This week, host Bobby Finger welcomes writer-at-large at The Cut Kelly Conaboy (@kellyconaboy) and senior writer at The Cut and author of several books, including Would You Rather and the forthcoming Girl Crushed Katie Heaney (@KTHeaney) on to mourn the cancelation of Katie's beloved Santa Clarita Diet and explain what it had in common with other easy-to-watch sitcoms like Schitt's Creek, gush about our new obsession Dead to Me, and rave about the endless laughs from I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. Kelly and Bobby may not have any good car ideas, but they may have convinced Katie to give their new favorite show another shot! Skip segments you'd like to keep spoiler-free with these handy time codes: Santa Clarita Diet: 8:00 - 10:14 Dead to Me: 10:14 - 20:43 I Think You Should Leave: 20:43 - 33:25 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.
This week, host Bobby Finger welcomes writer-at-large at The Cut Kelly Conaboy (@kellyconaboy) and senior writer at The Cut and author of several books, including Would You Rather and the forthcoming Girl Crushed Katie Heaney (@KTHeaney) on to mourn the cancelation of Katie's beloved Santa Clarita Diet and explain what it had in common with other easy-to-watch sitcoms like Schitt's Creek, gush about our new obsession Dead to Me, and rave about the endless laughs from I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. Kelly and Bobby may not have any good car ideas, but they may have convinced Katie to give their new favorite show another shot!
Skip segments you'd like to keep spoiler-free with these handy time codes:
Santa Clarita Diet: 8:00 - 10:14
Dead to Me: 10:14 - 20:43
I Think You Should Leave: 20:43 - 33:25
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.
[Music]
Bobby: Welcome to I'm Obsessed With This, the Netflix podcast about the shows and films everyone seems to be talking about and why. As usual, we will be having spoiler-filled discussions of all titles, so check the show notes for time stamps in case you want to avoid them. I'm your host, Bobby Finger, and I am joined today by Kelly Conaboy, writer at large at The Cut, and Katie Heaney, senior writer at The Cut and author of several books including Would You Rather and the forthcoming Girl Crushed.
Hi, you two.
Kelly and Katie: Hi.
Bobby: Welcome to the studio.
Kelly: Thank you.
Bobby: You have your drinks. You both have identical coffees.
Kelly and Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: Which was very easy on me [laughter].
Kelly: Yeah [laughs].
Bobby: And nice, hot. I thought interesting because I got cold.
Katie: I'm not a big iced coffee person.
Kelly: No, me, neither, really.
Bobby: Were you fine with the milk offerings?
Katie: Yeah.
Kelly: Oh, it's perfect.
Bobby: They had cream, whole and skim. And then you know they always put the almond and the oat behind the counter and you have to ask. So I assume that was half and half.
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: But does it taste like half and half?
Katie: Yeah, it could be. Yeah.
Bobby: That's fine?
Kelly: Yeah.
Katie: I don't know that I would know the difference [laughs].
Bobby: Okay. This is my second iced coffee of the day, which is totally cool. We are here to talk about Santa Clarita Diet, number one. We're going to talk about Dead to Me, the new show with Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini.
Kelly: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Bobby: We're going to talk about I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. But before we get into that, I just want to get started with how we usually start the show, which is what are you obsessed with? Kelly, you were inhaling.
Kelly: Okay. I took a breath [laughter]. I am genuinely obsessed with, to maybe a not good degree, Gilmore Girls. I'm in a constant state of re-watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix. It's not good [laughs]. I have it on constantly. I'm currently in the sixth season, which is not good, a not good season.
Bobby: She's in college at that point, right?
Kelly: Yeah. She—Well…
Bobby: Aren't the college years the bad years? I never watched it.
Kelly: [Overtalk] The college years are the bad years, but especially this one because she, like, dropped out of Yale, which is so dumb. And then once she gets back into Yale, Luke's kid arrives and it's, like, oh, now, this fucking kid is there that we have to deal with. But anyway, you have to power through because then you can start again on season one, which I will be doing.
Bobby: So it's all about the cycle. You want to start over and get the full story.
Kelly: Yeah.
Bobby: And then it's more satisfying once you watch the bad stuff.
Kelly: Yes.
Katie: Are there six total?
Kelly: There are seven.
Katie: Okay.
Bobby: The seven is the newer one, right?
Kelly: Um, no, that's…
Bobby: Or is that eight?
Kelly: That's [laughs] A Year in the Life.
Bobby: Do you count that? Do you count Year in the Life?
Kelly: Uh, yeah. You know, A Year in the Life is good. You know, and it's nice to have something else to re-watch [laughs] over and over again. But yeah. So I guess I'll add that in after I'm done with this cycle.
Bobby: Were you planning on just skipping Year in the Life?
