11: "The Game Is a Foot" & "Last Looks" (Poker Face S2E1&2)

[00:00:00] Hmm? Ah! Hmm... You all played the same kid, huh? Yes, and? And? Think about it, so, the lies, the wildly wavering accents... Really, I hadn't picked up on that. Oh, sweetheart, Felicity's acting is second only to Hamber's Crystal the Drug Mule, and God rest her soul. Well, this is getting a little crazy. Yes, stay with me here.

[00:00:28] So, what if this Felicity Price is some sort of a, I don't know, an imposter? You know, another, another one. So, it's not quintuplets, it's a... What do you call that? Sextuplets? Sixtuplets! Sextuplets! Yeah, it's what I said. No, no, sextuplets. Yeah, six! Sex! Yeah, because there's six of them, right? No. Yeah, so there's six. Sex! No, that's why you call it six. Sex! It's six-six-six. Sex-six. Sex-six. It's Latin. Sex-six-six.

[00:00:58] Dude, I'm just fucking with you. Come on. Sexy tuplets saucy, okay? And number sex is pretending to be number five. Welcome to our podcast, I'm Penny. And I'm Peggy. And I'm Mandy.

[00:01:23] And this is Murder Magnets, a podcast dedicated to the Peacock original show, Poker Face. This episode, we are covering Poker Face Season 2, Episode 1, The Game is Afoot, directed by Natasha Leone and written by Laura Dealey. And Episode 2, Last Looks, also directed by Natasha Leone and written by Alice Jew.

[00:01:48] So welcome back, Murder Magneteers, to the Murder Magnets podcast. You might have noticed that we've got a different arrangement of hosts for Season 2. Woohoo! Jade will not be back, but Jason will be back guesting on a couple of future episodes. But I was very lucky that Becky and Mandy were able to join me.

[00:02:12] And you may know Becky from my other podcast, Still Slaying, where she's been a guest. And you may know both of them from their fantastic podcast, What's On Tonight. Do you guys want to talk about that a little bit? Yeah. What's On Tonight is our podcast. I wanted to, with the help of Mark with Parkour Entertainment, I really wanted to, I got, you know, I got the podcasting bug. And I wanted to do something.

[00:02:41] And Mandy was gracious enough to decide to go on the journey with me. And we started covering with covering what we do in the shadows, the final season. And then we, I talked Mandy into watching The Pit. And oh my gosh, it's been amazing. So we just, we talk about TV and whatever's going on in the world right now. Anything that comes to our mind, basically, we talk about it. So it's a, it's a great, great podcast.

[00:03:09] And I hope any listeners watching those shows will check us out. I hope so, too. So I'm excited to get going on Poker Face Season 2. My feelings on Season 1 are well documented. There's an entire season of Murder Magnets anybody can go back and listen to. But why don't you guys, first of all, Mandy, why don't you read the, what happened at the end of Season 1? And anything that you have sort of in your mind about Season 1 that you want to share before we jump into Season 2?

[00:03:39] Right on. At the end of Poker Face Season 1, Charlie Kale is in a precarious situation. Cliff Legrand, the man who framed her for murder, has been caught. But Charlie is still on the run. Cliff's plan to escape and frame Charlie backfired. And she was able to use incriminating evidence against Cliff to distract the authorities, allowing her to escape. Cliff flipped on Beatrix and she went into hiding. Beatrix offered Charlie a job with the five families as a human lie detector. But Charlie turned her down.

[00:04:09] So Beatrix sent a couple of goons after her. Charlie is on the run again. Which is what she does best. I love this show so much. I had forgotten just how much I love this show. Like, I knew that I loved it. I remembered how much it tickled me. I don't watch a lot of TV.

[00:04:29] If it's got to really be something special to grab my ADD brain and hold it for an entire season. Especially in a binge watch. But Natasha Lyonne, I would watch that woman do anything in the world. I loved Orange is the New Black. That was one of the last show, real streamer shows that I watched. And a lot of that had to do with just her charisma.

[00:04:59] And, you know, when I watched this first season, she had me at the first episode. Just like the... It just was like, of course she is the female Peter Falk. Like, she is doing such a great Columbo impersonation. But she's also doing this totally unique take. And Charlie Cale is a very different character in a lot of ways. Not just because she's female. But it's still just a great homage.

[00:05:27] I thought that they had just the best use of guest stars. They really... You could tell Rian Johnson, like he... You could see his fingerprints all over it. Because I also like... Very few movies can really hold my attention. But I love the Knives Out series. And bringing that sensibility to this and pairing it with Natasha. It just like... It's catnip to me, man.

[00:05:57] I loved every single episode last season. I was telling Becky, you know, every week when I would watch it, I would be texting her like, Oh my God, that's me and you. Or this is something. You've got to watch this show. I need somebody to talk to about this. Yeah, she pushed me. She's the reason I'm watching it. It started watching it. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that I might like this season even better, judging by these first two episodes. I'm really excited. Becky, how about you?

[00:06:27] So Mandy talked you into watching it in the first place. And then do you have like any favorite episodes from season one? Or favorite guest stars? My favorite guest star, oddly enough, is Howard from The Big Bang Theory. Oh, yeah. Really? Yeah, because you're so used to seeing him as goofy, kind of a jerk, Wolowitz on The Big Bang Theory.

[00:06:55] And then when he came on the screen, I was like, this is like a completely different person. And I loved the chemistry with him and Charlie. So he was probably my favorite guest star. The one that stands out when I did not go back and do a rewatch of the entire season when we were getting ready for this season. So he really, he's the one that stood out. Well, it's been two years. And I don't know about you, but my brain isn't getting any fresher.

[00:07:25] Yeah. It's hard to remember yesterday, much less. Right. But I'm looking through here to try to see if I can. Because I know what my favorite episode was. My favorite episode of the first season was the one with the two ladies in the nursing home. Oh, the Judith Light episode. I love that one. I was trying to see who was with her, who her cohort was in that episode. I think it's Esipatha-Merkerson. Hold on. I think you're right about that. Yeah, it was.

[00:07:56] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Judith Light and Esipatha-Merkerson, who used to be on one of the, she was like the chief on one of the procedural shows. I can't remember, but she was awesome. Anyway, that's my favorite. I loved that episode. I thought casting Judith Light as like a aging, you know, political activist slash terrorist was pretty hilarious. Yeah. And the performances were really good.

[00:08:22] And that was the one that the FBI agent played by that actor whose name I cannot remember, but the guy who plays Howard Wolowitz. Howard. I feel bad for that actor. He'll be remembered forever for the role of this real jerk. Howard Wolowitz. Simon Helberg. Simon Helberg. I hope he comes back. He's very talented. Yeah. I hope he comes back too. I thought that he was great in season one. But yeah, I like Mandy with Natasha Lyonne.

[00:08:50] I always remember her when anyone says American Pie. She's the one that comes to my mind over all of the other actors in that show. She was just such a standout with her character. And then, you know, I probably would not have watched Poker Face had Mandy not really, you know, urged me to do so. But I like Mandy said, she, you know, she reminds me of and oh, now his name just went out of my head.

[00:09:19] He played one of the astronauts in Armageddon that ended up getting strapped to the chair. Oh, Steve Buscemi. Yes, that's who she, she reminds me of a female Steve Buscemi. But when Steve Buscemi is acting, not who he is as a person. Yeah. If that makes sense. I can see that. Yeah. When there's a scene we'll get to in the first episode when she's got that daggum turkey leg and she's walking around looking at the house and her walk.

[00:09:49] And I'm just like, put her and Steve Buscemi in a show together. I need to see them side by side. But I love her. She, she was great. I also loved her in Orange is the New Black. And so, I mean, it's a no brainer once I saw what the show is about. It's a very unique show, very unique storyline compared to a lot of what the mystery shows out there, I guess, mystery comedy that are out there. So it just, it, it, I was sold.

[00:10:17] And so I was not one bit sad to join for season two because it's, I know every episode is going to be a bunch of laughs. So for this episode of the podcast, we're covering the first two episodes of season two. They did the thing where they dropped the first three episodes all at once. And at first we thought about trying to cover all three episodes on one episode of the podcast and it was just too much. So we're going to do two this week, two next week.

[00:10:46] And then after that, it'll be one a week, more normal schedule. And that'll be a lot easier. So this week we're covering season two, episode one. The game is a foot. Becky, you want to read the synopsis? Long-suffering Amber cares for her aging mother, hoping to inherit riches. When she discovers that her mother is leaving her fortune to her long-lost sister, Amber embarks on a plan to get what she deserves.

[00:11:16] Yeah, that's their money. Yeah. Yeah. I about died when I realized that that was Jasmine Guy. Yeah. Like, I'm like, Whitney, no! Whitney Gilbert. Well, she was one. Get out of the bed! I just watched a show called Grosse Pointe Garden Society. It's on NBC, I think. You could probably find it on Peacock.

[00:11:44] And she plays one of the girl's moms in the show. So seeing her wasn't such a shock, because I'd just seen her in a different show. Yeah, she's named her. I was thrilled when Cynthia Erivo came on screen and I realized that this was her episode. Like, I had seen her name on the list of guest stars for the season, but I didn't expect it to be in the first episode. And I have been avoiding all the press and all the reviews and everything because I don't like spoilers.

[00:12:14] And so I also didn't know she was going to be playing quintuplets. So it was such a treat when I realized what was happening. And I was like, oh my god! Oh my god! It's Cynthia Erivo times five! Like, that's just the coolest thing ever. And she killed it. I love her. Yeah, she's so funny. Wow. Each one was so different. Not a moment of using her amazing singing voice either. This was all just her comedic acting and it was so good. They could have written a role for her where she was a singer, but they didn't.

[00:12:44] No. I appreciated that she... I appreciated Cynthia Erivo again is what that episode did for me because I saw her in the Harriet Tubman movie several years ago and she was amazing. She was such a great actor. Didn't we see that together back in here? Yeah. Yeah. And she was awesome in that. I have not watched Wicked. Oh, it's so good. I just am not a musical...

[00:13:11] I've seen the actual Broadway production and I've enjoyed it, but it's just not anything I feel like I need to revisit. But I sometimes go through heavy periods of watching TikTok. And I wanted to clack her and Ariana Grande's heads together so many times through the press release of Wicked because I love them. I mean, maybe I'm just being hard on them. It may be that they are just exhausted and tired from doing it.

[00:13:39] But every clip of them... Did you see the famous one of the... I didn't know people were holding space. And they would start crying and touching hands. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They were in love. That press tour was pretty absurd. There were a lot of bizarre moments that came out of it. But I sort of loved it because I was like, everything that they were doing was strange and harmless. Right? I was like, they're not hurting anyone. They're not, like, punching down.

[00:14:09] They're not picking on anyone. They're just so over the moon excited to be living their dream that they're just... I don't know. They're, like, emoting all over the place. I kind of loved it. And every time I saw another clip of one of them, like, breaking into tears and, like, holding their fingers or any of that stuff, it just made me so happy. It's the opposite. Again, I am very glad with everything else going on in the world. Definitely completely harmless. I just have never...

[00:14:38] As for somebody with as... It's totally hypocritical. For somebody with as dramatic a personality as I have, I find people that dramatic to be completely exhausting. Like, they check... Why are you friends with me? You're... You are not that dramatic, Becky. I don't know if I would want to, like, hang out with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo when they're in that place. You know, that weird space that they've lived in for months and months and months.

[00:15:06] I don't think that it would be fun to, like, have dinner with them. I think it would be really weird and hard. But watching them on Instagram, like, delightful. Really... Total opposite. It's so funny. I would love to go to... I would love to go to dinner with them. I would love that. I would just be sitting back drinking champagne and going, that's such... That's such stuff I'm talking about right there. Yeah. Y'all are weirdos.

