‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ Episodes 6-7: Is Coop Losing His Cool?

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Hello, and welcome to the Prestige TV podcast.

I am Rob Mahoney.

I'm Joanna Robinson.

And we are here to talk about episode 6 and episode 7 of your friends and neighbors, a show that I would say, Joe, is becoming presumed innocent before our very eyes.

How are you feeling about that?

Wow, I hadn't thought of it that way.

I made, I made excellent peace with this television show in the last two weeks.

We didn't record last week because you were undergoing minor surgery.

Yes.

As excuses go, trip to the hospital, you know, no big.

As excuses go, it's a pretty good one.

So we're doing a double header this week.

And I've kind of just settled into this, like,

it's your friends are assholes.

Like, everyone's an asshole, and I've just kind of learned to let it go.

And

I basically have two characters I'm rooting for.

I'm happy to share with you who they are, and everyone else, I'm giddily watching them careen towards disaster.

So, you know, let's put a pin in that conversation.

I do want to prompt you for those favorites, those people you're actually cheering for, but really under the guise of a broader likability power rankings of the very limited group of people who actually do seem kind of likable on the show at this point.

Okay, great.

I have honestly some admiration for the fact that

your friends and neighbors is dedicated to making all of these people feel like assholes at various points in the show, to undermining them at every turn, through like the fits and starts of maybe some kind of progress or revelation.

But then also they do this other shitty thing on the side.

It's like, who can you really trust in this world?

I honestly don't know.

It's a great question.

How are you feeling about returning to the presumed innocent waters?

You know what?

I'm feeling good about the murder mystery of it all.

You know, of turning our little petty theft dramedy into a murder mystery dramedy.

I'm enjoying the contours of that.

I don't know where it's going to go.

I don't know if they're going to land the plane.

Maybe we get into a courtroom and everything goes to absolute shit from an execution standpoint.

I don't know.

But I love this area.

So who am I to be mad about it?

Is Peter Sarsgaard available for a potential crossover?

If so, let's go.

What is the crab rangoon budget?

That's what I want to know.

Bring the bolo tie, and I'm ready to go.

Absolutely.

But we did get an email I wanted to address up top in light of that, Joe, from a different Joe, Joseph, who emailed us, wondering if we would be interested in a version of this show in which there's no crime, if it's just kind of the interpersonal conceit of your friends and neighbors, but maybe instead of the petty theft, there's some other means to make money.

Maybe instead of the now dead body, there's just some like other big thing that the neighborhood has to deal with.

Would you be interested in a show like that based on this group of characters, but not the bigger existential threats?

I don't know.

I genuinely don't know how to answer that because I have so many questions about decisions made in the making of the show.

The way that the story keeps oozing out into various corners of people's lives in a way that I feel like I can't track everything

very well.

And so,

would that feel better without the framework of the smash and grab or the murder mystery?

I don't think so.

I think we need that gimmick in order to sort of contain it as best possible

into this neighborhood, except we're off to Princeton or we're here there and we're doing other things also at the same time.

What do you think, Rob?

I'm with you.

I think it would feel too much like that ooze you're describing.

Just a little bit of everything going in every direction at once.

There's so many characters.

There's so many plots.

Having something to tether us and honestly, something for these characters to talk about that's really dramatic, I think, serves a lot of these different angles pretty well.

Just even everyone being able to like sit around and wonder, like, who do you think killed Paul?

Do you think Sam did this?

Like, they're talking amongst themselves about the events in their neighborhood feels like very true in a gossipy way, but very convenient in a structural way.

Yeah, P.S.

Sam definitely did it.

We're going to come back to that too.

I would say the general structure of these first two episodes, which is convenient, not just because it's two episodes, but first, establishing really firmly what Coop still has to lose, even at a time in his life where he's sort of in this tailspin.

You know, him going off on this field trip with Mel and his family really brings a lot home for him, and I think for us watching him.

And then the second part of this is like turning up the heat on the wrong place, wrong time elements of this story, specifically with Coop, you know, bumping into a dead body and then having to clean up after himself.

And I think making the stakes feel so much urgent for all these characters.

But for all of that to matter, like we have to buy the first part.

Like we have to buy the time warp, the time machine.

If you'll borrow, you know, the other

John Hammism.

Yeah, I mean, mean,

it takes us to a place we ache to go again, Joe.

I don't know what to tell you.

I did think that like getting to spend time with a different version of Mel and Coop was very instructive.

I enjoyed that quality time, but I'm curious how it hit you seeing them in a different element and getting to explore their relationship or what's left of it in a totally different way.

It was so funny watching that episode, the college ship to Princeton, where both kids are there because Hunter is suspended, so he has to come along too.

And they conveniently shuffle the kids off, you know, very quickly, very quickly.

And so then it just becomes, let's relive our glory days in Princeton.

Really interesting tour of all these sort of like Princeton.

I was like, who in the writer's room went to Princeton?

Who was like, we gotta have,

I looked it up.

I was like, it's not John.

It's not John Hamm.

It's not Amanda Pene.

It's not John.

Like, I haven't figured it out yet who went, but they're like, we gotta have a fat sandwich.

Oh, we gotta go to Thomas Sweets, you know, blah, blah, blah.

I was annoyed.

This is actually the episode that really like allowed me to let go of liking, trying to like anyone.

Because Malik Coop tearing through New Jersey on a drunken bender, on a Jaeger bender,

as

adults, like in their 40s, late 40s,

early 50s,

you don't recover from that.

Like you don't recover from a day drink, Jaeger binge in a way that doesn't involve like vomiting or a serious nap.

