[SPEAKER_03]: Nicole.
[SPEAKER_01]: David.
[SPEAKER_03]: How are you?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm great.
[SPEAKER_01]: How are you?
[SPEAKER_03]: Great.
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you ready to talk about weird science fiction television shows set in Albuquerque, directed by one of the greatest television show runners that ever was?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, now's the time, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never been more ready.
[SPEAKER_01]: Excellent.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're going to be you and I.
[SPEAKER_03]: Who, who knew?
[SPEAKER_03]: Who would have known?
[SPEAKER_00]: What a crazy mismatch pair.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, I think we're quite well matched.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think so.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to be talking about blurbists, the new television show on Apple TV that is being a show run by Vince Gilligan, late of a better call Saul and before that breaking bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: which was a television show that ushered in the, is it what are they called the Platinum Age of Television or the Golden Age of Television?
[SPEAKER_01]: You'd be the expert on that one.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: But along with Mad Men, Breaking Baders, one of these shows, that really cracked open the prestige genre of television.
[SPEAKER_01]: So good.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of my favorite shows of all time.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was so excited when I didn't even know about the show until you mentioned it and as you pitched it as like, you know, it's been skill again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jump a fan of and then we were talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we were talking about egocentrism, which is a different conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you said it was kind of like, Truman Show E, which is one of my favorite movies of all time.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I had to watch that in comparison to the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh, it's so, it's, it's got a different tone for shore, but the premise seems similar enough that it had intrigued me.
[SPEAKER_01]: and then you mentioned that you were looking for a partner to do some coverage with for the lower-hounds and I'm super duper interested.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't wait to get started.
[SPEAKER_01]: The show looks fascinating to me.
[SPEAKER_03]: So today we're going to talk a little bit about the show without spoiling yet.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to do some trailer talk.
[SPEAKER_03]: at the end of this podcast so that if somebody is curious about what we're covering and how we're going to cover it and sort of the broad premises of the show, but doesn't want to be spoiled then by what little we already know, you know, just from the trailer, we'll put that at the end.
[SPEAKER_03]: But we'll talk about our coverage plans and I'll talk a little bit about the overview
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I watched Breaking Bad in like a real time when it came out and then Il Camino the movie after I didn't get into a better call Saul because I got distracted with some other pile of content.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I want to go back and check it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you like better call Saul?
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, there's going to be people in the internet who have opinions about what I'm about to say about my own opinion.
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I find for me, for me, that Better Call Saul was a more satisfying watch than breaking bad was people say that like a lot of people say things like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: the the stakes involved in the show, the character, just everything about it, I absolutely adored and loved.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adored even.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a strong word.
[SPEAKER_03]: There are scenes in there that I know some people great on, but to me are some of the best television like I won't, and since you haven't
[SPEAKER_03]: right who's or who you know used the guy used to be a police officer and yeah so he's in better call Saul so there's there's these number of vignettes throughout the show over the course of the season
[SPEAKER_03]: where he has to do some super secret double secret squirrel sneaker you know sneaking around doing his thing and then they'll set it to this like real funky, you know down tempo jazz some people call that low fi.
[SPEAKER_03]: There are with just these really cool soundscapes and then he's like creeping around doing his thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they blow my mind every time I see them.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have forever talk.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I co-host podcasts never mind the music and our network with my, my friend and I guess colleague Mark, really into music.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really into psychology.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if Mark has opinions on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever talked to him about it?
[SPEAKER_03]: I've never talked to him about it, but I would be surprised if he didn't have opinions because he's Mark.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he's got opinions and we love Mark, I don't, I'm giving him a, I love broadcasting with him too as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we have our gentle ribbing is really part of our bit that way.
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, no, I haven't ever talked to him about that show, so that'd be interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: So anyway, and then Ray Seahorn, who is the star of this show, I absolutely love her performance.
[SPEAKER_03]: and characterization uh... yes i'm so in the dark i don't even know who that is or anything about the characters in the show i got to check it out i got to ask so you saw the trailer that's racie horn uh... the trailer in the show was she a better call sol to uh... yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
[SPEAKER_01]: I see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all making sense now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you're spent ray sea horn her character played the love interest of Saul Goodman in better call Saul.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so the show is really about their relationship.
