You know what's unpleasant to think about? Video games of the future. You know what's fun to think about? Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston solving a murder on a yacht. This week, host Bobby Finger welcomes BuzzFeed Breaking News Reporter Michael Blackmon (@blackmon) and Hey Ladies! author Caroline Moss (@carolinemoss) to discuss the captivating new Black Mirror episode "Striking Vipers," as well as the charming silliness of Murder Mystery. Skip segments you'd like to keep spoiler-free with these handy time codes: Striking Vipers: 8:22 - 20:40 Murder Mystery: 20:40 - 30:05 Call 754-CALL-BOB and share your current obsessions, and we may discuss it on a future episode! Once again, it's 754-CALL-BOB.
You know what's unpleasant to think about? Video games of the future. You know what's fun to think about? Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston solving a murder on a yacht.
This week, host Bobby Finger welcomes BuzzFeed Breaking News Reporter Michael Blackmon (@blackmon) and Hey Ladies! author Caroline Moss (@carolinemoss) to discuss the captivating new Black Mirror episode "Striking Vipers," as well as the charming silliness of Murder Mystery.
Skip segments you'd like to keep spoiler-free with these handy time codes:
Striking Vipers: 8:22 - 20:40
Murder Mystery: 20:40 - 30:05
Call 754-CALL-BOB and share your current obsessions, and we may discuss it on a future episode!
Once again, it's 754-CALL-BOB.
Bobby: Welcome to I’m Obsessed With This, a Netflix podcast about the shows and films everyone seems to be talking about and why. As usual, we will be having a spoiler-filled discussion of all titles. So check the time codes and the show notes just in case you’d like to skip those sections. I am your host, Bobby Finger, and I’m joined in the studio today by Michael Blackmon, breaking news reporter at BuzzFeed News, and Caroline Moss, author of Hey Ladies and the Work It, Girl kids’ books. Hello, you two.
Caroline: Hi.
Michael: Hi.
Bobby: We’re all here.
Caroline: We are all here.
Bobby: We are having the best time.
Caroline: Best. It’s so hot out right now.
Bobby: Hm-hmm. It’s very hot, so we’re drinking cold drinks. I just finished my iced tea, so I don’t have my cold drink with me.
Caroline: How do you take your iced tea, Bobby?
Bobby: Unsweetened.
Caroline: Nice. Like an adult.
Bobby: I want to talk about broadly, the show is called I’m Obsessed With This. Do you know where you are? Are we aware?
Caroline: I’m aware.
Bobby: I’m Obsessed With This?
Caroline: Yes.
Bobby: So we like talking about the shows that we are currently obsessed with, because at Netflix, things are going on all the time. They come on. They come off. You’re like, “Well, I’m watching this now. I’m watching this later.” Like da da da da da. Things are always changing. So I want to talk about what we are watching and we’re loving right now.
I will go first because I am the host. What am I currently watching? Nailed It. I’m on Nailed It right now, the new batch of episodes, which I’ve kind of like taken my time to get into, and last night I watched another one. And like there are certain shows that you savor, you know, that you’re like, “Ooh,” because the first season of Nailed It I watched in like a day. Finished it.
Caroline: Yeah.
Bobby: This one I’m like I can’t do that again.
Caroline: Yeah.
Bobby: So I watched almost the—have you watched Nailed It, the most recent season?
Caroline: Yeah. Do you know what it’s about?
Michael: I was going to ask, what’s the appeal? What’s the draw?
Caroline: Nailed It, can I say what it’s about? [Laughs.]
Bobby: No, you’re the guest. Take it. I’m always here. Take it.
Caroline: Take it. Okay. So it’s basically a baking show sort of designed around the concept of like Pinterest fails. So they will give three like home bakers, like no one professional. And they’ll show—I remember the first episode I watched was—I think was the first episode.
It was like an engagement cake, but it was like a hand with a ring on it. And then the three people have to like recreate it. And it’s actually—I mean, it looks so campy off the top, but it is so funny, just because I think it’s like we’re all in the trenches together. No one can make shit that looks like that. And the—Nicole—is it Nicole?
Bobby: It’s Nicole Byer.
Caroline: Byers, Byer.
Bobby: Nicole Byer, yeah.
Caroline: So funny. The host is funny.
Bobby: Nicole Byer is the host, and then her French sidekick is that French pastry chef whose name is like Jacques Torres.
Caroline: Jacques Torres.
Bobby: That guy, whose name is on like all the chocolate stuff.
Caroline: So, yeah.
Michael: So the people who compete are not actually supposed to be good at this, no. So the whole—
Caroline: No, the whole idea is that they’re bad. [Laughs.]
