Shenanigans of 'Bad Monkey' Are Top Notch! Pitting 'Penguin' Against 'Agatha,' and What Threads Says

All right, it's Tuesday.

If you listen on Tuesday, it's a new week for us here at taking it down, the tv podcast for the Alabama take.

We know tv is scattered and movies are scattered.

Where do you watch it?

Is it for you?

You've heard of it?

Who's the audience for this show or movie?

Well, that's our goal.

We want to help you not only decide if something's worth your time, but we want you to come back and hear us talk about a series or two that makes you feel like you have friends who've watched the show with you and want to discuss what has happened.

Early in the show, we do not do spoilers.

Later in the show, we do spoilers.

So check your time stamps, check the chapter names, and you will be sure not to be ruined on any movie or show.

I am getting away from putting a lot on the front end here because it's come to my attention.

Chatter and banter is not wanted or needed.

And I get it.

So here's what we're going to do.

You've seen the title, you've seen the show notes.

If not, do have a look at their show notes.

They help you a ton.

It might be a bit redundant, but I'll tell you that we're covering in our non spoiler section that begins, we're going to be talking about bad monkey on Apple TV.

That show has wrapped.

Do you want to binge it if you haven't seen it?

Is that something you want to watch?

We'll talk about the Penguin and its third episode, but not spoiling it at all.

Just trying to decide if it has gotten any better.

You'll hear that in the non spoiler section.

And then the third thing we're going to talk about in comparison a little is Agatha all along.

Let me get Donovan, my co host, in here, and.

And he'll help me talk through some of these things later.

In the spoiler section, though, we are solely talking about the final two episodes of Bad Monkey on Apple TV.

But let me get Donovan in here to have someone to talk to about these things and help you decide.

Alibaba, tape projection.

As promised.

Here's Donovan.

He's with me now.

Still no Adam.

Adam's Mia for a week.

Have you heard it?

Do we need to?

Should we call the authorities?

No.

Has anyone heard from him?

Anyone bought vegetables from him?

He's very active in our group.

I am under the impression via threads mostly, that people who listen to podcasts hate banter.

So we should just jump right into.

I swear I see something like that.

So, threads obviously has an algorithm that really is, I guess, decent or good at what it does, good at what it's supposed to do, depending on which account I'm using, which the taking it down account is the one that shows me the most about podcast makes sense.

And you see so many people saying, just cut the banter.

Just cut the banter.

So we're gonna try to cut the banter.

Might be a good idea.

You assholes can skip ahead.

Okay.

That's why you got a skip button.

We'll try.

No, I understand.

I get it.

But I think it might be more with narrative or investigative or interview type that would make more sense where you're just, like, you skip to it.

Yeah.

Come on, Mark Marin.

No one cares what's on your mind.

I do.

That's the thing.

That's the weird thing.

I actually love that part.

Totally interested in it, because I feel like.

I feel I can relate.

Anyway, here we are.

Non spoiler section.

We got about three things we're going to talk about in our non spoiler sections, which fits incredibly well if you.

It's kind of funny to say these things because, you guys know, sometimes it's in the title of our podcast episode, and sometimes it.

But it's always in the show notes, so you already know.

It feels weird to set it up.

We're returning to bad monkey because we decided to put those last two episodes together to talk about them in a chunk like that.

So we're going to be talking about episodes nine and ten eventually, but in a general sense.

Donovan, I thought of this last night.

It's.

We're running out of things to say in the non spoiler section, obviously.

Yeah.

We just like it.

Right.

Of the show.

It's kind of like, if I start saying why I like it, it'll be a spoiler.

It's just what you.

Right.

Or it's redundant from what you've said to.

But I thought of this, and this is.

Yeah, this is new to me.

It's like if Cheers was a cop show with a couple of nice twists, and Norm was a lot skinnier but still as funny, and he was the detective.

Katie's kind of like that.

For these past two episodes, a plot line that I had mentioned earlier is possibly not being my favorite, wrapped up with a surprising, uh, emotion heart.

So I think there's.

There's some real, you know, it's a little bit of a cheer jerker.

There's some good stuff in here.

Okay.

Or, you know, if you're a listener.

Pick your favorite show.

That always makes you feel good.

Maybe makes you chuckle without fail.

Like, every episode at least makes you chuckle or laugh out loud.

The chuckle.

If you watch a couple episodes of this and it doesn't make you laugh, don't watch it.

But if you watch a couple episodes and you're laughing, you're guaranteed to just be kind of like, low key chuckling the whole time.

Right.

And we've said it before, it might be the Vince Vaughn thing.

It's understandable if he's not your cup of tea.

I'm not going to argue with you.

Yeah.

You know, if he doesn't drive you absolutely insane.

He's very good in this role, as is everyone else, actually.

I think it's cast very well.

Yeah, like a cheers.

Like everybody.

Yeah, exactly.

Everyone's got their role, their niche.

