Patrick J. Adams on the Making of ‘The Madison.’ Plus, ‘The Pitt’ S2E12 and a TV News Roundup.

Summary

The Watch (The Ringer)

Episode: Patrick J. Adams on the Making of ‘The Madison.’ Plus, ‘The Pitt’ S2E12 and a TV News Roundup.

Date: March 27, 2026
Hosts: Andy Greenwald & Chris Ryan
Special Guest: Patrick J. Adams

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Watch is a packed installment that blends deep-dive TV recaps, an insightful industry news roundup, and an engaging interview with Patrick J. Adams, star of Taylor Sheridan’s new show The Madison. Andy and Chris banter about the latest headlines—including the just-dropped Harry Potter trailer, Mahershala Ali’s TV comeback, and the latest Lord of the Rings developments—before dissecting a pivotal episode of The Pitt. The episode culminates in an intimate, good-humored interview with Adams, exploring the quirks of working with Taylor Sheridan and the nature of modern TV stardom.

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TV News Roundup

The Harry Potter HBO Max Trailer ([02:56])

• Trailer Drop & Show Context: The trailer drops at HBO Max’s UK/Ireland launch. Andy, consulting producer on the series, shares the excitement and his limited involvement.
• Andy’s Take: “I am a consulting producer on the show. I am not the showrunner. ... I was really pleasantly surprised because there was footage that I had seen ... and things that I had never seen before but was happy to see.” ([05:54])
• Show Tone: The trailer feels “Christmassy” and aims to “communicate some of the central tenets of what Francesca [showrunner] wants to do with the property and what we want the show to be.” ([06:42])
• Chris, on seeing a friend’s work come to life: “When you see work that your friends have done come to life, it's pretty cool.” ([05:37])
• Cameos & Casting Gags: Quick mentions of actors like Lithgow and Papa Esiedu.

Mahershala Ali Joins Task ([08:44])

• Ali’s New Role: Mahershala Ali to play Eddie Barnes, a heavy-hitting DEA agent in Philadelphia, set to clash with Tom’s unit.
• Chris’s Excitement: “Mahershala Ali playing a guy from Philadelphia called Eddie Barnes is pretty much our love language.” ([09:30])
• Meta-Casting Fun: Andy notes the show’s strong ability to attract A-list talent for juicy, one-off or recurring arcs.
• Philly Love: Extensive banter about local references, hoagies, and the “Wawa diaspora.”

LOTR: New Developments ([12:27])

• Peter Jackson & Colbert Announcement: Stephen Colbert revealed to be co-writing a Lord of the Rings film focusing on Tom Bombadil chapters—“a rapper who hung out with Black Moon...” quips Andy ([14:22]).
• Nerd-Out Tangents: Confusion and humor around the Bombadil character and the deep-minutiae of Tolkien’s world.
• Stephen Colbert’s Late Show “Victory Lap”: Brief, wry discussion about Colbert’s long-running goodbye and the differences with TV “farewell culture” ([16:53]).
  • Andy: “All of the guests who have come on…are just using their time … to just glaze him. And like Lithgow wrote a poem about … how the scared orange man ran.”
  • Chris: “I read the Financial Times, so I wouldn’t know.” ([15:54])

X-Files and TV Reboots ([18:12])

• Casting News: Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel announced as leads in the X-Files reboot.
• Legacy Show Banter: Chris and Andy riff on X-Files, Millennium, Lone Gunmen, and how these ‘90s/early-2000s reboots fit the modern TV landscape.
• Andy’s Take: “Considering two of this year’s best director nominees were both involved in the very delicate…rebooting of beloved 90s early 2000s television shows…so I’m curious to see what happens with Coogler’s X-Files.” ([20:10])

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The Pitt Season 2, Episode 12: Recap & Analysis

Setting the Stage ([22:06])

• Spoiler Warning: Full spoilers for S2E12.
• Tone Setting: Andy references the episode’s opening line: “‘Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. This place is going tits up.’” ([22:16])
• Chris: “Santos says that… even with the stilted turns to camera and ‘well, you know, emphysema is a rising cause of death in the senior citizen community’ moments—it’s really coming together, man.” ([22:25])

Robbie’s Descent: A Slow-Burn Focus

• Character Arc: Chris and Andy dissect Robbie’s transition from compassionate leader to emotionally withdrawn, noting the loss of his “warm touch.” ([23:10]–[24:37])
  • Chris: “He is a guy steamrolling through his last workday and is making everybody around him pretty miserable, including people that he’s trying to help, like Duke...”
• Hospital’s Endurance Theme: Dana reminds Robbie—and the audience—that “these institutions have to keep running for as long as they can, with or without the heroes, the main characters.” ([31:00])
  • Chris: “If ego death is what you’re looking for, like, you can get it here… I really like that confrontation they had.”

Discussion of Structure, Longevity, and Franchise Potential

• Show’s Longevity: Chris: “What they’re doing in the second season is a great leap forward... But the Robbie bullet is, in some ways, the same kind of caliber of bullet as a mass casualty event.” ([26:25])
• Andy’s Meta-Reflection: “In a perfect world, The Pitt isn’t just a reboot of a broadcast network show. ... I would imagine in success this show will outlive—not literally, but many of its characters.” ([27:08])
• Shifting Dynamics: Entering ‘the Night Shift’—potential for expanded storylines and a unique approach to ensemble-led storytelling. ([27:46])

Notable Character & Actor Moments

• Chris appreciates small, authentic choices: Like Joy putting up boundaries (“classic Greenwald move… I respected the hell out of it.”) ([34:41])
• Dana & Robbie’s dynamic as emergent core: Andy: “...these are the two pillars of the show, the north and south pole, who you’re rooting for…” ([32:14])
• Comic relief and realism: Recurrent gags about Dunkin’ Donuts, Canadian kale, and viable “off-ramp” routes for characters.

Cinematic & Directorial Accolades

• Director Amanda Marsalis: “The part of the filmmaking excellence of the show is surprisingly unshowy… the choreography is tighter and more demanding than on, I think, any other television show currently on the air, but it doesn’t call a lot of attention to itself.” ([38:47])

Standout Patient Plots & Secondary Stories

• Coked-out Golfer: “There was no… I was like, oh, maybe he has, like, a brain worm that’s made him mean. It turns out it was just cocaine and White Claws.” ([39:38])
• Emma & Joy’s Burnout Juxtaposition: Highlighting the early-career drive versus self-protective boundaries.

Hopes for the Finale Arc

• Speculation: Only three episodes left; discussion about character “offramps” and potential surprise exits.
• Elder-care Plot Critique: Andy wishes for “20% fewer elder care storylines” and likens the old-couple plot to the ‘journalists’ in The Wire’s final season ([43:07]).
• Final Reflection: “The show is not slick, but it might surprise us with who needs care at the end of the season. Might be us.” ([43:07])

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Top Chef Season 21, Episode 3 (‘True Colors’) Discussion

The Challenge(s) ([44:19])

• Elimination Challenge: Contestants must cook with natural dyes for vibrant presentation.
• Chris’s Outrage: “If she had not been sent home, it would have been my January 6th, because they opened it up to the idea that somehow not putting food on a plate wouldn’t get you sent home.” ([44:47])
• General Season Vibe: Both hosts feel the season has “juice” and praise the show’s energy and inventiveness.
• Tom Colicchio’s Tough Judging: “We had Angry Tom early in the season, and it almost got to the point where I was like—if it’s so easy, you fucking go do it.” ([45:55])
• Quickfire: Emeril returns, and the cheftestants must ‘class up’ the regional delicacy of Livermush (“basically scrapple” per Andy). ([47:16])

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Interview: Patrick J. Adams on The Madison

(Starts ~[51:45])

On Taylor Sheridan’s Machine & The Production Process

• Whirlwind Press Tour: Adams has been through an international press blitz: “Like all things with Taylor Sheridan, it’s just like the craziest version of a press tour for a TV show.” ([53:51])
• The Set Environment: “On a Taylor set, you’re the new kid at school… They’ve been at school for years, and you’re the new kid. And they’re like, what do you got?” ([57:51])

On Working with Taylor Sheridan

• Script Process: Only the first script was available at casting; the rest unfolded week by week: “Not even close. Fluid’s a word. ... Sometimes we didn’t get those final scripts until days before we shot.” ([63:01], [71:32])
• Adams’ Perspective: “There’s worse things than… I know this is going to be a big deal. ... I just sort of trusted that [the character] would become something more...” ([65:51])

The Michelle Pfeiffer Experience

• On Her Presence: “She took off… decades to raise her family and … comes back with her 100 mile per hour fastball still intact. ... It’s a thing to behold.” ([66:28])
• Starstruck Moments: “I never got over it, if I’m honest. I still get nervous around her.” ([67:20])

Acting Insights & The Modern TV Industry

• On Character Archetypes: Adams enjoys “playing people who are uncomfortable and unsure,” drawing a line from Suits to The Madison ([61:14]).
• On Surviving as an Actor: “I love what I do. I love acting. ... I just try to take that Dustin [Hoffman] story to heart or Michelle’s, which is just follow, you know, find a script that lights something up in me.” ([73:27])

Collaborating with Directors

• Visual Style Appreciation: Patrick raves about director/cinematographer Christina Boros, and explains the unique five-camera setup for The Madison: “It was like sort of this beautiful orchestra that nobody really needed to be told what to do.” ([83:16])

On TV Fandom, Streaming, and Physical Media

• Suits Fandom: The hosts note Adams’ playful, positive interactions with Suits fans on social media.
• Physical Media Gag: Andy receives a signed DVD from Adams, as Suits is “unavailable on streaming.” ([52:18])
• Ringer In-Jokes: Shout-outs to fellow Ringer personalities and critics, notably Adam Naiman.

What Patrick’s Watching

• TV Taste: Patrick watches “The Pit”, Industry (because of The Watch), DTF, Letterkenny, Orphan Black, and is “deep in Bluey” with his kids. ([77:24], [78:19])
• Canadian TV Love: Acknowledges the uniqueness of shows like Orphan Black and Letterkenny.

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Notable Quotes

• Andy, on The Pitt’s lead: “An HBO show is nothing if it doesn’t have a morally complicated and conflicted male lead.” ([29:49])
• Chris, on Top Chef eliminations: “If she had not been sent home, it would have been my January 6th.” ([44:47])
• Patrick, on working with Michelle Pfeiffer: “She’s a remarkably…amazing writer and…her fastball is still intact…she just wants to work.” ([66:46])
• Patrick, on Taylor Sheridan’s process: “This is a guy in a room going like, this is what I’m thinking about. And sometimes for better, sometimes for worse… But I will say it’s kind of cool to be on a show that’s just like one person’s vision.” ([75:02])
• Andy, on The Madison’s visual style: “Shot after shot is just stunning.” ([58:49])
• Patrick, on craft: “I’m just fascinated by the camera...I love visual storytelling…” ([83:16])

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Key Timestamps & Segments

• 02:56 – Harry Potter HBO Max trailer reactions & Andy’s involvement
• 08:44 – Mahershala Ali joins Task; TV casting news
• 12:27 – Lord of the Rings: Colbert’s involvement & “Bombadil Chapters”
• 18:12 – X-Files reboot casting
• 22:06 – The Pitt S2E12 in-depth breakdown
• 44:19 – Top Chef S21E3: "True Colors" discussion
• 51:45 – Patrick J. Adams interview: The Making of The Madison, Sheridan universe, on-set stories, industry observations
• 66:28 – On working with Michelle Pfeiffer
• 75:02 – Taylor Sheridan’s writing philosophy
• 77:24 – Adams’ current TV viewing habits
• 83:16 – Photography & camera talk; actor-director perspective

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Memorable Moments and Tone

• Bantery, in-joke-laden camaraderie: The hosts’ rapport is strong, mixing deep TV knowledge with Philly references, sly anti-capitalist jabs, and generational culture war jokes.
• Quotable banter and “January 6th” hyperbole (Chris on Top Chef).
• Andy’s frequent meta-television observations—often breaking down the DNA of prestige TV and its leading men.
• Patrick's approachable humility: Continually in awe of his colleagues and grateful for the unpredictability of the acting business.
• Recurring bits about hats, favorite snacks, and physical media, displaying the pod's signature blend of nostalgia and exasperation for modern streaming culture.

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Summary

A spirited, wide-ranging episode of The Watch that adroitly balances sharp TV criticism, nostalgic TV love, and industry-insider reflections. The Patrick J. Adams interview is warm, insightful, and loaded with appealing details for TV fans. The Pitt and Top Chef segments are classic Watch: opinionated, knowledgable, and playful.

