The Watch - ‘Shogun’ and ‘The Bear’ News, the Disney-Hulu-Max Bundle, and ‘Everybody’s in L.A.’

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

Chris and Andy remember the legendary engineer and producer Steve Albini, who passed away this week (1:00). They then talk of news that the third season of ‘The Bear’ will be out this June (13:25) and that ‘Shogun’ will be getting a second season (18:30). Next, they talk about Disney and Warner Bros. reaching a deal to offer a Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle (28:44), before diving into their new favorite delight on Netflix: John Mulaney’s quasi-late-night show, ‘Everybody’s in L.A.’ (36:33). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. I wanted to tell you about the launch of our new YouTube channel. It's called Ringer Movies. You can follow us right now on YouTube at Ringer Movies to get full video episodes of the rewatchables and the big picture. Plus, a lot of our archives with much more coming soon. To celebrate the launch, we're going live on Monday, May 13th at noon Pacific with our first ever live rewatchables with me and Sean Fennessee and Chris Ryan and Vian Lathen. Follow ringer movies on YouTube so you don't miss at YouTube.com slash ringer movies. Did you know about one and three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriotic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you?

Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Trimfaya, gusalcumab taken by injection, is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaques psoriasis, who may be. benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy and for adults with active psoriotic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine. Imagine being a million miles away.

Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimfaya. Tap this ad to learn more about Trimfaya, including important safety. information. This episode is brought to you by Brooks. Running connects us to a rush of energy that flows through our world. The cheers of friends that unlock a new gear within us, the intersection of interest that inspires a run crew, the support that gets you over the finish line. Connection is why we move forward and what inspires us to keep going. Let's run there. Learn more at brooksrunning.com. I need supports to have to clear the run. Stand up and walk.

Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at the ringer.com. And joining me in the studio, there's no lag to his jets. It's Andy Greenwald! What a treat. T-G-I-F. We're back in the United States.

It seems like things are going great here, Greenwald. It's great to see you. Can we turn this plane around? Man, we wanted to just do a we're back episode. We were going to wait. I was going to wait. I was going to wait. Here's the thing you guys need to understand.

Chris really wanted to wait. Chris had a lot of really compelling reasons why there should be no The Watch this week. Not for me. No, I know. I need my... You know what? I'm like a baseball player.

Like, I need my A-Bs. I need to stay in rhythm. Or else the whole thing will fall for it. You're Verlander. Yeah. You just got to get up there and you got to have a session, just a long toss, whatever it is. I thought you meant because I'm still elite this late into my career.

Greenwald, today we are just going to really do a run-through of some stuff over the last couple of days that we've missed. As you may or may not know, Andy and I have been joined at the hip across the globe for the last couple weeks. We went to Norway and participated in the Nordic Media Days Conference in Bergen, Norway. It was idyllic. It was amazing. Well, maybe we can do our travelogue towards the end, but then we spent a little time in London together, which was incredible. This was very meaningful. You know, we've known each other for 28 years. We've never traveled internationally. In theory, we bought a lot of NME and melody makers, so I think we traveled internationally, like, psychically. We contributed to the NHS in a robust way. I have negotiated it so that I have a higher tax rate to prop up English real system. But we'd never, what was the term you used, knees up? We never had a knees up. We never went on the piss, you know. But we didn't really this time either because we were constantly in motion and being dragged to airports at 4 in the morning. And we took some boats.

We did. We did. We'll talk about it in a bit. So today, we're going to talk a little bit about Steve Albini, who passed away this week's very, very sad about that. We've got some Bear and Shogun news, a little bit of talk about the Max and Disney bundle, and then a show that has delighted both of us in our absence, which is John Mullaney's, everybody's in L.A. on Netflix this week. So we'll do that. For folks wondering, I think we're going to hold Ripley for next week. Andy did finish it. Yeah, I crushed a lot of Ripley tape on my first. flight back. It was, you know, a easy, breezy 11 hours in the air. And Robert Ellsbett thanks you for finding the proper screen for his cinematography. Listen, here's the thing I will say.

You know how we've discussed, and I think people know this, that generally, like, your mood and emotions are a little bit different in the air. You, for example, weep when you watch airplane movies, but not on the ground. You're famously stoic. I found... I cried two times during Asteroid City on the plane. Did you? I'd like to know which parts. Ripley, especially episode 6, is the most excruciating airplane watch of my life. But God damn, that's a masterpiece of a show. I can't wait to talk about it.

Should we start with Albini and get some of the sad stuff out of the way? So look, for people who don't know, Steve Albini was a Chicago recording engineer. He passed away this week, died of a heart attack at the young age of 61. He has engineered, and I specifically say engineered because he really did not like the term producer. He thought of himself very much as a craftsman, as a person who worked with his hands and his head and his ears and his heart. He engineered some of the most distinctive rock records the last four years. In Utero by Nirvana, Soferroza, by the Pixies, Pod by the Breeders, Rid of Me by PJ Harvey, records for Songs, Ohio, and then countless albums for local Chicago.

bands and national underground rock bands like Silkworm, Jesus Lizard, Don Cab, Cloud Nothings. Like the list is literally almost endless. And there are a bunch of records that he did that I love like Transaction DeNovo by Bedhead where it just says recorded in Chicago. And if you know, you know, you know what I mean? Like that he's that he's the engineer on those. He did probably more than anyone I can think of to shape my idea.

of what was possible inside of the studio, which is sort of strange because he, unlike George Martin or Brian Wilson or Jeff Lynn or producer, whoever, Brian Eno, believed in recording the band as he found them and as they were. He was really like he's a master of capturing what these instruments and these people sounded like in a room together and had such a distinctive drum sound,

such a distinctive way of recording distorted guitars. And I'm very melancholy about this. You know, like, I've been thinking a lot recently about how much time I devote in my life to talking about and thinking about, like, mass mega corporations and their content wares. And I feel very far away from the person I was in the 1990s for better and for worse.

