Resident Evil, Alphabet Soup & Cupertino

Full transcript of Resident Evil, Alphabet Soup & Cupertino.

0:00KT: It's another week in the For Your Reference household, and it is another edition of Ref Max. We have a reboot remake existing IP. We have grassroots queer dating, as well as another addition to our pilot season. I would like to dedicate this Ref Max, Oti, to the Uber driver that pretended to not know a lot about Resident Evil, but seemed to know maybe too much about Resident Evil, friends and lovers. Let's get on with the show. Hey, friends and delicious lovers. Welcome back to the For Your Reference podcast. You got your hosts, KT.

0:46Oti: And Oti.

0:48KT: We're just gonna get straight into it, friends and lovers. There are some exciting screenings we have coming up as well. But for today's Ref Max we have a collection. And we're starting off with Resident Evil.

1:01Oti: Ooh.

1:02KT: Yeah. We paid our own coins for this one.

1:05Oti: Yeah, we did. Gawd.

1:08KT: Oh, is that a part of your pull quote?

1:11Oti: It is.

1:11KT: Okay. Your first impressions, my love.

1:15Oti: It felt good being back in this world. Camp, hijinks, jump scares, and all the chops you'd want from a Resident Evil movie. What's not to love? Easily one of my favorite renditions of the franchise.

1:30KT: Why didn't you say that to the Uber driver?

1:33Oti: Keeping it cool. I don't want a half rating.

1:38KT: Can you imagine for film?

1:39Oti: Mm-hmm.

1:41KT: A playful offering that enjoys leaning in on its awareness of tropes, making for a fun cinema experience.

1:49Oti: Mm-hmm.

1:50KT: You mention camp, and, obviously non-spoiler, friends and lovers, as far as I understand, this seems like a new Like, it's not tethered in any way. But is camp a part of the DNA of this franchise, or?

2:06Oti: Not particularly.

2:07KT: Yeah, I thought this was, like, a very. You know what I get confused with? Is it Silent Hill, the one that you play on PlayStation?

2:14Oti: Yeah.

2:15KT: I think I kept getting this confused with that, but in any case—

2:19Oti: Nothing camp about Silent Hill.

2:21KT: You know—

2:21Oti: Brutal memories.

2:22KT: But that's why I'm like, is this known to be camp, Resident Evil?

2:29Oti: Yeah, no, but I just appreciated the angle. I appreciated it feeling so familiar yet so fresh.

2:38KT: I like to think of it as the sloth from Ice Age, Sid—

2:45Oti: Mm.

2:45KT: in a very specific Final Destination. I just really enjoyed it. I know sometimes when you can have a character that's the voice of the audience, they can be annoying because we're annoying, the audience is annoying. But it was really fun. Like, I don't know a lot about Resident Evil in regards to the world, but in what we were offered, it was fun, and I wanted the fella to make it.

3:11Oti: Yeah. It sort of gave me, not to the level of Jason Voorhees', what was it? Freddy? Yeah.

3:19KT: It's not Jason X.

3:20Oti: Jason X was like, in, you know, I thought, "You think that would kill me? Uh-uh, that'd do it." That'll do it. Not that level.

3:29KT: Yeah.

3:30Oti: No, no, no, no. Not that level, but still very much appreciated.

3:33KT: It was a really fun end of a very busy work week, treating ourselves to a cinema experience. It was lovely. I enjoyed it. The action was silly. Everything was silly. He was silly. You know what? And I would be this useless. In a scenario like this, I would hope, I should probably knock on wood, I'm not in that American economy where I need to essentially be Uber Eats delivering organs around. Hopefully I'm not at that level yet, but I would be that useless. Like, even him not being able to load a gun, I'm like—

4:14Oti: Take me already.

4:16KT: The moment, I don't think since. Was it Evil Dead Burn?

4:20Oti: Mm.

4:21KT: Where they had the globbing of centipede human crawling around and somersaulting together. Not since then have I been freaked out like that.

4:36Oti: Yeah, that movie had a lot of frustrating things though.

4:41KT: I'm talking about the—

4:42Oti: I know, the mechanics. Just the reference of it just, ugh, sent shivers down.

4:47KT: Okay. Well, we're back in the camp.

4:49Oti: All right. Bring back the happy.

