Kill James Bond! - S3E28.5: I Saw the TV Glow [PREVIEW]

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Thats right, we've given in to the baying masses without so much as a popular vote. This week, we watched Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow and you'd better believe we had some thoughts. (NOTE: Jane uses they/them pronouns)   Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112832404   ----- FREE PALESTINE Hey, Devon here. For the past few months I've been talking to a family trapped in Gaza, working to cover their daily living costs amidst repeated displacements in the Genocide. Their names are Ahmed and Layla, and their 4 kids are Jana, Malik, Lana and Amir. Anything you can contribute would mean the world to me. They deserve to live. They deserve to survive.https://www.gofundme.com/f/a8jzz-help-me-and-my-family-get-out-of-the-gaza-strip https://www.map.org.uk/donate/donate ----- Consider supporting us on our reasonably-priced patreon! https://www.patreon.com/killjamesbond ------ WEB DESIGN ALERT Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/ Kill James Bond is hosted by November Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon. You can find us at https://killjamesbond.com

Listeners, do you remember a podcast that you used to listen to about James Bond movies? And it had three people, November, Devin and Abby. Do you ever feel like episodes of Kill James Bond were more real than real life? Did you ever feel like we were your real friends, even more than your actual ones? What if you were on that podcast and you're remembering it as a podcast, Did you ever feel like we were your real friends? Even more than your actual ones? What if you were on that podcast, and you're remembering it as a podcast, but it was all real?

That's where we've been, listeners! We've been in the podcast! We've been in Kill James Bond! The Bond opaque! Fuck! Fuck! You don't remember watching all 25 James Bond films with us together? You were there. You were there.

It was real. And it was real. And it was strong. You need to wake up. You're dying. We could have talked about James Bond together, Alan. Enough of this. I'm hitting the theme song.

Oh, no! You know it's capturing the energy when I have to open it with enough of this. Cease your prattling. Silence fools. Yeah, I'm actually, I'm usually hitting you with like a silence fools right before we start recording, but like sometimes it creeps into the thing, you know. I got to get my like, my daily Vizier affirmations in, you know.

Yeah, normally we cut it off from the start of the recording, but we all do do our Vizier affirmations. Just like getting in a one on one call with either Abby or Dev, depending on the week and being like they're plotting against you, Sire. The other one is fucking plotting. They don't have your best interests at heart, my liege. Hello and welcome. Saruman the White has ever been our ally.

Hello and welcome to a bonus episode of Kill James Bond. It is, as always, your real life friends, November, Abby, and Dev. And we watched I Saw the TV Glow, which you may recall, it's done a lot of press. It's like the or like one of the big trans films of the last couple of years. So cinematic transgender tipping point is occurring. And we're getting a lot of a lot of art about being trans, which is something that, like, you know, is great.

Mmm. I'm in support of it. Yeah, absolutely. I'm part of it. I mean, yeah, we kind of all are, actually, which is a strange thing to think about. Oh, shit. Oh, God. The podcast might not be real for you guys listening, but it's real for me. It is real for us. I'm fucking... I'm in this shit.

I'm live right now. I'm recording. I'm in this shit, and I can't get out. I'm in this shit. I'm live right now. I'm recording. I'm in this shit and I can't get out. I'm she her. I've always been she her. Dracula's ex-girlfriend Flo is that anything? And I'm like, they must have a needy. They forgot I'm they them. But yes, as this is, as you may get the sense, even if you haven't seen the film, this is a movie about transition and about the kind of like mutability of memory and about parasociality

and about kind of finding your identity through, in this case, TV, but art more generally, right? It's about, it's like a specific kind of trans experience, which may not be your experience, if you are trans. I will lay my cards on the table. Yeah. Yeah. And the important thing to remember is that if this film doesn't reflect your experience and you're not this particular kind of trans person,

you're a freak and there's something wrong with you. You're AGP. As someone who is a freak and is AGP and there is something wrong with me. You're the one who is AGP. As someone who is a freak and is AGP and there is something wrong with me. You are the one who is AGP. I'm kidding. As the wrong kind of trans woman, right, like who did not relate to this movie in that way, right?

Not relating to this movie doesn't make it a bad film. It's a bad film for other reasons. I don't really think... It's an episode of Kill James Bond. There's going to be some conflict listeners because November is a VPN and this is a bad film and I am of the correct opinion that it's good. I'm not really of the opinion that it's a bad film. It's not a film that I connected with.

It's technically it is well done. I think there are some things that I would change about it where I'm making it. But then that's the thing. It's a very individual experience. And I have a broader philosophical beef that is not really with the movie, but is kind of like a call to action. There will be a call to action in this episode about this kind of wave of trans art. Right.

