#288. 'Mythic Quest'! (Apple TV+)
Listen to this episode ↗on Substack, where the show lives now
The main event is Mythic Quest season four on Apple TV+, which Sonny has loved since it debuted (his favorite Apple TV+ show, edging out Ted Lasso and Severance) but finds these first two episodes merely solid rather than great, largely because the show has lost F. Murray Abraham's C.W. Longbottom (reportedly fired for inappropriate on-set jokes) and, per JVL, hasn't found a new center of gravity now that the workplace-comedy "dyads" of conflict are spinning off in their own directions instead of orbiting Rob McElhenney's Ian. JVL, who's watched from the start but loves the show a notch less than Sonny does, agrees the season-four premiere and second episode feel closer to median-quality Mythic Quest than to its funniest, LARPing-episode heights, while newcomer Mike Warren — watching completely fresh, no back-catalog — says he was primed to love it and came away a little let down, though the "bitch sesh" scene about in-game sex simulation and the Danny Pudi/Rickety Cricket dynamic won him over enough that he's now considering starting from season one. Before any of that, the trio spends the long opening stretch on Sonny's six-year-old son's sudden, inexplicable Nike brand loyalty (and the ensuing pilgrimage from Kohl's to Academy Sports), a tangent on the lost art of getting separated from your parents at a department store, JVL soliciting movie recommendations from Sonny and Mike for a kid-free two weeks alone with his sons Flash and G-Money (everything from Ronin and Casino Royale to Dodgeball and Waterboy gets floated), Mike's cul-de-sac drama over a long-empty neighbor's house finally going up for sale, and JVL's unsettling story about an elderly neighbor whose house was seemingly taken over by a stranger who moved in to "help." They also run through a sparse box office (Dog Man opening at #36 million, plus the sci-fi comedy Companion) before turning to the main topic. The episode closes on JVL relaying his niece's cheerleading exploits at a scoreless basketball halftime.
From the show notes
Your favorite tech-bro (and gal!) workplace comedy is back.
Full transcript
Sonny00:00:00In the past few years, we've had some highs here at Mythic Quest.
Guest00:00:04Like the wild success of our own Dana Bryant. She a girl genius, y'all.
Mike00:00:10Don't cut your chickens before the slaughter.
Guest00:00:12That is not the saying.
Mike00:00:13That's how I say it.
Guest00:00:14I do it biggie like that.
Mike00:00:15It's Dana this, Dana that.
Guest00:00:17Everything's Dana, Dana, Dana. Brady want to reference? Yes.
JVL00:00:21Yes.
Mike00:00:30Welcome to the Sub-Beacon. I am your co-host Mike Warren. Joining me as always are my two co-hosts who are busy as we speak creating new games in Playpen, Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Join us over at subbeacon.com. Tell your friends and family that the only way they can listen to the show is to become a patron at subbeacon.com and when they do that, they can get new episodes every Friday morning. They can comment, become a part of the Sub-Beacon community. There's always fun discussion going on there and sometimes we even dip in to the comments but you can only do it, only see it, only listen to it at subbeacon.com. We are going to be talking about Mythic Quest season four, episodes one and two later on in the show but first let's check in to see how we're doing Sonny Bunch. What is going on with you my man?
Sonny00:01:29Not a whole lot. So it's basketball season, Mike has been filling us in on his exploits. It's been interesting watching this season of basketball with my son who is now six. We did a season last year, it didn't go that well because he's still too, like frankly too small to do anything on the court but they're getting like bigger and able to actually understand the game. And what my son has come to understand is that he is good at defense, can't shoot the ball, literally can't get the ball high enough to shoot it at the rim, but is like a lockdown defender.
JVL00:02:13You told us this. Yeah. Dennis Rodman.
Sonny00:02:16Yeah. Now, what's interesting about this is he has been doing this on shoes that I did not realize are like bald on the bottom, like the treads are totally gone, so I saw him slip like two weeks ago, and I thought, oh, the court's dusty or something, and then this week he was just kind of all over the place, and I looked at his shoes, and they're like, it's like if they were tires, you would see the threads like on them.
Mike00:02:40Kids will walk around in shoes with holes in the soles. Kids have no concept. They have no idea.
Sonny00:02:46No concept whatsoever. So I was like, okay, Mars. It's got to be the shoes.
Mike00:02:49It's got to be the shoes.
Sonny00:02:50I was like, we got to get you new shoes, and he's like, can I get Nikes? And I was like, oh, yeah, I guess. That's fine by me. Do you want to like go? Should we, you know, try on some Adidas and see if you like I want Nikes like, okay. It's my first experience with like brand awareness. Yes. Which is which is a very interesting phenomenon. And I like it's not 100% clear to me where this comes from, except all of his friends are obsessed with Michael Jordan for some reason. And I, I do not understand why this is, except it must be some sort of unholy synergy between Nike Air Jordan, Michael Jordan, etc, etc. Anyway, again, this is this is this is a this is a new thing for for us, like, for both kids, really, because my daughter is not like super brand store brand, you know, name brand conscious. Either he was very explicit, like, I want Nike's. I was like, all right, that's I mean, that's fine. I'm fine with buying you Nike's for sports. That's what they're for.
Mike00:04:09So did you get him a pair of Air Jordans for Air Jordan for kids?
Sonny00:04:13No, no. I didn't even see any, actually. So first, first we went to Kohl's. First, we went to Kohl's because Kohl's sells Nike's. And I was like, all right, let's go try on. Let's go try on shoes. Let's go try on shoes. And he's like, why are we here? Why aren't we at Academy? Sports, another brand, like, not even like, it's not even like, not even like, you know, Dick's Sporting Goods or whatever. It's why aren't we at Academy Sports? I'm like, they sell shoes here as well. We were closer to here. And he was like, OK, he's very suspicious. He's very suspicious of this.
JVL00:04:45Dad, these aren't the good Nike's.
Sonny00:04:47So we go, we go to that. We go to the shoe department and we start trying on shoes. And he's miserable the whole time. He's like, why are we here? I was like, I'm fine with buying you Nike's, but I'm starting to get annoyed by all this. I'm like, I'm, you have to, you have to, you have to stop with this. Like, whatever this is, it has to stop. And he's like, OK, I'm like, super pouty. So we try on shoes. We try them on. We get his size. And I'm like, you want to try a half size up? Because he's like, these are too tight. He's like, yeah, I'll try half size up. You try. These are too loose. It's like, OK, all right. Do you want to go to Academy Sports and look at their Nike's? Yes. All right, fine. So we go like, it's literally like a quarter mile away. It's like across the street. We go over there and it's like, it's, I don't even know how to describe it. It's like Elf wandering through Manhattan at Christmas time. He's got like, his eyes are wide open and he's like, ah. So we go into Academy Sports and he starts trying on shoes. And I swear to God, guys, I swear to God.
JVL00:05:55The most expensive pair is the best pair.
Sonny00:05:57Oh, no, no. The same. The exact shoes he was trying on. Oh. The same exact, not just Nike's, but the same sub Nike brand in the same color, the same size. These are perfect. That's great. These are perfect shoes. These are perfect. And I like, I don't even think they were more expensive at Academy Sports. Like they were the same price. I like it. None of this, none of this.
Mike00:06:20It's like the way that Coca-Cola just tastes better at McDonald's. You know, it's that there's something about it. It's ineffable, Sonny.