[00:15:30] But when I'm scrolling through TikToks, I just am looking for, like, cute dogs or, you know... Yeah. Like... That's fair. That is kind of the purpose of social media. Right. And just, like... But I'm also, like, kind of sniffy about... Probably too sniffy about things like The Real Housewives and all of... Like, I'm just not into Melody. Oh, I don't like... I don't like those shows.

[00:15:57] Well, I sort of hinted already, so I'm going to jump in and say what my moment to die for was. And it's when the camera pans up from Felicity or Amber, but Felicity's body at the bottom of the cliff. And you pan up and then you see one Cynthia Erivo, two Cynthia Erivos, three Cynthia Erivos pop into screen. I was like, oh my God, it's all of them! Like, I was so happy. That's in my notes. I thought that was really great.

[00:16:24] And then they revisit it later, but then Natasha Lyonne pops in fourth. And you're like, oh, she was there the whole time. Like, they do it every episode of the show. When they get to the second half, they're like, Charlie was there the whole time and you didn't see her. And I'm always like, oh, that's right. She's always there the whole time. It gets me by surprise every episode. Yeah. Like a thing bad. Yeah, I had forgotten about that until the first... Until I saw that. I kept sitting there going, where is Natasha Lyonne?

[00:16:54] And then I was like, oh yeah, that's the whole thing. They always pop her in and the second half is so great. What were your moments to die for? Mandy, what was yours? Oh man. I think that my moment to die for is actually something that I didn't catch until the second watch, the rewatch.

[00:17:15] And that's when Amber comes up on her Felicity, her long lost sister in the woods for the first time. She's welding a Bigfoot statue. Yeah. Which turns out to be really important later on. It was, it's a major clue. Right. But it just seems like a throwaway joke at first. Yeah. Yeah. Becky, how about you?

[00:17:44] My, I had two that I went back and forth on, went back and forth on, and went back and forth on. But on second watch, this one made me laugh harder than it did the first time. And that's the cop when they're Delia and Charlie are sitting outside and she's got her turkey leg and the dog steals the turkey leg. And the cop starts talking about the foot.

[00:18:10] He says, you can't expect a human foot to stay on the beach and no one take it anywhere. And then he says, then he goes on to talk about how Footloose is now stuck in his head and he just sings it. And then he just walks off. Yeah. And Delia starts singing it. So I, I, that, I just, I had me crying laughing both times. I wrote down in, cause I wrote like all of the lines. There's such great writing in this show.

[00:18:40] Just so many little things that you really have to pay attention to, which are my favorite kind of shows. Things that you really, they're kind of nerdy and geeky and you have to really pay attention to catch the references. But I wrote down, so I wrote down like a lot of my favorite lines. And first of all, I loved that damn turkey leg. Yeah. That she had in every scene. Just loved it. Loved like, I don't know if you noticed, but there was one scene where the lawyer was eating a turkey leg and he wasn't finishing it.

[00:19:09] And she grabbed it and picked it off his plate and started eating it. But what he said to the dog when he came up was, wrong leg, baby girl. Wrong leg. You'll get it next time. Yeah. Then he tries to give it back to Charlie and she's like, no, no. No, that's late. He dies now. You're going ahead with that. The fact that the dog's name is Lady Di. Yeah. That's amazing.

[00:19:33] I was sitting there and Becky knows I have a bit of a morbid, well, you don't like to call it morbid streak. I like curiosities is one way to put it. And I was absolutely sitting there thinking you can't leave a human leg on the beach and expect somebody not to pick it up. Yeah. Because I totally wouldn't. Well, I don't know if I would. I don't think I would. I would not pick it up. No. I'd probably take some photos.

[00:20:01] Oh, I would definitely take photos. I'm not touching it. I'd call the cops. I would only not touch it because I would think it was a crime scene. I, when I was in Morocco, we were taking this tour through the markets of Fez and I stopped dead in my tracks and pulled my camera out. My friend's like, what? What are you taking a picture of? And it was a table full of just the heads of the goats. And they were all lined up perfectly. Oh, my gosh.

[00:20:31] And they were all facing the same direction. And they were all in this little grid. And she was like, you're gross. You're so gross.

[00:21:05] And I was like, no.

[00:21:14] I don't know if you're going to travel at the age of 11 months.

[00:21:36] I was in Africa.

[00:22:06] And everything was stewed meat with couscous. Like, every night for dinner. After a while, I was like, I just, I can't eat anymore. I need, I need a salad. I just need a salad. Can we, I was hot. No more couscous. Yeah. I just, and when I came home, somebody tried to take me out for dinner to a Moroccan restaurant because I had just come back from Morocco. And I was like, no, no. Taco Bell please. Right? Yeah.

[00:22:36] Back then I did eat meat though. So it was easier than it would be now. I don't eat meat. It would be a lot harder to eat in Morocco. There's goat and lamb and everything. Yeah. I don't know a lot about Moroccan food, but I do know that it's a lot of stews with a lot of ungulate meat. Yeah. There's a lot of meat. Which is not a phrase I was expecting to say today. Yeah. That's good. Hang out with me more and you'll have more occasion to say all kinds of unusual things. Let's see. Where were we?

[00:23:04] Should we do the favorite lines now or should we do those at the end? Oh, you tell me. I've got so many. I haven't ever. I've got tons of them. That was my favorite part of this. Like I said, it was just the excellent writing. It's just the little things. There's a lot of great one-liners. And then there's also a lot of great like short monologues, right? Like every now and then Charlie will go off on a subject and get kind of philosophical. It's really entertaining. Yeah. I have a bunch of one-liners.

[00:23:34] Let's just do it. It'll be fun. Let's go through them. My first, the very first line that I think the very first line that Jasmine Guy said, she gave her, maybe the second or third, when Amber gave her the tea and she goes, it's tepid. I don't know why. Did that just, the use of the word tepid just cracked my face. I thought that was so perfect for this character. So mean. She was so mean. Yeah.

[00:24:03] Well, my favorite early on in the episode is when Amber has started texting her sisters that she's going through some things and she looks like Felicity. And Jasmine Guy is, what's her name? What's the mom's name? Norma. Norma. Starts laughing at her saying she looks like Mario. Oh, yeah.

[00:24:32] She starts choking. And Amber's like, it's okay. You can go now. I'm ready. Probably what I'm going to say to anyone that's passing in my presence. You can go. I'm ready. I'm ready. It's fine. This has nothing to do with you, by the way. It's only about whether or not I'm ready. Yeah. Amber is a piece of work. Oh, my God. Amber. Amber. So funny. I love her.

[00:24:57] You know, that gave me a little bit of sympathy for her that all four of her or three of her sisters and even the fourth, actually, who didn't know she was on kid cop nights, was a better artist than she was. So, yeah. I kind of have some sympathy for Amber there. I feel like I've always been a bit of a salieri, too. Like, I can see talent. But that doesn't necessarily mean I have it.

[00:25:21] And here she is, like, the one that stays and takes her mom's crap her whole life. And, you know, all she's remembered for is being a terrible actress. Yeah. She was on Etsy. She was featured on Etsy three times. That's right. She'll be the Gauguin of Etsy. That's a better way to look at it. Instead of the salieri of her sister, she's the Gauguin of Etsy. That's a much better way to look at it. You're right. Oh, my God.

[00:25:48] So, one of the major themes of the episode is sort of like, and it's dealt with very casually, but, like, what is art? What is real art? What makes a real artist? And there's a conversation where Charlie and Deedee are trying to figure out about Felicity because she doesn't add up because, of course, she's Amber. And they ask Paul, the lawyer, like, is she a real mixed media artist? And Paul interprets that as you want me to tell you whether or not she's a real artist?

[00:26:18] Like, I can almost see going through his head, like, art is subjective. And, you know, it changes with the times and it kind of depends on the point of view. And, you know, and then they're like, no, like, is that really what she does? He's like, oh, here's a pamphlet from her show. Like, and it was such a throwaway moment. But I was like, yeah, what is art? What does count as art? Like, Amber makes these spangled, really sad constructions. But, like, it's art. It's expressive.

[00:26:48] And does the result not being, you know, aesthetically pleasing negate the fact that she put creativity and time and effort into creating them? I think it still counts as art. Yeah. Well, in a different family, she would have been told exactly that. I think that Charlie called it the unobserved pageant of the ordinary. Yeah.

[00:27:10] I noticed that theme running through, too, that, like, several times they were having these little philosophical digressions about what really, who is allowed to judge what is art and what is not. And, you know, who is it that said, like, whatever it is that you want to do, do it badly until you can do it well.

[00:27:30] Well, and having, like, being in that space with podcasting right now with my podcast that I'm doing on my own and really not having any clue what I'm doing as far as editing or sound goes, I have some empathy for Amber. Sometimes you just got to do something even if you don't know if anyone else will love it. Yeah. You just got to do. But unfortunately, Amber was not satisfied with her own creations. No. And I don't blame her.

[00:27:59] I have a lot of sympathy for Amber right up until she murders Felicity. Even killing her mother, I wasn't really all that upset about. Right. But killing Felicity was kind of unforgivable. Did she kill her mom, though, or did she just? She unhooked something. Well, she didn't give her pain. I thought it was her medicine injection button thing she took away from her. Oh, I thought she actually, like, turned off the oxygen or something.

[00:28:27] We need a medical person to tell us what happened there. Yeah. She took the oxygen mask off. And I agree with Penny. I think she unplugged something important. So they'd already established her mom was dying. I think she just kind of hastened her to her end. Yeah. Okay. I just thought she didn't give her her painting. I do want to say that her filling up that pill case and slapping the lids closed annoyingly is what my life looks like every two weeks when I have to refill my pill case.

[00:28:57] It's like, I felt her annoyance at that moment. Yeah. So we meet Felicity. And Felicity is like a quote-unquote real artist, right? She's like, she's stripped away everything and moved off the grid. And she's incredibly pretentious the way she talks about her identity and art. But I also kind of understand what she's talking about.

[00:29:20] Like, if you want to get to the core of who you are and if that's what you're trying to do as an artist is express your innermost self, then you do kind of need to shed the trappings of fashion and style and social media and everyday life and societal expectations and live off the grid. Because all those other things crowd our identity a lot and keep us from really being introspective. I am an artist as well. I don't know if I'm any good. But I have found –

[00:29:50] You are. Thank you, Becky. I have found that I needed to disconnect myself from certain societal expectations and activities in order to be creative. And also, and this is for Amber, had to give myself permission to make bad and ugly art. Like, just make some art that it doesn't matter if anyone likes to look at it when you're done. The process of making it teaches you something about you and about your medium. Yeah.

[00:30:18] And I – it was very freeing. An artist friend of mine said that to me. She's like, don't be afraid to make bad art. And I was like, okay. And I took it to heart and I made some really ugly paintings. Like, bad. Just so bad. But it was very freeing and I did eventually start making paintings I liked again. So, I think that was – Yeah, that's kind of what I meant earlier when I was talking about – I understood that part of her too because I'm in that process. The learning part. I'm making probably ugly art.

[00:30:48] Yeah, but I'm enjoying it. It's very fulfilling. And I really think that it gets a little bit better every time. And I think that's really all you can do. Yeah. Because somebody out there is going to be a hater. If you get too caught up in trying to make art that everybody will like, then it's not going to be as fulfilling to you. You just can't have that in your head. Right. Then you end up, like, with photos of lighthouses, which I have done.

[00:31:16] They're very aesthetically pleasing, but they're not very creatively fulfilling. Right. Well, I think your picture of a table of goat heads probably makes any other picture you've ever taken. Pailing comparison. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Pailing – yeah. That's – Yeah. Because that's fabulous. The lighting was beautiful. Make a copy and send us one. Yeah.

