All right, everyone, we're back with another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour.
I'm Emily Jasinski, culture editor here at The Federalist. As always,
you can email the show at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us
on Twitter at fdr LST. Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcasts,
and to the premium version of our website as well. Happy Fourth of
July weekend week. However long you're carrying on the celebration for whenever it falls
in the middle of the week, you really get a little bit of extra
partying in if you want to. And in this case, we thought,
actually that some lighter fare might be best as we celebrate the Fourth of July
and our freedoms and just you know, spend some time, if you work
in politics professionally or if you don't, with friends and family. And so
I want to introduce now a conversation that we had that I had with my
colleague Sam mangled Lennett, who is staff editor at The Federalist and something of
a pop culture junkie. We hadn't done a culture podcast in a while,
so I thought it was time to maybe again some lighter fair and take a
deep dive back into culture since it's really my favorite thing, and you know,
talk about where The first part of this conversation is airing today and it's
going to be mostly about TV. The next for the next part of this
conversation is going to air tomorrow and it's mostly about movies. We do a
little bit of music at the end, so if you're you're interested in that,
stay tuned to the end for the music conversation. But TV shows,
you know what the sort of trends look like, what's good, what's not.
I did forget to mention since I'm recording this introduction after we taped the
discussion, Um, I forgot to mention The Bear. Season two of The
Bear, which just started. I don't know if you're watching it. The
first season was super tight and clever. I'm not gonna certainly spoil anything for
the second season. I don't even think I could. I'm not done with
it. But it started to like really hit me as blue collar Aaron Sorkin,
and I find it incredibly exhausting. I've heard from other people that are
really enjoying this season of The Bear, but I think the certain like level
of point counterpoint, the rhythm of the quips like quips and rapid succession,
like they're just trying to do this like blue collar Sorkin thing has been my
takeaway, and again, I find it exhausting. It takes me out of
the experience a little bit because it's so unnatural and it's a show that I
think is hyper real. You know, they know de emphasize makeup for the
actors, and it's supposed to be very gritty and supposed to be a pretty
hyper real glimpse into a kitchen, and so to have the dialogue be so
unnatural and quippy is just again, it's exhausting. You may have a different
take than be on the Bear. I've heard people who say they really like
how it's handled COVID, and I definitely think there's truth to that. But
before I didn't want to leave that one out because it's it's so timely,
so I wanted to mention it before we actually play the rest of the conversation,
which which gets into some very recent TV and some stuff that's happened roughly
over the course of the last year. So on that note again, Today's
Discussion TV Tomorrow's Discussions discussion is movies. A little bit of music, So
stay tuned. We hope you're having a safe and joyful Fourth of July.
God bless America. Thank you so much for listening. Sam, welcome back,
Thanks for having me. How's it going. It's going well. We're
here at Federalist HQ, and I realized it actually had been quite a while
since we've done sort of a pop culture podcast. It's you know, it's
something that has gotten kind of crowded out in this incredibly busy news cycle post
pandemic, when you have a presidential cycle coming up, you're coming out of
a presidential cycle. Now we're already going back into a presidential election cycle,
and there's been so much turmoil, multiple indictments, everything is on fire all
the time. Everything is on fire all the time. That should be the
title of your memoir, Sam, one of these days when you get to
it. So I wanted to because it's all a day weekend. First of
all, I thought it might be a good time to do a little bit
of lighter content, because you know, what's more fun than the Fourth of
July. I would say best steal day, but that's a bad day and
it's anti Americans. So there is a terrible answer I was going to say
Christmas, Christmas. Yeah, there's actually really nothing more fun than Christmas.
True, great all around, But the Fourth of July is also great all
around, just on a slightly less scale, because a slightly smaller scale,
because nobody is giving me presents. Fair well, the best present is America
and freedoms so beautiful. You just whip that out of nowhere, right out
the tip of the time. Sure, well, it's true. And Sam
and I are both Midwesterners, and we have a lot of Midwestern listeners out
there. It doesn't matter where you're from in America, although I will say
the Midwest has some pretty idyllic Fourth of July Ician celebrations. Everyone in the
country really does, but the Midwest is the best for a reason. So
you like to say that I'm a Midwest nationalist, What can I say?
