Ep. 42: Carmen Sandiego

Summary

Dust off your spy gear because this week, the ladies are in the studio to review the animated children’s show Carmen Sandiego, a reboot of the franchise that should have Gen Xers and Millennials nostalgic for their childhoods. The newest iteration of Carmen is as mysterious and exciting as ever, but she has turned over a new leaf. With the help of her trusty sidekicks, she travels the world foiling high dollar criminal capers and donates the funds to noble causes. 

Laura and Kara start the show off with a Rockapella-esque rendition of the new theme song. 

Kara vaguely remembers playing the 1985 video game that kicked off the franchise, but does not recall the show. Laura’s feelings about the franchise were mostly about Carmen herself, as she spent her childhood in awe of Carmen’s vibe.  What sticks around is the educational value of the show, with viewers being exposed to various fun facts while accompanying Carmen on her missions across the globe.

We all know that Kara loves a well-selected cast, and this series delivers. Gina Rodriguez as Carmen and Finn Wolfhard as techie Player lead an impressive group of talent that is full of heavy hitters.  Laura aptly describes Finn Wolfhard’s breakout show Stranger Things as Spooky Goonies. 

They both appreciate the pettiness and selfishness of the thieves on the show, and considering the lack of self-awareness from today’s elite, this tip of the cap doesn’t go unnoticed. 

POTENTIAL ISSUES:

Violence, criminal behavior, and impulsive behavior. 

Some cultural issues, as the voice actors sometimes aren’t the race they represent on the show.

SHOULD THEY WATCH IT:

Kara: Enthusiastic Yes

Laura: Yesss

SIDE CONVERSATIONS

 Choo Choo! The Wordle train is coming back into the station. The New York Times seems to make it more difficult, even if they claim it isn’t intentional. 

If one word isn’t enough, try octordle. For the Swifties out there, try Taylor Swift-heardle. 

The ladies review a Buzzfeed article about the creepiest things that parents have heard their children say, and talk about creepy things their kids have said.  

Have any creepy stories about your kids? Tell us about them on Facebook or Instagram and we’ll share them on our next show! 

If you enjoy this podcast, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review on your favorite platform. 

Follow us on Instagram and check us out at shouldtheywatchit.com.

Transcript

Kara Edwards: 0:00

The views and opinions expressed by their should they watch a podcast are those of two moms who happen to be a registered play therapist and a voice actor for cartoons. So while they may feel their opinions come from a knowledgeable place, they are still in fact just opinions. Should they watch it? A podcast that takes the task of reviewing your kid's favorite shows up your to do list? Hi, and welcome to this should they watch a podcast? I'm Cara Edward and I'm Laura Orr Are you excited about today?

Laura Orr: 0:29

Am I hope you

Kara Edwards: 0:30

are did you bring your trench coat and hat?

Laura Orr: 0:33

Can I just say that I wanted to have a red trench coat after?

Kara Edwards: 0:38

I want one too now she's

Laura Orr: 0:40

so fancy so

Kara Edwards: 0:42

b&c. Oh fancy I guess we should just dive right into the song right so we were in the world is Carmen Sandiego.

Laura Orr: 0:55

Diego that was that's a good song. It's

Kara Edwards: 1:00

a catchy little song Michael and I were walking around singing it all day.

Laura Orr: 1:04

It is super catchy. Do you know the any of the older songs any older versions of this?

Kara Edwards: 1:10

Not at the top of my head, but I know I would have heard them. Yeah,

Laura Orr: 1:13

it's it's competing against a really good one. Because the song that sticks in my head was done by an acapella group. And hey, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? You go? Where? In the world?

Kara Edwards: 1:27

And I do remember that.

Laura Orr: 1:29

That's a good one. I don't know from what show game or whatever. Because the franchise is

Kara Edwards: 1:35

huge, huge and been around literally since I was a child. Yeah,

Laura Orr: 1:39

totally. It's, it's, it's a big one. And so I I'm excited to dive in with you. But first Yeah,

Kara Edwards: 1:46

how're you doing? I'm doing so good. How are you doing?

Laura Orr: 1:51

I'm good. I'm glued to my phone. Um, yeah, of course. Well, everyone knows about Wordle right? Uh huh. But does anyone know about

Kara Edwards: 1:59

quartal? No, no more? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Do you know Michael would say right now? Nope.

Laura Orr: 2:04

No. No, no. Kirtle is four different wordles at once. Oh, what? Yes.

Kara Edwards: 2:15

Okay, I actually could be in for this. Is this an app that you have to download? Or is it online like Wordle? Google like

Laura Orr: 2:20

girl, okay, Bri and hurdle for different at once for 2k. And so you put one word in and then it's applied to all four of the of the words of the potential words. If you like that, Kara, can I also introduce you to AAC turtle?

Kara Edwards: 2:38

Oh, come on. It's eight.

Laura Orr: 2:40

I mean, I hope it totally is. Eight at once. Okay, and same premise. Also, if you are a Taylor Swift Fan, there is also with turtle.

Kara Edwards: 2:55

Is it a turtle, turtle turtle? Oh, my goodness.

Laura Orr: 3:00

You're more interested in the indie version for Weezer, called weasel? Because you can play that one too. Yes, ma'am. What? Yep. Wordle has gone rogue. And it is just creating many versions of itself. And I'm sure as we speak, there are some I have not mentioned.

Kara Edwards: 3:19

Okay, but is it Wordle that is creating all of these Or is everybody just everyone's taking the popularity of Wordle creating their own thing that somehow doesn't violate a copy? And then going from there?

