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My background has become the star of my Zoom calls, pushing me to the margins as people ogle the action figures, statues, and full-size muppet that I’ve collected over the years. And I’m a little jealous. But short of reorganizing my office, my only move is to try and go with a fake background. Which I did with my call with Billy Crudup to discuss season two of The Morning Show, which launches its second season on September 17 on Apple TV+. But damned if that muppet didn’t decide to evade the tech magic and poke through, eerily hovering over me like a specter. Something that did not go unnoticed. Speaking of things going unnoticed, as I effortlessly glide back to the topic at hand, Billy Crudup in The Morning Show.

As Cory Ellison, Crudup has found a home, playing a quirky disruptor, sneak, and scamp running through the halls of power with scissors in his hand. In a way, Cory has served as an avatar for a segment of the audience that loves chaos and has an aversion for rules and entrenched power, particularly at a time when those things were trying to shelter toxicity while claiming a recommitment to purity following revelations of sexual misconduct around one of its star anchors. But in season 2, there’s an element to Cory that shifts as he gains even more power and works to keep everything together. We spoke about that, what it feels like to keep people off balance, the evolution (and psyche) of Cory, and why the character had to be someone that had never lost before.

Hey Billy, how are you doing?

Good. Is that Gonzo in the back?

Yeah, he’s apparently poking through and hovering over my head. Sorry about that, I was trying to pull off a tropical aesthetic.

[Laughs] Well you’re in the tropics. You’re just being haunted by a Muppet.

You know what? Let’s start there. In the first episode, you’re kind of the Kermit of the group getting the band back together and everything. What was that like because it feels like a little bit of a change?

There’s no question that Cory has been emboldened by his success. Even if it came at a price that he’s not quite ready to admit. And the enthusiasm that he has for the success of any of his endeavors is impossible for him to keep to himself. So I think he really revels in the first episode at the potential… or the first couple of episodes of fulfilling the promises that he made and ensuring that the people who work under him gain the privileges that come with the power that they have worked so steadfastly for and deserve.

Just like Kermit.

Just like Kermit! But unlike Kermit, Cory isn’t humble about it.

That’s true. That’s very true. Is he an idealist at this point?

That’s a really interesting question. And I’ve never considered him from the vantage point of cynicism or idealism or realism, I guess in no small part because he seems a bit scientific in his analysis of human behavior. So there’s something about somebody who’s an empiricist that removes them from the spectrum of a prognosticator. “So I’m going to be hopeful about this because I know the way the world works, everything always goes to shit” or “I’m going to be idealist because everything may go to shit, but what’s wrong with being hopeful?” Both of those are points of view about trying to be predictive about the future. And I think what Cory is really highly specialized in is understanding the algorithm of the present, what it takes to get through today in a way that will lead him to a better tomorrow. And he can do sort of long division math on that. Or he can do a short addition. All of which he knows how to plug into any given circumstance.

I guess if you were to give him a point of view, that’s an idealistic point of view because it means that you can tolerate and navigate the world as it comes to you. And that’s not the way that everybody responds to the world. Certainly not the way that I respond to the world. I’m intimidated by everything! But there is a kind of boyish quality and curiosity that I think could be mistaken for idealism, when in fact, I think it’s probably arrogance.

You say in life you’re intimidated. Is his analytical nature a trait that you admire and wish you could apply to your own life?

Well, I certainly have an analytical nature. It’s just that he does it by an order of magnitude. My focus is very narrow and very shortsighted, whereas his is extremely broad, present, long-sided, and capable of managing the past, present, and future all at once. So yeah, I do! I am analytical about things and I do appreciate evidence and I do have a strain of trusting empirical data. That being said, I’m an actor, what the hell do I know? My degrees are in acting and stuff like that. So I can’t attest to any great data-crunching talents.

There’s a quality to him where he’s sort of in the audience with every interaction, where it kind of happens in front of him and his reactions — inappropriate laughter at times, or just kind of cutting to the quick with people… I have a sliver of that myself. So I really appreciate it. Is that awkward to play in a scene, though? When you’ve got to really just disarm someone or take them off rhythm?

