The panel is contemplating three user submissions for the Canon this week, starting with the extremely highly rated, extreeeeemely looooong series finale of MASH . Lindy makes a fascinating parallel between [ waves hands vaguely ] All This and the world MASH portrayed, but is the episode's status as a historical reference enough to earn it a medal of honor? Next, we're sampling a first-season Strangers With Candy episode submitted by Tim (and the second in which a chicken figures heavily). Does ...
Dec 02, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 331
After 15 seasons on two networks, Supernatural has finally hunted its last monster, and our French friend Caroline Lefloch is joining us to bury the series finale in an unmarked, shallow grave. Around The Dial takes us through I Hate Suzie , Peacock's sequel to Saved By The Bell , Agatha Christie's Poirot , and new looks at the D.B. Cooper case in both History's Greatest Mysteries and HBO's The Mystery Of D.B. Cooper . Kimberly challenges us to Fleabag -enize a show by adding a hot clergy person...
Nov 25, 2020•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 330
It might not be Olivia Colman's highest-profile streaming series this week, but Apple TV+'s Becoming You , which explores how the first 2000 days of our lives shape our futures, is perfectly on-brand: expensive, gorgeously shot, and not quiiiiite essential. Omar returns to the guest chair to talk about the series' limited concept of diversity; whether the show made him miss his kids' first years; and what a visual subtweet of Brooklyn parents looks like. After that, we moved on to Colman's other...
Nov 18, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 329
Perhaps you feel the 2020 holiday season should start a little earlier than may be strictly traditional? So does Netflix, as it brings us all Dash & Lily , in which a pair of adorable teens who've never met use a red notebook to challenge each other to dares all over New York City. Internet Boyfriend taxonomist Esther Zuckerman jumps over from Thrillist to talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through A Teacher , B Positive , Ted Lasso , The Reagans , and the maddening episode numbering of...
Nov 11, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 328
EHG's Dave and Game Time veteran Dan Cassino along with host Taylor Cole welcome Tara, Sarah and Mark Blankenship for a special crossover episode with The Great American Pop Culture Quiz Show ! Tara, Sarah and Mark battle it out in TV trivia modelled after a typical Extra Hot Great episode! We'll open with a new release for the week, go Around the Dial with a game about shows that change networks, and play The Canon where our contestants must separate great works of literature from TV favorites....
Nov 04, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 327
What if Big Little Lies , but in New York City and with no point? That's kind of how Emily and the regulars all felt about The Undoing , the latest Nicole Kidman-David E. Kelley collaboration for HBO; we admired the workmanship, while not really understanding what sets it apart from BLL (besides the quality of the wigs), or buying Kidman and Hugh Grant's chemistry. Will any of us be successfully cliff-hung into watching all six episodes? Later, we investigated Around The Dial with stops at Arche...
Oct 28, 2020•1 hr 57 min•Ep. 326
Netflix's new import is a miniseries set in Franco-era Spain and revolving around a just-returned college grad and his Mexican ballerino friend. How does Lázaro's arrival tear the community apart (with lust)? Will Ellis joins us to talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through Social Distance , The Conners , Selling Sunset , Australia's Next Top Model , and HBO's A West Wing Special . Will presents Naomi Campbell's visit to The Tyra Banks Show for induction to The Canon; then after naming the ...
Oct 21, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 325
Disney+ and NatGeo decided to remake beloved '80s Mercury-astronauts epic (and earlier Tom Wolfe book) The Right Stuff as a series...and Adam Moussa decided to talk about it with us, a choice he may regret, because the four of us struggled to care. We struggled even to tell various astronauts apart, even, when we weren't wondering why this needed to be made, whether we should recommend For All Mankind instead, and where various actors would be in the Twink Taxonomy. Then we splashed down into Ar...
Oct 14, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 324
Showtime's latest docuseries is a deep (maybe too deep) dive on L.A. comedy club The Comedy Store, and first-time guest Brandi Brown -- herself a comic -- is joining us to talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through Emily In Paris , Polar Bear's Café , and Paramount's doc I Am Richard Pryor . CoreyAH challenges us to cast the Hallmark Christmas movies of tomorrow, today! Then, after her successful pitch of "Senegal," Françoise goes back to the Parts Unknown well to pitch us the "Houston" epi...
Oct 07, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 323
We're thrilled Devindra could step over from Engadget and Slashfilm to talk to us about Utopia , Gillian Flynn's reimagining of a belovedly culty UK original. Sarah was less thrilled by the show itself, which she's probably bailing on after only two episodes, but the rest of the panel had good things to say about the story, the acting (especially John Cusack), and how fundamentally weird it is that Amazon chose to release Utopia anyway during All Of This. After a trip Around The Dial with Enola ...
