We're back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Trishinsky,
culture editor here at the Federalist. As always, you can follow the show
at radio. You can email the show at radio at the Federalist dot com,
follow us on exit fdr LST. Make sure to subscribe wherever you download
your podcasts into the premium ad free version of our website if you want to
support our workover at the Federalist dot com as well. I'm joined today by
my colleague Sam mangled Lennett. He's a staff editor with us at The Federalist.
Sam, thanks for coming back on. Happy to be here. How's
it going? Longtime? No see, it's good. We just put our
coats on here at the office because despite both being from the Midwest, it's
freezing. I blame Jeremy. Jeremy is our other co worker. He is
the light of my life. And since he left the office, go back
to Texas. Sorry for the docks. It's been cool ever since. Is
that where he went? Earlier today? He took the heat with him,
took the heat, well, maybe for you. So we did a movie's
podcasts in which I think one of the at least one of My takeaways is
I was reflecting on everything that came out in the last year, is that
sort of the mid range that had been that has been really bloated because of
the explosion and streaming and all the money that came with it, all the
big investments that came with it. We're now seeing streamer prices rise, and
I think what that's led is to some leaner content, meaning you know,
it's they're cracking down on all of the really sort of filler, mid budget
nonsense that's gone out and tightening it up, making some of that content better
as I look back. But I actually really think that's true of TV as
well. I think TV is really where that explosion. There was an explosion
in movies too, but this descripted TV explosion was and still is completely out
of control. I mean, there's so there's really numerically so much more TV
than there used to be, and we can talk about monoculture and all of
that, but man, when I went back to look at the list of
TV shows that came out in the last year, and this is not just
movies that we've watched in the last year. It's only movies that have come
out in the last year. TV shows that have come out in the last
year, it's overwhelming, just the sheer volume, and it's been like that
for years. I also think this might be the year where it started to
get better, where that content really started to show that studios and distributors are
re emphasizing quality because they're seeing too many dips and subscriptions. And when you're
raising subscription price, it can't be all about volume. You have to give
something. People need to be happy with what they're watching. And for a
couple of years there and I actually think this is still true. With Netflix
in particular, the odds that this hyped new show with a star in it
was actually going to suck were so high. Yeah, I remember that Paul
Rudd show on Netflix that they they marketed that show so hard I forget what
it was called. He's sort of becomes a it's a sci fi thing.
As much as like Paul Rudd as a concept, I'm just kind of assume
eighty percent of the things he's going to be in our kind of garbage.
Well, that's an example of a lot of similar shows that came out on
that right, And man, I just feel like those are declining. And
that's great. Yeah. So, for example, one show I thought that
did a really good job this year with bupkiss on Peacock, with Pete Davidson
again five years ago whatever, I think that show would have fallen prey to
the sort of fill are thin, get it out fast at all costs type
of model. It was scripted comedy, a scripted autobiographical comedy, basically Pete
Davidson playing Pete Davidson, and really had a lot of last and a lot
of heart. Wasn't perfect, but just an example I think of how much
better things are getting in Another example I think would be platonic. What is
with certain interject What is with these memoir esque series and movies like Pete Davidson.
That's the second one he's done. There was a King of Staten Island
as well. He's not that interesting of a guy to have two visual medium
memoirs. How narcissistic are you? No, he's not that interesting at all.
In fact, he's actually I think maybe one of the things that makes
both of these shows interesting is that he's so typical King of Staten Island and
it's obviously grappling a lot with millennial mailhood and sort of arrested development that comes
with that. Look, look, look, I wanted to dislike the spinn
I are kind of selling me on it. I think you would like Buffos.
Actually, I know you would like it. Again, it's it's Pete
Davidson, and he's not always on, there's no question about that, but
yeah, he's It does sort of go back to the origins of a lot
of his pain and Nine to eleven and his dad, and there's something about
that, you know, in the New York area, that in Ladder Burrows
that is just so typical and having that, you know, Euphoria starts with
the main character being born. Literally she's in the hospital and her parents are
watching the footage of nine to eleven and that's about gen Z. But Pete
Davidson is a millennial and he has this direct you know, it's not it's
not that it was playing on the hospital, it's that it was his father,
whom he knew and loved. He knew and loved, and the way
that that sort of has shaped his life. I think, you know,
he lost his father traumatically. A lot of millennials just didn't have dads.
Yeah, so anyway, there's something interesting about the show, and it's not
trying to be a comedy that the drama is secondary too. And it's not
trying to be a drama that the comedy is secondary too. I think it
balances out pretty well. It sounds kind of like shoot Master of None,
he's on sorry series from back in the day. Yes, although Master of
None is a really good example of what I was just talking about. Shows
that, like you can tell, these streamers put a whole lot of money
in it, and they may have instead of even just cranking them out,
they in some cases I think, gave high profile artists way too much space
to indulge themselves. And Master of None was wildly indulgent and lacking self awareness
to the point where it became a diary essentially. It was not interesting.
It totally lost. I don't know. Did you watch the full series?
Uh? Yeah, I thought the first half effectively was quite good. Yeah.
Then it's just well I need more content. Here's what I'm thinking about,
here's what I do. Yeah, here's what if I lived in Italy?
Yeah right, like great indulgent and what if we did it in black
and white? Yeah right? Yes, yeah, I would say about this
is like that, But it's also sort of like Crashing. Yeah, and
Crashing I think is probably one of the better shows that's come out in the
last decade. Their Crashing is quite good. I haven't kept up with it.
I don't even know if it's still on. No, I don't think
it is. Okay, it's very very funny, very endearing. Okay,
so we did. Oh, Platonic is where I was going to go next.
Man, was I expecting that show to be bad? Because again,
I've watched a lot of these, especially on Apple TV, they do these
very glossy, high budget and a high profile, uh sort of star anchor
type shows. So I was expecting Platonic with Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne to
be I'm thinking of Severance with Adam Sky. I think they came out this
year. Maybe it came out last year. I want to say twenty twenty
two because I was still in Ohio. Yeah, it probably came out the
year before. Just an example of a show with an interesting concept, lots
of money, lots of talent. From my perspective, was you know,
eighty percent more boring than it should have been. Is not to say it
was a horrible show. I just thought it was really boring for how much
talent and money had been thrown at it. Did you ever see Westworld?