Sonny00:06:28I get it. Yes, man. But the whole thing was, the whole thing was a real experience for me and not one that I particularly enjoyed because it does signal, it signals, it signals a series of bad things coming in the, in the, in the near future here. But anyway, we got his Nike's. He'll be able to run around on that court without slipping and sliding. And he got them. He got, he got Nike's. He got them from Academy Sports in Dallas, Texas. He's good to go.
JVL00:06:56So this is, this is proof that. That brand advertising works, right? And the, the. Sure. The old, the old adage in the, the industry is 50% of all brand advertising works. The problem is that nobody knows which 50%. Yeah. Right. And so it's, you know, at some point somebody broke through for Academy Sports for him.
Sonny00:07:21Well, and this is the crazy thing because like Academy Sports, like I, I don't even know, again, I don't know where he would see Academy Sports. Right. Advertisement.
JVL00:07:29I hear from other kids at school talking about it. School. Right. Yeah.
Sonny00:07:32It's school. It's school. And like we have, we bought cleats for, for him there before. So like he's been there before. Like, I guess in his mind, sports shoes come from Academy Sports.
JVL00:07:43Yeah. And if you're buying at a clothes store, those can't be real sports shoes. They can't be.
Sonny00:07:49Exactly. I think that, I, that must be, that must be entirely it. We went there once and like, that is now the only place.
JVL00:07:55This is for where boring shoes are. They sell boring things at Kohl's.
Mike00:07:59Ah. Can I say, can I say like the, my kids are so spoiled on the, they rarely, if ever, like go to a department store to buy clothes. And, and like, this was a, this was a absolute cornerstone of my childhood of like going to these stores, like back to school time or like, you know, to get the, the winter, the, the new spring clothes. Cause I had outgrown. It's like. It is the most boring, miserable experience for a child. And I think it is character building to have to like go to these things and, and, and, and, and sit through the pain. And my kids, I guess your kids too, like they never do this and it's, we're making weak children is what, what I'm trying to say. Weak.
JVL00:08:50Yeah. You know what? They also ought to all get polio on my day. People got polio. And then we got this, this polio.
Mike00:08:59I draw the line at, at, at, at childhood diseases. Okay. Can we like, there's a, there is a, there is a Delta between childhood polio and, and, and being at.
JVL00:09:10See what Michael, Michael, what you are, what you are missing here is that it's not about the kids. It's about us. Because do you know who else it was miserable for taking you to Belk's your parents? It was, believe me, they weren't enjoying that. They didn't have a good time with you. Going, Oh, we got to go back to Belk's again. I don't want to try this on. I don't want the charter club polo. I want the polo brand. And so the new regime, if it's easier for the kids, fine. Who cares? That's a byproduct. It's easier for us. The parents. Absolutely.
Mike00:09:50My mom still tells the story of when I was little and got lost in one of the JCPenney or Steinmart or something. And like the, the horror of having. To call like over the intercom, you know, looking for, which is the thing that used
JVL00:10:03to happen all the time. Oh yeah. If you were at a department store, I would say half the time you were there, somebody would come over the intercom and say, uh, there is a car with license plate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Your lights are on or, uh, Sonny Bunch, your mom is waiting for you at the front, right? Or Mrs. Jones, your child is over at the security office with lost and found. I honestly. Honestly, it's probably been 35 years since I've heard something like that while at a store. When as a kid, it was just a regular kid just got lost all the time. And it was like you, part of what the store had to do was collect lost children and then make announcements to get the parents to come pick them up, redistribute them back to the parents.
Mike00:10:48Right.
Sonny00:10:49I wonder, I wonder if part of that is, I wonder if the decline in that is partly, I mean, partly it's technological of course, cause you know, the kids of a certain age have phones watches, whatever. Uh, part of it is probably because fewer kids are going to department stores, right? Like parents are ordering things closed for them online or, uh, you know, or just going by themselves and getting stuff. I think part of it is also the design of the stores has changed. I feel like department stores now, department stores used to be like real labyrinths of clutter. They were like racks of stuff everywhere, right?
JVL00:11:28They were designed to make you. You get lost in them the way Ikea is, but I don't even think it's, I don't even think
Sonny00:11:32it's that they were designed to get people lost in them.
JVL00:11:35I think it's designed at all. They were just, I think they were. No. Yeah. I think they weren't.
Sonny00:11:38They just had stuff like jammed, jammed in every open floor space. You put clearance, like you got, you got five square feet here. Put a rack, put a rack in. We gotta get, we gotta move some product. Uh, and I think, I think my, my sense, and again, maybe this is just a difference because now I'm taller and I can see over these things. So it. It feels less labyrinthine to me, but I also think, I also just think that stores are less crowded now. They, they are like, there's a, there's a bit on this and I think Mad Men or, or one of those shows where Don Draper's talking to like the lady who owns the fancy, uh, department store in New York city. And he's like, there's a lot. And, and she's talking about how like her customers prefer less stuff. They want less stuff. They want more curation. They want open spaces. You want clutter, you go to a Gimble's. You want, you want, you want a nice, a nicer experience. You come to my place. And I think that that ethos has kind of spread throughout like everywhere, but like Walmart.
JVL00:12:39Also the department store has been disaggregated. And so the physical stores, like they're just, you now, you now go to the shoe store and the shoe store is bigger than it used to be. It's now DSW, but it's smaller than department store. So the kids can't get lost in them. Right. The houseware store is a houseware store now, you know, and the department stores are just less. It's important. And there are fewer of them because we've disaggregated all of those product verticals.
Sonny00:13:05One last, one last possibility, then we can move on. I do think that there's also, there's also a cultural thing where, because of the child kidnapping panics, parents do not let kids out of their sight as much. There is a lot. I mean, this is the whole leashed child phenomenon, right? Like it's like you, your kids, your kids don't get out of your line of sight for more than 20 seconds. Without like alarm bells going on.
JVL00:13:30I, I actually think it's that I'm sure that's part of it, but I think another part of it is that when I was a kid, we were little tornadoes of destruction in public spaces. Like we were climbing under the racks and running around and playing. And I think society is generally less tolerant of kids just like running around and causing general mayhem in public spaces. And so parents are like, no, stop. Just stay next to me. Don't touch anything.
Sonny00:13:58Yeah, I think that's also probably true. All this is all this.
Mike00:14:02No more of those circular. Remember the circular?
JVL00:14:05Yes, I'm climb under those and we'd like go inside and like, oh, this is my base. You can't get me out when I'm inside my base. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, JVL, what's going on with you? I am coming to you, gentlemen, for advice. What week? And to, in fact, we come to you for advice. The entire community. I would like you guys to help. Me in the comments this week. Next week, my wife is taking my girls out of the country. Whoa. For two weeks, leaving me, Flash and G Money to our own devices. Chick-fil-A and pizza every night. The comic book shops, baseball card ripping. I mean, it's going to be amazing.
Mike00:14:54So many puzzles. Oh, so many puzzles.
JVL00:14:57But what I. What I come to you guys for is movie ideas, because another thing this frees us up to do is watch movies that otherwise the girls would have no interest in having on. And so I need two classes of movies. I need movies just for me and Flash. So movies that Flash really is now ready to be exposed to. And then the kind of pure action or. Mildly gross out comedy or comedy action movies that can be for both of them. And so let me let me just give you a couple of things that I have on my list already to spark your thinking. So for just Flash, Ronan. He's never seen Ronan. I think he's old enough to appreciate Ronan now. Seeing like, you know, Bobby didn't know. Boy, Sonny, you're making a face. Pulp fiction, perhaps. Old school, perhaps. Yeah. For G money. The J.J. Abrams Star Trek, which is just like low chock-a-block action. It is what a Star Wars movie should have been. Pacific Rim. A real Kaiju versus mech movie for a kid who loves Godzilla versus King Kong. I mean, so these are the kind of things I'm thinking of. And I would like you guys to help me out.
