And doesn't like macaroni and cheese And doesn't like dogs You're sociopath, I know it

I already know it This rule was made up up. I keep having put him on blast for my brother. Well, for my brother who has a picture of himself in the gym. Your Vegas brother? Yeah, has a picture of himself in the gym on his lock screen. A picture of himself deadlifting. I'm like, bro, you can't do that.

You can't do that. That's such a red flag. It's a burnt flag. It's very bad. Look at Joe's face. She hates it. This is this is Van's brother, too. clear who like loves Tolkien and like

we've talked about how you can't get a fig and leaf we we should be best friends but now that I know this I'm not so sure but yeah I just I have some cell phone questions how about Dan

cop our Detective Daniel running to save the day with with Kai coming with this fake evacuation story blah blah racing from the country to Central London in time to save Kai. How did you feel about all that?

I mean, you know, there are various cultural reasons I didn't like it. But in terms of just the show itself, I thought it was, I thought, you know, propaganda bullshit. But I thought it was a good way to tie their characters up. And the reason why is because it showed that even though there was, was animus between Kai and Dan that they were at least paying attention to one another, that they hadn't shut each other out. Because when they have to do this little move where it's like, hey, I'm riding my bike

and I'm doing all it is, they were going back. The bike I took this morning, I do have questions about those assassins and their levels of intelligence. What do you think? I'm letting some shots off. As soon as I hear, oh, you think I'm dumb? Yeah. I got the gun.

the silence. I'm like, oh, you, hey, my G, you fucking with me? Do you think I've never seen a movie? That's all you're going to hear. You think I'm stupid? I hear you talking to go, you idiot, but they're

none of the wiser. And then they get, he comes there. And also, the way that they were apprehended was very, okay, they're at the door, they got guns on, they don't let off couple of shots at all.

They just get overwhelmed by the police just, not the highest level of assassin slash heavy henchman guy being used. They didn't send their best men, you know. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet

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Call 1-800-545-99 or visit zepbounce.lily.com. How do you feel about our hijacking essentially being like a money play? I thought that was an interesting twist, the like stock market twist of it. Stop market play, yeah. Yeah, I hadn't seen that coming. And then the fact that then, like, the worst outcome for the plane is the best outcome for the hijackers. Because oftentimes with, like, a hijack and demands and all sorts of like that, like landing the plane safely is part of the whole deal. And in this case, they don't really have a dog in the fight in terms of they don't care about those people they set up there to hijack.

So they don't really have a dog in the fight in terms of landing that plane and that can go out. head and fucking crash for all they care. I do have a question about the double cross with the masterminds out at the farm. Because mastermind number one, played by great theater actor, Simon Bernie, he's sitting there and he's like watching the stock price and he's like, little more, little more, little more, little more, right? Like fuck the plane. I don't care as long as we're making money. And mastermind number two is like, we got to go. The helicopter is leaving. We got to go, make the call, make the call. She needs to know. She needs to know. She needs an answer. kills mastermind number one, right?

We're going to go ahead and just get rid of him. We're going to leave. Why does mastermind number two not call Amanda? Why is no one call Amanda, right? When he's like, she needs to know, she needs to know. Ben put this thought in my head and I can't. I rewatched it and I couldn't get rid of it, right? Like, do you know what I mean?

He's like, she needs to know, she needs to know. And then they get in the car and drive away and no one calls Amanda. Why? Do you know? I do know. Okay. I, you know. Here's, okay, I'm sorry.

I'm falling into the trap of thinking too deeply. But let me think a little more deeply about Sam's character arc because this is something that the showrunners feel particularly proud of. And I'm curious if you agree with their assessment. So here's what they said. They said in terms of Sam when he gets on the plane versus when he gets off the plane, it was the case of working out his character in terms of who he was without the hijacking. He comes on the plane a very self-centered, self-assured, self-important character.

