Extra Hot Great: This Week In TV

Big thanks to Nick for stepping in last-minute for our winter-television preview: all the new or returning shows we're psyched for (like The White Lotus), all the shows we should be psyched for but aren't (like Welcome To Chippendales), and a bunch of shows nobody should be psyched for or even in the same room as (didn't we cancel Criss Angel in the aughts?). After Nick tried to get an episode from The Dropout into the Canon's lab, The Watcher won; James Corden lost; and we all called on the power of three for a Game Time sequel. Grab an afghan and your remote: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great!

GUESTS

👤 Nick Rheinwald-Jones

TOPICS

Lead Topic: ❄️ Winter TV Preview

The Canon: 🩸 The Dropout S01.E04: Old White Men

Winner & Loser: 👍 Home security companies

Winner & Loser: 👎 James Corden

Game Time: 📺 Three At Once, Once More

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 430 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Nick Rheinwald-Jones on Twitter

🕵🏻 Spy Brunch on Twitter

📚 #asseenonTV books at Exhibit B. Books

🎶 MASTAS's Beats Around The Bush E01, "Hippie Hop Hooray"

🦇 Tara endorses Pennyworth at GQ.com

🎙 Tara interviews Cooper Van Grootel at GQ.com

Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan take an unsolved stalking case as the inspiration for their latest Netflix limited series; Dan Rogge returns to discuss whether anyone should be watching it OTHER than The Watcher. Around The Dial takes us through Freevee's High School, baseball on TV, and the latest episodes of The Vow. Sarah and Tara try to determine whether Dave will Hate a TV series adaptation of The Wicker Man. Tara presents "The Two Mrs. Cranes" for induction into The Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we kick off a new season of Game Time with more questions than usual. Put down your binoculars and join us!

GUESTS

👤 Dan Rogge

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 👁 The Watcher

Around The Dial: 🏫 High School

Around The Dial: ⚾️ Baseball On TV

Around The Dial: 📿 The Vow

Around The Dial: 🛍 Shopping Comas

The Canon: 👨‍🚀 Frasier S04.E01: The Two Mrs. Cranes

Winner & Loser: 👍 Vivica A. Fox

Winner & Loser: 👎 Jenna Lyons

Game Time: 🤔 19 Questions

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 429 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

👀 The original reporting The Watcher is based on, at The Cut

🥽 A 2022 update on the case, also at The Cut

💄 The September 1989 Fashion Etc. episode of Listen To Sassy

👻 Tara's post on Los Espookys and What We Do In The Shadows, at Slate

🎞 Tara's review of Documentary Now! S04 at VanityFair.com

🐦 Dan Rogge on Twitter

🗼 The Seattle Film Commission

💍 The Decoder Ring podcast

🏠 Quaid In Full on Cold Creek Manor

🔎 The Best Evidence newsletter

📷 Photo: Netflix

Canadian journalist Danny MacEachern is back to take a look at the frustrating, but also maaaaybe promising, Alaska Daily, which spends a good half of its first episode giving us unnecessary backstory and throwing around phrases like "woke wussies" before finally getting into the real story. We discussed star Hilary Swank's wigs, why a network version of this show is never going to center the Indigenous people at the center of the mystery, whether we can expect the show to settle down and get better, and which other properties listeners should opt for instead. Sarah was Not A Crackpot about dangerous TV driving, and we went Around The Dial with The Real Love Boat, Reboot, a Werewolf By Night update from Dave, and a report on The Winchesters from foreign Supernatural correspondent Mlle. Caroline. Kitt (not the car) tried to get the egg of a Taskmaster episode through the hoop that is the Canon, and after we declared a Winner and Loser, we read TV books for filth in a non-regulation Game Time from Sarah. Borrow a sleep mask from a co-worker, because it's time for an all-new Extra Hot Great.

