The Flop House - FH Mini 47 - The Netflix RomCom Cinematic Universe, with Scott Meslow

Episode Date: January 22, 2022

Scott Meslow, author of the soon-to-be-released (Feb 1st!) book "From Hollywood With Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy," joins us to explain the surprising interconnectedness of Netflix's holiday romcom offerings.Praise for Scott's book:“From Hollywood With Love gives rom-coms the analysis and respect they finally deserve, especially since part of the snobbery around them is rooted in misogyny.”-Rachel Bloom, comedian, actress, and writer

Okay, I'm gonna nail it. ["Many I am your host, Stuart Wellington, and joining me are my other hosts, Dan McCoy. I'm Elliott Caelan. And we have a special guest tonight. That's right. We are joined by Scott Mezlo. He is an author. He is my friend.

He has a hot new book coming out titled From Hollywood with Love, The Rise and Fall, and Rise Again of the Romantic Comedy. And it's coming out soon hooray. I'm sure you created. Messlos hierarchy of needs. Dan I'm so mad you got to a mezzlo hierarchy of needs joke before I did I was I've had that in my chamber the whole intro. That is the first time I've ever gotten that unbelievable it's crazy right now I now the

only thing to just make a joke about mezro the character from the next This comic books which is not going to be as interesting for anybody now that is the first time I've ever gotten that Okay, okay, so actually today's episode is going to be LA and explain who mezro is while we check our phones the whole time Uh, no Scott so uh, thanks for joining us. Uh, what are we gonna be talking about today? I have such an exciting topic for us. We are going to dive into the Netflix Christmas romcom cinematic universe. What feed? Most underappreciated cinematic universe of all.

The NFR CCU. I feel like hallmarked movies and Netflix romcoms are probably covered exhaustively on a number of other great podcasts. But I think tonight we're going to add our own little spin on it. We're going to finally crack it. Now for the listeners at home, you can see Stuart's puckish eyebrow bounce when he

said we've put an R spin on it. By the way, Stu, you, uh, Stu lately has been calling his shots right before introducing the podcast, whenever it says turn, like Babe Ruth, you, uh, Stu lately has been calling his shots, um, right before, uh, introducing the podcast, whenever it's his turn, like Babe Ruth, you know, pointing to the stands. He's, he's like, I'm going to nail it. And I got to give it to him. You can't nail it this time, Stewart.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Uh, that is the kind of support that I never got from my dad. So thank you. Oh, you're un-nailing it. That nail is being pulled out. Put it back in. Put it back in. Oh, no. Okay. So let's talk about this Netflix. So I think I've seen a couple, but what movies make up the Netflix

Christmas cinematic romcom universe? Well, how many hours do we have? I think the important base here is we are... It's a, it's a, it's a mini episode. So we only have two to three hours. Okay. I'll bring it down a little bit. I was planning on four. We have the Christmas Prince trilogy and the Princess Switch trilogy. And everything sort of revolves around these two very important universes that periodically collide.

Okay, so there's magic involved. Oh, yeah. There is a character who is clearly implied to be Santa Claus, although they've never confirmed it. Are they worried about getting sued by the owners of the Santa copyright? Like this is a, like a League of Extraordinary Gentleman type type thing, whether it's only content. Santa Claus, the movie has had that lockdown for a few decades. So recently covered on our on the main feed of our podcast now. I haven't seen

any of the Christmas Prince movies or what is it? The Christmas witch. What's it called? The Princess Witch. You were so close. The Princess Witch. I kept thinking you were saying Princess Witch and I'm like, I tell you saying Princess. I also they said Princess Witch and I thought that sounded great. Yeah. Christmas wish and and Princess Witch have a lot of, what is it? You know, when they've got like a similar consonant sound in the middle, I forget all my English vocabulary. These are all great pitches. I'm sure Netflix is listening.

Okay. Now, I have a question. So what separates, what makes the Netflix Christmas romcom universe different than the hallmark romcom Christmas universe? Well, it starts with how incredibly interconnected they are. And unless I've missed something in the dozens of romcom movies on hallmark that my wife and I watched this here, I have never seen the level of crossover. So we see a lot of the same actors, but I don't think they're playing the same care.

No, and that's, that's the trick. Netflix is really hit on, hit on the solution here. And we do need to start at the beginning. So let me give you a brief summary of a Christmas Prince, which I'm going to level with you guys probably the most boring of these movies. Okay. But if you want to be honest, the title of Christmas Prince does not make me, it's not like a here and I'm like excitement.

Yeah. That's not a name that long. Christmas Prince. I got to see this. And I have to admit, I have been excited by the titles M and Z, so which are only one letter each. So to have a Christmas Prince, it's not the interesting. Well, so many options about what that movie could be about. Anything starting with an M or a Z in each respective case.

