#115 Crossing The Streams or Nothing (Bonus Ep17)

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

Your host Jeff Dwoskin. Hope all is well. Welcome to this bonus episode of live from Detroit. crossing the streams edition, bringing you some great segments from our live show that we do every Wednesday 9:30pm Eastern Time on the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Follow us on YouTube the Jeff Dwoskin show do a little Subscribe. You'll get notified every time we go live. It's a fun interactive experience. If you don't got time for that you've come to the right place because we're sending it right tears right here right now. This is crossing the screens where we answer the question that rocks the universe. What should I be watching on TV next? I just finished. And now what should I do? Well, you've gotten to the right place. We have over 65 episodes streaming on YouTube right now for your listening and viewing enjoyment. Right now we're going to bring you segments from Episode 2646 and 47, Coda, basketball or nothing, and the Kominski method. Did you say Coda? The show that's winning all the awards right now. That's kind of on the nose. Yeah, if we weren't already talking about it in November of 2021 could have known about Coda so long ago. manufac. Let's get right to it. Ron Lippitt is going to talk up Apple TV's coda. Take it away, Ron. And now coda, Ron has been wanting to do Coda such a long time. I'm excited that he

Ron Lippitt 2:02

will come on. I mean, here's the thing. This is I am a victim once again, a marketing from the folks at Apple and every time I flip on to watch my good friend Ted lasso, I see Coda, advertised to death on top of my apple television. So it was only a matter of time before I was gonna click that button and take a shot at this. And it was a couple weeks ago that the family we'd said it was family movie night that is to imply that we can it would be content worthy of 13 and 17 year old and my wife who doesn't like violence, you know, what can we watch? Right? So here here's this Kota, winning all kinds of awards, won the Sundance Film Festival, I mean, multiple awards and post via an amazing show on Apple TV plus is pushing it so sure. Why not? We'll take a shot at this. I knew nothing about this movie. As an example, right off the bat. Do you guys know what a coda is? In music? No, just a code? Well, that's actually a good point. There is a coda for music. But no, that's not what this is. Do you know, do you know what a coda is? With respect to deafness? No. So I didn't know this either. And literally, kind of like what Tony describes sitting down to Dune, I sat down with no background knowledge about about what this movie was about, which by the way, it does talk about a deaf family, which doesn't sound like picked me up or material, but this is very well done. Coda, by the way, is a child of deaf adults. And so it's a very difficult position to be got it, it's a very difficult position to be in I personally don't know any Kotas In fact, I don't even know any deaf families. But But I do understand now having watched this movie, what a terrific pressure that is on this child to essentially live as their window to the world, and to essentially be kind of ingrained into the family structure as, as the translator and communicator and basically functional aspect of what family is, is capable of to the outside world. And this particular family in the movie is a fishing family in Worcester, Massachusetts. They have a long standing business with this young lady. The actress is Amelia Jones. By the way, it's not from Western Massachusetts, she's actually Welsh. I don't know what it is. We're finding all these British actors that have these unbelievably American roles. But here we are yet again with CODA and a Welsh actor. In Amelia Jones. She does a terrific job with an amazing Boston accent by the way, you know, she discovers as a teenager, that she has an immense talent for singing. And it becomes the story that we've seen, you know, probably shown dozens and dozens of times of where's your allegiance is your allegiance to your own life and your own promise for your own future or as a quota? Do you honor your family and stick with them and and do the things that are necessary required for them to even survive as a as a family and it becomes a kind of a crucible as you might imagine? And as Do you have to kind of decide what to do and I you know, I won't record for you because it's a it's a terrific story. I don't know if it's if it's a true story or not, but I do imagine that there are Codas all over the world that have faced a similar predicament. And that that is told and I, you know, again, I've never been in this culture or subculture and I don't understand it as well as I do now, but it is told extremely well it is acted extremely well Marlee Matlin, who seems to continue to have a career is amazing in this movie, and I'll just say as a side note, she's got to be in her 60s, I would think she's beautiful. And she isn't she has a really outrageous seksyen in the movie. And that's that's worthy of the of the watch. Right? Right there. But, but I watched

Jeff Dwoskin 5:46

the movie not a show, right?

