PLUS East Of Eden

0:07Welcome to Pilot Plus, your extended guide to every show that matters. We're having a slightly chaotic one today. I've just come out of a screening. I've run to the office. I pulled a microphone out of my backpack, slapped it on a table in a studio, and we're hoping for the best. So if things sound a little bit weird, that's the reason why. But yes, we're going to chat through a lot of things today. We're going to save our discussion of all things New York Times Best TV Ever list for the main pod, because that warrants some discussion. And we're going to go through the postcard. But before we do that, let's get into this week's review.

0:36And this week's review is an epic, a titanic literary epic. It is Netflix's adaptation of the 1952 John Steinbeck novel, East of Eden. This one, of course, starring Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott, Mike Feist, and loads of other good people. Now, Boydie has a degree in American literature, which he studied in the actual Americas, where he imbued all this stuff and had it injected directly into his veins. So, Steph, do tell us about East of Eden on Netflix. You are a massive shit. I literally, listeners, said just before this, I've read East of Eden, but obviously don't get me to explain it because Boyd has a degree in American literature and that would be ridiculous to not use his expertise.

1:23If you want to pass it on to Boyd, you can. I did when I said, James, don't make me do it. That's, Boyd, please tell us in your eloquent way about East of Eden. Because I could do it, but I will get it wrong and I'll fumble. You're a little bit west of Eden, is what you're saying. Exactly. I understand. Boyd. Well, to be honest, I did read East of Eden back in the day, but I don't remember anything about it at all. Okay, do you want me to do it? No, no, no, no. I'm just explaining the background. I've also watched the James Dean film, East of Eden, in the 50s, which is - From what, 1950? Yeah, 1950 something.

2:07When's the film? And the film was, or the book only came out in 1952. So it would have to have been after that. It was a couple of years after that, I believe. One of only three films, of course, that James Dean never made, which is quite extraordinary considering the impact he had on all of us. And the 1955 film was, and the interesting thing was, it was directed by Elia Kazan, a Hollywood directing legend. And Elia Kazan's granddaughter is, of course, the creator of this version. Zoe. Zoe, thank you. This version, I was about to say her name. Sorry, sorry, I was trying to be helpful. I know, I know.

2:44I do forget everyone's name, Brian.

2:50But she's taken a whole new look at the source material. So I believe she doesn't necessarily stick to the epic. I mean, the original novel, as far as I can remember, had followed two families, and it starts out in Salinas, California, and then it kind of tracks how the families went from the East Coast, kind of Massachusetts, New England-y kind of area, to California, because at this time when it's set in the kind of post-war period, it feels like all of the wealth and all of the gold and all of the land of milk and honey is in California. At one point in, I think, I've watched two episodes, one or two episodes, or second episode, this guy comes up to one of our heroes and says, he's going to California, that's the place to be.

3:40but to start with what the this TV version does is and very and very deliberately is establish the main characters in the drama going back to their childhood and their semi-abusive relationship with their father Cyrus played by Tracy Letts by the way Tracy Letts semi-abusive? alright abusive full-on abusive alright full-on abusive Tracy Letts by the way is I absolutely love Tracy Letts the actor, the playwright. He's also in I Play Rocky, the film coming up, and he's brilliant in I Play Rocky. He plays a studio head. He's absolutely brilliant. In this, he plays a gigantic Bel-End patriarch who's a kind of war hero and who completely treats his two sons differently.

4:33One of them, he decides he's going to be nice to roughly, and the other one, he doesn't give a shit about And he leaves to kind of work on their homestead, while the other one goes off to fight Native Americans with the army, basically. And Christopher Rabbit plays the kind of most grown-up version of Adam Trask, Tracy Letts' character's son. And Mike Faced plays Charles, the Adams' half-brother. And he's the one who's left to kind of deal with all the shit in the farmhouse where they live. While Tracey S does nasty things and rises to power himself. But interestingly, the main character, as I understand it, in Zoe Kazan's version, this version, is Florence Pugh as Kathy Ames.

5:20And she is, at least in the beginning, of course, the framing device for the opening episode. And we see her arriving on the farmhouse where Adam and Charles live, fully bloodied. You don't know what's happened to her. She's covered in blood and wounds. and they take her in. Adam takes her in kind of willingly. Charles is less keen, but goes along with it. So there's this kind of mystery as to who Florence Bue's character is, even though she's going to end up, by all accounts, being the kind of main character in this version of events. That is my long-winded introduction to the story. But basically, it's very old-fashioned, it struck me, that reminded me actually of old school kind of American TV miniseries.

