The Watch - Danny McBride on the Premiere of ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ S4. Plus, ‘The White Lotus’ E4 and ‘Severance’ E8.

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Chris and Andy talk about the trailer for ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 that was released last week (4:39), the latest episode of ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3, and the many secrets the characters are keeping from one another four episodes in (13:11). Then they break down ‘Severance’ S2E8 (39:32) before they are joined by Danny McBride to talk about the premiere of ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Season 4 and how that celebrity cameo came to be (1:04:24). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Guest: Danny McBride Senior Producer: Kaya McMullen Video Production: Chris Thomas Video Editor: Stefano Sanchez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Connection is why we move forward and what inspires us to keep going. Let's run there. Learn more at brooksrunning.com. I need supports to have to clear the room. 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 in the studio when he found out the latest episode of Severance was a Harmony episode. He said Popper, no! It's Andy Greenwald! Yeah, yeah, look at that.

Oh, cross the streams there on White Lotus and Severance. That was like SEO intro. And I also tip the cap to some viral content, you know, because, you know, Parker Posey on Good Morning America is just going nuts right now. Parker Posey on Good Morning America is going viral. She went on Good Morning America and did her

did her Victoria Rattling voice and people were falling out of their chairs. I mean, that's great for her. Honestly, she's one of my faves. Yeah. I got some great Parker Posey stories from the city of New York City. Yeah.

Oh, seeing her out? Yeah. Is that time you went on an all-night day with her and you went to Russ and daughters and ate fish? Oh, that was an episode of Louis. Sorry. We're getting, we're just getting warmed up. Andy Greenwald today on the Watch podcast.

This is a good one. Why are we underplaying it? Special guest, Danny McBride, talking about last night's extraordinary Last night's Danny McBride-free episode. Of Righteous Gemstones. We'll talk a little bit more about that with spoilers once we get to that part of the episode. Obviously, that conversation with Danny is full spoilers.

We put that up on our YouTube page. Is it up already? Yeah, you can, that went up last night after the episode of Righteous Gemstones aired. You can watch that. Ringer-T.V. is the channel. You can also watch us on Spotify on the watch page. You can listen to us on Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. Hit us up The Watch at Spotify.com.

is the email. Okay. And the watchpod underscore on Instagram. We'll be doing a mailbag soon. I think a very pit-centric mailbag, if my calculations are correct. And from what I understand, you are the, all the information coming towards our podcast flows through you. Kaya is in charge of our DMs on the watch pod underscore, I think.

And in your personal accounts as well? So when people are like, I find Chris Ryan undeniably attractive, I would love to give him $10 million to be my house husband. She's just like, pass. Wow. Did you have to talk to her about that? No, she doesn't even tell me. It's like, that's just the mystery. Got it. Got it. Groomow, great to see you, man.

That was awesome that Danny McBride came through. He was the best, man. He's the best. He's such a nice guy. I think we can talk about it more when we get to the interview. I just want to say that of the many guests that we've had to this campus where we record the podcast, including myself. because technically every time I'm kind of a guest. You're America's guest.

His overstayed is welcome. Danny McBride is the only person who's actually taken his Spotify guest sticker and put it on his person. He was also like cool office you guys have here. He liked it. He was into it. What a good guy. How you doing with the time change? You good?

That sucks. This one's tough. Yeah. I think a lot of podcasts in America are starting with a little time change talk. Yeah. But I thought I would do it, you know. Okay. You want to talk me through your experience of the time change?

you were away for the weekend, so maybe you just lingered a little bit longer. I mean, it was, you know what it is? It's a fun Saturday night, because you're like, look at me. Johnny Dangerous, up at 2 in the morning again. And then it's a pretty tough Monday morning when you're like, it is not 815.

No. It is 7.15. I know you have not seen 8.15 asleep in a long time. No, what's it like? No, my experience was even weirder because I was going to dinner on Saturday, night. And for whatever reason, my car, which I don't know if I've mentioned, is an electric vehicle, you're welcome, changed its clock early. And I assume... That's actually tariffs. That's just...

That was the tariffs that cost me an hour. So I was going to dinner and I was like, oh, no, is it seven? Forget it. Because I was so upset at the thought of eating dinner at seven instead of six. That's my life. Meanwhile, Kai is telling us she has eight 45 dinner reservations. We have a bunch of stuff to talk about today. We're going to talk a little bit about that most recent of Severance, as I mentioned. Obviously, the White Lotus. Controversial, yeah. And we'll talk a little bit about Gemstone's premiere. I wanted to ask you, Andy, if you had a chance to see the last of a season two trailer. I did. And they showed it before Lotus as well, but a shorter version, but I did see the full. The full. Any reaction? This is, I realize that this might be in the Severance zone of I don't remember how this ended. I mean, obviously, I know that they're in a town and like, et cetera. But like, I can't really. There was, the only thing. I was looking for in this trailer is the Caitlin Dever character, Abby.

Is that because you're a big fan of the video game character or what? Are you like her right now? I'm aware of the discourse surrounding this character. Are you? Quite a weekend for discourse surrounding fictional characters. Go on? Yeah. So, I mean, but Abby is apparently a controversial figure in the Last of Us universe and is not people's favorite.

And Caitlin Dever has been like, this has already been unpleasant, you know. So we'll see how this works out. Are you so... It's hardly the most important thing. Are you suggesting that people on the internet have strong reactions when beloved characters from other mediums are cast and put on screen? I mean, you should see the boards about Evil Knievel and Adrian Burdy right now. That's what I knew you were talking about.

Thank you. Glad to have that one across my transom. Yeah. Well, I remember the end. I remember that basically, and we won't spoil it for people who have. and watch Last of Us. Let's grow up. I mean, I agree.

But basically, what's her name? Lil Gal is, she's the cure, but they got to extract a cost. And then he's like, nope. And he does a little bit of a shoot-em-up. That's right. And rescues her. That's right. And that's, uh, I wonder how Dr. Robbie would approach that situation.

That's your season, you want. Yeah. Don't even put my beautiful Dr. Robbie in imaginary harm's way. How dare you, sir? I mean, with Gaggins on two different Sunday night shows right now, I just think that the HBO, the doors need to come down. You know, the walls need to come down and characters need to be floating. You think HBO should be more like a repertory company.

Yes. Which, by the way, that was the first story I ever wrote for Granland. In June of 2011 was the HBO recycling program about how they always use the same actors. Maybe it's time to bring that full circle. I think so. I do think that that would be, I mean, we are joking, but at the same time, one of the decisions that creators have to make

is how to play with the empathy meter. And so when you introduce doctors who are doing their best to save the world from a mushroom apocalypse, and then our man is like, nope, I want to save this kid. If it was Dr. Robbie and Dana doing the surgery, that is a bold character choice.

So when you were making Briar Patch, did you have a special briefcase for the empathy meter? We called it the football. I carried it around at all times. Wildcat, Cal. It was like James Marsden in Paradise. They were like, Chief, Chief, I need a little more juice. I need people to care about me more. Wildcat is moving. He's got the empathy with him.

Sorry. None for you and none for me. I'm sorry. So this looks cool. I think I've learned not to doubt Craig Mason. Yeah. You were higher on the first season than I was. I sure was. Yeah.

I think I'm having a little bit of it's a little bit of a challenge. I don't know whether this is just age or whether this is sheer volume of content on top of a fairly healthy sports intake and also just, you know, reading about the world where I'm just not remembering entirely what happens on TV shows all the time.

Do you think that will affect your role as a cultural podcaster? No, not. I mean, what I mean is like, I just don't quite. remember, I remember the beginning of the Last of Us. I remember horse. I remember big beats of it. You remember horse? A horse. Wasn't there a horse involved? Sure. Yeah. I thought I didn't, you're like, my man, horse. Like for Twin Peaks? Like, no, I remember the beginning getting out of Boston, because I too got out of Boston. And I, and I remember the Move West. I remember Melanie Linsky. I remember horse. What about Nick Offerman? Oh yeah, the bottle episode, see? I remember

I recall a lot of it. I recall a lot of it. Do they go back to the well in S2? With a little bit more from their life together? No, like a different set of characters. Yeah. I mean, I think that... Like a righteous gemstone's interlude episode style. With Bradley Cooper. My feeling about this is I do remember it. And I was relatively dispassionate about the show. I thought it was beautifully made and creatively and surprisingly made, and in many cases, like the best, maybe the best case scenario for prestige

IP storytelling. But I, but if, if when the first season was on, I probably said something about maybe having a slight allergic reaction to another dystopic end of the world tale. And I feel increasingly that, that, that, that allergy has only worsened over time. You want counter programming. I wouldn't mind. Or, or just like, guys, I think we have a pretty good roadmap that it's not going to be fungus. Do you know what I mean? Like I think there are a lot of like Like you know like

Dun Dunn Law and Order Rip from the headlines It's culprits, it's measles Right like it's something really stupid And avoidable So we'll see I'm sure it will be beautifully made And carefully constructed

And that's not a small thing Do you have an end of the world scenario That you're particularly afraid of? You mean other than the one we're experiencing? Do you mean like, oh, of like, of like, of the big five of like zombies, aliens? Yeah, of like Paradise Last of Us. Oh, okay. Name, give me some choices.

I mean, those are two of the biggest. Walking Dead. Well, those are zombies too. I mean, like the, I look at the mushroom, I look at the fungus as, as like zombies, basically. Wow. Okay. Of those, like, do I have a favorite or one that I'm afraid of what you say? surely afraid of, one that you're like, it can't be that.

I'm not afraid of zombies. Okay. I mean, I don't think that's where we're headed. Not me neither. Although World War Z painted a very convincing picture of it. Not the film, the book. Oh. Yeah.