Sep 30, 2020•1 hr 58 min•Ep. 322
Fox's newest soap opera places Kim Cattrall at the head of a televangelist family that -- and you're never going to believe this -- are not as polished and pious as they appear on TV. First-time guest Meredith Haggerty joins us to discuss whether this is a good use of La Cattrall's many talents! Around The Dial takes us through Sing On! , Just Shoot Me! , and Netflix's videogame docs-series High Score . Lauren presents the "Co-op" episode of Documentary Now! for induction into the Canon; then af...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 321
Reality-TV vet Andy Dehnart has seen a LOT of unscripted crap in his decades in the field, so we're glad he brought his expertise to our discussion of this unprecedented time in the genre's history: the home-shot, socially-distanced versions/spin-offs of some of our old "favorites," plus some new DIY unscripted stuff tailored to pandemic "set" safety. We talked about the challenges facing reality competitions in the Zoom-show era, then drilled down on a few specific shows like Dr. Pimple Popper:...
Sep 16, 2020•2 hr 15 min•Ep. 320
Netflix's latest space drama takes a mother, played by Hilary Swank, to Mars, to try to balance work and family; Inkoo Kang of THR joins us to talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through The Boys , 90 Day Fiancé , and For All Mankind . We ponder whether The X-Files 's "Humbug" should burrow into The Canon; then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that reads us all for filth. Put on your space suit and join us! GUESTS 👤 Inkoo Kang TOPICS Lead Topic: 👩🚀 Away Ar...
Sep 09, 2020•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 319
We're off this week but we've glued together three listener-suggested topics from our Patreon supporter bonus podcast Extra Extra Hot Great. EEHG 055: Series Starter Kits Nicole tasked us: Each of you pick a show and then give your 5 most essential or favorite episodes from that show and discuss why they are in your top five. EEHG 059: The Can'tnon Seth White figured since this feed is a little looser than EHG Prime, that we should talk about our favourite episodes of a show that, for some reaso...
Sep 02, 2020•54 min•Ep. 318
Podcaster and Lifetime-movie-ologist Brandon is going deep on not just Ruthless Realtor (we would give you a plot summary, but it's...that, with a dash of Bad Ronald ) but the evolution of Lifetime movies and the cultural anxieties they reflect; whether we'd ghost a weirdo who brought us a brisket; and why nobody seems to get a second take, or any direction. Then we staged an Around The Dial with stops at Love In The Time Of Corona , vintage Amazing Race , and Below Deck Med before Doug made an ...
Aug 26, 2020•1 hr 45 min•Ep. 317
TV Guide senior editor Malcolm Venable is here to talk about Lovecraft Country , HBO's series imagining of Matt Ruff's novel -- and why everything from the show's look and feel to the acting to Jonathan Majors's believable charisma drew us in. Then we drove our woody wagon Around The Dial with stops at Ted Lasso , Little Voice , and The Great Heist before Rebecca's Extra Credit tasked us with casting reality-competition shows with our favorite TV characters. Sarah then filed a Canon motion on be...
Aug 19, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 316
Before they were the original co-hosts of The Great British Bake Off , Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins were comedy partners, and their new project Hitmen , imported from Sky to Peacock, returns them to their roots. Did it slay us? We'll talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through An American Pickle , Hard Knocks , and Star Trek: Lower Decks . For his Extra Credit, Taylor Cole -- inspired by The Great -- asks us to create our own heightened, quasi-comedic bio-series about a world leader of yeste...
Aug 12, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 315
The latest British Commonwealth addition to HBOMax's library is the BAFTA-nominated Frayed , and Christina Tucker joins us to discuss whether its riches-to-rags protagonist is as compelling as the world its star-creator, Sarah Kendall, has built around her. Around The Dial takes us through Immigration Nation , Coroner , Desert Hearts (now streaming on Showtime!), the Happy Endings Zoom reunion, and a brief re-plug for Taskmaster now that it's come over to The CW. Francoise uses her Extra Credit ...
Aug 05, 2020•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 314
Apparently TBS is not just for "very funny" shows anymore, as we learned from the premiere of Lost Resort , a new series with the bones of a reality show and the shredded guts of untreated trauma. The Verge's TV and film critic Joshua Rivera joins us to discuss what entertainment value its producers think the show has, and whether they are right. Around The Dial takes us through Married At First Sight ; Hannibal ; Twin Peaks: The Return ; and Last Chance U . Joshua presents Watchmen 's "This Ext...
Jul 29, 2020•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 313
The But Why Tho? podcast's Kate Sánchez is here to help the panel figure out why Killer Camp -- the CW's horror-trope competitive-reality show -- and others like it don't quite work. Is it because horror-movie tropes and American-summer-camp tropes clash (especially as embodied by a bunch of British nationals)? Is it that an organic timeline for solving the mystery isn't possible on a network show? Is it the annoying host? We gathered around our own figurative campfire to go Around The Dial with...