I would have said arrested development, which we quote very often on this podcast, but it's way less sarcastic.

Yeah, arrested.

This is like, as much as I love arrested development, and it is, on one sense, a hang for me, arrested development is not like friends.

Right.

You're not watching it because it's like, oh, these people, they just, you know, they love each other and they're good, and it's like hanging out with my friends.

No, people in arrest development are horrible.

And that's what makes it so great.

Yeah.

About ten years ago, I went through every episode of Cheers, and I watched almost one every evening.

Almost.

And it was just a relaxing, good mood thing to do right before bed.

Yep.

I totally get that.

And that's what you're gonna get out of bad monkey to a degree.

But there is some plot, like I mentioned, there's a twist or two.

There's some plot, there's some drama.

It's doing, you know, there's a little.

It's got some heart, I think, is what I'd say.

This, do not mistake that with me saying this is the best show on the planet.

Exactly.

But it's a great hang.

It makes, you know, it does.

You know what it really does is it does that thing, cheers and other shows like that do where you're like, oh, I just like this character.

And so then when things happen or don't happen to them, you're invested.

Cause it's like, this is like one of my.

This is my pal, you know, much.

Like any episode of Cheers or some other show you like in that way.

Yep.

You don't just like maybe one character, but you like three or four, and you're like, oh, this episode's gonna feature Carla and her going home to her sons.

I'm interested in this.

What is that like, exactly?

You get a lot of that with this series, including a little plot.

Will they solve this or that?

So I can't recommend bad monkey enough.

Is it, like Donovan said, it's not the best show.

After I finish a show, I tend to put it in a little ranking spreadsheet or something for later in the year, and it's not very high, but it's also definitely not in the bottom.

No.

You know, the more I think.

I think you.

I think you said this, blaine, early on, where it reminds you of, like, a USA show, which is, like, a little bit more.

And, like, it's got.

You know.

But, like, that's so true, because people, like, rewatch those USA shows on Netflix, and it is kind of like that, where it's like, is it prestige tv drama?

Not really.

Is it fun?

Hell, yeah.

Yeah.

Does it look good?

Looks great.

I said.

I questioned aloud, why isn't it just a USA program?

Couldn't it have been, what?

Like, what are they going to be doing any differently than that?

And it turns out there was presumably.

Apple just had more money to burn.

Apple had more money to burn on the cast, which is exactly what sets it apart.

Yeah, it's that cast.

And I could see myself watching this again while doing laundry just to hear a couple of jokes again.

Oh, yeah, totally.

Yeah.

I don't know that it would, but.

It'S a hangout show.

Yeah.

Let's move into still non spoiler territory.

So don't run away from us yet.

Donovan's watched the third episode of the Penguin, and I have it.

So this is perfect fodder for this section where we don't ruin anything.

What do you think?

And maybe even you could approach it with keeping in mind, I have watched the first two.

Yeah.

And I'm okay with it.

I'm fine with it.

For the third one, I feel like it fixed some of the, like, sagginess of the second episode.

You know, there's just a little punch here.

Right.

It feels like there's a little less downtime.

Without going too into it, I have decided that Colin Farrell's performance of the Penguin is just full on comedy.

Like, there's bits where you can see him, like, oh, yeah.

Like, he took Tony Soprano for that.

Like, it's just like, the accent, what he's saying.

Yeah, he gives some looks, especially to the character Vic, in the first couple episodes, where it's like, what are you doing, kid?

It's a good look.

It's so funny.

So we're gonna get a little bit more with Vic.

Oz's somebody.

I was reading a little bit about this.

I think maybe it was, like, the Esquire recap or something, but they were, like, without spoiling anything, there's a bit where he kind of shows something off to Vic, and it's like he has huge divorced dad energy here.

And it's like, yeah.

Yeah.

He really does.

Dad just bought you something cool.

Don't you like him better than mom?

Yeah.

So Colin Farrell's hilarious.

The two main characters are really doing a lot without, like, chewing the scenery or hamming it up, but they're really having a lot of fun.

Everyone else is in there a little more grounded, a little bit more down to earth, which I appreciate, if nothing else, too.

I think that on the, like, how's ol Oz gonna wriggle out of this one?

Okay.

You know, it's kind of.

It's kind of fun on that level, too.

Yeah.

That was a good moment in episode two with the knife.

Planting the knife.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you know, he's just.

He's like, Helen Farrell plays him as just such a good bullshitter.

Yeah.

Where, you know, like, he'll tell you something and you're like, all right.

God, I get it.

Shut up, oz.

Yeah.

So you talk about the two main characters kind of hamming it up.

Is.

Does that work for you?

Because they're supposed to be a little off their rocker.

Yes.

And, you know, they're not.

Like, I feel like they're hamming it up without, like, chewing the scenery.

Okay.

Like, they're doing.

It's a good.

Like, this is gonna sound insane because you've seen the first two episodes.

But, like, I actually think that, like, Colin Farrell's performance is, like, kind of restrained.