So, like, they, they're ostensibly responsible for their kids, but like, go do this, commit a petty crime, chew on a small business owner when he's just trying to, like, you know, regain his merchandise.

Um, break into a church, I don't really care, but like, break into a church, you know, and so they're like, they're acting like kids.

And in a different show, in a different movie, there's a way we got an interesting email from our listener, Michael, about this idea of the midlife crisis.

There's like a different version of this story where I'm just sort of like, I understand the compulsion to try to reclaim your youth, try to revisit who you were when you went to Princeton together, when you fell in love together.

There's that great line from the opening montage of the first episode when Coop is like, you know, basically the sex he had with Mel when they were young and in love is like the best sex you'll ever have in your entire life, right?

Like, so trying to like get back to that makes sense to me, but I was just like, these guys are assholes.

They're not

really not.

I don't like them.

And that's okay.

All right.

I'm not supposed to.

So that's sort of where I sat at the end of the day with the Princeton trip.

And I hated the speech that Coop gave in the car on the way there.

I'm happy to talk about that an hour later if you want to.

Yeah.

I mean, Coop is going on quite a journey in a lot of respects.

I think especially with Tori, who he really like chews out in the car.

Like he loses his cool on her in a way that's just like very hard to come back from.

And I think the show tries to sort of land the plane

in the sense of like, okay, they have their reconciliation moment at the end of this trip where they're kind of coming together.

And she gives him the sage advice about how, you know, like not things aren't always broken and can be undone.

It's, it's a long way to go for those two in a couple of days.

After I like, I think he's pretty, like, pretty much of a jackass to her.

Can I, okay.

I wrote down the speech, so I would like to share it with you.

You want to orate it?

This is just, I'm not going to deliver it the way that John Ham did, which is like with all the energy of someone who, a man who is about to punch a hole in a wall.

Yeah.

Like, I was just like, this was the tone of this was so violent.

I was so confused.

And then the speech goes like this.

I know what it feels like to have about, what do you know about love, dad, right?

I know what it feels like to have it.

I know how it tears you apart when you lose it.

This may sound stupid to you, but sometimes you learn more about love by losing it than by having it in the first place.

I know what it's like to see the little girl who used to hold my hand every day grow up and roll her eyes at me and speak to me with such contempt that it makes it hard for me to breathe.

This was just, you know, we were talking earlier this season about the idea of like, is the are the speeches in the show or is the dialogue in the show sorkin

or bad sorkin?

And like, this is such bad sorkin because the thing that sorkin does is he gives his characters, I mean, I'm not, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, you're a better Sorkin scholar than I am, but like, he gives his characters speeches that no actual human would ever be capable of speaking, right?

It's a hyper

sort of way of orating.

And when it comes out of the mouth of a president or when it comes out of like someone who writes a speech like Josh Lyman, you know, like that makes sense to me.

And then it can come when it comes out of the mouth of a dad in a car who's just chewing out his daughter.

I'm like, this is what is, what is this?

And the tone was so startling to me.

Like this sentiment that any parent has probably felt, this idea of like my teenager is pulling away and I feel frustrated and heartbroken.

And where is this little kid that once loved me unconditionally?

Why are there conditions now in this love?

Like, all of that's interesting to me.

But, like,

again, I'm just like, okay, Coop's an asshole, a bad dad,

a violent seeming man.

Like, I just,

I felt undone by this particular exchange.

I think especially because Tori's complaints to me are pretty valid.

Right.

Of, like, from her perspective, this idea that her dad, like, walked out on their family, has not been showing up since because he literally hasn't.

He's been off like stealing shit around town.

Like, it's understandable that she would feel a little like

put out by this entire experience, emotionally and otherwise.

And that Coop's response to that is, oh, wait, let me tell you about me.

Let me tell you about my anguish in this moment.

It's like, it's not, look, it's not, there are no glowing marks for Coop in any of this, really.

Like, these are, as we said, like two episodes that I think are showcasing some of these characters' lesser qualities or more annoying qualities or more childish qualities.

And those are all fair game as far as characterization goes once we get to the coupon mel portion of the program i do find myself just as you described like i'm actively like disliking both of these people individually but i do kind of like who they are to each other in a way like they they have undeniable chemistry oh yes right john hammond amanda pete have great chemistry these two characters like the the baked in intimacy that they have together feels like real and earned and i think has been justified by the script like has been sold to us by the show i also think like as you know, the closer we get to the

spiciness in the George Washington suite, like this is a show that I think wants to take a moment to revel in its sexuality in a way that some other, like especially domestic sorts of dramedies don't.

And maybe this is another area where it shares a lot in common with Presumed Innocent.

Like, am I crazy, Joe, or is Apple TV getting like a little racier overall?

Like that they're kind of chasing after these sorts of moments.

I really agree.

We had this conversation about Presumed Innocent, and I was thinking the exact same thing actually

later in the sort of Allie Bruce sex scene, where I was just sort of like, I think either previous Apple shows or some of the other shows we watch would cut away.

And we understand what happens in the George Washington suite, or we understand what happened with Allie and Bruce.

We don't need to see it.

But this show and Presumed Innocent were like, we're going to show it to you.

Presumed Innocent, even to an even

greater degree.

But yeah, I was, I was really intrigued by that.

Can I ask you a

we broke into a church-based question?

Please.

Okay, I saw, I watched this episode coincidentally the same day I saw an Instagram reel from a woman who was Catholic and was talking about the new Pope.

And she was talking about her favorite dinner party bit

was asking people if

And again, this is from a Catholic.

I'm not a Catholic, but this is from a Catholic.

