#345. Young Sherlock!
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With Sonny off in Paris (JVL reports a photo of the younger Bunch child looking thoroughly unimpressed by Rodin's The Thinker), Mike and JVL carry the episode solo to dig into Amazon Prime's Young Sherlock, Guy Ritchie's "Batman: Year One"-style prequel series that puts a teenage Holmes to work as an Oxford porter alongside a young Moriarty. Both hosts are enjoying it, and the real meat of the discussion is JVL's theory that Sherlock Holmes is essentially the first superhero — complete with his own powers (deduction, disguise, boxing, the "mind palace"), sidekick (Watson as Robin), nemesis (Moriarty as Joker/Lex Luthor), and love interest (Irene Adler as Catwoman) — which is why he's endlessly adaptable in a way contemporaries like Poirot and Miss Marple never could be; they compare notes across the whole Holmes canon, with JVL naming the Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr. films the greatest buddy-cop movie ever made and crowning Andrew Scott's turn in BBC's Sherlock the best Moriarty ever, while Mike praises that same Cumberbatch/Freeman series for modernizing the material and reminisces about Hugh Laurie's Holmes-as-diagnostician riff in House. Before getting there, the two burn a long stretch on banter: JVL's pinball hobby dominates, from an elaborate teardown-and-repair of a broken Deadpool drop target to news he's picking up a second machine (a Godzilla) despite having given up playing pinball for Lent; Mike details his son's transition from Cub Scouts into a rigorously "boy-led" Boy Scout troop and a small moment of teen-run discipline he found unexpectedly moving; and the pair spend a long, heated stretch reacting to McKay Coppins' Atlantic piece on his descent into app-based sports gambling, both landing firmly against predatory mobile betting and the rise of prediction markets (JVL folds in a tangent about a week he spent smoking and why he can never do it again). The episode closes on family-viewing notes — kids recognizing Nicholas Cage only from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Mycroft in Young Sherlock being played by Jeremy Irons's son — and JVL's confession that declining parental standards led him to screen a fast-forwarded Zoolander for his younger kids, who loved it more than Raiders of the Lost Ark and have since taken to reenacting its goofier bits in the backyard.
From the show notes
Sonny is in Paris and JVL is trying to remember how Adobe Audition and Patreon work. This week JVL and Mike tackle the big question: Was Sherlock Holmes the first superhero?
Full transcript
Mike00:00:00Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I'm your co-host, Mike Warren. Joining me is my other co-host, who is the young Sherlock to my young Moriarty. Or is it the other way around?
JVL00:00:16Other way. Other way around.
Mike00:00:17It's the other way around? Okay. Jonathan V. Last, Sonny Bunch is on assignment. I love saying that. He's actually, as discussed on the show, I believe.
JVL00:00:27Just sent us a photo from the Louvre.
Mike00:00:30It looks like the Bunch family is having a great time in Paris.
JVL00:00:35It was a photo of his younger child standing next to Rodin's thinker. And boy, his son just looks thrilled to be there. Looks like the magic of the City of Lights has really worn off on him.
Mike00:00:49I mean, I think my kids would have the same reaction if they were there. So, well, we wish him well. But he's not joining us. Join us, though, however. Every Friday at Sub-Beacon.com. New episodes every Friday at Sub-Beacon.com. Say hello to us on Instagram. We are going to be talking about just the two of us, JVL and I, young Sherlock later on in the show. But first, JVL, what's happening?
JVL00:01:16Michael, I'm getting everything I wanted. Everything I wanted. I'm going to hold this up.
Mike00:01:21Do you know the story of the boy who got everything he wanted? He lived happily ever after.
JVL00:01:25I don't. He lived happily ever after. Look at that. Wow. I'm holding up for you a book. This is a broken piece of my pinball machine. Yeah. What is that? Deadpool. This is a drop target. A drop target are the little things on a pinball machine which, when you hit them with the ball, fall down into the play field to give you points. And then they, you know, you do something else and they pop back up and you knock them down again. Yep. This has snapped off. It is a piece of plastic. This piece of plastic costs $2.09.
Mike00:01:58It's got, by the way, it's got... It's got a cartoonish version of the Deadpool face.
JVL00:02:02A little cartoonish, which is a sticker in which your machine comes with extra stickers.
Mike00:02:10Extra little decals. Cool.
JVL00:02:11For when your drop targets break and need to be replaced.
Mike00:02:15Okay.
JVL00:02:15So this is a very normal piece of pinball maintenance. It is, however, going to require an enormous, enormous amount of work for me.
Mike00:02:28I say enormous. Oh.
JVL00:02:29It's going to... It's going to be an excursion, one might say. Because I'm going to have to take off the glass. So you slide off the glass.
Mike00:02:38Sure.
JVL00:02:38You lift the playfield up and pull the playfield out. You then lift the playfield all the way up like this. This is almost like opening the hood of a car. Sure. What this exposes is the underside of the playfield with all of the wiring and the mechs. The mechs are the mechanical units. And so there is a mechanical unit, which is going to be about yay big. I'm making a box about like five inches by five inches. I'm going to have to unhook the wiring on this mechanical unit. I'm going to have to remove the mechanical unit from the bottom of the playfield. I'm then going to have to take the mechanical unit itself apart in half. Unhook the old broke because this is broken in half. The drop target unhook and remove that place the new one in and then rebuild the entire thing again. And and I say to you, Michael. I love it.
Mike00:03:45Oh, I can tell.
JVL00:03:47I love it. This is what I was in for. This is what I wanted. I wanted to learn how to do these things. And so I mean, I'm I can't wait. My friends at pinball life. Are sending me all the tools I need to do this, and I'm looking forward to it. You know, some not me, so I'm going to pick up my next pinball machine this weekend. Oh, wow. So you are, you are, we'll talk about that in a moment.
Mike00:04:14Uh, what I was going to say is, you know, some would say, and this is not me, this is not me saying this, but some would say that this little itch that you are scratching to, to tinker and repair and work on some might say that that would be better utilized on. Like actual important home appliances and other things around the house, but I don't think there's too hard. I think so. I think this is, I think they're too hard. This is like a training wheels version because pinball is like a car.
