My Secret Santa

Summary

Podcast Summary: "How Did This Get Made?"

Episode: My Secret Santa

Release Date: December 26, 2025
Hosts: Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Jason Mantzoukas

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Episode Overview

In this festive edition of “How Did This Get Made?”, Paul, June, and Jason break down the 2025 Netflix holiday rom-com My Secret Santa. They bring their trademark energy, banter, and critical deconstruction to a movie that attempts to combine feel-good Christmas tropes, mistaken identity shenanigans, and a dash of Mrs. Doubtfire farce—with mixed results. The trio unpacks the plot, logic holes, themes about the societal role of Santa, and the curious absence of both character arcs and authentic holiday magic, all the while riffing on standout (and bizarre) sequences.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Premise & Immediate Issues

• [02:34] Paul summarizes the film: Taylor disguises herself as Santa at a resort to fund her daughter’s ski lessons, working with the charming manager Matthew, finding holiday cheer and a chance at love.
• [03:37] Jason questions the premise:

  "My fundamental issue with this movie: that sentence. 'Disguises herself as Santa.' If you are working as a Santa, you are disguising yourself as Santa no matter what."

• June and Jason jointly note that the movie creates a strange universe where Santa is presumed “real,” and any deviation (especially a woman as Santa) seems radical, bringing up themes of gender and the “Santa industrial complex.”

2. Logic Holes and Missed Stakes

• [05:29] Paul draws parallels to Mrs. Doubtfire but notes the film misses the core stakes—Taylor’s disguises lack a real sense of being discovered or risk.
• [06:16] Jason:

  "The movie is interrogating our misogyny, the patriarchy, in hiring… Yes, in hiring men as Santa performers in hotels."

• All agree the film needed a scene explicitly showing Taylor denied the Santa job because she’s a woman, which instead is missing.

3. Taylor/Hugh Mann/Santa—Identity Confusion

• [09:41] Jason notes Taylor is presented as smart (a cookie factory overseer), but her scam is convoluted and half-baked.
• [11:16] Paul:

  “Her job is a baking overseer... so what? Like we don't even know what her... and it's what she's good at."

• [12:39] Paul highlights the “Mom as Santa” concept, a genuinely new idea.

  "What if Santa was a mom? That's what she brings to Santa, which is a revolutionary idea in the world of Santa."

• [13:13] Jason:

  "Please know that the labor of Santa is the magic of Christmas... done by women."

4. Class, Motherhood, and Holiday Realities

• [14:20] The panel scoffs at the “luxury” sport plot—Taylor seeks the Santa job for a half-off ski lesson discount for her daughter, which is a rich-person problem:
  • [16:08] Jason:

    "It was hard for me to emotionally connect to, like, she can't go to snowboarding school."

  • [16:35] The hosts note the bullying subplot and the portrayal of “rich” families being only marginally wealthier (like the hotel manager’s daughter).

5. The Film’s Tone & Missed Comedy

• [17:08] Jason pitches: Why not have Tia and Tamara Mowry actually play both Taylor and Santa? Missed opportunity!
• They debate the “Halloween mask brothers” with Hollywood-level FX equipment, noting how little the movie does with the potential for comedy and mistaken identity.

6. Romance & Chemistry (or Lack Thereof)

• [28:08] June:

  "They had an opportunity to have a Gilmore Girls esque vibe between [Taylor and Zoe], but they don't."

• [29:27] Jason ribbing on Matthew’s supposed “bad boy/free spirit” status while looking strictly like a start-up CEO:

  “He looks like he's running a startup. He does there on vacation.”

• [33:56] Jason feels the movie never clarifies what any character really wants.
• [45:29] Jason:

  "I also couldn't tell why she was that into him because he didn't seem to have much of a personality… but then I went back and remember the locker room scene? She saw something."

• They joke that the only plausible attraction comes from Taylor (disguised as Santa) seeing Matthew naked in the locker room ([45:17]).

7. Queerness & Subtext

• [65:13] June and Jason dig into Matthew’s emotional attachment to “Hugh Mann”—and the bisexual undercurrents in Matthew’s feelings for Santa, as also reflected in a robust second opinion (see Notable Quotes).

8. Absence of Holiday Magic & Message

• [52:13] Jason:

  "To me, this movie had nothing to do with Christmas… the stories had nothing to do with remembering the reason for the season."

• [53:34] June:

  "The process has not... made it seem as though they both are more comfortable because they have found each other... They are clinging to each other as the answer to their lost and aimless lives."

• The hosts agree the film is a generic rom-com with a thin Christmas coating.

9. Bizarre and Memorable Moments

• [36:06] The strange locker room scene: June remarks on the contrast between the film’s sexual conservatism elsewhere and Taylor-in-disguise casually seeing Matthew naked.
• [38:15] Locker room tales and “hole in the wall” stories segue into 80s movie culture, with the team laughing about Porky’s era childhood.
• [49:13] Jason:

  "She hides the heart attack and dresses up as him."

• [51:27] The crew lampoons how Taylor’s “Santa” instantly and magically cures a child’s stutter (the one magical event in a largely mundane film).

10. Second Opinions Segment

• [71:03] They read hilarious and thoughtful audience reviews, including one that unpacks bisexual subtext with references to set design and even unicorn chapstick ([72:47]).
• [74:35] A striking, personal audience review about queer awakening and attraction to both leads.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Santa Concept:
  • Jason [03:37]: “If you are working as a Santa, you are disguising yourself as Santa no matter what.”
  • June [12:46]: "What if Santa was a mom? Now that's... By the way, that's the move."
• On Character Stakes:
  • Jason [05:55]: “Why does Taylor not show up as herself to the Santa audition...?”
  • Paul [06:14]: “The movie is interrogating our misogyny, the patriarchy, in hiring men as Santa performers.”
• On Class and Believability:
  • Jason [16:08]: “I imagine the pressure of growing up as a regular person in a snowtown, as you put It. Paul, is difficult.”
• On the film’s lack of an arc:
  • June [47:23]: “They're more comfortable settling rather than figuring out... who they are as individuals and how to be happy as themselves and then... share that self with someone else.”
• On Romance/Queerness:
  • June [64:55]: "Matthew was connecting with another man in a way that you could tell... his sexuality was being challenged."
  • Jason [65:13]: “This is a red flag, ladies. Guy’s only friend is Santa? You’re fucked.”
  • [74:47] Letterboxd user "Karen95" (read by Paul): “This movie was bisexual as for everywhere you look at it… Matthew looking at who he thought was a man, AKA Santa Claus, and catching feelings… Also, obviously Taylor was bisexual. She literally had a unicorn chapstick and unicorns represent bisexuality.”
• On Christmas:
  • Jason [52:32]: "It is literally to give up your dreams... and to settle with whatever life delta up until this point."
• On the Mask Bros’ Hobby:
  • June [18:12]: “They're making Mission Impossible level masks… for their Halloween costumes.”

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Highlighted Timestamps

• [02:34] – Opening: Explaining the film’s plot and initial reactions
• [05:55] – Deconstructing the disguise premise and missed scene opportunities
• [12:46] – "What if Santa was a mom?" discussion
• [14:20] – Class tension, snowboarding subplot criticism
• [16:35] – Noting the hotel manager’s daughter as both “rich” and only marginally more privileged
• [17:08] – Tia & Tamara Mowry as an improvement suggestion
• [28:08] – Bemoaning the lack of a Gilmore Girls-style relationship
• [36:06] – Locker room absurdity and gender performance
• [52:13] – Christmas themes (or lack thereof)
• [60:09] – Comedy about the “look path” search engine
• [71:03] – Second Opinions: Audience reviews, including the Letterboxd bisexuality debate

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Final Thoughts

• Paul: Enjoyed the film’s relatively painless watchability despite its many flaws—"went down easy" ([69:01]).
• Jason: Felt let down by the untapped potential, lack of comedic stakes and shallow characters.
• June: Found it better than other recent fare, but more frustrating for hinting at, but never achieving, a sharper, funnier or more heartfelt film.

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Additional Fun (and Weirdness)

• [50:53] – Taylor-as-Santa “curing” a child’s stutter, audience laughter at the film’s oblivious, borderline magical realism moment.
• [63:02] – Paul reveals he once met a monkey in a Santa suit at a party.
• [68:01] – Common Sense Media gives the film a 10+ rating ("beyond good for families").
• [78:21] – Written by Ron Oliver, known for Prom Night II and now a Christmas movie master.

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Bottom Line: 'My Secret Santa' is a sincere but hollow holiday rom-com that never quite decides if it wants to lampoon its genre or take its own story seriously. The podcast hosts find much to amuse and critique, ultimately wishing for a bolder, wackier, and more self-aware film. A recommended listen for fans of the show and anyone curious about the limits of the Netflix Christmas formula.

Transcript

[Paul Sheer]

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[Jason Manzukas]

Guys, thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree.

[Paul Sheer]

Zoe. This thing weighs a ton. Drew Ski. Live with your legs, man.

[Jason Manzukas]

Santa.

[Paul Sheer]

Santa, did you get my letter? He's talking to you, Brittany.

[June Thomas]

I'm not.

[Jason Manzukas]

Of course he did.

[Paul Sheer]

Right, Santa, you know my elf Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list.

[June Thomas]

And elf.

[Paul Sheer]

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[June Thomas]

I'm Mrs. Claus much younger sister and.

[Jason Manzukas]

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[Paul Sheer]

Needed when you switch, so you can keep your old phone or give it as a gift. And the best part, you can make.

[Jason Manzukas]

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[Paul Sheer]

Guys, my side of the tree is slipping. Kimber the holidays are better. AT T Mobile switch in just 15 minutes and get iPhone 17 on us with no trade in needed.

