‘The Studio’ Series Premiere: What Seth Rogen’s Hollywood Satire Gets Right (And Wrong)

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Speaker 3 It's the Prestige TV podcast. You can watch it on the Ringer TV YouTube channel.
You can watch it as a video podcast.

Speaker 3 We cover all kinds of TV here and on The Watch with CR and India Greenwald as well. We have two TV pods.
We're covering the studio first two episodes on Apple, which you guys liked more than me.

Speaker 3 And then I watched it again. I liked it a little more the second time, but you loved it.
I'm not surprised. You're kind of the audience for it, but why did you love it?

Speaker 2 I am. I wonder if I am the direct and primary audience for this show.

Speaker 1 It's a love letter to Sean Fettis.

Speaker 2 Well, it's a love letter to lovers of the movie The Player, which is a movie that we covered on the Rewatchables, an Altman movie from the early 90s about people who work in Hollywood, particularly on the executive side and what they allow to happen and not happen on their watch, what the state of Hollywood was at that time in the 90s, and that's what the show is.

Speaker 2 It's a contemporary spin on that, created and written and directed by Seth and Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg.

Speaker 2 Longtime partners. Long time partners.
And

Speaker 2 it's a zippy 40-minute satire of something that I talk about. constantly on the podcast that I'm on here at The Ringer.
So I'm very interested in it.

Speaker 2 I think it's also whether or not it is connectable for other people, I think, is a good topic of conversation for us. Will people get into it?

Speaker 2 Because Seth Rogan, I think, is one of the most accessible stars that we have. He's a very regular seeming guy, but this subject matter is very intricate, and there are a lot of Easter eggs.

Speaker 2 What did you think? Did you like it?

Speaker 1 I love that you want to call it an Easter egg.

Speaker 2 Well, I'm doing it for you.

Speaker 1 Thank you so much. I loved it.

Speaker 1 I had the same thing. I loved it.
Well, I love these first two episodes, I'll say. I have watched five episodes, and there's like a few later that I didn't love as much as I love these two.
Um,

Speaker 1 but I'm not quite Sean Fantasy.

Speaker 1 I don't talk about this on uh twice a week, but it is an industry that we've all been adjacent to for a while, and there are a lot of like fun, sly, I will call them references rather than Easter eggs that I don't, I'm sure I don't get all of them, but I get plenty of them, and that feels that feels great when you're like, I know that Catherine Hare is playing Amy Pascal or whatever the case may be.

Speaker 1 And I think watching Seth and Evan sort of exorcise some of their frustrations that they've had working through this industry via their comedy is really fun. So I had a great time with them.

Speaker 3 Yeah, there's Legacy with Larry Sanders,

Speaker 3 the player.

Speaker 3 We've seen people delay Chiff the movie, which is a great HBO TV movie. So we've seen people kind of parrot it and they always ramp up the Hollywood executives and make them deranged.

Speaker 2 Buffoons. And

Speaker 3 for some reason, Hollywood loves this.

Speaker 3 They're like, that was awesome when you fucking ridiculed us for who's Brian Cranston supposed to be. And they do love this stuff.
The big question for me is how many people are going to watch this?

Speaker 3 Because the bubble's fine.

Speaker 3 All the people out here will watch it.

Speaker 3 I'm sure there'll be a huge chunk in New York, but are you getting people in like Winnipeg? No. And are you getting people in Kansas City? And are you getting people in Houston, Texas?

Speaker 1 The only reason you might, so later, I think it's okay to say in the trailer, we've seen that people like Zach Efron or Zoe Kravitz, like people who have broader appeal than like, you know, what exact, exactly is Brian Cranston parodying here, watching them play themselves might have some kind of draw for people.

Speaker 1 But I don't think this is going to be a broadly popular show, but I think it's going to be a show that everyone who likes to talk about film and television wants to talk about.

Speaker 3 Do you feel like it's a show Seth and Evan kind of had to do with the point of their careers they're at where, you know, it's 20 years removed from

Speaker 3 40-year-old virgin,

Speaker 3 you know, and these guys are adults. And Seth, he did, what was that movie with Charlize?

Speaker 2 Long Shot, Long Shot, which I really liked.

Speaker 3 And for some reason, it kind of came and went and didn't do as well as maybe it should have.

Speaker 2 I'm sure that their experience on that movie informed this because that's a movie that in 1987 would have been a $100 million movie and in 2019 was a $44 million movie.

Speaker 2 And most people can't remember it.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I said to you after I watched it, I was like, this feels like a show

Speaker 2 made by people

Speaker 2 who've been told no, but the show is about the people telling them no

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 trying to explore why they've been told no and what the psychology is of the people. And these are people who are, you know, studio executives.

Speaker 2 In the last five years, I've gotten to know a lot of people that are somewhat similar to the people that are portrayed in this show.

Speaker 2 And I think one of the things that I like about it is that I don't think that Seth and Evan hate these people.

Speaker 2 I think they actually have a lot of affection for them, but they know that they're basically like morally compromised, that they are, they get into the business for the right reasons. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Then they go up the food chain and they have to tell the people that they worship no.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And what is that like? And how do you make a show about people like that?

Speaker 2 Because Matt Remick, who Seth plays, who is this sort of like high-level development executive at a Paramount-esque movie studio or Sony-esque movie studio,

Speaker 2 who gets the big job.

Speaker 2 replacing a legendary studio head like Amy Pascal, and then finally has the chance with green light power to say yes or no to the people that he deeply admires and wants to be close to, wants to be friends with, wants to be, wants to ingratiate himself to, realizes that like, that's not how this business actually works, or at least has to accept that that's not how it works.

Speaker 2 And that's an interesting thing. I mean, it's very rare that you write a show or a movie about people who are kind of like the enemy to creativity, I think in their minds.

Speaker 1 But have like, I think what's so interesting about the Matt character, and I think this is what makes the show work for me, because there's a lot of cringe factor, especially in the second episode.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of like embarrassment, secondhand embarrassment, Pratt Fall, all that sort of stuff. And that's usually something that I don't like to watch.

Speaker 1 But there's something about Matt because he is not just a craven,

Speaker 1 he is, but he's not just a craven executive, but he's a guy who genuinely does like movies and genuinely does want to make cinema that lasts. And so I'm rooting for him.

Speaker 1 And probably, even as he keeps fucking up and fucking up and fucking up.

Speaker 1 And so like, if he were just, I feel like the player is a bit more cynical on this front than this property is in terms of like, if the system weren't the way it was, then

Speaker 1 maybe we could get our real, I mean, I've been told that Marius Scorsese has been trying to make a Jonestown movie for a very long time. So like.
Would watch it. I would watch.

Speaker 2 Is that true? Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. To me, it's just that I guess my issue with it.
Which it wasn't as bad the second time, but this just all feels familiar to me.

Speaker 2 Oh, Hollywood.

Speaker 3 All these people are buffoons. It's so hard to get stuff done.
And it just feels like generationally, this movie or show keeps getting made in some form.

