The Watch - The End of 'Succession.' Plus, 'The Last of Us' E7, the 'Party Down' Revival, and 'Cunk on Earth.'

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

Chris and Andy talk about the news that 'Succession' will end after its fourth season (1:00) and the latest episode of 'The Last of Us' (22:50). Then, they talk about the surprising delight of the 'Party Down' reboot (48:34) and 'Cunk on Earth,' a new British mockumentary show on Netflix (56:41). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're lost in the darkness, look for the pod. Specifically, the Prestige TV podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network, where we're breaking down every new episode of HBO's The Last of Us. On Sunday nights, grab your battery and join Van Lathen and Charles Holmes for an instant reaction to the latest episode. Then head back to the QZ on Tuesdays for a deep dive with Joanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin. From character arcs to video game adaptation choices, story themes to needle drops, we'll parse every inch of this Cordyceps-coded universe.

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Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at the Rigger.com and joining me in the studio deeply upset by the sub-zero erasure on last night's The Last of Us. It's in the Greenwald.

Can you feel the energy? We're back. Oh, God. I'm free. Burbank, I salute you. I don't ever want to visit you again after nine days of ISO. And now I'm back.

I'm out. I'm eating small plates. People are explaining menus to me like I've never been to a restaurant before. I love it. The only thing better... It's great to see you. It's great to see Kaya.

Chris, you were in a little bit of viral jail for a minute. Not that the podcast audience would know. I was just being responsible, man. I was just trying to keep my fellow Californian safe. Now, while you were... I was like, get the fuck out of this house. I was going to say, no one else minded it at all. What was...

What was the vibe at the hotel? Like, did they know they had a quote-unquote special guest? No, like special because they were like were huge fans of Philly Special. No, no, no. More like who is, you know, Count Podula who lives up there. Oh, Peter Show Number 323. Yeah. But is talking at high volume constantly? Yeah, I know.

Yeah, I would say that by the end we were all friends. Let's just put it that way. Who's we? Me and like the whole staff, everybody, all the various delivery drivers for ramen spots around Burbank. It was great. Did the cleaning staff come up to you with tears in their eyes being like, sir? Sir, sir, we've never seen a podcaster like this. Andy, it's great to see you.

You seem a little bit. I know that this weather kind of gets you down. And so I'm glad. I think it's good for you to be here with me and quiet today. Just look at me straight in the eye. It is. I'm taking off my glasses,

hitting the mic. I don't even know what to do with my body. Have you been? I'm good. Chris, I'm feeling really bullish about the state of podcasting, not just because you're back, but because here we are at Spotify HQ.

And I got to say, it's a fresh pot of coffee bubbling. Yeah. They've replenished the snacks. It's not just granola bar. anymore. There's jalapeno chips. Because that's what you want it at 10. 10 a.m. I just feel like this is a bold bet on the future of audio. And I'm here for it. And we are the faces of it. We are the faces of audio. People have been telling us that for years.

Yeah, I'm not normally a second coffee at 10 a.m. guy, but you know, something about the energy you bring once you are super immune. That is really something. Well, I was worried about you. Yeah. Because not only do you have really like poor reactions to stormy weather, which we've been having out here in Los Angeles, but I know that you had a lot emotionally invested in the second weekend box office of Ant Man in the Lost Quantum Mania. Oh, my God. And since it is now on record as the worst performing second weekend of a Marvel film, I was worried that you wouldn't maybe not even show up today.

I was out on Front Street. I was like, if there's one film that had staying power. Were you dressed as Ant Man as Scott Lang outside of Ant Man? Weirdly, I was dressed as the Wasp. And everyone was like, are you in this movie? It's like, sir? Yeah. No.

Yeah. People may have raised their eyebrows at us just, you know, going out to the woodshed on this movie last week. They were like, look at box office don't lie, they said to us. Yeah. And I said, maybe it does. Maybe it does. Because a lot of the staying power of these popular movies were to mouth. People telling their friends.

People saying, I got to go again to find out which Kang is which. Right. And it turns out maybe they don't care. Okay. So there's, let me throw a counter. The only one they care about is Cocang Bear. Can I try that? By the way, today we're doing Last of Us.

We're doing Party Downs Return and we're doing Kunk on Earth, a Netflix show that we both really enjoy. But let's talk about this An Man thing for a second. Could you make the argument that there is now a learned behavior, a learned behavior of just being like, I'll just wait for it to come out at Disney Plus. It's too expensive to get a babysitter or to do whatever. I mean, hypothetically, like you bring a child to...

You bring your babies. to quantum mania. I bring all of my babies. Nothing delights an infant, like Corey Stahl's performance as Modoc. But, okay, so there's that. There's the idea that you could just be like, in three months this will be at Disney Plus,

and I'll knock it out then. Or what you're saying, which is this sort of really tepid word of mouth coming out of the movie, that it is completely killed the almost instant rewatch that I think powers movies to the billion dollar mark. Now, it's hard for me to imagine someone being like, let me go see Venom again, you know,

but I guess there are people out there who do do that. They're called Hardy Boys. But Avengers French, like the Infinity War and an endgame saga, like I feel like people went and saw that two, three times in the theater. I think there's two things. I think it would be flattering to us and our profound aesthetic opinions that people saw this movie in the opening weekend and went to tell their friends,

they didn't really consider the CGI imagination. The frame isn't filled out with deep thought. I don't think that's the case. I do think that what's communicated by this movie in the trailers and in the word of mouth and in the coverage is that this is a plank in the phase five strategy. And I really think that people are mezzo-mezzo on the phase five strategy. I think that when you build a shared cinematic universe

based on the idea that everything is connected and you have to see everything, it works, A, when the stories are good and people are into the story, but B, when it's more tightly curated. There is this feeling, right? I imagine that we are not the only people who, quote unquote, didn't finish Moonnight.

You know what I mean? Not to paint with too broader brush. And they might be like, I don't know what to do with this. I'm waiting for Moon Night to hit Disney Plus, actually. No.

You're waiting for them to do for Moon Night what they did for Andor, which is run it on on ABC. True TV or ABC once. Yeah. It's interesting. It's interesting.

I wonder, getting a little sweaty, maybe. Maybe. At Feige HQ. So like, what's next is, it's Guardians and it's going to crush. It's going to do so well.

Guardians is going to probably swing the other way. But I think that there will be some, is James Gunn leaving Marvel the biggest misstep that Feigey's ever made in 30 movies is letting this guy out of the building instead of being like, what do you want to do next? The entire toy chess belongs to you.

Also, I think that there are people who are like playing 4D chess who are like Chris's move is that he's zagging to D.C. and they see that. But I don't think that's the case. No, not necessarily. Yeah.

Look, I'm taking meetings. You know what I mean? You're open? I love to go to lunch. Like, take me out. Let me know. What's Shazam about, you know? Do you want to hear the story?

Yeah. You could see the first Shazam. Why couldn't I see the second one? You could, but I'm saying if you want to know what it's about, oh. You could spend some time now. No, I mean, what's Shazam about like politically? You know, like, what's the ideology behind the Shazam?

Anti-Vax, apparently. Yeah, exactly. No, no, my thing is. is what I've been reading the tea leaves and just podcasting with you for years, I can tell that what you are most hyped slash befuddled by is secret invasion. I just think that you're late. Because it looks so good, but I don't understand the Cree and the scrolls at all. Right.