The movie, the movie M, Fritz Langsam is, of course, about monkeys. And the Christopher Gravis' movie Z is, of course, about Z-Bras. So they're part of the Animal Kingdom Cinematic Universe. We can always pivot to that. But okay, Christmas Prince, what's this movie about? Who's this Christmas Prince? Why is everyone talking about him? For starters, the title is very accurate. But I would say this movie is more like,

like if you were making a really good sandwich, and you need to start with the bread, just this boring, crusty, but solid base that everything else that gets crazy can build on, all of your meats and cheeses they're coming later. So, this is a movie about the country of Al D'Ovea. You may or may not have heard of it. I'm guessing that the situation in which you may have heard of it is if you've seen this movie

or it is sequel you can start with the second one I don't know you. But they this is a country that it's vaguely Western European it's may and export teams be Christmas they're being on jelly meat did all tron kill everybody in this place. That's for part four it It's all about that. I'm sure. I mean, really the Avengers bear a lot of the responsibility for the, as well. I mean, that's like saying the Democrats are responsible for voting rights, not passing. And so it wouldn't have happened with that, all Tron, you know, don't, don't blame the

people. All Tron don't the MCU, not in the comics. Thank you. Well, I mean, it's still an Avenger that did it in the comics too, but the, just a different one who has yet to appear in the MCU because he is, you know, problematic. Who are you leaving? No, I guess Hank Winson. Wonderman, right?

That's who Michael Douglas plays, right? Yeah, he plays Hank Pem. Yeah, I just forget. Although what's really weird is when they do flashbacks where he's like a young Michael Douglas, but his face doesn't look like a young Michael Douglas's face. They like, because he had, you know, he had plastic surgery to remove his jowls. So in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,

young Michael Douglas doesn't have jowls. And I'm like, what the fuck? That was part of his charm. Yeah, that's why they used to call him Michael Jowls. But now they call him Michael Jowls less. But well, he's drifted used to call Michael Jowls. But now they call him Michael Jowls. Well, it's drifted from Romantic. I want to know that this Christmas Prince, because for me, there's just one Christmas Prince.

His name is the Nutcracker, and he kills a rat that has like 10 heads. So is that the one in the movie? I mean, you'll be happy to hear that. It's clearly playing year round and now, the Ovia, the Christmas country. Okay, great. But our main character is not the Christmas Prince.

It is Amber Moore, intrepid young journalist for Beat Now magazine. And she is the second out of India from the streets of New York City. Beat something and want it done promptly. Are you a bit people? People later know, thank you. People who want beats and they don't want to wait for them. Yeah. Yeah. Clearly you guys don't want to wait for them. Yeah

Yeah, clearly you guys don't subscribe. It's great. You're gonna love it What a forced recipes and stuff So she's been said to cover the succession crisis in aldovia She decides she's going to embed as a is the nanny working for the prince's younger sister. This guy is sort of a, like a, theoretically, he's supposed to be like a prince Harry type, like kind of a cool bad boy prince, but the movie doesn't actually want to make him unlikable or mean. So, so he doesn't dress up like a Nazi accustomed party. No, the lead and scene, I think. It's, it's implied. Save for the bloops. He does wear a really gross fake beard to try to fool the press hounding him.

No, been there. So this this journal is very unethically embeds as the tutor in the castle. Would you believe that they fall in love while she's rewarding on him? I bet you. I'm based with the film My Tutor. I would say yes, I believe that. Private private lessons. Exactly. Let me tell you, it is hot gossip in Aldovia. So it's a real bummer in the particular movie when it turns out that the princess figured it all out.

He casts her off from the kingdom. She goes back and writes a very kind of sad but beautiful story about how she's fallen in love with this prince and how he's secretly a great guy and no one understands him. You'll be shocked to hear her editors do not want to run this story. They consider it a puff piece. Rightly so. There's just no news value. There are multiple ethical problems here. I think the unsung heroes of this particular movie are the editors of Beat Now magazine. I mean, keep in mind the New York Post-Rin editorial today saying that dry January is selfish of people. Deep vision by Stuart Wang.

I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't necessarily say it's right, but I'm not saying it's wrong. So the important part to, to wrap up the most boring of all of these movies is that the prince reads the story on her blog. He thinks it's great. He comes and proposes to her in New York. They go off to be king and queen of aldovia. So he killed his father.

Yes. He he's technically the prince, I think at this point, but don't worry. They they write him out quickly. We need to keep rising up the ranks here. Okay. Great. One year later, we have the princess watch. Now this movie is mostly a Vanessa Huggins delivery system. Okay. Yes, yes, when I've seen. Yep. In the first one, we get to Vanessa Huggins. One of them

is Stacy, who goes from Chicago to a different Western European country called Belgravia. There she's export is also Christmas. She's there for a baking competition and bumps into Lady Margaret Delacorte, who's the Duchess of a neighboring kingdom called Montenaro. Also Western European also Christmas. Okay, now he's doing it. Just like all the names of magical. This is, these are all members of O.K.C.C.E. the, uh, the organization of Christmas exporting countries. Yeah. Only things are incredibly complicated. I mean, I need to see a detailed explanation of the various heraldries of the different noble families. Do I have a wiki from these? Now with these, are these countries, are they modern day nations or they like like like Lotveria, Dr. Doom's country.

Even though it's the 21st century, they're still all peasants. Or the savage language, but there's dinosaurs running around. Well, they all seem to be relatively modern constitutional monarchies, except for one scene in the princess, which where she can send someone to a dungeon unilaterally, and we've never hear from that character again. Oh, no. If I would, if I would recall correctly, they all, this, this, the towns in this place look kind of like what you would find in a snow globe.

