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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello and welcome to Screen Babble,
00:14 your guide to what to watch.
00:15 We'll be tuning into hours and hours of TV
00:18 so we can tell you what you need to be switching on
00:20 and what's to be avoided.
00:22 I'm your host, Kelly Crichton,
00:23 and as ever, our resident TV critics,
00:25 Stephen Ross and Benjamin Jackson are here,
00:27 armed and ready with some more hotshot reviews.
00:31 And I must say, thank you for holding the fort last week
00:33 when I was marooned on Shetland in Sunburra Airport
00:37 where the wifi would not support
00:39 this wonderful broadcast, unfortunately.
00:42 Remember, if you want to see our faces,
00:44 you can head over to Freeview Channel 276 Shots,
00:47 which is brought to you by a network of journalists
00:49 across the country who are transforming stories
00:50 at the heart of your community into great TV.
00:53 You'll find true crime stories, football news and analysis,
00:56 plus coverage of lifestyle, TV film, and much more.
00:59 If you haven't tuned in before,
01:01 which I find it hard to believe,
01:03 each week we'll be chatting about what we're watching
01:04 as well as looking more closely at a new program
01:07 or something making the headlines in the deep dive.
01:10 This week, Stephen brings us Killer Paradox.
01:14 It's a good name, isn't it?
01:15 Yeah. - It is, yeah.
01:16 - And finally, we'll see if it lives up to the name.
01:20 And finally, we go back to the future
01:22 to tell you about a program you may have missed
01:24 when it first aired or streamed.
01:26 We are digging into the treasure chest
01:29 that is Benji's back catalogue this week,
01:32 and he's going to talk to us about Bob's Burgers, people.
01:36 But first, as always, we like to talk about
01:38 what everyone has been watching recently.
01:39 So Stephen, start us off this week.
01:42 What have you been watching this week?
01:44 - Well, I managed to get to the cinema
01:46 and I finally saw The Holdovers.
01:49 - Oh, very good.
01:50 - So, best picture nominee.
01:53 I don't know what else it's nominated for,
01:55 but I'm guessing if it's an original screenplay.
01:58 - I think it's a screenplay one.
01:59 - It will be in with a shout of winning
02:02 'cause yeah, the screenplay is great.
02:05 I loved it.
02:08 The Paul Giamatti film about this sort of haggard teacher
02:13 who hasn't necessarily done an awful lot with his life
02:16 and isn't loved by his students
02:19 at this New England private school.
02:22 - It's a high school or is it a university?
02:25 High school.
02:26 - Yeah, it's a high school.
02:27 And he's dumped with the kids
02:29 that aren't able to go home for Christmas
02:32 for various reasons.
02:33 And he's tasked with looking after them over the holidays.
02:36 Weird that it was released in the new year
02:40 rather than over Christmas,
02:42 'cause it is, in my view, a sort of holiday film.
02:45 - Okay.
02:47 - Or a Thanksgiving film.
02:48 And yeah, one of the students ends up staying
02:52 for right through Christmas.
02:53 The other seemed to get away a bit earlier.
02:55 And it's this bonding opportunity for these two characters
03:00 that at first were totally at odds with each other.
03:02 And then they sort of discovered their shared humanity.
03:05 And there's a lady who works in the canteen as well,
03:08 who's also there over Christmas.
03:10 She lost her son in Vietnam, I believe.
03:15 It's the film set in 1970.
03:17 And she sort of brought into the fold as well.
03:22 And it's a really wholesome, heartwarming, I guess,
03:25 is how you'd describe it.
03:26 I thought it was about 20 minutes too long.
03:30 - Okay.
03:31 - But that's my only real criticism.
03:33 I thought it was very good.
03:36 It wasn't, the 20 minutes didn't really make it boring.
03:40 It just felt a bit- - Is it particularly long?
03:41 Is it very long then?
03:43 - About two and a quarter hours maybe.
03:45 But it definitely could have been a bit tighter.
03:47 It definitely could have been like one hour 50.
