The Worst Idea Of All Time - British Invasion

Episode Date: June 29, 2025

This ep is proudly partnered with One Percent Collective, learn more and support great NZ charities at opc.nz/twioat Guy’s in Hobart, Tim’s in Wellington, we’re all in audio quality hell - get over it!This episode is an often-times confusing mix of revelations, giving the feeling of an Olympic athlete from the 1980s who only discovered what event they’re competing in next once they’ve passed the threshold of a prior, unrelated sporting pursuit. First - Carrie has a downstairs tenant. To be clear - there has been ZERO PRIOR ALLUSION to there even being a dwelling below NYC’s new fav romanicy writer’s place but all of a sudden, but that hasn’t stopped Mattress Pikelet King intro’ing a british flavour to the overboiling pot of plots and characters.Seema’s trying to girlboss her way into a new mortgage, Miranda gets threatened by a naked cleaver-weilding man forcing her to move in with Carrie and immediately becoming the worst house mate anyone’s ever had, Harry has the big C, and there is a ghoulish invocation of Samantha’s existence via SMS text message. Put simply - we are running out of benchspace and elements to place all of these pots and pans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is proudly brought to you by 1% Collective, a brilliant way to support New Zealand grassroots charities. More info later in the app and through the link in the show notes or at opc.nz forward slash twioat. That's opc.nz forward slash twioat for more info and to start contributing. reading. Welcome along to the worst idea of all time with your old friends Tim and Guy. How are you Guy? Pretty good thanks. Tim, it is of course, and in Just Like That Watch Along, Season 3, Episode 5. Don't have the name on hand, but it's probably something like the British curmudgeon or general problems you know because British people are generals in the army

or whatever you want to call it Shakespeare's stilettos or something fun like that there's a lot that was cool that tracking move you got on your camera then that was pretty sweet that was pretty slow hey thank you so much and that's just that you of tricks that you can get if you're at twiowet.substack.com. You look fantastic. Hey man, thank you so much for noticing. I've gotta give a shout out to Harriet

at the Vivian Street Recycle Boutique, who styled me today. I'm in a romper, is this a romper? It's a... Is this a romper? A romper's got shorter bits. That is a romper. It actually, like it's a romper? A romper's got shorter bits. Yeah that is a romper. It actually like it's almost... Your audio is going a bit crazy man.

Is it too strong for you? What if I drop the mic a little bit? Yeah that's a bit better. I think it's a little connection thing is... yeah that's good. I'm holding this with the most delicate of touches. I appreciate it. You're holding it like Carrie Bradshaw would hold one of her many thousand dollar shoes that she parades around to her hardwood flooring But big shout out to Harriet, thank you. She doesn't um, I sorry and so rude of me guy Our connections a little bit dicey, but I gotta say you look fantastic as well. You are in a bathrobe. I Improvised I'm in Hobart

Tasmania Australia there we go. That's good. And I didn't have you know, any any finery to hand I didn't have Chelsea's wardrobe to dig through or her incredible, you know palette of makeups So I thought what would what would Carrie Bradshaw do and I thought she'd throw it She well, first of all, she complained about her situation to her friends Bradshaw do and I thought she'd throw it she well first of all she complained about her situation to her friends then she would throw herself in the shower make herself feel nice and plush in a bathrobe and Dig in to her five seconds of work per month alive in New York City And so this is my five seconds you are my New York City and it's a pleasure to be with you

I don't know if we're gonna get tattoos for that and just like that journey, but if we did, I think what would Carrie Bradshaw do is a pretty good front runner. What do you say, brother? I can tell you we're not going to get the tattoos, but I am interested in that as merchandise. And wonder if it was done at the peak of the Sex and the City heyday. Can I just say, Tim? Yeah. I enjoyed watching this. I thought, you know, I thought this was a good episode. I did not. I had such a sort of nihilistic experience of watching it

where I just started going deep into like what are we all doing? What's Timbo doing with his days on this earth? What are all the people doing who made the show? But then the show is, I honestly think, probably a pretty accurate reflection of a very thin band of society who are sort of unknowingly at the precipice, at the end of market capitalism, not even knowing they're looking down the ravine to the run, there's certain death I guess, and just sort of having a lack of real meaning in their life. Charlotte is the only person in this episode who A, is capable of listening to another human being, or B, who and Harry, I'll treat them as a couple, is sort of dealing with anything real, cause sorry to put the cat before the horse

and I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you this, this should be coming from your mother but she's not home right now, Harry's got cancer. Yeah, Harry and I will say the way my ears pricked up when Harry called back to pissing his pants when they were at the nightclub, I thought, no way. He posted from his social media bank and he's copying it from the law firm because he's gone and posted a photo of himself with piss pants. But the writers, in all their infinite wisdom and mercy, thought, no, we will not tantalise you with the social media storyline you so desperately crave and foresaw.

Harry's got prostate cancer. Yeah, exactly. you so desperately crave and foresaw Harry's got prostate cancer. Yeah exactly hey guy everyone on the chat is saying that I am way quieter than you so I can't fix my side but okay just shut the fuck up and be a bit quieter that'd be so helpful and then everyone can just over boost their headphones that'd be great. You're so right about that they dangled hook man. There's a lot of bullshit going on This episode starts with in the central driving tension of the episode is that Carrie Bradshaw simply will refuse to wear anything other than high heels on a

Unencumbered hardwood floor while she has someone living under here. Who is that person a pretty dapper and handsome British living under here. Who is that person? A pretty dapper and handsome British author of biographies which all the gals know about instantly but Carrie Bradshaw the professional writer completely blanks on who he is. Can I say more than that? Like yeah, the interesting character, guess what everyone, Michael Patrick King has got another pot on the boil okay there's more flavors just when you think that your palette couldn't take anymore, he's got more flavors. This time from light-year-old England, where he seems to be sort of drawing from that flavor pool quite a lot this season.

