On the Bechde cast, the questions asked if movies have women and them all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, Eph and bast start changing it with the Bechdel Cast.
Jump Jump the houses jumping, you.
Need jump jump the house jump? What an iconic party? I mean Pat? Say what you will about Pat. She knows how, knows how to throw a party. Yeah, she knows how to get the house jumping. She is Yeah, oh Pat is Pat's an icon She is Megan. Uh, you know, we love Magan in this house. We love Magon, but but you know she Pat is the blueprint. Yeah.
And then we're like, there's How from two thousand on a Space Odyssey, and How wishes he was Pat?
Oh my god, how in How's Dreams and it's Pad, a direct obvious ripoff of How.
No, no, not even a little bit.
No. Sorry. I trailed off for a second because I was trying to remember what Pat stood for. Oh, and I was like, peep and toilet paper, hilarious.
Oh that's correct.
Yeah, No, brain is dust? What does it stand for?
Personal applied technology? Okay, which is so generic it could mean any.
I believe it. I believe it. Okay, this movie has everything. It has an evil house played by Katie Sigal. She should have won an Emmy for this, but she did it because she's only in five minutes of the movie. We have a girl boss that we are rooting for even though she's clearly on a destructive pass. And oh my god, fast forward Sarah's timeline twenty years.
I don't want to know.
Ooh, Tim Apple, there's this movie. Yeah, and also other things, but most importantly, those characters are so iconic and so we are here to cover. Okay, wait, should we start over?
No? We okay, speaking of amazing paths, we are on one. This is the Bechdel Cast.
Hello.
My name is Caitlin Deronte.
My name is Jamie Laftus, and this is our podcast where we look at your favorite movies using an intersectional feminist lens through personally applied technology that we have been developing over the last seven years. Yes.
Yes, yes, yes yes, and we use the Bechdel test yes as a jumping off point to initiate a larger conversation the Bechdel Test.
Yeah, what is it? Caitlin, Get me up to speed.
It is a media metric created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, sometimes called the Bechdel Wallace Test. It originally appeared in Alison Bechdel's comic Dykes to Watch out For in the eighties. It was intended as just like a goof a joke a lark in the comic strip, but it has been made into this media test many versions of it. The one that we use is this two characters of a marginalized gender. They have to have names, they need to talk to each other, and the conversation has to be
about something other than a man. And we especially like it when it's a narratively impactful conversation and not just hello, here's a strawberry smoothie.
But iconically this movie passes the Bechels test quite a bit. And I think that there are several important exchanges between particularly Pat and Sarah that you know this. I just so we're covering smart house stunningly common request. Yes, but I do think that it is one of the Disney Channel original movie from nineteen ninety nine, directed by LeVar Burton. Hello Jump scare incredible. I know it is by most people's metrics, considered to be one of the greatest d
cooms of all time. I think it is a millennial classic and it holds up in a lot of regards extremely well. And then in other regards, No, it's camp. It's camp Caitlin. When Angie is jumping on her bed to Bewitched Sela V. At length, it's almost like Bewitched just paying them to do it, which they almost certainly are. God, we have some real nineties deep cut like Bewitched Irish girl group kind of a one hit wonder unless you count their cover of Hey Mickey, which I thought was
pretty great. Okay, sure, but yeah, their big hit Seyla V features heavily and then, oh my god, one of my favorite songs of being like six was Ryan Merriman and his Merry Troop of Boys do a choreographed d I never get over this scene. It's I mean, it's like a very popular scene if you grew up with this movie. But it's to a boy band called five.
Couldn't be more of a one hit wonder, And even that's kind of a stretch, but I remember them, Yeah, and their hit song was called slam Dunk the Funky and m Boy did they do a choreographed dance to slam Dunk the funk. Okay, I crush it. At this point, I'm like, this is the most cute boy behavior in the entire world.
I'm in It was endearing. I I did not realize that was an actual song, and I just figured it was like one of those like corny song like fake songs that was written for this movie and inserted into the movie to pretend like this is a popular song that everyone knows. I did not realize it was a real ass.
Oh my god. So I was so like I had so many older cousins that I feel like I had a wealth of boy band knowledge before it even made sense to because it was like everyone was like five years older than me. I mean, they're like, the cutest boys are in Otown. No, the cutest boys are in you know, in sinc versus Backstreet Boys as the obvious one. But you also have ninety degrees LFO ninety eight degrees, and then you have flops like Otown and five But
I but Otown. Did do you remember that song? Because I want it all? Oh nothing? Oh my god, so many boys at this time, and we honor them boys. No, that song is real I think that the houses jumping is not real.
No, that definitely sounds like a fake.
Feels pretty on theme. It would be wild. If that song already existed, LaVar Burton would have been jumping for joy. Unfortunately, I think they had to commission the houses jump in incredible. Okay.
So, and so the reason we're doing this movie is that we discovered that all of the movies that we are releasing in July, three of the four that were like planned were live action Disney movies. Because we've got the Hannah Montana episode that was a live show that came out, we wanted to do, you know, a very like American jingoist movie. So of course we were like two.
The Haunted Mansion's coming out, So we're doing the Haunted Mansion. Yes, we also, I mean, I feel like even though we're covering Disney movies and you know, we should go to jail for that. But honestly, on a long enough timeline, every movie is going to be a Disney movie, and then we would have to cancel the show. It would be challenging. They're simply acquiring so many things are so scary. But even within these live action Disney movies, there's sort
of a wealth of different genres. You've got like the action with National Treasure two, You've got the coming of age movie with Hannah Montana, You've got the horror movie with Haunted Mansion, and you've got the sci fi thriller that we know as Smart House. Yes, I want an alternate ending to this damn movie. I would also as tired as this genre of movie is, and I feel like it's already kind of dying off. I wouldn't hate as long as LeVar Burton also directed it. I would not hate Smart House too.
Where extremely smart House.
Sarah is ruining the world Pat Ben has fallen in love with Pat. Oh they're secretly married. Wow, he's married to the house. Interesting Angie has Angie hasn't spoken to the family in years. She's a communist. The dad twist he's dead. Yeah, well he's my least favorite character.
Yeah, Sandra is basically on a path to becoming the Oscar Isaac character from Ex Machina.
One of the many movies that this Disney Channel original movie that came out twenty years before shares a ton of parallels with. Yeah, this movie is so brilliant. I love it. What is your history with Smart House the movie though I hadn't them in I had never seen it. Yeah, wow again, how do you feel? Well, the only time I watched d COM's is for this podcast. I had never seen any of them. That's true, and so I but I just just sort of thought you would have started watching them in your spirit.
Well, okay, I did watch one, actually two of my own accord and it was teen Beach Movie one and two.
I remember, and those movies rock and roll they do rock so and they roll and don't forget they roll, they rock, they roll and they rule. But aside from that, I've never seen any dcoms on purpose. Well, this is an early one and it is a classic. It's the
best I first saw this movie. I don't think I would have seen it when it came out, as probably too young when it came out, But they rerun these damn things on the Disney Channel all the time, and so I think probably I had seen it by the time I was like ten.
Yeah, it maybe.
Even a little sooner. And it's just such a fun movie. But it also, like I don't know, I feel like it captures it's definitely I think at its core a
cautionary tale. I would be so curious what the writing process was in in terms of figuring out how to end this movie in a way that wasn't terrifying to children, because the ending is bizarre and feels dissonant with what the rest of the movie is, especially because especially because Pat essentially takes her own life at the end of the movie, it's and then she lives in jail forever. But that's the happy ending. We'll come back to it.
I understand why this movie can't end in a terrifying cliffhanger because it is for eight year old But I just think it's like a fascinating moment in time of
like excitement about technology but also fairly cautionary tale. And at first I was like, Ooh, it's so random that LeVar Burton would direct this, but it actually really isn't because he at this point I will talk about some like a couple of interviews that he did on this movie's twentieth anniversary a couple of years ago, but like at this point his career, he was mister Star Trek and like he's playing Jordie Laforage, and he had directed a ton of episodes of Star Trek, so you know,
like technological cautionary tales are in fact extremely in his wheelhouse. And he's probably one of like the most like the best, most interesting choices to direct this movie. And I feel like this movie accidentally really packs a punch and I love it. And the stuff that holds up is kind of incredible and the stuff that doesn't is I was mostly laughing. I also think it's so funny that the guy that plays the dad, who is by far the
biggest flop character, can't stand him. He's, first of all, with all due respect to this guy, a very weird actor, where some of his lines of dialogue are like my children and you're like what. He just sometimes will end a conversation or like mark the entering and exiting of Ryan Merriman by being like my children and you're like, what the fuck. I also love that his name is Kevin Kleine.
Er Kevin Kleiner, Yeah.
Just like he's Kevin Klein but more so.
No, wait it's not Kleiner, It's Kilner but close enough.
No, it's Kevin Kleiner. Yeah.
Okay, he had to.
Change it because people were just like, what do you mean, Kevin, Klein's just enough. We don't need more. I like Kevin Klein.
I know I like him too.
I think that's still a safe opinion to have. I don't know, I know, you never know in this world. I think that I think I like Kevin Klein. Yes, I can't say that for all we say cautiously. Yes, I mean, there's no one's going to be the top Kevin of all time. You know who that is? Kaitlyn, Kevin le Mignon, Kevin le Mignon. That's exactly right below. Okay, Bello, wake up. Smells it hot, bananas, smell the hot. But enough?
Oh my gosh, wait really quick, Okay, this is This episode will have a bit of a Matreon feel to it for those of you on our Matreon, because when it's just the two of us, it's just tangents all day. My mom and I because we have my family's had a biannual timeshare on the outskirts of Orlando for twenty years, and next summer is our trip and my mom has specifically set it up so that I can meet her in Florida to see Despicable Me for with her at CityWalk. Wow, she's so excited.
