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EPISODE 30: WORK IS TERRIFYING!
272 Plays4 years ago
EPISODE 30: WORK IS TERRIFYING!
Work. We all have to do it, whether we like it... or we HATE it! Workplace statistics on happiness and despair are staggeringly terrifying these days. With more "deaths of despair" than ever, what does it mean to be a worker in today's workplace? And jeez Louise... if we hear any more stories about sexual harassment in the workplace? We're gonna LOSE OUR MINDS!
HORROR IN THE MOVIES
MAYHEM and THE BELKO EXPERIMENT (both from 2017) just fit perfectly for this episode. So strap on your strap-ons honey... it's gonna be a wild ride.
WHATCHA BEEN WATCHIN', BITCH?
The boys have been watchin'... and now you're gonna listen... bitch!
HOTTIE OF THE EPISODE
Ya gotta listen to find out!
Recommended
Transcript
Disrupted Conference Call
00:00:05
Speaker
Uh, Mondays, am I right? Okay, are we ready to get on the conference call about planning the upcoming episodes? Yeah, let's get producer Michael on the line. Welcome to the audio conferencing center. Please enter a conference ID followed by pound. Andrew, you did tell him we were calling in, right? Yeah, of course.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello, who joined? Your mother sucks crops in hell. Oh, oh my. That was weird. That's not who's supposed to be here. Hello, I don't think you're on the right conference call. Hey guys, I just joined. I think we seem to be having some issues with the conference line right now. Hi, who joined?
00:00:59
Speaker
Yeah, hi, we don't have a CC here at the moment. Can you just please like mute your line? Thank you No, what I think you have the wrong number Once again, you all don't have your shit together. Look call me back when you're ready. Oh boy. We did it again Oh, well, it's episode 30. Oh
00:01:28
Speaker
Be afraid. Be very afraid. We have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out. Bing, bing, bong, bong, bing, bing, bing. I love China. Hi, I'm Jackie Wanna Boy. I just want them to
00:02:00
Speaker
I joined Donald Trump on the Republican ticket because I believe he has the right leadership and the right vision to make America great again.
00:02:15
Speaker
I will build a great, great wall. I don't like them putting chemicals in the water that turn the frickin' frogs gay. Do you understand that? I turn the frickin' frogs gay. I don't see this crap gay. Frogs frickin' frogs bad. It's not funny. I'm gonna say it real slow for you. Gay.
Economic Disparities Over Time
00:02:37
Speaker
Our senior markets correspondent Julie Hyman back with us now. So Julie, what's the bottom line here? Should the average worker be asking for a raise? Well, at the very least, we should have more information perhaps about what the average worker makes. Right now, we used government data because the companies themselves do not release exactly how much their average worker makes. But the data that we crunch shows that the average gap in pay between
00:03:03
Speaker
a rank and file worker at an S&P 500 company at an S&P 500 CEO is 204 times. In other words, the CEO is making 204 times what the average worker is making. That's up 20% since 2009 and the gap has been widening over the decades. If you look at academic and trade union research, going back to the 1950s, the ratio was 20 to one. By 1980, it was 42 to one and then you saw skyrocketing to 120 to one by 2000. Now again, that
00:03:33
Speaker
204 to one figure. Welcome, everybody. It's episode 30 of Friday, the 13th horror podcast, the podcast where we talk about horror in real life and horror in the movies, all from an LGBTQ perspective.
Workplace Horror Stories and Structural Critique
00:03:46
Speaker
I am Andrew. I am Maddie. And we are here today to talk about work. Yeah.
00:03:53
Speaker
Work. I gotta work. You gotta work. I gotta work. We gotta work. Work it, baby. Work it, honey. You know, that's just another day in capitalism. That's just the way that it is, my friends. Actually, I think we'd have to work in socialism too. I mean, yeah, you do. You do. I mean, for sure. But it's just, you know, the workers own it. We'll talk about that later. Yeah.
00:04:10
Speaker
Okay, so we are here to talk about all the horrors of the workplace. So I thought that we would start today's episode talking a little bit about some general facts around working in the United States. You put together some good stuff here. So the average work week as we know it is 40 hours a week. I would suffice it to say it's probably more like 45. When's the last time you only worked 40 hours in a week?
00:04:34
Speaker
I don't know. I had one job here in Chicago when I first started. I won't name any names, but they had kind of a racket that we would work 10 hour days, but we got every other Friday off. Oh, go fuck yourself. And I'm like, Ooh, every other Friday off. But then I'm like, Hey, wait a minute. That just means we're working 150 hour a week and 140 hour a week. Exactly. Right.
00:04:55
Speaker
Anyway, so, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage for workers in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2019 was $936 per week or $48,672 per year. Can we just talk about that number for a second? Well, hold on. I just want to preface that with that is pre-tax, pre-tax.
00:05:17
Speaker
So after tax, that's like probably what, 32,000 maybe I would say. Do you know what like the turning point number is in people's lives? Like the wage where things change for you? Was it like 70? 75,000. That is so far below. And like think about living in Chicago. And is that per person or per couple? Per person.
00:05:39
Speaker
I mean, well, I guess I should say like, if you live in a, if you live in like an urban or even like a semi urban area. So like, I guess if like you're in the country, don't entirely know if that's the same. I think that's kind of, I think you get what I'm trying to say though. It's funny when I go back home, just like the price of like a beer. Sure. It's like, so let's say here, go to happy hour. Your Miller light is going to be what? Five bucks.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, like four or five bucks would be a good happy hour price at home. You could probably get a I remember there is a bar in Grand Rapids, Michigan called Bob's Bar. Shout out Bob's Bar. Hey, Bob. You can get a 32 ounce Miller light at any time for two dollars and twenty five. So why don't we go live there right now?
00:06:18
Speaker
I don't know. I ask myself that a lot. You know what? Well, we can't. But what else do you have here in statistics? Yeah. So I think we're just talking about an average, like the average work week, the average pay. And then I think that you had some statistics around like what it's like for the average worker in America.
00:06:37
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know, the thing about, about working and America and how we do it, you know, Americans are sort of known around the world for how hard we work and how much we work, how little time we take off, um, how few benefits we actually get from our, from our employers. And I would say, especially in the Midwest and on the East coast, without a doubt. Yeah.
00:06:59
Speaker
And especially in Chicago, where Andrew and I have lived for many, many years. And this is a hard working city. It's a hard working city, hard playing city, hard drinking city, and that's where Chicago is. And that's why we age so fast. Yeah, but I've been reading a couple of articles in preparation for this episode, and there's a great New York Times article out right now that actually came out just a couple of days ago about despair in the workplace and how people that don't have college degrees
Mental Health and Work
00:07:29
Speaker
suicide rates are rising sharply. And I mean, like, substantially. I didn't actually realize how bad it has gotten. But if you look at statistics from the early 90s, let's say, suicides among white middle-class people, and just to preface this, I'm saying white because the studies that were done were focusing specifically on white people.
00:07:55
Speaker
There are new studies coming out right now, just to let people know, new studies coming out now that are focusing on a more like full-throated look at everybody in America. So look forward to more statistics on that coming soon.
00:08:10
Speaker
But also like the census is coming up, so participate. And seriously, you really need to. But in these studies, it was found that in the early nineties, white adults without a bachelor's were committing suicide at about five per 1000 people. So five per capita basically fairly low, fairly low over the next three decades until, you know, basically last year that has risen sharply to 147 per 1000.
00:08:37
Speaker
And there's this amazing graph that the New York Times has that's sort of like interactive and you just kind of scroll through it. And like blue and green is like very low on the suicide range and then red and yellow is like very high. And you see the numbers just jump, just pop up so quickly. And so there's these researchers that have been looking at the correlation, the causation, looking at where is this coming from.
00:09:01
Speaker
And, you know, you also tend to find that it's not just suicide, right? It's suicide combined with alcoholism and combined with drug overdose, which are three types of death. Well, alcoholism is not a type of death, but it could lead to death. It's deaths of despair, we call it. And so, you know, this is rising really sharply and it's not a surprise because as we know, America has like the worst healthcare system in the world.
00:09:26
Speaker
We'll talk about that in another episode. Oh yeah, for sure. And that is an episode we have coming. It's more expensive than any other system in the world, and it fails to keep you healthy more than any other system in the world. It's absolutely insane. So the people who have these problems, who need the help, can't get it. On top of it, they're not finding meaning in their work.
00:09:47
Speaker
And what was interesting too, in looking at this research, is that it's not just about work, right? So when we think about happiness and meaning, the old ways of thinking about who you are in the world are starting to sort of come to an end, right?
00:10:03
Speaker
You know, it used to be like my brothers, for example, they were really proud steelworkers, you know, and like, that's how people like define themselves. Like, yeah, I'm a steelworker. I'm a carpenter. I'm a plumber. I'm a this and whatever. It doesn't really happen anymore. And like, when you ask people who they are now, it's so much less about their work and what they do than about like the sort of like new AG thing about like, well, who am I really into?
00:10:29
Speaker
Spirituality. You know what I mean? Things have really shifted. And so there are other social indicators that are really interesting to look at. So with the same subset of people, the rates of people getting married, which is a social indicator of happiness, like if you're happy with yourself. It's just like when you buy a house or buy a car, go to college.
00:10:46
Speaker
So the rates there sharply diverge. I mean by giant percentage points, like people without a bachelor's degree are not getting married and they are not having kids. It's really kind of, you look at the graphs once and we'll post this article so you can see it. The graphs will almost freak you out that it has diverged over the last three decades in huge ways.
00:11:06
Speaker
I wonder why. I wonder if it's the struggle with money or if people are just not in the same mentality as they were in like, let's say the 1950s or 60s where you just tried to have kids all the time. You know, it reminds me a little bit of, um, we talked about parasite in our last episode and what should have been watching. And if you remember back to parasite,
00:11:27
Speaker
when they're in the gym, when all the stuff has happened. We won't say that, but the stuff has happened. And the dad tells the son, poor people don't make plans. You know what I mean? It's not just getting married, though. It is people going to church. The rates now of people without a bachelor's degree not going to church, as opposed to people with bachelor's going to church, sharply diverge.
00:11:50
Speaker
I can kind of see something for that though. I don't know for per se what percentage of people were Catholic at some point in their life or not, but with all of the stuff coming out about the Catholic Church, I can imagine that people are kind of questioning religion a lot. Oh, without a doubt. I think in terms of this study too though,
00:12:12
Speaker
I go, well, you bring up an interesting point. If you're poor and things aren't going your way, theologically, would you see whatever traditional God that you might have believed in as not responding to your needs? That's something very interesting. I think, though, too, with this, I think part of what they're trying to say is with despair-type diseases, like drugs and alcohol. It's more like isolation-type stuff. Exactly. They don't want to do anything.
