The First One

oh four six night. That's two four oh four six six four four for eight. Leave us your thoughts, theories, ask us for advice. We might have some I don't know. Uh. Yeah, we're just here to We're just here to be your chat buddies. Really, um, how are you guys doing? How's Los Angeles? I was just there yesterday. No, you just left one second ago. It's still like bizarrely unseasonably hot, which is strange, terrible. It's really pretty bad. I was complaining that it was cold, but right now it's like

eighty five degrees, which is crazy. It's a big spread. It's cold at night, which I'm into. I was sitting by a pool not forty eight hours ago, and now I am wearing snow boots and a hat, and I feel like garbage. So it's a really good state of mind to kick things off. Well, I have the perfect thing to take your mind off that, which is uh, naked mole rats. Because whether you're warm or cold, it doesn't matter. We have to talk about naked mole rats.

Under all naked mole rats. When I say that, we're at my apartment right now, and touch shot up with a stack of papers as I did, printed off the internet, for sure, I mean about naked mole rats. There used to be um an exhibit on naked mole rats and the zoo that I at the town I grew up in, and they were like they were really trying to push naked male rats. It's like a viral animal. I love them. I'm not sold on their looks. Well. First of all, let me tell you that the reason that I found

the papers that I printed from the internet. As Molly point, I love the Internet, you said, from the internet, it's very professional, is because last week there was a viral video of a rat taking a shower like a man or a woman washing his or her body with soap, and then everyone realized that it wasn't a rat. It was a different kind of animal with no tail. It was it called Pacaranda. Wait, no Pacarana. Hold on, I'm gonna sift through. That doesn't make it any less impressive.

I don't think it's really get right, I don't think it's real. I've seen this rat. I've seen this Pacaranna. Pacaranda. Uh wait, pacara Pacarana. It has no D. I put in the D to see if you were paying attention. You are you passed? I've just seen this video, and I don't believe that it's real. You think it's a doctor shower rat video? I do. I think that somebody made a fake shower rat. Is that because you're skeptical of all viral rat videos? Since Pizza Rat was exposed

as a hoax? Was Pizza at exposed? I liked Pizza Rat. I liked his spirit. I like Pizza Rat better than this. Everybody liked Pizza Rat. It was totally a setup. Yeah, it was. What What was the deal? Do you remember what the deal with debunking that was? I think some girl admitted it was her she was like, I thought it was a funny thing to do, so I did it? How you Ben Hosley, who we should? You know? Acknowledge upfront as the man behind the knobs. He is shaking

his head extremely skeptically about this. What is the truth about Pizza Rat? It's not a hoax. It's not a hoax because the guy who filmed his name is Matt and he's a u c B guy, And Uh, I can confirm that that footage is real. Oh, you're telling me a U c B guy made a viral video and it's a documentary. And that's all they live to make viral videos, those uc BE guys. I just don't understand how you could manipulate a video of you know, rats can't play along like shower rat. I don't. Well,

I know that rats laugh. It's maybe like the more they do. Um. I like rats. I've been known to have to be dragged away from gutters because I want to rescue a rat and make it my friend. Uh, it's a puppet. It has to be at a t. Maybe they used the technology from Rod. Yes, you know Rattui was I didn't like Gratitui. I'm sorry, it's one of those. No, it's because it's one of those Pixar brad Bird a for Randy, and it's a Randy and narrator. It's also like you you sell it to your kid,

is something that you can both enjoy. And then there's a lady with a shotgun like shooting everywhere, and it was so unexpected. I was like, I thought this was about cooking. It's not at all. Are you sure you didn't watch Bambi? YEA, well no, I haven't watched Bamby with my children. I'm not a you know, sadist test test tie together the Naked Mole rats and the then the Sewer rat. I want to understand the connection here are we just here in celebration of vermin in general?

You said sewer? I think you met shower shower. It's all the same for at times, Emily so On gives motto today um, which is not today for anyone listening to this, but it will always be today for me. They just dated us so bad. I know, I'm so sorry, but it's really it's for it's a science e thing, so it's you know, I'm trying to be honest. It

says Naked Mole rats could theoretically live forever. And these naked molerats who have like I don't know, they're hideous, they're wrinkly, they have like tusks coming out of their noses. They like the weird eyes. Anyway, they're being studied at the research firm Calico, which is owned by Google, and they have these mole rats and in captivity. I guess most animals like the naked mole rat live like six years.

These guys have been going for like thirty five years, and sometimes they'll die of I think one of the things was periodontal disease, but also just like regular you know, diseases. But if they don't get sick, they just keep going. And they're like thirty five years old. So they're being studied to see if maybe we can copy the naked mole rat. Okay, as soon as you said, Calicaha is like the scariest It's the scariest company. That's why I thought you guys might want to talk about the naked more.

