The Watch - ‘Project Hail Mary,’ ‘Marshals,’ ‘Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat,’ and ‘SNL UK.’ Plus, ‘Paradise’ S2E7.

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Chris and Andy talk about what the early success of ‘Project Hail Mary’ means for big-spectacle movies in theaters (4:01). Then they check in with a handful of shows across the TV landscape, including ‘Marshals’ (20:37), ‘American Classic’ (28:57), ‘Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat’ (36:04), and ‘SNL UK’ (45:31). Later, they discuss ‘Paradise’ Season 2, Episode 7 (54:13). Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of The Watch and so much more! Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producers: Kaya McMullen and Kai Grady Additional Video Supervision: Jacob Cornett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello, and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. and I am at the ringer.com and joining me in the studio. He'll have some apple pie. It's Andy Greenwald. Different studio set up today. Different studio. We're at our Sycamore studios.

I think we're allowed to say that that's the name of the studios. Well, we're not here when we're recording, so don't all rush out in front. Yeah, exactly. Please. And if you do form an orderly line to meet Andy. Thank you for service. For me, you can just rush. Yeah.

Bull rush me. I don't care. It's Monday. It's more that I'm concerned that like it's Monday. But I do feel like we are either going to be looking at each other or we could be judging the Westminster Dog Show if we look forward. Yeah, this is a little bit of a weekend update table, which is appropriate because we are going to talk a little bit about Saturday Night Live UK today, as well as Paradise. Andy and I are playing a little bit of show and tell today. And I mean that in the originalist, Samuel Alito way of show and tell,

where you bring something to class to present to your classmate. Okay. You know, we kind of had this weird moment of TV where post-industry, like, in the throes of the pit, we're all loving it. But post-industry, post-night of the Seven Kingdoms, I don't know if something has grabbed our full and undivided, passionate attention. That's new over the last couple of weeks. But doesn't mean we're not doing the work. It doesn't mean we're not watching tape, scouting shows. And what we decided to do today is rather than unite.

and talk about one show. We're going to do Paradise together. We'll talk about Paradise. But we'll bring some work to the table, right? Okay. I feel a little bit of pressure, but yeah. Like, how so? You're 50% of this podcast.

50% of the podcast, but 15% of the work. Which our numbers will be tough to negotiate in this climate. I will guide you through this process. Before we get into it, it's the watch at Spotify.com. It's the watchpod underscore on Instagram. It's a ringer-tash TV channel on YouTube.com or on your YouTube app. and you can listen to us and watch us on Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.

Some of the other shows that we're going to talk about today in case people are interested. Jury Duty Company Retreat, S&LUK, as I mentioned. Marshalls. Yeah. Can't wait to discuss that with you. And you have... Here's the thing that I'm concerned about today's show,

if I can be honest. I do think that maybe what we should have done, it's a little bit late now, but we probably should have assigned each other something. Oh, like a Mazzaki movie kind of thing. Well, yeah. You keep circling that. Keep pushing the bruise.

It's almost like we're telling on ourselves a little bit because when we were allowed to retreat to our respective culture corners, you went and you watched Marshalls, and I watched American Classic, a elderly sitcom about the American theater. I think that's what makes... Peanut butter doesn't work without jelly.

You know what I mean? It does. Well, it's fine without jelly. That's why if I want to start the Chris Ryan show, I guess I could do it. 100% could do it. It would do crazy numbers. Has this only occurred to you now?

But, no, because I don't want to just stare to camera and be like an episode two of Marshall's. Casey revisits the zone of death. No, I think that, first of all, there are a couple different ways you could do it. I've been, I've been really consuming a lot of content of, like, solo travel influencers who now seem to have, like, remote control drones following them. So it looks like they're being filmed. Reader, we all do. And I think that would be what you would do. You'd be, like, walking in the neighborhood.

people would be like, what's up, Sierra, you'd be like, okay, okay. But in like Buenos Aires? No, Silver Lake, you'd be getting a salad. So my travel would be like 10 minutes west of me? How much free time? I mean, do you want to travel further? Yeah, okay. I want to see the world.

Okay, well, get in line now for TSA. Not a lot of big headlines coming out of the weekend of News. I mean, a lot of people probably spent their time watching tournament games. It is worth noting. I think that Project Tail Mary is a big fat hit. First of all, this is great. think that's awesome. It's an original sci-fi concept based on Andy Weir's novel. Andy Weir obviously wrote The Martian. Everybody should listen to Andy on House of R and Lord and Miller went on

Big Picture. So definitely check those out if you're looking for more in-depth Project Hail Mary content. I know you didn't get a chance to see it. Can I confess something? Sure. Because this is embarrassing. You kind of called me on this. No, I didn't. My brain, no, you did in a good way because I really want to see the movie, and I was with the kids, and it didn't occur to me until I had, like, missed the potential screening window to see it, that I could take them to a movie that wasn't, like, Moana 3. Yeah. I don't know.

I want to apologize to our listeners for that. That was on me. I forgot that, like, they're old enough now to go see a movie without songs by Lynn Manuel Miranda in it. Sure. Take him to hand it. Be like, suck it up. Uncle Chris prefers movies that go like this. What are your thoughts? suck it up

couldn't be you guys you'll have it's so bad do you also you know he caught a couple ls but dad did all right dad rebounded wrote family he turned that pain into art

yeah imagine the second season of sick the landing I could do oh my god yeah anyway I thought your kids would like this movie yeah it is a bit long I don't know how they do with the two

and two hour in like I think it's 30 220 something my older daughter said that the Conan bit at the Oscars where he did the split screen with subway surfers the way that like YouTube and TikTok, that's what they are.

She legitimately said that that was the most engaging part of the broadcast for her. Okay. Well, that doesn't bode well for the future of monoculture. Unless subway surfing indeed becomes the monoculture. I just think it's a really cool story for the movie business,

their first cue of the year to have a big, yeah. Big hit like this and it's like, you know, we did nice guys on rewatchables that I'll be going up today. And I guess it's time to like wreck him with like maybe Ryan Gosling is, is him. You know, I think he had had a couple of years there where whether it was Barbie or Fall Guy where it was like, you know, Barbie, he's obviously playing a supporting role. But Fall Guy is like a definite like choice from him to make a different kind of movie than he had when it was like nice guys, Lala Land, first man and have Nelson all the way back.

I love Halif Nelson. Me too. But it's pretty impressive to watch him sell this all over the world, charm every single junket interviewer he's got, going on all the shows. And he is the, like, if you don't like Ryan Gosling, I don't think you should see this movie because it is 90% him talking to another character.

But what do you think, are we too quick? This is kind of a big picture conversation, literally the show is a big picture conversation. I don't want to step on their toes with this. but like, are we too quick to declare someone a movie star or not a movie star in this era? Because he takes all the boxes. He's beloved.

He's incredibly talented. He is charming in comedy and drama. And he can hold camera and hold attention and sell a movie like this. It's just him, basically, around the world. That was true when Barbie came out and everyone was like, oh, my God, we love this guy. It's almost like we forgot.

