TV Book Club Is Now In Session [Podcast]

Streaming Banshees Podcast Transcript

Episode no: Season One Teaser 

Episode title: TV Book Club Is Now In Session

Date: January 12, 2022

Beep: [00:00:00] Hello. We are Streaming Banshees, your brand new book club about TV on the internet. We're going to bring you deep dives and even deeper feels about your favorite TV shows. So those of you who followed us here from 12 Monkeys, Word of the Witnesses podcast, thank you. We're so happy to be talking about stories that we love again with you guys. We get messages sometimes still that are like, "I miss my friends" and we do too. So, we're moving into a different set of shows and we're excited for you to come along with us. 

For our new listeners. I am Beep. I am a Corporate American defector, for now, who lives in Chattanooga and I love all the dogs. But I only have one because he's a super trouble maker. Sometimes you can find me @beepsplain on Twitter. It's always me, I'm just not always there. And you can always find me neck deep in a new idea or a project because finishing isn't really my thing. 

CC: Hi guys. I am CC, or on Twitter I am @acapitalchick. I'm a recovering trial lawyer, mom to three kids, one dog and three cats, based in Washington, DC. And you can actually usually find me on Twitter because when I run out of people in real life to yell about how much I love television, then I'm on there yelling about TV, like I'm still in an English class in college.

Beep: We tend to find that for some reason, people talk about television episodes for less amount of time than the episode run. And we just don't get that. 

CC: That's not something we do.

Beep: So if you're gonna watch a 40 minute episode with us, you can anticipate that it's not going to be nearly enough for the squealing nor for the intellect. 

CC: Although, uh, Kdrama episodes of TV may give us a run for our money... 

Beep: Oh, true.

CC: ...because they usually run over an hour. We'll see. So why, why are we starting this podcast, Beep?

Beep: Man, it's been a tough couple of years, right? We want to celebrate stories that make us think deeply, that make us feel [00:02:00] deeply, but they also wear their hearts on their sleeves because, so do we. We're fangirls. We talk about TV like we do books. We appreciate great writing and acting which are often kind of  ignored a lot of times by awards or by, you know, super popular culture. So we just like to make our own list. 

CC: We are 100% a fan podcast. This is going to be a very informal conversation. Sometimes we're going to have guest panelists. We particularly like to highlight women's voices in talking about television. So there'll be some episodes where it's just beep and me, and there'll be others where we're going to have other fangirls from all over the world joining us. Today's episode is basically a teaser podcast and we're going to preview what we'll be doing in our first season, which we will be covering Netflix / Studio Dragon's, Hometown Cha Cha Cha, and Apple TV / Universal Warner Brothers’ Ted Lasso.

So [00:03:00] Beep, why are we covering these two shows to kick off our second year in a pandemic?

Beep: I am glad you asked. We all -- have spent so much time alone, I think not only just physically, but mentally processing and reflecting on, I think a lot of what's important in life when we were forced to slow down so it was harder to watch things that were grim dark. It was harder to watch things with no hope.

And these two shows, they made us feel better. They made us feel hope. However, they're both still clear-eyed about human beings and humanity and how it's not all great. They have a lot about trauma and mental illness, but it's so much about community that I think we're realizing, you know, even still going through this, how it's so important to spend time with people and to have community around you.

But also I think we might be a little more picky about who those [00:04:00] people are now. 

CC: Yeah. I think one of the things that I think is so interesting about Hometown Cha Cha Cha and Ted Lasso, and at least for me, prompted me to want to write about Hometown Cha -And you ended up writing about Ted Lasso on our website, Streaming Banshees — is that particularly here in the United States, I mean, even though Hometown Cha was a top 10 worldwide Netflix hit, it kind of only really would get mentioned in passing by American critics. They were generally focusing on darker fare that was coming from abroad. And Ted Lasso, I feel like American critics kind of came to it kind of dragging their feet. It was like the audience led critics to it and they kind of finally started writing about it and taking it kind of seriously. 