Kelly: Well, I re-watch that separately whenever I'm sick of, like [laughs]—Let's—Maybe we shouldn’t get into it. It's deeply embarrassing [laughs].
Bobby: No. I feel like we all have these very interesting habits of the way we re-watch shows sometimes.
Kelly: Yeah.
Bobby: Like, some shows I'll just, like, pick around. Like Sex in the City. Like, if I'm just home and there's nothing to watch, I'll pick, like, one episode that I like. But if it's, like, Enlightened, I have to go through the whole thing. Like, I can turn on an old Nailed It! and be fine. Or this I Think You Should Leave, which is a new edition, I can just throw in one of those. But some shows you want to watch from the beginning in order because it's like reading a novel…
Kelly: I know.
Bobby: …about Rory and Lorelei [laughter]. Although that's really funny the way that you said, "It's bad, but I love it," because that's exactly, like, everyone I feel like who loves The Gilmore Girls says, "It's bad, but I love it." My sister is obsessed with Gilmore Girls, has probably watched all the way through, you know, 10 times. And every time I say, "I should watch it," she always goes…
Kelly: No.
Bobby: …"No, you shouldn't." [Laughter]
Kelly: No, no.
Bobby: "It's just really good, but you shouldn't."
Kelly: It's really comforting for me, it's not for you. Do not. Do not turn it on.
Katie: They talk too fast. I, like, tried it once and I was, like, "I can't watch a whole thing of this. Like, I can't believe how fast they talk."
Kelly: They're too clever. They have to get it all out [laughter].
Bobby: What have you been watching, Katie?
Katie: So I am doing, I guess, I want to say second-and-a-half re-watch of The L Word [laughs]. It's not great because all the music is different on Netflix from…
Bobby: Oh, yeah, the licensing stuff.
Katie: …the Showtime. And so there are a lot of moments where I expect a certain, like, really emotional song to kick in. And it's just, like, the wrong thing. And it wouldn’t necessarily be bad if that had been what I heard first, but it's just really disorienting to hear a different song cue come in. But there is a L Word recap podcast that just started and so I'm, like, watching along with them. And ostensibly to prepare for when it comes back later this year.
Bobby: When it comes back, is it a remake or is it a reboot? Like, is it the continuation of the story? It's like a new season?
Katie: I think it's a continuation, yeah, because Bette, Shane and Alice are all in it and they're all, like, 50 or close now. So I think they will be there. I don't know to what degree. And then there will be some younger new cast members, I assume.
Bobby: Okay. That sounds fun.
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: I re-watched A Little Chaos, which I love. Have you seen A Little Chaos?
Katie: No.
Kelly: No.
Bobby: It's, like, on paper it sounds like really, really terrible. Kate Winslet stars as a gardener for Louis XIV when he's building Versailles [laughs].
Katie: [Overtalk] Oh, I saw this come up, yeah. I saw this come up.
Bobby: And it's, like, it's historical fiction. Like, this woman that did not exist and she did not construct a garden for Louis XIV who is played by Alan Rickman, who also directed it. And then she falls in love with this guy who's in the court. And it's, like, kind of feminist. It's, like, "A woman [laughter] designing a garden? Like, no." But she's very good. It's extremely touching.
Katie: I think I saws that and was, like, the fact that I've never heard of this can't mean anything good. But now I feel like I will have to watch it.
Bobby: No. It's really good. Also—I'm going to get this wrong—Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is out.
Kelly: I can't wait.
Bobby: Are we going to watch that?
Katie: Yes.
Kelly: It's so hard to remember to say that title correctly, but I am very excited to watch it.
Bobby: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. And it is, yeah. Ted Bundy biopic. Do you call it a biopic if it's about a serial killer? A Ted Bundy movie.
Kelly: I guess. But I thought it was going to be more, like, campy. Is that not true [laughter]?
Bobby: No, I think it's serious.
Kelly: Okay.
Bobby: Because I think when it was announced that Zac Efron was playing Ted Bundy, people didn't know what to make of it. And then it premiered somewhere, I think at Sundance, and people were, like, oh…
Kelly: Oh, he's good?
Bobby: …Zac Efron's perfect casting for Ted Bundy because that's what Ted Bundy was like. And I think it's a straight drama or, like, fully a thriller. Lily Collins is in it, which is funny. Phil Collins' daughter. There was a headline that I want to read. I mean, it's been everywhere. I'm just reading one at random from Vanity Fair: "Lily Collins says ghosts of Ted Bundy's victims visited her while making Extremely Wicked."
Kelly: Oh, dear [laughter].
Bobby: It was a very emotional experience for everyone. So she had a ghost experience. She said, "I started being woken up by flashes of images like the aftermath of a struggle," she said.
Kelly: Oh, gosh.