JVL00:04:45Yes, they are deceptive, deceptively easy. Simple. They look complicated. And if you get into soldering, like there are levels that you go, right. Especially with older machines, but the new solid state machine. So long as you can stay away from having to solder wires, like the hard wire things, a lot of it is plug and play. And so there are discrete, every unit you're working on can be broken down into further units. And so you just like, okay, well, I'm going to take this unit out. I'm going to learn how to take this unit apart within it. There are these two other units. Maybe I can replace them wholesale. Maybe I have to take them apart, but it's modular. It is kind of modular. It's kind of modular. And so it gives me just enough tinkering and it gives me the realistic ability to achieve mastery. I can master these tasks in reasonably short order. It is not the case. I will have to spend four years learning the ins and outs of it. And if I fix my Samsung refrigerator, if I get an LG fridge, it's like buying a whole new thing. You don't have to, you know, it's just right.
Mike00:05:58Not this. Yeah, this is perfect.
JVL00:05:59This is perfect. You're right. The other half of what I wanted. I wanted to play pinball, but I also wanted to have to like tinker and maintain it. This is it. It's so good, Michael.
Mike00:06:09So, so that's your, that's your current machine. Your one current machine. My one current machine. Now you just teased us a few seconds ago. There's a second one. I have it. You know it. You know what it is.
JVL00:06:21I have purchased a second machine. The Godzilla. Wow. The Godzilla. Which is what we had wanted to do from the start. And I am. Uh, we'll be going to pick it up in Watertown Connecticut this probably Saturday morning
Mike00:06:35on the other side of the tri-state area, the other side of the tri-state area.
JVL00:06:39And I am very excited. I'm not quite sure how this is going to fit with my Lenten sacrifice.
Mike00:06:48Which was not a pinball for Lent.
JVL00:06:51Oh, but I have not been playing pinball, but you've, you've been able to get hairy palms.
Mike00:06:56You've, you've been, you've been able to tinker with it. It was, it's not like you can't touch the pinball machine. You just can't play it.
JVL00:07:04I just can't play with it. So I like a sicko. I sit there and I'm like, Hey, Hey G money. Do you want to play pinball? Like dad, you, you gave up pinball. No, I'll just watch.
Mike00:07:16I'll just sit in the corner and watch.
JVL00:07:17And you know what? Like, I'm going to say, why don't you play two players? Set it up for two players. And I'll just pretend that I'm the second player. I do this. I watch my kids play pinball. I come in. I sit there and I'm just, I'm like, Oh, great save.
Mike00:07:32Yes. Good job. Does it, does it count if you have somebody else at your direction lifting up the table?
JVL00:07:39My Shabbos pinball. Exactly.
Mike00:07:43The soaking of, of pinball.
JVL00:07:46Now I should say that I believe I will only have two pinball machines for a reasonably short duration. Because I believe that the Deadpool machine will eventually be sold. Oh, or given away. Okay. I don't believe that I will keep the debt by 2029. Oh, so we're talking 2029. I am unlikely to still have Deadpool. I'll probably still have Godzilla always. Cause it is again, widely regarded as the greatest pinball machine. Right, right, right. Um, but I, I feel reasonably confident that by 2029, at least Deadpool will have found a new home. Okay. All right.
Mike00:08:24But it seems to have a good one right now. That's a, it has a very good one.
JVL00:08:29It's well loved. It will all be fixed. The drop target. It's, I love this Mike.
Mike00:08:33I know it's, this is good for you. This is, this is really good. How have you been? Uh, I'm fine. It's just been very busy. Lots of things happening. End of basketball season, beginning of baseball season. Um, uh, my oldest has bridged over from the Cub Scouts to the Boy Scouts. And which we have just like, like fallen into immediately. Like it starts immediately. And, um, I have to say I am very, this is coming from a, a, a guy who went through Scouts as a kid myself. Um, you know, the, the thing with Boy Scouts is it's so dependent on all these variables, right? There's it's, uh, how, how good are, uh, the, the actual kids in the troop or in the pack when it's Cub Scouts? Um, how good are the, are the, uh, adults, you know, the, the Scoutmaster and the other parents who are involved with it? How good is the sponsoring organization? You know, usually it's like a church, um, or, or a school. Um, this one, this one is in a church, um, uh, you know, in terms of the facilities and that sort of thing.
JVL00:09:42Um, you chose to go with woke Boy Scouts and not trail life.
Mike00:09:45I don't know what trail life is.
JVL00:09:47Uh, life is the Catholic traddy Boy Scouts. Oh, okay. Well, look, I mean, for the Catholic parents who look at Boy Scouts and just think I'm not sending them to those might as well be wrong. Run by Nancy Pelosi.
Mike00:10:01Well, but this is, but this is actually interesting is, which is that, yes, like the, the scouting is a big organization. They now call it scouting. It's not Boy Scouts for instance, uh, anymore, although I still call it Boy Scouts and this troop is all, is all boys. As far as I can tell. Um, it is not, it's interesting. Our Catholic parish has its own Boy Scout troop, uh, which we are not a part of. Um, correct. Um, no, but, but, but we went with, we went with this. Literally every kid that was in his Cub Scout den, uh, has, has bridged over into this troop. Um, it's a lot of his good friends.
JVL00:10:38What's that transition like? It's like going from college ball to the NBA.
Mike00:10:42It's well, but here, here's what's interesting.
JVL00:10:44Actually, this is, you could get those sorts of merit badges and Cub Scouts rookie, but up here at the bigs, the show, you're gonna have to work for your badges.
Mike00:10:54I'm, I'm not kidding when I say it feels a little bit like that, like a little. welcome to the NFL, uh, but, but in a, but in a great way, like in a, from, from a parent's perspective, in a terrific way, because I, I will say this. So from the beginning, even like before we joined up with this troop, like all of the information about this particular troop was, uh, this is a boy driven troop. This is a boy driven troop. It's a boy driven scout, driven troop. Um, we had a meeting, the, the, the, the actual troop had its meeting, but then the new parents had a meeting on the same, at the same time, uh, with the other parents. Uh, and I must've heard that phrase boy led troop like nine or 10 times.
JVL00:11:38And that's the alternative to it being a boy led. Well, in spirit, dad led true. No.