Wait, Is there a Minions ride at Universal Inn Orlando?
Yes, and it's like it's it's kind of like Kevin klein Er. Then the Minions ride at University Studios Hollywood. They they're building out like a whole new like land section. That's even. That's because I think at at Universal Studios Hollywood, it's sort of like just the theme park from Dispicable Me One, but they're going full Minions. They're like, no, we're doing villain con. We're going for it. Okay, I
can't wait. It's gonna be great. The Minions are from what I can tell, they're busting out of jail yet again. These rascals. I love them. The Minions are anti cars role and that's canon. Okay. Smart House, I watched it a lot when I was a kid. I actually had seen it pretty recently because my boyfriend was homeschooled and didn't have cable and hadn't seen Smart House, and so I had to fix that. And now it's fixed. I'm so excited to talk about it.
Great. Shall we get into it.
Let's do it.
Okay, Let's take a quick break first, and then we'll come back for the recap. Poopye Bellow we're back. Margan's okay. So here's the recap of Smart House. We meet a house, but it's not just any house, Jamie. It's a smart house.
Yeah, this house, This house has brains for days. I love a good I was trying to think of other movies that open with some sort of suburban paper Boy gag. I feel like there's other movies that start with paper Boys.
Doesn't Barbin Star open, Oh.
Yes it does. Oh my god. Okay, that's a superior paper Boy scene. But I feel like, yeah, paper Boy scenes or you know.
Paper childer person, paper Person, paper Child is a little scary sounding there, And I mean, and then you have that's the ultimate.
I mean, that's paper Boy the movie. God, I've been listening to it. So I've been listening to the sound truck so much it's going to show up on my Spotify year endless. Very embarrassing. Anyways, we start with a classic paper Boy scene which will pay off later, believe it or not. I love, I mean love love. We've got LeVar Burton at the Helm. There's not going to be a loop left unresolved.
No no, no, no, no. Okay, So we meet this smart house, which was designed by a woman named Sarah Barnes played by Jessica Steen, yes, who designed this house and gave it all of these like advanced capabilities which we will learn more about in a little bit. But basically, the house has this AI operating system called PAT, which stands for peepee, poo, pooh and toilet paper.
That's that's exactly. We are just really smart people. Yeah, yes, boy, smarter even than the house. Voiced by Katie Segal who I never watched this show, but I know a lot of people know her as Peggy Bundy, unmarried with children as well as I didn't. No, she's also Leela on Futurama.
Okay, so that's what I recognized her voice from. I was like, right, whose voice is this? I know this? And then turns out Futurama.
She's a legend. Everyone loves her and she is also pad. I loved thinking about Katie Sagal in just like a vo booth doing ninety percent of the work for this movie, where it's just like her saying Ben like fifty times now Ben now Ben. Oh my god. She's so like mommy, Like she's so I mean, it's wild. Yeah, yeah, I am a mother like no other You're like, what, ugh, right.
Yes, okay, So Sarah again, that's the designer slash engineer of the house. Not really exactly sure what her job is.
A little wonky, but it wasn't ex Moki and iye as well.
Right, she's a woman in stem it's safe to say yes. And she has launched this contest where some lucky family will win the house. And that really begs the question why would they not sell what would probably be a very like lucrative house to sell, but they're just giving it away.
I wasn't as thrown by that as why have they not had Sarah live there for a while or had someone like test run the house that eats your blood when you walk in. It seems like there would be some sort of but I guess, you know, even with a lot of tech today, the regulation just isn't there. And sometimes it takes the house almost killing a family. I mean to realize that maybe there should have been some sort.
Of self driving cars that run people over, et cetera.
This is one of my biggest issues with this movie is like people should be more mad at Sarah than they are, but they're always like, no girl boss, like she's doing her best, and I was like, she made this, she made the house is trying to eat you anyway.
Well, my head canon was that the reason they're giving it away rather than like putting it on the market to sell is that it's like a prototype that they want to test out via a family.
Yeah, that would make sense, And it's also like that's so dcom of like starting a movie with a kid winning a contest that you're kind of like, yeah, happens all the time in these movies.
Got it? Okay? So then we meet Ben Cooper, who's played by Ryan Merriman of Final Destination three. Oh fame? Is that what the one?
That's not what he is most famous for. He is sort of the king of d COM's for like he is like running this channel for some time. He has three classic Disney Channel original movies that he stars and back to back to back.
Okay.
He is, of course Ben Cooper in Smart House? Who could forget Ben Cooper? Smart House? Not me hang out with mister Cooper basically. Two years later, he is in iconic basketball film The Luck of the Irish, where he plays himself as well as he but he's like a basketball player He's always a basketball player in these movies.
Disney loves because the characters in high school musical play oh yeah basketball.
Oh oh carbon blue. Well, I guess Zach got front. Yeah. Like the first one's very basketball code it yeah, just like a thirteen year old playing basketball. This channel can't resist it. So The Luck of the Irish is a movie about Ryan Merriman, who's a like teenage basketball player who then is turned into a leprechaun. And it's funny
because now he is too short to play basketball. Oh and then he is in kind of a serious one that I don't remember as being very good, but a young Misha Barton is in it, and it's called a Ring of Endless Life. Oh my, it's a sad one. And then he was like, I need to get the
fuck out of here. I'm gonna go star in Final Destination three and later iconically for big fans of Pretty Little Liars, he does play a pretty pivotal early character in Pretty Little Liars and he's killed by a bell at the church and then he wasn't on the show after that. He has really been exclusively in really campy movies for his entire career. It's interesting. But yeah, I think Smart House is sort of his big claim to finish his first big or just like his first big thing.
But I think he's talented. I think he's a good child actor.
Yeah, I suppose.
Okay, Lukewarm, Yes, okay.
So Ben Cooper is a thirteen year old boy who has been entering that contest to win the smart House so that he and his younger sister Angie and his dad Nick that's Kevin Liner Nill Nurse Slash Kleiner can move into the Smart House.
I just want to add really quickly that to just close the loop on this whole basketball thing. At the beginning of the movie, you know that Ryan Merriman's character likes basketball because he's playing basketball outside. But in case that wasn't clear enough, his sweatshirt also just has a picture of a basketball on it. And it's that cinematic subtlety that leads me to believe maybe this kid likes basketball. And so later when Kevin Kleiner's like, why don't you
play basketball, I'm like, why doesn't he play basketball? He's obsessed with basketball?
Well, he tells us it's because he's too busy being the body of the family.
I think that Ben is an interesting character. Anyways, the outfits are camp great, They're amazing.
I'm laughing at the picture you just sent me.
Okay.
So Ben, like we said, he's like quote unquote mommy because he's doing a lot of the household chores and a lot of the work to keep the family together, and he knows that a smart house could help pick up the slack. So that's why he's so adamant about entering and hopefully winning this contest. The next day, the contest winner is announced and it's Ben, and he finds out at school and his friends are like, wow, good job Ben.
There's a very nineteen ninety nine reason that he doesn't find out at home, and it's because he's on the internet too late, so the phone, the landline can't ring. And if you don't understand what that means, then congratulations, you're You should ask your parents before you listen to that. Yeah. Yeah.
And then they also call a landline and leave a message on the answering machine, which they don't get because they're not at home. Very nineteen ninety nine problems.
There used to be so many ways to not know things. I miss it.
Okay, So his friends are congratulating him. And then there's also this kid Ryan I think it's his name who bully's Ben, Yeah, which you can tell because of how spiky his hair is exactly, and he calls the bully. His big mean nickname for Ben is Benny Boy. He's like, hey, Benny Boy, do my homework for me.
I'm like, we need to punch up Ryan's I'm not scared enough of him. I like, yeah, I love that. Like, I mean, I think that this is like still kind of true in children's media, but it's like if if an actor has spiky hair, it means they're either a bully or just a general little stinker or is not flat if you're a little stinker.
But I mean, like Ben's hair is pretty spiky. I mean that was just he's a little stinker. He is a little stinker, but he's also mommy. I love Ben, I'm rooting for him, but the way he talks to his little sister is so evil. He's so mean to his sister. He's so mean to Sarah. He does not respect women.
No, he doesn't, except he loves Pat.
He loves Pat and he loves his dead mom. Because yes, this is a Disney movie. Therefore, there is a dead mom. We're gonna need to kill the mom. Yeah, yes, okay. So Ben and Angie and their dad Nick meet Sarah, who acquaints them with the smart house and with the operating system pat.
And Nick is like, hubba hubbah. Oh. Nick is such a fucking adult. He like when he learns that they won a free house in the newspaper, he immediately was like, who is that hubble. I was like, you just want a house? Do you? Weirdo? Oh Corney, and you're on the phone with your ten year old son and stop being horny. This is yet another movie. This is also very era specific of like a movie in which a young girl is obsessed with the sex life of her father.
Yeah.
Yeah, but it's just, oh, it's so weird, Like I want a new Mommy, shut up, Ben, let dad go have sex with this lady.
I'm like why, And then Ben is like, absolutely not. Our dad is never going to fuck again.
He's also obsessed. And then also the dad is so willing to engage in that conversation where it's like, were I Kevin Kleiner, I would be like, shut up, you guys, Like it's not your business right, but also he is welcoming the discussion by being such a weirdo and being like ooh a woga, Like, yeah, weird family, weird, weird family.
It's a very interesting dynamic.
They're going through a lot, but for crying out loud, yeah, okay.
