The Prestige TV Podcast - The Quiet Terror of 'The Last Cruise'

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

Amelia Wedemeyer and Claire McNear discuss the latest HBO documentary 'The Last Cruise' about the COVID-19 outbreak on the Diamond Princess at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Hosts: Amelia Wedemeyer and Claire McNear Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Please be advised that two guests tested positive for coronavirus. It was just all kind of hearsay. Like, oh, there's a virus. There's always something around the world going on. Still not a big deal. You're kind of like, okay, cool. I'll wash my hands. To TV concierge, a podcast on the ringer.com

that helps you navigate the vast streaming landscape. My name is Amelia Weddemeyer, and I host Tea Time, and I am joined by Claire McNier, who is a writer for The Ringer. And today, we're going to be talking about HBO's new, I guess, single documentary, 40 minutes, the last cruise. I feel like a chill went down my spine. When I realized what this documentary was, I was like, oh no. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Like, I hate so many parts of this. But it's not the diamond of it, but no, no, no, totally not. But I know, when we got to sign this, I was like, oh, intra, it's like some crews that, like the Titanic. I don't know. And then I read the description. I was like, okay. All right. I think it was slightly better than the Titanic, but probably not like much, much better. True, true. Oh, my God. Do you want to give us a little rundown of the plot? I guess if there is a plot to this? Yeah. Absolutely. So this is the last cruise on HBO Max. And it is about the Diamond Princess, which is the cruise that you might remember from the headlines.

It set sail from Yokohama, Japan on January 20th, 2020. for what was meant to be a 15-day cruise around Southeast Asia. And it had about like 4,700 people were on board, 1,000 of whom were crew. So it was a whole lot of people, and they made it through this cruise as sort of, I think the day that they set sail, there were only a handful of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world. Obviously, we now know that there were many more than we knew at the time. But there was an outbreak on this ship. It led to the ship being quarantined in Yokohama and ultimately 712 people on this ship were infected.

And there were 14 deaths of that group of people who were on this ship. So it was one of the first major outbreaks of COVID-19. And I think for a lot of us, especially in the U.S., because there were a whole lot of Americans on board, it was sort of like this first like, oh, my God, wait, is this a real thing? Like, we should be worried about this thing. It's not just like this thing that happened in a part of China that you couldn't necessarily put on a map that it was a very real international pandemic. Yes. So, you know, uplifting, uplifting topic. It truly is.

Oh, my God. And honestly, I was glad it was only like 40 minutes. I don't know about you, but I was like, okay. Thank God. Yeah. I think they, I mean, we'll talk about the kind of structure of it in just a minute. But I think they kept it pretty tight. They probably could have, you know, padded it out.

more, but they didn't. It was pretty direct and to the point, which I guess I'm glad. I'm glad about. Right. No, I agree. And what they did was this, if you haven't seen it yet, I guess. It was a combination of the archival footage. And it was like, you know, people having a good time on the cruise ship, because, you know, cruises are fun. And then they did interviews with the poor staff. I really, really felt for them. And I felt for the passengers, too. I mean, God, I can't imagine. that was extremely scary, like you said. And we got a lot of, you know, the iPhone perspective. So there was a lot of, you know, very unflattering angles, which is, yeah, I mean, it was so,

it was really interesting because I kind of thought at first that they were just mimicking this and that it was not the real thing. But I think, in fact, it really was a lot of different passengers who then they interviewed kind of in real time were in fact sort of like doing vlogs of. their voyage on this thing. But also really interestingly, they had a lot of stuff in the crew, and there were a lot of members of the crew who also kind of would make these regular videos for friends back home in Indonesia or India or elsewhere, sort of about how they were doing. So it was really interesting to see, you know, people who were on the ship, basically, as this was

actually unfolding. Yeah, definitely. And I found, like, one of the moments, one of the crew members, I think his name was Dei. He was a dishwasher, and he was talking. about, I think he was giving a tour with his phone and he was like, yeah, I never am able to come here to this area where all the passengers hang out because we're like kind of restricted to like the underground area of the ship. And I was like, damn, that is, that's really just the juxtaposition between the crew members experience and the passengers' experience was really, it was kind of tough to watch. It was. I mean, to the filmmakers, great credit. I think they, they did really try to not just make this a story about the passengers because, of course,

it was so much about the crew. And I believe most of those infections were actually amongst crew members because what they do a good job of explaining in this is, I mean, it's not just, you know, the people who are on vacation versus the people who were working, though, of course, that's part of it. It's that the members of the crew were kept in, you know, very, very cramped bunk rooms, and, you know, one person gets infected, and then all their bunkmates would get infected as well. And even as the ship was quarantined in Yokohama, you know, that was passengers being, you know, told to stay in their cabins. And of course, we see the kind of cringy videos of them complaining about the injustice of being, you know, left in their state rooms.