But before we get into the particulars of the character, can we just address the fact that Carrie Bradshaw bought this house with the fact that Carrie Bradshaw bought this house with unknowingly an entire garden apartment beneath it that came with a pre-existing tenant. She's like, it's absolutely staggering that she didn't clock on to the fact that there's someone who's going to live underneath her in an apartment I assume she's making money from. Yeah. Yeah, it is bizarre. I actually kind of didn't think

about that whole bit but that's more important. What I was got so focused on is the fact that there is a garden. If there's two people in that building surely they share the garden. So here just like ripping it up with Adam on a whim because she sees what a few rats? They're not so bad as New York City baby. There's got to be noise and there's got to be rats. It's the Big Apple. But she ripped the whole thing up and I assume isn't that like a shared space for them? No, no, but as is, this is the thing Tim, as is her right. She outright owns the building. So she doesn't need to consult with this and how could she consult with a tenant who she

doesn't even know exists? There is literally an entire apartment beneath her house that has not been introduced Has not been addressed and then all of a sudden we are all supposed to as Carrie Bradshaw does just take it in stride That there's this whole other fucking building in her building The guy is awesome. The apartment looks lovely. I mean, yeah, he he was gutted that the garden was gone understandably Yeah, but it's just like, you know the way that this Show and it's a silly thing to get caught up on and once you let go I think it becomes magic but the way it treats like the fabric of reality, you know Like the actual space in which we all conceivably coexist. So

Hypothetically Tim you and I are in the same world, planet, like we abide by the same rules and regulations as the characters in the show we are watching. Obviously, you just have to hold that concept very lightly because what we are watching is just, it's, and I respect it for that. It is so unmoored. As you say, Charlotte is the only one who's actually dealing with any, Carrie Bradshaw's entire storyline is fabricated from the idea that she will not be told by no man, no matter how good he is at writing lengthy biographies of historical British politicians or kings, it is her God-given right to wear heels in her house. And why is that? Because as we heard in the episode, women have a right to shoes, which I actually thought that was a real good one. That's, so that's gotta be the actual title. It's gotta be a woman's right to shoes.

Four points for Gryffindor for that one. That was, whoever was the comedian that they pulled in, who's probably struggling to make rent in New York City, who managed to get into the writer's room and offer up that long nugget, you fucking earned it that week. That was really good Yeah, but once once I sort of you know, just let it wash over me by the way, I

woke up at 5 a.m here and Knew from last time that I was in Australia trying to watch this godforsaken show I'd have to head for the high seas once more So I do my research and by the time I figured out how to watch it when I'm conceivably gonna wake up in two hours I thought why not just whip the scab off now, so I got up at five o'clock for this appointment. Okay I've been waiting. I watched this and I've just been sort of fucking itching to go for two hours. Oh man

But the and this is what so remarkable though. I like I like button But can I give you a little bit of context for um, how I came upon the watch, of course So I've flew down to Wellington For this today because I'm producing someone else's live comedy show which is sold out. Thanks for asking and Look Tim you look lovely as the strange man in the bathrobe bothering you. Tom he's with me thank you for caring about me. I stayed up very late last night with

famous Nick and um smoked a little bit of God's own herb and we played like uh played like an Olympics game from the 80s that would be on a Sega on a couple of like controllers that have games built into them which I think he and I bought when we lived in Sydney about 15 years ago. He had them in a box so we busted them out we managed to buy a bunch of converters to get it connected to his huge TV in the lounge. And I love these games, man, because you don't know what event is going to come next until you qualify for the next round.

So we would keep unlocking these new events. It's like suddenly triple jump has been opened up to us because we figured out how to do javelin throw good enough to both qualify to get to that round and then after we... Which is how the actual Olympics works by the way, it's just a consistent graduation from event to event. It would be so good if the athletes are somehow hermetically sealed and all of us know what's coming up but the athletes are finding out in real time they just get revealed if they manage to get over a qualifying mark. Can you imagine also, like, once you finally exercise mastery over Javelin you think okay and now I rest and they go congratulations you're so good at Javelin you qualify for a completely different thing. Skeet shoot which took me by surprise took a long time to master

but finally I got the qualifier for that by taking out the dove which is worth 500 points. That's the secret to it. Then I unlocked archery. Archery unforgiving. It is an absolute punish. The qualifier, the bar set for that is so high I was getting close every time but never quite cracked it. I don't know what world is waiting for me on the other side of archery but anyway I went to sleep and I woke up after about six hours for the first time in a very long time not by a child, waking me up at sort of the crack of dawn. And it took 30 seconds for my brain to go, oh, you're not at home in Auckland. Where are you?

