‘The Pitt’ S2E6. Plus, Apple Takes ‘Severance’ in-House and the ‘Spider-Noir’ Trailer.

Summary

The Watch – Podcast Summary

Episode: ‘The Pitt’ S2E6. Plus, Apple Takes ‘Severance’ in-House and the ‘Spider-Noir’ Trailer.
Hosts: Chris Ryan & Andy Greenwald
Date: February 13, 2026

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Overview

In this episode, Andy and Chris dig into three main topics: a lively check-in on Hulu’s Tell Me Lies, the business implications of Apple acquiring the rights to its flagship series Severance, and a deep-dive review of The Pitt S2E6. They also break down the just-released trailer for Amazon’s Spider-Noir series with Nic Cage. True to form, the conversation is peppered with personal anecdotes, pop culture riffs, and their signature comic rapport.

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Key Topics and Discussions

1. Late-Night TV Rituals & ‘Tell Me Lies’ (03:15–09:07)

• Chris recounts a night of minimal sleep after a live show (“I only had like honey roasted almonds and a banana for dinner.” — Chris, 02:39) and self-medicates with Tell Me Lies, a show about “young folks at a bard unit... But for the most part, they terrorize each other emotionally and sexually.” (03:44).
• Notable for its over-the-top melodrama and depictions of toxic relationships; Andy riffs on this with comic bits (Al Pacino impersonation at 04:32).
• On the show’s binge-worthy depravity:
  “One of the problems is... I expect everybody in here to have their very beings, like, atomized by each other” — Chris (07:15)
  The hosts compare it to classic primetime soaps but note that streaming allows for “guardrails to be removed,” making it a “sedated version of Euphoria.”
• They muse on why such soapy TV endures, cultural reflections, and whether Tell Me Lies will generate any spinoffs (05:10–05:59).

2. Apple Buys Back ‘Severance’ IP (10:02–18:23)

• Chris sets the stage for a major industry story: Apple reportedly spends $70M to buy back rights to Severance from Fifth Season.
  “Comrade Tim Cook seizing the means of production for Severance,” — Chris (10:09)
• Andy explains the common Hollywood business model where “a different studio, a different production company is selling the show to the streamer” (11:07–11:50), and how Apple is steadily building its in-house studio.
• They discuss possible motivations: stability for future Severance seasons and spin-offs, and the possibility of international versions “the way that The Office popped up in a couple of different countries...” (10:44).
• Andy points out that, beyond merch or lunchboxes, the acquisition appears driven by Apple’s need for “franchises to build larger IP on” and the influx of production costs given Severance’s “exacting vision, ballooning costs, and all the other things that went along with making the show, writers room turmoil” (13:45).
• Chris praises Apple’s “commitment to multi season runs. And if they feel like something's working, they're just going to keep doing it.” (14:32)
• Broader talk about cross-studio relationships (Bill Lawrence at Warner, etc.) and how streaming is changing the “feel” of TV: “...it kind of is getting close to replicating what a television network used to feel like, where every year my show comes back.” (14:32)
• Andy references the strategic importance of keeping talent like Bill Lawrence in-house and the shifting boundaries between what’s an “HBO show” versus a “Max show” (16:10–18:40).

3. ‘Spider-Noir’ Amazon Trailer & Spider-Man Lore (18:51–29:41)

• The duo breakdown the trailer for Spider-Noir, Amazon’s new series starring Nic Cage as Ben Reilly, a 1930s PI/Spider-Man variant (19:04).
• Andy provides comic book backstory: “Nic Cage voices Spider man noir in those movies... and a noir version of Spider man has a comic book... relatively recent, but comic book history.” (19:17–19:41)
• Amazon’s slider into Spider-‘tent’ is discussed—various spinoffs, development struggles, long time-in-progress (20:33).
• Notably, the show will air in both black and white and color, and has what they deem a “dynamite cast.” The show is distinguished by its commitment to noir conventions, rather than just superhero fare: “It seems to understand the brief... less a spider man or superhero show and more of a let's really play with noir convention.” — Andy (23:13)
• Amusing tangent on Chris’s never-to-be Amazon pitch, "Spider Maga," and running gag about his alternate pitches (20:33–21:50).
• They debate the difficulties and oddities of adapting comic ideas to live action.
• Andy gives a concise recap of Ben Reilly’s infamous “clone saga” from the comics (25:35–26:40): “...it was suggested that Spider Man, Peter Parker... had actually for 20 years been a clone. And... the real Spider man was a guy named Ben Reilly. Everyone’s like, and I can sort of paraphrase comic book fans... what the fuck?”
• They discuss comic fandom, the perils of online discourse, and the reservations about digging too deeply into internet reactions (26:46–27:59).

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4. The Pitt S2E6 In-Depth Breakdown (32:44–52:16)

General Impressions

• Chris worries the show isn’t getting enough attention on the podcast:
  “Not to be too meta about it, but sometimes I feel like The Pit is getting short shrift from this podcast... at least in the first five or six episodes.” — Chris (32:01)
• The episode is described as a “start your engines moment” for the season (34:13).
• Directed by Noah Wyle, praised as “the king of television” (32:52–32:54).

Plot and Emotional Core

• The episode pivots around the death of Louis, the regular who passes away at the start:
  “Probably the first big wallop emotional beat... with Louis passing at the beginning of the episode and a lot of time spent with Dana as she prepares his body... quite moving. Quite beautiful.” — Chris (34:43)
• Andy: “The framing of Louis... served as a spine for the episode that really was about dignity and the parts of the life experience that we... don’t think about and don't worry about.” (36:49)
• Praise for Catherine Lanassa’s performance as Dana, and for weaving in themes of ritual, mortality, and found family in the emergency room.

Structural and Thematic Analysis

• Andy draws contrasts with first season, but feels the show has “been able to carve out space for Robbie to be one of the most compelling lead characters, star performances on television.” (35:39)
• Chris notes a “juxtaposition of Louis with... the prisoner who's in the hospital currently,” using this as an example of the show’s unvarnished look at the ethics of emergency medicine (38:58).
• The interplay of personal biography (Louis as a surrogate family member) and system-level discussions (triage, resource constraints) are recounted.
• They appreciate the way the show quietly addresses lingering subplots (Dr. Collins update, Dana’s personal backstory), and progressively gives more depth to side characters like Donnie (nurse practitioner) and Perla (46:20–47:14).
• Andy observes the “bottle episode” feel, with the day-in-the-life structure focused on rituals (both literal and emotional), distinguishing The Pitt from flashier medical dramas.

Character Arcs & Subplots

• Ongoing storyline about Robbie’s unsafe motorcycle habits comes up (44:28–45:49):
  “It now seems... all of the characters on the Pit are watching season two of the Pit. They know that we know that Robbie is a little cavalier about this. Thus one third of the patients are motorcycle related this year.” — Andy (44:41)
• Strengths in small, quiet character moments highlighted: resolving issues raised in previous episodes, consistent “firm hand on the wheel (or on the handlebars in this case)” in plotting.
• Debate about Dr. Alshemi’s function as a (so far) clunky foil:
  “Right now, just a character foil. And she is a tweet.” (49:11)
  The hosts give her “the back nine of the season” to prove her depth.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “If you cast, like, really talented stage actors, they can probably do more than just, like, you know, push crash carts in the background.” — Andy (47:06)
• Chris’s delight at the “hot dog guy” and the mixture of humor and gross-out medicine: “Hot dog guy was pretty gross. Didn't need to really see him barf multiple times.” (47:14)
• Andy on medical show honesty:
  “I appreciated in terms of, like, real pull back the curtain honesty, that Langdon was super grossed out and couldn't hide it.” (51:02)

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5. Pop Culture Extras & Personal Recs (54:48–59:42)

• Chris recommends the new Angel Dust record, Cold to the Touch, drawing comparisons to Hot Snakes and aggressive power pop (54:48–55:33).
• Andy’s music picks include Ratboys’ latest album, Fake Mink’s The Boy Who Cried Terrified, and UK rapper SD Kid (57:09–58:25).
  “There's a burial sample on the last track. You might enjoy going back to this SDKID record from last year.” — Andy (58:06).
• Touching on books, Chris revisits James Ellroy's The Big Nowhere after True Detective Season 2, describing the experience of rereading favorite novels (55:48–56:54).
• Brief aside about parenting, school pickup lines, and dads listening to music their kids hate:
  “Every single electric vehicle in line to pick up children from the progressive Los Angeles school is the fucking SD kid of his own life.” — Andy (58:59)
• Banter closes out the episode with friendly ribbing about their Boston pasts, music and book recommendations, and post-NFL podcast withdrawal.

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• Chris on Tell Me Lies:
  “Tell me lies, dog. Tell me lies island. It's not even an island anymore. It's an asylum.” (03:17)

• Andy on TV Structure:
  “... they've been able to carve out space for Robbie to be one of the most compelling lead characters, star performances on television.” (35:39)

• Andy on Severance’s difficulties:
  “... referred to as Ben Stiller's feature background and exacting vision, ballooning costs and all the other things that went along with making the show writers room turmoil.” (13:45)

• On Apple’s approach:
  “... if they feel like something's working, they're just going to keep doing it. And that's been great for Slow Horses. It's obviously been great for shrinking... it's kind of getting close to replicating what a television network used to feel like.” — Chris (14:32)

• On Noir Style in Spider-Noir:
  “It seems to understand the brief that what would make it more interesting and more unique at this point in time is less a spider man or superhero show and more of a let's really play with noir convention.” — Andy (23:13)

• Chris on the emotional core of The Pitt:
  “...Louis passing at the beginning of the episode and a lot of time spent with Dana... quite moving. Quite beautiful.” (34:43)

• Andy on everyday hospital life:
  “... everything is cumulative, everything is building. And yet somehow within that, they've been able to carve out space...” (35:39)

• Andy on routines:
  “Every single electric vehicle in line to pick up children from the progressive Los Angeles school is the fucking SD kid of his own life.” (58:59)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:15] – Binge-watching Tell Me Lies post-live performance
• [09:58] – Transition to news: Apple buying Severance rights
• [10:02–14:32] – Deep dive into Apple’s streaming business moves
• [18:51–27:59] – Analysis of Spider-Noir trailer & Spider-Man comic canon
• [32:44–52:16] – In-depth commentary on The Pitt S2E6
• [54:48–59:42] – Music and book recommendations, “dad life” jokes

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Conclusion

As always, Andy and Chris mix genuine insight with humor, drawing out the connective tissue between industry trends, shows’ deeper meanings, and their own lives. The episode stands out for its nuanced discussion of medical drama (The Pitt), streaming wars, and comic book lore—and, as usual, for the hosts’ infectious chemistry.

Transcript

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[Chris Ryan]

Pain Sports to have 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 join me in the studio on a permanent hiatus from competitive hot dog eating. It's Andy Greenwald.

[Andy Greenwald]

How you doing, buddy?

[Chris Ryan]

The engine needs a little bit of work. We need a little bit of oil poured in there.

[Andy Greenwald]

You. Yeah. What's going on?

[Chris Ryan]

I'm tired, man. Yeah. I did the live show last night for Bill.

[Andy Greenwald]

Wait, first, let's be clear. You didn't perform a solo live show for Bill where he was like dance monkey do Wayne Jenkins.

[Chris Ryan]

Honestly, it was pretty close to that. I did a lot of Al Pacino last night.

[Andy Greenwald]

You were live on stage in front of hundreds of people.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes, at the Woltern Theater. We did the Bill Simmons live show. We did Heat quotes to explain the NBA season thus far.

[Andy Greenwald]

I mean, what else would one do? That's great.

[Chris Ryan]

And it was me and Rob and Van and Bill and it was a lot of fun. But I am feeling it a little bit today because I only had like honey roasted almonds and a banana for dinner.

[Andy Greenwald]

What are we doing?

[Chris Ryan]

Well, I don't like going into any kind of live performance with like a belly full of food.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's fair. What about afterwards, you go get some?

[Chris Ryan]

Well, then it was like 10:30, because we were up there for a long time. It's like fish, you know, just like Anastasio just noodling, you know. And so I was like, I gotta go home. And then I had to go home. And if you really want the God soundest truth, Andy, I'll give it to you right now. We do have some news. And we're going to talk about the pit. And you can hit us [e-mail] and you can follow us on Instagram at thewatchpod underscore. And you can watch us on YouTube at the Ringer Dash TV. And you should watch us on Spotify where you're also listening to us. But I got home 10:40, 10:50pm Usually you're way in bed.

[Andy Greenwald]

I'm big bed, big in bed.

[Chris Ryan]

That's when the Ryan Reilly household fired up. Tell me lies, dog. Tell me lies island. It's not even an island anymore. It's an asylum. It's an asylum. These people all belong in Arkham. For people who don't know, Tell me Lies is about a bunch of young folks at a bard unit. Is it Bard College?

[Andy Greenwald]

Bard is. Bard is a college. In reality, they go to Baird.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, I see there. And what they do is occasionally they pursue hobbies like photography and like kind of new journalism. But for the most part, they terrorize each other emotionally and sexually. And last week, I'll just say it out loud, I watched the main character listening to a threatening voicemail message from her ex. And she just. She still has this threatening voicemail message where he's just like, nobody likes you. You're. You're a piece of. And she masturbated to it.

[Andy Greenwald]

Wow.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. So I was like, already? Like, wow, we're already in the red.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And then this week, you know, they made the mistake of finding two characters with souls and putting them together briefly.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And then we watched them get destroyed. So can you.

[Andy Greenwald]

I'm sorry, I'm hung up on something. Could you do the threatening masturbatory voicemail as Al Pacino, but Al Pacino, like 95, 96, Al Pacino susceptible woman, blind.

[Chris Ryan]

Masturbating to a voicemail from my ex.

[Andy Greenwald]

It's auditory. That's good.

[Chris Ryan]

So it's just been an amazing experience watching the show and also watching it. To use a green wall doesn't break contain because Bill Simmons making IG reels about it. Oh, it's just, it's just caught on. I think it's the number one show on Hulu. This is its final season and its finale is next week.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is it the final season in the sense of like Summer I Turned pretty. Where they're going to do a movie to wrap it all up?

[Chris Ryan]

It's a really good question. I was looking at some stuff about that today. They say that this is the end of the story and that they, you know, could consider future ideas. So, like, the way it's set up is this college stuff is told basically in flashback from a wedding that is taking place in 2000. I want to say 15, but I might be wrong. I could, I could be remembering that wrong. And so theoretically I could imagine a show called Tell Me Lies about, I guess this six, the wedding night, these doomed people. No, the wedding night is a major storyline.

[Andy Greenwald]

But I'm saying, what else happens at the wedding? And you go 20, 25 and they're like, here's some stuff you didn't know about the wedding, dude.

[Chris Ryan]

What if you just the funniest thing in the world if you became the showrunner of the Tell Me Lies spinoff.

[Andy Greenwald]

Tell Me More Lies.

[Chris Ryan]

Tell Me Truths.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, no. Nobody wants that. No.

[Chris Ryan]

I know you have no interest in a young person's erotic soap, do you?

[Andy Greenwald]

As a hashtag girldad. I do not. Thank you.

[Chris Ryan]

No. Feel good about that for about two more years. When she's firing that up, when she's doing the third spin through Tell Me Lies.

[Andy Greenwald]

Let me enjoy that. She is just rereading the Little House on the Prairie books right now. Okay, let me just have this in terms of what if it's the Little.

[Chris Ryan]

House on the Prairie book cover but on the inside it's the novel Tell Me Lies.

[Andy Greenwald]

I respect it. Yeah. Do you feel like there are any larger takeaways for those of us who are not going to engage in the show? Like the depravity of the show? Is it saying something about our culture? Like, because I do think it was like, this is unrelated, but I think.

[Chris Ryan]

I do think it's a good, really good depiction of some of the toxic codependencies that can emerge out of long term partnerships between people who are creatively handcuffed to one another and who went.

[Andy Greenwald]

To a wedding in 2015.

[Chris Ryan]

To me, when I watch it, I'm like, this has all the bones of a primetime soap from the aughts, maybe even the 90s, where you've got like a group of people who are like, slowly going through every permutation of coupledom.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

But it takes advantage of all the, like, you know, guardrails that have been removed because now there are streamers, now it's on streaming, so it doesn't look that different than an ABC show, but it feels like you're watching a sedated version of Euphoria. I find it to be actually, like, incredibly watchable. But one of the problems is, is that because I expect everybody in here to have their very beings, like, atomized by each other when they have something in the, like the episode recap, like, before you start the new episode, and they're like, last week on Tell Me Lies, and it's like a random little line from three weeks ago, and you're like, oh, okay, so they're gonna make his mom an alcoholic again.

[Andy Greenwald]

I thought they'd be like, someone's gonna masturbate today. What a tell. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

So it's just like, I assume the worst, and I'm usually rewarded for my assumptions in the show, which I don't know is a special cut of pleasure.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's the same feeling I had watching my own Tell Me Lies. Pam Bondi's appearance before Congress yesterday. Kaya, where are you with the show? Cause I feel like you have been watching. I'm mid season two out of. Sorry, which season are we on?

[Chris Ryan]

Three.

[Advertisement Voice]

Three. So I'm getting there. I'm kind of.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm at a summer I turned pretty pace where I'm not on track to.

[Advertisement Voice]

Unfortunately catch up before the season finale airs. And Chris is really worried about spoiling.

[Chris Ryan]

Me, but I guess that was the.

[Andy Greenwald]

Only plot detail you were worried about spoiling for me.

[Chris Ryan]

You're masturbating. Yeah. No, I just didn't. There's the thing about the couple that I like. I just don't want to give it away because they handle it really well. It emerges over the course of season three. You're like, look at these two kids. They just want to make it honest.

[Andy Greenwald]

Are there multiple nice couples that emerge?

[Chris Ryan]

No, there's only one.

[Andy Greenwald]

You've essentially spoiled.

[Chris Ryan]

There's two. I would say there's 1.5.

[Andy Greenwald]

Talk me through then before we move on. Like, just psychologically, look, doing a live show, you know, your nerves are firing. You're fired up. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

The adrenaline. Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. And then you. And also your body is in full ketosis, having not eaten, and you choose to fill the gnawing hole in yourself with this program. Did you enjoy it more? Did you enjoy it less? Did you feel sated? At the end of watching it. Because if we were in New York, you would have stopped for a slice or something. Sure.

[Chris Ryan]

I would have had a whole night in front of me. You know, we would have gone out, we would have chased the dawn. I feel, I felt like I want to still be the guy who stays up until 12:15 on a weeknight.

[Andy Greenwald]

Good for you, man.

[Chris Ryan]

You know?

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I have nobody, nobody's gonna wake me up in the morning and say, dad, where's breakfast?

[Andy Greenwald]

It would be super weird if they did.

[Chris Ryan]

But I'm just, I was just saying it's okay for me to stay up late on a weeknight, even if I have to get up and come in and talk about Apple buying the IP rights for its own show back from a production company.

[Andy Greenwald]

I thought this was interesting.

[Chris Ryan]

This is the first headline I want to throw at you now. You know, I like to go to you for this behind the scenes, business level stuff.

[Andy Greenwald]

Totally.

[Chris Ryan]

Comrade. Tim Cook seizing the means of production for severance, going in and paying a reported $70 million to buy the. Basically the IP. The rights. Yeah, the, the, the, he, he bought Severance from fifth season, which was the original production company who stay on as executive producers. I don't know how ceremonial that is or whether or not they're instrumental going forward in, in doing the third season of Severance, the reported fourth season of Severance, the hint that there could be more seasons of severance or the hint that there could be spin offs of Severance.

[Andy Greenwald]

And.

[Chris Ryan]

And additionally, although I never really would have thought this was an export, an international version of Severance, different countries. So like the way that the office popped up in a couple of different countries, obviously. Let's start with the business side of things.

[Andy Greenwald]

Look, when you're on a tear like Tim Cook is on from attending the Melania premiere to this, he's crushing it. No, so it's an interesting.

[Chris Ryan]

For folks who don't understand, it's not uncommon where a different studio, a different production company is selling the show to the streamer, that is, that is distributing it.

[Andy Greenwald]

I mean there are some places that generate most of their content in house. There's some places that have their own robust studio business, but then also are buyers and Apple, you know, starting from zero. One of the things that the guys in charge of Apple Television from the beginning have been very plain about is that they, they were coming from. They were the heads of Sony.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Which is a buyer.

[Andy Greenwald]

Which is a seller. Which is a seller. Yes, complete seller. They don't buy that. They wanted to have an in house studio and they've built that up over time. So I think now roughly half of Apple shows are.

[Chris Ryan]

And I think they bought Ted Lasso and Silo, if I remember correctly.

[Andy Greenwald]

Silo is the example that I know of something that they, that started as an external show and they bought and brought in house for its second season so that there's precedent for what they're doing with severance. If you read. I thought the article about this was pretty. If you read between the lines was pretty.

[Chris Ryan]

This is in Deadline.

[Andy Greenwald]

In Deadline. It was pretty honest in a way that some of these stories aren't. Like, obviously it paid lip service to things that are factually true about the growth potential for the series, the importance of the series to Apple's overall strategy in terms of awards, in terms of having its own franchises to build, you know, larger IP on. I don't, it's not, I don't quite see the growth in terms of like merchandising unless like they're looking forward to selling a lunchbox that comes out every three years and opens weird.

[Chris Ryan]

They could sell like a. They could definitely sell like a severance board game or a severance video game.

[Andy Greenwald]

Sure. Or a desk.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure. They could sell desks.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, they could sell desks is what I'm saying. Hallways. All of that makes sense. But if you read between the lines further, what you get is some of.

[Chris Ryan]

The stuff, some of the safe rooms I can see. Maybe I should be working.

[Andy Greenwald]

Why don't you go off on this for a minute? Why don't you just. No bad ideas in a brainstorm. This is the most animated you've been today.

[Chris Ryan]

It's the ways in which Apple can get some new revenue going.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, you've got all this, like, capital, right. You're up till midnight. Like, what are you going to do?

[Chris Ryan]

Dear Tim, some thoughts after watching. Tell me Live after watching this girl masturbate.

[Andy Greenwald]

Why don't you do it as a voice memo for him, see what he does with it.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, gotcha.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, you did. Gotcha. If you read between the lines of the article, there's a lot of the stuff there that is sort of generally understood but not fully reported or sourced, which is, this has been a bear of a show to produce that I think there's a passing reference to season two starting production at the end of 22 and finishing in 24.

[Chris Ryan]

Right. Strikes, etc.

[Andy Greenwald]

Strikes, et cetera. But also, I believe it's referred to as Ben Stiller's feature background and exacting vision, ballooning costs and all the other things that went along with making the show writers room turmoil. There's a sense within the article that the show or the demands of the show or now the expectations of the show have far outstretched fifth season's ability to fund it on its own.

[Chris Ryan]

They were essentially being asked to float the production for many several years in between seasons as things went up and went down and Apple obviously has the pockets to do so.

[Andy Greenwald]

Apple can pay for this and Apple clearly is invested in paying for it. And I think it's interesting. It definitely guarantees the stability of the show or the chance for them to see it all the way through wherever it is that it's going.

[Chris Ryan]

I find Apple building regardless of my relationship to any of these shows, some of which I like and some of which I've kind of maybe enjoyed and then moved on from. I find their relationship to their flagship shows very interesting because one thing that I admire and appreciate about Apple is their commitment to multi season runs. And if they feel like something's working, they're just going to keep doing it. And that's been great for Slow Horses. It's obviously been great for shrinking in terms of that fan base. The people who really love shrinking, I'm sure very appreciative that it's not like is shrinking coming back every nine months and it kind of is getting close to replicating what a television network used to feel like, where every year my show comes back. I know with interest that shrinking is a Warner Brothers show. I believe it comes through Bill Lawrence's Warner deal. But yeah, they continue to amass this sort of war chest of things. And it's like, you know what, honestly, in three or four years they could do the morning show without Aniston and Witherspoon. They could come up with a different pairing of people who are working in morning shows in the 70s. You could do the morning show in the 70s, all the President's Men style.

[Andy Greenwald]

What else could you do? Chris, what's another list of things that they could do at the morning show?

[Chris Ryan]

I'm just throwing a free game to Tim Cook.

[Andy Greenwald]

They could make a show about your morning where no one wakes you up and it's just a very peaceful 15 minutes.

[Chris Ryan]

I wake up every morning and I open up the Hollywood Reporter at my table and I say, what are we going to talk about on the watch? And I'm just tired of being mocked for my choices. You know, I appreciate that I run this show.

[Andy Greenwald]

Honestly. It's a division of labor. I'm very, very comfortable with the one Thing just to note that we were talking about studios sell things to other streamers, et cetera, et cetera. I do find it interesting to note the way some of these decisions are connected. So Bill Lawrence has had a. I mean he's. When the books are written, maybe Alan Sepenwolf will write this book someday. About the most successful creators in the history of tv. Bill Lawrence is without question among them. Even though he has a lower profile, maybe because he's in comedy, but he's had a hit show in every decade for the last four decades.

[Chris Ryan]

He has also done something that I thought would never happen, which is merge the kind of sensibilities of multiple eras, often to. And I mean this as a compliment to his benefit in so much as he is doing a streaming show at the clip that he would do Scrubs but with like a lower episode order.

[Andy Greenwald]

Now he's doing Scrubs again. But so Ted Lasso shrinking Bad Monkey, I think comes from him as well. These are all shows that have found varying levels of success propping up Apple's brand. And he's done all this through his longtime home at Warner Brothers and the upcoming in the next few weeks, Steve Carell Comedy Rooster is both a Bill Lawrence show for hbo but also does to me feel a little bit like some kind of internal wait, why are we letting this guy leave the building? Like we need to develop our in house talent and we need to have one of his shows that are successful elsewhere here. And I haven't not watched enough of that show to determine like if, oh, this actually is an HBO version of Bill Lawrence show. I've watched one and it's enjoyable, but it's very Bill Lawrence enjoyable and it's interesting to see like is that just does that brand more important at this point than HBO's esteemed comedy brand? Not that it's belittling it. No, it's just that it is something that has worked elsewhere brought into.

[Chris Ryan]

I think that like a couple years ago when they were doing like Flight Attendant, which the first season of Flight Attendant I liked very much and it was a Max show and Max was going to be this kind of like TNT version of HBO or something. And now I feel like between heated rivalry, maybe the Rooster, like you're talking about like a couple of other things that are the Pit, obviously a Max.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, the Rooster's hbo.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes, you're right. I'm saying HBO has loosened up. What is HBO a little bit.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, or they're trying to. Yes, they've done that and they've Also tried to redefine what Max is. Did you see that? The trilogy of shows they have the medical show, the Pit, which we're going to talk about in a moment. We talked about like, what is it like Rhapsodies in Blue, starring Milo Ventimiglia.

[Chris Ryan]

The Cop Named Milk and the Greg Berlanti family show. Right.

[Andy Greenwald]

Which announced its patriarch in Ray Romano.

[Chris Ryan]

How about that?

[Andy Greenwald]

Who I think is a really good actor, actually.

[Chris Ryan]

There you go.

[Andy Greenwald]

I enjoy him as an actor these days.

[Chris Ryan]

Spider Noir got its first trailer. This is the Amazon series from Lord Miller, broadly speaking, but has obviously a different showrunners. Nic Cage, he plays a guy named Ben Reilly.

[Andy Greenwald]

Do you want me to talk about that? I don't know if you have time.

[Chris Ryan]

He's a kind of private investigator in New York in the 30s and he is a Spider man. Yeah, go ahead, just tell me because I'm just gonna walk into a wall if I try to explain this.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, for those of us who have watched and loved the Spider Verse movies, Nic Cage voices Spider man noir in those movies. And those movies call together, bring together like all the alternate spider men that have existed in the comics in various forms. And a noir version of Spider man has a comic book. Relatively recent, but comic book history.

[Chris Ryan]

Is it good?

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, I mean, I like both of those things and they taste real good together. This show comes from a deal that Amazon made with Lord Miller off of the success of and Sony off of the success of the Spider Verse to bring to the small screen spider alts, spider tent, spider content, the big tent of Spider man politics. And it has been a bumpy development road. I think the first announced one was a series based on a Korean American spider girl that has gone through multiple showrunners. And I don't even know the current status of it. This one, I, full disclosure, met on this one. So I like, I'm aware of how long of process this has been. This has been multiple years of building up some development and then starting from scratch.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you think it's weird? And this is also full disclosure that I have not yet heard back about my pitch for Spider Maga about a guy who refuses to get vaccinated and that gives him spider powers.

[Andy Greenwald]

I think. Cause it's a bidding war. I think everybody wants that right now. And so I think right now they're just quibbling over a dollar figure for you.

[Chris Ryan]

Thanks.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, no, let me know. You're always. This is what you do though. You zag. Because last week Kai cut us up for the Internet. So it looks like, we're super, you know, we're like Resistance Libs. And now I don't really want to. You, like, keep people guessing. You're like what Michael Jordan said about sneakers, you know?

[Chris Ryan]

Yes, that's true.

[Andy Greenwald]

Everybody buys them.

[Chris Ryan]

Let's say that's sort of what he said.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, that's sort of what he said. It's tricky to take something that is an idea and works in a cartoon or works in a comic book and make a live action version of it. And when I was aware of the conversations, it was meant to be like an inspiration or origin story or alternate version of the character that Nicolas Cage voiced in the cartoon. I don't know what point. Long after I was done talking with him, someone was like, you know, Nick could do this. Sure. And it definitely raises the interest and the surreality of it, I think, to see actually Nic Cage playing a freak.

[Chris Ryan]

The rest of the cast is rounded out by a fantastic group of performers. Lauren Morris from Fargo and New Girl, Lee Jun Lee, who I thought was so great. And Sinners. Karen Rodriguez from Hunting Wives. Abraham Popula from Slow Horses. For a couple of seasons there, Jack Houston and Brendan Gleason. So that's a dynamite cast for this. And interestingly enough, this is. It comes from Oren Uziel who did Lost City, and Steve Lightfoot who does the Punisher. And they are co showrunners. Interestingly enough, I believe this show will be released in both black and white and color versions. I think I will choose to watch them in black and white if I watch it. Assuming I watch it.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, I think that was. They fight. People fight behind the scenes to get that happen. Like, I still can't believe that that Garrett Bash and his producing team got Ripley released in black and white. So I think that's really cool. I also think we should mention Harry Bradbeer, who directed on Fleabag and I think on Killing Eve as well, seems to have brought a really cool visual style to it. I don't know, it looks pretty fun, honestly. It seems to understand the brief that what would make it more interesting and more unique at this point in time is less a spider man or superhero show and more of a let's real really play with noir convention.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, it'll be interesting to kind of see what a year from now, assuming Spider Maga isn't a go project and I'm not writing and directing every episode. I mean, fingers crossed, of course, where Amazon is a year from now, because as we noted in previous episodes, Peter Freelander, who is the longtime Executive in charge of scripted at Netflix is now at Amazon. I saw that they had made some new pickups, international titles that they had picked up, which I always thought Netflix had pretty, pretty good taste in international tv, especially the crime department. So for a while there I've been kind of like not dubious but a little just nonplussed about some of the prime video stuff where it's like major IP blockbuster attempts at kind of grappling with the Game of Thrones reality of television, whether it's false out or the Lord of the Rings show. And a lot of like pretty good to unwatchable guy with a gun, whether it's Reacher, Terminal List, Bosch until it was actually then kicked down to Freevee and whatever it is now. So I, I mean I'm just to see the direction that, that Amazon goes. Obviously this goes back to previous administrations, but I'm curious.

[Andy Greenwald]

So you're saying previous administrations could have released the files?

[Chris Ryan]

They could, yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Who do you think the villains are? And by the way, everything you just said. Great. I wasn't thinking about who Spider Maga's villain is. My sense is that it's, it's obviously I think it's measles. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, like he's dominant.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Dr.

[Andy Greenwald]

Measles in everything. And he's really strong because he only eats meat and ferments. But yeah, but oh, measles. Oh no, the webs do nothing. Then he dies and then there's six more episodes of just black screen.

[Chris Ryan]

That's cool.

[Andy Greenwald]

Not black and white, just black screen. It's pretty visionary.

[Chris Ryan]

I was heavily influenced by David Lynch.

[Andy Greenwald]

Heavily. I don't think this is as chaotic. I think we actually have enough actual things to talk about today so that I don't need to fill you in on the background of Ben Reilly in the Spider man universe.

[Chris Ryan]

I mean it's your dime, man. You can tell me whatever you want in here. It's just us.

[Andy Greenwald]

It's beautiful. Is that what Bill told you last night when you're doing pacino for the 19th time? No, it's just Peter Parker can't be in these shows because Peter Parker's rights are controlled for by Sony. All this stuff is micro sliced into so many different. Like it's kind of like the NFL package, like who gets to run what when Ben Reilly is a infamous name among spider fans. Because there was a pretty controversial plot line. I believe it was 90s into the 2000s where a guy. Basically it was suggested that Spider Man, Peter Parker was who We've been who readers had enjoyed for 20 years, had actually for 20 years been a clone.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh.

[Andy Greenwald]

And that the real Spider man was a guy named Ben Reilly. And. And then that guy took over the suit and became the Scarlet Spider. Everyone's like, and I believe I can sort of paraphrase comic book fans whose reaction to this was, what the fuck?

[Chris Ryan]

Do you participate in online discourse about comic books or are you just not.

[Andy Greenwald]

Under my real name? Right. But I have a number of spider mega clone accounts where I actually.

[Chris Ryan]

No, I was wondering whether. Or not. Because, you know, there's something. There's some art forms or some, you know, popular culture things that you're like. You and I will both be like, what are people saying about this new. This record or this new. This movie? But then there are things where I'm like, I actually don't care what people think. I like to read Spy. But novels, yeah. Like, I literally don't care what any literary critic would ever say about Oliver Harris, for instance.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh, sure.

[Chris Ryan]

It's just like, that's mine. I dig it.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

That guy just wants to stand in a hotel in Kazakhstan for 15 books. I will read it.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. I feel the same way.

[Chris Ryan]

But do you go like, when you're reading comic books? Are you like, I'm curious whether or not this is playing with the crowd.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, first I brush the Dorito dust from my fingers, get dressed.

[Chris Ryan]

Play a couple of voicemails.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, because my involvement. You never know my involvement with comic books at this point in my life.

[Chris Ryan]

It'S Scarlet Spider Man.

[Andy Greenwald]

Your opinions about me are terrible. I am driven by market forces. I am not a. You know, I'd like to think that sometimes, like, within television or industries that we are more active in, we're like, aha. We have found the diamond in the rough and let us drive culture on this.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure.

[Andy Greenwald]

With comic books. Like, you know, the other week, we were talking about what DC was doing with these absolute versions of their characters. I know about that because it percolated long enough to cross over into the mainstream. I was not in these comic book streets being like, oh, this guy's really got. I'm not in. No.

[Chris Ryan]

Would you say that the arena where you find most of this discourse is Facebook?

[Andy Greenwald]

No, Facebook is just mostly sending me, like, I clicked on one. Thanks for the opportunity to update everyone. And we didn't want to talk about this with, you know, not joking, but, like, I did click on a story about James Van Der Beek, who passed away. And then this morning, when I. When I Did run out of things to look at. And I looked at Facebook. It was all really, really personal memories of people's loved ones dying, written by people I don't know. So that was really cool that it found my interest and my passion. Yeah, that was great.

[Chris Ryan]

Why are you on Facebook again? Is it just an addiction at this point? Is there something in there that's like, oh, I gotta share this with my high school class or something, or, oh, I don't share. Okay.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, no, I just told you, just lurk on. It's purely because I ran out of stuff to look at to avoid starting my day.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what? Anytime you're like, I don't want to go to Facebook, but I've run out of things to look at on the Internet, hit me up.

[Andy Greenwald]

How you gonna show me some stuff? What do you mean?

[Chris Ryan]

This is. Text me and I'll send you some links.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, okay. On the dark web.

[Chris Ryan]

No, just stuff that's out there that I'm reading.

[Andy Greenwald]

Like, for example, what would you have sent me?

[Chris Ryan]

I've been reading some cool substacks. There's one called the Hunt for Tom Clancy that I've been really enjoying.

[Andy Greenwald]

This seems useful. Why don't you share this stuff with me?

[Chris Ryan]

I will, I will.

[Andy Greenwald]

I mean, like, I thought the Michael Pollan interview about existence and perception was interesting, but I didn't send it to you because I feel like you're good on perception. You don't have kids. I eat when I'm hungry and I go to sleep when I'm tired. I don't need to know about how I'm experiencing reality. Everything's great.

[Chris Ryan]

That's not how it goes, man.

[Andy Greenwald]

I'm like, please, please let me. Are there other worlds out there?

[Sponsor Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by AMC. You do not want to miss Rise of the 49ers the limited series event premiering February 1st and 2nd. Exclusively on AMC and AMC. Executive produced by Tom Brady, the docu series charts the legendary rise of the San Francisco 49ers from underdogs to five time Super bowl champions in the 80s and 90s. It features interviews with Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott as well as never be seen archival footage. Rise of the 49ers premiering February 1st and 2nd. Visit amcplus.com to start your free trial now. This episode is brought to you by Firehouse Subs. Who just dropped a game changing sandwich. The French dip. Literally one of my favorite sandwiches slash subs. Roast beef, caramelized onions, melty cheese, little freshly toasted garlic butter roll and the warm savory au jus. I've been eating these forever since I was living on the east coast in la. I think to me this versus the cheesesteak. The French dip. No contest. Way better. And I think it's really because of the au jus. I don't know anybody who doesn't like au jus. An elite game day sub. Fun to order by the way, if you want it delivered, because they usually put the au jus in the special little container you can pour it on. Knock yourself out. The French dip here for a limited time. I wish it was longer only at Firehouse Subs. Limited time at participating Firehouse Subs restaurants while supplies last this episode is brought to you by TaxAct. Like an expert coach, TaxAct offers step by step guidance and guaranteed accuracy when filing taxes. Get tips along the way. Add Expert Assist to talk to tax experts and 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.

[Chris Ryan]

This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car shouldn't feel like a second job.

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[Chris Ryan]

With Carvana it is. Just visit Carvana.com, enter your license plate or VIN, answer a few quick questions and get an offer in minutes. Like what you see. We'll pick it up right from your door and hand you your check. No haggling, no hassle, no problem. Car selling made easy on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. Not to be too meta about it, but sometimes I feel like the Pit is getting short shrift from this podcast, at least in the first five or six episodes. Is that where we're at?

[Andy Greenwald]

This was six.

[Chris Ryan]

So it's noon, right?

[Andy Greenwald]

It was noon, yeah, noon or 1pm Actually, I think. I think we started at 6 and.

[Chris Ryan]

This episode is directed by Noah Wylie. And we'll get into it.

[Andy Greenwald]

What can't that guy do?

[Chris Ryan]

I know, man. Young citizen Noah.

[Andy Greenwald]

He's the king of television.

[Chris Ryan]

And I feel like sometimes I like, move it down the rundown a little bit. Like there are some shows where I'm like, immediately, let's get into this and let's start breaking down this amazing TV show. And it's really no Testament has nothing to do with how I feel about the Pit or its quality. It's really more like, I think that a week or two ago I became at peace with the idea that I was like this is the first movement of this season. You know, like they.

[Andy Greenwald]

You're talking about the old lady.

[Chris Ryan]

No.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh, a different kind of movement.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm really scatological with your humor today, I think.

[Andy Greenwald]

Cause it kind of gets you.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't like it.

[Andy Greenwald]

I know. And I think part of keeping our partnership spicy is I'm just making you a little uncomfortable.

[Chris Ryan]

And I think that I just downshifted the amount that we talk about the show just because even in to its high standards, which I think is still meeting, there just wasn't a lot to note. You know, we've talked about Al Hashimi, the character, the new attending physician at the emergency department. We've talked about Langdon. I can go through the patients that we have. There are some that are incredibly affecting, some that are pretty gross, some that are seemingly there as springboards to talk about larger social issues, which are the hit the Pit has often dove headfirst into.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yep.

[Chris Ryan]

But the way that this episode ends I thought signaled a start your engines moment for the season. Okay, so we get probably the first big wallop emotional beat at the end of this episode with Louis passing at the beginning of the episode and a lot of time spent with Dana as she prepares his body.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

And teaches this first day on the job. New nurse. What it. What. What that entails. I thought that was quite moving. Quite beautiful. Catherine Lanassa has a lot more to do this season, quite obviously, and for good reason. And I thought she was incredible in this episode. And I thought. I thought that last scene was great. You know, the saying goodbye to Louis and the fact that Robbie was the only one who knew. A sort of personal biography for this character and why there would be nobody coming to claim his body or spend time with him. But it did it. You know what I mean? Like, I think that there have been parts of this first season or this second season where I've been like, I don't really know if the chemistry is the same level that it was in the first season or that the internal drama of the department is clicking for me the way it did in the first season, but it is now.

[Andy Greenwald]

I've never wavered.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

I. Well, that's not true. I was a little like, oh, we're doing this again in the first few minutes or first 3/4 of the first episode. But since then, I've just been so happy to be watching the show. I'm so dialed in to its rhythms and it's just not unique, but it's almost old fashioned. Just satisfaction ratio. I thought this episode Was incredible. And one of the reasons why I liked it so much is it's not just that the Pit is executing classic television at the highest possible level. I do think that they are challenging themselves to honor the traditions of why we've always loved TV within its own challenging framework. Meaning this is real time, like 24 we're getting. You know, everything is cumulative, everything is building. And yet somehow within that, they've been able to carve out space for Robbie to be one of the most compelling lead characters, star performances on television. And beyond that, what I thought was really impressive about this episode and maybe this links to the larger conversation about when it's gonna quote, unquote, get going, is in a way, this was the Pitt's version of a Bottle episode. The framing of Louis, from his final moments at the beginning to the moments of respect at the end, served as a spine for the episode that really was about dignity and the parts of the life experience that we who are lucky enough to be floating above it for as long as we can, don't think about and don't worry about. And there were moments in it that I found. And this is. This is really remarkable for a show that, let's just say, governs and prose to the degree that this show does, if not governs fully in like press releases written by the American nurses. Very declarative.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

It never misses an opportunity to educate.

[Chris Ryan]

In the issues part of it. I think that it's done. It's. It's doing better in terms of having some ambiguity and some mystery to the characters.

[Andy Greenwald]

But. But there is still. It doesn't miss an opportunity to educate. Like, you know, most penicillin allergies aren't real. Oh, okay. Good to know. But even in the. Even in the midst of that, like, there were moments that were borderline poetic to me. The ritualistic cleaning of the body. And while Dana's explaining it felt like something totemic, like something like it made me think about how. And I think they make a reference to this or Robbie does at some point that like other cultures throughout history have treated death differently than we do in America. Certainly in terms of honoring or respecting or having ritual that end a life as well as rituals that begin a life. And even just within that context, even the small bits of like, factoids of like, well, if no one claims the ashes, it gets thrown into a mass grave. Like, that was heavy stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

And I thought that it was remarkably done for a show that can be heavy handed, even in ways that I think are educational or Important. Like, I thought that it had a relatively artistic touch for this episode that kept me. I'm always entertained, but I found myself moved.

[Chris Ryan]

I was moved as well. I also thought that the juxtaposition of Louis with. And sometimes at the pit, that you're just dealing with like up to 20 characters. So forgive me for not remembering the name of the. The prisoner who's in the hospital currently.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is it Gus?

[Chris Ryan]

It might be. And the debate that's sort of going on between Alashimi and Robbie about whether or not they can really afford to keep him in the hospital simply to feed him better than he is being fed at the prison. And whether or not, I think Robbie is taking the long view that, like, that's just a drop in the ocean. Like, that's a bed that somebody else could be using. And we're not really in the business of making sure a guy has enough protein and. And nutrients. We're here to like, save lives. And it's like this is a triage area, not. Not a rehabilitation area. And Alashemi is just like, I believe that, like you just. The way you change the world is to do good at every moment you can. And, you know, I don't think that Robbie is being intentionally inhumane about anything, but it was really interesting to see the kindness and obviously the like sort of the soul come out of him. When it was talking about Louis, who has also been coming into the hospital basically for maintenance, you know what I mean?

[Andy Greenwald]

At this point, they were his emergency contact.

[Chris Ryan]

Exactly. And that's like sort of his like weird second family or the extent to that he has one. And he was asking Langdon about his kids and he seems to know everybody and it's like he knows the procedures as well as the attendings do. So I just thought it was like a really thoughtful and uncommented upon within the show. Like, it's not like anybody goes up to Robbie after he gives this Louis eulogy and says, you know, you should think about then if that's how you feel about Louis, think about all the other people out in the show.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, there's a trickle down effect of the emotion. Like the fact that a lot of, like the Louis passing landed hard on Perla, who's a character who we don't often linger on, was a really beautiful opportunity that the show took to be like, well, she has a history and she has an inner life. The other story that I thought you were gonna mention that dovetailed nicely with it is the terminal cancer patient who doesn't want to go home, you know, because she doesn't want. She is in a different place with the objective reality of her death as opposed to the subjective emotional experience that her adoring husband is fully engaged in. And again, that's like in the presence of the other, the night charge nurse as the death doula. It was heavy. I mean, there's a scene in a show that we didn't really cover, Dying for Sex, where Paul Lepel plays The comedian from SNL and from Girls 5, Eva, she plays a death doula similarly. And it's like a long, quite powerful scene where she's like, do you want to know what happens? And it is a relatively uncelebrated opportunity that TV has to educate in that way and play it across multiple storylines.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know if that's a universal experience for people, but yes, I agree with you.

[Andy Greenwald]

Which.

[Chris Ryan]

The explanations.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, for sure. But I'm saying there are things that we don't like to think about in our daily life, and there are things that we don't like to think about in our entertainment, and there are things that people who make entertainment don't really want to spend time with either. But there are certain shows and certain stories and certain scaffolded story structures that allow for that in ways that I think are pretty fascinating and commendable. I did wonder, to your point about the Prisoner, do you think that Robbie has any kind of, like, metaversal awareness about what happened when David Krumholtz stabbed him and Kelly back in er, and thus he doesn't want potentially violent criminals in the emergency room. Like the show is aware of our preexisting relationship with Dr. Noah Wyll. Yes. So I do wonder if that. If that ever comes into it.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, it's a. That. That certainly the way I watch him interact with Langdon, because it's like the fact. Because Carter had such a pronounced drug problem in er.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, he didn't. Did he?

[Chris Ryan]

Didn't he?

[Andy Greenwald]

Maybe he did. I don't remember.

[Chris Ryan]

He was addicted to Fentanyl.

[Andy Greenwald]

God damn ahead of his time. What season was that?

[Chris Ryan]

Chronic pain following the death of Lucy. Following her death. Wow.

[Andy Greenwald]

I have blacked that out.

[Chris Ryan]

So that go into season seven.

[Andy Greenwald]

I was probably going to parties then with my fellow comic book fans. They were called conventions, honestly. But in my mind, they were fun as parties.

[Chris Ryan]

So it's very rare that I'm like, I got this piece of TV history and you don't.

[Andy Greenwald]

I know, because you were probably doing travel baseball then, and yet. No, but you.

[Chris Ryan]

Season 7 Er, I was partying.

[Andy Greenwald]

We've also established that at the end of all of season seven, like 2000.

[Chris Ryan]

2001, you couldn't keep me off the streets. I know.

[Andy Greenwald]

We tried pre 9 11, but the city was yours. It was the hour before the 25th hour for you. It was the 24th hour, so to speak. Yeah, but we've already established in this podcast that there's nothing you like more after a long, performative, draining experience than to fire up the idiot box.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, it's also funny that you're mentioning the sort of metatextual relationship we have to actors and their other roles because the terminal cancer patient's husband.

[Andy Greenwald]

I was hoping we talked about that.

[Chris Ryan]

He's played by Taylor Hanley, who plays Kyle on Mayor of Kingstown.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh, wait, but wasn't he also cousin Oliver on. On the oc?

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, I don't know. In my mind, I'm like, that guy's really seen some. You know, he was taken prisoner.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, he's Oliver from the oc.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Andy Greenwald]

This is like two wolves, but one is kind of a puppy.

[Chris Ryan]

One's the mayor of Kingstown, and the other, like, it's the OC Bitch.

[Andy Greenwald]

It's like, actually, Ben Reilly was the scarlet spider. That's cool.

[Chris Ryan]

Let's talk about some other storylines going on in the Pit right now. I wanted to ask you. We were talking about Robbie just now, so I'll mention this. How can his cavalier attitude about helmet safety on a motorcycle really manifest itself?

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, So I was wondering. I wanted to talk about this because.

[Chris Ryan]

They'Ve now made this a big thing.

[Andy Greenwald]

Not only have they made it a big thing, it now seems six episodes into season two of the Pit. It appears that all of the characters on the Pit are watching season two of the Pit. They know that we know that Robbie is a little cavalier about this. Thus one third of the patients are motorcycle related this year. And everyone keeps looking at him like, you moron. You absolute fool. So I don't know how this shakes out unless they are building. I mean, there's a number of ways it could shake out. One of the ways it could shake out is the season could end and he could ride off. And then we linger on the Night Nurse, and guess who's coming back in this time as a patient. I mean, that's in play for them, I guess. I appreciate the fact, again, with the sense of, like, firm hand on the wheel or on the handlebars in this case, that they are running towards it, that they're not trying to hide the fact that that's.

[Chris Ryan]

I also think it's pretty realistically human to have somebody who's like 98% safe, but the 2% are pretty. Is pretty bad.

[Andy Greenwald]

Pretty wild. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

You know? Cause the 2% is just. Is like, if it goes wrong, it's over.

[Andy Greenwald]

What do you think about. One of the other things that I just admire structurally on the show is the way that it takes the quieter moments within each episode, if not the quieter moments in the season, to just subtly address things that were lingering. Last week, it was what happened to Dr. Collins this week? Langdon asks Dana about the guy who punched her, if there was any resolution there. And he talks about the. What is it? How many months to be alone? 10 months that he was basically on the shelf alone with his thoughts to make us remember the amount of time that has passed for them. And then the other thing that they're doing just expertly, I think, is bringing up on the big mixing board of life, Just pushing up slowly on the supporting characters to give them a little bit more. The biggest example of that this week is nurse. No longer Nurse. Nurse practitioner Donnie. Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Who is. Who is given a moment to show, like, his extreme level of expertise when it comes to suturing, but is also put in a position where he's like, I think Mohan. Or somebody comes over. I can't remember who grabs a patient from him. It's like, I got this. And he was just like, I'm an MP now, so like, I can handle that. Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

I also think this is another example of them being smart about the cast that they have. So Brandon Mendez. Homer is the actor. Juilliard vet.

[Chris Ryan]

Nice.

[Andy Greenwald]

And if you cast, like, really talented stage actors, they can probably do more than just, like, you know, push crash carts in the background. For sure.

[Chris Ryan]

Hot dog guy was pretty gross. Didn't need to really see him barf multiple times. The deaf lady. I'm curious where that's going.

[Andy Greenwald]

Can I ask?

[Chris Ryan]

I think that that is also, like, being used as an example of like, Santos is kind of like.

[Andy Greenwald]

She's not.

[Chris Ryan]

She's just not on the ball when it comes to patient relations.

[Andy Greenwald]

Detail oriented.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes. But she is still a badass in the.

[Andy Greenwald]

In the room, though, and is dating the surgeon.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

They're having. Or at least they have a situation. A situationship.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Can I ask maybe a dumb question?

[Chris Ryan]

There's no dumb questions.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, I don't want to be insensitive, but couldn't the deaf patient write?

[Chris Ryan]

I had this conversation with my wife while watching this. I do feel like they're making it a little hard. I'm sure it would be painstaking to be like, here, I'm going to write it down. But if she could just write down, like, can you tell me how you were feeling in your head, Stomach, everywhere. And then the deaf patient wrote down not even.

[Andy Greenwald]

Cause Princess was like, how are you feeling? You know? And she was like, great.

[Chris Ryan]

She's like, I only know. But they speak to the amount of detail that they need for sure. And if Princess is like. She may have said stomach or she may have stomach.

[Andy Greenwald]

She's been waiting for five hours. Give her a whiteboard. She could write the great American novel about how she's feeling.

[Chris Ryan]

Right.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's just me.

[Chris Ryan]

I thought that was strange, too, but I think it's also, like, the procedures that they're supposed to go through at the hospital. And they had this situation at the beginning of last season with the woman who. I can't remember. She was maybe from Nepal.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. They couldn't figure out the language, and.

[Chris Ryan]

They couldn't even find out what kind of interpreter they needed until they used Google. So sometimes maybe the most obvious answer is right there.

[Andy Greenwald]

Can I recite a line of dialogue from this episode of television?

[Chris Ryan]

Mm.

[Andy Greenwald]

As I mentioned to Dr. Santos, generative AI is not perfect.

[Chris Ryan]

Speak on it.

[Andy Greenwald]

We got it. We got it. We got to switch things up with this character.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes. Dr. Alshemi has been brought in to be a. She is now, right now, just a character foil. And she is a tweet.

[Andy Greenwald]

And I.

[Chris Ryan]

And I. I like the performer, and I think that there's potential here for the character, but I don't know what we're doing with. With this character.

[Andy Greenwald]

We are entering this part of the season now. Everything can change. And, you know, it's. The beauty of the show is that people can surprise you as they emerge over time. Like, two weeks ago, we were like, what's up with Joy? And then two weeks later, we're like, oh, we understand a little bit more. She doesn't even want to be a emergency room doctor. She wants to be a pathologist.

[Chris Ryan]

She's good at figuring out what might.

[Andy Greenwald]

Be wrong with people, which is the kind of doctor you've liked since the days of House.

[Sponsor Announcer]

Yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

We are at the point where I think it's fair, since we have a twice weekly podcast, to say this character is not working yet. And we can praise the performer all we want, but, like, it could potentially be a case of a mismatch because she's now actively dragging the show down. I would say the character.

[Chris Ryan]

It also doesn't reflect great on Robbie, though, because clearly other people are starting to gravitate towards her a little bit. Santos might be a little bit annoyed that she's like, make sure you're up on your charting. But for the most part, everybody seems to be like, okay, I'll go along with what your ideas are. The generative AI Stuff aside, much like the show itself, I think we need to give her the back nine of the season. I think that's fair to see where she's at.

[Andy Greenwald]

Do you relate to. I think you don't, because we've already discussed your feelings about scatology. But I thought that was a remarkable rebound for Ogilvy, who 90 minutes ago was being sprayed with shit, and then he's like, I was born to do this.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes. I thought for a second he might not have been born to do it.

[Andy Greenwald]

I feel like that would have. I feel like that would have wavered almost any confident young man, you know what I mean? Like, at least given you, like, wait till the second day before you decide you were born to do this.

[Chris Ryan]

That's really the first thing they tell you at med school is like, you guys signed up for this, but just so you know, you can get just sprayed down with all sorts of fluids.

[Andy Greenwald]

I honestly appreciated the honesty of the show most when the hot dog guy was bazooka barfing, because it did. You kind of like, if you are ill, for example, you want the professionals around you to be, you know, to be professional at all times. Like, they've seen worse. This is part of it. They support you. I appreciated in terms of, like, real pull back the curtain honesty, that Langdon was super grossed out and couldn't hide it. You know what I mean? Like, that he wasn't like, ah, I see. I'm sorry this has happened to you, sir. He was like, that's gnarly. I will never eat that again.

[Chris Ryan]

Put a pin in it. There's. I guess I mean, like, baby Jane Doe.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, do it.

[Chris Ryan]

That's become a thing.

[Andy Greenwald]

I haven't really been following the story, but people have been praising, as they should, the great Catherine Lanassa.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

But then didn't she say that she was, like, studying mayor of Easttown, but it's like they're in Pittsburgh.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know what Dana's. Well, she made fun of Philadelphia in that, like, remember last season? Wasn't there, like, a whole, like, crowd scene? And she's just like, what do you think we're in Philadelphia or something?

[Andy Greenwald]

And she allows the prisoner to stay because he used to work at a bar where she had her first kiss. She is a yinzer, as they say.

[Chris Ryan]

But you don't think she's doing a Pittsburgh accent?

[Andy Greenwald]

I don't know that she is, but I thought that was little baby Jane Doe. Sounds super Philly to me, I gotta say.

[Chris Ryan]

I've never spent any time in Pittsburgh, so I don't know the accent.

[Andy Greenwald]

You haven't been there anytime?

[Chris Ryan]

No.

[Andy Greenwald]

Really great city. Okay. I'm not saying this just to, like, appeal to the, you know, the crew.

[Chris Ryan]

I know you, but you have a more of, like, a wider swath of Pennsylvania under your resume. I don't. I'm just like, a Philly guy.

[Andy Greenwald]

You're kind of a coastal guy.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

You got to get out in the streets and, like, see the real. The real deal of America.

[Chris Ryan]

Like, Western Massachusetts.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's a little far.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. But, like, I. I did that, you know.

[Andy Greenwald]

What'd you think?

[Chris Ryan]

It was awesome. It's beautiful out there.

[Andy Greenwald]

Do you see any people or just like.

[Chris Ryan]

I saw some people.

[Andy Greenwald]

Did you. You know, I did the Dark Hearts?

[Chris Ryan]

No, man. When I was in college.

[Andy Greenwald]

But what'd you do in Western Mass? You're alluding a girl in western Massachusetts.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is this the After Dark segment? I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

Let's go in After Dark. I dated a girl at Schwe. Went to Mount Holyoke.

[Andy Greenwald]

I don't remember this at all.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, maybe you and I weren't cool yet. Maybe this is pre us.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, no. So I'm glad we're talking about this, because was this, like, circa, like, 97, 96?

[Chris Ryan]

95. No, 95. 96.

[Andy Greenwald]

Because this is the thing.

[Chris Ryan]

This is pre us. So it's like.

[Andy Greenwald]

It's weird because I was thinking.

[Chris Ryan]

I can tell you anything right now.

[Andy Greenwald]

I was thinking about how in summer of 97, I went. I did, like, the, oh, I'm going to go to Europe with a Eurail pass. And, like, went to some cities. And I was like, hey, why didn't we. Why didn't we do that trip? That would have been fun. Because I probably couldn't hang. Because you're like this.

[Chris Ryan]

No, 97. I was still pretty PG13.

[Andy Greenwald]

But the question is, what's shocking considering the complete, like, web of interconnected life that we now share? I probably didn't call you. Like, I feel like, what was our. You didn't figure into that trip in a way that you just had to.

[Chris Ryan]

When I moved to Boston in 96. Six.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Summer, so.

[Andy Greenwald]

And then. And you were driving out to Holyoke?

[Chris Ryan]

No, I was driving up to Holyoke when I was still living in Philadelphia.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh, well that's a whole.

[Chris Ryan]

But when I moved to Boston in 96, I was already. We would talk on the phone.

[Andy Greenwald]

We talk on the phone. But then was I like some news, friend. I will be leaving the continental United States for a period of time.

[Chris Ryan]

When are you going anywhere? Was that in the summer?

[Andy Greenwald]

Summer, yeah. What were you doing summer? I was like.

[Chris Ryan]

I was hanging out by then.

[Andy Greenwald]

Hell yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I think that was my first Boston summer. That's pretty cool.

[Andy Greenwald]

How would you define a Boston summer?

[Chris Ryan]

Just smoking cigs and working at the record store.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And going to see bands.

[Andy Greenwald]

You did that in Boston winters too? That's kind of inevitable.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't have school, you know, I didn't have to worry about school.

[Andy Greenwald]

Were you worried about school a lot?

[Chris Ryan]

Not much. Not enough.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, look at you now.

[Chris Ryan]

Anything else you wanted to get off your chest?

[Andy Greenwald]

I felt like you had a couple cultural takes you wanted to fire off.

[Chris Ryan]

I just wanted to say that there's a record coming out in nine hours, cold to the touch. The new album by Angel Dust comes out.

[Andy Greenwald]

Tell me.

[Chris Ryan]

I saw Angel Dust in Boss in Boston last two weekends ago at the Something in the Way Fest and it's one of the best live shows you can spend money to see and it's kind of a definitely hardcore rooted band because justice, the singer for Angel Dust was also entrapped under ice. But I would also say that if you are a fan of like I. Honestly for me it gives me the same feeling if not the same sonically the same thing as like the punk garage aggression of Hot Snakes. But it's also very tuneful and it's got like some like hyper aggressive power pop moves in it too too. So it's. It's just a great band.

[Andy Greenwald]

You want to cut and paste that onto the sub stack. Rex, you're going to text me?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, sure, sure.

[Andy Greenwald]

I wouldn't mind that.

[Chris Ryan]

But that's. That's my big wreck for Friday when it drops. That's a good wreck in a couple hours and then that's it.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's it. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Reading wise like I think True Detective Season 2. I think I told you this is sending me back to Elroy and I haven't read James Ellroy sincerely probably since American Tabloid Cold 6000. So I went back and started reading Big Nowhere and it's good he in. In the LA books. He was really, really in his bag. But I feel like it's That's a little aggro for you. No, no, I've.

[Andy Greenwald]

You heard me on last week's podcast. I'm much more politicized than I used to be.

[Chris Ryan]

Not politicized, but did you read, like, LA Confidential and Big Nowhere and blushing the whole time, like jazz? Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, I think it's good to revisit books if you're not like, the worst thing that can happen, and it's happened to me is you're like, that was one of the most important books I've ever read. I love that one.

[Chris Ryan]

And then you go back and you're.

[Andy Greenwald]

Like, ooh, yeah, yeah. These types of writers have usually.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what's also a tough feeling is if you pick up an old Elmore Leonard or James Elroy book and you're boy, this is like reading it the first time. I don't remember any of this. And then you get 180 pages in and you're like, shit, I remember everything that's about to happen. Like, you basically, it hits you like your brain unlocks.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. But then isn't it just a glide path all the way to the end then? Cause you're not worried about it.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, kind of.

[Andy Greenwald]

It is plot or story and.

[Chris Ryan]

Right. And you can actually be like, oh, I remember what happens here. And I can skip ahead five pages if you want to. That's it. That's all I got. You got anything? Music, books.

[Andy Greenwald]

New Rat Boys record is really good. You like them? Chicago Band. I do really enjoy them.

[Chris Ryan]

I haven't spent a ton of time on them.

[Andy Greenwald]

Singing to an Empty chair. Really strong album. And then I'm also, like, I'm really spending too much time, maybe for my age range in my demo with, like, Fake Mink and SD Kid and all these British rappers.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, wow. Really?

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, a lot, A lot.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm really, really driving around to it. You listening to it while you write? What are you doing?

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, so as you know, the NFL season is over, thus I have nothing to listen to anymore. Also, I guess Shield, God bless him, is s. No Philly special this week.

[Chris Ryan]

This is the best time of the year because everybody's competitive again. It's like, now you can start talking about Clint Kubiak and his vision for the Raiders.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, but, but I'm saying, like, the podcasts have.

[Chris Ryan]

They're active.

[Andy Greenwald]

No, but, but, like, po.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I know what you mean.

[Andy Greenwald]

So I'm listening. Yeah. There's the new Fake Mink record. The Boy who Cried Terrified. It's really good. There's a burial sample on the last track. You might enjoy going back to this SDKID record from last year.

[Chris Ryan]

He played or is playing LA this week.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh yeah, I'm going with the homies. I just didn't know if you wanted in on that.

[Chris Ryan]

Stkid is a rapper from Liverpool.

[Andy Greenwald]

Who's that? Some people thought was Timothee Chalamet. Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

And Chalamet's in town.

[Andy Greenwald]

And Chalamet dropped bars on the 4Raws remix. I don't know if you spent time with that.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't.

[Andy Greenwald]

It's very enjoyable.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, I'll go check this stuff out.

[Andy Greenwald]

That's really good. But also, you know what other record I love that my kids really don't love? You put me onto this is Bass Victim. Oh yeah, I love that album.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

And that, that record's really good. The record's called Bass Punk 2. And I have had that playing more than twice while picking up my children from school and they're like, turn this off instantly. Yeah, instantly. They really like.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you think you're the only guy in line to pick up kids at that school listening to Bass Victim?

[Andy Greenwald]

I want to be very clear about something. Every single electric vehicle in line to pick up children from the progressive Los Angeles school is the fucking SD kid of his own life.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

Inside of those that climate controlled boxes.

[Chris Ryan]

Dad hat and every guy listening to.

[Andy Greenwald]

So everyone's wearing an open button down shirt and New Balance sneakers. Being like, they don't know how cool I am. Yeah. Like that one gift. The guy at the party and then everyone at the party's like, we're actually at a party. Go back to the comic book store, you fucking dork. But for those beautiful last few moments of solitude, I'm like, still got it. I could get a Eurail pass. Yeah, I could go. See ya. You're really too eager for that.

[Chris Ryan]

Thanks to Kya. Thanks to Kya, we'll be back on Monday. President's Day salute.

[Andy Greenwald]

We won't be celebrating that this year.

[Chris Ryan]

But we will be talking about Night of the Seven Kingdoms and industry on Monday. And who knows, maybe there's some other stuff out there and culture that will hit.

[Andy Greenwald]

Luckily, my kids have a four day weekend, so we can really, really drill down into what's wrong with their music taste.

[Chris Ryan]

Talk to you guys on Monday.