Sonny00:16:23Remind me. Remind me how old G money is. Eight.
Mike00:16:28OK, question. Question. Yes. How are one or both of them with what they would consider old movies like? Like, are they you know, is there a is there a threshold after which it's like too old for them in terms of like the movie, the action slow or it's like, yes, or did there?
JVL00:16:52Yes. Like, I would love to watch The Godfather with Flash, for instance. But I think he is not yet at a point where he could do. I mean, I didn't see The Godfather until I was like 24. Sure. And when I saw it for the first time, I felt like I needed a pad and paper to keep track of all the Italian names because I just didn't understand who he's the who of what I need a diagram.
Sonny00:17:22So this is my fear with Ronan. It's not so much that Ronan is not like age appropriate for him. I just wonder if he'll be like bored by all the kind of Cold War intrigue. Who's double crossing who? Right.
Mike00:17:35That would be what about like a like I'm asking, like, are 80s kind of comedy and action movies off the table? Is that too going to be too boring? Like, would you like to watch Total Recall?
JVL00:17:48I know that's 90s, but, you know, I might. He might. I don't know. Like, I'm open to the idea of Total Recall, but I feel like there's probably other things. We should like I need five movies for for each of these lists that are absolute home runs, you know, because we're going to have almost two weeks together. Just the boys. What? Oh, it's going to be a gift.
Mike00:18:12It's like vacation. Sonny, what do you think?
Sonny00:18:18I think so for Flash. What about like aliens? The James like basically James Cameron's whole body of work, more or less like aliens. Terminator, Terminator 2, Titanic, True Lies, True Lies, True Lies. I mean, True Lies is great.
Mike00:18:36Could True Lies be for both of them? No, True Lies is true. True Lies could not be for both of them. There's there's too much.
Sonny00:18:42Depends on how much Jamie Lee Curtis writhing around in a hotel room. You want to show your kids. I don't know.
JVL00:18:47Like G Money would just be bored. G Money would be like, oh, romance.
Sonny00:18:52Yeah, I would. So, I mean, I think I think that's one one place to. To look. I mean, I don't know. I think I feel like I G Money might be a little scared by aliens. Oh, no chance.
JVL00:19:06G Money can't have horror elements for G Money movies. The action has to be again. Start like we're talking monsters punching each other sort of thing.
Mike00:19:18How are they with comedies?
JVL00:19:20I mean, Dodgeball is one of Flash's favorite movies.
Mike00:19:27OK, got it. All right.
JVL00:19:28So like he loves that entire era. This is why I think old school will just kill old school will be old school will be great.
Mike00:19:35If you want to go like a little like what he maybe you're not into this, but like some of the original Adam Sandler comedies, Billy Madison, Gilmore. So happy Gilmore killed for G Money.
JVL00:19:48OK, G Money love for G Money. Really?
Sonny00:19:50OK, what about like Zoolander and Tropic Thunder?
JVL00:19:55Zoolander have already done with Flash Tropic Thunder. Absolutely. On the. West.
Sonny00:19:59Yeah.
Mike00:20:00No, no. So again, I'm thinking Tommy Boy, Big Daddy. Oh, that's a good one. Oh, is Big Daddy a good one?
JVL00:20:06OK. Yes. Big Daddy.
Mike00:20:08I mean, it's not good, but it's it's well, OK.
Sonny00:20:11I mean, if you're going if you're going Adam Sandler, I would not go Big Daddy. Big Daddy is more poignant, frankly.
JVL00:20:17Give me give me the best Adam Sandler movies. You got to go.
Sonny00:20:20You just got to go with the Happy Gilmore. The Waterboy. Billy Madison. The Waterboy. Waterboy. Definitely. The Waterboy.
JVL00:20:30Oh, he'll love Waterboy. Won't he?
Mike00:20:31Oh, he'll love Waterboy.
JVL00:20:33Big old nips. Yeah. Waterboy. Plus Henry Winkler. Yeah. I tell you this. He would. So Dodgeball is, of course, like 20 percent too much for G money. With all the, you know, a bunch of queers and stuff, I would say that the rip tour. But 80 percent of Dodgeball would be the funniest thing. If I could just. Have G money watch the if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball scene. Oh, my gosh. He might explode with laughter because that, you know, like guys getting hit in the nuts with stuff.
Mike00:21:09I mean, my friends and I still say necessary. Is it necessary for me to drink my own urine?
JVL00:21:15No, but I do it anyway because it's sterile. I like the taste. Every line of that movie is like money. That movie is so good.
Sonny00:21:24What about like Raiders of the Lost Ark?
JVL00:21:26Oh, yes. Two. To my like faces melting too much for G.
Sonny00:21:34I'm just I'm going through now my list of like five star movies on Letterboxd to see what what comes up.
JVL00:21:41You're thinking too much about like quality and not.
Sonny00:21:44No, no, no, no, no. My rating scale is very much in tune to. Let me see.
Mike00:21:49What about this is this is a this is a good start, though. Pulp Fiction for Flash. What do we think?
Sonny00:21:55I think you could do. I think you could probably do Pulp Fiction. I mean, that's. Fine.
JVL00:21:58What are you shaking your head of, Michael?
Mike00:22:00I just I mean, just all the gimp stuff is like like it disturbs me to this day. Still like gimp stuff is the funniest thing.
Sonny00:22:08We're whining about that when we did the show. What about like the first Mission Impossible?
JVL00:22:12Where's the gimp? Gimp's asleep. They love all of the Mission Impossible movies. I have not let them see three.
Sonny00:22:22What about Casino Royale?
JVL00:22:24Oh, Bond Casino Royale.
Sonny00:22:28That's that's a that's that's kind of a borderline ish one.
JVL00:22:32Casino Royale could be for both. Yeah.
Sonny00:22:35Right. What about for what about for for Flash Layer Cake and Way of the Gun?
JVL00:22:41So here's the thing. I tried Layer Cake with Flash once. Not all that long ago. And he couldn't understand what anybody was saying. And so he is. Is so unfamiliar with like Brit lingo. And and so I tried like the gentleman with him, too. And just the opening scene in The Gentleman, which is when what's his name? Hugh Grant shows up at. Yeah. And he's like, no, I mean, and Flash look after like two minutes. He's like, can we turn the subtitles on? What the hell are they saying? What does that word mean? What is a grass? What is just no familiarity with British slang? And yeah, kiss, kiss, bang, bang.
Sonny00:23:30That makes sense.
JVL00:23:31Show him kiss, kiss, bang, bang, kiss, kiss, bang, bang.
Sonny00:23:35I like a lot of nudity in that one. Just a reminder.
JVL00:23:37That's right. I forgot.
Sonny00:23:39What about a couple more suggestions? What about Edge of Tomorrow? That could be.
JVL00:23:45He told me that he tried because I asked him about this. And he said that he tried watching it on a plane and that he just like bored him.
Sonny00:23:56Well, that's a terrible. Watch it.
JVL00:23:58He topped out after like 20 minutes.
Sonny00:24:00All right. What about what about Quick and the Dead?
JVL00:24:06Maybe that's such a it's too Western. Too much. Yeah. But you know what? Like, it's too camp. I don't think he appreciates camp.
