← The Prestige TV Podcast
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- [00:00]
Bryn Whitfield
Oh, hey there. It's your girl, Brynn Whitfield. You might know me from a little show called the Real Housewives of New York City on Bravo. You are about to see a whole different side of me. Unedited, by the way, on my new podcast. Please see below. Spoiler alert. It's not about passive aggressive company emails. It's actually way juicier than that. Join me every week as we get down and dirty with my friends, celebrities, experts, even some of our exes from dating. The highs and lows of reality tv, career, sex, you name it. And honey, we're not just going to spill the tea. I am here to smash the entire pot. Believe me, you're going to want to see and hear what's below. Lisie Below with me. Bryn Whitfield is premiering soon. Available everywhere. You love to listen to podcasts.
- [00:53]
Amazon Prime Ad
This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Ever finish a movie and the next thing you know you're totally obsessed? Like I'm talking about ordering a book about 70s film lighting or buying the soundtrack on vinyl. Kind of obsessed. Whatever it is, prime helps you get more out of whatever passions you're into or getting into. Head to Amazon.com prime and follow your obsession wherever it goes.
- [01:16]
Joanna Robinson
This episode is brought to you by Focus Features and Indian Paintbrush presenting the Phoenician Scheme.
- [01:21]
Rob Mahoney
It's an epic comedy adventure from director Wes Anderson starring Benicio Del Toro, myth Repplton, Michael Cera and an all star.
- [01:27]
Joanna Robinson
Cast follow Zsa Zsa Corda as he races to survive assassinations, win back his daughter and pull off the scheme of a lifetime.
- [01:34]
Rob Mahoney
The Phoenician scheme rated PG13 in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles May 30th and everywhere. June 6th.
- [01:55]
Joanna Robinson
Hello. Welcome. Welcome back to the prestige TV podcast feed. I'm Joanna Robinson.
- [01:59]
Rob Mahoney
I'm Rob Mahoney.
- [02:00]
Joanna Robinson
And we have the honor, the delight, the pure pleasure of talking to you about the your Friends and Neighbors Season 1 finale episode. Rob Mahoney that sure was an episode of television, was it not?
- [02:11]
Rob Mahoney
It really was. It was a season of television. Many, many, many, many, many things happened.
- [02:17]
Joanna Robinson
Certainly we found out who done it. So if you haven't watched the finale yet, you know, you might want to go watch the finale before we talk about the way this murder mystery concluded and a number of other things that happen inside of this episode of television.
- [02:33]
Rob Mahoney
I'm gonna say you really should if you are not caught up. Not just for the spoilers, Joe, but I don't think you and I can appropriately do this episode justice. It is the kind of experience that has to be seen to be believed.
- [02:45]
Joanna Robinson
I. Astounding stuff, I guess before we get into that. And thank you all for your emails, prestige tvpotify.com. a lot of them we won't be reading because a lot of them were incorrect guesses about who done it. So thank you all for your speculation.
- [03:00]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, I appreciate people taking their shots, you know, trying to get on the record ahead of time. Just wanting. Wanting to get it down.
- [03:05]
Joanna Robinson
Always take your swing. Guess what no one solved. Took the ragtag team of Coop and Elena and I guess Detective Lynn. But I'm not sure she. She was actually involved. Before we get into sort of the episode itself. Rob, where are you sitting? I guess, like we have been talking all season about how however we're feeling about season one, we're like season two. We're kind of interested to see what they might do with the sort of pieces that they have on the board or to see how that might play out in season two. So where are you feeling about that after the end of this finale?
- [03:41]
Rob Mahoney
Even more resolute in that stance. I feel like where we end up more gentlemen thieving. And not just that, I will say, but like Coop almost like using the hedge fund plotline as subterfuge to then set up his next theft, I thought was actually one of the most enjoyable parts of the episode. So, like, we get to the right place in the end, but to get there, we just gotta sweep a lot of stuff off the deck. We gotta solve all these fake mysteries. We gotta get through all of these monologues. There's just like so much happening in this episode, Joe. But at the end point, I actually am kind of intrigued by a season two. And the show is pleasant enough that I am along for the ride for that.
- [04:18]
Joanna Robinson
We are back to not just thieving, but we are obstinately art thieving. Even though that went not well for.
- [04:25]
Rob Mahoney
Us, it was the most dangerous kind.
- [04:28]
Joanna Robinson
I mean, sometimes you can't resist it. I will say that I was hoping that this is how the hedge fund plot that there was this ticking clock. He's gotta be on the tarmac. And I was like, I hope he goes robs a house instead. Well, everyone he knows is that this gala that makes the most sense to me and sets us up for season two to be about more thieving, which is what we wanted anyway. So thank you for that, your friends and neighbors. Before we get into some of the other specifics of this episode, I want to read one Email that we got from our listener Hillary about a previous plot point after the cocaine binge.
- [05:03]
Rob Mahoney
Yes.
- [05:04]
Joanna Robinson
That Nick and Coop and Barney enjoy. And they're on the golf course. Right. Hillary says when Cooper Barney are having their heart to heart on the golf course after their night of clubbing. Coop says that it's midnight. What are we to think? These men drove to Manhattan, went to a club, had a whole montage of drug fueled dancing, drove back to Westchester, and I've been driving around the country club and it's only midnight. Did they get to the club at 5pm? Rob, care to comment on the timeline question that Hillary presents for us here?
- [05:34]
Rob Mahoney
You know, the logistics of that are quite frankly impossible. Like we're in collateral levels of like, you just cannot cross that. You can't cover that much ground that quickly in addition to the full night's activities. But as a washed person, I connect very deeply with the idea of the night feeling well and fully, not just over, but loopy by midnight.
- [05:52]
Joanna Robinson
I went out to like a pub trivia thing last night with a bunch of people who are in their early 20s and I was like, yeah, we're going to like hang out. And it was like 9:30.
- [06:03]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah.
- [06:03]
Joanna Robinson
And they were like, we're done. I was like, okay. They're like, it's a Wednesday. I was like, gen Z, you are different. Wow, you are truly people than I grew up with. I was like, okay, well, have a.
- [06:14]
Rob Mahoney
Good night, healthy work, life balance and sleep priorities. I didn't think it was possible.
- [06:19]
Joanna Robinson
Are they getting full nights of sleep? Couldn't be me. All right. We open this episode with a dream sequence wherein Coop dreams that he is a fiction reader and he is reading Bright Lights, Big city by Jay McKenzie.
- [06:36]
Rob Mahoney
I have this nightmare sometimes too, Joe.
- [06:38]
Joanna Robinson
Problems like, oh my God, dear God.
- [06:41]
Rob Mahoney
Not that. Anything but that.