That is a high-key dick move. I actually didn't see the film. I'm talking about Max Brooks's novel. It's actually a fictional oral history. And I highly recommend it. The film is also quite good. But they're two distinct pieces, you know? Do you find, I feel like we've talked about versions of this in the past,

particularly when we were watching, well, there was a rise in, like when people were watching Contagion during the pandemic. I was people. So you seek solace in fictional representations of real-world fears? That particular one was Bill asking to do rewatchables about contagion, about a week into it, if I remember correctly.

Yeah. I don't know that I necessarily would have fired, that up, but I often find myself looking for like stuff that represents, that reflects the moment that I'm in somehow. Yeah. So yes, I would have watched Contagion either way. I just think that generally we're, I just think we're wrong about most things. And I think that there is a kind of perverse comfort in turning towards apocalyptic storytelling when the world feels apocalyptic, because even though it's bleak, it's certain. Yeah. And it's controllable and knowable. And you can get all the messy stuff out of the way and be like, these good people and dungarees are committed to saving

what's left, you know? And it's like, I don't think it's going to go. I just don't think it's going to go like that. I actually don't think the world is ending writ large. Yeah. I also just feel like I'd like a different type of. No, we're in great shape. You haven't given me my daily news dump yet, my daily news digest. Yeah, I mean, let me just check here, see what's going on in the New York Times. I'm just watching your face. On video now, we could actually see it happen in real time. We could? You know, the New York Times, it's like a lot of, a lot of like, not puff pieces, but it's a lot of like color. A lot of fluff.

Today, stock markets crashing, so. Nice. Let's talk a little bit about Severance. Want to do that first, or you want to do White Lotus first? I think we should do White Lotus first. Okay. That's more front of mind. I have a question about whether or not, and I think I've, I've run this bill a couple of times.

Okay. And I am saying this as somebody coming from a position of incredible enjoyment. I thought they were going to say wealth until 10 minutes ago when the stock market crashed. Four episodes in a lot of secret keeping. More so than I feel like I remember from earlier seasons of this show where multiple characters and sets of characters within these little pods are obscuring something either from partner, loved one, family member, especially from the audience.

Right. So that with the exception of blend, guy talk I mean I would even I put Chelsea in the other group I put all these people in these other groups we're watching 65% of a character we're watching 65 they're not telling us

like don't know why Rick is I mean we can guess that he's being honest about his father or whatever yeah I think we were guessing that a week ago but I don't necessarily know does it matter to you that we don't have a really like awesome sense of what brings Rick and Chelsea together and was he like

a fun guy six months ago. Well, I think what you're speaking to there, and I think I agree with your larger point, is that up to now, we're four episodes in, we're almost halfway through. Do we have nine this season, 10? I think so. I think it's nine.

I think it's maybe a bit longer than past season, so maybe the midpoint might feel different. It's been eight in the past, so I think it's nine this season. It's not just that we've had 65% of Rick in terms of his truth-telling. It's that Chelsea has had 65% of Rick, because he's hiding things from her as well.

Yes. And Chelsea's character to this point is pretty much just reactive to Rick. Now, I don't mean that as any kind of criticism of Amy Lou Wood. Is that her name? I think she's great and delightful and fully present in every scene. And I get her and I like the character. But we don't know anything about her past or why she feels so close to Rick or why she's choosing to be with him and supporting him and loving him despite the way he's behaving. So there is a lot of shadow that we're existing. That's what I think I'm, that's a perfect way of putting it.

There's a lot of shadow four hours in. Why is Victoria, Victoria seems to be like, uh, willfully ignoring the obvious open-robed drug, like, adult husband in front of her who's going through crisis. Yep. Um, you know, I, I think that the Greg and Chloe relationship is a little bit more clear where it's like we met on a matchmaking service. but at the same time, Greg going from monosyllabic bald beta to like perhaps like psychokylakase

is like a, not a stretch, but it is a, it's an interesting turn to go midway through in conjunction with Belinda interrogating him. I'm not really sure if I'm making like a coherent point. I think there's just something interesting where a lot of the first two seasons, I think we learned about,

characters over the course of the season and they change, but who they are is not as much of a mystery or who they are to each other is not as much. Or the revelations aren't as slow to come. I mean, I think there's a bunch of different ways to talk about the season. And I think that they will, at least for the purposes of this podcast today, midway through, might sound overly critical. I don't mean to be critical because I'm still enjoying the show very, very much. But I do think it is noticeable how little development, the individual storylines have experienced over this time the, um, uh, oh my God, what's, why am I blanking on? There's too many names or maybe it's the time change. Jason Isaacs. Tim Ratliff. Tim. Tim's

misery and the development of his circumstance so far is entirely siloed because as you said, no one else is, I mean, they're starting to notice, but they're not really. So it is completely a solo performance. In past seasons at this point, specifically I'm thinking about the second season, the fault lines within the groups were not only more. more evident. Like, if you think about the Michael Imperiali, F. Marie Abraham, and the kid thing, like, they were behaving in three distinct ways that were already

in conflict from the beginning. And then the subsequent fault lines of, like, how they would treat women that were then brought in front of them. And then the upstairs, downstairs storyline with the call girl who was then taking advantage of the stuff. So, like, we were starting to see the way the tendrils were overlapping with the

behaviors that were introduced in the first two episodes. To this point, I feel like this season is the most in a way, the characters, the trust that we have in the characters is based solely in the fact that all the characters are on the White Lotus, meaning the accrued equity

of watching two seasons of the show is giving us the patience to be like, well, they're going to get White Lotusy sooner or later. It seems like it's all set up to do that. It's kind of like watching Black Mirror where you're like, if you're watching a kind of flat setup for a Black Mirror episode, be like, but something fucking great isn't going to happen.

What's interesting, though, is, again, if you look like, think about those groups in season two. So there was the family guys trip, and then there was the two couples. And there were so many distinct personalities, but also very, very, very palpable fault lines within it. So with the Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharp, Theo James, my airline buddy, Theo James, like that. Do you want to explain what you're talking about? Haven't I said that? He's just on every flight I take.

You told me that. I didn't say this on the podcast. I don't think so. Every time I do a triple take because he's very handsome but he's not like super tall sculpted Adonis. He just looks like a normal guy wearing nice clothes. Are all guys who were in the movies and TV actually like that? I don't hobnob with them the way you do.

No, but aren't they all like 5'5? But they're all wearing like just the right distress cords. I mean, anyway, it doesn't matter. I didn't get to see what he was watching on the last flight, but I promise it wasn't Enora because he respects his fellow. You still haven't watched her, right? flight mates. No, because now

for me, if I turn it on... Oh, you're going to be like sheeple? You're going to be like, oh. No, I just kind of, now I'm like kind of an exhibitionist with Anora. Oh, yeah. Like now I kind of want to open all the windows in my house and turn it on in the big screen. I'm just like, neighbors are coming by. I stand with sex workers. I want people to know what kind of house this is.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say about season two is that the fault lines were very evident and very compelling. And then what was exciting was how were they going to explode across the canvas of a show in which all the characters and plot lines converge. This season, like if you look at the the girl's trip, yeah. I got no notes on that. It's totally enjoyable. It's comedic, it's fun,

they're all playing the hell out of it. They are also distinguishing the characters so artfully from scene to scene. Leslie Bibb is really, really putting on the afterburners. I would like to just also mention one quick thing as we're talking about the three ladies, Kate Jacqueline and Lori. Yeah. What Coon is doing with food acting? right now. Elite. Should be studied.

Yeah. Watch these last two episodes. She almost is never not stuffing her face with fruit or drinking a beverage. A lot of watermelon choices. And a lot of like she's eating when like it gets thrown back to her. Like the conversation is kind of like. Valentin's looking at her and she's like. Yeah.

But it is like the fact that you get to see her do that and then also like the sort of rigidity of gilded age is fantastic. It's a great spectrum of. of performing. She's great, but the stakes of that storyline are still very unclear to me. Sure. I mean, I think across the board, now we have a stolen gun. We have a man on a mission for revenge.

Like some actually pretty traditional pulpy plot lines have been kicked into. This was the first episode that tugged on that lever of the like, uh-oh, we're being pulled inexorably towards some sort of conflict or unpleasantness or anguish for the characters. Yeah, that's absolutely starting to emerge. But the thing that I'm surprised at in this episode

before I turn it back to you is episode one, I got on mic with you and I was like, you know what I'm excited about? I'm excited about a White Lotus, all due respect to the multiple Emmy winner, but without Jennifer Coolidge. Just because I was like, her tonal variance was, I don't know if it was a drag,

but I was like this was the right time to jettison that character and that storyline because it was so much her show and then the show everyone else was on. What I didn't appreciate was having Tanya from season one to season two gave a character who was always in a sort of disarray and distress who really was in search of something. And her need to find that thing provided a lot of more traditional, episodic week to week and then season to season narrative. She's not there anymore. And yet the show is still in her wake in that the biggest episode to episode mystery now seems to be is Belinda going to run.

realize who this guy is what she did. Well, you know, I hadn't really thought of that until you mentioned it. And I think that for as much as I love her as a public persona and as a performer, my, my like kind of, I had a Tanya meter that went up and down over the course of the two seasons. But I didn't really think about maybe it's, it's the Tanya piece is missing. And that that is like actually like this consistent, zany, absurdist comic part. that maybe it's missing now. It's not in a missing way, like I miss it. It's just, it's not there.

But you could miss the comedy, or you could miss the fact that her and her relationship, was it Portia? Who was her assistant in season two? Yeah, Porsche, it's Haley-Lew Richardson. Yeah, she was great. It was Tanya's presence and her questing and that pushed the show out of the resort

and onto the yachts and into the Tom Hollander character and the crew of gayser were trying to kill her. And Porsche into Leo Woodall, and it pushed, pushed, pushed outside of it. Now, the equivalent in this episode was, oh, Greg slash Gary has a mega yacht that Tanya's money paid for, right?