Yeah, you're an expat here in the swamp. But on that note,
I actually Sam is a sort of fellow imbiber of culture. But he has
some interesting habits that might even be more something he has more in common with
people who are older than him. He's fairly young, but he has the
viewing habits. He's like maybe a gen xer. I was wondering where you
were going with that one. But yeah, yeah, I think that's fair.
I think it's accurate. I think we've actually on this podcast talked about
the Simpsons before. You're a huge Simpsons entirely too much, so I'm like
my thirty three watch at this point. I find it always like somewhat endearing
or maybe cute. I'm trying to be patronized when Molly and David do segments
on what they've watched recently, because for me, it's impossible and like trying
to, you know, sweep up a beach, Like I really can't tell
you everything is the answer. I've watched everything, for sure. This is
so much content it kind of blurs together at a certain point. Yeah,
And you know, like one thing that I try to do at Federalist is
watch just about everything and then flag things that I think should be pieces or
that should be podcasts, or that we should be weighing in on one way
or another. So I end up just kind of watching everything. Although my
weakest spots, I still just can't get myself to watch a lot of drama.
And so like if there's a place that I have watched the Idol,
the very buzzy new Sam Levinson show on HBO, absolutely horrible stuff. I
didn't the one big blind spot In the last years, I haven't watched The
Last of Us, and I know Molly really liked that, so I watched
like half of it. You're a gamer, not too much, I mean
my switches on a desk over there, but like not into like the whole
like like triple A gaming, like the super expensive like movie studio budget gaming
stuff, right, And I think that's part of the reason I couldn't really
get invested in the series. Also, when people like tell me I have
to watch something just disposition only, I'm not going to that was another reason
why I couldn't really get super committed to the show. Well, I'll just
start off by talking about some really recent comedies that I've watched and given some
thoughts. First of all, the season if it's always sunny, and I
think it's season sixteen that while so I actually started watching that show way younger
than I should have started watching that show, which is to say in its
first season, which I don't want anybody to do the math because it's going
to show that it was way too young. I can be watching that show,
but it was a free preview on iTunes, so they actually allowed you
to download at the time a free episode of Technology right there, right,
Yeah, so they used to do this and there was you know, I
think at the time it was It's Always Sunny and Psych but the same week
you could download those two shows. I went on to really really love but
It's Always Sunny, still going, and I think this new season is also
an incredible start. Like, actually, they've had some seasons that are a
little down. It's pretty consistent, but this season is just fantastic. Have
you watched it yet? I haven't started. I'm actually just going through like
season eighteen of South Park for some reason, What is wrong with you?
I have a weird taste. Man. Have you have you seen this season
of South Park before? Yeah? Well, so I wanted to, like,
because it's an election season, I wanted to go back like the mister
Garrison like Trump impersonator thing, So I thought that would be like a fun
thing to revisit. Um, but I'm sure you know, It's Always Sunny,
like does touch on the political, but it's not like super obnoxious about
it. Their episode on Guns is actually one of the best episodes one of
the best political comedy, let's just say, one of the best pieces of
political satire, and I think the last ten years at least. Well.
Also like Still Too Hot the show that's the name of the episode, Okay,
gun Fever, Still Too Hot Fair. I was wondering where we're going
with that one. But it's interesting how like when they spend shows like satirizing
gun culture, they're always like you can walk into a Walmart and get like
five rs and then walk out immediately, like the show Berry just did that,
and it's like finale when I was rapping. Okay, so you watched
the last season of Barry, Yeah I did not, because I got incredibly
bored with Barry last season. Okay, that's for that a lot actually really,
and what did you think of the last season of Berry? It was
rightfully overshadowed by a secession, so I think it was I thought it was
okay. I didn't really do a whole lot for me. I think it
kind of fizzled. I just don't think the energy was there for as it
was when I was like in its stride. Totally agree, it felt like
really energetic, it felt really it was aware that it was kind of novel
in a sense, and that wore off and just the show really dragged for
me, the romantic subplot really we started to drag. I mean sometimes subplots
sometimes foreground, but that like just it was not a natural And this is
probably one of my biggest I think it says something really serious about our culture
of the last ten plus years that we don't have a movie like step Brothers
that's really come out and done exactly what Step Brothers did successfully in the last
few decade or sort decade plus. For sure, it's just the self seriousness
in Hollywood's in insistence, Like, actually, if if you're going to be
socially responsible and make comedy, you actually have to disguise some type of sanctimonious
cultural political message as comedy. Your comedy has to be a vehicle for some
deeper point. And the best trajectory, the best example of this trajectory is
Amy Schumer and Everything. After train Wreck, suddenly you had all of these,
like even Apatow type movies, they all have this. Even you can
get like three quarters of the way through the movie and then Brittany runs a
marathon. Movies like that, it could have been really funny funny, funny
stars people who are genuinely hilarious. She was so funny in um, what's
the show that I'm thinking of? Um? On Comedy Central? Amy Schumer,
No, not Amy Schumer. The girl from Brittany runs a marathon.