03:51 - I actually saw a clip of it because I saw,
03:54 oh, what's the name of the actress?
03:57 Divine, Divine, is it Divine?
04:00 - Divine Joy Randolph.
04:03 - There you go.
04:05 Divine Joy Randolph.
04:07 Thank you, Bidgie.
04:08 She was on with Graham Norton a few weeks back.
04:12 And she's so funny.
04:13 She's so dry, her humor.
04:14 But they did show a clip of the film.
04:15 And I didn't realize it was set in the '70s.
04:18 Could have been set today for whatever.
04:20 - It's pretty timeless apart from the references
04:24 to the Vietnam War and, yeah,
04:29 some New Year's sort of celebrations.
04:30 But I thought the same thing as I watched it.
04:33 I thought, oh, this definitely isn't set today
04:35 just because of some of the set dressing.
04:38 But I was like, I think it had been intentionally made
04:40 to be fairly timeless.
04:42 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:43 I didn't realize that at all.
04:44 - It's a way that Dead Poets Society,
04:46 I mean, it was very similar in some ways to Dead Poets.
04:49 - Yeah, yeah, fantastic film, yeah.
04:52 - Yeah, and I think that was also
04:54 a fairly timeless setting as well.
04:57 I prefer Dead Poets slightly.
05:00 But I mean, it's hard to compete with Robin Williams.
05:03 But definitely, definitely recommend The Hull Lovers
05:06 for anyone who's looking to look at some of the new releases
05:09 out at the minute.
05:10 - Cool, yeah, there's a bit of a dearth of films,
05:14 you know, potentially award-winning films
05:16 in the cinema at the moment.
05:17 - That's the season, you know.
05:19 - Yeah, in other cinema news,
05:20 my sister went to see Argyle at the weekend
05:22 and left after half an hour.
05:25 - Yeah, apparently it's pretty bad.
05:27 I've not seen it, so I can't comment, but it's not.
05:29 - And I mean, she was trying to get away from a small baby
05:31 and she still actually just came home.
05:32 That's how bad it was, yeah.
05:34 - Yeah, I don't think we've seen Henry Cavill
05:36 as Bond off the back of that.
05:38 - No, no.
05:39 Anyway, right, Benji, over to you.
05:41 What have you been watching?
05:43 - Just the one thing for me,
05:44 well, two if you count Bob's Burgers,
05:46 and there was a lot of Bob's Burgers to be watched,
05:49 but I've been going back and making use
05:52 of my Apple TV+ subscription
05:55 and watching a very, very interesting adaptation
06:00 from a manga called Drops of God.
06:03 And the plot is basically about a French girl
06:08 who is the daughter of a very renowned vineyard owner,
06:15 a restaurateur, I think it's a wine connoisseur,
06:18 but she's definitely ingrained
06:20 in that French winemaking society.
06:25 However, she abstains from taking over the company business
06:30 for whatever reason, and then you find out later on.
06:34 And so the father on his deathbed decides to run a test
06:38 between his daughter and his best protege,
06:42 who is a Japanese student who studied sommeliering.
06:47 It's really taught and tense, though, really taught and tense.
06:53 I kind of found it very interesting,
06:56 being a bit of a nerd,
06:57 that it's done in three different languages.
07:00 So it is English, French, and Japanese
07:02 throughout the whole thing.
07:04 The cinematography is just absolutely fantastic.
07:09 And it's a really riveting read.
07:11 It's a really riveting watch.
07:13 Well, read, 'cause of the subtitles on the screen as well.
07:15 I can be forgiven for saying that.
07:17 - Yes, yes, yes.
07:19 - They're hour-long episodes.
07:20 There's six of them,
07:21 but they are definitely, definitely interesting.
07:24 And it's just, once again, why I feel that Apple TV
07:28 is where prestige television is trying to make its name
07:32 rather than, say, other streaming companies that pick it.
07:36 - Family dynasty, succession issues, et cetera, yeah.
07:40 - Yeah, like a French take on succession,
07:43 but with a lot more kind of tension
07:46 and a lot less swearing, a lot less swearing.
