The Watch - Ep. 112: ‘The Young Pope,’ ‘Taboo,’ and ‘One Day at a Time’

Episode Date: January 13, 2017

The Ringer’s Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald each award "Who Won the Week" (1:30) and preview a new slate of shows this season in ‘One Day at a Time’ (6:10), ‘Taboo’ (16:28), and ‘The Young Pope’ (27:10). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I need sports 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 on the other line, it's Letty Ballardo! I am the young Pope. I'm so excited.

Whoever would have thought a young Jewish guy like you would rise to the top of the Catholic Church. Chris, look, I'm excited to be doing this podcast. We've got a lot of TV to review. were not even going to spoil Young Pope. I just want to tell the people one thing right at the top of the show. Tell me. I want to tell people that the other night I watched two episodes of HBO's new series, Young Pope, the Young Pope.

And I want people to know that the next morning, I'm not shitting you. The next morning, I woke up and I felt great. I felt invigorated. I felt excited. And I was like, why do I feel so good for the first time since November 8th? It's because I watched two episodes of the Young Pope because TV is healing people. TV is religious. and this is the show we've been waiting for.

Do you think that there's somebody at like Nat Geo or History Channel who is working on a young Pope and is like, shit. Damn it. Well, no, I think that's why they called it that because there was going to be a lot of competition in that space. Yeah, the Pope's space is there's a lot. It's prime for disruption. The papal space is really hot right now. And going young is always a good idea. You know, it's like if you had the Muppets, you make Muppet babies.

You have a Pope. You have the young Pope. There can't be another one. Stick out your corner. HBO, do it. Andy, today we are going to be talking about, we're going to talk a little bit about the Young Pope towards the end of the episode, just previewing it for Sunday nights premiere. But before that, we are going to talk a little bit about who won the week. And then we're going to review taboo and Netflix's one day at a time. So why don't we get to it? Because we got a lot of stuff to do. You know, we did Who Won the Week a while ago and we sort of dropped it, among other segments that we always drop and pick back up again. But we're going to try and be a little bit more consistent about it. This one's really easy for me. It's Migos. Rain drop drop top. Smoking on cooking a hot bar.

I really want to thank the amigos, not for being in the show, but for making bad and bougie. Like, that's the best song ever. They have the number one song in the country right now in Bad and Boogie, and they, you know, it's a testament to how otherworldly and insane this week has been for a variety of reasons that that happens Sunday when Dan. Donald Glover shouted them out. And it feels like it was so long ago that the Golden Globes happened, doesn't it?

Yeah, I completely agree. You know, I was actually going to make, the only person I had to nominate for who won the week is actually the guy you just mentioned. I was going to mention Donald Glover who won the week because this dude won two Golden Globes on Sunday night. And then today at the TCA press tour, FX made their presentation. And they announced that they just reached a, what has to be extremely. lucrative overall deal with Donald Glover to continue making Atlanta and do many other projects for them, well-deserved. They also announced that Atlanta is not coming back until 2018, which is a huge bummer, although creatively very generous, because they literally went on stage and said,

we weren't going to tell him he couldn't do Star Wars. That's, yeah, because he's playing, yeah, because he's playing the, the Young Lando. Yeah, young Lando, which is one of my favorite Migos songs, actually. So you think Migos won the week? Uh, yeah, I just think, you have the number one song and that like when Donald Glover got his first award that sort of coronated his incredible personal creative achievement, he went up there and was just like shout out the amigos. That's huge. That would be like if, if Merrill Streep got up on stage and was like, shout out Ryan Adams, you know? Can I, first of all, that would be a great moment. Second of all, can I just do a quick counter? I know that we've just reinstated this bit and I

don't want to cut its legs out. But I was just going to suggest an alt for this week, which is who lost the week, and that's everybody. Can I try that one? I don't know. Retire British spies. They're killing it. That's actually true. How about, like, if there's no other silver lining from this week, it's that for you and I, like, as big fans of British spies and the web of fiction and nonfiction that they weave, it allowed us to read in print the sentence former British spy goes to ground. Yes. I mean, have you ever gone to ground?

