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Sometimes I’ll watch a ten minute interview and there will be absolutely no interesting quotes from a celebrity. That wasn’t the case with D’Arcy Carden’s interview on Conan! She said so many interesting things I didn’t know what to put in the title. I know D’Arcy from The Good Place, she’s 40 (I looked it up as Conan said she was too young to remember Cheers) but I thought she was mid-30s tops. She’s living in LA with her husband of ten years, producer Jason Carden, and their giant black dog named Penny. You can see Penny at about minute 3 in the video below. I’m loving seeing all the celebrity pets in these interviews. D’Arcy said that she and her husband are drinking every night, that they’re watching a lot of TV and have blacked out the windows for that, and that wearing a mask has made her both friendlier and more willing to call people out.
On what she’s doing
I’m not an essential worker in any sense of the word and I don’t have kids so I’m doing a lot of cooking, eating, television watching and dog walking.It’s so funny how a dog walk is one of the biggest parts of our day. When there’s so little to do it becomes one of the biggest parts of our day.
The mask is making her bolder
I am friendly in normal life, but the mask has given me this boldness. I cannot pass a person without greeting them in some way. There was a guy playing the saxophone beautifully and I yelled across the park ‘sounds good sir.’ I’ve never said sir to anyone in my whole life.The boldness goes both ways. The other day I saw four guys together, none of them wearing masks. I was like ‘this doesn’t check out. What are you brothers? Do ya’ll live together?’ I could tell they’re not roommates.
She’s drinking every night
I am drinking a lot. There’s normal life and then there’s quarantine life. We’re not doing any day drinking, but the second it becomes dark we’re drinking every night. It’s cocktails, it’s wine, we’re cooking. It’s so much a part of our schedule now that if I have things to do my brain is like ‘you have to do this during the light hours because you will be drunk tonight.’ That’s just the quarantine life, we have to go easy on ourselves.On what she’s watching now
We are watching so much TV during the day that we blacked out the windows in our house. We binged Succession, Unorthodox, Tiger King. Every single night during dinner time we watch one episode of Cheers. I told the rest of the cast [on The Good Place] to watch [Cheers] now after having spent four years working with and loving Ted Danson. It’s such an interesting thing to go back and watch the show that made him who he is. Everybody knows Ted Danson is hot as hell, but he’s a different level of sexy on Cheers.
That’s so cute that she’s watching old episodes of Cheers and appreciating how hot Ted Danson was in the 80s. My son wanted to see Cheers so I watched a few episodes with him last year. It struck me as super sexist and like they were setting up the Diane character to be the feminist shrew so they could knock her down. There were decent plots though, and I loved Woody Harrelson’s character, oh and Coach, played by Nicholas Colasanto (RIP).
I was considering making that line about drinking every night the title, but I know there are people who are not alcoholics and who are just drinking more because it’s become part of their routine like she mentioned. However when I was drinking I always knew that I wouldn’t be able to drive or get anything done at night. Also I related to her on being more friendly to people when she’s wearing a mask. I say hi to more people too. I have a goofy mask from Etsy with smiling cartoon cats on it and that helps.
As for watching more TV, a lot of people who aren’t working as much now are doing that. I’m working more as I’ve always been at home and am trying to get more done now. My TV watching has lessened actually, but I’m also so less tolerant of shows than I was before. I don’t want to see a-hole teenagers being pithy and smart, and I don’t want to see people doing all the things we used to be able to do. I want a show to take me to another world and place where I can forget all this, so I prefer shows set in a specific time. I am loving Belgravia and I binged Little Fires Everywhere. I started off liking Succession, which she mentioned, but after a few episodes I hated all the characters and didn’t want to keep watching. Unorthodox looks good though I should give that a shot.
Here’s that interview!
Photos credit: Getty
Unorthodox was intense and surprising, definitely watch it! That’s not my usual fare, I like weirder and lighter generally, but I binged this one
I tried Unorthodox last week but lost focus,I’m currently watching Bloodline,after it’s done I’m going to re try.
I loved it
I watched a few Cheers episodes the other day out of boredom, if those episodes were real, there’d be a sexual harassment lawsuit filed. The way Sam was always slobbering over Rebecca is nauseating.
