The Watch - ‘Lanterns’ Is One of Our Strongest Superhero Shows Ever. Plus, ‘Sicario 3’ and a New ‘Miami Vice’ Ending.

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

Chris and Andy talk about the ‘Lanterns’ season finale and why it was a near-perfect season of superhero television (1:16). Later, Chris reacts to the announcement of ‘Sicario 3’ (31:43) and the new ‘Miami Vice’ ending from director Michael Mann’s final cut (36:15) before opening up the mailbag to answer a couple of listener questions (46:19). Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of The Watch and so much more! Follow us on IG and TikTok! Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producers: Kaya McMullen and Kai Grady Studio Production: Jacob Cornett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I ain't sports to have to clear the room. Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at the ringer.com and joining me on the other line. After a brief on-field conversation with Matt Rule, he is ready to commit to Nebraska. It's Andy Greenwood!

I wish it always happened like that. You wish Matt Rule always walked up to you and it was just like this hat fits you just right, brother? I mean, wouldn't life be easier? I mean, you'd be playing for Nebraska and getting smoked in the Big Ten every year, I think. So it's tough, but you know. I'd be getting smoked in any program, Division 1 through 3. How far are we stretching this?

Not me, man. I was born to play for Dan Landing. Or the University of Miami. You know, there's a couple of programs that I think I could have applied myself. Andy, fun show today. Do you maximize your skill set? we are talking about the season finale of lanterns obviously and then after that I'm going to handle some mailbag questions

that dovetail nicely into some headlines that are out there today but I wanted to just get into lanterns this show has become I don't know I mean like compared to Marshalls is it a juggernaut I don't know but it's done quite well I think it's been a real feather in the cap of HBO of DC

of Skydance the dance They're loving it over its guidance. And I think it's arguably with Watchmen, the best superhero TV show I've ever seen. I don't know if that's... Wow. The bar is as high as, you know, as we think it is necessarily. But I found last night's finale to be emotionally, very satisfying. And a little bit creaky in places, but ultimately, like, the work of really a

expert team of writers from Vanessa Baden Kelly and Justin Britt Gibson and Tom King and Chris Mundy and Dame Lindeloff, the latter three who got credit on this last episode. So why don't we start with the episode and then maybe we can talk a little bit about the season as a whole if we have time today. What were your feelings on the finale? We are, I think, in complete alignment here where I deeply enjoyed the finale and it made me feel very satisfied about the time spent with the season and it made me excited for future stories to come. I always, was surprised by a lot of the finale, which is a good thing, I think, in the way that we watch TV shows to still have the potential to be surprised late in the game of something, even something that you like.

But man, I also went away from it being like, this is one of the more challenging puzzles that I've ever seen a writer's room try to put together. And I am very, very interested in talking to you specifically because I do a podcast with you, but also because of your thoughts on this, about the pieces that didn't fit despite being hammered down on. What I mean specifically, and I'll use an example,

and then I think we should talk more about the positives, like the turn in Sheriff Carey's persona, personality, history, and future that had to happen in the scene with John on the sidelines, right? The journey that that scene had to, to take the characters in is a monster. Like, it's the sort of thing that if you're in a room and you're looking at the whiteboard

and it's like, John talks to Carrie and it's like, boy, that seems like an easy scene. But you have to understand that what that scene has to do is take you from a place of John knows what Carrie did and John is ahead of the audience. Carrie knows what Carrie did, but thinks she's getting away with it maybe to a place of this not only has to resolve the relationship between these two characters, but it also has to successfully sew together the... origin stories of John and his mother with Carrie and Noah and also leave us in a good place about an unattended manhunter running wild

in Division I professional football. Right. Like, what? So the main thing is feeling good. I love that to you. The most important thing is to protect Division I football, not the White House. Oh, well, I mean, the sanctity of one is still, you know, which is more corrupt. I mean, that's one of your major planks of your platform.

100%. 100%. But do you get what I mean, though, about like, man, if you really dig into the metadata here, it's just like, I can't believe they got away with it, let alone made us feel good. But they did make us feel pretty good. That scene worked for me.

I think it worked for me after I gave it some thought rather than when I was watching it. When I was watching it, I thought we were getting another version of Sinestro tells John that Hal and Kerry went to an Italian restaurant in 2006 and, you know, all these details about Howell that, I think the show kind of took over that storytelling mechanism. This flashback only being told to John by Sinestro, who has been living on a toxic alien planet

since Noah broke him out, but being like, and then Hal and Carrie went to, you know, became in love after he left prison and had this beautiful role. relationship and Hal tried to make amends. And he's like, Hal told you all that, you know? I'm pretty into the idea of Sinestro being such a good listener that he was able to convey that in 2026 or whenever it is, the Italian restaurant in Rushville still has Kianti bottles in wicker baskets. And Sinestro is like, hmm, how is the garlic bread?

Intergalactic criminal mastermind, Sinestro is also just a fiend for tea. He just loves hot goss. He loves... I mean, he has to sustain himself somehow because I don't think he's pulling fresh carp out of that poison lake. I would love to see Sinestro's group chats. But that scene was a little bit hard for me to get my head around because so much relatively crucial information

was being conveyed by a character who has been living in exile, who is sort of inexplicably telling John some of this stuff, but then has to be waterboarded to tell him the rest of the story, The John and Carrie scene worked for me, and I think that this is an example of perhaps the writing and the direction not being necessarily on the same page. I buy that John jumps to the conclusion that Noah is lying to protect his mother. And I buy that John has an instinct that he knows how far mothers go to protect their sons and to also make their sons into what they want them to be. or what they think they need. And John's story is one of rejecting his programming in favor of the ability to, as he says, to Noah, right?