GUESTS

👤 Daniel MacEachern

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🦀 Alaska Daily

I Am Not A Crackpot: ⚠️ TV Characters Need To Watch The GD Road

Around The Dial: 🛳 The Real Love Boat

Around The Dial: 🥾 Reboot

Around The Dial: 👹 The Winchesters

Around The Dial: 🐺 Werewolf By Night

The Canon: 💌 Taskmaster S05.E08: Their Water's So Delicious

Winner & Loser: 👍 The 1996 movie Fear

Winner & Loser: 👎 TV True Crime

Game Time: 📖 Novel Ideas

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 428 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Danny MacEachern on Twitter

🔦 CBC's Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo podcast

📣 Pre-ordering for Kase Wickman's Bring It On book

🌅 Tara's Paul Reiser interview at GQ.com

💌 Taskmaster S05.E08 on YouTube

🕵🏻‍♀️ The Best Evidence newsletter

📷 Photo: ABC

The Vampire Lestat is back in a new series adaptation of Interview With The Vampire at AMC, and You Must Remember This creator Karina Longworth is here to talk about all its pleasures -- which definitely extend past its bare butts, but very much include its bare butts. Around The Dial takes us through new seasons of The Amazing Race and Abbott Elementary; a new evolution of Celebrity Jeopardy!; and a not-so-new relic recently returned to YouTube: Bands On The Run. Dave explains why he is NOT a crackpot for thinking pilot episodes should include any title treatments that get added to later episodes. Sarah presented the Sopranos episode "Christopher" for induction into The Nonac. Then it's on to the week's Winner and Loser, before closing up with a tasty Game Time. You'll want to sink your teeth into this one!

GUESTS

👤 Karina Longworth

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🧛🏻‍♂️ Interview With The Vampire

Around The Dial: 🌎 The Amazing Race

Around The Dial: 🧑🏽‍🏫 Abbott Elementary

Around The Dial: 🙋‍♀️ Celebrity Jeopardy

Around The Dial: 🥁 Bands On The Run

I Am Not A Crackpot: 🧑‍✈️ Pilot Love

Winner & Loser: 👍 Vanessa Williams

Winner & Loser: 👎 House Of The Dragon

Game Time: 👨‍🍳 It's A Cookbook!

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 427 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Karina Longworth on Twitter

🦋 "Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson Explain How 'Interview with the Vampire' Created Lestat and Louis's 'Beautiful' Floating Sex Scene" at Decider

⚰️ Tara's Interview With The Vampire review at VanityFair.com

✍️ Tara's Ramy S03 review at VanityFair.com

🎞 The You Must Remember This podcast

🐦 You Must Remember This on Twitter

🥁 Bands On The Run on YouTube

🧨 A 2001 interview with Soulcracker

🎶 Mark Blankenship's newsletter, The Lost Songs Project

📷 Photo: Alfonso Bresciani / AMC

The Star Wars universe has expanded yet again, and Never Not Funny's Matt Belknap joins us for the first time to talk about Andor, a Rogue One prequel of sorts that's much more meditative and "adult" than you'd expect from the franchise. Dave quizzes us on our favorite character from the new show, plus we talk about world-building, the first real swear word in Lucasfilm IP, whether we'd buy Andortoys, and backstory gaps that don't need filling. We went Around The Dial with 9-1-1, Never Have I Ever, the Law & Order crossover event, and JJ Walker's 3 AM job, then wondered Will Dave Hate This? about a David Zucker Nordic-noir spoof. Tara hoped she wouldn't drop the ball on a fifth-season Friends Nonac pitch, we crowned our Winner and Loser of the Week, and Game Time took us to a galaxy far, far away (that still shows current TV). It's not a cat: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great!

GUESTS

👤 Matt Belknap

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🚀 Andor

Around The Dial: 🧑‍🚒 9-1-1

Around The Dial: 🙅🏽‍♀️ Never Have I Ever

Around The Dial: ⚖️ Law & Order Triple Crossover

Around The Dial: 💵 Wee Hours Benefit Helpline Ad

Will Dave Hate This?: 👮🏻 NoPoFo

The Nonac: ⚽️ Friends S05.E21: The One With The Ball

Winner & Loser: 👍 True Detective

Winner & Loser: 👎 Cobra Kai

Game Time: 🤩 Captain Needa's Oops! All Star Wars

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 426 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🫑 Matt Belknap on Never Not Funny

