Speaker 1: Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast. I'm Terry Morrow and
Speaker 1: I'm Catherine hileco. As parents and parenting writers, we can't
Speaker 1: help but see everything through a parenting lens. But as
Speaker 1: our kids have become adults, we find ourselves more interested
Speaker 1: in getting caught up on movies and streaming than I'm
Speaker 1: going over the same parenting topics over and over.
Speaker 2: So since we're pretty sure we can find parenting wisdom anywhere,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about what we're watching, what we
Speaker 2: thought about it, and maybe what we can learn from it,
Speaker 2: if only what not to do. Watch and listen along,
Speaker 2: and let's all make like we're doing something important for
Speaker 2: our families. Each Tuesday we bring you our thoughts on
Speaker 2: a newer entertainment property, and for this week of August nineteenth,
Speaker 2: we're continuing with A Gentleman in Moscow, a limited series
Speaker 2: on Paramount Plus based on a book. This episode was
Speaker 2: called an Assembly, and we had a lot going on
Speaker 2: in terms of good spycraft, and you know, Alexander really
Speaker 2: coming trying to trying to face the fact that this
Speaker 2: is not a good situation and he needs to get
Speaker 2: Sophia out of it.
Speaker 1: Yes, especially if she's going to continue to just wantonly
Speaker 1: play the Blues whenever she feels.
Speaker 2: Like it, or right in front of the weasel?
Speaker 1: How is it that he has not fallen a foul
Speaker 1: of somebody. I mean, I feel bad for Osip and
Speaker 1: I think that things will go very badly from him.
Speaker 1: But does Krushev mean that we get rid of the weasel.
Speaker 3: He's part of the old.
Speaker 1: Guard, right, he is a picture of stolen in his office.
Speaker 3: Drag that man away immediately.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, but I was very worried when he
Speaker 1: had Sophia come into her office and closed his door.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, never never a good thing.
Speaker 1: But it turns out he is he is just a
Speaker 1: political weasel and not somebody who would harm a young
Speaker 1: woman psychologically.
Speaker 3: So right, I didn't your parents got killed? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, like thanks that guy?
Speaker 3: Come on, that guy? What is that guy still around?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: You gotta he gotta admire him though, because he was
Speaker 1: you know, he's aged all through the almost all the
Speaker 1: way through this series in that hotel, and you know
Speaker 1: thinks pretty highly of himself.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who knows what's going to happen to him? But uh,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody has read it out that he has
Speaker 1: a picture of stolen in his office and was very
Speaker 1: upset about the man's death, right right, right?
Speaker 3: Mm hmm, I hope so, but it is you know.
Speaker 1: I do feel for Osip, who at the beginning was
Speaker 1: such a foe and by the end he feels like
Speaker 1: I feel like Alexander should have been a little nicer
Speaker 1: to him there at the end, Right, it's your friend,
Speaker 1: this is your movie, watch movies with him?
Speaker 3: Right, he saved your daughter?
Speaker 1: Yeah, like snippy with him now, like's some gratitude all
Speaker 1: for Yeah, well, Osip did not appear to necessarily want it,
Speaker 1: but he did at least give him my heads up, right,
Speaker 1: And his wife, who was so snippy the last time
Speaker 1: we saw her, looked truly like what do I pack
Speaker 1: for the Gulag?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 3: This is not going to go well for us?
Speaker 1: Whatever is the is the horrible fate DuJour in the
Speaker 1: new regime?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yikes.
Speaker 1: And uh, Misha comes back, who I had assumed was
Speaker 1: long ago shot and thrown off at the side of
Speaker 1: the road somewhere, right, But when they when they previously
Speaker 1: as had him all over them, I'm going.
Speaker 3: Oh, so at least for the light, at least for
Speaker 3: part of this episode.
Speaker 5: He's still live, I guess, right, but he has been
Speaker 5: thoroughly broken physically and spiritually and mentally, and he.
Speaker 2: He cannot stay.
Speaker 1: I honestly thought he was gonna go throw himself off
Speaker 1: the roof, but he didn't. I guess he never showed
Speaker 1: the backstairs.
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm glad he didn't.
Speaker 3: Well, but isn't that what the girl did who alexander sister?
Speaker 2: Maybe I can't quite remember.
Speaker 1: I thought that would have been like a poetic right,
Speaker 1: but just wanders off into the snow. I'm sure he's
Speaker 1: just gonna find himself a nice coffee shop and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, have a pastry and then go right back.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: But yes, that was very sad, and.
