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We Watch TV Episode 104 – The Righteous Gemstones Finale

• Hope and Daniel • Episode 104

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 In this episode of We Watch TV, Hope and Daniel discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of chain restaurants. The hosts react to the series finale of The Righteous Gemstones before diving into the latest from Hacks season 4. Hope and Daniel also at long last have finished Andor season 1. They share their thoughts on the season. Did they change their minds about the latest Star Wars tv saga? Listen to find out. The hosts also chat the latest installment from Marvel, Thunderbolts*.

(00:00:00) Intro
(00:17:52) The Righteous Gemstones Series Finale
(00:33:27) Star Wars Andor (season 1)
(00:45:58) Hacks (season 4, episodes 5)
(00:51:47) Thunderbolts*

Music by yourtunes from Pixabay

Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/wewatchtvpodcast

SPEAKER_01:

I want my baby back, baby back, baby back. I want my baby back, baby back, baby back. Hey, everybody, and welcome to We Watch TV. It is the podcast about the TV that we watch. I am Daniel. She is Hope. This is episode 104. And while the demise of the general restaurant sphere in this country, chain restaurant sphere in this country, may be true, let me tell you one place that absolutely has not declined. And that would be everyone's favorite, Chili's.

SPEAKER_00:

I can see why Michael Scott liked to host the Dundies at Chili's. Top tier. Top tier.

SPEAKER_01:

Just like between my last time to be at places like Outback. Not to name names, but Outback, Olive Garden, all of those places.

SPEAKER_00:

Fancy like Applebee's. Chili's.

SPEAKER_01:

Applebee's. Chili's just a smackdown.

SPEAKER_00:

It really is.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. It's embarrassing that we would even put these restaurants in the same categories as each other.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we went to Chili's after we spent a tedious amount of time searching for some new glasses for myself. And we had plans. We're like, we're going to go to Chili's after. Because it's been all over our TikToks. Everybody's been eating at Chili's. And it had been a long time. And I would just like to call you out slightly. I used to always want to eat there in college. And you hardly ever wanted to go there. And even in adulthood, you're like, what? Oh, I can explain that. You're like, I want to go like Outback.

SPEAKER_01:

So in college. In college, you can explain. In college, I can explain. In adulthood, you can't. College, I can explain. Because the Chili's where we went to college was at the mall, which means you had to go downtown. You had to park in the parking garage. You had to walk through the mall. Whereas all the other restaurants were just up the hill, and you just had to drive to them, park in a parking lot.

SPEAKER_00:

And so it was a whole parking ordeal. In adult life, though, you would always want to go somewhere else. And I think it's because you didn't go out to eat as much as a child. No, never. So anytime Daniel goes out to eat, like. It's almost refreshing when I see you not order a steak. He's like, he must have a steak. He must have a steak. He must have a steak. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I think I've grown in my steak to the point now where I know what places I can get an actual good steak and what places it's just

SPEAKER_00:

not. This man used to order a steak at Olive Garden.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it wasn't a steak. It was the mixed grill. It was an epic. It was still a really good meal. Hannah, Hannah.

SPEAKER_00:

Hannah's on

SPEAKER_01:

my side here. The mixed girl's good.

SPEAKER_00:

I just think you guys were just desperately starved for good food. I don't know what was going on. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

I mean that.

SPEAKER_00:

And Olive Garden, I feel like, I still am a team of the OGs. I don't want to eat inside of Olive Garden because I do not feel like I am family when I am there. I like to get Olive Garden to go and eat it at my house. The quality of food

SPEAKER_01:

at Olive Garden has become takeout.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, but their cheese ravioli is still top tier. But I will

SPEAKER_01:

show up to Chili's for those cheese fries.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Again

SPEAKER_01:

and again.

SPEAKER_00:

Applebee's, I'm with you there. Not good. Outback, not good anymore. I feel like I used to love Applebee's, and I do think their menu has changed a little bit. They've kept some stuff, but there has been a definite decline. But I think it's a little bit of growing up, taste changing. I think Outback has actually declined. Please don't sue us.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I

SPEAKER_00:

agree. It's just not as... The last couple times I've been to Outback, which is not a lot, but I felt like as soon as I sat down, I got my bread, my appetizer, and then two seconds later, my entree, and they were just trying to turn over tables, which I know as a server, you want to get people in and out, but I need a moment to breathe.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't feel like I... If I go to a restaurant where I am seated and have a waiter... I expect to be there for at least an hour, if not longer. We tip well. When I end up at those places, I feel like they're trying to get me out of there in half an hour or 45 minutes. If I wanted that experience, I'd just do takeout and go home and eat

SPEAKER_00:

it. Like I said, we do tip well. We want our nice restaurant experience. People should tip their servers. It's a tough job. Now what I'm going to say about Chili's, I feel like Chili's, what sets it apart, please sponsor us Chili's, we're giving you all this free advertising, is that they're not trying to be something different. They just are what they are. It's a great place to share some appetizers. We share the triple dipper. iconic you can choose a bunch of different stuff on it we like to do the mozzarella sticks southwest egg rolls and then we did the chicken crispers and play i thought the chicken crispers basically like chicken tendies love me some chicken tendies i thought they were better than the boneless wings that we had the last time we had chili's triple dipper was at the airport

SPEAKER_01:

yeah

SPEAKER_00:

before one of our evening flights not a morning flight i'd eat it at 5 a.m though

SPEAKER_01:

if it would yeah please open

SPEAKER_00:

at 5 a.m because i will go i could get down on a triple dipper at 5 Before my flight, 100%. And then the cheese fries that we shared. Did you mention the cheese fries yet?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mentioned them already. But yeah, just chef's kiss.

SPEAKER_00:

I was like, we had never gotten the cheese fries at Chili's before. And Daniel's like, well, I'm going to be really hungry. I can't just share an appetizer. He's like, I need food. I was like, well, let's just get a second appetizer. And the cheese fries really spoke to me. I used to be a stan for Outback Aussie cheese fries. I think these were so much better. And I never thought I would say that.

SPEAKER_01:

These are certainly better than the last time I had

SPEAKER_00:

Aussie cheese fries. The last couple times we had Aussie cheese fries. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't turn down a plate of Aussie cheese fries right now and some of the bread from Outback. But that might be more like a takeout. You know why I like Aussie cheese fries so much? You just said the thing about Bloomin' Onion. Anytime I went to Outback with my family, when I would often be one of those people that would just order the Aussie cheese fries as my meal because I didn't like steak when I was growing up. Because I didn't learn how to order a steak. steak, which I don't really eat steak. I don't eat red meat now, but if I were to eat a steak, I know how to order it properly. Back then, I would get it well done. I'd be like, eh. My family was always like, they all love the onions like y'all. They would always want to get the Bloomin' Onion. I did not like the Bloomin' Onion, but I've gotten better. I like the onion rings at Steakhouse 71 at Disney. You've

SPEAKER_01:

gotten better. I've gotten

SPEAKER_00:

more open to

SPEAKER_01:

trying onions. You're objectively incorrect. The best appetizer at Outback is the Bloomin' I'm sure most people agree with that. Everybody will agree with me. It's just correct.

SPEAKER_00:

But sometimes everybody's wrong. So what can I say? I just know that I am correct in my heart of hearts. But we've both changed. You've realized that you don't need a steak every time you got to eat. There's always going to be another chance to get one. And I really do think that's a big reason because I feel like you used to be like, I have to get a steak. I don't even know if Chili's has steak.

SPEAKER_01:

Probably fajitas. Steak fajitas is the closest thing you can get.

SPEAKER_00:

But like the song, and for once you sang on the podcast, not me. Daniel's like, do you want to sing this song with me? I'm like, no, I'm out.