Speaker 3 The parts that I really liked were the Easter egg stuff and the who's that supposed to be and oh, look at the, look at what they're doing here. And

Speaker 3 that, just like the inside baseball stuff, which also made me wonder if this is why the show's not going to work.

Speaker 2 Well, I think there's one thing that I would recommend about it that people who just really like watching cool stuff might enjoy, which is that from a formal technical perspective, this is one of the best looking and best made TV shows I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 There's like a big conscious choice to try to make the move the show with as many wonders as possible. And so there is this kind of seamless roving camera that is moving and following Matt.

Speaker 2 There's a kind of energy and a kinetic score, like a very jazzy beat, beat, beat, beat score that works really well. It keeps like these 28 or 44 minute episodes feeling very vibrant and alive.

Speaker 2 Costuming is incredible. Everyone is dressed exactly like these people dress.
It's kind of amazing. The Catherine Hahn character is definitely a marketing executive in Hollywood.

Speaker 1 It's kind of funny because I asked people, I was asking people who work like deeper in the industry than I do.

Speaker 1 And the Catherine Hahn character was the one character that they were bumping on because they were like, all the marketing execs that we know are like the

Speaker 1 word I got was schmergy white guys. And I was just sort of like, okay, I don't, that the Catherine Hahn character is the one I'm like slightly bumping on.

Speaker 2 I, I, I love her, and I feel like I've been in meetings with her. Um,

Speaker 2 I,

Speaker 2 I think it's just, it's a, it's a great looking and great sounding and great, like fast moving kind of a show. It kind of is trying to entertain you at all times.

Speaker 2 I think the overarching sensibility that you're talking about, which is like Hollywood is a pit and it's all about money and none of these people are actually creative is a, is a tale as old as time.

Speaker 2 It's in Singing in the Rain.

Speaker 3 It's the worst possible idea.

Speaker 2 Yes, that's definitely true. So it is kind of an update.

Speaker 2 And in that way, it's inward looking, but it does create great art. I mean, The Player is a great movie.
Singing in the Rain is a great movie. So I think it's fertile ground.

Speaker 2 It's also ironic that a show that is this well made has been made for TV by a tech company and is not a movie.

Speaker 2 And I do wonder whether Seth or Evan originally wanted this to be a movie and were told no, which would be fascinating.

Speaker 1 It should be a movie, honestly. But like, I'm excited, well, having only watched part of the season, I'm excited to see where it goes.
But I think that, like,

Speaker 1 I think to your point, they're dressed how people dress, but there's also this like out of time element to the way they're dressing because they're so aspirationally trying to do 70s Hollywood.

Speaker 1 And so like the brown suits and all that, all of that stuff is really interesting to me. And I think that, like,

Speaker 1 I think there's a virtue. I hear what you're saying that you've seen this before, but I think there's a virtue of doing it generationally and saying, what are those exact challenges now?

Speaker 1 Because when you make a player, same challenges, it's not, they weren't making Kool-Aid the movie in the player, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 So, this idea like they're still making crap, they're making crap, but like, what is the kind of crap we have to deal with now?

Speaker 1 We have to deal with Kool-Aid as like we are, the Minecraft movie is about to come out, you know what I mean? Or like

Speaker 1 the specificity of a figure like Amy Pascal, who uh you know was on some like unceremoniously kicked out of her job at a studio that seth and evans spent a lot of time with i i think i think the specificity of it is interesting to me

Speaker 3 yeah that i mean they do the cameos there's a lot of the same playbooks like stoller comes in he pitches something ron howard's in the third episode playing you know and it's like spin this version.

Speaker 3 I guess Arlist was another show that was in this world. There's been a bunch of things like this.
I think one of the mistakes I made, I watched the first three all in a row.

Speaker 3 And there's like a specific frenetic energy to this that when you said it would work better as a movie, that might be the answer. But this is not a show that you would watch.

Speaker 3 Like, I'm going to binge five episodes of the studio. Like, this thing's like a wired, the characters are over the top.
I thought Baron Holtz and Catherine Hahn are just fucking going for it.

Speaker 3 Like, yeah, it's unrewatchables. It would be like a layup for the

Speaker 2 big on the

Speaker 2 show.

Speaker 1 I would argue argue too big and catherine hin's one of my favorite actresses but she's like out of out of her mind in the show like to the point where i'm like this is just not realistic um and then ike was the other one that really like he's really going for it rogan is just he just feels like he's seth rogan it's funny because like ike is going for it but he's also like he's the straighter man to seth rogan going for it and so i i've never i don't think i've ever seen ike barrenholtz play the guy who's trying to restrain someone he's usually the guy trying you're trying trying to restrain.

Speaker 2 As he's doing cocaine. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And Cranston's another one. He's just fucking going for it.

Speaker 3 So I feel like they told everybody, like, just bring the heat, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, I think it's like a big, broad satire.
So it's kind of appropriate to have these like outsized performances. Also, people in Hollywood are.

Speaker 2 big

Speaker 2 and they're and they're weird and people who are in these jobs are real like old school Hollywood producers are performers like they're all about the pitch they're all about the energy in the room.

Speaker 2 I think it's interesting that a show like this comes along at a time when Hollywood is like a little bit more buttoned up, a little bit more tech, a little bit more corporate.

Speaker 2 And it's this kind of like friction between people who came up at a time and in theory, the Matt Remet character came up at a time in the late 90s, early 2000s when you had a little bit of more of that old school Raz Mataz Hollywood feeling.

Speaker 2 And now it's much more like we're making our PowerPoint presentation slideshow to our corporate board members and, you know, that tightening grip that it feels like is happening in Hollywood.

Speaker 2 I like it as like, um,

Speaker 2 if this was an hour-long show

Speaker 2 that where you were like, God, I, I, I hope that, like, everyone survives at the end of this season, I would not like it.

Speaker 2 I think I like it more as basically like a comedy and it shows that future episodes are playing as like 30-minute comedies. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 And that, the, like, I wrote down Birdman score in my notes, like that, that like drum score is definitely like agitates you.

Speaker 1 And I could not sustain that on a long binge or a really long episode, I think.

Speaker 1 And I think that like, to your point, yes, people are going broad, but the reason the second episode works so well for me is someone like Sarah Polly, who's actually doing something I think like her gradual frustration

Speaker 1 is nuanced, I think, and really good. And Greta Lee as well.
Like those aren't like huge, big Pratt Folly performances in contrast to what Catherine Hawn is doing.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, for people in Hollywood, this is, if, if they do the show correctly, this is the kind of show you love to pop on,

Speaker 3 get to be on, be two, three days, get to play some version of yourself. Like, I saw Pete Berg, like he's in the first scene.
Yeah. It's like, of course he was going to do this.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, well, like, yeah.

Speaker 1 And, and Paul Dana was like there for a second and them calling on a Charlize Theron who they worked with in Long Shadow or a Nick Stoller they worked on with neighbors or Zach Efron from neighbors, like just calling their pals and collaborators and saying, come play yourself.