[June Thomas]

And now T Mobile is available in US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill.

[Paul Sheer]

Credits for well qualified customers plus tax.

[June Thomas]

And $35 device connection charge, credit and balance due if you pay off earlier.

[Paul Sheer]

Cancel financing agreement. 256 gigs $830 eligible for in a new line $100 plus a month plan with auto payments, taxes, fees required. Check out 15 minutes or less per line. Visit t mobile.com he knows when you are sleeping he knows when you're awake he knows if you've been bad or good because he's a she and she's your mom. We saw my Secret Santa so you know what that means. Now it's time for how to disbate. We're gonna have a good time celebrating failure not just be a hater Cause you know you wonder how did this.

[June Thomas]

Remain let's wallow in the mediocrity of subpar art. Perhaps we'll find the answer to the question, how did this Get Made?

[Paul Sheer]

Hello, people of Earth, and welcome to how did this Get Made? Another Christmas episode. That's right. We are celebrating this month of Christmas with a NETFLIX original Jason Manzukas recommend.

[June Thomas]

I mean, Jason's pick. This is. Yes, this is. I will admit, I. This is a classic me boondoggle. I simply by my passing awareness of this movie. I've now talked about it enough that we had to watch it.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, I gotta say, you picked a good one because this came out in 2025. The IMDb logline is Taylor disguises herself as Santa at a resort to fund her daughter's ski lessons, working with the charming manager Matthew as she finds holiday cheer and a chance at love, admits challenges. Now. Oh, here. Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

Are you going to say something about that description, Paul?

[Paul Sheer]

No. Please, you can jump in. I have. I have two things to say before we move forward, but please. Yeah, jump in.

[Jason Manzukas]

This is what I. Okay. This is my fun. My fundamental issue with this movie is that sentence disguises herself as Santa.

[Paul Sheer]

Right?

[June Thomas]

Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

Okay. Anyone? And obviously parents, turn this off. This is a little advisory. Turn this off right now. If you have little kids, if you are working as a Santa, you are disguising yourself as Santa no matter what.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes. Right.

[June Thomas]

Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

This movie actually, like, it borders on horror to me because it posits a world in which we actually believe that the Santas who are showing up for these villages and malls and different plazas and lobbies are Santa or. No, you know, not Santa entirely. No. You know, thank you for correcting me.

[Paul Sheer]

But.

[Jason Manzukas]

But something. But they. We don't in this world want a Santa. Well, certainly don't want a female Santa. But we want to know that our Santa's. What is it? Exactly? What is it?

[June Thomas]

What. What we're not. What the movie is not interested in letting you in on or interrogating is who. Who is Hugh man. Right. So like. So. So Taylor is both playing a man named Hugh Mann, who is playing Santa Claus.

[Jason Manzukas]

Okay, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[June Thomas]

Now, the. Is in the movie, she is almost always in Santa mode. So we very rarely see human.

[Jason Manzukas]

And why doesn't anyone else in this world? Okay, this is my main issue.

[Paul Sheer]

Question.

[June Thomas]

Why doesn't she talk to the teenage girl as human? Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

Like, I'm off my shift. I'm like a human.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, here. Here's the issue. In my opinion, there are no stakes because the idea is solid. Like, oh, let's do Mrs. Doubtfire as a holiday movie.

[June Thomas]

Like a reverse Miss. This would be if. If in Mrs. Doubtfire, the. The Robin Williams dressed up as Mrs. Doubtfire and.

[Paul Sheer]

But wasn't the husband. That would be the.

[June Thomas]

That would be the stick who then dressed up as someone else.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, but like, the stakes would be.

[Jason Manzukas]

Paul.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

Why does Taylor. This is a serious question. Why does Taylor not show up as herself to the Santa audition and say, give me one moment. I'll be right back.

[June Thomas]

As human or as Taylor.

[Jason Manzukas]

Jason.

[June Thomas]

Okay.

[Jason Manzukas]

Why can't Taylor. Okay, go.

[Paul Sheer]

Because this movie.

[Jason Manzukas]

So much for the audition. I'm going to just go change into June.

[Paul Sheer]

The movie is interrogating our misogyny, the patriarchy, in hiring. Yes. In hiring men as Santa performers in hotels.

[June Thomas]

This is absolutely a movie that is representing how controlled. How the patriarchy is still so in power, especially in our most significant holidays.

[Paul Sheer]

By the way, though, you. You did bring up a good point because I think that if you added a scene where she tried to get that job and couldn't get it because she was a woman.

[Jason Manzukas]

I needed that scene.

[Paul Sheer]

But she just went to. I need to create an alternative person.

[Jason Manzukas]

Made me think she was insane.

[Paul Sheer]

And here's the thing. Human. And this is why the whole movie really falls apart. Has to get a check that is going to go to Taylor Jacobson. Right. Like. Like she man the crime.

[June Thomas]

Yeah. She didn't think the crime through at all. You know.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah. There's also a line at the end when it's all revealed, like, we got a booker on trespassing and this.

[June Thomas]

And then I'm like, why?

[Jason Manzukas]

What?

[Paul Sheer]

Why she was doing the job you hire. She didn't in any way not do the job that she was hired to do.

[June Thomas]

It would have been so fun if in the. In the period where she. Because the movie is setting up the kind of farce. The farce elements of, oh, now she's Taylor and now she's Santa and oh, no, she's bouncing between people who are expecting her to be different things. Blah, blah, blah. Wouldn't it have been so fun if. If she also had to juggle the third Persona, Human.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, Human.

[June Thomas]

Like, why I wish so much that Human had started a romance.

[Jason Manzukas]

There's only one time we see human.

[June Thomas]

Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

No, Paul. We see.

[June Thomas]

Oh, Paul. Oh, Paul.

[Paul Sheer]

My balloons are gone.

[June Thomas]

Why are balloons going up your screen? What was that?

[Paul Sheer]

Gave the peace sign.

[June Thomas]

It was the peace sign.

[Jason Manzukas]

Yeah. Nice.

[Paul Sheer]

I don't know why that.

[Jason Manzukas]

So here's the thing.

[Paul Sheer]

As far as I see human three times, actually.

[Jason Manzukas]

Wait, no, we See human. When human shows up for the audition.

[Paul Sheer]

Which at the locker room.

[Jason Manzukas]

Why she doesn't, why she doesn't show up in Santa costume again? It, it is the, the, the perception of Santa is so strange in this movie because she knows that she shouldn't show up in her suit. That, that somehow is too much.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, but also many of the men auditioning to be Santa are really half assing it. Like one guy has his beard down around his like chin. Like they look like they. Yeah.

[June Thomas]

Also they all, all the, the possible Santas. My. I mean listen, maybe I'm just not aware of the, you know, the Santa industrial complex. But like mustn't the organization have the Santa outfit? Does every Santa have his own Anybody?

[Jason Manzukas]

That.

[Paul Sheer]

That is true. Any Santa their salt. Yeah, any Santa worth their salt.

[Jason Manzukas]

They're subcontract. You know, there's no. Yeah, so I do, I miss.

[June Thomas]

I apologize.

[Jason Manzukas]

That's okay. But it's like a makeup artist, like you have to come with your own kit. Maybe they get a kit fee. Like maybe they get a costume fee to drive them.

[June Thomas]

They rent their stuff to the.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah, but here's the thing. I mean there's so many things wrong with the whole Santa industrial complex. But I also don't believe that our lead, Taylor Jacobson is a smart person as we, we understand her to be. I guess a. Well her job is a baking overseer. Like she like she's like runs the factory line at store at a store bought cookie plant. Like so what? Like we don't even know what her like and it's what she's good at.

[June Thomas]

Clout's cookies. It's almost claws cookies.

[Jason Manzukas]

Oh, I didn't put that together.

[June Thomas]

It's like it's so close to claws that I was like wait, is this a Santa related business she's making? And she also gets fired. The manager comes up and says hey, can I talk to you for a second? And rather than step into an office and fire her privately, they take five steps away from everybody. And he fires her in front of the staff.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes.

[June Thomas]

Who are all watching.

[Paul Sheer]

She should be fired because why do you need a person looking at like the frosting?

[Jason Manzukas]

So here's the thing. She is and this is so interesting that they set her up this way because I think the movie wants us to believe that she's sort of a part of the Santa industrial complex even before she steps into the role because she knows and what Santa should look like. And that's part of why that opening scene with that cookie was important. Because she didn't feel like he was.

[Paul Sheer]

Jolly enough, but yet she said he has no breast.

[Jason Manzukas]

But she said he was depressed.

[June Thomas]

That was a little bit of a.

[Jason Manzukas]

Rorschach test for her.

[June Thomas]

I mean, a truly, truly. Physician, heal thyself. You know, it really. When she said, this Santa looks depressed, I was like, what is going on?

[Jason Manzukas]

Well, I mean, here's the thing.

[Paul Sheer]

She's crazy.

[Jason Manzukas]

I mean, with the. That's what we have to believe, that she is insane. With the exception of that one scene, we don't know her to be particularly interested in Christmas. Particularly, like, festive or interested in Santa. Curious. Yeah. Like, it's.

[June Thomas]

Well, I don't think she is.

[Jason Manzukas]

But then later on, Jason, at the. Because I just finished this movie one minute ago.

[June Thomas]

Same.

[Jason Manzukas]

Okay. At the very end, he says, some will get into Matthew, but he says something along the lines of, like, you know, Christmas like you.

[Paul Sheer]

Because he. Because she figured out that Christmas isn't about bankrupting your parents. It's about, like, the spirit of Christmas. That's what she brought to the Santa character, which is the unwillingness to give kids what they want. She's like, I'm not going to give you what you want. I'm going to give you what you need. And that's what originally turns out bad. Like, I mean, this is the hard truth.

