Limited Series Panel Discussion | Variety Virtual FYC TV Fest: The Nominees 2024
Limited Series Panel Moderated by Michael Schneider featuring Lee Eisenberg - Executive Producer, Showrunner, Writer, "Lessons in Chemistry", Noah Hawley - Showrunner, Writer, Director and Executive Producer, "Fargo", Issa López - Showrunner, Writer, Director and Executive Producer, "True Detective: Night Country"
Transcript
00:00Hello, everybody. Welcome to Variety's FYC Fest. The nominees! We're coming to you live
00:11from the Variety Studios here on the 405. We're literally on the 405, pretty much. But
00:17first off, we're going to kick off with a limited series. We've got a great day full
00:21of comedy, drama, reality, unscripted, a little bit of everything. And that's what limited
00:27kind of is all about. So I love to start off with limited in anthology. And we've got three
00:31of the best right here, three of the biggest shows of the season. So let's start over here
00:36all the way on the other side. He got the best chair in the house. Lee Eisenberg, the
00:41executive producer, showrunner, writer of Lessons in Chemistry. Lee, welcome.
00:46Next up, jetting in from who knows where. Maybe he's in Thailand, maybe he's in San
00:50Francisco. Right now you're in Los Angeles. Okay, Noah.
00:54Okay, that's good. And it's the middle of the night?
00:57It's pretty much, it feels like it could be any time. So he's showrunner, writer, director,
01:01executive producer of Fargo. Of course, season five just finished up. Noah Hawley.
01:05That's me.
01:07And finally, last but certainly not least, because this was a killer season of True Detective,
01:12Night Country, showrunner, writer, director, executive producer, Issa Lopez. Issa, welcome.
01:18Thank you. Thank you.
01:19So one of the things that's really interesting about this season of all your shows is you
01:24guys kind of ended on positive notes. There's, you know, obviously there's always strings
01:31hanging, there's always questions to still be asked, but it felt like everything kind
01:36of ended in a decent spot. Right, Issa? I mean, I will forever ask you, okay, is Navarro,
01:42like, is that her spirit or is she physical?
01:44I think at some point we're going to have to go for a mezcal and I will tell you the
01:48truth.
01:50What happened in the last case you worked with Navarro?
01:55That was good.
01:58Until it wasn't.
02:04It was too late. There was nothing we could do.
02:07I know what I wrote, in a way. I do believe that if you go back and watch the series,
02:13you will see all the moments where we're saying where she is at the end. But there is, you
02:20know, an openness and an intention of letting the audience decide what they want to happen
02:27to Navarro. It's for them to decide.
02:29Yeah. And I think it sounds like Kali Reese, who plays Navarro, has a very different interpretation
02:34than you even. So even on set, you guys had a different interpretation.
02:39With it. With it.
02:40But that's kind of the fun of it, right?
02:42I think that's why it reads so open, because there is one intention on camera and something
02:50not opposing what I said, but different is what Kali is doing there. So it creates this
02:58very textured final event for her, I think.
03:01Yeah. No, and even in my household, my wife and I argue on whether or not Navarro is still
03:06alive or not.
03:07But I love you anyway.
03:08Where is your wife?
03:09She believes that that's her spirit. And I was like, maybe it really is her. I don't
03:14know.
03:15I think the mezcal has to be with her, too.
03:17Okay.
03:18Good.
03:19Well, Noah, sad news for Lamorne Morris and Witt.
03:23Is it, though? He has an Emmy nomination. I think he's feeling pretty good right now.
03:27And by the way, he's like pimping a BMO bank right now. I see Lamorne's face on every street
03:32corner, on buses. So he seems to be doing okay. But Witt wasn't doing so well at the
03:37end.
03:38What did you do again, Mrs. Lyon?
03:40That wasn't me.
03:41First of all, I recognize you. You were kidnapped. And for the record, that's just reality.
03:48With all due respect, we've got our own reality.