I believe Migos have gone to ground. I haven't. This was also a very, you know, a couple, I think it was maybe two years ago. This book came out by Jason Matthews called Red Sparrow. And I remember it kind of was like a big sensation when it came out and it's now going to be a movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Irons and directed by Francis Lawrence. And it's a, I bought the book and I was like, oh, everybody, everybody, the espionage fiction community is raving about this and I read it I started reading it I was just like sex spies really guys

you know compromising material for like are you serious and it turns out yes they were it was a little you feel like it was a little far-fetched at the time I was just like are we really doing sex spies we are does this make you feel more nervous about the night we spent at like the w San Diego when I did the banchey panel at comic con a few years ago Like, do you, like, You really don't know what I did to your room while you were doing the Banchu panel. Long time listeners will know that I did,

we talked about this on the pod, that that was like, we were like, we were like slumber party buddies because we had one room in two beds and, you know, generally we aren't in those circumstances and we're going to sleep. And you were like, well, if that's all you'll be needing me for, I'll be resting now.

And you just popped in your earbuds and like lay down like Dracula over. over the covers and just slept for like nine hours. At least, it had been a long day. It had been a long day. All right. Migos and Donald Glover, you guys won the week. Let's move on to, should we do taboo or one day at a time first?

I think we should do, let's do one day to time because we'll probably spend less time doing that and more time on taboo. Sure. Okay. One day at a time is a new show on Netflix during Justin Machado. It is sort of shepherded. I don't know if day to day. I'm not sure that Norman Lear is really out there, like, cracking stories.

But Norman Lear, you know, it was a Norman Lear show from the 70s or the 80s? 70s, although one that pretty much, you know, I was talking with a friend today about, like, there's a whole bunch of, like, sitcoms that just were on when we were children that were probably dealing with interesting adult themes that we just didn't know that's what they were about. Right, right, right. You remember, like, like, too close for comfort and, like, It's a Living and all these shows. For me, one day at a time was one of those. And I guess it was quite groundbreaking at the time because it was about a single mother raising two daughters and with a creepy neighbor, which is a universal situation. But it ran for 200 episodes. Nine years. I mean, this was a big, big, big deal show that has, you know, I think in terms of the cultural conversation has definitely not been a part of it.

I can't ever tell like whether or not nine years was a lot in the 80s. Like when, like, would you just like go into a bar in Hollywood and be like, what do you do? And you be like, I've been working out one day at a time since the Carter administration. It would just be like drinking a schlitz and... Yeah, well, no, it would be at Spago because these were like, they made 200 episodes of television. Yeah, I was like, I make so... I have like the GDP of Guatemala wrapped up in this syndicated sitcom. Yeah, the towny bar that you're sketching out is the one that the executive producer had built, lovingly constructed like a ship in a bottle in the bottom of his specific Palisades mansion. Right. That's what TV was like.

So this show, like all Netflix shows, seems to come out of nowhere. It pops up. And there was a flurry of talk about it. Allison wrote about it for The Ringer. There was a lot of people talking about it last week, I believe. I watched more or less all of it. They're very digestible. It's sort of like the inverse in a lot of ways to the ranch,

in so much as whereas the ranch dealt with sort of more red state kind of Colorado ranch life, rural life. This is about a Cuban-American family living in Echo Park and dealing with being a single-parent household for the time being. It's Jesse Machado plays the matriarch, and then her mother lives with the family, played by Rita Moreno, and there's some really excellent performances by the kids in the family. And it has that same, like, multi-cam staged, you know, like live-to-tape comedy feel that you sort of recognize if you grew up in the 80s and watched sitcoms, but has that modern edge, you know, whether it's the subject matter, the dialogue, the naturalism of the performances.

Although, to be fair, I think that if you go back and watch like a cheers even, it's just like, it's remarkable how theatrical in a play, it's almost like a play, the performances are all very lived in. They're not, you watch like too many cooks and you think everything in the 80s was just like people bursting through the door and be like, it's me! But it's like, they were very, Tell me more about that show. They were very naturalistic back then. And I think that this version of this reboot really captures that. Yeah, I think that you really nailed it when you said theater.

