#261 The Crossing The Streams Literary Society(Bonus Ep70) – 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 I Jeff Dwoskin your host of classic conversations and your guide through this bonus episode of crossing the streams. What is crossing the streams is where we answer the universal question. What should I be binge watching next? You just watch something and now you got to watch something else. Well, you have come to the right place. We have over 125 hours of binge watching suggestions on our YouTube channel. And this bonus episode is sending three segments from three of those shows right into your ears from Live episode 7077 And 102 comes a Rocky Balboa, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel society and from YouTube corresponded Jess Paul, let's read we're gonna kick things off from Live episode 102 Bob Phillips from this Alan Bob Show and Rocky Balboa. Take it away Bob. The rocky Whoa.

Bob Phillips 1:34

I have not been the lead in a long time. Thank you very much.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:37

Let's kick off with Rocky Balboa,

Bob Phillips 1:39

Rocky Balboa. Oh, I how I love this movie and there's a there's no irony there. There's no sarcasm. I love this movie. It is the perfect cap. It is the perfect coda to the rocky saga. Although they did a cut. He did a couple of Creed's he was the you know, sort of the co star and those that were there. They were fine. The rocky thing ends for me at Rocky Balboa. It's so beautifully done. I think this is now 17 years old, which is just shocking to me. He was 61 he made this he was in great shape. He you know, he did the whole you know, the training sequences, all that stuff. And most of it was just lifting weights. And but let me just set the stage. Let me just tell you, in microcosm how you should watch the Rocky movies. Rocky one rocky two. Okay, because rocky two is the same movie. It's just he wins. Rocky three, which is you know, it's so 1982 It just couldn't be any more that 40 years old. That's Mr. T. That's a slice of cheese like this thick, right? Rocky four sucks. It's the worst. It's I hate it. I hate everything about Bob.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:50

Hang on a second half.

Bob Phillips 2:54

James Brown standing. Yes. You put the rest of that soundtrack is so 1985 It's on listenable the beaver brown band. I mean, it's just come on. It's just so bad. And even

Jeff Dwoskin 3:08

a cruiser made for Brown. That's true.

Bob Phillips 3:10

They had their moment and then they tried to recreate it and it didn't work so so yeah, rocky for sucked. And then they he tried to redeem himself with Rocky five, which was with Tommy Morrison and actual heavyweight boxer at the time, who was a contender wound up winning a title and then wound up losing the title he died of AIDS this he was the star of that movie. The guy the first director John Adelson, and they brought him back to create that gritty field and and had all that, but it was boring. Rocky never gotten the ring. I'm not going to tell you what happened. So foreign five, toss him out. Rocky six Rocky Balboa. Chef's kiss.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:47

Just a quick recap, Bob. So far, the suggested order of the Rocky movies is the actual order of the Rocky movies. I wanted to recap for everyone.

Bob Phillips 4:00

I was going to say, of all those movies in numeric

Unknown Speaker 4:03

order, just watch

Bob Phillips 4:05

123 and six. Okay. What happens to Apollo two,

Jeff Dwoskin 4:13

you know, the whole creed movies and you don't you're totally

Bob Phillips 4:17

Well, that's my point. You know, who cares about the Creed movies? I just don't care. It's not canon anymore, Jeff. But anyway, the beauty of this movie is and I look at 17 years old. I'm not giving any spoiler alerts. I'm just gonna tell you what happens. The beauty of it is it is the first movie modern day in 2006. He is now that the whole story is he's rocky owns a restaurant. He's successful. Adrian has passed off screen you don't know when several years before you know, maybe six eight years before the movie, and he and Polly are still friends. And they do this yearly thing where they go to all the places that rocky and Adrian went to the ice rink the restaurant At The Zoo, they do this annual thing. And Polly says, you know, I'm out. I can't do this anymore if you you know if you feel I am sorry that she left you he said she didn't leave me poorly she died You know, I mean, that was that's the that's the kind of, you know, the rocky ism that I remember. And he's got problems with his son now and I can't remember the guys name. Very good event. Very ugly. Yes, yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:24

This is us.

