Today on I'm Obsessed With This, host Bobby Finger talks to actor and artist Spencer Olson (@spencerjohnolson) about his love for the thrilling competition show Blown Away. He explains why he finds the art of glass blowing so exciting, how quickly he watched the first season, and who his favorite contestant was. (Hint: her name starts with D and ends with eborah.) As always, avoid the episode if you wish to avoid spoilers. And catch up on ALL episodes of Blown Away now on Netflix!
Today on I'm Obsessed With This, host Bobby Finger talks to actor and artist Spencer Olson (@spencerjohnolson) about his love for the thrilling competition show Blown Away. He explains why he finds the art of glass blowing so exciting, how quickly he watched the first season, and who his favorite contestant was. (Hint: her name starts with D and ends with eborah.) As always, avoid the episode if you wish to avoid spoilers. And catch up on ALL episodes of Blown Away now on Netflix!
[Music]
Bobby: Welcome to I'm Obsessed With This, the Netflix podcast about the shows and films, just overall titles viewers cannot get enough of. The ones that enter their minds like parasitic amoebas and force every single neuron to think about it, and only it for the rest of their lives. I’m your host, Bobby Finger, and today I’m joined over the country, across the country by actress/artist/model/my friend, Spencer Olson.
Spencer: Hello.
Bobby: As usual, we will be having a spoiler-filled discussion of today’s topic, so if you don’t want to know how Blown Away ends, listen after you finish the season. It’s a short season. It’s easy. How are you, Spencer?
Spencer: I’m doing all right. How are you?
Bobby: I’m doing all right, too. I’m very hot. How’s it, how’s the weather in Los Angeles?
Spencer: It’s fair. It’s really mellow. It’s nice today.
Bobby: Really? Oh, that’s a surprise. That’s a surprise. Yeah, who would have thought? Are you drinking anything? I’m drinking an iced tea to kind of cool down. Are you having anything?
Spencer: Oh, yeah. I’ve got a black McDonald’s iced coffee.
Bobby: Oh. You don’t put milk? No sugar? No anything?
Spencer: No. No. Just straight. Just straight, black McDonald’s iced coffee.
Bobby: I love that McDonald’s says, what is it? Like, “$2 any size.” Who picks small?
Spencer: Truly. But, you know, that’s also—
Bobby: Like what kind of people pick small?
Spencer: They, that’s not always true. They really, the iced coffee is not always that price.
Bobby: It’s, there’s a window to get that deal?
Spencer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Bobby: Have you ever gone and expected a dollar and they’re like, “$3.95.”
Spencer: Yeah, I’ve tried it a few times. But they also are always shocked by a black coffee. They think it’s vile. We have a quiet understanding at my McDonald’s. They know me, but they don’t know me.
Bobby: They’re not obsessed with you, but they know you.
Spencer: Mm-hmm.
Bobby: But before we get into your main obsession, which is the competition series that came out of, honestly, nowhere, like, the pits of hell, the heights of heaven, I’m not exactly sure. But, uh, before we get into that, I want to talk about your secondary obsessions. Um, what else is on Netflix that you’ve been particularly enamored with lately?
Spencer: Oh, man.
Bobby: Like what have you been falling in love with? Even if it’s something you’ve seen a million times. That’s, honestly, a hallmark of an obsession.
Spencer: That’s true. I mean I love, I love Glow. I love Glow so much. I’ve been powering through that.
Bobby: I’ve never watched Glow. Can you pitch Glow to me? What’s the appeal?
Spencer: What’s the appeal? It’s—
Bobby: Yeah. Can I say that on a Netflix podcast? I don’t get it.
Spencer: I think so.
Bobby: That’s, convince me to watch Glow.
Spencer: It’s, Glow is, Glow is wonderful. The cast is fantastic. And I didn’t know anything about the gorgeous ladies of wrestling before that. That was all, that was all new to me, like I think it was for most. And Alison Brie is fantastic. Betty Gilpin is fantastic. Mark Merin is, I mean the role is built for him. And the rest of the women, the supporting are so good. It’s, man, it’s fantastic. And it’s a very soothing-looking show. For being the ‘80s, it’s not as high-octane as Stranger Things or anything else like that. It’s a very soothing-looking show. I love it. I love it.
Bobby: It’s not like aggressively ‘80s.
Spencer: Huh-huh.
Bobby: It’s just like—
Spencer: Not at all.
Bobby: Incidentally ‘80s.
Spencer: Incidentally ‘80s. Correct.
