REShow: Alan Sepinwall - Hour 3

Hey everybody, our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air.

We've got ourselves a fun show so far. Our number three here on this program, 844-204-RICH being the number to dial right here on the whole YouTube channel. We're here on the Roku channel, live on the Roku channel stream. We're live here on this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate, live on Sirius XM Odyssey and more. We say hello to our podcast listeners here on our program, 844-204-RICH.

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We've got Chris Brockman and Mike Del Tufo. Mike is freaking out over there. Are we up and running? I've got to restart my playback. We've got to restart the playback. We can't do anything but keep going on while we're restarting the playback.

844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here on the program. Doris Burke was on in hour number one. We are about a couple of hours away from Bob Meyers, the president and general manager of the Golden State Warriors making official Adrian Wojnarowski reported while we're on the air in hour number one talking to Doris Burke about last night's Eastern Conference final game seven between the Celtics and the Heat, the Heat now making the NBA finals against the Denver Nuggets. And Bob Meyers is going to be making it official that he's stepping down. And there's a new general manager in town coming for the Golden State Warriors. And on top of all that, she mentioned how with no information, as she said, this could affect Steve Kerr and his thought process about sticking around in Golden State.

Obviously, he's going to speak for himself. But that's something to keep an eye on and something we'll be talking about on Wednesday's show in advance of Thursday's tip off to the NBA finals. And in that respect, we have got for us a moment to let you know who we think is going to win it all. And in that respect, it's time now for championship predictions on the Rich Eisen show presented by Dave and Busters. And I'm going to go first right here.

Yeah, if you don't mind, Mike, if you've got the ability to play music, I'll take it back. Oh, so as you know, it's Denver versus Miami. Sorry that your Boston Celtics are out, Chris. And I am going to predict part of me wants to take the Miami Heat here. Part of me wants to say that this team with one undrafted guy after another with Hemi Butler and somebody like Kyle Lowry, who knows how to win championships, that this guy and that team with Spolstra is going to figure out a way to keep their run going, that they knocked out the one and two seeds of the East and the New York Knickerbockers as well.

But I still think the difference maker is the guy who is a back to back MVP of this league. And it's Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. And I think they're going to take this series. I'm going to give the I'm going to give I'm going to give the Heat a game six at home to try and extend it.

And they don't. And the Nuggets win on the road. I think the Heat will will take one in Denver just to keep things interesting. But Denver is going to push the pedal to the metal.

And and Denver is going to win this thing in six. And Jokic is going to be the MVP. I just cannot for the life of me think how the Heat are going to defend this guy. He brings the ball up the court. He brings the ball up the court and distributes it. He runs a two man game if he so desires. He can shoot the three if he desires. He does literally everything. He blocks shots. He plays defense. And the Heat, unless they keep running warm bodies at him that don't care if they foul out and somehow some way wear him down.

They still have Jamal Murray and they still have Michael Porter Jr. and they still have Aaron Gordon and they still have KCP. And I love their coach, Michael Malone, who is as good as anybody else in this league. And I think the the Nuggets take this in six and Jokic is the MVP. What do you say, TJ Jefferson, for your championship prediction?

I mean, let's just be very honest, right? The Heat shouldn't even be here. They shouldn't. There's no reason why this team should be in the finals, right?

They lost to Atlanta in a play in game. Then to get here without Tyler Harrow, without Oladipo. It's just like, man, this team, they should have been fishing a long time ago.

Rich. Right. So it kind of makes you want to go. Maybe they got a chance. No, I know.

I know you want this. And he was coming back. Hero could be coming back. I mean, and like I said, for a team that shouldn't even be here, it's amazing that they are.

And I think I'd like to say, yeah, maybe they could put the upset. But based on everything you just said, it's this Joker factor. They have no one who can match up with this guy unless they get something out of Nikola Jovik, who they have on the bench, the 19 year old who hasn't even played.

You know, there was an Eddie Murphy movie, The Distinguished Gentleman, where they talk about name recognition. Maybe Jovik got in there and thought he was joking. It could be a different series, but I don't see that happening. And I don't see the Heat being able to match up and keep up with this team. So like you, I think six games, Joker gets the MVP. But again, nothing surprises me in sports anymore. So if the Heat were to maybe pull this off, I don't know that I'd be shocked. But right now, I just can't see it happening. I'm going with Denver.