[June Thomas]

Santa, that is, like, you know that it's going to make a mess and your parents aren't going to like that. Or I know your. Your mom's a waitress. She can't afford that.

[Paul Sheer]

Like, what if Santa was a mom? That's what she brings to Santa, which is a revolutionary idea in the world of Santa.

[Jason Manzukas]

What if Santa is a mom?

[June Thomas]

What if Santa was a mom? Now that's.

[Jason Manzukas]

By the way, that's the move. Santa. Santa is a mom.

[June Thomas]

Okay?

[Jason Manzukas]

Moms are doing Christmas.

[Paul Sheer]

Okay, well, hold on now. I don't.

[Jason Manzukas]

And I'm not saying you aren't, babe, but I'm saying in general, when people talk about the magic of holidays, and I'm not Paul Sheer, I'm not including you in this.

[Paul Sheer]

Thank you.

[Jason Manzukas]

Please know that the labor of Santa is the magic of Christmas.

[June Thomas]

Oh, so you're taking.

[Jason Manzukas]

Done by women.

[June Thomas]

So you're taking this work away from the elves and giving it to women.

[Jason Manzukas]

But that's what drives me crazy, is like, well, moms are already doing Christmas.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes, but. But moms are not redefining who's Santa, regardless of who is doing the work. The idea is that, ho, ho, ho, whatever you want, I'll get you We've.

[Jason Manzukas]

Seen several Santa performers in our day.

[Paul Sheer]

Oh yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

If anything, I found them all to be pretty, like judicious about and diplomatic about what they say. They don't say, you can get, you can have that. They say. Well, I.

[Paul Sheer]

Right, because I think they got in trouble for that.

[Jason Manzukas]

By who?

[Paul Sheer]

By the Santa industrial complex. Because I think Santa. Yes. Because I think that when kids stopped asking for like trains and cars and they started asking for PlayStation fives, like somebody who worked at the mall or the hotel, by the way, I want to get into the hotel.

[Jason Manzukas]

This hotel is so shitty.

[June Thomas]

So much of the movie, so much of the movie is just shot in a hotel ballroom. It's amazing.

[Jason Manzukas]

It's so shitty. The fact that we're supposed to believe this is like a gazillionaire and they have all of these major properties throughout the world. Like this hotel.

[Paul Sheer]

It's not even booked for Christmas. It's not even fully booked. The, the, the Instagram retweets have booked it full for Christmas. Like it, it was coming into the month empty. So whatever they were doing wasn't already working. You know, like, I mean, what is.

[June Thomas]

Interesting is the movie isn't interest. Taylor rather isn't interested in being Santa. No, she doesn't want to be Santa in some way to be like I love Santa or I love Christmas. She just wants the half off employee discount for her daughter's snowboard education, which.

[Paul Sheer]

Again would mean that on some certificate she's also forged that human is the father or grandfather of her daughter. Which I don't know if they got into that in particular.

[Jason Manzukas]

I didn't even thought of that.

[June Thomas]

Honestly. Honestly, the end of the movie, I mean, Taylor is so irresponsible. The end of the movie could very easily end with her in jail and her daughter in child in foster care, but could.

[Paul Sheer]

But now.

[June Thomas]

But I guess the question, we don't know where her, the, the, the father is and, and Taylor is doing so many illegal activities.

[Jason Manzukas]

Well, she's just trying to get her daughter snowboard lessons. That's the other thing that's tough. It's not like I'm trying to get my kid. I don't know, there was something about skiing and snowboarding. It's, it's such a rich, very rich person's sport that it was hard for me to emotionally connect to. Like she can't go to snowboarding school.

[Paul Sheer]

She's in a, she's in a snow town.

[Jason Manzukas]

I imagine the pressure of growing up as a regular person in a snowtown, as you put It. Paul, is difficult.

[June Thomas]

Well, she's getting bullied quite a bit by the. The rich. The rich. Click. Who are making fun of her date her out of date snowboarder gear and clothes. They're making fun of the fact that her mom drives around a. A kidnappers 1980s kidnappers van.

[Paul Sheer]

I mean, I also want to argue though, that the rich kid in this movie is the daughter of the manager of the hotel. So it also, it also does paint the picture that the manager of the hotel is making beaucoup bucks. I mean, she's not even the manager. She's in line to be the manager. And then, you know, Matthew comes over and takes her spot. By the way, that's Tina. Tia Mowry, which, you know, great casting there. I love the cast of this. I was all on board.

[June Thomas]

Everybody was great.

[Jason Manzukas]

Although can I tell you, the whole time, the whole time I was watching this, especially in the, especially in the big Christmas party scene when she's going back and forth as Santa, which about 12.

[Paul Sheer]

12 to 15 people were at.

[Jason Manzukas]

Yes, exactly. But the whole time I'm watching that, I'm like, why, why isn't this movie Tia and Tamara actually playing Santa and Taylor and going back and forth? Like, that's interesting to me.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, to me, though, what I was thinking during that party scene was this. Again, if we're looking at the model of Mrs. Doubtfire, right, there's stakes there because he is the ex husband of Sally Field and he has to pretend to be the nanny to be close to his kids.

[Jason Manzukas]

Wants his kids back.

[Paul Sheer]

But in this, she is friends with makeup artists. Just like Harvey Fierce brother's brother. Yes. Or not even makeup artists. Guys who like Halloween. That really is the adult.

[Jason Manzukas]

We need to stop here because that. Okay, they have this entire studio devoted to like masks.

[Paul Sheer]

Their entire living room is just.

[June Thomas]

They're making Mission Impossible level masks that are so. I mean, so good. And so they are doing. There's face scans, you know, I mean, Halloween.

[Jason Manzukas]

Now what's also for their, for their Halloween costumes?

[Paul Sheer]

Not for, not for any.

[June Thomas]

Like, they're in like Telluride, Colorado or something. They're in like a small town, a small ski town.

[Paul Sheer]

They're going out to a. A Halloween. Halloween party in that costume. And then they're starting all over again.

[June Thomas]

And they have, I'm gonna say, quite literally $30,000 thousand dollars worth of special effects equipment at a minimum, 3D printers, facial scan devices. They've got crazy stuff.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, this is what brings up. This is the issue that I have. And it gets it rocks me to my core. I was like, here is the moment that you could actually make this movie work in a different way. Which is. Those guys create masks for a living.

[Jason Manzukas]

Why don't you just living for a hobby, baby?

[Paul Sheer]

Okay, sorry. Yes, sorry. For a hobby. Why don't you just dress one of them up like human for the party? And then she could be there too. Because all you have to do is go, ho, ho, ho.

[Jason Manzukas]

You think they could. All you have to do. You think they can capture that magic?

[Paul Sheer]

Well, is it the magic of humane or. Cause I don't know if humane. I don't know if humane actually has a personality, because Mrs. Doubtfire has a personality, right? Oh, hello. And she talks, but, you know. But human.

[Jason Manzukas]

It is the magic of human because Hugh man listens.

[June Thomas]

Well, where does human end and where does Santa begin?

[Paul Sheer]

I don't think that human is a part of it.

[June Thomas]

I don't think that's where it is. I think we real. The person that I really desired to know more was human. I wish there had been a scene where the neighbor, the horny landlord, and the. And Taylor dressed as human have to have, like, a glass of wine. I wish there had been like two to three more scenes with Taylor as human, not as Santa.

[Paul Sheer]

Human only really does the work of Taylor.

[June Thomas]

Yes.

[Paul Sheer]

Right. Like, human is just saying what Taylor would say if Taylor wasn't there. Right. She's like, well, listen to your mother.

[June Thomas]

Yeah.

[Paul Sheer]

You know, it's like that, like, Hugh Man's not really engaging.

[June Thomas]

Oh, I get it. Oh, I finally get it. Hugh man is method.

[Paul Sheer]

Okay, all right.

[June Thomas]

So for this period of time, Hugh man is Santa.

[Jason Manzukas]

Then why didn't human show up to that fucking audition in his suit?

[June Thomas]

Good call. Okay, so you're saying it's not to me like you're saying that human is weak sauce.

[Jason Manzukas]

Yes.

[June Thomas]

And is probably the weakest actor in saga.

[Paul Sheer]

June, be very careful. If you agree to this, this is. This is going to get you in.

[Jason Manzukas]

A lot of trouble on that. I was so mad. It's like you are so concerned. You've gone to all these lengths to do this mess. You must have been hair and makeup for hours. And then it's the day of the audition. A, you're late. B, you're not in your costume yet. The fuck out of here.

[June Thomas]

And. But books the job. Learning all the wrong lessons.

[Paul Sheer]

Books the job. I think the reason why you want to hire Human is because he. He doesn't need a costume. Human just puts on the red and he's Santa. Like Hugh man looks like Santa like and I think that that is the key to most professional Santas. They have the beard, they have the hair and it's a cultivated look. It's not wiggy. It's not any of that. Now, yes, Hugh man is always and.

[Jason Manzukas]

Full mask, but I think that's why.

[Paul Sheer]

They have to put him next to all the people.

[Jason Manzukas]

Look human, looks good human slash Taylor slash Santa looked great in every shot.

[June Thomas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Sheer]

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[Jason Manzukas]

Well, here's the problem with the movie though. And by the way, I really did like that actress. But I do think the problem is she is set up. We're being told by several people that she is like a, you know, sad Zach kind of cat lady type person. I never saw that.

[June Thomas]

I she's also like the former lead singer guitarist of a punk rock, but.

[Jason Manzukas]

I never seen saw this person that was like organizing your socks alphabetically. Which by the way, how.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah, well again we're getting into a socks discussion.

[Jason Manzukas]

I know we don't want to go back to discussion, but how do you organize socks alphabetically?