Bobby: So, Spencer, I was looking at, I, for some reason I thought Hook was on Netflix, and I was just completely mistaken. The 1981 Steven Spielberg masterpiece Hook, it’s not on Netflix. So when I searched on it, it said, “Explore titles related to Hook,” and I got all these movies. And I was like, “Wow. This is a Spencer category. Titles related to Hook.”
Spencer: That’s great.
Bobby: We’ve got Casper. Wait, do you like Harry and the Hendersons? And I feel like you’ve mentioned it before.
Spencer: Of course I do. Of course I do. Any time I have to reject an animal, it feels like I’m telling Harry to go away.
Bobby: I’m going to put it, isn’t John Lithgo who says that?
Spencer: Yeah, get out of here.
Bobby: He’s so sad. He doesn’t want anyone to go away. He loves Harry. But, Spencer, I know that the point of this Blown Away, but I just saw. How did I not know this? Was here, when you search for Hook, you don’t get Hook. You know what you get? Mary Poppins Returns. It’s on Netflix. How many times have you watched it?
Spencer: It’s all that all the time. If you haven’t seen Mary Poppins Returns. Bobby, am I allowed to cuss on this podcast?
Bobby: Yes. Cuss as much as you want.
Spencer: Bobby, what the fuck, man? You have to see Mary Poppins Returns. It’s so good. It’s so good, I would even say it ties, well, it might be better than the original.
Bobby: You like it more than the original Mary Poppins?
Spencer: I really do.
Bobby: I would say to go say the ghost of Julie Andrews is about to come down and slap you, but she’s still alive.
Spencer: I know she’s still alive. It’s controversial, but I do feel that way. I do.
Bobby: And you’re not kidding around. You’re serious. You’re extremely genuine in your love for Mary Poppins Returns?
Spencer: It’s, it is so good. And I mean they follow the formula of the first movie to almost a tee. So that’s—
Bobby: Why fix what’s not broken. I really like this. This is a great introduction to this sort of new format with this, with this series that we’re going over. We just talked about one person’s very earnest obsession, as opposed to things that are a little more ubiquitous. We are trying to zero in on things that individuals love, and they feel sort of like, “Am I one of the only people who loves this thing? I feel like this is sort of a strange thing, my obsession. I try to convince other people to watch it, and they’re not quite sold on it the way I am.” And yours, when I told you about this, you were like, Blown Away. Blown Away. And it makes, it makes a lot of sense to me, I think. Because the show kind of took me awhile to get into. I started watching it because everyone was suddenly watching it. I was seeing people tweet about it and at first I was like, “Oh, did Blown Away, the Jeff Bridge’s movie about firemen get added to Netflix?” I’m like, “Is there some weird sort of cultural resurgence in sort of the same way that, like, everyone’s watching, you know, Friends now?”
Spencer: Right, yeah, kids—
Bobby: Are people suddenly watching Blown Away? Is there some sort of thing that I missed? Like was there a tick-tock meme of Blown Away and, like, everyone’s like, “Yes, Jeff Bridge’s daddy fires.” But, no. It’s a glass-blowing competition. Tell me how you found out about Blown Away.
Spencer: I found out about Blown Away because our mutual friend Michelle Collins was texting me incessantly in the middle of the night just, like a play-by-play of it. And she was like, “I’m not going to continue because you just, you have to watch this the second you wake up.” So I did and I finished it in one sitting. It was like a fever dream. It was so, I, it was, it was perfect. It was a perfect morning.
Bobby: Explain the concept of Blown Away to our listeners who have no idea what we’re talking about.
Spencer: Blown Away is a reality competition of a bunch of glass blowers who have to make glass. That’s it.
Bobby: There’s nothing else they can do but make glass.
Spencer: It feels that way.
Bobby: I like that they’re all sort of in different stages of their career. And that a lot of them, or at least a small handful of them once blew glass, and then they were like, “I’ve given up glass-blowing. I’ve moved on.” And then they grew up and they were like, “I miss glass-blowing. I need to get back to glass-blowing.”
Spencer: Yeah. Annette, she, yeah. I loved that she was, “I’m back in the game.” I lived in Seattle for a period and my apartment was above a glass-blowing studio. So this was something that I hadn’t gotten to see in six years. And it really—
Bobby: Were you kind of always fascinated by it?
Spencer: Yeah, I love it. It looks excruciating.
Bobby: Was it something that you always were into?
Spencer: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I could never do it myself though.
Bobby: It’s so hot.
Spencer: I really admire the process. It’s very sexy.
