The Watch - Ep. 72: Yeezy, 'Mr. Robot,' and 'Narcos'

Episode Date: September 8, 2016

Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald discuss Kanye West's adventures in NYC, the latest episode of 'Mr. Robot,' and how 'Narcos' benefits from being a period piece. Learn more about your ad choices. V...isit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:01 Today's episode of The Watch is brought to you by Jaguar, the art of performance. To learn more about the all-new Jaguar XE, visit jaguar USA.com. I ain't sports to have to clear the room. Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Andy Greenwald. I have no official title at the ringer.com. And joining me on the other line, it's Chris Ryan.
Starting point is 00:00:28 How'd I do? It's like, I feel like I'm wearing two left tears. This is crazy. I want to say, devoted listeners of our podcast know that since I came to California, there's been a little bit of a power struggle between us. I think it's safe to say. There was a time you sat by the door, then he made me sit by the door. But I think nothing compares to the Machiavellian majesty of what you've just done, which is, as soon as I got here, you decamped to New York. And not just New York, you're basically living in my house right now, like it's Susan John.
Starting point is 00:01:00 Jacobs Smarthouse. Like, you were in Brooklyn right now. I'm calling. I'm happy to detail for you as much as you want. Yeah, no, twist the knife. That's good. That's good. How many...
Starting point is 00:01:21 How many slices of pizza do you have in your hand right now? So last night I went, it was a not-so-steady. He said it was a secret Kanye pusher playing. And then I was like, and we got in. We started to get some rappers on the stage. And it was just a magical night, man.
Starting point is 00:02:12 So we had Pusha, Swiss Beets came out, Pusher did Mr. Me Too, and had Farrell come out. Jarrell did not remember the words of Mr. Me Too. Kanye was out there, did a couple of, like, a couple of Pablo songs. Basically, like, choreographed a mosh pit for Timmy Turner. They could get, and it was just a really fun night, and at one point,
Starting point is 00:02:47 throwing slices at the crowd, which is like, you were really... Listen to me, listen to me. me right now, okay? In my darkest moments since moving across the country, when I'm praying to Saint Pablo on my knees, I could not even imagine a fantasy that involves seeing Kanye West and having him throw slices of the best pizza in New York at my face. Like, that's a little too on the nose and kind of, I kind of think you're making it up. I'm not, man. It was really, It was really funny because it was my favorite part of the night was the greet Tyga when he was announced as the newest signing of good music.
Starting point is 00:04:07 Ugh. Yeah, I thought for a minute when you were naming names, because you came in pretty hot. You know, I think you said, like, you said push a first, you said Kanye. I thought we were going to devolve into some sort of like B-grade Funkmaster Flex where you were like, sigh high the prince is going to be there. Mr. Hudson is in the building. It's like how low-level good music signings do we have to get for? for, well, so...
Starting point is 00:04:30 No, it was a lot of fun, and there was a second where I thought... What do you think about... Of course he was. What do you think about the sort of present-day Kanye as sort of like brutal survivalist, right? Because he made you guys stand around
Starting point is 00:04:58 for two and a half hours in the High Line ballroom deprived a pizza. Apparently earlier in the day, he made models pass out by having them stand outside for four or five. five hours during easy season four? Yeah, the Easy Season 4 show. It was like Randolph Island, I think.
Starting point is 00:05:12 He's just using you guys as pawns. How do you feel about that? Yeah. But it was really, it was actually quite funny to watch him. He saw that there's a moathing. And it's, like, let it happen, man. Did you just call the number one song in the country a grower? Well, I think it's just like a song when you heard it.
Starting point is 00:06:27 You look like, it's an infection song. Yeah. get it out of your head. I think if he ever gets the material, like he is going to be a huge, huge, huge, huge star. Because his life performance and his charisma and his just, his vibe is pretty incredible. I got to say, it's been a minute since I was at the first Unitarian Church
Starting point is 00:06:55 in Philadelphia, and I don't remember when I saw Thursday there, Jeff, like, during Crossout the Eyes being like, okay, hold up, hold up. You know, I need these six guys here to form a perimeter. Yeah, right. That's not really how it works, but I, you know. No, it's just like people are just supposed to camel kick and pick up change. But it was, you know, Ageny has become commissioner, you know, like classic rock old-timer stuff.