[June Thomas]

We are talk. We're taught we're getting into socks so much lately. So would you rather sort your socks alphabetically and is it by color?

[Jason Manzukas]

What does that mean?

[June Thomas]

By color or by name?

[Jason Manzukas]

Red. Like you mean the first letter of each color.

[June Thomas]

That's what I'm saying. I don't even know what that would mean. But also does that mean who organizes socks?

[Jason Manzukas]

Well, Paul does.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, I guess. Okay, so I have a pair. I have some Adidas socks and I have some Nike Socks. And they have the logo on it. They don't have the words on it. But if I would say, all right, those are my Nike socks. I'm going to line them up in the Nike area of my sock drawer.

[Jason Manzukas]

Yeah, but then, but then, I don't know.

[Paul Sheer]

I'm just, I'm trying, I'm trying to. I'm trying to put it all together. The only way Bombas would go in.

[Jason Manzukas]

The front socks is by type. You got to index them by type.

[Paul Sheer]

Okay, so you're talking about, you're talking about like an ankle sock. You're talking about athletic socks, dress socks.

[Jason Manzukas]

Compression socks, compression airplane socks. They're all going by type.

[Paul Sheer]

I. Now I have my dress socks in a different drawer than my athletic socks.

[June Thomas]

I think that makes sense because you probably wear them very infrequently.

[Jason Manzukas]

Yes, that's fine. But again, how could you ever approach them alphabetically? It's not.

[Paul Sheer]

It's insanity.

[Jason Manzukas]

It's literally like insane. Look, she has nothing referenced twice in this movie.

[June Thomas]

Taylor is a local celebrity sometimes, and sometimes is a complete unknown in a town that appears to have, I'm going to say I'm maybe conservatively, 400 residents.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

If she is a local celebrity, made one album, Screaming kittens from that crazy screaming. Her Screaming Kittens era.

[June Thomas]

Yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

How is it possible that her daughter.

[Paul Sheer]

Doesn'T know the album is in the house?

[June Thomas]

Exactly. Like, they have the worst relationship. They have a terrible relationship because I wish they had had a Gilmore Girls. It's the two of us. We're. We're a team vibe in it, you know, like where Taylor. What's the daughter's name? Zoe.

[Paul Sheer]

Zoe. Yes.

[June Thomas]

So. So we're. They're so close in age. They're so young. Like, they had an opportunity to have a Gilmore Girls esque vibe between the two of them, but they don't. And nor do they have a very, like, strained or they feel like they're very apart.

[Paul Sheer]

It.

[June Thomas]

They feel like strangers to each other.

[Jason Manzukas]

Mates just feel like coexisting.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, what's so interesting, though is that I also think you're seeing that on the father and son side with Matthew and his dad. Like, they don't seem to be that much in each other's lives. So much so that Matthew just kind of surprises his dad by returning home. His dad did not know he was going to be there.

[Jason Manzukas]

The fact that they cast this man as a nerd.

[June Thomas]

Free spirit.

[Jason Manzukas]

And a free spirit is the most. It was the most absurd thing.

[Paul Sheer]

Crashed his car into a statue in Italy and his dad says, well, now you must work as the resort manager to pay off the accident debt.

[June Thomas]

Yeah. He's basically like, I'm not going to give you the money to. To fix this. I'm gonna make you work for it. But he is not like a bad boy. Like, who would believe, like, at what.

[Jason Manzukas]

Point in that houndstooth, like, trenched looking coat if he. We are supposed to believe he's like this bad, like, kid. And why is he.

[Paul Sheer]

The worst thing that he does is not check references. Yeah, like, that's the. That, like, that's the most. Like, he seems to me a guy who immediately fits in. Like, he understands the paperwork. He's not getting drunk. We don't bump into him at a bar. He is a. He's getting hot cocoa.

[June Thomas]

The idea. Oh my God, the hot cocoa shit is so out of control. It's so funny. That. And the, and the thing that he. If I looked at the entire cast of this movie, the one person I would think absolutely knows how to tie a necktie is this guy.

[Paul Sheer]

Oh.

[June Thomas]

And he's the one that's like, I never know how to do these. I'm a guitar guy. I'm like free spirit. I'm an artist. I was like, you are not.

[Paul Sheer]

Why are they making him a guitar guy? Why are they. Why would you take the one thing that our lead does well, which is play and sing and go well, you know what he does too? This guy actually plays and sings and he's jumping up at local bars. Like, you take away the superpower of your lead by making the. The romantic interest have the same superpower.

[Jason Manzukas]

But why not just put him in a leather jacket or something in the beginning or just.

[June Thomas]

Yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

I was so thrown by that look. I was so. And the short hair. I just.

[June Thomas]

And the trimmed beard. He doesn't look scruffy. He doesn't look unkempt. He doesn'. Look like a bad boy. He's not riding a motorcycle.

[Paul Sheer]

He's supposed to be like a McConaughey. Like that guy.

[Jason Manzukas]

He looks like he's running a startup. He does there on vacation.

[June Thomas]

Like, I would have. I would believe it more if he was being irresponsible. Like he started a startup and it failed. Rather than he's like a drunk who got. Who drove a car into a fountain in Italy or whatever.

[Paul Sheer]

To me, the better story would be, hey, let's go get a beer. And she's like, it's 10am I'll get a hot chocolate. And he's like, I don't drink Hot chocolate. And at the end he's like, let's go get a hot chocolate. Like, she's changed him. But Q man is the one who's drinking.

[Jason Manzukas]

Human is the one who is another flaming candy cane.

[Paul Sheer]

I mean, this guy's. This guy's shopping for discount records. I mean, like, he's, he's not doing.

[June Thomas]

I love that, though. I, I'm like, oh, yes, have a meet cute at the record store and blah, blah, blah. But he does not belong in that store at all. Never mind that. He's like, don't you know the Screaming Kittens? I loved this band. And blah, blah, blah. You know? Absolutely not.

[Jason Manzukas]

But, like, what, by the way, though, like, seriously, what happened in Italy?

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

What's going on with him? And I know he lost his mom at 15, and I know it was sudden. I know that was hard, and I have so much sympathy for it. I feel like that gentleman we saw on screen is 40, 45. Yeah. So it's like, I, I. My heart goes out to you. But that's. That was a long time.

[June Thomas]

Very long time.

[Jason Manzukas]

You can't still be on a bender from that.

[Paul Sheer]

But June, I guess is the question I'm going to ask you is how much do we know of that from Matthew versus his dad? His dad is the one who labels him. Matthew never is. Like, I'm a bad boy.

[Jason Manzukas]

Well, but Matthew is validating. That's like something very bad happened in Italy.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, he cra. Crashed into the statue.

[June Thomas]

And he's also saying that he's a free spirit and he doesn't work jobs like this. And this is his dad's stuff. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, he does say, like, I wouldn't have known about all this paperwork. That's what he really seems to be like, you know that, like, that's signing things all day.

[Jason Manzukas]

But what would. I guess. Here's my question. What. What does Matthew want to do for a living?

[June Thomas]

Who knows?

[Jason Manzukas]

Be an artist.

[June Thomas]

Great question. He doesn't know at once. Again, we have people that are so old acting like, I just am 41.

[Paul Sheer]

Is his age, by the way.

[Jason Manzukas]

That's fine. But like, but here's, but here's the thing that's so very odd about this movie. I don't know what anyone's dreams are. And I understand her dream is for her daughter, and that's fine. But like, I don't understand by the end if him being the general manager and her being the executive director of family events is a good thing or not. I don't know.

[June Thomas]

I don't know.

[Paul Sheer]

Tells you it's. It is, yeah, I believe.

[Jason Manzukas]

Is it?

[June Thomas]

Well, I mean, I think the movie is saying, like, hey, remember all those dreams you had? They're not gonna happen. So maybe you can be happy doing craft nights. Yes, craft nights at the resort. I don't know. I don't know.

[Jason Manzukas]

Oh, this is the other detail we had about him that I like, I was really fucked up by. One point. The dad says when he's like recounting all these bad things that Matthew did that he was swimming with swans.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, yeah, you feel like he got drunk and he jumped into like some sort of decorative swan thing. I thought that imagery was actually interesting.

[June Thomas]

What's also interesting is the movie Swans. No, no, I think there were real swans in the fountain that he crashed into.

[Jason Manzukas]

Like, I heard that as a totally separate event.

[Paul Sheer]

Oh, I did too. Yeah, I, I thought there's another fountain.

[Jason Manzukas]

So it's all about that one fountain he crashed.

[June Thomas]

Oh, you might be right. Maybe there's. Maybe he has a litany of, of disastrous moves. But what's interesting is everybody in town knows he's this public fuck up. So he's like, he feels like he's a. Like somebody who's being reported on in like Page Six or something. You know, like, like some sort of famous, like rich.

[Paul Sheer]

Her brother, he's like, the sexy billionaire is causing all these trouble.

[Jason Manzukas]

I did laugh when the brother said I could be the brother in law of a son of a billionaire. I mean, I really. That was my favorite line, I think.

[June Thomas]

Are they the Hilton types type of a family or something?

[Jason Manzukas]

I think they are the Hiltons, but. But that hotel gave such kind of like econola vibes to me. And there are versions of the Hilton that are like that. You know, there's. They can scale up or scale down, but I do feel like we can trust the brand a little bit more. And this felt so.

[Paul Sheer]

Jen, I just want to take a little bit of. I want to just talk to you from all the people out there who clean hotel carpets. Can you imagine trying to keep a place like that clean with all those snow boots trucking in all that wetness like that? That's a. That hotel is kept very, very clean. And I will say you give it a little bit more credit for, you know, the entryway.

[Jason Manzukas]

I'm saying it's dirty. I'm really not. It is just so outdated. The locker room. I was not okay with the locker room.

