The Watch - Ep. 76: Emmys After-Party With Sam Esmail, Joe Weisberg & Joel Fields

Episode Date: September 19, 2016

The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald are live from the Ringer studio to react to the 2016 Emmys, offer up their big-picture thoughts from the festivities, and gain insights from 'The Americans' show runners, Joe Weisberg & Joel Fields, and 'Mr. Robot' creator Sam Esmail. 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. Welcome to the Watch's Emmy's After Party. My name is Chris Ryan. I am joined by Andy Greenwald. Hurry huge. And this lovely golden lady.

I know, Andy and I just won for Best After Show, Game of Thrones, HBO Go division. It was really a meaningful moment. Yeah, it was a tough race. We're excited to be here. That was a really fun night. We have a lot to break down, some upsets. Yeah.

Some old favorites winning. Yep. But we also have some surprise guests during this. By the way, we're going to be taking your questions, too. so feel free to start asking them throughout the show. On Facebook.com slash ringer, which is where you're probably watching this. But right now, we are joined on the line live from somewhere between the theater and the Governor's Ball. Nominees tonight, the makers of my favorite show on TV, The Americans, Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields.

Guys, are you still there? Can you hear us? We're here. Are we the surprised guests? You're the first of, hopefully, many surprised guests, but it doesn't get any better than this. Guys, congratulations. This was very long time coming, in my opinion. You know how much I love your show. Crush not to see you win, but I was happy just to see you there. How do you guys feel? How did you feel going into the night and how do you feel right now?

Well, first of all, we're hungry. That's a big thing going on with. And you know that huge rush. We do not function well if we haven't eaten. But we're here. You guys didn't get any peanut butter sandwiches? We did. My wife ate one, but we were too nervous to eat.

Got it. So how did you feel over the course of the night? Because one of the things Chris and I were talking about during the show is you drama people have to wait for the entire. night just to get to your categories. How did you balance your emotions if alcohol wasn't served? It was very rocky. It's very up and down. You know, first of all, you really want to win, but then if you win, you have to give a speech, which is terrifying. Basically, you don't win, which is upsetting, but a release. It's very complicated. I can't speak for Joe. I think I can.

Basically, the speech we didn't give, we were doing in our heads the whole show, so we didn't see the show. And then once we didn't win in the first category, it would have been great to win, but also kind of a release from the stress. It's been fun. It's great to be here. I'm devastated but thrilled. That's what I feel every day I wake up. Guys, was there a feeling in the audience at all that it was a slightly different kind of Emmy's night

where some surprises were possible and that there was some changing of the guard going on? Yeah, but not the big guard. The big guard didn't change. No, the big guard stay where it was. A lot of repeat winners, but a lot of really worthy. nominees. So what are you going to do? Is your main takeaway from this night? You guys, as you know, as hopefully

everyone watching this live broadcast knows, you guys have two more seasons to wrap up the show. Is your main takeaway from tonight that you need to write more scenes where guys get eaten by dogs? The suitcases, but apparently that's nothing. You've got to keep ratching it up. How are Carrie and Matthew, were they feeling as, were they fatalistic going

to the night? Did they have a speech prepared? How are they doing? They were like, they were like eight rows in front of us, and we could only see their back so we're not 100% sure we're gonna check in with them we have a we have a feeling they're all right you know those are those are pretty healthy people so they do let actors and writers mingle after the show just not during the show okay okay last question guys before we let you go have parties i hope what what is the flow of the night now so you've been trapped in this room with all these other people all night now you're going to the governor's ball what happens next

well we were standing talking to you and then security shoot us off to the side we were in the way we kind of got in trouble to the end you're going to basically almost let's say we got arrested We got a bunch of police officers here. They could be waiting for us, we don't know. Maybe we should talk to them next. Gosh. Okay, now that I've... You guys are hungry.

You're weak. You're at our disposal. Can you give me an enormous spoiler for next season of the Americans? Everybody's defecting. I can't believe I told you, but everybody's defecting. I'm really hungry, and actually, that's a spoiler for next season. That's good to know. Joe Weissberg and Joel Fields.

You guys are winners in my heart. Americans, I think, is the best show on TV. Thank you for joining us on this ridiculous life broadcast. Thank you for everything. Thanks for helping us get here. Have fun. See, those are my guys. They're having a good time. Okay, so the Americans didn't win.

But I do think that this was kind of a big deal tonight at the Emmys. It was a big sea change. So here's the thing with the Emmys. We talked about this a little bit on our preview podcast. It tends to go in blocks of a couple years where shows have a stranglehold on the awards and they tend to dominate for a couple of years. But I think we started to see a little bit, a little bit. little bit of a chipping away of the monolith, right?

It was kind of interesting. I mean, I think that if you look at the fact that the big winners stayed the big winners, so Veep won, Game of Thrones won, and People v. OJ, which we thought was going to be a big winner. So those are like water cooler shows. And particularly Game of Thrones and People versus OJ. They were the best argument you can make for... Classic water cooler discussion, be like, did you see Veep last night? Yeah, I was going to say, maybe that one isn't that.

But the other two were good. Two out of three ain't bad. Those are shows that work best and are actually designed to be processed, digested every week. You can discuss them. they really kind of dominated the culture and they dominated the Emmys. But on the margins, we did start to see this slow chipping away, and not just because we saw some surprise winners like Louis Anderson early on. Yeah.

