The Five Spot: Widow's Bay, A Bollywood Heist Movie, And Soccer Hooligans In Beantown

Welcome to The Five Spot, a Friday roundup where I run down my top five things from the week. Most of the entries will be about film and TV, but there might also be ones about weird local news or sandwiches I ate or anything else, really. The whole thing is usually an exclusive for paid subscribers, but I'm making it free this week, so if you want to get involved going forward, you can do that by upgrading…

This week, we will discuss the following:

• Bob Odenkirk is Saul Goodman again... kind of
• Did you know there was a Bollywood remake of The Italian Job???
• Colin Farrell might be the most charming man alive
• Scottish hooligans have taken over Boston
• Thoughts on the Widow's Bay season one finale

Off we go.

FIVE: Saul is cookin' once again

Roughly 100 years and many thousands of blogs ago, I graduated from law school. This is mostly funny to me now, just the idea that I have a law degree sitting on the floor about eight feet away, wedged between my dresser and my wall, as I type up a newsletter that will include a section about Scottish soccer hooligans trying to drink all the beer in Boston. There is a part of me that still is that law dork, though. I get all hyped up talking about how important it is for people to know their constitutional rights. I legitimately believe every driver’s education program in America should also teach you what you do and do not have to do during a traffic stop. I’m a lot of fun to watch cop shows with. YOU CAN'T DO THAT, BOSCH.

All of that is one of two reasons I was so excited about the video up there, the one that dropped outta nowhere this week and features Bob Odenkirk reprising his role as Saul Goodman to tell you a little about knowing your rights. The other reason is that I missed seeing Saul Goodman on my screens and it was nice to watch him do his thing. Both equally important, in a way. The best-case scenario here is that they keep going with these and just make a whole YouTube series where your Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights are explained by the guy who tried to keep Walter White out of jail.

It’s probably our best shot at seeing more Saul, too. Odenkirk basically said as much already, after correctly pointing out that we’ve already seen what he was up to in Breaking Bad, and what he was up to before and after that on Better Call Saul, which ended with the character sentenced to almost 100 years in prison. Also, everyone is pretty busy.

From a Variety interview in 2025:

“I think they’ve all moved on to some more amazing projects that you’ll soon see,” he said, adding that Saul’s current circumstances would have to play a major part if any revival were to happen. “He’s not getting out [of prison]. If there’s another Saul show, it takes place inside prison.”

See, I know he’s kind of joking, but I would 100 percent watch a show where Saul Goodman was a jailhouse lawyer. Or they could just set the YouTube series I pitched in prison. Saul Goodman explains your Miranda Rights from a library in a jail. You would watch that. It would be a better use of your time than going to law school, at least.

FOUR: Look at this beautiful movie

A few weeks back, friend of the blog and noted New Jersey expert Jen Miller reached out to inform me there was a Bollywood remake of The Italian Job. This is, to be clear, exactly the kind of thing you should be reaching out to bring to my attention. The movie is called Players and it came out in 2012 and somehow has a trailer that looks like it was made in 2003. It apparently bombed at the box office and got terrible reviews and I want to see it very badly.

That is the trailer up there. I encourage you to watch it and I encourage you to go to the film’s Wikipedia page, where you will find things like, well, this…

The story follows a team of players, consisting of a don, a con-man, a lady thief, a seductress, a magician, an explosives expert, an expert hacker and a prosthetic makeup artist, who plan to steal gold worth ₹100 billion (US$1.0 billion) from a moving train. During the robbery they are double crossed by members of their own team.

This is… incredible. It’s the most “we’re putting together a team” collection of people and professions I’ve ever seen. Read through it again now. Do it a third time. It might be the greatest pair of sentences ever written.

Don’t get stuck there forever, though. If you do, you’ll never make it down to the “Controversies” section of the Wiki. That’s where we learn important things like “the film ignored safety guidelines for a stunt involving an airplane” and “Priyanka Chopra may or may not have been attached to star and may or may not have left over a personality conflict” and… no, we’ll just do another blockquote.

Controversy erupted regarding the Censor Boards clarification to a scene in which Kapoor is seen making the middle finger gesture, which was clearly visible in the promos of the film. It was initially blurred out but was later approved after appeals from the directors and Kapoor, who stated, "I don't believe in censorship so whether they like it or not, I really don't care about it. I just want people to come and see my film. Showing a middle finger is a part of today's youth". Media criticised her, claiming "For Sonam Kapoor, showing middle finger is no big deal" and the censor board for allowing the scene pass without cuts or blurring.

“Showing a middle finger is part of today‘s youth.” Hmm. So now, in addition to a movie that came out in 2012 and has a trailer from 2003, we have one of the stars out here saying sentences you’d hear in a Pepsi commercial from 1998.