Totally do because it's like all those silicone valley dudes want to live forever, which is crazy to injecting his veins with the of mole rats. Vampire mole rats? Is he kind of rats slurry to to guzzle down at his sex orgies vinegary shrub of mule rat juice. I was just reading that Quincy Jones g Q interview that will also date when this podcast was recorded. Um. But he talks about how he was had dinner with Lenny

Reefinstall because he was a fan, which is obviously crazy. Uh. She sort of buys the she did nothing wrong element, which is not true. She fla, I don't understand how that's even an argument that gets any credence at all anymore. Somebody made it in the seventies that she was like a great women woman filmmaker and they were wrong. We have to do better. She um, we can do better as as far as female filmmakers. We have lots of

alternatives at this point. So he had dinner with her, and she told him that the Nazis were on drugs all the time, which I think is now sort of openly known because of that book blitzed Um. But she was like, yeah, like Hitler was on coke all day every day, and all the high ranking Nazis were like on coke and meth. So I was looking up stuff about that, and then I saw that one of the other things the Nazi doctors did was they injected Hitler with bull semen like that. I don't I think we

got to this from injections. We've we've gone from zero to next ory, Like it's like Peter Teel injecting himself with the Virgin blood. Man. This podcast is going to get sued by Hulk Hogan too early. We got to build up some steam first. That could be really great publicity. First episode, we'll all go on trial. Why did they inject him with bull semen though, because it was like like an aphrodisiac supposedly, because you want an aphrodisiac. Wouldn't

he just wanted he know, he wanted um. It was when he was going to to make love to the disgusting Eva Brown, Thank god, disgusting, horrible people. Uh but yeah, all the weird all the weird doping. Anyway, I thought of that thinking about people injecting themselves and stuff to live forever. Would you inject yourself with naked mole rats serum? If you thought that, like, would you be you know, a test subject for something that could make you basically immortal? No?

Why would you want to live forever. Sorry, I mean, I like, I'm gonna be so tired by the time. I'm like whatever age already tired. I'm already trying to talk everlasting stance. I suppose sometimes I like hear about something that will happen in the far off future and I'm like, oh, thank god, I'll be dead. Yeah. Yeah, it's like that's that's one way in which like your average Silicon Valley dude does not like they are not like the rest of us guys, They're not like us.

They also like just got powerful, so they want to hang on to like their ability to have sex with women. They're having the orgies now, Yeah, their newfound orgy abilities. They want to last as long as possible. You know what movie I enjoyed and I know Emily enjoyed, and I'd love to spend one second talking about. Is the movie Paddington Too? Oh ship. Can we do a Paddington to transition right now? Just Paddington corner, Paddington Marmalade corner. Okay,

we're calling an audible. It's Paddington time. I'm just gonna listen because I haven't seen Padding put Paddington too. Okay, paddingtone, great movie, excellent movie. Paddington Too one of the like I, I actually feel like it's going to be hard to top this year as far as films go. I was so delighted by this movie. Why wait, this is so mystifying to tell you why. Okay, So my friend was like, let's go see Paddington too, and I was missed of fine, but I was like, that will be fun. Whatever, I'll

go see a movie at the Americana. But then, like, as the trailers were running, I was like, oh no, what have I done? Because it was all children's movies trailers, so they were all either like insufferably tweet or like so grating, and I was like, oh no, like kids movies are bad. I don't want to see a kids movie.

But then Paddington two is like a lovely, delightful movie full of British character actors that is not pandering or somehow not tweet even though it's Paddington and is just a delight and I was like, why is this so good? So then I looked it up and it's the guy who directed All the Mighty So it's like a British alternative comedy but for kids. Uh, it's so good. It's yeah,

just agree. I mean, yeah, it's just delightful. It's a movie that like addresses kids at their level and not in not in a way that makes not like more. I think that I wrote of a view of it and I compared it to like Babe. I think it's a comparison point. And also like the Muppet movies, earlier Muppet movies where it's just kind of like silly humor. None of it is like there's not really like toilet

humor or anything. It's just like silliness and and silliness that that that kids and and adults could appreciate without it being like in jokes for the adults and sometimes like a little dark um and it all takes place on like Portobello Road. It's very charming in every possible way. I mean, the best. The main plot point of Paddington two is that Paddington goes to jail and he makes jail like beautiful. Yeah, he stole a pop up book. Yeah, he's framed. But it's also it's a great movie because

it's like against classism. It's like it's an anti Brexit, anti Brexit movie, although it does adhere to a false immigrant narrative that only the immigrants who accomplish like greaton deserved to stay. But it also is like it's about like the prisoners, like Paddington's adopted father, human father like

judges the prisoners. And then like I can't see that Hugh Grant, who's the villain, it is amazing, is evil because he's posh, you know, yeah, and everyone's like, can't you see He's just like a scammer with a posh accent. And these prisoners are like good people who didn't deserve to go to jail necessarily or who can like get out of jail and live lives and you know, redeem themselves. Uh, it's such a good movie. It's so good. It's like the world is a better place for that movie being around.