Okay.

In the sense that, like, he could be, like, making this person, like, really grotesque.

But I think he's actually kind of deliberate about.

About it.

And the same with Kristen Miladi.

Thank you.

I can never think of her name.

Same thing.

You know, she, like, she gets the crazy eyes sometimes, but she's not.

So I feel like there's.

Which I.

Again, I said, you know, this is.

This is gonna sound insane, and it's kind of an insane thing to say, but, like, you.

You see how this could just be, like, scenery chewing, and it's not.

Like there's a little subtlety in here.

He knows when to chew.

He knows when, you know.

Yeah, that's good.

He knows when to pump the brakes.

But also, I think the show does on occasion, because having some humanity of set pieces or certain parts of the character that he probably didn't control, like the foot issue, like, that's a very human thing we talked about a couple weeks ago.

I think that part of his, and we see more of that in this episode is, you know, with.

With his relationship with Vic.

It's like, you know, we were kind of joking, like, well, he wants a henchman, but it's also like he wants, in some ways, like, he wants someone to, like, love him.

You know, he wants someone to see when he succeeds, to admire him, you know?

Okay, if it's sincerely doing that, well, that's the kind of thing I think that comic book shows can do.

They can add that.

That brings me to Agatha all along, because him caught up with that one.

It was a matter of seeing the runtime.

I was like, should I watch the penguin or the new Agatha all along?

Agatha all along was like, 32 minutes.

Yeah, that one's gonna win.

I'm gonna get that.

I'm gonna squeeze that one in before bed.

Agatha all along is fun.

And it's, you know, I talked about it being shot on the set of Disney World's haunted mansion.

It felt the acting is fine, and it's.

It's certainly.

I wouldn't dissuade anyone from watching it if they're a fan.

But it also feels like same old, same old.

But the penguin doesn't feel like same old, same old in a comic book sense.

Maybe other crime dramas Agatha feels like.

So there's a moment, the most recent episode that ends the recent episode, and everybody's raving about it.

Yeah.

And I just thought to myself, well, yeah, but we've seen this.

Why does all of these Marvel shows have to hinge on some surprise that everyone's figured out two episodes ago?

Do you think that, like, honestly, there's just a pat yourself on the back aspect to it, you know, where it's like, yeah, you know what?

I actually feel really good about myself for figuring that out.

And then it delivers on that, you know, certainly.

I don't know.

I see everyone online praising this who are fans, deep fans of Marvel.

Oh, they did this character.

Oh, they're bringing in this character we had hoped that they would do.

And it's.

They're doing it well.

Yeah, they're doing it fairly well.

They certainly assign the right actor to the role.

Like, why do you have to kind of sort of keep it a secret?

And it's every one of these things.

Someone else jogged me to this who I don't remember someone thing that I read online.

So a critic that I can't remember who I'm absolutely stealing from.

I'm sorry.

But they were like, you know, this is kind of fun.

You know, like the Penguin is doing.

You know, it's, oh, but it's, this does sopranos.

And I feel like the Marvel films used to be or tv show.

Sorry, the Marvel films did that.

Very fun and successfully, like, oh, it's Winter Soldier.

It's Captain America.

But it's a little bit of like a political thriller.

Not too much, but a little bit in a way that the tv shows never really did except WandaVision because then we watched the Falcon and Winter Soldier and it was like, okay, this is like the spy action show, but it doesn't really kick off.

And I'm curious.

And then we're seeing too, like perhaps, you know, DC is.

We'll see what happens.

It'll probably blow up.

But HBO just ordered a Green Lantern TV show.

They've got some true detective people involved in it.

Damon Lindelof's involved in it.

And it's going to be investigate, you know, they're going to be investigating a murder in the american heartland.

So somebody was like, yeah, I'll watch them do true detective in the DC Universe.

And I wonder if that's, like, where the fun is.

Like, where Marvel's kind of like, I've seen this before, and they're just like, yeah, you've seen, you know, DC is more like, our strategy now is going to be like, you've seen this before, but not quite like this.

That works, I think.

And I think that also helps that they are divorced.

They just decided we're going to be divorced from whatever came before and is coming after.

Yeah.

Like, obviously, DC keeps killing itself on the movie side because they desperate to be Marvel.

But I do think that, like, right.

Like, kind of like you said, like, the advantage of that is they have, like seven Batman franchises at this point, so they can kind of just, they kind of have, like a spare one that they can do things nobody really cares about with.

Uh huh.

Take your pick.

Kind of almost like there's a DC 1.0, a DC 2.0, a DC 3.0.

Which one do you want to watch?

The one that I want to watch is the one that doesn't suck.

So we'll see.

I mean, there's even, we haven't talked about it because we don't do theater things, but the Joker that's in the theater, which.

That's a completely separate thing from what's happening in the penguin.

Absolutely.

What James Gunn is planning, supposedly.

I don't know.

You just.

You just jogged my memory, listeners.