Like I think I have a better grasp on the time variance than I do about like, I can just pull my face off and I'm a different person constantly. I hate that. You could talk five minutes about the Donbass right now. and it's important to Putin's larger. There is no Ukraine strategy. But when you get into the weeds and the Cree scroll war, I mean...

Putin has just been potting, like, all weekend. Have you been looking at the news? He's just like, and another thing. And another thing. Coming back. Yeah. I have another bit to do on NATO here. Is he bullish on audio strategy?

Did you see Zelensky was like, I think Putin's going to be killed by his own inner circle? No. Which podcasts have you been listening to these guys on? Wow. You had a lot of... That's on East Coast Bias. You should check it out. I really wish there was a podcast where you just sort of talked about what you did in between podcasts in Burbank. Like the media that you dug into?

I wish I could say that I just... And anybody follows me on Letterbox knows this. I wish I could say that I had like an incredibly enriching COVID where I just watched incredible Fraterian films and logged them. But I didn't. I watched Diners Drives and Dives. Because I didn't really feel like... being on my laptop all day. So I watched the TV in the hotel. Right.

But the internet connection of the television, so I couldn't sign into Netflix or sign into anything. Right. So I just was like kind of watching regular cable. And the guide function on the TV was broken. Oh boy. So it was only ever like at 10 a.m. when I checked in or something like that.

Yeah. It stayed that way. So every time I wanted to see what was on, I had to go through the entire, I just flipped channels. 53 times. Has this, have you, would you like to revise your take about how TV was better when we could just flip channels?

Did this force you to sit in it for a while? Well, I mean, I did find like that ultimately like, I'll just watch Shark Tank for two hours and that's just fine, you know? I don't think, I want to, I want to help you out with something, give you a gift. No one had a productive COVID watching. Like I, during COVID, when I had it, I rewatch Parks and Recreation, which was fantastic. Uh-huh. I believe I watched the pilot of Bad Sisters.

I have no memory of it and feel that my mezzo-mezzo response is not legitimate. Possibly informed by it, yeah. And then I also read like two Rachel Cusk novels and a book by a Japanese writer about a world with no language. That's so much better than what I did. But I don't remember the books. Like I would read four pages of a Lindaitton spy novel and fall asleep. I may have fallen asleep too. I don't know.

Can I just mention one other news story before we get into the last of us? I hope you're going to mention the big news story. That the night manager is coming back? More nights, more management. Well, this is a... They did the book. Yeah. And it's pretty odd.

I mean, like, I salute them. Yeah. I like Tom Hiddleston. I love the night manager. It'd be cool if Olivia Coleman comes back. I have a hard time believing she will. De Becky, too. She was great in that.

Yeah. Yeah. But she was very much tied to the novel. Right. One of which John LeCarrie wrote. And now they're just like, I guess. So one idea I had for them, since I heard it's going to be set in Europe and South America, is there some other LeCarray bits out there that you could pull from.

Get a little Taylor of Panama. not going. First of all, I love that book. And underrated movie. Are you suggesting a Lacaree CU, an LCCU? But they're doing. But they've, like, his sons, I think, are, like, managing the sort of film properties. But are you pitching a Castle Rock of La Cere? Remember that? Remember the Castle Rock show where it was all Stephen King? I wonder whether or not we've kind of hit, like, a little bit of a maximum, maximum CU, you know? Of just CUs in general. Yeah. And just maybe just make really nicely done.

done one-offs. I think that's for the best. I think that you could build something larger around Smiley and Carla and have offshoots of that. But there's only one La Cary. And there's only one, you know, I mean, in some ways, there's really only one adaptation of La Cary, which is essentially a page-for-page adaptation of Dinker Taylor on the BBC. Yep.

With Alec Guinness, so much so that LeCarrie was like, George Smiley no longer belongs to me. He belongs to Alec Guinness. But I do think that there's opportunities there. and obviously I would watch every single second of it. But I thought this was interesting because it's one of the first moments that I can remember someone taking such beloved,

pre-existing story material and just saying like, okay, in recent memory, because so much of it is based on like, okay, we have to stick to the text because the fans are such fans of the text. I think the comparable one would be what AMC is also trying to do with Anne Rice in the Anne Rice universe.

But doesn't she have, like, aren't they adapting that off of the books themselves? I just don't, there's not a night manager too. Right, okay. In terms of the expansion, I think and I agree and I think it's interesting and it's project dependent and writers and who knows. Same guy who's the night manager is doing. It's likely not going to be bad and it might be interesting

and it would be also interesting to see what it, you know, for the very Catholic LeChi fans, like what it means to be venturing off book. Yeah, yeah. I do wonder broadly and it's something we can revisit and look at, like Hollywood's obsession with IP and established properties and authors is well-founded and well-trod terrain even for us, but is it diminishing returns?

Like, there is a, there's safety in a, I don't want to say struggling, but certainly not as sea worthy an enterprise as like Apple or Netflix, streamer like AMC being like Anne Rice and Le Carre, we're all in on these authors and their catalogs because we know they have some ardent fans who will check it out. It's kind of like what Paramount's doing does with Star Trek on, you know, like there's always going to be people to watch Star Trek, but how high is the roof on these things? I don't know. Maybe this is a side note

of me saying that I checked out Picard season three. I like to surprise you on my... Is this what the news was? No, the news is... I don't know if you've heard, but there's an HBO show called Succession. Oh, yeah, we didn't even talk about this. I did just want to...

I like it when I... You have letterboxed. I sometimes just come in studio and tell you that I've watched something. Okay. I've got very little more to say, but... Wait, of Star Trek Picard? Yeah.

I'm not... I've not seen a single moment of Star Trek, I mean, look, I'm a big Gates McFadden guy from way back from her debut on screen in Muppets Take Manhattan as Dabney Coleman's secretary. And I like seeing Beverly Crusher back on screen and all the gang. Yeah. But it's pretty wild to see these very, very old people, like shooting plasma cannons and trying to make contemporary shows, but moving very delicately while they do it.

It's sweet. It's nice that they all got to hang out. This is the final season, right? I mean, I just think, look, I watch White House briefings. No one's going to ever say anything is the final season. but I'm just saying I'm just saying Jean-Lucs sits a lot more than he used to

Gotcha You know what I mean? What was your take? I guess Not what's your take Yeah Succession is it Is it the right time to end it?

Okay so Jesse Armstrong We can call him Jesse Old friend We talk to a Two-time watch guest Uh Tuesday

Didn't he come all three seasons I think we've had him three times I think so I think so But maybe not Because maybe we missed The COVID year Maybe one time I just talked

Yeah, maybe. I think that was probably Andy Greenwald show. Yeah, that was a podcast. But I was shocked. I assume we were number two on the list. I assume he turned to his press team and was like, I got to get the word out.

Get Becky Mead on the phone. They're like, sir, sir, you have two options to deliver this news. The New Yorker magazine or these two guys on the internet. And weirdly he went to the New Yorker to announce that the wrapped and soon to debut season four succession is going to be the final season.

Did you have a feeling? Yeah, I mean, they were really, really, really out front with being like, we're not going to be doing this forever. They were never coy about that. Yeah, Brian Cox is the most of video. In retrospect, the fact that it was being aggregated again last week, the Brian Cox was like, fuck Jeremy Strong. He's an annoying Pratt. So Jeremy Strong did the GQ story and he did like this whole video of like my, so they're supposed to do these videos where they're like my 10 essential items. and Jeremy Strong had like 36 of them.