And then Fall Guy came out. It was still true. Fall Guy wasn't a very good movie. and there were some, I think, pretty quick obituaries of his career as a leading man when opportunities are different in the 2020s and they were 10 years, 20 years, 30 years ago. I've been thinking about this with all,

Chalemay and Leo and a bunch of actors and their choices to, I mean, obviously it's a privilege, but also they choose to work with the best possible directors that they can. And I think that Gosling has gone through like different phases of his life. like there's obviously like a difference between the blue valentine half Nelson part then there's they kind of like post like I don't know like crazy stupid love where he's like

doing a you know a bunch of different genres working with a bunch of different filmmakers he seemed like he was going to do like I'm Damien Chiselle's De Niro like I think he was kind of on this trajectory of like I'm a pretty serious actor drive drive um but that and then kind of like was like you know what I think I want to have like way more fun while I work and maybe feel a little bit better at the end of a day. And so his roles that he's done in the last couple of years

have been pretty lighthearted and this is of a piece with it. It just happens to be probably the best movie. You know, Barbie is obviously Barbie. But like, this is the most successful execution of Ryan Gosling Charm machine

that I've seen in recent years. Do you know who's really, really happy today? The folks at Lucasfilm. Oh, because they got Starfighter coming. Because they built their... What is that? That's next year?

Yeah. Okay. But it's built around want to go to space with this guy. Yeah. The answer is a resounding yes. Yes, it sounds like it. What do you want to do first? Should we do some Paradise?

Did you have anything else on the... Any other news? Any other things? Not really. Can I ask you a question? This is just throwing this at you. But I saw news today that a show that I was curious about, but have not engaged with.

Star Trek, Starfleet Academy, was just canceled. Okay. We are not... Is that Giamati and Holly Hunter? Yes. We are not historically Star Trek watchers or discussers on the show. But as a, you know, we were the watchers on the wall of IP to a degree. Oh, yeah.

And I find this very, very confusing. And maybe the answer is just there's been a lot of turmoil at all the streamers, and Paramount is not immune to it. And the Cindy Holland regime may have a different attitude about this beloved plank of their business than the previous regime. And that might be it. But my sense of the show What made me curious about it, not curious enough to watch it yet,

so it's on me, was that this felt like a bigger swing to re-ignite the franchise. Oh, okay. Like, we're going to get a big star again, but we're going to make it younger or sexier. There have been rumors of like a Hogwarts for Star Trek for years,

and then they made the show, and they seemed to put a lot of money and attention into it. And now they're just sort of casually pulling the plug after two years, feels odd to me in terms of the priority that I thought that stuff had for their brand management. Maybe they no longer,

maybe they want to reboot the whole thing again, or maybe part of their attitude is all of our energy is now going to go into DC and all the stuff we're about to acquire. I think it's the former. So I think that the way that they had been running Star Trek for the last like five, six, seven years, especially since, yeah, but like,

as they kind of had rolled out, out, I think it's like half a dozen shows on Paramount that at various points were running, that it was like, you know what, there is a baseline audience for this stuff of passionate trekkies that keeps it afloat and we're going to spend accordingly, like, we're never going to get too out in front of our skis with budget. And we're just going to kind of serve the audience, but it's not going to pop beyond that probably, right? Like, there was some nice reviews for certain things.

I know you checked out like Picard when it came. came out. But for the most part, it kind of... That's where I first learned about Dr. Trinity Santos. Azisabriano's and Picard? I didn't know that. Sure good. But that's not really a moneymaker for them. No, but it's... They have to have it be...

Could we get a Star Trek movie to be a $500 to $750 million movie? I don't remember how much the first Star Trek with Pine made. Yeah. But it's got... They probably are like, this IP has the potential to be a blockbuster. can't just let it languish in making a procedural television show every week. I think that's probably the retrenchment and the new plan, because we don't talk about it enough because generally we don't talk about it. But when we have discussed over the past few years, the missteps in the management

of Star Wars and even Marvel, one of the major points of conversation is it was diluted and made to feel a lot less special when it was something that was just showing up on our televisions and on our streaming services. And that was the entire plan with Star Trek for the last 10 years. Like this is more valuable to us as something, as like, as you said, as a floor setter of audience that will subscribe to our service as long as somebody is beaming somewhere. Yeah. And they may now be looking at it and being like, we have devalued this to the point where it's sort of generationally null and void. And we need to reimagine the whole thing. I think that if you've got something that's set in outer space, put Ryan Gosling in it. Is that your advice? It's good advice.

Make something that can go on IMAX. Make something that can play and be an event cinema thing. I mean, there was this viral clip of Gosling going around from introducing Project Tale Mary at, I don't know if it was Lincoln Center or wherever the IMAX theater is in New York City. And he was like, thank you for coming out to movie theaters. It's not your job to the audience. It's not your job to keep theaters open. It's our job to make movies that make you want to come to movie theaters. Whoa. Did Sean get a tingling in the back of his neck? I actually would love to hear what Sean has to say about that

because I take that not necessarily as like we have to make large format movies that appropriately play on 70mm or IMAX screens. I think it's something that makes it feel, there's got to be a quality right now that makes you feel like this is worth not, this is worth inconveniencing myself because like so much of what entertainment has become

this actually leads into how I wanted to talk about some of our show and tell stuff is so much of like entertainment is about convenience now that you just have too many differing basically approaches to how people want to consume TV or movies and so you've taken away the singularity of like

well if I want to see this within the next 18 months I have to go see it at a movie theater and you could extend windows and all that but like if somebody's just like I think ready or not two will play just as well on my flat screen television as it does in the movie theater then they're just going to wait. And I don't know how to, I don't know how to thread that needle necessarily. Like, I don't know,

I don't know what that means for anything that's like smaller than a Project Hail Mary or smaller than Doomsday or smaller than Dune 3 or Odyssey. What makes that kind of movie? I mean, like, look, the housemaid made a ton of money. There's still an audience. Colleen Hoover movies make money. People go out to see movies, but it's a little bit more, it's hard to like gauge anymore what non-IMAX stuff will perform. Well, look, Gustav's childhood home in Oslo honestly looks shitty at home at your own house. You've got to go see it in the biggest screen possible.

Did you see settlement value on a big screen? I don't have to answer that. I intended to, but I did not. It's also worth thinking about it in terms of the flip side of that argument, which is one of the reasons, and we shouldn't, I'm not trying to gleefully like pre-write the obituary here,

but I think that one of the major obstacles for Mandalorian and Grogu is that it's like, well, this is a TV show. And the volume has trained a mini generation of audience to be like, well, I can see these things. I can see these things on my screens at home. What's the value at? What's different in the theater? And it can't just be like, you know, a novelty, agnought popcorn bucket. Yeah, and I just, I think even if you were to take away the idea that people are already very

familiar with the characters and have seen hours of footage of these people already, which is totally fine, because we've seen hours of footage of the Avengers, and we're going to go see them in December. What's at stake? Do you ask me out? Are you going to see it together? I'll go, yes. The answer is yes. I got your rose. Well, it's a tough time for the Bachelorette franchise. Oh, do you want to comment on that? I did some Taylor-Frank-Paul reading this week. Do you know who this person is. You said it in a way that you're like, the three names made it sound like this is like a congressional historian. Oh, I thought it made it sound like more like a graduate of the Iowa writers program. And it's like, I read some Taylor Frankie Paul short stories. And what's interesting

about Taylor Frank. They remind me of Deborah Eisenberg. It's kind of, you know, Taylor Frankie Paul enlisted in the Marine Corps a young age and did serve in Afghanistan. And so her perspective that she brings to the novel form is really moving. Yeah. You know, she seems like a Wild girl, man. Okay. That's your review? She's on Secret Lives as Mormon wives. Kaya is ready.