So then we learn about what Pat is able to do. Pat is basically Ai and Pat's able to observe each member of the family and learn more and more about them and then like make adjustments along the way. Blood she eats her blood blood just so she knows more about your blood.
This this all feels like they're especially the kitchen because I remember thinking the kitchen and then the floor observers, where like if you spill something, the floor eats it. Yes, I think that that was like, and then the huge well anyways, but like there was so much about the house that was really really cool, and a lot of it is just like ripoffs of like Star Trek things that existed forever, which again makes total sense because of
the director. But I just remember thinking this house was so damn cool and now I think it's very scary and not worth it. And did the do you remember the Daniel Kluya episode of Black Mirror.
Oh wait, which one's what's the plot?
It's like almost ten years ago, but it's basically like people live in these future pods where like all your need. There's there's two references of like what the big because in in the Smart House there are rooms that are just huge TV screens and they're supposed to be able to like take you anywhere. They can make you feel like you're at a basketball game or of five concert
or the jungle. And the two things that it reminded me of was, yeah, there's a Black Mirror episode where it's supposed to be like really cool that Daniel Khalulia is able to live in this pod and it really gamifies your life and it's supposed to be fun. And then of course it's Black Mirror episodes, so it turns out to be bad actually, but the that's very reductive, but like that is the whole show. Yeah, and they
sleep in rooms like that. The other one that it reminds me of is a Ray Bradberry story, Like I have to imagine that LeVar Burton has read this story. I wonder if the writers had read this story. I remembered it from when I was a kid. But it's a short story called the Velt. I meant to read it before we did this, but I didn't have time. But it's about a family that moves into the Happy Life Home filled with machines. I'm reading from scholarly journal Wikipedia,
of course. The Hadley family lives in an automated house called the Happy Life Home, filled with machines that aid them in completing everyday tasks. Blah blah blah blah blah. The two children, Peter and Wendy, enjoy time in the nursery, a virtual reality room able to realistically reproduce any place they imagine, and grow increasingly attached to it, which is very like I feel like they go out of the
way to show you this room. And Sarah's like, you can feel like you're in anywhere, like the Savannah or Cape Cod. I think those are her only two ideas. But the way that story ends, because the kids are getting more attached to spending time in the nursery, the parents start to be like, mmm, we don't know, like we kind of like for our kids to go outside and interact with people. The kids grow very hostile when
this is suggested. Okay, fast forwarding to the end. Spoiler alert for this story that came out in nineteen fifty. When the parents come to fetch them, the children lock their parents into the nursery with so what they it's so VR in the story that they basically set up the nursery to emulate a savannah full of lions, lock their parents in the room, and the parents die.
I think I read this story too, because this sounds very familiar.
I wish that spartause ended like I feel like if they had had, if this was not on the Disney Channel, this movie could have ended so differently. But I felt I'd be so curious. I looked to see if there was any reference to it in like the marketing around this movie, which of course there wasn't because it was
a Disney Channel movie. But I have to imagine that people like the creative team of this movie knew about this story, and like it feels like that room is a direct reference to like the scary VR room is direct reference to.
It, especially because there is that moment where they project a savannah savannah right, like elephants and apex predators and.
Stuff, right, and then and and Angie gets scared and then Sarah's like, okay, I'll turn it off. Yeah, you're just and that sort of it because it's a Disney movie. But I was like, whoa are they bradburying right now? Oh my god? I yeah, I it maybe want to read more Ray Bradberry. I read that in I think like sixth grade, and it scared the shit out of me, but in a good way. Yeah. Anyways, I just wanted to shout out the velt and then also like the Happy Life Home Pat. It's the same thing. It's the
same thing. But they're like, but what if this was only sort of bad? What if we trapped Pat there? I if so bizarre? Anyways, Sorry, I just wanted to I guess that that's sort of context corner a little bit. Sure, Sure, no, it's all. It's all very helpful.
And Pat, in a addition to those things, can also like make a bunch of food and serve it to the family, like you said, absorb things into the floor if you spill. Let's say you request a strawberry smoothie and then the strawberry smoothie comes out and for some reason it's blue and not like pink like you might expect.
And commercial and then you spill your.
Blue strawberry smoothie onto the floor, Well, the floor absorbers, incredible creative naming device will break absorb the spill.
They only had twenty minutes to write this movie, I'm sure, I think. Yeah, I thought that that was so funny, and it reminds me of the most futuristic appliance I own, which I know I've talked about on the show because I'm so cocky about it, is my automated spaceship litter box for flea. Oh yes, and it's kind of floor adjacent in that the poo poo does disappear. But then it made me think. I was like, but all that does go somewhere, and it's gonna be a stinky day
when you have to empty out the floor absorbers. That's gonna be a bad day. Anyways, Did you know that LeVar Burton talked to NASA to research how to like make this house cool? It all feels or sorry not not LeVar Burtons, the guy who wrote the movie. One of the two male writers of the movie, Stu Kreeger. Because Stu Kreeger also he's kind of a spacehead. Guess what other dcom he wrote?
I couldn't say.
Xenon Girl of the twenty first century. That's right. This guy loves vaguely late nineties space technology, and I guess that he had like a plug at NASA that would help him like write in ideas.
Uh huh. Interesting. Yeah, So here's what happened with me watching this movie. I forgot that decoms of this era have budgets of like eleven dollars and yeah, look like shit. So I had in my head because I knew the premise of this movie, and I knew it would be like futuristic high tech house stuff, and so I figured that the kind of production design of the movie would reflect the you know, high tech capabilities of this house. That is incorrect.
Yeah, no, no, of course not. It's a I'm sure that this was like a general house set on a studio a lot that they like added some dingle hoppers to to make it seem like a little fancier. But yeah, it's just like a sitcom set basically, Yeah, with the sort of clunkily edited in like video screen rooms. But I will say, like, as a kid that loved this movie, it did feel like the moments they chose to show what the house could do. It felt like it was
enough for me. The kitchen like the snacks when when the girls are at the party and they get Infinity snacks. Pat's control room like the claw outside. You're like, oh yeah, when you think about it, it's a lot of camera trickery and just being told that this can happen. Right, But I was I was duped. I thought it was awesome. I mean, when you're eight years old, it will seem impressive. It's true.
When you're thirty seven, not so much.
Kila, Why are you dunking on this amazing movie? Why don't you make smart house and call me back?
Why am I? They went to NASA? They went to NASA. Dunk dunk the house is dunk or the jump jump jump dunking the funk. Sorry I got my lyrics confused. Slam dunk the funk and then jump jump the house is jumping.
Okay, Yes, sorry, really complicated lore.
Okay. So the family settles into the new house and they love it. Everything's great. Nick starts working from home and he's finding that he can be way more productive at work.
His job is the he ships baseball bats. I think is that because there's one scene where Pat is yelling. I mean this is later in the movie, but Pat's like, get back to work, Buster. But he is like on this call where he's like, all right, make sure all the bats and gloves get there by the end of the week. As like, what is this man's job? I think that he is a sports equipment shipping guy. Guy I don't know, vague, very vague, but sure. And then when when Ben calls him at the beginning, he's in
front of a bunch of baseball looking things. I think he's like king of the bats.
Sure, and well then he brings Ben home a basketball to remind us once again that Ben looks basketball right.
Oh yeah, so he's so, I mean, he's got range. It's not just bats and gloves.
Yeah, it's also other things.
Okay, So.
Nick like the house is helping him be more productive at his job at school. This popular girl named Gwen, who Ben has a crush on, is like, hey, Ben, you should invite me over to your cool house. And so everyone's like, wow, this house is really doing one for us.
Jump in it is jump jump.
But oh no, Pat malfunctions while trying to make smoothies. Smoothies are with oranges, Yes, Smoothies are a big motif in this movie, and sometimes they are.
Just too much. I think they're going so smoothie anymore. It makes you think.
You think the irony of Pat malfunctioning and not running smoothly because she's trying to make smoothies is literary genius.
Yeah, Ray Bradberry could never she could not.
Okay, so Pat malfunctions and we're like, hmm, foreshadowing much so. Nick has Sarah come over to see what went wrong, and Sarah stays for dinner, which makes Ben furious because again he thinks that Sarah is trying to replace his mom, and he's really mean and condescending to her, and he storms off.
We'll return to this conversation. Yeah, I do think it is kind of amazing that Sarah has a pet rat named Butler.
She's like, like, rat Butler, get it?
And I don't get it. It's what is that a reference?
A reference to Rhet Butler, who was.
Like, oh gone with the wind? Yeah, what a bizarre reference to make in a d comt. But at least Ryan Merriman's like, what shut up? That is weird behavior to name your rat after a racist movie character. But I liked that she had a rat.
I mean, she's not like the other women in stem.
No, she's dated a bunch of serial killers and she has a pet rat. They didn't need to write that down, but they did, and I think it's interesting. Well, the rat is.
Another thing that is planted and will pay off. Oh yeah, so that's why we need the rat.
Yeah, anyway, that's just that Stu Kreeger magic.
Yeah, exactly. So Nick goes to talk to Ben and he's like, son, you're taking on too much. You don't have to work so hard to take care of us. And Ben is like, well, yeah, I don't have to work so hard anymore because now we have Pat. She's going to be mummy now. And Nick is like, well, don't forget, she's just a machine. And then Ben goes into the control room of the house and has Pat watch a bunch of nineteen fifties sitcoms to show Pat how to be more maternal.
I'm just like Ben, Ben, Now, Ben, why not choose more current videos?
Were anything else? Yeah, well we will return to this because.