Ron Lippitt 5:48

It's a movie. Yeah. Two hours. It's it's a two hour movie. I think it's an hour 45? Actually, it's it's a difficult watch early on, because you know, where they're going with it. And you know, gosh, what's this young lady going to do? But it's told very well, and I think it does ask some really legitimate questions. And, you know, at the end you you leave the movie, asking yourself, you know, questions that you'd like to ask you, you know, when you come out of good thought provoking movies, guess what, what would I do in that situation? How, how would I handle that scenario? And if that's the measure of a great movie, I think that this movie scores because it's been two weeks since I saw that movie, and I'm still thinking about it. I'm still thinking about gosh, did she make the right decision? I think that's the mark of a good movie. It wasn't I check it out it you know, Apple TV plus continues to pump money into their into their production. This is produced entirely through through Apple TV. So you know, score another one for Apple TV plus good job for them. One last thing is Amelia Jones, who again has a starring role in Kota as as the Kota is also believed in the new in the Netflix series, lock and key, which is a top five show now on Netflix. I don't know if you guys have seen this this show or not. I haven't either, but apparently it is a wildly popular show. So this young lady, who I've never even heard of, until two weeks ago, is on two extremely popular shows on competing networks right now. I don't even know that happened.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:14

All right, that was Ron Libet. Talking about the award winning Kota from Episode 46 of crossing the streams. If you wanna check out the whole episode, head over to YouTube. And you can see the whole hour of goodness right there. Up next Tim Segal, regular guest of the show is going to talk about basketball or nothing. Take it away, Tim. So we have the next show. We're going to discuss I am not familiar with this one either. So I'm looking forward to our guest Tim does he go to cover it in amazing detail, basketball or nothing on that flex?

Tim Beisiegel 7:49

Yeah, another Netflix documentary. I did that because I wanted to impress Ron and make him think I was smart. So this one is actually really cool. I watched it a while back. And I was actually starting to watch it again. When Jeff and I started talking about me being on the show tonight. It's a six episode. And it actually it does require all six episodes, to tell the story because it's following a high school team through the season. And it's interesting, because it's not just your average high school team. It's a team of Navajo kids on a reservation in Arizona. And it's interesting because this this little town college chinley A lot of the kids, they don't have running water, they don't have electricity, you know, out in some of these areas, and it's one of those things where as you're watching the story of these kids, you start thinking, Alright, am I watching a story of a third world nation? Oh, no, this is an Arizona. Okay, so this is this is happening in the United States and some of the poverty that some of these kids are going through and what they're dealing with and what they're fighting through. But it's interesting, because because of the size, and they talk about this, the size of the Navajo, they're not an overly large of stature, human, they say that they're smaller in stature in most respects. So they have to win basketball games with speed. And so they play a version of basketball, we call it running gun, they call it razzball. So they like to play runs ball, their hope is that they're just going to tire you out, run you up and down the court and run you ragged. And so up until this season, that's what the chinley team has done, but they haven't had the best of success. So they but they bought in this new coach. And he's more defensive minded. So he's trying to teach him a new strategy. So it's really interesting because it not only talks about what the the team itself is going through, you know, trying to adapt to a new playing style and trying to adapt to a new thought process but then also show some of the problems that that are found on the reservation for the for these young people. There's there's nothing for them to do outside of playing basketball talks about the prevalent alcoholism that is around and what they're what they're having to do with poverty that they're having to deal with, what they're trying to how they're trying to help their family and that many of these kids, their hope is that they're going to go to college. then that somebody will give them a sports scholarship and somebody will take a chance on them and give them the opportunity to go to college to get a degree. So they get a job off of the reservation to make money so that they can help support their family, because they know that on the reservation there, the chances of them getting a job, something outside of like a school or something educational is pretty slim, it's really cool. It takes six episodes, each of them are about 30 to 35 minutes. So it's not a hard watch, pretty easy to watch. But it does make you think, you know, a couple days down the road as your as you kind of reflect on the episodes and what these kids are going through and what they're trying to accomplish throughout the course of the season. And so like I said it follows them from preseason all the way up to the state championship game. It's just really cool man to see these kids grow and and see these kids kind of like blossom as, as some of them who were, who were kids who used to sit off into the in the backside, are now moving forward in life because this coach took a chance on the team, this coach took a chance because he lives like 100 miles away and commutes on the weekends goes home comes back for the week to the school, goes home on the weekend, visit his family. It's just really cool. I strongly recommend you checking it out.

