Netflix’s Brews Brothers is raunchy, ridiculous, and right up the alley of folks who’d love to go out and have some beers right now, but given our current situation, are wise enough to stay home and live vicariously. The set-up is exceedingly simple. The show hails from brothers Greg Schaffer (That ’70s Show) and Jeff Schaffer (The League), and it’s loosely based upon their relationship. Alan Aisenberg steps up as the Greg-like character, Wilhelm, and Mike Castle picks up the Jeff-like character, Adam. They’re estranged, warring beer snobs — each insufferable in their own way — who are attempting to resurrect a struggling LA brewery. As one can imagine, the two very much step on each other’s nerves in the process but must learn to work together. In that way, it’s a very predictable show, but it’s surprisingly charming in the process.
Honestly, I could stop right there because that’s enough to sell the show to people who are predisposed to refreshingly breezy comedy that’s absolutely soaked in pee jokes, but that would be too easy. There’s an audience for that kind of series, no doubt, but there’s also added value here. The show manages to surreptitiously delve into human relations and emerge with a fair amount of insight without getting preachy in the process.
It’s a strangely endearing show, but oh my god, there’s so much pee. I should probably reflect a little bit on why Brews Brothers brings more than lewd and bawdy jokes to the table, and it’s useful to say that the sweetness isn’t forced. A lot of the jokes are disgusting and verge on going overboard. Buckets full of bodily functions go down in public. There’s a straight-up masturbation obsession (although it’s a claimed non-obsession), a character referred to as the “Picasso of Dildos,” and something called “Taking A Growler” that prompts an extended gag that won’t quit. Chances are decent that you’re not fully prepared for the shenanigans that go down in these eight episodes.
Well, I take that back. If you’ve been mainlining late 1970s comedy movies during these self-isolating times, you won’t be shocked by what transpires. Brews Brothers reminds me, in some ways, of films like National Lampoon’s Animal House, but there’s a key difference: a lack of sexism and homophobia. It’s remarkable, really, how this Netflix show manages to gleefully dive into raunchy waters without coming off as racist or sexist (given that a lot of that ’70s-’80s comedy did not age well), but somehow, the show pulls off that feat. And the real kicker is that the show doesn’t even exude a politically correct aura — it simply crafts its jokes about other subjects.
Mainly, the humor revolves around the Rodman brothers as caricatures of personalities. The other characters, as banal as their actions might be (including a sexed-up couple of food-truck operators who don’t do sanitation practices), bounce off the brothers and reflect the Rodmans’ faults. As a result, the stakes of truly offending people are relatively low here — making this a stress-free comedy — and every party on this show knows how to hold their own. That includes the right-hand woman of the brewery’s operations, Sarah. She’s portrayed by Carmen Flood in an admiringly punchy way.
As far as the brothers go, Mike Castle is appropriately slimy as Greg, who’s gone through the conventionally accepted schooling that one can expect from someone making a career as a braumeister. Castle’s so convincing that he might actually struggle to shake this role off in the future, whereas Aisenberg’s return to comedy feels refreshing. Folks will remember him (even with a beard) as Orange Is The New Black‘s naive CO, Baxter Bailey, whose fate became hopelessly intertwined with the tragic outcome for Poussey. That was a tough arc for viewers to stomach, but this is where Aisenberg can cast away the Bailey vibes. He’s having a blast, and so will viewers.
Is the show authentic about inner-brewery workings? Well, it was crafted with on-set experts around every day during production. Whether or not that aspect succeeds, I’ll leave the judgment up to the true cicerones out there. What I can say is that I appreciate beer but didn’t have to feel silly about a lack of in-depth beer knowledge under my belt. Further, the show’s vulgar and heartwarming while also knowing its place. It never pretends to be serious, which is a welcome approach at any time but especially these days. There’s already too much stress in this world, so why add to it, right?