Yes, I also I just like, I don't know you, like, I don't want to bully this eleven year old character. Too much. But I'm just like this kid should be in therapy, Like Kevin Kleiner needs to get this kid into therapy. Like he's I feel bad because it's like he does all this shitty, little stinker stuff that's super misguided and sucks. But it's also like it's obvious that like he and his dad, like he doesn't really have
anyone to talk to about his mom. He's like not been able to like properly grieve about it, and like I understand from a kid's perspective of like he feels like his mom is trying to be replaced and he feels like he can't talk about her ever, which like has to be really hard on a kid, and you would like probably lash out and do a bunch of weird stuff and all of that. I just but it's like the movie. The way the movie handles it, it's
very you know, glazed over fantasy stuff. But it's like this poor kid, like he hasn't been able to grieve his mom and literally no one will talk to him about it. And it's like not that it's that his dad shouldn't be allowed to move on, like of course, but it's like it doesn't seem like there's ever been like a structured conversation about it, right, And it seems like these like reactions from Ben could at least be like tempered, even if it doesn't change how he feels.
It's like, I feel like you do, oh you know your kid a conversation of like, hey, I'm going to start seeing people and like this is like how do you feel about that? And let's talk about it blah blah blah. But Kevin Kleiner's like, shut up, I'm gonna fuck like there, you know. But then in other and then eventually he feels bad about it. But I was just like this dad is a mess. So in that way, it's hyper realistic.
Yeah, there's one conversation towards the beginning where Ben says something like our family is perfect the way it is, and then his dad is like, well, I think there's a little room for improvement.
And it's like that's such a cruel thing to say to children. You're a grieving child. I yeah, I feel
I feel for bad I have. I'm lucky to have not lost a parent before, but like it just seems like he has no support whatsoever, and his dad is like I don't know either like emotionally repressed or like doesn't have the skill set to like talk to his son about it, and then is bringing someone new into his kids' lives, which, of course, like every parent is going to be different about the timeline for that, But I just I don't know, like Ben, Like it doesn't
excuse Ben being a little shitthead at so many points in this movie. But I also just feel like he just has very little support because his sister like probably would want to support him if she could, but like she doesn't remember her mom well enough to do it right. And then his dad won't talk to him about it, and I'm just like, buddy, we got to get you into counseling. Anyways, he doesn't. That doesn't happen. He instead
shows Pat a bunch of you. I think, like Pat literally gets radicalized by the YouTube algorithm.
Yeah, because Ben is like, here's some here's some shows. And the titles of these shows are mother Knows Best, My Three Moms, which it's like, okay, what's that show about? Make Room for Mama and Noah's matriarch hilarious, And so Pat absorbs these so that she can learn to be more motherly, which works because the next day Pat is like, brush your teeth, darling, take your vitamin's honey, bunny, here's
a cupcake, sweetie pie. And then she's also like a dad, you worry about business, I'll worry about taking care of the kids.
I thought, it's like, it's kind of interesting commentary on like media of that time, but also it kind of goes nowhere, right. I just wanted to quickly shout out the fact that, for some baffling reason, we get to see dad in Sarah's whole date while Ben is throwing his party before Pat is put on the straight and narrow path of being a real disciplinarian kind of parent house.
But I just think it's every time kids movie. I'm like I in my long career of being a child watching movies on the Disney Channel, I never want that any given point was like what's happening on their dad's date? And right, but they always show it to you. And in this one, for some reason, they show you this like ah, they kiss you and she because he has a little hershey kiss in his bag and then he's like kiss and like, I hate this guy so corny.
She's like objectively too good for him, Like she's literally a super genius and this guy is a flop parent who's like, but leave her alone.
Okay. So Ben is like, Wow, it's like my plan is working. And then off screen I could like not track this sequence of events really or like why this was us anyway? Off screen, Ben ends up to his bully at the advice of his dad. But Ben, it's beaten up very.
Quickly, and then like, yeah, they the bully. I guess it's like good that they don't show it right, but like, but why does that happen? Yeah? Yeah, Like what's his name?
Ryan, Ryan the Bully?
Ryan the Bully kicks the shit out of him, which again seems like okay, Kevin Kleiner, this is a good point to like talk to this school, like do something, but he's a flop, so he does not do anything right.
I do not know why this subplot with the bully is in the movie. Doesn't really connect it anything else.
All it really does for me is like reinforce what a shitty parent Nick is, where it's like the first time he bothers to give his son any advice, he gets the shit kicked out of him, right, and you're just like, well, I don't know, maybe Pat. I think Pat is kind of a better parent. Sorry, wow, I.
Mean, let's let's find out. So Ben. So, after he's been beaten up, Ben is feeling down and he's also still really missing his mom, and you know, Sarah is around more and more, and he feels very threatened that she's gonna come in and like quote unquote replace his mom. So then he watches a video which reminded me of remember on the John Wick episode we were talking about Deadwife dot mp four. He watches Dead Mom dot MLV.
He does, he really does, and she and it's just like so, I mean, it's like it makes sense in a movie of this era. And then most I mean it's just as vague and Dead Wife dot mp four she's like, John, come on, John, You're like what are you talking about? Like why are you on the beach? What's happening? And then this one, at least it's a little more grounded, but she's like running around the kitchen
being like, mom is gonna buy you? A mocking classic mom behavior and then she's like yeah, it uh, it's it's very I thought it was like sweet. It was like if they're going to dead mom route. I feel like Disney movies usually just elect to uh not reference grief at all. This one does, at least like you would do. Like, even when what Ben's doing sucks in the context of a kid who hasn't been able to properly grief his parent, at least it does make sense.
But it's like that seems really sad, even though the video is kind of funny.
Right, it's it's sad and he's crying.
And Ryan Merryman, he is really good in that scene. Someone saw that and they're like, what what if he was a basketball playing leprechaun. Wow, he's got the range, he's got the.
Okay, So he's watching this video and Pat is observing. Of course she's always watching. Meanwhile, Nick calls Sarah and asks her out to dinner on Saturday night, which she accepts, and Pat overhears Nick talking to Sarah about how he wishes that Ben was able to have more fun. So Pat gets the idea to invite Ben's friends over for a party the following night, and so a bunch of kids from school show up. This is where we get them doing a choreographed dance.
Another scene that passes the back of test. Angie's working the door for some reason, and there's two girls that show up give their full names, and Angie says, get the fuck out of here, and.
They're like, oh my god, this party is so exclusive.
But I love that pass. That was a good one.
It was really fun. So the kids are showing up to party, including Ben's crush, Gwen Ben and Gwen Ben Gwen. Okay, hello, a.
Little bit too twiny for me, but sure too much rhyming, too much. Taylor Laughner married someone named Taylor, and you're like, I'm sure you're very in love, but this should not be legal.
I will not even consider dating anyone that has the first name of any one I'm related to.
I feel like it would be really difficult for me to definitely someone with my own name. But even like James, I sort of like I couldn't do it. It's too confusing. My grandparents' names were Patrick and Patricia. Oh, and they thought it was hysteria.
And pat Were they smart houses?
No, they weren't very smart houses, but they were good people.
Okay, And.
Anyways, sorry I just called my grandparents not smart. Let's move on.
Okay, So we've got Ben and Gwen. And then also the bully Ryan In shows up to the party because Pat invited him so that she could publicly.
Amiliate she wants to kick his ass. She I feel like if this was a Ray Bradberry story, she would have killed him. Yeah.
Absolutely, like to capitate him, like Megan did that to someone who bullied her friend Katie. It's yeah, absolutely, So Pat humiliates the bully and he goes running away. Meanwhile, like you said, we cut to the date that Nick and Sarah are on, we see them kissing, and then.
I was like, maybe it's just the fact that I watched this movie when I was really little, But when they kiss I'm still like yucky. It's also unnecessary for the plot. Yeah, yeah, listeners, please sound off other movies that do this, like a kid's movie that includes a weird amount of insight on the parents' love life that the core audience for these movies couldn't possibly give a shit about. It's also Mary Kate Nashley where you just see the dad on that dating montage, You're like, who cares?
Which one was that?
Was that Bill boil Bird dad? Was Billboard Dad? We're gonna have to return to that well spring at some point, but we've got time.
Mary Kate and Ashley August or something. Okay, So Nick heads home from the date while the party is still happening, so Ben and Angie have to like kick everyone out and clean up the house via Pat's floor absorbers. But oh no, they missed something and Nick comes home and he sees it, so they get in trouble for throwing the party. But Pat is like, no, no, no, it was my fault. I invited everyone to the party, which is true, and so Nick is like, Pat, you gotta get yourself under control.
Yeah, pull it together. Pat. You can't just throw awesome parties with my cool son.
You can't have the house be jumping.
The cows can't just be jumping like that.
So Pat is like absolutely, of course I will simmer down. So then Pat starts like policing the family, what clothes they wear, what they do. She's like, you gotta finish your homework and your baseball selling job before you do anything fun. And then they're like, well this sucks. So they have Sarah come over to see if she can fix this new mode that Pat is in, and Sarah decides to shut the whole system down and give Pat
a rest, but Pat turns herself back on mocking. Meanwhile, Ben is throwing another fit about how his dad is falling in love with Sarah and how he thinks Sarah's gonna replace his mom, and Nick sits him down and he's like, that's not what's happening, and they have like a really tender, nice conversation I thought, But I thought so too.
I liked that scene and I'm just again feeling for this fictional kid. I was like, wow, Nick, it would have been really cool if you had this conversation with Ben four year years ago. Why is it taking the house that eats blood to force you to have this conversation? But yeah, I thought that that was nice. And they're in that scene, Nick is like, well I lost my wife and You're like, damn, that's true. But uh yeah,
I thought that that scene was really sweet. And it's also I think pretty rare in the space of a movie that stars a boy to have a even when it's like very very misguided, to be like as emotionally expressive as Ben is. Sure, yeah, and then also that like a father son conversation about their feelings. I feel like in nineteen ninety nine. That's like, that's pretty solid. It doesn't make Nick a better parent. He's still a
piece of shit parent. And I think he's still really playing fast and loose with bringing someone new into the house before he's talked to his kids about it in a way that's also like fucked up in like kind of disrespectful to Sarah too, because he keeps just being like my children, And I was like, dude, yeah, you're hurting everyone's feelings.
