What's that? Zombie apocalypse you say? That's no match for our hosts, Princess and Tessa, as they tackle Resident Evil this week. They talk zombie survival, the new RE canon, and how to tame a zombie crocodile. And if that's not enough, Princess sits down with Ella Balinska who plays Jade Wesker to talk all things gaming and horror content.
CLIP: [00:00:02] Geeked.
PRINCESS [00:00:04] What's good? I am Princess Weekes.
TESSA: [00:00:07] And my name is Tessa Netting.
PRINCESS [00:00:09] And you are listening to the Geeked podcast. We're just two nerdy fandom chicks talking about the Netflix fandoms that we love from week to week.
TESSA: [00:00:20] Each week we're going to talk about what's popular in geek culture and deep dive into a Netflix world. And I cannot wait for our world this week. What is that world, Princess?
PRINCESS [00:00:30] Honey, we are talking Resident Evil. We're talking zombies. We're talking monsters. We're talking Lance Reddick. We're talking clones. Twins. Demon dogs. Oh, my.
TESSA: [00:00:41] Evil business lesbians. The best.
PRINCESS [00:00:45] Representation Matters.
TESSA: [00:00:47] It does. And I got to say that this show was so wild, I can't wait to talk about it. I got to say, this show really surprised me at first. It took me a little bit to get on board, but then once I was in it, it was go time baby.
PRINCESS [00:01:02] That is how you are once you're in you're in. And this week, for our lovely listeners and subscribers who remember to give us five stars on all your podcast apps, I got to sit down with Ella Belinska, who plays Jade Wearstler on the show and talk about her role. Everything it took to go into it. It was so awesome. She was so nice and charming and I cannot wait for all of you guys to get a little sample of how amazing Ella is.
TESSA: [00:01:29] I can't wait to listen. But First Princess, I got to know what has got you geeked this week.
PRINCESS [00:01:44] Okay, well, first of all, everyone should be playing Stray because you get to play as a cat and everyone has been taking tech talks of their cats responding to stray. And I will be joining this tik tok trend. I will make my my big reemergence back on to the tech talks with me trying to get Lola to interact with me while I play this game. But yeah, I want to play as a tiny cat. I don't know what the game is about, but I can play as a cat, so that's all that matters.
TESSA: [00:02:15] Can you design your own cat?
PRINCESS [00:02:17] I don't know. I hope so. I like I'm going in completely raw. Like I just download the file I was waiting till after I finished recording, but I am. I've been geeked about it since it was announced. And now I'm just ready to like. Because if the cat dies, I feel like I want to cry each time.
TESSA: [00:02:33] Oh, for sure. Because you are the cat.
PRINCESS [00:02:36] I'm going to be. It's going to be emotions. So I'm really excited about that. I've also.
TESSA: [00:02:42] The cat can't die. Does the cat die?
PRINCESS [00:02:44] I, I don't know. I don't.
TESSA: [00:02:46] Cat's have nine lives.
PRINCESS [00:02:48] Exactly. Like it's going to be liken Sifu like you just keep coming back as an older version of the same cat, which is until you can just perfectly live your life. I'm just. I have no idea what the game is about. I just. The hook had me.
TESSA: [00:03:02] No, it's. I can't wait. I want. Joe wants to play. And I was like absolutely.
PRINCESS [00:03:06] Absolutly - for four to play for you to watch. It's like, let me get my popcorn ready. It's cat time, right?
TESSA: [00:03:12] I'll get my cats, my two cats, and we'll sit and we'll watch this cat content.
PRINCESS [00:03:18] Exactly. It's interactive cat content. And then I've also been playing God of War 2018 because I'm getting ready for a God of War Ragnarok. And I just love that. It's really like father son adventure. It's like just daddy and little sad son. It's perfect. And then the final thing that's really got me geeked is YuYu Hakusho announcement that was in saying like YuYu Hkusho is one of the greatest Shonen animes and mangas of all time. The author's also married to this to the writer of Sailor Moon. So iconic OTP. I - I'm really excited to see what this look like because the actor who's playing Yusuke is gorgeous and perfect and I'm so happy about it and yeah, I love it. I want to see it. Spirit fingers in the truest way.
TESSA: [00:04:08] All the spirit fingers. Spirit Paws for Cats.
PRINCESS [00:04:12] Exactly.
TESSA: [00:04:13] Yeah. I can't. I cannot wait. For my Geeked brain. This week I was very, very interested in the different responses to Resident Evil.
PRINCESS [00:04:26] Oh, yeah.
TESSA: [00:04:26] A lot of people are loving it, and that makes my heart very, very happy. Joe is watching it currently and he is enjoying it very much and he like notice so many more like Resident Evil, like little Easter eggs that I did not because again, I just sort of watched over his shoulder. But as someone who played it, played it, he was like, oh, this, this is like the exact same death. Or This is something that's like big. It looks exactly like the game or This was a really cool callback or This was awesome. So I like, I love hearing from fans about certain things that make them happy, like when you can get a reference, right. I love that. So props to Resident Evil for doing that and props to them for creating this new story that's still set in the world. That's different enough that it's not just doing the same thing over and over and over again like that is that's ballsy. And I think that they it was a good move.
PRINCESS [00:05:27] I agree.
TESSA: [00:05:27] I love it. I love that. And another thing that I thought was like, Wild is the original music video for Kate Bush's running up that hill. It just surpassed 100 million views on YouTube.
PRINCESS [00:05:43] Isn't that amazing?
TESSA: [00:05:44] I know that I love. I know.