Katie: She plays the wife, right, who he doesn’t kill?
Bobby: She plays Liz Kendall, the longtime girlfriend of Ted Bundy.
Katie: Or girlfriend, yeah.
Bobby: Formerly known as Elizabeth Kloepfer. "I discovered that three a.m. is the time when the veil between the realms is thinnest and when one can be visited. I didn't feel scared; I felt supported. I felt like people were saying, 'We're here listening. We're here to support. Thank you for telling the story.'" What, like…
Kelly: That's convenient [laughter].
Bobby: That's really convenient.
Katie: Yeah. No kidding.
Bobby: That's really convenient.
Katie: I'm sure that's exactly like the priority of the victims [laughter].
Bobby: "Oh, it's on Netflix."
Katie: "Lily Collins, we want to reach her" [laughter].
Bobby: The victims are, like, "Oh, and it's going to be on Netflix. Like, everyone's going to watch it." [Laughter] The ghosts are so happy. Katie, also, you love Santa Clarita Diet and I want to talk about that, number one, because you love it…
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: …and you're maybe the only person I know who, like, fully stands Santa Clarita Diet [laughter]. It was just canceled, which I'm sure was really sad to you.
Katie: I know. Yeah, it was.
Bobby: Pitch Santa Clarita Diet to people who haven't watched it.
Katie: Okay. So it's a show about zombies that is [laughter] somehow really fresh, I think, for, like, a well-trodden topic. It's funny. It's gross. And it's also really sweet. You know, the stars are a family who, like, all really love each other and care for each other. And I think that that's always nice. Drew Barrymore's great in it. Timothy Olyphant is just, to me, the most handsome man in the entire world [laughter]. And I only think, like, four men are handsome, so that's a big deal.
Yeah, I don’t know, it's just funny. It's easy. I don’t ever fully understand what's going on, but it doesn't matter. And I have that problem with, like, most shows. So that could just be a me thing [laughs]. But yeah, it was sort of like, the conflict is that Drew Barrymore becomes a zombie, has to kill people to eat their flesh to stay alive, and then how do they keep that secret from their community, basically.
Bobby: And they're real estate agents, which I love.
Katie: Yes.
Bobby: In the second season, she decides that, like, the best target for, like, her source of food is neo-Nazis, right?
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: So that's great.
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: That's good.
Katie: Yeah, they find a way to make it palatable, somehow, that she has to keep killing people, which I think is…
Kelly: Like Dexter.
Katie: Yeah, which is, like, tricky to do. And I think that it was a very feminist show, like, the way that Joel supported his wife and her need to kill people [laughs]. And, like, I don’t know, I just think that it was politically savvy in an interesting way without feeling, like, super heavy-handed about it.
Bobby: It's fun how deranged the show is.
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: I do appreciate that. And they're really funny. I was talking about it with a friend recently and he was, like—I don’t remember who it was, but he was, like, "Yeah, I love that Timothy always seems like he's about to crack, every line delivery."
Katie: Yes.
Bobby: I feel like in a lot of shows, that would be really annoying.
Katie: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Bobby: But in this show, primarily because he's paired with Drew Barrymore, I think, who's, like, one of the most charming people on the planet, it's cute…
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: …like, that they always seem to be having so much fun. Which is sort of a cliché thing to say about a comedy, but they really do like they're having the time of their lives on this really stupid show.
Katie: Hm-hmm [affirmative]. Yeah. I think that they're both infectious and I am going to miss it a lot [laughs].
Bobby: Let's move on to another show that's totally similar, in the same wheelhouse, suburban, about real estate people, but no zombies. It's called Dead to Me starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini. I mean, this has spoilers, so we're going to just, like, lay it out all on the table. It's about two women who meet at a grief counseling group. And Christina Applegate is upset because her husband was killed in a hit and run. So she doesn't know where the driver of the car was. Linda Cardellini is there because she says her husband is dead. They become friends.
Then at the end of the first episode, you find out that not only is Linda Cardellini's husband not actually dead, you find out that she's the one who was driving the car that killed Christina Applegate's husband. So they have this friendship. And the central conflict is, like, can they stay friends if Linda Cardellini killed Christina Applegate's husband [laughter] and will she ever reveal it? Oh, she moves in with her, too.
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: So I didn't know what to make of this show. Like, I didn't know about it until suddenly they were, like, "Here's—Watch Dead to Me." And at first, I was, like, this show is—it's 30 minutes long. It's kind of tonally all over the place. But by the end, I was really satisfied by all of it. They are both so great in it. And I think because they're both so great in it, it sort of undoes any other problem I have with it.
Katie, you watched both Dead to Me and Santa Clarita Diet. Just describe the two of them. Like, how do you think they compare? Do you think they're complementary?
