The Watch - ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ Creator Explains Everything You Want to Know About Her Netflix Hit. Plus, ‘The Pitt’ S2E13 and Prime-Time TV Grids With Joanna Robinson.
Episode Date: April 3, 2026Chris is first joined by Joanna Robinson to discuss ‘The Pitt’ Season 2, Episode 13 and react to the news that Supriya Ganesh, who plays Dr. Mohan, is leaving the show (1:49). Then they look aroun...d at the current landscape of TV and create their own prime-time TV grids (35:01). Later, Chris is joined by ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ series creator Haley Z. Boston to talk about the finale, how she constructs long-form horror, Nicky and Rachel’s endgame, her reaction to reaching no. 1 on Netflix, and more (01:02:15). Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of The Watch and so much more! Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Guest: Haley Z. Boston and Joanna Robinson Producers: Kaya McMullen and Kai Grady Additional Video Supervision: Jacob Cornett and Jamie Yukich Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hello, and welcome to The Watch.
My name is Chris Ryan.
I am an editor at the wringer.com.
You're joining me in the studio.
It's the night shift.
Joanna Robinson is here.
What a compliment.
I am so happy that you're here.
Thank you for joining me today.
Doing a double shift on the pit today.
It's true.
It's true.
No Andy today, but I do have Joanna.
And I do have Haley Boston, the creator and the writer of something very bad is going to happen,
which is now the number one show on Netflix.
Andy had talked about it on Monday.
We'll chat a little bit about that.
We're going to chat about the pit.
the most recent episode of the pit, which is 7 p.m. I did my research this time. I have really lost
count of episodes and time in this hospital. Episode titles are great for a reason.
Yeah, I was like, they should go back and like come up with a cute title for every one of them,
like deep reading or whatever. And so we're going to talk about the pit. We're going to talk about
and then we're going to bring back a watch staple, which is the primetime grid, which is something
that I can't tell if anybody really likes or understands except for me. But if you were going to
have a
1988 or
1994 night
of watching TV
and you started
at 8
and you finished
at like 1130,
1145
like a normal
person?
What would you watch?
It's a great question.
I used to have
those grids memorized.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Come on.
It was like Thursday night.
You know?
Yeah.
What's on NBC?
You know?
What's going on
over on ABC?
Do you think you
ever watched like
I mean,
I now know
we professionally are
obligated to do so?
But did you think
you weren't much
of an 8 to 11 person
when you were a teen?
I think when
ER was on,
when it was like
must see
into ER.
Locked in.
That's locked in
three hours
every Thursday.
Let's talk about the pit
first because
we also have some
pit news.
Breaking.
Which is, I thought,
very interesting
that this came out today.
So,
Supriya Ganesh
plays Dr. Mohan
on the show,
is going to be
leaving the series
and Dr. Ellis,
played by Aisha Harris,
is upgraded to
main cast.
This is interesting
on a couple of
different levels for pit heads.
One,
seems like
they're getting out
in front of
obviously like Mohan's departure, which I don't know if you feel like it deflates the drama of it or is her
arc so obviously pointed towards an exit. I would be surprised. Like I kept waiting for the Samira
storyline to turn around this season because they love to do that a reversal. Like that's what happened
to her last season, right? Everyone's like, you're so slow, you're so slow. And then she just really
came through in the mass casualty. You got the Ogilvy redemption. You've got some like joy, you know,
like we were always turning on a character. But Samira just keeps going down and down and down and
down. And in this episode, 7 p.m., she's, like, wilted completely.
She's just, like, given toad in the OR.
Yeah.
I know.
So I guess, I don't even, like, you know, Variety reported this first.
Tyler reporter picked it up.
There's no quotes or statements really of significance.
To me, it's like a little bit deflating because I think you'd want to have that moment
dramatically, but I wonder whether or not that moment doesn't even occur dramatically
on screen. Like maybe this is an off-screen departure. Not unlike Dr. Collins's departure last season,
which was I'm going home, getting in the bath, and turning my phone on Do Not Disturb, and I miss news of a mass
casualty event in Pittsburgh. Right. And then we get just sort of like a side recap of where she's been and what she's up to.
So we'll get a little like Dr. Mohan update next season. But this is the nature of the world they set up,
right? If we're doing one 24-hour shift every however many months,
the nature of a teaching hospital ED is that people are rotating in and out. So I think they're
going to have to bend a little, you know, they had to bend a little to get Whitaker is still here.
He went from med student, you know, so like in terms of the org chart, you can't keep
everyone there because they're meant to be going on to like specialties or all these other
things. And so I'm like having only one cast member turnover, I'm surprised by I would expect
maybe even more. So this was my next question, which just gets into this episode
specifically, which is the, this episode has got a lot going on, but one of the, I think, most delightful
things is the appearance of the night shift.
Hell yeah.
So Dr. Shen, Dr. Ellis, Mateo, Dr. Abbott.
And I know that they're well, well, Dr. Abbott's not well rested.
He's been catching power naps in the backs of ambulances in between swat raids.
Dr. Ellis also gave her deposition today.
I barely got a nap in, so.
Look, it's fancasting and it's not probably going to happen.
But it, if I told you season three was night shift.
Oh, yeah.
I'm in.
But even better than night shift, what if they gave us two pit seasons a year?
I know.
I'm going to get greedy and say, what if we get the January day shift and then the
September night shift?
Don't we deserve that, Chris?
We work so hard.
For pit heads, it would be amazing.
I was curious whether or not there was what percentage of your brain is entertaining the idea that the next season is like five minutes later and that it's this.
Or five hours later rather?
It's this shift.
Yeah.
The night shift in the midst of their.
I mean, how often can they bend over backwards to get Abbott and, you know, they really want Sean Hattacy in there, I think as much as possible.
Dr. Abbott is so popular.
Dr. Ellis and Dr. Shen are two of my faves.
Yeah.
The introduction of Dr. Cruz Henderson in this episode, a great.
Ultrasound whiz.
Yeah, great addition.
So I would love, I don't think they're going to do a full night shift season.
We could sort of entertain this.
You and I had talked off pod about this idea of, is Noah Wiley taking a season off,
given that he's like EPing and writing and directing episodes.
And, you know, everywhere on every single interview, getting his Hollywood Walk of Fame star,
is no-o-wile going to take a slight backseat from leading man territory and give us a night shift season?
Yes.
Not that Dr. Robbie doesn't make it out of the season alive.
don't think there's any version of the pit.
I don't think that that's the case either.
No Wiley in it for the foreseeable future.
But if it's more night shift oriented,
we get like a few hours of day shift instead,
I thought that would be maybe interesting,
or half and half, as you say.
Yeah, this is such a fascinating show.
And I kind of wanted to talk a little bit
on a macro level about like what I think this season is doing so successfully
is because obviously they could have played the hits
and had an explosion at a fireworks factory, you know,
and.
I thought that's what they were going to do.
had 150 people coming in while a cyber attack was happening.
When there was like an incident at the water park, I was like, oh, this is it.
This is our mass casualty event for the 4th of July, but it was like three people.
But this is a much more, I think, considered character study.
And the cases are interesting and like Orlando and all these people who are kind of recurring and Digby's been there for most of this season.
I'm really proud of Charles Baker getting paid for the full season.
It's awesome.
I love that for him.
Maybe he can just become like a janitor at the hospital and just stick.
around. But it's really cool to see a show that the thing about procedurals is you'd want it to play
the same notes every week. And they're like, I think looking at the long game here and they want to
make five seasons at least of the show, which in our time is like the equivalent of having a 12-season
show back in the 90s. And I think that like to sustain that, you have to like kind of play,
you know, you have to know when to push and know when.
to pull. Yeah, and I think having
the MASHCatcatsy
shooter event in season one and the
cyber attack in season two, you know, I think they
don't want to push their look in terms of
how many big events can we get away
with that makes sense. You don't want
to just give us the same formula again.
I think it's been really interesting in the last couple
episodes to sort of track who's clocking out. We're just
going to slowly see people clocking out.
Like, that's an interesting way to end
the season. I don't think it's going to be everyone
gathered in the park having beers again, you know,
so what are we going to get? Maybe the
the next season is actually Santos never clocking out.
She's just working on charts.
Forever shredding and scanning.
They set up a special room for Santos to chart and she's just stuck there the entire time.
So Supriya's not coming back next season.
Is there anyone else where you're like, I could see them sort of moving on?
I mean, I think the Robbie thing.
So this episode obviously ends with, they have been very manipulative with cliffhangers this season
where it's like, you know, Emma in a headlock.
Right.
And you're like, cool.
I have to wait six days for this now.
Dr. Al Hashimi zoning out and we still don't know exactly what happened.
I think one, I like your idea of Noah not being front and center.
I do wonder whether, because, okay, so he is EPing, directing an episode, writing an episode.
He is the voice and face of the show on every panel talk and in every interview.
He's playing with puppies on Instagram to promote the show.
And then on top of that is probably,
going to be up for awards for the next couple of years, you know, for this show. And I think
that's a grind. I mean, when Andy and I talked to him, he was in between coming from the
writer's room and then I think the globes were like the next week. Yeah. Which, you know,
it's not working at a factory, but that's a long hours and a hard work. And it's more, you know,
like when you think about ER and its heyday, the sort of like starring job was spread out
across a couple of different people.
Even like with Clooney at his height,
there were still just like a couple people
who were the face of ER.
And Clooney was never like EPing, writing,
and directing and all the other things.
And so I just don't want No Wiley to burn out.
I don't either.
But like when people are like,
is Robbie leaving the show?
No.
No Riley has been kind of like waiting for,
I think, is it fair to say?
Like it has been waiting for this to happen for a while?
He's like, I'm not going back to the librarian.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So I think that there's a possibility.
Look, he leaves this.
episode being like, what if I don't come back at all? I think there's a
overtone of, is he having suicidal ideation? But I think maybe it's like more like
Dr. Heel thyself, like you're saying that Mohan is burning out. You're saying like this
person's burning out. Maybe you're the one who's really burning out. And then the other person
who I think is kind of like, you know, Javati, I think you could say maybe found herself in that
OR doing brain surgery with Mary McCormick, but also is obviously
like a little bit screwed up from this day
and from losing a patient.