Recommended for:

• Fans of The Pitt and/or Taylor Sheridan
• Listeners wanting inside-Hollywood details
• Anyone seeking the best pop culture TV recap banter in podcasting

Endnote:
Skip to [51:45] for the full Patrick J. Adams segment if you’re here for The Madison making-of!

Transcript

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[Chris Ryan]

This episode is brought to you by Volkswagen. It can be hard to do your own thing when everyone else is following everyone else. But that's what some of the best films are about. An outcast striving to make their own way in the world. And this is your sign to be that outcast. From us, from vw, from the other outcasts out there. Take a chance. Make the most of every day and don't be afraid to veer off course every now and then. Because if you don't do it now, then when? Learn [e-mail]. PAIN support staff to clear the room,

[Andy Greenwald]

stand up and walk now.

[Chris Ryan]

Hello and welcome to the Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an [e-mail] and joining me in the studio, very little going on this week, it's Andy Greenwald.

[Andy Greenwald]

How are you?

[Chris Ryan]

I'm doing good, brother.

[Andy Greenwald]

Happy opening day.

[Chris Ryan]

Good to see you. We represent just the beauty of baseball and the national pastime here.

[Andy Greenwald]

I thought for sure we were going to get a Phillies hat today to celebrate opening day.

[Chris Ryan]

But you know what happens if you cut my arm open? Bleeds Phillies red.

[Andy Greenwald]

That happens to everyone.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, when it comes to hats, I like to mix it up a little bit. We've talked about this.

[Andy Greenwald]

Do you think that you are like eagle eyed viewers because we have viewers now of the podcast. Do you think they're aware that you've been, you've been subtly spelling out a message with the letters in your head? No, that's what I've been. That's the message I've been signaling with my hands for the last six months.

[Chris Ryan]

Our month end, Andy. Today on the Watch we're going to talk about the pit. We're Going to talk about Top Chef. We have a special guest from the Madison, Patrick Adams, here to here to

[Andy Greenwald]

clear some things up.

[Chris Ryan]

I feel pretty like I got the plot of the Madison. I got it. Yeah, it's all clear to me.

[Patrick Adams]

It's not.

[Chris Ryan]

It's not like paradise. Which we will be talking about on Monday after its season finale.

[Andy Greenwald]

Can't wait.

[Chris Ryan]

A couple of things at the top to discuss news and notes wise.

[Andy Greenwald]

Mm.

[Chris Ryan]

The Harry Potter trailer did drop kind of unexpectedly. Was it unexpected for you?

[Andy Greenwald]

No.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, thank you.

[Andy Greenwald]

Nor was it unexpected to many because yesterday was the HBO MAX launch event for the UK and Ireland.

[Chris Ryan]

Sorry, I was reading the Financial Times. They didn't mention in there.

[Andy Greenwald]

And for those people. I know that you are mostly ft.

[Chris Ryan]

We were just kind of really focused on other things.

[Andy Greenwald]

You mostly travel by Waymo these days, but if you had taken public transportation in any of the major cities, you would have seen there were, like. There were, you know, the best platform

[Chris Ryan]

since I travel by Waymo. But I hire a guy to, like, sit in the front seat just to, like, normal. Make it normal.

[Andy Greenwald]

Just to be like, how's the temperature for you, sir?

[Chris Ryan]

Would you like the ox cord, my friend?

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, that's great. Yeah. So, no, I was not surprised. Also, I don't know why I'm piling on. Why are you paying more attention that members of the cast posted, like, tomorrow.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, okay. Great. It's coming in Christmas of this year.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes. That was news.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay. That's crazy. I think just my relationship to you being over there is, you know, obviously, you were part of the writing staff, and it's been a huge deal for you and it's.

[Andy Greenwald]

And for my frequent flyer miles and

[Chris Ryan]

for your frequent flyer miles, which I

[Andy Greenwald]

can't wait to use in an airport soon.

[Chris Ryan]

When you go to George Bush Airport in Houston. I wanted to go through the trailer frame by frame and ask you if you're responsible for each scene.

[Andy Greenwald]

I think that's the only way we should be covering the show.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't. Do you have any observations or do you have any reflections or any statements you'd to make?

[Andy Greenwald]

Statements?

[Chris Ryan]

Like, to me, this is all new. Like, I've watched Harry Potter movies over other dudes shoulders on airplanes or in bars when they're on mute.

[Andy Greenwald]

Just two adults staring at children becoming wizards.

[Chris Ryan]

What the fuck is wrong with me? I was at a bar once last year, and I was like, damn, this is pretty interesting. But it's, you know, obviously, what's it like seeing the stuff on screen at the bar?

[Andy Greenwald]

Were they Showing one of the later films when they're, like, a little more

[Chris Ryan]

mature now, they seem pretty young.

[Andy Greenwald]

Wow.

[Chris Ryan]

I guess they're always young. Right? It's not like the old Potters to us. Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Right. First of all, stop giving good ideas away for free.

[Chris Ryan]

Didn't they make an old Potter or Potter has a Kid? Isn't that the play?

[Andy Greenwald]

This should be our podcast for the next year and a half.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't think so.

[Andy Greenwald]

The play is. Yes, many years later and the children of the first generation characters are going off to Hogwarts. And maybe this will make you more interested. Harry's son is sorted into Slytherin. Do you like those words in that order?

[Chris Ryan]

I never got that. I never understood what that stuff was.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, you've got, you know, you've got nine months to catch up. And I have to say, I really appreciated your enthusiasm about the trailer for a property that you have at this point. Kev.

[Chris Ryan]

No, I will say the corny part out loud, which is like, when you see work that your friends have done come to life, it's pretty cool.

[Andy Greenwald]

Thank you. That's how I felt about CR Month.

[Chris Ryan]

It's the same thing.

[Andy Greenwald]

It was basically the same thing.

[Chris Ryan]

It honestly means. It means the same to the Warner Brothers Discovery Corporation.

[Andy Greenwald]

It's possible. Yeah. It was extremely exciting. And I'll just say that I thought. I mean, as we go through this, like, and everybody knows, like, I am a consulting producer on the show. I am not the showrunner. I am not involved in the decision making, and I am not privy to, like, the cuts of the trailer. So I was seeing it for the first time, and I was really pleasantly surprised because there was footage that I had seen and been involved in, and there was things that I had never seen before but was happy to see. And the thing that I was most excited about about the trailer was that it did seem to communicate some of the central tenets of what Francesca wants to do with the property and what we want the show to be. And it was also, because this is the first filmed version of Potter, obviously, to happen since all the books have been written, since the movies have been adored and digested. And it is, I think, hopefully communicating with the fandom as well as opening it up to new people.

[Chris Ryan]

If you had been. If you had been responsible for the trailer, like, if you were the decision maker, would you have used J RU's come clean as the music for Harry?

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh, in the beginning, yeah. No. I mean, Hans Zimmer is doing the score, but I would have done some of his Dune work over this trailer. Just like the real, real blaring stuff. No, I thought the kids looked great and you know, there's a lot more to unfold. I don't know what else can I. Should I say?

[Chris Ryan]

Nothing. I mean it's coming out Christmas of this year.

[Andy Greenwald]

You know, it's a very Christmassy vibe.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm sure like more will emerge. It was cool to see Papa Eseo. That's mostly my relationship to the show, I guess at this point other than Lithgow.

[Patrick Adams]

Right.

[Chris Ryan]

Nick Frost Also seen Janet McTeer. Saw her randomly got served a scene of her death in another TV series. Oh yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Because of your interest in the Harry Potter trailer.

[Chris Ryan]

No, it was like a tour I saw it was a prompt of sickest needle drops and her death and it

[Andy Greenwald]

was John Williams Harry Potter score over her death in I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

No, I don't want to spoil the show. That happens and so I can't really tell the story.

[Andy Greenwald]

It would have been such a good story.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you have anything else you wanted to say about the Potter stuff?

[Andy Greenwald]

No, I'm excited to have it out there and I'm excited for Christmas back in London.

[Chris Ryan]

Are you going to be there for Christmas?

[Andy Greenwald]

I will be introducing the show to the world. Yes, I know. I just sort of.

[Chris Ryan]

Because the premiere would be theoretically in London at Christmas.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes. And all the principals have decided that who better introduce the entire project to the world than a podcast from America's

[Chris Ryan]

beloved man on the Internet. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about something that happened right as we were finishing what was, I thought a solid show for us on Monday.

[Andy Greenwald]

I always feel like it's a little bit like an away game when we're in a different studio with a different seat.

[Chris Ryan]

And didn't we do Monday was like let's talk about a bunch of different shows.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, right.

[Chris Ryan]

I thought it was a good show. It was fine.

[Andy Greenwald]

Now you're voting turn it down now.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm turning it down a little bit. But as we were leaving that day it was announced something that. Oh, there's some news had been out there. It was in the ether which is that Mahershala Ali, one of my favorite actors is joining the cast of Task for season two.

[Andy Greenwald]

Say the name of his character do you have in front of you?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I sure do.

[Andy Greenwald]

Dude, it's cool as hell.

[Chris Ryan]

He is going to play quote Eddie Barnes, described as a seasoned and well respected DEA agent in Philadelphia whose team comes to into conflict with Tom's unit.

[Andy Greenwald]

This is the same Energy. I saw on the Harry Potter on HBO subreddit yesterday. Like we all have our fandoms and Mahershala Ali playing a guy from Philadelphia called Eddie Barnes.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is pretty much our love language.

[Chris Ryan]

The thing I wanted to point out, other than the fact that this is so great to see Mahershala get a role that he will obviously be sinking his teeth into since he did not get to see sink his teeth into anything as.

[Patrick Adams]

Please.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Come on. Look at us.

[Andy Greenwald]

That was pathetic. Cut that. Actually run with it. What are we doing? Which one open or seem like a

[Chris Ryan]

cool like predator guy. Here we go. Blade has been in this sort of development hell. I don't know what kind of schedule holds it. Put on his time. The only real thing that popped off for him I'm gonna say since like true D3.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Was Jurassic.

[Andy Greenwald]

He had a little beret in that.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And he's like, that was cool. Good in it. But it's. It's a weird. Like that's an Oscar winning actor, man. Like what's going on? And so it's awesome that he's going to be doing this. And it's also a great zag for Task to be probably making the oppositional force of Tom, another law enforcement agent.

[Patrick Adams]

Mm.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what I mean? And it's.

[Andy Greenwald]

We're going to get.

[Chris Ryan]

Are you saying all die in Philadelphia?

[Andy Greenwald]

All cops aren't buddies.

[Chris Ryan]

That's right.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is that what that stands for? Damn, that's tough. Yeah. You like that one?

[Chris Ryan]

Your ACAB jokes are pretty funny.

[Andy Greenwald]

Because they're right. I'm dancing on the edge.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

You never know which way I'm gonna go with them.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, you don't really. I mean like those wars, you know, I guess ACAB comes up. But we want to. It's a lot of bastards out there, you know.

[Andy Greenwald]

So you don't want to just like limit them to one.

[Chris Ryan]

Exactly. I don't want. It's limiting. So any other thoughts on this?

[Andy Greenwald]

No, it's just exciting. I mean it also potentially is proof of concept for why Task is an ongoing series, which is that they can attract really a list talent to come play in this sandbox for presumably one season runs or maybe one. And then you come back in a sort of like, you know, we don't know the terms of his deal, but I would imagine that he is not joining the show to become the new Tom Pelfrey or the new number two on the cast on the call sheet.

[Chris Ryan]

No.

[Andy Greenwald]

I would imagine. But they are building a pantheon of characters and worlds within the setting of the show that could be revisited depending how long it runs.

[Chris Ryan]

And then Ser Criston Cole gets out of the Bing at the end of season two. And he could be the big bad guy for season three or the good guy for season three. There's a lot of opportunities here. I also think at some point, not that he would probably do it, but if the concept of the show is durable enough, Ruffalo could leave in one way or another and you could have two different characters. I mean, it doesn't have to be an anthology for it to change a lot.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, I mean, the star of the show is basically the Wawa diaspora.

[Chris Ryan]

That's right.

[Andy Greenwald]

So like as long as you can get a hoagie within spitting distance of where the characters live, they can be the stars of the show.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't really have that much more for you on the news side of things, but I did want to ask if you saw the Lord of the Rings news this week.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that.

[Chris Ryan]

So it's like some sort of Lord of the Rings celebration or anniversary this week or it's like Lord of the Rings day.

[Andy Greenwald]

Some sort like. Couldn't be me. You definitely have no idea what's going on.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, it wasn't in the Financial Times.

