The Watch - Ep. 57: 'Mr. Robot' Premiere and 'Vice Principals' Re-up

Episode Date: July 14, 2016

The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald gear up for the return of 'Mr. Robot' and break down what's next for Elliot in Season 2. Then, they discuss the premiere of the HBO comedy miniseries 'Vice Principals' and the importance of comfort television. 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 and I am an editor at the ringer.com and joining me on the other line. Erasing all personal debt. It's Andy Greenwald! Don't ever say I didn't do something for you people.

But for you, my friend. That's right, man. Get my FICO up. Or just don't even get it up. Wipe it out. You got to get your FICO. score swole son that's what this year's all about

trying to buy these by these London properties with that low low pound should we should we make this just a fully economy based podcast like do you think

there's a good look for us well it's about to be for the next few weeks because we're going to talk about Mr. Robot yes exciting I was just reading a tech insider

blog post about how the economics of Mr. Robot are a little bit flawed and Andy we're recording this on a Wednesday you are will be Tonight this evening, Mr. Robot premieres with a two-part episode. The first episode or the first part of this episode was leaked.

We addressed that on Monday on Twitter and Snapchat and other social media platforms. And then after the episode this evening, I'll let you fill me in on the details. You are hosting Hacking Robot on the USA Network, live on television, on basic cable. It's true. How did we get here? I'm still in an office with Isabella. You're the one who's, you're on the same network as, as, I don't know. Yes, have you ever watched the network?

You're on the burn notice channel, dog. That's right. What is burn notice? No, and I said, how did we get here? It's like, like my family rolls with me, right? Of course, the whole squad makes it when one of us makes it. The boat rises with the tide. I'm the little boat.

you're the little boat you're the little boat look I worry a little bit Chris that we are tempting fate because as you said we are recording this on Wednesday this will be posted on Thursday so

it does seem like we're we're sort of thumbing our noses at chaos because a live broadcast is anything could possibly happen you know at this point when you people are listening to this my decision to take the money

was paid to do this show in duffel bags, dump it on the ground of the studio, and light it on fire in front of a live studio audience may have backfired. It may not have been the sort of, you know, zeitgeist grabbing stunt that I had intended it to be. But, you know, who's to say? Future, future people, please let me know. And when I, when I hacked into USA's feed wearing a mask and I erased Andy's personal debt, I thought that was going to go over a lot better than it did. Frankly, as someone who is in the midst of moving across the country, I deeply appreciated it. I thought that was true friendship. No, I mean, I hope people, boy, this sounds so weird.

I hope people dug the show. I think it's, I think it's been a lot of fun. It's been fun doing it. You saw on Twitter, I got a binder, and I feel like, you're going to do great. You're going to do great. And it also looks like you guys could launch a spaceship from the control room of what you've got there. So good luck with that. There's a lot of fireworks.

Yeah. But binders are very reassuring. I think that's the most important takeaway here. It's true. As you said, we talked on Monday, I mean, just asked Mitt Romney about that. That pretty much sealed up the election for him. He won the presidency. We talked the other day about the decision to unleash the first hour on an unsuspecting Snapchat populace.

You know, they really would have moneyed up the show if they had released it as like a special Pokemon. Like, you know, just. you capture like someone in that mask and then the whole episode plays. And by the way, that is the first and last time we're going to reference that scourge of humanity on this podcast. Yeah, if you look underneath the bull on Wall Street, you'll find the episode of, you'll find the entire season of Mr. Robot. That you can also find a very rare Pokemon called testiculo, which is, he's a funny little. You get one more joke. And then we're never talking about this again.

You're right. Honestly, this thing is so awful and terrifying, but it does seem like viral marketing for Mr. Robot. But so anyway, we mentioned, we talked about the phenomenon of the first episode being released, but we didn't talk about the first episode itself because people hadn't seen the full two parts of it. Let's talk about it. Let's kick off that conversation. What do you got? I'm going to start with a criticism.