Yeah. Okay. That's kind of where they are. New York, 20-Statuary Liberty, you got it, little standoff. Yeah, I can, I can, I can. Or what you would find if you were shooting in Romania in the cheapest castle you could find. Hypothetically.

So this is a movie about a Princess Switch. The Princess Switch. Okay. Now I understand the premise of the Prince and the Pauper where a Prince and a poor person switch and they get different lives. If two Princesses switch, how much actually changes? Stacy isn't a princess yet.

Oh, okay, okay. That's, I hate this. But it's the future installments of this franchise. But it's in her five year plan. That's a little bit of a princess level. Yeah, she has fun, really. It's on a vision board. I'm a real baker.

Yeah. Dan, you've seen this when you want to take it away? Well, I like that. We never the princess. No, you got the, Oh, my god, that's the princess, you're renowned for your great memory from movie thoughts. I know, like, you know, there's a bunch of prints of the popper shenanigans and they both fall in love with people on the other side of things, you know, this is a great summary. You have the most important detail of this film. And the reason that we're talking about the Netflix

Christmas romcom cinematic universe, because at one point, Lady Margaret sits down to watch a film on Netflix. And what film do you think that is? Wait, she pulls up Netflix in the middle of the movie. Uh-huh. That's crazy. That's like, and it's the other day, the other day I was talking to somebody about how,

like, have you guys ever, have you guys in a dream, have you ever looked at your phone? Have you ever looked at your phone in a dream? I had not up to the point of this conversation. And then the next day, I had a dream where I was looking at my phone the whole time. I think I've said many times on this podcast or once or twice, who knows?

That my stress dreams tend to be me trying to do something very simple And just being thwarted over and over again and like not being able to do it Mm-hmm, and in a recent dream it was like I had to text something To someone for an important reason and I could not get my fingers to put the right words Oh, well mine was mine was like I couldn't pull up my vaccine information to show somebody. Topical dream. So this the queen pulls up Netflix and I assume you're about to say is going to watch that movie where Shirley's there on is like a thousand year old assassin. Yeah, nail it. You're so. Yeah, the old girl. Yeah, Mouse guard. Yeah.

Yeah, the old girl. She's watching. Yeah, a mouse guard. Yeah. A Christmas. Now, scard, my struggle, yeah, I get it. It's a very loose attitude of my struggle. So what, so she pulls up, she's watching a Christmas Prince on TV. She is watching a Christmas Prince on TV.

And does it like motivator or is it just like an Easter egg? It's an Easter egg, but it's a Easter egg that makes so much less sense. Or an Easter egg. An Easter egg? An Easter egg and a Christmas movie, that's what I was going to say. Easter egg. Yeah. Yeah.

All the holidays are covered here. Okay. So Christmas, how does the Princess Switch end? Let's see the end of the first one. Princess Switch ends with the princesses each ending up with the other guy that the one knew. They, so Stacy, our Chicago baker, becomes a princess marrying the prince, who has been trod to the lady Margaret, who marries the other baker. So it's like the holiday, but with princesses.

Yeah. Okay. The simple slot in the world, and I could not have made that sound more complicated. Okay. I mean, to be fair, Dan didn't help. No, no, no, that's true. Okay, what's the next link in this chain? Okay, so now, so now we've established the universe where the Christmas Prince is a movie that exists in the Princess Switch's reality. We have established a premise that's boiler alert.

We'll soon be broken by later movies in this incredibly convoluted cinematic universe. Okay. Because now we're headed to the night before Christmas. Okay. This is a weird one. Okay. Not the nightmare before Christmas, my younger son's now second favorite movie used to be his favorite movie.

Oh, what's first? A visit from St. Nicholas, the poem by Clement Moore. No. And not for silent night, deadly night. And not silent night, deadly night And not silent night deadly night too. So for the record my younger son's favorite movie is now inside out of all things. I thought you were going to say the inside man. I'm like that's a dope movie could. It is a great movie.

He's like spiky really captures the feeling of post 9-11 New York and it's still suspenseful. Not since the taking of Palomone 2-3 is a movie really captured the flavor of the city. And I'm like, yeah, I know, I know. Actually, in that movie. So, okay, this one's called what was it again? The night Christmas. And you did have the right question because that is night with a K. Because I am traveling around. So it's a night, it's a night in BC period, before Christmas, who arrived before Christmas.

And we're not talking about an imperial night, a Titan walker from the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Oh, no, we are. This is also Warhammer. You never know. I mean, that's all the answer Christmas. That's far in the future, isn't it? I mean, 40,000 years in the future.

I mean, they celebrate it very differently by that point, but you know, the general idea had staying power. Are there any Stewart? Are there any Warhammer Christmas stories? I'm sure there are. I mean, I feel like as long as they somehow lead to people buying more Warhammer, it's part of the near. Fair point. Fair point. So okay, he's a knight. Is he going from the past to the present? Yeah, like a cat liable 14th century. He comes to modern day Ohio to romance a woman named Brooke who is played by Vanessa Hudge's. Okay. But not the same. Not she's not one of the characters in that either of our previous Vanessa Hudge. but given how many doppelgangers of her are

running around, it may be some disconnection of some. So there's some kind of orphan black type scenario going on in the NFRs and see you. I think I'm just kind of like a being John Melchavitch thing where just the more we have, everyone's going to have her face by like 12 of these movies. Yeah, Apex Twin. The, so the, so it goes to Ohio because he wants what like spaghetti with chili on top. Oh, my favorite. Yeah, put some cinnamon in there. Give it to David. Give it to David. He would love it. Is there any real reason why he goes

to Ohio or that's just part of the like the time high jinks? I'm going to be honest. I don't remember this one very well because it's very boring. Okay. So the movie with a time traveling night is the boring one. Uh-huh. Yeah. There are enough antics here. We haven't got to the ocean's 11 one yet. Okay.