For me, Cheers is the most overrated sitcom in history. Because so many people put it as the number one sitcom. I can’t stand it and I never could. If you want to go back to that era and look at a great sitcom, we can talk Taxi. But Cheers? Just repugnant people. And what’s his name the know-it-all? That actor is a big time tea partying trumpster, and he’s still going. that was no act.
interesting about Cliff Clavin, the know-it-all, I too often feel like I’m channeling him, because I love facts and ideas and explaining things…I try to control and contain it though, alas not always well tho haha. But ooof I didn’t know that about the tea party thing. And yes, I never liked the show, or many others actually, not because I realized at the time how sexist they were but because I just sensed it I guess. It and many others have not aged well…
I like her honesty. She’d be fun to quarantine with. I am digging the masks because no makeup is needed. It is kind of like a disguise. I ran into someone I know at the supermarket and didn’t recognize her at all. We laughed until we cried and it’s not easy laughing with a mask on.
Unorthodox is excellent. I watched it from start to finish in one go. It’s extremely intense and might stress some people out, but if you can handle it, it’s really good and worth the watch. The Righteous Gemstones is also really, really good.
I loved her in Broad City. I’ve rewatched that, this time with my husband who absolutely loved it.
She’ll always be Good Place Janet for me. I forgot about her in BC but thanks for reminding me how great she was.
I love her! She was so brilliant on the good Place, and I think she is doing a series based on a league of their own next.
Succession is so good! I binged it at the beginning of the shutdown. Right now I am watching Kim’s convenience, which is really good too, and little fires everywhere is next.
I really liked Little Fires Everywhere,the girl who played Izzie was really good,and I’m originally from the Shaker Heights area,and grew up in the nineties,so a lot of it really hit home.I say this based on watching the series but never reading the book.
I read the book and thought it was very good. I’ve been looking forward to the show, but decided to wait until all episodes were out so I could binge it, but I haven’t had the concentration to sit and watch it yet.
Lucy,it’s an easy binge watch-at least for me.Enough substance to stay interesting but not so complicated that you feel stressed for missing 2 minutes.Reece and Kerry and Joshua Jackson we’re all really easy to watch.
Unorthodox is fantastic. I watched with no prior knowledge and no expectations. It’s gripping and the main character is mesmerizing.
Little known fact: D’arcy used to be the nanny for Bill Hader. Bill talks about it with Conan on Conan’s podcast. 😁 They said very kind things about her.
I work from home anyway, so the only difference now is I’m home all the time on nights and weekends. I tend to veg more on weeknights and am pretty productive on the weekend, which makes me feel like I’ve got myself together, lol.
I realized I hadn’t finished The Morning Show, so I’m watching that now. I can never decide how I feel about it – I think it’s a pretty good show that thinks it is amazing. Billy Crudup is just outstanding in it, though. Pretty sure I keep watching for his character.
Next up for me is Mrs. America and High Fidelity, I think. I can’t watch anything too dark right now or my anxiety goes crazy. Definitely being selective with what I watch.
I loved D’Arcy so much as Janet on The Good Place, it’s one of those roles that are just iconic. Her comedic timing was excellent, she is just so talented! Can’t wait to see what she does next. Also I had no idea she was 40!! She looks so young.
As for Unorthodox, it’s one of the best shows I’ve watched on Netflix in a long time. There are a lot of good shows on Netflix of course but I grew up in the NYC area which means I also grew up up observing the Hasidic community (mostly the men who I saw out and about working in Manhattan as the women mostly don’t work) in Brooklyn from afar and was always curious about their inner lives. After watching the documentary on Netflix One of Us (a documentary about real members of the Jewish Hasidic community in Brooklyn attempting to leave the community which I also recommend), I realized just how restrictive and insular the community was. So when Unorthodox came out, my family bingewatched it. It is so well done, the actors are all amazing, and it really does make a point not to bash/criticize the lifestyle of Hasidic communities. And it highlights so many interesting traditions I didn’t know about, like the customs of a Hasidic wedding, covering the entire kitchen with tinfoil during Passover, etc. I really would like to read the memoir the show is based on. If you do watch it, you should also watch the 20 minute documentary about the making of the show which is super fascinating.
Quarantine has definitely made clear which celebrities are completely out of touch with reality. She was and continues to be a total gem, though!