[00:31:41] I'll see if I can get a digital copy so I can put it on – maybe on my Insta and people can take a look. I definitely need to see that. One of the – back to, like, the quotes that they had. God, there were so many. I don't know if you guys noticed it, but when she first realized that there were more than one of – when Charlie first realized. Yes.

[00:32:05] And one of them, she said something about this being Anastasia, dirty rotten scoundrels type situation. That cracked me up because I love that movie, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. And both of those are situations where somebody is supposed to be somebody else, but they're really tricking everybody. So I thought that that was great that they built that in there.

[00:32:32] And there was another really, really good line. Oh, best intergenerational kiss. Oh, my God. That was so gross. We won five years in a row. Yeah. And it took me a beat. I was like, oh, best kiss. Wait, intergenerational. Oh, no. Yeah. Right. And all I could think of was the guy, Scoop McGillicuddy or whatever. Yeah. Please say it wasn't Scoop. Yeah.

[00:33:02] Gross. I was like, oh, gross. But I want to, when you're talking about her comment about the girls, how many there are. I thought you were going to say when Natasha Lyonne sees Felicity and says, man, they got to stop beating these girls after midnight. Yeah. I love that one. Gremlins reference. So I thought that's where you were going with that one. That was really good.

[00:33:28] What about their names being Amber, BBC, C, D-D-D-D. Yeah. And Felicity or, well, it was Darla. Wasn't it? Delia. Well, Delia. But they call her D-D. Doesn't it make you think there's an E out there somewhere? Like. Absolutely. Like, and maybe it's an Eric. Like, maybe there's going to be like another episode with Delia and a long lost brother who's the E person. I don't know. Or a sister.

[00:33:56] So who was your favorite out of all of the. Which one? Not D-D, Bebe. The DJ. The DJ. The DJ. She had some of the best lines in the entire thing. And my favorite was when, I forget, I can't even, I didn't write it down. And because I said, oh, I'm going to remember that.

[00:34:19] But something when she's doing her set, she sets up the set during the funeral or the wake or whatever. And she's just jamming and she looks up and she's like, rest in spangled heaven, Amber, or whatever. I was like, yes! I think it was spangled power. Spangled power. Rest in spangled power. Oh my God. Oh my God. I loved Bebe. Ugh. She was my favorite in that also.

[00:34:47] Like, when I was talking earlier about how this made me fall back in love with Cynthia Erivo as an actress. This has washed away all of my frustration with the Wicked promo series. Because I'm reminded how talented she is. I, like, I have never seen her play comedic. And she did such a great job. Especially with Bebe. Yeah. She got, like, that was, like, such an airhead.

[00:35:15] Well, she said, does this mean we all have different fingerprints? Yeah. Wow. Whoa. I, personally, I loved Amber pretending to be Dee Dee. I thought her impression of Dee Dee was hilarious. Where she's like, fine, I'll sign the thing. She's, like, walking around like a linebacker. She's got the beanie pulled all the way down. Like, it was so. And the other sisters were like, hmm. Like, okay. Like, they didn't even. They just bought it. Yeah.

[00:35:46] Ridiculous. It's obvious they spend so little time together. They're off. They're not close. Yeah. So... God, you made me just forget what I was going to say. I'm sorry. Oh, no, you didn't. That was nothing you did on purpose. I was just. I know what it was. It's weird doing this with three people. Because it's like a double dutch. You just got to jump in there. I've never done it with three people before. You can keep that quote in the podcast, too, by the way.

[00:36:14] You've done it with us on What's On Tonight with Sam and Wendy. Oh, yeah. That's right. We did do it that way. That went over your head, too. I'm glad to know we weren't. Oh, I got it. I know what double dutch is. No, she's talking about. She's never done it with three. Oh, done it with three people. I didn't hear that and I was going to let it go. But that's all right. Dang it. But now I've done this to myself again. I've completely forgotten what the point is that I was going to make. That's awesome. Well, how about we.

[00:36:43] Let's talk real quick about just because we've danced around it a little bit. Kid Cop Nights. And what an amazing in-show fake show Kid Cop Nights looks like. I really want to watch a whole episode. It looks horrible. Like a horrible show that apparently ran for at least nine seasons. Yeah. Because at one point they're like, season nine took place entirely inside a coma patient's head who was shot in the neck by her evil twin. And Charlie goes, oh, yeah, the coma season.

[00:37:12] That was really beautiful. Like, what? It's such an 80s movie show. I like Civil War. Civil War. Civil War Christmas. Yeah. And, Benny, you were talking before we started about that you had gotten a little bit down a rabbit hole about blaxploitation films. Was that because the artist, when they were asking who their favorite guest stars were during the show, Cece said that hers was, oh, my God, I just realized Cece, like she's French. Yeah. Cece, yeah.

[00:37:42] Yeah. Dang it, maybe. Yes, the show is so good. Anyway, when she talked about Tamara Dobson was her favorite guest stars. Yeah, who played their paternal great, great, great grandmother or something in Kid Cop a Civil War Christmas. Yeah, because she was a major blaxploitation star of the early 70s, best known for playing Cleopatra Jones in the movie Cleopatra Jones. And if you don't mind, I'll do my little tangent on blaxploitation. Sure, absolutely.

[00:38:11] I was a film major, so this is the kind of stuff I do. Blaxploitation is a name, a portmanteau that is applied generally to films from the late 60s and early 70s that were primarily starring black people with, you know, supposedly black stories. And originally those films in the beginning were black stories for black audiences with black creative people behind them.

[00:38:40] And then, as always happens, white people started liking them and then rich white people were like, why don't we make movies with black people in them but for white audiences and we'll play up all the racial stereotypes so white audiences will like them. And that's where the exploitation part of blaxploitation comes in, is that they sort of culturally appropriated this genre of films and then turned it into something racist for white audiences.

[00:39:08] The interesting thing is that in the years since then, starting in sort of the early 90s, black filmmakers and black people in general started sort of reclaiming the blaxploitation films and being like, even though they were exploitative, they're still a part of our history. And these are still characters that resonated with some of us for very good reasons. And so we're taking it back. So it's a little bit of a controversial set of films in film theory because, frankly,

[00:39:36] as a white person, it makes me uncomfortable to watch them because I'm like, oh, God, this is so racist. But then I'll have like a friend who's black be like, oh, but when I was a kid and I saw this movie, it felt like this to me and it meant this to me. And then I'm like, but then can I watch it or not? It's a very confusing problem. I don't know if that's the right word for it for a white film lover is like, do I watch these movies? Do I not watch these movies? Do I enjoy these movies? Do I not enjoy them?

[00:40:02] Do I enjoy when like somebody like Quentin Tarantino takes Pam Greer and puts her in a modern movie that sort of plays on blaxploitation stereotypes? I don't really know what the right answer is. I don't think Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne know either. I think they're throwing it out there for us to like grab onto as part of their overall love for the 70s that they're like, yes, that was a thing. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's another one of those little moments that you mentioned again before we

[00:40:29] started where they were sprinkling in things that they wanted us to go and look into on our own. Yeah. To draw something to draw attention to. Same with the Erica Jong book in the opening montage when, you know, Charlie is talking to the other parking attendant and she goes on her whole thing about the pageant of the unobserved or the unobserved pageant of everyday life. And then she's like, how's your book? And he's reading Erica Jong's Fear of Flying.

[00:40:56] And he goes, a very second wave, which is not the response you would expect from someone who looks like that. So it was extra funny to me. And second wave refers to second wave feminism, which was from the early 60s to the early 80s or maybe late 60s to late 80s. Anyway, it's about a 20 year period. And this is another one that's got a problematic history because second wave feminism is very largely, was very largely sort of spearheaded by white women in America, white American women.

[00:41:24] And it's been criticized a lot for being non-intersectional. And the movement for intersectionality that sort of coincided with third wave feminism is often seen as a reaction to just how white second wave feminism is. But second wave feminism did do a lot of good things, especially in the areas of things like reproductive freedom and women's rights to have a sex life, which had been largely ignored by sort of earlier waves of feminism. Interesting.

[00:41:53] And I enjoyed the shout out. I didn't know that. Fear of Flying specifically is an erotic novel. That's like, it's very liberating. Apparently a lot of like women in unhappy marriages, it was known to be like a favorite book for those women because it's about a woman who goes to another country and indulges in her sexual fantasies. So it's like a real escapist thing for women who are maybe in an oppressed situation. Fantasy stuff. That's pretty heavy. And by heavy, I mean heavy breathing.

[00:42:23] Yeah. It's, I haven't read the whole thing, but it's very sexy. It's been a long time, but I thought that that was one of the best parts of the, that was another one of those are, those are going to be my favorite things about this season. And just like they were last season is just looking for these Easter eggs. Yeah. These little tiny shout outs. Yeah. I love them. Yeah. So yeah, they mentioned Tamara Dobson as a favorite co-host, a co-star, and then Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was in season one of Poker Face.

[00:42:52] I felt like that was a shout out. That was just a direct shout out to, to people who are fans of this show. And I was like, oh yeah. And he was a villain, which was so great. Like he's usually a hero. So it was so fun to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a jerk role. I had completely forgotten that he was in it when I heard that. I was too busy laughing about he was Kid Cop's first love. Yeah. First kid love, right? Yeah.

[00:43:18] And Kid Cop Nights, I love the whole premise that like the only way you can, you can create a television show about a kid that takes place after dark is if you have quadruplets playing the main character because of all the child labor laws. Like there's, you can't keep kids up past their bedtime to act or for more than a couple of hours a day. So if you have four of them, you can spread that out and get your job done. It's just clever. Yeah. And then Norma took it all.

[00:43:48] I remember what I was going to say was, it cracked me up that she was, she kept trying to make butt munch a thing. Holy butt munch. Trying to make fetch happen. Yeah. Yeah. She just kept it like, when she, the first time that she said, holy butt munch, I about cracked up. And then when they showed her as an actress, it's a little kid saying it too. And let's talk about the drug mule. Yeah. I can't remember the name of the character. Oh, Crystal. Crystal the drug mule.

[00:44:18] Why is she dressed like a dance hall girl from the West? Like a riverboat saloon worker. Yeah. Right. Oh, and another choice that Amber made, Amber made. Why did she give Felicity, who was supposed to be from rural Vermont, a Southern accent? Yeah. Inexplicable, right? She just wanted to do a Southern accent. Like what? I think so. This was her chance to be whatever.

[00:44:48] Yes. To be whatever she, all these things that she wasn't. This was her chance to be this, in that monologue that she had with Charlie. With Charlie. Oh my gosh. About Felicity being a constructed identity. Yeah. Yeah. She was living all of that. And she, she's asked, she mentioned something about the fake Southern accent.

[00:45:15] And she's like, well, it's, it's what she, she was just getting a chance to do whatever. And I, I think she killed, she killed it. But yeah, it was. She did, she did in that one speech, she had like German, British, which cracked me up. Cause I thought, is that Cynthia Erivo's real? Like, was she sneaking in her own accent there? Yeah. Yeah. Like German, British, the, the Southern again.

[00:45:43] And then just like her regular Amber's regular voice, all in like the space of one little conversation. But I love how she spun it, that everything she was saying was true. And it threw Charlie off her scent for a minute because she, she was being real and honest, but also keeping up her ruse. It was, it was brilliant acting and brilliant writing.

[00:46:07] And I love that it threw Charlie off her game for just a minute before she goes and realize it wasn't Delia that she was talking to the first time. It was Felicity. I mean, that, that was never going to last, right? That the second real Delia came back and said, I didn't sign that. Like it was all going to fall apart for Amber, but she was so desperate.

