And That's What You REALLY MissedContent creator, pop culture connoisseur, and YouTuber "Mike's Mic" (aka Michael Messineo) joins Jenna and Kevin for a complete GLEEK out sesh!
Of course, if you're one of the millions who have watched Mike's viral recaps of his favorite shows. . . then you've seen his take on "Glee."
He reveals how long and how much effort it takes to make those videos, the Glee episode(s) he hates, and how his own high school experience compares to the show's fictional one.
Plus, can it be that Mike knows Glee better than Kevin and Jenna?? Place your bets and listen in to find out!
**We stand in solidarity with our union, SAG-AFTRA, during the strike. For more information, go to SAGAFTRAStrike.org.
And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
And Kevin an iHeartRadio.
Podcast, Welcome to You, and That's what you Really miss podcast guest edition, Hello Kevin.
Hello Jenna. Today we have someone that it's like a TV connoisseur, is a TV genius, a pop culture genius. Really knows a lot more than us, Yes, a lot more than us, and I thank him for it so we don't have to do the work. You're not familiar with Mike's Mike on YouTube. He has made these incredible series of videos where he watches an entire series and recaps every single episode and these gigantic, gigantic things.
Really really incredible. It's a lot of work, a long time, but also so clever, so funny.
Knows the ins and outs of everything, has opinions on everything based off of storylines. It's right.
The Glee one is really wonderful and he's just a great person to chat with.
So if you haven't seen it, you need to go watch as recaps he did after this all six seasons because he's wonderful. So all the way from Melbourne, Australia, here's Mike from Mike's Mike.
Hi, Hello, this is so iconic. The fact that I'm even talking to both of you.
I mean, massive fanages. When we first started talking about doing this show and like what would it be like and who would we have on? You were one of my very first suggestions, like we have to get him on here. Oh my god, because the amount of people. Oh, I had so many people send it to me. And then like when you first did it, like when I originally oh yeah, and not because like like oh, watches it's so bad. It's that's not you know, it's you're very good, so luckily, and also watching it's like, oh, yes, you are distilling all the things that this is how we feel.
Think it's funny because the first person that I met from one of the shows that I talked about was meeting Lucy Hale pretty Little Liars, and she had no idea about the stuff that I'd done, but someone else had introduced me to her as this guy has spoken about your show for multiple hours on the internet, and she spoke to me she was like, like, you probably know more about the show than I do.
Well, I was actually thinking about I was going to text Ashley Benson today be like have you watched these I didn't want to open that can of worms, of.
Course, and kind of worms Pretty Lives was for sure.
You couldn't text her in time.
I might have to this, like you have to watch these. So okay, first of all, thank you for being here, of course, and I know we just started talking about it, but you have an incredible YouTube channel and you started doing these, not just the season recap, like an entire series, first of all seasons. How why I don't understand how you did that.
You're very smart.
Oh yeah, very smart.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
But your first one you did was Pretty Little Liars? Yes, where exactly where did.
The idea come from to do it?
So I this was you have to know the times. This was twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, and I live in Melbourne and we were in the longest lockdown in the world. Yeah, and I live by myself. Oh okay, got enough station enough Yeah, So like the context is set, and I was like very by myself and had multiple hours every day where I was like, hmm, well now, and then I was thinking, like I like talking about stuff that I watch on YouTube. At this point, I'd been making videos but about reality TV, and like occasionally like older movies and that kind of thing. And then I thought, maybe I should try talking about my favorite TV shows, but rather than just like picking specific things to talk about, I'm just going to talk about all of it and do like a full recap, like multiple season recap all at once, because I hadn't really seen anything like that on YouTube at that point, and I was like, I've got time, and when else in my life am I gonna have multiple months of just like guilt free exactly?
Right?
So then I started with Pretty the Liars because that was like my number one show when I was in twenty ten, so like Year ten, which was that was actually the most convenient thing about me growing up was I was in the grade that the year was, yeah, like two thousand and nine, and I was in Year night Like I loved to.
Like it so easy.
Actually we were too, but just fake high school. Well I geat that's like how convenience was that we were all in it.
We didn't know it at the time, so really told later that we weren't a droiding. So then then, yeah, I.
Mean so two thousand and there was an overlap there. Twenty ten pretty realized and Glee were both arians same time because two thousand and nine.
Right, yeah, And I had been friends with Ashley Benson since I was like fifteen or something, and so she and I she was on another show called Eastwick, yeah, the Witches of east Wick or something, and when Glee first started and that got canceled, and she was all bummed, and then she immediately got pretty little liars and I was like, actually, we're killing it. Look at us, like who would have thought? Yeah, it was very strange.
Did he continue like being friends while bus stars were airing and everything? And oh yeah, and friends been like going like this.
Yeah. I mean she at the time was like dating my best friend and so.
