The Watch - Reliving the Golden Globes and Reviewing '9-1-1' (Ep. 216)

Episode Date: January 8, 2018

The Ringer’s Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald reflect on their favorite moments from the Golden Globes, including Seth Meyers's and Oprah’s performances (1:00). Later, Chris and Andy bring back “In or Out” for Fox’s new show, ‘9-1-1’ (31:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I need sports to have to clear the run. Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I'm an editor at the ringer.com and joining me on the other line. He'd like to thank the Hollywood foreign press. It's Andy Greenwood! Do I deserve an intro like that when I'm so far away?

That intro is dedicated to Jumanji, which is bringing cinema back. Three billboards outside of a Jumani. screening. I am calling in this week from an undisclosed location on East Coast time. And let me tell you, Jumanji is big here.

You know what else is big here? The complete ignorance of most of the nominees and winners last night in my extended in-law family. I kind of can't tell. We were watching this together. A bunch of people were watching the Golden Globes last night. And I was like, man, I wonder if anyone gives a shit.

about this right now. It was, I was trying to, because I think partially it's because, you know, there's been, the Globes happens a little earlier, so you're not going to get, like, the post as the movie that everyone is talking about it. These slow rollouts that they do with these movies where it's New York and L.A. and then selected cities and then wide, for the most part, I think it really hinders them becoming major conversation topics, with the few exceptions, like American Sniper was, you know, just became a huge box office.

even though it had opened over the course of six weeks. But I do feel like the bigger movies either came out a long time ago, like Dunkirk can get out, or they're still trickling out to the extent where, like, Phantom Thread didn't even get that many nominations, and apparently isn't even being seen by the people who might be voting on it. So you do get this sort of weird, like, do you know a shape of water fan? No, I mean, I would say that if this was a different organization,

like if the Oscars were early, it might be a sign of, well, some tastemakers that at least be respect to some degree and have a track record have anointed this as the movie to see and maybe that would eventually make its way through the culture in some way. I'm not saying the shape of water isn't good. We got some pushback last week on Twitter for you lumping it in with your no cartoon policy. No, no. I see people try to really limit me and put me in a box and make me one dimensional. And in fact, the things that are one dimensional are the beasts in Garumo del Toro movies. I'd also like to add that you are describing the plight of the fish monster in the shape of water.

People just want to put him in a box and consider him to be one-dimensional. But he just wants to be in love with a soulful mute. So what I'm saying is maybe there's a way for you into this movie too. And it was an incredibly confusing night on a lot of levels. Yeah, let's break it down. Last week when we were previewing it, and I apologize, I definitely gave a preview of the Golden Globe, a boilerplate preview, as if I was dare I say it, a fish monster locked in a box, which I assumed to be the plot of the movie, by the way,

based solely on the clips that I saw last night. It's like Take Shelter, Meets, Beauty and the Beast. Meets, 50 Shades Freed, which I also want to talk to you about. The boilerplate breakdown of the Golden Globes that I gave last week was that this is a Hollywood party. This is the most fun award show. And these kind of questions, like, well, are people really, are we sure they've seen Lady Bird yet?

Those aren't the questions one normally asks about the Golden Globe. What I forgot was this is not a normal year, and this is not a normal year for Hollywood to have a party. And so the Golden Globe is just in terms of it's kind of, hey, we're just having fun here and there's bottles on the table. The show least suited to this new cultural moment that we are all trying to figure out. And no industry is figuring it out as publicly as Hollywood. So we can get into the more specific female solidarity against misogyny, obviously against rape culture, that were expressed. beautifully and really important Warrington

that may come back to haunt them. There were also some like bits that were written in June that were, you know, like, where I was like, hey, like, this is just like, whenever anyone was forced to go out there and do regular award show patter,

I was just like, holy crap, what are they going to do with the Oscars? You know, like, it was a very interesting collision of, of trying to make something entertaining out of something

that is essentially a very uncomfortable conversation for a lot of people. Yes, and something that is essentially formless like an award show. And not only formless, but to some degree random, because the movies, you know, it's rare that the previous year's movies reflect the current moment in any real way, except maybe for some... I thought that that said, the producers, the Golden Globe, definitely considered

where to place the big little lies categories throughout the evening because they knew that it was going to dominate and that that was going to be an almost legible spine for a politically charged evening. I thought that was fairly well done from a directorial standpoint. But my bigger takeaway is that we aren't just now in a moment, whether it's in award shows or politically or culturally, where everyone is saying the quiet part loud. There are conventions that we have accepted that, you know, presidents shouldn't rage tweet while eating cheeseburgers.