I don't want to get excited. And let's hurry. Because I've heard time traveling nights, the visitors, the genre, no, let's go something else. The real important detail here is that he mentions at some point or her her sister mentions that their grandparents went to Aldovia, the country from a Christmas Prince. So following the transitive property, if I'm following this correctly, that means both of these movies are a movie within the Princess Switch universe.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. And yet that brings us to the Princess Switch too, switched again. Okay. So just back in the original position Yeah, that's a spin of 360 That's where it starts But then how can a woman who came from Chicago and is now a princess deal with being in Chicago Well again

They stay in Martin Aura and Belgravia But they do in fact add a third Vanessa Huggins or a fourth if you count the one from a night before Christmas. Oh, okay. So it's just shifting one place now. Mm-hmm. Now we have Fiona, a blonde Vanessa Huggins who's kind of like an evil socialite. She's great. You love her. Oh, I love this. So there's all kinds of shenanigans there, but the really important part of this is that when when it comes to the end and Lady Margaret is finally going to be crowned queen of Montenoro, there's a big coronation ceremony. And who would show up there? But the Christmas Prince and Amber, they're by breaking the rules previously established in this cinematic.

So somebody like kid videoed them out of the Netflix and the TV. Yeah, yeah, they they genre to stay tuned them into the into the into the movie. Yeah, here's here's my here's my fix for that. Here's my know get my no prize ready guys. Here's my this is this is episode of cinema sins. Yeah, much much like how in the Marvel comics, the care there are Marvel comics that exist in that universe and they are complex being written about the real superheroes, but their fictional ventures. The Christmas Prince that she watches is a movie that exists in that universe loosely based on the true story of the Christmas Prince who fell in love with a commoner.

That's my explanation. And I like that. I was just about to argue with you and that I remembered this is a universe full of doppelgangers. So they found actors that look just like the realitz in the real labor. It does all the Accents. Okay, I mean you're filling in for me in real time the makeup the makeup that people can do now I mean we also Jared leto and house of Gucci was you know, he was he was he was powerful He's no longer a little yeah He jumped right out of that Mario Brothers video game under the screen

out of that Mario Brothers video game under the screen. Guys, guys, I saw a play recently, I mean, you know, safely or safely as possible, but I saw a play recently, starring about to roast your fucking ass. Yeah, you weren't just running up on stage and licking all the performers. Yeah, but the star was Samantha Mathis and I was trying to explain to Audrey who she was. You know, I started with your usual suspects. She not the movie that you use. Yeah, she's not in the usual suspects, but you know, like I was like, you know, like, a pub of the volume, which is like, nope, nope. No, no. And then I was like, because of a super Mario brothers doing the Super Mario live show. She was like, oh, yes, Samantha

Mathis. It's only when you went to a play they gave you like a little book that told you what the people in the play were in. Uh-huh. Something maybe it was written on like the mouth of a duck. No. No, no, no. Maybe written on like a check you got at the end of a meal.

Oh, maybe the winter, not Hillary though. No, no, no, one of the other ones. Yeah. I get the bit without really kidding. What if it was written on like up on something that hadn't become a law yet? It was still being voted on my chorus. Yeah, and then maybe they would sing a song about unspeakable. When you don't have enough space, you know, you don't have enough time for a William, but definitely not a will. It's like a play that's on like a mister

that would get crushed in the claymation short on Saturday Live in like the ninth or really 1980s. Yeah. Huh. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ I'm John Moe. My show, Depresh Mode, is all about mental health. And this week, I talked with Amanda Knox.

She spent four years in an Italian prison for a murder she didn't commit. That's a lot of trauma, and she's okay talking about it. If I touch on something that you'd rather not get into, just say so, we'll cut the whole exchange out, but it also seems like you're pretty open about a lot of things. Yeah, yeah, I am having trouble imagining anything that you could talk to me about. I know. What are we going to throw a man to not? Depresh mode with John Mo only on Maximum Fun. For over a decade, Max Funcon has been an incredible weekend of learning,

connecting and laughing with folks in the Max Fun community community. And, if all goes according to plan, the last regularly scheduled MaxFundCon will take place in Lake Arrowhead from June 3rd to June 5th, 2022. We have a very limited number of tickets remaining. To make them available to the maximum number of people, we'll be opening our waitlist for tickets on January 23rd at 5 p.m. Pacific. That'll be your chance to be first in line

