Speaker 1Does anyone even care? You know I do.
Speaker 2You don't even go here. I got that.
Speaker 1Listen, since it's the Reject Nation, Mike Flanagan's newest hit, I have to assume, Carrie, baby. Carrie. We are here for a good time, not a long time. Well, a decent time. We're here for three ass episodes today. We're here for three episodes. Never long enough, John. Never. Never long enough. Let's go. Let's watch Carrie. Everybody loved it. Here we go.
Speaker 3Everybody loved it.
Speaker 2Get your Amazon accounts ready.
Speaker 1Count us in, John.
Speaker 2All right. A one, a two, and a care three.
Speaker 4Thank you to Huel for sponsoring this video. More on them in just a bit.
Speaker 1All right, citizens of the Reject Nation. Damn, we watched the first three episodes of Carrie, and we are going to be talking all about that. But before we do, I want to take a second to say. In case you haven't already, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe. Ring the bell, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ring the bell. Huge shout out to those who support us over on Patreon, patreon.com slash therealrejects, where you can sync up with your own copy. That's where Greg and John cover stuff exclusively. That's where you get discounts on our sweet merch, rejectnationshop.com. Tara and I are in the same shirt today, our horror, horror shirt, which really fits the theme of the show.
Speaker 2I need one.
Speaker 1John, what you got on?
Speaker 2I'm rocking my cult of she-jacks. Cult of she-jacks. I know where I'm at. I know where I'm at.
Speaker 1You're part of the cult, part of the cult. Another cool thing that you can do over on Patreon is that you can actually ask questions that help guide the reviews, but I don't know if we have those for today.
Speaker 2Not for a show like this. We don't have those for- It's hot off the presses. You probably haven't had a chance to process it yet. We don't have those for today.
Speaker 1We don't have those for Carrie, but we do have those for other things. So if you're our patron, that's a nice special perk that you get. Instead, we're going to strategize what questions we think you guys would ask us, and we're going to ask each other those questions instead, because that's how it will go. All right. Let me start with you, John. John, how did you feel about one, two, three episodes of Carrie?
Speaker 2One, two, three episodes of Carrie. One, two, three, Peter, Paul, and Matt. No, okay. First off, you did ask what the titles were. First period, foreign language, and then social studies. So it seems like all the episodes are named after horses. Will you scroll down? You want to spoil it for yourself?
Speaker 1Yeah. Can you scroll down? I just want to see the title names.
Speaker 2You want to spoil the title names for yourself?
Speaker 1Dramatic Arts. Phys Ed. Home Economics. Yeah, because they dropped all the episodes at once.
Speaker 2Romantic Literature. AP Physics.
Speaker 1Okay. Tell me what you thought about the thing while I'm going to steal this from you while you talk for a second.
Speaker 2I really like this so far. I think that as an expansion, I mean, you know, this seems more and more and more like, you know, the rise of the, you know, streaming miniseries has allowed us to really, like, engage with these adaptations in a, you know, broadly fleshed out kind of way. It allows us to be more thoughtful in how we, you know. Like, spin and develop these stories. And also, too, Carrie is one that, to me, it's like, I remember when the reboot with Chloe Moretz was coming out, and I was like, hey, this is a movie that actually makes a lot of sense to, or a story, the story of Carrie, makes a lot of sense to revitalize, you know, over time because, you know, it's a social story. It's a story.
Speaker 1Just based on the movie that you had seen? What? You're saying the story made sense to revitalize just based on, because you said you hadn't read the book. So just based on the movie you had seen, you felt like it made sense to redo that.