03:52You can't... That's not a thing.
03:55You know, it's when you say something's a true story and you end with violence. You
04:02know, the truth is not every good guy wins and not every bad guy loses. And it put me
04:09in a position of having to make that choice. And I wrestled with it. And I didn't enjoy
04:14the choice. But in the end, it felt like the right choice. And it is a tragedy with a happy
04:20ending, Fargo, in my mind. And it needed that.
04:25Yeah. Even imagining what happens to Roy Tillman in that prison, it's probably not going to
04:31be pleasant.
04:33That's his tragedy, our comedy, right?
04:35Yeah, exactly. But in the end, in the final episode, in the final moments, when Ol Munch
04:40sort of comes to terms, you know, there's a debt to be paid, but there's also forgiveness.
04:46And there is that long scene in the end where they're making dinner and eventually he sort
04:51of finds that forgiveness. There's a little bit of humanity left.
04:54Yeah. I mean, look, I'm 10 years into this exploration of our great American experiment,
04:59right? And one thing that was really on my mind as I was writing this season and making
05:05it was, what comes next after this? Are we just going to Hatfield and McCoy this politics
05:13of polarization in America? Or are we going to have to find our way through it? And how
05:17might we do that? And, you know, there's no way through it other than to find some level
05:23of forgiveness. And, you know, I always love when, you know, when ideas can become a story
05:30in a way that you can just dramatize a thought. And certainly Sam Spruill, who played Ol Munch,
05:39he was up to the task of being forgiven. I'm always moved when I watch it.
05:45And how old was Ol Munch?
05:46He was about 5, 495 years old, 505, something like that.
05:50It's always like a little sprinkle of...
05:52You know, Issa and I, we're both magic realists at heart. So, yeah.
05:56Yeah. No, absolutely. And we got to say real quick, Juno Temple. I mean,
05:59not only does she kick ass this season, but in the end, she's a master negotiator.
06:03She is. She is. You know, I love when people can outsmart a problem. And I loved watching
06:11her outsmart everyone and continue to be positive in the face of overwhelming odds,
06:18which, you know, you spoke about when you talked about endings. I think we all in this
06:24country went through a sort of negative phase, and I think now we're trying to figure out how
06:27to turn it around. And, you know, I love that everyone's landing in a better place now than,
06:33you know, than we did maybe five years ago.
06:35I hope so. I hope so. But, Lee, you also end on a positive note for Elizabeth. I mean,
06:41talk a little bit about she sort of finds that career that she wanted to some degree.
06:47She quits the TV show. There's elements of some real positivity at the end. The freeway
06:54still come. There's no getting, as we can see right next to our studios.
06:59In life, discoveries usually lead to more questions. The only constant variable is
07:11the unexpected. We can't control it. It's only when you look backwards that you see
07:16how it was all connected. Let's begin, shall we?
07:19In the end, you also sort of end on a pretty positive and hopeful note.
07:24I hope so. I mean, you know, the show is really kind of an exploration of a life,
07:30and so she suffered so much loss and love and grief, and the characters filled with resilience.
07:37And it was kind of like, as we started talking about it, what do we want to leave the audience
07:44with? And this idea that Elizabeth, when she's at supper at six, she's kind of this,
07:51she's almost like a professor. She's the teacher that you fall in love with, that kind of sees
07:56the best in you. And kind of coupling that with the science, it felt like the most logical,
08:02for me, the logical journey for the character as we designed it would be for her to become
08:07a professor. So she's still kind of working. She's very quick to say to her students,
08:12I'm still working to get my PhD. But she's now in front of a kind of a rapt audience
08:17that's largely women, and she's kind of doing what she loves.
08:21Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely.
08:22And you all, and sorry, the other thing I'll say is you also see that,
08:25you see kind of the village that she's formed. She starts off the show and she's so closed off.
08:29And then through Calvin's loss, all these people kind of materialize in her life.