You all may know that I think Blaine and I are both fairly big fans of Matt Zoller Seitz, and he has an essay that I like on rogerebert.com where he's the head editor, comparing Coppola as Megalopolis and the new Joker film.

And a lot of it is about the beauty of just setting piles of money on fire.

And I think it was actually kind of worth reading.

Thank you.

I'll go read it.

I didn't know he had written anything of late, because he's.

He's been laying low a lot.

Especially, like, with the, you know, you kind of wonder, like, who is this Joker movie for?

It sounds like it's for no one.

Like, everyone who hated the first one or is gonna hate this.

Everyone who liked the first one is gonna hate it.

But there's something to be said for I'm gonna set a large pile of money on fire and just do what I want to do.

Yeah, there is something to be said about that.

I don't know what it is.

In some cases, it depends upon the situation.

He goes more into this in the little essay, but I quite liked it.

Yeah.

Matt Zoller sight is the primary reason this podcast exists.

True story.

But, Agatha, all along, I still like it, but I think the issues I have with it are that it's wanting to put a lot of weight on this.

Reveal that again, everyone figures out episode one or two.

Then episode two, three, and four are basically.

And this can be fun, but they're basically, let's put the characters in a situation, but this time, let's vote in the same situation.

But this time, let's focus on Agatha.

Okay, next episode, same situation.

But let's.

This time, let's reveal something about.

Yeah, Rio, which would be Aubrey Plaza's character.

You know, this one's going to tell you a little bit more about one of the other witches, and.

But it's the same setup.

They go into a house and they.

And they do this.

When you do that, it can be very good.

Right.

But it can also feel like if it's not done well, it feels monster of the week.

Right?

Like, okay, this is, you know, whoever's episode, and they're gonna get into this contrived situation so I can learn about their trauma.

And Monster of the week is actually good and fun.

As we both know, you know, take a really good X Files episode right.

Off the top of my head.

Great episode.

Yeah.

So it can work.

It can work.

But we all have seen this where it just.

It falls into the dull and formulaic, where it's almost like, okay, oh, we have to fight the monster.

Cause that's part of the show, you know?

And then if you do something like this where everyone gets their own episode, it's okay.

Now we get, you know, whoever's episode is just what we do.

Right.

In a way that I think, like the bear, actually, if I can bring up something earlier this season of the bear avoided really well because we were getting people's episodes, but they didn't kill that momentum.

That.

That's how you do it.

Well, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I will give Agatha all along some credit on a couple of things.

Obviously, the acting's pretty good and interesting.

And, I mean, you can't mess with that career.

You can't.

I don't know if this would be a spoiler, but they had a nice little scary thing happening in the most recent episode, and I thought, oh, that is a little.

That's a little scary looking.

That's all I'll say, because we're not in spoiler section as of yet.

I don't know how much of me is just.

I hate to see the nerds rejoice online because I didn't get it or I don't care for it.

But I do find myself thinking this about Agatha on, like, what are you trying to say?

And I realize that people hate that question when I bring it up to Natalie when she's co hosting.

She hates this question.

She hates it.

What are you.

What are they trying to say?

And I don't care if it's purposeful or just happenstance, but what does it end up saying?

And I never get anything out of Agatha other than she wants to be a witch again.

Don't we all?

Yeah.

I mean, come on.

It's that time of year, folks.

Spoiler section, people.

We're going to go into the last two episodes of bad monkey, so if you've seen everything up to episode nine, might want to wait.

Okay.

And watch episode 910.

We're going to get into those, and we might accidentally bleed one into the other, so be careful.

Probably will.

Probably will.

This is the Bill Lawrence produced show, and he actually wrote the last episode.

Co wrote the last episode.

You could.

Could you tell, too, like, with the thing?

I think it's the thing.

We're in spoiler territory right?

We are in spoiler territory as of.

Now, when Eve, when her mother comes to see her, but then mostly of all, when she before, as she's dying, as she visits.

That was just such a.

Have you seen, you've seen the Brendan Fraser episode of Scrubs, right?

No, I was not a Scrubs guy.

Oh, okay.

It felt like, yeah, I see his fingerprints on this.

The Brendan Fraser one is pretty good.

You would be not remiss in watching it.

We'll back up a little.

Episode nine.

Yeah, I really jumped ahead there.

No, no, you were making the point that it's Bill.

Bill Lawrence.

I can see his style, I guess, is what I'm saying.

Yeah, yeah.

Rob Delaney and I mean, it's great actor after great actor.

Not necessarily movie star, but you'll see the actor and you'll think, yeah, I've seen them in this and that.

Everyone is so good at playing a type of almost the guy who's playing claspers.

Who.

Guys, you've seen him in commercials, but like, that motherfucker can't get enough of the conch fritters and you just want to give him a little hug.

Can I just like good character actor stuff?

As a man who can't stop eating ice cream and cookies once he stops, I relate so heavily to claspers being unable to avoid the one place that sells the fritters.