4:52KT: But it was fun. I really enjoyed it.

4:54Oti: Mm.

4:56KT: The next one we're going to get to is Alphabet Soup. Shout out to Shannon. It's really cool every now and again, well, not every now and again. I would say that we do pride ourselves on filmmakers reaching out to us directly. Shannon Alexander is a documentary filmmaker, and they released a six-part docuseries called Alphabet Soup, which premiered, is streaming at the time, in August, on Peacock and Prime. It's also available on Tubi—

5:31Oti: Mm-hmm.

5:31KT: as well. We were given screeners, so I was able to watch it that way. But I wanna give my non-spoiler thoughts, and as mentioned, friends and lovers, it's available to watch pretty much everywhere really, friends and lovers. Docuseries that gives its subjects the grace of being human. There is confidence in the laying out and interconnected weaving throughout.

5:56Oti: Okay. So tell me more about Alphabet Soup.

6:01KT: Well, I guess I will preface as the sort of friend watcher and lover that I am, even in romance books I read, I don't even like triangles because it hurts my heart and I want everyone, unless it's non-monogamous, but I want everyone to fall in love and be in love and be happy together. And I wouldn't even necessarily say it's messy. As far as I hear out in these streets, dating, it just comes with the sort of situation that's out there. You know, you might want to juggle potential suitors. You might not want to, but that's how it is out here in these streets. But it was following the different— "Subjects" always seems a bit distant, so I'll just say the people, following the people in the documentary and just wanting to see people fall in love—

7:00Oti: Mm.

7:00KT: at the end of the day. There's a few people that we focus in on, including Shalimar, Nova, as well as Troy, Kiki too. So we see the different vivacious, vibrant lives of these people, dating in New York. And Oti, I was stressed. I was stressed watching it because, beyond, not to say aesthetic is a surface level thing, but there is an innate sense in all of us to want to be loved and, if possible, to be desired the way that we want to be seen and nourished and consumed in all the delicious sort of ways. So you would see. And it's also interesting as well, and it reminds me of just talking to my friends of, "You were wrong for that." Like, there are moments where they might be let down in particular dating instances, but it's also you also weren't that great, or you ghosted that person as well. So there's an interconnectedness in this docuseries that is quite interesting. And I guess what I also really enjoy, and that's what I am trying to evoke in my pull quote as well, is it just lets everyone live. Live life. There's no need. Oh, I wouldn't necessarily say there's a shorthand, but there's not necessarily a need to explain that sexuality is fluid, that even within a queer or a gay couple, there could be a throuple situation with a woman or non-monogamy and that sort of thing, or even the trans experience. So I really liked the series as much as it stressed out my tiny little heart that wants everyone to find love. You know, you also have people in this documentary, I'm not saying which names, that outrightly present themselves as very toxic and then trip up into their own feelings. So it's definitely a nice. It gave me vibes of Harlem—

9:17Oti: Mm.

9:18KT: but I guess in a. I don't wanna say organic to say as if Harlem wasn't, but it just let the story live and breathe, and it was really cool. Like, I would hope there is a world where you'll get more regular programming, probably more cable as opposed to network. But it does definitely scream indie, as in taking the bull by its horns and telling the narrative unfiltered, uncensored, exactly how you would want to without the worries of FCC, of guidelines, or even just misunderstanding of people that want to misunderstand.

9:59Oti: Yeah. Sounds good.

10:02KT: Yeah. I had a good time. I stressed myself out, but it was a nice little reprieve, I guess, from the scripts that are written for us to be on our phones.

10:17Oti: Yeah.

10:19KT: Speaking of scripts that might be AI enhanced—

10:25Oti: What?

10:26KT: No, I meant in a world. I didn't mean what we're about to cover.

10:31Oti: I was like, "Wait, what are you talking about?"

10:36KT: We are covering Cupertino. This could've been a little wagon to our previous pilot season. Only one episode is currently available, and I am very, very, very excited, even within this one pilot non-spoiler review, to talk about this with you, my love. Give us your non-spoiler thoughts.

10:59Oti: The Kings are at it again, bringing Colter back from Evil for a delicious procedural that has us rooting for The Good Wife, sorry, people. An engaging pilot sets the stage for what could become a weekly treat.