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and tools on the market that scale to meet your needs. I used Storyblocks recently to Elliot when we were out there for his 40th birthday played this song for us that he said was his night driving music and I was taken by it. And I thought, yeah, this sounds like sort of the beginning to an old sort of exploitation Japanese movie from the 70s. It was a Japanese woman singer, Yoshiko Sai, who was great. I was like, this is really sparking something in me. For fun, on my own time, the only time I have access to, for fun, I just use story blocks to assemble

a music video for that song that was kind of like the credits to an old movie. And you know, I realize I sound like a nerd, but I also am a nerd who has fun, his own kind of fun. And you can too, with story blocks, is that a good endorsement? I don't know, but I had fun making the video. Anyway, you can explore their library and subscribe today at storyblocks.com slash flop, that's storyblocks.com slash flop, back to the show. Okay, cool. So what's the next movie in this this series? We are, we're really on this freight train trade now because now we are at the Princess Switch 3, romancing the

star. Oh wow. So it's some title that is a playoff of the title of another movie. Yep. The subtitle that barely makes sense within the context of the movie. Because there's a people star that is stolen and this is the one that turns into the Ocean's 11 Heist movie. Okay.

What's a people star now? I'm in it's a star from the Pope. Oh, okay Then we had like if they don't start from the sky like you can buy it off the internet and that's Holy Father can I have a star Oh, uh, on that one. Oh, thank you. Like this. Had my proof didn't run away on that star name. I don't know. The A R 12. I don't know. I'm just like that, right?

Let's start. I forget about it. It's a matter of you. The current Pope, of course, I think it's from our team. No, it does not happen to tell you an accent. He's an Italian descent, but I don't think he talks like that. The comedy character of the Pope forces. I mean, it's always tight. It's like when you were a semester abroad in England and all of a sudden you

had this cool accent that, oh, everybody loves. We're probably thinking of the previous pope's accent, who was German, of course, or perhaps the pope for that who was Polish. So the comedy pope, so there's a people star. Do they have to like, is there a like putting a team together sequence where they have to get people from all over the Netflix universe? That it's clearly what they're building towards. And we do in fact meet Count Simon, a character from the Christmas Prince movies who I haven't

mentioned because he is so boring. But he does not board you in the team at a party. All those drinking candy cane martinis. Candy cane martinis? Candy cane martinis. Stephen, how would you make that? Well, I would, I don't know, pour some vodka in a glass and then put a candy cane in it and charge $20. All right, I'm in.

Sounds good. I apologize. If anyone heard the sounds in the background there, there was an iPad that was turned on over here. And lately my iPad has started listening to us and announcing things. And so Siri thought that I was asking for candy cane martinis and was announcing the results. Yeah.

It's like when Homer goes into the Quiky Martin ass for Skittlebrow or something. Yeah. I went to Siri to respond to being like, like being like, Martini, is it a Martini just because it is served in a Martini glass, Elliot, and it gets really snobby with you. As much as only champagne from the champagne region can be called champagne, there are rules to make a Martini. And it's like, Siri, I don't know. I didn't even want to talk to you.

Please. Yeah. 17 minutes later. Yeah. So what the, how's the heist? Is it exciting? Is there a, is there any ocean type figure? What's going on? It's pretty great when they do a, they do a complete ripoff of a Catherine Zeta Jones jumping through the lasers. I was going to ask about that. It feels like they kind of have to do that. But it's the person is in a Santa Claus costume. Well, it's the evil blonde Vanessa Huggins. So she's now redeemed within the context of this universe. It's very exciting.

How many characters are there? There's a bunch of other teams. They're all they all do a princess. Which yeah, yeah, it's the it's the it's the Hudge Vangers or the League of ordinary Huggins. Yeah, they're all there. Does the highest take advantage of the facts that they're all double gangers or is that ignored? and okay, good, good, good.

Two of them do. One of the Vanessa Huggins has to go to the nunnery where the evil blonde Vanessa Huggins is doing her community service and pretend to be her to get her parole bid successfully. I like this. Yeah, this is exciting. I hate to spoil all these movies for you. No, it's fine. So where does this leave us? Where does in this universe, what's the next step? Well, the most disappointing thing is that they keep teasing the idea of the Vanessa Hudgens mother coming in, and I was so convinced it was going to be Vanessa Hudgens' old age makeup. And the way to sneak another one in.

It would have been so great. It was one more, like the perfect crime. Get one more Vanessa Hudgens in here. Who's stopping him? They tried and the film explored it. They just said it. It was one more like the perfect crime. Get one more of it as a Hutchins in here. Who's stopping him? I mean, they tried, they tried in the film exploded. They just said it. It was too much. It was too much.

As a performer, imagine having that opportunity. Oh, by the way, I was just watching a bit of the film Chaplin, which I've never seen before. Don't ask me why. Why it was a whimsical choice on my part. But Robert Downey, Jr's makeup as old chaplain just looks like they dropped him into like a bag of flour and fished him back out. It is such bizarre old age makeup. I love this.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Is it like when Guy Pearce played a super old man through most of Prometheus and you're like, why did you get Guy Pearce? You could have gotten a normal actor. And then I realized, just get an old man. It's perfect this way. Yeah.

It's better. I mean, if you like old people to look like wax figures, it's better. Maybe I hope you like it, because that's how it happens, Dan. I mean, well, there's a particular lifelessness that they'll make up in this movie. I guess that's true. Very rarely do old people look like porcelain dolls, I guess is what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah.

