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 on
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 twelfth,
Speaker 2: we're continuing with A Gentleman in Moscow, a limited series
Speaker 2: on Paramount Plus. This episode was called The Fall, and
Speaker 2: it was very dramatic, extremely because.
Speaker 1: It was and sad and scared and oh my goodness. Yes,
Speaker 1: but first before all that, they did such a smooth
Speaker 1: time transition, yes, and that was delightful. She goes out
Speaker 1: the door a little girl and the door revolves around it,
Speaker 1: she comes out of it as surly teenager.
Speaker 2: Yes, and the actor that they have their sisters, right,
Speaker 2: are they sisters? Because they did a wonderful job of
Speaker 2: picking actors that look alike.
Speaker 1: Well, they have the same last name, okay Gadsden, and
Speaker 1: I looked up the older one. It says that her
Speaker 1: sister with a different first name played her younger sister
Speaker 1: and something. So I think that this is yet another
Speaker 1: younger sister. Oh wow, Because all these girls must look
Speaker 1: alike because they really It works, Yeah, it works great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so good for those Gadsdens. Have yourself a bunch of
Speaker 1: kids look alike and you can use them for multi
Speaker 1: decade movie and TV products. That's right way to go.
Speaker 2: Yes. So we only got the little the little gadst
Speaker 2: and the little Sophia for one episode, which was last
Speaker 2: last time. And now she's a teen ever so briefly, yes,
Speaker 2: now she's a tea.
Speaker 1: We didn't know I was saying about her. I just
Speaker 1: let you were going to school, Oh my goodness, and
Speaker 1: then you grew up.
Speaker 2: Yes, And now Alexander is no longer uncle, he's papa.
Speaker 1: Oh that's adorable, very sweet. Yes, And the entire hotel
Speaker 1: is her family, and Anna has sort of taken on
Speaker 1: a motherly role, and Olga is sort of the grandma,
Speaker 1: and uh, everybody's sort of participating in her upbringing, which
Speaker 1: is very sweet and seems like the sort of thing
Speaker 1: that would not be allowed. But okay, fine, just clearly,
Speaker 1: we're clearly beyond the rules here until something happens that, yes,
Speaker 1: reinforces the fact that there's still are rules. Yes, although
Speaker 1: a great many folks are in the business of subverting.
Speaker 2: Them figuring out how to bend them.
Speaker 1: Yes, it does not help that the weasel is now
Speaker 1: the hotel manager. That's right, man, that guy. That guy
Speaker 1: is motivated, he's he's worked his way up from waiter
Speaker 1: to the head of the whole establishment.
Speaker 2: Yes, so when bad for us, Sophia falls, that's the fall.
Speaker 2: So they're running around. It seems to me that Alexander
Speaker 2: is too old for this game.
Speaker 1: But I think so, how was he supposed to old?
Speaker 1: Is he supposed to be by now?
Speaker 2: I mean probably like fifties, I don't know.
Speaker 1: But I could not run a ball, I could not
Speaker 1: walk up all those flights of stairs. I would be
Speaker 1: sleeping on a catch.
Speaker 2: If you'd still be playing the count to two hundred.
Speaker 1: Games right now.
Speaker 2: But so they're they're running around playing and Sophia falls,
Speaker 2: like the banister breaks. You know, we've got like a
Speaker 2: lawsuit if yes, we're wearing up to his USA sell
Speaker 2: up in the right, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's these aren't the ones that the customers generally use, yes,
Speaker 1: but workers come Yes, that was terrifying. So Sophia falls
Speaker 1: and it's you know, she falls a couple story like
Speaker 1: a long way down and she hits her head, and
Speaker 1: so Alexander just is like, forget it, I'm taking her
Speaker 1: to the hospital. I'm you know, he's obviously not supposed
Speaker 1: to be leaving the hotel.
Speaker 2: But he will not.
Speaker 1: Out.
Speaker 2: He goes, not stand for just sitting back and watching
Speaker 2: somebody else take her.
Speaker 1: I guess, right, So I can see where he would
Speaker 1: have that inclination, but handing her over to somebody else
Speaker 1: seems like that would have been a good idea. And
Speaker 1: also he's probably expecting hospitals to be like hospitals were
Speaker 1: when he was out right, and I mean I suppose
Speaker 1: they're more, maybe better because it's been a long time,
Speaker 1: but still also not good. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, he gets there and it's dark, dirty, dingy
Speaker 2: people are piled up in the halls just you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's very grim, so right, good thing, our old
Speaker 2: pal oh Sip comes along to save the day and
Speaker 2: get a good surgeon to take care of Sophia.