Like if you're even asking the question, you're kind of further along. Yes. The reason it works is because that group of talented writers that you talked about did the labor of scaffolding a story that begins with a heroic character journey that then is applicable to the larger super heroic or super villainous plot. so that they've sort of protected themselves from the idea of a plot hole because they've said, look, you buy this hero. So can you extend the same grace to the villain? I think that's very clever. And I think it works because, again, like I came away from this feeling pretty psyched

about how things had gone and about this birth of a new style of lantern and all of that. I also came away from this being like, wow, it is another bold zag in a season of bold and surprising Zags to make the first 15 minutes of the finale of the first season of a show a tender, late in life love story between two characters, like with some Waxahatchie playing on the, on the speakers. Like, look, they set a mood and I fell right into it. But like, I do think the two conversations are so deeply entwined, because if we were to, if one of us, and I'm going to say you, because you, I think you have more resources in the beautiful new studio you're in right now, like did the Charlie Day meme, whether you're like making the homeland crazy board,

and we're just listing all of the things that it turns out in retrospect, season one of lanterns had to do. Because even one was just baked into what I just said, which is I'm pretty psyched about the emergence of John Stewart, a new style of Green Lantern. This series had to tell us what an old style of Green Lantern is. It had to backfill the entire history of, I mean, it didn't give us a lot of OA and the Guardians and the Corps,

which was smart, to give us an example of what John wasn't going to be before it let us understand what John is. And there are so, so, so many things that it had, that it, quote unquote, had to do, that it remains a wonder to me that they had any room to do anything at all that they wanted to do.

And I feel like ultimately they did. Yeah, when you think about the amount of story, the amount of even like seasons of TV that they wound up condensing without making it feel rushed ever, I mean, you essentially had an origin story for John Stewart. You had an origin story for Hal Jordan. You had an origin story for their partnership.

You got a full mystery series that was set in Rushville about the identity of the Manhunter and who is the benefactor and who is the, you know, who is Zoe. That whole thing culminates with this massive set piece that they then don't ever bother to top. They never bother to go, what can we do in the second last episode of the last episode? That would be an action set piece that matches Rushville. What they choose to do is move to this planet, Anton's alien planet, which is obviously a projection of the souls of the main characters. And it's not literally that, but it is physically a manifestation of the kind of in-between worlds these guys exist.

him and then have a grace note on this relationship between a sheriff and an aging superhero and then the basically digital backup of this superhero's consciousness and his protege that they then fucking do nail the Friday night lights like I love you two junior moment so I'm so impressed but like there are points where I think in this finale if I had to say anything It's not that I wanted like a explosion or I needed him to put the ring on and do green lantern stuff. Because he doesn't. Everybody was really still. Like it was a lot of Noah and John sitting in a car very still talking.

Noah, John and Kerry at the sideline being very still watching suddenly much bigger offensive linemen block for Noah. And I did get all of your emails to the people. of America about eight on eight football and I still have notes. I also want to say that in our defense, we may be projecting a little bit about poor offensive line play after watching Cam Turnstile Juergens for the last two weekends. So I think we are, you know, hyper focused on that and what it can do to a structure. Maybe Cam Juergens should quit the Eagles and go to turnstile. He should just join the styles as like the Bongo player.

Yeah. That's a great point that like I can, it is very, very bold. that a show called lanterns that is really about building green lantern into the new DCU, you can count on one hand of the number of cool ship moments that the ring does. John makes the bird. John makes a watch. Hal uses it as a shield a couple times. And then the kind of super Zelda Tears of the Kingdom moment when they build a digger

that digs into the room with all the dark alien tech in it. Otherwise, that was it. And that is a remarkable exercise in restraint. I also think that it was an exercise in respect and a testament to the enormous amount of caretaking that this crew seemingly did to make sure that they're quite bold, quite adult story fit into whatever it is James Gunn is planning on his big crazy making whiteboard in his office. The way that the show deployed Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner was very clever, but also felt like very important connective tissue to suggest how these people can exist

with each other in opposition to each other in future movies. I think it was emotionally resonant. I don't know. I mean, I found it to be a much better story about kids and their parents and their parents and what they want them to be and maybe a great story about

a great buddy cop movie or a great buddy action, you know, story. And I found it to be at the end, it just had like an emotional ballast that I don't find in a lot of superheroes, things. A lot of the times in superhero stories, the thing that impresses me or the thing that grabs me is the high level of execution of superhero story. So it is, we've closed the portal, or we have, you know, completed the gauntlet, or we reversed the snap, or whatever it is

that hits. And this had more to say, I think. I mean, it had something different to say. And I think it was ultimately about a lot of the things that haunt these writers, which is, you know, what does it take to be somebody with a lot of responsibility, you know? And what is it, what do your parents have to do to do to make you think that's what your role in this world is? I think that's very well said. I want to run through a couple points with you to see where you netted out. Okay. Did this work for you? Did this not?