PRINCESS [00:05:47] But now it feels so good to be an alt girl right now because that's how I felt. I was just kind of like, yes, I'm seen. This is this is my existence. I felt so good for Kate Bush. I think this just like the one thing I love about the Internet is that it makes the idea of, like, generations of music obsolete. Like, you just listen to and like and I love that so many people are connecting to this song. And yeah, especially as for me, because my version, the first version of running up that hill I heard was the placebo version. So like, it's so fun for me to actually go back and listen to more of Kate Bush's version, which is very like, it makes me want to just dance on top of the ocean.
TESSA: [00:06:28] 100%. No, it's perfect. And I just love that that has become the song of the summer rather than some new song.
PRINCESS [00:06:36] Yeah, I got it right now. It's, like, upbeat, but so sad.
TESSA: [00:06:41] And it was like, we can relate. Yes. Yeah. Very relatable at the moment. I also heard a rumor and I don't know if this is going to get flagged or not.
PRINCESS [00:06:51] Alison?
TESSA: [00:06:51] I heard a rumor that more fear street films might be in the works getting made. Don't know if that's true or not. If it is, I'm pumped because I loved Fear Street so much. And I want more. Give me more. Because to me, especially the nineties like era of the fear street was perfect. Like, listen, I, I've had enough of all this Jen Gen-X stuff like, okay, we get it. Like the eighties are great and like, dads are still cool, like Cobra Kai. Top Gun. It's all just like your dad is still pretty cool, man. Like the eighties were rad. Like, you know, your dad can also still do this cool stuff. And, like, I love romanticizing that. And I think and especially with stranger things because it ties it has so many different eighties references, movies and otherwise that I just want more. Now it's time for nineties. I'm like, I want a nineties. Like all the nineties references. I want a show that sort of makes you feel like you're in the nineties and Fear Street did that pretty well, like they were, you know, the video store doing certain things and like the mall and everything. I was just like, Oh, I want more of this, please.
CLIP: [00:08:14] So yeah, that's what I want.
PRINCESS [00:08:16] No, I think that sounds like fun. Nostalgia is like both a blessing and a curse, but I'll always like the nineties were my era of cartoons. So like to me it'll just always like, you know, I used to like wake. I cannot wake up for the life of me these days. But in my youth, every day I had my natural alarm clock. I was obsessed. I want a clock because I had to get my Saturday morning cartoons because if I didn't know whata was going on with Yu-Gi-Oh? It's going to be a problem.
TESSA: [00:08:42] No, that was a whole that was our childhood. I like nostalgia when it comes to movies and TV shows, because I'm I'm not a very nostalgic person, like as a human. I just sort of like live. I'm like, that was a different time. I'm never like, Oh, if only I could get back to those days, like the good old days of whatever. But when I get to see it in some sort of like medium, I'm like, Oh, I remember, that's nice.
PRINCESS [00:09:11] So it is nice. It does make me realize that we should never throw out clothes because fashion is so cyclical. Like, I think about all the clothes that I had as a kid that I hated at the time and but now they're fashion again. I'm like, triggered so hard.
TESSA: [00:09:26] Oh yeah. All my butterfly clips I'm like, I should have kept those.
PRINCESS [00:09:30] Scrunchies, like, yeah, I got rid of those, but they're the big ones are coming back. Yeah. Jelly. Jelly shoes, slap bracelets.
TESSA: [00:09:38] Yes, I love those.
PRINCESS [00:09:40] And now jellies is like high end. The girls in the streets be in there I like, you know? And I'm, you know, Them shoes is comfortable, but don't step on the matches. Yeah, I remember. I remember having those incidents, but yeah, it's just been an interesting time. And I don't know about you, but it's one to go back to your point about Resident Evil, I love part of this gig is like we get this early, you know, ability to see these shows and so we're like constantly forming our opinions. So by the time that we hear everybody else's, it's like a totally different experience.
TESSA: [00:10:10] 100%, definitely.
PRINCESS [00:10:12] And I and I think that's actually what's fun is because like, we both have different opinions, we both are very opinionated. And so like between Resident Evil and Persuasion, it just has been really fun for me as a geek to see those different perspectives because like that to me is fun. Like when people are being shitty about it, like it is really fun to be like, Oh, I didn't like this, I did like this. This is why this is why I like I think those things are interesting and fun and everyone sees different things and like, I don't know, I just feel like what's really got me kicked is like hoping for the day that we can just all discuss something and disagree and just have fun with it.
TESSA: [00:10:53] I know, right? What a concept, what a cons just cannot happen on the internet for some reason. Like you either have to agree with someone completely or try to convince them. And it's like, why can't we disagree? Like what is wrong with that? Why can't you like different things? Ah.
PRINCESS [00:11:13] Ah. But you know, we're correct as always, so don't disagree with us. So let's actually talk more about Resident Evil.
TESSA: [00:11:22] And our correct thoughts on it.
PRINCESS [00:11:25] And I will say, like we we both went to levels with Resident Evil. We both come from different ways like.
TESSA: [00:11:31] It was a journey.
PRINCESS [00:11:32] And you know what? And if I only could.
TESSA: [00:11:36] We would make a deal with God.
PRINCESS [00:11:39] And get him to make good Internet discourse.
TESSA: [00:11:42] Truly, truly the one gift we're all waiting to one day receive. Okay, Princess, we are going to play a little game. And for today's game, it's all about apocalypses, baby. I have the feeling that it might happen. I'm just kidding. It's coming. I feel it. No.
PRINCESS [00:12:04] It is coming.
TESSA: [00:12:05] No. Don't want it. But if it did, how would we handle it? What would be our game plan? Would we have certain people with us? Do we have a weapon of choice like, Princess? What are you going to do in a zombie apocalypse? Or if it was the end of the world, I got to know because I would be helpless. So help me, please.
