Extra Hot Great: This Week In TV

Hulu and Canada's kids' broadcaster YTV have brought the world a new adaptation of the nearly-100-year-old boy detectives Frank and Joe Hardy, and we've enlisted Adam Grosswirth to join us in discussing it! A super-sized Around The Dial takes us through Selena: The Series, Nurses, Jingle Jangle, Dolly Parton's Christmas On The Square, the original '70s version of The Hardy Boys, and Gangs Of London. After Joe M. uses his Extra Credit topic to have us write a character-revealing power ballad into an otherwise un-musical show, Adam makes his pitch for the "Fair Is Foul And Foul Is Fair" episode of Slings & Arrows to be inducted into The Canon. We crown the week's Winner and Loser, and close out with a Game Time perfectly tailored (heh heh) to our interests. Get your flashlight and your VERY loud walkie-talkie and listen in!

GUESTS

👤 Adam Grosswirth

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🔍 The Hardy Boys

Around The Dial: 🎶 Selena: The Series

Around The Dial: 🏥 Nurses

Around The Dial: 🔔 Jingle Jangle

Around The Dial: 🎄 Christmas On The Square

Around The Dial: 🔎 The Hardy Boys (1977)

Around The Dial: 🇬🇧 Gangs Of London

Extra Credit: 🤑 Once More With Feels

The Canon: 🏹 Slings & Arrows S02.E04: Fair Is Foul And Foul Is Fair

Winner & Loser: 👍 Vantage Point, getting a series adaptation at NBC

Winner & Loser: 👎 CBS Sunday Morning David Sedaris

Game Time: 🧠 Signature Look

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 332 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Adam Grosswirth on Twitter

🥴 The drunk episode of Overwhelming Positivity, "Two Hundred Headless Snowman In Review"

🎶 "The Latine Delegation Has Decided Netflix's Selena: The Series Is Not Good" at Jezebel

👗 Tara's review of Stylish With Jenna Lyons at Primetimer

🛩 Tara on Kaley Cuoco in The Flight Attendant at Decider

👩‍🦰 Tara on the end of The Undoing at Dave Chen's Patreon

🎄 Wesley Morris;s review of Dolly Parton's Christmas On The Square in The New York Times

🎧 Adam on Caroline And The Podcast

🔪 The 12 Days Of Best Evidence

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parallel between [waves hands vaguely] All This and the world MASH portrayed, but is the episode's status as a historical reference enough to earn it a medal of honor?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 Amy Sedaris's satirical take on The Best Little Girl In The World -- and a solid comedic turn from one Ellen Pompeo -- have what we'd call a debater's body? Finally, Mlle. Caroline files a support ticket for The IT Crowd, which pits Matt Berry and a great PSA parody against suboptimal pacing and an intrusive laugh track. Try turning it off and then back on again: it's an all-Canon Extra Hot Great!

TOPICS

The Canon: 🩺 M*A*S*H

The Canon: ✏️ Strangers With Candy

The Canon: 💻 The IT Crowd

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 331 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

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 to it; then it's on to Guy's submission of the Perfect Strangers episode "Just Desserts" for induction into The Canon. Finally, after crowning the week's Winner and Loser, we end on a Game Time with a little Gallic flair. Load up the vintage Impala and join us!

GUESTS

👤 Caroline Lefloch

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 👻 Supernatural

Around The Dial: 😡 I Hate Suzie

Around The Dial: ✏️ Saved By The Bell (2020)

Around The Dial: 🥸 Agatha Christie's Poirot

Around The Dial: 📜 History's Greatest Mysteries

Around The Dial: 🪂 The Mystery Of D.B. Cooper

Extra Credit: 🤑 Fleabag Redux

The Canon: 👨‍🍳 Perfect Strangers S03.E16: Just Desserts

Winner & Loser: 👍 Nick Offerman

Winner & Loser: 👎 The Drew Barrymore Show

Game Time: 🧠 How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 330 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

😷 "Supernatural: COVID May Be To Blame for a Lackluster Finale" on VanityFair.com

🌴 Again With This on Patreon

🎧 Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs

🛶 "Nick Offerman's Woodshop Is Crafting Sustainable Solutions To Homelessness In LA" on Uproxx

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 big gig in Around The Dial as Tara talked about The Crown (plus Candy Land, and alas, there's no crossover event there...yet) before the rest of us made stops at The Animal Rescue Show and SVU's odious season premiere. Suley asked us to script a Jack McCoy rant for Extra Credit, and then Tara Talked To Us about a first-season Joe Pera Talks To You episode about The Who ("second base!"). Alec Baldwin and Kelsey Grammer won; COVID production shutdowns lost; and we curled up with cozy murders (and gardening ghosts) in Game Time. Insert your own "baby bunting" joke here: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great!

