‘The Gentlemen’ Season 2 Premiere and ‘Lanterns’ Episode 3. Plus, ‘East of Eden’ Trailer.

The Watch

Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald dive into the latest entertainment news, including Tom Hardy's return to 'MobLand' and his surprise collaboration

Key takeaways

• Tom Hardy's return to 'MobLand' marks a significant moment for fans, with rumors of his departure now debunked and season three already confirmed.
• Hardy's rap debut as Frankie Pulitzer with Czarface blends nostalgic hip-hop aesthetics with modern production, evoking the golden era of mixtapes.

Main topics

• Tom Hardy's return to 'MobLand'
• Frankie Pulitzer and Czarface rap collaboration

Notable quotes

"This is like seriously among the coolest things that's ever happened."

"You are not going to be treating this the way ASCAP is treating Stella Lefty records. You're not looking for the forensic evidence here."

Conclusion

The episode blends entertainment news with reflective commentary on cu

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:05) I need supports to have to clear the room. Stand up and walk. Now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at TheRinger.com and joining me in the studio, he doesn't need a protege, it's Andy Greenwald! I'm sorry, I'm just not myself. I just, Maria Bartiromo is out at Fox News? She's going to be the press secretary. Oh, okay. Well, that works. I'm thrilled for her. The money, honey? Speaker 1 (0:33) That's what she used to be called. Yes, and I did not approve of that nickname. No, at the time, you were quite strident that that was demeaning to both honeys and money. She used to have her fastball, man. Maria? You don't think she has it now? She's going to need it. I mean, she probably does. Greenwald, great to see you Thursday. Here we are. Don't you like the way we're responsive to the news? People like that. We had a prerecorded episode that went up on Monday or Sunday evening, as it were, where we talked about the Furious finale, and then Andy interviewed Liz Merriweather and Emmy Rossum. Speaker 1 (1:03) Congratulations on all your work. Thank you. Do you want to talk about why you absented yourself? I was participating in the Ringer Fantasy League draft at a different part of Los Angeles. So there are two genders. I had the first pick. Did I tell you that? You knew that. Did you watch the entire two and a half hour video? I started halfway through because I'm only interested in the later rounds. That's right. Who did you pick first? Jameer Gibbs. I think it was a good choice. Speaker 1 (1:28) But it was funny because I didn't really study that much. And I know a fair amount about the Eagles, although weirdly not as much as you anymore. And I would draft guys and then immediately turn to people who knew about football and see if I could read their face. Does anyone have a tell? And somebody would be like, oh. And I'd be like, is that because he has tendinitis or pending felony charges? Does your team have a name? Do you name your teams? I haven't yet. I named my fantasy Premier League team, though. Speaker 1 (1:58) No jaquette required for Jeremy Jaquet, the French center back that Liverpool has. I know that he's the French center back that Liverpool has. I'm very invested in the Premier League. My team, I believe, has yet to win. So today on the show, we're going to talk about lanterns, which we were remiss in. We didn't get to discuss it on Monday because we had this pre-recorded episode. We're going to talk a little bit about the second season of The Gentleman and maybe the larger project of... Speaker 1 (2:23) Of mining IP for television, which is something of an old sawhorse for us. I thought you meant the larger project of Guy Ritchie single-handedly returning posh hierarchy to his native land. It's an odd show. It's a weird show. And I have some news and notes and some trailers at the top for you. Some pretty important stuff at the top. And you can email us at thewatch at spotify.com. And you can follow us on Instagram at thewatchpod underscore. And you can watch us on YouTube at ringer-tv. Speaker 1 (2:52) where we were hanging out with the Prestige TV on that channel. And many, many, many, many, many men have emailed us asking to discuss Tom Hardy's triumphant return to Mobland. I was one of the people that messaged you about this. This is a show that I watched. I think, you know, Kai and I were trying to talk about this. We were trying. Kai was like, no, man, I got to go. Kai was like, this is inappropriate. Don't talk to me about Mobland. Tom Hardy is a very important figure for me. You know, Venom, in a lot of ways, taught me it was okay to be weird. And I'm just so happy to see him and Jez Butterworth work out their differences. There was all these rumors that Tom Hardy had basically behaved himself off the show. The story, the sourcing was murky, but it was that he was let go. I think we need to get it together as a society. Yes. Speaker 