Literally, literally the last thing he should be doing.

But you can't even be that mad at him.

He just loves the fritters.

Episode nine.

I'll say episode nine felt like this was the moment where I saw too much plot.

I was like, this is okay.

Y'all have taken on a little too much plot that maybe you should.

Maybe the series should be nine episodes or eight episodes.

Yeah, you cut out the Bonnie subplot.

That doesn't maybe doesn't fix these problems, but maybe you still have a little too much.

But also, like right now, you have a little too much with the Bonnie subplot that went.

And without that, you just have a little too much.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, the Bonnie subplot ended up.

We didn't know this hindsight.

It really didn't go much of anywhere.

No.

Added a couple of bits of comedy.

It was funny, it was entertaining enough, but it wasn't.

I think it could have been excised without there being too much taken from the show.

From the show.

Right.

Speaking of excise, I love and respect the notion of humanizing, fleshing out so many of these characters.

In the case of Gracie, I don't know if seeing her mom's ghost was the way to do that.

I'll actually flip my opinion on this a little later.

I guess I can, since we're blending them in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I do respect her kind of being a ghost as she's dying to go and talk to her friends and lovers now.

That worked.

And I think I narrowed it down to.

We really hadn't heard much about Gracie's mom.

She's been alluded to in a way, though, she has not been a.

We haven't seen Gracie basically like, oh, God, I miss my mom.

This is why I am in pain.

This is why I have turned to magic.

We haven't seen that.

So having her mom appears, a ghost felt like, wait, why have her?

I guess because Yahya had been used up at that point.

Yeah, works for me.

Because she's been alluded to, obviously.

But of course, is it, like, it made sense to me as, like, this is the person I'd probably disappoint the most.

And to hear that she loves me and she's proud of me, that's powerful.

It worked for me.

I felt okay.

I was just a little shocked that they chose that as the entryway to get me to feel it.

It was all right with me again.

And I'll probably, too, because we've been in that graveyard so much.

So it's.

I mean, honestly, it's been there.

You know, it's.

It's.

It's.

It's been there a couple times.

I was like, this is fine.

It's not like it came out of nowhere.

And part of the question with Gracie is, how real is this magic?

Is it real at all?

No, I think that's open to interpretation.

I think so, too.

And again, in episode nine, I just felt there were moments where the direction felt more serious than maybe the script was.

You know, we have a lot of pretty intense close ups you would see in a more dramatic scene or show.

We get some good gruesome injuries, too.

Uh huh.

You get characters that are trying to convey the gravity of some of this, yet you also, on the flip side, the script has Yancey and others not taking a hurricane seriously.

And that just seemed really flippant.

Granted, Yancey's kind of a flippant guy, but some of the others were also just like, hurricane.

Oh, well, yeah.

Who cares?

Especially after, God help us these last two weeks in reality, for sure.

Yeah, I was thinking about that, too.

It's kind of an odd and sad way to have it in a show, too.

Putting a gun in someone else's purse is.

That really was just.

It felt like something Yancey might do, but it also felt dangerous as hell.

Yeah.

But I assume that this is yet another show where gun safety doesn't really matter.

No.

And then the last one was Rosa kind of giving up and breaking up with Yancey or at least pausing their relationship because he sent her alone on a plane.

That still felt like a very Yancy thing to do.

It's like, why you shouldn't be surprised that he would give it to you.

I actually agree with that felt.

That moment felt a little contrived to me.

It felt contrived or rushed.

Yes.

Had it either played out over the course of 20 minutes, I think I would have been like, dang, she's gonna break up with him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

As it was.

As it was handled and as it was done, it just felt like, all right, you gotta keep me watching for the next one.

You know, like, I get it.

Yeah.

Also played into this show.

Feels like it's gonna get a second season or the creator, Seamus, though, so.

Gosh, I hope so.

They left some.

They.

They left some, uh, some loose ends.

I think they left some meat on the plate, right?

Uh huh.

Yeah.

Rosa and Yancey, will they get back together?

Will Bonnie intrude in their relationship?

Especially those things?

Yep.

Rosello offering him, you know, another possible crap.

What's in.

What's in the box, bro?

What's in the box?

What are your thoughts on the series?

Adding a pretty straightforward idea, meaning it's said out loud, hey, this show is kind of about magic and or nature.

Yeah.

Were you cool with just them saying those kinds of things perfectly?

Yeah.

For one thing, you know, I think I've said this a million times.

It's not like, the greatest tv show on the planet.

So I'm like, that's fine.

I get it.

You know, kind of.

They have done at least enough of a good job of, like, having the natural world be part of it and the way people react to the natural world and having.

Yes.

The other part of it is like, they actually said it.

So it's like, you dumb viewers get it.

Get what we're talking about.

Well, this is a show with a voiceover.

Mm hmm.

That explains a lot.

So it works out well.

Now, I said a lot of the flaws.

Let me follow up with this for our listeners.