Oh. Now, I know that you are recording Hacking Robot with Sam as male, and you guys, obviously, because of that, have an outstanding, an existing relationship. so I don't really mean to get in the way of that. I don't want to get in between the two of you. But I do want to say something to, Sam, if you're listening, you got to get a pickup basketball consultant. Okay? You got to get someone in there who understands the fashions and behaviors

of people playing pickup basketball and just even some basic, like, whether or not three dudes all try to grab the ball at once more than, like, once a game. you know and I understand as someone who has worked in TV now albeit largely streaming sure sure that there are limitations to the level to the amount of logos you can put on your clothing but I don't know that you need to go full old Navy

when you're dressing your guys on the court you know you can have some like washed out shirt that says something university or maybe even like just have a guy with a number on the back so that it looks like they have a tangential relationship to basketball rather than a 1969 gap ad. I want to say that this is a bold opening parlay from you. Not only because of the fact that you know very well that Sam Esmail was going to come on our pod at one point in the winter in L.A. solely because, and I quote, he said,

I'll come if I can meet Chris Ryan. So you know he's checking for you And he's going to take this very much in his heart box But not only for that reason But two, you are a gentleman who recently displayed His pickup basketball. Look, I'm not saying I'm good at basketball But I did wear KD's

And a Russell Westbrook t-shirt And wore like weird socks Which is like what people do And you know, like I just Those guys, there was a lot of shots at the rim And not a lot of makes You know, and I just felt like Greg Robinson and Rami Malick are watching this game. And they're acting like, this is the main attraction in the neighborhood.

So they come and they're like, man, you watch the game? This game is great. And it's like, no, it's not. Why are 10 people watching this? To be fair. If there were a pickup basketball game here in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the quality of play would be similar. That's true. I feel like not every neighborhood deserves the Rucker.

Not every neighborhood gets the Rucker, right? No, we get the Rucker. There is no Fat Joe team crashing the boards near Craig Robinson's house. I thought, by the way, when you were talking about your outfit for your bricklaying content, I'm sorry, three-point shooting contests the other week. Okay, okay, Chuck Person. Look, I'm a shot coach. I thought you were going to say that you were wearing like a full, remember the Alan Iverson, like,

compression socks? I had the compression. sleeve on. Did you really? Yeah, yeah, they got one for me. Did it compress your whole shot? Like, what happened? Yeah, that was the reason why I didn't go.

I didn't go 63 for 100. No, and you know what? I'm joking. I'm making these jokes because that's really the extent of my criticism for this episode. Not only was I so happy to have it back, you know, obviously. It's probably the first time I'm trying to remember the last time

We had a moment on television Where it felt like Comeeth the hour, cometh the show, right? Like that a show Kind of met with the Tenor of the world in this way When this show I can't remember when the last episode

Of last season aired But we're coming up on a year Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for presidency You know, we've had these events over the last course, like course of the last 12 months where you're often, I think lots of people feel the sensation of not being quite sure if they're awake. You know what I mean?

And into that world comes this show. And I think that is sort of the challenge facing Sam Hesmell right now is creating a show in a world where people probably can't believe what they're seeing in front of them most of the day when they wake up. I agree. I share those feelings. We talk a lot about how TV shows, especially good TV shows and longer running TV shows, teach you how to watch them. They create a visual language and a storytelling rhythm that may feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar at first, and then slowly they educate us on what to expect and what's real and what isn't and what to believe and how shots are

going to be framed and what's likely to happen, et cetera, et cetera. I wonder if Mr. Robot might be the first show in which the hiatus, the reality hiatus, the reality that occurred during the hiatus may have brought people up to a certain speed that maybe they weren't at before. Because the thing that I really loved about this premiere was how deeply it embraced the absurdity. And I don't just mean to pick up basketball skills. I mean, just the absurdity of Elliot's worldview, of his predicament, of his situation, of his friend's choice in television programs, to the way, to the Shakespearean way Philip Price conducts his meeting with cabinet officials, just to the way the shots are framed.