- [06:43]
Joanna Robinson
Keep the contemporary fiction away from me. Okay. This book, which came out in the 80s and was made into a pretty subpar Michael J. Fox movie. And Coop sort of quotes it later when he's talking about the line in this episode that gives the episode its title about metaphors and et cetera. And it's about a disaffected 20something who tries to make it in New York and gets distracted by a life of cocaine. And in the movie version, Kiefer Sutherland, who among us would be distracted by Kether Sutherland and a pile of cocaine and just gets into sort of the idea that like the very basic hit you over the head message of your friends and neighbors, which is material goods and the rat race and all of those things that we think are supposed to be the things we want or the American dream are really just plastering over, you know, the actual issues and problems and hopes and dreams that we have that we're unwilling to address as we get sucked into the world of capitalism or the rat race or, or in the case of, I guess, Olivia Munn's character Sam, sleeping your way to the top. Question mark, how do you feel this works as, like a literary illusion? This gets into sort of, what kind of show does your friends and neighbors think it is? And is your friends and neighbors the kind of show where like, you're like, yeah, you've really earned that 1980s contemporary fiction quote? Or are you like, this is it trying to reach for being more highbrow than we actually want the show to be? What do you think?
- [08:27]
Rob Mahoney
I think it is absolutely reaching and straining itself in the process. Like, not only is that like a kind of a direct illusion and a nod to that sort of text and like just a totally different kind of fiction, but ultimately, like the fourth or fifth different. Like this metaphor is a real thing in Coop's life joke bit that they have tried to like, shoehorn into this. Like, I get it, we're literalizing all these ideas that are happening right before our very eyes, right? There are clear diminishing returns to that. I just think once you get into the mealy mouthed monologues of this show, they don't really work. And I say that as someone with, I would say personally, an incredible tolerance for overriding. Like, I am down for it, generally speaking. I will go along for a lot of rides. This show has too much of a lot of things. It has too many characters, it has too many shows. It's trying to be at once. It has way too much writerly flourish happening. And especially when you start putting that flourish into Sam's mouth. A character who, I don't know that it made sense out of Coop's mouth either, but it certainly doesn't make sense coming out of hers. I'm just like completely at sea.
- [09:28]
Joanna Robinson
Okay. I mean, this is like the record scratch moment of the whole entire season is when Sam, again, as played by Olivia Munn, gets her own voiceover moment.
- [09:41]
Rob Mahoney
That's gender equality, though, if you ask me. You know, we've really solved it.
- [09:44]
Joanna Robinson
Oh, sure, sure. One three minute monologue for Sam and an entire season of Coop blathering on sounds equal to me. I, I, I found myself in a similar corner where I was like, why can train spotting or fight Club or these Other, you know, very overly written voiceover monologue heavy movies that I love Fight Club Mix, but definitely mix positive. You know, how can Tarantino get away with this? Like, how can all these people get away with this? And I'm not letting this show get away with it. Like, what is. What is the difference here? I don't even know that it's the quality of the writing. I think it's just, like, the overwrittenness is not matching the depth of what the story is trying to say. Potentially or potentially. Like, you know, those. Those examples I cited were, you know, 90s early aughts. Like, perhaps we're just in a more, to quote Jerry Maguire, like, cynical age. Like, you know, perhaps we can't handle this kind of overly written voiceover in our media anymore. What do you think?
- [10:47]
Rob Mahoney
I don't know. I think we. I still think we can. And certainly there's even, like, recent touchstones. And it's also a thing that's like, you know, you cited, like, very masculine examples of that. But I think, like, Gone Girl does this really effectively, especially in terms of, like, the narration, monologue. Like, it can be done really, really well if what you're saying fits the character who's saying it. And I think that's one of. It's been one of the things I've bumped on the most with this show. Everyone sounds like Jonathan Tropper writing a script. You can get away with that sometimes if the performances really, really sell it. You know, if the character. If, like, there are characters, there are movies, there are shows in which it's, like, very clear that everyone is, like, a little too clever than a real person would actually be in those circumstances. That can be super enjoyable to watch. But I'm just, like, rolling my eyes so, so hard at this monologue, and I'm gonna. I would take it a step further, Joe. I think what you described, you said it wasn't bad writing. If you're overwriting and not matching to character and not serving the actor performing it, that's bad writing. Like, it's just what it was.
- [11:46]
Joanna Robinson
You're right. It's bad writing in terms of matching the rhetoric to the character. I was just like, is this any more florid or ridiculous than some of the other, you know, overwritten monologues that I've enjoyed in film and television? And I'm like, I'm not sure, but, like, for Sam specifically.
- [12:05]
Rob Mahoney
Yes.
- [12:06]
Joanna Robinson
I already this morning texted you about the line where she says, you move into an exclusive Hamlet you've never heard of. Called Westmont Village. You're from South Boston. You don't know from villages. Something Sam would never say. But that's okay. So that's something Sam would never say.
- [12:24]
Rob Mahoney
Here's something most humans would never say. A phrasing most humans would not use.
- [12:28]
Joanna Robinson
Here's something that literally makes no sense. Sense. Six years later, you're a waitress because the stepping stone became a boulder. What does that mean?
- [12:38]
Rob Mahoney
I flagged that one too. What does that mean?
- [12:41]
Joanna Robinson
What does that mean?
- [12:43]
Rob Mahoney
And, like, dude, too big to step or climb on.
- [12:45]
Joanna Robinson
Is it like a millstone around your neck? Like what? Like what? You know, it's become a stepping stone. Yeah. Like it's too hard to climb. You can't scale it. And you thought, oh, like, I feel like what they're going for is. I thought I would just step stone into a waitress and then become like a famous model or actress or whatever it is that the. According to her hot girl in high school thinks she deserves or is owed or whatever. But, yeah, it's become a boulder that's too hard to climb. I don't know. I suppose we can work our way into figuring out what this means, but you can't ask us to do that inside of a TV mom.
- [13:20]
Rob Mahoney
It takes a lot of diagramming to figure out what you're trying to say. In that moment, I was.
- [13:25]
Joanna Robinson
And I could just see whether it was Chopper or anyone else on the writing team. I could just see them patting themselves on the back when they wrote that down. And they're like, we really did it. And I was like, oh, no. What is this?
- [13:36]
Rob Mahoney
The Olivia Munn monologue is genuinely the low point of the entire series for me. It is a huge reveal moment. The whole season has been building up to it, and it's just the biggest possible dud. But as far as the writing goes, Coop. This is a line from Coop where he's also kind of over explicating in the narration. And he says it was all just an elaborate illusion where the magician and the Aud audience were one in the same. And I'm just like, ugh, yeah. Really?