Jul 22, 2020•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 312
When is a movie fair game as a topic on a TV topic? When it premieres on a streaming service, of course! First-time guest Alanna Bennett takes a break from writing Roswell, New Mexico to join us to talk about the latest Lonely Island Classic. Around The Dial takes us through Little Voice , the original 1985 CBC miniseries adaptation of Anne Of Green Gables , Cheers , Close Enough , and the HAHA Awards. Listener Jenni pitches The Good Wife 's "Hitting The Fan" for induction into the Canon. Then a...
Jul 15, 2020•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 311
Esteemed recent guests Stephanie Green, Dan Cassino, and Richard Lawson each picked out an episode for your three panelists to watch for Episode 310's Forcening. First into the breach was David T. Cole, ordered by Stephanie to watch a fourth-season Real Housewives Of Potomac episode involving purse-smacking, (alleged) sausage-sucking, and how long after the stated start time one should arrive at a party -- and we also discussed the underwhelming interior-design narratives of so-called rich peopl...
Jul 08, 2020•45 min•Ep. 310
Rachel McAdams and Will Ferrell play enthusiastic but perhaps slightly self-deluded aspiring Icelandic pop stars in Netflix's new film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga , so who better than Eurovision devotee Mark Blankenship to join us to talk about it? Around The Dial takes us to Search Party , Hot Mess House , Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels , Unsolved Mysteries , and Outcry . Dave Lost Wages uses his Extra Credit to have us add a family member to a stale TV family. Mark presents...
Jul 01, 2020•1 hr 56 min•Ep. 309
Vanity Fair 's Richard Lawson returns to the pod for the first time since Mark 1 to talk about an equally old-timey take on a beloved character: HBO's dark take on Perry Mason before he became the gold standard of TV defense attorneys. Is this imagining of his life before Raymond Burr canonical? Did we need to see that level of post-violence gore? And does EVERY cell of this show's being hate the LAPD? (Not that we're complaining about that.) Then we went Around The Dial with Sherman's Showcase ...
Jun 24, 2020•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 308
Production Note: Dave did a bad copy-paste in his notes and credited the wrong Dave in Game Time. Dave is a bad Dave. Dave LARSON is not a bad Dave, he is a good Dave and the author of Viva Lost Wages! Apparently unsatisfied by dominating the world of scripted film, Ryan Reynolds has branched out into alternative TV programming by creating a new ABC game show called Don't , hosted by Adam Scott. Will "Don't" also be our advice on whether you should watch it? Frequent Game Time writer Dan Cassino...
Jun 17, 2020•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 307
Stephanie Early Green returns to talk about Trackers , the 2019 South African "thriller" that Cinemax has imported. Unfortunately, the only place it led the EHG panel was Dullsville, despite big game, gun battles, and the apparent love child of Christian Bale and Randall Batinkoff...but we did talk about the "COVID programming trough" that's rapidly approaching for all TV fans. Later, we went Around The Dial with Love Life , Married At First Sight Australia , Please Like Me , 13 Reasons Why 's f...
Jun 10, 2020•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 306
The announcement that Donald Trump was creating a new branch of the military called the Space Force was swiftly followed by the announcement that Greg Daniels and Steve Carell, the creator and star of The Office , would re-team on Space Force , a sitcom about said branch. Should that have occurred? Now that the first season has dropped on Netflix, John Ramos has returned to discuss the matter. Around The Dial takes us through AMC's ITV import Quiz , Season 2 of Ramy on Hulu, Netflix's docuseries...
Jun 03, 2020•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 305
We're welcoming Vanity Fair TV critic Sonia Soraiya to the guest chair to talk about the shorter, neater, Julia-Roberts-less-but-still-better second season of Amazon's Homecoming -- from sensible episode lengths to overacting extras to how TV has conditioned us to react to mystery shows. We went Around The Dial with Mrs. America , Run , Nadiya's Time To Eat , and a rare successful Zoom episode from Mystic Quest , before listener John rolled a 20-sided die on getting Community 's D&D episode ...
May 27, 2020•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 304
Fox is welcoming summer with a very silly American Gladiators take on tag -- yes, the playground game -- so who better than Daniel MacEachern, veteran of our Holey Moley episode last year, to join us to discuss it? Around The Dial clicks through Snowpiercer , Katy Keene , Call The Midwife (CW: there are clips and you will cry), The Last Dance , Killing Eve , and a preview of Holey Moley 's Season 2 premiere. Mary uses her Extra Credit to ask us which TV role permanently ruined an actor for us. W...
May 20, 2020•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 303
We hope Bobby Krut agrees to come BACK to Extra Hot Great after putting him through the unrelenting barrage of anguish that is HBO's latest limited series, I Know This Much Is True . Sure, the acting is good; yeah, it's impressive that Mark Ruffalo plays twins; not one of us is planning to keep watching, because there's never a break or a moment of levity, and even Dave's ice-cream-fixins-bar metaphor made us sad. Our trip Around The Dial made us MAD, mostly -- Tara was disgusted with Regular He...
May 13, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 302