07:49 - Damn it.
07:51 Okay, cool.
07:53 That sounds interesting, great.
07:54 Two very different recommendations there.
07:57 So because I haven't spoken to you for a few weeks,
07:59 I have to, and I know, Benji,
08:00 thank you for mentioning The Traitors last week,
08:02 but considering I was the only person
08:04 who's actually watched the whole thing,
08:05 I have to say I thought it was excellent.
08:09 And I thought the finale was excellent.
08:12 And honestly, my heart has not been going,
08:15 like the clappers like that,
08:16 for a very, very long time watching anything.
08:19 It was really, really good.
08:21 And I would recommend that you guys,
08:22 it's probably a bit,
08:23 I don't know if it's a thing you can catch up on,
08:26 but I would recommend you to watch the next series.
08:29 And also there was a visualized podcast, much like this,
08:34 (laughs)
08:35 that Ed Gamble did afterwards called Uncloaked as well,
08:39 which has kind of breaking, breaking?
08:42 Which has kind of broken new ground
08:44 in that the sound setup was so amazing on it.
08:47 And they managed to pull it off as an actual TV program.
08:52 - Kelly, Kelly, it's not a patch on ScreenBabel.
08:57 - Come on.
08:58 - Uncloaked is all well and good,
09:01 but the ScreenBabel franchise that we're working here
09:05 is unrivaled.
09:06 - The one thing I would say is,
09:07 they probably had access to better guests.
09:10 (laughs)
09:11 - Look, I heard that we influenced that Uncloaked,
09:15 is that correct?
09:16 - I'm pretty sure Ed Gamble has been checking us out,
09:18 I'm pretty sure.
09:19 - I'm pretty sure that if Alex was still here,
09:23 that was definitely influenced Ed Gamble, definitely.
09:26 - I feel like we should maybe have just tapped them up
09:29 for their studio afterwards.
09:30 That would have been cool.
09:31 Just, we'd be sitting there on our leather
09:33 Chesterfield couches, just taking it all in, you know.
09:37 Also, but you have to be a TV,
09:39 reality TV kind of person, I think, to really get into it.
09:41 So, yeah, that's just my only caveat.
09:44 The other thing to say is,
09:46 I watched American Nightmare,
09:47 which is a three-part series on Netflix
09:50 about a couple who go through this mental thing
09:53 back in 2015, where they're attacked
09:55 in the middle of the night in their home.
09:57 The female Denise gets kidnapped
10:01 and ensues like weeks and months and years of mad stuff.
10:05 Like that you just, it feels like the most made up thing
10:09 of all time.
10:10 And it's just really intriguing
10:12 about how the police handle it
10:14 and everything that happens, total rollercoaster.
10:16 So I'd actually recommend that.
10:16 And those things aren't always great.
10:18 Those kind of true crime things that come out on Netflix,
10:21 they're kind of dime a dozen,
10:22 but this was actually quite good and quite eye-opening.
10:26 Foon me once, Netflix too.
10:28 I just finished it.
10:29 Oh my God, eight episodes long.
10:32 When I started the eighth episode,
10:34 I noticed it was 35 minutes.
10:35 And I was like, thank God it's only 35 minutes.
10:38 I was really losing the will to live by that stage.
10:41 But oh my God, talk about ramming everything
10:44 into the last 35 minutes.
10:46 Like they eked it out over the,
10:48 well, they didn't really eke it out.
10:50 There was so much going on in this series.
10:55 So the story is basically about this woman
10:57 whose husband dies and she's ex-military.
11:00 And then essentially she sees him on a nanny cam
11:04 and she thinks he's alive.
11:05 And then it's this trying to figure out everything
11:07 that's happened around his murder
11:10 and some other murders, et cetera, et cetera.
11:11 But then you also have these other subplots about her
11:14 niece and nephew finding a long lost brother,
11:17 which never really comes to anything.