Like especially because this is the person who designed a house that's about to try to kill them.
Ooh ooh. But but you know, Sarah's gonna go full girl boss mode. She has a laser. I forgot that she had a laser, Like, why the hell did she have this laser?
Like a pocket laser, Like it fits in her pocket.
It was pretty great. Anyways, we'll get there at a second, because Pat's about to go rugue.
Yeah, So what happens is Pat, who has turned herself back on, makes this like hologram projection of herself and now she's Kitty Sagall in the flesh and it's amazing. She goes to Ben's room to be like, let's team up to get rid of Sarah. I know you hate her too, and I'm the only mummy your family needs.
I am a mother like no other, and you're just like what, I was so scared of her. I'm so scared of her, but I love her hair collar anyways.
She's got a pretty good fit on.
Yeah.
She then throws Sarah out of the house and barricades all the doors and windows, trapping Nick, Ben and Angie inside because Pat wants to keep them.
In smart house forever.
And then the like hologram starts duplicating itself and Pat is getting scarier and scarier.
God, now there's ten Katie Sagalls in the kitchen. Yeah. Yeah, And it's like, I know that Nick can't be the hero of this, but he's making the most weak excuses as to why they should be allowed to leave. He's like, no, kids have to go to school, Nick, you should be stabbing the house, Like why are you? You are the least proactive parent in the history of parents.
Yeah, I know. And then but then they figure out a way to get Sarah back inside via her pet rat and the newspaper retrieval door, which were things that were set up at the beginning of the movie, and Ben is like, Pat, you're out of control. Stop trying to be something you're not. You can't be our mom because you're not even real. And Pat is like, damn, you're right, she's fine.
I'll miss you. And then yeah, oh my god, this is like very dry. I think it is like coded essentially that like Pat, I mean, she doesn't take her own computer life because she's still there at the end of the movie. They like go out of the way to show you that, like Pat's alive, but I feel like her being alive is almost worse.
Did they learn nothing right?
Right? Like they learned nothing? And also she's probably pretty mad in there. But the way that they illustrate like her going to like it feels like computer Heaven is like they just start playing like Rainstorm Dot MP four and it's it's because Katie Sigal is a good actor. You're sort of like, oh my god, it's just like two lines of dialogue and she's like, you're right, I have to die and you're like, well, no one said that. But then we need the movie to end happy because
it's a d com. So I think the ending of this movie is so bizarre.
Right, So basically Pat shuts herself down, and then Sarah is able to like reboot and maybe reprogram Pat. She said you need something, She can do anything so that Pat isn't so invasive and scary. And then Ben apologizes and he's like, I learned my lesson not to mess with Pat, which true he should not have done, but it's like, Sarah, you should be the one apologizing for the creating.
Sarah Like it's so, I mean, I I love being on women's side, but I'm like, I mean, let women be Sarah is. But the movie has doesn't seem to want to explore that, like she's just so I think it is like vaguely misogynist that she isn't held accountable because I feel like the movie, even though the movie like it is her job is relevant to the plot,
which is very rare in a love interest character. Sometimes we know like what they do, but I feel like it very rarely is actually relevant to what happens in the movie. It's not true here, like her job is super like the movie doesn't happen unless she's doing her job. True, but I feel like the way that like no one is upset with her, that she's built this killer house, and every time they call her over to fix the killer house, she's like, I don't know what's going on? Yeah,
can I hang out? Like this is so unprofessional and
you'd like you need to make the house stop eating them? Uh, she is like, so I feel like the plot ultimately treats her more like a girl friend because it's like they don't really take like, the plot doesn't take into account the fact that she is like hugely at fault here, not at all, and yeah, it to me, the romance between her and the dad is very like, well it's a movie, so of course, but it still feels very wedged in and she is behaving very unprofessionally and like
you can't be dating the person who is living in the house that you're using, Like this family is like I mean speaking of rat Butler, like these are your like test rats that your testing this scary house on and that well that's also I'm just sort of like outside of unprofessionalism the gall of Sarah, because I like, if I were if I had a crush on someone who was essentially my lab rat and the experiment was not going well, I would not be like, let's go
on a date. I would be like, this person's probably pretty upset with me, but thankfully Nick is not. He's not, to quote another Disney Channel original series, he's not a smart guy. Oh that's a Disney Channel series about You're never gonna believe a twelve year old who's real smart. Anyways, but yeah, I mean, we'll we'll talk about that after the break, because that's.
That's what's happening right now. Poo pye, and we're back, bellow bello.
All right, let's let's because we were just starting to have that conversation. Anyways, let's just jump into the Sarah and then the Sarah Nick relationship. I think that, like for your average dcom of this time, in the context of this time, Sarah is a bigger and more impactful character than your average dcom, which is nice because I feel like in all of these, I mean, in most sitcoms, but especially sitcoms and TV movies for kids, parents tend
to be fairly tangential. They're often just like big comedic doofisy kind of characters. We see that in Lizzie McGuire movie. We see that, and even Stevens like this movie does make the parental figures Nick and then later, Sarah like flawed people. I just feel like, yeah, as we were just alluding to Sarah, she's you know, women's rights but also women's wrongs, and Sarah is wrong. It makes so
many bad decisions in this movie. But yes, I wanted to start at the beginning because the way we're introduced to Sarah is so bizarre, the specific There are specifics with this character, but they're all so weird. We're introduced with her with a character we only meet twice who's kind of like misogyny. The guy Basically he's like her coworker, her boss, Like I don't know what their professional relationship is, but he is wearing like clear sunglasses.
He's I think the publicist of this smart house. He's like doing pr well.
He's doing a bad job. They're both doing a bad job. Yeah, but he's just like sexually harassing her casually and he's just like I don't know, like of course, because she's like we learn what her job is right away, and we know that she's in charge of pat but then we also learn she's single and she's kind of a mess. And then she read a book called Smart Women Foolish Choices, and I was like, wow, I'm under attack. Uh huh, And she's like, oh, well, have you heard of this book,
Smart Women, Foolish Choices. It's my autobiography, Yeah, which.
I thought maybe she meant literally, and I was like because at this point you barely know her, and I'm like, is she an author? Like what is her job?
I don't know. I mean, it just felt very like something that we see pretty often that is like rooted in something that's real. But it's like this movie is not equipped to make any sort of effective commentary, so it just sort of like reinforces tropes about like women having careers and having satisfying personal lives, Like.
It's impossible to have both. We have no idea why, but it happens in society, so let's just put it in the movie, right, right.
So that's like I mean, and we won't break down the entire like it's but yeah, it's like the sort of thing where it's like it frames that which is first of all, not prescriptive at all. Plenty of women and non binary people have fu filled relationships and fulfilling careers, but I like, I note that I don't know, like I've definitely struggled with that, but it's but it's always made out in movies like this and with characters like this to be a personal fault versus it's her fault.
She just loves her job too.
Much, right, which is something that you never see with male characters. And we've talked about this a million times. But it's like it's a pretty because I think because it's a kids movie, it's really like flagrant the way that it's presented. And literally we have glasses on her, and then as the movie, as she gets more comfortable
and more flirty, the glasses come off. But basically this whole first scene has just like her publicist question mark, it' sexually harassing her, nagging her when she's like, I don't want to date right now, and he's like.
This is selfish everything on you.
Yeah, it's it's very it's very nasty. And but then the way she's replying, I think is very consistent with boomer rhetoric of like, well, that's just the way things are, that's how I'm treated at work. And so she's she's kind of taking it all in stride and she's like, no, work is much safer for me. And we learn so
that exchange is pretty. It's like so bad. It's kind of campy, but it's just like atrocious because you know, two grown men wrote it, and you're like, well, I guess that this is how you view women with jobs question mark and like the only thing that could make her have a satisfying personal life is the first guy we meet in the movie. Who isn't this creep in glasses? Like there's no new ground being tread here, But I was kind of just surprised at how boldly it was. Yeah,
boldly going interesting star trek code. It going to a misogynist place we've seen a million times.
Yeah, like the tropiest choice is possible basically when character rising this type of like girl bossy character. Yeah, and then the other thing the movie does is well, so it sets up this, you know, it sets her up as being, oh, she's had nothing but like cooky horrible boyfriends, and.
What is going on with these boyfriend descriptions. She's like, I don't like a chicken thief or something. I was like, what the fuck are you talking?
There's a rubber chicken manufacturer. But then there was someone who I think she was describing a serial killer or something.
A lot sounded serially it sounded like she dated this, and I'm like, wow, do you have do the writers of this movie have so little faith in Nick is a character that they have to make him seem like a good alternative to a serial killer?
Right? So yeah, she's just characterized as being like unlucky in love because she has poor judgment, which like relatable sometimes for me at least.
But yeah, I mean it's like there's but it's like also, I think that that's the other thing is like it's always made out that you know, mostly women characters are bad judges of character in this way, like it's very and then but when that dynamic is presented with like men talking about past ex girlfriends, it's always like, well, because she was hysterical or she was great. It's never like I feel like the way it's positioned here is like these men were evil and scary and that's my
fault for dating hum. But if it's reversed, they'd be like, ah, this like this broad I get like she is out of her mind, and it's there's no like personal accountability that which actually makes more sense. But yeah, I feel like it's it's for some reason, Sarah's fault that men are scary. And that's the other thing. It's just like, yeah, men are statistically more scary.