Kaya's worried that the camera's going to spin. I'm saying all my, like, key words right now. She's never been more dialed. Like, when they are around a dog and they're like, yeah,

I want to go to the park. Yeah. She's on secret lives of Mormon wives, which I've never seen. And then she had gone from that show and she immediately became like the Bachelorette. You're going to ask her because she knows. Yeah, Kaya.

I feel like Mormon wives, I feel like I know about their public-facing lives. I don't want to assume too much. No, because there's a whole mom-talk thing. The secret lives. Right, so I'm saying. So what is secret about their lives? Yeah.

Soft-swinging. Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me, soft swinging. Not that soft-swinging. No. Well, she called it soft-swinging. Soft-swinging is like when you go for frozen yogurt with someone else's husband?

They went to third base. Yeah, exactly. Don't make me ask. You know what third base is broadly, right? I know what third base is broadly, right? I know what third base is. was, but I feel like the way things are going. And who knows how the Mormons interpret the text?

You know what I mean? Yeah. But I think it just is supposed to let you know everything up to the biblical deed. Everything up to touching home? Yes. Yes. Sorry, when you said third base, I thought about how J.P. Crawford ripped a triple before his call up to the major league.

So that's the secret life I'm interested. I thought you were thinking about the gas face. No. See Search and Pete Nice. Do you watch The Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises, Kaya? So I used to, but I haven't tuned in a couple of years, but I was all set to tune in to Taylor Frankie Paul's season. So is this a sign?

Give me my easy, older man hot tape. Prep me. Is this a sign of the debasement of this once romantic franchise that now they have to dumpster dive for celebrity weirdos? It was Disney's effort to fully vertically integrate because Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is like a Hulu show, Bachelor's, ABC thing. So they were like, we're going to take somebody from a reality show that we already have and even further...

Upstream them. And she had a pretty serious domestic violence and I guess is the best way to put it. And which some footage was leaked of her like going off. Yeah. And so they pulled the season that she's on.

The entire season. They filmed the season. But they're like fully like... They've shot another Mormon wives season or not, or they were shooting it. The fifth season of Mormon wives just aired. They were in production on season six. but the production shortly before they can the Bachelorette season.

They had stopped down production on season six. To let her go do Bachelorette. No, she had already wrapped filming because she had more, she was having more issues and more domestic violence issues with her partner. And so they had paused production on season six. But there's also like a sublayer of it. It's like what's real and what's not. And we're like she's,

was she still with this guy for up until, the point of going on. Kind of a semantics guy, but I realize now it's tough to go from being a Mormon wife to a bachelorette without some bumps in the road. Right? Like you can't. I think that would be the pitch for this season. Yeah. Yeah. Put me in,

coach. I'm ready to market this. In any case. Wow. I read about that this weekend. Okay. How was that? I mean it was an interesting New York magazine profile of her, quite well-timed. And I watched Michael Powell and Emmerc Pressburger's A Canterbury Tail. Wow.

quite good. You contain fucking multitude. That's incredible. You did both those things high and low. I did. What would you like to talk about? The shared experience of watching Paradise? No, let's end with the shared experience. Let's run through a couple shows to give people a sense of what they should or shouldn't be watching. We used to do that. We used to offer a service. I'm going to talk about Marshalls real quick. Take your time. Do you feel like you still need bad TV in your life? Well, I feel like I've been getting a steady diet. No, that's not what I mean, though. I don't mean TV that aims to be good, but winds up missing the mark. Right.

I don't mean 57-minute shows that, like, you're just kind of like, maybe I just don't really care about these people or what happens to them or whether or not this works out for X, Y, or Z. I mean straight up, like, I'm watching this. Yeah. I can't really, like, it's essentially shot,

like, an episode of the Drew Barrymore show. I can't really tell, like, seven of the characters' names, but I remember with one guy's name. But there is just enough of a, story that will be resolved in the 42 minutes that I am watching this that I will blithely have it on now Sam S. Mel always used to make fun of us for the idea of a laundry show like a show that you're walking in and out of the room for yeah but I think I found it

talk to me it's Marshalls now Marshalls is part of the larger Yellowstone project I'm not going to get into like a huge reading of the state of the Taylor Sharon universe because I know that there's like only a select group of people who listen to us really you can give a shit about it. But this is an interesting expansion because it is one of two... This one and then the Dunn Ranch, which is coming in May.

And what's that coming on? That's Paramount Plus, and that's Cole and... Cole Houser and Kelly Riley extending the Yellowstone story. Okay. But this is on CBS. This is on CBS.

Both shows are not written by Taylor Sheridan. Okay. Both shows are more of like, based on characters created by Taylor Sheridan and executive produced by Taylor Sheridan. But written by Claude? No. I would say that the first two episodes of Marshalls is actually like made me mad

because I was like a more prestigious execution of this story would be interesting. It's very, very reminiscent to me of the times when I've been, you know, when I would be at my mom's house and like Chicago Fire, 19 episodes of Chicago Fire would be on and I would be like, for some reason I am following this,

even though I'm like in the room one-tenth of the time. Yes. It's basically about the character, Casey was my favorite character on Yellowstone, which is why I give marshals a shot. Just all of a sudden

becoming a marshal, which honestly they handle him about three minutes that I'm totally fine with. That's fine. And he's in a, like a high-intensity guns forward part of the marshals

with Logan Marshall Green, a couple other people. And the second episode is actually really cool. Like it's kind of Sicario Light, Aryan Brotherhood, Mexican cartels are doing a fentanyl deal

in the zone of death, which is like the Montana Wyoming border. Is that what they're calling it now? Well, that's where they used to dump bodies on Yellowstone. Oh. So it is referencing. It does. It does make some references. And it's actually like a pretty good episode of television, but it did strike me that like there's so much stuff not only that's on right now.

Stuff that is on recently enough. Like I've mentioned a couple of times my shame at never catching up on dark winds, you know? Yeah, it seems like something we would really like. Yeah. And I'm like, well, I'm watching yellow, I'm watching Marshalls, which has some stuff to recommend, and then there's parts of it that you're just like, I need to be put to sleep. But there is a weird extra layer of guilt to watching bad television when you know you could always be watching something that at least has the promise of being really good. Yeah, but there's also a reason why we eat snack food and like dependable, like comfort food. That's fine. I think that the rhythms of that and when we talk about Paradise, this will come into play too. Because Paradise is so broadcast television, it's DNA that there are, that it is possible to skate along the surface of the show. It is possible to, dare I say it, at least consider doing a load of whites, you know, while you're dancing between the bunker and the, the outside world.

