PLUS Scrubs

0:07Welcome to Pilot Plus, your extended guide to every show that matters. and we reconvene once more with Steph Sealand. How are you, Steph? And crucially, how are your tonsils? Well, let me just say, you two definitely couldn't have your tonsils out. You wouldn't be able to take it. It's, oh my God, it's horrendous. It's absolutely horrendous. Like when you have two, when they say you need two weeks off, you really need those two weeks because it's like post-operatively, it gets worse before it gets better. I won't go into too much detail. I'll save that for the other pod, but it's pretty awful.

0:42Do you have them in a jar? Did they let you keep them? No, I think they only do that when you're like seven. They don't. Why are they giving tonsils to seven-year-olds? Because I think it was the thing, oh, look, and you've got your tonsils. But when you're like 44, even though it took so much strength for me not to ask if I could have them, I didn't ask because I thought it would just be too embarrassing. And they didn't give them to me. And God knows where they are now. now obviously people are paying for this podcast so i don't want to waste too much of their time but i do need to know what does a tonsil do what's its job well a tonsil actually is kind of a first line of defense to stop lots of horrible bacteria getting into your body but if you have chronically inflamed tonsils and have tonsillitis like i did like eight times a year and you have to keep taking loads of antibiotics and stuff all the time it's really not good for you there are certain times when you should have them out.

1:34I mean, it's a bit like your appendix in a way where people say, oh, you don't really need it, so you can get rid of it. Okay. So, yeah, there you go. You'll be fine without your tonsils. Well, we are very glad to have you back, Steph. Oh, I'm glad to be back. Here to talk about the new season, the belated, I guess, 10th season or first season, it depends on how you want to look at it, is the 10th season of The Scrubs reboot or the 10th season of Scrubs. This is Bill Lawrence's show, which first debuted all the way back in 2001, starring Zach Braff and Sarah Chalk and Donald Faison, among other people, John C.

2:06McGinley, Judy Reyes. And it was a comedic, slightly surreal sitcom set in Sacred Heart Hospital, a fictional teaching hospital, in which John C. McGinley would bellow abuse at, well, everyone. And it was quite fun. I watched it back in the day. Did you guys watch Scrubs back in the day? I was obsessed with Scrubs. I loved Scrubs. Obsessed? Yeah. Obsessed with Scrubs. Obsessed with Scrubs. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. However, it ran for eight seasons originally and had, shall we say, somewhat diminishing returns. And yet after the finale, which was literally called My Finale, the final episode, they did do a ninth season, which was set at a teaching kind of med school type place.

2:46And not all of the cast were regulars and it wasn't good. Nobody watched that. It was terrible. Bill Lawrence at the time had said the reason why he did an extra season was because he had this whole cast and crew and people mouths to feed and he wanted to continue to give them work. So he extended it beyond its natural lifespan. That lasted one season and then was summarily cancelled. And Scrubbier, as we may or may not call it, met an untimely demise. So, however, now, many years later, Scrubs has returned. Everyone a little older, a little wiser. But the question is, did it recapture the original magic?

3:22Steph, you were obsessed. Tell us. What did you think of new scrubs? Okay, well, I think it's really telling that they're calling this a revival and not a reboot. Because it really is a revival of the original show with lots of the original cast. Now, this is one of the shows that I was so excited to see come back. And in a news section a few pods ago, I mentioned that they'd said that the janitor wasn't coming back. And I think you, James, said, how can they have scrubs without the janitor? He was such a central role. and for me I really enjoyed it it was really lovely to be back in the warm glow of these characters that are beloved to me but there is a central problem with this revival in that the main protagonist being JD central to his whole ethos in this hospital is he needs an antagonist We all know that every protagonist needs an antagonist.

