#109 Crossing the Streams Has Secrets (Bonus Ep14)

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 0:30

Hey everybody, it is Jeff Dwoskin. Great to be back for another bonus episode. That's right. We're bringing you some of the best curated segments of crossing the streams directly interior is via live from Detroit Jeff Dwoskin podcast feed bonus episodes galore. Every Monday we serve up an interview every Thursday we serve up TV binge watching suggestions you can't live without That's right. That's what crossing the streams is it answers a universal question. What should I be watching next? I just finished now what should I watch? Well, you've come to the right place because all the answers are here. Every week on the bonus episode, we serve up three amazing segments from the live show a live show that you can find living on YouTube over 62 hours of crossing the streams full hour long episodes a way to you don't have time for that just sit back enjoy this podcast feed and we just send it right to your ears. Easy peasy. You can join us live every Wednesday 9:30pm Eastern time we're on Facebook, Twitter, and of course YouTube subscribe on our YouTube channel you get a notification every time we go live. You can engage with us during the show. It's tons of fun. Today's episode we're pulling from episodes 5425 An episode eight all the way back to Episode 860 days in Gary hajis we steal secrets the story of WikiLeaks JAM PACKED episode awaits you. Let's jump right in with Gary Hi G Ron lippett loves foreign television and foreign films and this one does not disappoint. Ron let that bring in a unique spin to the show. Jerry has g Ron Lepad take it away

Ron Lippitt 2:13

Giri, Giri Haji is

Jeff Dwoskin 2:17

I think I said it right but you

Ron Lippitt 2:19

know and and I seem to be on a trend here of picking foreign films that are subtitled in this case. Half English half Japanese with English subtitles here this is actually the first season for the Netflix series Giri Haji which translates from the Japanese directly into duty and shame. Which after watching this eight episodes, our for each episode, perfect name for the show, because everything everything about this story is a war on the moral compass of each character how far they can be pushed to move outside their respective ethical boundaries. This series is directed by Julian Farina, which some of you may remember, directed entourage so you know, it's good. Actually, there's no there's no humor in this movie. In this series, although there are some funny little side anecdotes, but it's a police and crime drama, and it's about a character named Kenzo a Japanese detective is sent to London to find his younger brother Yuda. This dude had been presumed dead, but later we find out he was. He killed a member of the Yakuza crime family in Japan fled to London and becomes a murderer assassin for hire by the local London mob boss good story so far Kelly MacDonald of new Country for Old Men fame in the comic down Empire more importantly and she was embarrassed she was That's right she wasn't Boardwalk Empire as well. And Trainspotting one info there you go Good. Good one Kevin. Thank you appreciate that. She's She's the London detective

Jeff Dwoskin 3:43

on IMDb on my browser. I

Ron Lippitt 3:46

know I I'll tell you Kelly Kelly MacDonald thing about I didn't know her real well just say this. I was shocked to find out that there are no Country for Old Men character wasn't actually how she spoke. She actually has a super strong Scottish accent and and she actually is truly of British descent. So I didn't even realize that at the time. But anyway, she's the London detective develops friendship with the lead character Kenzo. She herself is dealing with a bunch of life issues, which her newly found relationship with Kenzo begins to unravel. There are some great characters strewn across the show, which I think makes the show which is why it's I think, I think so interesting. They bring characters into the show that add a ton of color if they're interesting. They are, I don't think they fall into any of the particular tropes. There's an actor their name will sharp who plays a male prostitutes that Kenza the lead character uses to kind of understand the London scene better because he is, as I said, Japanese the this Kenzo character is played by a gentleman named Tucker hero, Hera. You've never heard of him, but he, he is if you Google if you google him if you IMDb him. He's been in about frickin 15 Big, big shows and plays in Japan. So he's the he's the big star of the show. He said, really terrific actor plays a super dark Roll, which is on top of a fish out of water story in London. So it's kind of it's a pretty complicated role he's playing. And I think it's worth pointing out, there are very few leading roles for Asians in major productions in American audiences actually read looked it up because I was interested, according American American Academy motion pictures, only 3.4% of film since 2007 featured in Asian Pacific Islander, which is, uh, which is interesting, the notable exception of the superstar who was it, the rock, Dwayne Johnson mentioned earlier. That's right. But I feel like after watching these eight episodes, this guy is absolutely worthy of the role and then the opportunity to start on this Netflix show. And I really do hope we see a lot of him in other productions down the road, His English is perfect. His Japanese is obviously perfect. He's Japanese. So he is he is a very interesting, flexible character. I'll just say this in closing that the show mixes a lot of different styles of production. There's a lot of anime and split screen and letterbox style introduction that they move into make various points about the series. So I would say visually on top of the production and top of the directing and the end, the acting, the production itself, I think is super interesting. It's an it's an unusual style of production. And I think, you know, Julian Farina did a great job of directing that so i i recommend it highly. It is a weird, interesting show. But I will tell it takes you on a really great ride. And I was really I felt I felt really pleased at the very end of these eight episodes and looking forward to season two, which is now in production. So that is my series. I recommend it. Brian, I got a question. How many tweed jackets with elbow patches do you own? Let's see what with elbow patches? Just one I actually but I do three. I do a bunch of tweed jackets. And how many reviews? Have you written for Rotten Tomatoes? orielle I'm gonna get 3500 Yo, so check this out. You guys actually got this thing actually got 100 on God's mess. So you'll figure that right. I don't know how it did that. But it did. That was one of the reasons I think he now has 99% But you know, not everybody can be a what was it at? 82?