And so now we're pushing out again. And, you know, who cares about the plot hijinks to conspire to get everyone onto this boat again? There's also multiple characters who don't want to be doing anything. Like Tim, Greg, and Rick don't want to be there. So the boat ended up being, so far, the season's best and funniest social commentary with, like, the types of guys that were on there and their women. And then Parker Posey talking to everybody and reacting to everybody. And I love, by the way, the scene of just like, when Gagins was talking to like Neil and Mitch about like hiding his, if he ever needs to hide his money and he goes, Sawa D. Never.

Like, I loved every second of it. But in terms of getting characters that I'm interested in's fault lines to line up with each other, not really, because Tim is just totally gacked on Larazapams and whiskey and doesn't want to be a part of anything. Yeah. And it's just shutting off. And then everybody's sort of shutting off in siloing themselves. So there wasn't much overlap. Now, the boat's continuing.

And who knows what trouble a Schwarzenegger can get into under a full moon. But, yeah, so this is, we should note, most White Lotus episodes are a, day of the hotel stay. Yes. This seems like given the scenes from next week. Oh, which I didn't watch. That it will be essentially the first part of two, like a one big episode that stretches across two episodes.

How are you, so this is a side question, but I was curious about your feelings in light of this episode. One thing that I've noticed about myself, not just when I lose an hour and don't get to have dinner while the sun's up. Yeah. I'm really selling myself on this pod. my relationship to watching characters get super fucked up has changed a lot

like there was a time when I would see characters getting after and I'd be like yeah that's what you do on a boat brother like there but for the grace of some you know some Thai cash go I yeah yeah now I'm watching Isaac's just neck

pills and then also just consistently drink brown liquor throughout an entire day on the ocean and like that just seems like barf city man that seems unpleasant Well, he tries to heave outside of a guy talks a little stand there, right? I don't know you try. I feel like the events catch up to him.

Yeah. And give him some feelings. My read on that is also like, I understand the idea that, you know, everybody is kind of living in their own cloud of pharmacology and denial. But you don't need to be Philip Marlowe to figure out where the liberalazepam went. This guy was super uptight, alpha of like for two days. And now he's like hanging dong with the robot. open and is fucking in a sarcophagus everywhere he goes. So I think that's where the little respan went. Do you think you've tracked it down? Similarly, so what you're saying is this show lacks

two crucial occupations. Yeah. A legitimate private detective and a legitimate security guard. Yes. Let's talk a little bit about Guy talk. Guy talk, man, blinded by love. And she did look great in her damn outfit. But maybe security guard's not the job. He's not cut out for it. I mean, he seems like he would be a great I mean pick a gig he could work at the snake farm he could be there's like apparently a big boat culture

and he's very calm which I appreciate and has a sunny disposition very positive guy thought maybe he was getting a promotion despite allowing an armed robbery to take place under his watch it is peak you had one job

I think it is also peak signposting where the guy's like I am putting a gun in this cabinet. I am locking the cabinet. Yes. I am handing you a key. We are holding on the cabinet. Just to be clear, gun in the cabinet. So this is Mike White's Chekhov's gun. It has been pocketed by Tim. Guy Talk at least does seem aware of the pickle he's in. I will call this now as a red herring.

I think the gun gets into the wild. Yeah. Not to be morbid, but the sound of the weapon going off in the first episode flash forward or whatever. Yeah. It sounds like an automatic weapon. Yeah. And there's also, there was a lot of heavy, heavy camera lingering on Greg Gary looking at Zion, looking at Linda Sun. Now it's a pressure point now that he's coming, right?

Yeah. And he's the focus of that first opening moment in the pilot. That crime still looms pretty large over this. Because in the past it's been a body bag, and this is a mass murder. Or a shooting event. And regardless, the other thing that I think is in play that might be interesting is there's nothing to suggest that that event is the finale. That event could happen next week or could happen the week after. Darts today.

Right? Yeah. I'm just saying, like, that might be a fun way to play with audience expectations and to differentiate the season. You should eat dinner at 7 o'clock every night. I do feel full. I do feel satiated. Thank you. What else did I want to talk to you about? Rick. Let's talk a little bit about Rick.

For a man that is detached and emotionally dead, he packed a delightful wardrobe of shirts. He looks great. The wardrobes across the board are excellent. I was watching them. Paying attention to the way that they dress Chelsea every episode, which is just... She wearing like a blondie t-shirt?

It's just insane and not flattering, but also perfect. She's great. Gaggins is a actor who I obviously have a tremendous amount of affection for and has spent most of his career

even after Justified as I think a character actor as a supporting All-Star Boyd Crowder on Justified was initially one of those great Pinkman Omar kind of roles

that was initially supposed to go He was just supposed to be in the pilot, I believe, yeah. And became the second most important character on that show. Yeah. He has definitely passed into a new realm now. Not only in his public persona, which I think is definitely playing up the,

the quote-unquote Walden Gagin's element, like just the cool, you know, iconoclastic dude. He's got an Instagram video up of him driving through the desert listening to Hotel California today. He did like a Super Bowl ad, I got a chance to do a Righteous Gemstone's premier panel talk last week. You were great.

Thank you. But he was, he definitely had like a lot of aura up on that stage and was talking about how coming on to Righteous gemstones, I would assume, from White Lotus. Straight from. He was like the tank was empty. And it was, it was difficult. But as soon as I put the baby Billy stuff on, like I got revived. But watching him do Rick, this Rick part. is like, oh, you're moving into like a kind of like an almost leading man realm in a way?

Without question. He's like Dixie Nicholson at this point. And I think I was, I've also been thinking about him a lot because he's on all of our TV shows right now. But I was thinking about him and Jesse Plemons, who I just, we saw on Zero Day, but also I watched Civil War and I thought, I think a lot of people said this, that his scene was the best. best thing in the movie. And I was thinking, I mean, these kind of conversations are cul-de-sacs, but at the same time, it is hard not to imagine the careers that those guys would have had in a different decade. Sure. Like in the 70s, those guys are movie stars in a different way. And then we do still have people like that, but they're just making the best of the opportunities that

come to them. They have an unexpected charisma. They are good in everything. They're incredibly versatile, but they've had to kind of just swim against the tide and emerge, right? And make, and like I said, like make the most of their opportunities, which are never going to be, unless there's an incredibly rare occurrence, like they're never going to be like monocultural thunderclaps. You could do the reverse and be like, John Cazel would have been incredible on season three of the White Lottes, you know what I mean? But he actually got to be briefly a movie star. Yeah. So I think the specific thing that I wanted to say about him and that aura that he has in relation to this episode

is that there is a... I think I'm probably not alone in saying this. That there's a segment of the audience that's watching the season and it's like he's the star of this show. That Rick is the main character of this season. I saw an interview with Jason Isaacs where he was talking about how they basically had the run of that hotel as these productions do.

and that he had a villa, I think that he was basically sharing like an area of the hotel with Gaggins. And he's like, yeah, and like, you know. He said he got very close with his kids, quote, quote, but that Walton mostly kept to himself and smoked and stared up off the veranda, which is essentially like what he's doing in the show.

It's what the CR heads don't realize working with you at the ringer is like, like everybody wants a piece of the aura. Right. But you're just sitting in the parking lot, chomping on Zins. Do you chew on them or do they just dissolve? You put them up in your upper load?

What happens if you chew? I don't know. I've never tried. You want to light this candle live on air? I want to see what happens. We'll do bonus con. I should save that for when we have to do Patreon. Okay, fair. Or when I have to talk about Last of Us episode six. Because the stock market is cratered so hard. Fair.

And I'm like, watch me choose in for money. You would make so much money. The other big revelation this episode is that it turns out. out we were wrong to Judge Piper for her reluctance to, quote, meet an interview a monk, because that was never the plan. What do you mean? She just wants to live there. Yeah.

She didn't want to do an interview for whatever she was doing. Her thesis. She's graduating and then she's going to live there. So far, that's her plan. That's what she wants to do. Yeah. Okay. You don't have to get too mad at me about this.

I'm just supporting her. I feel like that's a good plan for her. Yeah. And she'll be near her dad who will be. fugitive. Or in its high prison, yeah. Well, I feel like he's, I think he's interested in the Gary way of life.

Unfortunately, the assets are frozen. Yeah. Unfortunately, is that... But we did have that guy on the boat talking about how to, like, avoid taxation and... Yeah, but he was saying that to the wrong guy. I know, but maybe Rick can be like, I know a guy who knows a guy.

Yeah, but Rick and Tim aren't on speaking terms. Well, maybe, you know, when Tim shows up with a gun, is like, give me your accountant's name. Wow, you are really caping up. for Tim Radliffe. Mike, are you sure you don't want a writer's room? The real hero of the show.

The fucking Rick comes in and he's like, motherfucker, I got you, right accountant! Mike's like, God, you guys saved the whole show. And the accountant is John Bernthal from the accountant, too. I mean, I do think, speaking of our Patreon account, a version where CR spins the hits

and you just do your version of stuff, speaking of spinning the hits, you are remarkably silent about John Bernthal's quotes. Shames his head. His quotes about his new Punisher. Oh, that is writing? Where he's just like,

no more of this candy-ass Punisher that you've seen. We're going to deliver the real, for the real heads. I don't want to see him get hurt. Emotionally? Or as the Punisher? I just don't,

I don't know how the Punisher exists on Disney Plus. Well, I mean, say nothing is on Disney Plus. You know what I mean? Like, the walls are down, brother. That's true.

Let the river flow. That's fine. It's a marketplace of ideas. I'm going to, I'm not watching Anora until I can watch it on Disney Plus the way I was intended to watch it. Can you? No. Because you can watch it on Hulu.

Can you? For free. Yeah. Well, then I can watch it on Disney Plus. I'm just going to look it up right now. This is incredible content. Disney Plus Home. Google this.

And then, oh, then you know what you should do? It's loading. Chris. Search. Hold up. They raise the prices. Search. You're going to pay?

