Turn and Smile Prime Time, April 17th: Severance, Kill Tony, White Lotus
We're helping each other out but we're NOT giving each other a hand, okay?
How are you doing, Sofa Taters?
This week we’re bringing you another batch of TV shows that we’re reviewing to share the news and views you trust us to give. This week we’re talking about Severance on Apple TV+ , Kill Tony on Netflix, and White Lotus on MAX. Do you agree with our reviews? Sound off in the comments!
Just as a trigger warning for anyone who might need it: this issue we’re also going to be discussing (and making some jokes about) bigotry, incest, and prosthetic penises. It’s fun to have fun when we’re talking about a work of fiction, but if you or someone you know is a victim or survivor of incest, there is help available. Having an international audience, it’s hard to give one recommendation, but you have the same internet we would use to find resources.
Table Of Contents
Introduction
Table Of Contents.
Sevrence continues living in its “dark and ominous” era.
Kill Tony shows that bad things happen to bad people.
White Lotus gives us contempt for the folly of man.
We have some buttons we want you to check out (and click)
Do you have time to answer a question?
Whatever happens, we can get through it… as a family.
OPENING REVIEW: Severance
Sound 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: Openings like this one, admittedly, make me think about an exchange from the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where Jason Segel’s character deflects a compliment about his job as a composer for a cop show by explaining that it’s less “music” and more “dark, ominous tones.” Severance, I feel, gives us both. But the vibe is still creepy. What impresses me the most, though, is how effectively the music uses silence. I’m not a music theorist or reviewer by trade or training, but the juxtaposition with moments of quiet seems to enhance the soundtrack.
Larissa’s take: The piano played in a C minor key is effectively used for those “creepy vibes”. This is added to with a beat that pulls you faster through the opening, ending in static confusion. It might be creepy, but damned if it isn’t also catchy. And, also Emmy-winning! An interesting tidbit, apparently, Theodore Shapiro, who composed the music for the opening sequence, found out about the show at a Halloween party! So maybe that’s where the haunting chords first originated.
Conveyance (of Tone/Theme) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: The minor tones of the musical opening expertly convey the mysterious and creepy themes and tones of the show. Composer and long-time Ben Stiller collaborator Theodore Shapiro has definitely earned his nomination for this score, as it pairs well not just with the unusual visuals but the mystery of the series and the themes it explores.
Larissa’s Take: This intro takes on new depth with each watch. The more you learn about the show, the more the intro makes sense. Is this what is happening in Mark’s reintegrating mind? Mark walks down steps in his mind, bumping into his innie but never facing him. He is a version of himself that is trapped in his implant, a part of the Kier world. Even though Mark is severed from the work on the Coal Harbour floor, he remembers the elevator, goats, pictures on the walls, the disorienting balloon-head feeling moving from outie to innie. It’s an intro that makes me want to watch it a hundred times to see every element of hidden complexity. It perfectly conveys not just the tone and theme of the show but also the same layering of detail and mystery as the show itself.
Aesthetic 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: If you watch the opening and you wonder if it’s AI-generated, it isn’t. So, we have to assume that the uncanny valley aesthetic is… Deliberate. With more lighting and some close-ups, it might feel like it should be part of The Polar Express. But the final product seems to fit the show. (Especially the goats).
Larissa’s take: I love this deliberate uncanny valley choice. Going back to how it conveys the tone of the show, Severance makes you question alliances, hierarchies, and even our own reality and sense of self. I think it is very appropriate for the opening sequence to make the audience question what media they are digesting - is it AI? Is it real? I think this sets up what the viewing experience will be extremely well.
Innovation 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: Severence tosses a lot of curveballs to the audience in the plot, and honestly, I feel like nothing the composer or anyone working on this sequence could do could prepare anyone for them. It does the best it can with what it has.
Larissa’s take: I believe this is one of the best opening sequences of all time. Everything works together from the sound, to the scenes shown that tease the mystery of the show, to the visual style. Masterclass.
