Spicing Up Our Lives With Dune: Prophecy

Dave: [0:10] This is the Extra Hot Great Podcast, episode 537 for the week of November 18th, 2024. I am the 2024 luxury Ford Orb, David T. Cole, and I'm here with Burning Truth, Sarah D. Bunting. Sarah: [0:30] A cream for that is coming. Dave: [0:33] Mother Superior, Tara Ariano. Tara: [0:35] Give me a snack. Dave: [0:36] And Benny and the Desserts, Philip Maciak. Philip: [0:39] I, for one, welcome our new thinking machine overlords. Tara: [0:45] Welcome to Extra Hot Great for another week. Joining us, he's the TV critic at The New Republic and the author of Avidly Reads Screen Time. Tara: [0:54] You've heard him with us before. Welcome back, Philip Basiak. Welcome back, Philip. Sarah: [0:59] Philip. Tara: [1:01] We're thrilled to have you here for the questionably named, just kidding, only questionable to me, Dune Prophecy, in which 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, Valia Harkonnen, Emily Watson, is the Reverend Mother Superior of an academy that teaches girls how to be truth-sayers. How did Valia rise to that position after the Harkonnen were branded traitors and banished after the Machine War? Don't worry about it. Valia and her sister Tula, Olivia Williams, have spent the past 30 years trying to arrange marital matches that will produce leaders their order can control, like the one that's imminent between young adult Inez, Sarah-Sophie Busnina, of House Carino, and nine-year-old Pruitt of House Rikese. But then along comes soldier Desmond Hart, Travis Fimmel, whose face-off with a worm has left him with uncanny powers and who has his own plan for the Imperium that involves defeating Valia's order. The show was adapted by Diane Ademu-John and Alison Shapker from the novel Great Schools of Dune by not Frank Herbert, who wrote the original books, but at least co-written by Frank Herbert's son, Brian. Only one episode has aired so far on HBO. We got access to four, but we will be careful about spoilers, even though all of this happened a long, long time ago. Let's do the Chen check-in. Phil, should our listeners watch Dune? Check Doc Prophecy. Philip: [2:30] If you're into this sort of thing. Tara: [2:32] Okay, Sarah? Sarah: [2:34] Yeah, this is not for me, but it might scratch an itch for some people. Like I said, there's a cream for that. We can talk about it later. Tara: [2:41] Dave? Dave: [2:42] Yeah, I think this is definitely a scratch your itch type of show. I don't know any Doonheads in my life, but they got to be out there. Tara: [2:49] You're the most Doonhead I know because you read the book. Dave: [2:52] Oh, I see. Philip: [2:53] Okay, great. Dave: [2:54] That's what it takes. Tara: [2:55] Yeah. That's more than I'm ever going to do. Yeah, this is not for me, but it seems well made. I don't know. After the first one, I was like, I'm interested. And after the second one, I was like, I'm not so interested anymore. Dave: [3:08] It's a bit like watching Wolf Hall. Tara: [3:11] Yeah. Dave: [3:12] Except it's in space or whatever other worlds. Tara: [3:16] Yeah. Dave: [3:16] But Wolf Hall is still the better show. Tara: [3:18] Yeah. Dave: [3:18] You know what I mean? Tara: [3:19] Oh, for sure. Yes, absolutely. Dave: [3:20] It's basically a court intrigue show. Tara: [3:23] Yeah. Dave: [3:23] With a lot of like silly trappings. and some of the silly trappings work and some of them don't and some of them are prolonged and some of them go nowhere but that's sort of par for the course for that kind of show i think. Tara: [3:34] Yeah our colleague dan feinberg at the hollywood reporter i believe was the one who said this is like house of the dragon again so. Dave: [3:41] If you like house. Tara: [3:41] Of the dragon you'll probably like. Dave: [3:43] This and. Tara: [3:43] That feels right. Dave: [3:44] It's house of the dragon without the neat little bits in between the political intrigue right like i don't watch game of thrones or house of dragons but i know that it's basically this show punctuated by a dragon eating somebody in half or something like that. This show doesn't have the dragons running around eating people in half. It is mostly political. Tara: [4:02] No, it barely has worms. Let's get into it, though. A lot of viewers, including me, are sick of prequels Is, Phil, the solution to set your prequel 10,000 years before the source material that your audience already knows? Philip: [4:15] See, might. I actually, I mean, I think there is a wisdom to that. I think some of the better spinoffs, even outside of the sort of prequel zone, some of the better spinoffs take advantage of getting pretty far away from the thing that they're spinning off of. Tara: [4:30] Yeah. Philip: [4:30] Where something like Andor is in a very specific zone, and Agatha all along is two, three steps removed from the thing that it's adapting. So in principle, I don't mind that it's 10,000 years earlier, but my feeling is if you've got the DeLorean, you can just put in whatever date you want to put in. Philip: [4:52] We'll get into, I guess, more of this, but the most jarring thing about this show to me was the most hasty exposition dunk monologue I think I've ever heard at the beginning of this show. It takes a couple of minutes and they're just skating over things that as someone who had been, who had this show marketed to them, I kind of thought this show was about the founding of the order, you know, the, the transition from the, the machine wars and things like that. And it just strikes me that Dune, as we know, I'm not a Dune head has been established. But the Dune that we know is this kind of psychedelic freak out, and there's all this weird stuff going on. And they frame it in this military war zone setting, but it's about all this mysticism and stuff. And then on the other end of that spectrum, approximately 10,000 or so years earlier, there's this giant robot apocalypse. And it strikes me they've just sort of scoured the universe for the most boring possible place to locate a new Dune story. This feels like House of the Dragon. It feels like stuff we've already seen. And I feel like some of the appeal of Dune as a franchise, certainly, is that it's so bonkers and so strange. And there's all these little inventions and creatures and lore and mythology. And this feels designed to avoid all of that stuff so that it looks more like Game of Thrones or Wolf Hall or things that we're familiar with. Tara: [6:11] Mm-hmm. Dave: [6:12] Yeah. Also, it would be expensive, I think, to show the war versus the thinking machines. And also, I think, maybe somebody would be worried that we're just retelling Terminator. Tara: [6:21] Right. Dave: [6:22] Which is kind of the same deal. Yeah. Maybe you want to shy away from because maybe somebody else told that story in backstory before. Tara: [6:30] But also, considering it's 10,000 years before the movies, everything kind of looks the same. And I'm glad that you brought up Andor, because that was sort of a comp for me, even though they're not alike. But, like, part of the problem with setting this whole thing in the great houses and the school is, like, everything looks so antiseptic. Everything looks clean. Like, the appeal of Andor is, like, it looks like a world that all kinds of different people live in. And here it feels like we're only watching one kind of person. Like, you know, we get the brief trip to the club and you're like, okay, what does everyone else in this city do? Like, we don't know. But anyway. Dave: [7:06] They work in desert D.C. and they live in Desertland outside of Desert DC, I think. Tara: [7:13] For Desert Worth. Sarah, you famously attended an all-girls school. Was it basically like this? Dave: [7:19] Yeah, was it? Sarah: [7:20] Yeah. Dave: [7:21] Is this where you know I got tricks from? Sarah: [7:22] Well, yeah, it was 10,000 years ago. Philip: [7:26] It's the best cop. Sarah: [7:28] I mean, here's the thing I will say about the club that the last note I took on the show was that, interestingly, no matter where you put the club in time, it seems just as annoying and like not for me, no matter what