Speaker 1 It's very,

Speaker 1 this is the end of them.

Speaker 1 Like, let's have a party and talk about this wild thing that we do.

Speaker 1 But also, I just think that there are these little toss-off lines.

Speaker 1 What was the place you cited that people might not get this Winnipeg?

Speaker 2 Is that what we should be aiming towards?

Speaker 2 Well, for the record, Seth and Evan are from Vancouver. So

Speaker 2 they do have a strong Canadian kids contention.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 But I think that like in this, in the one or episode, the second episode with Sarah Pauley, when

Speaker 1 Matt is trying to say, oh, she wants my notes. And Sal just like tosses off, yes, she's still a very good actress.
Like, I think that's just a really funny line

Speaker 1 that might not play for people who don't even know who Sarah Pauley is.

Speaker 3 I thought the pilot, my favorite part was Scorsese,

Speaker 3 who has this really weird kind of acting career where he's just popped in different things. And like.
Even he's been on SNL. And every time I see him, I'm always like, is this guy a good actor?

Speaker 3 Am I crazy? Yeah. He's really good in the pilot.

Speaker 2 he's also one of the great actors at playing himself yeah which is a weird it's almost like the little michaels quality

Speaker 3 playing the parody of what people think you are yeah yeah yeah exactly i thought like he's good when he's pitching the movie to seth he's really that charlize scene is probably my favorite scene in the that whole stretch when he's like wait a second what's going on here yeah you're editing furtive yeah

Speaker 3 but just i thought he was really really good i thought rogan was really good and i've always liked him in things like this.

Speaker 2 I think he's become a really good actor in this part, especially surrounded by all these big people. His medium energy, his like just sweaty energy is really, really good.
Yeah, because he's,

Speaker 3 I always like him in stuff.

Speaker 3 I think he's always found a way, found a hard way to break out of I am Seth Rogan. So like you think about,

Speaker 3 I thought he was really good in the Sandler movie, though, I'm blanking. What was the funny people? Funny people, yeah.

Speaker 3 That was the first time you you watch Seth Rogan and something and you go, there's something more here. He's not just like a goofy guy with a with a fun laugh.

Speaker 3 And then I thought he was really good in Long Shot, even though that, you know, that movie's got some flaws, but I really like that movie.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think Steve Jobs, too, was another good example. The Fablemans, he's really good in.
I think he's become a very, very good actor.

Speaker 1 Great. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I love the neighbors movies.

Speaker 1 Like, I think they're great movies.

Speaker 3 But if we were like Seth Rogan's manager, I don't even know what things or movies I would tell him to do other than the stuff he's done.

Speaker 2 Because,

Speaker 3 you know, I don't know, could you see him in the way back in the affleck role? Like there's stuff he's, you just couldn't separate the Seth Rogen from the role.

Speaker 2 He, there always has to be like a tinge of comic sensibility, I think, to the character.

Speaker 3 A little frenetic and a little like his self-esteem is a little lower than it should be. And he's trying to impress people and he's funny and he's quick.

Speaker 3 And he's always at his best when something's falling apart.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Which in this show, that's basically half the show.

Speaker 1 And he doesn't play assholes. He plays like eager to please people.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you always like him. You always like him in everything he does.

Speaker 3 So I think this is a good thing for him. And I agree with how you said about some of the shooting.
Like that one scene on the table when they're going around, I don't even know how they film that.

Speaker 3 Yeah. It almost seems like they're using like a drone where it's, it's like a table like we're at right now and the camera's just like flying around.
It's like really cool to watch.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Same with the scene when he gets the job to run Continental and it's kind of following him down the hallway and he goes into this big art room where he meets Cranston and then the camera's on Cranston and it's spinning around and it's following him.

Speaker 2 And there's just like

Speaker 2 to me, that's just like very involving in the story. Like I think some people watch something like that and feel it's distracting, right?

Speaker 2 Because it's very showy in terms of what it's trying to accomplish. But for me, I really like perspective driven story.

Speaker 2 And especially with something where you're like, you're starting to root for the character. Like you're saying, you're starting to be like, I hope this guy gets this job.

Speaker 2 He seems like not such a bad guy. And then slowly you learn like he has all these incredible weaknesses.

Speaker 2 But following him as closely as we can until he fucking tells Marty Scorsese he's not making his movie

Speaker 2 is, I think, one of the reasons why that formal stuff is helpful and not hurting the show.

Speaker 1 We've been talking a lot on The Watch and on the Prestige Feed this week about the show Adolescence, which is on Netflix, which is four episodes, hour-long episodes that are wonners, actual organic wonners versus the virtual wonders that they talked about in the second episode of this show.

Speaker 1 And the acrobatic nature of that filming is so incredible to watch, the behind the scenes of how they pulled that off.

Speaker 1 And I also had that question of like, is this too distracting, especially for the subject matter of that show? And I think occasionally it is. But here, when it's just sort of like,

Speaker 1 we're putting on a show energy of this, this backstage putting on a show energy of this show, I think all of those fun camera techniques really work.

Speaker 1 And the way that they lampshaded it and talking about 1917 in the second episode, I thought was really brilliant.

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Speaker 3 What did you think of the Catherine O'Hara character and performance?

Speaker 2 It's just so transparently a person that we know about. That exists.

Speaker 3 I think, but they even like weave in like, she's slept with people in the path. There's some stuff there.

Speaker 2 I'm like, oh, the Releota stuff. Yeah.

Speaker 2 How close to the fire is this going?

Speaker 2 On the one hand, yes.

Speaker 1 But on the other hand, like

Speaker 1 she's also seems so much more competent than them.

Speaker 1 I think it's like a, she's not, she, she like has these moments where she's like, night, you know, she has these like shrill moments, but at the end of the day, she's just so much more in control of what she's doing and like talks about how she would have held the line against a Kool-Aid movie and all these other things.

Speaker 3 So I think they're giving their she's negotiating with them and she's crying, but ultimately she gets what she wants. All of a sudden, she's fine.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, like two, the, the wig is Amy Pascal. The, I sent you a link of her house in the New York Times.
The house is Amy Pascal's house. Yeah.
Like, all of this is very much her, but like.

Speaker 3 But how many people are getting that? So you're talking like, this is super stealth.

Speaker 2 So on the inverse, for me, well, I don't think you need to enjoy, like, understand that to enjoy it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think you can just say that there was a woman who was in charge of this studio who has a kind of manic energy, but is brilliant. That was kind of what Amy Pascal was, right?

Speaker 2 She was really hard charging, really straight-talking, and she got pushed out after the Sony hack.

Speaker 3 Which we should mention

Speaker 3 involved in the Sony hack.

Speaker 2 That part's a little weird, too. And I think like wending some of that stuff in here is potentially very interesting.
We'll see if it happens.

Speaker 2 The stuff that I didn't like is the stuff that the show needs to make it more legible to regular folks.

