#91 End the Year By Crossing The Streams – Bonus Episode 5

CTS Announcer 0:01

Looking for your next TV show or movie to binge? Well buckle up, grab the remote and settle into your couch for this special edition of crossing the streams. We're here to help you tune in and get the most out of those 50 monthly streaming channels you're currently paying for. So without any further ado, here's your host of crossing the streams. Jeff Dwoskin

Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

Hey, everyone, it's Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for another bonus episode of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show where we pull segments from our live show crossing the streams and share them with you. What is crossing the streams. crossing the streams is myself and a bunch of friends. Just having a conversation about TV shows and movies. We love to binge watch stream, and we do it live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time you can listen in and the idea of the show is everyone's always asking themselves. What TV show should I watch next? I just finished x and now I need to watch something else. Well, this show fills in that blank for you. You're welcome. Every week live at 9:30pm Eastern Time on Twitter, fireside chat app, Facebook and YouTube. We go live. There's over 50 hours on YouTube that you can dive into of great TV binge watching suggestions to me, Howard Rosner, Ron Lippitt, Sal de millio Bob Phillips, we get together and then we have gas. It's a whole lot of fun. It's a whole lot you never know what's gonna happen. These are live segments that we just pulled right from the live show. We're talking chatting, all that kind of good stuff. Today we got a great lineup the Amanda Knox documentary on Netflix billions on Showtime and resident alien. We're gonna start by going back in time to Episode 20 where our guests MC Manhattan talked about resident alien which you can watch on the Sci Fi Channel. Take it away MC Well, speaking of not understanding stuff, let's move on to resident alien. completing our Allen to this week to week dive into his work, take it away. Mac

Mick Manhattan 2:14

resident alien, I found this one while I was still on it's the first season just premiered in February, I think it was on Sci Fi Channel. And they have a jam every once in a while. So I love Alan today. So anything Alan took his and I will watch and when I saw this, I never read the comic but I was aware of it that it existed. So I was like, Alright, let me check this out. See what he does with it. And I gotta tell you before I review it, let me tell you what it's about. So he is an extraterrestrial that crash lands on earth he was sent to your for a mission and when he crashes he loses parts of a ship he takes sanctuary and an old cabin by a lake where How intuitive is resting and they get into a fight and he winds up killing him and then he takes us for and that was he was a doctor that was kind of hiding out it's a murder mystery because he gets pulled into the town doctor getting murdered and so the sheriff's asked him like listen, you don't have anybody else this is a tiny little town in Colorado. I think Zack lives there actually patients Colorado so they so they pull him in to help investigate and do like the do everything. Because he's an alien with a who's a lot smarter than us humans. He can adapt and learn really fast. So he takes it on. It's just really well done. Then he winds up getting taking the role of town doctor until they can find somebody new. They have the Men in Black chasing him down. He is befriending townspeople but he's like very quirky and weird. And they don't understand him. The whole thing is just it's hilarious from beginning to end but it's also the murder mystery aspect of it is so fun. I love it it's it's on it's on par with clue in my opinion

Howard Rosner 4:10

is nothing but a red herring.

Mick Manhattan 4:14

Yeah, so I love the show. Every episode is there's just something to it that just kind of like there's a good charm to it. But it also like every character in it is quirky and weird, but you just you fall in love with them. And there's lots of I love it because there's a Native American aspect to it. And they they take to him as an alien more they take to anyone else like there's a lot of jokes about the white people stealing their land and such any alien seems to get it so they do a really good job in that, you know, with the jokes and stuff like that, but it's gonna get renewed for a second season. So I'm excited to see where it goes from there.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:52

Steve the pirate is one of the greatest characters in cinematic history.

Mick Manhattan 4:56

Yes, well, I will tell

Howard Rosner 4:58

you I think he's a pirate.

Mick Manhattan 5:02

But yeah, no i i highly recommend the show for everybody to check out.