11:19 And then you have another one about this kind of
11:21 dark web sort of personality guy
11:24 who's running things from a computer in a lair,
11:27 but he's actually kind of a good guy.
11:28 But why is he there?
11:30 I've no idea.
11:31 If you want to waste eight hours of your life, go ahead.
11:33 I feel like it lulls you into a false sense of excitement
11:36 and intrigue in the first few episodes.
11:38 So you kind of keep going with it,
11:40 but it just loses the plot completely.
11:42 And not my cup of tea.
11:44 I hope some of his other thrillers are better TV ones.
11:47 I think I've only seen one in the past.
11:50 Right, that's enough for part one.
11:51 We will be back for part two with Bob's Burgers
11:53 and Killer Paradox.
11:55 Thanks for listening.
11:56 (upbeat music)
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12:02 - Stephen, Killer Paradox.
12:06 I don't know what this is about.
12:08 Or should I try and guess from the name?
12:09 Is it about?
12:10 - Yeah, go for it.
12:11 - Is it like a thriller?
12:12 I'm going to say a four part thriller on Disney.
12:17 No, Netflix.
12:20 And no, Amazon.
12:23 And it's about some shady male character
12:28 set in America and he's ex cop
12:32 and he's found out about something
12:35 and he's investigating it.
12:37 How did I do?
12:38 - No.
12:38 (laughing)
12:41 An eight part Netflix, South Korean comedy crime thriller.
12:46 - I should have known.
12:49 - It's kind of, I mean, since Squid Game,
12:53 there's been so much South Korean content on Netflix
12:57 and it's been a bit hit and miss.
12:58 I think Killer Paradox is definitely worth your time.
13:03 So I'm only allowed to review the first four
13:05 of the episodes.
13:07 And then when the embargo lifts on the other four,
13:10 I'll probably get something else out on that.
13:12 But it's, yeah, it says serial killer comedy.
13:17 - Is the Naxi more around for you?
13:21 - Yeah, so the general premise is this sort of everyday guy
13:25 who works at a convenience store
13:28 accidentally kills this guy who out of nowhere
13:33 starts like beating him up.
13:35 And he has a hammer in his bag
13:39 that he was gonna use to put up a picture in his room.
13:41 So he's getting beaten up by this guy
13:44 and he's got a hammer that he was gonna use
13:46 to put up a photo at his home.
13:48 And he just grabs a hammer and smacks him with it
13:49 and accidentally kills him.
13:51 And then somehow gets away with this crime
13:54 and realizes in the news a few days later
13:57 that the guy he killed was a serial killer.
14:00 And then someone who spotted him commit the crime
14:05 also ends up dead.
14:09 And then it's revealed that she too had been killing people.
14:14 And so this guy has accidentally killed a few people
14:17 that turn out to have been really bad guys.
14:21 But at the same time,
14:22 there's a detective working the case
14:24 who starts to suspect his involvement.
14:27 - Right.
14:27 - From about episode three,
14:30 so it's the end of episode three,
14:31 it sort of hangs a left
14:32 and it just goes in a slightly different direction
14:35 to what you're expecting.
14:36 - Okay.
14:37 - And I'm assuming because the review embargo
14:39 is four episodes and then four episodes,
14:42 episode five may have another twist as well.
14:44 - Okay.
14:45 - It sort of takes a different direction.
14:47 You think you're getting comfortable with the show as it is
14:50 and it's not as much as a comedy
14:52 as I expect in the first couple of episodes.
14:54 And then episode four was really quite funny,
14:57 but it's also very interesting in the avenues
15:01 it decides to take and the characters it introduces.
15:03 Because it's the South Korean series,
15:06 I don't know if the cast will mean an awful lot,
15:08 but Choi Woo-sik plays Lee Tang,
15:11 who is the main sort of every man
15:13 who finds himself accidentally killing some bad guys.
15:17 - Accidental vigilante, yeah.
15:18 - Yeah, that's the word, yeah.
15:20 And then Son Seok-Koo is in it as well, Lee Hee-Joon.
