A Merry Reference Christmas 2022 (Part 1)

Full transcript of A Merry Reference Christmas 2022 (Part 1).

0:05KT: Ha. And motherfuckers. Mm-hmm. , welcome to the 2022 For Your Reference Christmas special. Woo hoo. With It's a Wonderful Oti Life. . How are you feeling, Oti?

0:22Oti: Good. Good. I feel so relieved. One and down the year, man.

0:26KT: Yeah. Are you surprised at some of the stuff that you forgot we covered?

0:31Oti: Yeah. I was like, oh, was this this year? Sometimes I feel like it's crossing over. Yeah. So, um, I'm

0:36KT: really pleased you're working on your Christopher Nolan screenplay. I am , as a matter of fact, . Uh, it's very exciting. Friends and lovers. Uh, we're not going to spoil anything. Like Oti said. We will be reflecting on the year that we've had. We're going to be rating everything because we believe discussions are more important than ratings.

0:56KT: So we like to leave it at the booty end of the year. Mm-hmm. , if you're feeling nasty, let's ride it and snap it off. Friends and lovers. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. And we're going to kick it off with the end of the culture, Oti, end of the culture. May the culture prosper, but it will never be the same after the end of Insecure who?

1:21Oti: Hmm.

1:21KT: Wow. Wow. Goodbye to Jay Ellis.

1:25Oti: You know, like sometimes I was looking at this lesson, looking at the amount of things we've covered this year and the things we've watched. I think Insecure will hold such a significant place for me. Yeah. That I could not even comprehend giving it anything less than a

1:42KT: Yes.

1:44Oti: It was fantastic. They wrapped it up so beautifully. You know, things that I thought would happen, one of the better things that I hoped would happen did happen and Wow. Like Issa Ray is. Fucking amazing.

1:59KT: Do they speak vindication in Insecure?

2:02Oti: They should . They do.

2:03KT: They absolutely do. And we are starting this year off strong friends and lovers. I also rate Insecure season five a 10. Nice. Tens, tens, tens across the board, friends and lovers. I was actually going to ask you, Oti, because you know, you have your years where you're very generous or you're very scrutinous with your ratings. Um, is this an indication of the year ratings to come?

2:29Oti: Oh, I don't know. We'll see how it go. Okay. Yeah. I'm not gonna spoil anything for you, man. Okay. Let's see how it goes.

2:36KT: All right. I, I was having a great year, , if, if I can spoil, so lovely. Uh, so let's get into January. The very first episode, Succession.

2:47Oti: Oh, I was, I was a bit trepidatious with this rating. Okay. But just because I felt that this was one of the. I don't know. There was something in between that sort of made me not give it a whole 10. I gave it a nine.

3:03KT: Not even for Sanaa Lathan, you weren't given more than a nine.

3:07Oti: If she spoke more than 50 words, I would've been, you know, you know, nudged into a 9.5. But yeah, it's, it's a solid, solid, solid nine.

3:15KT: Well, I don't have any qualms and I'm slushing commission free. It is a 10, friends and lovers. Ooh, wow. Just the dynamics and Shiv had, there were some delicious moments in Shiv's direction. I just really, really enjoyed this season of Succession.

3:30Oti: I love the vulnerability between the, uh, the siblings. Oh, it's something that we've not seen.

3:35KT: Rethink your rating then.

3:38Oti: Yeah, I like it's all coming back, but I'm still gonna stick with my nine,

3:42KT: just the most unfeeling children from the richest daddy in the world. I had a great time. It is a ten. Nice. Oh, I also forgot to mention friends and lovers shout outs to our patrons that joined in, um, on our ratings. And a lot of them were very lovely and joined the wave of love and someone in particular, um, used their points very strategically. Ooh. So we'll see that to come the next film.

4:10KT: Otherwise, films that we covered was the Matrix Trilogy plus Resurrections. So we're going to do these separately because by God you are not going to like turn down my average with the middle parts So revisiting the OG non-gendered film bro Matrix.

4:34Oti: One of the most best piece of cinema out there. Yeah.

4:37KT: And try to be replicated. Try to duplicate it. Yeah.

4:41Oti: Uh, I could not give it anything other than a 10.

4:44KT: Hey. Okay. Well now that we've got the elephant out of the room, Reloaded.

4:53Oti: this is where things start getting a bit tricky. I'll give it a seven.

4:58KT: Whoa, why? Oh, you went slow. Did you get a fully Splush Wachowski cut? I gave it a six. Ooh.

5:05Oti: I don't know. Like I, I think part of it is nostalgia. I remember watching Reloaded and I remember people hating on it, but I loved it.

5:12KT: But you watched it recently as well?

5:15Oti: I did, but I still have to remember part of my sort of growing up and just thinking, oh man, this is fucking cool. Okay. So it's still at a seven for me. Otherwise, it would've been lower. If not, if I hadn't watched it earlier, it would've been lower. .

5:28KT: Okay. Interesting. Mm-hmm. , there's nothing to ground out of that, I guess, instead of the dogma that they had in the film. But let's, let's move on to The Matrix Revolutions. Thoughts, feelings. It was the stinkiest one, was it not?

5:40Oti: It was the stinkiest one. a really prolonged stink fest. , uh, . But again, nostalgia will play a big part in this. Okay. And I give it a seven.

5:56KT: I gave it a five. Ooh, you really need to prove you, like, not prove your master, but like, There needs to be a reason why, you know, like, obviously because Trilogy. But yeah, it just, it didn't work. And again, I will blame it to the studio involvement, not the beautiful love and lorded Wachowskis, um, because it works. And go and check out our episode. I talk, oh, I attempt to talk about deconstruction and how films are in essence, a matrix. You know, you need to buy into the world.

6:26KT: Um, and whether you buy into it or not, that will, I guess, you know, talk to your emotional resonance if that's your flavor and that's what you look for in a film. But I would say, you know, the, the negative sort of trappings in the rest of the trilogy had nothing to do with the Wachowskis or at least the core of what they were trying to achieve from the first Matrix.

6:46KT: And that's also why we needed to split the ratings, because I was like, the first one is not going to be hampered by the other two.

6:53Oti: Yeah. Yeah. And I think for me, it just came down to. Feeling the closure that I felt in needed in seeing Agent Smith, or you know, Neo and all that. I just, I couldn't give myself any lower, even though I hated it or I didn't love it as much. I just, I couldn't bring myself. It's still The Matrix of the end of the day. Yeah. It's Keanu what's not to love about our world.

7:20KT: I guess so, but sometimes I want to get your genuine view. I do. Get it off outside of the mics. No, you, you, you get it.

7:27Oti: You know, we had Jada in this, like, there's a lot of , there's a lot of new characters added in our film.

7:34KT: Just say black . You're talking about the new, we know what you're saying.

7:42Oti: Well, I'm, I'm being diplomatic here, you know, so I couldn't bring myself to giving any lower. Okay.

7:49KT: Seven years. But I don't think you even like Jada's character in it.

7:53Oti: I didn't , but since when does that matter?

7:56KT: To you. Yeah. to you. Yeah. Oh, the conflicts that you fight in yourself. Just enjoy it or don't enjoy it. My love. I do. All right.