It never hindered it from being enjoyable, and that is a credit to so much of the cast getting.

It's a fun cast getting to say fun things and having fun while saying them.

And I'm including claspers and Yaya here.

All of the members are just well oiled cogs in this fun machine.

Yep.

There's some more serious moments, and I think they lam them with varying degrees of success.

But it's fun.

It's fun.

You just want to know what's going to happen next.

What's going to happen.

How are they going to get away with this?

Yeah.

Ronald Pete is the actor who plays Neville.

He and Vince Vaughn as Yancey are just fun.

Yeah, they.

And without them together in episode nine, I'm not so sure I would like it as much.

But that is.

Propelled me into just enjoying it again.

Yeah, they're a great buddy cop team.

Just great.

Neville kind of being the straight man.

Yeah.

You know, to Yancy.

And then you have Yancey being the guy who explains things with 35 words and Neville being the guy who responds in three words.

It's perfect.

I kind of like their dynamic, too.

Of like he's the younger, maybe more like serious level headed guy where he's the older.

It's just, it's a great buddy cop dynamic.

It's just working really well.

It is.

I almost wish we'd had more of them together.

It would be a different show, but I almost wish we'd had more of them together than the couple episodes we got.

A.

And they do a couple things nicely where they make them friends like they are friends.

And I'm doing quotation marks.

I don't know why, but like, no, they're seriously pals.

And then they have Yancy address the fact that they've only just met a few days ago, but they've becoming pals.

Right.

It's so funny to say that the.

Bit where Yancy is like, actually, I was lying.

I forget what it was, but he's like, I was lying about something just cause I wanted you to like me.

That's right.

He doesn't like superhero movies.

That's what it was.

He doesn't like super.

I couldn't remember what it was, but he's like, I just wanted you to like me.

He's like, I was, in fact, lying.

That, that was good.

Yeah, it was.

We're getting into episode ten now, the last and final episode.

I've expanded on my theory on what Yancey should do if they do get the second season, which seems to be hinted at that they think they might be nice, not only should he, you know, working in another part of the US, but think about this.

If he is allowed to work in different parts of the US.

That gives the producers even more joy in putting up some area appropriate covers.

You know, when Yancey hits up Boston, I can't wait to hear all the dinosaur junior covers.

They're gonna play dinosaur Junior?

Pixies, Aerosmith.

Yeah.

Well, they stuck with the one artist.

I don't know if they'd continue that motif because it would be hard to do, you know, just Tom Petty.

And then the.

The entire show ends with actual Tom Petty.

Yeah, that was fun.

Another.

That was another thing where it's.

It just fits with the show so well, where it's like, did I think every cover in the show was great?

No.

Did I love that that was the theme and they stuck with it?

Absolutely.

It's just fun.

Yeah.

Episode nine ended with Eve versus the Dragon Queen showdown that I had mentioned a few episodes ago.

Yeah, man, I hope they go head to head instead.

Gracie ended up working for Eve for a while and kind of having a bitter relationship about that.

But episode ten picks right up there.

Good downpour in their confrontation, because you and I, as book readers, know that rain is baptism of.

You know, it's change.

It's washing things away.

Yes, sir.

Well, like rain and, like, honestly, like storms.

Storms.

Right.

The after, you know, especially something like a hurricane where there's.

There's a before and after to that storm.

Yeah.

Now the change.

I did not have Gracie dying on my bingo card.

I don't think I did either.

I was shocked.

I was shocked.

I was fine with it.

I was sad.

Yeah, I get it as a narrative point, but I was just like, what?

No, there was a lot of.

They kind of get away with it in this episode until.

Have you ever been stabbed with half of a broken fishing rodental?

No, obviously not.

On the flip of Gracie seeing her mom, I did think, as I mentioned, her visiting some loved ones, I thought that worked as an emotional denouement.

I don't know what worked for me, too.

Like, I liked it, but, you know, the thing that I appreciated, and maybe it's.

Maybe I'm making it up to be more than it is, but I liked how she visited Donnie's daughter, the little girl who.

It might be kind of the future of whatever, you know?

And I was like, oh, okay.

I actually like this feeling that, like, if we're talking about nature and we're talking about magic, we are kind of talking about, like, things that move of their own and things that move in cycles, right?

So, like, the past, the present, the future, these things that are kind of like.

Just because I'm dying doesn't mean that this is over.

This thing will always be.

I'm leaving this thing, but this thing will always be here.

Fits well with the nature.

You know, nature will continue.

That was my feeling.

I mean, they were pretty explicit about it, but, you know, I think that worked for me.

And I'm on board with egg having seen her, too, because he's there in distress and pain with having been shot in the leg.

So, sure, maybe he's popped a pain pill.

Maybe he does see a vision of Gracie.

Why not?

I'm fine with that.

Because I'm not saying this was, like, the best thing ever, but, like, there is a little bit of a hint that, like, maybe Gracie made egg a little better than he would have been.

I agree with that.