Katie: I think so. I mean, I think Dead to Me is a lot darker. Somehow even though there's far fewer murders happening [laughs], they feel much more severe and heavy and like there's actually consequences. Whereas in Santa Clarita, it's sort of just, like, "Uh, we'll keep getting away with this because we're killing neo-Nazis." And in this one, you're sort of, like, you're struck with a new complication every episode, sort of; like a new layer that Judy, Linda Cardellini's character, is going to have to get herself out of somehow. And so I think it's more frustrating, but also compelling to watch in that way because you're sort of just, like, "Why won't you make a better decision?" [Laughter] And in the case of Santa Clarita, it's, like, I mean…
Bobby: It's, like, "Who cares?"
Katie: …there's no choice [laughs].
Bobby: Yeah. "Whatever."
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: I can't really articulate why it was so frustrating to me at the beginning when I was, like, every episode ends with a cliffhanger. I'm just, like, uch. Especially on Netflix, who cares because I can just watch the next one, you know? Like, I can just watch the next one and then it'll be done. But by the end of it, I really liked that. And I was, like, how are they going to keep this up?
Katie: I think it was frustrating especially in the first few because I just felt so bad for Jen, Christina Applegate. And I sort of just, like, why would they keep—Like, when it's revealed that he was cheating on her, you're just sort of, like, of course, like, now she has to find that out, too. And I get why. Because then…
Bobby: They can be friends.
Katie: …there's hope for their friendship. But it just sort of felt like beating her over the head. Have you seen Happy Valley?
Bobby: No. My brother tells me to watch Happy Valley, like, every day.
Katie: It's incredible. Also, very hot murderer in it [laughter]. But to me it had that same sort of frustration where, as Happy Valley goes on, you watch this guy dig himself deeper and deeper and deeper into a hole. And it's just like almost impossible to tolerate. And there's some of that there, I think, with Linda Cardellini's character.
Bobby: Happy Valley is now streaming on Netflix. I just [laughter]—I'm just a bit concerned that it's there.
Katie: I thought so.
Bobby: Okay. And has two seasons. That's the one [unintelligible 00:13:36].
Katie: [Overtalk] The first one is way better than the second one. But they're both very good. And the protagonist is incredible. She's, like, a 50-ish lady cop and very cool.
Bobby: It wasn't your homework, Kelly, but you watched it anyway because you're a good student [laughter]. What did you think?
Kelly: I have to be honest, I only watched the first episode. But I really liked the first episode. I thought the mix of humor and drama was a little strange. Like, it was never funny enough, I felt like. But there were some, like, genuinely, like, touching moments. Like when she was having dinner with her sons, it was, like, oh, my God. And the little boy [laughs] talked about how he didn't want the other kid's dad to die because he likes the dad [laughter].
Bobby: Oh, yeah.
Katie: Henry, the little kid who plays Henry is so good.
Kelly: Oh, my God. He's so cute.
Katie: Especially later on.
Kelly: And, like, when she was putting him to bed and he's, like, "I just don't want you to be alone." And then she goes and, like, cries on the toilet or whatever.
Bobby: It's really sweet.
Kelly: My God.
Bobby: And, like, that comes in later, maybe in the second half of the show. It's when everything sort of starts to fall apart like in terms of their friendship. But the stuff between Christina Applegate and the children is really nice. The episode that I really loved was the one with the balloons. They did this, like, memorial thing that she didn't even want to do, but it was just because it was some vindictive weird thing with the mother-in-law. They decided to do this thing where they put messages in balloons to their dead father and then send them up into the sky. And it's really corny and Christina Applegate knows that it's corny.
[Clip plays]
Bobby: And then Linda Cardellini is there and she writes in the thing, "I'm sorry, it was my fault."
Katie: [Overtalk] "It's all my fault" Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Bobby: Or something. And they all set them free. And it's corny, but it's also very sweet. And then at the end of the episode, Christina Applegate is sitting on her back porch and a balloon, like, falls down and it pops. You're, like, "Oh, God, it's going to be Linda Cardellini's message." But it's a message from one of the kids. And it's, like, "I wish you were still here to play" this video game they used to play together. And she, like, starts breaking down. And then she goes inside.
But that's, I think, when the show turned for me and I was, like, "This is a well-structured show. Like, I'm into this." And it's, like, there's a lot of, like, humanity here. And she goes inside to play the game with the kid that the dad used to play.
Kelly: Aww.
Bobby: And it's, like, one of those, like, you know, like…
Katie: Shooter games.
Bobby: …yeah, shooter games, like, League of Legends. Like, that sort of stuff. And when she logs on, she finds out that he was cheating on her with someone in the game. And so it's someone being, like, "I miss you." Like, "Yeah, like, I want to fuck," [laughter] or something like that. I think she's, like, "I miss your dick," or something. And she's, like, [screams]. But a lot of those tonal shifts happen. And then they confront her at the restaurant, which was also a really good scene, I thought.