But in a lot of ways, like, he had been, a very formative figure in my life about doing things in an ethical way, doing things yourself, not caring about whether or not like mainstream culture accepted what you were doing, and doing things because you felt like you had to and you wanted to and because you felt like the community that came out of art was important. And I feel like the community I'm a part of, even just figuratively is like, is worse off today than it was. Yeah, I think it's people are, I mean, it was stunning. I was stunned. And not just because I'm not kidding, days ago I read this profile that Jeremy Gordon wrote for The Guardian on Steve Albini from last year. That is an incredibly

compelling and really moving portrait of a guy who never stopped moving, both in terms of like with his hands and his ears, as you're saying, he was working at his studio, electrical audio until the moment that he passed away, answering the phone himself, right? And working with almost anyone who wanted to book time to record something in his room. But particularly also someone who was always moving in terms of his sensibilities and his mind and his heart. I feel like for people who are younger than us, even people who are aware of Steve Albini role in the world, I don't know if they realize what a powerful, charismatic, and controversial figure he was for all of us. even as someone who, and I don't think anyone will be surprised when I confess this,

I did not ever listen to his bands. I was not a Shalak guy or a big black guy. I have many friends, including you who did and got into that, but that was not my type of music ever. His aggression on record was matched by his aggression with a pen, famous for these lists outrageous screeds and Jeremiahads about what was ethical, what was good, very famously dismissive of, a lot of music is in the line with his values.

And also really, especially in the 90s, really button pushing and provocative in ways that were both occasionally funny and also I think occasionally the term we would use now is problematic. And what I found so, so moving about this profile and about the presence that he was in the world with less attention on him in the last 20 years was the evolution. I don't know if you feel the same way, But as we get older, the thing that really, really resonates with me is when people talk about changing and changing their minds.

When you're young, whether you're a punk or not, that's a sign of weakness. But as you get older, you realize that's probably the most powerful thing that any of us can ever do. And he was so eloquent about things that he had said and how he felt about them now and what sort of account he should be held for and what he actually valued. And I just was stunned, you know, to read those words, they were very moving. and then for him to his passing was was really shocking. A lot of people, his contemporaries, have written these beautiful things about him. His friends have written beautiful things about him. He's a very private person, I guess, except to the people whom he loved.

But like just even just this morning, I was reading Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth with this long thing about meeting him in the early 80s and falling out when Sonic Youth signed to a major label. Yeah. And then just kind of knowing each other, but not being close. And the way he talked about, like, Albini's heart just reminding me of like how, something a therapist said years ago, which is just that, like hatred and love are connected because they both bind you to something. And you can't be as angry as he was without being open-hearted, if that makes sense. I mean, if you were on the receiving end of it 20 or 30 years ago, you might disagree with me. But the evolution suggests that he was so upset because he loved things so much. Yeah. And I think he believed that major labels and

corporate America really was out to destroy something very, very precious to him. And that their relationship to music was inherently poisoned. Yeah. For him to pass away in the day of that Apple commercial feels particularly... It's a little bit overly poignant. resonant. You mentioned some... Can I throw a few records at you?

Sure, man. I would be remiss if we didn't mention a record that bound us together as friends very early on in 1996, which was his production on Bush's razor blade suitcase. We were two people that he probably would have deeply resented. But we liked...

Look, in 1995, we were like, Viva Les Blues by Palace is incredible. Yeah. As it is, he recorded that. We didn't know each other then. And the next year, when Bush, who were sort of, you know, like clown Nirvana, basically, but at least that's how they're presented and received, you know, that first record has some fucking bangers on it. To get cred, and maybe because Gavin Rostale just wanted to work with one of his own heroes, they went to Chicago and they made this follow-up record and swallowed owns.

That was a big, big track for us. he worked a lot with David Gedge from the wedding present later in Cinerama and loved those records after murder park by the Autors was one of my favorite records from that period and then also what's crazy is he was so anti-ego

right that like if it wasn't working or if someone didn't there are a lot of examples in his discography of like he recorded it but then they went in a different direction and they re-recorded it and he was fine he famously didn't take royalties on in utero because he knew that they were going to get it remixed by Chris Lord Algin

move on from it. But he recorded No Pocky for Kitty by Superchunk, even though his name's not on it. He recorded much of Under the Bushes Under the Stars by God about voices. There's like a section of Under the Bushes that he recorded. Two tracks. Like him and Kim Deal,

we're going to do the whole thing. It's a kind of a reckoning moment. He's older than us by, you know, what, 14, 15 years, but it's kind of a very strange reckoning moment for a generation. It's really, it's really strange. It's a really strange feeling because it's also like there's an element to what he does. We were kind of going on about it, but like, you know, like when you see a documentary about

like folk artists and you're like, if they die, like this dies with them. Yeah. You know, there's only like three people in the world who know how to make a chair this way. And I don't think that that's necessarily the case with Albini, but I don't, I don't know that it's not. Like, I don't know, you can't replicate whatever it is that he did. He, and he probably reject any kind of idea of authorship or tourism when it came to be an engineer. But he had a very distinctive signature sound just by way of like

this is where I put the microphone to record drums. You know, and when you hear the drums come in on Pool House Blue by 18th Die, which is like this Danish glacial like kind of slow rock band. They're just like, those are fucking Albany drums. Like you can hear them from across the room your head would snap

and just be like, oh my God. So yeah, I mean, we can maybe put together a playlist and put it up, It's... It's especially just, you know, just a lot of love for his friends and family and coworkers because the outpouring of personal anecdotes that were private for a reason up until now has just been really overwhelming. And I think, again, the other thing about getting older is that, like, that hits more even... It's harder than those drums, honestly, that he was this good of a friend to so many people.