the venue. I'm not a like Duniverse dweller, so this might be the tits for some people. And I think it was actually cast really smartly to like make that medicine go down in terms of not knowing the lore for people who might be like patiently watching it with a spouse, for example. Sarah: [8:04] That will not be occurring in my house. I'm just saying it could like having Emily Watson doing this gloss voiceover was very good actor housekeeping seal for me. But here's here's where I often struggle with sci fi. Like they have these gigantically grand settings. Yeah. in order to try to tell very human terrestrial stories in ways that maybe a standard drama wouldn't let you do. This is what they always said about Star Trek, the original series, blah, blah, blah. And you can tell that Dune colon prophecy or agita or whatever the fuck it's actually called is wanting to think about things like shadow matriarchies, like rises of the machines, like if treason isn't immediately and consistently punished, like all of these big concepts. But then the best way to do that is to just tell the sister's story of running a girl's school for minority reporters. I don't think they're going to do that. So ergo, I don't really care. Like, I'm interested in their day-to-day process-y, how do you control the princess who just joined the class? Shit. And like, you know, whatever chapter one of the Star Wars series where it's like, and then the senators met about this trade route and you're like, okay. Dave: [9:33] There is a lot of that. Sarah: [9:33] I don't, I'm struggling. Tara: [9:35] Yeah. Sarah: [9:36] Bring on the clones already. So yeah, that's my issue with all sci-fi. This got a little closer to that Shogun balance of like, these are the big issues, but then these particular humans are making it compelling. Tara: [9:52] Yeah. Sarah: [9:52] But shogun is shogun. And this is not that exactly. It's trying. Dave: [9:58] I missed something at the start because for a moment, I thought the way they were setting it up is that I thought the Harkonnens and the Atreides were nobody families. But speaking to Philip, where they're saying like, this is so long ago and like a lot of the things are exactly the same, including those two homes. I thought the basis of the story was going to be that these These are nobody families that had a petty neighborhood beef. And then that spiraled into the messianic nightmare of Dune 10,000 years from now. But they're already established. And the only difference is like one said no to the throne. And then one kind of, you know, like there's it's I thought it was going to be more from humble beginnings than the show ended up being. And I thought that would have been a stronger first foot forward. Yeah. Philip: [10:46] I think the school, I mean, back to Sarah's point, too, building off of that, paying more attention, not just to how the school works and how they train the acolytes and things like that, but how the school was founded, right? We get this founding matriarch of the Order, and they just kind of yada yada her life from founding of the Order to her deathbed. And I feel like spending some time, and I think this isn't quite a spoiler, but I believe there are some flashbacks in later episodes. But building around the idea of how does this order get started, not sort of fast forwarding right to how does it turn? How does it pivot? So the stakes of the order changing in the way that they do in this first episode feel very unclear to me, or at least I don't care about them. In much the same way as, you know, the Harkonnens being cowards for not being part of the Machine Wars or the Kia Sorento. What's the name of the emperor? Kia Sorento. Dave: [11:45] That's what it is. Don't correct him. It's Kia Sorento. Sarah: [11:49] Yeah. Philip: [11:49] Kia Sorento being the sort of like heroes of the of the Machine Wars. Like these things happened in a different show. And I'm asked immediately to sort of give them a lot of credence and interest. Tara: [12:03] I mean, they get you part of the way because the Carino heirs at least are so hot. Philip: [12:09] So hot. Tara: [12:10] That prince, when he's walking through, all the students are like, hello. I also was like, hello. Nice to see you. He turns out to be kind of an idiot. Speaking of the casting, I have to shout out how good the young old casting was with both of the Harkonnen sisters. Sarah: [12:28] Yes, I made a note of that as well. Tara: [12:30] Especially Jessica Barden plays young Valia, Henry Winkler's daughter-in-law, trivia. Dave: [12:37] Oh. Tara: [12:37] Oh, hey. and good for her for still playing characters who are coded as like young girls when you know she's 32 and has a child but i thought she was very good she gets more to do in future flashbacks, so thinking machines strictly forbidden in the imperium but if you had to sneak one in as a contraband what would your what would your selected thinking machine be and i'll start because when we were talking about it when we were speaking about dia the jackal and extra extra how great last week and and how grubby cyber cafes are i did hug my laptop and i gave it a little kiss but mine would probably be my ball sort watercolor puzzle player aka my phone phil yeah. Philip: [13:19] I think probably phone too so that i could uh look up on wikipedia. Tara: [13:24] What's happening around me well. Dave: [13:27] I don't want to bust your guy's bubble but i don't know if you would have like a compatible device with whatever their network system is so you might only have to deal with stuff that are in like in cash or don't get online. So universe, that's the other thing about the show that I found a little confusing is like where they draw the line between thinking technology and non-thinking technology. Well, they have shifts, but like their version of the iPhone is basically a game boy device where you put a cartridge in with information that lights up. And there's a scene in a couple episodes where basically the police are being sent out to gather up ne'er-do-wells. It's not a spoiler. but they all get these little information cartridges and they stick it in their little game boys. And the text is so small. There's no way anybody can read it. And I just thought, and there's no pinching and zooming on these things. Philip: [14:17] It's just, they had to go full Battlestar Galactica. Tara: [14:19] Right. Philip: [14:20] Landlines. Tara: [14:21] Listen, all I know is an independence day. They used a thumb drive or the nineties equivalent to like upload a virus. And it was totally compatible and worked. Dave: [14:30] So what I'm saying is I'm going to bring a big massager chair. Tara: [14:32] Okay. Fair enough. Sarah. Sarah: [14:34] Have you seen the size of even like a crappy dorm in this universe? Roomba, 100%. Philip: [14:42] Ooh, nice. Dave: [14:50] All right, it's time to go around the dial talking about shows we've been watching recently. Our first stop is Tara. Tara: [14:55] First of all, very briefly, because it's still under embargo, but this is my last chance to talk about it. Netflix has a new show coming on November 21st called A Man on the Inside. Michael Schur adapted it from a Chilean documentary about a man going undercover to look into allegations of misconduct at a retirement home. That makes it sound dark. It's not. That's what happens here, too. No one is getting abused. A necklace has gone missing. Also, it's not in Chile. it's in San Francisco and the undercover resident is played by Ted Danson. I don't know why they're holding back reviews because it was very enjoyable. It's like only murders in the building slash bored to death from HBO a million years ago vibes. Tara: [15:33] So if you like those, you'll like this. I don't think Netflix will yell at me for saying that. It's a very good choice also to watch with a mixed age audience over the holidays. Sweet. But my actual around the dial topic is another show that is sweet, Junior Taskmaster. It was announced in May 2023 and finally premiered on November 8th. As our listeners know, I don't have kids. It's been a long time since I was a