The Watch - Breaking Down the First Two Episodes of 'Obi-Wan Kenobi.' Plus: 'Top Chef: Houston'.

Episode Date: May 27, 2022

Chris and Andy talk about the first two episode of 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' (11:09) and the efforts the show is making to differentiate itself from 'The Mandalorian' and 'The Book of Boba Fett' (23:54). Then ...they talk about the penultimate episode of 'Top Chef: Houston,' which may be their favorite of the season so far (46:20). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:55 Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to the watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at the ringer.com and joining me on the other line, the only Grand Inquisitor he acknowledges is from Brothers Karamazov. It's Andy Greenwald. You're so punchy today. I love this. I love this energy from you. It's the Sunshine Boys.
Starting point is 00:02:24 Is that us? Yeah, we love shit. We love Star Wars. Yeah. Dog, I'm ready to talk about these Obi-Wan episodes. We're going to talk a little bit about Top Chef. We're coming a day late, but not a dollar short because we've got all that hot Jedi recapping to do.
Starting point is 00:02:40 Greenwald is beautiful to see your face. we recorded this whole show in Manhattan Beach so we didn't actually have to go on location so we are not any dollar short we are on budge Andy we also programming note will be broadcasting on Monday evening
Starting point is 00:02:55 despite the long weekend we have a great interview George Palakanos the fame crime writer the veteran TV hand at this point who worked on the wire and on the deuce and show ran we own the city which is you and between the two of us I believe pretty much our favorite
Starting point is 00:03:11 show of the year. The finale for that show airs on Monday night and we will be coming directly afterwards with our interview with George and our discussion of the finale. Yeah. Should we just punt till then? Or do you want to, should we cover some of these new shows? Let's cover some new stuff. But man, just tell me how you're feeling. Tell me how you're doing. I just had a couple, I just had a quick check in. I know it's been a minute. I know you're psyched. I figured that you were probably spending the week watching that Miyazaki film that you said you were going to watch. So I didn't want to interrupt you with any of these deets. But it's, it's, but it's, you were It's been a minute since we've had the semaphores going from Dattington Island.
Starting point is 00:03:46 And I just had two quick things that I wanted to just run by you. Okay. And then we're going to, I promise we're going to get into Obi-Won. We watch both episodes. We did our homework, okay? But first, because I think our listenership demands it, Chris, I just want to quiz you on, like, what is your... Okay, Chris, you know that, like, when people hire, like, marketing firms to do, like, to launch a campaign, they check with the public, like, what's your awareness level, right?
Starting point is 00:04:13 And I feel like the awareness level for like... Focus groups, yeah. Yeah, but like the awareness for Top Gun Maverick, which I think we're going to go see together this weekend and maybe share some junior mince, or am I getting ahead of myself? That awareness is very high. But Chris, as a golfing man of the world,
Starting point is 00:04:29 what was your awareness of the Disney Plus original film Chippendale Rescue Rangers? Just checking in. Is it... So my understanding of this is that it is some kind of like postmodern collage of actual IP, but you tell me all about it.
Starting point is 00:04:46 I've seen some ads up and down Sunset Boulevard. Yes, it's super weird. It's basically the Lonely Island guys and John Mullaney, like, secured the bag. Oh, is that why they've just been like Malini is just like hosting
Starting point is 00:04:59 inside the NBA and shit? Like, yeah. That's because Amad Rashad got COVID. That's why Malini's just availed for that stuff now. Yeah, they, every so often, I don't know whether they get the vapors or they just drink some of the spice that has crossed from the Dune universe into the Obi-Wan universe. That's called foreshadowing.
Starting point is 00:05:16 But every so often, these large corporate gatekeepers just, like, get a little dizzy with the vapors, and they let people do stuff. And I don't know where it fits in the corporate mandate, but they basically let the Lonely Island guys and Malaney take the, I guess, generationally beloved Disney TV show Rescue Rangers and do this weird meta update where they are, like, retired, but then called back into action. but they live in a world where like Kiki Palmer also lives and humans live. And then also one of them has gotten CGI surgery to look more like contemporary cartoons, but the other one hasn't. And then there's also a claymation character and a Muppet. Are you with me on all this? Sure.
Starting point is 00:05:55 Yeah. I just want to know what your awareness of it was because it's very funny. But the type of dad on Datington Island I am is I was like, children, I know you're constantly aware of new content on the pluse and you're interested in this film. I have to say, I'm not always comfortable showing you something that within 30 seconds of a beginning, I have to pause and explain to you not only the history of 1990s cartoons, but also history of the 1990s. And then also what CGI animation used to look like a decade before they were born and also who Seth Rogen is. That seems to me like too high a barrier for entry. Was this the case for the Lego movie or they haven't seen the Lego movie, right?
Starting point is 00:06:36 Oh, Chris, you beautiful angel. they haven't seen the Lego movie. Do you know that the pandemic years will, like, Pavlovian return to them, Proustian, will just be the Lego movies to soundtrack, which is pretty much number one on all my Spotify lists. Okay. Like that's, yes, they love the Lego movies,
Starting point is 00:06:57 and they're really good. But it was. Another quick follow up before you keep going. Chip and Dale are Chipmunks, yeah. Okay, you're great. You're in the pocket with me. Yeah, yeah. Do they talk like Alvin in this?
Starting point is 00:07:09 chipmunks. Do they go like, I still want a hoolahoo? Like that shit? The best thing was your eyes on Zoom were pleading for a quick cutoff on that. And you were denied. You were denied. I'm thrilled. You brought it home. No, they talk like, and I know you're going to be surprised you, they talk like Andy Sandberg and John Mullaney. Okay. That's disappointing. Oh, okay. That's why you're out. That would be like Bernthal, not doing the Baltimore accent. If you're going to go Chippendale, go full chipmull. I think you're thinking Alvin, though. That is separate IP. They don't have the rights to that.
Starting point is 00:07:43 Yeah, but isn't the, like, shouldn't there just be a universal fictional chipmunk human voice? Wow. First of all, hashtag, not all chipmunks. I thought we were past this. There could be different chipmunkical representation on the screen. Look, we can pivot. I just wanted to say that despite all of the, like, footnoting, like, me talking about and watching this movie with them was like one of our friend Chuck Closterman's books. Like there were so many footnotes and footnotes on footnotes, but then they loved it.
Starting point is 00:08:12 So good job, Andy Sandberg and John Mullaney. It's a very funny movie. But I think it would be funnier if you were over the age of 30, which I don't know if is always the goal, but I think it's succeeded. Okay. Second point. There's another point. Okay. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:24 This is the other thing I want to talk to you back. Dude, I need your help with this one. Okay. Because I need, this is, I think this is relevant to today's podcast, not the top chef part, but because so much of covering the IP is about, like, unpacking our own childhoods in a way, because that's those are the trunks where today's entertainment is stored, apparently. So I took them this weekend,
Starting point is 00:08:44 there's a, you know, there are places like this all over this country of ours, but like there's a arcade on the east side. It's also a bar that also knows a great taco spot in it. Tacos 986 has moved into this place called Buttonmash. I'll just name it. It's on Sunset Boulevard. And they have...