You know, I agree.

So, like, him seeing her is kind of like, maybe it's poignant, I thought.

And as an audience, we needed that.

Otherwise, we'd been like, fuck that guy.

He just goes around and does what Nick, Eve say.

Right.

We want to see that.

We need to see that.

The sorrow.

Yeah.

The humanity.

You know, this was.

This is something I liked about.

I said that, and I didn't think about it until I just said it.

I do like how this show really treats everyone, pretty much everyone, with respect.

They do as human beings.

Eve is.

Maybe she's a sociopath.

Yes.

So maybe it's probably the exception to the rule, but that's fine, because she's got to be the antagonist.

We got to have an antagonist that may not get as much humanization.

Yeah.

Which.

And it's.

Yeah, again, like, that's fine.

But I did, like, even, like, giving egg that moment, it's like.

And having him be able to sing, I think that.

I think that's a nice little quirk.

Yeah.

It's like, this guy is a killer.

He's hurt people.

He does bad things.

He says he doesn't care, but there's also this stuff in him.

I think it's really hard for us to, like, as people.

Like, we want to be like, you're a good person or you're a bad person.

Right.

Yeah.

But then there's the truth about all of us is that these things live side by side.

And trying to attempt that is actually cool.

Is cool.

Like, to put that in.

In a show.

Yep.

And it makes things like Gracie telling Eve and us, the audience giving it to us on a plate, that, hey, there's a big part of this show.

It's about white people coming to where black people live and taking what's not theirs.

Absolutely.

Even I felt it's really not lampshaded.

What am I trying to say?

It's really not highlighted because we probably don't want to have those tough conversations.

But even with the Florida Keys.

Right.

For the show, the person being inconvenienced is Yancey.

But in reality, we know the person, the people that were.

It belongs to the indigenous people, and we've pushed that out, those folks, out of where they live and where they should be.

The series maintains some novelistic elements.

I'm assuming, like the circular story, it starts with an arm and a c, kind of ends with a one armed man drowning.

Starts with Yancey chilling, having a drink.

Ends with very same thing.

Having every character involved is also seems very novelistic where you, you can't do that in movies.

When they do that, you know, they always have to cut a character or combine them.

Yeah, because they can't have that many people having these small arcs.

But here's what you can do with a tv show and seem like everybody had a small arc.

Even Bonnie had one, although it was a useless sort of arc.

But, okay, we got some good laughs out of it.

I think one of the funniest, like, line deliveries, this is not from the episode we're talking about.

One of the funniest line deliveries Vince Vaughn had was when she's like, she blows up the house.

She's like, they wouldn't arrest me.

He's like, I think they will now.

It's a good one.

This is the way he said, we even got to see, you know, the russian mobster and what's your face, pussy magnet.

Vanessa, ex fiance.

They get.

They have a wonderful life and he's okay.

They're not the best neighbors, but they sure do beat the real estate guy.

Better than the real estate guy.

And there's this motif of nature.

You know, we've talked about that, but I.

The dog's taste for blood is almost fits in that.

Okay, that was perfect.

I love that.

It always leaks the blood from someone.

Yep.

Odd, but also funny.

You know, Tilly.

That's right.

See, this is funny.

Nick now has to use the scooters that he originally used to scam insurance companies.

It's just kind of funny.

I like how they use that without pointing at it.

Poor.

I did feel like there was a bit of pathos to him, but I also just loved Rob Delaney's characterization so much.

Is like, he's a bad person, but he's kind of like a goofy dude.

Yeah, that's a striking balance, isn't it?

Yeah.

He had to play goofy, but also just a scheming asshole who gets worse.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's a.

Right, exactly.

Like, he's a bad person.

He's going down.

Right.

Like, he does not improve morally.

But she kind of.

I don't know, I kind of had a little soft spot for him.

Yeah.

Because when he was screen, you knew he was going to say something silly.

Exactly.

I mean, there's, again, not from this episode, but the episode where they kidnap Gracie and he just.

Who's got one thumb and can still kidnap the shit out of women.

It's like just the fact that Rob Delaney played a character who thinks that's at all anything that you should say.

It's great.

He's.

He's a fun actor.

He's very fun.

Uh, I've.

He.

I feel now maybe I'm wrong.

I know he's had his own shows and stuff.

I feel like he's due for a breakout moment, though.

I would like him a big.

Yeah, bigger.

And I know.

And have you ever read his book playing?

I have not, but I've heard.

No, I've heard it's very touching.

I've heard it's very good.

I don't know if I can.

That's fair.

As a parent of a daughter.

I don't know if I do that.

That's absolutely.

That's absolutely fair.

Though sometimes I do that to make myself appreciate what I have.

So, I don't know, maybe aside from.

The acting, like, I'm kind of like, wow, you've gone through all that and you're still making me laugh.

Yeah.

You know, that's really astounding.

We talked with resolutions of a few, especially Gracie, because her demise happens early, but what do you think of some resolutions?