[00:46:31] Like, you know, there's some book or something I read about, about crime and said that most people who commit crimes get caught because they improvise and they stray from their own plan or they do something that they haven't planned in advance. And it's, she planned the Felicity invitation pretty far in advance, but she did that Delia one on the fly. And she was not even thinking far enough ahead to, she's going to come back with the car and be back here in like an hour.

[00:47:01] And I'm going to have to deal with that. Like she was so like freaked out and desperate in that moment that she took this huge swing. And it really is what took her down because I think that if she hadn't done that and she had let Delia and Charlie leave, like she might've gotten away with the Felicity thing. Oh no, the cops eventually figured it out anyway. Right. Because of the figure. Which was also hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. That all of this was unnecessary because eventually Barney Fife and his friend were going to go

[00:47:29] fingerprint the corpse. The dead body. The corpse. Right. Which they probably should have done in the first place. Poor Felicity, man. She didn't do anything to deserve that. No. She didn't. No. I felt like, like in a real world, what would it be like if you found out all of a sudden in your forties, late thirties, what have you, that you have, not only do you have your quadruplet, but you're actually a, what is it? A quintuplet? Yeah, a quintuplet.

[00:47:59] A quintuplet. Which now leads me to want to talk about sex. That was my second. Sexy tuplets. That was my second choice for a moment to die for. The sexy tuplets? That was so good. Oh my God. I think there may be sex tuplets. Sex tuplets. I don't know if this show has really done that, having characters come back around.

[00:48:25] Only the FBI guy and the main mobsters came back in season one. Yeah, I think that's the only time. But I feel like they could bring Delia back and have her have a long lost brother who's the E name. I just, there's a completionist in me that just is like, there's no E, they need an E. But if they had an E, would you want them to just keep going? Until Norma had 26? No, that would be enough. I'd be happy with E. You feel like E is what would satisfy you?

[00:48:54] Yeah, I think I'd be good with E. It would close the gap. I understand what you're saying. There's a gap missing. I do want to talk for a minute about the connection with Dee Dee and Charlie. Yeah. I really liked that. I liked how, I liked, just going to segue into several points, but I liked how they gave us the little mini updates about what Charlie's been doing and how she ended up at this apple

[00:49:24] orchard. I loved the hayride zombie and the quotes where he says, well, they're talking about something. And he says, well, that's what I'm saying. Late stage capitalism is turning us all into zombies. That's why we have to unionize. And Charlie says, I'm pretty sure I'm a mummy. And then she starts getting shot at and everyone on the hayride is like, Jason versus zombie.

[00:49:52] It didn't even care about all of the gunshots, which is the next thing. I think those gunmen are the worst shooters. Oh yeah. They're like stormtrooper levels. So bad. But also they were shooting at her in like broad daylight in public places in front of witnesses. And shouted out who they were, they were there for being tricks. Yeah. First and last name.

[00:50:19] Do you know what I just realized after we got finished that whole conversation is that I did not realize. I just thought you meant like, for whatever reason you wanted there to be another kid. It just dawned on me that there's an E missing. Oh, precious. This is how stupid I am. When I noticed that it was A, B, C, D, I was like, that feels weird though. Like is Felicity? Yeah. Felicity's next. It was just missed E entirely. That's hilarious. And for me.

[00:50:49] Maybe it's Elphaba. Maybe it is Elphaba. Oh my. All right. Get the writers on the phone. They could do, if not an actual episode of the show, it would make an amazing SNL sketch. Yes. It would. Oh, it would. Yep. Get the writers on the phone. We're about to make y'all some money.

[00:51:13] But I like how, you know, Dee Dee lied for her without hesitation. And she covered for Charlie. And then she didn't ask questions. She was like, I don't know what you're running from. But, you know, and then the little sweet moment they had when they were connecting over Kid Cop. And they kind of like put their heads on each other's, leaning their heads against each other as they're watching the episode.

[00:51:43] And how Charlie was such a supporter of her, of Delia through the whole episode. And I would not be upset if Delia made an appearance again later. I could see that making sense. And that Charlie could hide out on the apple farm or something. I really loved that, the chemistry and the connection. Which is funny because they were all the same person.

[00:52:11] But, you know, Cynthia Erivo is acting as every single person. But something about her and Dee Dee's connection I just thought was really very, very cool. Well, Dee Dee's the only, Dee Dee and Amber were the only ones that got any kind of depth to their character, right? Like, B.B. and Cece are kind of caricatures. They're delightful caricatures. But they're not, we don't get a lot of backstory. We don't get a lot of, like, detail about their lives. And same with Felicity. Which I think is, I think it's why they planned for them to be Dee Dee and Cece. Yeah.

[00:52:39] Or B.B. and Cece. Non-playing characters. Yeah, non-playable characters. They were NPCs. Yeah. I was thinking about other shows and movies where there's one actor that plays multiple roles where they're on screen with themselves like that.

[00:53:07] And, of course, the gold standard of that is Orphan Black with Tatiana Maslany. Have you guys seen it? Mm-mm.

[00:53:44] And it's really worth watching just for the acting alone, but it's also a fun sci-fi show. But this reminded me a lot of it because there were a bunch of scenes where Cynthia Erivo was on screen with herself. And I found myself wondering about the technical aspects of it. Like, did she have, like, you know, were there, like, three stand-in actors who were about her size and coloring who would put on the costume and stand in the right places when she was acting each part so that she had someone to act off of?

[00:54:13] Or, like, was it, like, a tennis ball that she had to make eye contact with? I just was very curious about how they put those scenes together where they have her playing three or four roles at once. Yeah, I'd love to see a behind-the-scenes or a making of that episode because that's – I am curious, too, how they pulled that off so well. Yeah. It's a lot of, like, you have to hit your exact mark.

[00:54:38] You have to be in the exact right place for the camera because we're going to composite you with the other scene of you and the other scene of you. So, like, there's a lot of technical acting that goes on at the same time that she's delivering these full, you know, people to us. It just reminds me of some of the behind-the-scenes stuff on Wicked where they were talking about how she was singing while she was doing all that broom aerial work. And, like, the behind-the-scenes, they show her singing.

[00:55:06] And she sounds as good as she sounds in a studio or on a Broadway stage while she's being, like, flung around the air on a broomstick. I just have so much respect for her craft as an actor. Like, her talent is immense, but she's also incredibly controlled to be able to do all those things at the same time and, like, hit her marks and do all that stuff. I'm so impressed by it. Yeah, she's fascinating to watch on screen. Yeah.

[00:55:35] I hope she does more comedy. I didn't really know if she would have comedy chops, but she really does. Yeah, for sure. I want to talk a little bit about the title. The title is The Game is a Foot, not a foot. So that is very clearly a play on the phrase The Game is a Foot, A-F-O-O-T, all one word, which means that something is beginning, something has started.

[00:56:00] It's believed that it comes from when, I guess people still hunt, but when hunters would, like, they would release the fox and they'd be like, ah, the game is a foot, like, it's literally on its feet running. That's the beginning of the hunt. It was first identified in a Shakespeare play, King Henry IV, Part I, in 1597.

[00:56:18] But it's more often associated with Sherlock Holmes and his author, Arthur Conan Doyle, who used the phrase just in one story, The Adventure of the Abbey Grange in 1904. But it just has become associated as something Sherlock Holmes would say in popular culture. And it shows up in, like, various adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. He always says that, like, when he's, like, sniffed out a criminal. He's like, ah, the game is a foot.

[00:56:44] I'm glad you pointed that out because I got the pun, but I didn't really understand. I forgot about the fact that that was something that Sherlock used to say a lot, which would play into the whole it's a mystery. Yeah, like this homage to other detectives, like other famous popular culture. Right. I missed that. Yeah. That's very cool. The second episode, I don't, I didn't get anything from that title, Last Looks. I didn't, I don't know if there's something there. I think it's...

[00:57:12] Last Look is the last look you do at somebody before they close the casket. Yeah, I guess it's just a very direct reference. I was thinking it had to do with film, like in modeling or photography when you're photographing or filming someone. That last look before you say action or whatever. That's what I thought it meant. Maybe. I took it to men literally the last, because that's what they call it.

[00:57:42] Before they close the casket, they call the family up to have the last look. Oh, I didn't know that. That makes sense. I didn't either. That's got to be what it is. Yeah. Because not only did we have our last look at, well, we're jumping ahead, but at Greta and then almost of Charlie, but also Banshee, the motorcycle grandma. Yeah. I can't wait to talk about old Banshee. But going back to the female friendship part of this, Becky, and I love that scene too.

[00:58:09] And one of the things that I think is so great about Rian Johnson in this series and everything he does, as far as I can tell, is that he does, it's kind of like the way we talk about on The Pit, Becky, how well they do diversity. Diversity, it's so realistically, you know, it's not something that it feels like it's forced or shoehorned in. It's very organically, this is actually what people look like on a film set.

[00:58:39] It is diverse. It is a lot of different types of people. And going through this country, she meets a lot of different types of families and individuals and characters. And that's what America genuinely looks like. It's not like you have this one episode where it feels like he's there featuring diversity. And I think that he does a really good job of writing female characters and highlighting female friendships.

[00:59:04] And, you know, one of the overarching themes that I think you can take away, and I think it's being played up even more in this season, is that Charlie is becoming very lonely. And it's really hard for her to keep making these friendships and then have to move on over and over and over again. And it's more of a theme in the next episode that we'll get to. But that kind of made me so sad for her that you could tell she genuinely enjoys.

[00:59:32] She's a social creature, and she really liked Delia. And it just hurts your heart that she had to move on from yet another friendship. Yeah. And, yeah, Delia asked her to fully, like, go in with her on the business and basically be a partner. And it was this amazing fantasy for Charlie. Like, I could take a rest and I could be in one place and I could just do something simple with my life that doesn't have guns in it.

[01:00:00] And I think we all kind of want that for her. I thought it was really interesting that Delia asked her about her dream. And Charlie said, you know, she got uncomfortable and didn't want to do introspection, but also doesn't really have a dream to find because she doesn't have time to have a dream, right? She's always on the run. Yeah. And then Delia brought it up more than once and was like, maybe we can figure out what your dream is. And then Charlie had to run. And I'm starting to think that her dream is going to be going back and living with Delia on that apple orchard.

[01:00:30] That would be amazing. Yeah. I don't know. I think I don't know how they feel about doing a season three or if that's something that's in the works. I actually feel like I did read somewhere that they've already committed to a season three, but you know, the conceit of her just constantly being on the run. I don't know how long they plan on keeping that up. And so I could totally see that that is going to be an underlying theme throughout the series is her getting back to rest, like to a point.

[01:00:58] And like, I just, as we're sitting here talking, I realized that Charlie is the game that is a foot. Like that was such a perfect, it works on so many different levels. It's like you're starting the season off. So you're getting things running. You know, you've got this foot joke. And then you also literally, to your point about it coming from as a hunting metaphor, Charlie's the game. She's being hunted. And she is constant. Yeah. She's running much like a fox from hunters.

[01:01:26] So that worked really, they're such good writers. It is nice that for once it wasn't, it wasn't Charlie's friend who gets murdered. Right. So often her friend gets murdered and then she's like left to figure out what happened because she cares about the person. And in this case, at least her friend is alive at the end of the episode. Yeah. I was thankful for that. Like she got one break there.

[01:01:53] I love the final scene where they're sitting there talking and she's halfheartedly joking, but I think also wishing that she could stay and live this life and how great it is. And then she makes the comment, you know, what am I even running from? And then immediately a bullet flies through her cup and she's like, oh yeah, right. And she takes off running.

[01:02:17] So I loved how they brought it all full circle, but it did leave you kind of feeling a pain in your heart. It is sad. The other shows that I often bring up when I'm trying to explain this show to people are the 1970s Incredible Hulk TV series. Yeah. And how David Banner was so lonely and it was a major theme of that show was that he could never stay in one place long enough to ever have any kind of relationships.