Beep: I think people thought it was going to be a joke. 

CC: Yeah, because it was based on skits. I mean, I think what's interesting is that both of these shows have [00:05:00] deceptively simple premises. So when you begin Hometown Cha, you think, oh, this is at least as an American, oh this is like Northern Exposure. This is a cute rom com where the big city dentist moves to the village, and you know, is going to have all kinds of funny run-ins with the locals and probably fall in love by the end. Or with Ted Lasso, when it first kicked off, I was like, oh, okay, this is going to be kind of like Major League.

The kind of grumpy female owner wants to tank the like scrappy band of misfits and maybe they'll end up, you know, like winning in the end. I really held on to them and looked forward to them every week, you know, particularly season two of Ted Lasso is aired weekly and then Hometown Cha had two episodes a weekend you know, 2021, it really came, where sharing stories with other people was not only something to look forward to, but it was really something that kind of brought people together because there was so little that we could actually physically do together.[00:06:00] 

And they both ended up feeling like therapy. They both really delved into mental health issues at a time where really it's one of the most important things we're all grappling with almost two years into a pandemic, no matter what our age or where we are. I think that while they could at times be very emotional – I mean, both of these shows have made me cry– I came out on the other side of them hopeful and actually thinking about them in my everyday life and my interactions with other people. And that's not where I thought I would be starting either of these, I thought they were going to be just kind of fun, escape.

Beep: Yeah. And instead, the things they covered led to, I feel like at the end, it just a deep catharsis. 

CC: Yeah, absolutely. That is a great word for it. So I ended up, uh, we'll just say quickly how we came to these shows, and then dive into some of the themes that we're going to be talking about this season.[00:07:00] I watched season two of Ted Lasso and Hometown Cha at the same time and I kept bugging Beep and I was like, oh my God, these shows are talking about so many of the same themes at the same time, but it was a very kind of, at least in my world, narrow Venn diagram of people, at least in the U S watching both of their shows at the same time.

So I'm going to ask you Beep, which show am I talking about? Ted Lasso or Hometown Cha? The male main character is a beloved helper quick with advice and jokes who holds his community together, loves books, but hides deep trauma beneath a jovial mask.

Beep: Don't know if I'm supposed to pretend to not know that it's BOTH!

CC: It is both Coach Lasso and Chief Hong. and I love that we actually kind of have those official titles for them and sort of their jovial exteriors. We have, you know, we have Coach Lasso who is handing out books, [00:08:00] particularly chosen with life advice for each player and is always a shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen to.

And then we have Chief Hong – he's always there when anybody has literally any problem in town, he's quick to hand out advice to other people. He's a good listener, but Ted and Du-sik are holding a lot back, and a lot of mental health issues. They both, even though the shows depict them in different ways, in terms of at what point in their mental health journey in seeking out therapy that they're in, we kind of come to Du-sik where he's sort of midstream and talking to a therapist.

Whereas we go on a journey with Ted of accepting that's that kind of support there's a lot going on underneath the surface. As those two shows on folded, I found it to be a really important and very timely look at [00:09:00] particularly men and their emotional wellbeing and their receptiveness to showing their emotions and, and getting that support from therapy and leaning on others, showing men crying, in a really powerful way.

Those shows really have that in common. 

Beep: I love that. And I love how you pointed out that the shows are so kind to us in a rewatch fashion that we can literally split their identity and the way that they function around other people versus by themselves. 

CC: Absolutely. But so Beep do you want to do the other question? 

Beep: Yeah. Okay. So in which show, the main female character is a professional hardened by life experience who begins the story in a transactional place and calls out how women? are put in boxes along the way. But she ultimately opens up and finds a new found family through her work with people who all have their own layers and struggles. 

