Should We Be Worried About Bradley Cooper’s Career?

Bradley Cooper appeared on CBS’s Limitless last night for less than 10 minutes to say things like this:

I’m a little busy here. Something about who’s going to become president.

Try to keep up. What do you need? A pill?

Sands has Piper, which means according to you he’s got the immunity shot. Sands doesn’t work for me anymore. He’s gone rogue.

Danny, get Brian a water please.

Bradley Cooper is an Oscar-nominated, widely adored actor who has just made his fourth appearance on a terrible show yet to be renewed for a second season. If we can’t trust Bradley to make smart career decisions, who can we believe in?

Yes, he is an executive producer of this show. Yes, he has an incentive for it to succeed. Yes, I watched this show purely to see B-Coops. No, none of these are valid excuses. Plenty of film-to-TV adaptations forge ahead without their signature stars. William H. Macy isn’t popping up on Fargo. Steve Martin never made a cameo in Parenthood. Bradley needs to focus on the movies, especially since his 2016 slate is currently bereft of starring roles.

Bradley, you are on the brink. Make smart choices.

This piece originally appeared in the March 23, 2016, edition of the Ringer newsletter.