Let's move on to somewhat more lighthearted news. So two things from FX, FX Network. We got a bear teaser today. shout out to our guy Chris. I wonder whether or not he listened to Risky Business Rwatchables recently. It was like, that music is really good because the Risky Business Tandrine Dream score soundtracks the Bear teaser, which is Car Me Alone in the restaurant and a pullback shot over Chicago. It gave me some juice this morning when I needed it after waking up at 3 and 6.

Okay, first of all, waking up again at 6 suggests you fell back asleep. I'm rocking a 3.30 wake up. Well, I did the split the melatonin in half and come back for the second half when I shot up like a dart at 3.30 in the morning. See, I'm just, I think I dropped the melatonin too soon. Yeah. Meaning I just took it before we started recording. So get ready. I thought you were going to shout out Jeremy Allen White's Instagram account, by the way.

Oh, was he the one who posted it? Yes. Can we just say, and we say it a lot, and we'll say it again when the show premieres, that what they are doing is insane. Shows don't do this anymore and certainly shows with the ambition and success, both the success that it's achieved and the success expectation as the bear, do not do this. The show is coming back June 27th with the entire season. For the last three years, Chris Storr and his team have gone to Chicago in February. to make a season of television, and they've had it on the air. By the end of June.

By the end of June. Yeah. That is fucking nuts. We have no reason to expect anything other than greatness because this show is truly, truly great. And it's exciting. I asked you over text this morning if you had seen this UK show slash movie Boiling Point,

which came out a few years ago. And I had not seen the movie. I did see the movie, yeah. And the movie, I'm bringing this up because there's relevance here, but I hope. So it's a single shot, stress ball. If I remember correctly, it's something like, yeah.

It's close to, or at least maybe some trickery. Stephen Graham is this chef who is under a lot of stress, both in his professional and personal life, and is the classic hard charging, screaming at the line, kind of old school chef. And I think he has either a critic in the restaurant that night or some kind of like really crucial evening for his restaurant. Yeah, and I had, I should have seen this. It sounded familiar once I was checking it out, but on the plane back, in addition to Ripley, I watched the first episode of the TV series,

which came out like in a binge drop last year on, is it ITV? And they made four episodes, the creative team of the movie, and everyone from the movie is back, including Stephen Graham. But in a supporting role this time. And the first,

the beginning of the show is also a one shot before it breaks into a more standard thing. And I'm not bringing it up to like dump on it. I thought it was good. I thought it was good. And maybe it gets better over the four episodes. But I have to say, I watched it the day before this bear teaser came out. And I was struck, if there are two shows about dining, but only one is eating the other's lunch.

In that the point of drama in Boiling Point were so, we're kind of predictable, but it was like geared up in a way that we're now familiar with in the kitchen, right? Where it's like, this is a sporting match and pressure's on. I think Boiling Point, for what it's worth, did precede the bear. But I'm saying the bear came in in between the bear. movie and the series. And the thing about the bear that I find incredible and that separates it. And maybe it's also why restaurant stuff has always been so hard for these networks to crack is the bear is making a case for why people would want this structure in their life where a boiling point begins from a place of this is mental in it. Like this is a crazy thing to be doing with our

time in honestly, at least the first episode, pretty predictable ways. Drugs and drink for one person, family health getting in the way investors, people not being good enough, it's taking like a top-down approach and the bear does so amazingly as it's going in through the psychology of these characters and making us understand why they would submit to such an insane way of life.

Yeah, I... I could be wrong, by the way. I watch one. So you could be writing me. I think that's a really good comparison. I mean, I think that the bear is like, it's funny, it'll be interesting to see the bear deal with

a level of expectations that I don't even think it was on season two. And it'll also be really fascinating to see people process the show as this binge drop. I think FX has their reasons

for everything that they do and there must be data that suggests that this is the way that people want to consume this show in... For sure they have that, yeah. ...foraciously. But after coming out of Shogun

and seeing Shogun run shit for two months, I'm disappointed that we're going to have to crush the bear over a weekend or fake parcel it out over the course of three weeks and pretend like we don't know what's going to happen at the end or something. I agree. It is disappointing. Speaking of FX and speaking of Shogun, Shogun's coming back. Yeah, we kind of predicted this. Yeah, I mean, I think that the way that the season ended with

the flash forward stuff with Blackthorn and him having this life, obviously, that in some ways, if it wasn't coming back, I would say, what a brave and interesting way to kind of suggest where this guy goes? Well, let's frame it. It's not officially coming back. Okay. But all signs are pointing toward. So I didn't want to cut you off your point because you're right.

It does absolutely retroactively change, potentially change our reading of the finale, which I think we were struck by because it was very elliptical and open-ended and kind of vague. And I believe Justin and Rachel, when they came on this podcast and said to us, as they've said to many other people, No, no, this was five years of our life.

We started this with zero kids. Now we have two kids. Like, we're good. But success has a funny way of making people reconsider those sorts of things. So the two crucial points that came across the transom today are FX has a critical decision to make. Are they going to submit this show as miniseries for the Emmys? Limited anthology or whatever. In which case, it will likely clean up.