But we saw these show, the thing that I think was most noteworthy is that we saw some very significant winners, Ben Mendelsohn from Bloodline, Tatiana Maslani from Orphan Black, winning for outstanding performances in shows that were not otherwise supernovas or celebrated supernovas. Yeah, so let's go into that a little bit. So typically what happens is you'll see people getting. rewarded for just being part of something that is either critically adored or popular, right? I wouldn't say that that's necessarily what happens with Maggie Smith, but I would say that's a vestige of what, you know, like that kind of award where Downton had a lot of momentum a couple

years ago. Maggie Smith is sort of the big name there. Downton, classic water cooler show. Post Matthew, she is the big name. No spoilers for Downton heads out there. But, you know, and then you start to see, so she's still winning, she's still not showing up, but she's still winning. And then, but you're starting to see with Like Mendelsohn winning for Bloodline, Bloodline, I like very much, but is not adored, I'd say, and not even by its own network. But he still won. And that's really interesting because I think that there's a sense that certainly we have,

and I think even it trickles down to just regular TV fans and consumers, that it's just hard to keep up, that there are so many shows that you not only have to watch, but you have to watch all of in bulk. And so I was thinking that Ben Mendelsohn wouldn't win for, I agree, this was a great performance. I didn't think he had a chance of winning, mainly because I didn't think the, large majorities of the Emmy voters went through the entire season of Bloodline. They heard they did a bad thing, but they didn't really want to know how they went about doing it.

But that's changing now. And I wonder if that's in any way a reflection of the voting change that went into effect last year, where prior to last year, Emmy voters would look at the categories and they would rank them in terms of preference. And it would be cumulative points. So you would know who your second choice was, your fourth choice was, and maybe they would somehow average that out. So if enough people were just kind of like, I'm into Maggie Smith, top three, she'd win. She might win. Right. And now it's just, you say what's your favorite and that's that. And some people credited that change with Game of Thrones and Vip ascending last year. And they certainly played there this year. Okay, so we had some surprises. We had some things that we thought were locked on. I think the place where we had... The biggest surprise for you was that Tatiana Maslani doesn't have an English accent. I was shocked to find out that she's a comedian and a treasure. Yeah, it's great what she just puts on the glasses. It's like a new person. It's a whole different person. But, you know, I think the thing for me was, and we joke about Tatiana Moslani, but it's a...

It's nice to see a variety of people up there. It's nice to change it over because television is like this constantly evolving. There's so much stuff on. So it's cool every once in a while to just be like, yeah, you know what, Tatyana was a lot? He does deserve it. Rami Mollock definitely deserves it. That was, for me, that was the shock of the night. I'm sure Orphan Black stands feel otherwise.

Yeah, you were a little, I was pretty confident that he was going to win, but you were like, maybe Shriver's got it. I mean, I got to say, since this is a loose live show, I wanted to say one more Tatiana thing. A couple years, like when Orphan Black premiered. All the Tatiana takes are on the table. This is the evolution of not just of the Emmys, but kind of of TV and how we're processing it. When Orphan Black premiered a few years ago, there was an enormous outcry when the Emmy nominations came out that year because she wasn't nominated. She was the number one in everyone's snub list, right?

And my feeling was at the time, and I wrote about this for Grantland, like, come on, like, it's just, that's sort of preposterous. Orphan Black was a very, very, very niche show. The first season was exceptional, but it was very, very, very, very small show, and it's winning just by the fans being rallying behind her. To go from being the number one poster child for being snubbed, to being a, wow, I can't believe she got nominated, to winning. That is a huge sea change. But to go back to Rami, thrilled for this, thrilled for him, mainly because I don't think many people can pull off a white tuxedo.

I certainly try it for much of tonight and fail. I always like it when somebody references their character on stage. You know what I mean? I agreed with him. I think he was really preaching when he was like there's a little bit of valiant in all of us because I am a little bit of a morphine addict. I do like toppling financial systems. You love getting into code. I love hacking.

But seriously, though, I thought that that category, I said this in the preview pod, was the most wide open and the one that would be most, the one that would really illustrate where the Emmys were going forward. And I swear to you, I wasn't just kidding or reaching for a hot take that I thought Leav was going to take it.

I really thought it was Ray Donovan time. But you just thought it was going to be for Hard Knocks. I just thought it was going to be for the Wolverine. Jeff Fisher knows his linebacker core needs more work. That's a great, great question. at Facebook.com slash ringer, where you're also watching this video. I'm also trying to get some more special guests to call in. Greenwald's got the hotline bling going.

This is Hollywood right here. We're going to take some cues right now. Ian Miguel asks, Rami Malik is a great actor, but Matthew Reese got robbed. The work he has done for four seasons in the Americans doesn't get enough credit. Ian, you don't have to, Matthew Reese, you don't have to pretend to be Ian Miguel. Second of all, that's not a question. But he's right. Those guys are great.

And by the way, if Matthew Reese doesn't get nominated next year for his role on, wine show, then I'm really rioting. Yeah. What are you going to do if Good does get nominated? Wow. Wow. That's like asking me to choose between my favorite children, you know? Like, I love them all. Dan Diamond asked, if you were an Emmy voter, who would you be more scared to disappoint? Queen Searcy or Elizabeth Jennings? Queen Searcy or Elizabeth Jennings? Well, both losers tonight.