I mean, I think that we definitely are spoiled with the quality and the prestige television that we are inundated with at the moment. But it's the format that we grew up on, the multicam sitcom, has really been forgotten in many ways, or at least look down upon, it's easy to disparage it, because while large swaths of America, in fact, a majority of America still prefers to receive their sitcoms that way. I mean, the Big Bang Theory is the number one show on TV by a ridiculous margin. Those shows exist in a, essentially an alternate reality from the cultural conversation that we usually like to take, like to be a part of. I think that's unfair.

In some ways, Big Bang Theory has had the belt for quite some time. Yeah, in fact, there's really no conversation. There's really only one belt. And they have it. So to go back into this world after having issued it for a very long time is a little bit surprising and a little bit, it threw me off. You know, generally, multi-cam sitcoms, I feel like this is almost always the case, like the opening scene of them. And this is also the problem with writing pilots in general, because, you know, you've got to do all this exposition and then you can actually get into what you want to do. Yeah, right.

I feel like they always start much like this one day at a time reboot starts, which is a C. scene with the lead character in a professional setting with a very broadly drawn guest star that basically allows for an info dump and some quick laughs. And when I was watching those first few minutes and I know I won't be alone in it, you know, especially coming off of, you know, raving about Atlanta and shows that are very, very modern and cinematic in the way that they're conceived of and performed and shot, I was like, I can't do this. I'm out. So, you know, the hearing that people laugh and clap and, you know, and the sort of just the way the lines are delivered, I, felt like I was going to be out, but I kept watching, and you keep watching, and you keep watching,

and it's not so hard to slip back into those rhythms, A, and then B, you see the skill that went into not just the writing, and this is a very well-written show. Yeah, right. In the performances, it is theater. It is essentially watching theater. And, you know, there are plenty of people who think theater is, they're out on theater. It's a, you know, it's a deal breaker. Like, I was talking to someone whose taste we generally respect a lot, who may or may not have been on this podcast recently talking about television and this person does not like Hamilton. You know, and you and I loved Hamilton. But for some people, once they start rapping about history,

they're like, nah, check please. Sure. There are some, there's, there's, there's, there's impediments. Yeah, right. You know, in the same way that, that, that, that, that I don't watch, I don't watch horror movies, Chris, because I just don't like them. But in this case, it is worth getting over the hump and the sort of disorientation of being back in this world because I was very impressed once I let myself go into it. Um, the two things. I would add about that, you're exactly dead on there. One of the interesting things is if you watch this whole first season, I believe it's a 13 episode batch that you can watch all at once.

I think it's 13 episodes. It's pretty much plotted in an arc. It's like the thing that they start talking about the kinses for the daughter in the first episode, and that's the sort of the last episode. It's not a spoiler to say is called kinses. So it's like, it has like a narrative trajectory that's closer to say, you know, Westworld. You know what I mean? That it is the very episodic nature of, say, Big Bang Theory where there might be a couple of storylines that are continued over a season or seasons.

But for the most part, it's the one where friends type situation or comedy. So I would say that that is like a cool thing to watch happen. And then the other thing is just the freshness and uniqueness of the stories being told, which actually are both at one time, like, you know, criminally underserved on most platforms. Like you don't get to see a lot of stories about Cuban American families on television, if any, but are staggeringly universal for anyone who would tune in. For anyone who watches mom or anything else, if you watched one day at a time, I think you would be like, oh, my gosh, like this is just like a unit. these are universal themes. Yeah, one thing that I really appreciate is the fact that it's allowing Norman Lear, both the man, but also the work that he did and what it represents to be brought back into the

conversation so that you can see the not actually pretty bright line that can be drawn between his shows like, you know, all in the family and mod and I guess the original one day to time to the conversation we're having today about what is a comedy. You know, we spent a lot, you and I spent a lot of time on the podcast talking about how some of the more interesting and reaching emotional and dramatic work on TV is being done in the half-hour format. This is not necessarily a new development. It is striking to see the skill with which the writers of the premiere of One Day to Time. That's the showrunner, Gloria Calderon-Kellet and Mike Royce, who's a veteran of a lot of the, I think he worked on Big Bang Theory. The way that they steer the show from relatively broad laughs to suddenly some pretty dark and interesting places. Oh, yeah.