It’s totally thrilling because I know based upon the script that I’ve read, that I don’t have to deal with the awkward part of it because Cory doesn’t deal with it. So I’m only attending to the script by writing off my natural predilection, which would be to feel the pangs of social awkwardness any time calling somebody on something. But Cory doesn’t have to worry about that. So I take my time as a person to revel in having that experience of living, because I’ll tell you, it’s fucking fun! To have that level of social acumen. Ultimately, I think the thing that is a saving grace for me about Cory is he believes in people actually, and he doesn’t believe that he has to take care of people. He believes it’s within everybody’s power to manage their own situations. So if something deeply uncomfortable happens and he gets an opportunity to observe it in a way that brings maybe some satisfaction or entertainment to the community at large, he’s just not the type of person who’s going to take time and linger upon his responsibility for somebody else’s feelings.

In terms of when the show started, when you first looked at the script to where it is now, I’m curious how much influence you’ve had on any changes from the character. And just in general, how has the character changed from then to where you are now, like the end of season two?

Yeah, well, the first season was a complete exploration and creative collaboration and trying to understand who the hell he was. Who talks like that? Who can act like that? Who can manage these high octane situations with the kind of dexterity and ruthlessness and occasional charm and clumsiness? That was the first seven months of work. And having felt confident that we did the best job we could at describing that in the first season, what the writers cleverly did was put him in a completely new environment, which is when you’re somebody who is poking at the pillars of authority because you believe that they were built in such a way as to keep people out, you better know what to do when those pillars come crashing down and you’re all of a sudden in charge of that plot of land. And I don’t think Cory is totally prepared for that.

So what we see is a level of disorganization in his thinking that wasn’t really present before. I think he would be disinclined in the second season to revel that “chaos is the new cocaine.” I think he would really appreciate some moments of predictability. And furthermore, they introduce the potential that he actually cares about the show and the people who are involved in the show, which will always screw up your capitalist ambitions. So I think they’ve introduced some features to the circumstances that he navigates that has completely changed the way in which Cory manifests itself in me.

I read that the character initially was conceived as someone in their early thirties. I’m curious what you think the draw is for playing him as someone who is a little bit more experienced, a little bit more formidable to stand toe to toe with these titans.

Well, that was actually my argument to them at the beginning when I tried to pitch myself for it. You make Jen (Alex) and Reese (Bradley) and Tom (Fred) and everybody in that dynamic more powerful if you make Cory more powerful and then you can make him more powerful if you imagine that he already had success in another field. That in fact, the trajectory of his career is such that he can say, open up an advertising agency in a middle-market community, explode the entire thing, sell the rights to their management operations or whatever to a global empire, make millions of dollars, and then try and recreate themselves as a competitive person in what perhaps could be the thickest den of vipers: the entertainment industry, or much less, the news entertainment industry. I think he becomes incredibly formidable if he’s chosen to be in this field and manage these kinds of personalities. And that could only have come to a guy like me, if I had had experience winning. And what I told Kerry [Ehrin, the show’s producer and showrunner] was this is a guy who has never had a bad day at the office. Every single day has led to step-by-step success. So you can’t tell anybody who hasn’t experienced failure that they’re going to lose. They won’t understand what you’re talking about. So put them in a place where they have to go up against unmovable obstacles and it becomes entertaining.

How has your relationship with media and watching the news changed since you took the show on? Just curious if you’re paying more attention to it or if you’re staying more away from it.

Well, I think the show and the way the news has evolved is happening concurrently. So I’m not sure I could tell you if it was because of the show or because of the way that we’re all trying to understand the difference between news and journalism that has slowly but surely over the last 40 years altered our perception of the truth and how we get at the truth. But I think the show itself and me as a citizen are becoming hypervigilant about understanding all of those mechanisms.

Season 2 of ‘The Morning Show’ premieres September 17 on Apple TV+

Earl Sweatshirt hasn’t dropped a new album since 2018’s Some Rap Songs but that may soon change according to his frequent collaborator The Alchemist. The producer told Anthony Fantano’s The Needle Drop that an album he and Earl have been working on was recently completed and sounds “incredible.”

“He has an album that is done and it’s incredible,” Alc reveals. “I’m excited about that and I do have some work on that… It’s insane. I think everybody will be happy. He’s in his bag.” When asked whether he had any additional details about the project, he said, “I couldn’t even describe it… that would be a disservice to it.”