Starting point is 00:08:58 Glad they opened up. Again. Yeah, they were closed for a long time. And they're back, good for them. Great spot. Great space. But they have a lot of 80s arcade cabinets. and my children who have been mostly like video game deprived were really excited about this.
Starting point is 00:09:13 And then not unlike showing them Chippendale's Rescue Rangers, they were so excited. And they had like a stool for my littler one to like climb up and see. And she's like, Dad, Dad, what do I do? And I was like, okay, real quick, real quick. You're a burger chef and you've got to run across this lettuce until it falls on the hot dog. But you have five shakes of a pepper canister to shake on the hot dog if it gets close to you and just keep running over the tomato. Now get the bun. And she was like, I didn't understand any of that.
Starting point is 00:09:39 What do I touch? And then it was game over. And I realized my first thought was, oh, my God, this poor generation of children, they don't have the muscle memory. Like we learned, like, Archenoid, you just put the ball back and forth. Like, we just learned certain, like, intuitive Atari-2600-era commands, right? And I was like, maybe that made us adept or adept, like, mentally in a different way. Maybe that served us some degree.
Starting point is 00:10:04 But then I took my older daughter. Oh, a skateboarding game. I like to skateboard in real life. So she's much cooler than me. And she was like, what do I do? I was like, move this trackball to the left where it says skate park training and go over here and then hop on this railing. And it said game over. And I was like, what, what?
Starting point is 00:10:20 Maybe all of this sucked and always did. Don't you remember the experience of putting like a dollar 50 into Dragonslayer, which was essentially like our life savings? Dude. And it being over in like, as soon as you were like, I can't believe I've. made this investment. I really hope that I'm like up to the task of slaying this dragon. And then as you're like preparing yourself and getting all like into the zone like it just ends. Dude, they're all like that. All of them. I was playing double dragon. By the way, they were like, what does this game do? I'm like, well, you walk around and you punch. They're like, no thanks. What about this game? You walk around and you
Starting point is 00:10:56 shoot. No thanks. How about this game? You walk around and you're a turtle and you eat pizza. And they were like, interested as they're punching? Yes, no thanks. So I think they're better people than I am. But the main takeaway, Chris, was the pricing has not changed. When I cleaned out my parents' old house and I found like my long box of comic books and I saw just how many comic books I bought, I was a little mortified. But I felt a little bit better knowing that all those issues of West Coast Avengers cost like 75 cents, which is not nothing. But it's not a ton. Now they cost like $6. Arcade games always cost a quarter.
Starting point is 00:11:30 It's the Costco hot dog, man. inflation proof. But it seems crazy to me that we brought $5 to an arcade and got and squeezed maybe 97 seconds of entertainment out of it. Oh, yeah. I mean, it sucked. Right. I don't even have a, I don't even have a note.
Starting point is 00:11:49 It was just, it was such a wild economic proposition. Was there anything from that era that in your mind, you'd be like, I could still rock that. Like, like, I'm still good at that. I could, I could stay on Pac-Man for a minute. Yeah, Pac-Man is okay. Because Batman is just a lot of like gestural movements that are. And it wasn't Space Invaders, but it was like defenders or something like that. Defender or Gallagher.
Starting point is 00:12:10 Gallagher, I can fuck with. Yeah. Especially the tabletop Gallagher, the pizza parlors. Chris, I want to, first of all, I'll take you to button mash and we'll see. But I talked real greasy about Gallagher. Shout out to the pizza place. Like I was like, girls, watch Daddy go to outer space. And they were like, why does it say game over?
Starting point is 00:12:29 It was terrible. Okay, we can move off the island. Let's take daddy to outer space again, right? Okay. Andy, we're here to talk about the first two episodes of Obi-Wan. We can, in general, discuss other things that came out of the Star Wars Celebration Day. Shout out to all the ringerverse folks who went out to Anaheim and checked that out, Mal and Jomi and Steve and Charles.
Starting point is 00:12:51 Mike Trout. I don't even know if Van went, but he was not in the photos that I saw. It looked fun. They got to see the Andorra. trailer. They got to find out Jude Law is going to be in space goodies and there was a Willow trailer, I think, a Jace to Lucas
Starting point is 00:13:07 film. And then they dropped those first two Obi-Wans and they put, I thought we were going to watch Obi-Wan on Friday morning. So the reason why this podcast is coming out of Friday is that I thought Obi-on's going to go up at midnight. I will be, you and I will both be in our sarcophicuses. But we got up. We did one last night, one this morning. And here we are.
Starting point is 00:13:25 Two episodes of Obi-Wan-Kan-Kinobi. I think that we were really anticipated. this. And I have to admit, I think that I've found my mojo. It came back. I refuse to be like, I refuse to be like frustrated by this. I think because deep down in the places I don't like to talk about in parties, I didn't really care about Boba Fett. You know what I mean? Like, it was just like, that was always a guy that I was like, I got just enough, you know, in the movies. I think we've all learned that to be accurate. And it's not to say that there aren't some redeeming parts of that show. I was just like, you know what? I think I got. I'm good. You know? And then.
Starting point is 00:13:59 And with Obi-Wan, I was just like, I kind of just give me as much as you want to give me. You know, like I'm not actually a big prequels person. As we know, you're not a big prequel's person. We're OGs. But I was very excited for you and Gregor to come back. And the initial sort of pitch of this, it was being written by Osamaini, who wrote Drive. And I think it was sort of this idea that it was going to be a Jedi noir. It was kicked around.
Starting point is 00:14:22 We were both very into that. It was delayed for a while, COVID, etc. It was supposed to come out on Wednesday. Now it's out of a Friday. They put the first two episodes up, and I just thought, not only was I certainly entertained enough, but I was fascinated by what different people think Star Wars needs to do and fucking Obi-Wan having to do all of it, brother. Yeah, I also want to shout out the creative team for, look, obviously we do a podcast about our opinion, so there's an ego involved in this. But, you know, famously or infamously, our listener and now a friend, Dame. and Lindeloff has said that we pissed him off so much
Starting point is 00:15:01 with our coverage of the leftover season one that the opening in the cave was directly made for us to antagonize us. So maybe this is sort of built into what I'm about to say, which is I felt very seen by Lucasfilm and I felt very warmly towards the show when I realized that Obi-Wan like me has nightmares about the Phantom Menace.