Speaker 2 At the very beginning of the episode, we see Seth Rogan after he leaves the shoot, hop on the cart with Chase Sue Wonders, and he starts like explaining things about the studio to this person who is his assistant.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
Who has clearly been his assistant for a little while? Like they wouldn't talk that way. It's a TV show.

Speaker 2 We kind of have to over-explain what Continental is, you know, what Patty did and what her legacy was, how long I've been waiting for my shot to do this.

Speaker 2 There's a, there's something kind of unnatural in the TV of it, whereas I felt like in the player,

Speaker 2 they don't bend over backwards to explain how the world works. They're just like, you're inside of it because the murder mystery was as much a part of it.

Speaker 3 I've talked about this with the content we do. Like, let the audience catch up to you, not vice versa.
Don't dumb down the stuff you're doing.

Speaker 1 I agree. The sort of like they built this as a temple beat, which is hit a couple different times in the first episode, is some of the stuff that doesn't work.

Speaker 3 But then, but that's the thing. You're doing that, but then you're also doing this stealth, stealth, stealth, hardcore sky baseball character.

Speaker 1 But don't, I don't think you need to know that that's Amy Pascal. Like, there's layers to it.
You can enjoy it on a different layer.

Speaker 1 You can think about what Amy Pascal did after she got kicked out of Sony, which is great stuff. Little women, challengers.

Speaker 2 She's like the most successful producer in Hollywood. She may be the next Bond producer.

Speaker 1 Yeah, she might be the next Bond producer. So they're not kicking someone necessarily when they're down.

Speaker 1 They're just sort of like, here's a very distinctive woman that we came into contact with in our work at Sony. And we're going to capture this like odd blend of competence and eccentricity.

Speaker 1 And Catherine O'Hara, who's a master at what she does is giving us you know we've been talking about her in the crest for guest films like yeah giving us one of those classic catherine o'hara roles

Speaker 3 what did she say what was her name in that cookie yeah yeah oh yeah you've grown up um

Speaker 3 i guess here's the thing i guess it's just my personal preference for how this stuff is done i'm always going to be partial to the way the player that handled it like the over-the-top version of it i'm always going to feel like it's a little bit of a bit.

Speaker 3 And I think there's Catherine Hahn character, Baron Holtz, Cranston, even Catherine Hare in that scene, which I thought she did a good job, but it's all like the ramped up, crazy version of it.

Speaker 3 Every character in this version, in this, at least the first couple episodes we watched, including Ron Howard in the third episode, is big. Is big and on tilt.
And I think for 10 episodes.

Speaker 3 I just don't know if that was the right decision, but we'll find out when we keep going.

Speaker 1 I think part of it, too, is like asking these people to, you know, what Catherine Hare is is doing with Amy Pascal is one thing, but asking Olivia Wilde, who has like a big reputational black cloud hanging over her after Don't Worry Darling, to come and I'm not going to like spoot, but not at my house.

Speaker 3 My wife liked that much.

Speaker 1 But she's in the show playing herself as a director in a later episode. And so she's decided to willingly engage with, you know, this big PR thing that happened in her career.

Speaker 1 And in order to do so, to do it huge,

Speaker 1 I think is something that's more comfortable for them than to do the smaller version of that.

Speaker 3 I but I just think it's the easier way to do it.

Speaker 3 And I think there was another level of this show that I think if I personally think if it had been a little more subtle, but I also know the why they did that.

Speaker 3 It's the whole point of this show, it's frenetic.

Speaker 2 Well, I think there's one other logical reason why they made this choice.

Speaker 2 In 1992, when the player was being made and came out, one, you've got a guy who's much older making that movie, Altman's been through 40 years of Hollywood history by that point.

Speaker 2 Two, Hollywood is on top. In 1992, Hollywood is the absolute center of American culture, whatever is being made there.

Speaker 2 And so what it can be is really more this sort of like behind the scenes, surreptitious vision of like the way that things really work and this like quiet but aggressive competition happening at the executive level.

Speaker 2 Like that's the thing that is undergirding the murder mystery in that movie. Right now, if you're an executive or a writer or any number of roles in Hollywood, you're like, fuck, I think it's over.

Speaker 2 Like it's ending. There's this like panic and anxiety among all people who work in this industry.
It's very real.

Speaker 2 And so I think it's pitched up in this tenor because people are nervous and they're like kind of afraid that they made a mistake getting into this line of work.

Speaker 2 And if you're Matt Remick and this is your big shot and you screw up, there may not be another job for you. You may have to go figure something else out to do.
So

Speaker 3 I think that's why they've created this kind of like shaky hands version of the broad satire, which i'm enjoying but i think will rub people the wrong way well the other piece of that they're also leaving stuff on meat on the bone with just where hollywood is now because hollywood is so tech driven with some of the even some of the people like think about the people there was that story about apple this week about them losing a billion dollars and the people ultimately making the decision are two people that aren't content people in that way at all you know so i almost wonder like this is not an apple series

Speaker 1 yeah yeah the version and martyrs crucifix is like i'll take this i'll take this movie to apple yeah their version of hollywood in this show

Speaker 1 i think is skewed toward this version of hollywood we all grew up with in the 90s and 2000s that's why i think there's i think hollywood's a little different now i think that's why there's that like slightly out of step of time element to it everything is sort of like 70s golden hour laurel canyon sort of

Speaker 1 visually and mid-century modern architecture yeah exactly and then i think that then you just inject Kool-Aid into that mix because you've got Cranson doing Bob Evans, but like Bob Evans telling you to make a Kool-Aid movie.

Speaker 1 Like that's a good thing.

Speaker 3 But can you do this if you're making the show for Apple?

Speaker 2 It's a contradiction. Like, I wouldn't say that.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 Can you make a show about the horrors of a white work, white-walled workplace if you're at Apple? That's what severance is.

Speaker 2 But here's the thing. It's true.

Speaker 3 And this is a big topic on Sean's pod the last few years. Like, what is the biggest issue with Hollywood right now?

Speaker 3 What they're saying in this show tell me i'd love to i need to know the biggest issue with hollywood they're saying right now is like ip driven sellout moves or whatever yeah cool it i would say that's one issue

Speaker 3 but another big issue is like what what the streamers have done to movies over the last five years which this show isn't gonna they won't touch that i and that's like so you're we're skewering hollywood but also this is over here

Speaker 2 i do wonder i think that that i mean maybe this is self-satisfying but i agree with everything that you just said and if they do touch it then i'll be impressed.

Speaker 2 I think it's they're basically Paramount or Sony is what this studio is.

Speaker 2 But like, it has a historical thing that Paramount has for the huge decision makers for the most part. But they don't have their own streaming services, you know? Like, that's the thing.

Speaker 2 Like, if this was set in the world of Warner Brothers, you'd be like, oh, well, there's Max. And Max

Speaker 2 Max Intersects. Yeah, but Paramount doesn't really make like original movies for their platform.
Like, it's a much smaller proposition to me. Okay.
And they're also like their theatre.