CC: It's another trick question because it is both Rebecca and Hye-jin [00:10:00] and I love these very – and this is a term that gets thrown around all the time– strong women. But what I love on both of these shows is that as much as I enjoy watching women with swords or shooting arrows that are physically strong, both of these women are successful professionals, and are very intelligent, are very brave women, both in their field and in their personal life, in the risks that they take and both shows subvert a lot of the way we have seen women portrayed on television. And I can't wait to dig into all of the ways, both in whether it's the romantic storytelling and Hometown Cha Cha or a woman opening her own business or the things that Hye-jin points out along the way, or all of the ways that Rebecca and her interactions with Keeley subvert a lot of the ways we have seen, you know, women's relationships [00:11:00] portrayed on TV. They're not pitted against each other. They're there, they're supporting one another and calling in both shows, they're calling out a lot of gender biases along the way. So we are really looking forward to digging into that.

We love to go back and rewatch television shows.

Basically the writing is so wonderful that when you go back to the beginning, you realize that there's just endless layers to peel back both on character journeys and thematically, and because Hometown Cha is structured as a mystery about not, not just Chief Hong, but many of the different characters in the village. I mean, each episode we basically learn what somebody has going on under the surface, it just really lends itself to a really rich rewatch discussion that we think the writing just really deserves. So, and the same is true for Ted Lasso. There are many character journeys and [00:12:00] choices that were very subtle that the show made in its writing and its character interactions. That didn't seem like a big deal in season one. And you get to the end of season two and you realize just how carefully they seeded all of these plot developments and where the characters are by the end of season two. And we just really want to celebrate the wonderful writing on both of these shows.

Beep: I think one of the things that both of us love so much in any story is that you can see there was a plan and you get that in both of these shows. Like you said, you, you see something that seems innocuous, you know, in episode three and all of a sudden in episode 12, it was like, well, if I didn't know that I wouldn't have even understood what was going on.

That is incredible. 

CC: Yup. So whether that means, Du-sik and Hye-jin driving in a car on a bridge and Du-sik talking about how suffocating it is to be in Seoul or whether that is a interaction where we're [00:13:00] watching Nate observing Ted talking to Roy and wondering what's going on in his head, or as he's talking to his father, we are really, really excited to dig into all of the wonderful work that these TV writers put into these stories.

Beep: Okay. So while CC watched these at the same time, I did not. I found Ted Lasso right after season one like she had mentioned before where a lot of people were finding it before the critics and we all had to make sure that they understood it was something worth covering.

So I was anxiously awaiting season two, and season two is a lot darker. I don't, that's not the right word, but I'm throwing it out there. The conflict is more subtle, the messages that they convey, or a lot deeper in some ways, even though if the groundwork wasn't late in season one, season two, wouldn't have made sense, but we're looking at a group of people who are trying their best when the circumstances around them may not always make that easy versus in so many other shows, you just have a bunch of [00:14:00] characters who cause their own drama. So after I finished that CC a million times, it's like, you have to watch Homecha. You have to watch Homecha. So that was my homework. And the cool thing to see them come together. It was just one of the incredible things to me is you have such different stories. They're in wildly different settings. They're presenting though the same themes of community found family grief. And, you know, so we have another podcast because we simply cannot go on without covering these things that are so essential to our own human experience. 

CC: Yeah. And I think particularly as Americans consuming up until recently, largely Western and most of those up until a certain point when they became more readily available on streaming, where shows from abroad, a lot of Hollywood television shows and films is we have been stuck [00:15:00] in an antihero era that can be traced back to probably Tony Soprano for over 20 years.

And while that was really thought provoking and groundbreaking at the time it's been going on, whether it was The Wire or Mad Men or Breaking Bad and on and on and on. And increasingly at least I feel like in the US we've been living in an anti-heroes world increasingly for the last few years. And so Homecha and Ted Lasso really stood out to me as being on the forefront of turning the page. And instead of focusing the story on the anti hero and why they make quote unquote “bad” decisions, these two shows are focused on decent people, people who are trying to do the right thing and how [00:16:00] hard that can be. And are facing the sort of everyday struggles of whether it's difficult relationships with parents, abuse, suicide, depression, loneliness, and are treating those every day life and death problems like they're life and death, because for all of us, they are.