6:09You know what I mean? I grew up watching stuff like Washington Behind Closed Doors and there was Roots, really, you know, the telling of the slavery story. These were big. There was one on the Holocaust. These were big, ambitious kind of American epic shows which told their stories in very old-fashioned ways. Now, this does have the classic flashing backwards in time device that we know and love from all streaming dramas. Don't get me wrong. But somehow the telling of it, the way it's directed by Garth Davis, certainly Garth Davis is the lead director. He directed episodes of Top of the Lake and the film Lion and stuff, and he's very good.

6:50And he looks great. There's lots of kind of spectacular vistas. But it's old-fashioned. It's a kind of good old-fashioned story, sprawling story, multiple generations of families. and it kind of tells the story of how people popularise, popularise? Inhabited the West and went to California and what the effect of that dream of wealth and riches in the West Coast, what it really meant and what the impact of that was. And I enjoyed it. I didn't love it. I didn't feel like it was doing anything particularly different or spectacular. As I say, I keep using the phrase old-fashioned, But that's how it struck me, really.

7:33Despite, in a lot of the kind of material about the show, Zoe Kazan talks about how she's foregrounding Kathy, Von Spue's character and all this. In the end, it's an old-fashioned, but relatively compelling and interesting telling of the story. I think, I mean, I absolutely lapped this up. I adored it completely. You shocked me. And there wasn't even a dog. There was a dog actually and it was called General Lee and it appears in the first five minutes. Oh yes. And it is. He has a very small role. It's small but very impactful. And it is the dog. I mean and that is a massive framing device because the dog, the gift of the dog, the dog is given on the dad's birthday by one of the sons, by Adam and not by Charles.

8:25and that therefore begins the you know the kind of discourse between the two brothers about their relationship with their father now if you haven't read east of eden i mean i urge you to do so because it's an obviously an absolute literary masterpiece and it is as you say boyd it is about these two families the trusks and the hamiltons and kind of this you know this for me kathy ames what Zoe Kazan has done with Kathy Ames in the three episodes I've seen is absolutely masterful and I love it. But I really want to make mention of the casting director, Ellen Lewis. So, I think this is some of the best casting I've ever seen.

9:07Ellen Lewis famously has cast Killers of the Flower Moon, an incredible film, and one of my favorite films ever, The Departed. And I think what she's done here is incredible because Christopher Abbott, as Adam. Well, you know, when you, I think one of the things when you know a book well, and in your mind, you know, your Adam and your Charles, they look and feel a certain way. And your Kathy looks, and this is very rarely ever happened to me that there's been an adaptation. And I'm like, that's exactly what those people look like to me in my mind. And especially Florence Pugh. Christopher Abbott, I could watch all day.

9:44To your point, Boyd. I'm sure you could. Oh my God. I mean, I loved him in Girls. He was Marnie's boyfriend in Girls. Oh my God. I thought you were going to cite Wolfman, but carry on. Girls. I just love him in Girls. And obviously he does a lot of theatre. He does a lot of Broadway. He treads the boards and you really see that in this. I think one of the things I really enjoyed about it was it didn't have loads of sparky little bits to it. When he's having a conversation with his brother in the farmhouse, it's dark in the farmhouse. There's not unnatural light. It's all natural. It feels very authentic.

10:26It feels very of that type, which is maybe why I think you're getting the feeling of it feels sort of old-fashioned. But I love that they haven't done that. I love that there's a particular scene where he's having a conversation with his brother when he comes back to the house. And it's Christopher Abbott is one of those brilliant actors that almost his reaction acting is even better than when he's actually saying something. I know that sounds strange, but just he's the slight facial movements that he's able to like convey so much. And I just, I totally - Face acting. Yeah, I totally, I totally like, I drunk every drop of what he had to give.

11:05It was incredible. Yeah, so not over lit. I love the dialogue between the two brothers. I think that's done really, really well. But yeah, this is Florence Pugh's show. As Kathy, I'm not going to give away any spoilers because James has given me the evils. Yeah, we should note that I'm policing this shit. I've had to censor both of you during the course of this review. You're both on first warnings. I know. I just feel like because it's a book and a piece of literature that exists, people know these characters. But if, like me, you are completely ignorant of American classical literature, show then you will have no fucking clue what's going to happen so i think we should maintain that i am absolutely shook that you have you've read my of mice and men though i think i have a copy of it somewhere in the house does that count no because you haven't read it yeah i really enjoyed the bit but i like the bit when you got to like it's like to call the dog general lee turn to page 253 and obviously i got a little bit lost doing that you know keep my fingers in the pages so i could keep my choices that was that was that was the difficult bit yeah okay back to florence right Right.