But when he was talking about all the little accoutrement that he brought that was like relevant to Kendall, the entire video he's referring to Kendall in the past tense. He's just like Kendall was, Kendall was, Kendall. Or tea leaf people on that. So like if it was, I just have a hard time. I really do wonder whether or not it's like we could do the show with or without Kendall.

Let's just do it with Kendall and end it. I don't know. I mean, I think, first of all, I think I'm impressed. I'm impressed. I mean, I think that Jesse Armstrong is, we say it every year when the show comes back. I think he is a TV writer on a level that few people have ever been. I think his stewardship of the show has been absolutely incredible.

The vibes even, like from the majority of the cast, the writers he works with, it seems like he's a good manager and runs a good ship. And look, it's very, very tempting to continue to chase success and stability. You know, I think best case scenario, you could point to the Breaking Bad people and Vince Gilligan, who have kept a good thing going for decades, over a decade, without necessarily diminishing returns, and are pretty upfront. They're like, we love our crew, we love doing this, why would we stop? And then we get to the Popcorners ads, and you begin to wonder maybe they should stop.

Not that Vince Gilligan had anything to do with that. I think Jesse Armstrong comes from a very different tradition of British TV, where you do two six-episode seasons and then become legend. And then take five years off and come back and do a Christmas special. I mean, that is maybe one. That was sort of like in my mind, I was like, it would be kind of amazing if they just never broke the band up but stopped touring, you know? Right.

Well, I mean, there is like, like Luther has never been canceled. He just makes Luther's every so often, right? I think that's very possible. But I think about what this does. First of all, it's a huge blow to the podcast industry. We love covering the show. Seriously. We love the show.

But think about what this does for this season and also for what it must have done in the writer's room when, as he said, in the New Yorker piece, you know, we weren't entirely sure, but we were playing everything out to the extent that we felt we understood it and what was right for the characters and right for the story. And that was it.

And that gives me an enormous jolt of confidence about this season. I think amidst all of the raves for season three, there was a little bit of how many different ways are there to break up the... Yeah. Are we out of dramatic, brother? Yeah.

There would be diminishing returns. And as we said last year and every year, there's a version of the show where it runs for 10 years, and it's just, it's just good times. It's VEP. It's just jokes, you know, but I think that what has... And there's a VEP inside of Succession. For sure, but what makes it...

And I don't mean that as a diss of Veep. I wish VEep was still on. You know what I mean? I think Succession, you can make the case. It's the best comedy on television. But what makes it exemplary is the fact that it has this deep, deep emotional pathos as well. A lot of it derived from Jeremy Strong's performance and the Kendall character. And I think no one is going to read this.

him better than the creator of the show. And I also think it's kudos to our recent in studio guest, Casey Blois, that I do think he and HBO historically have run things this way. Yeah. You're done? Okay, you're done. All right. Yeah. We, it's, it was up to us to have prepared for this day, you know, and have other things in the pipeline. Do I think he might revisit some of these characters or this tone or this world in the future? I would not be surprised. I would not be surprised. But I think that. But it's interesting. I don't really think of, I mean, there are a few people who have come out of the Succession creative umbrella.

Mark Milot obviously directed the menu. He's the director of a lot of the episodes, the best episodes of Succession. Several writers have gone on to do great stuff. Court Jefferson was working on Succession. Like there's a bunch of people in a... Lucy Preble. Yeah. Lucy Preble.

But I don't know if there is a Peter Gould on the show that would be like, hey, I'm going to take the reins and start the saw of this. I'm going to take Cousin Grand and Tom and like I have the aesthetic so down that we're going to go do this. I think what's kind of interesting... And would you want to see Greg and Tom running in B&B in Vermont or something like that?

Yes. Sorry, you just called me totally flat with. Yes. Yes, I would. And all listeners of this podcast would as well. I think what would be interesting to me, and this is not something that Jesse needs to answer for or even should be asked, although he will be over the next few months as the show, as the season unfurls, the kind of sideways... Earth that Succession is set on where the Roy's have their empire, there's more stories there to be told in this tone. I would expect to see some scripted something on HBO that refers to the Roy family or Waystar Royco just abstractly before I saw Cousin Tom again. I mean, Cousin Greg again and Tom. Okay. I believe. Who knows? But that vision of that world, and as we discovered last season, industry may exist in the Succession universe. That's true.

So there might be some opportunities there. That's true. I just feel like... Kendall out on the lash in London. Let's go. At a time, I mean, we're going to talk about the party down reboot at a time, which is not comparable, but we are... The idea of something ending is kind of unique at this moment. Yeah.

And I really respect... But I can't wait to see what Jesse does next. Like, it's truly exciting to think about, like, what his next project might be. It just does... Doesn't also just feel very not Hollywood, you know? I just feel like he's in London. as a different life. He's had different lives already, right? With peep show and being a comedy writer and being a part of that world and then kind of crashing into Hollywood as a dramatic

writer and winning Emmys. I mean, he's had different phases of his career. And I think it's kind of cool to think, well, okay, well, what's he going to do next? And he probably will do something quite different, which is thrilling. But it is, it's a massive jengotile out of the tower that is contemporary TV. Just as a bit of admin, I did an impromptu prestige TV Hall of Fame episode with Sean and Bill about whose side are you on the sixth episode of the first season.

Yeah. Do you think you'll go back and rewatch much of the past seasons leading up to Succession? Is that like a habit for you? Because it's generally not, but with Succession, I was wondering whether or not

you would go back and cherry-pillar. I think last season I watched the season two finale before, which was a nice way to go. I might do the same thing. Succession is the rare show where just thinking about it, just you naming an episode

makes me smile because you think about what pleasures await inside of it. So I would love to rewatch some of it. I had forgotten that it goes, whose side are you on Austerlitz Prague? And just being like, we really had something there for a month. Remember when the dude dives into the pool and breaks his face in Taos? Yeah.

God, it's a good show. That's a really good show. I'm excited. It's coming back. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Ever have a plan come together out of nowhere and realize you're missing something? Like a last-minute beach day, a spontaneous hike or an outdoor movie night you didn't plan. plan for, that's when Prime's same-day delivery as you're back. Getting you exactly what you need fast and reliably so you can actually join the moment

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Yeah, I think I have the most to say about The Last of Us, to be honest. Okay. So sometimes I do a little bit of a plot recap. I don't really have like a huge one here for this because it was such a contained and kind of easy to track episode. But it's essentially, you know, when we pick up the action, which is essentially the last moments of last week's episode, which is Joel getting stabbed in the stomach with a baseball bat and needing medical attention. Is he stabbed with a bat? It was like impaled with the end of a baseball bat, right? Something sharp, though, I would imagine. That was more of a nice. I thought it was like a broken off bat or something. Oh. Oh, it was like a Roger Clemens thing. I could be wrong.

I thought, that's what I thought. I have to admit, I didn't do Pruder film it. But I thought somebody was like, oh, you got hit with a bat. He took a wound. Took a stomach wound. Generally, when you get a stomach puncture like that, you're going to want to get some kind of professional medical attention. That's been my experience.