That's and that's about the highest compliment I can give to a movie. Yeah. I was like shocked at how much I enjoyed it, Like c G I bear, I was like, I don't know about this, but then it's cute, very very's cute. Yeah, Okay, Pattington too, Pattington to corner, Uh it shut down for this happens. But if I have more feelings about Paddington too. I just want to talk about how Hugh Grant looks so great. His name is Phoenix something. He is an actor and he's a

master of disguise. Some of the jokes are like silly names. Yeah, he's like he's a he's like a West End actor who treads the board. Oh, he's so. But it's also like he also has pictures around his house of him as a younger, handsomer man. But it's just pictures of Hugh Grant. You're just hilarious. Here's what I was going to say, is like he looks hot because he doesn't look like a botox monster. He has lines, but I'm like, oh, I'm old, so like I find him hot old now.

But also creased is creased like slang like thick, Like oh man, he creased right now? He create? He creased with two d's or maybe like three s and two d. It was just very crea face. It's like instead of Zaddi, Yes, yeah, totally, because you know, I find Zaddie a little like sometimes I'm like I don't know, Oh wait, can we drop this out of nowhere? That Molly just made an incredible connection between two of our favorite television shows that I had not been aware of until Oh, yeah, I've been

watching Cheers, the prequel to Fraser. Yeah, the famous frequent What I was trying to say, Um, it's a good film about a good film about a bar an old timey illustrations show. Yeah, I always thought that show was about, Um it takes place in I'm pretty sure definitely. I watched the episode where I've been watching the season where Fraser is introduced, which is season three. He's introduced us like, and I sort of realized because I've never watched Tears

all the way through. I've seen like a Cheers Cheers here and there, but yeah, I didn't realize how much Fraser is just like a al Diane. Yes, they were like interest, right, Yeah, they date and he's like the the opposite of Sam, who's like the yeah, the sexy playboy. He's like more working class or well, no, he was a he was an athlete, but he's more like, you know, like she was also super about classism among but just

among like white people in Boston, like slobs versus snobs. Uh. But yeah, I watched the episode where Fraser's mother appeared and realized that his mother who appears in one episode, whose name is Hester Crane in the episode, is played by Nancy marshand Ak Olivia Soprano. Wait, really yes, that's nuts, and it's amazing because she's like she's, you know, Nancy Marshan,

and she's amazing. She's so interesting because her the mom is supposed to be dead in um in Frasier for Fraser, but then I don't know if they ever explain that or if there's like an event you don't explain it, but it could still work with this chronology because the mom is like she's she's like a Boston like a

snotty Boston rich lady I think is the idea. But then like she sends Fraser to the bar to get a drink, she does, she disappears of Diane because Diane is like a lowly barmaid, but she sends Fraser to get a drink and that she turns to Diane and she's like, I'm going to kill you. She says, if you don't stop dating my son Frasier, I'm going to kill you. And then Diane kind of laughs and she's like, no, I'm serious, I have a gun. It's amazing. I'm so

glad that there's a connection. Like, yeah, so it's all one shared everything is on show. It's all one show. So speaking of shared universes, I guess we're gonna talk about Black Mirror. Um. Black Mirror, i'd like to think is along with Frasier, a show that it we made popular. It's all us, thank you or you're welcome, Charlie Brooker, Um we are. Yeah, we'll be expecting our checks in the mail. Um. No, but we we used to talk about Black Mirror a ton just off of the first

couple episodes that are in the UK. Um on our old podcast Girls and Hoodies on the Grantline network when it was available when we end to hop on. We got so many frequent flyer miles off of that. Remember that you guys so much fun. Yeah no, I got I got those upgrades. Um it was great. Um but yeah, we so we were we were early appreciators, I would say, of the show, and now it's kind of become this

whole thing. Like the website that I work for, vulture dot Com posted around the time that The New Seat, the most recent season on Netflix, came out a their ranking of the best Black Mirror episodes and it's been at the top of the site for like a month now, like suddenly Black Mirror is this thing everybody wants to

talk about or it's like weirdly divisive somehow. Um, but we wanted to talk about the most recent episodes, even though it's a little old, because I know some people are catching up to still, myself included, I haven't watched all of the Newest Sea. It's never old because it's in the future, right, yeah, Which, actually this is an interesting question because I feel like there are now at this point some Black Mirror episodes that are in the

past now comparatively well in the past. But it's always like just slightly it's supposed to be anywhere from like ten minutes in the I think the quote was ten if we're messing up, okay, but going with that, if the Prime Minister fucked a pig, and we're now in the Prime Minister the pig, that's true, that's true, then we can lay out where we're mean we kind of are, you know, Like I feel like I feel like if the equivalent happened, and in the United States, it would

