#227 Crossing The Streams with Three Identical Strangers (Bonus Ep58) – Great TV binge watching suggestions!

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, oh, it is Jeff Dwoskin, your host of classic conversations and your guide through this bonus episode of crossing the streams. What is crossing the streams? Glad you asked. It's where we answer the universal question. What should I binge watch next? I just watched something and now I gotta watch something else. Well, you have come to the right place. We got your back. We have over 110 hours of binge watching suggestions on our YouTube channel don't have 110 hours while you're in luck, the classic conversation podcast feed sends these bonus episodes right Jerry here's three segments from three different live shows all bundled up right for you. That's right, this bonus episode represents Live episode 43 Live episode 70 and live episode 92. We have three identical strangers avid Elementary and the marvelous Mrs. Maisel thought it was a good time to pop in that review given the new season is about to come out. So let's get right to that one. Howard Rosner take it away. The marvelous Mrs.

Howard Rosner 1:34

Mazal saw an Amazon Prime show so just wrapped up seeing for and I'll just briefly for those who haven't watched just give a little background on the show. So Mrs. Basil The show takes place in a begins in kind of late 50s era New York Midge Maisel is a Jewish mother housewife whose husband wants to be a stand up comic and goes to some open mic essentially, in in the village. He decides he wants to divorce and his leaving her and she had a fit of anger one night marches down to one of these clubs, grabs the microphone, gets up on stage and just starts riffing hysterically. Suzie is somebody who works at the club, who decides she wants to be her manager because she thinks she's absolutely on to something. So that's the basics of the show. The seasons follow her trying to push along her career, and then her personal life to me without quite I mean, Rachel Brosnahan who plays Midge Maisel is a great ad she's great in the show, but to me without question, the best part of the show are the other characters, namely, her parents are played by Tony Shalhoub and Marin Henkel, who are fantastic Kevin Pollack plays her ex husband's father and can't always forget her name that plays his wife. She's great. There's some other characters that pop up during the show. So we're Season Four takes off is she's at a bit of a crossroads. She is just coming off kind of a big Oh, crap moment and what was starting to be a building career and now she doesn't kind of has to go back to step one sort of to try and get her career going. First of all, I will also say I apologize for anybody that isn't Jewish watching the show. But it's got there's like an extra 20% of the humor of the show. That is extra fantastic if you're Jewish or no have Jewish friends. No, it's just there's so much humor that the other thing I will say if you haven't watched the show, and you want to start from the beginning, there are a couple episodes in season two set in the Catskills that I consider amongst the greatest comedic episodes of television ever. The callback, the sight gags, the repeating gags during those episodes that tomato juice Tony Shalhoub and is his singlet working out, I show me every single time I watch those episodes. But so Season Four again picks up what I think is I didn't love season three of the show. First two, I absolutely loved Season Three was good. But season four, I think got the show back on such an amazing footing predominantly because they focused much more I thought on the other characters of the show and how absolutely great they are Tony Shalhoub, who was a professor at Columbia, I think it was a literature professor and now he's gone back to just write for The Village Voice at the time as a literary or as a theatre critic. There are a few actors that every single role they do ever is amazing. And he is one of those guys he's so good in this show. Just absolutely great. Marin Hinkle is exceptional. She plays her mother, who is one of the gags during this season. Her mother started a matchmaking business and she's essentially mourned and called to a meeting by basically the heads of the five families of matchmakers like African American, a Polish woman, an Irish Catholic woman. It's really really funny. Another character who's a bit character in the show is Jane Lynch who plays is essentially one of the super famous comedians whose career has gone up and down and up and down. And her characters are all over the top goofy, funny, but her real personality is over the top rich and eclectic. And she's, again another one of those people who's great and everything she does, she's so great in the show, Season Four knock it out of the box. And then the other character who was only meant to be in the first episode of the show, and has become a recurring character in each of the four seasons. And I thought had the best moment in the fourth season to really set up the fifth and final season of the show was the gentleman who plays Lenny Bruce, who she keeps running into during the show and his moment in the season finale of season four, telling her that she's an idiot for the way she's treating her career and to you know, just stop doing what you're doing and go back to doing what helps you get to your end goal was really a great moment kind of out of nowhere for a character that's been mostly comic relief during the course of the four seasons. So I love season four, it's again, another great storyline if you're Jewish is that her ex husband has an Asian girlfriend who has gotten pregnant by the end of the season and has to explain it to his parents and doesn't know how to explain it to his parents and Kevin Pollak, essentially saying, I get it, I understand it happens. It's great. You can do whatever you want. You just have to tell your mother or she has to convert before you tell your mother. It's just, it's so good. Again, the whole series is great. If you haven't watched, please, it's so easily bingeable. They're our episodes, but they're really, really they flow. It's great humor, it's good drama, it's great acting and great writing, and I'm really excited for season five. They always said that Amy Sherman Palladino always said that that was the intention was never to go beyond five seasons. They knew the arc of the characters, so they know how it's going to end in the way that it was always intended and which should be great that they're not going to run it too long. They're going to run it to what its natural length is and that just try and milk it but again, I love the show. I love season four. It's just great.