Bobby: The whole idea is that like let’s see them do something completely embarrassing and terrible that we could—that will be a hilarious side-by-side. So they have like, “Here’s what you needed to make,” and it’s like the one I watched last night was like a Jack-in-the-box with a clown popping out of it, but like a real clown, like a scary clown.
Caroline: [Laughs.] It’s like horrifying.
Bobby: And then it’s like, “Here’s what you made.” And it’s just like—
Caroline: It’s just like a cake on the floor.
Bobby: —crap that’s falling apart. And I’m like like everything’s bad. Yeah.
Caroline: It’s really funny.
Bobby: You watch it, and you’re like, “This is sort of for children.” Like you’re like it’s sort of for kids.
Caroline: Yeah, it’s definitely for 12-year-olds. Like it’s definitely like sixth-grade sleepover and you’re like peeing in your pants with your friends, like just the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. And yet it’s so good.
Bobby: It’s so—it’s so funny. Like I’m 30 huh-huh. And like I like laughed my ass off watching. What else am I watching? I just realized that two movies I really like are on Netflix. They just got added. One of them is The Box. Have you seen The Box?
Caroline: No.
Bobby: It’s crazy. Do you know the movie Donnie Darko?
Caroline: Yes.
Bobby: Yes. Same director, Richard Kelly. Cameron Diaz, James Marsden.
Caroline: Back 20 years later.
Bobby: 2009, just 10 years ago.
Caroline: Oh.
Bobby: No one saw it. It’s Cameron Diaz.
Caroline: Great.
Bobby: It’s set in the ’70s. And it’s about an old man. He comes to their door, and he’s like—they’re—you know, they’re broke. They’re like broke as a joke, and they’re like trying to live their middle class best lives but like cannot. And this guy’s like, “Hey, I’m mysterious. I have this box. If you push the button, you will get a million dollars, but someone you don’t know will die.”
Caroline: Wow.
Bobby: And so they’re like, “Do you want to push it?” And so they’re like, “Do we push it?” And then they push it, and everything goes wrong.
Caroline: Yeah, no. This is coming back to me now.
Bobby: And everything obviously goes fucking wrong. Yeah, everything falls apart.
Caroline: It was like Deal or No Deal-y with death.
Bobby: You’ve got to watch it. It’s like nuts. And then things sort of—it’s one of those movies that just like spirals. Everything avalanches. What else? I need to re-watch that, and I need to re-watch Snowpiercer, which I’ve seen four times already.
Caroline: Oh, wow.
Bobby: But they’re on, and I just noticed it again, and they’re making it into a show. I don’t know where the show’s going to be. But I love the movie so much.
Caroline: Wow.
Bobby: The director of Snowpiercer, Bong Joon-ho, just came out with a new movie that was at Cannes, and it won the top prize at Cannes.
Caroline: Nice.
Bobby: So like he’s in the news. I’m thinking about him.
Caroline: Yeah. So you have to kind of circle back.
Bobby: Yeah, so—
Michael: Was that the same director of Burning?
Bobby: No, different guy. Different guy. But I saw that same Burning, which is on Netflix.
Michael: Yeah. Yeah, it’s really good.
Bobby: Steven Yeun’s in Burning, right?
Michael: Yeah.
Bobby: Everyone’s obsessed with his like character. Have you seen Burning?
Caroline: No.
Bobby: Caroline’s like, your eyes are narrowed, you’re like I have no idea.
Caroline: You’re in a Y when we come to me. I’m in like should I pretend that I’m sophisticated?
Bobby: What’s next? Michael, what are you watching? What are you obsessed with?
Michael: What am I obsessed with? Well, I just finished Mad Men, which is on Netflix. And I just watched all seven seasons like over the course of maybe…
Caroline: For the first time?
Michael: No. I watched again, like over the course of two months.
Caroline: Okay.
Michael: Because I was telling Bobby earlier, like I just like come home and I just like to have like a show to watch very slowly. So I’ve been watching Mad Men. I just—I’m really in love with the characters, and like I really think that part of me watches it because like it reminds me of like old BuzzFeed in some ways, just like the different changes that the company has been through.
Caroline: Right.
Michael: But also, I feel like—
Caroline: Don Draper must be really nice.
Michael: Well, yeah, must be nice. But also, like I feel like it takes me inside the world of like white people. And I’m just like this is how they act when like there are no people of color around or sometimes when people are around. And I don’t know, it’s just like a very fascinating show. And I really think the characters are like so fleshed out and like really, really interesting, and I find something that I like more about it each time. Like I really fucking love Joan. Like she’s such a great character.
Bobby: That’s Christina Hendricks?
Michael: Yeah, that’s Christina Hendricks. She’s so [ah].
Bobby: [Whispers] I’ve never seen that.