Yeah. But you're right in the sense that because that part of my diet is, I'm lacking in that part of the diet, even in RFK's inverted pyramid, I definitely, there's just too much other stuff for me to catch up on, even though I would probably find that reassuring. The sensation that I'm basically chasing is like coming home after a long day of doing something that had nothing to do with television. Yes. And it's like 5.30.

and while I'm making dinner, I put on a show, and that's the show that comes on, but I had no choice. I was like, I'm just putting on TBS or I'm putting on USA, and that show comes on. I'm like, you know what?

Like, out of order, I wind up watching these Marshalls episodes. But now, at any given moment of your life, between standing on grocery lines or making your dinner or any hours that you're going to spend watching stuff, you could theoretically be watching a canterbury tale

or Dark Winds or whatever, it's kind of hard to negotiate with stuff that's just like, look, 18 million people watch an episode of Marshalls. They don't need my co-sign signature. And I'll probably keep watching it

because of my dedication to Casey Dutton. But it's strange. It's a really nice thing to just kind of relax into something. I don't even think we've talked about this, but you know what I started watching with the girls is fire up. Jeopardy.

Really? Jeopardy is just, they're all streaming. Yeah. You could just watch it whenever you want without the commercials. Yeah, right.

And then you just watch Jeopardy. And they like it? Yeah. Because, you know, it's good, Jeopardy. Like, it's completely the same

except sometimes like Clero will be an answer, you know? But other than that, it's very, very, very pleasant to make the machine do what it used to do. Yes.

And have those rhythms of like, well, this is a fine thing. This is a fine thing to do together. So, like, I would just, I would, I guess like if you're really desperate for more Yellowstone Sheridan stuff, it's interesting to watch someone kind of write what they think Sheridan sounds like.

Spencer Hudnet wrote and created this one. Yeah. And the first two scripts are good. And Greg Eutonis directed the first two episodes. Great director. And they have some verve, but I just, you know, for as much as we knock Netflix for like the Netflix effect of the visual language that we are kind of all speaking now. man, CBS procedural

really, they look diff. Can I ask you, though? And maybe this is going to be useful for some of our listenership as well. I think it's time to come to reckon with this, and I think it was clear for anyone who listened to our last show from Thursday,

but I'm willing to admit that I suffer from TDS. Taylor derangement syndrome? Taylor derangement syndrome. And if anyone else is suffering from that, is it a healthier experience for them to watch a show that is just straightforward. Oh, you shouldn't watch this. No, no, I which cameras I wasn't going to. This is all just

Canterbury Tales, though. I've just added to my criteria. Although, I don't think you'd be as triggered by this as... That's what I'm saying, because maybe the issue isn't the dude's riding horses to the zone of death in 40 minutes and back again in time for supper. It's that in the middle of it, there isn't a large conversation about pronouns and ferrets. Yeah, there's not. They're really, they don't

have any time for like, discursive conversations in marshals. It's all like, a lot a lot of skeletons out there. Sometimes they should stay buried. That's right, brother. And then they go do their thing. That just seems like good advice. Yeah, sure.

Sure. One thing I will say about Logan Marshall Green and the cast is that, you know, very convincing, wearing the tactical tactical vest. I am curious. They obviously did a lot of like weapons training and stuff for this show. I don't know if they did weapons training while you're on a horse

because there is a scene in the second episode where he seems rather uncomfortable. And then there's a lot of very far away shots of guys on horses. Do you think you'd be comfortable on the horse without the tactical gear? Or do you think it's the horse? Maybe it was just lack of kind of movement. Yeah. I'm just trying to look out from my guy. Give me a show that you watched over the weekend.

You know, one of the things I love about contemporary television landscape is the ability to be surprised. Not necessarily surprised by the quality or tenor of programming, because we've pretty much ticked all the boxes and there's nothing new to invent. more that we can still be like, wait, what is this? And it's on where? And that was my reaction when I heard that there was a sitcom that was already five or six episodes deep, starring Kevin Klein and Laura Linney.

And it was airing on MGM Plus, which I have to admit I thought was like freebie. And then it's not. It's what epics used to be. And you have to pay for it. This doesn't even sound like a real conversation. I know. And so the idea, and the show is about a titan of. Broadway. Do they still do freebie? I don't know. I don't think so. A Titan of

see. Jeff's not giving out of way for free anymore. We're keeping it all in. But just like the idea of people pitching a television show that is about a titan of Broadway being brought low and then returning to his rural hometown to save his local theater with the help of his family. I'm like first of all, okay, grandma, come back to your rest home. But also, that sounds like a great, great thing for pilot season on Amazon in 2013. Is it a period piece? No.

It's a contemporary show. It is a contemporary show. It is a contemporary show made by the director Michael Hoffman and the comedy writer, musical theater actor Bob Martin. And it stars Kevin Klein, as I said, and Laura Linney. And also a sparkling constellation of Broadway, greats. And it's so bizarre to me that it exists. Like, you watch it and I genuinely feel happy for people to do what they want. I'm not trying to rag on this show. I think it's kind of a small miracle that it exists. And any show that's trying to make it about like how we should

support local theater is clearly fine with me and how I see the world. I want to talk to you about Kevin Klein. Kevin Klein doesn't need us to big up him. married to Phoebe Cates? You think you got to you still working on your angles there? No, I was just asking if he was still married to Phoebe Cates. 100% he is. Okay.

And happily, I might add. Okay. It's just that like... Amazing if Kevin Klein showed up before Project Tail Mary was like, I am still married to Phoebe Gates,

which some people might find as amazing as space travel. Enjoy Projectale Mary. The problem with movie theaters is we haven't given ideas big enough, including the majesty of my relationship with Fast Times and Richemont High Star Phoebe Cates. Kevin Klein, one of our great American actors of the stage and screen, recently watched one of my favorite Kevin Klein films, Dave, with my children, absolutely hits close to a perfect movie, loved it.

I have to say that as he's aged, he definitely, his approach to performance seems to have changed slightly, and we just watched, what was it called, Disclosure? Was that Kourone? Who directed that? Yeah. That's weird. That happened. Was it no, disclaimer? The disclosure.

Disclamer, I think it was. That was another show. It's like, this really exists. And in that show, remember, he played a grieving British pensioner who endeavors to ruin Cape Lanchett life. Yes. Oh, yes, we did. I know you did. I think you were like, I'm kind of like committed to this.