No, I'm not a big sci fi person. Okay, there's I think
there's a lot of I mean, the West World is the first season was
some of the best TV I've ever seen, but there's a lot of the
Severance. The first season reminds me kind of of that in a sense where
it's just it's a slow burn, but the West World slow burn had far
had a far greater payoff than Severances did. Crime. Another one that came
out this year that sort of similar to Severance was Shrinking. This is another
Apple TV. Did you watch this? It was with Harrison Ford. It's
like, like, why can't they just he's what ninety? Let him go
to bed, he's tired, nineties, he's at least in his late eighties.
Really, yeah, Harrison Ford, I'm looking it up because there was
You seem very confident about that. I am very confident because I remember someone
telling me this and if there's no way because he and what's her name,
Princess Leah were a thing and oh yeah, there was a weird age gap,
like that's right. Kerry Fisher Yeah, it's who had like a constrained
amount of drugs in her system when she died. But that's besides the point,
not to speaking all the dead. But he's he's definitely in his late
eighties, if not his nineties. I see. Shrinking, by the way,
was written by Jason Siegil, who also stars in it. He did
a lot of the writing Bill Lawrence from Scrubs, a lot of the writing.
I did not think it was he's eighty one, He's not in his
lady, Okay, I was closed, I was close rounding up. I
just I gave up on it after a few episodes, to be honest,
which is the same thing that the severance. I always give something more than
three episodes. I think that's fair, especially when you now have like eight
episode seasons as opposed to you know, in some time. Yeah, exactly,
But again, a show that just really fell flat. And it's visually
beautiful. All of the shows Apple does are visually stunning, and that is
to their credit. But when you're throwing a lot of money and talent at
a show and it's like eighty percent, like I said, it just it
doesn't pack the punch that I thought it should. Have, And that's an
example I think of the glut that still exists. That's an example that,
you know, some stuff that some fat I think is going to get trimmed.
Shows like that I think are really going to get trimmed in the years
ahead. But Platonic if you need a holiday binge, not for kids,
but if if you need a holiday binge and you have not watched that show
yet, It's hilarious, a very easy watch. I had to pause from
not like consuming all of it at once. That's that good. Interesting,
it was very funny. But Rose Byrne is the highlight of the show.
Apple TV, Apple TV. Right, I'll check it out. Let's see
what else do we have on this list? So much? But I stopped
actually on the TV list, just like, did you watch poker Face with
natash Leone? No? But I like the song by Lady Gaga. You
do, Yes, Really, I'm a man. I contain multitudes. I
have taste in Madam inside you there are two wolves. That's well said another
show. So now that we're my movie theory was that a lot of the
fat was getting trimmed, and I think we're seeing that process play out in
the TV space as well, for example, with with pup GISs and with
Platonic poker Face did not do it for me. Uh, clearly spent a
lot of money on it. Visually stunning. It really feels like an NBC
show, which is interesting. You know what dogument like sitcom esque multi sitcom.
Yeah, but there's just something, yes, but there's something that is
It's totally indescribable, not for being you know, any better or worse than
anything. I've always had an affinity for NBC because it's what my parents watched
for news, and you know, when you used to watch nightly news,
you would leave it on and the sitcoms would come on after. So it
has like this awkward like I let me just say, I think NBC's esthetic
has always been better than every other network and I think that has gone across
the board on everything that they've produced, from news to sitcoms. And part
of that, for me is probably nostalgia. And I probably would have a
really hard time evaluating that objectively, but that has always been my take.
Interesting. Yeah, I don't really have a dog in that fight. You
didn't watch one network growing up over the others? I mean cartoon network all
day? No, not that I felt like, that's besides the Actually,
do you remember when Nickelodeon had Nick News, they would do what was her
name, I don't remember her name, but she sucked. She was the
worst. I remember. I remember, like Obama just just got elected and
there was this whole like grand sweeping, just bootlicking special on them, and
it was so grating. I think that radicalized me. You were watching Nickelodeon
when Obama was elected. Yeah, I'm not that old. I thought you
were closer to my age comparable or I'm just mentally stunted. I remember you
watched Nickelodeon way longer than you should have been watching. Some of us maintain
our whimsy. I have friends in my age she talk about watching Hannah on
Tan and I'm like, wait, yeah, really, you should not have
been watching that. You had to give it up in at some point,
like I said, instead of you are two wolves. On one hand,
you're watching the Boon Dots. On the other hand, you're watching SpongeBob.
It's you can you can have a foot in both worlds. Yeah, the
duality of Man Boon Knocks and SpongeBob. That really is the duality of Man
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on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Where was I
What did you interrupt? Oh? I was talking about poker Face. Russian
Doll was sort of the comeback moment for Natasha Leon, who's now in all
the old Navy holiday ad campaign looking fabulous and the Zembic era of the twenty
twenties, and this the Russian Dolls example that was on Netflix. Man second
season could have cut, could have cut the fat on that could have just
not had that second season. So what is an example of the fat aside
from like the Ozembic loss, but like no I mean that I meant,
uh, the sort of streaming is it just too self serving of the creatives
or yeah? Yeah, yeah, So it's like the concentration of quality is
too diluted. So you know, it's if you have a glass of if
you pour orange juice into half a glass and then you pour water and the
rest of it should have just had the orange juice before you pour the water
into, but then you need two glasses of orange juice out of it.
Sure, but in this we'll see exactly. So in the streaming areas,
especially during covid UH, people wanted to us more interest. They didn't just
want the one. They wanted to binge and there was so much money.
These companies were all on sugar highs because everyone was subscribing to everything. Everyone
was ready for subscriptions, they were their investors were putting tons of money into
these products, and all of the top talent was ready to do it.
So so you're saying, why say more word when few word do trick?
Essentially exactly, But here's the thing there. It's not zero sum, so
you don't need you actually can make more money in certain cases. This is
my thing with that's a good point. Yeah, because they're not. It's
not like any of these things are running ads. It's not like they're like
what we need. If you want more subscribers, make better things. It's
not about more anymore. And I think people for a while were focused on
volume because they thought what people wanted was the most choice possible. And I
think we thought what we wanted was the most choice possible until we really that
the most choice possible when you are subscribing to three different streamers is the bag.
The day, it was like, okay, we're Netflix. Maybe you
had Hulu, but you weren't subscribing across the board to everything. But now
people have pretty much said like, okay, I'm not going to get away
with just having Netflix and probably going to have at least two subscriptions. Well,
if you put two libraries together, Netflix and Hulu's libraries alone, there's
enough choice to last a lifetime just now in twenty twenty three. If they
stopped making new shows now in twenty twenty three, and you combined the current
libraries of Netflix and Hulu, probably you would have enough to already last a
lifetime let alone, with the years and years and years and years and years
of new content that's about to come out. So when people started having these
heavily marketed, high budget shows, you're feeling utterly mediocre. It felt like
you were drinking half a glass of water and half a glass of orange juice
when you were told you were getting a glass of orange juice. And you're
getting to the point where there's so much pure orange juice that you don't need
to be drinking your introjuice with water. It gives you diabetes. I don't
even know where we got to that metaphor. It just came to me like
a flash of brilliance, obviously, but that's that's how I would describe it.