4:20And I don't know if this is giving away a spoiler because people do return and it has been said that John C. McGinley does come back and it's not a recurring role. He is a special guest. Now, if you were a fan as I was of the original Scrubs, John C. McGinley is just as much as part of the main show as JD is and you need him because he gets all the best one-liners. Him and the janitor get all the best one-liners. And it's what spurs on JD's character art because his whole thing is trying to please Dr. Cox in this hilarious way. Now, I don't know if this is a spoiler, but he isn't in the whole season.

5:03Can I say that? I think you can say it's a passing of the torch is the setup for this. It is a passing of the torch. And that is a huge problem for me, a fan of the original Scrubs. So if you love the original Scrubs, there's, you know, most of the core cast return, which is great. But I'm kind of struck by who this is for, because it's not enough of the original cast to want people who really loved Scrubs to just get back into it with all your favorite people. And the new cast, which is what the young interns, there's not enough story with them. the characters are very just they're very airy fairy there's just not enough substance to them and so I'm not you it feels like it's caught in this very strange time of apart with the fact there's one real notable new star who's Vanessa Bayer who's actually an SNL comedian and she is the HR exec and one of the things I did find really funny is because of the passing of time now they've got all this kind of you know everyone has to be very woke and you have to like you have to be thinking about everything you're saying and so they've lost some of that but they're addressing that with having this HR woman in and she's brilliant she is for me she was a real star I watched three episodes and she was a real star in it but I think the loss of Dr Cox as the main antagonist is a massive blow to original Scrubs fans so while I enjoyed it and it does have a little bit of the magic it isn't it isn't scrubs and for me having watched all nine seasons of scrubs it finished beautifully exactly as i would have wanted it and i feel that now i was very happy to leave it there yeah i i know what you mean it's interesting so we should say neil flynn is back in this in some capacity because they did announce it uh he wasn't in the episode that i saw so i'm presuming he comes in later on well i've watched three and he wasn't in that right he wasn't in there eventually i know what you mean i because i dr cox was always my favorite character in this because he does have all the best lines because he's very acerbic and rude and generally hilarious and his wife or ex-wife i should say jordan and it was always very entertaining as well the difficulty i had with this a little bit was it feels like a comic relief skit in the you know that thing where like they reunite the cast of like a beloved sitcom when they're all much older and the kind of riffing on their previous dynamics and this made me feel exceptionally old because everyone in it looks so much older and i just was like oh wow i i feel i feel ancient um just watching this but the things that you mentioned so the hr person in it i i hated her hated her yeah she for me was the worst part of this show and not because there's anything wrong with the actor who i think is fine it's just i feel that that's such low-hanging fruit to be like dr cox is really politically incorrect oh let's make lots of woke jokes about gen z being little snowflakes and always on their phones and being very digital talking about vibes and being so easily offended and i was just like this is so first base it's actually acutely painful but i think it needs to be it's it's not a cerebral watch is it it needs to be it needs to be first base and i think that's what makes it comfortable first base though shouldn't comedy like pushed the boat out a bit i don't think scrubs was ever any much more than that it was just living in the time when you didn't make those kinds of jokes i think it had it been you know it's it's now just dealing with the kind of jokes it would have dealt with then had it been that time if you know i mean it's not it's it's an easy watch you don't it's just a really easy watch it's it's light on comedy but because of the assemblance of this cast you need to love the cast to watch this again because you're not going to come to this new not knowing the backstory and care about any of these people are you i don't think there's enough no yeah i can watch the first season exactly boydy how did you feel yeah i i was not obsessed with scrubs scrubs was always for me like one of those kind of like mid mid american sitcom it was quite mid it was quite as steph said it was comforting yeah it was never quite friends or seinfeld or fraser or Cheers or any of the It's not an absolute classic is it?

9:23And I think it's Recipe Which had those Do you know what? I think I was always put off by the The kind of you know The fantasy sequences Or the you know The little Right Those JD's daydreams Yeah the daydreams I always found them a bit laboured And a bit As a device that never I mean in any show That device that slightly irritates me It feels like a kind of filler You know And a way of I don't know, a cheap way of adding jokes to the mix. So the best thing about Scrumbs was always, yeah, the kind of the cast and the interrelationships between the characters, and that was always the funniest element of it.