It's also a testament to Justino Machado's performance because she is just on one. I mean, she never dims. And she carries this character through, you know, bantering in a sort of a situational setup with her daughter to basically saying that I am alone in this world. My husband is gone. You know, I'm considering to getting on antidepressants and then back. Yeah. And that's actually more how life works in terms of having to be a funny present person and being an actually messed up emotional person within the space. within the span of a minute.

Like that's more realistic than Carrie going off for meds and being a genius and then, you know, and then going back on them and just listening to jazz. I feel like it's a little bit more true to life to the way that I didn't expect. Yeah, I think if you... Oh, go ahead. I also just want to give the show credit

for doing the one thing that I'm so glad that it didn't do, which is it bucked the trend of having the bearded neighbor be a squealing man baby character like on Broad City and on the late lamented Malaney and just like there was that run when like that dude it's not just you know the dude on broad city is fine but i just mean like that type of yeah they're all built from adam palli's happy endings character exactly we grab the next guy at the groundlings or whatever who was like that like i'm really glad they went in a different direction i would say that this is a show that you should check out if you

are a fan of cbs and it's also a show you should check out if you are a fan of horace and pete and uh car michael show you know like i think it's i it it really does have a huge heart and there's A lot of the television we talk about doesn't. I would just say in general, even if you watch it and you're like, now I'm out after 15 minutes, after 30 minutes, I would recommend people who are fans of TV watch it

just so you're aware of the amount of skill necessary to do something even if it's not something you're into. It's really well done. Speaking of things like that, Andy, the amount of skill it takes. Let's talk about how hard it is to be Tom Hardy, my man. So I think we are going to disagree slightly about our final evaluations of taboo.

But Taboo is a new show from FX. It debuted on, I believe, Monday. It's written by Stephen Knight, who wrote the recently released Allied with Brad Pitt. I think it's on Tuesdays. It's on Tuesdays. Okay.

And Stephen Knight also did Locke, which was another Tom Hardy movie. And, and, piqui blinders. Peaky blinders. Yeah, so Stephen Knight, veteran of television and movies. I actually am quite a fan. of his work.

And this was an idea that was a character, from what I understand, is a character that Tom Hardy sort of came up with when he was doing over the course of doing Oliver Twist, an Oliver Twist production for the BBC. And he brought it to his father named Chips Hardy, naturally. Yes. And they brought it with Stephen Knight. They developed it. And it is a story set in 1814.

Tom Hardy plays this presumed dead. son, presumed dead man named Jim Delaney returns from parts unknown Africa, etc. to claim his inheritance that's been left to him

as a recently late father. And in claiming this inheritance, which is a sort of strip of land in the middle of the Pacific, or not in the middle, but off of the coast of the United States. Canada.

In Canada. So basically up in the Pacific Northwest, he's put against the East India shipping company, which is giant, obviously like the sort of conglomerate of that era as well as the British Crown and you know his own family and he Delaney as played by Tom Hardy loves to walk up to people and be like I'm going to kill you in a super interesting way now your this has been said about this show a bunch your mileage

may vary based on how much mileage you get out of Tom Hardy I am the long road trucker of Tom Hardy. So this show, aside from his incredible performance, which is so physical and so atmospheric and crazy and awesome, I happen to just love the dialogue of this show. I think so far,

you know, like, you could, there's lots of, you could take shots of this show, but this just gives me such awesome deadwood vibes. And I just think, you know,

I thought the dialogue was really, really fun. And the supporting cast is excellent, Jonathan Price, Una Chaplin. Yeah, I really, really, really liked the first episode and what I've seen of the show. I want to be clear about one thing going into this. The word fun in relation to taboo has only ever been used by Chris Ryan on this podcast 15 seconds ago.