15:24 I've been watching it with dubs,
15:27 which I know is a bit naughty.
15:29 It's not the authentic way,
15:30 but when you're trying to watch these things
15:32 for review purposes,
15:33 it's a lot easier to have the dubbing on.
15:35 And the dubbing is pretty good.
15:37 It's up there with sort of squid game levels of dubbing
15:42 where it doesn't totally take you out of it.
15:46 It's probably a bit better actually.
15:47 - The one thing I would say about subtitles is,
15:50 I'm deadly for like being on my phone
15:53 while I'm watching TV.
15:54 So at least if there's subtitles,
15:56 you have to put on your phone
15:56 'cause you actually have to watch the thing.
15:59 But I get it, you're probably taking notes
16:01 and doing other things at the same time
16:02 when you're trying to watch it.
16:03 So absolutely.
16:04 Okay, that sounds kind of interesting.
16:06 And has there been much hype around this?
16:09 Like is this-
16:10 - No, not really.
16:11 Not really.
16:11 I don't know if maybe in South Korea,
16:14 it's been advertised a lot more.
16:16 I think it'll definitely end up on the front page
16:18 of Netflix when it comes out.
16:19 So it's out all episodes on the 9th of February.
16:23 I think a lot of people,
16:28 people who are into the Korean dramas,
16:31 and there are a lot of those now, aren't there?
16:33 Will get on it pretty quickly.
16:36 I was surprised at how much I liked it.
16:39 And I'm excited to see where the last four episodes
16:43 go as well.
16:44 Yeah, all that's out on the 9th.
16:47 And definitely worth the time.
16:49 It's something a little bit different
16:51 and it's also quite interesting as well.
16:54 - Cool, cool.
16:55 Okay, right.
16:56 Thank you for that, Stephen.
16:57 Benji, "Bob's Burgers" take us back.
17:00 Take us back in time to another place.
17:03 - Now, I mean, are the pair familiar?
17:05 Has anyone ever caught an episode of "Bob's Burgers?"
17:09 'Cause if you have, or if you've caught "Archer,"
17:11 you might recognize that voice of H. John Benjamin,
17:14 who not only voiced Archer,
17:16 but he voices the titular Bob of "Bob's Burgers."
17:20 Now, it was created by a person called Lauren Bouchard,
17:25 who, I mean, me going way, way back,
17:28 showing my age here.
17:30 He created the cult classic "Home Movies" back in 1999
17:33 that had a couple of episodes on network television
17:38 in the United States,
17:39 but then really found its voice again on Adult Swim,
17:42 which was Cartoon Network's adult animation programming.
17:47 And the premise is pretty simple.
17:49 Bob Belcher, voiced by H. John Benjamin,
17:51 he runs "Bob's Burgers," which is a burger joint
17:54 with his wife, Linda, and his father, the three children.
17:58 Precocious Bunny Ed Louise, voiced by Kristen Schaal,
18:02 who seems to do almost any US alternative comedy.
18:06 She did "Flight of the Conchords"
18:08 and she's also been in what we do in the "Shadows" TV series.
18:12 There is Eugene, who is this surrealistic arch-type,
18:16 weird kind of kid going through growing pains,
18:20 voiced by Eugene Merman,
18:22 who is a big kind of alternative comedian,
18:25 once again, released comedy albums through Sub Pop.
18:29 And Tina, who owns the most dulcet tones
18:33 in all of teenage girls in cartoon history,
18:38 who has an obsession with zombies and butts.
18:41 Now, I've always been a fan of it,
18:44 but I also think it's always been unfairly
18:47 compared to "The Simpsons,"
18:48 and I can understand the reasons why.
18:51 "The Simpsons" was the lead-in program for "Bob's Burgers"
18:56 when it was part of Animation Domination,
18:59 which is, in America, Fox's dedicated block
19:03 of animated programming, such as, back in the day,
19:08 you'd have "King of the Hill" following on
19:10 from "The Simpsons" and stuff like that.