If you want to watch some booze-loving monks (who doesn’t?) and a story where a key obstacle is how to recreate an IPA that a distributor loved without knowing that someone peed in it (why not?), then you’re probably gonna dig Brews Brothers.
Netflix’s ‘Brews Brothers’ beings streaming on April 10.
Make your food last SO much longer, cut down on your utility and clothing bills, *and* replace a bunch of disposable plastic.
“The bins are out tonight….jealous isn’t even the word, hope they all enjoy their night anyways”.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has told international students to “return to their home countries” but for many people on student visas it isn’t that easy.
HBO’s Run begins with a text to an ex and somersaults from there, landing somewhere between gleefully questionable judgment-land and a truly wild caper. Officially, the series is a romantic comedy thriller, but it’s also a reteaming of a creative-dynamic duo, Vicky Jones and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, after their Fleabag and Killing Eve successes. They co-executive produce (along with Kate Dennis), and the show pairs Domhnall Gleeson and Merritt Wever as two college exes (Billy and Ruby), who previously made a pact that it was alright to send a feeler text, and if the other responded, they’d drop their lives and meet at Grand Central Station and barrel across the U.S. together.
Sounds messy and complicated, right? Oh yes, very much so. Fortunately, Gleeson and Wever’s characters are complex creations as written by Jones, who has shown us on multiple occasions (including her work on Fleabag) that she adores crafting flawed characters. And speaking of women who enjoy embodying such flaws, Waller-Bridge features as a type of character that you’ve never seen her play before now. We spoke with Jones about this re-pairing of the minds, so to speak, along with the rambunctious ride taken by Billy and Ruby on their journey to unknown relationship frontiers.
A lot of people are going to start thinking about this show with this basic question: “Is it a good idea to text your ex?” So…. is it?
Oh, I mean…. [laughs]. It’s so interesting that the show goes back in time and explores revisiting people we remember and who knew each other well. I think there are questions to think about, like, “What if we’ve ended up with this person or that person, and where would I be now?” Or “are you more yourself with one person than another or a happier version of yourself?” And “can you revisit that?” And whether people are perfect for each other in an innate sense. We change over time, and who we found is context-in-time specific. So I don’t know, I’m interested in the question very much of, “Should we ever go back and knock on past doors, or should you just leave it and live in the moment?” Probably the last one.
This is no typical ex-texting, though. They kinda agreed to this, back in the day.
There’s a pact, yeah.
Do you know, in your mind, whose idea the pact was?
Ooh. I don’t know for sure, but future seasons might explore that. I suspected that it was the one who insisted upon breaking up. So it feels to me like it was something of a conciliatory gesture. Like, “Don’t worry, we just can’t be together now.” I feel like it was Ruby. She was the stronger one back then. She was the one who was doing so well, and flying in her studies, and so on. I think she felt like she didn’t need to be held down by a relationship, and I think that she lived to regret that very much. It probably came from her that they should separate with that pact, and for her heart and for her sanity, and that she needed to believe that.
Ruby has a great line: “Who does this?” I think a lot of people would want to do it but wouldn’t do it. Do you think people will have strong reactions to her actions?
Yeah, especially because of her home context, right? But I think that’s right. I think most people wouldn’t do that, and I feel like we do think about it, and we might feel guilty for thinking about it. That’s what drama’s for, to explore what happens to someone who does it. I don’t think she’s the sort of person who would do this either. She would never do this, and yet, she has, and I really wanted to investigate that. What happens to the people who would never do the extreme thing, and one day do, and what emotions does that create? And how does that affect their behavior, and how real can we make that feel? It’s kind-of a virtual reality, it’s an experiential watching experience.
We don’t want to spoil Ruby or Billy’s lives because you painstakingly unfold that as things go along. How difficult was it for you to put together those pieces? Like with Billy’s profession and how that factors into his decisions.