Speaker 1: Yes, like that guy, yeh see potential, he's so mean
Speaker 1: at the beginning. Now their fellow Papa's you know, Papa's
Speaker 1: got to stick together, yes, right. They wind up putting
Speaker 1: together some sort of ruse that even though everybody, a
Speaker 1: large number of people saw him leave, all of those
Speaker 1: people except for the Weasel, are saying, no, no, he's
Speaker 1: right here, he's here, right, And then he gets smuggled
Speaker 1: in on a bakery trust that's right right in the
Speaker 1: sight of the not very observant soldiers. And then he
Speaker 1: just waltzes out into the lobby like he's been there
Speaker 1: all like he was in Anna's all night and has
Speaker 1: been here all time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and much to the chagrin of the weasel, who's
Speaker 2: really made to be a complete fool.
Speaker 1: I would have thought, given the army guy's request to
Speaker 1: talk to him, would have been on the next train
Speaker 1: for Siberia. How is he still there after? How does
Speaker 1: this not affect his departure, which we have been longing
Speaker 1: for low these many weeks. Okay, because we see him
Speaker 1: at the end plotting something. M well, we see his
Speaker 1: hands plotting something, but I'm pretty sure they were attached
Speaker 1: to him, right.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, he's like making a dossier for Sophia, I
Speaker 2: believe at that point.
Speaker 1: Yes, So why is that guy still around in a
Speaker 1: position where he could do that? I don't know. Osip
Speaker 1: doesn't have quite that much.
Speaker 2: I guess he can do a lot of things. He
Speaker 2: can get the surgeon, and he can get the bread
Speaker 2: truck and everything.
Speaker 1: But that was lovely. See you watch It's a wonderful
Speaker 1: life and it gets to your heart and you can't
Speaker 1: help it. You can be disdainful, but you're gonna want
Speaker 1: to help people. Now all the people you've helped will come. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So and so by the end, everything is, uh, everybody's together,
Speaker 1: every Sophia is playing the piano.
Speaker 2: Yes, Marian married the chef.
Speaker 1: So now who did that turn out to be?
Speaker 2: I don't think it's not the chef. He was like
Speaker 2: the dormance kind of the concierge type person. Yes, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: not the chef. The chef married Marina. The seamstress.
Speaker 1: Right, were there boys back at the end there? Because
Speaker 1: it looked like her son was there.
Speaker 2: I believe it definitely her son. I'm not sure if
Speaker 2: both of them ended up back, but we didn't.
Speaker 1: Hear that story because we had figured they were as
Speaker 1: good as dead last week. Yeah yeah, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: well okay then yeah, yes, this isn't gonna be that bleak.
Speaker 1: But next week does not look promising because Sophia's voiceover says,
Speaker 1: the narrator says that that was the last time they
Speaker 1: were all together. Yeah, there's still two episodes to go, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that could also be referring to Olga leaving
Speaker 2: because she got married.
Speaker 1: I guess, well that's true. You know the answers, I
Speaker 1: do know the answer I do not.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, once again, I'm sad that there's
Speaker 2: only two episodes left. I mean, I don't want them
Speaker 2: to add stuff that's not in the book just to
Speaker 2: make it longer. But I'm really.
Speaker 1: Does there seem about two episodes worth of stuff left? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, i'd say. You know, when I read this book,
Speaker 2: the first few chapters, it took a little while to
Speaker 2: get me hooked. Yeah, you know, it's just him like
Speaker 2: trying to adjust to his new situation. But you know,
Speaker 2: since it does cover so much.
Speaker 1: Time, Yes, how does that work in the book? Do
Speaker 1: they just like from one chapter to the next its skips?
Speaker 1: Do they put like the year at the top of
Speaker 1: each chapter or section.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the year or the number of days or some
Speaker 2: num days, Yeah, like they had done in some of
Speaker 2: the episodes.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like it's a pretty good adaptation? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm I'm excited to see how how they
Speaker 2: do wrap it up, but I'll be sad when it's over. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know. It makes me nervous week to week, like,
Speaker 1: and poor Anna, boy, she sure got yeah. Oh, she's
Speaker 1: doing this very noble deed to try to distract the
Speaker 1: army guy from Alexander. Yeah, and he's like, I have
Speaker 1: no idea who you are, but if you want to
Speaker 1: go upstairs and show me that, kay. And then we
Speaker 1: find out sort of in passing that the Minister of
Speaker 1: Culture is no longer that or possibly alive.