🐦 Never Not Funny on Twitter

🎙 Tara interviews Johnny Knoxville at VanityFair.com

🌴 Again With Them at the Again With This Patreon

💄 Listen To Sassy Club

📚 Save 10% on new books at Exhibit B. Books

🐍 Cobra Kai, boiled down to its tropes by @NetflixIsAJoke

📷 Photo: Disney+

Everything old continues to be new again as NBC brings its late '80s/early '90s time travel series Quantum Leap back for a new generation; Vulture TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk joins us to discuss whether we wish we could travel back to stop it from happening. Around The Dial takes us through Los Espookys, Reservation Dogs, Halt And Catch Fire, and Journeyman. For the long-awaited return of Will Dave Hate This?, Sarah and Tara try to predict the titular Dave's reaction to the Marvel special Werewolf By Night. Laura F. uses an Extra Credit getting us to split up TV marriages, and couple up the new singletons with other TV characters. Kathryn presents the Station Eleven episode "Dr. Chaudhary" for admission into the Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that jumps around, jumps up, and gets down. Leap into a comfy chair and join us!

GUESTS

👤 Kathryn VanArendonk

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🦘 Quantum Leap (2022)

Around The Dial: 👻 Los Espookys

Around The Dial: 🐶 Reservation Dogs

Around The Dial: 💾 Halt And Catch Fire

Around The Dial: ⏰ Journeyman

Will Dave Hate This?: 🐺 Werewolf By Night

Extra Credit: ❤️‍🩹 Another Sad Divorce Statistic

The Canon: 🧑‍🚀 Station Eleven S01.E09: Dr. Chaudhary

Winner & Loser: 👍 Grimm

Winner & Loser: 👎 NY1 Meteorologist Erick Adame

Game Time: 🤯 Quantum Leaping

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 425 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Kathryn VanArendonk on Twitter

🎙 Kathryn's 2019 interview with Scott Bakula about the original Quantum Leap

💄 The Listen To Sassy podcast on Patreon

👤 Kathryn's Kate Beaton profile at Vulture

🦤 The Vulture Festival

👋 Kathryn and Jesse David Fox's conversation about Welcome To Wrexham at Vulture

✍️ Kathryn at Vulture

📚 Exhibit B. Books

📷 Photo: Ron Batzdorff / NBC

Forty-two years after Paul Schrader's American Gigolo pioneered the sex-worker neo-noir micro-genre, Showtime's limited series of the same name is trying it again -- and returning guest Sarah Baker joins us to talk about tone problems; weird directing choices; pervasive misogyny that's even more tiresome than usual; MVP Rosie O'Donnell; and whether Jon Bernthal should have gotten better writing to work with. We went Around The Dial with Monarch, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Animal Kingdom, Cobra Kai, Severance, Big Brother, and Rings Of Power before Baker screwed up her courage and asked the Canon to PEN15's first-season episode, "Dance." Lee Jung-jae won, Dick Wolf lost (while John Oliver won), and a non-regulation Game Time about TV sex work was NOT considered especially heinous. Slow that disco standard way down for extra poignancy; it's an all-new Extra Hot Great.

GUESTS

👤 Sarah Baker

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🕺 American Gigolo

Around The Dial: 👑 Monarch

Around The Dial: 💼 The Dick Van Dyke Show

Around The Dial: 👒 The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Around The Dial: 🐷 Animal Kingdom

Around The Dial: 🐍 Cobra Kai

I Am Not A Crackpot: 🍕 Cobra Kai Locations

Around The Dial: 💍 The Rings Of Power

The Canon: 🍆 PEN15 S01.E10: Dance

Winner & Loser: 👍 Lee Jung-jae

Winner & Loser: 👎 Dick Wolf

Game Time: ☎️ Call Them

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 424 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🎙 Tara's Rosie O'Donnell interview at Vanity Fair

👀 Watch Sarah Baker in The Kominsky Method on Netflix

🎞 Kominsky's third-season trailer

🧭 The Great North on Hulu

🌳 Central Park on AppleTV+

🪫 Tara's Mark Proksch interview at VF

❌ Tara's Decider piece about current primetime soaps, ALL of which ended up getting cancelled

🤰 Tara's The Handmaid's Tale S05 review at VF

🎶 The #LilithFair40 season finale on MASTAS

💄 Listen To Sassy

📷 Photo: Warrick Page / Showtime

It's the first week of September -- traditionally the time when students go back to school (and if your district is one of those cess pools that call kids back in early August: get yourself on the school board and FIX IT). So in recognition of the moment, we've chosen 27 TV educators to face each other in the Thunderdome and, per usual, fight to the death. Do magic users and telepaths have an advantage over literal murderers? Listen and find out which one ends up triumphantly covered in the blood of all their foes, and is probably coming up with a very important lesson all about it.