Katie: Yeah. I love Liz Feldman, the creator. And I think that she's so good at, like, these little moments of humor that you might miss on the first watch, but then watching it again, like, you'll pick up something new. I think James Marsden is really good in it, as well. And there's a morning scene after he slept with Linda Cardellini, even though they've broken up, and he's, like, "I got to get on the trampoline." And he, like, goes on this trampoline on the deck and is, like, doing a weird little exercise as he's talking to her. And he's, like, punching. I don't know, it was so funny. And there's a lot of little touches like that that I think make it really good.
Bobby: Yeah. And do you want to know how it ends or are you going to finish it?
Kelly: You can tell me. I'll still finish it, but I can know.
Bobby: If you had to guess, I want to ask this to you, too, because I think by it was, like, episode eight, maybe the end of episode eight, I realized how it had to end. I was, like, okay, it has to end in this very specific way. And can you guess, like, what a final cliffhanger would be? Knowing that James Marsden is Linda Cardellini's fiancé.
Kelly: Christina Applegate sleeps with him?
Bobby: Christina Applegate kills him.
Kelly: Oh, that was going to be my guess [laughter].
Bobby: In self-defense. Because this whole money laundering thing ends up being a thing. And there's this gun that keeps showing up. And you're, like, this gun is going to be used to kill someone at the end of this show. Like, it's very obvious that this gun is being set up. And the gun will go missing. And then, like, "Who has the gun?" And then finally, Christina Applegate is confronted by James Marsden because of this, like, stupid check. And she kills him and he falls into the pool and is dead.
And then Linda Cardellini tries to kill herself at one point because she's so, like, wracked with guilt. She tries to kill herself at the same place that the husband dies; she tries to get hit by a car. She walks into traffic. And then when that doesn't work, she shows up and the husband's dead in the pool and she's, like, "Welp." And then it's over. That's why I think it has to—not that I know anything—I feel like it has to get a second season. I feel like you don't put that amount of talent into a single show and then end up with a humongous cliffhanger that doesn't really wrap anything up, well, unless you're pretty sure you're going to get a second season, right?
Katie: Yeah. I would hope so.
Bobby: And I'm excited. I was very, like, questionable about this show at first. And then I'm, like, "I'm fully on board with Dead to Me."
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: Every once in a while, there's, like, a really good, just a nice little line. There was a line that I think about a lot where the neighbor who brings her the casserole at the beginning of the season, like, never shows up again. But when Christina Applegate thinks that she and Linda Cardellini are no longer friends, she's, like "I need a new friend." So she goes over and she's, like, "Do you want to come over?" And the friend is, like…
[Clip plays]
Bobby: But that is it for Dead to Me unless anyone has any final thoughts. Any final thoughts or is this…
Katie: I think they have really good outfits.
Kelly: Yeah. They're both so beautiful. I love watching them.
Katie: And I like that they look their age, which is maybe a dumb thing to say, but I still feel like that's relatively rare. And I watched Linda Cardellini in Freaks and Geeks so long ago. And so it's cool to see how she's, like, grown up in several ways.
Bobby: And same with Christina Applegate who was on Married With Children, like, 30 years ago. And now she's the mom.
Katie: Right.
Bobby: "Widowed with Children". Do you like the runtime? I'm into the runtime.
Katie: Yeah.
Bobby: I'm sick of long shows.
Katie: Yeah.
Kelly: Oh, my God.
Katie: Yes.
Kelly: I agree.
Katie: If it were an hour, I don't even know that I would have made it through the first episode [laughs].
Bobby: I don't think I would have, either, honestly. I want everything to be 30 minutes.
Kelly: Same.
Katie: And 10 episodes. It's great.
Bobby: I watched it in an afternoon. I was going to separate it into two days and after halfway, I was, like, I have to see how this ends. And you can because it's only half an hour. Well, gushing about runtime's great.
[Music plays]
Bobby: Kelly, I've been trying to tell you this for a long time, but you have no good car ideas [laughter].
Kelly: You have no good car ideas.
Bobby: You have no good car ideas.
[Clip plays]
Bobby: We're talking about I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.
Kelly: I should have made you watch that sketch.
Katie: Is this the one—I've seen screenshots where the guy's dabbing.
Kelly: Yes.
Katie: Okay.
Kelly: Yes, it is that one.
Bobby: What if I try something. I might cut this out, but we're going to watch it right now.
Katie: Okay.
[Clip plays]
Bobby: I might cut that. That's insane to keep that on. But what did you think, Katie, first off?
