Lots of animal references in our chat this week - we've been watching quite a diverse range of things from Boston Legal to How to Become a Cult Leader, Bull and over to Only Murders in the Building. On the 'deep dive' Alex tells us all about the new Netflix drama Painkiller'. Steven takes us 'back to the future' with Yellowstone, the every-popular American West drama.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to Screenbabel, your guide to what to watch. We'll be tuning into hours
00:05 and hours of TV so we can tell you what you need to be switching on and what's to be avoided.
00:10 I'm your host, Kelly Crichton. And once again this week, I'm joined by Alex Morland and
00:14 Stephen Ross, our resident TV critics who are some of the hardest working people I know
00:18 who sacrifice all their free time to watch TV to give you the best recommendations. Does
00:24 that sound a bit intense? Don't forget, you can also now see us on television or the Internet
00:34 as well. You can jump over to the brand new Freeview channel 276. It's called Shots. It's
00:41 brought to you by a network of journalists across the country who are transforming stories
00:44 at the heart of your community into great TV. You'll find true crime, football, football
00:50 news and analysis plus coverage of lifestyle, TV, film and much more. Back to the podcast.
00:57 If you haven't tuned in before each week, we'll be chatting about what we're watching
01:01 as well as looking more closely at a new program or something, making the headlines on the
01:04 deep dive. This week, Alex talks to us about new Netflix drama, Painkiller. Finally, we
01:11 go back to the future to tell you about a program you may have missed when it first
01:14 aired or streamed this week. Stephen tells us about Yellowstone, often cited Yellowstone.
01:20 But first, we like to talk about what everyone has been watching recently. Stephen, tell
01:27 us what have you been watching recently? Okay, so I started with season two of Good Omens.
01:33 Oh, yes, of course. Not seen all of it yet. It's on Amazon, obviously, David Tennant,
01:38 Michael Sheen, etc. It's okay, but I don't think it's got the same energy, maybe, that
01:49 the first one had. The first season obviously came out in 2019, so it's been a long while.
01:55 I don't know if maybe they just sort of lost something along the way. Jon Hamm's character
02:03 is I guess he has a more prominent role in the second series, but the whole bit is that
02:09 he's completely lost his memory and he doesn't know what's going on. And he just comes across
02:14 as like a complete idiot, which is intentional. But I think his character was a lot more interesting
02:23 and a lot more Jon Hamm-esque in the first season. Have you watched Sherlock's? I have
02:29 not, but I was going to say, do you think it's because this one's not based on a book?
02:33 Yeah, I think it might be because of that. Neil Gaiman still wrote for the show for the
02:42 second season, but I think the book probably gave it a lot more grounding for the first
02:50 series and it might just have been a stronger story, maybe.
02:55 Is it Terry Pratchett?
02:56 So the first book was Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and then Terry Pratchett died in like
03:03 2017 and they got around to writing a sequel that they'd talked about for about 30 years.
03:11 It's funny, I was reading something about this last week and I kind of agreed with the
03:15 person who wrote the piece. I just never got into it. I love David Tennant, I love Michael
03:21 Sheen, but there was just something in the first series, I didn't watch the first couple
03:24 of episodes and I never really fully committed to the thing. So yeah, I don't think I'll
03:28 be watching this series if you're saying it's not any better than the first one.
03:34 Anything else?
03:36 Yeah, I started the Netflix documentary show, How to Become a Cult Leader, I think it's
03:46 called. So there was a show, How to Be a Tyrant, that they released a year or so ago.
03:56 Your ambitions are remarkable.
03:59 It basically talks you through the tyrants playbook, so they go through the big hitters
04:03 like Hitler and Saddam and Gaddafi and that was really interesting. And then this time
04:09 around it's the cult leaders playbook, so Charlie Manson, David Koresh, a lot of weird
04:20 cult figures. I'm sort of into the whole Scientology documentary sort of thing and this has got
04:27 a little bit of that. It's narrated by Peter Dinklage as well from Game of Thrones. It's
04:34 quite funny, it's obviously quite a serious topic at times, but it's presented in quite
04:38 a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. And it's basically a good overview if you want to learn a little
04:45 bit more about weird and wonderful cults through the years. The one thing I will say is that
04:51 it's sort of only the big ones that you've already heard of anyway and it doesn't necessarily
04:56 tell you much more than one or two. But it's definitely worth a watch if it is something
05:05 that you enjoy. And if you saw How to Be a Tyrant and you liked that, then this is basically
05:11 as good as that. Which did you prefer? Well I've not finished How to Be a Cult Leader.
05:18 I'm a big history nerd, so How to Be a Tyrant was good for that. But then I think I knew
05:24 more about... I've probably gained more from How to Be a Cult Leader, not in upskilling,
05:30 or in just general. I think probably How to Be a Cult Leader is a bit more interesting.
