We love the Muppets, Michael Caine deserved an Oscar, and Robby drops the biggest pun in the history of the show, but there is so much more to talk about here.

Woe to all who took Vine for granted, and WATCH the Vine we discuss HERE.

Because as Jaclynn says, in this episode "we didn't know what we had."

In this episode we look back and break apart what Cole would argue was the best Vine of all time, "The" GameCube Vine.

What we consider the best is baked into the start of the episode (and it plays twice on purpose), but a compilation of all of the rest can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzqXoZSN5jY

If aliens arrive to our rummage through our digital bones, let them see this creativity so that they might know what it is to be human.

SOUND DESIGN CREDITS:

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Robert Weinstein, our far too humble host and resident storytelling teacher has written yet another play, which was performed by the Barrow Group, and we get to talk about it, celebrate it, and accidentally tear into it.

Read the play here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1O_pb-vqXSIgZY2o9UsmZRMpkdBG1STGN?usp=sharing

EPISODE DESCRIPTION & SHOW NOTES

This episode is all about Jaclynn's only note... the only note she ever gives... ad nauseam to the point that it has (nearly) ruined friendships.

That note is "write three FULL episodes and throw them out."

This is "how" Phoebe Waller-Bridge made the "perfect" television season/series, and Jaclynn gives us a full breakdown of the glorious ways in which two hours of screen time was turned into what is essentially a 5 minute montage!

And sorry, it's obviously more than a montage, but that's the idea that needs to be conveyed if you're trying to decide whether or not to listen to this episode!.

CHAPTERS & CAN'T MISS MOMENTS

00:00 - Cold Open

02:15 - Jaclynn's Only Note Ever

04:18 - Phoebe Waller-Bridge Wrote Three Full Episodes & Threw Them Out

06:43 - Jaclynn Taking Her Own Note

10:57 - Why Cole Was "Sent Over The Edge"

16:09 - Beat-By-Beat Breakdown

25:49 - Robby's Practical Side

33:20 - Robby's Quotes Cuomo & Predicts Mamdani's Victory Speech

35:13 - Outro - Robby Tries & Fails To Be Mean

CREATIVES:

• Writer: Phoebe Waller-Bridge (also known for Killing Eve and Crashing)
• Director: Harry Bradbeer (also known for Killing Eve and Enola Holmes)
• Executive Producers: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Harry Williams, Jack Williams, Harry Bradbeer, Lydia Hampson, Joe Lewis
• Editor: Gary Dollner (Emmy-winner for Fleabag S2, Ep 1; known for Killing Eve and Veep)
• Cinematographer: Tony Miller

CAST:

• Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Fleabag (Creator and star of Fleabag and writer of Killing Eve)
• Sian Clifford as Claire (Fleabag's Sister; known for Quiz and Life After Life)
• Andrew Scott as The Priest (Known for playing Moriarty in Sherlock)
• Olivia Colman as Godmother (Oscar-winner for The Favourite; known for The Crown and Broadchurch)
• Bill Paterson as Dad (Known for Doctor Who and Outlander)
• Brett Gelman as Martin (Claire's Husband; known for Stranger Things)
• Maddie Rice as Needy Waitress (Guest appearance in the episode)

Awards Won and Nominated For:

• Won: Emmy Award – Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series (Gary Dollner)
• Nominated: Emmy Award – Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Tony Miller)
• Nominated: British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) – Best Scripted Comedy (Series)

Sound Design Attribution for The Arc.fm Ep 11:

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• S: CRWDApls_Snapping 02_ShaneVincent_GSC24_XY-AKG214-96k.wav by

EPISODE DESCRIPTION:

People (meaning like tourists visiting a major city, network television sitcom comedy writers living in a major city, or people watching network television sitcoms anywhere in the US) associate improv with "whacky" "games" that are treated as something like "comedy sports."

But to us, and especially to our guest, improv is long-form theatre, a way of thinking, and if it's not too pretentious to say so... a philosophy of thought: does your mind expand or contract the ideas it's presented with, and do you support your fellow humans along the way or not?

The film "Don't Think Twice," is ostensibly about improv, but our conversation would argue that it's about much more, such as, jealousy, capitalism, and whether or not life is fair.

Our guest is Sophie Long, who is from Sydney, Australia but has lived in and studied in Chicago (the "birthplace" of "comedy") and spent extensive time in New York so, yes, this conversation does at times talk about improv, but overall, it's more about philosophy and how the characters in this film treat their "friends."

The premise of the film is extremely true to life and everyone who was a part of this conversation has lived through something similar: there's an improv troupe who has two members audition for (basically) Saturday Night Live, and when one of them actually makes it on the show, the entire dynamics of the group change– drastically.

As always, you do NOT have to have watched this film/story/show to enjoy the conversation, but we bet that five minutes into the episode, you'll at least want to give it a shot.