Speaker 2: Some very like tender moments with Alexander trying to help
Speaker 2: him and trying to console him and wash.
Speaker 1: His must have been very upsettingly awful feet. Yes, that
Speaker 1: was that was tragic.
Speaker 2: But it certainly got him to be like, Okay, I
Speaker 2: can't I cannot just assume everything's going to be okay.
Speaker 2: I need to protect my kid.
Speaker 1: Here, right right, Although I was thinking when he goes
Speaker 1: wired up into this meeting. It's like, if this goes bad,
Speaker 1: things are going to go bad for his kid too. Yes,
Speaker 1: just hope everything. Yeah, and Anna was with Sophia like,
Speaker 1: I appreciate the rebellious stage, Honey, I really do, but
Speaker 1: not tonight.
Speaker 2: Not oh dear oh man. Yeah. I feel like in
Speaker 2: the book a couple of differences. One, Sophia was a
Speaker 2: lot more sort of innocent, and she wasn't she wasn't
Speaker 2: being so sassy to the weasel, you know, she just
Speaker 2: she was just kind of this sweet little thing who
Speaker 2: was a very talented musician. And and there was a
Speaker 2: whole thing about the dress, that blue dress that she
Speaker 2: had on. They basically changed it to when he had
Speaker 2: that freak out about her sitting next to the boy
Speaker 2: on the piano bench. He in the book it was
Speaker 2: over that dress and how it was like backless and
Speaker 2: he was all like clutching his pearls over that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was kind of expecting something like that, a
Speaker 1: little fatherly, But something on those shoulders missed.
Speaker 2: Exactly that that for sure happened in the book. And
Speaker 2: then I don't, I don't. I could be wrong because
Speaker 2: I'm not good at remembering specifics about books, but I
Speaker 2: thought that the he didn't wear like a wire to
Speaker 2: that to that dinner. He just took mental.
Speaker 3: Notes that would make a lot more sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know he he had like drew this
Speaker 2: whole diagram of who was sitting where, and it was
Speaker 2: like very important to know who was sitting in what seats,
Speaker 2: you know. He it was a whole It was quite
Speaker 2: a long, you know scene. So that that was a
Speaker 2: change that they that they had to make.
Speaker 1: Obviously so dangerous to have the wire, especially the relatively
Speaker 1: primitive wire setup that they had.
Speaker 2: Right, given they had a man whose whole job was
Speaker 2: to be looking for yes, these things, seems like that
Speaker 2: could have been anticipated.
Speaker 3: Oh well, fortunately.
Speaker 1: The people whose job it was to frisk and to
Speaker 1: find the bugs were not good at their jobs.
Speaker 3: So he made it through, right.
Speaker 2: And they also in the book, you know, introduced that
Speaker 2: character of the American spy slash ambassador guy way before this.
Speaker 2: I mean, this was the first time we've seen him before.
Speaker 2: I don't think so, but in the book it was
Speaker 2: like a very long.
Speaker 1: I would wish for that, and I didn't think that
Speaker 1: we had seen him before, but you needed to have
Speaker 1: he needed to have built the same relationship with him
Speaker 1: that he did with other people. And yes, this just
Speaker 1: seems like out of the blue, this guy says, hey,
Speaker 1: we'd like you to.
Speaker 3: Risk your life. Here's what you need to do. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and yeah, so that was weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that for sure was something that would not.
Speaker 1: Have been hard to insert that guy into like ten
Speaker 1: scenes over the course of the series.
Speaker 4: Right or three, Yeah, just like, well, a couple enough
Speaker 4: that you remembered him, you know, Yes, a small conversation
Speaker 4: at the bar in one episode of you know, yeah,
Speaker 4: just would.
Speaker 1: Not have to be much, but I he just like
Speaker 1: came out of the you know, out of the blue.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, there's a few things like that that you know,
Speaker 2: obviously they had to condense for for a time because,
Speaker 2: you know, anticipating the ending, there's there's a lot of
Speaker 2: people who need to play a part, and we haven't
Speaker 2: found them all yet. So really, yeah, so I'm not
Speaker 2: sure how they're gonna make that all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're going to condense the number of people necessary,
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're gonna have rolls or whatever.