Starting point is 00:07:57 Isn't that sort of how you feel about the transition from Grantland to the ringer, too? Yeah, that's right. The ringer is my Pablo. Just all you graybeards, just seating the stage. That's great. I really appreciate that we've flipped cities, we flipped coasts, we've flipped lives. Last night, you were at a rap show eating pizza until dawn. I taped a live television program and was in bed at 10 p.m.
Starting point is 00:08:23 How did that go last night? Yeah, it was good, man. It was good. You did hack your robot. Yeah, we did hack your robot. Not watch what happens live. We didn't do watch what happens live. We didn't do after suits, which I was still pushing really hard to do.
Starting point is 00:08:37 I really honestly if I could use whatever small leverage I have with the USA network to allow them to allow myself to to get them to allow me to host an after show for a show I've never seen I think I think we could really really break new ground
Starting point is 00:08:53 no it was fun I mean the the Mr. Robot cast are very very nice and very fun people the only disappointment Sam S. Mail was supposed to join us it was unable to because he is still making the television show So, you know, it ended up being a lot more of just, like, hanging with the home. Doesn't Sam know that the after show should be the priority? Let me tell you something.
Starting point is 00:09:15 I can show you the text message exchange where I tried to make that case. It was not greeted warmly. But, you know, so it ended up being more like hanging with the homies, just having it, having a laugh. What would you do if you found out that what Sam was doing was, he had, like, a synergy account and was just basketball players? I think you, I think you are in his head, like Christian Slater's. Rami Malick's head now. I think Vien is freaked out about it. He's like, Gene Hackman and Hoosier's just screaming at extras now. He just constantly has a loop of blue chips running in his Google glasses.
Starting point is 00:09:51 Well, okay, I didn't get a chance. I'm a big fan of yours, but I did not get a chance to see last night's doctor show because I was at Kanye. Listen, I would make the same choice 12 times out of 10. I wanted to ask you, do you guys get a chance to talk at all about who was one of the co-writers? No. That sounds like a borderline serious question. We did not get that. Yeah. So with last night's episode, which is actually the ten ultimate episode, am I correct? So the finale, quote unquote, is going to be stretched or crossed two weeks. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, people know the way Mr. Robot's gone this season, like it's very, very fluid because they shot, they block shot the whole season like a movie and then chopped it up into episodes. Now, the scripts were written as individual episodes.
Starting point is 00:10:36 So technically what we saw last night was the penultimate episode. It was 209. But when they made the decision to split the finale into two weeks, two episodes across two weeks, some of the stuff that was in 209 slid into other episodes. But technically this was the penultimate episode, yes. So last night's episode was co-written by a guy named Minai, Coradonna. Coradonna, yeah. Yeah, and one of his job,
Starting point is 00:11:08 I've gone this season. Yes. Yeah, I think there's some Easter eggs in Hacking Robot last night. I mean, anytime, in the same way that they're, like, on medical shows, there is a doctor or a retired doctor involved in the production so that when they write the script and they're like, you know, they just write like medicine, medicine, medicine, medicine, broken heart, medicine, medicine, medicine. That guy comes in and it's like, actually, it's called an infarction, and they just fill that in.
Starting point is 00:11:57 Similarly, I mean, Sam knows more about hacking than, I think, you know, certainly that I know about medicine, but Corr, who started as Sam's... You're the doctor house among the two of us. You are always advocating for cold and or hot towels on people's necks, and three times out of 11, it works. Corridana started as Sam's assistant on the show, and then this year went into the writer's room and also, yeah, is sort of the hack
Starting point is 00:12:22 coordinator of making sure everything is legitimate, make sure that all the, every time Rami's typing on the keyboard, that it is somewhat accurate. Yeah, well, and so, and like we said, like with this, when he Easter eggs, I saw it lack of risk. Yeah. That's interesting. So you mean, like, in the sense that the camera was giving the audience what they, like,
Starting point is 00:13:08 if this was like an immersive experience, like that computer game missed, and again, I know as much about the computer game missed as I know about medicine, but that you could theoretically like move your mouse around and explore, basically explore the game world. You will remember how that became this thing that even though it was...