Joel winds up having a 14-year-old. So he tells her to go, to get back to Tommy, to leave him. and as Elia is walking out the door to do so, she has a 50-minute flashback going back to her days in the Boston QZ. Now, Ellie is alluded to everybody that she's ever cared about has either died or disappeared or whatever, and she's obviously traumatized by like the way that the pandemic or the zombie epidemic has shaped her perception of reality and stuff.

And she has this memory of being in Fedra as a kid and kind of being on the wrong track. there's allusions to a best friend of hers named Riley, who is no longer in Fedra. But she's given this choice by a kindly CEO, essentially, to choose between... Played by Terry Chen. I really enjoyed his performance. Yeah, and it's like, you can either be like a shit shoveler in this world or you can become a leader, and we think you have the potential to be a leader, but you have to stop fucking around. And just when Ellie seems to be kind of like on the straight and narrow, Riley comes back,

and she's like, come out with me, go out into the city, I want to show you something and reveal that she has joined the fireflies. And this is going to be like one last great night for them to hang out. So they go to what I think is Copley Center Mall. I thought that was Copley. Yeah, I think in Boston. You have memories of Copley? Of course, man.

Yeah, I used to, I mean, I was a great cut through. So when I used to live in Back Bay, but I needed to get up to Newberry or I needed to get up to Mass Ave or whatever, like I would cut through Copley, especially when it was raining or cold, which it was nine months ago in Boston. Treat yourself to an anti-Anns. on the way, just to warm the belly. There's a really awesome sequence in this episode where they go through the mall.

They see all the old mall stores. This is where we find out that Riley is essentially stationed and where they are hiding a bunch of some explosive devices used on Fedra. Riley is in the fireflies. She tries to kind of coax Ellie into joining the fireflies, but Ellie is like, I'm in Fedra and I think that I'm going to make a go of this. Do you think Joel is lying here during all this being like, there's a time and a place for memories.

Go or stay, I don't care. I'm bleeding it out. Okay, let's get out of it. Yeah, it's like, can I just die alone? Like, instead of you, like, standing in the doorway, having this reverie? Just thinking? Yeah. And we can get into a lot of the details of the mall stuff, but in the end...

Oh, we will. After them sharing a lovely moment, tender moment of a kiss, a infected, awakens, jumps them, bites both of them, and we... are left with the two of them kind of embracing, but we know that Ellie lives, I assume Riley dies, and this is kind of like what forms Ellie's worldview, and he's like, never give up,

you never know how much time you have, got to live life to the full, and she comes back downstairs, and just straight up just soes this dude up. Which is weird because prior to that last moment, it seemed like her new motto for life was finish him. So let's start with moral content too. Well, hold on, a couple things.

I did want to say, I mentioned Terry Chen, who I really liked in that role. Did you recognize him? This is a very Grantland-esque reference, but that's Ben Fong-Torris from Almost Famous. Oh, not the real Ben Fong Taurus. The actor who played Rolling Stone editor. That would be a deep cut from Craig Mason to get Ben Fong Taurus. To play a Fedra commanding officer? Okay, fair, fair.

Before we get into the mall stuff, which I'm excited to do, can I just also say, this episode was directed by Liza Johnson, who has a really strong, episodic resume of directing TV. I thought this was a gorgeous episode. I thought it was noteworthy. It also looked different. It had a little bit more handheld. Cassinia, Serretta,

sorry if I mangled her name was the DP. And the two of them, the colors, the light in this episode. Can you also tell I got a new TV? But man. And glasses. Because I did hand glasses. Did you know this season has been in color?

Yeah. I had no idea. There's like a whole tracking shot and True Detective. They don't cut. What? That's why I didn't like the show. I just thought it was gorgeous.

And to your point, yes, different visually because it's a different time and evoking different. I just thought that was really impressive. I have a no. So this was, again, in my view, like a sign of the show's healthy moral compass, which I know is not where people want to begin when talking about a popular zombie show. But, you know, I feel like week to week or day to day in the room or even minute to minute, Craig Mason and Neil Druckman and their team. We're faced with like, what are we going to focus on today? And I just feel like they kept choosing, to quote our favorite film train spotting, they kept choosing life. You know, they're like, let's fill out the story, let's make this character more understandable,

let's show them happy, let's show more colors in their particular rainbow. Again, my TV is great. You can see it all, full spectrum. And what I do is I turn motion smoothing on. Good for you. I go around to people's houses and I'm like, no, no. You really, it's you and Ryan Johnson are just on a head-on collision course. Always. smoother the better baby. So I just thought that was the right choice to make. Did I find this episode as narratively compelling as the past few? No, but I thought it was tasteful and lovely.

I have to start here with you. There's a bunch of media in this episode, and we're going to talk about this in the mall. Ellie has a Walkman, upon which she, in which she listens to Pearl Jam and Aha. I would like to point, I just want. kind of want to have a note, and if we get to talk to Craig or anyone, maybe we can bring it up to their face, that, like, I know everyone has their particular moment when time stopped before the zombie apocalypse and or college.

Yeah. But this show, the world ended in 2002, right? Not 1991. 2003, right? The breakout's in 2003, and then the show is set in 23. Right, 2003. Right. And she's born in two, that night. She born in 2009?

I guess so. Yeah. So it's... In Obama's America. Is that right? I'm trying to figure out the timeline. She's 14? In the show.

Yeah, right? Yeah. Right? Yeah, you want to reference this of 2009 as we remember it? Well, no. My thing is, and this is not just me being like, she should have been listening to turn on the bright lights and her walk man. I was just like, I get it and it's beautiful. And a lot of us of a certain age who make TV and watch TV have memories of certain types of cultural touchstones.

But 2003, legit was just four years after the height of see. CD sales where they were just printing plastic discs in the billions. And so to have a Walkman with a Pearl Jam tape and an AHA tape and Edda James tape feels a little cutesy-wootsie. You know what I mean? So I've been trying to figure this out because... If she had any tapes, it would be like me. She would have like the... What was the guy from... Like, wouldn't she just have cracked rearview mirror or something?

Yes. Yes. Or she'd have like Bills, Bills, Bills, Kasingle. Right. You know what I mean? Right. Like... Was Brittany around? Yeah, Brittany was around, dude. Come on. But she would have been...

I'm not saying because she's a teenage girl she would have have had that. I just mean like, if they QZ'd Boston, Newbury Comics is safe. Sure, but Newbury Comics didn't have cassettes.

Okay. But I was still rocking... I'm reporting from the front. We did not. I was... South Park Poops and CDs. Dude, I still had only a cassette player

in my Volkswagen Golf. I remember. I was playing... But didn't you have the cassette with the wire that came out of it that you could plug into your... I don't like to brag on this podcast. And I said, here, Chris, hold this disc man steady.

Yes. I did. I'm just trying to make a larger point that, like, it works. It's evocative. But similarly, when they go into the mall, frozen in 2003, and it's the arcade that we went to in 1991, that was just a little, that was a little, I bumped on that. I bumped on that. I don't want to get too bogged out in this. I do.

But do you think it's weird that Ellie understands concepts like anarchism? terrorism and propaganda, but doesn't know what an escalator is. It's a great question. And even in her, and like, I've made this sort of point a couple of times, and this is definitely not like a sticking point

where it takes away from my enjoyment of the show, although my wife did snap at me when I was just like, she doesn't know what an escalator is, and she was like, just watch. But... Did she make you go back to Burbank? He's not better yet.