Oh yeah, you're in Wellington. Why are you here? And then pacing slowly it together and then going, okay, why did I set my alarm so early? Oh, that's right. I have to get up and watch Carrie and the Gals and then talk to Guy about it. Yeah. It was a real, it was like, usually that sort of train of thought occurs in your head so quickly that you're not conscious of the thoughts unfurling but for me it was very much a like real-time experience so do you know what I felt

like an Olympian in the 80s where each successive event wasn't revealed to me until I had cracked the first one I mean so it was it was a buzzy buzzy way to watch the show that's I've been I've been waking up like that a bit recently. I've been in the most intensive dream run of my life. And every time I wake up, I've got to feel like I've got to penetrate three walls of my subconscious to access the reality of whatever it is I have to confront that day. It has been so disorienting, but also it's kind of nice. It does feel like there's a genuine division between my sleep self and my

Awake self and there is a curiosity It's a delight and so all of those contexts to say Tim you get into it So while you're sitting there being like why the fuck am I up? This is not my scene. I am actually Enjoying myself. I am enjoying Like it just they're just throwing a bunch of stuff out there It does get weighty when Harry talks about his prostate cancer diagnosis But otherwise, it's this is pure fluff. Seema can't get a bank loan for her business She keeps expecting because the woman she's applying for her loan for is a woman at the bank

She's like, oh, so we're money, right? So we're good cuz cuz us girls we gotta stick together and the woman's like hey I work at a bank they're cash oh not cash yes sorry but the like sort of administrator looking after the loan application process is giving such mixed signals to Seema though because she comes in real hot and she's like oh she sort of gives an ear of like I love what you're doing but then she says I got to get this clear with my supervisor he isn't here today you know what I'm saying? Seema's like I know exactly what you're saying and then moments later she's

like I'm not gonna give you this line. I thought you guys had a thing going. It's not outright she goes like I can't give you this phone I got a run. She's the second time. She says it the first time She's like yeah my fucking supervisor this old you know this representative of the patriarch this misogynistic piece of shit seems like okay I got it, so we're cool, and the next time she's like no as I said I have to run it past my supervisor who works at the bank like it's a The same information with totally different energy. You can see how that would be disorienting.

But for see me to walk around the whole episode being like, gonna get this loan, it's gonna be sick because the woman I talked to at the bank is a woman. Is it also, can I say, that's further representation of how unmoored the show is from the plane of reality on which we exist. Secondably, I thought it was so, and I'll be interested

for your take on this, almost rude like to what was happening on screen to all of the characters to all of the storylines for in the middle of the episode, Cary Bradshaw just hang the sword of Samantha Jones over everyone's necks and be like here we are we're doing it don't worry guys the show must go on and in the middle it's honestly like breaking the fourth wall and being like and by the way, we couldn't all make it today But those of us who are here are doing our best. So thank you very much. Just don't tell me it was crazy dude Them reintroducing Samantha Jones once again using the technology of SMS text message via Carrie Bradshaw's fine

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is so deeply disrespectful both to the character, the fandom and to Kim Cottrell who did not agree to be in this show. You're essentially using her likeness. When you've had a character who's represented, sorry an actor who's represented that character in so much of the franchise and then you just fucking chuck some tics in there from her I I think I you contractually I think they got to pay Kim Cattrall for an appearance even if she didn't sign up to be there she's got to get on the back end of this fucking streaming deal with HBO Max knee max knee HBO Max well I mean also like what did that detail add so Carrie is

confronting this curmudgeon who lives underneath there he can't work because Carrie's walking around in high heels the whole time they get into a bit of a stash and eventually Carrie finds out he's a biographer he's from London he lives there half the year so she texts Samantha Jones we must remember as in London to be like what's the deal with this guy and she's like oh that guy's fun it's like oh we couldn't have let Carrie just sit in a room and think maybe this guy's fun. We had to go through the whole rigmarole of shitting on everything we've built to remind you

that a vital ingredient is missing from this dish. And it's like, honestly, it's like Michael Patrick King. He's at the pass. He's standing over his 19, 20 pots and pans. And he yells out to the restaurant, by the way, everyone, there's no salt in the kitchen So just if you think you know, there's no salt. Don't worry. I know there's no salt as well That's why I'm telling you and now the whole meal you're like, you know, it would go really well with this salt

You know what unlock all the other ingredients you've got going on here brother salt the most popular seasoning in the world It's so psychological isn't it because when they do the text message from Samantha Jones as well they have a little piano refrain come on that's like reminiscent but not quite the original TV show theme song and it is it's quite it's like I guess what it is is fan service but you're dead right what it actually is doing is putting a highlighter Over the big Samantha sized hole in this show. I'm so sorry Seema ain't it. I don't know what it is I seem it is supposed to be like filling the hole that Samantha occupied and it is a

There's a certain I think it's a sort of a self-importance that Seema has that Samantha lacked. She had a good self-effacing amount of silly. Carrie Bradshaw doesn't have that. You bet your fucking ass Miranda Hobbs doesn't have that. I couldn't stand Miranda in this episode. She was getting on my tits. She is the worst housegu in the world. I really wanna get into this with you. How did you write Miranda Hobbs' behavior when she was ushered into Carrie Bradshaw's admittedly massive apartment,

but one that she's very used to living alone in after she sent a note under the door of her neighbor who'd been playing heavy metal music till all hours of the day and night, and he opened the door as soon as she slipped it in. We get full frontal male nudity, a guy who's 55 years old and the only non-attractive, I'm so sorry to the actor, person in the series and he's brandishing a meat cleaver who says if you put another note under my door I will chop you into pieces.

That is, I mean that was, see this is when I was like, oh, we're having fun here. This is when I could let go, because I was like, this is such an insane caricature. A lot of the times in this episode, like, wow, it's New York City, it's New York City. That, you know, that is the quintessential, someone from New York telling you the craziest stuff happens in New York City.