PRINCESS [00:12:28] Well, you're in luck, because when I was in college, back story time, when I was in college, I took a class called Our Monsters, Ourselves. And at the time, Max Brooks's World War Z had just come out. And one of our assignments was to discuss how would we survive in a zombie apocalypse? So here we go. The biggest mistake people make is like, you don't want to be in a basement. You don't want to be in anything where you can't see what's going on and where you're completely locked into an environment where you can't get resources unless you have miraculously enough oxygen and food and water to last the rest of your life when you're dealing against the undead. That's a waste of time. So you want something where you're not completely landlocked, so you have options by foot and by water to go. As for weapons, what we decided was the best choice is it's good to have one sort of like gun, you know, your shot guns, and that can really just scatter the brain in one shot. But for consistency, you want to have something like a machete so that you can use as a defensive and offensive weapon depending on what terrain is. You want to make sure that it won't get jammed, it won't misfire, and it can't be used against you by, you know, whatever evil human mobs appear. Got it. You want it for someone like me who can't drive? I learned how to ride a bike specifically because you want to be able to have one mode of transportation that you can use. I would say bike because cars are going to run out of gas is going to shut down.
TESSA: [00:13:56] I can't ride a bike.
PRINCESS [00:13:58] Oh, but you can drive.
TESSA: [00:14:01] Well, I can't. Okay, let me say I can ride a bike, but I hate riding a bike and I'm horrible at riding a bike. And I don't like whenever I'm on wheels. Like if I'm on a scooter, a bike and he sort of wheels, I fall, I dislocate parts of my body. It's not a good thing. But I feel like the car though, wouldn't help you. Really, because you're just going to get in traffic, right?
PRINCESS [00:14:25] Well, here's a- especialy in L.A. like imagine L.A. zombie traffic. We're all going to die.
TESSA: [00:14:29] Forget it.
PRINCESS [00:14:30] Yes, but you know what? I'll come and get you. Okay. I'll get. I'll help you get out. We'll figure out. We'll you'll learn how to bike on the run, you know, like we'll be training. Can you swim?
TESSA: [00:14:40] I can swim.
PRINCESS [00:14:41] Okay, I can't swim. So we'll just have to save each other.
TESSA: [00:14:44] Can zombies swim?
PRINCESS [00:14:45] Depends on the cannon. But the craziest thing is that the idea, like, not that zombies can even swim, but just that they could pile up so much in the water they create, like a zombie land bridge.
TESSA: [00:14:56] Forget it. Oh, my gosh.
PRINCESS [00:14:58] This is why islands are also not a nonstarter.
TESSA: [00:15:02] Oh, Lord. I didn't even think of that.
PRINCESS [00:15:05] I'm sorry, I had thought about this too much. Okay. And the final thing is, who do I want to take with me? Honestly, my bet. One of my best friends, Nina, she was in the National Guard. She knows how to use weapons and she knows how to use the crossbow and everything. So I had to collect her and my little goddaughter because she can also fire a bow and arrow. And I'm like, All right, we got our hunters. We got our gatherers. I'll get you. I'll save you and Joe. I'll take you in. My girlfriend can cook like anything and knows plants and foliage. So, like, she can be, like, the one to make sure that we don't like each and that will kill us.
TESSA: [00:15:39] That's helpful.
PRINCESS [00:15:40] And we're just Going to be nomadic as fuck. So basically, I'm ready.
TESSA: [00:15:44] You are ready. You are so prepared. I, I need to learn from you. And I'm going to take notes when I listen back to this, because that was so much information and is so helpful because I feel like I do not offer anything. The only thing that I offer is that I'm small so that I can like I can climb trees pretty well, but also I'm afraid of heights. So then it's like, that's pointless.
PRINCESS [00:16:06] Me too. I'm afraid of heights, too, right? You know what? You can be our thief. You can go. You can help us get into little spaces and unlock things.
TESSA: [00:16:15] I can do that.
PRINCESS [00:16:15] You can be a little thief. Yeah.
TESSA: [00:16:17] I'll learn how to pick locks.
PRINCESS [00:16:19] Yes. And you know what? In the future, we will need entertainers. So, like, once the dust settles,
TESSA: [00:16:24] I Can do that.
PRINCESS [00:16:24] We'll need someone to rebuild the arts so.
TESSA: [00:16:28] I can be the clown that can make jokes and keep it light and be like, It's okay, guys. I can be supportive. I don't really complain and I'm hard working, so I'll try at least. I'm pretty low maintenance, so I feel like I'd be a good addition, but there's not much that I can offer in terms of like, Oh, I'm really good at this out doors. Like, I hate being outside. So it's like I have to get over a lot of things I hate. I'm honestly pretty doomed. It's one of those things where it's like, if things did go haywire, I'd probably just, I don't know. Like, I would be like, okay, this is the end. Cool, cool. I try. I would try. I wouldn't give up. But I'm not expected to be like last man standing. Let's just say that. So.
PRINCESS [00:17:15] And honestly, I feel like you could thrive as a zombie. I feel like, you know, push comes to shove. It's like, you know, maybe you'll like you'll become a zombie queen by accident. Like, I'll be like. Like you'll have some remnants of your personality still left in the future zombie Society.
TESSA: [00:17:32] Princess. That's how we can rebuild. I'll go on the zombie side and I'll be like, Guys, listen, we can work with the humans. We don't have to eat them. We can figure this out. We can work together.
PRINCESS [00:17:45] It'll be our great social experiment. We're going to find a way to bring zombies and humans back together. We did it. Game one. We did.
PRINCESS [00:17:55] Game, set, match.
TESSA: [00:17:57] Amazing. Okay. So now I think we got to go into the show, go into Resident Evil. So this is a live action series based on the video game franchise. It's set in two distinct time periods, which I thought was kind of interesting. What did you think about that? Did you like that aspect of the show? Was it harder for you to sort of like get into the story or what did you think about that?