Ron Lippitt 5:07

I'm sorry, what network Did you say this was on

Mick Manhattan 5:09

the sidebar channel? Got it. So I won't always recommend something from side by channel. But every once in a while they come up with a hidden gem. Like the expanse. Yes. 100% agree with the expanse. Of course Amazon took that on But uh, yeah, no. So let's, I just recommend this to everybody. I think everybody should check it out. Jeff Dwoskin would fall in love with it.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:33

I'm gonna check it out. I love it. He said he is one of the best. All right, that was resident alien on the Sci Fi Channel brought to us by MC Manhattan. You can check out MCs podcast, the scenes snobs everywhere. Podcasts can be found up next. Howard Rosner is going to take us through billions. He mentions billions a lot on the show. This was his official review of the show. He can't stop raving about Take it away, Howard. Speaking of needing money, yeah, millions

Howard Rosner 6:10

Ba ba ba ba. So I know I mentioned the show a couple of times before. So when I have when I have rough weeks just where I'm exhausted mentally because of things last weekend, some issues with the dogs and I'm mentally drained. Instead of picking up and watching something new. Generally speaking, what I do is go back and watch like, favorite episodes of shows. So billions is in the middle of its mid season. The Fifth Season was was delayed by COVID. And they are filming the basically filming back to back the rest of the fifth season. And then the sixth season right now. It is one of my favorite shows of all time. I know I've said that before. Two of my favorite actors Paul Giamatti. I can't get enough of, of anything using I flipped on the TV the other day and horrible movie, but the negotiator was Samuel Jackson was on and he's I forgot Paul Giamatti was just a, you know, a big player in that. And he's just great. I love him in everything he's in. So

Jeff Dwoskin 7:09

for those great implant OF THE APES,

Howard Rosner 7:12

I don't know if I say there. Yeah, he's right. Yeah, that's right. He's He's great. I mean, obviously sideways. What am I? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 7:19

Spider Man two.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:21

Oh, yeah, he was Rhino. Why did they bring him back for this? Oh, he

Sal Demilio 7:30

lives near a train. I just heard a train. Not me. I just hear a train. I'm sure right. I thought, train glad,

Howard Rosner 7:37

too much. Anyway, so for those who haven't seen the show, the gist of the show is that Paul Giamatti in starting in season one is the US Attorney, a US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is relevant nowadays, obviously, and his wife, Maggie Siff, from Sons of Anarchy, who I think is incredible. Also, she works is a private therapist for the employees of a hedge fund run by Damien Lewis Band of Brothers and other other great shows. I love him and Band of Brothers, Bobby Axelrod, X capital is his hedge fund. He very clearly operates on the edges of legality. So you've got the US district attorney trying to bring down the hedge fund manager, hedge fund manager operating on the edges of legality, and in between is his wife. The district attorney's are the US Attorney's wife, who works as the right hand to the hedge fund manager. And that's where the first season starts. And it's, it's great. They're both obsessed one's obsessed with making money. The other is obsessed with bringing him down eight, each season gets better and better in my opinion. In season two, they introduced aged Kate Dillon, who plays a character named Taylor Mason that is a non binary character who just adds such a great, first of all, it's an incredible character. And then I think it adds such another great layer, especially in the first and second season that she's on just watching other characters have to relate to some to somebody that isn't so somebody that is different for them to deal with, in especially that financial world. And I think that's fascinating as well. But the twists and turns of the show are superb. The acting is superb. The writing is great. The show is created by a by the younger Sorkin and Brian Koppelman, who wrote Rounders was his first major movie. And so I think the you know, from a show running standpoint, I think it's great. It's just awesome. It's got a little bit of the Sorkin style in the dialogue, which I Thank you similar to the Mamet style, which is a lot of references and lengthy dialogue that is colorful, too. You know, it's kind of always think it's kind of like machine gun dialogue to color a scene, which, you know, newsroom anything circumstan is, is you always see that sports slide, same thing. And so it's got a lot of that to it. I just love the show. I'm so excited for it to start. They haven't announced but it'll be the second half of this year. For sure. It's on Showtime. And streamable if you haven't watched it, you have plenty of time now to go watch the four and a half seasons before they start the new show it. It's it's a fantastic show. Good things, man.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:45

I gotta check that one out. So very cool. All right. So billions. It is my friend. Bill is

Sal Demilio 10:51

what was what is that out? Howard? Would you say was Showtime? Showtime?

