Lanterns S1E8: Dirt and Stars

Ross Bolen (0:02)

Welcome back for another helping of Oysters Clams & Cockles, presented by Bolen Media. I am Ross Bolen, here with Barrett Dudley to discuss and review the season one finale of Lanterns on HBO. Barrett, how's it going?

Barrett Dudley (0:17)

It's going all right, homes.

Ross Bolen (0:19)

Please don't. I've always been confused by this.

Barrett Dudley (0:24)

Yeah, yeah, what?

Ross Bolen (0:25)

So in Lanterns, in this show, Lanterns, look at the lanterns. with the weird, strange racial tension between Guy and John, Guy with his gold teeth, gold tooth, I should say, dropping lines like homes. He's saying homes, H-A-O-M-E-S, homes.

Barrett Dudley (0:44)

Spell it again?

Ross Bolen (0:46)

H-A-H-O-M-E-S, sorry, wow. Yeah, H-O-M-E-S, there's no way.

But I always thought it was homes, H-O-L-M-E-S.

Barrett Dudley (0:56)

No, no, it's like a derivative of homies.

Ross Bolen (0:58)

Homes.

Barrett Dudley (0:59)

What up, homes? That's like a, it's, what up, homie?

Ross Bolen (1:03)

I feel like Hispanic people maybe say it with the L. Homes?

Barrett Dudley (1:07)

Yeah.

Ross Bolen (1:08)

Or maybe I've just been hearing it wrong my whole life?

Barrett Dudley (1:10)

I think when you hear it, there does, sometimes depending on who's saying it, it does sound like there's an L in there. But it is a, it is a, it's a, yeah, like an abbreviation of homies, or homie. Okay. Except for it's just all you're doing is removing one letter, so it's not really an abbreviation. So that's why I called it more of a derivative, but.

Ross Bolen (1:26)

Well, I'm glad we clarified all this.

Barrett Dudley (1:28)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Ross Bolen (1:29)

Uh, feelings, thoughts on the finale, Barrett? Before we get into the details.

Barrett Dudley (1:35)

Yeah, so, I mean, I will just, I'll say upfront that I should couch this, that I got home at 10.3 last night after a long day at ACL.

Ross Bolen (1:47)

Were you intoxicated?

Barrett Dudley (1:49)

I had had a couple of drinks.

Ross Bolen (1:50)

Okay, you had a couple of adult beverages.

Barrett Dudley (1:52)

Yeah. Yeah. But I had also, you know, stopped at like eight. So it had been, you know, I was, I was fine.

Ross Bolen (1:59)

But tired.

Barrett Dudley (1:59)

But tired.

Ross Bolen (2:00)

Worn down.

Barrett Dudley (2:01)

A little bit worn down. And so.

Ross Bolen (2:02)

Foggy brain.

Barrett Dudley (2:04)

So this episode being so uneventful.

Ross Bolen (2:10)

Chill.

Barrett Dudley (2:10)

Chill, basically.

Not explosive whatsoever was like quite nice. I thought I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, I can, I can handle this. And like halfway through, I was like, oh, nothing's going to happen. This is just the explainer episode.

Ross Bolen (2:26)

Yeah.

Barrett Dudley (2:27)

And I was very much okay with that. Given my, you know, my, my overall state. It is not exactly what I expected, but it was, it was fine. I think I, I left this episode in this season thinking, all right. And that, and that was about that. Like, like this won't be anywhere close to my top 10 at the end of the year. And a lot of, a lot about it didn't really work for me. And I feel like I got baited and switched a little bit, but there were things that I liked, performances that I thought were fun or, and, or good or both.

And, and yeah, it was something that I watched, and found some enjoyment in, and also had quite a bit of issues with.

Ross Bolen (3:17)

I felt so similarly about this finale, and maybe it's just because I'm always tired now, and I'm getting older, but 30 minutes in, I was like, man, I'm really enjoying this. And also, I'm pretty sure this is the, most of the episode's gonna maintain this exact tone and pace. I don't think anything else is gonna happen. At about the 30 minute mark, you're pretty much done with major events.

And then it just kind of lingers on for another half hour.

Barrett Dudley (3:50)

Just to finish out the, you know, the setup of it all.

Ross Bolen (3:55)

Right, which on a Sunday night was kind of nice. I kind of enjoyed it. I thought the finale pretty perfectly encapsulated how I felt about the season on the whole.

Wildly successful season, by the way, in terms of viewership, like 20 million people have been watching this show every week.

Barrett Dudley (4:14)

We should say that's a worldwide number.

Ross Bolen (4:16)

It is, it is, yeah. But it makes it one of like the five most, you know, one of the most successful HBO shows of the last five years, is what I'm trying to say.