We're all we're all still friends. So yeah, yeah, awesome. Yeah, So love that you covered our two shows first, which is great. Selfishly, I mean the most crucial shows on TV, Like, let's be s you said it, I didn't. I only talk about important shows, please, I covered the most important media. So I started with Privitive Lies because that was like my favorite show. And then once I covered Privitle Lies, mind you, because I these takes such a ridiculous amount of time to make, So I was writing a script and recording and editing for like probably three months. They're huge.
They're massive.
I try and make them, so it seems like they were almost effortless or it's like I just got up and started talking.
You did.
It looks like it was all done in an afternoon, Like you, how did you remember all this? Yeah?
People were like like, you must have like such a good memory of that. Maybe it's a script right, like it's all written down one hundred percent. You're just a very good actor. Yeah, oh well, thank you, thank you.
Unlike some of the acting on both of our shows, Oh no, I love if the if there's ever a scene where like the acting makes me think like this even better because to me, that makes it like stick out in my brain more.
I'm like, yeah, that's iconic. That's what you call it, like iconic pop culture history. So yeah, like multiple months without uploading on YouTube, which, like the way social media works, or at least worked, was if you weren't uploading for months and you came back and you uploaded something, if it didn't bang immediately.
You're done, right, So this week, yeah.
And it didn't so like the first like it up, I uploaded it and it was just like Okay, everyone's crickets, like, well what did you do? Like why did you do this? And then like after I think maybe three months, it started to pick up. And now I think the Privittle Liars series is at fifteen million views. The first part of Glee is nearly at four million views.
Yeah, so it took three months to watch and notate and script and edit like at the same time, and.
Then shoot it. There's a costume you have, like all those little things you're putting for like best songs and moments and things like you have a whole board. I've got the board here. It's like the Serial Killer board but for pop culture.
Oh my god. Okay, so when this is only my old apartments, I've moved apartments tragically. But when I was in my old apartment, I had a rent inspection and I didn't tell them what I did for my work. So I had this like Glee board as soon as you walk in the door, and then I had this privile lines like murder wall, and then like the lady goes through and she comes back, She's like like what what is this? Like do you have? Like what do we am I supposed to like tell someone about this. I'm like, oh no, it's fine, Like, it's definitely fine. It's just like what I do for work. And she's like, oh, it's like it's public, you can watch it.
It's fine.
Yeah, But I'm just like, if I was her and I saw that, I would also be like, what is this? Like what is happening here?
You need to get him out of here?
At least I wasn't drilling holes in the walls, so she can't complain, Right, That's.
True, Sonna, you're very extensive whiteboard.
Yeah, you're just making people happy. You're providing great entertainment.
So true. And I should have told her that and they should have given me a rent reduction for that. You are culture. So you did pretty little Liars and then you did Glee. Ye in between that time of deciding that you were going to do Glee. I know you said it in your script in your video, but like, was it that easy to just be like, well, I think it's Glee next?
Or was this more? Were there other shows in contention to be the second one that you did?
So I have a list of shows that I sort of have ready to start working on at any moment, but I kind of wait until I start saying like a little bit of track action all that particular show and Glee is an interesting one because Glee never leaves the social lexicon ever. I'm sure you would know about that, but it's just like always there's always clips sliding around, always like moments trending on Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, everything, so like it's always there. But then I think the reason why I picked it over, say, gossip Girl, because gosp Girl was the other one I was going to do at that point in time, was so I watched the pilot of both of them, and then I was like, oh, the Glee pilot is just like probably one of my favorite episodes of TV ever. Yeah, so I have to talk about Glee. So then I started watching season one again.
I was like, oh, yeah, absolutely, and then by season four you're like, oh man, why did I do this?
Okay, well, so I did season one to three together, right, and I was like, this is so good, like I'm loving it and everyone's like hell yeah. But then like people come up to me on the stream and be like, I loved your Glee season one to three video. That's where I stopped. I can't remember happened in season four, five, six, and I was like, it did happen in season right, but then when I watched it, I remembered it all. But it's some kind of like I don't know what, like a Mendela effect where everyone's like they go to New York and then they're like, what happens next? Yeah, so season one, two and three, I was like all the things that I could really remember really well, and then four five and six was almost like I was watching the show for the first time again, which was fun.
So that's what we've been saying, and we're really like personally very excited to get to four five and six because zero recollection. I have no idea that we were there and we don't remember, so Lord knows.
Yeah, it all turns into one really long episode.
Do you think of it in plot lines or do you think of it in like I was doing this on this day, Da da da da da uh Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, more memories based seasons because the plotlines were so inconsistent, as you know, and there were just so many turns of different relationships and yeah, there was not a very streamlined thing for our characters at least, and so it's hard to kind of keep track that way.
Especially specific things that happen in order.
Yeah, I mean like yeah, seasons wise, it makes sense, like the first one obviously within the baby and you know the whole Shelby that it's those season arcs are able to We're able to track better or like by the prom right you're like, oh that year was that prom yeah? Or that Christmas episode? We don't speak of a Christmas episodes in front of you though, Can we talk about that?
No, we're going so it's going so well. We didn't have to bring that up so early.
Why did you have to say something like.