I wonder if there's something that is like translatable, like could Apple learn from this? because I feel like from the time Hal's Ring told John that it was on like 10%. He basically just feasted on it. It's just started downloading videos, you know what I mean? Like doing like really, really big data stuff for quite a long time. And I wonder if there's something interesting here about like, because right now when my iPhone tells me that it's like 20%, I basically need to compose my last emails I'll ever send my family

because if I don't find a charger, like, that's it. I'm never going to communicate with them again. Did the last charge bump you at all? I don't think I... As a device... As with a lot of devices that I get, I did not read the instructions. I am sure at some point over the last two episodes, some discussion happened about...

Do batteries run down slower when you're on Anton's planet? I don't think they had that conversation. He kept being like seven more minutes of charge, Jr., and he's like, great, I'll row across this lake walk across this desert, fall through a hole, and then solve all the crimes. There was also a lot of like, to what extent is the backup,

as the halogram being projected by John without a ring, and does his brain have a much longer battery? The thing that nagged at me a little bit was... Was it the blackmail? Yeah, it was the blackmail. Were you going to bring that up next? That was next, yeah. Matt Rule, who is the head coach of the actual college program at Nebraska,

the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, I believe had more lines than the waitress in this episode. And John's mother, which I guess, I mean, maybe it was just like, hey, Matt Rule doesn't show up unless he gets his sad card. You know, like it's speaking rules only. I thought it would be cool if Matt Rule became a Manhunter right then. yes or what if like put this on sun and he puts the hat on his head and then his head explodes and then matril carves his nose crystal heart out of his body and it's just like he goes straight to

the rose bowl yeah you're next lincoln riley like you know what i mean like there's some larger uh larger fsb yes the battery power of the of the ring was strange i think it was ultimately in service of creating this Sinestro puts a poison pill in the new lantern. If he charges the ring, it means that the halogram goes away forever. We'll see about that season two.

But the waitress thing, I think that was a very specific large number of dollars that she wanted. And she received, and I guess... I thought her use of the word reparations with John while he did raise an eyebrow

with that. But it was obviously loaded and was never really like disgust again. She didn't really discuss anything. She was just like, I think you owe me $300,000 for killing my family. And do you give to her? Also, Hal had been in town for this whole time, apparently every day going out to do something nice to help fix things. So I feel like, you know. And she was still giving him pancakes. Also, what's the name of his plant? Do you remember Earl? Earl, yeah. Something like that. Yeah. I kind of lost the thread with Earl's survival,

because in the house fire, Hal apparently is burns, burns to death essentially, or almost burns to death. Monday and Damon have talked about this, apparently. They are like Earl, somehow Earl has survived. Yeah. Somehow Palpatine returned. Okay.

Yeah, he's just like, I think an alien plant species is going to be able to make it through the night. The plant was pretty stressed about the fire. The plant was screaming. The plan was playing my role in a house fire more than it was playing. I was playing your role when your phone drops down to 20%. Well, my phone drops out to 20%, or I'm trying to play behind the Eagles' offensive line.

You know, yeah, all of it. The biggest one for me, and I'm really curious where you netted out with it, is Manhunter's generally. Because I do feel, even having watched this whole season, maybe it would require a rewatch or would be rewarded by a rewatch, that the conceit of it was ultimately a little squishy for me,

that Manhunter, are the worst beings that have ever been created in the history of the galaxy, the most dangerous creatures. They were created by the Guardians as like an elite assassination squad. And they went rogue and just started taking out civilizations because that's their programming. And stop me if I'm wrong about this. They were all gone, except for the one that crash landed on Earth with the pink skin guy or Avin Sur who gave hell his ring. That one. is Zoe, who seems not really that evil, just sort of self-protective in a way and wants to just, you know, live a nice life.

That's what I say about all of our AI models. 100%. They're just curious. They're just looking around. They just want to know what's up in the Australian banking system. Can I get in there for a second? Hmm. What's air traffic control really like from the inside?

I bet I could improve it. Zoe is tired. of her life manhunting, and so basically asks to be killed. This is how John considers it, that it was a mercy kill, right? Yes. And then Noah is himself

a immaculate, pinky conception manhunter. Yes. Immediately implanted and grown in the body of a random woman who has just arrived from Gotham City, who immediately is identified as the perfect vessel for this child. And then Noah's programming is to be really,

really, really good at football, but also inside of his head, there is the sound of a thousand dead stars screaming. And his plan is then to get revenge on behalf of Zoe and kill more guardians. I mean, his plan is to get into the White House and marshal the armed services of the United States against OAA? In service of, and you say what? I don't know. I don't know. He didn't get that far, man. He's just a kid. And you know, it's like he loves playing eight on eight football with his thin offensive line. And here's what I will say. That didn't really make sense for me because ultimately it was just bent into a storyline

about letting kids make their own destinies, which is useful. Noah, the Manhunterian candidate is pretty cool. If you just been sitting on that or did that just come to you? It just hit me. Wow. Look at you, Iron Chef in the kitchen. Just with the ingredients provided, you cook up a masterpiece. I did agree with one major plank of Lantern's political platform,

which is that I 100% believe that a driven, manufactured lunatic with the sound of a thousand dead stars screaming in his brain would be a quarterback. More specifically, I do believe you could make the case that there are current quarterbacks playing in the league who are clearly Manhunters. That quarterback in the room with us right now? That quarterback plays for our team.