And I, you know, I'm trying to think of who else
I think is on the line there.
Well, you know what?
I don't think Al Hashimi and Robbie
are going to be working in the same ER next year.
Yeah, I'm curious how that all resolves itself,
but the idea of her floating the idea
of why don't we have two attendings
is, you know, that she did in a previous episode.
A lot of people have been wondering,
does that mean we could get Abbott and and Robbie on the same?
Could we handle that?
shift. I don't think so. But like the night shift is interesting because Dr. John Shen and Dr. Abbott are
both attending. So they've got two attendings on the night shift. Why not the day shift? I don't know.
Something I think about. But I think that Dr. Al Hashimi, I don't think she's coming back next season.
Yeah. Which I'm really curious to see how that wraps up. I don't know that I'm like absolutely in love with what this arc has been for her.
Like, woman comes in, man thinks she's not fit for the job and then she's not fit for the job is like my fave.
It's funny. I saw a clip of Noah Wiley and Catherine Lanassah talking about the show that people are watching versus the show that people are making.
Right. And I think this is a pretty rampant condition in modern TV watching, which is like people kind of having these parisocial relationships with fictional characters and starting to personify them as if like they're like people.
Yeah. And being like, I can.
can't believe Kendall did that kind of rather than Jesse Armstrong is writing a Greek tragedy
and Jeremy Strong is bringing that to life. But they were talking about like in very polite way,
but I wonder whether a lot, there was a little bit of an edge to like, yeah, like people watch
this show and they're like, Robbie should be brought up on charges for snapping at Dr. Mohan.
And it's like, well, it's a tense workplace. And also like, I think they are trying to say this
guy is on the line. Like, this guy's gone from like, let's all have a, you know, moment of silence
for a dead patient to, like, is this about your mother? Give me a fucking break.
Totally. And I think that's, like, there are two ways in which I think people are, I don't like
to say people are watching TV incorrectly. But like the mystery boxing of this show that people
are treating like heat stroke mom, like it's a, it's a mystery we have to solve rather than
the show presenting us with a woman where we're asking questions what happened with her kid. But
it's not gotcha, like, you know, that kind of thing. And then also there's Dr. Robbie's point
of view and there's the show's point of view. And I think it's really easy to get confused between
the two, to see Robbie as a leader of this environment and to say, okay, if Robbie disapproves,
it's wrong. And if Robbie approves, it's right. But what the show is challenging us to
see is that sometimes he's right and sometimes he's wrong. And that's really hard. I know a lot of
people are watching the show thinking, Robbie's peer, I look to Robbie to see if I'm supposed to
interpret this, especially when like the medical jargon is over your head.
You're like looking to him to like guide you through morally and emotionally what's going on.
And I don't think that's what the show is trying to do.
But like, we'll see.
I don't think so either.
I think that we bring baggage to it from watching Noah Wiley for decades.
And then I think that we are told or in, I think there is an inherent like understanding that when you're watching the protagonist of a TV show, you're not thinking, oh, like, this.
this person's out of line or this person, like you said, has made a mistake in the ER and made a mistake in the way that they're dealing with them.
And that's an interesting commentary on where this character is.
You're like, this is making me mad because I'm here for this guy to save the day.
Yeah.
And instead, he's like screwing up.
Yeah.
And bumping Duke up the line in CT scans, you know, and maybe that's inappropriate.
Right.
That's not the most inappropriate.
And Elvin from the Cosby Show has to show up and be like, no, man.
You don't get to do that.
Please just keep bringing TV people and random characters.
TV doctors.
Like, just bring us all these TV doctors, right?
Like, Mary McCormick and ERVet, Jeffrey Owens, who was a doctor on the Cosby show way back in the day.
I love that.
Like, keep doing that.
Okay.
So then I wanted to talk a little bit about Whitaker's scene with Ogilvie, I think, is, it's kind of so funny.
I don't like doing the ER to pit comparisons overly because I'm sure that the people making the pit are like legally.
is not true. If Michael Cretton's estate is listening, that is definitely not what this is. It's ED,
not ER. Whitaker is definitely becoming Carter, you know, like where it's sort of like this
doe-eyed cares too much, but now is sort of like able to take Ogilvy into the ambulance bay and
kind of give you the thesis of like, I think emergency medicine, which is you have to accept that
this is the worst day of this person's life. And it might actually be that. We might not save everybody.
I literally wrote my notes this week, underlined it.
This is the the thesis of the show, right?
And sometimes the pit, in ways that I don't like, just says the thing rather than, you know, showing it to us.
They often do that.
And so there are times when I really bump on that.
But this one really worked for me just because it felt like an authentic character moment for Whitaker.
Yeah, just saying like, I like being there for people on the worst day of their lives.
And I'm like, okay, that's the theme of the show.
That's great.
But the Ogilvy arc this season and the, you know, people were calling him like sort of evil Whitaker, evil, you know, Huckleberry, whatever you want to call him.
So for Whitaker to be able to help him the way that Robbie and other people helped him in the first season, that's what you want to see.
Yeah.
So this is like one instance where I didn't mind the pit just saying the thing, you know.
Kind of.
And I do think that his relationship to farmer Amy, is that her name?
Sure is.
Farm benefits.
Is, like, do you take it beyond the hospital?
Like, does he care so much that he is like, and, you know,
McKay got dinged for that earlier in the season when she was treating the Trank addict in
the park where it's just like, you guys can't, I need you here for this crucial moment
in the ED.
I can't have, like, your big hearts going out into the wider Pittsburgh on shift.
This is why I'm, the mystery that I'm really trying to unravel is what is it that sets
Robbie off when he comes down too harshly on people.
Because in this episode, Dana calls him out for being too harsh on McKay and Mohan.
And I was like, why are those two doctors really the one, you know, whereas he's like
very gentle with Whitaker and like a couple of other.
And Ogilvy, right?
So like, is it a gendered thing?
Yeah.
Could be.
I think that's certainly in the mix.
But I was wondering if it's something to do with like Samira always goes above
and beyond.
McKay always goes above and beyond.
So if it's that sort of like, I recognize myself in this and I don't like.
it. I get too emotionally involved in this when he gives Samira the whole and McKay the whole speech
about sort of like, you know, you leave this hospital. That's it. End of your day. But like,
Robbie's like, I can't even leave the hospital. I just live here. This is where my heart
and my brain resides. He is kind of Whitaker living in the hospital, but just emotionally.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. So I don't know. That's something I'm really fascinated by this season.
Let's talk about Robbie and Dana. So there's two conversations in this episode that have basically
happened in other episodes. And one, I think with Robbie and Dana, is one where, like,
it's great because, like, they've had the volcanic blowout. They've tried to have a quiet
moment. And those two and their dynamic is one that feels the most organically television to me
in a great way because they are writing into, I think, an obvious palpable chemistry and
star power, for lack of a better term, that Catherine Lanassas is.
now brought to this character, and she's an award-winning actress now, and they're like,
let's give her stuff to do. And let's put her in opposition of some stuff, and let's put her
in lots of crucial moments. And it's great, because that's actually how fights work, is they
do not end. I know, I loved that. And somebody walks out, and, like, they're not like, and now
we've resolved it. And seen, right? No, it's like, you know what, fuck you. I'm still thinking
about that. Right. Especially in the premise of the show where we're with them every hour of the day.
So things should not wrap, you know, cases don't wrap up.
subtitling an hour. We have people extend over the course of the season or several episodes.
So that's, you know, there are disadvantages to like, let's do an entire character arc in
in one shift at the ED. That's that, you know, they really stretch and pull to make this show.
But there are advantages where it's like, let's make this a more natural several hour long conflict.
Yeah. You know, between two people. And that, you know, to go back to this idea of like,
Robbie's POV and the show's POV, I think having Dana and.
as a strong opposition to him
is a really good way to sort of challenge viewers
and ask them to question Robbie's POV.
If Dana's questioning him,
you know, we're with Dana too.
This is mom and dad of the ED.
And so if mom and dad are fighting,
whose side are we on?
And the answer, similar to sort of like
the Santa's Langdon conflict earlier this season,
is they're both right and they're both wrong.
Yeah, which is like what real life is.
That's when the pit is its best.
I mean, it's like if for every moment,
I know if you, I'm sure you've seen the, the video, the Instagram video of the person doing pit characters being like, did you know violence happens to nurses 5% more than anybody else? And then looks at the camera and goes like, like, that is, that is probably the pit at its most pedantic. But then like, we call it living out with a pit.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, but it's like the pit is at its best when it can be like, how does time and pressure affect character? Yeah. Yeah. Um,
The one that I was like,
I thought we did this conversation
was the Whitaker Santos
housing arrangement
where last episode
they had a very cute
kind of like,
oh, you just want,
you actually like being my roommate
and you want me to stay.
And if you say it,
I will stay.
And I thought that that scene
was wonderful
and obviously ended with a note
of like,
yeah,
he's just going to go check
on Robbie's plants
like three times a week
and pick up his mail.
Right.
And now it's like,
we've reopened that
like an hour later. And that one, it didn't feel sloppy per se, but I was like, I don't really
understand. I thought we kind of handled this last week. Maybe it was that Santos, like, couldn't say it.
And he, you know, he's her main safe space in this place. And if he's just sort of like, even if you
can't say it, I'm just going to do it. And I'm going to be here for you. And I liked their little
sort of like non-look looks and stuff like that. And what I love about, you know, to your point earlier,
about people getting overly emotionally invested in this show and maybe watching it in a different
way than the creators mean. The constant shipping of various characters that is happening in the
fandom is fun in some regards. But then you constantly have the actors coming out and saying,
like, actually, for Frank Langdon and Mel King, this is like a mentor, mentee. We believe a platonic.
Santos is a lesbian. So like for Santos and what, like those kinds of relationships, they give
each other these sort of like shy looks, but it's about their friendship, them being roommates.