Chris. Yeah, it's a Denver sweep. I think it's going to be five games, but that's not a sweep. That's not a sweep. A Denver sweep that we're picking down. Oh, I see what you're saying. I just I weren't picking. That's three. Oh, here three.

Oh, yes. And I'm going Denver in five. I think Miami's only chance to really get one in this series is to steal game one where someone gets hurt. Yeah, injury is notwithstanding, but it's a steal game one just because they've been playing.

They're fresh. Denver hasn't played in, what, 10 days. But for me, I'm going Jamal Murray MVP.

I know, obviously, Jovik, easy pick. The guy's amazing, unstoppable, best player in the world right now. But Jamal Murray is really taking his game to a different level in the playoffs.

He's all the way back to what we saw a few years ago during his coming out party. 20 points per game in the regular season. He's up to 28 a game in the playoffs. Thirty two and a half a game in the four game sweep over the Lakers. Doing it on all around games, six rebounds, five assists.

He's everywhere. And I think Miami doesn't really have a guy to stop him. Like, is Jimmy Butler going to guard Jamal Murray? He's going to have to.

I know that he'd are tough, but kind of what Doris Burke said. They're only scored 100 points a game kind of in the playoffs. They're going to need watch Denver play. They push, push, push 120, 130 points per game. They're going to need to find 20 points somewhere. They're going to have to find that.

And I just don't think they're going to do it. Weirdly, Miami is a better team without Tyler Herro. Kind of what we've seen in this playoffs.

They're able to kind of free up more. You've seen Cable Barton shine Gabe Vincent. I just think it's kind of over. The pumpkin is going to come to roost.

I hear you. One last prediction is I don't think we're going to be out liars here. I think most everyone's going to predict Denver to win, but there's going to be a ton of coverage about the heat and what they just did and what they're able to do. And Denver is still going to be able to play the nobody believes in his card, even though everybody chooses them.

Yeah, weird. Like Tom Brady saying, we all suck. And just know, but I still don't understand. I still don't know who Brady was referring to as he headed off to the Super Bowl to beat the Rams that everybody didn't believe in them.

I still haven't identified a single soul in Los Angeles or anywhere else that was saying what he was saying. But I can get the Nuggets still feeling that way. But it's a clean sweep.

We all feel in this studio that the Nuggets win just a different version of how many games and who wins the MVP. And that was Championship Predictions presented by Dave and Buster's. Watch basketball like a pro at D&B with 40 foot TVs, cocktails, beer and delicious food. It's the ultimate watch experience.

Dave and Buster's. There you go. Tyler here is the answer, though, right? He can come out if, but he's been out for what? Yeah, but it's not like he's just going to average 20 points, right? And that's just on top of everything else, because the shots are going to have to come away from somebody for him to take them from that and make them. Yeah, I broke his shooting hand, right, Chris? That is Reagan. Was his right hand broke? I think it was his right hand.

So, yeah, either way, it's going to be tough. Miami doesn't play at that fast pace. Even when Boston had all its success in games four and five, it was fast, fast. Miami wants to slow it down. They want a game in the 90s. Nobody breaks 100.

That's not Denver. Even on makes jokey, just running the fast break. It's unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it.

There's nothing like it. And by the way, it's not like he's lumbering up the court. He's legitimately running the fast break and seeing the court and making not only the right pass, but sometimes the pass nobody else thinks is coming. He's unreal. The amount of times you're just like, wait, where did that? Where did that come from? It's unreal. Open three dunk. Miami is definitely going to have to slow this game. Now they're going to way, way to make it a muddy type. I know a slug. A mother, as they would say in horse race.

Couple things also. Why does the NBA give out the trophies in front of everybody? In the in the opposing court. I mean, that one, I don't understand. I think, Rich, they switched that because like the NHL trophy presentation is the greatest thing in sports.

And I think like after a fuse, I think maybe that had something to do because remember, they used to not do that. I'm what I'm saying is they can pivot. Like, let's have a spot inside the arena for the heat.

Yeah. If they win and it's old school, looks like winning time. You know, like there's a step and repeat behind and you know, there's, you know, champagne, whatever. And they're in their locker room and Ernie's in the role of, you know, Brent Musburger handing out the Larry O.B.

to an owner or whomever. And they're all tight in and they're all, you know, they're all in one spot. It's their own little spot. And they're celebrating as opposed to just like standing out there in an emptied out arena that Ernie Johnson has to talk about the elephant in the room that I know you're all, you know.