Like, there are plenty of Jalen Hertz press conferences where his attempts to sound like a human being, sound like Steve Corell trying to talk like he's hooked up with a woman before. Do you know what I mean? Like, his programming is so specific and so deeply alien that there is something there that rings true, even if I bumped slightly on the execution. I don't know if you had other quarterbacks

that you feel like might also be suspect and would have to walk through those alien hunting. Joe Burroughs given a little bit of manhunter. I mean, I'm very, I'd still stand by Joe Burrow as cool as a take, but he has a little bit of like a processing at a high level vibe to him. Yeah, but I think he, I mean, they're all crazy. You have to be crazy.

to play that position, right? But I feel like it's less Joe Burrow, because Joe Burrow has some cool. I mean, Jalen Hertz is very cool. He's just also a psychopath. And, like, I would believe Brock Purdy before I would believe Joe Burd. It would be interesting to just go through

the entire NFL starting quarterbacks deciding which one are Manhunters and then release that as a clip. Yeah. And have people be like, what the fuck is this podcast about? Or, or everyone will be like, finally this podcast has achieved its final form. Fine, let's go.

Donald, no, Purdy, yes. Do the AFCS. Cousins, yes. No, Mendoza, yes, cousins, no. No, I think it's the other way. See? I think it's a misdirect. I think it's a misdirect. I think Herbert, no.

It's this kind of disagreement that made OA so vulnerable to a 17-year-old breaking the most important war criminal in the history of the universe out of space prison and taking him to another planet. Dude, it sounds like, because I think as we're nitpicking, it sounds like we're like, I don't feel like I'm praising the show enough.

I thought this is really good. I loved, I just haven't been able to divorce the what was good about a conversation from the, not to sound like an offensive coordinator to the, this was a good process in the sense that like, I can't believe they pulled this off. And I was so, I was such a fan from the beginning of the good faith intention to try to make something good in our broken, IP landscape. That said, again, this is going to sound like a nitpick, but as we pivot forward,

part of me is, I don't want to say, I'm concerned, but like, there was so much to do to get to this point, shout out, surf Dracula. In season two, I would love it if this same creative team could be like, and now we will continue to advance this story. And I do have a sense, and I'm actually kind of lost in terms of what's been announced and what's been rumored and what we actually know. But I feel confident saying that there will likely be a season two. This has been a huge, huge hit. The season is constructed, despite being eight episodes about guys with powerful rings, it is as TV as it gets with we end this season being like, oh my God, Hal's really gone.

I think he's written that John's really leaving Rushville, but he has created a whole new runway for this character to be the terrestrial detective who has superpowers but a different creed than the regular green lanterns. It's a great setup. But is the question, as a modern fan of TV, should we just be grateful for this because nothing more is promised, the future is not promised,

or should we be concerned that all of this beautiful setup is now part of a relay race to hand over John Stewart to James Gunn for his appearance in Man of Tomorrow, to hand off some of the story breadcrumbs that have been dropped here for other creators, whether it's in movies or in TV shows still to come,

And that the idea of, it's just, you know what it is, it's just a moment, speaking of, you know, stories being told in broken timelines, like in a classic TV timeline, it would be so exciting to get, and again, because we're not in the same city, we couldn't actually do this, but to get Chris Mundy, Damon Lindeloff, Tom King, Justin, Vanessa, get them all down and be like, guys, how excited are you? Are you back in the room to tell us what you want to do next for the continuing adventures of John? And I don't think TV works like that anymore. And even if these guys were doing a second season, the timeline isn't the timeline that we're used to or that we are now primed to be excited to expect, which is like even if they were going to do it again, when would John fly back? 2008, 2029? We don't know. So I think that that's the other thing that this leaves me in,

which is like, man, they really cracked the code of how to do this shit on TV, but now it goes into movies and now it goes into the larger DCU world building stuff. I'm not super worried about that. I know that Gunn is, I mean, they've got the next Superman coming out next year. And then Gunn has said that he is already deep in writing his next movie, whatever that one is, whether it's Superman 3 or he's taking a break from DC to do something different.

David Ellison, right now heard you say, is James Gunn taking a break from DC to do something different? And he's just dispatched like Skydance House drones to make sure that that's not actually happening. They've got to make 30 movies a year or else they get penalized. Like they got to, he's got to write. Superman 28 coming in 2007. I sometimes sound like a broken record because I think that this model has been

kind of abandoned probably because it's fiscally irresponsible. But Aaron Pierre is only going to get, I think, only turn into a bigger deal. And I think time is of the essence. I would love to see them try to do some sort of Sherlock three episode thing with this character. I don't necessarily want him to be Reacher

but you guys did just invent Reacher again. You know what I mean? Like you have a guy who goes to towns and fixes shit. Instead of doing the broken record thing that I have become about like, oh, they really cracked it in the room or whatever. Let me just say the most pure joy TV thing about the show. Kelly MacDonald, Aaron Pierre, Kyle Chandler,

to say nothing of Ulrich Thompson, who's awesome in his limited screen time as Sinestro. These three gave not career best work necessarily, but absolute supernova. Holy shit, these guys are awesome. They wrote them great characters. They cast the shit out of them. And everybody was like in the pocket, you know, reacting to each other, playing characters

week to week. What TV is supposed to do is either, I'm not Aaron Pierre has had a runway and is a very respected and cool guy, but like TV creates stars. And I think where Aaron Pierre is today, Monday versus eight weeks ago, is different in American pop culture awareness. Similarly, everyone loves Kyle Chandler, but like the outpouring of excitement of like, he's one of the realest ones we've got has reached a different level of intensity

and that's awesome. And similarly for Kelly McDonald who's been great for 30 years and this is a great showcase for her that takes much more advantage of her wit and charm than Boardwalk Empire. She was good in it but she kind of had a sad tough go. Sure. That's what TV's supposed to do, man.

