Extra Hot Great: This Week In TV

Austin HQ had a water pipe burst on record day so we celebrate with two EEHG about other bad things in your house.

Bad Ronald lives in a hidden room in the house you just bought. What a weirdo!

When the search results for Bad Ronald included another TV movie called Crawlspace, Tara decided we had to stay in the "'70s paranoia about a dude living in your home's secret places" genre. But is Richard another (Bad) Ronald? Plus! Tara gives her report on Bad Ronald: the novel. Spoiler: there is toilet strat!!!

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 😈 Bad Ronald TV Movie

Lead Topic: 🫣 Crawlspace TV Movie

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 342 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

Fametracker's own Adam Sternbergh (oh, also the New York Times's but whatever)(hee) is back to discuss The Equalizer, the perfectly acceptable re-imagining of the '80s classic. Whom on the panel did the new verzh win over with casting coups, origami tradecraft, and similarities to Leverage and Blindspot? Who called it the three-camera sitcom of cop shows? And is anyone setting their DVR to watch more of it? We went Around The Dial with Framing Britney Spears, Married At First Sight, GBBO, Big Family Cooking Showdown, and Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel before finding ways to Defund The Police Shows in an Extra Credit from Francoise. Succession tried to ascend to the Canon throne; comedy both won AND lost; and we may have flunked out of electoral college during Game Time. Settle down in front of your only-on-TV massive monitor bank for an all-new Extra Hot Great!

GUESTS

👤 Adam Sternbergh

TOPICS

Lead Topic: ⚖️ The Equalizer

Around The Dial: 🖼 The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears

Around The Dial: 👰‍♀️ Married At First Sight

Around The Dial: 🥮 The Great British Bake Off

Around The Dial: ⏲ The Big Family Cooking Showdown

Around The Dial: 🫥 Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel

Extra Credit: 🚔 Defund The Police Shows

The Canon: 🦺 Succession S02.E04: Safe Room

Winner & Loser: 🤣 Impractical Jokers

Winner & Loser: 🦚 NBC

Game Time: 🧠 Hail To The Chiefs

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 341 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

⚖️ Tara's review of The Equalizer for Primetimer

🔮 "The Oracle of Britney Spears" in Vanity Fair

👴🏼 "How The Elderly Lose Their Rights" in the New Yorker

🌅 Tara (and John Ramos!) on the Postcards From The Edge ep of Quaid In Full

💰 The Sweet Smell Of Succession podcast

📷 Photo: CBS / Barbara Nitke

With our intended guest and Firefly Lane expert LaToya Ferguson forced to bow out (we'll re-book her again ASAP!), your co-hosts muddled through on Netflix's new middlebrow book adaptation to the best of our ability. Around The Dial takes us through the late Quibi sitcom Mapleworth Murders, Hulu's Canadian import Jann, HBO Max's Danish import The Investigation -- and Borgen, with which it shares approximately half its cast -- the just-announced Black Panther show coming to Disney+ from Ryan Coogler, and Syfy's Resident Alien. Tara presents the A.P. Bio episode "Teacher Jail" to The Canon. And because the Loser is VERY dark, we name the Loser THEN the Winner this week, rather than send you home on a downer. Freshen up your Aqua Net and join us!

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🏘 Firefly Lane

Around The Dial: 🍁 Mapleworth Murders

Around The Dial: 👩🏻‍🌾 Jann

Around The Dial: 🕵️‍♀️ The Investigation

Around The Dial: 🇩🇰 Borgen

Around The Dial: 🐆 Black Panther

Around The Dial: 👽 Resident Alien

The Canon: 🏆 A.P. Bio S01.E02: Teacher Jail

Winner & Loser: 👍 Whac-a-Mole

Winner & Loser: 👎 Wipeout

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 340 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

👩🏻‍🌾 Tara's Jann review at Primetimer

💄 The Listen To Sassy podcast

🐆 Collider's report on Ryan Coogler's Black Panther TV series

🕵️‍♀️ Sarah's review of The Investigation at Primetimer

Our esteemed colleague, "Pot Ledom"-ologist, and Long Island native Dan Rogge returns to analyze Edward Burns's thoroughly mediocre Bridge & Tunnel, about the post-college lives and loves of six suspiciously hot high-school friends...none of whom can seem to master the accent. A huge music budget (and equally large commitment to the sex scenes) can't make up for stilted dialogue, anachronistic argot, and Burns's Lena Dunham-esque estrangement from the real-world problems of his characters. We went Around The Dial with Perfect Life, Walker, an America's Next Top Model book, Everwood, and 9-1-1 Lone Star before contemplating our ideal 2024 presidential tickets in an Extra Credit, and then Dan proposed burning down Riverdale's fourth-season musical episode "Wicked Little Town" in his Nonac presentation. Jane Lynch won, Seventeen lost, and none of us had perfect 2020 vision in a mash-up Game Time from Dan Cassino. Chuck that EZ-Pass tag out the window: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great.