Speaker 2 This is way inside baseball, but like their theatrical distribution. They used to be a major player and now they put out seven movies a year and like two of them are going to hit.

Speaker 2 And then the other five are like, God, I don't know.

Speaker 3 That's the thing is like, is this a more interesting show if the studio is really set at Netflix or Amazon or Apple? Because they're

Speaker 3 spending the most money. No, they would never do it.
But that's why when you said, would this have been better as a movie?

Speaker 3 I think the 2025 version of this show is actually a movie set at Amazon or Netflix or wherever

Speaker 2 you're making those decisions.

Speaker 1 I've only seen five episodes. There is a lot of like nostalgia.
The movies that they are making outside of the conceptual Kool-Aid seem like

Speaker 1 mid-level nostalgic movies that we don't really see any see made anymore.

Speaker 3 Like even the guys watching Goodfellow, Goodfellas at

Speaker 3 the end of... And the thing, that's a movie that came out 32 years ago.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But that's supposed to show that like they love, they actually love good movies.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 but also Rest and Penis is like I'm the same age as Seth Rogen.

Speaker 2 we are the exact same age.

Speaker 2 His reference points and his like aspirations toward a version of Hollywood that no longer exists. I think I, I, I don't know him, but I think we share that.

Speaker 2 And so I think that's part of the reason why I'm connecting with it.

Speaker 2 And what do I do when I go home, but cozy up or show up at the Coolidge Theater in Boston and watch a movie like Goodfellas, you know, like that's, so I think generationally, it's actually right.

Speaker 2 It's like a bunch of people that are now in their 40s waited all this time.

Speaker 1 What? I don't know if this is apocryphal, but Wikipedia, deeply unreliable, has Ted Serandos as himself listed in the like

Speaker 2 season. Maybe they will.
Maybe they will.

Speaker 3 So if they hit the streamer side, then this becomes fascinating on a whole other level. Because right now,

Speaker 3 this is the

Speaker 3 easier way to do it. Where you're doing it, it's like a studio and we're just shipping.
We got it. Oh, and there's IP.
And let's see. I bought Kool-Aid.

Speaker 3 And the Kool-Aid thing is just ridiculous enough that it's actually like really funny. And it's like, it's just plausible enough that this would happen, but it's completely ridiculous.

Speaker 2 I think what works about that is that the Nick Stoller pitch is like so perfectly what you imagine a pitch like that would be, and that sequence works so well.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you know, it's just really dumb enough, it's just smart enough to be dumb, you know.

Speaker 2 I really, I thought that was really well written, and it's like and then we get green involved and yellow, and

Speaker 2 then I see when Francis like

Speaker 2 diversity, and it's like you got your brother. Like, all that stuff is very, very funny.

Speaker 3 Are we sure Matt? So, Matt gets his job out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 Well, he's like in line for it.

Speaker 3 Well, he's in line for it, but he doesn't realize his boss. And then they're like, oh, this is happening.
Boom.

Speaker 3 I feel like he has like one project in his back pocket. He's going to try to move on right away that he's, that his boss never let him make.
And now it's like, this is the time to do it.

Speaker 3 It goes really quick to like, all of a sudden he's making Kool-Aid and taking shit on Matt Bellonet's podcast, The Town. Good podcast, by the way.
I've heard good things.

Speaker 3 But I feel like there's a moment when you, when you finally get the car keys like that,

Speaker 3 you have a couple of weeks there where you're like, all right, my director that I'm close with, I'm going to do a deal with them. Like you start taking care of your favorites and he never does that.

Speaker 3 He's just off making Kool-Aid.

Speaker 1 Well, the premise seemingly in this world is that Kool-Aid is a test of like, if he is suited for the job.

Speaker 2 But he has the job.

Speaker 1 Right. But Griffin Mill, this character that Cranston is playing, is like, I've got this Kool-Aid IP.
I want to see what you can do with it.

Speaker 1 And the implication is sort of like, if you fuck this up, it's Ike Barrenholse's turn. You know what it is?

Speaker 2 It's like, it's both. Like, we're watching a real life version of this transpire right now at Warner Brothers.

Speaker 2 Old administration goes out. Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdi come in to run the studio.
David Zazlov hires them. Here's two things that happened when they got hired.

Speaker 2 One, Mike DeLuca, who produced in Greenland Boogie Nights.

Speaker 2 signs up for a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie, a very expensive Paul Thomas Anderson movie, takes care of his guy, somebody he's worked with for 30 years. So it's what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 Also, a movie that is opening this weekend, The The Alto Knights, is reportedly a movie that David Zazlov wanted to be

Speaker 2 for his friends, for Barry Levinson, for Nick Peleggi. This is how Hollywood works.
Yes. It felt, if it could have happened in 92, it could have happened in 52.
It still happens in 2025.

Speaker 2 So maybe there is a world where later in this season we see Matt get to take care of one of his guys. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I'll be curious because if he's only making Kool-Aid for the whole series, that will seem a little too broad maybe for how things actually work.

Speaker 3 He's trying to get a bunch of shit done because he doesn't know if the carpet's going to get pulled out of him. Right.

Speaker 3 So he's taking, he's going to grab the best script he's ever had in his back pocket. He's taking care of his Paul Thomas Anderson.

Speaker 2 He's doing it all.

Speaker 1 Time is passing in large chunks between episodes because when we get to episode two,

Speaker 1 Catherine Harris's character, Patty, says she's been on this film of Sarah Polly for a while. Yes.

Speaker 2 But Sal is like, I've been taking care of her for four years, which I also like.

Speaker 2 I'm not sure that Sal's communicating guy who has been shepherding Sarah Polly Greta Lee movie for four years, but then, you know, that's not that important.

Speaker 1 But like that, that Patty's like, I've been here for a while. So it's been like a minute since episode one as we go into episode two.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So Kool-Aid Man, Kool-Aid movie might already be, you know, in the can sort of thing or

Speaker 2 on the website. They already mentioned it.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because the, and then the only other one I saw was the third one, and that's also not really tied to the Kool-Aid movie.

Speaker 2 A different movie, yeah. Yeah.
It's hard to know how much time is passing.

Speaker 3 I have a, I have a really important question for Sean specifically. Okay.
Martin Scorsese's Kool-Aid about the Johnstone, the Jonestown Jones. Jamestown, Johnstown, Jamestown.
Jonestown.

Speaker 2 Jonestown.

Speaker 3 Jonestown Massacre.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I would watch in a harp. You're there for seeing Buscemi and Sam Dirty.

Speaker 2 Hopefully they have to go to the show. Hopefully they show to me a month in advance and I can build an entire month of programming around it.

Speaker 2 What, as we learn in the show, one of our greatest living actors.

Speaker 1 What are the needle drops that you're waiting for in the Rolling Stones are left?

Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Rolling stones suck. Can't you hear me knocking?