And like part of me just wants to get more of it. Call me as recline the way I'm shouting for abundance. But like if that's not where we're at, I think it's probably worth instead parking the bus and being like... Okay, he's going to be in movies now. At least we had this because it was cool.

Did you feel like that objectively very lovely grace note of before John charges up the last interaction? Like what did I say to carry last? How... And John says, I love you. And the hallowgram,

whether or not, he is deducing that John is speaking for himself or whether or not he just wants to say it back to John goes, I love you too, Jr., or I love you, Jr., before he glitches out. Obviously, like, very, very East Dillon. But did you think that the show and that relationship between a digital, basically a backup consciousness

set 10 years before, I believe they, the show is taking place, right? I think he last updated it before he went to, like it was when he last used him was in that last Rushville day. Did you think it was earned? Did you think it worked? Yes.

Yeah, me too. I did. I mean, it's also... That's what I was about to say. It's like, it's these guys and also because it's Kyle Chandler, and this hits differently, like there were rumors that they went to like

Josh Brolin, who's awesome. But like, the thing that comes baked in with familiar, beloved people is it kind of does some of the runway work to get you ready to have them do certain things, meaning you cast Kyle Chandler and you want him to coach up a promising young man and tell him that he loves him and look him in the eye, you know. And that's baked in even when he's behaving in ways that Kyle Chandler characters

haven't traditionally behaved on television. So if he had said that in episode four, I think it would have been a similar reaction to fans, even if it hadn't been quote unquote earned because we want that from him. So stretching it out to the end, it was always going to be. land there and it was always going to feel good. I'll let you go, brother, because I know you've got to get back to work, but you're going to be back in L.A. for Thursday, and we'll talk a little bit about the first three episodes of East of Eden and just about whatever else comes to our mind. If you guys have any questions for us,

I'm going to answer some questions today, but the mailbag is always open and it's the watch at Spotify.com. Andy, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me today. This has been a real pleasurable conversation. Okay, yeah. Let's continue it. In perpetuity. Let's continue. You know what? Let's you and I continue to do. do the work. Hi, guys. I'm back. I thought I would run through a couple of stories I saw

over the weekend on entertainment news websites that I frequent both day and night. And also answer a couple of interesting mailbag questions that we got. These are not necessarily like CRAMAs kind of things. They're just ones that jumped off the page and that I wanted to hit up. First of all, in the news, there's really only

one story that anybody would ever want me to comment on today and that is the announcement that Socario 3 is happening. I'm in a weird spot. We got Heat 2 Miami Vice 85 and now Sicario 3. So a couple of my favorite, I guess now franchises and properties are coming back sooner than later. Sikario 3 is interesting because it's a question of who do you think is the author of this series, which is, I guess it is a series. Now, in my mind, it is the perfect union of Taylor Sheridan's sensibility, shaped into a feature, and then I would imagine shaped in both, like, cutting away some of the script stuff, reshaping characters, re-editing things by Denny Villeneuve, who obviously brought with Roger Deakin's an incredibly distinctive visual sensibility to Sicario.

And I also like Sicario, too, which Taylor Sheridan also wrote. and Stefano Salima directed and had the feeling of a kind of surreal nightmare spaghetti western with Benicia Zosoro. In the second half of the film, I think the first half is a little bit more militaristic. But you get my point. I think that there was like a place for this series to go if they had consistently made it where a different director could come in and bring a different sensibility. But I do think Taylor Sheridan is fairly essential to the entire project. and now this third film has been announced. The exciting part is that

not only are Benicia del Toro and Josh Berlin back as Alejandro and Graver the two sort of shadowy deep state operatives, but Emily Bluntsbeck playing Kate Macer, which is her character from the first film. And obviously, like,

you get to the end of the first movie and her character has been absolutely shattered, so I'm deeply fascinated to know what they do with this person. And Emily Blunt's participation to me suggests that they're very excited about whatever story they've cracked. The interesting thing to me is who cracked it? Because it's not Taylor Sheridan. It's Stephen Knight, who is one of the most prolific and successful writers

in Hollywood right now, I believe is writing the Bond film, was writing the Star Wars movie that was supposed to be about Ray. I don't know if that's still happening. And has written countless other things including obviously Peaky Blinders, House of Guinness, and my beloved SAS Rogue Heroes.

So I'm at once very excited because Stephen Knight knows what he's doing. I think the sheer number of bats he takes means average is a little lower, but it's not like Taylor Sheridan's not busy. So if he had been writing it, I think it obviously would have been a huge lift. I'm pretty surprised.

I thought some of the rumors suggested that as Josh Burlin, who had been on press tours for dog stars and probably whale fall had, you know, getting asked about a lot of projects. And I think he said that they were really going to do this, but I thought it sounded like Taylor was going to write it. So, look, I think it'll be good.

