This Slate's spoiler special is meant to be played after you see the movie being discussed.

The podcast contains explicit language.

Hi, this is Dana Stevens, Slate's movie critic, here with a Slate spoiler special podcast on Spy,

the new Melissa McCarthy comedy vehicle directed by Paul Feig.

And joining me to discuss it is Forrest Wittman, a senior editor at Slate.

Hey, Forrest.

Hey, Dana.

All right, so I chose you for this one for a specific reason because you have a thesis or theory. I don't know what to call it. You have a framework with which to talk about spy that I love that I can't wait to get into. But first, I think we should do a little setup of what this movie is and what it's about. So this is the third time that director Paul Fieg, director writer Paul Fieg in this case, because he wrote the screenplay too, and Melissa McCarthy have worked together.

The first time was bridesmaids in which McCarthy had a significant but small role.

The second was The Heat with Sandra Bullock and McCarthy paired as female buddy cops.

And now we have Melissa McCarthy for the first time starring.

She basically is the solo spy heroine of this movie, although she's amply aided by large

and really strong, I think, supporting cast.

So let's try to just briefly set up the premise of spy, and then we'll get into some

spoilage.

When Spy begins, Melissa McCarthy's character, who's named Susan Cooper, is basically a – I like to think of her as basically Miss Moneypenny.

Like this movie, and this will kind of start to get into my theory.

But this movie, to me, is kind of like Miss Moneypenny leans in.

So in the Bond movies, in the Bond movies, Miss Moneypenny is the secretary who sits back at her desk and

like greets James Bond every time he comes back from his adventures and then they flirt briefly,

but like she never gets him. And in the sense that she never gets to, you know, become his lover,

but she always wants to. Or go on his spy adventures. Right, right. But I would say that

...