Speaker 2: But right, yeah, I mean I was wondering. I've been
Speaker 2: wondering all along, you know, like you can do things
Speaker 2: in books that you can't do in TV and vice versa,
Speaker 2: of course, so I'm curious to see how it all
Speaker 2: it all ends up. So but uh, at.
Speaker 1: Least uh Anna finally told the count that she loves him.
Speaker 6: That it was a surprise to him, that was such
Speaker 6: a great scene and he's just stunned, and she said, well,
Speaker 6: I'm not going to repeat it like you got one, buddy,
Speaker 6: and that's it.
Speaker 1: They've pretty much raised a child together and known each
Speaker 1: other for decades and decades under dangerous situations, but you
Speaker 1: know his buddies apparently in his mind, right, Oh, it's
Speaker 1: very sweet relationship they've had. Yeah, I guess we did
Speaker 1: not see Olga this time, so I guess you maybe
Speaker 1: correct that.
Speaker 2: Well, the voiceover saying we were all together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, had to do with her no longer being around
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, but.
Speaker 2: She's retired and taking it easy with vastly.
Speaker 1: How many years are supposed to have passed between last
Speaker 1: episode in this episode?
Speaker 2: Not it can be that many, right, because Sophia was
Speaker 2: as a teenager at the end of the last one
Speaker 2: and she's still a teenager in this one, so it's
Speaker 2: only it's only been a short time. I think. I
Speaker 2: think it's nineteen fifty three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they said what was it last time? They
Speaker 1: need to give better signposts on I don't know they
Speaker 1: put the numbers of days, but I mean being that
Speaker 1: it's this, I think that she maybe was a younger
Speaker 1: teenager in the last one. In this, she's an older
Speaker 1: teen or early twenty something. I don't know, but it
Speaker 1: seemed like time had gone by for the others. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so presumably for her as well. Unless there's a place
Speaker 1: on the roof where you don't age.
Speaker 2: Time doesn't time doesn't pass.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's harder to it's harder to age a young
Speaker 1: person into a slightly older young person than it is
Speaker 1: to Yeah, make a young person look older and older
Speaker 1: and older and older, right or not.
Speaker 3: A young person in middle aged? How old is you?
Speaker 3: And McGregor, Yeah, good question. Maybe the youth jim up
Speaker 3: for the beginning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they probably.
Speaker 3: Him up for the end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's quite a long time span, Yes.
Speaker 3: It really is.
Speaker 1: So I was worried that when they were doing all
Speaker 1: this plotting of all sorts, are they I guess they
Speaker 1: were running the bathtub because they figured their place is bugged. Yes,
Speaker 1: I was nervous about people having discussions, and how is
Speaker 1: it that after all these all this time, nobody has
Speaker 1: found the fake room in his little snit use that
Speaker 1: at will and nobody says, hey, uh, the Count doesn't
Speaker 1: seem to be anywhere in the hotel at this moment.
Speaker 3: Where what could he be?
Speaker 2: And where is he? Where is his his friend?
Speaker 3: Periods of time completely and nobody.
Speaker 2: Well, only his friends know about it.
Speaker 3: I guess. I guess they don't have his room bugged,
Speaker 3: which seems foolish. Why would you not?
Speaker 1: But why would not have OSIP done that? Ages and
Speaker 1: ages ago?
Speaker 2: Maybe they didn't have the technology at that time.
Speaker 1: I guess you would think the weasel would have gotten
Speaker 1: to it.
Speaker 3: I bet he's talking about me.
Speaker 2: What is he saying about me? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I enjoyed, enjoyed when he was giving a toast to
Speaker 1: the fallen leader, and all the staff was just like
Speaker 1: trying their very hardest not to roll their.
Speaker 3: Eyes, and.
Speaker 2: It's like, great, Stalin missed, It's not really.
Speaker 3: You gotta be careful, oh my.
Speaker 1: The talk about the modern conveniences that we have in America.
Speaker 3: Door open garage door openers, garage door openers, right, and
Speaker 3: the washing machines.
Speaker 1: Yes, all this stuff well, I'm gonna send you, even
Speaker 1: though you sort of disapprove a little bit.
Speaker 3: You're gonna send your kid there because that's what we
Speaker 3: want for our kids.
Speaker 1: System.
Speaker 3: Let's have the conveniences. And of course that's right what
Speaker 3: every parent dreams.
Speaker 1: I remember when I was a kid, my mom would
Speaker 1: get out of the car and open the garage door.