Bobby: It is. I mean the whole thing. It’s like they’ve got, you’ve got the heat. So you’ve got this, like, these sweaty bodies in this room putting things in fire. They’re, it’s dangerous. Right? So there’s, like, it’s sexy in that it’s, like, kind of dangerous. And, like, a scary thing to do. But also it’s hot literally and figuratively. And there’s a thing called the Glory Hole and the mouths are always blowing on things.
Spencer: Yeah, it’s an equalizer as, in terms of how exhausting it looks. Everyone looks so overwrought. No matter who they are.
Bobby: Immediately, from the, I mean from the moment they get going it’s, like, it’s sort of like if, it reminds me of Nailed It, in that—like if Nailed It, if Nicole Byer turned up the temperature to, like, 150 in the room. Because they’re kind of also flailing, but in Nailed It they’re flailing because they have no idea what they’re doing. But in Blown Away they’re flailing because they are, like, too focused on what they’re doing. Like they’re got their eyes on the prize. So you’ve got these ten glassblowers of varying levels of experience. You’ve got kind of your young up-and-coming 20-somethings. They haven’t been doing it for long. Then you have your, like, kind of mildly established people in their 30s. And then you’ve got your veterans, your 40-somethings, your 50-somethings who have all the experience. And they do things. They do things, like, so much more quickly and with more confidence. And their names are—and then they’re hosted, it’s hosted by this guy named Nick. Honestly, I never figured out what Nick does. I was like, he looks like he, Nick reminded me of, what’s his name? Adam Scott. Like if Adam Scott had, like, a little brother who didn’t go into acting. You know?
Spencer: Yes.
Bobby: I was like, “I don’t know what you do.” I think he’s just kind of a professional host. Oh, he was a contestant on Big Brother, Season 15. That’s his claim to fame. Good for Nick.
Spencer: Oh, wow. Okay.
Bobby: And then there’s a judge, then there’s a judge named Katherine Gray who is the perfect reality show competition judge. She is ice-cold. She’s ice-cold. She’s eloquent. She’s curt. And she dresses really well. Right? Like she’s like an intimidating dresser. Especially when she’s walking into a room filled with sweaty bodies and clothes that are, like, stinky and terrible. She’s, like, this elegant, graceful figure sort of hovering over everyone. Kind of like Tim Gunn, but scary.
Spencer: Extremely, and she’s got, she’s got a, you know, an essence of Ms. Frizzle to her. She always wears something that kind of matches whatever the theme is. Like I loved her plant motif that she had on that one episode. She, and I love that she lets personal taste, her personal taste, like, really, that’s how she judges. It’s not good, necessarily based on skillset, but she’s like, “I just don’t particularly like this.”
Bobby: Or she’ll be like, “I don’t get it.” Or she’ll read one of their descriptions and she’ll be like, “No. I don’t see that at all.” And it might be, like, the most perfectly crafted, thinnest, clearest piece of glass. So delicate. And she’s like, “Not for me.”
Spencer: Hmm. “Cool take. Bad opinion.”
Bobby: And sometimes the, sometimes the other, the guest judges will kind of fight back at that, and they’ll be surprised that she’s being so, I don’t know, unreasonable in a way.
Spencer: Yes. She really stands her ground.
Bobby: But that’s the point of a judge. That’s the point of a judge.
Spencer: Yeah. Yeah.
Bobby: Who was your favorite contestant, because there are so many?
Spencer: I mean I loved Alexander Rosenberg. I loved his art in particular.
Bobby: Oh, yeah. Loved.
Spencer: Like those are things that I would put in my home, that cloche dome that he made with the leaf, the pitcher clamp type thing? That was stunning.
Bobby: I loved the one that he put of his, the, was it the first or second one that he put with the dog and the bell jar and it amplified, magnified the dog.
Spencer: Oh, the photo. I think that was the first one. Wasn’t it?
Bobby: Yeah, the photo. The photo. And I liked his lung, the one that they didn’t really understand. That lung thing for the ballet dancer.
Spencer: Yeah, that was fantastic.
Bobby: Beautiful.
Spencer: I loved—
Bobby: He liked, he likes, like, interactive things.
Spencer: Yeah. I appreciated that. Everything rotated. Everything turned. It was, it was, it blew me away. I loved, I loved Kevin, whose piece exploded right before the first judging. I loved him. I was so bummed to see him go because he was, he was so chill.
Bobby: He was, like, the chill Hawaii guy. He was, like, he wanted to get on his board.