PRINCESS [00:18:28] I actually love that because this way you're not just getting overloaded with exposition all the time, like you're seeing how the characters got there without them, just monologuing. So I enjoyed watching like Jade and Billy's relationship develop as young people and like seeing where their bond came from and seeing sort of like the core of who they are and how the company, how umbrella was just slowly becoming more and more of this corporate overlord nightmare. And then you pivot to the zombie world, and then you're seeing that repercussion. You can get your action sequences. So I think it was a very good way of giving you the character building emotional elements that you can't really always do if you're doing with a straight zombie kill thing. Right. And then you also got to have your murder zombie kill thing. So I enjoyed it. What did you think of it?
TESSA: [00:19:17] At first it was a little hard for me to follow because I. I just kept getting confused about, like, okay, where are we? Who who is this? I guess the biggest question was like, why are they doing this? Like, what's the. I thought there was going to be some big point as to why they were doing it in two distinct time periods. And I guess they're kind of was because there were certain reveals or certain things that happened that because you kind of knew the back story and not only knew it, but saw it happen that it felt more meaningful because you eat like you've seen Jade and Billy's relationship. So you know that back story rather than just having Jade talk about her relationship with Billy. It was weird. I think at the beginning I preferred the like the kid storyline better. And then as the show went on, I actually liked the older one better, like the the adult storyline better. So it was interesting.
PRINCESS [00:20:17] For sure. I think that for me what I liked about the story with Jade and Billy was like, I love sister stuff, so I love the drama between them. And I think that seeing Billy, you know, spoilers for the series, I think seeing Billy get get bitten and knowing from then that there's going to be this point where she is being turned, but also she's alive in the future. And so, like, I just kept being like, well, like, what happened? Like, what's going on?
TESSA: [00:20:47] That shocked me. I thought she died.
PRINCESS [00:20:51] Yeah, it Was when I was like. Like your sister, and I'm like. But her sister got bit by a rabid dog with the T virus. So. So what's going on? But no, she's they're highlighted to the gods. So I was very like in confusion and I think because I wanted to kind of see how those two characters became separated, I kept following along with the story and with the future stuff. I think I first of all, I think that the humor, oddly enough, works like the episode where she goes to that woman who has her husband. handcuffed to the I was like, that's that's Tessa and Joe.
TESSA: [00:21:26] Oh, my gosh. With the cats. Oh, God. I was like, the cats are going to eat the zombie. There's too many cats around here. I was like, How are these cats not turned? They are well trained. My cats would eat me immediately if I was a zombie.
PRINCESS [00:21:43] Oh, Absolutely Lola. Lola, I hope you would eat me first, but I just love the humor in that. And I love the politicking of like and this one, Jade was like, we have to learn to live with the T virus. I'm like, What do you mean live with the T? Like you, just the whole idea. Like we got to live with Zombies, girl. Have you met him? Have you met people? So I just all those little elements of it just got me really interested in the world building of it. Like whenever they brought up, Oh, Raccoon City was a disaster. I'm like. What happened in raccoon city? You know? So like all those little nuggets of mythos and lore just kind of kept me going. But those are just my general thoughts. What about you? I want to hear your journey more because I think that was what was funny, getting your text of like, I don't know. Davey.
TESSA: [00:22:28] Yeah, this, this show was a little rough for me because like, it definitely took me a couple episodes to get into it because I had, I had something really specific in mind of what I wanted this show to be and what I sort of predicted just from the promo images that I've seen from the different trailers and things. So I had something in mind and this was not that. So that was hard for me because I was like, No, it should be this, it should be this. But that's not this show. What I was thinking was a completely different show, what I was thinking. Was something more of like a jump scared, dark, like horror. Mike Flanagan vibe. Like, that's what I thought this show was going to be. Because to me, that's that was like my biggest takeaway from watching Joe play the Resident Evil games is like, I would always be, like, scared that something was going to jump out at me. So that's just sort of what I thought this was going to happen. But instead they just took like little things from Resident Evil and then built this whole like, zombie show around that. And so once I took my preconceived ideas out of my head and just was like, You know what? I'm just going to watch this and see if I can get on board. Then I was on board.
PRINCESS [00:23:49] The nature of horror is so split. Like, it's very much like there is either the quote unquote prestige horror or it's like jump scares. And I feel like this show was an interesting mix of like Gore and family drama because so much of it is like that family drama between the daughters and their father. And so you have this very character driven thing. And also, as someone who's playing like a horror video game right now, it's very hard to translate that into a TV series. And I was thinking about like the Resident Evil Films is like they're all very much like to me, those films and the underworld films are like one universe, you know, just like just hot woman with swords cutting things up. And it's like, but I know in the games they have like all of these characters that people really care about and all these kind of things. It's like you have to find a way to build those character journeys differently. And I think that this show mostly gets it done right. I think that because the girls are separated for so much in the adult portion, it kind of like wanting a little bit more. But I remember the moment that really made me go like, Oh shit, was when the spider attacked that family and. Like put it and it cuts them in half. I was like, Oh, shit. I was like this shit is very scary. Yeah. Any time there was an animal, just like nothing makes me more like. Than, like, small, cute pets banging into glass and bleeding. Nothing makes me more like.
TESSA: [00:25:35] God. I know there are so many. And that big worm thing, I was like, What is it? All these big, scary worms? I was like, Hello, Dune. Like what? We're just bringing back the big worms.
PRINCESS [00:25:46] At least there were no zombie. bees like that.
TESSA: [00:25:49] I was waiting. I was like, Where are the bees, Netflix. Give me the bees.
PRINCESS [00:25:54] Where are the bees?
TESSA: [00:25:57] My one of my favorite moments was actually towards the beginning when they were trapped in umbrella, like with like the red lighting, like the creepy bear singing or whatever, like the zombie dog. Like to me, that moment that felt like Resident Evil, I was like, whoa, like, this is this is wild and scary and vibey and creepy. And I loved it. I just whenever they brought out that, like, red color palette, I was like, Yes, let's stay here. Let's stay in this.