11:17KT: I hope two things. Yeah. I hope, one, I can make you smile the way you smile about Mike Colter. And second of all, that maybe not Mike Colter, I could be your weekly treat.

11:32Oti: You are, both things.

11:37KT: I did say, and I am gonna wank myself, 'cause it is our podcast, friends and lovers. I feel like you're going to love my quote.

11:46Oti: Mm.

11:48KT: Cupertino is a welcome reprieve to the blatant greed of big tech in reality—

11:56Oti: Mm.

11:56KT: that allows the space to dream, even fictionally, that we do matter beyond optimization.

12:04Oti: Nice.

12:05KT: Woo! Call me Ric KT Flair. Woo!

12:15Oti: He can take that with his problematic history as well.

12:19KT: Well, I wasn't talking about Hogan, brother.

12:24Oti: Oh, actually, I got my wires crossed.

12:27KT: You know what's funny? I thought you said you got your whites crossed because the white men in this show was very confusing to me. I had to ask you what Peter's like. I was like, "Is that the evil white guy?" And you're like, "No, that's the other evil white guy." And I'm like, "Okay, fair."

12:40Oti: Yeah, fair.

12:41KT: Granted, you didn't know their names either, but it's okay. All right, thoughts. Let's expound. You said The Kings are back.

12:48Oti: I don't know what The Kings have that have me keep on watching their shows over and over.

12:55KT: So you mentioned Evil, you mentioned The Good Wife.

12:58Oti: Evil, The Good Wife.

13:00KT: Elsbeth.

13:01Oti: Elsbeth, The Good Fight.

13:02KT: Yeah. You know what? This is actually a great tie-in. I think it was even our last Ref Max, my love, when we were saying Tyler Perry, Ryan Murphy, and your mans. What's. I literally listened to the review the other day, and you're like, "He's not my mans." What's your mans' name? Taylor Sheridan.

13:23Oti: Oh, shit.

13:24KT: Tyler Perry. Well, which of the mens do you wanna choose? You've got three to choose from.

13:29Oti: None.

13:29KT: Tyler Perry, Ryan Murphy, Taylor Sheridan. We were saying they don't always need to have a universe. We don't need to monopolize. They're like the big tech equivalent of screenwriting. Right? But maybe this is a good example, The Kings.

13:45Oti: Yeah. Like, you can take quirky characters, tackle some, throw in some real-life shit, not oversexualize anyone, Taylor Sheridan.

13:59KT: You watched all his shows.

14:03Oti: I did not.

14:03KT: Or is that the equivalent of, like, when you close your incognito browsers and then the guilt comes afterwards? Is that like Taylor Sheridan now? Is that what you're saying?

14:14Oti: Uh, but I stopped at Landman, so I don't know what you're talking about.

14:19KT: Well, no one talked about sexualizing characters until you said it.

14:24Oti: Uh, but there's just something there that works.

14:29KT: The pilot has something. I wouldn't go all the way to say. I haven't watched The Good Wife. The Good Fight, I would watch along with you, so I didn't watch the pilot of it, but I was also very surprised that these, aside from the fact that they love Mike Colter, which, you know, shared company. I really enjoy their dialogue. They have a very interesting dialogue. Whether the overarching story arcs are interesting, to me, from my periphery, when I would sit and watch when you were watching, it did feel interesting. I don't know if it was satisfying arc-wise 'cause, again, I haven't watched the full sort of series. Love Elsbeth.

15:12Oti: Mm.

15:14KT: But I don't know, unless you're telling me— 'Cause they don't seem like growers. It seems like they come right out the gate. I don't know if they were putting their best pen on this. Maybe The Squire instead of The Kings.

15:28Oti: Yeah. I get you from the writing perspective of this. There was nothing that was. I wouldn't really say captivating because it's not that kind of show at least, or at least what got me.

15:45KT: Well, it's heart-stringing for sure.

15:46Oti: Yeah.

15:47KT: And I think that's nice.

15:49Oti: Yeah. And Colter has his thing as well. I don't know—

15:55KT: What does that mean?

15:56Oti: There's just this allure, and this is—

15:58KT: His one, the one Black employee, is that the allure he has?

16:01Oti: Yeah.

16:02KT: That's a reference to the pilot by the way.

