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Ep. 25: 'The Housemaid': Freida McFadden & the Psychology of Thrillers
12 Plays3 months ago
In this episode of 'Adaptation: The Book to Movie Podcast,' Nate and Chris discuss Freida McFadden's 'The Housemaid' and its film adaptation directed by Paul Feig, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried.
They discuss what makes psychological thrillers so popular, the history of the genre, and why it's so difficult to discuss this story without spoilers!
UP NEXT: 'The Outsiders' by S. E. Hinton and the film adaptation directed by Francis Ford Coppola
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Hosts: Nate Day
Producer: Nate Day
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Transcript
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Podcast Episode Introduction: The Housemaid
00:00:37
Speaker
Welcome to Adaptation, the Book to Movie podcast.
00:00:40
Speaker
I'm Nate.
00:00:41
Speaker
And I'm Chris.
00:00:43
Speaker
And today we are discussing The Housemaid by Frida McFadden and its film adaptation directed by Paul Feig.
00:00:49
Speaker
But before we dive into that conversation, how are you, Chris?
00:00:53
Speaker
Good, good, good.
00:00:54
Speaker
I've finally been getting back to reading some books that aren't for the podcast, so that's fun.
00:00:59
Speaker
Good.
00:00:59
Speaker
What kind of stuff are you reading?
00:01:01
Speaker
Still Lord of the Rings, I assume?
00:01:03
Speaker
No, I just wanted to get a start on it, you know, leading up to March.
00:01:07
Speaker
Oh, okay.
Chris's Journey with the Flashman Series
00:01:08
Speaker
Well, I kind of gave a teaser of this, I think, a couple episodes ago now.
00:01:12
Speaker
I just finished the fifth book in a series called Flashman.
00:01:18
Speaker
which I don't know if I ever told you about that series.
00:01:21
Speaker
That doesn't sound familiar by name, at least.
00:01:25
Speaker
It's this super long series.
00:01:27
Speaker
I think there are like 25 of them.
00:01:28
Speaker
Most of them are fairly short, and they're very funny.
00:01:32
Speaker
It's like this old English author that wrote them.
00:01:35
Speaker
George, Frasier, McDonald, some combination of those names.
00:01:40
Speaker
The author takes real historical events.
00:01:44
Speaker
This one was the India uprising of the mid 19th century.
00:01:49
Speaker
One of them was Custer's last stand.
00:01:51
Speaker
One of them was the charge of the light brigade.
00:01:53
Speaker
And he, he places this very fictitious, horrendous man, an absolute pig misogynist sleeps with every woman he can find.
00:02:06
Speaker
And the, the whole thing is he's this horrible coward.
00:02:10
Speaker
but he keeps finding himself in these places, in these circumstances, miraculously surviving, usually due to others' efforts.
00:02:19
Speaker
Ah, wow.
00:02:20
Speaker
That's hysterical.
00:02:21
Speaker
That's very funny, actually.
00:02:23
Speaker
They're very funny.
00:02:24
Speaker
They're very problematic because it is from the view of an incredibly racist, misogynistic, you know, member of the British Army in 1850.
00:02:38
Speaker
So quite vulgar, not for young readers.
00:02:41
Speaker
Sure.
00:02:42
Speaker
But from a satirical, witty, historical standpoint, delightful.
00:02:46
Speaker
Just tasty little morsels.
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:49
Speaker
It's airplane for history buffs.
00:02:51
Speaker
Fun.
00:02:52
Speaker
I might like those, actually.
00:02:54
Speaker
It's, they're very humorous.
00:02:55
Speaker
And the first couple, two, three, I mean, I read those probably a decade ago now, are very light reads.
00:03:02
Speaker
This one was pretty lengthy.
00:03:04
Speaker
Number five was, but they're
00:03:06
Speaker
they're pretty quick to get through at least those first couple.
00:03:09
Speaker
Cool.
00:03:11
Speaker
What you been watching?
Review: Knives Out - Wake Up Dead Man
00:03:12
Speaker
I watched a movie that I know you watched too, because we texted about it.
00:03:16
Speaker
Wake Up Dead Man, the latest Knives Out movie.
00:03:20
Speaker
Phenomenal movie.
00:03:21
Speaker
One of my very favorites of the year.
00:03:23
Speaker
Wow.
00:03:24
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High praise.
00:03:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:26
Speaker
I loved that it, well, I loved everything about it, really.
00:03:30
Speaker
I loved that it sort of
00:03:32
Speaker
flipped the franchise on its head.
00:03:34
Speaker
You know, the movie doesn't really follow Benoit Blanc the way past ones have.
00:03:38
Speaker
And I love all the sort of commentary about religion and priesthood, I guess.
00:03:44
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I thought it was just, it was really cool.
00:03:46
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It really took me by surprise when it made me cry.
00:03:48
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So yeah, really high praise for me there.
00:03:53
Speaker
Oh, the phone call scene?
00:03:54
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Yeah, that just ripped my heart out.
00:03:58
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I really think they gave, as a church member, I think they gave a phenomenal synopsis of like, hey, let's be real.
00:04:09
Speaker
These priests are humans also, and some of them definitely act like that guy.
00:04:12
Speaker
And thankfully, some of them act like this guy.
00:04:14
Speaker
Like, yeah, oh my gosh, what a film.
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah, cool movie.
00:04:20
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That's the only one I have really to update people on.
00:04:22
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Holidays are really busy.
00:04:27
Speaker
But it's worth being the only one that you catch up on.
00:04:31
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:04:32
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Oh my, we bought Netflix just for it.
00:04:34
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Easy, no question, investment.
00:04:36
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Happy we did.
00:04:37
Speaker
No regret.
00:04:38
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Yeah, it's a good one.
00:04:40
Speaker
I hope they make 1 billion of them.
00:04:42
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Yep.
00:04:42
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Yeah, I would take one of those a year for the rest of my life.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yes, me too.
Exploring Frida McFadden's The Housemaid
00:04:47
Speaker
But for today, like I said earlier, we are talking about The Housemaid, big book from my understanding.
00:04:53
Speaker
I think it's going to be a big movie.
00:04:54
Speaker
So Chris, why don't you take it away and tell us about the book?
00:04:58
Speaker
Sorry, man.
00:04:59
Speaker
I thought you meant size-wise at first.
00:05:00
Speaker
You meant like public response.
00:05:02
Speaker
Oh, popularity.
00:05:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:04
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Oh, it has been all over.