It took a really long time because we really wanted this to be complex, and the minute that you make a decision about them, there’s a judgment that comes with that. Before we find out that Billy’s being a life guru, he’s an idiot, and I really don’t want him to be [an idiot] at all. I think he isn’t in terms of the character that we’ve created, and Domhnall’s created, so beautiful. He’s an eloquent, thoughtful, emotional individual. He’s actually very good at talking to people about their lives, and he’s thought quite carefully, and he’s not mindless, but the act of him telling people how to think and how to be certainly can spiral. In finding the complexity in the character of Ruby, she has a life that is very domestic and good from the outside, but she’s incredibly unhappy and frustrated and has a huge inner life. It’s in finding the complexities as a woman, how she can love her home and yet walk away from it. And a man who can be very gregarious and be quite confident in his acts and other ways.
Mad Men‘s Rich Sommer does a bang-up job as Ruby’s husband, after playing a different type of husband on GLOW. How did he end up on this show?
Oh, we were so lucky. We couldn’t think of anyone else, and he wanted to do it, and it was one of those lovely parts of the casting project. Rich is just perfect, he’s so lovable at the same time that you can see that he might have an edge. You can see those connections as well. He’s wonderful, and we wanted it to be like, “Ruby, what you doing?” And at the same time, we didn’t want him to be an asshole because that would have made the whole thing more simple to judge and watch.
You can tell that he’s conflicted in so many layered ways, it’s unreal. Now when it comes to Phoebe’s character, god, that was funny. How did you decide what type of character she would play?
I think we both wanted her to play something that she actually hadn’t played before.
Well, you nailed that goal.
And this sort-of mysterious loner-in-the-woods character came about. This woman who has a very unexpected career but who’s also very grounded in other ways. You don’t really know what she wants at first. She’s quite interesting to watch because you’re not quite sure, and that unfolds in different ways, and Phoebe’s always open to collaborating.
With Fleabag, people talked about how it brought difficult or unlikable women to the forefront and dispensed with that issue. Do you feel like Run fits into that same theme with your writing?
Absolutely. I hope to explore that sense of writing characters who are flawed, and that’s more interesting to watch and understandable. I’ve talked a little bit before about writing about men and women in these situations, and how that blows up any biases you have and attitudes of misogyny and judgments about how a woman should and shouldn’t behave and what she should and shouldn’t say. And it’s very important to be conscious of that and to challenge that and have a female character who is incredibly flawed not only in actions but her behavior as well. You want the opportunity to create someone who is wild and complicated funny and flawed in all the best ways. And very human.
HBO’s ‘Run’ premieres on Sunday, April 12 at 10:30pm EST.
It’s not easy to interview Zach Braff and Donald Faison. It’s not their fault. They’re both very personable and funny and nice. The problem is that the two of them have been friends since Scrubs premiered in 2001 and they have the ability to play off of each other that only a 20-year friendship can create. I’m not entirely sure I needed to be on the call, which I say in the best and nicest way possible. Just hit record and let them run free.
It’s one of the many reasons their new Scrubs rewatch podcast — Fake Doctors, Real Friends, produced by iHeartRadio — is such a blast to listen to, even in its very early stages. There’s no forced chemistry. It’s just two good buds with a lot of history telling stories about a very good television show they made together. You could do much worse in a listening experience. Below, please find a lightly edited and condensed version of our conversation, which touches on everything from watching episodes they haven’t seen in over a decade, to recording in a bedroom closet, to Turk’s legendary performance of “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe. This was a fun one. Enjoy.
I just got done listening to the second episode and at the risk of asking you guys to give away primo podcast content in an interview, I was wondering if we could start with a quick summary of the time Donald gave Jeff Zucker a noogie.
Donald: Let’s get into it. What do you want to know?
Zach: Well, they have to tune into the podcast to get the full story. We’ll give you an abridged version.
Exactly. This is a teaser.