[SPEAKER_03]: As much as it is an an origin story for Saul Goodman,
[SPEAKER_03]: which is a normed gear, as it were, it's as much about how he became who he was in breaking bad as and integral to who Saul is in breaking bad is Ray C. Horne's character in better call Saul.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like how he broke bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all making so much sense now.
[SPEAKER_03]: it's been a minute since I've watched it so a lot of the details and the names aren't fresh in my memory so I know people are out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think we should rewatch slash watch at all an advance of the plurvis?
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh right yeah I'm just going to matrix in and go what is it for season five seasons?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now you've now you've secretly accepted that idea to make sure that there's another bizarre version of you somewhere just locked in a windowless room just like all the monitors, just playing the simultaneous better console episodes, just downloading it all.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I may have to dip into to that.
[SPEAKER_03]: The final episode, oh god, how many seasons was it like four
[SPEAKER_03]: Sublime.
[SPEAKER_03]: The final shot.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like one of those oil painting shots.
[SPEAKER_03]: It completely wraps around to the very beginning of the season or the very beginning of the series and it's just, uh, it's so good.
[SPEAKER_03]: better call.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I have to say I've been skill again fan, but I'm not a fan boy, so I don't know a lot of details about him.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think that's one of the things that I'll do as we go over pleurabis is try to learn a little bit more about him and his game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd like to as well, like as a case study because there's so much consistency in his work.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now that the show's set in Albuquerque, too, like what is it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you see from there, you see, you have a history there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is he just drawn to like the vortexes and the desert?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's stuff to dig in to Vince Gilligan.
[SPEAKER_01]: He seems like a weirdo in the best way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to like know everything about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to fan girl out and see what I can find.
[SPEAKER_03]: Holy shit, there were six seasons of Ben's Hall.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't commit to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just finally finished doing my thrones like two months ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't love it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Breaking news for 60, there are 63 episodes of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, there's too many things to watch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love is blind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still dropping new episodes as we're recording.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't have to catch up on that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So they are, so given that they're not connected, you're off the hook.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank goodness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's just like when we did get, when we did get Bridget and Agatha all along.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you guys said, oh, again, order to watch that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Know what we're talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it was, um, you were like, oh, you have to watch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, uh, one division.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you mean to know what's going on in one division, you have to watch like these 20 movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I,
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't have time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just don't have time to catch up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm glad that this can kind of be a free standing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, show.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's barely it is green lit for two seasons.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've heard that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So Apple went ahead and just said Vince Gilligan, what do you need?
[SPEAKER_03]: He said two seasons.
[SPEAKER_03]: He said all in.
[SPEAKER_01]: I even heard that three seasons is most likely really okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: So they're in again.
[SPEAKER_03]: I haven't done a lot of news consumption prior to developing this show so we're gonna do that between now and then I'm gonna try to catch up a little bit on the on the background details But the other thing is is I want to be a little bit I want to enjoy the unfolding of the show and so I don't want to know too much
[SPEAKER_03]: to know about what I really want the experience of watching it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love to go into things blind and experience them in real time with the audience.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to know things in advance.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to be shocked week to week.
[SPEAKER_01]: These episodes are dropping week to week, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or are they batches?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is week to week.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is going to be nine episodes for season one.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're dropping two.
[SPEAKER_03]: on the first night, which is going to be November, Friday, November 7th.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they'll be out every Friday thereafter.
[SPEAKER_01]: cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: So our first recap will be of the first two episodes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we'll just squeeze two episodes into into one episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds perfect.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: A lot of times we like to break up one and two, but this one the way the way the life is right now, I think it's just going to be better for if we just package one and two together.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think so too.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I think our tentative plan right now is for you and I to record our episode breakdowns on Sundays.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_03]: and then ideally we can get the episodes out on Mondays.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that gives folks the the weekend to watch and then to listen in to our recaps and our thoughts on Monday morning on their way to work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then we'll set up a new email for it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Pluribus at thelarounds.com for feedback.
