For more Idaho Matters, from the studios of Boise State Public Radio News, I'm Gemma Caddat. If you thought award shows were a little dull, well, we have a story for you. There was a big shocker at a recent British award show, and we are going to have an update. Plus, we have a lot of the latest entertainment news to get to, so here to help us figure all that out and what to watch is our resident movie critic, and of course, Morning Edition host George Prentice. Hi, George. Hi, Gemma. Okay, before we get to the British award... It's a stunner, by the way. Okay. You've got some updates, though, on some other things. I do, so a story came out this morning. You remember the controversial film Rust, where Alec Baldwin got charged with a crime, and the armorer actually was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Well, word is that they've decided to show this film. So, wow, it's going to be screened at a film festival in Poland. Okay, fine. I've never heard of this film festival, but there's something ghastly about this, because someone died on the set. It's a Western. I have no doubt that someone will fire a weapon at some point in this film. What are we to think in what kind of audience are they trying to attract to this film? I was just stunned. There were certain movies and pieces of art that probably just shouldn't be seen, right? I would think this would be one of them. Somebody lost their life on this set. Right. Now, are they that hungry for attention, let alone money? And I was stunned at this, so this hit the press early this morning, and I just needed to share that story, because you remember the drama that erupted over that. Alec Baldwin's career was pretty much, you know, frozen for the better part of a year. Well, and frankly, I have a hard time even wanting to see anything that Alec Baldwin would be in right now. I think, you know, there has to be, at the very least, a cooling-off period here. But I mean, the ghastly experience of, oh, I'd love to see the movie. What movie? Oh, the movie where the person was killed in real life is like, no, no, no, no. Well, and also, I mean, so does that mean that they have finished shooting them? I mean, filming the movie. This movie is completed. They obviously went back and completed the film and edited it and scored it, and it's going to a film festival. So you know that this is going to end up somewhere on a streaming service, or, you know, God forbid they put it in cinemas. I can't imagine a cinema owner wanting to screen this film, but I mean, there are some audiences that are just so weird that they would be attracted to this for all the wrong reasons. Oh, but, and Alec Baldwin was a producer on this, right? Lead producer and star, absolutely, which is why he was charged, that it was a bit of a surprise just a couple of months ago when all charges were dropped against him. But again, it is worth reminding people that the armorer has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Someone lost their life. I'm stunned, George. Yeah. Wow. Anyway. So I had that, but I also wanted to give you a real quick update because it is the fall and some series are returning. I thought I would bring our audience up to speed up maybe just a few series wondering, "Hey, when is my favorite going to be coming?" And there's a lot of shows that are out there. So I just picked a few I wanted to mention. So the evening, the law and order franchise returns, and I know a lot of people are fans of that. That includes SVU, law and order, et cetera. Next Wednesday, October 9th, Abbott Elementary returns. That is such a great show. Big fan of Abbott Elementary, and on October 17th, that'll be a big night for CBS because new episodes of "Ghosts" will return. And Elsbeth, which I love this new series, Elsbeth, and this redo of Matlock with the Kathy Bates. Oh, that's right. Sorry. And then the next night is "Blue Bloods." And there's a question on whether this is the final season for "Blue Bloods" because Tom Selleck has pretty much said, "I think this is it." Oh, wow. So, but I know that those are big audience favorites. They are all coming in the next couple of weeks. I have to say, I love "Ghosts." It's a big hit, too. I really like it. It's a lot of fun. And very original. Yeah. Yeah. It's honestly, if you haven't seen it, it's great. And I think this is season three. Yep. So, you can go back and watch it on Paramount Plus. It's a hit. I think it was a lot of people telling other people, "Have you seen this show?" Yeah. The concept is so original. It's based on there is a "Ghosts" comedy in Britain. Oh, right. It's still running there. But it is to the letter, you know, but they've Americanized obviously, you know, with the Boy Scouts, it's like that and famous people in American history. But it's so original, which is what we all want. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah. Okay. Well, now that we've, we know when all the shows are starting... Yes. My goodness, George, what in the world happened at this British award show? So, I'm very fortunate that I have access to British television. So I watch BBC and ITV and I don't think anyone in the US will have seen this. So this was the equivalent of their Emmy Awards, right, with the best of British television. And it was just last week. And we've talked about the series, Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office, which PBS ran. And of course, that was the true story of these folks who are called sub-postmasters, but they're usually pensioners, elderly people who just run little private post offices. But hundreds of them were accused by the British government of stealing from them all wrongfully. And it was awful. I mean, more than 700 people were convicted of a crime. There were at least four suicides, a woman sent to jail while pregnant. This was a scandal. So a really good series was, and this just happened a few years ago, a really good series was put together and broadcast on ITV in Britain. It created a fur over there. It went to the floors of Parliament. The government said, this is a scandal. We need to fix this, et cetera. PBS immediately bought it. They ran the series here. So I encouraged our listeners, if you haven't seen this yet, go to Idaho Public Television. You can stream it all there. And I think it's three or four parts. It is brilliant. Anyway, as you can imagine, it swept the awards, right? So it picked up just about every award. Truly wonderful television. Please welcome to the stage the stars of the drama, the real life sub postmasters they portrayed alongside the program makers of Mr. Bates versus the post office. So that was a pretty magical moment. You can imagine the real people. They all stood on stage in front of all of the actors who played them, and it was this really emotional moment. But when this program won best drama and the audience was cheering, it's like, oh, thank you. And goodness for this program, one of these postmasters was asked to step forward and have a few remarks, and what she said stunned everyone. The public got behind us and changed, literally changed everything. And what I'd like you to know is I went to Westminster a couple of weeks back. I saw the new minister, and trust me, nothing has changed, and almost... It's true, and almost all of these people behind me haven't been paid yet. And out as a group of 555 more than 300 haven't been paid yet, including Sir Alan Bates, they bought him 30% of his claim. So he has a plan. So when he comes back to the nation for help, please be there to support him. So everyone was like, hold it, what? We thought this was fixed. And when she said these people haven't been paid, this is money that was taken from them. Their own personal money was taken from them, from the government wrongly. It turns out it was a computer glitch. And now for the nation to learn that they still haven't gotten their money back, because everyone thought that, oh, wow, here's this clamor, and the prime minister got involved just like we have to fix this, et cetera, and this lowly Mr. Bates, who is a pensioner, he's an older man who had just gone off to get married. It turns out the day before this award show, and the woman says, well, he has a plan. I'm not sure what that plan is, but God forbid if he has to come back, or if ITV comes back and does the series part two, it turns out this scandal is far from over. And to say, we'll only give you 30%. This, again, this is their money. It's their money. So how this works, and I know this is very foreign to Americans, how these post office works, they are not government offices. They're individuals. It's like owning a franchise like a subway or something like that. And you sell stamps and you sell money orders and things like that. And then the governments, they do a account current every night where they sweep your account, et cetera. But as we learned in this series, one night, hundreds of them said, you are 300, 400, 5,000 pounds in arrears, and you owe us that money. And they said, hold it what? And these are people with next to no money. So they took the money. So they took the money, they put claims on their homes, but leans on their homes. They charge them with crimes. One woman was even sent to jail over this wrongfully. And three people killed themselves. I mean, this is a stunning story. And again, for our listeners, you've probably heard of Mr. Bates versus the post office, but find this on public television and stream this series. It is a game changer. And the last time I can think of a piece of drama that was close to real life that may have changed something is like all the president's. Well, and I, and good for her for using that stage and the microphone, the jaws just drop to the floor. Allowing out when the government is wrong, when your people in