Or are they going to submit it as drama series? And because of the strike delays to things, that race is. is kind of wide open. So the next step, at least in terms of their priority list, much like the way the Eagles needed to address the secondary on the first two days of the draft, they had to sign Hirouki Sonata, who played Toranauga, to do the show again.

Not only because he's the star, but he's also an executive producer and kind of the wind beneath the show's wings. Like he adds the gravitas. Like on set conductor of the orchestra, it sounds like in a lot of ways, not to take anything away from the contributions of other people, but he's adjusting people's posture and their hand gestures and stuff like that.

So what we can take away from this is it's real serious. And I think you and I agree that like they're probably going to do more. But I did think that maybe more wouldn't necessarily be. And now Tornaga's next steps towards becoming Shoggan. I did think they might get a little more creative with flashbacks or, you know. Yeah, I mean the, the thing to consider, and I'm not, this is not concerned trolling. It's just like a lot of the things. things that people loved about this show, or at least two major characters that people loved in this show, and a Sawai

primary among them, unless it is a flashback or prequel or something, which would then take Blackthorn out of it, it'll not feature Mariko, you know, and it won't feature Yabashige. So, that's tough, but other shows have moved on

from characters like that, Game of Thrones principally. Yeah, does it change? What is it, does it do anything? We shouldn't get far ahead of ourselves until they're like, Shogun Season 2 is coming in 2025, but... Do you think it's the good kind of heat check

where they're like, we found, I mean, found these people have had careers, but like we we wrote the show and Anna Soai was there for us to cast. Tadanovo Asano was there for us to cast. Is it a good kind of heat check for them to be like, we'll find more? I'd like, we'll find more breakout people, we'll write roles to actors

that we had in mind and we can do this again. Yeah, I don't think, I mean, so I think the thing that's probably looming larger is just it's going to be presumably off book. And that is that is literally uncharted territory for this story. There's historical parallels in Japanese history that they can draw from. But I was thinking about this too because they also announced, Warner Brothers announced that they are moving forward with the first of a new batch of Lord of the Rings movies. And this one is called The Hunt for Gallum. Yes. which is good because I was always

I was always kind of wondering when they were going to hunt that guy down. I hope they start their search at the bottom of a volcano. But Andy Circus is directing and returning as Gallum and Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh and everybody are kind of like back on the producing side of things. And that's not Tolkien, dog.

By the way, I did want to just note, James Clavel did write two more books set in Japan, but there's quite a time jump. Yeah. Tai Pan is set in the I believe in the 19th century. So unless it's real, real, real old Torana. Well, they could do anthology. They could.

But so then is Toranaata not the star? Is he like looking over it and not, I don't know. But they could bring Hiroyuki Sonata into a different role. Oh, potential. Oh, anthology like that. Yes. But I wonder. People from those cats.

I mean, they could bring NSAW back in that case, right? Yes. So this is like, I'm trying to think of. Damn. This is, look, you see, Jetlag Brain produces some real juicy. Okay, but you want to talk about the... What would Steve Albini think of the Lord of the Rings universe expansion? I think we all know.

I don't know what to say about this. Are you fucking pumped for the animated Roheerum movie? I'm just... Those are the horse ladies? Yeah, man. The Horse Maiden of Rowan. I mean, those are some powerful horse ladies. I am not a Rings guy.

Yeah. Never... I'm not a ring chaser. You know what he means? I'm not about Rings culture. Never have been, clearly. coming from Philadelphia, it's never been in my nature. I don't, this is, I'm joking about Albini, but at the same time, I'm like, yeah, if you're David Zazlev, like, this is what you probably should do. If you control this stuff, like, and Peter Jackson wants to play more and you want to pay him more, like, this is the kind of thing that makes investors happy.

Like, when he took over, he went to J.K. Rowling. He's going to Peter Jackson. He's like, let's get these furnaces going again and produce more content for us. that's good business management. I don't know how much meat is left on those orc bones. I don't really care, to be honest. But also there's this TV show thing, which continues. Rings of power. The rings of power. Some people like it.

It's just... It's not your jam. It's not my jam, but, like, what was unsaid about Gallum? Well, that's my thing. It's, like, truly a pretty unambiguous end for that guy. So I obviously must take place in between some movie. you know, or like off to the side. And I'm trying to think of when he would have been hunted.

Is it the Rosencrensen Gildenstern are dead of Middle Earth? I mean, I was even thinking like, I was like, is there some way to like shoehorn the Beatles in here for Peter Jackson? Look, but okay, but for real, though, we're talking about aging a lot in this podcast. Like, do you feel any kinship to a guy being like, I like what I like? Do you know what I mean? For sure. Yeah, I'm fucking there.

I went to foils. the bookstore in London and I was like I am going to read this Will Self book called Umbrella Will Self is a sort of beloved

if edgy British author I was a huge fan of like his early stuff like my idea of fun and what was a short story collection I can't remember

the rock of crack as big as Ritz is the one that I was particularly moved by and I picked up umbrella and I started reading it and it is, I would say Joyceian in its intent.

It's like very modernist and it's like told it's inside this person's brain. And I was like, I just don't know if I'm intelligent enough to read this anymore. Like there was a moment. Yeah. And I think like I do have to come to terms with some, basically I like what I like, you know?

And I don't know if I have like the brain power anymore to like push myself in certain ways. Now I don't say that's what's happening to Peter Jackson. but I empathize with him being like, you know what works for me? Living in New Zealand,

having like a world famous top of the line special effects company under my wing and pumping out these golem hunts. Yeah, but also like just Ringo and John Paul George and the lads. He loves that too. Yeah. It's convenient for him that the two things he likes

are incredibly popular. It has really worked out for him. He's not like, I really like Shalak and... Thank you. He doesn't know about podcasting. It can pay off. This makes this, did you watch the, the Coppola trailer, Megalopolis trailer?