But as that's happening, the crew members still have to keep working. They have to keep going back into these cramped kitchens and preparing all these meals. And of course, you know, we know now. And I think we kind of knew then that it was actively spreading amongst people. And that was one of the worst things you could be doing. Seriously. And they were saying, you know, they showed people like three or four people crew members to a room. And they were saying like, you know, my coworker got sick, but he didn't tell anyone. And so that's how it like really spread is that these people were not telling each other that they had tested positive. It was, it was heartbreaking. And I mean, there were, you know, I think it might have been day, but somebody was talking about how people would realize they were sick, but they were afraid they would get in trouble if. they said anything. Which is just...

Yeah. And there were various points where crew members who were left on the ship much longer than the passengers in the end, you know, were kind of desperately pleading

with their local governments to get them off and, you know, make the decision to talk to media, which is like a violation of their contract and they're just kind of doing it because they feel like

they have no other way to protect themselves. And I am very glad that this documentary did kind of get into that because I think that that is sort of a huge part of this. Oh, no.

Totally. And yeah, like you said, it was the disparity between, you know, the classes and ultimately races was, it was really interesting. But it was also just like, I mean, it's just an age-old kind of problem, you know? And it was, but like you said, it was, it's great that the documentary decided to focus on both of them and kind of juxtapose them together. And again, it was, it was, I don't know if they, like, intentionally decided to pick the most annoying passengers, but some of the older passengers. Like, there was one couple named Paul and Cheryl,

and he was just like, you know, again, up in the face, camera angle, I mean, I don't blame him. I get it. But he was just like, there's no burger

and no cheese on this hamburger. Yeah, I mean, it's made for like a really kind of funny, though obviously sort of cringy juxtaposition because you have these crew members who realize that their lives are like actively in danger, right? And nobody is looking out for them.

And then you have these videos. videos of these passengers being like, my vacation is ruined and like just very like they're the victims here. Right. Yes. And there was another another couple who I don't know if you caught, I'm sure you did, where they're like, we teach a ministry for people who want to get over their porn addiction, Jerry and Mark. And there was like, I don't, I mean, and you know, she was like, she went to the hospital because I think she ended up getting coronavirus and she's like, look at my cute little Japanese pajamas. I was just like, okay.

All right. Thank you, Jerry. So it was interesting. Yeah. It was a strange subset of people. I mean, certainly some of the passengers. I was like, why did you agree to cooperate with this documentary? But what did you think about there was, it was, you know, wedged in the documentary.

Briefly, I thought, when someone said that there was a rumor going around that the ship. They were going to intentionally sink the ship with all the people on board. That was wild. I was, I was, I had not read that before. I, I don't, I don't know that that was actually seriously considered. I mean, maybe, I don't know, but certainly like, there were all these pastors with nothing to do except for like, right. Look, you know, just be like kind of angrily in their, in their state rooms. And like, I guess a bunch of rumors started to spread. And that was, That was by far the craziest one. It was crazy.

Yeah. Yeah. It was just like just as the virus spread, so did all the crazy rumors, which is like, I mean, I guess that's what happens when you're stuck in a situation like this, you know? But God damn. Yeah. And I mean, you know, I think that one of the one of the things that I think is hard to watch right now, but is sort of worth remembering is just like how uncertain things were then.

and were for some time after that. And like, it was not just not really knowing how this spreads, but it was just sort of like, what are we doing? How can it be controlled? You know, how serious is this? Like, is it just this thing where like, I don't know, you'll be fine. Like, it's like the cold. It's like the flu.

Or if it is this incredibly dangerous thing that we now know is the case. But, I mean, it was just a microcosm of all that uncertainty and kind of fear. And, I mean, obviously some of the. that is ongoing. But in that kind of January, February stretch, it was, it was really confusing and scary. That's so true. I, yes. I mean, I remember thinking that this was only going to be two weeks. I was like, okay, well, see you guys later. See you in two weeks. Yeah. And here we are. Like Easter was the target. We'll be totally reopened. And yeah. Yes. I think one of the, to kind of extend that, one of the things that I found really distressing in this documentary was sort of

the closing moments of the documentary talk about how the Diane Princess functioned as this really meaningful way for scientists to study how it spreads, because it was sort of the first kind of enclosed major outbreak like this. And they make the point that, I mean, it really provided extremely solid evidence of two things, one of which is that it spreads through air, through proximity and the other is that it can be spread by asymptomatic people. And of course, those things are pretty widely known now, but this was, I mean, this was really important new information at the time. You know, it's not surfaces and it's not, you know, it's, you don't have to have a fever to be a person who can spread it. And then, and then the documentary

kind of flashes the pain that shows that in spite of those discoveries and that kind of pretty quickly becoming the scientific consensus, the CDC in the U.S. still did not make wild. Yeah, recommendations to reflect that. So, you know, it was another month after that before the CDC recommended wearing a mask and another two months before they recommended the testing of asymptomatic people. And, you know, we know pretty well how much damage was caused by those things being done really late in the game. So, yeah, I mean, it's, you're just kind of watching. You're just like, oh, my God. Oh, my God.

