Speaker 1: I've passed the test. I will diminish and go into
Speaker 1: the West and remain. They really love to roll in
Speaker 1: our on that, I really do. They put a little
Speaker 1: spice on it. We are back from vacation, and you know,
Speaker 1: we had an episode all prepped to go for today,
Speaker 1: um but as it turns out, we had so much
Speaker 1: to catch up on since we haven't done a news
Speaker 1: moment in a couple of weeks, so we decided just
Speaker 1: to like talk about what's going on in pop culture
Speaker 1: right now, what we've been consuming, and you'll get a proper,
Speaker 1: you know, like a Virgin episode next week. And this
Speaker 1: week we're really just gonna talk about current events because
Speaker 1: this is like a Virgin the show where we give
Speaker 1: literally yesterday's pop culture today's takes. I'm ros Dam and
Speaker 1: I'm in Toronto, so catch me up, gurly, what has
Speaker 1: been going on? We are back from vacation officially like
Speaker 1: a Virgin, it's back to school vibes today. We've got
Speaker 1: spooky season around the corner. I have a thing of
Speaker 1: pumpkin spice almond milk creamer in my fridge. I absolutely do.
Speaker 1: I'm not really a pumpkin spice girly but you know
Speaker 1: what I love. I actually asked you to buy this
Speaker 1: for me when we were starting on our road trip
Speaker 1: to San Francisco is the almond crisp machiatto from Starbucks
Speaker 1: that slaps well. Rose. You know it's been a lovely break.
Speaker 1: You and I have taken some long, much needed time away.
Speaker 1: Phoebe has taken some much needed time away. Ye, Phoebe,
Speaker 1: who's apparently in a band in a band, joins to
Speaker 1: me on you and I drove to San Francisco. We
Speaker 1: or San Franz Squish go as you and I had
Speaker 1: to butch it up to fix my car on the roadside. Okay, girls, girls,
Speaker 1: days days, everyone else, let me tell you. We went
Speaker 1: to San Francisco and truly, twenty minutes outside of Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: Franz car started overheating and we pulled over and literally
Speaker 1: the first thing I did was open TikTok and search
Speaker 1: out to fix school and tank like king, not joking,
Speaker 1: and it helps us, it immensely, immensely like that is
Speaker 1: that is where I problem solved. That is where I
Speaker 1: go for everything. We tried to fix the problem ourselves.
Speaker 1: I felt very butch. I popped the hood on your
Speaker 1: jeep incredible, and then we drove very quickly to an
Speaker 1: auto shop about a half a block away, which I
Speaker 1: want to remind you was the thing that I said
Speaker 1: we should do first us. Well, yes, but I you know,
Speaker 1: am am toxic and I don't like accepting help. And
Speaker 1: when we did inevitably accept help from the auto shop,
Speaker 1: I did ask a lot of annoying UM questions. But
Speaker 1: they were really nice. They were really nice, really um.
Speaker 1: But it got fixed. We got on the road, We
Speaker 1: went to San Francisco, had a fun couple of days,
Speaker 1: had some really great food, some also really bad food.
Speaker 1: Bad pizza. Oh my god, that pizza girl despicable. You
Speaker 1: still need to send me a Venmo request for that. Actually,
Speaker 1: oh do I really thank God? Because I don't want
Speaker 1: to pay for that. UM. I also think we could
Speaker 1: dispute it because it was so bad. Let's dispute, Let's dispute. Um.
Speaker 1: You know it should be said. Yeah, we've taken a
Speaker 1: few weeks off. We did UM do a kind of
Speaker 1: bonus episode that we posted to our Finsta. You should
Speaker 1: follow our fins to like, well, we we went live.
Speaker 1: While we were driving UM to San Francisco, we were
Speaker 1: like in the desert driving through grape fields, um and
Speaker 1: went live on Instagram. It was very fun. Um. You
Speaker 1: should check it out. It is, as fran said, saved
Speaker 1: on our Instagram. And if you are listening to today's
Speaker 1: news recording and wondering why aren't they talking about this?
Speaker 1: Why aren't they talking about that? Chances are we probably
Speaker 1: talked about it on our lives, So go check it
Speaker 1: out there. It's like it's basically an hour long bonus
Speaker 1: app Also, chances are that just a lot has happened
Speaker 1: in the world over the past couple of weeks. I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of things related to last week alone
Speaker 1: was just insane, the amount of things that happened. And
Speaker 1: I just I think there are some things that we
Speaker 1: truly like don't need to comment on, like we're not
Speaker 1: talking about Don't worry, Darling, I know we are. I
Speaker 1: mean we are going to no, no, no, even moved.
Speaker 1: Harry is already promoting a different movie at TIFF, another
Speaker 1: movie in which he apparently does a really bad performance,
Speaker 1: Oh My Policeman. Marie falls in the with a cop
Speaker 1: or does he play a cop? He plays a cop
Speaker 1: and maybe also falls maybe he falls in love with
Speaker 1: a fellow cop. I don't know. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: actually don't have opinions on the dirt don't worry darling
Speaker 1: of it all. I I think that it's just a
Speaker 1: delicious celebrity gossip um and mostly like gay Internet making
Speaker 1: big leaps to like come to weird conclusions about a
Speaker 1: movie that probably is not going to be that good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't believe we had Harry Styles spitting
Speaker 1: on Chris Pine and then the queen getting sent straight
Speaker 1: down in the same in the same couple of days.
Speaker 1: But girl, Rose not to call you in here, but
Speaker 1: like you can't be like stop talking about don't worry darling,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah when like during spit Gate, I think
Speaker 1: you tweeted like once every four minutes. I know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm aware, but what I'm saying is like, it's been
Speaker 1: a week since that happened, and what else is there
Speaker 1: to say about it? Right? What else is there to
Speaker 1: say beyond what I said exactly? We were all participating,
Speaker 1: and it was most you weren't because you were like
Speaker 1: in I was like in the woods, thank god, I
Speaker 1: was like unplugged. I wanted to ask you, have you
Speaker 1: listened to ethel Caine at all. No, okay, but she's
Speaker 1: been coming up a lot on you know, on my
Speaker 1: social and I t l people talking about that in concert.
Speaker 1: It's very like, if I can assess correctly, like Phoebe Bridgers,
Speaker 1: Lucy dacis adjacent like sad girl rock, yes, but like
Speaker 1: specifically through the like through almost a like Lana del
Speaker 1: Rey Americana filter, but from like a Floridian perspective, because
Speaker 1: she's I think she's from Florida or like she's from
Speaker 1: the South, so like obviously that hits me right in
Speaker 1: the peninsula. Um. And she also like has a very
Speaker 1: sky fer Era kind of sound, like literally like she
Speaker 1: there are times on her album Preacher's Daughter where she
Speaker 1: sounds almost exactly like sky Ferrera. Um. She's also trans,
Speaker 1: which is you know, love to see the dolls, the
Speaker 1: dolls out here making great music. And yeah, the the
Speaker 1: album is really good. It's a very um, it's like
Speaker 1: very Cynthian moments, it's very rock and moments. Um. And
Speaker 1: it is really leaning hard on this like all this
Speaker 1: religious imagery, this like Southern Americana imagery, but from the
Speaker 1: perspective of you know, a trans woman who is from
Speaker 1: that place in our country, and I just really have
Speaker 1: been obsessed with albums so since I started listening to
Speaker 1: it like a week or two ago. And it also
Speaker 1: kind of feels like she just is having a moment,
Speaker 1: like she's a fashion week hanging out with har Enough
Speaker 1: and you know, like she's like one of the girls now.