PRINCESS [00:26:31] Yeah. I definitely feel like those moments and a lot of the like chasing aspects in the future are are for the fans of the game that really want that. I feel. I would love to ask the writers why they wanted to do this more personal family. I think it works really well, but I do think that if you're coming into a resident evil experience, you're expecting it to be like zombie fighting, active, right? You know, active protagonist, active work and like even Jade herself. She's not like a warrior. Like she's trying to like science-y do things. So it's like it's an interesting pivot, just character building wise for what a viewer would expect from this sort of IP.
TESSA: [00:27:13] Totally. And that's, I think why it took me a little bit to get into it. But I did like those moments I really liked whenever they were shooting with like a handheld camera, like that felt real to me. I was like, Oh, damn. Like, This is scary. This is scaring me. But I have to say, though, my favorite character was evil.
CLIP: [00:27:34] That's why you put me in charge.
TESSA: [00:27:36] Like that. Evil? Yes. Evil. Lesbian.
PRINCESS [00:27:40] Lesbian. I was like, yes, just what? She's just like, you can buy happiness if you can bottle it. I'm like, there's a powerful woman. Her brows. pantsuits.
TESSA: [00:27:52] Oh, yeah.
PRINCESS [00:27:53] Also her wife- her wife looks like exactly like you. Same bangs. I was like-
TESSA: [00:28:00] It was perfect. She was perfect to me. I was like, oh, this is every I loved her because.
PRINCESS [00:28:05] I when she saw her own son.
TESSA: [00:28:07] Yes. I was like, oh, my God, could not believe it. Because I was a little bummed that Wesker wasn't that evil at first, because.
PRINCESS [00:28:17] Yeah.
TESSA: [00:28:17] I thought this guy was supposed to be the bad guy. This guy doesn't seem bad. I was like, this evil, powerful lesbian woman is like my favorite bad guy. So I was like, So what's this guy doing? Turns out he's a clone.
CLIP: [00:28:29] Or he's a vampire. He's totally a vampire.
PRINCESS [00:28:32] There it is. And I love that, too, because I feel like that actor, like I feel like he is like he's been in so much stuff. Lance Reddick, he I've met him. I met him once when he was doing a tour for the third John Wick film. He's fantastic. You know, he is he can be both kind and threatening, like I love when he was talking to the principal, like, well, your daughter hit my daughter twice. And he's like, you know, how many people can do my job?
CLIP: [00:29:06] One? Me.
PRINCESS [00:29:09] That means I work too much. I was like, That's right. Black Dad. Tell them stop messing with your baby. I was living for it. And I feel like one day I feel like he is going to make that villain pivot because that says the character. Right. But it makes me excited for that because I'm like, he can do it. He's been in so many things.
TESSA: [00:29:27] I was waiting for it. I'm surprised that they didn't do it. I guess they're waiting because I was like, When's it happening? When's Daddy going to turn evil?
CLIP: [00:29:35] The guy who wears socks to the beach, who talks about escape rooms for hours, and his password to everything, is Spock 21. He was scary.
TESSA: [00:29:44] Also, the show made me realize that drones are just going to kill us all in the end because that.
PRINCESS [00:29:49] Oh absolutely.
TESSA: [00:29:51] Moment was terrifying. Okay. Great. So I know the world is going to end. Love that. Love that for us.
PRINCESS [00:29:57] If there was ever a perfect scene to be like, why? The military industrial complex is bad. That should be like exhibit exhibit 5000. Just like you see that? That's. That's what that's going to be us if we keep playing these reindeer games.
TESSA: [00:30:12] God. God, do not like that. A thing that I did like is when they had a big red button, and then she pushed it like, that's the best.
PRINCESS [00:30:22] What is this button do? Your inner Deedee came out just like, yeah, I was.
TESSA: [00:30:26] Like, oh, my gosh. If they wouldn't have pushed the button, I would have been so pissed. But they did upset and it was a crocodile. And I was like, What is this?
PRINCESS [00:30:35] That was my favorite moment because as a Godzilla fan, I was like, and the little brown girl was like, touch it is like, that would be me and Godzilla just be like, hyper.
TESSA: [00:30:45] It was like Khaleesi moment. I'm like, okay, mother of crocs.
PRINCESS [00:30:49] Right. And I'm not talking about the shoes. Yeah, I was like I was like, that was a very powerful moment. Like, anybody can tell you shit, if you could, like, touch a zombie crocodile and live and it was child- when it happened, I'd be like this.
TESSA: [00:31:04] I was like, What? Also, what was up.
PRINCESS [00:31:06] With that weird girl who was trying to pick on Billie for being a vegan? I was like, God, I'm like, It's 2022 or whatever. Like every, half the people on this on the country are vegans, like, or at least pretentious about not eating meat like, come on.
TESSA: [00:31:22] Yeah. I don't know what that girl is doing.
PRINCESS [00:31:24] She's thrown hands on. I know she's trying not to be, like, get in trouble. But your dad is is powerful and great. You should have nepotism that and beat her ass.
TESSA: [00:31:33] I know.
PRINCESS [00:31:34] Hey Angela!
TESSA: [00:31:35] Yeah. Big roller skate moment, like. Come on, come on. Just. Just pull an El and just do it. Another thing that I just could not believe when at the end, when you see that Evelyn is, like, under Billy's rule or something and she's, like, controlling her, I like, what? What happened? That was. So when we got to that last episode, I was like, I've missed so many chapters here. I was like, What is going on? I need to know how we got here because this is Wild.
