Parenting Tips from “A Gentleman in Moscow” E8, “Adieu,” and “Only Murders in the Building” S4 E1, “

[Music] welcome to the parenting roundabout podcast I'm Terry Morrow and I'm Katherine Helo as parents and parenting writers we can't help but see everything through a parenting lens but as our kids have become adults we find ourselves more interested in getting caught up on movies and streaming than on going over the same parenting topics over and over so since we're pretty sure we can find parenting wisdom anywhere we're going to talk about what we're watching what we thought about about it and maybe what we can learn from it if only what not to do watch and listen along and let's all make like we're doing something important for our families each Wednesday formerly Tuesday but now Wednesday uh we bring you our thoughts on a newer entertainment property and for this week of August 26th we are saying Ado to a gentleman in Moscow uh limited series on Paramount plus and we're also picking up with our friends that only murders in the building see season 4 it is back uh but before we get to the the murders in the building um we are going to finish up with a gentleman in Moscow which which ended uh I don't know about you but I needed several tissues to get through this episode so would we say that there was a murder in the building because when we last we saw the weasel his prospects did not look good yeah they didn't I I don't know if Alexander meant to actually kill him but yeah it seemed like a possible outcome certainly the weasel felt like he was being killed yes he was left in a boiler room chained to a chair and uh yeah he said what you know you going to leave me here oh someone will come for you like no nobody nobody likes that guy that I don't think well he had the the he had that self-awareness too the wheels said no they won't they certain budy and and who brought about that turn of Affairs mhm right tell right this is why maybe you want to be friendly with your co-workers friend I don't know maybe not keep dossier on them but instead come by for some bullia base one day right exactly so in this this final episode we get Sophia's dramatic Escape um she has been invited to Paris for a piano performance and the count has why do I keep calling him the count he hasn't been a count for a long time but uh Alexander Alexander has orchestrated this whole uh escape plan for her because he realizes that she cannot stay in Soviet Russia it is not a good place for her and as last week we saw him recording a meeting and then he is going to slip the tapes to the American who was setting up this plan with him and then in return Sophia would be whisked off to the West would be given Asylum but first she has to get there right from the concert hall and you know I'm watching this number one you know she's narrating it so right she's probably okay right and thank you thank you to the producers I don't know if that was the case you said you it wasn't clear in the book who was narrating it thank you for making it Sophia so we know it will be okay thank you but I'll tell you as a soft-hearted mom I did not want to see the scenes of her getting away with this right I wanted Alexander and Anna in the hotel they hear the phones all ringing we she's safe yeah but no no we had to have some drama you had to give us all that drama yes of which the most traumatic part was having to cut her hair off cut her with these tiny little sewing scissors which don't leave the scissors there no yeah but oh man that's that would be she had to psych herself into that and I can see it and those it probably isn't clear but the those scissors were Helen us the sister oh um oh no they didn't did they say that at all I don't in the book recall I think so um wow but yeah in the in the book you know they were one of the things that he one of the few things that he had of of his sister these they did focus on it very meaningfully seeing they're on the sink but I assume that was just because somebody found it later right but interesting did we ever see him like fingering them in his room over the years I feel like they might have been shown here and there like but you wouldn't have necessarily known that you should be paying attention to them yes so well yeah so that was I mean even though I was pretty sure she got away that was all very tense with this blond-haired woman who you could tell right away was going to be trouble um although she was the minder doing her doing her job of making sure as a chaperon yes as a chaperone you know I have been a chaperone and yes you count a little chicks every time yes yep and you direct the ones who are wandering off so you know I can't be too mad at her but still it's under the circumstances lady you want to take the day off how about a day off Paris yeah go explore Paris yes oh so that was all very tense but and then you had this whole dramatic as we we started talking about at the beginning I don't know if you remember that the these like ancient pistols were stored in the in the manager's office I did not remember them until the weasel said oh those don't work they've been sitting around forever and so I then I figured they must have been been we must have seen them displayed there a number of times without knowing necessarily why the camera was finding them right they were like behind in a safe or behind a picture or something um so he pulls these two pistols on our friend the weasel as we call him in the book he's called the bishop for some reason I can't remember why I've read reviews that call him the bishop and I'm like what yeah that was not a part of the canot I can't remember why that is but um but yeah he he pulls the guns on him um he that was really a lovely little bit in that he was in the secret room while the weasel was ransacking his his tiny room and and he managed to get down to his office before he got there so when the weasel walks to his office he's sitting there at the desk with the guns that