Leaving the arena, but we're giving out the trophies. And ironically, both of them are named after Celtics legends. I mean, it's. And if the Celtics win, well, then have it on the court.

I mean, you can pivot, right? I mean. Yeah, I don't get it.

Just don't have some guy who can't say three words together, hand out a car, you know, to the MVP like baseball did a few years ago. That poor guy. What was his name again? I'm sorry that he's catching me straight right now.

Chevrolet exactly. I forget who he was. He was like he was the Ken Bone of of trophy giveaways. That was bad. That one last night was kind of weird to me. Yeah, especially once he said the Bob Cousy. I was like, oh, that's right. That is the name Ernie. Hey, Ernie, give out the Cousy and give out the bird. You know, after Miami just flipped it to to and they emptied the hell out.

Oh, please. You would have thought an alarm went off or something. That thing was emptying out with like five minutes to go. I mean, that was the writing was on the wall and big, you know, it was red rum was on the wall, man.

So I was coming sweater is plan B. I was pretty much back in the day. But, you know, and so one other thing is what do you think of Nick Nurse? Being the Sixers coach. Look, man, you got a coach, right, who former NBA champion, former coach of the year.

Yes, sir. Coach Kawhi. Coach Kawhi was the the coach for the Jeff Walker game.

Yes, the four bounce game. So beat the Sixers. He's someone who apparently had a lot of interest in wanting to coach Joel Embiid. You know, my position on him, I I was somebody would make him play like a big man instead of a guy 23 feet away from the basket. So maybe they don't say that about Jokic, though, right? And we never hear that about you because Jokic will go like Shaq a few weeks ago said Joker was the best big man in the NBA and a lot of people kind of ruffled at it.

But I knew what he meant. He does play like a big man, but it's back to the basket. He can't well, obviously, he comes to the top. He facilitates, he runs the offense.

But when the time comes like that, he uses his size was and beat doesn't necessarily always use that that formidable frame he has. So I'm hoping maybe Nick Nurse is able to get him to realize the closer you are to that orange rim, the more points you're going to score and the more successful will be. But you still got to see what's going to go with Harden.

What's going to happen with Tobias Harris? There's still a lot of things that have to be settled with this team. So I do. So to answer your question, I think I do like the coach. OK, yeah.

Well, unfortunately, there's a lot. I mean, a week ago, I wanted him coaching my team. Oh, Nick Nurse. Yeah.

Yeah, I did. I did think it was going to be Monty Williams, just because, as I said, it seemed like he was the guy who was next in line for the job before the Suns took him. But I'm sure now maybe Milwaukee might be his destination. You never know.

You never know. Right. No, Milwaukee is going to hire. Oh, that's right. I just saw the Toronto assistant. Yes.

Adrian Griffin. Yeah. Sorry about that. So I guess I don't know.

So no. Who knows what's going to happen right there? It's too bad, though, I was hoping for one name, just it would have been a great segment of Mike D'Antoni to come back. Well, let me tell you something. You wouldn't have been able to come to me.

That would have been a great segment. Yeah. Here's another name, though, that I'm interested in that's floating out there, and that's the name of Bob Meyers.

And because they were down more is running your show. No, no, no. I'm talking about the Clippers, because the Clippers, we lost our GM. He's now going to transition and take over the Wizards.

You need one. If we can afford it. Bob Meyers is from here, I believe.

Is this Southern California? I believe he is. OK. And the only problem is, is, you know, I don't know if the Clippers have the money to pay him what he wants. That's an issue. That could be an issue. I don't know.

We spend our money. I'm sorry. I'm being told the owner could just sell one floppy disk and pay for it.

By the way, I've never said the words floppy disk into this microphone. Why would you? I mean, how many how many toilets is there? A lot of like eleven hundred. That's right. All right. The bombers only had one hundred and one point five billion. Sorry, TJ.

Yeah, you're not competitive, you know, not competitive crap. Billion dollar toilets. There it is.

Thank you. That is my favorite drop that we have. By the way, Kenny, Kenny Smith has people go fishing. We've got teams that go right into the toilet.