You know what I'm talking about? Long hair guy m incredibly good show.
It's yeah, it's gonna bother me Jo, I'll look it up, don't
don't worry. But it's just someone who's genuinely really really funny. It's a
funny idea here, and it all gets bogged down in this vapid messaging,
Like it's absolutely no problem with these films being vehicles for left of center messages.
Um, that's like quaint. You know, if we could just get
back to like left of center Hollywood where they were like actually prioritizing the art
and not the message in a way that like the art conveys the message right,
Like the art comes first, and if you're really good at what you
do, you can make it with a really serious message that's not sort of
just chewhorned into a like a slapstick a slaps like Buddy comedy, Like it's
insane, Like where's the other guys? Of the twenty twenties, like there's
just there won't be one UM And that's one of the things I love about
It's always sunny. It has never lost that, and it is now one
of the few things in all of comedy buried to me, you know.
And there's some of these, there's some examples of this that have been really
successful. I actually think one of the best is I mean, I sound
like I'm contradicting myself here, but it's It's Life and Beth. And this
was an Amy Schumer dramedy that was on Hulu last year and ended in this
really really interesting place about family, community, nature, unintentionally I think,
a pretty conservative place. But I've always thought she's the best example of someone
who went from slapstick to like santimonious and dragged the industry along with her.
When when train Wreck got really popular, deservedly so, I thought that movie
was fantastic, and he still do. But it became the template for comedy.
UM and that was twenty fifth teen. You know, this was this
was happening, but it was like that really became the template for comedy,
and that's been I think that that started to really eat away at Barry,
like, why are you shoehorning anything into the show about a hit man?
Well, like you said, everything becomes too self aware at a certain point.
Um, And it wasn't necessarily as overtly political, although I think there
certainly were political themes. I mean there very much were. Joda Patel's King
of Staten Island with pe Davidson. It was supposed to be like a it's
supposed to be a comedy. It's filled with comedians, right, but it's
just sad. Granted it's a reflection on his hometown and you know, losing
his father at a young age, but it's not it's just a downer like
comedy. And it reminds me of Nanette that one Comedy Specials. Like the
whole concept of comedy. It's meant to bring levity. Yeah, there's you
know, criticisms of power and criticisms of society in it. But at the
end of the day, if you're not having fun, if it's not like
lifting people up and letting them forget their troubles, then why does it exist?
I guess what we were thinking of what workaholics. Oh my god,
that's embarrassing, But you really don't have anything like Workaholics. Now there's just
you know, they brought back Reno nine one one, which is one of
the things that I've watched the last couple years. Fantastic. It actually started
as a one of the resurrective shows that laid it on Quibbi. They repurposed
some of the Quimby material, which I watched a lot of the Quibby content
right away, and well, I was you doing a ton of like daily
culture writing at the time. I had to and it's there. Yeah.
I was so excited about Reno nine one one making it come back. It
was one of my favorite shows of all time. I think it was actually
on currently with Sunny for a period of time that was on a Sunny would
be on FX and Reno was on Comedy Central. Was the peak of Western
civilization right there, and it's been downhill ever since it was, you know,
there was it felt like a peak. Actually at the time, I
felt like, could it possibly get better than the But in fact it didn't
like we look back on that now, um, but you don't have Workaholics,
you don't have anything like that. And King of Staten Island I enjoyed,
but it also did feel slow, and it's very similar with Bubkiss.