00:05:07
Speaker
I don't know if you'll recognize this, but like the Book of the Month Club, there's like a
00:05:12
Speaker
I guess essentially the New York Times bestseller list style for Goodreads in particular.
00:05:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:19
Speaker
And often they're much of the same content, but Housemaid has been in front of my face for years.
00:05:27
Speaker
A very long time.
00:05:28
Speaker
Yes.
00:05:28
Speaker
Very, very big in the book world.
00:05:32
Speaker
Right now, when it was published, period, I'm sure the movie only amped that up, right?
00:05:39
Speaker
Sure seems like it.
00:05:40
Speaker
This was your first read, though?
00:05:43
Speaker
Yes, yes.
00:05:44
Speaker
I had not heard of Frieda McFadden before this because it's not...
00:05:48
Speaker
It's not necessarily, it's like a genre I dabble in, not my wheelhouse.
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, totally.
00:05:53
Speaker
So this will be, you and I discussed it briefly yesterday.
00:05:57
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For anyone listening, if you have not yet, maybe pause, go back to Nate's fun lightning episode from last week with his sister.
00:06:06
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Yeah.
00:06:07
Speaker
Katie really said a lot of what there is to say about it.
00:06:11
Speaker
I think because inherently as a psychological thriller, these stories are so based on
00:06:18
Speaker
you know, a particular twist or turn.
00:06:23
Speaker
Is there a more specific term for it?
00:06:24
Speaker
I always just call it the turn, like uppercase T, uppercase T. Oh, not really.
00:06:30
Speaker
I mean, plot twist, I guess.
00:06:33
Speaker
But it's so much more than a plot twist, right?
00:06:36
Speaker
For it to be a psychological thriller, in my mind, the movie or book, story, whatever you're discussing, has like a
00:06:44
Speaker
It's a paradigm shift.
00:06:45
Speaker
It's not just, oh, I didn't see that coming.
00:06:47
Speaker
Right, totally.
00:06:49
Speaker
I saw a few comparisons to, like, you know, the big surprise, like the Knives Out, Glass Onion, Wake Up, Dead Man, like Agatha Christie novels.
00:07:00
Speaker
I would argue those are not to the same degree.
00:07:02
Speaker
No, I totally agree with you.
00:07:04
Speaker
Whodunits are not necessarily psych thrillers.
00:07:07
Speaker
Yes, exactly, exactly.
00:07:09
Speaker
This is so much grander.
00:07:11
Speaker
So because of that, again, exactly as Katie said it, and that's the last time I'll say it today, there's not a lot about the plot that we can discuss without spoiling it, right?
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:21
Speaker
So I have kind of two things, some more info.
00:07:25
Speaker
I was doing this in earlier episodes, got away from it recently.
00:07:27
Speaker
I'll get back to it.
00:07:28
Speaker
Some more info about the author because it's fascinating.
00:07:32
Speaker
And then sort of a little bit because this is like the first proper psychological thriller we've discussed, a little more about that in the realm of books.
00:07:39
Speaker
Great.
00:07:40
Speaker
Okay, so let's dive in.
00:07:41
Speaker
The Housemaid, published in 2022 by Frieda McFadden.
Author Background and Book Release Delays
00:07:46
Speaker
Frieda McFadden, first of all, is a pen name.
00:07:49
Speaker
I did some digging, and obviously the internet is the internet, so there are people who have their guess at who they believe she is.
00:07:59
Speaker
Sure.
00:08:00
Speaker
You know, this is not like the Stephen King books under his pen name or...
00:08:08
Speaker
I want to say Robert Brightback is J.K.
00:08:10
Speaker
Rowling's pen name that she writes some very different material under.
00:08:15
Speaker
But everybody knows, right?
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:18
Speaker
This is like the author has clearly and deliberately gone to some length, including avoiding almost all public appearances.
00:08:28
Speaker
And if she does do them, wearing a wig and fake glasses.
00:08:33
Speaker
Whoa.
00:08:34
Speaker
She wants to be left alone.
00:08:36
Speaker
Good.
00:08:37
Speaker
Good for her.
00:08:37
Speaker
And so for, yes, for the sake of that, I'm not even going to share the speculation that I found online.
00:08:43
Speaker
I think that's valuable to respect.
00:08:46
Speaker
But we do know that she is very much an accomplished medical professional and deliberately keeps these careers separate.
00:08:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:56
Speaker
So the book itself, it won multiple awards for thrillers in particular.
00:09:02
Speaker
Hilariously, what I was seeing, she wrote it in about 2019.
00:09:07
Speaker
but did not release it right away because she thought it would be too dark.
00:09:11
Speaker
This is truly incredible to me because if I counted correctly, this was either her 15th or 16th published novel.
00:09:18
Speaker
Whoa.
00:09:19
Speaker
Listen to these titles.
00:09:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:21
Speaker
The Devil Wears Scrubs, The Devil You Know, Suicide Med, Dead Med, Brain Damage.
00:09:27
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:09:28
Speaker
The ex, the surrogate mother, the wife upstairs, want to know a secret?
00:09:33
Speaker
Oh, that was after it.
00:09:35
Speaker
The housemaid was too dark.
00:09:37
Speaker
Right, right.
00:09:37
Speaker
With book titles like that, this is the one that was too dark.
00:09:41
Speaker
And I've not read any of those.
00:09:42
Speaker
I know she's known for her like medical accuracy.
00:09:45
Speaker
So maybe those are, this is just a different realm entirely.
00:09:49
Speaker
Cause that's very much not what the housemaid was.
Characteristics of Psychological Thrillers
00:09:52
Speaker
I just thought that was hilarious.
00:09:54
Speaker
It is funny.
00:09:55
Speaker
So talking about this one itself, again, quite an accomplished author, I believe from what I saw, and I don't know if this is speculation or she has confirmed it, essentially a medical professional.
00:10:06
Speaker
So she had the personal means to really get her own publishing and writing career off the ground fiscally and then has been such a success.
00:10:15
Speaker
I think it was saying she basically does like clinical work a couple of days a week and then is primarily writing.
00:10:22
Speaker
Wow.
00:10:24
Speaker
If such a breakdown is necessary or even appropriate.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, super cool.
00:10:29
Speaker
Someone out there is hearing this and going, wait, maybe that's why I can't get into the doctor on Tuesday.
00:10:36
Speaker
This is my problem.
00:10:38
Speaker
My neurologist, stop writing.