If you're, if Jesus' communion is bread and wine, what would you want your communion to be?

Like, how would people celebrate you with a bev and a little snack?

Um, you know, this, and then I watched Coop and Mel dip communion wafers in like a purloin jam.

Yeah, exactly.

Um, for me,

it's a Parmesan goldfish cracker and a

shout out tequila.

That's like, that's my communion parent.

That's quite a chaser.

I I gotta say.

Do you have one that comes to mind, or

should I come back to you, Rob?

What do you think?

There's zero question on the blood of Rob and its diet coke.

And that's just anatomically true.

Like, I am just more diet coke than man at this point.

So that's my reality.

Yeah.

You know, food-wise, I think we could get into difficult territory.

I'm torn between one of two, two of my greatest vices personally, greatest snack vices.

One,

buttered popcorn.

Very, very, like, I walk into a movie theater, I'm a fucking goner.

You've witnessed this.

I've seen this.

Yeah.

It's a tough scene.

The other is any sort of like tortilla chip and dip situation.

So I think, you know, depending on the sect of which way you would like to worship me after my death, I think we can, you know, reasonable people can disagree.

I kind of feel like this is

pop culture Rob, like TV movie Rob is the buttered popcorn sect.

And then, and then maybe basketball Rob

is the chip and dip.

Scrounging out of the pantry.

Yeah, if I have to go for a non-alcoholic version, it's a Topo Chico for sure.

Are you straight?

Are you lime?

Are you grapefruit?

What's your preference?

Straight, just straight up Topochico.

Topochico, please sponsor this podcast.

Oh, yeah, yeah, no, no.

No,

no, this one I'm willing to give for free.

Uh, it was, you know, a revelation to me as a lapsed Catholic, the communion wafer individually wrapped.

It just had never occurred to me that in a, you know, more germ-conscious or post-COVID world, that that would be a thing, but I guess it makes sense that it would be a thing.

Um, it seems wasteful, but sure.

It does seem quite

wasteful, quite inconvenient.

But look, we're here for the sacrament, we're here for you know to dip these communion wafers into jam.

We're also there for like some honest-to-goodness reconciliation between Mel and Coop, who like he finally has the chance to tell her, another human being, that he lost his job by reasons that were not his own.

Uh, they become a little closer in the process, they make out a bit in the process.

I want to give us like a special salute to Amanda Pete's confused hand as she extends it as they start making out, trying to do the mental gymnastics of like, Am I doing this?

Are we doing this?

Yes, we're doing this.

Uh, great physical performance from both of them, I thought.

No, and that that like slide over and beginning of the make out session, like the whole thing, to your point, they have chemistry.

Again, I assert that they would be napping at this point after all the Jaeger that they had, but like, listen, in a world where they're still going,

um, you know, this is a very, some very smooth stuff from Coop

and And,

you know, his sexual proclivities are about to bite him in the ass in the next episode.

So here we go.

They're just biting him everywhere, it seems.

You know, like, really, the pains of having four women interested in you throughout this season are really coming home to Roost, Joe.

You know, like, everything is really coming for Coop.

At the end of this episode, as you said, realistically, Mel should be more in Tori state, vomiting on the side of the road, but she seems totally fine.

The family goes out to dinner.

Ultimately, Coop gets jumped by, I would say, the most terrifying people of all, which are art world henchmen,

if I'm getting this correct.

Is that who we should believe these guys to be?

Oh, a million percent.

Absolutely.

I have no words.

I'm going to be honest with you.

This part of the plot is really going off the rails.

I also have no idea.

if we're expected to see Christian Thomason again after this point.

Is this like the business is closed, Coop got his ass kicked, we're moving on, or do you expect like the art world element of the story to sort of linger on your friends and neighbors?

Well, we see him in the next episode in the dream sequence doing unspecial things.

I mean, licking some pancakes,

but I guess that would be a hint that he's in the real world.

Yeah, I think it's not done.

That's what I would guess.

Also...

And I'm going to say this as a lover of

suspense and cliffhangers and surprise and all of that.

I need, after Daredevil earlier this year and

this episode that ends with Barney going over a car onto the concrete, I need characters who stop landing on their necks at a cracking sound and then surviving and being fine.

When he hit the ground

on his neck and I heard the crack, I was like, well, Barney's dead, I guess.

I was like, that's weird.

That guy's an executive producer.

I don't think that character's done, right?

And then I was like, no, he's probably fine.

But really, please stop.

Like, stunt people of the world.

Please insist on doing a shoulder roll of some kind and not like going down on your neck because it's very confusing to me.

But yeah, Barney, Barney takes a header into the concrete.

He does.

And also, writers of the world.

If you're going to include a line about how Barney is picking his teeth out of the pavement, that guy's got to be missing some teeth.

I don't know what to tell you.

Like, we got to see him with missing teeth.

We got to see him more with a couple of bruises being fed soup.

I actually do like the Coop and Barney scenes, the few of them that we get in these episodes.

Like, Barney finally calling Coop out on his bullshit and the fact that he has been trying to extend invitations, as many characters have.

Tell me what the fuck is going on.

Be honest with me about what is going on.

And Coop just keeps burying it and lying about it and hiding his big stack of money and pretending that it's no one else's concern.

But I'm glad Barney gets at least to tell him off a little bit and have

stand up for himself within that relationship.

Very satisfying.

And for Coop to be like, where is this coming from?

You know, like, just,

yeah, the reckoning, the chickens coming home to roost for Coop

this early in the season.

I mean, I know we only have actually a few more episodes left, but it still feels earlier.