Bob Phillips 5:25

Yes. And he's he's he's a whiny little bitch in this movie. He's, he's like a Wall Street guy, but it's in Philly. And he's just you know, he just can't get over the fact that his dad is a hero and he can't walk anywhere with him without people going to a rock a rock and he's living in a shadow blah blah blah bitter whatever that's when rocky gives him the speech you know after he gets fired you know? You know life is not sunshine and rainbows is gonna beat you down if you let blah blah blah. Anyway great I don't want to get into all the soliloquy is the point of this movie. And the reason why I love it is that Stallone went back and found that magic from from the first Rocky movie and the joy of it is he doesn't when he's when he's not supposed to win. Rocky was not supposed to win in rocky one and that's why you loved him because he came close. And all he wanted to do is go the distance and that's what all he wanted to do in this one. And the whole fight got set up because there was a computer a boxing match put together and Rockies was somebody says hey, come here and watch this rockets on ESPN right and they and HBO and they they use the real announcers okay? And they say that the current heavyweight at that time Mason the line Dixon, come on What a great name for a boxer. Right? That is he and rocky fight in this computer match and rocky winds up beating him. Okay, so rocky starts feeling this stirring in him again, like I got, you know, I just he doesn't want to fight him. He just wants to, you know, small stuff, local stuff. That's what he said. And so there's a promoter, Mason, the line Dixon's manager says, Now we're going to fight this guy in a 10 round exhibition, we're going to make tons of money, and he's played by a guy named Antonio Tarver, who was an actual light heavyweight guy knocked out Roy Jones, great boxer, but he's playing a heavyweight in this. So rocky goes out to Vegas. There's all kinds of subplots going on about a neighborhood kid and another dog and a woman who have never seen in another show after this movie. The overriding story is rocky just wants to finish on his feet. He just wants to do it one more time. And he does. But because it's Rocky, he doesn't just survive. He lays some heavy damage on this guy. And I mean, the lines, the rocky lines are so great. Mason Dixon comes up to him and says, you know, you're crazy. Oh, man. And he goes, a lot of people come to Vegas to lose. I didn't. And he goes, it goes well, yeah. Where's that from? The seven eagles? I don't know. Maybe the 80s I can't remember. You know, you certainly that's a such a great rocky line. Right. So the fight is awesome. It's so absurd. He's 60. You know, I'm 60 I couldn't. I like to lace them up every now and again. And then after two rounds, I'm gagging. So it's this joyous revisiting of that spirit of rocky that I like, and they didn't overdo it. They didn't ask too much of the story. And the final scene there is I won't tell you the absolute final scene. It is one of the sweetest moments in I think in movie history, but certainly in Rocky history, when at the very end when he speaks to Adrian at a cemetery, so I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's it's joyous.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:39

Amazing question. Marcy's brother wants to know what you think about the new rocky four? Did you watch the new cut the one without the robot?

Bob Phillips 8:48

No, it's longer I would it's something like a half an hour longer than a robot that's Oh, robot was a highlight. You can't get rid of

Jeff Dwoskin 9:00

the robot and made it a half an hour longer.

Bob Phillips 9:02

No, I don't know what did but I think it's something like 25 minutes longer. I think so. No, I don't need to see any more of that. I hated every second of that movie.

Speaker 4 9:10

It's actually an extra 10 minutes of him just running up the mountain being chased by the KGB.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:18

So it's really been my guy that was 2006 It's amazing. It's scary to me. Time is a bitch like when you

Unknown Speaker 9:27

ruthless bitch. Yes.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:32

All right, no one loves boxing or rocky Bow Bow more than Bob Phillips. Up next from Live episode 70. Ron lipid is going to take us through the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel society. I get it right now. I did not get it right during the live show. Take it away, Rod. All right, let's do the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel says Sid right and same name

Ron Lippitt 10:04

this is the one of the half the value half the joy of putting that show out here is to be review Jeff was trying to get you to say it without making a mistake and, and true to form you made another mistake. So that's great. And I do you missed. You missed a word or two,

Speaker 6 10:20

but that's okay. It's a grungy Literary and Potato Peel society. Potato Peel Pie society.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:26

No, you're right. You're trying to trip me out. I'm not new rule we only review shows to drink. This is now a Steven Seagal.