I mean, our our our president has has symbolically fuck to pig, many times over at this point, and and we've he's probably also literally that's true. Well, I mean we also actually happened. Do you remember when? Uh uh oh god, why am I blanking on the Prime Minister's name now? But that's what I'm saying. We're in the timeline where the thing predicted by Black Mirror actually happens, so that all the things predicted by Black Mirror will

not happen like in a Black Mirror. As an aside, may I ask if you guys have favorite episodes of Black Mirror, even though with the caveat that you have not seen all of them yet from the season, from all all time, you can list a few you can listen to. My favorite is is um fifteen million merits? Yes,

that's that one. I feel like a lot of people don't like it just because of the bike stuff or it feels a little too on the nose and everything, But um, I think where it gets too at the end, about like how it's impossible to actually make protests art because it all gets co opted right by capitalism, is like completely depressing, but also I think still extremely relevant. Um and Daniel Coluia, isn't it? And the Oscar nominated Daniel Caluya isn't it and he is great? Um yeah,

I love that episode. It's it's like totally I don't know, I feel all of it, all of its points. Molly, do you have one? I like that one where the guy breaks his glasses and then he can't read any of the books. All the Time in the World, the classic nineteen sis is Black Mirror. I forget that guy's name. I used to remember that episode. I had memorized it was all the Time in the World. Um okay. I So I'm gonna propose Basically, there were a bunch of

articles on this. There's one from Wired by Miranda Cats that kind of posets that were, you know, reaching like the singularity. So it says um that since the purchase from Netflix, Black Mirror has begun to chip away at its episodic edges. And basically, you know, there is some kind of like unifying universe. It's not just you know, an anthology. Really, it kind of all belongs to its

own universe. And there are all these Easter eggs and stuff that are sprinkled throughout and I think particularly in the fourth season, especially most obviously in the finale, UM, which is the Black Museum. They kind of go through

and and link a bunch of things. But there was this super interesting UM article on screen Crush by e. Oliver Whitney, and the proposal is the chronological list of episodes that begins with national Anthem, which is obviously the pig fucking if you will, and yeah, I will, maybe that we dropped those kind of things in our first episode of our podcast UM, but yeah, it's it's really interesting because a lot of the chronology, like a lot of this hypothesis rests on a news ticker that shows

up in episodes like a US all the seasons, where you know, there will be like a news broadcast in the background of whatever is going on, and if you read the news ticker, it'll reference UM incidents that have happened in other episodes. You can kind of loosely place them on a timeline. This isn't this isn't Black Museum. This happens No, so this is actually there's there are. The news tickers are like in all sorts, in all different episodes. The Black Museum basically spoilers go away spoilers

if you have them. Okay, well, I'll just say that The Black Museum is essentially a tour of the future created by Black Mirror Um. But but it is not the last episode of you know what I mean, it's it's not the final episode in the timeline. It could be the series finale though, yes, but there's a but there's a more. There's one that's further in the future that would you know, probably if you're if you kind of look into the world that it takes place in.

But basically it's what does it say, is the further in the future. Okay, so the furthest in the future is metal Head. Okay, did you see metal Head? No? But I know what it's about. Yeah, it's it's one of the most dystopian. That's the one that's shot in black and white. It's about like robot dogs and there's something of like the ones that are shot in black and white or maybe later or no, not later, but there they might indicate that the people you're seeing are

actually digital copies. Can I can I submit an opinion right now please that I think that this is like the least interesting thing to talk about with Black Mirror,

like the idea of a chronology with I agree. I I mean I don't think it's the least interesting thing that I think it's totally interesting, but I also think that like it's like a goof though on the part of Brooker, Like it's it's like I don't feel like it's like getting to the soul of why the show is or what it's doing, but it's like it's totally the kind of thing that people will get obsessed with on the internet, Like it's it's kind of person I mean,

there are definitely easter eggs in this season, especially in Back Museum. It's like a museum of artifacts, and there are just artifacts in the background that are things from other episodes. Uh, but like that that I haven't seen that episode yet, but that like worries, Like I in general, I love I love Black Mirror. I'm like, I'll defend it against the haters or whatever, but like when it gets up its own ask too much, that's when I'm

kind of like, I totally agree. I I did not think that Black Museum was one of the strongest episodes. I actually thought that this was the weakest season, but I still loved it a lot. But I think what's actually more interesting than figuring out that chronology is basically, you know, there are these different kinds of you know, technological gadgets or whatever, a contact lens that then becomes something that's a grain implanted in the brain and all that.