CREATIVES:

Director & Screenwriter: Mike Birbiglia (also known for Sleepwalk with Me)

Producers: Mike Birbiglia, Miranda Bailey, Amanda Marshall, Ira Glass (creator of NPR's This American Life)

Cinematographer: Joe Anderson

CAST:

Keegan-Michael Key as Jack (Known for Key & Peele)

Gillian Jacobs as Samantha (Known for Community, Love)

Mike Birbiglia as Miles (Known for his stand-up and storytelling)

Kate Micucci as Allison (Known for Garfunkel and Oates, The Big Bang Theory)

Chris Gethard as Bill (Known for The Chris Gethard Show)

Tami Sagher as Lindsay (Known for writing on 30 Rock and Inside Amy Schumer)

Cameos: Lena Dunham, Ben Stiller, Pete Holmes

Awards Nominated For:

Critics' Choice Award for Best Comedy (a significant nod for an independent film)

Accolades: Universal critical praise (100% on Rotten Tomatoes during initial release).

The Film’s Legacy:

Don't Think Twice is a defining piece of 21st-century independent cinema, celebrated not just as a comedy, but as a painful meditation on friendship, capitalism, and the human desire for validation. While ostensibly about improv, its true legacy is its raw, unblinking look at what happens to a tight-knit family unit when the brutal, zero-sum logic of the entertainment industry (personified by the "Weekend Live" audition) enters their lives. It is noted by artists for authentically exploring jealousy among friends, forcing characters and viewers alike to confront whether one can truly support a friend's success when it highlights one's own failure. The film's philosophical core should have been backed by the belief that improv's "Say Yes" philosophy must extend off-stage to navigating an often-unfair life, but instead it explores a capitalist reality that that philosophy may not extend to real life.

EPISODE SUMMARY:

This episode is a discussion of whether we are talking about a "film" or a "movie" (one is "better" than the other) and there is talk about whether or not it is too problematic to re-watch, but we all agree that it's kind of, sort of an early 2000s classic– despite the fact that only one of us has seen it before.

If you know, have worked with, or have heard of any of the three of us already, then this is a must-listen because it becomes an extremely personal story for everyone.

TIME STAMPS & MUST LISTEN MOMENTS:

00:27 - What You Need To Know Before Watching

01:39 - What Robby, A Storytelling Teacher Thinks

08:12 - Is "Freaky Friday" A Film or a Movie?

18:18 - When Did We We All Cry?

23:30 - Does Money Buy Happiness + Sketch

27:41 - Serious Question: What Is Communication?

31:04 - The Big Takeaway: Chad Michael Murray

35:03 - Jaclynn's Love of BRITNEY SPEARS

38:22 - Robby's Way Too "Sexy" Britney Spears Summer In Italy

42:33 - Favorite Lines

EXTENDED EPISODE NOTES:

We begin by trying to set the scene for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie — Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis at their absolute peak, body-swapping chaos, a soundtrack that could only exist in 2003.

From there, we start drifting between Jaclynn's nostalgia and critique. Robby, our resident storytelling teacher, treats the film like a case study in structure and theme, breaking down how body-swapping becomes a metaphor for communication (and miscommunication).

Jaclynn admits it's a movie, not a film, but Cole argues that it’s film because of its cinematography.

When we finally circle back to the “film vs. movie” debate, it becomes an ongoing bit for the rest of the episode. Is Freaky Friday high art or just a comfort watch? Does it matter if something makes us feel seen even if it’s “just” a teen comedy?

Still, somewhere in the middle of all the laughter, we accidentally hit something real. Around the time we start talking about the mother-daughter storyline, everyone admits they cried — sometimes for personal reasons that have nothing to do with the movie.

There’s a moment where one of us says, “This isn’t about Lindsay Lohan anymore,” and it’s true. We realize the film’s message about not understanding each other across generations lands harder as adults. It’s suddenly less about comedy and more about empathy — and maybe that’s what keeps us coming back to movies like this.

The conversation takes a turn into whether money buys happiness (spoiler: it doesn’t, but it does buy time to make bad art), and we somehow end up doing an impromptu sketch that only sort of makes sense in context. That’s the rhythm of this episode — moments of real insight followed by moments of complete absurdity. By the time we get to “What is communication?” the tone shifts again.

We start half-joking, half-serious, about how body-swapping might actually be the most honest depiction of failed communication in families.

After that, things devolve gloriously. Jaclynn admits her lifelong love of Britney Spears, and Robby starts talking about his “sexy Britney Spears summer in Italy." Everyone’s laughing, half out of disbelief, half because this is exactly why we do this podcast — to have these weirdly intimate, unserious-but-serious talks about pop culture that feel like group therapy disguised as conversation. We end by sharing our favorite lines from the movie, and it becomes this collective realization that even though we came into the episode pretending to analyze, what we were really doing was remembering — remembering what it felt like to be teenagers, to want to be understood, to watch something silly and feel like it meant something. We all agree that Freaky Friday isn’t a...