Ron Lippitt 7:12

Well, Howard so I haven't seen Season Four yet but I am a big fan of this show and I it's just it's I don't know why I haven't gotten to it yet. I need to get to it because it's such a it's such a great show. And I absolutely agree with you that Tony Shalhoub is such a superior talent on this show. And I love that they I don't know if this was by design, but they they didn't showcase him right off the bat. Like they didn't let him fly until really season two.

Speaker 3 7:37

Yeah, so those episodes was those episodes

Ron Lippitt 7:40

are I agree with you are absolutely stellar. Loved. I loved the couple episodes run where they were in France. He turns Parisian he is so ridiculous. You know, I just had a side note. I love how none of the characters are actually none of the actors are actually Jewish. That makes me like, just Kevin Pollak is Jewish. But yeah, but but none of that. None of

Jeff Dwoskin 8:00

the others. Yeah. All right. So let me pivot off of that for a second. Because that's that's not the problem I have at the show. But I the contradiction in the industry, right? Well, first, let me let me say, I had to say promise season four that I had of a season three, the first two episodes, I almost gave up on it, because I didn't Nothing happened at all. Rachel Brusha braza Hannah is brilliant. But the character doesn't learn anything continuously does not learn what not to do in this business, thinking that just getting the laugh is the job. That's not really the job. That's right. And the fact that it took the amazing scene with the guy with the Lenny Bruce character who played by Luke Kirby, Oh, I haven't seen the season which I just a great ending. But that that was the whole point of that you sat through eight episodes. And that was the only thing that moved. The whole show forward was that 15 minute thing, my constant issue is, is that I have no problem with Tony Shalhoub, and any of them playing these characters, right. However, in Hollywood, and I think we've talked about this before, there's a whole thing now where you have to be what you're playing, right. And the only exception to the rule seems to be a Jew. And for Rachel Brosnahan is playing a Jew, like she's not someone who just happens to be Jewish, like moon night, right? I don't know if he is in the shop. But so when you're being a Jew and doing the Jew thing, then you could say that's crossing the same line as a white character voicing a black person or any any of those kinds of things where it just makes more sense that put the person in the slot if that's the rule that we're going by now, you know, I mean, I think I it's called acting for a reason. Sure. So you should be able to act and do things. I think it makes 100% sense that a deaf person starts Oh, yeah, you know, I mean, that all those things make sense. There's an authenticity to it, and if

Ron Lippitt 9:56

so, can I can I just counterpoint that for a second though, Jeff, if I I'm a, I'm just gonna say, Listen, I think the issue that trying to solve is under representation in the industry and that when that clear opportunities for that representation are there and they still don't do it, that's the issue they have. I don't think Jewish representation in Hollywood is much of a problem. So the idea of being able to use non Jews flow

Jeff Dwoskin 10:19

you know, they just rolled out an entire Hollywood Museum and left out all of the main Jews that started it. So there is kind of a removal of the people that did it and the fact that that's and that's a negative stereotype that people just do that we run Hollywood, green, I think the point is my bones when you're going the point is if it's the character is gay, they should be played by gay character or gay person, right? It's all good. If it black, they should be black. They Indian voice should not be done by a white Hank Azaria, you know, so it's like, I'm just saying, I'm just pointing out that this seems to be the only exception to the rule. Right? Yeah.

Howard Rosner 11:00

It's like everything else, though. It's always context. Right? Like, what was it? Who was the one who was Emma Stone? They tried to cast her in that movie as an Asian character, like, okay, that yeah, that doesn't that doesn't fit. I get that. You know,

Jeff Dwoskin 11:16

Mickey Rooney played in Asia and I think in a mirror. Sure, sure.