[June Thomas]

I want to talk about the locker room for so long because for a movie that won't allow its romantic leads to really drink alcohol that much. Like, they have to be so, like, hot cocoa and, you know, like, no real kissing. No. Like, they have to be so weirdly pure and chaste for one whole sequence to be. She's dressed up in San as human, just looking at dicks in the locker room. She sees his dick. He drops his towel immediately. In the locker room.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes.

[June Thomas]

While they're chatting.

[Jason Manzukas]

I have to ask because I'm not a man, obviously.

[June Thomas]

Well, I don't know, like, but are you human?

[Jason Manzukas]

I don't know. I would have loved the opportunity to be human.

[Paul Sheer]

Human also went into a woman's bathroom as well, and I'm glad that they didn't make a big deal out of it. It was like, whatever he chose, he chose, you know?

[June Thomas]

But this is the thing. What's to stop women from dressing as Santa to get into men's bathrooms?

[Paul Sheer]

This has been something that.

[Jason Manzukas]

I don't know. I don't know, like, what locker room. I don't know what goes. What all goes on in there. But, like, if you were in there and Santa.

[Paul Sheer]

Right.

[Jason Manzukas]

Santa performer, came up to you, or even, let's say someone you were an acquaintance of, have. Would you drop your towel like that?

[Paul Sheer]

Paul, here's what I would say. I saw Jason shake his head. There's a lot of locker room behavior that is not universally accepted. It's not like there's one way of being. I have been in locker rooms where people are gonna just be out there proud and free, and then I'm gonna be next to people who are so tidied up and wrapped up that you're.

[Jason Manzukas]

In that you can't even get a peek if you wanted to.

[Paul Sheer]

Exactly.

[June Thomas]

There was a pilot season where I joined the YMCA in Hollywood. Just the one right there in Hollywood that we've all driven by a million times. And that locker room was naked dudes hanging out, chit chatting, talking on phones, nude. Walking around, Walking over there to do full lotion, set up at the lotion station. Walking over there just. Just in their flip flops.

[Paul Sheer]

When I was a kid. When I was a kid, our locker rooms for gym were divided just by, like, a cement wall. And there was a small hole in the wall that we would all peer through, but it was only at the point where the. Yeah.

[June Thomas]

Wait, what?

[Paul Sheer]

Back in my. Like, my younger school, when I went to the school, like, from kindergarten to, like, fourth or fifth grade, our locker.

[June Thomas]

Room, very young, yes.

[Paul Sheer]

There was a wall. There's a wall that was separated no, no. And so the. And so we would all be trying to sneak a peek at the girl's locker.

[Jason Manzukas]

Sneaking in fourth grade and third grade.

[Paul Sheer]

That's so weird, because in my. When I was growing up, Porky's was big, and all you saw was that kid with his eye up against that eye hall, you know, so you're like, that's what you thought you did. But where the hole was was the separation between, like, the wash area and the. The dressing area, like the sinks. So there was. No. There was. Never saw anyone.

[June Thomas]

I want to back Paul up in the sense that, like, yes, thank you. Like, porkies and things like that gave us, in our childhood, established for us a world in which if you saw a hole in a wall, no matter where you were in the world, you looked through it in case there was boobs on the other side.

[Paul Sheer]

You know what?

[June Thomas]

For reasons that you didn't know exactly.

[Paul Sheer]

That was it. Like, I don't even know if it was titillating. It was just like, oh, my gosh, this is the dream. That there would be a hole in the wall.

[June Thomas]

Yes.

[Paul Sheer]

That I can now see. Like, that would be.

[June Thomas]

And. And I know that. That there's a possibility that there are rooms in this building with boobs in them. Maybe on the other side of this wall is one of them.

[Jason Manzukas]

And I. I look back on my childhood, and honestly, even right now, I want to remind myself, like, I should be looking for holes and walls.

[Paul Sheer]

Oh, all the time.

[June Thomas]

Oh, yeah.

[Paul Sheer]

All the time.

[June Thomas]

Forever. That's why I'm traveling with, like, a little roll of duct tape everywhere I go to just cover up the holes.

[Paul Sheer]

I mean, look, the psycho is based on that whole idea.

[Jason Manzukas]

No, it is true. In hotel rooms and stuff. Like, I do know some women look around for holes. I just can't. I can't. There's only so much I can be concerned about in this life.

[June Thomas]

Well, after you got it, first you do your bedbug check, then you do your hole check, then you do your secret camera check. And then you check if all the mirrors are actual mirrors rather than two way mirrors.

[Jason Manzukas]

And then you check out.

[Paul Sheer]

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[June Thomas]

He has neither the temperament of the free spirit kind of artists, maybe like, like ne' er do. Well, he neither has that temperament nor does he have the trust fund, rich dick entitled vibe to him.

[Paul Sheer]

Right.

[June Thomas]

He is just awkward. He doesn't feel like he belongs and he feels out of place. So he's stammering through his speeches. He's like, he's just an awkward guy. So I kept being like, why are we into him?

[Jason Manzukas]

I don't know.

[June Thomas]

I also loved in the locker room scene that when, because of the, the locker room setup, we see he has a bunch of tattoos.

[Jason Manzukas]

I love that about him. But here's the thing. Like, I, I don't. I think he's nice. And so that's, that's great. But I also couldn't tell why she was that into him because he didn't seem to have much of a personality. But I. But then I went back and remember the locker room scene? She saw something.

[June Thomas]

Oh, she did.

[Jason Manzukas]

She sure did.

[June Thomas]

She saw something.

[Jason Manzukas]

She saw something that honestly put. Put a magical Christmas spell on her.

[June Thomas]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

It's the only reason. Because he is very, very bland.

[June Thomas]

They both are, right? They're both dull.

[Jason Manzukas]

I thought she had.

[Paul Sheer]

No, no, no.

[June Thomas]

I mean like characters as characters. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not saying this about the actors. I'm saying they both feel aimless. Yeah, both of them. Both of them. Neither of them are striving towards anything. They are both just kind of treading water.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, yeah, I think they're both trying to find their anchor, which I think is each other. They are both, you know, they're both looking for something to ground them where they need to be like, keep them there. You know, they are. They are boats adrift.

[Jason Manzukas]

You know what I needed? I needed a scene in which we understood what it was like for her as a single mom in Lincoln and how, like, the pressures of having your kid in a rich town and being the poor worker in that town and how your kid wants to get along with all these other rich kids, but you can't provide that. That's really interesting to me.

[June Thomas]

I love this. Yes, yes. I would have loved that vibe and that understanding that she's operating in a very rich town from a position of scarcity.

[Jason Manzukas]

Right. So then I would need to know that that's what she's bringing to Santa. Her work as human, that. That sort of. But instead, like, she's. It made me think also that everybody in this small town is on the same economic level as her, which for ski town simply doesn't make sense.

[Paul Sheer]

Sense.

[June Thomas]

No, no.

[Jason Manzukas]

So they could afford all the things that they are asking for.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes.

[June Thomas]

Well, I mean, I think she's also trying to teach lessons, but I don't understand that. I guess I don't understand where, like, nobody is on an arc that I'm understanding. You know what I mean? Nobody. Nobody at the end of the movie isn't.

[Paul Sheer]

Okay.

[June Thomas]

I'm glad they have fallen in love with each other, but the. The process has not. The process has really only made it seem as though they both are more comfortable because they have found each other. They're more comfortable settling rather than figuring out. Rather than figuring out who they are as individuals and how to be happy as themselves and then love themselves and then share that self with someone else. They are clinging to each other as the answer to their lost and aimless lives.

[Jason Manzukas]

I have found some. Someone who validates my limitations and my giving up. And by the way, what I also really needed to understand is like, does Zoe like this man?

[Paul Sheer]

Who cares about Zoe? She's paralyzed after this.

[June Thomas]

Or, you know, she is like, she's hurt. She's like, she's hurt. And then. And. And they leave the big Christmas party and. And Taylor's dressed as Santa Claus and she runs her daughter's side and. But like. And maybe it's just because once they get there where it's clear the daughter is going to be okay.

[Paul Sheer]

Is.

[June Thomas]

Is.

[Paul Sheer]

You know, perhaps she does not look okay. She looks very.

[June Thomas]

She's on a. She's on a. She's got in a neck brace. She's on a backboard.

[Paul Sheer]

She does.

[June Thomas]

You know, she's like Santa.

[Paul Sheer]

Why is Santa Talking to me, it's like, at this point you'd be able to be like, I think that's my mom. It's my mom.

[June Thomas]

What happens is Taylor and the guy, they have a whole conversation. She should be exclusively talking to the medical personnel about what the diagnosis is. And instead she does her mission impossible tear off the mask reveal. Then she does apologies. Then she tries to. And it like, is like, oh, also.

[Jason Manzukas]

Your daughter might have a spinal injury.

[June Thomas]

What's the betrayal? The betrayal appears. It seems as though when she rips the mask off, you would think, as though people thought she was actual Santa Claus.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, that's what I'm saying. That's why the. She's being brought up on fraud charges. Yes.

[June Thomas]

I mean, what we know, it's not Santa. So the reveal is that it's Taylor. Okay.

[Paul Sheer]

And she's also not like, here's the other version of it, right? This resort has a world renowned Santa and he lives in the town. He dies of a heart attack. She hides the heart attack and dresses up as him. So she is pretending to be human, the guy who has been doing Santa there for 20 years.

[Jason Manzukas]

And that's a betrayal.

[Paul Sheer]

That's a betrayal.

[Jason Manzukas]

Here she did go into the locker room. Maybe he's upset that she saw him have naked.

[June Thomas]

If, listen, if I'm this guy, I'm like, hey man, hey man, you. You saw my dick and you didn't say anything like, what the fuck?