I found this whole thing just so wonderfully odd and disorienting and actually really sneaky funny at a lot of times. And I found that to be more of a relief than I expected, because I kind of want to laugh. at the world very often these days, you know, and I think that it found a rhythm, it came back to a world that was ready to meet. Yeah, it wasn't dissimilar from the way that Benny Offen-Waise kind of sprinkled in a lot more humor over this course of the Game of Thrones season, almost as if they were saying to themselves, we know where we are in the culture, we know how many people are watching and how many people are probably going through these episodes and just,

weighed down by the repeat horrors that you see in them so we need to like lighten the mood a little bit and Elliot saying peace to his father alter ego figment of his imagination or very real

other character I mean I still think that that's part of the I was very impressed with how they handled the Christian Slater stuff this in this first episode but just him throwing up deuses to him took the air out of the balloon or actually just loosened the construction just enough to make it like okay i can't i'm actually like i can't wait for the rest of these

episodes it's not a vice on me the the the highly stylized nature of the show is very much intentional and i feel like that was something that wasn't totally i think appreciated at the first season i mean some of it is heavy-handed but i think it's for the most part aware of when it is heavy-handed and and plays with it i mean that's why the secretary of the treasury has mustard on his face. You know, the $5.9 million is burned in Battery Park City to Phil Collins on the soundtrack. That is entertaining stuff. And so much happened in these, I mean, I want to call them two hours, even though it didn't play as two hours, that it was a little bit dazzling, especially when you consider the filmmaking, which is on such a high level and such a consistent level,

like the sound design, the way during that smart house hack, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Wagner that plays, I probably wasn't Wagner, but the loud classical music that plays when it suddenly cuts off, you know, you hear the echo, the space where that that noise was. It's on such a high level that you almost, it almost hides the fact that the show has changed in a pretty dramatic way. And I think it's a very smart pivot as well, which is it feels more like an ensemble show this year. And I think you're, we ranged much further outside of Elliott's head than we had in the past.

And you're right. And also, I think there's been a tonal shift in the last. the show because when you think about the first season so much of it was almost like a flower opening up or something it was or you know you think you you understand what you're seeing and then you change your angle and it's completely different and there's these beats in these episodes where you think well this is if there's a weirdness here it's probably drug-induced and he's going through this process of slowly going crazy but you feel like you have a handle on why he's losing it.

And then as you go on and on and on, not only is he, I mean, sure, you could say he's crazy or you could say that his, his delusions are drug triggered, but reality and fantasy completely merge. And when that happens, I think that the interesting thing that he did in this second season so far is he changed the tone of the show.

It is a little bit more fabulous. It is a little bit more sweeping. and there's like a little bit of style to his handwriting now where you know like you're saying that scene with Philip in the treasury department almost plays like a Cohen brother scene in Barton Fink or

or a putzucker proxy where it's very extreme staging and very extreme line reading and I feel like the first season was not like that and I think that we are now living in a world where one person or a group of people could wipe out personal debt. So if that happens, not only do you have to take those things seriously and you have to deal with the ramifications of that, but it changes the way people behave.

I think that's a very, very smart reading of how it works within the world of the show. I think it's also worth noting from a purely production standpoint. I think that those references that you're catching and appreciating, which is a very difficult tone to catch, I agree with you on the Cohen brothers. I think that when when Elliott first gets to the basketball court and you refers to the local arsonists and there's just some one, behind the bleachers and that just felt like pure David Lynch wink to me. I think that those those things are what you can get away with when you have one person directing the whole season because the one thing, you know, the thing that Sam has told me and hopefully it came up last night on Hacking Robot is that he loves basketball.