00:10:42
Speaker
Just kidding.
00:10:43
Speaker
But yes, the book itself, really very little you can discuss without spoiling.
00:10:48
Speaker
And I think this one is so recent and relevant.
00:10:51
Speaker
And I imagine the movie
00:10:53
Speaker
turns on the same point.
00:10:54
Speaker
So I don't want to get close to touching that.
00:10:57
Speaker
Sure.
00:10:58
Speaker
But what we do have is a protagonist.
00:11:00
Speaker
We find all of this out in like the first 20 pages.
00:11:03
Speaker
So this felt like details I'm comfortable sharing.
00:11:06
Speaker
Lives in her car, was recently released from prison.
00:11:10
Speaker
I don't think we're even told how long she was in prison for some time.
00:11:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:15
Speaker
And we open with her interviewing to be a live-in maid for this wealthy family in Long Island.
00:11:21
Speaker
throughout all of her writing, McFadden credits both her medical career for lending accuracy to those aspects that she writes about and growing up in New York City for lending accuracy to the settings where many of her stories take place.
00:11:35
Speaker
Okay, yeah.
00:11:37
Speaker
As far as psychological thrillers go, because as you know, I'm a big fan.
00:11:43
Speaker
Yep.
00:11:44
Speaker
This one felt much more along the lines of like The Secret Window to me.
00:11:48
Speaker
Did you see that with Pirates of the Caribbean boy?
00:11:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:51
Speaker
Johnny, Johnny Depp.
00:11:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:53
Speaker
Johnny Depp.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yes.
00:11:54
Speaker
You know what?
00:11:55
Speaker
I would have gotten there.
00:11:56
Speaker
I think if I had given that more time, that's all right.
00:11:59
Speaker
It's good for a laugh.
00:12:01
Speaker
Um, I felt the exact same way about that movie as I did about, um, this book.
00:12:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:10
Speaker
Probably pushing around 30% or so.
00:12:13
Speaker
I was ready to put it down and tell you we needed to scrap this episode.
00:12:17
Speaker
Oh man.
00:12:17
Speaker
I would have told you no way in hell.
00:12:19
Speaker
I couldn't see where it was going, which is the brilliance of it, right?
00:12:25
Speaker
Not a clue.
00:12:26
Speaker
I was blindsided by this turn.
00:12:28
Speaker
Wow.
00:12:29
Speaker
And really was not enjoying it initially.
00:12:32
Speaker
The characters themselves are really what disagreed with me, and I feel comfortable suggesting I think McFadden would not disagree, and that was, in fact, her entire goal, right?
00:12:44
Speaker
Oh, yeah, totally.
00:12:47
Speaker
Again, really, I think that's all I want to share.
00:12:50
Speaker
So if you're setting out to read it and you're kind of feeling like you're hitting that wall, I encourage you, continue.
00:12:57
Speaker
You are not alone.
00:12:58
Speaker
But I don't want to, I really think people should read or at least see it for themselves.
00:13:02
Speaker
So that's all I'll say about the storyline.
00:13:04
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:06
Speaker
Since it is our first, clearly not going to be our last, but our first true psychological thriller,
00:13:12
Speaker
I wanted to explore that a little since it's such a cool and prevalent genre, especially for us talking about the intersection of books and movies.
History and Appeal of Psychological Thrillers
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:22
Speaker
When do you think the first psychological thriller appears in literature historically?
00:13:28
Speaker
Oh, geez.
00:13:29
Speaker
I mean, you sort of rocked my world with that Gothic Lit mini episode.
00:13:34
Speaker
What did we say the first one was?
00:13:36
Speaker
The Castle of Something in like the year seven or something?
00:13:40
Speaker
Just kidding.
00:13:42
Speaker
So I guess I would assume sometime around there.
00:13:45
Speaker
I think that was like 17th or 18th century.
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:50
Speaker
All right.
00:13:50
Speaker
So even if we give it 17th, four centuries ago, so you are a mere two millennia off.
00:13:58
Speaker
Yes, that's good enough for me.
00:14:00
Speaker
The brief, brief, albeit brief, don't at me in these comments, guys.
00:14:04
Speaker
Research I did cites Euripides' play Medea.
00:14:10
Speaker
Oh.
00:14:10
Speaker
So we're talking the fifth century.
00:14:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:13
Speaker
BC.
00:14:15
Speaker
Damn.
00:14:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:17
Speaker
2,500 years ago.
00:14:19
Speaker
As the, as maybe not the first, but a very early example of these ideas of psychological turmoil, marriage, revenge.
00:14:27
Speaker
Right.
00:14:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:29
Speaker
Just like the Gothic episode you just alluded to, Jane Eyre is considered to be along these lines, these themes of hidden madness and,
00:14:40
Speaker
very unsettling setting that the reader is placed in, right?
00:14:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:46
Speaker
Much, much more contemporary now.
00:14:48
Speaker
Alfred Hitchcock, obviously, really known for this.
00:14:53
Speaker
And that's, I mean, such a bulwark of it, right?
00:14:56
Speaker
Like, I think it's very safe to say, especially with the amount of media we have now, period, in comparison.
00:15:03
Speaker
like the vast majority are correct is far closer to now.
00:15:06
Speaker
But it's incredible to see that people have loved this for literally thousands of years.
00:15:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:13
Speaker
Again, some sightings of Agatha Christie's more psychological, more complex ones, which out of 80 novels, obviously, we'll give her a couple, I suppose.
00:15:24
Speaker
I politely am hesitant on that one.
00:15:28
Speaker
But the key here is this idea of, as we've discussed some,
00:15:34
Speaker
a potentially unreliable narrator, traumatic personal histories, psychological issues with the person telling us the story, right?
00:15:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:45
Speaker
Again, this idea of the entire storyline being focused on the psychology and human motives in comparison to events or actions in particular.
00:15:58
Speaker
And often I actually really enjoyed this because I think it fits well with a lot of the ones that I truly love and would point to right away.
00:16:06
Speaker
These ideas of fairly set parameters and personal rules that then applied make a situation uniquely twisty compared to the reality the rest of us are experiencing.
00:16:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:23
Speaker
And yeah, I just I thought that was so fun to see.
00:16:27
Speaker
Just like what we've talked about, you know, why do we all love whodunnits?
00:16:32
Speaker
This is about murder.
00:16:33
Speaker
We're not all dreaming about committing murder, I hope.
00:16:36
Speaker
Right.