Jeff Dwoskin 7:06

Adding Yeah. 100% as well. Fun fact.

Ron Lippitt 7:11

Yeah, and I still haven't seen Paddington to sack you were excusive about Paddington too. So good movie. 100% Yeah. 82 is now the highest rated Rotten Tomatoes show in history.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:26

All right, that was Gary. Hi, G from Episode 25. Ron Libet. taken us through that show. Up next, we're going way back to Episode Eight was special guests, Scott Curtis. And Scott's gonna tell us all about the TV show. 60 days in, take it away, Scott. This is Scott Curtis, our guest is going to take as I have this, I have to admit, I know absolutely nothing about this show. It's on a nice called 60 days. And it claims to self proclaimed itself to be a groundbreaking Real Life series. Scott, take it away my friend.

Scott Curtis 7:58

Yeah, I want to preface this by saying that I am not a reality show guy. And I'm a literate person. I read a lot more books, and I consume media. But my wife and I were at a point where we just needed to turn off, we needed to watch something that would totally turn our brains off. And let us just be entertained by stupid people and 60 days and did not disappoint. The premise of the show is we've got these jails that have some problems. So these average Joes off the street volunteer to become inmates so that they can tell you what's wrong with the jail. Now interesting. A lot of different things happen. So and you get you get surprised by stuff. And the funny thing is, is I know reality shows are rigged. And the producers tell you to do this and that but some of these prisoners they've gotten there, they're not going to tell them to do anything. It's they are acting on their own volition. And they are punching people because they want to not because the producer told you but you get all these different characters in there. You've got you've got one guy that you would think would be the absolute worst undercover in May in the world. I mean, he's he's a very devout Christian. He's got a large family. He probably didn't have sex before he met his wife. I mean, just very, never, never engaged in fisticuffs, and his life and the guy goes in and he has kind of a rocky start, but he actually wins over a lot of the prisoners because he's bridging the gap between one gang and another gang and just making friends with everybody. So he does an actual fantastic job. On the other hand, you get this guy that says he's a badass. He's a private investigator used to be a cop. He's just he's just a tough guy. He goes in and he cannot handle it for two days. They he's scared people are targeting him and he gets put inside solitary for I think like 30 days or something like that and they finally have let him go and it's just it's such a hodgepodge of different people that really surprise you. There's one girl that comes in that is really she's very intelligent. I think she works in engineering, but she had some family members that went to jail, she goes to jail and she's obviously in the the women's section of the prison and falls in love with an inmate and pretty much gets to the point where she wants to stay there. She just wants to stay there with her inmate lover and be in the jail. Wow.

Bob Phillips 10:44

It's crazy. That's like most marriages end Yeah.

Scott Curtis 10:50

And all these people that come in, bring something different to the table and there's one guy who's a former Marine that goes in probably does the most perfect job of anybody and he makes friends with everybody because there's there's gangs in all the jails and he makes friends with everybody and all the gangs everybody respects him gets a lot of information and at the end of his 60 days, they pull him aside and say we would like for you to stay another 60 days because you got so much good information and the dumbass takes he goes in another 60 days and gets even more information and turns out to be the last guy in that season to be taken out just really calm cool collected. He had a couple situations where things could have got really rocky like a guy took his tablet they gave you tablets if from the commissary and broke it and put a cell and everybody in the cellblock liked him so much they were going to target this guy, they were going to kill him. And and he was trying to talk him out of it. And finally, you know, because of reality TV, that guy got moved over to a different cellblock, everybody was saved because reality TV, but it's just it's really funny because what you expect out of the people coming in the the ones that talk the biggest story are usually the ones that don't last and a lot of them don't last 60 days, some of them last one day, some of them last a week, and some of them last maybe half the time, probably three quarters of them don't last the whole time. And then the great part is is they're all in there together those usually three guys and three girls, and a cellblock together, the drama that goes on between them gets all recapped in the reunion episode, or they all fight with each other. So it's just it is it's a laugh riot. It's a lot of fun. And it's one of those reality shows where I feel like you are not the producers can't manipulate it as much as they do other reality shows because you can manipulate the people who are participating. But the folks who are incarcerated, they're going to do what they want to do. And you see a lot of fistfights you see a lot of people taken to a cell and beaten down and they come out bloody and nasty and really hurt. So

Bob Phillips 13:18

some marriages. Yeah.