10:04So this does feel, this has the feeling for me, it's fine. It's absolutely fine. Unlike Frasier, right? Frasier, they fucked it up. They absolutely took an all-time classic American sitcom and they basically turned in something incredibly mediocre and unsatisfying. They haven't done that. They've basically, as you say, they've revived it. But to what purpose? It almost feels to me like this is like a job scheme for Zach Braff and Donald Faison. They're not doing that much stuff, are they? I mean, he directed a few decent films back in the day. Yeah, Garden State. Yeah, Garden State was great. I mean, he can retire on Golden State.

10:47I love that film. That film is incredible. Sorry, I'm just going to make the point. He does direct some shrinkings as well. Oh, yeah. So he does doing a lot of directing. Yeah, yeah, sure. But, you know, the other characters in it, it's almost like I sat there thinking, I'm intrigued by the process by which this came about and, you know, who had to call up each other and, you know. But it doesn't feel essential. You know, like when Gavin and Stacey, you know, went away for 10 years, you know, and Ruth Jones and James Corden reconvened after all that time. And they talked and there was a big build up.

11:27It's like that felt like an organic thing that happened. This was inorganic somehow. It feels like, yeah, because I don't think like the very, very best like American sitcoms, it would be, it must be harder. Like Frasier again, I'll keep comparing it. It's almost harder to meet the expectations of that show. This is like, it's kind of met our expectations, apart from the lack of the caretaker and this, that, and the other. It's absolutely fine, and I had a perfectly good time. But it didn't give me any reason particularly to carry on, I didn't think. Except for the comfort food of you really love these characters that you want to spend more time with them, and that's lovely.

12:07And it's not going to capture any big new. And the other thing I kept thinking about was The Pit. It's like a kind of, you know. it's like the pit we've got the pit now which in its own way has some very dark funny moments you know and it's so authentic and real and visceral and all that i know it's a different genre right you know scrubs is a sitcom um but you can't help but thinking this is like the very light and when it tried to be kind of quite powerful it was a bit more kish i thought you know it's always been a bit like that i think i yeah this this was a funny one because this made me question whether i ever liked scrubs in the first place but genuinely it made me wonder because i thought one of two things has happened either this is just that it's just you know like a weak source version of the original scrubs which is possible or it's that frankly tv has moved on quite a long way since 2001 and i may be expecting a little bit more from my sitcoms i mean obviously my favorite sitcom is friends and that's from the 90s but nevertheless i uh i yeah i i i struggled this is 24 minutes long and I was quite bored towards the end okay I think that you've made a really important point Boyd about Gavin and Stacey in that the reason you're welcome um the reason why that reboot revival revisit was so all important is because there were lingering questions okay and what Scrubs did incredibly well incredibly well in their season finale the original finale is it tied up every loose end that you knew that JD was going off to be with Elliot.

13:43You knew that Carla and Turk were going to be together. You knew everything. Dr. Cox had his final line, which is he finally respected him. He said he's the only, like, you know, if you are a true scribe fan, you remember this because it was so incredibly satisfying as a viewer if you've been along for nine seasons and you all he wants is for dr cox to respect him and you finally get that sincere line from him you're like i'm done that's great it's closed out but with gavin and stacy what they did intentionally or not whether they thought they were i mean you would know boyd whether they thought they were gonna ever come back to it is they left lingering questions so people still wanted you don't come back to things if you know the answers do you and i think that is the issue here so why are people coming back to it are they coming back to it just because they love the characters and they want to see what they're up to now well you know what everyone's got old and they've got promotions you know that's it um are they coming back because they want to see a little bit more of the feistiness between dr cox and jd well you're not going to get that so that's unfortunate you're not going to get the janitor there isn't the the only thing that's kind of antagonizing jd is elliot um that's not enough unfortunately and he's trying to kind of there's that new um character wasn't there like a new Doctor Who instantly took against him when they had the disagreement about the one whose job he steals.