00:12:38
Speaker
Exactly, and then another indicator of social happiness would be your level of chronic pain. That also, surprise, sharply diverges. And then when asking people the question, is the following statement true or false, I'm not too happy these days, guess what? The same subset is answering far more true on that question than people who have, once again, bachelor's degrees. It's so interesting to me that people in a study like this, these people,
00:13:07
Speaker
and that we still are voting for people that want to push us down. It's just so interesting to me. Like I said before, I don't have statistics in front of me, but I will kind of say like a majority of probably poor white people probably voted for Trump.
00:13:26
Speaker
And he's not for them. So it's just... Well, I think if you think back to Jim Crow laws, for example, in the South, there's some great thought and philosophy from prominent black philosophers that are like, you know what? It's not necessarily that white people are totally racist in
Oppression and Harassment Dynamics
00:13:47
Speaker
the South. It's that the government understood that the best way to keep black people down was to keep white people poor.
00:13:54
Speaker
and to keep them focusing on something like the Jim Crow laws because it gave them the illusion that they have power. And if you feel like you've got power over something, you feel like you have control over something, even if other parts of your life are crazy, you know what I mean? Speaking of power, we should talk a little bit about sexual harassment in the work plan. God, this is such an uplifting episode. Wait till we get to the personal stories later.
00:14:19
Speaker
Andrew, tell us about it. Because you do have some harrowing shape. Yeah. So the EEOC, which is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, defines workplace sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. So that's the definition that we're working with here. Yeah, sure. So throughout the United States workplace, 79% of sexual harassment victims are women.
00:14:47
Speaker
Wow. Surprise, surprise. And that's just what's reported. Right, exactly. That's like the horrible thing about this. Out of those numbers, and this is kind of what I'm alluding to in my discussion today, 51% of those people were harassed by a supervisor. So once again, there's that power structure that we have in place that people basically say, I'm in power so I can take advantage of you. One of, and I just want to go through a couple of
00:15:16
Speaker
definitions with our listeners about kind of the different classes of harassers. So this comes from the author Martha Langolin. She describes four different classes of harassers. What if her last name was Langoliers? I would like that.
00:15:32
Speaker
Let's call her that. Okay. What was her first name? Martha Langoliers. Martha Langoliers that she was in the story by Stephen King. That's very cool. Go ahead. Have you ever seen that? Um, yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. It's a weird, weird, weird movie. Okay. So we have the predatory harasser, a person who gets sexual thrills from humiliating others. This harasser may become involved in sexual extortion and may frequently harass just to see how targets respond. Those who don't resist may even become targets for rape.
00:16:01
Speaker
How do we always come around to rape so much? You know what? Because humans are fucked up. We are fucked up. OK, so then we have the dominance harasser. This is the most common type who engages in harassing behavior as an ego boost. So these are the kind of people that kind of go around, I would say, smacking somebody's ass or that kind of stuff, just to make themselves feel better. Do you think that that's not necessarily sexual there? Or do you think that that's still sexual?
00:16:29
Speaker
think it's I think it can I think it can be sexual okay does that make sense do you happen to see like does she define that like no like the predatory is definitely like super criminal and like dominance is like like a lot more common
00:16:44
Speaker
I don't have that in front of me. It's interesting. But yeah, and then we have strategic or territorial harassers who seek to maintain privilege in jobs or physical locations. For example, a man's harassment of a female employee in predominantly male occupation. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. Yeah, like they're like, oh, there's a woman here. She shouldn't be here. Yeah, I want to like wag my dick around kind
00:17:08
Speaker
Like kind of like if you were in a meeting and you're like kind of always stepping over a woman in conversation. That happens all the time. I know. And then there's a street harasser. Another type of sexual harassment performed in public places by strangers. Street harassment includes verbal and nonverbal behavior, remarks that are frequently sexual in nature, and comment on physical appearance or person's presence in public. Does this remind you of my
00:17:34
Speaker
Dunkin Donuts story. Totally. It does. Yeah. I mean, and this sort of thing happens to, you know, all of, all of our girlfriends all the time. It happens to our guy friends too. I'm sure a lot of our listeners have experienced this time and time again. It's an awful, awful thing.
00:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, so that leads me into our celebrity story of the week.
Matt Lauer Scandal and Workplace Misconduct
00:17:55
Speaker
Tell us. I'm sure everyone's familiar with this person. He is very common in our households for many, many years. This is following the story of Matt Lauer. He is such a gross pig.
00:18:08
Speaker
But if you think about it, when you when you saw Matt Lauer back in the day in the late 90s or whatever, wholesome, like all American guy down the street. Yeah. So Matt Lauer joined NBC in 1992 when he became the co-anchor of early weekday news on Today in New York. He also substituted for Brian Gumble on The Today Show before being named the co-host in 1997. So rose to popularity by about 1997.
00:18:37
Speaker
Okay, this is where things take a dark turn for Matt Lauer's story. On November 29, 2017, NBC News announced that Lauer's employment would be terminated. This was after an unidentified female NBC employee said that Lauer sexually harassed her at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
00:18:58
Speaker
and the harassment continued when they returned to new york what was that do you remember what that was what do you mean like what do you remember what happened like you remember he locked the door i'll get to that in a little bit but um no basically what happened is he got her in a hotel room
00:19:14
Speaker
they had had consensual sex before, but she reported that consensual sex as very, God, what was the word, as like in service of her job. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, she felt that if she said no, that she, her job would be in jeopardy, basically.
00:19:32
Speaker
which I think that leads to a lot of the things that we are dealing with in this episode is like the kind of the people that absorb their power. Um, this came out later in 2019. Uh, there was a book, uh, called catch and kill lies, spies, and conspiracy to protect per pet predators. Um, we're Ronan Faro cited molt Pharaoh. Sorry.
00:19:55
Speaker
Like, not far-o, like the grain. Far-o the grain. Excited multiple sources that say NBC News was not only aware of Flowers misconduct beforehand, but that Harvey Weinstein used this knowledge to pressure them into killing a story that would have outed his own sexual misconduct.
00:20:12
Speaker
Oh my God, that is so fucking disgusting. So yeah, because Harvey Weinstein, another powerful man in Hollywood, knew that Matt Lauer had committed, and I will say this now, up to 10 people came forward against Matt Lauer and said that he had sexual assault. Harvey Weinstein was able to squash his own predatory
00:20:37
Speaker
ways with somebody else's. That's disgusting. Isn't that insane? You know what though? That is how predators act. It's just like child molesters. They find each other online and in communities and they all protect each other. It's insane. It's what they do. It's the same thing with this. It's exactly what they do. It's disgusting.
00:20:55
Speaker
We should say that in the book that was finally named, the person that committed the rape in Sochi was Brooke Nevels, who worked at NBC at the time.
00:21:10
Speaker
And also that he pretty much like, Oh, here we go. She characterized her encounters and as transactional as, and consented only out of the fear that Lower had control over her career. So this is where things start to unravel because now all these people are coming forward against Matt Lower. And then we learn about his infamous office.
00:21:31
Speaker
Do you know about this office? I remember he like locked the door. That's like the thing that I really remember from this. So here's the quote. His office was in a secluded space. Sometimes we get on air and my mouth just stops working. He's not even drunk, people. He's not. No, I'm drinking a Red Bull. It's just a giant Red Bull. His office was in a secluded space and he had a button under his desk that allowed him to lock his door from the inside without getting up. This was reported in Variety magazine in 2017.
00:22:01
Speaker
This afforded him the assurance of privacy. It allowed him to welcome female employees and initiate inappropriate contact while knowing nobody could walk in on him. This is according to two women who were sexually harassed by her. I guess I just don't understand. I mean, I ask for a standing desk at work and I don't get it.
00:22:19
Speaker
have those. But like he got a button that locks the door. And then upon further research I learned that this is very common in higher up execs at NBC. Really? Mm-hmm. I mean they they must have had some sort of somebody cooked up a reason for that button. Somebody's laziness? Yeah and somebody said they need this button for this reason or maybe it's like a security thing like maybe they they need to like hide in case it was like a shooter. If somebody made something
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah, but the thing about it is, and I'm totally with you on that, but the thing of this is it locks from the inside. And that's just the thing. So people can't get out. What? It makes no sense. Who would agree to do that in an office? Right.
00:23:04
Speaker
Yikes. But Matt Lauer, um, went from basically boy next door. The thing about that too is this. You don't just like cook that up. No. Like that motherfucker. I mean, look, we all have sexual fantasies, right? Everyone has it. You think about him, you do this, you do that, whatever. He was thinking of that fantasy in his head for a long time and something about locking the door got him off. You know it. I know. And that's why he was like, Oh, well now I'll make it happen.
00:23:33
Speaker
And the thing about it is, that really pisses me off, is that when Matt Lauer was fired, you don't think that he got money because he got millions of dollars. Of course he did. Because they paid out his contract. Of course he did. So that's... Of course he did. So Matt Lauer, shame on you. I hope that you never are on TV ever again. You know, I really...
00:23:56
Speaker
We know we've talked about sexual assault really multiple times over the course of our two years on the air We'll talk more about that later but I really just I despise anybody who Engages in anything like it whether it's whether it's with children whether it's with adults. I don't care it's it's the worst thing you can do to somebody because it's it's a
00:24:19
Speaker
It's a crime different than punching somebody punching sticks with you punching me emotion like it goes away Like I don't care about it after a number of days or weeks or years But sexual assault which we've both been sexually assaulted before stays with you forever it never goes away and you you you will think about it whenever you are
00:24:40
Speaker
go to have sex again whenever you meet somebody, whenever, you know, X, Y, or Z. It's the worst thing you can do. And I'm here to tell you right now, there's somebody out there listening that has sexually assaulted somebody, I can guarantee you. And if you did, I'm not telling you to go like turn yourself in or whatever, I am saying you better make restitution one day or it will come back to get you and I can promise you that. I can promise you that, it's the truth. You know that I'm right. There is somebody listening right now who did it.
00:25:08
Speaker
and they have not apologized, they have not made amends, and it's time.
Finding Work Fulfillment
00:25:13
Speaker
It's like the curse that your parents always give you when you're younger. I hope your kids are just as mad as you are. It's the truth, and that is just the thing. What do you find is that people who abuse have been abused before. People who hurt are people that have been hurt, and that doesn't give you the license to do that.
00:25:31
Speaker
It's interesting to think about the workplace that we're talking about here in terms of sexual harassment and in terms of despair and suicide. I wrote down some questions when I was thinking about what to talk about today. One of the things that I mentioned here was, what does it really mean to have work that is meaningful?
