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What's on the Box? - "Shrinking" and "65" · Death by Multimedia

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This is thoughts from the metal cabin, where only one opinion
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matters, and it's not yours on. Today's Tails here of thoughts
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from the middle. Kevin will be discussing what's
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on the box which is only partly true, today's episode because
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we'll be talking about a series that I've just completed
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watching on Apple TV but then we'll also be talking about a
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movie that I went to an actual Cinema to watch.
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And I know That's sort of outrageous in this day of
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streaming services and free-to-air channels all over
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the place, and so many opportunities to see movies at
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home. But there you go, it was quite
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an experience. So that will be today's program
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where I talked about the TV series shrinking.
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And I talked about the movie 65, if any of that interest you then
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please wait around to the completion of our intro music.
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And we can talk a little bit more. on today's episode of
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what's on the box right here on thoughts, from the middle, Kevin
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What do all of you do when it comes to watching either TV at
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home or going to the movies to watch a movie or going to the
1:45
cinemas to watch a movie? Perhaps, that's a better way of
1:47
putting it. Are your lives that busy that
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you don't really have a regular thing that you can actually pour
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in at regular time and you can actually sit down and watch
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something. Have you got kids growing up
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that you need to take care of and do everything for and not
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really get to bed until late. And then you bought a time,
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you've actually sit down, you're buggered and you've got no idea
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what to watch. Or are you out in the afternoons
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sending such kids to sports or the Arts or dance or other
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things like that, or you just don't watch TV.
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Well, all of those things are quite possible.
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So what I do, as it turns out is, there's generally only a
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couple of times a week where my lovely wife and I will sit down
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together and watch something and then the other days it's either
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taking kids to and from their work after school or dealing
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with their other sort of issues like that or is it is preparing
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dinner or anything like that that can come up.
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So sometimes it's Hard to decide what you're going to watch.
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And so maybe these episodes can help you out a little bit in
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choosing something that maybe you might want to spend your
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time watching. So, for today, the TV series
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that I've just finished watching is called shrinking, and it had
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it was it's the first series, it was ten episodes and each the
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episodes went for about 3035 minutes, each and it was on
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Apple TV. So if you want to watch this,
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the at the moment, the only place you can access, that is on
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Apple TV. Now, this was developed by Bill.
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Lawrence Jason. And Britt Goldstein.
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Now, you probably know some or all of those three gentlemen,
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Bill Lawrence was the co-creator of such shows as Spin City and
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Cougar Town and recently, Ted lasso.
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And he was also the sole creator of Scrubs which went for nine
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Seasons as well. Seagull, you would probably best
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known as Marshall from How I Met Your Mother, but he's been in
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dozens of comedy films including roles and in supporting Ting
4:00
roles, and of course, other TV shows as well.
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Freaks and Geeks might be one that you will remember, was one
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of his first TV shows and Brett. Goldstein is a writer, a
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producer, and an actor. He was, he's involved as a
4:16
producer on Ted less. Oh, and he's also a writer on
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that program and he's in one of the starring roles as Roy Kent.
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So, all three of got serious backing behind them.
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When it comes to making this TV series, Series.
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Now the premise is as is said on the Wikipedia page which I'm
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going to use just for fun. A therapist.
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Jimmy LED played by Jason Segel dealing with severe grief.
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Begins to breach ethical barriers by telling his patients
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what he really thinks resulting in massive changes to his and
4:52
their lives. Now that's a general over
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simplification of what the show is all about.
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But it has an outstanding cast and Jason.
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Segel, of course, is the star along with Harrison Ford, who
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most of you will know, Christa Miller, who is married to Bill
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Lawrence and has been in a lot of his shows, Michael Urie,
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Jessica Williams, lakita Maxwell, and surprisingly, Ted
5:21
McGinley who will come to shortly.
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Now, this is an interesting show from the very start mainly
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because the We first episode makes you think, is this really
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going to be? I'll show worthy of watching
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because the opening scenes, show, Jason seagulls character
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of Jimmy, going through, a fair amount of grief as his wife has
5:45
just died and the way that he's dealing with, this is drinking
5:49
too much hiring prostitutes and taking lots of drugs.
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So anyone who thought this is gonna be a family program from
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the start, what does this sort of thought?
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One that's not quite right. Not going to expect.