15:05Yeah, he was quite good. He was quite funny because he was so acerbic. I mean, I'm not saying he's enough to keep me watching. He's not enough. No, but they're clearly planting him as the new antagonist, aren't they? That guy? Because he took no shit. How many did you watch? I watched three and he made zero impact for me because I'm like, basically, JD got got a job that he wanted and then his attempts to kind of thwart JD are a minimal and ineffective I think so it's I mean I'm I will carry on watching because I want to see Krista Miller who plays Liz in Shrinking I know I'm constantly talking about Shrinking I'm going to start but um Krista Miller as Dr Cox's ex-wife she's gonna apparently come back as a cameo I think to your point James about being it being a bit like a comic relief sketch I think people will watch this because they're like right who's going to come back are they going to bring this person back at this point because that's what you're waiting for in a comic release sketch isn't it like though all those people oh they're back doing that role that they did and that it feels more like that than uh oh people are going to start watching scrubs now because i i don't you need a reason to watch and i'm not sure this has a reason to watch yeah and i hate to say that because you know scrubs is beloved but i i think for me again to your point that you started questioning whether you like Scrubs.

16:23I love Scrubs. This does not tarnish what I originally loved about Scrubs, but I'm very happy to leave it there. Scrubs, which returns, triumphantly or not, to Disney Plus today on Thursday the 26th of February. It's time for the postbag.

16:44Triage. It's the postbag. have you have you looked at the postbag before have you everything everything that is in my current list basically i now have a sofa list of postbag messages where i've got a long old list in a folder of things that i've chucked in there and i'm just going to go through them at various points i'm going to start with some of the more recent ones rather than going back to older ones because some of them are topical so let us see what we have right this comes from liz and liz says hi k boyd james and boyd bot 2000 it's a joke because you missed that one stuff because you went on the podcast last week uh just listened to your discussion of tv programs being referenced in other tv programs and i wanted to mention the reference to coronation street in disney's recent wonder man ben kingsley's character trevor slattery is an act who makes several references to having worked with real life actors in his fictional past e.g lawrence olivier in one episode he recounts having appeared in an episode of coronation street as ron jenkins what makes this even more meta is that Ben Kingsley actually appeared as Ron Jenkins in five episodes of Corrie in the 1960s.

17:48This little gem treated soap fans online to imagine the possibilities of Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor, etc. sitting down to watch Coronation Street as it now exists officially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There we go. That is brilliant, yeah. That is good, yeah. And someone else pointed out that there are some excellent Serenity, oh, I say Serenity, it's actually Firefly, the TV says, Firefly references in Nathan Fillion's show Castle. I don't know if you ever watched Castle oh yes Castle's listen I watch anything with Nathan Fillion in I love Nathan Fillion do you watch The Rookie yeah it's great The Rookie The Rookie is massive with Gen Z as did you know like teenagers are obsessed with The Rookie at the moment I don't know why I do not know but that is apparently a thing oh it's a really good easy watch it's a nice easy watch yeah I can see why there are loads of nice easy watches to yeah I'm an intruder but maybe it's Nathan Fillion because he's in Peacemaker and maybe people you know maybe he's finally getting you know the recognition he deserves.

18:43Maybe. Early appearances in Two Guys and a Girl, you know, the Canadian sitcom, which I love to promote, Ryan Reynolds' sitcom. Nathan Fillion was in that and he was brilliant. Yeah, he was also in Buffy after Firefly got cancelled. Let's move on to Boydie getting something wrong, because Stuart wishes to inform you that, and I quote, I may be wrong, but I think Boyd just mixed up Sam Claflin with Theo James when describing the advert when he's driving the car to the woman, the Range Rover advert where he's collecting the ball and bringing it back to the stately home slash woman slash dog unless they've been in similarly themed car adverts of course.