SPEAKER_01:

And for everybody, that song that I did sing, and then here's what we ate. We didn't just order food at the restaurant. We also took out food to bring home later that night because we just wanted more. And I did, in fact, get some baby back ribs, and

SPEAKER_00:

they were good. They were good. You ate them for like two days.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I ate half that night and half the next

SPEAKER_00:

day. This is what happens when you barely go out to eat unless you're on vacation. And all the restaurants are like at least 40, 45 minutes away from where you live. You really want to soak in. Like I told our server, I'm like, cause she's like, I was like, we're going to split two appetizers. And then she, I'd asked her for a dessert menu so we could get a dessert while we waited to put in our to-go order. And I'm like, it's big back day. And she was a very like, she was a great server, but I feel like she was just kind of like even keel. And she totally, I absolutely made her laugh. Cause I don't think she was expecting me to say that. The dessert we got was good.

SPEAKER_01:

Could have used more ice cream. I realize we got the mini version. We got the mini size, which was huge, by the way. Yeah, which was huge, but it needed more ice cream.

SPEAKER_00:

We got the famous lava cake. And I wasn't sure if Daniel was going to like it because the last time we had a lava cake type dessert, I got one from Domino's that doesn't come with ice cream. And he was like, this is terrible. But you liked the Chili's one.

SPEAKER_01:

Granted, the Domino's one comes in a cardboard box. I

SPEAKER_00:

remember getting the lava cake from Chili's growing up. It was always one of my favorite things. Also, I'm of the family. Like, okay, you remember when we first met and first started dating, and I was like, let's go to so and such and such and just get dessert. And Daniel's like, you're allowed to do that at a restaurant? I'm like, my family, we would do that all the time. We would just go out and just get dessert or just get an appetizer or something. But we would, and he, like, you were like, you can do that? That was one of the things. Sometimes if I went to Chili's, we might get, like, the chips and salsa, and then we'd just get a dessert. And I remember getting the lava cake.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. I mean, we didn't

SPEAKER_00:

even

SPEAKER_01:

get dessert when we went to the restaurant, let alone go to the restaurant just for dessert.

SPEAKER_00:

Were you a Waters main meal family or were you an apps and desserts family and get what you want to drink? We were a get the appetizers, get the entrees, except here I am still salty that my parents would choose to get the Bloomin' Onion instead of what I wanted for an appetizer. But we always did get appetizers.

SPEAKER_01:

I probably got pop. But

SPEAKER_00:

were you an appetizers and desserts family? Rarely. Rarely. Because I always see these TikTok trends are like when you marry somebody, it was like, what did the TikTok say? It's like everybody marries somebody that was an appetizers and desserts family and they marry the person that was just a waters only at the table family.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I don't think I can stress to you enough that we were a fast food, takeout, sit on the couch family. I can probably count on my two hands here the amount of sit down restaurants I went to before I was 18.

SPEAKER_00:

You guys were very like Gilmore Girls like though and you're a fast food like you would go to like multiple places for each person. No I didn't have that. It was like if dad wants Wendy's everybody has to have Wendy's. But I remember when I first started we would go to like Taco Bell, Arby's like everybody got and I'm like oh wow this is cool. Turns out it

SPEAKER_01:

isn't so much. Turns out there's this whole like health thing you've got to keep in mind that it's a real bummer because it keeps you from just going to Chili's every day.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I got a little off track about your steak thing, but going back, Chili's doesn't try to be fancy. It is what it is. It's a lot of bar food, and it's there. It's there to be what it is, and I think that's what makes it so great. When I was younger, I thought– I'm younger, not that much younger because I didn't eat it until I was in college– Because we didn't have, we had to go to Columbus to go to the Cheesecake Factory. I understand that's common in other places. Now that's fancy. I used to think it was like top tier fancy. And now I'm like, okay, their cheesecake is great. But if you hand me a binder for your menu, your food isn't going to be good. Like make up your mind. What are you trying to be? And where you were like, Applebee's totally has changed. I don't remember Cheetos flavored foods. Well,

SPEAKER_01:

yeah, I mean, there is

SPEAKER_00:

that. They still have the chicken fajita roll-ups, which I have not tried since we, with the Applebee's. Applebee's is near the Target that we go to. That's why sometimes we've eaten there.

SPEAKER_01:

Because the other Target that we used to go to fell off the side of the mountain,

SPEAKER_00:

but it's open again. It's open again. Yes. Yay. I feel like you and I tried to do our steak and grilled chicken at Applebee's, and that's part of that's on us. Yeah, I know. We should have just stuck with the bar food theme. But Chili's, 10 of 10, no notes. The takeout food warmed up well. It was an experience.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Especially when you've been eating healthy all week, and then you're like, all right, I've been waiting for

SPEAKER_01:

this. That probably helped.

SPEAKER_00:

Give me this mozzarella stick. Let's go. Southwest egg rolls have black beans in them. Healthy, healthy, right? It was good. I'm

SPEAKER_01:

starting to think I've never been to an actual fancy restaurant.

SPEAKER_00:

I have, and you know what? You've been to some at Disney. The California Grill is decently

SPEAKER_01:

fancy. Okay, that might be the one.

SPEAKER_00:

I've been to like some fancier than that restaurants before and I don't like it. Like give me chicken tenders. Like I don't like the uppity atmosphere and I feel like the food is not great. And you can't customize at Super E. And I need– which I did it at Chili's because it's good. It's basic. I need to customize my meals. Like what if I don't want this side? What if I don't want this sauce that you put on it? So it's not all it's cracked up to be. That being said, I feel like– We were ripping on Olive Garden a minute ago. When I was younger, Olive Garden was our special occasion place. That's where you went. Like if you had like for my confirmation class at church, like when we all graduated from that, we all went there. That's when you were there with your family. Yes. And it was like the it was and I'm sure it was even fancier for you since you didn't have one close to you. correct

SPEAKER_01:

yeah probably about an hour

SPEAKER_00:

because when we were talking about how we were just you could tell it's been it's been quite a couple weeks when we were just that the highlight that we're spending 20 minutes talking about Chili's Daniel's like you know I think it used to be fancier at Olive Garden I'm like I don't think it was I think we just thought it was even in like college but everybody talks about chain restaurants not being busy I can tell you we were there like 3 30 and we had to wait like 20 minutes to get seated that was

SPEAKER_01:

wild

SPEAKER_00:

it was probably I feel like

SPEAKER_01:

Chili's isn't a prom date place.

SPEAKER_00:

Like

SPEAKER_01:

maybe Outback Olive Garden might be the more go-to for that. You know, if it can host the Dundee Awards. Yeah, that's true. The prestigious Dundee Awards.

SPEAKER_00:

I would have rather eaten at Chili's for my prom. Like we went to this local Italian place that everybody goes to in parks. Not the Olive Garden. A little more upscale than that. I went there for two of my proms. And then another prom that I had, I went to a restaurant that no longer exists on the riverbank. Very pretty views. Great for pictures. But I remember that place being like, and probably in hindsight, it wasn't as fancy as what I remember. But I couldn't order chicken tenders. I had to get a filet or something. I was like, ugh. Especially high school Hope, I would have been like, give me the triple dipper in my prom dress. I'll just put a bib on.

SPEAKER_01:

Hope's red line for is this place fancy or not is, does it have chicken tenders on the adult menu? Yes or no?

SPEAKER_00:

There's nothing wrong with it. When I go out to eat, I want to eat fun food. I don't want to eat fancy crap.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, listen, everybody, we won't bore you too much more with this other than to say that we have a feature called Fan Mail. If you look in the description of the podcast episode, you'll see a little link there at the very beginning that says text us. And so reach out and let us know what is your favorite mid-tier, what... chain

SPEAKER_00:

restaurant. Are you a Chili's fan? Do you want to come for us for talking about Outback? Are you team OG's Olive Garden? What's another one? Applebee's?