Laura Orr: 3:33

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that that's probably what it is. And I'm here for it.

Kara Edwards: 3:38

I mean, it's fun. So Zach, and I've been super into Wordle ever since you turned us on to it. And we just we it's not. It's just like friendly competition. It's not an actual competition. It's just like, Okay, what did it take you today?

Laura Orr: 3:54

How many turns did it take for you? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Kara Edwards: 3:57

It gets Zach did get one in one in one word, like he did do where the first word he chose was the right word. And I made him put it on social media. Because I was like, I think you're not allowed to do that and not post it to social media.

Laura Orr: 4:10

That's definitely something to brag about.

Kara Edwards: 4:12

What was the what was the one I don't remember? But it was a word. But he did it.

Laura Orr: 4:16

I did about did you? I have done that yet. It felt pretty good. But now I've made it to where I have specific words that I tend to use all the time. Yeah, I do.

Kara Edwards: 4:26

The same thing is I have like one word. Yeah. That I'm use every single time as my first word. Your starter where you get your starter word. Are you allowed to say it's a

Laura Orr: 4:35

very personal choice. And actually, my starter word I think might is one of those. You know how like there's like a list of words that that make people cringe over Yeah. One of my starter

Kara Edwards: 4:47

you have a cringy starter word. Yeah.

Laura Orr: 4:49

I can't help it though. It's very helpful. It's a very useful one. I'll tell you mine. It's fine. I'll be vulnerable with you.

Kara Edwards: 4:55

Okay, then I'll do the same. Okay, cool. It's

Laura Orr: 4:57

yeast. because it's got the A's EAD S T and the y that's actually just spelled it. Yeah, out of turn. But yeah, I the all I mean, a lot of times those are the those are

Kara Edwards: 5:12

your right. No, those are the most of I use Train, train. Same. It has a lot of the like letters in there that might show up.

Laura Orr: 5:19

If you need a word with multiple vowels, I think Yeah.

Kara Edwards: 5:24

I mean, it hasn't been serving me very well lately, but

Laura Orr: 5:26

I'm training about it. Yeah. Have you thought of moving on?

Kara Edwards: 5:29

I mean, at this point, I'm kind of in it. Yeah. Yeah.

Laura Orr: 5:33

Mm hmm. Even though it's not giving you maybe a fight

Kara Edwards: 5:36

battle or it or it'll or I October or October or it'll,

Laura Orr: 5:42

you might move on, I

Kara Edwards: 5:43

move on to something different. I don't know.

Laura Orr: 5:45

Sometimes when you when you just aren't getting anything back. It's time to walk away you know, and move on to something that's more serving for you.

Kara Edwards: 5:55

Wait to turn Wordle into a life less like big life lesson.

Laura Orr: 5:59

Sometimes. I like to think of myself as a walking fortune cookie.

Kara Edwards: 6:02

I manner. This is amazing.

Laura Orr: 6:04

I mean, if you need any lucky numbers anyways, so I

Kara Edwards: 6:07

found an article that that has nothing to do with anything we were just talking about. Is really find us like is there any way for me to segue into this? And it's not it's a smooth segue, Kara? I

Laura Orr: 6:21

love it. times we're just bouncy like

Kara Edwards: 6:26

the way it is this week. Off we go bounce around. Yeah. So I found an article about creepy things that parents have heard their children say they're very young children. Yeah, right. caught my attention. Definitely

Laura Orr: 6:42

creepy things that parents have said heard their kids say

Kara Edwards: 6:45

yes. Okay. I like so like, here's what my daughter at four was looking out the window and asked, Where are all those people walking to? I turned to look and she was pointing to an empty cemetery.

Laura Orr: 6:58

Oh. Oh, no. So she was seeing all the ghosts that were in the cemetery.

Kara Edwards: 7:08

Super creepy. Weird when my son was around four or five, he said, Do you remember back when I was big in your little and we used to eat lunch by the river. He's named after my grandfather who used to take me to the river for picnics.

Laura Orr: 7:22

Oh, no know the

Kara Edwards: 7:27

that like a whole bunch of them. I found this article that's like, just store yet. My child was about five. And when I was dropping her off at daycare, she grabbed my face with both hands and said, Mama, be careful. With a very serious face. I got into a car accident about 10 minutes later.

Laura Orr: 7:43

Oh my gosh. Sorry, if I just yelled that as you know why, though. Like, I have heard tons of stories, both online and from friends that that are about either psychic children or are about like their kids discussing past lives. Really? Like the one that you just said about the big kid who Yeah, named after? Yes. Did Daphne ever do anything? Like Daphne never talks about her past life? Oops. But she she She's more of a psychic child. I actually do have a really weird story that Daphne, about Daphne when she was psychic with me. Okay,

Kara Edwards: 8:28

sorry. You keep moving the mic. I'm sorry. Well, we'll let you get comfortable.

Laura Orr: 8:34

I got really excited. Yeah, dig in. I'm such a I'm such a beginner. I just keep kicking mics anyways. Okay, so here's my story. So Daphne, she came up to me one day, I want to say she was probably three. And she said she wanted to go see baby Henry. Okay. i There was no baby Henry in our lives. And so I told her that I said, we don't know a baby Henry, honey. And she was like, No, I want to go play with baby Henry. I said, there's no baby Henry. She's like, okay, whatever. Literally, like maybe two days later, my neighbor texts me tells me that she's pregnant that they're having a boy and that they're naming him Henry. Oh.