Jaclynn jokes that the real reason we chose to cover Freakier Friday is because she was going to see it no matter what, but honestly we had a great time unpacking this box of "nostalgia cupcakes."

The entire episode and the film, itself, are also an active meditation on just how "meta" you can make a story without breaking the story's proverbial Easter eggs.

Once we got into it, we realized it's a story about empathy, grief, and growth, and on the technical story side, we had a serious discussion of when the rules of the world of a story matter and when they don't.

The episode's closing section, "Favorite Lines," is especially hilarious this week because this was one of the funniest films of the year.

CHAPTER TIME STAMPS & MUST-LISTEN MOMENTS:

00:00 - The Cold Open

00:21 - Why We Chose It, and Why Disney Made This Movie "Literally for Jaclynn"

01:44 - Old Guy Seeing The Film Alone In The Theater

02:40 - Robby Liked It?

03:11 - Jaclynn's Memory of the Original 2003 Film

04:50 - The Jane Goodall Theater Experience

07:46 - The Unkind Aging Jokes and Constant Yelling in the First Half

08:14 - Jamie Lee Curtis Deserves an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize

09:30 - The "Fantastic Four" Problem of Hitting Every Nostalgic Button

14:30 - Characters in Pain

17:30 - Real World Consequences of the Story & The Rules of the World

25:40 - The Almost Questionable Morality of the Story

28:00 - MUNA's Cameo

30:30 - Favorite Lines Sketch

31:40 - Favorite Lines

Director: Nisha Ganatra

Screenplay by: Jordan Weiss (Story by: Elyse Hollander, Jordan Weiss)

Based on: Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers (1972)

Cinematography: Matthew Clark

Producers: Kristin Burr, Andrew Gunn, Jamie Lee Curtis

Cast (Returning): Jamie Lee Curtis (Tess Coleman), Lindsay Lohan (Anna Coleman), Mark Harmon (Ryan), Chad Michael Murray (Jake), Rosalind Chao (Mama P), Stephen Tobolowsky (Mr. Elton Bates), Christina Vidal Mitchell (Maddie), Haley Hudson (Peg)

Cast (New to Franchise): Julia Butters (Harper Coleman), Sophia Hammons (Lily Reyes), Manny Jacinto (Eric Reyes), Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Ella)

Notable Facts:

• Lohan's Return: The film marks Lindsay Lohan's first leading role in a wide theatrical release in 18 years.
• Curtis's Influence: The sequel was born out of Jamie Lee Curtis's own push to make the film after realizing the demand from fans while touring for the Halloween franchise.
• Casting Callbacks: Elaine Hendrix, who played the antagonist Meredith in The Parent Trap (1998), makes a cameo, reuniting her with Lindsay Lohan on screen.
• Box Office Success: The film achieved the biggest domestic opening for a live-action comedy in 2025.
• Veteran Comeback: It is Mark Harmon's first non-NCIS related role in a theatrically released film in over a decade.

Let's look at the story of a single, amazing scene in the UK TV Series Crashing. It displays perfect "heightening," and in less than sixty seconds, paints a picture of the whole series.

WATCH THE SCENE HERE: https://youtu.be/z4Kx3TiS3ow?si=WxhV-XnxFAbh3btN&t=26

Don't ask us why we chose to use a silent scene for a podcast, but we did and we did a sketch making fun of the decision to do so! If you want to get one of the references that's made in the sketch, check out the Wikipedia page for composer John Cage's piece 4'33".

The episode itself is of course a short one, but it's a great scene that deserves more attention!

Please, leave a comment with other ideas for scenes that are worth a second, deeper look.

Crashing (UK, 2016) itself is a pretty great show, and is one of the first public-facing things that Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote.

About the Series:

• What it is: Crashing is a six-part comedy series that follows the lives and loves of six twenty-somethings living together as property guardians in a massive, disused London hospital. The arrangement allows them to pay cheap rent in exchange for keeping the building safe, creating a hilarious and awkward situation where their personal relationships and sexual tensions inevitably collide.

Cast:

• The series stars creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge (best known for Fleabag and Killing Eve) as Lulu, and Jonathan Bailey (known for playing Anthony Bridgerton in Bridgerton) as Sam.
• Other key cast members include Damien Molony and Louise Ford.

The Creatives:

• The series was created and written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and it is one of her first public-facing works before the global success of Fleabag.
• It was produced by Big Talk Productions (known for producing hits like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz).

Impact and Legacy:

• While the series itself did not win major awards, its cultural impact is significant as it launched the TV career of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and introduced the world to her distinct voice, dark humor, and sharp writing, laying the groundwork for the monumental success of Fleabag later that same year.