The White Lotus is finally back, and so is novelist and Variety columnist Dan D'Addario to talk about a new locale for familiar hateful-richies storylines. We also talked about who we think gets killed, the most and least successful guest storylines, David Lynch, and what happens when a pandemic lark breaks big for premium cable, before going Around The Dial with Cobra Kai, Yellowjackets, and Lorne Michaels. Dan couldn't help but wonder if his And Just Like That... Canon pitch would succeed; Queens won and Ray Romano lost (guess everybody DIDN'T love him back in the day); and a familiar Game Time had us flipping through the PICI-to-English dictionary. Before you pass out at the dinner table, have a listen!

👤 Daniel D’Addario

Lead Topic: 🪷 The White Lotus

Around The Dial: 🥋 Cobra Kai

Around The Dial: 🌃 Lorne (A BOOK!)

Around The Dial: 🐝 Yellowjackets

The Canon: 💅 And Just Like That S02.E03: Chapter Three

Winner & Loser: 🕵🏻‍♂️ Jamaica Bay, NY

Winner & Loser: 👨🏻 Ray Romano

Is This Worse Than Jazz?: 📺 Netflix + Apple

Game Time: 🗣️ Lost In Translation 2025

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📕 All things Dan D'addario

🏆 Read Dan D'Addario's forthcoming novel, The Talent, available at Bookshop!

📺 Variety's 100 Best TV Performances of the 21st century

✍🏻 The New Yorker's recent Mike White profile

🥋 Tara's Cobra Kai review at Cracked

🦅 Tara's Jacob Bertrand interview

📚 True-crime reading recs at Best Evidence

📷 Photo: HBO

Family Feud is a game show that has delighted audiences for decades by challenging teams of related players to guess answers supplied by randomly selected survey subjects. Completely unrelatedly, our latest special episode, Kinfolk Kerfuffle, has contestants trying to match poll answers submitted by our Discord members. Dave presides as chosen family Tara, Sarah, Adam Grosswirth, and Kim Reed take on handpicked tribe Taylor Cole, Dan Cassino, Larra Morris, and Nick Rheinwald-Jones. It's time to play the Feud Kerfuffle!

👤 Dan Cassino

👤 Taylor Cole

👤 Adam Grosswirth

👤 Larra Morris

👤 Kim Reed

👤 Nick Rheinwald-Jones

Lead Topic: 🤬 Kinfolk Kerfuffle

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🗳️ The results of the survey in Google Sheets

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After NBC screwed up Charles Star's booking by dropping The Hunting Party series premiere weeks early, it's fitting (?) that he should, instead, join us for a Prime Video original movie about a scheduling snafu: the Nicholas Stoller-written and -directed You're Cordially Invited, starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon at war over a wedding venue. Did it leave us wanting to toss rice, or toss our cookies? Listen to find out. Around The Dial takes us to Clean Slate, The Hunting Party (Charles watched it so he might as well warn the community about it), Band Of Brothers, and just a whisper about the imminent third season of Reacher. Sarah pitches "Forks" from The Bear for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that tests our TV and movie knowledge SAT-style. Grab a slice of cake -- hope it's not too dry -- and listen!

👤 Charles Star

Announcement: 📢 Patreon Update

Lead Topic: 👰‍♀️ You're Cordially Invited

Around The Dial: 🫧 Clean Slate

Around The Dial: 🏹 The Hunting Party

Around The Dial: 🪖 Band Of Brothers

Around The Dial: 🧱 Reacher

The Canon: 🍴 The Bear S02.E07: Forks

Winner & Loser: 🐲 James Norton

Winner & Loser: 🗯️ Dumb fans of Insecure

Game Time: 🎬 Adaptation Aptitude Test

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🦋 Charles Star on Bluesky

💍 Tara's You're Cordially Invited review at Cracked

🫧 Tara's Clean Slate review at Cracked

🏳️‍⚧️ Donate to Trans Lifeline

⚖️ Donate to the Transgender Law Center

✊ Donate to Advocates For Trans Equality

👨‍💼 The ALAB Series podcast

🏈 The City Saint/Country Saint and Hostile Witness podcast

⚾️ Baseball Prospectus

🎶 The Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs Grammy episode

💰 Sweet Relief Musicians' Fund

📷 Photo: Glen Wilson / Amazon

Sterling K. Brown takes the lead in Paradise, and in the investigation that drives Hulu's new paranoid thriller -- and Rolling Stone's lead TV critic, Alan Sepinwall, is back to discuss both. Do the layered flashbacks work better for this material than for Brown's previous Dan Fogelman project, This Is Us? Does the dumb world-building outweigh the watchable acting? After we talked about how this underground/domed world stacked up against others on TV, we went Around The Dial with Common Side Effects, Mythic Quest, and the latest documentary from the Ken Burns Industrial Complex before Alan carefully constructed a Canon pitch for a Better Call Saul episode. Jennifer Garner won, Don Lemon lost, and what hark through yonder earbud breaks but a Shakespearean Game Time. Pack a bag for Colorado and join us!

