Turn & Smile Prime Time, June 12th: Nine Perfect Strangers, Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld, Not Her First Rodeo
Girl power is great until someone loses a hand
Welcome back, Sofa Taters!
Sometimes this is going to happen, but this week we have a girl power issue. Or, as Mason likes to say, lady strength.
In each of the shows we’re reviewing this week, women take the captain’s chair. In Nine Perfect Strangers, Nicole Kidman channels her most Russian Gweneth Paltrow.
But then, in Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld, Asajj Ventress shows us that women can take Stormtrooper hands and carry the plot just as well as any Skywalker can.
And finally, all the women from Not Her First Rodeo don’t just buck around but show us that they’re really very experienced, as the title of their series implies.
If you enjoy us profiling female-led TV shows and want us to do more, we actually have a big review of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power planned for when we hit 100 subscribers to this Substack. So, to get more great content like this, please be sure to subscribe to
Table Of Contents
OPENING: Nine Perfect Strangers
Summary:
Nine Perfect Strangers, created by wunderkind TV producer David E. Kelly, is a slow-paced drama about a troubled health guru who leverages her reputation to get people to come to her retreat and get high on psychedelics while having waking nightmares about the things that make them feel unworthy of love. The intro sequence from Season 1 is a kaleidoscope of images and scenery set to the song "This Strange Effect," originally by The Kinks but covered here by American alt-rock band Unloved, who are the two bands you want to be listening to when you do LSD.
Sound 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: The song itself is a trippy, 1960s-era ballad of sorts that has the speaker in the song comparing a lover or paramour’s effect on them to what seems like the effect of drugs on them. It’s never explicitly said, much in the same vein as “cherry cola” has been assumed to be a metaphor for heroin in songs like “I Want You” by Savage Garden, but it feels that the implication in “This Strange Effect” is that the “you” that’s being spoken of makes the speaker feel stoned.
Larissa’s take: I loved that song when I was a kid! It’s not about drugs Mason! Its…
🎶 I just close my eyes
And I am taken to a place
Where your crystal minds and magenta feelings
Take up shelter in the base of my spine
Sweet like a chica cherry cola 🎶
Moving on. A strange fact I found out about “This Strange Effect” was that a studio recording of the song by The Kinks doesn’t actually exist, but a live version does. So, every radio version of the song you’ve ever heard was technically a cover.
Conveyance (of Tone/Theme) 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: If someone asked me to suggest a song for their psychedelic drama series about people getting stoned in the woods and crying about their trauma my first and only response would be, “how about you use a song by that English band that sang about hooking up with a drag queen in the 70s?” I’ll take my Emmy now.
Larissa’s Take: Yeah I was thinking about that question, and I came up with “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane. While psychedelic, White Rabbit feels more like an intense trip versus the safe and seductive trips offered by Gwenyth Paltrow Nicole Kidman Masha Dmitrichenko. The Kinks hit that note perfectly.
Aesthetic 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Larissa’s take: I think it’s interesting that the psychedelic kaleidoscope features nature and flowers. This is fitting with the type of trips Masha offers, namely from shrooms she seems to harvest near her wellness centre. Depictions of flowers also lean into the green-washing of these luxury wellness centres, so focused on “nature” but whose 5-star accommodations are the furthest thing from it. The dichotomy of the perfect symmetry of nature being marred by this kaleidoscope view fits the overarching themes of the show in a really nuanced way.
Mason’s take: 🎶 She walked up to me and she asked me to dance
I asked her her name, and in a dark brown voice, she said Lola 🎶
Innovation 🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: I don’t know how innovative it is to give an editor and cinematographer LSD and a briefcase full of cash before you tell them to have a good weekend, but here we are. At least it looks good.
Larissa’s take: As with the opening sequence for Your Friends and Neighbours, the cool trippy effect happening on screen is done by cutting-edge custom graphics. Here is a quote from an interview with Patrick Clair from Antibody, who created the opening sequence:
“For this sequence, we used bleeding-edge software EBsynth to create a unique flavor of motion moshing animation. We used EBsynth’s machine-learning-powered motion analysis capabilities to transfer the motion of video clips (often of people swimming or dancing) onto still imagery of flowers, starscapes, and more.
“The result is trippy fluid videos reminiscent of data moshing but smoother, more organic, and devoid of the characteristic glitching.”
Pretty cool.
Overall Opening Rating 🌟🌟🌟
If you would like more Nine Perfect Strangers, join us with our friends over in chat!
Episode discussion from Beth Lisogorsky of Beth’s TV & Film Recommendations!
Aurelie Chazal’s Nine Perfect Strangers chat over on The Inclusive Screen!
EPISODE: Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld, E1, “A Way Forward”
Summary:
A former Sith, Asajj Ventress, is resurrected from death by Mother Talzin (a character we don’t have time to get into), at the cost of sacrificing being with the one she loves.