I thought, you know, the earliest that they would come to arrest Coop is the finale.

So the fact that, again, like

I will give this to the show, it keeps surprising me.

Like, I thought we were going to get to the dead body in the finale.

I thought we would get to an arrest maybe in the finale, but we were arresting Coop.

How's Coop going to get out of this one?

Is like, you know, where we find ourselves.

So, all of that is true, but also the show is cutesy enough that as you were just talking about the chickens coming home to roost, I had the thought, is this why he's named Coop?

Was this all a long reindeer games-esque con to seed like a cutesy name idea in the middle of this whole thing?

I wouldn't put it past your friends and neighbors to do that while also surprising us along the way.

Can I ask you a question about how Hunter and Torrey were used in last week's episode?

Um,

so this is an excuse to get Coop and Mel to Princeton so they can relive their courtship and their, you know, early 20s and and all of that sort of stuff.

So I understand that, like, premise-wise, we're taking our daughter to go look at Princeton.

Is but like Tori has this,

I guess, adventure at a frat party where she vomits on some guys like dick or whatever.

And then I did laugh at that.

I did.

I did.

I don't know.

I'm not better than that.

I did laugh quite a bit.

I laughed.

I laughed that the

a cappella group had changed the problematic lyrics of Shaboom to like consent can be so nice.

I did laugh at that.

But like she has that adventure and then Hunter

goes to Ultraviolet Studios, which is a real place and like lays down some sick beats or something like that.

Eats a sandwich.

Neither of those stories seem like they actually have much to do with those kids.

Like they're not really interested in giving them an actual storyline in those episodes.

Like Tori ends the episode being like, maybe I'll break up with my boyfriend and then oops, he's there, you know, back together with her when, when Coop's in the hospital by the next week's episode, Hunter, the most of anything that happens to Hunter is like the text exchange she gets on the car on the way back at the end.

The whole studio thing is like

an absolute zero story.

So it's almost like your friends and neighbors keeps finding itself in the space of like

not enough.

Like, you know, there's like, why bother giving Hunter something to do at all?

Like, I would just have him sit in the room or something like that.

If you want him out of the out of the picture, but you have nothing to give him story-wise, why are we even dealing with him at all?

Do you know what I mean?

So, like, it's uh, I find, I find in the show's desire to keep oozing out and introducing new characters and getting us into the corners of like what's happening in Alena's family and what's happening

with Detective Lynn and all this sort of stuff like that.

I'm just sort of like, you have too much and then not enough at the same time is where I keep finding ourselves here.

I think the whole point of Hunter's story is to have Coop doing something nice for his son, where he's like put in the forethought to make this booking, to ask for this favor for something that his son would genuinely like.

Okay.

Other than that, I agree with you.

There's nothing there.

I'm almost more frustrated by the Tori part of the story just because, like, we're actually spending time there, right?

Like, we are diverting.

We're stepping out of our little time machine and we're spending time with Tori at this party, with this a cappella guy.

Like, again, there's some decent laughs in there, but I almost would have preferred it if it was the like pure time capsule element of Coop and Mel.

Like, we are in this bubble together.

We're not talking about real life.

The kids are doing their things.

Maybe they're getting calls and texts, but like, keep us anchored with those characters if that's the kind of episode you want to have.

I really agree.

Just don't cut away to the kids at all.

Just like, find, give me a thinly veiled excuse why they're left to their own devices, and then don't go back to the kids at all.

Or if you're going to go back to them, give them a story that feeds back into their characters or feedbacks into larger themes of the show or something like that.

But by the end of the episode, it's clear that they want Coop and Tori to have this heart-to-heart conversation, to come together a little bit after fighting earlier in the episode.

They want Hunter to take off the headphones and engage with his family.

And maybe the reason he's doing that is because he's had this like fulfilling musical experience in the studio, you know, behind the dials.

Because you do want to set up getting them to the restaurant at the end and Coop being able to look down the table and say, like, this is the thing I actually want.

And I know it's like frittering between my fingers, but like, there's something here that I like.

And then come the art henchman and everything goes to shit.

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But now we're in investigation mode, Joe.

Like, it is fully underway.

And this is where I would like to get into our likability power rankings because we're really getting to spend some honest to goodness time with Detective Rebecca Lynn, who is just one of the toughest hangs on the show.

Really tough.

Just like, however,

adversarial with every single person in her life.

And I would say, however, her investigation brings me my most likable character, which is Officer Ryan Hernandez.

If I have anything to cling to, it's Officer Ryan Hernandez crouched behind a garbage can while Allie gives Bruce, who sucks, a handy in the car.

Like, that is what I am living for on on this show at this point.

One of the only chill and normal and well-adjusted people on the show that we've met so far, plus secure enough in himself to try out a new scent.

Yeah.

He's just trying new things.

He's just trying to reinvent himself in a casual, small incremental way.

Officer Hernandez is absolutely on my list for my likability power rankings.

I think he has to be.

Who is your number two, Joe?

The guy who signed Paul's memorial book, R.I.P.

Big Guy.

I don't know that guy's name.

That guy was good.

There were some really good memorial book signings.

My favorite was, I think, you rocked with E-D in parentheses, like you rock, but also past tense.

And the woman who rolled up and wrote, today we mourn, tomorrow we find justice.

Like that lady is out for blood.

That book is a cherished item, and I hope that Sam treasures it.

There's a lot happening there.

As far as other likable characters, I think my number one is still Barney, who I've enjoyed basically every plot line we've gotten on the show.

And again, like limited stuff to do.

I love him there.

I'm going to put Sam on the list.