So what's the next step? What's after a heist, it doesn't sound like there's anywhere to go? Everyone falls in love. They get the star back. It's very exciting. Okay. What is this? So it's like a jeweled star. Yeah, like a

bejeweled star and it represents peace. And if they don't get it back before Christmas, then I think they go to war. These movies always imply that it's a horrible like global conflict. It's about to break out. Yeah, where I should come and go. Yeah. Now that I think is very funny if they're like if this prince doesn't fall doesn't fall in love with this princess and get married, then the Holocaust will happen. And it's like, this is, these stakes are too high. They're too high for this movie, yeah. There is a treaty like that

in one of the Christmas Prince movies where they've been signing it for like 600 years and you have to sign it again every century or you just have to go back to war. And it's like, why don't they just say no? We're not gonna start fighting. Yeah, it's like this debt ceiling. I mean, we really have to keep doing this all the time.

Or could we just make kind of a general proclamation that's cool? And if we hit it, do we just like, can we just ignore it? It's not a real it's not a real ceiling. It's just a thing that we made up. But okay, so so that's the end of the movie is right? No more movies. There is one more and it is. It is the last and most exciting one. And the one that I find most baffling.

It's called the cast for and games. That's where this is going. So guys, I've actually actually been watching Castle for Christmas. Just for leave it. You said, yeah. I mean, that kind of is the plot of a cataclet for leave it. It's in a way.

But so you take it away. Watch this one. I watch this one, not knowing the story, of is the plot of a cataclet for leave it away. So you take it away. I watched this one, not knowing the storied legacy that it was completing. I features Cario was in a problem. Always fun.

Bobby Wobbly himself with a very thick accent and wait, who's the lead? Brooks Shields. It's Brooks Shields guys. It's Brooke Shields, guys. It's Brooke Shields. Who plays? How she's built in your nail?

Brooke Shields, who plays a famous author who has, who suddenly becomes Susan, who suddenly became Susan, and she is. It's like Teen Wolf, but she's becoming Susan, and her dad is not going to drug-going Brooke. Brooke, could you, what's going on in there? Nothing, dad. Oh, there's no other Susan too. Yeah, yeah, her dad's a Susan too. And he's like, we've all been Susan's.

I didn't want to have to tell you this. I was hoping you'd skip your generation. So she has a dance called the Susan at the prom. Yeah. She is like a world famous author. And she, but she is getting some shit from the fans because she wrote the like the latest book in her series. And she killed off this like hunky love interest that everybody loves.

And she's like, I can do whatever I want. And all the fans are like, you can't, he's ours. And it's this kind of really interesting take on like ownership and authors and. So it's like a romcom loosely based on the real story of Arthur Conan Doyle trying to kill off Sherlock Holmes. Very similar. And so the only thing she can do is go buy a castle in Scotland, I think. Uh, Scott, you're the expert on Scotland as well as well as other things.

Of course. So, she goes to Scotland to try and get some peace. And everybody's super cool. They're in their nice. And she's nice because she gives them money. So they like her a lot. But Kerry L was does not like her. Although they have a little bit of chemistry right away. And she just thinks he's a regular ass dude, not so much. He owns that castle. That's his thing. But he's like broke as a joke. So he has to give,

he's like giving tours of his home and he's being a real dick to her and she's like kind of a dick to him But not that bad and then she ends up buying the castle and keeping him on to give the tours and they fall in love Am I missing anything? You've summarized the plot very succinctly, but you did Inevitably miss the most important part, which is a Completely pointless throwaway scene at the hotel where Brooksheel is staying when two characters come in Clearly having a torrid love affair and it is two minor characters from the princess witch movie oh they're not related to the lot they have no connection to anything else in

gildenstein of the universe also revealing that scotland and al d'Ovvier and belgravia and matnaro are all real places within the same small block of England. Oh, so those are, wait a minute. So they're like independent principalities in unwritten somehow. They're close enough that they can sneak away from the castle where they have these royal duties. What's maybe, maybe it's a longer vacation, maybe during the heist, they were able to sneak away now. Maybe, or maybe there's a commuter flight from Maldavia. What is it called? Matanaro Belgravia or Aldovia? Yeah, I mean, Maldives commuter flights to Maldavia to Edinburgh. Yeah, I was doing a semester in Vienna. I just like was able to hop on a plane in flight England for a weekend. It was great.

I just I love that this is a movie that revealed two characters were having an unfair that you would not know about. If you watched any of the three movies in the actual franchise. You have to watch a seemingly unrelated movie. And if you're like Stuart and only watching that, you have no idea what these characters are doing here and probably don't notice them at all. So it is a little bit like the scene in the, in the, was it the second Avengers movie where Thor just goes into that cave for some reason and has a vision and you're like, well, if that doesn't, that's, you're just setting up future movies.

Like this has nothing to do with any of the others. What are you thinking? And it kind of barely sets up future movies. Yeah, it really didn't make any sense. So this, they're setting up the future movie, A Christmas Infernalty, I imagine. That's the hope. I mean, at the very least, we've got to be heading towards

a Christmas princess, which Civil War. Well, they're setting it up, they're setting it up. They're setting it up for the adults only romcom princess swap, which is about one night. That he has the browser version again, K and I G H T. It's a not yeah, K and I G H T night medieval night who has a has a princess swap one night in order to make sure that war is averted between two sex based kingdoms. So we've, I mean, we've had a lot, we've had a lot of fun at the expense of these, but

Scott, you have been, I'm sure, been watching a ton of romcoms for your book. How do these romcoms fall within your, within your, I guess, the thing, the, compared to the other ones you've been watching. The Pantheon, yeah. I mean, I should say first and foremost, I completely love these movies. I do not ironically love these movies. I think they are so fun and good.