Fans have no shortage of collaborative work between the producer and the rapper to judge by. Going back to last year, the duo has worked together extensively on tracks including “Whole World” with Maxo, “Nobles” with Navy Blue, and even an entire secret album hidden on YouTube under a fake name.

Whether or not this new album is the one Vince Staples recently hinted at working on with the duo remains to be seen, although The Alchemist did say, as he does in the interview above, that he’s waiting on Earl.

Watch The Alchemist’s full interview with Anthony Fantano above.

Earl Sweatshirt is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ted Lasso is in the home stretch of its second season, as we’re just a few episodes away from the Apple TV+ series’ season finale in October. Ahead of that, though, the score/soundtrack for the season has been shared. It’s mostly compositions from the show’s composers, Marcus Mumford (of Mumford & Sons) and Tom Howe, but kicking off the album is a new version of the theme song, as performed by Jeff Tweedy.

Unsurprisingly given the tone of his recent output, the Wilco leader takes a more reserved approach on his rendition, utilizing hushed vocals and finger-picked guitar for an intimate version of the track.

The soundtrack is only available on Apple Music at the moment. The first season’s soundtrack album found its way to other streaming platforms, though, so perhaps there’s a window of Apple Music exclusivity before the album is made more widely available.

The past few months have been great for fans of the ultra-specific niche of TV-related Jeff Tweedy songs: The Awesome Album, an album released by the fictitious (although not really anymore, I suppose) Parks And Recreation band Mouse Rat, features a couple songs from Tweedy, who made cameos in the show as local Pawnee music hero Scott Tanner.

Stream Tweedy’s cover and the rest of the new Ted Lasso soundtrack above.

While stopping by Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast (perpetual guest Mike Lindell must’ve been busy), Marjorie Taylor Greene advocated for a full government shutdown to stop the Democrats $3.5 billion reconciliation bill that’s fast approaching. Notably, this is not the current position of Republican leadership in the House, but Greene has never been one to shy away from bucking her own party. Mostly because she has very little idea how anything works as evidenced by her nonsensical rant on Bannon’s War Room podcast.

“I’ll tell you what I have to say, Steve: Shut it down! Shut the government down — who cares?” Greene said before boldly claiming that the American people don’t need the government to fix the nation’s infrastructure. They’ll build their own roads — at home? Via Raw Story:

She then said that Americans shouldn’t trust the government to rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges and implied that this could somehow be done instead by private citizens.

“Guess what — the American people can get it done at home without the government!” she said. “I say, put up a fight, shut it down! We shouldn’t be spending this!”

The rant was yet another of Greene’s bright ideas like her recent gun raffle for unvaccinated Americans. That’s right, if you don’t get a life-saving shot to stop the spread of a deadly disease, you can enter into a drawing for a free assault rifle courtesy of Marjorie Taylor Greene. And you’re going to need it in her bold, new future where everyday Americans whip up new roads in their kitchens, or something.

(Via Raw Story)

Logan Roy is ready to go “f*cking beast” mode.

HBO has released the full-length trailer for Succession season 3, which premieres on October 17. There’s a lot to process, beginning with Tom suggesting that Greg eat a cyanide pill, only to call him a “doofus” for not realizing it’s a mint. Succession has some of the most creative insults in the game (“You look like a dildo dipped in beard trimmings”), but a simple “doofus” works best sometimes. Other trailer highlights include our first look at new cast members Alexander Skarsgård and Adrien Brody, who accurately calls the Roys “next level” f*cked up”; Shiv hitting Roman in the neck; and Logan slamming his phone on the ground. Also, everything’s coming up Logan! The Pope followed him on Twitter. Unless… yeah, no, never mind. Not the actual pope.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Ambushed by his rebellious son Kendall at the end of season two, Logan Roy begins season three in a perilous position, scrambling to secure familial, political, and financial alliances. Tensions rise as a bitter corporate battle threatens to turn into a family civil war.

You can watch the trailer above. Succession isn’t up for any Emmys this Sunday (damn you, COVID), but it won Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor In a Drama Series for Jeremy Strong, and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for creator Jesse Armstrong, among other well-deserved awards, at the 2020 ceremony.

Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season was pretty wild, capped by an insane, back-and-forth contest on Monday Night Football. In the handicapping space, underdogs were gold with a 12-4 record against the spread and, given the overall ethos of this particular column, that paved the way to overall success. It is always nice to get off to a nice start at 4-1 but, as is the beauty of the NFL, the schedule keeps rolling and Week 2 is here in earnest.

Before we get to this week’s five-pack of picks, let’s take stock.

• Last Week: 4-1
• 2021 Season: 4-1

Come get these winners.

Jacksonville Jaguars (+6) over Denver Broncos

Apparently we’re just going to be gross right out of the gate this week. By no means do I believe in the Jags. In fact, I might’ve been higher on the Broncos than the consensus coming into the season. This is a class perception spot, though, as the Broncos rolled in Week 1 and the Jags looked ghastly. As such, the lookahead line of three is now up to six. Six is too many for the Jags at home here. Hold your nose.

Indianapolis Colts (+3.5) over Los Angeles Rams

This is another ugly spot where we’re looking to buy low and sell high. The Colts didn’t exactly light the world on fire a week ago, and the Rams breezed in a primetime, standalone game. That gives us a line that moved through the key number of three, and I’m buying the extra bit of value on the home underdog.

Philadelphia Eagles (+3) over San Francisco 49ers

I’m kicking myself on the timing here, as this number was 3.5 or even 4 just a few hours/days ago. Alas, the current number will have to do, and I still think it’s the value side. There is sharp money all over Philadelphia, and there was a lot to like in the modern approach the Eagles deployed under a new staff last week. Combine that with some volatility in San Francisco’s skill position groups and an early kick on the East Coast… sign me up.

Carolina Panthers (+3.5) over New Orleans Saints

New Orleans should still be pretty good, but I’m betting that Week 1 won’t be representative of their true performance level. This is also a division game and Carolina is catching a bit of extra value at home after the way the Saints drubbed the Packers. It’s not my favorite play of the week, but it’s the only side.

Atlanta Falcons (+13) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Our first double-digit dog of the season! Nobody wants to play the Falcons this week. They were horrible in Week 1 while the Bucs haven’t lost a football game in almost a calendar year. The thing is that this line was eight a week ago. Yes, it moved five points. Atlanta might actually be this bad, but they’re going to have to prove it to me.

Can Sarah Palin change her mind, and can she do so for attention on an inexplicably popular Fox News “comedy” show? You betcha.

The last notable Palin pandemic update arrived back in March, when the former VP candidate declared herself to be pro-mask and pro-vax while warning people that “anyone can catch this.” Well, Palin decided to sing a different tune as a Gutfeld! guest with Dr. Drew Pinsky nodding alongside her.

The subject came up with Palin described herself as a “white, common sense conservative.” She added, “I believe in the science and I have not taken the shot,” and she somehow decided to cite Anthony Fauci to support her train of thought. “The Fauci-ism of the day, back then, was if you’ve had Covid (I’ve had Covid) well then mother nature was creating an immunity.” Palin added, “And even today they say you’re 27 percent more immune…” At that point, Dr. Drew backed her up: “27 times.” Palin felt even better about her stance, declaring, “So I want to ask the questions.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Fauci recently declared, “[I]t still is the policy that if you’ve been infected and recovered, that you should get vaccinated.”

No one will probably be able to convince Palin (who is likely pandering to an intended audience at this point) that the doing-my-research claim isn’t working out so well among the unvaccinated. So the dark humor began, including a resurrection of the the (misattributed-yet-believable) “I can see Russia from my house” joke from years back.

Others were convinced that Palin is lying, given that Fox News is reported to have a mandate about vaccination, although it’s unclear if those requirements apply to guests.

And cue the horse-medicine jokes as well. What a time we are living in.

After a months-long gestation and a slew of mild controversies, Lil Nas X’s debut album Montero has finally arrived. The album turned out to be a star-studded affair, with appearances from major names like Doja Cat, Elton John, Megan Thee Stallion, and Miley Cyrus. However, one pair of prominent names were missing from the final tracklist, although according to Nas, it wasn’t from lack of effort on his part. During the triumphant young artist’s recent interview with New York’s The Breakfast Club, he revealed which stars were missing and explained their absences.