[Paul Sheer]

Well, that means that she was still interested in him. June, would you care? I mean that the lip gloss that she's carrying around, like, I thought when it dropped out of human's pocket, I was like, oh, that's her daughter's lip gloss. Because it's got a.

[Jason Manzukas]

Did they set that up that it was her daughter's? Okay, because even if it is her daughter's though, it's still.

[June Thomas]

It's no, I think no, it's no, it's hers.

[Jason Manzukas]

No, later on, no, it's hers. But I'm saying it's bizarre that it's hers. Even if it was, if it was her daughters, who's 16, it would still be weird because that is the lip gloss of an 8 year old girl.

[Paul Sheer]

100.

[Jason Manzukas]

Very strange. Very strange.

[Paul Sheer]

I did want to say that this movie, just to go back to the daughter potentially being incredibly wounded. I do think this movie does a couple of things where it doesn't really highlight any disabilities. Like the daughter could be paralyzed. She's like, I gotta take, I gotta admit, do my apology tour. Now meanwhile, when that girl Comes over with a stutter. She's like, I got this.

[June Thomas]

Oh my God, I forgot about that.

[Paul Sheer]

Like, she cures. Movie is cures.

[Jason Manzukas]

Absolutely irresponsible.

[Paul Sheer]

Is a little irresponsible with sort of like, like, I mean, the fact that like she cures a stutter and then that's. And that video gets thousands of likes, which moves up to a million likes. But that to me was really like an ins. Like not like, oh, her good heart or her common sense Santa ing. That's what people want. Parents want to bring their kids here to be get like kind of slapped in the face by Santa. No, she like, she is a Christ.

[June Thomas]

Like magic.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes.

[June Thomas]

It becomes like a. Like a very soft magical element enters. Because this is a movie unlike a lot of the other Christmas movies. There is no magic. There is no like, oh, the nutcracker turned into a man. Or there's not like a, like a magical element to this, but there is a little bit of like the lesson learned is that she like, by accepting the way the Christmas spirit. I don't know what she. Yes. She's able to do cures. She's able to be so desirable that the billionaire villain dad is like, that's my Santa. When he keeps saying my Santa.

[Jason Manzukas]

That was so weird. But here's the thing that I. I guess I disagree with. To me, this movie had nothing to do with Christmas.

[Paul Sheer]

Okay, do tell.

[Jason Manzukas]

I think that this, with the exception of like Santa and the device of Santa, the movie, the stories had nothing to do with remembering the reason for the season. With all of the Christmas narratives that we hold dear to our heart.

[Paul Sheer]

To settle, babe.

[Jason Manzukas]

It is literally to give up your dreams.

[June Thomas]

Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

And to settle with whatever life delta up until this point. To accept it.

[June Thomas]

It's. It's time. It's time to settle down. Settle down and take responsibility for your actions.

[Jason Manzukas]

By the way, that could happen any time of year. She could be the Easter Bunny.

[June Thomas]

I agree. I agree.

[Jason Manzukas]

You know, a leprechaun. It could be. This is holiday agnostic.

[June Thomas]

Well, for everybody.

[Jason Manzukas]

Yes.

[June Thomas]

For not just for Taylor and Hugh Mann and the Santa Claus character, but for the. The guy. I cannot remember Matthew. That whole storyline is also not really on a Christmas trajectory, you know, not at all.

[Paul Sheer]

I think that the issue that this movie has is it is taking place during the holidays. But it's more of a rom com, right? It's more of a general rom com. And there's no Christmas spirit. There's no magical ending. The movie doesn't even try to give you one of Those moralistic things, we're pulling that out of it. The movie doesn't lean there at all.

[Jason Manzukas]

It doesn't.

[June Thomas]

And when they have their. Even the end of movie a big kind of like, hey, I want to apologize and ba ba ba. They're kind of big talk that inexplicably happens on stage in front of a microphone so everybody in town can hear their private conversation. That whole conversation isn't. Is also not about Christmas.

[Paul Sheer]

The.

[June Thomas]

It's not about the anything. It's really just about I'm sorry I. I lied, blah, blah. You know, it's really just. You're to your point, Rom com type stuff.

[Paul Sheer]

Right.

[Jason Manzukas]

You know, yes. In a big public setting.

[June Thomas]

And then they sing a song together.

[Paul Sheer]

Run Run Rudolph.

[June Thomas]

Which is also weird. But like, I mean, I don't know.

[Jason Manzukas]

Because I think I.

[June Thomas]

What if.

[Jason Manzukas]

I think the movie might be trying to tell us that they should both get. This is what's weird. They should both get back into pursuing their dreams together as a new screaming kittens.

[Paul Sheer]

Now.

[June Thomas]

What if. And sorry. What if the setup of the movie is that they know each other from both growing up in this incredibly small town. She hated him because he was Richie Rich. Like, you know, rude, entitled Richie Rich.

[Jason Manzukas]

Yeah.

[June Thomas]

And he always like bullied her the way her daughter is bullied for being the poor kid who. Blah, blah, blah. And so they were from opposite sides then and now they come. He's now returned to town as an adult. They haven't seen each other in 30 or 20, whatever years, blah, blah, blah. That's a movie that their history informs their present story. Because right now none of it feels of anything other than so surface level.

[Paul Sheer]

What if they were in the band together? I mean, what if he was the one who knocked her up? Because that's the story, right? He, she got knocked up, she had to quit the band. All of her life went on hold to take care of her daughter. That's the dramatic monologue in the movie. If he was the one who did it as the party guy, he never came back to town until then.

[June Thomas]

Then he becomes a. He's the Christopher in the responsibility.

[Jason Manzukas]

Or. Or maybe even better, he didn't know because so much. Here's my question about his work as the general manager, by the way, I felt. I know the movie's telling us that like Tia is a villain, but I'm like, I'm watching her the whole time and I'm like, yeah, it's so fucked up that this guy came back with zero experience. He's just been Swimming with swans and is taking over your job. Like, this is. Is insane.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, don't say it like swimming with swans. What happened there was. He got into a car accident. I feel like he ejected out of the front and was thrown in and started swimming around. Like, drunkenly swimming around the swan.

[June Thomas]

But she. She's at least understanding and trying to protect the business from lawsuits.

[Jason Manzukas]

Absolutely.

[June Thomas]

That are no doubt going to come from this. This rogue Santa.

[Jason Manzukas]

Here's my question, though. One of the first kind of tests he has and. And that she has, that Hugh. Hugh Mann has as Santa, is the initial tree lighting. Now.

[Paul Sheer]

Oh, I have a question about this. Yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

Who. Who was responsible for setting up the lighting and all the electricity there? And did Tia do that on purpose and.

[Paul Sheer]

Well.

[Jason Manzukas]

Or did he fuck that up? What actually happened?

[June Thomas]

First of all, let me just say breaks. The thing. Breaks.

[Paul Sheer]

Aren't those things ceremonial? Aren't they just ceremonial? Like, they're not. Like, it's not really. You're not really putting a candy cane on an electrical outlet. Like, you. You move.

[Jason Manzukas]

You do it, and then someone's backstage.

[Paul Sheer]

And hitting an on button. That's all that's happening. Like, we're not connecting a giant present to that. Like, but they made it. Like an electrician came there and wired this thing up. And they create this moment as if, again, you're right. This moment. Like, oh, someone fucked up. But it. No, we don't know. And nor was it anyone's mistake because he's there too early. He couldn't have planned that or short changed it. Like, we see nothing.

[June Thomas]

So it's not. It's. It's. It's. It's something that purports to be such a big event and in fact, a catastrophic failure.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes.

[June Thomas]

But is also really just an accident. That is not the responsibility of anybody there.

[Jason Manzukas]

But was it like his accident in Italy?

[June Thomas]

Oh, boy. Do you think he was up there hooking up the electrical stuff?

[Jason Manzukas]

I don't know. No, it's like, I think that everything.

[Paul Sheer]

He does, he's like, I don't care. Just run it. Like, just go forward.

[Jason Manzukas]

Say at one point, like, I'm signing papers. I don't even know what I'm signing.

[Paul Sheer]

All right. So, yeah. So he's hiring. He's hiring the wrong people.

[June Thomas]

Don't. Okay, let me ask you this. Don't you think it's pretty weird? The. The part that I found very difficult to swallow was when Taylor dressed as human, dressed as Santa. So Santa Claus. When Taylor is Santa Claus, when Taylor is speaking With Zoe, her daughter, I was like, yeah, this is irresponsible. Zoe would be like, you're my mother. You're my mother. This is my mother. Like they have.

[Jason Manzukas]

I mean, why doesn't Zoe just ask, like, how are you paying for this?

[June Thomas]

Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

By the way, here's a simple solution. Ask your brother to sell a couple of those masks. He has this mission.

[June Thomas]

Great.

[Jason Manzukas]

You. You have the tuition for this elite snowboarding school.

[June Thomas]

I mean, I also am like, I feel like the movie really wants us to feel like Taylor is like out on the outs. She drives that, like, really sketchy looking, like 1980s era.

[Jason Manzukas]

It must have been her old tournament.

[June Thomas]

Gotta be her old tournament. She's dressed in all black. When she's not in Santa, she's dressed in all black all the time. Like, she's still like a punk rocker, you know? But I'm what, the movie rocker. So. So the idea of the movie is neither Taylor nor Matthew have grown up since teenage years at all. They still are who they were then now, right?

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah, sure, let's. Yeah, let's buy that.

[June Thomas]

But they're just. It's. It's so like. Her daughter is strangely a more three dimensional character to me in many ways.

[Jason Manzukas]

In many ways. When they reveal, by the way, that her daughter's bully is Tia's daughter.

[June Thomas]

Yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

I was like, what the is happening?