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Of course, once you get through the first episode this all seems
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to even out a little bit. And Jimmy has a daughter, whose
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name is Alice, who he has also has a strained relationship with
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because he has been dealing with his grief on his own without
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being able to deal with his daughters grief.
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So, his daughter is actually getting help from their next
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door, neighbor Liz who is played by Christa Miller and her
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husband who Who is Derek played by Ted McGinley?
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Jimmy works at a firm so he's a psychiatrist firm along with
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Gabby who is played by Jessica Williams is one of the other
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therapists there and it is headed by dr.
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Paul Rhoads played by Harrison Ford, so all of these guys come
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into it and then you have Michael Urie.
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Who is also terrific. Who plays Brian, who is Jimmy's
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best friend, and he's a very gay, best friend.
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And one of the patients that Jimmy look X2 in the first
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episode is Sean, it was played by Luke Tenney.
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And he's a patient who is suffering from very much anger
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management issues that he had a couple of tours of Afghanistan
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and he has issues that have been going on over there.
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So, there is all the characters who imply.
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So, the relationships between all of these characters builds,
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as you go through the series, and it's obvious, that Jimmy had
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a reasonable relationship with his next-door neighbors with Liz
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and Derek at the start. Now, it's a bit strained because
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of what he's going through and the fact that Liz is dominating
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the looking after of his daughter Alice.
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He's also having troubles at work.
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Jimmy is because he's unable to help his patients or doesn't
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feel he's able to help his patients and so suddenly he
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decides he's actually going to become more involved in their
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stories and he's going to suggest things to them that are
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normal therapist probably would not do and of course this puts
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Paul offside. He's boss.
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Who doesn't agree with what he's doing.
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Now, Paul also As we find out fairly early on is suffering
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from early onset Parkinson's disease, which he has to do
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with, he's also dealing with his estranged daughter.
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So there's a lot of stuff going on here.
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That builds really nicely through the 10 episodes until we
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get to the end of what is now going to be the first series?
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There's already been a second series that has been
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commissioned for next year and to be honest I got to the end of
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this and I was really happy with the way.
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All of the stories were tied up and I would have been quite
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happy to see it finished. They're now in a perfect world
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that's where it would have finished.
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Things had been solved. Things have been said,
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relationships had been sort of mended to a certain degree and
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everything was very nicely, tied up until we get to the last
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scene where something happens, which will obviously, then
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trigger what happens in the second series.
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He's but overall, you've just got to watch the characters and
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the way they are played. Now Jason Segel is always been
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terrific as a comedic come drama actor.
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And obviously anyone who's watched How I Met Your Mother
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would know how good he was in that role of Marshall, which
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moved from Comedy to a serious actor at different times.
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And he does the same here, he's just so easy to watch and does
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plays his role. Perfectly Harrison.
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Ford is actually quite terrific as Paul Rhoads and again we all
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know Harrison is able to do comedy, but he does it.
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So subtly here it's really nicely done.
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And again, you have someone like Christa Miller who's been so
10:15
insane. Many of Bill Lawrence has other
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TV shows and she's always very good in what she does.
10:21
And I'm very impressed with the way that Jessica Williams is
10:27
Gabby. Gabby is a terrific role and she
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has really well through it and the way that Alice Jimmy's
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daughter has to go with things, I'm not absolutely sure that
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that's sort of true to life. But I think there's a lot of
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strings pulled their that, the may or may not have happened
10:42
with her character, but it seems to work.
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Well, and Sean, who is the patient, that Paul gets who
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eventually moves into his pool house.
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One of the things that he shouldn't be doing his
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character, actually moves nicely into the group as well, so the
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whole story is based around the relationships of those
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characters and also Paul's work, I sorry, Jimmy's work and Paul's
11:07
work actually in Gabby's work and how that all comes together.
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Together, it's very easy to watch very nicely done.
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And surprisingly enough for me, the star is only a recurring
11:21
character, but Ted McGinley, as Derek is just absolutely bring
11:25
it. Now, everyone would know, Ted
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McGinley from many things, the latter days of Happy Days,
11:32
Revenge of the Nerds. And of course, Married With
11:36
Children, And he's always played that kind of off boot character
11:41
who's just not really a star, but he's just there in the
11:43
background and he says, a couple of things occasionally and then
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sort of disappears. And he does the same thought of
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that sort of thing here. But I've just think he perfectly
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Nails the character and the way that it is used in the show and
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every time he came on screen, I just laughed and I really
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enjoyed the way that he came into it.