And so I, I feel like both of these shows are kind of on the forefront of taking us out of this anti-hero era and instead asking questions about what about good people and the choices they're trying to make to be decent in a really hard and difficult world.

Beep: Absolutely. Yeah, You want to see these people succeed? You understand they will not always, they cannot always make the right decision. And sometimes the decisions are so complex. I mean, someone is going to get hurt. Something is going to go wrong, [00:17:00] but they're doing the kind of things that we do every day. They're giving you someone to root for the first time in so long.

CC: Yeah, doesn't that feel good? And they, and they are flawed every single. One of these characters inTed Lasso and Homecha are flawed. There are times where you are going to be frustrated with them and the choices they make, even if I submit that the writing and all of them, I understand everyone's point of view but they, they are flawed people, but they are trying to do the right thing by each other.  Or for themselves, and that I will include even the emerging antagonist in Ted Lasso. I understand why he makes the choices he makes and how it can be viewed at least from his perspective as standing up for himself.

Even if it makes me want to throw pillows at the television, 

Beep: Which we do. 

CC: Which we do. So, I think the other thing that really motivated us that Beep mentioned to want to [00:18:00] talk about these two shows as we kick off our third calendar year still largely isolated from one another during a pandemic is that both of these shows really focus on community. And whether that is a seaside village in South Korea or a middling soccer team in London, they are found family stories and about how transformational people supporting one another can be for our lives. We are really looking forward to discussing all of the, all of the small ways that people support one another to the ways that these shows depict both people coming together and celebration, but also people coming together, in funerals, to more in people who have passed and both shows make the really fundamentally important point that we never know what is going on in the [00:19:00] lives of the people around us.

I think about both of these shows every time I say I have an interaction in real life and somebody is maybe a little bit more impatient or speaks a little bit more sharply than I would have in a situation. And maybe two years ago, I would have been like, what is that person's problem to be quite honest with you, both of these shows have made me stop and think about what's going on in that person's head. And they have both been shows that, I mean, I've watched with my entire family, including my older children, and everybody has drawn parallels to interactions that they've had with people in real life, whether it's the insecure person that pushes people down, which is a lesson that we learned from Ted Lasso or how important it is to spend time with the elderly, because of the loneliness and isolation they can feel from, from Homecha, they are chose that my [00:20:00] family has really taken life lessons to heart and come to mind, you know, multiple times a week.

Beep: Yeah. And they also give, cause I know you've just mentioned this before. It gives you a place to have those kinds of discussions with your children because you have a shared experience. It's not like we can all talk about, you know, that one time we went to the store, we start to understand. And that's why I love shows because people are consuming the same information and then it's really interesting to see what they get out of it and see their perspectives. 

CC: Yeah. 

I mean, just to give two examples of the kind of impact that the two stories have out in the real world, sort of beyond the world of critics. these, these are the kinds of shows that teachers use in classrooms.

So I have just two, like really fun anecdotes because, you know, it's just, I was thinking as we were getting ready to record this podcast, that the two television shows that my oldest child who's a [00:21:00] teenager that her teachers have used in the classroom are from Ted Lasso and Hometown Cha Cha Cha. So the Ted Lasso scene was the, the, the kids were getting ready to do a research project where they had to pick sort of a societal problem, and research a potential solution to it. And the teacher showed the Ted Lasso dartboard “Be Curious” speech from Ted. Says he's quoting Walt Whitman although Beep, tell me that might be up for debate. What is the exact thing that Ted says in terms of being curious? 

Beep: He said, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

CC: Right. And so that scene is what their science teacher showed to them to encourage them, not only in working with one another, but in how they approached research and, and to not assume that they already had the answer and sort of put the cart before the horse. And then in my daughter's English class, in getting ready to study, Walden and Henry Thoreau and the Transcendentalists and sort of contrasting that with [00:22:00] 19th century Realism, the English teacher showed the boat scene where Hye-jin and Du-sik are debating what's the point of a boat that sits on the top of the hill and the scene where at the golf club the fancy big city friends are sort of questioning his lifestyle and he's like, look, I got all I need, I got a surf board and all of that as sort of a contemporary Realist versus Romanticist –Romanticist with the big R –debate about how to approach life.