He's just a diehard fan of local pickup games of basketball is that he actually felt less stressed directing every episode of this season than he did last season because being a showrunner is seven day a week insanity job anyway, but the thing that was hardest for him was giving up the control to the directors every week and then just basically waiting in the editing bay for footage to arrive that he would then have to assemble back into what he hoped was his vision. And the only thing, and he wasn't discrediting the directors, he had some really good TV directors last season, like Jim McKay was one of them. But the only way that opportunity he had to explain what he wanted for his show was what he referred to as a one-hour tone meeting.

And I feel like that's such an oxymoron. You can't really have a tone meeting because tone is so specific to someone. So in the same way that everyone thought Fargo, the TV show was a bad idea, until they saw what Noah Hawley was doing with it and communicating with it, if he had sat down with whomever, I mean, any number of amazingly skilled television directors and said, I want this to feel a little Cohen brothers and I want this to feel a little David Lynch, and I want this to be a nod to back to the future or whatever. And this rest of it should be like David Fincher.

I doubt it would be subtle. You know what I mean? I doubt anyone else would be able to thread that needle because it was so personal. So that gives me a lot of optimism just for the filmmaking of the season to come. Let's talk a little bit about the last sort of act in the second part of the episode because I wanted to ask you whether or not you felt like the dialogue between Christian Slater and Romney Malick is sort of intentionally I think it's intentionally ambiguous because

it's happening at least we're led to you know from what we understand after last season it's happening inside of his own head right but the the way in which he says and they talk about what do you think what do they see when they see you coming or whatever the actual line is how did you read that line To me, what he was basically saying was, do you think they see this scared, sensitive, potentially undiagnosed Asperger Z, innocent?

Not that he is innocent, but he's somebody presents himself that way. Skittish, yeah. Exactly. Basically someone who seems harmless except maybe to himself, or do they see this shark that, or this very aggressive character that Christian Slater is playing? And it's a good piece of dialogue there because the episode is obvious, it's called unmasked. It's talking about who people are behind their mask or when they're wearing the mask. But it also was essentially an imageless callback to some of the scenes last season. And there weren't many.

I'm sure there's a whole thread on Reddit about this, but the scenes where we saw Mr. Robot talking to characters without Elliot present. And there was definitely a Tyrell Christian Slater scene. it's pretty clear from within the timeline of this episode that Mr. Robot met with Ray, that's the character played by Craig Robinson, at some point on his own. So the question that remains for this season is basically who's driving the car

and honestly who's more effective when he is driving the car. Yeah, I mean, so what are the questions? What do we sort of, what do you think that? Because one thing I would say about this first episode is that it doesn't necessarily set the table as much as I think I thought it might. That's a very sort of caveat-filled way of saying, like the episode, I couldn't tell you what's going to happen in the second episode. There are a couple things at play here.

The big one, which I was very encouraged by after watching this episode, is that the hack happened. The world was drastically violently, although no blood was shed, changed in the end. of last season. Well, blood was shed with Gideon. Yeah. Right.

Well, blood was shed in this episode. But I mean, in terms of the keystroke that basically changed the world. And one of the things that I really appreciate

about the show is that the fallout is just excruciatingly slow and gradual and deliberate and life appears to be going on, but it's just changing and changing and changing as it goes, as this new reality sinks in.

So basically watching that shakeout, while at the same time, wondering why Philip Price was meeting with White Rose at the end of last season. season and why he seems to be letting this go on. You know, there's a line in the scenes from next week trailer, which we usually don't talk about, but there's a line with basically Darlene saying, we're alive because they want

us to be alive. So it's really, it's like the question we were asking with Mr. Robot and Elliot, like, who's driving, who here? And that's still the big, big one for me. And Elliot writes multiple times in his journal, Control is an illusion, control is an illusion. I mean, obviously, thematically, I think I have, it was more just like, huh, I, you know, Obviously, Angela and her role at the company and whether or not she is completely over on the quote-unquote dark side or not is going to be a thing. But I was just sort of, it was unlike, it almost felt like a Christmas special that a season would put out, a show would put out in between seasons.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I think, I mean, there are a couple other questions here and there too. Like, what is Ray up to? It's a new question, I guess. And, like, you know, Mr. Robot was pretty keen on exing out Giddy. and Gideon pretty definitely got Xed out. Sidebar, I really wouldn't have minded that scene to be spliced into season two or three of House of Cards.