05:37 I like the idea that you can add that to your CV now. You can do training.
05:43 Which skills would come in more handy at the minute? Cult Leader or Tyrant?
05:46 Well Cult Leader I think, because Tyrant is a bit more resource intensive as well. Whereas
05:55 a Cult Leader you can just literally just, from your garage you could do it. It's all
05:59 about breaking people's spirits, manipulating and setting yourself up as the messiah normally.
06:08 Which I've been doing for the last 40 weeks anyway on this podcast. So hopefully it pays
06:15 off again. One episode at a time, Stephen. One episode
06:18 at a time, well done. Okay cool, Alex, what have you been watching?
06:23 So I have mostly still just been watching Futurama. I'm sort of into the second series
06:29 now. I feel like we should just tell the listeners
06:32 that... I don't think we should.
06:34 You've not got your normal backdrop. I know, most of the listeners are just listening
06:39 rather than watching. I was going to say we are literally on TV
06:46 right now. This is our slot Wednesday morning.
06:51 So yeah, so if anybody's wondering what's up with Alex, he's just busy with life stuff.
06:58 Yeah, yeah. That's all. Lots of life stuff.
07:02 Sorry, so Futurama, you're continuing that.
07:05 Continuing that and Boston Legal, which I don't think I've mentioned for a while. It
07:10 is still, I think, reliably the strangest program. Because it's not... I mean, I know
07:18 I said it's a legal drama, legal thriller, whatever. I think that paints a very particular
07:25 picture. It takes the biggest sort of tonal swings I've seen a program of that nature
07:34 taking. I watched it last week. It began with a child being kidnapped. Very serious, very
07:40 harrowing because it's like, oh my god, this child has been kidnapped by a known child
07:45 murderer. Oh my god, it's so dangerous. Two of the lawyers then impersonate FBI agents
07:52 to try and track this person down. They go to a church and they start threatening priests
07:59 with an axe and they accidentally cut the priest's fingers off. And then the church
08:06 cat comes and grabs one of the children's arms off. And it goes from this kind of very
08:12 serious, very dark, intense to like...
08:15 Surrealist.
08:16 The music's going everywhere. They're all doing comic screams. And it's like, what is
08:22 this?
08:23 Do you like that? Or do you find it jarring?
08:27 It is absolutely jarring, but I'm loving it. Because it's so... I think what I'm enjoying
08:34 about it in particular is I could never guess how one of these episodes is going to end.
08:39 Or even how it'll get to the first ad break kind of thing. Because it's so strange.
08:45 Yeah, you wonder what the writers were up to when they were writing this stuff.
08:51 The writers were obsessed with... there was someone on that writing staff who was obsessed
08:55 with salmon fishing. Because every third episode the case is about wild salmon versus controlled
09:01 salmon. That was so important. It's like, this is clearly something someone really cared
09:06 about and wouldn't have noticed at the time. But binge watching it, you can say, oh, that
09:10 episode that aired a month ago was about the same thing.
09:15 Very random. Very random.
09:18 Okay, cool. Well, keep us up to date with that. I'm sure there'll be more chat of salmon,
09:22 etc. I have started a couple of new things, actually. I don't know if I said this last
09:27 week, only murders in the building.
09:29 No, how are you finding that?
09:31 Yeah, good, actually. I think it's just a bit of fun, you know, and like Steve Martin
09:38 and Martin Short, like, you know, heroes from my youth. So there's a little bit of nostalgia
09:44 there. Some of the podcast stuff is like, oh my God, cringe. But it's just a bit of
09:52 fun and it's easy. It's half an hour and all that. And apparently the second series, a
09:55 couple of people have mentioned it to me. I think it's got a good following, you know,
09:59 they're like, do you see that bit in the, you know, and so is the second series supposed
10:03 to be or is it third series? Sorry, third series.
10:05 It started yesterday. Is their podcast more believable to you than Carrie Bradshaw's?
10:12 Yeah, even though it's there. Well, I suppose they're a bit more like it forms a bit more
10:19 of the actual story than Carrie's is just like a thing she does, you know. Still watching
10:26 just like that, though. We'll fill you in when I get to the end of the series. Aidan
10:31 has just returned. Oh my God, spider alert. Never mind. I think everybody knew that anyway,
10:35 to be honest. The Aidan. So the other thing I wanted to mention, two things. I watched
10:41 a film at the weekend called Bull. I feel like Steven might be up your street. Have
10:45 you seen it? I'm aware of it. Yeah. Yeah. So it's British film, kind of very violent
10:52 gang revenge thriller slash horror, potentially. I don't know. I don't normally like things
11:06 that are very violent. I end up like looking away so much. It kind of ruins the whole thing,
11:10 you know. I don't know if that's I just think sometimes it's a bit too much. But this really
11:16 kept me drawn in. And it's only about an hour and a half, which is great as well, because
11:22 sometimes you just look at these things and it says two hours plus and you're like, I
11:25 don't have enough to our energy for two hours. And there's quite a twist in it as well, which
11:32 is good. And I would recommend it if you're looking for it. It's not easy viewing, but
11:38 if you're looking for an hour and a half at the weekend, it's completely different. I
11:42 would go with it. It's Neil Maskell playing the lead. And then David Heyman is in it as
11:49 well, who seems to be in everything I'm watching at the moment. So Netflix, right? Netflix.