Starting point is 00:15:23 That he wakes up at night thinking about aspects of attack of the clones. So we're too... sweating. Spoilers for any of the first two episodes, but let's just get going. I have like a notebook dump to do for you. So we could start with this previously on Obi-Wan Kenobi, a new show. Oh, I mean, no, but literally he wakes up with nightmares of it later. Yeah. Because first, okay, I just, Chris, let me take your temperature on exactly the beginning. How do you feel about new series beginning with a recap? I think we should do it all the time now. And not only that,
Starting point is 00:15:52 I don't think that we should be beholden to actually covering anything that was in the the show. I think you could just be like previously on Under the Banner of Heaven and it's just fucking top gun. It's just it's just maverick and goose over the Indian Ocean. I think I think that the effects on the connection. Wait, it'll hit. It proved. Yeah. I mean, the previously on it was like, I was like recap. Okay. And then the recap were the fucking prequels. Just like the three movies. And you know, I also think that we said this last week. I think it's, I do think it's worth repeating, that it's not just what individual creators or creative people think Star Wars is. It's that the audience is constantly shifting.
Starting point is 00:16:37 And that this show is, I believe, in many ways, the first, like, reclamation of the legacy of the prequels. That those are now some people who are now old enough to be Disney Plus consumers and subscribers. That is their Star Wars. And so it's back in the fold. It's not like people were actively retconning it out of existence, but like, that's that's the backbone. This is the sequel to that. Yeah. Yeah. And that's
Starting point is 00:17:01 an interesting proposition for two people who are not maybe like the biggest prequel guys. In fact, not maybe. I would say I was relieved to get previously on Obi-Wan because I was like, God damn it, I am not rewatching those movies. You know, like I'm just not going to do it. So there are a couple of things in these two episodes. And I can see just in my internal tomato meter,
Starting point is 00:17:24 I would say the reviews for this show of been mixed, right? Some of the trades, especially in Deadline and a couple of other places are like a misfire. I think that there's a little bit more affection on it from the more fan-friendly kind of wing of pop culture criticism. But there's a few things in these two episodes that I think almost are, here's a thing. I like watching these shows with my imagination turned on.
Starting point is 00:17:52 And the things that are in it that are not necessarily the point are the things that I have the most joy from. Okay. And you and I have often spoken about how like, oh, I wish there was just a Star Wars show set on a bar or a Star Wars show set in a police department or a Star Wars show that was uniquely underworld and not maybe a little bit more, a little more morally ambiguous than Boba Fett wound up being or whatever, even though BobaFitt also went up being in Midler and 2.5.
Starting point is 00:18:18 So I have to really like say that the first person that I thought of when we found out that 10 years after the events of of the last prequel. What's the what that one called? Sith, Revenge of the Sith. Revenge of the Sith. Ten years after that, we find Obi-Wan.
Starting point is 00:18:36 And he's just cutting sashimi-grade sand tuna belly. He's the master sushi chef. He's basically working in the Tatouine Pike's Place market. Yeah, well, he's the sushi chef at the Albertsons.
Starting point is 00:18:52 You know what I mean? Like, he's not at like a three-star Michelin temple of gastronomy with like a, you know, like with a perfect wooden bar. He's cut and fish to order, you know. It's a little bit Sinclair-Lewis vibes in there. I don't know about the cleanliness in the desert. Do you get the impression that when he was sort of sneaking those cuts out that that was like part of his payment? Or was he actually, was that internal shrinkage for the, the sort of food production line there?
Starting point is 00:19:21 Is that like taking a couple of drumsticks home from the Tyson plant? Well, that's what I didn't understand. Like, I couldn't tell, was he stealing the, the, the, the, the, the, the, of the sandfish? Well, I also didn't know if that was, uh, human food, because he quickly takes it to his anteater horse and is like, here you go, my, my beautiful beast. You know, and I'm just like, are you just, are you just drowning in great food that you can afford to be feeding your, your horse, this delicious cut? And the animal, it's like, there's no, there's no, there's no,
Starting point is 00:19:54 Sabby, you know, there's no anointing of any kind of soy product. Well, okay, it's also possible that after all he's seen and all the places he's traveled, and by the way, if you're keeping score at home, yes, I am just half in this conversation and half wondering if I just mixed up Upton Sinclair and Sinclair Lewis. That's okay. Which I feel like is where a lot of our audiences as well, and I'd like to apologize to the other English majors out there. I think that out of respect to just, you know, maybe he has a little little,
Starting point is 00:20:24 little Jedi belly. And like he needs a different kind of, different kind of diet. Oh, he's been spoiled. Yeah. Well, because then he gets home and he cooks up a little, a little space dinty more. You know what I mean? He stirs it up. And frankly, he has a lovely bachelor existence, you know. He's got kind of big, big divorced dad energy. Like he's got a little indoor, outdoor living. He's got his dinner for one. And he has an open door policy with his neighbor the Java. And I respect that. Look at fucking Redfin right now in Los Angeles. That caseta is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know.
Starting point is 00:21:00 It's like a dream big by staring out into the wasteland of a desert planet. We could just keep going through these episodes, kind of beat by beat. I noted that the Grand Inquisitor scene at the saloon with the Safdi Brother was essentially like a beat for beat homage to Inclorious Bastards first scene. Did you notice that that speech is basically the Christoph Walt's speech? I think Rupert Friend realized it and made a sashimi-grade sandfish meal out of it, which I respect it a lot. I'm surprised he had to ask for a giant glass of fresh dairy farm milk. My feeling about the three Inquisitors who were played by Moses Ingram, Rupert Friend, and Sun Kang, I kind of got the vibe, and I respect this also, that they were cast separately and kept apart from each other during the decision-making process, and then just like, action.
Starting point is 00:21:50 Deb Chow was just like, go. because they are very much in three different shows and I am sympathetic to all three of the shows but this is around the point in the story when I believe, because we both started watching at the same time, where we both just started interpolating this with We Own the City and imagining them as the members
Starting point is 00:22:10 of the Jedi Trace Task Force. Yes. I mean, I think you're really going to have to understand that the impact of We Own the City on us is that I'm going to be asking a lot more whether or not Wayne Jenkins could be fitting into the shows that we're watching, whether it's conversations with friends, whether it's this, whether it's hacks. I just want to know if there's a part for him. John Bernthal's performance as Wayne Jenkins.
Starting point is 00:22:33 Yes, not Wayne Jenkins is a not the currently incarcerated. Public servant, but like you definitely like, like, when they were going through and they had Uncle Owen out there in the courtyard and like, you know, Riva is just disrespecting the Geneva conventions. I was like, what we really need here is somebody to come to be like, excuse me, sir, are you hiding some little Jedi's? Now you can make this easier. I can go to the Grand Inquisitor.
Starting point is 00:22:58 I can get a war and we're going to find that force-sensitive work. You're going to go to jail for a long fucking time. Show us the lightsaber, dumb, dumb. Or like when they find the jail, when they find the Savty Brother, and they're like, oh, third sis, we're eating tonight. We're eating tonight, third sis. And a motherfucking brick.
Starting point is 00:23:14 It's great stuff. It's a great vibe. I, um, Keep going down your list. Because I was going down my mental list, and it was just more references to the HBO series we own this city, and we got to stay focused. Okay, so here's the thing.
