Wine and...TV: SEVERANCE Season 1, Part 2 - Episodes 1-3

The best TV show of 2022, sez us! This is the first in a 5-part series covering all of Severance Season 1, the show created by Dan Erikson, directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, and starring Adam Scott.

Part 1: How Did This Get Made?
Part 2: Episodes 1-3 (and wine pairings with those episodes)
Part 3: Episodes 4-6 (and wine pairings with those episodes)
Part 4: Episodes 7-9 (and wine pairings with those episodes)
Part 5: Interview with Chris Black, Executive Producer and Writer on Severance

In this episode, we cover Episodes 1-3, all directed by Ben Stiller, and cover the wine pairings for these episodes.

THE WINES:

DAVE'S WINE
Pitys Ritinitis (aka Retsina) NV
100% Assyrtiko from vineyards in Katarrachia and Mantineia, Greece. With, of course, pine resin added! That's what makes it a "retsina"! A daily drinker in Greece, the vegemite of Greece, it tastes like wine made from an alien to everyone else.

Ancient Greeks used to seal off wine-filled amphorae with pine resin. The resin would then seep into the wine itself, and act as a preservative! They came to love the flavor, too, and so the practice continues to the present day. Note that most modern Greek wine does NOT do this, only those marked "Ritinitis" or "Retsina".

DALLAS' WINE
2022 Domaine des Sables Verts Saumur-Champigny "Glouglou"
An mostly "natural" wine (minimal sulfites have been added, but the winemakers work as "naturally" as possible and are in the process of being certified organic). Crafted in the Loire valley, the Saumur-Champigny AOC in specific in a 16 hectare domanie, this is 100% Cabernet Franc and is meant to be drunk young. Fresh red fruit, high acidity, soft tannins, and subtle hints of florals and fresh earth.

Chapters

• 1:18 Quick Correction
• 3:47 Episode 1: Good News About Hell
• 36:15 Episode 2: Half Loop
• 48:38 Episode 3: In Perpetuity
• 1:01:49 Dave's Wine Pairing with Eps 1-3
• 1:10:40 Dallas' Wine Pairing with Eps 1-3

Transcript

0:16

He's Dave and I'm Dallas and we have opinions on just about everything. Sometimes they're on point and sometimes they go down better with a glass of wine. Join us. This is the wine and podcast. Hello and welcome back to part two of our five part coverage of Severance season one. Today we will cover episodes 1 -3 of the show and get to the wine pairings for those first three episodes. If you missed our part 1, that was the How Did This Get Made episode where we covered the history of the episode and how it got made and tangented on a couple of very hot topics. So please go check that out, then come back here for part 2. Part 3 will cover episodes 4 -6 and part 4 will cover episodes 7 -9 with a very special guest star joining us for part 5. Chris Black, the man who ran the writer's room and is the credited writer on episode 8 of Severance. So we are very excited to talk to Chris and to have you listen to our conversation there. So please come back and join us. One quick note before we get started. I did want to mention that in the previous episode and once or twice in future episodes, because they've all already been recorded, we did mention that Severance season two only consists of six episodes. Turns out that is incorrect. It will be a full 10 episode season two. We mentioned it was only six episodes because at the time of recording this a couple of months back, only six scripts were registered with the WGA and had each credited writer for each of the scripts and production had already wrapped on the entire season. So we figured all the scripts had to be registered with the WGA. but I guess not. I'm not actually sure what happened there. Maybe it's because we are in the post writer's strike era and WGA is still scrambling to catch up with its backlog of scripts that it needs to post as registered, or they didn't submit them to be registered until after production. For whatever reason, I'm actually a little into the dark as to how that works. I don't have a lot of personal experience in television production per se. So in any event, When you hear us say that season two is only six episodes, that is incorrect. It is a full 10 episodes, which honestly I am thrilled with. I was kind of bummed that after waiting years for season two, we were only going to get six episodes. So, no full 10 episodes. Yeehaw. So, and also before we get started, once again, as always, if you like what you hear today, please make sure to smash that follow or subscribe button. It does help this podcast grow and reach new listeners. If you don't like. what you hear today, send us an email to wine, the letter N, P -O -D, wine N pod at gmail.com. We would love to hear from you, whether you love us or whether you hate us. We will take your feedback. We would love to hear from you there. We are also on Substack, wine N dot Substack dot com. That's our home base of operations. If you'd like to interact with us more often, read bonus pairings, bonus articles on the wine and the entertainment industries. That is where to find us. That is where to interact with us directly. wineand .substack .com. You can also find us on all the socials. Wine and Pod, the full A -N -D -P -O -D, Wine and Pod. We are on IG threads, Twitter, and Facebook. We'd love to see you there. All right, without further ado, let's get this party started. Episodes one through three of Severance season one. All right, episode one of Severance, Good News About Hell, written by Dan Erickson, directed by Ben Stiller. This opens, we open the whole thing. Helly R, played by Britt Lauer, wakes up in the office. Adam Scott's voice comes through an intercom. And she wakes up, I wanna say, this is one thing that is a little, I like a lot, I think aesthetically, but it's a little bit of a gripe story and plot -wise, is she wakes up. face down in the sprawled position on the table. And I'm like, come on, they wouldn't have dumped her on the table like that. Like that's a little, it's a great visual and it throws you off. It's a great way to start. You don't think about it unless you think about it. Okay, that right there. That is one sort of texture that is really important to watching this show. Yes. There are a lot of things you're going to see that won't make sense or have context. until you either rewatch or reframe or think about them. And there are, you know, there's so much in this that, like that moment you said, you know, it... Well, to be fair, I do think that moment still doesn't make sense. I think if you think about it, it doesn't make sense. If you don't think about it, it does. absolutely. I think it makes sense in terms that it just, it sort of amps up the idea of confusion, right? You don't know why she's... splayed out on the table. don't actually know because we haven't seen anything about this world yet. So in terms of the plot points. my point was just like they would have laid her down on her back. They would have laid her down on her back, not in a weird And she was anesthetized, right? She went through a surgery. and this is not giving any spoilers. You find this out pretty much by the end of episode one or like episode two at the latest. And you know what's happening in here. They went through the severance procedure. That's where this is all going. Anyway, when you're anesthetized, there's a reason you wake up in your hospital bed later in the exact position you've went under in. When you're anesthetized, it's not like sleeping at night where you're tossing and turning and getting in all these weird angles with your limbs. When you're anesthetized, you are flat on your back, like dead to the world. And that's why they can carve into you and you're not, there's no problem with it. So when you wake up, you pretty much wake up without having, in fact, a lot of the sensation in your limbs and shit like that is coming back to you. the thing that, two things that stood out about that, and this is such a minor beef, because I love this show, I wanna reiterate that, but this minor beef is, I think they went for the aesthetic of her in that cool position, which made a great shot on camera. and made a great and like you will even see if you Google severance, you will even see this shot as like a promotional image for the thing of her face down in this sprawled position on that table, which is how apparently everyone wakes up in. But she they would have just laid her down. Like even if you have to wake up on this table, it's like great. Lay her down on her back. Why would you lay her down face first? Like that doesn't make any sense. And then she wouldn't have had the time or ability to really getting this weird jagged formation out of her. But it looks like they literally, and I think the point was, it looks like they dumped her like chattel, right? They just picked her up and were like, bleh, here on the table, and now you're gonna wake up later. But there's a lot that doesn't make sense with that. One thing that would be a spoiler that I'm not gonna say about her character in particular, but then I think just in general with all the characters, I'm like, they wouldn't do that. per