Have you watched Bob Kiss? So, Bobkiss is a new Pete Davidson vehicle
on Peacock and just star studded casts. We're talking about um, Joe Pashi,
Yeah, yeah, Edie Falco. And it's almost like what was the
great Pete Holmes show, um uh surfing it was basically Yeah, it's one
of that is one of the crashing, one of the one of the best
shows the last ten years as well, even though it does have a very
heavy dose of drama in it. Um, but the drama sturfs their purpose
a better healthy comedy. Yeah, it's not just a downer for the sick
of being a downer. Well, and it had some fidelity to a true
story which allowed it to not prioritize this like shoehorned narrative. It was a
natural narrative, like it actually happened, so he didn't have to make anything
up for sure, Yeah, like fabricate any like grand point um. But
with Bob Kiss, it's similar in that, like Pete Davidson has had a
fairly interesting life and there's some really interesting stuff that has happened to him.
He's obviously talented, but it's bogged down. Again. I don't think that's
a show that needs to be completely hilarious, like from start to finish obviously.
Um, you know, comedians are really dark, and Crashing explores that
to super fascinating effect. Um, Bob GISs is just like it's I don't
know, I thought it was fine, but it's is not as funny as
it should be given the level of talent you have. And that's I just
feel like the statement on Hollywood of the last ten years, they's just not
as good as it should be, even though you have plenty of talented people.
And that's kind of like that's a sort of a statement on America last
ten years. There's just a stupid amount of talent in this country and not
a wasted potential, right, Yeah, stupid amount of talent in this country,
and it just feels like everything is gummed up, right, Like the
word, the mechanics of the country just gummed up, and you have this
wasted potential. Yeah, I mean, we could be on Mars by now
doing stand up there, but you never it's a reality show called life on
Mars right now. Really, Yes, I'm assuming they're not on Mars.
I don't know, how could they do that? It was a joke.
I feel like it simulates I assume I yeah, yes, so alien and
flour and good. But I haven't dug two deeply in it. But they
have. One of the guests from vander Pump Rules is on it. That's
another show that I've obviously been watching that suddenly had a new life. This
is a show that started basically when I started college the early twenty times.
I think it started around twenty twelve. It was a spinoff of the Real
housewebs at Beverly Hills and became a massive, a massive story this year because
of some really some very real life drama. I think vander Pump Rules is
the greatest reality show of all time, with the possible exception of Jersey Shore.
It is. I'm a huge reality TV junkie. But one of the
guys is one life on Mars and I read an interview with him today,
Tom Schwartz, talking about how coming out of what has been dubbed Scandival,
which is the scandal involving Tom Sandival the friend of Tom, and you've definitely
seen headlines, even if you've forgotten, like it's been absolutely Everywhard's massive.
Um that scandal, he said coming out of it, this is the simulated
life on Mars was extremely refreshing, basically because you didn't have your phone.
Yeah, and that's like very sad. It's a very very very sad that
someone has this weird simulated reality television so experience on Mars, and that's what's
re leaving to them. To reconnect with reality, you have to go on
reality television, very mata, right, like our only escape from the reality
that reality television half wrought the reality TV your way out of reality. The
only way out is through That might be true. We live in hyper reality.
Nothing is real anymore. So. So you did watch the last season
of Barry, I feel like your take makes a lot of sense. That's
exactly what I would have expected from last season to Barry. Um, here's
another one of my blind spots. Because by the way, I'm going to
get so much judgment for this, but yeah, I have some really big,
glaring blind spots. I have watched Succession. I have not watched the
last season of Succession, and that's that is a glaring blind spot. Even
me, like, I'm sorry, I can't you know that point the world.
I know the way to the world is on my shoulders right now.
And I know I talk about a big game about watching absolutely everything, but
in order to be able to watch vander Pump Rules, I have to sacrifice
something. Yeah, that's right. And so tell me what you thought of
successions sort of endpoint. No spoilers, obviously, because I don't think everyone's
but you know, it's like the quality of the show and what it sort
of was was telling us about HBO, what it was telling us about the
country now. Um, so I think the intensity was still there. Um,
there's obviously some events throughout the season that take like the wind out of
the sales, and then it just turns up back to eleven. Um.