GUESTS

👤 Omar Gallaga

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 👶 Becoming You

Around The Dial: 👑 The Crown

Around The Dial: 🍭 Candy Land

Around The Dial: 🐾 The Animal Rescue Show

Around The Dial: 🚨 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Extra Credit: 🤑 Indignant Jack McCoy

The Canon: 🌲 Joe Pera Talks With You

Winner & Loser: 👍 Alec Baldwin and Kelsey Grammar teaming for a new sitcom

Winner & Loser: 👎 More covid shutdowns

Game Time: 🧠 Revenge Of The Cozy Mysteries

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 329 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Omar Gallaga on Twitter

🏆 Tara's We Are The Champions review at Primetimer

👓 Omar's Steve Treviño interview at Pulso

📚 Omar's Treviño piece at Book And Film Globe

💻 SteveTrevino.com

🎧 John Ramos joins the Quaid In Full podcast for Suspect

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 Disney+. Andrea pitches the Barry episode "ronny/lily" for induction into The Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that you should thank for its service. Make yourself a nice cup of hot chocolate and join us!

GUESTS

👤 Esther Zuckerman

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🎄 Dash & Lily

Around The Dial: ✏️ A Teacher

Around The Dial: 🩸 B Positive

Around The Dial: ⚽️ Ted Lasso

Around The Dial: 🇺🇸 The Reagans

Lead Topic: ✨ Disney+'s episode numbering

The Canon: 🎭 Barry S02.E05: ronny/lily

Winner & Loser: 👍 Love Life William Jackson Harper

Winner & Loser: 👎 Brian Austin Green

Game Time: 🧠 Support The TV Troops

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 328 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Esther Zuckerman on Twitter

💻 Esther's Dash & Lily review at Thrillist

🥃 Tara on Mom at Primetimer

🇬🇧 Tara on Hugh Laurie at Primetimer

📚 Esther's book, A Field Guide To Internet Boyfriends

🌙 Kristen Stewart excerpt from Esther's book, at The Daily Beast

🌊 Keanu Reeves excerpt at Thrillist

🎸 Harry Styles excerpt at Billboard

💻 Esther at Thrillist

🔪 Best Evidence Book Club

🛒 "Fields Market: One Of LA's Hottest Filming Locations" in Southern California Life magazine

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. It all comes down to a contentious lightning round to determine the Winner and Losers of the week!

GUESTS

👤 Dan Cassino

👤 Taylor Cole

👤 Mark Blankenship

TOPICS

Game Time: 🧠 The Great American Pop Culture Quiz Show crossover

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 327 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Mark Blankenship on Twitter

🐦 Dan Cassino on Twitter

🐦 Taylor Cole on Twitter

🎧 The Great American Pop Culture Quiz Show podcast

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 Archer, the new Supermarket Sweep, Revolutionary Girl Utena, The Morning Show, City So Real, and The Queen's Gambit, before location-scouting "Domestic Survivor" for Don's Extra Credit. Emily hoped the signal-to-noise ratio of a fourth-season Halt And Catch Fire episode would be good enough to connect it to the Canon. Stath Lets Flats won, Quibi lost, and Game Time proved a severe insult to the brain (and other things). Quick, look hunted! It's an all-new Extra Hot Great.

GUESTS

👤 Emily Yoshida

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🔪 The Undoing

Around The Dial: 🏹 Archer

Around The Dial: 🛒 Supermarket Sweep

Around The Dial: 👧 Revolutionary Girl Utena

Around The Dial: 🌞 The Morning Show

Around The Dial: 🏙 City So Real

Extra Credit: 🤑 Domestic Survivor

The Canon: 💾 Halt And Catch Fire

Winner & Loser: 👍 Stath Lets Flats

Winner & Loser: 👎 Quibi

Game Time: 🧠 A Game For Hoopleheads

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 326 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Emily Yoshida on Twitter

👓 Emily's Hugh Grant profile from when he was shooting The Undoing

🧺 Tara on the premiere of The Conners vs. other quarantine-era shows, at Primetimer

🎧 The Film Cast (fka Slashfilmcast)

🌃 The Night Call podcast

🔪 Kartemquin best bets on Best Evidence

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 week's Winner and Loser, we close things up with a Game Time that has spirit(s). Settle into your favorite wing chair at the Shooting Club and join us!

