Kellams: This is Ozarks at Large. Time to check in with our culture vulture, April Wallace, an instructor at the University of Arkansas and a connoisseur of all things culture. How are you?
Wallace: Great. How are you?
Kellams: I'm very good. You often give us recommendations. I assume that's the case again today.
Wallace: That's true.
Kellams: But you always have a question, too.
Wallace: Yeah. Should we start with a question?
Kellams: Let's start with the question.
Wallace: Well, a couple of weeks ago, you dropped the bomb that you thought Thanksgiving should be in August. And I just can't not follow up on that.
Kellams: Okay. First of all, I think Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's are way too close together. Each of those holidays brings their own sort of pressure. So to me, the fourth Thursday of November through Jan. 1, it's just too much. It's hard to handle. So spread them out. Keep Christmas and New Year's together because that makes a nice little weeklong holiday package.
Wallace: Yeah.
Kellams: Kids out of school. Some people have that time off from work. Fine. Let's move Thanksgiving to August, because what does August not have? A holiday. So you put Thanksgiving in August. You keep it the same spirit. Cuisine's going to be a little tough, I admit.
Wallace: I'm certainly not doing a turkey in the August heat.
Kellams: Right. So it's not a perfect plan. I throw it out as a way to get a conversation started.
Wallace: Well, that's fair. I do like the autumnal feel, though, Thanksgiving.
Kellams: I know, I know, I have not garnered much support of this plan. I will admit that. So you can send the emails to kkellam@uark.edu and tell me why it's such a bad idea.
Wallace: Or maybe why you like it. Well, there's one show that has a particularly good Thanksgiving episode, and it is "How I Met Your Mother."
Kellams: Okay.
Wallace: And the episode that I'm thinking of is called "Slapsgiving."
Kellams: Mhm.
Wallace: And so in this, it's like season three, something happens and one friend has wronged another. And Lily is the moderator for this particular competition. She doles out a certain number of slaps that Marshall can give to his friend Barney over the course of a year.
Kellams: Oh.
Wallace: And when we talk slaps, we're talking real slaps to the face.
Kellams: Okay. And if you haven't seen "How I Met Your Mother," Barney is kind of-
Wallace: A child.
Kellams: Thank you. Yeah. Not a real child.
Wallace: He's a child emotionally, yes. But we'll start there.
"How I Met Your Mother" is among my favorite TV series. I think of it as somewhere between "Seinfeld" and "Cheers" and "Friends." If you had a Venn diagram, "How I Met Your Mother" might be at the center because it's a whole bunch of 20-somethings. They're out of college, but they haven't been in their grown up jobs very long, so they are still college-esque, but they're learning the ways of the world and paying their bills, and a few of them still live together. So there's three men and two women.
It stars Josh Radnor as Ted, and the hook of it at the beginning is it's 2030, and he's telling his two kids who are like pre-teens, he's setting them down to tell them how he met their mother, and he wants them to know a whole bunch of things about himself, about who he was before he became a dad. And it includes this amazing group of friends that he had, that they were all super close as they were going out into the world and figuring out who they really were and how to be a real adult.
So when it starts, we're transported to when he's 27, he's just starting to make it as an architect and he's living with Marshall, his best friend from college, who in the first episode gets engaged and it sends him into a spiral. Am I behind? Should I be getting engaged at this moment? And that leaves him with Barney, who you mentioned as childish. Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris, is characterized by his suit and his evil corporate job. He works in banking of some kind. No one really knows what he does, but more than we see him there, we see him playing laser tag and trying to con his friends into staying out later than they should on a school night.
Kellams: Right.
Wallace: Marshall is kind of the guy who has his life figured out already. He's in law school. He has a pretty clear cut path for his career. And obviously, he knows he wants to marry Lily. And so he's kind of the most adult of the crew. But he is just a lovable friend who loves to sing and remembers everything. He never forgets anything. He tries to make special connections everywhere he goes.
