Extra Hot Great

Stephanie Early Green returns to talk about Trackers, the 2019 South African "thriller" that Cinemax has imported. Unfortunately, the only place it led the EHG panel was Dullsville, despite big game, gun battles, and the apparent love child of Christian Bale and Randall Batinkoff...but we did talk about the "COVID programming trough" that's rapidly approaching for all TV fans. Later, we went Around The Dial with Love Life, Married At First Sight Australia, Please Like Me, 13 Reasons Why's final season, and Disney Gallery Colon The Mandalorian; then we wondered what themed episode titles would look like for series that don't already have them in David Ellis Dickerson's Extra Credit. Did Crazy Ex-Girlfriend sing successfully for its Canon supper? Who's smashing the Iron Throne on HBOMax, and what police (shows) got defunded? And who was attuned to Sad Hulk's rewrites of legendary TV theme songs during Game Time? Stare into the middle distance as you listen to an all-new Extra Hot Great. GUESTS

The announcement that Donald Trump was creating a new branch of the military called the Space Force was swiftly followed by the announcement that Greg Daniels and Steve Carell, the creator and star of The Office, would re-team on Space Force, a sitcom about said branch. Should that have occurred? Now that the first season has dropped on Netflix, John Ramos has returned to discuss the matter. Around The Dial takes us through AMC's ITV import Quiz, Season 2 of Ramy on Hulu, Netflix's docuseries Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, and the new Starz drama Hightown. Tara wastes no time in pitching the three-week-old What We Do In The Shadows episode "On The Run" to The Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's the sequel to a Game Time that sings. Put on your moon-print fatigues and join us! GUESTS

We're welcoming Vanity Fair TV critic Sonia Soraiya to the guest chair to talk about the shorter, neater, Julia-Roberts-less-but-still-better second season of Amazon's Homecoming -- from sensible episode lengths to overacting extras to how TV has conditioned us to react to mystery shows. We went Around The Dial with Mrs. America, Run, Nadiya's Time To Eat, and a rare successful Zoom episode from Mystic Quest, before listener John rolled a 20-sided die on getting Community's D&D episode into the Canon. Vampires won, Skeet Ulrich lost, and one was the winningest number in a Pointless-inspired Game Time. Slap on a fake tattoo before you forget, and join us for an all-new Extra Hot Great! GUESTS

Fox is welcoming summer with a very silly American Gladiators take on tag -- yes, the playground game -- so who better than Daniel MacEachern, veteran of our Holey Moley episode last year, to join us to discuss it? Around The Dial clicks through Snowpiercer, Katy Keene, Call The Midwife (CW: there are clips and you will cry), The Last Dance, Killing Eve, and a preview of Holey Moley's Season 2 premiere. Mary uses her Extra Credit to ask us which TV role permanently ruined an actor for us. We consider the induction of Big Mouth's "I Survived Jessi's Bat Mitzvah" into The Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that lives to serve. Race up a wall if you have to, but listen! GUESTS

We hope Bobby Krut agrees to come BACK to Extra Hot Great after putting him through the unrelenting barrage of anguish that is HBO's latest limited series, I Know This Much Is True. Sure, the acting is good; yeah, it's impressive that Mark Ruffalo plays twins; not one of us is planning to keep watching, because there's never a break or a moment of levity, and even Dave's ice-cream-fixins-bar metaphor made us sad. Our trip Around The Dial made us MAD, mostly -- Tara was disgusted with Regular Heroes, Sarah was disappointed in American Experience's Dubya-sode, and Dave was not a crackpot about The Good Fight's failure to understand electricity -- but at least Bobby brought in the Antenna TV Comfort Blanket roster to cheer us up. Jeff's Extra Credit saw us rewriting well-regarded series finales with How I Met Your Mother-style bungling, before we headed to the polls for Bobby's Canon submission, NewsRadio's "President" episode. Guy Fieri won (for once), Lori Loughlin lost (again), and the competition got feveris

Hollywood, the latest product of Ryan Murphy's Netflix deal, has hit the streaming service. What did we think about his ahistorical take on marginalized voices in the film industry? Kevin O'Keeffe joins us to discuss! Around The Dial clicks through Betty, Never Have I Ever, The Circle Brasil, and Masterpiece's new procedural Baptiste. Erica uses her Extra Credit to get us to pitch new Big Mouth transfer students and the Hormone Monsters they'll bring with them. Kevin pitches The O.C.'s "The Rainy Day Women" for induction into The Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we kick off a new season of Game Time with a quiz that tests our knowledge of shows' 300th episodes. Jerk yourself a soda and join us! GUESTS