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So what more can I say? Well, I don't know, obviously
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want to give away the entire story of the whole series but I
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think anyone who is in who enjoys any of those actors will
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get a real kick out of this. Like I said, it's a basically a
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comedy-drama, there's a lot of comedy in.
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There's a couple of cringey Bits And there are times you just
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wish that they would get through what they were doing.
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And then sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.
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So as I said, 10 episodes about half an hour each, so it doesn't
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take too long to get through and I mean you could probably do it
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in a week. If you gave yourself a couple of
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episodes every day or in your spare time, whenever you get
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time through afford every three or four days, maybe you sit down
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and watch a couple of episodes and I think you'll find it's
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easy. Watching performances are
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terrific. The writing is very good and you
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know, There's got to be a second series so you know that the
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story is not ending. So when you get to it and you
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get to the end, you'll say, oh that's what's going to happen.
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Okay. Anyway, shrinking Apple TV.
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If you don't have Apple TV, you can get obviously your free
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trial periods for that kind of stuff.
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If you want to have a look, there's lots of other great
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stuff on Apple TV off and which I'll be talking over about
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having the next few weeks, but this one is really worth
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watching. Watching.
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What's on your mind? Particularly opened.
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I'm trying. Every time I get rid of one
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compulsion. Another compulsion comes up.
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Spoiler alert. I feel like I'm stuck.
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Right. How's that make?
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You feel. It's 3:00 in the morning to ask
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is this you forever? Hippo chicken having grieving
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her stop. You're doing sad face.
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We should just face. I've resting dead wife face.
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He just kept on going on and on about how dumb I am, but he
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loves me. Your husband is emotionally,
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abusive. He's not working on it.
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He doesn't intend to just leave him.
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Okay, I think I can help people if I get my hands a little bit
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dirtier, mom, wanted to scatter her ashes.
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Right. We know what they should do.
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Don't you ever want to just shake them?
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We don't shake him. I think that back to the front,
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uh, sounds someone at the call, you just couldn't turn down your
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career. Take me with you coin flip.
15:08
Get her here. This is my office, but took you
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longer than it should have? My patients are really thriving
15:16
this thing. I'm doing it.
15:17
Really work. Working, but right behind you.
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You get through this life unscathed.
15:27
Can't remember mom's laughs. Feel her slipping away faced
15:33
with a choice. You're going to let your grief
15:35
ground yet. Or are you going to face it
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comes from the other side? Leave your car here.
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I'm a white guy in Pasadena. The cops will probably just take
15:49
it back to my house for me. Let me nice, Derek.
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How's it going? It's walking the dog.
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I didn't want my patient moved into her sister's house.
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Sounds like the days off to a great start for both of us.
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So on the weekend, I actually went to the cinemas and isn't it
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funny that when you go to the system's, you try to line up for
16:19
weeks when you've got a chance to actually go to watch a movie
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and you see the movies that are coming up and you think I really
16:26
want to see that at the cinemas and I want to see that one and
16:29
whatever it is and when you actually find a little two or
16:34
three our hole in your whole whole week or month, that you
16:39
can go to the movies. He's and you look at what's on
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and all you can find are bloody kids movies or maybe should them
16:50
up movies that your partner doesn't want to watch or, you
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know, maybe it's a romantic comedy that you don't want to
16:57
watch and you end up thinking I don't want to watch anything
17:01
like this. So what are we going to do when
17:02
you end up staying at home anyway and watching something on
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streaming service? So that happens a lot.
17:10
Thus, and we try really hard to find a time to go to see movies
17:14
and then obviously can't find anything on.
17:17
So as it turns out, we had this period on the weekend.
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We had a two-and-a-half hour gap where we could go to the movies
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and the only things that we could see.
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I think from memory was John Wick, for, which, I can
17:31
guarantee you. My wife definitely was not going
17:34
to watch. Or 65.
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And so we went to see 65 now, I went into this film thinking
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this will be okay, I'd seen the trailer and from the trailer, I
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had imagined that what had happened was that sometime in
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the future in our future. Adam Driver, who is the star was
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in a spaceship and he's had an accident.