I think it was good writing all things considered. I didn't particularly like the
outcome, but you know, that's not really what you're supposed you're not supposed
to always. I don't think anybody I think the ending was supposed to kind
of um de pick that, like, yeah, it's a show where you
hate everybody, right, so you're not supposed to like what happens no matter
what, and that's kind of sopranos. Well, I don't know that's that's
a very like every character is literally me show. So I really I love
everyone there. So you actually the anti heroes for Sam and Sopranos are prostagonists.
This is a really dark statement on yourself and yourself. It's more,
it's more. It's more so the I enjoy the memes and the Sopranos fandom
that is cropped up in the covid era. You're irony poisoned, unfortunately.
Have you watched the Eric Andre Show? Of course, Eric Andre Show.
Yeah, you're into the kind of adult swim milliyear. Oh yeah, the
Eric Andrea Show. There are a couple so z Way and the Eric Andre
Show. This is like gen Z's entree into popular culture. And like it
takes a while for this sort of to like trickle. You know, it
wasn't until twenty twelve. With Girls, I think that millennials, like Office
is very gen X. Everyone loves the Office, but like Office is very
giant gen X. But with Girls, you see like the millennials start to
trickle into popular culture because you know, Lena Donald was really really young,
even though she's kind of an elder millennial, she was really young when Girls
came out. She was like one of the youngest writers, and that was
in twenty twelve, so barely over a decade ago. And so it takes
a little while for for Hollywood to catch up with these generations because you can't
have you know, fifteen year olds writing HBO shows, although some of them,
or I should say, like some Netflix shows these days really feel like
they were written by either fifteen year old or chatter vpt or prompts from a
fifteen year old to chatter. But I feel like this is, you know,
the euphoria is not an accurate depiction of zoomers, no matter what.
It just is not. It's like a very small subsection of zoomers, and
it gets some things interestingly accurate. But I think you started to interject.
I think I think euphoria really kind of taps into the like the isolation and
the romantic romantic romanticism of that isolation zoomers feel. Um, I don't think
it's I think that speaks why it's so popular amongst gen z um. I
certainly think it's cultural rot and ought not to continue. Yeah, but alast
it is going to so and Eric's ericon drean z where are not Zoomers but
they are like those shows are like ready made for TikTok. They're almost there.
They were really almost. Um, they're almost written with the pacing of
TikTok and reels and that. Like every on Eric Andre Show, it's like
every fifteen seconds there's this hard left pivot. It's incredibly schizophrenic. Yeah.
Yeah, So what is your take on the Eric Andre Show. This is
his first season doing this show, right, I think, So what do
you I mean? I'm a I'm a purist. I suppose I missed.
I missed Eric The Eric Andre Show. Um, that was like a golden
era in adult Swim's history, right, And when was that? I think
it started in like twenty thirteen and then went to like twenty seventeen. Okay,
I'm probably wrong on that. And that's when you took time off,
so there's years in between seasons. That's when Comedy Central was doing a lot
of these Um. I think the Anthony Jeselnick Show was in that same time
period. Um. And there were some others love investment and like actual talent
for their or in this, like faux cable news. Yeah, like faux
Late Night. That's probably a better example. Whereas like where millennials, we're
just sort of like being the anti traditional they were doing, like the Jazzlin
like thing, the anti um, the anti Letterman thing. Right now,
what Eric Andre is doing, um, I think is sort of anti anti,
right or when Z is doing a sort of anti anti it's not a
deconstruction, it's just a full well, I guess it is a deconstruction,
but it's very like you said, it's very meta. So it's it's irony
poisoned. So that's kind of the appeal of that, I think to a
lot of people is there's so much. There's unintentionally so much to it,
so you can either turn your brain off and just vibe or you can chehotically
try and deconstruct what may or may not be actual art. Yeah. So,
and that's right. Um, it's like you know, somebody putting a
finger painting up in an art museum, um, a modern arn't museum,
and you when it's gen Z, you know, you don't you can't tell
if they're satirizing or if they're actually like if if it's like the satire is
actually sincere. Yeah, you don't know. And that's I mean obviously extremely
interesting. And I really like the way. I think it's really funny,
but it's I think that what I'm getting out of it is different than what
people younger than me are getting out of it. Like she's really talented,
her timing is incredible, and you get a lot of laughs out of it,
but at the same time that you genuinely have no idea at the end
of the day, like what she's trying, like what point she's ultimately trying
to make, because it's just anti everything, right. I think there's a
sort of I mean, there's going to be a huge cultural issue with that,
I think, because I don't think people are well. I mean,
I'm sure people grow out of it eventually, but it's a very like omnipresent
trend right now, just the full the full blown irony poison of everything.