👤 Alan Sepinwall

Announcement: 📋 Form URL Changes

Lead Topic: 🏝️ Paradise

Around The Dial: 🍄‍🟫 Common Side Effects

Around The Dial: ⚔️ Mythic Quest

Around The Dial: 📜 Leonardo da Vinci

The Canon: 🕳️ Better Call Saul S06.E07: Plan And Execution

Winner & Loser: 💁‍♀️ Jennifer Garner

Winner & Loser: 🍋 Don Lemon

Game Time: 🪶 Shakespeare TV Dinner Theatre

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📚 Buy Alan Sepinwall's book, Saul Goodman v. Jimmy McGill: The Complete Critical Companion to Better Call Saul

🐉 Tara's review of Mythic Quest S04 at Rolling Stone

🍄‍🟫 Tara's review of Common Side Effects at Cracked.com

💰 Save on newly-minted books at Exhibit B.

📷 Photo: Disney / Brian Roedel

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With Saturday Night Live about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its series premiere, Peacock has assembled four documentary specials about how the show is made. Do any of them really advance our knowledge about this comedy institution? Omar Gallaga returns to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through Severance, A.P. Bio, Playing For Peanuts, and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Omar pitches the Shōgun episode "Crimson Sky" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time about who stayed standing from series premiere to finale. Finish that bowl of Colon Blow and join us!

👤 Omar Gallaga

Lead Topic: 🌃 SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night

Around The Dial: 🗂️ Severance

Around The Dial: 🔬 A.P. Bio

Around The Dial: 🥜 Playing For Peanuts

Around The Dial: 🏴‍☠️ Skeleton Crew

Around The Dial: 🤠 American Primeval

The Canon: 🏯 Shōgun S01.E09: Crimson Sky

Winner & Loser: 👨🏻‍🦰 Conan O'Brien

Winner & Loser: 🦊 The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin

Game Time: 🎭 Survivors

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🦋 Omar Gallaga on Bluesky

🤩 "Lorne Michaels Is The Real Star Of 'Saturday Night Live'" at The New Yorker

🗃️ "Adam Scott Goes Back To Work" at GQ

🗄️ Tara's Severance S02 review at Cracked

🏚️ "Don't Take Home-Buying Tips From 'No Good Deed'" at Book And Film Globe

📷 Photo: Peacock

Various legal proceedings aside, The Pitt is ABSOLUTELY not ER...but if you liked ER, Fug Girl Heather Cocks agrees with the panel that you'll like Max's new and extremely gnarly medical drama. It has all the ingredients that make a doctor show (versus a soap with doctors in it) compelling: solid casting; elegant world-building via medical students; and just enough jargon. We're going Around The Dial with Switching Gears, The Breakthrough, and comfort TV scripted and non- in the form of The Traitors and The Summer I Turned Pretty. We're also interrogating The West Wing's ill-advised 9/11 response episode, "Isaac And Ishmael," to see if it belongs in the EHG Nonac. Sanrio won, the Chrisleys lost, and Dan Cassino brings us below the line with a crazy-credits Game Time. Roll your gurney up to a speaker and listen!

👤 Heather Cocks

Lead Topic: 👨🏻‍⚕️ The Pitt

Around The Dial: ⚙️ Switching Gears

Around The Dial: 🔪 The Traitors

Around The Dial: 👙 The Summer I Turned Pretty

Around The Dial: ⛓️‍💥 The Breakthrough

The Nonac: 🏛️ The West Wing S03.E00: Isaac And Ishmael

Winner & Loser: 😸 Sanrio character My Melody

Winner & Loser: 😤 Chase Chrisley

Game Time: 🎬 Where Credit Is Due

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💃 Go Fug Yourself

🧯 The Anti-Recidivism Coalition's firefighter fund

🧑‍🚒 The L.A. Fire Department Foundation

📚 Exhibit B. Books's L.A. County Library fundraiser

🚗 Tara's Switching Gears review at Cracked

⚖️ In August, Michael Crichton’s estate sued The Pitt for revamping a proposed ER sequel into The Pitt

🤷‍♀️ In November, Warner Bros. claimed it was NOT derivative of ER

🍓 Ramy S01.E04, "Strawberries," on Hulu

📷 Photo: Warrick Page / Max

Amy is a hard-charging doctor who's alienated almost everyone in her life. Then amnesia following a car accident erases the last eight years of her life from her memory. Can she start over and fix what she broke during that lost time?! Sarah Baker is here to discuss whether Fox's new drama Doc imprinted on her memory at all. Around The Dial takes us through Going Dutch, The Circle, Somebody Somewhere, and Everwood. Mlle. Caroline pitches the Ghosts (UK) episode "The Thomas Thorne Affair" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time about VERY useless keywords. Tighten up that head bandage and join us!