SPEAKER_01:

Logan's is big, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

Texas Roadhouse. Everybody around you, which we don't even have one around here, but everybody around here likes Texas Roadhouse. I met in our immediate area.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, no. I mean, we don't have any of these things in our

SPEAKER_00:

immediate area. We have B-dubs, Buffalo Wild Wings in our immediate area. I

SPEAKER_01:

guess it's bar food, kind of like Chili's to a certain extent. I don't know. I just don't think about it the same way.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just because that's not as quite an extensive of a menu, but I would put B-dubs right up there. The reason why we're not putting it on a pedestal is because we have easy access to it. And this is coming from the man that every night is like, do you want to do B-dubs for dinner? I

SPEAKER_01:

like chicken wings. They have good ones. So anyways. I

SPEAKER_00:

like Quaker steak better, though.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree. Hit us up in the fan mail. Let us know what your favorite chain restaurant is. Do you agree with us on Chili's or not? And now we're going to get on to some television shows, but before we do, we do like to remind everybody that this is a spoiler podcast. We're talking about several things here, and we're going to dive right into spoilers. Take a look at the episode description. If you see a show that you haven't watched yet but you intend to and you don't want to get spoiled on it, go ahead and skip on to the next one.

SPEAKER_00:

Or just listen to us drone on if you don't care.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and if you don't care, just listen to us drone on. That said, we have a... Season and series finale

SPEAKER_00:

to talk about. Wait a minute, didn't you say you had a show note that you wanted to bring up from last week before we get into

SPEAKER_01:

this? Oh my gosh, I guess so.

SPEAKER_00:

Happy belated May the 4th and Revenge of the 5th to everybody out there.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, it's not much. Last week we talked about Star Wars Episode 3.

SPEAKER_00:

Revenge of the Sith.

SPEAKER_01:

And when I was listening back to the recording, I just noticed that if you're a normal listener, you know that occasionally I lisp. I have somewhat

SPEAKER_00:

of a lisp. What a rude word for lisping.

SPEAKER_01:

That person should have been shot for naming that word that word. I stumbled through Star Wars Revenge of the Sith. Except I was like, Sith.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like you're the only one who did it. As I was

SPEAKER_01:

listening back, I came upstairs and I was like, why do you let me do this? You just push me out here and you're like, here, say this word. Let's see how badly you mangle it.

SPEAKER_00:

I do not.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the only note I had from last episode.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, so The Righteous Gemstones, season four, the final season, the series finale aired, and I'm sad it's over. I know we're late to the party. We just started watching Righteous Gemstones, what, like late March, early April? Flew through the first three seasons, quickly got caught up, and Danny McBride, his humor, it's genius.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

No notes. Love it. I'm going to miss this show, but at the same time, I understand when people want to call it. If you think that's what you've got creatively, that's better than beating a dead horse and exhausting a show to no end that by the time you try to do a series finale, it sucks or everything that you had worked through at that point doesn't make sense anymore and it tarnishes everything forever. Looking at you, How I Met Your Mother, worst finale ever. I'll never, will I get over it? No, but life goes on. So before we get into the nitty gritty, what'd you think? Just, I mean, of the episode. I thought, I

SPEAKER_01:

thought the episode was good. I was, I guess in hindsight, I should have known with the, how this show always is. They always have like a, it seems like they always seem like they're wrapping up the main story and episode before they actually do. And then they always lunge, so to speak. Yeah. And we should have seen that coming with what happened with Corey. We did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I told you when the episode started that even though it showed that Cobb, um, Miss Lori's ex-husband was the guy that like robbed everything and obviously was the bad guy. And Corey ended up shooting him to protect Eli. I was like, there's still something up with Corey. I don't trust him. Cause he obviously knew all those secrets of his dad. And it's just, I said that as the episode was starting, I was like, still not vibing great with Corey. And that intuition that we had was spot on. You never trust Stifler.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, I agree. So overall, you know, I thought it was a very good, series finale I think that serviceable for sure I think it's probably in the upper echelons of series finales when as they come someplace some shows really whiff some shows do a great job I didn't you know it's not the best one ever but it's certainly up there they satisfied the storylines of the season they also satisfied some storylines of the series and wrapped it up in a nice bow the only thing I would have liked to have seen and I think I said this maybe even on another episode was I felt like they never had had the grown-up kids in a scene with Amy Lee.

SPEAKER_00:

They did in the hospital.

SPEAKER_01:

That was the only one. I would have liked to have seen some sort of something. I thought that might be where they're going when they all got shot. I

SPEAKER_00:

think part of it is that they just... I mean, we got to see ghost Amy Lee. That was

SPEAKER_01:

crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

That was weird. I feel like... They all idolize Amy Lee, and she was, if you think, an actual righteous person of the Gemstones. I think her core is so good. I think that just keeps that fan, even though we put Amy Lee on a pedestal. I think that I agree with you. Is it the best series finale I've ever seen? No. But it's really hard to write a good series finale, especially for a comedy. And I feel like, honestly, each season of Gemstones, if they hadn't gotten picked up, could have been a satisfying conclusion. Season one ended on a satisfying note. Two, three. I really liked, was it season three with the Montgomery's, their cousins, and Amy Lee's just watching the family play with the monster truck from afar? I would have been, and Keith and Kelvin were finally together like I would have been like satisfied with that but I think I think it was good and they even like they had the voiceover where Eli's reading the letter that Amy Lee had written Miss Lori that Miss Lori let Eli read and said I think this might help you get some closure to in life and it was basically saying like not everything wraps up with a neat little bow not everything gets absolute closure because that's life and I think that's kind of Danny McBride being like here wink wink but in terms of closure I mean they pretty much in my opinion sewed up everything Everything was still making it fit with the characters. I did get my Keith Kelvin wedding. And I don't think it really felt rushed at this point. Because when you know, you know. And there was clearly a bit of a time jump. It did get a little dark. I was a little worried. At one point I was like, oh my gosh. Is Danny McBride going to actually kill off the gemstones? So basically the episode begins with the fallout of the events of the previous week of... Cobb coming out, like, trying to basically capture baby Billy and Eli, Corey saving the day. And it's basically a fallout from that. And they're talking about, like, how Corey's been real depressed because, you know, ultimately that was his dad. So the kids are like, let's invite him to the lake house. And then they also give Eli their blessing. I'm not going to say how they said it. To be with Miss Lori or any woman if he wants.

SPEAKER_01:

Pursue Miss Lori or any woman.

SPEAKER_00:

And that they're going to be cool with it. But Judy says, you know, if you get an STD, I'm not going to, you know, wipe down there for you, daddy. Like, it's just, I don't know how the actors. I feel like you're going to miss Judy.

SPEAKER_01:

You're going to miss Judy the most.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, 100%. I love me some Judy Lee. No one crashes out better than my gal Judy. just in her delivery I don't know how Edie Patterson like delivers the lines with like an absolute straight face I even saw that interview that you sent me where they were like how would Judy respond to the situation and she just like went into Judy's voice and just did it like no laughter nothing it was it was so good anytime now when speaking to Outback every time I go to Outback I want to be like thank you for meeting me at this neutral location I think that's from like season one so the kids are like let's take Corey and let's Let's cheer him up. Let's bring him to the lake house. And they're doing their little talent show that they tried to do in the previous lake house episode. Corey's still acting weird. He does a little Michael Jackson number, blah, blah, blah. They all go outside. They play cornhole. Corey and his wife, who all I see is the tanning lady from Christmas with their cranks for that woman. I'm looking for a band-aid. Like, it's just her voice is the same, and I'm sure she's done many other roles. Is that all you see her as?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, every time.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm like, I remember her from this, like, tiny role from this mid-Christmas movie from, like, 2000, what, 2003, 2004? That movie's pretty old. Somewhere in

SPEAKER_01:

that time frame.

SPEAKER_00:

I can't believe that movie's that old. So, yeah, they're playing cornhole. We got the Gemstone siblings ripping on each other. Kelvin goes in to change his shirt because there's Hershey kisses or poo or something on it. We don't know. They're teasing him. And he sees the ghost of Amy Lee.