That's the way we roll. Sorry, your Celtics are in the indisposed at the moment. Where they at, Mike? He's he's not he's he's not.

Boil it! I got it. OK, let's take a break. Alan Sepinwall for everybody who is not who watches Succession and has not seen the final I guess show of the series, the season for the series finale.

Sorry, those are the words I'm looking for. We apologize in advance, but it's going to be a great conversation with the chief TV critic of Rolling Stone about the finale to Succession and the upcoming one for Ted Lasso tonight. Oh, boy, that's next. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Before we get to Alan Sepinwall of of Rolling Stone, talk about Succession again, if you've if you haven't seen the final yet, you know, just bear with us for this segment here. Tom Wamsgans of Succession, played by Matthew McFadyen, who I think he was my favorite character of the entire four years. There's so many of them.

Just there's so many things about him. He winds up eventually as the CEO of the the new the newly bought Waystar Royco Gojo. And last season, he knocked off the three kids, his wife and the two sons. The two sons to win season three, if you will, because he gave a heads up to Logan Roy that the kids were planning a coup against him. So he knocked all three kids out there and then in the finale knocked all three kids out there. And there was a hot rumor going around all weekend long that the creators of Succession tipped their hand long ago by naming him a weirdly named last name Wamsgans, tipped their hand that he was going to win it and knock off all three siblings because he was named according to this rumor, after a baseball player for the 1920 Indians named Bill Wamsgans with two S's at the end of his name, who was famous for completing the first ever unassisted triple play in World Series history in Game 5 of the nine game 1920 World Series against the Brooklyn Robins.

In Game 5, pivotal, tied at two games apiece, Indians up 7-0 and Wamsgans, an infielder, snags the ball, ticketed for center field, steps on second and tags the guy running from first to second unassisted triple play. And everybody thought like that is why Tom was named Wamsgans because he completed a triple play at the end of season three and the season finale of season four. While Stefan Fatsis, who is a writer who's been on this program, sports writer and also writer of note, called up Frank Rich, who's also been on this program, longtime New York magazine and New York Times writer and also an executive producer of Veep and Succession.

Quote, I hate to spoil the Internet's fun, but it's false. Tom's family name was picked before he had shot a first season in 2016, let alone mapped out precise story twists that would have culminate 39 episodes later. Not to mention that many of the key writers on the show, starting with its creator, Jesse Armstrong, are British, live in London and are devoted to British football.

They wouldn't know. Basically saying Keith Olbermann's not writing the show. Come on, that's the craziest coincidence ever then. He said if memory serves, we were looking for something off key that would be awkward to say slash pronounce befitting a character who arrives as an outsider in the Roy's world and that's why they chose somebody named Wham's Ganz. A Succession staff member had a relative named Wham's Ganz and that's why they chose Tom's name.

Has nothing to do with the World Series in 1920. I don't know. That's on Slate.com. Wow. Is that reputable?

It is. Now then, we turn to the chief television critic of Rolling Stone to talk about Succession and the Ted Lasso finale that's coming up, none other than Alan Sepinwall back here on the Rich As a Show. How you doing, Alan? I'm great, Rich. Thanks for having me. Why do you think Succession worked, Alan?

What do you think? I think because it was incredibly well written and well acted. Just the dialogue, even just on a purely comedic level, it's one of the funniest and most quotable shows ever made. The work that Jesse Armstrong and those actors did in terms of helping us understand some of the worst human beings alive and offering this fractured mirror version of what we have been going through as a society for the last however many years was really effective. Yeah, I don't recall a show that's supposedly dramatic that made me laugh quite as much as Succession.

It was, laugh out loud, hilarious. And then just the point of view just saying about the characters being so terrible, just horrible human beings, and I would constantly be rooting for them and then rooting against them at a drop of a hat in the same way, in many ways, like Walter White, Tony Soprano, anti-heroes that I loved watching and then loved to hate and didn't kind of see the line that I would be crossing over between rooting for and against all the time, Alan. Yeah, TV over the last 20 years especially has really conditioned us to empathize with and understand absolute monsters. I've written books about Sopranos and Breaking Bad, so I've thought about those guys a whole lot over the years.