I had a lot of fun. Once Miranda is let into Carrie's home, it's interesting, isn't it? Because this entire episode, you're sort of, or at least my feeling was you're engineered towards finding Carrie annoying. You're engineered towards being like, I mean Carrie has some ground to stand on, but also it's a very small concession. High heels and side 24-7?

Exactly. And then when Miranda comes over and Carrie's been complaining to all her friends about the fact that she's got a right to a woman has a right to shoes. Miranda comes over and this is a fun detail that the show wants you to focus on which is the sort of thing that gets under your skin but I'm okay with it. Miranda walks into the house in her shoes and Carrie's like you got to take the shoes off and Miranda's like are you fucking serious. So this whole time I'm like okay so the storyline here is going to be we're going to see how annoying Carrie is through

the eyes of Miranda, a reasonable adult and housemate, someone who's going to be very respectful who we're all on side with coming into this house. And then immediately Miranda just undercuts every expectation you have of those being the story boots. Miranda is like a nightmare. She's eating everything in Carrie's fridge and then every time Carrie hits her up she's like oh was that yours? Oh sorry do you like this? I'm glad... Do you like this food that you keep in your fridge at your house? I'm glad we're on the same page with this because I thought there was definite opportunity for us to be on opposite sides of the fence about the behaviour because like like, you know, it's a banana.

Is that a big deal to eat a banana when you're staying at someone's house? This show is obsessed with single bananas in apartments. This show is fascinated by banana ethics. I know it's not true. I know it's not true. But they're just, you know, with the tinfoil hat on, so many nods back to us in the form of the show. The fact that this British guy who's living under Carrie, you know how we keep talking

about mattress pocket kings, pots and pans everywhere? Literally the sort of crescendo of his arc in this episode is that he's got noise cancelling headphones on and his pot runneth over because he's got it on the boil for too long and it starts smoking out his house. It's a literal pot or pan on the boil. Also he's got noise cancelling headphones on on he doesn't have a fucking peg on his nose Like you're gonna smell the smoke before anything out. You're gonna see the smoke. You're gonna smell this I refuse to believe that those are sense-canceling headphones that all of a sudden everything is out the window

He's deep in his book man. He's he's blinded all his senses to focus solely on his book. I mean, we're sort of darting around a bit, but I'm okay with it. They eventually, as a make-up at the end of the episode, introduce another potential romantic thread. Carrie and the biographer, Duncan Reeves, go out for a meal to sort of bury the hatchet or whatever. And he's like talking about his work ethic. And it's been painted all over this episode, how hard this guy works on his writing.

And we've been getting, we get another peppering of fucking Carrie Bradshaw's romantic horse shit at the start of the episode. So they're sitting across each other at the table, sort of talking, you know, writer to writer. And I'm like, look, it's not for me to dismiss Carrie's career. It's been unbelievable.

She's a huge success. She's clearly the voice of a generation, and people love her. But her current phase of writing writing like ever since she published. Oh, I do do I? Which got slated in the New Yorker and Sex and the City too I've seen nothing to suggest that she's still working on her craft that she still has the tools to actually publish anything of note So for her to sit down and toodle off one sentence every three weeks in this horseshit romantic book and then be sitting across from a guy who's literally moved to New York to nothing but work for six months on his

book and he's like yeah I'm having a hard time writing and Carrie's like oh you don't need to tell me. Man alive. Don't you find it's hard to get a whole book written when you're only writing one sentence per month? it was shitting me. Hi, I'm Tim. And I'm Guy. And this is an ad. But not just any ad, this is an ad for a thing we actually like. And that thing is 1% Collective, a Kiwi non-profit that exists to make regular charitable giving easy, meaningful and impactful.

They help people give a small portion of their income to a mix of vetted grassroots NZ charities who are doing great work. What sort of charities are here you ask? How about Outline Aotearoa, providing mental health support to rainbow people and their friends and whanau. And Upside Downs, helping kids with Down syndrome

gain confidence and achieve independence. And Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, helping Nana and Pop give their little ones the very best shot at life possible when their parents can't. You give to 1% Collective, they give directly to the vetted charities you choose, which helps the charities too. And all 1% costs are covered by the Simplicity Foundation, so every cent of yours goes to the awesome charities. And here's something cool, Kiwis abroad can join the collective too, if you still want to support good causes at home.

Or even if you're a random person from wherever the heck and you want to help people in our great nation. Do the small regular giving that achieves a big impact. Go to opc.nz slash twiowat. I don't think we've seen Kiwis abroad c.nz slash twiowat. I don't think we've seen Carrie Bradshaw read a book in this season whatsoever, which you would think if she's got writer's block or something like that, like that's something you would do. You try and get some inspiration, try and sharpen your tools, um,

get inspired by some other people who are masters of the craft, but no, none of that. We've got to talk about... Can I just say one other thing before we move on from Carrie? And this is not related to the episode we've just watched, but can we talk, because in our intro, before that we go live on our sub stack,

which I was watching before we went live, there's a lot of footage of Carrie in the podcasting booth. And to me, I was like, you know, I understand that she left that. I can't remember the exact reason why, but that's it's crazy to me that Carrie's not still podcasting. Should we get her on? I mean, some people would, I forgot to hit up now cunning and by the way, AKA Brady, but I'm going to do that this week. I reckon he's in reach. Yeah. Yeah, he feels attainable

Yeah, it's it's interesting. Well, it's another pot and pan and metro spikelet Kings Arsenal. It's like It was almost weird for his grubby little hand Through the glove of and just like that to reach out and, you know, touch something that's in our lives. I didn't like it, it felt a bit, I felt a little bit too visible to the great. Yeah, look, I know what you mean. It was creepy.