I'm actually still living in Burbank. I'm just allowed to work now. I see. No, I was watching and I was just like, she's never come across like the concept of an escalator in any of her pun books. Right. Right. The concept of a moving staircase has never been broached.

Yeah, that's a very unfrozen caveman lawyer. That's my thing. Yeah. And my thing is, as someone who was going to arcades and attempting to play certain popular games during the era in which they were popular, here to tell you that I never figured out how to do a fatality in that game. Well, I did on Sega.

At home, but I'm saying, like, in the arcade, unless someone's older brother or cooler kid was like, up down, up down, left, right, rip his spine out. You're just fumbling, you're just hit button. Well, you can find that stuff in some video game magazines. Okay, so you're saying that Riley, because either

she lived there for months practicing, alone. For three weeks. Yeah. Three weeks is not enough time. unless she went into Walden books and found like a guide to mortal combat too. I doubt that the mortal combat guides

were the things being looted at the point of the apocalypse. Finally! Finally! What was the guy's name Johnny? Was the guy, the one dude who didn't have a hat in Mortal Kombat? It was like Johnny something. A hat?

Well, Raiden has a big hat. Yeah, Sub Zero has a hood. Yeah. You're dodging my question. Who was the guy who pulled people's hearts out? All of them. No, I thought it was only one guy. Well, they all did.

Some zero would freeze you and shatter you. I think they all had multiple fatalities. But I didn't know because I didn't know how to do it. All right. Look, we're getting bogged down here. It's a lovely and touching coming of age story that does have some, I don't know, there were some bumps. There were some bumps for me, just in terms of, yeah, like what level of familiarity

does she have with the world? I mean, they're living in the city, but they don't go anywhere, but they have certain privileges and they have posters of things. There was just a lot of, it was a lot of data. dump for us about what that world was like. Yeah. Do you think that it... I was sort of surprised that Ellie was personality-wise, very much the same person

in the QZ, in Fedra, all that. Right. I guess it's not that far, because obviously Marlene gets introduced as an idea in this episode, so it's not that far away from when the actual show starts. But I was... And I guess probably, like, the thing that really makes her

who she is is whatever happens. to her parents, right? Well, it seems like she didn't, the takeaway from the conversation with Riley, and we should mention Storm Reed, who plays that part, and I'm sure we'll talk more about her in a minute, but is that what differentiates them,

according to Riley, is that she had parents and lost them. Yeah. And that Ellie never knew her parents. Okay. So she is just sort of kind of surly. Well, it just took me back to a time. I remember, I think I was younger than the character in the show,

but there was a time in my life where, I discovered the phrase, so what. Oh. And every time my parents would say anything, I would go, so? Yeah. So what? That's cool.

And I didn't know really how rude that sounded because it's just like I saw it once on TV or like a kid in my class said it, but I was like, that's dope. Did you think the studio audience would start clapping? Like that would be your sassy cashphrase? But I came to find out both from my parents expressing it to me in the time,

but also in retrospect, thinking back on my, my behavior that that that was probably pretty fucking annoying. And that's the zone that Ellie is in. As a kid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

She's, she's tough. Yeah. I also was curious, it did feel like a little bit of backfilling when the kindly CEO is just like, I see leadership in you. Yeah. It's like, really? It's not exactly Joe Burroughs sitting across. That's what I've seen.

She's just like listlessly slow jogging around a gym, listening to Pearl Jam in 2003. And they're like, that's Hillary Clinton. Yes, she can't. Now, I'm sure watch Superfans will do an edit where she's running and listening to like Fight Song or something. And we're like, that's the future leader of the free world. The, again, though, with this show,

I got to say that the thing that I keep coming back to, even when I start to go down the track of being a little pissy or nitpicky or whatever, is there is just a spine of quality. And you think about the pressure on an episode like this. We don't use the phrase bottle episode. This is not a bottle episode. But the way people have been using that phrase incorrectly

has come to mean an episode that is in some ways bottled off, whether in continuity or in setting from the rest of the season. And what that means on a practical level is you have to scout and shoot all new locations that you may not revisit and often bring in different cast that you might not see again. and that is incredibly taxing, both for a production staff, but also it's just hard to find good people.

I was going to say what happens when every episode is a very special episode. Oh, well, I mean that's when HBO's budget comes into play. No, I just mean actually as a viewer. So it's like Sunday and you have pancakes and syrup, and you're just like, this is delicious. This is what you eat when you watch the last episode? No, no wonder you're living in a hotel in Burbank. you treat yourself.

Oh. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then you're like, I'll treat myself tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. It takes away the specialness. You just eat pancakes every day. With The Last of Us,

I really, really like this show quite a bit. It will probably be in my top five, I would imagine, top six, you know? Bold words for February. But it's like pretty much every other episode

would be the peak of another season of television in terms of what the dramatic stakes are. Or their creative kind of, What? No, no, I see what you're saying. I also think that you say it'll be top five now, and then December 12th, when the English 2, the new English drops,

and you're like, forget this. But that's just about Wes Welker? God, okay, so it just fell off my list. Yeah. This is why the show is successful. Your point, I think it's not a bug, it's a feature because this is what HBO knows its businesses, that it's special, that it's not binge,

that it's worth waiting the week for. So they pour their resources and make every episode feel special. And I just didn't want to leave the previous point without saying, and then you find Storm Reed, who is a great performer, who seems like she just stepped into this part and developed a chemistry with Bella Ramsey that suggests they had been friends for the years that they've been friends with. That is no small thing. And any cynicism that I had about the accuracy of the contents of the video game arcade in 2003

were swept away by the last three minutes when the show, treats the zombie thing not just as an opportunity for a jump scare, right, but as two 14-year-olds were forced to... She's 17.

Sorry, two teenagers. Yeah. We're forced to go from feeling like their life is just beginning to the knowledge that their life is over in a matter of seconds due to forces not only outside of their control, but outside of their generations.

That's how I felt when Joe Carter hit the home run against the Phillies in 1993. I did, I did too. I was... Look, That was a beautiful and touching moment. I thought it was all out in front of me, and then Mitch Williams just let one hang. I said things about Canada at the age of 16 that I regret.

Yeah. That still causes issues for me at the border today. When you were a teenager, do you think you would be Federer or a Firefly? Wow. I sit here with you as my good friend telling you I would be volunteering for Federal leadership posts. I would be so proud of my- Federal Student Council. I would be so proud of my badges, I would be polishing them.

Yeah. I would be the dude from Andor, but for Fedra. You know what I mean? What was this name? God, I'm blanking, but, you know, the... Cairn or something like that? Cyril. Cyril.

Cairn, yeah. I would be Cyril Cairn, but for Fedra. Like, I would not have Mortal Kombat posters. I would have, like, previous heads of FEMA. Fedra. No, before Fedra. Brownie? I would be...

You get Brownie in there? Like a heck of it That never happened Yeah That's true That's right He was just still raising Arabian show ponies

He never got called Into government Things That's an example Of this going better When did FEMA Get invented I mean

Before 2004 Are we sure Well Okay All right Conspiracy Chris Um My point being

Uh huh This We wouldn't have gotten along Because you would have been Firefly You would have been Going around So what

Apparently No I don't know I mean, like, fireflies, I think I was probably more pampered than that. And I think that, like, the promise of, like, warm in the winter, cold in the summer, that kind of stuff, I probably would have been attracted to it. Yeah. But then again, the fireflies have, like, that pretty rad aesthetic. I think, I think you would have been drawn by the logo. I think we would have been into it sounds like a band.