00:16:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:39
Speaker
Why are horror movies fun?
00:16:41
Speaker
Why do people like being scared?
00:16:42
Speaker
That is inherently an emotion you shouldn't enjoy in your day-to-day life.
00:16:48
Speaker
Yeah, million-dollar question.
00:16:52
Speaker
So this idea of what is it about the psychological thrillers?
00:16:57
Speaker
It's this mystery and these in-depth, I mean, any good psychological thriller you intimately know, whether you like them, whether you agree with their philosophies or approach to life at all, you are really learning a lot about a few individuals in an intimate way that many stories do not delve to.
00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah, totally.
00:17:24
Speaker
So that's just a little bit about, again, I'm very certain we will see more psychological thrillers sooner than later.
00:17:31
Speaker
But it seems like an appropriate time to kind of dive into what, how's, how is this particular flavor of sausage being made?
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's
Nate's Movie Review Teaser
00:17:40
Speaker
cool.
00:17:40
Speaker
Thank you for, for including that because I, I was thinking a lot about
00:17:45
Speaker
psych thrillers as I was writing both my notes for this episode and the review for the movie, which is up on our blog, you should for sure check it out.
00:17:54
Speaker
But I was I was kind of having a hard time finding like really good one to one comps for this one because there's sort of additional elements operating.
00:18:04
Speaker
Like you said, I can't talk about much of it without spoiling anything.
00:18:08
Speaker
But I don't think there are many good psych thrillers that are exactly like this one in a lot of ways.
00:18:15
Speaker
Well, they kind of have to be unique, right?
00:18:18
Speaker
Exactly.
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:19
Speaker
Like, oh gosh, now everything's going to be a comparison to Wake Up Dead Man.
00:18:25
Speaker
When he specifically points to the copy of The Hollow Man and says, well, that's essentially a blueprint for this.
00:18:33
Speaker
Here are the four options.
00:18:34
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:18:35
Speaker
You know, that works in a whodunit, this ensemble.
00:18:39
Speaker
You're hearing a lot about these settings.
00:18:41
Speaker
You know, Agatha Christie takes us to Egypt and out in the Eastern Bloc, whatever.
00:18:47
Speaker
A psychological thriller cannot do that.
00:18:49
Speaker
If you get 40% in and you get even a sniff, whether you are a connoisseur of the genre or not,
00:18:56
Speaker
If it starts tasting like something you've already had, you're going to go, oh, I know this one.
00:19:01
Speaker
And you're going to put it down.
00:19:02
Speaker
Yep.
00:19:03
Speaker
100%.
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:04
Speaker
Oh, what a cool genre.
00:19:05
Speaker
What a cool genre.
00:19:05
Speaker
I'm really excited to hear about this movie.
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:08
Speaker
Great.
00:19:08
Speaker
Well, let's take a quick break.
00:19:10
Speaker
And when we come back, we will dive into it.
00:19:13
Speaker
Excellent.
Film Adaptation Insights: The Housemaid
00:19:17
Speaker
Welcome back to adaptation.
00:19:18
Speaker
We are discussing Frieda McFadden's The Housemaid and Paul Feig's film adaptation.
00:19:24
Speaker
For some reason, I don't know if it's the Fs in those names or what, but every time I write it or say it out loud or something, specifically Feig and McFadden, I have to stop and make sure I'm on the right track.
00:19:37
Speaker
I think it turns into Fadden McFadden real quick.
00:19:40
Speaker
No kidding.
00:19:41
Speaker
And that's the guy from Succession, Matthew McFadden.
00:19:45
Speaker
Close enough.
00:19:46
Speaker
Close enough.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, so we did get a movie of this or we're about to actually we're recording this a few days before the movie actually hits theaters.
00:19:54
Speaker
I was fortunate enough to see it at a press screening.
00:19:56
Speaker
So thank you to Lionsgate for that.
00:19:58
Speaker
Super.
00:19:59
Speaker
And in that vein, I'll talk about this more later, but we don't have box office information yet to go over, which is something I usually like to talk about, especially for these modern ones or to examine whether a story is really resonating with people or not.
00:20:13
Speaker
But I'm hoping to cover that opening weekend box office in a follow up.
00:20:17
Speaker
I'm going to do a follow up with my sister who did the first mini episode with us on this.
00:20:22
Speaker
So hoping to cover it there.
00:20:24
Speaker
Excellent.
00:20:25
Speaker
This movie, also called The Housemaid, stars Sydney Sweeney as Millie, the titular housemaid.
00:20:30
Speaker
Amanda Seyfried as Nina, the wealthy employer, and Brendan Sklenar as Andrew, I guess her other employer, the husband of Nina.
00:20:43
Speaker
Hold on, let me pull him up.
00:20:45
Speaker
I don't recognize the name at all.
00:20:46
Speaker
He's relatively new.
00:20:48
Speaker
I think he made his first big splash in that Blake Lively movie.
00:20:53
Speaker
It was a Colleen Hoover adaptation.
00:20:55
Speaker
So he's kind of on the up and up.
00:20:58
Speaker
OK, I can see it.
00:20:59
Speaker
Like I said, directed by Paul Feig, who is mostly known for comedies.
00:21:04
Speaker
He directed Bridesmaids and Spy, I believe, is a movie that you've seen and liked.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:10
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:21:10
Speaker
That movie rocked.
00:21:12
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:12
Speaker
Both of those movies rock.
00:21:14
Speaker
Yes, and Bridesmaids and Bridesmaids.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yeah, one of the best comedies ever made.
00:21:20
Speaker
Like I said, mostly known for comedies, but has dipped into thrillers before.
00:21:24
Speaker
A Simple Favor is a movie that he made a few years ago.
00:21:28
Speaker
And actually earlier this year, the sequel came out on Amazon Prime.
00:21:32
Speaker
I'm spacing the title.
00:21:34
Speaker
I think it's called Another Simple Favor or A Second Simple Favor or something sort of stupid like that.
00:21:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:41
Speaker
Too simple, too favored.
00:21:44
Speaker
Right.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah, like they make like 10 of them like Fast and Furious.
00:21:49
Speaker
The movie was written by a woman named Rebecca Sonnenshine.
00:21:52
Speaker
I don't know if that's a real name.
00:21:53
Speaker
I hope so because it's so cool.
00:21:56
Speaker
She's mostly known for being on the writing staff of TV shows like Vampire Diaries and The Boys.