He's very keen to solve things himself and doesn't rate anyone. else's ability to do the same, which he does with charisma and with Idris Elba Ness, so we don't dislike him. We want to see him warm up and open up in terms of allowing other people's opinion in and views in. How do you feel like that tractor? Do you feel like a different man gets off the plane than got on the plane? Fuck no.

Because he's so resolute that it's hard to feel anything creep in. And it's played brilliantly by Idris Elba, right, with the intensity. But it's pretty one-note. And I read the character as pretty one-note. I don't think that it's bad that it's one-note. I think the most dimension that you get to him is before all of this cracks off to where he's trying to get back with his wife. He's buying her presents and he's getting on there.

And you're thinking, wow, this is a guy who's going to make one last. shot at it, right? But the longer this goes, the more that's sort of out of the window and the fact that he's trying to make that happen

isn't very important anymore because he's got a mission to accomplish. And it starts to become more of a situation to where it's like, almost like the Martian. Like solve one problem, solve the next problem, solve the next

problems, solve the next problem. You didn't get all the quips and the disco. But as far as his development to like have all of these people working with him, it seemed like they were working for him because he was giving out orders more than working with him for the most part, even though, you know, other people had ideas and stuff. But as far as that type of development and evolution of the character, I really did not get that. Did you? First of all, hijacked season two must include disco. I think we've all just agreed that right here right now. I don't know.

I keep tracking him to John McLean, right? Because especially since like the stuff with Alice in the finale where she's like, you're on my call sheet, I'm going to land your plane. And like when Sam finally gets on the phone with her, it's very like John McLean talking to Reginaldville Johnson, like, you know, the cop who's helping him through the building sort of relationship between the two of them. So, like, this was die hard on a plane, which is just, you know, die hard too, um, the, from beginning to end. Like, that's what we're doing here. And John McLean, when he shows up and die hard, um, you know, marriage on the rocks, really disconnected

with his, from his wife, like, all the sort of stuff like that. And then by the end of the movie, like, seemingly has affectionately reunited with his wife. But like, John McLean, if you want to keep the franchise going, John McClain is a character who can't change all that much because you need him to just John McLean be once again embroiled in personal troubles in the beginning of every diehard movie so that that can sort of run parallel to his experience. So I think if we did get a hijack season two, I don't think we meet a Sam who's like totally fine with his wife's new boyfriend and like totally chill and relax and having a great relationship with all of them. You know what I mean? Like I think we meet a Sam who's still

bumping up again. I think to your point with taken, Liam Neeson's character is one that can't change either. You know what I mean? Like you need these iconic class. You need Vin Diesel and Fast and the Furious to all, you need Dominic Tureto to always be Dominic

Torretto kind of in stasis the whole time because that's not really what franchise or action franchises are not really all that interested in character development unless you can think of an example where I'm wrong. There's usually like, especially in these 90s movies

that were, or 80s and 90s movies, there's usually like some sort of reconciliation with your family or something, like something nice, but like not something that I believe is going to last for a single character played by Nicholas Cage or anything like that, you know,

especially when you're talking to. Because those guys have to be, they have to be single-minded. Right. And also like adrenaline junkies, you know what I mean? Like all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, I don't know that I,

caught into a lot of the character arc discussion around Sam. I just had, yeah. It was just like, it was like watching a summer action movie over seven hours on Apple TV Plus, and that's, was fun, fine time.

But a good one. A good one. One of those ones where you watch it and you go, you know what? That was kind of tits. You know what I mean? Like that, that kind of worked.

You know what I mean? That was not. that was not a bad situation right there. You know? You, what? Do you think this was better than secret invasion? Why would you put the bar all the way like down in the basement for it to clear? I'm asking you because like this kind of was like secret invasion.