Starting point is 00:13:34 Didn't we cover that heavily on our after show? It's one of my favorite moments on the after show. That's right. But that moment, which was so digested by the Internet and was broken down, frame by frame, and everything, we, I think that that's shocking in that apartment for themselves and equaled a narrator. I agree with you. I think it's good to point that out. I just think in general, you know, we are used to talking, and we, but also people who talk and write about television for a living or people who just watch it, you know, very carefully, we still talk about TV and the way we watch it and the way it's communicated to us, primarily. in the way that we've often thought about it, which is as a writer's medium.
Starting point is 00:14:43 So we assume that the script will give us the insights that we need. The images are, I mean, even as the TV direction has improved, it is still in a way, often secondary in terms of communicating the message of the show. Because the directors very often, you know, they come onto the show for a week or two weeks of prep and they shoot, and then they're off. And so they're basically just trying to reenact someone else's vision to the best of their ability. And often the person whose vision they're trying to enact is not even there on set. to help them do it.
Starting point is 00:15:11 But in this case, where it is one person directing every frame, his curiosity is the show's curiosity. What he is showing us is what he wants us to see on the show quite literally. So anytime, and that can be in smaller moments, you know, or aesthetic choices. Like, you know, I don't know if you've noticed, but occasionally characters are not centered in the frame. Sure. Have you noticed that?
Starting point is 00:15:33 I'm glad you picked up on that. But similarly, a moment you're talking about, like, that has narrative importance. That means something to the story just as much as, you know, whether Angela's going to confess or not. Did you feel, my feeling about the episode was, you know, in this, in the second half of the season, post-prison, as we're pivoting, this was very much of a piece of what the show is. And it's a version of the show that I like very much. It's much leaner. It's a taught, tense hour with something to hold on to. in this case, we have our protagonist back, so we're grounded in the world.
Starting point is 00:16:13 I thought this was, you know, maybe that is a polite way of saying. I thought this was a, you know, here to there episode, basically. But I'm just grateful that we are moving from here to there again. And so I fitted it, you know, there were specific moments that we can call out. But I think this is very much a piece of a second. In terms of my, in terms of my visceral season, I thought the last, like a piece of film made to the music. I don't, and I don't mean that in a bad way. Like, do you know what a Fendorcell is?
Starting point is 00:17:22 No, well, I think it's pretty important. Like, you know, I'm going to try to do that. Here's why I feel better about it. And it really has changed. You know, when you have Elliot back in the mix, um, my, the focus that was previously on Philip Price's, um, ambition or White Rose's true goals, I, once again, I'm back to where we're in the first season, which is I don't really care what the masters of the universe are doing
Starting point is 00:18:04 because I have someone back down on Earth to worry about. Like we have, you know what I mean? We have Prometheus. He went up there and he got fire and now he's back with us and whatever is coming is still coming and looming and we don't quite understand what it is and that's okay. And I, again, I appreciated the way we were downloaded that information about the Congo because that is, let me just be clear, that is absurd. But the way that opening scene was shot and the way Michael Christopher delivered it, it's intentionally absurd. It is completely an abstract concept. and the show is sort of steering into that. But I also think that it's important that the show is giving us a little bit more specificity
Starting point is 00:18:39 in terms of what's happening week to week as opposed to season to season, which is Darlene and Cisco might be dead, and Angela might be turning yourself into the FBI. And, you know, it feels like there's one show again. And I think the biggest criticism I had of the first half of the season was that There was the Dom DeParo show, which was a pretty good show. There was the Angela show, which was a shockingly good show. And there was the, you know, there was the Elliot and Ray Chess Spectacular,
Starting point is 00:19:11 which was fascinating and aesthetically beautiful, but not as engaging a show as those other shows. Now it's all one show, so I'm just enjoying being along for the ride. Yeah, I think it's definitely been, I think, a stretch for people to see all the different plot lines or cohesion. One question that I had is, when Dom goes in, heaven again, which is always serious. ID card who's named Francis Shaw,
Starting point is 00:19:50 which, right? Frankie Shaw, yeah. Yeah, but who is that character? That's Cisco's real name. Gotcha. That was Cisco. She was on to Cisco. Yeah, that was a little winking nod to Frankie Shaw
Starting point is 00:20:07 who played Shayla last year, who was one of the best things about the show. I think, I wish she could start haunting Elliot Ted because I think she's great. There's been a lot of that. There's been a lot of that on the show. You know, in the first, in the season premiere, when Angela was working in PR at E-Corp, they keep referring to, I'm going to call Melissa. Melissa is going to come. And so that, and the USA PR person for the show is Melissa Cusack.