se, feel like, but it's a cool first image anyway. Well, sort of now, did we open Meteoraz on her in that scene, in that position already? Well, one sort of counterpoint perhaps about anesthesia is, you know, the idea of waking up from anesthesia is cyclical. So you do sort of come through and go back out and come through and go back out. Perhaps the, you know, she'd done that five or six times by the time we encounter her face down. I'm just saying as a counterpoint, a possibility to add a little context and depth to. Personally, I can't buy that just because how uncomfortable is it to be faced down on a hardwood table? Yeah, of You would not gently go back to sleep multiple times on that table. I mean, if you're out, you're out. You're out. Come on. Well, right. But then you're not coming too. Come on. Anise my experience with anesthesia, which is not great. It's not a ton. But what little I've had a few times is like when you come to like, yes, you might fade back out. But when you come to you do come to that first time. It's not. My experience is completely different. It took me honestly over the over the course of like, and maybe maybe it has something to do with the depth of the anesthesia, the sort of, you know, intensity of the anesthesia. But for me surgery for me, so it pretty intense. It was it took me the course of like two hour and half, two hours where I was just coming through and I'd be back out and come through and I'd be back out. But you come but you come to to the point where like you know you're in the hospital. No, no. And you know you're in a bed. See for me, the instant the instant I come to like, boom, I'm there. I'm I can see I'm like, yep, I'm in the bed. And yeah, if you keep lying there, you're so groggy still that you're like, you'll keep fading in and out, which is what they want because you're supposed to rest and recovery and blah, blah. But that first time, like lying face down on a table, I'm like, no, again, I don't buy it personally. So, but that said, we open up, she wakes up and this is how everyone starts in the office when you've undergone the severance procedure where you don't know who you are. They ask you questions to prove that you can't remember your past, your history. You can't remember your name. You can't remember where you're from. But you remember like basic facts of existence. they ask you, first they ask like in which state or territory were you born is one of the questions and she can't answer it. But then they're like name any state or territory and she does, she's like Delaware. And she pulls one out because you know how the world works, have knowledge, but not about yourself. Exactly. So somehow they have only severed the knowledge of yourself. Because you know, a lot of people would be like, well, if you lost all your memories, you would, you wouldn't know how to walk, you wouldn't know how to, you know, anything, right? You wouldn't know how. And another interesting thing is even you can't remember details about yourself. So you have no quote unquote memories. but like you know how to be social. Like you have social mores, you know, like all these things that are learned in humanity, right? You're not born with it. You have to learn and that you know how an office environment essentially works. So all of your know -how of life is still there. It's just your personal memories about yourself that are gone. right. Which again, that first scene was really... You know, I that battery of questions and she was sort of answering. was like, OK, all right. this is going to be some good psychodrama. You know, and it's so rare I get good psychodrama. OK, all right. I'm here. Let's go. Let's go, kids. And it's fun that, you know, she so Adam Scott finally introduces himself to her. She's very like, fuck this, I'm out of here. Which is good. They do a very good job of her being like. It takes a while to quote unquote acclimate to this thing, right? I get the feeling she's resisting more than even the others did. Generally speaking, and there's a question as to why that might be in this series itself. They do question that and we'll get, we'll get to some hints. We'll get some hints for sure. But the general idea is that when you go back up out of, when you leave the office, you become what they call the office person, your innie. Your innie. and the out of office, you're out here. And your Audi has your right. And your Audi, when you leave the office, you get all your memories back. But you have no memories of what you did in the office. None. So you have no idea what you're like down there, what you do, what happens during that. And they do a great job of giving the POV of the person where when you're entering and leaving, like when you go to work. Or let's say when you leave work one evening, right, your Audi gets in the elevator, it starts to rise and they black out and immediately fade back in and it's the next day. They're going down all of a sudden and you're back at work and you feel rested and recovered, but there's no time. Like it's not even like sleeping. Or if it's sleeping, it's like you're instantly into the deepest sleep possible and immediately out. So it's like, boom, it's instant. And there's a great sequence where she's so fuck this, I'm out of here. that she's like, there's a rule that if they ask three times to leave, you have to let them. And so they take her to a door that's like, here's the stairwell leave. And from her POV, the camera shoots it from her POV, she opens the door, walks out, and that walking out becomes walking back in. And then the door closes behind her. She's like. What the fuck just happened? It's funhouse experience. Like it is a full funhouse experience. Right. It's a Kafkaesque, Phil K. Dick nightmare. Absolutely. Where it's almost like it's reality bending, but it's not reality bending. You find out later that what's happening, or you find out in episode two, so we can talk about it on this show, this episode of the podcast, you find out that every time she exits into the stairwell, she becomes her Audi. Right. Right. And that person comes back into being instantly like bam. Right. And the Audi is like, no, no, I want to be in there and goes right back in. And so, and it's a little more complicated than that. We're to get to that when we talk But I will say the important imagery here, guys, if you're unfamiliar with the show is the idea of the threshold. There is something happening in the threshold. Imagine your workplace, the front door, the entrance to your workplace. When you enter, you're walking up to your front workplace in the morning, you are yourself, your life, your husband, your wife, and all that good stuff. When you walk through that door, You have no recollection of that person outside and vice versa and so as Dave is saying in terms of that stairwell You know they have this provision where if the person asks three times you have to allow them to leave but when that person attempts to leave They end up in this sort of vortex where the entrance is the exit and the exit is the entrance Yeah, lots of fun though. Lots of it's definitely a bit of a mind fuck. And that was the moment in the series when I knew, okay, I'm hooked even if this thing crashes. Okay, I got to applaud them for that. Right. And they do a great job of because one of the things the show raises as a question, both morally and ethically is for the Audis who are choosing to do the severance procedure, to send themselves down for their innies. It's the question of those innies basically live a life of nothing but office drudgery. They have no other memories. They have no other experiences. And if they want to leave, you're just like, no, want to do that. I'm getting the good, because let's think about it this way. Workplace. No one wants to be in a workplace. No one wants to, or very few of us want to do it. And even then they don't even know what they're doing down there. So it's not like a workplace where there's even the concept of but you're achieving a dream. You're doing a job that you personally care about. None of that. You are just doing a job. So it's like a generic workplace. And that is the life they have literally almost created a new person that is in their body, but it's not themselves. because they have no memories, they only have the know -how of life, but none of the memories to make them a different person, to make them you as a person person with a history. And not only are you creating someone with no history, you're making them only live a life of office drudgery that's trapped down there and only lives that life. Like there's no, there's nothing, there's no other pleasures in life. And what's even more sort of, you know, I don't want to, I want to discuss my theories about the show and my broad theories yet. But when Helly gets to the point where she's engaged in the task, the work, the idea that no one really understands what the purpose of the work is, is so potent. I've talked to, since watching the show, I've had a number of conversations about the show, weirdly. But anyone who's ever worked in any sort of corporate space, that moment seems to be really potent and powerful. It seems to be a really interesting goal for the company. Exactly. The company's like, must achieve the goal. if you and again, talking about stopping and thinking about anything for a long enough period of time, when you stop and think about it, there's always that question of why? Why? And even if it's like because the company is, you know, it makes money, it does better, it has better quarterly reports. And it's like, Okay, but why? What does that serve? Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? You're talking about shit like stocks and trade markets and things like that, where it's like you're playing with money, but it's like, does this serve anything? Are we actually or are we just playing with what's there? Yes, in ways that somehow has all been made legal, and you know, gets in the way and actually crashes and burns economies if you do it wrong. So it has a negative and barely any real upside. It's one of those things where you're just sort of like, why are we doing it? And then even for companies in general, like infinite grow, like every company gets in this thing, it was like, we got to grow. And take something like, okay, yes, you want to make money. Yes, you want to be solvent. Yes, you need to make a profit so that you can pay employees and still have some probably you don't want to be under profit. You don't want to be losing money. But then you get into the thing of but we have to make more money this quarter than we made the previous quarter, right? Even though it's all profit. And you're like, well, why? What does it matter? Like, I mean, we can't grow if we're not making yet more money, but we're good. We're making enough money. Exponential growth. Right. So there's all these things of like, but what are we doing? What is it for? And why does it have to be more and better or whatever? Like, what is it achieving? And so, but the fun part is of course, it's you, right? It's your body. And we all like to say, like, we get to choose what we do with our own bodies, but what if your body becomes its own thing and nobody get on the abortion topic on this. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that, you know, once that thing is born, great. Awesome. But not until because you can all you can see this as a metaphor, of course, if you really wanted to push it. And there are plenty of that chat online. course, you can see I can already see someone trying to be like, so your any is that fetus and you know that like It's your body, but that's its own person in there. And it's like, no, no. But here's the thing. Even in the any Audi environment of Severance, you are the same body. You are very technically the same person in that regard, but only one of you has any choice. And so one of you is choosing to do this whole hell blue and you're not facing the bad stuff. The one getting to make the choice only gets to make the choice and then walk away in their way, right? And not deal with any of it. And the person who doesn't have any choice gets to deal with all of it. So in that regard, the show brings up questions of like where that line is drawn of like, is the any person, its own person that is being enslaved by their own self, right? Their own person, right? And to some degree, there is there's OK, so let's get into a little bit the company. have to talk about the company and how they operate and what they actually do, because that that changes a lot of how bad this is versus how theoretically bad it could be or not so bad or not so bad. Right, because it could be like, well, yeah, but if the company is just treating them well, but they ain't. So here's the thing. There's a reason the company doesn't want memories. and you're not allowed to send messages to each other. So that's a huge, they have sensors. If you have any writing with you that you're trying to get to your Audi, they can detect that and that's a huge issue. So the company is called Lumen, L -U -O -N, though everyone kind of pronounces it Lumen rather than Luman, even though it's spelled with an O, and Lumen. Look, let's look at the entomology of that, Lumen, luminosity, right, And so that's a Latin, Lumen is, Latin with an E is a Latin term. There are two Latin terms that mean light lux, which means daylight and light in general. It has come to mean predominantly daylight and more poetically inner light, etc. And then lumen refers more to light sources, the origins of the luminosity. So stars and suns and the light bulb and whatnot. So that is Lumen. And it's impossible to hear something like Lumen, the name of this company without thinking like, all right, it's a source of light, or at least the company thinks it's source of light. We're going to, I don't really have a lot more to say on that. Just wanted to mention that. So Lumen has been around since the 1800s in this world. And this is essentially modern day that we're at now. There are, we'll talk about this in episode three, but there have been many, founders and they operate, this might be me living in LA, but I see so much of Scientology in this That's intentional, yeah, for sure. So intentional. It's funny, I don't hear, whenever anyone else who aren't LA people talk about this show, no one ever brings up Scientology and I'm like, dude, it's so on the nose. They operate like a cult. the people who are not severed, or at least we don't think they're severed, as far as we know, they're the same on the outside as in, but the people who work for them, just like Scientology operates where it's like you, and this is why I really think there is a lot of Scientology here, because you're severed from your outside life, right? So you have no memories of your family or anything. That is exactly what Scientology does, right? They make you sever yourself from your bonds, from your life, from your family. You can if they don't support you and won't become part of the of the thing you have to leave if they're a negative source, you must remove yourself completely. You have to remove them from your life. You may not even have contact with them. And that is so on the nose of severance. It's not even funny. If you try to have contact with them, they they have their age. They'll send other Scientologists out there to harass and intimidate. and get in way and watch you like a hawk. They will spy on you and find out every move you make, just like the Lumen people do. Where we find out, as even episode one goes on, episode one ends revealing that someone down in the office who's not just an everyday employee is one of our characters next door neighbor. That's going to be, so I'm going to try not to do too many spoilers, but again, this is episode one. So I'm just going to go ahead. This is a big piece of it where, and guys, just go watch the three episodes. Please go watch the three episodes guys. Yeah, right, right, right. So, yeah, they're watching them. They're spying on them. We find out that the housing is actually subsidized by Lumen. So they created the neighborhood, gave it to these severed people, and then keep tabs on them, everything they do. So there's more going on here, because that's the weird thing, right? Is you're like, okay, there's a severed procedure. It's a little controversial. Even in this world, we find out politically it's a hot topic, just like you can say abortion is a hot topic here. or Scientology is in its own way a hot topic here. So it's a hot topic even in this world. And Adam Scott, his character's name is Mark, is very like he lost his wife in a terrible accident and to deal with the pain, he did the severance procedure. He signed up. He says it's helping him. And he goes out of his way to be antagonistic to even he just sees some people like passing out flyers being against the severance procedure and being political. They don't know he's a severed person. They're not even targeting him, but he goes out of his way to go there and to antagonize them to be like, well, what is it hurting? And like, how is it really hurting anyone? Huh? And like, you really going at them hard. And so he's very defensive about the whole thing and his choice to do this. He's about his cult, as most cults say. Yes, exactly. And the one thing that isn't really clear, at least in these first three episodes, is why Mark really chose the severance procedure. because yes, he suffered, he suffered a loss and he's depressed and all that stuff, but he still has to live the rest of his life outside of work with all the same heavy feelings. Like what does severing from this workspace really change for him? How does that's right. And that's a question that isn't really, at least in these first three, I haven't rewatched the others yet. I did not see any real indication of what it, how this might help him. But for whatever reason, he chose it. think, you know, to that point, you're right. That that groundwork is those questions are not answered, but a hint is given in episodes four and five. OK, and we'll get there. We'll get there. And, you know, and by the time we get to episode eight and eight and nine, which is basically the liftoff point