Starting point is 00:23:31 We're on Tatooine, Joel Edgerton's guy's wig on. He's like, stay the fuck away from my family. Right. You and McGregor's trying to do some helicopter dad stuff and just be like, I'm going to drop in on weekends. He's just going to know me as Uncle. Uncle Ben out here in the sand.
Starting point is 00:23:48 And I'm like, this is dope. This is so cool. Like, I love, like, I know that it's not dissimilar from what we've seen on Mando, what we've seen on Boba. No, it's not. But I was really into it. And then I'm going to call it the Grogu problem comes up. Here we go.
Starting point is 00:24:07 Because they bring fucking Leah back, which was the wild card that they had in their back pocket. They had done a couple of trailers for the show. I don't know that this was the closely guarded secret. This is two Obi-Wan. Leah is to Obi-Wan as Grogu was to the Mandalorian. This idea of bringing up a unbearably cute, innocent that needs to be protected. Now, funnily enough, we had heard or it had been reported that the original version of Obi-Wan Kenobi had been sort of redone, you know, those original scripts fell too close to the Mandalorian plotline.
Starting point is 00:24:43 And so they were like, hey, we don't want to do another one-wolf-Cup. Yes. Little Luke. in the original version of this TV series. I do wonder what the brainstorming process was for this because there's like, we can't have him, we can't have him doing a little Luke because, you know, that is, we are doing a show where this happens.
Starting point is 00:25:02 So let's just like, let's just get our, the sort of frontal lobes hum in here. And like, what could we come up with? What's a completely different look for this show? What's a completely different set of stakes? Hmm. What if it was Leah? Dude, child protection plots are to Lucasfilm
Starting point is 00:25:21 would crack cocaine is to Dave Chappelle's character, Tyrone Biggams. Like, they just cannot say no. They cannot say no. There was no version of this where they were like, what if we went outside the box? And it wasn't Tatooine and protecting one of the Skywalker children. No, no, no. This show has to stay in the box.
Starting point is 00:25:38 It's a very, very small box. And look, this is kind of a problem. problem, right? Okay, yeah. Through two episodes, it's kind of a problem. And I'm, look, I'm having fun. I'm having fun. I'm going to keep having fun.
Starting point is 00:25:55 But there is something that I just feel like needs to be said here, which is, look, the caveat is everybody has their own Star Wars and now we're seeing it play out. What matters to them? We are old heads. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows what our Star Wars was and what it meant to us and why we liked it. And I think it just bears repeating. For people of our generation, the great promise of more Star Wars stories
Starting point is 00:26:23 after the original trilogy in our childhood was, could be boiled down to really one thing. Man, it would be cool to see Jedi's kick ass. Because they're space knights with laser swords. Let's fucking go. So that's the energy that we brought into the movie theaters on my birthday in 1999 to see. And it turns out the Jedi were tax collectors. Sure. And who sometimes fought robots.
Starting point is 00:26:52 And that was real boring and a bummer. And for the rest of that trilogy, Obi-Wan just kind of like took care of a kid and told him to hurry up. Or he went to like diners and talked to CGI Muppets. Like that was what he did. So the energy, like this is Charlie Brown with the football stuff. But when they were going to make a show and Ewan McGregor is coming back, I'm like, yeah, they're going to make a Jedi noir.
Starting point is 00:27:15 And the thing we're going to see, the one thing I thought we were going to see, and still good, four episodes to go, would be a Jedi kicking ass with his laser sword. And thus far, we've had crazy divorced Uncle Jedi. Yeah. We've had a space commuter traveling Ryanair. No offense to your last name. We are going to get to the delayed transport flights. And we have once again, wet blanket child protector, jett. Jedi. And I just can't believe we have all had all these years to run back the same things.
Starting point is 00:27:51 He's got a laser sword, guys. Come on. Well, okay. So here's the argument against that is that this is a dude who's maybe been letting, letting his skills go to go to waste for a while, right? Like, he's essentially been working that tuna collar for a while. And that does not require a laser sword. It's just like a really sharp. Yeah, really, really sharp blade. Yeah. I think do you have to have him... Well, okay, this is the question. Do you have to have him go on a hero's journey where he is full of doubt? And then finally, because of a child, he recognizes the need for his powers to reemerge?
Starting point is 00:28:33 Or can you just have either A, Obi-Wan getting sand kicked in his face for six episodes? No. Or already Neo in the Matrix, Obi-Wan, like moving through Di-U and just fucking mind-trane. working everybody. No, I mean, I want to be clear about this that, like, the story beats of this series have been considered, they've been debated, and they are very, very strong, defensible choices. Even leading up to the moment when he does choose to use his power, you know, to rescue the falling Leia, like, that tracks. This is a, it's not just reasonable story arc for a character to come back down off the shelf and rejoin the world. Like, it tracks. It's logical. I'm not arguing that. They made good choices. I don't think they made surprising choices, but that's a
Starting point is 00:29:20 whole separate conversation. I think for me, and this is the Soto Voce thing, but we said it a couple weeks ago, what if Obi-Wan kind of sucks? As a character, as a character. Not as Alec Guinness, as the old samurai who's there to be mystical and teach some stuff and then leave, but as now defined by the Ewan McGregor character, and this is the weird thing about it. You and I love Ewan McGregor. He's one of the most like energetic charismatic stars of our era, who also, by the way, looks maybe 32. And so he looks amazing. It's all the more insulting that they're just like, watch this old piece of shit shuffle across a rooftop. They talk about him the way people talked about Andy Griffith and Matlock. Okay. This dude looks like a golden god. He looks amazing.
Starting point is 00:30:09 He's so handsome and burnished in the sun. His hair, he keeps flipping his hair. Somebody on our Facebook page pointed this out. And as a father of daughters, I think you might be able to explain this. But when you have kids and stuff, do you have to pretend that they're faster than you? Like, oh, I can't catch up. You're so fast. Because that's essentially what he's doing in that rooftop chase in the second episode. It's a rich question.
Starting point is 00:30:30 Do you have to do that? Like, what kind of children are we looking to create here? I mean, if you're being chased by a sister, you're going to want to be like, hey, we got to move along here. You know, like, you can't pretend like you're Jackie Joyner-Curcy right now. I will say that I think of myself as a generous parental figure who lets the children find their own way towards things. But then callback, they also have an air hockey table at Button Mash. And I... Did you dominate them?
Starting point is 00:31:00 Have you seen the videos of like JoyLMB, like joining pickup games? Yeah. Yeah. Did you teach them the agony of defeat? How loud is... too loud to shout daddy's home. Just wondering. Like, is it weird?
Starting point is 00:31:16 Were you talking about button mesh or your house? Well, I meant every time the distinctive sound of the puck entering my children's goal. Okay. Yeah. So he looks amazing, but I'm just saying as defined by the Ewan McGregor era of this character, he's kind of a noble wet blanket. And he still is. And that's kind of a bummer to me at the heart of the show.