[01:02:47] And the other one is Kung Fu with David Carradine, which I didn't watch as much, but it has a similar thing of like he walks the earth and he's lonely and he's alone all the time. Yeah. And makes you think Quantum Leap. Yeah. Quantum Leap is a very low show. But, you know, mentioning the Hulk show, there was a, I'm not one that's generally going to notice a lot about cinematography or angles or anything like that. It's just not my forte sometimes, but very rarely.

[01:03:16] That shot of the orchard with the golden film on the lens, that very much harkened back to me to the Incredible Hulk. Yeah. The soft focus and the way that when he would leave a town, there would be that sad music and also like sort of a highlight of the beauty of the town. And then it would always be him like walking along some lonely highway. At least Charlie has a car. Yeah. A nice one. Although a really recognizable one.

[01:03:46] I know. I thought about that through that episode. I was like, especially the second episode. I was like, I know that's her baby, but did you think maybe that might be why people keep finding you, sweet girl? You might want a gray Toyota Corolla. Like that might blend in a little bit more. Yeah. For years. Yeah. These days. Or in the Boston area, a Mini Cooper. There are a lot of Mini Coopers here.

[01:04:11] Oh, one thing I noticed really funny after when Amber or Amber was being Felicity was that she started like coming on to Paul. Oh, yes. And it made me think that Amber had long had a thing for lawyer Paul. Yeah, that thing for her. I noticed that throughout the entire episode. That he had a crush on Amber. I mean, he was really breaching one of the easiest and most clear rules of ethics for lawyers, which is client confidentiality.

[01:04:39] And she didn't even press him very hard. She was like, please. And he's like, okay. And told her. So, yeah, I think he liked Amber. But he didn't seem sad that she was, she had been apparently killed or killed herself. Like he was okay with that. Well, I think he was in love with her. But he definitely seemed to have an attraction to her. And she knew it. And even when she was Felicity, he was still kind of enthralled with her. And she was able to manipulate him into doing, what was it?

[01:05:08] She was texting and she's like texting and he's asking her. Her mother's literally just laying there. And she's like, my mom just died. God. And then she goes back. Mom died. Sad emoji. Yeah. Like a psycho. That was one of my favorite moments. If I could sidebar real quick is when they were going through, she texted him to tell everyone that mom's dead. And Dee Dee comes back with a hang loose. Mm-hmm. Sorry.

[01:05:40] It's so funny. I mean, they didn't. Please let it be like that when I'm gone. Like that your friends are all like, hang loose. Right. Right. Like peace, baby. Love you. Miss you. I don't think that was very respectful on Dee Dee's part of Norma. No. If they did a good job of painting her as having zero redeeming qualities. Like you're like, yeah, kill her. Like, yeah, she doesn't deserve it. Like, bleh. Like there was nothing about Norma that engendered any kind of sympathy from the audience. No, none at all. At all.

[01:06:09] I do need the backstory on how Felicity ended up with the father. It's fascinating. And why they parent trapped that whole situation where I'm going to take these four and you can have that one. Or two. Yeah. Elphaba is up in the mix and we just didn't know about it. Yeah. It's weird. She's in the Western sky right now. If she's flying solo, at least she's flying free.

[01:06:39] So, yeah. Paul is the worst. I would never hire him as a lawyer. Although I have to say that I like the actor, Jin Ha, who plays him very much. And he was in Only Murders in the Building. And he was really good at Only Murders in the Building. Oh my gosh, he was. Yeah. He was great in it. I knew. I couldn't figure out where I was. Like, I've seen him some way or, but I didn't bother to look it up. Yeah. So funny. And even he was not suspicious when Felicity, supposedly, shows up at the house and is like, you called me about some kind of inheritance?

[01:07:07] And then she goes in and she's got three contracts ready for the other sisters to sign. Not four. She didn't make one for Amber. But she's ready with three of them. Like, that wasn't suspicious to anyone, Paul? Lawyer? He was a good lawyer. No. No. No. He just, he's precious. He's cute, but I wouldn't hire him to be my lawyer. No. No. I have one quote left I want to say. And then I. And I have one teeny tiny thing I want to say.

[01:07:37] And then I'm done with this episode too. When they were discussing Amber and her shortcomings, I guess is the best way I could say they were describing it. She said, she put spangles on a Holocaust memorial. And she's, and Amber's sitting there as Felicity listening to all of this. And I forgot how she tried to justify it. But. It's visual interest. Yeah.

[01:08:03] But that's ending up what made, what got her busted is she had to spangle her fake. Well, because the art reveals the artist. In the end, it was her signature style that did her in. Yeah. I mean, she would have gotten caught anyway, but that's how Charlie identified her. I. Very smart. I miss that. I have to say I, um, I liked the fashion in this episode quite a lot.

[01:08:32] I thought all of the Cynthia Erivo characters had interesting and kind of cool looks. I especially liked Felicity's like studded jacket, like way too much jewelry, like just the over the top. I'm edgy, like advertising basically that she was wearing. I just found that really entertaining and fun. And I've never been able to pull off just like heaps of jewelry like that. I think it makes me look like a little kid playing dress up, but I, it worked on her. She's so good with the dramatic looks.

[01:09:02] And, uh, I loved, uh, CC's whole like tweed, but like fitted feminine suit thing was so, she looked gorgeous. She did. I thought that Dee Dee was the coolest. She kind of looked like a Bratz doll. Yeah. She did. And the fact that I'm going to start walking around with my podcast headset around my neck. It's just what I'm going to do now.

[01:09:26] So every time everyone sees me, they won't know if I'm a podcaster or a DJ. And you can be like, what? My cans? You have to call them cans to be cool. My cans. And make sure that they don't think you're talking about, you know, your boobies. They probably will go to my breasts first and then be like, oh, oh, those cans. Oh, the other cans. Got it. Okay. Eyes up here, guys. Eyes up here. And it's sure that says two sets of nice cans. Oh, that's good.

[01:09:55] That's a good one. I'm all set on episode one. How about you guys? I'm good. Wait a minute. There was like. A couple more quotes. I think one more. Yes. She calls charity organized malingering. I love that. What a horrible person. Yeah, we've already done holy butt munch. Let's see.

[01:10:25] Is this a riddle or is this an aneurysm? That was another one that I really liked. Who said that? Norma? No, I think it was Charlie that said that. That's good. She was trying to, like, they kept, she was trying to work out all of the puzzle of she's pretending to be the sister that she's now pretending to be this other sister. All of that. That's funny. I didn't catch that line and I really like it. I didn't either. I think I might have to use it. But I want to remember that and use it.

[01:10:50] But there's so many different great one-liners and just, man, I love this show. The cleverness. This was a great start. Yes. The clever, like, one-liners are such a great part of it. And like we've said, Natasha Lyonne's delivery is so dry and always unexpected, even though it's consistent. Like, it's always Charlie. We're always seeing the same character. But like, the stuff that comes out of her mouth and the way she says things, I'm often surprised by.

[01:11:20] It's a balancing act. It's really impressive. I think the show just does a really good job of not being afraid to be too smart. Not assuming that your audience is not going to... It's giving you enough that even if you're not incredibly literate or if you don't, you know, like obscure 70s cinema or what have you, if you have a curious mind, you're still going to enjoy it. You may learn something along the way.

[01:11:50] It's not afraid to shy away from making jokes that maybe will go over some people's heads. I don't know why I love that so much. I just think that a lot of, especially comedies, they just assume everybody is out for an obvious quick laugh. And I like that this show doesn't assume that their audience is too dumb to get the joke.

[01:12:16] It reminds me a little bit of like the early Pixar movies where you were like, the kids enjoy it, but there's also jokes for the adults. Yeah, there's definitely... And both work together and the kids don't know they're missing anything. There's plenty of stuff for them. Right. And it's still entertaining. So this show, it works on a surface level and then it works again on a deeper and a more referential level. And I love that, the tension between the two. Right.

[01:12:43] And I think part of what makes it feel so not highbrow and also not condescending is that I love that they're not afraid to make Charlie stupid. Because I think that that's what I love about her character is that yes, she does have this phenomenal gift. And she's obviously very, very bright. Right. But, you know, and she's very well read. She's an interesting person. She's got depth and all of that.

[01:13:11] But she also makes some really stupid blunders because no one is... Yeah. You know, no one is perfect. She's not superhuman. No one is... Right. They give her these limitations. And I know a lot of smart people that do really dumb shit every day. I like to think I'm not, not, not smart. But every single day I'm faced with evidence that I am capable of being a complete moron.

[01:13:39] So I think that that's realistic. And I like that. I love that about her character. Yeah. I love that she also has like vices and quirks. Like, like, you know, she smokes. Now she vapes. But like, you know, she's not like this ideal person. She drove drunk in this episode. They never show that on television anymore. Which is not cool, but it happens. Yeah. And, you know, you don't ever see stuff like that on TV. I know. I was like, did I see that? Was she actually drunk? And when I watched it a second time, I was like, oh, she was really drunk.

[01:14:08] And stuff. Did she smoke and wavy? Yeah. I was going to say and stuff. Yeah. That is bad role modeling. But she never pretended to be a role model. Like, that is not who Charlie Kale is. She's not solving murders because she's got some kind of higher calling. She's solving murders because people she care about keep getting killed. Like, it's. Right. And she got a chance to join the FBI in season one. She's like, eh, I'm not the man. Like, it's not for me. Yeah.

[01:14:37] She's a morally, she's what we might call a morally gray character. Yeah. And I love those. Those are the best. She was cheating at poker for years before she got caught. Like, she's not. She's no angel. Right. Yeah. Which I think is a Peter Falk movie. Yeah. No angel. I think you're right. Yeah. Well, we've already sort of started talking about it. So let's jump into episode two called Last Looks. Okay. Mandy, you want to read the synopsis for us? Absolutely.

[01:15:04] When her new friend disappears from a film set, Charlie must unearth clues at the family-run funeral home that serves as the production's most recent location. Moments to die for. I'll jump in first because mine was a photographic moment. When the funeral home is burning down at the end and Charlie and Fred are running out of it, there's a top-down shot of the, like, hallway and there's all these gorgeous, like, glowing cinders,

[01:15:34] like, falling, like, confetti into the hallway. And I just, like, paused my TV and was like, it's so pretty. I mean, it's destruction and eventual death, but so pretty. So that was mine. I feel like there were a lot of homages in this episode to old horror films that as many as I've seen that I didn't quite get. There was a lot of vibe, at least. I was like, oh, this is such a 70s horror vibe.

[01:16:03] Like, the spooky funeral home. But there were a couple of shots. Again, I'm not normally somebody who picks up on shots and, you know, things like that. But there were certain shots, like that one and the one where Charlie, I think, is, like, when she was trying to get out and she's in a hallway and there's a, it's, like, another over the, you know, it's panning down on her face from above. And the terror on her face, I think it was before he put her in the, anyway, it was very, to me, it seemed very clear

[01:16:32] that that seemed to be a shot, probably was a shot-by-shot recreation of some famous scene. But I, for the life of me, don't know what it is. Or maybe it was just a horror film. Yeah, listeners, if any of you identified what movies they were pulling some of those shots from, like, write in and let us know. Because I agree with you that sometimes it seemed like they were doing something specific. Like... It was very stylistic. Yeah. And I was like, that's happening like that for a reason. We're seeing it like that for a reason.

[01:17:00] But I also didn't, I haven't watched enough 70s horror, maybe, to be able to pull those things out. I have, but I do like 70s horror, but I'll get on a kick of, like, the old hammer horror shows that used to come on in the UK last winter. I got on, like, a whole kick of watching those. They're great. They're so cheesy. If you ever are just looking for something mindless like that to watch.