Yeah. I mean, I think you've got to think about scale. Was Lena in the building? Good question. I didn't see her. I mean, they are, the thing about Thrones, Dinklage was there, Kit Harrington was obviously there, just making merry with Andy Sandberg. They are full on in production. Brian Cogman, writer for the show, I saw him here in Hollywood Town the other day. Did you? Did, ran into him at a social event. Isn't it like an intelligentsia type coffee bar established? He was like, hey, I said, you know, congratulations this weekend. He's like, thank you. I just flew in from Belfast for 24 hours. Then I have to go back because I basically live in Belfast.

So she may not have been there. To answer the question, you've got to think about scale. Elizabeth Jennings will fully kill you. Yeah. But Lina He did. She seems like she feels worse about it, though. She's tormented, but she kills one-on-one. Circe's like, this is literally how I get my kids.

Circey blew up a city. Yeah, right. I mean, sorry, spoilers to the Orphan Black stands out there. That's the show she's on, right? Yeah, that's right. Eric Matthews, three hot questions. Is People v. O.J. a better show than Fargo. That's question one.

Is Game of Thrones the best drama on television? That's two. I think that was settled tonight. Are the Emmys a popularity contest? Wow. Yes, because Louis Anderson on Baskets, just Baskett's the most popular show in television. And Orphan Black as well. Absolutely not a popularity contest in a really remarkable way.

I mean, if it was purely a popularity contest. Scandal and Walking Dead would be in there, too. Yeah, or the NCS would win every year. Or I would have known who Michael Weatherly was when he went on stage. There's a middle ground where they're not even acknowledging relatively popular shows that are relatively well received or especially adored. I think look at the supporting actor category. Sterling K. Brown won for O.J. Simpson.

He was up against two other actors from People versus O.J. Simpson. He was up against Cuba Gooding Jr. and John Travolta. He is the least, and Schwimmer, too. They were all in that category. He is the least known of any of any of. them. I think he gave the best performance out of all of them, and he won. What was the other question, OJ or Fargo? Apples and oranges, man. Yeah. Like, I think they are both representative of what makes TV great right now. They're also two, I mean, even though they're both set in the past,

they are two very, only 2015-16 type shows, a limited series, a series ripped from the headlines, you know, like a, a repertory cast, like a cast that you could only really pull if you had a limited amount of commitment from them to do. You can't get Travolta for 22 episodes a season. It's a shame that they were up against each other. Yeah. Because they both deserve to win big trophies this year and that because they were both in it, that category was much more stacked than drama series. It's tough because you can never tell whether or not something is like an, it's in an outlier year or not when something like OJ comes along. But maybe there will be something like OJ every year. You don't really know. You mentioned Stirling King Brown and I wanted to talk a little

bit about the show itself and some of the speeches, some of the... Oh, the Emmy show. I thought you wanted to talk about the people versus is OJ Simpson. No, I think we've done it up to that. What did you think of the show itself? What did you think of how it flowed? I thought it was pretty hard to get back into it after the OJ coordination in the middle.

That's like sort of a first half peak and then it kind of dipped for a while. I think it was a very good broadcast and I wonder if my opinion of it changed because this is the first time I'm watching an award show broadcast on the West Coast, so I'm not exhausted. It's not midnight here.

You've also had like nine and a half Diet Coke. Well, they didn't get me Coke Zero, by the way. So shouts to Joe for giving me whatever he gave me. Yeah, I think that the Emmys are always problematic because the nature of the show causes them to be built in a non-symmetrical way. You start strong. I thought Kimball did a really good job as host.

He kept it moving. He was very funny. I thought his Damon Bit killed. Came into the show strong. And then the show started bang, bang, with a lot of very cool surprises. And then it fell into essentially what is a predictable pattern where, boy, we're having a great time with comedy and we're

scaling the mountain of importance, and then we go back down, because then we do limited series, and we go up and we go down. So it starts to look like an EKG as something as opposed to a mountain. Also, with this year, obviously people were tuning in to see the limited series awards, and I feel like, I don't have like the data to prove this, but I feel like they were... Isn't this just full of data? It's true. It's just pure data right there. No, this is actually just linked right into the Black Mountain Security Net.

Oh, because there's a little bit of Ellie in all of us. No, but I think that they lingered a little bit more on the limited series stuff this year. They certainly knew. They need a bigger deal of it so that it wasn't necessarily, I think maybe in years past it sailed through a little bit faster. Right. I can ask a couple more questions if you'd like. I mean, gosh, I'd love questions. Wait, I have a question for you.

Oh, yeah, sure. Explain to me the thought process of the director. I mean, we have a talented crew in there. We've got Alex Collins, Joe, Tate. The great Martin Scorsese is directing today. The great Louis Horvitz, fresh off his nomination. for the Grammys. So they're making decisions right now.

Like they're putting up lower thirds on the screen. They're probably putting up a finger of like, look at this guy right now or whatever. Who in the booth at the Emmys was making those decisions? About who to cut to? Not just who to. Who was just like, I can, you know, I have my finger on the pulse of this broadcast.

I feel the audience is getting a little squirrelly. Tell them when Hiddleston's coming. Hittleston in 14. 16. Yeah, Karaj Vianz and in 8. In memoriam in 4. I know. Really?