- [14:01]
Joanna Robinson
Oh, brother. But right before that, here is the. Here's actually. Okay. The Sam monologue is, I agree, I think the worst moment, the worst sequence of the entire season.
- [14:11]
Rob Mahoney
And I say, like, we say that as people who have. I've genuinely enjoyed Olivia Munn on this show. And I do not recognize the performance or the character, certainly in the narration. But even in that, like, confrontation, heel turn kind of moment, like, I have no idea what's going on there right.
- [14:27]
Joanna Robinson
Before he says a thing about the magician in the audience being one and the same. This is, I think, the biggest mistake that they make inside of the season in this episode is right before that he says, a big, solid house, a small piece of forever. But there was rot in the foundation. And I was like, oh, okay. So this is, you know, underlining the message that they've tried to sell us all season, which is, you know, similar to the message of Madman, which is, like, you know, selling you what is. What is the truth behind the American dream that you've been sold. And it's a bunch of dysfunctional people making up choices and. And shooting themselves in the foot and stuff like that. Sure. All of that's all that's fine and good. When you say rot in the foundation and you watch him, like, walk down this sort of, like, green lawn, you know, beautifully manicured place, then you're invoking, like, Blue Velvet and David lynch and Twin Peaks. And I was like, I'm sorry, you can't play in the playground of one of the most masterful storytelling artists of our lifetime and give us this, like, cheese whiz version of it. Like, it's just. It's an unflatting comparison to subject yourself to. And I really think that if the show tried to do less and have more fun, that's the tone it really needs to hit in season two. And then we can all enjoy this, like, light and fluffy B and E caper. Like, why wouldn't we?
- [15:56]
Rob Mahoney
You know, I think that show could be a lot of fun. I think there's some room too. Like, you can have the light and fluffy B and E caper with bits of dramedy, but this just leans so hard into it and so hard into that sort of messaging. I thought the areas in which the hammering of the themes were a little bit more effective were on the Coop and Mel front. Like, this idea that not only is all this stuff a distraction, but, like, the delivery of this dialogue is not great. Cause it's literally like Coop just screaming the thesis. But this idea that, like, you take your eye off the ball by focusing on these material things and you lose sight of all this stuff that's actually important or actually foundational or it's not rot, but it's just kind of unattended to, like. I think that's a reasonable underpinning for a show like this. I just don't think it earns a lot that comes with it.
- [16:42]
Joanna Robinson
I agree with that. I really liked that Mel and Coop scene, I don't like any time Jon Hamm yells that much, but she was yelling right back. And so that, you know, sort of like, again. But later, he. While the Rolling Stones play.
- [17:03]
Rob Mahoney
As far as groans go, I gotta say, like, the fact that you're getting me with the needle drop, too, it was just. It was a lot going on.
- [17:10]
Joanna Robinson
He says, you work hard to get the life you want until someone comes to take it all away from you. And I'm just like, I thought the message that we were really circling this season was that, Coop, you are the architect of your own disaster here. Mel literally says it like, there's a moment you stop fighting for us when you really need to fight for us, you know, to fight for yourself. Don't just roll over and go to prison. Fight for us. Fight to hold on to what matters, which is your kids and, like, all this other stuff. Like, and. And then at the end, Coop's like, someone takes it away. And I'm like, who? Someone? Who? What are you talking about?
- [17:44]
Rob Mahoney
Is there someone in the room with us right now?
- [17:46]
Joanna Robinson
I mean, what? Like. And so then I just feel like the show doesn't even understand its own messaging. And Coop also tries to, like, have his cake and eat it too, when he's just like, you know, I should have been nicer to you, but, you know, I'm not going. Nor should he go to jail for her. But just sort of like these moments where, like, Coop's like, you're fighting for this redemption you're not sure you deserve. There's all these moments where Coop tries to, like, sort of say he's a piece of shit without, I think, actually believing that he's a piece of shit. And listen, we're all pieces of shit. So I'm not, like, I'm not sitting on high judgment of Coop here. We all have our issues, but, like, I just don't like the way that the show is sometimes trying to pretend that this character is self reflective and then just completely veering away from that the next second, you know?
- [18:32]
Rob Mahoney
Absolutely. I think, like, second to second. Again, not an unpleasant show to watch. Like, it has its charms. I was laughing out loud at some of the elements of this episode. It's also, I would say, structurally speaking, the structure of this episode is how many times can we let Coop dunk on people? Like, one up the country club guy, one up the Sat mom, one up the hedge fund. It's like he gets to do the comeuppance, like, world tour to everyone. And I would say it Extends beyond him, too. It's also like Mel with the ladies at brunch. If you want to go back further, it's Sam with the skincare consultant. And granted, these are not characters. The people they're talking to are just like, straw men and women who have wandered into the scene. And it's like, let me tell you why I am so great and so right. And it's like, you can only do that so many times. And frankly, I prefer that many times be zero. But if you need one or two, I'm gonna allow it. If you need eight or nine in one episode, that might be too much.
- [19:26]
Joanna Robinson
Well, especially when we're like, you know, maybe this speaks to someone and that audience is not me. But I just think that, like, Coop grinding the SAT lady into dust in an effort to clear the competition out of the way for his daughter to go to Princeton. How is that, you know, after he just said, you don't have to go to Princeton. Like, you don't have to go to Princeton. You don't have to do this. You don't have to worry about this. Like, I have learned my lesson. And chasing Princeton and all these other, you know, symbols of success is not what we, the Coop family, are going to be doing going forward. And then he's like, except now I'm going to blackmail a lady into getting the competition out of my way so my daughter can go to Princeton. I'm like, which is it? You know, are we leaning full villain and saying, how much money do you want from us to get Hunter out of suspension? You know, how can I blackmail, you know, like, the shit that rich parents will do to get their kids, you know, onto the road to college. That's actually an interesting story. Aunt Becky, we salute you always. But like Felicity Huffman, you are in our thoughts. But, like, then don't pretend that our kids characters are more enlightened than anyone else around them. Which is, you know, because isn't what he's doing the exact same thing that SAT lady is doing in getting the SAT answers in the first place? So how are to your point, these characters who are dressing down the other characters around them? The golf course guy was, like, really bothering me because I was just like, coop, why are you pretending that, like, you have any moral high ground here when you know you did not kill someone, but you've been fleecing your neighbors totally. There's nothing to stop you from, like, filching things from the lockers in this country club. You are not the victim here in any way whatsoever.
- [21:19]
Rob Mahoney
So, in fact, for season two, like, looking at the tee time list and busting into those homes, not a bad plan as far as theft goes.
- [21:25]
Joanna Robinson
So just, like, let him be a villain, and I will have fun with that. But, like, don't try to serve me a villain who I'm supposed to be like, wow, he's better and more enlightened than everyone around him. That's where the show, like, really gets.