00:22:02
Speaker
so this is a pretty big break for her and freedom mcfadden was an executive producer i thought this was a good opportunity to talk about sort of the difference between a producer and an executive producer a movie's producers are generally in charge of scraping together the money to get a movie made and they're on set often they're involved in the day-to-day trying to make sure
00:22:24
Speaker
They're sort of there as a representative of the company.
00:22:27
Speaker
So this movie was was made by Lionsgate.
00:22:29
Speaker
So the producers are there to make sure it sort of aligns with everything that Lionsgate wants to do.
00:22:35
Speaker
So they're often kind of butting heads with the creative people like directors and and whatnot because they have opposing ideas.
00:22:43
Speaker
An executive producer, on the other hand, kind of just throws some money at it and is sort of giving it their
00:22:48
Speaker
stamp of approval.
00:22:49
Speaker
So all of that's a long way of saying I think that this would probably get a thumbs up from Freedia McFadden.
Roles in Film Production: Producer vs. Executive Producer
00:22:55
Speaker
I haven't seen anything about her opinion yet.
00:22:58
Speaker
They're still very much in the marketing phase since the movie hasn't even hit theaters yet.
00:23:02
Speaker
But I would be surprised to learn that she didn't like this movie.
00:23:07
Speaker
That's interesting.
00:23:07
Speaker
I've always wondered what that difference is.
00:23:11
Speaker
Yeah, it was actually filmed mostly earlier this year, which is a really quick turnaround time.
00:23:16
Speaker
They need usually a little more than a year to make a movie.
00:23:19
Speaker
So it does show a little bit that it was made earlier this year.
00:23:23
Speaker
It looks sort of hallmarky in a lot of ways.
00:23:26
Speaker
And there's a lot of aspects to the movie that I
00:23:29
Speaker
It sort of looks like they just like pulled the first image off of Google Images or something instead of really taking time to develop.
00:23:36
Speaker
But if you read my review on the blog side of our website, and if you listen to this podcast, I guess, you'll see that that's not so important compared to some things like the plot, the plot twist that you've alluded to and kind of what the story means overall.
00:23:51
Speaker
So
00:23:52
Speaker
I've heard that Lionsgate is very confident in this property and it's tracking pretty well for this weekend, which I'll get to again in a minute.
00:23:58
Speaker
Really kind of interesting how quickly all of this came together and the way it's looking like it's quite possibly going to dominate the next week or two at the box office.
00:24:08
Speaker
It's tracking for about $30 million opening at the box office, which is actually a really strong opening these days for this chunk of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
00:24:17
Speaker
This is often kind of a dead zone because those Thanksgiving movies tend to hold over really well.
00:24:22
Speaker
Wicked pretty much fell flat on its face and is when they opened up some space at the box office.
00:24:28
Speaker
We'll see.
00:24:29
Speaker
It has a lot of strong competition, including Avatar 3, which is usually huge.
00:24:35
Speaker
as well as there's a SpongeBob movie, which will probably be big for families, some awards movies, Marty Supreme, The Testament of Ann Lee, which also stars Amanda Seyfried, Song Sung Blue, is this thing on?
00:24:46
Speaker
There's a lot coming out in the next week or two that could topple this, but there's some sort of signs of cracks in all of those movies.
00:24:54
Speaker
So I think it's possible that the housemaid fares really, really well at the box office.
00:24:59
Speaker
I'm looking forward to making my sister listen to me talk about it.
00:25:04
Speaker
how I performed.
00:25:05
Speaker
Like I said, this movie comes from Lionsgate as well, which is a studio, smaller studio that's been struggling the last couple of years.
00:25:12
Speaker
They've been trying to find someone to buy them, in fact, and no one has really taken the bait.
00:25:17
Speaker
No one's put in any solid bids, really.
00:25:20
Speaker
I share all of this to say that they're really a struggling studio.
00:25:23
Speaker
It's kind of cool to see this movie be really strong.
00:25:27
Speaker
And like I said, have this sort of
00:25:29
Speaker
clear your shot at the target and have real commercial potential because Lionsgate really needs it if they're going to survive.
00:25:36
Speaker
And in today's Hollywood landscape, we need as many studios to survive and thrive as we can to try and combat the Disneys and the Netflix Warner Brothers that are just growing exponentially at all times.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:50
Speaker
And of course, this could become a trilogy as well.
00:25:53
Speaker
My sister's pointed out that there are three books in the Housemaid series.
00:25:57
Speaker
So that could, you know, earn money for Lionsgate for a long time.
00:26:01
Speaker
Yeah, the very fun, like, if not the last, perhaps the penultimate sentence in the book, it might be the very last though, is a delightful little cliffhanger of what to expect in book two.
00:26:16
Speaker
Yeah, the movie ends really cleverly as well, too.
00:26:19
Speaker
The whole the whole thing is like very campy and silly.
00:26:22
Speaker
So I think a lot of people, but very knowingly so.
00:26:25
Speaker
So I think a lot of people are going to watch it and not be able to sort of catch that wave.
00:26:29
Speaker
And but I but I'm really hopeful.
00:26:32
Speaker
I had a really strong theater going experience.
00:26:35
Speaker
Some of the people that were in my screening, it was about half press and half.
00:26:40
Speaker
I didn't catch what what organization it was, but it was some kind of young women's
00:26:45
Speaker
club and that sounds really lame when i use those words but it was a really fun group of ladies and and they had really fun commentary on some of the lines and line readings and just it was it was a hoot they were like cheering and it was really fun it's definitely that kind of movie so yeah i'm looking forward to hopefully people reacting positively to how crazy and silly this movie is yeah yeah
00:27:10
Speaker
But that's pretty much it because the movie's not even out yet.
00:27:13
Speaker
So let's dive into our discussion questions.
00:27:17
Speaker
What do you got?
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:19
Speaker
In terms of psychological thrillers, there are a few of these that you and I have discussed a lot.
00:27:25
Speaker
Minority Report, Shutter Island, Inception.
00:27:28
Speaker
As a genre, perhaps, and then this one specifically, where do these land for you in terms of rewatchability?
00:27:37
Speaker
Oh, that's a good question.
00:27:39
Speaker
Before I dive into my answer, I want somebody to tally the number of times you've mentioned minority report on this podcast.
00:27:48
Speaker
Because that's got to be like the 10th mention and we haven't even been running for a full year yet.
00:27:52
Speaker
I would guess more.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah, maybe.
00:27:54
Speaker
I mean, it's a core text for you.