Mike00:11:43So I think technically it's kids are in charge, not the parents. So, so it's, they're all supposed to be like that. Um, but the emphasis in this one, it was deliberate and, um, and the truth is, is that they, it lives up, it lives up to that in a way that other troops don't always live up to that. Um, it helps that there's a lot of scouts in this troop. There's like something like between 40 and 60, you know, it's, it's always like a little unclear how many are active, but there's a lot of them, uh, in this one, which is, which is important. Um, and there's, there is just a real emphasis on like, like for instance, campouts, um, they explained. Last there was a, there's a new scout camp out next weekend. It was like, like the scouts all do it on their own. The, the, the, the adults that come along, like we have our own campsite. Ooh, uh, we cook our own food. Like we either, like we eat well, um, kids, it's Lord of the flies kids. It's, it's whatever it out. It's exactly. Um, oh shoot. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. I'm just, it's, it's fine. I'll call back. Um, Uh, yeah, so, so, you know, it's, it's, it's very much a guiding the, the, the grownups guide, but the, the, the scouts themselves lead. And even to the point where it's like, so everything, the big change that's happened since I was a kid is like, everything is done over email and over this sort of, you know, uh, like this very comprehensive kind of web host, uh, situation. And one of the things they, you know, they said, like, some of your kids probably don't have email addresses. Or they just have email addresses. They don't, they don't use like, you should know they're going to be using email a lot. And because that's how they communicate with each other. That's how they, um, set up meetings for things like, uh, rank advancement and things they have to, they have to set it up themselves and they have to do it over email. And, you know, and of course there's a, there's an expectation that you, uh, write in a formal email style, not in text language, you know, which. They may be familiar with his kids, but that's not how we do it. And so just all of this sort of things that, uh, as a, you know, as a dad to boys in the modern world, you're like, oh, like this is like, this is good. This is nice. It's like pushing him into like, just growing up a little bit. Um, and the best thing was we, so at the end of this first meeting, we all sort of crowd into, uh, the meeting with all the scouts who are in there. Um, and again, there's a, a teenager high schooler who is in charge of the troop and he's going through the final stuff for this first meeting with the new scouts. And he says, okay, now it's time if there are adults, um, who have announcements, it's time for them to make those announcements. And so as we're shuffling in the scout master, uh, who's, who's the adult leader, um, kind of steps up there and makes the, the scout sign, the three, three fingers to let everybody know it's time to be quiet. There's an announcement and there are some scout sign, the scout sign, the three. Yep.
JVL00:15:05I didn't realize that. I thought that was like from hunger games.
Mike00:15:08Uh, no, uh, maybe it, maybe it was sort of stolen hunger games, sort of stole that. But yeah, that's the scout sign. It's just a, you know, everybody be quiet and listen up. And there were some kids who were yapping in the back and they weren't paying attention. It was getting loud. And after about 30, 45 seconds, what, what's that red? Yeah. Well, no, no, no. But after about 45 seconds, the scout master actually had to raise his voice and say, everyone listen up. Then he does his announcements. Um, and like, you've been around, I've been around kids. I've been around cub scouts, like whatever. After the adults are done with their announcements, this teenager, the scout leader says, just kind of clears his throat and says, Hey, listen, the new scouts, you're going to learn this. You're going to learn and get used to this. And the way that we do things, um, that when the scout sign goes up, everybody's quiet. But I, I want to tell all the older scouts, uh, in the back who were, um, who were talking, uh, that it shouldn't take 45 seconds and the scout master raising his voice for everybody to be quiet. We have rules here. You know what they are and you're supposed to be set an example for our new scouts. And so we've got to do better. And he didn't yell. He didn't, it was just a, is this like players only meetings? Uh, yeah. Right. Um, anyway, so I just, I just found the whole thing like this refreshing moment. We're like, oh, like kids taking responsibility and like, uh, and, and sort of keeping each other, you know, accountable. I just thought that's, that's great. It feels like exactly. And the last thing I'll say about this is I was watching my 11 year olds eyes during that. Uh, and all I could think of as I was watching it was, was he was going, I can't wait to be that guy. Like he is definitely the guy who like wants to, like, I was thinking of one of my other sons of like how he would not. This is not a place for him. Like he would not do well in this. He would just sort of like, he can't do, but like by my authoritarian 11 year old son is like, sure. Yep. That's for me. That's I'm going to be that guy. That's awesome. Anyway. So it's been great. I'm going to be the boss.
JVL00:17:12Yeah, totally. That's great, man. Uh, tell me, do they have a badge for sports betting?
Mike00:17:18No, they don't. But, uh, who knows how things will, uh, evolve in the scouting America, the woke scouting America. Uh, no, I, so, okay. So JVL is, is, uh. Uh, is, is bringing this up because I brought up before we started recording this, this new article that you have not read yet JVL from the cover story of the Atlantic by McKay Coppins, who's a terrific magazine writer, uh, over there at the Atlantic. Uh, and, and just for anybody who hasn't read it, the, I would encourage you to go including me, including JVL. Uh, the premise of the piece is that, so McKay Coppins is, um, known for a lot of things cover politics, maybe, maybe to blame for Donald Trump getting into a presidential politics. Um, he certainly has taken, uh, has, has taken credit or, or whatever the, the negative version of that is for, for doing that. Uh, but the thing to know about McKay is he is a, uh, you know, a suburban father of four, uh, faithful Mormon. Yes. He's a faithful Mormon.
JVL00:18:18Is he allowed to gamble?
Mike00:18:19So it's interesting. So this, you gotta read the, you gotta read the piece. Oh, okay. So, but in, in, in terms of, uh, somebody to write about and to, in a way, like participate in gambling, like you, you couldn't a find somebody less likely to do that in his normal life and be sort of more suited to write about it from a, it's not quite a Tom Wolf, you know, wearing the white suit in the room because he's a, unlike Tom Wolf, he is very clearly a participant in, uh, in this. Um, so anyway, the premise of it is that the Atlantic gave, uh, McKay. $10,000 to essentially, uh, go get into the world of sports gambling for the NFL season, this past NFL season. Uh, and the, the, the ground rules were essentially like, here's the money, uh, any losses it's, it's essentially like we w that we've covered it. Um, if, if, if you, if you come out ahead, um, 50, 50 split, you've 50, 50% of it goes back to the, to the magazine staking. Mike and rounders 100% exactly. Well, I don't know if McKay ever saw rounders, but, uh, so, uh, that, and then 50% of the key for himself. So, um, so essentially he, he moves forward. So there's all kinds of great kind of setups where he, he goes to talk to his Bishop about it and essentially ask, like, is this okay? Like it's a journalistic, uh, enterprise and, um, the Bishop is sort of
JVL00:19:59like, eh, there's, there's nothing wrong with it, but you should know. As long as you don't have ice tea while you're placing your back. Exactly.