- [21:37]
Rob Mahoney
And maybe this is the kind of thing where, you know, we've talked about the season two element of kind of, like, clearing some of the decks and restructuring the show and focusing on the things that work. Maybe this is the kind of thing where we look down the line at season four of your Friends and neighbors, and you're like, oh, this was the start of that descent into a kind of villainy for Kate. Right. Like, if the show is starting to clarify and understand what he is from this point on, I would believe it. We've seen lots of successful shows where that's been the case.
- [22:02]
Joanna Robinson
On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, I was thinking about this because I was thinking about Nancy Botwin and Weeds or Walter White on Breaking Bad. Like, what is. You know, what is the equivalent of this character who starts as a head of their family and then finds themselves in increasingly sticky situations and sort of has to wriggle their way out of it? And, you know, Walter's journey from Mr. Chips to Scarface, which is the thing that they always like to say with Breaking Bad, like, initially, when he's getting won over on people or all this sort of stuff like that, it's just because, like, it is his. It is a mess of his own making, but is to, like, literally get himself out of, like, life and death scenarios. And, you know, similarly with Nancy Botwin, it's just sort of like she's painted herself into a corner and she realizes this, but the move she's making is to get herself out of a corner that she has painted herself into. With Coop, it's just like he's choosing to just, like, actively run towards those corners and, like, paint him. You know what I mean? Like, he's just like. He's active making choices he does not have to make.
- [23:09]
Rob Mahoney
Yes.
- [23:10]
Joanna Robinson
Which is true of Walter White and Nancy Botwin too, but it's just sort of like the stakes are different completely. And so the justification of bad behavior is different. And if the justification of bad behavior is like, I deserve to be in this country club or I deserve to have my daughter go to Princeton, so let's get the competition out of the way. It is so much harder than, like, Walter White's, like, I deserve to survive this encounter with this, you know, drug ring that I have walked myself into, but, like, walk myself into. You know what I mean?
- [23:40]
Rob Mahoney
And also underpinned by the stakes of, like, I think I'm dying and I'm trying to provide for my family. And Coop's version of I'm trying to provide for my family is like, I kind of don't want to trade in my car for the Mercedes and recoup some money. And so instead, I'm going to rob people, and then instead, I'm going to get accused of murder. And then instead, I'm going to be on still my high horse somehow through this entire process.
- [24:00]
Joanna Robinson
The other issue I have, I really liked the sequence where, like, Tori comes down to watch the Sting with her dad.
- [24:11]
Rob Mahoney
I would say maybe the best parenting episode yet. Genuinely, like, genuinely, like, good parenting moments with both kids has an actual manner of communicating and conversation with them. I really like both of those sequences with Hunter and Torey both.
- [24:26]
Joanna Robinson
I agree. But there are ways in which these characters all feel like accessories inside of Coop's story. In, like, I think with Elena specifically, we were talking to Bill last week about how, like, Elena is such a tough example of, like, a character I want to be interested in.
- [24:43]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah.
- [24:43]
Joanna Robinson
You know, a character that I said when she showed up that I was glad she was here, which I was. But, like, the way she's used in this finale, which is just as an assist to Coop because he has leverage over her to get the goods on Sam, which, like, he. He should not go to jail for murder. Like, I support that. What's Elena's story at the end of this season? We don't check in with her because she doesn't matter, because she's. She's done being part of Coop's story. So, like, her story now doesn't matter. We're not, like, montage checking in with, like, what's going on with Barney, like, what's going on with these people where you've asked us to invest in their side story. But at the end of the day, it's the Coop show, which is fine. But then don't ask me to invest in the personal lives of these other characters.
- [25:29]
Rob Mahoney
Yes. I mean, it takes them about 30 minutes to remember that Elena is still on this show. Like, she's just not in this episode until it becomes narratively convenient for Coop to turn to her for help. And even then, this is a character who ostensibly Stole all of the money from Coop that he made from gentleman thieving. And he's like, kind of cool with it. I think there's a bunch of different moments in this episode where people. It's just like water under the bridge. We don't really want to have an actual conversation about some of the things that are pulling these characters apart. And so we're just gonna kind of let things be resolved and forgiven very, very quickly. Nick shows up at the gala with Mel and just like, yeah, it's cool. Here's a kiss on the cheek. I'm going to go my way to dance with these other ladies.
- [26:11]
Joanna Robinson
Okay. This also. Okay. I had a really bad time with this episode. Television. It's a lot to talk about so much. When Nick was like, it was my bad for falling in love with someone who's in love with someone else. And Mel.
- [26:25]
Rob Mahoney
Yep.
- [26:26]
Joanna Robinson
A therapist who recently not only fucked her ex husband, but slapped another woman for also doing so is like, what do you mean? I don't get it. Whatever could you be referring to? And I was like, what are you. Like, she's not stupid. That. That made her look stupid. And I. I'm like, you've worked so hard to have me invest in Mel and think she is like an intelligent, emotionally intelligent person. She's constantly coaching Coop on emotional intelligence. And so for her to be like, I don't know what you mean, it was deeply frustrating.
- [27:06]
Rob Mahoney
Not good. Again, a lot of these little side exchanges just didn't work, which I think speaks to something we've been talking about for a while, that there's just too much going on with. Some of it's trying to stretch too thin. And then you get to a point where it's like Mel comes off kind of looking like an idiot in this episode. Ultimately, other characters who are supposedly people don't have actual feelings. They just nod along and give a thumbs up to Coop as he kind of goes along his merry way. And I. There's a real tension point between storylines like Elena's, which, as you're saying, like, don't. She is not operating independently of Coop at all within the world of this.
- [27:40]
Joanna Robinson
Show, except for the moment where they needed to set her up to steal his money. You know what I mean? Like the stuff with her brother.
- [27:46]
Rob Mahoney
But even then, there's no. Like, we literally haven't seen her brother since he was getting his fries eaten at Krystal Burger or whatever that was. Like, there's been. There's been no independent follow up, I would say, on the counterpoint to that, like, Ally is a character who has her stuff with Coop, has stuff that's independent of Coop. I don't think it's working particularly. I don't think it's super well executed. But it's like, okay, that character has a story. I don't think Elena even has a story, which is a huge problem.
- [28:12]
Joanna Robinson
Do you think when we get Allie walking down the street at the end of this episode, do you think whose note was it that we need to put a smudge of blue paint on her face so people know for sure that she's the one who smells spray painted Fuck Bruce on his garage?
- [28:30]
Rob Mahoney
You know what? She really got that bar into a lather.
- [28:33]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah.