I think it goes to show sort of how wonderful the writing and the depth of what these two shows have to say that teachers are using clips of them, to sort of inspire research and debate in the classroom. And I mean, you know, we yell “be a goldfish” on the soccer field to our kids when things don't go well. And my kids are trying to get my husband to buy plaid flannel [00:23:00] shirts, which as a Gen X-er I'm very into. So, I mean, these are just, these are just two stories that have just really months after they finished airing, stayed with us. 

Beep: Yeah, and for me, I mean, Hometown is newer but it's definitely resonating and coming into my thought process, but with Ted Lasso so I know that one of the biggest things was when Ted went to therapy, this. Season, and let's not spoil any of that, but, you know, a man goes to therapy and there's just so much there about mental illness and some, so much to mine into that.

It made me start thinking about my own roles, like in society and in, community, you know, and, and it's not always about like, oh, I have this job and this is my identity. Like you have to have worth beyond that as a human being. And that actually, I think it's demonstrated even more in Homecha than it is in Ted Lasso, as far as the way that someone [00:24:00] is living.

But it made me really think about myself and kind of the way I live and what I find important, not only for other people, but myself, and then using that to kind of go outward of, of, like you said, am I judging? Am I being curious in my wondering what people are going through? And then that led me for the first time, this past year to watch It's A Wonderful Life.

I basically thought it was just like a goofy movie, you know, about angels and bills and stuff. and it's not, it's not, and it's just amazing how that kind of media can touch you and make you question how you approach the entire world.

CC: Yeah. And I think at that such a great point Beep and I'm really looking forward to both Ted Lasso, particularly in the debates between Ted with Coach Beard about how important is winning, um, and then Hye-jin and Du-sik’s debates about [00:25:00] career and status and earning money and materialism that they go around and around about and I think in a really layered way that the show is not really, I think the show is ultimately finding a balance between the two. Both shows are really questioning and turning around and around in ways that never quite have a pat answer because in life they don't how do you define your life? What does it mean to be happy? What does it mean to be successful? And are those concepts defined purely in sort of the materialistic or competitive ways that at least our world that we live in often defines them as such. 

Beep: Yeah, cause it's still about winning in both cases, it's either winning because of a scoreboard or it's winning because you know, you make the most money or that sort of thing. And how is that contributing to society as a whole or to your own [00:26:00] happiness, like where is the balance of allowing those things to be part of your identity and not just take over so that you have no peace. 

CC: And we got a little down a rabbit hole and geeky and a little deep there but, but for our new listeners, Beep and I are just as likely to scream about two hands touching or a first kiss as we are to discuss literary references to Henry David Thoreau and Tolstoy. So we can get geeky, but we can also yell like fangirls. So get ready for that. Should we talk about what our rewatch plan is for our listeners?

Beep: Yeah, absolutely. So each time we do a show and these are the ones that we have planned for right now, but we plan to be with you guys for quite some time. So keep that in mind, but we do rewatch. Okay. We pick shows that we have gone through. Obviously seen the entire thing [00:27:00] and felt like, wow, that that's worth picking apart from the beginning to the end and back again, which makes perfect sense if you came from 12 Monkeys, but we really feel like there are connections to be made and there's something deeper to the story.

It's not just like, oh, this was fun. And the one thing I think that we do miss a little bit, when we're doing a rewatch is like, you don't have the speculation. But, hey, we know that we got an ending that we're proud of and that we actually want to go back and watch these shows again. So before you listen, when we were starting to come out with our Hometown Cha episodes first, because we are doing the show separately.

So before you listen, please, please, please make sure you have watched all 16 episodes on Netflix. We will start from the beginning. as far as we know, we're probably gonna do two at a time, but sometimes there may be a special one that warrants doing one. So we will let you know, at the end of each one, which episodes we're doing next, if you not only obviously have [00:28:00] watched it first, but want to follow along with what we're watching it. 