And even though they're murderers and in some cases sociopaths, I would often find them more likable than a number of the members of the Roy family who just had no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. So then let's just jump into the Sunday night finale with, again, as I've mentioned before, just apologies for any spoilers. What did you think of the finale of Succession, Alan? I thought it was really good. I don't know if it was the best episode of this season or one of the great finales ever, but I thought it was a really appropriate ending to the story of the show. And especially when you get to that scene with Shiv and her brothers following her into the smaller conference room after she's walked away from making her vote, that's just a spectacular five-minute bit of acting, writing, directing.

It's just everything the show had been building towards. And it's like Kendall did everything wrong that you could possibly do wrong in that moment and thus exactly proved his sister's point about why he should not be the one to get that job. But my pushback on that, Alan, and I tweeted about it and I'm wondering what you think about it, is Shiv's actions to me did not ring true to her character. That the Shiv that we had seen for damn near 40 episodes when she had the ultimate, ultimate comeuppance potential for her. The ultimate, I guess, swing of the leverage hammer placed in her lap as the swing vote that when she walked out, I didn't think that she would be conflicted. I thought that she would use it to leverage her brothers and say, if you want to do this and you need my vote right now, I want X, Y, and Z. That's the Shiv that we would know. Certainly if she could, you know, Shiv, if you will, Lucas Matson and Tom, her husband in quotes.

I mean, why did she do what she did? It didn't ring true to me, Alan. All right. So there's a whole bunch of things to unpack here. So I'll try not to monologue too long.

Okay. One, I think she cannot stand her brothers. It's like she said, like she loves them, but she kind of hates to be around Kendall. And so in the moment when they're at their mom's house in the Caribbean, they make this alliance and they're sort of having a good time for a day and a half.

Yes. And then she gets there to the office that morning and she sees Kendall putting his feet up on their dad's desk and just, you know, you're fratting it around with Stewie. And you can already see on her face, like, wait a minute, this is what it's going to be like.

I don't know that I want to be around this guy. And second, Tom is, yes, she is sort of estranged from Tom, but he is still technically her husband and more to the point, she is currently pregnant with their child. And she also knows like that she can manipulate Tom and be perhaps the power behind the throne. And I don't know that she ultimately has like any huge beef with Lucas Matson other than the fact that he goes back on his word to her.

But everybody in this world does that. And I think when she walks out of the room, she's not sure what she wants to do. I think she's leaning towards voting for the sale because she realizes she's worried about having to deal with Kendall and realizing that he's just going to freeze her out again, because that's what he does. And she goes to the room and Kendall follows her and does everything again, everything you could possibly do to convince her, do not vote my way. It's really something.

Yeah, it really was something. Again, I was just so stunned that she would flush it all down the toilet like that. And I understand that she's getting a huge paycheck and I understand she's getting a huge check out of it. And I understand that, you know, technically she still is involved in the familial sense with the company because Tom has taken over and her estranged husband. But why wouldn't she screw her, Tom, and screw Lucas and screw her brothers and wind up with all the chips that she possibly can to have as much of her birthright that she's been chasing for four seasons?

It just didn't make sense. I think she gets more of that in this version than she would if she tried to cut a deal with her brothers, because I think ultimately we have seen these siblings betray each other often enough that once Kendall was installed in the seat of power, A, he would probably draw the company into the ground. And so therefore this thing becomes worthless to her, you know, so there's that.

But also, I think if he got the throne, he would very quickly forget about any promises he made just because that's who he is and what he does. Earlier in the finale, you see her, she reaches out to Tom and she asks him basically how he would feel about finally having a real relationship as opposed to the way she always treated him previously. And he's noncommittal on it, but you can see like maybe she wants that. And we know she can sort of manipulate him that he does sort of have feelings for her that he is often sort of puts himself in the subordinate position to her, even when he technically outranks her in the company. And I think like in this version, she gets her payout and she also gets to sort of exert a level of control that I do not think she would have if Kendall's out the job. So she's sort of it's a win-win for her.

Alan, Chris Brockman here. What do you think about the theory that Shiv actually did this to kind of save her brothers? Because she saw what this this job, this title, this company did to Logan. And yes, while she does believe that Kendall wouldn't do a good job, but it also kind of saved him of a life of misery that will ultimately kill him. And, you know, and Roman too. I mean, I think there's probably some of that. Again, she does have ultimately loving feelings for the two of them even if they're just they just they make her miserable a lot of the time. And I can see that. And despite Kendall protesting that he's going to die if he doesn't get the job, like the job would have ruined him in the same way he would have ruined the company.