- [28:34]
Rob Mahoney
Chanting Fuck Bruce. It could have been anybody. So you really do have to clarify that it must be Ally.
- [28:39]
Joanna Robinson
It must have been Ali. It could have. Yeah. Shout out Bruce's wife who's like, Immediately like, I know you did something. I know you deserve this, Bruce. I live with you. I know. I know how you operate.
- [28:51]
Rob Mahoney
Bruce sucks. Everyone knows it. Everyone at the bar knows it. Now the alley stuff, I think overall just doesn't really work. But I can see the at least trying to create a story out of it. I do want to give all credit. Lena hall can really fucking sing. Like when she starts belting doll parts, I'm like, I now understand why this is the most quiet and irreverent bar in human existence. Like, this is actually a place you go to see a show and that.
- [29:15]
Joanna Robinson
Like, you know, Tori and Hunter were like, we want to go. And we want, you know, like them acting like a family, you know, circling around their aunts and stuff like that. I liked all of that stuff. There is like some great. There's some great family stuff inside of this episode that I quite like.
- [29:30]
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- [30:47]
Rob Mahoney
This episode is brought to you by Diet Coke. You know that moment when you just need to hit pause and refresh? An ice cold Diet Coke isn't just a break. It's your chance to catch your breath and savor a moment that's all about you. Always refreshing, still the same great taste. Diet Coke. Make time for you Time. How did you feel, Joe, about the fact the reveal in the finale of season one that Hunter is a concert level pianist?
- [31:14]
Joanna Robinson
Did we get, like, an indie? He's. Isn't he like a musical savant?
- [31:17]
Rob Mahoney
Like, is that he's a musical kid? Like, but he's. I would say there's a tangible difference to me between, like, making beats on your laptop and.
- [31:25]
Joanna Robinson
What do you mean?
- [31:26]
Rob Mahoney
Like, compose. Composing in the manner he does in this episode?
- [31:29]
Joanna Robinson
What do you mean? I feel like strokes on the keyboard and strokes of your computer and strokes on the keyboard of the. Of the piano. Same level of skill, same level of hours of practice, don't you think? Why are you being so elitist, Rob?
- [31:40]
Rob Mahoney
I don't understand strokes on the keyboard. Equaling strokes on the keyboard is the level of metaphor and symbolism we needed narrated in this episode.
- [31:50]
Joanna Robinson
All right, what else do we want to talk about inside this episode? You know who comes off really well in this episode actually is, like, our favorite character, Kat.
- [31:58]
Rob Mahoney
Love Kat.
- [31:58]
Joanna Robinson
Kat. Great in every scene.
- [32:00]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah. Why did we not get the legal drama in literally any respect? Here's. You know what? We've heard a lot of grievances, Joe, big and small about this show. Here is my utmost grievance, and this is very personal to me, okay? You're not gonna put us in trial for Coop's trial. Like, we're not in the courtroom. We're not interested in going there. That's fine. Like, you write the show the way you wanna write it. You tell the story you wanna tell. You simply cannot negotiate the plea deal offscreen. Like, I need Kat in the room with the prosecutor hashing out the plea.
- [32:33]
Joanna Robinson
Deal and her, like, oversized fashion blazer.
- [32:36]
Rob Mahoney
Which I loved 100%. Like this. Let Kat eat. Let her have her moment. Overall, like, the legal plotline as far as the murder goes is basically just like, I guess I'll take the meeting for the plea deal. We got a plea deal. Oh, wait, I don't want the plea deal anymore. And then that kind of backdoors into the burner phone subplot, which then backdoors into a widow committing $20 million insurance fraud, but kept the bloody suicide note subplot.
- [33:07]
Joanna Robinson
Do you think the murder weapon was also in her little passport drawer before she dropped it into Coop's trunk?
- [33:14]
Bryn Whitfield
Yeah.
- [33:14]
Joanna Robinson
So did they.
- [33:14]
Rob Mahoney
I guess they had two guns. Must have been what happened. Cause there was the one gun that had, like, never been fired that was in the gun safe at their house that got turned over to the police. And I guess.
- [33:25]
Joanna Robinson
What about the gun in her second gun? And what about the gun in her bag?
- [33:29]
Rob Mahoney
I guess this was the bag gun.
- [33:31]
Joanna Robinson
I think there's. And Coop, at least lampshades this by being like, when did everyone get guns? But the lampshade line, that was actually funny. The lampshade line that I did not like was when Officer Hernandez was like, I sound like a TV cop. And I'm like, no, just calm down. You're in a TV show. You're in a TV show. It's funny.
- [33:51]
Rob Mahoney
I'm in the bag for Officer Hernandez.
- [33:52]
Joanna Robinson
Going, obviously my favorite character on the show. But, like, you know, it's also when. Yeah, I mean, when Coops going down the list, Coops comes into Kat's office to talk about whether or not he's going to take the plea deal. And, like, their discovery is just all over the table, and she's like, here, let me fit out of this pile of documents. Let me fish out the phone records, which just happen to be right here. Like, it's fine. Do you think that Sam, when she was putting together this plan at the last minute to fool everyone with the pinging of the cell phone towers, do you think she got that from the podcast serial? Or is she just, like, a murder podcast aficionado? A true crime aficionado in general? What's Sam's like?
- [34:44]
Rob Mahoney
That's a great question. I honestly would have loved a subplot where, like, Sam is constantly listening to murder pods. Like, every time. Every time you see her in her suv, then she's just, like, you know, just brushing up, just trying to see what's what, just trying to cover her tracks a little bit. I think that would honestly be a. Maybe it's too big a tip of the hat. But look, in a Show where, as we talked about last week, there are just no plausible actual, like, people who could have committed this murder other than possibly Sam. And then it turns out it's not a murder at all. Like, it was already pointing in her direction. Why not point a little harder with some plots, I guess.
- [35:16]
Joanna Robinson
I mean, I will say in terms of like the whodunit reveal. I will give the show credit where it is due and say like, we were like, there's no way it can't be Sam. And in a sense we were right.
- [35:29]
Rob Mahoney
But from a certain point of view.
- [35:31]
Joanna Robinson
From a certain point of view. But they found a way that it wasn't Sam. And in a way that it wasn't just like a rando walking in. And it wasn't like Ally or Elena or another character that didn't make sense. The sun, someone suggested, you know, like, whatever. Like. So, yeah, the suicide. But then we have to endure the line where she's like, I don't know, what did she say? Your husband blows his brains out on FaceTime is like something that is part of her monologue. I don't know.