Speaker 2Yeah. And what I know about the book, you know, I've heard some comparisons back and forth about how the book operates as compared to the movie and stuff like that. And just, yeah, I don't know, the story of Carrie White, such that it is, seems like one that you could frequently revisit because, you know, society changes and, you know, what it's like to be a kid in school changes. And that's one of the most interesting things so far about this is they've really kind of taken, yeah, the story that you're familiar with if you at least saw the Brian De Palma movie, but they're. They're, you know, adding, I think you mentioned Mean Girls, and in a way it kind of does feel like they've pulled that element in and we've seen like, you know, elements of the Chucky show, like they're doing, you know, a high school drama in a way that feels pretty well nuanced so far. I mean, obviously there are characters you kind of want to strangle at points, but I feel like especially coming out of Stephen King's source material, which I think is kind of famed among various things for like kind of extreme depictions of bullying, I think this show actually. Actually has so far towed that line really nicely where you kind of understand the, you know, the web of psychology happening at this school and also the ways in which we intentionally and unintentionally victimize people around us. And so, yeah, I think it's just been really interesting and well acted and well sort of conceived from a writing standpoint. I'm very pulled in. I know people have some issues about the fact that like we've passed up another opportunity not to characterize Carrie herself. The way she's described in the book, I believe in the book, she is, you know, like more heavy set and a little less like. I feel like every Carrie movie has to port her into being conventionally beautiful somehow. And, you know, this is working for me in that like with Chloe Moretz, I felt a little bit of that thing where I'm like, ah, they're taking someone stunning and trying to frump them up. Whereas, you know, the girl playing Carrie here, I think, has such presence and a really dear and sweet quality while also. You know, being able to carry that sort of latent trauma that she's been going through all of her life. And, yeah, I like the supporting cast. I like the, you know, tonal elements, the music and just the way that, again, they're building up the thing I know about and also incorporating stuff that, like I said, I know the book has an element where like interspersed throughout the narrative, there are like news clippings of the aftermath of what happened. And they're doing that here.
Speaker 1So to the point that you said. You said earlier, just because I, I don't know if Tara is the same as me, but I know nothing about this book. I only know because of the movie. I didn't realize that. It says that she was described in Stephen King's novel as chunky adolescent girl with pimples and colorless wet hair likened to a frog amongst swans. Certainly this young actress, Summer H. Howell, is not those things. She was, in fact, in one of the Chucky movies, Curse of Chucky, which I recognized, but she is absolutely annihilating herself. I think I'd love to hear from you, Tara. How are you feeling? How are you feeling? This compares to the movie. How are you feeling about the first three episodes as invested? Tell me everything.
Speaker 3Yeah, I love it. I especially love the Easter eggs they put in there. Like, I think I really loved it when the teacher is out and she goes, I just I really wanted to slap her. And you're like, oh, yeah, the teacher does that. And I remember watching the film recently for the channel where I had a hard time. It's such a traumatic scene. But then you're like, you kind of. You kind of get on the teacher's side where you're like, yeah, what else are you going to do? She's freaking out. You smack her to get out of it because and this show does a good job because she kept talking, saying she's just so new at everything, which she is like everything about life is new to her. And that's weird. It's going to take everyone else around her a lot more time to catch up to exactly where she is. And I think the Easter eggs that they put in here and like kind of going back to we see the school on fire in the beginning. But then I like that we're we're leading up to exactly what happened. I'm still also second guessing whether or not like did Carrie make the cement fall on dad because it's a bit that's a vibe, right? We do we kill dad. It is like dubious, right? Right. Because I couldn't fully remember from the movie what the mom had said about the dad that he he was terrible, I believe, to the mom and probably deserved it. He deserved to die. So I would not be surprised if that was Carrie in the beginning because he was abusive and and weird. Right. But do you think her power can reach that far?
Speaker 1I we've only seen her impact things
Speaker 3she can see kind of do. I'm not sure yet. Like I do because that was was that what time was that like meaning dad died and with the school had is going to burn way in the future or in the past?
Speaker 2Oh, no. No, no, no, no. That's all flash forward. All the school burning stuff.
Speaker 1We haven't seen the school burn. We're currently in twenty twenty six. We've seen flashes of that. Dad died. So we get that letter to pick up his ashes February 10th, twenty twenty sixth. Yeah. And we have seen flashes of the fire, which is to come. So theoretically later in twenty twenty six. OK, so then my dad dying is just
Speaker 2the catalyst for her having to go to school and for a mom having to go to work and all these new changes. But the fire in the gym and all that stuff is the future.