I think the, I think the review in, I think it was the Times said much the same thing. I actually was like, this is really well made. I hated it. I don't know why they hired me to write for them. They're a very transphobic newspaper. I enjoyed it. Obviously I'm not trans feminine or indeed really trans masculine. I'm just sort of trans.

Transdefinite. Indeed. I became Devon at a certain point and this I do relate to this movie a lot as well. Like this one really did get me. It got me right in the heart. I cried twice the first time I watched it. Only once the second time. Progress. I watched it in a room full of trans

people in a cinema. And it was it was a wonderful evening. It was a transcendent experience. But anyway, we opened on the 824 logo, which is a sure sign that you're in for some freaky shit. Less so these days.

Less so. Look, 824 made good movies. I happen to believe they make great movies. They do. They also made X-Men, Civil War. Great movies. Every time I say Civil War, I tag on a new thing on the front of it. Like, you know, Disney's Civil War, Marvel's Civil War, X-Men versus...

Ballistic X-Men, Civil War, Capcom. I happen to love the entire franchise is all really good anyway, 824 Lego and then We meet our protagonist. Hmm. Yeah, we open on this suburban road at night There are the purple chalk Outlines drawings all over the road and there's this ice cream truck in the distance with its lights on. Someone has been fucking vandalizing the album cover for American football is what's been happening. Yes. Also, I am gonna need you two to do the like bulk of the heavy lifting on

recounting what happens in this movie because I was too annoyed to do that. Okay, that's fine. Wait, our first thing that happens is that we meet our protagonist Owen who is a young black boy? Question mark? There will be some shenanigans over this question later. Ostensibly so. Yes. Who's watching TV and sees an advert for this TV show called The Pink Opaque. The lead of which is a beautiful black girl named Isabelle,

who like kind of looks a little bit like him. Yeah, it's the shot of her walking across a football field. Yes. Yes, yes. And then we cut to him in class and they're doing an activity, which I'm not sure if like... Did other people do this? Because we did this in school, where they bring in a parachute and you just kind of like lift it up

and you sit under the parachute for a bit. Hell yeah, we did this shit. We didn't do this shit, no. We did this shit and I don't know why. I got the big parachute, yeah. You go, whew! And that's about it. My experience in school was mostly just like you do the plot of The Lord of the Flies to each other for like, I don't know, 10 years or whatever.

Oh no, we did that too. Well, you can do that on or about the parachute. Yeah. Like, don't worry. You close that parachute down, it's only kids under there. The teachers aren't in there. Lord of the Flies occurs. Yeah.

Anyway, the parachute, listeners, because this movie is not a subtle one, the parachute is literally in the trans flag colors. Yes. Just in case any of you were just like, oh gee, I don't get it. What's the movie about? It's like, here is what the movie is about. We're setting this out early. The movie is like very deliberately unsubtle.

Yes. You know, like, to be clear, right, if I talk about it being unsubtle later in a negative way, it's not a criticism that this is done because it was like lacking skill or because it wasn't intentional. It's an intentional choice that the movie is making that I don't like. But that's fine, you know? And then we cut forward a little bit and we meet Owen when he's a little bit older. We're going to spend much of the first half of the film jumping about in time between young Owen and then our lead actor, Justice Smith, who narrates to us and tells us that the other night he couldn't sleep so he started rewatching his favorite show, The Pink Opaque.

Justice Smith's voice in this, I mean the whole performance is fucking incredible. But his voice in particular is So fucking good politely he sounds like and this is an incredible act to carry off for the whole movie the biggest pussy in the world Right, it's so good. His voice is like constantly cracking. He sounds like he's nervous about everything. He's saying it's perfect You know the teenager in The Simpsons that you know you know, the, my god, you're greasy kid. Oh, the squeaky voice teen. Yeah, yeah. It's quite a squeaky voice teen. It is.

It's also androgynous. Mm. It sounds, I don't know, like, I don't know what kind of voice training he did to achieve this, but it is phenomenal. It is androgynous, yeah. Anyway, we go to his high school on election night. Void High. Void High School, which is a very like night veil detail, up to you whether that's a compliment

or not. I did notice the big VHS signs everywhere. Again, just kicking your absolute dick in with the symbolism. It's a movie about symbolism. Yeah. What I do love about the Void High School is there's a little sign somewhere that says Go Vultures, which leads me to believe that their football team is called the Void Vultures, which fucking goes.

That's great. Listen, I'm not, I'm a big merch person because I'm a terrible hipster and hypocrite about like, films. I absolutely wear a Void Vultures. Yeah, so what if my eyes are just fucking lighting up, oh I need to get a Void Vultures shirt. That'd be so fun. Yeah. The Void Vultures, like, football jersey? A hundred percent I would wear this.

I've got to get one of those. Okay, great, fun.