Caroline: I was just going to say I just started it this week for the first time ever. So now we need to talk.
Michael: Oh, my gosh. I literally used to even—I was in advertising for a long—I was in advertising before I pivoted to whatever I do now.
Caroline: I’m so excited. Wait. You were a mad man.
Michael: I worked on ads—I was an ad man for a long time. Yeah. And I’ve never seen the show. I just had no interest.
Caroline: I was going to say Mona Lisa Smile is back on Netflix.
Michael: Oh, Mona Lisa Smile, yeah.
Caroline: Like circles back. And so, well, a thing about me and how I enjoy my entertainment is that it’s very hard for me to sit down and watch a new show, because I am constantly like doing things. So like I used the TV as like white noise, because music will distract me and then put me to sleep. So, also, when I drive, I put on shows that I already know.
Bobby: What, you put on shows—oh, wait, I’ve actually been in the car with you when you were very unsafely watching a made-for-TV movie.
Caroline: Oh, no, that was for you.
Michael: You were watching a TV show in the car?
Caroline: I was never—no, no. Absolutely, this is not fair.
Bobby: You were listening to it. You were listening to it.
Caroline: No. Slander.
Bobby: The audio was playing through the speakers. An audio was playing through the speakers.
Caroline: Yeah, no, I listen to it. Yeah.
Bobby: And you treat some things as audiobooks. Like you treat visual media as audiobooks.
Caroline: Yeah, no, everything—everything, almost, because—so—and what—the great thing about Netflix is that you can play it and then put back on your maps so that you can get directions. And then you like put back—you know, you slide your panel down. You press play. And it will play. And you don’t actually have to have the video up.
Bobby: Yeah. That’s great.
Caroline: Hulu does not do that, and if Hulu is listening, they should do that.
Bobby: Wow, another great thing Netflix—you can use Netflix as audiobooks.
Caroline: Netflix as a podcast. So, what’s so funny—
Bobby: That’s wild. Awesome.
Caroline: Anyway, we’ll get into that later. So Mad Men is the first time in a long time that I’ve sat down and watched a new show.
Bobby: Like there are pictures?
Caroline: I don’t need it. There are movies that I have heard so many times that if I actually sat down and watched it, I’d be like, “I’ve never seen…” Like I don’t—I never knew that this was happening during this.
Michael: Yeah. You probably can quote a lot of things now.
Caroline: Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no. And I watch like the same things over and over. It’s very strange. I got—I started doing this when I was driving to college back and forth, because I was noticing that the music, like rhythms of music, were like kind of like making me zone out. So I would just like put on episodes of Desperate Housewives.
Bobby: Just listen to it.
Caroline: So now if I’m ever driving in western Massachusetts, it’s like a tick in me that has to put on episodes of Desperate Housewives and go to McDonald’s. [Laughs.]
Bobby: I’m like—I’m completely blown away by that. I love it.
Caroline: How are you blown away? You were in my car like a month ago when I put on a video.
Bobby: I guess I didn’t know that it was a regular thing.
Caroline: It’s very weird. Like Dan is very—I mean, my husband’s very used this. But when other people are in the car and I like schlep and I’m like just put on episodes of The Office, everyone’s like, “What?” But I think people, you know, come around to that. But anyway, Mad Men, I’m actually sitting and watching it, which has been great.
Bobby: So, a lot of the times, whenever we’re planning these episodes, like we look up things like Twitter reactions and then like try to find like what people are saying, and then like that helps us find guests as well, because we want to find like earnest reactions. And, Michael, your tweet led us to you whenever you showed that polar bear sex line by the iconic like Jasmine Masters, “and I oop” meme.
Caroline: I know that.
Bobby: You know the meme?
Caroline: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what that’s from? Okay.
Bobby: Ah, you’re a fan of Black Mirror generally. You were a fan of Black Mirror. You watched it before.
Michael: Yes, I watched it before. Black Mirror was like one of those shows where I saw people talking about it online, because I think the first episode that I watched was the—there was a politician, and he was essentially forced to have sex with a pig.
Bobby: With a pig, yeah.
Michael: And, once I saw that’s how crazy the show could get, I was like, “Okay, well, I’m in, and I have to watch it.” And, ever since then, like I’ve been someone who’s been like super gung-ho about like watching the show whenever it like premiers. But like with this one, I was a little bit late, but I think that’s just because I’ve been so busy lately. But I really am like a huge Black Mirror fan.
Bobby: Did you watch Bandersnatch?
Michael: I did watch Bandersnatch.
Bobby: Did you get any good endings?
Michael: I did not. I actually didn’t like that as much, because I’m just like just play. I don’t want to choose my own.
Bobby: You would hate Bandersnatch because you have to watch and choose. You have to make decisions the whole time.