Lisa Todd Wexley has decided to go on a glamping trip with the Golden Blats and both respective women as is their way are forcing their whole families into this trip you know how women be you know you know what mothers are like and literally no one I don't know I want to be Todd doesn't want to be there. Oh Harry's actually excited about it, especially His name is not Todd Todd Wexley Herbert sorry Wouldn't be good if it was

It'd be interesting I'm going back to Todd. I think it's more interesting way to address them Todd's got some photos. He's got to take for his comptroller campaign I don't even know why you gotta have photos for that, but I'm not going to pretend to know that. Photos of him with his papers as a citizen of the United States. Yeah, fucking, fucking, hey. Please, please, Ice. You've got to believe me. So they go, what I mainly want to talk about with the whole glamping thing is the place they go to looks awful. It looks terrible. It's so populated and you've got the New York City skyline in the background.

Like, what am I looking at? Manhattan, which doesn't look that far away. So it sort of to me looks like they've taken their families to a park and then also it's like you go camping so that you can figure out how to put a tent up. That is a core component of camping. No, no, no, no, no. You, look, I can see what's happening and look, it's happened to me as well. Here you are with your feet planted on planet Earth and you're reaching over to it just

like that and you're trying to shake them to say, don't you understand? These people don't give a fuck about putting a tent up. This is not part of glamping. Look I'll give them that I guess because they do say glamping non-stop in the episode. They're not camping, they're glamping. Fine, that means you go somewhere where the abode is already set up. The thing that I will not let them off the hook for is making s'mores within six minutes of Lisa Todd Wexley appearing at the site in broad fucking daylight. That is a dusk activity minimum. Like where is your

patience? I could not agree more. The vibes were so off which obviously they were doing for us to really paint a clear picture. It's summer. It is broad daylight. Also Todd Todd Wexley has brought everything safe for the chocolate. I don't care whether or not you actually called up your wife and asked her to bring the chocolate. Why are you holding out on that? Why are you not across all of the compo- it's crazy to me that you would get the marshmallows, the graham crackers, the sticks. While we're here being bros protecting the bros event just like that

I am so heavily team Todd slash Herbert because she explicitly said on the phone Oh, no in the kitchen when she's throwing this trip at him Which we don't we don't know as the viewer if she told him before or not he claims she has not She swears black and blue that she warned him this trip was coming up. He's going either way. And she says, don't pack anything I've already packed for us. Did you hear me? Don't pack anything. And she gets mad when he doesn't bring the chocolate.

Get out of here, Lisa. You don't have a leg to stand on in this argument. Clearly it was his responsibility to bring the smalls material. material. Also look if we're really gonna peel back the lies and get into it here. Well first of all, what do you believe? Do you believe she told him that they were going glamping or do you think that it was left off the table? You genuinely think this is a shock. She is so lovesick with Marion, her hot editor, that she is she's lost, you know, she's done herself

a mischief and she's lost her way. It's quite nice as a story point to not actually give us the audience the knowledge of whether or not she did. Like both times they have an argument with information that we've not been given. So you are left to sort of chart your own path in terms of who you believe and these are minor arguments like that you know that these guys have a pretty good relationship we actually championed it last week but I do think whether or not she told them there must be some system in their life whereby he can check what's coming up on the family calendar I

mean yes the guy is ready for city controller. Which we've been reminded exists because we hear from a previous character via it is called SMS text message. It has been around for about 30 years and it is utterly reliable. It's just text. Yeah, and look, ultimately we're on the same page about the s'mores. It's so, it's like, it's 30 degrees Celsius. Everyone's in like shorts and t-shirt. The sun is beating down. You're looking at Manhattan. And I'm not against conceptually that glamping experience. There is a weird satisfaction in sleeping in a tent,

if you can call it that, and waking up and seeing like the most famous city on earth. That is an interesting and unique experience that I could get behind. To make s'mores in the broad daylight that I can't abide. Yeah, yeah I think what would have been interesting is I actually would have wanted them to sort of lean more into this because what it's saying to me is these are some hard-out upper middle class city slickers who literally don't know how to switch off and go glamping.

But they're sort of enamored with the image of returning to the wilderness and having a bit of time out in nature. But they are so lacking in the skills or sort of attitude needed to fully embrace that experience that they're going somewhere where there are boaters fully set up, there is not a single like barrier put in their way. Camping is a series of fun small barriers. That's like little problems to solve. You got to suss out how the tent works.

You got to go figure out your water. And then the biggest problem of all, what are we going to do to fill our time? You know? And they are all at sea here. They know they won't be able to put a tent up. That's why they've gone the glamping option. But to just bust s'mores out is like your first activity because... A really interesting thing you've raised where it's like if you erase the purpose of the trip, if you take away all of the satisfaction you get in overcoming these small obstacles towards having somewhere for you to sleep tonight what it really shines a light on is the hollowness of what you have because if you arrive to a camping trip and immediately launch

into the sitting around without any clear idea of what to do that's a scary place to be if what you realize is I don't like this I don't like this not just this experience of glamping, I don't like this. I don't like this, not just this experience of glamping, but I don't like this vibe that we've all got going on. Yes, exactly. And this is the problem. They don't actually have a very insightful read on the human condition, the characters operating within the confines of the show.