And I did really like that. The one that really,
I thought was sloppy writing in this episode
was when the new intern on the night shift
Nazalee when she was like,
there's a new guy in that bed that wasn't there before.
I was just like, okay.
It's a shave and a haircut.
It's not dark man.
He just got a haircut.
I got a haircut. It's okay.
I liked her, though.
Yeah, I liked her.
She was cool.
Yeah, the night shift appearance,
you know, the idea of these people being
their shift is done
and we're probably not going to get a cold beer in the park to end to end.
And it's actually probably going to end in maybe a grimy way where, you know,
whether it's like Robbie basically like storming out and we don't know when he's coming back or,
you know, maybe one of the things I've dug is that for as effective as the Hawaiian prayer,
for instance, of last season was.
People have tried to make their cases.
You know, they've tried to make their big speeches.
And like, I don't know that like Duke is going to be.
able to convince Robbie that like he's going to be okay and he's going to go for treatment in it or
that Robbie is going to be able to convince Duke or that obviously with Mohan like it's not going
to end in a place where Mohan is like I've realized that emergency medicine is my passion.
You know, she probably is going to be like I got a weird phone call for my mom and I do have to
go to New Jersey or something.
Or like I am going to try geriatrics or something like that.
I mean that's really interesting because again, that's more like real life because we're watching
Mohan as a character.
I really like Supriya as an actress and I really love that character.
and I'm trained as a television watcher to be like,
okay, she's struggling and then she's going to figure it out
or someone's going to say something to her.
You know, so many people, Mel to Langdon
inside of this episode, Whitaker to Ogilvy,
so many people have given grace to someone who's struggling today.
Yeah.
And Samir is not getting it.
And sometimes that's just true.
You know, sometimes you don't get the advice you need
or the support you need to make it.
And sometimes you don't make it.
if you were at the end of a shift like that.
Exactly.
So, you know, as much as I want, because I'm rooting for Samira, for her to figure it out,
maybe she will be happier somewhere else.
Yeah.
And also, if there's a natural kind of like you cycle out of this job, unless you decide that
this is your passion and this is what you want to do all the time, like, that's going to
have to be something that us as watchers and fans of the show accept.
Right.
To the extent to which, so you bring up Landon, and I would put him in my mind.
maybe not coming back zone.
I think that Mel does a good job of cheering him up a little,
but I don't think he's going to get closure with Robbie,
and I don't think he's going to get closure with Santos.
There's a couple hours left at the shift,
so who knows what's going to happen.
But yeah, it's possible.
And, like, it's also from the sort of meta-watching these actors kind of way.
Like, I could see Patrick Ball,
who's, like, loves to do theater and stuff like that,
you know, being kind of busy and interested in doing something else.
at the Geffen or whatever, yeah.
I know.
Did you hear about that production of Hamlet?
Someone described it to me.
Apparently they were like,
and then we do this major twist
and it's something else.
And I was like,
where you could just do Hamlet,
I promise.
But he's in a show
on Broadway right now.
You know, so there's, you know,
or Issa Brionas,
like there's a lot of these actors.
The pit, like old school television
is a huge time commitment.
A huge platform,
but a huge time commitment too.
And so, you know,
how many of them are going to Clooney
out of here,
you know,
Right. And it's like people do do multiple shows. This is sort of like a reality of the way that Hollywood has changed the way they make television.
Right.
Is that in the same way that writers are having a hard time like scraping together like, okay, I did two episodes of this show and then I did an episode of this show and I'm trying to pitch my show.
Like these actors like, yeah, the pits like a really steady paycheck. But I bet that they are like I need to also have like a stable other thing going to.
Right. You know.
Yeah, you don't want to do the full, like, sort of reggae Jean-Page, like, I don't need you, Bridgeton, and then, oh, Simon, Love and Tuscany or whatever that's called. Yeah. So did you see that, did you see that he and Nicola Coughlin were sort of in the first episode of S&L UK? And everyone's like, are you coming back? Are you coming back to Bridgeton? And there's just sort of like, look on his face like, I made a huge mistake in my Bridgeton moves. But, you know. He was really good in Black Bag. He was really good in Black Bag. And the D&D movie, actually. I thought he was good in that, too.
Who else did I want to talk to you about on this episode?
We talked a little bit about Al-Shemi,
but, like, Robbie being like,
I have identified this from across the room
that she paused during her Eri-John speech.
I thought it was eagle-eyed,
but that'll be a good test of what we're talking about
is, like, Robbie might be right, but he might not be nice, you know?
And I think they have obviously laid some foundation
for Al-Shemi to be like,
here's what happened to me in my life, like why this might be happening to me. So whether it's
a neurological problem, like it's sort of been suggested because she's calling her doctor's office at one
point or whether it's PTSD. I don't know. But yeah, there's a lot actually now that I think about it
that they're going to have to address unless they want to drive people nuts for the nine
months that it's not on. Right. You need a Dr. Halashimi sort of diagnosis or information or something like
that. Something for Langdon, you know.
I think we need another Langdon and Robbie scene, whether or not that is like a closure scene or something else.
I doubt it.
Robbie does not seem like he's in a place to give grace any kind of grace to LinkedIn at all.
Yeah.
I mean, this is like, people may or may not want to know this because in some ways it's indicative of what might happen.
But I heard a Noah Wiley interview where he was like going through like the themes of the seasons.
Yeah.
I can't remember how he actually like described it, but it was like.
Doctors make bad patients.
And he's like, doctor, but the third season is about doctors healing.
Yeah, doctors making good patients.
Making good patients or whatever.
And that might suggest a much different kind of season.
I was thinking, yeah, therapy, are we doing in treatment?
You know, everyone goes up to see the therapist over the course of the shift or something like that.
Yeah, they've been pretty, it's really interesting.
They gave themselves a lot of rules.
And obviously, like, they've built this set in Burbank where they have this full 360.
Right.
You can be in the.
and like there are times where they're like it feels like we are actually doing it.
But they, with the exception of a remarkably bright outside Pittsburgh for 7pm, rarely go outside
the walls only to the ambulance bay or to the internment room where Louis was kept for a while.
The part, so like there's, they went to the park.
And the roof.
There's Robbie's motorcycle ride in where you get a little bit.
There's Mel last season picked up her sister.
I think that's as far as we've gone.
Okay.
Then there's the roof.
and then Whitaker's room.
But we never got to go to admin
to hear about the cyber attack
or whatever.
Right.
Or we're not following
like Howard,
a patient we were really invested
and we don't go up to surgery
with him and stuff like that.
So will we go
in a meaningful way
to another floor in this hospital?
Should we fantasy cast
Robbie's therapist?
It shouldn't be his pal
who's like,
hey man, get some therapy.
Should it be Eric LaSalle?
Yes.
Actually,
yes.
Where are you on the season
versus season one?
There were more memorable
like,
enshrine that in some sort of
TV Hall of Fame moment
like wing in the first season
but the second season in a way
is better like the second season
to me is like
riskier braver
like more interesting and as a drama
whereas the first season had moments
where I was like I forgot to breathe for five minutes
that hasn't happened as much this season
like I think my relationship to some of the cases
and patients have been
like they haven't lost
that many people, like on screen, like a lot of it has been like,
O'Ogle V's patient got, like, they lost them upstairs.
But there hasn't been the like guard of honor for dead child stuff.
Right, a little girl drowned or a young man is brain dead.
Yeah.
Like Roxy happened off screen.
Yeah.
So like there's a lot of it has been, I think, a little bit more about.
There's Louis.
Louis.
Oh, yeah, Louie.
That's right.
And that that was really beautiful.
But like, I think that so much of it has been about the doctors and their like
internal crisis sees. Yeah, it's interesting because when something explodes out of its first season,
the way that the pit did, I'm always so nervous about the second season because how much of it is
novelty, how much of it is just sort of like, oh, they're doing a full shift or, oh, my God, procedural
television is back in a prestige kind of way, or no while we missed you. Yeah. Or over the case may be,
I think a lot. There's a lot of great examples of that. Empire is the first one that always comes to
mind where people were just obsessed to the first season of Empire. And then it just sort of, the second season
comes back and that momentum of the newness isn't there. And so I think the pit did something
really smart in what you're saying, which is just sort of, hey, come spend time with these
characters you're invested in. Not we're going to shock and awe you. But, you know, yes,
there's cyber attacks. Yes, Emma's a headlock. Like, we do have these moments. But, like,
it's about you hanging out with people who over the course of a day are sometimes right and sometimes
wrong. Yeah. And I mean, like even the big moments from the season like Jesse being arrested by
ICE, it just seems like Jesse is going to be in prison for the weekend. So I
I doubt, I don't think we're going to get like Robbie riding his motorcycle with a helmet to the courthouse to save Jesse.
Hashtag free Jesse.
Hashtag where elit.
Let's talk a little bit about what else is on.
The easiest way to do it is kind of like this primetime grid.
But before we do, because I have this interview with Haley, and I don't know if something very bad is going to happen is on your primetime grid.
But I wanted to just see if you had gotten a chance to check it out and what you thought.
I did because of you.
Thanks for Ryan.
What an influencer you are.
No, I had heard like some negative things about it.
And then you were like, I'm really digging it.
And you said it.
You doubled down on that.
And so I checked it out.
I really loved the, I watched the whole thing.
I really, really loved the first couple episodes.
I think the cast is incredible.
The leading actors who I thought was one of the best parts of Daisy Jones on the Six,
which I thought was like a mixed bag, but I thought she was a real standout.
I think she's like Sarah Pigeon.
in love story level of just really watchable.
Just I want to see everything that she does.
I think she's really like this is just a huge, I think, hopefully boost up for this actress who I think is incredible.
But I think all of the performances are really great.
And, you know, this is an interesting experiment for like this sort of like produced by Duffer Brothers era of Netflix.
Right. Stranger Things is over, but they have all of these other projects that they've touched.
And this is one of them, right?
And so, and it's a hit, which is not always the case of these big Netflix deals.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, they have the burrows coming next, which is their kind of, their EPing, which is like a kind of like, it sounds like cocoon.