Speaker 1: And I think in a way that I think she
Speaker 1: has been building too for a while and now it's
Speaker 1: reaching critical mass. Like she had a show in New
Speaker 1: York recently and someone said it was like the gay
Speaker 1: Twitter convention, um, which sounds about right. So I think
Speaker 1: you should check her out. I think you would really
Speaker 1: like her. Um. And then also just another music thing, um,
Speaker 1: Kalila finally dropped a new song and music video this morning,
Speaker 1: and I I am so happy that I have finally
Speaker 1: have a new song to add to my sex playlist.
Speaker 1: She makes sex music for sure. I thought it was
Speaker 1: really funny the way that she rolled out this new track,
Speaker 1: because for a couple of days she's been posting these
Speaker 1: videos of everyone's like really funny tweets and memes of
Speaker 1: like where's Kalila? Like when the world needs most, she vanished. Um,
Speaker 1: she like made a video with like a bunch of
Speaker 1: like really funny Internet people in it. Um, and so
Speaker 1: I like that she's in on the joke. Um. And
Speaker 1: then like did that and then dropped this truly breathtaking
Speaker 1: music video and like it's it's a very slow song. Um,
Speaker 1: but she did assure that there are bangers coming and
Speaker 1: the visuals are like insane insane, and like she looks
Speaker 1: like she's in dune. And also Kalila should be in
Speaker 1: Dune and should like maybe be on the soundtrack for
Speaker 1: she should be on the soundtrack. She also should act
Speaker 1: like she's stunning and she's so cool. She has such
Speaker 1: a mystical kind of vibe that's still like sexy and contemporary. Um,
Speaker 1: it should be said like taking apart Um has one
Speaker 1: of the best remix albums like ever created. That remix
Speaker 1: album is so good if you've never checked it out. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm such a Kalayla stan and u uh something
Speaker 1: that I'm not really a stand up in the music world.
Speaker 1: Did you listen to the new Rena Sawayama ep? I haven't,
Speaker 1: actually so okay, I have to, but I love Rena
Speaker 1: A huge fan of her as like an artist and
Speaker 1: a celebrity, huge fan of her on the community level
Speaker 1: and like her perspective, rooting for her. These songs to
Speaker 1: me sound very just like generic, like I can't differentiate them,
Speaker 1: and I can't letch onto the production quality. And I'm
Speaker 1: I'm bummed because I love her voice and I love
Speaker 1: like her ethos, but I can't really hook into what
Speaker 1: she's doing. And I maybe a little bias because I
Speaker 1: really hate that Chosen Family song. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: That song is an incredibly low point. It's kind of
Speaker 1: unique to calm down levels of like anthemmy, like poorly
Speaker 1: written like Ally stuff. But even though she's I know
Speaker 1: she's not an Ally, I know she's queer, but it's
Speaker 1: just it's like it feels like you just google Chosen
Speaker 1: Family and like that was. I don't know, I do
Speaker 1: think so. I haven't listened to the full. I think
Speaker 1: it's an album, not an EP. I thought it was
Speaker 1: an album, but it's any or it's at least it's
Speaker 1: an EP. Now maybe it will be an album. I
Speaker 1: the only song I've heard is in full is this Hell,
Speaker 1: and which I like. But I think, you know, this
Speaker 1: is very indicative of I think maybe what we're seeing
Speaker 1: is you know, when one of these pop girlies comes
Speaker 1: out and there's just so much momentum that they don't
Speaker 1: have the time to take a break and like sit
Speaker 1: and have life experiences that like lead them to write
Speaker 1: good music and instead just kind of like may just
Speaker 1: make music like that. They just do it and it's
Speaker 1: like not kind of at the level as their previous
Speaker 1: stuff was. So maybe that's what's happening, because she has
Speaker 1: been going pretty NonStop since her her first album came out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I love her collapse love her on the fashion level.
Speaker 1: When you listen to the EP, you know, circle back
Speaker 1: to me and then we can chat about it. Um.
Speaker 1: I watched two things that you've already watched since we
Speaker 1: last spoke, and I would love to chat briefly about them.
Speaker 1: I watched I watched Prey, which I've never seen any
Speaker 1: Predator movies in any other or Alien, any of the
Speaker 1: Alien movies. Not that that matters, um, And you don't
Speaker 1: need to you really need to watch Alien, I will,
Speaker 1: I will, UM, but to watch Prey for the virgins,
Speaker 1: you don't need to watch any of the other movies,
Speaker 1: and strongly recommend it as a standalone I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: it's already the highest rated prey movie on it not
Speaker 1: only that, it's the most watched original thing Hulu has
Speaker 1: ever made. WHOA, I did not know that. Um. I
Speaker 1: just you know. Top line action sequences, phenomenal, completely indigenous
Speaker 1: lead cast and story amazing, really good violence, really scary,
Speaker 1: high suspense scenes, great action, great kills, and compelling acting
Speaker 1: from extremely first time actors. You know. A very simple
Speaker 1: story about a girl who's like trying to prove herself
Speaker 1: and then just gets put in these really you know,
Speaker 1: crazy circumstances. She also has a really hot brother. I
Speaker 1: was just about talking about it. He so sexy and
Speaker 1: I was reading that he was like, he it's his breakout.
Speaker 1: It's just I think his first role. He was like
Speaker 1: working at TJ Max before he got this gig, and
Speaker 1: he's so good in addition to being hot. UM and
Speaker 1: I feel like, just for the virgins, I forgot to
Speaker 1: top line the plot. If you basically the predate the
Speaker 1: Predator is that what it's called predator UM is this
Speaker 1: like alien alien, alien hunter being. Yeah, that has descended
Speaker 1: upon Um, a commanche kind of tribe land in the
Speaker 1: early seventeen hundreds, and um. Around the same time, there
Speaker 1: are French fur traders that are kind of colonizing these land,
Speaker 1: and the Commanche tribe is basically encountering both the fur
Speaker 1: traders and the predator at the same time and trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how to kind of like sort through
Speaker 1: protect their their tribe. And um. It's just a great,
Speaker 1: great story and something that really kind of struck me. Um.
Speaker 1: Not to get all political or this isn't even political,
Speaker 1: it's just like good content. Is that the entire movie
Speaker 1: offered Commenci subtitles and dubbing, So if you wanted to
Speaker 1: watch the entire movie with a commen she dub like,
Speaker 1: which can you think of any movie that has ever
Speaker 1: done that like that? It was originally going to be
Speaker 1: fully in Comanche with English subtitles, um, which you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's probably good for the accessibility and like
Speaker 1: kind of the mainstream accessibility of this film that it
Speaker 1: was in English. But it's also amazing that they did
Speaker 1: not sacrifice having an available with that that dub. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think all of the actors are actually I
Speaker 1: don't know if any of the actors are like Native
Speaker 1: Comanche speakers, but like I that might have been part
Speaker 1: of the reason, but I just like, you know, as
Speaker 1: long as it's in the language a language that's just
Speaker 1: going extinct, you know, the languages that in indigenous languages
Speaker 1: that are going extinct. I was like, that's sick, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly how we should be making things that. This
Speaker 1: movie is like completely not political. I must also say,
Speaker 1: like it's just violent, good action, like really stunning character portrayals.