If they did, they would understand that human beings thrive on challenge. We solely see that depicted in all of their professional lives. I kind of think they have it in their personal lives, but it is in such an unengineered and superficial way that the problems they have by and large are boring to me and should be to them too. But camping provides an opportunity for a little bit of physical challenge which is deeply good for the soul. There is a bonding element to it. You got the kids who don't want to be there, you know what will get them on board? Everyone trying to figure out how to put the fucking tent up and it just

going horribly wrong and it takes like two hours and you bought the wrong kind of tent, it's too big, where are the instructions, but finally you get that sucker up then you've earned your s'mores and you can share stories about how ratchet everyone got during the tent building. Putting a tent up is such a fantastic and like intriguing stress test for any relationship. So to see these characters and these relationships like you know to see them push through the tent test yeah it would have been interesting. You got to earn your s'mores. That's what I would have called this episode. I still think a woman's right to shoes is pretty top-shelf. It is pretty good. Now Tim I

want to take you somewhere gently by hand because I was keeping my eyes peeled for anyone who could be an improviser in this as is my want and I thought ultimately there was one clear candidate for New York City Improv Watch and he was actually, initially I thought here's a guy who got he got his audition he nailed it but he got given straight lines exclusively because I am of course talking about the delivery person from Edib's who Aidan has gone and bought the kitchen table that Carrie couldn't get when she was on her flight home from Virginia at the end of the last episode and had it sent to Carrie's house with no consultation and it is sixth grade

trying to remember how much six or seven it was a lot It was a sweeping gesture. It's been gratefully received It keeps as you know as we know it keeps the aid and pot on the boil even while we're introducing this potential other romantic Lead we've still got aid in you know in our periphery And then there's a delivery guy shows up and says delivery from Edib's 8 Gramercy Park West from an Aidan Shaw. And I'm like, I know in my heart that this is an improviser and yet everything is being played completely straight. And I thought, well that's interesting. So New York City Improv Watch has expanded

from the traditional comedy beats to just populating the characters in the show. And then the conversation goes on a bit. And then we find out it's from Aidan and he's bought the table that she wanted and he says That's very romantic and I've seen lots of romantic shit and I was like, okay spread your wings brother here If like his one to two opportunities to say an okay joke with absolute conviction and I thought this guy brought it Before then I was ready to celebrate him before then I was ready to see the watch party

He had going on for his serious scene and when he got his laugh lines out He then said I he says to the guys don't forget the booties his movers are taking it inside He says don't forget the booties offering another comedic opportunity. Um, I Really enjoyed his performance and albeit anyone anything that that guy is a New York City improviser. Yeah I'm 100% with you on that. It stood out like a sore thumb. And once again, I know it's us, but it feels like the show's playing our game more times than not now as the series goes on. We get, for reasons not fully known to me, just full frontal nudity of Miranda Hobbs in the middle of the episode when she is

Briefly living with Carrie Bradshaw by the way boy have we glossed over this plot point her and joy have hooked up It's on There were a couple of greyhounds in the room when they got started. That was a funny little bit you go get rid of those dogs and then They go helpfully there, but then Miranda has to return to Carrie Bradshaw's apartment in the middle of the night because the dogs were keeping her up because they were wimpering inside the door. That's interesting.

I didn't put it together that they actually got to have their sex. I just saw the frustration and then Miranda at the house and I thought maybe they didn't go all the way. Yeah, I don't know. I mean either way they actually have like a healthy like for each other. That is a burgeoning relationship in my books. They're a minor and convict, they're dogs to deal with whatever. It's always something isn't it?

It's always something with someone. Joy's the best man. Joy's the best character. It's so weird. It's like she's got a separate writer that doesn't operate on the rest of this show and everything that comes out of her mouth seems so like naturalistic but because she's British it's also very funny. She's a good actor. She's being well written for and I'll say it. It's fucking joy to see it every time. Every time she's on screen. How could you not say it?

Yeah, it is interesting. There's a real sort of British invasion happening isn't there this season I mean obviously we had the sort of hate crime of Joy's friends in the last week's episode But between joy and I know that fun between joy now Duncan though It does feel that we've got some real bedded and like we're gonna spend some time with these people I know that the treatment of time and non core characters in this show is incredibly liberal so both Joy and Duncan could disappear without reference for three to four episodes and then reappear as though you know this show is consistently gaslighting us into believing that they are it is set in reality basically.

The rules are so insane, but I like Joy and also I thought I agree with you on performance notes I also thought the guy playing Duncan was fantastic like a few of his kind of dismissive lines towards Carrie when she says equip and he's like are you trying to be amusing or something I thought that was really nice I thought the flirtation with Carrie was like is there a smile under there I'm trying to get that smile out yeah I kind of even like that back and forth I was I was kind of into that so they've clearly parked the hot Gardner Adam pot that's on the bench cooling well at the moment no I think I

think Adam who we must remember of course is Trey from the OC who is on the run, basically a reformed fugitive who's presenting as a gardener. But, him and Seema, they are seeding this. Him and Seema again share a moment, they share a cigarette, and Seema is being knocked down a few pegs this season to the point where I'm like,

maybe she's gonna have to realize a new new form for herself or a new reality for herself Seema could be reduced from the lofty heights of one of the girls to Reality across the course of the season her business is sold from underneath her successful partners more interested in his work than her So she's losing as she's been challenged by the teller at the bank to not have a driver So there is a consistent challenge points for seeing where it's like maybe the heights at which she's been living are going to be reduced and she could wind up in a relationship with this gardener. Like I feel like they're showing us enough recurring romance between them that ask some questions. It's so weird because there's no reason for Seema and him to get together but it's taking fucking ages. Neither of them are with anyone so just do it make them kiss make my two Barbie dolls kiss Mattress Pikelet King well. He's a flirt with everyone