And there's so many different examples. If I just pulled up Netflix right
now, I could just go through it. But you know what I mean,
And I think I think that's at least declining. Okay, I'm acceptive
to it, but poker face shrinking and whatever else I said was an example
of the fat not being fully trimmed. One show that I love that does
not get enough attention and ended in twenty twenty three is the Other Two?
Did you watch the other two? I've never heard of that started on Comedy
Central. I think it used to run after Broad City, so it's been
on that long and then it moved to HBO and it was just a comedy.
It was It was Molly Shannon, and she sort of plays I want
to say, the main characters. The main characters are her kids, but
she sort of plays this matriarch almost. Actually, Ohio is a pretty big
part of the show, but it's part of Ohio. I think it's a
fake part. Yeah, I don't think it's a but lost interest. Ohio
is a recurring character on the show because they're from Ohio and end up their
brother turns into kind of a Justin Bieber and so they moved to New York
City and then the mom becomes kind of an opera, becomes kind of an
obra. It's a lot going on here. So fame sweeps up to this
family from Ohio and the two millennial kind of older brother and sister. The
show is just a comedy that follows them. Ended this year. It ended
this year, but it was just a fun, hilarious, irreverent, satirical
show about pop culture and sometimes politics in America that I think it was like
it hit like eighty percent of the time. It was really good and I'm
really going to miss that show. Fantastic and we need more like that,
more like Platonic, very good show. What We Do in the Shadows had
a good year. I thought, did you watch this latest season? I
did not explain it to me. What look? I rewatched King of the
Hill. I've been watching a lot of anime, a lot going on,
kind of worried about you. It's been a long year. It does seem
like King of the Hill is having a little bit of a moment. The
moment never ended. It's a kind of a comeback. I think it's always
been this moment. Did end? No, no, no, it ended
because Fox made the horrible mistake of canceling it for the Cleveland Show. But
that's besides the point that's in the weeds. I just remember them forcing like
Joe Buck to do ads for King of the Hill during football games. I
love that show so much. But What We Do in the Shadows have you
seen it at all? I've seen some of it, Okay, I have
not seen much. I have seen episodes. That's disappointing. I'm watching anime,
man, what do you want from me? Yeah? Well, okay,
So one of the reasons, like the show. I feel like it
was very early on the bandwagon, like right when it first came out.
In fact, before the TV show came out, there was a documentary from
like twenty fourteens, like an office style documentary. You've seen it actually very
funny. The show was I think, probably funnier than the documentary. And
right after I watched that, I came to it late. I was googling
the documentary just to you know, kind of learn about everyone involved, which
turned out to be Tako Watiti. I was very Did you see our flag
means death? He needs to go to jail? Did you share our Flag
means Death? The new so there. I haven't watched second season. I
watched the first season a couple of years ago. It's on HBO. That's
some fat that could be trimmed. He's one of those the second season at
least, he's one of those guys who just is too indulgent, or he's
rather too indulged. So I actually like most of what he does. I
will say, but maybe I'm missing something. What in particular do not like
that he's done? So was the soccer movie he just did? Oh?
I didn't see that last goal winds for school wins whatever that is. That
was terrible. So I enjoyed Jojo Rabbit. I liked Jojo. I liked
it quite a bit. But he's one of these guys who maybe it's just
there's too much hype. Yeah, I agree with he's one of these mad
creative geniuses who just doesn't deliver, who's not a genius. Yeah, he's
just an ascended midwid he's fashioned as a creative genius when he's actually just really
creative. Yeah, and that's that's fine. Like, I'm cool with like
eccentric people being given creative freedom, but like the ring them in so you
can actually get a coherent product eighty percent of the time. There's I think
there's an identity politics aspect. Yeah, they want telling me in Hollywood in
twenty twenty three, there's identity politics. Well, no, I know that's
surprising, but it's always kind of grading when it happens with someone who actually
is talented, right, and they're just over hyped. Yeah, and I
think that is true of him. And I actually think our Flag means death,
which he's a huge part of that show. But what we do in
the Shadows, the TV show, it's on FX and Hulu. He's kind
of stepped back from I think he writes some of the episodes and produces it,
and he sometimes will come into the show. But our five means death
is that's a that's him like through and through. He's not the main character.
Oh, he's in it, but he's not the main character. And
it just that first season again, you can tell it's pretty from what it
looks like. It looks like they put a lot of money into it,
and he's a big name, so obviously it costs money to bring him into
a project like that. Overly indulgent and could have been a great, like
six episode show, but I think it wasn't said like eight or ten or
maybe even more than that. And then the second season looked really bad.
Frankly, it looked I didn't even watch it, but it looked like fat
that needed to be trimmed. It looked like overtly political rather than sort of
for the sake of itself. Do you think he might just be I mean,
I think he is just kind of bad, not bad, but over
hyped in general. Do you think he's just pulled too thin because he has
his hands in a lot of pies right now? Maybe maybe. I mean,
yeah, that's possible, especially because after Jojo Rabbit everything came flooding his
way and so he's probably still catching up on all of that. Like Thor
Regnarok and Jojo Rabbit were great movies. Oh that's right, and then everything
else afterwards was just well, here's the Hawaiian guy or South African Hawaiian guy,
whatever he is. Give him stuff pollination. Yeah, I think he's
from New Zealand. I had the Pacific Island right the first time. If
you watch Below Deck, which as I mentioned on this podcast a couple of
times, I spent most of the year doing. You're very attuned to the
differences between Australia and New Zealand. It's a lots and kiwis on Below Deck
and all of the various franchises. But that is that was my TV flagship
this year. Is I worked my way through every single franchise, and I
did that in the first six months and have been since been, you know,
watching the current below Deck and making that a priority. But man,
was that I guard the Bravo brand fairly jealously because that sentence has never once
been uttered in the English language before. Well, I can say this.