I also, the last chapter in my book, it's about modern romcom, so it starts with when Harry Metzali and goes up to Netflix. And I started writing about these in the Netflix chapter. And it was one of those things where I went into a few state that afternoon and three hours later,

I realized I had just written pages of connections between these Christmas movies and I realized like, I will go mad. This book will be so much longer than it needs to be. I need to stop. So I turned it into a little sidebar, which is why I have to come on this podcast and fill this out of my brain.

Thank you. In the house of leaves about halfway through. Yeah, I don't want you. I don't want your family to find you with just like having smeared a map of Belgravia in your own feces on the wall. You're saying it's all there. It's inside me. It's all there.

I have so much sympathy for this because like occasionally I'll write like little pop culture essays and I find that if I don't pay attention like all of the dumb connections that don't actually mean anything like flow out of my brain. I'm like, I have digression after digression with like a parenthetical in the middle of the, I have to cut it out because I realize it don't care. I mean, it makes sense because normally your only other outlet for talking about pop culture is this podcast which we keep super tight and we don't allow any kind of digression. No, not at all, gotta be on point.

So I'm curious, what is yours? So the, so yeah, what are romcoms that you think are like the classic like best modern romcoms? So the ones that you think are really exemplars of the form and how do the Netflix movies match up to those? Like what's a romcom where you, if people are like, show me a romcom,

what's one that'll show me, show me what this genre can do. What would you point them to? Give me like a modern one. Yeah, yeah, modern one. I really love the, all three of the two, all the boys. I love before movies. And that I think they're, I think they do the, the teen romcom thing really well, but I think they're also doing what modern movies do pretty well, and that they're, they're way more diverse than romcoms used to be, and actually comment on how, not diverse older romcoms were. I think they, to do a romcom with continuity because everything has to be a franchise now,

they actually make that kind of interesting where they have to, they're kind of forced to make all the characters and the relationships a little more complicated. So there's something, there's something about Netflix kind of taking over the romcom genre that's actually making weird interesting things come out of it, which is part of why the book is subtitled, The Rise Again of the Romantic Comedy. I think we're in an interesting era.

I feel like, I feel like Sharon, I've been watching, we watch a lot, like, you know, during the holiday break, we watched a bunch of Netflix romcoms. I think primarily Netflix, there might have been some on other streamers. And I'm trying to remember the names of them all because they're all fucking the same. They're all like puns based on Christmas shit. But what's the one with Jimmy O'Yan, where he, he like, he like, he like, he like, he's somebody. Oh, yeah, that one. Not, not particularly great, but it does, it did have like a really good take on the baby. It's cold outside song where they like fuck around with the lyrics and like modernize it well.

So even that was like, okay, there's some interesting stuff going on here, even if I don't like the whole movie. Yeah. I mean, part of why I like the cinematic universe that we just spent a bunch of time breaking down is the writers are clearly doing whatever they can to mess around with in this very established framework. And it's pretty fun to watch. Now, do you feel that they're like, I mean, I feel like with are clearly doing whatever they can to mess around with in this very established framework, and it's pretty fun to watch. Now, do you feel that they're like,

I mean, I feel like with a lot of the hallmark movies, and this could be unfairly, you know, tarnishing them, I feel like a lot of hallmark movies are very conservative in their viewpoint, at least in like structure, or, you know, you have your two regular, the same kind of leads, you're always used to seeing like she works at a magazine, he is an architect or some shit.

Do you feel like they're pushing the boundaries on those at all with Netflix or? I think it's been true in general. Actually, home arc is even getting better at that. We've actually, I mean, it's not at all uncommon that they'll do movies where both, people don't have to be white people in the couple or they've done same sex, Hallmark movies.

And nobody seems to have raised a giant protest out of it that I've seen at least. But I do think Netflix and Hulu are both better at pushing that faster. I mean, Hulu had happiest season last year. Not since he had single all the way this year. So, so I think there's the studios, you know, as usual are a little slower to jump to this stuff. Although I think they're getting there.

Well, this is about Christmas that has made it such a big setting for romantic, because I feel like if you watch old Christmas movies, they're family movies. A lot of them. They're not so much romantic movies, but now it feels like Christmas is all romance families. Stay out of the way. Jews never welcomed. No, thank you. Well, we're trying to find, Hallmark put out a, put out like a Jewish,

like a couple that like is like a Jewish woman or a Jewish man, Christian partner. And I couldn't, we kept trying to find what, you know, it has some name like kosher Christmas or some shit, but we were looking for it, but we couldn't find it. But I was really looking forward to that. But what is it like, Scott, why do you think Christmas is suddenly so romantic? Why not, why not, I'm trying to think about other holidays that could be equal? I mean, like, why not Halloween? Which don't, what you think, well, well, why not Valentine's Day, which is about love?