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He's been hit by an asteroid and he crash-landed on Earth.
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Earth. But at some way, he's traveled
18:08
back in time because he ends up back on Earth. 65 million years
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ago, that was my take on what had actually occurred.
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And of course, that were talking about, in the trailer, how he
18:18
had to try and get home. And I'm thinking, how is he
18:21
going to get home? He's just traveled back in time.
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65 million years. There's no one in the world.
18:26
You can go back through time, no matter what happens.
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Unless there's a wormhole, it's opening up on, you know, in
18:31
Australia somewhere, and he's got to travel to Australia, to
18:33
find it or All right. Now he has to travel around the
18:37
Sun really, really fast and travel.
18:39
Back that why you know like Superman did in Superman the
18:42
movie? So, of course, I had no idea
18:46
what was going on, but I thought.
18:47
Okay, let's go and have a look. And I thought again, okay, it's
18:51
a dinosaur film. You know, we've had Donna's
18:53
fulfills, you had Jurassic Park. We all know what Jurassic Park's
18:57
like and how some of those films are just some of the greatest
19:01
action films of all time and some of the Jurassic Park films,
19:04
sort of sort of think well, okay, parts of the story, okay,
19:07
but the rest is just rubbish. So I went to sleep with an open
19:11
mind. I thought Adam Driver is always
19:13
good in everything I've seen him in, I really enjoy him and so I
19:17
went to see it now, as it turns out, there's only four actors in
19:21
This film, in the whole film and it's fantastically done.
19:27
Because the first thing that comes on the screen is basically
19:30
it tells you that the Universe was started with the big bang
19:35
and that prior to humans. Walking the Earth, there are
19:40
other worlds that were populated by sentient beings.
19:45
And then we go to a Celine of on a beach, on a different planet
19:48
on a planet called Samaras. And we have Adam Driver and his
19:54
wife and his daughter there. And so suddenly it's already.
19:57
All right. Okay, so this isn't set on Earth
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at the start, it said on a different planet and it's
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already 65 million years ago and Adams going to get any spaceship
20:11
there and he's going to get there and he's going to crash
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and he's going to find out that that And it is actually earth,
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right? Okay.
20:17
So I've got it and that's where we go.
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So as I said, only for actors in the whole film most of it is
20:26
Adam Driver for the being the main character.
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Who's as I just said he was, he's transporting people to a
20:33
different planet and gets in an accident and crash lands.
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And he has one of the younger kids on this on the shuttle that
20:44
he's Loving is the only other person who survives.
20:49
So he finds his rescue, Potter's crashed when the when the any
20:55
spaceship crashed on Earth, it broke in half and he's found his
21:01
shadow. His Escape pod, sorry about 15
21:04
km away, so he has to get 15 cases way, but of course, now
21:09
there's dinosaurs and all that kind of stuff.
21:13
And this is where The movie gets amazingly interesting because I
21:19
just thought, okay, he's going to have to avoid some dinosaurs
21:23
here. He's going to get to the Pod.
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Surely, you know, he's going to get away.
21:28
Everything will be fine in the end.
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And then the next hour is one of the most fascinating hours of
21:38
film that I have watched in some time, because it's non stop,
21:44
whatever he's doing. Where he's going in this
21:46
travailing. Firstly, trying to fix these
21:48
spacecraft. That can't work.
21:50
Okay, he's worked out. He's got to go and get to this
21:52
Escape pod, right? We've got to get there and he
21:54
comes across bang. Okay, there's this kind of
21:57
dinosaur here and whatever. And then, oh my God, he's going
22:00
to, according to get eaten and whatever.
22:01
And the kid that's with him is going to get the same.
22:04
They get through that and then within 30 seconds, something
22:06
else has happened. And then I'll then they slide
22:10
down here and then we're in quicksand.
22:11
And then we're being chased by a dozen different.
22:15
Dinosaurs. And then we've got these great
22:16
big T-Rex, or something like that.
22:18
Adam. And then it's night time and
22:20
he's going to try and sleep. But he can't sleep because it's
22:23
got other things going on and the girl who's with him, doesn't
22:27
speak his language. So they're unable to communicate
22:30
in the normal way so that of course that makes it harder and
22:34
it really is explaining it so terribly and it's not until you
22:39
actually watch it that you realize how amazingly will this
22:43
was written and filmed because It's just non-stop for an hour.