[01:17:25] And I watched, like, all of the Christopher Lee, Dracula movies and things like that. But, I mean, I'm almost 50. And that was, like, what you did when you were 20 and, you know, living in a flop house with five other people. You say that you're almost 50 like you think you're older than me. And that's funny. Well, I didn't mean like I was older than you. I was almost 50. It's been a long 50 years. It has been, yeah. I don't remember them as well as I used to. Yeah. I used to watch a lot of that stuff.

[01:17:54] Like the, what was the creep show? The, there was the Crypt Keeper. Whatever that, the haunted movie show. Tales from the Crypt. Yes. And I used to watch Elvira on Friday nights. Right? Same. She would host some creepy movie. And, but I, I sort of missed the 70s with my horror movie watching. I watched a lot of, like, movies from the 50s and 60s and then sort of jumped right to, like, the 80s.

[01:18:21] I somehow missed the 70s when I was on my horror kick. I'm more familiar with the 80s because that was my era. Yeah. Like, when I started getting old enough to, you know, like when all the slasher films came in. All the Nightmare on Elm Streets. Yeah. Right. Right. So those are the ones that I'm more, I mean, Halloween, I watched a million, billion times, but that was like 78 or something. So it was right there on the cusp and all of the sequels were. In the 80s. Through the 80s. Yeah. So I'm definitely more familiar with them.

[01:18:49] But I want to say that my moment to die for, number one, hands down, as an old WWE fan. Oh, I knew it. I met her when we, the night Randy Savage died and we were pounding shots for the Macho Man. That cracks my face. That was mine. Was that yours, Becky? I knew I should have had another one in the backup. All right. Well, here's. Becky, if you want to say that one, I've got like five more.

[01:19:19] No, you already did. It's all good. No, let's go. You crushed my dreams. It's fine. I didn't say it like that, didn't I? I did not mean it like that. I'm going to. All right. Second, I guess I see the thing with this episode is I didn't really, I don't have a whole lot to add to this episode because I did not, I loved episode one. This one was a cool, fun episode.

[01:19:46] I mean, you can't go wrong with Giancarlo Espinito, but it didn't rock my world. So there aren't really, that was probably one of the biggest moments that stood out to me. But I guess the next moment to die for, I would say, would be when Charlie pours out a drink on the beach for Greta's dead chihuahua. That was great. I want to add, though, while y'all were talking about the beautiful shots throughout the movie

[01:20:15] or throughout the episode, the very end, the last shot before we get the surprise ending of Beatrix is the shot, full shot of the house, the moon, and then the fireworks going off at the end. That was beautiful. Amazing. Beautiful. That was amazing. I also really loved it when the biker mom was like, do you need us to hog up a posse? I can hog up a posse. Hog up a posse.

[01:20:44] Hog up. Somebody use that. I was like, hog up? Is that a motorcycle thing? I want to say that. I want to hog up a posse. Like, that was amazing. She was awesome. I didn't have as many notes for this one, but I still have under, like, moments to die for. But I do have a lot of, like, notes notes. Because what I, I didn't like it as much as the first one. I didn't even, like, that's not even the right thing to say. It's not that I didn't like it as much. It's just that it was a quieter episode.

[01:21:14] Like, that whole thing with the five Cynthia Erivos, that's just hilarious. That's just, it was a much funnier episode. But this one had a lot of great moments. And I think part of what I loved about it was Katie Holmes, number one. She did one of my favorite horror movies of the last 20 years, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Have you seen that? I haven't. No. Uh-uh.

[01:21:38] Well, it was also in a very spooky, and I want to say it may have actually been a funeral home that her and her fiancé had purchased and then renovated. But maybe not. It's been a few years since I've watched it. It's one of those horror movies that's more atmospheric than it is truly, like, terrifying. So it was, like, the gateway movie that I let my kids watch, the first horror movie. Because when they got old enough, you know, the tween years where they wanted to watch scary stuff.

[01:22:07] But you have to kind of be careful about what you let them watch. So that was one I watched at first. And I was like, this is spooky and atmospheric. There's a little bit of gore, but not too much. And she killed it. Like, she did such a great job in that role. And it was the best thing I have seen her in since Tom Cruise derailed her career so early on, you know. And she really hasn't gotten to be in as many things as she should. But this reminded me what a great actress she is.

[01:22:37] I thought she did a phenomenal job. I really liked her character. What was her character's name? Greta. Greta. I loved Greta. I felt for her. I thought she was so sweet. And she was so full of life. I love that Ring My Bell was her favorite song. I can't stand that song, actually. Really? Yeah. I forgot. Like, that was one of my notes. I forgot how much I liked that song. I'm not big into disco. I like a lot of disco. I don't happen to like that song.

[01:23:07] The one thing. Really? I felt like she was slightly in a different movie from everyone else. I completely agree with you. There was. It didn't fit. It didn't fit. Also, there was nothing in the story that sold me on why she and Fred were married in the first place. Like, she tells the story. Like, I was young and he was gentle. And, but it, like, he just seemed so unappealing.

[01:23:34] I was like, how could you have married this guy? Yeah, I see what you're saying. But I thought, like, at first I kind of felt a little bit of that. But I, like, a mystery of, like, how did this vibrant, sweet lady end up with this, you know, sorry, John Carlo Esposito. You, he was a ghoul, basically. But when they told the story about her parents and the fact that she was kind of,

[01:24:02] she just came across as kind of not ditzy. That's not the right word. But maybe not the deepest thinker in the world. And I could totally buy if you were really naive at 25 and you had been very sheltered and all of a sudden your parents die. And this was him 15 years ago. So he may have been less creepy. I mean, he's a good looking guy. He's a handsome guy. But I just, it didn't sell, I wasn't sold on them as a couple. But once I sort of got asked.

[01:24:32] Yeah, I definitely thought they didn't fit. The feeling of like, is she in a different movie than the rest of them? I enjoyed her part and then I enjoyed the rest of it. I just didn't think it worked together. I thought introducing his character when he's working on a corpse and he's listening to We'll Meet Again was like almost too much. I was like, we get it. He's creepy. Like, We'll Meet Again is like the most serial killer of all serial killer songs.

[01:24:59] I've seen it used so many times for serial killers who like keep trophies of their victims. And then he goes around the room and shows you all his trophies. They're just of his family members. That part was amazing. I thought that was fascinating. The aunt was the toilet? Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Aunt was the toilet seat? Yeah. And Edna, which made me L laugh because you know I love Christmas Vacation. And I'm like, that, I feel like that might have been a nod to Christmas Vacation.

[01:25:27] It very well may have been. The world's greatest dad mug that Charlie's drinking out of. She drinks out of. When I'm gone, y'all better split me up. My remains in quotation marks. And I better be distributed. A piece of me better be in everybody's house in some way. I don't want to be a toilet. I'm having you stuffed. And we're going to do one of those tableaus like that lady from New Orleans a few years back that she was in the corner and had a cigarette in her hand and a beer and some poker chips

[01:25:56] and cards on her table. And that's just how they had her set up when everybody came in. For like the rest of time? That's awesome. Yeah, this really happened. I'll send you a link. No, I don't want that. I'd rather be pressed into a... You better hope I go first then. I want to either get turned into part of a coral reef. You could do that where they like coat you in like concrete or something and drop you to the bottom of the ocean and then you grow into the reef. Or a green funeral.

[01:26:24] And then I want to just be buried somewhere random with no mark or anything. But I want you to cover the grave with catnip. So that all the neighborhood cats come and like hang out on top of my dead body. That's what I want. Well, I'm going to resist my urge to go into my Viking funeral. Oh, God. Because I have a whole thing. Everyone listen to The Pit or What's On Tonight. I'll find the episode and tell you.

[01:26:54] It might be our shining episode. Nice. Mandy talking about... Her Viking funeral. That was the episode. Was that the episode Wendy was on? Yes. Where she had the curious to talk about trying to execute. Mandy's Viking funeral. Anyway. Yeah. But I'm going to go back from that a little bit before we move on. Because I want to talk about... I felt a bit of a disconnect at the beginning. I thought the same way that you did that.

[01:27:23] It was a little bit heavy handed that he's a creepy guy. But by the end, I had completely changed my feeling about him and what he was doing. Like, I had the first... I realized that all of his family were like in the parts and particles that were around. I thought, like you did, that he was keeping them as trophies. But by the end, I had changed my mind about that. And I'd seen him as a much more sympathetic character.

[01:27:54] Because he was selfish. He was definitely selfish. He was self-absorbed. He was an asshole. But he had also lost... Like, one, all of those people that he had there, they were all part of the funeral industry as well. Before they all passed, you know, one of the saddest things I thought was that it was... I think the last one was Coleman, but it was like Coleman and Sons' funeral home. But he was the last one.

[01:28:19] So he had watched everybody that he knows die. And he was the only one left there keeping things going. And I think he was incredibly lonely. Like, I don't think that he could leave that place. And he had lost everybody that mattered to him. And he turned them into these mementos. Because it was his way of trying to keep them with him forever.

[01:28:48] And I think that's why he stayed at the end. Yeah. Was because... He'd rather be with them. If it was all going away, he wanted to be with them. And I think that, yes, he was awful. He was a monster. But I found him a little bit more sympathetic, I think. Because I felt like that's why they used We'll Meet Again. And that's why Endless... Or what Sleepwalkers was the song that he liked. I think it was because he was just a deeply lonely man who had lost his entire family.

[01:29:18] And she was all he had left. And he was so consumed with death that he just wasn't outliving life. Yeah. He was just letting life pass him by. Because he was too preoccupied with everything that had happened in the past. Like, remember when he was mad at them in the beginning because they were stepping on... He knew who had planted those flowers. He knew, you know... He had memories of everybody in his family in that place. So I thought he was more of a sad character than an evil character.

[01:29:46] I get the sad and the deep nostalgia. And that he missed his family and everything. But he took it to a new level. I mean... Yes. He was also... I think he was a sad creep. But he was a creep. Yes. And when she says to him, like, you're trapped too. You need to get out. And he has that weird moment. Well, all of his moments are weird. But he sort of goes off into space and he's like, out? There's no out?

[01:30:15] I don't know what out is. It was like, is he even human? Like, she's talking to him and he's not... Maybe I was supposed to feel this disconnect. It's like they were in different marriages. Like... When he suggested that they have a baby... Oh my God. ...to keep her there, I was like, okay, this guy has absolutely... I don't... I could understand where she was like, I'm done.

[01:30:43] This is not the life I wanted. This is not the life I live. But it feels like she was another just... I don't know. Trophy? I don't... You know? Yeah. Like, you know... I think she was like a pet that he got there to keep up in my cleanness. Yeah. He didn't even know her favorite song, which is her ringtone. So he must hear it all the time. And he still is like, but what about Sleepwalk? And she's like, I don't like that song.

[01:31:13] But think about it. That's what he's doing. He's sleepwalking through life, just waiting to get back to his family that's gone. And it's like, she probably was in... You know, if you think you married because he was there for you in this great tragedy, that she was sleepwalking in the beginning. But then she woke up and was ready to move on. And I think that's why maybe you guys have this feeling that she was... They were in two different... She didn't fit there. I think she was...

[01:31:42] I mean, this is all projection because it's a character. No, but I feel like she was incredibly isolated. And then all of a sudden, this film crew shows up. And this may be the first time in 15 years that she is all of a sudden allowed to let her personality bubble out and have people see her and hear her. Right. I mean, she's been talking to the dead bodies all these years as if they're still there because she's so lonely. Yeah.