for season two. we start to, that picture starts to come a little clearer, get a little clearer. yeah. Yeah. One fun fact about us. So one thing that I love about the opening of episode one also is after, after we get through the pre, cause we get the opening and then Adam Scott reveals himself and then we get the opening credit sequence and then we get Adam Scott arriving at work. kind of, Flashback real quick before we get to him talking to Britt Lauer's character, Helly R, over the intercom where she's face down on the table. He's arriving at work and we get to see him walk through this very long winding office space in one take. So they built this whole set of this stark white, incredibly fluorescent lights, all white walls, like no color anywhere to be seen. It's the ultimate horror of an It's a corporate hellscape. It is a corporate hellscape. But he's cheery as fuck. You can see Adam Scott's Audi is crying in his car. Then he pulls himself together, goes in, goes down this elevator, and his any self is just upbeat and bright and cheerful and ready to go. And he's almost the Adam Scott from Parks and Rec at that point, right? Where he's just like, la, la, la, la. And he goes. One fun fact about this office space, the production designer and the prop master actually created, he refurbished all this old 80s and 70s computer technology and made them functional so that the actors could actually be interacting with the computers with this old, old tech that you see. And when he made the keyboards and he refurbished the keyboards, he made them to, this is just a really nerdy metaphorical fact. He made them without an escape key as a visual metaphor that there's no escape from the office. So I was not observing. When I learned that, was like, OK, I have never wanted to be on a production more than this one. But he actually went through and took all that old analog tech, that old, you know, sort of, you know. No, it's old. It's very old technology. And refurbished it, made these computers work, and removed the escape key. so that the actors had to contend with that. It's just fantastic. Another interesting point, the setting is actually, it's another star of this show for sure. But they use Bell Labs' Holmdel complex. And you guys don't know what Bell Labs were. It's basically AT &T Bell Labs Bell Systems. They did a whole lot of the R &D for the atomic sort of age and digital age and it was just sort of the point in time where these companies had their complexes that were devoted to You know, they've created towns essentially and this is actually filmed or focused on Bell Labs, so Anybody who's interested in any of that mid -century kind of tech stuff is going to really appreciate the setting Yeah, beautiful. A few more things about episode one. We learn pretty quickly that a character named Petey was sick slash sniffling just the day before. And that's so Adam is actually promoted to take Petey's place because Petey was kind of ran the department as far as the employees went. And this is something that hasn't happened very often, like someone because they're like Petey was sick sniffling. then this day today, Helly R is replacing him or at least being a new member and Adam Scott's Mark characters being promoted to Petey's place but Petey just an employee just Leaving and not returning because others have done resignation requests and then left But this is the first time that someone is just like and he's gone. Yeah, and that's it So that's as far as we know never happened before as far as the characters say So we don't know what exactly is behind that Except I will say this. So I remembered from watching this whole season the first time who PD was and what was going on with him. And the fact that I didn't remember they had mentioned him already, like he was sick sniffling just there. so just the day before when we start watching the show, so it was all very fast. The fun part about him being sick sniffling, that means that he was in the office down in the any world already having been reintegrated. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So people go watch the episodes. If you want to know what we're talking about, then you can come to this and hear the theory. But he so that means they can't tell if you've been reintegrated or not when you go down that elevator and you can just pretend to have changed. But that's why he was able to leave the map for Mark, which Mark then discovers in episode three. in the picture frame is because he was down there for one day. One day. Now, but he only got one day and then he was gone for good. So maybe they found out at some point or suspected or something. But Petey's out there and on the loose, even though he's not allowed back. So at some point, Petey was able to do this day left. Lumen found out that he was no longer severed the way he was supposed to be. And that's supposed to be something that isn't possible. is something that is constantly said in these early episodes. And then we find out in episode two and three, Petey makes a reappearance in the outside world as someone who has been reintegrated, but not in a... It seems to be... There are problems with the reintegration. There seems to be a hack or something that he's experienced has gone through. So it's possible, but not... possible in a, and you're just reintegrating, You know, kind of a way. So that's something to be said, but that's a big part of it. Two things I wanted to mention about episode one that stuck out that I don't have answers for yet. Mrs. Selvig, what's her name when she's the boss? I always forget her name when she's the boss, Patricia Arquette's character. Her name is not Alexa. What's the other name? well, her, Patricia Arquette when she's the boss and then she's named Mark's Nick. Cobell. Thank you. So when as Cobell, when Marcus promoted, she said, although we just gave that away. Damn it. But go on. Cobell. Yeah, we already said she's neighbor. did we? So yeah. And it's the end of episode one. We're going to talk about that. Then we can't talk about episode two. So we'll talk about that. The reveal at the very end is that Cobell, his his big boss. is his next door neighbor, Mrs. Selvig, which you see him talking to on the phone and kind of interacting with from afar, but you don't see her face. In the very end, you're like, what the fuck is going on? Mar. Mar. She's so good. so good. At one point, she said when she promotes him, she says, you're allowed a handshake if you request it. And Mark thinks about it for a second and goes, I would like a handshake. And she has a weird reaction to that request. It's perfect. It's perfect, but she is like taken aback that he actually requested the handshake and she's for a split second, she is unsure what to do. And I don't know what that means, but I feel like that is important and we should remember it. Yeah. See, I was actually of two minds. One, I thought it just was sort of furthering the idea that there was this kind of separation and lack of intimacy of any sort in the corporate space. And that's exaggerated in a place like Lumen, right? Maybe that was the first point. You know, she because she gave him the option like off of a menu and no one's ever taken the option before. So that was a sort of that's the kind of interesting. That's of baseline reaction, right? Response. Except everything in this office tends to be like we offer you a waffle party. We offer you a fruit bowl and like you always take what they are because that's the only good things you get in life down in this office. Right. So almost everything that you can get you take. So her reaction to that her and her specific reaction, not like disappointed or upset or like, fine or anything like it was like she was just sort of like, shit, I have to your hand. I don't know, I'm keeping it in the back of my head. So I'm just going to mention that out front to be like, let's see what happens. But maybe something important is there. And then when Mark is at home watching TV, I just wanted to point out that he was watching this program about the life cycle of a gnat, which is obviously very on the nose. And it's like the gnat during its seven day life cycle. And I was like, yeah, yeah, just like the workers down below. And then of course, Petey showing up, he actually shows up in episode one and then the Ms. Selvig, Ms. Cobell. reveal at the very end of being next door neighbor. All of that happens in episode one. That surprised me rewatching this. I did not remember that. It's a loaded episode. It is a loaded episode. And I think it's necessary for sure. Episode two. Now, Half Loop. Again, this one's written by Dan Erickson, directed by Ben Stiller again. I'm no longer annoyed by that. And Helly is introduced to the coworkers, of course. you know, she meets, we've got Dylan, we've got Irving, we've got, by the way, John Turturro, And when I saw this, we had just seen John Turturro on stage in, ooh, I don't remember the name of the play. But he's great. He's a phenomenal actor, truly one of my favorites. He's playing this role in... generally his characters are very overt. They're very