Speaker 1: Like it's just it's not like about the indigenous No Clarence,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's not, like I said,
Speaker 1: it's a very thing. It's a very simple story that
Speaker 1: is really well made and super fun to watch. Um,
Speaker 1: what's the other thing? The other thing that was not
Speaker 1: so fun to watch was the Jurassic Park movie. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, I forgot that Laura Dirt was in it.
Speaker 1: That's why was it about bugs and corporate espionage? I
Speaker 1: have to say, you know, it was definitely a hundred
Speaker 1: percent about bugs and corporate espionage. And like the villain
Speaker 1: of this movie looked exactly like Tim Cook. That's so distracting.
Speaker 1: That's so weird and distracting, and like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like when we watched Don't Look Up,
Speaker 1: and they had that kind of Jeff Bezosie and Elon
Speaker 1: Muskie like CEO for yourself. I did not watch Don't
Speaker 1: Look Up. Yeah, seriously, um, that movie. You know, actually,
Speaker 1: I thought had some pretty good action sequences and some
Speaker 1: you know, the the bugs only you know, we're just gusting.
Speaker 1: Even though the movie was about the bugs. The bugs
Speaker 1: were only like in two big scenes, but there were
Speaker 1: there were so little dinosaurs in it. And the thing
Speaker 1: that I found so frustrating about that movie is it
Speaker 1: has this very interesting premise of dinosaurs are now living
Speaker 1: in the world, and it abandons it almost immediately. It's
Speaker 1: there's like a like a highlight reel of news stories
Speaker 1: right at the beginning of the movie, and then it
Speaker 1: never deals with the implications of that. Yeah, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: And also just like the Clone Girl, like there's nothing
Speaker 1: compelling about her. There's nothing like the fact that this
Speaker 1: Clone girl has these adopted parents that aren't even that's
Speaker 1: Chris Pratt and the Red Heat, and it's like it's
Speaker 1: just completely unearned. It. There's no emotional attachment between the
Speaker 1: three of them at all, and it was Honestly, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lie like some of the laziest writing I'd
Speaker 1: seen in a movie in a very long time. Like
Speaker 1: it felt like it was written in a weekend, or
Speaker 1: maybe like rewritten in a weekend, which is probably more likely. Babe,
Speaker 1: you want to talk about bad writing? Oh, I'm scared.
Speaker 1: What do you? What are you gonna say? I watched
Speaker 1: this show so Um. Last week after we were in
Speaker 1: San Francisco, I went um to Florida to see my
Speaker 1: family and UM spend a lot of time with my mom,
Speaker 1: and one night she was like, there's this show that
Speaker 1: all my friends are talking about on Facebook that we
Speaker 1: have to watch. Um, which was not a good way
Speaker 1: to start a sentence for me. UM, But I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I guess. UM. So we watched this Netflix show called
Speaker 1: Partner Track. Have you heard about it? I'm not surprised.
Speaker 1: It's like incredibly basic. It's about this girl who works
Speaker 1: at a law firm and she's trying to make partner.
Speaker 1: She's Asian American, and she's like having a really good time,
Speaker 1: a really good time. She's having a really hard time,
Speaker 1: you know, going up against the you know, like the
Speaker 1: white patriarchy that very much is in power in this
Speaker 1: law firm, and she of course has you know, some
Speaker 1: like romantic stuff going on. It is the some of
Speaker 1: the worst writing and acting I've ever seen. That being said,
Speaker 1: my mom and I watched five episodes at once Jesus,
Speaker 1: and we were both like, this is horrible, but bea
Speaker 1: we're kind of into it. Yeah, so I we watched
Speaker 1: more the last night I was home, and then I
Speaker 1: finished it when I got back, and it was so
Speaker 1: stupid and so bad, and I would watch a thousand
Speaker 1: more episodes of it. Speaking of stupid and bad, I'm
Speaker 1: a little mad at you because a week or two
Speaker 1: ago I had this kind of realization when I started
Speaker 1: to try to watch Making the Cut, which is that
Speaker 1: kind of like Project Runway spin off that time. I
Speaker 1: haven't watched the new season. I don't don't, don't don't.
Speaker 1: I started watching it, I was like, why is the
Speaker 1: music still is terrible? Um, yes, but the design, the fashion,
Speaker 1: the music supervisor on that show should be tried as
Speaker 1: war criminal. The fashion is like slightly better this season.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like Making the Cut is so bad,
Speaker 1: but like, anyways, when I was watching the show, I
Speaker 1: started watching it, I was like, why am I watching this?
Speaker 1: I'm not enjoying it. I'm barely paying attention. I I'm
Speaker 1: I'm just like consuming it for the sake of consumption.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm going to set an intention to
Speaker 1: just like watch things that I'm engaged in. Like I
Speaker 1: have a really bad habit of just watching things on
Speaker 1: background or watching things because I don't have anything else
Speaker 1: to do and I need to just watch less trash.
Speaker 1: And then you told me to watch selling doc. Okay,
Speaker 1: but that's not the same thing, because is incredible, it's
Speaker 1: it is, It's okay, it is it's an interest because
Speaker 1: it's really good, it's really quality. It's trash, and I'm
Speaker 1: Oscar the Grouch. It feels like it's worth watching. But
Speaker 1: I am still I don't know regard it is at
Speaker 1: the level of it is at the level of selling Sunset.
Speaker 1: I would actually say that it's better than current seasons
Speaker 1: of selling Sunset. O g selling selling Sunset. Sure they're
Speaker 1: going to do get Out. It's definitely better than current
Speaker 1: seasons of selling Sunset. And you know why, you know,
Speaker 1: one of one of the reasons why I think that
Speaker 1: is is because there's men. And I hate to say that.
Speaker 1: I hate to say it, but I just think like, obvious,
Speaker 1: obviously men, we gotta get more men in here. Am
Speaker 1: I invading women's spaces? I invading women's I JK rolling
Speaker 1: on this, Okay, she I like obviously love you know
Speaker 1: shows where it's a bunch of women having interpersonal drama.
Speaker 1: But I do think that the men on selling the
Speaker 1: O c Ad an element of drama that is just
Speaker 1: very different from selling Sunset, And like you have someone
Speaker 1: like Geo who's such a fucking asshole, and then everyone
Speaker 1: else who's like, like, all the guys are kind of gay,
Speaker 1: except for the bisexual one who, as soon as he
Speaker 1: talks about being bisexual, is totally written out of the show. Yes,
Speaker 1: completely glossed over. All the girls kind of dissociate and
Speaker 1: look away because they live. The women literally talk about
Speaker 1: like how hot all the guys in the office are
Speaker 1: and how much they want to suck them, and don't
Speaker 1: mention him once, not once they are there's nothing about
Speaker 1: him that is sex because they're like, well, he sucks dick,
Speaker 1: so he's disgusting. He's disgusting. Um Yeah, I I so
Speaker 1: okay on your men comment, I kind of agree with that.
Speaker 1: I think that they're because they're so truly like they
Speaker 1: have a machismo that just cuts through the bullshit with
Speaker 1: assholary as opposed to win the you know, the women
Speaker 1: in the cast just kind of like go around and
Speaker 1: whisper to each other like over and over again. It
Speaker 1: gets really repetitive. Um, so it's I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: And they're all gay. Yeah, they're all gay, and like
Speaker 1: the one who's by except for the one who's by.