kid. I'm not really drawn to programming that revolves around kids. I do trust Taskmaster's creative team, so I was more willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this and believe their execution of the concept wouldn't be too cutesy, and it's not. Tara: [16:11] The episodes are structured the same way as the version that we know with a prize task, three film tasks, and then a live task. But the season is built differently, presumably to lessen the amount of time the kids have to spend being on camera. There are several qualifying heats. So none of the five kids from the first episode are in the second one, but the winner and the runner-up from each of those goes ahead to a semifinal, and then there's more qualifying episodes to come. And the show wouldn't work if even half of the contestants were annoying. Based on the first two episodes, the casting directors are on, like, a god-tier level. with this because none of the kids to me have been annoying so far and that's saying something because my tolerance for precocity is very low to start with and when you add a british accent i'm even more liable to be turned off they don't seem like showbiz kids who are like trying to use this to be the next oliver twist or something they're just a bunch of little weirdos who like taskmaster and are willing to risk looking silly on tv. Tara: [17:07] And the fact that they seem to be in the 9 to 11 age range is also key. Like, they're old enough to be able to do moderately complex thinking about the tasks, but not so tween or teen-ish that they're self-conscious and thus hard to watch. There does seem to have been a decision not to disqualify contestants for infractions that would definitely get them zero points if they were adults. But I'm not such a jerk that I can't let that go. They are children, especially since otherwise points do get awarded in the same way they are on the adult show. And the kids are, again, amazingly very chill about this being part of the process. They don't get visibly upset if they get a low score and are sincerely congratulatory of the winners. The Taskmaster and the Taskmaster's assistant for this edition are both alumni of the adult show. Maybe the best part about Rose Mattafeo being picked to be the junior Taskmaster is seeing her beautiful curly hair cast in fake gold for the prize bust of her head. There was a recent episode of Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont Spelling Bee where she was paired with a teen for one of the rounds that made me think she would be fun interacting with kids. And, of course, she is. She takes them seriously. She's great at setting them up to goof around with her. But the true star is Mike Wozniak as the Taskmaster's assistant. Tara: [18:16] He doesn't showboat, but he's an ad-lib assassin. All of his jokes really land, and he's cute with the kids. So if you're a Taskmaster fan who hasn't tried this version yet because you're not interested in kids, I get it. but you might be surprised how charmed you are by it. Episodes are dropping on Fridays, I believe on the Taskmaster YouTube channel. We of course have been flying to England. So that's when we get them. Dave, you also watch this. Dave: [18:37] Yeah, Mike Wozniak is absolutely the best part of this. There is a live stage task where the kids are asked to like do certain things and hold the pose or hold the action for like half a minute at a time and like chain five things up. And there's one of them that just loses all sense of time. She like does one for 90 seconds and then another one for a whole minute. And Mike Walsiak staring at her and then looks at the taskmaster and says, so. who's your cobbler? And I lost it. It was just such a random question out of the blue, but like she rolled with it too. So they're very good together as well when they're on stage. So yeah, I was surprised by how well it was put together and how carefully they thread the needle, all the dangers of working with kids. Tara: [19:22] For sure. So that is running through, I believe the end, I think the final episode is December 27th. And then we will be getting a new year's treat from adult task Master again this year on January 1st. For my plug, I reviewed the middle five episodes of the final season of Cobra Kai, and they feel like they're the middle of a season, but you can find a link to that review in the show notes. And since, again, this is my last chance to plug things in 2024, I want to shout out looking into your local mutual aid group that is surely doing good work on the ground. If you want to donate to my local mutual aid group, not I didn't start it. I just mean it's local to me. We'll link to Street Forum ATX in the show notes. They are running a winter year fundraiser right now. Tara: [20:09] And then now more than ever, sadly, the National Network of Abortion Funds, that's abortionfunds.org. And we will link that in the show notes as well. Dave: [20:19] All right, Philip, what have you been watching lately? Philip: [20:23] Well, I thought I should say something about Say Nothing. Tara: [20:27] Nice. Philip: [20:28] Thanks. I was working on that. Dave: [20:30] You should. Professional. Philip: [20:32] So Say Nothing is a limited series on FX on Hulu. It is adapted from Patrick Radden Keefe's much beloved and critically lauded nonfiction book of the same name. It's about the IRA during the Troubles in Belfast in the 60s and 70s. And it jumps forward into, I believe, the late 90s, early 2000s, following the same sort of quartet of characters, including Jerry Adams, as he transitions out of his alleged involvement with the IRA to his political career. The show is, I think, very good. I think a lot of the first sort of six, seven episodes do very credibly what a movie like Goodfellas does. Philip: [21:17] Which is turn sort of portray how seductive and exciting this kind of life is, especially for the young people that it's about. Philip: [21:27] Even as it is sort of leavening in the sort of costs and psychic and otherwise of all of this violence. I really wish that it were a little bit longer. I think it gets kind of strangled towards the end in trying to account for the adult lives and sort of legacy of these things happening. But the thing that I wanted to point out, the two things, one is, for some reason, In inexplicable reason, FX has decided to dump this series all at once. I think it's the type of show you might hear about and think, well, I don't want to watch any of the episodes of that show, let alone all of them in quick succession. I will say it has a very high energy. It is very compelling and charismatic right from the opening episodes. It's very possible you will want to string a couple of them together, but it's also possible you're going to stall out. I don't know. I can't imagine watching the one entire episode that takes place while two of the characters are on hunger strike in prison and thinking, well, I'm ready for another one of these after you finish that. So my plea is to stick with it or try it out in the first place. And then the second one is to just say, especially coming off of Dune Exodus that we were just talking about, which I think has some uneven young person casting going on in terms of credible actors or compelling actors. The four young actors that star in the first section of Say Nothing are just incredible. And I was unfamiliar with three of them, Lola Petticrew. Philip: [22:54] Hazel Dupe, and Josh Finnan. I hadn't seen them in anything. I hope I see them in everything now. And then the fourth one is Anthony Boyle, who the Prestige TV industrial complex has been trying to make happen very aggressively for the past year. And it's finally happened. Sarah: [23:10] It has finally happened. God. Philip: [23:12] He is so good in this show, especially in context of having seen him in Manhunt, where he plays John Wilkes Booth, and in Masters of War, where he plays one of the several leads. He is so good in this show, and I just want to congratulate him for finally breaking through after three very large bites at the apple. Sarah: [23:37] Yeah, I actually