I hope you did too, because other people. otherwise it was a lonely walk. Okay. And he was, what's the word for not subtle in that show? No. And in this show, which seems to be created around him, he plays an extravagant aging line of Broadway who likes a tipple named Richard Bean, who in the opening performs Lear with someone reading his lines to him in his ear,

and then at the party afterwards finds out that he has received bad reviews, and he basically, not assaults, but has a viral meltdown moment yelling at the New York Times theater critic. So this is finger on the pulse stuff. And I would say there is broad as a barn door, and then there's whatever he is doing in this. In this, an American classic. And then it also takes me out slightly when he is forced to return home because his mother has died. This is brother, John Tenney, a great working actor for many years is in it. He's really good. Calls him, it's like, Richard, you have to come home. Our mother has died. But our father is still alive. And at this point, reader, I have to confess, I did Google Kevin Klein age.

Kevin Klein is 78 years young. And Sam Elliott plays his dad. It's fucking that again. It is. Is it? No, first of all, when they shot the first few episodes of the show with Harris Eulen playing his dad in his 90s. He passed away and they recast with Len Carey U, legend of Broadway at age, who's basically nine years older. It's the Sam Elliott corollary.

And it's just kind of, I'm willing to accept any framing. You can't get Kevin Klein's dad. Like there's no man who's alive who could be Kevin Klein. So these are the kind of thoughts where I'm like, maybe cast Kevin Klein as the dad. Or let's just give the whole thing kind of a think. I'm willing to accept. We're going to talk about on Paradise, how there is a young boy on that show named Bean who has lived in a bunker for three years and has frozen at nine years old.

And I feel like they should be studying him from. that reason. But I'm willing to accept some versions of like, okay, well, you know, it's the magic of theater or magic of the movies that these things don't happen. But it does beggar belief a little bit to be like, this nearly 80-year-old man has a few more, has a few more acts in his one-man show, including dealing with his troublesome parents and burying one at that age. But they've tried, they've tried to address it. Like there's the young Laura Linney who's married to John Tenney, who plays Klein's brother. It's his sister-in-law.

His sister-in-law. They have a past at this local theater. And I wonder what Phoebe Kates thought about that. And they're, the John Tenney and Laura Linney's daughter is like, I want to go to New York and be an actor, Uncle Richard. And like, you Google her and she's like 30. So they did try to like. You really fixated on people's ages right now. I wonder what that says.

I think it says that I'm fixated on our age. And how much longer are we can continue to be the hip voice of young television. Mormon wives are right there for us. Mormon wives are honestly Starfleet the next generation academy. That's us. We're recruits. So this was a tough watch, but it was kind of a fascinating watch. So not fully thumbs down, but not a passionate recommendation.

I would say it's not a passionate recommendation. But like it's fun that Len Carey and Steven Spinella and Errant Fight and like all these people are having a good time. I do support people working and enjoying what they do and the message of like, let's do. Let's Save Small Town Theater is a good one. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul Predicts. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes, wishes, and misses. Predict the spread, the total points, and even the game winner. Sign up for Fandual Predicts and predict it from the couch.

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Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. Let's stay on this same streaming service. You're going to watch something on MGM Plus? No, actually, it's just broadly the prime video umbrella. I assume you didn't watch it on MGM's standalone app. You watched it on Amazon, right? No, I'm committed.

I want to see the experience from the inside. So I downloaded the app. I signed up. And I'll tell you one thing, they've really updated the roaring MGM line. Do you ever open Prime Video? Do I ever open it? Yeah, why?

Because it's right there. Yeah, I know. I was watching LA Confidential on it multiple times this weekend. Multiple times. I believe you. I believe you. Don't get nervous.

It's going to be fun. It's about Los Angeles. It is. I watched something that was on Amazon, which is you could probably watch American Classic on Amazon because a lot of those are fed into the prime video umbrella system. I don't think that's true.

Okay, and I watched something called Jury Duty Company Retreat, which is the second run around the block for the jury duty concept. Did you enjoy the first season? I think that this is one of the ones where I might be wrong, but I did not. Okay. Now, I thought the first season

was really funny. Yeah. And it brought us the beginning of the James Marsden Sons that we are still living through. The Bradshaw administration is the president of my heart. He was obviously fantastic in that. I've only watched the first two of the season, which got dropped in its entirety on Amazon. And it's really funny to watch a show for its second season. The first one, I was just like, how are they doing this? This is so kind of like strange to be like a voyeur. We'll explain the conceit.

So it's about a sequestered jury where one of the jurors is being put in the center of like a social experiment slash TV show. And all the other jurors... I think that's why I tapped out. Are actors who are playing jury. And it's supposed to basically be like, how is this person going to react to all these different crazy situations? And they found like the one guy in the world who had like a really good heart and a really good sense of humor about the whole project. And it was a really, I think it was a successful. show and very funny and touching in places. Watching jury duty season two, so the idea is basically

a temp arrives at a hot sauce company to work for the CEO and the HR department as like a, you know, assistant. And he finds out like we're actually doing our company retreat. It's like a couple of days in Agora Hills. And we're going out there and like you'll be helping with that. And he's like, Cool, okay. And of course, as soon as he gets out there, it's like, it's just like everything that could go wrong and all the funny, like, you know, a guy is drinking out of what he thinks is a complimentary water bottle, and it turns out to be a used fleshlight that someone had left in his hotel room. I see. That kind of thing. So it's not really Pressburger and Emmerich level of... I feel like watching it, I am pretty highly aware of all the people in the show acting.

You know what I mean? Doing bits. And also creating, having predetermined, like, hopefully this person will be the Pam to his gym or that kind of like constellation of office archetypes that they are trying to. Now, I could be wrong. Obviously, there could be lots of twists and turns that happen on this show. And who really knows with the character? Like, I think that there's a version of this show where it goes off the rails because the guy who's the protagonist, the unwitting protagonist would be like,

I don't fucking like this. You know, like, I imagine that wouldn't get aired because it's not a heartwarming comedy. Right. But I guess I was just a little bit aware of the puppet strings this time around, but I will probably keep checking it out

to see the episodes are pretty short the whole season's up. Can you watch it on MGM plus, like reciprocity-wise? You would know, man. You would know. Do you have it on your computer or is only an Apple TV

or did you get a separate Apple TV box just for MGM app? the MGM app. I wanted to really focus. I took this seriously. Because Amazon owns MGM. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. And so that's why this has been a very MGM coded podcast because Project Hail Mary is also, I believe, an MGM picture. The lion still roars. I'm proud of that lion. Because I have to say, no disrespect. It is a legendary movie house. But I don't know if it's, it's,

Star has lost its luster a little bit. So the fact that they've like MGM Plus. Yeah. Do you have a favorite movie series? studio opening, like it's the Paramount Mountain or it's the 20th century Fox reverie. What about the Columbia lady? Isn't that what that? What does she do?

Isn't she standing there? This Columbia Pictures. Oh, her, yeah. She's holding the fleshlight. Yeah. She's holding her head. It isn't like the Statue of Liberty lady. But she's not.

Yeah, but she looks like it. Well, I mean, first of all, not all women. Is she like the Greek god of story? Like, who is that? I wish I had an answer for you. I like that one. I like old school Warner Brothers. Do you know what I really like?