Ron Lippitt 10:38

So so this was actually a New York Times best selling book from a few years back. The film is a 2018 film that had been picked up by Netflix, Netflix fairly recently. Two hours and about two hours right on the debt for like I said, Netflix. It's a super interesting premise. You guys, first off, does anybody know what Guernsey is. And Guernsey is interesting, because it is a Channel Island in the UK. Here's something interesting. It's not It's British, but not actually part of the United Kingdom. So I was incorrect in saying that it's part of the UK. And it was one of the only parts of Britain that were occupied by the Germans. So during World War Two, and that's when that's when this movie is set. It is a bout a group of five people that live on the island during the occupation. There's a curfew as there are in many occupations and they had broken curfew, they were accosted by German soldiers late at night. And in order to avoid being thrown in jail. They said, Well, we were at our club meeting and the German says What was your club and they said, just completely off the cuff, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society, like as a joke, like they made it up. And fast forward five years, the club became an actual club, like they actually met and talked about literature and talked about books during the entire breadth of the war, what ends up happening, and this is where the story takes the turn. And we're becomes an actual story. One of the members of the club reaches out to the main actor in the movie, Lily James. And by the way, you guys know Liz James, she's been in a million things. She's in payment, Tommy, that's just Pam and Pam and Tommy Exactly. And I loved her in in Downton Abbey. And I've loved her in and yesterday and just she's been in a bunch of stuff. She is a famous writer in the movie, and one of the people in the Guernsey Literary Society reaches out to her saying, Hey, I have one of your books here on the island of currency, I was hoping you can help me get another book. And she said, I would be happy to do it. But can you tell me more about this Literary Society and what the hell this whole thing is about? And he's like, it's kind of a bit of a secret kind of a bit of a thing we want to talk about. And long story short, she ends up making a trip to Guernsey to find out what the hell this thing is, and to understand how they survived during the war, with occupation and all that stuff in it. And from that comes a love interest and interesting side story, a couple of intrigue pieces, and it just branches out into this beautifully laid out story that that all kind of comes together at the end and and I will just say this. For those of you that don't know Mike Newell is the director of this. Mike Newell, my favorite Mike Newell movie as director was by far for Weddings and a Funeral. And if you watch this movie, it's very, it's very British. Although there's some French elements to it. It feels like for weddings in a funeral if you if you're one of these people out there that just love for Weddings and a Funeral. There will be a familiar newness to the just the vibe of the even though this isn't a comedy, there are some humorous anecdotes in it, but it has the vibe of of the way it cuts and blends and moves the characters back and forth. And there's so much variety, and that is all kind of built into like one tapestry that somehow works and I love that about them about him. Like you also did Donnie Brasco. He became famous famous for all the Harry Potter movies that he did, right. That's actually part of what I think what sold this to the greater public. It didn't make a ton of money. It only boxed $23 million. But look, it's it started off as an independent film and I don't think they ever meant it to be a blockbuster. I think it was meant to be a well written well cast and well produced show. Speaking of casting beyond Lily James. Michael Heisman is in this movie. Michael Iseman is one of my very favorite characters of Game of Thrones. He plays Daario Naharis and I did an earlier review of The Haunting of Hill House and he plays the one of the lead roles in The Haunting of Hill House beyond Michael Heisman is apparently the entire cast of Downton Abbey, which is pretty funny but the absolute leader of the of the Caspian Lily James is Diem Penelope Alice Wilton, who is a heavy hitter and Downton Abbey and just Absolutely steals the show as a victim of the Nazi occupation and someone who is kind of like the antihero through the through the entire entire movie. So like I said, it's just a a beautifully put together movie, it has some holes in it, I'm not gonna lie. There's some gaps that that come with some unexplained things that that didn't spend any time on that leave you scratching saying, Well, why did they why did why did that happen, but you move on because because it's it gets to a place that makes you feel really good. I think I did a review last week or the week before Jeff about a movie that just never gets you to where, like, it's doesn't resolve. There's never, there's never the feeling of resolution at the end of the movie, but it fills you with the detail that should have gotten you to it. This is the reverse. This doesn't give you any of the detail that you need. But if the resolution at the end is such a great payoff in this movie, and it's like I keep saying it's beautiful. It makes you feel good. It's it's historical, because the Nazis did occupy currency. I just I really, really enjoyed it. And I think this is an excellent two hour diversion. Check it out. It's just a very well done show. And I'll just say lastly, the photography is gorgeous. I don't know anything about this island of Guernsey or Jersey where this is based. It looks a lot like Iceland or you know some of the islands you see off the coast of Scotland or Ireland. Check it out Netflix two hours. And I think you guys really enjoy it. Cool.