19:13 But where "The Simpsons" is more kind of grounded
19:16 towards family comedy,
19:17 and I understand that "Bob's Burgers"
19:19 also has the element of family comedy or family sitcom,
19:24 when you read about it,
19:26 it turns out that Fox actually wanted it
19:28 to be more of an animated workplace comedy,
19:31 like "The Office,"
19:32 rather than another kind of "Simpsons" knockoff.
19:35 And it is very, very witty.
19:39 I mean, if you've watched "Archer" before,
19:42 you know just how deadpan "Hates John Benjamin" can be.
19:47 I think that Dan Mintz, who does the voice of Tina,
19:50 is one of the breakout characters.
19:53 And it just took a life of its own.
19:56 I mean, it went from a TV series
19:58 to then getting its own film, from its own film.
20:01 It then also got its own album, again, released by Sub Pop.
20:06 That's that connection between one of the voice actors
20:09 and the record label.
20:11 And it's still going.
20:12 It's one of those rare animated shows
20:16 that hasn't been canceled yet,
20:19 despite the fact that it gets those lazy comparisons
20:22 with "The Simpsons."
20:23 And it's all on Disney+.
20:25 And look, if the world's getting to you,
20:28 I know crazy things are happening at the minute,
20:31 it's just nice to sit down, watch that unwind
20:34 and detach yourself,
20:35 because sometimes it can be very heartfelt,
20:37 and other times it can be incredibly surreal.
20:40 - Yeah.
20:41 - And it's all on Disney+, subscription required,
20:44 but it's just a brilliant show.
20:47 And I think it holds up more
20:50 than the more recent episodes of "The Simpsons,"
20:53 and it definitely has more of a consistency
20:55 than the later seasons of "The Simpsons."
20:57 So those comparisons, I think, are unfounded,
21:00 they're lazy, and it's definitely something
21:04 in its own merit, worth your viewing.
21:06 - Very good.
21:09 I just Googled it there,
21:10 and I don't recognize it at all, strangely.
21:12 I mean, I have Disney and everything,
21:14 and I've never seen it brought up,
21:15 but that's obviously the algorithm or whatever.
21:18 But no, that's cool.
21:20 It sounds like a little refreshing,
21:23 a refreshing into the world of animation for grownups.
21:27 So I might check that out at some point.
21:29 - Yeah.
21:29 I was gonna say,
21:33 and don't let the crude animation style throw you off,
21:36 because just because it's crudely animated,
21:38 home movies in 1999 were very crudely animated.
21:42 Like if anyone remembers "Doctor Cats,"
21:45 which had that real, all the lines were just shaking,
21:48 like, "Oh, this animation's terrible."
21:50 But what it may lack in the visual aesthetic,
21:55 it more than makes up for with its script writing.
21:58 So yeah, check it out.
22:00 Brilliant.
22:01 - And yeah, I know exactly Kristen Schaal,
22:03 she's prolific, isn't she, for her voice?
22:07 She's got such a unique voice.
22:09 - She does everything in terms of alternative comedy,
22:12 either being the stalker on flight of the Concords,
22:15 whether she's being a vampire.
22:18 I remember also one of Stephen's least favorite movies,
22:21 "Dinner for Schmucks."
22:22 She even had a cameo appearance in that.
22:25 So she gets everywhere.
22:27 - She's quite singular, quite singular.
22:29 Okay, that's great.
22:30 Thank you so much, Benji.
22:31 And thank you all for joining us this week.
22:33 Do look out for Friday morning's Screen Babble Weekend Watch,
22:36 which will preview what to watch over the weekend and beyond.
22:39 If you have any suggestions for what TV
22:40 we need to get into our lives,
22:41 drop us a line via our social media.
22:43 We'd love for you to rate, review,
22:44 and subscribe to the podcast,
22:46 so we can reach as many TV lovers as possible.
22:49 We'll be back next week with more Screen Babble.
22:50 Bye for now.
22:52 - Bye.
22:53 - Bye-bye.
22:53 - Benji, say bye.
22:56 Oh, there you go.
22:56 (laughs)
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