- [35:59]
Rob Mahoney
She also name checks the show. There's so much happening in that monologue I don't like. I will say by virtue of her not being the murderer and as Coop alludes to probably getting off more or less scot free, like short term, possibly community service, probably, like, we get to keep Olivia Munn in the show potentially, which I'm. I still am excited about. Even though this was not her best episode or her character's best episode. I don't know what you do with that character moving forward, but as like an outcast, like, we. I think we're starting to see within this finale that, like, staring and tittering behind people's backs whenever, like, anything starts to happen. I think, I think that's like a good framing for these characters. It's a good way to kind of put them on edge a little bit. And I'm eager to see what they do with Sam if she stays, if she. If she, like, just doesn't straight move out.
- [36:47]
Joanna Robinson
I think it has to be like a melon Sam reconciliation is like all. You know, we gotta tease that when they're sort of like looking at each other from their matching shiny SUVs.
- [36:57]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah. Their Yin yang of Range Rovers pulling out of their spots.
- [37:00]
Joanna Robinson
If you were to loop, you know, given that Coop insists on continuing to Gentleman Thief in season two, which she simply must. Who are you most excited to loop into the criminal enterprise in season two?
- [37:17]
Rob Mahoney
I mean, I Think we gotta get Barney fully on board.
- [37:19]
Joanna Robinson
It's Barney to wash the money.
- [37:22]
Rob Mahoney
Gotta wash the money. Gotta be pro. Like these big stacks of cash, like it's just not gonna cut it.
- [37:26]
Joanna Robinson
Hiding it in a crumble paper bag.
- [37:28]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, no, we gotta. Look, if you're gonna be a gentleman thief, the whole point is it's a little more dignified than that. So, you know, have some self respect for your new chosen profession.
- [37:37]
Joanna Robinson
You say Barney to wash the money? Yes, I say Mel to like, you know, a sort of like Mr. And Mrs. Smith, like, you know, double act situation from. Do like that from this family. Yeah, I think Barney makes the most sense in terms of like, if we're going to continue to go down the road of. Of a. Like a Breaking Bad or Weeds, where the enterprise just grows and grows and grows, you do need someone to like, put all the cash into one of those cash counting machines and then like, do all the things. I love that. That's. That's the kind of montage I'm talking about. Okay, but I need Mel involved. I think it would be really fun to have Mel involved. The kids, maybe.
- [38:21]
Rob Mahoney
I mean, you do need. You do need some sick beats when you're on these jobs, you know, like, maybe you need a soundtrack.
- [38:27]
Joanna Robinson
Do you think we're careening towards a Hunter Aunt Ali collaboration where they like, oh, wow, I didn't even consider that sick album together. He, like, produces her album and it's a huge hit or something like that.
- [38:41]
Rob Mahoney
I would honestly love it. Joe, how do you feel about music writing on screen? You know, like the aha moment of like we just wrote We Will Rock youk. How do you. How do you feel about those sequences?
- [38:52]
Joanna Robinson
Um, oh, well, in that movie specifically.
- [38:56]
Rob Mahoney
I kind of baited you on that one. That was fucking terrible. I let my biases show a little bit, I got to admit.
- [39:02]
Joanna Robinson
But there's like, what's, what's the. What's the Paul Dano Beach Boys movie with John Cusack?
- [39:11]
Rob Mahoney
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [39:13]
Joanna Robinson
Love and.
- [39:14]
Rob Mahoney
Love and mercy.
- [39:14]
Joanna Robinson
Love and mercy. Watching Paul Dano come up with Good Vibrations is cinema.
- [39:26]
Rob Mahoney
That one is good.
- [39:26]
Joanna Robinson
That one's really good. Watching Queen come up with We Will Rock youk is one of the worst things I've ever seen.
- [39:31]
Rob Mahoney
It's very bad. I do think the real life songs are a little harder. But if you had Hunter and Ally, you know, like banging out an original track one, the track needs to be good. That's always challenging. Making fictional works of art good.
- [39:43]
Joanna Robinson
Really tough. But when it hits just ask Studio 60. Go ahead. Yeah.
- [39:47]
Rob Mahoney
Did you ever see the Nick Offerman joint Hearts Beat Loud?
- [39:51]
Joanna Robinson
Yes. Like, yeah.
- [39:54]
Rob Mahoney
Kirsty Clemons, like, really good original music. And that's a scene where it's like their scene of like, writing that song is electric.
- [40:00]
Joanna Robinson
I agree.
- [40:00]
Rob Mahoney
So you know what? I'm open to it. I don't know what the future holds for Ali. She's got a cleaner face. Wipe off the blue smudge first. Or maybe not. Maybe lean into it. And that's her new signature look. You know, whichever way they want to go. But I think those shoot. Those two should get into the studio together.
- [40:14]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Yeah. To give. To give Hunter a plot line that isn't just like, Hunter gets a girlfriend at a watch this season.
- [40:22]
Rob Mahoney
That's character, that's development, that's growth.
- [40:25]
Joanna Robinson
Shout out to Mel when she's like, Morgan Adderall. Morgan.
- [40:30]
Rob Mahoney
That was good. That's good. Again, there's. There's good jokes in this show. I just want more of the jokes and less of, like, Sam monologuing about stuck up hedge fund guys, you know, Like, I want a little less of that. Not because it's not true, but because, like, you were also very recently a rich, stuck up person yourself until you realized you had no money.
- [40:51]
Joanna Robinson
You don't deserve it. You and all the other money guys, you walk around like such big shots. Like, all this money is proof of something. When it was handed to you.
- [40:58]
Rob Mahoney
Ma' am, you were at a country club like, two days ago, like, lounging by the pool, hobnobbing with everyone else. I don't know what's happening. I. I almost called her lady there. And I think we are, like, contractually obligated to say that Kat gets a Don't call me lady moment here in the finale. So at the. Here at theringer.com, we support the great work of all women not wanting to be called lady in loud and dramatic fashion.
- [41:19]
Joanna Robinson
Okay, so we are ready for the like Risley and Isles Law and Order spinoff that is Kat and Offset Hernandez.
- [41:26]
Rob Mahoney
Yes. Yes. See, I didn't know what I wanted the show to be until you just said that. And now it's. It's been clarified perfectly.
- [41:32]
Joanna Robinson
We're ready for that. Detective Lynn should probably be reassigned to another burrow. I would appreciate that enormously. I just don't understand what they're doing with this character when. When she's like, talking through a full mouth and you're like, wow, that sure is one tough broad. She gets socks everywhere. What a.
- [41:52]
Rob Mahoney
No, she Wants her sauce on the side, though, you know, like, she's trying to be proactive about it, but this burger place is trying to keep her down.
- [41:57]
Joanna Robinson
And Officer Hernandez is like, you're gonna get sauce in all of our evidentiary documentation.