SPEAKER_01:

That was weird. And he's

SPEAKER_00:

lured to Corey's room where none other than, finally, you got your payoff. I said, I think I told Daniel before this because he was like, I really want to know the gold Bible payoff. I'm like, well, we know. that Cobb stole it I'm like I'm sure they'll we'll get some resolution but if not whatever we know who took it but there you go there you have it the Bible is gleaming in Corey's bag Corey sees that Kelvin was looking for it and it's like what are you doing and then suddenly it just it got real dark there because Corey starts

SPEAKER_01:

he hunts them through the house

SPEAKER_00:

yeah he had a gun in his bag and shoots each of them he shot Judy first she goes down doesn't move then he shoots Kelvin and then She's Jesse from behind a door. So then we got the gemstone siblings crawling around, bleeding out on the floor. And you see Judy go, I'm bleeding out, sons. And I'm like, are they really going to kill off the gemstones? Because I knew from the preview there was like a party, which I hoped it was Keith and Kelvin's wedding, which it was. And I was like, maybe it's not. I was like, maybe they're all partying in heaven because Corey offs them all. And it's like a full circle moment to where... Bradley Cooper, like the OG gemstone, like shot the one preacher and started the whole thing. But thankfully, it didn't get that dark, although it was a little dark.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, they did end up killing Corey.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And that was where people are like, and I feel like some people are not fully getting this. They're like, I was just waiting for the full circle moment from like Bradley Cooper's character. That was the full circle moment. Because Bradley Cooper's character in that beginning, he finally started to actually believe and practice what he preached and really prayed and like I guess develop that relationship with God or whatever and Corey gets shot by Jesse Jesse's able there Dr. Watson Dr. Watson comes in for the assist Dr. Watson saved the day and brought Jesse's man purse to him so he could get the gun out and they were gonna try to save Corey and Corey's like no it's too late for me I'm really sorry what I did like you could tell the whole time he was conflicted he was trying to avenge his dad it was just it was do I think we could have had another episode to flesh some of this out more sure but at the end of the day I'm watching a comedy And he's like, pray for me, Jesse. And Jesse starts doing a standard prayer. And they're like, no, like pray for me. So that was your full circle moment. And I feel like in that moment, all three of the gemstone children, they were believers at that point. They were really practicing what you preach. And it was, while it was very dark, it was also a very much a, I'm not going to say heartwarming. I don't know. What would you, how would I describe it? Genuine moment.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then, of course, we didn't really see the fallout from that. We fast forward to Keith and Kelvin's wedding. But can I just say the use of the red, red wine song while Corey was chasing him around the house? Red, red wine. And we've got... Miss Lori and Gideon and Amber are all out on the boat. Keef's out on the boat. And they hear all they can. They can't hear the gunshots. They just hear red, red wine blasting. I thought at one point I thought Gideon was going to notice something was up and was going to come save him again. But I guess Gideon's already had his hero moments a couple times. So, yeah. Got my Keef and Calvin wedding. Very nice. Yeah. They've prepared their own vows. What do you think of the little handshake? Oh, that's nice. In the light of Prince. That's my brother, dog! I love how Judy was so... I love how Judy and Jesse were both so happy for Kelvin, though. And you can tell that they're always going to rip on each other, but there is genuine love amongst the siblings, and I feel like we've seen that, even in flashbacks of the kids, when they're all kids, which, again, those kid actors are fantastic.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, Baby Billy's storyline. I would have liked to have seen him go to our favorite Aunt Tiffany and be like, you know, I'm going to be a family man now. But I think for the sake of time, they had to fit it in. He was about to film the final scene of Tingis. And then he realized after his probably, you know, honestly traumatic experience that family is what does matter. So he quit the show, even though it's going to cost my nieces and nephews millions of dollars. Baby Bill is done with TV.

SPEAKER_01:

I do think some of the brevity in that probably came from Walton Goggins' limited schedule because he had just come off White Lotus. I agree. And so they were trying to work him in as best they can. But I think at the end of the day, they got out of him what they needed.

SPEAKER_00:

I would have liked to have seen one more prize of like, Mama told me not to. I did it anyway. Misbehaving. I guess technically I got that, though, this season when Keef was wearing the Amy Lee clothes and crawling into bed with Eli and Miss Lori and was like, Mama, don't we not do that? I guess that was my version of the song for season four.

SPEAKER_01:

You got his teen just rap or whatever that was.

SPEAKER_00:

They solved the Simpkins thing. He and Jesse were going to duel. He screwed up. Jesse decided, I don't need the glory because I know I'm better than you or whatever he said. I feel like Jesse's journey was... Honestly, this season was learning that you don't need to have the glory. You can still be a supportive person. But I still think it was funny when Eli was like, you've done such a great job with your kids. Look how great Gideon turned out. And Jess is like, are you just saying that because Gideon turned out better than I was? I'm like, that's why you have Pontius. And I think they sewed the Pontius. It was very subtle.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think they were ever going to focus on the kids as much as we would have liked or wanted. But when Gideon kind of showed up with his friends and the skateboard skills, that was Pontius respecting his brother again. And then you do see that clip of Gideon not necessarily preaching, but maybe like a skateboard version of whatever Keith and Kelvin did in season with the buff guys. So yeah, I enjoyed it. The Dr. Watson, you want to go back to that? You didn't get to see them fight. But we ended up, like, he and Dr. Watson and Judy had some sparring, but they're more alike, and they both love BJ. I think they're good now. I think they're good now. I think they're good now, so. She caught him out. BJ goes over to visit Dr. Watson with his new person that he's helping, and Dr. Watson is acting just like Judy would, turning around, scrubbing the plates, and Judy's just basically like, I've been there before. I've done that. It shows she's had some self-reflection.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, so the ending, Eli and Miss Lori, are you happy? They presumably ended up together after some time had passed since Corey's death, all of that. It

SPEAKER_01:

doesn't bother

SPEAKER_00:

me. It doesn't bother me either.

SPEAKER_01:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

And I don't think it would bother Amy Lee. I think that ultimately the kids realized that they want their dad to be happy. I think what this season was, was you can move on and also preserve the memory of somebody. Exactly. I think they had always all put Amy Lee on this pedestal, but they were all stuck. And a point in their lives. And they're able to carry that memory. But also move forward as well. And I think if we got another season. I'm sure they'd be up to their same old shenanigans. But it's good. I really. Like I said. I really like the way that finale ended. And I think writing a series finale. Especially for a comedy. Can be one of the most difficult things. That you can do as a writer. Because it's so hard to get it wrong. I think sometimes where. As much as I love Parks and Rec, I think the shows like that where everybody's dreams come true. And either I think Leslie or Ben, I don't know, they were indicated. Which one do you think it was? I think it was Leslie. Probably Leslie. That was going to be the president. That's just so unrealistic. And this kept it into the realism within the realm of the show.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Is there anything that you would have liked to have seen from the

SPEAKER_01:

finale? No, other than the Amy Lee with the adult actors, kids, that's the only thing that I feel like we never really got them interacting in a scene. That's the only thing that I kind of wish I had gotten to see. But no, otherwise, I think they did a really good job ending it. And like you said, it is difficult for a comedy show to do a series finale because series finales tend to be somber and kind of melancholy and like, oh, we're happy that this thing existed, but now it has to end. But comedy, you also have to make people laugh still. And I think they threaded that needle really well.

SPEAKER_00:

I agree.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I would love to have more, but again, I get why all things must come to an end. And that is a show that I would absolutely rewatch. I wish I could quote it more for this podcast, but that would get me censored.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, good news.

SPEAKER_00:

Who's Felicia?

SPEAKER_01:

Good news. We have a lot more of the next show that we're going to talk about. So she did it, everybody. I

SPEAKER_00:

finally did it.