[SPEAKER_03]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: We will also set up a forum thread, uh, uh, the thing on discord where we can silo each of the, or the episodes for television show so that you can drop into an episode without being spoiled if you're still playing catch up on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I have a bad habit with the never
[SPEAKER_01]: feed and that I only log in after a drink like a glass of wine and get kind of like yappy and snarky.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to try not to, but I think it's part of my brand in charm at this point that that's what the people want.
[SPEAKER_01]: They want me at midnight just popping off on discord.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's the way it's going to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to change.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to change for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_03]: You do you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't wait to, I love engaging with folks in real time on that, that feed has been really, really fun for our pods so I can't wait to see what they have to say about this blur a bit show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it looks cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's our coverage plans.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what we knew about the show so far.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're both fans of Gill again.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to learn a little bit more about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe watch the
[SPEAKER_03]: trying to look at context, the show without, we're going to, in a minute, we'll start talking about the trailer, but the official log line, which is, this is not spoilery, is that the show follows the most miserable person on earth, and the one who must save the world from happiness.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think from a, this sounds like a mystery box to some degree, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: There's some central mystery going on here.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is Vince Gilligan nonsense, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's gonna be fun, dramatic, dramatic.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're gonna get a lot of the opportunity to discuss character and character motivation and storyline and plot.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think there's going to be a very interesting component
[SPEAKER_03]: psychologically speaking for a show which I think you're going to have a lot of interesting things to say.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm someone that the idea to like save the world from happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very interested in this idea of toxic positivity and this is something our culture is doing a lot now that we're not allowed to be sad.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're supposed to put on a brave face and look on the bright side and everything has a silver lining and I think that's just so fundamentally flawed.
[SPEAKER_01]: that we're doing everything we can to prevent low moments, culturally, but they're here, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that there's a lot of metaphor happening in these storylines for the show, I hope, and looking back to just society as a whole and those are connections I'm hoping to make.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not familiar with my podcast and never mind the music, I'm a psychology professor,
[SPEAKER_01]: by trade, and I focus mostly on developmental psychology and counseling psychology, and I'm a real big nerd for neuroscience and brain chemistry, like who isn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm really eager to add some value to this conversation from that perspective, and I think that there's gonna be a lot of opportunity for that just in that tagline alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So,
[SPEAKER_03]: from here forward we're going to start talking about the show a little bit more just in the publicly available information we've we've we've we've made the sacrificial offerings to the trailer the gods who control the fate of the trailers in the world but so far we have received no answer which means they probably are not going to give us a
[SPEAKER_03]: screeners.
[SPEAKER_03]: Did I say trailers?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm a screener.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm okay not having a screener.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I would be too tempted to watch it all at once.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that's the deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can't be trusted.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I like it don't stop to me.
[SPEAKER_03]: So Apple is usually very generous with their screeners except when they're high profile shows, when they're expecting a lot of buzz and I believe that this show is of that caliber.
[SPEAKER_03]: So they have to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: even the option to have a screen or a so bizarre to me, like, who am I?
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like a couple of things.
[SPEAKER_03]: Screeners is, they can check your bonafide really well.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's very easy to, you know, keep you on the naughty list if you break the rules of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it behooves them in a lot of cases to have people out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for, like, shows that need buzz.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think this is going to need much buzz.
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is not going to mean this.
[SPEAKER_03]: They at least access only like only big shows and big people or I'm sure there's going to be an official podcast right so they they try to drive people in those directions.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, but that said we're going to go and start talking now about the trailer and a little bit of background information.
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you don't want to know anymore about the show and you just want to go in as fresh as you possibly can.
[SPEAKER_03]: will be recording usually on Sundays, episodes usually out on Mondays, chlorobus at thelorhounds.com, episode to drop the television show on Apple TV, on Friday nights.