- [42:04]
Rob Mahoney
I wanna bounce through a couple of those characters and say, like, do we think they will be a recurring or in any way prominent part of your Friends and Neighbors season two? Like Detective Lynn? Is she gonna be back around investigating anything? Is she just like a part of the firmament of the show now?
- [42:19]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, because she's the cat to his mouse. Because even though he got out of this murder rap, she already knew. She was like, there's been something wrong with you from the jump, my guy.
- [42:27]
Rob Mahoney
So, yes, not, not wrong about that. Bad police work elsewhere, but the instinct was correct. What about Liv Cross at the hedge fund? Do we ever see Liv Cross again?
- [42:38]
Joanna Robinson
What a shitty use of Liv Cross inside of this episode. I would have rather it was like the cocaine brothers who came to seriously give Coop the walk and talk than. Than this use of Liv. Yes, yes, we're gonna see her again.
- [42:53]
Rob Mahoney
How about Nick? Is Nick done on this show?
- [42:56]
Joanna Robinson
Should be.
- [42:58]
Rob Mahoney
It's tough, but if I were them.
- [42:59]
Joanna Robinson
I would say Nick has moved to Los Angeles and we wish him well.
- [43:04]
Rob Mahoney
You're gonna move more toilets there anyway. Like, I think you gotta really know your market.
- [43:08]
Joanna Robinson
He would be big in Japan. That's what I think.
- [43:10]
Rob Mahoney
Well, here's the thing. That market is too well saturated. Like, he's trying to break into an American audience that doesn't even know how far toilet technology can go.
- [43:18]
Joanna Robinson
Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. Who else?
- [43:22]
Rob Mahoney
How much do we get of Barney's home life with Grace and the renovation and his in laws? Like, do we see any of that stuff again?
- [43:28]
Joanna Robinson
Well, that will make more sense to me if Barney is inside of the organization. I will be more invested in that if Barney is inside of the organization. Because then it won't feel like a weird detour. It will feel like part. Like flow naturally from the central plot, you know?
- [43:42]
Rob Mahoney
Yeah, Having these twinning sorts of like domestic who knows what. Who is involved, who is not, who is covering things up, who is not. Like that stuff can really work between the two families.
- [43:51]
Joanna Robinson
Can I amend this? Sort of like we want Barney in the. I want Barney and his wife because she's like. She's like you and me. You and me against the world, remember?
- [43:59]
Rob Mahoney
You're right.
- [44:00]
Joanna Robinson
So like I need the two of them to be on the money washing scam.
- [44:04]
Rob Mahoney
I think the order of Operations should be. Barney gets involved. He quickly loops in grace, like a. And then it becomes a tension point that, like, Mel is on the outs, and you have to slowly incorporate her into the. Into the Bling Ring, as it were. I love this. What about our beloved Cat? Is she still in the show? Is she done?
- [44:22]
Joanna Robinson
She has to be in the show. She's our favorite.
- [44:26]
Rob Mahoney
She's keeping me involved. Like, again, I'm down for the spinoff. And look, I think a lot of these characters, even the ones that aren't fully fleshed out as independent people within this world, I'm sure we'll still show up in a sauna, at the pool, at a restaurant. Like, they're still gonna be part of the crowd. But I think there's a distinguishing line between who is, like, a part of that crowd, that posse, who's, like, following Coop or Mel around, and who is an actual character who's fleshed out in their own right.
- [44:55]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah. Cat, I want more of always. And I don't know, you know, if. I guess if Detective Lynn is always here to try to arrest Coop, then Kat can always be here to, you know, get Coop out of hot water. But, like, Elena. What about Elena?
- [45:11]
Rob Mahoney
I think she's still here. I think, clearly, if the designs are, we're gonna keep robbing people. Coop can't be doing it alone. At least he tends to do very poorly when he does it alone.
- [45:22]
Joanna Robinson
I don't know. I think he was doing better before Elena than he was after Elena. Right?
- [45:25]
Rob Mahoney
That might be true. Well, I mean, look, there's not her.
- [45:29]
Joanna Robinson
Fault, but I'm saying embolden him to do. To take bigger swings, and then that's where they got majorly fucked up.
- [45:36]
Rob Mahoney
I don't think they know what to do with that character at all. I don't know whether we're ever going to see Chivo again. I don't know whether we're ever going to see the chicken ring eating drug dealer again. Like, I don't. I don't. I don't get any of that stuff. And I'm not. Like, I wish it mattered more. I wish it were better executed within, you know, the scheme of this show. I just don't think they're there yet.
- [45:56]
Joanna Robinson
What about the cocaine brothers?
- [46:00]
Rob Mahoney
They're. Why would they leave? Yeah, this is. This is where they live. This is where they eat. Like, there's gonna be more bros nights that they can be invited to. Look, I really loved the cocaine bender part of last week. I really loved the cocaine bender. That was this podcast as you and I were getting, like, high on Bill's takes, I came into this finale even more excited about the state of your friends and neighbors. And then characters started talking, and I felt a little bit differently about it. But I do genuinely love ending with, we're going back to gentlemen thieving. Like, this is the bare bones of what makes this show effective. And we're gonna get back to it.
- [46:34]
Joanna Robinson
And that's what we wanted. We did not want Coop to go to jail. Like, as much as he wanted a courtroom drama, we did not want season two to be a protracted courtroom drama where we're doing neither. We're neither being or we're e ing. We gotta B and E. In order to do both, you gotta do both. So there's a little too much E.
- [46:48]
Rob Mahoney
With no B in this. In this show, though. Like, he never, like, obviously he's trying to sneak his way in, but also good. It was just so glaring in this episode that literally no one has security cameras. I know we did, like, the one line of dialogue earlier this season about, like, a WI fi jammer or whatever, but you gotta at least show him turning it on. Like, you don't need a lot, but show me that.
- [47:07]
Joanna Robinson
Watch him stroll in and just boop boop. If you want us to believe in this technology. Yes, we gotta show us the boop boop. You know what I mean?
- [47:13]
Rob Mahoney
A single boop boop an episode is fine, but would it.
- [47:15]
Joanna Robinson
Whoever I presume is monitoring the security feeds notice that, like, every other night or so, someone is boop booping the security cameras in the neighborhood. I. You know, who does know a little bit about the B and the E is. Is Sam, who I want to ask you, Gentleman Chef, how do you feel about the use of the meat tenderizer as the. As the instrument she used to break the window to make it look like someone broke into the house?
- [47:50]
Rob Mahoney
I mean, unquestionably works. I don't know any. Anyone who's ever done any kind of meat tenderizing in their life. Like, you know, you have that flash of, like, what happens if I miss this and I just tenderize the shit out of my hand? You know, as I'm, like, trying to keep this chicken positioned properly or whatever it is. So, yeah, like, you can do some real damage with that thing.