Jeff Dwoskin 10:55

No, I don't think I have Showtime. Yeah, I

Howard Rosner 10:57

don't know, the first couple seasons. Maybe I'll check right now it may be available on other services.

Geoffrey D Calhoun 11:03

They definitely chew through a lot of storylines on that show. Like where other shows would take like an entire season for a storyline they plow through and about three episodes, which blew my mind how much content they go through.

Howard Rosner 11:16

They do it But yet somehow there's always the somatic is going on for the entire season one

Sal Demilio 11:24

minute or 15 minutes. Oh, no, it's

Howard Rosner 11:25

it's an hour. It's an hour.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:28

What do you what do you think? Would you like it? Jeff? Jeffrey,

Geoffrey D Calhoun 11:30

it is really good. Yeah, thematically, it's about two guys that are obsessed. But they're obsessed in different ways. And so it becomes about obsession, versus power versus control. So it's like having two alpha dogs in the same yard. I mean, that's really what this is. And the amount of lengths these guys will go through to destroy each other, and how you really realize that they're both shallow individuals who really don't care about anybody else except for winning. And so it's just watching these two hot messes go at each other through their own device of means. It's actually it's quite amazing to watch how their lives fall apart because of it. And then eventually, they just burn everything down trying to go at each other. So even when they have peace, they don't have peace because they're trying to find the new angle. Because one of the tricks with with writing for television, like long form narrative versus a feature, which is a limited narrative is to always keep them bleeding. So these guys are always getting back together, somehow making repairs of their individual lives with their families, but then doing something that screws it up just a little bit more. And it's fascinating, as you mentioned

Howard Rosner 12:37

to other two other characters on the show that are are smaller characters, but still have their moments that I think are Geoffrey demand, who plays his great plays. Paul Giamatti, Father, you know him from a bunch of other things that that isn't

Geoffrey D Calhoun 12:52

the Walking Dead. Yeah, Carl are.

Howard Rosner 12:56

He is so good as his father and then stand up comedian Dan soder was great, plays a character named Buffy. And he's gotten actually had a bigger role as the seasons went on. And he's just great, great, amazing, great comic foil. His dialogue is usually pretty funny. And it usually involves a lot of stuff that he likes he and Koppelman as well, like they've mentioned pro wrestling a lot and and you know there's there's a lot of gambling references. So a lot of reference Oh, in the third season, third season, Teddy KGB himself from Rounders plays a character very similar to Teddy KGB. I am billionaire

Geoffrey D Calhoun 13:38

John Milkovich. I

Sal Demilio 13:38

am. Yeah, Howard. I have to see this just because a bit just because of the connection with Rounders that's literally in my Top, Top 10 movies of all time. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.

Howard Rosner 13:50

It's a great movie, but it has as a poker fan. It has one of the speaking of screenplay. It has such an immense plot hole, that final contest is such an immense plan. Yeah, yeah. argue about all the time, but I'm not gonna go into Oh, no, no,

Sal Demilio 14:07

you're right. The poker part strategy part was was a little bit rigged, but the overall movie was unbelievable. And when they go up north to play in a poker tournament, they went to Binghamton, New York. That's where I'm from. Just so you guys know. Oh, nice.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:19

I didn't know you weren't from Michigan. All right. All right. That was awesome. Great job on billions, guy. Good job. All right, everyone, everybody that was billions from Episode 21. Thank you very much, Howard Rosner, and the other voice you heard in there predominantly was Jeffrey D. Calhoun. frequent guests of the show. Check out his podcast the successful screenwriter with Jeffrey D. Calhoun. Wherever Podcasts can be found. Don't forget to check out billions on Showtime. It is Howard's favorite, favorite, favorite show. And now we're going to skip ahead to episode 39. Ron lipid is going to take us through the Netflix documentary about Amanda Knox. Take it away Ron, why don't we jump in? Let's start with some light fare and go right into Wow. This is a documentary on Netflix that Ryan is gonna

Ron Lippitt 15:17

it is it is I'm back in the Netflix binge again, even though I'm a big, you know, Apple TV plus guy, but how did you guys see the Amanda Knox story on Netflix? It's from 2016. It seems to be back into the rotation. Again,

John Sullivan 15:30

I saw Sweetwater which she apparently took exception to.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:34