He explained that despite reaching out to both Drake and Nicki Minaj, he was unable to secure their features. “No reply from Nicki, Drake was still working on [Certified Lover Boy].” Nas accounted for Drake’s rejection by pointing out how busy he was on his own album. “Drake replied, ’cause you know Gee Roberson’s my manager,” he said. “Drake and Gee are cool. And he was still working on Certified Lover Boy and whatnot and he was 100 percent focused on that. This was like a few weeks ago and I understood completely, and he said he’s down to do something but [it was] just not the right time. He was trying to get his own sh*t together.”

When asked which song he wanted Drake on, Nas’ answer, “Dolla Sign Slime,” prompted some light roasting from Charlamagne, who wondered, “‘Slime’ is gang slang. Is Nas in a gang? Is Nas banging?” Ever the diplomat, Nas replied simply, “Next question,” with a shy grin. The hosts took a minute to educate him on the slang’s origins after he explained how it’s meaning has expanded for Gen Z — it’s a pretty funny moment.

Watch Lil Nas X’s interview with The Breakfast Club above.

Montero is out now via Columbia Records. Get it here.

Following the still-shocking death of Norm Macdonald after a nine-year battle with cancer, his fans shared their favorite videos of the comedian on social media. I went with the “Chairman of the Bored” clip, but many people went with another iconic Conan moment: the Moth Joke. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself favor and watch it now. It’s so good and so long — and as Conan revealed on his podcast, so unexpected.

In a special episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend dedicated to Norm, Conan discussed the origin of the mythical Moth Joke. “I’m so happy that the Moth Joke is getting circulated so much from our The Tonight Show, because it is completely outrageous what he is doing,” he said (via Pajiba). “I love it just because even though I was there, I’m delighted every time I see it because what he’s doing breaks every rule. ‘Brevity is the soul of the wit.’ That is the rule. And man, he completely, like Picasso, blew up the form. He goes and he tells this joke forever, and he finally gets to the punchline and you can see that everyone is delighted. He has broken every rule in the book.”

The original plan was for Norm to only appear in one segment, but “I always wanted more Norm. So he didn’t know we were going to ask him to do a second segment. He had nothing planned, absolutely nothing planned.” Podcast producer Frank Smiley added that when they went to break, Norm remembered an old joke Colin Quinn used to tell. “It was a 20-second joke,” he said. “And he asked [Conan], ‘How long is the segment?’ and he was hoping [Conan] would say ‘20 seconds.’ But [Conan] said seven minutes. So it became a seven-minute joke.” A legendary seven-minute joke.

Conan went on to praise Norm’s gutsy brilliance:

“This has to be understood: he’s doing this on the fly. His way to slow it down, that he came up with on the fly, is that he invents a Chekhov play with Russian names and there’s an ineffable sadness in life weighing on the character’s soul. I’ve never met anybody who would take that chance and make that chance, and I’ll ever meet anybody like him again.”

You can watch the clip above, and listen to the episode below.

(Via Pajiba)

The Morning Show debuted in 2019, a year that I don’t think that anyone would debate was a simpler time. Not that I’m suggesting that the subject matter of that first season reflected such simplicity. After all, that batch of episodes largely revolved around a Matt Lauer-esque sexual misconduct scandal and all of the fallout involved with replacing Steve Carell’s character, at least in an on-air capacity. It is, however, fair to say that the current global situation is terrible in a different, and all-encompassing context. And it’s not as though this show (which takes place in a world that closely matches our own) could choose to ignore it, like most other series (other than medical-soap operas or law enforcement-focused shows) could believably choose to do.

That’s a strange way to begin a review, and doubly so because it sounds like I’m daring to suggest that a character like Billy Crudup’s network executive (so slimy, yet so infuriatingly charismatic) could exist in our world and also be endearing as hell. Seriously though, Crudup is still the best part of this series, and Apple TV+’s most star-studded production can’t pretend to exist in a reality where Covid hasn’t intruded. Also, the manner in which the show handles it mirrors the way that I remember the virus beginning to edge into real life. That’s both good and, well, not so good.