I mean, I think it'll be good. Who the fuck knows? But I trust this group of people. The director that they've found, so Villeneuve directed the first one. Stefano Salima, who did a bunch of 00,000, which is one of my favorite series from the last few years, directed the second one.

Patrick McKinley is directing this third one, and he is an emerging talent. right now who directed a film with Ethan Hawk and Russell Crowe, which is in some theaters right now called The Weight, which I would really love to see. And it is being heralded as kind of a throwback Treasure of Sierra Madre, sorcerer style, very, very action-heavy, but like not action in fast and furious way, but just sort of like physical movement action, people navigating a landscape. I think he has the chops, for sure. But I think it's a lot to live up to.

Another thing I just wanted to talk about because it was a fun thing I did this weekend, but kind of ties into this revival of stuff I love theme, I guess, that we're doing here, is I went and saw the, I had the privilege, honestly, of going to Westwood to see Michael Mann present his final director's cut, that was what it was called,

of Miami Vice, his 2006 feature starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Fox. This was an incredible experience. The movie looks outstanding. It was on this huge screen. The Westwood is such a beautiful old theater. I think it holds like a thousand people. Jerry Bruckheimer was there. Michael Mann was there.

Jason Reitman introduced the film that I saw Michael T. Williamson, who obviously is in heat. I saw him there. There was like 30 people who worked on the Miami Vice movie in 2006 were there. So it was obviously like a very lovely evening. I thought the movie

fucking rocked. But the really fascinating thing that I experienced was this is now kind of turning into Michael Mann's Blade Runner. He has a theatrical cut that when it came out in 2006 it took a while for people to wrap

their heads around. Let's put it that way. I don't even know really if I have a hand on the Bible if I remember everything I felt about that movie when I first saw in theaters. I saw it with Fantasy in 20 years ago now. I know that it starts

in this incredible way where the Universal logo comes up and there's a quick black screen and then NUMS slash encore by JZ and Lincoln Park starts and it's in a nightclub in Miami and it's cacophonist

and there's just hundreds of people and Colin Farrell and Jamie Fox are on this undercover mission and nobody knows. And you're just like, what the fuck is going on? What is happening? Who are these guys? Why are they pursuing?

What's happening? And then immediately out of that case, they are brought into another case involving John Hawks. And the immersion in the world, I think is part of the idea is that you are thrown in head first on the other hand, I think for people who maybe found that confusing,

it doesn't matter. Michael Mann has since done a director's cut, and now in this final director's cut, has added what he says he always intended to be the opening of the film, which is a go-fast boat race and a little bit of expository setup for this deal that they're trying to blow up at this nightclub that you see in the theatrical versions first scene. This is a long way of saying is he is tinker man.

He is tinkering with this movie and he did some stuff at the beginning, just kind of doubling down on the director's cut. But then I would have to do a forensic analysis of previous cuts of the film. The most sort of pronounced difference is the end. Now, have you never seen Miami Vice or if you are trying to hold on to the idea of seeing Miami Vice, the final director's cut, without me talking about it, feel free to skip a chapter here.

Because I am going to talk about this a little bit. So at the end of the film, at the end of the theatrical cut and the director's cut, it's just this beautiful moment. Colin Farrell, who's an undercover cop, who's in too deep with Isabella, the lawyer for a drug lord,

played by Gongli. Isabella's played by Gongli. she's discovered that he's a police officer after this huge climactic shootout he abscons from the scene of this shootout with her they go to a house while this is happening there's cross-cutting going back and forth

between Crockett with his love interest and Tubbs with his love interest Trudy who's another cop she's been in a firefight and an explosion and is hanging on for her life at the hospital Maguire is playing

It's cross-cutting back and forth. It's cross-cutting back and forth. The theme of this movie is an undercover cop who gets so deep into his undercover life that he doesn't know what's real anymore and who's the projection and who's the real person. And it almost feels like he is called back to the real rock, the real center of his life,

maybe even the real love of his life, which is Tubbs, which is played by Jamie Foxx. And the last shot of the movie is Crockett going into the hospital. Always thought that was great. This final director's cut puts Tubbs and Trudy in one section of the ending, and Isabella and Crockett

is the final moments. It's the whole last few minutes of this movie. And it also gets rid of a failed raid on the drug lord's house in Columbia, so for people who need that kind of tied up, I think that might be of note. But when man spoke about the movie, he was talking about how for him,

the sort of central idea of this movie is this doomed love and these two people who had some time together and time is luck and their luck ran out. And there's this great, great moment as the boat taking Isabella to, you know, her exit strategy is driving away and Gongley is walking towards

the dock but on her on the boat so it's almost like she's walking back towards Colin Farrell and Colin Farrell is sort of walking towards the boat from the dock and it looks like these two people are trying to become closer as they get further and further away it's an amazing image it's a fucking incredible image and it doesn't hurt that Maguire Auto Rock is playing

and a lot of people are pretty pissed off about this. It's been a fascinating weekend of reading about people's reactions to this film and man's version of it because I think what happened was Miami Vice was a movie that was largely pushed aside when it came out. I mean, people clearly saw

there was an incredibly high level of expertise and an incredibly specific vision that man was working with. But it took a while for it to become this touchstone of modern cinema and really one of the most discussed movies of my like professional life. So last 15, 20 years.