Starting point is 00:31:40 But they're putting him, I think the better thing to talk about is every one of these shows as an opportunity to do all of the connective tissue work that George Lucas never had to do. And we've talked about this, you know, at length, especially with the Mandalorian, which just like, oh, so there's travel and you have to get tickets and you go on spaceships. And also sometimes there's internet, but sometimes there's not, but everyone has an Apple watch now. Like, you know what I mean? So it's constantly changing. and this was interesting to see because this is an era, this is before the Mandalorian, right? This is post-prequel pre-4-5 and 6.
Starting point is 00:32:18 Yeah. I was wondering, you know, we had a, I suppose, slightly controversial conversation about Better Call Saul a couple of days ago. I don't know what you're talking about. Does the Breaking Bad, that is the original trilogy of episode 4, 5, and 6, but specifically episode 4 of Star Wars,
Starting point is 00:32:36 inform at all what you think is going to happen in Obi-1. Only in so much as... So here's the thing. They've already burned through half the cast that I thought was going to be on this show. Rupert Friend, RIP, Flee. Didn't know he was on the show,
Starting point is 00:32:55 but it definitely doesn't seem like he survived the spiraling lightsaber to the face. I think Kumal is... He's still in play? Okay, he's still in play, but Safdi is out. Safi's off the board. So this is like,
Starting point is 00:33:09 they are really moving through characters quite quickly. Or maybe that's just the structure of the show that like this is going to sort of be like mildly famous person comes in greets Loop, Obi-Wan and puts them in a different direction, points them in a different direction.
Starting point is 00:33:22 But like I kind of wouldn't be surprised if by episode three and four we have like a pretty different show than we have now. I don't even know that Leia is going to be in play this entire time. I mean, I hope not. I mean, I don't,
Starting point is 00:33:35 I don't know if there's a polite way to say this. Like, the Leia stuff, I think... Didn't work for you. Yeah. It didn't work for me. It's not great. And I think it's tough to imagine a world where someone... Like, I think you have to have such deep fondness for the concept of the character to be watching
Starting point is 00:33:52 this and being like, yes, this is the missing chapter of Carrie Fisher's story that I needed. And even within the show, you know, the kid is aware. She's like, why am I involved in this? This is about you, basically. Right. So it seems it just, it's a creative, it's typical of, I think, this era of like late stage IP expansion where it's like, these are creative problem solves to get a character that was locked on a desert planet watching Luke for essentially decades off of the planet and back into the fray briefly and then to put him back where he started. Right. Like we have to get him back to that place. So there's a lot of problem solves here. the reason I asked you, yeah. The reason I asked about the Breaking Bad thing is because the
Starting point is 00:34:41 Obi-1 we meet in episode 4 is still keeping his distance. Now, he may be somewhat watching over Luke in his own way, but that guy is like, nobody's heard from him in a long time, he's just a crazy old man living in the desert. So it's not like he comes back
Starting point is 00:34:57 out of whatever happens in this series with a much more hands-on parenting technique. You know? Like, he's still going to be a wandering hermit. So it is kind of fascinating to consider that in relation to what's going to happen on Obi-1 Canobi. I think, and I don't want to get too far outside the pocket here, because I'm curious what will happen next. I think that he had such a disappointing air travel experience. Okay, we got to do this now. That he just decided to stay home. Because that's happened
Starting point is 00:35:25 to me after some pretty gnarly flights. Yeah. Where I was like, it's just not worth it. He, Obi-1 shows up at Diyu, and it's just chaos at the airport. There's just canceled flights everywhere. where. And no Wi-Fi, by the way. Do you think that he is, what happens in this episode if he has complimentary Admiral's Club entrance privileges?
Starting point is 00:35:45 Like, if he can just go and he can just get a hot towel, maybe get like, you know, a chicken thigh and some potato salad and just kind of regroup. Also, spice nuts means something different on this planet that I think that it does at LAX.
Starting point is 00:36:01 And more to the point is what medallion level on Delta do you think Obi-Wan is? Isn't that what Kumail shows him at the end? When he's like, you're not alone to Obi-Wan, then he shows him his silver medallion? Like, you got 5,000 MQMs for coming to this backwater? That's right.
Starting point is 00:36:18 I think that's definitely a part of it. I mean, I like, the things I like about the show genuinely are the indignities of his non-Jedai life. Yes, I do too. Because the version, the first time we met this version of Obi-Wan, the young version, you know, everything is shiny. And that was one of things that was so strange about Phantom Menace that I do think had some intentionality behind it, which was that it was a different era of the universe, of the galaxy far, far away, and of the, you know, of the, the Republic.
Starting point is 00:36:51 And everything was beautiful and shiny and clean. And they were just prancing around from ship to ship and everything was fine. And now he's got a fly coach, like the rest of us, like a schnuck. Shout out Ray Leota, RAP. You know, I like that. I like that aspect of the show. And I kind of wish there was room for a little, I mean, this is so typical. I feel like a cliche saying this, but I do wish there had been some room for a little bit more of the like the TikTok of like, we used to have a republic in this country. Oh yeah. We used to make things in Daew. And now we don't, which, you know, I don't know why I'm fixated on the idea of losing a democracy when you're not paying attention. But, you know, it feels like it would really connect at this, at this particular
Starting point is 00:37:27 moment. Well, I mean, we get a hint of that with the Jimmy Smith's appearance, I guess, you know, although I was more confused. Is Alderon like adjaced to tattooing? I guess it is, right? Well, they got GoFast ships. It's like the Miami Vice film. Sure. You can go to hyperspace.
Starting point is 00:37:43 I don't know. What's the airline miles in hyperspace? Is that double or is it half? Bail Organet flies private. I don't think that's even a question. One thing that I've never understood. He flies private. He lands in Van Nuys too.
Starting point is 00:37:56 I didn't understand this with Natalie Portman in the prequels either. but she's a princess and her dad's a senator. Like, I know that we revere political dynasties in this country, too. But I don't get, I've never understood that. Maybe it's like a House of Lords thing. Like he's like in the sort of more royal seats of parliament. But if she's a princess, what is he?
Starting point is 00:38:24 That's a great question, man. I don't know. I mean, I've just very, I've always been flummoxed by that. But doesn't, maybe he emerges out of this? Because she's a, is she princess in this show? Did they refer to her as prince? Yeah, they do. They keep calling her princess.
Starting point is 00:38:39 Yeah, they do. What's up with that? And why is the red hot chili peppers after her? I mean. And where's for Shanty? Well, I think this is during another period where he's left the band. Okay. This is like when Flea plays with Tom York for a couple years, you know, just like waiting,
Starting point is 00:38:54 waiting for it to get going on. Do you want me to go through a couple more notes that I had in these episodes? Okay. So, I mean, enjoyed the kumel as Jedi Miss Cleo. That was fun. I really, really enjoyed a Chris Ryan film Star Wars
Starting point is 00:39:08 Meth Lab. That was a Meth Lab, right? Yeah, we had sushi bars and meth labs in the Star Wars Universe, which I feel like there are listeners at Lucasfilm being like, we literally gave you what you want. I really enjoyed Riva being like when she makes the sort of APB.