Starting point is 00:20:34 And so Sam put her in the show. So there's a lot of that, like, friends and family plan. Right. But I think the bigger question going into next week, well, there's the big question going to next week is who survives that shootout. but I think the one thing to keep an eye on in terms of all the different balls in the air with the show is
Starting point is 00:20:52 I'm asking you this point blank fem to sell peer to peer here do you care if Cisco lives or dies nah I mean shout out to him and I think that's a problem right and it's not the you know what I mean it's like
Starting point is 00:21:08 and that guy has like a tough hole to play you know what I mean like he's you got a show not really I mean I I like It was a little bit of a ship, you know? I mean, yeah, right, it was only a week ago. She hit him in the face of the baseball bat. Yeah, I know.
Starting point is 00:21:46 It's not normal. Michael Dreher's the actor. I think he's been really good. I think it's, you know, I think that the, that character in many ways was a casualty of all the different things going on in the show, that really the nature of that relationship only emerged in the last few weeks, which is actually not true. And one thing we did on, on Hacking Robot last night is they made a fun little montage of like, you know, like the show's It couple, Darlene and Siski. and you realize that they've been having these moments, maybe without baseball bats, all the way back since season one, it's just that that's not what anyone was talking about,
Starting point is 00:22:15 and there wasn't enough oxygen really to focus on it. But I just love the way it was staged. I love just cinematically how that shootout was staged. I don't, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Carly Chacon is probably still on the show, and Darlene is probably going to survive that. We don't know about Cisco, but the fact that we kind of are willing to accept him as a casualty, it's just something to keep an eye on.
Starting point is 00:22:37 Like you want to have supporting characters that can, you know, for lack of a better word, be canon fodder, but you kind of want to, you want to be pretty engaged when that happens. And I think that that's a concern for any show going forward. Well, I'm sure that we will talk more about, obviously, Mr. Robot, on next week's re-ups following the first part of the finale. Let's take a little break for our sponsors, and let's talk about your favorite show in the history of television. Okay. We know it's a little rude to interrupt, but while we have your ear, let's have a brief conversation about manners, As the British like to say, manners makeeth man.
Starting point is 00:23:10 Do they say that? So it's no wonder that Jaguar's first ever compact sports sedan, the Jaguar XE, and their first ever performance SUV, the Jaguar F-Pace, are well-mannered. They both boo you at ease the moment you enter, remain composed in almost any situation, and know when to make themselves heard. For the full Jaguar Guide to Manners, please visit jaguarUSA.com. Thank you, Jaguar, the art performance. Okay, guys, I think you know this.
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Starting point is 00:24:40 Go to the settings tab and click add a promo code. Enter promo code, watch. That's W-A-T-C-H in case you have some spelling issues. Seatkeek will send you $20 after you've made your first ticket purchase. Download your free Seekek app today and enter the promo code, watch. I will see you at the St. Pablo Tour. Okay, we are back, Chris. I know you were feeling a little nervous about uncorking something that you've kept corked for a while,
Starting point is 00:25:05 but especially over a cell phone. I know you're in public. Can you do like a really intense whispered version of what we're about to talk about? Here's the thing is I'm sitting in a glass box and that's just of emotion but literally somebody just made a salad. Tortilla chips.
Starting point is 00:25:38 Particular type is on the Netflix network which you can find on channel internet on your box. Mm-hmm. And that show... And the show is called Grace and Frankie. It's called... Narcos.
Starting point is 00:26:06 I'm sorry, what was that? Sorry, I think the dog was barking, or maybe someone was crunching a tortilla chip. Can you give it? When we do the next episode, I promise I will scream. I can't scream it now, but we're talking about narco season two. I feel like you're... Narco! Yes.
Starting point is 00:26:31 Look around right now, like, what's going on in the, like, the Etsy studio that you are basically squatting. There's a bunch of people doing actual work. They don't care. That's how I feel every time we do a podcast, so it's really no different. Narcos returned to Netflix on Friday. The insane thing about this show is that many, many people listening have probably binged, and that's a very apt word for the show, gone on a bender and seen all 10 hours of season two. Netflix is certainly enthusiastic about your response because they announced season three and four.
