‘Landman’ is Back! Plus, ‘Pluribus’ Episode 3 and ‘Poker Face’ Searches for a New Home

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23:38Andy Greenwald:We're agreed. Wow. Okay, settled. What's our next issue? Is there any other sort of discord in the country right now? Yeah, I saw a picture from the live-action Zelda. Yeah, you sent that to me. And it's looking real Frodo hours. I texted that right to my daughter. You did? Like instantly. Like you were like, and did you Columbus it? I was like, look what I found on the internet. Apropos of nothing. this is why I work these fucking hours for you my daughter do I misremember Zelda is there like a hobbit in this no they're my dear Chris which camera they are members of the Hylian race they have elvish ears I don't think I've played this game since it was on like a PC it was never I played it like on NES I beat it good job happy birthday you are the best at this I'm going to do a list of video games I've beat hold on Revenge of Shinobi that game was sick dudes when I go to Japan guys are like we heard about you no one No one has brought the ethos of Joe Shinobi.

25:02Andy Greenwald:I know. It's incredible. One of my favorite things, small detour here, about 90s era video games that you'd play like on Sega Genesis, is you'd be playing Revenge of Shinobi, again, super sick, double jump, and then you'd throw the throwing stars. You'd beat the bosses, and they would all be like, big fat ninja or whatever, like ninja that drops from the sky. And then the villain of the sixth board would be Spider-Man. like fully Spider-Man but with a little bit of a different costume because someone Spider-Gent they wouldn't even say why or like Batman would be the villain because someone at Sega was just freelancing and I'd be like you know who'd be sick?

25:39Andy Greenwald:Shinobi fought Batman yeah and then the lawyers were like but they didn't actually change it because nobody was paying attention to that shit I don't remember would that happen in Mortal Kombat? not to my knowledge but you probably maybe I got to some secret level you never got to yeah on the PC because you're just better at it no I was I got confused because I Montezuma's Revenge I beat on the computer which took a long time. Sure. Yeah. You put in the hours. Yeah. Only child life is real. Zelda is a very front of mind concern in my household because Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have been massive, massive dad-daughter adventurings.

26:17Andy Greenwald:We were still playing it yesterday because my younger daughter is like, let's go do something fun or cool because these games are so rich and there's so many weird little side stories you can do. You know, Red Dead Redemption also has side stories, if you ever want to play that with your daughters. With my children?

26:34Gross.

26:35Andy Greenwald:The words Grand Theft Auto have lost their meaning for your generation. Let me tell you the story of the OK Corral. Did you know, fun fact about me, did you know that I did a voice in Grand Theft Auto 3? Yes, I remember this. This is during your video game Empresario days, when you were reviewing games. Yeah, when I was the fucking Armand White of the fifth generation home consoles. Who did you play? A ninja? Yeah, I played Spider-Man. Okay, so this is relevant. So I sent that image, which does look ripped straight from a cut scene from Breath of the Wild. That is the visuals of the game, more or less, of this beautiful open world and meadows.

27:17Andy Greenwald:And that's the way Zelda and Link are dressed in the game. I sent it to my daughter and her instantly wrote, I wish it was animated. Oh. She does not, she was like, basically the takeover was that it was very cosplay. And is she excited for Moana in that same, or skeptical of Moana in that same way? Completely uninterested. Okay. Yeah, I think that this interesting thing about the Zelda thing is that there is, with Mario, the Mario movie was like a cartoon that just threw a lot of like signifiers and it's for kids and it's just fun and silly because we all understand that it's absolute gibberish if you try to make sense of these plumbers from Brooklyn going into a mushroom kingdom.

27:57Andy Greenwald:Are they from Brooklyn? Are you sure they're from Staten Island? I want to say they're from Queens in support of our new mayor-elect. I feel like everything's coming up Queens these days. Did you think those guys voted Cuomo? No, they're Sliwa. A thousand percent Sliwa. Get these turtles. Yeah. He takes a real interest in animal life in the city. They're turtles in the sewers. Absolutely sounds like a Sliwa campaign commercial. the Zelda thing is so deep video game in a way that I don't understand how they're going to translate it because basically there have been 10 to 14 iterations that all are kind of like Link must save Zelda in a world with this name but every time the world is different and Link doesn't talk yeah so they're really and Zelda gets kidnapped and he rescues her at the end so either it's a screenwriter's dream to be like I shall write the fantasy adventure romance that I've always wanted to write and put it in this world with fish people called the Zora, or they're trying to wrap reason around absolute, like, crazy brain 80s Nintendo nonsense.