Spencer: Oh man. She roasted him so hard when she was, like, “Is this how this was supposed to look?” And it was, like, exploded all over the pillar. And he was like, “Uh, no. No. No. It wasn’t.”
Bobby: I had high hopes for Edgar because he was just so confident. Like he was, he would like finish kind of early, early on. And then by the middle of it, because he gets kicked off somewhere in the middle. You’re like, “Oh, he’s not really that good yet. He’s 22.” This is one of those things that I feel like, it’s not a sort of, it’s like Mozart. Like you can’t, you can’t be a kid and be good at this. Like it really does require years and years and years of experience to get good at it.
Spencer: Yeah, that’s clear.
Bobby: What did you think of Janusz?
Spencer: Oh, man. There was an episode that really struck me where he had, like, Astro Boy hair.
Bobby: It was the last one.
Spencer: He took a gamble. Yeah, he really took a gamble back and came back with Astro Boy hair.
Bobby: He came back with a whole new haircut.
Spencer: Yeah, I loved it. I loved it. He was funny.
Bobby: He was one of my, I was going to quiz, I was going to make a more general quiz about the, about the show. And I was like, “What hair style did Janusz show up with in the season finale?” And I was like, I’m not, I wasn’t even going to put an answer because I couldn’t explain it.
Spencer: Tin.
Bobby: Tin tin.
Spencer: He, did, did you see his son was named Atilla. Atilla the son.
Bobby: Yes. I did. I took that, it’s in a note. I’m looking at a note on my screen that says, “His son is named—all caps—ATILLA????”
Spencer: Yeah, no real judgment. But I just want to ask him, “Why?”
Bobby: Well he seemed, he seemed like such a kind of a soft-hearted, like a sweetie. Like he seemed so tender and then you see Atilla and I was sort of like, “Is there an Atilla I don’t know about? Because the only Atilla I know about was, like, kind of a monster.”
Spencer: Just a smidge.
Bobby: Is there an Atilla who’s, like, a sweetie boy? Like a good guy? Or is he trying to reclaim the name Atilla as, like, “Well, this Atilla is going to be the good one.”
Spencer: Yeah, I don’t know if that’s possible.
Bobby: I’m not, I have no idea. What is—so you were recommended this show by Michelle. She was like, “You’ve got to watch it.” I feel like it’s probably the same for most people. This is an easy show to get obsessed with simply because it’s so short. I watched the entire thing in—well, I watched the first two episodes and I was like, “I’m not quite sold on it.” Then when you pitched this show I was like, “Well, I guess I’ve got to finish it.” And I watched the remaining ones in an afternoon and was really happy with it. It was like, it was kind of a hard sale, and I feel like it is one of those shows that is a hard sale to people. Have you recommended it to other people? And what’s it been like to do that?
Spencer: Oh, yeah. If I, I mean since that day there have been multiple times where I’ve been over at somebody’s house and insisted that we at least watch the pilot. And then my work there is done. So it really, and it, it’s mostly, it’s mostly positively received.
Bobby: You exit.
Spencer: Yeah.
Bobby: And walk out the backdoor.
Spencer: Mm-hmm. Disappear into a puff of smoke.
Bobby: We’re all good. Enjoy everyone.
Spencer: I think, I mean what Michelle insisted I would love the most, and what I sell to most people is Deborah alone. It, that’s—
Bobby: Deborah is—
Spencer: Deborah alone is enough. I would watch a show with just Deborah.
Bobby: How would you describe Deborah to someone who hasn’t seen Blown Away?
Spencer: I, there, I don’t think there are any other words for her aesthetic than, like, Frankenstein’s sheik. Though she always, she wears these, like, very boxy blazers and chunky shoes and a turtleneck. Like she really, I love her so much. She’s got this tight chopped lob. I love it. I love her. She’s incredible. And she, she’s very focused. She’s incredibly focused. She’s no frills. And yet her creations have so much whimsy.
Bobby: She’s the oldest one, too?
Spencer: Yeah. Yeah.
Bobby: More whimsy than you kind of expect at the beginning. You expect her to do, like, some kind of almost serious political works of art. But they’re mostly just fun.
Spencer: Yeah. Yeah. They really are.
Bobby: Especially the end. The final one. Janusz is out here being, like, “This is about climate change. This is about the end of the earth.” And she’s like, “I’m going to do sausage links and some eggs on the wall.” And you’re like, “I love you, Deborah. Deborah, I love you.” Was there anyone on the show who you really did not particularly care for?
Spencer: No.