out. They live out because he does that very well. And he's a New York guy. In general, he plays those sort of characters that are very expressive. And he's doing an amazing bit of work with this sort of subdued, really well paced kind of character work. And it's kind of fantastic, guys. So anyway, she Hallie meets the other co -workers and they attempt to explain to her what the job is and this goes back to the point earlier She finds out that there's just a bunch of micro data and it's actually what they're doing is called micro data refinement Which is a hilarious term But she has all these questions as to What why the you know, basically she wants to know why? why we're doing this, what we're doing. And essentially they're just telling her the key is just to do it. Just to do it. Refine it, sort the data, put it in these buckets. And now there are theories, like even the workers down there, like, each person has a theory of like, so what is this about? What are we doing? And some people are like, we're cleaning the oceans, we're killing people, we're doing this. Everyone has a theory. Everyone has a theory. And they're all dark. Right. I do also want to say as a quick side note that in episode one, we were introduced to Mark's outside life and he does have a sister who's pregnant with a husband who's very... I love that actor. Actually, good point. He's else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good point. So what we find out, they drop some... Going back to episode one, they drop some hints about the husband. He is very much a central figure in the anti -Lumen kind of space. You know how you have... the guys who write to the anti -Scientology books, right? He seems to be an integral part of that sort of anti -Lumen space. And he's written a book. I think we're introduced to the book in episode one, in passing. Three, actually not.-mm, mm -mm. Well, no, no. Maybe in passing. Yeah, the sister mentions the book. The sister mentions this book. But then he tries to drop off a copy in episode three. Right. So that's when we finally see the book. And so they really are doing a great job of the heavy lifting in episode one of placing these pieces on the board, right? So that by the time we get to episode two, we are more interested or at least are introduced more to the sort of day -to -day minutia of the office politics, the office work. And where do we go? yeah, the code. And also just like Scientology, it gives a great example of how the people in Scientology are in danger of Scientology of, you know, falling out with them, being targeted, having all these things happen. But the world at large, Scientology can just coexist with them because they're not going after the world at large. Right. You know, they're fighting them a little bit on the talking heads and on the news and things like that, just refuting all the bad things or horrible things they do. But they're not doing anything bad to these people and therefore they're not a, there's not like an actual war, like, know, in dystopian fiction often they'll have whatever that Lumen type industry, like they will be trying to shut down or kill or whatever everybody across the board, anyone who speaks out against them. And Scientology, but like Scientology, they're smart. about who they choose. It's the inside people, you know, the people who belong to them that they fuck up, they fuck with. And everyone else, they kind of just leave alone and you know, unless you become a true blue, because if you really speak out against Scientology, and I think the brother, he speaks out a little bit against you, but he also is more of like a ways of living life that's just different than that. It's theory. Yeah. Right. It's philosophy. It's like a life philosophy and blah, blah. So he's not like a hardcore anti -Lumen whatever. just, know, Mark is a little... He has thoughts. He and Mark, right, right, he has thoughts, he has thoughts. And Mark doesn't want to hear them because he's doing what he's doing. Again, Mark is very defensive about it. in episode two, we also get the reverse viewpoint of Heliar trying to leave through that door. So we get her outies experience every time she tries to go back in. And the Innie Heliar keeps throwing her back out the door. And this is really interesting. is a nice clue of Heliar's character because every time we get to see her Audi and hear her talk, she's like, wow, my Innie really doesn't want to be in there, do I? And this is where we get to see Lumen as the cult -like brainwashers a little bit because... They kind of have to, they're convincing her to go back in. The Audi isn't just hardcore going back in. They're a little like, no, no, no, it's okay. This is normal. Your Innis, it takes a little while. Just why don't you go back in? She goes again, boom, comes right back out. She's like, whoa, are we sure this is okay? My Audi, my Inni really doesn't want to be in there. No, no, And then Milchek, my favorite character of the whole show. I think it's everyone's favorite character of the whole show. Milchik, except maybe John Turow and Christopher Walken. Milchik, basically the right -hand man of the boss of Is that heavy? Yeah. Right. Cobell, the right -hand man of Cobell. He says to the Audi version of Hellyar, when we heard you were coming here, it was like a miracle. There you go. It's amazing what you're doing. And then that convinces her to go back in. keep that in mind because that's not, you don't say that to just any old person who happens to be severed. Right? Clearly that person has some importance. Yes. And he even, when she goes back inside as the Innie and then she's stuck in there and she goes back to, and then Milchek sees the Innie version of Helyar again, he says, timer. So We're going to make of make of those. Those are both like lines that stood right the fuck out to me. And I was like, and those are not so normal. So true. And one other thing we're introduced here, a couple of other things we're introduced here is I like it like they were saying, Helly, we get to this point where she decides to leave again, because in episode one, she attempted to leave, but she figured out that it was just sort of, you know, the entrance was the exit, the exit was the entrance. And in this episode, she attempts to write herself a note. and sneak it into the elevator with herself. But she finds out quickly that Luman has built in code detectors which prevent communication between the selves, innies and outies. And so she goes through this sort of trial, she attempts it a couple of times. And that's when we get to the point where we figure out that her outie may be someone important. Now, the other thing that I find, it was one of those moments in the show that elicited that made me audibly go aww is when John Totoro and Christopher Walken meet and they have this little subdued love story that is just so painfully cute. It's just so cute. And Yeah, that's the one that definitely got to me. Also, we figure out Petey. It makes an appearance. And he tells Mark a couple of important things that we'll probably leave out and you guys will discover as you venture into the show. And two things that are also important to note. When Heliar tries to sneak a message to herself, Mark covers for her. because the first there's a security guard in there, I forget his name. Yeah, but he comes out and he's like, Okay, hell, are you better come with me to the break room, quote unquote. And instead, Mark covers for so Mark has to go to the break room. And it's called the break room because it's where they break you. And I found that very cute of will. So you have to like recite this passage over and over and over again about how sorry you are and how guilty you are and how you'll never do it again until you basically pass a lie detector test of saying this phrase. it is the room where they break you. And when John Turturro and Christopher Walken meet, it's because John Turturro is going into this room where he's getting a sort of therapy session. And the therapy session is all about this therapist who's played by Deachin Lockman. And Deachin Lockman is, she seems like a very side character, but she's actually gonna come back. She's going to play a very big role in ongoing, as we go deeper into season one. Deachin Lockman plays this therapist who basically tells you wonderful things about your Audi, mythological amazing things about your Audi, so that you vicariously live these sort of like memories. But of course, the things they tell you about your Audi when you're us as an audience member listening to it, you're like, wow, this is none of this is true. This is all such like mythologizing of something that like no real human being is does. But okay, great. And if you speak or anything, they're like, don't speak, that's 10 points off. you break rules, don't even know exist for more and you spend all your your points, you then the session ends immediately and you have to leave. But I also wanted to make out so teach and Lachman. I did want to take a moment to say she has such a unique look to her as an actress. Yeah. And she is half Tibetan, half German