This was more, hijack was more secret invasion than secret invasion. That's true. Scrolls on the plane. Yeah. International intrigue and espionage. Yeah. Nick Fury. basically as Sam

is Nick Fury he's got all of these skills it kind of was the secret invasion that we thought that we were going to get it was a secret invasion on a plane

way better than secret invasion absolutely but way less baggage you know what I mean it could just be its own thing um way less baggage

I would argue that it had more baggage oh is that the end of the podcast too Do we do it? Do we end with your baggage joke? No, well, here's the question I have for you. This is the question I'm constantly asking myself when we get like a seven-episode TV series that is so clearly in the model of films, the kind of films that we grew up with. Uh-huh.

Is this better as a film? Or do you need all this time with all these passengers to sort of like get to know the teens and get to know, you know the family with the doctors, the dad, and get to know X, Z or, or. Could Iterselba do this in two hours? That's a fantastic question. Okay, let's think about this in a real way, not just like have Van Lath and Midnight Boy style flying from the seat of his pants right there. Yeah, listen, this is the Prestige TV podcast feed. Excuse me. We demand, you know, ultimate man.

Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think of if you condense the fifth. what do you lose? And of the things that you, excuse me, if you condense the show to a film, what do you lose? And of the things you lose, do you lose anything that you need?

You're going to get less Kai stuff. You're probably not going to get as much of the stuff at the beginning, which to be honest with you, I'm talking about like the buildup, like where you go and you see the air traffic controller from Dubai get murdered and all that stuff. I probably don't have time for that.

you get maybe a little bit less exposition with Daniel, the cop. You don't need to see him go on a wild goose chase for the guy, maybe just one scene of that. And you get significantly less of the machinations of the secretary and all of those people. The government. Yeah, yeah. Back on the ground. Like, if you think about a movie like Con Air or Die Hard, they take you there once in the first act,

once in the second act and once in the third act and then the third act is always to say bomb the place or I don't care send in SWAT you know what I mean they send you back there one time so you get significantly less than them you probably could do it but I think as a movie it's probably a lot more predictable

because it's got to lean into some of these tropes a little harder a slower burn works better for it so it probably works better as the show you could do it as a movie, but it probably works a lot better as a show. This is one of the only times with a format like this that I think this actually worked better

the more of it we got. I wasn't very checked out over the course of the seven episodes for this. I think the Amanda thing, you certainly don't get the thrill of that. Because that's the joy of television, especially week-to-week television, which is something we talk about

a lot on this feed, whether something should be a binge drop or not. And so for Amanda, who we don't know who she is at all when episode six closes. And so we have a week between episode six and seven to wonder who the fuck Amanda is. What do we learn about her in episode one? Sam already talked to her. And if we rewound to episode one, something the showrunners were very gleeful about in all their interviews, you can see her sneak through security behind the bag with the guns in the beginning. beginning of episode one if you if you look for it um so yeah so you miss that kind of week to week what's going to happen sort of by as with most things though I always want them to tighten

up a little bit and I would say this is a five five episode show not a seven episode show so not necessarily a movie but you could have done it in less time you could have got it down to a fiver yeah yeah and like you know shave off some of the on the ground stuff and yeah, keep it, keep it taut and tight in the air. Sounds good to me. Keep it what? Taught. Taught.

Oh, okay. Not what I said. Not what I said. Not what I said. Joe, I'm like, whoa. Okay, let's say we do hijack. Let's say we do hijack. Let's say we do hijack season two.

Idris. Big Dris is not available. Right? He's doing Luther season five. or whatever it is. Yeah, can't do it. Who do you cast in Hijack Season 2? So we're going new character.

We're not going back to Sam again, right? We're not dealing with Sam. New character. Englishman, I'm assuming. Or English woman? You know what? I like that. So let's go English lady.

Okay. I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think. I'm pulling the character from Game of Thrones. I'm pulling someone from Game of Thrones to play this. Lady from Game of Thrones. I'm going with

the lady from High Garden. No. Lana Headley. Lercy Lannister. Lena Hedley. Yeah. Same page. Same page.

Sersy Lannister. I'm going, Sersie Lannister. Because I like her when she's powerful. See, you know, but like she was in. She was powerful even in 300 when they didn't let the women do anything.