Pay. A Nora. Is the video team getting this? No. It's not there. Not there yet. Yeah. I think that you should write to your friend Nelson Peltz and say...

Ike Pearlmutter. Ike Pearlmutter. Dear Mr. Pearlmutter, here's another bullet for your arsenal. Oh, it's not on Hulu either. That's cool. Yeah. You're just spreading misinfo. It's there.

Like, it'll be there at some point, but it's not there now. Sorry. Remember Minio was Miss Info? Yeah. You're Miss Info. Mr. Info. No, you're just. spreading misinfo.

Miss info. M-I-S-Info. Minia's the best. Honestly, mis-info. One of the great stuff we do it. Truly. Let me tell you a little bit about what we're going to do next.

Okay, are we done with White Lotus? Are you, can I check your, before we go, can I just check your Larazepam meter? Like, there is an element of continued enjoyment in the show because I do think that there is some, not critical rumbling, but like audience rumbling, that like, not much is happening.

This is the weakest season, that kind of talk. I feel like when you check into a White Lotus resort, you are guaranteed a baseline of service, and I feel like I'm being serviced. Me too. I also can tell, to your point about I wouldn't, you were talking about the history of White Lotus informing how you watch and the amount of...

Right. I think Mike White has a lot of credit in the bank. Yeah. And I think what he's trying to do this season... I would imagine is backload with some shit. Yeah.

Because we still have this crime. Those kids are, Saxons only getting fucking creepier. You know, like, Lachlan is apparently a close-up artist. Like,

everybody is spinning out a little bit and it's getting more violent. Things happen in threes. Like, true. You can just feel like this, this thing is happening. I don't trust these Russians,

just frankly. The ladies are having an enora moment. I guess. I'm just guessing. Am I wrong, though? See, I just kind of skitch on the back of culture. I don't need to engage. It's like me with the NBA.

I get it. I know the, I know the storylines of this season. You know what I mean? I don't have to watch the games. It's fine. Give me a storyline. From the season?

Yeah. SGA, an all-time guard season. So you listen to Bill for 15 minutes? No, I saw it on Instagram. I don't even listen anymore. But I'm aware. We're so fucked. I'm good. I'm fine. I got a lot going on.

Okay. I'm pretty busy right now. We had talked a little bit about skipping. Oh, do you want to say anything else about Way Lotus? So you feel you have, there's something banked. You feel good about that. There's a gun in the wild. Rick is looking for revenge.

These girls are going out with some Russians. I mean, it's pulpy. It's about to happen. Oh, here's the only other thing I want to say about it. And I have not watched ahead. I'm just saying. I have lived the number of years I've lived on this earth waiting for someone like Amrita to just stop me in the lobby and be. like, you are not your pain?

Like, what a win for Rick. And Rick can't even say thank you. Do you ever not want to talk about feelings? No. Okay. I mean, I guess only when I'm on this podcast with you being like, oh, NBA jokes. Like, but that's covering pain. Why don't you choose some Zinn, yo? Like, yeah.

The other 23 hours of the day, yes, it's all I want to talk about. Then let's talk about severance. Okay. There's some strong, strong feelings. What you're talking about that is like, when you come into this room, Audi, Andy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's out there. Well, I know, I know, I just kind of want to turn the floor over to you because I think I watched this before you. Cowerd. You know, as I watched Harmony Drive toward Salt Neck, I was like, here we go. Yep.

I don't think we're going to get a lot of cross-cutting to the other folks in this one. 36-minute episode directed by Ben Stiller. And it's essentially like, what Harmony Kobol has been up to the season while all this other stuff has been happening. And we get a very severance-like backstory to her, which is

about 68% clear. We find out, spoilers going ahead now, we find out that Harmony is the actual inventor of the severance procedure. We find out that Lumen or the Egan's

used to run basically a child sweatshop powered by Ether where Harmony and her sister and this guy Hampton played by James LaGroe which was great to seem Sissy. I thought that was her aunt. That was Celestine. That was her sister. That was her older sister, wasn't it? Look at us. We're already disagreeing.

How did you feel about this episode? Hold on, I'm going to get a Zinn. I saw like a restaurant did like a a promotional thing on Instagram using there's probably a name for this. Kaya is our youth correspondent can probably tell me what this is. When you take like a

meme or a video that's gone viral and then you turn it into your promotional thing like a thing about an animal. Okay, sure. Is that what you're talking about? Sure. I saw one of like someone doing slow pitch for someone smacking balls and baseballs in like a... In high heels.

What are you watching? What's your Algo all about? You didn't see there was a woman in high heels like just like crushing fast-pitched baseball. No, in this, someone was pitching. At a batting game. And then she was... She didn't get her hand away fast enough because the person tagged her with the ball that she hit.

She got hit and let out this wail. Uh-huh. And I feel like that's what you just did when you said, what did you think about this episode? Then you got back behind the netting? I mean, this is a very divisive episode online, and I know that a lot of people did not care for it.

I found this an awful viewing experience. but I am very, very interested in what the, no, genuinely, like what the decision making behind this episode say about... You're being genuine about the first part. About what the show is and why it is. And it is difficult, I think there's two difficult things to express here. One is the, as is often the case with severance, the craft on display is god tier and undeniable.

Like an almost almost maniacal Right we've interviews have come out From like the great James LaGroes Great character actor has been around For a lot of our movie and TV going lives He plays Hampton

He was saying that there was almost two years Between the exteriors of this episode And the interiors Because they moved the entire production To Newfoundland to get those absolutely stunning and striking visuals Yeah the vistas And then they decided

Well we don't want to actually Shoot inside a house here We're going to build this as a set in the Bronx and then he went off and did other things for almost two years and then filmed them. I mean, that is a commitment to production that most people do not get. And it was staggering.

Like, again, if you watch this episode on mute, I think I would probably feel the same way about it, or maybe I'd even like it more, but there's no denying... Not much dialogue in it. How beautifully it was shot. I think that there is a issue for me, as a viewer, when the craft and the aesthetics outweigh

the more humanist concerns of storytelling emotion and things like that. This, to me, was like watching a master builder in a workshop, completely lost in his craft, building a chair at a fine wood and picking the wood grain and doing other things that involve carpentry

that I don't know about. And feeling so good about the process and having a wonderful experience making a chair, and then moving on to the next chair before realizing that the chair is incredibly uncomfortable to sit in. I do not think that there is virtue in this episode being an absolute slog to watch. I do see that there's sort of like a reflexive fandom defense of like, oh, it's not everything needs to be spoon fed to you. And this is world building. You know, I'm like, world building. Where did you see this? This is not. A piece of discourse? All over the

internet. Okay. This is not settlers of Catan. Do you know what I mean? Like we, world building. This is a fucking entertainment product. We say world building a lot, though. This is a television show. Yeah. And if you decide to spend the invested capital of your audience to expand the world or, you know, Zag, tell a different sort of story, I do think you owe it to your audience to make it the most exciting and compelling and surprising thing possible. Not a 37-minute icy ether-drenched slog, which culminates in a woman sucking on her dead mother's oxygen tube before being revealed as, oh, guess what?

She's the inventor of all this shit, which I don't even think a superfan feels is necessarily consistent with the show they had been watching. Because, again, I think the best version of this show is a show about people making a choice for their own lives. as opposed to a large culty corporation inventing things in secret. That's not as compelling to me,

but I may be in the minority. Regardless, this was rough. This was a rough watch. The redeeming characteristic of this episode for me was some explanation as to the strange relationship between harmony and literally every other character is she had been this person

within Lumen who obviously wielded some power, but not too much power. You know, she was essentially, or looked to be a middle manager, right? But all throughout these series, we have gotten this suggestion or this picture of her as somebody who was very, like a true believer in what was going on and had shrines and had obviously been a part of this since she was. a child. There had been these suggestions about her and her upbringing and her schooling. So I was satisfied with, and

not surprised by the revelation that she was an integral part of this, is world-changing brain surgery something you can sketch out on a notebook? I don't know. But I got it. I got that she probably was someone that Lumen needs to have

close, but not let to get too high. Because ultimately what this is is a dynastic family like a mafia, you know like it's about passing power down through the Eagons not about being like, well, this person technically did come up with the procedure

so they should get a seat at the table. Right. The other favorite part of it was LaGroo, you know, and just the idea. Is it LaGroo? I wasn't saying it right. I think it's LaGroo or LaGroo, so I'm not sure. I apologize to him.

I thought I got it wrong. If he's listening. If he's like, God, you guys are the best. It would be so nice if he was really good. He was really good. And you and I have talked a lot about our interests in what the world outside of like these six people is. Like, you know, is there a Home Depot over there that we're not seeing? Is there a Kathy Hochel who's just allowing this to happen in upstate New York or something or whatever? And getting somebody who obviously had the success.

experience in their childhood, never got over it, is addicted to a pretty deleterious, uh, industrial, solvent. Yeah. And, and is living in a ghost world is, is pretty like, striking. I just, I just felt like that was like literally like nine minutes of information stretched out to 36. And that it was a bit, essentially like more mystery placed on top of, like, as soon as they like kind of talked about something, they were like, you know, like, there was, there was like the feeding tube thing, which I guess we do get cleared up for us when she pulled it out of her

own mouth. And it's like, yeah, I mean, I guess I get it. Go ahead. No, you go ahead. The show's doing bits. It's just bits on top of bits, you know? And I, and as much as you and I love Wes Anderson and love his movies, I think a multi-season, eight to ten episode eight to ten hour series in Westworld might be asking a lot. It would certainly be asking a lot of him and his production team. But I'd say that to try to be fair-minded.