Kara Edwards: 9:14

Oh, that's creepy. Yeah.

Laura Orr: 9:16

And there are some people who believe that kids before the age of six, they just have like insight

Kara Edwards: 9:27

to like the other world. Michael used to always talk about his other mom who lived up by the moon. Oh, yeah. And he talked about how he first grew and her belly until she like, put him in mind. But that that was his real mom, his first real mom and he talked about that until he was like four. And then he just stopped talking about it.

Laura Orr: 9:49

I'm telling you past life, Michael. Yeah. It's so crazy. That is so interesting. I mean, I have a friend who told us that her daughter said to her and that she was like, I just can't believe that you were chosen to be my mom. When I was looking at all of the families. I was really surprised that you were the one that was chosen to be my mom. Oh, wow, I was born. Yeah. So yeah, kids are creepy man. Kids

Kara Edwards: 10:17

are super creepy. But the only time I remember Michael actually totally scaring the crap out of me was he was at the time he was going to school at our local zoo. He was in a Wild Earth, preschool. And so all nature based very much in like education about animals and whatever. I had put him to sleep in his own bed. And then I was going to sleep and I was like, right in that, like, you know, right before you fall asleep, where you're still kind of half in the real world and half in your dream world. Yeah. And all of a sudden, I just hear this little child's voice say, If you scare a vulture, it vomits because he had just learned it at school and it woke him up because he was thinking about how you just learned that yeah, if a vulture gets scared of bomb and so he came up and whispered in my ear, literally scared the it's a good thing. I was not a vulture that day because I thrown up all over Michael.

Laura Orr: 11:15

Moon baby Michael.

Kara Edwards: 11:17

mumbling creepy just scared me to death.

Laura Orr: 11:20

Was he awake? Yeah, he's

Kara Edwards: 11:21

totally awake. He just he woke up and was like, I'm thinking about this thing I learned at school and he wanted to come tell me but I didn't hear him come in. He just said it like right next to my ear. And I did just like how did he feel about your reaction is just I mean, it just was like, why are you freaking out? This is like good information.

Laura Orr: 11:42

Like I know right?

Kara Edwards: 11:46

There's like a ton of articles about like, all the I mean, it also you can even go on like Twitter and Google this stuff. Because there's tons of parents talking about what are you doing to the microphone? I just can't get comfortable.

Laura Orr: 12:02

I can't get comfortable. I'm sorry. Okay, I'll read two more. Yeah, read some more.

Kara Edwards: 12:07

My son was four when he asked how do I know I am who I am. I don't understand who I am. I know my name. But how did I get this body? Oh, super creepy.

Laura Orr: 12:18

He like came out of his a mental coma. Right?

Kara Edwards: 12:22

I heard someone tell a story about how her daughter was born really close to the anniversary of the Titanic, while giving her a bath around like three she said, I was in water like this one. So it was really cold and I couldn't keep swimming. Oh.

Laura Orr: 12:39

That's so much trauma to like, so many of these stories are like, kind of traumatic, right?

Kara Edwards: 12:44

It's crazy. This one I'm reading is actually it's on Buzzfeed. And there's like there's like 40 of them on here. So you could like deep dive and find all the creepy things. I'd be interested if anyone listening has had their child say the creepy stuff.

Laura Orr: 12:57

I'm sure the answer is yes. Yeah. It's

Kara Edwards: 12:59

kind of a thing, right?

Laura Orr: 13:00

I think so. I've Leila has been saying some weird stuff about she gets really scared by the video, the law this lava video, so it's, um,

Kara Edwards: 13:15

is it that TV show larb? No, that's wrong. The one that we hate me.

Laura Orr: 13:20

I know. It's terrifying. No, it's this. It's okay. So it's a video about and it's I think it's Disney and it's set to music. And it's about the two volcanoes one is underground and one is

Kara Edwards: 13:31

again and they fall in love. Oh, yeah. No, Michael used to love watching that playlist terrifying, sweet girl. And I'm like, How are you terrified?

Laura Orr: 13:40

This is so soothing. And she gets really freaked out by the fact that there's a mama volcano underwater. And so she'll say like, the mom is underwater and then today she was but she keeps talking about it. Oh, so we don't bring it up and we don't show it to her but she keeps saying the mom is underwater. Mom is underwater and then today she was saying Leila is underwater. Oh no. So I'm now I'm wondering am I triggering her past life trauma?

Kara Edwards: 14:09

Oh no. To be determined to be determined. I

Laura Orr: 14:13

will let you know. It's all in this

Kara Edwards: 14:16

water safety. Okay.

Laura Orr: 14:19

Teach your kids to read guys are read read No sweat, teach and read. Read those warning signs. Reading is important. Yeah, gotta read the signs at the beach and all other warning signs it's important to know how to read

Kara Edwards: 14:33

that actually has been fun now that Michael is like reading reading he does point out every single warning sign everywhere we go and is like Okay, mom. Today's warning is Yeah, stop. Look both ways. Yeah. It's really funny now that we're here. He is definitely the safety police but only because he likes to show off that he can read every single sign.

Laura Orr: 14:57

Has he seen there's a sign on Colorado. Are sorry i One of the streets that we drive down frequently. And it's a squirrel crossing sign. Apparently the squirrels are walking on wires. And I guess maybe you're getting zapped or something falling in the road, but it's a warning sign that squirrels are crossing on wire. Oh, that is weird and kind of see

Kara Edwards: 15:20

that you should show it to him. I will and then be like, What do you think that one means?