00:25:58
Speaker
What does it mean to have work for you that is worthy? What does it mean to look, what does it look like to have a job that fulfills you? I think that's different for everybody. Without a doubt. And I think that, you know, look, not all of us are going to be sexually harassed in the workplace. Not all of us are going to commit suicide, thank God. But like, you know, for everybody, you know, sort of thinking more roundly about this before we talk about our own personal stories here, like what I would encourage everyone to do
00:26:24
Speaker
is really think about, look, no one necessarily likes to work. Unless you're rich, you just don't really have a choice. But what are the things that you can change? What are the things that you can do? The little things. To make the work that you do more meaningful for you, to make the things that you do just a little bit easier on your spirit and on your body.
00:26:44
Speaker
And even if that means getting up from your desk once a day and just taking a walk around the block, the little things that... No, I get you. I think you're right. Because those are the things that really bring me peace at work because I work in a very high stress situation. I work for very high up people. And sometimes those people can just be downright mean. Without a doubt. And sometimes I just have to get up and just take a walk and just clear my head. I get it.
00:27:09
Speaker
Respond irrationally. I think you're absolutely right or you know sometimes it looks like maybe not getting that eighth cup of coffee Yeah, or you know not going out for that cigarette break because you know It's not gonna make you feel better right or you know going home and saying you know what it's ten I'm just gonna go to bed yep You know it's like it's all those little things that we can really do to make ourselves happier And I think it's things that maybe you and I didn't do before no and so we'll learn yeah you had to learn but let's talk a little bit about
00:27:35
Speaker
Well, there's one thing I want to hit on just really quick, wrap up and go into our own personal stuff is that, um, and we've mentioned it before on the show, but in, according to workplace, I just wanted to bring it up again. There is still not a federal law against discrimination against LGBTQ people in the workplace. There are still States in the United States where you can be fired for being gay. And I just wanted to bring that up really quick because I did come across a recent story just happened in February. Did I almost skip one of your stories?
00:28:01
Speaker
No, it's okay. God, I'm sorry, Andrew. I was already bringing it back around. I wasn't trying to discriminate against you in this workplace. No, but there was... I only want to bring this up because it just happened. Yeah, sure, do it. And actually in late February. Really? BYU, so up in... Brigham Young University. It's Utah, right? Up in Utah. And I will say that the school is owned by the Church of Latter-day Saints, so take that for what it's worth. Brigham Young, one of the founders.
00:28:27
Speaker
They finally lifted their ban on homosexual behavior in their honor code. Their honor code used to read, it previously prohibited all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings.
00:28:43
Speaker
So no holding hands. Keep in mind this honor code also did have rules for dating, dress codes, and bans on drugs, alcohol, coffee, and tea. Oh, for sure. I mean, this is not actually that uncommon with schools like this.
00:29:00
Speaker
There's another school in Alabama, I think it is. I can't remember where it is. It's Harding, Harding University. Very similar to that. There's a college out in the suburbs of Illinois, Wheaton College. It's not as strict as this, but they do have an honor code. That's Billy Graham country. There's one in Northwest Indiana called Hiles Anderson. Same kind of shit.
00:29:20
Speaker
So they finally lifted the ban. You can imagine that this was a huge relief for not only students but faculty as well because I guarantee there was faculty that was. All the gay Mormons. In the closet because they wanted employment at Brigham Young. So just a little thing that I wanted to mention just because it just happened. Well I'll say I'm glad that you brought it up because also.
00:29:41
Speaker
the Supreme Court is still deciding right now. Isn't it since October? It's going to come out in October. So the Supreme Court will release its decision on discrimination in the workplace, which is mainly about LGBT people. I gotta tell ya.
00:29:59
Speaker
If you're not worried about it, you should be very worried about it because it's probably not going to be great for us. That's my guess. Um, and it's going to be a bit of a nightmare if it goes the wrong way. And you know, the few protections that we have could be completely rocked by a Supreme court decision. Um, you know, I don't know all the legalities of it right now, but you know, we'll talk more about it when it gets closer, but I'll tell you what, LGBT people should be terrified and our allies should be terrified for us.
00:30:29
Speaker
I don't know where to go from there. Let's talk about our terrifying personal stories. No, we are such downers. No, it's okay. We're gonna bring it back. We're bringing it back up. So Maddie, what was your least favorite job that you had? It doesn't have to be as an adult. It could have been as a teenager. And that's that's really tough.
00:30:49
Speaker
Or your best, I mean, maybe we do best, I don't know. Well, I mean, it's tough because like, um, no, we don't have to name, we don't have to name any of the companies. We can just like say what they, you know, for me, the job that I have now is so good. Yeah. Like I really love my job as you know, I love being there. The work I do is fantastic. You know, we're well taken care of. Can I make more money? Of course I could. Yeah, for sure. Who couldn't? But like, um, you know, my colleagues are awesome. I've got good friends. We, you know, I go on trips. It's a great time.
00:31:19
Speaker
compared to where I was just before that, where I was miserable nearly every day walking in the door. And there was a hallway that I would walk down to get to my office door. And I remember walking down that hallway every day wishing that I could like jump out the window or like jump into the train or something else. Like I said, I wouldn't have to do it again. It was just, it felt like a prison. And you know, we did great work at that job.
00:31:45
Speaker
It was a graduate school. It's where I worked just before this one. Did great work. My direct boss was fantastic. The leadership there was atrocious. I find that that's usually where you're either going to love or hate your job is with leadership. Yeah, it was it was awful. We were made to feel very bad and morale was very low. We were paid nothing. It was just it was a nightmare. Yeah. And you know, my job before that, quite frankly, was also a nightmare.
00:32:12
Speaker
It was my first job in Chicago. I worked for an online university thing. It was rotten. I lasted there for less than a year.
Personal Job Experiences
00:32:22
Speaker
We were on the phone all the time. Success was so hard. Everyone hated their job. I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day at work and we would go on lunch and get drunk at the train station and then go back and get back on the phone. It was just
00:32:37
Speaker
It was terrible I mean we would do these things called power hours where we had to like just dial the phone over and over and over and over and over again And if you got up to use the bathroom your supervisor would follow you into the bathroom and watch you I'm not kidding you they would watch you and time you and get you back out there And if you were in the stall
00:32:55
Speaker
They would knock on that stall and they would get you out of that stall. They were fucking lunatics. They were lunatics. And on top of it, we were like a school. I'm doing that in quotes right now. So we were accredited, right? And the accrediting bodies would come and visit. And when they came to visit, there were certain rules about what you can do and what you can't do. So there was all this stuff that we did in that workplace that was completely against the rules, entirely against the rules.
00:33:22
Speaker
And so when those people would come, they would make us like take down all of our stuff and put this away and they would hide things. It was so strange. It was such a piece of garbage. And I was, I was so miserable. I remember I told one of my friends once, like I've, I've thought about killing myself because I, and I had, I absolutely, I absolutely had. So, you know, it's interesting because like that job and then my job after there were so many times that I hated living in Chicago.
00:33:50
Speaker
created it. You remember this. I'm telling these lovely people right now. I hated living here. And then when I got my new job last year, and I've been there for just over a year now,
00:34:00
Speaker
Everything feels so different. Seeing it with a different life. And it's like everything in my life feels different now. I look back on my relationships. I look back on friendships. I look back on like arguments that I've had. I look back on the way I thought about this. And it's like, I, I let my jobs make me so miserable. Yeah. And I gotta tell you, like, that is what we were saying earlier. That's one thing I will never allow to happen in my life again.
00:34:25
Speaker
Yeah, ever because I deserve a good life. I deserve to be happy no matter what it if I'm flipping burgers I don't care what it is. Yeah You need to be able to find happiness and not let it destroy you and I let it destroy me for a bit And that's it So now I'm back again girl. I'm strong again
00:34:41
Speaker
Um, I would have to say my worst job was probably actually the very first job I ever had. Um, I worked at a local grocery store as a bag boy and I had to, I had to sweep the parking lot.
00:34:58
Speaker
Oh my god. Did you just hear that? He bellowed to the sky, people. Who tells a 14 and a half year old, here's a broom and dustpan, sweep the parking lot. Man. I'll tell you what, they were like, hmm.
00:35:15
Speaker
How could I get this kid to go do something and not look at me and get in the broom? The worst job ever. That's terrible. But I've had some great jobs. I actually probably one of my favorite jobs I ever had was in high school. I worked at a local movie theater and I did that too. It was like.
00:35:31
Speaker
It was like a dream job. Yeah, it was great free movies like you get a rush and then you like offer like an hour I stole so much candy at that job too at the end of the night They literally would whatever popcorns left. Oh, you just take I used to take home like like bags that were like as tall as me Yeah, they were full of just give it to the family and I would drink pop all night long And in the movie theater where I was it was called the art theater in Hobart so the old old movie house and
00:36:00
Speaker
Mine was called The Cadillac Five. Yeah, and it's awesome, right? And we used to go on the roof and eat pizza. I would go in the projection booth and watch a movie. Interesting story about The Cadillac Five. It used to be an old stage theater back in the day. Really? So there was actually, in the main theater, you could go backstage. There was a little backstage. And also, Cadillac, Michigan, the downtown used to all be connected underground. No way. And so you could go down and the catacombs under the theater was so strange. That's crazy.
00:36:28
Speaker
Yeah, we used to love it. The guy that owned it was Mr. Prosecci, and he was an asshole. He was this old man who was just so mean to literally everybody. And he would call you a loser, he would say you're an idiot, and none of us cared, you know what I mean? We were like, all right, Mr. P, whatever. You're literally paying me, I think, like three bucks an hour to work out. I think I made $5.15.
00:36:53
Speaker
I mean, there were some paychecks that were, that for me were like $7. Yeah. And I was like, all right. You know what I used to do is it was like kind of my, uh, my thing is that I would get my paycheck on a Friday. It would be like, I don't know, like a hundred bucks maybe. And then I would go to the local Meyer, which if people around here don't know, it's like a grocery slash department store. And I would go to the DVD aisle and I would buy myself a new horror movie every week. So that's how I, I mean, you can look right behind you. There's some of them right there, but
00:37:23
Speaker
Yeah, he wasn't old enough to buy porn at that point. We couldn't go in the back room at the family video. That was one job that I always wanted that I never got. We should talk about that for a second. I always wanted to work at a video store. At a flophouse? Oh no, a video store.
00:37:38
Speaker
at a video store. Yeah, I mean, they're gone now. Now they're gone. I mean, there's no possible way. There's one in Hobart, Indiana. I mean, there's family videos. There's family videos still around, which still just kind of boggles my mind. I don't understand either. We took a trip up to Traverse City, Michigan, and there was just like three family videos there. And you're like, what? And I think that there's like, there might still be like two blockbusters left. I think there's like one in Alaska and one somewhere else. Didn't Stephen Colbert buy it?