And I also think that you, just the way you, just the way you broke down that question speaks to your character, where you're like, I'm a practical guy. Like, how is this going to work out for me, my family? my stomach, you know? Whereas, you know, I'm a narrative guy. You know what I mean? Like, I can't just root for the 2022 Philadelphia Eagles. I have to be like, these young men are exemplars of their society. You can't just be like, I'm from Philly's, so I'm cheering for the Eagles.

You have to be like, James Bradbury will be living with me for the time being. Like, I wish Jalen Hertz was in some way related to me just so I could talk about him and, like, send him emails. Yeah. So I would need to believe that the mission of Fedra. was pure. They're keeping us safe. I'm sure there's like a chat GPT where you can just be like,

text me in the voice of Shailen Hertz. Wow, I just got chills. What mall would you like to be stationed at? Would you like to spend the apocalypse in? Well, you know, current events, I mean, the Glendell Gallery is underrated. But I'm saying like as a child, that era. I don't know about that.

Yeah. It's indoors, which I think is better. Because if you're in L.A., you can't be like, The Americana. No, you can't do Westfield. No. Yeah.

You get over, there's, there's no sight lines. No, Westfield's very confusing. Westfield's very confusing and wide open. You got to cut across the Tesla, you know. Come on. Display. Now, also, think how much grain is stored in Italy. That's right.

That's right. Ground zero. Guys are fucking exploding out of risotto. That's right. All the dried, all the porcini? Plus the Durham wheat? Yeah. My God, it's a crime scene.

They don't have that problem at the glider. Nile Galleria. That's exactly right. But as a child, I think this is an interesting question because from Philadelphia, you have some options. You were downtown, so your choices may have been different. I think we both would have immediately thought of King of Prussia, which, by the way, as an adult, the fact that there's a town called King of Prussia. In Pennsylvania. We just took as normal. And King of Prussia had two malls, the fancier mall and the not as fancy mall. And going there was like a twice annual event. It was a huge deal. But because of its exoticism, I wouldn't have chosen that.

So I would be more of a maybe a Springfield Mall guy. Okay. Maybe Granite Run, but probably Springfield. I feel like I knew Cherry Hill the best. I knew you were going to go to Jersey. So I'd probably do Cherry Hill Mall. The gallery is probably the closest, the closest thing that Philadelphia has to Copley.

So it would be like that would be the most like that. A lot of moving stairs in the gallery. I feel like there was a lot of escalator action. Which would have confused. you, do you think, or you would have been prepared for it? I also feel like there were like 750 entrances to the gallery, so it would be hard to kind of be like, great, we're all set. I never found the same one twice. A lot of malls are like, you're in and then you're stuck until you get to the other side of the mall. The gallery, I feel like there's always like a side exit.

That feeling when you park, you park by the Macy's and you're like, I'm just going to the foot locker and I'm just going to bet it's here by the Macy's and you go in and you're like, it's by blooming days. It's on the, it's like 900 yards away. And you got to walk. Yeah. And you got to walk. And when you have kids, the walk involves like a kiosk that just sells Sour Patch kids. Yeah. You're just doomed. Do your kids like malls?

Yes. Do they? Yes. Especially the little one. Okay. She likes a little retail therapy. That's cool. Yeah, I mean, sort of.

It's fine. It's fine. Did you, before we move on from this episode, which, again, look, big picture. Are you being dicks about it? No, I thought it was pretty good. I thought it was good. I thought it was less compelling because by nature, you introduce a character and a relationship and end in an episode.

I want to know who those guys at Eastern Colorado were. You know what I mean? Like, what's their deal? And they put it in the season in a way to kind of, you know, to bone us. So we've got two more now. Fine. Yeah. 8 and 9.

It was good. It was good. But I thought it was more aesthetically good and I appreciated it more than I was riveted and entertained the way that I have been over the past few weeks. What? Last small question. You go into an arcade at 14 and there's been some sort of apocalypse. What game do you devolved? vote your bucket of

quarter suit. Because I don't know if we've ever mentioned this in this podcast, but my, I want to say like my, I don't know if it was

my 12th birthday, the greatest birthday party in my life. There was a mall, I think it was at the Granite Run Mall where you could rent the arcade out

for the night. Yeah. And all the machines were free for you and your friends for that night. I wonder what that cost. I still think about that night.

Do you think it was like $75? Yes, I do. And you bring your own pizza. It cannot have been that much money. But, I mean,

double dragon, man. So if I had nothing but time, and if money was no object, I would like to find out what happens five seconds into DragonsLaylor. Yes. So DragonsLayer was a game that cost a dollar, and it was a full-on animated movie. It's like a laser disc directed by Don, animation legend Don Bluth. Yeah, and all it did was like it would flash, and when it flashed, you had to hit a button

in a certain amount of time. Turn left or whatever. Which I could never figure out, and I always died, and it was always like, well, that was just four games that I just lost, you know? Yes. But if I could just practice and just kind of feel it out, I would just love to know what happens

later in Dragons Layer. I have no idea. This is the greatest answer. And I agree with you. Do you think... But honestly, like my other like therapeutic games would be the Daytona game that she sat at. I love that. And also the Star Wars game where you sat down and you had the kind of...

It was more like a tie fighter... The tie fighter controller. But you were flying... Were you a tie fighter or were you... No, but it felt like it was... There are a tie fighters on the outside of the box. And you do the sort of trench run. Do you think anecdotally and considering inflation, which I know you always do, do you think you spent more money on Dragonslayer or Import CDs that were recommended by the NME or Melody Maker?

I actually, I had good discipline. So basically what happened is every time I would go into a new arcade and Dragonslayer was there, I would always just get seduced and then lose and then be like disappointed because I'd have like five bucks and I had four. And then I would play NBA Jam for a while. because you can actually like be, you could play NBA jam for like 10 minutes or whatever.

Scott Skiles and Shaq. You could just be... Remember that? What a legendary combo. Do you think Shaq tearfully thanked Scott Skiles? Sir. No one dished it to me in the paint.

And then, yeah. I mean, this is sort of boring. I feel like I sound down on Last of Us, but I definitely like really love the show. Yeah, I don't think you sent down. The last point I would say is we've referenced this recently. there are, and as I'm sure there are in many cities, like retro arcades now are like barcades.

And so I've taken my children to an arcade here where they have these games, including Dragonslayer. And nothing kills your childhood dreams more than taking your children to see what you thought was fun. And they're just like, what is going on here? This is dumb. And they play her hockey for an hour. Let's talk about Party Down. Yeah.

This is bad podcasting. This was just good. The rest of the podcast is going to be, I mean, I know we've set a bar high today. Okay. So you and I always give each other an out with. comedies where you're like, I don't know what you want me to say. It was funny. You know?

Yeah. I, leading up to the moment where I hit play on the Stars app to watch this, I was like, did they need to do this? Are we sure this was a good idea? Are we sure this wasn't like, hashtag bring party down back? And then it was like, oh, you guys are going to actually do it. And how dare they make it without Lizzie Kaplan? Do the app say, Chris, would you like to resume Power Book 2 episode 8?