Speaker 3Yeah, right. My my. My argument with that was going to be, oh, if it was later, then her powers would have gotten stronger. I don't know whether or not she killed her dad. Let's just call it as a fucking earthquake. And he died. Great. I hadn't even thought
Speaker 1about that at all until you just mentioned that. But I do understand the parallels you're drawing.
Speaker 3Yeah, because I mean, the way that her powers work, especially with Emma, Emma line or when she is around, the one thing that gave it away when Roxy says she thinks she doesn't exist. And then I went, holy shit, I think she might be right. But the first thing I clocked was the blue cup. It was the only one throughout the whole party after our blue cup. She's the only one holding it. But very, very cool how it was directed, where it's over the headshot. We're looking over the roof and we do not see Carrie talking to anybody. All of these weird little Easter eggs are leading up to where there's this is not only a very well produced and directed show, obviously phenomenal performances, but there's also a lot of mystery in it, which I really, really enjoy that you're like, I don't know where else we're going to go. But they're all. obviously is still a lot of Easter eggs put in here. It can take us to a lot of other places in the future, which is great.
Speaker 4I once had one of those nights where I forgot to grocery shop, so I opened the fridge like six times as if food was going to respawn. So I made dinner out of one piece of flavorless keto bread, peanut butter, and leftover grapes. That's not dinner. That's what they slide under the door when they're trying to get information out of you, which I've tried on many people before. But that is a day where I wish I had Huel sitting there. And honestly, that's why Huel has stuck with me for, wow, like over two years now. I use it whether we're sponsored or not. That is the truth. Used it during my cut last year. Coy also drank it so often during his cut for his wedding. He looks great still. I mix Black Edition into my yogurt all the time, and I keep the ready-to-drinks, these, stocked at the office because the crew actually drinks them. And what separates Huel for me from a lot of drinks or powders is it can actually be the meal. Black Edition, the powder, starts at less than $3 per meal, has 40 grams of protein, mixes with water or milk in about 30 seconds, and it's a complete meal you have instead of food, not a shake on top of food. With 27 essential vitamins and minerals, no artificial colors, sweeteners, or flavors. And the RTD bottle is the grab-and-go version. 35 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, under $5 a meal. So next time your alternative is some depressing collection of leftovers, have Huel ready instead. New customers get 15% off online at HUEL. Huel.com slash rejects with code REJECTS. New customers only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our channel yet again.
Speaker 1I'm with you. I think that what is, for those of you guys who are not familiar with me on the channel, I am like a diehard TV person, and that's kind of my, we all get placed on these shows based on what our interests are, where they think that we might bring benefit. And the thing about me is that I watch over, last year I watched 120, new shows, this year I'm going to, I'm well over, I'm going to hit well over 100. I watch a ton of new TV. Wait, John, sorry, can you go back for one second to where we just were? Of course. And Emmeline, thank you. I have a hard time with her name, and so did the girl, Emmeline. I, because of my television, like, okay, TV, TV, TV, I'm always looking for shit like that, that they can adapt for the shows from a book or a movie that might not have merit in the book or the movie, but that expands the world. Because I do think it's very difficult when you are taking a well-known property like Carrie, which comes from a book and already has successful, has at least one successful movie, when you're adapting that and you're saying, okay, but we're going to expand this to eight episodes. What I'm thinking is you're not taking a video game and adapting something that's a whole long world. You're taking something that might be shorter or the book might be a similar length, but you've truncated it into a movie and now we're expanding on it. So where do we have room to adapt? Where do we have room to expand? And so because of that, my TV loving self is very interested in what you're referencing, that the mystery stuff, like when we see what I think is the back of Kate Siegel's head. Yeah. And she's talking to the girl that is from Interview with the Vampire, who's so fucking good. I'm sorry, I'm blanking on her name. She takes over for the Interview with the Vampire in season two. She takes over for the actress that played her in season one. And then she plays a different character in season three. She is phenomenal. She's a phenomenal, phenomenal actress. She's also not from this. She's British or Scottish or something. So she's got. No, no, that's not her. If you go to Interview with the Vampire will pop up even quicker because. But I'm pretty sure that's her, which I didn't even know she was slated to be in the show. I mean, it is her.