But like, Halloween, you know, there's a lot of stuff you can do with costumes and mistaken identity and like things like that. Why, why not? Why Christmas, huh? I think I should write the screenplay. I think Halloween, romcom is a legitimately great idea. It's a great idea. Yeah.

I think it should rate that. It's the same reason they do action movies and Christmas. It's a really easy way to add some texture to your background. That's a good point. And it comes with a lot of assumptions that everybody already understands, you know, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And I assumed, I mean, like it's the, the, the calculus changes with streaming, I guess, where it's like these things aren't necessarily going to become perennials. The value is that there's a new interchangeable one every year. But if you have in your back catalog, I imagine it's like writing a Christmas song. I'll also blame Love Actually. Pulling it out. I feel like Love Actually is partially to blame. Yeah. That's a chapter in my book.

Not my favorite. Yeah. That's one. It's a movie that I've never, I've never actually seen live actually. And I feel like, I feel like through my life, I've seen it go from like a big hit movie to movie that people like as a guilty pleasure, to a classic movie, to a movie people hate. And I think is bad. And I've never seen it. I mean, just look at the cast.

That's a stacked cast, Elliot. It's crazy. It is a stacked cast. But like, there are a lot of movies with amazing cast that are it's the kind of cast that you could normally only get for like a doctor strange movie. That's that's there's something I mean as bad as it is that all all major filmmaking now seems to be about making big budget franchises that have to make a billion dollars or else their failures.

There is nothing really fun about like how every big name actor, no matter how amazing there has to have a, that has to be in a movie at some point where they're talking about made up science fiction bullshit. That doesn't matter that nobody cares about it. There's something very English about that. It's like watching Dame Judy Densch be an air elemental and the Chronicles are riddick like she's there. There must be the royal academy of dramatic arts must have a class now that's called like making making BS sound real. Where they're like, okay, you're going to read this this paragraph before the class. This is all about like keeping two dimensional barriers from colliding, which would create a synarchy of

transmutational matrices. Yeah, you got to figure out a way to say it. So it sounds like it's the real thing. Say it with your accent. Well, okay, is Scott, is your book on shelves now? My book is on shelves on February 1st. February 1st, can you tell us the title again? It's called From Hollywood with Love, The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of the Romantic

comedy on February 1st, plenty of time to buy it before Valentine's day. title again. It's called from Hollywood with love, the rise and fall and rise again of the romantic comedy. On February 1st, plenty of time to buy it before Valentine's Day. Published by Harper Collins, there's an audiobook version. If you buy one copy, hit me up, and I'll send you a book plate on Twitter. If you buy 100 copies, I will grant you a boon. Where can people find you on Twitter then? I'm at Scott Mezlo. That's MES, L-O-W. And you can also read me at GQ and at Fulcher. And do you LA at her day in LA? You got a book coming out.

Don't you want to plug your book real quick? Mike, comic book, you mean? Yeah. Yeah. Sure. It's a book. It's two pages. It's pages between two covers.

That's a good point yet. Looks like the Earl of Book said when he didn't want to finish his poker hand, but he wanted something to read. He said, just bring me some pages between two covers. That's a good point yet. Looks like the Earl of books said when he didn't want to finish his poker hand, but he wanted something to read. He said, just bring me some pages between two covers and I'll hold it in my hand. That's what they call books now. Yeah. Well, there's new issues of maniac of New York. The Bronx is burning from aftershock comics by me and the amazing artist, Andre Moody. I'm always mispronouncing his name. Issue two should be on shelves right now. It's a four-shoe mini series, the sequel to Maniac of New York,

which is now out in trade, Maniac of New York volume one, the death train. So pick up the trade, Maniac of New York volume one, the death train, and then pick up the issues for Maniac of New York, the Bronx is burning. Also, I have to say you're at Harper. My books are from Harper too. My children's books, horse meat stug,

and Sharkwyn Hippo from Ballsroom, Bray, a division of Harper kids. That's right. It's the bookhouse today. And we're the bookhouse boys. The bookhouse boys. Scott, thanks so much for joining us. I'm really glad we got to do this. Yeah, no, the blast, man. Thanks, Scott. Normally, normally I just text with Scott about Elden Ring spoilers and hitman details and various other video game bullshit.

So this is great. It's great to have a little chat. We'll get right back. Sunday. Yeah. Sunday, there'll be a romcom video game. And it's called Resident Evil 8 where I get to run away from a giant, beautiful vampire lady.

And every time she gets to that, like, oh, no. So it's like a, so it's like a looney tomb's cartoon. She's like, oh, man. And she's chasing after you. Oh, don't catch me. Whoops. Oh, no, I went the wrong way again. I can't believe you're all picking this up on my way out the door.

We could go for it at the rally right now. So yeah, this podcast is part of the maximum fun network of podcasts. A lot of great shows on there to come out. This episode has been produced and edited by Alex Smith, who is very understanding for our late delivery. I am one of the hosts. My name is Stuart Wellington. I own a couple of bars in Brooklyn called hinterlands and minis.

You should check those shits out. And my co-hosts are Jan McCoy. This is pretty much the one thing I got going on right now. So I hope you keep listening. And Elliot Kaylen, see those aforementioned books. And I've got some other stuff coming up that I will talk about on a future Flop has podcast episode. Stay tuned.

And our guest who's been Scott Nazlo. Bye. Skamezlo! Byeee!