I like when you get that little scratchy Janus films. Because you're like, oh, damn, this is going to be so real. I'm about to cook up some shit. We're going to the mean streets of Oslo today. Canterbury? Okay, so jury duty. And then we have two things. Well, we have one thing that we watched.

We actually did watch a little bit, or I watched a bunch of, and you watched some of, uh, Saturday Night Live UK. Or is there another one that you wanted to do you show? I know that this probably isn't to your liking, although you did say you've been tippling a little bit more of the noble grape recently. Yeah, but we're getting out of red wine season. It's a little hot, you know. It's true. A little foggy today, though. You could have kicked the day off a little sort of a chewy gamet. There's a character on Marshall's when, like, it's really funny, actually. I don't know. It's obviously probably a corporate sponsorship, but Logan Marshall Green's character on Marshall's drinks Blue Moon.

Come on. Wait, he puts on, why didn't we lead with this? So you're telling you. telling me that a Marshall who rides horseback with tactical gear into the zone of death drinks bloomin. Sips a little wheat beer with a lemon floating in it? There's another character on the show a lady who, when they go to the cowboy bar and there's always like a surprise performance from a relatively up-and-coming country star. Amazing. She drinks red wine.

At the country bar. Yeah. But it has to be branded, right? Or is that just telling us something about her. It's like her usual because the bartender is always like, tough day. Is the ending the bottle? No, like a glass.

It would be really amazing that if in this honky tonk bar put a perfect Redel stem glass in front and then like had the little thing that just decants the right amount without spoiling oxidizing the wine

so it's like squirt Oh my God, I would really give my entire life savings if you could be a day player on Marshall's. This is quaffable. Marshall Sommier, the tail of it's all plonk, unfortunately.

Speaking of wine. Speaking of wine, one of my favorite shows from a few years ago, we touched on it a few weeks ago, that it was back, drops of God, finished its second season on Apple. And I really, really enjoy the show. And I really thought it was a fascinating example. Look, if you aren't into the show from the log line that it is a kind of lovely, kind of gauzy international production that is equal parts, Japanese, French, and English, and very, very deep into these vineyards. about like varietals and the importance of and the artistry and the humanity of wine, you might be out on it. But if you do,

if you're one of those people who listens to our show and is interested when we talk about like the scaffolding behind the shows that we like, I really thought that they made a lot of smart choices on how to turn a show that was, that was very concept-driven. First season is a young woman inherits this legacy from her father who is the most prestigious and feared wine expert in the world. And basically he has left her as his legacy a competition to earn his seller and his mantle. And she must compete against her father, her late father's protege, who's a Japanese man who turns out, spoiler alert, is her half-brother.

It's always the way. That's how we met. And your father was the most discerning film critic in Philadelphia. And he put us on this podcast together. Rather than make it another competition, they made the season half kind of a chase to find a missing wine and then a much more like character-driven story about the depths that we will go to find out the truth about our past or whatever. And it was really well done. And it set the show up in a way that would allow it to run future seasons. Okay.

Did they go to the seller? Did they finally get somebody win? In the first season they did. Oh, who won? You want me to... No, you don't have to spoil it for the listeners. For me, you can spoil it after we're done. I'll spoil it. Okay. But the second season, it's an interesting thing. If you get a chance to make a second season, do you go super conservative and run the first season back? Because honestly, in this climate, it's a miracle that you got two, maybe you won't get three. Or do you do the work that might not be alienating, but you might see some of the seams as you transition the show from a one-season thing into potentially a multi-season thing. And it was pretty unsentimental about that in a way that I appreciate it. It's very entertaining. Before we get into Paradise, let's talk briefly about Saturday Night Live. You

Okay. How aware of this project were you? I was very aware. Because it was probably brewing when the last time you were over there was, right? Yes, and no one was talking about it. In a nice way. No, I'm just kidding. It wasn't like, you know, we weren't at the Devonshire being like, you know, another round of the black stuff.

And also, have you heard that Lauren is bringing his trademark rapier wit over here? So Saturday Live, the first episode, their premiere episode aired, Saturday night in London in England and then was available on Peacock I think at 6 Pacific 9 Eastern last night Tina Faye was the host American and Wetleg was the musical guest

and I thought they were real good yeah it had some of like the usual kind of Saturday Night Live cameos although here are the cameos that happened during Tina Fay's monologue and I think are indicative of the spirit of the show Nicole Coughlin from Dairy Girls and Bridgeton and Michael

Sarah. And Michael Sarah was like, why are you here? And he was like, it's part of the Commonwealth, you know? And Graham Norton. And Graham Norton. So what does that tell you? It tells you that like it's a little offbeat. It's very British. And it's very United Kingdom. And there was a lot of jokes

about like, why is Tina Fey hosting this? And she made a, with an F word, she said, because none of you fuckers would do it. Yeah. Speaking to, I think, maybe some of the cynicism or apprehension that the larger UK comedy community might have had about the series. That being said, I follow a bunch of

primarily Irish comedians and they were all pretty like it was really funny because some of them were like I auditioned and didn't get it. But they were all like, that was pretty good. And I got to say, it had a quality that I kind of miss from S&L which is a lack of

it wasn't as self-conscious as I feel like SNL is now where a lot of the time you feel like they're trying to get to a viral moment or trying to get characters, you know, actors to break so that they can have like this hilarious experience. And even watching Weekend Update with two people that I had no familiarity with.

They were good. And we're doing all Kier Starmer jokes. And it was much more intellectually rigorous, I think, maybe. Well, I felt smug that I got the David Walliams joke. Yeah. You know, I was there. They're long enough to get that. Sure.

I thought they were, who was the guy? It's Patty Young, is that the guy who had the mustache? Yeah. Great delivery. I thought it was really interesting to see the way the structure of SNL is so entrenched the way that it was just actually quite easily transportable. It made you think, why did it take 50 years to even try it? Seriously.

From the not very good but fine political cold open to, to the opening credits of people I have mostly never seen before having a bit of a laugh with the pedicabs in central London or bringing too many drinks back at the pub to the band, to the cut to the no commercials this time but to a fake commercial

and then weekend update. It's a very, very familiar and easy format and just the nature of it made me realize you don't need Tina Fey to justify it because the rhythms were so familiar that we knew very clearly what they were doing. doing. It also seems like not that big of an ask because the UK comedy scene is amazing and distinct and doesn't need this. At the same time, the UK comedy scene is like the UK theater

scene or the UK TV scene, slightly smaller than it is here, quite incestuous. Everybody knows each other. Everybody's putting on a show me at Soho Theater, come see me at the Edinburgh fringe or whatever, an opportunity to be on TV once a week and kind of drive conversation, to drive culture or potentially go viral, just makes too much sense? The fact that it's not, obviously, for Americans, it's, I imagine, not going to be on linear television.