Yeah. So it does put me in the mind of it. Like, far be it from us to pit to older, obviously disparity in their age, but older lauded white male directors against each other. But never. Never that. Not at the ringer. Never. But I was moved by it by that trailer.

Like I have to say. By the Megalopolis trailer. Yeah. He steps out and he's just like. First of all, it's cool. Yeah. But more than anything... You see Inception?

I'm just joking. Francis Ford, Go do it, man. Listen, here's what I'm... The movie could be a disaster. We don't know. And the early word is not super positive. It's going to be at Cannes later this month, right? Along with Kevin Costner's Horizon.

So we each have our own epic there. We like what we like. But I'm saying, like, our guy is 85 years old. Yeah. And he was just like, You know what? I'm going to risk it all. Like, I'm just going to take all the wine money and I'm going to make this movie because fuck it. He's like the last check I write is going to bounce, dog.

Yes. Yeah. Yes. He's like, that's where I want to be. I'm just saying it is, I feel like sometimes we're just, we're not we, but like, let's take a step back and just be like, this guy just really likes directing movies. He's like, that's what I mean? And I think it's pretty cool. When he's that old, he's just like, I don't, this is what the money was for.

and Sophia's like, all of the money? Because these, because Phoenix tour dates, you know. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it does seem. Prima Vera only happens once a year. It is funny considering that like, that like Priscilla did seem to fully run out of money 30 minutes into it. Did you watch that on the plane?

No, you know I watched it. You dragged me quite hard when last year. When I was like, movie check in and you were like, yes, have you seen the group? biggest films of the year. And I was like, I have seen Priscilla in theaters. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Ever have a plan come together out of nowhere and realize you're missing something? Like a last minute beach day, a spontaneous hike or an outdoor movie night you didn't plan for. That's when Prime's same day delivery as you're back. Getting you exactly what you need fast and reliably so you can actually join the moment

instead of watching from the sidelines. Same day delivery. It's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com slash prime to find millions of items delivered fast. Available in select areas. Terms apply. 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. Offered by Fandual Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant. 18 plus. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. This episode is brought to you by the Active Cash Credit Card from Wells Fargo. That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it, big or small. So whether it's buying tickets at the game or grabbing a coffee,

it earns unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases. Say it with me. The Active Cash Credit Card from Wells Fargo, be a 2%er. learn more at Wells Fargo.com forward slash active cash terms apply. Hey, speaking of Warner Brothers. Oh, okay.

They are joining forces with the Mouse House with Disney to offer, or actually I'm phrasing this wrong, to offer a bundle of Max and Disney Plus, but when I say they, I actually mean Disney.

So in a way, so this was announced that there's going to be bundled service, the New York Times wrote an article where it was like, you know, perhaps in an acknowledgement that the tides of Netflix are growing too strong to

go alone, these two companies are going to make an offering where it's like you can basically pay a monthly fee for Disney Plus and and Max. And I thought that was really interesting. And then the second day reporting or the secondary reporting from CNBC and then Matt

Bellany highlighted this in what I'm hearing in his newsletter was, is this is actually like kind of, kind of Zaz bending the knee a little bit where Disney is going to run this bundle. They will have the relationship with the customers. I think they will handle like the distribution of this bundle and stuff. And this is this is Max being like we need to get,

we need to get in front of more eyes. Yes. And the best way to do that is with Disney. This will be another Disney bundle basically because right now they offer one for their own. Now I don't think Max programming is going to show up inside of Disney Plus. But you, like, I'm sure everybody, and I know that you and I have spent a hilariously long amount of time talking about how many different accounts we have with Disney going back from working for Disney, which is hysterical. Actually, going back to the friend of a friend who gave me a login so I could read Jason Stark's baseball columns in the late 90s. I still have, I think, shout out to Andrew Sharp.

I still think I have his ESPN plus login. there are, I was just going through this the other day. It's like, I'm almost terrified to do the thing where you check your subscriptions that you're paying. Oh, like how much you might be paying? Because I think I might be paying for Disney twice a month, like easily. And they still shut Grantland down? Jeez.

This is me paying them back. That's outrageous. This is me paying them back for sending me to England once. So I basically, I think this is interesting. I think this is this is where we're going. If we ever had any dream about like, you know,

immaculately curated, bespoke services that spoke directly to your sensibilities and that you would have this sort of like, you know what, I really just think that the Max Corporation makes the right choices. And I'll just pay $15.99 a month

for my entertainment. Like, and be gone, cable. Yeah. We're back. We're fucking back at $250 a month. We're back at how many different services I signed up for. We're back at where do I find hacks? Is it on Disney now? Like, it were at Max confusion. We're at max, like, they're putting all of the cost back on the customer

now after years of like, oh, let's, let's beck it you in with a $5.99 for a year off. The cost is real. Yeah. For sure. I have to admit, I mean, maybe this is, I was going to say, I was going to say this is one of the oldest things about me, but I think I've listened to this podcast so far. So it's definitely not. But, but, I have, but I have, I have to listen to this podcast so far. so it's definitely not. But like I found this was, I thought this made me feel relief, honestly.

Interesting. Like, it's so stupid out there. It's so stupid out there. Like I would much rather have one bill for all of these things instead of micromanaging them across different, like different services, different passwords,

different screens. I don't know if I'm unique in that. But I think the real thing that this is also telling us is, you're not unique in that. And I also just want to hold. for the 40 minutes of the first round of the NFL draft where you were texting me relentlessly being like, why can't I watch the NFL draft?