08:34And that's kind of surrounding with a family dinner. We'd seen so much in the earlier episodes
08:39of her cooking for one, sitting with this incredibly amazing dinner that would take
08:47hours and hours for our food stylist to make and have 15 cameras and setups on it. And then
08:52ultimately, she's just eating by herself. And then by the end, she's actually cooking a feast
08:56for everyone. And you see kind of Calvin in this final shot.
08:58Yeah, there's so much resilience to all these characters. They all suffer something,
09:02they suffer some loss or disappointment, but in the end, they've all come together.
09:08So that's important. Okay, I've got some props for you guys now. So I'm going to...
09:12Okay.
09:12I was waiting for that.
09:13I've got props and I'm going to give one to each of you and then we're going to talk about it. So
09:17first, Isa, that's for you. All right. That's for you. And Lee, that's for you. Okay. And then I
09:25want each of you to talk a little bit about this prop and what it means to you and your show. So
09:30Isa, show the fine folks at home.
09:32I have a SpongeBob SquarePants toothbrush.
09:38Now, explain to the people why that's so critical to True Detective Night Country.
09:44This is a very, very special, magical item because it embodies the humor and sexiness
09:53of a relationship that Navarro has with Kavik, who is the most amazing, I think, romantic partner,
10:03especially. She doesn't want to call him romantic and steals his toothbrush and never gives it back
10:11until the very end when she disappears. And he understands that she's gone for the time,
10:16at least, or into another plane. We don't know. So this is a symbol of the beginning
10:22and the end of that relationship. Yeah. It's such an emotional moment when he finally gets
10:26back his SpongeBob toothbrush. True. Yeah. It's hard to find those, by the way, so I technically
10:31had to make that. I was very impressed, and then I was like, oh, I see. But it's a good job.
10:36It's a little janky, but I tried my best. It's a really good job.
10:40I know. You've got something that's very homey. I've got some Bisquick. Now, you didn't buy the
10:47official Fargo box of Bisquick that they did make after season five. Did they? They did. I
10:52didn't see that on the shelves. They did, and it had a biscuit recipe on the back that they
10:57interpreted from the show. Did they really? Who'd they put on the cover? Did they put
11:01Old Munch on the cover? No, there's no characters from the show on the Bisquick box, but it does
11:07have a sort of Fargo motif, I guess you would say. And I think that the thing of living in the middle
11:15of the country and telling stories about the middle of the country is that the brands become
11:19part of the vernacular. They become part of the daily life, and what was fun for me was to create
11:27this symbol out of Bisquick, which starts just in dialogue as the silver dollar pancakes, and then
11:34when I shot that big convenience store gas station shootout, I was in there for four or five days,
11:42and coming in on day two, I thought, I need a moment that ties her emotionally to home,
11:48so I had them go out and get Bisquick boxes for the location, and we created that moment where
11:54she stops and looks at them. So I assumed after the season that I would get a Kia filled with
12:01Bisquick. I feel like you should have Bisquick for life. The Kia never arrived. So I guess now
12:08you move on to what's a competing brand for Bisquick? Oh, well, we got to get into Mrs.