Right.
It's like at a senior home or a, not assisted living, but like a senior citizens like elder care place.
And it sounds like there's aliens or something happening.
But it's got like a fucking crazy cat.
Like Alphrey Woodard is in that.
Yeah.
There's the animated stranger things.
That's right.
Yeah.
Do you, are you like I need a little bit more stranger things?
I'm pretty good, but I'll watch it.
Pretty good.
I'm obsessed with how they styled this character who carries the show as like a live Tyler and Empire Records, like in the craft, like 90s sort of thing.
I mean, Haley is just here.
I think she's styled on Haley.
Yeah.
It just feels very like reflective of her personal style.
I mean, just great stuff.
I'm a huge fan.
It's, here's the thing I would say for anybody listening.
You know, your mileage may vary on horror and your mileage may vary on like if you want to be in that headspace for that long.
I found it like the second half of the season is actually quite funny and I wouldn't say Daffy in places, but like it's a different vibe than the first few episodes.
It's different.
And like I've been kind of waiting for something to come along this season.
I was going to ask you like if you had any like leaders for like this is my favorite thing so far of the year.
But, like, what this did was like, I had seen a fair amount of stuff that even if it was good or fine, I was like, okay, I feel like it's still like throwing the same pitch that I've been watching for a while. And this felt very different.
I think for, you know, this primetime grade assignment that you set me, I was checking out some things that I was a little behind on and stuff like that. And it did all feel very like same. Especially since, you know, there's like this massive Bill Lawrence spread across, you know, you've got, you know, the Taylor shared it. You know, there's just like a lot of things that feel like they're the same show reiterated by one creator.
Yeah.
So I think in that way, this like fresh new voice, I'm excited to check out that interview is really exciting. And then I think for me, my leader would be a not of a lot of.
the Seven Kingdoms. That's very much, you know, my shit in general. But I do think it was like
Thrones, but a different tone. Very much so. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime.
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So I would give it that. Yeah.
All right, let's do our grids.
Okay.
So I usually style this in a traditional fashion, but you can take the assignment anywhere you want.
Now, here's the funny thing about the way we used to do TV is I realized that, like, in my normal
every day watching. I do the reverse of this. So it used to be that they would lead with the comedies from
eight until 10. And then they would do a drama at 10 and then you would go to bed or you'd watch
late night. Right. I watch the hard stuff first now and then try to do a come down from that
sitcom or comedy show after. Okay. But I'm doing the grid as if it was like Thursday night.
I don't think I intentionally stacked shows that way. That's interesting. Oh, so you don't
ever like you're not like that was a lot like you don't watch an episode of industry and you're like
if I'm going to watch something else it can't be like an hour long intense drama no mostly I don't
know just mostly because we're doing it for work it feels a little different but I think that
I'm thinking about the way that even HBO Sunday night used to be two comedies into a drama
sort of thing um no I don't think I do like I should do that for my mental health I should do
decompression television what a great idea there is sometimes like I
My wife and I watch horror a lot, like, on Friday or Saturdays.
And it's just, like, really weird dreams, like, when you watch, like, you know.
I had really weird.
I watched a lot of something very bad is going to happen yesterday.
And I had some weird dreams last night.
Very weird.
Okay.
Walk me through your grid.
Okay.
So I get two comedies, two dramas, or, right?
It's however you want to do it.
Like, I have, I tried to do this of shows that I,
We either haven't really talked about or haven't talked about it a while.
Yeah.
But it can be whatever you want as long as it's the sort of 8 to 10 or 8 to 11.
And then the bonus is like, are you watching any like late night variety, whatever?
Or whatever you're watching on YouTube.
Yeah.
Right.
Or 90 minutes of Survivor that drove me crazy last night.
I mean, Survivor is absolutely rotting my brain right now.
Also, fucking shout out Trump being like, I'm preempting Survivor.
to just read my truth social posts and not actually do anything.
You love to shout out Trump on the podcast.
I fucking shout out, brother.
Shout out Trump.
Thanks.
Thanks for that.
So I'll start with a comedy and I'll say the comeback.
I have not checked out yet.
Season three of this show that has been, you know, sort of come and gone a couple times.
And it's, I think, three episodes into the season, maybe two or three episodes into the season.
and this has never been my favorite, favorite, you know, HBO show or Lisa Kudrow vehicle or anything like that.
So I don't have a long-term investment in it.
But what they're doing with this season, and there's a lot of shows right now that are very like Hollywood-looking inward.
That's what the comeback has always been, but there's a lot of shows like that right now.
But how it's engaging with basically, you know, the SAG after a WGA strike,
COVID, which all seems like very ancient history, but like
it's a very piercingly funny show. And I think
in contrast to sort of the Bill Lawrence spread, which you're getting
with like shrinking scrubs and rooster all being on at the same time, which is
very like kind, gentle comedy. Something more incisive and cutting,
like the comeback is really welcome to me. Okay. I was reticent to jump in
because I was like kind of neither here nor there about its earlier iterations.
Yeah. I'll definitely check it out. Yeah, I don't think you need to
at all. And I think that the strike and the COVID of it all is the very beginning. But what happens
because of, you know, the state of the industry that we find this character, Valley Cherry,
in is she gets tucked into doing a sitcom that's written by AI. So Andrew Scott is here this
season as like a horrible exec. Abby Jacobson and John Early, who are her like comedian stalwarts are
here as the headwriters of a show that's being written by AI. And it's just like a great, a great premise.
Like, it's really good.
They're all keeping it secret that it's written by AI, but, like, you know, there's all these jokes about it.
It's very good.
So that would be my first comedy.
Do you want to, like, ping pong or do you like?
Sure, we can ping pong.
My first one is when the Andy and I discussed a little bit about a maybe actually a while ago because it had debuted on Peacock and then did the like, and seven weeks from now, we'll start airing this now.
But it's the fall and rise of Reggie Dinkley's.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Which is the Tracy Morgan, Daniel Radcliffe vehicle from Robert.
Carlock and the Tina Faye
Industrial Complex.
Yes.
And is incredible
30 Rock Methodone
for people who are
still looking for
can you fit
nine jokes onto a page
triple
like visual psych gags
in this frame.
I see with
great excitement
that the Daniel
Radcliffe
Megan the Stalian
relationship on this show
has started to
take flight on the
internet.
And listener,
this is really
special stuff.
His, like, obsession with her.
Yeah, and her, like, relating to him being like, okay, talk to you later is, like, amazing.
They have a trist in the back of a mail van, I believe, and he becomes smitten.
But, yeah, this show, in case you don't know, is about a disgraced ex-athlet, Tracy Morgan's,
Reggie Dinkin's character, who was trying to make a comeback after being kicked out of the NFL for gambling.
And Daniel Radcliffe's character is a failed documentarian who is made.
making his comeback as well, trying to make a doc about Reggie Dinkins' life.
And the cast is stacked.
Everybody is hilarious.
There are some, like, episodes better than others, but it is really, really, really good,
like, solid sitcom making.
I think it's offering you something you already know you love, which is Tracy Morgan
just doing the only character you can do.
Tracy Morgan with a head statue of himself.
Yeah.
And then Dan Radcliffe, like, if you didn't see, you know, his TBS sitcom, like, this is the, this is what Dan Radcliffe, in addition to winning Tonys for musicals and whatever.
This is what he loves doing, and he's very good at it.
So, like, you know, there's something familiar.
And then if you aren't, I love Dan Radcliffe in this mode.
Like, and I think he's a great fit for this universe.
And I love that this is a project that I love all of his choices that he's made in the last couple of years.
What's your second show?
My second show, even though I just talked shit on the Bill Lawrence spread, as I will say, I don't mind Rooster.
Like, it is the exact same show that he's making.
I saw Bill Lawrence making fun of himself about this because someone tweeted out sort of like Bill Lawrence just make the same show over and over again.
And then he quote tweeted with like, nah, bad monkey was totally different.
This is the problem.
You can't really say anything about Bill Lawrence shows because he will quote tweet.
Talk about that familiarity.
Like, I was thinking about the fact that we have like Noah Wiley, Lisa Kudrow, Steve Karel, Tracy,
Morgan, you know, like all the, you know, Ted McGinley, Christa Miller, like, they're all back
here on our televisions. But like, Steve Carell back as a lead of a sitcom is far preferable
to Steve Carell in the morning show or anything else than he has wanted to do recently.
For Steve Carole, wrestling coach. I'm a big fan of it. Yeah. Wow. We'd love to come back
to Foxcatcher. Danielle Deadweiler is kind of wasted here, I think, but Phil Dunster, who I was like
my favorite part of Ted Lassow is, is, like, a great pompous character who we have Robbie Hoffman,
who was such a great breakout on the last season of Hacks and as a comedian I really like,
is just here to make fun of his character.
That's a delicious dynamic.
Okay, I'm going to dip back into this.
Honestly, like, I think my lasting takeaway was like, I need more for Daniel Deadweiler.
After the first episode, like, just bring me the X-Files immediately.
Exactly.
Oh, my God, I'm so excited.
But yeah, like I don't think I am a Bill Lawrence sitcom guy.
Like I don't know if Bad Monkey 2 will be work better for me, but like for some reason I just need a little bit more of an edge, I think, in my stuff.
Bad Monkey was like a really great half season and then it just kept going and just sort of got lost, I think.
But yeah, I agree.
I'm a little frustrated with how prevalent the Bill Lawrence effect has been in the last couple years,
but I think Rooster is something I could hang with a bit.
Okay, so my second comedy kind of thing is something that I didn't really think was a real show
until I made sure to check it out.
And that's last one laughing.
Yeah.
Oh, no, that's my late night one.
Oh, okay.
But let's talk about it.
Okay.
So I saw the premise for this show that Jimmy Carr was hosting what is essentially
Big Brother for some of the funniest people in comedy in England.
Yes.
That they're trapped essentially in a room together and they are all trying to make each other laugh.
And if you laugh, you're out or whatever.
I was like, yeah, I could watch that for like five minutes.