Like, there are some things that work in different, there are things that work in different mediums and in different doses. Ultimately, I guess I remain, and maybe people hear this sometimes in my commentary, what I remain perplexed by is the seeming passion and popularity of the show because it is such a closed circuit to me. It is so unwelcoming. It is so ultimately an episode like this felt smug to me in a way That like look we can do whatever we want And it doesn't have to make sense to you

And everything is stylized and everything is inhuman Honestly the way that people talk to each other And relate to each other There's a spark of something in James's performance Not gonna wait into the danger zone of his last name I think you know honestly like I didn't really enjoy watching this episode the thing that really felt off to me was the triumphalism of the last moment.

It was that it was like cool that Devin was calling her and that she was like, tell me everything. And now she's going to be rock music kicks in. A good guy, I guess. Well, we'll see. But I was just like, she's bad. This whole thing's kind of an evil endeavor. One thing that I think might...

And she must know that Gemma's down there. So... Let me throw something out here. I'm just going to put a plan a little, a little flag. You're going to stick your neck out on severance here? Well, I'll say there is a world where the third season rips. Where the third season... I love it.

I'm being sincere here because we have not seen any more of the season. Is this the same world where SGA is having a historic guard season? I heard he's great. By the way, tough break for Nix fans, Jalen Brunson, hurt his ankle. And the Dallas Mavericks only had seven players able to play the other day. and they can't sign people because they're so close to the first apron. Yeah, the apron.

You'll get you. You impressed? Yeah. Come on. I can still, I can hum a few bars. This is based on nothing but my own experience having watched this many episodes. There is a world where this season,

the work of this season is not macro data refining Cold Harbor. It is yanking. the ideas and promise of season one into the into shape for the starting gun of what the show is going to actually be to get it to the point where the show where everything is in,

no pun intended, in harmony where these characters are seeking to bring down Lumen and these characters are seeking to keep it, to prop it up. And this group is the hinge point for that seismic battle for the state of the world, both Audi and Iney. And all of this,

labor of, I mean, it's not just retconning, it's just conning of this harmony character into something that could make, not make sense, but be a productive cog in the show's machine going forward. So now we have some backstory, now we've taken her away so we can bring her back in on the side of the angels at least, or like on the side of characters we know, so she's not siloed off on an island somewhere. Like all of this kind of labor all could be in the service of, a third season of the show that has communicated clearly what the stakes are and where it's going, that won't be off the air for three years, that has Bo Willemann apparently on the writing staff or on the creative team throughout, because I think it's been reported that he joined the creative team

at some point in season two. And I say that not just because we're a fan of work that he's done or that he's on Andor, it's just more like, okay, a steady creative partner for Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller, which has not been the case. So it comes roaring back as the show that it ultimately wants to be, and that's fine. I think that's very possible.

That is a very interesting way of characterizing and contextualizing as if this is a down season. It is to you and me. But for I think a lot of people, it is fulfilled the promise of the show entirely. And it's become, when you talk about it as a closed circuit, you use that as a pejorative. I completely understand that,

and I pretty much agree with you. for a lot of people, I think the close circuitry of the show is the feature not the book. It is the, I am so invested in this. Every frame has something of value in it. So yeah, I think that it will be interesting to see whether the third season deviates from any of that or becomes a little bit more traditional in its storytelling, which I think, Joe and Rob have talked about this episode specifically. Half this season is very special episodes.

Yeah, the actual character. that we came to know in the first season have had relatively little screen time. Yeah. Right? Yeah. I mean, we haven't seen Dylan in three episodes, right? Yep.

Pretty much. Yeah. Well, we didn't see Helly either, like, or Irving last week. We haven't seen Patricia Arquette for the entire season since the first episode. I was okay. No disrespect to her. Let's talk a little bit about a show we adore

before we get out of here because we have Danny McBride coming on to talk about the first episode of The Righteous Jumson's final season, the fourth season. Lights go down. And spoilers for this episode of Gemstones, which is kind of funny to say, because typically I would not think of

righteous Gemstones as a spoiler-y kind of show. And within the first three minutes, you realize you're watching a interlude episode. They do about one, two of these, usually one per season, a flashback of different points in the Gemstone family history. Yeah, I feel like Danny said the other night,

not with us, but at the event that you moderated that the kids who played the young versions of them were just so great that he's been writing to them. This was a different kind of flashback. It goes back to the Civil War and talks about essentially the origins of the Gemstone family coming to God in a roundabout way,

but in a way that very much fits with the complicated relationship this family has with ministerial services. And Bradley Cooper plays Elijah Gemstone who is masquerading as a preacher who he has murdered

named Abel Greaves and is drafted into he's conscripted into serving the Confederate Army as a chaplain and most of the episode is about his slow crawl to actually being a man of God

from a con man and a murderer and a thief and a gambler and a drunkard to actually seeing the value in preaching the gospel. And Dana McBride directed it. Bradley Cooper is in basically

every shot after the first opening two minutes. Jim Cummings, who I love is basically the other actor of note in this episode, although Paul Schneider makes a quick cameo. And Jim Cummings plays which part?

He's the major who kind of at first accuses Elijah of being a... He tells him he's going to go to hell. Yeah. And then he's like, you're going to hell. And he's like, wait a second. What did you think of the episode? That was real surprising.

I'm sure many people were shocked that after the opening, not credit, but the opening logo and music, that we were still very much in the 19th century. Yeah, that it wasn't just like a quick bit. I mean, we talked to Danny about this a little bit, but I thought, well, I thought two things. One, one of the meta reasons to love this show and to love Danny McBride's career

and the Rough House Boys' career in general is the chance to see people who just love certain things, certain vibes, music, movies, TV shows, styles of filmmaking get to play. And so to see him be like, yeah, I have enough chops now and enough credit banked with the Warner Brothers Discovery Corporation that I will just make my Civil War epic. I thought that was incredible.

And that the filmmaking is really good. And I think he told us that they had 10 days to shoot this, which is just wild, considering the rest of the time, we won't spoil it, but they're very much in the present day. I thought it, one of the things that I have enjoyed with this show

that differentiates it to a degree from vice principals or our beloved East Down is that like Elijah Gemstone, the show kind of pulls itself up and scrabbles against the rocks towards some sort of deep, meaning and significance. It's not just telling jokes.

I mean, it's telling jokes, but it is initially casually, but I think increasingly actually interested in that idea of what makes a good person. Sure. And I loved the way, and because I went to that event that you did, and I'm going to say it again, you were awesome. Thanks. That is real hard to juggle nine people on a panel, especially when they're those big personalities. Watching it again, I did appreciate the way, and also the way Bradley,

Cooper played it. But like, it's not just funny the way he won't pray with people until they die, but then when he does have his kind of moment, is his moment in service to those who died, or is it just ego? Where he's like, I was saved. So I have a purpose, which underwrites the whole series. So I thought it was pretty fun and pretty dazzling. And I also, though, have the knowledge that we get real back to a lot of dirty jokes on boats next week. Yeah, your point about Gemstone's, on a scene to scene basis is as funny as it gets and you get to watch E.D. Patterson

and Tim Baltz act together and do these incredible lines as BJ and Judy. But the larger point of the show might be exactly what you're saying, which is like, how do you cast off all this shit that you've festooned yourself with

and sort of aspire to be, like Amy Lee, right? Like to the people that you actually like, that you lionize. And I have to admit, I'm kind of mesmerized by Cooper. I don't know. I don't know.

It's been a long journey with him. He is a very vulnerable actor and public persona, I think. And has chosen to do something that is like the only real like comparison you could make is basically Warren Beatty. In my mind, you know, there are plenty of actor directors.

but his sort of project, which is like I'm very interested in the act of creation, the act of celebrity, and a lot of the themes that he comes back to, and the fact that he has sort of willed himself into being this director, writer, O'Tour, is fascinating to me, but him taking time out to come down to South Carolina

and do this series that he had apparently never, watched before and was just like, I'm in, let's do it. And then the crazy thing is, is that I've had a chance to watch this episode a couple of times in preparation for this pod and also for that talk is you can kind of see weird shadows of Danny McBride's Jesse Gemstone performance in Bradley Cooper's performance as Elijah Gemstone. So it's just a really cool thing that they got to do. And, you know, obviously we're kind of in a, in a age where maybe there are too many, like, guess what we did kind of episodes?

And sometimes they really work, like, episode seven of Paradise or episode one of gemstones. Sometimes they feel like they're amiss for us in some regards, like the episode of Severance we were just talking about. But it is kind of neat to see TV detaching from sort of like the rules a little bit on such a mass level. Now, sometimes that can be disorienting, but I think in this case it was a huge success.

I think that what Danny and his crew do is low-key, very important. And you guys will hear in the interview, sticking to his guns and like these are my friends, we get each other's secret language, we have the same taste, we know how to make stuff. And we're going to decamp to an island in South Carolina and just do it ourselves has really borne out with some great work. But also there is, for as silly as his work can be, there is a, you know, very, very, very smart observational awareness of industry trends and where things are going. And as he talks about, like, why he went to TV as opposed to making movies and the benefits of that. And all that being said, like, Bradley Cooper is a really funny actor. And he was, first came to our attention genuinely by being pretty funny in wedding crashes and the hangover movies. And, you know, the nature of the business and of stardom and of stardom and Autortem has pretty much taken funny Bradley Cooper from us. Yes.

He does play this dramatically. But he's very funny. He's so good at being funny and charming. And that's not a bad thing for a leading man. I mean, Warren Bady knew that. Yeah. And he didn't really bring the lulls to Reds, but he could turn it on when he needed to.

I think that's a really smart comparison. So I am just generally really, really here for a project that kind of plays all shucks, we're just having jokes here, but is pushing and not just pushing in terms of like character development, but also pushing in terms of filmmaking and like what we can get away with here within this number, within this group of creatives in this other side of the country. Yeah, there's a world. I mean, I'm sure this was discussed, but should they, should we put up two episodes of this? Like, I'm sure HBO and Danny talked about like,

but do you want to have like then the family in the second episode and have that go up on the same night? But I think it's really cool that they're like, Now, you guys sit on this, this 50-minute episode about the Civil War. We should say, and I think this is the good kind of soft spoiler, when the Gemstone's modern day return at 10 p.m. next week, they come in hard. Like, no beats are skipped. It's everything that you want, and it's joyful. And what we've seen in the season is awesome.