12:14Butterworth or something complimentary. No, but it's very homey and very Midwest, so
12:21appreciate that. All right, so Lee, yeah, that's not the best lasagna in the world, but listen,
12:26I'm working on a limited budget, which is why I didn't buy the big box, by the way. I've got kids
12:32to feed, so. Well, I was going to say, it's so rare to get us a prop that was already in your
12:36rider, that wherever I go, they always bring this. How much lasagna now do you have to eat
12:42or do you eat? No, so lasagna is the first dish that we see Elizabeth making on Supper at Six,
12:49and we've kind of jumped back and forth in time, and I really wanted the first time that we
12:57actually see something come out of Supper at Six that the dish is burned, that you think she's made
13:01all this incredible food at home throughout the pilot, and then finally she's demonstrating for
13:07the audience. She opens the stove for the first time and smoke is coming out and she's burned the
13:12lasagna. And we don't know yet what's happened with her and Calvin, and it was an opportunity
13:17for her to kind of talk metaphorically using lasagna and burning lasagna and cooking to talk
13:25about allowing outside variables and that you can't control everything in life and that contaminants
13:30will come in and sometimes you burn the lasagna. Sometimes you burn the lasagna. Sometimes you burn
13:34the lasagna. And that was kind of elliptically how we ended the pilot. And then we started eating
13:42a ton of lasagna on set. Are you sick of lasagna now? Are you done with it? How can you be sick
13:46of lasagna? I mean, of all the things we could have chosen, I think we chose right. You chose
13:51pretty well. You can have that, by the way. That could be your lunch if you need lasagna for lunch.
13:55I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, the line then is, children, set the table. Your mother needs
13:59a moment for herself. So some great quotes throughout the season. Noah, one of my favorites
14:05is Lorraine to Roy Tillman, a baby, you're fighting for your right to be a baby. Yes.
14:12And she seduced him into that. You know, that was my Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance so often.
14:20It was just so precise and memorable. And that moment where she sizes him up and then she
14:26ropes him in, you know, and sets him up for this idea that that only one person, you know,
14:33on Earth gets freedom with no responsibility. And he says the president and she says a baby.
14:39And, you know, it's just in that moment he is reduced to what he really is. Yeah. Yeah. And
14:46Issa, I mean, a lot of great quotes again for you, too. One that stood out for me was when
14:51Peter Pryor, because I want to mention that character as well, talking to Liz Danvers,
14:55I thought you hated Navarro. She's like, I hate everyone. I hate you, especially especially right
15:00now. Yes. It's once you truly let those characters gel and they did very quickly.
15:10And when you're in the process of writing, writers will say, you know, when you let the
15:16characters speak and that many, many times is a fantasy and you really need to kick their asses
15:21to speed the lines. And it takes many, many drafts. And that was not the case with Danvers.
15:28Danvers was born like Venus out of the shell of my laptop and started spouting horrible shit
15:37immediately. Yeah. And it was joy to see. I'm sure Jodie Foster loved that, too. Oh, my God,
15:43because Jodie, as much of a classic as she is, she has an incredible sense of humor
15:49and she can be a really, really sharp shooter. And so she enjoyed it, took it, made it her own,
15:57added even more nastiness. It was a horror fest. I enjoyed to watch. I loved it. So when are we
16:04going to see the cutting room floor, like the stuff that we didn't get to see? We did make
16:09a little reel for the for the wrapping, so we should put it together. It was a blast.
16:13So I have a, speaking of Danvers, so I have a hot take, by the way. I do think there is some
16:18crossover potential between Lessons in Chemistry and True Detective. And you know why, right? So
16:25you know who Brie Larson plays on Captain Marvel, her character's name. Oh. Captain Marvel. She's
16:33Captain Danvers. Carol Danvers. That's right. Yeah, it's true. And they kind of look the same.
16:39They could be sisters. Yeah. I'm just saying. Let's talk to Apple and HBO. That feels like
16:44that'll work. That feels like that'll happen. No, absolutely. But I mean, Noah, you're still,
16:49you're the king of character names. Thank you. And this season, once again, I mean, we mentioned
16:54Whit Farr, Gator Tillman, old Munch we mentioned. Maybe my favorite, though, is Danish Graves for
16:59Dave Foley's character. Yes, a man or a serious breakfast. Yeah, yeah, you know that. And Dave
17:05Foley, just the performance was so great. And the eyepatch, which the white eyepatch was funnier
17:12than black. The eyepatch. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, the naming is fun. You know, hopefully it never
17:19becomes too distracting, but it also feels like it tells you what world you're in. Yeah, that's
17:27part of the Fargo. I mean, again, you have a show with a 500-year-old man. You can have some fun
17:31names. I can, I can. I did go on Chat GPT recently and say, give me 10 Fargo character names,
17:40and then it gave me some names, and I played around with it just to see, as we all are,
17:46you know, what the technology can do. They weren't as good. They weren't as good. Okay,
17:51that's good. I was about to say, you're getting dangerous there. No, no, they weren't as good.