Like that, who judged that? Do you think that we'll ever get to a point where we'll have an award show that's more or less completely geared for Twitter in so much as they are picking people out to be like, look at this person, roll their eyes at this other person winning? I think the VMAs try to do that. Yeah, yeah. I think, I mean, it was interesting to see Kim will do would-be viral bits. I mean, the sandwich thing was essentially... The same thing as the pizza bit, yeah. It was like an Ellen thing.

So I was torn because I don't like, I don't usually like those bits, but I like it when you make fun of people with... You love sandwiches. Well, I like it when he makes fun of people with gluten allergies. I love that. I didn't appreciate the use of Stranger Things kids as delivery people. You didn't like that. Yeah. Protect the Stranger Things kids.

That's my message today. I kind of agree with that. You know that next year they're going to be maybe... Not nominated, first of all. Well, here's the thing. She might get nominated. I wonder. It'll be really interesting to see if Stranger Things season two gets on the air on the air before next.

next year's Emmys because that's going to be a really long time for Dustin to stay cute. You know what I mean? It's going to be a long time for us to stay cute. Let's be honest. Our sell-by date might be long past by the time we do that next year. I'm going to ask a couple more questions here. Rob Harvilla. I'm going back in the Hollywood line.

Rob Farvilla, ringer staff member questions. I hear the Rob Harvilla writes for the ringer. Rob Harvilla asks why Margo Martindale keeps winning for 30-second per season rolls. That's a great point, Rob. Rob likes the Americans too. Is Margo Martindale a ring chaser? Is she like David West? Does she just show up places to play for 30 seconds and get the bling?

It's kind of amazing. Like only in TV, it's like the legend of Margo Martindale and Allison Janney, the most lauded humans in the history of the media. This one is too much. I was excited, obviously, because she has won Emmys on behalf of the Americans, a show that she was... And she won for Justified Season 2, I think, right? Right, but she has won.

I think the Americans won an Emmy for title design or something. It's too bad we don't have anybody from the Americans who can ask about this. That's a really good point. Maybe, can we call them back? The point being, that was absurd. She has only been able to make very small appearances in the last few seasons. This year's was literally 30 seconds. And she was up against the Lori Metcalf performance in Horace and Pete.

Yeah. That many people who watched all of Horace and Pete told me was exceptional. Like, I don't know my job anymore. I could be honest. What is your job? You know, I sit here and talk to you. That's my job. Gus Wolfe asks, what did the TV industry learn from the O.J. Simpson suite

besides inevitably awful John Bonaid derivatives. It's a good question, Gus. I do think that there was, I don't know if you can learn any lessons from OJ because there really is only one OJ. There really is only one thing that captures a recent nostalgia that can draw on a lot of different generations of people. There's only one thing that brings together the world,

the conversations about race and sports and celebrity and Los Angeles and our legal system. All those things, that's a very singular thing. That's why they made such a long documentary about it on ESP. I think the drop-off from OJ Season 1 to OJ Season 2 when he just sort of robbed some dudes in Las Vegas and is immediately sent to prison. Yeah, where he's like selling baseball cards.

That's going to be not nearly as good. I think they know that. That's why they're not really making that, and I'm making it up. But you're right. I mean, I think that if all of Hollywood is basically geared towards searching out unexploited IP, and I don't even mean that in a cynical way,

it is kind of amazing that it, in retrospect, that it seemed like such a leap. to take this literally ripped from the headlines event that really happened and was a nexus of all the things you're talking about that was crazier than fiction by any stretch and I think that Kimmel actually made a couple I mean some some of them landed some of them didn't but he made a lot of jokes tonight of that sort of poke fun at our the relationship we have to this show and in fact it doesn't involve like a real murder and like that there was real victims of this crime that were sort of celebrating the story around yeah and there wasn't much mention of that I mean I'm not going to going to call people out for omissions in their victory speeches because I, can you, I mean, obviously, you know, we were snubbed this year. But should we ever ascend to that stage for our brilliant after-showing, it would be tough to remember to thank all the little people.

We would have to thank Amanda Pete for one thing. You mean my wife, Amanda Pete? Joshua Rabin asks, have we entered the Franzesant? I thought it was an interesting night for France. And I thought it was an interesting night for mayor. Those were my two winners. I definitely thought you were slurring France or talking about Jonathan Franzen for a moment? Yeah. Big night for Franzen. Big night for bird watching. Big night for bird watching.

Big night for birding. No, France, we haven't seen him in a minute. And he came right back out into his NYPD Blue character. Yeah. That's a great question. It doesn't. NYPD Blue has not caught the Friends Wave yet. Also, it's not just that.

It's that, and I don't even know if the show is aged better or worse. It just feels as if that was from a completely different medium. Yeah. I mean, the things that, NYPD Blue is a great show, it was a very entertaining show. but the things that it was lauded for in the time for being, you know, for being edgy, for being very adult, for being cinematic,

for having the naked posteriors of men and women on broadcast network. That's just television now. That's just after shows. I mean, get ready for what we're about to do. But as you're saying, that's right. I mean, that's just TV. And you can find that stuff on any channel,

on any internet streaming service. And as you also said, it has not caught that friend's bump. Yeah. And I don't know if it would. I don't know if that is the show if you put that, if you dump that on Netflix, I don't know if a whole generation of tweens would be like, Bobby Simone! What do you think, what do you think Caruso was doing tonight?