[Andy Greenwald]

It wasn't.

[Chris Ryan]

They weren't writing about it in Alphaville.

[Andy Greenwald]

I mean, the price of gold is fluctuating. So thus the One ring may have gone up in value, but Peter Jackson

[Chris Ryan]

did some straight to camera video stuff on social media and he was like, yeah, you know, Andy Serkis movie is going pretty well. The hunt for Gollum. We discussed that.

[Andy Greenwald]

We sure did.

[Chris Ryan]

And he was like, little surprise. And he patches in the co writer of another Lord of the Rings movie that is in development. And it's Stephen fucking Colbert.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

And it turns out Stephen Colbert really likes chapters four through eight of Fellowship of the Ring, which aren't really in the movie Fellowship of the Ring. So he's like, what if we did that?

[Andy Greenwald]

Is that all like the Tom Bombadil chapters, dude? Yeah, I could. I could fucking get it. Come on, now we're doing this.

[Chris Ryan]

You put me. Yeah, you put me on an ice floe and sent me out and started shooting arrows at me like a Viking

[Andy Greenwald]

when I knew what are Vikings called?

[Chris Ryan]

Isoldor was Middle Earth. Are they. Those guys are dwarves, right?

[Andy Greenwald]

You talk to your people about that. I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

The Gimli and all those guys.

[Andy Greenwald]

See, this is the thing, you can't pin me down. Well, you don't know where I'm at. This is only like the chapters in those books about the little minstrelsy songs. No, I'm just trying to zag.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay. Because I am having my. My reaction to this news is closer to what you were like. Like, we're like, why are they hunting for Gollum when they just hunt for Gollum for four, five movies and for three movies. And my. That's my reaction to this, which is I know that there are LOTR fans who are like, Tom Bombadil is actually. And I don't really know if that's how you say his last name when you say it. Like, that sounds like a 1984 Phillies left fielder who platoons left right. But like, what?

[Andy Greenwald]

No, he doesn't. He sounds like a rapper who hung out with like, like Buckshot and like the rest of the gang, Black Moon and like, show an ag. Tom Bombadil dropping knowledge.

[Chris Ryan]

He apparently. I haven't read the books and since he's not in the movies, I'm not certain about this, but is like the counterweight to Sauron. Right? Like, she's Tom.

[Andy Greenwald]

I thought he was just like a dude with a banjo because the whole

[Chris Ryan]

thing is at one point he puts the ring on and nothing happens because he's powerful.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh, I thought it was because he chose himself. He doesn't need to get married. Tom chose. Tom chose.

[Chris Ryan]

I choose. Anyway, this is on one hand, I guess this could be a 90 minute movie. I doubt it. But it could be like a tight, interesting little like, slice of life with a bit of who was this guy? And you know, what did he mean to this world? But shout, Stephen Colbert, man. He is not going to be hosting the Late show much longer. Much longer. But he is going to be writing a Lord of the Rings movie.

[Andy Greenwald]

Do you want to weigh in on. There was an interesting. Daniel Daddario wrote an interesting piece in Variety about Stephen Colbert's victory lap of a final season.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

And how it was sort of becoming curdling a little bit. I don't know if you had any feelings about that.

[Chris Ryan]

I haven't seen it. I haven't seen a single second of it, to be honest.

[Andy Greenwald]

This is like, this is like someone.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, I mean, like, curdling. How is he?

[Andy Greenwald]

Like, you sound like the federal judges testifying in front of the Senate. The nominees just like, who won the 2020 election? And you're like, I haven't seen it.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I read the Financial Times, so I wouldn't know.

[Andy Greenwald]

Financial Times.

[Chris Ryan]

I know. I have no idea. Is it different than the way it was in 2017.

[Andy Greenwald]

Right. I mean, I think that the thing is that because of the political nature of what happened and that he's had this long Runway to be, I think, righteously aggrieved. All of the guests who have come on, including the star of HBO's upcoming Harry Potter show, John Lithgow, are just using their time on the show to just glaze him. And like Lithgow wrote a poem about like the rapier wit of Sir Stephen, you know, and all this and how like the scared orange man ran.

[Chris Ryan]

It's a miracle that this is not a popular thing with most of America.

[Andy Greenwald]

This is thing. It's like it is because you. This is.

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, Colbert does well, right? Like, he does. His show does pretty, pretty well.

[Andy Greenwald]

I think it all does pretty well. I think it's expensive. I think that people who are old like us remember Johnny Carson's last week. I mean, we didn't watch. They have to watch Johnny Carson. But do you remember what a big deal that was?

[Chris Ryan]

I do. I remember.

[Andy Greenwald]

And for the last week, like Bette Midler came on and sang him a song and he was like, you know, crying. But that was like four days after 30 years.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

So it is a little bit of a long. Anyway, I'm glad he's gonna do something. He's a very smart, very talent, multi talented guy and this seems like a passion project.

[Chris Ryan]

He co writing this with his son.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's nice.

[Chris Ryan]

And with longtime Lord of the Rings screenwriter co. Screenwriter Philippa Bo.

[Andy Greenwald]

What do you think? How do you think Philip is feeling about that? Like trying to like be the third wheel in a man and his son doing their dream.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, I think he's probably like, how do we make these ch. Like, I think she's trying to work on like making the chapters that are intentionally like the beginning of a journey, have a mid first, a beginning, a middle and end.

[Patrick Adams]

What?

[Andy Greenwald]

And I don't want to put you on the spot here, but I will. Of your favorite works of literature, which three chapters would you like to adapt into a film? Like for me, I would say it's chapters 36 through 41 of Larry McMurtry's Texasville. You know, just the rest of it, you kind of get it, but there's no good answer. It's just kind of a.

[Chris Ryan]

All my answers are really disturbing. They're like parts of Blood Meridian that are unfilmable.

[Andy Greenwald]

But you and your 15 year old ward would adapt it together. My boy, there is kind of a

[Chris Ryan]

15 year old ward in Blood Meridian. Is that what gave you a little younger?

[Andy Greenwald]

Is that what gave you the idea?

[Chris Ryan]

I was like, this seems great. The judge and this kid.

[Andy Greenwald]

There's one other thing. I don't know if we mentioned that Danielle Deadweiler is gonna be the star of the X Files reboot.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

Do you see her co star was announced this morning as Himesh Patel.

[Chris Ryan]

That's great.

[Andy Greenwald]

Who we like a lot from Station Alliance.

[Chris Ryan]

I saw that Gillian Anderson was like, it's gonna be really fucking cool.

[Andy Greenwald]

That was nice of her.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Didn't have to do that.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I mean, I think that those two have, like, a good relationship to X Files.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. Duchovny's been silent about it, but to

[Chris Ryan]

come, like, has he talked about, like, who's going to win the MVP in the NBA? I mean, he's pretty silent guy.

[Andy Greenwald]

You think?

[Chris Ryan]

I don't think he has like a pod where he's just like, tonight, my takes on Tom Bombadil, the tsa.

[Andy Greenwald]

Did we talk about. I mean, we'll have time to talk about this, but, like, have we established on the pod where we are with X Files? I think we've talked about it. Is this interesting to you, like, this reboot?

[Chris Ryan]

Honestly, I probably. First of all, I was a little bit more of a Millennium guy.

[Andy Greenwald]

That is such an elite. You take. That's incredible.

[Chris Ryan]

I have had two runs, not complete runs through X Files, but my wife and I did the Lore Cut basically once where you basically watch the alien version of it and all the like, continuing black oil and stuff.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And then there are like, just like the top 15 monster of the week

[Andy Greenwald]

and you see what Vince Gilligan was

[Chris Ryan]

capable of, and it's just like, oh, damn. You know, like. And everybody, like, practically everyone who worked on that show is like, of note.

[Andy Greenwald]

You know, I think it's very cool. I think we should also 100% go when this show comes out, we should do a podcast where you're like, the only true text was Millennium. And I could come back with actually the Lone Gunman spinoff.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't think either of those shows are available to watch.

[Andy Greenwald]

We should just talk about them.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Andy Greenwald]

I think that would drive interest, but I think it's exciting and I'm curious to see the path that considering two of this year's best director nominees were both involved in the very delicate and purposeful rebooting of beloved 90s early 2000s television shows. We know what happened with Chloe Zhao's Buffy. And so I'm curious to see what happens with Coogler's X File this episode

[Chris Ryan]

is brought to you by Brooks Running connects us to a rush of energy that flows through our world. The cheers of friends that unlock a new gear within us, the intersection of interests that inspires a run crew, the support that gets you over the finish line. Connection is why we move forward and what inspires us to keep going. Let's run there. Learn [e-mail] this episode is brought to you by the Active Cash credit card from Wells Fargo. That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it, big or small. So whether it's buying tickets to the game or grabbing a coffee, it earns unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases. Say it with me. The Active Cash credit card from Wells Fargo. Be a 2 percenter. Learn more at Wells Fargo.com forward/active cash terms Ply this episode is brought to you by taxact. Like analyzing plot twists, Tax act guides you step by step to make sure you get your maximum refund. Get tips along the way. Add expert assist to talk to tax experts or let our experts do your taxes for you. With Expert full service, TaxAct helps you find the deductions and credits you deserve so you can get them over with. Visit taxact.com to learn more. Conditions apply. See taxact.com for details.

[Patrick Adams]

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[Chris Ryan]

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[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, why don't we talk about a beloved show that's on right now. Spoilers for this evening's episode of the pit, which is 6pm I believe it's

[Andy Greenwald]

6pm 6pm And I think the tenor of the episode is set early on when when someone says smoke em if you got em. This place is going tits up.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Santos says that this was another banger even with the very like stilted turns to camera and says well you know emphysema is a rising cause of death in the senior citizen community moments. It's really coming together man. And I I am really impressed with what they are doing with Robbie because for as much as obviously there is a kind of parasocial relationship with TV characters that is pretty common phenomenon these days and people being like Robbie is being inappropriate in this workplace, which I suppose he is, but it's also compelling television, and it's. It's fiction, so you can stand at arm's length and watch it. I didn't really get it maybe in the first few episodes or not. Not get it, but I was like, well, this is interesting. Like, what are they going to do and how are they going to land this with him? And I think when I. When I say I didn't get it, I was like, well, he's come in. Everybody is immediately keyed into this helmet thing and this motorcycle trip. But what you don't really see or what doesn't really become, apparently, for a few episodes, is the lack of his loss of his warm touch, that. This ability to take somebody aside and make them feel okay or make them feel better or share or be vulnerable or talk about, like, here we stay, you know, we. We do a moment of silence and we do a debrief and all these

[Andy Greenwald]

things is a teaching hospital.

[Chris Ryan]

All the stuff that was, like, obviously, like, principles of the hospital that he had internalized and made part of his, like, character, essentially, he lost. He's lost it. You know, he is a guy steamrolling through his last workday and is making everybody around him pretty miserable, including people that he's trying to help, like Duke, who he's brought in and insists on him getting a scan so that Robbie can leave. Because now there's obviously a ton of speculation about to what extent Robbie is leaving and what plane of existence he is leaving. And several characters, or at least Dana, pretty specifically is like. Like, you. You are giving off, like, last Will and Testament vibes pretty much.

[Andy Greenwald]

It was nice to see that some of the characters on season two of the Pit seem to be watching season two of the Pit.

[Chris Ryan]

This is what. That's a very succinct way of. The long way of what I just said.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, Santos says something. Dana goes right at him. I really like Santos. I feel like I mistyped it. But something about, like, a grand ego Death and RoboDoc over there shooting her in the proverbial dick. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, that's a pretty. She should be a podcaster. That's pretty good. During the first eight or nine of the show, it seemed like you and many people, myself included, were waiting for the other shoe to drop in terms of the big event that was going to roil the Ed. And that part of that may have been just what the show had taught us to expect. That if they were going to choose A day they were going to choose an exceptional day probably due to something beyond, you know, beyond any expectation of what an emergency department can expect to handle. So it's a mass shooting in the first season and this season sets us up to believe there's gonna something because people are, it's incredibly hot. People are gathering for the festivities for the holiday. We have seen some fireworks, related incidents. There's the looming cyber attack that actually this episode reminds us never came. They just shut themselves down to avoid it. In the last two weeks, the storyline that has emerged as the central story of this EP of this season is Robbie's internal combustion. Combustion. And I'm wondering how you feel about it. Seems like you're feeling positively about it. But the way that the show, I don't know if it rope a doped us or just lulled us into expecting one thing and then suddenly receiving another, but do you feel like your engagement with the show is at the same level that it was last year? And how has this resolved your feelings about the first part of the season?