11:54 Exactly. It's just come to Netflix thing in the last week or two. So, yeah, violent, but
11:59 good. And the third thing I want to mention, which is really weird, and I've only watched
12:03 one episode, but I am intrigued. I'm worried I'm going to be very disappointed. Wolf. Alex,
12:13 did you do anything on this? Did you see any? But I from what you were saying about the
12:17 first episode, I could sort of tell that's what you were going to say, because I've heard
12:21 a lot of people say that about the first episode. So it starts off like any sort of normal detective
12:29 drama, where we can tell our detective is kind of a troubled guy. His brother went missing
12:36 when they were kids. They never found his body. You know, he reckons the neighbor did
12:40 it sort of thing. And it's all fairly sort of standard for the first 20 minutes. And
12:45 then things just start getting very strange and very weird and very almost comedic at
12:52 points. And there's an element of sort of other worldliness about it. And it's unlike
13:01 anything I've ever seen before, to be honest with you. But I'm intrigued. But like I said,
13:06 I do feel like maybe I'm going to be ultimately disappointed. I do like some of the actors
13:10 in it as well, though. So I'll come back to you. I'll expand at a later date. So there
13:17 you go. Anything else from anybody on what we've been watching? Happy to progress?
13:21 Yeah, let's go.
13:23 Let's go. Okay. So up next, Alex, over to you. We are talking about Painkiller, which
13:29 is the new Netflix drama about the ongoing opioid crisis in the US, I imagine.
13:35 Yes, that is exactly correct. So it's a sort of prestige true crime drama, kind of mini
13:42 series that I imagine they'll do a bit of an Emmy's push on.
13:46 Okay. Oh, that big is it?
13:49 Yeah, I could imagine. So it's in the same sort of vein as stuff like The Dropout and
13:57 Five Days of Memorial, which was on Apple last year about the New Orleans arena. And
14:03 it's very similar to Dope Sick on Disney, or some other subject matter. I haven't actually
14:08 seen Dope Sick. But it's that kind of style of glossy prestige true crime drama, not the
14:19 sort of Dharma Ryan Murphy kind of thing. But yeah, so it's all about the opioid crisis
14:26 in America, the sort of origins and rise of OxyContin and Purdue Pharma kind of pushing
14:34 that. So it's kind of about the sort of the relationship between marketing and pharmaceuticals
14:41 and the Sackler family.
14:45 From a detective's point of view, is that sorry?
14:49 It's from a couple of different perspectives. You've got the Sackler family, his name's
14:57 gone out of my head, Ferris Bueller. Matthew Broderick is playing Richard Sackler, who's
15:06 the guy who kind of invented, or not invented, pushed OxyContin in the first place. You've
15:15 got flashbacks to his uncle, Arthur Sackler, who was the guy who did the same for Valium,
15:23 kind of originated a lot of the techniques that Richard Sackler would then go on to do
15:28 to push OxyContin even further. You've got sort of a family mechanic who injures himself,
15:37 starts using OxyContin as a painkiller, then it sort of traces his journey as it becomes
15:43 harder and harder for him to manage with it.
15:46 But yeah, the main story, the frame story that kind of kicks it off is a district attorney
15:52 who is investigating medical fraud. So things like dodgy x-rays, doctors who have exaggerated
16:01 the number of procedures they're doing. And she comes across this drug and she's like,
16:05 "Hang on a minute, I've never heard of this, but in the past month you've prescribed it
16:10 200 times, you must be fraud." It's actually not, it's just that the drug is both very
16:15 new and very addictive immediately. It kind of captures her attention, she's very curious
16:21 about it. I'd say it's very well done. I'm generally not a fan of true crime, as I think
16:28 we've established many times over. But I thought this was quite well done.
16:37 How many episodes is it, and where is it on?
16:39 Six episodes total. It's on Netflix from Thursday the 10th of August.
16:44 Okay, cool. So Netflix from today and there's six episodes. Excellent. Okay, thank you so
16:52 much, Alex. Stephen, over to you now. We're going to talk about Yellowstone and everybody's
16:57 favourite cuddly person, Kevin Costner. Yay.