12:03So Florence Pugh as Kathy Ames is, this is her, oh God, this is, this, Florence Pugh is an incredible actress. And this is Florence Pugh at her best, because what I love about Florence Pugh is she can say one word and it dominates the whole scene. And again, I'm not going to give away spoilers, but there's something that she continuously says and is ignored. And that for me is kind of the heartbeat of her character throughout this whole epic story. and again I'm trying not to give any spoilers because she's really looking at me in a mean way James that this is about her for me this is about her and all the men around her and retelling this story in the times that we're in is so interesting I'm really excited to see how people react to it and people who don't know who don't know the the novel I'll be really interested to see what they takeaway from this.

12:58God, it's so hard to not give away anything. But yeah. Can we talk about the brothel? I don't know. I don't know. Well, I think we can. What are you going to say about the brothel? I'm going to say, all I'll say is this, is that brothels are key to the story. Okay. And there's one in episode one, and there's quite a funny scene, is all I'll say, which is almost like the matter-of-factness in which the characters go to visit said brothel is one of the kind of themes of the story in a way. And how, you know, even writing then, back in the 50s, part of the book, part of the theme of the book is, you know, what women had to resort to do as opposed to what men had to resort to do.

13:45And the brothel, which is, as I say, in this kind of almost Riley funny scene in episode one is key to that. Hopefully that's not a spoiler. I think the other thing is, right, so now you've got these kind of contemporary ideas that Steinbeck had back then of like, what is masculinity? What does it mean to be a man? Back then for many, it meant, right, okay, if you are the man, you are going out to fight in the Civil War and then latterly in the First World War, what is it to be a woman to have no choice? So these very contemporary themes of like feminism and masculinity explored in kind of this very New Way by Zoe is thrilling to me.

14:27It's absolutely thrilling. Even the brutality and the physicality of the violence in this, and not just violence for men against women, men against men, and it is extraordinarily violent, but those themes are so exciting to see in a modern Netflix take. Am I correct in saying that the first 14 chapters of the book, as I know because I've read the summary on Wikipedia, are in fact the set up of those two brothers and the relationship with their father. So all the stuff covered in the first episode is the first 14 chapters of the book. Seemingly, yeah. That does seem to be the case. I think the book actually begins in Salinas, California.

15:12I think it does too. And then it flashes back. So in fact, this… Is it Salinas? I call it Salinas. Salinas? So, you might be wrong. That's called the whole thing off. Okay. Oh, okay. But the way that they do it in the first, they do Charles and Adam, and then they do the Cathy episode, and then I won't give it away. And then there's the whole other family. Do they exactly, so you watched... You're not introduced to the family until the third episode, The Hamiltons, which is an Irish immigrant family, until the next episode. But again, let's not give away any spoilers. Well, that's not a spoiler, because that's an intrinsic part of the book.

15:50So there's Kieran Hines as Samuel Hamilton, Martha Plimpton's in it as well. So we don't meet them until episode three. That's interesting because I need to, I should have watched episode three, but I fell asleep on my sofa. That's okay. You're allowed to fall asleep. Have a little nap, babes. Thanks. Okay. So yeah, I loved it. I think this is absolutely phenomenal. This is Florence Pugh's show for me. She gives absolutely outstanding performance. But again, Ellen Lewis, well done because this is absolutely standout casting from you and you're obviously incredible. What could I possibly have to add?

16:20I've never read the book whatsoever. Going into this, I agree with Boyd, it's very old-fashioned, but I don't mean that as a negative at all. It feels like one of those old Sunday night event miniseries type things, you know, that have sweeping, dynastic, like there was, I'm sure they did fucking tons of them in like the, you know, the sort of late 80s, early 90s where everyone's families would sit down and you'd watch this thing and maybe it'd be stripped across the week and it was a big old thing and it was a limited thing. And it would be several generations of a family and some of them I'm sure were literary, some of them were not, but it feels like that was very much of that era.