Is she a recognizable human person?

I would say generally no.

Is she likable?

I think likable enough by your friends and neighbors' standards.

On the one hand, yes.

And I will say that the thing about Olivia Munn is that she's tremendously good at throwing away a joke.

Like she's really, really good at that.

In the bar scene with Mel, Mel, while she's talking about all the paperwork and all that sort of stuff, like that, like, she is really quite good at that.

Her chewing out this, the Sephora employee who was like, Keely at Sephora, need to back the fuck off.

And we all agree with that.

But again, this was like another self-righteous, sort of sorkiny monologue where I'm just sort of like, well, Keely,

you know, and I was just like, God, Jesus Christ.

You know, so like, again,

Sam, I think, is an asshole.

And Sam, I think, murdered her husband and is trying to frame Coop for it.

So

Sam also does this really interesting thing when

the affirmation abrasive detective.

And by the way, I love an abrasive detective.

I love an abrasive woman.

There's something about this that is just like, I don't know what it is.

I don't know if it's the like accent.

I don't know.

I don't know what it is.

She's coming in real hot, again, with literally everybody.

And then I think that's, this is what does it for me.

When she comes back to Coop and is like, I'm throwing you a lifeline.

I'm giving you this opportunity.

It's like, woman, you have been,

you've been such a jerk to every single person you've met on this show.

Like, I don't know what to tell you.

Like, I just don't buy any of that sort of sincerity from her in that moment.

When she offers Sam the Kleenex and then Sam pulls, like,

a hanky or like...

finally mills Kleenex out of her tissue out of her bag instead.

That was like, I think a top tier.

That is only rivaled by, what was it?

It was crushed oyster shell for the Patank court.

Like in terms of like rich, rich people shit.

Patank is perfect too.

Like as a, as something you could do at any income level, but you must do on oyster shell.

Yeah.

Perfect rich people activity.

Great shit.

But yeah.

Okay.

So Sam's on your likability list.

She's not on mine, but I support you.

What's next?

Well, let's stick with Sam for a second because I do think this is a good opportunity to talk about the fact that she almost certainly committed this murder.

Um, there's a lack of viable alternatives in the case at this point.

The question of like who could have realistically planted a gun in Coop's car is a smaller list.

And is this the payoff of Chekhov's trunk?

Like, all of that for this?

The fact that Chekhov's trunk had a Chekhov's gun in it is just very disappointing.

I gotta say, we were dreaming so much bigger.

It's Anton all the way down.

Like, it's just way too high.

Here's the thing with like my only hesitation on Sam is Olivia Mung's performance is so broad in that interrogation room when she when she is confronted with the idea of like, oh, don't you have a $20 million life insurance policy for which you were the sole beneficiary?

Like it's so clear in that moment that it's probably her.

They do muddle the picture a little bit.

And I will give the show credit in this way.

Like as we go on, I think for the writing of Sam and with Olivia Munn, like they're showing us these conflicted emotions where she obviously does not like Paul, but she has this responsibility to host his funeral.

She is not sad that he's gone, but her kids will be.

And like, all this stuff is threaded, again, in conversations like the one with Keely that should not have happened in the way that they did and are like a ridiculous scene in and of itself.

But you can see how they're trying to create doubt in what seems to be like just the most plausible explanation on the board.

Yes.

Here's the issue.

In terms of like who could have possibly killed Paul, that would be interesting to us this late in the game with how little we know about Paul, right?

Like if it's just a rando,

that's deeply uninterested.

And we know nothing else about Paul's life other than there's Sam, there's the new girlfriend, and there's the fight he had with Coop.

And that's like basically the sum total of our options here.

Um, and then the fact that Sam finds out from the cops that they know about Coop and she doesn't tell him.

And then, conveniently, right after that, the gun is in the trunk of his car.

Like, how is it not, you know?

I don't know that she set out to frame him in the first place necessarily.

I feel like there's a convenient way to pin him.

But I think once the cops were like, hey, we know you're fucking him, she's like, okay, Nanny Cam

got it.

I'll put the gun in the trunk of his car, which I know is unlatched at all times and I can get into it.

And again, the list of people who know that about the trunk, it's not that short because like a lot of characters have seen it.

But in terms of the overlap between people who know they can get into the trunk and people who might have killed Paul, it's really just Sam, right?

It's not Allie.

I I don't think Allie,

yeah.

I mean, and like, yeah, Sam has experienced it.

Like, I would be curious to go back and re-watch that scene if she kind of like clocks that moment with the trunk as like a thing to store away for later.

I think if it does turn out to be Sam, figuring out the when she decided to pin it on Coop will be an interesting conversation to have.

And I mean, I'm sure we'll have it.

If we're just watching Presumed Innocent again, then maybe it's Tori.

You're not wrong.

Maybe Hunter.

Look, Hunter knows one girl.

Like, our guy is still trying to, like, find his way into the social world.

He's been suspected.

He's had a lot of time on his hands.

I don't know.

You know, it's very tough all around.

But yeah, like, I think the Sam's stuff, I am enjoying our time spent with that character, but it definitely seems like she murdered her husband.

She's still on my likability power rankings nonetheless.

I think because of that delicate dance, my number four with a bullet, Detective Lynn's dad.

Oh, yeah.

He comes in.

He made eggs.

You know,

just a caring dad who made you breakfast.

Breakfast is important, and he didn't just make breakfast for her, he made it for her, her, like, he's not officers, not her partner, but like, kind of her partner, functionally, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, I agree, I agree, Detective Lynn's dad, he's on my list too.

Love it, he's got to be on the list.