Mike00:20:09Uh, but he sort of, you know, gives them a little warning about, about, uh, you know, other people that this Bishop has counseled who have actually dealt with these addictions, uh, to, to gambling. Uh, and he essentially goes, uh, goes crazy. Now, one of the great sort of. Structural, uh, innovations, uh, really not an innovation, it's just an interesting use of, of, uh, of, uh, programming for the Atlantic's article on online is as you scroll through the article, there is at the top of your screen, uh, a sort of a running it's it's not running, it's, it's sort of every section it changes, um, it, it lists how much he's bet and what his net winnings.
JVL00:20:53Oh, interesting. It's how much he is, how much he's down. Exactly.
Mike00:20:55How much he's up, how much he's down, uh, as he goes through the story and it's. It's it's you basically in, in, in, in a sort of, um, a very transparent way. He, he writes about his descent into total gambling degeneracy and it's fascinating. And it's got lots of lessons and he interviews all, uh, people. It's not just a sort of a first person narrative. He interviews, um, a tennis star. Who's been the, um, you know, face the brunt of angry sports gamblers. Who are angry at her for, for losing this, that, or the other. Um, he, oh, he talks to Paul Tonko, a Congressman from Massachusetts who's sort of a lonely voice against on, you know, on the, on behalf of like limiting sports gambling. Um, it, it, it, he talks to Nate silver, uh, Nate silver is sort of his guru, uh, and his guide through, uh, through sports gambling, exactly. Uh, so it's, it's a terrific piece. It's haunting. Like it is, is perversely thrilling. Is the way I've described it to other people, because you can see it coming and McKay telegraphs that it's all coming, you know, that he's just going for a huge, huge fail and a huge loss, but you just, it's, it's, it's terrific. And, uh, I, I kind of wish you had read it just because I would love to know your thoughts on this, but.
JVL00:22:24Well, I don't need to read it to tell you that I am a. A thousand percent against sports gambling and basically any kind of gambling, even to the level of state sponsored lotteries. But I am really against, uh, mobile based app gambling of any sort. And, uh, I view this as no different than like cigarettes and it's going to unleash. Leash massive destruction upon society in order to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few corporations. And because running one of these things as a license to print money and you can simply buy political influence, it will be almost impossible to stop it ever. And I hate it. There's nobody I hate more ideologically than libertarians. I really, I detest. I detest libertarians more than any other group, more than even like the fascists, at least the fast. Say what you will about national socialism, but at least it's an ethos. Call me when you do. I just. Are you with me on this or not? Because even Sonny has come around on this stuff. So Sonny is now at a point where he basically feels like all sports betting, specifically through like Internet app. Based stuff should be nuked from orbit, which is shocking. That is a shocking reversal for him.
Mike00:24:05I am with you on sports betting. I basically have the view that which which is which McKay does a great job of articulating in this piece, which is that like gambling. Gambling is the sort of thing in general that he lays it out. It's been around. Since civilization has existed and it is best kept at the margins of society. And there's a moment of the piece where he he spends some time in Las Vegas and he spends time not on the strip, but but in downtown Vegas on Fremont Street. And his takeaway is that if there is an upside to gambling in general, it can be found here. Right. It's like there's. There's there's a sort of there's a sort of degenerate United Colors of Benetton in these in these casinos are like sitting around the blackjack table and like there's all kinds of people. And there's it's a it is a communal kind of event like they're sort of, you know, getting each other, you know, hyping each other up, you know, hey, you just won. I awesome like great job. They're kind of spending time together. And the contrast between that and like he goes to. Like this, you know, the the largest sports book in America. And it's just these giant this giant auditorium of chairs where everybody's just watching something different. And, you know, it's it's like depressing. So so like that in general is how I feel about gambling. It's something that should be done at best and at most in moderation and in discrete places and not need friction to create the moderation. Totally. Totally.
JVL00:25:57I need you need. Friction limitations in terms of the practical ability to do it. And so that friction is introduced by limiting it geographically. Yep. Right. It is introduced by having only a certain number of things to wager upon. Yes. Not having infinite choices. But the biggest thing and the thing that the phones do that is category difference is that when you are in a casino. And you realize that it's time for you to leave. The casino does not have a person who has been dedicated to following you around. Who knows everything about you. Who can take you by the elbow and say, hey, Mike, no, no, actually, you should stay. Let me give it here. Try these three bets right here. And I'm going to give you here's five. Here's some credits. Yeah. For you to do this and try doing these three bets over here in order to trick you. Into saying, and that's what the fucking phones do. Absolutely. Which he goes into in this piece, by the way.
Mike00:27:04It's predatory.
JVL00:27:05It's just predatory. I can't understand why our society. That's not true. Of course, I understand that our society would allow that because that is what American society is in the year of our Lord. Twenty twenty six. But it is not something that a healthy society would allow or should allow.
Mike00:27:22Yeah, I think there is a there is a. I shouldn't say. I think I hope that there is something of a backlash or a recognition that we have gone too far. And I'm not saying that I'm like counting on that or that I'm betting on it. But there is I do have a feeling that like the the externalities or the the the sort of downstream effects are are pretty easy to see and and horrifying and like you can't hide. Those things you can't hide like the the way that I get it just destroys young men's lives pretty pretty apparently and it costs the rest of us is 100% those the downstream effects and societal costs of those things are not born by MGM bats.
JVL00:28:19They are born by the rest of society, which has to handle taking these people who have fucked their lives up and like either standing them up with. Social safety nets or dealing with incarceration or dealing with increased socialized health care risk, right?
Mike00:28:35I mean, it's the thing that the thing that worries me that, you know, I'm sort of a natural optimist, but the thing that makes me a real pessimist and a cynic about this is the growth, mostly because I don't understand at all, but it's the growth of the markets. The prediction markets are a place that like it feels like it is snuck up on like people like me. And like, what what is this and this and there are all these people who are out there saying, like, well, actually, we can use prediction markets to make society better. I mean, I have heard people say that we can use it to make journalism better and we can use it to make all these things.