00:38:06
Speaker
Maybe. Something like that. I mean, it makes sense. People gotta get something up there to do. They're bored as fuck, probably.
00:38:13
Speaker
But yeah, so that is the workplace working and how work just kind of sucks sometimes. Well, you know, the good thing is, you know, I know sometimes your job can make you a little stressed out, but you have a good job. You know, I've got a good job. I'm very thankful. I really love it. I'm very thankful for the job I have. Yeah. The thing with my job is we've just gone through so many changes in the time that I've been there that it's just tough to like, um,
00:38:40
Speaker
get like get a handle on like where things are going but I'm very thankful for where I work and yeah and shout out to my people who listen to my who listen to the show because I know you're listening hello I hear you we work together I love you but yeah you know I'm lucky to have a job that I love too and I'm lucky to also have this job that we love called Frage the 13th
00:39:01
Speaker
And if you want to help us pay this job, you can go on Patreon. Also, so as we think about our next segment too, we're going to be connecting, of course, as we always do in every episode with two great films.
Media Reviews and Recommendations
00:39:16
Speaker
And these are really just sort of perfect. I mean, one of them, especially with what's going on right now with coronavirus stuff.
00:39:24
Speaker
You'll hear about it. I was watching that and that was totally strange. All right, so we should take a quick break and then we'll be right back with what you've been watching, bitch. What you've been watching, bitch.
00:39:35
Speaker
Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat. Welcome back to everyone's favorite segment. Whatcha been watching, bitch? Whatcha been watching, bitch? Oh, that was good. I liked that. This is the segment where we talk about what we've been watching, bitch. And so, Andrew, I'd like you to tell me, bitch, what you've been watching.
00:40:03
Speaker
Sure. Um, so just finished this up last night, actually. It was the, uh, Dragula season three. I've only watched parts of season one. Oh, uh, I need to get into it. Um, season one is rough. I'm not gonna lie. Season one is like, Hey, here's a challenge. Drink this bottle of real human blood.
00:40:26
Speaker
And if you do it, you win. And that's kind of what it's like. If our listeners don't know what Dragula is, you can catch it on Netflix. Now it used to be an online series. It is now on Netflix. Uh, it is basically, uh, like RuPaul's drag race horror, like horror edition, like golf games. Yeah.
00:40:43
Speaker
It's hosted by the Boulet brothers who are married in real life. It's it's really cool. Um, yeah, I I like the show it's hard for me to like Stan it like really a glove it Yeah, because there's just I mean does does anybody really stand it though? I mean, it's got to have some sort of bass
00:41:01
Speaker
I like it. I don't love it. Season three has been the best so far. Okay. Uh, I just feel like they need to edit their episodes a bit more. Can I just watch season three? You do not have to. Cause I really don't want to cause season one is I'm not going to lie. It's like somebody recorded it on their, like, what do you call that? Like that.
00:41:21
Speaker
High eight. Yeah. I mean, it's not the worst. It's just, it's a lot. Yeah. And it was, it was a good try. There's just not enough challenges in it for me. It's a lot of talking and talking. I get it. Drag queens. We talk on this show, but like, it just goes on a little bit too much. Season three was the best one so far. So I'm hoping season four will be even better. Okay. Cool. All right. What about you? My first one is on Netflix. It is the documentary series pandemic.
00:41:49
Speaker
What better time to watch it than when there's a pandemic right now of the coronavirus? What does it what does it cover? I'm not familiar with it Pandemic is really good. It covers basically just like viruses and how they spread and how dangerous it really is and how really sort of like far behind we are in so many ways and
00:42:09
Speaker
So it's a documentary series, there are a series of episodes. Oh, so it's episodic? Yeah, it's episodic. I'm not gonna lie, it's not like a feel-good kind of thing. It's a little scary. But I think it is good to meet and to learn about the people that are on the front lines of making sure that we stay safe. I think we all kind of forget that, right? It's different than like the military, you know what I mean? But it's sort of like the military.
00:42:38
Speaker
There are these epidemiologists and researchers and scientists that are every day working their asses off to make sure that no matter where you are, you're not going to get hit with this motherfucker. Andrew and I were just talking about the coronavirus before we started recording, and I mentioned to him that my company has an office in Seattle.
00:43:01
Speaker
We have closed our office for two weeks. From what I understand, every tech office in Seattle is closed right now. My friends that live there said it's a fucking ghost town and one of my colleagues lives in the neighborhood where the six people died in Washington.
00:43:16
Speaker
So there's so much going on with this. Everyone is terrified. People are canceling their trips. And on top of that, people are actually dying as well. I think there's 3,000 people dead in China. It's a real thing. It's just crazy. This documentary series will help you make sense of it, I think.
00:43:36
Speaker
I do want to just say like, um, you know, with these kinds of things, I think it's important to take precaution, of course, wash your damn hands, but also don't panic. This is not a panic situation. Like, like, so I've just want to throw that out there. This is a strain of the flu.
00:43:53
Speaker
So it, whatever you're doing to prevent yourself from the flu, keep doing it and stay healthy in other ways. Absolutely. No. All right. So my second one, I'm going to skip this, the second one on my list here, just to come back to it. Cause I think it's a more, more of a talking point. Okay. Um, my second one here is a 47 meters down uncaged. Wow. Have you seen, have you seen this? I didn't see the other one either.
00:44:14
Speaker
Um, so the first one, 47 meters down, um, has Mandy Moore in it. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Are they diving? It's like a vacation kind of thing. Yeah. It's like they're going, they go into a cage, a diving cage, white, white people. Um, I was just okay on the first one. Like I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. Like I was just like kind of in the middle on it. Um, this one, the second one uncaged is about, um, these girls who find their dad is a,
00:44:43
Speaker
Archaeologists of sorts like he does like underwater caves and stuff Yeah, and unbeknownst to him his daughter and a few of their friends daughters, excuse me and a few of their friends go down in those caves and there's a A Alligator no, there's a shark. Okay, but he is oh my gosh, what do you call it bionic where they're just white and
00:45:06
Speaker
oh albino an albino great white shark has been living in these cages for or in these caves for years very hungry this movie's awful it's really bad i mean i'm not gonna lie the the name did not draw me in
00:45:24
Speaker
Yeah, the shark is completely CGI. It looks awful. The acting is bad. I can't not recommend this movie. It's not even a it's bad. It's so bad. It's good. That's not terrible. So terrible. I recommend skipping that one. Gotcha.
00:45:40
Speaker
Some things I don't recommend skipping for my second choice I did a round-up of things because there's so much goodness on HBO sure as always So the things that I am watching right now are the outsider curve your enthusiasm and the new Pope The outsider is the Stephen King adaptation. It is marvelous. It's wonderful. The season finale is actually tomorrow The date of this episode drops
00:46:02
Speaker
I gotta get caught up on that one. It's so good. It's really well done. It's also a little scary, so I highly recommend watching The Outsider. Curb your enthusiasm. If you're a Larry David stan, like I am, and you also sort of think that your life is kind of like Larry David, only with less money, the new season is really great, much better than the last season, which I thought was pretty bad. This is good, and down with Mocha Jo. And finally, the new pope with John Malkovich.
00:46:31
Speaker
Great show, highly stylized, John Malkovich proving once again he should never do an accent because he is by far the worst actor at accents ever. He's so bad. But even that being said, the show is still really good. It's so good. Is this the one with Jude Law? Jude Law was in, the first one was called what, The Young Pope, I think? No, I think they're both with The New Pope. Season one, he was the Pope and now John Malkovich is the Pope. Is Jude Law still in it? Jude Law, so at the end of season one,
00:47:00
Speaker
Don't tell me, never mind. I don't wanna be spoiled. There is no answer that I can get there right now. But yeah, that's my HBO roundup, and I've got one more, but I'll do it after yours. Go ahead. So I actually made it to the theater. This is the first time in 2020 I've been to the movie theater, which I'm really ashamed of. I went and saw The Invisible Man with Elizabeth Moss. We've gotta get better about that. I know. It's bad for people that have a podcast. We've missed a lot of movies. It's pretty bad.
00:47:29
Speaker
I just haven't been that inspired to go to the movies. But how was this one? This looks really good. The Invisible Man was very good. I liked it very much. It's also Elizabeth Moss's face, the movie, because it's constantly close-ups of just her in dread. So it's basically the Handmaid's Tale.
00:47:48
Speaker
but not The Handmaid's Tale. But there are definitely some scenes in this movie where I was taken aghast. Like I was like, oh, oh, oh no. Like it was, um, it's got a great ending. I don't want to say anything about the ending, but it's great. Tell us the ending. Tell us. Um, I would definitely recommend going and seeing this. Um, the only thing I will say is that I think it's a little long for the subject matter. How long was it? It's a little over two hours. Uh, and the first half is a little bit, um,
00:48:14
Speaker
I don't know, it's just, it keeps on- Was she watching? Yeah, it just keeps going. It's a lot of her looking in an empty room being like, is there somebody there? Is there somebody there? Are they invisible? Is there an invisible man? But once things get going, this movie's great. Oh, good. I don't mind a slow burn. I don't necessarily know if I wanna see this film if it's too, I mean, I'm gonna see it, but that run time's a little bit long, I think, but whatever, maybe there's a reason.
00:48:39
Speaker
But yeah, so what's your last one? And then I have one more. My last one is one that we've already heard about before, but I want to mention it because it just came out, babies. And it's Scream Queen, My Nightmare on Elm Street. The documentary all about Mark Patton, the star of A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2, Freddy's Revenge.
00:48:56
Speaker
you'll remember from 2019 that Andrew and I both had the great pleasure of being a part of sort of the release and the rollout of this documentary. We interviewed Mark on our show, we had an event with Mark in Chicago, and we're having an event again with him at the Music Box Theater in April. It's something that we've been really waiting to announce. We're going to talk more about it at the end of the show, but super excited
00:49:21
Speaker
And so stay tuned till the end don't you have to or you know at least at least like skip forward and listen to the end and don't don't miss it But yeah, I mean the documentary if you haven't seen it yet, of course, we both have multiple times It's really good because it's the story not just of something to do with horror but also with an LGBT person and the story of his life that was you know, really rocked by homophobia and discrimination and
00:49:48
Speaker
and and HIV and HIV and like there's there's a story that is being told here that I think is really worthy. It's really resonating with so many people. So look, I would really highly recommend if you haven't seen this yet. I don't know if you can rent it yet. Okay, so you can rent it on Amazon. But honestly, just just buy it. Like I bought it for I think it was 10 bucks on iTunes. It's probably the same thing. When we saw when we saw it, I cried.
