One Offs

Ep. 11, ‘The Suitecase’, on Mad Men – Season 4, Episode 7

Dave and Steve are joined by a very special guest to discuss yet another HBO hit series that they didn’t watch when it was popular. That seems to be a trend with these guys. Steve claims to have seen Deadwood when it was on television, but that may never be verified.

iTunes description for this week: “A deadline disrupts Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce”.

Hush little Dave and Steve, don’t say a word, because this One Off takes you back to a time before Joss Whedon was writing and directing blockbuster superhero movies. Sharpen your stakes and peel some garlic, because, it’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer time, folks.

iTunes has this to say about the episode: “From out of a fairy tale comes a group of murderous creatures known as The Gentlemen: first they steal everyone’s voices, then they begin to collect human hearts.”

Apparently The Sopranos is one of the greatest shows of all time. Dave and Steve didn’t know this when they sat down to watch it and they’re not sure they’d agree with the sentiment, but boy did they ever have feelings about the world of Tony and his band of merry men. Other things they had feelings about: Scrabble,

iTunes description for this week: “Paulie and Christopher are engulfed in a nightmarish journey into the South Jersey woods while trying to collect a debt from a Russian mobster. Meanwhile, Meadow is suspicious that Jackie Jr. is two-timing her, and Tony finds that family demands are jeopardizing his romance with Gloria.”

Dave and Steve put on their detective badges for Brooklyn 99 Season 2, Episode 22, ‘The Chopper’. Oddly enough, they spend no time at all talking about how confusing it is that “chopper” could refer to either a motorcycle or a helicopter, but they do find delve into Dave’s weird nicknames.

Netflix tells us that, in this episode, “Holt worries Jake is being set up to fail when Wuntch green lights his dream assignment, and Terry hosts a field trip for a magnet school.”

Your intrepid hosts just can’t help themselves this week as they dive into Star Trek: Discovery with Season 1, Episode 4, ‘The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry’. They go overtime, because of course they do. Nerds. This episode title is so long the podcast is half over by the time they get through saying it.

CBS summarizes the episode thusly: “With tensions and stakes high as Starfleet continues in their efforts to end the war with Klingons, Burnham begins to settle in to her new position aboard the U.S.S. Discovery.”

Just in time for the new season of Riverdale that starts on Wednesday, this week’s One Off goes back to Season 1, Episode 7, ‘In A Lonely Place’. Listen along as Steve and Dave share uninformed opinions about popular teen dramas from the 00s. Also of note: nobody uses the term “on fleek”.

According to Netflix’s summary, this week’s episode is as follows: “Amid harsh rumors about Polly, Alice goes public with family secrets, making Betty and Cheryl uneasy allies. Jughead helps his dad reclaim his life.”

This week’s One Off is all about showing you how the sausage gets made, where the sausage is Dave and Steve’s creative processes. To get there, they watched Abstract: The Art of Design Season 1, Episode 6, ‘Paula Scher: Graphic Design’. Hold onto your pocket protectors, because it’s about to get awfully nerdy up in here.

According to Netflix’s summary, this is “Graphic designer Paula Scher paints with words, developing the visual language of iconic brands and institutions around the world.”

While it isn’t the future, you’ll be able to replay this One Off again and again until it makes you want to rip your earbuds out of your head. That’s right, this week Dave and Steve are watching Black Mirror Season 1, Episode 3: ‘The Entire History of You’. They vaguely remember 60’s era television and Dave makes fun of how Steve’s brain works. What more could you ask for?

As Netflix reminds us, thie episode is summarized thusly, “In the near future, everyone has access to a memory implant that records everything humans do, see and hear”. Which, of course, raises the question: why would you say ‘humans’ do? Is it an attempt to clarify that we’re not putting these implants in frogs? Now that’d be a strange future: in a world where every toad is recording your every move, one human gets hopping mad in an attempt to be frogotten.

As is befitting of the end of summer, this week’s One Off has Dave and Steve watching a Christmas episode of The West Wing: Season 2, Episode 10. They talk about songs that make them nostalgic, the pitfalls of Christmas episodes, and end with a discussion that Steve should probably share with his therapist.

iTunes’ overly wordy description for this episode is, “At Christmas time, Leo hires a traumatologist to force Josh to confront his unacknowledged stress resulting from when he was shot. Josh initially denies his recent erratic emotions as he recounts the events of the last few weeks. Sam deals with an errant energy secretary who contradicts Bartlet. Meanwhile, C.J. helps a tourist who becomes agitated after seeing a painting that was stolen from her family by the Nazi-controlled French government. And Charlie must persuade a stubborn Bartlet that the President cannot possibly personally sign more than one million White House Christmas cards.”

In this One Off, Dave and Steve delve into DC’s darkest detective, with Season 2, Episode 18 of Batman: The Animated Series. Come to hear them talk about the value of framed narratives and why Dave hates live action superheroes, stay for the fight they get into about toys. iTunes’ description for this episode is, “While hiding from the police, Batman’s deadliest enemies exchange stories about their mutual nemesis–Batman.”