Speaker 1: And I love the Alexandra's. I love that they're like
Speaker 1: nine characters that are named alex and then then and
Speaker 1: I love the Alexandra's um, which is like if you
Speaker 1: don't if for the virgins. They're like these kind of
Speaker 1: um these like this like girl Boss partnership of real
Speaker 1: estate agents called the Alexandras, and they're like the top
Speaker 1: everyone hates who everyone hates. And also I think the
Speaker 1: houses are nicer than than the l A houses, Like
Speaker 1: they're better, they're better taste, they're like and the views
Speaker 1: are actually nice because they're not like looking out over
Speaker 1: disgusting Los Angeles. Yeah, I'm only like five or six
Speaker 1: episodes in, but I have to say, only five or
Speaker 1: six episodes, Oh my god, I'm only I'm only I've
Speaker 1: just finished four. I think, okay, okay, So I don't
Speaker 1: know if you are where I'm at, but I just
Speaker 1: have to say for the Virgins that I am unwillingly
Speaker 1: team Kayla. I don't. I think Kayla is like a
Speaker 1: total flop. I don't think she's good at her job. However,
Speaker 1: I think all the other women are way worse and
Speaker 1: like they are, you know, attacking her for no reason.
Speaker 1: I mean some reason, but like they're making it about
Speaker 1: themselves and they have like the weirdest, most puritanical lens on,
Speaker 1: like the whole like cheating thing that just like I
Speaker 1: think it's stupid. Anyway, I don't know about that. I
Speaker 1: haven't gotten there yet. Yes, you'll see, you'll see, and
Speaker 1: you'll report back to me. Maybe we can do a
Speaker 1: little another little recap next week. I would love to.
Speaker 1: I will. I will be watching more. I know we have.
Speaker 1: There is something we're building to before before we go there.
Speaker 1: I do just want to break in and talk about
Speaker 1: some stuff I've been reading. I also recently on our
Speaker 1: Finsta did share my good Reads profile and I've gotten
Speaker 1: a lot of new followers, which I didn't even know
Speaker 1: you could follow people on good Reads. Um I don't
Speaker 1: really review things, so I guess good luck to you,
Speaker 1: but I guess you can at least see what I'm reading.
Speaker 1: I'm back on my gay historical fiction bullshit, no surprises there.
Speaker 1: Um I needed rippers, God pace rippers. I needed some
Speaker 1: lightness because the next thing I'm reading is my therapist
Speaker 1: told me I should read All About Love by Bell Hooks,
Speaker 1: So I'm going to start that later. But over the
Speaker 1: past week, I've read like five books by the same
Speaker 1: author who I think I've mentioned for their name is
Speaker 1: kJ Charles. They write a lot of historical gay MM romance,
Speaker 1: not MM and the I just read this, um this
Speaker 1: trilogy called The Society of Gentlemen, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: the same as other things they've done, where it's like
Speaker 1: a group of people and it's kind of Bridgetain ask
Speaker 1: whereas each book focuses on one of their different love stories,
Speaker 1: but they're all part of this larger friend group and
Speaker 1: there is a kind of larger plot that carries through
Speaker 1: all of the books. But it's very interesting because it
Speaker 1: does kind of deal with like the radical politics of
Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds in England. And um, I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: My favorite of the three was the last one, in
Speaker 1: which a lord falls in love with his valet. Um,
Speaker 1: it was very very sexy. What's a valet? Like? A
Speaker 1: valot is a person who gets you dressed. Um, it's
Speaker 1: not the guy that does the part that like parks parks.
Speaker 1: They know they're like your personal like the closest person
Speaker 1: to the lord who literally, like in the morning, wakes
Speaker 1: you up with a cup of tea, like shaves you,
Speaker 1: gets you dressed. So obviously if you want to suck
Speaker 1: that person, it's very sexually charged. Um. So I definitely
Speaker 1: recommend those if you need like something smudgy to read.
Speaker 1: I literally read like that book I read in an afternoon.
Speaker 1: The time has come, The time has come, The time
Speaker 1: has come to wall reset to talk of many things
Speaker 1: wrong fantasy, wrong fantasy. We have been obviously building up
Speaker 1: to this for a while. Um, The Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 1: the Rings of Power is out, has been out, and
Speaker 1: I actually people will be surprised to know I didn't
Speaker 1: even watch the first three episodes until yesterday. You were
Speaker 1: putting it off because you putting it off because I
Speaker 1: was nervous, because I like felt like I didn't have
Speaker 1: the time to really fully commit to it. I'm glad
Speaker 1: I waited. I watched it. Today was a day where
Speaker 1: I like set aside to really do nothing else. And
Speaker 1: first I want to hear I want to hear your thoughts,
Speaker 1: because I do think, just based on our text, that
Speaker 1: they're different. And for anyone who doesn't know what The
Speaker 1: Rings of Power is, it is Amazon's new fantasy series.
Speaker 1: It's said in the same world as The Lord of
Speaker 1: the Rings, but it is set thousands of years before
Speaker 1: the Lord of the Rings and is about um the
Speaker 1: Second Age of Middle Earth, UM, during which the Rings
Speaker 1: of Power, one of which would become the One Ring
Speaker 1: and Lord of the Rings, were forged and not what
Speaker 1: this is all building towards and you can help me
Speaker 1: flesh this out, but from what I understand, they're basically
Speaker 1: truncating like a thousand or so years of history into
Speaker 1: like a few decades. And they also very specifically do
Speaker 1: not have rights to any of the Lord of the
Speaker 1: Rings trilogy stories. Yes, well what they do not have
Speaker 1: rights to some of the Yeah? What what what is
Speaker 1: the t on the rights so they have? They do
Speaker 1: not have the rights to anything except what is in
Speaker 1: the appendices of the Silmarillion. These there. Literally, there is
Speaker 1: a billion dollar franchise being made of the appendices of
Speaker 1: a fantasy novel written earlier in the last century. And
Speaker 1: that's just how much lower Tolkien wrote to flesh out
Speaker 1: this world. So that's kind of why in the show
Speaker 1: they talk around a lot of things, and it's not
Speaker 1: as though it does not have a lot of exposition,
Speaker 1: because and I think this might I would take a
Speaker 1: gander that this might be one of your complaints. And
Speaker 1: why you why you might think it's a little slow
Speaker 1: is that there's so much exposition, but they're still like
Speaker 1: not really explaining a lot, Like you know, they don't
Speaker 1: explain who more Goth is, and like they don't explain
Speaker 1: what the Silmarills were because they literally don't have the
Speaker 1: rights to it. They only have the rights to what's
Speaker 1: in the appendices. But thankfully there's a lot in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, without getting into the nitty gritty, I think
Speaker 1: my top line take is like a really emotional and
Speaker 1: esoteric one, Like I have a kind of childhood attachment
Speaker 1: to the Lord of the Rings movie franchise, And of
Speaker 1: course they're going to be compared because they used a
Speaker 1: lot of the same team from the Lord of the
Speaker 1: Rings franchise. They are lifting and building on two worlds
Speaker 1: that Peter Jackson and that team has already created, even
Speaker 1: if they can't explicitly do so, and even if they
Speaker 1: also do take their own path and and invent new
Speaker 1: things to um And so I kept catching myself being like, oh,
Speaker 1: but it's not like that in the trilogy, which is
Speaker 1: like the wrong take and the wrong like way to
Speaker 1: go about it, right, But that is my natural kind
Speaker 1: of reaction is to kind of recare. The kind of
Speaker 1: things that I loved about the show were the parts
Speaker 1: that had a kind of contemporary emotionality, like I love.