00:50:12
Speaker
Yeah, I totally cried too. It's a powerful film. Mark tells a compelling story. Go see it, support our folks. Roman and Tyler, you did a great job. Mark, of course, you're a star. And also, they're just like great people. They're super nice. Honestly, they truly are. So please support this film as much as you can. So my last one, and it's a horror of a different stroke, I guess. Could you not say stroke around me right now? Thank you. I had the privilege of seeing 1917.
00:50:42
Speaker
Did you see 1970? So I have not seen it yet, but I gotta tell you, I'm kind of surprised that you saw this before me. I am too. We're like laughing at each other right now. And I, folks, I saw it on his list and I was like, Andrew, Andrew saw that movie. I was like, okay, cool. Yeah. I, I had the, um, pleasure of having a screener. Oh, that's right. You got those screeners right now. Andrew joined the academy. So that's why he gets screeners now.
00:51:07
Speaker
Um, this, let me, let me preface my, uh, review with, I am not much of a war person movie. Like, wait, war person movie, war movie person. Um, it's just not my thing. Uh, usually it's kind of like that in Westerns. I just kind of, it's just not your thing. Um, but I wanted to see this because I, I try to see as many of the award season show or award season movies as possible. So I was like, I have access to this. I'm going to watch it. I don't have to pay for it. So I watch it.
00:51:36
Speaker
Was very pleasantly surprised. Yeah, it's supposed to be fantastic this Story story is fine. Story is fine. It's kind of a little thin but the way that this movie is shot is Astonishing. Yeah, it's supposed to be really cool. It is shot like it is all one take. Oh my god. So it I
00:51:58
Speaker
There's got to be parts where the editor did like have an edit, but they seamlessly put it together to where it doesn't feel like there's an. And the amount of shit that goes down in this movie that they basically never cut away from is insane. And now I understand why it won best cinematography in those categories. I'm a little surprised that he didn't win best director if they were going to give best film to parasite, but that's okay.
00:52:26
Speaker
Ben's then fighting words for people out there. I'm just saying it's a very it's a very good movie I highly recommend people checking it out because I don't think a lot of people did when it first came to the Thea to us the only thing that I care about with horror what no with awards Things is that Tony Collette should have won best actress for her right? We know which you hear me say on Twitter very often. Oh
00:52:49
Speaker
And honestly, every other award thing, and I really do mean this, even for Parasite, even for films that I love, I could give a fuck less about them anymore. I don't really care about who gets the awards in the end. I just like to, what's in pop culture? I just wanna be in on the no, you know what I mean? And have my own personal opinion about it. Yeah, oh no, without a doubt, without a doubt. I'm just glad that we both agree that Tony Collette should have won Best Actress for Hereditary.
00:53:18
Speaker
You know, and I think Florence Pugh should have been nominated for Midsummer, not Little Women. I agree too. I agree too. I'm still very... See, this is why I don't like them anymore, because it's just not worth it. The people that are supposed to get the things for the things that are good don't get the things.
00:53:34
Speaker
And I have every horror fan out there. I'm going to be honest. We should all feel the same way. Parasite got up there. That's fantastic. But if you even ask the other people that aren't us, they're going to be like, that's not a horror film. That's not a horror film drama. Why don't you go fuck yourself, motherfucker?
00:53:51
Speaker
Oh, pisses me off so much. Oh, gosh, we're getting heated already. I can't wait to talk about movies. You know what? It's a nice day out, too. It's sunny right now. God damn. You have no excuse. Jesus. Tony Collette should have won Best Actress. I think that hereditary. Wrap us up with what you've been watching, bitch. What you've been watching, bitch.
00:54:08
Speaker
And I've been very, um, like I look at you when you say that now. So I don't interrupt you. Oh yeah. Andrew, Andrew fucked that up. Sorry. Um, all right. We will take another break and we will come back with our first feature review, the Belko experiment, the Belko experiment.
00:54:33
Speaker
Belco is a non-profit organization that facilitates American companies in South America. All employees, lend me your full attention. Hey, it's Jesus. Your chance of survival increases by following my orders. Your task is simply this. Kill three of your co-workers, or we will kill six others. Hey, all the lines are dead.
00:55:02
Speaker
We need to evacuate the floor. Hey, come on, it's a joke, man. Hey, listen up, everybody. Whoever's doing this, they're having a little fun at our expense. Stage one, commence.
00:55:28
Speaker
His head exploded from the inside. What? When we start working here, the tracer's in the back of our heads. You must not remove the tag from your body. Follow our directives, or we will detonate the explosive. Begin. Welcome back, folks. And we're now on to the horror in movies segment. And our first movie is The Belko Experiment. And Andrew's going to tell us all about it.
00:55:56
Speaker
The Belko Experiment. This is a horror movie released on March 17, 2017. It's so specific. In the grand old USA. I only say that because it came out in 2016. It wasn't released here until 2017. Directed by Greg McLean and written by James Gunn.
00:56:16
Speaker
In a twisted social experiment, 80 Americans are locked in their high-rise corporate office in Bogota, Colombia, and ordered by an unknown voice coming from the company's U-intercom system to participate in a deadly game of kill or be killed. This stars John Gallagher Jr. as Mike Milch, Tony Goldwyn as Barry Norris, Adria Arjona
00:56:40
Speaker
Yeah, maybe Adria Arjona. Arjona as Leandra Flores, John C. McGinley, Melanie Diaz. There's just so many people in this movie. Owen Yeoman, Sean Gunn. There's so many people in this movie and they are all like variations on like small screen actors.
00:56:57
Speaker
Surprised at is that the budget was only five million. Yeah, it actually seems kind of load as especially for this like the Sets the sets and also like I mean like the effects and we could talk more about this But the effects in the film weren't like huge I get it But like there were they were still effects and those are expensive to do I don't know that's surprising. I
00:57:18
Speaker
Oh, and a common theme in our movies today that I don't think maybe you saw starts with The Belko Experiment, which stars Michael Rooker as Bud Melks, who dies a very tragic, skull collapsing death. They between this movie and our next movie, Mayhem, both have been featured on The Walking Dead. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Well, that kind of makes sense, doesn't it?
00:57:44
Speaker
Yeah, I fell off the Walking Dead, but that's well, and these are about the same year or two. Yeah, they're right. I guess that makes sense. OK. All right. So the Belko experiment, Maddie, why don't you tell me your initial thoughts and anything that stood out to you? Yeah. So I mean, I think both of the films today I'm not mad at. The one theme that I would say exists in both of them is they're very male centered.
00:58:08
Speaker
Sure. That is one thing that I wish these films would have avoided, because I think there's more to be said, or more that could have been done if it wasn't like, a bunch of guys could eat very angry and violent. Yeah, I will say, but I think that both movies have a strong female co... Without a doubt they do. Co-host? Co-star. Co-star. No, I don't disagree with you. I just think that's sort of like one of my initial things. Sure.
00:58:35
Speaker
Um, for Belko experiment specifically, um, yeah, I think it's, it's an interesting movie. I think, um, um, it is sort of harrowing to think about like what you would do under the circumstances. And I think that's what the film sort of succeeds at. And the, there, I think the central question is, you know, would you kill somebody or would you not kill somebody? That is the central question of the film.
00:58:59
Speaker
And you have characters in this film who would not kill somebody, and you have, well, kill somebody, you know, without self-defense. And you have characters that very clearly would. And, you know, I think that that actually wouldn't be too far off from the way that it would be in real life. I think that you would also find in a similar situation, which granted is, you know, a little bit wacky and crazy, you would find the same thing. You would find people who would make a decision and be like, look,
00:59:28
Speaker
I can never kill anybody. That's not what I can do ever. And other people who would be like, yeah, you know what to survive? I'm going to kill all of you. And so like that is where I would fall in the earlier one, not the latter. I can't kill somebody. This is no way. Yeah. Um, and I can say that with a reasonable amount of like,
00:59:47
Speaker
assuredness. Sure. I could kill somebody in self-defense, I'm sure, but to kill somebody like in this case, I couldn't do it because it's not really self-defense because after like, what are you actually living for? You know what I mean? Well, it's fair to note that they don't really know the end result of what this experiment is supposed to do. Sure. So I think that people as they kind of go through this experiment, and it would be interesting to see it in different settings with different people and how they would react.
01:00:16
Speaker
I get like from the sociological perspective, like what this movie is trying to achieve, but if you don't know the rules, the game isn't fair. You know what I mean? So I think that this movie does a great job of showing kind of the evolution of the way people think. Because at the beginning, everyone's very level headed like, hey, we don't know what's going on. Let's everybody settle down. Here's a bottle of water. Like let's figure it out.
01:00:46
Speaker
And then when it comes to crunch time and they gotta make some decisions, people gotta make some decisions. And to be totally honest, and this is my fucked up brain, but I think that they do a good job of being like, okay, here's the criteria. People that have kids, you go over here. People that are of an age, you go over here.
01:01:08
Speaker
Because you gotta start somewhere. The problem though is that the people making the decisions are pieces of shit. Oh yeah, totally. Totally. So like, you know, you've got, what's his name? Tony Goldman. So you've got Tony Goldman who seems to be sort of like middling in morality, right? Yeah. But then he puts together this team all of a sudden of like these awful people. Right. And so like, I almost wish that they would have made different decisions in making the film with
01:01:31
Speaker
that. Sure. It would have been more interesting in that initial part if like he would have had, you know, half women, half men. And if they would have been more like middling like him. Yeah. Although I suppose that his character probably did decide at some point, well, I have to have some strong arms if I'm going to survive. Yeah. So, you know, it is what it is. And I think that given his military background and that's kind of part of it, he was in the Marines, something like that. They don't ever say, but they just say that he's been trained.
01:02:00
Speaker
He has special training. What did you think of the film in general? This is only my second time seeing this movie. Upon my initial watch, I wasn't huge on this movie. I had big expectations going into this movie because James Gunn has done some really great stuff in the past.
01:02:21
Speaker
on the second watch i'm a little up on it like a little bit up from my first watch uh just because i think that it does such a good job of telling this story with this amount of characters and giving characters moments where you kind of feel for these i agree with that these minor characters i felt for them when we've only seen them and this movie this movie's an hour and a half and you managed to get i would say
01:02:45
Speaker
30 30 or so story 30 or so characters. Yeah, you know and you get little stories out of each one I felt I felt awful for the security guard. Yeah, the black security guard who gets you know stabbed in the stairwell, right? He's that guy was really trying to do out of anybody in the film. I think he was trying to do like the most
01:03:05
Speaker
you know, stand up things. Yeah. And keeping the keys away. Yeah. And when he got, you know, murdered in the stairwell by, you know, fucking what's his war. I hate that fucking. I also, I hate that actor or no Wendell. I don't like that actor. He's so one note. He's always just like a fucking no, not John C. Riley. No, not John C. Riley. I forget his name. John C. McGinley. Yeah.