Well, because it was on the next night. No, the night it was on. And you were like, I don't have ESPN now. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, because I spent the day that it wasn't on signing up for what I thought was the television network ESPN. Yeah.

But instead, it was just a second subscription to the extra content on the website. Yeah. which I think I have now for 14 more days. So let me know if you want me to share some of Barnwell's insights into weird some losers. But the other thing that I think this is combating, I mean, it's two things. You're right to say, you know, everybody is quaking in the shadow of Netflix, in the shadow of just the sheer money that Amazon and Apple can spend, which isn't separate apart from the fact that like Amazon is giving you the TV shows.

you get the free shipping, which is separate from the fact that if you buy a new device, including this great new iPad Pro, which I feel like is really in step with the times culturally. People are fired up from it. You get the TV for free for a number of months, but they can give it away because their economics are different. The other thing that linking your service to other services in a bundle will hopefully combat is the churn, right? Because it's a real, real thing that people are signing up for services for a show, for a event, and that will be harder to do. I assume that's next.

It's like after the password sharing crackdown, I think the next thing will be year-long contracts. Oh, but I just mean the bundling is, I think, a pretty savvy hedge against that. It is, but, like, I have no reason to think. I'm sure that the bundle will be offered at a relatively attractive opening rate, and then two years from now we're like,

oh, I'm paying $40 a month for this. You know what I mean? It's the same thing that happened with Hulu. It's the same thing that's happened with all of these services. It's the same thing now where I'm like, oh, look at that. I just started paying $3 so that I don't have to watch ads on Amazon, like extra on top of the prime fee, you know? I, as people who've been listening to this podcast for 30 plus minutes, no,

I recently came back from the United Kingdom. The best thing that I saw there, no lie, was just turning on the hotel TV and seeing Jamie Oliver's, Jamie's Springtime, which is just... Is he out in his farmhouse? He's in his farmhouse. He's just whacking away at some veg, you know, tossing some... stuff in the oven. First of all, shout out to people who grow and change over a time. He's really

good on TV now. His whole thing is... Was he not? No, he was always good, but like it was sort of cheeky, right? They were like, the naked chef, like, because he's young and hot and likes Britpop, and they put him on TV even though he was like the number two at a restaurant once. And he's sort of grown into this role, and he's always good on TV,

but I feel like he has some more gravitas now. But delightful, delightful program. It was really calming. Cooking was good. Big fan of England in the springtime. and came back, and I was like, I think I'd like to wind down with a little more of that. Maybe Jamie Summer.

I don't know what's available. First of all, none of it's available. But what is available? Yeah, and these shows, because I think they're just actually still Sunday night shows in the UK. But I did see a couple when I searched in the Apple TV,

and it was like, just use your Britbox. And I was like, oh, okay, I remember a Britbox. And it was like, use your login. I was like, log in. They were like, you have to change your password. I'll do it. Do me a couple tries, couple screens, only to say, great,

would you like to spend $9 a month for this service or just pay us $140 for the year? And thus ended Jamie Springtime. Sorry. Like that was a London bridge too far. The reason this bundle is the sort of takeaway for me here is that it's not a move out of, it's not strictly a move out of fear,

but I do think that, This is obviously a salvo at Netflix. This is like we have to retrench. It's basically live together or die alone out here. Yeah, it's the race for number two. And Netflix are currently in a situation or a position where, obviously, they have hundreds of millions of global subscribers. They can do something as expensive as three-body problem and see it,

I think, at least to my mind, kind of come and go. Yeah. We remarked on it and people remarked on it, but I don't think it was anywhere near the sensation, say, the baby reindeer was. And what a little treat for Netflix, baby reindeer's on Netflix, you know? Yeah, so you say they have it both ways.

I just, like, just in the last two or three weeks, baby reindeer and the sensation that that was, the Tom Brady roast, which came out of nowhere and seemed to, like, completely run popular culture for two or three days. And, you know, for my purposes, like Ripley's the best thing I've seen this year. They had that.

The amount of other stuff that we're not even mentioning. And then we get to this fucking Mullaney show where they just do a pop-up talk show with John Mullaney live, which is a huge part of their new effort to get into live programming. And there's rumors that they're going to have two NFL Christmas games on Netflix.

But this Malini show was basically a side car content for the Netflix as a joke festival that's in Los Angeles. And it is awesome. It is so good. And I was just like, you know, like this, these guys can kind of afford to fuck around. They can, they have so much stuff going at any given time. I really do not want to come off like some sort of Netflix stand.

I'm just saying like, I was sort of in awe of like everything that was going on if you open up the Netflix page from the barrage of true crime and seven-year-old. action movies that are in the charts to the series that they have for offer from something as high end as Ripley to as low end as like the circle or whatever. And then on top of it, this variety show that Malaney pulled off that I'm kind of like, is in some ways it's like almost like the TV event of the year to me that he did this. Yeah, I want to talk about the show in specific, but I think you're making a really good point and an important point about something that Netflix has done really successfully,

which is begin to change the perception of it from a static button to a lively window. And they're not doing this for us and our demographic, but we have in various ways over the past few years bemoaned the feeling of the loss of a sense of not just shared experience, but of some sort of dynamism of being surprised in when we seek out our content, of basically turning on the TV.

it will surprise no one to know that I'm a big fan of Criterion Channel's new 24-7, yeah, 24-7, where if you turn on, you have their app or if you're a subscriber, there's a button where they're just showing movies from their collection and turn it on the other day and Lost Highway was on. Turn it on another day, there was a Felini movie on.