I think I think that's why it's popular again, because Sweetwater is sort of based on the story of Amanda Knox. Yeah,

Ron Lippitt 15:41

so faxing. Actually, John, had you seen it? It looks like you were about to

John Sullivan 15:45

know. So I was very familiar with the story because I spent some time in Italy in like 2004. So I was kind of familiar with like, students over there. And it was a little sketchy. And so I like closely follow the story of her being in jail, then let out then the other guy gets caught and the media just like goes after. So I haven't watched that documentary. But I'm very familiar with the whole

Ron Lippitt 16:06

Yeah, well, you know, and listen, we all know the story of the Taxi, taxi and a man and x being you know, to your point being, you know, put in prison for four years in Italy for murder with her boyfriend and the whole whole thing, American and what I find really interesting about this documentary which by the way, it is it just a one hour and change documentary on Netflix, there's no episodes just one, one sitting and it's it's the classic documentary, it's archival footage with overlaid with so called, you know, experts talking about the case. And what's interesting about this particular documentary is it features a man and X herself in studio, kind of walking the viewer through each part of the of the case from from the lead up to the murder, you know, straight up to how she got out of Italy, how she got back to the United States how she didn't return for her final appeal, and all the decisions that went in this. And what you find out during the viewing of this is that it's a couple things. First off, you discover very clearly, Amanda Knox is a very intelligent young lady. She is incredibly articulate. She is a few Civ in the way she speaks. She's clear in what it is she trying to communicate to you. She's still beautiful, by the way. And the other thing that really struck me is you know, she's from Seattle, and I don't know where she got her education or if she studied Italian in Italy, because she's not Italian. But I can tell you this, the girl speaks beautifully fluent Italian. And, and that is it seemingly like a trifle at the beginning. Like you would think that'd be such a big deal. But what comes through is how flawlessly she can navigate both the Italian and the American system, you know, through the through this process and you're left wondering, she's so smart and cunning maybe she is guilty, like maybe this whole thing. Maybe this whole thing is her you know her ability to manipulate these systems in such way manipulate this dope have a boyfriend she met in Italy, who you will very quickly as quickly ascertain is just an idiot, but good looking. You know. And she there's a pivotal moment in the documentary where she looks right in the in the camera. And this is a quote she says right to you. I think I'm trying to explain what it feels like to be wrongly convicted to either be this terrible monster, or to be a person who was vulnerable. And the way she says to be this terrible monster. You kind of believe her. She seems like she's kind of a terrible monster. Now. I will. I will just say I'm glad that I'm glad this all ended up the way it did. Because what we've just recently found out having nothing to do with the documentary, there was ultimately DNA evidence that a more modern review of DNA evidence that that ended up proving beyond any doubt that is that right? I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, it was it was this. This guy was Italian gentlemen, who everyone had suspected all along. If if it wasn't going to be Amanda Knox and her boyfriends so and that's great. So it means it means in the end, we did get it right. But what also is interesting is that the Italians very much wanted together the people the the mood in Italy of the of the people was absolutely 100% She's guilty, she needs to be in prison for the rest of her life. And the mood here in the United States was this was impossible. There's no way that this that this girl you know from Seattle, Washington could be could could possibly, you know, commit this murder. So it is a very interesting watch. I was captivated the whole time. She is a very interesting interview. And I think the points she makes about her voyage from being a student going through the process and then coming back to her family who they themselves weren't sure whether she was guilty or not. It's a very interesting watch and I I highly recommend it. Like I said, it's just an hour. I think it's an hour and 10 minutes I think the whole thing on Netflix and I I think you'll enjoy it. So I'll have fun with it.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:02

Was it a appropriate hour in 10 minutes? Like was that like the right time for it? Or even stretch it at that point?

Ron Lippitt 20:10

No, I thought it was pretty appropriate. Actually. I thought they they did a nice job with the lead up. You know how she ended up in John, how do you pronounce it? Parousia Perugia? Jin, I'm talking I think

John Sullivan 20:21

it's I don't think it's Perugia.