Things that I know, the things that I've written about sort of political correctness
seeping into reality television have found their ways to people at Bravo. And there's
a reason I think reality television, first of all, it's it's not going
anywhere like you. It is TikTok, right, it is reeles. It's
all everything we do so long as our smartphones have cameras on them, we
are living in this kind of hyperreality is panopticonic, and it's all goes obviously,
it all goes back to the government. Well I shouldn't say obviously,
but come on the likelihood that's definitely does you know, can't say for sure
or that you know, potentially if they wanted it all too they definitely could
do that. Yes, they just would install software on your phone and you
know you would never know it. Yeah, Okay, So it sounded like
somebody was breaking into the office, which is why Sam and I were briefly
distracted. Although I think we covered it up fairly well. I still keep
I keep hearing beeps, like on the door lock or something. I don't
know. Well that makes sense given our location, But good luck if you
break into our office, because Sam is eight feet tall. Please don't doesn't
want that anyway, So they where was I Sam's reality TV? Reality?
I watched Love Is Blind? Okay? Good? Or because your roommate loves
Love a Holy cow? That show is wild. It's a pretty So this
is what's interesting about reality TV. And that's why again I think there is
something to be said about guarding reality TV and the sort of authenticity of reality
TV, because the best reality TV is the obviously the most real reality TV.
The best reality TV stars are people who need no need, no producing,
no scripting or anything like that. And you know, right, And
there are some networks that are really good at making so much reality TV and
not using good reality TV stars because they just do so much they rely on
a lot of editing tricks. And TLC is what I'm thinking of particularly,
and that's not about every show on TLC, but a lot of them.
And reality stars themselves have become so self aware, and that's definitely true of
everybody on Love is Blind. But you have to adapt when the reality starts
to become self aware because they were born in the nineties and the two thousands,
which is true. If everybody on Love is Blind who grew up with
reality television and knows exactly what it's about, and knows what editing is,
knows what the production is, and is you know on this show that tons
of people are going to watch. Tell me what you so, what you
thought about the kind of human aspect of the experiment, like is this?
I think there's something that would be taken away from it on you know,
modern dating being So let's see content heavy meaning. I mean, I mean
that before you meet people, there's so much like the first thing you do
is see how they curate themselves image wise and so on. Love is blind,
Going into it blind is interesting. That's a good point. So my
original response is gonna be Dude's rock and that it's a dystopian healscape. But
now that you say that, I think there's a lot to it. I
think I still take umbradge with the fact that you know these people who are
like trying to fall in love with just a voice, when that's theoretically not
how this is supposed to work. You're supposed to acknowledge someone with all their
flaws and imperfections in going into it. Very much not blind, but it
is like the foil to everything else where you just know what they look like.
Yeah, so instead of just doom scrolling on whatever dating app you use,
you get all of the person, none of the aesthetic. So I
think there's something very interesting going on there that is really interesting, especially in
the context of a reality TV show where it's typically all of the athetic,
right, how people sort of perform themselves sound like Judith Butler briefly. It's
also in the dating app culture, how you can kind of it sort of
gamifies the most important part of life, which is finding a mate and reproducing.
It gamifies that in a way where you can actually have filters for height,
for skin color, eye color. You can add those filter yourselves,
or you can filter some of the apps let you use those filters, although
something I think tweaked them post twenty twenty. I don't know to you know,
the race thing is weird. It gets into really weird territory and on
love is Blind, all you have is the voice and the mind behind the
voice. Yeah, there should be interesting about that or just the voice.
I don't think there's much going on with the mind aspect of well, but
dating it. I mean sure for a lot of people, uh, well
not for a lot of people that was one of the dumbest ways to begin
their friends for everyone. The physical yeah, down to like pheromones and all
of that is really how people make these determinations. So removing it's not just
about I mean obviously physical attractiveness in terms of how somebody looks visually, but
also it's things like how they smell, how they all of those things,
like we know biologically are of how people couple off, and so removing all
that I think is actually just like an interesting experiment, right. I think
there's also something to be said, like they're obviously casting these people, like
they're not just pulling the random folks off the street, like a lot goes
into like curating the allegedly totally organic falling in love with the brain and the
mind and the soul of the people. Like they're not going to pick you
know, uggos for a list. They are just going to pick who they
think are They're going to do the aesthetic work for you. Yeah, that
doesn't bother me as much because a lot of people are like, well,
love is blind is sort of useless because everybody going into it knows that the
person on the other side of the wall isn't going to be ugly. Yeah,
yeah, I mean yep, but that's it's not about the risk of
somebody being ugly. It's about this person evil. They're on a reality TV
dating show, so you're on are already high. But man if John Daniel
Davidson was listening to this Archolie John, he would just write both of us
off. Probably, yeah, I know it's true though. It's about the
It's not just about whether someone is physically, you know, super ugly or
super hot and that kind of Do you remember those box the Wonder Box,
the candy that is. I think it was like Disney is a chocolate ball.
It was going to be inside of wonder ball. What's in a wonder
ball? That used to be the Certain Death Since you asked, it was
just a little plastic toy with definitely not covered in lead paint at all.
Well, it's not. That's not what love is blind is. It's about
whether your sort of mental intellectual attraction to somebody can withstand a physical the physical
reality, and not a physical surprise like hot or ugly, because everyone knows
they're probably gonna get somebody that looks good. It's more about like whether you're
still sort of attracted to somebody who might look different than you have pictured them
or something like that. Totally. I'm glad we solve that problem. We
also watched My roommate and I watched Love on the Spectrum Love, Love on
the Spectrum. I went into it expecting to just really dislike it another Netflix
show because it has like this, I expect it to hate it. Yeah,
because like on the surface, I feel like it's I feel like we're
all just conditioned to think it's going to be mean, but it's actually very
very sweet, very endearingly. Yeah, it's these are people who want human
connection, who are aware, you know, they're different than everyone else.
This gives them a shot at that. And it's not a competition like Love
is Blind. Love is Blind as structured more like The Bachelor. It's not
it's not totally like win or Lose, but it is like there are different
levels and levels of the show and all of that, whereas this is more
of a docuseries Love on the Spectrums more. I think it's probably best explained
actually as a docuseries. Yeah. Yeah, it's very very endearing, incredible
depth that it brings to people who are disabled. On the spectrum Yeah,
it's in how they relate to each other, which I think is really poorly
understood because so many of the pop cultural lenses into the world of somebody with
autism are from somebody without it, whereas in this time, a lot of
what you're seeing is people with autism relating to each other. And that's I
mean, it's so cool. If you don't know anybody in your life who
like, very closely in your life, who lives with us, you're not
going to know how like they live, and it gives everyone else so glimpse
into that aspect of life. It's a great way to build empathy. So
cool, and it's it's just really fun. We've published pro and anti love
on the spectrum pieces I think of a federalist and it's, you know,
it's worth thing. It's definitely worth thinking about. But it's I really enjoyed
the show. Okay, another show that absolutely turns the reality genre since we're
on it upside down this year was Jerry Duty. People went, that's so
crazy for Jerry Dewey. That's a the satirical one, like it's kind of
real, kind of not real exactly. It's got the guy from I Hate
the fact, I'm going to say this, he was in the Sonic the
Hedgehog movie, which the name really was James James Madden, James Marsden.
