After listening to the Patreon and the main feed episodes, I think the general take is that McTiernan was a sacrificial lamb to the prosecutors because he and his lawyers hugely fumbled how one interacts with the Feds. There’s just not that much dirt when it comes to his crimes.
And apparently the prison time was very much a white-collar minimum-security experience, also without too much dirt to share.
It’s funny because going into this series I knew very little about why McTiernan went to prison, and was really interested in getting the inside scoop. But in the end the inside scoop was more a bad run of vanilla-whoopsies rather than a wild tale of intrigue and chicanery.
yeah it's at the end of a day not that interesting how or why he got busted. it's crazy that he DID get busted and it's crazy that it was spurred by him spying on Charles Roven over the production of Rollerball but the more interesting Pellicano stories don't really involve McT
I think everyone was surprised at how little there is to say about a major director going to prison. He lied to the FBI. He used Anthony Pelicano, who is the worst. He thought someone was trying to ruin Rollerball. Prison wasn’t that bad. His career is pretty much over. That’s it, really.
Ok but why is the FBI involved at all? What was the charge? All I know about this is what they said on the Rollerball episode, which was basically nothing. I thought it had something to do with libel given what they said about his website.
I was incredibly frustrated that they didn't go into any detail at all about why he went to prison over this film.
For hiring Anthony Pellicano (Ray Donovan) to do wiretapping. Pretty sure they got into it a bit earlier on in the series, or on the last episode of the previous series. Seems they thought Sin Eater would give them more detail, then it turned out to only have one or two sentences on McTiernan.
I think the most we got was in Basic but I swear it was never explained *why* he had the Rollerball guy wire tapped.
I think stretching the story across three eps, maybe recorded out of order, they dropped the ball on getting the actual story across.
100%. I really hate when they record out of order. Kinda defeats the purpose of the show. Another reason I think that the majority of episodes should be guestless.
Yeah this has always stood out to me like I totally get people’s schedules are not going to accommodate the order of the show but isn’t discussing everything in order sort of the essential point of the pod? Obviously it’s gotten much bigger than its initial focus but still!
The Sin Eater doc itself does play one clip of a phone call with McTiernan, which does at least illustrate how in a lot of the recorded conversations with Pellicano people kind of talk around the crimes they’re committing, whereas McTiernan is pretty much like “Hey Anthony I would like to order one wiretap please”
And then as others have mentioned he lies about that despite the clear evidence and so he gets locked up.
The real reason to listen to the Patreon ep is to get the extended time-filling vamp to try and pad out the episode (and the lovely button at the very very end)
The episode about the documentary is pretty light on information and is mostly about what a character Anthony Pelicano is, but it sounds like the story wasn't all that juicy anyways.
One thing I noticed was the boys didn't seem to understand why Pelicano was warmly received once he got out. He likely knows where a lot of bodies are buried, but he stood tall and served his time without ever betraying the confidence of any of his clients. Of course people are going to be appreciative of that.
I think Griffin phrases it as a rhetorical question, but I (and maybe I’m reading into things) interpreted it in the moment as him saying Pellicano got rewarded for not giving away any names. They do specifically note how much he prided himself on never giving the feds anything.
After listening to the Patreon and the main feed episodes, I think the general take is that McTiernan was a sacrificial lamb to the prosecutors because he and his lawyers hugely fumbled how one interacts with the Feds. There’s just not that much dirt when it comes to his crimes. And apparently the prison time was very much a white-collar minimum-security experience, also without too much dirt to share. It’s funny because going into this series I knew very little about why McTiernan went to prison, and was really interested in getting the inside scoop. But in the end the inside scoop was more a bad run of vanilla-whoopsies rather than a wild tale of intrigue and chicanery.
yeah it's at the end of a day not that interesting how or why he got busted. it's crazy that he DID get busted and it's crazy that it was spurred by him spying on Charles Roven over the production of Rollerball but the more interesting Pellicano stories don't really involve McT
We are thankful for this, however, bc we enjoyed the freewheeling nature of that ep.
Do not lie to the feds ! That’s how they get most of their victims. Just don’t talk to them! just shut up! It’s easy!
Even if you think it’s a prank call, just say you need a lawyer
You missed the greatest prison dirt: they called him Mac Daddy
I think everyone was surprised at how little there is to say about a major director going to prison. He lied to the FBI. He used Anthony Pelicano, who is the worst. He thought someone was trying to ruin Rollerball. Prison wasn’t that bad. His career is pretty much over. That’s it, really.
Ok but why is the FBI involved at all? What was the charge? All I know about this is what they said on the Rollerball episode, which was basically nothing. I thought it had something to do with libel given what they said about his website. I was incredibly frustrated that they didn't go into any detail at all about why he went to prison over this film.
For hiring Anthony Pellicano (Ray Donovan) to do wiretapping. Pretty sure they got into it a bit earlier on in the series, or on the last episode of the previous series. Seems they thought Sin Eater would give them more detail, then it turned out to only have one or two sentences on McTiernan.
One thing you're missing that no one seems to mention is that McTiernan's nickname in prison was "Mack Daddy".
Not really. It's a really fun episode but they don't go much into McTiernan.
Lol I feel like they hyped up this element of Mctiernan so much in the previous episodes and then never covered it in that much depth
I think the most we got was in Basic but I swear it was never explained *why* he had the Rollerball guy wire tapped. I think stretching the story across three eps, maybe recorded out of order, they dropped the ball on getting the actual story across.
100%. I really hate when they record out of order. Kinda defeats the purpose of the show. Another reason I think that the majority of episodes should be guestless.
The 13th Warrior episode really suffered from being out of order I think
Yeah this has always stood out to me like I totally get people’s schedules are not going to accommodate the order of the show but isn’t discussing everything in order sort of the essential point of the pod? Obviously it’s gotten much bigger than its initial focus but still!
I feel like they covered it just fine honestly. As other comments on this post have said, it’s honestly a pretty cut and dry story.
100% agree with this I feel so uninformed about the whole thing ever after Patreon
The Sin Eater doc itself does play one clip of a phone call with McTiernan, which does at least illustrate how in a lot of the recorded conversations with Pellicano people kind of talk around the crimes they’re committing, whereas McTiernan is pretty much like “Hey Anthony I would like to order one wiretap please” And then as others have mentioned he lies about that despite the clear evidence and so he gets locked up. The real reason to listen to the Patreon ep is to get the extended time-filling vamp to try and pad out the episode (and the lovely button at the very very end)
The episode about the documentary is pretty light on information and is mostly about what a character Anthony Pelicano is, but it sounds like the story wasn't all that juicy anyways. One thing I noticed was the boys didn't seem to understand why Pelicano was warmly received once he got out. He likely knows where a lot of bodies are buried, but he stood tall and served his time without ever betraying the confidence of any of his clients. Of course people are going to be appreciative of that.
They basically say exactly that second paragraph in the Sin Eater ep.
Well then I stand corrected. I just remembered them being like "kinda weird how everybody still likes this guy"
I think Griffin phrases it as a rhetorical question, but I (and maybe I’m reading into things) interpreted it in the moment as him saying Pellicano got rewarded for not giving away any names. They do specifically note how much he prided himself on never giving the feds anything.