I do think, as far as the investigation goes, the number of characters in this story, and this is, I think, another uh bullet point data point on the Sam Definitely Did This Conversation.

The number of characters who come out of a police interrogation or a police questioning or a police warrant search and immediately called the most incriminating party possible or text the most incriminating party possible.

Some of these characters are clearly not career criminals and that's fine.

Like we've seen them kind of blunder about.

Sam's communications made me feel a little more pointed of like,

it's going to say something if they subpoena my call logs and I called Coop directly after this.

I think the only question with Coop is like, can Sam herself keep her hands clean if she does point the finger at Coop as the potential murderer?

Like, would she not be an accomplice in some way looped looped into that for culpability?

That's a great question.

I don't know that Sam's thinking that far that, like, that much through.

But again, I'm open, like, your friends and neighbors,

they could just introduce a whole other side plot about Paul that we've not heard about in the next few episodes.

And then all of a sudden, I'm like, well, clearly it was Paul's, like, pool guy who he has this, like, thing, you know, something like that.

I don't know.

Look, there were a lot of guys at Guy's Night.

It could have been anyone who was gawking the luxury toilet who killed Paul.

I don't know.

It's true.

We do have a lot of those side plots, even still.

We've talked through a lot of them, Joe, and there are more still.

Elena has a whole story going on.

And I say that in somewhat in air quotes, because I would say a huge part of her story is calling Coop and not him not picking up.

We get many, many scenes of her trying to get in contact with him and failing.

But now she has this financial urgency.

in that Chivo, who I believe is her cousin, if I'm not.

I think that's her brother.

That's her brother.

Hector's her brother.

Hector is the cousin.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So her brother owes $150,000 to a drug dealer by next week and you know he's a drug dealer because he can walk in and eat half of your fries and there's nothing you can do about it this is a dangerous man I love okay so I love this the the the scenes where they're speaking uh

Spanish and and specific like regional Spanish was really fun the subtitles

Every time that this drug dealer called her brother

Chivo is her brother, every time he called him Billy Goat, Cabron, he called him Cabron, and I was just like, Billy Goat is not really, like, that's not really capturing the essence

of what you're calling him there when you call him Cabron.

But yeah, so Elena's in a, Elena, who we found out used to, you know, work in this drug world.

But yeah, it was like a very like sort of

breaking bad side plot.

Like we might as well be at the Pollos Hermanos like sort of side plot for Elena.

It's not uninteresting to me,

but But it is, again, just like more of that ooze where I'm like, okay, so now I'm tracking her brother, Hector, this drug dealer, you know, and then the drug dealer mentions some other people in his organization.

So how, how far is that ooze going to go?

I have questions about it.

I have no answers for you.

But I mean, do the art henchmen work overtime for the drug dealers?

Oh, you know, I bet art hench is a part-time job.

I bet that's contract work only and there's no 401k.

So there's no question.

I mean, look, working in art is always a little suspect on those grounds.

Like, it's just hard to get your feet under you.

And then when you're henching on top of it, it's just especially precarious.

But yeah, we do have that side plot that's oozing out.

We also have one that unfortunately I think we have to talk about, which is everything that's going on with Allie and Bruce.

I knew this motherfucker was going to do this.

I knew he was going to show up.

You called this like three pods ago, I got to say.

I knew it.

Well, I mean, like, so

the actor who plays Bruce is like

a musical Broadway actor who I really, really like.

He's very, very talented.

So it was like slight casting spoiler.

Okay.

I was like, I don't think you cast him to not use him.

I was surprised when he showed up at the beginning just to like look concerned and get her off my lawn.

I was like, why did they cast Ramine for that?

That's very odd.

And then when, yeah, when they ran into each other at the gym, I was like, of course, this motherfucker is going to come to her open mic night.

And of course, he's going to be like, my wife doesn't understand me, but you do.

I did not know that he was going to bring over his fucking football jersey for her to wear.

And then just like scoot out the door without even his shoes on, I think, when the cops show up.

So, but he had him in hand?

Did he at least take him with him?

No, he had like his belt and like, I think his, I didn't see his shoes.

I was like, Where are you?

I really think he got into his car in his socks and was like, I'll figure it out later.

Um, but yeah, fuck you, Bruce.

Uh, this woman is mentally unwell, and you are the worst.

So, yeah, and he knows this, right?

It's not like this is a person he just met.

Like, they have an incredible amount of history together, and that's why they're able to accelerate so quickly into into the wear your ex-fiancé's football jersey while you're knocking boots to St.

Vincent like phase of their relationship.

Like they are fast-tracked all the way there.

Knocking boots, literally, leave the boots on.

I love that.

Love it.

He had very specific asks for that moment.

Before we get to Bruce, though, we have to talk about the one thing that I texted you about watching

last week's episode.

Allie has a new job, and it's playing at, I would say, the world's most attentive and respectful bar that I have ever seen a musical performer do their thing at.

It does not make sense.

Everyone is locked in.

They make them different in New Haven.

What can I say?

You simply must.

I can only attribute that to the fact that she's just playing songs straight off the Magnolia soundtrack, Joe.

I lost my mind.

I genuinely gasped and texted you while it was happening.

Yeah, she's singing Wise Up, the Amy Man classic from the Magnolia soundtrack.

And I was like, you can't, you simply can't.

This is the thing.

You simply can't um I don't I don't want to be precious but it's like are you kidding me the Thompson twins was one thing like a couple weeks ago but Amy man wise up wise like maybe a deeper cut from the magnolia soundtrack but like plenty of Amy man tracks to choose from for this moment or like give me some super tramp for the magnolia soundtrack like I'm I'm here for it but wise up is off the list.