Donald: Let’s just say we were at the upfronts, which is where they hold a conference for all of the new television shows coming to certain networks. They usually hold it in New York and, this was not my first time around executives, but it was my first time meeting these executives. I had no knowledge because sometimes I don’t pay attention as much as I should to who the boss is. I thought Jeff Zucker [then the head of NBC, now the head of CNN] just so happened to be an assistant to a head executive who was just really nice to us. We were at a party, late-night, drinks had been had. Let’s just say I might have … I definitely noogied Jeff Zucker.
Zach: Yes. He gave noogies to the head of the network so hard and so uncomfortably that the head of the network could be heard saying, “Please, Donald, no.”
This has immediately become one of my favorite stories.
Zach: Ever since that noogie, his career took off. Maybe that noogie was good luck.
Donald: I was his Buddha. It was like a reverse Buddha.
Zach: Maybe those noogies we’ve been making fun of are actually magic.
Donald: They are magical.
Magic noogies.
Zach: I’m glad we’re making you laugh. We’re having so much fun doing it. To be honest, I never thought it would be so much fun. When the idea was presented to us, I thought, “Oh, that could be fun just reliving some of these things,” because we haven’t seen those episodes in 20 years. Just talking to Donald, we get on the phone together and hit record. Just telling some of those stories, reliving those memories has really been a lot of fun for us.
That’s one of the things I’ve enjoyed about the podcast. There’s a mix of actual episode analysis with these fun behind-the-scene stories that even the most die-hard fans of the show could never know. Do you guys go into each episode planning to balance it 50/50 or do you just hit record, roll with it, and see where it takes you?
Zach: So far as in the few we’ve done, we just hit record and we talk. When I’ve done DVD commentaries before, the movie’s playing at the same time. You can go on tangents a little bit, but then you’re really trying to go, okay, wait, we’re getting behind the movie. Whereas we don’t watch this live. We watch it beforehand and make notes on stuff we want to talk about. We don’t discuss it beforehand. It’s more of a surprise. Then, we just ramble, but use getting through the episode as a structure.
How has it been so far looking back at the episodes? I know you said you haven’t seen some in 20 years. It’s got to be fun but also really weird, right?
Donald: Well, yes. You don’t remember most of them. I remember the gist of the first episode because that was the jumping-off point. The second episode and then the third episode, I didn’t remember them that well. We made a mistake at one point and we thought that we were going to be doing a different episode because in our memory, our order went a different way. We got to episode three and it wasn’t the episode that we thought it was going to be. It was a wake-up call, like we don’t really know. I know we were in the show, but we don’t really know the show as much as we did back then.
Zach: For years, everyone, including Bill Lawrence, the creator of the show, we’ve all referenced 103 as a pivotal episode that set the tone for what Scrubs was going to be. We learned a few days ago that now that it’s 104 that we’re talking about.
Small detail.
Zach: I think it’s great in that way actually because we haven’t seen them and then we’re looking at them with new eyes. I mean, there are fans that reach out to us on social media that say, “Oh my God guys, I love the show, I’m on my sixth rewatch” or whatever. I’ve only seen those episodes once in my whole life. You know, I remember back in the day, we just watched them when they aired.
Donald: Listen, we made 180 of them. I probably remember maybe five. You know what I mean?
Of the episodes you remember or moments you remember, is there any specific thing from the show that you’re really excited about getting to, or nervous about getting to, or even dreading?
Donald: I remember the first Christmas episode we did. That’s when you discovered that Chris Turk is a very religious person. I’m looking forward to that one because I remember I did a preacher in a church with the choir behind me.
Zach: That was hilarious.
Donald: I’m really excited to see that because I vaguely remember what surrounded it. I remember that being a highlight because I always was a huge fan of Arsenio Hall in Coming to America where he played the reverend and Eddie Murphy played the singer. I had a great time doing that. I can’t wait to see that again.
Zach: We might remember a handful of classic jokes that stood out to us. I’m watching the episodes and I’m watching it like a new viewer. I was 25 years old or something. I’m looking at this young version of myself and then something funny happens, whether it’s related to me or somebody else. I just genuinely laugh. That’s what’s cool about it is looking back and going like, Oh my God, this, this still holds up. This is pretty funny.