And... Turn to classic movies is like, hello. Yeah, we've been here the whole time. This entire time, that's what happens. Mary Stewart-Mash is at the end of... Some kind of wonderful, yeah. The problem with the Criterion one is you don't know what it is. Yeah, you have to go to a different,

website to be like, what is the movie we're showing? We are down so bad. I know. We've really fucked up. But changing that on Netflix, you know, in a way, it's like the culmination of a process. And you and I are big UX experts, so we know about this. But like the culmination of a process that began with the auto play of the trailers when you're on it, this seems like a pretty smart and successful turn for them.

The other thing that's successful before we get into the specifics of the show, which I think is an absolute triumph and would be, I've only watched, I think, three, They're going to be six. The last one is tonight. Yeah, I watched the first one, and then I watched last night's because Wayne Grow from Heat was in it. You had to. This might be on my top 10 of the year.

What you kind of want to see, or at least what I want to see, is this new generation of media titans trusting talent more. You see it, you know, to the degree that we can see things on the screen when stuff is clearly either noted or ignored to death, and you can just sort of feel the way,

the way the development process works. And there's a lot of that on Netflix. That's what I mean. More than, you know, I mean, Ripley's a funny example. That was bought when it was done. It was developed somewhere else in a more traditional,

I mean, traditional the sense that Steve's alien was like, going to Italy, see you in 10 months. P.S. shooting in black and white. And they were like, what? He's like, sorry, I don't even dare you.

I'll tell you later. The phone servers. It's very bad here. Oh. No, but there is a palpable difference that I think even the layman consumer can pick up on between a show that was developed at HBO and a show that was developed at Apple or developed at Netflix. The thing that these big streamers tend to be is extremely risk-averse.

And there are a few things riskier than just trusting talent and trusting creativity. And the fact that they seemingly blank-checked Mullaney to be like, you got this, you got this. We trust you. This is important to our overall live brand or our comedy festival or whatever is, in its own cynical, corporatist way, kind of affirming. Like, I would like to see more of that. But mainly, I cannot fucking believe this show exists. It is so, so funny. It is so specific.

It is so weird. Yeah. It makes me so purely happy. I'm treasuring. You can't really underestimate the hold that Letterman, Conan, to some extent, Carson has over, like, this, like, I guess our generation, but for people who are younger than us, they are like,

why would I watch a late night show or who cares about this? And, you know, lots and lots of people have tried this. And we actually had a lot of fun when Adam Pally and Ben Schwartz did this with the late, late show one year. For like one night.

They were doing guest hosts and they were there for like an epic blizzard. So like, I think it was basically like the two of them in the studio with like the camera guy laughing. That was a great night. The idea of recreating that campfire comedy campfire thing where like at 1130 everybody's like going to be a little toasted

they're going to bed whatever and the last thing that they're watching is this talk show and Netflix has tried to crack this several times you know like networks are continuing I mean this is like they're they're able to usually pull these off with it's not super expensive to make them I think they do relatively well it's it's reliable programming you know the idea of like how do you find one person that everybody wants to kind of watch and do this, but especially the idea that you would have a Letterman figure who's, like, so influential on a generation, generations of comics since then. And I felt like watching this Malini thing, like how Bill must have felt watching early Letterman, you know? And I don't want to get ahead of myself. There was definitely some like wonky

moments and it's, it's live. We haven't said the name of it. It's called Everybody's in LA. I said it. You did? I did say it. Kai, did he say it. This fucking guy. I think the reason why it's successful is because it is a very 2024 execution of this, which is we're going to make six of these. Let's see how they go. And I don't want to do this forever. I don't want to work 40 weeks a year or whatever.

I want to do like six of these. And it's obviously very good. You can definitely say they could do it everybody's in New York or everybody's in Chicago or everybody's in Miami or everybody's in Austin. Like he can keep doing these. they could reconceive of it. But it is like from the moment the To Live and Die in LA music comes on to the Richard

Kind playing the Ed McMahon character to the guests that they get and how disruptive. And like the guests are all like, what are we doing here? You know, like. It's so. I mean, and you just get like six Malaney monologues, you know, in succession there. It breaks the mold and it recapture something at the same time. Late night shows. right now, and they're good ones.

Like, in fact, none of them are bad, particularly, depending on your taste for Fallon. Like, they all accomplish, they're pretty distinct in their way, and they accomplish what they sit out for. Like, I think, you know, I think Kimmel is a world-class host at this point. I think Colbert is, you know, a great interviewer. I think Fallon is enthusiastic. I think Seth Myers is probably my favorite in the bunch, just because I think he's funniest and he's found a way to kind of make it a little more thoughtful in between the margins.

But you know what's funny is that all of, yeah. I don't mean to interrupt you, but, like, For some reason, all of those people, I could consume now almost entirely through clips. Right. Because I would watch this. I don't want to, I don't want clips of this. Yes, those are talk shows. And they are essentially, they do their best, but they are within the wheel of promotion. They are dependent on studios making their talent available to promote something in a timely fashion. And that's the extent of it. And what you're talking about with Letterman and certainly for our generation with Conan was you would tune in.

And it would be bat shit. It would be comedy that you didn't even know was possible. And it was so, so, so exhilarating because it felt like a shared secret. Yes. And the other, so that's happening. Like, there is, there is comedy here that is so deeply funny. Some of it is incredibly L.A. specific, which is also good comedy comes from specificity. I like, when he did the map of L.A., and he was like, Los Feliz, his translation is the happy ones,

which is funny because everybody who lives there is sad. But didn't he say Los Angeles was a city founded by improv performers who wanted to go hiking? Yeah. He's the best of the best. But also what's incredible about his unique role in the culture is like he's this like hinge point for generations. So Seinfeld and John Stewart and Letterman are coming on the show. And they clearly like and respect Malini. So they are cool with him being weird.