Ron Lippitt 11:08

So is this a multi part show? Or is it is a one sitting or

Tim Beisiegel 11:14

six episodes? Where can I see this is on Netflix called basketball or nothing six episodes 3035 minutes apiece, and a lot of High School Sports. The one thing that I find interesting and I you know, for as much poverty as they have in this area, the high school basketball stadium that they play in and I call it a stadium because that's what it is. It's not a gymnasium attached to the school. It's a separate building. It's pretty amazing. I look at that and I'm like there are Class A schools in Texas and Dallas that aren't don't have gyms, this nice. ball courts this nice. So

Howard Rosner 11:47

did they do a nice recap of where most of the main kids are at the end of the series?

Tim Beisiegel 11:52

To some degree? Yeah, I mean, they they talk about where they're headed and you know, where they hope they're headed in life. Unfortunately, I I thought it kind of just kind of cut off. It would have been nice to have a little bit more of a sure retrospective of hey, you know, six months later, this is where this kid's at six months later this where this kids at? Unfortunately, it's kind of like hey, well, that was the game and this is where we think this kid's going.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:13

If they do that it kind of limits the potential the sequel.

Tim Beisiegel 12:17

Right? Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:19

characters do is just some clever plot point. And you're gonna

Tim Beisiegel 12:23

have another one's called basketball or something. Yeah.

Howard Rosner 12:27

Don't do it like the UK office and have a Christmas one our Christmas special recapping everything. Yeah,

Ron Lippitt 12:33

well, I you know, I, as you were describing it, Tim, I was thinking about I'm sure this is probably not comparable. But I was thinking about, you know, the in the 80s and 90s. When NHL, hockey, particularly here in Detroit, it started looking at the European and Soviet way of playing hockey, right? Completely different than the North American style of hockey, change the game utterly, of course, you have to have the people to be able to play it. But my point is I as you were describing the way that they kind of shock the system with their style of play. That's kind of what went through my mind is how, how, you know, European hockey changed to the NHL here.

Howard Rosner 13:10

Lawyer, the Loyola Marymount method. There you go basketball. Yeah,

Tim Beisiegel 13:15

yeah. So yeah, they went from a razzball style where like I said, it was running gun, just go go go. And these kids, you know, like most coaches want you to work the ball around, find the right shot, not just a shot, these kids are running down the court. And it's like, if you're open, you hoist that sucker. And you go, couple of these kids. Just want Yes, I know, we're talking about the sports ball.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:39

Sports. Yeah,

Tim Beisiegel 13:41

that's what I call it the sports ball. So they want to hoist this thing as quick as they can and, and hopefully get the ball back and you know, just kind of keep running and gunning. And he's trying to get him to, you know, to intelligently make three, four passes before they take a shot, move the ball around, get somebody open for a nice set shot. And that's not what they want to do.

Howard Rosner 13:59

Three paths. It's funny. It's funny you say that, Fred, if I may interject one of my all time favorites. So Jeff and I have been friends for over 35 years. And to this day, one of my favorite conversations with Jeff ever was, it was I can't remember who the third party was. But third party and I were talking about fantasy football. And Jeff interrupted and said, I'm going to start a Fantasy Life League. We're like, What do you mean, he's like, you draft your friends. Like if they get a new job, you get more points. They have a kid you get more points. And that was probably like 25 years ago, and I remember that conversation of this thing. I remember

Jeff Dwoskin 14:35

like going if I'm going to a sporting event where like Roz was or like our buddy Dan, that the I would listen to stuff on the radio and then I would show up and I'm like, oh, yeah, here

Ron Lippitt 14:47

are parroting back some steps.