is very nice I'm not sure logistically how that works there's a is there a back door to the secret room yeah I guess so it goes up is that the part that goes up to the roof or whatever yeah because it's it you know at one point you entered that room from the hallway you know back in the day yes okay years before regardless of how logistically possible it was that's fun yes exactly because you're a little worried that oh no he found the passport what are they GNA do right it's just nothing more satisfying than a I'm ahead of you villain thinks he's pretty in a pretty good place yes yes he's like I got you I found this passport that you stole yes but no yes indeed and Alexander you know forces the weasel to take everyone's dossier with all the all the staff all of his friends himself Sophia and take him down to the Boiler Room Chuck him in the fire um that was delightful yeah it was and then left him chained there right and of course this is because he has the keys to everything you know yes which hasn't been a big factor in recent episodes um but is important yes something that somebody should probably have taken into account than this that's okay I do wonder how so little attention is paid for what paid to what he does when he's in his room or not in public right that he's just sort of you know nobody's watching him clearly on a on a minute-by-minute basis right which is enables us to have a story to tell so that's that's just fine right well partly because also he has befriended OIP um originally his his uh Jailer and um the end his very good friend yes so sad boy talking about a parenting tip that story about his daughter wanted him to just stay for a little bit longer and he had a meeting to go to and then they probably never saw each other again he never got a chance to say goodbye to her right take the cup of coffee with your child he the extra time yeah and just I mean the heart the Heartbreak of all of this you know like you know that you're not you're never going to see your child again and like what do you say how do you how do you say that goodbye you know it's just I mean I think he did a beautiful job yes I think so too it was and also with him and Anna you know the sort of the ruse that they're going to off to Finland together right um even though apparently that was never quite his plan but um just the sadness of knowing that this is what you have to do right and you know try to tell Sophia that you know yes we will see you you know we'll follow you and you need to tell her whatever is going to make her able to do this terrible dangerous thing you have to ask going to do right o but she figured it out yeah she's a smart one that's sopia yes it's so sad to have to send your kid off to do something so dangerous right cuz the the uh alternative is even worse yeah so I do wonder why they felt it was okay to be discussing all this stuff at the bar and were they at the I mean sometimes they were on the roof sometimes no they were having dinner yeah I think Anna and Alex having dinner and talking about things that I would not think one would want to have overheard and same for uh Sophia and Anna but you know I guess everybody's friends everybody all the help is their friends so um and the weasel is behind the counter but right he's looking for the passport that that angle though when he's hugging Sophia goodbye and then you see the weasel kind of is standing behind the front desk yeah and then you see like up a story watching yeah it's like well these things are going to be a problem so they're not showing those just because this is just a background of the hotel pay no attention right um so but OIP is up down up there shedding a tear over it all yes yes cuz he recognizes what's going on as a father as a fellow father parents do and that's why he's like listen don't mess this up yeah you know he turned out to be a good pal in the end yes um and I like that yeah that was good um and and very good acting by that guy without really modulating what he was doing that much you know it's not like he changed from from you know Stern Jailer to boozy pal he was right the same guy all the way through but just little nuances right and uh of acting and scripting just made you see that guy everything that he's going through which has been a lot right and his changing feelings about Alexander right so nicely done yes so to spoil everything about this you know Sophia gets away with it yes uh she gets out of the concert hall um uhhuh having cut her hair but still looking exactly like exactly yes yes it's the hat you know what she was wearing a hat I mean if she was going to wear a hat she could have just put her hair up under the hat and also which would have been faster after showing after showing Olympic gymnast levels of ability to Scamper up a wall of a bathroom and stand at the top of the stall right how I could not do that to save my life I believe people can but I I guess fear yeah cuz that was that was a little bit of a feat well she like you said she was doing it to save her life so I guess so but you have to have that idea then you have to figure out how I mean crawling it it seemed like yeah it was a little unlikely but that's fine if it saves her that's fine they could have set it up a little bit with her doing gymnastics and like climing up the stair the doing things at the at the hotel showed her ability to do that right she oh this is just like that place I climbed in the hotel I could do this yes we can just we could just uh you know retroactively yeah imagine that was the case yes exactly so then you know we know we know it's okay because all the phones were ringing right that was the signal that Alexander had worked out with the American guy signal yeah yeah yep just don't have to say anything just set all those phones a ringing and yep we can we can relax yeah so and then yeah they they left the ending between um Anna and Alexander ambiguous as to whether you see Anna at the train station and oep comes