Howard Rosner 11:19

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, okay. Yeah, it's, there's no,

Jeff Dwoskin 11:23

I'm not saying I have a problem with these characters playing. I think they all do an amazing job. I think I was shocked to learn that Rachel Brosnahan wasn't Jewish because she plays a key so good.

Zack Wiseman 11:33

You know, especially when you have a show where it's like, okay, they are Jewish, why are they Jewish? You know, what, what is the point of in the story of them being Jewish because if being Jewish is a part of it, then they should have Jewish people playing it to understand how to play that role properly. So I understand what you're saying Jeff, because they don't have to be Jewish with the way Ms. Maisel works like they could just be New York xx elite, you know, and I guess it is good that they are highlighting a Jewish community in that time, but if not played properly, then it's doing the wrong thing. So I agree with the gentleman.

Ron Lippitt 12:03

I this was a big deal. I know in a Broadway, like in Broadway, this is a really like the whole you guys remember the scandal for Miss Saigon that the original London cast which one off the Tony Awards in the world? Nobody was Asian. It was it really it was a major scandal for a while and I feel like perhaps this has not quite been solved yet in Hollywood.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:30

All right, that was the marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Season Five is coming out real soon. So definitely jump on that cut next. Another amazing show. Abbott Elementary, Zach Wiseman, friend to the show host of some nobodies and a million other podcast is going to take us through Abbott Elementary. Take it away, Zach. Let's kick it off, though. With Abbott Elementary.

Zack Wiseman 12:54

Oh, a ride all the way. Blonde was not good. I was really upset about that.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:59

Everybody I know, hey, we're not a positive.

Zack Wiseman 13:03

I don't like watching someone else's dream. It kind of freaks me out. All right, Abbott Elementary, this show really caught me. And I watched a lot of stuff I want I wake up at one o'clock in the morning, because I'm in Mountain Time. And that's when I watched the brand new andorre and all the new guards that Netflix has. But there's one show that I keep just coming back and rewatching the way that I used to watch the office. And it's Abbott Elementary. And if you haven't seen it, you can stream it on Hulu. I think it's also in a couple other things. But it comes down on ABC. And it's pretty much it follows a group of teachers that are brought together in one of the worst public schools in the country simply because they love teaching. It's created in stars. Quinta Bronson, you might know her from the black girl sketch comedy show super, super hilarious comedy. And what this is it has that kind of feeling like a Brooklyn nine nine are Parks and Rec where like there's a camera that follows them. And they're just kind of doing a fake documentary. But there's just something really special about this show. And also stars Taylor, James Williams. And you might know him as young Chris from everyone hates Chris, he played young Chris Rock. And it's just it's a cast of it's these teachers that just want to do a good job. And they're in the worst school and they just are trying so hard to inspire these kids. And they're just trying hard to do a good job to be good people and just to inspire. And there's the thing I like about this show the most it Season Two just came out not too long ago, and it is aggressively rewatchable because every single character is a good kid. There's not like the one bad characters that are good at their job and you kind of don't like them. But that's the point. None of them are like that. They're all so witty, so clever. And they're all trying to do the best job they can. And if you haven't heard about this show others a very interesting reason why Quinta, when she was making the show, she really preached a lot about what's wrong with the school community, especially in Philadelphia and surrounding areas. And I'm from Wilmington, Delaware, which is 30 minutes from Philadelphia. So I understand what those public schools are like I understand what that area is. Like, so she took half of her budget for marketing and advertising and literally gave it to the school system to buy new books to buy new pencils and pens. So like, she did not advertise her own show, because she wanted to make sure that what the point of the show was actually doing. So yeah, it just follows some people in everyday life of this public school system and winter, just trying to inspire teachers. And, you know, it's like, if new girl had an actual point, it is so so good that the writing is clever. The acting is spot on every single episode, there's not a fluff episode whatsoever. And you can just hop into it and immediately fall in love with this cast it is it's a special show. And I watched way too much content. There's something special about this. So if you haven't seen this yet, take time and watch one episode, and just let that get into your bloodstream because it'll really impress you. I guarantee it.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:51