17:57Get ready for season six of Fargo. Until it discovers absurdity, I think we're all safe.
18:03Yeah, yeah, for now, but soon. So I had that one piece of trivia, but now it is time on the show
18:09to see how well you know your stars. Okay. Okay. All right. So Isa, I'm going to start with you.
18:16We talked about Jodie Foster. So she received her first award for what movie?
18:21You know what? It was a Saturn Award. She told me that, and I don't know if it's what you have
18:26there. No, because first major award. Oh, well, it was an Oscar. It was an Oscar nomination. It
18:31was an Oscar for Taxi Driver, right? No, no, no. The first one was The Accused. The Accused in
18:391989. The nomination was for Taxi Driver. The Oscar was for The Accused. Okay, that was an easy
18:45one. That was an easy one. I'm going to give you a harder one real quick. So Callie Reese,
18:49we know she's a former world champion in two weight classes. Just name one of them.
18:56I always say Walter, but I think I don't have that right. Do I? You're almost there. Well,
19:03sort of. So it's WBC female middleweight champion in 2016, and then in 2020 through 2022,
19:10she was the IBO female light welterweight champion. Well, I had one word of the 23 you said
19:16right now, so I will say that's a win. Pretty good. I think that's a win. You get two points.
19:20Thank you. All right, so Noah. Yeah. What Disney character was Jon Hamm's first acting role in the
19:27first grade? I gave you plenty of hints there. Disney. Right. Yeah, because they have like six
19:32characters total, right? I'm gonna say Sleeping Beauty. That's a pretty good guess, but it is
19:41Winnie the Pooh. Okay. All right. I can see that. All right. Now we're gonna get a little harder
19:47here. Juno Temple has played two different real life people on Drunk History, only one of whom
19:52you've ever heard of. It's an icon from the 60s. Oh, okay. Let's see. Bella Abzug. Pretty good.
20:01Thank you. And Marilyn Monroe. Oh, all right. Well, different style choices. Pretty close.
20:06Pretty close. All right, Lee. All right. You're up. I'm ready. All right. So first up,
20:11Brie Larson began her acting career in a comedy sketch on what long-running TV show?
20:18Oh. A sketch? A sketch. That could... Yeah. Bad TV? Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Oh.
20:30And Aja Naomi King, her first TV gig in 2010 was on a TV show that is just about to end.
20:42These are real stumpers. You gotta brush up on your Wikipedia.
20:46Truly. I've never met any of these people before, so this is really useful. This is new.
20:50Just about to end. Grey's Anatomy? So that's not gonna end. That show is forever. Yeah.
20:56But another procedural, Blue Bloods on CBS. So you could ask her now questions about Tom Selleck,
21:02I guess. Right. Now I have an in. That's another crossover because they watch Blue Bloods on Fargo.
21:08See, all these shows can cross over. We're creating a cinematic universe. I love it.
21:13This is the limited anthology CU. I'm thinking that Elizabeth could be
21:18the mother of My Damn Verse, probably, because of that. Could be, right? Yeah.
21:25There you go. We're starting to break it already. I think there's somehow like a season two of
21:30Lessons in Chemistry, where it goes a whole different route, and we know there's gonna
21:35be more True Detective. Yeah. Yeah. That's all Isa's gonna tell us. I'm in the middle of the battle
21:45of taking... I wrote the outlines, and I'm writing the episodes right now. And it hurts. It always
21:55hurts. And then you get to the point where you actually enjoy it. That's for me. It's very
22:01painful every time. And when I start to enjoy it and to have fun with it, it's done. And then you
22:06turn it in, and you have to stop for a while before you get more notes. So when you get the
22:12next set of notes, you again hate it. So it's this Sisyphus horror forever. So you love being a
22:20writer. No, I love being a director. Okay. To tell you the truth. Yes. But there's a few
22:29writers that love the job, but I think it's really not rare to find writers that bleed and suffer
22:36through the process. I am definitely one of them. Yeah. No, I think all of you, I'm sure, can relate.