No, but I think there was, I saw some talk yesterday when I was first looking for it, that it wasn't available within the window some people thought, like you said, it came on later, and that there was clearly a lot of interest. Well, I was kind of like, this could just go on. Obviously, I don't think they want to put it up

against a Saturday live broadcast. But I was sort of surprised that it wasn't up on Saturday. Saturday night at some point because I don't think there wasn't a new Saturday Night Live this week. And it just would have been nice to have been able to watch it at some point before Sunday night. The other thing is American Saturday Night Live is famously incredibly expensive. And weirdly has almost now justifies its insane price tag because it is also, I believe this is still true, the highest rated show on linear NBC at this point. I think so.

which is insane considering when it airs. But the idea of making another version of Saturday Night Live that can fuel the larger NBC brand and provide it with viral opportunities, potential stars, just something people are clicking on on Peacock or on the in-house YouTube channels for the relatively cheap price of a lot of relatively unknowns,

it seems like a no-brainer. My last observation about this, I liked the, the David Attenborough's last dinner sketch and the Hamlet or the Shakespeare sketch. But my last very American observation is this was,

I'm not like a huge Game of Thrones person about Sarat Live, like I don't really know. But it did make me wonder whether Tina Fey is going to replace Lauren. To see her be the kind of flagship ambassador. Yeah.

And I was like, she's still really funny. I mean, obviously she's still really funny, but also watching her play, like, she seemed to have like a feel for how a show should work. Yeah. I wonder whether or not she worked with them at all in terms of structuring it or in terms of... I would guess. Yeah. But I think the impediment to Tina taking over is why would she want to do that? Why would she want to be the person after the person? Why would she want to... She might be like, she might be better for a... For sure, but also, I don't know her personally,

but she seems like she has a pretty good life doing what she wants. I don't know, man. I mean, I agree with you, but like... I mean, she's not married to Phoebe Cates. But none of these people are ever like, I'm good. I'm done. You know, like, yeah, that's a really hard life. Yeah.

I think possibly one of the things that she could institute is a different, like, kind of framework for how to make the show. I know that it's basically... It's a ship that runs itself. I mean, it's baked into the premise that it's going to be late nights. But I wonder whether or not there are certain elements of it

that's like a chaos factory because of the way Lorne is always... I don't. I have no idea. So to investigate the note behind the note, how would you run the ringer differently if you stepped in? Like, would you change the... From Bill? Yeah.

Would you change like the hours? Would you change the catering? I would definitely change the catering. Like, you would get some? Yeah. Because I'm very hungry. I will say about SNLUK that did you know anyone? Did you recognize anyone in the cast?

I didn't. I didn't. Hamid Anamashon, who is someone I've been watching for a minute. He's really funny. Could you. To black ops. But that was also cool where, like, I don't. genuinely, I mean, this is a compliment.

Like, there's a democratization of culture there that I don't fully understand. Whereas here, country's so big, the money-making opportunities are so vastly disparate that we would be like, why is that guy on TV when I saw that guy in the movies? Or why is that movie star doing a play now if he's not trying to... Why does this comedian have a podcast, but it's not very funny? Well, 100% that. There, like, the pathways from doing a, you know, a day player role on a TV show, like Papa Esedoo,

being on, who's one of the best British actors of his generation and is going to be Snape and Harry Potter, he did a one episode turn on Joe Barton's show Black Doves because he had been in Joe's other show and then he's also on stage.

And he very well could start a podcast or show up on SNLUK too because you just work. So I kind of think that might speak well both for the cast and future cast of the show, but also Michael Sarah aside, people are around.

People are around. will be willing to show up on the show in a different way. Also, a lot of stuff is shooting in London. Most things are not shooting in line. And so people will be in the mix. Like, we could go full circle. Like, Gazi. That's what my English co-workers were calling Ryan Gosling

when they would see him on the heath when he was moved there for a year to film Starfighter. Gazi might drop in. Let's talk about Paradise before we get out of here. Spoilers for last night's episode of the final countdown is the name of the episode. Spoiler, they play a slowcore version of Europe's the final countdown.

So spoilers for the episode going forward because it's very difficult to talk about it without talking about what happens in it. We have certainly entered an interesting zone with this show that everybody who I've recommended it to recommended it to is like, oh my God, they killed that character? And now we apparently are hitting the

No One Ever Really Dies part of Paradise where if you were wondering why James Marsden was so extensively featured in a continued flashback role in season two. There's now a world where Cal's just in a different reality, I think, is probably what's being suggested by the end of the episode. Talk me through that. Well, it seems that Link, the character played by Thomas Doherty,

that we like very much who had that lovely trist with Shane Lee and Woodley at Graceland and she gave birth to his daughter. Yeah. It seems that he has come to the bunker in Colorado, with his militia to kill Alex. Whatever, whoever or whatever Alex may be. It seems more like a what.

And at the end of his conversation with Sinatra, which has been this negotiation about like, we want one of your nuclear reactors and blah, blah, blah. And he is referred to as Dylan, which is the name of Samantha's late son. At the end of the episode, she goes into a room. We don't see what she's looking at.

she seems to need to put on some kind of lab coat. I don't know if it's to protect from radiation or whatever. And she says, did she say it worked, Alex? No, she just says, hi Alex. Hi, Alex. Oh, she tells her husband. Everything worked. Everything worked.

So my guess is that Samantha, while also creating a safe haven for society in the Colorado bunker, has also been working on a multiple reality time. So basically, idea that you're suggesting here is that she created a safe haven for the remnants of society, but potentially created another pocket safety that kept everyone alive or restarted people or... Or that people are out there that don't know that they're a lot, like, you know what I mean, that are a part of some other strain of reality or a strain of time that are now, maybe they were brought forward by the end of the world. And link might be a link between these worlds. Now you're

picking up on it. So did you not feel that way when you saw the end of the episode? I got to be honest with you. I don't, I really like the show. But you don't care. I don't care. Right. But I don't mean that in a way that's to be dismissive. I know what you mean. I genuinely am like, okay. Let me know next week. Can't wait. I always say this because this episode also featured what it looks like the death of Jane after her standalone episode. And, um, you know, I think that for as exciting as those character deaths can be, they may or may not have any consequence. Well, they also are like, the interesting thing about the show is it is very self-aware

because Dan Fogelman with This Is Us, really a pioneer in the field of doesn't matter if characters are dead. They have a lot of stories still to explore in flashbacks. Sure. And so he carried that forward into the show. The idea that he is iterating on that idea being like, they may. may be playing future alternate versions of themselves too, so we're going to keep them in the call sheet. I find that fast. I find that compelling. I find that interesting. I didn't go as far as you

did, but that does make sense because, as we were saying, last week, when we talked about the show, there are these, you know, Xavier's having these little flash forward dream things as if there is some sort of time travel element. It is absolutely, this is not, this wasn't subtle. Like I didn't, this wasn't buried in the mix that this is clearly her son. It is this a version of her son that she has yet to meet or something that proves the success of her program. We don't know. Right. But this brings me to my observation, which is everything that you're saying and that this was a, this is the last card turn of the show's big plan. Oh, I don't know about that. No, no, but I'm saying if it is, if that's where we're headed in season three. Time travel, multiple realities. That would track with the fact that all of the

reporting and the announcing of the renewal of the show for its third season was that this was always intended to be and was pitched and conceived as a three-season show. That would suggest that, you know, that it's revealing this big card turn right on schedule for wherever the ultimate endgame of the show is. Paradise being maybe the afterlife, Paradise also being the third book in Dante's trilogy. You know, so we're seeing that that, that, that, that is a framing that seems to be consistent with what the show has always intended to be, apparently. I would say, though, in my viewing experience of this season, and especially the last two to three episodes post-Shiline Woodley, it is not carrying itself like a three-season show.