Let's get into our interview with Danny McBride. We'll be back on Thursday talking about the pit, maybe some Daredevil. We got John Malaney's live show on Wednesday night. I'm excited about that. I know you're excited. I think the people are... Number two next to Bargazzi for you in terms of guys who make you laugh.

Well, we'll see. They're jockeying for pole position. And I think that it'll be interesting. Your hunger strike to avoid daredevil will finally come to an end. It's not a hunger strike. I just... He's never been like my favorite Marvel character.

Who is your favorite Marvel character? All the members of the Thunderbolts because they're the most independent cinema-minded. Did you see that? Was that Florence Pugh being like, We made an A-24 movie? Yes. Okay, guys.

Nice. That must be fun for you. Thanks to C-T. We'll be back on Thursday. Enjoy our interview with Danny McBride. Thank you to him for joining the watch. And we'll talk to you soon. The playoffs are here.

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Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. We are so honored to be joined once again on the Watch podcast by Danny McBride. Danny, what's going on, man? Not too much. him in this fancy office with y'all. This is fun. Yeah, man. So season four, we were releasing this on Monday, so it dropped last night, and I think people are going to be delighted and surprised by what they get in the premiere episode. We should be clear. We were going to drop this before the premiere,

and then we watched the premiere, and then we realized we needed to talk to you about your, you directed a 50-minute Civil War epic starring Bradley Cooper. Yes, yes. And so I'm sorry. Check that off the list. Yep. So we needed to be able to say this. Otherwise it would have been real elliptical. You're going to tell this story probably a bunch of times to people, but I just got to know. Like, how did this come about? You know, when we embarked on this, since it was the final season, I felt like it was only, you know,

it seemed like it was a good idea to sort of like go back to the beginning and kind of show a glimpse of how this family began this journey. And so I had that idea about their distant relative sort of being a con man, a card player, you know, in the Civil War. And I didn't know whether that was just going to be like a cold open or if it would be a full episode. And as I started writing it, it just felt fun. It felt like it would be something challenging to try to pull off. And so, yeah, I submitted that script in and I thought for sure HBO would be like, yeah, we're good with this. We'd like to see the cast that we're paying for in the episode. Yeah. But they responded positively to it.

I think they appreciate the ambition of it and what we were trying to do. And so then it became the idea of trying to cast that, you know, which I had not thought about that. But it was like, you know, this needs to be a certain type of actor. It's like you're going to have people tuning into the show expecting to see the actors that are actually in the show. It's fair. And, you know, the show's an ensemble. The show never relies on just like one person carrying everything. So also, you know, the show hadn't done that before.

So I just knew it was a steep bill. And so we had to find somebody who I felt like would have enough charisma, enough charm, and enough appeal that people wouldn't be turned off, but be intrigued when it showed up. And I think me and my producing partners, I was just talking with them and we were trying to like brainstorm. Like, who could that be? And I kind of just threw off the cuff. Like, you know, somebody like Bradley Cooper, but never kind of assuming that that would be something he'd be interested in. But yeah, my buddies were like, well, we should just submit it to him and see. I mean, why not?

And so we sent it to him. And he responded pretty quickly and said he dug the material and wanted to do it. And it was interesting because he had never seen gemstones before. And then he said he didn't want to watch it until we were done. He didn't want to have it influence his performance or anything. Come on. Yeah, yeah. And so then I was like, well, I haven't seen Maestro.

So no, but I thought it was amazing that he did that. And I appreciate it because, you know, when you're on a show that's established, sometimes what you find is when you cast guest stars, They've seen the show and they want to try to score laughs the way that the cast scores laughs. And sometimes it turns into just an impression of, like, you know, people. And so I thought it was cool that he identified that as like a hazard to avoid and that he brought his own spin to it. What scene did you show him immediately after he raps just to really educate him? Was it Long Goggins with his pants off?

Was it all of you yelling the word pussy at John Goodman? Going through Tom Hanks' filmography? It was, it was, I'm not sure which one. He didn't see anything from this season. I think it was, he went back to the beginning and watched it all back to back to back. He does do the work. And then he went back and watched vice principals. He went.

Oh, wow. He did the, he did the deep dive. Had he seen eastbound? He, I assume he had seen it. Okay. I think it would have been disqualifying if he hadn't seen it. Just like as a creative. I would have been a disclaimer that I did let him know what he was getting into.

Did you have like a Civil War itch you were looking to scratch at all? Like, is that something that like you're historically interested in? as like a text. Because like I was like, this is actually like if you were just made like a three hour Civil War movie, I would be pretty into that.

Like it definitely had like the Martin Sheen Jeff Daniels Gettysburg vibes going for it. You know, I grew up in this small town of Virginia, Spotsylvania, Virginia. And there was like a ton of Civil War battlefields around there. A bunch of history happened there. I mean,

we moved there in the 80s and they were, you know, clearing out these like forests, you know, for these little, you know, these neighborhoods. And so, you know, my neighborhood was a brand new neighborhood. So I, you know, when I was a kid, I'd, like, walk my backyard and I could find, like, Civil War bullets. Holy shit.

I found a belt buckle back there. And so I always was sort of fascinated by that. The idea that, like, you're hearing about these stories in school or wherever. And then I'm walking in a place where, like, it actually happened. So I think being exposed to that as a kid, it always kind of held this place in my brain. So I just, like, love history stuff, too. I find myself, like, always, like, reading about history and I don't know I just kind of find it interesting so that story to me I kind of was like wanting to do a period piece it's just creatively it was something I wanted to try and uh and that story just kind of felt ripe for it that's the thing that I'm always curious about when we get the chance to talk to you is like there's the there's the humor they're going for and the story that you're

going for but you and your team and your pals like have such a keen aesthetic sensibility too you're like we're going to make this kind of story now yeah we're going to make a sports movie we're going to make a drag racing action comedy. In this case, we're like, I can make a war movie. So as the filmmaker of this episode, what did you do to prep for that side of the ball? You know, I was just trying to figure out, you know, how not to make it seem too modern, you know, like that I feel like sometimes you see period stuff, it feels too modern. Sometimes it pushes you out of it.

I mean, obviously we used like, you know, so I just try to embrace a style that was like not too flashy. I mean, there's some things in there, but, you know, that. And, you know, honestly, it's a lot to do with our, like, crew. You know, their production designer, Richard and our costume designer, Christina, you know, a lot of times when we create these seasons, I just enjoy collaborating with these people. I really trust their instincts and their creativity. So I always, like, kind of try to push myself and we write these scripts

to, like, drop things into their lap that they haven't done before and to kind of, like, just push everybody, to kind of, like, try to achieve something that we really didn't think would be possible. And with that, that was a big part of it of, like, I knew that they could make that world feel real. And it was just a matter of if we had the resources to do it. I think we had, like, you know, just a little under 10 days to shoot that whole thing. Get out of here. Yeah.

All of it was, like, most of it was daylight dependent except for just, like, literally, like, two or three scenes. And so it also was this kind of crazy thing where, you know, you had to take advantage of the daylight. So you had to, like, wrap every day by, like, you know, six o'clock that you could make turn around the next day. So, like, you kind of ended up there with, like, you know, less than, like, 10 hours to shoot. And we're shooting in South Carolina, too, which is, like, rains, like, every other day. And so it was a lot to sort of, like, navigate. It was a leap of faith. But, you know, it was fun to drop that script in, like, my production designers lap.

And it's like, he's, like, prepping for a modern day megachurch comedy. And now he's got to figure out how to build a fort. And that's the thing. There's, like, no complacency allowed. They have, like, a lot of neon in case you need it. But an oil skin tent and suspenders? Yeah. It was crazy.

And, you know, it was so much fun. And it was like how we started the season off, like, shooting-wise, too. So, you know, it didn't feel like we were making gemstones. That's cool. Yeah. I mean, it's nice if it's going to be the last one. You get to try, like, to work a different muscle in the beginning. Was Cooper, did he ever come up to you and say, like, hey, man, like, what about, like, did he have any filmmaking ideas?

He totally did. You know, I loved working with him on this. You know, we worked together on Aloha. Oh, yeah. And so I knew him a little bit from that. But, yeah, when he came on this, I mean, he's someone who's been on a million sets. He's a great director himself. And, yeah, I just really appreciated his energy on the whole thing.

I mean, honestly, we really couldn't have pulled it off without him. I mean, because when you're kind of, like, running that, like, there's such a small margin for error, the fact that he was just down and came, like, with every take, he was fine. You never had to find a scene. It was always just sort of, like, very ambit. vicious days, and we were never slowing down to, like, get it right. It was always just like, we got it, let's go, you know, and he was down. I mean, he didn't want a trailer, he didn't want a chair, he didn't get paid anything, you know, and he's coming there to South Carolina, 90-degree weather, wearing a period, an authentic wool, period costume, you know, and just

was just game and never wasn't smiling and having fun, and it was awesome. I think it was cool. That is awesome. I love the fact that he also found a way to differentiate every time that he was asked to pray but didn't want to pray out loud with his talking voice. There's growth there across it. Exactly. The other person who's got like a sort of major role in the episode is Jim Cummings, who I'm

a huge fan of his movies and obviously has, I think, some parallels from the way he's started out his career and how he's making his stuff to what you and Jody and David have done. Did you, were you just kind of a fan of his or did you know him personally, like on the side? I didn't know him personally.