PRINCESS [00:32:08] This show leads for so many things and I'm like, I need to know what- I think that's my final takeaway from just what I think about the show is that like it has a lot of really great potential, I think. I think it like if you come into it expecting like the movies, or the video game straight through, you're gonna be disappointed because it's just not that kind of thing. And I think it would be hard to fully adapt that. But I do think that the show manages to give you like some of that horror, some of that gore. It definitely gives like all those character emotional beats and is very fun and watchable. Like I didn't it is find it to drag. It was really fun. It had some good humor moments, it had some really gross outs and like, you know, again, zombie giant crocodile.
TESSA: [00:32:56] I mean, there are so many zombie monsters that I was terrified. I was like, this is like Australia, but worse. Like, I don't want to be here. I don't. What is that was like in this universe? Absolutely not. I'm not going to live with zombies. Oh, and also there's like dinosaur zombies that now exist and crazy worms that are huge and like, oh, if my cat, like, accidentally eats my dead zombie husband can turn into a monster. No, not gonna deal with that.
PRINCESS [00:33:24] Absolutely.
TESSA: [00:33:25] I can't do that. Too much.
PRINCESS [00:33:27] Yeah, the setting, the setting was intense. Like one of the things that I really enjoy it from my interview with Ella Belinska was her talking about just like they were filming in South Africa and just running in like the heat, but also like dealing with COVID stuff. Like I just was like, Girl, that's worse than the zombies.
TESSA: [00:33:45] Oh. Dang, I can't even imagine that. So I have a couple of unanswered questions that I want to know. So first off is how did Billy get in charge of umbrella? Like, how did that happen, that transfer of power, how did her villain arc like? We need to see it. What happened to the dad? Because apparently he's dead, I guess, according to Billy.
PRINCESS [00:34:09] Or.
TESSA: [00:34:10] All right. Exactly. Or he's not dead or. I don't know. I don't know what's happening. So it's like, what happened to the dad? What happened to Billy? How did Jane meet her husband and have this child? Like, who's having a child in the zombie apocalypse? Like, what do you do? Not me. Not me here. Like, I would never. I would never have sex again. What are you doing?
PRINCESS [00:34:34] Reminds me of in the quiet place when they were, like, going to have another kid. I'm like, listen, was losing one not enough? Like, you were like, let's have another one. I was like.
TESSA: [00:34:43] I couldn't believe that. So I was like, I need to know how this happens. Also, like, who is that Clod Wolverine looking zombie? I was. Like Why is this zombie like different than the other ones? Like that one zombie that had like powers over the other zombie. Like they started to get into that. But I was like, are there like zombie queen zombie ranks? Like, are the zombies going to become more human? Like, where is this going? And then at the very end, Yung Jade had a note that said Ada Wang on it. So that's another resident evil character. And it's like Japan, like, is she going to Japan? Like, what is happening?
PRINCESS [00:35:22] I know it. It sounds so interesting. So I'm just like, all right, let's let's get into it. Yeah. I think what you said is pretty much my big things. I want to figure out more about how everything came to pass. I want to learn more about the father and his past and how he ended up in this situation. And mostly, I just want to see Jade use science to be a baddie.
TESSA: [00:35:42] Mm hmm.
PRINCESS [00:35:43] Okay. So now is the time. Tessa, I cannot wait for you to hear my interview with the lovely, talented, very funny Ella Balinska. Hello, Ella. I'm so excited to meet you. I have been following You since Charlie's Angels, so I'm like, you've been in so much stuff lately. Sounds so exciting. Where are you.
ELLA: [00:36:10] On this day? It's been. It's been a wild ride, so I'm excited that you're on it.
PRINCESS [00:36:15] I listen, you've been booked and busy. We're going to get into it. But I'm very I'm very excited to see the path that you've been going on. It's very. Cool.
ELLA: [00:36:22] Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. Honestly, super excited.
PRINCESS [00:36:27] No, of course. So because this is a Geeked podcast, the first thing we like to ask people is like, what are you geeky about? Like what excites you? Like books, food, comics, anything.
ELLA: [00:36:38] So I'd say I have a couple of things that I definitely geek out about. I mean, you said food. I got to say, I love food. Yes, I agree. Gosh, food is absolutely amazing. I love going out to different places and trying new cuisines. What else? I definitely geek over my work. I'm an actor, so I'm a huge acting. I love movies and TV shows and but I probably would say and I'm only recently sort of like sharing it with the world, but I am a very big gaming geek.
PRINCESS [00:37:12] Excellent. Well, we're going to talk about first spoke in a little bit because I already preordered it because I've seen this all year and I was like, I want to get it. So I've had it preordered forever. I've been waiting for it to be forever on the PlayStation five. So we'll get into it in a second. But what games do you like to play?
ELLA: [00:37:27] At the moment? It's so funny I've got my my friends rang me just before I jumped on and they were like, hello, hello? We just see her online. Are you scrapping? You're scrapping now? I'm like, No, no, no, no, I've got work. Give me like half an hour. And then we can drop into the war zone of Call of Duty.
PRINCESS [00:37:43] Amazing. Oh, that's so fun. Have you ever played any of the Resident Evil games before you started coming onto the show?
ELLA: [00:37:52] Yeah, absolutely. I think that was, you know, when they came out, when you were when I was younger, it was kind of, you know, your parents don't let you watch all the scary things, but they don't really realize how scary that the video games were. So that was what was super exciting when, you know, I was on set filming this because there's so much of the lore from, you know, the DNA of Resident Evil that is included in the series, even though it's an it's an entirely new story with new characters. Aside from Albert Wesker, it's so great to see the sort of undercurrent of horror seeping through. It's great. It's great.
PRINCESS [00:38:32] That's so fun. Were there any like particularly like as you were filming any like really scary tense scenes that really like stood out for you? Like, were you ever like a little bit like, oh, this is getting a little too real?