Reasonable arguments can be made that I’ve never needed to see a movie more.

THREE: Colin Farrell remembers some guys

Notes:

• Colin Farrell went on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote the second season of his Apple TV series Sugar, the one where he plays an LA detective who is secretly a literal blue alien
• That‘s kind of a spoiler but they mention it in the video up there so I guess it’s fair game
• Lord, is Colin Farrell charming
• My favorite part of the interview is the beginning, where Jimmy asks about the World Cup and Colin just starts remembering some Irish soccer guys for a while
• He sounds like me when someone brings up the 2008 Phillies
• A lot of people forget that Joe Blanton, the Phillies Game 4 World Series starting pitcher, hit a home run in the fifth inning of that game
• Not me, though

Anyway, it’s always wild to watch a late-night interview like this with a guest who has a good personality and realize how pained some of the others are. Not naming names, but you know.

TWO: Speaking of soccer guys

To Boston!

Sam Adams says its Boston Taproom ran out of Samuel Adams Boston Lager over the weekend because Scottish soccer fans drank them dry. From Thursday to Sunday, it said the Tartan Army drank four times as much Boston Lager as it normally sells during a typical four-day holiday stretch like the Fourth of July.

The thing about the World Cup is that it is awesome, for a zillion reasons, many of which involve the actual game action on the field (the tiny nation of Cape Verde played Spain to a 0-0 draw and it was somehow one of the most exciting and fulfilling sporting events I’ve seen in years), but some of which involve soccer fans having a blast. That’s what’s happening here. A huge chunk of Scottish soccer fans showed up in Boston this week for their country’s first set of matches, and they are absolutely painting the town red.

That blockquote up there is from a local news story about fans drinking the local bars dry on game day. The video is a local news story about them running around putting traffic cones on the heads of local statues. Here’s a story about hundreds of them showing up at a Red Sox game in Fenway Park and leading the whole crowd in chants and cheers. It’s awesome.

It’s also the cool thing about an event like this. The news leading up to it all was… not good… for reasons… but then it started and it’s mostly been a cool reminder that the cultures of the world coming together to celebrate a common interest can be a great damn time. But look at me getting sappy when there are more terrific quotes to share about drunken Scots in Boston. Like, for example, this one…

"The White Bull Tavern, there was no beer," Scottish fan Dave Orr said. "The Scottish fans just drank the place dry and all they had was Bud Light."

… and this one.

Federal Wine & Spirits in the Financial District told the Globe it sold out of Budweiser and Corona on Saturday and the door on one of its refrigerators broke from being opened and closed so many times.

I can’t put my finger on exactly why but something about the idea of a diehard Scottish soccer fan drinking a Corona in Boston is hilarious to me. Good for them, though. Let’s get them into High Life next.

ONE: Lord, was Widow's Bay a good time

Widow’s Bay ended its first season this week with a finale that was somehow sweet and spooky and really, really funny. The whole thing was a kind of magic trick, the way it balanced and shifted tones, sometimes in the same scene. I dug it a lot, which was surprising given how much I usually do not dig horror or even horror-adjacent things. If you are in the marketing department for this show and need something for a billboard, feel free to use “Hey, even Brian liked it!” Here to help.

Additional thoughts on the final episode:

• The scenes with Tom and Ruth in her house, as he maybe kinda tried to poison her to save the town, were so stressful, in part because Ruth is so sweet and it made Matthew Rhys put on another remarkable display of pained face acting
• The Trolley Problem joke in there had me howling a little
• Yes, I saw the big twist coming, as did a lot of people, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable for me as a viewer
• It actually made it more powerful, in a way, because I got to watch Tom slowly come to the realization himself as he talked to Ruth, which made for an extended emotional car crash for that guy
• Jeff Hiller didn’t have a ton to do this season but he sure delivered the heck out of that line in the screencap at the top of this section, which I will use anytime someone tells me they are considering becoming a fan of the Philadelphia 76ers
• Speaking of useful screencaps, thank you, Stephen Root

• I liked the way things ended, leaving enough unknown for season two while also setting up a situation where Tom could be forced to knowingly sacrifice residents of his town to a bell-tolling beast in the hopes of protecting his son
• I really hope the show’s fandom doesn’t try to suck the fun out of this one by running wild with far-fetched theories and then getting mad when they fall flat
• Freakin’ relax, guys, sheesh
• It’s always fun to see a show let its supporting characters shine, like this one did with Ruth and Patricia and Rosemary, all of whom deserve a trophy of some kind, even if I have to carve it myself
• It remains my position that we need to consider adding Nicholas Braun to the cast for season two, just to watch him squirm

Good show.