reviewed it as well at Best Evidence and linked to your review. Philip: [23:43] I saw, thanks. And then it was like. Sarah: [23:45] Oh, right, that's going to be our guest. So I'm excited that you chose this to talk about. I would echo the idea that you might not think that this is for you, that you're like, I have some free time, let's be completely dispirited. But it is really immersive, a word I hate, but sometimes I have no choice. And like the book, you might think it's going to feel homeworky and like capital I important, but not enjoyable to watch. And it's like the book, it's not that at all. And I was impressed that that feeling of this being important and interesting storytelling, that it is not like too high fiber to get through it. I was impressed that they got that to translate. So yeah. Dave: [24:30] And Philip, where can our listeners find you? Philip: [24:33] So I am on Blue Sky now with my PJMACIAK handle. And most of the things I write are at The New Republic, including my recent review of Say Nothing. Dave: [24:46] Sarah D. Bunting. Sarah: [24:48] Hello. I am following up on The Day of the Jackal, which we talked about in an extra, extra hot grate recently. We all really liked it. I just did not have really the stomach for anything except, like, I don't even know, Thomas Crown Affair adjacent shit. So I wound up watching the rest of the screeners. And in the second half, I mean, I still like the show. I still think you should watch it. In the second half, it does slow down a little. It's a little flashback-y. It's not entirely clear to me based on what we see and what these people do, whether we're supposed to see the jackal as a hero in the Omar, a man must have a code style. Or if we're supposed to think that there are no heroes, it's also quite a bit clumsier when it comes to the ambiguity of Bianca's position. Her daughter is obliged to do a bunch of Socratic dialoguing about cops all being bastards, which isn't great. I mean, that dialogue is important. It's just too bad that she has to do it. But it is still very watchable. The leads give great performances. Pleasant distraction is maybe not the right word, given the number of crania shattering in any given episode. Tara: [26:07] No, that's relaxing. Dave: [26:08] Yeah, that's pretty good. Tara: [26:09] Yeah. Sarah: [26:10] Okay. Dave: [26:10] Okay. Sarah: [26:12] Ah, crania. Should have been eight episodes, I think, and not ten. Set pieces do start to seem repetitive in the last quarter of the show. like you shouldn't have tried to reinvent the chase from Ronan wheel once. Nevermind thrice. But here's my recommendation. Wait for all the episodes to have come out. Once the full season is out, give yourself that as a holiday, like freezing rain. We're going to be inside binge watch all at one time, because I think that's how it should be consumed. And then the five and then weekly model, I'm seldom a fan of that. And I don't think it's, I don't think it's indicated for this. So that is my recommendation for the day of the jackal. Sarah: [26:58] For my plug, my current foster feline, Frankie, is hopefully headed to his forever home this coming weekend, and I encourage anyone who is able to give fostering a try to try it. And if you don't have the room, that's okay. Find a trap-neuter release program near you or a rescue organization in your community and donate to that. These vet bills are not a joke, and your local organization could use some help. If you're not sure where to find that, there's a state-by-state directory that you can find in the show notes. These folks put a lot of their own time and money into making life better for Sarah: [27:34] unhoused felines, and winter, as they say, is coming. So check that out. Dave: [27:42] Speaking about checking things out, we are heading into the holidays, so we will be taking some time off. But you will still get new stuff because we have been diligently recording episodes from the holiday season all fucking year. Tara: [27:57] Yeah. So I think the first of these pre-tapes is from like September. Dave: [28:02] Here's generally what's coming at you between Extra Hot Great and Extra Extra Hot Great. We've got Interior Chinatown. We've got Personal Authorization Code Game Time episode. Our Little Secret. 2024 Guest Thought Experiments. The Sticky. The second appearance of Mullendash. The December 4th inning is Fishing with John. We've got an all Extra Hot Great Holiday Cannons special. We've got December 1984 commercial compilations. We've got Y2K the movie. And in January, the 4th inning will be the streets of San Francisco. We're adding a couple of vaultings into all that. So whatever ones are Extra Hot Great, you gotta be in the club. Whatever ones are just normal, you don't. Dave: [28:45] So look forward to that throughout the month of December and early January. It is time for the extra hot great canon presenting this week is our guest, Philip. Take it away. Philip: [29:03] I am honored. I mean this very sincerely honored yet again to be presenting a canon candidate before this jury. The last time I was here, I proposed and successfully advocated for the correction of what I perceive to be a glaring omission from the canon, the pilot episode of The Americans. This time I am returning with somewhat more urgency as not only am I advocating for a great episode that is missing from the canon, I'm advocating for a truly great show that is missing from the canon. Somebody Somewhere premiered on HBO in January of 2022, and it is currently about to finish its third and final season. The show follows Sam, played by cabaret legend and comedian Bridget Everett, as she has returned home to the small college town of Manhattan, Kansas to help care for a dying sister. By the time we meet Sam, her sister's already passed and she's living in her house, unmoored from her previous life, trying to decide what comes next. And that's when she meets Joel, played by improv legend Jeff Hiller, an old high school acquaintance who essentially insists on becoming her best friend. He takes her to an underground event called Choir Practice, a semi-secret queer-friendly cabaret and performance group that meets after hours in a Presbyterian church and is emceed by an enigmatic local impresario named Fred Rococo, played by, you guessed it, legendary drag king performer Murray Hill. Philip: [30:16] Choir Practice doesn't cure Sam of her grief, but it gives her access to an alternate universe version of Manhattan, a place where renewal and repair and community are possible. Not a lot happens on this show, but everything is observed with incredible grace, compassion, and attention to detail. Unlike some of its other peers in the genre of the sad comedy or sadcom, Somebody Somewhere is never really trying to do too much. There are no cinematic pretensions, no narrative hijinks, no big giant Emmy bait performances. Somebody Somewhere is about the deceptively simple goal of trying to find people who love you and learning to accept that love when they give it. To represent this series, I've chosen an episode that comes smack dab in the middle of it, the second episode of the second season. It isn't a particularly momentous episode, though something fairly important plot ways does enter into the frame for the first time here. But it is an exceptional example of most of the things this series does well. Specifically, it highlights the naturalness and the depth between Sam and Joel and between Everett and Hiller as performers. And it highlights the sometimes moving, sometimes hilarious ways that this is ultimately a show about vulnerability. The main thing happening in this episode is not terribly complicated. Fred Rococo announces to the gang out of nowhere that not only is he seeing someone, Susan, a total stranger to all of them, but that they are engaged to be married. After hearing the sweet, melancholy story of their multi-decade courtship, Sam seems to be the only one with reservations. Can I please have clip one, please? Philip: [31:42] Holy shit. Holy shit is right. I cannot believe that Fred. Tara: [31:54] I thought she was