of all things. And she and she was born and raised in Australia. And so coming from all this, all the places and she's been so I actually she's been I've known about her since 2011 when she did a movie called too late, I want to say it was called and it was an indie film that at the time I was in the indie circles as a creative executive and whatnot and I was paying very close attention to these films and it did the festival circuit. It starred, Hawks, John Hawks. Is that the name of the actor? no, I'm have to actually John Hawks. No, no, no, no, no, no, You know, the guy who was like the Winter's Bone guy. John Hawks. Yeah, John Hawks with the weird John. OK, John Hawks. Yes. So from Winter's Bone, think he even got Academy Award nominated for Winter's Bone or something like that. Like he he's good. And this was like a starring vehicle for him. I think it was done in three single take shots. The whole movie that they did. So it's like divided into three acts and each act was a single shot. This director has never done anything since, by the way, which is sad. At least not in film. He's a musician and he still tours and does music and blah blah blah. But this was his big break as a indie film guy. I think it didn't make a lot of money, but it is a very, very good movie. And Deacon Lachman did have one of the supporting starring roles. And her look, even then I was like, who is that? That is really interesting. And she's since gone on to have some great television careers. She did a soap opera for a long time. She was the main villain in the first season of Altered Carbon on Netflix. she was, you're right. The sister, the sister, quote unquote, right? Yeah, yeah, So she's had some, she's been coming up and then she has a very major role, it turns out, in Severance. So someone to keep your eye on, I think, as a piece of talent. And... All right, moving on to episode three in perpetuity. The first one not written by Dan Erickson, but still directed by Ben Stiller. This was written by Andrew Colville of Mad Men. And actually, they won a Peabody Award for this episode. So this one has two main events that kind of happened in it. Number one, Petey starts to stay in Adam Scott's basement in the real world. Adam Scott goes to find him. Adam Scott calls in his Audi calls in sick. to the office, which is really interesting. you guys don't remember, Petey is the guy who had the position before Mark. Right, right. So the one who disappeared, he had he was sniffling. Right. And we were talking about he's been sort of reintegrated. But but he has he there's a lot of issues going on with his reintegration. So there's Adam Scott calls us sick, goes finds Petey, puts him downstairs when he goes back to the office the next day. He they do they go through the perpetuity room. They take Helliar there to try and get her because she did submit a resignation request, which was denied And it to Mark's character says that's the quickest I've ever seen a resignation request processed ever So something's going and then remember what Milchek said to her in the stairway to her Audi Like something's going on with her character that is different from all the other characters. So keep that in mind So they go to the perpetuity room which is like a wax museum for all the CEOs of this company. And again, going back to Scientology, this is so Elrond Hubbard and Scientology. It's basically the about room with exhibits. Right, right, right. So you see all these different CEOs, men and women alike that have had and from the looks of it, like they almost all died by the nineties. Like, I swear to God, there were so many that died, passed away in the nineties that I was just like, are they kind of suggesting maybe the OG founders are all gone? there's, and they say ones left. They're like, this is the main one. He, but he's already looking like he's in his eighties or nineties in his wax museum figure. they're like, this is the current leader of the Eagans. The Eagans are what they call them. Yeah. the way, Keir Eagan, there's a texture that recurs in this is, You know, David, you're talking about the of Scientology parallel. And one thing they do is they have these little sort of phrases that are sort of vocal remembrances of the kind of lore around the company. yeah. Which, you know, isn't uncommon. That actually was a common thing for corporate, large companies back in the 30s, 40s and 50s. It was sort of a family thing. And so they had sort of mythos and lore sort of integrated into the company. But this does take it to enough to a cult religion level. It definitely takes us to a cult religion level. the phrase, the person is Kier Egan, which is also just a great, great, open -ended vowel, rich name. So, So, you know, it does seem like I got the suggestion that I'm wondering two things. One, are all the Egan's actually gone and they just say this guy still lives? really kind of like how Miss Cavage run Scientology now. None of the Hubbards are around anymore. L. Ron Hubbard passed. His kids were like, fuck this. Our dad was crazy and had nothing to do with it. So we'll find out more about that. But I definitely got the feeling that the perpetuity room had a lot of these suggestions that the OG founders might not fully be in control anymore, might not be around anymore. And we'll see. Another thing that I loved about this episode. at one point, Adam Scott's Audi character. And you know, this is Adam Scott's first big dramatic role. But we find he tries to watch the news. He tries to watch other, you know, serious TV and it's all about severance and debate about it. And he's like, I can't do it. So of course he watches sitcoms comedy. It's like what he does at night. Now I was like, that's cute. That kind of a shout out to Adam Scott, to Adam Scott is an actor and like he's finding that solace in comedy. Now the one thing just like Mrs. Selvig and her keep forgetting her boss's name is Covell. God damn it. And Covell, when she had that weird reaction to the handshake. At one point, she thinks something's up at Mark's house. And so when he goes to work the next day, and sure enough, he has PD hiding in the basement, she goes over to the house. and then the brother drops off. That's when the book wrapped up. Yes, right. And so she's like, goes over takes the package doesn't even know when it just takes it. She's like, Nope. Mark doesn't get any packages. Not if we haven't looked at it. Takes it with her and then looks through his house. Petey hides. But while she's down there, she's looking through the basement. And there was a one moment that I also kind of wrote down, because I was like, I don't know what that means. She picks up she's in this like little basement attic where he's just got all the storage stuff. And she picks up a candle. And she smells it. Yeah. And she goes, No, and puts it in her purse and takes it with her to know it's like, why the candle? What the fuck was that? So there are some, there are all these little tidbits that I'm like, that was so weird. And I feel like that fits whatever is actually going on in the characters, but you don't have the context to understand why. so anyway, the candle, keep an eye on that. One other thing that was really interesting is Irving, John Totoro's character. Irving's just beautiful. good character. Now, Yes, he's a good character, but something that made me curious. They go to the perpetuity room and Irving is completely reverent of the mythos of the company. Every photo, every image of any of the iconography, he knows its background. He has some reference point for it. Yeah, right. But I had to write down at that moment, why did they not make Irving the new Petey? Why did they make Mark the new Petey? And there's got to be a reason there, but it doesn't on the on the surface. It doesn't make sense. Actually, if you recall, Petey did feel a bit annoyed. I've got another word of the day by Mark getting that position. It was very brief and passing in episode one. And you're right, it is, you know, it's clearly a. Whatever the thinking is by the higher ups. Well, and whatever the thinking is by the higher ups, it's something we're not privy to because it doesn't make if thinking of the office is what we think it is, where it's like they want you brainwashed and they just want you doing this work. Irv would be the perfect candidate. Right. So the fact that they're making Mark that candidate and they're watching him at home the way they are and being the next door neighbor, I'm like, what OK, what is going on with that? Because they are. doing things with him that don't, again, on the surface don't make a lot of sense. And one thing we did not mention, which I think is probably much more important than we've been privy to in episode, season one, is the idea and presence of the board. Now the board is this sort of phantom group of, know, whoever the sort of the brass is, the top level brass. And, you know, Cobell has been sort of not butting heads, but clearly has been under some sort of suspicion from the board. And as the season plays out, that starts to starts to sort of increase. And so, again, I can't