Caroline: No, that’s too much. That’s too much for me, I’m sorry.
Bobby: You have to make—
Michael: It’s lot of work.
Caroline: It’s a lot of work.
Bobby: It was lot of work. I did two. I wasn’t…
Caroline: It’s very interesting to me that you guys refer—well, I guess like the nature of the show is that you know the names of the episode. Like that means something. It’s meaningful.
Bobby: Yeah, they’re all sort of individual—they’re like kind of little mini—they’re short stories, essentially. Yeah.
Michael: Like my favorite I would say is the same as everyone else’s,
Bobby: “San Junipero?”
Michael: “San Junipero.” But I am very partial to the “Nosedive” episode as well, just because I feel like I think everyone is addicted to social media, especially people like—within like news media and stuff like that. But I could see like myself becoming Bryce Dallas Howard and just like going off the deep end and being like, “Oh, some people don’t like me. How do I get people?” You know, like I could just see myself becoming that person. It was a really, really good episode.
Bobby: Compared to those two, what did you think of “Striking Vipers?”
Michael: “Striking Vipers” I would say was a good episode. It wasn’t like the strongest that the series has to offer, but I still thought it was like entertaining enough. It was like one of those shows that like I was watching it, and it’s like—it like—it just slowly reveals itself. I was waiting for something like big and crazy to happen. And then like once I saw what the stakes actually were, I was like, “Okay, well, this is fine.”
Bobby: Black Mirror has a tendency to like actually sink me into like, not depression, but like just like a moment of like deep unhappiness. Like because it’s so dark—
Caroline: That’s definitely what you want out of the shows that you watch on television. [Laughing.]
Bobby: It’s so dark. It’s so dark, but I think that that’s sort of like a reflection—like that’s, if anything, a compliment to it being an effective sort of like—I don’t know—satire or commentary.
Michael: Yeah.
Bobby: But it’s kind of an exhausting show to watch, and I—
Caroline: You feel like you have to be in a specific mood, mindset.
Bobby: Yeah. But this one really did feel like a weird romantic character study about like what goes on to a—so let me just set the scene. This episode is about a married couple played by Anthony Mackie and Nicole Beharie, and they at the beginning of the episode live with his friend, Anthony’s friend, Karl, who’s played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and their friends. And, you know, the girlfriend sleeps in at the beginning of the episode, or she goes to sleep and he stays up playing Striking Vipers with his friend. They’re up all night playing this, you know, street fighter game.
Cut to 10 years later. They’re married, and the roommate is somewhere else. And it’s Anthony Mackie’s birthday party. And he brings him over a new videogame. It’s the newest installment of Striking Vipers. But it’s 10 years later, so technology has improved. You can put a little thingy on your temple, and you actually VR the game. You know, you’re in the game. And so they start playing this together. He plays this like male character. The friend plays this female character. And instead of fighting, they just have sex in the game.
Caroline: Ah. Okay.
Bobby: They have sex in the game. Is that an emotional affair? Is that a physical affair? What is this? Is it porn? Is it sex? Like you kind of go into it thinking like, “Is this about queerness? Is this about gayness? Is this about being closeted? Like what is this?” But, ultimately, I mean, I want to know what you think about this.
It’s sort of about honesty more than anything. It’s just about—because by the end, they do—once they’re open with each other, that’s kind of how we’re left. They’ve finally decided to be honest about each other, and they’ve reached this happy question mark compromise. But it’s like, is it happy? And I feel like that’s a common thing in Black Mirror. Like even if it’s happy, it’s never really happy.
Michael: Yeah.
Bobby: You know, there’s something a little sad, something dark about the entire thing. What was your takeaway from the episode?
Michael: That’s like a hard question. But I guess my takeaway was that I was satisfied with the ending. Like I do—like you were saying earlier, like is this I guess like emotional sort of infidelity? That’s what I felt like it was, because Anthony Mackie’s character was very afraid of like telling his wife that like, hey, this other thing is like going on, until like it got to the point where like he couldn’t—like the friendship was sort of deteriorating and like he was like acting very crazy and like he was probably going to like lose his wife if like it went any further.
I feel like I liked it, because I felt like it showed like the complexity of like what a marriage or just like a general relationship could be, because like, ultimately, like I think that you do get like tired of like doing like the same old things, like the same old positions, and like sometimes only like with the same person, like even though you can like deeply care for them. And I think that, at the end, like they both—all three parties involved—found like a happy sort of medium. And that to me seemed like a really good ending.
Bobby: I think we’re conditioned to think that this sort of story ends with a complete tragedy at the end, you know, where everyone’s life is ruined. Someone gets hurt and/or dead. You know? Like almost in another story, that fight that they have in the rain would have resulted in, you know, one of them dying, like hitting their head. I kept thinking he was going to die.