00:27:56
Speaker
That's important.
00:27:57
Speaker
Okay, so here's an interesting anecdote to sort of answer your question.
00:28:01
Speaker
I had booked a ticket to see this movie opening night and then after the fact was invited to this press screening and I went to the press screening, came home, wrote my review.
00:28:11
Speaker
It's a good review, by the way.
00:28:12
Speaker
I like this movie.
00:28:13
Speaker
And then I canceled my reservation for Friday night.
00:28:16
Speaker
Ah, okay.
00:28:17
Speaker
Some of that is because I don't need to see it twice in one week.
00:28:20
Speaker
But some of it too is that I think you do need space between rewatches.
00:28:25
Speaker
So when you ask where does it land in terms of rewatch value,
00:28:29
Speaker
I think that they are rewatchable, especially if you're watching it with somebody that's never seen it before.
00:28:35
Speaker
There's nothing like watching somebody get their mind blown, you know, but I do think that there needs to be some space between rewatches.
00:28:42
Speaker
I do.
00:28:42
Speaker
I don't want to go three nights after and watch this movie again, which is not to say it's a bad movie.
00:28:48
Speaker
It just means I've, I've indulged in the way that I need to.
00:28:52
Speaker
Yep.
00:28:52
Speaker
Certainly.
00:28:52
Speaker
Certainly.
00:28:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:28:54
Speaker
Obviously, I probably don't even need this caveat.
00:28:56
Speaker
You talk to people about movies a lot more than I do.
00:28:59
Speaker
In my circle of friends or people that I would or do discuss psychological thrillers with, it is a genre that's pretty uniformly loved.
00:29:08
Speaker
I'm curious in the screen world and entertainment industry more widely, is this the same?
00:29:17
Speaker
Does the world just love a good turn?
00:29:20
Speaker
Is this a love it or hate it and I fall in
00:29:23
Speaker
you know, one specific camp.
00:29:25
Speaker
Oh, no, I think they're, they're pretty popular.
00:29:28
Speaker
I think they're not as easy to create as they might seem because they have to be really well-written.
00:29:33
Speaker
And like you alluded to earlier, if it starts ripping off another one, we get such a, like a black licorice for it that we, we can't handle it.
00:29:42
Speaker
Um, or, or such an allergy for it, I guess I should say.
00:29:45
Speaker
So yes, they're, they're beloved.
00:29:47
Speaker
I think also thriller is sort of a sub genre that you can apply to so many different
00:29:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker
Other genres.
00:29:55
Speaker
Right.
00:29:55
Speaker
I mean, we could say that Dune is a science fiction thriller and there's a lot of horror thrillers obviously out there.
00:30:02
Speaker
There's so much that you can do with it.
00:30:04
Speaker
I see.
00:30:05
Speaker
Really.
00:30:05
Speaker
You know, sometimes, sometimes it's a story sort of like shutter Island you mentioned has a very certain specific twist that I don't want to spoil here, but it's, it's sort of like an old reliable, you know what I mean?
00:30:17
Speaker
Yep.
00:30:18
Speaker
And, uh,
00:30:20
Speaker
And then on the other hand, you've got one like the housemaid where you're just like, holy shit.
00:30:25
Speaker
I did not think that was even in the deck of cards that I was playing with here.
00:30:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:30
Speaker
So, yeah, there's just there's a lot of variety.
00:30:33
Speaker
And usually they end up, you know, the cream of the crop really does rise to the top because of how accessible they are.
00:30:40
Speaker
We.
00:30:42
Speaker
are often experiencing the story, you know, our conduit to the story is is the main character or I suppose they're the conduit to us, which is sort of what you were talking about earlier, too.
00:30:53
Speaker
We're able to access these stories because these characters are sort of getting their world rocked just like us.
00:30:59
Speaker
Yep.
00:30:59
Speaker
Yep.
00:31:00
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:31:00
Speaker
So yes, long way of saying very popular.
00:31:03
Speaker
I would be surprised to come across people that had a blanket dislike for psych thrillers.
00:31:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:08
Speaker
Like a huge surprise.
00:31:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:11
Speaker
I thought the movie relies a little too heavily on the audience having a real understanding of modern New York high society.
00:31:20
Speaker
We get these sort of hints at Andrew having had a tough mom, but for the most part, it doesn't explain his psychology at all.
Character and Society Critique in Film vs. Book
00:31:28
Speaker
So did they dive into that more in the book?
00:31:31
Speaker
I mean, is there more to it in the book?
00:31:34
Speaker
I see.
00:31:34
Speaker
Yeah, I would, I would separate these two parts.
00:31:37
Speaker
Um, I did not have any problem with the society.
00:31:41
Speaker
That part was if, if any of it follows a trope, I would say that aspect did.
00:31:47
Speaker
So I would say maybe, maybe they like leaned into that too much in the movie.
00:31:52
Speaker
It did not feel heavy handed in the text in terms of like the circle.
00:31:57
Speaker
I have a particular picture in my mind of someone the second they are hiring
00:32:03
Speaker
full-time live-in servants in the year of our Lord 2025, right?
00:32:09
Speaker
Yes.
00:32:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:10
Speaker
So that was kind of all I felt I needed.
00:32:12
Speaker
And that was more or less all they gave.
00:32:16
Speaker
Oh, the daughter goes to private school and all of the soccer moms at the pickup line.
00:32:21
Speaker
Andrew's background, I wanted more.
00:32:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:28
Speaker
They really, for obvious reasons, kind of hint initially at best.
00:32:33
Speaker
You're really not even certain how much party is going to play in it.
00:32:36
Speaker
And as you said, kind of explain, but it's a hand wave.
00:32:42
Speaker
I thought that aspect, they kind of lean on you filling in the details where clearly you can.
00:32:48
Speaker
Neither of us were confused.
00:32:51
Speaker
Right.
00:32:52
Speaker
I didn't leave feeling like it was a plot point, but I think they kind of left some money on the table there not diving into that more.
00:33:01
Speaker
Yeah, I agree.
00:33:02
Speaker
I think a lot of people will argue that that's not the point of the story, or at least the movie.
00:33:07
Speaker
Exactly.
00:33:09
Speaker
And I don't think that they're wrong.
00:33:10
Speaker
I think what bugs me about it is sort of what puts this in a lane that's not necessarily my go-to.
00:33:19
Speaker
It's not Minority Report or Shutter Island or Inception, which are movies made for men and star men and are generally gushed over by men.