16:09Oti: Is he token or Tolkien? Oh. But I don't know, there's just something about this show that works. It set it up to be something very captivating or feels like it could be very interesting as we go, with a really gritty underlying backstory of how everything would tie in together with the big techs, and has some daddy issues thrown in there. Who doesn't have that?

16:35KT: He just crumpled up.

16:37Oti: Yeah.

16:38KT: He just, wow.

16:40Oti: Yeah.

16:41KT: Especially 'cause his father looked tiny. I might squash him, bro.

16:45Oti: Yeah, parents do that to you, man.

16:48KT: Man, I didn't know it was For Your Otis, For Your Oti Colters today. I love the promise of it. I love the premise of it. Can I be vulnerable in this here podcast?

17:01Oti: Wouldn't be a Colter-enabled space if it wasn't.

17:08KT: As established, shared company, we love Mike Colter.

17:11Oti: We do.

17:12KT: I wouldn't say I've watched enough to have a substantial acclimating calibration of him. Oh, Evil? No, you know what I was thinking? I was thinking of Daredevil. Evil was the, um, George.

17:32Oti: George, uh—

17:33KT: Yeah, the sleep paralysis demon.

17:35Oti: Mm.

17:36KT: Yeah, but he wasn't. He's not like, you know what? I'm gonna say his name, and you're gonna smile. He's not like Harold Perrineau.

17:45Oti: Yeah.

17:45KT: See? He just has a sunshine presence. And whenever you think about him running to get another talisman for From, like, I don't know, Mike Colter just, he isn't giving it to me.

18:01Oti: Uh, I don't think people would say that about Perrineau in Lost though.

18:06KT: Hey, man. No one would say that about Daniel Dae Kim in Lost, or

18:13Oti: Who?

18:13KT: The other one. But I don't know. I obviously love him as a leading man, but he was kind of standing for Morris Chestnut in Rosewood.

18:27Oti: Oh, damn. I wouldn't go that far.

18:31KT: No, because they were trying to force the dynamic between him and Siffre.

18:37Oti: Mm.

18:38KT: They were trying to force that dynamic. 'Cause you know what really, when we were watching this pilot, what really got girdling my loins, valoring my ghoulies—

18:51Oti: Mm.

18:51KT: when Christy was calling her uncle and, non-spoiler, so I don't wanna say too much, but all of her family connections in regards to helping this start-up, aside from her, I guess, bringing value from a motivation point of view, but I was like, "Ah, I get this." "I get this show," and this is as grassroots, I guess, as we get.

19:14Oti: Mm.

19:14KT: And I was like, "Ooh, this is where we're cooking." Whenever they try to have a dynamic with Michael Price and Siffre, I was like, "Ugh," like, "No."

19:24Oti: Mm.

19:25KT: Like, there are strengths to this show. I don't think it's that.

19:29Oti: Maybe they're just that good actors that it's supposed to be they've just met, so it's not like they'll be busting chemistry right off the bat. Sometimes it's fine to build it up slowly.

19:39KT: Okay, can I say what you said before we started recording then?

19:44Oti: What did I say?

19:46KT: I was saying he wasn't that charming to me, and you're like, "Yeah, I get what you're saying. Maybe it's, like, I've seen him in other roles." And I was like, "Is he charming in those?" And you're like, "Well, no, not really." Like, you can still like the fella. Like, I like him. I love him. But I'm just like, I don't think they need to force that sort of dynamic, that cutesy sort of dynamic. I don't think they need to force that 'cause there's so much going on for this show. I love to think that this exists in a world of Silicon Valley. I don't think Mike Judge was necessarily favorably looking upon big tech either, but it was in the eye of the storm. This is, I guess, like The Good Place sort of equivalent.

20:39Oti: Mm.

20:40KT: Where we're kind of like, you know what? And that's what I was And we talked about this in President Curtis Furious as well, friends and lovers, which I think we've already mentioned we've finished the series. Love, love, love, amazing, amazing, amazing. In this world of Cupertino, I don't fucking care whether big tech wins. I don't fucking care whether all of our brown drinking water gets melted to the sun. I don't fucking care. In this show, I want all of the Davids, as they like to refer, David versus Goliath, I want all of the Davids to win.