So I guess what's interesting about it is not really just trying to say, oh, it's a it's a linear story of what happens, but basically, like, where does Charlie Brooker see the technology if it all belongs to the same universe, and how does the progression kind of go? Right? Yeah, I feel like it belongs to this universe in that

it's like the universe in Charlie Brooker's brain. Ye, are certain things that just obviously, like, you know, I think he's a genius, and I think that it's amazing he's come up with like a million new concepts for all these episodes. But I also like to think that there are probably limitations, you know, or just that because of how the brain works, you're going to repeat ideas or

and it'll be skewed like he is. Like I didn't see if he I when I first watched the first episode of the season, the U S S. Calister, I didn't know that it was one of his But then as it went on. I was like, this is like a total like written interacted. Well, it's about that episode because I think we all watched that. I think that was maybe the best episode. That episode is great and I was so encouraged by that because I really didn't like the last season very well at all. You didn't know,

I didn't. I thought a lot of I don't know. I just thought a lot of the production values seemed off and there was a little too much of the like as your mind blown by by how awful the world is type style, from being like a BBC show or Channel four or whatever it was to being a Netflix show. So it got like a big budget and sometimes I do feel like when people get a big budget and they can do too many things, you're like, oh,

you actually worked better with limitations. Yeah. Yeah, And I felt like it then got like people really like, um, what's it called Santo Well, no, I love Santipo. Santiairo is great, but but what's the one the one with

Bryce Stylas Howard and it? Yeah, okay, so that one is I just feel like it looks bad, like it doesn't and the idea of it, like the I feel like that episode is the kind of thing that people are making fun of when they make fun of Black Mirror, because it's like, I don't know, it's like the computers, but what if too much type thing? Uh? And I really liked play tests. I loved play actually, and I've

been thinking about it a lot. Uh. I like to play test, and I was thinking about it a lot after the Logan Paul suicide forest scandal, thank God, because I was like, that is what he deserves. And also he's the same kind of like blonde American doo fiend, like trap you in a video game forever for being the worst person in the world. Yeah. Now. I also I watched that episode on a big screen, and I feel like it made a big difference. Scared the funk

out of me. But also I was like scanning the frame the whole time, like in a horror jump out video or video game where you're just like looking for something scary to click on. I think that that was

one of my favorite episodes last season two. I think like the low point is something like um, shut up in Dance, which is just like it's just that's sort of like White Bear, which I've come around a little bit on White bear, but I still don't really like it that much because it scared me the first time. I feel scary, but I feel like dance. I'm like, I'm an idiot it because I got tricked. But there's a really it's not a good trick because it never

lays the track. Yeah, I didn't see it, you know. Yeah, you didn't see it coming because they never gave a hint about it. They did because his sister walks in on a masturbating and he's really embarrassed, and you think it's just because he's masturbating, but then you realized later it's because he was masturbating the child porn. Well, it's fucking it's mental in it. It's a mental mentor with the w There's a very very bleak episode this season. I don't know if you guys have seen Crocodile. I

really liked that one. Oh I couldn't handle Crocodile. It was like it yourself over the head. I mean twist at the end that's like a little too stupid. It's just so it's so depressed. Also, like sometimes those twists, because like sometimes the really bleak twists are just really funny, you know, But what what was the O No, don't tell me to twist and but I don't. But I did watch Crocodile. I just can't really remember it because

I didn't really think it was that interesting. But that's the one with the insurance woman who had and they can no wait but seriously spoilers serious. She murders the baby because she thinks it saw her murder someone else, but then the baby was blind. Yeah, that's stupid. That's a guinea pig. A guinea pig saw her. It brings us back to Rodents by the way. Yeah, Yeah, that

that episode I didn't like a lot. That Also, side note that song um anyone who knows what love is Thomas has been everywhere lately, and that that that episode had a lot of repetition of it. It also was in fifteen million merits and another episode. There was in two episodes this season, I think, and fifteen million merits and maybe even another episode at some point. The funniest thing about Crocodile is that it's arts out with like her meeting a guy right before they commit a murder,

and it's like a party scene with like a Goldfrapp song. Yeah, which made me laugh a lot because I'm like Charlie Brooker, like there's so much stuff about the two thousands in Black Mirror, Like it was clearly a formative time for him, and he's maybe the only other person nostalgic for it besides Emily. Hey, I mean, I'm I'm I'm lukewarmon Goldfrap.