So, like, I like her when she's... I like her when she's powerful. Did you ever see... Did you ever see Dread? The Carl Urban Judge Dredd movie? She's great. Very good, by the way. Yeah. She's great in that. I'm with you. I was... As soon as the Game of Thrones, I was like,

oh, Lina Heady, yeah, 100%. Because I was thinking, at first, you know who I like? I haven't been able to see her in as much stuff? Remember, what's her face? she was killed when Cersie blew up the Red Keep.

Oh, Natalie, Natalie Dormer. Natalie Dormer who played Marjorie Tyrell. Marjorie Tyrell. I don't see her in enough stuff. I loved her in that show. She was so great. I was thinking about her, but then when I thought about what you need,

Cersie. And Cersie didn't blow up the Red Keep. She blew up like the little, where they were having the court. I mean, she blew it up with the green stuff. What was it? Yeah. She moved up with the absence.

Fuck a Fuck a Sopranos rewatch. Should we do a Game of Thrones Rewash? Wait, wait. What do you call it again? This stuff? Oh, dragons.

Wildfire. Wildfire. Wildfire. Yeah. They had it underneath all the town. And then the kid was running. Yeah.

Yeah. The kid was running down there. And it was like, oh, my God. And they followed the kid. Yeah. That kid die, by the way. The kid that led him down there. Oh, the little bird.

I don't think the other word died. No, I don't think so. And then it's everywhere, and then boom, it blows up and she kills everybody. So funny, she couldn't get out. This has been a reenactment of the Game of Thrones episode, The Winds of Winter, as told to you by Van Lee. You know what's the crazy thing? And so I'll say this. It's like, I get so caught up into these shows, but it's always difficult for me to remember the names of the characters, particularly in Game of Thrones.

in Game of Thrones, I probably know five or six character names. Like, literally. And I've watched so much Game of Thrones stuff. I know the names of characters that aren't in the show, like Sir Arthur Dane, the, the night of the morning star, whatever the fuck his name was. The Sword of the Morning. Yeah, yeah. The Sword of the Morning. So I know, but like when I think about the actual names of a lot of the characters, the ones that weren't, like, around.

I'm like, what is, what's Ramsey's dad's name? I know he's Lord Bolton, but what's his name? Rousse. I feel like this is a quiz. Ruth Bolton. Ruth Bolton. I feel like you're quizzing me. Yeah.

I know that you know. I know you know. Okay. Don't get me wrong. What was the name of, of the most disappointing character? I know this is the tangent, guys. But this is the most disappointing character in Game of Thrones history.

to me in the history of the show. And it was the lady that was a lady of the night that Oh, Roz. That he fell in love with it. No, no, no. The one that turned. Oh, Shea. Shay.

That hurt. And this has been Game of Thrones Corner with Van and Joanna. And if you want a Game of Thrones rewashed with Van, I actually think it would be delightful. Here me, let me ask you one more Game of Thrones question. Devin, who's our producer, this podcast. Like, what am I here for? So I'll stay again, Devin, by the way.

When we compare your inability to name a Game with Thrones character, let's put it up against Chris Ryan. Chris Ryan cannot tell the difference between dragons. Can you tell a difference between different dragons on the show? Only in the new show. Yeah. Only in House of the Dragon. Yeah.

Because those dragons are a lot different looking. And to Chris's point, I think that, that they learned that they had to make the dragons look different. Because in the new show, I can tell the difference between the dragons, one dragon, fucking huge, then the other dragons

smaller, look kind of cool. But in the old one, hell no. It was dragon, dragon, dragon, dragon. Dragon number one, dragon number two, dragon number three, until he got hit with the ice beam. And then he turned into a bad dragon for the night king.

Remember that? that happened? You know what I do? I do. I do. Um, to go back to Natalie Dormer, who is not going to start in hijack season two, but Marjorie Terrell herself, she was on a petty dreadful colon city of angels. That's sort of like one of the last big things that she did. I didn't watch that, even though I liked the original Penny Dreadful, but that's what Natalie Dormer's been up to. But Lena Heady, stay by the phone. We'll be calling you for hijack season two. And are we are we putting it on a plane again or are we on a train? What are we doing? Are we in a building? We're in Nakatomi Plaza.