Yeah, he is. He's got a flirty attitude. He's a flirty Freddy Now the final shot of this episode is Carrie Bradshaw Sort of taking off his shoes and putting them aside in a way That is soundtracked and shot with so much attention on That it looked like she had just was about to have coitus with Duncan Did you get that same read as me? Certainly they put a lot of energy and oomph into it. Kiss the Sky,

again the soundtrack is on the money, Kiss the Sky, I think it's Sean Lee's electric orchestra or ping pong orchestra, I can't remember the artist but I used to really hit that song. It's got big energy, it's got this is a significant moment in time, Engie, it's got in the names of someone of Spotify's God Forbidden Playlists main character energy or feeling, you're the protagonist of life, whatever the fuck you want to call it. I didn't get the read that they were going to go and have sex, but I did get the read that there is respect and a desire to be liked by this character Duncan that communicates, you know, we're going to watch the push and pull for Carrie between Duncan and Aidan.

And look, they did a good job of resting Aiden mostly in this episode. Like I was reminded how annoying I find this long distance will they, won't they? I do feel like they got to a place with it where I felt more relaxed. But to see them, like to see coming down the, you know, the motorway, the headlights of another,

will they, won't they, carry an aid in obstacle. I'm just like, it's driving me. I guess this is the magic of the show, isn't it? This is what we missed in the non-canonical series before they made the movies. Tell me more, Monty, what's annoying you about it? Is it the fact that you are sort of operating alongside Mattress Pikeleth King,

you're playing his game and you're like, oh, you know, are Ross and Rachel ever gonna figure this out? Or is it more game and you're like, oh, you know, are Ross and Rachel ever going to figure this out? Or is it more of an effect of like, this is frustrating to watch and I don't care enough to justify all of this time spent? It's the second one. It's the assumption I'm invested in Carrie's happiness and the health of her romantic relationships as much as Carrie is, which by the way is impossible because Carrie basically has some

form of narcissism. It's like no one could medically it's not possible as a fan of the show for me to invest in Carrie's relationship as much as Carrie is. I mean, it's true for everyone in the world, right? Your relationships are more important to you than they are to anyone else. But yeah, it's that I don't care enough. I don't want them to work it out enough. And I like Aiden to have this just constantly being one

of the ingredients I'm being force fed throughout this, you know, storyline degustation. This is going to sound mean, but Carrie Bradshaw, as she is presented in the show, doesn't deserve to be happy. And I'm sick of hanging out with her and her happiness being dangled like a carrot. She needs to do you know what she needs to do? She needs to get like a mild concussion by getting hit with something and then figure out that she should be giving away all of the wealth that she's inherited from big that having all of these huge properties that are just filled with shoes and scarves Isn't bringing her any inner peace or satisfaction

The same way we can't do what camping can for you Say another pair of shoes What the same way that glamping is not going to do what camping can for you another pair of shoes isn't going to fill the hole In your heart Carrie. I quite agree I don't think these characters I think they're all missing a big part of what actually sort of makes life worth living and it's for other people man it's it's not for you focus too much on yourself. You become a wreck God you just you ridded with anxiety and it's an awful place to be

Carrie Bradshaw, let's see if we can get Adam to hit her with a bit of four by two Right while he's doing up the gap not hard, but I'm just saying like it's an awesome I think more importantly than not hard, not deliberately. Not deliberately at all. It'll be a real home improvement Tim Allen moment where he's just carrying around say some railway sleepers which are gonna prop up the retaining wall of the garden and he's holding them aloft and he's looking fucking hot doing it because he's got his shirt off. And Carrie's like... This is the clearest day in my head. Carrie, yeah, Carrie's hanging out outside the front door of her British Crushers garden apartment. She's holding a pair of high heels in one hand, like in some sort of tantalising come-on,

which is actually just insane of course, twirling her hair with the other, and then he turns around, doesn't he? No, do you know what happens? Carrie Bradshaw gets distracted by a squirrel, and so she turns her attention eastward to the squirrel running up a drain pipe and just at that moment Adam turns with the bit of 4x2 sort of misjudges quite how long the reach on it is smacks her in the back of the head chaos ensues she's fine there's no

lasting damage except to say that the old Carrie is gone because she's made a realization that she needs to liquidate her assets and give them to an orphanage. I mean, look, I can appreciate from a humanistic perspective where you're coming from, but as someone who has enjoyed this episode and is of course enjoying the show, I do think maybe they're bringing Seema down to reality I don't think it'll ever happen to Carrie I don't think I really want to see Carrie Bradshaw get concussed to the point that she liquidates her assets

that's fair that's fair enough what about yeah I was gonna ask the same of you. I'm just gonna have a dig through what I had Oh, I have I mean No, I think of all these moments that I was annoyed by which is quite the opposite But I think to the table the table Situation where Miranda's got a little shit everywhere and then she spills a coke and then she tries to mop it up with carries expensive scarf That but all of the behavior there was crazy that was just absolutely crazy stuff. Look there's two things I've got here one of them is I can't remember the setup for this line but someone talks about Nelson Mandela

and then another character says he died. Can you tell me the feeder line for that joke? I can tell you what happens afterwards, but I'm trying to think of what happens before. Well, look, you know what? Write your own setup. Now, they're talking about Harry is trying to comfort Charlotte because he's just told her on a walk that A, he's got prostate cancer, cancer B They caught it early and see it's very common with a like 92 percent