Laura Orr: 15:26

That's what's also fun is sometimes the signs are so open to interpretation. I mean, they leave they mean something very specific. But

Kara Edwards: 15:33

yeah, the illustrations can be like, What What are we watching out for here?

Laura Orr: 15:38

I don't know what that is. What is that thing?

Kara Edwards: 15:40

Fascinating. All right. Well, so bringing that up. You're welcome. I'm interested in other people's stories. Creepy kids. Even kids are great. Yeah.

Laura Orr: 15:50

And you know what else is great? Carmen saying? Yeah,

Kara Edwards: 15:54

go here. We are on our

Laura Orr: 15:56

second game today. bounce around like a trampoline or we're just bouncing around. Okay, here. I'm gonna ask you for it. All right. Should they watch it?

Kara Edwards: 16:07

I'm an enthusiastic. Yes. Oh, I am.

Laura Orr: 16:11

I am gastic Yes, I

Kara Edwards: 16:12

am. All right, Laura. Should they watch it?

Laura Orr: 16:15

I'm gonna say yes. Okay. You heard it. We're finally waiting. Yes.

Kara Edwards: 16:21

It's so nice to like things again.

Laura Orr: 16:25

Two weeks in a row, baby. It's highly rated on IMDb to so I guess a lot of people are really liking it. Um, I can just jump into the premise. Yeah, tell everyone when it's about Alright everyone, let's follow Carmen Sandiego as she travels the world stopping the evil organization vile from stealing precious resources, artifacts, etc. from various locations around the globe. All will all while avoiding detection from Interpol and Acme, which stands for the agency to classify and monitor evil doers. In this series, Carmen Sandiego was a thief who only steals from other thieves. And the money she steals goes directly to a nonprofit. But that wasn't always her history. This is a huge franchise, like Kara said dating back to the 80s. The franchise started off as a video game in 85. With Carmen actually is the villain who founded the organization vile, right, which is not the case and the new show. Vile by the way, stands for villains International League of Evil even since then, there have been many games and TV shows one of them being a game show with Kid contestants called Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, which is the show I was most familiar with as a kid. Okay. There's also where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego. And Where on earth is Carmen Sandiego? All of the shows were created in the 90s. Now we have Carmen Sandiego, where many of the characters return the same characters, but the rules are very different. So Kara, what is your relationship with this franchise?

Kara Edwards: 18:02

I remember being in school and playing the video game. Okay, I remember it was a computer game. back then. I don't have as big of a memory as my husband did. He was like, Oh, I vividly remember playing it. And then the mom that I walked to school to and from school with, she vividly remembered playing the game I don't remember vividly. I just remember it being something that we did. In it being like a way to learn geography. Yeah. And then my memory was yes, Carmen Sandiego was more. Yeah, she was a thief, whereas they really make her the good guy in this series. Yeah, in this newest series. But I don't remember the other cartoons so much. Or the game show I vaguely remember the game show.

Laura Orr: 18:48

The game show is all I really remember as well. I didn't watch the show growing up. I did read somewhere that the two twins that her or her sidekicks on the new show were actually in the previous shows. Or at least one of them and they were trying to chase her down. Oh, that's a big spin this time. Yeah, but I didn't watch much of it growing up but I always remember loving her current Yeah, I wasn't so much interested in the shows itself as I was interested in her. So this is probably actually like one of my first peeks into like, being interested in the celebrity of a character or a person or whatever because I just felt like she was a very magnetic character. Yeah,

Kara Edwards: 19:33

love her aesthetic has always been really good from the beginning is with this you know, red trench coat, the Red Hat the you know, this beautiful woman with red hair. So she's always been intriguing always on the move. Yeah, can't nail it down, which I in this new series. They really go like she's she's beautiful. And her voice she's voiced by I don't have the name written down of anime but from Jane the Virgin, the main the main actors from that TV show Gina Rodriguez. I believe you got

Laura Orr: 20:09

it right here.

Kara Edwards: 20:10

Hang on. Is Jane no Rodriguez?

Laura Orr: 20:15

Together? We've we made a correct answer.

Kara Edwards: 20:17

Yeah, we did. We got it. Yeah. And I mean, the cast in this is spectacular. It was fun when Zach and I were we watched as a family. And when Zach and I were watching, we both looked at each other at one point were like, I think this is a lot of our friends. Oh, really? And it turns out it was. We know a lot of the actors that are in this series from carry Walgren tap you, trot. I mean, my goodness, I can go there, Robbie. I mean, there's so many people that we know Dante Basco, you would know him from the Peter Pan from hook. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Who is actually the nicest guy on planet Earth. I've done conventions with him. I love hanging out with him. And same thing with Abby trot who voices IV. I just did a convention with her like a few months ago. Sorry, Walgren is a genius voice actor who has been in you pretty much hear her all the time. She's Tigris. She's incredible. I remember the first time I did a convention with her. It was I was feeling pretty darn good about myself and established at the time it was one of my first conventions and st for her. She was not new on the scene by any means. But to me, she was new and I was like, oh, Carrie, I can teach you if he thinks no, she's like a genius. I can't she's ridiculous. No, she she always told like the most amazing stories that's so

Laura Orr: 21:48

cool that you can that you know so many of them. Troy Baker, another

Kara Edwards: 21:51

I mean, literally, I can go on and on with this list of people that that we know so this is we

Laura Orr: 21:57

also need to mention Finn wolf hard as player who is in Stranger Things. So yeah, I like to call it spooky Goonies.