And you were like, not today, stars. And then this starts. And the party down crew is reunited, although they are all in different places in their life. Yeah. And Ron is still running party down and is hoping to make a purchase of the entire company. But Henry is a high school teacher. The Jane Lynch character is now an heiress. Megan Malali's character is a talent manager.

Of her daughter. And Ryan Hansen is now on the cuss. He's nitromancer. He's nitromancer of superhero superstardom. And over the course of the evening, a lot of hijinks take place. Jennifer Garner shows up as a... as the wife of a huge actor of James Morrison

and she's a producer She's a producer Quinta Brunson Comes in as Showing up Ryan Hanson's agent And is fucking hilarious Where she's like

I met we in aggregate She also says Nazis Yeah, she's great It's just really good And this is the kind of thing Where I guess like You almost feel the pressure of a reunion

or the pressure of like, I remember when Veronica Mars, the movie came out that was crowdsourced and it was like every scene was like a nod to a previous character or a nod to a sort of callback moment.

And I actually think probably not having somehow Lizzie Kaplan's character is still working in and around party down two. Yep. It's probably the best thing for it. And I don't know.

I just like, the whole idea that Henry is at this, during this episode, is supposed to go have dinner with his wife but continues to hang out with these weirdos because like it's just more interesting I just thought it was like so funny

and all the little like was that Franz Krans who was Kranz who was the Miles the guy? I got to look at the cast I don't know anyway what did you think you thought it was funny I have more to say than that

it's kind of best case scenario I think because I love Party Down. I think I recapped Party Down for Vulture. It's one of the first TV things that I wrote years ago. And the thing about Party Down is that it was always kind of ramshackle. It never took itself particularly seriously. It always was more of a good hang than it was like a significant achievement. And the smartest thing that they did with this revival,

and I think a lot of credit goes to John Nenbaum, who's the writer and showrunner, and was in the same role in the previous iteration of the show, it just didn't sweat it. There was no mandate to answer questions necessarily or resolve things or land the plane. It was just like, oh, let's just make more party down.

And I kind of sneaky respect the hell out of this premiere because full disclosure, I started watching it. I was like, I can't believe this show is also in color. And the motion is so smooth. It's beautiful. And I was watching it. It was like 10 minutes in. I was enjoying it, and I was falling asleep, and I was like, this isn't right.

I'm too tired to be watching the show. I stopped. Were you falling asleep, like, on your couch looking at a giant television? Yes. Okay. At 7 p.m. Okay. No.

But I was like, I'm going to do this again. I'm going to give this another night because I have waited 13 years for the show. I love it. I'm not in the right headspace for it. I'm glad I restarted it. Has it been 13 years? Yeah. I'm glad I'm in the right headspace for it because it was just really.

enjoyable and good. You know, I don't know when I turned it on, whether I was tired or like, I can't wait for this to rock my world. I've been waiting. It's not that. It's just party down again. Yeah, if anything, I wish there had been another episode because, like, once it had kind of welcomed me in, I was like,

I would run, I would go two more right now. I am still curious. I mean, they must have numbers. Like, as every piece, including the ringer, had a really good oral history of the show up last week. Alan Siegel, right? Everyone has noted that no one watched the show. I mean, the finale got 70,000 viewers.

There must be some data that people have discovered it, caught up to it on Hulu, et cetera. The amount of attention this revival has gotten, I'm really curious what Stars is expecting. Like if they're like, oh, we now we have a comedy franchise. But don't you think also, I mean, I would imagine, one of the things I thought really worked

was that Adam Scott has obviously since gone on to have this incredibly successful career and is now top-lining severance. And it's like, it's Adam Scott. Yeah. And he easily slips into being Henry the loser. We're not the loser, but Henry, the guy who's life just didn't break the right way. Yep.

You know? And so there's no pantomime of, oh, like, this guy who's become way too big. Yeah. You know, like if they did a Parks and Rec reunion or if they did, if they did like a Friday Night Lights reunion and like Michael B. Jordan was playing Vince. I thought we were going to say a big little lies season one reunion for Adam Scott. I hope Adam's listening. Bring the beard back. But he's a really good actor.

And he like just fits back into playing Henry rather than be like, I'm Adam Scott. Like just, but like I'll pretend like my life didn't work out. It's okay. The thing that we talk about when they're like, you know, like the kiss of death for some movies where like, well, sure looks like they had a good time making it. But they left us out. Yeah. That's not the case here. These people are happy to be here.

That's like all George Clooney movies. Do you think that affects the quality? Oh, the ones he directs. Yeah. Where it's like, oh, you guys were just prank it and playing hoops. Leatherheads. Yeah. The blooper reel is killer.

Yeah, so all the pieces are here. It was smart to give Martin Starr's character, Roman, like a lot of the meta. Nobody wants to be back here. Why would you possibly be rooting for people who just had sex a couple times while working together a decade ago? You know, it's having its cake and eating it, too, in a way that is pleasing. And also, you know, they do. they do remember, John Enbaum certainly remembers, like,

what fuels this particular engine and it's things like Ken Marino just being abjected? Ken Marino's hand injury in this episode was really good. And then he fucking collapses. I was watching the scene when he just bangs his head repeatedly on a metal table in the kitchen. And I'm like, how many takes? And I bet he gave him every time, you know? You know, I think is just also sneaky, amazing on the show and always has been as Jane Lynch. Yeah.

I thought it was interesting to read in that Alan Siegel piece that when she first showed up to do the show, she was doing kind of the character that she did. Like she was doing kind of her character on Glee before Glee, just kind of being mean Jane. And they wrote towards her being kind and spacey and hippie kind of person who doesn't know that a grand is a thousand, not a million. Yeah, that explains a lot. It's good. It's nice to have it back. And I do think it's because of the lack of stakes.

You can just run some comedies back if you're aware of what you have and what you're working with. I'm happy that it's back. I can't wait to watch more. We're going to do the thing now where we say something's funny about a different show. Yeah, but in a different way. Okay. Oh, like in an English accent? How are you going to say?

I can't do Diane Morgan's accent. It's too northern. Explain this. So, Kunk on Earth is a mockumentary, I guess, or a parody of, BBC-style historical docuseries. So it's essentially Philomena Kunk is the title character.

It just makes you laugh. Who is a... What are her credentials? Inquisitive. A journalist? The documentary filmmaker. She's hosting this show called Kunk on Earth, which is also the Netflix show that you are watching.

It's literally the planet she's on right now. And is essentially a history of the world with this northern British woman making these asides and kind of making these observations and comparing major historical figures to her mate Paul who gets thrown out of a TGI Friday's and stuff like that.

Talking about the birthplace of culture, Greece, the country, not the musical. You might remember Diane Morgan was on, gosh, what was the Ricky Jervais movie where he's working in a newspaper? I feel like this is, you're doing a crossword. Well, she's also on Mother's.

The otherland, the Sharon Horton written show that I loved so much. Oh, yeah. Anyway, she's great. She is a force of nature in this show. She was on afterlife. She was on the other Rickiegerivet show. Yeah. But he plays a journalist in that.