21:16Oti: Mm.

21:16KT: And I want all of the big tech. Man, they really casted the big tech in this show to look as disgusting.

21:27Oti: Right on the money.

21:29KT: I just love the promise of this show. Yeah, there are a few things that didn't necessarily work for me, but all in all, it was a great experience. I'm enjoying the character dynamic interplay—

21:46Oti: Mm.

21:46KT: that's happening, as opposed to the dialogue. I'm not caring for the dialogue at the moment. What's Why are you pursing your lips at me, sir?

21:55Oti: I'm not pursing my lips. I'm listening.

21:57KT: Would you purse your lips at Mike Colter?

22:00Oti: Depends on the scenario. Oh, you didn't say pucker. Oh.

22:08KT: Oh, if you—

22:10Oti: I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

22:11KT: I think you've got a Taylor Sheridan script somewhere there. Does Taylor Sheridan have any Black leads aside from Zoe Saldaña?

22:19Oti: Does she consider herself Black, though?

22:20KT: Right? But I didn't wanna be the one to say it. But I'm saying anyone else in his shows?

22:25Oti: I guess if Colter said he wasn't Black, he'd probably get his show.

22:30KT: So Gamora next?

22:32Oti: Oof.

22:33KT: No?

22:34Oti: Yeah. Doesn't matter if she's green.

22:38KT: Wow.

22:38Oti: Mm.

22:40KT: But I really enjoyed it. I was really bummed we only had the one episode.

22:45Oti: Yeah. It's something definitely that I appreciate it coming on a weekly basis as well, 'cause it's something that you wanna sit and then just enjoy as a little mini treat as you go through.

22:59KT: Absolutely, love. Hoo, hoo, hoo. Thank you, friends and lovers, for joining us another week in the For Your Reference household. Anything else you wanna recommend, my love?

23:10Oti: Ooh, what have we been watching?

23:13KT: That's a good question. We're watching a lot of anime. We're watching The Great British Bake Off.

23:18Oti: Yeah.

23:18KT: No, I don't think we've recorded since we really got in the rabbit hole of. What is it? Million Dollar Secret?

23:27Oti: Yeah, Million Dollar Secret. Oh my God.

23:30KT: Shout outs to producers, man.

23:32Oti: There's a ratio in there that's—

23:34KT: No, because when it first came out, 'cause Oti's very exploratory, so whenever a show comes out, we usually always watch the first episode of whatever it is, and we're like, "Uh, take it or leave it," and we left it. And then I think in your Arsenal podcast, they were talking about a celebrity edition next year.

23:53Oti: Yeah.

23:54KT: So we started with the second season, devoured it, and then went back to the first season and we're like, "Mm, they tweaked, and they tweaked in a good way."

24:03Oti: And you can see their areas of improvement and how—

24:05KT: Production.

24:06Oti: Yeah.

24:06KT: Producers are very important, friends and lovers. Go out and consensually show affection to a producer today.

24:13Oti: Mm-hmm.

24:15KT: All right. If you would like to find us, we're @foryourrefpod.

24:19Oti: Write us an email at hello@fyrpodcast.com.

24:23KT: I also wanted to say, screenings are coming up that we're very excited for. Clayface, I don't know if we're excited for, but it's coming up.

24:31Oti: Yeah.

24:32KT: As well as I Love Boosters.

24:34Oti: Excited for that.

24:36KT: And then there's some creepy looking Ken Russell's remake of, I think it's called The Devils, which looks a bit scary.

24:45Oti: Well, and we'll be there too.

24:46KT: Apparently, there was a lot of controversy from the Catholic Church 'cause they didn't like it, so hold on to your rosaries, Catholic boy.

24:56Oti: Lean in on that. Don't do a Jeymes Samuel and play into the bloody nonsense.

25:02KT: Well, it was fine.

25:04Oti: No, I meant with Book of Clement— Book of Clarence.

25:08KT: Book of Clementine.

25:10Oti: I'm just thinking of my Clem, you know?

25:13KT: Okay, well, don't go throwing holy water when we go and watch The Devils then.

25:17Oti: Pssh. I always carry it around, so we'll be good.

25:23KT: And we'll see you guys next week.

25:25Oti: See ya.

25:26KT: Bye.