Bobby: Any contestant you were like, “Get out of here. I don’t want you in the—” What do they call that room? The hot zone or something?
Spencer: The hot zone. This was across the board, I really liked everybody. You know what my one note would be, is that I would love to hear from and see more of their assistants. Because that’s a, that’s an immense amount of pressure.
Bobby: It reminded me of America’s Next Top Model, how the models are sort of integral to the entire experience. But we don’t really know what’s happening. Like they’re the ones who have to walk. They are the ones that have to wear the clothes. They’re selling everything. Like without the models they can’t show off the clothes. But then, Spencer, America’s Next Top Model tried to do a spin-off reality show about the models and it was terrible.
Spencer: Oh, yeah. No dice. Yeah, no dice.
Bobby: So I kind of feel like the assistants are drips. What are they going to say? They’re so scared. If you were Deborah’s assistant? You’re like, “Get the camera off me. I’ve got to focus on Deborah. I don’t want to get on Deborah’s bad side.”
Spencer: I don’t know. I want to hear at least one take from one of them.
Bobby: In Seattle, this glass-blowing place, like what kinds of stuff did they make? Did they make sort of sculptural things? Or were they more functional, like lights? Like how Starbucks has, like, those lights.
Spencer: Oh, it was a lot of that. Yeah. It was a lot of big domed hanging things, but then also, like, for anyone who’s been the Bellagio in Las Vegas, like, big outrageous, like, sea urchin-looking sculptures. And then because it was, like, it was right at the bottom of the Space Needle, so it was heavy tourism. So there were a lot of, like, mugs and glasses and things like that, and plates and things. It was a lot of flatware, but they did huge sculptural stuff. So you could, we shared an alley. So often I would, like, get home from work and go stand in the doorway where they were just letting out hot air. And they wouldn’t shoo you away. So you could stand there and watch all day. It was, it was a blast.
Bobby: That’s sort of magical. Have the people you’ve recommended it to been sold on it? Or did you find some struggles with them? Like you showed them the pilot, sure. Have you gotten any resistance?
Spencer: No. Everyone was a 10 out of 10. And if this was, like, back-and-forth, like, people who recommended Forged in Fire to me, so I showed them Blown Away. It’s all, it’s all simpatico.
Bobby: What is Forged in Fire?
Spencer: Oh my god, Bobby. Have you really not watched Forged in Fire?
Bobby: I’ve really not watched Forged in Fire.
Spencer: It’s a knife-making show. So it’s the same—
Bobby: Wait, like not, like knives.
Spencer: Yeah, man. Knives. Knives. Big ones.
Bobby: I’m not hearing you wrong?
Spencer: The, no, you’re not hearing me wrong. And the objective is to make something that will kill. It will kill. That’s what they say. If it’s a success, it will kill.
Bobby: And it’s just, like, what? Blacksmiths? Is that who does that?
Spencer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. The stakes are certainly a lot higher.
Bobby: I’m sorry. So how do the competitions work? So it’s like, because in this one it was like, “Build me something inspired by this ballet dancer. Build me something inspired by, like, the planet.” How did those challenges work in this show?
Spencer: So they will give them a style of knife and then the curveball will be, like, “But you have to make it out of chain-link fence.” Or, you know, whatever [unintelligible 00:20:25] metal. Like they give it to them and then they have to hammer that altogether and make it, and it usually doesn’t turn out very well. But it’s a blast to watch. Another exhausting-looking practice.
Bobby: A lot of fire, Forged in Fire.
Spencer: Yeah. Everyone’s sweating to death.
Bobby: Heat stroke is a risk. I like when there’s more risk. No one’s going to die in the Top Chef kitchen.
Spencer: Oh, it looks dangerous. And then there’s one of, there’s one episode where they go home with the Forged in Fire people, and one guy is, like, has built this setup in his yard where he’s, like, making knives out of a retrofitted satellite dish. And, like, the fire department shows up. It’s a blast.
Bobby: Like you can’t do this.
Spencer: You’ve got to watch it.
Bobby: I like that as someone who hates competition you are a fan of competition shows.
Spencer: Yeah, I just don’t want to be in it.
Bobby: It’s like a, it’s like a way to deal with your aversion to competition.
Spencer: That checks out.
Bobby: You’re, like, fascinated by it. But you’d rather observe.
Spencer: Yeah, psychologically that checks out for me. Yeah.