Starting point is 00:27:11 So I hope Boyd Holbrook... Is it entirely waiting on my response? I think so. Well, I think on America's response, I was doing like the like Ustetes, like the collective view, you know. But I hope Boyd-Hallbrook is getting paid in lozenges because in like soothing camomile teas because he's going to be doing a lot more voiceover for the next few years. You know, if you'll like... liked the first season of the show, probably going to like the second season, right?
Starting point is 00:27:39 Which is pretty amazing because I think it was marked with a bunch of tumult behind the scenes. I think there were a couple showrunners came on and off the show. You know, they're managing production in Columbia. Yeah, Chris Montcato was a runner. And creators. Yeah, and was it Jose Padilla who did... Elite Squad. Crap, what's the...
Starting point is 00:28:02 Yeah, right. And he directed the pilot, and I think it sort of set the visual style book. and then a new group of people kind of came aboard later in the first season or in the second season and second season had different writers now. Yeah, I think the second season
Starting point is 00:28:15 had two groups of writers, if not more, but, you know, the show is the show. And if I sound like I'm damning it with faint praise, I don't mean to. I just, I find the show kind of confounding because, how should I put this? I think it's pretty bad in most conventional ways.
Starting point is 00:28:35 But I want to say, that with the caveat that I enjoy watching it. You know, I think that you can look at this show as either the best case or worst case scenario for Netflix's model. Best case is that it basically is micro-targeted to very specific cinematic pleasure centers. You know, like if you like Scorsese movies, you know, if you like movies about the drug trade, or if you like, honestly, if you like, you know, hopped up documentaries, you know, like a Can Cowboys or basically anything.
Starting point is 00:29:08 If you like interviews with Michael Bay, if you like going to Michael Bay's house and writing jet skis, you are going to find things that you like in this movie. I mean, sorry, I'm saying this movie on this show. Worst case scenario for Netflix is because it is so, it's not even contemptuous of the kind of narrative skills that I appreciate in great TV. It just ignores them completely. I mean, when I watch this show, I mean, last season we joked a lot that this is basically Wikipedia, the television show, because the connective tissue of, like some of the best stuff on TV generally is the connective tissue where you get from plot to plot, right?
Starting point is 00:29:49 It's not, it's not all, we were talking about the night of last week. It's not just what happens to Nas in the courtroom. It's that when what happens to Nas happens, Helen Weiss, the DA, there's a moment where she takes off her work shoes and puts on her, basically, her sneakers and walks out of the courtroom. That's the connective tissue that allows people to be human and that sort of we find the contours of the story around the story. Narcos does not give a shit about any of that. As soon as the scene is done in which characters basically basil exposition each other for three minutes, Boyd Holbrook pops on the old VO and explains exactly what it was we just saw, or we cut to real-life news footage to get us from here to there.
Starting point is 00:30:26 So every scene basically feels like dinner theater. Yeah, sometimes he'll even say things that his voiceover, I guess, could we described it last year, if I remember correctly, as being the human Wikipedia entries. Now he has become, which may be wondering how I got myself in the situation, meaning. So that's like, he basically jumps on. Now, the funny thing about this, I was actually reading a really good Q profile of John Landbrow.
Starting point is 00:31:02 And it was just a piece about, she talks a little bit in there, not in the architect, not be a great thing. Overly challenged by or required to take two scenes of happen entirely in Spanish. Chris, I think you're being a little too harsh because you do not need to be fluent in Spanish to be the star of Narcos because the God Wagner Mora, who plays Pablo Escobar, who takes his performance to a next level. I mean, the performance is astonishing. The performance is really, really worth watching the show for. He doesn't speak a word of Spanish. He doesn't speak a word of Spanish. He's, he's a, he's Portuguese. Even beyond that. Even beyond that this season. And I don't, how many of you watched this season? Not enough. Not enough. Well, I'm a. About two-thirds of the way through the fusion,
Starting point is 00:32:31 and him and everyone, like, physically, because that's not the actual weight that he is. And he's just, like, I just needed to get this guy off of me, and I needed to not be in the headspace, but I also needed to get my body back, and that's why he was fascinated by the drug trait. If this film, if this show had been shot, in his location, I think it would be really bad.