Ron Lippitt 13:21

So it's what are they what do they compensate? And these people are that do they talk about that at all? They don't

Scott Curtis 13:29

talk about compensation, but they are they all go on publicity tours after their season, they do a reunion episode and they then they do an episode. Where are they now, which is I think like, you know, a few months later, a lot of them they say that they've got some PTSD and stuff like that, because some of the it's amazing because they're different prisons and these different jails are so much different in the way they treat their prisoners. I mean, the what the last one I watched and I watched your seasons out of order, but the last one, they would just throw them a bag of cold sandwich and like a Snickers bar. And that was your meal, morning, noon and night. Whereas other ones you get a nice plate of hot food. And it's it's really amazing how that works out. And then they also expose some pretty bad guards too. So there's, there's guards that are just out there to really antagonize and not be helpful to the prisoners at all.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:35

The good news is you convinced Casey or Simon babby also convinced Jess Paul

Bob Phillips 14:45

Scott and off camera you've convinced my friend Susan from Grand Rapids, who's asking me via text, how many hours has been of the show,

Scott Curtis 14:56

so I think it's five seasons and each each Jason has a minimum of 13 episodes. Oh, wow. And they're all reach. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:06

Yes, you're gonna text Bob instead of just Google right? Yeah.

Scott Curtis 15:14

It's information. Yeah, I was I was totally blown away by this show because I've, I've skewed away from reality totally. And this one was just really different for me. And you know, it was it was what I needed when I needed to turn my brain off. And yet I really got into it. It was one of those where I was not looking at my phone. I was not multitasking at all when I watch this because you never know what's gonna happen. a&e Over

Howard Rosner 15:41

the past few years drove tremendous viewership. They had some really good crime related shows live PD was a huge viewership show that I thought was amazing. And unfortunately, they put it on the back burner, probably permanently during all the police situation this summer, but they had live rescue, which was the fire version of that. And the first 48 which is you know, solving homicides is is a great show, and they're all reality. But you're right, Scott the reality but they're not. It's not scripted reality. It's almost like mini documentaries. And I'm sure I'm sure they're somewhat edited to be a little bit more entertaining, obviously. But it's not people playing a role. It's just people put into situations like PD was great. And I've seen I've seen it as well. It's it's a good show. It's

Ron Lippitt 16:38

it's it's no it's no To Catch A Predator. But

Jeff Dwoskin 16:40

I mean, whatever what is what is. All right. 60 days in Thank you, Scott Curtis, on reflection, I don't think I would last like a day I'd be one of those people that lasted like an hour maybe probably wouldn't make it to lunch. Anyway, our final segment for this episode is we steal secrets, the story of WikiLeaks, Bob Phillips is going to take us through an amazing deep dive into this documentary. Take it away, Bob. Bob is going to talk about no he still secrets the story of WikiLeaks incredible true story from Academy Award. What Alex give me is the true story of what true story