Yep, watching this season of The Morning Show reminded me of precisely how I felt as the pandemic began to unfold. A little mention here, a little anxiety there, remember? My first conversation about Covid took place over dinner with one of my best friends in early January 2020. Cable news and morning-show coverage had begun, and I hadn’t wanted to pay much attention. At that point, it was a waiting game, and nothing could be done but wait to see if the whispers of impending doom were real. I recall chatting about how the virus sounded scary, sure. Yet it felt like a distant threat, and news reports suggested that the virus wasn’t terribly hardy in terms of its ability to survive outside the body. We (like most people) thought that things would blow over, and fast. Particularly because I’m the kind of person who baselessly worries about everything (including slightly imperfect tire pressure), I forced myself not to freak out. Survival, man.

Slowly and incrementally, it became apparent that the best-case scenario for this virus wasn’t happening. (Fast forward 21 months, and I have only seen that same friend in person on rare occasions, whereas we used to see each other almost every day.) As far as the early days of the pandemic go, that’s pretty much the kind of way that The Morning Show acknowledges it, other than a heavier treatment later in the season. With that dramatic treatment, I mildly cringed when it began, but it eventually worked, too. Let’s just say that someone else (and no clues will come from the below image) in the cast wanted an Emmy for next year.

More to the point, I’m here to tell you that if you dug The Morning Show (or even thought it was simply digestible entertainment), then don’t shy away from Season 2 simply because it incorporates our current, terrible timeline. Instead, you’ll see an overstuffed season on other issues that also includes the slow realization — beginning with an anchor determining that only “one minute” of an entire morning of programming should be devoted to the virus that would eventually take over the world — that Covid is a force that will alter life as we know it. There are other touches, too, including the surreal moment when Tom Hanks (who’s not onscreen) became the first celebrity to publicly acknowledge infection. As silly as it sounds when I type it, we’ll likely all remember where we were when we found out Hanx tested positive. And that’s not a moment that The Morning Show could pass up, for better or worse.

For most of the season, that feat happens by storytelling sleight of hand, so the show continues focusing upon characters that we can readily imagine seeing on our screens every day, and the backup players who support them. Hasan Minhaj will show everyone how much they’ve missed him on TV. Julianna Margulies plays a character with mysterious motives, although she seems like a positive force. And Greta Lee (the Russian Doll actress who oozed a “sweet birthday babeeeeee” many, many times) is onboard as a character who, yes, endures publicly slung racial slurs weathered by Asian characters by right-wing conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile, Martin Short’s still around in the skeeviest role, and cameos pop up here and there, including a Foo Fighters appearance that might remind you of how they closed The Late Show With David Letterman out a handful of years ago.

All of this is to say the following: there’s a lot more to Season 2 of The Morning Show than mere Covid coverage. Actually, it’s a very small part of the season, although yup, one should expect more as the season wears forth. What else do you need to know if you’re new to the show? This was one of a few original series to launch Apple TV+, which now boasts stunningly watchable selections including All For Mankind, Ted Lasso, and Mythic Quest, all of which are better than The Morning Show, but this series isn’t too shabby, and it’s full of familiar-feeling characters, who are all now navigating an awful specter in a way that feels, you know, comforting. And we can understand why Jennifer Aniston’s Alex has had it with Slimy Crudup, and why Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley is still hanging on, and why these women are unable to deny their begrudging mutual respect. Also, Steve Carell’s character’s still reckoning with exile, and Mark Duplass maintains a steady and oddly stabilizing presence as chaos begins to unfold.

The Morning Show, ultimately, remains an easily digestible series full of characters who are all vying for more airtime and they’re clawing at each other on their way to stay at the top. Things will get intense again with issues like systemic racism while, more superficially, barbs are thrown, both on-and-off camera. This is not the highest of art forms when it comes to storytelling, but this show deserves credit for successfully embedding tough issues amid soap-operatic storylines, and everything goes down smoothly. No one who wants to be entertained also wants a dose of Covid in their stories, yet somehow, The Morning Show (mostly) pulls it off.

Apple TV+’s ‘The Morning Show’ returns on September 17.