It’s the return of “Who Won the Week” on The Watch. Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald debate the pick for this week, ultimately landing on Migos. The group has the top song in the country and got a shout-out from Donald Glover at the Golden Globes.
Listen to the full podcast here. This transcript has been edited and condensed.
Migos Is the Obvious Pick
Chris Ryan: We did “Who Won the Week” a while ago and we sort of dropped it, among other segments that we always drop and pick back up again, but we’re going to try to be a little bit more consistent about it. This one’s really easy for me: it’s Migos.
They have the no. 1 song in the country right now in “Bad and Boujee” and it’s a testament to how otherworldly and insane this week has been, for a variety of reasons, that that happened Sunday when Donald Glover shouted them out, and it feels like it was so long ago that the Golden Globes happened, doesn’t it?
Or Should It Be Donald Glover?
Andy Greenwald: The only person I had to nominate for “Who Won the Week” is actually the guy you just mentioned. I was going to mention Donald Glover, because this dude won two Golden Globes on Sunday night and then … at the TCA press tour, FX made their presentation and they announced that they just reached what has to be an extremely lucrative overall deal with Donald Glover to continue making Atlanta and do many other projects with him. They also announced that Atlanta is not coming back until 2018, which is a huge bummer, although creatively very generous because they literally went on stage and said we weren’t going to tell him he couldn’t do Star Wars because he’s playing the young Lando [Calrissian]. Not a young Lando, the young Lando.
So you think Migos won the week?
Ryan: Yeah, I just think they have the no. 1 song and that when Donald Glover got his first award — that sort of coronated his incredible personal creative achievement — he went up there and was just like, “shout-out the Migos.” That’s huge. That would be like if Meryl Streep got up on stage and was like, “shout-out Ryan Adams.”
Greenwald: That would be a great moment.
The Loser of the Week? Everybody
Greenwald: Can I just do a quick counter? I know that we just reinstated this bit and I don’t want to cut its legs off, but I was just going to suggest an alt for this week, which is “Who Lost the Week?” Which is everybody. Could I try that one?
Greenwald: If there’s no other silver lining from this week, it’s you and I as big fans of British spies and the fiction [and] the web of fiction and nonfiction that they weave. It allowed us to read, in print, the sentence, former British spy goes to ground.
Ryan: This book came out [in 2013] by Jason Matthews called Red Sparrow and I remember it kind of was like a big sensation when it came out and it’s now going to be a movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Irons and directed by Francis Lawrence. And I bought the book and I was like “ah, everybody in the espionage fiction community is raving about this” and I read it. I started reading it and I was just like “Sex spies? Really guys? Compromising material? Are you serious?” And it turns out, yes they were.
Greenwald: You feel like it was a little far-fetched?
Ryan: At the time, I was just like, “Are we really doing sex spies?” But we are.