Endings of Eve, you know, she.

She chokes and falls off the perfect.

Perfect.

Yeah, yeah.

They'd alluded to it before and it was the same kind of like.

And Eve says, you know, I hope you choke on your lies.

Not Eve.

Sorry.

Gracie says, I hope you choke on your lies to Eve.

And then it.

But it's still the.

Like, did she curse her?

Is it just a coincidence?

Right?

Because she's already been before, but like, oh, I don't.

You know, I just swallow my food, I don't chew it.

Yeah, that ambiguity makes me smile.

Till he got a good ending.

I think it gets delic.

One more.

More blood.

More blood.

What of Neville?

You know, let's hope.

I felt like his wasn't quite.

Yeah, I'm fine with it.

I'm hoping that his is not quite as resolved.

If we get a second season, I'd like to see more of him, maybe.

Hard for the writers to find a way to pull him back in that isn't that.

Yeah, but I'd like.

Wouldn't you like to see more of him?

Yeah.

You know, Yance, I really like that.

Hey, Neville.

I'm in Alaska.

I'm investigating a murder.

You want to fly up here?

They call it the night country.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Come.

Coming next is a spoiler for the book, in case you're planning on reading it after watching the series.

So skip ahead 30 seconds in the books ending.

Even nicker on a boat at night, and Nick can't move, kind of like he is now.

And Eve drives the boat into an area known to have a lot of coral reefs.

So she drives the boat into it, and she, I think's, impaled to death.

And Nick's thrown into the ocean, and the coast guard finds.

Okay, so it's a little less scary for Eve where she thinks she's gotten all away with it in the tv show as opposed to the novel.

Yeah, but there is that a little bit more circular thing of the novel where Nick's thrown into the ocean, and all they find of him is an arm with that watch on it that he got back.

Okay.

I'm actually.

I haven't read the novel.

I probably won't.

No, I don't think that I would.

I'd like to read a chapter or two just to get a vibe.

I actually kind of like Nick's demise here, where Eve realizes, you know, as she says, like, it's getting better every day.

And egg's like, that's usually how spinal cord injuries go.

Give egg a line there.

Yeah, give him a but that.

But, like, she realizes, like, up, like, between him being like, hey, you need to take care of me for once.

He's like, I don't want to do that.

Yeah.

And her dumping him completely for her.

Because you knew she was going to use him up and then disregard him somehow.

Yeah, yeah.

Totally worked for me.

He was no more than a tool for her to get what she wanted.

And that's exactly the case.

Completely worked for me.

We got a lot out of this, out of a comedy kind of show, but I don't know.

It had more than just comedy, and that tends to be a Bill Lawrence thing lately.

It's not.

Again, it's not that it's the greatest show in the world.

It's not that it's the deepest show of the world.

It's not that this is always done well, but I do think that there is something that he likes to do, at least with the past couple shows, of trying, hopefully, and maybe it goes a little too and touchy feely, but, like, showing people is multifaceted human beings.

That's it.

And it's grounded in an essential humanism, an essential optimism and belief in the human being and sometimes look touchy feely, whatever.

But I think that's kind of like that, you know, if you, if.

I think that speaks to a lot of us.

Yeah.

And by doing so, it's very reminiscent of Ted Lasso on that wavelength, though.

Totally different show.

So good for Bill Lawrence.

I think that trick's going to be, I don't think Carl Hyacinth writes about Yancey so that if they do a second season, it would be and stick with Yancey as a protagonist, it would be a completely new story off the uncharted waters.

Yep.

I say have Rosa move to LA, call Yancey.

Let's try to rekindle, get him some.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I just love my theory.

I think that would be fun.

Like, I want to see Yancy in New York City.

Yeah.

Or balls.

I want to see that you put.

Him in Alaska or Nebraska even.

Put him.

Yeah.

Like Lincoln.

As opposite as he can get.

Could be fun.

Bill Lawrence, if you're listening.

Yeah, we've got some ideas.

We've got ideas and we could flesh a few out for you.

We've reached the end of this week's episode and it's been, this has been a lot of fun this week.

If you enjoy what we do.

We're part of the Alabama take network and that's a website too.

We accept tips.

We're fleshing out membership ideas, maybe even get some tiers, get some things that you could do and have.

So if you wanted to leave us a one time tip, that might be the way to go for now.

It's much appreciated.

You can do it with the link in the show notes.

You can do it on their website, the Alabama take under donate.

That's it for Adam, who's out, and for Donovan, who's here.

We are the good monkeys.

We didn't talk about the monkey.

True.

Well, my only thing to say is that in the 9th episode, yaya's like, he's not actually that bad a monkey.

He just doesn't want Neville to know.

He cares.

Just, yes, it's an ironic, it's an ironic.

So there you go.

He's not really a bad monkey.

All right, thank y'all.

I always say, we see, we'll see.

We'll talk to you guys and gals next Tuesday.

It'll be lots of fun.