But like I think this is incredible.
Yeah.
I think this is unbelievable because it's never just people trying to tell like a
crazy joke that will get a laugh. It is full on
characters and bits and long stories and
performance pieces by these. You'll definitely recognize some of the people
when you watch it, but it's on Amazon and it is so delightful
to check this out. So my favorite person on this, David Mitchell is incredible
on it. Bob Mortimer is really, really funny. But Diane
Morgan is so funny on this show. There's a couple, I don't want to ruin any of the
gags, but you're also a fan of this.
Yeah, so this is the second season of the British.
So my understanding is that it's sort of an international hit.
They've done versions of this around the world.
And UK finally hopped on.
I'll be curious to see if there is an American version that we wind up doing.
But I had watched the first season.
So this is the second season.
Bob Warnerberg, spoiler.
Bob Mortimer won the first season.
So they brought him back for season two.
And yeah, and these are my faves.
Like I love British comedy.
I watch, as I've talked to you about before, I love, I watch British panel shows all the time.
Yeah.
So this is such an interesting experiment because it's quite cringy to watch these, like, comedy assassins who are the peak of their game and are so, you know, Alan Carr is here, like all, you know, Ramesh Ramanathan's here.
Like, they're all here and they're doing their best and nobody's laughing except for like Jimmy Carr in another room.
And so you're like kind of dying inside while you're watching it.
you're right that in that sort of big brother reality show kind of way, once you sort of settle
into the social experiment of it, it's really absorbing. The funniest thing on the show by far is
the faces people make in effort not to laugh. Oh yes. Like what they have to do. Melga George's
like, like, basically like they look like they're all having heart attacks. Like it's unbelievable.
But honestly, like these episodes are like 30 minutes. Oh yeah. Easy breezy. It's six episodes a season.
I could definitely see it as actually being a better.
like a late night hit.
But what's your next one?
So this would be 9 p.m.
9 p.m.
I think I'll do something very bad is going to happen.
Like I think I would put that on my grid.
I think if you watch the comeback and rooster
and then you get like weird creepy horror drama
with Jennifer Jason Lee.
Like I think that's a good mix.
Maybe the opposite is true,
given your prescription of watch a drama
and then come down with the comedy.
But I think I couldn't think of another,
I'm not watching, I mean, if we're not going to do the pit, which we could do, that's like, you know, really logical.
You know, really easy.
I'm not down with DTF on HBO.
So I don't think there's a lot of great options in the hour-long drama space right now.
What did you dig up?
It's not really a drama.
It's not really comedy.
And I don't even know if it's that good.
Okay.
But Kiki Palmer's really good on the burgers.
Oh.
Okay.
I haven't watched it.
But like, I do go to the grove sometimes.
And if you've gone to the grove in the last couple months, it's just sort of like...
It's really burped out.
It's all it's burped up.
It's on peacock.
Yeah.
I think the whole season's up and I'll be completely honest with you about how this is working out.
This is the show that, like, I put on, like, as I'm falling asleep.
Yeah.
I thought I was on episode seven.
It turns out I'm on episode two.
It feels a little longer than it needs to.
Okay. All right.
It is that kind of very last three, four years phenomenon of, of, you know,
a
basically murder mystery
with comedy
like there's definitely
like they're trying to do
only murders
they're trying to do
like a lot of like twists
a lot of red herrings
Jack Whitehall plays Kiki
Palmer's
newly like newlywed
and also new parents
and they've moved back
to his hometown
and then they are interacting
with all like the neighbors
the two neighbors
who are like
really like they're just so good
on this is Paula Pell
and
Mark Prosh from what we do in the shadows.
And he's riding a recumbent bike and I guess much like DTF.
But like they are trying to solve like multiple mysteries.
Justin Kirk is in it.
I was going to ask how my guy Justin Kirk was.
So far. Unrecognizable.
I thought it was episode six.
Yeah.
Just in the three episodes, we mostly see him as the creepy neighbor that nobody understands
across the street.
He's braddling it up our guy Justin Kirk.
Kiki Palmer's like one of the best comic actresses that we have right now.
No argument.
And this is about as close to like, let's give her like a classic Diane Keaton role and let her just interact with all these people and do her thing but also be very, very funny.
And it's like a little like normie, but it is really, really like she is worth watching at least one.
Is it connected to the film, the Burbs?
It is based on characters created by the person who wrote the Burbs.
I did not rewatch the burbs.
It feels like it's like our
suburban nightmare is like the premise,
but maybe there will be more of a connection to...
So this is like a few blocks over in the same neighborhood.
I think it's just like IP they had lying around
and like, what if we turn this into a comic mystery?
What if we picked up the burbs IP?
Something everyone's been clamoring for.
Sounds great.
Okay, what's your drama at TED?
Oh, well, that's where I put...
Something very bad is going to happen.
Okay.
So since you took a...
Last One Laughing UK, which I love for both of us.
I'll do SNL UK.
There you go.
Two episodes in, I think, right?
Tina Fey hosted, Jamie Dornan hosted.
A bunch of, like, other British comedians I like, but much newer on the scene,
British comedians.
And I, you know, you and I are both fond of English culture, and it might be confusing
to people who don't know who, like, Kier Somer is or, like, whatever the case may be.
Very long, David Attenborough.
Yes.
sketch. But like the Prince Andrew
sketch, I thought was really, really good. So there's just
like some real gems there and they've got
a good, some
good weekend update host. So I'm just like
curious to see if this very
American property can translate over to
the UK. Yeah. It seems
like it's doing well over there.
I think the thing that's been interesting is
that the, on the English side
of like the media and also the commentary
around it is the
emphasis on like the money that was spent
to make it. Oh. But
more as an example of
just people don't make a
like salaries are different
there and like I think people are like
wow like this isn't just
a set where like four people sit at a table and go through the news
and make quips.
They actually like spend a ton of money
and like Saturday Night Live's a fucking expensive show
to make so even even
like the UK version
I don't know if they do as much stuff as
as the US version but they are
you know everybody is like wow
Like this is like an American style production here.
That reminds me of like what they did with like the last couple seasons of Doctor Who
where they got this sort of like Disney Plus money into the Doctor Who budget.
And all of a sudden it looked looked better, but it looked wrong because Dr.
Who should look kind of janky and under budgeted.
So yeah, that's interesting.
Alternatively, if you don't want to do a UK show, though that's available on Peacock, right?
Have I got news for you?
Speaking of sort of like news panel shows, the American American
version of a UK panel show.
Michael Ian Black,
Roy Wood Jr.
It's a really, really fun sort of like
news panel show. I haven't watched this one yet.
Yeah, it's on CNN. Yeah, it's really good.
Okay, so that's like your 10 p.m. kind of or is that?
Yeah, I'm going to, well, no, I'm going to say, so I've got two comedies, a drama,
and then that's my like late night, I guess is what I would say.
So I have Fall and Rise of Reggie Duncan's last one laughing, the burbs.
A show that Andy and I are going to talk about on Monday that we had gotten
some emails for encouraging us to check out
is a Netflix spy series called Unfamiliar.
You guys got me.
Yeah.
This is basically Eastern Gate meets the Americans.
Yeah.
And it's fucking good.
It's a Berlin set spy drama about a married couple
who are running basically a safe house business
for spies on the run,
while also running a lovely farm-to-table restaurant in Berlin
and they get pulled back into an old case
that they were involved in in Belarus
and Andy and I discussed this a little bit on text.
Has anything good ever happened in Belarus?
Not one thing.
Is anybody ever like I had an incredible honeymoon in Belarus?
It's just always like some really fucked up stuff happened in Belarus.
Yeah.
Watch two episodes of this last night.
I'm hooked.
It's interestingly written by a British author
British writer, TV writer.
And I assume,
unless he's also fluent in German,
translated into German to be made as a German TV show.
So the international co-pro...
Yeah.
This is GoMont, who I believe also did LaBiro,
but does a lot of...
I think Gomont did 0-00-0.
They do a lot of international...
And you're sub-n-dub, right?
I'm sub-n-n-dub. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
That's the way.
I'm trying to...
I'm trying to get off subs...
English language.
I can't.
Probably I'm out of my cold dead hands.
I was watching, what was I watching the other day where I was like, I can't be this stupid.
I can, oh, Survivor.
I was like, I don't think I need subs for Survivor.
That's fair.
But I think for, like, especially when we cover it for work, like, I don't want to, you know,
miss a keyword that I misinterpreted or something like that.
The thing that was driving me nuts was industry because I wanted subs for like the off-screen
banter and I also needed subs for the elaborate financial jargon.
but found myself reading blocks of text at the bottom of the screen
rather than looking at Marisa Bella's face, you know?
A crime against humanity.
I think that the thing that disturbs me is when I go to movies now
and I'm like, where are my subs?
I know.
You know what?
Where's my progress bar?
Project Hail Mary.
I was like, I wonder how much longer this is.
Not in a bad way, but I was like I'm not used to not being able to like...
I'm disoriented.
I can't like wiggle the mouse and find out how much longer I have.
Yeah.
So yeah, unfamiliar.
We'll be talking about this on.
Monday. There's a couple of pretty cool
international crime
shows out. There's privileges
on HBO, which I'm going to check out this weekend.
Yeah.
There's a lot. I mean, this isn't, you
asked, you gave me this prompt
at an interesting time because we have a lot
coming, you know, like hacks and
euphoria, beef, like all these sort of like very
muscular shows are coming back.
And so I'm really
excited to see what happens in April.
Yeah. I'm also
really looking forward to Widows Bay.
Yeah, yeah.
The Matthew Rees show.
Though I'm curious, did you see, oh, God, what was it called?
The Apple do law show that was sort of about like an isolated island community.
That was-HBO.
That was HBO.
That was HBO.
And I can't remember.
But that was a classic, like, me and Andy watched the first one and we were like, is the show the goat?
Like, this is the best thing ever.
And then like, it's okay.
Yeah.
But I can't remember the name of it.
I can't remember it either.
The third day.
For some reason, that's such a COVID.
era show to me.