[SPEAKER_03]: in the United States, starting November 7th with a double episode drop and then it will run for seven more episodes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, it's going to overlap Christmas, so we're going to, we'll be at the, for the finale we're going to have to juggle our schedules a little bit because I'll be traveling, so that we will make it work.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so going forward now, spoilers, check out now, we'll see you on the first episode
[SPEAKER_03]: reads, set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows author, Carol Sturka, who seems to be the only person immune to an unexplained virus that transforms the world's population into content and optimistic, optimistic citizens.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in what I've been reading about it, they called the character quote, sad Carol, unquote.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm wondering if that's her name in the script.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like sad Carol, and it's so wild in the trailer because it is very true and showy that it seems like there, we just know that they all know that she sad.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're all really trying to get her to join them on the other side of this like happiness threshold.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they'll do whatever it takes to get her to become, it's like a one of us situation, like come join us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she seems very resistant to joining them, or at least confused about what's happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's very ambiguous, obviously, because they want us to watch the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm fascinated to see like what happened like was it like an actual viral virus that spread around and people got sick and then they when they recovered from the illness they were happy and she was immune to that somehow or for which it's a switch flipped and one day everyone was happy and she wasn't and they all knew I need I need to watch the trailer another 10 times that's
[SPEAKER_03]: So we see the great scene of her talking to a television, but using a telephone and there's somebody in front of the White House seal.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's looking very presidential saying, like, oh, you know, we're, you know, we're going to help you figure it out because we want you to join us and be happy along with the rest of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're like talking to her, it's not exactly like not addressing the nation.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then just before that, there is an interesting scene of somebody else driving in where did it go, here we go, in a yellow convertible with a license plate L fritz in an MG convertible, but the license plate is in Paraguay.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they show this sort of coastal town and this sort of beautiful thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's another character somewhere else in the world that I think is going to be central to our storyline.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if they're sad too.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe.
[SPEAKER_03]: He doesn't look happy.
[SPEAKER_03]: as I'm looking through this.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's looking for everything concerned.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I've got I'm scrubbing the trailer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not happy.
[SPEAKER_03]: No.
[SPEAKER_03]: You despite the really cool car.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there is there are other scenes.
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe this is also in Paraguay where it seems like there's some disaster kind of stuff, you know, buildings on fire and sort of sociological breakdown
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, which is crazy, you think if everyone's happy, there wouldn't be that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I wonder what initiated this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder what happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it sounds like it's a virus.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they even show some medical stuff people in rubber shoots and stuff in containment suits.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love an old brain contagion moment for sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, you know what I'll do.
[SPEAKER_03]: I might do is do one of my trailer breakdown things
[SPEAKER_03]: go to the scene by scene scene by scene and do put that out and talk about like just what we're seeing not like interpreting it so much as it's just sort of observant accessible exactly there's one scene in the trailer that I was really fascinated by like she's at this rental car place or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was like, well, do whatever we can to make you happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just like, would you give me a hand grenade?
[SPEAKER_01]: He was like, yeah, like, would you give me a tank?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was like, yeah, she's like, really?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you probably shouldn't, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought that really made me think of this idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we,
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it does do things by happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, can, it's, can goods and does money by happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that kind of got me spiraling about about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I can't wait to, there are a lot of studies about like,
[SPEAKER_01]: and does money by happiness if so, how much?
[SPEAKER_01]: And they put like a number on it, which is a quantifiable number that this much money would make you happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just, that kept Brad, we'll get to it later, but we talk through the show more detail episode by episode, but just a little teaser.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really interested in that, like, sociological element of happiness and how that plays out here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like will she only be happy when she finds another sad person to mirror?
[SPEAKER_03]: That's interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was thinking the other way too.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've been really busy with life and work and stuff and I actually have not been out of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I work from home.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I haven't been out of the house a bunch and I was noticing my mood and my energy levels were down and I went to fitness class the other day.
[SPEAKER_03]: One that I would regularly go to in the past.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I came home, not only did my body feel a little bit better because I did some Pilates, I got some core work done or whatever, and it's not like I was chatty with a whole lot of people there, but just being around other people.
[SPEAKER_03]: changed my mood.
[SPEAKER_01]: For sure, like Robins are incredibly social, we're social people, even the most introverted, quiet, most reserved person.