If it is a three-season show, and I say this, especially because Paradise is so, so, so fast, and so, like, move, fast, break things and worry about it later in a way that I find admirable, and unlike a lot of the plotting prestige stuff that we generally cover, everything that you put on screen has to be vitally important, sure, in terms of the larger endgame and thus maybe why we have

the Shilene Woodley Messiah baby looming, even though Xavier just left that baby a couple episodes ago. Okay, I buy all that. But I also feel just as a viewer, everything you put on screen then ought to be really, really compelling, not just important for the plot.

And by that metric, I think the last few episodes have kind of failed. Not just because I don't really care about Jane's, I'm a killer backstory, but also President Cal's adventures, President Cal's sons misadventures in the underworld are so boring and so uncharismatic and compelling.

That part of like the people who are in Paradise Prison, the bunker prison, and all, like there are several teenagers that I'm like, I know you're somebody's child and you seem to be working with Xavier's former partner. and the guy who built this whole thing. Let me know when you guys get to where you're going. You are like the, I'm sorry that happened or I'm happy for you.

I ain't re-know that. It's just like when there are a lot of, there are several, I'm sure there are a Paradise podcast that are granular and dedicated to the every movement. When it comes to the teens, I'm out. I'm just like, I'm like, look like. Yeah, with like Sinatra's daughter is a hacker who can provide wristband access to anyone anywhere.

Oh, that's right. At any festival. I forgot Snott's Daughter is one of the outside. I mean, there's just a lot of, like, it's funny to watch all these strands of like, we're going to make an incredibly compelling serialized genre show, but also that part that I'm not necessarily against, but that sort of lizard brain broadcast part of the brain trust of the show. It is like, if we make Julian Nicholson this Machiavellian character

seems to be pulling all the strings, we also very, very much have to have her say early in an episode. What does she say? At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm not a monster. And then also we see how her intimate sex life with her husband has fallen by the wayside since she got shot in the clavicle and ended the world. Shout out to that guy. That's just like a working actor's paycheck. He sort of sits on his couch, I think.

Because I don't really understand like if you're not, does everybody in the bunker have to have like a job that keeps society moving? Yeah, man, he's a plus one. He's a plus one. But do you think he's like, maybe I'll get back into my real estate career? Like, do you sell properties in... Real estate is limited. I feel like that would be... It's limited, but would you try to like keep some semblance?

She'd be like, there's a whole other level here. It's an emerging neighborhood. It is near a prison technically, and it is near a power plant. And it gets no fake light. And it gets no fake light. But, you know, people... It sounds like my first New York apartment. I think...

I feel like there ought to be... See, this is the problem with the show like this. actually a lot more stuff they could be doing, but then it would be a lesser different show. But I do think that if you got into the bunker as a plus one, which by the way, we've all discussed, I would be dead day one. But if I did somehow manage to blag my way into like plus one, I feel like it would be incumbent on me to then become a surgeon, you know, or like learn something useful. Yeah, I would try to teach English at the high school or whatever. That'd be cool.

Cormick McCarthy died that day but also his books The road is very useful in this circumstance yeah do you think

well that's why the librarian was an important job in the first season do you think they have all the streaming services down there just frozen at the moment at the world ended Well

yeah as a longtime subscriber I can really help I could help people navigate MDMGM plus UX so two more episodes of this season It's just like they're doing a fascinating.

Two or one more? I think one more. A fascinating and sometimes workman like job of like, well, we got to keep these plate spinning. And sometimes plate spinning is like Xavier spent three plus years and one and a half seasons trying to find his wife. And then he has her for 24 hours. And he's like, yes, by all means, go have a one-on-one heart-to-heart talk with a man who tried to explode me with a bomb last episode. That's right. Gary.

And again, it's just like that is the weird beat that. maybe speaks to what you were saying you kind of like in Marshalls, and I wonder what people's appetite is for it. And what I mean is, like, Cameron Britton, an actor we like, playing Gary the Mailman, a character who really, I feel like has reached the end of his road in terms of, like, the variance.

But they don't kill him at the end. They don't kill him, but also some part of their lizard broadcast brain is like, we need a redemption arc for Gary, we need to hug him. Yeah. I could have moved on, frankly. Like, it's okay. You want to Gary dead. No, we don't, I would have been like, that's cool.

And then she's like, I must go get my son, my bunker son Bean, whose growth has been stunted. You know, you know, one thing though, I will give it, oh, wait, I have two questions before we wrap up here. Sure. One, not even question, just really more of a comment. I really like the thing where Terry's like, how are my children? How are our children? And she's like, it's a two-part answer. Just like, well, he sort of is complicated about she's dating someone.

and then she's like, oh, you're saying he's white about their kid's boyfriend. I thought that was funny. Wait, where's the baby? The baby, he left the baby with the people. Oh, the train people. With the married couple, the women who read to the baby and they're going to get on the train and go to Colorado.

They have to get the baby. He was like, how do you feel about babies? Oh, right, right, right, right. How do they get to turn the train? They're going to lay the track to get the train to the baby? What was your other question that was more of a comment? You don't want to focus on train travel? It just makes me think about how.

what, brother, we're all going to get focused on train travel pretty soon. Probably the only thing that's working. One of my favorite low-key details about our beloved lonesome dove is that after it came out and won the Pulitzer Prize and was a huge sensation, Larry McMurtry admitted that he had forgotten about trains. Yeah. There probably would have been a lot of train talk in that book. Probably. But no, the other question was just to your altered reality thing. I think that we as a storytelling people need to come up with something other than nosebleeds to signal.

supernatural or metaphysical shenanigans. Like scanning? Remember, to the scanners? The heads explode? Well, that would limit Julian Nicholson's

participation in the current reality. It does make me wonder we've seen so far Xavier has nosebleeds. Right. Link has nosebleeds. Did Jane ever have a nosebleed?

I mean, Jane's covered in blood all the time. But somebody was texting back in time during the Jane episode. somebody's like texting the best spy guy. You gotta kill this baby, right? Yeah, I mean, it wasn't text. I think it was AOL instant messages.

Yeah, Amy. Oh, excuse me. Sorry. I think we did a great job today. We covered a bunch of shows. Nosebleed. And we're gonna go back in time and do it all over again

on Thursday, honestly. We do the pit. Something else maybe. Top chef? Top chef. That's right. Got anything else? No.

I feel like, I feel like you're parking the car. Yeah. I'm parking the car. Thank you to Kaya. Talk to you guys on Thursday. I can't wait.