But that was supposed to take place in the two thousands, I feel like because but I just love that they like to be like, hey, black Blockhouse pasts are the shadowy Black House past. People are always having like fond memories on Black Mirror of things taking place in the two thousand's. Well maybe it's because it's like making fun of our own nostalgia and just being like, no, you should be nostalgic for right now because it's about to

get so bad. She should enjoy it. Um, but we should talk about us this calister, because I think we all liked it. And I think what I liked about it is that like it neither did the Because I was watching it, and I was watching it with my fiance and we were and he's like he has something like are they you know, how is she going to get out? Or she is she going to get out of like because she gets basically put into this, she gets a copy of herself made the main character like

the protagonist um in this guy's simulation. UM. And I was like, she's not going to get out. It's an episode of Black Mirror that everything ends poorly for everybody, and it neither disproved that nor approved Like it was like an I thought I did. It was right in between in a way that I thought was interesting and didn't seem coming see coming the ending of it. And it's also like actually really funny. Um, the whole well

also was funny. Was that Jesse Clemens, who has played I believe both Uh he does like Philip Symore Hoffman and Matt Damon in that episode. Yes, that's such a good call. Right, but shout out to my husband who called it and then continued to call it three ten seconds throughout the episode. Right. Uh. And that episode does a really good job of like setting him up as like the nerd you feel bad for and then twisting the knife to be like, don't feel bad for him.

It's a sick reversal. It's really well done. Good Yeah, yes, all nerdman. It's like a gamer Gate episode it's also just beautiful because they so much effort went into making the fake merchandise for the fake show. Yeah yeah, I was very like I think when I heard like there's a Star Trek episode, I was definitely not like, oh I'm chopping at the Yeah I did. Do you guys think it's the end of the that the finale was

the series finale? You guys think Steth McFarlane and Star Trek parody show is just like his simulation where he he definitely has a simulation that he has like every single like dumb starlet who has ever been dumb enough to get an ice scan a retinal scan by him. They live in there forever. Uh yeah, or no, it was a DNA sample, that's what it was. Oh yeah from a lollipop a lollipop. Yeah, oh yeah. And also like, um, what's his face Jimmy Simpson shout out to Jimmy Simpson

bean and everything the sci fi sci fi scream king. Yeah, he's great. I I love he was great too, because he was very good as like the dick guy at work. You're then like, maybe he's just friendly other guys a dick. Yeah, No, I I really like see the Kirsten Dunes cameo. No, she's in the office because she is engaged to Jesse Plummin's in real life, so she just did like a cameo. She looks walks by, she's in the background, and like the office, one of the office scenes, it's full of

it has so many Easter eggs. It's almost like it's almost too much, too many eggs too, it's too it's an embarrassment. I agree that I think that like making the connections is not as fun as like thinking about all the things they could be, you know. That was like the big true detective thing was like, oh, it's fun to like try to solve this mystery, but like

solving the mysteries maybe not actually that fun. And I also think with Black Mirror that like at its best, what it does is like open the portal to a weird other universe than their universe that we sort of

live in already. Um. I just I get very frustrated with a lot of aspects of the backlash on Black Mirror because I think a lot of the criticism is done by people, especially like when it's happening on Twitter, like it's happening it's like it's like people saying L O L like how uncool to be too critical or you know, um second guessing our nature as far as our addiction to technology, or like our rely on sound technology, and there's like, no, there's such a knee jerk defensiveness

about it. I feel like because people don't want to think about like not using their phone. Yeah, there's that Charlie Brooker quote that I love about how phones are like the new cigarettes, where it's like, except instead of taking five minutes off the end of your life, it takes five minutes out off your life right now. Because you're just like that is it's so good because it's true.

It's like every minute you spend like staring at your screen is like a minute you're not really experiencing reality, And like we all you know, definitely, I was a person who was always like I can multitask. I love to like read a magazine while watching TV with a computer. Oh my god, how you don't actually get any of them? Then? No, but I would get them all because I was getting them because if they're all like superficially administered things, you

can get them all on a super fo Yeah. But honestly, like all I'm I'm such an asshole. All I can talk about is like, oh, I quit Twitter, and now I just like get a sunset. But it's like a little bit true. I'm like, I don't I don't miss it. And when I first got off it, it was so like quitting smoking. It's really hard. Yeah. Yeah, I was like clicking picking up my phone every second to open Twitter and then like smoking, It's like if I stopped doing it for long enough, I didn't it make me

like sick if I do it again. I mean I kind of I quit for a while and then I ended up coming back to it, but um, and I still, you know, use it and check up, but not a lot.