pretty great. She's cool. Philip: [31:57] A little boring, but. Just kidding. Don't worry. Tara: [32:48] Tender moment. Fart sound, fart sound. Get me out of here. Philip: [32:56] Fart sound, fart sound. Get me out of here. might as well be this show's mantra. This scene is a great encapsulation of one of the show's longest developing dynamics, Sam's instinctive skepticism and cynicism tempered by Joel's instinctive romanticism. Sam, of course, will eventually be proven right. Susan is a bit of a pain in the ass. But in that moment, Joel's right to imply that it's Sam who's in the wrong here. That said, this episode isn't really about Sam coming to terms with Fred's new fiance. It's about the fact that Fred's asked Sam to sing the Ave Maria at the wedding. Sam, who spent most of the show's first season ginning up the courage to belt her favorite songs in public, which she does frequently and ecstatically throughout the series, feels really uncomfortable with her new task. This is partially because she normally sings pop hits of the 70s and 80s. It's partially because it reminds her of her sister, but it's also partially because she doesn't want to be laughed at or tossed aside to have an embarrassing performance confirm all her worst fears about other people. Philip: [33:52] But Sam and Joel have a heart-to-heart in a sex shop, and Sam decides, amidst all the dildos, that she's going to work to accomplish this task, to sacrifice some of her comfort to be a good friend to Fred. But it won't be easy, so Sam seeks out Darlene, her childhood voice coach, to help. They seek her out at the public recital for her voice students. Philip: [34:09] Sam and Joel marvel as kid after kid mount the stage with supreme confidence, the confidence Darlene has given them, and sing their hearts out. And then something unexpected happens. A terse, buttoned-up adult man we've never seen before, Brad, played magnificently by Tim Bagley, takes the stage. Can I please play clip two? Tara: [35:32] Cantar, I mean, you gotta give it to me. You really left it all on the floor. Yes, you do. So did I. Sarah: [35:44] I think I just wet my pants. Philip: [35:48] It's worth pointing out that the laughter that you hear during that clip is diegetic to the show, not us laughing at Brad as he's singing in the studio here. Brad's face is outrageous in this scene. His eyes are bursting from their sockets. His fists, Arthur clenched at his sides. Sam and Joel can't help but laugh. And while they might nominally be laughing out of mockery and derision, part of Sam's laughter, at least, telegraphs as plain old discomfort or even recognition. Is this what I'll look like? Is this what I'll sound like? Is this how the audience will laugh at me? Now Sam and Joel are playful, but they're rarely mean. And this momentary lapse into cruelty almost guarantees that we won't see the last of Brad. In fact, spoiler alert, Brad and Joel will begin secretly dating in season two and in the third and final season move in together. But prelude to all of that is their meet-cute at the reception afterwards. Could you please play clip three? It's a family recipe. Ham wrapped around a pickle. Dave: [36:46] Wow. Okay. It all makes sense in your mouth. Sarah: [36:51] Does it? Dave: [36:52] Yeah. Sarah: [36:53] Tell me what you think. It's addictive. How is it? Well, I did it. Might be a terrible idea, but. Philip: [37:05] A plate. Oh, thank you. Um, what the fuck is this? It's called St. Tara: [37:13] Louis Sushi. It's pretty. Philip: [37:50] As a resident of St. Louis for over a decade now, I have not tried St. Louis sushi, but I can confirm that if you're choking on it, then it works. Here, we hear Joel and Brad flirt a little for the first time, but we also hear Sam confirm to Joel that Darlene's agreed to teach her again, that despite what she just saw Brad do, leaving it all on the floor, as they say, she's going to put herself out there and be vulnerable again. This promise of vulnerability is on Sam's mind as she returns home, listening to old cassette tapes of her voice lessons and why I think are her sisters. But this reverie is interrupted by a different type of vulnerability and indeed a different type of performance. The clip I'm about to ask Dave to play, I should mention, is not for the faint of heart. You are about to hear a beautiful phone conversation between Sam and Joel, a thesis statement for the show's emotional ambitions almost. But what you're also going to hear is a lot of farting and pooping, a graphic, a graphic amount of audio diarrhea. So making sure that you're listening to this on headphones or at least in a moderately safe space please let her rip i. Sarah: [38:49] Swear to god if you ever tell anybody what just happened to my asshole i. Tara: [38:55] Will come over i do not have the words to explain what just happened to your asshole i'm sorry i'm not sorry It. Philip: [39:03] Was the St. Louis sushi! I knew it was that fucking car! Oh no! Tara: [39:07] Oh no, Joel! I dropped my phone! I can't reach my phone! This is a new level of. Philip: [39:39] The key line here is, this is a new level of intimacy, and it is. There's nothing more intimate than sharing a bathroom. It's worth saying that while this is the show's high watermark in terms of toilet humor, somebody somewhere is frequently putting Joel and Sam in position to talk to each other in the midst of a bowel movement. If a show does something that frequently, at a certain point, it's got to be either a mistake or a metaphor. I choose to read it as a metaphor, that true intimacy, true vulnerability lies in sharing the process of growth, of fear, of confidence with another person. It's a messy process, and it can be full of shame, but everybody does it. Everybody has to. This is an episode full of beginnings that will only be beginnings if our characters agree to go through that process to see them through. And that's what I love about this episode in this series. It takes its time. It never resolves a problem neatly in the space of a single episode. It lets us watch people exist together and alone. It shows us narratively all the choices we have to make on purpose and in defiance of our fears in order to become better people. Fart sound, fart sound. Get me out of here. Tara: [40:46] Phil, thank you so much. I feel like I should go first because I'm the only one who has watched this show before now. I wanted to touch on a couple of things that you didn't mention, which is one of the other plot lines of this episode revolves around Trish, Sam's sister, who is also going through changes at this point. Her marriage ended in the first season because her business partner slept with her husband. Tara: [41:09] That came up. We see a little of that in the recap of the premiere where she's like, she fucked my husband, so I tried to fuck her husband. Seems like it didn't work. Tara: [41:18] Trish and Sam go to visit their mother at a nursing home and find out that Sam has been put on the no visit list and Trish is curious and is going to make her take it off because that means she'll be fully responsible for their admittedly very difficult alcoholic mother who is like neither of them wants to see. And the first of all, the joy that Sam expresses openly to the receptionist at the nursing home that she's like been barred from having this responsibility is so it's it feels like everything in the show. It just feels so true. But also, when Sam first pulls up in the parking lot, Trish has beaten her there. And you can tell, even though we don't see it, that Trish has, like, saw Sam's truck coming and, like, arranged herself in a pose to perform pissed off about Sam being five minutes late for this appointment. Like, these are the kinds of moments that I love about the show because it's just all of it is so it's so true. Tara: [42:19] And you're so right about the deep level of attention to detail that they've put into just observing these characters. you know the stuff with the friend group at the beginning with Fred and Fred's engagement and then afterward the car talk literally happening in the car which