16:54And, but this is, I suppose what's interesting to me is, and I've never seen the film adaptation of East of Eden as well, but to your point, I think it's interesting watching these kind of very specific mores through a modern lens. And it's not explicit, but just weirdly, just even like the viewpoint and the way things are framed, the way things are perceived, sort of reflect modern values, like just the way that their father treats them, the way he behaves. You know, from a certain point of view, it would have been seen as commonplace years back then. You know, it's the whole spare the rod, spoil the child type thing.

17:30But he is a thoroughly abusive, cold, manipulative, quite deeply unpleasant man. And it's interesting seeing the effect that that has, and that shapes the two sons where Charles has got this like really kind of resentful violent streak in him. Whereas Adam is very sensitive and very soft and very much someone who leans on his brother. And I think it has a lot of Cain and Abel in it, doesn't it? There's a lot of that kind of running through that relationship with him. Yeah, and that is the theme throughout the multi-generational story. And I found that the depiction of that particular era, that sort of slightly post-Civil War moment in American kind of rural life to be fascinating because I mean it looks so expensive and it's beautiful and the landscape and cinematography is wonderful um so yeah I look it's I think it does that stuff really well it didn't really seize me from a kind of like a story point of view but I think that says more about me than it says about the actual I think I think if you've if you've read East of Eden and you absolutely don't need to have read East of Eden okay don't don't think oh i must read dvd and i don't want to be like a literary snot because i have not read hardly any books but right what i would say you don't need to read it but if you have read it then you can see it from another it's exciting because you know the story you know what's going to happen to the characters so it gives you another kind of level of oh what are they going to do with kathy and and when is this bit going to happen so i think maybe for me that also spurs me on to watch more because i'm like oh i know when are they going to do this bit are they going to include that bit of dialogue are they going to do there is a bit which i think like what you're saying james is that i do find that i think that first episode they do that tug of war between um men the love between men and men who are related really really well and this isn't a spoiler at all but there is one line in it which kind of sums the whole thing up where these two boys are desperate to get the approval of their abusive father and when adam says that adam says why do you treat us different?

19:31And he says, because I love you better. Don't you see that? When he's sending him away. And it's those kind of moments in it that I think, oh my God. I just love the way they've done everything. Absolutely love it. I enjoyed that, that very knotty relationship with him and the way his abuse is focused more precisely on the son that he favours because he doesn't care enough about the other one to be abusive towards him which is i mean the whole thing is quite traumatic actually but it's incredibly traumatic but as you say i knew and that's a really good point okay back then this is not an out of an out of the ordinary way for parents to treat their children like now it seems abhorrent and it absolutely is abhorrent but it's not like he was doing anything that people wanted their sons to go out to all to make them proud and you obeyed and you got whipped and all of that kind of stuff this wasn't out of the ordinary this this this kind of familial story it just is the way it is but now looking back on it we're gonna think fuck that he's an evil shit but really he wasn't and that's how he managed to you know no spoilers get away with what he did and here end with the american literature lecture from professor sealan uh so yeah stephanie you turned out to be you turned out to have a thorough almost encyclopedic knowledge of this book that you when we were when we were just concerned that i wasn't going to do it justice because so you did a degree in American literature in advance of this podcast.

20:56No, so I just, because I read it, I was like, I love it so much and I just, I'm just not as eloquent as you, Boyd, and I just knew you'd be able to do it better. I think you've disproven that theory. Not at all, not at all. Well, East of Eden, should you wish to see it, let's be honest, for General Lee the dog, then you can find it on Netflix. When, Boydy? It's on there now, I believe. On the Netflix now. As we speak. Now streaming. Now streaming. right it is time now for the post bag

21:34right before we start this week's post pack i should say we have got quite a lot of things in there if your message has not been uh if i haven't got to it it's because the triage system is getting more and more chaotic by the week i'm going to try and rein that in but let's be honest that's not going to happen this week for all of you who wrote in to continue the reacher conversation i did read your messages i'm not going to get into it for the simple reason that i have drawn a line under the reacherosity a number of you did agree with me thank you i do appreciate it but we i'm ending the reacher chat for the sake of everyone's sanity um but yes i have read and i appreciated your messages of support uh but let's find out what else we can see here and we had a message which came in just as we were recording this.