And that might even be worse for him to have to go through the rest of his life realizing how bad he was at the job than having to deal with the fact that he never got to do it. Yeah. And I that said, what you just said, Chris, and your response, Alan, is Susie and I, my wife and I watching it, thought that Kendall was going to throw himself into the into New York Harbor at the end as he's staring, you know, into the sun setting and his father's bodyguard watching over him. And I guess Ellis Island did what it appears to be in the background. We thought he was going to go kill himself, but this thing would end with him jumping over the wall and into his certain death, one would think in in New York Harbor. I thought that was the crazy thing. The crazy thing is that apparently Jeremy Strong said on the official podcast that during one of the takes of that final scene, he impulsively decided, I'm going to go and try to climb that fence.

He didn't tell anyone he was going to do it. And so suddenly the actor who called the bodyguard had to run over and pull him down and keep him from endangering himself, you know, without warning. Because, I mean, Jeremy Strong goes like the most method I've ever heard of any actor going. So it doesn't surprise me that he would have pulled a stunt like that.

So Jeremy, I mean, sorry. So so Armstrong and and the rest of the group there, Jesse Armstrong and the rest of the group there had that take. They had that they had that choice that they could have actually used and decided against it is what you're saying.

They definitely could have. And I think, you know, we see like Kendall drowning imagery is a big deal with him over the life of the show. It's not just that the cater waiter, you know, that they go into the river together. You often see him in the bath, in a sauna, in the floating in the pool towards the end of last season, etc. Anytime things are going dark for Kendall Roy, he is usually in or right next to water. So I don't think that this is going to be a good time for him. And I would not be shocked with the idea that he does ultimately kill himself.

But like the story of the show is Kendall trying to get this job. And so the fact that it ends with him not having gotten it, but us not having to see anything further, that seems fine to me like this. We got the beginning, we got the end.

Anything after it is kind of irrelevant for our purposes. Two more minutes left with Alan Seppenwald, chief television critic of Rolling Stone in the aftermath of Succession's conclusion on Mount Max right here on The Rich Eisen Show. So where does Brian Cox's Logan Roy stand for you in the pantheon of antiheroes, Alan? I mean, I don't know that I would call him an antihero. I think he's probably just a straight out villain. You know, you'd have to search really hard for redeeming qualities to him. But he is an incredible character, like an all timer.

And the way that Cox was able to deliver all of those insults and to always seem like the most indomitable force in the room, despite like just this murderer's row of actors they put around him in both the regular cast and the guest stars. I mean, it's it's an immortal thing that he did. Yeah. And then I mean, I guess you're right that although they did redeem him in his final appearance on the show with a video taken from a dinner that was shown to the to the family by Connor Roy, played by Alan Rock and the last we saw of him, he was singing and completely redeemable.

It's unbelievable, you know? Yeah. I mean, at the funeral, Shiv has this, you know, part of her speech where she talked about how like most of the time with Logan, you're in darkness or you're in shadow. But those rare moments were like he's shown a light on you was incredible. I mean, that's and you see that in that moment, like that's the dad they wish they could have had all the time and they got almost none of the time. So who is your favorite character that sort of underneath the radar throughout the history of succession? Maybe somebody who's not in the Roy family. I mean, I really love Frank and Carl, Carl especially, because Carl is just so unapologetic about any of this. Like you see other characters who kind of have moral qualms and Carl's like, no, I just want my money.

I just want to buy my island. You know, I know that Logan's bad and I don't really care. And that's that was always a fun character. And I thought David Rash was was really good at that part. All right.

Last one for you, Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone. Is there a future for succession spinoff movie? I mean, my gosh, we know. I mean, we're in this world where it's like everything has to get a spinoff and a prequel and an adaptation and everything's got to be based on IP. And the thing is, succession was an original idea. There was it was not adapting anything and people loved it. And those shows you mentioned earlier, Sopranos and Breaking Bad, like the real the things that have really broken through in this era of television have almost entirely been like brand new ideas and not things linked to other things. Occasionally you'll get something great, like Better Call Saul. But that tends to be the exception rather than the rule. And I would rather just see everyone involved go off and try something new rather than, you know, continue with like, you know, Connor and Willa, you know, living in Slovenia or whatever.