It’s going to put you guys in a weird situation if you’re out with friends like, “You know what’s a really good show I’ve been watching lately? Scrubs.”
Zach: Everyone’s talking about what they’re binging and Donald and I have to embarrassingly say we’re binging our own show.
The timing of it is actually kind of perfect in a strange and morbid way because we have a pandemic going on and it’s really shining a light on hospitals and healthcare workers. I know Scrubs was a silly and fun show, but it wasn’t ever afraid to get a little heavy in places. When you guys get to those episodes, are you going to try to lean into that or are you going to try to just keep it lighter?
Donald: Oh, that’s interesting …
Zach: We’re about to find out because we’re going to record the first super dramatic one tomorrow. We have Sarah Chalke coming on for the episode we’re talking about, 104 (“My Old Lady,” the first time the doctors lose a patient), which was the first real dramatic episode. I think we will go there. I mean, we were planning on doing this before this pandemic. In fact, when the pandemic happened we thought, “Oh, how do we still do it?” Everyone was still trying to figure out. Donald and I were planning on going into a studio. We didn’t know that we could do it from home. Then, iHeartRadio sent us recording devices, microphones, and we were able to do it from our house. It’s actually working out because we can’t do anything, we can’t go anywhere, so at least we can be productive and hopefully make some people laugh by cranking out as many of these as we can.
What’s the recording situation look like at home? I mean, I work from home all the time and I know that can be chaotic as hell with the doorbell ringing and people making noise. Have you guys run into any problems with that so far?
Zach: Donald has the most amazing recording studio ever. Donald, tell him.
Donald: I hide in my closet.
What?
Donald: From my children and my wife. I found that for some reason no one wants to hang out in the closet, so I’ve been hiding in the closet for the past four weeks away from my kids, recording and doing interviews. That’s where I am right now. That’s how I keep the chaos out. The kids don’t come up to the closet for some reason. Maybe it’s spooky. I don’t know what it is, but I find myself getting away. Whenever I need to get away, I go to the closet.
Zach: Donald, admitted the other day that he sometimes tells his wife and kids that he has to do an interview or a podcast in the closet when he’s just in there having some quiet time.
Here’s a professional journalistic follow-up. What kind of closet are we talking here? Are we talking like a big, walk-in bedroom closet or are we talking like a little hallway pantry closet?
Donald: No, it’s not a hallway pantry closet. You can walk into it, but I’m not like Mike Lowery from Bad Boys where the closet has watches and a bunch of stuff like that. My wife and I share this bad boy, so most of it is her clothes.
You’re not in a recliner in your closet with a mini-fridge next to you?
Donald: No, it ain’t like Cher Horowitz’s closet. Dude, I wish I had that. I wish I could say my closet turns into a man den. No, it does not. It’s really good for sound and also the kids don’t come up here.
You said Sarah Chalke is going to be on an episode coming up. Are you planning on bringing in more guests throughout the run of the podcast?
Zach: Yes, that’s our idea. Our idea is to have cast members, crew members, and maybe some super fans. We take a caller every week and …
Donald: It would be nice to get fans of the show who are also in the industry come on. That would be cool. I have no problem running up to people and saying, “I really love your show, I’d love to do something with you guys.” I wish that was the case for everyone because it would be great to have other actors and actresses who aren’t necessarily in Scrubs come on in, just to talk about their experiences and how it works.
What if you find out, like, Vin Diesel is a Scrubs super fan?
Donald: That would be so dope. It would be an honor to have Vin.
Zach: I think we’ll have people that were guest stars on the show. Hopefully, they’ll say yes to coming on. Brendan Fraser, I’m hoping he will come on. Scott Foley and people that did guest spots, I think that would be fun.
Okay, this is the part of the interview where I’m going to ask questions about the scene where Turk dances to “Poison.”