So it's impos would have found like what is the actual truth of a conversation
with a lot of young people right now? Um, I don't know how
we navigate that. I think it requires some kind of like resurgence and sincerity.
Um, but I don't know. It's it's like the Eric Condre is
sort of like the TV version of Old Town Road and like Little Nasax,
I'm where you're going with that, I don't know, I'm not picking up
on that one. Well, what I mean by that is it's like Old
Town Road is anti anti UM. It's sort of like a anti anti dumb
country music. Right, so it's like this, UM, but but you
like it's actually really catchy in the same way that like you're going to laugh
at Z, but you're going to laugh at Eric Andre because they're putting people
in uncomfortable situations and like there's there's actually something really funny there. Um,
And you're going to even if you like country like Old Town Road, there's
this huge controversy over whether it belongs on the country charts or not, and
whether it belongs in country radio or not, and it ultimately ended up on
the country charts like country radio. UM. And it's like that like very
real question is you know this is that was clearly satire of country music,
like very clearly satire of country music. And um still at the end of
the day, it's being put in the country music John Eric Contre is now
a late night television host. You have to say, right, no,
for sure, yeah, he has the same standing as um what's his name
from the Daily Show? Um? Trevor. Well, he's gone now,
thank god. They've been rotating people on on. But this this is like
where Jordan Klepper or Trevor Noah, who would guess are both millennials um fail
like just fail fail fail, And you have gen Z coming in and actually,
like Zewey is not Trevor Noah. Zeway is like not just satirizing John
Stewart. It's also that she's she's she's not just satirizing. Let's say John
Stuart was satirizing like Bill O'Reilly, or Colbert was satirizing Bill o'reiley. She's
not just being Colbert. She's also kind of satirizing Colbert. It's like multi
multiple layers of satire and commentary and you don't know, like ultimately where it
lands. And I think that's because gen Z like ultimately doesn't know where they
land on any of this stuff except for that they hate everything. The world
is burning, as you said, everything is on fire all time, so
like that they're not rooted in it in anything. I'm not saying that means
I actually think they're making really interesting stuff, or people that are making stuff
for gen Z and making really interesting stuff that place of uncertainty isn't you know,
categorically bad for art. And in fact, you know, if you're
willing to be honest with yourself because you also don't have a sense of shame
because you don't know what you believe, you may go in some really interesting
directions. That's a good point. Yeah, you know, to the point
of, like from satirizing everything, I think there's a lot of overlap.
This might be getting way too into the internet weeds. Oh boy. I
think there's a lot of overlap with like the Eric Andre and the z ways
and like the Dirt Bag Left, so to speaking, totally. Yeah,
I think it's a really unique cultural phenomenon because whereas you know, the first
group is very very corporate, the other one is very kind of despite making
bags of cash, is kind of a shoed by play society. But it's
still like, you know, how you have that Taylor Swift's ex boyfriend is
for intensive purposes, Taylor Swift orbit the Dirt Bag Left because it's it's subversive
in a lot of ways. It's interesting, but millennial Taylor Swift broke up
with him Betty Jali right, well, we don't know if she broke up
with him, or her manager told her to break up with him. We
don't know the full tea, but millennial Taylor Swift could not embrace the chaos
and many heal right, and that's actually kind of interesting. Obviously she probably
obviously she liked him. There was something and it very quickly became nothing after
there was a political backlash. So draw whatever conclusions you want. But you
have the pod Bros versus I'm not even say the name of the one podcast
for us you want to compare it to. But there's also Chapo. So
you have the pod Bros, you have Chapo, you have dirt bag left
people. And that's another like really great juxposition, the millennial pod bros who
are so deeply self serious and to their own detriment in ways that are like
incredibly unfunny and in ways that make their politics really vapid and establishment. I
mean, I just saw a clip of John Favreau the other day talking about
how you know, if you're voting for Jill Stein, then you're just voting
in the same way that you were voting for Trump over Hillary. If you
voted for Jill Sign in twenty sixteen, if you vote for Bobby Kennedy or
if you vote for Cornell West, you're just voting for Trump again. And
there's there's no self awareness, there's no serious like grappling with the world around
them, Whereas in a sense, I really do think gen Z has been
forced to grapple with the world around them because Millennials came of age largely before
Facebook, or they had their childhood kind of split down the middle by Facebook
zoomers. It's like Wi Fi has always been in the air, yeah,
and smartphones have always been the norm, and that forces you into a different
place of uncertainty, I think, in a different place of like health.