I love about this person parachuting into their lives and you can tell even at the table Sam is trying to be on her like socially acceptable best behavior but she has no poker face like it's clear she immediately doesn't like Susan and as you said turns out to be kind of right all of that like the social dynamics of this friend group are so. Tara: [42:55] Just the way they portray them, you know the universe, like any interaction they have. Tells you so much. And I love that about the show, even though in the current season, people are like, including on our Discord, are like, fucking Susan. I fucking hate Susan. And it's like, I hear you, but like you have to respect the show for doing that to her character. They're like, they're telling a story through this asshole-ishness that is like important and is part of Sam's journey too. Anyway, the fact that episode one of the season is called NNP, which stands for no new people, is sort of like, That's a thesis statement of season two, where Sam is like, we have each other. That's all we need. And then this episode is so pivotal for all of the stuff it introduces. Susan, the wedding, obviously Brad, who's going to end up being so important for the plot. And Sam reconnecting with Darlene. That's another wonderful moment when she's like, hey, I don't know if you remember me. The camera stays on Darlene, so you can see her whole face light up. She's so happy to see Sam. Some of these actors, like, some of them are theater people. Some of them are local hires. All of them are perfect. What more can I say? I have tried, and I did try when I talked about this in Around the Dial a couple weeks ago, to say, when you describe what it's about, it sounds like a sad comm, like you said. Tara: [44:16] And some of it is sad, but some of it is hilarious because that's life. Like, that's what the show does so, so well. And this is a beautiful example of everything it does, in my opinion, perfectly. I'm so glad we got another season after this. And I wish we could get more. I wish we could get a movie every year with, you know, checking in on Joel and Sam. I don't see that happening. But wonderful, perfect show. I love it so much. Sarah. Sarah: [44:42] Before I embarked on this splashy odyssey with all of you, Tara's like, I can't wait for you to watch this show and fall in love with it. and uh i was you know and she's listening to the cassette tape and then she spreads to the bathroom and i was like oh my god why why is this happening to me but i still wanted to keep watching yes possibly to cleanse the mental palate of just an extremely evocative last bit but like. Sarah: [45:17] As sort of vile as it was, that wasn't the only thing that it was evoking. And I was immediately sort of taken with what seems like the show's unifying principle, which is that your found family, as much as it's a family, you're still going to have some of the same problems as with your family of origin. And the way that they are so economical and like not sugar free, but just very direct about these sort of shifts emotionally, like that car talk. I mean, that it was in the car was perfect. Hashtag car talk. But then her just sort of shorthanding of like, I'm happy for Fred, but also I don't need to be happy for Fred about her with her present all the time. But that is kind of like how it is in, you know, with in-laws. Sarah: [46:21] Family of origin or found family, that it's like there's always that one who's like around a little too much that you're not psyched about it. And to be able to express that to basically your teammate within the found family is really important. And then there is also that moment where a friendship breaks through to a familial bond, where you just have an all-hands disaster going out the back door. And it's like, okay, well, now we are – like, in some cultures, we are now married. Once you've gone through something like that with a close friend. So as unpleasant as that was orally to live with that, I was also very touched by it. And then that shot of the empty toilet paper roll was like, oh my God, like truly we are. This is the family of man, unfortunately. Definitely going to keep watching it. a number of people have recommended it to me, including my Joel in real life. So I'm excited to begin this journey and go on it. And also that now that episode is done. Philip: [47:40] You skip right over it. Sarah: [47:42] Yeah. Like she'll get that eyebrow, that diarrhea-feeling eyebrow, and I'll be like, all right, great, next episode. And this was a wonderful presentation as well. Tara: [47:53] I think, that you really. Sarah: [47:54] Got to all the things that the show does well these moments between people that they seem really small but there's like no such thing as a small moment in the story of a of a friendship and so yeah this was great great show and i am excited that uh it's probably going to be in the canon but you know how dave hates toilet humor so. Tara: [48:15] Let's see what he thinks. Dave: [48:18] You demonstrated so much restraint and what you actually clipped for that last clip. Tara: [48:23] The way you set it up sounded like we're. Dave: [48:25] Going to get the whole like orchestra and you just we just had the little and we just had the little what is it the timpani drum at. Tara: [48:32] The end that was it well if I may give everyone a peek behind the curtain originally it was and I was like I don't think the problem because Phil asked is this going to upset your listeners and I said no but it's just there's this is two and a half minutes long it's just a little bit okay a little much so. Dave: [48:49] All right so it was TARS. Tara: [48:50] Doing no I said split it I said include the Your. Philip: [48:54] Suggestion was that it should be Dune Part 1 and Dune. Tara: [48:57] Part 2. Exactly. Dave: [48:59] Exactly. Well, just so you know, when you watch the actual show, it goes on. It's basically like the HBO version of the Dumb and Dumber scene. It just goes and goes. Tara: [49:09] Yep. Dave: [49:10] And it is an auditory nightmare slash triumph. And the fact that it is also like this bow on the episode, all about putting yourself up there, and maybe like a little karma involved as well. Fart as a metaphor for all that. Diarrhea as a metaphor for all that. I mean, how could I not vote this in? And then, you know, all the little sweet moments and all the little small town moments before it. Sure, great, fine. But like, what are we here for? We're here for this end scene. I'm not gonna pretend I'm not. Except I will say, I think maybe the highlight of the episode was it all makes sense in your mouth, which is something I want to bring into my lexicon. Sarah: [49:50] Bite a nickel. Dave: [49:52] That's a great line. Tara: [49:53] Yep. Dave: [49:54] But boy, that ending scene is fantastic. So no qualms for me. Absolutely. All right. Let's put this to the official vote. Tara Arellano, what vote you? Tara: [50:05] Well, first of all, I want to say, even after seeing how it ends up, would I try St. Louis sushi? I am trash. And yes, I would. That sounds good. Philip: [50:15] Okay. Tara: [50:16] All right. Those are three things that individually sound good. Dave: [50:19] What's the problem? The ingredients list starts not with ham. It has to be sweaty ham. Tara: [50:23] Yeah. Yeah, I'm just saying. Dave: [50:25] It's just, oof. Sarah: [50:26] Yeah. Tara: [50:27] Anyway. Sarah: [50:29] Listeria boar's head. Come on. Dave: [50:30] All right. Tarl's going to be in the bathroom for the rest of this episode. Sarah D. Bunting, what say you? Sarah: [50:35] It's a yes from me, believe it or not. Philip: [50:37] Yeah, you too. Dave: [50:43] That means Somebody Somewhere, Season 2, Episode 2, Number 2, Dave: [50:48] you are hereby inducted into the extra-hot Grey Kennet. It is time to discover the winner and a loser of the week. Sarah has this week's winner. Sarah: [51:08] Friday Night Lights. It's getting a reboot. No one asked for this, but I think the original will get a sort of retroactive glow up. Wasn't I just talking last week about how I had to rewatch the original? So