[Paul Sheer]

Well, that's what I'm saying. Like that moment is when I was.

[Jason Manzukas]

Like, make any sense?

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah. I was like, oh. So. And then. And the daughter had to be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. She actually is a good person. But there's a. I was like, does Tia actually have an issue with that, by the way?

[Jason Manzukas]

It does seem now that it, it will become so clear that she didn't really have any injuries. They were so minor. She only has like a sling on her a couple days later, it seems.

[Paul Sheer]

Which seems like they were supporting the wrong part of her body when they put her on that.

[Jason Manzukas]

But Tia, when her daughter asks, like, have you heard anything? Is she going to be okay? The way Tia answers that question is like, she's on the verge of death. Like, she's not gonna. She's like, they're. That she has great doctors taking care of her. It's like, what. They're doing everything they can. Like, she's fine.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah.

[June Thomas]

Well, I will say Tia's character in this is so overly dramatic about everything. That's true in a way that is like, in a way that is good because she uncovers truly, like the fraud of the movie by doing Some light.

[Paul Sheer]

Googling on Jason on not Google last resort. I believe it was called look path.

[June Thomas]

Look path.

[Jason Manzukas]

Wow.

[June Thomas]

Look, look path.

[Jason Manzukas]

Can I just say something too that I had an issue with?

[June Thomas]

Seek trail.

[Jason Manzukas]

I don't feel there was so much kind of managing of human as sand as a Santa performer. Like people are checking in on him, people are watching him. The interactions with the children seem to go on forever. I don't know that like anyone needs that level of interaction from a Santa. You're usually pushed in there. They say, what do you want for Christmas? You say one thing. They say merry Christmas. And they usually say something like I can't make any promises but you've. It turns out you're on the nice list. Have a Merry Christmas.

[Paul Sheer]

That's. Or kiss me.

[Jason Manzukas]

By the way Paul, haven't you. This, this, this is the only thing I walked away from as the moral of the story. It's actually a great idea for women to play Santas.

[Paul Sheer]

Okay.

[Jason Manzukas]

For women to take over the Santa industrial complex and just get those special masks. Like we should not be having older men sit there and have tons and tons of children come sit on their laps every year. Like that has to end.

[Paul Sheer]

Okay.

[Jason Manzukas]

It should be a job only for women.

[June Thomas]

Here's what I'll say. I'm inclined to agree. I think that the only caveat I would put on that is I do think, I think that older men or middle aged men can play Santa if the women are adults.

[Paul Sheer]

Okay, well.

[June Thomas]

Look, so, so in a scenario where the people sitting on laps are adults.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

Okay.

[Paul Sheer]

I would say this right? Santa, for the right job. I want, right? I, I once.

[June Thomas]

This is how we're going to end up with, with AI Santa.

[Paul Sheer]

I once sat on them. I once had a monkey. Santa, sit on my lap.

[June Thomas]

Wait a minute. Were you at that party, Santa?

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah. Were you at that party? There is a party back in. No, sorry, you. Jason, back in New York, there was a party where they had a. Now knowing how dangerous these fucking monkeys, I would never have done it. They had a monkey dressed as Santa and you would go in this room and then you would. I have plenty of pictures with me and this monkey. Hugo and the monkey. A lot of people with this monkey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of monkeys.

[June Thomas]

That sounds like something that maybe I would have gone to. And then someone was like, oh, there's a monkey Santa there. And I've been like, no, I'm not gonna.

[Jason Manzukas]

Thank you.

[Paul Sheer]

I mean the fact that I just, I just recklessly just.

[June Thomas]

This is when you you were chimp crazy, though.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Manzukas]

This was your chimp era. This was like when the hangover was coming out and everybody was like, oh, yeah, like little monkeys are so cute.

[June Thomas]

And like the friends had a monkey on the top.

[Paul Sheer]

Friends monkey.

[Jason Manzukas]

Everyone loved that monkey, by the way. Didn't. Didn't you feel like in the scenes between Santa performed by human and Matthew in the locker room and even a couple of the other early scenes that they had that there was a charged. And I'm not just saying.

[Paul Sheer]

No, I hear. I want to talk about this. Yes.

[June Thomas]

Yeah, I want to talk about this.

[Jason Manzukas]

Let's say later on that, like, he felt like, he knew, he felt like he could talk to her. He felt comfortable sharing things. That's all well and good, but there was something about the way that Matthew. I'm not going to put this on Human. Matthew was looking at Santa Claus.

[Paul Sheer]

Matthew wanted to fuck Santa, but Santa wanted to fuck Matthew. And that's okay. It's okay. Well, not it's okay, but like she was looking at him because she would be attracted to him. But what was interesting was like, oh.

[Jason Manzukas]

He was looking right on back.

[June Thomas]

Matthew was connecting. Matthew was connecting with another man in a way that you could tell the length of the movie. His sexuality was being challenged.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

Not just another. But why is his sexuality being challenged by like the most in terms of just our, like, you know, our iconic characters. Like the most asexual, the most sort of like, oh, like, what's happening?

[June Thomas]

What was amazing to me is when he's telling Taylor in one of their cute repart. Repartee moments, he's telling her all about how excited he is for her to meet his best friend, Hugh, Manny, and how he loves Strange. It made me so sad that Matthew has gotten to be 41 or whatever you said, Paul, and has never had a friend. And the only friend he's ever had is Hugh Mann, who he now is so excited to talk about his buddy Hugh. You gotta meet Hugh. I just. I feel so at ease talking to him.

[Jason Manzukas]

This is a red flag, ladies.

[June Thomas]

And by the way, guy's only friend is Santa. You're fucked.

[Paul Sheer]

And by the way, have they talked that much? Have they really gotten into it that much? They had like two conversations.

[Jason Manzukas]

There's literally four sentences exchanged.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah, but I guess no one's listened to him.

[June Thomas]

Wouldn't it have been fun to see a scene where Matthew and Hugh are hanging out and trying to talk about stuff and just don't have anything in common? Or they do or they, you know, what I mean, like, I would have loved a bro down hoedown for these guys out for beers or whatever. Try like that's a funny setup that.

[Jason Manzukas]

Is that we never get right. That they have to like bro out together. I mean, I will say I think there was a missed opportunity with the bathroom scene.

[Paul Sheer]

Okay.

[Jason Manzukas]

And this also makes me question Matthew, by the way, as a general manager, when she's do going back and forth between Taylor and Santa and changing costumes. She's in the bathroom with her brother and there's lots of grunting getting on the fat suit all.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, that's. He's watching Santa get, right?

[Jason Manzukas]

Well, here's the thing. Yes, he is watching Santa get. Or Santa someone.

[Paul Sheer]

I don't know either way.

[Jason Manzukas]

Right. But he is fight fine with it. He's like, okay. With an employee of his at the lodge fucking someone in the bathroom.

[Paul Sheer]

Sure.

[June Thomas]

During this company event, during the Christmas party where. Where the Santa that is getting drilled has to be present is. Is currently absent.

[Paul Sheer]

Yeah.

[June Thomas]

Absent. They're like, where's Santa? Where's Santa?

[Jason Manzukas]

I think it might have worked better though if he had heard Taylor's voice in there. If we didn't see the Santa boots. Because then that would have added a little bit more of a spice. Yeah, a little bit more of a spice.

[June Thomas]

What would have been cool is if he thinks he hears Taylor outside opens the door and is like, Taylor. And it's like, oh, oh, oh, hey, Hugh. You know what I mean? Like if there's like a.

[Jason Manzukas]

Then he would think, Hugh, his best friend is fucking Taylor, his girlfriend.

[Paul Sheer]

That's a great scene.

[June Thomas]

Yes, that's a great scene.

[Paul Sheer]

I want in. I want in on this.

[June Thomas]

How great if he thinks because of something she does or says or a miscommunication, he thinks he's in competition with you for the hand of Taylor.

[Jason Manzukas]

I mean, someone makes it right.

[June Thomas]

I would love that. But that's the kind of stuff this movie would never go near because it's too like, sketchy or it's, well, like, you know, overtly sexual.

[Paul Sheer]

I will tell you that this is one of the only movies that we have ever done to get a 10 plus on common sense Media, which means that Common Sense Media is like a. Like a conservative website that rates movies. Is it okay for families and stuff like that? 10 plus, like this movie is beyond good for families. They love it for families.

[June Thomas]

Yeah. There's nothing in here that's untoward whatsoever. You know, like. Like the most scandalous thing that happens in this movie is someone has a glass of Red wine that they don't even finish.

[Paul Sheer]

Now, I will say this. With all these, you know, critiques, I went down easy. I was very happy with this movie. I enjoyed my time watching it. And it made me actually go, you know what? They figured it out. There's snow on the ground. It's dumb. It's fun. I like this chemistry. I liked everybody in it to a. You know, I wasn't mad at it. It wasn't a slog to get to.

[Jason Manzukas]

I had a harder time, okay, Because I did like the premise and I did think that there was a lot left on the table that wasn't explored.

[June Thomas]

And I'm, I think I'm in between because I, I. Well, I think I'm, I feel similarly because both the way what you're saying, Paul, it goes down smooth, it is easy, and it's a fun, easy watch. So much more so than the one we just watched, whatever we watched last.

[Paul Sheer]

Merry Christmas.

[June Thomas]

Merry Christmas. Thank you. This is so much better than Merry Christmas. But to your point, June, it's so much better that it almost promises that a better movie is there and is possible. And in falling short, you're like, oh, no, you had it all there. You had the ingredients. Why didn't you just mix them this way instead and have it be a little more coherent or a little bit more fun or whatever. It's closer to a good movie. That would have been a blast. But it fall short.