[Chris Ryan]

Great question.

[Patrick Adams]

Thank you.

[Chris Ryan]

I think that there is a way in which this, what they're doing on the second season is a great leap forward and a great example of how this show is going to be able to iterate and move forward and do 5, 6, 7, 10 seasons, however many they want to do. That being said, the Robbie Bullet is in some ways the same kind of caliber of bullet of a, of a mass casualty event. Like I don't know how many times going forward on the series they're going to be able to do winding Robbie up and having him come apart over the course of a day. So it's an interesting gambit that they're doing at this early in what I think we would all assume is at least going to be a four season run.

[Patrick Adams]

Right.

[Andy Greenwald]

I mean, I think the nature of the show, I know I turned to camera last week and I was like, Robbie is not leaving the pit or not dying on the pit. In a perfect world, the Pit isn't just like a, a reboot of a broadcast network style show. They want this to run for 10 years. So I, I would imagine in success this show will outlive not literally, but many of its characters.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, even, you know, and that was one of the cool things I thought about this episode was as the night shift started coming on and you see Mateo and you see homeboy with the coffee who's just the greatest triage nurse of all time.

[Andy Greenwald]

He's a doctor.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. You're like, oh, yeah, like, and then when Mateo says to Javati, like, you should join the night shift, it's like the dark side. Yeah, the dark side. It's sitting right there. For them to do that now, I don't know if they could maintain the same level of quality that whether you'd want to make season three the Night Shift or whether you'd want to spin it off and do shift Pit. The pit. Night Shift. I don't, this seems like a very carefully written, important show to the people who are writing it. I don't know if they're ready to franchise it yet. Yeah, but there's so many different directions as it can go in, is what I'm saying. It's Dr. Shin, by the way, Dr. Shen. I, I, I feel good about it. You know, I, I was glad, actually, when I think Al Alimi says the other two hospitals have paid the ransom and we're going to have like, our, our defenses up soon.

[Andy Greenwald]

Did, did you like that? She knew that with her own internal WI fi, she was like, hold on, I have a signal.

[Chris Ryan]

I, I, I've come to like her as well. You know, I'm, I'm a pretty, I'm a pretty easy date when it comes to the show.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, she is doing the part. She's, she has taken on part of Ravi's job and responsibilities and personality and that she is quite calm and seems to be very comfortable conducting and teaching like a professor. A professorial vibe and role. And that seems to be working with a lot of the younger doctors and, and residents. Yeah. I think if you think about the potentials, it's an HBO Max show, but it's an HBO show in many ways. And an HBO show is nothing if it doesn't have a morally complicated and conflicted male lead. And one of the challenges to probing and exploring Robbie as a main character, not just as the engine that makes the entire show go, is, is that as a doctor, he is essentially flawless through I don't know how many episodes it's been 15 plus nine, so 24 episodes. He is, I don't think he's ever made a mistake or a misdiagnosis. And other than the slash trach, there's nothing he hasn't seen before.

[Chris Ryan]

Right.

[Andy Greenwald]

So if you accept that, and I think there might be hopefully room to poke at that in future seasons, what you needed to do in this season was to give him the Runway to experience what a crash out would be without the temporary high of a cris. The first season was about him walking in on A day that was going to be very traumatic for him. And memories of COVID and of his mentor. And then in a. I was about to say strange way, but I don't think it's strange at all. The day gave him something that he almost needed to not deal with the trauma. It gave him a different mountain to climb, and he could focus on the thing that he's been focusing on for his whole life, which is what's in front of him as opposed to what's behind him. The smart character misdirect of this season is we all thought that it was gonna happen again. And in fact, what's happening as this season winds down is he could go now. He could go, it seems, and he is not going.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, this is the best scene of the episode to me. Very on the nose, but the Pit is a very direct show in a lot of ways. Was the Dana Robbie confrontation outside.

[Andy Greenwald]

Mom and dad are fighting.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, her just being like, I always like when there's a hierarchy to a television show, but then it gets broken by the characters of the TV show itself. Robbie is the main character of the Pit, but I liked the fact that Dana reminded him and the viewers that in real hospitals, these places and these institutions have to keep running for as long as they can, with or without the heroes, the main characters. Which is the fact that she's like, it's still here without Adamson. It'll be here without you. It'll be here without me.

[Andy Greenwald]

Like, which is what we said about ER when Dr. Green and Dr. Ross left, right.

[Chris Ryan]

And it's so it's just like to basically, if ego death is what you're looking for, like, you can get it here, you know, And I really like that. That confrontation that they had. It seems like I would be curious to know whether or not Daena and Robbie's relationship is something that they have basically gotten feedback about, like, Katherine Lanassa being who she is and being as popular as she is and been like, we need to make Daena his foil.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes. Well, I think that there isn't. There's the potential for this to be the case. But in the early episodes of season one, it's not necessarily a given that these are the two main characters, that these are the two pillars of the show, the north and South Pole, who you're rooting for. And what's uniquely interesting about that relationship is that we have no idea if they have ever spoken socially in their lives, if they have ever hung out, if they ever have a different valence of their communication. Like, can they chill out and talk about the pirates? Right. We don't know. And so this scene was particularly interesting because they were going at each other with the level of energy and frenzy that exists in the emergency room. I know this kind of breaks some of the central rules of the show, but in that scene, thinking about what they were like together in that moment, it had me wishing that if we ever get another beers in the park moment, like we did at the end of season one, like, could we see what they. Or is it better for actually finally having a television show where work, family isn't really family, it's just work?

[Chris Ryan]

I wanted to talk about, like, the off ramp of this season because I believe there's, like, four episodes left. Three episodes left.

[Andy Greenwald]

What number was this?

[Chris Ryan]

It's 6pm but now they're past shift now, like, every.

[Andy Greenwald]

But this is episode 11. Is that right? Or episode 12, and there's 15.

[Chris Ryan]

So we have three episodes left. Let's say four. Stickler to deed for two.

[Andy Greenwald]

What about a bonus episode? Like Stranger Things, which I know the powers that be are still denying, but the real heads know exist.

[Chris Ryan]

I was pretty bummed out that Sora went out of business because I was almost done assembling my Stranger Things secret.

[Andy Greenwald]

You're super cut. Wow. They didn't even let you back up

[Chris Ryan]

and Tom Bombadil come in.

[Andy Greenwald]

Can I ask you off the record, how did we cast Bombadil?

[Chris Ryan]

How did I cast him?

[Andy Greenwald]

Colorblind.

[Chris Ryan]

I have Shrek playing him.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's so sick. So Scottish representation, finally in the first

[Chris Ryan]

season, they're like, we're gonna finish the mass casualty event. We're gonna tidy up.

[Patrick Adams]

Mm.

[Chris Ryan]

We're gonna take a look at Pittsburgh from the roof and from the park. And now we're gonna go home. I don't know when these guys are getting off work. Like, Santos has her paperwork to do. Joy kind of ostentatiously. Joy left, puts up boundaries. Classic Greenwald move there to be, like, 1 million percent. Like, I'm off the clock.

[Andy Greenwald]

I respected the hell.

[Chris Ryan]

Did you really?

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

God, you're such a zoomer.

[Andy Greenwald]

I know. That's why. That's why I'm the voice of. I'm the younger voice on this podcast.

[Chris Ryan]

It's just like, then. Then, like, do you really want to be a doctor then?

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. She doesn't want to be an emergency room doctor.

[Chris Ryan]

That's been abundantly clear. I like her character a lot, but that was very funny. It was also sort of an abrupt. Like, is this a SAG thing? Like, they didn't want to pay her for extra episodes.

[Andy Greenwald]

No. I think they are really leaning into something that we are not used to seeing, which is a complete lack of sentimentality about, like, Abbott's like, I'm gonna

[Chris Ryan]

go take a nap for four hours, so goodbye.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

And we don't know if he's coming back. I assume he's coming back because of his prominence in the show and, you know, Night Shift and all that. But Nurse Jessie might be out for. Might be gone. And I think this is another example of how nimble they are. They know that the show is gonna be running for multiple seasons. They know that they have opportunities to give all of these actors and these characters more room to grow. But they. And because they know that they're kind of being savages and they're using something that they didn't intend, which is the departure of Dr. Collins to be permanent, like, Do Not Disturb Forever. But they're using the audience's surprise of that to their advantage. Because now there's a sense in the casual fan of like, Jesse might just get remanded to a different country. Like, we. We may never see him again.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. The. It does make me think that if I ever get into, like, a car accident or something, I want it to happen at like, around six, like, get the. Get the. Get the fresh blood coming in, but also, like, cool. Maybe, like, some of my fan faves are still on the work, so they're bringing you in.

[Andy Greenwald]

You're like, oh, thank God, Dr. Shen. I bet you're still on that first Dunkey's high. That guy loves his. That's so interesting. We should do an RFK Jr Dr. Shen thing because Dr. Shen loves Dunkin Donuts.

[Chris Ryan]

Does RFK love Dunkin Donuts?

[Andy Greenwald]

He does not. You know. Have you not been reading the news? Oh, I'm sorry. Financial news only for you. Things going well for your portfolio?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

He was like, you can't call this.

[Chris Ryan]

There's a lot of opportunity.

[Andy Greenwald]

He was like, you can't call this milk in this.

[Chris Ryan]

What are you talking about? Coffee drink. Just shut up and try and, like, fix some other problems.

[Andy Greenwald]

I thought. You're talking to me.

[Chris Ryan]

No, him. He's worried about Dunkin Donuts Milk.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, because of this, like, creamer, like the flavored splashes that they put in there.

[Andy Greenwald]

I can't think of a single bigger problem in America right now, honestly.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what, man? You know what's good?

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Is when you go to Dunk and you get a fucking, like, hazelnut infused whatever like, let people do what they want.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. You know, we used to feel that way in this country.

[Chris Ryan]

Worry about other shit. I think this is really Dunkin Donuts.

[Andy Greenwald]

Do that to camera.

[Chris Ryan]

Hands off.

[Andy Greenwald]

Send this clip to Bill.

[Chris Ryan]

Because he loves RFK or because he loves Duncan.

[Andy Greenwald]

He's from Boston. I thought that he would represent that.

[Chris Ryan]

I had no idea RFK was coming for Dunkin Donuts.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I mean, first. First Dunkin Donuts. That being said, Sweet green is next.

[Chris Ryan]

That being said, it's dead to you. I don't want to invalidate any, like, contractual obligations. I have to Sweet cream. But it has. You can feel it. You can feel the kale is from elsewhere now.

[Andy Greenwald]

Elsewhere something.

[Chris Ryan]

It's soft. It just doesn't have a crunch.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, that's domestic kale. Because the tariffs of the sweet, delicious Canadian kale.

[Chris Ryan]

Canadian kale that I've been feasting on. What are you talking about?

[Andy Greenwald]

I don't know. I'm just asking the questions.

[Chris Ryan]

We're getting way off track, and we have a tight show today. Whitaker and Santos, I thought was nice. I mean, we. Tell me what you want to talk about, because I thought that there were a lot of really nice character moments in this one. Did you catch Santos pocketing a scalpel? Scalpel and suture pack? I think.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, I did. I did. And that was the moment when. Poorly timed moment that Whitaker chose to be like, admit that you like having me in the house and that we're roommates and we can be friends.

[Chris Ryan]

I thought she admitted it.

[Andy Greenwald]

She admitted it with her anger.

[Chris Ryan]

But then her casual Santos. The classic Santos frustration. Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

I think Santos has had a really good arc this season.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, me too.

[Andy Greenwald]

She made Garcia happy. She did a good job. I'm trying to look up the name of the director of this episode.

[Chris Ryan]

It's Amanda Marsalis.

[Andy Greenwald]

Brother. She did great. You did great, Amanda.

[Chris Ryan]

And she did a great job in the first season. She did.

[Andy Greenwald]

I don't know if she.

[Chris Ryan]

This may be her first second season episode.

[Andy Greenwald]

So just for the record, this was episode 12. There are three left. You were correct. Noted.

[Chris Ryan]

Every once in a while.

[Andy Greenwald]

Every once in a while, you get one. I wanted to mention Amanda Marsalis because I thought the part of the filmmaking excellence of the show is surprisingly unshowy. Like, we rarely. Even though the camera's constantly moving and the choreography is tighter and more demanding than on, I think, any other television show currently on the air, it doesn't call a lot of attention to itself. You're focused on the patients and the doctors and the medicine, even if you don't understand it. So I thought it was really noteworthy and cool when they did take a little cinema moment when the firework guy starts to go south. Yeah. And Robbie says, perla, get the brother out of here. And the camera in a one or followed per brother out.