22:42There's that bleeding and suffering, but then in the end, it works out. Although Noah, he's looking
22:46at me, it's like, I do this in my sleep. I kind of like all of it. What they pay you for is
22:53managing up, really. It's the corporate relationship is where we earn our real money. But no,
23:00all the creative parts of it, I quite enjoy. Yeah. Speaking of that, I asked John Landgraf
23:04a couple of weeks ago, so when are we going to get more Fargo? And he's like,
23:07hey, I've got them doing Aliens right now. I know, he does. You've got priorities. He does.
23:12I can't complain. It's not bad to have multiple franchises at the network. It's not. I highly
23:18recommend it. So when are you going to find time for more Fargo? Like literally, you want to pull
23:24out a calendar and look at it? Are we looking at like 2026 now? I mean, look, if Alien succeeds
23:32and they want a second year of that, it's probably something like that. Yeah. But that
23:38doesn't mean I can't work on it myself before then so that I'm ready. And it's the only thing
23:45I've ever made that has a state of mind that goes with it. And it's this combination of elements
23:53from crime to tragedy to absurdity to philosophy that you put them all in a bag and shake. You
24:02never get the same thing twice. Yeah. And that's what's fun in coming back. And you waited a while
24:08for season five too. I did. I mean, it tends to be 18 months, two years, three years, whatever.
24:15You will make it when it's ready. And I really appreciate that FX has never pressured me
24:20to say, let's get back in that pipeline. It's always idea driven. Can't wait too long, though.
24:25There may not be snow in Calgary much longer. It's true. It's true. It just got dark. Yeah. I
24:31mean, I still want to do Fargo, Tuscany. I think that would be a lovely way to spend a winter,
24:37don't you? Fargo, Aliens in Thailand, maybe somehow combine the two. Yeah. So obviously,
24:45Lessons in Chemistry is based on a book, but there's always possibilities of continuing or
24:50doing different things. Or do you see, would there be an opportunity to revisit that franchise? Or I
24:56know you're a busy guy and you've got so many other things going on. When we finished it,
25:00we kicked it around a little bit. And ultimately, we got to the end of the book. It felt like where
25:04we wanted to end it. And until an idea presents itself that feels better than where we left it,
25:12I think we're moving on to other projects. Meanwhile, what are you working on right now?
25:16Right now? Yeah. I have a few things in development at Apple, nothing shooting,
25:20and just a lot of sitting around kind of staring at a wall. All right. So they say,
25:26don't read the reviews. Do you guys read your reviews? Do you read the Twitter posts,
25:31the Reddit threads? You do. Are you a masochist? Or what are you doing, Isa?
25:38I learned a bunch of lessons. I did read the reviews. They were really, really lovely.
25:43The vast majority of them. And Twitter was, I was very active on Twitter before this came out. And
25:51this changed my relationship. It was also coming to an end with Elon Musk, I will say. So it was
25:57the right time to leave. But the truth is, it was hard to just disconnect because there was
26:06a massive outpour of love that was coming at the same time than masses of hate for me. And
26:13a lot of the hate, some of the hate was based on people didn't dig the series, that's fine.