[Paul Sheer]

Well, if they would have pushed some. Yeah, push some boundaries. Now, look, obviously we have opinions about this movie, but there are people out there with a different opinion. It is now time for second opinions. Tell me, what is the message?

[June Thomas]

Maybe that art is subjective. I need a second opinion.

[Paul Sheer]

Here we go, people. So far this movie is only out a handful of days. At the time of recording here, there are no Amazon reviews, so we have to turn to Letterboxd and IMDb. The average Letterboxd rating is 2 out of 5 stars and that's out of 18,000 ratings. So a lot of people watching this. And on IMDb there are 43 written reviews. Now, I will say on IMDb the user identifies themselves a little bit. And I will say that the name of the user is J egold. That rings a bell. It's because our lead, Matthew, his name is Ryan Eggold. So we might believe that J edgold is related to Ryan Eggold. And we'll take a look as we hear this 10 out of 10 review. For all the cynics out there, take a moment to heat up some hot Cocoa, even throw in some mini marshmallows and just have some good old fashioned heartwarming fun. In this crazy world. We truly need light hearted lift me up stories like this. Ryan Eggold is such a fun and talented actor to watch and you can see how he navigates comedy and seriousness with ease. Watch this and your heart will feel squishy and warm. Which we could all use this holiday season. 10 out of 10. We need more films like this from Jay Eggold.

[June Thomas]

Oh wow, so it doesn't even reference the possible relationship.

[Paul Sheer]

No, it just. It does give Ryan a shout out.

[June Thomas]

Yeah, yeah, but it's not like and he's my brother. No, it's not like one of those.

[Paul Sheer]

Now I will say that Karen95 writes, I'm sorry but this movie was bisexual. As for everywhere you look at it, I mean literally got Matthew looking at who he thought was a man, AKA Santa Claus and catching feelings for Santa when they were talking at the bar. I mean you could see Matthew's face in that moment because he couldn't believe he was feeling like that about a man. Until that moment in time, he had never pondered the question of bisexuality. So eventually when he goes on a date with Taylor and their both walking with their hot chocolates, all the trees were decorated with bisexual lighting which was obviously a hint at his bisexuality. And at the end of the date he has a unicorn on his hand. Okay. Also we have Doralee who was attracted to Santa, like genuinely at some point thought they were going to be brave and let both women kiss or for Matthew to kiss Taylor while she was wearing the suit. Also, obviously Taylor was bisexual. She literally had a unicorn chapstick and unicorns represent bisexuality. So in conclusion, this was bisexual and no one is going to Change my mind. P.S. confession time. Alexander Breckenridge. This is the lead was my bisexual awakening. It was because of her that I realized I was into women. At age 16, I saw her as young Moira in American Horror Story. I mean when they aired that series back in the day, I started watching because there were actors I was a fan of and I also thought Dylan McDermott was so hot. He is still very sexy. I was also invested in the series even before it aired. So when I saw her appearing for the first time in that series, I was so mesmerized by her beauty and I wasn't sure why I was feeling that way about a woman. I mean I was thinking to myself back then, well obviously I like men. I like, you know, get all hot and bothered by Dylan McDermott. But I was also having those same thoughts about her. Like sexual fantasies about her. I felt guilt. I mean I was raised Catholic.

[Jason Manzukas]

Oh my.

[Paul Sheer]

In a somewhat conservative country slash household. So thinking about women in such a way was considered sinful. And I was scared of admitting it to myself that I also like women. I mean I did eventually at the age of 16 come to, you know, blinky, blinky emoji. The conclusion I was indeed bisexual after a very erotic fantasy involving Alexandra Breckenridge and Alex o'. Laughlin. I mean both at the same time. And if you think about it, that's the real meaning of Christmas. Finding out your true self. Also, Christmas is not.

[June Thomas]

Is this still the same review finding.

[Paul Sheer]

Out we also Christmas is not just. Just sad for some of us. It's also horny. And most women my age want to sit on an old man's lap and ask for nice things. Yes, I understand Doralee, because I also want to Santa that would give the Santa Claus is coming to town a whole new meaning, if you know what I mean. Five out of five stars.

[June Thomas]

I think she this person means they would like to Tara as.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

I don't know. I don't know what she's saying.

[June Thomas]

This was wild.

[Paul Sheer]

What a while.

[Jason Manzukas]

My gosh.

[June Thomas]

But I do think the person is correctly drilling down into some stuff that is pretty interesting and I would have loved more of. Not only is Matthew confronted with starting to have feelings and connection to an another man, but an elderly man at that.

[Jason Manzukas]

Well, that's you know, thing like I think there's a world in which Matthew just is bisexual and like starts the movie off that way. Who knows? Like maybe he is just bisexual. It doesn't have to tell us but what's the more interesting is that he is not that he's attracted to a man, that he is attracted to a man that is Santa, right? A Santa man.

[June Thomas]

Yes.

[Jason Manzukas]

That is subversive.

[June Thomas]

Yes. Like, and is that his type now? Is this the. Are we watching him? He fell in love with her. It was in some ways as Santa. And does that. Does that enter the bedroom at all? Do they. Do they role play? Does he sit? Why don't we ever get him on her lap?

[Jason Manzukas]

Because we don't want that.

[June Thomas]

We don't. We don't want the big buff man on the little Santalam.

[Jason Manzukas]

No, we don't want it.

[Paul Sheer]

I want to just read one more line here from MPU who writes through this film I learned what a single mother could do. Five stars. And I want to answer you Both with Grant KF's review which says, you know, this movie is great. It breaks the mold. It's better than the Hallmark movies. But at the end, Grant says we need a sequel. To see this couple running the resort and having a child on Christmas Eve, I will be waiting. 10 out of 10.

[June Thomas]

Great. I like that. Why not?

[Paul Sheer]

Our shirt. It Ain't Christmas, Bitch. Is available right now in the Teepublic store. It's a beautiful picture of Santa with. With magical writing right on it. And I gotta say, Jason, I'm glad that you brought this into our lives. Jason's hope so I.

[Jason Manzukas]

Me too, Jason. Me too.

[June Thomas]

I did, as I was watching it in full, feel very responsible. I was like, oh, wow, they're having to do this, boy. But I think worth it.

[Jason Manzukas]

I mean, they're apparently making you an executive producer.

[June Thomas]

They are. Retroactively, Yes. I am now an EP on the. On the. On the thing. And when they come around to making the sequel, I hope that they ask us to be an integral part of it. Maybe. We're doing a live podcast at the resort in the room. In the conference room.

[Jason Manzukas]

Booked us as part of our job as director of family events. Yeah, that's.

[Paul Sheer]

Now, I wanted to save the best piece of information for last. This was written by Ron Oliver, who wrote hello, Mary Lou, Prom Night two. So a little connection back.

[Jason Manzukas]

Oh, interesting.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes.

[June Thomas]

That's a.

[Paul Sheer]

That's.

[June Thomas]

That. Isn't that a very old movie?

[Paul Sheer]

It is 1987.

[Jason Manzukas]

People are still. Yeah.

[Paul Sheer]

And has made a nice name for himself writing movies like Christmas at the Plaza, Falling for Christmas. He writes primarily Christmas and wedding movies right now, but it was also directed. And this is why I think the quality is good by the director who directed all the Princess Switch movies, which I enjoy. Princess Switch one. Princess Switch. Switched again.

[Jason Manzukas]

Vanessa Hudgens.

[Paul Sheer]

Yes. Yeah. The vhcu. The Vanessa Hudgens Cinematic Universe, or I guess Streaming Universe. Vhsu. There we go. Single. The tagline. Single Mom, Double life.

[Jason Manzukas]

Love it.

[June Thomas]

I love it. It's a great setup for a movie and absolutely recommend.

[Paul Sheer]

And I'll just say one final thing, which is this, that you might have been saying. Paul, Jason, June, why didn't you bring up the fact that Alexander Breckenridge also has remade the Twelfth Night with Amanda Bynes and she's the man. Where. Also the same idea. A female dresses up as a man. So they're just. Yes, there it is. We acknowledge it.

[June Thomas]

Just one of the guys.

[Paul Sheer]

Just one of the guys. Right? That was just one of the guys. All right. Well, we did it. Happy Holidays and remember, if you want to watch our very special live holiday episode, it is up right now on hdtgm.com you can buy that and the Deep Dive Holiday Special. It is great and for less than $20 you can enjoy so much good stuff. Remember, if you have a correction or omission for this episode, leave us a voicemail at 619-Paul-A S K or write a comment in our Discord at Discord GG HDTGM and I'll respond to those messages on Last Looks and without spoiling anything, I will just say we have a very special two part episode in store for you. All that'll be dropping on Tuesday and Friday of next week. Yes, it's a year long event starting in 2025 ending in 2026. So be on the lookout for a little end of the year gift from us. And lastly, thank you to our entire team, Molly, Scott, Cody, Casey and Zoe. Bye for now. Happy Holidays. Holidays. Looking for a last minute gift for your people? You know, your people. That weird bunch of friends that you love dearly? Well, here's an easy idea. Oregon Lottery Holiday Scratch Hits. Because your people, they're the ones that amidst all the holiday crowds and endless notifications, help you find the fun. Which calls for a little gift that brings big cheer. Oregon Lottery Holiday Scratchets. You know where to find them. Grab some today. Must be 18 or older to play Lottery games are based on chance and should be played for entertainment only.

[Jason Manzukas]

Save over $200 when you book weekly. Stays with VRBA though this winter if you need to work, why not work from a chalet? If you haven't seen your college besties since, well, college. You need a week to fully catch up in a snowy cabin. And if you have to stay in a remote place with your in laws, you should save over $200 a week. That's the least we can do. So you might as well start digging out the long johns because saving over $200 on a week long snowcation rental is in the cards book [e-mail].