Sonny00:24:15It's not camp.
JVL00:24:17That's not a little bit camp.
Sonny00:24:18It's not camp. Oh, wait. What about Way of the Gun, though?
Mike00:24:22I.
JVL00:24:25I have to. I think Way of the Gun is probably the ultimate. A little too dark for him. OK. It's a lot.
Mike00:24:31I like about Way of the Gun.
JVL00:24:32Tombstone. We got to wait till he's older. It's too long. Like, that's an epic settle in for two hours, 45 minutes. And also, we won't have that time. You know, so these every movie and I can watch after G Money is in bed.
Mike00:24:48How about role models? I'm going back to to comedies.
Sonny00:24:54I don't know that I've ever seen role models. Role models is good. Well, what about step? Brothers.
Mike00:24:58Step brothers. Yes. Oh, could that be with both of them? Yeah, probably. The fucking Catalina wine mixer.
Sonny00:25:07I mean, yeah, it depends on how much you care about G Money hearing the F word.
Mike00:25:12Yeah, that's what I thought. That ship. That's what I thought. Has sailed.
JVL00:25:17I don't think I told you guys this. The last weekend, it's like Saturday morning and I'm sitting on the sofa and G Money is sitting next to me and Flash walks in. The two of them start bickering about something. I don't know what. And Flash turns and walks out of the room and G Money just silently does this. Oh, yeah. And I was just like, oh, I don't think I had seen that from the youngest member of our family yet. Achievement unlocked. He was giving him the finger. Sorry, you guys don't have video. That's what I was doing.
Mike00:25:48Oh, yeah. Here's another comedy that, again, I loved and would be totally fine. Joe Dirt. Oh, Joe Dirt. Yeah. Joe Dirt is such a great man. And it's actually, it is not actually too crude and it's pretty sweet. And it's one of my favorites from that era. I'm thinking of that era, the Adam Sandler and.
JVL00:26:10Gotcha. Those are very, very good. There is one of those movies. It's a David Spade movie. And it is in heavy rotation on Netflix. And it's like they're playing Little League Baseball.
Mike00:26:26Benchwarmers. Benchwarmers. With Napoleon Dynamite is in it.
JVL00:26:31Yeah. When we watched that, G-Money was just, oh, this is so good. Because again, it's a lot of like guys getting hit in the nuts with baseballs.
Mike00:26:40Yes. You try The Longest Yard, the remake with Adam Sandler too. It's not that great of a movie, but it's sports and comedy and it's always good.
JVL00:26:48All right.
Mike00:26:48I'll look at that. JVL, I think you're set. But tell us in the comments, listeners.
Sonny00:26:52Tropic Thunder. Yeah. What about Mad Max Fury Road?
JVL00:26:57That might be a good Flash movie. Yes. That's a good Flash movie. That might be a good Flash movie.
Sonny00:27:03Okay.
JVL00:27:03All right. Yeah. In the comments. Let me know, guys. I would love your suggestions. I'm a little thin on G-Money movies. So again, the two things for him are going to be either like big, super dumb, fun action movies that are not like gory. So think Star Trek or Pacific Rim or fun. Or basically appropriate stretching comedies like Waterboy, Billy Madison, Stepbrothers,
Sonny00:27:33Joker. You could do all of the like recent Kong, Godzilla movies.
JVL00:27:37We've already done those.
Sonny00:27:38Oh, yeah.
JVL00:27:39He loves them. That's what I'm saying. Those movies are great. The Transformers movies. Right.
Mike00:27:44I'm sure you've done those.
JVL00:27:46So. All right. All right. There we go. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate it.
Mike00:27:49Absolutely. Yeah. We're nothing if not good crowdsourcing for advice on this show. We love to do that. Okay. So quickly, what's going on with me? The big news in my neck of the woods is the house across the street. So we live on a cul-de-sac. The house across the street from us, which is owned by the original owner. These houses are over 50 years old. She has not lived in the house. No, no. She's not lived in the house in two years. She is elderly. Her children are all, you know, adults and have families of their own. And she moved. Like two years ago, temporarily, she told us we knew it wasn't temporary to live with her, live near her daughter in Hawaii. Her daughter lives in Hawaii and she moved out there. And so we've just been waiting. It's been empty for two years waiting for the kids to like get their act together. I think she didn't want to sell. It was actually what the real story was. But and it finally last week went on the market and let me tell you, there is nothing. Nothing has been more exciting in the court than the open house. And just the, the, a massive amount of cars. And so like my kids, it's been like my, my 10 year old's been like children of the corn. Like he's just been like standing at the edge of the driveway, like staring at this house and like every time there's a, there's a, you know, a car that opens up and there's a couple of kids that jump out, it's like, Oh, there, there could be. Cause we're the only kid we have the only kids on the court. Actually it's, it's all retired people. On our court. Um, just like in the cycle of where, where these houses are. And, um, and I, I have to like, let them down easy that it's likely that it's a big house, so there's likely to be a family, but the family's likely to have like little kids, like more like our toddlers, you know, generation or toddlers sort of cohort. Um, and, and so I've had to sort of tell particularly my 10 year old, like probably not going to have like a new best friend move in across the street, but in a couple of years, you'll be babysitting for this family, whoever moves in and like, you'll be raking in the money. So he's been okay with that compromise, but it's, it's a big deal. Like it is literally any, all anybody is talking about. We w a few of us just all met at the open house, just like walked into the house just to see what, what they had done to the house, not that much has been done to the house, which is like. Shocking to me, but there's like no inventory in, in the area. And so it's going to go. And apparently it's like today we're, we're recording this on Tuesday. Uh, it's like at 1230, all bids must be in because there are already multiple bids. So it's crazy.
JVL00:30:42Did I ever tell you guys about what happened? The shady thing that happened on my cul-de-sac in Virginia, where we had one of the homes was with this elderly couple who were not a strange, I think maybe basically a strange from their kids. And, uh, she had a stroke and became sort of bedridden and this younger woman, I don't know, late twenties, early thirties with a small kid, like a six or seven year old kid moved in with them. And the story was that this woman, he, the, the, the, the elderly gentleman, George had met her at. Their church and that she was leaving an abusive relationship and needed a place to stay. And so she came to live with them. And then like a month later, uh, the wife died. The, the wife who had been the stroke, maybe natural causes. Yeah. I don't know, maybe, you know, whatever, like very shortly after. And then like, we just stopped seeing George anymore and George wasn't really a And then the, this guy moved in there, a young guy who we later found out was the ex-boyfriend who actually had been in jail. And, uh, and then George was just gone. Yeah. And George no longer lived there. The house was never sold. The deed was still in his name. And it was a sort of like, they just came in and took the house from him.
Sonny00:32:26Sounds about right.
JVL00:32:27And I was one of these things where I just wondered how often this happens. Yeah. Where, cause I, I don't know, like, I don't know if this is a crime or not. Like maybe it's not a crime to steal, not steal, right. If it's voluntary to convince an old person who like to, to just, the whole thing was
Mike00:32:47just, does there, yeah. Does there have to be some transfer of, of, I guess a transfer of a deed, right? Like you don't have to technically sell it. You can leave a house to someone.
JVL00:32:56Well, so the deed. The deed was still in his name and I don't know where he was, but the question is like, was he still alive? Like, I don't like, you know, he, he was so isolated, he had nobody else in his life who would know if he was still alive or not, or if they'd like put him in a barrel of lye or something. I don't know. I literally never saw him again. And, uh. That's very strange. Yeah. But you know, they met him through, through his church. So she was a good Christian woman. I'm sure it's all fine. All right. Uh, okay.