29:03Andy Greenwald:I'm just wondering... And I think they wanted more, like, they kind of just were like, the stories in the games are fun and sweet, so just... Just, like, let's have some iconic moments that show up on screen. Just throw the cut scenes together, basically. Or also, if you just put out a Zelda movie, people will probably take their kids to go see it. I mean, I would. Would you take your award? I saw an ad yesterday for adopting teens, and it was like... Was it service to you because of how you talk about it? It was like, it was, and it was like, um, I can't remember what it was like, but it was basically like, give me someone to look up to.

29:32And it's like a older man, like looking up to a tall teenager. And I was like, that's your dream.

29:39Andy Greenwald:It's like you and Jalen Phillips be like, ah, my son, you are so strong. If only you could be trained in the arts of. Does your daughter want all live action films animated? Like, would she advocate for animated materialists? Huh, great question, first of all. Thank you. I think she would have been more drawn by the caveman plot that bookends the film. You know, I thought that was pretty radical. No, no, I think she likes things to stay in their light. Maybe she is kind of a traditionalist. Okay. You know, she likes a cartoon, like a classic Disney cartoon. and then she likes mostly Jane Austen adaptations.

30:19Andy Greenwald:So that's pretty much... And Wicked for Good. Does she like Landman? Why don't you ask me if I like Landman, you coward? Well, okay. You know what? I find this to be a little bit of he doth protest too much. I never said you have to watch the second season of Landman. Like you've been like, I can't believe you're making me do this. I never said we have to do it. I think you got a little taste, you know? and the sweet oils are flowing again on West Texas, and you want it back in. I mean, there is something comforting about a show that really privileges the idea of a world, a country, nay, a state, in which a man can just lecture a woman on anything at any time for as long as he wants to, and she will stand there and be like, great point, sir.

31:13Andy Greenwald:I will have someone buy you cigarettes. You cannot view this show through that lens. You don't think I should view it through a woke lens? No, I didn't say that. You said that. I just meant like if you're going to this show to have your political and social convictions affirmed, I don't think you're going to enjoy it. Okay. It's more formal than that. I see. No, I see. Please tell me more. I'm ready to talk about the show. I just do think the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was somehow I watched the season premiere before you did. I was like, oh yeah, is it up? That was so crazy. That was the sickest fucking flex you've ever texted me.

31:50You texted that at like seven in the morning and you'd watched it at like four because we're so jet lagged.

31:54Andy Greenwald:I was like, this is a perfect use of the hours of 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. on a Sunday is to return to the adventures of Tommy. Tommy. Yeah. Tommy and co. And Emtex, right? And I assumed that you had spent some of your downtime sweating off the pints last week, just digging into the screeners. No, I was just watching Gavin and Stacey and Celebrity Traders, you know, just trying to embed myself in the culture. Just like literally all of my co-workers there. Okay, so Landman is back, and I would give you a recap of what happened in the first season. The beginning of the episode has like a last season on Landman.

32:34I really don't know if any of that's going to matter. I don't know. I've tried to diagnose what I think is, what makes the show so successful. In some ways, I don't want to be too much of an anthropologist. I don't think anthropologists would be welcome in Landman, honestly. Can you imagine?

32:51Andy Greenwald:Hello. I am a social anthropologist. I'd like to talk to you about gender roles, or at least study yours. What's that you're drinking there, sir? And please, may I have some of that pasta? Go on. it basically picks up where the last season ends which spoilers for the first season of Landman if you haven't watched it already Jon Hamm dies of a heart attack lucky guy Monty who had run Emtex making it one of the biggest independent oil producers or the biggest independent oil producer in the region and he's apparently we learned this episode was kind of an infamous son of a bitch well I mean I think he drove a hard bargain but you know who drives a harder one yes Cammie I do know his widow played by Demi Moore who was in the first season And one of the things you and I remarked upon a lot, I am now becoming a bit of a sleuth when it comes to, I wonder if this person was on set the same day they shot the scene with this other person.