I was close. Yeah, James Marsden. Uh he yes, it does
have James Martsen in it. Sonic the Headshog. Good movie. So my
controversial opinion on Jerry Duty is that I honestly stopped watching after four or five
episodes. All my friends loved that show, and I understand why I I
was kind of boring. I think maybe the latter half of the show was
better than the first half, because the first half is setting up the bit
where if people don't know, it's about a regular guy who they convince has
been cast on a real jury for real time trial, but the full jury
is fake. The full trial is fake, and so as you can imagine,
they incrementally have a lot of fun with him, and they can pull
that off because he has to be totally isolated because of the nature of being
on a jury. This feels kind of illegal. I honestly had so many
questions about the legality. But I imagine when you go into a reality TV
show and actually this is one of the things that happened this year. It
was a real reckoning for reality TV, or what some people want it to
be, a real reckoning for reality TV. Lawsuits against Bravo, threats of
lawsuits against Bravo. Is Love Itself could be a reality TV series? It
absolutely could, and it is so this is well no, I mean it's
playing out on. One of the things I've written about a couple of times,
and definitely over the past five years since influencer culture has absolutely blossomed,
is how it's impossible really to find new reality stars that are not influencer poisoned,
that are not influencers, and that is a totally different genre. That's
a good point. It's a completely different thing because like all these people,
I don't know about all these people. I know this archetype very well.
It's kind of seems as though the people who are primed for reality television are
kind of just doing this to start their career as an influencer, right,
yes, and trying to start their career as an influencer and are very sort
of hyper conscious of everything and not just of everything because that's kind of always
been part of reality TV. In real world, do you put a bunch
of people in a house with cameras absolutely everywhere, something the Big Brother that's
been around forever. People know that they're being filmed. On the other hand,
though, it's about monetizing absolutely everything you know, down to the nail
polish you're wearing. I mean, not you, Sam and not me either.
But it's just constant, and that's it's very, very different, and
I'm not saying one is like pure or better. Although I love capitalism,
there's no way to do it. There's a way to do the new thing
and to make it work that I think people are working on. But I
actually did have a lot of questions about the legality, and I think it
probably they had him sign away everything in order to I think he thought he
was featured on a documentary. That's how they got him involved in all of
it. And man, yeah, I was wondering the same thing. But
a lot of people are now threatening lawsuits against Bravo and saying they were applied
with alcohol, deprived of things that they needed in order to function appropriately,
and were thus sort of abused in the process of making these shows. I
doubt Bravo has any legal liability on any of that, because I'm sure that
They for years have had those contracts tight, and people are desperate enough to
go on reality TV that they sign them. Of course. Yeah, it's
a one way it's a quick ticket to fame and money and all you have
to do is be filmed. That's why people have been signing these contracts for
years. So I really equation to make. Yeah, I really doubt that
this will be Actually, that's where I was going to say, I actually
really really doubt this is going to be a reckoning for reality TV because there
will always be people desperate enough to be plied with alcohol and to sign away
all of that. So anyway, Yeah, that was so Jerry duty.
I honestly, I know people loved it. I understand why they loved it.
It wasn't for me. Yeah, I got through four or five of
them. Let's see, did you watch the idol? Oh boy, oh
boy. I don't think I resent that it exists, really, I don't.
I know. There are some like takes where it's you know, it's
doing something different. What is it doing different? It's just smut. You
thought it was too pornographic to be sort of a subst of critique of pornographers.
Yeah, like it's just you're just perpetuating the thing you're trying to create
a commentary on, Like you're not doing this intelligently at all, Euphoria,
Like, there's plenty of ways you can criticize Euphoria. It's at least criticizing
the things that it's showing you. I think it's at least a fair reading
of Euphoria's that it's criticizing those things. But I think that's actually one of
the points of tension with White Lotus, which is I wrote a pedi on
White Lotus that was like, is this a reactionary master piece? Question mark
and then said, you know where the question mark? Yeah, because I
think it's an open question. And I think that's true. That's actually really
interesting that was your takeaway from the idol, because this is another HBO show,
like Euphoria and like White Lotus, that is immersed in an exploration of
the pain of decadence. So I think the idol could have worked. I
think the premise is interesting and love itself. I think the execution was just
abysmal. I think you can do you can explore that topic quite effectively,
and probably ought to, just it didn't work. The idol, not the
whatever the weekend the Idol, I mean, yes, whatever whatever. His
name is ansel and pronounced unpronounceable last name, not a good actor. It
didn't work. I didn't think he was that bad. I thought it was
abysmal really, and it just made it feel more like, just made it
feel more vulgar. Yes, yeah, that's not I actually think that's pretty
fair. Yeah, I was more willing to see it as a critique,
but I also didn't finish because I also thought it was a little bit I
think it could have been leaner. I think they also pulled the series.
So yeah, the immediate well, yeah, and that's the thing with a
show like this, it's sort of like it's easy to be anti anti idol
because the anti idol crowd one, well, but the anti idol crowd was
also not coming from the same place that you were. It was a lot
of like feminist, weird feminist backlash to the idol. Like this is when
I think people didn't realize that in some circumstances, it was very obviously a
critique, you know. Some of that was it was so obviously a critique,
but whether or not the critique was aware of or whether or not the
critique understood that it was perpetuating some of those problems. I think is another
question interesting though. That's very interesting. Yeah, because with White Lotus,
the second half of the piece that I wrote about it is sort of laying
out how it's I think a pretty good and there was no new White Lotus
season. This year was last year, right, not since twenty twenty three.
I think it came out late in twenty twenty two. I think the
second season was late twenty twenty two. I don't remember. I remember seeing
gifts of it while in the office, so I think twenty twenty three.
I'm looking right now, but I'm pretty sure it was late twenty twenty two.
I'm pretty sure it was lost fall. Pretty sure. Yeah, yeap,
it ended about a year ago. The second season. I just realized
my water bottle is right next to the radiator, all those microplastics. It's
a very old radiator. Oh, let's good old. But anyway, so
yeah, the second half was like, does White Lotus even know what it's
doing? I actually think no. I think Mike White doesn't have all the
answers to the questions that he's asking. But I think half of the battle
is asking some of these questions, and that doesn't make it a conservative show.