Mike00:33:22Well that is, uh, let's move on and let's talk about box office. Uh, we are not, maybe we'll talk about this in a future episode, but, uh, the number one movie at the box office at this week, shocker is dog, man, dog, man, number one, $36 million in its opening weekend. Well, I may see it. Cause my kids are demanding. Uh, so maybe we should, maybe we should, can I, can I, can I show on this?
JVL00:33:46Just, uh, because we talked about this last week briefly. Oh yeah. And it was not at all what I was expecting. There are like four, but jokes in it. But they're mostly done in passing. Uh, it's actually a movie about fathers who get divorced and abandoned their kids.
Mike00:34:08And uh, kind of what the books are about too, with little people. I haven't read them.
JVL00:34:12Uh, we kind of touching and charming actually. I was shocked by how charming it was. It's pretty, pretty good. As far as like eight year old boy movies go.
Sonny00:34:23Yeah. We, uh, I, we did not, we were gonna go see it. I was going to take the kids to see it and it just didn't work out schedule wise because of basketball and the such. So um, we did not go see it. So uh, but uh, I've heard, I've heard good things and that's, and like it did very well. It's so funny. I was like a week ago, I was like, is anything that comes out a weekend after next going to make over $10 million and then, then I looked at it, I was like, Oh no, the dog man's going to be a big boom.
JVL00:34:51Yeah.
Mike00:34:52It's going to hold really well too because that movie, no other kids movies out.
Sonny00:34:57Um, that's, I mean, it's the first since Moana slash, uh, Mufasa or I guess, I mean, I'm sorry. Sonic, Sonic slash Mufasa. They came out the same weekend. Like, that's right. And that was like two months ago. Yeah.
Mike00:35:09So, but pretty, pretty fallow. As I think I said last week, like pretty fallow at the box office, there's not much else out there. Companion.
Sonny00:35:18What is companion? Companions, uh, kind of sci-fi horror, uh, comedy with, with, yeah, with Jack Quaid. Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher, uh, Sophie Thatcher plays a sex bot that Jack Quaid is having a relationship with.
JVL00:35:37He, he jailbreaks her, right? I, yeah. Isn't that the, the, the, the idea is he jailbreaks a sex bot? Basically.
Sonny00:35:45Yeah. So I, I like this movie. Uh, I like this movie a lot, uh, but mostly because it was, it, like I had only seen the first trailer for this movie, which reveals almost nothing about it. Like it just almost, almost nothing at all. The second trailer, which I saw after the fact gives away a little more, um, but, uh, I liked it. I liked it fine, but I do think I'm giving it a mild pass because the, like, it is surprising in, in like, it's, it's, it's one of these movies where, uh, lots of things just kind of happen in them. Um, but they all make sense within the logical realm of the universe of the film. Yeah. So it's fine. But it's, it's, again, it's like surprising, but not terribly surprising. I don't know. I liked it a fair amount, but I do think I'm giving it a mild pass just because it was a little bit different. It's nice to, it's nice to experience something that's a little bit different.
JVL00:36:42Who doesn't want a jailbroken sex box? Wait, is that, is it meanest Megan Suri, not meanest of re sorry.
Mike00:36:51No. No. All right. Uh, okay. Well, uh, clearly there's not much for us to talk about at the box. Office, uh, for the show. So we turned once again to television and specifically mythic quest season four just launched on apple TV plus Sonny, do you want to talk a little bit about season four of mythic quest to show that, well, you go ahead.
Sonny00:37:15Mythic quest, uh, from apple TV plus it was one of the, one of the first run of shows on apple TV plus there was like that, the, the, the newsroom and mythic quest.
Mike00:37:27Not the newsroom morning show, morning show or the morning show, sorry, the morning show.
Sonny00:37:30Yeah. The, the, the apple TV version of the newsroom, the morning show, um, uh, which I haven't watched. I don't know. People, people seem to like it, but there was the morning show, uh, there was mythic quest and then Ted lasso, which was like the first and really kind of only big breakout hit from apple TV plus I guess severance. I don't think severance is putting up the same sort of numbers, but it is, it does have the same sort of cultural buzz that Ted lasso had. Um, slow horse, slow horses has been a modest success, but I don't think it's, I don't think it's done. Like, I don't think it's broken out into the, I don't think there are like memes of slow horses out there like there are for Ted lasso and to a lesser extent severance. Um, anyway, but mythic quest was like one of the first, uh, apple TV plus shows and it's maybe my favorite, particularly the first two seasons, third season dropped off a bit. The fourth season we'll see. We'll see how it goes. Uh, I, I thought, I thought it started off okay, but it definitely, um, anyway, so the show, the premise of the show is, uh, it is set in the office of an M M O R P G, a massively multiplayer online role playing game, um, called mythic quest, which was founded, uh, by this, uh, you know, kind of like very full of himself. Guy named Ian, who's played by Rob McElhenney, who folks will know from always Sonny and Philadelphia. And indeed the show was created by McElhenney, Charlie day and Megan Gans also from always Sonny and Philadelphia. They, they, they started this, uh, uh, kind of off on their own. Um, and, um, the, again, the premise is it's set in this, it's basically a workplace comedy set in, uh, you know, a tech firm. Um, it's kind of like Silicon Valley in that way. Remember Silicon Valley? Good show. Everyone likes Silicon Valley. Um, so it's kind of like that, but, uh, but more about the interaction of games with the general public, less about the tech, less about like the, the explosion of the tech oligarchy or whatever, and more about specifically games and, and, uh, and how games are designed and, and, you know, whatever, but also like it's a workplace comedy. It is very much a, this is, this is the office, but there are, or parks and rec, but in a video game company, um, and in the, the strength of the show has always been that it has like, it has a bunch of, it's like any workplace comedy, right? It has a bunch of goofy, but ultimately endearing characters. So in the, in the first two seasons, there was, uh, F Murray Abraham played CW Longbottom, who's a, who was like a, uh, old school Heinlein Asimov style sci-fi writer who never got his due, um, in part because... As we learned in season two, he essentially plagiarized his, uh, Hugo award-winning novel.
JVL00:40:32His only, his only successful novel.
Sonny00:40:34His only successful novel was essentially rewritten by, I forget, Isaac Asimov or, or Heinlein.
JVL00:40:40No, uh, uh, what's her name? Um, Ursula, uh, Ursula, uh, yes, Ursula K.
Sonny00:40:51Yes, thank you. Um, and, uh, he is no longer... No longer on the show. Well, we can discuss that in, in a bit. Um, uh, but the, uh, but the, but the heart of the show, the beating heart of the show is Ian, played by Rob McElhenney, and Poppy, um, who's played by, uh, what's her name? Charlotte Nicodeau? Something like that? Uh, I, I should pull up the Mythic Quest wiki. Hold on. Um, but the, uh, and then there's, there's a whole bunch of, you know, kind of secondary tertiary characters.
Mike00:41:19Charlotte Nickdow.