SPEAKER_01:

She did it. Finally, after all this time, she finished season one of Star Wars Andor. And

SPEAKER_00:

wow, what a slog and journey that was. Everybody was like, you got to get to episode four. You got to get to episode five. No, you have to get to literally the season finale, episode 12, for it to actually, in my opinion, get, quote unquote, good.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, you had a little bit of an emotional connection with episode 10 when I can't swim. I

SPEAKER_00:

need to stop being so casual when I turn to you. Like the whole Death Star thing where I was like, are they building the Death Star? Okay, so finally I was like, I cannot take any more of Cassian in this prison. We've got to get out of here. I'm so tired of this set. It's a sensory nightmare for me. I am so bored of the storyline slogging along. I'm like, get him out of here. So then we're doing the prison break, which that was a good episode. I'll say that was a, I wouldn't call it like amazing top tier in terms that was the best episode that I had seen of the series up to that point it was slightly better than fine and I looked at Daniel I said well what if when I realized that they were like in the middle of the water and they were gonna have to jump out I'm like what if you can't like I'm not a great swimmer I think I could do enough if I had someone to help me but I'm like what if you can't swim and apparently then I did remember I have seen some of those tick tocks it all came screaming back to me our little I don't Gollum I don't know Andy Sarkis I think his name was Kino and

SPEAKER_01:

In the episode, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And he's like... you know like he got basically because he was he's one of the prisoners but he was like one of like the leaders of like his unit and he's like i may not be here tomorrow or something like that and then as they're getting ready and then cassie and i think was going to try to help him but he kind of got pushed off the ledge while they were escaping and he's just like i can't swim and i'm like are you kidding me do we think he made it off or do we think he's

SPEAKER_01:

i don't know

SPEAKER_00:

gone because i would like to see him because we only find out need an explanation of how

SPEAKER_01:

yeah we only find what happens to two of the people like we only know with what Cassian and the other guy and

SPEAKER_00:

can we agree that all of the guards that were working at this prison they're all going to be they're all toast

SPEAKER_01:

oh yeah for sure

SPEAKER_00:

because the Empire would want to keep that a secret because that would look so bad if they had this huge prison break because what they basically realized in the prison was that no one was ever actually getting out of their sentence they were just resuffling them back in to a

SPEAKER_01:

different place yeah

SPEAKER_00:

so that was that whole thing then I feel like the episode right before the finale was eh and then the finale was honestly very good very well done better than fine i feel like i feel like cassian who's finally invested into the rebel cause i finally felt invested into the show I do like, even though she only gets like a few seconds every episode, all of Mon Mothma's storylines, the fact that I'm pretty sure she is literally going to marry off her daughter, who's like 13, for the rebellion is wild to me, but I still like the Mon Mothma as a character. Even though she was throwing her husband under the bus in that one scene to try to get the Empire to stop spying on him, I'm still like, leave your husband. Leave your husband. Because I just don't like him at all. Do you like him? I don't vibe

SPEAKER_01:

with him. No. Note for everybody, we have not started season two yet. We're going to get to that. I think there's six episodes out now, so it's about halfway

SPEAKER_00:

through. I think they do two or three a week, don't they? Three

SPEAKER_01:

a week, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's nuts. All I asked is to be well-fed on shows, and then my least favorite Star Wars shows were like, we're going to give you a lot of content here. So everybody was looking for Cassian in the end. We have the, what I would call, what happens, what do you call a ship? It's not enemies to lovers. The two worst people you could ever think of. And you know they're probably going to put them together. We've got the FBI-like gal with the tight blonde bun, and then we've got the other dude. What's his name? His mom is big from Harry Potter. I

SPEAKER_01:

don't know exactly what his name is. I call him Annoying Guard Guy. The worst two people you know get together is what that is.

SPEAKER_00:

But I did find myself when he kind of saved her after everything because they were all going to crash. They're trying to find Cassian. He's trying to get his name clear to find Cassian. Then we've got, I don't know what his name is in the show. I call him Old Bill from Mamma Mia. So I'm just going to call him Bill. Y'all know how we are with names. Don't know what his name is in the show at all. We got his character. That's basically– he did give a really good speech in that prison break episode. Yes, he did. Where he basically said, I know that I'm a piece of crap, but I'm doing it for the good. I know that– and I can live with that, some of the decisions I've made, because I know it's for the greater good. Because what he's doing for the rebellion and some of the people he's thrown under the bus is not exactly good, wonderful behavior either, what he has done. A lot of it is– you would come off as self-serving but then you realize he's like yeah I know I suck but I gotta do it and have to justify the means or whatever but he's trying to find Cassian because Cassian helped in that mission and he's like I gotta kill this dude because he knows too much I'm assuming and we got the other girls that we find out which we were like the blonde girl from she was the faceless man people from Game of Thrones don't know what her name is but in that episode I was like wow she cleans up really nice I think she has family in Coruscant. Turns out she does! She's the cousin of Mon Mothma. What? Talk about a... I feel like that's how I am. Like, when I don't wear makeup, ugh. And when I put makeup on, I look like a totally different person. She just looks, like, completely different. Do you not agree?

SPEAKER_01:

No, yeah, she... Your

SPEAKER_00:

actual answer should have been, like, you look great without makeup, Hope.

SPEAKER_01:

You do.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So we got all that going on, but they're trying to find Cassian, too. I don't know. Are they trying to find him for Bill or for their own purpose? I'm not really sure. They're working for him. Her, like, girlfriend's down there. Like, she's on. So we got everybody coming for this funeral for Cassian's mother-like figure. Who's that? What is her name? I can't remember. Aunt Petunia. Yeah. Because wasn't she in Harry Potter, too? Correct. That's my names. So we got them all trying to convene at this one spot. And all the tension comes to a head. And you start to see she has this final speech from her droid, Cassian's mother. I'm just going to call her his mother because basically she raised him. And she's like, we've all sat around. We've all done our job. We've done our day-to-day stuff. But they're still out there. They're not stopping. And literally, I looked at you, and I said, F the Empire. And what did you tell me? That the original recording was exactly what I said?

SPEAKER_01:

Correct, yeah. And then they changed it to Fight the Empire.

SPEAKER_00:

Fight the Empire.

SPEAKER_01:

Disney edited it to Fight the

SPEAKER_00:

Empire. If you're going to market this as your adult type of Star Wars show that's sort of like Game of Thrones-y in a way, that's more adult, more mature, say it. But you can't. That would have packed more of a punch than just fight the Empire. You can't say

SPEAKER_01:

the F word in the Star Wars. You can't say the F word. Listen, I'm just parroting things that Star Wars fans have said. There are Star Wars fans I've seen on the internet that are upset that that planet that they're on, Ferex, uses bricks. Because they've never seen bricks in Star Wars before. So therefore, Star Wars universe doesn't use

SPEAKER_00:

bricks. Every planet is different in Star Wars. I'm just telling you

SPEAKER_01:

the craziness of some Star Wars fans.