Starting point is 00:34:16 The other couple, you're, I mean, I think that's right. I think there are a couple things that just, that are just so well done, the midst of some things that are questionably done, but I think it does outweigh it. Like, when you're talking about setting, I completely, completely agree. I've never, I've never been to Medellin in the 90s or today, but, you know. Luckily, very underrated. Well, but that's the thing. So I have, I have a friend who comes from there, and the way that
Starting point is 00:34:41 she talks about the city and just the way it looks and when it looks, you know, when you can get up in the hills and you can look down on it, I mean, it is one of the most beautiful cities in South America, if not in the world. And there's a shot in the second season premiere where just when I was starting to get a little more sour, on the show and I'm like, it's still, the way Boyd Holbrook is sort of like, like, white-splaining this country and like everyone is just servicing them, it just feels like cultural tourism and a little bit of exploitation. Then there's a shot of the valley at night.
Starting point is 00:35:06 And you're like, oh, that's a real place. That's the place that made Pablo Escobar a demon and a hero. And my concerns went away again for a minute. Similarly, you know, just his physical performance, his presence, like the scene at the breakfast table in the premiere or when another great actor, like so many small performances by actors who are just terrific. Yeah, the guy who plays
Starting point is 00:35:28 Horatio Carrillo, the colonel, who kind of takes matters into his own head. I love Bruno Bashir, who's Damien Bashir's brother, who is just, I think is a really fascinating and always interesting to watch actor. He plays the guy who's, the bearded guy who's
Starting point is 00:35:52 liaison with the government. Yeah, the Dorque, yeah. So anytime like he's there, you're suddenly drawn back in. It's a confounding show because I think, and this is more than anything else, this is actually what Netflix's goal is. It's basically, it's not just to disrupt,
Starting point is 00:36:08 and I kind of hate that word, but it's useful here. It's not just to disrupt the television industry, as we've all known it. It really is to disrupt the way we talk about it, view it, and cover it. And that's probably why Narcos is so confounding and why it's so successful
Starting point is 00:36:21 regardless of these tiki-tack things that we keep bumping up against with it. So I wanted to ask you that, much while I was just last week about this idea that maybe this could be a of, but that the shows were being put into production, because period piece shows to them that really today. But I've been noticing that this is coming. I think they passed on that,
Starting point is 00:37:33 but they were, but it wasn't. Okay. Well, then there's a show that Rob Reiner is working on that set at Yale in 1969. There is a show for USA called Damnation, which basically sounds like preacher, but set in the 1930s. And, you know, like,
Starting point is 00:38:07 Or was the show? Oh, no, I was going to mention this. Yeah, it's Quarry, and it debuts tomorrow in Cinemax. And I was going to suggest, I think we should check it out, and maybe people check it out. Yeah, definitely. Talk about it next week. And it's Logan Marshall Green and Jamie Hector, things the anonymous to get involved in crime in the early 70s in Memphis.
Starting point is 00:38:26 You know Logan is the son of my college acting professor. Of course, I do. Or so Lowry Marshall. TA 23. Stand up. The class that taught me to sit down and leave the third. theater. As far as I'm just, all they're talking to is
Starting point is 00:38:42 pantom I'm pouring water down your pants, but apparently you had a dream where I poured water down my pants? No, you remember like you used to do all those, like you, when you were doing that improv group, I thought like the only show I ever saw. Wait, wait, wait, let's stop for a second here. I never did improv.
Starting point is 00:39:02 Improv is easy. We did sketch. Sketch. Yeah, sorry. Go on. You were one of the true poets. Go on. The idea of basically that you were, and you'd walk in off stage left, and you'd be like the happy waiter, and then you pour ice water down your pants? Did that not happen?
Starting point is 00:39:18 No, this never happened, but I think you've been out there telling that story. By the way, you should... I've told so many people this story. Why didn't you just write up that sketch and submit it to Saturday Night Live? Because you clearly, you're the guy with his finger on the pulse of performed comedy. I mean, ice down the pants. No, I mean, we, I'm sure our listeners want to deep dive into, no, no, no, let's get back to the world.
Starting point is 00:39:48 Maybe this is something we could talk about more of a quarry, but I thought it was interesting. I also think it's interesting that, boy, I think the rest of stuff is interesting. I think it's, I can do this to Pablo, because then far as being chess pieces along the line of history on this show is particularly interesting. Can you imagine when the woman who plays, the actor who plays Murphy's wife, got the script for season two, and she's like, let me guess, I'm in a house complaining about a cat, and they're like, better.