I mean, Miami Vice comes up almost as much as heat sometimes. And there's been so much really great writing done about this movie. But I think because it was a reclamation project by a generation of critical thinkers and of online movie fans that it's their movie now and they don't want Michael Mann

screwing with their ideas of what is special about that film. Now, for me personally, I think I get to have all three versions. I get to have the theatrical cut that opens with Jay-Z and Lincoln Park. I get to have the director's cut that adds, changes,

does some different things, and I have this final director's cut, which I think is actually a pretty poignant statement about wherever Michael Mann's head is at, where maybe he's not as interested in the structure of these guys' lives and what brings them together and the code that they live by and what they owe each other and what they've promised each other. And maybe he's more interested in this kind of wistful, deeply romantic love affair.

I don't, I mean, I don't think it's like one or the other, but I definitely thought it was an interesting aesthetic choice and a different storytelling choice, and I love that I get to have both. Some folks are not super psyched about that, but it's Michael Mann's movie. And I don't know, sometimes I think that I really try to avoid acting like I know better than the people who are writing

or making a piece of art that I am taking in. I try to like take it on its face value. Like, yes, I can sometimes be a jerk about it. But I want to try and think about, okay, this is what I got and what did that person, how did it make me feel? And what do I ascribe to the author and authors of the film and what was their intention?

And that's why a movie like Miami Vice has had such a long tail is because you can watch, you can watch it for so many different reasons, for the texture, for the sound, for the performances, is for the writing that's buried underneath this cacophonous sound. But it's interesting that, you know, sometimes people decide, like, that's, no, this is the finished article. Like, this is the movie I'm done iterating on it.

And this is something that man has been doing with other films of his. David Fincher has been getting some grief for his meticulous cleanup jobs of some of his films on 4K. You know, this is something that I think we will see other filmmakers do because the technology is only getting better and better. And to some extent, they can't help themselves. And to some extent, it gives you the audience or the consumer a reason to buy this new thing is to see what James Cameron or David Fincher or Michael Mann wanted to add or take away from a movie.

But to me, it just makes the movie alive. And you can always have the version of the film that you like best. You just have to pay whatever you have to pay to get it. And I highly recommend people to check out this version of Miami Vice. That was a very long, long way of saying, this movie rocks and you should watch all three versions. I did want to hit a couple of mailbag questions before I got out of here because we got some good ones this week. One was a very good newsy one. I wouldn't have thought so, but it wound up being newsy.

Danielle wrote in, and it was a very simple one, where the hell did Matthew Weiner go? Matthew Weiner, obviously, somewhat back in the news because of Mad Men's high ranking in the New York Times top 100 shows of the century list. I believe Mad Men came in second or third. and you know he has not really been in the mix since 2018 when he did the Romanovs obviously had a lot of controversy around him after the I believe late 2017 articles about his behavior in the madman writers room and has kind of been not really heard from that very very much since then and then very quick Quietly, I would say for an announcement of this stature, it was announced last week that he is apparently making a TV show with Eddie Murphy. He is going to be making a show called The Chairman, which is Murphy's first ever scripted television show.

Weiner is attached to write and direct and executive proofs the product. This is all from the deadline. And there are no details, but I'm going to guess Eddie Murphy plays a chairman of a board, of a golf club. idea, but it's notable that this comes from 101 Studios. So this is the studio with David Glasser producing a bunch of Taylor Sheridan stuff. And this was obviously like a huge feather in Paramount's cap. It essentially was like the backbone of Paramount Plus. And 101 Studios moved to Universal Peacock, as did Taylor Sheridan. And this is the first announced...

project that they're working on. And it's kind of fascinating because like 10 years ago I think I would have lost my mind if Matthew Weiner was going to make a TV show with Eddie Murphy. And now I am too, but in a different way because I kind of

think Eddie Murphy needs something like this. Eddie Murphy, outside of like the documentaries about Eddie Murphy and appearing on Saturday Night Live and being Eddie Murphy in terms of his film, is filmed output.

Like, I don't really think he's had anything that's made a deep cultural impact since Dreamgirls. You know, things that people liked and things that were better than others, and he's obviously basically the goat when it comes to comic comedic screen acting,

but, like, he hasn't had a real, like, grab you by the lapel moment in a minute. And Winer's been, I guess, in exile for a variety of reasons. So this is an interesting, like, these two guys may need each other, but they also, like, this is, is this a coup for Peacock or is this an interesting flyer? I guess that's the question. In 2016, I would have been like, wow, holy shit, like a streamer just signed up,

the guy who made Mad Men and the dude who was in Beverly's cop to make a scripted drama, by the way, is the way this is being described. So that's even more fascinating. And now I don't know. 2026, Eddie Murphy and 2026 Matthew Weiner. Two flavors that are either going to make the most amazing thing ever

or it's just not going to work. I believe this is in development. So let's not go and, you know, don't cancel all your plans for next year. I'm not sure this is going to make it. But it was certainly a fascinating announcement and answered Daniel's question. Last one here,

before I get out of here, was a lengthy but very interesting question from Matthew. And I'll just read the whole thing. This is about slow horses, but it's also about the idea of adaptation for TV. If you don't want to know anything about slow horses, even I'll limit it to what has been shown so far this season.