Starting point is 00:39:28 She's like, get me all the low lives and bounty hunters. And I'm just like, is there low-life Twitter? And can I get on it? Oh, my God. Oh, yeah, there is low-life Twitter.
Starting point is 00:39:37 There 100% is. She slitted to the DMs of every, every dirtbag. Yeah. And after that, I just basically said, like,
Starting point is 00:39:46 with the sort of climactic chase scene, I was like, you know, the Michael Corleone Godfather 3 meme of every time, every time I'm out, they pull me back in.
Starting point is 00:39:56 That's me with parkour scenes. Like, oh, yeah. Every time I think, I'm done. Somebody runs up the side of a wall and flips onto an air duct. Do you want to make me fall in love with the character? Then have the character slowly walk up to the ledge of something and swan dive off of it.
Starting point is 00:40:12 I respect that. I do. I love that. It looked great. Deb Chow, shout out to Deb Chow, great direction. Genuinely mean this. The Star Wars shows look good. And I feel like their corporate pals at Marvel need to take a peek at what they're doing over there.
Starting point is 00:40:29 Because there's something happening here that it's bizarre to me that it's happening. Because it shouldn't be that. I don't know what processes have to be streamlined or methods have to be adjusted or what machinery needs to be airlifted to Atlanta. But the disparity in just visual consistency and quality at this exact moment between these two massive universes is really startling. I mean, I certainly felt that way with the Andor trailer, which we can talk about before we get to Top Chef. My only last note was the interesting gambit that they are making with the Riva character, which is to make her frankly unhinged, you know, like just definitely like chopping up people's hands. It's also very funny because like I know these shows have to be everything to everyone.
Starting point is 00:41:16 So like they kind of want to be like, this person is beyond the pale and chops off a woman's hand. But we're just going to cut away from that and that woman is just going to vanish from the scene as soon as that happens. so that you're not forced to confront, like, she'd be rolling around on the ground being like, my hand! No, no, no. The lightsaber caught her eyes as well it cuts. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:41:35 So she's fine. She's fine. This is the same, I mean, Moon Knight introduces Ethan Hawker. He's just like, hello, grandmother, die in my arms. And then it's back to Oscar Isaac being like, oh, I'm mighty.
Starting point is 00:41:47 I've crashed me van. They're trying to have it both ways. It's cute. But the Riva character is interesting, Because for the brief moments before he gets impaled, the Grand Inquisitor is very disrespectful to her. Yes. And alludes to, as she alludes to herself,
Starting point is 00:42:07 a greater kind of obsession with Obi-Wan that goes beyond the job requirements. And that's got to do a lot of work dramatically because I think that we are going to be eventually told, well, this is Riva's story, much like I think that we got some Mandalorian subplots where it's like, hey, for every, you know, jackass bounty hunter, they have like a sob story to start with, you know?
Starting point is 00:42:32 Well, yeah, I mean, I also feel like she's going to be revealed as one of the Jedi kids that was at the academy, right? Like, that isn't that? Oh, damn, I didn't even think about that. Isn't that why we started there and she got taken down a dark past? I thought that was just supposed to be execute Order 66. Like, this is where it was. So you think that she gets, feels like she's abandoned by Ben, by Obi-One?
Starting point is 00:42:54 Or by the Jedi, yeah. I feel like if she was lifted up as a kid who had the gift, who had the mid oflorians, are we still talking about those? Damn, dude, you just have like that feel, man. Like, it's like you can just, you got the particles in between your fingertips. I am to this show the way third sis is to Kumail's brain. You don't need to talk, baby. I got it.
Starting point is 00:43:17 I got it. And third sis. She's also basically got the job of being terrifying until Darth shows up, right? I wanted to know, I mean, he does in that last shot of the episode. Is it just me or did, wasn't like when Vader reveals who he is to Luke at the end of Empire, right? Yes. That was not a closely guarded secret. Well, amongst who?
Starting point is 00:43:44 That's but the question I have. And we got low life Twitter. There's no chatter on there. There's no like, yo, I heard this Darth guy is actually Anakin. Was that just known? Does anyone know who Anakin Skywalker is? Jedi famous? How many people are in the universe? How do they talk about people? Are there magazines? That's the stuff that was blessedly missing from the movies. So I don't know,
Starting point is 00:44:05 like, I think it's a really good question to ask, but I don't have any sense of what it would matter. Right? If people are like, oh shit, that guy's Anakin Skywalker, quick follow-up. Who's Anakin Skywalker? Right. But when she says that to Knobe, he's like, damn, like, I didn't know that. He thought that Anakin was dead, obviously. But he must have heard of Vader? That's my next question. So I don't, I don't know. Like, is the sushi shop like a Foxcon situation where like they don't get outside news?
Starting point is 00:44:37 Right. You know what I mean? This is why they say democracy dies in darkness. You've got to keep the free press pumping. You got to let people know. And that is why Jeff Bezos is using all his money to go to space to make sure all the sushi cutters out there at the far end of the galaxy know what's up. That's the best use of his money.
Starting point is 00:44:54 He's just thinking past where we are. This is where you and I come in and we start space axios. Where we're just like, you guys just need bullet points. The four things you need to know. Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker. Follow up. Anakin Skywalker was a whiny kid who did racing on a desert planet. And they got cut to pieces by the holy.
Starting point is 00:45:13 And it's like, there's more. He survived the lava. Yeah. And a loving father. You know, kids are being raised with that. Okay. Before Top Chef, do you want to do? Okay.
Starting point is 00:45:25 Yeah. It's important to say this because there's like proof of life. Proof of life. Shout out to the Russell Crow Meg Ryan film. Proof of life isn't just holding up a newspaper, which Obi-1 clearly is unable to do in a hostage video. Proof of life is just reminding everyone that my heart still beats. Okay.
Starting point is 00:45:44 And Andor looks awesome. Yeah. This is why we keep coming back. Andor looks so, so good. Now, were we predisposed to like it because of the big homie Tony Gilroy manning the wheel? Yeah. Yes. Also, Diego Luna.
Starting point is 00:46:02 I mean, that's awesome. Great. Also, this is the rise of a guerrilla faction of rebels who are going up against the empire. Yeah. But beyond that, they took the time, and I don't know if this translates to series, but they took the time in crafting this trailer to consider the aesthetics of it as a whole. in this short trailer, there's a sense of an entire world
Starting point is 00:46:25 that does not demand prior knowledge or deep dives into the prequels nary a Skywalker in sight. But there's a world and a place with some human blood frumming through it. It looks pretty and it looks interesting and it looks fun. And I was so relieved when we got this.