22:47
And I know that my wife was sitting there in a couple of
22:51
times. She had to close her eyes and
22:53
turn away because she couldn't watch because she thought this
22:56
was going to happen or definitely this.
22:58
Something's gonna happen. Like the whole they would
23:02
crawling through was just going to collapse on them and cause
23:04
crush them with with this, the two ton of stone above them or
23:08
that they were going to stand there.
23:09
And then out of the forest is dinosaurs going to come and
23:12
bite. Someone's leg off or their head
23:14
off. For whatever it was, it was just
23:17
non-stop. The whole thing was just
23:19
fantastic, and you sort of get away from this dinosaur, all
23:23
this particular incident, and before you knew what you were
23:26
already going headlong into the next one.
23:29
I was blown away by how much, I enjoyed this film, and it's like
23:34
I said, it's, it's simple in the fact that there's very few
23:38
actors. There's very little dialogue,
23:42
it's all sort of man against ridiculous animal and yet it's
23:48
really, really entertaining. And so will, then and Adam
23:52
Driver always has a presence on screen, and he definitely has
23:56
that in this film. And the girl who plays He's
24:01
offsider Ariana. Greenblatt surname.
24:04
The actress who plays KOA just terrific.
24:08
She's really good in this as well and I'm assuming this is
24:11
her first film. I could well be wrong, but that
24:14
was just, she was just terrific in the role.
24:16
So look I know it won't be for everyone and I think maybe
24:24
watching it on the small screen you will lose a bit of the
24:27
impact which is unfortunate. I was so glad I saw this on the
24:30
big screen because I just loved the way the whole thing came
24:36
across the screen, the parts in space and then, of course the
24:40
Dinosaurs part. And then the ending is to why
24:42
they had to get off as quickly as I could possibly do it, which
24:45
all tied up really nicely. And so it's difficult for me
24:51
too. Say everyone should go and see
24:54
it and perhaps that anyone everyone will actually enjoy it
25:00
and it's not really even if you enjoy Jurassic Park that you
25:03
will enjoy this. Because it's not really that
25:06
kind of film. It's an action film where we
25:11
have someone trying to get from here to there, rather than I
25:15
guess, as in Jurassic Park. Well, we're trying to escape the
25:18
dinosaurs to get out of the park, not quite the same.
25:22
Sort of vibe and of course a much bigger cast in that one as
25:25
well. Where is?
25:26
This is really just two people against the animatronics and the
25:30
special effects but I really enjoyed it.
25:32
And if you're hard up for something to do, while it's
25:35
still on at the movies and you've got a couple of hours
25:38
spare you could do worse things than go and watch 65.
25:52
Our ship was hit by an undocumented Astra transporting
26:01
35 passengers. Send help.
26:25
Crash-landed on an Uncharted Celestial body.
26:39
Locate One Survivor. A child.
26:51
Sphere is breathable. Something alien.
27:46
You and I are going to get home. And that concludes today's
28:12
episode. So for those of you who have
28:14
made it this far, thank you once again for tuning in and getting
28:17
through my ramblings I hope you found it interesting enough.
28:21
Even if maybe gave you a may help you make a decision as to
28:26
whether you should watch something or not, that's to be
28:31
honest. I'm just doing this because I
28:32
enjoyed both those shows, and I felt like putting that out there
28:36
for everybody. And again, neither shrinking.
28:40
Nor 65 will be for everyone but I think that certainly with
28:43
shrinking. If you love those kids, those
28:46
actors you will love the show and 65.
28:51
I think if you like action films and you're like, things are just
28:54
keep going and going and, and if you like my wife, who likes,
28:59
just looking at Adam Driver, I'm sure that you'll enjoy it as
29:02
well. So yes, thank you again for
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tuning in to what's on the box? Perhaps, what's on the screen
29:09
might have been a better one this week and as we go along
29:13
maybe I'll have more thoughts on more TV shows and more movies to
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express to you and allow you to listen to my dulcet tones.
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Continue on when they've been already had enough.
29:27
Good eye. That is the end of the program.
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Thanks again for tuning in and I do hope that if you enjoyed this
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or even if you didn't that, you will tune in for the next
29:36
episode of thoughts from the middle cabin.
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Cheers. You have been listening to a
29:58
metal, Kevin production.