And this past week, while I was one working really like doing a ton of work and had a ton of stuff I needed to work on, and also I was hanging out with people in Los Angeles and actually like seeing people face to face, and I was like, huh, funny how when you actually have stuff to do, and you know, spent and put put time into seeing people face to face, you never actually want to look at Twitter, like like it was like the least interesting thing I

could think of. Um, but apparently that's like it's like dorky to be I don't know, like anti Twitter now or something. I don't know. I think it's just like talking about these things as addictive substances is like not cool, even though like it wasn't video game addiction, just like added to the DSM or something. Yeah, like it's real. There are people who like go to the hospital because they can't stop playing Call of Duty. Like it's not common, but like you know, on a certain level, everyone is

addicted to phones at this point. And I remember just like crossing that bridge and being like I don't want to be one of these people who's like looking at

their phone everywhere they go, and then just becoming one. No. I mean now, I just feel like every single day I'll be going I'll be eating somewhere, like you know, getting lunch somewhere, and I see some family, like a family of tourists or something in New York that are at a restaurant or cafe or whatever, and they're all they're just sitting there and they're all on their phones and they're not even looking at each other, talking or

doing anything during their entire meal. And it's just like I don't want to be that, and maybe it's it sounds so crunchy and dumb to like, I don't know be critical of that, but I think that that's like a like an objectively poor quality of life. Like I feel like it's okay to get back in touch with our inner like Adbusters, because like the future like fucking

Google sponsoring Calico and stuff like that. You're like, oh, science shouldn't be like made by private companies that own everything and are then going to own how to live forever and can sell it to the richest people and nobody else. Like it also got it's so oppressively sad over the past year because it used to be that when you would be checking Twitter all the time, like the sadness would be kind of levied by like a lot of silly stuff. But we're all kind of beaten

down and the shells of ourselves. I guess some people have turned on Black Mirror because they don't like watching something so bleak, because it's like not escapist anymore. Uh. And I do feel that way about like a number of dystopian things where you're like, oh, the dystopia is real now, so like what do we put in our dystopias? Like I saw Emily and I were talking about the new Purge movie Perge Fan Perch five Fan Emily o Chida.

It's called the First Perch. They just the First Purge, And I saw the poster is like, make America the Purge again. Well they have the It's like the poster, the teaser poster is the red Hat but it says, um, I forget what it says. Yeah, I think I think it just says the First Purge on it. Yeah, I mean yeah, it's like, how do you you know, what do you want in a sci fi universe when the

world feels so sci fi? Well, the other thing and then we should probably move on, is I And I don't want to second guess how people are reading the thing,

like you can read it however you want. But I do think that there's this tendency to think that that Brooker is being like so dead serious or like, um, like there's a period at the end of every sentence of Black Mirror when I feel like it's mostly ellipses, like it's it's a lot of just like like spitballing, and like what if this one thing that we had like like a few iterations later, what would it look like it's all kind of questions, and I think that

a lot of people are taking it as statements and like as as objective facts that he's laying out about tech, and it's it's I feel like it's much more speculative than declarative. Yeah, that's speculative based on stuff that will already exists, and maybe some people just don't want to think about, like how is that the logical extension of

this thing I'm already doing. Yeah, And you know, we all, as we've talked about, let our phones just listen to us all the time, every day and then wait till we do the Instagram is spying on us special we're gonna get kicked off the audio Boom network with a quickness. So we should wait for a year to do that.

Let's just get I should say, though, if if you have conspiracy theories about your phone listening to you, or you have evidence to back at call one to four oh four six night to two four oh four six six four four four eight. We each have our own

like anecdotal evidence of that. But I'm always looking at And that was the thing where like no one believed me, and then people have come to me constantly being like, you were right, my phone is listening to me even when Instagram is not open, because I get served ads for things I was just talking about. And then I was like, you know, I'm starting to get so paranoid that sometimes I'm like, am I getting ads for things

I'm just thinking about? WHOA? And then but or like something I looked at a sign but didn't like and then somebody was like, told me who worked in That was like, oh no, they just like they serve you ads based on where you go. Also, because it's like and that's how I started getting ads for this shop. I went into exactly once and never never ordered from, never searched, never anything, and then I started getting ads for it all the time because I went into it once. Um. Yeah,

fun stuff. So once again you and leave us a message, give us a call at one two four oh four six night two four oh four six six four four eight, and we have our first call, our first ever night call this week, coming from friends of the pod and fellow Audio Boom podcasters David Sims and Griffin Newman from the blank Check Podcast. Um so let's hear. Let's hear what they have to say. Hey, this is Griffin a man? Hey,