Sonny00:41:21Charlotte Nickdow, thank you. Uh, like Danny Pudi plays a psychopathic, uh, CFO. Uh, David Hornsby, who folks will know as Rickety Cricket from, uh, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, is the, like, the kind of overworked middleman between, uh, the, the Mythic Quest office and the corporate office in Vancouver. Um, Ashley Birch and, uh, Imani Hakim play, in the first couple of seasons, they play video game testers. They're, like, hired to test the video games. And they work their way up the corporate ladder. It's been fun to watch them, um, kind of grow. Jesse Ennis plays Joe. Joe, who is, like, uh, um, in the first season, she is, like, very explicitly portrayed as, like, a psychopathic, uh, Republican, uh, like, hatchet woman who, but, but, like, an assistant, like a, like a personal assistant for, for these guys. Uh, anyway, um, I, uh, I, I very much enjoy this show, largely because of the weird, uh, characters and their relationships, but also because of the way it does get at the some of the insanity of online video game life. Like, in the first season, there's a whole episode, um, there, there, there are, I think these are both in the first season. The first season, there's two episodes that are very explicitly about this. One is when a bunch of, like, Nazis come to Mythic Quest and, like, take over the game and they're trying to figure out how to deal with them. Like, do we ban them? Well, if we ban them, that, that costs us revenue, but also, and it, then it, like, creates a sort of problem where, like, other people are coming and trying to, and they, they come up with a very clever solution to stick them in their own Nazi server where they can troll each other forever and not bother anybody else in the game. Um, uh, and then there's, uh, there's a episode where they make, they make the entire playable universe, like, rearrangeable. You can, like, write in it, do stuff, and instantly people are drawing penises everywhere. And, uh, the whole episode is about time to penis. Like, the, once you, once you create something in a video game, the, the time to penis approaches zero. So the show does a very good job with that sort of thing. And that has continued in this season where we – this happened kind of at the end of the third season but is like the main kind of thrust of the show right now. Mythic Quest itself, the MMORPG, has kind of like fallen by the wayside of the corporate offices. They're not that interested in it anymore. Because it's finished. It's still successful but like it's declining in popularity because what people are really into is Playpen. Playpen is the – is basically a Roblox-like style system where people can make their own games and creators make their own games and people play the games. And the look on your face, Mike, is like what the fuck is Roblox? I can't explain it to you.
Mike00:44:14No, I know what Roblox is. It's just I don't know what it is if that makes sense.
Sonny00:44:19Exactly. I'm very much in your –
Mike00:44:21Does anyone know what Roblox is?
Sonny00:44:24If you're between the ages of 8 and 12, you know exactly what Roblox is. It's the biggest thing in your life. If you're not, it's a mystery. It's a black box. So the – but Playpen is basically a Roblox-like system and it's enormously popular. And now the conflict is between the woman who created it, Dana, and – or I guess Poppy actually made Playpen. But Dana has like the most popular. Game on Playpen. And she's not getting compensated for it. And she's like, why am I – why can't I buy a new car like everybody else buys a new car while she's locked into a contract, et cetera, et cetera. Anyway, it's just kind of – it's, again, it's fun and interesting and has all these great relationships. And I love this show. I – it's probably my favorite thing on Apple TV+. Yeah. Anyway. All right. Mythic Quest.
JVL00:45:16So, Michael, you came to this fresh. Did you go back to watch anything? Did you watch any of season one or did you just start with season four, episode one?
Mike00:45:25I just started with season four, episode one because I don't have time. Of course. I would like to, actually. Of course. You know, I would have liked to do it and maybe I will one day, but I just couldn't. No.
JVL00:45:34Series TV is tough. Totally. Series TV is very tough.
Mike00:45:37If you're not into – like, I love other – I have too many series going on. Like, we're watching Slow Horses and Severance and, like, I can't – my queue is full.
JVL00:45:47So, let me throw – so, one of the things you missed. Maybe the – My two favorite characters are Jesse Ennis' Joe and C.W. Longbottom, the character played by F. Murray Abraham, who, again, was the fraudulent – I mean, he's the only person over the age of 50 anywhere in the office. So, having this old man in the offices who views the 70s as the heyday of everything and talks in unbelievably inappropriate ways and talking about, oh, the time he had a threesome with, you know, Asimov and Ursula Le Guin, all that sort of shit. And so, I knew going into this that he wasn't on the show anymore, and I thought it was because he had died. And so, when we sat down, I said, so, F. Murray Abraham died, right? And Sonny then said, no, he didn't die.
Sonny00:46:41He got canceled. He got kicked off the show for making inappropriate jokes on the set, is my understanding. I should look this up. He was method acting. He was method acting.
JVL00:46:49Here's my question. Half of the role is him making inappropriate jokes, and the comedy is that he's saying these things which are utterly inappropriate, and even in the context of this office, which is kind of a, like, anything goes, people are just horrified, and it's a generational thing. Like, that's the humor is, it's like Archie Bunker. It's generational. And the idea that he got kicked off of the show. Because IRL, he was doing to people what the character CW Longbottom or, I just, everything about this to me is funny. Maybe it shouldn't be. Maybe I should either be outraged that he was kicked off the show and said they, I should say that they should have kept him, or, like, I don't even know what to think. But all I can think of is that it's funny. Is that wrong?
Sonny00:47:47It, no, no, I, look, and I will say it. I do think the show suffers a little from him not being there. I think the show, the show suffers from not having that generational clash between, like, the genuinely out-of-touch CW Longbottom, the kind of, like, mid-tier guy, like, Ion, again, Rob McElhenney's character, who has come up through video games but isn't really connected to, like, the youngest generation and what they're doing, and then the youngest generation of gamers and how they're playing. Like, that, that ladder of age. I think it was a fairly fundamental part of the show, and chopping off the top rung of it hurt the overall experience. And now, look, here's the thing. I have no, who knows what he actually did on set. The, the explanation, in his apology, he said, he said, this is a sincere and deep-felt apology. I, though never my intention to offend anyone, I told jokes, nothing more, that upset some of my colleagues. As a result, lost a great job with wonderful people. I've grown in my understanding from this experience and hope they will forgive me. Um, they, he was not forgiven. He was removed from the show. So, who knows, who knows what actually, what he actually said, what he actually, if he touched somebody, you know, I, there's always, I, I don't like, I don't like to insert myself into these situations without knowing the full story, and we're never going to know the full story here.
JVL00:49:15Sure, understood. But I, again, I just find the idea that the public cover for this, what, or, or maybe the reality of it is that he was C.W. Longbottom.
Mike00:49:25Well, and the irony is, I, I, he was also on the second season of The White Lotus, which is sort of a guilty pleasure for me, and he kind of played the character you're describing, he kind of played a version of that character in, in The White Lotus, where he's sort of like this horndog grandpa and trying to get his, yeah, get, get laid.
JVL00:49:45But, uh, so, but the other guest, so, Joe, so you mentioned that she's, she is introduced a sort of Republican, like, imagine Alex P. Keaton as a 22-year-old intern at a video company, video game company, except that they pretty quickly pivoted to the fact that she's actually a psychopath, but a phenomenally, epically competent psychopath.
Sonny00:50:13Yes. She's very good at her job.
JVL00:50:14And she's incredibly good at her job, and she's, she clearly, what she should become, this character should become Winston Wolfe, right? I mean, you know, when she is 50 years old, she should be a fixer for unsavory people who is at a cocktail party at five in the morning in evening wear, and then gets a call and needs to make bodies disappear, and she can do it. But Jessie Ennis plays it so funny. Like, she's always, she holds her shoulders perfectly still and does almost all of the acting with her eyes. Like, the rest of her face is a mask, and she does everything. And she's just, she makes, she gets more laughs from me than anybody else in the show. And part of it is the writing, part of it is just her as an actress. She's funny as shit.