I'm just throwing stuff out. That we, when you go to an award show, you play the game. Whether it's the Golden Globes and we don't even know who voted on it or it's the Oscars, you play the game and you you say a speech a certain way and you thank certain people and you make certain faces when people make jokes about you, you behave a certain way. It is itself a performance. Those walls are crumbling and value neutral on that. But it can be shocking.

And moments when it was truly shocking in the positive sense for me is I love Natalie Portman. Natalie Portman just went for it. You know, instead, here are the five best director nominees who are all men. You're not supposed to say that, but it's pretty exciting and a little bit dangerous feeling, I think. for the people in that room, certainly, and maybe the viewing public at large.

Yeah, the cover was to Del Toro and Spielberg and Nolan, as Natalie Portman said that was, you know, they're going to get as much viral content out of these things as possible. As somebody who finds most award shows incredibly awkward and somewhat uncomfortable to watch in the first place, it was interesting to be in a position where that was the point, you know, like you're saying. Like it was a much more,

not even confrontational. It was just a much more candid award show that was clearly built around a central thesis statement, even if that thesis statement was open to interpretation. But like you said, the spine of the Big Little Lies Awards, the Awards for Handmaid's Tale,

Oprah's speech. I did not read Twitter while I was watching this show, so it was hilarious to me after the fact to go and check and see that Oprah had been elected and impeached over the course of, night on Twitter, so congratulations. Just a whiplash political career. Yeah, I think that the big story for me coming out of this, there are tons.

The thing that I will be curious about is now that there have been some markers put down in the ground for people like Gary Oldman, for movies like Three Billboards, is the two months of public litigation about the worthiness of these supposed front runners. Let's just put it that way. Because there's already a Daily Beast piece that was sort of bringing up things that Gary Oldman has said and done in the past. There's obviously, it doesn't take too much creative Googling to find out what people are saying about some of the other winners last night. I would direct people to see Ali Sheedy's Twitter account, the actress Ali Sheetty. That's actually been deleted, but the cut, the New York Magazine's blog, wrote a pretty comprehensive write-up of what people were saying about winners like Gary Oldman.

at James Franco while they were on stage with their times up. Yeah, and so we'll see what happens with that. And then on a level of just the usual Oscar horse race stuff, as soon as three billboards, you could kind of tell, I can't remember what the first, I think it was Rockwell.

When Rockwell won, it was like, okay, I think that this could go, this could be a three Billboard's night. And there had been some chatter about that was a movie that the foreign press was really getting into. The HVFRAF, the HALOFirm press was really getting into and obviously it was just one of those like what does anybody like yeah i actually probably

don't hate i know people who hate three billboards i actually there's a lot of it that i like but i understand the problems with it um i also just think it's tonally like a very strange film to be a beloved favorite and the way that a couple of different pieces of art uh have started to be twisted into being anthems of resistance uh like itania and three billboards is interesting to me, but we're going to see a lot of actually three billboards is bad pieces over the next couple months.

Sean pointed that out last night, and we're going to see a lot of just cleaning out the closets going on in the next two months. And maybe for the best, you know what I mean? Because, I don't know. I just take note of the fact that no one applauded, not very many people applauded three billboards winning last night.

I think that it is extremely unfortunate when we live in a time worthwhile. I don't even mean good or bad. I just mean worthy of engagement pieces of art become hobby horses, political agendas. And to say political agenda, even in this climate, sounds pejorative. I don't mean it. I mean, everything has to some degree of political agenda. But what I mean is, last year, Casey Affleck was the subject of a lot of not even rumors or innuendo, but there were in a different era one year ago, it did not cloud viewers minds or maybe place maybe wasn't put in front of the right voters mind to affect their vote i'm not saying it should have i'm saying it did he won the oscar this year it would

be in hollywood and where we are in the world it is not outside of the realm of possibility to consider payback voting or previous injustices that some people feel so basically the the reverse of well not even the reverse but often in oscar races um people will win awards not for the thing they're nominated for, but for the accumulation of their resume? So we're giving a new spin to the idea of you deserve it. But also that people, maybe people will not vote for Gary Oldman because of a public event in his past, Casey Affleck. Now, a couple bigger pieces to say here, I haven't seen Darkest Hour, I haven't seen a bunch