22:14It pinged into the inbox, so I'm going to start with that one, which is a mad way of dealing with the queuing system, but fuck it, we're going to do it anyway. This comes from Dan, and Dan says, Hi Pod, like Boyd, I've been waiting a long time to pay for HBO Max as I cycle through the streaming subscriptions, so I've only just finished The Pit. God, it's good, isn't it? There's a void in my life now, so I'm thinking of watching ER for the very first time as all 15 seasons are on Channel 4. My question is, does it still hold up? as with your band of brothers chat recently i don't think er is often mentioned in the top shows list and i was too young to watch it when it first aired if it does still hold up is there a season to tap out at or does it sustain its quality throughout dan it's hard to say there's a season to tap out of without giving away people that die do you know what i mean yeah there a number of characters do die i mean some people bailed when george clooney left and goran vishnich came in and replaced him but that would be a mistake because luka kovac that would be a mistake um do you know what i think it runs out of steam i would say in the last two i because i watched it religiously up until i want to say season 14 and then when's helicopter let's just say helicopter when's helicopter the helicopter moment is before then i think if i remember correctly the helicopter moment is genius especially both parts of the helicopter yes the helicopter yeah yeah that's genuinely brilliant um do you know what for a network medical drama it's fucking brilliant from top to bottom i really do believe that and even if the latter seasons especially the last two aren't quite up to the standard i don't think there's still some great episodes in there and some really really good characters and you know the nature of a show that runs for that many years is the cast does revolve a little bit isn't the same people all the way through um but actually i think they cast it pretty consistently and you've got really funny episodes you've got the mad live episode you haven't got a musical episode but you've got uh the live episode's really cool because he's doing percussion he's like drumming on the window so they have like kind of in situ music which is really fun um but the one that always sticks out for me the one that still traumatizing me two episodes it's the uh there's a lucy knight episode uh which that's all i'm gonna say which is particularly brutal and dr green in the bathroom and i can't i can't genuinely some of the most upsetting tv i've ever seen so i i don't think i think you should watch er just just to be in love with dr green and then see what happens but yeah i think i i still it's still it's still a real kind of emotional turmoil for me dr green yeah and i think most people it's it's a it's a hell of a show yes well well worth your time i would say um you know So TV and film have just done Dr.

25:01Green dirty because obviously he was Goose as well. He was Goose, yeah. He had a rough time, did old Dr. Green? He did have a rough time. Do you remember what the opening scene is of ER? Oh, my God, do you? Isn't that Carol Hathaway on a gurney? Yeah, well, basically the main star of ER, I happen to know because I kind of accidentally watched it. Oh, did you? Oh. Yeah, is George Clooney waking up, being woken up, who's like sleeping in one of the hospital beds and everyone's trying to find him and get him up and get him going. And he's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like an introduction to his maverick nature.

25:36And it's quite clunky. And yet at the same time, very entertaining. And immediately, like George Clooney is unbelievably magnetic and charismatic, you know? So yeah, right from the start, it kind of sets its storm up. Aren't they waking him up because Julianna Margulies' character, who is his then girlfriend, has just taken an overdose. And that's the thrust of the first time. Why are you getting this encyclopedic knowledge of E.R. did? Do you just remember this? Yeah, it was quite famous because she was supposed to die in the pilot. But she, obviously, it's Giuliani Margulies now. But then it was just, oh, it's Giuliani Margulies.

26:06And she was so good that they went, no, no, no, we've got to keep her. This is a fantastic character. And so they rewrote it and she survives. And then she becomes a regular on the show. But yeah, she wasn't going to live through that first episode originally. God, that's great. That's a great fact. Well done, you. Yeah, it's a hell of a show. Also, you know, John Wells involved in that. And I think Tommy Schlammy worked on it too. And it's pioneered that kind of walk and talk thing that got perfected in the West Wing. Oh, yeah, that's in the first episode. Yeah, the sense of motion and dynamism in that show is incredible.

26:35Because you remember, like, network television used to be very static. You know, you'd be in a room. Yeah, the conversations would happen at the desk. At a desk in a room. Or the nurse's station. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. Whereas in this one, they're always in motion. They're always on the move. They're going somewhere else. And The Pit has a lot of that in it as well, like a show that's always in motion. So actually, I think you'll feel quite at home watching ER after watching The Pit. Noah Wiley, as well, in the very first episode, you're seeing everything kind of through his eyes as well.