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🧑‍🏫 TV Teacher Thunderdome

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 423 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

After co-creating The Americans, where have Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg gone next? Back to FX...on Hulu, with the psychological thriller The Patient, and first-time guest Patrick Monahan is joining us to talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through Star Trek: Lower Decks, For All Mankind, Industry and Mike. Tara pitches the Regular Show episode "That's My Television!" for induction into the Canon. Then it's on to the week's Winner and Loser, and the eleventh (can you even believe it) round of Tube Tunes. Get on the couch or chair -- whatever makes you feel most comfortable -- and listen!

GUESTS

👤 Patrick Monahan

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🔗 The Patient

Around The Dial: 🚂 Star Trek: Lower Decks

Around The Dial: 🌙 For All Mankind

Around The Dial: 🏦 Industry

Around The Dial: 🥊 Mike

The Canon: 🦝 Regular Show S04.E18: That’s My Television

Winner & Loser: 👍 Dads getting hit in the nuts

Winner & Loser: 👎 NBC

Game Time: 📻 Tube Tunes XI

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 422 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Patrick Monahan on Twitter

🤒 Alan Sepinwall's review of The Patient at RollingStone.com (subscription required)

⚾️ Tara's essay on A League Of Their Own at Defector

🐝 Tara on the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, discussing A Walk On The Moon

🤹‍♀️ Tara moderating the "Dangerous Women" panel at the 2022 ATX TV Festival

🥧 The What A Time To Be Alive! podcast

🧛🏻‍♂️ The Not You, Guillermo podcast

📸 Patty on Instagram

🥊 Sarah's review of Mike at the Best Evidence newsletter

☠️ Sarah discussing I Just Killed My Dad on the Crime Seen podcast

📸 Photo: Frank Ockenfells / FX

Our resident (reluctant) GoT expert Jeff Drake is back to talk about HBO's ponderous, poorly wigged prequel to Game Of Thrones, House Of The Dragon -- who it's for, why it's so murkily lit, when it's going to get out of the administrative world-building weeds and get interesting, and which actors are making us long for the upcoming time jump. After that, we jumped into Around The Dial with She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Bluey's third season, and Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist, and Erica challenged us to drop Jeff "the Dude" Bridges into existing shows. The gang slipped and slid towards the Canon in a twelfth-season It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia pitch; Paul Rudd won, and arranged TV marriages lost; and Game Time had us contemplating the shows that just keep draggin' on. The old gods have spoken: listen to the latest Extra Hot Great!

GUESTS

👤 Jeff Drake

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🐲 House Of The Dragon

Around The Dial: ⚖️ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law

Around The Dial: 🐶 Bluey

Around The Dial: 🦈 Zig & Sharko

Around The Dial: 🫥 Untold

Extra Credit: 🌉 An Infinite Number Of Bridges

The Canon: 🔔 It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia S12.E02: The Gang Goes To A Water Park

Winner & Loser: 👍 Only Murders In The Building

Winner & Loser: 👎 Love Is Blind

Game Time: 👴🏼 House Of The Draggin'

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 421 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🦆 Jeff Drake's show Central Park

🤬 Jeff's podcast 9 Chickweed Rage is now up!

🚓 The Hot Fuzz gif

🤢 "Inside Hollywood's Visual Effects Crisis" at Defector

🎙 Tara's interview with Stefani Robinson at Vanity Fair

👑 The top 50 King Of Queens episodes at Vulture

📚 15% off selected items at Exhibit B. Books

📷 Photo: Ollie Upton / HBO