David Green knew him a little bit better than me but I like Thunder Road like I liked I responded to what he had been doing and I always like I've liked him I liked his vibe and so he he read for it and yeah just to me it felt like instantly it was it felt right. Yeah he's awesome in it

it was cool I was just so let's talk a little bit about this being the final season we speculate a lot about this when shows are wrapping up Andy actually did a whole podcast about final episodes of shows called Stick the Landing and it's always curious because I'm sure there's a little bit of like uncertainty even in the decision, right?

Like, so how much of this season was like, this is it? Like, I'm writing this and I know I want to land it. Because I know that a lot of your shows, you end seasons just in case it doesn't come back. Like, this will be a complete statement. You know, it was a, it's like a testament to HBO that I just, you know, I've worked with them for so long. And they've always been very supportive of anything creatively I want to do there. It's been awesome. And, you know, like you said, every season we kind of prepare that it could be the end.

And this season, as soon as I started writing it, I could kind of tell it was the end. It was like all the ideas I was having about the season had to deal with closure and sort of like taking people to their like logical conclusions. So, you know, but I didn't make that announcement like at the beginning of the scene like, this is it. You know, because I was still keeping my brain open to like, well, who knows, maybe we'll start getting in here and we'll find something and I'll want to keep doing more. or, but the closer we kind of like got to nailing the season, the more it just was like apparent. It was obvious that like we were completing it. And I think it was helpful too because I didn't, you know, sometimes I feel like when you see finalies, like I see it all the time, like it can veer into like seeing through the performances

and you can see the actors, especially if it's roles they've done for a long time. It's like you can see them saying goodbye to those characters. And it's kind of like, you know, I don't know. Sometimes it might be, it might jump the tone a little bit. of things. And so I thought there was something that was cool about like everyone, all those actors not entering the season, like just knowing definitively that it was over with, you know? But as we got closer to the end of the filming, it was apparent that it was. And so then those, those emotions, those feelings, it was hard for that stuff not to come up. But I saw like, there were scenes,

like in the last episode that I cut out because I could see it. I can see myself just like, oh, I'm sitting here. I'm saying goodbye to this character. on screen. Last time with the cyburns, yeah. But it was, it was, you know, it was, it was, it was, it was fun. It was, uh, it was a good experience, like making the show. And so I think that's also why it, uh, I didn't want this last season to be like a downer the whole time where everyone's just like really taking stock of, of it being the

end. I wanted us to enjoy it and to like approach it with the same energy we approached every other season, you know, and, and not make it so obvious out of the gate that it's a swan song. You know, just do what we've been doing and try to stick that landing. Yeah. As the person not only who's playing the character, but kind of the creative wellspring for the show, how do you navigate that line? Because as fun as it is for audiences to see the gemstone siblings just going for it

every time they're on screen and how much fun that must be to play, how much of that do you just like to be present and enjoy? Like, we could be doing this for years, honestly, versus I want to tell a story. I want to finish this story. I want to answer the questions I had and then get out. How do you navigate that? during the process. You know, I just look to filmmakers I admire. I mean, I think that's the thing with

television is that, like, you know, a lot of people jump from movies into TV, and, you know, there's, there are limitations with television that I think, like, sometimes making an inferior art form to movies. And I think that it's, you know, with a movie, you show up, you tell a story, and everyone's there to complete something, you know. And then the marker for success is if it, you know, people saw it, you know, and that's what it is. And the marker for success with television is that the show goes on and on and on. And that doesn't necessarily. necessarily ensure that like the story you're telling is is the best you know it doesn't that's not those things don't go hand in hand necessarily um so for me it's a matter of like it would be very easy

to stay in that show it would be very easy to just start sleepwalking through these seasons i love all the people involved we shoot in my backyard uh there couldn't be anything easier than like staying involved in the show but i think that's part of the reason why i wanted to push myself to finish it is that I wanted to never get to that point where anybody was like sleepwalking through it. I wanted every season of it to matter. And I wanted to complete the story we were telling without there being like seasons

that could be completely skipped or things that happen sometimes when a show overstays, it's welcome. Yeah, I was wondering because there's like a different version of your career where you're still playing Kenny Powers. Totally. And we felt that in the day when we were doing it.

It's like, you know, TV was sort of still that thing where everybody wasn't like jumping in to do TV. I remember when we pitched Eastbound and down to Will, Farrell and Adam McKay, they were surprised that we wanted to follow Footfist Way up with the television show. At that point, people were making TV shows to get movies, you know.

But there was... You were visionary. We started something. But, you know, honestly, it was an answer to, like, the experience we had with Footfist Way, like when that got bought by Paramount Vantage and we start doing test screenings and stuff, and they're asking people,

recruiting people to come in to watch Footfist Way based on whether they like dodgeball. And to Jody and I were like, this is the wrong audience. That's not what we're doing, but you can see how they were instantly trying to fit it into what something else was. And then we would have these abysmal,

you know, these abysmal testing results, you know, that were just terrible because people had been misled about what they were coming in for. And so I kind of identified pretty quickly where I'm like, I don't think the type of stories we want to tell are going to survive this process. And I think with television, you know, and not having to like jam

a story into 90 minutes and we can do it longer. I think we can be more unexpected and we can kind of, we can do more than what we would be allowed to do in 90 minutes. And so that was sort of the idea of going into Eastbound was like, I think Eastbound as a 90 minute movie would have been a piece of shit. It would have just been like you would have seen every twist and turn coming. It'd be like, he's up here, he's down here, he comes back here. Yeah, there's never, there's no way unless you made a sequel to like replicate the sensation

people had when he goes to Mexico. You're just like, holy fucking shit. I can't believe this is happening. There's also an opportunity, and I'd love you to speak about this more than what I'm potentially going to throw at you, but we know about the kind of like Apatow way of making movies,

maybe you guys did some of this as well, or McKay does this too, where you're shouting alts and you're finding stuff on the day and the adlet becomes the funniest line in the movie. That's still contained ultimately in a 90-minute sealed thing. Your experience being like,

oh my God, Walton Goggins isn't just a guest star. This is a part of this show now, and it's going to send us rocketing in a completely different direction, allows the improv to become part of the larger. It does. It's like, you know, that's one thing I really have enjoyed about writing for television is that, you know, having that looseness where you can, you know, we like to have it all planned up before we go in,

but then being open that like when something starts to pop, that suddenly you're rewriting the back half of the season, you know. That happened with, that happened on vice principals the first time E.D. Patterson showed up, like the very first scene I did with her, I think it was in the third episode of that she was just making me laugh so much and I felt it I was like she has more to do with this story than what we've like

initially arched out and so I went back and even though we had both seasons written I went in and changed the entire ending of the show and kind of like altered the entire back half of that story because I just saw that she should be on it more yeah yeah do you end up feeling more this is a weird way to phrase it but like

when you see the end result result, like we can use this season of Gemstones as an example, do you feel more proud to see that you were able to execute the biggest plans that you would laid, like a giant Civil War episode? Or are you more proud about a line that Eaddy threw out on the day being the hammer in the trailer? You know what I mean? Like is it, you know, it's a combination of all of it, I think, you know, like I'm, I'm proud of what we're able to accomplish. But I also just feel like, you know, we cast these people that, that are genuinely good at what they do. And anytime anybody comes and crushes, and delivers. It just makes me feel happy. It makes me feel happy that they got to do it. It makes me feel happy that they understand what we're doing enough that they know how to throw things in that elevate it. I think it's the funnest part about making anything that's film or television is the idea that it is so collaborative that you have all these people you work with and that, you know, there's so many other art forms that are just rely on the individual. But with film and TV, it's sort of like you just, you get to work with musicians, you work

with artists, you work with costume designers, you work with performers. There's something so fun about when all of those things line up and everybody is sort of like their eyes on the prize and everybody's contributions are just making it something that you could never have made on

your own. I can't remember the last time. Maybe it wasn't the last time I talked to you, but you guys came in and you'd been in Covenant and were maybe getting started on Halloween. And I was wondering whether or not, like do you feel like right now in the film business versus the TV business?

Like, is it just, there's just more opportunities to do the IP stuff or to like kind of reimagine a preexisting property? Whereas in TV, you can still tell like a kind of original story. Because like at this point now, you've created a gallery of characters that could at any point now be rebooted or reimagined or, you know, revisited. It's, you've got your own mythology and the stories you've told on television. How is the experience coming out of Halloween and like, how, how? How do you view kind of like what you're asked to do or what you can do in films versus television in that regard?

You know, I don't know about all the inner workings of like how the industry works, but just from what I see, I mean, it seems like, you know, with television, sort of like everything's not riding on whether the show, like everyone sees or not. Like when you're subscribing to a service, you know, every single thing doesn't have to like deliver like millions of viewers. And so you're given a little bit more latitude. And I think movies are just such an expensive endeavor. And it's such a crapshoot that I think that to me it just feels like they have to bet on something. They have to like either or it has to be something that they can prove work before. And that's why they're doing it now or it has to be an actor that's, you know, when people normally show up for their movies. And so I think the parameters for something getting approved, it just has other obligations that I feel like TV at this point doesn't necessarily have.

How many years ago, or how many years has it been now since you all kind of decamped from here to South Carolina? Well, you know, we shot, I had never even been to Charleston, South Carolina before, and we shot Vice Principals there. And that was in 2015 and then came back to Los Angeles in 2016. And we're kind of like, you know, we all had like kids and everything. And we kind of just had this incredible time there. And it was, I don't know, it was refreshing. We always had to come to the South to shoot our shows usually. We never had shot anything out in California.

Did she see Righteous in, sorry, eastbound in Georgia? We shot it, we shot in Wilmington, North Carolina, Myrtle Beach, and in Puerto Rico. Oh, okay. Yeah. And so, yeah, so we made the full move in 2017, and everybody kind of like, you know, took their families and we all went down there and, you know, even writers and, you know, everybody that we worked with kind of like took that leap of faith. It kind of was, you're visionary again in a way because, first of all, you really foresaw work from homecoming. I respect that. Such a relief.