JVL00:29:13And it's all the same people who said they cryptocurrency would make it's insane.
Mike00:29:17It's the exact same. It feels like I'm taking crazy pills.
JVL00:29:21So let me let me run this past you. Sure. I mean, the problem with prediction markets is that they are essentially just vehicles. For insider trading. Correct. But that's that's the only point of a prediction market is to allow people to monetize insider information. That's what sports betting will be eventually.
Mike00:29:42Yeah. I mean, it's not already. It already is.
JVL00:29:45And and so the other thing on this is, like, we're going to have to choose between having basic integrity of professional sports or having sports betting because we're not going to be able to have both.
Mike00:29:58Sports betting leads to the NFL becoming the WWE.
JVL00:30:04Yes.
Mike00:30:05It's what's a straight line.
JVL00:30:07Yes. And because you don't even need to throw a game like because of the way the bets work and that you can bet is the next pitch a ball or a strike. Right. Like this. I am sorry that this is a thing that's been in tennis for years. Yes. Like the ATP has had this problem for two decades, basically, with people. Shaving because it's so easy to just drop a service game. And in Europe, they were ahead of us on sports betting. Like, it's just going to be everywhere, you know, and who asked who asked for this? This is like this is my Bernie Sanders rant. And the answer is nobody asked.
Mike00:30:49Totally, totally agree.
JVL00:30:51This is a bunch of giant corporations found ways to get into a business where you can't. Can't lose money. And I just don't believe that government or society should allow that.
Mike00:31:05One hundred percent agree. And anybody who I mean, look, I'm I'm sort of I am against drug legalization for many of the same reasons. I just find I find these things to be like like what we're talking about is not is not market forces and and decision making. For which I'm much more than you sort of I celebrate the ways in which our society allows for free and open use of of markets to determine supply demand and those sorts of things. But that isn't that is dealing with rationality. And I like human beings are not human beings are attempt to be rational creatures. And in many ways, we can be rational creatures about a whole host of things. And and I think the market markets have a way of of of channeling that and and doing it in a way without central planning that's better. But when you're talking about the irrationality that comes from addiction and poor impulse control and these sorts of things that prey upon things that are frankly become out of the control of anyone attempting to be a rational person, then. Then we're talking about something different and it's like categorically different. In my view, I don't know. You probably would. Would we legalize fentanyl?
JVL00:32:35Right. I mean, of course not.
Mike00:32:36It's crazy. It's crazy. And that's what it is. Yes, it's what it is. Anyway, so I'm with you. I hate it so much.
JVL00:32:44It's so also I don't see a way for it to be stopped.
Mike00:32:51I mean, it's there won't be a way until there is a critical mass of people who. Feel that it's that it's making things worse. And like, I just don't know if I would not have predicted any of this prediction market stuff. So, like, I can't predict, like, what kind of backlash it will also face. Again, that's my eternal optimism. But people are talking about how bad it is. I think that is significant. And it's going to get polarized, though.
JVL00:33:25It'll get polarized. Maybe the entire right will be. In favor of it. Yeah. You know, it'll be like, well, we have to. The libs all hate sports gambling. So now sports gambling is great.
Mike00:33:35Maybe. We'll see. I'm a little. I'm a little. I'm skeptical, not for any reason other than.
JVL00:33:42It happened with cigarettes, Michael. You're too young to remember this. Where cigarettes became right coded. Cigarettes were super right coded. And it was just. And part of this was was just regional economics. Right. So, you know, tobacco is important to a bunch of. Southern economies. And so they owned those senators and those senators were Republican. Right. Okay. Republican Party is in favor of tobacco. Right.
Mike00:34:11Although, you know, there were a lot of there are a lot of prominent Democrats who were the. The. Well, no, I guess that's right. Yeah. Big tobacco. And that's that's the insider. Right. Anyway. Well, it's it's it's a great read. It's a it's a scary read. And also just from taking out the societal stuff. It's I think also on an individual level. It's an interesting look at someone who has a view of themselves. I don't have an addictive personality. You know, I can I can handle it. And to watch that. I think it's actually pretty brave of McKay to do it to to to kind of watch that self-conception.
JVL00:34:50Do you know who has an addictive personality on this podcast? And two thumbs. This guy.
Mike00:34:56For for those who can't see, he's pointing. At himself. No, I mean, we all you know, I don't know about I don't know if I have an addictive personality as a personality, but like a we can all get addicted because like the chemical like we all got the chemicals in our brains and our bodies. And, you know, but like I do think there is a tension between and it's not just to do with gambling and addiction, but like the sort of like be who you are, you know, given to who you who who you really want to be and what what although what feels good, all this stuff and like this recognition that like we have to save ourselves from ourselves and the sort of I could go on for this, but like the breakdown of like trust in institutions is like a huge part of like of letting our freak flags fly in that way. And and we and I think there's we're trying to fill that. It's missing from from them. So man, this got really heavy and and and and and and I ever tell you about the week
JVL00:36:04that I smoked. No, you know, so I was a smoker for a week and and. It was amazing, sure, and I understood instantly why people smoked because you look cool as
Mike00:36:19hell.
JVL00:36:20Well, not only do you look cool as hell, but it actually does relax you also actually make helps you focus writing. While smoking for that week was so fucking easy, it was like play writing while smoking was like having all the cheat codes turned on right on a on a video game. And I realized after a week I was like, I can never, ever allow myself to have a cigarette again because I will be a two pack a day smoker in a month. Well, it's amazing.
Mike00:36:51I find this with myself where, like, I think I have more sort of like impulse control issues and discrete moments. So, like, if there's if I'm hungry and there's a pizza, I'm going to eat like one more slice than I than I need to. If if I'm watching TV, maybe binge watching a show like I'm going to watch one more episode than I need to. And it's going to put me up later than, you know, keep me up later than I than I should. And then my reaction to that is often to like go in the reverse and sort of, you know, swing from the extremes and which is different from an addictive personality. Or like what you were describing, it's like it's just like having the ability to like cut yourself off from that sort of thing. Or when it comes to gambling, be able to say, like, no, I'm not I'm I have to go home from Vegas. I can't leave in Atlantic City. You know, I've got to leave. So. All right.
JVL00:37:47Well, I think we belabor this. All right. Let's talk about young Sherlock.