Bobby: So I’m going to play this quiz with you. It’s based on things that our lovely contestants said throughout the season of Blown Away, which I really hope comes back. I’m going to read you a quote by a cast member of the series Blown Away, and then I’m going to give you a multiple-choice options for the person who said that line. It will be pretty obvious, because it matches that person’s, I don’t know, attitude, personality, character. Let’s begin with this one.
Spencer: Great.
Bobby: “I really don’t like eating.” Was that Benjamin, Nick, Edgar, or Leah? I’ll let you look at the headshots, too, so that you can put the names with the faces. “I really don’t like eating.”
Spencer: Benjamin, Leah, and who else?
Bobby: Edgar and Nick.
Spencer: I’m going to say Benjamin.
Bobby: [Ding] You got it right. It’s Benjamin.
Spencer: Okay.
Bobby: “I really don’t like eating.” Everyone made fun of him for that, with good reason. He doesn’t like it. Okay. I love, I love the confidence here. “I can’t deny that I’m feeling good.” Is that Momo, Janusz, Annette, or Edgar? “I can’t deny that I’m feeling good.”
Spencer: Janusz.
Bobby: [Ding]. Ding, ding, ding. You got it right. It’s Janusz.
Spencer: Oh, wow. Oh, man.
Bobby: That was like, that was a confident man. Although everyone in there, Momo was incredibly confident. Momo was incredibly confident.
Spencer: I loved her.
Bobby: Here we go. I’m going to say this, but I’m not actor. Imagine me saying this in a way that’s filled with disdain. “The evaluators made some really bold assumptions about my piece.” Is that Patrick, Katherine, Edgar, or Momo?
Spencer: Patrick.
Bobby: [Buzz] It was Momo. I’m sorry.
Spencer: Oh, shit. What was that regarding?
Bobby: It was when, like the, it was when they didn’t like the color that she used and they were like, “You should have used black here instead of pink.” And she was like, “Oh!”
Spencer: Oh my god. Oh, wait. I do remember this. Yeah.
Bobby: She was like, “You never tell an artist what color to use in their art.” Like that, “How dare you?”
Spencer: Katherine does?
Bobby: Oh, she’s never been more offended in her life.
Spencer: Katherine will tell you left and right.
Bobby: Katherine’s like, “No, should have been blue.”
Spencer: Yeah. “Red’s ugly.”
Bobby: “You’re stupid. You’re pretty stupid. I’m sorry.” Okay. How about this? This should be pretty easy. Let’s see. “I have dark hair and a beard.” Is that Janusz, Katherine, Leah, or Alexander?
Spencer: Dude, that’s my number one crush. Alexander.
Bobby: [Ding] Number one crush, Alexander. I think that you’re—you’ve got it right. He has dark hair and a beard. I think my number one crush, it was almost Alexander. But the more I think about it, Janusz.
Spencer: Really?
Bobby: [Ding] I’m a fan of Janusz. I think he’s kind of the number one crush. I was, there’s something, there was something very warm about him.
Spencer: You know what?
Bobby: A very kind and good.
Spencer: Aesthetically I could see the two of you together. I think that works.
Bobby: Really? You could?
Spencer: Sure. Yeah.
Bobby: Alexander, also Alexander I couldn’t, not that anyone’s, not that anyone’s, you know, personal life really matters, but I kept finding myself wondering, you know when you kind of, when you, when you really want someone to be, like, queer in some way? Like are you like a—is there a chance here? And so you kind of reach for whenever they discuss their personal life. And you’re like, and you kind of make assumptions based on little things they might say off-handedly or aside. He said something that was like, it was probably completely innocuous and had nothing to do with his sexuality, but I was like, “I think that’s a sign that he’s gay and that he likes men.” I was like, “I think he said something there. I think so.”
Spencer: Yeah, he’s spoke in very broad strokes. That was, that was dangerous for me, too. Yeah. Yeah.
Bobby: That’s a ding, ding. That’s number one sign. Anyway. Alexander. I could just look at his Instagram, but we’ll do this another day.
Spencer: I think I did, actually. Yeah.
Bobby: Or the moment I hang up the phone with you.
Spencer: To put a stop to that right away I think I did.
Bobby: Yeah, well I’ve got to click on his tagged photos first because, you know, you’ve got to start at the tagged photos. Okay, how about this. “What does your robot look like and what is your robot going to do?” Who said that? Nick, Kevin, Katherine, or Annette.
Spencer: That’s Nick.
Bobby: [Buzz] That’s Katherine. You were close. It was either Nick or Katherine.
Spencer: Oh, dammit. Oh, man.