power are wrong. And it's one thing to say we were wrong. That's not enough. And everyone is always expecting that hero story for the full narrative. Right. You know, people done wrong. Oh, okay. Finally that, you know, it was revealed government admitted, everything like that. The people will go on and they give them the award. The top award is like, yes, you're amazing. And she comes out and says, guess what? These people still haven't been paid. Wow. Yeah. Wow. I thought this was stunning. It really is. Yeah. Okay, George, I'm in the middle of only murders in the building. I'm not caught up on, I think I'm, I'm two episodes behind, but a man, I love this show. I do too. And this is just an excuse of mine just to mention it again. Okay. I love it too. So I love this show so much that I deliberately do not start it, knowing that I could, I can't bear just watching one episode. I'm the same way. So I need them to kind of stack up. Well, I finally did what you did and it's like, okay, I'm streaming, but I'm only at four episodes in because we're still waiting for new episodes. Yes. So just remind our listeners, this is season number four of this amazing series with Martin Short, Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, where everyone just seems to die in their, their apartment building. Yeah. And their podcasters in this season, they go to Hollywood. So Mabel Charles, Charles and Oliver, which is Selena Gomez and Martin Short and Steve Martin, are summoned to Los Angeles by a Paramount Pictures executive played by Molly Shannon, who, you know, they, they call them into a meeting, one of those very typical Hollywood meetings and they're sitting there at the table. You've probably seen the episode and she just basically just cuts them off at the knees that she's describing one by one. Oh, you are all so distinctive on the page. Oliver, who we all want to strangle and cuddle at the same time and Charles, everyone's unfun Uncle with his grouchy little turtle face and Mabel with your traumatized homeless, jobless, mumbling millennial charm stuck between these two old dudes. So funny. I don't need an algorithm to tell me that this is box office gold. And Eva Longoria has passed as Mabel. And then there's that Galafanakis who's supposed to be Martin Short and Eugene Levy as Steve Martin's current. It's hilarious. So if you haven't caught onto this bandwagon, I'm shocked, try it. Just try one episode of season one and you, you'll just never look back. But this season is as good as the rest. I'm always looking for that sophomore or maybe junior year slump. Yeah. It's not happening. And I have to say, okay. So what I really have found just hilarious is, well, so Eugene Levy just shadowing Steve Martin, right? I'm trying to do everything like him. Yes. But then you have Zach Galafanakis who literally hates, he could give a rip. I mean, it's so good. It's really, really funny. And there's a lot of A-list stars, Meryl Streep is back this season. My guess is any A-list star wants to be on the show. Well, that's what I'm thinking at this point, they've got to be asking to be on the show. Martin or Steve Martin co-writes all of the episodes, he created this and let's, I just hope that people just keep passing away and their apartment building because it's just, it's just so. And by the way, everywhere they go, people do, in bizarre ways. So there's a murder in this season too, but I won't spoil anything here. It's just, it's a funhouse ride. It's just so good. And it's, I mean, from the writing to the acting, I mean, and you see also just the real bond between those three main characters. They love/hate each other so much. It's great. And I love that Selena Gomez is so much younger than Steve Martin and Martin Short because those references as well. Yeah, she's younger than their wardrobe. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yes. 100%. It is, it's so good. It's great. All right. We actually have a new movie to talk about. We do, and it's a movie that I'm in love with. It is a small independent film. And I thought, I need to tell as many people about this film. It will open tomorrow. It's called The Outrun and it stars Siercer Ronan, who was so wonderful. Of course, we've seen her now over the years in Lady Bird, Little Women, et cetera. She actually, this is the first film that she's produced and stars in. And it is based on a memoir of a Scottish journalist who in her 20s had a really bad go of it when she left her small Scottish town and went to London to go to school, but became addicted to alcohol and some drugs and came back to her small town to try to heal and go through sobriety, et cetera. The first thing I want to say is that this is not a movie about addiction. There are thousands of movies about addiction. Some of them are good. Yes, the central character is an alcoholic, but it is about healing and it is about finding some way