Howard Rosner 14:49

Wow, you sounded just like sports centers. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:56

All right, from Episode 47 basketball or not That's two thinkers in a row. And our final show for this episode comes all the way from Episode 26. We were just babies back then. Howard Rosner is going to take us through the Kominski method. Take it away rise. This is a good one. I'm sad. Yeah, Andy. This is a method from Chuck Lorre who brought us the Big Bang, there

Howard Rosner 15:22

just finished a kind of half of season three, the final season of the show. So for those of you who don't know the gist of the show from the beginning, Michael Douglas plays a character named Sandy Kominski, who is a great acting teacher owns an acting school in Hollywood, that he runs with his daughter who's exceptional in the show. And his best friend Alan Arkin, is Norman neulander, who's a huge Hollywood producer, has been in Hollywood for ages, the show really, it really is a senior driven Show With Issues that seniors face which is fascinating. I thought from the beginning to have a show that's based off of that, but to do it in a setting Hollywood, that's considerably easy for you to say, a younger, flashy environment and any other show you watch was really unique. I love the fact that during the course of the series, they used a lot of great 50 plus year old actors. Jane Seymour is amazing in the show. Nancy Travis is in the show. She's great in everything Lisa Edelstein plays in on the New Zealanders daughter, Haley Joel Osment plays his grandson and he's spectacular at the end of season two and the season three, and then in to season three. At the end of season two and into season three, Kathleen Turner plays Michael Douglas, his ex wife, and if everybody remembers, obviously the connection and chemistry that Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner had with Romancing the Stone Jewel of the Nile or the roses. They're incredible together. Still, their timing in this series is incredible. They riff off of each other great. So anyways, like I said, the just the show over the first couple of seasons, part of the first season on his wife passes away. And he has to deal with that dating and having sex as a senior the first time and, you know, 50 years or whatever it is medical issues and Michael Douglas has to face. But it's really, really good show. Season two ended and then the pandemic hit as they were getting ready to film season three. And apparently Alan Arkin with the downtime from any form of acting during the pandemic has apparently just decided to retire for the most part. He's done acting, he wrote a book and that's what he wants to do. So they had to write him out when they did season three, and they really did see some great a to address him not coming back, and then decided to shorten it. And just to put a bow on the series, which I thought is amazing. We've talked about it before, how many series just cancel and they never wrap up the series? Yep, yeah. In the six episodes of this series, they pay tribute to him. And then they wrap up the show. You know, I don't know about you, Jeff. But I thought the way they wrapped up the show was exceptional. It was so happy. And it was great redemption, and it was just, it was well acted. And it was just a very, very sad that Norman was not in the final season on our kids character. But I thought the way they wrapped it up was just, it just really hit the right note that it was just you're like, that is the way this show should have wrapped up nothing crazy of their sad parts to put in the end. It was it was heartwarming. And I thought it was great. The acting and the comic timing of all these people that have been doing comic movies and TV shows for years. It's great. The best character in the show is the waiter at the restaurant that Alan Arkin and Michael Douglas have lunch in all the time. He's a great character really funny, but it's a really, really good show. While going to episodes I think eight and six. It's a super easy watch on Netflix. It's a great show. Go watch it if you want to laugh, but not slapstick laugh. Oh, and then I also forgot in season two, one of the main characters who's also a senior in the show is l&r King's daughter. Or sorry, Michael, Douglas's daughter starts dating Paul riser, who's 67 In show wearing a ponytail. He's great. He's tonal polarizer and is great. Go watch the show. Do it in a week. All three seasons in a weekend. Easy. It's super

Jeff Dwoskin 19:52

this show. So I'm not going to get into season three in a second but season one and season two is the Chuck Lorre show and Big Bang Whatever you think about that are Two and a Half Men. This is the best thing he's ever done.