Can we have a question that I have a controversial question? Okay, you cannot like the Christmas epens. I'm totally I'm bored with that. Do you not like the Christmas music?
Okay? So I have a complicated relationship with Christmas music in general.
Okay, fair enough, fair enough.
My mom runs Michael Bubley into the ground. So like when it's Christmas time, it is all I used to hear was Michael Bible and I'd be like, okay, this, I've had enough.
I hate sweet, sultry melodic voices. It would seem.
So so then I immediately was like, oh my god, Christmas music. But then Christmas TV it used to shit me to no end. So be like on Pretty Little Lives when they do it on Glee, when they do it, I'd be like, oh my god, Like I think it was because like Christmas in the States is snowy, right, yes, and it could not be the absolute opposite, like it's forty degrees yeah right right, that is hot. So when I'm watching these Christmas episodes, I can't relate, Like you guys are like singing in the snow and I'm like, oh, like I'm sweating to death here, So maybe that's fly. But yeah, the Christmas episodes just to know, but that's more fun to film because they're like conceptual.
Yeah, and that way. Yeah, the conceptual episodes were fun just because it was something different. I think being inside of it, I like the Christmas episodes, maybe because I'm biased towards like our arrangements of the songs, but I do agree with you. Generally, when shows have a Christmas episode, I hate it because like I want something that contributes to the overall like plot of the show, and these Christmas episodes are always like a weird one off and take you out. Yeah, Like I don't need that this is not the same world that we've been living in.
To me, the one exception is Gossip Girl Thanksgiving episodes. It's like, that's just like when they're like there's always like a dinner party, and they're always like the culmination of the plot point and it all comes out like at a dinner party. To me, that's like excellent because I'm like, cool, it's a themed episode, but also it's relevant to what we just went through in the plot, Whereas sometimes, as you said, with the Christmas episode, it'll just be like the like most drama happens, and then suddenly it's like la la la Christmas and then the next episode is back to like being with the drama.
And Thanksgiving also is not what Christmas is, so like the whole episode is not like everyone's getting to a meal, right, And that's basically it as opposed to every single scene being dressed up like something Christmas related and talking about Christmas something related. So Christmas is overwhelming. It's another character.
Yeah, well, I mean one Christmas episode, I'd be like okay, but then it's like a multiple Christmas episodes one perst season. I'm like, we've done Christmas, Like let mo on.
I do have to say it's also weird filming Christmas episodes because you're obviously filming it way in advance of Christmas. Yeah, and we're all get you in the mood, and it doesn't get cold in La, so like we're wearing all these like big well I was wearing these sweaters and big puffy coats and love to sweat up. Oh my god, I smelled so bad every day.
Est. Do you have any of this?
I do? Yeah?
Which one? Did you keep? The dinosaur one?
No, I have like a like a bird, there's like a and then I have like a Yeah, I kept some of the more expensive ones, right as you should. Well, there's one I've tried to wear out in public, but it is just on wool, and I feel like heat stroke every time.
I never cold enough to wear for forever.
Do you keep any of your like Tina clothes? You know?
I did, and then I got rid of them over time, I think. But I do have a T shirt of Tina's that's like it looks like the colonial kind of uniform from back in the day, but it's just a T shirt, so it's just a graphic.
And then it must be season one then, because I think.
Yes, totally, totally, and then I did have some of her jewelry I was able to keep from season one, the long like chains with the little lockets on them and things like that.
So I loved Tina's sort of like costume progression.
Oh yeah, it's definitely the most interesting out of I think all the characters, like Tina actually had a whole journey.
Oh yeah, sometimes more if you were given a picture of Tina, you'd be like, oh, this was around this time.
Yeah, I think it's interesting because the characters had something like that. No, besides the but she cuts a.
Hippy or the cheerios exactly, it's haircuts too. I know, like if I have bangs. I'm in season four three four h no four, it was four or five that I had season right right, And then yes, Tina's outfits were actually at one point, I remember being in this like lace corset top that was like up to my neck, and I'm thinking, something has to change if we're going to be in this for six years. And that's when I started wearing the black dresses. It was a white lace like coarsity long sleeve top with a brown belt, and I was wearing a red lip, and I remember I had like all the stewelry, and I thought, I can't sustain that. This is not sustainable.
Change.
Yes, we went with little black dresses for a while before she got into her color block moment. Yes I love those. Yes, yes, she's really coming into her own man anyway, But it's enough about Tina, and there's.
Never enough about Tina. As we've learned from watching the show. There's never enough.
Wow, Absolutely, I think I in my Glee recap, I was like digging into the show multiple times. I was like, and then we have Tina's one plot line from season one. But then that's what I liked about four, five, and six. There was so many more Tina and Artie plot lines. Yes, I guess because a lot of the main characters had left the school.
Try the show got bad because there was more of us.
Well.
I actually a question about that, because when I was watching season one and season two, I thought everyone was the same age, like everyone was in the same year group. Then in season three suddenly it's like, oh, half the cohort is graduating, the other half is in the year below. When you were filming, did you know from the start that they weren't in the same year group.