[01:32:12] And that was one of the things I loved about this episode was that, like, at the very beginning, you see Charlie talking to that kid on the beach, having much too grown up of a conversation with this, like, six-year-old who's sitting here. But Charlie is so lonely. And that's what I was saying. And, like, I've noticed that this is going to be a theme, I believe, that she's so lonely and desperate for connection that she's sitting here talking to a seven-year-old about vaping. And he's not even paying attention to her. He had headphones on. Like, he was definitely not listening to her. Oh, I didn't even notice that.

[01:32:41] Yeah. And she's talking to him about Hunter S. Thompson. And I was like, you're right. We do need to keep books in the Florida libraries. Like, shout out to politics. But also no child of any age with access to any library should be understanding Hunter S. Thompson references. Right? Like, that is not age appropriate. Yeah. But, you know, she's lonely.

[01:33:06] And I think that that moment where they're sitting down together, when they're all having lunch, the cast lunch that she's telling her, you know, she really leans in when Greta's talking about how she feels like, you know, that she's never being heard. She's never being seen. And Charlie, like, has a moment with her that she's like, I totally, when she's talking about talking to the dead, like, Charlie understands that. Because she's lost so many people by this point. And she has to just keep moving.

[01:33:35] And she doesn't have anybody. Yeah. She's lonely in a completely different way. Right? Unrooted and rooted, but both equally alone. And that, you're right. That is why the two of them bonded. And they did have that moment where it seemed like they really understood each other. Yeah. And when she got back from hanging out at the bonfire or whatever with them and he's all mad, where have you been? She was like, I was out with my friends.

[01:34:02] It sounded like something a teenager would say to their mad mom, you know, when mom's griping that you missed curfew. Where were you? Like, that was almost the first time she's ever gotten to say that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he was very paternalistic to her. Yeah. Like, he literally took over for her parents. Yeah. Yeah. And. Yeah. And honestly, that's very realistic that that's when a woman is most in danger. Yeah. When she's alone. She has had enough. Oh, and when she's. Yeah.

[01:34:31] When women leave is statistically when they are in the most danger from an abusive spouse. Yeah. Well, the way you watch that. It was beautiful cinematography. Well shot. Well directed, too. Well, kudos to Natasha Lyonne. I didn't know until y'all till we talked about it early on that she directed these episodes that just raised my respect for her.

[01:34:53] But when he was watching that murder scene over and over and over again, I was just you knew at that point. She was something was going to happen. She was not long for this world. I thought it was really genius the way they they told the story with Charlie and almost like he had a sixth sense. But the way he committed the murder that she really did leave with the crew.

[01:35:23] It was. I love how they're doing that this season. It makes me really want to understand the parameters of Charlie's ability because she she is able to detect these truth versus lie situations where it hangs on like almost a philosophical thin line. Right. She left with the film crew. Well, some of her remains did. And so that's technically true.

[01:35:53] But like how was he able to. It's like a lie detector if they believe it, if they're telling you something that they believe to be true. Then it's true. But it was true. She did leave with Charlie didn't ask how much of her left. Yeah. Like did she entirely all of her leave with the film crew? She said, you know, where did she go? Well, she left with the film crew. And I was like, that's genius because. Yeah. Well, he doesn't know Charlie is a lie detector, but it does.

[01:36:23] It's the way that he was lying with like half truths mixed in together does make her role more difficult. And it's. In season one, I feel like the lies were more straightforward. And yes, both of these episodes have had these complicated half truth lies that Charlie's had to parse out. It's like they upped the ante for her in season. I like that. It makes it more interesting.

[01:36:51] And we had some other great, great guest stars on this besides Giancarlo Esposito and Katie Holmes. Kevin Corrigan, who played Tommy or Hot Tommy, the car star guy. He has had a really great like comedy acting career. I've enjoyed him in a lot of things. One of my favorites is I'm looking up the name of the show right now. There was a sitcom that he was on.

[01:37:18] Because, of course, I've forgotten the name and it had one of my other favorite actors in it. And it was a long time ago. Well, while you're looking that up, I'm going to point out something that I don't know that I can shoehorn in anywhere else. And that's that it took me 30 something years to realize that the reason that the name of the Stephen King movie about the weird vampires that the cats hated was sleepwalkers. And that that was the song that was playing in sleepwalkers. Oh, that's funny.

[01:37:48] Yeah. I never realized that was the name of the song that that weird incestuous mom and son vampire were dancing to in that movie was called sleepwalk. Yeah. OK, so he was in he was the brother in the Natasha Lyonne amazing movie Slums of Beverly Hills. That that that's yeah, he was her brother in that movie.

[01:38:11] And Grounded for Life is the sitcom he was on where he played Eddie Finnerty opposite this other actor who I love whose name is Danal Logue. And it was a very underappreciated sitcom. It had 91 episodes. It's really funny. I watched it. Yeah. At least to watch the first season or two. I am a fan of Kevin Corrigan. Whenever he shows up, I'm like, oh, that guy. I love that guy. I cannot consistently remember his name, but I do remember his other performances.

[01:38:41] And the show also had Sherry Cola in it, who is an up and coming comedic actor who I really enjoy. And I was happy to see her. And she had that great line when Charlie says, looks like somebody was murdered here. And she's like, I hope so. Because she was the set decorator. Oh, yeah. Very clever. That was very clever. The guest star action on this show is just going to get better and better from here on out. Because we already got a little Rhea Perlman and I love her. Yeah.

[01:39:12] Yeah. I haven't looked at anyone who's coming. So everyone who shows up is the only reason I knew Cynthia Erivo is in this one is I think Mandy might have messaged me and said something about her before I'd watched it. I saw a list like weeks and weeks ago of a bunch of who was going to be guest starring and a few names like stuck in my head. And Cynthia Erivo was one of them. And another one is John Mulaney, who I know is on next week.

[01:39:41] I think that was what it was, Becky, is when I told you it was coming out. I told you that she was one of the guest stars. Yeah. I had seen it listed somewhere. Did you guys notice that the set director or whatever you would call it, like the fact that she went to Publix, she's in Florida and that she went to the Publix grocery store was, I thought, very cool that they did that because Publix is so heavy in Florida. Like in California, they don't have Publix at all.

[01:40:10] So whoever was writing or whatever, whoever made that decision, they really did their homework. I don't know. I didn't look to see if they were actually recording or filming in Florida or not. But the choice to use a Publix, I thought, was a little bit of a. Yeah. I doubt they do much filming outside of the Los Angeles area. Although, you know what? I take that back. It did look very Florida. Because I know that they are going to do some, some scenes this season are going to be in upstate New York.

[01:40:37] I saw a headline that was like lots of upstate New York locations used in Poker Face season two. And then I didn't read the article. I thought it looked very, it looked very Florida. Yeah. So if it wasn't, they did a great job of creating the illusion. Not just that, but like just the, the parking lot there where he first finds it when you can across. Have you ever been to Florida? Not forever. Especially the.

[01:41:00] Well, especially like up in the, in the panhandle area, not the panhandle area, the, the Gulf area, like that looks very much like one of those tiny little towns in Florida. Even the vegetation, all of it, it, it definitely looked very Florida like to me. So they did a good job. That's cool. I thought. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:41:22] Um, one of the other things I liked was when he was talking about how he got the, the, the John Carlo Esposito character, when he was talking about how he got the record press so that he could put people inside records. He said, I even learned a little bit of German to, I thought, you know, German is the creepiest of the Indo-European languages. Well, the buttons weren't German. The buttons weren't German.

[01:41:51] That tracks that that's. Yeah. That it's a German device. Yeah, that does track. Yes. I loved when Charlie goes and follows up with the film crew the next day and they're at some different location and it's like a sci-fi space thing going on in the background. And she's like, what is this movie about? And the guy, Tommy is like, I think it's a multiverse kind of thing. And then later she asked someone else and the woman goes, it's not my department, but someone said it's about vanity. Yeah. Okay. I get it now. I got that written down.

[01:42:21] That's one of my notes. I love that it's not my department part. Like I'm not the one that's in charge of knowing what this movie is about. Yeah. I just, I just hang the lights or whatever it is that I do. Yeah. Oh my God. It was so funny. I was like, yeah, what is this movie about? But the girl in the background in this, in the silvery spacey suit and the guy's like showing her how to walk. Yeah. Like this makes no sense. What's happening?

[01:42:51] And she's still doing it. The entire conversation that she's having with the other guy. In one of the funeral home scenes when they show, when they turn around and they show like all the behind the camera stuff. One of the people behind the camera is wearing like a bald cap and like a white and silver robe, like some kind of space sci-fi looking outfit. And I'm like, he doesn't belong in a 70s horror movie. Who is this guy? Like what's happening? Yeah. It's so weird. Yeah. I love her vaping in the coffin. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:43:21] That's so on point. I love when she says to the kid, we don't really know if this is better for you or not, but vice is the spice of life or whatever. Vice is the spice of life. Yeah. I, being in that coffin and about to be put into the incinerator, that's why I'm having my Viking funeral. Yeah. That right there is one of the nightmare. I, that is one of my biggest phobias.

[01:43:44] Which is hilarious that you want to be set on fire to avoid this eventuality that you might be set on fire. If I'm not dead, I'm out there. I'm not trapped in a box going through a furnace. I'm out there. And then if you like shoot it, remember Becky, you shoot the arrow and you light me on fire and I'm not dead. I'm going to be like, ow, I'm on fire and I can jump in the water. Yeah, I get it. But if I am dead, I go out in a blaze of glory.

[01:44:10] But I want you to know that in a Viking funeral, you're wrapped pretty tightly in cloth. So it may not be so easy for you to roll. Your mouth isn't. I think you're like, well, I'll. No, you're like, you're wrapped head to toe. You're not exposed. How are you going to wiggle over into the water? Well, you've just exposed a flaw in my plan. And hopefully I've got some years left to figure out how that's going to be. You don't have to follow all the Viking rules.

[01:44:39] You can have a pseudo Viking funeral where your arms are free. Exactly. I'm fine. I'm not a purist. I'm not a purist at all. I'm in charge. I have, I have recording of her saying I'm in charge of her bike. But I told her too, Penny, that where she's in luck is I am the one supposed to be shooting the arrow. Oh, yeah. She has a better chance of floating to the, I don't know, somewhere. Caribbean. Narnia. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:45:06] Before I ever hit her, come close to hitting her with the flaming arrow. I tell you what, Becky, actually, if we did it in Nashville, I would probably end up going down the Cumberland River downtown. If you do it on a weekend when there's enough drunks on Broadway. How many is going to find you? You could just, well, you just get it out on social media and then all the bubbas will go down there. They'll Molotov cocktail. At least that might be on fire. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be a whole thing.

[01:45:35] There's workarounds. I don't know you very well, but I would like to be invited. Absolutely. The more the merrier. I mean, yeah. Assuming whichever one of us goes first. Yeah. I still say it's me, so let me know what song you all are interested in so you can take home a record. Don't worry what's in that record after you leave my funeral. I'm not saying it's me.

[01:46:04] You don't worry about my plan to have you set up in a tableau that I can then take you home and put you. Becky and I are still podcasting together. I think that's beautiful. It's like I'll have you stuffed and you can wear your cans. Mm-hmm. And I'll even get you a shirt that says nice cans. Could you do me a favor, though? If you're going to stuff me, could you make me look like I did when I was 30? Yes.

[01:46:31] If I'm going to be stuck for the rest of my life. Girl, if I was being stuffed, I would have all of this. And don't want to be near your dogs. Mm-hmm. Well, that's going to happen. And Wrigley, you know, he has to wear a diaper for a reason. Oh. I'm just going to warn you that. It's going to hunt me. I'm feeling pretty good about my become part of a coral reef land. Yeah, I think I'd like to be a tree. Yeah. I'd like to change my answer.