8:07Oti: The are my ra, my ratings reflect what I feel.

8:09KT: You have an intricate matrix that you navigate through as well. , speaking of an intricate matrix, let's talk about, and just like I did with Godfather and I disregarded particular films, to me it's just the original Matrix of Matrix Resurrections. Yeah. Well, hey, don't you dare decide The Matrix Resurrections. I wanna kick you out of these ratings. I don't know, like

8:32Oti: unlike you, I didn't see why we needed this. Like, no.

8:36KT: Well, I didn't see that either. To be fair,

8:38Oti: I love the world and resurrection as as, as flawed as it was, I still felt, okay, it's finished. Let's close it up. It's down.

8:49KT: If you rated this lower, then either of the second and third film, we are fighting. We are scrapping and I'm meeting you at the car park. Cause there is no way. You just said you enjoyed being in the world and now you're saying this one is unnecessary. It's smelling like Dave Oti Chappelle in here. Whoa.

9:08Oti: No, I'm not even gonna go there because I still give it a seven. Ew. I give it a seven.

9:16KT: You are the stinkiest part of this franchise.

9:19Oti: I'm standard with my, I'm started with my train of thought. I'm not going to give it any lower because I still love the world.

9:25KT: You know what? It's been so long since our Christmas ratings, I forget how much we fight

9:32Oti: At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself if, if my ratings start at a six before the movie, before I even press play, then what it takes for them to go lower or higher. In as much as I went into this thinking that I didn't need this or the world didn't, The Matrix, while didn't need this new addition. I still felt that at the end of it, seeing the characters that I love, it was a point to its extent, and it was like, okay, cool.

9:59KT: That doesn't make sense. It does, it does. It makes, you're just saying the opposite of what you said for Reloaded and, um, no,

10:07Oti: I, I, I, I had qualms with those and rewatching them. I, I felt those qualms were, were sort of magnified, but still, and nostalgia played a big part into that. With this, I felt like, cool. It's all new and I love Matrix and all that, and I think we watched the first three over again.

10:28KT: You don't deserve art. Can I just say ? I'll be mature about this, but you don't deserve art. You get annoyed that people don't understand. Noble, you don't understand this film. So how dare get outta my house. All right. Tell, tell me you're eating then. A 10. Now, you

10:44Oti: know, you're playing yourself. I

10:46KT: don't know, . I don't care for that decided silence because there were so many delicious morsels in the Matrix Resurrections, and it was a nod to the trans community who it belonged to in the first fucking place. You fucking film, bro, Oti. Okay, get off, get off your controller horse and let's fight. We are Scrapper

11:06Oti: A seven is a respectable score

11:08KT: to, to Winkers . Oh, wow. I, yeah. See, I forgot what this was like. . Yeah. Friends and lovers, you're allowed to have an opinion about TV and film. Unless I love you, then we're fighting and we're scrapping Uh, let's move on. Doom Patrol. Oh, don't think about the Doom Patrol we're watching now. Think about the film. Yeah,

11:35Oti: yeah. Uh, I, I'm trying to separate that from what it was and I think it's one of the better, um, comic book adaptations we've seen and I just loved it. I really did. And I gave it a 8.5. Okay.

11:50KT: I gave it an eight. Nice. It was cool. Yeah. Super cool. Ga I would say The Boys are still my top. Yeah. Oh, actually The Boys is in here, so let's not keep talking. I think Peacemaker might also be here as well. Yeah, it might be. All right. Well, there we go. Uh, and we finished off January with the indigenous Australian TV and movie series Redfern Now.

12:14Oti: Wow. I had feelings watching this. Yeah. You know, um, I remember, think. You know, like I have a lot of qualms when the community has, you know, doesn't represent what I feel like it needs to.

12:28KT: I think, I think you're okay, but it's on a, on a broader scale, when the lens is pointing inward Yeah. That's where you have qualm.

12:36Oti: Yeah. And, and if, if Jordan Peele has taught us anything, we need to look inward more than anything. So with this doom, with this, um, Redfern Now, I gave it a nine.

12:50KT: Aw boo. What if you rate all this nine is bloody outstanding. I gave it a 10. Okay. I gave it a 10.

12:59Oti: The moment where I was like feeling like I needed to throw my shoe at the tv,

13:02KT: but that's the point. It's evocative .

13:07Oti: I get it. But at the end of the day, I. I couldn't separate myself from my emotions to see that I could give this a 10 just because of how raw it felt. But that's,

13:17KT: and that's credit to them. If you have characters that just shake hands with each other, what kind of compelling drama is that? And sometimes I need kumbaya. Yeah. But then don't you also understand that within a community there can be improvement and they can be addressing of other parts of the community that aren't being addressed?

13:36Oti: Yes. I, I understand that completely. But I remember, you know, I, I, I couldn't just let myself give this a ten in as much as I loved it because of the qualms. And my qualms are what fundamentally held it back.

13:54KT: Okay, well, well, let's do this. Friends and lovers. We are definitely got not gonna be rating this series, but there is a show called The English Woo . Exactly. Um, with Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer. Friends and lovers. I do have a lot of time meet us in the dms, but be prepared.

14:11KT: It's either nastiness or you're going to get a lesson. Um, and it's going to be the latter of that, but do you understand the setup of a show like that compared to Redfern Now? I, do you see what I'm saying? So you need to make sure that you are balanced in the way that you rate it. Otherwise it feels like you're putting them in the same bucket.

14:29Oti: I'm, I, I would definitely not even put those two in the same bloody world or universe. Yeah. Like the completely different. So with, with Redfern Now, I, I get what you're saying. Uhhuh. , you know, I understand about, I felt Nine is representative of how I felt after watching the show. Yep. Rather than if, if, if you told me to do the first, I think, was it the first three episodes?

14:53Oti: It would definitely still be sitting at a 10. It's what came afterwards. Okay. Once we kept on learning more about the characters that I felt, or getting different stories is when I felt that, okay, I can see what they're doing and I can see what they're telling. But fundamentally the qualm was still there.

15:12Oti: Okay. And I didn't feel like at the end of it was like, you know, how you'd get a teachable moment. There wasn't any that I felt that was distinctly portrayed that I felt, okay, cool, you showed us this, but then you told us this is how it should be. Yeah. And I think that's why I just couldn't bring myself for it to be a 10.

15:32Oti: And I and I and I, and I fully understand and accept that that's within myself rather than whatever it is that they've done. Okay. Or portrayed because I, I, I fully accepted this for you and maybe different people could be a 10, but my baggage brings it down a bit.

15:48KT: Okay. Again, in any other world it wouldn't be a problem, but I just wanna fight ya. I know. Speaking of fighting, we are getting to our Tarantino run to celebrate our next year of podcast, our three years of podcasting rather in the For Your Reference household. And we covered Quentin Jerome Tarantino, oof. Cue the N word count. Friends and Lo. And we have our first patron rating. How act Ah,

16:16Oti: I was suspecting your first patron rating would be for.