Speaker 1: I liked the inter I prefer the kind of interpersonal
Speaker 1: drama between the characters in this franchise, which feel a
Speaker 1: little more human and a little more real, versus the trilogy,
Speaker 1: which is the stakes aren't quite as high. Yes, you
Speaker 1: go into Lord of the Rings and the steaks are
Speaker 1: almost immediately literally end of the world, end of the world.
Speaker 1: And in the trilogy, even though there's a lot of
Speaker 1: fun and a lot of joy, it's all like melodrama,
Speaker 1: serious stoicism, looking off. Literally, it starts with glad I
Speaker 1: feel it, And that is my my number one complaint
Speaker 1: about Rings of Power is that our leading lady is
Speaker 1: boring and sorry, does not do anything different when she
Speaker 1: is not you know, fighting, swimming, climbing ice picks. I
Speaker 1: think her action sequences are dope. I think everything I
Speaker 1: think her as kind of like a warrior is amazing.
Speaker 1: But I think that when she is acting, it is
Speaker 1: a o en levels of boring and like I mean
Speaker 1: this actress as well. It's like all she's doing is
Speaker 1: just kind of like like every any kind of like look,
Speaker 1: any time you see Galadriel just like just like waiting
Speaker 1: for her mine or like in conversation with someone, she's
Speaker 1: always just like looking off in the distance, like you know,
Speaker 1: like she kind of breathed deep and her hair is
Speaker 1: like whisping, and it's like, do you do anything else?
Speaker 1: Like her mouth is always turned the same way, her
Speaker 1: eyes do the same thing, and it's like you can
Speaker 1: do that if you're Cape Blanchet. But I feel like
Speaker 1: she's doing Cape Blanchet drag and she's not pulling it
Speaker 1: off because very few people can do what Cape Blanchet does,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, I would disagree. I don't
Speaker 1: think she's doing Cape Blanchet drag. I think she knows
Speaker 1: the part she's playing, but I actually think she is
Speaker 1: doing a pretty good job at being a younger version
Speaker 1: of a of a character who we know so well
Speaker 1: and who carries so much cultural weight, and also who
Speaker 1: we are used to seeing as this a very wise,
Speaker 1: powerful figure who is thousands of years old, and this
Speaker 1: is a much younger version of her, who has a
Speaker 1: lot of growing to do. I hope that the show
Speaker 1: continues to open her up. One of my favorite moments
Speaker 1: in episode three is when they go riding and she
Speaker 1: just like the joy on her face while she's riding
Speaker 1: a horse. I thought that was like, really beautiful, and
Speaker 1: I think that speaks to what you're talking about, is
Speaker 1: like the smaller moments where you get an idea of
Speaker 1: who these characters really are. I think what is working
Speaker 1: about the show, and that's why the first two episodes,
Speaker 1: when there's so much exposition to get through and so
Speaker 1: much setting up of who these people are where they are,
Speaker 1: I won't say it's boring. I didn't find it boring,
Speaker 1: but it's very dense um. But by the third episode,
Speaker 1: I felt like I really had to handle on who
Speaker 1: the characters are. I felt like the places they were
Speaker 1: in were very tangible, and I started to get an
Speaker 1: idea of where the stories we're building too. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure there will be lots of twist and turns along
Speaker 1: the way, but like I think with the reveal in
Speaker 1: the third episode that, um, you know, like the south
Speaker 1: Lands are kind of where everything is is going towards.
Speaker 1: Like I think that's they're building more door in the
Speaker 1: South Belds, Like that's what what happens. And when you
Speaker 1: have those moments of revelation as someone who knows about
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings, I think it's really cool. Like
Speaker 1: the same way when they introduced a sealed door, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, that's a sealed door. Wh
Speaker 1: who you know cuts off the ring and like that
Speaker 1: is corrupted by it, And like those moments are so
Speaker 1: cool and so exciting, and yet I I think the
Speaker 1: show like sprinkles them in enough while still letting this
Speaker 1: story stand on its own. Um. And it's so beautiful
Speaker 1: to look at. The music is incredible. Score, The score
Speaker 1: is insane. I so so good. I had seen so
Speaker 1: many people saying like, watch this in the biggest screen
Speaker 1: you can, like, so when I watched it yesterday, I
Speaker 1: turn all the lights off. I like, closed the blinds
Speaker 1: of my apartment, tried to make it as dark as possible,
Speaker 1: turn the sound all the way up. And I'm really
Speaker 1: happy I did because that made it such a better
Speaker 1: viewing experience. And I was very like moved by how
Speaker 1: beautiful it was. And obviously like New Zealand is beautiful,
Speaker 1: there's lots of beautiful people, and You're right, a lot
Speaker 1: of it is stuff we have seen before. Is like
Speaker 1: it's very familiar, it's speaking in the language of Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings. But I also really liked how New
Speaker 1: Menoir is a place that feels very different from anywhere
Speaker 1: we've been in Middle Earth, because the thing about Middle Earth.
Speaker 1: I was reading a recap of the episodes and on Vulture,
Speaker 1: and the recap or said something like, you know, Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings takes place in this really interesting fantasy world,
Speaker 1: which is like medieval England that never her progresses um.
Speaker 1: And what I liked about um New Manor is that
Speaker 1: it feels like a place where there could be like
Speaker 1: technological advances are like that they might have a different age,
Speaker 1: but if you know anything about the lore of Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings and still Marillian, like I think spoiler alert,
Speaker 1: that's not going to be around forever. So maybe that's
Speaker 1: why Middle Earth keeps having these like huge world ending
Speaker 1: wars and that's why they never progress. But also probably
Speaker 1: just because like it's fantasy and it is what it is.
Speaker 1: While we're getting into the nitty gritty here, um, I
Speaker 1: love the set design in general. I love the visual
Speaker 1: effects um, from you know, the seaworm to their portrayal
Speaker 1: of the undying lance and the birds coming out of
Speaker 1: that like light Vagina in the sky. It's very cool.
Speaker 1: But I also like the birds felt kind of sinister. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they felt Yes, I love that. And I loved when
Speaker 1: like the light Vagina closed and it was all dark,
Speaker 1: like it was so like moments like that. Vagina. It
Speaker 1: is vain, it is. I think it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: like a current. I think like in the in the
Speaker 1: actual text, it's like a curtain of light or something
Speaker 1: like that. But it makes sense Vagina, Yeah, it does.