What about Caruso, though? What about Caruso? Caruso. He didn't hit his comeback moment. Do you remember when Scrooge McDuck would go swimming in his giant vat of gold coins? Yeah. That's what David Caruso is doing. Just sitting on those jade, those jade.

Those jade residues? Yeah. Jureen asks, were you disappointed that Beniof and Weiss didn't think after the Thrones? Used to say he hasn't. First of all, I'm not sharing my DMs with you guys. The people who mattered, you know, I'd like, you know, Casey, everyone up at HBO, Brad and Nina, everyone in the industry, I think they made it pretty clear how they feel about our show. Raoul asked, aside from anything related to the Americans, do you think there were any major award wins where an injustice occurred?

You mean, as if... Like, I can't believe the... person didn't win? You know, that's a very simple question, but I think a pretty telling one because I don't really think so. I mean, my big point after Julie Dreyfus won for, I believe, my math might be off, I believe the 26th straight time. I don't remember a time when she, because didn't she also used to win for like the

New Adventures of Old Christa? She won for that, I believe. She won for, she must have won at least one supporting for Seinfeld. Is she just like the most charming person in person? Like, when you meet her, you're just like, I got to vote for this person. They don't do a lot of schmoozy. She doesn't. It's not schmoozy. I mean, it's really just she is... The power of the performance. She is one of the greatest comedic performers of all times, certainly on TV.

Is she the greatest actress we've ever produced as a nation? Other than Amanda Pete, my wife. Yes. I think that the thing about Julie Lee Dreyfus is that she is at the peak of her powers in a show that is custom built like a sports card to showcase those powers. And the show is also brilliant. And you can complain about it because it would be exciting to see other people win, but you can't argue it. It was interesting also because that's a show that's actually rebooted itself, but it hasn't lost a step. Yes. Oh, well, I think that was really remarkable at that won.

I think that people will not pay enough attention to the fact that it is a repeat winner for Best Comedy Series, but it is essentially a completely new show. I mean, Armando Yanucci created that show in a very singular voice, a voice that you fell in love with back in thick of it in the shows that used to do in England. To come in and somehow capture that voice without making it sort of hollow karaoke like David Mandel did, Veep this year was very, very different. It was much more serialized. It was much more of an ensemble show.

but it was outstanding. Yeah. That really was remarkable. That really, it's tough to think of a time when that's been done in TV. We're still taking questions at Facebook.com slash ringer. Just leave a question in the comments. Andy, one we have here from Andrew Davis asks, do you think William H. Macy deserves an award?

Are you asking Siri about this? I'm asking William H. Macy. I'm trying to get him so soon. Do I think he, what award? At William H. Macy. That's a weird one. You know, I think that Willie Macy is. one of the great character actors of our time.

I think he's exceptional in everything. I think he's great on Shameless. But it's tough to argue. And I think that, you know, I was talking about this with Colin, our director tonight earlier. Shameless is a really good show. Yeah. Shameless is a, but the secret thing about Shameless

is that Shameless is essentially a network TV show in the age of cable and prestige shows. John Wells, who used to do West Wing and ER. Yeah, it's got some sex and swear awards. And a lot of, you know, bad behavior. William H. Macy is falling down drunk, and it's quite engaging and quite adult. But it's very consistent. And so I think it just doesn't really move any needles, even though there are needles on it. Oh, hey, so we do have a call.

We have a call right now from Friend of the Pod. Yeah. A guy who was nominated tonight, didn't win, but he saw his star win. I believe Sam Mesmell's on the line. Is that true? Yes, it's true. Sam. Am I on the line? Wait, hold on. Am I on the line with Chris and Andy? Yeah. Of the cast pot, the pot, the what?

The watch, really? I'm geeking out right now. It's a luxury timepiece podcast that we do, and I'm thrilled that you know about it. It's the watch. Sam, congratulations. Emmy Award winning show, Mr. Robot. How are you feeling right now? How are you doing?

I'm feeling great. Like, I got to tell you, it was a little bit of a scene from Annie Hall, right? because I was sitting there. I've been nervous wrecked the whole day. I couldn't eat, I couldn't drink. Yeah, I was, like, going over and over in case I won, in case I won, like, I got to say this thing. And, like, they're about, you know, they're announcing the nominees. And I didn't enjoy the first two hours off.

They finally say Game of Thrones. And I just start eating, man. I just start relaxing. I unbutton the pants, unbutton the belt, started drinking. And it was all, and then I had a great time. What's the first thing? And then just see Rami, which, by the way, I mean, I'm saying it subjectively. He was so genuine

And so it was a great speech He's a good performer You should use him on your TV show like that He's very talented I know I should try that Yeah What was the first thing you ate When it was as soon as you could

That's my question too Where was the food? Oh so you had one of those Yeah yeah yeah We had the peanut butter and the juice I mean dude I annihilated that whole bag There was an apple Then I ate Emmy peanut because she's gluten

I mean I was going to town after I lost And it was great. It was great. And honestly, I saw Benny off right before. You want to hate him because he's like a good looking tall. He's taller than me. He's like, you know, he has no business also being incredibly intelligent,

creative, and an artist. And he is all those things. And so I was just really proud. No, Sam, I agree. Sam, it's very easy to want to hate writers and directors who marry beautiful actresses. I feel like, I feel like that's the worst. Speaking of beautiful actresses. Okay, I see what I walked in.