of these movies, I'm going to remedy that in the next few weeks. So I'm not weighing out of merits of their performances or the specifics of the movies. Two, the Oscars have always been incredibly political. the campaigning, the voting, everything about it. So it is, it would be the height of hypocrisy to pretend that suddenly,

suddenly things are too political when it comes to the Oscars. It's just that it's too public for some people to stomach or deal with. Right. Because we have, you know, we have anonymous voters talking to the Hollywood reporter

and we have Twitter raging about it all the time. Every year, some movies become the darling of, or indie lovers or whatever, the New Guard,

and then some movies become reprimed. representative of the old guard fairly or unfairly. There's always the underdog and the overdog dynamics set up. It's weird that three billboards, the third movie by Irish, seems poised to become in some ways the overdog, because from what I understand about it, you know, it has some questionable racial politics in one of the characters. I think people are familiar with McDonough's work know that that's kind of his vibe. That's what he does. It's not even, I get what people are saying about it. I think that, I mean, without spoiling it,

Sam Rockwell's character is a racist cop, but over the course of the movie, it digs deeper and deeper into his character and gives him this arc, but there are no significant characters of color. There's a couple of black characters in the movie, but there's no black character in the movie gets that kind of attention.

Yeah, I mean, McDonough is intentionally kind of, sort of a splatter artist. Like, his dialogue is very precision, but he loves to get messy, and he loves to go to America to make big statements about American culture and what America means, despite not living here and not being from here,

which doesn't make his work invalid, but it's worth considering from that lens. And to that end, Mark Harris, our old colleague at Grant Lent, who's now writing a lot for Voltaire, New York Magazine, and other places, he pointed out that the Golden Globe that we love to make fun of,

they are, it is the foreign press, and so of America, or tell America what America is from an outsider point of view, which may have given three billboard to the leg up. I would say there are three other ways, in general, in terms of before the Oscars, which one of these years it was in each category. The four ways I think Golden Globe voters vote are, one is that, the outside perspective. They sometimes good taste sneaks by, because maybe there aren't very many.

Peritably, you can look at tonight, the Amazon comedy that I love, the show won. You can look at that as an example of them just having good taste and, you know, being excited to get the new, new thing. To Tatiana Maslani, they gave the Emmy. They gave the Golden Globe to her years before she even was nominated for Emmy. They gave the Golden Globe to Homeland.

They love to get in front, but secret exactly being paid off in cash, but access to celebrity. Yeah, and that Amazon has cultivated that. If you talk about these campaigns that a lot of these studios run, there are four places like the HFPA, right? Like that if they,

if maybe, maybe that they're like, if they didn't get, you know, a boat trip on for like brought to you by the makers of Dunkirk or something, that might be why Dunkirk was shut out. I was, I think that you will see a different Oscars. I think Mark also said that, which was noting that Dunkirk Get Out and the Post were all shut out and that that would be, it's highly unlikely. And call me by your name. And that is highly unlikely that that will happen in the Oscars.

But we'll see. Is there, was there anything from the TV side that you wanted to mention? Yeah, I think. Well, also, last thing on the movies, despite everything, despite the night of course the evening, Lady Bird suddenly won. And I was shocked by that.

Eric was not nominated for directing a movie that went on to win Best Picture Comedy or musical, Lori McHath, and then suddenly, Sersherom, he never really know what the Gold Globes, which is on most of years that point, but I was very happy.

TV side, it was, you know, it was Maisel, it was Handmaids, it was Sterling Brown. Yeah, I think for me, you know, we were excited to do some predictions last week and then sort of ran into a brick wall,

of that drama category, and I really, it was a pick-um as far as I was concerned. And in the end, in a room full of family, it'll probably be handmade just because, not because it doesn't deserve it, but because in a year with these nominees, none of which was particularly new and none of which felt essential, I wouldn't be surprised if they made the Emmys, basically. And that's certainly what happened. Lizzie of Moss, no, we all think deserves all the word she gets. Maisel, I was really happy to see that win.

I think it's a terrific. It was really shocked to see you. and McGregor win. Yeah. Except for the fact that one of the things about the Golden Globes is, unlike the Emmys, which have now gotten kind of used to movie stars being there, the Golden Globes still gets pretty excited. You know, when you get bigger stars or star in the room?

Well, that was the next thing. I don't know if he is anymore. But, you know, the idea of a guy doing a big TV part, slashing TV part, playing twins. Now, I have to make the point. Played three parts on the far superior Twin Peaks the return. but I, come on. Most people I know didn't watch it,

let alone the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Right. Bateman was robbed. That's my big takeaway from TV. Were you psyched to see him there? We had that little Ozark music play? Yeah, that would be a... That would have been quite a moment if you had won, but I didn't actually expect him to win.