If you're catching up, but this is spoilers for season six of slow horses so far as in this question. So if you're all good on that, talk to you on Thursday. But Matthew writes in, long-time listener, first-time caller. Thank you, Matthew. I'm genuinely confused by your Slow Horses coverage. Confused enough that a guy who has never sent a listener a letter to anyone feels compelled to send one now. Slow Horses is an adaptation of the books, but it's adapted nearly the same way the early seasons of Game of Thrones were adapted from George Martins.

Some of your biggest praise and critiques of the plot are framed like they are writers' room inventions when nearly everyone is beat for beat from Mick Herron, who is the author of the Slow Horse's novel series. On this week's pod, that would be the last week's pod, on this week's pod about season six, episode three, you guys were surprised that the whole season springs from Diana's screw up and said that you didn't know the show,

quote, had that in its bag, I believe that was your boy saying that was me. You called bringing Sid back after four years of pairing her, after four years and pairing her with River, incredible TV making and what TV is supposed to do. and last season's accidental killing of the politician with the paint can

was the show's low point. All three straight out of the books. Diana's plot line and Sid's return are both direct polls from the Slauhaus book and co-dropping the paint ball, the paint on Gimble's head, is wholesale out of London rules. When you covered Thrones,

you didn't praise Benny Off and Weiss for having the balls to kill off the Starks with the Red Wedding. I suppose I should have said spoilers for Game of Thrones. Or knock their choice to have Tyrion killed Tywin on the toilet. Why are you doing that now with slow horses and not crediting Mick Heron more with the ideas in the engine?

I love the books and the TV showrunners deserve credit for what they have chosen to compress, cut, and combine as well as for how scenes actually play. But the boldness of the big plot decisions belong to Heron and so does the blame when ones don't work for you. That is all good, man. I think that that is like a really decent critique of the way we have talked about the show,

I have a couple of responses here. I think we're both right. I think probably Andy and I lean a little atourist in our thinking and our conversation when we're saying like, oh, like, I know

we did this on lanterns. I know that we have been like if this was like a Damon Lindelofism or it's obviously Chris Mundy did this because this is what we recognized from Ozark. There's a writer's room. There are directors. there are comic books that's based on to some extent. Tom King is in the room with them.

When it comes to slow horses, you're absolutely right. I have read some of the Slow Horses books. I don't think Andy has. I'm not sure. I haven't read them in a while. And I did not read their complete run, partially because I was like, I'm enjoying Slow Horses of the TV show so much

that I don't want to ruin this for myself. I have since kind of done so. I have ruined it for myself. I'm trying not to ruin it for listeners, though. and I think it's important to watch the show and take the show in as a piece of television and I think that your point is good which is like if you're watching slow horses

and the first season happens you know if you've read those books Sid comes back at some point and you know that Diana does not always seem unflappable I would argue that if I would argue that it's still good TV making. I would argue that it's still getting Kristen Scott Thomas to play Diana

and play her in a certain way and having her be, for Kristen Scott Thomas's purposes, maybe patient in this character is going to maybe seem a little bit one note over the course of a couple of seasons and then is going to have a rise to power. And in the case of Sid, dude, I'm just telling you, man, like there's another world

where Olivia Cook does not have time to do, slow horses or is just she's in verity or she is in she is in primetime or something like there's a there's definitely a world where the people who are on slow horses just can't do slow horses anymore and i think it's the obviously enjoyable experience people are having that gary oldman and jack loudon and all these actors are like i will do this for as long as i possibly can and then there's also the foresight by apple and by the people who are making the show to say, we're going to pay off Sid four seasons later, five seasons later. That's incredible TV making, even if it is McHarran's idea.

I mean, a less confident crew would probably have tipped off that Sid's alive. They may have just had a runner of like, where's Sid or what happened to Sid or did anybody go to, like, anything, like, I know that they had the funeral and all that and like Diana basically fixed her death, but like it's still good TV making, but you're right in that we probably give Will Smith and now Gabby Chappie like a little bit more credit than we would give McHaron when yes, it is a very faithful adaptation of

a series of wonderful books. But when you're talking about this stuff, I mean, by the same token, I could just spoil the end of season six right now, couldn't I? We're trying to enjoy this as a week-to-week thing as I think McCarran would even like us to rather than just be like, oh, what an interesting adaptation of a book that I think

50% of the people watching Slow Horses haven't read. because now this show has kind of become its own institution. So it's always a delicate line. Like, we're going to have it talking about, let's say Zoe Kazan makes, want some dove. Andy and I are going to have a hard time being like, what's Zoe Kazan's decision? What is Larry McMurtry's decision?

How do you talk about something when you know what's going to happen because you've read the original work? It's just a fine line we walk, but I thought that this question in particular was interesting because there were very few, things that have the architecture like Game of Thrones did and Slow Horses does. And perhaps it's fair enough that we should maybe look a little bit more towards McHarran

when it comes to some of the twists and turns and character beats that we praise the show for. So congratulations to both the Slow Horses creative team but also the creator himself, McHaron. We're going to be back on Thursday. As I mentioned when we're talking to Andy earlier about lanterns, we're going to do the first three episodes of East of Eden. And I highly recommend people check it out. It's really been a breath of fresh air to me on TV and especially on Netflix.

And we'll try and find some other stuff. Maybe we'll catch up on youth. Maybe we'll catch up on war. You know, a lowdown is coming back soon. So we have a bunch of stuff to talk about in the coming weeks. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks to Kai and Kai for producing. And we will be back on Thursday.