CC: And we love to hear listener feedback, particularly at a time when so many of us are isolated and locked down. We're just not able to be out and doing the same things and our real life physical communities. And so please, we want this to be basically your, your virtual TV book club. You can submit your thoughts to us via Twitter @TVBanshees or on our website, streamingbanshees.com. And we want to hear your thoughts on episodes. We would love to select about five to 10 different comments or listener feedback that we can read on our following episode and share with everyone. So please don't be shy, and let us know what you thought about our thoughts about shows or what, what you thought about particular character arcs or themes. This is a fan space for you and to, and to discuss the TV that we love together.[00:29:00] 

Beep: So, Twitter wise, our DMS are open if you'd rather submit things that way, or if it's longer. Cause I know sometimes threads are hard. there's actually a page where you can submit posts for our website, but I do also want to mention. because I've had so many requests before we will be doing transcripts for our podcast. And when we posted those, that's also a great place in the comments to have discussions about those particular episodes. So we will be accessible. We will help you find this

CC: Since we're going to be kicking off with Hometown Cha first, there was one, one thing that Beep and I would just wanted to say, because we want to be very cognizant and sensitive about the fact that we are two Americans talking about a television show that is not from our country and not from our culture. And we very, very much want to stay in our own lane. And so we are going to be approaching Homecha and discussing it from a more universal [00:30:00] standpoint. What did the story tell us about human beings that we can relate to even if we are watching it with subtitles and it doesn't take place in a country in which we live. And we are going to try very hard and are practicing to pronounce everything correctly, but please, if we mispronounce something, if we're missing a really important societal context, please reach out and let us know. We want to get things right. We want to, we want to stay in our lane very much, but we also want to get things right. So please don't be shy in letting us know if we don't get something right. Or if we need to pronounce something a different way we will be back.

In about two weeks with our first deep dive of Hometown Cha, we'll be focusing on episodes one and two. We will generally be breaking the show down as it aired so those two episode blocks that aired, that's what our podcast we'll be covering. It seems as if the show was sort of broken down and written in that way. Although there will be some particular episodes, like I can imagine, for [00:31:00] example, episode 15, that will probably be a standalone podcast episode. So if you want to get ready to rewatch with us, rewatch Hometown Cha episodes one and two, and we'll be back in two weeks. In the meantime, we'd like to just end with two of our favorite quotes from both Hometown Cha and Ted Lasso.

I'll go first and leave you with the wisdom of our favorite grandmother. Gam-ri.  “Look around yourself closely and you'll realize that you're surrounded by many precious things.”

Beep: I'm literally almost going to cry just because of that. 

CC: No.

Beep: and I read it on the outline too, but as soon as you said it out loud, I was like, yeah. Oh my gosh, it's so deep. 

CC: Well, now you're getting up now. You're going to make me cry. Beep so go. 

Beep: Well, my mind kind of, I never thought about how they went together, because one of what are the quotes that I love that Ted gives his wisdom to his he says to his team, “I promise you there's something worse out there than [00:32:00] being sad and that's being alone and being sad.” And so for, oh my God. I mean, just the way those tie together for her to say, but if you look around there, there is a community. There are people there, because I think when she's referencing at that time, “precious things,” she's talking about people, not things. 

CC: And carrying one another on our backs. Well we didn't even – yeah, good thing we almost started crying on our first podcast, but this is par for the course with the two of us. We can't wait to go on this journey, celebrating these two stories with you all.

Beep: [00:33:00] Just so you guys remember, you can reach us on Twitter at @TVBanshees. Our website is streamingbanshees.com. Please go there now and subscribe to our newsletter so you’ll never miss any of our updates. Our website is also the place where you’ll find brilliant discussions on many other shows from some awesome and very smart people. There’s even a place for you to submit your own posts.

Beep: That’s all for us today. Thanks for listening and till next time… we'll see you soon.