Starting point is 00:46:45 Like I really hope it's... I mean, for many reasons, I really hope it's good. But maybe the biggest one is to go back to what you said, which is like, this is how they get us. Oh, every time. Every time. And it's, I would say that there's like a part of me that watching Obi-Wan, I'm just like, I really hope that Cassie and Andor is not redeemed by his protection of a child throughout
Starting point is 00:47:06 this season. But other than that, I have no notes. I'm just like, show me refugee, like, on the run, baby spy, Cassie and Andor putting together the dirty dozen to pull some mission. and what's the dark side of the rebellion and the cast looks incredible Scarsguard looks incredible I'm so fired up for the show
Starting point is 00:47:30 it just looks like I'm so happy to get the fuck off of Tatouine I'm so thrilled to see like trees and cloud cover so sign me up put my name on the dotted line and like do it The playoffs are here
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Starting point is 00:49:10 Terms apply. Wishing you could be there live for the big game, soaking up the atmosphere in the crowd. But too often, life gets busy, or the price hold you back. Priceline is here to help you make it happen. With millions of deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars, you can go see the game live.
Starting point is 00:49:32 Don't just dream about the trip. Book it with Price Line. Download the Priceline app or visitpriceline.com. Actual prices may vary, limited time offer. Do you want to do some Top Chef? Yeah, let's get into Top Chef since we have the luxury of a Friday show. Also, this was an awesome episode of Top Chef. This was probably my favorite episode of the season.
Starting point is 00:49:53 I think they got the right four chefs going. This is obviously spoilers for top chefs. So feel free to go back to the beginning of episode and listen to the first 12 minutes of Andy talking about Chippendale again because that was the highlight of it. We go to Tucson. I did not know Tucson was a new Nesco food site. Did you?
Starting point is 00:50:10 Here's a small note. I actually really want to go to Tucson prior to this. I've heard great things about food, culture, beautiful spot. this episode, even once it got going, was a really important reminder that Top Chef has not really messed with the Southwest. And I think that's phenomenal. It's a great place for the show to go and be. But unintentionally, one of the funniest moments in the history, 19 seasons now or whatever, of this program, where at the end of last week, when they were like, congratulations, you've run the gauntlet of Houston, a great food city that we spent little to no time in. we're going to one of only two places in America that is a UNESCO food heritage site.
Starting point is 00:50:52 And they're all like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you see their minds are going. They're like, it's got to be New Orleans. Like, this is going to be rich. And they're like, get ready. Pack your bags. You've earned the right to go to Tucson.
Starting point is 00:51:06 And no disrespect to Tucson, which acquits itself beautifully. But it is the reality TV equivalent of when Wayne and Garth go to Delaware in the Wayne's World movie. translation of that statement would have been if Patma was like, congratulations. You've won a trip to the only place more permissive than Texas when it comes to COVID regulations. Oh my, oh my God.
Starting point is 00:51:28 I have to say that, man, we get to this episode and all of a sudden the magic is back. It's like the top chef version of Andor where I'm like, this is what this is supposed to be. The colors of the place are supposed to pop in the scenery of the show and they should inform the food. And I felt like even
Starting point is 00:51:45 the two challenges that they did, the quick fire and the elimination, the first one being with this carnaceca, this dried, like, jerky style Mexican meat preparation. And then the final elimination challenge that utilized chiltepeen peppers and cactus, I was like, where was this in Houston? You know what I mean? And it was the spirit. And I think also, obviously, you've got four excellent chefs. You get those moments in Top Chef when those four chefs, or however many final chefs you've got, are now cooking at such a high level that the judgment is about the most minor blemishes rather than you fucked up some massive part of this dish or you didn't get something on the plate or this catastrophe happened. Personally, that's my preferred version. I also think it's a more,
Starting point is 00:52:32 it's a greater challenge for the judges to articulate what's happening with the food when they have to find those things that are just minorly wrong with a great dish rather than be like, well, I didn't get my sauce or I didn't get my pickle or I didn't get this. You know, like, that to me is like always a little bit underwhelming when those kinds of things happen. I think that happened with Don last season a couple of times with her timing. But this is just awesome. I thought like it was also really cool. I felt like they focused a little bit more on the different chefs' unique perspectives on what they were cooking. And I don't know how they go about I thought it was almost interesting to consider what they did on those two weeks
Starting point is 00:53:12 in between Texas and Arizona. Buddha obviously went, or as his wife calls him, Buddha, obviously went and got in his bag and is, I think, really plotting out like a, I'm going to have some tricks that I pull out at each stage of this competition. But at the same time, like, Sarah is like cooking from her Michigan background of like, I forage, we broke down to deer. I work with mushrooms. Like, there's a certain flavor to my stuff. There's a certain flavor to Evelyn stuff who was obviously, you know, was cooking out of her mind in that final elimination. And DeMara was not that far off. DeMara spent the two weeks Googling how to clean a cactus, apparently, which did come in handy.
Starting point is 00:53:55 And if my golf swing is anything to go by, you can't just learn things on YouTube, man. They, they, I learned the truth about COVID on YouTube. I think, I think it's good for couple things. I think that these, this is the thing with Top Chef, and I hope it's baked into, no pun intended, into our gentle criticism of every season when it gets started. Like, they often, no, they generally end up in the right place, you know, and I think these four chefs, Nick last week as well, and I love Nick, these were the right people. They're deserving to be there. Their points of view, their relationship, their camaraderie, their passions are so well reflected once you finally get down to it.
Starting point is 00:54:34 And that's, you know, that's a compliment, not just to the chefs involved, but also to the producers who really do consistently find people who can not only deliver on a very high level, but also bring the humanity that we need because I think you're right. Once they get to Tucson, everyone is on the same page in such a glorious degree. It doesn't mean they're cooking the same food, far from it, but everyone is sharing the same vibe of warmth and cultural appreciation and mutual respect. They honored the ingredients.
Starting point is 00:54:59 They learned at the farm. They liked hanging out with Maria. and they delivered, right? And then it became a game of inches, which is, I think, what you want it to be at this stage. I have to ask you, though. I don't know if this has been your experience, and I don't know if it's specific to my experience
Starting point is 00:55:14 as having watched all 19 seasons or whatever, but I don't remember this happening previously, which is every week, maybe for the whole season, but I'm definitely going to say for the last seven or eight weeks, it has been unquestionably clear who was going home early in the episode, if not before the episode started. The last three weeks, I've made a point of saying to myself, here are my picks.
Starting point is 00:55:40 Nick is probably not going to make it this week, not because of any disrespect to Nick, but because of what had happened to the previous week with the family cooking challenge in Galveston, and also the caliber of where everyone else is in the game. And after last week, you could tell that DeMarre was starting to drag a little bit. Again, he delivered in so many ways, and it was a beautiful send-off, But I think even he was like, I've hit my wall at this moment for where I am.
Starting point is 00:56:02 And I can feel it. It hasn't lessened my enjoyment of the episode, but I can't remember a previous season where it's been so clear, so early, week to week, what was going to happen. So I think that it depends on the characters at play. For instance, it is now pretty much a weekly occurrence that Sarah downplays her cook, her ability, her plan, her, like whatever. She goes into something and she's just like, you know, the ice cream machine exploded. I don't really, I've never done this before, blah, blah, blah.