Now we didn't know into the audience, now I knew it, okay, Yeah.
Because the writers realized, oh crap, we can't have everybody going to New York and we don't want to lose everybody, so we're just gonna have to keep people behind.
Yeah. Yeah, Like when the end of season two, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Rachel starts talking about graduating next year, and that's when we were like, oh, who else we're all graduating? Do we have jobs? What's happening? Yeah? And so then it's slowly because I know Ian Brennan, who is one of the writers and creator, he was saying he was trying to avoid doing that from the beginning, to just sort of keep it as like you don't really know where they are, yeah, so you can't place them, but somebody committed to something.
And then well, the issue is our regionals are and the nationals every year were time stamped, and so in order to go through a competition cycle every year, we were being time stamped, and so that was I think that's why FT us up with the with the ages.
But it's okay, I think there was a specific point. I'm trying to remember both its in season two or three. I think maybe at the start of season three when some of you are all like you're in a home ic class together mm hmm, and I think it's Mercedes, Tina, and Ardie and you're all in the same class. And then like the later on, it's like Mercedes is graduating, but both of you aren't. And I'm like, then, why are you in the same home ed class, Like what's going on? Where's the consistency? This is great.
We need all these notes from you because we just finished season two. We're about to start season three, so having these sort of things to look forward to. Of those things, okay, we'll hear a list.
Oh my god, I have like a full on list here, Like it's serious.
I bet, I bet you have a list.
Of course, you've come prepared.
The first thing I wrote down when I was thinking of like season two moments, because I know you just finished season two, right, yeah, yes.
I would like to know your thoughts in season two. Well.
Of course, the most important thing to me from season two is when Sue punches the announcer and then it's never brought up ever again. Be on that one second scene and that like that is my favorite thing. I think probably a badly because it's like they announced new directions as like I think it was they did the directions win something.
Yeah, they beat her team.
Yes, that's right. And then like she just runs over and knocks out this old lady like full on king here, and everyone's like, oh, and then that's it.
That's it.
Never got no repercussion.
We had that reaction too. I had zero recollection of that happening. And like the suit as crazy shit every episode almost right where you're used to like, oh, push an old lady down the stairs. Fine, cool, that happened, and I literally gasped, and then the episode ended. Wait a second, we're not nobody needs to talk about okay, cool, keep it moving.
Like I loved that there was so much going on that they can just be like, we don't need to talk about it, we don't need to talk about it. And then I've also got my headband and classic the Barber Streisand when Kurt's trying to inspire Rachel and then she's like did you bring Barbra Streisand and then no, this is a mall in Ohio.
This is very funny the writing.
The writing is so excellent and like there's like witty kind of jokes. I just love them so much. Then there was the episode nineteen revealed that Lord Tubbington smokes, Yeah, and they can eat cheese because he's on Atkins.
Yeah.
The specificity of these notes, I I appreciate it.
Oh yeah, there's like very fine detail. Then there was obviously the entire Brittany episode of Britney Brittany.
Yes, because you talk about that, how you love those sort of like when we do a themed episode, not Christmas, but with about an artist that those episodes were always very good or just wild. The audience liked them.
Yeah, I think because they continued the plot, but then they also themed, so there'll be multiple songs from an artist, but then it's somehow done that each song is still relevant to the plot. Yeah, a different part of the plot. Which it's interesting to me because do you know if the plots came first or the music came first, like we usually the plots.
Usually the plots, with the exception of some songs I'm sure because of Ryan right.
Usually, but those episodes I don't know.
Though, Oh, I see what you're saying.
The episodes. Yeah, I think the theme episodes, it might have been like.
Well, we have to do these, right, yeah, and then no, you're right, Kevin, You're right.
I think it's probably a mix of those, a mix of both for the themed episodes, because it's sort of like, here are the ten songs, how can we make some of these fit? And then like, oh, actually that one would be better now that you have a plot sort of loosely formed around some of these other songs.
And what about for like newer music, like, for example, the episode from season four which is about like applause and raw that came out pretty soon after those songs came out, So yeah, you would have to have been working on that the second those songs came out. Yeah, So then yea, our turnaround was tight. We were yeah shooting I mean three weeks after we would wrap an episode it was on TV, So it could be.
Somewhat, I think, yeah, somewhat. I think ours is a little tighter because our episodes were so jam packed full of stuff, it took us longer to shoot it.
Sometimes the shooting to air is similar on other TV shows, but what's not as similar as well? I can't speak for the shows. But for Glee, it was like sometimes they were writing the episode while we were sure heated, and so it was in real time almost because they were so backed up because the three creators were writing from season one to three, just three of them wrote all those scripts. It was like, there's only so much that they could manufacture in that short amount of time. So sometimes they were writing as they went and so that's probably why some of these hits.
And I also think that labels at that point were also like pitching the singles by some of these artists to Ryan Badan so interesting, so they would get to hear some of these songs before they came out.