Bobby: Who is Katherine? “What does your robot look like and what is your robot going to do?” I laughed out loud at that point. I think I was sort of delirious. I feel like it was maybe episode 7 or 8 and I was like, “Oh, god.” I love the thing that happens in competition shows. I’m sorry, I keep breaking away from the quiz. But Momo does it. In this episode, specifically, it always happens where you get a task to do something. I think mostly in Project Runway. But you get a task that’s, like, make something that represents X. Or, like, your one task. Make something that’s inspired by or represents X or includes this one thing in it. And there’s always someone who’s like, “I’m actually not going to do that. I’m going to step out of those, that box and do something a little different, because that’s how I interpret it.” And Momo is like, “I’m not going to do a robot.” And everyone was like, “Momo, we told you to do a robot.” And she’s like, “No. This is going to work out great for me, I think.”
Spencer: You’re going to get in so much trouble!
Bobby: Momo, you’re going to get in so much trouble.
Spencer: Katherine’s going to be pissed.
Bobby: I don’t ever want Katherine pissed at me. Okay. Here we go. Five more left. They’re easy. They’re easy, I promise. “I’m obsessed with brushing my teeth.” Benjamin, Janusz, Deborah, or Patrick?
Spencer: Was that Benjamin?
Bobby: [Buzz] It was Deborah.
Spencer: Oh man.
Bobby: She made the big toothpaste.
Spencer: Oh man.
Bobby: And then there was that one guy who was like, “I don’t like that she put the cap on the toothpaste. The cap was distracting.” It was like, “Who are you? What are you talking about? The cap was distracting. It’s toothpaste.”
Spencer: Get the fuck out of here.
Bobby: Okay. “I’ve got my long-distance girlfriend and we’re sending psychic messages.” Is that Momo, Deborah, Annette, or Nick?
Spencer: That is Deborah.
Bobby: [Ding] That is Deborah. You’re right.
Spencer: Yeah, that moment specifically rocked me. Was that the potato episode?
Bobby: I think it was the potato episode.
Spencer: I would, I would take out a loan to buy one of those potatoes. Those potatoes were so beautiful. They were so beautiful.
Bobby: They really were.
Spencer: And I was so scared that Katherine was going to hate them. And then when she was kind of struck by it, that really moved me.
Bobby: Deborah finally found the key to that, you know, locked up cold little soul of Katherine’s and she got right on in. It was nice.
Spencer: You know, I bet they’ve had dinner since. I’d put money on it. I bet they’re close.
Bobby: A really long dinner. Two bottles of wine. Oh. And then the dessert menu came and they both looked at each other and they were, like, “Hmm. You want to.” And they were going to split one thing, but they got two things and then they split both.
Spencer: Oh, let’s do it. Let’s do it.
Bobby: Let’s get them both.
Spencer: All right. Okay.
Bobby: The tiramisu or the panna cotta. Let’s just get both of them. Get both of them. And then the chef, and then the chef gave them a little something extra because he thought they were fun.
Spencer: Mm-hmm. He didn’t recognize them. He just loved their whole thing.
Bobby: This Hallmark of obsession, I think, is wanting nothing more than to create fan fiction about two of the people in them. And I think that if nothing else, Blown Away has that. I feel like we could talk about Deborah and Katherine’s, like, budding friendship for the next hour. But we can’t. That’s crazy.
Spencer: All right. I’ll call you when I leave here. We can do that.
Bobby: Next question. Please. Next question. “I’m, like, standing here with a 20-pound foot.” Nick, Momo, Benjamin, or Deborah?
Spencer: Deborah.
Bobby: [Ding]
Spencer: It’s Deborah.
Bobby: You’re right, it’s Deborah.
Spencer: I loved the gum.
Bobby: I loved, that foot was gorgeous. The gum was gorgeous. The foot—
Spencer: The foot, yeah, that was, it was beautiful. It was so beautiful. I mean that’s, that was, that is something that the show really masters is that when you’re watching the process, the glob really does look like shit, and I don’t give these people who are masters at this enough credit, because I’m always anticipating like, “Oh my god, that looks like, that’s such a mess. And then when those glass doors open and it reveals it, it’s shocking. It’s shocking. The foot was shocking.
Bobby: And you’re right. And I, and I think if anything one of the things, like my one complaint about the show—which I have seen kind of on Twitter and social media and other places—people who love the show wish it were longer. The results is almost so shocking that you’re like, “I almost wanted, I want to see more of the process to getting to that point.” There almost isn’t enough time to see them making. Because it goes from glob to finished, beautiful work of art so quickly that you’re like, like, “Show me how we got that, the arch. I want to see how you made the arch. I want to see how you put all the little indentations in the toes.”