26:18But that was outnumbered by the love I was receiving. But the other part of it was
26:25people that were very mad that such an eminently male piece of philosophy was taken and turned into
26:37something that was female and that was populated by main characters of color, and that talked about
26:45climate change and many, many things that they didn't want to see in their favorite show. So
26:50they were extremely angry and extremely aggressive. And it was a shock to the system,
26:58you know. And I left Twitter. Yeah, yeah. Smart, smart. Don't tell them who the next president's
27:03going to be. So Noah, how about you? What's been your relationship over the years with
27:09social media and reviews? I mean, I got off of social media in 2016. I don't really go on there
27:18anymore. You know, I tend not to read reviews. I like a sense of, you know, how people are
27:26responding positively or negatively. But I don't find that it helps me necessarily. And I do
27:34remember season four of Fargo having these conversations with John Landgraf, who said,
27:39oh, you really need to read Alan Sepinwall because he's engaging with your show in a really
27:44interesting way. And so, you know, I read a lot of the things that Alan had to say, and I like
27:49Alan very much. And, you know, I just came away thinking, well, that's a different show. Like,
27:55I didn't make that show. He's sort of engaging on what the show could have been or what I wish,
28:01you know. And so it's the same thing with notes. You know, I often get a note and I think, well,
28:05that's just a different way of doing it. That's not the way I'm doing it. And, you know, maybe
28:11it's a great way also. But, you know, the reviews are only helpful if, you know, like a note when
28:18they say something's confusing or they know what I was going for, but they don't think I achieved
28:24it. I mean, that can be constructive feedback. But otherwise, it's just, you know, everybody has
28:29an opinion. Yeah. Yes, they do. Yes, they do. And there's not enough time in the day to pay
28:35attention to all of that. I mean, Lee, you're dealing with a book. So there are fans of the
28:40book who expect one thing. And I'm sure there's that interesting sort of dialogue in what their
28:46expectations are and sort of what your vision is for the show. What did you find or did you
28:51like sort of see how people were reacting and how they also had embraced the book?
28:57Yeah, I mean, the book, I mean, was beloved and I was terrified mainly of the of kind of the book
29:02fans that they were going to respond negatively. So book fans, man, don't mess with book fans.
29:09And no, I mean, the response for the show has been incredible. And I would say the most gratifying is
29:15the fact that people who love the book, I think people realize that they could love the book.
29:19And even though we made changes to the show, that both could exist and people could enjoy both. And
29:24I encourage people who really love the show and haven't read the book to read the book and
29:28vice versa. So it's been, I mean, I have read things that I would, you know, you want to kind
29:33of start engaging with someone personally, but generally speaking, the response has been more
29:39than I ever could have hoped for. And I sleep well at night and the people that I wanted to like it
29:46loved it. And when some random person on Twitter is shouting from the rooftops to their 18 followers,
29:53you try not to let that seep into you too much.
29:56No, I think the positive thing is going on and seeing people who do fan art. I've seen fan art
30:01for all of your shows, which is incredible. I've seen people, I saw a lot of people making lasagna,
30:06honestly, and then posting it on the Reddit threads for Lessons in Chemistry, which is
30:11amazing. And maybe they sent you some, who knows? Maybe I'm also hungry that we're talking so much
30:16about lasagna.
30:17Maybe you're also on Reddit too much.
30:18Maybe I am.
30:19You're on Reddit lasagna, it feels.
30:21Very much. Yeah, yeah. That's very where I stay. But all right, as we sort of head towards the end
30:27of this session, let's do some lightning round questions for all of you. So we'll talk a little
30:32bit about what else you're watching, what else you've enjoyed on television in recent months,
30:38or just in general of all time. So I'm going to go down the line. If you could work on any other TV
30:44show, what would it be? Issa, starting with you.
30:47That exists?
30:48Yeah, or has exist.
30:50I just finished watching, I'm late to that, a British show called This Is Gonna Hurt.
30:56It blew my mind. It was beautiful and profound, funny and painful. And it was a reminder of
31:06why the medium can be extraordinary and say important things in a way that is gripping
31:11and profound.
31:12So how about you? What would you work on?
31:15I would work on True Detective.
31:16Oh my god, let's do it.
31:18Let's do it.