I feel like that would have been a more interesting end to that president's reign of errors. But I think, I'm glad you brought up the Angela stuff because I think that character got a lot of, characters don't get flak, but that was not people's consensus. That was not the favorite plot line. But I really liked how committed. Oh, I love that plotline, really? Did people not like that?

I think not, because she's also at this point almost spun off under her own show, but it's a pretty compelling situation that she's in. And it's not one that we usually see on shows where she is, you know, so ripped apart and seeking validation and seeking someone to, you know, basically see competence in her. You know, I remember that scene with Terry Colby when she was in the meeting and he basically just destroyed her. Yeah. leading up to her trying to get the lawsuit again and meeting with Colby and all the stuff that happened last year. I think it's important to watch stuff like that because the one thing that Sam has said, he said on the podcast with me, he said in many interviews,

that the thing that matters most to him about the show is the family drama and the emotional stakes, the small bore stuff that's happening in the midst of this global maelstrom. And, you know, I think the one thing that's puzzled me, and I'm definitely curious what you have to think about what you think about this too, because as the show has come back, and there have been a lot of, of course, it's gotten a lot of reviews, and they've been generally positive. But the one criticism that comes up from time to time is people being like, oh, well, the political stuff is a little too pat. It's a little too easy.

For me, I always thought that was kind of the point, right? I mean, if anything, this episode shows that Sam seems to be as skeptical of revolutions and revolutionaries as he is of corporations. Like, it all seems a little bit rigged and a little bit too facile in a way. And the thing that I like about the show is that it's about this guy who's so lonely, he wrecks the world to get someone to pay attention to him or we don't even know why. Like, that's, I think the way to watch the show is to start with Elliot and work outward, not the other way around. I also think it's fascinating, or it's notable that Elliot's speeches about, institutional state apparatuses and the things we do to embalm ourselves from reality

are delivered at this incredibly flat affect like he barely believes it it's like he's repeating lines from the matrix you know and that he so he is in a way acting out this part in this constant cycle of renewal and then reestablishment of control protocols or whatever and I think that the show has a lot to say about that, the hollowness of rebellion, or at least the, the trod, the doomed nature of it. Yeah, or the inevitability of revolutions to basically devour their own tail and eat their own young. Yeah, or becoming exactly what they rebel against, which is something that we've seen a lot. And as we say that, let's also say that the other thing that's fun about this is that this purportedly revolutionary show that leaks itself on Snapchat is produced by, you know NBC Universal Comcast like Shineheart Whig you know one of the biggest

companies in the world and there's a you know it is much an it is in and of itself kind of distracting and narcotizing and there's a there's a Jesus there's an after show after it talking about it you know I mean it's it's all part of what it is talking about which makes it sort of fun and I do feel like I should add you know hopefully the events of last night didn't change any of this but obviously I am working on this after show but my opinions remember remain my opinions regardless of what people think of it. I still am a fan of the show and would be regardless.

Dory, I'll bring the heat. I haven't been corrupted. You'll bring the basketball hot takes, but also... I'll be the F Society of this podcast from now on. Yeah, and I'm Philip Price. But this after show is only... We're doing it twice. We're doing it for the...

We did it, sorry, timeline for the premiere, and we're doing it again for the finale. And so you and I can just crash the boards the other nine weeks. It looks like it's going to be awesome, so I really want people to watch it. Let's take a quick break and we're going to come back and talk a little bit about another show that's coming back this week, Vice Principles. Hey, guys, just want to tell you a little bit about our sponsor, Seat Geek. Buying tickets online for sports and concerts has been a confusing process for a long time, and it's always been hard to find the best deal for that game or show you want to go to.