Unknown Speaker 16:28

Thank you Nice.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:33

Who's hungry for a potato? I know I am. Thank you Ron lipid. And our final segment, or this bonus episode comes from a live episode 77 Jess ball, our YouTube correspondent is going to take us through the YouTube channel. Let's read take it away. Jess. Let's read this is a gigantic YouTube channel.

Jess Paul 16:58

Honestly, it's so funny because on YouTube, you can directly see how many people these videos impact. You know, we don't get to see that on Netflix like the I mean, the public doesn't so you know exactly like 2 million people. I don't actually know how many subscribed, let's read it. But it's really up there as far as the echelon of storytelling, podcasts, storytelling creepypasta YouTube channels, okay, like, I think that I was around 26 or 27. When me and my axe were like just scrolling through YouTube, you know, going down the rabbit hole together and there pops up this video that's going to tell you a story that was read on Reddit about a crazy Craigslist experience. Like there was a picture of a dirty mattress. I was like, what is this going to be? I was so excited. And so I realized this entire genre existed man it's so funny too, because so we're talking about creepy campfire stories. That's the thing like if you like yourself a classic campfire story somebody's literally telling you as if they're reading from a book but but he's reading from posts that people will write in so it's kind of a first person this could or could not be true kind of deal there. There are some you know, scary story youtubers that quickly do like this is obviously fiction is you know, this has a certain feel to it everything. And then there are just people that are real reading real people lives. And I think that this is a crossroad that I'm at guys, I don't know if it's a millennial thing. I don't know if it's just my personality, because I'm trying to figure out how I'm an actress that doesn't like watching TV or movies.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:30

Or maybe like Well, James James Haley was on it. I think if like you know too much it can be just

Jess Paul 18:37

that's a big part of it. Because if I'm safe, I've been working a lot and like actually being on set for a while or even writing, you know, knowing what I want to see in a film. I'll watch a film and be completely distracted about my completely unwarranted opinions and critique everything in the show or the movie and and that's part of it, but also maybe it maybe it's another reason like that knowing what's behind the curtain is a little bit of a curse because I'm watching something with every single I cannot extend my disbelief anymore. Like I know that the story I'm watching the actors that are saying these lines it's just been decades of regurgitating a play of sorts and so when when it comes to watching or to be honest mostly listening because that's why I watch too much YouTube like if you guys thought I was crazy to beginning when I said I listened to eight to 12 hours of YouTube every day it's a background thing like as you know people will watch the office like 12 times in a row just to hear it in the back in the in the other room while YouTube it's a constant like churning of a mix. It's like It's like news okay, but we're getting we're getting away from the story at hand or the channel at hand which is let's read let's read is one of I would say maybe this is just my own guess from my own. There's probably so many channels I haven't seen but I feel like he's of at least the top 50 of the is a creepypasta storytelling YouTubers and he specifically does read them from a mostly from a point of view where people have written in subscribers or or he's getting gotten them off of Reddit to listen to these stories that have every possibility of being true like I'm listening to his story and he'll fit like tended well set maybe like seven to 12 of them in one episode that's like a maybe an hour long cast of him just kind of reading the stories and I was trying to remember the narrator's name because one thing you'll learn about the genre is that a lot of them don't even have faces you will never see some of these some of these readers. They all have very similar names there's like Mr. creepypasta creeps MC pasta. The list goes on and less read. I tried to go back like I think I've listened to almost every single part of his and is that what they call them? I'm just assuming that is a is a single board. No. I think it's called a toe a POW. Okay, gotcha. So when it came down to his first his very first episodes, I think is it Jules, I wish I would have figured that I think it begins with a J this reader he has such a I get very picky when I'm listening to some of these these narrators these these readers because you want enough of believability without being too overdramatic, maybe just this perfect balance of neutral but yet believable so that you can almost like fall asleep listening to it but I've never fallen asleep listening to it. What what are the visuals that go along with what are the so there might be one slightly moving figure depending on what he has. Sometimes it's just the thumbnail, you're just looking it's basically a podcast but it is YouTube specific. I'm like, what he'll do is he'll take like three hours of his stories and that's his podcast. That's his version of his podcast we'll upload that to I don't know where people listen to podcast but he'll have these these single you know, our shows I think he really did get big on YouTube to begin with. So there for a lot of these storytellers to be quite honest, there is almost no visual there might be a moving graphic but you're not really looking at much so really, I'm I am the what did I call my the resident the resident child? Yeah. Pete Davidson. Yeah. In the sense that I'm just like over here doing my little millennial thing with with YouTube watching eight hours of YouTube a day can't watch it for some reason can't watch you know, award winning television.