SPEAKER_00:

The craziest thing ever about Star Wars is that when it began, Luke was wearing a bathrobe. And that became the official uniform of the Jedi. Anyway, he was already dressed like one. And I always assumed he was just wearing that because they were kind of poor, right? Yeah. Like the bathrobe Luke.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I don't know,

SPEAKER_00:

man. But the finale ended, I will say, it ended good. You all just should have told me. You have to get to literally the season finale to be fully invested in this show. Am I excited to start season two? Absolutely. I do think now that casting as a purpose is going to be better, I'm going to need the pacing to improve a little bit. I did find in that part where annoying security guard guy saves Deidre, their FBI type gal.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

even though both of those characters are vile, I was like, now kiss. So I did find myself rooting for them. I'm excited to see Ben Mendelsohn's character show up. Don't love it that they had to recast Bail Organa because I literally looked at you. I was like, when's Bail Organa going to show up? And I guess he does, but the original actor supposedly had another commitment. So they have Benjamin Bratt, the guy from Miss Congeniality. Who's looking old, by the way. I guess that movie's old.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Those actors do look similar. It's

SPEAKER_00:

just I would have rather had the original one because he showed up in Obi-Wan. Yes,

SPEAKER_01:

everybody would have, but if he's got a conflict, he's got a conflict. And if the character is a big enough arc in season two that it needs to be there, then recast it versus rewriting it, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00:

True, true. It's just I would have rather seen the original one, but... I don't know where, I think season two could be a little more interesting because we have Cassian's now invested. I just hope that, I think what season one had was a pacing problem. There were some episodes where I'm like, we could have wrapped this up a little bit quicker. We could have paced it a little bit better. I didn't need 12 episodes. This is where, you know, sometimes I'm like, I could have used more. No, I could have used less. I could have used it condensed down. with each episode to pack more of a punch I don't want a filler episode in a Star Wars show and I do understand like I really don't like it the people that are like oh it's telling a story it's laying the groundwork I understand that I'm a White Lotus fan that's what that does just because that doesn't mean you're telling a great story you're not telling it properly like lay the groundwork a little bit better that's my main criticism of Andor I can do I can I see why it got some award nomination sure I think the costuming is really nice I like the little I like pause it. I was like, I like how they're like, just even his wardrobe makes me want to punch him in the face. So again, like Cassian's like girlfriend, obviously something's going to happen. I mean, I know she's not his current girlfriend, his ex-girlfriend that they tortured, but I'm like, something's going to happen with her. Cause I didn't hear diddly poo from her in Rogue One. Like ultimately Cassian, Knowing how the fates end does impact it slightly for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Really? You want to talk about the prequels?

SPEAKER_00:

That's different, though. That is different. The prequels still, we knew that Darth Vader existed. We knew it was from Anakin Skywalker, but we didn't know how we got there.

SPEAKER_01:

But you knew what the ultimate conclusion was.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But that didn't seem to impede your enjoyment. They told the story better. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And again, there were characters that we already knew existed that we got to see again in the prequels and we already knew they were going to be together. What I'm saying is literally what you told me. I'm going to beat you senseless. And or, unlike the Acolyte, And even Ahsoka to a point, which we know how some of them, it's not taking, there's really, it's less risk adverse because we know what's ultimately going to happen.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. We know what happens to Andor. And I

SPEAKER_00:

think it's very different. You're making a mental gymnastics argument with me right now with the prequels because we didn't know anything about Midichlorian. Say what you want about him. We didn't know how Anakin came to be the Chosen One. We got to see his literal childhood. I'm just seeing Cassian a few years younger than I am from how I saw him in Rogue One. You're just seeing Darth Vader a few years younger. It is very different. I'm seeing him as a literal baby now. And then we're seeing how all the things in Senate came to that. They basically told a brand new story. The only outcome we knew of that was that Anakin Skywalker was going to be Darth Vader. We didn't know any other details or anything. We know a lot. I'm pretty sure season two is going to be the last season confirmed, right? Correct, yes. It's going to go right up to the

SPEAKER_01:

beginning of Rogue One.

SPEAKER_00:

Call me a hater, if you will. I never said I hated it. I said, it's fine. I could keep poking this bear. The last finale got better.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm interested in it now. I can be a type of person that can sit down and watch something and not just double down on a dislike of it and be like, wow, I looked at you. I said, finally, I can see why people like this show. That's exactly what I said to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Boom. I'm going to not poke the bear anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

You know what? I'm going to poke the bear.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, boy.

SPEAKER_00:

I guess we haven't gotten to that topic yet. Where you're going to just drone on about Star Trek. We'll get to that in a minute. A different

SPEAKER_01:

galaxy. Hacks! Season 4. Episode 5.

SPEAKER_00:

We are halfway through the season. There are 10 episodes of Hacks, another show out of like 12. And that was a tough episode to watch.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it really was.

SPEAKER_00:

If your team, Ava, Debra, at least their connection, relationship, again, not romantic, but just I felt like we had kind of peeled it back a little bit and we were starting to get some– like we had made some progress in terms of mending their relationship. And now I feel like it's so thrown far back. And this time– Ava is the one I'm a little bit more upset with.

SPEAKER_01:

She was a little bit more of the provocateur in this

SPEAKER_00:

case. Honestly, when you've been burned so many times, what are you going to do? So our whole arc now is network. What are we going to do for the network? The network wants this. They need to get ratings. They go to a focus group. I could never stand to be in a focus group because I would absolutely do what Debra did and I would absolutely do what Leslie Knope did. None of the positives would hit me. I would just focus absolutely on every single negative thing. Like tell Ron I'm really good at bowling. Yeah. Like it would not be great for me. Anytime I get some type of– let's say I get like a 98 on like a test. Like when I was in school, I'd be like, well, why did you deduct two points? Please tell me what I did wrong and how I can improve. I'm in therapy.

UNKNOWN:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyway, one of them criticized Deborah's hair, so she puts on the worst extensions I've ever seen for a cooking segment. I guess that mom they did, that dance mom they brought in, too, is, like, a real TikTok person. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

really?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that they spoofed. So they're trying to, like, appeal to a demographic, and Ava's friends get in her head.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

about it because they're off doing some project. And I think Ava's having a realization like you're not going to maybe get to do the highbrow stuff you want to do when you're the head writer on a network late night show that you're going to have to strike that balance. It can't be all like pretentious. You have to appeal to a

SPEAKER_01:

network TV wide audience.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You're going to have to have mass humor appeal to everybody. I thought Jimmy Kimmel played himself well.

SPEAKER_01:

That was really funny. I would love

SPEAKER_00:

to get more comedians on there.

SPEAKER_01:

That was maybe the funniest thing of the episode was when Jimmy just shows up out of nowhere to threaten her. Yeah, because Debra tried to stalk Kristen

SPEAKER_00:

Bell.

SPEAKER_01:

That was really funny. They probably aren't going to, but I think it would be really funny if they got Fallon and they got Colbert to show up to do similar things to threaten her.

SPEAKER_00:

I want Conan to show up since they keep referencing the Conan debacle that we all live by. Team Conan forever, by the way.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, team Conan

SPEAKER_00:

forever. Go, go, baby. So Ava's got in her head about that. Debra, Debra, Debra, Debra. Debra. Oh, Debra. Debra is going back to her QVC ways about wanting to give the people what they want. Like, she's so scared to death she's going to lose this show. She wants that. So they both are wrong in that aspect of how they're treating it. But this is where I did agree with Debra a little bit. Because even Jimmy and Kayla were telling Ava, like, hey, we got to get this TikTok person on here. That's... That's what people think is funny. You gotta appeal to the moms.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it went really well on the episode when they did it, and that made Ava even worse.

SPEAKER_00:

And then Ava did try to take out the wine o'clock joke, which I did think was stupid, and put her own joke in there, and Debra just... completely was like no and then they had a little argument literally they're gonna have to get it in check like because that was in front of a live audience which i think you have to like surrender your phones for stuff like that something correct me if i'm wrong so it's not going to get up that way um i think and i do think you sign like ndas when you go to filming maybe not for that i'm sure you do i know you do for like bachelor live shows you sign ndas and stuff um but they're a little hr person that have been following around trips and falls bust their mouth open and finally just unleashed on both of them it Like, you are both horrible. So they're going to have to figure something out. They're just so– they're the type that when they work together, it's great. When they're at odds, it's toxic and horrible for everybody around them. And when they were out to dinner, Ava is in a throuple situation, something like that. Debra sees her. And Debra's just being Debra, kind of making fun out of it. But then was like, I'm going to order dessert from the table. Let's hang out. And I feel like Debra was actually trying to just have a nice time. And that's where Ava was like, oh, we just work together.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Debra was trying, I think, a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

And Ava just wasn't having it. And for somebody like Debra, That's just going to make it even harder for them next time you hurt her like that again. I know they say they have a fifth season planned, but this season is rough. It's rough for the people, but at the same time, they are putting that realism in there. If you had such a fallout like they did at the end of season three, that's probably how it would have played out. I need my girls to at least have a breather. To come together, to be their best. They're at their best when they work their magic together. But I don't know if this late night show is that. And I think that might be the arc of the season. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree. I would not be surprised if the end of this season is that Debra not on the show anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

Not on the late night

SPEAKER_01:

show. Not on the late night show anymore. Yeah.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Well, we do have one more thing for you folks this week. We went and saw a movie in the theater for a second week in a row. What is this?