Was Emmy offended by the gluten-free joke or did you roll with it? No, she rolled with it. You know, she hears a lot of, I don't know if you know this, a lot of people make gluten-free joke, and so she just rolls with it. She's got used to it, okay. Sam, who is the most, the best random interaction you had tonight? Chris, by the way, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you yet.

I know. I'm a huge fan. I'm a huge fan. I know you're a fan of this season. We'll talk about it this week, right? This week, right, on the podcast. Hopefully when I come on. I hope so. I love to hear about it, because I love your insight.

It's great. What was the weirdest encounter tonight? I mean, this wasn't a weird encounter, but I walked, can I swear on this thing? Yeah, yeah, are we, no. It's just Facebook. I walk Bob surreal to me, because he's like an idol of mine, and I just walked by him. And what him did a double take, of course, I could tell he was kind of annoyed, because he's, oh, who's his bozo staring at him right?

I just kept walking. But man, I mean, he's just such a legend. And, you know, like, the most surreal moment. And then, like, you know, dude, just Louis, Louis Anderson was sitting right in front of me. Oh, really? Like, tackling the whole night, having a good time. Yeah, he's like the Swedish guy. And, I mean, he won.

He was the first winner, I think. And then the rest of the night, he was kind of like that post-tension moment where, like, I was talking about it, like, after I lost. Like, he was like that. Just kind of, like, kicking his lick. up and singing along during the in-memorium, great guy. So what's next now? I think that, like, you know, for many, much of the country, the East Coast is going to bed, but for you and other people who won and people who worked on shows that were nominated

in some, maybe the night's just beginning, what do you do now? Like, are you ferried to a place you already know you're going, or are you just, are you chasing the night right now? Changing the night. Chasing. Do you understand, you don't understand the bubble you are in when you're like, I mean, I get told where to go. It's not like I'm hitting the town.

Like, they put you in a car and they give you papers and say, go to this. And then they don't tell you where you're going. The driver knows. And then you get shuttled from party to party. And at some point, you know, you complain and say, I want to go home. That's kind of how the night that goes for us. But yeah, look, I'm an innovator. So I'm going to try and change the night today.

I don't know. I don't know what that means. That probably just means I'm going to go to bed at like 1130. You're a culture disruptor. I said chase the night, Sam, but I like the idea of you a night changer. I appreciate that. Guys, what did you think about some of the winners? A little shocking, right?

Yeah, there's some surprises. Some curveballs there, right? Mazzlani? She got in there? Mzlani, Louis Anderson. I mean, we were pretty thrilled. Yeah. No, that was great.

Maggie Smith? Madden again? Ben Mendelssohn? Yeah, Ben Mendelsohn? I think all three of us... I mean, because I personally just thought it was a Game of Thrones sweep. Yeah. And yeah, and that was weird.

That was good. I mean, I love all the... I mean, you can't complain. I mean, truth be told, I've never seen Downton Abbey, but I think Ben Mendelsohn's amazing. Ben Mendelso's amazing on Downton Abbey season before. The way that Ben Mendelsohn just smokes and wears Hawaiian shirts on downtown is my favorite shit.

Was there... Sam, was there a palpable sense of surprise in the room where people, as surprise winners won, was there hubbub? Is there that kind of cross talk in the room, or is it? 100%. That's why I'm asking you guys, because how did the show come off on TV? You know what I mean? Because, I mean, we were all kind of like looking at each other. Wow, some of these winners, we were really taking it back.

But then again, you know, you never know. It's always a different. Like, I heard that the globe last, I mean, we had a good time, but then you, you know, you know, hear from, you know, the audience at home. If that way or was it good? Because I fucking love Jimmy Kimmel. I thought he was great. It was really cool. We were just talking about how this year, because OJ is such a big

deal, that there was like almost two shows. There was the OJ show and then the show after that. Right. Yeah. Right. I think they really have to change that so because of limited series categories, I mean, it's become such a high profile category. I feel like they've got to

move that winner towards the end, you know, with the drama and the comedy, you know. At next year's... At next year's Emmys, what shows do you think are your biggest competition for pick-up basketball scenes? Can I just say something?

I have no idea what I'm doing. Chris, when you were like explaining the plays... Chris is so mad at me right now. It was like Greek to me. I have no sense of how to play basketball. I trusted in my ADs, but you know what? I'm the director.

I'll take the play off the seat on that. After the layers of reality started getting stripped away, the basketball feels a lot more, like, right? I was just saying that in the beginning, there was just a little bit of, like, it was a kind of a primitive style. It was a little. Do you know who knows a lot about pickup basketball?

Who's that? David Benioff. So tall. That's what I hear. He's so tall. Sam, you have a lot of parties to go to. You're getting black bag like Angela and Mr. Robot. I believe we're talking to you this week.

I think we can blow her surprise after the finale. We have to you. We're very excited. to have you in this room, but before that, I am too. Can you give us a little tease? And this is not me as the host of Hacking Robot. This is just like a couple of guys who love Maggie Smith,

just chatting on Facebook. Here's what I will say, because I've heard every episode of the watch because I listen to every episode of the watch. You do want to say, knowing from what I've heard, you will want to stay after the credits. That's all right.