ELLA: [00:38:43] Oh, my goodness. Yes, I so I have never actually on set called a time out. However, there's I don't to give too much away, but there's one sort of part of the season which is set in a very, very I mean, let's just put it this way. The art department, I learned patience, did a fantastic job and my character is sort of stuck in this dark, dingy. I don't want to give too much away, but you'll know what it is when you come up to it. And we shot that for nearly like two weeks straight, and it got to a point where I was like, I was waking up in the morning going. Oh, no, I've got to go back.
PRINCESS [00:39:29] Not the hole. Don't put me back there.
ELLA: [00:39:33] Don't put me back in the hole! And then I think it was on the second to last day, it was, you know, we were doing a big set piece, you know, all of the what we're calling zeros. The zombies were like, you know, all full chaos. People like blood and gore and high stakes and loud noises. And I just remember, like, there's that sort of twilight zone when the cameras are rolling before the director calls action. I sat there like, how did I get here?
PRINCESS [00:40:05] It's like Arrested Development. Like, I'm Sure you're wondering how I got here. It's like,.
ELLA: [00:40:08] Yeah, exactly that. I'm sure you're wondering. Yeah. So that was sort of the one, a particularly intense filming experience that I had doing that. But the rest of it was so much fun.
PRINCESS [00:40:20] Since you've been doing all this apocalypse and hard work. So if you found yourself suddenly you wake up, you're done gaming and you wake up boom apocalypse. What would be your plan and what would be your weapon of choice?
ELLA: [00:40:35] I love the way that you're like, you wake up, you come out from gaming and boom thought I felt like many of us have been in the situation where you're like I'm done my gaming all and I opened the blinds and it's 4 p.m. Nice.
PRINCESS [00:40:48] Exactly like I was playing Hades. I'm like, I'm just going to play for like 10 minutes. And it's like, oh.
ELLA: [00:40:52] 10 minutes. And then next thing you know.
PRINCESS [00:40:55] Exactly.
ELLA: [00:40:57] So what what would my what would my plan be?
PRINCESS [00:41:00] Mm hmm.
ELLA: [00:41:00] I think immediately. Immediately, immediately I'd check on my family, but I think that's a given. I need to know who I need to look after first. Like, I mean, everybody, you know, when you running on an airplane, they're like, put your own face mask on before everybody else. I'm. I'll put my own face mask on for sure. I just need to know how many other people's face masks I then need to put on.
PRINCESS [00:41:20] Exactly. You're like doing a count while you're doing it. Yeah.
ELLA: [00:41:24] So I'll make sure. And then I think I've got a pretty good my friendship group both in the UK and in the in the U.S., very like self-sufficient, pretty smart people. So I think we will probably knock heads and see see what we come up with. But definitely I wouldn't want to join any of those scary, sort of weird Mad Max now situations.
PRINCESS [00:41:48] I was telling some friends of my I was like my, my survival group with my my black and brown friends is different than my survival group with my white friends. I'm like, we have different priorities and it's going to be we're gonna put it together and we're going to have to figure this out.
ELLA: [00:42:04] So we're going to have to establish the boundaries of who opens the door. And who goes away. Yeah. And who's playing lookout. Because I feel.
PRINCESS [00:42:16] Exactly like this. It's like the city crew. All right, we ready? We guys said that the posh crew, the suburb crew is like, all right, well, you have resources, but you have to just be in the front.
ELLA: [00:42:25] They can be in charge of logistics.
PRINCESS [00:42:27] Exactly they answer the phones, they open the doors and we'll take it from there.
PRINCESS [00:42:36] Oh my god, I'm coming to You.
PRINCESS [00:42:36] We got each other.
PRINCESS [00:42:38] Oh, my God. You've got a payroll going on in your apocalypse and everything.
PRINCESS [00:42:42] I've thought about this too much. We've had so many zombie shows.
ELLA: [00:42:46] HR departments.
PRINCESS [00:42:46] Exactly. And also, like my family is Caribbean. So we have machetes, cutlasses everywhere. So was like like we're ready. I got you. Come get you. I mean.
ELLA: [00:42:56] I just be throwing. Rubik's cubes from across my house. My house is littered with rubik's cubes.
PRINCESS [00:43:02] Going to have your game out, just like, why won't it die? You're so great. I said this before, but, like, I'm so excited for your career. Like, you have been so sweet and endearing. I love other gap toothed girls. Love it. Everytime.
ELLA: [00:43:20] Together.
PRINCESS [00:43:21] Exactly. So I just it's was so great just seeing you thrive and do all these cool projects. And so what are you excited about doing next? Like, do you would you want to do more gaming stuff? What would you like to see Jade do more? Like what if you could just sculpt the perfect like future playlist, your greatest hits of What do you want to do next? What? What are you excited about?
ELLA: [00:43:46] I'd say I'm in a really cool place where I'm just feel like I'm beginning to sort of find my groove a bit. You know, I'm I feel like I love the characters that I've played. I'm in a place where I'm able to take on these super physical roles. So caall me, call Me if you need me. That sounded very. Kim Possiible. mpossible to do it. Yes. Call me. Beep me.
PRINCESS [00:44:09] If you want to reach me. It's ok!
ELLA: [00:44:13] But also, like I have since I've been filming these projects, I've been getting more and more involved in sort of how it's being made. And the production side of it is really interesting to me. So, you know, I've got a few projects lined up which I'm super excited to announce and I'm on the executive producers producing on them. So just sort of beginning to dip my toe a lot deeper into the storytelling element on that side of the, you know, production process. But also I'm, I definitely want to have a bit of fun. I'm not. I'd like to think That potentially I'm not that I'm not having already, but I'd like to think that I would have a good time on set, not running for my life.
PRINCESS [00:44:53] I think that would work. I think that makes.
ELLA: [00:44:56] You know, like maybe. Maybe I could, like, sit down and just have a conversation.