this is David Simms. We're from blank Check with Griffin David um and of course we we recently heard on Molly Slecy friends. Um. The question was raised the episode that you guys were all on which Zodiac character? Would you be? Right? You got which member of the zodiac? Calendar? No, not know which sign the Fincher film Zodiac? Which character are you a rough Falow? Are you with Downey Jr? Or character name Shorthand? So that's that's our question to

you guys, Please answer it now. So we never really did get to the bottom of it though. Who we are from Zodiac? Are we in Avery? Are we green Smith? Wait? Is that his name? Green Smith? Smith? Gray Smith, Greensmith, Um gray Smith or taski um a k a. The Roppa Downi Jr. The Jake Jillen Hall and the Mark Ruffalo of the film. I don't know what are you guys feeling? What's your sign? What's your Zodiac? I like how it seems like someone's asking us which one of

us is the zodiac? So which of you is responsible for the murders? Which which murder did you? Which did you commit? Because obviously we know that they weren't all the same person. So um uh, Well, I said, because Tess just showed up here today with a stack of papers printed out from the Internet, and I decided that means that she's the Robert gray Smith. And I just took that well, because he's the one who like does all the research and has all the papers, all the finals.

He's a doodler. Yeah, he's a doodler. I'm a doodler. And Molly, uh, Emily, you expressed an affinity for Ruffalo. Well, I feel like I'm I'm Mark Ruffalo in most movies if he shows up, so I and I do think. I do think in this case too, especially when I was an editor, I feel like you have to be

the no fund person a lot. And so I had sympathy for Tuski because he's like a detective and he's not like he doesn't get to have crazy conspiracies or like go on crazy benders like like Rabbit Towny Junior does. He kind of has to just like be a regular detective and like carry out the you know, he gets to wear a cool side arm though, right, like he does like a cool gun holster. Yeah, and he has good ties. He has bow ties. I like his style a lot, probably of all of them. Um. I really

like tsky style. Um. I do like how he kind of as as things go on and as gray Smith kind of takes the case into his own hands. I love the way that he sort of um secretively aids him by like saying, well, I didn't tell you this, but blah blah blah. Um so yeah, oh yeah, he loves animals. Well, that's like such a that's I that's such a sticky thing. Like it's so it feels like something from another movie, like oh, this cop he's got his a real hanker. And for animal crackers. It's also

like a Columbo totally yeah. Um yeah. So I don't know, I have a soft spot for Tausky and I feel like nobody else would pick them. Also, so my friends have a Columbo party. Apparently every year it's a Columbo Halloween party where everyone just comestressed as Colombo great and this year it was apparently Columbo or Mark Ruffalone Zodiac. Um. I feel like this is all pointing towards Molly being avery, which I think is uh. I mean, I I know you want that house boat, you know, I want to

be the Robert Downey Junior character in Anything. Yeah, I mean me too, but when I'm honest until up until Iron Man, at which point I don't care anymore. You don't want to be an arms dealer, No, I don't want to be an arms dealer superhero. I want to d D militarized. What's your favorite? What's your favorite Downy? Is it this one or I mean there's just a string of performances where he's so amazing starting with less than zero zero R d J is not too shabby himself. Um,

and uh you know Chaplain is a good movie. I enjoyed him in Wonder Boys. Right Sunday, we're going to talk about Tough Turf on here, like a whole episode. Yeah, Tough Turf I own on VHS. The Best Guy to It's got Kim Richards with like amazing Barbie hair, dancing on tabletops and eater eight or so much Spader in spades. Uh yeah, now that movie is is a masterpiece. Yeah, there's just you know, I love Kis Kiss Bang Bang.

There's just a long, a long period where he's really great and everything U and then you had that last little come back and now he makes marvel movies. I don't care, but he could always do something Judge Passion projects. Um, so I think that's it. I think that's our that's our our final answer. Molly is Avery, test is gray Smith, and I'm TASKI And that's it. There's no more argument

that it's settled. So there's a murder that you need solved, then I think we can handle it on the podcast pretty easily because with our resources, experience and like we're we don't care about confidentiality at all or like not discussing things on podcasts that should not be discussed on podcast. So we'll totally like solve a murder on podcast. You can, Yeah, yes, cereal, we're gonna get sued by so many people. Um No, don't even bring that into into the sphere here, toy, toy, toy.

So that does it for this first episode of Nightcall. And once again, please give us your night calls at one to four oh four six six four four four eight. That's one to four oh four six night. Um. We'll be back next week talking about who Knows what. And once again, I am Emily Rashida, and I'm Molly Lambert

and I'm tes Lynch. We'll see you all on the other side, and please rate review, subscribe to Night Call on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and if you leave us a really good review, we might we might rate it. Uh. Write us some nice rose, read us some some meaningful uh some meanful poetry, and we'll read it on air and thank you, thank you in advance. All right, that's it. Bye,