Frankly, yeah, I mean it's certainly overexposed, and I don't know if
it's a person. I think it's a bad thing. You know, the
loss of innocence is way too young. You're forced to grapple with things that
no child should have to even know exists. Said way too young. A
hardcore pornography, Yeah right, um, you know, I mean that's commonplace
on Twitter. Like I see conversations on Twitter all the time, Like Twitter
needs to choose whether it's like an eighteen plus platform or like ban all the
smut um. But that's something that gen Z has to constantly grapple with.
The way they're brains formed is entirely different than any other generation before because they
were, like you said, they were born in the digital era. They're
digital natives. You know, I'm a younger millennial, so you're right on
the border to Yeah, I guess zillennial. I've saw I've seen online people
are saying that it's pretty funny though, like I've seen like where I was
I going with that, So like I've had like my life kind of split
between like I remember life without Facebook and the internet being everywhere, right,
But if you don't and that's your only frame of reference, you don't know
what it's like touch grass, so you're untethered yeah, from the before times
exactly and just kind of floating around, right, which is again producing some
really interesting stuff. No, for sure, it's great. It's great for
our consumption, but right very bad for humanity. If you don't know what
to believe, then you know you're going to there'll probably be a lot of
provocation. And because they're asking questions, and I think millennials lost their ability
to even ask questions because there became this Well I think that's very obvious because
college campuses and culture that was becoming influenced by college exactly. It became like
you cannot ask questions like and girls ask questions and got into trouble for doing
it, but you know, and landed in a pretty interesting place. But
Lena Dunham herself, you know, it's very we know what we think about
this and this and human rights and blah blah blah. It just is it's
a very very different thing. And the Zoomers are reacting to that. Is
there anything else you can think, um that fits into that category that we
haven't mentioned yet? I did mention that I just watched The Idol. I've
started the Idol, which is Lily Rose Depp, so Johnny Depp's daughter,
and its the Weekend. It's been criticized as sort of being marketed to teens
and being more explicit than Euphoria, which is almost impossible to be more explicit
than you've w It's grotesque. It is a very disgusting show. I was
trying to explain it to someone yesterday. And also it's the Degrassi for Zoomers.
It's much much more explicit than de grass I remember watching Degrassi and like,
I accidentally I wasn't trying to watch it, but I stumbled on it
one day in middle school after school, and I remember watching an episode about
like the rainbow bracelets that at the time adults were panicked over that I don't
think actually really exists on a wide scale, but it indicated, you know,
what girls had done sexually at that age, the different colors that they
wore bracelet wise, and I like truly don't think that ever exists, but
it is like, yeah, I think of going in my lifetime from Dawson's
Creek being a moral panic to the idol barely registering culturally as a as a
moral panic. People are just like the shows. People don't seem to be
like in the show. I mean, I don't know I like it.
I was in Pull the Plug, so yeah, I was listening to Red
Scare and they were like, well, we don't know anybody who who's watched
those who hasn't liked it. I don't. I haven't really talked to anybody
else who's watched it so far. I'm just going based on like they mentioned,
it got boot at can, which is great. You know, it
looks really cool to get boot it can, which is totally true. And
I think people who are willing to like ask these questions that the idol asks
about fame and celebrity and media and the ethics of the business and Hollywood period.
The Idol is asking those questions in a way that I think we've had
a total pause in asking some of those those questions. But I think it's
great and I actually found the show pretty interesting. I'm not like a gas
I think it's really bad if you kids are watching it, But I also
haven't seen it being like directly marketed at kids. It is explicit though.