33:45A bit of a sleuth. But I got to tell you, I think Demi Moore put the work in and put the time in. And she has often seen swimming laps in the first season, getting out, handing Monty a smoothie, asking him to take his heart medication, telling him not to be stressed out, none of which he took to heart. and then his heart exploded because, I think, because of like a cartel action against his oil rig or something like that. Sure.

34:09Andy Greenwald:I don't think so. So we got the oil company deal. Monty has now, or Tommy has become the president of ops. De facto. This was one of Monty's last master strokes. I thought he also made the lawyer a big deal there too. Yeah, but then I think, then I think posthumously from the afterlife, Monty read the Reddit response to that lawyer and was like, She's still in the cast. Is she? She's in the credits. Great. Also in the credits, Bill third is Andy Garcia. Yes. Who has been in one scene in two seasons of this show so far, including this first episode. She does not appear. Do you think that now that we see, and we're going to jump around a bit, obviously, but Demi Moore's performance as Cammie in this, I think it's the best thing in this season premiere.

34:55Andy Greenwald:I thought she was great. Is this the greatest slow planting of a major character since Bunny Colvin in season two of The Wire. I think it's comparable. It means as much to American history. I think it does too. Both great leaders who had responsibility foisted upon them thought outside the box. And were also motivated by co-eds giving blowjobs to 70-year-olds? Or no? Is that just Cammie? I don't think that happened to Bunny Colvin. But that's a stirring scene when Cammy comes across two young women in a hotel lobby bar bathroom and they're talking about how they're going to get a free trip to Tulum out of an oil executive.

35:37Let me tell you something. By dealing out some BJs. The only thing that I can think of

35:43Andy Greenwald:that hates young women more than Cammy is the television show Landman. And that's saying something. I'm going to go on the record with that. You can clip that, Kai. I feel strongly about that. Um, Kami takes over this company. Uh, Tommy's still running it. It's basically the same playbook as last season in terms of there is like kind of a weekly crisis or whatever with the oil company. This one's really just Kami's introduction to the sharks or rather the predators of the Serengeti, which is what they, they refer to the luncheon, uh, that Kami is giving for all the other oil executives. Yeah. Uh, some other plots going on.

36:23We are introduced to what we've realized is Tommy's brother, right? is it his brother or his father?

36:29Andy Greenwald:that's his father dude is it? yeah his mom dies I thought they were like we went over this oh we did go over this you want this to be logic because they are about nine years apart in human age but I am here to tell you Sam Elliott plays Billy Bob Thornton's dad yes god damn it I don't think that's right there's a lot of things in Landman this is where you draw your line this is a show in which sorry for caring about age gaps you know I know it's not fashionable but there is a 15 minute scene in which Ally Larders has spent $3 ,000 I'm glad you timed it too because it's actually 11 minutes but it is mind blowing but let's finish Sam Elliott first well I'm just saying in that scene all of the setup and all of the money spent on truffles is so Billy Bob Thornton can be like the time of the month huh missy that's the plot well and you're upset about sam elliott being someone's dad i just was confused because his name is tj and i was like oh maybe maybe his name is tim john and then tommy's name is tommy tim john timjin ah timjin but nice to see you again he's probably tommy senior you know what I mean he's fucking Tommy senior he's 11 he's not that much older than Billy Bob Thornton he is 11 years older than him which considering the way Taylor Sheridan views masculinity is possible that's big breeding that is perfect if you ask his daughter about because this is also his daughter walks into a college interview and delivers a beautiful monologue about eugenics yes did you find that scene funny I want to talk about we'll get there okay so I think one of the major season long arcs obviously is going to be tommy's apparently father coming into the scene so oh maybe you think it's not really his father and uh he's living in an amarillo assisted living facility wait chris do you know how we know it's his father because within seconds of meeting him a woman walks up to him and he explains how nature works to her this man is near death yeah and a woman says sir sir literally tears in her eyes may i help you to dinner yes and he's like do you fucking know why the sun sets at a different hour in the evening missy you fucking pea-brained female but then when the dude comes out he's like all right brother i'm ready yeah the guy a man comes out and he's just like you do whatever you want sir and he's like thank you fellow man i will have dinner now it's nuts we get basically an entire half episode i'd say two-thirds of an episode that's pretty standard Landman, including Tommy, lecturing a hotel waitress about skipping breakfast, how you should skip breakfast.