Kara Edwards: 22:06

Very much spooky Gurney well said. Yes. Yeah. And he's great. Like I made me he's actually who made me first go look at the voice cast. Because I was listening. I'm like, he is great. Yes, his acting in this because it's hard to take a character that doesn't do very much. He's literally a character that sits in his seat and hacks into stuff. And he makes the character so interesting.

Laura Orr: 22:28

He's one of my favorite characters on the show, honestly. Yeah, he does a really great job. And the show itself is chronological, but I didn't feel like I needed to follow it that way. I think I could have skipped a few episodes here and there, which I know that you did. I did

Kara Edwards: 22:45

that I saw I watched all of season one about half of season two and then I skipped through some of season three and then I went straight to the end of season four because I wanted to know how it ended before we did the podcast, right? I'm not gonna give any spoilers. I just wanted to see did they wrap it all up with a nice bow. This I found myself comparing this so much to Shira. Just because they're two really big epic shows with a lot of interesting characters and a female strong female lead. In in initially I went into this thinking this would be for the same age range as Shira. I feel that Shira, Shira was one you couldn't skip episodes or you are going to be lost. Because it was such a chronological story that was being told. I also feel like Shira dove into some really heavy topics, abusive relationships, parental abandonment and abuse, a lot of violence that went on and Shira, you didn't get that so much in in Carmen Sandiego. It was the violence was very mild. The storytelling was intriguing, but it wasn't like it just wasn't as dark.

Laura Orr: 24:04

I agree. Yeah, I agree. This is rated y seven. And I think that that's pretty appropriate. And I think for me, at least the Y seven of it is more because of the plot itself. Like you said, it's not as deep and dark and heavy as she wrote was, which I definitely think was for an older audience. Yeah. This one, I think it was more so for the sake of just understanding what's going on. That they would give it a y seven.

Kara Edwards: 24:35

I agree. And there was you know, one of the things that I really liked about Carmen Sandiego especially for watching it with Michael specifically. It was somehow educational is they would take the beginning of each episode to talk about where in the world is Carmen Sandiego. And they would give these interesting facts about the locations that she was in and even throughout the show they would find ways to like interspersed in like little bits of knowledge, which I felt like was a throwback to the game, because that game was to teach you geography and math and reading and different things. And they did find ways to work that in that I appreciated. I did

Laura Orr: 25:16

too is kind of my favorite part about it and yeah, definitely a woken my travel bug a little bit and no question watching them her sit in all these really cool places and and then talk about it. Yeah, in learning new things about the places she was at and culture

Kara Edwards: 25:34

and the people and

Laura Orr: 25:37

it was really cool. It made me want to travel immediately. Do you have any? Where would you go? If you could go anywhere? You know,

Kara Edwards: 25:45

it was always Italy, I was always just stuck. I haven't been to Italy yet. And so I was always like, I really want to go to Italy. But I think if I could go anywhere in the world right now, I would either be looking at Costa Rica or New Zealand, which I know are two very different locations. But those would be where, right? The second I could feel I could see myself being like, alright, and I've been to Australia, so I've been like, very close to New Zealand and I wish I'd just hopped over or Bali. Bali is another one that's always been on my list that I haven't made it to. Why do you pick those places? So we're kind of an adventure like, we're an adventurous family. We are like my husband and I we like to hike we like to be outdoors. And I've been to Costa Rica and oh my gosh, I loved it. He hasn't been yet. So I would love to take him in show Manuel Antonio, and all of the incredible places, the animals that you see out in the wild. Same thing with New Zealand. It's just I want to be able to hike through there and go see where they filmed the Hobbit and all that. Yeah, there's just in Bali as a place because I'm very, I like yoga like meditation. And I like a very spiritual thing. So Bali has always been one that was on my list. When I went to Australia. I gave my my I took my mom to Australia, I had a convention in Perth. And so I flew her out there with me and I was like, you can go anywhere Bali that you want to go Bali, if you'll just choose a place that you want to go besides Perth, you know, maybe Bali. And he chose Sydney. And I'm glad she did because it was fun to see Sydney but it was so hard for me to be that close to Bali and not just pop over.

Laura Orr: 27:20

Oh my gosh. Yeah. So that would be one where it'd be so fun. Where would you go? Japan?

Kara Edwards: 27:26

Oh, that's yeah, that would be a good one.

Laura Orr: 27:29

I definitely want to go there. The food and the culture idea would be it's just so different than you know what we have going on here. I think it'd be super fun to go check it out.

Kara Edwards: 27:38

That was always my complaint with going to Australia because it was it was 24 hours to Perth. She is how long it took to get there. And for me, it's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. I love Australia. But for me, it was like I kind of want to be on the moon. If I'm traveling. Like I need to land and something that's so different. Where I'm just jolted out of my reality. Yeah, and it goes over totally different. So.

Laura Orr: 28:08

And I think as parents, you hold yourself to a higher standard about where you're going to travel, because it's so limited now. Yeah, opportunities just don't come as often or as readily. And so I also feel that way of like, yeah, I could go to beautiful places like Mexico, for sure, absolutely to go there. But if I'm going to be on a flight for 24 hours, I do want to go to the moon.