Mike00:37:50Yeah. On Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime. So do you want to give a review of or a sort of overview of what this show is and and maybe a little about why you wanted to discuss it for the show?
JVL00:38:03Young Sherlock is the new Amazon Prime series masterminded by Guy Ritchie, the great author of our time and the mastermind behind the Robert Downey Jr. Jude Law led Sherlock Holmes and its sequel, which was terrible Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows. Young Sherlock takes essentially a Batman year one. View of Sherlock Holmes. We are with him as he is at Oxford, not as a student, but as a porter because his elder brother, Mycroft, has forced him into this job as punishment slash because he needs help. And we get to follow young Sherlock as he begins solving crimes for the first time, although now he is assisted not by doctors. After James Watson, but James Moriarty, Moriarty, the mic Moriarty, hijinks ensue, and it is all directed in a way that feels like Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes because it is directed by Guy Ritchie. And so we have a limited series of eight episodes so far, and I just found it interesting. I just wanted to talk about it with you because it strikes me that Sherlock Holmes has become a character like Batman who can be reimagined in any number of ways and used to tell any number of different kinds of stories, and I love that. Some of my favorite pieces of fiction in recent years have been Sherlock Holmes. They have been the Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes, the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock Holmes. We had a CBS version of Sherlock Holmes with Lucy Liu Elementary. We had Hugh Laurie doing Sherlock Holmes as House, and now we have this, and the character really is infinitely adaptable and in ways which are really interesting because unlike Batman. Don't really get caught up in the canon, but there are a couple canon things about him. You know, like he, he is kind of a dick and he does observe things, but after that, like it's a little, you know, you, you got room to run and you don't get caught up in things like, wait a minute, Bruce Wayne's parents aren't dead. How dare they?
Mike00:40:52Right. Who's this Joe chill and, and, or, you know, who is it? Where is Joe chill? Yeah.
JVL00:40:58I don't know. I just, I, I, I love the use of Sherlock Holmes in, in modern fictional style storytelling. And I wanted to know what you thought about this show as well, Michael.
Mike00:41:11So I I'll, I'll share my thoughts about the show, but I think it's, you, you hit on something so interesting JVL about the parallels with Batman and I have not done the, the deep research on, on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and, and Sherlock Holmes that would that would maybe be necessary to assert this more confidently, but there is something comic book E about the original Sherlock Holmes, right? It was, they were serial stories. They were extremely popular. And they were these, you know, it was like put, well, first of all, it's a detective just like Batman is a detective. And sort of, sort of the crime or case of the, of the, of the week or the case of the, of the, of the serial that that he could sort of be slotted into and and solve it. And when he killed off Sherlock Holmes famously in the in the story with the, the first appearance of Moriarty, everybody thinks like Moriarty is his sort of, you know, his enemy, but like we're already doesn't appear until if I think I believe this is correct until the fall. Falling off the Rackenbach falls, which was supposed to be the last Sherlock Holmes. And of course the popular sort of outrage forced Doyle to bring him back. But I think it's, it's, there's some parallels there to the comic books, you know, the way they killed off Superman and that sort of thing. The death of Superman and then they have to bring him back. So I think it's an interesting parallel. I think you're correct that there's, it sort of comes from a time when Canon was just less popular. And, and fortunately for Sherlock Holmes, there aren't a bunch of comic book nerds there. There aren't a bunch of like, you know, British, uh, crime solving, mystery nerds, their neck
JVL00:43:09beards. Exactly.
Mike00:43:11Exactly. Um, that's not exactly the source of, uh, Sherlock's opium high or lowest because you're
JVL00:43:17making me laugh.
Mike00:43:21So, um, anyway, but, but I think it's, it's, it's true. And look, you mentioned, I mean, you mentioned all those adaptations. Things like the great mouse detective, which was a Disney, uh, movie from the eighties, which basically was a mouse version of, of Sherlock Holmes. Um, and, uh, this series is based off of a book series, right. Called young Sherlock. Um, uh, which is, uh, sort of, you know, I haven't read them, but, um, I have seen two episodes of this show and, uh, I really enjoying it. It's not the most, um, certainly not the most faithful. Like it does not, it has Guy Ritchie, uh, notes on all over it. You know, there's, there's, um, like one of the characters is a Chinese princess. Who's also like a Kung Fu expert and like, uh, and then at one point like Sherlock, uh, it's established that Sherlock does not know how to defend himself. And then like, he spends like a day with Moriarty and then he can like defend himself against this woman who's been established. To be like a ninja, essentially it's like, okay. Uh, but, but you know, as far as like, like exciting, interesting, uh, and, and Guy Ritchie TV, it's like Guy Ritchie, Sherlock Holmes, and like a TV series.
JVL00:44:42Like it's great. Sign me up. Totally. Totally. So let me, I'm, I'm going to try something out on you. Um, there is a reason. That Sherlock Holmes can be used and reused in multiple contexts and interpretations in ways. That say Hercule Poirot cannot, okay. Or Ms. Marple cannot. So these guys, these are all fictional contemporaries of one another, but Ms. Marple and Hercule Poirot really are wedded to their time and place. We can have different interpretations of them, but they, they basically have to take place in and around like Victorian England. Right. Right. And B because like Hercule Poirot is displaced by the war. That's why he is in England and not in Belgium. Um, Ms. Marple comes from a small village and it is having been in village life, which allows her to like understand human, human, uh, machinations. Sherlock is able to escape his context because he's actually the first superhero. Yes. And Sherlock, I mean, Ms. Marple and Hercule Poirot and other crime fiction detectives of that era, they aren't doing superhero stuff. Like Hercule Poirot's little gray cells are like, he's, he's very smart and he has a method
Mike00:46:09and all that, but they're doing parlor games.
JVL00:46:12They're doing parlor games. Whereas Sherlock Holmes has a series of superpowers. He has his powers of deduction and observation. He has his ability to shape shift with his disguises, right? He's always, he's able to. He disguises himself all the time. He has his kryptonite, which is the fact that he's an asshole and that he has a drinking slash drug problem. Uh, and that his personal life is a train wreck. Right. He, he has, uh, the ability to, um, what's, what's his other super ability. I had, I had a third one. Oh, and, and he's a, he's a pugilist. Yes. Yes. Correct. He is. He is a, uh, a guy who can. Beat people up. He's a, he's a boxer. That's right. That's right. And, uh, all these things combined to make him basically the first Superman, even though we don't treat him as such because no other person could do those things. No, no real human being could do those things. Well, and he has his joker slash Lex Luthor. Right. In James, in James warrior.