Any other stock tips you got, I really appreciate it. But more broadly, like there is something, especially from this vantage point, it's like pretty inspiring that, like, as the industry has been royal by all these massive changes and upheaval, that you guys are like to the side, doing your own thing, generating your own thing in the ecosystem that you want to create. So like, what perspective has that given you now, especially considering what's been going on in the last few years with strikes and consolidates? and budgets and priorities changing. How do you see it all from where you guys are now? You know, I see the reality of it. It's just like, you know, I keep up with all my friends that are still in Los Angeles and stuff. And they're doing great.

Everybody feels super fun. Everything's going great. Very busy. You know, I think if you're tasked with creating and you're tasked with writing, like sometimes it's good to not have the distractions of the real world and to be able to just focus on what you're trying to do. I think you can get paralyzed by the state of affairs when it comes. to like looking at what's happening in the entertainment industry. You're being reactive too.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I even felt that when I was living here. I felt that. I felt that I would, when I was like looking for ideas or new things, I just felt like everywhere I turned was, I don't know, we're just. Somebody has final draft open at every table.

Yeah, totally. And then I would find when I would go home to visit my family or, you know, when I'd go back to the South, I just felt like instantly I would have all these different ideas. And it was just something I was just noticing would happen every time I went home. I just felt more inspired. and so it was a little bit of was just like following that. But, you know, maybe it's like we're living in an illusion when we're down there about the real state of affairs. But I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing when you're tasked with trying to create something.

It might not be helpful to know how fucked up everything is. When you guys do, when you come to the end, so this is the third time you've ended one of these series. Are you already thinking about something that will go into this kind of box, like where it's like, maybe another multi-season show, or are you starting to play, like, is it more vague than that? Do you have characters in mind that you're like, maybe this could be something? Maybe that could be something. Have you thought about that? Was Jesse Gemstone in your mind when you were rapping vice principals, or is it not working like that?

You know, I would have ideas of kind of what I would talk with, but I think ultimately, like, what you have to do is you or me personally is like, you have to kind of completely, like, let go. I think you have to, like, shut the brain off and you have to, like, not be so desperate to be like, I quickly have to do something else, you know? And I think it's good to just, for me at least, it's been good to just completely let go and to kind of be okay with whatever is going to happen is going to happen. And then I find you kind of can find inspiration in that. And that's what, you know, I wasn't sure what we're going to do with television after Vice President.

I wasn't sure if I was going to even make another TV show or if that was just going to kind of be the end of that. And it took me, you know, we finished shooting Vice President was in 2015. I didn't start writing the pilot of Gemstones until like near the end of 2nd. 2017. So yeah, I stepped away and helped David write that first Halloween and kind of got my brain on that and it was fun. And then it was fun to sit down and kind of have no preconceived ideas. And I was able just to be kind of clean of like, what do I want to get into next?

And yeah, that was fun. So I'm sure it'll be that same way. I mean, I have a bunch of ideas of what I would want to do. But I am like going to commit to just like not. Doing nothing. Yeah, you don't want to list them right now. Just so we have them on record. I'll see what you guys.

thing. Let's go. Let's workshop in a little bit. Do you find that, oh, go ahead. No, no. Do you find that when I'm always curious about, obviously, you love film and TV and stuff, like how it ebbs and flows with what you're watching when you're in production versus when

you're out of production. Like, if you're in production, are you just watching shit at the end of the night to kind of turn your brain off? I'm like the worst. Like, honestly, I don't watch anything. It's like, I, when we're cracking these scripts and stuff, I just don't find any enjoyment in watching, like, anything. Like, I'll just like, well, I'll watch like a fucking episode of below deck that I've seen 10 times as opposed to like put on this is a new episode of whatever show everyone's talking about. But it's really because my brain just can't enjoy it. It's like I, you know, the hardest part about writing television is that it consumes you completely, you know, when you're running the, running the room. So it's like, I'll sit in that room for eight hours, 10 hours with these guys. Then I'll come home and my wife will be talking to me and I'll be just like giving her that thousand yard stare of like, you know,

you know, anytime anything said, like, dinner, what's for dinner? What could they eat for dinner and church lunch next week? It's like, I just can't be present, you know? And so it really happens when I watch things. I'll just sit there and I'll see something, and I won't take the ride because I'm just instantly thinking about problems in the room or knots in the story that I have to untie. And so I kind of find that the brainless stuff, the reality TV show,

there's just something in there that I can kind of just like half tune out and it kind of numb myself. I do think next time we have you on for whatever the project, is next. We should, you know, we'll greet you, we can catch up, we'll sit down, and then we'll be like, Severance, season two, episode six, and like get real in the weeds and just sink or swim. Dana McBride's five years late TV podcast? Oh, no, I know we were just blindsided with current events, but or five years later, you know, I've really been thinking about what you guys asked me in 2025. That will be what I'll do, though, honestly, like now that this, when this show's done,

I think I sound mix the last episode Friday, so I'll be officially unemployed at the end of this week. Okay. But that is what will happen is all, this will be the time now that I'll just start watching everything. Or you're going to get really opinionated about lunch for your kids last year. Yes, exactly. That was too many chicken nuggets. What's going on here?

Hey, hey, hey, dad's home. Acclimate slowly. Settle down, everyone. Is there something that you're like, God damn, I can't wait to watch this. I just haven't had the brain space. Severance. I haven't seen severance. You know, I've never seen one episode of Succession.

I like, there's a big shows that I have had big cultural moments that I feel like I've totally missed out on. Your team at HBO. We hook you up probably. Well, because also there was a lot of gemstones, like, discourse where it's like, this is also like succession. Oh, that was a great take. I think we tried that take out. We tried that take it around. We tested it off the lot.

Which is the more profound family drama that makes you laugh? Yeah. A little more comedy in a little more drama. No, but you were being respectful. You were like, let's let them do their thing. We don't want to cross-pom it. Speaking of, since we were talking, we're airing this after this Civil War episode, and you said that you had some questions you wanted to answer.

This is the part where we just sort of give. you the layup of like what can we expect in this riotous final season of Jebstone. It's like what when you, when you sat down to do this and you were like this feels like the final season, how would you characterize the questions that you wanted to answer? No spoilers on whether you did, but like how do you want to set this up for the viewers? You know, I feel like, God, how do I how do I say this without giving anything away? We have HBOPR here. I can reverse engineer this.

Okay, give it to me. What from the first episode and the, the, the, sort of original sin of this family should we be paying attention to, I guess. Look at this disruptor over here. I love it. You know, at the end of the day, it's like, you know, you want to make this show, making a church show, it would be easy for people to just to like lay that out there and then to not identify with these characters really because, like, who really knows what it's like to be a corrupt megachurch pastor, you know? And so the trick with the show is always like trying to figure out how, as despicable as these characters are, how do you make them relatable? And for me in that first season, it was like the death of their mother.

You know, like that's something that people can relate to and how people deal with grief and how people deal with the hard truce of life, you know, that you lose people and things move on. And it's a big factor, I think, of why even people gravitate towards religion is that it's a way to sort of try to find meaning in things that are upsetting that happen to all of us and how to find solace or peace in it. So that has kind of been with all the hanging dung and all the other crazy shit, that is sort of the thing. I feel like that's like kind of at the beating heart that's at the center of it so that you can still sort of like land empathy or land, you know, truce that might resonate with people. And so I think that is definitely something we're exploring in this like final season is, you know, how do people move forward and change, you know, when they'd rather hold on to what has been. Yeah. I got to ask you this because every time we get the chance to talk to you, I want to find a way to talk about Ashley Schaefer BMW. And the way I wanted to phrase it was this. It's like to live life in 2025 can be stressful for all of us. You know, and, you know, sometimes one fires up the YouTube machine maybe to check something or maybe, you know, it's just open on your computer. And one thing that I can count on just sure is the changing of the seasons is that the Ashley Schaefer BMW bloopers reel. The seven minutes. We'll be suggested for you.

You might like this. You last watch this. So that was my question. Do you ever encounter stuff that way? Like you open YouTube and somehow the algorithm is saying you might find this funny. Yes, I do. That comes up all the time too. It does.

All the time. And do you watch it? I skip it. No, I'll see it every now and then. It was like that. It's funny that that still floats around because it was a memorable moment even on set. And the idea that it still makes people laugh. It's kind of awesome.

Well, because that's also, that was like one of those moments that just came out of the ether, right? Like there was, I assume the script did not suggest, they didn't have as much plum content. There were zero plums in that original script. Nothing about farmers markets. Nothing about Farmer's Market. Nothing about Donna or Beverly. Oh, it could be either. Yeah.

Okay. Well, it makes us, it's like stars. They're just like us. Yeah. You're getting served the same. Same algorithm. Thank God. Is there a lot?

Because that was part of, was it on like a DVD of the first season? Yeah. You know, we are, our editor Jeff Sebenak, he was on Eastbound. He was, he was another classmate of mine from School of the Arts. And yeah, he cut that together. I mean, it was something that, like, he had to like, you know, it was very difficult to put that into the show because everyone was just laughing the whole time. But he, it was his brilliant idea to sort of, like, capture that and put in a format that people could, like, watch what didn't make it into the show. There are not a not insubstantial number of Americans who, like, when and if they get the chance to meet Craig Robinson. They won't ask him about the office. They won't ask him about the moment his lip quivers. Everybody almost strokes out. Oh, my God.

It's beautiful. Danny, man, thank you so much for coming by. Yeah, of course. Good luck with the sound mixing and everything. And thank you for this show. Good luck with unemployment. Yeah. We hope it's not too long because we'd love to help you all out.

What do you need? You need coffee served. I'm here. I mean, maybe it's helpless with these lights. You got a way to find a cold brew, so maybe we'll do that. Look at that. Thanks so much, dude. Thank you, guys.