stress enough. They do such a great job of placing all these pieces on the board. and positioning them for some really interesting kind of narrative interaction later on. I don't know what it is, what's gonna happen, but it is so much fun. And normally in a first episode, a pilot or a second episode, you would not have this many sort of components placed on the board. But I think it's kind of necessary in a show like this and they do it so well. Well, and the thing that I think because I I match the show up with that Netflix series, German series, dark all the time for this for this similar. The stories are wildly different. They have nothing to do with each other. They're not the same whatsoever. But what they are similar in is from you kind of have to get to episode two to really start to realize this episode one's a little more straightforward. But there's so many characters and so much is happening by the end of episode two that you're like. They have a, they plainly have a plan. Like you have not introduced this much, this much. The only reason you can introduce this much, this upfront is because there's a map. Right. there, I don't know. I do. don't know. Cause lost started with a whole shit ton of characters. But here's the fun thing about loss. We, I, don't, we haven't really talked. Well, we haven't talked about lost on this show. We talked about it briefly on the legacy show we had. But Lost, I've listened to some podcasts on the history of Lost and how it went off the rails. And they did have a plan to begin with for the most part. The plan just kept changing due to pressures from certain groups. And when the pilot was shot, they had a plan that was scrapped last minute because the studio was then like, you the network was like, no, no, no, now it's got to be this other thing. And they're like, but they didn't have time. had to kind of go with it because they had to shoot it and debut it. As you know, they just did not have the time. They're like, we'll figure it out later. And then figuring it out later got worse and worse and worse because they kind of did even then they, they had a plan. were like, okay, we will figure it out. But then the pressures kept mounting for them to keep mixing things up in ways they weren't planning on mixing it up that way. And so it just kept losing itself over and over and over again. So that is something that can happen. But I do, but you know, again, Lost went seven seasons and that was part of the problem too. The show runners at one point went to the network and they're like, season four is going to be the last season. And the was like, right, right. And the network was like, no, it's not. It's too popular. You know, we're still going. And they had, didn't have material. They were like, we don't, we don't know how to spin these wheels. So they had to keep coming up with shit. So I do think Severance is going to be, you know, it's one of these streaming era TV shows that is only going to be as long as the writers want it to be. there will be zero pressure to make it longer than they want it to be. Dark was three seasons and done exactly as planned. get the feeling Severance will probably be about three, maybe four or five, see. It really depends what the plan is. The fact that season two is only six episodes, maybe though really will draw it out. So the last thing I do want to say of episode three before we get to the wine pairings is one more slight quibble. is the one big near the end, the one big dramatic scene here where Helly are again, kind of like how she was facedown on the table. And I was like, what'd it really be like that? She does this thing where she breaks the glass to the door and tries to stick a note her arm through the door with the note and then squeeze her head through the door so her Audi can read the note, you know, like before anyone can stop it. And I was like, just open the door and stick your arm out like I mean, I get it's a good plan to try and just stick your head and arm out and not the rest of your body and see what happens. But it's like, you don't have to break the glass and risk all that. And then she couldn't get her head through the guy. I'm like, lady, just open the door. It's like opening the door doesn't change you. It's walking through it. Just just open it. So a little minor quibble where they had to make that so much more dramatic than it to need to be. Of course, of course. All right. On to the wine pairing. So I'll go ahead and start if that's what you'd ask. I'll go ahead and make it so. And again, this for episodes one through three, we'll see what change I'm guaranteed to change this in future episodes. Just to mix it, mix it up a little bit. Though I do think this will be a perfect pairing for any episode of this fucking show. So you know, this show, it's off putting man, it's your your You don't have your bearings right from the get the characters don't have their bearings right from the get go. Even the outies are also traumatized and in shitty places and don't know what's going on and have a hard time defending themselves to the rest of the culture and their family and their friends or anything. And then down down in the office, of course, they're all like kind of memoryless. And so everything and everything that happens episode to episode characters keep behaving in ways and especially the Lumen characters keep behaving in ways you're like. Okay, this is not what I think it is like over and over again, it keeps taking it to places where it's not what you think it is. So I had to go for an off putting wine. Okay, I had to go for a wine that keeps you on your toes and keeps your bearings a little mix mishmash and mixed. And so I went with something that I tried for the first time this week, this past week, which is a Greek written night is written this. Yeah, Yeah, written, Nittus or Retina as it's more commonly known. Yeah, right there, baby. All right. So this is a Retina guys is a wine with pine. It's a white wine with pine resin added to it. It is a staple of Greek. It is. So I told I texted Dallas this earlier last week and I'm standing by this. It's like drinking wine that an alien or an AI made. fabricated based on a written description of what wine was supposed to be. And this was like their attempt at creating what that wine might have been. It I mean, it's wine kind of, but it's also you like I can't get my bearings with what the fuck I'm tasting. Dallas kept that he's like, what are the prominent notes? I'm like, I don't know. And he's like, well, but what's standing out? I'm like, dude, I don't know. I'm like, I just I mean, yes, there are prominent notes, but I just it's so weird. I don't know my palate. is not balanced to figure out, like it's not, it doesn't have that inner ear balance in terms of figuring out where the fuck I am with this wine in regards to any other wine, because it's not like any other wine. So I'm like, I don't know, it's kind of like it, it gets close and then veers off into these weird off directions. At one point I was like, it smells like mahogany. It smells like mahogany wood that had just been cleaned in lemon scented cleaner. That's the closest I can get to it. It kind of tastes like that too, kinda. But the flavors are a little different too. There's plainly herbs and savoriness in there in these very sharp like rosemary. And then kinda citrus, but again, it's like citrus adjacent, but then veers off into something that you're like, but no, that's wrong. That's not what citrus and wine is supposed to be. So lemon, yes, but just lemon? No, that pine resin really fucks with things. Now why pine resin? This is in Greek wine, they traditionally way, way back when they would seal their amphorae or their containers with that pine resin to protect the wine. Then the pine resin would seep into the wine. It would touch the wine, get in there. Now the pine resin actually wound up preserving the wine even better than without the pine resin. So all around, not only did it seal the container to keep it airtight, but then the pine resin would leak into the wine and preserve it even more. So as a preservation technique, pine resin just became a thing in Greek wine, did not travel anywhere else, but it took off in Greece. And to this day, it isn't everyday wine in Greece. They drink it all the time. In our legacy show, I did a short episode about this graphic novel that took place in Greece. It was a Greece -based graphic novel, but done by a British artist. Andy Watson is the writer and Simon Gain is the artist. And when we did the episode, Simon Gain liked the episode and commented on it. And he said, because I paired it with a different wine at that time, I was talking about Greek wines and what you could pair it with. I think I did. So this is a a retina made from a Syrtico. And I did say a Syrtico in that video of normal a Syrtico, which is a white wine, an indigenous grape to Greece. And he's like, he's like, good call, good pairings. But you know, what I drank in preparation for this graphic novel, because he went to Greece on location, took photos and like all for reference and to get into the