Kara Edwards: 28:37

Yes, somewhere totally too. And the other thing I keep doing is I keep wanting the kids to get older, because I'm like I don't want to take because we have friends in Hong Kong, we could go visit visit which I'm dying to do. But I'm like, I don't want to go through the effort of getting to six year olds to Hong Kong who won't remember any of it. I want to give like give them a few more years so they can really like enjoy the experience. And yeah, yeah,

Laura Orr: 29:02

I hear you totally, I am really looking forward to the day when my my daughters are old enough to really get into that kind of stuff. I actually have an idea and I really hope that I follow through with it. I want when my kids turned 10 I want to kind of put in a rotation of travel to where one year Daphne picks where we get to go and she has to do like research and kind of nice planet as best as a 10 year old can do and then the next year, you know, maybe dad plans it and the mom plans it then Daphne plans it again. And then when Leila turns 10 She gets to jump in and okay so that they have at least a couple of years in their youth where they can take ownership of the plans that we make because we tried to go on a trip once a year and right now it's it is the most convenient places that we can go to. So you know obviously you know Disneyland or Disney We're all right. And then resorts, because it's just everything is there. And it's super easy, but I can't wait to kind of break out of that and do a little bit more exploring. Yeah, they gotta be older for that. Like you said, they're they don't care right now,

Kara Edwards: 30:13

they don't care. I mean, it's the same with us, like, we've been doing the big trips, but ours have always been like, we're going to Big Bend or we're going to New Mexico or, again, the things that are that you can jump in a car and load up a camper and go, yeah, yeah, is that eventually,

Laura Orr: 30:29

eventually we'll get there. We're just, we're at a stage of life where we can only travel with Carmen and brain,

Kara Edwards: 30:36

which just brings me to a question that I that bothers me so much about the show. And all of us talking about all of this travel with our families kind of ties in with this is who who is paying for Carmen Sandiego. I know we have player in there hacking through all the business to get her everywhere, but she's staying somewhere and somebody's paying for some extensive travel between private guides, airplanes, helicopters. somebody's buying those tools

Laura Orr: 31:07

that she hasn't really revealing. i My guess is she's getting it from vial, but she's not really revealing that,

Kara Edwards: 31:14

but how like, Okay, but how is it because they're not giving it to her. So that means players hacking in there to get this stuff, which then is stealing which in the entire series? She's going again?

Laura Orr: 31:24

Well, isn't she she's stealing from vile and she donates the funds, but she's stealing what they stole. But then she gets the money. And doesn't she wire like millions of dollars to a bunch of nonprofits and stuff like that. And she opens up education funds for

Kara Edwards: 31:40

COVID because she got paid. So she's paying herself too,

Laura Orr: 31:44

I think so she's

Kara Edwards: 31:45

just she would have to be because this is extending they definitely don't talk about this on the show. The whole time. I'm like, Who's paying for Carmen Sandiego such a good point and who's paying player because this takes a whole lot of his time to

Laura Orr: 32:00

I just have I really worry about players brain because he's just in front of a screen all day in science has told us that that's not good for kids brains. I was worried about player the whole time and you're making a good point, Kara. There are a lot of plot holes in this show. And that is one of them. Because I really only supposing that she is stealing from vial and using that money for her amazing wardrobe. But we really don't know.

Kara Edwards: 32:27

And like where like where suitcases because yeah, when she needed a formal gown it was like, you know, today no trench coat. Let me wear this gorgeous formal gown that I just happen to have in crimson red

Laura Orr: 32:39

out of thin air. Yeah, out of thin air. It happens. There are just a lot of like, that's not realistic. For example, when there is music, there's an episode where there's music playing and the music hypnotizes people to push a button that sends Yeah, good and outerspace. But it only hypnotizes certain people. Like some people hear it. And they're like that nothing the twins heard it. And they were not affected at all. And so the the doctor or the scientist was the scientist was totally hypnotized, standing right next to them. And then they were just like, yeah, I need to tie her up and put her in the closet. And I'm like, Well, what about you? What about you twins? Why are you being hypnotized? I don't know, plot holes so deep that we could make a swimming pool out

Kara Edwards: 33:30

of them. But it was fun that they use the play Carmen for Carmen Sandiego where there was a lot of the the play that they were playing at the the Opera House was Carmen.

Laura Orr: 33:44

What the play was called Carmen. Yes.

Kara Edwards: 33:47

How did you miss it? There was a whole plot point about it

Laura Orr: 33:50

right over the head. Yeah,

Kara Edwards: 33:52

it was it was Carmen. And it's a well known like operas, so when they would play the music. I love that. Yeah, yeah. And she wears red. She sure does in the play. Oh, okay. The opera. Well, yeah, current Carmen Sandiego wears red, but so does Carmen in the play.

Laura Orr: 34:09

You're having to really delicately these over to me, which means some of my questions may have been answered and I just was not I can get

Kara Edwards: 34:20

Mattis throw them at us. What are your questions? The ones

Laura Orr: 34:23

that I've said, Okay. Hold on everyone while we drink some more coffee. We'll be right back after this break. This is brought to you by LifeBoost coffee. No, it's not. But you know what I mean? That's been a three to one. The episodes are 30 minutes long, and you can stream them on Netflix exclusively. We already said that. It's rated TV, why seven,

Kara Edwards: 34:47

four seasons something interesting. So Rita Moreno is the voice of Carmen Sandiego. And Where on earth is Carmen Sandiego which was in 1994. She actually makes a guest voice appearance and this version as file bookkeeper cookie. Oh,

Laura Orr: 35:03

that's cool. Yeah.