Sonny00:51:07The character that gets the most laughs per line, like, on a laugh per screen time ratio for me, is Caitlin McGee, who plays Sue, the, like, the HR, the, like, I, I don't know exactly what her, she's not HR, she's, like, in charge of moderation, I believe. And she gets, like, stuck in the basement of the office, but she has this, like, bright, sunny personality. She's, like, super religious.
Mike00:51:36She's like a Mormon or something.
Sonny00:51:38She's in a cult, basically. We meet one of her sister wives. Carol. Carol is the HR.
JVL00:51:44Carol's the character's name. Naomi, Naomi Ekperegrin is the character's name, isn't it?
Sonny00:51:49No, no, no, no, no. She runs HR. I'm talking about Sue, who has, like, the wide eyes, you know? Yeah, she's also quite funny. And dresses like a Mormon.
JVL00:51:57Yeah, she's also quite funny. So, I've only watched the first two episodes of season four. Only one's out, yeah.
Sonny00:52:05It's all that's out.
JVL00:52:06Oh, is that all that's out? Yeah. I didn't, so I don't love the show the way Sonny does. I like it a lot. But this felt to me like a little bit too much time has gone by. It's not yet in rhythm. And, like, I don't know. After the first two episodes, I did think to myself, gee, I wonder if the magic is gone. Because its height, like, its best episodes, there are probably three or four Mythic Quest episodes which are as funny as a workplace, as funny as a 25-minute sitcom can be. Yeah. But that quality is, like, it does, you know, it's not fair. Even Seinfeld doesn't, you know. Every episode of Seinfeld is top tier. But I would say the delta between the median Mythic Quest episode and the very, very top stuff is fairly large. And this, these first two episodes felt much closer to the median. Yeah. Much closer to median than above average. Because some of the, like, I don't know. Sonny, my favorite of the Mythic Quest episodes is probably the one where they're LARPing. Where they're all dressing, like, you know, it's the big Mythic. They have an episode where, as a team building function, it is this annual night in which they all dress up as characters from Mythic Quest and fight one another. Yeah. In Mythic Quest. And it's, but it's, like, prompt. Like, nobody actually likes doing it. And that is 25 minutes of, like, A, it's, like, character development. A bunch of things happen which are integral to, like. Like, everybody's progress. But B, it's a constant, like, off-kilter. Like, the best kind of funny, which is the funny that hits you from the side. Like, you're, you know, you're looking for the joke in one place and it hits you from another. And so, I don't know. I, you know, I just want more. And I think there's maybe not quite enough Rob McElhenney's character. Is that okay to say? Yeah. Like, I wonder that he's, like, trying to write himself to the side a little bit as a generous thing. I actually like Rob McElhenney a ton. But the show needs him more. Like, it needs his character. It needs Ian Grimm more to let things revolve around it.
Sonny00:54:32Yeah. I think that's certainly true to a certain extent. I do think that the show has kind of spun off almost to being about the two characters who, again, started as game testers, Rachel and Dana. Like, the show is almost more about them than it is about Ian and Poppy. And I think you need, I don't know. Again, I, like, I do, I think losing F. Murray Abraham has been a big problem for the show because that, that, his absurdity kind of tied everything together. But the way the show is moving, again, the way, the way the, the video game industry is moving away from the things like Mythic Quest, these big epic AAA storyline driven games to these small. User created games that are like, that look like a bunch of wee characters running around. And in the second episode, the second episode of this season involves them trying to figure out how much they can let them simulate sex in these games. Because that's, of course, what everybody is doing. Everyone's, you know, and then that, you know, kind of devolves into, as they describe it, a bitch sesh just to complain about the state of the world. And that's where, that's where the show really is at its, like, peak. Where it's just, like, everybody riffing on things they, that annoy them and bother them and that they hate. And how, and, like, the conclusion that, that they draw is, like, if it annoys us in here, we ban it in the game. Which is, of course, not how you can do these things.
JVL00:56:10So, Michael, let me just say, structurally, because I want to hear what you thought just coming to this new. The way I think the show works best is when Ian says, This character is the son. And then all of the other little dyads are rotating around it, right? So, the two HR people, they, their main thing is them together. Dave Pootie and the mustache guy, whose name I'm forgetting. They're, like, they're these other little dyads of main conflict. But those things all happen in relation to, to Ian. He's the Michael Scott. Vision of the, yeah.
Mike00:56:49He's the, he's the. The Leslie Knope.
JVL00:56:52And we don't have, I mean, right now we just have the dyads sort of all spinning and doing their own thing. And we don't have enough central organization. But what, what did you, what do you think?
Mike00:57:02Did you like it? So, I have been hearing, Sonny, you talk about Mythic Quest now for years. And how much you love it. And I respect your opinions on things like this. And I've never given it a try. I've just, again, it's something I haven't gotten around to. But I've always been sort of, I've anticipated it. And so, when we were going to watch this, I thought, oh, this will be fun and exciting. And maybe I will get into it. And I will say I was disappointed. I did not think it was what, this is not your fault. It was not what you promised me in the way you praised the show. So, to hear you guys both kind of say something's like missing in these two episodes makes a lot of sense to me. And I will say, I got into it during the bitch sesh scene. Like, that's where I was like, ooh, I want to watch this. Like, I want to see a show about this. This is funny. This is, there's, you know, it was just jokes. It was like one joke after another. And so, I loved it. I agree on Mac. Like, we need more Mac. Or what's his name? Ian? Is that how you say it? It's pronounced Ian, but it's spelled like Ian. Well, that's part of the joke.
JVL00:58:21It is Ian. Like, he refers to himself as Ian. It's like God Bluth. Got it.
Mike00:58:28So, him and Rickety Cricket, like, those two are great. Like, I love seeing Rickety Cricket just, like, doing Rickety Cricket things, but in a different status in his, you know, there's like, he's like middle management Rickety Cricket, which I just love. It's great. I found myself really disinterested. In the, the, the, like, the, the artistic person, the, the, the, the woman who is doing the, who is like the hot, the new hot thing at the company who's doing the, who has the most popular game. Like, her, her, Dana, yes. Her story was sort of, like, I was like, am I missing something? Like, I guess they're trying to tell us she's like, she doesn't have money. And so she's, but I, I, I found her, I found the actress kind of understating. Things in a way that I was like, well, isn't this supposed to be kind of a, not a super broad, but where's the broadness in the comedy here is.
Sonny00:59:29Well, that, that character is interesting too. Cause like I said, she starts at the company as a game tester and everybody just kind of ignores, like the game testers are currently, it's like that alcoholic, the older guys, the alcoholic. Yes.
Mike00:59:40Which I liked them. They were very funny.
Sonny00:59:42And so like in that role as game testers, as like lowest rung on the ladder, uh, people, she and, uh, Ashley Burch's character. We're very, they are dating, correct?
Mike00:59:52They're, they're like together. Yes. Okay. They're, they're a couple.
Sonny00:59:56Yes. I figured that out. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Again, it's like, if you haven't watched the rest of the show, there's definitely some.
JVL01:00:02But Dana's very talented. Like there's a moment where Dana becomes a phenomenally popular Twitch streamer.
Sonny01:00:08Well, but there's, but so, but that's part of the evolution. That's very funny too, because she like, she starts as a Twitch streamer and she's terrible at it. She's terrible. And then she like kind of leans into like, I'm a hot girl playing games and gets. Better, like gets more popular at it. And then she tries to, she takes her hand at programming and she's awful at program. Like she can't do it. Remember? Like there's this whole bit in the third season about how she like, she goes to school to be, to learn game programming. She's terrible at it. And the only thing she can do is make this shit game on play pen. That is like the thing that Poppy whips up to distract her. So she doesn't bother her while, while Poppy is trying to like make the real games. And it turns out, ironically, that this is all very successful. There's again, there's, there's a way to make all of this work that puts her into conflict with iron that I think would be better than the conflict she currently has with rickety cricket.
Mike01:01:05Um, like that's uninteresting to me. It's like, and, and I guess she's like, she's, she, she plays at deadpan. Maybe is that, that's kind of her, her, her thing. It just isn't working for me. And I don't really know why except, uh, I'm just, I'm, I was bored. I was bored by that. Um, the, the, uh, Danny Pudi character though is, is, is great. Like he's just, he's just naturally funny. And I loved his, I, I love that he's playing kind of a tick or two less manic than his community character.
Sonny01:01:37Like he's, he's just like a little, he's a little less like, well, he's ratcheted down the autism scale from like, uh, from like, um, what's obsessive, like obsessive compulsive about, you know? So to like psychopath, like it's, you know, it's, which is a great, which is a great money focused psychopath.
JVL01:01:56Yeah, no, he's just like a classic, like, you know, Harvard business school type. Totally.
Mike01:02:00I love that. And, and Joe, I agree is very fun. By the way, I looked up the actress cause I was so taken by the act by, by Joe, by the character. Um, and her, I think her dad was on Mr. Show, um, is sort of in that universe. Uh, what's that?
JVL01:02:17Her dad's a director. Yeah.
Mike01:02:19But I think he was like a on Mr. Show. Um, and, uh, what is like, so, so she sort of has like, she has comedy bones kind of thing, um, uh, comedy in her blood. So it, but by far that, that, and, and the, um, just all the side characters, it, I just, yeah. Where is Mac? Like the, the whole Mac thing or like the first episode where it's like, uh, Mac and, uh, the, the Australian, his Australian Charlotte business. Partner. Yeah. Um, I just like, is there supposed to be sexual tension there or there's not supposed to be sexual tension?
Sonny01:02:58Like that's the joke kind of, is that like there, it's one of these things where everyone thinks there should be sexual tension and they like very, and like they have, they have like an extremely professional relationship. Like that's kind of the joke. Like it's got it.
Mike01:03:16It's like, it's like, as you said, subverting a JBL. It's yeah.
Sonny01:03:19Um, I like that.
Mike01:03:20I want to like this show.
Sonny01:03:23Like, I like, I like, I love all the stuff with like the poppy and INA eyes. Oh, that was great. Instantly get very annoying. Like, again, it's like kind of this, this perfect melding of tech workplace and workplace comedy. Like, yes, that is that all, that all works. I don't know. I, again, I, I do think JBL made a good point that like the, the, the way the show works is that you have all of these kind of dyads of conflict centered around iron. And his vision for the game and like how everything should be working. And right now everybody has spun off into their own corners of, of the show. And that's like, again, I think this is very representative of where the gaming world is right now. I think this is like, I think this is actually weirdly true to the universe that they have built, but it is, it does create dramatic problems, dramatic, dramatic and comedic problems.
Mike01:04:18Right. Well, maybe I will give. It a shot from, from the beginning. Um, like I said, I wanted to like it. I was like primed to like this, which is what I was trying to say. And so the fact that I was disappointed, but you guys are sort of validating why I was disappointed. It makes me feel like I should give this the show a chance.
JVL01:04:36If you have a hole in your schedule and again, they are 22 to 25 minute episodes, which is easier than an hour. I would sincerely say try from season one. The other thing they do is once per season, they do like a cinematic one shot. Episode like a flashback, a standalone that may have nothing to do with anything. Um, and so it was at season one where they did the quiet, dark death, quiet, dark death, which is has stars. None of the characters, none of the actors from this, it just takes two of the people from always sunny and tells a story about them creating a gaming company themselves. And the whole, the whole, the only connection is that they were the, in the office that becomes the mythic quest. Office got it before. Okay. And I like those, you know, these things don't always work, but they're so ambitious and different that it just makes me like really appreciate the effort. And they did a zoom during the pandemic. They did a pandemic episode.
Sonny01:05:36They did the only good pandemic episode. They did the only. So like the show is very interesting because it comes out in it debuts in 2019, uh, like, like the end of 2019, beginning of 2020 pandemic. Happens. Everything shuts down. They did a bonus. They did like a special bonus pandemic zoom episode. That was the only, again, like the only good zoom. Yeah, there were so many bad ones type of those things. And then when season two started up, they immediately skipped past the pandemic. They did not do like a bunch of lockdown episodes or like here's life during the pandemic. It was just like, all right, we're back in the office. Yeah. Which I thought was smart.
Mike01:06:20Which I thought was they referenced it, though. I mean, I did get a reference that, yeah, they have the sort of, you know, well, again, this is cricket wanting for another wanting another pandemic because it's good for the video game.
Sonny01:06:30Well, again, it's it's very it's very true to the state of the the gaming industry, which did which like hit. So I interviewed this guy, Matthew Ball, who put out a big report about like the state of the video game industry a couple of weeks back and what was fascinating. Was that everybody in the video gaming industry thought that the increase during the pandemic and it had been happening before the pandemic would continue on like a 45 degree angle upward. You know, people thought that the video game industry would be a 230, 230, 240 billion dollar industry by now. And instead, it actually leveled off and in some cases dipped kind of depending on what's what's which stats you're looking at in terms of. Revenue, et cetera, et cetera. So like it's it's this this is the state of the video game industry right now, which is experiencing record layoffs all over is very much reflected in the show, which is another reason why I like it, because it's not it's not just a workplace comedy. It's also like a culture comedy about a very Silicon Valley. It's like Silicon Valley in that way. Very much like Silicon Valley.
Mike01:07:44It has Silicon Valley like DNA all over it or markers. Yeah, I think I love that show. OK, all right. Well, I'm going to give it another shot, but it was sort of let down by by this season. Any other thoughts on mythical? Oh, I had a question. The little weird took me off guard a little bit. The little interstitials of the of the characters in the game, like the sort of fantasy character like that's just a thing. That's like how they transition between. It's just how they transition from. OK, I was like waiting for something to happen or some kind of like connection to what's going on in the story. OK, all right. Well, if that's all we got, that is all the time we're going to give to this episode. Remember, join us over at Sub-Beacon dot com. Tell your friends, tell your family they can only listen to the show at Sub-Beacon dot com. We'll talk to you next time.
JVL01:08:46So I have something for you guys. Sure. Sonny, I was thinking about you. I was thinking about you on Saturday because my sister texted me and her younger daughter, my niece, is super into cheerleading. And so she she did cheerleading for the fall, six years old, and is doing cheerleading for the winter where so in fall you cheer for football games and in winter you cheer for basketball games. And it is funny and I always want videos because this girl is like locked in. And she's the most natural cheerleader I've ever seen. Everything about like it just perfect. And she's so and they're doing essentially all the bring it on cheers like tick, tick, tick, boom, dynamite, right? You know, burr, it's cold in here. There must be some clovers in the atmosphere. All of that that they do. But my sister texted, she texted me the video because I have to have video of my niece doing these things because they're hysterical. And my sister says that she's ready to kill herself because at halftime, the score of the basketball game was zero, zero.
Sonny01:09:55That sounds about right. Wow. That sounds that sounds about right. I'm sure I'm sure that game was fine.
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