19:14You're absolutely right. Oh my God. Mortifying. Oh God. Everyone knows I'm going to see her so she adds to her. I'm sure Theo James will survive. Theo James and Sam Claflin. Yeah, they are very similar in my head. They're kind of like, is there, you know, are they the same person really? No, I would say, I think that's, I think that's forgivable. They kind of, yeah, I think it's okay. Interchangeable we're saying. Okay. No, no, I'm not saying that i've officially said they're interchangeable no they are not interchangeable but i can see where you would get confused boydy so not confused that makes you sound wow

19:51yeah we have a long long message from michael but i'm going to read out most of it michael took issue with my star trek primer he is not the first nor i'm sure will he be the last but he says with respect to you james and the listener who recently wrote him regarding the how to start star trek question you are both wrong the best way for anyone embarking upon star trek now in 2026 is to get into it by watching strange new worlds there are several reasons for this one it has the high production values that today's audiences are accustomed to two it has the modern style and sensibilities that today's audiences are accustomed to yet three it is also the most reminiscent of old school trek because it is episodic set in a similar time period to the original series and features several of those characters four it encompasses the breadth of what star trek can do in terms of themes tone storytelling and genres and excels at all of it additionally strange new worlds has the highest hit rate of excellent episodes per season for any trek series any long-time viewers will know that all of the older series have one or two turkeys per brilliant episode the first two seasons of strange new worlds are consistently great and while the third season was definitely weaker there are still several very worthy episodes in it for those of who grew up with the older series as they were new the dated style and production values are fine but are best left for newer viewers until they are hooked on the franchise once familiar with the universe and hooked by the great concepts and characters viewers should then proceed backwards discovery next although i recommend stopping at the end of season two that's all you need to see there i agree skip enterprise altogether sorry steph not even scott baccala's quantum leap good will could save that one you could also probably skip voyager too although if you must watch it start with season four i believe he refers to the episode scorpion to which i would respond to you my friend michael you are a pervert uh kidding i believe when season four is referring to the episode scorpion which introduces the busty borg jerry ryan's seven of nine so we know where your head is up there michael right uh although he's not wrong that is when it gets good um absolutely watch deep space nine but as james says it really takes off when cisco shaved his head and grew the beard which is also when wharf joined the cast so start with season four as much as i love the next generation don't bother with the first two seasons fair finally watch the original series by then you won't mind or might even enjoy the clunky 60s style lower deck is fun but best enjoyed after seeing a lot of other trek picard can be skipped altogether as it's mostly dreadful harsh but not entirely unfair uh as for the movies briefly start with the two three four trilogy and then six agreed never watch five also agreed watch the motion picture later once you're all in with kirk's crew leave the next gen movies until you've seen the series the kelvin universe movies are pretty good into darkness less so but not very representative of what star trek is wow that was quite comprehensive that was very comprehensive quite succinct in its own way you know a lesson to be learned there for you james thank you yes that was more coherent than my recommendation do you know what i i consulted with my well a very good friend of mine who is a true trekspert and he said to me that he thought you should always start with enterprise and he i'm just clearly a moron hold on he he owns seven different star trek outfits and he goes to all the conventions and he was like no start with enterprise that's not a guarantee of taste why would you start with the worst series that makes no sense you're trying to hook someone that is not the worst okay don't please i can't take it i love him so much anyway um but also i've got a friend laura who and she has decided she's decided to watch star trek she loves star trek she's watching everything in the in order i mean that's a completionist way of doing it yeah like in in in the order i was like that is amazing so she's gonna let me know how that goes well i mean not being funny some of those series overlap so is she then going to watch them and you know according to air date like because obviously Voyager and Deep Space Nine and Next Generation all interlap oh I don't know I'll find out yeah Michael has a PS Michael says James you've consistently neglected to put the email address in the show notes and now you're changing it is this a ploy to avoid having to deal with the post bag altogether I think you'll find it is in the show notes but it's only in the pilot plus show notes it's not in the regular pod show notes I always do say every week yeah okay but yes I am changing it just to be difficult okay right Boyd a question for you and this comes from dr kate and dr kate says dear team following your recommendation from this very podcast i took a chance with for all mankind and was not disappointed i've always loved alternate history narratives and was fascinated by the portrayal of the 1960s to the 1990s all mankind style i particularly enjoyed the tensions on earth between the soviet union and the usa and how they played out in relations on the moon i've been less interested in the most recent series as i have no emotional investment in the mars colony it's a step too far from my own reality i was delighted therefore to read an announcement of a spin-off series star city a retelling of the same events from the soviet point of view i'm very excited about reliving the events especially the first two series from a different standpoint i have heard nothing however since the first announcement i was wondering if boyd had received an update on his recent jolly stateside uh no there was no mention of it because it's supposed to air this year like it shot last year so risa fans is in this i think he's the lead in that uh but uh yeah it's shot uh It shot last year, and it's due to air this year.