Kara Edwards: 35:03

So there's little throwback there. And in seasons one and seasons two, the elevator music is the music from the original animated series of that. Yeah. So little IMDb trivia. Yeah, I

Laura Orr: 35:16

love it when they borrow from

Kara Edwards: 35:17

Yes. There were some little nods to the past as they went through

Laura Orr: 35:22

it the way that they presented it totally reminded me of how we learned about different parts of the world in school. Did like it's likely yeah, sometimes they just, you know, they'd be like the, the, you know, the state bird is really good. Their crop is really, you know, corn is the crop of the state. You know what I mean?

Kara Edwards: 35:42

Yeah, but if only we had this stranger things guys being the one teaching us because, like he he just has a cool way of presenting things. It's not annoying. I enjoyed watching this with Michael and I would be it would be fun to watch it with Remy as well.

Laura Orr: 35:59

Yeah, I did enjoy watching it and so did my oldest. She really enjoyed it, too. She's funny, though. So she really loves this show. But she did not want to watch it with me for the podcast. Oh, isn't that weird? I'd be like, hey, DAF. Can we watch? You know, Carmen Sandiego. We have to review it for the podcast. And she's already seen it and she was like, You know what, it's my turn to choose what we watch. So you can watch that when I go to bed.

Kara Edwards: 36:27

Oh, sassy pan USA.

Laura Orr: 36:30

okey okey dokey. dokie. And then she would watch it in the morning. Whatever. She's, she's, uh, we're at an age.

Kara Edwards: 36:36

Yeah, Michael got I will say this. He was super into season one as I started to kind of move on it. I think for him it got a little redundant. With okay, I get it. She's traveling to different places were fighting the evil empire. So he did kind of start drifting off a little bit which did not happen with Shira. I gotta tell you, we were both front and center and completely and sheer us so

Laura Orr: 37:01

yeah, I mean, every episode they they there is a part of every episode that is very streamlined. That is repetitive. Yeah, every episode, but then they have that stuff. But a lot.

Kara Edwards: 37:13

There is a whole thing going on. And especially as you get towards the end in season three and four and especially season four. There. Yeah, there's a whole lot that goes on. A lot of mysteries are solved. We learn a whole lot about Carmen Sandiego is passed, which I will also say I loved that they started the whole series. The first two episodes are like who is Carmen Sandiego. And they start from as a baby, so it doesn't just dive into we have to just believe that this person is who she is. They explain a lot about her which I appreciate.

Laura Orr: 37:43

Yeah, this is how she became who she is like that too, for sure. Um, there were some characters that I didn't really like. Okay, I thought the twins were kind of annoying with their with a really thick Boston accent. Oh, yeah. Anytime they said wicked hot, or what I was like, shut your mouth. And I didn't really care for the detective, the guy who's he

Kara Edwards: 38:05

was barely flinch.

Laura Orr: 38:06

Oh my god, I

Kara Edwards: 38:07

love the accents. This was a review that I read. And this is always gonna be hard for me as a voice actor to ever pan on someone else's choices. But I did read reviews that complained about that the accents were driving them nuts because they could tell they weren't authentic. Yeah. And that's that is a tricky thing. That would have still been happening quite a bit when this came out in 2018. I feel like only in the past two years have we become so much more cognizant of representation and making sure that we cast people who are actually those characters? Yeah. And so yeah, I don't know if the casting would be the same if they were casting

Laura Orr: 38:46

it today. It is a very diverse cast. But yeah, I do agree they would have probably made some different choices, if anything, just to make it less annoying, because when they do

Kara Edwards: 38:56

when they it didn't bother me as much. Oh, it's

Laura Orr: 38:59

for me. It was just if it had been somebody who did who had actually had, who actually was French, for example, right? Then maybe it wouldn't be so extreme to the extreme. It was that that character just bothered me in his like, inaptitude really? He did make him really dumb really dumb, really dumb. And

Kara Edwards: 39:24

it's like, how did you get to Interpol and end up being like this major detective if you're this dumb.

Laura Orr: 39:30

Exactly. I agree. That was annoying. And there's just things like that, that throughout the show. I was kind of like a rolling my eyes about that. There's really a lot of there are some corny moments and some slightly sub plot holes and characters that are really annoying to me. But I think that's a personal preference. As far as the appropriateness of the show, I didn't impact that part.

Kara Edwards: 39:52

And I just remembered swing it. Yeah, and it would all get really slick and sexy. She's great.

Laura Orr: 39:57

I think that's just to answer the question of what They're not parents will like it.

Kara Edwards: 40:01

Yeah, there could be some things that migrate definitely a show for kids.

Laura Orr: 40:05

I also loved how petty some of the criminals were in bio, like they were stealing important gold artifacts to like make cufflinks.

Kara Edwards: 40:16

Right. But some serious

Laura Orr: 40:20

and it reminded me of billionaires.

Kara Edwards: 40:23

Yeah, that it's like, I don't need the money. I don't need that. I just, it's just one of the it's like the competitiveness of it. I have this thing because I want to prove I can steal it. Yes. There was a lot of

Laura Orr: 40:37

that. Yeah, we're just so great. Because I think right now a lot of the Uber wealthy are being called out for their pettiness. Yeah, like building a penis shaped spaceship maybe. Or dismantling a historic bridge to fit your big stupid yacht through? Yeah. While all this is happening, we are watching these big dumb thieves just like be super, you know, petty with their time and resources. Uh huh. Yeah, it was really that was funny to me, just because of the timing of it all. I thought that was super clever.