Yeah. And that was also a time when
they were like Jude Law is happy to like
call in from his garden if you could make the time
and they were like do one episode lot
you know like there was like a weird gimmicky
thing about it but like for some reason
the trailer like they released a little teaser
for this and I was like oh I'm all the way and it felt very
to a peeksy like really excited about Widows Bay
and then they like dropped a trailer
and I watched it and it gave me third day vibes in a way that I was like
I watched that whole show for nothing.
Please don't do this to me again.
But if Matthew Reese is in it, I'm going to watch it.
Can I just dump for one other British things?
And this is very me-coded.
The other Bennett sister, which is, you know, burning it up over in the UK right now
and then it's going to hit Brit box, I think, at the beginning of May.
But this is, like, I'm very snobby and picky about my Jane Austen adaptations,
and this is pride and prejudice than after, told from the point of view of Mary Bennett,
who's like the sister nobody likes.
And it's really, really, really, really good.
It's so good.
It's going to be on Brit Box.
I think May 6 is when it starts.
You guys, always delivering.
Do you want to do like two minutes on Survivor?
Did you watch last night?
Yeah.
I am always wondering whether or not,
I think the reason,
one of the reasons why I don't think I was a huge
survivor person from its inception,
aside from whatever reasons,
is that like I always just kind of found
like the alliances to be unbreakable.
Like in my experience watching it earlier seasons
where it would just be like,
We have seven, they have five, we're just going to pick them off.
Yeah, math's on our side.
Yeah.
And so it was fascinating last night.
They're articulating, like, Surrey and a couple of other people are really articulating well.
Like, there is an old school block of players here that want to play, I got your back brother.
Yeah.
Style survivor.
Yeah.
And last night, you know, Colby goes, Genevieve goes.
And Camilla.
And Camilla goes.
kind of like a mix of both sides of that game.
Yeah, two new schoolers and an old school.
And like the old school are in Kobe.
My biggest takeaway was just like, that was an interesting gambit to make it like blood moon.
Nothing is safe.
But then it's like, yeah, but this person has an idol.
This person has immunity.
So it's only one of two people.
And I just, regardless of like whether I want to like hang out with her, Genevieve's just a really good survivor player.
And so I was bummed that she got voted out.
Camilla too.
Camilla is a really good player.
It's tough because the dynamic.
of the Blood Moon episode.
Jeff taking like literally five minutes.
To just basically say triple elimination, that are the Applebee's promo?
Is that your question?
Was it the Bacon Burger or the Blood Moon that got more time?
Why didn't they have like a Blood Moon Bloody Mary available from Applebee's?
Where was the synergy there?
The Albee's logo has a red apple.
You could have just turned it into a red moon.
Then you've got like blood moon branding.
Call me.
For Mark Burnett.
That is your destiny.
Horrifying.
But I, yeah, this is a real luck of the draw episode.
It's just like they drew rocks for these five-person team.
And if you were, as Genevieve was, just sort of like the odds are completely stacked against you.
There was no maneuvering for her.
It was just like a real.
So there's no social game to it inside of this episode.
It's just a real luck.
And then we'll see what happens in the merge.
But yeah, I love this old school.
What they're trying to do on the season of Survivor.
And I'm not going to tell you anything you don't already know is try to do this like,
Avengers Endgame almost like referendum on the whole franchise.
These years you've spent with this show matters.
We're trying to give you as many flashbacks as we can to make you really feel the like passage of time.
We're showing you that like Colby's foot hurts and Aussie's back hurts and all those other stuff like that.
But D is crying at Tribal because she has to send Colby home and Colby, you know, is a player that inspired her to get into the game in the first place.
So there's this like big tapestry of history they're trying to present, but also this, yeah, old school, new school is Surrey going to be successful because she's an old schooler who can be more fluid and adaptable.
Yeah.
Well, Chrissy was.
You know, Chrissy was able to do tearful, like, I get it.
It's not personal.
And then immediately went and it's like, we can't do me.
Like, what do we have to do not to be me?
Call an ambulance, but not for me, like real moment from Chrissy.
But I think that like another thing about a returny season, and I was I was on Tyson's podcast earlier this week talking about is like all the pre-gaming alliances that have happened, you know, which is like no shame in the game.
Like what are you going to do?
Like not pre-game when you go into a returning season.
But the Colby coach, Stephanie, Jonathan, like that whole sort of thing is a pre-game.
Coach is giving me a nickname.
Yeah.
Joe is part of that.
Right.
Like the Zoom Alliance, right?
The Yakuza of Survivor?
Yeah, we're cut from the same cloth, as Christy said.
Did I miss what the inciting incident was between Aubrey and Genevieve?
Because...
It was...
So, Mallory and I are in a survivor pool.
Okay.
And we put Aubrey on high on our list to go all the way because we thought that Aubrey Genevieve,
they did an Aubrey Genevieve seen in the first episode.
That was so weird.
And out of nowhere in the edit, where it was just Genevieve walking up to Aubrey and being like,
hey do you want to play with me and Aubrey's like
not sure which is a really weird thing to do
on Day 1 of Survivor. The
common thinking is that
you always say yes no matter
if you plan to or not like
first day of Survivor you're just like yeah I'd love to work
with you that's what you've got to do Aubrey for
some reason I think it's just like
they're too similar smart girl
smart girl not going to be like
challenge camp lord but like we have to play
our social game and that's going to involve you're too much
like me and I don't I don't
want you here
because I thought
thought that they're like blood feud was like, I was like, you guys really could have helped each
other like in this, in this game. And also, neither of you, both of you play pretty fluid games.
So it wouldn't be like, hey, like, I can't do anything about it. I'm in an alliance.
Like Genevieve, I think like, I don't know what it is or she's like really, really good at
survivor. But like, clearly like everybody's like, we got to get Genevieve out. Like, when she was
talking to Christian, I was like. That was a great argument. And I was like, you're just too good.
It was really smart argument.
Christian was like, she's very convincing and that's why she has to go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, it's a good season so far.
I'm excited.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for pulling double duty on the pit.
And let's get into my interview with Haley Boston, who is the creator and writer of something very bad is going to happen, which is on Netflix.
This conversation is full spoilers.
So if you have not finished the show, I recommend you do so before listening to this interview.
And I recommend you do so anyway because it's a great show.
So let's get into my interview.
interview with Haley. Thanks to Kaya. Thanks to Kai.
Thanks to everyone here at Sycamore for
producing today. Andy and I will be back on Monday.
We'll probably be talking unfamiliar.
Maybe some privileges.
Maybe we'll dabble with the new season of your friends and neighbors.
We'll see how much time Greenwald has.
And I can't wait to do it.
Thanks so much for joining me, Joe.
Thanks for having me.
Haley, thank you so much for joining me on the watch.
Something very bad is going to happen is
I think it's like one of my favorite shows of the year, for sure.
I wanted to talk to you, obviously, like, about some granular plot stuff.
But if we could start with a conversation topic that Andy and I kind of brought up on the show on Monday when we were first discussing it is, like, the challenges of sustaining horror over, like, a multi-episode kind of track.
Yeah.
Because obviously, there's, like, the things that you can do in a two-hour feature that you're building up to certain crescendo and then, like, exploding it.
But this is like, okay, how do I keep tension?
throughout an eight-hour kind of run.
And I have, like, theories about how you did that,
but I was curious if you could tell me a little bit about your approach.
I mean, honestly, I am surprised that people think the show is so scary.
Yeah.
Because it's hard to be objective about that.
You know, it's been living with me for so long that I, getting that response,
I was like, oh, good.
It's effective.
But I think that, I mean, what we talked about a lot was, like,
changing the genre a bit as as the season goes on. So the first episode has a lot of jump scares.
It is a lot of that dread and tension. And I don't think you can do that for eight episodes.
You know, you've got to change it up. We actually, I was like, I think we had talked about it.
I'd seen two and Andy had seen one. And I was like, I don't know if like you, if people could handle it.
Right. If it's the first episode for eight hours. Yeah. I mean, I think like David Lynch can do that.
Sure.
And has. But honestly, I had a lot of trouble finishing the return.
Yeah. Because of the like four episodes of Dougie wandering around. I was like, I don't know.
I like respect it. But I don't ever want to watch it again. So the first two episodes have a lot of that like dread and tension. And it sort of turns into a home invasion thriller in episode three. And then we've got the found footage in episode four. And then, you know, the whole season shifts.
into the supernatural.
And I was inspired by Servant.
The first season of Servant, I thought, was brilliant the way that it shifted the genre.
And the audience doesn't know.
By the end of the pilot, you're like, is he crazy?
Is she crazy?
Is this supernatural?
What's going on?
And I think you kind of need to do that in order to sustain the horror in a series.
And in something very bad, it's like, then there's,
a bit of body horror.
I would say, obviously,
the last episode,
the horror's, I think, quite poetic.
Yeah.
It's, it doesn't,
it's not as scary in the second half,
but it's like, there's so much red that you're like,
this is kind of beautiful, yeah.
Yeah, so, but it, but it was really
about approaching it, um,
within those sub-genres and talking to each director about,
you know, then we have the seance in episode six that,
trying to get that kind of,
talk to me energy in there.
And then a lot of it was figured out in the edit and in the mix.
You say that you are pleasantly surprised to find out people find it scary.
Did you have a hope for what people would find it like in your most sort of kind of like,
okay, like keeping all this stuff grounded?
Like how did you want people to receive it, you think?
I want people to react to the emotional story.
And that was so important to me when we were.
figuring out the curse and what that would look like.
I really did, I wrote out Rachel's emotional arc and, you know, took away the genre.
And then once I figured that out and figured out that she is someone who has a lot of doubt and then needs to believe by the end, that's where the idea that the curse, the antidote to,
the curse is belief. Yeah. That's where that came from. So I knew I wanted everyone to bleed to death,
but it was a matter of figuring out how to how to make that work in the supernatural logic.
But it all came from emotion. And so that's what I hope people who aren't horror fans even
relate to the emotional story. Yeah. There's something like kind of beautiful about how at the end
and we can get into like sort of unpacking what happens at the end in a second.
