'Til Plot Do Us Part

Summary

In this episode, Sean and Cindy discuss season four of Reacher, exploring character development, plot intricacies, and their personal impressions. They also delve into the show’s graphic content, character choices, and the impact of critics’ reviews.

Long version

This week, we get into what worked better this time around, why Reacher may be more interesting precisely because he barely changes, and why every season apparently requires him to have sex with somebody even though romance and Reacher go together about as naturally as a 1964 sex-ed film.

Also discussed: Alan Ritchson’s increasingly Hulk-like proportions, Cindy’s realization that she is attracted to the fictional stoic brick wall and not necessarily the cheerful man playing him, the season’s stronger supporting-character arcs, some unexpectedly brutal violence, New England clam chowder crimes, Pancake the cat, and one very unfortunate ear.

Then it’s time for some critical thinking, as we look at a review that criticized the season’s plot while also taking a swipe at the people who watch Reacher. Criticizing a show is fair game. Assuming something about the intelligence of its audience because of the genre? We have thoughts.

Finally, we talk about Reacher’s fallibility, the Mortal Kombat energy of the final fight, and modern streaming television’s increasingly aggressive habit of stopping every ten minutes to explain the plot back to us.

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Chapters

00:00 – Welcome Back Banter (Vacation, Pets & Podcast Life)

01:00 – Reacher Season 4: Spoiler-Free Impressions

03:13 – What Changed This Season?

04:39 – Spoilers Begin

06:47 – Reacher Gets Things Wrong

07:00 – Does Reacher Really Need a Romance?

08:50 – Reacher vs. Alan Ritchson

10:32 – Critical Thinking: Reviewing the Review

14:34 – Reacher Is the Sun: Character Arcs

16:49 – This Season Got REALLY Graphic

18:34 – Reacher Eats His Way Across America

22:05 – Pancake the Cat Steals the Show

23:34 – Russell, the Journalist & the Hard Drive

24:24 – The Bioweapon Plot and Sampson

26:16 – The Finale Goes Full Mortal Kombat

28:34 – The CIA, Exposition & Streaming TV’s Bad Habit

30:36 – Next Up: Widow’s Bay

Coming up on episode 3 ‘Til Plot Do Us Part:

Spooky season begins with Widow’s Bay and a movie that everyone now seems to be changing their minds about because now Kate Dippold is a genius instead of trampling on a classic—Ghostbusters 2016 Lady Version.

Keywords

Reacher season 4 review, Alan Ritchson, Reacher podcast, Amazon Prime Video, Lila Reacher villain, TV criticism, married couple podcast

Cindy is Furious About Hulu’s ‘Furious’ (Liz Meriwether Review) | ’Til Plot Do Us Part Ep. 1

In the first episode of ‘Til Plot Do Us Part, Sean and Cindy get into Hulu’s Furious, a show Cindy fought with, chewed on, and thought about far more than she expected to.

Is creator Liz Meriwether’s Furious a revenge thriller or a trafficking story?

Cindy says no, it absolutely fucking is not a trafficking story. And she gets a little spicy about how critics and audiences alike are forcing a post-Epstein cultural narrative onto a show that is essentially a less violent female John Wick.

Because as a revenge thriller, Furious isn’t bad.

But after critic after critic framed it as genre-changing television with something important to say about trafficking, female rage, trauma, and gender, Cindy watched it expecting the show to actually do those things.

It did not. And she has questions.

Questions like, “Did we all watch the same show?” “Does our culture so badly need this narrative that critics and viewers alike are willing to force it onto something that’s clearly not there?”

Sean and Cindy get into the show’s biggest strengths and most frustrating choices, from Catherine’s bizarrely compelling villainy to Alice’s difficult-to-read emotional core.

They talk about poor Danny, the absolute delight that is Alden, the show’s darkly inventive torture details, and why Catherine somehow emerges as one of its most fully realized characters.

They also get into:

1. why Catherine feels more fully realized than the protagonist

2. how Danny, Alden, Nora, and Marshall complicate the story in very different ways

3. why Furious is a revenge story with trafficking as part of it

4. whether the “female rage” conversation actually matches what’s happening on screen

5. how the critical conversation around a story can change the way audiences experience it

6. the finale, the FBI standoff, the recovered memory, the sex tape, and several moments that completely break the spell

Because there’s a bigger question underneath all of it: What happens when the conversation surrounding a story becomes something different from the story itself?

Sean and Cindy don’t entirely agree with the critics on Furious, and Cindy may have liked the show considerably more if everyone hadn’t told her she was watching something else.

In this episode

00:00 — Meet Sean and Cindy + spoiler warning01:30 — First reactions: awards buzz and complicated feelings03:34 — Why Catherine works better for Cindy than Alice05:14 — “Adorable torture”07:25 — Villains you can almost understand08:44 — Alice, trauma, and the problem of a flat protagonist09:59 — Poor fucking Danny12:41 — Alden, Catherine, and the show’s unexpected humor14:32 — Marshall and the uncomfortable humanity of terrible people16:05 — It’s a revenge story, not a trafficking story19:47 — “Female monsters,” John Wick, and the critical conversation around Furious22:18 — Where the show actually places its moral weight25:36 — The hard drives and the mansion infiltration27:15 — Those bruises28:53 — That FBI standoff29:39 — Catherine’s memory and Isabel’s death30:41 — The sex tape, Jay, and the Season 2 setup32:37 — Would we actually recommend Furious?34:42 — Next up: Reacher Season 4

Things actually said during this episode

“Adorable torture.”

“I don’t think it’s a trafficking story.”

“You are trained as a viewer that you’re gonna like the protagonist.”