Yes, was that fun?
Oh yeah?
I'm like, did you get to hear them?
No? Ryan would tell us. He'd be like, I heard this, sir, I heard the new Gaga.
Spare listen please.
Yeah, literally cornering them in the like fake McKinley high, always being like, so what did it sound like?
What's the second singles? Yes? Yes, so what do you have a recap that you're going to do next?
So I'm doing Gossip Girl at the moment. I'm up to season three and I'm also lost. I'm up to season two are you doing simultaneously?
Yeah, that's a wild you were You're chaotic, that's crazy.
Your brain is a crazy place.
I since I started doing the recaps, like so much has changed, just in terms of like YouTube and like I nearly had a million subscribers, which is so insanely to me because I never would have thought that I would ever get to that point.
It is hard to do that. Congrats on building amazing, thank you, thank you.
But then I'm also trying to pivot into like writing writing, so I'm like working on like scripts while I'm doing these, and I'm like, I don't know how much more time I have to do these kind of deep dives. So I'm like, while I still have the time, I'm doing my favorite shows. So I have gossip Girl, Lost, and then Desperate Housewives.
Oh my god, last time. I have some thoughts on Oh.
Yeah, I feel free to talk about it.
I love it. Do you think? I'm also wondering if you doing this for Lost will help everyone else figure out what happened?
I think so, but I think we've lost. There's like a misconception of the ending. People think the ending is one thing, but that is not what happened like they're in purgatory. I'm like, no, they're absolutely not right. Because a lot of people didn't watch the ending. Then the reporting around the ending was that it was purgatory and it was bad. So then everyone just assumes that's what happened.
Right, that's why you're on the case.
Yeah, so someone has to talk about it.
Has helped to inform your writing super helpfully.
I definitely definitely think so, because at least when I'm writing like pros or writing plot lines, I feel like I have strong plot lines because I've analyzed so much media now that I know what I like in terms of plot lines and arcs and pacing and that kind of thing. The trickiest thing for me is dialogue, which is why I think I liked Glee so much, is because the dialogue is so fast and it's so Yeah, it's silly, but it's also believable because sometimes when I watch something and be like, I would never say something like that, right, yeah, But then in Glee it's silly enough that if you ever get a point where it's like I wouldn't say that, what's like the show is so silly, like the point that they even talking about doesn't even make sense. Yeah, So then I think that's That's one of the things that I've try to include in my writing is like if I'm being silly, then I'm being silly and I'm leaning into it, or if I'm trying to be serious than trying to make the dialogue as believable as possible.
Yeah, I think like the genre helps with that. Like, I think Glee gets away with a lot of that because it's satire and so these characters can say crazy as things can get away with them, right, Yeah, because they're also like funny and witty. Because when you have a show that's supposed to be like real life and super normal and then somebody says, like that's not how people talk, no exactly, they like I would never say that, but like Glee, nobody's really talking like how these people talk.
So it's like caricatures of people almost.
Yeah, right exactly.
When I was talking about Glee dialogue, there was something in season three that I wanted to point out. Yes, let's talk about season three. I can get us excited. I've got like a full list, but I'm going to pick this specific one. Can you watch it too?
After?
Absolutely? Yeah? So Ross Washington, one of my favorite characters in Glee, comes in in season three and her lines I think my favorite because she says to Sue, You're not going to give birth to a child. You're going to give birth to a Grandchild's like, Sue, you are old as a hill. That's like one of my favorite like dishes. I was like, you are old as a hill.
I think we used that, Like I remember us like line.
Yeah, wasn't Leaks? Oh she was? Are you kidding me?
It was so weird and surreal, like in all the best ways because she was so cool. Yeah she should have, but it was just exactly how you'd want her to be.
Yeah, character like I have a gold medal in individual synchronized swimming, Like.
What that's all Ian Brennant.
So like it's just so funny and smart.
Yeah, and I also love that they gave her like when Ryan comes and like presents an idea to us, and it's like, Nini Leaks is going to be on the show, Like what do you say? Okay?
Yeah, shes awesome, right, okay?
Acted, and she had all of the well also like you got to act to be on Housewives, Like it's a whole but then they gave her monologues like they would give Naya or they would give Jane, and she's saying this crazy ship and she's nailing it so good Brian's delivery.
Yes, I wish the more Housewives crossover somehow.
And then then we get really crazy.
It's like, I like any kind of Housewives crossover, like the Lady Gaga g u I film, when the real Housewives at Beverly Hills are just randomly in the music video Love that, Love Love Love That.
That is like culture on Cultures Castle.
And it's like being able. If you know all the layers, you're.
Like, yeah, yes, exactly.
Spending so much time watching TV and media has led to this point and I feel justified that I know all these people. So okay. My season three list of points to keep an eye out for. First one is Quinn's pink hair era.
Yes.
When I wrote my script, I called this her edgy skater of pink hair, computer science, costsport, a pro arca enjoyer era, and I loved that. I thought she was slaying in every sense the word.