Opening Sequence Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
SPECIAL: Kill Tony: Kill Or Be Killed
Blind Impressions:
Larissa’s impression: 🤷♀️
Kill Tony: Kill or Be Killed is based on Tony Hinchcliffe’s Youtube of the same name, where he spotlights amateur comedians through drawing names from a hat. I came in wanting not to hate it. I wanted stand-up to prevail, regardless of who the host was. Rome is burning, Nero is fiddling, and comedy is THRIVING. Have you turned on SNL lately? No holds-barred skits that will go down as legend. Steven Colbert? Late night is back, baby! So, I expected some opportunistic amateurs delivering some spicy zingers to a wildly applauding Netflix home crowd. Let’s see what happens.
Mason’s impression: 😡
Early on in Trump’s run for president, he exhibited all the qualities and signs of being a proto-fascist and a wannabe dictator. At that point his supporters could be labelled anything from “Nazi boot-licker” to “bigoted fascist.” Kill Tony host Tony Hinchcliffe is maybe the worst version of all of them in that he seems to be a bigoted opportunist who is in the MAGA movement solely because it justifies his bigotry and includes a small but loyal audience who watch not because they’re fans of his, enjoy comedy (or his comedy), or find any value or enrichment in what he produces but simply because they want someone who owns a microphone to affirm that they have the right beliefs. He is a propagandist spreading hate, and what’s worse is that he and his guests are comically unfunny, and the comedians he has perform on the show are not developed enough to have earned their spot. I’m expecting to hate it.
Drama/Humour 🌟
Larissa’s take: That was a complete flop. I expected amateurs to be hit or miss, but when the host has to say “you might be wondering why we are laughing” for invited regulars, it’s not funny. Apparently, in that case, it was because the guest often comes on the show and yells loudly. Another regular looked like he just took a cocktail of cough syrup, Percocet, and Molly before wandering out onstage. A hat-drawn guest comedian seemed more appropriate as a contestant on a big-prize game show than on a stand-up night, explaining how he has no health insurance or money for a medical condition. Panelists sat awkwardly looking at each other most of the night. The best thing that happened was a random drum battle.
Mason’s take: The ABSOLUTE WORST thing a comedian could ever be is unfunny. I’ve heard some stories that paint American comedian and poster boy for VD Dane Cook as a rude, selfish prima donna, but he knows how to construct a joke, even if the only people who find him funny have the maturity of a twelve-year-old boy with divorced parents. None of the comedians featured on Kill Tony: Kill or Be Killed were funny. What’s worse is that some of them cosigned a bunch of Tony’s problematic and bigoted views.
Personalities 🌟
Mason’s take: This special featured some impressionists who impersonated Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, RFK Jr, and Phil McGraw. The point of a comedy impression is that you’re supposed to accentuate their physical and personality flaws and make fun of them and their beliefs through the impression. The point is usually that the audience dislikes this person and we’re in on the joke that this person sucks. This is why there aren’t any famous Bill Nye impersonators: all of the people who would like that impression also don’t like comedy because Q told them Netflix is controlled by “The Jews.”
Larissa’s take: They had Tom Segura as a panelist, and he was less funny than if someone had a cardboard cutout of his body there. Joe Rogan only got animated when he told someone to stay off the shrooms (or don’t if it makes him look less cool). For some reason, they had a lot of political impersonators which was…topical…I guess? Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Dr. Phil, among others made an appearance. Elon Musk was less funny than scarily accurate, including randomly leaving as a panelist to “check on Big Balls”. Also, I learned that apparently all you need to do to book Madison Square Garden for Tony Hinchcliffe is be a woman. No joke, Tony booked a moderate comedian for a massive gig so he could - in his words - “have a guaranteed female on the show.” So much to unpack, so little time.
Aesthetic 🌟
Mason’s take: The theatre looks like the kind of place where your friend got molested. It looks like the place Thom Yorke was stalking around in the song “Creep.” All of the regular Kill Tony cast members and many of the guest comedians look like the people who molested your friend. Yuck.
Larissa’s take: The aesthetic looks like a low-budget rip-off of The Voice and Pauly Shore’s The Comedy Store had a baby. It was also very middle-aged straight white male with closeted issues. I guess America is great again?
Innovation 🌟🌟
Mason’s take: I don’t know why Tony Hinchcliffe decided to make his job “edgy middle school talent show host,” but at least if they had actual twelve-year-olds on the show, it might at least be entertaining. Still, I guess I have to admit that “a worse version of a middle school talent show” is at the very least a little innovative in the same way that Taco Bell is a worse version of authentic Mexican food. There are better comedians at the county fair’s kiddie corner.
