Kellams: This is Ozarks at Large. Welcome back to the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio. April Wallace, our culture vulture.
Wallace: Thank you. Good to see you.
Kellams: Great to see you. During our visits you make some recommendations and you always start us off with a question about how we consume or why we consume culture, pop culture, books, television, movies. What's your question this time?
Wallace: Is there like a type of episode or even a trope that when you realize a show you're watching is doing it, you're like, oh yeah, I like this. I already like it. I haven't even seen the whole thing, but I'm into it.
Kellams: Yes. And I think I have an answer that a lot of people will not agree with. I love it when, whether it's a television show or even a book series, when there's a crossover. I mean, I would love it if Agatha Christie had ever put Hercule Poirot with Miss Marple. Never happened, as far as I know. But I do like that. Maybe it's because I grew up reading comic books, and I loved when Spider-Man would show up in the Fantastic Four. How about you? What's a trope or a type of episode you enjoy?
Wallace: Okay, well, you had a really good one, so mine's not as creative, but I just simply love the Thanksgiving episode of literally anything. If it's Thanksgiving where you are, like, I want to see it because I think there's usually this understanding that like, we should love Thanksgiving. And I do personally, by the way. And like, there's just this mindset usually at the start of like, oh, we're going to have such a great day, and never once does it pan out the way they think.
Kellams: "Friends." "Gilmore Girls." "Cheers." I can think of several that have had.
Wallace: Oh yeah. Yeah. Even some of the newer shows do. But I just love that because I'm like that. It will show me a particular brand of Thanksgiving that I've probably not experienced but feels familiar.
Kellams: What are you recommending for us this week?
Wallace: This week, I recommend Harlan Coben's latest, "I Will Find You." I'm not sure if you're familiar with Harlan Coben.
Kellams: Not at all.
Wallace: So he's an author and he writes a ton of books, and they're all mysteries. I'm really not a huge fan of mystery, but I like the TV series that his books have been adapted to. He seems to do one a year. You can find them on Netflix mainly. But we've had this conversation where, because you and I are storytellers, there's a certain amount that we can usually figure out on our own, even just being a reader or watching. But this guy, I cannot see it coming. And that is the fun of it.
In this case, David Burroughs is serving a life sentence for the murder of his son, but he legitimately did not do it. And so of course he doesn't know who did. He's a few years into serving that sentence when his sister in law, Rachel Mills, played by Britt Lower of "Severance," comes to visit him.
Kellams: Oh yes.
Wallace: She's an investigative reporter who mysteriously had been let go from a reputable paper, just like a year and a half before she comes to see him. And she makes a case for the fact that the child is still alive. She has found a photo. This child is in the background at a theme park or something like a carnival, and he has the birthmark on his face that only David's kid would have. And it's been a few years. And so they have to go through all the scenarios of like, is this what he would look like? How could someone fake his murder in our house? Get away with it with no trace left behind. So David is intent on finding his son and ensuring his safety. Because in that moment, you go from a grieving father wrongfully accused to my son has been kidnapped and been with someone that I don't know and that he doesn't know for years.
Kellams: All right. Let me ask you a couple of questions, because this is an intriguing concept. And we're obviously a mystery, we don't want to give any spoilers away, but sometimes a high concept like this all the way up to the conclusion, it's really interesting and it's hard to pay off a believable, acceptable conclusion. Does this do that?
Wallace: It does. And that's what I like about his writing, is that it's complex enough that every single episode we turn it off. My husband and I have our theories, we have our theory chat, and the next episode proves us wrong. And then we come up with some more theories and they're wrong and so on until the end.
Also this week I have finally renewed my Apple TV. So I am back, and my first choice was to go through "Margo's Got Money Troubles."
Kellams: Now, I'm intrigued by this because it has Nick Offerman.
Wallace: Yes.
Kellams: Who is Ron Swanson on "Parks and Rec." And I like him a lot.