[Chris Ryan]

Perla does some breathing while they fucking do it, man. They flex cinema as far as patients go. Coked out golfer.

[Andy Greenwald]

Whoa. He's not beating the allegations. You know what I mean? Like, there was no.

[Chris Ryan]

I was like, oh, maybe he has like a brain worm that's made him mean. And it turns out it was just cocaine and white claws.

[Andy Greenwald]

Brainworms just make you hate Dunkin Donuts as far as I can tell from my limited study of the field. But yeah, like that. It's kind of funny that, like, again, sometimes with a show like the pit, with the relentlessness and the pace, the zigs can be zags where it's just like this douchebag who assaults nurses and golfs and drinks all day. Might be a jerk.

[Chris Ryan]

And his no friends, they're just like, yeah, I'm gonna come back at like 9pm Never.

[Andy Greenwald]

Never met the guy.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And then the only other one that I wanted to mention was like, the only other, like, big plot thing I wanted to mention. I guess it was just Emma's first day, I suppose, paralleling with Joy being like, doctors get burned out. It's important to go off your shift when you do. I don't get paid to be here. This is my internship. I'm not trying to become an ed doctor. Anyway, was Emma being like, I'm gonna stay after being put in the headlock by a cocaine golfer. So I thought that was. They do nice jobs, like, balancing out like stories with like. Well, there's this way of doing it. There's that way of doing it. Neither one is better than the other and.

[Andy Greenwald]

Or just have a Dana carrying around some tranquilizer ever since she got assaulted last year.

[Chris Ryan]

Same. Not because I was assaulted, just because

[Andy Greenwald]

you never know I was assaulted. You worked downtown.

[Chris Ryan]

Slam some versed before. I have to talk to you.

[Andy Greenwald]

Take it down a notch. I. I would say you want to talk McKay at all. She had some pretty cheat to camera scenes of like. Sometimes I worry I've lost access to my human emotions.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes. I thought that that was a bit of a. I like Fiona Duruf as a performer and I just think that that was a little bit of a rigid scene.

[Andy Greenwald]

I agree.

[Chris Ryan]

Langdon kind of being like this lost lamb in the trying to connect with everyone. But I thought that was good because it would have been like the hour after you get yelled at like that. Deservedly so, probably. And I liked that they even followed up with Santos being like, I don't care that he's an addict. I care that he was an asshole, you know?

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. And they also added Conte, Dana and Robbie scene where he's just like, he's a criminal and I let him get away with it, which is a level of it we hadn't really been discussing in terms of why he hates him and thus hates himself. And Dana called him on it. I think that McKay is a really, really good character and presence in the space. And they use her well as, like, a finishing touch in a lot of canvases. But without the ankle monitor drama of season one, she hasn't had as much to do about herself. So I thought it would be interesting

[Chris Ryan]

if they were supposed to have a date that night. Tonight, she has three hours till her date.

[Andy Greenwald]

That doesn't seem as ticking clock to me as Jesse got arrested by ICE agents and is now in a detention center. But, you know, I guess everyone comes with their own points of view to the show. But what she says. But she's the one who says to Robbie at the end, I had friends who would go close to the edge. And so if she. It's curious to see, is she going to be the person who gets him at the right moment?

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know.

[Andy Greenwald]

The way Whitaker got him in season

[Chris Ryan]

one, we have Santos kind of spiraling. We have Langdon, like you would assume is like, quote, unquote, okay. But I don't know. Mohan is having a crisis of confidence in terms of, like, what she's gonna do with her life. And also, obviously, they've threaded through her relationship to her senior patients really well this season. And I think that this show is not, like, slick, but it might surprise us with who needs care at the

[Andy Greenwald]

end of the season scene, it might be us. Because the only other note I had is that if. And I don't know what members of the larger Warner Brothers Discovery family or the people who make the show do listen to the Pit, but I would just like to make a personal request for, like, 20% fewer elder care storylines going into season three, particularly ones. So do you remember how, like, when we would watch. We reference this often, but, like, we watched four seasons of the Wire being like, no show has ever had this level of verisimilitude about the drug war than the Wire. And in season five, they showed journalists and we're like, nah, some real phony bullshit. That's the only time I got taken out so far in two seasons of the Pit is when these stubborn old couple who can't live alone accept help thanks to the patient care of two young doctors.

[Chris Ryan]

They accept help because it turns out, like, their meds are the only thing in the way.

[Andy Greenwald]

Let me tell you something. Where's the camera? It's probably not just the meds. You know what I mean? I'm just going to say, like, that was a little bit shout out. Brittany Young from glow, though, as the daughter.

[Chris Ryan]

That was great.

[Andy Greenwald]

I thought it was nice to see her. I do like seeing friendly faces from other TV shows pop up like, it's the Love Boat.

[Chris Ryan]

Patrick Adams is gonna be joining us soon. But I did wanna talk to you about Top Chef. Oh, Christ.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, we need to get into this.

[Chris Ryan]

This is the thing is sometimes I need you to kind of watch. Watch the sheet music while you're playing

[Andy Greenwald]

fiddle, you know, like Tom Bombadil.

[Chris Ryan]

I have one thing to say about this whole episode, and if you haven't watched the most recent episode of Top Chef, which is the third.

[Andy Greenwald]

The third episode in episode three, True

[Chris Ryan]

Colors, and it's about the elimination challenge involves using natural dyes.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's what RFK wants.

[Chris Ryan]

Hadn't been sent home. She seems like a lovely person, and I'm sure is an excellent chef. If she had not been sent home, it would have been my January 6th, because they opened it up to the idea that somehow not putting food on a plate wouldn't get you sent home. Like, she just has, like, an onion sauce at the bottom of a bowl,

[Andy Greenwald]

which, by the way, for you, as a diner, that's as good as no food.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't really love onions. Yeah. I mean, I know that they're in everything, but, like, as like, a. I fucking hate raw onions.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

And I don't really like in a

[Andy Greenwald]

bowl of dyed yellow onion sous vides.

[Chris Ryan]

No. I would have just been like, I pass. And then they kind of the judges, which I thought this was a fascinating. And this is un. An awesome season of this show so far. But I thought it was so interesting because Nana goes a little bit early. I think she's, like, second or third. Can't finish any of her plates. Like, does just this stuff because her chicken galantine won't come together. And she undercooked it.

[Patrick Adams]

Right.

[Andy Greenwald]

First she undercooked it, then she didn't get it on. She just need to slice it.

[Chris Ryan]

I thought they used the inevitability of her exit as a green light to tee off on all of the contestants.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. They had. We had Angry Tom early in the

[Chris Ryan]

season, and it almost got to the point where I was like, if it's so easy, you fucking go do it. Look at you. Not, like, in a mean way, but I was like, is there. Is there somebody out there who can really easily use natural dyes to confuse but delight the judging panel and use

[Andy Greenwald]

them in a way. I think the brief was have them be brilliantly colored, which is also very hard because, look, Shout out to. Shout out to our health secretary. I've seen Froot Loops in England. You know what I mean?

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, my God.

[Andy Greenwald]

I've seen them.

[Chris Ryan]

And what do they look like?

[Andy Greenwald]

Very muted, very chill. Very chill. It's kind of like Cool Ranch Doritos over there. You're like, what is this? Why does this taste like milk and cheese and not like, I'm just gonna keep it.

[Chris Ryan]

Let me ask you. Don't you prefer the American version of Cool Ranch Doritos? Yes.

[Patrick Adams]

What?

[Chris Ryan]

Where it's just, like, pure Versed.

[Andy Greenwald]

I don't.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

I don't. You don't need to lie to me. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I can eat healthy and I can also like Doritos. I know I contain multitudes. I have made a choice here.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Why do we sound libertarian?

[Chris Ryan]

Ironically, I find I don't like, like, cigarettes over there.

[Andy Greenwald]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Which is probably for the same reasons, like, where they're, like, treating it differently or less or whatever. It's just like tobacco.

[Andy Greenwald]

You had to come here to get it. And they better.

[Chris Ryan]

The camel company puts smack in theirs.

[Andy Greenwald]

It's toasted, I believe.

[Chris Ryan]

Anyway. Sorry, go back.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, it's a great first of all. This season has been absolute fire. It's been great. There is a completely renewed pep in it step. And it's really impressive. And one of the things that was so impressive about this episode is they are not handholding anyone. The two challenges of this episode. There's a quick fire with our old pal Emerl comes, and it is a challenge to class up Livermush. If you had a drinking game in which you took a drink of alcohol every time a character said liver mush. My respect and condolences to your family. You died. Yeah, that was. And by the way, that's basically what you and I would call scrapple.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I thought it was going to be more like pate, but it wasn't.

[Andy Greenwald]

You looked real sad.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't eat it, but I didn't look like pate after a while.

[Andy Greenwald]

But I really like that early on, which is often a time because it's hard to track the characters anyway, at this point, this is a. Maybe a more convenient time to be like a Trolls 6 activation challenge. But instead, they were like, here's a regional delicacy that many people would turn their noses up at, and you have to make it good.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

Was cool. And then the dye challenge was another thing where they actually, in a way that I feel like they had kind of lost touch with the last few seasons. They educated. They were like, this is a hub of garment manufacturing and dyeing, and so we're going to have you do this thing. I actually liked that they almost all fucked up because it was. It was a big flashing sign. Being like, this is hard.

[Chris Ryan]

I know it was television, so I know that they have to kind of entertain that. But Nana had. Had not gotten her food well. She left a mold on her in her first dish for elimination. For her second elimination dish, she had. She had completed some of them, didn't plate them great. Had a. Obviously she was quite upset about that. And then in the third episode, completely messes up her chicken galentine died dish. I gets very upset, but to her credit was like, I'm walking out in front and I'm being like, I did not complete my dish. Then you get 17 chefs after her, and they're all being told like, you fucked up. You know, this was bad.

[Andy Greenwald]

So do you think it was melodramatic television reality show optics at play, in which they had to kind of hide the ball and make you forget that this challenge was decided instantly when it started or. Because I think even if that's the case, they pivoted it into an opportunity to just roast everyone in a way that I think, which I thought was cool.

[Chris Ryan]

But the last 15 minutes of the show, I was like, they're not really gonna make some weird. Like, Nana not doing the dish at all was better than somebody making something boring.

[Andy Greenwald]

Who is that? Who's the woman? Was it Sherry, who was just like, I have studied decades for this challenge. I know how to make, like, beautifully rainbow.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, the black. The charcoal pork thing that she made.

[Andy Greenwald]

But then she made, like, rainbow colored spaetzle and then downed them in, like, white sauce and then made black. Would she make black parsnip, gray parsnip mush? Yes, dude, they fucked up. It was kind of interesting. And do you feel. But Speaking of your. January 6th was a beautiful day of liberation ideology that you're bringing to this television show fair. Are you justice for day? Do you feel now that the ring

[Chris Ryan]

mold debacle, you could say the second guy as well, the guy who made the vindaloo lamb. Is that like he made. His cumulative cooking probably stood higher than Nana's.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, it's pretty. It was interesting that they had.

[Chris Ryan]

And now Nana gets to go to Last Chance Kitchen and those other two chefs aren't. So that's interesting to me. That's interesting.

[Andy Greenwald]

Are you doing the wind horse fingers?

[Chris Ryan]

Why is that?

[Andy Greenwald]

Why is that happening? I know people. My assumption is the people who don't watch Top Chef or have stopped watching Top Chef have also stopped listening to us talk about it. But I would say again, this season has the juice and I think people should check it out.

[Chris Ryan]

Kai is watching every week before these pods.

[Andy Greenwald]

Did you watch before the pod? I watched last night. Oh, good. What do you think, Kaya? Season wise, Nana Wise, 1-6-WISE. If you just want to weigh in,

[Chris Ryan]

would you have been upset if Nana had won or not won, but if

[Andy Greenwald]

not, yeah, she was certified the winner. Do you understand what I mean by that?

[Patrick Adams]

If they did not send Nana home, I. I would have been upset. Oh, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I was like, you're done? Yeah, you're done? Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, she has a more reasonable temperament than you. You're a little hot headed about these things.

[Chris Ryan]

Let's stop down for a second.

[Andy Greenwald]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

And when we come back, we'll have Patrick Adams from the Madison. Andy and I are honored to be joined by Patrick Adams. It's happening from the Madison. We've been kind of circling each other.

[Patrick Adams]

Longtime listener, first time caller, online flirtation. I brought this for you. Andy wanted to bring a gift.