Mike00:47:20Well, he's got, he's got his Robin, uh, and his Robin in Watson, right? He's got, he's got a cape in, uh, that now that's like.
JVL00:47:28Totally all these other, like he's got Lestrade, he's got Mrs. Um, uh, what's her name? This is Hudson. Yeah. Hudson. Yeah. Right. He's got his, uh, his, his Irene Adler.
Mike00:47:42Yep. Right.
JVL00:47:44Who is his not a love interest, but not, not a love interest. She's a cat woman. She's cat woman. Right. Yeah. Like it's all right there. Totally. It's all right there.
Mike00:47:56No, it's, I, it's great. Uh, I think it's, I think it's a correct assessment and it, and it, it is why, but, but I think also, uh, separate out the superhero stuff. I do think that, um, probably certain things about like 1890s, uh, London also lend it. So like at that point, right, London is kind of a cosmopolitan place. Yeah. Um, it's a metropolis, it's a, it's a, it's a metropolis with like people from all over the world are sort of there.
JVL00:48:28There's this seedy side, like Gotham. Right?
Mike00:48:31Exactly. And, um, and I think there's a, that, that contributes to this sense that you could place it anywhere because London in 1890 was anywhere. Um, and, um, and, and so it, uh, yes, what, by the way I should ask is, is this your favorite adaptation? Oh, it's mind palace. Oh, the mind palace.
JVL00:48:52Yes. Of course. His other superpower is the mind palace, which might as well be like Lake heat vision or something.
Mike00:48:59Right. Or, uh, or, or it's sort of a doctor strange to speaking of, speaking of, uh, of, uh, Sherlock. Um, so is this, has this been your favorite was, was the original movie, the original Guy Ritchie, uh, Sherlock movie, your, your favorite adaptation.
JVL00:49:17So I would say I prefer my two favorite adaptations are the Guy Ritchie original Sherlock, but then the Benedict Cumberbatch.
Mike00:49:28Um, uh, Martin Freeman, uh, BBC.
JVL00:49:30Yes. I agree. For, for two different reasons. Um, for my money, the original Guy Ritchie Sherlock is the greatest buddy cop movie ever made. Yep. It, it, I could watch and I, I just rewatched this movie a week ago with my mother-in-law. I could watch Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. sitting in a carriage and bickering about a waistcoat. For hours upon hours on end. I don't need anything else in that movie. It's got all sorts of other great stuff, but just the two of them fighting and, and I mean, the dialogue is written. They're wonderful actors. Yep. But the writing in that thing is un, it's great. It is sharp as a knife. What kind of woman wants to marry a doctor who can't even tell if a man is dead, right?
Mike00:50:26Meet me at eight. Wear a jacket. You wear a jacket.
JVL00:50:29It's just, it's amazing. It is a tremendous buddy cop. But uh, what the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock has is the greatest Moriarty ever. Oh yeah, man. Andrew. Oh God. What is that actor's name? Uh, it's, uh, Andrew Scott.
Mike00:50:48Andrew Scott.
JVL00:50:49Yes. Andrew Scott's Moriarty is, I mean, when he shows up in, I think it's the third episode of the first season. He just steals the entire series out from underneath and, and actually I, I think the series never really recovers from his death. Uh, like in, so they, they bring him back in flashbacks and you need him in flashbacks. I mean, because again, he is, I mean, that guy was just fucking unbelievable.
Mike00:51:19Yeah.
JVL00:51:20Like what a performance, you know? Uh, and I loved the conception, the other thing they do is the conception of him as a criminal consultant.
Mike00:51:29Yes.
JVL00:51:30So what they would, if you haven't seen it, the, the BBC Sherlock, the idea is that Moriarty is literally the, the mirror image of Sherlock Holmes. So Sherlock is a consultants to the police and Moriarty is just a consultant that you call if you're a crook and you are criminal and you trying to figure out how to do something, you call Moriarty and you pay him. He's like the McKinsey of crime. It's great. It's so, it's, it's so good. So those are my two favorite. What are your, what are your favorite?
Mike00:52:02I mean, Sherlock, the BBC is, is great for, for the reasons that you mentioned, but also I loved the way that it, um, the way that it kept, it felt so true to the original material while also being in modern London and the way they incorporated things like text messaging into the storytelling, you know, by having it on the screen. And, and sort of showing that in a way, in a way that like leaned into it rather than sort of ran away from it or just like pretend to like it, like modern stuff didn't exist. Um, you know, having Watson, you know, be a veteran of the, of the war in Afghanistan, like it was just all very, very clever and well done. And, and you know, it's just, I love how the BBC and how the sort of British acting community, it's like, they have, we've talked about it before you and I have Steven Moffat. Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss who plays Mark Gatiss who plays Mycroft, Mycroft. Yeah. Uh, and then, uh, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Andrew Scott, um, like it's like they all get to all these great actors from, from the UK get to have their like BBC show. Um, and, uh, and it, and it has a way I think of humbling them, you know, and, and keeping them sort of tied to, um, their home country. And they're not just, you know, sort of go Hollywood, um, they can also do that and they get to go back and do this. I just think it's, it's really good stuff. I, I, so I love that. Um, uh, I'm not as big on the, on the, uh, Robert Downey Jr Sherlock, uh, Holmes as you are, but I enjoyed it when it came out. Um, and, uh, uh, you know, I've, I've actually, I, I love like the, the stories and themselves, you know, the, the actual original Arthur Crane stories. Yeah. Um, how are the Baskervilles is like, is, is, is thrilling to me. Um, but also, you know, uh, uh, all the others. Yeah. They're the, the short stories and, and things. So, um, I, I, I love that it just is something that can repeat itself and I did not watch elementary. Um, it just didn't, it didn't Lucy Lou. Yeah. Lucy Lou plays. I don't know what her name is. Shirley Holmes. Um, but, uh, but yeah, so I, I'm not a huge fan of, uh, of, of that kind of thing, but I don't know. It's like, it's, I'm, I'm looking right now of like the Lori's Sherlock Holmes in house
JVL00:54:27amazing.