Speaker 2You said season two. She's in. Yeah.
Speaker 1And season three. She's the main girl. She's the main daughter.
Speaker 2Yeah. Yeah. I keep trying to place in my brain.
Speaker 1It's fucking weird that I can't place it for some reason. Yeah. Claudia. Claudia.
Speaker 2There you go.
Speaker 1She plays Claudia. And then she plays a completely different. Yeah. Delaney. Yes. I think it must have been her. She looked older, which makes sense. Yeah. Carrie. OK, great. She she is so good that that really intrigues me. But that mystery. Right. Like who's back of the head are we seeing? Why is Carrie running to her? Why is this Emmeline girl? So we got her in the bathroom where she's staring at us. Then we get her in the library where she kind of just pops up again. Then we have her at the. At the party where we're outside. My little mystery brain is like, all right, is this girl real? Is anybody else seeing her? Is she talking to? Is she part of this Kate Siegel mystery thing? Or is this a completely different? This is part of who Carrie is or because she says she found her people. I think that she is either like a memory invisible. She's got weird quirks or things or she's not really there. Something along those lines. But that's the kind of stuff that I think is cool because that's what no audience member could know. By reading the book, unless I'm off. And that's part of the book. Unless this is an element of the book that they've left out of other media.
Speaker 2Or at least no movie watcher would know. Which I'm not aware of in particular. Yeah. And like the way, yeah, the way they shoot all that. It's like they're always in places where like there might be people around, but not close enough to be paying attention.
Speaker 1So a few different elements of the show that I wasn't expecting. Also, I'm curious your guys' thoughts on the music. Like this wasn't the tone that I necessarily would have thought they would go for. How is the music working for or not working for you guys?
Speaker 2I think it works well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it seems like the kind of soundtrack. I mean, you know, there may be some other genres you would flip in if you're really trying to be like, what are the kids in this world listening to? But like for the world you're immersed in and for also the mood, I think having a lot of these, you know, sort of more reverb soaked singer songwriter-y kind of vibey songs is a nice choice. It's working for me, I think.
Speaker 3Me too. Yeah. I really like it. I think it's like more of a modern-esque like needle drop. So then I thought there would be in this type of a show. I wasn't sure if we're going to go like back to like vintage, which is a little bit what Welcome to Derry had some like some needle drops, but other like the title opener song was very much. We were like, what the fuck is this from the 40s or whatever? But it especially worked for me, especially because it directly was always linked to whatever the music soup is to whatever they were going through emotionally, which I thought worked.
Speaker 1Do you guys think that? At this point, going to the Chris storyline with her, her dad, the whole nine yards, her creating this Instagram account, her being pissed at her mom and really bullying Carrie, then fake apologizing, all that. Is she redeemable? Are you guys hating her? Like, is she right now? Is she the villain of the show? Or is Margaret the villain of the show? Or are we unclear on if there is a villain?
Speaker 3Chris is a raging cunt. Tell us how
Speaker 1you really feel.
Speaker 2Yeah. Not redeemable for you?
Speaker 3Not right now. No. And I get what y'all trying to do. Like, it's good direction where she's at the locker and she goes, oh, no, 346 followers. And then she has a look on her face like, oh, I didn't plan on this. Like, what did I do? Like, but I'm like, be still like I do. You double down and I get you double down when you were drunk, maybe blackout. I don't even care. Because even when. The gym teacher said, say it out loud that you all made a mistake in the gym. You won't do it again. You didn't open your fucking mouth, Chris. So forget about it.