[Andy Greenwald]

Thank you.

[Patrick Adams]

A peace offering.

[Chris Ryan]

I just want to say if this is from Taylor Sheridan and he's giving Andy some kind of gift through you.

[Patrick Adams]

They did check it out. Security.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm gonna be.

[Andy Greenwald]

This is actually the Hornet's nest.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

From the Hornets. This is very nice. Oh, my God.

[Chris Ryan]

I just wanted to make sure you had it for your collection. This is physical, signed, you know, obviously sign.

[Patrick Adams]

I didn't sign this in case Chris wanted one, but I feel like you probably need both.

[Andy Greenwald]

I really appreciate this.

[Chris Ryan]

This is really unavailable on streaming too.

[Andy Greenwald]

You know, one has ever caught up

[Patrick Adams]

book on the series probably, but I just wanted to make sure you had physical media.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's really kind of you. Any bonus content on here?

[Patrick Adams]

Tons, but I don't want to ruin the surprise.

[Andy Greenwald]

Did you do an audio track?

[Patrick Adams]

That's a good question. I think we did on the first season. Yeah. Commentaries. So, yeah. You can get the behind the scenes.

[Andy Greenwald]

Could. Could you just bring this back when Megan signs it.

[Patrick Adams]

Damn.

[Andy Greenwald]

Okay, we're on.

[Chris Ryan]

It's going good.

[Patrick Adams]

It's such a. You guys know us. Huge fans.

[Chris Ryan]

Thank you for having me. It's like we, we've, we've been aware that you listen. It's sort of shocking. I, I'm, I'm.

[Patrick Adams]

Are you shocked? Are you shocked when people listen to your podcast?

[Chris Ryan]

Yes. Yes, yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I think we just assume you guys

[Patrick Adams]

are a big deal.

[Andy Greenwald]

Sometimes I think they just indulge us and that these cameras aren't connected to anything.

[Patrick Adams]

No, no, no. I'm there. I'm listening weekly. Except when you're going to spoil a show that I love. And I'm. Because, like I'm watching industry now because of you.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh.

[Patrick Adams]

So I try to avoid like industry talk.

[Chris Ryan]

Are you at industry? Like, are you Season two?

[Patrick Adams]

Season two? Just basically there's a.

[Chris Ryan]

There's a lot coming there. I was going to ask you, you know, this is sort of the end of your Madison run.

[Patrick Adams]

Last interview for S1.

[Chris Ryan]

For S1.

[Patrick Adams]

S1.

[Chris Ryan]

S2 is already in the can. Do you feel like you are coming out the other end of a shoot of like a kind of Taylor Sheridan promo tour whirlwind?

[Patrick Adams]

Like I never experienced anything like this. I also have a two month old daughter as we just discussed, so I don't know where I am or what's happening. And this press tour, like all things with Taylor Sheridan is just like the craziest version of a press tour for a TV show. I mean, they don't really do this for TV shows. Your show probably will have this.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes. But I won't be flown around the country to talk about it.

[Patrick Adams]

So we did London, we did New York, and then I went to Toronto because I'm from Toronto.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, awesome.

[Andy Greenwald]

To help sort of prime the pump of the locals.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. We gotta get it.

[Patrick Adams]

Canadians excited too.

[Chris Ryan]

I bet Canadians are digging Taylor's stuff.

[Patrick Adams]

Oh, they love it.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

They love it everywhere. I didn't know why we were in London, but apparently it's huge. He's a big deal.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I can imagine they watch Landman in a different way over there. I.

[Andy Greenwald]

This confirms all of our priors.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

How do you think they watch it?

[Andy Greenwald]

You let me know how much we can spoil about the television show the Madison. But I would say that you were doing a press tour with actors whose lifespan on the show.

[Chris Ryan]

I think we talked about that part. The first year.

[Andy Greenwald]

Are Limited. And so we did see some of these actors. Yes. You decide whether we name them or not.

[Patrick Adams]

We had to walk a bit of

[Andy Greenwald]

a high wire, and some of these actors had to be like, boy, it was really great doing that scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can't. I mean. And a lot of us never work together.

[Chris Ryan]

Right.

[Andy Greenwald]

So you had to be like.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

How great it was to be on set with them. No, but we could walk a fine line. I mean, we. We were given the ability to talk about loss and that there was some. That there was a tragic loss. They just didn't want to name that loss.

[Chris Ryan]

I think that's. That's diagrammed in the. In the trailers and stuff like that. And we talked about it when we talked about the first couple of episodes. Let's talk a little bit about your character, Russell, if you can do, like, the sort of more official.

[Patrick Adams]

Have you guys watched?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I watch.

[Patrick Adams]

You have to watch. Yeah, you have to watch every.

[Chris Ryan]

Everything we do. I mean, we don't have to watch everything, but I. I choose to watch. I chose to watch the Madison and it was like.

[Patrick Adams]

You are a Taylor fan.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I would say that. I'm. There's like 60 of it. I just sincerely, like. And then there's 40 of it. I'm just like, this is so. I'm so curious about, like, how it gets made, how he writes all this stuff.

[Patrick Adams]

That was what I was a dork for.

[Andy Greenwald]

Okay.

[Patrick Adams]

I showed up. That's what I was interested in, is how is this man doing this?

[Andy Greenwald]

Because I suffer from. I termed this the other day. Tds.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

I have Taylor derangement syndrome. Yes, you. And. And yet I'm still watching.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah, we've got you.

[Andy Greenwald]

So. So it works on either side.

[Patrick Adams]

So I'll be honest, I was probably a bit more in your camp before I started. I hadn't consumed a lot of Taylor. I'd seen 1883, which I think I only watched because I knew that this was maybe in the mix, and the director that we had, Christina Boros on the show had done a lot of that. So I started with 1883 and was really impressed. I watched some of 1923, but I had never seen Yellowstone and then tried it, and it wasn't for me. It was not. It wasn't something that I wanted to stick with, but I was profoundly impressed by the production. I was like, something is going on here. So to go and step onto the set and sort of get to see the machine in operation was pretty remarkable.

[Andy Greenwald]

What Is the machine like that? We're both curious about that.

[Patrick Adams]

I mean, they've been making shows now for what, 10 years? So this is a group of people who have been working together in an environment that's not easy to shoot in. You know, you're shooting on hills that are like that, Stacy's Valley. And the show is just like, you know, technically nerd for technical. And like, shooting in that valley is an insane thing to try and pull off. And they do it with no problem. You're shooting in the elements, it's raining, it's windy. We shoot five cameras. Everything. Everything. It's five cameras. You're inside in a restaurant, we're shooting five cameras. You're out in the field for five cameras. So it's just like the a team that has been, you know, found by Taylor and his team over the course of many years. They all love it because it's job security. Very. Everybody's so happy to be there. And if you're not good at your job, you've probably not been asked back. So you. You sort of step onto that set. Usually you step onto a set and you feel like everybody's getting to know each other. It's like the first day of a new school for everyone. But on a Taylor set, you're the

[Chris Ryan]

new kid at school.

[Patrick Adams]

They've been at school for years, and you're the new kid. And they're like, what do. What do you got?

[Chris Ryan]

The five camera thing, is that like the way they used to talk about, like, Friday Night Lights, where it's like, there's coverage everywhere, so.

[Patrick Adams]

Exactly.

[Chris Ryan]

You can kind of do your own thing.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah, it's Friday Night Lights was a little more on the shoulder, you know. Right. They would be handheld. And so I did one episode of Friday Night Lights, and I remember, I mean, famously, there was no rehearsal even. They would just show up and be like, go. Just see what happens. Which is terrifying as a. As an actor just walking on the set. This is more prepared. We're rehearsing. We know where they are. But I, you know, I'm a camera guy. I'm a nerd for cameras. And I love to know you're on a 50 and you're on an 80. And on suits. We would never have more than three cameras in a courtroom. Two cameras every other day. So I'd always be, aw, okay, we're kind of here, here. And as an actor, that does something to your brain. On this set, you can't do those calculations anymore. There's too many cameras.

[Andy Greenwald]

Also, it's not even a set. I mean, one of the things that we definitely agree on about the Madison is it is gorgeous.

[Patrick Adams]

Beautiful, right?

[Andy Greenwald]

Shot after shot is just stunning. It's stunning.

[Patrick Adams]

Unbelievable.

[Andy Greenwald]

And so you are, you know, you spent years in a courtroom on a

[Patrick Adams]

set, suddenly in a warehouse in northern Toronto.

[Andy Greenwald]

Sounds sexier the more we talk about it. Suddenly you're on this, like, this wheat field, golden wheat field somewhere in Montana. Overwhelming.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

What is. How does that change both the performance and the overall experience of having the job?

[Patrick Adams]

Well, you arrive with a lot of gratitude. I mean, I remember when we drove out there. Day one, the base camp is an hour. You get on the highway from Bozeman. You drive like 40 minutes. You get off the highway, you get on the small road, then you hit the dirt road. Then you're on the dirt road for 20 minutes until you get to the base camp. And then you're at base camp, you get ready and then you do the 20 minute drive down the roads that Taylor has built. Taylor and his team, not Taylor personally, has not built the roads, but they've built the roads to get down to the cabins that they've put next to this, you know, next to the river. Whereas before it was just a ranch. There was nothing there before. So you arrive filled with, like, the majesty of nature. You've watched the sun come up over the river. So that does something to you. For me, as the character, Russell's scared of everything. Like. Like. So there's so much to interact with. When the wind would blow in my face, I would get to pretend I have dirt in my eyes. There'd be bugs that would drive me crazy. Like I was just trying to use the environment as much as possible to be as uncomfortable as possible.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's how I use the environment always.

[Patrick Adams]

Yes, I can relate to that sometimes. But Patrick's a bit more comfortable in that place. You'd show up and be very grateful that you get to shoot in this insane place with these people that know how to shoot it. That's a big difference. Because if you could be in that environment with maybe people who are learning it for the first time. I don't know if you've had that, but you can be miserable because nobody kind of knows what to do when the wind blows or starts raining. But these are people that have been on the front lines with Taylor for so long.

[Chris Ryan]

I was reading some old interviews with you last night, and I came across one when you were. It was like from EW when you were nominated for SAG for suits and you said, talking about the character Mike on Suits, you were like, the thing about Mike is it gives me the chance to embody the energy of somebody who's in a new environment that scares them and that they're not sure that they can survive in. And you were like, you were talking

[Patrick Adams]

about, I seem drawn to this.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, then why?

[Patrick Adams]

What's going on? I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, you don't want to be. I feel very uncomfortable, like McD at the poker table. Like, I know exactly what's going on. You kind of like to be a little bit on your toes.

[Patrick Adams]

I think I relate to that more. I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

I think the.

[Patrick Adams]

The desire, especially as, like, an actor and people want you to be a leading man, is to be super cool and be the Harvey Specter, you know, to be that character. And I certainly spent a lot of time on Suits wishing I could occupy that space and. And be that. But lo and behold, you come off Suits, and this is what I'm drawn to. It's just what I relate to. I'm much more that guy who's uncomfortable and unsure how to be and how to be with people. And I'm into discovering their confidence. Along the way, you know, Mike became a much more. I guess he started confident, but he was in a very alien environment. And I thought that was fun. And that was my experience of being on a show for the first time. I had never. I mean, I'd done guest star stuff, but I'd never, you know, been on a series where we're shooting 16 episodes and doing all the things that come with that process. And so I would. Would have thought maybe I'd be more confident now.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure.

[Patrick Adams]

But when I read a script like this, I see that character, and I just think as an actor, there's so much more to do. It's so much more fun. I'm more of a Lewis lit guy. He's on Suits. He was a character from Suits.

[Andy Greenwald]

That was the beloved USA series.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Fire up the DVD player.

[Patrick Adams]

I'm more of a Lewis lit guy that I think maybe a Harvey Spector.

[Chris Ryan]

Gotcha.

[Patrick Adams]

I think that's more interesting. Like, Tom Wambsgans is like. That's who I'm drawn to.

[Andy Greenwald]

I know that one.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah, you know that one.

[Andy Greenwald]

I do want to ask about the scripts because as you alluded to at the beginning, the Madison has this sort of unique production history. You shot one six episode season in 24. Is that right? Then you shot a second season of six episodes in 25.

[Patrick Adams]

We just finished it this summer. Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Before ending it.

[Patrick Adams]

Premiere December. Yes, exactly.

[Andy Greenwald]

With a project like this, like all Taylor projects, he's the writer.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

When you signed on to the first season or when you showed up, are all six scripts locked, or is it a fluid process?