That just means that maybe it's working through some things that could land somebody
in a conservative position. It's not. And again, like I didn't come
to a conclusion one way or the other about White Lotus, I just said
it's asking some good questions and there's an open question about what it's trying to
do. And I thought that also applied to The Idol. I think that
applies to Euphoria, although honestly I stopped watching Euphoria in the same way I
stopped watching The Idol. If I were a teenager, maybe I'd be more
gripped by them, But it just that's valid. I haven't I haven't really
kept up with Euphoria kind of soapy. Yeah. I think the production quality
is probably it's high, it's best. I mean, actually, I'm weird
in this regard. I think that I think the production quality is it's best
selling point. It's I mean, it's HBO, so of course it's going
to be high quality, but it's very well produced. Yeah. No,
I agree with that. I agree with that. What else have we got
here? Real quick? I fall into this camp a lot. But to
your point, like they're not necessarily making conservative art. But I feel like
we often fall into this trap of like it's just something I agree with or
asks a question I've wanted to ask. Yes, So we always, at
least in the right of center sphere, people will always go this is conservative,
this is a right wing. In actuality, it's just a human instinct
to ask questions about things we don't fully understand, as opposed to saying this
is what it is one percent of the time in your craft, right.
And that's why I was frustrated when my story with a question mark on it,
or my essay on white Lotus, which had a question mark on the
headline reactionary masterpiece. Well, it's clearly a masterpiece first and foremost, at
least artistically. Secondly, if I thought it was a reactionary masterpiece, I
want to put a damn exclamation point, like one of the most popular shows,
you know. So anyway, I think it's it's unfortunate how social media
conditions us to put things in boxes, because the putting of things into boxes
is incentivized by our own animal like and retweet instincts, Like it's just much
more tempting to like and retweet something that comes down hard one way or the
other to categorize, right, right, right, The point of you know,
engaging and that kind of gamified discourse is to curate categories. I don't
know, maybe that's poorly said, but that's correct. Yeah, so that's
interesting. Actually, did you watch another HBO show that I it just ended.
I absolutely love and it's only in that second season. I loved it
from the first episode of the first season because it's it's weirdly camp, you
know. It's like if Downton Abbey were camp, and that would be Gilded
Age, which is from I don't think, I don't know if you would
like it, but like Christine Baranski and actually MeTL Streek's daughter, it is
just a delight and it's it's basically down Abbey in the Gilded Age and kind
of American right americanized, and that you have. Yeah, I think it's
a little bit of camp, you know. And it really started to catch
on in the second season. I started to see a lot of other people
saying they were watching and liking it. Who among us doesn't love Little Camp
Now? And then right right, speaking of which one of the best new
reality shows. Well, so there's a probably the biggest TV moment of the
year, and I'm not exaggerating, was Scannabll on vander Pump Rules, And
obviously we have to talk about it because vander Pump Rules is one of my
favorite shows ever. I think it is one of the greatest reality shows ever.
But that was mega. I mean, these vander Pump Rules guys are
like D list celebrities at best. They're probably lower than that because they came
when the monoculture was splintering and they were right before influencer culture took off.
But now, of course they're all influencers. And that's example of a reality
show that does it right by sort of being self aware. And you know,
they're not self aware, but the showmakers are self aware, and you
know, kind of are able to bring out the absurdities of influencer culture and
all of that and allow people to kind of have this venting the space to
vent the necessary mocking impulse. There's something very cathartic about watching them on vander
Pumper roles hawk their lip kits or whatever it is and look ridiculous while they're
trying really hard to look alluring. So it's all very delightful, but that
took off this year. That put vander Pump Roles on the map. That
put you know, it's been going since like twenty twelve, but that really
brought one of the characters who does a long running series. Yeah, she
was the victim of the cheating scandal. Na. Sorryanna, she wasn't Dancing
with the Stars after that. And although the standard has been sort of lowered
for that, she's on like magazine covers. It's just it is kind of
interesting how that show which hit a really same thing with Southern Charm. I
haven't watched this new season of Southern Charm because I just completely burned out on
that show, and I think they have become influencers in an untenable and just
totally on a pealing way. That was that show was right on the cusp
of influencer culture and Rules was, and they've now been brought into the influencer
culture era and people are still watching. They had problems in twenty twenty with
political correctness and it seemed like the shows were doomed, but vander Pump Rules
is now actually bringing back one of the people that was canceled in the wake
of all of the political correctness in the wake of the wave that crashed,
the PC wave that crashed over American culture in twenty twenty, especially these like
kind of left spaces like Bravo actually bringing one of the guys back. I
mean, it's just well, I'll just say, like the self correction we
talked about in the earlier episode in the movie Space, the self correction is
it's still an open question. If I were putting it in a headline,
I would use an exclamation all right, I'm sorry, I would use a
question mark fair, you know, But it seems like there's it's possible that
a self correction is afoot fair. That's very valid. If you can bring
Jack's Taylor back to vander Pumper rules, the American culture can heal itself.
Is this Jax sure as Oh my gosh, sure is the firstborn Jacks Mangold
Lennett. Have you thought about that for yours? At some point you're air
powerful Jack's Mangold Lennett. I was seeking Caesar Mangold Lennet, or maybe Donald
J. Trump Mangol Lennet, Donald John Trump Mangold Lennon. That's a certain
genetic well man, We'll pray that there's a woman out there open to that.
Did you watch Kunk on Earth? That sounds like a I feel like
it's a little dirty, right, Yeah, just call me a slur.
What's going on? You know? It's a kind of mocks the BBC documentaries
Philamina Counk. It's on Netflix, Unfortunate last name. You'd like it,
check it? Trust me. Did you watch the new season of The Bear?
Yes? Yes, The Bears good. The Bear is very very good,
beautifully man. Yes, yes, that second season. Speaking of shows
that avoid that are lean, I think every second of The Bear, let
alone, every episode, no fat on the bone. No, and even
more so than the first season, which I thought was borderline perfect, the
second season was compelling. Yeah, every second of it was intentional storytelling.
It's just you're engaged the entire time. It's so Chicago too, Like I'm
not from Chicago, from outside Milwaukee, but just like growing up in that
area and talking to people friends that have that are from Chicago area. That
show nails Chicago culture and Chicago area culture probably better than anything. I guess
you don't really You grew up far enough away from Chicago that probably doesn't matter.