Speaker 1: And I like the whole of you know whatever gender. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think that kind of the kind of esp
Speaker 1: the kind of distrust in every episode and the corruption
Speaker 1: that we're smelling and the little ways that certain characters
Speaker 1: may or may not be evil or that's so that's
Speaker 1: objects is all about how evil is constantly trying to
Speaker 1: corrupt good, yes, and I and for me, in the
Speaker 1: good and evil of it all, that's actually usually the
Speaker 1: least interesting part to me of the original trilogy. Like
Speaker 1: I think Tolkien's ideas of like good and evil are
Speaker 1: like so flat, and that that was something that Game
Speaker 1: of Thrones was trying to I mean, not amend, but
Speaker 1: like it's something that they did different. Yes, like everyone
Speaker 1: in Game of Thrones is is complicated and bad and
Speaker 1: um makes mistakes and also does good things. And and
Speaker 1: that's why I wish that, you know, Tolkien had a
Speaker 1: little more of that sensibility, which is like maybe we
Speaker 1: have a little bit of that in in brings the
Speaker 1: power more and so I appreciate that. But I will
Speaker 1: say as much as I love the visual effects and
Speaker 1: the kind of set and all that stuff, and like
Speaker 1: just the way they build the Elvin City and New
Speaker 1: Menoir and all this different stuff, the hair and makeup
Speaker 1: is a flop to me. I think that a lot
Speaker 1: of these costumes as well look very fresh off the
Speaker 1: Broadway clothing rack. Not all of them, but a lot
Speaker 1: of them. I love that they got the original costume
Speaker 1: designer and the original like prop prop designers, you know,
Speaker 1: shout out to what a shop whatever to like make
Speaker 1: the swords and stuff. But it just it's I think
Speaker 1: that the costuming is actually emblematic of kind of the
Speaker 1: larger issue that I'm having with the show. And I'm
Speaker 1: loving it and hating it, and the say it kind
Speaker 1: of feels like and just like that. To be honest,
Speaker 1: like I watched and just like that, I loved every
Speaker 1: second of it, but also every second of it I
Speaker 1: kind of had a little ring power. Only time will
Speaker 1: tell probably Duran, right, Oh my god, the way the
Speaker 1: way L Rond and Duran our ex boyfriends. They were
Speaker 1: fucking and sucking and you cannot tell me different they are.
Speaker 1: They are Lego Loss and Ghimli the prequel. I L
Speaker 1: Rondon Duran are high key like long distance x Is
Speaker 1: and absolutely parked during the war and aren't talking about it.
Speaker 1: And I bet you the wife knows and was vuying
Speaker 1: for a threesome, which is why she totally wanted them
Speaker 1: to be a threat. That actually, like when you're talking
Speaker 1: about like set in costumes, I do think the places
Speaker 1: that felt the realist to me and where I thought
Speaker 1: that stuff was done the most effectively was in UM
Speaker 1: the Dwarf Kingdom. I thought that was really beautiful UM
Speaker 1: and the Dwarves felt their their hair and makeup and
Speaker 1: prosthetics I thought were really good. And the hard Foots,
Speaker 1: who are like I think ancestors of Hobbits or like
Speaker 1: kind of a different branch of Hobbits. I think their
Speaker 1: world feels very lived in and real. These this sort
Speaker 1: of like nomadic tribe of you know, like little Um,
Speaker 1: you know, people scramping around and like stealing berries and stuff.
Speaker 1: UM and I love like all the stuff sticking out
Speaker 1: of their hair. And I thought the way that they
Speaker 1: in the most in the last episode UM show Ode
Speaker 1: instead of telling about how their society works, I thought
Speaker 1: was really effectively done, like this whole idea of you know,
Speaker 1: if you can't keep up with us, we leave you
Speaker 1: behind and like we're very sad and we'll remember you.
Speaker 1: But like by UM, I thought that was like really
Speaker 1: well done. And I actually find the scenes with the
Speaker 1: hard Foots I think some of the most moving and
Speaker 1: the most emotional. I really like Nori as a character UM.
Speaker 1: I think obviously the stranger I think is clearly a wizard,
Speaker 1: right I think, I mean that's the first thought. I mean,
Speaker 1: he could be. I was, I was, you know, of
Speaker 1: course that's actually something that I have to give it to.
Speaker 1: The show is like I'm now consuming like conspiracy theory
Speaker 1: podcasts and like reading about reading like the l O
Speaker 1: t R wikis. Meanwhile I'm watching I'm watching galadual edits
Speaker 1: set to Brooklyn Baby and Buttons by the Physic Cat Dolls.
Speaker 1: I love. I love that we are living in a
Speaker 1: time where, like Lord of the Rings, that we're getting
Speaker 1: new Lord of the Rings content while people are making
Speaker 1: fan edits. I'm so happy. Yeah. So I the power
Speaker 1: to the series is that at least it's like making
Speaker 1: me so interested and invested that I need to know
Speaker 1: and learn more about the world that it it revolves around.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I kind of there was a conspiracy
Speaker 1: that it's maybe the Blue Wizard, or that it's maybe
Speaker 1: radic as question Mark um again, and you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know TBD because I think the kind of man
Speaker 1: falling from the sky comment is like completely fabricated, Like
Speaker 1: I don't think it's from Tolkien, um, which is cool,
Speaker 1: Like I I the hard Foots are apparently not supposed
Speaker 1: to be in this part of the history. They inserted
Speaker 1: them there, and the kind of hard foots hiding from
Speaker 1: society is their solve for It's like, so if Harfoots
Speaker 1: were hiding from society the whole time, of course they
Speaker 1: weren't in the history, which I think is so smart.
Speaker 1: When it's cool the way that they're ling in the gaps,
Speaker 1: you know they're using what they have access to. And
Speaker 1: then there this world just is so rich with things
Speaker 1: to play with and to create exactly. And I for me,
Speaker 1: I totally agree that the Hartfitts maybe had some of
Speaker 1: the best like hair and makeup. The thing that I
Speaker 1: liked from them that I wanted on everyone else was
Speaker 1: this kind of like effortless, kind of like weather. I
Speaker 1: wanted it to look weathered, like I wanted their hair
Speaker 1: and stuff to look like it had been lived in.
Speaker 1: And that wasn't everyone else does look a little bit
Speaker 1: to put together. The only time someone didn't was so
Speaker 1: like Galadril spends like the whole second episode in like
Speaker 1: a sheet. Basically she was like she was like truly
Speaker 1: pussy out on that raft in like a sheet. And
Speaker 1: then by the time they got to Newman or like
Speaker 1: her hair does look a little frizzy from their long
Speaker 1: sea travels, but you know, they're they certainly are not
Speaker 1: as weathered as they could be. Although her um hall
Speaker 1: brand is that the name of the guy that she's with, Slasher,
Speaker 1: I don't remember who now is a king who I
Speaker 1: think it's hot. He like he didn't look great for
Speaker 1: you know, having been on a raft, but he could
Speaker 1: have looked worse. He could have looked worse. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the hard Foots when they when they had their
Speaker 1: moment when they like kind of emerge from the ground,
Speaker 1: I did get really emotional. And even though they're not,
Speaker 1: you know, Hobbits, they're like one of the breeds of Hobbits.
Speaker 1: It was the first time where I was like, where
Speaker 1: in Middle Earth? This is the fantasy that I came for.
Speaker 1: And the thing that makes Tolkien Tolkien is heroism from
Speaker 1: the unexpected, and how Hobbits are emblematic of the smallest
Speaker 1: person can make the biggest change. And that was so beautiful. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, with the um. While we're on the hair
Speaker 1: and makeup of it all, we have to talk about
Speaker 1: the fact that l Rond has a Sally Hirshberger blowout
Speaker 1: for like a lot of this movie. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: he looks straight up like an inbred version of Steve
Speaker 1: from Stranger. Oh my god, so okay with Like there's
Speaker 1: some scenes where like his hair is like really high,
Speaker 1: like significantly higher than like other parts of the series,
Speaker 1: which is kind of distracting. But the parts where it's
Speaker 1: really high, I was like, he looks like Jane von
Speaker 1: look looks very modern, and the girly who he's now
Speaker 1: working with, celebrantor the Smith also has like just looks
Speaker 1: like someone who was alive during nine and Weaven Like,
Speaker 1: there's no way around it. It's not it's not good.