What do you think of it as TV? I thought that... Generally, what happens a lot of these things is that, like, I cringe a lot during monologues and then find myself in a state of beer-buzzed at some point about 25, 40 minutes in. And I thought that that was pretty much what happened here. Did you think Seth Myers did a good job?

I think Seth Myers did a very good job under, again, not difficult. Like working in a coal mine is difficult, but under challenging or at least, is he's so smart and he knows how to read rooms, which this year suited him and suited the show. So I thought his monologue was very good. I mean, there were a couple turkeys in there, but in general, you know, he has the right attitude of skeptical enthusiasm for this, and particularly for this year. Again, it was probably appropriate to the year that he seemed to vanish more than most hosts of these things do, but I missed that. It definitely robbed the show of some sense of structure, and because there was no fun in the room this year, and again, not saying there should have been, but there really wasn't.

So there wasn't that like, let's keep cutting to the funny drunk celebrity or let's have a little banter or callback going on. And then the other aspect of that that might be worth noting is that it felt like a transitional transformative year, not just in the content, the politics, but also in terms of who was in the room. There was a funny moment when Obie was winning the award, but Oprah is always the front of any award show. And was her seat filler. I just thought, first of all, like that was the older industry seat because the rest of the room, Army Hammer and Timothy Chalameh. and Greta Gerwig and a whole new generation of people who, it's exciting to have them come into the room and to be there. But their roles, they don't feel comfortable in that room yet.

You know, the Frankie Shaw's of the world, Rachel Brosnahan. So you don't have that clubby atmosphere. But I guess the whole point is this was the year where we got rid of that clubby atmosphere for good or bad. And so we will look. I'm not sitting off fireworks just yet, man. I mean, like, I think that that was one of the things that was sort of interesting about what Seth did, which was he very,

obviously just skipped Trump. Like, you know, he didn't address anything about Trump head on. And I think that was probably for a variety of reasons. But he did treat, so he replaced Trump jokes with Harvey jokes. And, you know, I'm sure it got some laughs in the room.

It got some laughs occasionally in the living room that I was sitting in. And it was interesting to see that become the replacement. I don't really know. I know that some people were like, this is not really like funny to me yet. You know, this stuff is, we did not solve this.

So this is, there was a little bit of like, we fixed it going on and it's not fixed, right? Like that's sort of. And that's why, to me, the Natalie Portman line was the most important because it really unsettled people.

It unsettled people who are, you know, and I put this in quotes or however you needed to be put, allies, like, you know, liberal lions like Stephen Spielberg, because the people in that room who wanted to say, no, we're standing for this, too, we're here for this, we're here for you. Oh, but why, so why are you, why are you pissing in our lemonade? You know what I mean? It was a, it was uncomfortable, and that's kind of what this movement and this moment is about, and that's necessary, and it's not comfortable for a lot of people. This isn't going to

be the Golden Globes we hope, but I do think, as much as anyone ever limit it, this will be a Golden Globes worthy of being studied because it is a transatlantic. year in a very interesting way. And maybe it'll transition right back again in a year, too, but that remains to be seen. Let's talk about the other big thing that was happening out here in L.A. this past week, and that was the TCA's, the annual sort of, was it annual or is it more than once year? It feels like it's more than once year. It's twice a year.

The twice a year confab between television executives and critics where a lot of the new wares get trotted out. Strangely, the sheer volume of television that's coming at us right now makes it so that The stuff that happens at TCA's is almost entirely, you know, symbolic to me. Like, I don't, I can't even process shows that are coming on in nine months, much less the shows that are coming on in January and February. I mean, just as run down a list of the stuff that's coming, like, right now. The Philip K. Dick Electric Dream Show on Amazon, assassination of Gianni Versace, the Alienist, Mosaic, Waco, one day at a time, here and now. Good Girls, The Looming Tower. that's all within the next six weeks.