and tells her basically that Alexander is not coming and but you better get on that train use and get on that train and then she's standing there in the train says all aboard and it sounds like it's leaving so does she not get on the train does she just really get it they left it's unclear they left that unclear and then they show them together in the countryside they show him walking out of the out of the uh Hotel MH into the light yes and then we have a little scene of them a little Gauzy scene of them scampering about a little out in the country out in the country and the the tree with the black apples yes so are we supposed to think that's an afterlife are we supposed to think that they actually got away or this is just Sophia's warm uh thoughts of where they might be right um I don't know did the book say in my reading of the book um I felt that they es both escaped separately and found each other Alexander and Anna and well that's lovely let's think that yeah I mean it could be you know wishful thinking on my part but I felt that it was more clear in the book than it was here in the TV series in the TV show it was definitely well it would be a bummer if we leave with them dying in prison somewhere so maybe this is what happened right it could be sure why don't we just think this right so yeah I finished the book feeling that they had gotten away with it a well good I'll feel that way too then let's just believe yes and uh not ask any questions that's right let's not I I was also wondering since you read the book right before we watched started watching this I listened to a podcast that was about the book and they didn't really get into spoilers but there was a couple of things and one of them was I think they said that at some point the staff at the hotel got replaced by uh you know party flunkies like the weasel who didn't really care about maximizing the guest's experience or anything that or just you know of the let's take all the labels off the wine cuz who cares sco right was that the case in the book cuz I've been waiting for it to happen with sort of you know my heart in my throat and they all very happily lasted till the end unless they all get shot for helping Alexander get and you know the death of the weasel but still we're we're meant to see that they all grew old together basic yeah that and that's how it happened in my memory of the book as well because they showed that scene at the end where he gave them all a gold coin um and that that happened in the book too okay um all right so maybe they were just talking about the weasel replacing the hotel manager and not everybody yeah and just the whole thing where you know like the paintings got painted over and and the wine bottles and all that stuff um but the staff just sort of had like the golden ticket you know they made it through I we don't see what their lives were like outside of the hotel probably not so great but in the hotel they seem to have pretty fine time right growing old gracefully so right good for them in the in the book there was a lot more of like um basically the the uh Alexander the chef and the bartender and somebody else like maybe the Matra D from the restaurant or could be the concierge guy but they called themselves the council and they a you know they would like eat together every day and you know they were they were all very important in each other's lives obviously um so yeah so um he you know he gave them all the gold coin at the end um but I don't don't believe they were like party to the I know I don't think he wanted them to be involved yeah I don't think any of them necessarily knew other than I mean uh Marina made the us but would not have necessarily known it was anything for anything other than her going on this sanctioned thing right but but they all they might have all had a bit of a suspicion I think so yes just I mean but the teary looks everybody's s actually they were sitting at the bar discussing well and just you know from them realizing like hey this is this is her ticket like she's yes we've got to figure out how to take advantage of this because yeah she needs to get out um yeah so but what a lovely what a lovely story this was mm well you know beautifully told in this miniseries and I'm sure written in the book yes and uh great characters character development and uh very nice I'm glad we watched it it's something I would necessarily have picked out to watch but I'm glad I did very very nicely done and I still recommend the book um I know it's not you're not a big fiction person um but I can be for you or the listeners um I definitely I definitely recommend the book it just you know it allows for more for more detail and more just a little it's a little more complex in the book since they have time significantly different I mean I think we talked about that it I don't remember that he actually recorded the meeting with a he just took notes he just took notes um and the whole sort of Escape plot was a little more complicated in terms of um stealing the passports and you know basically making everybody think he had gotten on the train um but he didn't you know he went he stayed in Russia and went uh into the country and um wow so and there was a whole thing with like there was this American salesman who he had befriended over the years and you know that character wasn't even in the TV show at all um that he played a part in in getting Sophia out and um Alexander out and yeah so there was just a lot more and it was just one of those things where it was building up you know for the last several chapters and you didn't necessarily know it obviously until um it all till the plan all came together and I I love that kind of a story you know like it's it's not a mystery but it has some of the it has some of the Hallmarks of it um uhhuh was there a lot of exposition about the political situation of the various times there were some yes since it was relevant a few pages here and there yeah explaining yeah because