25:14I can only assume at the end of the year, but Apple haven't talked about it in quite a while. No, well, we're due the next season of For All Mankind, aren't we? Imminently, yes, imminently. It's in March, I think. Right, so my guess is that that will play out, and then maybe they're waiting until after that. Perhaps that makes sense. It's an extraordinary project, really, because as far as I was aware, For All Mankind, as brilliant as it is, hasn't been the most watched, it's not the most watched show, even on Apple TV. to then commission a series, another series looking at the same event. It's bonkers.

25:45But yeah, I'm intrigued to know when and what happens with Star City. Yeah, it's fascinating. But no, no, I have no extra news. We have no insight other than we think it is this year at some point. I'm looking at the internet and it says the series is expected to release sometime in 2026. I'm looking at the internet. Oh, boy. Boyd is looking at the whole of the internet.

26:10Who needs AI, right? Kids?

26:17Question here from Jamo. J-A-M-O. I'm going to say it's Jamo. It could be Jamo. But we'll go with Jamo. It's Jamo. Who do you know called Jamo? I don't know anyone called Jamo either. I know people called Jamo. Jamie read that, but it's Jamo. Okay, we'll go with Jamo then. Sorry, Jamo. Can I call you Jamo? No. And all the people that are called Jamo, which is no one. No one's called Jamo. I think it was Jamo. Anyway, carry on. There was a Sammo in Green Chill, but I think that's different. I had my friend's dog, yeah. Anyway, J-Mo says, Dear Pilot T, I hope you're all well and best wishes to Steph in her recovery.

26:48She's great. Tell her to ignore all the douchebags on the internet. Lovely that she and Kay slash Kate can both stay as regulars. I just finished The Shield for the first time and have a lot of feelings. I am sad it's over, but the ending is so overwhelming that I find myself imagining that most of it didn't happen. And instead, Vic, Shane, Lem and Ronnie are all sitting on the beach with Andy and Red, Shawshank Redemption, living their best life with their loving families. If you'd like to do a special on The Shield, that would be amazing. But failing that, my question is, what endings to a show bother you so much that you have to invent an alternate headcanon where it all turned out differently?

27:23The other one for me is the first series of The Missing, which haunts me to this day. Do you like The Shield, Steph? You look up when I mention The Shield. Yeah, The Shield's brilliant. The Shield's absolutely brilliant. Yeah, I feel like neither of you watch it, so you can't do. It's one of my favourite shows of all time, so yes. The Shield is one of your favourite shows of all time. How did I not know this? Yes, it's extraordinary. Yeah, it is. You haven't been listening to the Pilot TV podcast. Listen, I've been in, I've been in, well, I'll say more on the other podcasts, but my God, the recovery is horrendous.