Speaker 1: I I really do not like that wig. But I
Speaker 1: loved back to the point that you made earlier, the
Speaker 1: Duran and l Round moment, because I felt like it's
Speaker 1: I thought it was the best example of the thing
Speaker 1: that I love about Rings of Power, which is the
Speaker 1: you've been gone for twenty years. You missed the me
Speaker 1: marrying my wife, you missed me having two kids, like
Speaker 1: we're worrying suck my dick. But like that conversation is
Speaker 1: so in the present day. It would never have happened
Speaker 1: in the Lord of the Rings trilogy est and I
Speaker 1: think in the present day, but through you know, fantastical circumstances,
Speaker 1: because what he's saying is like, you missed all this
Speaker 1: because you're this immortal being for whom twenty years is
Speaker 1: like the blink of an eye, right, And I thought
Speaker 1: that was so real, and that emotional realism is something that,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is missing from the trilogy. I'm not
Speaker 1: one of those girlies that thinks that the Lord of
Speaker 1: the Rings trilogy is like perfect or whatever, like I
Speaker 1: love it to death. Shut You're like, well, I love
Speaker 1: it to death, but like I think you know AO
Speaker 1: and is boring. I think a lot of plotlines are boring.
Speaker 1: I think that there's no emotional realism. I think the
Speaker 1: last like thirty or forty minutes of Return of the
Speaker 1: King are just like put it in the garbage, Like
Speaker 1: I really there are a lot of things that I
Speaker 1: don't like about The Lord of the Rings, even though
Speaker 1: I'm a die hard stand um. But with Rings of Power,
Speaker 1: I think I just appreciated those moments that just feel
Speaker 1: like they're set a little bit more in the emotional
Speaker 1: realism of two because you get to do that with
Speaker 1: a TV show well, I also, I mean and not
Speaker 1: even like feeling contemporary, but that just feel earned. Like
Speaker 1: the anxiety of Norri's family realizing that they might be
Speaker 1: left behind by their community like that, like that really
Speaker 1: got me. Um And I loved that she, you know,
Speaker 1: Noori as this character who feels like she's being destined
Speaker 1: to help this person, and she went to him and
Speaker 1: said like, hey, I can't help you anymore. I have
Speaker 1: to help my family. But then she did still try
Speaker 1: to do something heroic, and then I loved the way
Speaker 1: that this like being gets folded into her story as
Speaker 1: the thing that helps save her family. By the end,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm very interested to see where it all goes.
Speaker 1: I you know, I think we're going to get sexy
Speaker 1: Salaron pretty soon. Is that like a thing? Is that? Like?
Speaker 1: Yeson is like a character in the show. I know that,
Speaker 1: but he's purported to be sexy. He's sexy? Yeah? Well yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Suron was always like historically in Tolkien, like
Speaker 1: was beautiful? Um so was he was? Was he as
Speaker 1: they say? Fine fine foot fine foot fine fine fine? Yes?
Speaker 1: He was? Okay, So I have not been loving the
Speaker 1: stuff with I don't know his name That's the thing
Speaker 1: about this Like everyone's names are like what are they? Um?
Speaker 1: The elf who was in the tower and is now
Speaker 1: being held prisoner by the Orcs, I thought, I thought
Speaker 1: his stuff was like a little boring um, Like I
Speaker 1: didn't really care about his you know, will they won't?
Speaker 1: They vibe with the healer from the village, although obviously
Speaker 1: that kid is his son, right that was my theory.
Speaker 1: And I noticed that, like his ears were always covered
Speaker 1: by his hair, So I was like, did they fuck?
Speaker 1: And that's his son? I was maybe least engaged by
Speaker 1: this plot. I was. I was as well until this
Speaker 1: episode when they're not prisoners in the Orc camp and
Speaker 1: the action sequence that happened when they tried to escape
Speaker 1: was so good. It was so good. I think the
Speaker 1: action in general is like really stunning and well done.
Speaker 1: I think it's honestly better than a lot of like
Speaker 1: the acting and when they try at melodrama. I think
Speaker 1: some of the shots, like in the second episode when
Speaker 1: Galadriel falls into the ocean and sinking and then the
Speaker 1: guy comes down to save her, like it is beautiful
Speaker 1: and you can you can tell how much work went
Speaker 1: into making this show beautiful. And I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I mean seven million dollars where more than more than that?
Speaker 1: It is seven fifteen million dollars. I thought it was
Speaker 1: over a billion. Oh really, I mean the report the
Speaker 1: reports say seven. It's still the most expensive show ever made.
Speaker 1: I believe it's probably seven. Maybe that's the production cost,
Speaker 1: but with marketing, it's over a billion. I think. Well, actually, regardless,
Speaker 1: I think it's very cool for them to spend you know,
Speaker 1: seven hundred to a billion dollars on the rings. I
Speaker 1: think it's amazing that they're you know, spending that much
Speaker 1: on the Rings of Power and then only spending you know,
Speaker 1: like four dollars on their like user interface. Like it's
Speaker 1: like really a kind of a juxtaposition. I don't quite understand, um,
Speaker 1: but I feel like although one of the things I
Speaker 1: like about the interface is that every time you pause
Speaker 1: on Amazon Plus, the name of the character and the
Speaker 1: actor pops up, and it is a nice way to
Speaker 1: keep track of what's going on, because sometimes I get
Speaker 1: I start getting confused. I yeah, I mean, no other
Speaker 1: service does that, which I think is kind of cool. Um.
Speaker 1: They and they do have little factoids as well, in
Speaker 1: in those little those like overlays um, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's just it's it's still is the worst streaming service
Speaker 1: like interet, I mean not not the worst. Sling TV
Speaker 1: is the worst. Um and Roku is the worst. Is
Speaker 1: pretty bad. Some some people have gotten lost in Rocus
Speaker 1: City and are never coming back. Yeah, if I can
Speaker 1: offer you know, my kind of key takeaways how I'm feeling.
Speaker 1: I started saying earlier that my issue with like the
Speaker 1: hair and makeup is kind of emblematic of a larger
Speaker 1: problem with the not problem, a larger thing in this
Speaker 1: series that I keep kind of getting bugged by, which
Speaker 1: is that there is a kind of generic, if not
Speaker 1: almost soap equality to the costumes and therefore the overall
Speaker 1: feel of Rings the power sometimes that is just not
Speaker 1: on the same level of fantasy that of the Rings created.