- [48:08]
Joanna Robinson
I felt like they were trying to go for something really camp with, like, she's got the, like, yellow rubber gloves and the meat tenderizer. This very, like, Desperate Housewives kind of, like, moment, but I'm like, I don't know Again, go more camp. Go more camp. Make everyone a worse person. And don't try to sermonize anything to us, because I don't. I don't think that's your strong suit. Your friends and neighbors, be fun, be shallow. And I will enjoy you so much more in season two.
- [48:35]
Rob Mahoney
So I'm so glad you said that, Joe, because now that I'm thinking about it, one of the other touch points for me that came up as Sam is explaining exactly what has happened from her perspective, it reminded me a lot of a simple favor. For some reason, this, like, again, like, kind of loopy, kind of camp like that. That at least the first movie, like, found its audience and people, like, really latched onto that tonality. And this felt like you kind of want something like that, but you haven't really committed in any particular direction to achieve it. And so I think if they do lean into the campier parts of this story, it could. It could really hit the right tone. They're just fumbling in the dark for a lot of this stuff right now.
- [49:11]
Joanna Robinson
Yeah, I just think they're trying to be more than they should be. Be less. I'll enjoy you more, that's all. And I mean, I. That might be a little bit of a hallmark of a Apple show. You know, we were trying to sort of do a taxonomy of an Apple show, and I think we bumped into this a little bit with Bad Monkey and a little bit, I would say, with Severance sometimes, too. Like, severance is trying to get, like, really deep. And I'm like, please take me only medium deep. You know, I love a deep show. I just. I'm not sure that these, you know, these particular Apple joints are able to deliver on the depth that they are trying to shoot for.
- [49:52]
Rob Mahoney
You know, I think the Apple shows that have been most successful are the ones that understand that they need to only be 30 or less percent deep and are leaning into those elements of what they are. The trashier elements, the more commercial elements, the more, like, watchable TV elements of what they are. And then, yeah, like, ones that kind of fall very comfortably into, like, the 60 to 70% deep. Like, we're going to hint at some subtext, we're going to hint at some lore. We're going to hint at depth to these characters that you may not see on the surface, but, like, we're not going to dig too far into it, you know, like, we're going to let the plot drive this thing, and then when it goes off the rails, it really goes off the rails. I think this, it wasn't a disaster. You know, like, again, I had a fine enough time watching this show. I don't think it knows what it is yet. I don't know that I know what it should be, frankly. Like, I have, I've had mixed ideas throughout this season where I was like, oh, I kind of like this murder mystery. Oh, wait, this is too much murder mystery. I kind of wish we would get back to the thieving. Like, I was kind of swerving along with the show, trying to figure out what I wanted it to be.
- [50:49]
Joanna Robinson
It's like. And I don't know if I feel like there should be a consultant in Hollywood whose sole job it is to tell showrunners how many episodes of how much. How many episodes of story they have. Because we were just saying with our last finale pod, we were like, this needed to be like at least a nine, if not like a 12 episode season of television. And with this, I'm like, I think you had maybe six episodes of story. You know what I mean? And they just tried to fill it out with a lot of side plots that we felt then like spread too thin and our attention was scattered and stuff like that. But there is like a core similarly, you know, like with Bad Monkey, we wanted that to be shorter. Hijack is a show that I wanted to be a little bit shorter. You know, like there's, you know, if someone wants to offer up their services in Hollywood, it's not me, necessarily.
- [51:40]
Rob Mahoney
No, I think it's you. I think, I think it's you with a Mission Impossible style countdown clock of the total runtime of the season. Like, this is our target. You know, you want to use 20 minutes on Elena. We're going to take 20 minutes off the clock and then this is what you've got left.
- [51:54]
Joanna Robinson
This is the, like, the process in Hollywood is like you, you, you pitch your pilot and then you talk to the network and the network gives you like this many episode order for your season. And I feel like the next step should be then you go break your season and you bring it back. And then somebody says, actually man, you only have X many episodes here, so that's actually what the season is going to be. Or actually, man, you need a few more episodes to fill this out. Because not every writer knows what size bag to stuff their story. And then either you get like two little story rattling around a giant bag or you get a bag that's overflowing and we need that perfectly sized Birkin bag and that is what we can enjoy.
- [52:36]
Rob Mahoney
And I think we're only going to get it from Joanna Robinson.
- [52:39]
Joanna Robinson
I'm not sure that.
- [52:40]
Rob Mahoney
No, you. I think you have to take this mantle, Joe.
- [52:42]
Joanna Robinson
Just because you can identify a problem doesn't mean you're the solution to the problem.
- [52:46]
Rob Mahoney
Isn't that the truth as we talk about the many problems with your friends and neighbors? But if you did want that job, I support you. While we're kind of, like, throwing our hats in the ring or not, I would like to nominate us both as, like, snooty extras that Coop can yell at for season two. Like, I'll be a waiter who brings him, you know, the sole monier when he wanted, like, a filet or something. Like, I'm down for whatever. Whatever we want to do with that.
- [53:09]
Joanna Robinson
I can't believe you brought so many back into our lives.
- [53:12]
Rob Mahoney
It is Apple tv, you know, we're in the expanded. The expanded universe. But look, I just think that's a robust area for character actors right now is like, be the person at the next table over who gets yelled at or their glass broken or whatever.
- [53:26]
Joanna Robinson
But you just said you didn't like that part of the show.
- [53:29]
Rob Mahoney
I don't, but if you're gonna do it, at least let us be part of it.
- [53:31]
Joanna Robinson
Okay, Sounds great. Yeah, definitely. Your friends and neighbors after, if they're listening to this, are like, we don't wanna hire those people. They seem like someone we want on our team.
- [53:42]
Rob Mahoney
Definitely.
- [53:42]
Joanna Robinson
Okay. Did we do it?
- [53:44]
Rob Mahoney
I think we did it.
- [53:45]
Joanna Robinson
Great. Thanks to Kai Grady, thanks to Justin Sales, we'll be back next week. We've got some thoughts and feelings and iron the Fire. And we'll both be in la, so we might be doing some in studio, in person stuff. And thanks to you, Rob, for going on this journey in the neighborhood with me. I appreciate you always.
- [54:04]
Rob Mahoney
Thank you, Joe. I have one parting piece of wisdom for you and our audience. I just want everyone to remember that it really turns out even the princes are just frogs in Brunello Cuccinelli polo shirts. I want us to all take that with us.
- [54:18]
Joanna Robinson
It's right up there with, like, choose life, choose a career, choose a family. You know, it's just like. Just flows just the same. All right, we'll see you soon. By.