Bob Phillips 22:34

Well, you know, watching you're listening, right that is true

Jess Paul 22:37

and to be honest, one of the reasons that I like because Okay, so one show that I am currently in the middle of a succession I'm enjoying it I think there's a lot that's merited about a lot of things but like like the the cinematography is really fun. The actors are really good, like half of them are British. It's like why we have so many Americans. And when it comes to when it comes to that though, I want to pay attention and I also know that that kind of drama or that kind of turmoil is a lot for me to handle so I'm not necessarily one of those chicks who runs to reality shows when I want to like shut everything off like the Kardashians sequel but I will go to to let's read to hear a story about the time that all these people almost got kidnapped to lead out I'll talk about one of my favorite series of his that is very important to me and kind of separates there's a lot like all they're all very different. All of these scary story narrators jewels. I'll just call it just keep calling them jewels. I don't remember what his name was. But I'm going to remember tomorrow. He just I just gave him I just gave this narrator a name on a live podcast, but he will literally one of the one of the series that he has is instead of telling a scary story from Reddit, he'll break down very famous rock songs or songs in general that were inspired by something you weren't aware of that has a dark history to it, because there's a lot out there super fun for me because I'm a rock fan and I'm a spooky stuff fan. So he really makes it makes it creepy in every sense of the word and and I just I just love that little scare. I just love the campfire story and that's why I was so drawn to channel like, let's read

Bob Phillips 24:12

you brought up something here tonight. Phil Collins, you have just gonna say yeah, that used to be sort of legendarily discussed siloed had to do with it. I don't know if I don't. I'm committed now. It's a Dyson commercial. You're right.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:28

I don't know. Who knows. That's No, no, I think he recently said that. It wasn't based on anything like that. Yeah. It's just a

Bob Phillips 24:37

solid, but it is definitely a Dyson commercial now. possession by Sarah McLaughlin that was based on a true story. Oh, really?

Jess Paul 24:44

I should Oh, wasn't that one of her fans?

Speaker 3 24:47

Yeah, her first stalking her basically a lot of the lines in the song Yeah.

Jess Paul 24:52

Wow. Oh, scary word out there. Don't you see that's what I don't want to get that famous guys. I do not want to be I do not want to be saw If

Jeff Dwoskin 25:01

you don't want to be stalked famous you

Jess Paul 25:02

don't need to get we don't need to get to that degree like I can stop before then I can be a little less famous.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:07

Oh like Bob All right, thank you Jess Paul, and Thank you Ron lipid. And thank you, Bob Phillips. You guys have a lot of homework. Yeah, let's read go dive into that channel on YouTube. Check out rocky Bell bow and all the Rocky movies in the order Bob suggested and the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society. There you go, Ron. Got it. All right, hop on the couch, find your cozy spot, grab your remote cross your own streams, and I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 25:45

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.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai