Emmy Predictions, Netflix Is Adapting ‘Lonesome Dove,’ and ‘The Paper’ Season 2

Key takeaways

• Netflix won the rights to adapt Lonesome Dove plus the rest of McMurtry's four-book cycle (Streets of Laredo, Comanche Moon, Dead Man's Walk), with Zoe Kazan and Jeb Stuart as co-writers and co-showrunners coming off their Netflix "East of Eden." Kim Masters reported that Paramount, the natural home given the 1989 CBS miniseries, did not bid, and David Ellison tried a late offer only after learning no one else had. The hosts speculate a Taylor Sheridan factor, since Sheridan wrote the foreword to the new edition and is reportedly moving his TV work to Universal. Greenwald wants it shot in Texas and Montana rather than New Zealand, and both argue Kazan should feel free to reinterpret it the way her "East of Eden" recenters the Cathy character.
• The casting problem is real: Ryan pitches Matthew McConaughey as Call and Woody Harrelson as Gus, both Texan, both the right age, both carrying "True Detective" baggage. He notes a shortage of American actors aged 40 to 60 who do not look like former Mouseketeers, which pushes studios toward British and Australian names (Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce). Other ideas floated: Tom Pelphrey or Eben Moss-Bachrach as Jake Spoon, Leo Woodall as Dish, Lakeith Stanfield as Deets, Paul Dano as July Johnson.
• Emmy comedy series is a lock for "Widow's Bay," which the hosts also name their favorite; Matthew Rhys is positioned to win both lead comedy actor and limited actor, a rare double, and they consider him the best-navigated TV career going.
• In drama, "The Pit" will win series and Noah Wyle will win lead actor, but Greenwald argues "Pluribus" should take series for doing something new, and both say Mark Ruffalo should win for "Task" (which they are angry was snubbed in the series race). Jean Smart wins comedy actress again unless Elle Fanning surprises for "Margo's Got Money Troubles." Keri Russell is favored for drama actress while they back Rhea Seehorn for "Pluribus" or Zendaya for "Euphoria."
• Limited series goes to "DTF St. Louis," a win they welcome as vindication for Steve Conrad after "Patriot" and "Perpetual Grace, LTV," though Ryan personally would vote "Beef." Sarah Pidgeon is expected to win limited actress for "All Her Fault" as the anointed new star, over Carey Mulligan in "Beef."
• "The Paper" season two has promising pairings but an oversized 11-person ensemble and a documentary conceit the show over-explains, culminating in a delivery robot dispatched to film Ned and Mare having sex. Greenwald says the effort spent justifying the format kills momentum. Working pieces include Eric Rahill as Travis and Chelsea Frei as Mare; Domhnall Gleeson's lead character still does not cohere, and Sabrina Impacciatore's energy has not been solved. The hosts blame 10-episode seasons for making every episode feel overweighted.
• Watch After Dark: the Rams and 49ers both traveled to Australia with opposite strategies. The 49ers flew a week early to acclimate; the Rams chartered no-wifi, all-lie-flat double-decker Airbus jets to fly in, play, and leave, betting they will never adjust anyway. Both hosts doubt you can outsmart circadian reality, and Greenwald delivers an extended account of his own London jet-lag routine.

Notable moments

• Cold open riff casting Andy as "chief TV critic for the Hat Creek Cattle Company" and a running bit about the defunct pirate stream iraqgoals.net now being the subject of "Lioness" season four.
• Ryan on the novel: reading Lonesome Dove was "one of the most pleasurable experiences of my adult life," a book that reads you into a community of fellow fans.
• The recurring gag imagining Ken Paxton running against Beto O'Rourke in Texas, threaded through nearly every Emmy category as a fake swing-voter appeal.
• Greenwald: "when I close my eyes, I can see Woody Harrelson making biscuits."
• On the acting pipeline, a cited chart showing more British actors and fewer Americans in US film and TV, and the line that "Australians are the Texans of England."
• Zendaya described as an "elite luxury vehicle" pace car driving in front of the "Fury Road menagerie" of "Euphoria's" final season.
• Greenwald on "The Paper": "The juice is not worth the squeeze. We know how to watch television shows at this point."
• The poster complaint played for laughs: an undecided Texas voter opening USA Today, seeing 11 faces, and deciding "that's simply too many people on the poster."
• Watch After Dark: the Rams' plane booked "on Oceanic Flight 815," with Myles Garrett in seat 8 and Aaron Donald in seat 14.
• Greenwald describing post-flight London lunches where "the food in front of us begins to move of its own accord."

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