[SPEAKER_01]: You need to be around other humans, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: For a couple hours every day.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm wondering, like, you need to get a mouth, you're vitamin D, you need something.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just need something and some other input.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wonder, like, when
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, deep dive into all of this like when did Vince Gilligan write this and come up with this because if it was during COVID Mm-hmm, which it probably I it probably was it really shortly after given the timing up at all There had to be some
[SPEAKER_01]: even like subconscious reflection of that Isol-COVID isolation, because this main character is feeling very isolated, but also very, she has a spotlight on her too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm wondering, I can't wait to read more about Vince Gilligan's intention and his premise behind this in one's interview start coming out with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he doesn't seem to talk that much, but maybe who knows?
[SPEAKER_01]: to hear some of his motivations for the story and the character development here because I'm I'm seeing connections to isolation during COVID and the fact that there is increased rates of depression post-COVID, increased rates of anxiety, increased rates of agorophobia and not wanting to leave your house.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm wondering how many of those themes
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope it's a lot because I think it's really interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I can't wait to unpack it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be disappointed if it's not even scratched at, but I think it's got to have to be.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really interesting to see to the, uh, uh, you know, my, my daughter's in elementary school.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the great, the couple of the grades just in front of her really,
[SPEAKER_03]: kind of have gone through that whiplash of COVID suspensions and masking and all of that stuff and not not to get into the politics of it but it's just it's in it it was an amazing sociological I don't want to say experiment because that brings the wrong sense of it too but it's a it's a really interesting phenomena and it really affected a group there's a little
[SPEAKER_03]: from elementary through college, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Cause a lot of those kids have now graduated college.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: That it really did something to the patterns.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we don't know yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, I have our kids are on the same age.
[SPEAKER_01]: So my daughter was in kindergarten when...
[SPEAKER_03]: Same.
[SPEAKER_01]: COVID happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the first happens you went through kindergarten.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we were first grade.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think we're behind you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think so.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I noticed in my college students
[SPEAKER_01]: in late middle school probably during COVID, which I think developmentally was the trickiest time to be isolated from your peers and stuck at home with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking of, you know, 13, 14, 15 years old, not having your friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's huge, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do notice in my college students that kind of came up through this COVID era of masking.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't like,
[SPEAKER_01]: register a motion on their faces in the same way that you or I might.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they have a like they don't feel like, oh, I'm feeling happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm feeling sad, but they're like blank faces.
[SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that they just didn't have to perform as much.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we grew up having to perform your happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's it, I'm getting really into it now for this little podcast, but, well, this new.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think of also about how that's so gendered as a woman I'm always like, oh, he's being told like a smile, you know, smile when you walk in a room.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just toxic for a whole slew of reasons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm wondering if we were just brought up to be more performative with our feeling, and then when thinking back to this pluralist trailer, I'm really interested that the sad character is a female character, and I wonder how it would read differently if it was a male character, and if would have the same tone and weight to like, oh, we have to make her happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would it feel the same if it was a male character?
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's something a theme I'm hoping to kind of pull out as we explore this season Is looking at how gendered it gets and I'm wondering if it will even get there at all, but I can see that as potential to I think that's something that
[SPEAKER_03]: Racie Horne brings to her performances.
[SPEAKER_03]: She played her character's name as Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we see for a lot of those six episodes, she's not a happy person.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of struggle in her character.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when she does get happy, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: When there are times where she is happy,
[SPEAKER_03]: even that is muted in some ways, and so you have to see her happiness in her actions and her responses to things, agreeing to do something.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's go do that and you're like, whoa, she's like overjoyed by that, but she has this, but her as an actor
[SPEAKER_03]: really has that tension in balance of these internal feelings that are being
[SPEAKER_03]: surfaced over in a bit of an opaque glass.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we would call that a flat affect.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: That she has a relatively flat affect.
[SPEAKER_01]: She has a relatively high as a mose and facial expressions.
[SPEAKER_03]: But you feel her nonetheless.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a powerful goodness to her on screen.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when she does and react emotively, emotionally, you're like,
[SPEAKER_01]: She served as kind of a muse for Vince Gilligan for this part.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if he cast her, he must have, did he write it as well or did he have a writing team?
[SPEAKER_03]: He is, I was just looking at the wiki PDF page for that.
[SPEAKER_03]: He is credited as the writer for one two on the first two episodes.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's credited for as the writer and director for one and two, but he's also the series creator.