But like there is that idea that like the characters who survive are the ones who are like living honestly.
Right.
In some ways.
Like even if their honesty is like the way Jules and now are kind of brutal with each other,
it's still like a truthfulness that other people don't touch on because they live like these lies.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the way you constructed the show a little bit more because I was thinking about how if the show had begun with the two of them pulling up
driveway to Nikki's parents' place.
It feels much differently if Portia and Jules like arrive are in like the second scene.
And he's like, okay, my family's weird, by the way.
And then they walk in.
That whole first episode, it's so important to the rest of the season.
But it's also like a fair amount of like red herrings or stuff that's just like really cool.
But you don't a hundred percent need to know about the end.
So like when you're writing that first episode and you're kind of like, yeah, like,
Larry Poole and the Barbie shoe and the dead foxes.
Like, they're important, but they're not, like, central to what happens to Rachel.
Yeah.
Is that hard to convince anyone that it has to start this way?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, the first version of the pilot that I sold, they don't meet the family at all.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Really, all the road trip got to the house at the end.
And it was quite different.
But, yes.
It's a bit of a prologue, and that's challenging in TV.
And then it sort of like slowly turned into being a little more traditional in that you're meeting the whole family.
But I wanted to really capture what it's like to be Rachel, and she is like living in a horror movie as a person.
Sure. And I wanted to make sure you're getting a bit of their relationship before it gets kind of discharges.
disrupted by this family. There isn't actually that much time in the show that Rachel and
Nikki spent together. Yeah. Yeah. And that was something I was worried about in the writer's room.
Just, you know, oh, God, are people going to root for them? Are they going to care about them?
But yeah, I mean, that was important to me. And then there is a lot of thematic groundwork that
were laying in the pilot. I mean, the foxes become this sort of motif for what Rachel's going
through Larry Poole as a red herring.
I've read some internet comments
or not satisfied with Larry Poole not being a thing.
But that podcast episode that they listened to,
I mean, Victoria Prodretti recorded that.
So that's an Easter egg as well.
Yeah, I was, as it was happening,
I was like, is she the baby?
But, like, yes.
So it's sort of, it's, and there's this pregnant woman
who gets murdered or,
almost murdered by Larry Poole and then they find the baby. Like it, yes, plot-wise, it doesn't
matter, but it's meant to be this sort of like Rachel has a, has this premonitory dread.
Yeah. And these things she's encountering, listening to being thrust into these situations,
it's just meant to highlight all the things she's going through and will be going through.
Yeah, I mean, even like the diner conversation is obviously like,
this hugely crucial thing to understanding,
like how she came into the world.
And I liked it a lot because, like,
you're also watching them and you're like,
these guys are love?
Like, you know what I mean?
Like, you're kind of,
even in the first pass of it,
which is funny,
is like a horror fan,
I think you're just, like, always waiting, right?
Like, I personally, like, really love the setup
almost as much as the scare
because if it's a good setup,
the scare it doesn't even have to be that spectacular.
It can just be something kind of like,
I mean, Leatherface is extraordinary, but like I watch Texas to watch them in the van and see how weird it is.
So in some ways, that road trip is the van at the beginning of Texas.
And you're just like, okay, I care about what happens to these people.
Yeah, yeah.
There's the conversation they have in the diner is also sort of, you know, it's a brief moment where Rachel talks about this girl, Kathy, who could see her past life.
Yeah. And Nikki's like, or she had a great imagination.
And it just really immediately sets up the fact that he doesn't believe,
he doesn't believe in this stuff.
And you should have seen it coming.
Yeah.
You know.
So I wanted to really look at everything they were going through and,
and make sure it felt, you know, telegraphed to the end of the show.
Sure.
I want to talk to you a little bit about the mechanics sort of behind the scenes
because I think, typically I think of horror as like a director's jewell.
genre or as a director's medium kind of and tell me a little bit about your relationship with
the filmmakers and the directors working on the show because I imagine there's collaboration
but there's also like I need I do need you to do X, Y and Z on this block, right? So yeah, like
Veronica obviously comes in and it's got like this incredible sensibility. Yeah. But can you tell me
a little bit about working with those folks? Yeah. I mean, yeah, Veronica is really incredibly talented
and so great with perspective.
And that was the thing that drew me to her
after watching Baby Rainier.
And I really felt like she nailed being in Rachel's head.
So when we were talking about the horror
of the first two episodes especially,
it's very much about Rachel's subjective experience.
And she, you know, shot everything.
everything also in Rachel's POV, and that was so helpful in the edit to be able to have all
these characters, like, that dress-fitting scene in episode two, circling her and looking
almost directly into the camera.
And so that was a huge piece of it.
And then in talking about the scares, we really just looked at how to technically kind of achieve,
you know, the fox in the bathroom was inspired by a scene in Scream when Sydney's in the bathroom.
And you got the stapt shirt on today, thank you.
Yes, big scream fan.
Talking about the tension, the, you know, impending dread and having all these long shots.
And it was something that she and I just understood.
together. The found footage stuff, I mean, Axel, who directed that episode, is a big horror
person. I mean, she's done a bunch of Mike Flanagan stuff. Yeah. And I thought that sequence was so
well done. And Victoria and Logan performed it very well. And we got away with having 15
minutes of story that had nothing to do with. I mean, not nothing to do with, but we cut away
from our main characters. And that was something that was challenging at the script stage.
Really? Yeah. It was originally written to be intercut with Rachel watching the team. Oh,
okay. And then in the edit, it was just like, how much can you really cut back to her watching?
No, but then when you do cut back, it's fucking like, oh my God, she's been watching this.
Yeah, putting her, I mean, I love the moment where her mother says, hi, Rachel.
And, like, you know, you realize you're on the same journey, basically, as the pilot.
And I think, I think, you know, tying up some of the threads from the pilot in episode four,
I feel like having the opportunity to do that
kind of helps with some of the questions.
Yeah.
You know, you're left within the pilot.
You're seeing, oh, Rachel had stopped at all these same places as her mother.
And it's almost like they're kind of on the same path.
It also helps if there's like the voice in the back of your head, it's like,
because she could just leave.
Like, why doesn't she just get and drive away?
Like, these people are really weird.
This isn't working.
Like, go, go, go.
Yeah.
Which is the thing that's always happening when you're watching,
I know.
You're like,
get out of the basement.
But she can't leave if she can't leave, like,
because she's always supposed to have been there, you know?
Totally.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's sort of like a faded aspect to this place.
Yeah.
And in familiarity, I mean,
her remembering the Coldies logo is impossible.
She was technically there inside of her mother.
And there was a,
a character description of Rachel
that was in the pitch
where it was like
she believes that she and her mother
share the same body
and I think it was like
and if she ever got pregnant
she would birth herself and the world would end
like that's a Rachel anxiety
and so
I think some of that stuff
just stayed within the story
even though it's never explicitly
mentioned. Camilla I was
curious, like, to what extent the character morphed at all once you decided to go with her? Because
even watching her watch her mother die, first of all, like, that scene kind of reminded me of
Red Rooms. Did you? Yes. Yeah. I love that movie. It's fucking, it's amazing. And, but it's like,
I was like, damn, like, she has one of, like, she's got a top five watching something face. Yes.
Very. She's so good. And so I was curious, like, how much, once you cast her, did you start writing into
her and her like specific skills.
I would say no.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But the character as originally written was more sarcastic and dry.
Okay.
And Cammy brought a lot of warmth and humanity to her just by being who she is.
And that I always, I saw Rachel as being sort of the more like even like sort of Aubrey Plaza energy.
and Nikki being more like golden retriever.
And Adam is a little more subdued and Camilla is a little more energetic.
So it ended up kind of still having the balance that I had initially conceived of, but in an opposite way.
Yeah, I heard a little bit.
Yeah.
So watching them together, I didn't change any of the writing, but it made sense still.
And I think there were some lines in the script that could have come off as unlikable.
Everyone's worried about an unlikable female lead, especially.
There was a line that we cut where a shoot says in the car, I don't see old people as people.
I got a lot of like, um, maybe don't.
Lots of people over 65.
Yeah.
Cammy brought a lot of charm and more to the character that I think is,
fantastic and I think makes Rachel even more relatable. And she's just so great. Her expressions are
so delicious. Yeah. It was so fun being in the edit, just watching all of her takes and going,
oh, yes, let's put that reaction in there. Like one of my favorite passages of the series is
her retelling their origin story like 10 times increasingly. Like, I was actually wondering,
like, are you like, okay, you're on Champagne 6 now? Right. So, like, do this, you know, like,
Totally, yeah.
The only way for that episode to work was for it to feel like a whirlwind.
And actually when I wrote that episode, after I wrote it, it happened to me.
Oh, okay.
I was, I wrote the episode.
And then I was flying to my brother's wedding, just like Nikki.
Yeah.
And at the airport, someone told me they were afraid something bad was going to happen.
Come on.
Had you already named the show this?
Yes, I was writing episode five.
I had turned in, like, Netflix draft one of episode five, and I was doing a rewrite.
This is why I always say that I'm actually Nikki and not ritual.
And this person was really scared because we were flying out of the Burbank Airport.
Oh, well, to be fair.
And it was really hot.
Yeah.
And that's, I think, has one of the shortest runways of any airport.
So the plane had to stop in Ontario to refuel and then fly to Oregon.
Okay.
And this girl was just like really scared, had tears in her eyes and asked me if I was getting on the plane.
She was like, asked me if I was getting on the plane.
And I was like, yes, I have a thing because I'm afraid of flying too a little bit, but I have a thing where if I have like passively envisioned something happening in the future, that means I'm not going to die and it's going to happen.
Like I've envisioned myself at my brother's wedding, which means we're not going to crash.
That's definitely a more healthy coping mechanism than either someone famous is on this plane, and I don't think this is how they die, which is one of the ones I used to use or babies.
Yeah.
Yeah, but none of that means anything.
I know.
I mean, neither does my defense.