01:03:27
Speaker
Cause he was close. He's always so one note. It's really always, you know, it's the same name from Scrubs. He's always an asshole. He's always really loud. And in this movie, he's a pervert. Yeah. I mean, it's like enough. It's another, it's another thing where I get why they cast him. They needed some sort of like middling name, but I wish they would have been somebody like a little bit more nuanced that we could have dug into more because like this like very overt pervert who's just an asshole. Isn't that interesting to watch?
01:03:55
Speaker
Yeah. I guess. But, but that, you know, that being said, I'm being very nit picky. Yeah. No, I totally get it. You know, but that's what we do on our show. I will say, I think that the practical effects are really good in this. Totally. Um, the heads exploding are very good. Yeah. And when they show it like a very up close and like,
01:04:11
Speaker
And you you are truly baffled when it first starts like you hear about the chip thing You know early on when she's like having her interview and everything like so you're like, okay Neat and like when the first head start to explode you think they're being shot from somewhere, right? Yeah, it's like it looks like a sniper type of situation Yeah, I'm like, you know when they start when the head start popping, you know, don't come knocking. Yeah, it is
01:04:34
Speaker
Fucking serious man. Even I was like, oh my god. Wow. I know. That's a lot. Is this your first time watching? It was. Okay. First time for both of these films. Oh, interesting. Oh, I'm just kind of surprised on the mayhem one. Never got to it. I think that of the two movies, this office dynamic seems more real. Oh, without a doubt. I think that this they did a good job of making this feel like an office environment. And also, I think it feels real too, because like,
01:05:04
Speaker
This one is more multifaceted. Yeah. Like it's like a big corporation and there are people that do, you know, paper pushing and there are people that make big decisions and you see them all here. I do love, um, in this movie, all the different dynamics of the different groups that are kind of like hanging out with each other in the different areas.
01:05:22
Speaker
Um, I think that this job comes with a lot of perks and I understand why people would take it. Sure. Put a chip in their head because literally when she is in her interview, she gets salary company, car company, credit card, everything, literally everything.
01:05:41
Speaker
I mean, she works in the middle of fucking nowhere. Right. Um, I did find that a little bit strange. Cause I was going to the movie and I was thinking to myself, what do they actually do? I wish we would have found that out. Well, in the middle of the movie, he kind of says to the, the main, our main character says to his love interest, he's like, why do you think they never like checked in on us or like made sure we were doing our jobs or like, so I think that they don't even really know what
01:06:07
Speaker
they do which is not too far off I think from the experience of a lot of people that their jobs I mean like that level you know I think that there are plenty of people who if you ask them what they do they can't really give you a good answer yeah you know and I think that's that's kind of sad
01:06:22
Speaker
Um, the initial, so the, in the initial set up of the movie, uh, they asked for two heads. They basically say like we killed two people. Um, I thought it was interesting because that when I was looking for our interstitials in the trailer, it says kill three people. Really? Yeah. So I don't know why they did that, but you'll hear that before this. Um, they say killed two people or something will happen. They don't say what will happen, but then it ends up before they say, they say like, there will be consequences.
01:06:51
Speaker
Yeah. So I understand why initially people don't go on a murder spree because I think everyone's kind of like, uh, no. Who do we kill? Do we kill Karen? Karen from accounting or Denise or Tom. Uh, and then it goes from 80 to 76. And then from there they say kill 30 or 60 will die. And that's kind of where the movie takes off. Um, and Tony Goldman and his, um,
01:07:18
Speaker
I don't know if his white guy group go on their killing spree killing gathering spree. Um, I thought that the one, the one character, um, the, the family man guy, the one with the British accent, um,
01:07:34
Speaker
He's an asshole. He was a little perplexing to me because they try to make him like a family guy and they try to make you feel like he is questioning things from time to time. But when it really comes pushed to shove, he always completes it. Like he always does whatever he's going to do. Without a doubt. So that character was a little hard for me to get behind. There's one moment in this movie where I think it's a little bit of a cheat for the movie.
01:07:56
Speaker
Um, it's Danny's death. Um, the new girl, she goes through so much fucking in the elevator. Yes. She goes through so much fucking shit in this movie. She hides. She kills the guy. She goes in the elevator shaft. She goes up in the elevator shaft. She watches somebody get squished in the elevator. She shimmies her way across the elevator shaft. She goes down another elevator just to be shot in the head.
01:08:20
Speaker
Yeah, I do have to admit that didn't make a lot of sense to me. That seemed like a very abrupt ending. It made me physically mad. And while realistic, I guess, fine in this weird fantasy thing, it still was just like, why did you kill her that quickly? It just made me mad. Well, I think it was kind of dumb.
01:08:39
Speaker
And honestly, I thought that that's bad writing. I thought for a moment we were going to get a twist to where she was going to be our main character. Oh, because they kind of fool around with that a little bit. They really follow her individually a lot. And and
Film Critiques and Reviews
01:08:57
Speaker
the other guy. That's really interesting. I didn't know upon my first watch which one was going to be our hero. Yeah, because it kind of like middles with it. So I wish it would have been.
01:09:07
Speaker
her. I know. Um, now that he's a bad guy, he's just that guy. It's also even like this kind of like slightly cute in like that way that you find like the it guys at work. I just, you know what I mean? I just didn't understand. First of all, I didn't know why he wears a tie with a short sleeve shirt. That's one thing you don't understand. Um, and doesn't shave and has, and listen, I'm going to tell you about that right now. You were going to tie with a short sleeve shirt. You need to stop doing that shit.
01:09:33
Speaker
You understand me? I also, I kind of understood the different levels of where people were at in the company, like what they did and kind of like their mid manager. It makes sense to us in corporations where we can see that. Whereas with him, I was like, who are you? You have an office. I felt like he was like in the IT department kind of. Maybe. That's what I felt.
01:09:56
Speaker
I thought the most tragic death and I've alluded to it earlier was when Michael Rooker's character accidentally gets hit with the wrench and oh god yeah and his his head is just like dent I mean like it's like a full-on like crater in his head and he just kind of like
01:10:13
Speaker
is still alive trails off yeah clearly he is dying it's like a chicken with its head cut off you know what i mean that one for me i was like that was tough that was tough i i i guess the only i will say there too is that particular sequence i i get what they were trying to do i think that the one guy maybe freaked out a little too much yeah i think that could have been a little milder
01:10:34
Speaker
Um, I find it interesting at the end of the movie where they basically say whoever has the highest, whoever has a high kill count, but they don't give a time limit to it. So it's just like, everyone's just going to kill everybody. So it just, uh, I mean, yeah.
01:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. What about the very end? What did you think about that? I found the very end very satisfying. Even on the second watch, I forgot what he does. And the fact that he does what he does and sneaks those bombs into all those different people, I thought was really good. But what about when they're showing on that screen?
01:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's like a classic ending. It was kind of like Men in Black. Like Hunger Games type of thing. What's going to happen now? Nothing. This movie's never going to get a sequel. So I kind of didn't need the end, end, end with all the different screens. You know what? Somebody out there did. Yeah. You know somebody out there was like, oh my god.
01:11:33
Speaker
There were many experiments. But I did appreciate that in all the different screens that it was people, all different kinds of people, like there was men, there was women, there were people of color, like, so just show like a little bit of diversity and who is the killer. Fair enough.
01:11:50
Speaker
I agree with you on that I'm trying to think if there was other things that I oh I thought it was funny that he when they so they take the blowtorch that we were trying to get the door off in the in the beginning yes and they're using it on the
01:12:07
Speaker
storage locker that contains all of the weapons. I found it interesting that our main character shot at the gas tank because if he would have missed, wouldn't that have just exploded? I mean, one could reasonably surmise that that would be the case. I found it very harrowing, the elevator death. That one kind of got to me. That was a lot. And the fact that he was kind of like our quote unquote maybe gay guy in the movie. Yeah, absolutely.
01:12:35
Speaker
I mean, I think overall it's a really good film. Yeah, I do too. I wouldn't say... I had fun watching it and the fun that you can possibly have watching this motherfucker.
01:12:45
Speaker
I just really there there were certain characters in this movie that when they died I like like audibly were like oh yeah like like the one woman who works with our main care yeah yeah who has like the older woman like the middle age that was sad and she's just like looking at him like holding her hand and her head explodes and you're like oh man it's just it's just so it's I don't know it's so pointless there's
01:13:09
Speaker
Whereas in our next movie, I have a totally different feel about the movie. I mean, it's so different. This one is so strange to me because there are moments in this movie where I feel very dark and like down. Yeah. And then there's like comedic moments where it's like kind of funny. And I'm just like in Belko. Yeah.
01:13:28
Speaker
Just like certain things that they say like I don't know. There's just like a certain comedy level I mean definitely it may have yeah for sure But I just it's it was hard for me to get a grasp on what kind of movie I was watching So that's kind of my only like big criticism of interesting With a movie like this that you could remake this movie 20 times with 20 different kinds of Scenarios sure it would still be interesting. So I found it very interesting
01:13:57
Speaker
I think, I think it's a worthy watch. I think, you know, like I said, I wish that it maybe not had been, maybe not have been so male centered, but that's just me. And not even like any like woke position or anything. I just think it would have been more interesting if they had been more nuanced in how they did it. I just appreciated that they could tell a story with this many characters in an hour and a half. I agree with that. So
01:14:20
Speaker
Um, out of seven stripes, because that's how we grade things here on Friday, the 13th, because there are seven colors of the rainbow. Um, I am going to give Belco experiment a 4.5. That's exactly what I was going to give it to. Yeah. So four and a half. Yeah.
01:14:39
Speaker
It's better than middle of the road. It's not quite excellent. I mean, do I have a yen to watch this again? Not really, to be honest. But did I enjoy my watch? Yeah, absolutely, for sure. And there's very little criticism
'Mayhem' Film Review
01:14:54
Speaker
that I really have of it, to be honest. No, totally. OK, do you want to end it there, then? Let's end it there. All right, then we'll take a break, and we'll come right back with our second feature, the Shutter-exclusive Mayhem. Get your eye drops ready.
01:15:09
Speaker
Welcome to the home of TARS and SMITE Consulting. TSC is a firm fueled by greed, duplicity, and moral decay. I'm gonna need some scouts. What the hell are you doing? Firing you. I'm not leaving this building until I plead my case. Sure. Good luck with that. What the hell is going on? Say hello to the ID-70 virus.
01:15:38
Speaker
stress hormone levels rise causing inhibitions to drop and basic instincts to rise to the surface. All traces of the virus should be eliminated in approximately eight hours. What are we supposed to do for the next eight hours? Try to remain calm.