1 (3:47) We did like a full two weeks like how dare Indy Navarrete turn down Michael Mann. You know, like we did. How dare Tony Ridley Scott say this about Paul Meskel after the fact, you know, like and I don't think these people are actually saying those things. I'm going to. It's just us, right? We're turned off the cameras for a second. I think that the newsrooms have been gutted a little bit. I'm sorry to tell you, this is not Ben Bradley's Washington Post. I love dining out on possibly true information. Who among us? Yeah, sure. This seems to be pretty certified, though, that Tom Hardy, who was seemingly on his way out of Mobland, and that may or may not have spelled the end for this series that I watched some of and enjoyed, but was a kind of consistent phenomenon that I think lots of people experience where they like something, but they may not like it. Speaker 1 (4:36) 10 hours worth, you know? And talk me through this, though. This was a few months ago we were talking about this while they were, I guess, in post on season two. Season two is now a few weeks away. Very soon. Imminent. And it was renewed for season three. And in the spirit of Andy Starts Euphoria in season three, I may just jump back in on Mobland. I bet I can piece it together. In the spirit of one-upsmanship, I won't watch it until season three. But that's not the only Tom Hardy news I have for you this week. I hope it's... Okay, good. I know about this. So Tom Hardy also was revealed, although not fully revealed, as you'll understand in a second, to be a part of a contemporary rap super... Yep. Speaker 1 (5:17) You thought you were going to put this over on me. I know about this. Czarface. And you know who's in the group. 7L and Esoteric to backpack legends from our youth. Inspect Deck from Wu-Tang Clan. The single, and then I believe that Tom Hardy's rap name is Frankie Pulitzer. Is that right? Yeah, I think it's Pulitzer. I'm sorry to be that guy. Is it? Yeah, it's a Pulitzer Prize, not a Pulitzer Prize. And, you know, I was listening to this record. I got a couple of messages about this record. And I was checking it out. And I got to a track about like midway through the album called Dr. Yorgo and the Land of Acid 7.0. I was like, this shit knocks. This is really good. And then I got to the last 20 seconds of the song. Okay. Sarah, would you please play it for us? The thing I like a lot about this is that it harkens back to like... Speaker 1 (6:12) basically one of my favorite times in hip-hop and in pop music that I've experienced as I've been alive, which was like the real height of the mixtape era. What the fuck, man? What? Did they sample me on this record? What the fuck? Can we play it again? Will listeners hear this? I want to say this to you. Yeah. To Tom Hardy. Yes. To Inspectadeck and 7L and Esoteric and God. Yeah. And the American people. Yes. You can have it. Full consent. Full fucking. There is no safe word. Speaker 1 (6:49) There is no safe word, brother. You are not going to be treating this the way ASCAP is treating Stella Lefty records. You're not looking for the forensic evidence here. This is like seriously among the coolest things that's ever happened. Can I hear it again? Yeah, please. Our listeners, we don't have anything else to talk about today, right? Well, first of all, I think we are fully within our rights to play this on our podcast if that's my voice, which it pretty much is. Wouldn't it be incredible if Inspector Deck called you and was just like, I need points on that now? Speaker 1 (7:18) You may be ready to... 7-Eleven esoteric wanted to jump in on the watch. You may want to give up the bag easily, but we do not. I hope that this ends with Zarface and Frankie Pulitzer in our studio. Okay, I've got a couple of questions. Let's hear it again, and then I've got a couple of questions. The thing I like a lot about this is that it harkens back to basically one of my favorite times in hip-hop and in pop music that I've experienced as I've been alive, which was the real height of the mixtape era. Speaker 1 (7:44) Okay, a couple things. So they pitched you down a little bit? Sure. Or did you not have effort in that? And I fully know that if, however hip-hop production works, like maybe all these dudes were standing around being like, ah, yeah, pitch it down a little bit. Or they could be like, find that nerd talking about mixtapes and put it at the end. When did you say that? I feel like it was on this podcast. I think so. And I think, I mean, we must have been talking about Pusha, Kendrick, Drake, maybe. It sounds like we would have been referring to... Okay. This is... Like maybe the clips mixtapes from the aughts or gunit or I don't even know. Okay, so let's talk through this. I appreciate that you gave the roster of creatives involved here. Who is the CR head among them? Or let's rank the probabilities. I mean, my desired probabilities are the likely probabilities. Speaker 1 (8:33) I'm sure. Let