Well, I'm just a little pushback here. Alan, it hasn't Yellowstone kind of reimagined that, though? I mean, 1883 and 1923 are terrific and they're Yellowstone stories. So maybe succession can take a page from that Jesse Armstrong and the rest of the creators can take a page from that and do something similar to that where you've got a succession story that might it might be the way Logan was born into his life. I don't I don't know. I'd be fascinated by that.

It's certainly possible you could do something about Logan building his empire and you would have to cast like a young Brian Cox and a young James Cromwell. I just I tend to trend more towards like give me something I haven't seen before, but I get your point. All right. So then last one for you. Give me something for succession fans who are now going to be staring into space, wanting to watch something. What would you suggest, Alan?

That's nice. God, I'm trying to think. I mean, there's in terms of things about sort of cutthroat business or something in a similar vein or anything that you're enjoying watching that you think, you know, somebody who likes great acting, great writing, great storytelling, great everything. What do you think? What do you think is out there?

All right. One of the best things I've seen on TV this year is very unlike succession, but it does have the great acting, great writing in the great direction. That's Poker Face, which is the show Ryan Johnson and Natasha Lyonne did for Peacock, this sort of mystery series that is among the other things, along with succession, that has made me happiest to watch over the past six months. OK. And have you seen the final Ted Lasso yet, Alan?

I have not. And it's weird that the Ted Lasso official Twitter account like that, you know, in characters Ted Lasso referred to the final match as the last match that he and Beard are going to coach. So this seems to be the first time that anyone has come right out and said like either the show is ending tomorrow or Ted Lasso at least is leaving the show tomorrow and they're going to continue on without him. Well, we had Jason Sudeikis on the show just about three weeks ago, Alan, and he said once episode 12 comes out of this season, you'll see how it's tied up, essentially how this is the story they were planning on telling and and you'll see how, you know, it feels like the end. But they could get together. He and Brendan Hunt and the rest of the crew that helped birth it, as they said originally as they birthed Ted Lasso, get around the pool, start laughing, start making each other laugh and come up with an idea to keep it going. It's possible, is what he said.

But it does. There have been enough TV shows over the year where like the leading character leaves and they keep it going. You know, as recently as like the Conners on ABC. So I can see a version where like Roy Kent is the new coach or we follow, you know, Ted and Beard back to America. I mean, there's ways in which they could do it.

And given what a big hit it's been for Apple, I would be shocked if they don't try to do something. So then I guess in this succession, who wins the job? Because it sure looks like Ted's going to go back home to be with his son.

And that's the way it's all set up. I would hope that it's Roy who wins the job because I really I don't think that they've done a great bit of storytelling here with Nate, like trying to turn him from nice guy to villain and back to nice guy again. So if they're going to have someone succeed, Ted, I would like it to be Roy Kent. What's Alan watching? Newsletter, best-selling author and also chief TV critic of Rolling Stone.

Alan Sepinwall, thanks for the time. Greatly appreciate it. Let's look for more of my calls and emails. Thank you. Absolutely. It's always a pleasure, Rich. Thank you.

Alan Sepinwall right here at Sepinwall on Twitter and Instagram right here on The Rich Island Show. Okay. Everybody who watches succession that hasn't seen the finale, you can tune back in. Meanwhile, during the conversation, two things happen.

One thing, that piece of yellow warning that I don't know what people there's no one walking around. I don't know. That fell over. As did, unfortunately, Dick Gaskett. He forced a foot set tie break, spoiler alert for those who might have set your DVRs for the Dick Gaskett four setter.

He's been bounced. Rich, thank you. Okay.

But he can stay in France because he's French. Hey. We'll take a break and finish up this show as well as let you know who's coming up this week.

A lot of great guests still to come right here on The Rich Island Show. On the terrestrial radio audience and sometimes when we're talking just on Roku channel only, you're missing something. This time you are missing anything.

Yeah, unless you like dogs and cats. Oh, yes. Plus, oh, yeah, that was all right. Was Rich Island Show minus. Rich Island Show Plus, which we're still germinating because everything's a plus. Everybody's got a plus now. NFL Plus, ESPN Plus. We got to have our own plus. Living Plus.

Friday Night Music Show Plus is coming. What does that look like? What does that mean? I just made that up.