You can't use it.

And they were like, sure, we can.

We're your friends and neighbors.

We do what we want.

I was stunned by this.

Absolutely.

The audacity.

i don't i'm not even saying it to be precious about it like there are some songs you shouldn't use period this isn't like a deference thing to me so much although i do feel a bit of that it's more like it's done like yeah pta did it it was a huge sing-along moment within the context of that movie that is like etched into its dna yeah if you're revisiting it like you better have a very good reason in order to sell it and i don't think this show does anything to sell it and it's it just makes it super weird if you're at all familiar with that movie that's what i would say is like you can't it's not yeah it's not a deference thing it's like it was used so powerfully yeah that to use it in this like

rather unpowerful moment because like yes she's caught bruce's eye and she's like delighted to see that he's there but in but then he's just about to her over uh like literally and then like you know emotionally uh in the next episode and so i'm like this isn't some big turning point for Allie as far as I know.

And in fact, I would say that like, I mean, it's all connected, but the trauma of her just standing there with a warrant in her hand, unsure what to do while the cops rip the house down around her, seemed like a more emotionally resonant moment to me than like anything that happened with Bruce, even though her paralysis there is connected to Bruce, like abandoning her.

But yeah, it's just like it does, it actually does that scene a disservice to make us think of Magnolia and this sort of bigger, much more earned collective ennui that is expressed by that song in that film.

I was absolutely stunned by this.

Absolutely.

This is where I get a little frustrated with it is like that song and that invocation is so much about the power of that collective ennui and the way that it sort of unites us as humans.

And clearly your friends and neighbors is going for a version of that by the end of episode seven, right?

Like we have a lot of characters in dire straits, in really tough spots.

You didn't earn it that well, I'm going to say.

Like you didn't get that payoff yet.

And yes, like the stuff with Allie, I do find very affecting for a character that I thought is, I think it's like kind of gone off the rails since the early episodes for the most part.

But here, like, you really do feel the sense building over these two episodes of she's got one person in her life and it's Coop.

And to the extent that he, even if he murdered Paul, she's like, whatever, like, you're my guy.

You're, I rely on you.

Like, I'm, I'm with you regardless of what happened.

She tries to like grab on to Bruce as she lightly stalks him and then he walks back into her life.

And that goes very poorly.

And so, like, I, I feel for her desperation in that moment i feel for like mel has been wanting to talk to coop and have an honest conversation about his feelings now for weeks on end and he refuses to do it like they're clearly and then coop himself is like in a you know in a jail cell by the end of this he seems as peaceful as anybody oh god and then he yeah and he won't take elena's calls like you know all the different side plots are trying to get in touch with coop and he's just sort of like well i'm living out my fantasy of having my family back or whatever it is but like yeah coop's uh voiceovers that he does at the end of the episodes.

We've been talking about the Coop voiceovers this whole time.

He has the like,

ah, my family back together voiceover at the end of, you know, the previous episode.

And then the, you know, the first honest moment, I actually got a good night's sleep in this jail cell moment at the end of this week's episode.

And then we get, we didn't get a home shopping network moment in the Princeton episode, but we get this like fake dream one in this episode.

How did you feel about the dream sequence part of this?

I think the hardest diamonds to steal are the diamonds of the mind, Joe.

Okay.

All right.

I thought, look, I love a dream sequence traditionally, historically.

This one did not work.

What about ones that involve like butterflies, CGI butterflies, and like Mark Tallman's naked ass in an apron?

Is that what you're looking for in a dream sequence?

This wasn't like, like, to your point about the bad Sorkin elements, like, this was just like a hodgepodge parody of those like crazy lynchian sorts of dream sequences.

Like, Like, oh, this guy's naked.

Oh, this person's saying something doesn't make sense.

Oh, these two characters that would never be in the same place are having breakfast together.

Like,

spare me, I would say, is my merciful request as far as those things go.

It did not work for me, but thankfully, we move on pretty quickly.

That's true.

I think you just nailed something that I feel about this show.

It often feels like a parody.

It feels like a parody of like adult drama.

It feels like a parody of crime drama.

And I am not convinced it's trying to be.

I was compelled.

We got an email from a listener.

I didn't write down their name.

I apologize.

But I was compelled by their argument that

we were not on the same page with the show.

In fact, in that the show is making fun of Coop more often than we were giving it credit for.

And I'm like, I'm compelled by that.

I think you're probably right.

I think that's true.

And that's, again, part of my whole learning to embrace the fact that everyone except for Officer Ryan Hernandez is an asshole on this show.

I also want to say on that front, like it's clear that this is a show that Apple is investing in.

It's already been renewed for a season two.

You can tell by the breadth of the ensemble that there are like plans here to continue having many, many different irons in the fire.

With that, and with shows like this, we often see a first season, tonally speaking, is a little off kilter that it takes a little time to kind of find its footing.

It would not surprise me at all for us to have this experience with season one and they come back with season two and it's like, okay, their finger on the pulse of a little bit closer of like, this is the exact exact sort of tonality we're trying to hit.

This is what we're trying to write.

This is how these actors are trying to pitch it and perform it.

I think that's totally within play.

It's just right now, we're just like rocky week to week because we don't know what to make of it.

I think honing in on what works and streamlining what works and elevating the characters and the performances that work and sort of shunting to the sides the ones that don't is a is a it's why season two of shows are often the best seasons of shows um i feel you know like justified one of the best

seasons of television of all time is the second season because the first season, they were doing a case of the week.