Mike00:54:28Um, uh, which, I mean, it's like, did they ever admit that? That's what it was. Cause it was like so obvious that that's who house was two 21.
JVL00:54:36That's what I thought. Okay. In, in Princeton.
Mike00:54:39So, um, but I'm looking at like a list of all of the adaptations. I mean, it's been, it's the other thing is like, it's been adapted for, for film since film existed. Um, and you know, it's like, I mean, there are, there's like a hundred at least, you know, there's, it's like, there's a, yeah, 1900. A brilliant film created in 1900 called Sherlock Holmes baffled. Um, and it just keeps going from there. And of course, you know, there's the Basil Rathbone, uh, you know, uh, Sherlock Holmes and all that. So I find it to be, uh, uh, a fascinating, the fact that it's remains fascinating that it is not like this thing that is, is, uh, you know, was, was interesting 50 years ago, but is now kind of passe like we just keep, you know, remaking it. The last thing I'll say on this is, uh, I never. I never saw it, but I could tell from the beginning that it looked terrible. The will Ferrell, John C. Riley homes and Watson movie that came out like 10, 10 years ago. I never saw it. It, it got abysmal abysmal reviews, um, which it's like hard to believe, right? It's like will Ferrell, John C. Riley, um, Sasha, uh, Sasha bear Cohen, I think is, is,
JVL00:55:51um, oh no, no, he was okay. Talladega nights reunion.
Mike00:55:54No, no, no. So Sasha bear Conan was Cohen was supposed to be in it with will ferrell as uh as watson and sasha bear cohen as holmes and then it it it struggled and then they switched ferrell went to sherlock holmes and then they brought in john c riley uh to play watson and but it's like it's a mess and bake totally uh but it's got like you know rob bryden steve coogan uh ray fines are in it it's like it seems like it would have everything it needed ray fines please muriarty but like it just it apparently was terrible so uh any other thoughts on sherlock young sherlock so the other thing about young sherlock is at least for me
JVL00:56:36this is something my entire family can watch together and everybody likes it yeah yeah and so it is a an all ages crowd pleaser where there's nothing bad for the kids but it's you know like it's smart and interesting and so the big kids love it too i love i just what do you think you're in a lot of shows first so i uh my oldest daughter favorite gasped when he came on screen oh really and said what happened what did she know him from i mean she's seen all the jane austen
Mike00:57:21okay okay so it's that okay i said
JVL00:57:23happened to him 20 years he just lives right like he he is a person who she was like he looks horrible i said he doesn't look horrible he just looks like a guy who's 60. what do you think i'm gonna look like when and she's like yeah what do you think you're gonna it was the extent to which my my older children basically everybody except for the youngest the the looks of horror they get when they see an actor who they have not seen since like 15 years before they have no uh like oh yeah well you know 15 years have passed this person is no longer 40 this person is 55. for them it's like who is that monster and i find that deeply what tragedy befell them yeah yes and you know it isn't like val kilmer it's not like well he had throat cancer right right it's just like a normal person but this
Mike00:58:21is this is the this is the blessing of youth is like you don't understand you don't understand that because you in some ways you really shouldn't like this is this is the kind of thing that you can't understand until until you age so uh as always i wanted more colin firth i mean i've enjoyed him in the two episodes i've seen so far it's it's like it he he he does not stand to have more of them yeah i think that's right um and
JVL00:58:45joseph fines is in it too who is uh is he rave finds his brother yeah yeah but but who is his he's uh he is he is the dad silas holmes which who i have not met yet who is married to natasha
Mike00:59:01macalone yes who we i was we've seen from episode one who we've seen from who is the mother who is locked in an insane asylum right um and all of which is not canon not canon at all and i am down
JVL00:59:14with that that's great yeah it's great i i am i love that they do not feel bound by whoa we have
Mike00:59:21to you know my favorite little detail has been the uh which was in the the second episode that i've seen uh the the introduction of the detective from scotland yard who has the cape and the deerstalker and and all that it's like in the pipe and and just the little in joke of it uh is done very well in the in the narrative of the show where you can see like sherlock holmes sort of clocking it you know clocking the costume that like he will adopt you know it's like oh that looks good i like that you know which is all subtext um but i've enjoyed that so uh great well uh i think that's all the time we are going to give to this episode join us over at subbeacon.com tell your friends and family new episodes every friday and we will talk to you next time yeah um by the way speaking of like actors and like the the aging thing and the kids kids watching this i'm i'm interested to see um so we showed our kids last weekend national treasure for the first time um and and uh they loved it um and and really enjoyed it and and were they're they're kind of big history kids and so they really like like the history mixed with the adventure and um but even they were able to see they were like well this is just this is just uh raiders of the lost ark but like but like american stuff like they picked up on that which i thought was good but they are it's interesting they are aware of nicholas cage and i was like oh like how do you know nick you know they're big fans of uh of uh leaving las vegas um where do they know him from from the spider-man across the spider-verse movie just from this voice work and the knowledge but i think my oldest son knows the knowledge that he's in this spider-man noir noir yeah the spider-man so like
JVL01:01:19we're serious yeah whatever it is i don't know i don't even know what it is um
Mike01:01:23but i just thought that was interesting it was like oh like they have this knowledge of like it's you know in a way that like when they watch the night of the museum movies like they don't know who ben stiller is you know before before they watch it um but they had this surprising amount of pre-awareness of nicholas cage from 22 years ago all right two things for
JVL01:01:43you before we go first of all uh mycroft holmes in this show yes actually played by jeremy irons's
Mike01:01:49kid that's jeremy irons's son jeremy irons's son i see
JVL01:01:53um and uh and number two is that you know how we talk about as you get further in in birth order your standards for parenting just like just fall apart sure yes exactly that's yeah why let my younger two watch zoolander last week now i did fast forward past the orgy scene that's good which you don't that was the only thing you don't see much
Mike01:02:23them from like show from like shoulder from clavicle up you're right but everything else
JVL01:02:29i was just like let's just do it and uh tell you what my kids did not care for raiders the lost ark but they thought zoolander was amazing and in fact the other day g money and i were out in the yard throwing around a frisbee and he went dad wait i'm gonna go blanco and he like sticks his hand down his pants and starts like moving around with his underwear and like he cracked himself up
Mike01:02:53i'm sure it's fine
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