Oh, I like that. Like last season, stay after the credits. Okay, good to know. Okay, Sam, you are a prince. Thank you so much. Enjoy your night. We'll talk to you soon, man. Thanks for coming on. All right, man. Sam Esmail from Mr. Robot. Sam Esmell from Mr. Robot, admitting his basketball ignorance to his biggest critic. No, but I feel like that just fuels.

Facebook Live is where magic happens. I know, seriously. We break news. Andy, we can just go through a couple more questions. It was really cool to have Sam call in like that. That was very nice, Sam. I feel like, for a minute, I was like, I can't believe he's finding time to do this in the midst of his crazy. night. Then he was like, my crazy night is people driving me to parties. So maybe he has a lot of time to do this, but that was very nice of him. Okay, so, Brian Hennessy actually has a really good question here. Do you think Atlanta will be nominated for any award next year? I thought maybe we could have a little fun here and talk about some shows that we pretty sure

are going to be nominated. Who asked? Was that Sean Fantasy under? Brian Hennessy. Oh, oh, I see. What's going to be nominated next year? This is what is fun to think about because prior to this year, I would have been. been saying the same things that I had said about Orphan Black, where I would have said,

these, which is, it was just like, Tatyana got snubbed. No, which is, I was like, you don't ever talk about Orphin Black. That I did. I was a callback to the beginning of our Facebook live show. I know, it's just like, where am I for a second? You got the second screen experience going on here. Literally, I've no idea what you're looking at, by the way. You could just be like pricing old carburetors on eBay.

Me and Tate are just talking about fantasy football trade. Are you just not chatting with Tate? No, we're good. Tate is out celebrating bloodline in the streets right now. Mendelsso! Chandler. Handler in the streets, Mendelsohn's in the sheets. I would have said this.

I would have said that for as exciting as we think Atlanta is and how innovative it is, it's probably not going to be nominated. Not yet, exactly, not yet. Wait your turn or whatever. These are not those Emmys anymore. I think the Emmys did a very smart thing. They're actually putting the Grammys and the Oscars to shame in terms of just becoming more nimble,

becoming more responsive and becoming more inclusive and reflecting the way people watch television. So I do think Stranger Things will be nominated for something. things will be in there. I think Atlanta will be in there. I'd be curious to see if some of these other, honestly, if baskets can get a nomination. I thought you're going to say, I thought you were saying Luke Cage for a second. I was like, damn, this is such a take.

I'm psyched on Luke Cage. I'm psyched about that show. But Luke Cage just... For real, though, if a Marvel show gets nominated, that would be pretty interesting. Yeah. Because people were pointing... I mean, I think Game of Thrones being the most popular show on television, obviously it was going to win. But a lot of people thought...

I was going to say. But people were still. surprised. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. People were still surprised that a quote-unquote genre show won last year and now it has a strangle hold on it. You're making a good point. The favorite is off the table next year. It is missing the eligibility window, which again means that we're missing it too, Chris, so don't feel too bad. That's right. I'm, I'm hard. But I was going to say these smaller, more personal shows, like, you know, like One Mississippi or Lady Dynamite or Jill Soloway's new show, I love Dick. Yeah, yeah. What conversation are they going to be in or what conversation are we going to even be having at the Emmys next year? Yeah, and what will the limited series, does Jure be next year?

Because the thing worth noting is that a lot of these so-called limited series that are starting to dominate are, in fact, anthology series. There will be a Fargo next year. There will be an American crime story. There will be an American story. There will be an American crime. We hope, actually. Crime in America.

We're not quite sure after November. That's my hot political take. But we don't really know what the amics will be next year, which makes it exciting. Bill Simmons asks a question. Never heard of him. Why couldn't the guy from Bloodline pick up his... Emmy. What was he doing?

Because Chris, no, Chris had it. I said this in the room. First of all, he and Maggie Smith were just having a blow out at the Shetow. That's what I think. Second of all, Ben Mendelssohn is 100% still shooting Rogue One. That's what's happening. Ben Mendlson is still doing like cape fittings

for the Rogue One reshoot. He's like, do you need me to walk across the water again one more time? They're like, Ben. We love what you're doing with the cape. But Disney wants this movie to be funnier. So listen, can you imagine? Bring us a little bit of that bloodline sense

of humor to Rogue One. Classic comedy. What is it like if you ask Ben Mendelssohn? Great. Can you do it again but funnier? He probably just takes a long, long drag of a cigarette. Turns on heroin by the Velvet Underground. It goes like, anything for you mate.

I'm a professional. On. Turns it up. It's constantly playing and his dressing. Big losers tonight, I do think you could say Ben Mendelsohn and Maggie Smith's travel agents. Just like. Absolutely. Why not?

Just one flight. It's not that hard. I mean, Maggie Smith, 90 years old. But, you know, in fairness, Ben Mendelsohn, not far behind her. We would probably be remiss if we didn't mention that. And a lot of the questions here are sort of reflecting our bias. But one of our favorite shows from this Emmy period was Fargo season two. And it just kind of came up against the lion that was OJ and didn't really have a shot in this.

In any other year, it would have been a darling. Any other year awards that you thought tonight? I think the other thing worth mentioning about Fargo, and especially in relation to your question about what we're going to be talking about next year, is recency bias. Fargo was on last fall, that feels like a million years ago. And unlike a show like Mr. Robot, that was airing its second season during the voting period, which actually may have depressed the voting because people didn't like the basketball scenes. Yeah.