01:15:55
Speaker
We're back again for another movie review. Matty, why don't you tell me a little bit about a little movie called Mayhem. Mayhem from 2017 was directed by Joe Lynch. It was written by Matthias Caruso. And it came out in 2017. Here's a little description of the film. When a consultant firm is quarantined after a dangerous virus that makes the infected lose their inhibitions is discovered. A recently framed and fired employee and a wronged client.
01:16:25
Speaker
must battle their way to the executive level before time runs out. This was filmed in Belgrade, Serbia, believe it or not, and it came out in 2017, as I mentioned. It stars some great people, Steven Yoon as Derek Cho, Samara Weeding as Melanie Cross, Steven Brann, Kerry Fox, Dallas Roberts, Mark Frost, Andre Erickson, Nicola Kent,
01:16:46
Speaker
A lot of great people, and some other people, now that I'm looking at the names, I'm seeing are actually very Serbian names, and I never knew that, so now I know. That makes sense. Like, for example, Oja Rustic, Vladar Mirkovic, Brojan Peric, Ana Maria Serda. There's a lot of Slavs in this film. Congratulations. The budget for the film, we don't have that written down.
01:17:12
Speaker
it's probably around it's a shutter exclusive so it couldn't have been too much not not too much yeah i'm assuming that shutter bought this like out of like uh what do you call it when it goes on the circuit but i don't think i don't think that they made it but i think that like the festival circuit kind of thing yeah so yeah it got picked up yes no one no one raindrop
01:17:33
Speaker
That thinks it caused the flood. Yeah. Oh my god, Andrew. You are full of new things today. That was so new from you. Why? It just was. I like it. So what did you think about it? So mayhem. This is your first time watching it. This is my second time watching it. Did you watch it on shutter before? Correct.
01:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, this was back when we very first got shutter when shutter just started doing their exclusives and like their thing, because now they have a ton of these like shutter exclusives, a lot of foreign films with shutter. You know, it's interesting to.
01:18:05
Speaker
If you look at the online sentiment around Shutter exclusives, people really don't like Shutter exclusives for the most part. There's a lot of people that if you look on Twitter, people bitch and moan about Shutter exclusives a lot. And I'm kind of like, Shutter is $5 a month. Stop complaining so hard.
01:18:26
Speaker
Love you shutter. We love you. I actually I really like I really liked this movie It was unlike my sentiment in our last movie. I thought this one was very fun And two very different films. Yeah. Yeah for sure very similar Subject matter subject matter. I mean actually nearly identical except ones a game or ones a virus and
01:18:49
Speaker
I thought it was very interesting when I was thinking about this movie compared to our last movie and thinking about us. Because if you think about it and where we work,
01:19:00
Speaker
The last movie definitely would have been your company and this movie definitely would have been my company. Yeah. Oh my God. Totally. Because you're like in a social media experiment type of thing and I work for a hospital. Oh my God. That's actually, that's, that's, I didn't think about that. That's crazy. This movie to me feels like a video game. It plays out like a video game.
01:19:20
Speaker
I think, I think you're absolutely right. Like there are bosses and there are key cards that you have to get. It's like, it's like Mortal Kombat codes, everything. Yeah, exactly. Um, in saying that though, I think it's fun. Um, I think Samara weaving is going to have a great career. Oh yeah, for sure. Um, I'm kind of surprised that she hasn't ascended quite yet. Yeah. She just had ready or not, which was really good, which you have not seen that you need to see it. Um, but she's had the babysitter, which was, but I love the babysitter, but they're all like,
01:19:49
Speaker
they're just like below blockbuster. You know what I mean? Like she's not quite to the level. And I'm kind of surprised there are other actresses that have her same look and her same capabilities that are much higher up on the Hollywood ladder that I don't think are as good as her. I think that she, that the films that she's in, as you've just sort of expressed, they're like just cult enough that like, you know, normal people don't like them. You know, like, I mean, like,
01:20:17
Speaker
Like the babysitter is really good I think and I remember like I had a date over once and we watched the babysitter and I could tell like He wasn't into it He was not into it and like I get it like you have to have the kind of sensibility for it so that makes sense like you and I can sit through these things and get something different out of it because we are sort of culty about horror films obviously and if you're not you might look at the babysitter and say yeah that's a lot and I mean I'll be honest like you know watching Mayhem I liked it but like there's definitely some times where I'm like
01:20:47
Speaker
Oh, another fight. Yeah. Got it. And like, you know, that's, I mean, that being said, that is the essence of the film. It is going to be a fight over and over and over again. But just to say like, I mean, there are some times where I'm like, can we do something different? No. Yeah. Well, I mean, luckily the film is only 89 minutes, which has been passed. I also love that part of it. I can digest this film and get through it and like go about my day.
01:21:11
Speaker
And I love how everyone plays, uh, you know, we have our kind of two main characters, right? So we have, um, what is it? Derek and Melanie. Yes. Uh, those are kind of the two people that we're rooting for in the movie. And they play it, they play it pretty straight for the most part there. They really do. There are a couple moments. Like I think about the time where he's in the elevator and he's kind of punching himself. Yeah.
01:21:33
Speaker
where that goes a little over the top. But I just love how everyone else around them is so an extreme version of themselves. Like the conniving bitch in the office is actually like the crazy conniving bitch in the office and the H.R. guy, which the H.R. guy in this movie is the guy from who plays like the flamboyant guy on Insatiable, which is on Netflix. Really?
01:21:54
Speaker
So it was very strange for me to see him in this character. That's so weird. Um, but I did like a lot of those lines where he was like, file this under no, or file this under N for no one cares. Totally. I do think I like the IT guy too. Yeah. I think there's a lot of really smart writing in this. Um, and it's a lot more violent than I thought it was going to be. Well, I think what they did was they designed a working class hero.
01:22:21
Speaker
And though he's not really working class, but he started that way, he rose up, he learned how shitty it actually is and what a fraud it all is. And when push came to shove, he decided to fight for the working man. And so that is the sort of archetype that we have here, which I think is smart. A little different from Belko.
01:22:47
Speaker
just because it's not that same sort of setup. Belko is not about class. Belko eschews the class discussion altogether, I would say, because if you think about it, even when they're dividing people out, it's never about, well, if you're low on the totem pole or five months, it's about, do you have kids, are you old? In this case, it really is all about class, who's rich and who's not, and that's who's pulling the strings.
01:23:16
Speaker
I do like the fantasy type of things that they weave in here with the Siren and the Grim Reaper and the Nine and all that stuff. I find that stuff pretty interesting. I think it was interesting too. I like what you said too about bosses. I think that makes a lot of sense. Thinking about this from a video game perspective,
01:23:35
Speaker
You know, what do you, it's the same way, even like with how we work. Like, I mean, like you and I have to like get past the bosses to like get the next level to get the promotion. You have to like do the quest to do the thing. Like it's the same kind of thing here. Um, I, and in this watch, because I've already seen the movie, I watched a lot of the background this time and there's a lot of really funny shit going on in the background. Fucking in the background.
01:24:00
Speaker
I have something to say about that what in the back in the background of his video Yeah, those people are actually having sex in the actual movie. Yeah, they were in a relationship at the time. It's in the trivia No way. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Oh my god
01:24:13
Speaker
While in Serbia I gotta tell you what I gotta tell you what I Never want anyone besides the person that I'm having sex with to see me having sex We're gonna leave it at that. I love the the idea that so they kill off the HR guy Yeah, like because he basically stabs him in the hand and then that
01:24:34
Speaker
tries to go after the girl, but you go into the bitch woman, the higher up woman, thinking that they're going to kill her, but I love that it's her assistant who ends up killing her. Meg, I just love, throughout the entire movie, she just keeps going, Meg!
01:24:54
Speaker
Mag! I know, I know. I think there's a lot of comedy in this and it's balanced very well by the violence that is also in the movie. Yeah, I think, you know, Mayhem is definitely a much more fun movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Funner? More fun? More fun. It's more fun. A more fun movie. Isn't it? God, I am an idiot today.
01:25:15
Speaker
It's much more fun than Belco for sure. It's very fantastical. It's a different kind of experience. I am really surprised at how similar they are in so many ways. And as you were saying earlier, it's interesting to think about mayhem in our current context, thinking about coronavirus. Oh yeah, when they show how the viruses spread through the office. It was my first thought. I was like, oh shit, that's pretty easy. And I'll be honest, it made me really think about
01:25:44
Speaker
motherfuckers coming to work sick. Yeah. And like, I mean, you have I done that before? Yes. Do I do it now? No, I don't. And there are people that come into my office coughing their asses off, sneezing. You can see they're like dripping sweat. I'm like, do you think you're like proving something right now by being here? Right. Because motherfucker, you said across from me, you get my ass sick.
01:26:07
Speaker
coming for you can be a bad day for you motherfucker that was one thing in the movie that i wish that they would have explained a little bit more with the virus yeah i i that is one part it doesn't do well like i don't just doesn't why why was the virus there i don't know like i think it would have been much more interesting if um melanie's or smara weaving's character like brought
01:26:28
Speaker
the virus to like get back at them in case she doesn't because her whole character angle is that she is there to try to save her home. Yeah. And they are foreclosing on her home. And these people can stop it or give them her more time. Exactly. So it would have been interesting. Like that is why she kind of like poisons the water because it shows that the virus is in the water. Yeah. That's like where it starts. But we never get an explanation of where it came from. Exactly. So I found that interesting. And we really we really need that.
01:26:58
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. That was my only kind of like weird thing about this. Yeah. I think for me, my main criticisms are, are fuss, the virus thing. Yeah. Sometimes the fights are just too long, but that's just me. Like I'm not, I kind of, I kind of love that stuff. Like I like it. If it's like, if it's like Kill Bill or whatever, but I think I used to like it a lot more. I don't like it as much. I kind of got a little bit of a Kill Bill vibe from the one fight.
01:27:23
Speaker
Oh yeah, they are sort of like Tarantino style fights, right? They feel that way to me. And I will say I love the music. All the music is like very synthy and like 80s-y. Music is really good. And I really do love, as I've already said, like the guy that started from the bottom, went up to the top, got knocked down to the bottom again and said, you know what? Actually, fuck you.
01:27:45
Speaker
Yeah. Now I'm going to ruin you. And I love the allegory that he literally has to go to the top floor. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I like that. And there was some fun office mechanics. Like I did think like him getting in the elevator and having to have a code. And so we had to get in the elevator and have a reason to go upstairs to see, I forget her name right now, whatever her name was, um, to go up there. He had to radio in and then they had to give him a code. Then he, then he can go up. Like it was, you know, in a,
01:28:12
Speaker
In the age of like key cards all over the place, this thing and that thing, it was it was interesting to watch. Yeah, totally. This one. I mean, we do get some character work, but for the most part, it's four or five people that you're really connecting with. Yeah, for sure. Because there are a lot of people that sit on the board that like don't even have a line. Yeah. There's the woman who is being harassed at the beginning that our main character kind of like, quote unquote, like saves.