Yes.
Then we have Sue running for Congress on the anti arts platform to destroy the Glee.
Club destroy the Glee Club.
Little did she know the entire Republican Party would also take up her platform.
Because obviously they would destroy destroy. I just like the delivery, so good, and then the Trouble Turnes. Now love the Troublees. We love justice for trouble Tes. Absolutely. I could talk about Trouble Turnes for hours. The Candy Man, Oh my god.
We also Sugar Mater soon, Oh my.
God, I love I love Sugar was my favorite new character.
In season three, Yes, definitely, because.
Who else we have? We had Rory Flanagan, Oh sweet, and then Joe comes in in the second half of season three, and then we just the best, Like I wish we had more Sugar in the show always.
I don't think they realized I was like a gigantic fan of Vanessa Lenji's who plays show, because I grew up watching the show called American Dreams. And she was like the best friend. Yes, and she said, I did not I know she was cast in Glee and you are gagged, fully starstruck, and then she comes in. I'm just We're on stage like in the auditorium, and I'm like, oh my god, and I remember some of the other people being like, who is this? Who is this new person? Like, not another one? We already have Cord and Darren. Can we just like stop it? And then I was like, it's Vaness.
I give her so many props for coming in and doing that audition for a Yeah, the bad edition in the choir room, Like that must have been so hard with how like the success of the show and then having to come in and act a complete ass like she. I mean, she she doesn't care because that's who she is. She's so good, uninhibited, but she also.
Made us have to raise our game because she is so committed, like she's an actor like she and the rest. You know, you get comfy third season, you're like coasting, like I played this character now for forty four episodes whatever, and she comes to You're like, oh shit, she's doing a job.
We gotta strap it up.
Yeah, that's so iconic. I just I remember like when she first came in and the outfits, I feel like, sort of like Tina's outfits. How that was sort of like you could pick a sugar outfit. And I love that. I love when characters have that sort.
Of reable style distinguishable Yeah, exactly.
And then also her lines were like they kind of feel like a precursor to Scream Queens. Oh yeah, Like I feel like she would do well in Scream Queens.
Totally, totally, totally.
Because she was this marriage almost between like the severity of a Sue Santana and the obliviousness.
Of Brittany, like Brittany yeah, yes, yeah.
Like a Chanelle Oberlin esque yes sort of character.
Totally.
No, that's a very good point. Very so loved her, loved the trouble tones. Then, so there was another line that I had to point out here. So this is when Sue pivots her standing to not only cut arts, but to put spending towards special education, and she says, I think that may be a better use of school funds than flying the glee club to New York without a set list, only to lose at National's with the song they made up the night before, which that completely encompassed all the issues that I had with the end of season two. Yeah, because I got so shitty when they're just like, we're in New York and we're writing songs, I'm like, what do you mean you're writing songs? You should have the songs down, you should be practicing you should be ready weeks ago.
Yeah, still get no.
She was just like, not only am I going to fly these kids there, they're going to have to do it because I get other dreams. I'm going to go sing on a stage like.
What like don't piss me off full Shooster. And then like there was I think it was end of season yeah, end of season two where he's like, we're gonna do what got the Glee Club to this point talking about getting to regionals to add to Nationals, and he's like, which is singing original songs? Like when have you sung an original song before? Like two episodes ago? Like that's not what got you to Nationals? Like do what you know best? Guys, like get it together, do some journey, yeah, literally, do some journey. Just the timeline. I was like, I think season three is when I realized the timeline means nothing easily. This is so lost. Season four like you're doing sideways time jumps like nothing matters.
Yeah. I think once you realize, you're like we have to write twenty two episodes all right, yeah fuck it?
Yeah, or just like even oh my god, it's all coming back to it now. So season two, when in the finale, the new directions come twelve, yeah, and then like we didn't qualify for the next round. But then in season three at Nationals, it's just suddenly like, oh, we're at Nationals and we won. Yeah, and it's like, what happened to the round?
Don't do ask questions? What are you? You know better than to do that?
Okay, So I have a question for you. Okay, when you were watching the show and based on everything that your evaluation, now, when do you think glee Club takes place? Is it during school? After school?
Oh? My god? Okay, I have thoughts on this. So, like this is one of my issues. When I'm watching a school based show, I'm like, when are you doing the school? Like when are you doing the classes? So in my head when I was watching, I was like, Okay, glee Club happens after school. But then the plot points they'll be at glee Club and then they'll go to the criteria and.
Have lunch and then like bell will ring, the.
Bell will ring. I'm like, where are you going? Like what is happening? Where are you going? So I was like, okay, cool, So then maybe glee club is like a class during the day. So then I'm like, is that like a free period or it's like an assigned period in their like timetable to be like I've got a glee club now, and then if that's the case, what about the other kids who aren't in glee do they get this kind of like I'm going to glee club? Like, yeah, what do you think I think it's I thought it was after school because like the points in season I think season one, when they're in glee club and then they're singing in the hallways and the hallways are quiet, so I'm like, it's after school. But then in season two, in season three, they're singing in the hallways and people are there.