No, Yeah, I was more as said from like all this smut.
I thought the most defensive part was just the terrible acting. It's just the
weekend. Should stick to making nuvo RMB, that's where he really shines.
Should stay out of acting. Just be four millennials, and then I think
we should move to movies. But thenk you speaking of shows for millennials.
The other two is one of my favorite things on TV right now. This
is a show. I believe it started in a comedy Central and and this
is just like it's almost like broad City, but with a brother and sister.
It's kind of a tweet how Tina fe was mad about that show for
some reason. Oh, I don't know. I didn't I didn't pick up
on that. But it doesn't really get a lot of it has again,
like it has a pretty good cast. Molly Shannon is a lead in it,
um and Wanda Sykes is a big character in it, and they get
some really good guest spots. But um, I think they had Dylan O'Brien
on a recent episode. But yeah, it's it's sort of like very broad
City, but with a brother and sister, very much like two people trying
to make it in New York, specifically in um Hollywood and acting and in
representation pr and UM. It's just one of those shows as like genuinely sunny
esque in that it exists as a comedy and it's not. It has some
really biting moments, some really like sharp edged comedy, and it's very very
current. So if you're a pop culture junkie, you'll love the references and
you'll really enjoy it. But it's not trying to sell you an emotional storyline
alongside the comedy, which just like every time you think it's maybe going to
be emotional, it's going to got punch you with something emotional all which is
wonderful. It's exactly what you want, exactly. It's just for levity,
it's for entertainment, right, So, partially because Vanderpup Rules has weighed so
heavily on my mind recently, I just haven't been watching a lot of movies.
And you know what, it's not even vander Pump Rules. It's below
deck. If I'm going to be honest, I I'm admitting here to it's
serious, a serious addiction to below deck, which is I'm a I'm a
Bravo junkie. I love the Real Housewives, I love vander Pump Rules,
I love Southern Charm. But watching them for years very much, very much
like in that subculture, love it, love it, love it has all
kinds of problems, but it also I think, you know, the way
I justified rationalized watching Bravo, though I do watch a little bit less of
it these days, especially The Housewives and everything else, is by saying,
you actually do pick up on a lot of sad and serious things about our
culture by watching these shows. And it's that the comedy of finding, you
know, like white lotus things in our culture that are so sad you have
to skewer them, and Real Housewives does that in a way that a lot
of the women aren't aware of. Some of them are, some of them
aren't. And part of the fun is watching that, and it's not always
pleasant to watch. A lot of times it's it's very unpleasant to watch,
which is why I stopped watching the season of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.
And that was one of the only times that I've ever done that.
Sam doesn't give damn. But we're going to keep going here. So I
support you in your cultural pursuits. Thank you. I can't say the same
for you, but I will say I have been binging below Deck since January
UM, and I never gave below Deck a chance. Have you ever watched
below Deck? I've never heard of it until this conversation. Okay, So
below Deck is a reality TV show on yachts. UM. So it's about
no, no, no, no, it's not. But it's about the
crew of these luxury yachts, and so it's it's interesting. Like, first
of all, I think it's the perfect couple show because you get something for
the men, which is the boats, and like the you know, you
have the engineers are on the show and they're doing their their docking and they're
anchoring, and it's a lot of like heavy equipment, you can. You
know, it's it's a little for the men and then for the women you
have the crew drama and the relationships. And for the men and the women
you have the food. So the food feature is very heavily on below deck
and it's a fun metal travel show. You get to see other places,
but it's also just edited in a way that makes it very easy to serialize
their drama. Um, you know, it's it's a good sort of confined
space that adds in a very obvious of reality. It's reality television. Like
there's some of the stuff you frankly can't script because you've done the work ahead
of time, which is putting a bunch of sexually active young people in a
very confined space with stressful jobs and the camera Grover like, you're going to
get good stuff no matter what. All right, I think we're going to
wrap up and move on to movies, but I think we should do that
as a separate podcast because there's just there's too much good stuff. Sam,
all right, well, we'll be back with a podcast on some of the
movies that we've watched in the last year. After this, looking forward to
it. You've been listening to another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm
Emilijashnski, culture editor here at the Federalist. Will be back soon with more.
Until then, be lovers of freedom and anxious for the frame.