What could we hijack, though? Think about it, though. You got to really think about it. The channel. What can we hijay? The channel. That could work. The chunnel could get hot.

The hero star. Yeah. Yeah. What if you hijacked that big Ferris wheel that they have in London? Oh, the eye. Is that what that's called? Yeah, the eye.

Well, here's my question. Are we hopping in between compartments? Like, is there a hijacker in every compartment? Everyone has to get on there with somebody that they don't know. then that person is to hijacker. Well, the thing about the eye, the thing about the eye in London is those individual compartments are not just like two people.

It's like a whole like little room. So you could put a hijacker in every pod if you wanted to. You know? But then you're not going to be able to like, it's not the same. They're going to have to like walkie. Yeah, it doesn't work. But we need to think about something they can't, because they can't do, they can't do another plane.

It's like too much. And also. Guess what? they might. They might. You know, you could take it back to Dubai. Plenty of things to hijack there. Hijacked Berge Ghalifa.

The Burge Ghalifa. Okay. This is great. Lena Heady and we're hijacking the Burge Caliphah. Someone has to pull up Ethan Hunt and climb up the outside of it at one point. You know what? Here's the thing, though. I got to say one more thing. We can't write it.

We can't even cast her because nothing's going on. Oh, we are with the strikers, absolutely. But when all of that is settled, no, but when all of that is settled, call us, you know where to find us. Anything else you want to say about the actual show we're supposed to be talking about, man? I'll say this. I think the show was sneakily important.

How so? because there is a mini rebellion, small one, against the IP drowning that we've been subjected to, the IP waterboarding. This is the thrill of Barbenheimer, right? Even though Barbie is obviously an IP property, it's at least like a new installment in an IP property, you know? I don't consider it as much one just because it is leaping out of the box to the screen and we're not, we'll have all kinds of cartoons and movies.

I mean, there have been a bunch of Barbie movies, but nothing like this before. It's a new experience is what I would say. And Hijack was a show that I just started to watch, mostly because of Kalika, that used the fact that we were unfurances. familiar with it to push the story forward. They could do anything they want it, right? And I feel like that's happening in reverse with a lot of what's happening with what's out there, that they're using the fact that we're so familiar with it to cut corners and cover up vital story points and make us really watch stuff that's not very good.

And so I do think that in a way, hijack is a cool little experiment in the fact that you can still just put a story on the screen with competent actors. It might not reinvent the wheel, but it still rolls pretty good, you know? And this is what a lot of Apple TV programming is, and especially some of their most successful efforts or at least successful with, like, the people that we watch television with. So, like, Silo is based on a book series, but, like, you know, is plenty new to a lot of people, a brand new world. Severance, a very original property. Love severance. You know, stuff like that. So I think that is something that's really on Apple's mind is to try to give us these, like, new worlds that aren't as reliant on existing IP.

We love IP because this is a lot of what we do over on Ringarverse, but I, do love a refreshing break from my P and this has been a fun little like foray over into you know a a rum like nostalgic of 90s action cinema TV show a great vehicle for Idris Elba to show that he can like just charm his way into any given cockpit you know what I mean like that's just something that he can do don't look give me that face don't get in Joe van you said that when we last talked about it just And you gave all your like sort of caveats about Idris and how you're connected to him and stuff like that. If you guys want to go listen to those on last podcast, you can.

But if you're in a call up Idrselba right now, what is the like big role? You said he's missing like a big role, the big defining, like, you know, could have been something else. But a few things that he's done have not launched off the ground. So like what is what is the role that you are pitching for him? What does he need to do? It's such a great question. Obviously, there's that one role that people thought that he might play and it didn't happen. And that's a career maker for anyone.