Speaker 2: Right, and he had been her just her champion, so yikes.
Speaker 2: So at least she got us Alexander's lighter back that
Speaker 2: this that's rightful man, had stolen from his room.
Speaker 3: Right, Oh yeah, but uh so she's apparently just going
Speaker 3: to stay at the hotel now and be uh you know,
Speaker 3: be together with Alexander.
Speaker 1: Not in his room, are you kidding?
Speaker 2: She's like, He's like, you you can move in here.
Speaker 2: She's like, honey, you do not know me well enough.
Speaker 1: As long as I have enough pull for a suite,
Speaker 1: I'm taking a sweet buddy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can visit me, not the other way around,
Speaker 2: my friend oil done.
Speaker 1: I was surprised when they were searching his room they
Speaker 1: didn't find the little secret room. I thought that was coming.
Speaker 2: But yeah, nope, nope, it's it's well hidden in the
Speaker 2: arm wire there.
Speaker 1: Yep, it's a good thing. They close that all up
Speaker 1: every time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's why hang and open. Yes. And in
Speaker 2: terms of parenting, the episode started off with Alexander being
Speaker 2: a real like helicopter dad and like, how dare you
Speaker 2: sit next to a boy on a piano bench And
Speaker 2: Anna's like, you need to relax, sir.
Speaker 1: See what happens is you do that sort of thing
Speaker 1: and then you feel bad and to apologize to your kids.
Speaker 1: You have a lot of fun, You run around, you
Speaker 1: do something fun and then she falls and hits her
Speaker 1: head and almost dots. Yes, just don't mess around in
Speaker 1: the first place, right, don't get her mad in the.
Speaker 2: First place, right, and then you won't have to.
Speaker 1: Deal with that and sending her off to school. When
Speaker 1: he can't take her to school, he has to send
Speaker 1: her with somebody else. Yeah, ah, just never never. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course she has to go to school. How do
Speaker 1: you It's like I think, now, if you went down
Speaker 1: to the school district and said, okay, my my papa
Speaker 1: is a prisoner in this hotel which is in this
Speaker 1: school district, so I guess I'll be coming here, would
Speaker 1: there not be some I mean, does he have a
Speaker 1: birth certificate for her? Does he have the paperwork when
Speaker 1: guardianship papers? I don't know. I think these days this
Speaker 1: would not hold. Well. I guess then it's like, sure,
Speaker 1: the country's in turmoil, whatever.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, we need to raise the next generation of communists,
Speaker 2: so please then.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. We asked no questions, little comrades
Speaker 1: go on him.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and it's it was like World War Two
Speaker 2: during the years that we've skipped, right, So yeah, presumably
Speaker 2: people had other things on their minds. I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and oh, that terrible feeling when your kid is
Speaker 1: hurt or sick and you need to get help and
Speaker 1: you know, running into hospital saying you will pay attention
Speaker 1: to me now. When my son had his ruptured ulcer,
Speaker 1: he pretty much went into the er and said you
Speaker 1: will pay attention to me now until they did. But
Speaker 1: that's the most helpless feeling in the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and.
Speaker 1: Just the administrative state that kicks in in those situations
Speaker 1: is so maddening. Uh, But at least it's helpful if
Speaker 1: you have a friend who you know can bring you
Speaker 1: the best surgeon around. That's right. Cultivate a friendship like that, everybody.
Speaker 1: It's my parenting advice. It's a parenting tip from the
Speaker 1: gentleman at Moscow. Find you a friend like OSU. Make
Speaker 1: sure that should something happen, he will set you up. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's the way. That's the way to do it. Otherwise
Speaker 1: you're just kind of floating.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, next Tuesday, we'll float on into episode seven.
Speaker 2: It is called an assembly, and we'll see you back
Speaker 2: here tomorrow for a discussion of lost.
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.
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Speaker 2: dot com, slash Shop slash mamitude, but you can find
Speaker 2: links to a lot of the things we've talked about
Speaker 2: over the years.