Zach: It’s been such a hit, that dance.
First question: Was this a “Donald is very good at dancing, let’s give him a dancing showcase” thing? Or was this a “they wrote this without any knowledge and then said ‘holy shit, Donald can really dance’” thing?
Donald: The way I remember it is it was supposed to be a lip-sync battle. You guys have never seen the uncut version. Rob [Maschio, who played The Todd] does like a one-minute version of “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend” and they cut it for time. It wasn’t necessarily the dancing that was important. It was the lip-syncing that was important. I was late that day and I remember they were like, “All right, Donald, let’s go,” and I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.
Zach: He was supposed to have prepared a dance. It was in the script, but he never got around to that.
Donald: Right.
Zach: What you see, what’s become so famous, and what is a Fortnite celebration dance, is something Donald just improvised on the spot.
Did you even know the song was going to be “Poison” at that point?
Donald: Yes. That’s probably why I didn’t prepare because I was like, “That’s ‘Poison,’ Bell Biv Devoe. I’ve been dancing to this song since I was 18 years old, since ’92 when it came out. I’m sure I could figure something out.” That’s what you saw.
If you were at a wedding and the DJ played “Poison” and everyone looked at you, do you still think you could do that dance beat-for-beat like you did in the episode?
Donald: No, I wouldn’t do that dance again, ever.
Zach: No, but he’s asking. Could you remember beat-for-beat what you did?
Donald: No, not at all. My kids asked me the other night for TikTok. I even tried to do it.
Zach: That’s such a good idea. You should do that.
Donald: I don’t remember how I did it, dude.
Zach: I’m sure you can learn it, come on. The people need to see it.
Donald: I was very athletic back then.
Okay, last question: Zach… same question, I guess. Do you think you could do that dance at a wedding if the song came on?
Zach: I can’t dance like that. I wish I could. I literally have been watching a couple that dances on Instagram. They’re so adorable together and it makes me just wish that someone had taught me how to dance. I can do sort of the white man’s overbite at a wedding kind of dancing, but I can’t do a fraction of what Donald can do and I’m jealous.
I think everyone is.
Donald: No.
Zach: But, yes.
You can subscribe to Zach and Donald’s ‘Scrubs’ podcast via Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms.
The Chicago Bulls decided to use the NBA’s hiatus to make some major organizational changes, finally choosing to move on from the long time combo of Gar Forman and John Paxson as the franchise’s top decision makers.
There were various names that popped up in their interview process, including the likes of Danny Ferry and Bryan Colangelo, but Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas was considered the front runner for much of this week after his first interview. Karnisovas reportedly interviewed again with Michael and Jerry Reinsdorf on Wednesday, and according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski the Bulls are moving forward with making his hire into their executive vice president of basketball operations role.
The Chicago Bulls are finalizing a deal with Denver Nuggets GM Arturas Karnisovas to become the franchise’s new Executive VP of Basketball Operations, sources tell ESPN. Karnisovas will be tasked with hiring a new GM and reshaping the front office.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 9, 2020
Karnisovas has been with the Nuggets since 2013 when he was made their assistant GM before being elevated to general manager in 2017, but still answering to president of basketball operations Tim Connelly. He has long been regarded as one of the league’s top rising executives, formerly being a candidate for GM jobs in Brooklyn and Milwaukee, and now gets the chance to run a basketball operations unit himself. As Woj notes, his first task will be hiring a new general manager and then, one figures, they will have a decision to make regarding the future of coach Jim Boylen.
He joins the Bulls at an interesting time as they are early in a rebuild, but have some core pieces already in place (at least in theory) with Zach LaVine as their top star. There will be plenty of roster decisions to make going forward, including whether he believes in LaVine as a franchise cornerstone. The hiatus will allow him additional time to familiarize himself with the roster and dive deep into film to begin assessing where he feels the roster stands, but until facilities re-open, it will have to be a remote task of getting to know his new team.