Having Cord Jefferson on was such a full circle moment for both of us & we had an amazing conversation. Here Cord talks about the book "Erasure," the parallels between his own life & the main character 'Monk' & how that informed the script for "American Fiction."
Tony Dalton, who plays Lalo Salamanca on ‘Better Call Saul,’ joins Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald to discuss what it was like to shoot some pivotal scenes from the final two episodes of Season 5.
“When someone says they’re not here to discuss the past, it’s a sign that their past is pretty interesting. That was true of Mark McGwire, and it’s true of Ahsoka Tano too.”
Ben Lindbergh, recapping Ahsoka S01E04 "Fallen Jedi" for The Ringer
Johnny Knoxville plays Steve, a man who pretends to be mentally challenged in order to enter and win the special olympics...
Katherine Heigl and Brian Cox co-star.
Pretty unbelievable film. Some of the jokes are so whack, although the occasional line was amusing: when the fuck did we get ice cream? The romance storyline is surreal but somewhat entertaining.
Institutional racism & its deep effect on mental health in the black community
Journalist Antonia Hylton & I talk about the history of institutional racism and the twisted way black people's health and well-being was, and to some degree still is, deeply impacted by those views.
This is just a dump from the ringer recap, because if someone can say it better than you, don’t bother!
“The view of the show is that anyone who does this with their lives is profoundly broken.”.
Roman
"Maybe Roman pre-grieved the real person, but the legend, the whisper, the wish, the version of a dad that always existed inside of his mind, maybe if he did one thing right or if he just ran oppo for the republican party just one extra time that he would get. That version still exists very much still fully alive inside of Roman and that’s sad”.
“In a different life, Roman would maybe be a nice person. If he hadn’t been locked in a dog cage”
Misogyny and feminism
“The show exists in a savagely patriarchal world. Gerri is the only other lead female character with gravitas. And remember what happens with Roman. She was gonna get pushed out and lose her job. This show has women pushed off cruise ships. If there’s any light of hope, it will come through the crack of Shiv's pregnancy and the urgency of her situation”.
Andy Greenwald always hitting me in my shapeless feels, dragging them up from the depth of my consciousness and pinning them on my bleeding heart.
Adam Nayman is an excellent writer but I usually don’t agree with his film analysis. Finally, with Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw, I found a positive review of a great film and I can enjoy this superbly composed article.