26:59He's the pog. Yeah, he's the pog, yeah. Yeah, he's our way into the hospital. Yeah, so basically, if you like Noah Wiley and you like him as a doctor, then you should definitely watch ER, because that's what he's been, a career TV doctor forever. Correct. So, yes. The correct response. A message here from Lindsay, and Lindsay says, this is for Steph. You are correct. young americans was an amazing teen show with rowing and romance that ended after only eight episodes on the wb dawson's creek was used as a launching pad a main character from young americans appeared on an episode of dawson's uh as an old friend who moved away but i don't think it'd be considered a real spin-off sadly it doesn't appear to be streaming anywhere otherwise i'd say it's worth a from the vault visit uh it's not it not only starred ian sommerhalder but Kate Bosworth Michelle Monaghan and Charlie Hunnam unbelievable yeah it was brilliant it's honestly brilliant I'm starting to remember yeah do you remember what happens is like not to get no one can watch it now so right basically a girl wants to get on the team right so she pretends that she's a boy it's got so many it's a great plot she pretends to be a boy and then Ian Somerhalder falls in love with her but he thinks he's a boy and then he has all this conflict he's conflicted because he's like oh no he's conflicted about his sexuality and then she reveals she's actually, oh my God, it's brilliant.

28:19It's honestly great. You should watch it if you can, if you can find it anywhere. But yeah, sorry, carry on. The message continues. Oh, Crew Girl reminded me of another WB series that ended too soon, Jack and Bobby, starring Jessica Bair as the future first lady married to one of the brothers, Jack or Bobby. In the present day, they're teens and the central mystery is which one grows up to be president and which one dies. Also starring Logan Lerman, Christine Larty, John Slattery and Bradley Cooper. The show is available to stream on Hulu in the US. I know what I'm doing this weekend. I remember Jack and Bobby.

28:50I think I watched a couple of episodes of that, but not much more than that. Do you remember this, Boydney? Vaguely, yeah. I mean, it's from quite a while ago, but interestingly, that's still knocking around on the streaming services. That is bizarre. Right. Let's see. Oh, I have to. See, this is, I'm going to read this out, even though it loses something by not having a visual component to it. So this comes from Graham, and Graham says, Hi, Pilot TV team. I think James is missing a trick when it comes to Lego. It's easily one of the best ways to build up a geeky sci-fi collection. While official sets for specific TV shows are rare, the Millennium Falcon, set 75375, in case you were wondering, combined with Rebrickable, is a game-changer.

29:28This set is famous for being easily rebuilt into other ships without needing any extra pieces. Using just this one set, I've built the Serenity and the Pillar of Autumn. I've also built his beloved Rocinante, though that was from a different set. Next on my list are the Daedalus and Prometheus from Stargate SG-1, the defiant from deep space nine plus battle star galactica and pegasus and even metal gear x might even do an enterprise or two not bad for a set that's frequently down to 50 pounds and i have to say he's in he's included photos of his recreation of the serenity from firefly his recreation can you send those to me of the rossinante from the expanse and his recreation of the pillar of autumn which is uh from the game halo and they're pretty fucking good do you know what can you send me the serenity one because my brother's got the millennium my brother i'm gonna send it to you now graham i am forwarding this to steph now props to you sir and i'm thinking this is a half-term project for me that's that's very very cool what you've managed to do that i i i've heard of rebrickable yes uh and i think actually repurposing it to do other ships that's uh that's a pretty pretty inspired idea so you have inspired me not enough to go out and buy a set but i am inspired honestly james you would fucking love lego i've said this before you have got such a Strong Lego vibes.

30:43Just like if you cut down like the nine hours you're on gaming and just do like half of that on gaming and half of that on Lego, babes, you're going to have a whale of a time. Really? Just saying. I'm not sure. The sense of accomplishment is unreal. All right. We've got a message here from Boydie and this says HiPod. Just writing in to say, I couldn't disagree more with Boyd's mini review of The Box. My wife and I absolutely love it. It's perfect weekend TV, incredibly funny, and you can't help but get sucked into the silly games and dynamics between the players. By the way, the whole point of that second task, not the first one, by the way, was that it wasn't an egg and spoon race.

31:23The ones who treated it like that failed. It was introducing the concept in a silly, low-stakes way that the players need to figure out what the game they are playing is from the second they step out of the box. Obviously, they are not transported in the boxes for safety reasons, but they clearly are led to them blindfolded and not told anything about where they are. The tasks get way more complex and involved from there as the episodes go on, and the drama between the consistence is delicious. Please, anyone who enjoys a weekend reality game show format, don't listen to Boyd and get into The Box.