Wallace: I do too, and he was great as Ron. And I think you might like him here, but he's a very different character.
Kellams: That's good.
Wallace: So because I didn't have Apple this summer until now, I went ahead and I read the book "Margo's Got Money Troubles," first written by Rufi Thorpe, and just as entertaining as the series. And it is read, if you do the audio, it is read by Elle Fanning, who is the lead.
Kellams: Oh, okay.
Wallace: But Margo is a bright young college student in her first year at a local community college. She's always been a writer. She's always told herself stories, and as an only child, she had a lot of room to do that and entertain herself. But once she gets in her first college English class, it's clear that's a strength for her, but more so than she really realized. So her professor notices, takes an interest in her, and he's just stunned that she's not at Harvard or another Ivy League because she's that good. So he begins to encourage her to keep writing and to believe in herself. And his interest goes too far. And they begin a romantic relationship despite how inappropriate it is. Despite that, he is married. And when Margo realizes she's pregnant, the story begins.
It's a case of those instances where you love a character and you feel for them so much because you can see them making some bad decisions and you want so much better for them. But she's scrappy. She is always trying to figure things out for herself, and she knows better than anyone what it's like to be raised by a single mother and pretty much no one else. Her mom, Shyanne, is a former Hooters waitress who met Jinx, Nick Offerman's character.
Kellams: Jinx.
Wallace: Jinx. He is a professional wrestler.
Kellams: Oh my goodness.
Wallace: And that is how they had some encounters that led to Margo being born. Shyanne is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, and it's very fun to see this dynamic. Jinx, of course, is deeply flawed. He has the narcissism of a celebrity who needs that constant attention. He was always on tour when Margo was little. So he's kind of a mythical creature in her life. She knew him, but he was like a visitor. He just came once in a while. But he's also in recovery. He abused drugs, alcohol, but mainly drugs. And so he grew up, he had a family and he raised his kids from his wife and would only see her occasionally. So Margo knows what she's getting herself into, but she just really had no idea about the finances really.
Well, Jinx shows up on Margo's door after the baby is born, saying that he needs a place to stay and he can't stay with his other kids, they won't let him. So Margo is now kind of responsible for two people, not just her baby, but her father. And they work out this, I'll keep you accountable, you help me with baby, and they become roommates and friends after not really knowing each other.
Kellams: "Margo's Got Money Problems" on Apple.
Wallace: Money troubles?
Kellams: Yes. Money troubles. "Margo's Got Money Troubles" on Apple. And before that, the Harlan Coben, "I Will Find You." And that's on Netflix.
Wallace: That's right.
Kellams: You have a book with you.
Wallace: This week I am delving further into "Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma" by Claire Dederer. She is a culture critic and this is written essay style. It's by topic, which is really nice because I can put it down after reading one. It's all about the complicated relationship we have with liking someone's work when we know that they've had problematic behavior. Woody Allen or Roman Polanski, unfortunately goes on and on.
Kellams: It does.
Wallace: Michael Jackson, what do you do with that? She walks us through it, and it's like reading someone's column where it's very personal. It's as if she's talking to you and she's opening up to you. Here's what I'm grappling with. Here's what I liked about their works. Does it change when I simply know what the person has done? What happens if I know more about them and whatever traumatic thing they might have experienced? I can kind of leave it to you to come to your own conclusions about whether that tells you what to do with it, but I find it interesting to walk through it with her.
Kellams: And the other night, well, it's been several months ago, I'm flipping around and on broadcast television there is "Rosemary's Baby," which is a wonderfully crafted movie. And I struggled with it for a minute.
Wallace: Mhm. Absolutely.
Kellams: Do I keep watching this?
Wallace: And honestly, she starts with that, "Rosemary's Baby," and with "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan." And it just really puts to words things that I've thought, like, what did I really like about those films and how much of it detracts.
Kellams: Okay. Ooh, good recommendations this week. Thank you. April Wallace, thank you.
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