Starting point is 00:56:32 And I think that, like, that's a little bit of a misdirection where I've always kind of been like a Sarah going home, like, because of her level of confidence or at least the way she talks about herself in those one-on-ones. I felt like DeMardis didn't seem like he came into the kitchen with, like, a ton of confidence today, like, or today, like on that, on that semi-final cook where it just seemed like, as soon as those beans went wrong, it was playing catch-up and it was like, how can I try to you know, basically patched together a meal that's a pretty big deviation from what I really wanted to be serving. And in the meantime, the people around him seem to be like flying. So yeah,
Starting point is 00:57:11 I guess you're right. I mean, I think that there are sometimes where I, you know, there are major errors, whether it's a timing thing or what or a plating thing or a cooking through thing. Like Ashley, for instance, when they did that thing with her cooking the squid and she was just like, I made sure to pull that squid off early and I was like, oh, shit. You know, and they kind of made it sound like she was like, I remember I'm not supposed to overcook Swid, but it seemed like that was bad. But, you know, they also had, in the previous week, they had Sarah being like, I plated this upside down and, you know, like, seemed to be like almost giving them more or less
Starting point is 00:57:47 unadorned fish. So it's really tough, man, but do you feel like that's the same as with, do you feel like it's the same sort of broadcasting with the winners? Like, did you know Evelyn was going to win the elimination? challenge when they were cooking? No, not at all. Because I thought Bouda was going to win. I think that it became clear once we got to Judge's table that Evelyn was going to win because of the consistency.
Starting point is 00:58:09 She was the only one who produced two dishes that they had very little to complain about. I think that both Sarah and Buda crushed the first course and they probably overall, the judges preferred those dishes to Evelyn's first course, which they also loved. But her dessert lifted the two collectively over the finish line. It's an interesting place for the finale. I mean, you can tell everyone, by the way, we're talking about it. Like, I'm very, very in to where the show is at the right time. I think it's peaking at the right time.
Starting point is 00:58:40 I'm trying to remember a final three as distinct as this, not just in their cooking styles, but in where they are in their own heads and in the competition. Because what we have heading into this finale is Evelyn, who is bringing what she's brought from the beginning, which is an incredible depth of soul, for lack of a better word, in her cooking, and flavor and understanding of ingredients, and just vibing culturally with what's being put in front of her. And I'm not saying that because her grandmother taught her to cook Napalas. I'm saying that each of these challenges, not just in terms of the ethnic ingredients, but in terms of the sentimental story that they build around the narrative, she's been able to lock into that time and time
Starting point is 00:59:20 again. Buddha is back to being what he was at the beginning, which is a technical McGiver-level genius. But as we saw with this dessert, sometimes the innovation is outflanking the story. And then in Sarah, we have someone who it is all clicking for at the right time and is playing four-dimensional chess at the line. Like when she's cooking on a level that we really only see from winners, where she's like, I guess mushrooms and mulberries, because I broke a deer down with my fiance, and I don't know, it might just be slop in a bowl. And they're like, this is the greatest thing we've eaten in weeks. It's a little bit, a little bit like Colorado. when it comes to recent seasons.
Starting point is 00:59:58 I think that there are shades of Joe, Carrie and Adrian there. But I guess Joe S was in the final three, right? Carrie went out. No, Joe Flam, the one that he won. Joe S was Mustash Joe. He was out. Right.
Starting point is 01:00:14 So Joe Flam won. Adrian was runner up. And then were Carrie and Joe and the other Joe, Mustache Joe, was there like a Final Four and not a Final Three? That may have in the top four. It's interesting comparison. I found that to be one of the, least inspiring
Starting point is 01:00:27 fineries and final groupings. That was when they had to go all the way to altitude, right, to cook and it was like, oh, somebody's like a bunch
Starting point is 01:00:34 of people's recipes didn't work out because they didn't adjust for altitude. But also I think that these three cook, just purely personality and cooking
Starting point is 01:00:41 style, I think, these three are much more compelling than those. I met more just in terms of their distinct approaches, right? Right.
Starting point is 01:00:49 Yeah. That was it. I mean, like, I definitely, I hear what you're saying. I was more. But I think there was a a moment in the middle
Starting point is 01:00:54 of the season, when Evelyn was crushing everything. And then when she made the curry dish and they were like, this is your signature dish, you know, like that energy going into the final, she'd be clubhouse leader. Buddha of two or three weeks ago where it was just all clicking, you know, and he was winning soul food challenges, which is insane. He would have been positioned to win. Yes. But Sarah's, you know, tough, tough mutter climb up from the underworld, much like with Kristen and much like with Brooke,
Starting point is 01:01:21 like it's wild. You cannot discount that. The way that she cooked these last two weeks is just, like she blacks out. Yeah. It's pretty cool. It looks like a really interesting finale repairs there. Like it looks like they've got some interesting sous chefs working with them and interesting, like, assistant. I can't tell if they're famous people are cooking with them or if it's like other top chefs from the season or. The one thing that gave me pause, and this is, obviously we'll see the episode and we'll talk about it next week.
Starting point is 01:01:47 But the one thing that gave me slight pause was just all the in the next week on, this I'm talking about. Yeah. It seemed to be overweating. Maybe this was intentional. Buddha and the prep and his ability to show up and bring all these things and dazzle and that they actually did something they rarely do which they seem
Starting point is 01:02:04 to just show a complete dish by him the changing of the foliage and then they showed it plating and they showed like repair weeping that probably all seems like a misdirect but it was interesting the way they described the finale just like cook your best with the stuff you brought that would seem to give him an advantage yeah I agree so we'll see next week
Starting point is 01:02:21 who do you think is going to win just because of the finale cut with the scenes from next week and the way it's just like it's Buddha, I think it's Evelyn. I got Evelyn too. Okay. I just think she's the most consistent also. So if there's variance on either side, Sarah pours more than ice cream on herself, Buddha overthinks something. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:02:41 Evelyn doesn't make those kinds of mistakes. That was tough when it was like one person's ice cream melted. The other ice creams was too cold, which I guess I didn't really think about ice cream being too cold. That was some real Goldilocks shit. Greenwald, great conversation with you today. Thanks for doing this on a Friday. I hope everybody enjoyed Obi-Won. I hope everybody enjoy Stranger Things and Top Gun and the Eastern Conference Finals and a long weekend.
Starting point is 01:03:02 We all deserve it. Thank you to Kai and McMullen for producing. And hey, if you haven't watched We Own the City yet, you should watch it. The finale's on Monday. It's probably our favorite show of the year. And then you can listen to Monday's podcast and you'll love it because we spoil the show and talk about it. That's right. We'll talk to you guys next Monday, but also we'll be back Thursday.
Starting point is 01:03:22 Have a great long weekend.

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