So hearing about shows that are going to be dropping in the fall or whether they're going to make Twin Peak season three or whether or not next season is the last season of Big Bang Theory is almost all like, that's fantasy football for next season. The one thing we did want to talk about, though, because they did a panel and the trailers are starting to drop, and it is quite a trailer, is Atlanta Robin season, which is the sort of new title, I guess,

for Atlanta for season two. The most interesting thing about this was Glover talking about how this story, this season, is going to be a lot less formally, I don't know to say inventive, but formally sort of formally inventive than compared to last season, because they have a cohesive story that they want to talk about. And it's apparently largely tied up in several of the main characters have kind of gotten their shit together. They're kind of moving forward with their lives. And now it's, how do they keep moving forward without turning their back on where they came from? And I don't know,

I mean, I'm highly anticipating this show, obviously. It is a high degree of difficulty for them to live up to their first season. What do you think of this idea that they're kind of dropping the, any episode could be anything? Last week in the realm of totally, not just that it's back soon. I mean, I mean, they started filming this season, I believe in September, which I believe the date, speaks to how desperate, not just the audiences for the show, but how desperate FX is to have a fact on an incredibly important show for them,

as it should be. All the takes that I had ready to dust off from the take shelf. I didn't even have them. I missed the show. I missed these characters. And to your point, to your question, this is, it is anuteur-driven show, meaning the show is the,

with anything that Donald Glover wants to fill it up with. And the idea of a show that became known for, we just don't know what it's going to be this week. It could be anything. Deciding what it's going to be for season two seems just as thrilling to me, to be honest, because it means they had something. We have to hope that there's not going to be off the air for another, you know, for all of 2019.

So it's likely to get my hopes up, man, because I feel like Glover is such like a restless artist that is constantly looking kind of to be challenged and to do different things. And he did say, The stuff he's been saying about solo and working on something where all he had to do was show up and act

leads me to believe that Atlanta is quite a lift for him and that he looks for stuff to break it up. It's true. Making these shows, especially these personal shows, is incredibly hard.

But one of the things that exciting was, you know, I really, I don't even remember if we had any criticisms about that first season, but one observation we both made

was it doesn't even need to be this busy. because we love these characters. We love this performance. And if this were just the show that we thought it was going to be about navigate the record business, then, you know, Dainu, that would have been enough. So if that's what this season is, great.

And the trailer, you know, it reminds us without telling us anything what we love because just seeing Brian Tyree Henry again, seeing with Keith Stanfield, seeing as he beats, like, great. And then just to remember that Hero Marais is directing it, and it's vibe and surprising and weird, like, let's do it. You know, we need this show back purely because it was the best show on TV when it was. Anything else coming out of TCAZ originally? I was kind of curious about how you felt about even the prospect of the season three of Twin Peaks.

I find that to be a one in a million chance, though. Yeah, I mean, you know, I listen to, I'll give another plug for it. One of my favorite Twin Feaks related things this year was the interviewer buddy, FAMSML did with co-creator Mark Frost for the Talk House. It's really a great podcast. I recommend it. In the mind of Frost and Lynch, you know, it just is what it is.

If they had the desire to do more, then they would probably do it, and someone would probably let them... I feel the way, about it the way I felt 10 years ago, five years ago about the prospect of their being, even this third season that we got, okay, that would be wonderful,

because whatever Lynch and Frost do, I'm interested in it. It just, I mean, can together it to pull off. But, you know, Showtime is making moves. Yeah. Showtime is trying. I'm really looking forward to Ball Street from Showtime, which is the Andrew Rannels, Don Cheadle, Wall Street show set in the 80s

that David Caspby, who did Happy Endings, is writing? And what about, they have the Michelle Gondry, Jim Carrey show too, right? Yes, yeah, that too. I think Catherine Keener is in that as well. And my feeling is that that's why the Jim Carrey produced, I'm dying up here, got a second season, just to keep in business. But that's just my vibe, maybe because I'm just not feeling that show. So one other note, with two other notes and one segues into the other topic we wanted to talk about.

Coming, again, trust is a mini-series shepherded by Danny Boyle that tells the same story as all the money in the world, not the making of all the money in the world. There isn't a moment when Brendan Fraser is replaced by Christopher Plummer, but basically the same story, the same kidnapping, but this time drawn out in TV fashion. It's interesting. My thought was all the money in the world was going to do relatively well, and people wouldn't want another. You and I were like, oh, we should definitely hit all the money in the world, right? Yep, but just like all other movies that Hollywood puts out that aren't Star Wars, people aren't really interested in it. It doesn't seem to have made any significant cultural imprint whatsoever, right?

It seems like it's already gone now that it didn't win anything last night either, which maybe would have helped it. Concerns about the People v. O.J. when it came out because it was coming out the same year as I don't know if... If Paul Getty is that story? I don't know. Two bits of business that are, one, is not relevant from FX is that the Sons of Anarchy spin-off is coming. So we'll have to get shade back on the show to talk about that.