Neither does a passive plan.
But I told her that, and I was also like, you know, Sarah Paulson always talks to the pilot before getting on a plane.
I read that somewhere.
Okay.
Who knows?
I could be spreading a rumor.
But so I was like, she was like, I'm going to wait and decide.
And I was so, I really just wanted to follow the plot and see what happens.
I see if she wanted to drive to Portland.
I was like, I can't miss my brother's wedding.
I said, all right, well, I'll see you on the other side, which I shouldn't have said.
And then I went through security.
She did too.
And she asked if I would sit with her on the plane.
Oh, wow.
And so I did.
Were you like actually an aisle?
So it's kind of like where I was in it.
I actually had a like business class seat.
Nice.
But I went back to sit with her.
And she bought me a drink.
But it was funny because I told her on the plane.
I was like, just so you know, I'm writing the show.
I've, when you see it in two years, like I've already written this storyline.
It's very strange to me that this is happening.
It's not based on, on you because it already has been.
And then she was like, what's the name of the show?
And I was like, I'm not going to tell you until we land.
It almost would be like, you were like, plane crash is the name of the show.
She asked, does the plane crash in the show?
And I was like, no, the plane doesn't crash.
Oh my God.
That's too much.
Nick is, I wanted to talk to you about Nick because that's interesting that you're like,
I see myself, I see more of myself in Nikki.
Like, I have, I've actually like, you know, often it's like a mixed bag when you're
looking online for reactions to stuff, especially in like,
message boards or whatever.
But, like, I found, like, people's different interpretations of Nikki to be kind of fascinating.
I haven't read anything.
Well, just sort of, like, is he, like, a simp?
Or is he, like, an actual, like, is he a romantic?
Or is he just destroyed by his parents in the same way that Rachel was kind of destroyed,
but in a different way?
And, you know, I think Adam does, like, this really interesting thing as him where I'm, like,
I like him, you know, but I don't love him the way I do Rachel.
Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about where you have to put a character like that to make the rest of the story work versus like also wanting to give him like a definitive like arc?
Yeah, it's tricky. And that was a really big challenge because there's, you know, the horror trip of the husband who doesn't believe the wife. Right. And and also I wanted people to root for them. So I didn't want.
you to be like yelling at your TV, just dump him. And I've seen that before in a lot of horror.
Sure. So I'm sure some people did have that reaction, but, but I was trying to make him sympathetic and loving.
And I think you do feel that Rachel really loves him. And that's obviously why she has this dilemma.
It's like, well, he's great. I'm not going to, am I really going to leave because of this guy who told me about this curse?
Yeah. So, and, you know, the, the emotional version of that is like, I love this person. Maybe they're not the right person for me, but there is a lot of good. And how do you wrestle with that? I'm a Nikki Apologist. Like, I think he is just, he's trying to do the right thing. I think it is romantic what he does at the altar. He just should have done it. The first time.
the first time. But him realizing, like, what he says, you know, you're doing this for me,
I pushed you here, you never wanted this. That is a loving thing to do. Yeah. It's just that
he doesn't see her fully. And then, of course, betrays her. But I think Nikki is someone who
needs other people to model behavior for him. So he's looking at his parents' marriage as
like, well, if I just do what they did, then I'm good. And then, of course, that is shattered for him,
which is based on my own, like, I remember in the writer's room, someone asking me, because we figured
out we wanted Nikki to say no pretty early, but then it was like, how do we get there? And one of the
writers asked me, well, what would make you question everything? And I was like, if I found out my
parents' marriage is not what I thought. Yeah. It would completely change my understanding of
love. And so for someone who puts so much stake in that, it shatters his world. And then after that
happens, he's looking at everyone else for, what do I do now? And his mom being like, just go get married
again. And then his brother saying, I know what we can do. And he's just, he doesn't, he's not mature enough to have his own, like,
And Rachel clearly is.
Yeah.
So I was always looking for ways to make their relationship feel like it's not quite balanced
and that they're not quite seeing each other without making the audience, you know, too aware of that,
that they are not rooting for them.
So it was a real balance.
Yeah.
I mean, do you consider him doomed at the end?
Totally.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, he hopefully learned.
something from that
I've learned a lot
but the other thing
when we were sort of figuring out the ending
I wanted to have the drag me to hell ending
which I find so satisfying
because you know you're watching Rachel do everything right
and and then it's sort of like
Nikki is a forgotten
You forget that this wedding is two people and that he's off having his own arc.
And, you know, it would be interesting to see the Nikki version of this show,
what all the emotions he was going through that we don't see.
The Nikki Cut.
The Nicky Cut.
What does he think on his, on his aborted drive back to get the dress?
Yeah.
What is he doing on that drive?
Yeah.
Is he just like re-listening to the Larry Pool podcast?
He's just viving.
he's like, everything's great.
My family's wonderful.
That actually does bring up something I wanted to ask you about.
I'm sure, like, going back through the pages of the script,
but also when watching the finished product,
there actually is a Wicker Man show,
and there is like a fucked up Mohan drive show in this show.
Yeah.
You know, especially before you get to the second half.
And then the second half is obviously, like,
brings in like the idea of like this supernatural, like,
decade-spaned and curse.
Is there a clubhouse favorite of like,
I kind of want to go back and do this version of the show?
You know, the sorry man, every time I watch the pilot and you hear Porsche's story of
the sorry man, I'm like, man, I wish we saw that guy.
Yeah.
Like, that's fucking cool.
I've always been interested in the idea of someone being turned inside out.
And what Porsche, how Porsche describes it.
Yeah, that would have been cool.
I definitely didn't want to do any visions or nightmares.
Because at one point I was like, should we show the sorry man?
But then it's like, whose perspective are we in?
Also, like the most of what racial experiences at the house feels like a nightmare anyway.
Right.
So it's like how if you break it and you start having nightmares, then it's like, well,
then what's real and what's not real.
I know.
It becomes confusing.
And yeah.
The mechanics of the curse.
Was that fun to like diagram or were you like, fuck?
It was honestly.
Oh, man, you should talk to my writer's assistant because poor Isaac.
Did he become the keeper of the curse?
Well, when I, when, you know, the, the WGA has this like new rule where you have to have a writer come to set.
Yeah.
My show predated that.
Okay.
So they were like, no.
none for you
So like they're just on set
trying to like be like
So this curse is like what?
Well I had I I didn't have anyone
Yeah so I was like we figured out the curse in the writer's room and it was very challenging
Because it was like how do we make this all make sense and also like try not to
To dump exposition
With the witness at the bar
I think that scene is is really fun looking back in Zlocko is so weird and cool. Yeah
But yeah, I mean, it was challenging.
And I actually did end up changing the mythology during prep.
Okay.
It was originally the curse just spread, not to Nikki's bloodline.
It just spread.
Like a virus out.
Yeah.
Okay.
And I think it was Veronica's idea to put it on Nikki's bloodline,
to give it more, you.
you know, personal consequence for Rachel.
So it's about really like, do I sacrifice myself or do I sacrifice him?
And so that came into the picture a little later.
But yeah, trying to get it to all make sense.
And then, of course, Rachel becoming the new witness and figuring out, okay, at one point,
it was, you know, is this something that she does in the finale where she, like, makes a deal
with death in order to live.
But it just felt like too much happening in the finale.
And I just, I wanted it to be the kind of like surprising but inevitable ending where
I actually told you how the whole curse works in episode four.
Right.
So at this point, you should be able to, you know, logic out why she becomes the new witness.
Yeah.
And maybe even the moment that Nikki says, no, you're already kind of telegraphing it.
But all of it, again, was in service of the emotional story.
So, you know, it's ultimately a breakup story.
And it's Rachel choosing herself and realizing Nikki doesn't see me.
I'm better off on my own.
And when you get out of a relationship, it's like a death of the self.
and a rebirth.
Yeah.
And so she's free from that and drives away with this, like, little relief that she now can go find the right person.
Do you feel like there's more Rachel to talk to, like, a more Rachel's story to tell now that, like, if you, if you introduce her as a witness, like, in theory.
In theory.
I think that, I think Rachel would be a much better witness than.
Yes, I'd much rather hang out with her.
Zlock Co's witness
because I mean he's 200 years old
and he's over it at this point
I think she would really try
to prevent people from
you know bleeding to death
there was a version of the show
where it did have more of a
like leftovers vibe to it
where there was no explanation
and it was just a global phenomenon
and Rachel
this was like season two back when
before the curse and before I figured all that
stuff out. This doesn't work anymore. But
Rachel's like a couple's therapists. Oh my God.
For this like new dead world. Yeah, this world of like, if you marry the wrong person,
one of you will bleed to death at the altar. And like no one knows why. So it was about
trying to figure out why and what makes people right for each other. So that was something
that that like wasn't defined in season one originally. But then it became, you know,
clear to me that that would be
dissatisfying. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
I like a show like this that ends on that note where it's like
if she becomes, what was that show the hitchhiker?
Where it's just like he's just driving around. Like there is a version of this where she's
just like going from wedding to wedding. But I also thought it's such a complete
like statement, you know? Right.
It sounds like a very compressed and like quick turnaround for a show. But like are you
kind of like through processing that
Like this is out and number one on Netflix and that people are freaking out about it?
Not at all.
We finished the show on Monday after it came out.
I mean, I finished the final mix of eight two weeks before the show came out.
So I haven't even recovered from finishing the show.
Yeah.
So it's almost, I'm almost like, what do you mean you've already watched it?
People obviously watch the whole thing the day it came out.
Yeah.
Which is crazy to be like, I spent two years making this.
Yeah.
And you're done.
And DMing me on Instagram being like, season two.
I'm like, I haven't even slept.
It's weird.
It's fun though.
I love when this happens on like the, especially this happens with like new Netflix
shows where like you can kind of see it kind of like, oh, it's like people are starting
to check out, starting to check it out.
And then obviously it just goes into some sort of like slip stream of like, oh my God,
now everybody's watching it.
That's cool.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Thank you.
And good luck with everything in the future.
Thank you so much.
It's great to be here.
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