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after we're done worrying about our FICO scores and the state of the radical left in America we get to watch Vice Principles we get Danny McBride back in our life I'm so happy This is a show on HBO It's coming back on it's on Sunday It is going to be I think two seasons

18 episodes they've already shot the entire show apparently This was a movie script Yeah the Jody McJews Jody Hill and Danny McBride, who are two of the people, largely responsible for one of Andy and I's favorite shows, Eastbound and Down. They had a movie script that they expanded into this story for HBO, and they have paired Danny McBride as another American asshole character

with another American asshole, Walton Goggins. These two or two of my favorite people. I feel like I've been having this conversation a lot, and I now can't remember if I've actually had this on the podcast, but this idea of like whatever comfort television is, whatever is the thing that you have an uncomplicated with just very little, like you have very little demands, you just want nothing back from it but entertainment and warm light.

And some people like food shows and some people like reality shows and some people like network sitcoms. I just unapologetically love Danny McBride comedy. And I know that there are problematic elements to what he does sometimes. But Jesus Christ, like just having him back slapboxing with Walton Gagons was such a nice little thing to have this week. And we got a chance to see a couple of the episodes, but it premieres on Sunday.

It's not just to have him back slapboxing. It's to have him back cursing freely in front of children, which is a key part, I think, of his enduring comedic appeal. Yeah. I, you know, what's the line from Boogie Nights? Like, I just, I like, I like, I like, I like, popsicles in my mouth and butter in my ass or whatever, whatever the colonel says. Yeah.

I like Danny McBride comedies. I feel like he is one of those human beings, and I understand that some people are immune to his, his many charms, but he's one of those people that is just purely funny to me, always, like Tracy Morgan or Bill Murray. Yeah, where he just says the word fuck, it's. funny. Yeah, and I think it's worth noting how effortless it is for him to make me laugh, because effortless is a word I would use to describe the show, at least in the early going, and you

could take that in a pejorative sense, or you could just roll with it. Like, do you want to, I feel like you should deliver the text you sent me when you saw the first episode of this. I think it was, these guys definitely don't have a script, right? Yeah, I mean, they just clearly. clearly put on these costumes and told each other some things about their backstory and then commence slapboxing and dropping F-bombs. And it's very silly. And it is not a show that has like, the thing about East Bend and Down that was amazing in addition to everything was that at the heart of it,

it had a pretty compelling redemption arc. And it was so ridiculous and so goofy. But the end, and I wrote about this back on Granlin, was weirdly moving in the way that it sort of took the, the hero's journey and slapped it shirtless on the back of a jet ski. This show is not that. And I'm actually very heartened to hear what you said. I didn't even realize this, that this was by design essentially a mini-series or a two-season miniseries. Because first of all, if miniseries are in, comedy miniseries is a very, very good idea. That's purely the British model.

That's why the British office was so good and so brutal, especially before the star of that show started just making three-hour Netflix movies to continue the ride. Yeah. But this, you can't make the case. Weirdly, you could make a case of free spend and down of like why the story had to be told or what was compelling about it or, you know, being along for this journey. The saga of two idiots competing to be the principal of a school, it's hard to make that case.

And I don't think anyone has to, but it makes me happy to know that they are just going to be slapboxing for a finite amount of time. Yeah. Despite loving, I love it. The secret weapon in this show is definitely. Kimberly Heber Gregory who plays Dr. Belinda Brown the principal who comes in and takes the job

in the first episode that Walton Goggins Danny McBrides, they both play vice principals who want to replace Bill Murray who is leaving for... Oh yeah, who's in the show. Who's leaving for reasons you'll see. And this woman, Dr. Belinda Brown, has brought in and initially she seems like

a very kind-hearted woman. And you learn that she is just as crazy as everybody else on the show. Um, it's just really, you know, it doesn't have, I think, maybe the, the thing that was insane about Eastbound is that those guys would be like, what if we did a season in Mexico and then they did, you know? And that was the world expansion pack that they threw on that thing was so crazy that it made the first season and the later seasons feel bigger because of, you just knew that there was stuff happening outside of the, the camera's view. This feels fairly, at least in what I've seen. It's going to be limited to this arena. I'll be, I mean, if they want to go to Mexico and open a school in Mexico, like, let's do it.