to get from Monday to Tuesday and from Tuesday to Friday and going forward. And Siercer Ronan is this amazing young actress who can get things done with her eyes and her looks. So it takes place, so the outrun is a Scottish term for the farthest out you can go. And of course, the high highlands, the stark coast, and at the very beginning of the lead character, she tells us how far out she is. Britain is an island off Europe. Orkney is an island off Scotland. Westry is an island off Orkney. Papi is an island off Westry. The island of Papri is a population of zero. There's probably a thousand seals along the coast, but there's usually sometimes one person on this island that may be sent by the government to do some environmental survey, et cetera. She cannot get a job because her life has fallen apart, her father struggles with, he's bipolar, her mother is struggling, so she just goes off and stays in this stone cottage off in this far, far North Scotland cottage to find sobriety. And occasionally she'll take a ferry back to a bigger island, et cetera, where sometimes she'll find an AA meeting, and of course most of those are just old men, and here she is this 20-something young woman, and one evening she's outside with one of these men, and he can clearly tell that she's struggling, and he asks her, "How long has it been for you?" In other words, how many days sober, right? That's because there's kind of a shorthand among people who are alcoholics, and they have this conversation. Sixty two days? Oh. So what about you? Oh boy, um, twelve years, four months, and twenty-nine days. How is that? It's okay, start it off one day at a time. It's what's easier, is it? Oh yes, yes it does, we have no word on that, but it never gets easy, it just gets less hard. And that's it, and that's it, it never gets easy, it just gets less hard, and I don't think it's, that's why I think it transcends addiction. I think anyone who's had a crisis in their life knows that that's usually it, and when she hears this older gentleman say this, you know, it stings her a little, that she wasn't told that, "Oh no, everything will be okay." No, it just will be a little less hard, and I think that that's something we can all relate to near the end of this movie. And by the way, this was a book that I thought would be unfilmeable, because the memoirs filled with poetry and sketches, and I never thought it would actually book, but this film is very poetic, and in the book, the outrun, the young woman whose life this is wrote this poem, and it reads just like poetry, but to hear Sir Sharonin's voice saying this poem to herself, and one of the final scenes, and she's on the farthest shore, and the rocky edges, and the waves are crashing against her, but yet she is one in this moment of, I don't know, like mystical sobriety. She's just trying to find some kind of connection between why am I alive, and why am I alive here on this place in the planet? In grandiose moments, high on fresh air and freedom on the hill, I study my personality. My body is a continent. I grind my teeth in my sleep, like tectonic plates, and when I blink the sun flickers, my breath pushes the clouds across the sky, and the waves roll into the shore in time with my beating heart. The island's headlands rise above the sea like my limbs in the bathtub. My freckles are famous landmarks, and my tears, rivers. Lightning strikes every time I sneeze. And with it are these elements, and all of a sudden you feel cold if you've ever been to, like the north of the United Kingdom or Scotland, et cetera, you know, the chill blains you get, but it is her performance, and this film opens tomorrow at the Flix, and I got to tell you, come late January, if Sarah Sharonin is not nominated for Best Actress in a performing role, you're going to hear me shout, she was robbed. But I think this is a film that people need to tell other people about, I'm here to tell you that I can't imagine you'll see a better performance this year, and it's a small film called the Outrun, if you probably haven't heard of it yet, my guess is you will. Well, George is always, just love having you in here with us. So thank you. Thanks for giving me a home. Absolutely. We've been talking with our very own George Prentice, of course, president, movie critic and host of Morning Edition. Thanks so much for listening to Idaho Matters, Boise State Public Radio, and Idaho Matters are members of the NPR Network. It's an independent coalition of public media podcasters. You can find more shows in the network wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jamma Gaudette. We'll see you tomorrow. The candidates for November are set between now and election day, a campaign season unfolding faster. Kamala Harris is not getting a promotion than any in recent history. Make America great again. Follow it all with new episodes every weekday on the NPR Politics podcast.