PRINCESS [00:45:01] Just a nice rom com.
ELLA: [00:45:02] Just like a rom com. You know, it make some people laugh. You know.
PRINCESS [00:45:08] I, I, I agree you deserve a break because you've been running a lot.
ELLA: [00:45:14] In the back of my mind. I'm like, okay, we know Jades is going to start running at some point, but yeah. We'll find some other stuff too.
PRINCESS [00:45:23] I just thought of one thing I want to ask you in you, if you could have your rom com that you could create and cast it yourself, who would you want as your love interest and who would you want it to play your best friend?
ELLA: [00:45:38] Mm. You know what's so funny is I because I really want to go into the, you know, more of the production side too. I, one of my big goals right now is casting my mates and if in fact, I just want, I just want to everyone to have the come up.
PRINCESS [00:45:54] Exactly. If we'd bring everyone up together. I mean, that's the.
ELLA: [00:45:58] Imagine the garage when we're all like my friends about to sit down at a table read the executive executives like say all right guys, enjoy see you in a bit, shut the door. We all turn to each other like.
PRINCESS [00:46:13] We got to fund this.
ELLA: [00:46:18] So, I don't know, I'd probably, like, cause my best. Cast my best mates in it, you know, thing that's. That would be me.
PRINCESS [00:46:25] That's perfect. That's so exciting. Thank you so much for this. I'm sure you got to go eat, decompress, kill some more zombies in the virtual world. But thank you so much for being with us. I can't wait for everyone to meet and fall in love with Jade as she kills zeros and, you know, keeps London safe.
ELLA: [00:46:44] Thank you so much. Honestly, it's it's a wild ride and you'll be excited to know it doesn't 2036, It starts in London. It goes very much elsewhere. So I'm excited for you to see it.
PRINCESS [00:46:54] I'm Excited.
TESSA: [00:47:04] So, Princess, my one more thing is that apparently you need to have a pen because Evelyn had a pen. Percy Jackson had a pen. You just need a pen. And that will defeat all of the evil in your life. That's my zombie weapon is just a pen because I will use it as a weapon. Also, pen in that one movie was that movie where you, like, stabbed him in the throat with the pen. Do you remember that? That, like, on the airplane? Oh, my God, I love that movie. Now I can't think about.
PRINCESS [00:47:38] I just thought about, like, with the pencil, with the Joker. But I know the pen one, too. Yeah.
TESSA: [00:47:42] So it's like it can be not only a weapon, but a tool to write down and journal your thoughts on the apocalypse. So.
PRINCESS [00:47:52] Once. Once you wipe the blood off your like.
TESSA: [00:47:54] Exactly. Dear diary.
PRINCESS [00:47:57] Diary,.
TESSA: [00:47:57] It's like batman. Dear diary. Today I killed this man, the zombie. And now I miss my dad. So how about you?
PRINCESS [00:48:09] Exactly. Perfect thing. So my one more thing is that in a fun bit of extended universe. So in the 2021 Resident Evil, welcome to Raccoon City, the person who played Wessler was Tom Hopper, a.k.a. number one, a.k.a. Luther from the Umbrella Academy.
TESSA: [00:48:30] Oh, my gosh. Talk about umbrella.
PRINCESS [00:48:34] Exactly.
TESSA: [00:48:35] An Umbrella crossover.
PRINCESS [00:48:38] Right. He is umbrella ing so many places. But yeah, I love Tom Hopper. He's very good at things and he's a sweet lad. So I'm very glad that he is thriving and getting to play all the roles while being a dad.
TESSA: [00:48:56] We love an umbrella multiverse. Okay, y'all, you know the drill. If you like us, you got to follow us. So not in real life, but in podcast form. So you can find the geek podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. And for those of you who cannot get enough of us, we want to know. Let us know. Leave us a five star review. And don't just do the five stars. Write a little comment. Say something like one of your favorite Netflix shows things you think we should cover. Maybe something that we said that you really vibe with. Let us know we even might read it aloud on the show. So do it. Okay. Just you should do it because we want to hear from you. Please.
PRINCESS [00:49:43] And it'll make us happy.
TESSA: [00:49:46] It will. So you should do it just for that reason. But anyway, the Geek Podcast is hosted by me, Tessa Netting.
PRINCESS [00:49:53] And me Princess Weekes.
TESSA: [00:49:55] You can find me all over the Internet, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube at Tessa Netting.
PRINCESS [00:50:00] And you can find me on YouTube as Princess Weekes and on Twitter as Weekes Princess. Next week we'll be tackling the wonderful world of literature. My favorite topic. I love it so much. I even got two degrees in it that are so useful.
TESSA: [00:50:18] Hey, I bow down. I back down to my literature queen. We're going to be talking all about book adaptations, including The Gray Man featuring Chris Evan's mustache that starts the whole movie. It's just Chris Evans in a mustache being evil. So I can't wait to get into it.
PRINCESS [00:50:39] And it's Ken's origin story about before he became a Ken doll. So it's so many things, cannot wait. Anyway, this is a Netflix geeked and spoke meida, a production.
TESSA: [00:50:50] Our executive producers are Keisha TK Dutes says Brigam Mosley, Alia Tavakolian and and Keith Reynolds.
PRINCESS [00:50:57] Kelly Kolff is our producer. Reyes Mendoza is our associate producer. DaLaura Patton is our coordinating producer and special thanks to Carson McCain.
TESSA: [00:51:05] Sound Design and Engineering by Evan Arnett, who also composed and performed our original theme.
PRINCESS [00:51:11] To stay up to date on all things Geeked be sure to follow AD Netflix, Geeked on Twitter, Instagram and the Tik-edy-Toks. Thanks for listening.
BOTH: [00:51:19] Bye bye.
CLIP: [00:51:20] Geeked