[SPEAKER_01]: So maybe he noticed what you noticed in this actress and her flat-affectin, her expression and was inspired by it somehow.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I don't think I can explain this.
[SPEAKER_01]: You probably wrote it with her in mind.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because the better-called soul story, Jimmy McGill is the character who's the person who
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, he's a real, he does not have a flat effect.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, he is a manic effect.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have an effect.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he is all over the place where she's this constant.
[SPEAKER_03]: But Ray Chorn, if you hear interviews with, um, what's his name, uh, who played that guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: Good job, Vodgester, who was playing better?
[SPEAKER_03]: You think you?
[SPEAKER_03]: Especially, yeah, it's a busy week right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hear that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_03]: And Bob Odenkirk.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: When you hear conversations about Bob Odenkirk and Ray C. Horn in their process for Better Call Saul,
[SPEAKER_03]: They were really hardworking actors.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they were really into their characters and they were really into the story and they worked and worked and worked and they worked well together.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there was this whole creative dynamic that was happening with Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould and all of the actors and production.
[SPEAKER_03]: So in many ways, better call Saul
[SPEAKER_03]: show to produce because you have a very specific target that you have to hit in terms of making a prequel show line up with the past shows.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's really hard to do period.
[SPEAKER_03]: and to make it line up and make sense, and then to be able to go into Better Call Saul, or sorry, into breaking bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: And every time you see Saul, goodman, you're like, oh, it makes sense now because when this writes, I need to watch it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, to make it all line up is very difficult.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it took a, it was even, I think, a more refined production.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so when you
[SPEAKER_03]: who are writing and acting and doing this so much.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have no doubt that Gilligan saw something with Racy or she even directed one of the episodes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow, that's cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: Where I think this is a real breakout.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's got a quite a good filmography, but I think better call Saul really,
[SPEAKER_03]: to occur to a new level or she was able to take her craft to a new level in the conditions of better call Saul.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's going to be really cool to see what Vince Gilligan is what he's I'll say what he's capable of even though that sounds kind of condescending but
[SPEAKER_01]: What he's capable of without the restrictions of being married to the prequel idea and being married like mapping back to breaking bad or getting the arc to fit a preexisting like coordinate that I wonder how far the show's gonna go the fact that
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not putting screeners out to well renowned podcasters like us, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that they're already signed on for at least two possibly three seasons without even what just the trailer dropping.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lots of buzz, lots of mystery around the show, lots of potential.
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of rooting back to our own collective COVID trauma.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's going to touch a lot of people in that way, if like the illness and quarantine and being isolated, that's going to appeal to a lot of folks that are looking for an outlet for those feelings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, I'm a counseling psychologist.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to come up, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm eager to see how we put all these pieces together.
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like he's got the work so that can be something really,
[SPEAKER_01]: for some real alchemy can happen here with this show so I can't wait for the first two episodes to drop.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't wait to spend all weekend watching it over and over again and kind of processing it through with you on this podcast for our listeners.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's going to be really fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: Perfect wrap up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Look at you, professional podcaster.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's happened.
[SPEAKER_03]: You got to see in the bag.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm excited to cover the show and I'm excited to cover the show with you.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was an unexpected surprise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we were just chatting in another context and you were like, oh, are you going to watch the show?
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even know about it until you mentioned it three days ago, and now it's all I can think about.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're off to a good start.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we will be out with our first episode coverage on McGit my calendar here.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the show drops Friday the 7th and our first episode drop Monday the 10th.
[SPEAKER_03]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're just going to put it on the main feed.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're not going to do anything special like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So just look for us then in there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Nicole.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can we?
[SPEAKER_03]: The Laura Hound podcast is produced and published by the Laura Hounds.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can send questions and comments to Laura Hounds at thewarhounds.com.
[SPEAKER_03]: Get ad free access to all Laura Hound's podcasts on Patreon or Supercast.
[SPEAKER_03]: And connect with us on Blue Sky and Join us on our Discord server.
[SPEAKER_03]: Links for everything are in the link tree in the show notes of this episode.
[SPEAKER_03]: Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for listening.