I mean, I don't know what to tell you.
The history books do corroborate this.
Yes, So Sarah's characterization is pulled directly from the tropiest tropes possible, Yeah, and thrown into this like wedged in romantic storyline that is inappropriate for her to be in sure, and then she becomes Mummy's sort.
Of mummy, right. And that's the other thing is like the movie has I think the movie makes the assumption that, of course she wants to be a step parent, Like there's no like because all we know is like what hasn't happened for her, which is a satisfying relationship. It seems like that is something that she wants, which fine, but we don't know anything else about what she like wants out of her life outside of that, And then
it's just sort of like assumed. The like logic of the movie assumes that of course, this woman in her thirties wants to be Ryan Merriman's stepmom, where you're like, I don't know, like I just feel like she's her agency is like pretty undercut there, which sucks because like contrasted with like you have such an interesting setup for a character there where it's like this super genius who has created this terrifying house in this like random suburbia
for some reason, Like I'm far more interested in that side of her, and like who allowed her to do this?
Who is bankrolling this? What has she done in the past, Like, but it's just all undercut for like girlfriend and mommy storylines where you're like, this is a pretty diabolical character, or maybe it's like you could give her like a mister Andrews from Titanic kind of line where it's like she created this with good intentions and now it's gotten out of control and she must suffer for her hubris.
But none of that happens. And because this movie is genuinely very similar to a recent movie Megan, in which Alice and Williams's character is put through a lot of the exact same story beats of like she is not super lucky in love, but also like we learn about this character she's not really interested in relationship and that's fine.
She kind of just wants to fuck great. I get why that's not gonna be in a dcom, but Anyways, you could take a second to specify what does this character want out of her life and have enough interest in her. But she's also like put in a position to suddenly have to take on a maternal role that she's not ready for. And then she also has the super genius creation that she ends up having to destroy in the same way that Sarah sort of kind of almost destroys Pat and you get a far more satisfying
story arc. But I think a lot of that is because it's like we actually see that Alice and Williams character struggle with the question of parenting, and like, is that something she wants to do? Is that something she's comfortable with and not have it just be assumed that's of course what she wants, and that movie isn't weighed down with an unnecessary romantic plot with mister random Kevin Kleiner, Right, Yes, So anyways, I guess that does at least show how
this weirdly stock character. I also let them thinking of like Nicole Kidman and Paddington, Like I don't know, like woman super genius with an evil event, Like I love it. It's like Victor Frankenstein. Shit, it's great, but it's like, the worst thing you can do to a character that like fun and complicated is do the most boring gendered things to them, right, But that's what happened to Sarah unfortunately.
Indeed, and listeners, if you're interested for more discussion on Megan, you can scoot over to our Patreon aka Matrio.
It's so true, but Pat is so pat is like Pat, So Megan could run in those woods. Yeah, get that kid. Let's see if there's anything else with Sarah. Oh oh, this bummed me out, So we'll get to talk to you about Ben. But Ben is basically like projecting his anger at his father onto Sarah to make Sarah feel uncomfortable and not want to be around anymore, which is
shitty behavior. But he's I also like, I feel like I keep coming to his defense because he's like a kid and no one has ever talked to him about his parent dying. Anyways. But there's that scene where Sarah's like, ooh, it's the Ray Bradbury murder room. Let's make it look like Cape Cod. I love cape Cod and you're just like, wow, she's so interesting. But Ben is like coming for her
in this scene. Yeah, and he says, wait, I have this written down where Nick is being very complimentary of Sarah, which is nice that he like, does you know, value her skills? He values what she can do, and he's like, she's a genius. She's really great. And then Ben's like, you know, I hear geniuses are impossible to live with and make everyone around them feel inferior.
And you're like, whoa, holy shit, And he's like, good for you in your big giant brain.
Was like Jesus. But she retorts by undercutting her own intelligence like she does it. She's like, you don't have to worry. I'm not that smart. I was like, I don't know. You made the house that eats people, like kind of never been done before.
It takes some brains.
But and I do. I do feel bad for her in that scene, and I do think that it is Nick's fault more so than Ben's.
Yeah, he does put a lot of people in uncomfortable situations without adequately like having the conversations that need to happen to make sure everyone's on similar pages, make sure people are feeling comfortable with what's happening. He just ignores the need for or all of that open communication.
Right.
It's like yeah, let's all eat peach cobbler together and that.
Yeah. And then later he like anytime he does something, he immediately like and something goes wrong, he immediately deflects the blame off of himself and is just like, so that was weird. You're like, that was your fault which happened, because like, once Ben and Angie leave the room after that really tense discussion, which wasn't was certainly like very cruel to Sarah that he does the thing. He's just like mine children, and I'm like, that was your fault
that that happened. You fucking lose it. Oh. I just cannot stand this man's parenting. He is such a mess. So anyways, there is that the movie kind.
Of reinforces this idea that like children need two parents, you need a mummy and a daddy.
Which is completely consistent with this era of kids media. Like it's it's like pushing back on absolutely nothing, right.
But then I think the movie is cutting Nick a lot of slack and like it because it shows these scenes where it's like, oh my gosh, isn't he such a great parent? He's like having these no conversations with his kids, and it's like well, yeah, but he's not doing nearly enough.
He's doing it all half a decade late. And like I felt like he was similarly deflective when he suddenly realized that Ben has been taking on a lot of parenting ANGI for years, where he's like, hey, I'm realizing that blah blah blah, and it's like no. Earlier in the movie, I saw you demand Ben do a list of chores to help his little sister, which is like, okay, if that is the division of responsibilities at this house, Like okay, maybe, but but if that's the case, but
you can't just like pretend you didn't know that was happening. You were actively making him do that stuff. You can't just be like, oh no, this happening. You're like yeah, I don't know. And it sucks because it's like I feel like, again, the story opportunities are there, but you're totally right, Like Nick is just cut so much slack.
Where I don't mind that. It's like the movie draws your attention to like how challenging it can be to be a single parent to two young kids, Like sure, I have no issue with that, but yeah, the fact but they just like cut him but the fact that they're like and the solution to that is a new mommy. Like, there's no alternative presented. There's no even though he lists off a number of alternatives, which included apparently they can
afford childcare if they needed childcare. But I feel like it's all of those options are presented as inferior to new Mommy Sarah, which is just yeah, boring and shitty. There's also a moment in the score of this movie where, uh, when Nick first meets Sarah. First of all, Nick two horny overall him, He's a horny dad, and I hate that his children are constantly having really strong opinions on how horny he is. I'm just like, we just like should not know this about dad. We just shouldn't call
me old fashioned. But I don't want my seven year old being like, you should definitely fuck that lady. Dad. You're like, no, don't do that. That was a pretty good angie. She's she's little stinker coated big time she is. But anyways, do you have anything else to say about Sarah? I just I just feel like her story possibility is like all the interesting ones, Like I wouldn't have even minded if she turned villain at the end, like like.
Being really defensive of her invention. It's like, no, this is the future, this is how it should be. Something like that totally.
I mean it's like, which would make more sense because I mean, imagine how long it would have taken her to make Pat and then just be like, no, I met a guy who doesn't kill people, and so I'm gonna kill Like, I don't know. I just think there were so many interesting ways for her story to go,
and they chose the most boring route. I like at least that the story had enough respect for her to not like sideline her for the peak of the action, because I sort of forgot like when when Pat like pushes her out of the house, which a part of me was like, m is this just turning the only two women characters against each other? But I'm like no, that also feels consistent with like the creator creature right storylines,
and like I'll give that a pass. And also you don't see that dynamic between two women, like a woman creator and a woman you know also happens in Megan anyways.
Well, and then also like in I Frankenstein, for example, thank You, you have the monster turning against its creator, which is what happens with why it's true She's like, let's kill Sarah.
I love that Pat sort of like, let's kill Sarah, and because when she says that, I'm sort of like, what's kill Sarah? In the same way when Alicia Vaikandor is like, let's kill Oscar Isaac, I'm like almost any other movie, I'd say no, but this one, I think we have to kill Oscar Isaac. Oh, but I thought I sort of was like, oh no, do they like throw her out of the height of the action, But she's like very active and she comes back because she
has a laser and like she is right. I'd like the sort of like the two people who ultimately take Pat down are Sarah and Ben, which makes sense to me. I don't know. I didn't have a problem with it.
So I was paying close attention to that. So somehow Ben is able to send an email to Sarah. You would think that Pat would be monitoring that.
I know, I was like, how did you get do you have a burner? Well?
I think what happened what we're supposed to think is he went into the bathroom where it's been established that he has privacy, Like Pat has no jurisdiction in the bathroom. So he's sitting in the tub with his dog, a Golden Retriever named Mutt.
But I had that Pat was insulting the dog, but then I just found out that the dog's.
Name was in it was actually Mutt. So yeah, so he's sending an email to be like, come here, Sarah, and then so she well before that, she has like sent a message via her rat to Ben. And then it's kind of unclear how this play. Oh, I think it is his idea that she comes in through the mail, like the newspaper.
Yes, or something, his idea. I don't I don't.
Well, he says something like I have a really wild idea if you're willing to go for it, and then she's like, hah yeah, but we don't hear what the idea is, so we just kind of have to assume either way.
I'll even give the movie credit and say it was a joint plan, because I always assumed that Ben's part of the plan was like I will fake appendicitis and then you sneak into the house one way or an.
Oh okay, yeah, So maybe it is her that like knows that she needs to get in through the mail slot. Yeah whatever, but she's in the house. She uses her pocket laser, but then she kind of does nothing else. That's true because Pat shuts herself down. Sarah doesn't do anything to like that's me.