Does he? Yeah. Like Mark Ruffalo plays a journalist in Spotlight? I wanted to say this about Kong God Earth. Yeah. This is a TV version of the Will Ferrell joke in Austin Powers, where it's like when he gets like dropped into the base. Smith and he's lit on fire

and he's like oh and he's like funny and then it's not as funny and then it's hilarious and then it's really not that funny but then it's the funniest thing you've ever seen. It goes on. That's this show where it's like it is just really one joke

right but that joke around minute 16 of each half hour episode becomes the funniest joke of all time. So we should also say that we have the show because of Charlie Brooker from Black Mirror and wrote on it as well, I think. And his deal with Netflix brought us brought us this show. And so it's not just that she's explaining history of Earth and life on

earth in a very particular way. She's talking to experts who have been very kindly... Old school daily show style. Yeah. She's talking to real British academics and asking them if prehistoric man had the same number of holes as we do now. Or if early man had a brand name for the meat that they were. And I think the only note given to the experts is like, don't break. Yeah. Like, just got to roll with it. Even when she asked the expert on Roman history about the Romans inventing anal bleaching.

I just, this show made me so happy. It's so funny. And the jokes are so, it is very old school. And it's just like very, very, very silly, clever British things. Clever silly, silly clever. Uh-huh. Is that contradictory? No.

Just tossed off in absolutely. Deadpan. And I did, I attempted to show this to my children. You tried to show your children kunk on Earth. Yeah, because I think, I think that they, I don't think they have enough British comedy in their lives yet. Uh-huh. And I've tried to, and this is a running theme with, with all culture that I tried to show them. Like, I want them to see Monty Python. I want them to see, like, things that I thought of as very funny. When you were a kid. As a, as a Fedro-obsessed student council member. Because I want them to, I want them to be cops, too. So, I did, but to all of that, they say, like, why do I want to watch, why do I want to watch boys?

Which I'm like, fair, fair point. Okay. So I was like, Philemona Cunk is the hero that we were promised. And they did really like it. And then at the 10 minute mark of the first episode, she curses for the first time. And my older daughter, who might be Fedra, was like, turn it off. Because of the swearing. She doesn't like swears.

Is there a lot of swearing going on at her school, you think? No, I just think she doesn't. She disapproves of it. Like I played her the... I don't hear a lot of kids swearing now that I think about it. You're hanging out on playgrounds a lot of cheap. You're like, so what? I guess all the kids I know also, for the most part, are relatively pre-verbal.

Right, or adults now. You used to know them as kids. Yeah, there's the line where she says, like, I'm... The first city in the world, she's walking through ruins, and she says, this isn't the first city. The first city ever built is in Iraq, which is miles from here and fucking dangerous. And that was where you turned it off. But otherwise good for all ages.

I love the show. It's funny. What else is there to say? Look, we're here. We're a recommendation engine. Well, the thing is about us between this and my glowing review of Star Trek Card season three, we just watch a lot of TV for you guys. So all we can say at the end of this podcast is you're welcome.

Kai, how are you? What of these shows do you think that most jumped out of you? Yeah, what's your power ranking of things we talked about today? Last of Us, Kunk on Earth or Party Down? Well, I'm already watching last of us. Picard, Picard's probably at the bottom, got to say. So I didn't do a good enough job? No.

Okay. That's on me. I don't have access to the Stars app. Okay. So I might skip the Party Down Revival, but I might revisit the Party Down original, which I think is still on Hulu. I think so. So I guess I got to go Kunk on Earth. I would love to see your face as you watch Kunk on Earth.

Okay. That should be like a Be Real. Yeah, I'll like live stream it or something. Do you think her face will be like enjoying it or she'll be mad at? I think she'd be like, huh, that was pretty funny. I, um... I don't, I can't really think of Kaya as like an LOL, like doubled over crying, laughing person.

That's because she keeps it 100 for us in this professional setting. Or maybe she just doesn't find us that funny. I see that funny. That is... But if she doesn't mean, like, she has plenty of opportunities at the ringer. She doesn't have to be at the watch. I think she's here because she loves what she does. I find you guys delightful.

Yeah, see? First of all, if you said that under duress, blink twice. That was an incredible cell phone. You're like, Kaya doesn't, she's not really a laugh-out loud person. We've been incredible talking about.

I think I think of myself is a very boisterous laffer. Yeah, you bring, you bring good laugh energy. You're a good laffer. We'll have like a, like, a kind of is like a more of like a subdued giggle

into a laugh. Mm-hmm. And then kind of immediately goes back to Kaya. You know? I think Kaya's thing is that because she's muted often, she's just.

Oh, you think so there's like, like now a mute button on herself. Yes, and that's why, yes, because she's such a professional. And then after we're done recording, she comes up with tears in her eyes saying, sirs, sirs. That was the hardest I've ever laughed. Please tell us more about arcades in 1991 and whether you were a cop in middle school. This is the, guys, this is the episode where we left the studio. You know what I mean?

You're a good time, though. Yeah, I guess so. Not me. Great seeing you. I'm just doing the sheet folding. thing, you know, where you can like bounce a quarter off it? Sir. Do I get my Fedra Blue Star? I will treasure this. Another pile of gruel. See, I'm

Kansas City bound. You're gone. I'm free. I'm going to work for Kathleen. Did you hear that at the beginning? You vote with your stomach. You immediately you were just like, I don't want, I want food in the winter. No, that's what Fedra offers. Right. Right. I'm saying like, I'll forego that for for a life of, you know, democracy.

See, did she, I did see, we should get in. We'll leave this for next week. But I did see... We're doing a podcast on Thursday, so you can just leave it for that. Oh, no, no. I'm taking another wellness week after this. It's almost like,

these people in last of us should maybe stop eating bread. Like, don't you think everyone would be gluten-free, even 20 years on? Yeah, but nobody, I don't... I think the grain supply has since been... Purged? Well, I bet that they've taken control of the means of production,

and they're not like, let's just get the grain from over here in the mushroom field. That was a little Marxie, what you just said. I'm going to keep my eye on you at Fedra HQ. That was a little suspect. Where was, in Last of Us, the guy that got them? Was he in Spencer Gifts?

Where was he? He was in the... I think he's in the arcade. Or he's down the hall from the arcade. No, he was down the hall. We did the tracking shot. I think he was in Spencer Gifts. And Spencer Gifts is not always Halloween.

It's a seasonal thing, right? Well, Spencer Gifts just had a lot of stuff. But probably not Halloween. I mean, so I were supposed to understand that the outbreak happens in October of 03. Oh, well, also, I mean, you know, this is a sad state of affairs for my beloved Fedra. But, you know, we are in an era now when seasonal stores just seem to be year-round. Like, remember, they used to be like, because they can't fill the store phones. No, no, no.

The Christmas stores turn into Halloween stores at a certain point, don't they? They used to. But due to supply chain issues, I think some of them are just. Okay. Just Halloween year. You're the one who works for big. government. You should get... I personally voted for President

John Luke Picard, and I will vote for him again. All right, we'll do some research on this. I just felt like the fireflies didn't do a really good job sweeping the mall. Yeah. You know? I mean, literally, because it was filthy. I mean, like, there was just glass everywhere. Wow. Which team are we...

People can't pin us down. Yeah. Politically, that's good for our podcast. We're mavericks. Kaya, cut the last 19 minutes, please. And we'll be back Thursday. Okay. Talk to you guys soon. Great. really one of our greatest jobs.