Speaker 1: That was my dad would stay behind the wheel. My
Speaker 1: mom would have to get out and yank the thing up.
Speaker 1: So I imagined she was pretty psyched when garage door
Speaker 1: openers became a thing. But you know, it seems like
Speaker 1: unmanly for my dad to not have done it. But
Speaker 1: I think his feeling was he would have to turn
Speaker 1: the car off and then turn the car back on her,
Speaker 1: you know, right, he was the driver, I was the driver,
Speaker 1: and he was always the driver, right, So you know,
Speaker 1: I guess women maybe see the value of the conveniences.
Speaker 1: Like like Anna said, you know, you see, he says
Speaker 1: he's been in the most inconvenient place, but of course
Speaker 1: he really hasn't been in the most inconvenient place, a
Speaker 1: very very cushy spot, right, even under the limited circumstances, right,
Speaker 1: you know, as.
Speaker 2: Even though he has he has fallen from us, from
Speaker 2: gentlemen to waiter. But he has always had enough to eat,
Speaker 2: He's had a roof over his head, he's had a
Speaker 2: secret room, he's he's never seemed to have a shower
Speaker 2: or a bathtub, but he's managed to keep himself clean
Speaker 2: somehows right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well maybe he uses anna as when he's over there,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you know, he's you make your you make
Speaker 1: your best to what you got, and he has a
Speaker 1: good place to make the best of raised raised one
Speaker 1: kid there, sort of partially partially friendship wise, a second
Speaker 1: so sad, he's had a surprisingly complete life for somebody
Speaker 1: else and in jail, right, so house arrested, I guess.
Speaker 1: And now of course he comes to the point where
Speaker 1: you have to let your kid go, right, that's very difficult.
Speaker 1: But even if it weren't the case that if she stayed,
Speaker 1: she would have a life of problems, even so, it's
Speaker 1: still hard to say.
Speaker 2: It's still hardly.
Speaker 1: Little bird, It's fine, it'll be fine. I can't go,
Speaker 1: I'll have to stay behind.
Speaker 3: But you go, right, you know, And uh, well.
Speaker 1: I mean I guess Nina also flew off to have
Speaker 1: her life and that didn't work out, so well, so
Speaker 1: hopefully Sophia will you know, have a wonderful career as
Speaker 1: a pianist and wear beautiful dresses and not end up
Speaker 1: in a ditch it's frozen area. And we know she
Speaker 1: doesn't because she is narrating.
Speaker 2: She's narrating exactly.
Speaker 3: A couple of times in this episode.
Speaker 1: I was going, oh no, oh, wait a minute, She's
Speaker 1: allowed to talk about it, so that's a relief. And
Speaker 1: also there's one more episode, so I'm pretty sure Alexander
Speaker 1: doesn't get killed in this one.
Speaker 2: So yeah, well that'll lead us to Spence. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: next week we will discuss that finale. It's called adieu,
Speaker 2: which is you know, a signal there, Yes we are
Speaker 2: last episode.
Speaker 3: Yes, we will also.
Speaker 2: Kick off the next season of only Murders in the Building.
Speaker 1: It's back the building to building related properties, one after
Speaker 1: the other.
Speaker 2: That is true, but I believe they are leaving the
Speaker 2: building and this month that is true.
Speaker 1: There wasn't in the building, but they are not themselves
Speaker 1: staying in the buildings. Right, everybody's fully in next.
Speaker 2: Week, so since that show is going to be dropping
Speaker 2: its episodes on Tuesdays, we are going to give ourselves
Speaker 2: a day to collect our thoughts and discuss those episodes
Speaker 2: on our Wednesday episodes. So then we're gonna switch lost
Speaker 2: to Tuesdays, but for this week, our last chat will
Speaker 2: still be on Wednesday, which is tomorrow, so we'll see
Speaker 2: you back here for that.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. You can find all our episodes
Speaker 1: on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. You can find recaps, links, and an opportunity
Speaker 1: to comment on our website at parentingroundabout dot com.
Speaker 2: You can also talk to us on our Facebook page,
Speaker 2: on instag or on Twitter, where you'll find us at
Speaker 2: roundabout Chat. And please visit our Amazon shop at Amazon
Speaker 2: dot com, slash shop slash Mamitude, where you can find
Speaker 2: links to a lot of the things we've talked about
Speaker 2: over the years.