GUESTS

👤 Dan Rogge

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🌉 Bridge & Tunnel

Around The Dial: 🌈 Perfect Life

Around The Dial: 🤠 Walker

Around The Dial: 👠 America's Next Top Model

Around The Dial: 🪵 Everwood

Around The Dial: 🧑‍🚒 9-1-1: Lone Star

Extra Credit: 🤑 Commander On Screen

The Nonac: 🦦 Riverdale S04.E17: Wicked Little Town

Winner & Loser: 👍 The Weakest Link

Winner & Loser: 👎 Seventeen Magazine

Game Time: 🧠 2020 Double Vision

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 339 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🫥 Dan recommends Emily VanDerWerff on The Leftovers

📰 Tara's Sassy piece in the New York Times Magazine

💄 The Listen To Sassy podcast

🎧 The Quaid In Full podcast

🗽 The Great American Pop Culture Quiz Show podcast

📸 Photo: Epix

Marvel Studios has kicked off its slate of TV series with WandaVision, a sort-of spoof of classic sitcoms starring a couple of Avengers. What's actually going on? We don't know (though Dave has theories), but Caroline Framke is here to talk about the two-part premiere! Around The Dial takes us through The Good Lord Bird, Call Your Mother, Season 2's new Batwoman, the Premier League of football (or soccer, if you will), The Challenge, and Superstore -- specifically, the voice Mark McKinney is using to play Glenn, and whether it's worse than jazz. Suley presents the Steven Universe episode "So Many Birthdays" for The Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that takes it to the bridge. Grab your nearest nosy neighbour and listen!

GUESTS

👤 Caroline Framke

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 📺 Wandavision

Around The Dial: 🕊 The Good Lord Bird

Around The Dial: ☎️ Call Your Mother

Around The Dial: 🦇 Batwoman

Around The Dial: ⚽️ The English Premier League

Around The Dial: 🤺 The Challenge

Is This Worse Than Jazz?: 🎷 Mark McKinney's Voice As Glenn On Superstore

The Canon: 💎 Steven Universe S01.E13: So Many Birthdays

Winner & Loser: 👍 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Winner & Loser: 👎 At Home With Amy Sedaris

Game Time: 🧠 Extension Chords

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 338 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Caroline Framke on Twitter

🧙‍♀️ Caroline's WandaVision review at Variety

💰 David Chen's Patreon

🕊 Doreen St. Felix's review of The Good Lord Bird at The New Yorker

💄 The Listen To Sassy podcast

🐦 ListenToSassy on Twitter

📸 ListenToSassy on Instagram

🦇 Caroline's Batwoman review

✍️ Caroline's author page at Variety.com

📰 The Best Evidence newsletter

The regular panelists had to forge ahead without esteemed colleague Kathryn VanArendonk in our discussion of Dickinson's second season; that's the bad news. The good news is, we all like Apple TV's imagining of poet Emily Dickinson's life and loves with lots of swearing and twenty-first-century slang. How DOES the show balance the demands of historical fact with flights of fancy, and not take itself too seriously? And are Season 2's creepy [character spoiler redacted] the key to its success? Later, we went Around The Dial with The Masked Dancer, Everything Is Going Great, Cheers Season 5, Mr. Mayor's debut, and Lupin and other "Pringle mysteries." A new detective franchise won, an old HBO franchise lost, and we continued the episode's verse theme with the Tara-crafted Tube Tunes VII. Pass Nobody an earbud for an all-new Extra Hot Great.

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🪶 Dickinson

Around The Dial: 🎉 Everyone Is Doing Great

Around The Dial: 🕺 The Masked Dancer

Around The Dial: 🍻 Cheers

Around The Dial: 🏢 Mr. Mayor

Around The Dial: 🥷 Lupin

Winner & Loser: 👍 Keegan-Michael Key

Winner & Loser: 👎 And Just Like That

Game Time: 🧠 Tube Tunes VII

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 337 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🪶 Kathryn VanArendonk, with us in spirit with her Dickinson deep dive for Vulture

🎉 Tara's Everyone Is Doing Great review for Primetimer

🕺 Tara's Masked Dancer review, ditto

🖐 Tara's Force Five podcast appearance

🐯 Sarah on Tiger's identity crisis for Primetimer

📷 Photo: Apple TV

We're off this week but we've glued together three episode forcening, uh, episodes from our Patreon supporter bonus podcast Extra Extra Hot Great.