Stupid. It can't even be a plus because you do everything on that show anyway. Mike Del Tufo, there's no, so you can't, if you plus up Mike Del Tufo, it counters out. I think it counters the real Mike Del Tufo. What more can you plus?

You drink a curse, you play music, you can't like elevate it anymore. I got to be honest with everybody here. I'm always honest. I got to be honest with you.

I'm being straight up honest. This happened. You know, we just talked about the succession finale. We just talked about how the Ted Lasso finale is coming. We didn't talk about the Barry finale. Haven't seen it yet either. There's another show that just finished up that I have been watching. I don't think you guys have watched. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. You are correct.

Okay. I have watched this since the beginning. Because I was wondering when it won all the awards and all the hoopla. Like what's it all about? It is truly one of the most remarkable shows I've ever seen.

And, you know, I'd say that to Kevin Pollak when he was here and Tony Shalhoub when he was here. The final season of this show that just wrapped up, the final episode was dropped on Prime Video right here on Roku on Friday. I couldn't see it until yesterday morning.

Susie went out to work out. The kids were asleep. I had 90 minutes to myself. I watched it. It made me cry.

I'm not lying to you. Susie comes back home. She's like, what happened? What was it? The kids? Was it something with your mom? What happened? Like, I'm like, no, it was Mrs. Maisel.

And she's just like, get out of here. I'm telling you, I don't know what it was, but I lost it. And it was the most satisfying final season and final show of any show that had multiple seasons. What was it?

The four or five? Maybe that I've ever seen. And I'm not lying to you, because as you know, sometimes final episodes of shows make you feel like you didn't get enough. You don't have every question answered. And they all lose steam. The characters feel forced. The action feels forced. You sometimes get the feeling, hey, this is enough. Not with this show. I'm telling you, it's celebrated relationships and life and family.

And success. I'm telling you, I don't know why it made me cry. It did. And I went full Vermeil. I did. I went full Vermeil. The last couple of lasso episodes have kind of been that way.

The last couple of lasso episodes have definitely taken an uptick. Yeah. Him in the kitchen with his mom.

Mom. I know. I was watching that yesterday.

I know. And then the finale tonight, I'm fully expecting it to be same. I want him to keep going. And I know that some folks think that this season has lost some steam or what have you. But it sure looks like it sure looks like, again, that tweet that they put out today saying it's the final match.

It doesn't seem like it's just this season. It feels like it's over. And again, that's what I liked about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It paid off everything. It paid the finale, paid off why they call it that show. It paid off the future relationship of the main characters of the show. It paid off her her her success ride that we've been following for so many years. It was funny.

It was moving. Man. And I know I'm talking about a show that you might not ascribe to. You know. To an audience that I'm discussing right now, I'm telling you, it's spectacular. I couldn't rave about it more. And it's definitely much more interesting than the conversation you guys were having in the commercial break. Stultifyingly bad. And look it up if you want.

Meow. What's on tonight? What's on tonight? What's on tonight? Major League Baseball.

You don't really want to talk about that, do you? Power rankings have us number 10. Who's power rankings? Who's power rankings? Power Rangers?

Yeah, I respect them. OK, the Power Rangers. All right. Your top 10 Red Sox top 10.

As I said earlier. A 500 season is a win. Very low expectations. Same. Same five games over right now.

It's huge. Same amount of games out of the wild card right now is the Los Angeles Angels who you like crapping on. So here you go. Well, they have two of the five best players in baseball.

They should always be. That's right. You let those guys go to play in Southern California.

Who? We let Mike Trout go. No, you let Betts go and you let go to play in Southern California.

That's right. He's talking there. Same intensity when we sign Ohtani.

Come on, bro. That's what he's on. Celtic season.

Ohtani season starts. There ain't no chance. He's back. Come back.

Same intensity. Like future would say, ain't no way. You know what, though? Ain't no way.

Because he knows the Red Sox are going to eventually lose in the regular season. You might as well just lose them all. What are you smoking, bro? Don't even try.

Don't even try. The wins don't matter because you're going to lose. And it'd be so much easier on your fragile sports ego to have losses that don't get you hopes up. If you're telling me right now, OK, we're going to lose game seven of the ALCS blowing a six run lead? Yeah. No, thank you. Give me all of the losses now, then. Huh, euthanize the Red Sox season now.