Michael: I thought that was—yeah.
Bobby: And I was like he’s going to die, or like Anthony Mackie’s going to kill his friend, like or the other way around. And then it was a catalyst for them to be open with each other.
Caroline: Yeah. There is no resolution. It’s just like the complexity of being human.
Bobby: Yeah. And I think—and one thing I was sort of disappointed by, which was sort of an unfair thing, like I thought it was going to be a little gayer. I was like, “This is going to be gayer.” And then like there’s a moment where they realize that they’ve been having sex so much in the game that this moment in the rain, he’s like, “We need to kiss, because I need to know if I am attracted to you or if I’m attracted to you in the game.”
Caroline: Your avatar.
Bobby: Because in the game it’s this heterosexual like straight like relationship. But in real life, so it’s like, “What’s happening?” And they kiss, and then they realize there’s nothing there.
Caroline: Okay.
Michael: Which doesn’t make that much sense to me.
Bobby: I was sort of like, “Come on.”
Michael: Yeah. Like how is there not an emotional connection with real life if in the virtual game this person, who clearly turns you on in the game, no one else can replace this person? You know, like only with him can you have like this amazing orgasm. Like only with him have you had like the most amazing sex ever. But like in real life there’s nothing? That just seems really weird to me.
Caroline: Oh. Well, that sort of adds another layer to it.
Bobby: It’s a little strange. It’s sort of strange. And so like just because I’m like desperate for everything to be gay, I was like, “Come on.” But then you think about like the guy who wrote it, Charlie Brooker, I believe is straight. So part of me was like, “Well, obviously, that’s where he’s going to end up, like because like that’s his journey.” But I was still a little disappointed, though I did—I did like that it was still progressive in the sense that like it didn’t end the relationship at the end of it.
Once the wife found out about it, they decide on your birthday you can have sex with your friend in the game, and then I’m going to go to the bar and then fuck someone else at the bar—the wife. You can tell there’s something that she gets out of it that she can’t get from—like she gets something about meeting someone new and then like having a little fling that she can’t get from the husband. And the husband—
Caroline: So that’s like her thing.
Bobby: That the husband gets something out of the videogame that he can’t get from her. And that’s their compromise at the end of the thing.
Caroline: Okay. Is it supposed to normalize this idea that like you can have sex with your friends on videogames and like it can be a thing to talk about with your spouse if that’s a thing you need?
Bobby: I think it’s more—I think he even said it’s more about porn. I shared some stories with the two of you from like [unintelligible 00:16:42] media response, and it’s funny to see like depending on who you are is how you are going to read it. Like queer black men are like, “This is about the relationship between queer black men.”
Like black women were like—a straight black woman was like, “This is my experience with like down low black men.” And then like just gay men are like, “Oh, this is about closeted men.” But then straight people are like, “This is my husband watching porn.” And Charlie Brooker is like, “This is about porn.”
Caroline: Sure.
Bobby: And so he said—I just want to read this quote—“I think it’s interesting, because there’s a game in the story, but it’s not about games. It’s about porn and relationships,” which is just like, “Oh, yeah, this is a commentary on how porn may or may not damage relationships and how you can kind of get around it, as long as you’re honest about it.
Caroline: Yeah. I mean, going back to your honesty point, then it is about just how you communicate with your partner in general, because like there are going to be transgressions in like any kind of relationship. Right? And the idea of being that like you have to be with someone who can either get on board with that or at least hear you out. So, what I’m gleaning—so they’re a straight couple?
Bobby: They’re a straight couple.
Caroline: And he’s having sex with his male friend?
Bobby: Male friend who’s also straight.
Caroline: And then—right, and then they meet in real life and they kiss?
Michael: Yes, they do.
Caroline: And then we’ll never see any of these people again?
Bobby: Yeah. We’ll never see—
Michael: Like it’s an interconnected sort of universe, so there’ll probably be like some sort of Easter egg like in a future episode.
Bobby: They’ll be in like a family photo in the back. And all of these episodes—and he deals with videogames. Even “San Junipero” is sort of about—I mean, it is about a videogame as well. I saw you mention on your tweet that it also made you want to re-watch Brother to Brother. And I was like, I have not thought about Brother to Brother in like 10 years.
Michael: Yeah. And I was like, oh, shit, Brother to Brother was like one of those movies where like me coming up, knowing I’m like gay and like being closeted, like I only had like Queer as Folk to watch like on Showtime, and that was like at my grandma’s house on the weekends. And like it would be late at night, and I’m like hoping that no one comes and I would have to switch the TV to the other channel really quickly if someone came to check on me.