Kara Edwards: 41:12

And I, I did wonder if, like, if any parents would be upset that they're, but I don't think it glorifies thievery, like I do think the original Carmen Sandiego did. But this really shows again, they make them really dumb. And really, like, not as likable. And then she's such a likable character, but she's on the side of good. Yeah,

Laura Orr: 41:35

I think as a parent, if you are okay with your child watching, like spy type movies, yeah, Ocean's 11 type movies, the smooth criminal with a hint of dumb, like you said, I think they'll be fine with this. Because there is like, some of the problematic things are like this moral ambiguity, and criminal behavior and things like that. But

Kara Edwards: 41:59

yeah, and you do have the relationship between Carmen Sandiego. And her suppose it parents or the family that she grew up with that raised her and not feeling totally connected, which we also saw that kind of dynamic and Shira, as well like being raised by the evil person. But I feel like it just went to such a darker place and Ciara of really having to deal with like the mental instability that it caused. Whereas in Carmen Sandiego, it's kind of like, I recognize that y'all are all cray cray, and I'm just gonna go ahead and Pisan out of that, do the right thing and be a good person, and then seek out who my parents actually are, which is what she does in the later seasons. And then finds the story of her origin of who her dad was who her mom was. And that's really that's a really interesting part of the entire series. Awesome.

Laura Orr: 42:52

Yeah, I actually do want to finish this series. It was super, it's

Kara Edwards: 42:56

good. It's good. Once you get to the ladder, I was like, Yeah, I could see us actually going back and filling in all the episodes together, because it was a lot of fun.

Laura Orr: 43:04

Something else that I thought was really fun that they were doing was was playing with the members of vial, like the Shadowman kind of moves around from being, you know, a villain to being good. And oh, actually, he was good. From the beginning. We just didn't, we just didn't see that side of him. Like, I guess it goes back to that moral ambiguity, where we also see coach as this motherly figure, but then she does really bad things. And so I liked how they played with that. And that's really, it was a really fun thing about the show for me to watch,

Kara Edwards: 43:42

which I should I'm gonna I might totally mess this up. And so like, if someone knows better than me, you can definitely call me out on this. But I do believe that coach is voiced by Mary Elizabeth Glen, who is it is a complete, ferocious, amazing, incredibly talented, beautiful voice actor in LA and I'm clicking to make sure I'm right about this. I do believe she was the director of Shira why I do believe I'm right about this. Hold on. I try like heck to click on it and make sure that I'm right

Laura Orr: 44:15

look into that. And while you do I will also want to make a recommendation that on Netflix there is also a choose your own adventure. Carmen Sandiego episode called to steal or not to steal, that. Kids can be interactive with where they grab the remote and they have to choose between two options. And then whatever choice they make kind of determines the trajectory of the rest of the show fun. Yes. And it's a really fun thing for the family to get involved with. So if you're looking to add another element of interactive, you know, opportunities, that's a good one for you to do. It was really fun. For us, I made the wrong choice. And so we had to start the whole thing over again, which was a huge inconvenience for my child, but you know, oh no, you know it's okay.

Kara Edwards: 45:04

Okay, I'm not crazy. I did find that Yeah. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn by the way has pretty much directed like all of our favorite shows she did direct Shira and the Princess of power she also directed let's see what it there's such a long list and here she did camp Cretaceous she did dogs in space.

Laura Orr: 45:23

Wow. Voice Director What is the voice director?

Kara Edwards: 45:26

So I mean, she directs the show she's directing the voice actors through the show. Oh, like Yeah, so she's she's helping guide their performances. She's your you are really as good as your director. That is a fact as a voice actor, you can come in with all the choices and decisions and lending your talents but it's really the director who understands the show the best and make sure that your performances are going along with the other actors performances. They they're the ones who really bring the show together. So I knew she was an amazing voice actor and I was like I'm I have not had the great fortune of working with her directly yet but she is

Laura Orr: 46:04

She also directed 10 gold, the the the series Okay, which is something that we let me I'm

Kara Edwards: 46:11

looking through her list now and it's ridiculous so amazing. So I am not surprised then that I kept that my brain keeps trying to tie the two between Carmen Sandiego and Shira together because yeah, they definitely have some connections there. Cool, baby.

Laura Orr: 46:26

Well, she's one of my favorite characters on the show. I was actually wishing that there was more of her

Kara Edwards: 46:31

she's great. I love the way she did her Texas accent and the baby honey though she she nails it.

Laura Orr: 46:38

She does. She does. It was good. It was a good one. I'm glad that we got to review this it was a breath of fresh air because I feel like we were wallowing in the swamp of infinite sadness for like a very long it feels good to be out.

Kara Edwards: 46:53

Somebody made some wishes. We're now back into the lie. We believe

Laura Orr: 46:58

we share do we have hope for the future? It's there's there are silver linings, and rainbows and coffee

Kara Edwards: 47:06

and coffee are gonna go and partake in more of that service. Please do let us know what you think of Carmen Sandiego. And up next,

Laura Orr: 47:17

we will be reviewing Gabby's dollhouse.

Kara Edwards: 47:19

Yeah, we will. I'm excited about this one because this is one of my kids favorite shows and I'm anxious to sit down and see if I agree. See if they get to keep watching. See if that dollhouse that I bought for Christmas was worth that. Oh my gosh, we got to pull a dollhouse to pull the dollhouse. We can't play it. Yeah, Michael just had to have it for Christmas and then never touched it again. So

Laura Orr: 47:45

it's so funny.

Kara Edwards: 47:46

Okay, we are gonna dig in. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Please reach out and follow us on Instagram and leave reviews by subscribing follow us on Instagram.