[01:47:00] Actually, I never wanted to be stuffed. Yeah. Anyway. All of a sudden you've got into it. I have a question. Yeah. I did walk right into that. Did any, either of you notice, and I might be projecting or just looking for some clue to, in each episode, but in the first episode, when Norma's in the bed and she doesn't like her tepid soup,

[01:47:30] she says, go get my ham. And then they call her Hamber. Mm-hmm. And then when Charlie is at the beach talking to Greta, or on the way, when they pull back up at the house and she's talking about going to Miami, Charlie says, Miami hammy. What is it with the ham? Oh. I think that's a theme. That's going to come back. Interesting. You know what else I think is going to come back? Okay, the having a dream thing is going to come back.

[01:47:59] I think you're right that you're onto something with ham. And there's a CB radio in her car now. Ham radio. See? I did. What are they doing? What are these crazy sons of? Yeah. They're dropping some stuff for us to pick up. That's why we put them. I missed a lot of stuff. But how I feel, of course it's food. Yeah. That's why.

[01:48:27] I'm very interested in how we're going to make ham work. Like, as a theme. As an overarching theme. That's awesome. Throughout. That's a good catch, Nikki. Yeah. All right. I don't have anything else to say about this episode. How about you guys? No, I'm good. I've got one thing that I thought was really cool that Charlie said to the ghoul when she was confronting him about killing Greta.

[01:48:54] She said, what you didn't count on was someone giving a damn about her. I just loved Charlie's delivery. And that, you know, Greta obviously lived this very sad, lonely life. And ghoul thought he was going to get away with it because nobody would notice that she was gone or care that she was gone. And Charlie did. And I just, if that's. Yeah. She was sweet with Dee Dee in episode one. Very sweet moment here. I really love that. Yeah.

[01:49:23] I am really enjoying the portrayal of female friendship theme that they've had with both of these episodes so far. That's another one of those things I think they get right is that they, he, I don't know whose direction it is, if it's the collaboration of the two of them. But I also think that he does this very well with his Knives Out movies is that he shows like, what were we, you know, the thing that one of the few things that really, the pit is great.

[01:49:52] I hope Penny, I don't even really like metal dramas, but I'm so glad that Becky had me do this. I ended up really enjoying it. The one minor quibble I had with the season was that it seemed like every time there was a heavy to be had in a, in a relationship situation with like with a man and a woman, whether it was friendship or a sister, brother marriage, it was always the woman that was the shrill.

[01:50:18] She was always one that was like the heavy, the bad, you know, the just, it just, I don't know. It struck me as a little bit misogynistic. I love that in his shows, women are often the bad guy, but they're not caricatures. Yeah. And it's not, it's not, I don't know. I just think he does a really good job of writing or his team, whoever it is, they do

[01:50:46] a great job of showcasing women as multifaceted, complex characters as, as much as any man that's on the screen. And I love that. I love that about this show. And I love that both of these episodes have showed her really trying to have bonds with other women. It, yeah, it is deeply sad that she keeps making friends with people who get murdered over and over again. And yeah. And yet she gets a comedy, but that's sad.

[01:51:15] She hasn't stopped being friendly and she hasn't, she didn't put any walls up when, when Greta was like, we could go to Miami together. She wasn't like, Hey, I gotta stay loose and not get close to people. And I don't want to get in the middle of a messy divorce. Like she was like, yeah, I'm with you. Like we'll do it. She's, she's noticeably sad and lonely, but she's not getting hardened by it. Right.

[01:51:41] She, Becky, I can't pin down who it is, maybe Carolyn or Donna, but she just reminds me of somebody we would have worked with at, in the restaurant. You know what I mean? Like she just has that same kind of, I've met, I've known a lot of girls back then that were, you know, smart, funny, maybe pick the wrong track in life and got off to a little bit of a rocky start. But, you know, and a lot of people in the world might look at them and think that they were

[01:52:08] just a loser because they didn't have a nine to five or they weren't doing the expected track in life. But these were some of the smartest, funniest, coolest people I know. They just don't fit into a little small box that people want to, you know. I can't think of anybody off the top of my head. But she's very three-dimensional, very real. Yeah. And relatable.

[01:52:35] You can, she's quirky without being over the top. I don't know how Natasha Lyonne plays that so well because a lot of people could try to play her character and, and I would be so annoyed. I would not be able to. It would be really exaggerated and irritating. People watch the show, yeah. She sells it. She just embodies that character so well. Yeah. All right.

[01:53:04] Well, that's all I got. All right.

[01:53:33] Well, with that, I think it's time to move on to the sort of closing parts of our episode. We often have a news segment, but honestly, when I was skimming through the news related to the show, it was all reviews of the first three episodes. And I was like, I don't want any spoilers for episode three. I haven't watched it yet. So I stopped looking at the news. But I did notice an overall vibe of people saying things like, early Emmy thoughts about

[01:54:00] Poker Face and Poker Face is hitting it out of the park and Poker Face making great use of guest stars. So it was overall a lot of good feedback, I thought. That's great. Well, that's great. And that brings us to our listener feedback section. And usually we get most of our feedback from our posts on Facebook or via emails. But this time we got three voicemails. Awesome. So I am going to play those and I will play Steve first.

[01:54:30] Here we go. Okay. Hello, Murder Magnus. This is Steve. And the truth is, I tried to live Steve episode one of season two of Poker Face. And it was like, it ended up being like, it was like way over three minutes long. And it was so rambling and confusing because of the quintuplet, identical quintuplets.

[01:54:56] Gosh, that I just, I had to scrap that whole recording and just get rid of it because it was way too confusing. But it is great to see that Poker Face is back. Charlie is still being chased by the people who are trying to kill her. And she's still solving murders that are confusing to everybody, even the viewer. So, yeah, I'm going to try to live Steve episode two here in a second.

[01:55:23] But gosh, episode one was just way too confusing with all the different. That actress did a great job playing four different roles. But man, I was way too confused through the whole episode. All right. Thanks, Steve. I love him so much. Hopefully we'll get a live Steve of episode two. And if not, Steve, just jump right into episodes three and four that we'll be covering next week.

[01:55:49] We got two voicemails from Greg, who is one of the hosts on Podcastica's Wheel of Time and who I worked with on She-Hulk and Extraordinary. And he sent one in for each of the episodes. So we'll do them in order. Hey there, murder magnets. Or should it be murder magnates? That's one where you must feel like a business of murder. Anyway, doesn't matter. This is Greg. And I'm glad Poker Face is back. I really enjoyed the first season.

[01:56:19] Although, you know, there were some silly things. But I haven't had a chance to watch the second one yet. But the first one with Cynthia Erivo, I thought this was classic, classic like, what's it called? The soap opera like twins and quadruplets. And, you know, I'm not going to say it was a new plot, but I thought it was well done. And I thought that Cynthia Erivo was phenomenal in all of the parts.

[01:56:51] I thought a couple of things were really funny. The pause of the blood squirting from the boot at the end was almost comically long. And I thought that was pretty good.

[01:57:08] I will just, again, I think I mentioned this last season, but I love the, like, Dallas-style, no-wiping, just Poker Face. You know, 2025 in Roman Room Rules. I absolutely love it. I love the throwback aspect of it. And I am going to finish this because I haven't really said anything of consequence. But I'm loving it. I love Natasha Lyonne.

[01:57:38] And, like I said, Cynthia was phenomenal in this. All right. Looking forward to the next one. Bye. Thanks, Greg. That was awesome. I think he meant the retro title card, which is, with the Roman numeral date, it's pretty fun. I just want to say to you, Greg, every conversation Mandy and I have on the phone usually ends with, all right, well, I haven't really said anything, so I'm going to go. But yet we've been talking for two hours. So I love you.

[01:58:08] I just want you to know that, Greg. It's so true. Some of the best conversations have very little substance. Yes. All right. Greg on episode two. Hello. Okay. So Poker Face season two, episode two, the sleepwalk maybe? I don't know. Whatever the one with the funeral home was. There was some wacky stuff going on.

[01:58:34] Like, I feel like this was almost like extra, like, cut a groom floor from Ozark and funeral homes and where you can put dead bodies and whatever. That was kind of wacky. I really enjoyed Giancarlo Esposito, but the character was kind of whacked out. All right. Anyway, I look forward to hearing y'all's take. Bye. Bye, Greg.

[01:59:02] Giancarlo Esposito has been playing a lot of over-the-top villains in the last several years. I mean. He has been busy, but he will always be Polo Loco. Yeah. Yeah. The chicken man. He's good at it. He was great in that. He was great in the boys. He's been great in the boys. Wow. That went way over my head. Wow. Yeah. Right. I only recognize him as Mon Mothra. Who's Polo Loco?

[01:59:31] Oh, that's from Breaking Bad. He was one of the drug kingpins in Breaking Bad. Crazy chicken. Yeah. He runs a restaurant chain. He's got his company restaurant chain. Called El Polo Loco. And he was also in the most recent Captain America Brave New World movie as a villain. I have not seen that yet. I watched it on a plane recently. It's okay. It's not as fun as Thunderbolts. Thunderbolts is a lot of fun.

[02:00:01] That's what my son said. Yeah. So I think that's our show. I want to thank Steve and Greg for sending us some voicemails. And there were a lot of comments on our Facebook page that were like, oh, I'm so excited to watch the show. I'm so glad it's back. But not any actual feedback. So next time, I'm hoping we'll get some more feedback from some of our listeners. We do put up feedback posts on our Facebook page, which is the Podcastica Facebook page. Just search Podcastica on Facebook. You'll find it.

[02:00:30] And also you can just send us an email if you want to at talk at podcastica.com. Everybody, thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to follow and subscribe Murder Magnets wherever you get your podcasts. And we will continue covering the show. The link will be in the show notes if you want to subscribe. And if you want to write in or leave us a message, you can find all our contact info at podcastica.com.

[02:00:56] And you can find our other shows and links to our social media, like Still Slaying with the amazing Penny here. And I just got into the Stranger Things podcast. Oh, that's a good one. We're covering you. So yeah, definitely. Podcastica's got some great stuff. So head over there and check it out.

[02:01:26] I am very excited. I caught up on Handmaid's Tale watching it. So now I can get into the podcast because I was out of town and hadn't been watching. And I also just have to say that the Last of Us podcast, the cast of us, has just been great this season. So good. It's really necessary for a show like that. Yeah. And I cannot wait to hear your thoughts on The Handmaid's Tale, Penny. Yeah.

[02:01:53] I watched the entire season to date in like 48 hours and it was a little overwhelming. Oh, yeah. Watch some comedy. Yeah. Then I binged all of Hacks. So we're good. I'm good. I'm almost done with that one. I like that. That's a good show. It's a good show. It looks funny. I haven't watched it yet, but it does look like one I might go back and watch. It's incredibly clever.

[02:02:20] I think having seen how you react to the writing on this show, I think you'd like Hacks. It's about women, the complexities of women's friendships, especially intergenerationally. But it's also about just comedians and funny writing and like snappy dialogue and the fashion. I've seen a few clips and I love James Smart. Yeah. So I think that's one I will eventually check out.

[02:02:44] But I have a longstanding principle of waiting until five years after everybody else quits caring about something to suddenly be like, hey, you heard of this new show, Hacks? That's awesome. So you'll have you'll have a few years until you watch it. Yeah. Next time we'll be covering episodes three and four of Poker Face season two, Whack-A-Mole and the taste of human blood. Yummy. That sounds really exciting. And I cannot wait.

[02:03:13] Yeah, there's I do watch the previews. So I think I know which one that one is. And that one looks like from what I can tell the one that I'm probably going to enjoy. It's the one I'm looking forward to the most. All right. If that's what I think it is. Awesome. That's good. And it's just next week. So everybody join us for that. And that's all for the episode. Thanks for listening. And Steve Brown. We know what you did, you psycho.