Patreon supporter Sharon Johnson had us watch The Big Bang Theory S07.E03: "The Scavenger Vortex," writing, "While I'm aware that it's not well thought of among the EHG family, BBT is one of my all-time favorite television shows," and this episode a fave among faves. Did this selection make us come around? Listen and find out! From Aug 21, 2020.

We watch the second season episode "Network" in which all the late-80s stars of NBC shine as talking heads on "Entertainment Today." ALF is among them. We have questions. From September 29, 2020

After Michael Darling eulogized the ill-fated pilot of Shangri-La Plaza in Los Angelesmagazine this August, Tara made a mental note to expose her co-hosts -- and our Patreon supporters! -- to the insanity he described. Finally, it is time for all of us to take that journey! From October 9, 2020.

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🌌 The Big Bang Theory

Lead Topic: 👴🏻 Matlock

Lead Topic: 🌭 Shangri-La Plaza

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 336 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🌭 Shangri-La Plaza, the Star-Studded, All-Musical Sitcom Time Forgot' in Los Angeles magazine

To help get you through our holiday break, Tara wrote a special festive version of her fan-favorite (...is it?) Non-Regulation Game Time: it's Wrapping Paper Tube Tunes! Some original holiday songs from TV shows; some covers; all comfort and joy. Please enjoy this gift from us to you, and don't try to return it.

TOPICS

Game Time: 🎁 Wrapping Paper Tube Tunes

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 335 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

Stephen King's 1978 novel has already been turned into a miniseries once, but it's time for this generation to get its own, apparently? So CBS All Access has made one, and Roxana Hadadi is joining us to talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through The Flight Attendant, Celebrity IOU, TKTK, The Wilds, and Season 2 of The Mandalorian. Mlle. Caroline presents the Parks & Recreation episode "Recall Vote" for induction to The Canon; then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that defies categorization. Make yourself a nice cup of Thera-Flu and join us!

GUESTS

👤 Roxana Hadadi

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🦠 The Stand

Around The Dial: ✈️ The Flight Attendant

Around The Dial: 💸 Celebrity IOU

Around The Dial: 👒 Bridgerton

Around The Dial: 🍺 Letterkenny

Around The Dial: 🐆 The Wilds

Around The Dial: 🐸 The Mandalorian

The Canon: 🌳 Parks And Recreation S06.E07: Recall Vote

Winner & Loser: 👍 Dopesick

Winner & Loser: 👎 The Rookie

Game Time: 🧠 Netflix Rathole

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 334 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Roxana Hadadi on Twitter

🦠 Roxana's review of The Stand at Variety

📚 1994 Harold Lauder

🥇 RogerEbert.com Best TV of 2020 coverage

🎗 The A.V. Club Best Films of 2020 coverage

🍺 A goofy piece about the hotness of the Letterkenny cast, sort of jumping off me mentioning the show during the recording, over at Pajiba

🌴 A Very Special 90210 Book

🎙 Madonna A to Z

🐸 Film Crit Hulk on the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian

🥸 The Mandalorian animation vs. deepfake

First-time guest Kamille joins us for a conversation about Tiny Pretty Things, Netflix's new Center Stage-with-teens ballet thriller (?), and while she watched the whole thing, neither she nor the fulltime panel thinks it's good. But aside from the wretched VO, suspect acting, unwelcome parallels to 13 Reasons Why and decided un-Frenchness of cartoon villain Lauren Holly, is TPT a good time-waster? Not to worry: we found you some definite time-wasters when we went Around The Dial with The Wilds and 12 Dates Of Christmas, panned Deliciousness, and helped you cut down that HBO-documentary backlog with a watch-skip index of recent prestige true crime. We couldn't help but wonder if Sex & The City's fourth-season premiere was the Canon's soulmate. Boots Riley and Jharrel Jerome won (for now), Ellen and Ellen lost (again), and Suley wassailed us with a TV/Christmas song Game Time. Don't let the dorm mother catch you listening to an all-new Extra Hot Great!

GUESTS

👤 Kamille Washington

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🩰 Tiny Pretty Things

Around The Dial: 🏝 The Wilds

Around The Dial: 🍕 Deliciousness

Around The Dial: 💕 12 Dates Of Christmas

Around The Dial: 🔪 HBO true-crime documentaries

The Canon: 🏙 Sex And The City

Winner & Loser: 👍 Amazon orders a series from Boots Riley

Winner & Loser: 👎 The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Game Time: 🧠 The Caroling Burnett Show

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 333 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Kamille Washington on Twitter

🇬🇧 Tara's post on Pennyworth at Decider

📚 Sarah and Tara on the People Still Read Books podcast

🎄 Sarah and Tara discussion Northpole on the Dave And Jeb Aren't Mean podcast

🎧 The Unfriendly Black Hotties podcast

💸 Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs on Patreon