Speaker 1: And again I hate to compare them, but it's just
Speaker 1: like I feel a lot of the time that the
Speaker 1: things I'm seeing, from some of the swords to the
Speaker 1: Elvin garb to the way their wigs are done, is
Speaker 1: just a version of what Peter Jackson would have done,
Speaker 1: but like a little less memorable because it's been done,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And I and I think
Speaker 1: that part of what I'm part of the parts that
Speaker 1: there are parts of what I'm watching where I'm like,
Speaker 1: I feel like this is kind of something that I've
Speaker 1: been watching before. Like I think it's really cool that like,
Speaker 1: you know, l Round went down to like Maria to
Speaker 1: like you know, chat with a dwarf. But like when
Speaker 1: he had to like you know, speak friend to open
Speaker 1: the gate or whatever, I was like, we've we've done this,
Speaker 1: you know. I think it's really but but it was
Speaker 1: done in a in a different way. It was which
Speaker 1: I actually think is like a nice subversion of showing
Speaker 1: us something that we are familiar with, and then they
Speaker 1: actually turned it into something funny, which I appreciated. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I liked the comedy. It's just that it doesn't the
Speaker 1: line readings are not there. I don't think the melodrama
Speaker 1: is there yet. I think that it has some great writing.
Speaker 1: I just like it doesn't I mean, like think about
Speaker 1: like when like when Gibley enters more and he's like,
Speaker 1: oh mine, like there's so many Like there's a star quality.
Speaker 1: This is what it is. There is a star quality
Speaker 1: in the cast of The Lord of the Rings, and
Speaker 1: a lot of those actors were it was their breakout role,
Speaker 1: right of course we have, which is the same as
Speaker 1: as this show. Most of the people are unknown. Well no,
Speaker 1: I mean no, because like in Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 1: we had you know, Queen Ian McKellen and King Kate Blanchet.
Speaker 1: Because they had those A list celebrities, and because those
Speaker 1: were kind of the narrators and arbiters of the story,
Speaker 1: it brought a lot to the rest of their performances.
Speaker 1: And yeah, like the the all the guys that play
Speaker 1: the Hobbits, Um Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Um Live Tyler
Speaker 1: like they were eating these lines. And I just feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of the casting in this show is
Speaker 1: giving TV like it's it's not it's the TV show.
Speaker 1: I think that's what we have. The speech TV, I think.
Speaker 1: I think the visuals are giving prestige TV. I will
Speaker 1: give you. I will give you that. The writing is
Speaker 1: not quite there, especially the dialogue, Like sometimes someone will
Speaker 1: say something that's clearly meant to be very like weighty,
Speaker 1: and it's just like not quite giving what it's supposed
Speaker 1: to give. But I will I. I keep reminding myself
Speaker 1: it's we're only three episodes in. We have a whole
Speaker 1: season to watch. And hopefully more seasons after this, because
Speaker 1: I do want this to continue. I will always want
Speaker 1: more Lord of the Rings content. Um, I don't know,
Speaker 1: Like what is the metric by which they measure success
Speaker 1: for this show when they have spent so much money
Speaker 1: on it doesn't even matter to Amazon? Like is it
Speaker 1: about awards? Is it about how many people watch it?
Speaker 1: Like is it about how much it's talked about? Because like,
Speaker 1: I don't really see people talking about it. People are
Speaker 1: really talking more about House of the Dragon. And it's
Speaker 1: very interesting that these two things are airing at the
Speaker 1: same time, especially because, as we talked about before, Game
Speaker 1: of Thrones is literally meant to be a deconstruction and
Speaker 1: a subversion of fantasy like Lord of the Rings. So
Speaker 1: it's interesting that they're airing at the same time, and
Speaker 1: people do seem to the House of the Dragon is
Speaker 1: much more talkable. It's much more a meimable. Um. I
Speaker 1: just don't see people talking about it the way talking
Speaker 1: about Rings of Power the same way. But after watching it,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm hooked, and I I don't feel the same
Speaker 1: way I did watching the movies, but I didn't go
Speaker 1: into it expecting to, so I think I have managed
Speaker 1: my expectations enough to be really pleased with how it's
Speaker 1: going so far and excited to see where it can go.
Speaker 1: Because I of the episodes that have come out so far,
Speaker 1: the third one was my favorite, and so I feel
Speaker 1: that's promising because it was the episode that felt most
Speaker 1: like the story was finally moving along, like the exposition
Speaker 1: had been done, the we had all the players kind
Speaker 1: of laid out, and now like we're getting going. So
Speaker 1: I think in the coming weeks, as it really picks
Speaker 1: up steam, like hopefully some of these other smaller issues
Speaker 1: will be less, you know, less of an issue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see what we can get from like
Speaker 1: Galadriel in general. Like I haven't like totally foreclosed on her.
Speaker 1: I want her to be a badass. I just and
Speaker 1: I know that she the actress Morphid. Something she was
Speaker 1: in that movie St. Maud that I never actually saw
Speaker 1: because it was supposed to come out right when COVID
Speaker 1: happened and then it was released on streaming and I
Speaker 1: just forgot to watch it. But I have heard really
Speaker 1: great things about her. I think she's doing a good job.
Speaker 1: I want to see more from her. Obviously, I think
Speaker 1: she is really captivating, and she has really good chemistry
Speaker 1: with all of her scene partners, almost in fact where
Speaker 1: I was like, is she gonna fuck like the the
Speaker 1: the Pioty guy in in You do kind of think
Speaker 1: that about every time to characters, Yeah, I mean less
Speaker 1: less so in Lord of the Rings because let's be real,
Speaker 1: the Lord of the Rings is ace, you know, yeah
Speaker 1: kind of yeah, but violence, yeah, I do. It's because
Speaker 1: you were talking about Game of Thrones, and I think
Speaker 1: that it is kind of It's not Game of Thrones
Speaker 1: and violence, but it is taking a page out of
Speaker 1: Game of Thrones books with these occasional violence. Well Game
Speaker 1: of Thrones took a page out of Lord of the Rings. Well,
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings wasn't violent. They would not show
Speaker 1: blood or that, but there was still it was still
Speaker 1: great action and stuff like that. Yes, amazing action yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think there's really good action sequences, like again,
Speaker 1: like I think that action sequence in the Orc Pit
Speaker 1: was amazing. Yeah. I hope we get to see some
Speaker 1: more dwarves. Um, I hope somebody fucks behind. No one's
Speaker 1: gonna suck. You don't think anyone's gonna fuck. I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone is gonna fuck. I hope we get sexy
Speaker 1: suron very soon. UM, and I will be posting suron
Speaker 1: war goth fan fiction on our burner. We will be
Speaker 1: back next week in discussion with be Live Houston, who
Speaker 1: is talking to us about Sailor Moon and also a
Speaker 1: bunch of other things too. Um. You can maybe telling
Speaker 1: us a little bit about Yellow Jacket season two. JK.
Speaker 1: We did not get them to spill any tea. No,
Speaker 1: they cannot. They cannot, Um, but you can tell us
Speaker 1: what you want us to talk about next, whether it's
Speaker 1: a book or a show or a cultural phenomenon. D
Speaker 1: m U s at Like a Virgin Fore you can
Speaker 1: leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps us
Speaker 1: so much. I'm your co host Fran Toronto. You can
Speaker 1: find me at France Squish go wherever you want. On
Speaker 1: social I'm Rose Damn You. You can find me wherever
Speaker 1: at Rose Damn You. You can subscribe to Like a
Speaker 1: Virgin anywhere you listen to podcasts. And this is an
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio production. Our producer is phoebe Unter, with
Speaker 1: support from Lindsay Hoffman, Julian Weller, Jeess Cranechitch and Nikki
Speaker 1: Etre Until next time, see you later. Virgins might saye