Survival rate lots of people we've got it and he starts naming names that he says now I'm in a row someone else now Smadela and Charlotte says he died and then how it's like, yeah, he was 95 I just thought that was um That that was a comedy beat they wrote to be a comedy beat that connected with me other other one little throwaway line is when Herbert accuses Lisa Todd Wexley of Having a hot editor, which is barely an accusation or a statement of fact but more with the under the undertone that and You know, there's a there's an energy between you. I

He says mommy's being silly out of town. When he says, she's like, Mummy was out of town. He's like, yeah, Mummy's being silly out of town. I thought that is like a line to say that sort of cuts the core of what it is, but it's kind of funny in front of the kids. I love Mummy's being silly out of town. Mummy is not being silly out of town. I like that a lot too. I like that a lot too. I will say my genuine shining light for the episode was Charlotte being a genuine friendly

ear to Carrie Bradshaw when Carrie was explaining where her and Aidan were at at the moment. Yeah. The only example I could think of in the episode of actual listening. And I've got to say this before we end the ep as well. I'm so sorry. I'm a bit sick at the moment. Um, it was crazy to see Miranda acknowledge the fact that she's incapable of listening, which is on the phone to Carrie and Carrie pulls her up for obviously sending text messages while she's talking because they did that thing which we've talked about for the entire time we've been following these gals across the Middle East right back home to the Big Apple. They are incapable of properly listening

to each other they just respond with problems of their own and wait for their time where they can tuck in with something that they contribute from their own life instead of responding to what their friend has said about their own. And Carrie finally and like it's it's it is a moment of breaking the third wall within the universe of and just like that, akin to Mr. Carrie Bradshaw, Matthew Broderick, looking down the barrel of the camera in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and that Carrie says you're sending text messages and Miranda having to explain herself that she's being a terrible listener to her friend.

Crazy, crazy to see it acknowledged. Julia Roberts' character saying she looks like Julia Roberts in the Ocean's movies. It's that level of sort of like, oh, you can't acknowledge that you know, because that undermines everything that we've built together. That is such a better example

for the exact reason you say that. Look, you saying it aloud does not fix fucking anything, okay? If anything, you've made the problem so much worse. You've picked the worst option of all three options. Also, I'm with you man. Shout out to Charlotte. I think she had a strong episode. She's been clammed on this whole season.

They're just like, hey, Charlotte, why don't you do the goofiest fucking storyline that we can think of? And then all of a sudden, they throw some shit at her and she handles her business. I mean, that's tough. You know, I understand it as a, you know, but Harry to be like, don't tell anyone,

it's like, she's gotta be able to tell someone. We've had a very active chat. I'd just like to address a couple comments that have been coming up. Guy, first of all someone and rightly so took issue with me describing the cast Sorry, the characters in the show is upper middle class. Fair enough. These are the elites that Zoran Mamdani is coming for. That's all right. Mamdani is coming for I read an article about I can't remember who someone who's like gonna put a bunch of money behind Eric Adams is an independent now or something who was like a prominent landlord and they were like You know like we can't have this New York City is the home of capitalism and I was like the one two punch of the

descriptor and quote Go on the record with. It's fun to watch from afar. And also, oh yeah, if SEMA is a stand in for Samantha, who's the stand in for Steve, which just reminded me, can we please get Steve back in here somehow? Can we figure that out? If we are introducing all of these random hot gardeners, hot video editors, people's cousins who probably have autism, do you reckon Steve could get back in the mix? Would that be so much to ask? I couldn't hurt.

I do miss a bit of Steve, but you know, know like I guess it's always on the table right they showed us Brady in the last episode yeah trade you see the way that they entertain us is the way the entertain a child where it's like you don't know what's gonna hold but you've got a huge array of toys and you just keep picking them up and holding and it's like all right you like this one for a while and then you can see the eyes wandering off and so you put it down and pick up a different toy that is how we are treated by this show Absolute toddler behavior. I want Lily and Brady to get back together. I want it. Oh dream on

There was another nice line actually I'm sure you can make up time with your polyamorous polysexual boyfriend some other weekend like Loving and also sort of putting Lily in her place a little bit. It was a strong Charlotte episode, honestly, and it's been a strong Tim and Guy episode. I think it's been a pleasure to reflect upon this with you. Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us. All those in the live stream, thank you for your chat at Philith Our Cup. If you listen to this after the fact, you can join us for the live streams at twiowat.substack.com. And I will note as well that Guy and I, I think we have cooked up what's coming next

and it's going to require quite a bit of resource to figure out. So if it's a remote possibility and you've been perhaps listening to us for a while but don't support us on Substack. Right now would be a fantastic time to jump in and do so because we're about to hopefully create something for you that is going to involve a few of our very talented friends who we need to pay in their capacity as creative professionals. So very exciting stuff coming down the pipe. Nothing more exciting than chewing off

the second half of the season. Where are we at right now? This was episode five? Not yet. 40% huh? We're approaching halfway. We're at 45, yeah 40, 45%. All right, very good.

Guy, lovely to see you. Thanks for dressing up for me. Once again, shout out to the Vivian Street Recycle B Boutique and in particular Harriet who has styled me today awesome Bye everybody. See you next week Thanks again to this episode's sponsor, 1% Collective. To get more info and start contributing, go to opc.nz slash twiowat.