And then two Americans final season. It's my gift to you. It is my gift to you. All right. So let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsors and we're going to be back to talk about 911. Hey, guys. January means three things. Cold weather, the NFL playoffs, and The Bachelor.

The Ringer Podcast Network has responded by spinning off. Julia Lippon's Bachelor Party podcast into its own feed. Every Monday night, right after the show ends on ABC, we will post Juliet's breakdown of the latest episode. Juliet's guests include former bachelors like Ben Higgins, former contestants like Ashley I, The Ringer's Roger Sherman, and super fans like the sports gal. It is the most amazing and dramatic podcast journey you'll ever have.

Tell the bachelor superfan in your life to subscribe to Bachelor Party on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Art 19 SoundCloud, or wherever you get. your podcasts. Bottom line, are you in or are you out? Inter out of what? All right, Andy, we're doing a little bit of a, like not a rebuild, but a refresh on the concept of in or out. Longtime listeners will know that that was the way we like to talk about some of the

stuff in the news. We would say, are you in or out on Jeremy Runner's house flipping, et cetera. We would often. We were in. We would shatter the sort of concept of in or out, though, by not making it quick hits and getting distracted by talking about house flipping for 10 minutes, and then all of a sudden, Zach would be like, it's time to break from this.

So what we're going to do for In or Out now is there's so much new stuff coming out. There's so many shows. We're going to try and keep hitting a fair amount of them. But, you know, just like you, we have a limited amount of time, and we'll let you know whether we're still in or we're going to punch out on a show after we watch one or two episodes. So the first one we're doing is Ryan Murphy's 911,

which is on Fox. And it's a good show to evaluate in this way because it is very thirsty. It is a thirsty show that definitely wants to be, I think, a big deal show. It wants to have that attractive people doing idealistic things vibe of Grey's Anatomy from years ago that could become the sort of central,

like, yeah, man, everybody loves watching 911. And they spared no expense with the cast. Yeah, this show is kind of, we wanted to cover it, not because this is the kind of thing that we normally cover, but I find this show,

I find it fascinating. Ryan Murphy, obviously, fuels much of FX, has fueled much of FX's creative, um, uh, growth and expansion and a lot of its awards. So it makes sense that,

that the larger Fox at the company would look to him to save them in some capacity. It feels just like a big, juicy throwback because it's a procedural. It's, um, the budget seems very high. And as you said,

it's not just that the people are attractive because they are very attractive. But this show has big, big stars doing things. I kind of can't believe they were interested in doing when all, considering all of the work

that's available to talented TV actors in the day and age. And that actually, before we even get into criticizing the show, that speaks to the loyalty that Ryan Murphy seems to create with his troop of regulars,

you know, because people like working with him no matter what. I mean, Connie Britton is in the show and we're going to talk about it. Connie Britton was just thrilled to show up for people versus OJ, too, just to sort of lamp and Brent would for like two episodes, right? Right, right.

I think, so it starts Peter Krause, Connie Britton, Angela Bassett. Angela Bassett is in this show. Can we just take a moment? Yeah. It is so crazy to me that she is in this show. It's like watching Wayne Gretzky and Disney on ice. Like, what is the greatest ever to do it?

But what's Angela Bassett's Stanley Cup right now? Like, what is the thing that? Angela Bassett is walking away from to slum it with Ryan Murphy. I think it's the reverse of that. I think it's like Angela Bassett is like, cut the check, I'm on Fox on like, you know, in the middle of the week in prime time

in a show made by Ryan Murphy, this is a big deal for me. And since they do not make prestige dramas starring anybody over the age of 25 anymore, you know, I think that she's probably like, this is a good book for me. And I think Peter Krause is the same way. I mean,

I think what we want to talk about, though, is the way in which this show, which is Murphy has talked about, like he wanted to make a show about these first responders that had a real idea of, you know, compassion and goodness and the things that can still be thought of as ideals in this country is as a repost against the sort of the way that Trump has impacted the country. So out of that, you get these three main characters, Peter Kraus is a fireman or like a fire chief kind of for, you know, in charge of a station house who's a recovering addict. Connie Britton's got a mother with Alzheimer's and she is a 911 operator. And Angela Bassett, her husband has recently come out of the closet and she's got two kids and she is a police officer.