Katie: It was funnier than what I had seen of this show [laughter] or which was not very much. I started the pilot. I was watching it with my wife and just got maybe 45 seconds in and there was the first sketch where he's, like…
Bobby: [Overtalk] Breaking the door?
Katie: …breaking the door. Yeah. And then the second one, I don't remember what it was, but it was just screaming.
Kelly: Yeah. It was the insurance commercial.
Bobby: Which one is that? Oh, yeah [laughter]. The insurance commercial.
Kelly: It is just screaming.
Katie: [Overtalk] We just sort of, like, looked at each other and was, like, "Let's try something else," you know? Like, it just…
Bobby: [Overtalk] It's a little loud?
Katie: I wasn't sure it was for me. But that was funnier, so I feel like maybe it's a question of just, like, hand-picking sketches.
Bobby: And I hate to be one of those people, but it's, like, you got to watch it all. You got to watch it all. I'm so sure. It'll take an hour-and-a-half to watch all of it, or less.
Kelly: They're all 15 minutes.
Bobby: So Kelly, you are one of the first people that I saw kind of tweeting your love for this show. And I had no idea. I truly had no idea what it is. Like, Dead to Me I knew we were going to talk about on this episode. And I was, like, I know this is coming up. This seems like something. I didn't know about I Think You Should Leave until it was already out. And then everyone was drawn to it. What do you think of it? Explain the show. Describe the show to someone who has no idea.
Kelly: Okay. So it's a sketch show, but from Tim Robinson who was a writer on SNL or he was briefly in the cast and then he was a writer. And then he did the show Detroiters with Sam Richardson, which was also so funny and weirdly sweet. It got canceled after two seasons.
Bobby: Oh, it's canceled. Okay.
Kelly: Very sadly, yeah. So now, he's doing this sketch comedy show. 15 minutes. Very bizarre. I don't know how to describe it. It's just every sketch starts off sort of in a normal way and then the humor just escalates into situations that you would not expect.
Bobby: And I think that's what's so kind of addictive about it because the escalation is so bizarre and it's also so unpredictable. And I think that's a good representation of how most of the sketches work where it's like you think they are going to go in some way and then they go a completely different way. Or by the end, you don't even want to predict them anymore. Like, the sketch about the [laughs] birthday presents where it's a guy…
Kelly: Oh, my God. That's, I think, my favorite one.
Bobby: That's your favorite one?
Kelly: Yeah.
Bobby: It's like the way that people turn on each other is also really funny. Usually these sketches start and everyone is, like, very friendly. And then something happens like there's this animosity between someone. And then, like, people pick sides. So many of the sketches end with, like, people picking sides and then they always end in screaming because I guess that's Tim Robinson's thing [laughter]. Is that his thing? Is that what Detroiters is like?
Kelly: Yes. Well, sort of. I mean, there is a lot of screaming on Detroiters. That is sort of his go-to thing I feel like. The sketches always end in, like, an absurd way. But the thought process is still sort of clear. Like, with the birthday present one [laughs], it doesn't make no sense that he would be mad; that he would, like, obviously want to return the gift. So then it's just sort of what happens [laughter].
Bobby: He's, like, "Explain the birthday gift thing."
Kelly: So they're giving their friend birthday gifts. He obviously likes one. And then when he gets to Tim Robinson's, Tim Robinson, like, says, "You know, there's a gift receipt in there. If it's not to your taste, you can return it." Sort of like just saying it.
Katie: Perfunctory?
Kelly: Yes. But then he's, like, okay. And then Tim Robinson says, "You're not going to return it right? Like, you like the gift. Say you like the gift." And he's, like, "If you like the gift"—does he say, like, throw away the receipt or, like, can I…
Bobby: Yeah, "You can throw it away or something," yeah.
Kelly: Which escalates to Tim Robinson eating the receipt. And then he gets sick [laughter] which he blames on his friend not cleaning his hands after he had a mud pie in the bathroom.
[Clip plays]
Kelly: Which leads to another friend eating another receipt that the friend who had the mud pie could not touch to see if it's [laughs] the receipts that make you sick [laughter] or the shit on the first receipt that made him sick. And so that happens. It was the shit on the first receipt. All the friends turn on the original friend, they leave, and then Tim Robinson dies.
Bobby: Of, like, shit poisoning.
Kelly: Of shit poisoning.
Katie: Okay.
Bobby: And they have to take him to the hospital, but he's already dead. Isn't someone just, like, screaming at a dead body?
Kelly: Yes. Yeah, they were all going to go to his house to have a party there, but then he died in the car.
Bobby: What are your other favorite sketches? So you got "Birthday" is your favorite. Oh, you have a notepad. Oh, my God.
Kelly: Right. I wrote them down.
Bobby: You got them ranked.
Kelly: Yes.