01:28:39
Speaker
but then she like never really comes back. Right. Right. Like you almost think like, Oh, is there like a love interest thing there? And then it just like never comes back around to it. So there's, I think there's a couple of missed opportunities in the movie. Um, I did like how, um, at the end when he sits down at the board table and he's like the de facto CEO now. And he's like, I like my job back. It looks at each of the board members and they're like, uh, yeah, sure. I thought that was really funny.
01:29:08
Speaker
One of my I thought one of the funniest parts and it's totally fleeting and you might even miss it If you're not watching it closely, but there's a part where in the background this guy is just running around like running through the office He's going fuck you fuck you fuck you. You're cool I did hear that. I did here. Yeah, which is that that is that is a throwback to I Don't know that's from office space
01:29:31
Speaker
Oh, is it? It's an office space. I didn't even think about that until you said it now. That's actually a really great homage to another office movie. One of the greatest office films of all time. Everyone knows office space, I think.
01:29:47
Speaker
That's really smart. You know what? Hey, good job, Serbian. Good job. You did a great job with that one. Good for you. No, I had a lot of fun in this movie. Will it be a movie I go back to very often? No. Probably not. The eye thing really bugged me. That made me want to itch my eyes the entire movie. Because they're all itching their eyes. It's like when I watch a movie when people are smoking. I'm like, oh my god, stop it. Yeah.
01:30:12
Speaker
Um, but overall I'm pretty high on this one. I think it's pretty fun. I think it's one of the better shutter exclusives. Would you rate it higher than what you did for Belko? No, I think that Belko is a better made movie. I would agree with you. Um, I think that this one's like kind of more, um, I dunno, it's, it's not quite a B movie, but it's not quite an A movie. It's like, it's like a B plus movie. Um, so as far as for rating, I think I'm going to give mayhem a four.
01:30:40
Speaker
Yeah. I think, I think I'll agree with you too on this one. I think because I think, yeah, I think if you're thinking of, I, apparently I think, cause I just said that a thousand times, I think the experiment is like that extra half step step up above. So I think that, that, that makes sense for me. It does. Yeah, I get that. I'm with you on this.
01:31:01
Speaker
And shout out to Meg the Assistant, you're my favorite character. Yeah,
Podcast Anniversary and Community Appreciation
01:31:04
Speaker
Meg! Meg's! All right, I think we will take our final break, and then we'll be right back with our end segment. Don't go away, special announcements coming up, and we will do our hottie of the episode. Hottie. Shante you stay. Shante you stay. Shante you stay. Shante you stay. Shante you stay. Okay, we're here now at the show. It's episode 30. We've done 30 of these.
01:31:28
Speaker
30 because also well we'll talk about that in a moment. Yeah, let's let's do our segment We are going to do hottie of the episode All right, Maddie, why don't you go first oh I'm just saying who I think is hot. Yeah
01:31:53
Speaker
It's literally on the paper in front of y'all as usual is when I remind you we don't even get drunk anymore Literally, we don't do that. Um Exactly that that's what we did. Um, the person that I think is the hottie of this episode is Steven Yoon from Mayhem. It's a good choice. Derek Cho. It's a good choice. He's just sexy Like I'm sorry. It's I think he's sexy. Yeah, that's good. That's a good choice. I
01:32:19
Speaker
That's all I have to say. Go ahead. Who's yours? Mine is Tony Goldwyn, AKA Barry Norris from the Belko experiment. Not a surprise. Like I said earlier, at least I'm consistent. He is so consistent here. Andrew, you always love like the eighties nineties, like heart throb. Like Tony Goldwyn from ghost is definitely who is like in your like spank bank.
01:32:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think he's good looking in this movie and put a guy in a suit. It even helps even more. What I love about me and Andrew, everybody, is our tastes are so different in men. It's hilarious. And honestly, if you think about the people that you're friends with, you get along better with your friends if you have very different taste in men. You just do. It's the fucking truth.
01:33:07
Speaker
That was fun. What a great episode. It was depressing. It was funny. It was crying. It was everything. It was all of it. We hope you experience all of the emotions with us on this, our 30th episode. And our two-year anniversary. Can we just talk about that for a minute? Two years of doing this. This is our 30th. I love that our two-year anniversary is on a very round number. It feels satisfying. It does. It truly does. Trust me, we care about these very tiny things.
01:33:36
Speaker
Two years of doing a podcast that we had no idea what it would really turn into. If you listen to those initial episodes, we said, if we can get to 10, we'd be happy. Yes, we did. Don't listen to those early episodes. That sounds awful. Yeah, so to say, actually don't. Skip to episode six. I think that's when we first started to get it together. We won't spend a bunch of time on this, but it is our two-year anniversary. We're very proud of what we've done. We're very proud of the community that we have helped to build and become a part of.
01:34:05
Speaker
There are many podcasts along the way that have helped us. I do want to say to our fairy pod father, thinking about the way that he gave us advice on how to do audio, Patrick, thinking about
01:34:21
Speaker
other Bo and Legion podcasts and and all the other constituent members of Legion thinking about Vanessa and Darren especially and Paul and court and people who just like had our backs and you know liked our shit even even if they didn't like it right you know like they listened to us and like helped us out um thinking about other gay horror podcasts out there like horror queers
01:34:45
Speaker
and film flamers are are are longly uh wanting to come back uh uh cocktail party massacre cocktail party massacre i mean brock and pickens like you know we've we've met so many friends along the way kim and kett kim and kett you know we've gone to conventions we've met you in person we've we've we've listened to you you've dm'd us we've dm'd you you've donated to our patreon you've
01:35:10
Speaker
Shared our stuff you told people about us and now over 60,000 listeners later, you know, we're cruising on the way to 65,000 right now by the end of this year I can nearly guarantee we will be over six figures and listeners. That's crazy. This is what we've created and we're so proud because once again, it's not just about talking about horror films.
01:35:32
Speaker
It's about bringing to light some issues. Exactly. And we have people that still message us from around the world telling us about how much just simply talking about things and giving them an outlet to listen helps them. And they come out to us and they tell us about this or that or whatever. We are still here for you. You're still here for us. We're going to keep cruising on into year fucking three, which is crazy. And we have some big surprises coming up for you.
01:35:58
Speaker
Yeah, I want to take a moment to recognize our new patrons that we have. We have Glaive Maiden Cosplay. Parker Brennan, who is a aspiring horror movie director, has had some really interesting and fun short films. So check him out. And Will Whaley, who's our newest patron. Thank you, Will Whaley. Will, you owe us a movie to watch. Pick a movie out. Send us your message.
01:36:25
Speaker
We always want to as we will what if we show up at the end of your bed tonight? And are we watching our heads pop up we go send us your movie
01:36:34
Speaker
And then we, we slide back under your bed and wait for you until you wake up and then we grab your ankles and you fall. No, it's not. We're not going to do that. Send us your movie. Uh, as always, we want to shout out to Legion podcasts as we are a member. Um, and then also you guys, we see how many people listen to the show and it does not equate to how many ratings we have. So there's some people out there that OS a rating or review.
01:36:58
Speaker
Yeah, so imagine if at the end of the bed tonight you see your heads pop up and we go, review and rate us on any podcast thing where there's a rating thing. Thank you. And then we slide back under your bed and then we wait till you wake up and we grab your ankles and you fall. But we will do that. No, that we're going to do to you because listen, you lazy little bitch.
01:37:19
Speaker
all you have to do is literally go and tap the fucking stars. That's all you got to do. I will say I'm very impressed that we are up to 234 us. Yeah. We're not, we're not mad about that. And honestly, if you, if you have rated and reviewed us, thank you very much. That's totally cool. Yes.
01:37:35
Speaker
Um, so that leads us to our final piece of very exciting news. Yeah. It's, and this is, this is a pretty big deal, right? So, um, you know, we live in Chicago. We've talked many times about the music box theater, which is creepy company and creepy company. Um, so on April 30th in Chicago, we hope you can all make it up for it. If you live close by, you definitely better be here.
01:37:57
Speaker
Tickets will go on sale soon, but we are going to be part of Halfoween with CreepyCo, who is hosting the event over at the Music Box Theater, two companies that we love so much. I'm wearing a CreepyCo shirt right now, and Music Box, I was just there the other night, I'm going there again on Tuesday. We love these people, two Chicago-based companies, and this is the Music Box's 91st year of existence.
01:38:26
Speaker
And so on April 30th, on the main stage with 700 seats, mind you, we are bringing back Mark Patton and we are going to be screening Scream Queen, My Nightmare on Elm Street. So we are going to be interviewing Mark on the main stage at the music box. We are screening the documentary.
01:38:46
Speaker
Also part of this event we are going to screen a nightmare on Elm Street part 2 Freddy's it is like a deep fucking dive into a nightmare in Elm Street and nightmare on the street part 2 especially Make sure to come out we will be releasing information on tickets of course and they're not going to be expensive Which is really cool. This is a totally affordable
01:39:06
Speaker
be there selling shit and whatnot. Absolutely. We're going to have shit. Mark has some amazing merchandise to sell to that you could, you can only get from him. Um, and he will be meeting people and talking to people and shaking hands and doing autographs and all that shit. Not to mention creepy co is going to have all of their merchandise there. Yeah.
01:39:23
Speaker
which honestly, I'm wearing one of my favorite shirts right now. It's a Halloween 1978 button-up shirt that I wear often. I love this motherfucker. And if you do not know Creepy Company yet, go to creepyco.com and look at their shit. You will love it if you're a horror fan.
01:39:39
Speaker
period. Yeah, we're pretty excited about this. It's our first time really doing a big, big event like this. So I did not think that we would get the opportunity to do this with a little podcast. But here we are. So once again, April 30th, it's going to be about seven o'clock. It's a Thursday night in Chicago. If you've never been to the music box before, it's right on Southport. It's an incredible place, like I said, and it's 91st year of existence. You've got to come see this old movie house.
01:40:08
Speaker
Spend a night with us. They have drinks there. They have food there. They've got awesome snacks Creepy Co is gonna be there doing shit. We're gonna be selling koozies more to be an amazing thing So look out for more information on that coming soon
01:40:21
Speaker
Yes, so that will bring us to the end of episode 30. Maddie, congratulations, high five, 30 episodes. We love our listeners, we love each other, and I'm so happy to be here with you on this journey. And as always, we encourage you to get slayed.
01:41:54
Speaker
you
01:44:11
Speaker
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