Larissa’s take: I have to say I like the premise of Kill Tony, in that it gives an unknown comedian to be potentially saved from obscurity. Random names are pulled from a hat from comedians who applied to be on the show, and given the stage to show off their best 60 seconds of comedy. Then, an all-star comedy guests interview the contestants (to help let them shine a bit more). The guests can be booked for more gigs there on the spot, or at the very least, given a bit more than 15 seconds of fame being featured on a major streaming network. If only it were done by someone more competent. Taylor Tomlinson, it’s time to steal a Netflix Special format.
Episode Rating 🌟
SEASON: White Lotus, S3
Story 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: A lot of people are having a lot of big feelings about White Lotus, and all I have to say is what’s wrong with a little friendly handy between bros that thematically conveys their deeply rooted character flaws?? That said, the great thing I’ve been loving about White Lotus so far isn’t that it’s an examination of the hubris of man (which it is) but that the unique take it eeks out for itself is that it examines the corrupting influence of status. Not wealth, not power, status. All the characters have a relationship to status and have a story revolving around it. And it reveals something about us as they go through it.
Larissa’s take: I felt like this season of White Lotus focused a bit too much on the murder who-dunnit than other seasons with near-misses and misdirections. Previous seasons made the death introduced in their respective first scene almost insignificant, dwelling more on characters learning their lessons. Overall, however, this season delivered what the show became known for - stories and character development that deliver a gut punch. I feel like I am being picky when Season 3 gave us more than one introspective moment, even an incestuous one!
Acting Performances 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: Episode 5 of this season, “Full-Moon Party,” changed me. Sam Rockwell could do anything else in his career— he could be a superhero, he could win seven EGOTs, and he could even be a twelve-term mayor of Daly City, California. But to me he will always be most memorable for his monologue about drug-riddled sexcapades with Thai women and crossdressers while having an identity crisis.
Larissa’s take: Mason is justified in raving about Sam Rockwell, but let’s give it up for Aimee Lou Wood! It’s amazing to see her growth since I first saw her in Sex Education on Netflix. Commenting on the show runner’s decision for her character, Wood remarked, “Chelsea is hope, and he kills hope.” I love Chelsea’s Greek tragedy with Rick and her refusal to take off her hope-filled rose-coloured glasses to the bitter end.
Aesthetic 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: Jason Issacs has a decent and presentable penis. It catches you by surprise in the fourth episode, “Hide or Seek,” but don’t worry. It turns out that the actor used a prosthetic piece to stand in for his actual nudity. However it’s more subtle than the way Steve Zahn hit viewers in the face with his prosthetic penis scene in Season 1. Let’s hope they continue this phallic tradition in Season 4.
Oh, and the scenery is beautiful, too.
Larissa’s take: One of the most exciting things for me is to see what luxurious resort guests will be staying at this season, and living vicariously through them for a few episodes (before things turn hellish). It was apparently mostly filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui. Does anyone want to donate a honeymoon here for my fiancé and me??
Innovation 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: Season 1 of The White Lotus debuted in 2021, and if you ask me, a show about class consciousness and the corruptability of the human soul isn’t a huge innovation. There is a lot that seems familiar, and this show may remind you of Goosebumps, Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, and even Black Mirror are similar in how the show treats its human characters. This season continues that. But in my opinion, as a guy, secure in his sexuality and masculinity, the hidden penises are the best innovation The White Lotus brings to the table. 5/5. Get Sam Rockwell to drop trou, cowards.
Larissa’s take: Every second of this show is nuanced and thought out, from wardrobe changes hinting at character evolution, to eye glances stirring conflict. The music, the motion of the camera, the lighting during revealing scenes. It’s a show that competes against itself.
My knowledge of Kill Tony extends no further than the Puerto Rico joke no one found funny to his work launching the career of Fiona Cauley. I am not surprised at all to read here that the frat bro environment in those clips was reflective of a more troubling environment offering little to no entertainment value.
As for The White Lotus, I wrote a review recently for it as well, I totally agree with the comparison to The Outer Limits given how each season sort of relies on a last minute twist or reveal. The structure of each season is getting tiresome, I wish Mike White would just focus on the fun frenetic passive aggressive energy and good character work rather than relying so much on whodunits.
I want the score soundtrack for this season release so bad!!