Speaker 2Yeah. Props to both of those acts. Like, Alison Thornton and Samantha Sloyan, who plays Margaret, like, are both doing excellent work in that, like, you so want somebody to smack that. Like, you just you're they're so frustrating. But also you I for the most part, I think they're well drawn. It's a thankless job to have to do. And I think especially for Alison, like, I like I appreciate the slope that they've put her on this sort of slippery slope because they've given you enough details to be like, yeah, especially at this age. Like, that's often what's happening when people are acting out against each other, against their peers. I have no control in my life. I feel like I'm being replaced and I have to just put up with all this stuff. I have no power, it seems like. And my future is dwindling. I need some outlet for that. And it doesn't, you know, excuse any of that. But I thought that, like, the shower scene. It's an iconic scene.
Speaker 1Yeah. And they really made it their own in this, which is cool.
Speaker 2Yeah. And I like the way that in that scene, Chris is, I guess, to bring it down to today's level. I feel like there is that element of like, yeah, even though, you know, that deep down she's not being kind. There's that sort of like she's sort of doing that nonchalant sort of humor thing about like, what? It's no big deal. And then it sort of grows. It gets out of hand. And the hive mind gathers in with the other girls around. And then they're all sort of jeering and recording and stuff. And so I like that they at least haven't drawn her as like, oh, they're just evil teenagers doing what evil teenagers do. And again, it's a Stephen King thing. And I think that's a nice thing to address in this context, because even in some of the recent movies, there are times with the bullying where I'm like, man, this is this is extreme and psychotic in ways that are like unusually cruel. And then this is cruel still in a way that feels. Mostly believable with, for my taste, an acceptable amount of height, I guess.
Speaker 1So another thing that I really wanted to touch on as we're talking about this, I'm thinking about this guidance counselor. And I was like, OK, I remember him from Grace and Frankie slash everything else that I've ever watched. Tim Bagley is his name. He's in every great show just recently. The most he's been on the comeback for a while, but he's so good in that he was in just like that. Somebody somewhere, which is one of the most underrated shows of our time. hacks, perfect couple, like this guy books and is busy as he should be. He was incredible in Grace and Frankie, but his character on this show to me is one of the reasons that I'm really intrigued by this show, because I also feel like they're trying to tell us things about how we raise our children, right? Like you are a product of your parents, but you're also a product of your environment. And the one thing that you can say to a kid can change their entire trajectory, their whole life. Like as adults, it is our responsibility to help shape our youth into the world that we want to see, whether you're parents or not parents. Every interaction you have with somebody who is young can shape their mind. Every interaction you have with anybody can shape their mind. But I just think it's really cool to see somebody very good at their job because we do see like the principal can be fumbling a little bit more in this or like even Amber Midthunder's character where she's like, I was one. I was one of the mean girls, too. And she didn't make the call to the mom and, you know, whatever it is. But like we have watched him genuinely care for these children, whether it is Carrie, who's easy to care for in this moment because he's relating to on books and he's really trying to support her or whether it is blonde. C-U-N-T. Chris, who he's like, I've got news for you. You don't matter outside of here. So like you got to shape up because this is the truth. I feel like he's trying to do his. He's trying to do his job with every child. He's great. And that is that he's a great actor. But the character I just feel like is really interesting. We don't see a lot of people who are great at their job and shows. And so far we're watching somebody who's like he's really trying to help the kids.
Speaker 2Those are a couple of my favorite scenes. Yeah, me too. Writing standpoint, acting standpoint, that scene where he and Carrie are sharing the book quotes and the way. Yeah, like that. There's so many ways that could have gone. And the fact that he just kind of creates some space for her. And the conversation doesn't. It doesn't necessarily go the way you think like, oh, high school guidance counselor scene is supposed to go in both situations. Like, I really. Yeah. Of all the teachers, like, I really enjoy Amber Midthunder. Generally, I love Matthew Lillard and Raul Coley is great, too. And I'm excited for that. But he left perhaps the biggest impression.
Speaker 1I agree. Speaking of Raul Coley, I want to see him in Amber Midthunder bone more. It's nice when we have shows like this, when there's kids and like, you know, when when I was a teenager, I was like, oh, I want to see him in Amber Midthunder. I want to see him in Amber Midthunder. I want to see him in Amber Midthunder.
PodcastTranscript AI