I don't know. I guess I was more referring to the pocket laser moment, which I really love because it's I think it would have sort of chafed against like Ben. It like, it makes sense that Ben's little monologue is the thing that ends up taking Pat out because he has to realize that computer isn't mommy before the end of the movie. But it would have been nice for Sarah to do a little more. But at least you also get I don't know, Pat, she's still learning. She's chaotic,
like I don't know. Yeah, Sarah definitely could have done more, but I just felt, like, you know, she doesn't do nothing, which unfortunately I was pleasantly surprised at.
I mean, the bar is so low.
And it's better than like, at least Nick doesn't have If Nick had a real moment during that scene, I would have lost it. It made sense to me that Ben was mister monologue there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, that's true, but I don't think I have anything left on Sarah.
Let's talk about Pat. I love Pat, So again, we've talked about a number of characters like that. I mean, Pat feels like a combination of a few tropes that we are not tropes, just like characters that are often women but not always that we've talked about in the past. We've already talked about the megan of it, all of an AI Powered. I mean, it really is like impressive.
How much is similar where it's like an AI power invention that was made by a woman to provide companionship and support to a grieving child's It is pretty stunning. It's a little looser in Smart House, obviously because Pat's also doing all these other things. But I feel like
there's like definitely hints of Mega. There's hints of ex Machina, although that was like a more gender dynamic, but also it reminds me a lot of her and how in our her episode, which is now five years old, if you can believe it, unbelievable time, but how we talked about in that episode, how it is so common to give AI that is service based, and like this house is taking care of you, it's protecting you. It's associated with all these kind of traditionally maternal qualities, and they
will always assign a feminine voice to that. There's all sorts of reasons why. It's partially just because I think that they're like because so many of these are designed by people who are like thinking in a mass market patriarchal way of like, well, people are more comfortable asking women to do things for them.
Especially like household labor.
Exactly, or in the case of like GPS, I remember it was like, and people are more comfortable yelling at women too, so if they get lost, they will feel better. And how that is sort of contrasted with more masculine voices are assigned to like less domestic tasks and less labor based things, and it's more like if you're asking
something that like someone should know. I remember there was like a robot that competed on Jeopardy and that was like an AI powered machine and that had a masculine voice because he was smart shit like that, like, and I think that is very present in Pat in a
way that the move seems aware of. And I think that it is kind of interesting that Pat's creator as a woman, and I still like tracks for me fine, because it's not like, you know, it's like you don't have to be a not all women are feminists are like you know, and and I don't know, I just thought it was it is like a really it just felt like she feels like an encapsulation of a lot of stuff we've talked about in the past, and it
seems like the movie is pretty aware of that. I don't think that it delivers on it necessarily, but it's interesting.
Well, Pat's interesting because a lot of what we see that operating system do is household labor type stuff. Like she's prepping meals and she's cleaning the house via the floor absorbers, but she's also keeping the man with the job on task of like here's how to be more
productive of she's doing like wifely duties. Yeah, that right, But then like she's also like doing Ben's bullies homework for I don't know, it's not exclusively household labor stuff, but it is a lot of like the roles that women have been traditionally expected to occupy as far as like overseeing the general welfare of the family and stuff like that, and like you know, maintaining the household. All of that stuff is Pat's responsibility, which is why Ben
wanted the house in the first place. He kind of seems to resent that he had to take on a lot of that responsibility, and he's like, I don't want to do it anymore. I need a house to do this mummy stuff.
Which for me, which is like so at the core of what his character's issue is is like he wants to I don't know, And it is again like based on this false binary of like what a functioning family looks like that this movie really subscribes to of like, well, you need two parents, probably a says man and a says woman for your life to be considered normal and functional, and like Ben is does not want another parent, but he also doesn't want to have to do all of
this stuff at home, and like it all tracks but I like that. I don't know. I guess I'm of two minds about this, although I don't know. Yeah, I'm curious because we've just discussed I Frankenstein literally sorry, Adam Frankenstein has some pat energy about him with like the whole like tortured creature turning into a monster over time narrative. Is I don't know. In some ways, I feel like Pat going nuclear at the end could make it seem like she's hysterical. But I also feel like the movie,
I don't know, did you feel like? I think? I think I feel like it did basically do enough to illustrate that like Pat is not reacting in this way because she is a feminine robot. She's reacting this way because she is receiving too much conflicting information and cannot handle it and is trying to perform the function she was designed to do and literally cannot do it because she is like not passing the Turing test. She like
doesn't understand feelings because she's a computer. And that's the cautionary tale, is like computers can't, you know, be your mom because they are like not capable of empathy. Not that all moms are, but if my mom's listening, she's great.
But but I don't know, Like I feel like the movie did do enough and it is satisfying seeing Pat create as living room cyclone at the end.
I don't know, what did you think of, Like how Pat's emotions are portrayed in the movie.
Yeah, I see what you mean. The possible interpretation of like she gets jealous of the real woman, like this human woman trying to insert herself into this family because Pat wants to be the Mummy. But I feel quite that, which could be read as like, you know, a female character turning on another one for like jealousy reasons. But yeah, Pat only becomes the way she is because because she starts out pretty neutral. She's like, here's a blue strawberry milkshake or whatever.
No one's calling me out for that mistake, all right, let's see what we can do here, you.
Know, and then eating Angie's blood and being like, here's how much body percent fat you have? And it's like why is this a detail we need to have in the movie.
But anyway, also, that's the bite and everyone's like, oh, oh, ok okay, I guess that's the bite, and like, no, that in nineteen ninety nine. That's triple scary.
So scary. Yeah, But aside from the it was just like bad writing choices, Like Pat is seems neutral as neutral as AI can be, but then Ben is like, no, you have to be a nineteen fifties housewife. That's what I need from you. So then Pat is just like okay, and not just like actual nineteen fifties housewife like media's representation of that, so it's like even more skewed and like even more trophy.
So it does feel like there is like some commentary. I just I find it confusing as a I don't know, I mean because in some ways, like yeah, Pat's major glitching to being fed all of this, like post World War two housewife media is commentary on how flawed that media is. I just don't understand if I'm a kid in nineteen ninety nine, why that would be what I
would jump to. It's so weird because it's like Katie sagaalf played and I iconic, like gen X TV mom, Like why wouldn't you just show them footage of married with children? Like why I don't understand why he's like seeking a parent that has no resemblance to the parent that he's lot, Like I don't I guess, I just I will. I think that there's probably an answer to that, Like,
but I just wish that. I think that the like sort of vague, like wishy washy commentary on housewives in media of that era was sort of undercut by the point that you're like, I don't understand why this is what Ben is asking for. I don't understand how he's even seen these shows, like.
Right, he's watching Nick at Night just kidding that doesn't exist in the world of Disney, But I do not mention Nickelodeon around me. Right, You would think that it would It would almost take the life size approach where Lindsay Lohan's trying to bring her mom back from the dead, right, and Ben would like show the video like the home videos like the dead Mom dot mov files to Pat to be like, this is the mom I need you to be. That does not happen in the movie, but that would make more sense.
I think, Yeah, I understand why they don't do that because it'll be fucking terrifying and reminds me of a different early Black Mirror episode, the dominall Gleeson one or he dies and then they and like that. The computer was bad in that one too, just like all of them. But uh yeah, I mean that would have been too
scary for a kids' movie. But it does, like I feel like this even with me, you could maintain the tone of this movie and have Ben consider that or like or just give some reasoning of like why this is the media I'm showing because otherwise it just feels like this is probably just media that the fifty year old writer of this movie grew up with. And so he's like, kids, of course want a mom like Donna read You're like, sir, kids do not know who she is, right.
Although Donna Reid is kind of a legend. She was like one of the first women to produce her own TV show, it's kind of the ultimate irony that she played a very you know, passive character on this show. She was busting her ass to keep on TV. Anyways, Yeah, I was confused at that. I feel like the movie did a little bit of commentary on it and like showed that it's a flawed mentality and that it's kind of like a hollow ethos to like live your life by.
But it just was like it was a little mucky the way that played out.
It didn't say enough about it.
It was just like it was a little confusing.
And then after that, I think is when Pat's like spying on them and she's like, my kids need to have fun. So then she throws the party.
I think it shows her the nineteen fifties video after the party. I'm pretty sure.
Oh wait, let me let me double check of.
No.
Yeah, so the party happens after he shows.
Okay, which also which also doesn't really make sense because it's like, I don't think that those like Stock characters wanted their kids to throw parties. But it's so weird.
I don't know, so that's inconsistent.
The only thing that it really succeeds in is giving Katie sagall and an incredible aesthetic and cost him to get into when she becomes a person. Outside of that, the nineteen fifties housewife mom, I felt like the whatever they were going for there was a little confusing, unless it was trying to demonstrate that that being your operating system would drive someone to want to start a cyclone,
which I'm sure many mothers of that age felt like. Again, not clear, maybe giving the movie a little bit too much credit, But I love that Pat says, I am a mother like no other, and I will not sit back and allow myself to be preempted. I'm like, oof, egot powerful.
Yeah. I think the movie, if it is trying to say something, it doesn't really stick the landing. I'm not quite sure exactly what, if any commentary it's making, which is like a bummer because this subject matter, there's a lot of opportunity to say stuff about gender roles, about technologies, role in society and in a family unit.
What the expectations of a mother are and why that is all like there's a lot. Yeah, and it's like it's weird because I do feel like this movie is not unequipped to tackle those questions. But then you look at who made it and you're like, well, it's three guys, And I'm guessing maybe that's part of the reason why you really don't get very much would.