Boyd Crowder was like barely a blip on the radar sort of character, you know, and so

Breaking Bad, Parks of Recreation, like there's so many shows where it's like the first season,

Bath of the Vampire Slayer, like the first season, and you're sort of like, ah, and then, you know, people are like, oh, you got to wait till you get to the second season.

And I almost like those shows historically have a better longevity than like there are other shows that come in so hot in the first season like something like empire is an example i always think of but there are shows that come in so hot throw everything at the wall in the first season and then they just have nothing left in the tank um you know and it's just sort of downhill from there and so i i agree with you that that

There is, I mean, like everyone here is a really capable performer.

Without a doubt.

The visual style is really good.

There are some themes that are interesting.

So I can definitely, I could definitely see a second season.

We were talking about this with Bad Monkey, too.

Like we were just sort of like, Bad Monkey, the

ingredients are there.

You just diluted it with a bunch of extra stuff.

And if you just sort of, you know, condense it down, this could be a really excellent second season of television.

And that, so that might be like an Apple TV sort of

question

for some of these shows.

Yeah.

And I think that can be a really rewarding experience as a viewer, too, right?

To have something in the first season where it's like, okay, I like some of the elements of this, but it's a little bit imperfect in its way.

It's a little unpolished.

And then you get to feel the charge of the clarifying nature of the show kind of coming together over time.

I think, look, to bring the Sorkin home.

Like, you got to send your Mandys to Mandyville.

Like, you got to excise some characters.

You got to, you got to really nail down what it is about your show that's working, as you said.

And I think, I think we're kind of getting closer to that point, or at least we're putting these characters into an interesting dramatic space with this murder plot where we're seeing some new sides of of them.

We're seeing some elements be pulled out of these relationships that I really like.

Joe, are there any other threads, any other notes you want to hit?

Is there anything else you want to reflect on?

Well, I just want to, yeah, I want to dip one toe back into that second season conversation and say two things.

One is that, like,

it's also possible that, like, the highest level of copium ever is maybe the second season will be great.

This is very true.

We're talking ourselves into it in real time, but you're absolutely right.

You have to be really careful when you

put a murder plot out there because like, let's say Sam did do it.

Yeah.

And again,

I love a murder mystery and I would love some more suspects.

I love to theorize.

I would love literally any other suspects on the board.

But let's say Sam does do it.

Does that mean like Olivia Munn's off the board in season two?

That would be a real hardship for the show, you know?

So like,

or does she do it and get away with it?

Is that an interesting thing to think about?

I don't know, but um, I like talking to you about it, Rolf.

I like, I like texting you incredulously about it.

Um, I, Sean Fantasy was texting me about it.

It was really cracking me up.

So, like, you know, there is, and talking to Bill about it actually really cracked me up.

So there's like a way to enjoy this.

I think not in my usual, let me parse every single detail kind of way, but just sort of like learn how to relax and love the bomb that is your friends and neighbors, which is what I am endeavoring to do.

So, yeah.

I had that moment when I was Google translating the messages from the housekeepers group chat.

And I'm like, I want to know what these ladies are talking about.

And I'm like, what am I doing?

This is not the experience of the show.

This is not what this is about.

Yeah.

I have one final question for you, Joe, to get us out of here.

At Paul's funeral, we get all of these bros huddled around talking about the market rate, the going rate for a murder house and the markdown that would come with it.

Would you personally, Joanna Robinson, buy or live in a murder house so quickly.

So quickly.

If I could get a house on a discount.

Oh, you're in there.

Oh, yeah.

That's a hard.

I thought that was going hard.

No, but you're hard.

Yes, 25% under market.

Absolutely.

Yes.

See, this is somewhat surprising to me as somebody who is like, I'm going to say witch inclined.

Oh, wow.

That you would not also be ghosting.

Oh, thank you so much for

enjoying the full scope of my identity.

I am witch-inclined.

I think you can cleanse a space.

There's such a thing as smudging.

I did.

Friends of mine bought a house a couple years ago.

And when they moved in, we were all like, we are very certain someone was murdered here.

The vibe in the building was awful.

It was just like so clear to us, and like all the carpets came out, and we like painted, you know, there's just like ways in which you can cleanse it out

and get a get a house for a deal.

And in today's market, you got you got to do what you got to do.

Now, if it's the murder house from American Horror Story Season 1, that's a no for me.

If GIMP outfits are involved, you're out.

If there's vinyl or pleather or whatever whatever that outfit was made of if dylan mcdermott is there if ghost evan peters is there i'm out

um but otherwise i'm in how about you rob are you buying a a haunted house a murder house i think i probably will yeah i'm not too superstitious about these things i don't really believe in the supernatural in that way it would i think it'd be the kind of thing we have to be careful about who in your life you tell about it because there would be some people who just like don't want to come over to the murder house right for me personally i think i'm okay i think i i think i get along just fine but if you're out there and you got murder houses for sale at well below market, I guess get at us at prestige TV at spotify.com.

Let us know about your listings.

Let us know how you're feeling about your friends and neighbors.

Tune in with us on the Prestige TV feed as we go through The Last of Us, Joe.

We're doing poker face this week.

We've got a lot going on.

It's true.

I'm really excited.

Thanks so much for running the podcast today, Rob.

It's such a delight when you host.

Is it?

I guess we'll find out over time.

I feel like I'm going to be a your friends and neighbors season two type experience.

We're getting the kinks out now in the hopes that they might eventually pay off later.

But thank you to Kevin Pooler for producing for us today.

Thank you to Justin Sales, as always, for his production work on this feed.

And we will see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.