16:21KT: I see. I see. Mm. But they probably knew we were going to rate it higher. Higher? Yeah. Mm-hmm. All right. And this is from Paul. Okay. And I'm going to read it to you and then you can guess his rating. Mm-hmm. Are you ready? Yeah. The second best film in the world. Who right after get this, The Batman 2022.

16:42Oti: Paul needs to get in the bin. Paul is rets.

16:47KT: Oh, we love you Paul. But what the fuck? Let's keep going. Uh, it gave me a taste for filmmaking and a passion for film. Absolute masterpiece. Based on that description, what do you think Paul rated Reservoir Dogs?

16:59Oti: Paul gave me a 10. Cause he watches as a baby and he loved it. . And he can't see past it.

17:04KT: That's the problem. You were just talking about nostalgia. So you can't come Paul. Yeah, I'm not coming for him. For us. You just talked about nostalgia, . Yeah. Just like I don't give graces to Oti, Oti doesn't give graces to our patrons. Friends and lovers. Yeah,

17:17Oti: for sure. Wow. Paul. Paul, I understand. I'm not going, I'm, I'm not gonna come for him for feeling nostalgic about this. I'm feeling like, oh man, it's the best thing he's ever seen. I give it a seven.

17:30KT: I give it a 7.5. All right. Yeah. So it would've stayed in the mid-ground, Paul, if he didn't rate this fucking film. Okay. Let's move on to Tarantino, because we did do six films. Seven, if you include actual, like the actual films or Kill Bill, uh, Pulp Fiction, we have another patron rating, Oti.

17:52Oti: How many po How many reaches did Paul get? .

17:56KT: You ready? Mm-hmm. . You need to be ready. Yeah. Do they speak FYI and what? . Every time KT makes that reference, I cackle. Mm-hmm. . It's still QT's best, even with his underwhelming performance as Jimmy, do you remember Quentin Tarantino's performance in Pulp Fiction? I do. Yeah, I do. What do you think Julio rated it? I think he gave it a nine. He gave it a 10, Oti. 10. A 10. Let's, let's bring it down. Let's bring down the average.

18:30KT: What did you rate it? My love. I gave it an eight. I gave it an eight. Nice. But it's also frustrating because of the, you know, the sort of weird sort of dialogue with black characters, but it's still too good. Like even with Ving Rhames.

18:45Oti: Yeah. I remember when I, when I was rating this, I was like thinking, oh, okay, don't even think about Samuel L. Jackson were rating this. Otherwise, I think I would've just given everything a two . So, so yeah. An it is, is is

18:57KT: fair, is it Samuel L. Jackson or is he just a product of the industry that he's in?

19:03Oti: Just disappointing through and through, I guess. Mm-hmm. I, I, I thought he'd look past the, or it's a job thing.

19:11KT: Okay. You know? Okay. But yeah, Oti, Oti is spiraling into the abyss. Now let's continue. We have Jackie, run it back, Pam Grier, Brown. Are you ready? I am. We have another patron rating. Okay. Surprising. Just like Pam Grier. It's very topheavy . This month is very top heavy with patron ratings and this is from the beautiful, lovely Jamie. Nice. I will go for Jackie Brown as it's the Tarantino film that intrigues me more with age and I love your episode on it.

19:44KT: Oh, thanks for the plug . What do you think Jamie rated it? Uh, nine a 10

19:54Oti: People are giving the tens

19:56KT: are here, right? They're throwing tens at 10. And Tarantino. Man,

20:00Oti: if you ever go to a strip club, you'll be broke by within an hour. . Alright. Um, I gave it a nine.

20:08KT: Oh fuck off. I gave it a 10. I'm going to delete your rating. What? Why?

20:14Oti: Because it's guarantee I just deducted a point. Oh,

20:17KT: too .

20:20Oti: No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I, this is where I was bottling with myself. I really,

20:26KT: did you give Bel-Air a 10? I'm gonna fight you.

20:27Oti: I really love this movie. You know, uh uh, from the soundtrack to everything he did in this, it was magnificent, but I still couldn't bring myself to give it a 10. Again, this is where the Oti baggage comes in. I could not separate this with all the other qualms that I have, and that's not fair.

20:50KT: Do some healing, man.

20:52Oti: I need to do healing. I need therapy. It's not fair, but it's, it's what it is, you know? AK AK is fair enough.

21:01KT: You, you've, you've besmirched the Pam, you are out of the Pam Grier fan club. You're not allowed there anymore. , you can say an Uma Thurman's fan club.

21:09Oti: I guess once we start doing the Foxy Browns, you'll see it'll be different. Okay.

21:14KT: Oti Exploitation, , um, no Patron Ratings for Kill Bill. Um, I didn't even split them into separate films, cuz to me it's the same fucking thing. Mm-hmm. thoughts, ratings.

21:26Oti: Wow. I'll gave you the six. Just out of respect and out of .

21:33KT: So you, you, you removed marks because you were angry, but you gave points for respect. That makes no sense now.

21:40Oti: Like I remember watching the first time and I think watching it the second time was really, really hard. I enjoyed it the first time I watched this movie when I was younger. Uhhuh watching it now, it was harder to get through, especially the second one. . I didn't even know what that is. I think my six is mostly just for the first one alone. I gave a six as well. Everything else was just, just daunt. Like it would've been in the Jesus rose territory. Okay.

22:08KT: Wow. That's saying a lot. Yeah. Huh. Um, let's move on to something more fun. Uh, not necessarily the subject matter, but definitely the tone of it, Inglourious Basterds, Oti.

22:21Oti: Oh, wow. So if you remember, I had issues trying to watch this for the, for the longest time.

22:28KT: Never. I tried watching it many times. And this is the first time you watched it all?

22:30Oti: Yeah. I never got it past five minutes. I gave this an 8.5.

22:36KT: I gave it a 10. Wow. I had a fruitful year, Oti. Clearly you still have some demons. You're fighting I'm just on my Nimbus cloud and I'm, I'm elevating to my final form. Wow. . Um, there's really nothing to say aside from it being beautiful and great Christoph Waltz in that iconic scene. Um, just great, great. Beautiful. Amazing. Great. And you're not gonna catch me doing Jackie Brown. Less than that. So they're both 10

23:09KT: Let's round off the Tarantino run, uh, with Django Unchained. We had very, very interesting, both of us had very interesting experiences from when we first watched it, um, to a part of this Tarantino run. So what did you rate it? I'd give it a seven. See, there's your black tax. I gave it 6.5.

23:28Oti: Mm-hmm. . I just thought it wouldn't be fair if I clumped something like Kill Bill two with this in the same, in the same level. It's, it's different. It's se it's a seven.

23:40KT: Just enjoy what you enjoy, you know? Yeah. You're spending so much time cooking the books over there.

23:44Oti: I'm not cooking the books, it's just mitral or fallen, how I do my ratings.

23:48KT: I love this pivot change. I love this. Um, you know, this sort of tonal change, it kind of encapsulates the For Your Reference podcast. In March we kicked off Demon Slayer. Oh, mm. The Entertainment District, if you're nasty. So good. I think this is where our usual, you know, film or tour ends. They just skip it for the week. , we just have a very v wide variety, um, friends and lovers. So, so what did you rate it? I give it an 9.5. Whoa. You got Japanese tax now?

24:22Oti: It would've been a 10 if it wasn't for, I think the Mugen Train brought it down slightly. Uhhuh . It wasn't as strong as I expected it to be. Yes. But afterwards with the Entertainment District, he just continued being stronger and stronger delivering. So much on like, you know what people would say, oh, it's the best level of anime you need to watch Chainsaw Man or some shit. No, sometimes things are popular because they're fucking good.

24:49KT: So like Tarantino,

24:52Oti: don't even . It's, so that's why I give it an 9.5 here.

24:57KT: Sorry, just to clarify, you don't have Japanese tax, you have weeaboo tax? Mm-hmm. ? Uh, I gave it an eight. Okay. It's ki

25:06Oti: I felt like you enjoyed it more though.

25:07KT: I enjoyed it more in the first season, but we have to average out everything we've watched.

25:13Oti: Don't you think Entertainment District just like lifted it differently to a different level? Like everything that they've set up, up to the point just came at, you know, just came to a fucking really good, um, moment where you could see everything they've planned out.

25:30KT: Oh, . I just, I could not, he's entered the chat of adjusting ratings, but he's talking about fucking anime and I'm talking about indigenous people. I dunno. Wow. I just felt, wow.

25:43Oti: I just felt, it was a moment where I felt it separated itself and I didn't really expect it, especially after Mugen Train. I thought, okay, this is gonna be weird. I thought they, they had such a really cool, cool, cool story and then it went a bit sideways and with Entertainment District, with everything that they did there.

26:04Oti: It just elevated it so, so much. The knowing characters weren't so annoying. They had some more backstory. We got to learn a bit more about them, what their abilities are, and I just, You know, the vulnerability, the thinking that everyone's going to die. Like I don't know what you are watching, but it just feels really low for that. Anyway,

26:26KT: are you done? I'm done bro. I am done. You know, there are real issues in the water. You're fucking fighting me over a fucking anime. Are you for real? Yes, I am. Well, I guess this will be interesting to see what you rate this next. Deborah Mailman. Total Control. Oh, I'm gonna preemptively say fuck you, cuz I know you're going to give like Demon Slayer a higher rating and I'm gonna fight you.

26:53Oti: I give the short 10.

26:55KT: Ah, your, give me a cheer. Send them down to river. There you go.

27:02Oti: I give this a 10 just because. , we don't see this. We get a lot of political shows. Mm-hmm. , but nothing really focuses on what Total Control does. Yeah. On the grassroots, on the people on the ditches community. Yeah. And what the representation feels like and how the fight is, you know?

27:21Oti: And I think how they portrayed it was so, so strong. Mm-hmm. , um, that I couldn't even conceptualize giving anything other than a 10. Hey, it's that strong. It's that good. Deborah Mailman is, you know, who I really wasn't familiar with the work until I came to Australia and, you know, KT was introducing me to all this different sort of actors, but, but I don't even know.

27:48Oti: I'm getting emotional, just thinking. How devoid I was watching, thinking there was even this sort of stream. Right? Yeah. And wow. Like Total Control is right up there with the best of them. If you think fucking Aaron Sorkin is the fucking God walker of all this shit, you've not watched Total Control. Because I think it just takes a poop on West Wing and it's that strong. It's that good.

28:13KT: I wish you, and that's me. Done. I wish you didn't add defecation to your rating. However, , I will accept it as evidence in the For Your Reference household of Oti having QuTech. Mm-hmm. . I also give Total Control a 10. Nice. Would you believe? Mm-hmm. And it's, it's not just indigenous representation, it's also great fucking quality in writing and performances, in production, in character fucking development. Yeah. Very

28:40Oti: excited. And the authenticity, like it's, they're not still doing it to think that, oh, because we need everything to have a fucking good ending.

28:48Oti: You know, there's a lot of, oh, there would , like there's a lot of authentic, uh, realities out there that you'd feel like in as much as you wouldn't agree or you wouldn't want to pan out that way, sadly, that's how the fucking world is. Yeah. And they don't shy from those moments. Mm-hmm. , and I'm glad, you know, sometimes you get shows that would try and I wouldn't really say ponder, but just for the fucking good story ending of it to make people feel happy or some shit.

29:16Oti: Yeah. And sometimes you just wanna watch it as it is, regardless of how sad it is.

29:22KT: Yeah. Because if it's not real, like you can sniff it out. Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of insulting to a sense, right? Yeah. Well, let's move on. Talking about more stories that need to be told. We're talking about the Panthers TV show, about the Polynesian Panther Party in Aotearoa.

29:40Oti: Yeah. Again, I didn't know this was a thing. Yeah. But I think watching the movie, I got to learn a bit more about it. It was interesting. I give you an eight. Mm,

29:52KT: nice. Yeah. Super solid show. Um, you know, I would strongly recommend if you have access to watch your Panthers Absolutely. Watch it. Um, I also put some resources as well that you can, um, reference as well.

30:05KT: Mm. Or have a look at or have a listen to. Um, the only thing, again that doesn't put this over to like a nine or a 10 for me is because it focused too much on a protagonist that didn't necessarily have much to offer from a story point of view. Yeah. If this is the first time, like even, you know, we're gonna talk about The Woman King as well.

30:26KT: Like if this is the, one of the first times that global audiences are going to see a story like this, then that in itself is interesting. Mm-hmm. . So don't pander to a classic sort of love will they, won't they? That sort of thing. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. I agree with you a hundred percent or love, but again, Feeling like the outcast at Tongan events.

30:46KT: Absolutely. Me. So , I absolutely, a lot of my points went to that in particular. Um, speaking about a lot of points, if I may be so bold, Oti, I would say this would have a high rating between the two of us. We're talking about do you really want, do you really want,

31:04Oti: yeah. Oh, whatever

31:06KT: the half of sun goes. Well, I wanted you to taste it, but that's okay.

31:11Oti: Aw man. Peacemaker. It's one of those odd ball shows that I didn't really expect much from it, and then it just came out of nowhere and bam, it was that good. Mm-hmm. . Um, I give it a 10.

31:24KT: Just me too. Yeah.

31:26Oti: Nice. Finally thinking or man, moons. . . It was unexpectedly good. Mm-hmm. just one of the highlights of 2022. If you ask me.

31:39KT: Because we weren't expecting it. We weren't asking for it. We didn't think much of it, and it completely consumed our weeks.

31:46Oti: Yeah. James Gunn really had something in here and I really didn't expect much from John Cena and Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Right.

31:56KT: Yeah. He's my, okay. Okay, let, let's digress for a second. Who's your favorite wrestler turned actor?

32:02Oti: Right now it's John Cena. Just

32:04KT: pissed off that it's gotta be right,

32:06Oti: like I get Dwayne the Rock. Johnson has been doing his thing. It's super popular. I really didn't even vibe with Black Adam that much. I think there was a point where he was in every single thing that I just chucked up.

32:20KT: I think he still is in every single thing.

32:23Oti: Yeah. Like no, no, no. There was like a period where he has like three movies all pretty much similar. I was like, wait, what? You had like Rampage or so. With a wet monkey. I think that was Ampi. And then there was something different. Like it all came out like

32:35KT: And San Andreas I think

32:36Oti: as well. I was like, wait, what? What is going on? Like, let me just check out from this guy for a bit. Mm-hmm. , I need some time. Um, but you know what, he, he is really good. He's still one of the better ones. So

32:48KT: I would say John Cena and Bautista. We like Stuber. . Yes. Stuber was fun. And we also love Kumail Nanjiani, even though we don't care for him as Steve Banerjee in the Chippendales. And we will absolutely. There is so much to talk about. Friends and lovers watch. Welcome to the Chippendales because we have a lot, a lot, a lot of Oti's things to say.

33:13Oti: It'll just be full rampage at, at our point, . Um,

33:16KT: not starring the rock. Yeah. Okay. Well let's move on. Um, this was, this was breaking the For Your Reference model. It was the first time we've done like a reality show. Young, Famous & African.

33:30Oti: It was different. It was fun. I think when I suggested that we cover this, it was just due to the fact that we'd watched, like our formula is movies and TVs and whatever, but Young, Famous & African. When it came out, it was just so different to what everything, day to day we've been watching. Mm-hmm. . I was like, why not? Let's give this a go. And I was pleasantly sur. I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it. The characters were like, just ridiculousness. Yeah. Levels of themselves maxed up. I'll give this an eight.

34:04KT: All right. I gave it at nine. Whoa. I gave it at nine. Okay. I've got the Motherland tax, Oti. Clearly. Well, I recall the discussion we had when we were recording the episode and you talked. Like not having to explain. Yeah. They're rich. Who cares? Yeah. They're throwing all of these parties. Who cares? It's not on them. It's not their responsibility to make sure everyone that is living in less than conditions, you know, it, it's not on their shoulders. And I really appreciated that sentiment. Yeah.

34:40Oti: It shouldn't be, they shouldn't feel like they need to lift the whole continent on their backs just because Yeah. They have some money.

34:48KT: Well, it's not their job to undo. It's not. Yeah. Um, speaking of undoing, or maybe redoing, we're talking about Bel-Air. I didn't necessarily put like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to rate, feel free to rate it if you want. Um, but yeah. What, what's your rating? I gave it a seven. I gave it a 7.5. Oh

35:08Oti: yeah. I, I, I was sort just wondering where you'd go with this, because I thought you'd sort of get me higher. I just had, like, it was, the first episode was really, really hard to get through. But once we got through the hurdle of fucking hating the fresh princes and starting to, okay, let's try,

35:26KT: the Crown is ready for you. My Prince . Yeah,

35:29Oti: like don't base it off the pilot. Just give it a go afterwards and it'll be sufficiently enough for you.

35:37KT: It definitely, it, it got to the tone that it was trying to lay out. Yeah. Obviously it was a hard pivot. Um, do you like how I keep using your Friends reference? Yeah. We're on a pivot. Is that the reference? Oh my God. How do you anger a secret Friends fan that rates Friends over Living Single? Am I right ?

35:59Oti: You don't know that. ,

36:01KT: I think you just proved it. My love, . Yeah, because I, I really enjoyed it and I think we also need to acknowledge the changing of the guard. Mm. Because it was created by white people. Yeah. And it was reclaimed back. It didn't necessarily work in Candyman, friends and lovers, but it worked in Bel-Air. Yeah, it did. And we've, we've definitely grown to love Jabari as, as the Will character.

36:27Oti: He, it takes a while, but he gets there.

36:29KT: Yeah. Without a Haitian accent like Emancipation. Am I right?

36:33Oti: Yeah. But don't get us started on Geoffrey. Bloody Hell.

36:37KT: Yeah. . He's pulling up the Mendo with his, Fri with his bridges.

36:43Oti: He's a proper Mando man. .

36:46KT: Um, speaking of the Mando in California ia, we are covering the furious hot tip of it all. Boyz n the Hood. And we have another patron rating, Oti. Okay. Come through. This is from Sam T. Oh, love you. Sam. T A K A. Danger Islander. Mm-hmm. enjoyed this segment, interesting discussions of what I consider a classic in American cinema. As usual. KT and Oti banter is funny throughout, but I enjoyed them talking about one of my favorite films. Shout us to Sam and Jamie's shouting out our episodes about what we're reading.

37:25KT: What do you think Sam rated it? I think he gave you the 10, an eight. Oh, I think Sam's more in my camp.

37:32Oti: It can be a favorite. I'm bringing that love back. I'm ticking it back. . Come on Sam. Come on now.

37:37KT: No, cuz you can love it, but it not be a ten. Okay. Just the way something can be a ten, you'll never watch it again. But you are Mr. Re-watch Ability King, so. Mm-hmm. , what did you give Boyz n the Hood? Are we gonna push the average up or not?

37:53Oti: I'm gonna what? Boyz n the Hood. You've got a young kid in John Singleton, you know? I think one of his first projects. Yeah. And for what he did to deliver Boyz n the Hood. Yeah. That reason, its up until now in fucking 2022.

38:13KT: Layered messaging as well. Layered messaging. He even talks about gentrification as well. He talks about having babies and not being able to care for them as well.

38:23Oti: What he is done with the industry, with black cinema is something that should be a applauded more than I feel like it is. Yeah. And I think every household should fucking know John Singleton. I gave this movie a 10.

38:37KT: Hey, so did I.

38:39Oti: It's a, it should be a staple, should be watched every fucking year, just so that you remember and Wow, wow, wow, wow. I could not like rewatching this now. It felt so different. Like I was like, wait, it was all in there. It's all this. Oh, even younger, when I was watching this, I couldn't get, like I get something different every other time.

39:01Oti: Yeah. And this movie is just one of the best things that's out there and it's stood the test of time and one of the best, best directors and people just to grace the fucking movie industry and for me, couldn't be anything less than a 10

39:18KT: John Singleton on your Rushmore of great directors, not just black directors.

39:23Oti: Yeah, for sure. It's given so much and yeah.

39:29KT: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. A hundred percent agree. Um, you know, cuz you see, you watch Snowfall, you see all of the themes in Snowfall and it's like he was fucking doing it decades ago. Yep. Right. You're seeing it and you know, like whether it's a film that you're so used to watching all the time or whether you think it's just a black film and it's only going to have surface level themes in it, it absolutely encapsulates everything that is the best part of cinema as well as being able to capture a true experience.

40:00KT: Mm-hmm. Wow. Let's move on. Um, I don't know if we'll have the same sort of accolades, but we love Harold Perrineau and we're very excited to watch The Best Man: The Final Chapters.

40:12Oti: Oh, cannot wait. I think it's coming out next week. Really? I think it's 22 December or some shit's. Definitely in December.

40:19KT: It better be soon cuz he wasn't in the promo. For Best Man. . So hopefully that means he's busy doing From, um, what did you rate this, this is obviously as well in the vein of Lost, the Producers of Lost, um, created this show as well. Um, what did you think about this show? What did you rate this show? We're both very excited for it, but does that translate into your rating? I think you will.

40:43Oti: I give it an eight.

40:44KT: I give it a nine. Wow.

40:46Oti: Like, it's, it's wild. While watching it and he finished it. I was, I was just thinking about this the other day. Like, I kept on thinking, oh, where is From coming back? Where's From coming back? Yeah. And in my daily fix of, From like, yeah. It's one of those things that, yes, I understand these people bond us was fucking Lost.

41:02Oti: And it, it's livid. And immediately I started watching From my new, yeah. Lost. Come on, come on out. The people who made Lost made this, it was all a dream. But Wow. Wow, wow. It's, it's really good. Yeah. It really is. And Harold Perrineau, man, he is been doing it for, for decades now.

41:22KT: Oh yeah. Beautiful. Lovely. Delicious man. Mm-hmm. . And I would like to see him again. But you are right because we watched the show. To watch the show, but it had a lasting effect in our household. Yeah. Yeah. We kept wondering when

41:35Oti: we're going to get back. It's weird. It's not like, it doesn't jump at you like, Ooh, the best show ever. Yeah. It's just,

41:41KT: it's the best man ever. Like . .

41:45Oti: Yeah, man. .

41:47KT: I don't even get a kiss. . Nah,

41:49Oti: you're just touching me. No, I'm giving you the, the more ghost .

41:54KT: Oh my. We've got power in here too. Again, another opportunity for us to fight. We are talking about the Apple TV series, which was also adapted from the book Min Jin Lee's Pachinko. Can I also outlay, cuz you may also change your rating in my description, that this film also talks about it's not just white people that colonize, we talk about Japanese colonizing Korea. Yeah. Oh. And it also has very fulfilling character development and humanistic themes that we can all relate to now go

42:30Oti: in order to sell this. The hard Pachinko was different. Uh, the cinematography was something that stood out. Mm-hmm. . I could not see myself giving this anything less than a 10. Hey, it was that good. The production value is off the roof. Yes. The acting, the characters. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll feel with it like it's. It's, it's definitely one of the standards for 2022. Hey, it was that good that even though like you'd get, well, the episodes are like an hour long, right? Yeah. And it'd go through the journey.

43:10Oti: You'd go through decades back and forth. Something that I loathed by the way, in other things that Yeah. Mory properly. Like the, the things that, like, things like, um, what was the flash forward? I think that shit just, I could not get busted.

43:27KT: Or it's like enemy, like if it was a, if you put it in a linear storyline that shows it's not interesting. That's why you have to cut back and forth. Yeah.

43:35Oti: Yeah. Like when it's used improperly, it's just the worst thing ever. But they show

43:40KT: Oh, and trying of the rice and being able to tell that the rice was from Korea, not Japan. Oh man. Oh, feelings

43:47Oti: Was zoo in this show? Yeah. Feelings was zoo. It's. It's definitely just, just one of the best things you've watched.

43:56KT: Oh, absolutely. Mm-hmm. . Absolutely. And friends and lovers. I will be starting For Your Bookends where we have a book club and we can discuss the book. Pachinko . Uh, moving on. This is another show that we kept watching. I don't think it had the lasting power From, but we were watching it at the same time. And this is Shining Vale with Courteney Cox, but more in particular, more I'm interested in my sunshine. Greg Kinnear.

44:20Oti: Yeah. Oh, Greg Kinnear just lifts this show up. I love him so much. Yeah, he makes this show watchable. Um, I give it a seven. I felt that it's good and we, I think it used to be our Sunday night sort of show, which I think it's the sort of fits the sort of atmosphere that in my at least

44:41KT: Is Courteney Cox dragging your rating down. No, not her, but her character.

44:46Oti: I think the storyline just went a bit weird towards the end.

44:49KT: You're creeped out by the kid, right?

44:53Oti: Isn't everyone ? It's It's a good show. It's a good show. You should definitely watch it. I just felt that I couldn't go, I couldn't get to an eight. I just, I don't know why

45:06KT: I gave it an 8.5. Oh shit. I think you take shows for granted because we've been watching some stinkers lately. So you gotta celebrate the ones that you enjoy and you actually look forward to week to week. True. Even if it's not perfect. But anyway, I gave it an 8.5. Oh, this is very sad. So Minx has been canceled, or at least won't be continuing with HBO Max, hopefully because they've almost already filmed the whole next season.

45:37KT: They'll be able to find a new home for season two and also season three. Um, but regardless of that, let's just focus on Minx season one and the lacking of intersectionality of feminism. What did you rate Minx?

45:51Oti: I give it an 8.5. Ooh,

45:55KT: I gave it an eight. Oh,

45:57Oti: yeah. Yeah. Like it's, it, it's sad that it's been canceled. Hopefully they do get a new home for it. Uh, it's, it's a show that would definitely like it. It just tells the story of. what feminism looks like, especially within the white sort of Yes.

46:17KT: Oti. So you have done some work. Yeah.

46:21Oti: Like you can see it, you can see it, you know how feminist only applies to ex people. Yeah. And most of those ex people are white people.

46:29KT: You're pointing and crying in the corner while the whole world is fucking burning.

46:33Oti: Yeah. And then she then doesn't understand why A, the black coworker is like, what the fuck? Yeah. Why, why I'm not riding with you because A, you don't, you're not speaking for me.

46:45Oti: Yeah. Or anything I stand for. Yeah. So, you know what I, I'm looking forward to what season two is. Uh, hopefully he does get a home because I think there's so much more to tell and hopefully so much more character development that she needs to go through. Mm-hmm. . And it's something that hopefully will also relate to other, you know, family out there to see maybe this is something that I need to look into myself. It's a something, it's something that needs to be told for sure.

47:11KT: Friends and lovers who knew that by your tide Oti would be the one explaining intersectional feminism to you? Because I've done the work. Well, I think you're undoing it, but it's okay. , would you, uh, in, in the, in the space of our festive cheer, would you consider yourself a feminist? Not really. Say female or female, the court restaurant

47:38KT: but that's cause of the connotation of the word feminist, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, because the future is female, right? Of course. A hundred percent . Um, friends and lovers. We haven't covered it, but you should watch Mr Inbetween. It's an Australian drama and it's fucking great.

47:53Oti: Yeah. Weird that we've not covered it yet. Something which would rectify in 2023.

47:56KT: Oh, absolutely. Speaking of rectifying, speaking of being a reckoning to my brown community, we did another change of format in the For Your Reference household, and it was called open source hiphop, the black and brown Dialogue.

48:10Oti: Oof. Yeah. Yeah. That was a point in time that maybe I don't even want to think about or revisit. I enjoyed it though. I didn't, I just felt

48:20KT: discussing it. Did you enjoy discussing it?

48:23Oti: I mean, yes. Discussing it, yes. Because it brought about different tele, you know, talking points, and I think low talking points are more derived towards what we see as, as, you know, uh, a couple and rather more than, oh, this show gave us talking points to, you know, go.

48:42Oti: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where the show itself, I give it a five just because what the fuck? Yeah. And Jesus again, what the fuck? You need to just be better. You need to, like, there's. There's so much shit in the world that people are ticking from. Yeah. That when you see a group

48:59KT: of people just say, black culture, you, you know, you're saying black culture. People, when you see, take off it.

49:04Oti: When you see a group of people strongly inclined to believe that they founded something or it doesn't belong to anyone, and I'm just sitting here thinking like, why? Why would it hurt you to even acknowledge that you did you, you can't talk about your favorite hiphop artist and then mention all fucking Americans and then come back to us and be like, I didn't take anything from them. This was my thing. Yeah. I did it by myself. I'm like,

49:32KT: bro, but even if you admitted that it wasn't originated from your roots, it doesn't make it any less, more meaningful to you. It doesn't

49:41Oti: make your music better. It, it doesn't make you sound more educated. It doesn't make you sound, it's embarrassing, authentic. It's just sad. And that was one of the things I was like, you know what? I'd expect this from other people, but come on now. Come on. Yeah.

49:56KT: Be better. Do better. Absolutely agree. And I gave it a four.

50:00Oti: I don't even know where that five came from, but yeah, . I didn't even want to think about it anymore.

50:04KT: Okay, well let's move on my love. Let's go to somewhere happy. We're celebrating Pride Month Bitches. Fire Island. Oh, we're talking Joel Kim Booster. We're talking Bowen Yang. We're talking Matt Rogers. We're talking Margaret Cho. We're talking about Pride and Prejudice. But not Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy,

50:29Oti: I think by the fuck, how you talking? I feel like you hate me for this. I give it an eight.

50:35KT: I'm just gonna pretend that you gave it an eight because of the Mr. Darcy. They casted.

50:39Oti: Oh wow. Are you, go tell me you rated because I'm actually not curious because I forgot how much he hated Darcy.

50:46KT: A 10 all the thought, oh, I love this so much. I love this, love this, love this, love this so much. And you know, we even talked about Boyz n the Hood, how we talked about so many important themes. It wasn't just a film, um, with quotable quotes and memorable scenes and that sort of thing. Fire Island was absolutely that as well. It talked about the hierarchy in the queer community. Yep,

51:12Oti: it did. Yeah. Something that we don't get to see a lot. Yeah. You know, it's not really talked about that much, but it's there. Yeah. Uh, Chappelle mentions it, but I think we are not meant to say his name in this household.

51:26KT: You are more than welcome to go and see him. Just make sure the, the locks will be changed when you get home.

51:34Oti: Um, yeah, I, I just felt in as much as I enjoyed it, I just couldn't see how it was higher rating than an eight. Um, I think anything that's, I don't know.

51:48KT: Would you watch this again? I would absolutely watch this again. I love this film so much. All the

51:55Oti: Kristen Stewart. Um, Happiest Holiday. Happiest. Happiest Season.

51:59KT: Happiest Season. And friends and lovers. I think of the four Christmas films that we've covered, two of them are queer led, um, Happiest Season as well as Single All the Way it is. Wow. Yeah. With Jennifer Coolidge. Yeah. The gays just get it, . They just get in and they do it.

52:17Oti: Yeah, I'll give it, I'll give it, uh, an eight. I just felt that I couldn't see myself giving anything higher just because

52:24KT: What if Jennifer Coolidge was in it, spreading the ashes and crying in the ocean. 10 Well, let's move on. This was interesting, friends and lovers. We cover a lot, um, obviously on the podcast over the year, and sometimes we need to have a tonal change. Sometimes we need to have a film where we're not necessarily doing a lot of analysis and we're just sitting there and we're enjoying it.

52:48KT: However, I would say that there are some tangible themes in this, and this is Romeo Must Die. It was also my first Jet Li film and I got very distracted with him and a cigarette in his mouth.

52:59Oti: I think your first Jet Li and first Aaliyah film, right?

53:00KT: Actually, yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Rest in love, peace and power, Aaliyah.

53:06Oti: I'll give you an eight. Okay. It was enjoyable. Uh, Maybe an Ali version on myself watching it as a kid, I would've given it higher. Uhhuh . Um, but yeah, it was, it was cool just seeing Jet Li do his stuff again. Yeah. It was wild that

53:22KT: he's very charismatic.

53:23Oti: He is like, it's wild growing up thinking, oh my God, I I lived through fucking Jet Li movies. Yeah. Week in, week out, you know? Yeah. And just, I don't know. I, I need to get back into martial arts movies. , .

53:37KT: There's, we need Field, we need to go through cigar films first, don't we?

53:41Oti: Oh, dear Lord . Yes. Um, but wow. It was good seeing Aaliyah again. I think just super, super r and b, honest, uh, but wow, man. I, I, what rating did you give it?

53:56KT: 8.5. Oh, wow. Yeah. Look at you. I'm still blushing. Thinking about Jet Li to be honest. Okay. I don't have a typo tease. You can tell clearly.

54:08Oti: No, Anthony Anderson didn't do anything.

54:11KT: Yeah. . I dunno. He had some weird, he had some weird, he had some weird, I wouldn't necessarily call it racial, but he had some weird lines of dialogue. Yeah. But like 80% of it was to do with like Chinese takeaway food. I dunno.

54:26Oti: Yeah. It was like, you could tell it's jokes for back in the day,

54:29KT: But you know what, Oti, that's how they win. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Black and Asian people just hurling in. That's weird. Yeah. It was just weird. I don't know. I guess it was for the executives in the office. I have no idea.

54:43Oti: the floor. Born

54:44KT: the floor. Indeed. . Um, let's move on. This was an interesting little foray. It was our first Thai film. It was, yes. So I've, I've put both of them together. You can split the rating if you like.

54:59Oti: I'd love to split the rating. Cause if I did it conjoined, like we have it now, it would be a nine. But if I was to give Game of Death a sole e rating, it would be 10 with 13 Sins a nine. Okay. So Game of Death. We, we started off with 13 Sins, which was really, really good. Well, which is good. But we felt like it's had some moments of weakness or at least geared towards an American audience. And I was wondering what the regional film was like.

55:29Oti: So when you watch starting, um, starting Game of Death, we were like, oh my God, this is where it's hard. Yeah. You know, I, I can eat shit without, without having touching the. Um, the veggies. I'm like, bro, come on.

55:41KT: Garish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. you don't, you just wanted it. Yeah. Just straight through. How, how can you Yeah. Teach the kids better. Scap play

55:54Oti: But touching Games of Death was wild. Like it is just one of those shocking movies. I'm like, who thought of this shit? ,

56:05KT: you know? And what I really enjoy about it was the premise. And you found this film because you Googled films like Cube because we felt like watching films like Cube. Um, I would rate the Thai film nine mm so the same.

56:16KT: Um, and the American remake, it was really good considering we didn't know it was based off of another film. But again, it did fall prey to a lot of the Americanisms, which we didn't know were Americanisms. Cause we thought it was just an original film. I give that a 7.5. Alright. Yeah. It's not hurting anybody. No, it's not. Um, speaking of fully fledged action, not hurting anybody, we're talking about our first Harrison Ford film, Oti. It was my Air Force One.

56:45Oti: Yeah. Wow. Uh, I give this movie a seven.

56:49KT: Okay. I didn't I give it a seven two, by the way. Oh, nice.

56:51Oti: Yeah. I, I think I remembered it more fondly. I think rewatching, it was like, oh, okay. Maybe it was for the time Uhhuh . And, and that's what's sad because I think a lot of movies that I loved growing up, when I'm watching them now, they're not, they don't stand up to what I held them as. Yeah. Because back then I thought in my mind, Air Force One was one of the best things that I'd ever seen back then, you know?

57:14Oti: And just watching it now and thinking, oh man, the seven. Yeah. Okay, cool. Uhhuh it, it was serviceable.

57:20KT: Um, I gave it a seven as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't have anything else to say, but I would actually, something I will tell you very quickly, I enjoyed watching it. Yeah.

57:30Oti: Uh, the postmaster general was super, super important in this.

57:33KT: I didn't care for that 12 year old though. Mm,

57:37Oti: well, I guess you don't like lip gloss, you know, and, and some of the things we need to rectify .

57:44KT: I felt the full Kenya Oti force , um, in that episode, but I just like, I didn't care for that. And, you know, friends and lovers, the mark of a privileged life, and we're not talking even about race. Mm-hmm. . But the mark of a privileged life is when people talk about making a difference and they talk about leaving the western country, there are fucking youth struggling in your fucking city. Go and look them up. Be dickheads. Stop trying to take a picture of locals in different continents. , fuck it. I fucking hate it.

58:14KT: I hate it. And that's why slum tourism exists, Oti. . I guess when, when we, when we get our Elon Musk, lack of morality, we might start our own, right? Mm-hmm. . Look at a crying Oti. Hey, they're doing in the Pacific so they can have a crying KT as well. We're getting back into our TV Bagert and we're talking about Umbrella Academy season three, and I need to highlight that this TV show is a landmark in queer representation, specifically trans representation. Now go.

58:54Oti: I, I was so disappointed with season two. Ah-huh. to the point where I was thinking, do we need to continue watching Umbrella Academy? Mm-hmm. , it was that bad to me. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . But season three came and hit different, they, they just elevated the storyline. They tried something different. They, they tried, they, they did just re re replicate season one with a different storyline. You know,

59:20KT: they kind of reset the story. Yeah,

59:22Oti: yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and I'm like, okay, cool. This is where we're going. Cool. I'm here for it. And I gave it, uh, eight.

59:30KT: Oh, what was the point of all that buildup?

59:34Oti: I think the last season too, I gave it like a five or some shit. So eight is what it's at.

59:39KT: I gave it a 9.5. Oh shit you really liked. For Elliot Page alone, I gave it a 9.5. Oh yeah. I'm adding to my book list as well. Pageboy is the name of the book. Pageboy. Mm-hmm. By Elliot Page, and I'm very excited. Friends and lovers. Let's get into the next film. We have another patron rating, Oti. Mm-hmm. . I don't even think you'll guess who rated this film. Oh, no. It was Ben ,

60:08Oti: Ben Watch. So for eh .

60:10KT: Yeah. And I think it's the, it's one of the longest, um, descriptions we have this year. Are you ready? Of course. Because I'll tell you something, as much as a film can be a comfort blanket for many, I much prefer it when it explores new points of view, different perspectives, or actively challenges my worldview.

60:28KT: I'm fortunate enough to have grown up my entire life in South. With a vibrant, multicultural community around me. Maybe that's why this film sang to me so much. Show me black communities, black family life without the need for them to be palatable. Connections of a white family. The characters were flawed, they were beautiful, they were human.

60:49KT: It's natural to expect representation to always be positive. The most positive representation is one that shows us as we really are damage, difficult, wounded, vulnerable, loving, and always learning. Thanks to films like this and podcasts like yours, I continue to learn, love this film, and while acknowledging its flaws, exploding money from beneath the floor. Anyone, this doesn't get spoken about as much as it should. The best thing I've seen from George Tillman Jr. Wow. What a writeup. Bootie. Wow.

61:23Oti: So what, did Ben rate it? Yes. Did he give it an eight?

61:26KT: He gave it an eight.

61:28Oti: Okay. . I understand though, I think for myself as well. I think growing up and watching the Soul Food, it showed something that, you know, like I think there was a boom, especially back then when I was watching a lot of sort of black movies. Mm-hmm. and Soul Food was definitely sitting towards the top of that, and I rewatching it now. I couldn't help myself. Um, I tried seeing how I could give it higher ratings, but I give it an eight as well.

62:03KT: Ooh, okay. I'm feeling a reverence sort of tone. Who knew Ben will be the cooling bomb of, of the ratings thus far? I gave it a 7.5. Okay.

62:17Oti: I see that. I, I guess you didn't like the touchy, touchy.

62:20KT: No, I didn't . Um, I, I hope to evade all touchy pastors if you're welcome. Um, but there was also a lot of burden and dare I say, trauma being passed down to the kid in that film. Yeah. Poor kid, man. Not to say it doesn't happen and it is important to be able to highlight that, but there was such a open willingness to just dump all of the emotional shit on the kid. True,

62:45Oti: true. That was, it was a bit too much, um, lead on him. Mm-hmm. and not addressed . Yep. Yep, yep, yep. I think that was where I was like, oh, couple on now.

62:56KT: Well, let's move on again. Another tonal change. We have another patron rating, Oti. Oh, okay. We're talking about The Boys. Absolutely. And this is from Jamie. And Jamie says, I've been trying to watch more tv and my favorite show slash episode of these was on The Boys. Oh, cut for Jamie. Yeah. What do you think Jamie rated it? I think he gave it a nine. He did give it a nine. Oh a respectable nine.

63:24Oti: A respectable nine. Indeed. I gave The Boys a 9.5.

63:29KT: I gave The Boys a 10 year fuckers we're getting diabolical up in this bitch. Yeah.

63:36Oti: Uh, I just wanted more of Butcher. Yeah. I wanted more growth from Butcher. Yeah. Um, I felt like he did. He did grow, but not as much as I expected, especially after season two. I wanted him, he still kept on trying to push people away and I get that. You can't just grow that leanly and there's always one sort of two steps forward, one step back and all that shit.

64:04KT: I was more annoyed with Kami. . And for lack of better phrase, they castrated Mother's Milk. Don't

64:12Oti: mother . Yeah. And that's why I couldn't even give it a 10. Yeah. Mother's Milk is all fucking chest,

64:17KT: you know. Well, I wanna enjoy what I enjoy, so I, even though I can point out the flaws, I still gave it a 10. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough, man. Let's move on to the shirtless, uh, waiting at the door for you with a belt Daddy Hawke, The Black Phone

64:35Oti: a Grabber more than anyone out here. Um, I gave it a seven.

64:39KT: I gave it an eight. Okay. Yeah,

64:42Oti: I guess you had a little different Grabber experience than I did

64:44KT: Actually. Sorry, I gave it an 8.5 . Oh, is that extra grabbing That will get your friends and lovers?

64:52Oti: I guess it, and Hawke in a, in a, in a sitting naked in a, in a chair would do anything for that.

64:57KT: He wasn't naked, but I would like to request that cut or uncut if . Yeah.