it was important to to what I B in peace where it was like no we let's leave them on the battlefield to talk for 50 pages or so about the uh no about the political goings on that's why that book is so enormous as I recall from reading it in high school but anyway right well this was delightful thank you for uh suggesting it how how old were these characters at the end how old was Alexander supposed to be at the end I mean over in the book okay cuz we were talking last uh last week about them aging like you and McGregor up and he's 53 so they were younging him down most of the time right Mary Elizabeth Winstead is 40 so oh wow I she's she I thought she looked really not necessarily well-aged in this last episode but definitely older you know you could see that she was not I mean so it's it's like they did a good job of younging people down and aging them up without it being super obvious yeah with it just looking like the people and you don't really question it right so nicely done uh what makeup Department makeup makeup Department I don't know if they have awards for that at the TV level but nicely done and the costumes of course were all also just excellent right I I did think uh after what you mentioned about uh Alexander having a problem with Sophia's bare shoulder dress that she was he was going to look at that dress and say never mind the fact that you're about to go do this dangerous thing that could get you killed put a jacket over that Miss that's much too ex yeah that was the dress too revealing that was the one in the book that that was the one that was white doesn't she need a place to tuck the microfilm or something yeah you forgot to put a back on it Marina what the heck did you run out of fabric yeah that's about the reaction that he had I was GNA say and and um Anna had to tell him to knock it off so which you can certainly see her doing yes but so from a very somber and sad and sentimental ending of a work of literature brought to the screen we move on to something pretty silly yeah but maybe that's what we need you know what we'll ring out our handkerchiefs and just just watch something dumb for a little while not dumb necessarily but um not a nuanced betrayal of a person's life over the course of many decades as they deal with the political uh firestorms outside and form unexpected human connections within a limited scope of people murders in the buildings going to La wo there's going to be movie stars wo over there stream again wow oh Eugene love is there hey man yeah only when it's in the building it's back it's back in all it's uh it's not at all somber Splendor that's right uh Sunny La just what we need right at this moment right so yes there is an adventure to LA in the opening episode It's called Once Upon a Time in the West we get opening episode of season 4 season 4 lasted this long yep they have come up with another murder in the building which we knew from the end of can we mention though that you know this podcast is in it's uh the TV podcast in it's fourth season we are in what our 11th season right Hollywood yo over here over here we'd make a good movie come on yeah anyway go ahead some people just are special some people yes so so the end of season 3 we saw SZ uh Charles's stunt double played by Jane Lynch be shot in his kitchen um presumably it was someone that mistook her for him but we do not know that because she had something she was going to tell him so maybe they want to eliminate her right uh yeah unclear we expect I think we come to this season with the expectation that they're going to go back to his room and find her dead body on the floor right and that is not what happens they enter his apartment and she's not there there's some blood spatters which they initially take for wine they don't notice the Bullet Hole in the window um so this whole first episode was them figuring out that this must have happened um but it took it took a trip to LA and back um for them to figure this out yes it did and I think that the you know the sort of feeling about this season was that the whole thing was going to be set in LA right mhm but they've already been to LA and come back in episode one so I I guess it'll be by Coastal yes I would guess so what did you think of this episode I thought it was really pretty boring and I went on to you know there's not a lot of reviews out yet because it just as we're talking about it as you're listening to this it's been out for a while but as it's been out for like 24 hours yes as you're listening to this it's been out for a day but yeah when we're talking about it it's just you know early in the morning so there's not that many reviews yet but people on X are excited about it oh my gosh it's the best thing ever it's the best first episode ever everything about it is wonderful I'm so excited I'm so excited I'm like did Hulu switch on me and not give me the right episode maybe a first draft that was um okay you know I'm not saying I'm not going to watch the rest of it but that was a lot of road to cover to make sure we knew the dog could smell bodies and that SZ had identifiable metal pieces in her body M MH I mean I see how we had to know those things for the idea to work but I was ready for that after like in about 15 minutes right right you know I think we all knew what the dog was about mhm by the way I'll have to give a link to this there was a substack I read about dogs whose job it was to find bodies in the World Trade Center and it made me cry it was so lovely and so when I saw gravy there I'm like oh hey there I know what you do for a living right oh oh baby yeah um so yeah I just thought it was I mean I it's setting up the whole season obviously yeah both the mystery and and it was almost worth it for the bacula Cameo that was lovely after him being like a joke for three seasons as the other person that SZ is a stunt double for right he actually gets to pop up on screen there good to see a guy but um yeah it seemed like a slow start to