I've seen a few episodes. We actually just recently started it. It took me a couple episodes to get into it. That's what I hear. Sure. And then once I got into it, I 100% agree. And it was funny as we were watching it. We we started watching the Emmys and Sheryl Lee Ralph wins the MA I think best sporting. Yes. What are you one of the it's worth googling the speech, it was probably one of the best acceptance speeches. It was really funny. It was like she kind of looked like she was caught off guard and didn't expect to win and wasn't prepared. And then does probably one of the best speeches I've ever seen. I was like, emotionally amazing. And then the other thing you might remember from that if you don't know who it was, but this is who it was. It was Quinta, who won. And this is when Jimmy Kimmel did that gimmick where he laid down on the stage the whole time. And everyone thought it was kind of disrespectful. It was and so that was her winning for her writing. Yeah,

Zack Wiseman 16:49

she's phenomenal. Cheryl really Ralph is is such a great every time you you see her character coming on screen, you're like, Oh, this is going to be such a great scene. And I think the reason it takes people a couple episodes to fall into it is because of how it's directed because it does have that Parks and Rec that office feel and that really got overused years after that show. You know, everyone's trying to do that mockumentary style. This one does it in the right way because it feels like they're putting it together that feels like they need more money to make the show better. And I think that puts a cool little layer on it. But

Howard Rosner 17:21

yeah, even those two shows, which are two of my all time favorite shows, I mean, the office season one especially first half of season one was mediocre. It took a while to get into and Parks and Rec I contend the first two seasons of Parks and Rec for the most part are absolutely not necessary. You can start with Season Three when Rob Lowe and Adam Scott join and just pick up from there. You know, season three and four are some of the best seasons of TV comedy.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:48

Yeah, Parks and Rec is one of those that I have to go back because I never could get past the first season.

Zack Wiseman 17:53

Season One is garbage of parks

Howard Rosner 17:55

terrible. It's terrible. Just start with season three. Honestly, God, start with season three, you'll pick up you know, Wikipedia. What happened in seasons one and two. Start with season three. I mean, Rob Lowe I can't even remember the guy's name who basically played the Rob Lowe Adam Scott character in season one and two he wrote him out brought in Lo and Scott who were fantastic. They made they made the other characters you know, they really elevated the other characters. They gave Nick Offerman better content. They didn't push Z's as much as his craziness. It fitted much better. Yeah,

Tony Berardo 18:28

well, you could tell like season one that they didn't even know who the characters were. I mean, Ron Ron was wearing you know, jackets and was barely talking and then you really see his character come out in season three as well. So yeah, yeah, those

Jeff Dwoskin 18:41

questions. I'm gonna jump in. So everyone check us out, but alimentary and everyone check out Parks and Rec season three.

Zack Wiseman 18:47

Yeah, sure. Watch. abit elementary for watch that first.

Howard Rosner 18:51

First. There's only two seasons. Season two just came out. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. A bunch of times and heard about it and I never saw Yeah,

Zack Wiseman 19:00

I think it's like 18 episodes total. Both seasons, so not long, and they just feel special. You know, like it's not it's not people that don't like their jobs and your Washington not like their jobs. It's people that are funny, and also really like their jobs and really want to do a good job because it's the right thing to do. Please watch it. Please do me a favor. You owe me not you. You