[Patrick Adams]

Not even close. Fluid's a word. Yeah. I think I got one script, and I got to decide whether this was something I wanted to do based on that script. And if you watch the first episode, Russell does not have a lot to do. So it was really just a conversation with him, one of the few conversations I've had with him where he talked about the part and how he wanted to shoot the show and how he likes to work and what he had responded to in the tape that I had sent in.

[Chris Ryan]

Did you have to fly to Texas to have this conversation?

[Patrick Adams]

No. Luckily, I got. He. He does these tests in Wyoming.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, okay.

[Patrick Adams]

Which. I don't know why. They're much more convenient.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why not?

[Patrick Adams]

But strangely, in parallel to this show, my stepfather passed a few years ago, and we had this. Thank you. And they. He. We had this cabin out in the. Out in the wilderness north of Toronto. It's sort of a common thing to have cottages up there. And we'd been going there our whole lives, but it was really his domain. He took care of this place. It's very remote, hard to get to. And we had. Just boug it from my mom and I had just arrived at this property, at this cabin and was like, oh, my God, I got to take care of this place. I don't know how to do it. When I got the audition for the Madison, and so, long story short, we were in this environment, living out the story of the Madison, apparently in our own little world. When he said, well, I loved your tape. Come to Wyoming. And it was like, it's on an island where we were. I was like, I can't leave my family on an island. My father, who's not well, was coming to visit us. It was just like. Like, I know this is an amazing job opportunity, but I cannot come to Wyoming to see you. And I thought that would be the end of it. And to his credit, he was like, just send another tape. And my team still thought, you're never going to. This isn't going to happen if you don't go to Wyoming. Like, that's a part of the process. Taylor needs to, like, see you in person and smell you and see how

[Chris Ryan]

you do things, and. And I make you do it naked in a fragrance.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah. So I thought it probably won't work out. And I made another tape and. And then he called and said, you got the part. So I didn't have to go through that whole.

[Andy Greenwald]

I feel like that sounded very scary. That also sounds like that would appeal. Like you were living.

[Patrick Adams]

That's what I thought. I'm like. I'm in a cabin.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

Having this family experience. My father's coming to visit the. Sorry. That's more important to me.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

In this moment. Than blowing up this whole job.

[Andy Greenwald]

I think that's good.

[Patrick Adams]

I was hoping that. I don't know if it ever landed because he never said anything about it.

[Andy Greenwald]

I didn't get.

[Chris Ryan]

This is the first.

[Andy Greenwald]

He's here. He's probably the only. Listens to this.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Did you feel like how. What was it like to jump into that blind with only the first script and not knowing the full trajectory of the character? Because I think for as much as he's an outsider in terms of the environment, he's a city guy. He's a finance guy. And he's all of a sudden out here in the wild. He's also the only guy among a bunch of women and an outsider to the family, so to speak. Because he's the son in law by marriage.

[Patrick Adams]

It was a leap of faith. Yeah. It was a leap of. I mean, look, there's worse things than. I mean, I knew. Even though I wasn't super familiar with all Taylor's work, I was like, I know this is going to be a big deal. I know that his shows are a big deal. And I know Michelle Pfeiffer's in it. And as an actor, like, I'm gonna get a front row seat to whatever she's gonna do with this part, which is really attractive. And I just sort of trusted that he would become something more than what was in that first thing. I guess I trusted that instinct that I related to the part. And it just sounded kind of like an adventure that I was willing to go on.

[Andy Greenwald]

The Michelle Pfeiffer thing we have to talk about because she's so amazing generally. And she is amazing on the show, isn't she?

[Patrick Adams]

Like phenomenal.

[Andy Greenwald]

But it's kind of unique. Or at least very rare in Hollywood. She took off. Essentially took off decades to raise her family and to have different priorities. But then she comes back with her 100 mile per hour fastball still intact.

[Chris Ryan]

That's unbelievable.

[Andy Greenwald]

And just painting the corners.

[Patrick Adams]

And to watch it on set.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

Is to like. It's like I get any. Any great craftsman. You know, when they paint you're like, oh, that looks easy. I could do that. Like, not that it looks easy, but she just. It's so effortless, right?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

Like, when you're on set, you're like, oh, that's. You just did that. Like, it didn't. It doesn't seem to take. I'm sure that there's a ton of prep and God knows what she's doing to get into that place, but she's just so effortless in the doing of it that it's. It's a thing to behold.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is there a. Was there a specific moment you remember where she went from? From Holy. That's Catwoman to your colleague?

[Patrick Adams]

I never got over it, if I'm honest. I still get nervous around her. I told her on the press tour, and she hates it because it's, like, the last thing in the world she wants. She's like, we got to get rid of that. She doesn't want any, like, mystique. She. She just wants to work. But I was doing this stupid thing where I was re. Watching, like, every movie that she's ever made.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. While I was working with her, thinking

[Patrick Adams]

that that was gonna help.

[Andy Greenwald]

Did you go do the Chris Farley interview with her?

[Chris Ryan]

Every day?

[Andy Greenwald]

Remember that time in Greece, too?

[Patrick Adams]

That's exactly what I was doing. I'd watch, like, Age of Innocence and then show up and have to shoot a scene with her. I'm like, what am I doing?

[Andy Greenwald]

So when you acted with Daniel Day Lewis, was it like this?

[Patrick Adams]

Exactly.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm like, russell, did you watch Baker Boys when you were going through her?

[Patrick Adams]

You know, I couldn't. I couldn't because it's not available.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, okay.

[Patrick Adams]

Did you know that it's not available?

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't.

[Patrick Adams]

I hate that.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is it because of the music you

[Patrick Adams]

have to get the dvd?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. It's also, like, one of those things that it might have been, like, three studios that have since been merged four

[Andy Greenwald]

times because Bo Bridges is, like. That was.

[Chris Ryan]

I think they're just playing, like, piano jazz. I'm sure it's, like, public domain at this point, but it's one of my favorites.

[Patrick Adams]

I was hoping you could get on this as folks.

[Chris Ryan]

Simmons is a huge Michelle Pfeiffer fan.

[Patrick Adams]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

I've heard. We've talked about doing Tequila Sunrise and

[Patrick Adams]

a bunch of her movies, but, yeah, Baker Boys is. I remember being one of my favorites, but I couldn't revisit it because I didn't have the dvd.

[Chris Ryan]

Like, I was curious because, you know, you've also done. You've Gotten to work with, like, Dustin Hoffman, you know, on. On luck. And whether or not there is a. The commonality of people at that stature like, that you are ever like, I wonder, you know, obviously, maybe their acting styles, their acting schools they come from are different, but is there something that, like that top of the call sheet kind of person brings that is describable?

[Patrick Adams]

I've been around some top of the call sheet people that are not people you'd want to be around. But in my experience, especially with those two people, they love acting. That's it. They're really disinterested in being stars or what you think of them as stars. In fact, it's kind of a burden because it's a sort of series of expectations that they're not interested in. I really related to Michelle right off the bat, she would talk about how nervous she was, like, real nervous. And I'm nervous all the time, as I've already explained. So to have a person who's delivered those performances say to you, like, I'm as terrified as you are. I don't know what I'm doing. And then, of course, she steps up and throws the fastball. And you're like, well, you know exactly what you're doing. But you need that process of saying, like, I don't know. I don't know if I have it this time. Dustin was a little bit less like that. I think Dustin knew he had it, but he's just. He's just having fun, though. He just loves it. I was on an elevator with him shooting Luck once, a fake elevator on set. And they had put in the little numbers that change that go up and down to show you what floor it was. And we were alone in the elevator waiting for them to move some lights. And I was just standing behind him quietly. And I was watching him watch these lights change as they were, like, making the floor change. And he was acting the floor, no stopping and starting. Like, the cameras weren't on him. He was just, like, staring at it

[Chris Ryan]

to feel like his body was like.

[Patrick Adams]

It just was like, this is fun. How could I pretend this elevator is moving up and down? And he looked at me, noticing he's like, pretty cool, huh?

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh, yes, sir.

[Patrick Adams]

Yes, sir. Yeah, let's do it together. No, it wasn't the pretty cool what I'm doing. It's just, like, pretty cool like that.

[Chris Ryan]

They got. It's like movie magic. Yeah, right? That's awesome.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah. They're like kids in a way, which I really.

[Chris Ryan]

There's some great stuff in the finale season finale with you and Michelle. I was curious about you on the flight back New York and you guys do the Irish car bombs together. But she actually starts to unpack your character a little bit. And, like, I was curious whether the stuff that's in that season finale about kind of getting at, like, your character Russell's, like, what do you want, man? Like, what do you think?

[Patrick Adams]

That is totally unexamined.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And that, like, if that's a. A signal towards, like, what his stuff,

[Patrick Adams]

again, I have no idea. I hope that's what it is. You know, it's a leap of faith. I took that scene to mean, like, yeah, we're exposing that this character has just lived kind of in fear, for lack of a better word, of his wife and just sort of getting along and just trying to do whatever he can do to, like, not cause any waves. And I think that scene is her saying, like, who are you? Yeah, like, what do you want? What are you doing? And his inability to answer that, I hope, plants a seed for him. I think going into the second season, there's some stuff that shows that he's, you know, on the path to trying to figure out really who he is in this environment and how he wants to show up for these people. But, yeah, I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

Know. I don't know.

[Patrick Adams]

That's the thing with Taylor, right? You really don't know. Sometimes we didn't get those final scripts until days before we shot.

[Andy Greenwald]

So this is kind of a bigger picture question, and it's a little thinky. But you're here on different podcasts. No, you listen to the podcast.

[Patrick Adams]

It's a different podcast to look at

[Andy Greenwald]

your IMDb and your CV. Like, you've had such a phenomenal and long career, which is hard for an actor to have any time, but it also felt like it was really reflective of the changes in the industry where if you look at the first few years of your career, you're doing guest spots on really prominent shows and getting your reps in in different styles. Friday Night Light, Lost, Cold Case, like, big shows of the era. And then you get the type of thing that a lot of working actors out here dream of, which is like, I get to play a cool character on a popular show and I know where my paycheck's coming from, and I know my colleagues. I have my parking space or whatever. And then that era of reliable series work has completely changed, evaporated, and now you're in the streaming era. And you may have found it again, but it involves Once a year before anyone's seen the show, flying to Montana, that yeah, I almost even, I don't even realize there's a question in that. It's just your observations from.

[Patrick Adams]

I feel just scrappy. I think I'm just scrappy. I, I look at my IMDb and it just looks sort of like patched together because for me it was all just survival. It's like what are we doing? I get a guest spot, you know, like I feel like I'm always hustling. People always ask you when you do press tours, like what drew you to this character? And it's like a lot of times like I have kids, I need a job. You know, like I want to sound cooler than that. Like I have all the opportunity in the world and I do have more opportunity than most. But I love what I do. I love acting. And so even at 44 and tired and three kids, I just, I try to take that Dustin story to heart or Michelle, which is just follow, you know, find a script that lights something up in me. Even if it's Russell and it's three scenes in the first episode, I go, I can do something with that. And lucky enough in this case you get to do it with like the top notch people. But I just love to do it, it. I, I really love acting.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you have any like, have you ever like been like oh, this is a different industry than it was seven years ago, 12 years ago. Or maybe it's all. It's always you. So it's like that. There's a consistent thing about your perspective. But I'm, I think Taylor's stuff is this weird hybrid cuz he like exists

[Patrick Adams]

in this like nobody else. Made up his own.

[Chris Ryan]

You're watching D. Dallas and sometimes it feels like you're watching an action blockbuster film, you know. So it's like this crazy hybrid of like very old school TV principles and new new feature film stuff and everyone's a little different.

[Patrick Adams]

Like our show, I don't know. So many of the other shows, I wouldn't say rely on it but like the Cartels around the corner and Someone's Coming for the Land.

[Andy Greenwald]

Don't spoil season two.

[Patrick Adams]

Our show Din doesn't have any of that. It's literally, it feels yet maybe, but it just feels like Taylor is, you know, I don't know where he writes or how he writes, but he sits down. He's like meditating on grief. He always talks about plot. There's the one thing he said in that early conversation was that he's not driven by plot, you know, which says

[Andy Greenwald]

to me, I too have seen Landman.

[Patrick Adams]

You know, the process of writing a show, as you know, often is let's put a bunch of cards on the wall and figure out story B and story B. And you, by committee now you go write it, but then we're going to put notes on it. And it's. This is a guy in a room going like, this is what I'm thinking about. And sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, if you're, if you're not a fan. But I will say it's kind of cool to be on a show that's just like one person's vision.