Yet I think good, fair enough, fair, although Cincinnati used to
be They say Cincinnati was the old Chicago. I forget how it was Chicago's
store Amantle, But that's besides the point. Did you buy any chance watch
the New Fraser? Next topic? Did you buy any chance watch the New
Fraser? I refuse. You didn't watch, then they're going to They're going
to kill everything I love. I will not watch the New Fraser. You
can't. I had to give up on this a long time ago. I
used to be like you that it was emotionally painful, was content, was
emotionally painful to see sort of beloved Ip get butchered. But it is so
rampant in the sequel three Coal four cool the stuck culture. In the stuck
culture that you have to numb yourself to it, You have to have to
lower your standards and numb yourself as irony poisoned as I. Maybe I will
always cry tears of blood for Fraser. Why blood? I would just being
dramatic, something you could talk to Fraser about. Actually, it's it's hokey.
It's it's it's hokey, and it feels in twenty twenty three different than
then. Obviously sitcoms felt, you know, even even something that's sophisticated and
good, like Frasier, it feels different watching that kind of laugh track humor
in twenty twenty three. You have to reaccliment yourself to the laugh track fair
and once you do that, that's a good point because every sitcom nowadays is
just like awkward, like multicam partner multicam, I don't know if that's right
term. It's like the documentary office Parks and rect type thing. Yeah,
there's this, Yeah, totally, there's this. You know, the people
who are sort of smart asses love those YouTube videos of like Friends without the
laugh track. It's like, I love those videos. Of course you do.
I knew you were going to love those videos. In fact, you
probably make those videos for all I know. Yes, he's not denying it,
say those those are just like the shows were made with laugh tracks,
and you you were accust dimmed to watching them with laugh tracks, like if
they didn't have And I actually get the argument that the laughs lift a lot
of the jokes up, but it was also such a part of the rhythm
of how you watch the show and how you write the show. You know,
you're watching with other people and by the way, if a laugh track
makes you laugh, fine, Yeah, who cares? Fine? Like how
many jokes are set in comedy clubs? That are you go and watch the
set after you watched it. I've watched sets, for example, that people
have done after a special has come out, or I mean the other way
around. So I'll watch the set for the special yea, and then it
becomes a special and I'm like, I laughed at that? Yeah, Like
did I really laugh at that? It's just there's something about, obviously,
the communal experience that they replicate on a show like Friends, and when it's
organic and you can hear like some people like losing it with their laughter.
It's just like, it's okay, it's okay to find that funny. So
the new Fraser I think has its heart in the right place, and I
thought I found it perfectly passable. If you know what, in the past,
I would have said a sort of sad coda to a great franchise just
because you can never live up to it, so why bother? But listen,
they don't like that is not how art works in a hyper capitalist society,
and the hyper capitalism brings us many things that we love, like the
original Fraser, so you can't really have one without the other. If they
turned Fraser into a lady, I will be livid. Oh no, no,
no, no, it didn't happen yet. Well, although I don't
want to give anyone spoilers, but there he remains a man. And Kelsey
Grammar, by the way, is a staunch conservative. He would never he
would never agree to that. He narrates the history documentaries on Fox Nation.
Have you watched them? I was. I watched like a Civil War one
recently. That's good grammar of an angel. All right, although is coming
back to Marvel? So really yeah, you will? You know, if
there's a check, he'll do it. So Fraser is not the new Fraser
could be compromised. Mm hmm. Remain profoundly sceptical. Well, you have
to have low expectations for everyone, even Kelsey Grammar. You're breaking my heart
this one. I'm telling you need to numb yourself to this. It's hard,
out of control, Get over it. I'm a romantic. What do
you want from me? Sure? This is not catching it all? Just
go quickly through a couple of others documentaries. I really liked Mother God.
I thought that was crazy. Mother God. In the Garden are two HBO
ones that came out within like the last month or so. The garden is
cult or commune. It takes this clear cault mune. I'll say calt mune.
That sir, spread on TikTok a couple of no cult mune. It's
clearly oh clear, oh not queer. Yeah, although there is some of
that comes into it. Were naturally it's a commune. It's really well done
and it's about you know, I think digital natives discovering the outdoors in a
very unibomber way, speaking of the unibomber but not quite not quite getting it.
Well, there's something there's something too that like we see all the time,
all these different headlines that get recirculated about gen z ditching smartphones for dumb
phones and touching grass and realizing the sun exists, Like there is something to
be said about it. Yeah, I mean there is, And you know
that's it's sort of the same thing with the Mother God documentary. There are
a few documentaries I've seen, our docuseries I've seen that are quite like Mother
God on HBO. I did not expect I just watched another similar one right
before it that I think was also on HBO. I watched all of these
things and it so I didn't expect it to be that compelling, and I
was only going to put it on for like an episode or two. It
sucked me in. And there's something same that reminds me of the pendulum swing
in politics in a weird way, but it's it's the same thing with culture
that you know we're going to see. You know, if you're going to
rule four to three in the state of Colorado that Donald Trump can't be on
the presidential primary ballot unless the Supreme Court is like, Okay, I guess
that's fine. And if you're gonna hit him with half assed indictments, you
know, over Tiki Taki stuff and not do that to Joe Biden or whatever
else, I'm sorry, you're going to get January sixth. And that doesn't
mean no, you are, and it doesn't mean that it's not the fault
of the people who riot you. People have the audacity to call Mia fed.
That's a running joke in our office that Sam's a fed because but no,
seriously, it doesn't mean that it takes any agency or blame away from
the people who make bad decisions. Like in the Cult of Mother God and
the Cult of the Garden. These are people that are making very bad decisions
and should know better, But so too should the people that are creating a
climate that makes it more and more tempt to make bad, bad decisions.
If you actually aggravate people towards extremism, it's going to beget extremism. It's
just it's causal the people in our culture. And you see this in the
Garden, and you see this actually with the Mother God, people who don't
believe in you know, doctors saying that you shouldn't take all of the silver
nitrate, and it's actually a very interesting example. They're just pounding silver nitrate
and the woman literally turns silver. It's like they're like there's a scene in
the show where they're at a point they're like, you know, all these
people they're mocking the critics of silver solutions, silver nitrate, whatever it is,
and they're like, those are just people who don't know what they're doing.
Like, yes, if you don't know what you're doing, you can
turn silver, of course, blah blah blah. And then of course the
woman ends up turning silver because they didn't know what they were doing, but
they didn't trust anybody. They didn't trust anybody in medical community and scientific community.
The same thing with the garden. It's people who don't trust institutions and
listen. Mostly people now don't trust institutions. Most people don't join cults.