She ends up on an Outer Rim planet working as a bouncer when she meets a Jedi running from Order 66.
The Jedi, Lyco Strata, initially unaware of who she is, asks her for help to find the Star Wars equivalent of the Underground Railroad.
Story 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Larissa’s take: I am way more into MCU than I am into Star Wars, as far as Disney multiverse franchises go. So, I am not really into the lore outside of major cinematic releases. So, I would call myself a bit of an “outsider” coming into this series. That being said, I thought this premiere episode was fantastic story building. I was as lost as the young Lyco as to who this mysterious person was during the episode, until the final reveal where she turned out to be Count Dooku’s primary assassin, Asajj Ventress! Great storytelling, seeding the short episode with just enough information to make you wonder…with the reveals having excellent payoff. As someone who isn’t into Star Wars, or even animation for that matter, I was very interested in watching more.
Mason’s take: Star Wars has several influences. Arkia Kurasawa’s Seven Samurais. The Vietnam War. And Nazis. The franchise has gone to great lengths to try to depict not a fascist state, but a fascist universe and the effects that would have with a totalitarian central government throughout the galaxy.
The backstory and supplemental lore of this fictional universe are much more in-depth and detailed about this aspect. Given the universe that’s been constructed for the Star Wars franchise, though, we don’t usually get to spend a lot of time with the underbelly of society, those dealing with the ramifications of the tentpole action we’re used to, average people, or those whose destiny was not fortold in a dream or something. Mostly in the Shakespearean drama of Star Wars, we focus on Macbeth and MacDuff. In this series, we see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. This is something that smaller stories without the longevity of Star Wars don’t get to explore, but it’s still refreshing to see. Nothing that happens here moves the needle against the Empire, and it’s nice to have stories that explore what it was like for the random average Jedi and people during Order 66.
Characters 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: Star Wars is filled with morally flexible stoic ancillary characters standing menacingly to the side, and now we get to spend some time with one! Asajj Ventress is a lot like Han Solo if Han Solo really wanted to die but was cursed with too much skill to be killed.
Larissa’s take: Asajj Ventress is a badass! I love the female characters coming from the Star Wars universe, like Ahsoka, and even Osha/Mae in The Acolyte. Even animated, Asajj doesn’t come across as one-dimensional or overly masculine. In the brief encounter we had with her, she seems complex. She has her own goals for peace and solitude, morals to keep a kid out of a dangerous situation through choices prioritizing safety and staying undercover. When a fight does break out, she shows herself to be incredibly competent. While Lyco spilled some valuable information to her about the Path that could be extremely dangerous, we get the sense that Asajj isn’t out to settle any score. Great character. Lyco…seems like an idiot.
Aesthetic 🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: Aesthetically speaking, this show owes a lot to previous Star Wars animated fare, most notably the Star Wars: Clone Wars.
Larissa’s take: I just saw a commentary on anime - how you know an amazing fight sequence is about to come up because the animation gets really bad. I can say that is true in Tales of the Underworld as well. I actually was thinking Asajj Ventress and Lyco Strata's initial encounter with Storm Troopers was extremely underwhelming visually… right before a mysterious Sith antagonist shows up! Cue fight! The fight scene itself did not disappoint on the animation front, with flips, turns, and light sabering galore, ending in an interesting twist! (Again, great storytelling and pacing, making for an interesting watch.)
Innovation 🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: If this show could be TV-MA instead of its TV-PG rating, it would probably be a lot more grim or brutal. That said, there is a lot hinted at or implied. The animation and voice acting go well together and effectively portray the deeper intentions and a darker past. Lyco seems like he’s had to make some… choices.
Larissa’s take: Omg, Mason, that would have made this show fantastic! It definitely is made for kids, with just enough darkness to not be frightening. That being said, if it were aimed at a more adult audience, like Invincible, Tales of the Underworld could have been taken to new heights. It doesn’t seem to be Disney’s style to go into that mature space, but now that Deadpool made them a bunch of money, they might not be so adverse to a TV-MA animated series somewhere in the future…
Overall Single Episode Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟
What’s been your favourite Star Wars TV show?
Leave us a comment to let us know! How does Tales of the Underworld stack up?
SEASON: Not Her First Rodeo
Summary:
This limited docuseries profiles the Elite Lady Bull Riders as they vie to push each other to new heights of bull riding and to help each other win that coveted belt buckle.
Plot/ Drama 🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: If you want to see a bunch of men shocked to see women, you should go to an all-women bull riding event. Yes, the event is billed as an all-women’s event, yes, everyone comes in knowing about the women’s event. And yes, everyone is still shocked when a woman says she rides bulls professionally. The amount of “girls can’t do that” rhetoric and questions like, “you’re a bull rider? Really? You?” in every single episode of this series is frankly exhausting. It honestly makes me feel like that rapper in “The Sexy Getting Ready Song” from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in that I want to make sure I’m respecting women properly, as they have to contend with this kind of sexism and underestimating every day.