And I'm like, it's also confusing because people quit glee club, so if it were a class, you couldn't just.
It's kind of quite like Italian class.
Right exactly. But then they'll talk about it like it's an elective and they you know, they've moved their schedule, Like, doesn't Finn say something about it, Kevin.
Yeah, there's football practice that has to happen at the same time as glee club, but football practice obviously does not happen during school hours.
After school, Yeah, I don't know this. It is very confusing and contradictory.
I think, well, Jenna asked Ian because we thought this would be like, okay the official opinion like from the horse's mouth, and Ian said it was during school, but okay, there's just so much evidence against it. Yeah, so I I think it's both where there's also you know, so many people that watch the show were also like you have to suspend disbelief, like it's happening in an alternate time zone, like who.
Knows, right, I don't know, Kevin, I don't know.
But then also like if it was happening during school, that would make sense for season one and two, but not for season three when they in different year groups, like they would not be free at the same time.
Yeah, totally right. Well, I'm thinking too about like when we were filming it, they would set it up like actually was a class in school because the class starting, you'd have like background actors in the hallway. Then once the class started they'd go.
Away, right, But also like then why do we need funding, Like if we're not an extra curricular, like we wouldn't need funding if it was a class in school.
That's a good point, and that's always such an issue in the plot.
No money, Well, no club is happening in school hours.
Club are as is what we're arguing here.
Glee class. It has to be the club for sure, the club. I think, like, wait, were you in the equivalent of glee club when you were in high school?
Yes, m not that, but it was after school. It was at five pm. Who I did.
I was, so I was the opposite. So when we're talking about me being the opposite of a morning person, so what used to happen was my mom was a school teacher and I would go to school with her, and my high school was like near the primary school that she taught at. But then I went get to school at seven am, so I'd be at school at seven am just like doing she just walking around going to the library watching lust. I used to watch the library before school.
Oh my gosh, oh, oh my gosh.
What I used to do? Oh you and all your friends?
Yeah, watching that. But then if I could have, if I could sing, I would one would have joined. But then also I went to an all boys' school. So then when Dalton Academy pops me, like oh my god, they were like, this is Dalton Academy. Everyone is so nice, and even the people who are like a little bit like whoa Like they're like enjoying the like club and everyone's like, we respect you and you're so good at singing and we love that. And I'm like, no, that could not be further for the truth, that is not the experience I had at all.
That's I mean watching this from Australia and watching the high school experience that Glee is portraying, and then also Dalton, how far off is that from what you've experienced so far?
Like so so so far, Like even just the cafeteria, like we don't have that, Like we don't have like a cafeteria in that sense. It's like anything like that would just like take me out, like the seasons when we're talking about to Christmas episodes would just take me out. But then in terms of actual school stuff, like my school that I went to was so sports sports, sports, sports, sport, and then Nicky showed interest in anything besides sports, like you're weird, weird? Am I going to come after you? So then when Dalton comes in, they're like, we love the arts. I'm like, what is this haven? Like based off of right.
Ryan Murphy's dreams of what he wishes school would be.
Like, well, it's like when I would watch movies in like when I was you know, in the nineties, when I was a kid, and all the high schools would be outside, Like it was so cool to me because I grew up on the East Coast from New York, where yeah, I have that because there's winter, so like all these really cool fancy schools were like all the hallways are outside, and you're like, this is like this is my dream, but it's very Hollywood.
Oh yeah, California. Yeah, when I moved to LA and went to high school, like what is this? Why walking outside?
I love it.
I'm like, first of all, it could rain, which it didn't, and I'm used to being under like berated by fluorescent lighting for.
Eight hours a day. Exactly.
Very strange when you say it outside, do you mean the hallways is like sprawling?
Yeah, and the hallways were exterior, so like they come out of your classroom and you're like technically outside it's like a court.
That's very Australian.
Really, I've watched several Australian teen shows and they you look for me similar.
Wait what what Australian teen shows.
I used to watch this one about I don't remember the names of any of them. I think it was like Ballet Dancers. It was like probably early two thousands.
What about like H two O just dead Water the one I I remember.
I watched a couple episodes of that one and that's enough of that. Yeah, that wasn't for me, but I'm like the Dancers. Yes, I'll watch this because definitely gay characters in this age who I just said water as well? I mean they have mermaids inherently exactly.
I mean the Australian TV I feel like, has had a couple of wins recently in terms of high school content. There's like Heartbreak high Heartbreak is great, just like take is that? Has that taken off in the States.
I think it did well, you guys, but it did really well. Yeah rightly, Yeah that's high school. Yeah, there was an original heartbreak. It's sort of like what happened with Degrassi, Like they brought it back.
Yeah, I mean they brought it back. They brought it back, Like are they going to bring Lee back? They need to bring Lee back?
Who knows?
I know, right, write down.
Some plot points that I would include if I was writing, you're.
The same amount for free, I don't know.