Bob Phillips 17:20

there. Thank you for that segue. And for that intro there could there couldn't be a bigger, what's the word dichotomy between shows as this frothy, little Christmas concoction of cells and cells, you know, just just bubbly personality, and and to delve now to delve into the WikiLeaks. So let's see if I can make this entertaining. Julian Assange in the news, again, which is sort of apropos the the British government has agreed to extradite him to the United States, which is essentially, I'm not gonna say a death sentence for him, but for his freedom, because he's screwed. He's been hiding there for the better, like 10 years, seven of them spent in the Ecuadorian embassy, I can't even imagine what that would be like, you could never leave, you couldn't even I don't think he could even walk out on the steps. So he could open a window, something like that wave to people, Pamela Anderson, a regular visitor there, which was really weird. I don't understand that. But whatever, Julian Assange, when I, when I think of him and I, and over the last maybe 10 or 12 years since he became this really a newsworthy figure and a guy who dominated the news for several years, I wanted to get this question in my mind answer is he this freedom and truth seeking Sentinel, a guy who's, you know, taking all the slings and arrows of all kinds of governments, particularly the US government, in the in the pursuit, excuse me in the pursuit of truth, when it comes to secrets that the government keeps, particularly during wartime, he rose to prominence, you know, 1012 years ago, by exposing on WikiLeaks, some really bad things that were going on in Iraq, some things that the US government, and particularly the Pentagon didn't want people to know about. And in doing that, now, he had been doing that for a while in Australia. Sadly, he just, you know, hit the world stage 10 years ago, but in doing that he ruffled all kinds of feathers across the world. And when you piss off the Pentagon, you've you really shit the bed. And he was the was the object of derision and scorn for for years from them, particularly after this fellow who later transitioned into a woman Bradley Manning, who became Chelsea Manning several years ago. She did a an enormous data dump. Um, what was going on in Iraq? What was going on with some of the, quote unquote, targeted killings of Iraqi, not Iraqis, but let's say Al Qaeda and al Qaeda in Iraq, some foul UPS by the government and the military were civilians were killed. And they didn't want us to know about it, for obvious reasons. Well, Julian Assange was more than happy to take this information and publicize it. That and I started by saying that the central question I've had about Julian Assange all along is, is he the guy he says he is, which is a lover of truth and freedom? Or is he a MK Racker? Is he a guy trying to stir the Shi t as it were, and gain fame? Well, he's, he was a, he's a little bit of both in this and I have a conclusion at the end that I'll share with you. But there's a lot of ins and outs this guy, you know, WikiLeaks, you you tend to think, Okay, this is this is a very big organization to have essentially, taken down the Pentagon in a number of areas. But as they explained in this documentary, it's really him. He's just a guy from Australia, sort of an outcast, a guy who never stayed in one town more than a year and never made any friends. He was, you know, socially sort of inept. It was him and his laptop and 10 data sticks, and a couple of other nerdy guys that made all this happen. It was amazing the impact he had in the time that he had. And as you watch this, you would have the same question in your head. Is he the guy who he says he is and thinks he is? Or is he what the Pentagon and the government and even other people who don't have a vested interest in their secrets coming up, call him an irresponsible cowboy journalist who got people killed? Well, here's what I came to I after here at re reading about him for many years and then seeing this documentary. He there is a moment where then this sealed it for me my opinion of him. There is a moment where a reporter asks him, well, what do you think about the fact that you've exposed innocent people, not just American agents, not just people that are protecting America, American people, CIA, soldiers, all that all those kinds of people, but what do you think about the fact that a particular data dump that you did resulted in several Afghans Afghanis dying, because they were working with US intelligence? And his response was, Well, if they were working with the US intelligence, they deserve to die. That's a quote from him. And so my opinion of him was sealed in that moment. He is that he is the guy that responsible journalists. Think of him he is the guy that the Pentagon thinks of him. He is just a different side of the same coin. The Pentagon, you know, I mean, we all know the the collateral damage argument, right? Okay. Well, we got this guy, this high ranking al Qaeda official, but 18 civilians were killed. Okay, that's, that's the that's the math you do, or that's the math they do. He did his own math. And he said, Okay, innocent Afghanis because they worked with the US government. If they died because of this data dump, they deserved it. So that that's it. That's all I need to hear about Julian Assange, whatever good. He said he did whatever good he supposed he did and what other supporters he has. He's coming back to the United States. He's going to stand trial. And I hope they find him guilty. When that is, well, what is this trial?

Well, let's come in soon. He hasn't been brought back here yet. But the British government has agreed to extradite him and now they're saying he had a stroke in jail when I'd have I'd have a stroke to if I was coming back to the United States after stirring the shit the way he did for the last decade or so. So it you know, you could you can come to one of many conclusions at the end of this documentary, but that's the one I came to. He is He is the guy that he seeks to expose. He's just another side of the same coin.

Howard Rosner 24:18

I have not seen this documentary, but Alex give me did amongst other documentaries. He did the inventor, which is on HBO Max, which is about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos that was a really major push towards towards her go into trial, which is wrapping up right now. He did. He did Going Clear on Scientology, which is a great document. It's great. Yeah, he did Enron the smartest guys in the room, which is a great documentary. So yeah, I have not seen this but I love his documentaries off to check it out. Where where's the streaming but

Bob Phillips 24:55

it's on Netflix. And it's an excellent documentary. I was telling Jeff earlier that I had to finish The last 40 minutes or so, and I was I was getting bored with it, but it really heated up in the end. And it puts a nice bow on things. But it does leave it to you to decide how you feel about the guy and his little organization that he had for a while. I mean, they're still around, they're still sort of doing what they did. But no, you know, huge announcements like that.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:25

All right, that was we still secrets his story of WikiLeaks never say you didn't learn something here on this show. Bob Phillips is a master class of diving into shows. Thank you, Bob. And thank all of you. I can't believe we're at the end of another bonus episode. What a great great episode. We steal secrets the story of WikiLeaks, Gary Haji 60 days in so much fun, you got your homework, go grab your favorite spot in the couch, grab the remote cross your own streams, and we'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 25:58

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