This is not a fun show at all. This show is, it's good for anything. It is good for being a cautionary tale as to why you shouldn't let actors do too much. This is a vanity project with a capital vanity project And with all that entails This is Tom Hardy Did you read the interview he did with Matt Sikes? You're just getting gasped by like the narrative

That they're putting forward to sell the show Nah, no not Because this is a dude Tom Hardy sketched a character He wanted to play And spoiler alert, the character has a funny voice And interesting hair and wears a hat Because that's what Tom Hardy The God likes to do

there is always too much of a good thing. That is possible. And Tom Hardy was like, here's what I want to do. I want to wear a cool outfit. Show my neck in a way that wasn't appropriate for the era. I want to mumble things. I want to cough and snort. I want to blow dusted people and be able to say things like,

let's not speak of my mother when we're drinking brandy. Like it's preposterous. It's entirely. preposterous, but the worst thing about it is that it's no fun. He's having fun because he's created this sort of, you know, a mystery box for himself to play in and another skin to lose himself in. But I just found it to be such a chore because it steers into every actorly tick that he has that when done in moderation or done, you know, under someone's control who can control him or cut away from him is genius because he is a total chameleon, and that's amazing. But a chameleon can just get a

you can get lost. I think that I mean, to some extent, you know, that's ultimately what I mean by your mileage Mayvary. I happen to find the story actually pretty fascinating. It's not something I knew a lot about. And I actually am not wild about usually early 19th century stuff. Like, I just don't, just never been my bag. But I found that the introduction of the East India agency, which apparently is, you know,

there's some debate about how historically accurate is, which is fine. I'm not, I'm not, wasn't a big. fan of the East India company before this or losing my opinion after. But this sort of idea that they were this all-seeing eye and that they had agents and that they had muscle men and that they were this basically like incredibly violent faceless mega corporation, you know, out there trying to control trade around the world in the name of the British crown, but also for their own gain. And then when you put Jonathan Price in there, it's just real fireworks.

I don't know. I understand what you mean, but it's not fun. It's not fun. Rarely are things that are set in early 19th century blind and fun. But, you know, I think that once you sort of go with it, it's there. I totally understand what you're saying.

It's not for everybody, but it is for me. Price is great. Like, I take back my head about fun because he was having fun. that again the ideas are fine but they just needed to be reined in because what he wanted to play was he wants to play a superhero basically

because the other problem I had with the show and people have seen the premiere probably agree with me he's right about everything don't assume what our listeners agree with listen he swaggers into every scene and is right he knows exactly how to play everything you know in sort of almost James Bondian way well I think that there's a supernatural element

that we're not quite isn't quite been explained But is it worth poking at the fact that the god Tom Hardy also essentially has cast himself, a creative for himself a role that is supposedly mixed race? And so everyone can just call him N-word all the time? I mean, I just feel like some weird decision-making that strikes me not as the most creative decision-making, but is the kind of decision-making you make when the star is in the room and tells you what he wants to do. And you're like, yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah.

No, go with that. Go with that. Put more face paint on. Please. I can't believe you've become management. When did you turn against doctors? It's true. You know, it's when I went up to the executive suite.

You know, I used to be down on the playing floor. But now I'm up there with Billy Bean, and I'm like, nah, they're all replaceable. I'm down here with Tim Robbins making WPA theater. But are you really like real talk? Like, we all like that. This is not a bit. I actually really, really liked it.

And I almost, I knew you didn't and I knew you were like, eh. But like I, I just thought that there was like a level of skill across the board. I really liked the direction from Christopher Nyholm. He did a lot of the killing stuff. I saw something interesting. I think it was maybe Sean Collins and Volture. I can't remember or maybe Rob in, I think it was Sean, but it might even Rob on the ring or both pieces.

Sean's recap and Rob's piece about the show in general. We're both really excellent about the fact that the show looks like a lot of other shows and I've been thinking a lot about as this sort of we've handed over some power and television to directors, I don't know if you like them or not, I mean, you're okay with them, right? They're fine. Okay.

As we've, you see like a lot, it becomes more of a director's medium. It's led to a strange flattening of the way a lot of television shows look because I think a lot of people are still like, you'll see shows that are basically like trying to copy Fukunaga,

season one true detective or some of the first season of the Nick. So, but just not as well, you know, and there is like a weird, every shot has to be perfect. And when every shot is perfect, nothing is perfect. Do you know what I mean?