your heart sing. We all know it's like the engineer named Brett. I think we all know that Inspector Deck, when he heard us discussing Top of the Lake, was like, I found my people. And then he thought we gave season two short shrift. And he was just like, I'm out. I mean, this is an incredible. How are you? How do you feel? Honored. Yeah. Deep honor. Yeah. Like, you remember when Obama surprised Biden by giving him the Congressional Medal of Freedom or whatever? One of the great days of my life. That's how this feels. Speaker 1 (9:01) I'm just hanging out listening to a rap record and then it's just like my voice pops up. It's just like Barack came up behind you with a medal. Oh, okay. All right. It is incredible because it is a perfect Venn diagram of who you would want to see you. Also, I like that beat. It's a good beat. Yeah. I thought, honestly, okay, let me talk you through my process. When Sarah played it, I thought you were playing it because it was going to be like. Speaker 1 (9:26) do you see the sample is of the 80s tweet pop legends field mice. Oh yeah. That would have been weird to put in the A block. But I was like that is weird but maybe it's a really slow day. You just wanted me to like I'm proud of you. I'm honored. Do you understand how close this brings me to Tom Hardy? We're essentially homies now. We're essentially like I'm surprised like I'm going to go to London we're going to hang out me and Tom Hardy. I'm they say like project out into the world what you want. It's the secret. Visualize it. I visualize me and Frankie Pulitzer just rolling around in a Benz, you know? Sure. Do you think... Roadman style. Do you think with a blood bag in the back? Yeah. As a rapper, is Tom Hardy better than Chalamet, who collaborated with SD Kid recently? Yeah, I think so. I think he's probably also been honing his craft for a long time. Speaker 1 (10:20) And he wears a mask in this, like, Doom style. Like, yeah. Oh, really? Tom Hardy wears a mask? Just to get into this. I mean, what a wild thing you've just thrown down on the table. Yeah. I'm thrilled for you. This is a wonderful moment. I wonder what the Greenwald sample would have been. Oh, I didn't want to bring it up, but, you know, I was sampled on the new DJ Sabrina, the teenage DJ record. Talking about effingers? You did tell me this. I was, and I didn't, you know. Didn't we talk about it on the pod? No, I'm more modest about these things. That's what everybody says. Sarah, do you have that sample queued up? Anyway, Modland season three and season two. I am seated. I'll be watching that. This is incredible, too, because I do think the Paramount publicity team is just getting blindsided by this, but now they are like, holy shit, now we know. Speaker 1 (11:08) how to get him on board. He's a captive audience. One other piece of news from this week that I thought you would get a real kick out of. I may have a recoil reaction in about 20 minutes. That's fine. We can always circle back to it. I don't even know how good this pod's going to be. These are some headlines and some words that I read on Deadline.com today. I needed to get your immediate reaction. I've been driving around. I haven't seen the headlines. Headline. Dungeons and Dragons live action series Ravenloft in the works at Netflix from John August and Alfonso Cuaron. Speaker 1 (11:42) Do you remember? Do you think it's weirder that I'm on Tsar Face or that Alfonso Cuarón is fucking making a Dutch music? Can I tell you how this makes me feel? No, no. I don't mean this glibly. But you know the scene in the opening moments of the new season of Lioness when Martin Donovan looks at the New York Times and the cover says, end of democracy? That's kind of how I feel for that headline. I'm zagging. You're into it? Yeah. This is cool. Speaker 1 (12:13) Let me tell you about this. You're going to be in such a good mood today. I'm going to tell you about this. Deadline. This is a quote from Deadline. Described as a prestige fantasy series. Obviously. Where adventure collides with gothic horror and tragic romance. Ravenloft and its domains of dread tackle adventure through character driven. You're all lost in the sauce now. Wait. I'm trying to understand these words. Where they tackle adventure through character driven stories of dark magic and supernatural intrigue. Read the next sentence. I dare you. At its heart. Speaker 1 (12:40) The series follows the making of the vampire Dark Lord Strahd Van Zarovich, whose story of power, love, obsession, and undead transformation charts his origins from tragic antihero to one of D&D's most notorious villains. Okay, a couple things. Origin story of Strahd the vampire? By Cuaron? Fuck off. Respectfully. Couple things here. Dark Lord Strahd Van Zarovich is Kenneth Branagh's role in Tenet. I believe. No, that was Andre Sator. Yeah. Okay. Well, I picked the wrong. You have to get up a little fucking earlier in the morning. Frankie Pulitzer over