I could not believe that. I was like when they added that hole and it wasn't until months later, I was like, what? I mean, and then there was another point where, and I don't remember, I think it might have been a February conversation with Dr. Fauci saying like, no one needs to wear a mask and stuff. And again, you know, it was the beginning of this. So I get it. But at the same time, it's just like, I feel as if this documentary kind of solidified the fact that, you know, people weren't totally, I don't know, they weren't totally distressed out into a way that they should have been. kind of answering all the questions and using what happened on the princess to kind of solve the coming problem, which is really, again, that just shows you like how messed up this whole situation has been, honestly. So yeah, I mean, with that, I mean, it was yet another, you know, thing that's kind of hard to watch. But like, of course, you know, we know that medical guidance changes over time with new information. And there were points where, you know,

the medical consensus in the U.S. was that you didn't need to worry about air more transmission or wear masks or whatever. And, you know, Fauci probably was stating what was then the norm. But of course, it's really hard to communicate that it's not that the, you know, it's not that the scientists were wrong and you should just be like, okay, well, science doesn't work. Then it's just that these things change. And that has been such a kind of terrible part of the soul fight to get this under control because it's just really hard to communicate. like, oh, I know we said this one thing, but now here's what you should actually do. And this is not a reason to disavow science.

Right. It's a reason to believe science. And now I'm thinking of like, you know, I was watching some 60 Minutes thing where I was like, how infectious diseases begin and spread and how there's probably going to be another one. And I'm like, oh, my God. I just, and I think, again, it leads to the whole, did we really need this documentary right now? I mean, I guess talking about it with you right now is like, okay, I understand why they did it and everything. But at the same time, God, this was like depressing. This was a depressing watch. It was extremely depressing. We were talking about this just a bit ago before we started recording. But I think as hard as it was to watch now and as much as I feel like so much of this is recent history that I kind of remembered at least some of the big points in this. I think that it is probably meaningful to. have this record for the future where where these things are more distant memories, hopefully,

and this is all, you know, way back behind us. My second thought, though, the whole time I was watching it, I was like, I just, I know if I'm like the producer of this documentary or somebody, you know, the director, one of the writers, I'm, I'm thinking to myself like, oh, this is a horror movie. I've made a horror movie. And so I'm like thinking to myself as I'm watching it, I'm like, I'm not going to be like, this is the scariest horror movie at the year. I'm not going to, I'm not going to say, it is. It is the scariest horror movie. of the year because you know what's coming. You know what's coming. And I think that I is totally unhelpful and unhealthy is thinking about like where were you, what were you doing in like February

20 or like early March 2020 before the U.S. had kind of shut down and, and like, you know, the packed restaurants you went to and the concerts you went to. And, you know, just knowing that the monster was just sort of looming the whole time, if not already there. Oh my God. And you feel, in this documentary, it does the really kind of funny thing of having all this cruise cruise footage, right? So we see all these people, you know, just like dancing in crowded rooms and clapping and singing and shouting like on each other. And it's totally. It really is. It goes to the whole thing. Yeah. Or they're like, and then we took, you know, a day trip to China. It's really funny. We have to wear masks. Yeah. Exactly. One of the couples I was going to say, they talked to. about the novelty of wearing a mask. They're like, ooh, we got the real Asia experience here. And it's like, oh, my God.

Oh, my God. And there's another couple, and they're like, oh, people have been asking me, I was like, are you going to go on a cruise again? And the woman's like, yeah, we've got tickets for a cruise in June. It's like, that was wild. I don't think that one happened somehow. That was, wow. I mean, you know, at first I was kind of like, well, I would have loved to hear more from

the crew. But honestly, listening, I'm really glad they did both the crew and the passengers, because, like we were talking about, it is a very interesting juxtaposition between both of the experiences. And, you know, I agree. I think it is, it's good to have this on record, even though it is disturbing. But, man, now I'm just like, I'm just like thinking back to different times. Right. Oh, and we're still in it, right? Like, we are still in it. So it is, it is a tough watch right now. now, but I'm glad I'm glad somebody has recorded this. Right, exactly. Yeah, I'm sure this will be one of many other documentaries soon to come, but it seems like this one was honestly the perfect amount of time that needed to be spent on this. So, well, thank you everyone for listening. And you can find me on Tea Time on Ringer dish. You can find Claire on theringer.com. You can also buy her book answers in the form of questions

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