And these are guys who don't need to have someone be weird around them anymore. They're pretty established. But he also has because he's still a touring comedian. and he has younger people that he's working with, and the writing staff, and some of the people doing the bits and sketches, like the, I don't know if you saw this one yet, but this Terrence Howard sketch is really, really, really funny

in the second episode. But Malini's also remembering the fucking bananas weird shit, the call-in stuff. Oh, yeah. The guy looking for coyotes. Yeah. The actually sweet educational aspect of it that at least to the first few episodes,

there is a local expert on the couch next to Jerry Seinfeld and John Stewart and May Martin. It's kind of bewildered, but kind of offering some information. There's a beautiful thing, just these interstitials where these images that are kind of like John Wilson,

like how to... Do you remember the HBO John Wilson show where there are these glimpses of L.A. as if they were through that lens, there's an exploration of the Leonardo DiCaprio computer lab in the Los Felis Library that is just actually kind of affirming and sweet. I don't know how they did this,

but I do wish it was every day. I wish this did not stop. I wish this was in our life. It is not just because... That's a good news. great music, but also LA specific, where they had like Warren G and Loz Loebos, yeah,

the community aspect where like Will Ferrell and Andy Samberg are going to show up on the show to do a quick bit because they all like each other and they make each other laugh. It's just a really, really, really smart conceit. The idea of like, oh, hey, everybody's already going to be here.

Like, let's do something every night. And if it works like it works and if it doesn't work, that'll be part of the fun. So when I said TV event at the year, I don't, you know, I have to, watch the rest of them, but I agree with you. I could easily see this being in my top 10 of the year if we were going to be cheeky like that.

But I do feel like it's an event, and it's been a while since I... I'm excited to watch the last one tonight when it goes up at 10 Eastern, so... Although that is right when the Nuggets are playing. So we'll see. But still... Wow. See what a tough date you are. We just spent 20 minutes

being like, we love this. Then you're like, maybe I'll watch it. Watch Melania. I was like, I'm watching the fucking Thunder, man. Basketball's dead to me right now. I think this is a good place to stop. Okay. Did you want to touch anything else? You know, I think we probably had some other adventures, but...

Do you want to talk about our trip? I think they'll come out organically. Okay. You know, I think we had a good time. I didn't know if you wanted to do the solo travelogue thing. Well, I've been recording it on the voice notes. Maybe I could just sort of drop them in. Day three.

Chris has lost the plot. I would say... You enjoyed traveling with me, though. It was a dream. You're a great travel companion. You know what? You have a winning attitude. I try to.

It was very impressive. There were some, you know, we had some bumps along the way, health-wise. Yeah. Some of us. But I think we rallied time and time again. I think, do you think it's worth, should we give a special shout-out to our number one fan? Sure. Well, there were, okay, so this is, we should just end on this.

I know you have to go, you've got to record more stuff. We will be back normally next week. There were two examples of the white. super fans and we're always happy to meet fans. We really appreciate feedback, positivity. One was, you know, it was a, it's a dream of ours to be listened to in the Gilroy household in New York City. We love Tony Gilroy's work. It's been on the podcast. I'm honored to say that we're friendly, I guess. Did not know that our voices are constantly playing in that house thanks to the diligent listenership of his wonderful wife, Susan.

So thank you. Yes, she's the one who finishes the episodes. So we really appreciate that. Tony, I think listens to, I think he maybe has someone listened for his name, and then he listens to those parts because he's busy with Andor Season 2. But that was cool.

My other favorite moment was when we were at the festival, we were in beautiful Bergen, at a lovely restaurant dining on fresh oysters and whale meat, just the way working class podcasters often do when they're traveling internationally. And I was at one table. you were at another table and a fan came over and was just a little bashful, right?

And was like, are you Chris? And you were like, I certainly am, ma'am. Would you like me to sign a picture? I'm not Jimmy Stewart. Would you like me to sign your dolly for you? And she was like, I love the watch. I listen to every episode. She was just very effusive.

And you were very kind. And you were like, you know, Andy's right over there. And she glanced. And then she went right back. do it with you. She was like, I mentioned the Bisk. I think that's a not insignificant percentage of our listenership.

You think that they're more at home with me? Well, I wonder if they just want the stems. They want Kaya to release the stems. So it's just you with like six minute monologue space of silence. And you're like, okay. And then you go back to talking about Gallum or whatever.

I mean, there's no wrong way to listen to this podcast. I think that there's that. I think you have a silent majority of our fans. I think that they are like, I come to be provoked. I come to be challenged and I come to think. And Andy puts me there. I'm more of an arm around the shoulder guy, you know? Like, pull up a stool.

Let's have a few. Yeah, no, I mean, I do think that after watching this in real time, I should cultivate this, that like, you're the approachable one and I'm kind of the bad boy of podcasting. Like she just didn't feel comfortable because I had such like a kind of a like an aggressive vibe. Yeah. Right? Do you think that's going to work for me? I think it's an interesting iteration on your public persona

is to be like chief dickhead. We'll be back on Monday. We're going to talk about hacks. We're going to talk about Ripley. We got Top Chef next week. Some guests coming up. It's wonderful to be back in the United States of America. We'll get it all under control pretty soon. Andy thanks. Kya McMullen, remote today.

but present in our hearts she produced and we will be back on Monday.