I'm going to go do that. And who knows? Maybe the reboot will be okay. A lot of the original showrunners are involved. Dave: [51:31] Is it like Friday Night Lights, Next Generation? Tara: [51:34] Yes. Dave: [51:34] Okay. Sarah: [51:35] Friday Night Light babies. Dave: [51:37] Still playing football in Texas, are they? Yes. Sarah: [51:40] That's the rumor. Dave: [51:42] And Loser of the Week? Tara: [51:43] My Loser of the Week is Jenny Mullen, and you don't know who she is, and you shouldn't, but she is Jason Biggs' wife and also his co-host on the rebooted this year Dinner and a Movie, speaking of things no one asked for and that also make even less sense. She did an Instagram post about being on a plane and discovering that she had lice. And people yelled at her for getting on a plane when she was contaminated. And my initial reaction was like, you never had to post this. No one needed to know. And then I remembered, oh, she's a fucking influencer. She did have to post this. And part of the whole process is getting people to yell at you and share this everywhere and be like, can you believe this bitch? And that's more the problem than her getting on a plane. because I believe since that she didn't know before she boarded it that she had lice. But the bigger infection is the social media ecosystem that requires this kind of bullshit. I hate it. And I guess I'm part of the problem for also sharing the story. But don't watch dinner in a movie and don't do this. Celebrities find something else to make content about. Yeah. Sarah: [52:57] So would you say you have nitpicks? Dave: [53:03] Would you say that airlines need more regulation? Tara: [53:07] Yes. And speaking of regulation, good one, Dave. Do you know what time it is? Dave: [53:12] Is it non-regulation game time? Sarah: [53:13] Non-regulation game time! Yes, we did. Tara: [53:28] Last Tube Tunes, which was in August, was our first Tube Tunes of the year. This is our last Tube Tunes, Tube Tunes 15, and also the last regular-ish game time of the year, although we do have a couple of game-based specials coming up, as we mentioned earlier. For now, gameplay is the same as at least the last time we did this. Dave will play a clip of an original song from TV. If that is all you need to tell me what show the clip is from, you will earn three points. In one case, this is a not original song with original lyrics, but whatever. If you need a hint, I'll tell you the name of a cast member from the show. Then it's worth two. If you still don't know, I'll give you a second cast member. Then it's worth one. No free guesses. No shows in the game more than once. We have 18 questions and a tiebreaker. I kept it kind of short because Phil had a hard out. So we'll forego Steel Meals and Grossworth Equalizer Challenge Zones. Are you ready to play Tube Tunes 15? Dave: [54:22] I am. Sarah: [54:23] Yes. Philip: [54:23] Let's do it. Tara: [54:26] We will start with Valued Guest. Okay. We'll go Valued Guest, then Dave, then Sarah. Let's start off with clip one for film. I love a teeny teeny. Philip: [54:40] Which I like a teeny teeny. I like a teeny teeny too. There's one teeny teeny and another teeny teeny. Somebody somewhere. Tara: [54:50] That is correct for three points. I gave everyone a little bit of an easy one to start out with. Philip: [54:54] Aw, thanks. Tara: [54:55] Dave, clip two is for you. Goat and a pig. A couple of lives stopped living their lives stuck together in harmony. A pig and a goat showing the world. Philip: [55:07] That a pig and a goat can be family. Love so strong, love so big. Dave: [55:12] Such a beautiful goat and a pig. Doing their taxes together. Tara: [55:16] Yep. Dave: [55:18] That's Goat and a Pig from Gravity Falls. Tara: [55:21] That's correct for three points. Speaking of chosen family, goat and a pig. Clip three is for Sarah. Sarah: [55:55] Having to sing in front of LuPone. That is Agatha all along. Tara: [56:00] For three points. Back to Phil. Philip: [56:04] Ah, nuts. Tara: [56:05] Clip four. When a man and a woman are meeting up before marriage and they want to hook up, there's always a third. Philip: [56:20] Third. Always a third. Shit. Tara: [56:26] If you're married, the third is God. If you're not, it's Satan. Your first cast member is May Kalamawi. Philip: [56:36] I'm going to need another hint. Tara: [56:37] Your second hint is Hiam Abbas. Philip: [56:45] I don't know. I don't know this one. Tara: [56:50] Does anyone want to guess? It's Rami. Dave: [56:53] Oh, okay. Philip: [56:54] Oh. Tara: [56:56] There's a lot of these where I'm like, you might have watched it because you're right. Philip: [56:59] This is you all learning that I didn't make it to the end of Rami. Tara: [57:03] You should. It's a good show. Also, I don't think it's the end. I think it's coming back for another season. All right. Clip five is for Dave. Mama, you raised a king. Dave: [57:25] You raised a king Ooh, yeah, mama, It took me a second. I'm trying to remember the actor's name. Is it like Del? What was this? Tara: [57:37] Ray Del? Lil Rel Howley. Dave: [57:39] Lil Rel Howley, thank you. That's Southside. Tara: [57:42] It sure is. Which we just finished re-watching it and boy, there's so many more songs in it than I remember. So look forward to hearing more Southside in future TubeTunes is. Clip six is for Sarah. And hey, how about that nutty Star Wars bar? Can you. Philip: [58:04] Black and evil mask. Did he scare you as much as he scared me? Star Wars! Sarah: [58:14] Can I get a hint, please? Tara: [58:15] Sure. Your first cast member of this show is Gilda Radner. Sarah: [58:20] Oh, let's go with Saturday Night Live. Tara: [58:23] That's correct. I hadn't watched that clip in so long. It's funnier than I remember. It holds up. Clip seven is for Phil. Philip: [58:44] A routine song. Woo! Hmm. That sounds familiar to me, but I need a hint. Tara: [58:53] Your first hint is Krista Miller Lawrence. Dave: [58:57] Hmm. Philip: [58:58] All right, give me another one. Tara: [59:02] Courtney Cox. Philip: [59:04] Cox. It's not Friends, is it? No. Oh. Tara: [59:13] What is it? Dave: [59:13] Wait, what is it? Philip: [59:15] The one, the name that I can't remember, but it's a wine glass. Dave: [59:18] Yeah, it's a wine glass. Tara: [59:19] It is a wine glass. Dave: [59:20] Wine glass, correct. Tara: [59:21] It's Cougar's name. Dave: [59:23] Wine glass from the Kia Sorento. Tara: [59:28] All right, clip eight is for Dave. I'm afraid that I'll accidentally text, half-siblings and they'll want to be in my life. Dave: [59:56] Oh, I know I've heard it before, but I can't place it, so I'll take a hint, please. Tara: [1:00:00] Your first hint is Sarah Bareilles. Dave: [1:00:03] Oh, Girls 5-0. Tara: [1:00:04] Correct for two points. Clip 9 is for Sarah, and then we'll have a score break. Yeah, okay. Sleepy girl, sleepy girl. Why. Sarah: [1:00:21] Up. Yeah. I need a hint. Tara: [1:00:30] Matt LeBlanc. Sarah: [1:00:35] Well, I'm going to take another hint, actually. Tara: [1:00:38] Okay. Sarah: [1:00:39] The Kudrow. Okay. Okay, let's go with friends then. Tara: [1:00:43] That's correct, for one point. Let's hear the scores. Sarah: [1:00:49] Well, currently, David T. Cole's in the lead with eight. I have six, and Phil has three. Philip: [1:00:54] Okay. Can I get like a half point for saying friends to a different question? Dave: [1:01:02] Yeah. Tara: [1:01:04] All right, back to Phil with clip 10. Philip: [1:01:41] I'm gonna need a hint your. Tara: [1:01:43] First hint is Sam Reed R-E-I-D. Philip: [1:01:49] Okay give me another one Eric Boghossian Eric Boghossian hmm, uh veep, wow I really want that to be true. Tara: [1:02:10] What is it, Dave? Dave: [1:02:12] It's Interview with a Vampire. Tara: [1:02:13] It is Interview with a Vampire. That was an album Lestat recorded for Louis Vuitton. Fell out in season one. Right. Clip 11 is for Dave. Passing on the cries. Get me down off for this cross. Dave: [1:02:29] Passing on the cries. You know my daddy is the boss. Jumanji. Tara: [1:02:36] I really had a hard time deciding which one to pick. Dave: [1:02:41] This is from Key and. Tara: [1:02:42] Peele That's correct for three points So. Dave: [1:02:44] We watched it, I don't know, a few months ago And I had totally, absolutely forgotten about the Ray Parker Jr. sings songs from other movies he didn't sing songs for It's. Tara: [1:02:53] A series finale. Dave: [1:02:54] It is, it is so good It is so funny. Tara: [1:02:59] Yeah, look it up Face off, that ain't even your face Yeah, it's really funny, Clip 12 is for Sarah D. Bunting. He's guilty, Judge, he's guilty You could see it in his eyes. Dave: [1:03:27] Boy away Well, hmm, hmm Oh, yeah. For sure, answers. What else could it be? Okay, go. Tara: [1:03:41] Well. Sarah: [1:03:43] I mean, that's true. I will say that this is the only song worth a damn in the entire truncated season of Cop Rock. Tara: [1:03:52] Cop Rock is correct. Back to Phil. for clip 13. Dave: [1:04:04] Enjoy that? Tara: [1:04:06] Yep. I'll say I'll give is it okay if I give Phil an extra little hint? Dave: [1:04:36] I have no idea what that is. Tara: [1:04:37] This is one I thought you might have watched not as a critic but as a dad. Philip: [1:04:43] It's possible. Tara: [1:04:44] And I'm going to tell you the hints are not going to help you. Philip: [1:04:46] The hints are not going to help. Okay, let me just think about this. It's probably not Veep. Dave: [1:04:53] What if it was into the vampire again? What if it was one of the stats later? Sarah: [1:04:59] Interview with the v-pire wait. Dave: [1:05:01] Phil, take your headphones off for a second just lift your headphones off for a second alright, what is it, Tari? Tara: [1:05:06] Julie and the Phantoms. Dave: [1:05:08] I've never even heard of this show, Phil, so good luck. Philip: [1:05:11] Alright it doesn't sound like a Phineas and Ferb song but I'm just going to throw it out there and say Phineas and Ferb that's not correct it's. Tara: [1:05:19] Julie and the Phantoms. Philip: [1:05:21] The Netflix girl. Tara: [1:05:22] And ghost boy band show. Philip: [1:05:24] We hit that show right on the it looks very, it's very much something my daughter would be into now. It was not something she was into when I tried to make her watch it. Tara: [1:05:33] Make her watch it. It's really good. I loved it. Dave: [1:05:36] Make her watch it. You're her parent. Tara: [1:05:37] You can do it. Dave: [1:05:42] I'm your dad and I'm a TV critic. Get your butt on the floor. We'll watch it. Tara: [1:05:47] It's a very cute show and the music is actually good. I mean, I think that was a good song. Philip: [1:05:51] I like that song. Tara: [1:05:52] Yeah. Like they're supposed to have been a boy band from the mid nineties. So that's, you know, that's my era. Dave: [1:05:57] Did the ghost die of like tragic deaths? Tara: [1:06:01] I mean, sorry to spoil this for you, Phil, if you're going to watch it. I think they all get electrocuted on stage or I can't remember if it's that or a bus accident. It's one of those, but they all died together. Dave: [1:06:11] Okay. Philip: [1:06:12] Okay. Tara: [1:06:12] Clip 14 is for Dave. Meth gives you joy. Philip: [1:06:16] Only gods can experience, but don't do it. Dave: [1:06:24] You gotta listen up one more time i think i know who it is but meth gives you joy only gods can experience but don't do it uh is that patten oswalt from ap bio yes. Tara: [1:06:38] It is very good clip 15 is for sarah and then we'll do our final score break before you each have one question left. Sarah: [1:07:19] I need a hint. Tara: [1:07:20] First cast member is Clancy Brown. Dave: [1:07:24] Oh. Sarah: [1:07:26] That's wonderful for him. Tara: [1:07:28] I'll give you an extra hint. It's not SpongeBob. Sarah: [1:07:33] Damn it. Could I have another hint, please? Tara: [1:07:37] Sure. Your second cast member is Fred Ward. Sarah: [1:07:45] Tremors colon the new class. No, that's not what I'm saying. Oh, God. Yeah, I got nothing. Dave: [1:07:56] No. Tara: [1:07:56] What? Sarah: [1:07:56] It's right out of reach. Dave: [1:07:58] Wait. Oh. Tara: [1:08:00] What? Dave: [1:08:01] No, I was going to drop hints until she got it. Tara: [1:08:03] Oh, okay. Philip: [1:08:04] That's fine. Tara: [1:08:05] What is it, Dave? Sarah: [1:08:05] I can't win. Dave: [1:08:06] Cast a deadly spell. Tara: [1:08:08] That's Julianne Moore warbling in the nightclub and cast a deadly spell. Sarah: [1:08:13] Yeah, I couldn't. I mean, it was like, right. It was just out of reach. like I said. Tara: [1:08:17] All right, let's get those scores before you each have your final question. Sarah: [1:08:23] All right, I think this is, speaking of just out of reach, I think this is that. Dave is in the lead with 14, I have nine, and Phil is also here. Dave: [1:08:34] Wow, not even a number. Sarah: [1:08:36] With three. Tara: [1:08:36] Okay. Let's end with these clips, 16 is for Phil. I want you to finish strong, so I'm going to tell you what they're singing, which is Voldemort's Alive and he's under my headscarf. Philip: [1:09:14] That doesn't even help, but I really feel like I'm hearing you speak a different language. Tara: [1:09:19] Okay. Philip: [1:09:21] I need a, I need a, I need a, wait, wait a second. Let me think about it. Voldemort is Alive. Tara: [1:09:28] What's the show where they play rock and they have headscarves? Philip: [1:09:32] Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. What's it called? Julie and, Deadly Spells I'm forgetting the name of it I'm forgetting the name of it I've seen it and I'm forgetting the name of it We are Lady Parts Yeah There we go I don't know if that was three points, I'm giving one back It's. Tara: [1:09:58] Three enough Give. Philip: [1:09:59] Me two He's. Dave: [1:10:01] Negotiating his own score. Philip: [1:10:03] People Finally happened Cliff 17. Tara: [1:10:06] Is for David T. Cole. Matt and Ursula, Matt and Ursula, never met any old fuckers worse than you. Matt Heath, you got bad. Dave: [1:10:20] Because Neo's real fucking good. Yeah. Oh. Mmm. Melt again. Tara: [1:10:29] Okay. Guy Montgomery. Dave: [1:10:31] Oh. Is this Taskmaster? Tara: [1:10:34] Taskmaster what? Dave: [1:10:35] Taskmaster New Zealand? Tara: [1:10:37] Yes. Dave: [1:10:38] Okay. Two points. Tara: [1:10:41] Finally, Sarah, I wanted you to finish strong too, so here's clip 18. Sarah: [1:10:46] Yeah, back up, please. That's right, you singing sister. Yeah, sometimes you swear you were born to lose. Dave: [1:11:05] Put on my dancing shoes. Sarah: [1:11:11] That is Dawson's Creek. Speaking of episodes with a whole lot of effluvia. Tara: [1:11:17] All right, let's hear the final scores. Sarah: [1:11:21] Our final scores are much more cromulent. Phil finished with six. I finished with 12. But Dave is our victor with 16. Dave: [1:11:30] Good job Dave I have. Tara: [1:11:34] A tiebreaker sure. Dave: [1:11:35] First person okay all right everybody's in on this all right here we go. Philip: [1:11:57] We'll mind you, we drop the girls and the fellas. We'll fight. Tara: [1:12:02] It was an actual strike record. I didn't think we would get as far as Homer and Burns in the song. Tara: [1:12:10] Good job. Dave: [1:12:14] Dave! Dave. Tara: [1:12:15] Dave. Dave: [1:12:16] Thank you, Tara. And that is it for another episode of Extra Hot Grade. We whispered our thoughts about the prequel series Dunce Prophecy. What is it? DUNK DUNK DUNK Supremacy before going around the dial with stops at A Man on the Inside Junior Taskmaster Say Nothing and Day of the Jackal Philip shout out a successful canon presentation for Somebody Somewheres number two we crowned winners and losers of the week and I was the winner of this week's Game Time from Tara next up it's Interior Chinatown on Extra Extra Hot Great remember, We're listening. I am David T. Cole. And on behalf of Tara Arianna. Tara: [1:13:03] Who's your cobbler? Dave: [1:13:06] Sarah D. Bunting. Sarah: [1:13:07] I don't want to fuck up your big day. Dave: [1:13:09] And Philip Maciak. Philip: [1:13:11] Why buy a Kia Sorento when you can lease a Dodge Arrakis? Dave: [1:13:18] Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you next time right here on Extra Hot Great. Clip: [1:13:24] Am I supposed to know this song?