Bobby: I think my favorite is the "Car Focus Group" by far.
Kelly: "Car Focus Group" is definitely one of my favorites. I love the "Chunky," the gameshow.
Bobby: Oh, yeah.
[Clip plays]
Kelly: I love the "Walk the Line" parody.
[Clip plays]
Kelly: And I love the "Hot Dog Car Crash".
[Clip plays]
Kelly: "Kim David's House" [phonetic 00:28:05].
Bobby: With Kate Berlant. Do you know Kate Berlant?
Kelly: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
[Clip plays]
Kelly: "Baby of the Year".
Bobby: What's the name of the baby that everyone hates?
Kelly: Oh, my God. I should have written it down. I don't remember.
Bobby: Harley something?
Kelly: Yeah. It was, like, some, like, motorcycle-y, like, bad boy name.
[Clips plays]
Bobby: It's one of those things where if you've seen the show, all you want to do is talk about it with other people who've seen the show and just, you know, reminisce over your favorite things? And if you haven't seen the show…
Kelly: [Overtalk] It's just, like, why [laughter]?
Bobby: …then you just sit in front of a microphone and just nod politely and say, "Yes," okay?
Katie: I love to have jokes explained to me [laughs].
Bobby: But I'm saying to the listeners, if you want to be cool like me and Kelly…
Kelly: [Overtalk] Yes, if you want to be in the club.
Bobby: …you have to watch the comedy show I Think You Should Leave. And if you want to be out of the loop like Katie, don't watch it [laughter].
Kelly: You have to marry your mother-in-law.
Bobby: But it's so fun. There's something about the show that reminds me of—I mean, it's very Tim and Eric-y. I mean, that’s a very specific humor that, like, I'm sorry, I don’t mean to pressure you. And it's, like, if you don't like it, you don't like it. Whatever. That's totally fine. But I found myself really surprised that I liked it because I was, like…
Kelly: Me, too.
Bobby: I was, like, what am I, like, 21-year-old dude who, like, doesn't think women are funny? Like, I was like…
Kelly: [Laughs] Right.
Bobby: …is this what I'm watching? But it really was hilarious. And, like, it's cast so well, they're just, like, people that you've never seen before. It's not the same, but it's like, you know, like Judd Apatow movies, how it's, like, just like the same, like, five people over and over again? Like, all the same people are in comedy. And then this, it's like new people? And he's using them over and over again? And it's just, like, it's fun to see new funny people because I feel like we're using the same funny people over and over and over again. And, like, if it's SNL people, if it's, I don't know, just like that Apatow crew, I felt like I was being introduced to a whole new…
Kelly: [Overtalk] I know, a whole new world, yeah.
Bobby: …like, world of funny. And they're older, excuse older [sounds like 00:30:06] which I like, as well, as someone who's getting older. Like, I was, like, oh, these people are all in their thirties and forties. And this guy, Ruben Rabasa, who is the actor who played the "Car Focus Group" guy, I clicked on his IMDb, he's been in, like, eight million things.
Kelly: Yeah, I was going to ask where they found him because he, like, he carried that a lot.
Bobby: And he's been in so many things. And so they must have seen him somewhere because he's been acting in comedic stuff. Like, he was in Police Academy 5 in 1988.
Kelly: Five.
Bobby: But he's been in comedy movies, both Spanish and English language comedy movies, since 1978.
Kelly: Wow.
Bobby: And so he's just this guy who they must have known. Like, I don't see how they could have written that for anyone else…
Kelly: No.
Bobby: …you know? Like, that was written for him. And that whole cast, like, the way that there's actual acting involved in it in a way that was surprising to me because of the ways that everyone has to turn throughout the course of a sketch. Where it's, like, the woman who's sitting next to Paul. Watching her slowly turn on Paul is, like, one of my favorite parts of the show.
Kelly: It's so good.
Bobby: And, like, the quiet laughter. And then full on, like, screaming Tim Robinson, "We hate you, Paul."
Kelly: Yeah. I really like that about it, too. Like, it's very sweet in the way that I feel like when people do sort of turn on someone, they always turn on, like, the normal person [laugher]. It's, like, no, we're on this, like, weirdo side. Like, he's making good points. But it's, like, so weirdly sweet in, like, a not normal saccharine, like, Parks and Rec way, it's just, like, weird sweet.
Bobby: And he's just so funny and I hadn't even heard of him. Now, I have to watch Detroiters.
Kelly: Oh, my God, you have to watch.
Bobby: Was that Comedy Central?
Kelly: Yeah.
Bobby: Did you know about it before? Were you really looking forward to it?