And they keep intersecting at different crisis points throughout and eerily abandoned Los Angeles with no traffic whatsoever. I appreciate the fact that people pull off the road in this town like nine. blocks in front of a fire truck when it comes, but it is pretty like, it is crystal clear sunny and there is not a single car in downtown Los Angeles, which is apparently where all the fires are happening. Like, it's one of the first shows I've watched as a transplant Angelino where I'm like, that's not, this is not close to downtown, wherever they are. Like, they've just driven past downtown.

And then it's got a real 80s vibe to it as well. Some of the bits that happen, like the hot young stud fireman who's named Buck, shout out to Ryan Murphy, who keeps taking his fire truck to go on Tinder dates, is like, that just, like, that dude would just be done. Like, it wouldn't be like, oh, you know, that's strike one against you. If you, can you imagine if there was just like a random fire truck in downtown Los Angeles with a fireman having sex in it? I mean, I know that a lot of these are based on real events, but I can't imagine that's it. What's really interesting to me is just to watch something in this time of niche television strive so, just take such strives to be populist entertainment. Yeah, and I don't want to dig it for that.

I mean, I've argued before, especially back in my full-time critiquing days, that, you know, if you consider a lot of the shows that we love to be like indie album. And I held up Empire as an example of that, which is just the biggest poppiest, noisiest, messiest, something in the larger, you know, in the larger culture. Not just something, frankly, on that show, everything. And I appreciated that for what it was. Collides with what broadcast TV has traditionally done, which has run the same thing for a long time, which means run into the ground. I mean, Empire worked when it worked best because it's in the beginning. And then you cannot maintain that level of insanity for multiple seasons,

although they're certainly trying to. It was hard for me to get through this episode because it felt so deeply backwards looking in a way that I found aggravated. In terms, in television terms. In television terms. It's not just that it was big-hearted or attempting to be big-tent positive about literal heroes in our midst, that I'm fine with that. What I, what drag to me is that in still in 2018, all of these big ticket broadcast shows,

it's as if they need to be run through some sort of out in the exposition. Yeah, and what's, what's, what's your emergency? You could say like my whole life is an emergency? Yes, and then just these other little ticks that I just can't believe are still happening in this day and age. which is you have a show

where much older people are writing dialogue for much younger people and they tried to make it a joke in this, but it doesn't matter if young Buck doesn't understone in 2018 where within 30 seconds there was a Rambo reference

and a Spacoli reference for someone smoking weed. It's like culture has advanced slightly since 1986. You know, we could probably come up with a more relevant way to joke about these people

that we pass on our way to saving baby stuck in pipes. Look, it is a big swing. And for me, the thing that, and by the way, in case you couldn't tell, I'm way, I'm wild out on the show. I hope these people are getting paid so much money to do this that they can afford to do. I actually have some bad news for you, Andy. They're not getting paid that much money because they spent it all on having anthropology

do the interior design for the firehouse. The firehouse is nicer than any fucking apartment I've ever been in, not lived in, bin in. It is so nice. Everything is just, it is like so refinished wood. They're making like this like huge Italian dinner for like each other. They're like, oh, make sure you get

some salad. It's like, who makes a salad? Come on. It's just like you guys are working under like the worst conditions and you probably just didn't pull a baby out of a pipe. Somebody in their guys are like, let's have Bukitini. The station master is AinaGarden. You know what I mean? Yeah, right. She's just like, Jeffrey, it's time to eat.

I'm serious. And that's, thank you for mentioning that, because that's the other thing that drives me crazy. It's just like, it's 2018, we can have a broadcast show where things, where it's not all aspirations. Yeah, it's 2018, not 2029. So when Connie Britton's just like, I'm triangulating the satellites over Los Angeles to find this kidnapped kid whose mom left her at home, even though she's like six. I just, and Angela Bassett is so ferocious.

I mean, she's just incredible on the show. And I think it's probably worth noting. one of the things that is that her husband, Courtney Vance, that's not saying she would only make decisions based on what her husband does, but obviously there's, again, there's that family feeling that Ryan Murphy seems to engender with actors that he works with, that allow them to trust him with large portions of their career. To me, the thing that is most interesting about this is this is this is a huge expensive swing.

They did not save money on any part of the show, nor did they intend to. The ratings were good. they were not 106 million people to watch the pilot, and it's now, I think, free on iTunes. The thing that's interesting to me, and this is the segue I wanted to make from TCA, is what is the future of this show, even if it's a hit?