But seeing Brother to Brother, I was just like, oh, my God, like—I don’t know, it was just like one of those movies where I’m just like any sort of like representation like just being like a black queer person was huge. And like seeing Anthony Mackie, I was just like, oh, my God, like…
Bobby: And so many gay movies, especially ones from the 2000s, are like the exact same type of like white gay guy, you know. Like they’re all exactly the same.
Michael: Yeah.
Caroline: Yeah.
Bobby: I know you know the gay movies, Caroline, but 90% of them suck.
Caroline: No, I actually do know that about gay movies. I’m an ally.
Bobby: Oh, yeah, because—yeah, you’re an ally. I forgot you’re an ally.
Caroline: I’m an ally. Thank you. It’s pride.
Michael: You’re Taylor Swift.
Caroline: I am.
Michael: I’m kidding. I’m kidding.
Caroline: My album is coming out later.
Bobby: Not talking about the sex, would you play a fighting game where you could feel everything?
Caroline: No. I don’t like fighting games.
Michael: I feel like I would play a game like that, because I feel like I always chose like the female characters. I love Princess Kitana. I love Sonya Blade Lake. I would love to be able to like throw a fan, kick like Chun-Li. I would do it.
Bobby: I would like to see almost a further exploration of this game, because there was so much more into like the gender stuff too, where like he—the friend was always a woman. That was his thing. He always played female characters. And so—but like that’s not really explored. It’s more just like a way to make their endgame relationship heterosexual.
Caroline: Yeah, it feels like there’s a lot they could have dove into.
Bobby: Yeah, but that’s sort of Black Mirror’s thing.
Caroline: Right.
Michael: Even using Asian characters.
Bobby: Yeah, Asian characters too.
Michael: That something that could have been explored more.
Bobby: So both of these black men are using specifically Asian characters every single time they play. So there was like all of this weird, complicated like racial and like gender identity stuff—
Caroline: Identity, yeah. Hm-hmm.
Bobby: —throughout the entire episode. Like I said, I’m almost glad that it wasn’t explored, just because like that’s not—you can’t do everything in every episode. But it does make me like—it makes you think about the environment.
Caroline: Their questions. Yep.
Bobby: And it makes you think, “Like what are the implications of this? What does this mean?”
Bobby: And now we are going to leave science fiction and move into another sort of alternate reality, the one where Jennifer Aniston is an older person.
Caroline: And married to Adam Sandler [laughing].
Bobby: We’re going to talk about Murder Mystery, which premiered last week on Netflix. It’s a comedy about some murder.
Caroline: Also marriage though.
Bobby: It’s a comedy about marriage. We’re talking about marriage this episode. We all watched Murder Mystery. Caroline, tell us what this movie is about in 30 seconds.
Caroline: Oh, okay. Okay, right now. Adam Sandler is a cop. He’s a New York cop. He still talks like Adam Sandler in every other Adam Sandler movie. But now he’s a cop. And he’s married to Jennifer Aniston, who’s a hairdresser. And they’ve been married for 15 years. And, essentially, you kind of open this movie by finding out the he like failed the detective test yet again.
But he’s going to lie to his wife and be like, “No, I’m a detective now,” which like seems like—talk about plot holes, that could be probably Googled. So she sort of like guilts him. She’s like, “You know, remember like we had our thing to go to Europe for our honeymoon, and we never went.” And he’s like, “No, we’re doing it. We’re going tomorrow.”
They go to Europe. They run into this guy in first class. He’s like, “Oh, don’t go on your tour bus. Like come with me to like my yacht mansion.” And then it’s one of those things where it’s like, literally, the lights go out. Someone gets murdered. The lights go out again and someone gets murdered. And non-detective Adam Sandler, who is a detective according to his wife, kind of must solve—
Michael: The murder mystery.
Caroline: The murder mystery. And, luckily, don’t sleep on Jennifer Aniston, because she likes murder mystery books. So, together, they can do this. And they do.
Bobby: They solve the crime.
Caroline: They do.
Bobby: They solve the crime, and—
Caroline: There’s twists. There’s turns.
Bobby: Some more predictable than others.
Caroline: Yeah.
Michael: The Christy is shaking.
Caroline: Yeah, seriously, murder…
Bobby: And it ends with a wink to murder moment.
Michael: Murder on the Orient Express.
Bobby: The moment they showed them in that thing, and before they pulled that, I was like grrr. I was like, “Damn it, they’re on the Orient Express.”
Michael: Yes.
Bobby: And then they pulled—
Caroline: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bobby: And I was like—part of me was like, “God damn it.” And part of me was like, “I’d watch the second one.”
Michael: I would too. I would too.
Bobby: I’d watch them solve a murder on the Orient Express. Because I did—did you watch the new Murder on the Orient Express movie? It sucks.