But I think the role that he really needs is a role not where we watch him, but where he takes us with him somewhere. And that is kind of the thing that actors do. And when I say actors, I mean, all actors. I'm not, yeah, I'm not actors and actresses here. I'm saying that actors do despians. We need to go somewhere with him. He needs to take us somewhere rather than us just watch him in various different situations.

and there is a difference. And those roles are few and far between. I mean, you can do them even in these big movies. Like, that happens in Barbie. I mean, that happens in Barbie. In Barbie, we get taken somewhere with Margot Robbie and with Ryan Gosselin. So I think he's missing a film like that.

It doesn't necessarily have to be this gigantic IP thing him a Bob or even James Bond or anything like that. But we need to go for the ride with Idris Elba rather than just watch him on it at this point. I would say another possibility, and I don't want to put a cap on Idris Elba ever because I just adore him and think he's great. But I wonder if he is meant to be the biggest thing on television rather than a medium-sized thing in films. Do you know what I mean? because he is Stringer Bell and he is Luther, you know what I mean, and he is Sam here.

So, like, maybe it's these, like, iconic TV rules rather than a big film role that it's going to be his enduring legacy, perhaps. Anything else you want to talk about before we go? No, I want to tell people that just don't complain about what Mattel is about to do. Just don't even complain about it. It's over.

Okay. Like a lot of people are complaining. We don't want PollyPockets. We don't want He-Man and Masters to shut up. It's all coming out. I went to the movies to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tuesday night. Everybody in the theater had pink on. I think that the movie will make $50 million this weekend, maybe more.

In the third weekend, like, you know, just let you in the shut out. They're making them all. everything's being made. Every pixie sticks, Candy Land, like all of those movies, Monopoly, whatever. I don't,

like all of those movies are coming out. This shit's going to make a billion five, maybe two billion. I don't know, bro. So just shut up. All you purists out there. Shut your faces. It's coming out.

Mallory and I did a thing on The Ring of Verse, on House of Our last week, where we, like, pitched a pitched a movie based on a toy like what we would make. My pitch was Chattie Kathy was made by the same person who made Barbie, a Chattie Kathy movie made by Sarah Polly. Do you have a pitch for any of the Mattel properties

like Apples to Apples or Barney? Or you'd be surprised what Mattel owns. So here's the thing about Barney. I could do a fucking amazing. Barney movie if they let me go dark. Wasn't that death to Smoochie? Isn't Death to Smoochie already exists? Basically, if you let me go

dark, let me look at what Mattel has. They got American girl. I could do a American girl movie about the Black American girl that was enslaved. Yeah, please listen to the Ring Reverse toy and Explosion draft for more information on that. Right. I could do something like that.

But they got a lot of stuff here. A Minecraft movie? Oh, that would be crazy. Yeah. Sounds great. Sounds great. Let's just bring on the toy era. But in the meantime, Van,

where can people hear more of your thoughts and takes and opinions? Ring or verse. Go there. Higher learning also. Higher learning. Pugh, Pugh. Higher learning.

Rachel Lindsay, we're about to tape that right after this. I would say a he-man movie with Chris Hemsworth, but he kind of's already playing that character right now, I wouldn't let him do it. Um, uh, yeah, so ringerverse, we're, we're trudging on higher learning. It's always fun to pod with my palo. Uh, the Giovanna experience will roll on into the future and someday, someday, like, let's say if we enter a content drought because the studios are being stubborn

and refusing to listen to the very reasonable requests from the SAG and WGA, then maybe Van and I do as a Pranusory Watch podcast. Maybe that's what we're saving. all for. Maybe that's our moment to shine. We'll see. I'm very willing. I'm very excited to do it. We're going to do it eventually someday. That's it for us on this episode that was nominally about hijacked, but was also just about a bunch of other things. Thanks so much to Devin Mancy for producing this podcast. We'll be back in the feed, as I said, with a whole bunch of stuff, only murders in the building. Winning time is coming. A whole bunch of stuff coming in August.

And we'll see you then. Bye.