Ron Lippitt 20:25

brugia purusha. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, they talked about how she, you know, she ended up there fairly randomly, you know, and so they talked about how she ended up in Italy and living in this essentially this hostel of a house with these other people she didn't even know Amanda chercheur the British student who was who was murdered barely knew each other when when the murder went down. She had just met I don't know if you guys knew this, this boyfriend that you see the video of her kissing him and all the lovey dovey stuff she just met the guy like a week earlier five days you know it's listen it's always interesting to see beautiful women who end up being Black Widow you know murderers and and it's just not the case in this one but it does add I will say a certain flair to the to the diet I like

Jeff Dwoskin 21:09

I use subtly but still doubt into everyone's minds that maybe she did maybe

John Sullivan 21:15

I gotta watch it because I'm not convinced she didn't do it. i By the way, I need to correct myself I called it Sweetwater it was it was like it's still water. Sorry, but

Ron Lippitt 21:25

you're gonna have to check it out. I'm interested in your opinion about it because Okay, I'm gonna watch it. Very it's very uncomfortable coming away from it. You're really not sure if he's guilty or innocent. Up and out. But now we know so just so you know, through

Jeff Dwoskin 21:38

that way. Today. Every time you guys my room blind freshman year at Eastern Michigan, and my roommate shot his girlfriend and killed himself in whisk know your roommate. Yeah. So we had I had just moved out because he was crazy. And was your documentary? Yeah. No. It was my brother just recently was like, I'm dead. Never got you. Therapy. And she's like, he's like you were living with a murderer. Yeah, yeah. And but though girl turned out was fine. Actually. Absolutely survived. Yep. alive today with kids.

Ron Lippitt 22:18

I seriously thought you were kidding. This sounds like I thought you were leading up to a joke.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:22

Oh, no, no, no.

Ron Lippitt 22:25

Literally no punch line. No.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:28

It's Lee's comment about the parents. Maybe remember because one of the the vivid memories I had at the time was watching his parents walk after they found out that they're walking, going to his room to get his stuff. It was like decades later, it took on a whole different meaning once you have kids of your own. Yeah, like in the whole idea of like, of watching what or how horrible must have been but if you want to hear a quick story, I'll tell you like, this guy was like, he would like scream at her on the phone. He put on shows and was like my I had a friend. My good friend was named Tim and he would come into the room one day, he just opens up the drawer. This other guy's drawer his name was Chris he opens up the drawer and I go shut that drawer that's not my drawer and he shuts the drawer right So later that day, we're back in the room and my friend Tim just to be a jerk to me go he goes oh you don't open this drawer and there's a note that says did you enjoy going through my drawers? He did all he did was open in Johnny okay, I was just like I was like

Ron Lippitt 23:28

that single white female level you're like on his list? Wow. Like

Jeff Dwoskin 23:36

wow, what they think what happened was it he wanted they knew he didn't want her to break up with him. She was Jewish he wasn't apparently he was anti semitic it none of it made sense. But the the but the the think Romeo and Juliet they think he was gonna kill himself in front of her and she ran and like he meant he just kind of shot her literally shot her in the head and it came out of her mouth like an inch higher dead right and then they found a hotel room did not get a four point everyone asked don't ask the

Ron Lippitt 24:10

epilogue to the story. No four point no.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:12

Yeah, anyway, so that's wow.

John Sullivan 24:15

Oh man. Yeah, me for my boxing documentaries. Oh, yeah. This podcast just took a turn. You know, maybe our

Sal Demilio 24:27

ratings will go up or murder mystery podcast Wednesday.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:35

All right, thank you Ron lip it ripped from Episode 39. The Amanda Knox documentary on Netflix. I do want to say just so everyone knows we're not paid to talk about any of these particular shows or streaming services. These are just shows and stuff that we love and we want to share it with you. That being said Join us every Wednesday 9:30pm Eastern time on Facebook, Twitter or fireside app and live on YouTube chat along with us hear new recommendations every week. Follow us on YouTube to get alerted and check out our entire back catalogue. We hope you enjoyed hearing about the Amanda Knox documentary billions and resident alien. You got so many more shows coming your way. It means I have grabbed your remote and cross your own streams. We'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 25:24

Thanks for listening to this special edition of crossing the streams. Visit us on YouTube for full episodes and catch us live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time. Now turn this off and go watch some TV. And don't forget to tell your family y'all be busy for a while.

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