Yes. Sean actually mentioned that he was like, I actually, I think he said something about somebody was saying that they really like the OA because it was so bright and shot during daylight and looked like real life in a lot of time. A lot of the times that weren't involving transdimensional travel.

So, yeah, I don't know. There's a lot to think about there. I take it. You won't be canoeing down the Thames with me anytime soon. No, I mean, it looks like they spent a fortune on it, and God bless them. I just can't imagine wanting to spend seven more hours in that world. Like, there are limits to my love for Tom Hardy. Okay.

Okay. It's okay. Okay. All right. We can disagree. I'm just picturing you lying. back, I'm just picturing you lying back down on the covers, closing your eyes and just being done with the podcast.

No, what I'll do is now every week I will read a letter to you from me in Tom Hardy's voice as like a letter from taboo. That I would like. Okay. Let's book it. That's our new segment. Let's take a quick break and then we'll come back and talk about the young pope. Today's episode of The Watch is brought to you by Throwing Shade.

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Let's talk about this young Pope. Andy, it's been an interesting time for you to be off social media. Thanks, man. Yeah. Oh, was that not a compliment? No, it's an observation because I wonder, you're a sensitive person. I wonder how much you would have been amped for this show. I mean, you're stronger than anything I know.

You're one of the strongest people I know. Wow. But I wonder if you were strong enough to resist all the memes that happened over the last two weeks about the young Pope. And whether that would have... I love memes. What are you talking about? It would have sapped your enthusiasm a little bit. I don't.

Memes do nothing but make me more excited. They make me stronger. I feed on memes. I don't know what you're saying. Yeah, okay. Look, I think that the show would, I don't know. I think, I think this show makes memes. That's great.

It should. It's not even out yet. Here's my thing about the show. And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my read on this. So the guy who made the show, Palo Sorrentino, like this is, we, a minute ago, you talked about how like more author-driven television, more director-driven, that's not what this is. Like, this is actually a accomplished Academy Award nominated filmmaker

making a television show. Like, fully. He, it is completely his thing. He wrote it. He directed it. Every inch of it, you know, is his. That is different than someone like Kerry Fukenaga collaborating with Nick Fitzolado and, you know, and directing the living shit out of a certain television show. This is completely one very specific dude's aesthetic, universe. And I highly, highly recommend people check out the great beauty, or his last movie was

youth. They are not for everyone, but they are a calling card to what it is that he does and what he is committed to. And I couldn't, so I'm a fan of those movies. I started watching the show, and even from the commercials, and I was filled with exhilaration and glee at the possibility of what television could be and what this storyteller is doing within the medium. All I want to say for people, and people haven't watched yet, we're not going to say many more details about it, but I want to say this. It's supposed to be funny. It's okay to laugh. It is outrageous. It's also quite serious and dramatic and surprising and fucking bizarre, but it's okay to laugh at this. And I just feel like, you know, the small amounts of criticism that I've

seen bubble up are people being like, oh, I don't get this or it's campy or it can't be serious, can it? It's like, of course, it's all of it. Like this dude is a maximalist. He's an extremist. He's like, he's a little, he loves, clearly loves Felini. If you watch the Great Beauty, which you should, you will not know what is happening for at least 19 minutes when the main character's drunken dancing dwarf editor stops dancing and falls asleep on the roof of the party. You know what I mean? That's what we're talking about. Yeah, yeah. So I'm just saying buckle up and let it happen, man. Just accept the body of Christ as long as the body looks like Jude Law. I, you know what? I don't even, I don't have, I would never even dream to sap people's

enthusiasm for this show. I watched the first one and enjoyed it a lot because it was just so different tonally and in terms of its narrative construction. I also would never dream of insulting a television show that featured three images of three Napoli soccer players because I'm a huge Gonzalo-Iguyen fan even though he's on Juventus now. So shout out to my Siri Ahead's. I just think that You got to check this out. It's so visually sumptuous in a way that is so outrageous that I kind of can't believe it's. It's rare that you're like, I can't believe this is on television. You know, that'll happen with like Battle of the Bastards.