Starting point is 00:40:50 You tell him he cares too much about his work, and you leave. She's like, this is dynamite stuff. This is definitely why I went to the Royal Shakespeare Academy. But it's definitely a what about Gwondo moment. Well, look, I think that what you're getting at is I think it's the trap of historical dramas. And I think Narcos is particularly guilty of this, where it feels like this enormous fidelity to the historical record, but to such a ridiculous degree where to get all the chess pieces lined up, every scene carries the weight of everything. So, you know, entire scenes are like,
Starting point is 00:41:29 but that was my brother. We should go against Pablo. Today is not the day. No, today is the day. I will do it when like it's all condensed into these one, these very dramatic, almost soap operatic scenes. But what you're getting it to me is the difference, it can be skillfully done. Like you can skillfully thread original drama in and around history, but it's the difference between Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire, you know, where the most interesting things about Mad Men was the way the characters were just living their lives while history was occurring all around them. Boardwalk Empire immediately fell into a trap where the most interesting characters on the show were actual characters, I mean, actual historical figures. So they're, and because of that, they were essentially robbed
Starting point is 00:42:08 of drama. Like, we weren't really worried about Al Capone in the first few seasons because we could just look at Wikipedia or an encyclopedia, and Nucky Thompson, the original character, was not interesting enough to carry the way to the show. I think the question that you're getting at is worth talking about as we look at all these new shows at a lot of the period pieces. I would almost want to flip it and say, why are people scared of the present? Is it because the bar is so much higher to make them feel essential to, or is it because, as you're saying, in terms of building content libraries?
Starting point is 00:42:37 Because when it works, and I think, you know, Mr. Robot, certainly Mr. Robot's season one, I still feel cinematically season two, but especially something like Atlanta, you know, that we're talking about, we talked about and raved about last week. It's so much more rewarding when you can make a show about right now. And I think people are running scared from that. And I'm curious why that is. I think it's a real danger if you're making show set in the past purely because it somehow you feel it makes it makes it more plausible. Like people know the 70s were important for X, Y, and Z reason, post-Vietnam or, you know, the state of the country or gas lines. or whatever, because basically the paperweights of importance have already been laid down on your script.
Starting point is 00:43:21 And the danger of doing something in the present is you don't know what's important. You're clutching its straws and maybe that moment didn't really matter and you end up making the hyper-color of TV shows. I don't know if that's really how the thought process works and I hope it doesn't. Yeah, it's weird. It's because you wonder them why, like, is it the strange, like with strangers things so popular with people because it was old into the 80s? You know what I mean? Like there was no Russian agent, there was no, you know, it didn't feel like it was like a feel where it's. It's also shorthand, you know, it's all marketing.
Starting point is 00:44:10 It's always always been all marketing, but it's particularly so now. And you put that font up for Stranger Things. You make that poster and people immediately have a very deep feeling. They have a reaction. You know, it's like a Proustian whatever. That it's like, okay, I know that vibe. I want that vibe. I'm in.
Starting point is 00:44:25 Similarly, like the billboards that are up all around for Quarry, like you see Logan with his long hair and his mustache. and you're like, okay, I get it. I know what that is. But if you see a billboard where it's just a guy or a woman dressed like the people next to you on the subway or whatever, you don't know what the vibe is. You don't know what you're getting into.
Starting point is 00:44:42 And maybe you're not even that interested because you're dressed the same way too. So that's almost definitely part of the reason. But I think you got to do better, man. Can you do the Hollywood Fixer? Just like, what if you did better? What if you tried harder? You know?
Starting point is 00:44:58 What if we did me a black picture? It's a good place to talk. So strange to be on sepricose. Can you do me a favor? I'm a little concerned I left the oven on in my apartment. Can you just swing by? Okay, I'll swing by. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:16 That would be great. Can you also go to bagel hole on 7th Avenue and Park Slope? Get a poppy seed bagel. Take a picture of yourself eating it and then destroy the picture and never send it to me. I'm actually, I'm going to come back. I'm going to be the guy on the plane throwing cheese. to add people on the plane because I'll be bringing me 15 Pige and Joe's back. That's my man. I love it. All right. I'll see you out here soon.
Starting point is 00:45:44 Talk you later, man. Great job, Ranski.

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