Kelly: I knew about it because Jesse David Fox from Vulture kept telling me that I had to watch it. Because he knew I loved Detroiters, which he also told me to watch for, like, a year before I actually watched it. But he was, like, "I'm not sure if you're going to like it because there's a lot of, like, toilet humor," which I don't like. And then it is so funny. Even the toilet humor is, like…
Bobby: The toilet humor's hilarious.
Kelly: …it's so—Like, I love the one where he's, like—I wrote down the quote—oh, [laugh], when they put a whoopie cushion on his chair [laughs]. And then he, like, freaks out because, like…
Bobby: His farts are very stinky?
Kelly: Yeah. The quote I wrote down.
[Clip plays]
Bobby: Everyone has to watch so that you can participate. Kelly and I are near tears. Katie's out of the loop. I'm really sorry.
Kelly: It really just feels like…
Katie: I just feel sorry for my show. I'm, like, "No, it's too late to say, 'Watch my show' because it's gone."
Bobby: I mean, I'm going to finish these in three.
Katie: Okay.
Bobby: I fully am because it fills a Schitt's Creekian void, also, because I've watched all of Schitt's Creek a million times.
Kelly: Yes. My child was also ahead of the, you know…
Bobby: You were. You were.
Kelly: …times on…
Bobby: This show is not a show you watch kind of passively like those shows, though. Like, this show you really have to be…
Katie: How many episodes are there of this one?
Bobby: Six or seven?
Kelly: I think, like, six?
Katie: Oh, and only 15 minutes?
Bobby: Yes, 15 minutes, six episodes.
Kelly: You can watch it real quick. And it's so good.
Bobby: Just give it a shot. Just give it a shot.
Kelly: Oh, my God, it's so good.
Bobby: It's extremely good.
Kelly: It just makes me so happy. Like, I can't even believe it exists. I am so happy that it exists.
Bobby: It's extremely funny. How many times am I going to say this? It's extremely funny.
Moving on, we got some calls. I'm going to play two of the calls from our listeners. Don't forget you can call in to I'm Obsessed With This at (754) CALL-BOB and share your own current obsessions. So I'm going to play two of them right now. [Phone call plays]
Caller: I'm sure you received a bunch of calls about this, but I am obsessed with the movie Someone Great with Gina Rodriguez, DeWanda Wise, Brittany Snow, Ru Paul. I mean, the cast is outstanding. And it is just so refreshing to see a female buddy movie where women are just, you know, having a day and doing their thing. We get so many male movies like this and it's so nice to have one about women.
And it's so nice to have one about women where they're able to go out and, you know, drink and do drugs and do their thing and not have it result in some crazy terrible thing happening to them, like, because of the drinking and the drugs. And women are so often portrayed in movies and TV shows doing drugs as in a, you know, very much a groupie, coke-heady, you know, their whole entire life is ruined type of way. And it's so refreshing to see women doing their thing and having, like, a messy day, but then, at the end of the day, they're real humans who have their shit together and are, you know, big jobs and whatever.
And the dialog is incredible. I feel like it's exactly how women, female friendships, are in this day and age. And the soundtrack is incredible. I mean, the soundtrack is—I didn't know who Lizzo was before and now I can't stop listening to her. So thanks. Bye.
Bobby: So everyone has been talking about Someone Great. I watched it last week. It's one of those good rom-coms. Like, it's about the friendships, you know, more than the rom. It's about the rom-com—I mean, the com comes first and the real romance is between friends. But it stars Gina Rodriguez, LaKeith Stanfield and Brittany Snow, of all people. Brittany Snow.
Kelly: Wow.
Katie: Britney Snow is so funny and she's not in enough stuff. Like, she's really, really good.
Bobby: She's very good in this. I think she's, like, she's a standout in this. But also, they're all good.
Katie: She in, like, John Tucker Must Die, one of my favorites. She's also excellent…
Bobby: I've never seen John Tucker Must Die.
Katie: It's really good. There's, like, some outdated gender stuff for sure. But if you are ready to accept that, it's really funny.
Bobby: We have one more recommendation. [Phone call plays]
Caller: The movie Juanita is so sweet and wonderful. And nobody has seen it. And I don't know why nobody's talking about it. It's completely surprising. It's everything you ever wanted in a film. At least everything I've wanted in a film that I didn't know I wanted. Charming, unexpected, human, not white [laughs]. I really liked it. Tell me what you think. Bye.
Bobby: Juanita has been on my list for a really long time and this call convinced me to watch it. And with that, I think we are finished. Thank you, Katie and Kelly, for coming. This was a lot of fun.
Katie: Thank you.
Kelly: Thanks.
Bobby: Katie, I'm very sorry about Santa Clarita Diet.
Katie: I agree.
Bobby: And once again, call (754) CALL-BOB and share your own current obsessions and we might discuss it on a future episode. Thanks for listening to I'm Obsessed With This. We'll see you in two weeks with another episode.
[Music]