Jeff Dwoskin 19:25

all right, that was from Live episode 92 Zach Wiseman habit Elementary. We have one more for you this bonus episode from Live episode 43 comps, three identical strangers a documentary that I reviewed. So take it away me. Alright, let's let me go. Let's do another show. This one I want to go next. So this one's called three identical strangers. So I don't know if you guys have we have a place called the maple and the maple theatre is that's one of those theaters where you go and it's like the indie type movies right? So when you go and see In the in the indie Movie or Documentary, they show you previews of other coming soon documentaries, right? And they always look amazing. And you never hear of them other than when you're sitting there watching that, you know what I'm talking about? Yes. Okay, so this is one of those movies. This is one of those movies that came out. But you know, sometimes some of them catch a little fire or a little interest and people start talking about them. So this one is a fascinating, and I think it's streaming on Netflix, I think should have looked that up. But but it's, it's I would definitely I wanted to the streaming thing. So this is the story called three identical strangers, and it's about three brothers. So the one brother Bobby goes to college is on campus at his community college, and everyone keeps calling him by someone else's name. Everyone keeps calling this Bobby guy, Eddie. Hey, Eddie. Hey, Eddie. Okay, so think about the randomness of two twins being separated at birth, but ending up at the same school, okay, later in life. So they're identical, they've never met. But everyone that bumps into them thinks the one is the other one, right? So he finds out that he has this brother they meet, and they realize that they connect, and they both been adopted. And they kind of figure out that they're twins, right? And so there's ends up being like tons of publicity about this story. So it gets news, and it starts making headway and everyone's kind of talking about it. And then what happens is, a third person is watching it, or somebody's noticing it and says, Hey, I think these two people might be your brothers. Right? So the next thing you know, they're triplets, right? There's triplets that were separated at birth. And that through the happenstance of the first two meeting, they connect and all three connect, and then they sort of become this age of Phil Donahue, because they ended up on Phil Donahue with a little bit of a media sensation, because they're connecting and they're all of a sudden, best friends and like, they can't get over how like they are and all this kind of thing. They move in together, they open a restaurant together a steakhouse, and they all kind of work together. And then as time kind of goes, certain things started eroding, and you know, just work issues. And there was some mental health problems. One of them eventually actually committed suicide. And I won't tell you which one, and it turns out so as as as the story progresses, is that they were all involved with this children's study by the psychiatrists, Peter Neubauer, and viola Barnard, and it was something under the auspices of the Jewish board of Guardians, and there's guardians would visit them periodically, and they would check in on them. But the full intent, the adoptive parents didn't really know what was going on. I don't think the adoptive parents knew that they had split up triplets, right. So once they figured out that they were triplets, part of the they agency who was doing this study, put one of them in a blue collar home one and a middle class home, and then wanted very fluid home. So they were all raised very differently. A lot of it's kind of the deep dive into the study and trying to get the study acknowledged and all that kind of stuff. So I won't, I won't go into all of that. But they they lied at first. You know, that's so they had to start doing like, oh, we just couldn't place triplets, you know, but it wasn't just them either. Like there was some other tangent stories that they do with other twins or triplets that were also purposely separated at birth. The test, you know, just how they would grow up. Hey, Jeff, I

Speaker 7 23:40

haven't seen this yet. So is this a film or is it a documentary? Or is it a film based upon a true story?

Jeff Dwoskin 23:46

It's a documentary. There's like any documentary that's very popular. There's a line that says they might be making a drama out of it. But this is this is literal. Yeah. This is a documentary with the actual footage of those brothers. And

Ron Lippitt 24:01

so they're using historical footage and overlaying it with VoiceOver and

Jeff Dwoskin 24:07

ones that are alive and all that kind of stuff that they interview and yeah, and then the footage from like, Phil Donahue and there's some old footage because there was there was sort of a media sensation around it. So

Unknown Speaker 24:17

I thought it sounded familiar. So okay, I'll have to check it out.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:21

Yeah, it's it's been Casey Ryan plot, which is, that's hard to do. But yeah, I totally totally recommend it. I think it's, it's totally worth checking out.

Ron Lippitt 24:32

So two quick things. First off Fun fact, I dated Phil Donahue is nice and true story. Second, it does sound kind of almost Josef Mengele, Lee ish. You know, I'm saying like in terms of the way that the you know, the decisions that were made about these triplets and you know, is that the vibe that comes from from this or is am I reading too much into it?

Jeff Dwoskin 24:54

There's definitely the fairy isness is it as you know that their child trying to uncover and figure out, you know, obviously this ad healthy and it had a there was ramifications, I think that were made, you know, you don't know what would really happen because once they discovered each other potentially severely meant altered their mental states because, you know, if you're in your 20s, or whatever, and you realize, oh, you just lost decades of what would have been, yeah, your actions and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 7 25:24

See, and I was thinking, I was thinking it was a little bit of a boys from Brazil, kind of a thing where, you know, they just DNA Hitler and put them in all these different houses and just to see if Hitler would still grow into Hitler based upon the different circumstances that they were being raised in. It's interesting. If you have never seen that movie, it's a good movie.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:42

We're gonna have to cover that one in the future. Now

Speaker 7 25:44

that's that's from years ago, Greg, that started many years ago.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:47

We don't just cover new stuff. We got 60 in December,

Unknown Speaker 25:51

so my memory is not as good as it used to be.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:54

We go as deep. All right, that was three identical strangers. We talked about Abbott Elementary and the marvelous Mrs Maisel. As a lot. You have a lot of homework ahead. Yeah. So I'm gonna let you go. Go hop on the couch, find your comfy spot, cross your own streams, and we'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 26:18

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 yeah, I'll be busy for a while.

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