But it still felt like a show that was current, whereas Fargo is off the air for all of 2016. Yeah. I think it was just out of sight, out of mind. I said we would have loved Kiki Dunst have gotten it. Kiki. We love Kiki forever Kiki. The other snub, I don't know if we mentioned this in the preview, but Leftover Season 2. Yeah, that's right, because Regina King.

Regina King did win, which is great. I would have loved to see her win for leftovers. For leftovers, yeah. I mean, we're talking about unprecedented things in TV, David Mendel bringing Vee back the way that he did, OJ dominating the way that it did. Brad Nina, just inspiring all of us with their stewardship of a great television franchise.

But I hated the leftover season one, and I love the leftover season two. And I don't think I'm alone in saying that. And I think, and it's not as if second season made me go back and realize I was wrong about season one. I still feel like I was right about it. That's how amazing season two really was in and of itself. And clearly people didn't love the first season enough to even give the second season a shot, or at least Emmy voters didn't. Yeah, I think it's one of those shows that I wonder, and we can move into sort of our final thoughts here,

but I wonder whether or not Emmy bait or not, are we going to see shows that sort of play into a certain type to, win these awards. Game of Thrones obviously has thrills and surprises. But OJ really does kind of set the table that if you have prestige actors with storylines that draw from a bunch of different things and can talk about a bunch of different issues at once, you know, would night of next year do you think that's in the conversation? It may be too far in the past. It may be, yeah. It may be that Turturro's performance, you know, is absolutely compelling. Nauseating to people who don't like looking at feet. And also it's not a, if it was, If it was Gandalfini, which it was meant to be, that is a star showcase for a TV star.

Sure. Terturo went into the cracked, dry, broken skin of this character. I think it's an interesting question whether that is going to become the blockbuster, quote-unquote, of TV in the same way that there's not much room for a certain kind of movie at the multiplex. Because one of the things about this year, I was noticing, you know, we lauded a number of the surprise nominations, but there were some on the margins we didn't even notice. I mean, catastrophe was nominated for writing. the Nick was nominated for directing. We talked about Master Renome, but it was great that it won. And also, you have to just acknowledge the fact how beautiful it is that something like

Transparent Pigs of Hulms. That's what I'm saying. And there was room for getting on, which is a show that literally fives of people watched. Nisi Nash and Lori McKaff amazing on it. There is still room for those shows. And I wonder if the quote unquote prestige side of TV, because we're leaving network in the dust, but if the prestige side of TV becomes so noisy, where the FX's and the HBOes are chasing these blockbusters, they start to squeeze out these things that we're just so excited about

just when we're excited about bringing in it. I'm just wondering also whether or not we're going to get, I mean, five, six years ago, nobody at ABC or CBS probably thought that they would face competition beyond HBO in terms of different platforms producing things. Now we're at a point where Netflix and HBO and these other streaming and premium cable networks are challenging regularly, and to the point where the network shows are almost an afterthought at times. What's going to happen Next. Are we going to get Adam Brody from crackle.com's startup? Is he going to get an Emmy? Well, comedians and cars getting coffee got nominated, and it kind of deserved it. And you see these poor, I mean, I don't feel sorry for the broadcast networks, especially after watching

some of the new pilots. But, you know, what do they have to crow about tonight? I mean, ABC must feel pretty good that it is keeping American crime on the air because it keeps them in this conversation. They're not, they're no longer even relevant in the, and NBC had Kate McKinnon, which was a really nice surprise win. But they're not even in the talk and variety show competition anymore. This will be the really interesting thing to watch tomorrow. Yeah. Did anybody watch this up against Packers Vikings up against... This?

A lot of people are watching this. I can only imagine. But did anybody watch the Emmys up against the NFL? Right. And did anybody does this make a difference to ratings going forward? Because is designated Survivor just going to be the biggest show of the fall? You are hyped on Notorious because you are a Piper Piravost, Stan. Stan to end all stands.

Yeah. Yeah. I was riveted by that show. It is funny, like, having, in the same way, if you ever heard of people who are like, oh, I only, you know, I've been on a diet for years or I've been, like, a vegan or whatever, and they're like, then I ate a McDonald's Cheesburger. Why, you shouldn't shade Emmy Rosson like this.

Just like, sorry, respect to Emmy for taking the joke. And then they, like, eat a McDonald's Cheeseburger, and they're, like, literally overcome and flooded with weird, like, salt and fat endorphins. When I watch the trailer for ABC's new shows, I got fucking high as a helicopter. I was like, she is solving the case. Camas Summerlin is the president now.

11 Diet Coke's you had before we did this. That's possible. But it's a rhythm that I'm not, it's an old-fashioned rhythm that I forgot about. It's almost like we're at the end of the critical conversation. Now we're getting back to like the way television as it. Popcorn TV. Popcorn season. Thank you so much for watching.

Any of you who are still here with us? Thank you. This was fun. For Andy Greenwald, I am Chris Ryan. This has been the Watches Emmy's After Party. We're going to be back with a podcast tomorrow. Special podcast with a special guest tomorrow talking about design. Native Survivor. And then we'll be back on Thursday talking about the finale of Mr. Robot, apparently, with

Sam Esmills. So tune in for that. We got a lot coming up. Thank you so much for being with us. Obama out!