Speaker 2 He's like playing on the tarmac as like

Speaker 2 monkey man. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm obsessed with Jonestown. That's like a, you know, it's a Bay Area-based, you know,

Speaker 3 one of the reasons it hasn't really been made in a movie yet. Tough ending.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Not, not.
Well, you know, Scorsese, a bummer ending is in his arsenal. Not a lot of sunshine and rainbows at the end of his movies.

Speaker 3 It's another part of this show that I'm glad I watched it again. Maybe, maybe I was in the, but it's, it is funny, like Kool-Aid by Martin Scorsese.

Speaker 3 It's ridiculous, but it's not so ridiculous that it couldn't happen.

Speaker 1 I think it's so, it's such a clever turn of the script to have Scorsese come in with this Jonestown project, which apparently, like, what comes first? Them knowing that Martin Scorsese...

Speaker 1 in the real world wants to make a Jonestown project? Or what if we had Kool-Aid as our IP? You know, like all that sort of stuff is, I think, brilliant inside of this.

Speaker 3 What was your Kool-Aid IP idea?

Speaker 2 Oh, if I could bring any brand to the table?

Speaker 3 No, if it was just they were asking you for a Kool-Aid pitch. Do you have one? Did you get excited about the thoughts?

Speaker 2 We've never really had a great horror movie with a tie-in like that.

Speaker 2 Like if you drink Kool-Aid, like there's a really low-budget movie called The Stuff that's about this yogurt that like takes over the world. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Kool-Aid transformed, like drinking Kool-Aid transformed you into something. I don't want to see a movie with a Kool-Aid, man.
That's fucking weird.

Speaker 3 But they bought the IP rights, which means they can do anything they want, or they're trying to do right by Kool-Aid.

Speaker 1 I mean, when you have the IP for something like Kool-Aid, I'm not going to tell you anything you don't already know.

Speaker 1 You are want, you want, when you make Barbie, you want to make a movie that is interesting, but also will sell more Barbies.

Speaker 3 But I'm sure Mattel wouldn't be like, here's your Barbie IP. Could you make like a

Speaker 2 massacre movie about Barbie?

Speaker 3 Like, probably wouldn't have.

Speaker 1 Well, that's what I'm saying. You want to sell Barbies, you want to sell Kool-Aid.
So it can't be poisonous Kool-Aid.

Speaker 2 So Kool-Aid is owned by Kraft, which owns everything. Which owns many food products.
So I think part of the genius of Stoller's pitch is like you can build out the world of Kraft products.

Speaker 2 Velveeta, also owned by Kraft, that gets a mention. Yeah.
You know, there is a kind of synergistic quality to the way you'd make that movie that is very, I totally agree with you.

Speaker 2 I think it's really clever

Speaker 2 instead of that first episode. Casey.
I mean,

Speaker 3 yeah, because I'm supposed to be rooting for Matt, right? He's the hero.

Speaker 3 But Matt also has no ideas.

Speaker 1 You don't have to root for Matt. I'm just saying, like,

Speaker 3 I'm saying technically on the show, it's Seth Rogan is playing our lead, Matt, and I think I'm supposed to be rooting for him.

Speaker 1 I will say,

Speaker 2 but there's like, are you rooting for Tony Soprano?

Speaker 2 Are you rooting for Walter from Breaking Bad?

Speaker 3 We can't talk about Tony Soprano because joining us number six. Right.

Speaker 2 So Tony Soprano is the lead character in a series called The Sopranos. It was on HBO.

Speaker 1 I don't think that Matt Remick is an anti-hero. I don't think he's a golden era of a TV anti-hero.

Speaker 2 The first thing we see from him is he bursts onto the set of Peter Burke's new movie starring Paul Dano, and he sweatily introduces himself to Paul Dano and tells him he loves his directing.

Speaker 2 And Paul Dano could not get that.

Speaker 1 But, like, that's endearing in a way.

Speaker 2 It's also like this guy, first of all, I say this with all self-awareness. This guy is a loser.
Oh, yeah. He is not cool.

Speaker 1 No, I'm not saying he's cool, but that's not an anti-hero. Like, Tony Soprano is cool.

Speaker 2 You know, Walter Wino's cool.

Speaker 2 He's a big dad from New Jersey. You know, isn't he cool?

Speaker 1 Like, people have.

Speaker 3 Joanna, you're not allowed to talk about that.

Speaker 2 I'm allowed to talk about anti-heroes in the old age.

Speaker 2 Don Draper is cool. And Don Draper is cool.

Speaker 1 And like, Matt is such a loser that, yeah, I do want to root for him.

Speaker 1 But there's also, there's the character of Quinn, his assistant, who he promotes. And what's interesting on this show is that a friend of mine pointed this out to me.
Frida Perez has

Speaker 1 an EP credit on this show. And we're like, who is she? She's former Seth Rogan assistant.
Yeah. That he like promoted to EP on this show.

Speaker 2 I'm sure she's a big inspiration for Quinn.

Speaker 2 I think that's cool.

Speaker 3 What do you think that Paul Dano Peter Berg Berg movie was?

Speaker 3 You think it was like a, were they making it for Amazon Prime?

Speaker 2 I have to assume that the guy who shot Paul Dano in that scene is Mark Wahlberg. You know, it's just given Berg's directorial history.

Speaker 3 Like a one last job gone wrong.

Speaker 2 Or is it like a horror movie?

Speaker 3 And again, I feel for the genre.

Speaker 2 I love a Peter Berg horror movie. How do you feel

Speaker 2 you should do that?

Speaker 1 How do you feel about Patty dropping a line from that movie at the end of the episode and Matt not clocking in at all?

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 it's a good question. Like, does Matt really, is he really in the work? Is he really well suited to this or not?

Speaker 3 Well, that, but that's, that's part of like why I'm really interested to see where the rest of it goes.

Speaker 3 Cause it's, I can't tell if Matt is somebody that ultimately we're going to be like, what a fucking idiot that guy was. Or if there's like, it seems like he loves movies.
Yeah. Right.

Speaker 3 Maybe he was over promoted too high. Doesn't seem like he really has any ideas yet.
He stumbled into every piece of every episode we've seen so far. So what are...

Speaker 1 do we need a big win?

Speaker 3 What are we trying to say about Matt? What's what are supposed to be?

Speaker 2 What are they trying to say about people in this job? I would guess at the end of the day

Speaker 2 that they don't really like people like this because they don't make anything.

Speaker 1 Do you see any like Tom Rothman in the mix here?

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 3 I mean, library for the people in Winnipeg.

Speaker 1 Who's the head of Sony?

Speaker 2 Tom Rothman's the head of Sony, longtime studio chief ran fox for many years um one of the like old school studio chiefs very values theatrical over other things um likes the e the big big easy win is something that he is known for pushing forward i don't know if there's like quite a character because the the brian cranson character who is also called griffin mill which is the tim robins' character's name in the player um is not and the idea of it being the same Griffin Mill is amusing.

Speaker 2 I wonder if they went to Tim Robbins for this.

Speaker 2 Cranson's really big. Like he's wearing jewelry and necklaces

Speaker 2 and he's wide lapels. Yeah, he's very, very over the top.