This show comes from Fox Studios. Fox Studios is about to be sold to Disney. The show airs on Fox Network. Fox Network is going to remain part of News Corporation. It is now going to be this weird shadow entity, basically, that has no studio behind it. The biggest change in television for the last 15 years has been the trend towards, not just the trend towards the necessity of owning your own content.

That way you can profit off it from any point in the lifeline. If this just becomes a rental for Fox, it is a wildly expensive rental and one that honestly makes no sense for them, for them to basically be the theater that shows Disney properties want while Disney gets a profit off it in the afterlife ad and the item. So to see the show surviving the merger, even if it was going to, has to pony up and pay for this show because they want to keep it going.

Yeah, but it's not an FX show. If it's an FX show, the show starts with Peter Krause of doing a line and being like, I'm still a fireman. Exactly. Does this show pull a, wait for it, sneaky Pete, and become a cable show midway through its run? The answer to that is probably no, but the possibilities of that are kind of fascinating to me. I have to just say that based on the people that they got to do it,

I cannot imagine that a dark streaming version of this show is what interests Connie Britton, who was on a show on Nashville that was constantly under the threat of being canceled. Peter Krause, who's been on a bunch of cult hits and then since then has done a lot of shows that you're like, man, this guy's trying to be Ted Dantan. Like, this guy is trying to be like the center of a show that's wildly popular, whether it's the catch or parenthood or whatever. and Angela Bassett, who's probably like, you know, if you guys want to make a cool, interesting black woman LAPD show,

let's by all means do that. But that's not what this is. This seriously looks like, let's try 13 episodes, see if it clicks. If it becomes empire, if it becomes Grey's Anatomy from 10 years ago, then everybody's happy. And if it doesn't, we can all walk away with our dignity. One thing to look for is, is there a home for Big Ten, Big hearted shows outside of the network. I think that there should be. I think that for a while

USA was kind of making shows in the space. But you're right, this doesn't make sense for FX. Even if it was tabled up, the assumption would be that it would get darker. I would like to see a show that didn't get darker that just got smarter. But I think that leaves the show in kind of an uncanny valley between other networks and their agendas. The thing to keep an eye out for, I think, going forward is the type of show we're describing that is essentially an 80 show that everyone, not everyone, people who know who's Cicke and people who know who Spicoli and Rambo R grew up in love, there is a place for shows like that, and I believe that place in the near future will be a Netflix. Because I think that Netflix is positioning itself to cast TV now that it's ripped the

prestige television market. And one of Netflix's most powerful things, Amazon, too, is that they don't really have to be beholden to one demographic. In fact, Netflix's model seems to be, we will be everything to everyone at all time. Trust us, we have something for you. Please watch it. And whereas maybe the Disney deal will change it, but FF, which has gotten it this far, but it has limited it in terms of nothing on FX's as watched as The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones or NCIS New Orleans. Exactly.

But it is critically lauded. So 9-1-1, I'm glad we watched it because it is a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, tweener. And it speaks a lot about where it's a weird throwback. And it's kind of interesting to dip into that every once in a while. It seems like, you know, and I think what's fascinating about it is to see something that it was like, what if we took the procedurals, which are essentially the tendons and muscle of network television now anyway, with all the Chicago shows and even Good Doctor, which is a big hit, is essentially a medical procedural show, take, okay, we'll base all of these law and order style off of real

911 calls, and then you just add that degree of spit shine polish and Hollywood stardom. And we'll see if it connects, but I would be fascinated to see the first time Netflix goes in deep and is like Ted Danson and three other people starring as

public school teachers or doctors or whatever, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. This is a... Yes, absolutely. Okay. We'll be back on Thursday. We'll be talking about episodes four, five, and six of Dark,

and we'll have some other stuff for you until then. Can I say one thing about this? Sure. Chris, we have in the past assigned ourselves homework and assigned our viewers' listeners' homework because I think they should watch, you know? And I'm going to be fully honest with you. In the spirit of the new year, the spirit of me being on the phone

and probably sounding not ideal, forcing people to listen to me and my cell phone static more. Sometimes it felt a little bit like homework. Sometimes it does. Shouldn't it, but it does. Let me tell you something. That is not the case with Dark. your boy plowed through this week's assignment way early.

Congratulations. I am ready for the test. Check plus plus. I am all in on the show. You guys, this show really pops off in four, five, and six. Yeah, man. We have a lot to talk about. I can't wait.

So we'll talk about dark. We'll have some other stuff to chat about. Until then, thank you for listening. Great, great, great, great, great, great job and great cell phone reception for Anthony.