me and a lot of cameos like a lot and I feel like we have seen this sort of satire of the movie industry yeah a billion times and what else you got right I mean fun to see the actors who are going to play our characters but it's going to be a whole season of this right okay yeah yes also how many how many movies in the history of podcasting have been made of a podcast is this a thing that has ever happened well good question again I say over here you know you could get Diane Keaton and Lily Tomlin and how many people have we had involved in our podcast there's lots of people in our demographic they could it could be like you know the book club or like what was that one we watched about the 8 for for Brady exactly are you calling me 80 years old I'm just saying there's a certain market for ensembles of mature actresses I mean if evil angoria can play Selena Gomez I don't think you should complain that was amusing and her sending her own self up being like I just wanted to sell face cream and computers and and and and yeah excellent well anyway call us we'll pack our splicer and hit the road we'll we'll sell our life rights like [Laughter] that we've already been talking about them for 10 years right there's anyway we'll we'll come up with some new [Laughter] stuff that we haven't talked about that'll be the challenge that's a lot I'm old anyway Catherine's not old but I'm old I got a lot they'll they'll age me up so that it's not creepy that's right oh I don't know it just seems I had been meaning before watching this to watch the first season which I remember is quite good mystery wise and somewhat twisty yeah and that the there have been diminishing returns on the mystery aspect of it as it has become more famous and spectacular and and guest star filled and so I don't have a great feeling about this season but let me tell you Twitter X whatever you want to call it they're all in people are loving it I mean Merl Streep is back she is looking fabulous yes you know how can you hate on something that has Merl Street just casually come in for five minutes right well that's what I think they've got to go back to LA right I mean oh no they'll definitely I I would say or else La comes to I mean I've seen previews for the season and it appears that the three actors decide they can solve a mystery just as well as anybody else so maybe La comes to New York yeah cuz I like that building it's true I would rather be in that building than on a fake New York set or in Hollywood boardrooms that I've seen 500 times right so I've gone from a billion to 500 we've seen them a lot of times is what I'm saying yes this is not new territory whereas you know at least in the first season having it all take place in this building felt kind of fresh yeah yeah wonder if we're going to get Divine Joy Randolph back yes well she was at the premiere I just as I was going through X I saw a picture of her at the premiere so yes I would say good I would say you are going to get everything you have ever loved about this series back in some way or another yes that is true I would count on on uh Jane Lynch doing a Tim Kono thing and turning up in the elevator or you know having a chat with Charles right uh and uh you know I think that uh there is a very long list of boxes that will be checked at some point over the next however many weeks this thing goes right but uh I will say one thing that I liked and appreciated about it very much is the length yes thank you thank you a cool 30 minutes I forgot this was like a sitcom oh my gosh I was thinking well you know it's the first episode it's probably an hour and a half maybe two hours and I've only left one hour in my schedule to watch I'm short yes it's like you gained some time in your day got to love that so All Is Forgiven for the boring plot it was only boring for half an hour so yes M oh well did you find it boring or did you find it delightful and exciting and the best ever I wouldn't go that far I think I'm probably between you and the Twitter enthusiasts you know I I did enjoy it but I agree with you that there's you know it did take take its sweet time to get to where it was going even though it was only 30 minutes that's true yeah if it makes 30 minutes seem long that's not a good thing but oh well it'll it'll be but I'm happy to be back with and if they're if they're going to keep the length short I guess I won't resent that the plot moves I don't know it's fine I guess I just came into it expecting that they would notice that that SAS hadn't come down and go up and look for her immediately instead of finishing recording their podcast and then mosing on up right but it's fine everything is fine it'll work out the dog is cute yes although I don't believe a kadab dog would actually be named grave e that that's yeah that that is done for plot convenience entirely yes oh yeah that that would be kind of that's it's kind of mean it is whoever named that animal needs to answer for his or her crimes yes but the cast in of Eugene Ley that is wonderful to play Steve Martin's part is delightful delightful that is yeah it is and I'm always happy to see him glad to see him getting work that's just fine and uh you know the other two are sending up themselves pretty amusingly and good on them now we find at least it it took a whole it took a whole uh episode for there to actually be a mystery to solve so now we're on it we got it but we knew there was mystery there was mystery so it's set up right let's see where it goes from here but if you could move a little faster that' be okay next week we will discuss the next episode of only murders in the building season 4 it's called Gates of Heaven and we'll see you back here tomorrow for our weekly roundabout Roundup I'm glad Gates of Heaven Wasn't the last uh last scene of uh a gentleman in Moscow or was it [Music] thank you for listening you can find all our episodes on spreer Apple podcasts Amazon music or 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