Speaker 2 I didn't like the Griffin Mill thing.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 3 Get Tim Robbins if you're doing that.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 You like stay off my

Speaker 2 cow that is. Almost not alive anymore, right? No.
He's not alive. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I wonder if,

Speaker 2 because Griffin Mill is a murderer, maybe they felt like this was just another guy named Griffin Mill.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 sorry.

Speaker 2 No, I'm just kidding. That's the first 20 minutes.
If you haven't seen the player, go check out the player. I have seen the player.
Not you, of course.

Speaker 3 The player and Larry Sanders were both a lot more subtle with some of this stuff.

Speaker 2 They were a lot.

Speaker 3 There was a lot of people feeling each other out and it was their version of Hollywood. This is just

Speaker 3 big and bombastic.

Speaker 1 Did you ever watch the Ricky Jerve show X-rays?

Speaker 3 I did. I wasn't a huge fan.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I wasn't like a huge fan of it on a week-to-week, week, but certain people showing up to play themselves is

Speaker 2 incredible David Bowie in that series.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Great Kate Winslet.
Yeah. Yeah.
Talking about what you need to do to win an Oscar, and then she did exactly that to win her Oscar.

Speaker 3 I think it's really hard to pull off the celebrity cameos because I, spoiler alert, like episode three with Ron Howard, I didn't think it was. I didn't think he was good.
That's funny.

Speaker 2 You didn't love it either. I really, I really liked episode three.

Speaker 3 I just felt like, oh, watch this. Ron Howard, we're going to flip it.
Everyone says he's the nicest guy. It's like, all right, I see this coming down the highway.

Speaker 2 I was really more into the Anthony Mackey, who's not really having the best 2025, but I enjoyed what he was up to. Well, people will get to that when they get to that.

Speaker 2 I think that whether or not Matt is a likable hero

Speaker 2 is ultimately immaterial because all of these kinds of movies are about whether or not this is a good place to be creative or not. Yeah.
And I think we're going to find out.

Speaker 2 Don't we already know the answer after all these attempts

Speaker 2 with TV shows and movies? Ultimately, they all land in the same place.

Speaker 3 Like, yep, creativity loses and dumbass people win.

Speaker 2 Was Larry Sanders likable?

Speaker 1 I find Matt likable. And I think it's because people are constantly like making fun of him and putting him down that he's just got this underdog spirit to him.
And he's not an asshole.

Speaker 1 Like he makes asshole moves for his job,

Speaker 1 but feels tremendously guilty about it. Like, I do not fundamentally think he's a soulless character.
And I think that's a hard, hard thing to pull off.

Speaker 1 And Rogan, that's something he really excels at.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I thought Larry Sanders was more realistic. Yeah, it is.
I think the characters on that show, I mean, Hank's one of the great characters of all time, the sidekick, but this, we'll see with this one.

Speaker 2 I wouldn't say that's the most subtle character of all time, Hank. Hank? Yeah.

Speaker 3 No, but it's just that whole concept of the sidekick who just secretly hates himself and has a huge ego when he doesn't, like, there's like some really good stuff in there.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 RD2 is not. These are not subtle characters.
I think that world is a little dingier, a little smaller, and it felt very like really almost literally behind the curtain.

Speaker 2 Whereas, this is like boardroom culture going on set of big productions. It's a slightly more elevated less grossman Tropic Thunder.

Speaker 2 It is, it is. That's a good character performances.

Speaker 3 When was the last thing that really tried to dive into this world?

Speaker 3 I was trying to think about this

Speaker 3 because there's been pieces of it, and there's always been like the Tropic Thunder moments and

Speaker 1 Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which is not about the boardroom, but is an incredible actor playing themselves and

Speaker 1 artistic selling out and all of that.

Speaker 2 It was a tremendously great movie.

Speaker 3 What about that Lisa Cujo show, The Comeback? I never watched that show. Yeah, that's

Speaker 3 how I do a lot of this stuff, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think

Speaker 2 Argo is in this vein as well.

Speaker 2 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, more historical, but sure. Yeah.

Speaker 3 It's a good movie.

Speaker 2 It's a great movie.

Speaker 1 Hail Caesar, also historical.

Speaker 2 Yeah. No, there's one.
Oh, The Disaster artist, I feel like, is an interesting example of this. It's kind of a forgotten movie because of James Franco being deleted from our culture.

Speaker 2 But speaking of Seth Rogan, but we've seen James in season one?

Speaker 2 I don't think so.

Speaker 1 Maybe you'll get a Dave if you're lucky.

Speaker 2 Oh, we're definitely getting Dave. Well, for your consideration, that was the other Christopher Guest movie, right? Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Not as successful.

Speaker 1 Can we, before we go,

Speaker 2 can we talk about Crumholtz, one of my favorites of all time?

Speaker 1 Super funny.

Speaker 1 I think he's really funny in this.

Speaker 3 Go ahead. What do you want to say?

Speaker 1 David Crumholtz shows up to play this agent and is just like going a mile a minute. And I feel like we're in a little Crumholtz seance after Oppenheimer, et cetera.
And I just have always loved him.

Speaker 1 And I want nothing but the best for him.

Speaker 3 Can I give you my biggest gripe of the whole pilot?

Speaker 2 Please.

Speaker 3 You can't bring Charlize out of the bullpen. and play her music and get the crowd fired up for her to get the ninth inning save and then she's got one line and she's out.

Speaker 1 Do you think it's the last you see of her this season?

Speaker 3 It better not be is my point, my point.

Speaker 3 If you can play the Charlize card for literally a cameo.

Speaker 2 But what isn't it literally Mariana Rivera coming out of the bullpen, bathing is loaded, 6-2 game.

Speaker 3 I needed her like for like this is like

Speaker 3 she's

Speaker 2 buddies with these people.

Speaker 3 You got to like play that card hard.

Speaker 1 I think what's interesting and I'll be curious to see how much we're getting like a season long arc, like how much they're able to shuffle these episodes however they want if there isn't a ton of continuity between like if we aren't checking back in on the kool-aid movie in that case you can be like okay we're we're gonna come out hot with scorsesi and charlize their own and blah blah and then episode two we've got greta lee and sarah poly which is just like

Speaker 1 not for houston texas or winnipeg you know what i mean and sort of like calibrate the level of because then you've got Ron Howard and then you've got Zach Efron and you've got Olivia Wilde.

Speaker 1 Like what level of, you know, mega favor are we pulling in to do I just wish I didn't love the Greta Lee episode

Speaker 2 but i wish i wish that second movie had been i just think they should have been a parody of like fast and furious or one of those type of franchise like a franchise movie that's in like its 11th installation and the stars hate each other like maybe they'll go that their way down the road in the in the in the future in this series there is a maybe not quite fast and furious but an event movie an ip movie yeah that basically i want to start getting into that into that world where it's like oh they're doing they're doing fast and furious i mean that would be just a more realistic portrayal than like a mid-budget sarah Sarah Polly movie set in the 50s, a lesbian drama.