[Andy Greenwald]

Totally.

[Patrick Adams]

And they are allowed to do whatever they want.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

And nobody's coming in and saying, well, what if it was a little bit more of this or that? It's his idea. And he trusts Christina absolutely. And I cannot speak highly enough about her. I mean, she is. When you talk about the visual part of the show. She came up through the camera department. She was a director of photography. So her spirit is as much imprinted on this thing as his is. And to his credit, he really lets her run with the ball. So we're given a lot of leeway. It's like these are the words. Do with them what you will. So he casts people that he loves. He's put Christina in a position where he trusts her. And then he's like, this is what I've written. Go see what happens when you read

[Chris Ryan]

the scripts, when you get them, do they feel different than a typical episodic television script? Cuz like when you watch them, it

[Patrick Adams]

does a 20 minute dinner scene.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

And you're like, what? Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Or you're like, wait, Russell's gonna go out with her? You know what I mean? Like, Russell's gonna go out with. With Stacy and like they're gonna. Isn't gonna be. The daughters have like a final. Like that's the way the episode should end is they have like this resolution.

[Patrick Adams]

Does that seem to care about the expectations?

[Chris Ryan]

But that must make it interesting. As a. Not a script reader and an actor,

[Patrick Adams]

I think it's fun to play those scenes. Yeah. I mean, it sometimes leaves you scratching your head and sometimes you're like, oh, I thought I'd have a moment. You'd sort of expect you'd get a moment that ends up going to somewhere else, someone else. But I think we all bought into this story early on. We both, we all believed in it. We believed in Michelle. We were all there to support her. This performance Especially given what she had to do in the first season. So, you know, you're kind of along for the ride.

[Andy Greenwald]

Was Taylor with you on the press tour in New York?

[Patrick Adams]

No.

[Andy Greenwald]

I really wanted to know what going to New York City with Taylor is like. Having watched the first episode of the Madison.

[Patrick Adams]

Did you watch his introduction to the premier?

[Chris Ryan]

It was very, very tender.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, I didn't see that. That's always like.

[Chris Ryan]

He was like, this is like, you know, I lived in New York, I love New York, but New York didn't love me back.

[Patrick Adams]

It was a beautiful. He's a remarkably. I know why. Remarkable. He's an amazing writer and he's obviously prolific, but the way he spoke from the heart and that.

[Andy Greenwald]

I want that show.

[Chris Ryan]

He doesn't do a lot of public talking. Speaking.

[Patrick Adams]

No, no.

[Andy Greenwald]

Taylor at the early LCD sound system shows being like, this isn't working for me. Something's off.

[Chris Ryan]

Like other DFA stuff. I wanted to. Just. So you have the three kids.

[Andy Greenwald]

You're.

[Chris Ryan]

You're, you're a working actor. But like, are you. Do you. Are you an avid TV watcher?

[Patrick Adams]

I'm a pretty avid TV watcher. I mean, you know, we have kids. I don't, I don't know how you watch what you watch with kids. Like, you're, you're watch that much, but you do on the show, talking about all of it.

[Andy Greenwald]

What do you mean? I mean, you know, you're an actor. You know, it's like sometimes kind of fake it.

[Chris Ryan]

He. He can do like.

[Patrick Adams]

I'm waiting for your Bluey. Watch episodes.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh my gosh.

[Patrick Adams]

Cuz we're deep in Bluey.

[Andy Greenwald]

I am held. I'm held back by this. I'm going to be honest with you. Come on.

[Chris Ryan]

April 9th, go for it.

[Andy Greenwald]

Finally cover the real stuff.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah, I try to watch as much as possible. That's why I love your show, honestly, because it's a cool guide to like. You guys have set me on to some things that I didn't know about. I tried watching the first series season of Industry early on and life happened. I liked it, but I just. Life happened. So to hear you guys talk about it, it's like, okay, no, I know our T aligned. I'm going to want to watch that show watching the Pit. What else are we watching? Dtf. We just started. What do you think of that? I like it. I think the tone is really cool.

[Chris Ryan]

Did you do Patriot? Did you watch that when it was.

[Patrick Adams]

I loved Patriot.

[Chris Ryan]

So that's.

[Andy Greenwald]

I think.

[Patrick Adams]

Wait, is that him?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Patrick Adams]

Oh, I Didn't realize.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Steve Conrad. I think it's like the people who love Patriot, I think, are much more. And I, I, I, I've tried with Patriot. Maybe I should try again.

[Patrick Adams]

But I, you know, Patriots. I'm saying I loved Patriot. I don't even know if I finished Patriot, but I just remember loving the vibe. Yeah. I was so in on the Vibe and his performance. Yeah, I was in. So that's how I felt about this. I was like, I hadn't. I just felt the tone was different than most things and that on TV can sometimes be enough because there's so much that feels the same as a Canadian.

[Chris Ryan]

Have you ever done Shoresy? Have you done Letter Kenny?

[Patrick Adams]

I love them, too, but I can't do that. They're too good.

[Chris Ryan]

No, I mean, but, like, do you watch that stuff?

[Patrick Adams]

I watched Letter Kinney. I watched Shore Z. I have not finished Heated Rivalry yet, but my sister is a fan.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Patrick Adams]

Orphan Black was, I guess, a Canadian co production that I was a big fan of. And then I, I tweeted my way onto that show for a minute, and now I'm friends with Tatiana Maslany, which is amazing.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's good. Your social media manifests things.

[Chris Ryan]

It does.

[Andy Greenwald]

Look at us. This is really. And they say it's all bad, but I don't think that's true.

[Patrick Adams]

Tried to find our videos yesterday. We have to look them up. Someone has to post this on Social. So we get a little history here. Because I couldn't find the original.

[Chris Ryan]

It was like.

[Andy Greenwald]

It was video of you combing your

[Chris Ryan]

car radio and being.

[Patrick Adams]

You have to understand how surreal that was because you're. Because I do. I literally really listen every week. And you guys had never talked about suits ever.

[Andy Greenwald]

Nor did we, which is what made the video so amazing.

[Patrick Adams]

Because you did in that case, because you were.

[Andy Greenwald]

Suits came up and you were just

[Patrick Adams]

laughing about, like, why is this show.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, Chris. Like, it was pretty good. And I was basically like, yes. I know. It starred people like Patrick J. Adams. And I didn't watch it. Like, I literally said something. Just like a shotgun. Just a drive by as you were driving by.

[Patrick Adams]

How bad was the response? You've made commentary about how some people came after you after I made a post.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes. No, you got. Yeah, you got the suit stands.

[Patrick Adams]

Did they get.

[Andy Greenwald]

Did they.

[Patrick Adams]

Were they mean? Were they.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, they're. There's a polite group. They're passionate.

[Patrick Adams]

I told.

[Andy Greenwald]

They want. They want to educate.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

They want to. They're. They're. They don't they lead with. How much Suits have you watched since this podcast started?

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Where are we? He was waiting for physical media.

[Patrick Adams]

Have you seen one episode of Suits?

[Andy Greenwald]

From what I understand, you did a show on usa. I did. I did.

[Patrick Adams]

They didn't make you watch Suits before?

[Chris Ryan]

Is that party before?

[Andy Greenwald]

Weirdly, they made me watch Royal Pains.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

And they were, like, from the Blue sky era.

[Chris Ryan]

We'd prefer you to.

[Patrick Adams]

Now you have a place to start and you don't have to stream it. It was really that high quality?

[Andy Greenwald]

It was really kind. We'll pivot because we do like to zag on this show. So now, three years after it became the number one show in the world, we'll do Suits. But now it's time.

[Chris Ryan]

Now only the DVD versions of Suits.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, they'll be like, actually, the episodes are one and a half minutes longer.

[Chris Ryan]

There's a little extra.

[Patrick Adams]

Can we do a ringer rewatch of Suits that I'll be involved in? Just pitch it here, probably.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, great.

[Patrick Adams]

Perfect.

[Andy Greenwald]

Do you notice how we went? Yes, probably.

[Chris Ryan]

Probably.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes.

[Patrick Adams]

That's maybe not gonna happen.

[Chris Ryan]

Want to be on it?

[Patrick Adams]

Bill Simmons. Juliet.

[Andy Greenwald]

I mostly heard from Juliet about my Suits erasure. She's a big fan.

[Patrick Adams]

I don't know Juliet.

[Chris Ryan]

So she lives in New York. She's our head of operations.

[Patrick Adams]

Let's get her in.

[Andy Greenwald]

We've just created a moment for her where she's on the subway listening to it, and she hears one of her

[Patrick Adams]

hybrid actors be like, hi, Juliet.

[Andy Greenwald]

Don't know her.

[Patrick Adams]

Thank you, Juliet. Juliet.

[Andy Greenwald]

But this is how we were.

[Patrick Adams]

You want to know a fun ringer thing that you can cut out? But Adam Naiman.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I went to high school with no way.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I love Adam.

[Patrick Adams]

He's the best.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, my God, he's so, like, my favorite film critic.

[Patrick Adams]

It's so smart.

[Chris Ryan]

Can I nerd out with you for a second? What's the camera thing?

[Patrick Adams]

You were looking at my shirt.

[Chris Ryan]

No, I love lcd, but I saw that you did. You've done some photography exhibits and stuff.

[Patrick Adams]

Yeah, yeah, I have a couple of exhibits. I haven't done a ton of that, but I survived as a photographer. When I was an actor, I was taking headshots.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you ever get into, like. Like, the. The film side of it? Like, the actual, like, I shoot film.

[Patrick Adams]

I shoot a lot of film. Oh, you mean like, like, like moving images?

[Chris Ryan]

Because you were speaking so fondly of the. The photography department on shows you're on.

[Patrick Adams]

That's what I'm drawing. I directed some episode of Suits. You'll discover those along. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Later on. And I love directing and.

[Chris Ryan]

And I perverse by the way, they're just disturbing. Lynch.

[Patrick Adams]

Very Lynchian inspired. Really dark.

[Andy Greenwald]

What is under these suits?

[Patrick Adams]

I'm super dry. That's where when I'm on set I'm always just working out with the camera department and trying to figure out you

[Chris Ryan]

hang out when it's not like a scene of yours just to see what they're doing.

[Patrick Adams]

I was shadowing Christina on this and usually when I'd shadow Christina I just go and hang out with the camera department and ask them questions and I just first saw. I just love cameras. I love visual storytelling. I love getting to understand when you have five cameras there's so many people who are focused on different things and trying to figure out how you organize all those cameras. Like, well, who's going for the close up. And. And on most shows there's like an A camera and I am in charge of the close ups. And on this show it was like so fluid. It was like, no, you're there now. Get that. You get that close up. You're feeling that shoot. That eagle that's flying by right now. It was like sort of this beautiful orchestra that nobody really needed to be told what to do. And they all understood it. And so. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just fascinated by the camera.

[Chris Ryan]

It's always interesting to me like when actors start to gravitate towards that. I saw like Giovanni Ribizzi super into it.

[Patrick Adams]

Makes the camera. He made the camera.

[Chris Ryan]

He maintains vista vision.

[Patrick Adams]

That one battle was shot.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And he was the DP on. Yeah, he built it strange darling. Like this really good like kind of horror movie that came out.

[Patrick Adams]

I got to work with him once on his show which was called Sneaky Pete. Sneaky Pete, Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I like that.

[Patrick Adams]

And it was amazing. He's. He's such a trip. He loves cameras. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I sometimes see him walking around in Atwater with like a camera around his neck. Really like he would love that.

[Patrick Adams]

Just say take a picture of me.

[Andy Greenwald]

Photograph.

[Chris Ryan]

Patrick, man, thank you so much for coming on the watch. Thank you.

[Andy Greenwald]

Thank you for the meeting.

[Chris Ryan]

The green light to come on. If when you finish industry come back on. Talk about that, I would love it. Good luck with season two whenever that comes. But congratulations on season.

[Patrick Adams]

Let me come back for season two.

[Andy Greenwald]

Please tell, tell Taylor Chris said hi.

[Patrick Adams]

I will. Monster Energy.

[Chris Ryan]

Everybody knows White Monster zero Ultra. That's the OG it kicked off this

[Patrick Adams]

whole sugar energy drink thing. But Ultra is a whole lineup. Now you've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava.

[Chris Ryan]

And they all bring the monster energy punch.

[Andy Greenwald]

So if you've been living in the

[Patrick Adams]

white can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe, and every single one is zero Sugar.

[Chris Ryan]

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