Lily is this like elementary school teacher, former artist. She's teaching art now, and she's kind of the mom of the crew, but not like in a soft way. She keeps everybody accountable. Doesn't let anything slide. Makes them own up to their actions and do what's best for them. And Marshall and Lily are just the perfect couple. But they have their roller coaster.
And then Robin gets pulled into the group because she at first dates Ted and then becomes friends with everybody. And, spoiler, they don't last, right? But she lasts as a friend. Ted is just desperate to be settled. And it's all of their adventures and finding out like, do I need to have the same expectations as everyone around me? And then doing ridiculous things even though they know they shouldn't.
Kellams: And you can find this show on Hulu. Yeah.
Wallace: Well, that's our thread for today, because my next recommendation would be "Shrinking" on Apple. It stars Jason Segel as Jimmy, a therapist whose wife died in a car accident, and in the first season, he is not trying too hard to come out of his grief. It's been almost a year since she passed when the series begins, and the people around him in his life who care about him want desperately to help him pull through to the next phase of his life. This is one of the really heartwarming, just really feel good shows that I look forward to. And season three just came out not too long ago.
But the cast is amazing because Jason Segel is just so good, and I loved him as Marshall. And I think there are some similarities here to Jimmy. He's, as a therapist, a girl dad, and a loyal friend. Like you see some of those things mirrored here. At work he is surrounded by some of his best friends. Harrison Ford plays Paul, who is the practice owner, longtime therapist who he looks up to as a father figure, which becomes more important in season three, because we see his dad in season three, and there's kind of a tug of war between who plays that role in his life, really.
It might be season two where Paul gets diagnosed with Parkinson's. That plays a much stronger role in season three, which has appearances by Michael J. Fox. And it really develops that line of the story and the moment where Paul leans into treating other people with Parkinson's and coming to grips with what it means for his own life and whether he should be working, or how long. It's just so, so good. It's on Apple.
Probably my favorite, I mean, it also has Christa Miller from "Scrubs." She plays Liz, the nosy neighbor who helps out with his kid. But I think my favorite is Gaby, because Gaby is the friend who will not let anything slide. She will not let you give up on yourself. She's going to teach you a thing or two if you don't get it the first time.
For my book today.
Kellams: Yes.
Wallace: I have a third "How I Met Your Mother" connection. "The Mutual Friend" by Carter Bays. He is the co-creator of "How I Met Your Mother."
Kellams: Okay.
Wallace: And obviously, it's been a minute since the series ended, but this is his first real novel. It is long, but it's full of dialogue and, frankly, has the feel of like a rom com. It follows Alice Quick, who really wants to take the MCAT and become a doctor, but she just can't seem to stop being distracted by her phone, by the next silly quiz you can find, or the listicles or the notifications and the social media. And similar to the show, the sense that maybe you're behind already and you've hardly gotten started. So it's just very similar in tone.
And she runs into Roxy, who very quickly becomes her roommate. Roxy is even more distracted than Alice and is kind of another hurdle to contend with. But they are in New York trying to find love, trying to find a job that pays better. They're trying to find their focus, and this book makes fun of it in a way that is really endearing. Like, I agree, this is the modern struggle. How do we set our sights on something we want to do and follow through when we are constantly connected on all devices and all platforms, and we have more access to information than we ever had before? Is it overwhelming? Is it awesome? It never stops.
Kellams: In between, right?
Wallace: Yeah. So it has funny little episodes of like, from the silly sitcom stuff of getting injured because you were looking at your phone when something came by and you didn't notice it, to, maybe I am going to be a practicing Buddhist now, you know?
Kellams: Right, right.
Wallace: Everything in between.
Kellams: Right. Does it give us an answer how to balance our lives in this ultra connected?
Wallace: Oh, I think it definitely leaves it up to you.
Kellams: Okay. April Wallace, our culture vulture. Thank you so much.
Wallace: Thank you.
Kellams: Happy Thanksgiving.
Wallace: Happy Thanksgiving in August.
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