GUESTS

👤 Will Ellis

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🇪🇸 Someone Has To Die

Around The Dial: 😷 Social Distance

Around The Dial: 🧺 The Conners

Around The Dial: 🏡 Selling Sunset

Around The Dial: 🇦🇺 Australia's Next Top Model

Around The Dial: 🗳 The West Wing

The Canon: 🎙 The Tyra Banks Show

Winner & Loser: 👍 Paramount Plus

Winner & Loser: 👎 Hubie Halloween Alaina Pinto

Game Time: 🧠 Bar Some

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 325 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Will Ellis on Twitter

😷 Kathryn VanArendonk's review of Social Distance at Vulture

🇨🇦 Tara on Baroness von Sketch Show at Primetimer

🕵️‍♂️ Sarah on Unsolved Mysteries at Primetimer

🎙 The Tyra Banks Show S01.E50 on YouTube

👓 Sarah Hagi on Naomi Campbell's appearance on The Tyra Banks Show, at Zora

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 Around The Dial with stops at Connecting, The Good Wife, Dark Side Of The Ring, and Rise Of Empires: Ottoman, we ordered some bangers and Smash with a Canon presentation on RuPaul's Drag Race UK. AppleTV+ won, Max Ehrich was a giant loser, and we were absolutely horrified by the wordplay in Game Time. Strap in to the vomit comet: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great!

GUESTS

👤 Adam Moussa

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 👨‍🚀 The Right Stuff

Around The Dial: 😷 Connecting

Around The Dial: ⚖️ The Good Wife

Around The Dial: 👨‍🎤 Dark Side Of The Ring

Around The Dial: 📜 Rise Of Empires: Ottoman

The Canon: 🏆 RuPaul's Drag Race UK S01.E05: Girl Groups

Winner & Loser: 👍 AppleTV+

Winner & Loser: 👎 Under The Dome Max Ehrich

Game Time: 🧠 Terrorvision

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 324 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Adam Moussa on Twitter

👨‍🚀 The Right Stuff movie on the Quaid In Full podcast

🚀 Tara's review of The Right Stuff at Primetimer

🍽 Adam at Eater

🌎 Eater's Guide To The World on Hulu

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" episode. We crown the week's Winner and Loser; then it's on to a Game Time that takes place in front of an unadorned brick wall. Join us -- but just so you know, there's a two-drink minimum!

GUESTS

👤 Brandi Brown

TOPICS

Lead Topic: 🎙 The Comedy Store

Around The Dial: 🥖 Emily In Paris

Around The Dial: 🐻‍❄️ Polar Bear's Café

Around The Dial: 🔥 I Am Richard Pryor

Extra Credit: 🤑 Counting Down To The Countdown To Christmas 2035

The Canon: 🤠 Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Winner & Loser: 👍 Ryan Murphy

Winner & Loser: 👎 GLOW

Game Time: 🧠 My Name Is [Blank] And You've Been Great

NOTES

🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 323 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

🐦 Brandi Brown on Twitter

🎙 Brandi's mentor Tracey Ashley's episode of They Ready

👓 A profile on Ashley at Forbes.com

🎧 Ashley's album on Spotify

🎧 Minnesota comic Cy Amundson on Spotify

🔭 Astronomy Club on Netflix

🥖 Tara's review of Emily In Paris at Primetimer

🐦 Brandi's Twitter thread on Succession as Gritty Family Circus

🐦 Brandi's Twitter thread on every 2020 Democratic primary candidate and who they'd be on Law & Order

🎧 A Very Special 90210 Book, the audiobook

🌴 Deleted scenes from the book in the Again With This podcast feed

🛍 The Shangri-La Plaza pilot

🌴 A Very Special 90210 Conversation with Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting, presented by ATX Festival