But I can't believe that because it's, it is very much like the visuals and the dialogue are of a piece. You're right. This is a truly a Herculean effort on the part of Sorrentino and his collaborators. I wanted to ask you, you know, what do you think the pitch process was for this? Because I think it's three words long. It's one of those things where I'm like, did you just walk into the office

and just sit down and say, the young pope? Yes. Yeah. It wouldn't be like, tell me more. What's your angle? What's his motivation? Does he have some daddy issues?

Like, where's the conflict? Where's the hero's resolution? It's just like, no, it's just the young. It's just the pope, but he's young. It sells itself. I mean, the show sells itself. just with the image of Jude Law looking the way he does, smoking a cigarette, drinking a cherry Coke zero, or, you know, these, these, just sumptuous, hilarious cutaways to, like, old

cardinals eating muffins looking at their iPads. I mean, every frame is considered. Every frame is commenting on something. Sometimes it's just celebrating the sublime and the ridiculous at once. But this is what's possible when, you know, a filmmaker says, yes, I have something I want to do with you and the right collaborators. And in this case, it was a sky. Atlantic HBO and Canal Pluse, we're just like,

Oh, great, great pluse pronunciation. Well, you said Siri Ah, the moment a minute ago. I had to keep up. I was thinking about dropping a pluse earlier, and then I was like, that nobody would believe me. Nah, check pluse, pluse, man. This is the kind of show it is. This, this, no one got in his way,

and he's the sort of person that you don't want to get in his way. And he gets Jude Law, and he gets Diane Keaton and James Cromwell, and these wonderful Italian actors who make up the rest of the cast. He films it, in Rome. I can't even imagine. You start to wonder how much this cost, but then maybe it doesn't even matter, you know, like maybe they just know how to film things or maybe he knows the guy in Vatican

City. It's just, it's just so sumptuous and it was just so exciting to me. Like I was just, Chris, I cannot, I just want people to understand that I was cackling with glee watching this show. It just made me thrill. Television's got something for everybody. It's a little bit of that feeling I had when I was watching Atlanta the first time, too, where I was just like, Oh, they're doing it. Oh, my God, they're doing it. The training wheels are off. You're right.

And it made me so excited. And I got to say, it's not a movie. You know, the episodes are constructed, at least as many. I've seen two. So far, they are constructed as episodes, which is also pretty exciting. Because, you know, in a world that we're living in where, like, a day or two ago, there's an announcement that the Coen brothers are making something for television. Yeah.

But it's a wet, but all by, if you read between the lines, it's like, it sounds like they're making a two-hour movie that maybe they're going to put on Netflix or something? Yeah, it's a little bit sketchy. It's kind of a similar release. I think that they're like modeling it after what they're doing with Dark Tower, which is they're going to put a movie out and then they're going to have, if there's interest, they're going to try and do a series and then maybe another movie to end it. It's a lot of, it's a, shoot your shot, but that's like I still don't know whether or not

people are going to go to the movies and then watch the series and then go to the movies again or what have you. Yeah, I mean, we're entering a space where everything is everything, where anything could be anything and, you know, they're trying to blur the lines as much as possible. This is a project that knows what it is. And, you know, I haven't, hopefully by next week I'll have caught up or maybe even I'll be able to finish the OA so we can talk about it. I have a lot of storm clouds brewing and that everyone looks at me and they're like,

have you gotten to episode five yet? Yeah, I know. So I have some concerns about what's coming. But, you know, I also just want to say. say that like just consider the praise that I gave the first two episodes of the OA which I'm not walking back by the way that was the training wheels version of this speech where I was basically like these are people who had an aesthetic thing they wanted to do and they did it to to to an end that is TBD this is this is the a plus pluse version man this is this is what you want we'll be bringing

we'll be bringing the Pope back on Monday to discuss more in detail about after episode one and we'll talk about a bunch of other stuff maybe bring sounds like we're bringing the belt back Given how excited you are. Let's bring the belt back on Monday. We should because it's been a minute. We don't know what's got it. It's a new year. A lot of new TV.

Belt's coming back on Monday. Let's do it. All right. Andy, thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon. God bless you, Bransky. God bless us everyone. Today's episode of The Watch was brought to you by throwing shade.

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