Caroline: I fell asleep in the movie theatre.
Michael: I didn’t watch the second one, but I read the book. It’s funny that like that movie is like a big-ass studio movie, big budget, huge stars. Like everything is like perfect special effects work, and it wasn’t great. And then Murder Mystery was kind of, comparatively, as if I know anything about the production cost, comparatively kind of low rent. And I think it was more successful, just because it was way more fun.
Caroline: The thing is about Murder Mystery—well, first of all, when I went to look and see what people were saying, I stumbled across the Faniston [phonetic 00:23:24] community. So…
Michael: That’s what they call themselves?
Caroline: Yeah, they’re Fanistons.
Michael: How did I not know that? Of course they’re Fanistons.
Caroline: Of course they’re Fanistons. And it’s like, I didn’t know what I was walking into before I watched it, but I looked at all these tweets that were like, “Our Rachel Green, she did that.” [Laughter.] Oh, I’m super ready for this.
Bobby: All the teens love Jennifer Aniston now, because of it.
Caroline: I mean, yeah, Friends is really having a resurgence. And it’s like my friend’s son is 13 years old and like Instagram DM’d me to be like, “Oh, my God, can you believe she got off the plane?” I’m like, “What year is it?” So I like wasn’t really sure what to expect, because I stumbled into like the Stan community before I—
Bobby: And they all love it.
Caroline: Yeah, they all love it. But the thing is, is like I liked it. But I walked out of Game Night similarly, being like, “Uh, I hated it.”
Bobby: Oh, you didn’t like Game Night?
Caroline: Everyone loved Game Night but me. And then I realized, maybe this just isn’t—I either want like actually murder and like a movie that’s going to scare the shit out of me or like I don’t want any murder at all. But like funny like gun scenes like freak me out a little.
Bobby: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Caroline: So it threw me a bit. But I tried to enjoy it for what it was, which was sort of in the genre of Game Night, right? Like—
Bobby: Yeah, kooky like—
Caroline: Little kooky murder, like kooky, funny murder.
Bobby: Like normal people find themselves in the middle of like a real problem.
Caroline: Yes, yes, yes.
Bobby: Yeah. Michael, are you a fan of Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston and both as a unit? Like are you a big fan of the 2011 classic Just Go With It?
Caroline: I’ve never even heard of that.
Michael: I’m fans of either of those things. Like I think I’m just more so of like a casual like I’ll view Jennifer Aniston projects. But I’m not like I stay in her or—same with Adam Sandler. Like I will say that I’ve appreciated his performance in this, just because like I don’t think I’ve really paid attention to anything since like Big Daddy and Happy Gilmore and—
Caroline: So like late ’90s, early 2000s, that time.
Michael: Yeah. What was the one with Kathy Bates? Waterboy?
Bobby: Waterboy.
Caroline: Yeah, the Wedding Singer.
Michael: And I know that like in—
Bobby: Oh, my God, I love that you described Waterboy as the one with Kathy Bates. That’s so funny. No, that’s like really good, because I was like, oh, right, she’s in The Waterboy. That’s good.
Michael: And it’s like I do feel like his performance, it was more grounded, in a way. Like it wasn’t like this crazy sort of Adam Sandler. And I know that like he’s played like more serious roles in like Punch-Drunk Love. But like, to me, this was like another—
Caroline: And Spanglish.
Michael: And Spanglish too. But this was like another sort of departure where I was like, okay, like he seems like more of like a normal sort of person. And I really appreciated that.
Caroline: Yeah. This was a nice hybrid between his like Spanglish roles and his like Wedding Singer roles.
Bobby: Yeah. And I think his thing is that he’s talented, but sometimes it just seems like what he’s doing is very lazy, like he’s not full—and when he’s not being lazy, even if the movie is kind of stupid—and Murder Mystery is stupid—it seems it’s just like a nice performance, because he’s good. But you can tell—like what was that movie, Mr. Deeds?
Caroline: Yeah.
Michael: Umm, yeah.
Bobby: But it’s like sort—a very like—it seems like he’s on autopilot. And he didn’t really seem like he was on autopilot here, and neither did Jennifer Aniston.
Caroline: Except in a few lines. Like I said, he does this weird callback to other Adam Sandler characters, where he’s like, “Well, and you didn’t tell me that.” Like he does this like weird—
Bobby: The trembly—the trembly thing that he does? Yeah.
Caroline: Yeah, like, “You told me that yesterday.” But like I’m glad he didn’t go into the Mr. Deeds where like, “Ra,” like there’s the whole voice thing, that I didn’t like in Happy Gilmore, I didn’t like in Mr. Deeds.
Bobby: He was just playing a Brooklyn detective, yeah. He’s from Brooklyn.
Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. Right. He was coming home. And also, Jennifer Aniston is a similar actor in that she plays strains of her other roles in every role that she gets. And Adam Sandler is the same. So, together, it was like there were just like—the way they each said different lines was like, oh, my gosh, that’s that character. That’s that character. Like I felt like I was watching a lot of her in He’s Just Not That Into You.
Bobby: Oh, yeah. Hm-hmm. She’s—
Caroline: Just the way she says things is—just doesn’t—it’s like Drew Barrymore is the same way. It’s like you’re just—that’s like—you’re like, “Oh, that’s Jennifer Aniston.”
Bobby: Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s a—
Caroline: The part Audrey Spitz.
Bobby: But it’s a very—it’s a very unique delivery. It’s good.
Caroline: Yeah, no. I mean, it’s Jennifer Aniston. She’s good.
Bobby: A thing I like about Jennifer Aniston is that she’s as convincing as in her—have you seen her like—is it Emirates?—her Emirates ads, where she’s like in—you know, eight levels above first class? And she’s like, “Where’s the shower? I need a shower in my plane.” And they’re like, “The shower’s right here.” Like they don’t have a shower. And she’s like, “Well, I need to fly Emirates, because they have a shower.”
Caroline: I haven’t seen that.
Bobby: She’s as good at playing like the person who cannot relate to an old person as she is at I think playing an old person. She’s weirdly believable—for as like kind of glamorous and A-list as she is, she’s believable as a normie, I think. You know, and like I think it’s—
Michael: Like in Dumplin’.
Bobby: Like in Dumplin’. And in Friends with Money she’s very believable as just like a normal—she’s the one without money.
Caroline: Yeah, she never plays like the bombshell. She always just plays like, “Here’s my friend. She’s hotter than all of us. But we’re still friends.”
Michael: But she’s relatable. You’ll get along with her.
Caroline: So she’s very nice to me and I go to all her birthday parties. But we all know she’s hotter than the rest of us in this group. That’s Jennifer Aniston.
Bobby: Yeah, so we all agree that she’s like good at playing a norm—a normie, yeah.
Caroline: Yeah.
Bobby: A hot normie.
Caroline: A hot normie.
Bobby: A hot normie.
Caroline: Just a regular gal.
Bobby: Did we see—did we guess the end? How long before you knew who the killer was?
Michael: I did not know. But the movie was—okay, so I liked the movie. I thought it was very fun. But I did find myself as I was going through it just being like, “Who is the killer? Who could it be?” And I did not get it at all.
Bobby: I think I was maybe a few minutes from the reveal that it was the—it was the Gemma Arterton character, the actress. But it was like kind of when the last clue was dropped. And also, it was because the other—my other guesses were wrong.
Caroline: I also knew that there was a twist coming, because they were all too happy with 17 minutes left in the movie. Things were tying up too fast.
Bobby: That’s one thing about watching a movie at home, versus watching in a theatre, that it’s like you always know how much is left.
Caroline: Yeah.
Bobby: You can see—like with Apple TV, if you double—if you tap it softly and it tells you like the actual time that it ends, or it’s like, “This will be over at 10:12.”
Caroline: Yeah.
Bobby: And you’re like—
Caroline: Something’s going to happen in these next 17 minutes.
Bobby: Something’s going on.
Caroline: I thought the way that the other guy died at the end was like—I know it was just supposed to be camp and it was funny.
Bobby: Luke Evans?
Caroline: Yeah, I don’t know names.
Bobby: Gay?
Michael: Gaston?
Bobby: Gaston. Gay.
Caroline: The one who—the end? The one—
Bobby: You know he’s gay in real life?
Caroline: No, I—I mean, I’m not—the one who got hit.
Bobby: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No one ever knows.
Caroline: Happy Pride.
Bobby: Out gay man. Out gay man, Luke Evans. Yes, Gaston.
Caroline: Happy Pride.
Bobby: Happy Pride, everyone.
Michael: Happy Pride.
Bobby: Happy Pride. Luke Evans is gay. And he’s always playing straight men.
Caroline: Straight murderers.
Bobby: I think we’re done talking about Murder Mystery, which means we’re done talking about everything, which means thank you for coming and being on this episode of I’m Obsessed With This. As always, you can call 754-call Bob and share your current obsessions, and we might play them on a future episode. We will be back in two weeks to discuss, among other things, Ashley O. Are you familiar with Ashley O?
Michael: “On A Roll.”
Bobby: “On A Roll” yes. Miley Cyrus’s alter ego.
Caroline: Right.
Bobby: But thank you for being here, Michael and Caroline.
Caroline: Thank you.
Bobby: And thank you for listening. We’ll see you in two weeks.
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