Speaker 2 That's what it's supposed to be.

Speaker 3 I mean, that movie is just not being made anymore.

Speaker 2 Not that it makes too much. Yeah, it's at 824.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I suppose Sarah Polly's like, I won my Oscar. Let me do this, you know?

Speaker 2 On a movie that I believe was greenlit by Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdi before they left MGM, right? That was what women talking was. So, you know, every once in a while, one slides in.

Speaker 3 Have you seen every episode?

Speaker 2 No, I've only seen.

Speaker 2 It's funny the way that you described it at the beginning of our conversation because I

Speaker 2 have a very vivid memory of this. It was when the fires hit in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 We left town and I was like, you know, bored and concerned like everybody else in the city of Los Angeles and trying to find anything to distract myself.

Speaker 2 And I powered through five episodes in one night, which, as you guys know, as a TV watcher. That's like doing cocaine.
That's not something I do.

Speaker 2 I can't watch more than two consecutive episodes of TV because I find it kind of enervating. And this was the opposite, I think, because it's not.

Speaker 2 It's not like, oh, they're really stringing out what's going to happen next. It's not one of those shows.
It's contained. The drama of each episode is what entertains you.

Speaker 2 It's not like, oh my God, I hope they get this project off the ground. I have to tune in next week.
So I think I was kind of relieved to not have a show like that.

Speaker 2 And weirdly, that propelled me forward with it rather than holding me back from it. But I realize I'm not a normal TV watcher.

Speaker 1 You hate continuity.

Speaker 2 Well, I don't know if that's the word, but I hate. I hate long arcs.
I don't like long arts.

Speaker 3 Also, is Matt like, is he dating? What's going on, Matt?

Speaker 2 I wondered that too.

Speaker 3 Is he like, I needed like a Raya, like a Raya reference? This is going to be so great for my Raya. Like, there's some subtle stuff that I just didn't, like, is he fucking his assistant?

Speaker 3 Like, what, what's going on with him?

Speaker 2 The 1995 version of this, it would have featured that.

Speaker 2 That is not, that's harder to get away with now in storytelling and in the business.

Speaker 3 Is this a gender moment with him? Like, what's happening with Matt?

Speaker 2 He should be on Raya.

Speaker 3 Is he a Heidi Fleis

Speaker 3 2025, whoever Heidi Fleis is now client?

Speaker 2 Sure. Kind of like in a Nora situation? Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 I wonder if they'll get to that. I wonder.
I think him and Sal cozying up at the end of a long day together to watch Goodfellas.

Speaker 1 Seth loves a bromance.

Speaker 2 It's a bromance.

Speaker 1 That's his speed.

Speaker 3 I just don't feel like 40-year-olds are hanging out at

Speaker 3 the morning watching Goodfellas with

Speaker 2 the CR and I will call you next time.

Speaker 3 When was the last time you watched a movie the CR at 1230 at night?

Speaker 2 Just the two of you. I mean, for me, I'm like, who are these people? I have a small child at home and no one does this.
So if you have kids, and that's the thing, these are childless people also.

Speaker 2 And so they can afford to watch Goodfellas at one o'clock in the morning. I can't.

Speaker 1 What about the LA, like the restaurants that are going in and out of the like?

Speaker 3 So that Burbank restaurant, that's a really good movie location.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah. It's called, I think, the Smokehouse.

Speaker 3 It's almost like they made that. First of all, it's a big studio steakhouse restaurant, but it's also like a great, it's like Mousson Franks.
It's like one of those great things.

Speaker 1 Musa and Frank's is in a later episode.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I'm sure is Dantana's. I'm sure Dan Tannis is coming at some point.

Speaker 2 Smokehouse is not the one across from Warner Brothers.

Speaker 3 I think it's right in that mix, but it's a pretty famous one.

Speaker 2 Will you keep watching the show?

Speaker 3 I think I will. I'm probably going to stick to one at a time because I think it's a lot.
Yeah. It's like,

Speaker 3 you know, it's like a double espresso.

Speaker 3 You don't want to have, I wouldn't have two.

Speaker 2 When are we going to get the live Bill Tries Cocaine for the first time podcast?

Speaker 1 And what should be the movie?

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 1 It's like while talking about Blow.

Speaker 3 Joanna finishes the Soprano for the first time, and then I just do blow

Speaker 2 as she gives her review. Yeah, one just one line.
I'm just like button it up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 One more inducement to watch the Sopranos. That's the best one yet.

Speaker 2 All right, the studio.

Speaker 3 You can find it on Apple. Great TV stretch right now.
Best we've had in a long time.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 3 Well, after the writer's strike is over and people have a little more money to spend.

Speaker 2 What do you have your eye on? Like, what are you like when's Bill Simmons coming back to TV podcasting?

Speaker 3 Well, we farmed out The Last of Us to House of R and to Midnight Boys. I think the next Prestige one, and

Speaker 3 I don't know if I'm going to be involved, but it's that Your Friends and Neighbors. Oh, yeah, John.

Speaker 3 There's some good buzz on that one.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 But you never know with Prestige TV. It surprises like who knew Adolescence was coming, and that turned out to be the best show of the year so far.

Speaker 2 Netflix, to their credit, they sent me a bad thing.

Speaker 3 They sent the battle for Robin Joe. Like, we got to fucking have this now.

Speaker 2 What's up with Joe's usage rate? Like, are you thinking about maybe some saving her for the playoff stuff? Because, like, this is really an all-time high. Like, I don't know how she's alive right now.

Speaker 3 When Joe's in LA, everyone wins.

Speaker 2 Okay. It's great.

Speaker 3 And she's like a starting pitcher that can just go out every couple of days.

Speaker 2 240 innings this year. Yeah.
Just throw innings. No load management for you.
You are just, yeah, starting five days a week.

Speaker 3 Do we have

Speaker 2 the mega blush? Wow.

Speaker 3 Do we have what do we have for like Ringerverse era stuff coming?

Speaker 1 Not only Last of Us, but Andor, which rules.

Speaker 2 Do you watch Andor?

Speaker 3 No, but it's the one if I watch

Speaker 2 you like that. I think Andor looks good.
I do think you would like that one. Very good things.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And then there's a new Game of Thrones show, Not of the Seven Kingdoms.

Speaker 2 When's that coming up? Do you have any date on that?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think it's June.

Speaker 2 I think that's right. Whoa, that's soon.

Speaker 3 That's going to be after the NFL draft. It's like, Mal, what are you up to?

Speaker 2 I'm doing my rewatch of all Game of Thrones episodes and House of Dragon and rereading 19 books to get ready for this new show that might not tie into any of it at all.

Speaker 2 The best. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Maniac. Sean, great to see you.
Joanna, great to see you as always.

Speaker 2 Wonderful. Thanks to the crew.

Speaker 3 Prestige TV. Check it out on RingerDash TV on YouTube, or you can watch this video pod.

Speaker 2 Thank you. Thanks.