SPEAKER_00:

What is this? Who

SPEAKER_01:

are we? This is like 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we knew we wanted to see it, but then when I was trying on glasses, the glasses store... Where you pick out the frames is across from a movie theater. Yeah. So we smelled popcorn the entire one and a half hours I was in there. And I was like, oh, we're going to have to see Thunderbolts tomorrow because I need some salty popcorn.

SPEAKER_01:

So we went and saw Thunderbolts, which has now been renamed.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you almost bought popcorn that day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I almost went in while you were looking at glasses.

SPEAKER_00:

Rename Thunderbolts with an asterisk.

SPEAKER_01:

Thunderbolts with an asterisk has actually been renamed. So in Hollywood, all the posters, they've torn the Thunderbolts name off, and they are now the new Avengers.

SPEAKER_00:

And they're just really expecting that everybody's already seen that. I would be mad if I hadn't seen that movie yet. But at the same time, I kind of figured that's what they were going to go for. So before you get into your little Star Trek, or when Daniel leans into me during the movie, I have to deal with this at home, folks, not just on the podcast. I have to deal with this tomfoolery. Anyway, Marvel is back, baby. And that is how I feel about this movie. Have I disliked and been such a strong hater like some people have been about the previous Marvel works? No. That's not what I mean when I say Marvel is back. I have enjoyed some of the previous movies. I really liked Guardians 3. I liked, you know, Ant-Man 2. Or not Ant-Man 2. I would have been Ant-Man 3. Whatever. Well, Ant-Man wasn't. That was post everything. That would have been the third one. The third one. See, I'm losing track how many there are. And when I say Marvel is back, I mean... back to that form from like Iron Man, OG Ant-Man, like the fun days of Marvel where you go, you see a Marvel movie, there are stakes, but you're also going to laugh. You're just going to enjoy your popcorn and you're going to have a great experience. You're going to clap. You're going to cheer. And it's just, it's what I expect from the classic Marvel experience, a fun popcorn superhero-y movie. But while I'm also still excited to see what happens next, what's going on with the characters. So that's what I mean when I say Marvel is back. And honestly, I know that I am not as hard of a grader as you are, but it was a 10 of 10 for me. It checked all the boxes. I just... best marvel thing like i again i liked guardians 3 but guardians 3 was extremely depressing kind of in that tone of the fallout of you know post infinity wars which you know a lot of those movies as we move into the next phase they were always going to deal with that this is just bringing it back to when seeing a marvel movie was truly truly fun and i do realize we saw deadpool last summer but i still kind of count deadpool as not quite in the exact it doesn't feel the same marvel sphere that we have come to know since what i don't know When Iron Man came out in 2008, 2009,

SPEAKER_01:

it's

SPEAKER_00:

been a while. Before we get into it, once again, we saw people get up to leave at our theater before the post-credits. How long have we been doing this, y'all? It's to the point now where non-Marvel movies, I will Google if there is a post-credit scene because a lot of people have followed suit and copied. At this point, it's been over 15 years. Correct? Since we have been doing this.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know what those

SPEAKER_00:

people were doing. What are you doing? Why are you leaving? I looked at Daniel and I'm like, are you serious?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, just two people in the theater. They got up and left immediately as soon as the credits started rolling. Not even like the black credits, but like the themed credits.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they didn't even see like the little store scene.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't know what people.

SPEAKER_00:

Why? I don't know. Maybe

SPEAKER_01:

they've never seen any of the post credits for any of the movies. Ever. Imagine those people exist out there.

SPEAKER_00:

They must be the same people that don't have an internal monologue. And I'm like, what? People don't walk around? What's in your brain? What are you doing? What's up? But yeah, so that's what I mean when I say Marvel is back. Obviously, I like Yelena. I knew her from the Black Widow movie. She showed up on the Hawkeye show. She's a very fun character. I never thought that I would like John Walker because I hated him.

SPEAKER_01:

You were a notorious John Walker

SPEAKER_00:

hater. I almost didn't want to see the movie. I was like, ew. He's going to be part of that. And I knew he had been working with Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character. What is her name? DeValentine or something. Yeah, Val. DeFontaine. I don't know what it was. DeVal. What was it?

SPEAKER_01:

Val. Just call her

SPEAKER_00:

Val. Val. We'll call her Val. So I knew she had kind of collected him at the end. I knew he was going to be a part of it. But I'm like, ew. he's going to be a main character. Suddenly, And I'm not saying I'm not into him. That's not what I mean. But like, I started to feel for his character. Now I'm into somebody else. I started to feel for his character and I actually ended up liking his character and becoming quite fond of him. I didn't really remember Ava very much. She was from Ant-Man and Wasp, I think, which came out in 2018. Okay, I couldn't remember what she was from. I had to like Google her when we got back. So basically this is, I thought it was going to be kind of like the Marvel's version of Superman. Suicide Squad, but I think it's still different than that because I wouldn't call these people straight-up villains. In fact, I think most of them are pretty good. Obviously, if you're new here, after Loki, Bucky is my number two in the Avengers Marvel universe.

SPEAKER_01:

Hunkiverse.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I put Wanda up there, too. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

okay. Thirstiverse.

SPEAKER_00:

I like all of the kind of... And that's another reason why I like Yelena and why I liked Natasha, too. I feel like I like a lot of the broken Marvel characters, the ones that maybe have had some gray area to them in their past. The only one I feel like I really, really like, other than that, as everybody knows, I'm a huge Steve Rogers, OG Captain America fan. And I believe I already said this on this podcast, but I had an epiphany because somebody called me out on it. They're like, that's really weird that you like Loki, Bucky, and all this stuff, but you're such a Captain America fan because he's just so good. And I'm like, it's because he is purely good. He's not... trying to come off as like a righteousness like I'm so much better I'm so good he actually is good in his core and I'm not seeing through his BS because he's actually good so that's when I really like why I like Steve Rogers but pretty much all my favorite Marvel characters are kind of those like Loki Bucky Wanda Natasha um So you better not take them off from me. So it was really nice for me to see Bucky finally on screen for a little bit. Again, we did not see the previous Captain America movie. I did watch Bucky scenes in it. We're going to have to go back and watch that. I don't think you need to watch it to see Thunderbolts. And I kind of had somebody, I had somebody like to brief me on a little bit, like here's what's going on with Red Hulk, you know, up to these events. So I sort of knew a little bit like that, but I don't think it's required viewing that being said to go in and see Thunderbolts. So, So, yeah. The new character, Bob, Lewis Paulman, the son of Bill Paulman, also known as the dad from Casper and While You Were Sleeping, President Whitmore, A League of Their Own. He's in that briefly. I feel like he has cloned his son because they look so much alike, which I thought that when I saw it. This guy's just going to have to play Bob and everything because he was already Bob in Top Gun, the sequel.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But I thought he was, like, dorky cute in Top Gun. But hello. Just give me, like, depressed, broken man. Like, you're coming home with me.