00:33:30
Speaker
Which is not to say that men won't enjoy this movie.
00:33:32
Speaker
There's plenty to enjoy.
00:33:35
Speaker
But yeah, I do wonder if that's sort of what informed the lack of Andrew backstory.
00:33:41
Speaker
This is kind of along the same lines.
00:33:43
Speaker
Um, I was just thinking about actually, honestly, a lot about what you've told me in previous movies that came up thinking about how they would transition.
00:33:50
Speaker
That's not necessarily my go-to.
00:33:53
Speaker
It's not Minority Report or Shutter Island or Inception, which are movies made for men and star men and are generally
00:34:00
Speaker
you know, gushed over by by men.
00:34:03
Speaker
So which is not to say that men won't enjoy this movie.
00:34:05
Speaker
There's plenty, plenty to enjoy.
00:34:08
Speaker
But yeah, I do wonder if that's sort of what informed the lack of Andrew backstory.
00:34:15
Speaker
This is kind of along the same lines.
00:34:17
Speaker
I was just thinking about actually, honestly, a lot about what you've told me in previous movies that came up thinking about how they would transition this.
00:34:24
Speaker
You've told me often about this kind of audience demand of show, not tell, right?
00:34:29
Speaker
And movies, a lot of the delight, maybe this is just for me, but I feel confident saying this a lot of the delight in reading a thriller.
00:34:38
Speaker
is you're kind of guessing and anticipating where you're going, but you are stuck at the very specific pace of reading words on a page.
00:34:49
Speaker
Sure, yeah.
00:34:50
Speaker
How does that translate?
00:34:52
Speaker
You're watching a movie.
00:34:53
Speaker
There are, I'm sure, plenty of shots that no one is talking and this camera is walking through a room.
00:34:59
Speaker
Environment details are so little of the information in a psychological thriller.
00:35:05
Speaker
So I'm curious if that feels similar.
00:35:07
Speaker
Are you really...
00:35:08
Speaker
come on, get to the next scene?
00:35:10
Speaker
Or does it feel like any other genre of movie to you?
Analyzing Thriller Pacing and Structure
00:35:14
Speaker
Interesting question.
00:35:15
Speaker
I'll start small and say that in this movie specifically, there is sort of a pacing issue.
00:35:21
Speaker
The first half of the movie is so...
00:35:24
Speaker
slow and i think it's a little bit intentional because it wants you to be so thrown off when that sort of breakneck and half comes into play and it's just like i said breakneck speed it's just everything comes unraveled there's so much to clean up so quickly i do think that a huge part of the success of a psychological thriller at large is the payoff
00:35:48
Speaker
I think most of the time you know that you're sitting down to some sort of, mystery is kind of too loose of a word, but that there's going to be some kind of crescendo, some kind of earth-shattering revelation, and the ending has to pay off.
00:36:01
Speaker
There's such a cliche of people going, and it was the gardener, right?
00:36:05
Speaker
And that's a cliche because it doesn't pay off and it's super disappointing.
00:36:09
Speaker
So I think that's sort of the art form when it comes to psych thrillers is balancing the pacing and building your way up and up and up and up this mountain and making sure that the view from the top is worth everything.
00:36:21
Speaker
Because this is not a long movie either.
00:36:23
Speaker
I don't know the exact runtime off the top of my head.
00:36:26
Speaker
But some of the other ones that you mentioned, Inception is extremely long, Minority Report, Shutter Island, they're all long.
00:36:32
Speaker
So it's just about how good is that final meal?
00:36:36
Speaker
Yes, is it worth the anticipation?
00:36:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:40
Speaker
That's very interesting because what you described really, really faithfully matches my experience with the text.
00:36:46
Speaker
It switched at the right point, I'll say.
00:36:49
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:49
Speaker
I was really getting to a point where I was like, okay, hit the gas, you guys.
00:36:53
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:55
Speaker
And they did.
00:36:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:57
Speaker
Interesting.
00:36:58
Speaker
I think I have to go see this.
00:37:00
Speaker
I think it's a really good time.
00:37:02
Speaker
I had a really good time.
00:37:03
Speaker
I hope you can see it in a full theater.
00:37:05
Speaker
And I think it would be really fun to take Blair and Lex.
00:37:07
Speaker
I'll say this later when we get to recommendations, but it's a great girls night movie or like date night with your girlfriend or something like that, because it's just it's so fun and silly.
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:19
Speaker
Well, I think that's a pretty, pretty good segue here, huh?
00:37:22
Speaker
Yeah, I guess let's, I guess let me cover the rest of my recommendations.
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, I said it's an awesome movie to see with friends, especially Gal Pals for Girls' Night Out.
00:37:32
Speaker
I mentioned that the girls in my screening were having a hoot and just had really funny
00:37:38
Speaker
commentary and fun things to say.
00:37:39
Speaker
And it was clear that they were having a blast with each other.
00:37:41
Speaker
They were making each other laugh, all in a very respectful way for the theater.
00:37:46
Speaker
It was really great to see them like just have the night of their lives there.
00:37:50
Speaker
I don't think that there's anybody I would recommend avoid this, in part because I think if you're unable to find something to enjoy about this movie,
00:37:58
Speaker
you're kind of just a hater.
00:38:00
Speaker
Like you've just got a bad attitude.
00:38:02
Speaker
I mean, seriously, I understand that the marketing makes it look like a chick flick, but there's also naked Sydney Sweeney in it.
00:38:08
Speaker
So like, get over it, you know?
00:38:10
Speaker
Calm down.
00:38:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:11
Speaker
That being said, it is definitely more targeted to women than it is to men.
00:38:15
Speaker
But like I said, there's plenty for men too.
00:38:17
Speaker
You just have to like get over yourself and actually enjoy the story.
00:38:22
Speaker
And then it reminded me of some other really famous.
00:38:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:25
Speaker
Psych thrillers, I guess, like basic instinct, Gone Girl, you know, sort of has the shades of violence that Gone Girl does more than shades really.
00:38:35
Speaker
And then I put a simple favor in here, which is Paul Feig's other thriller.
00:38:39
Speaker
Pretty obvious comparison there, but but worth mentioning.
00:38:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:43
Speaker
And while you're at it, what did you rate it?
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:48
Speaker
I gave it three and a half stars and a heart on Letterboxd.
00:38:51
Speaker
I think it's so fun and silly and campy, but the key is that it's knowingly all of those things.