27:53Okay. I'm going to say something really controversial. Do it. Say, I did not, I was not happy with the Sopranos ending. I know everyone's like, the best ending of all time. A lot of people hated it. It was very divisive. Yeah, I really, I really did. I hated that ending. i i think the shield ending is one of if not the greatest tv series finale ever made uh i think it is absolutely perfect and i wouldn't change a frame of it so i have no alternate headcanon because it is absolutely spectacular i mean yes certain characters meet unfortunate ends i think shane's uh story arc ending is particularly bleak but equally you know i feel like although all of the storylines endings are quite bleak in that show that's the nature of it and that's the nature of these characters.

28:38I think it could only have ended that way. And I think you, I always expected that they'd all die at the end. I thought that Vic would die and it would all, that's how it would finish. But, you know, I actually think the way it finally ends, especially when the lights go off, I'm being slightly vague deliberately for those of you who haven't seen it. But it's a perfect ending because it is, he gets his comeuppance but in a way that really fits and feels real. And actually, yes, it does leave you feeling a little bit bereft at the end because you love those characters even though they are objectively awful people.

29:05Vic Mackey, we should say, Michael Chiklis plays that character so well shoots a cop in the face in the first episode. He murders another cop because that cop knows about his corruption. First of all, it's one of the boldest things that's ever happened in a TV show, to do with your lead actor but to come back from that and to keep audience sympathies throughout the run of that show is amazing and I just think his arc is wonderful. So I would not change any of The Shield. I love that ending so much. There are many, many other series, the finales of which I would happily change but that is not one of them.

29:35here's for your list isn't that the question yeah yeah which one should i change i don't think i ever do that i don't think i ever headcanon things like i'm very much like i accept the narrative as presented to me even when they're not great so you know the endings of battle star galactica like famously not fabulous you know but you the ending of lost as well you just like these are the stories we are told and i think like you accept the narrative as it's given to you i don't feel the need to rewrite it myself good or bad i accept it as it's presented and that for me is BS. Lost is absolutely BS.

30:05But some people really like it. Some people really like it. I'm genuinely true. Lost was great, but the ending obviously it took a massive nosedive but the ending is awful. I don't love it, but again, some people have written in to defend it when Boydie's gone for it in the past. Oh God. Well, there's that guy, there's the whole podcast about Lost, isn't he? I don't know if it's still going. Well, in fact, there's a dedicated Shield podcast called The Shattered Shield. I've not listened to it but it has been, for my next Shield rewatch I have been considering watching it while listening to that podcast.

30:34Your next S.H.I.E.L.D. re-watch. I'm going to do a S.H.I.E.L.D. We should do a full S.H.I.E.L.D. re-watch, James, and then do a podcast on it. Let's do that. Like an end-to-end, soup-to-nuts type episode-by-episode thing. Yes, we should do it. It's so good. I did a re-watch of it when it was first released in HD, which was about, I don't know, three years ago or so, and I loved every second of it, but it is so, so bleak. Have you finished your Broadchurch re-watch yet, James? Well, you'll have to wait until the regular show on Monday to hear where I am with Broadchurch. But suffice to say, I've been enjoying that a great deal.

31:02But yes, so yes, I don't have a headcanon for you, J-Mo. I apologise. Boyd, endings that you didn't like? Lost is the answer, yeah. Lost is the answer to Boyd. He hates the ending. Yeah. Yeah. I don't actually hate the Battlestar Galactica ending. It's flawed. But I think that final series had gone off the rails already at that point with the whole Starbuck confection. But I kind of just went with it. It was what it was. right this is one for you Steph and it comes from Mark are you ready I'm ready Mark Mark says so I was thinking while Steph has featured previously maybe it would be good to get to know her better by doing a quick fire quiz so we have eight questions for Steph one what is your favorite tv show of all time go no time for thinking instant answer my favorite tv show of all time is probably Damages with Glenn Close.