Spencer: That would be so fulfilling.
Bobby: But also a little bit goes a long way. I also love when things can be over quickly, though, so I would probably complain if it were longer, honestly. Two more. “How’s the egg doing?” Katherine, Leah, Deborah, or Nick?
Spencer: Oh my god.
Bobby: There’s a theme here. There’s a theme here.
Spencer: Was that Deborah?
Bobby: [Ding] It was Deborah. Yes, it was Deborah.
Spencer: I thought that was someone talking shit by, “How’s that egg doing?”
Bobby: It was Deborah asking her assistant how the egg is doing.
Spencer: Oh, to her assistant. Okay. Okay, good. Good, good, good.
Bobby: Last question, Spencer. Who said this in the show Blown Away? “Do Deborah. Don’t try doing someone else. Just do Deborah.” Who said that? Janusz, Benjamin, Leah, or Deborah?
Spencer: Deborah.
Bobby: [Ding] You’re right. How did you know? I’ll just put there—I think you got maybe, oh, let’s call it 6. You got 6 out of 10. That’s great. That’s good. I think.
Spencer: That’s my high school average, too. So that’s great.
Bobby: So are you the type of person who re-watches these shows? Or are you one and done right now?
Spencer: I will absolutely watch this in, like, two months. Yeah.
Bobby: Just all straight through probably, one afternoon?
Spencer: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Guarantee it. I like to, I want to forget about it and then do it again.
Bobby: I find it hard to re-watch dramas. I’m kind of one and done when it comes to dramas. Sitcoms I can re-watch and competition shows I can re-watch, but it’s very specific. Like I just recently found old episodes of Project Runway, and I started re-watching the first few seasons. And I was like, “This is nice.” And those first few seasons are absolutely perfect.
Spencer: Oh, man. What are your other favorite competition shows?
Bobby: Top Chef, but I fell off, I fell off Top Chef, and I really need to get back. My siblings both love Top Chef, and they’ve never stopped watching it. I really like Nailed It, just because it just, it just kills me every single time. I watch a lot of cooking shows—oh, and Instant Hotel. That’s sort of a competition show. But, Spencer, I think we’ve talked about Blown Away for far too long. Thank you so much for being on the show to talk about it. Is there anything else, any last words about Blown Away you want to leave with our listeners? One final plea for them to watch it?
Spencer: Oh, man. It’s, it’s just incredibly soothing. And it will bring you great joy. It will spark joy.
Bobby: Flames have never been this soothing, I would say.
Spencer: That is very, very true. We may have, we may have painted it as a, as excruciating looking, but it’s really quite soothing.
Bobby: I like that no one, no one gets hurt.
Spencer: I was really worried about that. But, yes, that’s true. That is a, that’s not even a spoiler. You don’t have to worry about it.
Bobby: Yeah, if that’s a concern for you, don’t worry about it. No one gets hurt. No one, like, tumbles into a, one of the Glory Holes. Yes, they’re called Glory Holes. Everyone’s just fine. Deborah breathes in smoke at one point. She’s like, “I’m breathing in smoke. This is awful.”
Spencer: Yeah, I think two people excuse themselves to go stand in the courtyard and they’re like, “I need a glass of water.” But that’s the worst it ever gets. That’s the worst it ever gets.
Bobby: Thank you, Spencer, for being on this show. I really appreciate it. I am so glad that you like Blown Away. And I’m glad that you convinced me to watch it, because honestly, I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. And I think that’s the whole point of the show now. We want to get people to watch things that people are hesitant to watch or haven’t even heard of. And I hope that you like Instant Hotel.
Spencer: Oh, I—I’ll keep you posted.
Bobby: Because if there’s one fucking competition show that I have recommended to a million people, it’s Instant Hotel. It’s phenomenal and it is utterly demented.
[Music]
Spencer: I’m watching it tonight. And you’ve got to watch Forged in Fire.
Bobby: I will. I got to find it. It’s not easy as Netflix. Let me tell you. This is a Netflix podcast. I can do that. Forged in Fire, I don’t know how to watch it. Netflix, easy to watch it. I just go on there. But we are done. Thank you for listening to I’m Obsessed With This. We will be back with another episode in one week and we will see you then. Thanks for listening. Watch Blown Away now. It’s streaming on Netflix now. Season 1. Thanks, bye.
Spencer: Bye.
[End of Audio]