But I don't know. It's just been, so far, I've enjoyed it quite a bit. Summer comedies are sort of in short supply, and I'm really happy to have this back. I do want to just throw in a little bit of a plug for the surprise supporting performances, because I think everybody, no one would be surprised that Busy Phillips is on the show and she plays Dan McBride's character's X and she's as good and as funny as anyone who has seen her on, you know, Freaks and Geeks or Cougar Town or whatever, everyone, that's not a surprise.

But my man, Shea Wiggum shows up. Oh my God, dude. And he's kind of funny. He's like a dude I thought was a knuckleballer suddenly comes out throwing like a oldest Chapman 100 mile per hour. It's also such a great character because you think he's going to be like this adverse and he just winds up being this guy who's like he's just

a really, really interesting character. He plays the Busy Phillips is Danny McBride's character's ex-Shea Wiggum, formerly of Boardwalk Empire, plays her new man, who is the target of much anger and ire and many swears and just takes them all genially

because he's just kind of a nice guy. And it's kind of great to see that actor in this role because the thing about that guy is he's always been pretty good. He's good in everything that he's in. This is what they do with John Hawks in Eastbound too, man. Yeah, you're right. It's a not dissimilar role, to be honest.

But to see a guy who is just like, he was good in silver lining, to see a guy whose main claim to fame seems to be his ability to be a solid B. Like, you're never going to have a problem if this dude's in your cast. And then to let him just be, just dial, just turn the dial a little bit to weird is very much appreciated. He's also an HBO All-Star because he's on Boardwalk. He plays The Preacher in the first season of True Detective. Could we do a, you know, the first piece I ever wrote for Granlin on launch day in June of 11 was about the HBO recycling program about their, basically their deep bench of actors who appear on all their shows like Michael K. Williams or Aiden Gillum, who's also a little finger. But it's almost as if they are now aware of that.

They were obviously always aware of it because of the, you know, they like working with people they like working with. But they really are steering into it now because Kevin Dunn, you know, had a very small part on True Detective, very small part on Night of, is I do believe delivering what might be the single best performance on TV on VEP. We didn't even talk about VEP this year. But he is so insanely intergalactically funny on that show. It's just, it's wild. So I feel, can we just do like a, just like the watch documentary on those dudes? those HBO dudes. Yeah.

Because it's crazy. No, I know. And the Night Out has a ton of those guys like Bodie from the wires and the Night of. Yes. Yeah, it's crazy. All right.

Well, actually, speaking of the Night of, I think we should probably, we'll cut out some time on Monday to chat a little bit about that. We'll talk a little bit more about Vice Peas and we'll come up with some other stuff to chat about.

Might, I should warn our listeners and you. You know, I'm coming to Los Angeles on Monday. I might watch some flicks on the plane. You never know. and we might get to record in person. Save it all for Ghostbusters. God,

I got as he Ghostbusters. But if I do end up coming out, that might push us closer to Tuesday if we record live. So I hope people can buy their time. Thanks for letting me know. We got a lot to talk about it. I know.

All right, man, good luck tonight. Everybody watch Andy on Hacking Robot. Chris, I had to give you a heads up because last week and I was like, I'm out. And you're like, no problem, buddy. I got you. And then the next thing I know,

there's like six ringers in for me. Literally. I know. What if it was like this time you came in and it was like me, Constant Zimmer, Roy Hibbert. Kevin Dunn. And Michael K. Williams,

Bodie from the Wire. Yeah, exactly. Well, look, I'll be honest with you. I would be hurt, but I would also absolutely listen to that podcast.

Good. All right, man, until next time, until you're out here. That's, that's it for us today. Talk to you next week.

Great job, Beretski. Peace.