Be that you would think that LeVar Burton would have I don't know, he was mister reading Rainbow. He should have read a book on his gender roles, a damn book.
Yeah, I think that what the the criticism of this movie Super six Season, I think is like anticipating a lot of terrifying issues that come with an automated house and because it's as I think it's and I think it's interesting that that was I mean, there's a great article in The Ringer for this movie's twentieth anniversarrate by Ben Lindbergh called what Smart House got right and didn't about the future that also clocked their Ray Bradbury reference,
So I was like, wow, two scholars, Okay, no, I'm not actually the mart.
Oh you should be proud of your big giant brain.
I have to go and then you go my children. God, he's such a flop. But I like this article unpacked.
I guess that, like the idea of the smart home became popular around the time Ray Bradberry wrote that story, which was post war so nineteen fifty, so like the housewife thing could have been contextualized better of like this era of American housewife media, and like white American housewife media became popular around the same time that people started speculating about smart houses, So like there's a connection there.
It just is not really made by this movie. But I think it does really well, like does anticipate the like cautionary tale of like giving a house your blood, like giving away all of your data to technology that it has not been tested and is not necessarily have your best interests at heart, Which is again why I think it is like a real waste to make Sarah a mommy girlfriend character, because she is at the front of the pack, like making those decisions of you know,
like she has no ethical issue with having this proprietary technology have all of the data of your body, and it's like, Okay, Sarah, are you planning on selling that anywhere? Like, you know, like there's so many questions that and maybe I mean it's nineteen ninety nine, that might not have been a question that you would think to ask at
that point. Sure, But anyways, I mean, with some of the specific details of the house and potential issues of interacting with AI too much, I think it's cool that it's like it was such a prominent discussion that they felt like it was reasonable to make a dcom about it. That's wild.
I mean, I'm kind of impressed. And I do think that because that message is so clear and dcoms, and like most media for kids, if there is a message or some kind of takeaway, which there often is in children's media, a lesson to be learned, they're gonna really spell it out because they want to make it clear
for the audience. And because there's nothing clearly spelled out about, you know, gender roles and the expectation of women in the expectation of motherhood and things like that, I think the movie just kind of threw that stuff in there. Had no idea what to say about it, and was just like, that's there. It is, IDK.
Yeah, so but I think that again, it's like there's limitations on what you can say that with that in
the purview of a nineteen ninety nine Disney movie. I have a few quotes I wanted to share, and then I have to peece so bad, and also we've recorded longer than the movie, I know, but I wanted to share a quote from an interview with Stu Krieger from that same article in The Ringer, basically explaining why he goes for a soft, optimistic end to this story outside of the fact that it's a Disney movie and they wouldn't have allowed it. So he says, quote, I am
basically an optimistic person. The idea of wanting to have a wreck, conciliation, wanting to have these things ultimately be okay fit the Disney method, but it also fit what was important to me. Almost every episode of The Twilight Zone ends in some kind of horrible technology will kill you. A way to be able to be the counterpoint and the counterbalance to that is not a bad thing, which, now that I hear that like that also feels very in line with a lot of Star Trek ideology of
how technology is. I mean, there's like the kitchen in Star Trek is exactly like the kitchen in the Smart House, and that's presented as like, this is a really cool innovation as long as it's used ethically, which again I don't think this movie really has the space for it, but it does feel like Star Trek is all about, you know, hope for a technologically driven, optimistic future. It's a fucking fantasy, but kind kind of nice. And then I wanted to share a quote from LeVar Burton. This
is also an interview from twenty nineteen. He's being asked, do you think about this movie a lot? That's a weird question, says you know, because I started my directing career at Star Trek, I just automatically embraced science fiction and technology as a part of my background as a director.
I love science fiction and always have. Smart House for me was a terrific exercise because not only was I telling a story for a completely different audience, but part of the idea was to really make that technology accessible and real. The whole idea of pat we're there now right, we are living in a time when technology has advanced to the point where there are devices that are controlling a lot of aspects of our lives. I've got nest,
I've got the ring door bell. We all have so many wireless devices that are connected to the Internet of Things. Were there the flaw in Smart House is the kid was looking for the technology to fulfill a need that only a human being could and the result, as you might predict, was disastrous. So I think that that is, like, if that is like the core mission of this movie, I feel like it's successful.
I agree.
Yeah, So even if this is a successful commentary on technology and Night ninety nine, does it pass the Bechdel test?
It does?
It does?
Between Sarah and Angie, I think a couple of times, and then Sarah and her creation Pat, which I guess we can say is a female character, even though it's an operating.
System genderless icon. Not a CIS man for sure. I yeah, And we didn't really talk about Angie. I feel like Angie is other than Ben being really mean to her. I think that Angie is like treated in a pretty gender neutral way. It's just like little sibling character generally.
Yeah, and she's better at video games than her older brother. Yeah, so that's cool.
Yeah, good for Angie, except of how interested she is in her dad's sex life. That's weird. These we need these kids in therapy. Anyways, it does pass the Vextel test a lot of times, I think, most iconically between Angie turning those girls away at the door. That's fun and it's so funny that they get full names. So it does get to pass. That's true. But that's not the most important metric in the world, is it.
No, because that would be our nipple scale, a scale where we rate the movie based on examining it through an intersectional feminist lens zero to five nipples. I guess I'll give this. I don't know, one and a half. It's not really as far as as far as like gender. There's a lot present about like gender roles and the expectations of women and the expectations of mothers and things
like that. The movie doesn't really know how to handle that in any kind of like thoughtful way, and it mostly just relies on a lot of tropes and if they are trying to if the movie is trying to say something, it's not really sticking the landing. As far as gender Roles Goes. I agree that it is successfully operating as a kind of cautionary tale on AI interfering too much in our human lives. But it just doesn't really know exactly what it's doing with those other things,
I would say. But and then, like with Sarah being written as a rather tropy character, it's a very white movie.
Yeah.
Ben has a friend who is a black kid. We don't learn his name, I don't think.
No, we just see him dance to slam Dunk the Funk, and then he says a few like friend character things, which is frustrating because it's like, this is a rare dcon that has a black director, but there's very little diversity to be seen in front of the camera or behind it otherwise.
True, which I'm sure is as a result of just the pressure of the studio.
Oh it's not LeVar Burton's fault. Yeah, no, no, right, But yeah, it is very of the era in that regard.
Yes, speaking of Ben's friends, Ben's friends, he's telling them about all the things Pat can do, and his friends are like, wow, that's like having the world's most perfect mom who's only there to serve and who never complains. And Ben is like exactly, So it's like.
Okay, well, I guess that's how we view moms fascinating.
So that's awesome. I'll give it one and a half nipples, and it's all going to the strawberry smoothie, which for some reason is blue.
I'm going to give it two and a half. I really I think part of that is nostalgia driven, but I think that I think the Sarah character has done a huge disservice by not exploring the more interesting aspects of her character and just relegating her to this role
that is not even necessary in this movie. I totally agree with you that the there was way more space in this mood, like and the ingredients are there, but it seems like the writers like are just not equipped to turn them into something of like examining like what are the expectations of a mother and why in most cases is that unfair and based in a lot of
historical patriarchy and like all this stuff. Like, there is space in this movie and within the characters of Sarah and Pat to explore that, and I think that the movie definitely elects to go for a technology cautionary tale over an examination of gender roles, but I think it was possible to actually effectively do both, and that each
point would be made stronger by including the other. We know that because there are movies that have done that before and since, and there is space for that here, and it's disappointing that it doesn't happen, but it is, like, I really think it's an awesome movie, especially for a movie of this genre. I like the ideas put forth in Sarah's character. I love Pat, She's an icon, I love her. I want to see a smart house drag
show like oh Wow. And I like the dynamic of like a sort of like an all female reboot of Frankenstein where like you get the creator and the like. And I wish that we had gotten more between Sarah
and Pat and like watch that relationship go sour. If the movie really does want Sarah to turn against Pat, I would love for it to have been for a reason other than my bayfan So, but I think that there are so many interesting ideas put forward in this movie, and it's like it feels like as close to like a technology kind of jump scare story that kids of this generation got, and a lot of it holds up really well and so uh, it's not an intersectional win
by any stretch of the imagination. But I think it's like a really well told story, and I there's not a lot like it out there for kids, that's true. So I'm gonna go two point five and I'm gonna give one to Pat. I'm gonna give a one two Angie. I'm gonna give the last half to Gwen because she didn't get to do anything.
Wow.
Yeah, and there you go. Listeners. That is our smart House episode of the Bechdel Cast. Thank you so much for listening. And if you enjoyed the style of this episode, well there's about one hundred and fifty more where that came from.
It's truth, which is all found on our Matreon, Patreon, dot com slash Bechtel Cast, where we do two episodes every month. Usually is a part of a fun little theme. In July, we're doing sleepover movies and.
We're having a sleepover to mark the occasion. Oh exactly. It's such a blast over there, and yet it's like generally more casual and goofy, and it's.
Fun so fun. We slam dunk the funk over there.
We're gonna be dancing in Unison at our sleepover for sure.
Yeah the house Jump Jump the house is jumping over on the Matreon.
And by house we do of course me in one bedroom apartment. And yeah, you can also find us on social media, which I'm sure Pat's been mining our information over there. Disgusting of her, but I love her. You can find us every on Twitter and Instagram, at bachtel Cast, or grab some merch over at tea public dot com slash the bachtel Cast. Wow, Caitlin, do you want to go out and get some definitely strawberry milkshakes?
Yes, but only if they're blue for some reason.
Oops, I spilled.
Oh don't worry, the floor absorbers will suck it up. Okay, bye bye