Howard Rosner 20:05

Okay, wow. Great. Yeah so frickin laugh track like pig

Ron Lippitt 20:11

so big bank that it was good but I've heard nothing but great things

Jeff Dwoskin 20:15

about Big Bang Theory season one is great it's legit funny. It's just it doesn't you know at some point oh, here's the funny Big Bang Theory story 8181 point I was on Amazon Twitter and I'm like, I was getting into something was someone who was like the big bang theory you take away the laugh track. You don't got much and some guys like they don't use a laugh track. I'm like, come on, listen to the show. You can hear the words that laughter doesn't match. You know, whatever it is like I'm telling you, there's no laughter We don't do that or we don't we don't juice it or whatever. And I'm like, ends up arguing with like a main guy from the Big Bang I didn't realize I look at his bio and then suddenly I'm like, I'm sorry. You have to the best actors in the world. Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin Alan Arkin I could sit is is to me that they actor that I can watch in anything and he's he's in a million things but the I don't know what it is he just hit me in my eyes is one of the plants the two of them had such chemistry together him and Michael Douglas it was brilliant. That's why I was sad when he wasn't paying back for season three. The issue I have is like season three is that it's not what it would have been or what it was supposed to be it has to the whole show has to be a to address the fact that this characters they killed him off and so you know and so they elevate characters like the daughter and Hailey Joe Asmath but I think are good and pieces. You know, I mean, but I'm only halfway through and I do enjoy it and Kathleen Turner is a joy to watch. And polariser was a little depressing to a great actor, but I they made him look old. I thought he was at all I got depressed. But isn't that old?

Ron Lippitt 21:58

Hey Jeff. I just once again, I'm agreeing with you for whatever reason today I'll show along. So Alan Arkin, in my mind, I have not seen the commencement. The fact that you guys are so excited about Alan Arkin on the show really does. That means a lot. Glengarry Glen Ross Ocean's 11 Even Argo, I thought was, he's just such a complicated and well rounded actor. He can do it all. So the fact that you guys have described great chemistry between him and Michael Douglas. Yeah, sure. Really well,

Jeff Dwoskin 22:28

he's in a different category like Charles Grodin. I would put in that that same category where you just, you can't think of anything you didn't just enjoy him watching. Maybe you didn't like the movie or whatever. But him as an actor you always enjoy.

Ron Lippitt 22:41

Did he win an Oscar for Glengarry Glen Ross? I early he was up for I can't remember.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:46

I don't think it son was a big actor, too. He was on I think Chicago home

Howard Rosner 22:50

pad marking Yeah. Hmm. And he was in eighth grade. Yeah. In the first season, when he's dealing with his wife having passed away. He's in this big house all by himself, and he sees his wife and visions, and he interacts with his wife and visions. And it's him in that first season especially is is incredible. And then Lisa Edelstein plays his daughter, and then he starts dating Jane Seymour, in the in the second season as well. It's so Jeff about the cat out of the bag that that's how they wrote him out is that he did pass away. Well,

Jeff Dwoskin 23:21

in my defense, is it do they do it? That is the first question. Yeah.

Howard Rosner 23:25

Yeah, the funeral in that episode. His funeral is one of the better episodes of any 30 minutes sitcom that I have seen in a long, long time. That is a great episode. It's so well written and well acted original asmin is really funny as the grandson who escaped Scientology and Lisa Edelstein, Lisa Edelstein if nobody remembers was from house and is great. Yeah

Jeff Dwoskin 23:55

that's it. So many plays where Howard and I slightly disagree I the first episode of the first of the third season is a long episode. I think it's like 47 minutes 3749 So it's not like a normal shorter you know, half hour ish 25 minutes the beginning of it is the funeral. I found the funeral painful to watch not because I was sad. I found the eulogies and all that I found it kind of painful. So it was like but it morphs then into kind of a normal episode. They just kind of get to get rid of that. And then it Season Episode Two and three kind of is the normal show and the pattern which I enjoyed immensely, but I found the the funeral a little a little I thought maybe I need to watch it again.

Howard Rosner 24:36

Yeah, and while they didn't have the Alan Arkin, Michael Douglas chemistry in season three, obviously I did enjoy the fact that maybe while not as good they did replace it with the Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas chemistry in those middle episodes, and I thought that was that was great.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:54

They locked in to having introduced her in season two. And so that

Howard Rosner 24:57

was season three. Yeah. Absolutely. So that was cool. So and Barry Levinson of all people made a couple of appearances in season so

Jeff Dwoskin 25:07

definitely, definitely everyone check out that that is definitely and like Howard said, it's you just breeze right through it, because it's so enjoyable to watch. You just keep going. Alright, right that was the Kominski method from Episode 26. I have to say I did go back rewatch thoroughly enjoyed all of season three, definitely check out the Kominski method and also basketball or nothing and coda. What an amazing episode of suggestions for you today. You got your homework, go grab your favorite spot on the couch, grab the remote, cross your own streams, and we'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 25:48

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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