As the Elite Lady Bull Riders (ELBR) tour rodeos mostly south of the Mason-Dixon (no relation, I swear), and deal with the slack jawed yokels shocked that a woman would choose to ride a bull, they try to fight to win the coveted belt buckles rodeos traditionally give to winners (also money).
Larissa’s take: You might not know this about me, but I actually kinda follow rodeo. (Maybe the fact that I was at Horse Expo Canada a few weeks ago might have given it away, but I like to think I at least sort of maintain the appearance of a “classy city girl”.) Here is a picture I took when I went with my family to the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas in 2010! Unfortunately, looking back at the album, I only took photos of the rides, not myself…so you’ll have to believe me that I was there.
Why I say all this is because I have never ever seen a woman outside of barrel racing in the rodeo in my life. So, women riding bulls definitely is unique, and the fact that there are only five professional bull riders in the entire Elite Lady Bull Rider league showcases just how rare it is. That being said, it feels like they are showcasing a brand new league for women - a league of their own, if you will - outside of the normal male-only bull riding sport, versus strictly showcasing the women in a male-dominated field. The Elite Ladies do not seem to be riding the same size bulls featured in NFR - more around the size that younger kids prepping for pro-rodeo would ride - even though the women do ride for a full 8 seconds.
Personalities 🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: The great thing that the Elite Ladies bring to the docuseries is a willingness to emote. We get to see the toll rodeo riding takes on them in a way that men wouldn’t be able to for fear of not fitting in with the rigid definitions of manliness that toxic masculinity demands of them.
Yeah, that’s right. I said it: Soft boys make for better TV.
Larissa’s take: Jorden Halvorsen, the force behind Elite Lady Bull Riders, is the star of this documentary. If she’s getting something on Hulu/Disney+, she’s clearly doing something right for the league, and deserves her 15 seconds! (She’s also the only rider consistently riding her bulls, but we can’t all have our DNA spliced with glue…)
Aesthetic 🌟🌟🌟
Mason’s take: Surprisingly much less mud than in Race For the Crown.
Larissa’s take: I honestly think this was a recruiting video for Elite Lady Bull Riders, showing off the sport in the most romantic, girl-power version it can be, versus the rib-crunching, lung-bursting, neck-snapping one it mostly is. I can imagine some teenage girls looking to make their mark on the world joining ELBR because of this documentary. This theory is reinforced when you go to their website (that seems a bit slap-dash tbh), they say, “become the best version of yourself” and give us a phone number. I only know one other organization that says stuff like that, and they are pretty famous for recruitment.
Innovation 🌟🌟
Mason’s take: The idea of “predominantly male activity, but with women” isn’t a really “innovative” idea in 2025. As a society, we are well aware that women are just as capable as the best men out there. The only reason sports were originally segregated by gender in the first place was that women started winning. But watching the first four episodes of this series, it felt like these women were pioneering their way into the sport due to the reaction of the men around them. But then, by Episode 5, Jonnie Jonckowski shows up and we get a bit more lore: Jonnie Jonckowski is a legend who started winning rodeos in the 1980s. I did just a tad bit of research, and it turns out that Jonckowski was the first woman bull rider… since the last woman bull rider in 1929 (Bonnie McCarroll). There have been generations of mothers, sisters, daughters, and women in this sport— there are entire women-only rodeo events. Yet judging only by the men surrounding these women, it’s somehow shocking they’re even here, like it’s a new and novel concept that someone with boobily bits would choose this sport. Is it even really bull riding if there’s no risk of catastrophic damage to your testicles? So congratulations, girlies, for being the first women men met at a rodeo.
Larissa’s take: I want to mention here just how much money is in bull riding. Below is the current annual earnings report for professional bull riders from PBR. In a single year, the top guy is raking in millions!
So, why shouldn’t women want a slice of this pie? Sure, the Elite Lady Bull Riders are more-or-less exhibition riders at this point, vying for a meaningless buckle that probably Jorden will win for another year. But maybe one day, the ELBR might actually have a fan base and real money in it. So that day in the future when a little girl says she wants to regularly break bones by getting bucked off a bull, she can!
I had higher hopes for the women bull riding show. From your review it feels a little bit like how I felt after watching the F1 Academy show on Netflix.
On another note. I loved the NPS opening credits review. Especially how Mason was like "I don’t know how innovative it is to give an editor and cinematographer LSD and a briefcase full of cash before you tell them to have a good weekend, but here we are. At least it looks good." Followed by Larissa sharing quotes on how they used this fancy technology. You had me laugh out loud for a bit there. I guess they could still use the fancy tech while on LSD.