17:01 Yeah, if you like, Yellowstone came out in 2018. That's a sort of neo-Western series
17:08 set in the modern day on a ranch in Montana. And yeah, it stars Kevin Costner, as well
17:15 as Luke Grimes, Kelly Riley, Wes Bentley and some other sort of recognisable names in there
17:21 as well. Kevin Costner, I guess, is fairly established in the Western genre. I mean,
17:27 he starred and directed Dances with Wolves. I think he won Best Director for that. So
17:35 he's sort of a natural person to play the lead role. He plays John Dutton, who is the
17:40 patriarch of the Dutton family. They have this historic ranch that has been in their
17:46 family for generations. And there's been some spin-off series as well, some prequel series
17:52 1883 and 1923, which followed the earlier generations of the Duttons as they established
17:59 the ranch, as they joined the Westward exodus of the 19th century.
18:09 It's five series of the show and it's almost wrapped now. So, Season 5, Part 1 is already
18:18 available to watch. Season 5, Part 2 is due out in November, but it's unclear whether
18:23 the writers' strikes will have affected production on it and whether it'll be delayed. And then
18:29 the series will wrap in after Season 5. Season 1 is on Channel 5 currently, so it's airing
18:37 at 9pm on Fridays, but you can watch the full first season on Channel 5 now on My5. But
18:43 Season 1 to 5 are all on Paramount+. So that's where you'd watch the full show.
18:49 Nice to be able to get a taster on Channel 5 and then if you don't get it on Paramount+.
18:55 It is good. It's a strong series. It's basically a sort of family drama that's got a big political
19:03 vein through it as well. The Duttons are a powerful family and they're basically fighting
19:10 off people encroaching on their land through five seasons. Often it turns violent. Everyone
19:18 in the West seems to be armed to the teeth all the time. And John Dutton has this very
19:25 strained relationship with one of his sons. The series starts basically with the death
19:31 of one of the Dutton sons and that's, I guess, what pulls the rest of the family back together,
19:39 but it's still quite a strained relationship. It's very interesting. The Duttons aren't
19:46 particularly likeable people, at least not at first. They have this thing where they
19:53 brand people with a cattle iron to basically, after having got something on them, they basically
20:03 are able to say, "Right, you either come work for me now when you're owned by me or we'll
20:08 ruin your life." And then they brand them, basically break their spirit and then own
20:12 them, which to me reminded me a lot of Sons of Anarchy. It felt very much quite Sons of
20:19 Anarchy-esque and then I realised that one of the writers, John Linson, was a producer
20:24 on Sons of Anarchy. I think Taylor Sheridan used to be an actor and I think he starred
20:31 on Sons of Anarchy for a little while. He could well have done, yeah. Taylor Sheridan
20:38 also co-wrote the series and he's worked on Marriott of Kingstown, the Sicario movies,
20:46 Hell of High Water. So you can see where the influences come in for this show. It's basically
20:55 just something a bit different because you don't get that many neo-westerns, or at least
21:00 not many that work. It's a little bit like Dallas but in a much more updated, more modern
21:13 TV show kind of way. Less Hairspray. Yeah, less of a soap opera and also pretty violent
21:23 from the get-go as well, like the first episode. As I said earlier, you always hear people
21:31 talking about it in great TV series of the past five, six years. I think you often hear
21:38 people citing it as a potential. I've never seen a single episode of it. I don't know
21:42 about you Alex, but is that the general consensus that it is that good? Yeah, I mean, I guess
21:51 it came after Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad and it was at the same time as this newer
22:02 wave of shows, I guess. You've got good timing, yeah. For the past however many years, it's
22:17 literally the most watched show in America. Is it? Yeah, that's the point of it. It's
22:23 very, very American. I think it's how Americans see themselves, as these powerful individuals
22:33 and family units that are at war with everyone around them. It's very anti-Semitic in that
22:40 sense. It's like us against the world and very manly men. I think it probably doesn't
22:52 work as well over here because I love Westerns and I very much enjoy it. I think it definitely
23:03 is one of the best shows to have come out in the late 2010s. Okay, you've convinced
23:10 me I'm going to watch it. I'll feed back in the next couple of weeks, partner. Okay, sorry.
23:19 That's us for this week. Thank you, Stephen, for talking about Yellowstone there and Painkiller
23:23 from Alex. You are a painkiller, Alex, you know that. Thanks for joining us this week.
23:29 Do look out for our Friday morning Screenbabel weekend watch, which will prove you what to
23:32 watch over the weekend and beyond. If you have any suggestions for what TV we need to
23:35 get into our lives, do drop us a line via social media on National World TV, on Twitter
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24:03 week with more Screenbabel. Thanks for listening and watching. Bye.