here. Fastball past me. Speaker 1 (13:21) The whole point of Dungeons and Dragons is that it does not have iconic villains. You are the characters. Right. And that's what I bet drew one of our most accomplished filmmakers who is now in year six of a prestige TV experiment between this and what was that one? Disclosure? What was that called? Yeah. The show, the Cape Blanchard show? Yeah, I watched all of it. Yeah. That he's making, you know, he's returning Netflix for the first time since Roma. And I'll just add some more context to this. This is a new project with new auspices that is not related to the Forgotten Realms. Oh, thank God. A live action series taking place in the titular D&D setting that Netflix put into development in early 2025 with Drew Crivello writing and Sean Levy executive producing. That D&D adaptation is no longer in development at the streamer. Deadline is earned. Speaker 1 (14:11) So this is the Netflix D&D show. It's a relief. Going for John August, an incredibly well-regarded screenwriter and very good podcaster. I love the bigger zag that you're doing that I'm noticing is you're like, clearly it is the appeal of open world storytelling that has drawn Alfonso Cuaron to this project as opposed to the appeal of open world money, which is also fine. This could be though, like, If I told you that the director of Roma was making a gothic vampire story, what would you say? So this is the, yeah, this is the deeper thing, which is that if this is the Trojan mechanism with which one can. Yeah. Although I learned recently the Trojan horse, not what we thought, not just an easy metaphor. You know what I mean? Had some consequences, especially for Elliot Page and everyone inside the walls. Okay. Speaker 1 (15:07) That's your take, okay? I mean... I'm throwing a lot at you this morning. This is the world we live in. You know, where was... What's your D&D history? I don't know that I... Speaker 1 (15:23) I never played, but I also don't feel like I was ever asked. You know, like I think I've played D&D-esque games, but I've never played D&D like classic. Like proper 20-sided die. Nobody was ever like, do you want to play D&D? Because... Because they were like, you're so good at sports. That's the thing. You're like, you're like looking at your travel baseball schedule in the hallways. They're like, just man. All you do is hit line drives. Just ropes, frozen ropes all day. Do you know like when I was in, I think I was pretty young. I think I was like 12. Yeah. But you know, we were, we have like our league, city league, you know what I mean? We basically have our Fairmount League that we played on different teams on. Then there was a Fairmount All-Stars team that traveled the city to play different teams. And then within that city-wide league. Speaker 1 (16:13) One year I made all-star. Good for you. And like my coach or my assistant coach was the assistant coach of the all-star team. And I was like doing something and I could hear them talking about like what the lineup should be. My assistant coach goes, my guy can hit cleanup. He hits line drives. And I was like, fuck, this is as good as I've ever felt. That's the coolest thing I've ever heard. Until I got sampled on a Zarbis record. Speaker 1 (16:37) You've lived a pretty decent life, I gotta say. Two things that were cool happened, yeah. And it wasn't CR month, it was two things. Two things that have never happened to me and never will, I promise you that. I have a follow-up about D&D, but I did want to ask, like one thing that I've observed through contemporary parenthood, and you've observed it too just by living here, is that like the expectations of parents in travel sports is like way, way different than what I imagined it being or observed it being. Speaker 1 (17:05) Do you think that if young CR was young now, would you have done travel baseball with what it requires and like traveling all over the 4 a.m. wake up calls and like the complete devotion? I did that for swimming for a while. Did you? You know, there was some like wake up at four and drive to northern New Jersey for a meet kind of things. But I, you know, I mean, like in some ways, my diminutive height was like a blessing because it was like, this is probably not going to happen. Speaker 1 (17:30) Yeah, but what's his name? What's the little spark plug guy who's on the Astros? Altuve? Yeah. But he's a cheater, right? Okay, well, nobody's perfect. I just meant that he's carved out a pretty good career for himself. Yeah, he's pretty good. Yeah. I mean, there's examples of incredible athletes overcoming maybe a height thing. Willie Lampkin on the Eagles, for example. How tall is he? 5'7"? Well, they say he's 5'11", but they talk about him like he's an Oompa Loompa. Okay. So I think the truth lies somewhere in between. Okay, my D&D thing was... Speaker 1 (17:59) In Philly, it was just like go to Fishtown and then go to like Abington. It wasn't like that hard. For my school, like