Okay, give us one, give us one.
So this one is topical because I brought this up in an interview with Choice of Art and he was like, this is so random. So the song Rush, I would say that rush would happen when the floor gets cleaned and then the fumes are too strong and they hallucinate and they sing. That's very I mean, it's reminiscent of a puppet master correct, So it's referential, but it's also current certainly.
And also references the Brittany episode with the the g and then the episode.
With the nothing.
I like it, and I'm nothing if not referential. And the show is Dance Academy, the one I used to.
Watch, Yes, okay, okay before we let you go, because we could do this for hours.
We're going to have to have you back there, by the way, when we do more.
Absolutely, I feel so much to say you don't have a choice. I know you have.
You are literally more information than us, so you should be doing our podcast. What was your favorite song? Episode and season?
My god, my god, my god? Okay song episode and season? All right, look at my notes, Look at my notes. Looking notes song, episode and season. Well, I have a playlist which is called the Mike's Mike Lee Experience. Okay, I love it, and I have all my favorite songs on there, okay, and these are all from season one to three, so give us. So I'm picking like some favorites from this. Actually I have one that I know you're going to be like, what, like, why is this one of your favorites? But it's that I love New York, New York, New York.
Oh my god.
Yeah, that is just the next question.
Why we just talked about this.
I think it's because Rachel has this like culmination and of getting to New York, and we know this like one of the things of her characters, like she has to get to New York and then she's in New York but everyone else is also there and then they're singing and the like running up the stairs and stuff, and it's just like it's perfect, and I'm like, it makes me so happy because it's like.
The number is like the context of it, like the actual watching the number important to agree with that, Okay, Okay, but.
Then that's very important if we're taking context out. Yeah, then cell blocked tango. Oh yeah, I love cell Block Tango that I.
Need that one in a while. I loved reporting that one.
And like the delivery on that it is so important, Like.
I showed up and watched them do that and that ship was that was fun so good.
That was really fun. I can't wait for that one.
Yeah, I think season that's season three. Yeah, yeah, so that's the song. Okay, episode love the Britney Britney one. I think episode eighteen of season three and episode twenty one of season three. So eighteen is the NADA Auditions, Okay, when Rachel chokes and I loved that. I thought that was really interesting writing.
Yep.
And then episode twenty one is Nationals with Lindsay Lohan.
Oh my god, we have so many stories season three.
Like I'm so excited for you guys to cover season three because like season three is just like bang bang after.
I'm so excited to talk to you after season three again to be like you were right.
I mean, also, kudos to you for for tracking Glee because there are just so many damn characters. I was watching your recap today like a little bit, and I was just like, like, your board was full with just people. It wasn't even like the other stuff that you do, it's.
Just take characters out. So it's like because like if I take a character out, then it's like a line won't make sense. Right, It's like a lot of the characters pop up for one thing, and then they just disappear, and they pop up seasons later, and.
So many characters disappear out of thin air.
Yeah, and then in four, five and sixty you have the full new suite, But then all the other characters are still like they'll randomly pop up. It's like, why is Holly Holiday back?
Like that kind of a right, you're right, April Roads comes back, everybody comes back. You're so right, We're sorry. And then and then season what's your favorite season?
Okay, so I really thought hard about this, and it's a really tough question for me because there's episodes in season one, two, and three that I'm like, these are excellent. I mean, what the favorite episode?
Thing?
Like, I have to include the pilot. I think the pilot is possibly my favorite episode of the season, of the of the series. It's just so well done. But then season one, the budget wasn't high enough. Season two it's going.
To be two or three. Wow, this has made me very excited.
Yeah, yeah, okay, We're definitely gonna have move back at the end of three when we're done, because it'll be fresh in our minds. We'll have seen it for the first time all of I don't have a look to say, you will and I can't wait for your your evaluation in season three.
Thank you so so much for getting up early to talk about this the best.
It was so nice chatting with you. You're the best and ready.
To seize the day.
If you don't subscribe, you have to go subscribe to everyone. Where to find you?
You can find me at Mike's Mike, m I K s Space, m I C on YouTube, or just Michael Messenia, which is my full name, full name reveal that's on Instagram.
Great, amazing, I mean, I can't wait. I can't wait for Gossip Girl and Lost.
Thank you, good luck. Really yeah, that one was really taken out of me, but I appreciate it. I appreciate this God, thank you, Thank you. No worries.
Uh well, there's not much more to say. No, we got schooled. But he's amazing. It is so much fun.
We now have a rotating guest host.
Correct, We have somebody who can just tell us like it is after each season.
If Ian, Brad and Ryan don't answer our texts about questions for the show, we can just ask him a thousand person right, Yes, yeah, he knows everything. He will know, he has notes on it. Yeah. Thank you again Mike for joining us, Thank you everyone for listening. Go like and subscribe to his YouTube channel because he's absolutely brilliant.
That's what you really missed, Oky.
Bye, thanks for listening, and follow us on Instagram at and that's what you really miss pod. Make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. See you next time,