But when institutions continue letting us down and continue to lie to us, more
people are going to join cults. So we have a proposal for you.
Oh boy, I'm starting a club. Record to the guy who lives on
the street corner. Actually, we're a tracting, a following what it's some
called a cult. We have cool late occasionally it might be worth looking into
it. It's a club. I prefer the term club. Some call it
a cult. Semantics. Well, on that note, all right, it
shows that you watched, you wanted to go there. Honestly, I do
not have that wide of a TV consumption. You watch an I watch.
I'm getting better about it. I'm trying to get better about it. I
would highly recommend One Piece, which is a fifteen hundred series, about fifteen
hundred episodes series about pirates. It's dope, that's so quoted. Don't patronize.
Uh, yes, I'm patronizing. You, I'm just ignoring. Yes,
yes, yes, Invincible on Amazon Prime. It's actually very popular series
right now, although they took a hiatus I think because the strike halted animation
for the second half of the second season. It's an adaptation of Robert Kirkman's
comic with Image Comics of the same name. Very good, very good animation.
They did kind of shoehorn some woke stuff into it, with just you
know, like offhanded comments about race and whatnot, privilege, et cetera.
Very good. It's about, you know, a reconstruction of like the superhero
Superman ideal. Would recommend what else that is interesting? King of the Hill
obviously always going to rewatch that. I haven't rewatched The Simpsons again. We're
making we're making progress. Its growth. It's just a lot that's just a
lot of that's just that's just you're drowning in it, like, yeah,
that's like god, oh my god. Like this, by the way,
is why I took up so much time, because you were like, I
don't really watch a lot of TV. Yeah, I mean, I didn't
know it would be this sparse, though I'm sure there's more. I just
have to think about it. One of my other roommates, and I tried
watching the Cleveland Brown Show, but like, that's just bad writing and took
King the Hills time slots, so like, screw that. Most of my
media consumption is movies. Yeah, no, but that's it. There are
two kinds of people in the world. There are people who are more movie
people and people who are more TV people, And obviously both types of people
watch both, but some people just prioritize one over the other. True,
true, the duality of man again, we contain multitudes. There are two
wolves inside of you. Yeah, anything else? Any other thoughts that you
want to share that are not about the unibomber and do not sound like there
are eruptural coaches of this manifest now, Oh, I got a dig deep
for that. One. American Psycho is a Christmas movie. Yeah, you
did want to go on this tangent. It isn't that deep. Just it
takes place in the winter, it ends in a Christmas party. I think
that, you know, it's a criticism about you know, rabbit American capitalism,
cynical investment bankers who you know, treat people with they're disposable. So
like a Christmas movie, make a Christmas movie I sort of got a sort
of Deckenzian element. Yes, the reading is that the reason of the season
is not to chase women down a hallway with the chainsaw. It's not to
act murder your coworkers, unless capitalism pushes you to that brank true. True,
But I don't think that's what Christ would want us to do. There's
a reason why Patrick Bateman is so hollow inside. It's not because the schizophrenia.
It's not because the paranoia. It's because he his life is void of
Christ. It's anti Nietzsche and that's for sure doesn't make it a Christmas movie.
Well, these wearing reindeer antlers at the end, so you know that,
And that's part of the die Hard question is like what And I'm find
the Diehard debate generally insufferable, although I was late to die Hard and I
really like it. But what makes something a Christmas movie? Like how big
of a role does Christmas have to play in a Christmas movie for something to
be a Christmas movie? And by the way, we talked about this briefly
in the Christmas episode, but or in the movie episode. But man,
the Holdovers was good, like we could we could do a whole podcast on
that movie. Probably it was so good, I mean, beautiful, beautiful
movie, poignant, very very sad, but I loved the way that it
was made very different. Probably didn't cost them a lot of money either,
except for Pauldry money. No, Yeah, I tend to agree. It
was gorgeous American. Yeah, kind of a reendomy of mad Men in a
sense where it was a criticizing, you know, wasp culture, founding stock,
et cetera. I didn't really like, I mean understand why. It's
in line with Pauldymond's character that digs at Christianity. He made the two kind
of towards like the I think the second and third act. But it's compelling
you to, you know, reassess why the holidays are important and reassess what
you value, you know, like the they really are antagon only there are
antagonists, but like the shysters in the movie are kids who are more obsessed
with status and like material. You're vindicated because the people who are vindicated in
the movie are those who realize our wealth are those around us and the people
in our lives who we cherish and the centrality of fathers and families. Yeah.
Absolutely, I think that's well said. But the role that Christmas plays
in the movie. I think for a movie to be a Christmas movie has
to be essential. That is to say, if the movie took place at
a different time of year, yeah, then And I think for American Psycho
that was the Christmas season at the end is more of a trapping. It's
more of like the it's a it's an accent. But it could that movie
could It could have ended on in the summer, or could have ended in
January. It could have ended the New Year's which might have been good touch.
Honestly, it might have been of the New Year' I think it ended
the Christmas. I have to rewatch it. It's Christmas, so I might
as well. It's a Christmas movie. So you're going on this tangent publicly
about how it's a Christmas movie and now you don't even remember if it ends
on Christmas or New Years. I told you I was workshopping this bit.
It's not ready to fly, and yet here you are here. It's fine,
We're going to make it work. If it ends in a Christmas party,
it's because it's compelling him to find Christ. I'll get back to next
year and next year's Christmas episodes. I got it down. But yeah,
I mean, Brett Easton Ellis is obviously in the same way we were talking
about Pallia earlier, you know, not necessarily conservative, although David Mammont is
pretty who's been on this podcast, is pretty clearly conservative at this point.
And maybe Brett E. Sston Ellis. I mean, I don't know.
He's obviously at least polyasku. He's reactionary in a lot of regards, I
think, but not certainly not like he's not a mega booster well in conservatism
and reactionary politics are not the same thing. He never should be. But
okay, there's obviously always going to be overlap, just by the definition of
both terms. On that note, Sam, gosh, that was so why
did I let you do that? What the American psycho? We believe in
free speech here? Yeah. Well, Merry Christmas, folks, it's all
I got. Happy New Year, Yeah, Happy New Year or Merry Christmas
to Patrick Bateman. We don't know which fair, all right, Sam mangled
Lennet, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having Merry Christmas,
folks. You've been listening to another edition of the Federalist ra a New
Hour. Memily Tashinski, culture editor here at The Federalist. We'll be back
soon with more. Until then, be lovers of freedom and anxious for the
fray. You are wrong. Love,