00:38:58
Speaker
And you just don't see movies like that very much.
00:39:01
Speaker
And when you do, you don't normally get these big megawatt stars the center of it.
00:39:06
Speaker
It's not usually a big studio movie like this.
00:39:09
Speaker
Seyfried gives a really strong performance.
00:39:11
Speaker
She's such a friggin movie star, like in the best way possible.
00:39:14
Speaker
She's such a good actress and such a captivating presence, sort of.
00:39:18
Speaker
The script is like really friggin goofy.
00:39:20
Speaker
And like I said, the movie can feel silly at times, but it's such a good time that I don't care.
00:39:27
Speaker
You know?
00:39:27
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:39:28
Speaker
I don't really believe in the term guilty pleasure, but I guess you could call this a guilty pleasure movie.
00:39:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:39:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:39:35
Speaker
How about you?
00:39:36
Speaker
Recommendations and ratings.
00:39:38
Speaker
Yeah, very, very similar response.
00:39:40
Speaker
This was absolutely a solid four on Goodreads.
00:39:42
Speaker
I don't know that I intend to reread it.
00:39:45
Speaker
But very strongly.
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, no.
00:39:47
Speaker
Awesome.
00:39:48
Speaker
Really good writing.
00:39:49
Speaker
It really forced you to feel the characters in, I think, exactly the way McFadden intended, which is obviously we just call that good writing.
Book Recommendations for Thriller Fans
00:40:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:01
Speaker
The only thing holding it back really is if I wanted a storyline of this ilk, I would probably reach for something else, maybe continuing the series even rather than rereading this.
00:40:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:12
Speaker
For a recommendation, this was an odd one because I think anyone that I would recommend it to has probably already read it.
00:40:19
Speaker
In terms of current, modern, real hot books, I'm behind the curve on this one.
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:25
Speaker
And anyone I would not recommend it to, I would not simply because it's not a genre they enjoy, not because they would not enjoy this exact.
00:40:34
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:40:35
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:40:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:37
Speaker
So it's in an odd gray area there, but I will, similar to some recent ones, I'll offer some books.
00:40:46
Speaker
I think if you like these, you will like The Housemaid.
00:40:49
Speaker
If you do read The Housemaid or have, I think you would like some of these.
00:40:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:53
Speaker
Kafka on the Shore is one that I finished recently, well, in the last three months, and kind of certainly not as dark, but a similar intimacy with some very quirky characters that you love getting to know.
00:41:06
Speaker
Oh, cool.
00:41:07
Speaker
And still a pretty fascinating turn.
00:41:09
Speaker
Piranasi was very much along those same lines, not nearly as dark, but a very interesting turn you do not see coming.
00:41:18
Speaker
Along the exact same lines, in fact, one of them...
00:41:21
Speaker
eerily similar, almost to the point that it degraded this one a little bit, but not much.
00:41:26
Speaker
They are distinct stories.
00:41:28
Speaker
Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Last Mrs. Parrish, Dark Places, and Sharp Objects.
00:41:35
Speaker
The last two, both Gillian Flynn.
00:41:37
Speaker
Oh yeah, Gillian Flynn.
00:41:38
Speaker
Who maybe wrote Gun Girl as well?
00:41:41
Speaker
Yes, she did, yeah.
00:41:44
Speaker
Yeah, all four of those fantastic books and very much along the same lines.
00:41:47
Speaker
If you
00:41:48
Speaker
have read and enjoyed any of those, you will simply tear up The Housemaid.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:53
Speaker
Super fun.
00:41:54
Speaker
I'm glad that you didn't tell me to, that we need to drop it because I would have fought you tooth and nail to keep this.
00:42:01
Speaker
Well, you know what it is?
00:42:02
Speaker
I didn't, I didn't know it was a psychological thriller.
00:42:05
Speaker
I was just ready for another.
00:42:07
Speaker
Oh, shoot.
00:42:08
Speaker
I didn't tell you what it was.
00:42:09
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:42:10
Speaker
Well, next time.
00:42:12
Speaker
Maybe made it better though, you know?
00:42:15
Speaker
Because you were probably really bowled over when everything turned.
00:42:19
Speaker
Yes.
00:42:20
Speaker
Because if you don't know it's going to be a psychological thriller, you're very much like, all right, where are we going with this?
00:42:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:42:28
Speaker
Because I, you know, with such a small cast of characters, I was like, well, somebody's got a break.
00:42:34
Speaker
You know, something's going to happen.
00:42:36
Speaker
That's exactly it.
00:42:37
Speaker
Because I went in knowing it was a psych thriller.
00:42:39
Speaker
So interesting.
00:42:41
Speaker
Cool perspective.
00:42:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:42:42
Speaker
I wonder which one.
00:42:44
Speaker
I don't know.
00:42:45
Speaker
Fantastic book.
00:42:47
Speaker
Phenomenal writing.
00:42:48
Speaker
I see exactly why she is the author she is.
00:42:51
Speaker
If anything, I am coming out the other side now simply surprised she's not more highly regarded, more awarded, which is maybe just because it seems like she's got a pretty specific niche.
00:43:05
Speaker
Yeah, well, and she's spending a lot of time on those brain scans.
00:43:09
Speaker
Yeah, come on, leave them alone.
00:43:10
Speaker
They're fine.
00:43:11
Speaker
Come write more.
00:43:12
Speaker
We got enough doctors.
00:43:13
Speaker
No, actually, we probably don't.
00:43:14
Speaker
We probably don't.
00:43:16
Speaker
Anyway, thank you.
00:43:18
Speaker
Chris and I, this is our last episode of the year, actually.
00:43:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:21
Speaker
I don't know.
00:43:21
Speaker
That's so hard for me to believe.
00:43:23
Speaker
But we were just speaking of bold over.
00:43:25
Speaker
We were just really stunned by some of those statistics that were shared with us or analytics, I guess, from Spotify.
00:43:32
Speaker
So thank you to everybody who's been listening.
00:43:35
Speaker
We see you.
00:43:35
Speaker
We appreciate you.
00:43:37
Speaker
We love doing this.
00:43:38
Speaker
And we're so excited to keep this going until we die.
00:43:41
Speaker
Right, Chris?
00:43:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:43:45
Speaker
26 a year for the next 120 years.
00:43:48
Speaker
We're going to live a hundred and I don't have time for that.
00:43:51
Speaker
I'm not doing that.
00:43:52
Speaker
The big, big shout out to