SPEAKER_01:

You've already got one of those at home. I

SPEAKER_00:

guess. I'm just going to collect broken things. I did not see the part with Bob where his shirt was torn and the abs. I was like, oh, what's hiding under there, Bob? But I already liked Bob before that. I still am still Team Bucky. But I still love you. But I also have eyes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I thought it was a really good movie. It was above average for Marvel movies, for sure. I think you're right. I'm not ready to say Marvel is back. I'm not really one of the people that said Marvel was gone to begin with. I think they definitely have been seeking and searching for a little bit over the last few movies and some of the TV shows. Secret Invasion, I'm looking at you. I

SPEAKER_00:

just mean the feel. I still liked some of the shows we've seen. I still liked some of the movies we've but it did not feel like nothing has really felt wow I just saw a great Marvel movie since honestly like before Endgame like it was the classic Marvel vibes that's what I mean by that I understand there are people out there that don't think everything that they've done since Endgame is crap that's not what I mean when I say it

SPEAKER_01:

okay All right. The only thing I knock off the movie for, and this, you know, I turned to you in the theater and said this, and so I'll bring it up now, is they just, they completely ripped off Cyborg's abilities from Star Trek V, The Final Frontier. With Bob. And his ability to, you know, show people their worst moment of their life.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So he's the superhero that they've tried to build. Explain to the people what century is. You keep calling him century in the theater. It's century from what I looked it up.

SPEAKER_01:

What am I saying different?

SPEAKER_00:

You said century. Century. Century. Century. You said century in the theater.

SPEAKER_01:

Val's trying to make another super serum hero like Captain America, like Red Guardian, like Bucky.

SPEAKER_00:

But not really to save the world. It's self-serving. Not really to

SPEAKER_01:

save the world. It's self-serving. And so she's got all these illegal experiments going on. And so she gets found out. None of the experiments have worked as far as they're aware. So she's trying to destroy it all. And the Thunderbolts also need to go because they've been working for her. And that's when they find Bob at that place. Just Bob. They thought he was dead, but he clearly had made it through the procedure and turned into this really kind of a quasi like Superman Homelander kind of situation.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like a really like powerful.

SPEAKER_00:

It was giving a Homelander vibes for part of

SPEAKER_01:

it. And so I really enjoyed, the thing I liked the most about this movie is the way they defeated the villain, which was Bob, the void or century where it's kind of a three kind of, kind of a tri character there really. And because they didn't defeat him physically, uh, Say

SPEAKER_00:

it again. Is it century? Century? I don't

SPEAKER_01:

know. You're asking me how to pronounce something?

SPEAKER_00:

It's just Bob. It's Bob.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just Bob. But so the way they defeated him was they had to get into his head and they had to find Bob and Bob had to beat the void himself. But the way he did it was by realizing he's not alone. And I thought that was a really good way to go about it.

SPEAKER_00:

It was a very good, honestly, depiction of mental health. Yes. Which May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so that really goes hand in hand. But each of them had to go through... the rooms which we had already seen we actually saw we did not see Ava's room I've seen that as a complaint but maybe we'll get more from her in a future movie we already saw Walker's fears because we basically find out that after the fallout if you guys ever watched Captain America the TV show he was like briefly the new Captain America but then he what did he like kill somebody or something and he he's so depressed losing that title that he was ignoring his wife ignoring his baby and we find out that his wife had left him and taken his son and So that's kind of his worst moments and where that was happening. We have Yelena's obviously tragic past, which if you've ever watched Black Widow, you have an idea of how the girls, what they had to go through. Bucky's, we didn't see his, but again, we've already seen his trauma through the movies. And they made a joke about it. And Bucky's like, yeah, I've lived a great life. It was a great time for me going through the rooms. And I really liked how they were able to save Bob as well and telling him that he wasn't alone. Because at the beginning, like Yelena's struggling with, you know, still losing the loss of her sister. What do I do in this life? What's the point of everything? What's the purpose? And like when they first meet Bob, he's like, what do you do with a depressing thought? And she's like, well, you push it down. And then later she's like, you don't, you don't push it down. You, you know, you cling to your people. Yeah. And I thought it was, it was a very like well done scene. And for these, say what you want, whether you think, cause they turned out when they, the whole new Avengers thing is because they ultimately saved the day. And Val decides that she's going to, even though she was trying to get them all killed, she decides she's going to take credit for it. And she announces them as the new Avengers.

UNKNOWN:

Um,

SPEAKER_00:

I do think that they all work together really well. I feel like the trauma, never underestimate the trauma bond that people have. I feel like they almost feel closer. immediately than what it took for our actual Avengers because it took a long time for our actual Avengers to get close which of course that's what all those movies were building to so it's very difficult to make that comparison and I can see why in the post credit scene Sam who is the acting Captain America is wanting to sue for the trademark because I mean he's wanting to respect Captain America's legacy I don't like it that he and Bucky are presumably fighting like no they can't fight My babies.

SPEAKER_01:

Sometimes people fight, especially the heroes.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I really I feel like this is the first time I've truly seen since the first Captain America movie a healthy. ish for the most part. Bucky Barnes, he's fought through some of his demons. He knows what he has to do. I'd like to know what's happening with his Congress career because I think that's over now.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's probably over after he joins as the new Avengers. He probably had to give up his seat.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you like how I totally Leo DiCaprio'd the theater? Robert Zane from Suits. No, we have not finished Suits LA yet. I don't know if we're gonna. He showed up as one of the people that was trying to impeach Val's character. And that's why Bucky was trying to get intel and everything and track them down. So let's see here. Yelena's dad.

SPEAKER_01:

Red Guardian.

SPEAKER_00:

Red Guardian. I pretty much cackled in every single scene he was in. He

SPEAKER_01:

was great. He was great comedic comedy. The comedy in this movie was good, but it was... It wasn't forced. It was refreshingly... Yeah, like some of the previous movies, it's gotten just so quippy and so annoying. And this was not forced. This was a lot... There was a lot more just like different humor than what was in the other ones. And that was refreshing to see as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Like the whole origin of why they were going to call themselves the Thunderbolts. Yeah, that was really good. I did not see that. coming that was hilarious

SPEAKER_01:

yeah that was really good so

SPEAKER_00:

i think everybody should go see it i again like i didn't know much about like the bob character and i'm glad you didn't tell me that i feel like the whole thing like even though we've talked about it i don't really think as saying that the new avengers is much of a spoiler because i kind of figured that's what they were going to go for with this movie i would like to see i know we've got ant-man's daughter and the hawkeye the girl hawkeye hayley steinfeld's character were hanging out in a post-credit scene Are they going to meet up with these guys? What's going on?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know that Marvel knows sometimes what they're going to do with some of this stuff. I think sometimes, like we've had post-credit scenes that never get paid off. And I'm not sure if that one's going to be one of them or not.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like this one will get paid off. Well, this one is specific. No,

SPEAKER_01:

no. The post-credit scene of this movie was not directed by the director of this movie. It was directed by the directors of the Doctor Doom Avengers movie. The Russo brothers? Yeah, they directed it on set for that movie.

SPEAKER_00:

Dear Russo brothers, this is coming from Hope. Big Loki fan, if you guys bring back Loki for me to watch him die on screen again, especially my Loki, you know, out there holding the timelines together, and you take him away from me again, we're going to have some words. And I also truly am going to continue to gaslight myself that Wanda's still going to show up because I refuse to believe that she is gone. No, because the way they did her in Doctor Strange was straight up dirty. I want some justice for my Wanda. Elizabeth Olsen is like, there's what they've confirmed, like 30-some people are going to show up. Still no Elizabeth Olsen. But I'll still watch it.

SPEAKER_01:

All right,

SPEAKER_00:

folks. Don't mess with Loki again. I can't handle it.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's all we got for you this week. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in. Make sure and check out that fan mail section. Let us know what your favorite... Mid-tier.

SPEAKER_00:

Go enjoy a triple dipper.

SPEAKER_01:

Go enjoy a triple dipper and tell us that we're not wrong about Chili being the king.

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