31:56Interesting. Didn't see that coming. Two, what was your favourite show as a child? My favourite show as a child was, I mean, as I said, I loved Star Trek as a child. Yeah, but Enterprise, that doesn't count. Stop. Stop it now. Did you watch OG Star Trek? Oh yeah, I had OG. Well, I watched OG Star Trek. Murder, She Wrote. This sounds weird. I did watch Murder, She Wrote as a child, so I watched it with my Nana, so I loved that as a child, which sounds really strange, but I did, aside from all the normal cartoons. But yeah, I would say Murder, She Wrote. Okay. That sounds weird, but it is true. What is your favourite TV character?

32:38Jessica Fletcher. Jessica Fletcher. Yeah, Joby Fletcher. Okay, here's another one. Four, what is your favourite topic to go off on a tangent with to annoy James? Like murder shows. Murder, She Wrote. murder shows and why he doesn't like uh murder shows and why he hates uh storytelling so much um in murder shows fair enough what is your go-to tv snack that's such do you know what i like to eat together a bag of minstrels and a bag of maltesers other chocolates are available but i like to eat them together and i have a minstrel and then i have a malteser minstrel malteser i like that and sometimes i like rebels and that kind of does that job for you no no i was just about to talk about revels and say that i can i'm not gonna play that kind of russian roulette with my chocolate i'm not i'm not insane because it could me as soon as you get an orange you're like oh no did i start this the orange is bad the coffee is worse exactly why would i put myself through that i don't want to ruin my day that is fair uh what is your least favorite tv genre anything dystopian anything where um it's bleak and everyone has to completely start again and So I love, as I said before, I love like anything kind of Star Wars-y.

33:45I like that kind of sci-fi. But if it's really bleak, if we're thinking like kind of dune-ish, you know, like everyone Mad Max it, even though I quite enjoyed Mad Max in the end. I watched it again. But, you know, when it's really dystopian. No, you mean post-apocalyptic. Yeah, I mean post-apocalyptic or anything where people have to start again and there's like one hut in a massive sand dune. I don't like things like that. So Paradise, the new series of Paradise is definitely not up your alley. No. No, no. The Last of Us? No, sorry. See, I want to delve into this. I'm fascinated to know what part of your psychology struggles with the end of the world.

34:21I tell you what it is. It's basically, I like people in situ. I like to know where people are. I'm very much, I feel like wherever they've planted a series, that is a character in the storyline. I think it's integral to where they are. And I just, when they're in a sand dune and there's no buildings or there's no, you know, there's no beautiful locale, I just can't get to grips with it. And I just can't, the fucking, everyone's starting again and just really winds me up. I really like that. Do you know what I mean? Like looking for water, fucking starting again. I'm like, oh, fuck off. No. I know what you mean, yeah.

34:55Do you know what I mean? It's just like, there's nothing to grab hold of. It's like, and the whole, in all of those things, it's like, okay, we're going to have to start again. so it's all about how they're going to start again and I was just like oh no I think we've learned from this point when the zombie apocalypse comes Steph is not going to be the person you're going to need on your team no no what TV show do you not like but everyone else does Severance wow interesting Severance I just it was one of those shows that I was like I need to like this because everyone likes this I love all the actors in it I, I hate it.

35:35I just, and that's sorry. I think I might have pretended it was okay before, but I just, oh, I don't like it. Sorry. The quirkiness or just the general vibe? I hate to admit this. Part of it is the corridor. Part of it is, it is, I'm sorry, you know, it is, again, that taps into my dystopian thing, right? endless corridors is annoying okay the endless white space emptiness um i i find it's a bit slow it's just a bit slow for me to get to like you know like in the first season where thingy's hiding out in the greenhouse and you're like and he's still and i was like oh god this is so i feel like it could be condensed you know i mean like i think i think two things happen every episode and that's not enough for me okay two really damning indictment of uh severance yeah yeah but i'm with i'm with you on the overuse of corridors obviously that's historically yeah i'm admitting everyone else loves this show but i don't yeah sorry final question final question from mark what tv character are you most like mark gets sassy vibes from ted lasso oh which i famously have not famously i haven't watched ted lasso so I don't know.