Staff Picks: David Byrne on the road and Maya Rudolph's return

If you can't take in this vital new road show, you can always have some Loot.

By A.V. Club Staff | October 18, 2025 | 8:00am

Left: David Byrne (Photo: Lisa Dragani/Getty Images); Right: Maya Rudolph in Loot (Photo: Apple TV)

Aux Features Staff Picks

Staff Picks: David Byrne on the road and Maya Rudolph's return

We’ve got some new recommendations for you, courtesy of our staffers Drew Gillis, who recently pondered Who Is The Sky with David Byrne, and Danette Chavez, who goes looking for some more Loot on Apple TV.

**Drew Gillis: David Byrne’s Who Is The Sky Tour**

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David Byrne blurring the line between concert and theatrical performance is nothing new; Stop Making Sense remains one of the gold standards for this, and American Utopia saw Byrne blend the two without the rest of the Talking Heads. His Who Is The Sky Tour is of a kind with these, especially American Utopia. But where that 2018 tour (and subsequent 2020 filmed performance, which now lives on HBO Max) stripped back the music and the set, Byrne’s latest turns toward color and light and electricity. Swapping his signature giant gray suits for a blue boilersuit, Byrne performs surrounded by mobile musicians and giant LED screens, the latter of which consistently bring the outside world into the theater.

Throughout the show, Byrne displays footage and photos that correspond—sometimes very literally—to what he’s singing about on stage. The tableau that accompanies “And She Was” depicts floating above a suburban housing tract. “My Apartment Is My Friend” takes us inside Byrne’s New York City apartment after he reflects on the time he spent there during the COVID lockdown. Some of the scenes are striking; “Everybody Laughs” features footage from John Wilson that lands with his usual offbeat beauty. “Life During Wartime” is both literal and striking, bringing in footage from anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles as the song climaxes.

I didn’t expect to find myself so moved, and moved so often, at Byrne’s first show at Radio City Music Hall. Even when Byrne wasn’t directly addressing what was happening in the world that particular day, the show’s optimism rang out. Quoting the actor John Cameron Mitchell, Byrne said at one point, “Love and kindness are kind of the most punk things you can do right now.” It’s the kind of message I’m wont to find overwrought more often than not but Byrne and his band embodied the sentiment through their artistry and forthright performance. Looking around at the crowd of people easily 30 years my senior, there with college buddies or teenage relatives, also felt special. Everyone was there to have a good time, and Byrne gave us one. Beyond that, he showed you can still have one without totally shutting out the outside world.

Danette Chavez: Loot season three (Apple TV)

As Paul Thomas Anderson wages One Battle After Another, Maya Rudolph finds herself in decidedly cushier surroundings in season three of Loot, Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard’s breezy comedy. Rudolph leads the series as Molly Wells, who, after her divorce from a tech mogul played by Adam Scott, becomes the third-wealthiest woman in the world. Season one saw the suddenly unmoored Molly throw herself headfirst into philanthropy, but the years of living in a haze of wealth eroded any competence she once possessed, making her the latest in a string of useless TV bosses. In the second season, once Molly’s mission came into clearer view, so did the series.

The road through season three, which premiered October 15 on Apple TV, remains paved with good intentions—and rocky. Molly’s campaign to give away her billions and inspire other wealth hoarders to do the same was dealt a devastating blow in the season-two finale, so when the new episodes kick off, she’s in “Bye-Bye Mode,” i.e., licking her wounds on a not-so-deserted island. Thankfully, her self-pity quickly gives way to new love, new shenanigans, and new obstacles, but things really pick up once the rest of the ensemble—including Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Joel Kim Booster, and Ron Funches—is back in the mix.

Aside from the occasional pointed statement about how billionaires shouldn’t exist, Yang and Hubbard have always taken more of an “eat with the rich” approach—the redistribution of wealth will definitely not be televised via their frothy workplace show. But neither are they afraid to confront the vile roots of empires both national and corporate; in one of the best episodes of the new season, Molly comes face to face with a scion laundering their family’s sordid history through charitable works. Loot isn’t really looking to meet the moment, though—the series is still rooted in a “good-yet-ridiculous people trying to do better” ethos instead of satire, and proving that every single pairing of cast members can deliver great chemistry and humor. D’Arcy Carden’s imminent arrival only drives that point home further.