39:19Andy Greenwald:And who invented breakfast as the most important meal of the day. I will say, like every 11 Tommy speeches, I'm like, this kind of sounds right. You know? That's how they get you. It was, I think it was that one. And also like, how do you think we, we like pay for all this wind farming is with oil. By the way, you, how many, speeches do you think is his hit rate? Every 11? Yeah. That's basically what you said to me about the Red Scare podcast. Come on, Dominic. You were like, every 10 or 11, those ladies. Cut that. You're like, they stumble their way into some truth.

39:57Cut that.

39:58Andy Greenwald:Definitely don't. Go on. You don't have editorial control over this podcast. Clearly, no. But I'm nice to the person who does. And then we get to the sort of two-thirds of the way in, and as Andy has alluded to, there is a dinner scene to end the episode that runs for 11 and a half minutes. I did time it. At 37 minutes, Tommy comes into his home. And at 49 minutes, we find out that Tommy's mother has died as he smokes a cigarette and looks at the same sunset that his father also was looking at in Amarillo. Now, do you want to just get into that dinner or do I have a couple other points for the other stuff?

40:34I want it to leave with love.

40:35Andy Greenwald:Let's say the positive things first. I think Ali Alarder's fantastic. As a person and as a performer. and I think that she's probably participating in and authoring this role probably with all of her heart and seems to be diving into it like Greg Louganis from a high dive. You know, just like whatever it takes, the fashion, the outrage, the emotions of this character. Sure. I really like her. Great. I don't know that she is being served well by the material. Okay. I think that's very artfully said. I, all right, we'll get it. because there were a couple other scenes that I wanted to talk about, but we could talk about the dinner scene.

41:14Andy Greenwald:Let's talk about the dinner scene because one of my favorite things about the Taylor Sheridan experience is that on some level, even he knows he doesn't need all of the scenes that he writes because Tommy walks into the dinner before dinner is served. And what's our guy's name? The actor who's just way too good to be in the show. Yeah. And he's sitting at the table. And he's like, hey, Nate. I'm just going to paraphrase here. FYI it's that time of the month for my crazy wife and he's like I definitely get that sense because women are crazy and he's like okay noted and then the scene happens and the purpose of the scene is for him to say that to her face well this is the thing that I think is so bizarre you've often said Taylor Sheridan gets either gets no or takes no notes yes this purpose of what this scene would be in any other television show is that Jacob Laughlin's character yes Caleb what's his name sure Colton Carter doesn't matter I do want to know I want to know if I'm right it's Cooper oh but we don't we're gonna cut that no you can keep it you can keep it you can also keep your Red Scare fandom it's okay

42:27I'm just interested in all sides sure Cooper the whole point of the dinner is we are following Cooper from his oil strike where he apparently has become a millionaire many times over and is like i gotta go talk to my dad about business and she's like all right you know see you later and he goes to dinner yeah and we're like okay we're coming to talk about the fact that the son has become a land man yes and there are land men in this family now yes land men exactly it never even gets to that fucking point he never mentions what he's been doing that day or why he wanted to see his father because we immediately go into a long diatribe of uh about menstruation and Cacio e Pepe with white truffles.

43:11Andy Greenwald:Yeah, and... You guys, if you don't know the show, you would think Chris was having a stroke when he's talking. It's like when I talked about Chair Company last week. Yes, yeah. If the show was interested in any traditional definition of rising stakes or drama... But that's the thing. It's not. He's like... So, Cooper... Yeah. If you just isolated the Cooper plot, this is fucking... Like this is a Jimmy Stewart movie from the 30s. Like it has been absolute roaring success from the minute all of his friends died in a fire explosion in the pilot. And then he married the guy's girlfriend or wife.

43:49Andy Greenwald:Who now just shows up and says, ah, Mia Moore, it is pretty interesting being rich. Like there hasn't been a single obstacle. I did find that, I was mildly annoyed that a woman who has spent seemingly the last few years because she was with this guy who was on this Wildcat team in the oil business when Cooper's like, I'm pumping 5 ,200 gallons a day. Oil's trading at$50. That's$39 ,000 a day. And she's like, is that a lot? She would know that's a lot. Well, I think she might be groggy because she's been dealing with it. Solo parenting. Solo parenting. And she's like, oh, the baby's asleep. And Cooper's like, guess what?

44:27Andy Greenwald:Real loud. Put that fucking baby away. You're rich. Yeah, because that baby now can go to Brown, you know? Wow, make it personal. First of all, there is a vibrant financial aid program.

44:41Andy Greenwald:Anyway, yeah, like that would be a storyline on any other show, but it is not a storyline on this show. Similarly, one of the compelling traits of Ali Larger's character, whose name is, I want to say, Caleb? Angela. Angela. Is that she attempts to culture these roughnecks, and last year she made paella. Yes. This year, she made pasta. Now, creating a perfect cacio e pepe with the emulsion of the pecorino cheese is challenging. Certainly at scale. For 10 people, not a la minute. I get that. I don't think Taylor Sheridan, who wrote this, understands even the content. I guess that was a vehicle for her to explain something fancy, but then have bought a more expensive ingredient, in this case, a white truffle, which was available incredibly at the specialty goods store in Midland, Texas, and how she was going to grade it over them, but not give it to her children, who she says don't have advanced palates, even though her son is a millionaire many times over and her daughter is 35.

45:41Andy Greenwald:Yes. So, fine. But, like, that is not a complicated dish. And so then to cut to these guys being like, what are these long strands of wheat? Where's the sauce? Like, none of it hangs together, but it is being performed with such a seriousness. Yeah. Also, he could be like, you women are crazy. a couple days every month. Like that is the purpose of the scene. That's what I'm saying is that you, you can hate it. And then there's a big part of me that hates it. It's the content. Sure. But it admires the freedom. Do you know what I mean? You admire the freedom. The creative freedom. Yeah. Yeah. The fact that he's just like, you thought this was going to be a scene where, you know, father and son recognize that, that, you know, it's the stakes are different.

46:25I'll say instead it's about a woman having her menstrual cycle and making pasta.

46:29Andy Greenwald:Yeah. For 11 minutes. So it's like Jean Dielman, right? It's like that Belgian film that won the sight and sound poll. I mean, that's basically the same thing. If you squint, if you zone out like 100 ,000 feet. It's all the same thing. I'm just saying. I liked, you asked me about the interview scene in which the daughter is like. Gets into TCU. Daughter's like. And I was going to text Joel Anderson, the ringer's Joel Anderson, because I think he's a big TCU supporter. Oh, nice. And I would imagine, I've never talked to Joel exactly about TCU, but I think he went there. How he felt about the depiction of the college in the show.

47:07Andy Greenwald:I thought it came off fairly well. I want to, speaking of Brown, shout out my old college friend Miriam Silverman for playing Greta. No. Not Gretel. No. Yeah. You knew that? You knew the admission officer? You didn't leave with that? And she won a Tony last year. For what? For the sign in Sydney Burstein's window that I think Oscar Isaac was in. Okay. Shout out. Wow. And she was way too good for that part. Do you have her number? And she... Like, could you text her and be like, how was it? I don't have her number, no. We should start doing that. Calling people and being like... What's up, Miriam?

47:41Andy Greenwald:She's gonna love this. I haven't spoken to her in 20 years. I didn't see your Tony Award-winning performance. Heard it was great. But what I really want to talk to you about is, like, getting into that, like, how does someone become a horned toad? Like, how do you earn it? She was so much better than that scene. needed to be. She was very funny. Also, she did seem to understand the satire of some aspect of it and had a good spirit about it, which I appreciate. And I thought Michelle Randolph, I mean, I know you often mention the fact that she's... Too old for that part. Yes. I thought she at least was doing some comic stuff that maybe she didn't do in the first season.

48:16Andy Greenwald:And am I really a friend of women if I'm criticizing women's ages? I mean, I'm really... There you go. Chantel Ackerman. Physician, feel thyself. Fair. I think ultimately my thing about the show is one it is fun to talk about but two think about all the stuff we just talked about like in just in this episode like we don't do this for Floribus you know I mean I love Floribus we're gonna talk about it next but we're gonna be in and out in like six minutes that was pretty good that was masterful art let's see it congratulations yeah like I find it really interesting because at a moment when everything that comes across our scenes we do have to like pause and just give it a thought like is this AI content like is this fake and every time I think that this show could be like a little bit chatty a little bit chatty because like the way the main character just sort of walks through an obstacle course of scenes in which he explains things like he's sitting there and he tells the woman about breakfast and then he's in a big room and the guy's like do you still have these wells and he's like fuck you you know I do you know how much they're worth They're$400 ,000.

49:25Andy Greenwald:And then scenes just sort of keep approaching him as if he's playing a video game of drama. Yes. But the content of the scenes is so, so unhinged that it can't be. That is the spark of humanity. It's only him. That is the ghost in the machine. Yes. God bless it. He's the watcher on the wall holding back the singularity from happening. He's the hero we deserve. Let's talk a little bit about Pluribus. Yeah, it was good. thanks for tuning in this was a more of a chamber piece episode even though it starts with a wonderful flashback to Carol and Helen's relationship when they go to Norway I believe and to go see the Northern Lights yes and I will say because we have to use our lived experience when we comment on television shows the only criticism I've heard about this show that has rung in any way legitimate to me so far was a friend of mine who has from England from London who has traveled in Norway and said the phoniest moment of the show was when the Norwegian bellhop accepted the tip.

50:36Oh, because yeah it's not a big service

50:38Andy Greenwald:charge culture there. Yeah. That was the sign that they didn't actually go to the ISO show. That's just Vince Gilligan being a wonderful gentleman. If you ever want to have a good conversation bring up tipping to a room full of English people. They love it. They love talking about how they don't do it. They love talking about how it makes no sense and they don't do it. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, but the key is you just don't pay people a living wage and then it makes more sense. Then they love it. What'd you think of this episode? Was it good? Yeah, it was pretty good. What'd you think of it? I have more thoughts than that.

51:09You know what I did think? It was that those first two episodes are so breathtaking both in some of the filmmaking that's going on in there, like the originality of thought, like the characterization of Carol, Ray Seahorn's performance. I'm so over the moon about this. I did not blink twice while watching this episode. I was captivated. But by the end, I did find myself thinking like, oh, perhaps like, this is a little bit more of a sketchbook for ideas about humanity and about life than it is always going to be a like, a little clock that Vince Gilligan has made a la Breaking Bad. Oh, right. Where it's like this propulsive, intricate plotting.

51:52I mean, obviously, there's a lot of things that happen in this episode. And I think we find out a lot about the new world Carol is living in. But it felt to me more about an episode that was about the idea of power and control in a life when you don't have any. And like how the others, which I think is how they're being casually referred to now, or maybe it's even in the Apple press stuff. You know, they have the power of collective memory and collective expertise. but Carol has like essentially her individuality and also her recklessness, you know, and her emotions and her falling into depression.

52:29And that's almost in her way. Like the only thing that she holds over these people is that if she throws a tantrum, like thousands of people die. And if she asks for a grenade, they kind of have to, by their design, give them to her.

52:41Andy Greenwald:Well, I think two things. I think that it is still working that furrow where the power dynamic and the clock is they're trying to absorb her. So there is an antagonism baked into it, despite all of the kindness and all the gifting. I'm not the first, I'm in fact the last person to say this, but I do think the more relevant comp for Vince Gilligan's career is The X-Files. Because this is an episode where you started to feel, because everything about him is process. Sprouts is empty, you film it empty, then you refill it, and you see how that works. and that is just what you get when you watch a Vince Gilligan show.

53:18Andy Greenwald:I enjoy the feeling, like the watchmaking feeling of him in real time trying to solve what was essentially the unsolvable dilemma of the X-Files, which is a lot of fun, whimsical ideas week to week, but a steady drumbeat of a very stakes-heavy over-narrative. Yeah. Right? A canonical, like, serialized what is going on in the world thing. and ultimately that undid the X-Files I think like the show there are people who love it for the black oil and the aliens and there are people who love it for the Vampire of the Week the one-off episodes and even in its afterlife when the show has come back it's come back as different versions of that there was the reboot in which it was more in the movies in which it was like this is a story it's much more about the alien abductions and then there was the reboot where it's like well we'll just sort of have fun again and I don't know and now it's getting rebooted again is it?

54:09Ryan Coogler is executive producing it at Disney and Daniel Deadweiler is rumored to be in it.

54:16Andy Greenwald:Is this what you were doing while I was watching Landman? This is what I was doing while you were like, geese, what a band. Fair enough. No. So anyway, so he's trying to solve for that in real time. And this episode definitely felt like the conceit that could have been one episode of X-Files, he was splashing around in the pool a little bit longer. And I think he was enjoying that and how much bigger the consequences would be if you gave it more oxygen. But Breaking Bad also taught him about keeping that tempo. So I liked, I found the opening almost intentionally like a slowdown of where we've been going.

54:58Andy Greenwald:And it's also worth noting that the other aspect of Vince Gilligan that we always admire is he does seem like a very generous boss. And so this episode was written and directed by Gordon Smith, who has worked with him across all the Albuquerque shows. I'm not saying that because it was some drop off in quality. It just was a different person behind the camera. So I found the opening Norway part like a little bit of lost-ish backfilling. Yeah. But nice to see the two of them together. Yeah, and that the show can move in multiple directions. But I did find, in a way that was familiar to previous Vince Gilligan shows, the throwaway line of the grenade being made manifest and blowing up, but then that final conversation with the DHL guy or whatever, suddenly the power dynamic shifted again and you realize that she does have not just that she can yell at them but her obstinance is kind of like a virus to them and they can't solve for it and her power is much more than it maybe ought to be Well she's confusing them because that Sprout scene while in a lovely kind of visually funny set piece also kind of is exemplary of Carol's consumerism and maybe sort of her consumer therapy that she does or shopping therapy that she does where she wants an entirely full supermarket to shop in even though they could bring her anything she wants she wants things her way and you juxtapose that with her alarm that the lights are all going off and the others are just like well we don't need them there's no crime so we don't need we only need certain things illuminated and we'll just save electricity.

56:42And that's inconceivable to her. You know, she's just sort of like, what do you, like this kind of collective spirit when she's got this kind of gaping wound of not narcissism, but I guess narcissism, you know, is a fascinating juxtaposition to me.

56:56Andy Greenwald:And another, just another one of the really smart themes that the show is so capable of playing with, like individual versus, what is our individual responsibility versus collective action? And I appreciate, by the way, that the Ringer has adopted this attitude by not having air conditioning anymore inside the studio. Yeah, I was just going to say it's getting a little steam in here. But I appreciate that because it's probably for the good of the environment of the greater Southland. That's probably what they were thinking. I think that's probably what they were thinking. And I, you know, as the more politically minded.

57:25As an ally.

57:26Andy Greenwald:As an ally of women under the age of 35, apparently. Don't clip that. Kaia McMullin. Kaia McMullin. No, you cannot clip that. um kai mcmullin red scare listener cannot clip that yep i ruined this take i do not consent um yeah that's my opinion uh let's wrap it up there it's getting a little dangerous in here and now i'm like i don't even know where this is going because it's your birthday pluribus still rules uh thanks to kai thanks to kai it's great to be back in los angeles we'll come back on thursday uh maybe we'll publish later and we could do the fourth episode of pluribus i want you to catch up down Cemetery Road.

58:03Andy Greenwald:I want to hear your thoughts on that. Okay. What do I want you to do? Get ready for Landman next week. I got to prep. Yeah. I got to prep. I got to learn a lot. Shoot straight. Do you want to do this? Is this the way you want to spend the rest of your 2025 watching Landman? When you put it like that, it sounded worse. I just love talking about it with you, but I hate dragging you along when you don't want to go. You know? It's not that I didn't want to go. Clearly, we've been friends a long time. You know? Are we brothers? Am I your father? Hard to tell. hard to sell. But, um, I think I, what was the worst moment of my weekend was the existential panic when I thought that you just were going to leave me there, that I thought I was alone in Midland.

58:44that I wasn't going to watch it.

58:45Andy Greenwald:That this was a prank that you had successfully pulled. Oh, that was just a bit last year. No, I'm, I'm, I'm watching this show and I want to see a father and son or brother and brother reunite. Yeah. And I want to see Andy Garcia and I want to see Cammie cook. Mm. I liked Emmy in this episode. I thought she was really good. Yeah. That's it for us. We'll be back on Thursday. Hope everybody has a great week. Happy birthday, Baranskis.

59:14This episode is brought to you by Paramount+. In the world of espionage, truth is a moving target and every decision carries a dangerous consequence. In the HZ season two, Martian has a new mission as a double agent. Twice the lies, twice the risk. The lines between ally and enemy blur like never before, and survival depends on trusting no one. Starring Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jody Turner-Smith, and my man, Richard Gere. Don't miss The Agency, season two, all episodes now streaming on Paramount+.

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