31:19Or crossovers.
31:20Yes, it's a flat circle or whatever. Yeah, I mean, I think that what I loved about what
31:27Issa did was to take this sort of magic realism and really expand that idea that was always
31:36present in True Detective and the extreme location and creating a mystery that is both
31:46literal and metaphorical. I think that's always really interesting.
31:50Well, HBO, I think that after my next season, you want to call this man and have it happen.
31:57No, no, I would only do it with you.
31:58Let's do it together.
31:59There's this weird HBO slash FX slash Apple TV plus, you know, eventually they're all
32:05going to be owned by the same company. So it all makes sense. It'll eventually happen.
32:09So how about you, Lee? What show of all time would you...
32:13Of all time.
32:14Wow.
32:15Well, obviously Vanderpump Rules.
32:16Yes.
32:17I think it has the strongest characters, really good story turns. It's impeccably edited.
32:25You're writing a script for Tom Sandoval right now, right?
32:27Yes. I have many things in development. Yeah. I go to something about her. We work on the
32:32thing. Yeah. Go to Schwartz and Sandys. No, but I really do think, you know, I watch a
32:37lot of reality and it's high drama. It's completely engaging and the editing on that
32:44show is next level.
32:46I like that. That's a great answer.
32:49It was both a joke and real.
32:53Yes. Like all great comedy.
32:54Exactly. Both drama and comedy. So I guess that's not really a guilty pleasure then.
33:02Do you have a guilty pleasure?
33:04I have no guilt. I have no guilt associated with it. So it's just pleasure,
33:07pure pleasure.
33:07Yeah. How about you guys? Do you have any guilty pleasures?
33:10I fell down the rabbit hole that I had not at all. Very recently I watched all of Bridgerton
33:17and I don't know if it qualifies as a guilty pleasure because it's so well crafted.
33:21Just a pleasure.
33:22But it was such a surprise. I saw a little bit before and I was like,
33:26this is not for me. And then I came back and it was for me. It was so for me. I really loved it.
33:32Yeah. Any guilty pleasures, Noah?
33:35I mean, who has time for pleasure of any kind? Guilty or not? No. I mean, I enjoy
33:43watching a lot of anime with my son. He's very invested in these shows where there's just a lot
33:52of yelling. Even when people are happy, they're yelling all the time, all their dialogue. And
33:57I find it very entertaining.
33:58Yeah. It's kind of like Vanderpump Rules as well, right?
34:01A lot of yelling.
34:01A lot of yelling. A lot of yelling at these shows. All right. As we wrap up,
34:05okay, this is your final pitch. This is your pitch to the TV Academy. So look into the camera
34:11and say, if you like blank, then you'll love, if you haven't seen our show,
34:16if you love blank, you will love my show.
34:18Oh, that requires thinking. You go first.
34:25There you go. If you love America and we all have to love America, you will love Fargo.
34:32There you go. Lee, you're next up.
34:34America. How do you top America? If you love the world.
34:40I would say Mad Men meets Mrs. Maisel meets Captain Marvel.
34:48There you go.
34:48There you go.
34:49Very nice.
34:50If you like John Carpenter's The Thing and very cold horror, but you also like a procedural,
34:58you're going to like True Detective Night Country.
35:02And corpsicles.
35:03And corpsicles.
35:04Never forget.
35:05Definitely corpsicles.
35:06Yes. Thank you, Issa, for bringing corpsicles into our life this year.
35:10And thank you, the three of you. Congratulations on the nominations. Best of luck to all of you.
35:15See, this is like the opposite of Kendrick Drake. Like everyone gets along here. There's no beef.
35:21I want some beef. I need more beef, but it looks like you all...
35:24In the lasagna.
35:24Always in the lasagna.
35:25Only in the lasagna. That's it. Well, thank you so much. Stick with us throughout the day.
35:30We've got more great panels coming up here at the Variety FYC Fest. The nominees.