👤 Sarah Baker

Lead Topic: 😶‍🌫️ Doc

Around The Dial: 🫡 Going Dutch

Around The Dial: ⭕️ The Circle

Around The Dial: 🍣 Somebody Somewhere

Around The Dial: 🪵 Everwood

The Canon: 👻 Ghosts (UK) S02.E05: The Thomas Thorne Affair

Winner & Loser: 🏆 Joey King and Cooper Koch

Winner & Loser: 📰 CNN

Game Time: 🤷‍♀️ Decidedly Unhelpful

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📸 Sarah Baker on Instagram

🪖 Tara's Going Dutch review at Cracked

🧭 The Great North on Hulu

🔦 Sarah D. Bunting at Best Evidence

📷 Photo: Fox

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We are off this week for EHG Prime but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 313: Taking A Journey In The World Of David The Gnome.

It's time again for us to submit to the wishes of listeners like you, which is how we've ended up watching the series finale of The World Of David The Gnome. What was clearly conceived as a sweet story about gnomes and animals living harmoniously together in nature takes a WILD turn for its very last episode, so: thanks for exposing us all to that, Matt! Then it's on to your answers to our last Ask Ask EHG question, and our answers to your latest Ask EHG questions about Bryan Fuller's career, whether we are brat, and more. Some Not Quite Winners and Losers get their time in the sun and shade. Then we welcome in the grandpas for cartoon crossovers. Hop onto the fox that transports you around the forest and join us!

15s Of Fame: 🍔 Rax

Forcening Pool: 🌳 The World Of David The Gnome S01.E26: The Mountains of Beyond

Ask EHG: 🦴 TV Theme Boning Pitfalls

Winner & Loser: 🤣 Jimmy Fallon

Winner & Loser: 🐴 My Lady Jane

Winner & Loser: 💤 The Acolyte

Winner & Loser: 🔫 The Sopranos

Winner & Loser: ⚖️ Andy Cohen

Winner & Loser: ⛳️ Owen Wilson's untitled AppleTV+ golf comedy

Winner & Loser: 😑 An NBC executive who was wrong about Friends

Extra Credit: 🖖 Those Old Something Elses

15s Of Fame: 🍔 Rax

Mini: 🪓 Cartoon Version (Jun 2016)

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🦊 The World Of David The Gnome S01.E26: The Mountains Of Beyond on YouTube

🧠 Mojo Jojo after getting absolutely wrecked by the Powerpuff Girls

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We are off this week for EHG Prime but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 296: Showing Proper Deference To Star Maidens.

We're in the doldrums of mid-May. None of the week's TV premieres lit us with a fire of passion. What better time for Dave to make us all watch Star Maidens, a mid-70s British sci-fi show about a CRAZY planet where women are in charge and men are their bitter servants. What could go wrong? For Ask EHG, we solicited your DUMBEST questions, and you came through with queries about, among others, how our pets would get in trouble if they went to school and which of the three of us would win in an EHG Thunderdome. We bring you some all-new Not Quite Top 11 Lists in lieu of the week's Winner and Loser. Then we close up with Anthobuzz's Extra Credit submission on updating a Rodman's World Tour poker segment for the decade of our choice. Get in the Hypnomat and join us!

Lead Topic: 👸 Dave Forces Everyone To Watch The Series Premiere Of Star Maidens

Ask EHG: 🤪 Your dumbest questions

Not Quite Top 11: 🚐 Saturday Morning Programs Whose Titles Could Double As Basic Cable Shows In A Different Genre

Not Quite Top 11: 🎀 TV Portrayals Of Jackie O

Not Quite Top 11: 🍁 Canadian Snacks To Enjoy While Watching TV

Extra Credit: 🃏 Rodman Flush

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👸 Star Maidens S01.E01: Escape To Paradise on YouTube

🤴 Sexy King Vitaman

🃏 "Dennis Rodman plays poker with Kelsey Grammar & Pat Smear (1997)" on YouTube

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One week out from Christmas, we're bringing you a special all about the holidays. Will festive episodes of The Twilight Zone and Frasier take their place in our TV Hall of Fame? Will a famous failure of a Veronica Mars episode land in our Hall of Shame? Fa la la la la la la la listen and find out!

The Canon: 👞 The Twilight Zone S01.E12: What You Need

The Nonac: 📼 Veronica Mars S02.E10: One Angry Veronica

The Canon: 🤶🏻 Frasier S06.E10: Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz

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📷 Paramount / CBS / Warner Bros.

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