feel of the place. And he's like, I drank Razzina every day. That's what I drank while preparing for this very recent graphic novel that's only a couple of years old. So it's still an everyday drinker in Greece. But man, if you've never had Razzina before, it's mucked up. So this is the Pityas, P -I -T -Y -S, Pityas retinitis or retina, non -vintage, 100 % aceratoco from Tropis, winery from Mantinia in Greece. Pityas was the only Aureid nymph who accepted the love of the satyr Pan, but Vorius, his rival, threw her off a cliff and killed her. Earth felt sorry for Pan and transformed her into a pine tree. So we could scarcely conjure, the winery says, we could scarcely conjure a more appropriate mist for this traditional retina wine. Pine resin addition goes a long way back in Greece and it was used to protect the wines. Honoring that tradition, this winery vinifies with minimum intervention during intervention of the most prominent white wine Greek variety, Assyrtiko, following a 35 century old tradition in Greek wine. Now what they say, They're tasting notes, apricot, blossoms, a slight smell of tangerine coexist on equal terms with herbal and mestica notes. I don't even know what that is. Slightly acidic flavor with a frankincense aftertaste. you go. I don't know. I cannot tell you the last time I've ever tasted frankincense, so I couldn't tell you what that is. But that's what they say. It is 100 % whole cluster fermentation from mentonia in So that's my pairing Dallas. know, that retina you'll find in a lot of like the Grecian sort of wines and aperitifs and spirits. They like really strong, strong flavors. The national drink of Greece being, Uzo, which is another really potent, that's a Likour. It's a Likour. Exactly. It's their national drink. And it just, you know, even with the retina having had it before, it does, it overwhelms your olfactory senses. It's it's, you know, if I were going off on one of my rants, I would probably say something like, you know, if you live in a place where, you know, there are dead bodies all around, you know, every other decade or so you want to drink that really kind of overpowers the scent of stench of death and Uzo definitely does that and red Sina because of that, you know, resin thing, it feels it's tastes like a cleaner. just tastes like a cleaner. So yeah, I I can't say I mmm. I think this is the first time I hear that pairing. Hmm. Yeah, that's interesting. I... Hmm. Yeah, I'm gonna reserve judgment until we get through the entire series to see where you go next. it's curious. I'm gonna say, sure, sure, I I tried it. I tried it with episode three. I'd already seen episode one and two, but I tried it with episode three. I thought it was spot on. mean, I'm still developing a palette for it. it's not unpleasant, but it's not... pleasant either yet. You know what mean? It's somewhere that is not that is neither of those two experiences. And this show is for me personally, very pleasant, like I love it to pieces. I love the experience of how off putting it is. off putting there is a match there in terms of if someone wanted me to describe the show, if someone wanted me to tell them what it was about in a way that actually got the tone and the aesthetic across, it's tough. hard. You kind of have to you have to experience it to know. That's true. That's a good point. That's a good place to sort of pair that. I like that. So my pairing. I'm probably going to do what you've done in our legacy show a few times, which is curate a little flight. And I almost did that for these first three episodes, honestly. But I decided I could find a wine that complimented this first arc You know as we were saying what this series does with particularly its first two episodes. It's It's really dense in terms of the information they put you know on your plate here they're positioning lots of different pieces on the board and You it doesn't necessarily come together seamlessly, but you kind of just accept that it's necessary. And because of that, I was able to find a wine. I knew I wanted something that was pretty dense, you know, heavy in the bottom. So it was definitely gonna be a red. You know, I couldn't imagine pairing this first arc with a white. That's fascinating because you're so much more the white guy than I am. But this show especially makes me think whites more than reds just because the sterility of the whole thing that sort of like that. Yeah, I that too. But it was just the sterility is really only in the setting. You know, it's it's because I get what you mean. Yes, yes. You know, it's it's really the setting that's sterile in that sense. Everything else is just so murky, really. You know, it's it's dense, it's murky. There's and the emotions, think outside of rare occasions, the emotional back and forth between characters is very like you're not supposed to show emotion. You're not supposed to be emotional. You're not supposed to. And even the outside world's like everyone's so in a broken place that the heaviness is like under the surface. The heaviness is all implied, but it's so not they are in the actual interaction. And so that point right there, the idea that every character is presenting this sort of really one dimensional kind of surface layer emotion, but with every character, you're able to discern that there's some serious shit going on underneath every character. And so I equate that with the Tadic structure, which is why one of the points that made me think this is going to be appropriate for her head. And so I wanted something with a medium tannic structure, not anything you necessarily had to chew on the entire time, but the tannins definitely make an appearance. And it also, needed some tang. I needed something to beat that had a little sort of, occasionally it reaches up and slaps you awake. The show does that very well. I knew I wanted some pretty high acidity, because there's a lot of acid running through the show. it's dynamic in that way. I also wanted something that wasn't terribly aged, because the show does feel, the first arc does feel new and fresh and like ready to be consumed. You know what mean? It was just, it's sort of, I think the show's at its best in these first three episodes, if I'm being honest. It is truly at its best in its first three episodes. But also approachable. So I, I went with a, I think you and I have had discussions about this particular, maybe not this particular vintage, but the grape. I'm sure we've had discussions about the grape, but I did. went with a Cobb Frank, of course. I did because it has that sort of unctuousness. It also has a mid tannic structure. There's that acidity. There's that, you know, that there's a quality that kind of keep going back to this term, annoys, but I'm gonna choose a different term. It stands out. It's somewhere between that kind of acidity and that tartness, which is where Cobb -Franc always sort of lands for me. So I went with the Domain Sable de Vert, Glue Glue here, which is a fantastic little wine. It is price point. You can find a bottle for anywhere from 25 to $38. It stands up well to dense foods and fatty foods. And I think this show, as it progresses, is going to get a lot fatter. So yeah, that's my guy. get some jam in there too. You get a little truffle. Of course. Yeah, that's my guy. That's my guy for arc one, first three episodes of Severance in our two hour and eight minute episode, only an hour of which is actually dealing with Severance. Just about, just about. did the whole opening history. So to be fair, it's a little bit more than that. also be careful about that because I do edit these heavily, so not necessarily. Wow, really But at the same time. We spent like 15 minutes on Michael Bay, which I may have to cut that and put it. put it on my own little. Yeah, I like that. course. I know I like it. think people appreciated those who bothered to listen like people like diatribes like that they do. And then they're gonna want to hopefully they'll email us in and be like, you're right. You're all right. All right, guys. Well, this has been our very first coverage of Severance episodes one through three. We will be back next week for episodes four through six, the three episodes directed by a person not named Ben Stiller. That's right. And all written by different writers that really progress the story before we get into the grand finale. Retzina, white wine. My version can be found for about $19 .99 a bottle. I got it at K &L wines here in LA, which is also in San Francisco. And if you look around online, Retzina is around. You'll probably have to go to a Total Wine or a fine wine shop. They're not the most prevalent. And Retzina, if you really want something different, and that is really gonna have you off balance while you're drinking it. And then for Dallas, if you wanna enjoy yourself and not be off balance, Cap Frunk, that's what you're looking for right there. All right, folks, we will catch you next week. Ciao for now. This has been another episode of Wine and we will be back next week for another Wine and Entertainment pairing for your entertainment. Bye bye! See you later guys!