Captain America and Lady Mary did their best, but Allison and the rest of the panel still found legal procedural Defending Jacob guilty of crappy pacing in the second degree; aggravated TV tropes; and felony possession of moody blue gels with intent to distribute. Were the regulars able to get Al into a diversion program before she felt obliged to finish the season? We also went Around The Dial with Vida, Arde Madrid, and The Last Dance, before Dave trotted out a solution to the problems with Devs. Dan Cassino's Extra Credit tasked us with growing some goateed evil twins to spice up our favorite shows, and Elenore brought us back to a '90s kind of world with her Living Single Canon submission. Re-casting ("alleged") felons won, nudity lost (but also kind of won?), and we kicked up our heels with Tara's Tube Tunes 6 Game Time. Got a garage door to scrub? Pass the time with an all-new Extra Hot Great! GUESTS

In an absence of series premieres any of us could manage to get excited about, Dave came up with a new format: the ABCs of TV! With our beloved Joe Reid, we go around the horn, each naming an important TV person, show, feature, or just THING about TV that matches up with each letter of the alphabet. Then, it's on to a Game Time made for cuffing season. Did any of our letter picks line up with yours? Listen and find out! GUESTS

Dan Rogge bought a ticket for our latest episode on HBO's Run, a "comedy thriller" about college sweethearts trying to reunite. Does the pleasure of watching Merritt Wever and Archie Punjabi at work outweigh the credibility issues? Do phones in the Run-verse never need charging? And is Rich Sommer TV's worst husband? We super-sized Around The Dial with stops at The Baker And The Beauty, Bosch, The Good Fight, Sesame Street, Money Heist, The Valhalla Murders, Devs, and Picard. And we chased that with a Sean double: first, whether he's a crackpot for thinking streaming services should offer a single-storyline watching option; and then his Canon pitch for the virulently catchy America's Next Top Model episode, "Game." Amy Schumer won, Lori Loughlin lost, and the melody lingered on in a musical Game Time. Grab your show-branded airhorn; it's an all-new Extra Hot Great! GUESTS

Just a few short weeks after we tested our knowledge of Quibi titles in Game Time, Quibi is taking center stage: the platform has launched, and we have selected a total of eight of its 24 launch titles to discuss with returning guest Adam Sternbergh! For his Extra Credit topic, John C. challenges us to reimagine single-camera comedies as multi-cams. Adam makes the case for our inducting Cheer's series premiere, "God Blessed Texas," into the Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that's a little objectionable. Settle in for the long haul and join us! GUESTS

One half of the GFY brain trust, Heather Cocks, came back to discuss Amazon's Project Runway with a big-budget twist: Making The Cut. As much as we love Naomi Campbell's sugar-free approach to, well, life, the panel agreed that Making The Cut has some structural problems (too long; dumb Tim 'n' Heidi "friend dates"), and too tight a focus on NOT being a sewing competition. Will any of us keep watching? You'll find out before we decide whether Emily Is Not A Crackpot for wanting period shows to air period commercials. We'll go Around The Dial with Call The Midwife content warning, the return of One Day At A Time, Barry, homemade Lego Masters spinoffs, Top Chef, and a Better Call Saul sound drop; later, we'll feel relieved that the Sherlock episode we all THOUGHT Erica presented as a Canon contender is actually for the Nonac. Kate McKinnon won, celebrity quarantine-busters lost, and Game Time stretched those family ties (sha la la laaaaa). Tick tock: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great. GUESTS

Some shows -- your 30 Rocks, your Simpsonses -- get pitched to the Canon all the time. So for this special all-Canon episode, we reached into our mailbag and chose user submissions for shows that had never been pitched before. Dan Cassino challenged us to battle with Foyle's War; Caroline opened the door for The Haunting Of Hill House; and Jeff put all his eggs in a Baskets. Then, befitting an episode that started in World War II, Dave shocked Sarah and Tara with a Teutonic non-regulation Game Time. Hit up the buffet for some desserts and join us! TOPICS The Canon:

Appointment Television's Margaret H. Willison put a marshmallow on a stick to talk about Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere, and whether THIS is the real "vanity-free performance" on Reese Witherspoon's recent résumé, plus Kerry Washington's interesting choices as Mia; the production's unwavering commitment to 1997-ness; and whether the male Dawson's Creek lead we'd have bought in the Bill role is actually Dawson himself. Tara refused to be labeled a crackpot for thinking Mike Schur's upcoming philosoph...omedy? book is going to join its "humorous"-essay brethren in sucking, and then we went Around The Dial with Black Monday, The Bachelor, Work In Progress, Please Like Me, an Evil Lunch Bunch concept, Project Runway, and an Amazing Stories update. Margaret couldn't help but wonder if a second-season Sex & The City would make it into the Canon, and after Laura Benanti was a winner and most TV productions were quarantined losers, the Game Time question was Quibi Or Not Quibi?. This all-new Extra Hot Great's got

Apple TV+ has brought Amazing Stories, the less-nihilistic take on The Twilight Zone, back for all the '80s kids, though confusingly premiered this anthology series with only one episode. Mark Lisanti joins us to talk about the fishiness of this rollout strategy, and whether "The Cellar" was a compelling enough episode to get anyone back to watch more. Around The Dial takes us through For Life; a roundup of the series premieres on FX (and FX on Hulu): Devs, Breeders, and Dave; Jersey Shore: Family Vacation; and Season 3 of Babylon Berlin. Mark presents the "Hamm On Toast" episode of Toast Of London for induction into The Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we all sit a spell for this week's Game Time. Make yourself a bathtub gin and tonic and join us! GUESTS

AMC already had a perfectly good Charlie Kaufman-esque property, but the network went with Dispatches From Elsewhere over Lodge 49 -- and while it's kind of Sarah's dream to fall into an alternate-reality scavenger hunt, first-time guest Dave Chen felt like the show would be more fun to "play" than to watch. Is it too twee? Too slow? Too divorced from the reality of non-celebrities? Or do the excellent cast and the In Search Of… graphics make it all worthwhile? Then we went Around The Dial with Love Is Blind, The Outsider, Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant, A French Village, and second-rate American TV in East Africa before Dave Cole declared transparent computer screens NOT the wave of the future. Dave Chen tried to give the Canon a bear hug by submitting the first-season finale of Succession for the Canon. Trebek won, disgracios lost (again), and IMDb throuples tested our wits during Game Time. Don't miss this dispatch from your podcast app; it's an all-new Extra Hot Great! GUESTS

As Better Call Saul returns for its fifth and almost final season, superfan Will Leitch joins us to check in on Jimmy, Kim, Nacho, Mike, and of course, good old black-and-white Gene. Dave explains why he is not a crackpot to feel infuriated by the current Chili's TV ad campaign. We ponder David Ellis Dickerson's Extra Credit question about which TV shows should go to an all-nude format. Will presents (heh) Party Down's "Steve Guttenberg's Birthday" for induction into The Canon. Then it's on to a Game Time that really sings. Fire up your complimentary burner phone and listen! GUESTS

To keep you in content while Dave and Tara go on vacation, we're forcening each other to watch TV episodes! Dave forcens Tara to watch what happens when a zombie virus ravages the Smurf village. Tara forcens Sarah to journey to Satellite Beach, FL as its high school re-mounts Annie Get Your Gun on Encore!. And Sarah forcens Dave to tag along with Josh in the series premiere of Netflix's Daybreak. How did each of us take it? Listen and find out! TOPICS Lead Topic:

Will Arnett has followed his ex-wife Amy Poehler into the field of highly meta reality show hosting with his gig on Fox's Lego Masters, and American dad (and therefore Lego Master) Jim Durr has returned to discuss the season kickoff! Around The Dial takes us through The CW's Katy Keene; Free Solo on Disney+; a roundup of titles on CBS All Access: Picard, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Interrogation; and Dave's latest favorite local ad. Dave is also in the hot (ejector) seat in presenting The Prisoner's "Many Happy Returns" for induction into The Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a pun safari in this week's Non-Regulation Game Time. Careful where you step as you join us for the latest episode! GUESTS

Even though Eve and Sarah D. spend most weekdays thinking about the true crime that's worth your time for their newsletter, they still didn't know much about the Mobbed-up McDonald's Monopoly-game fraud case that's at the center of HBO's McMillions. Will this docuseries join the scam-umentary pantheon alongside The Dropout and The Imposter? Is Doug Mathews the write-in presidential candidate we need now? And why aren't off-camera docu directors ever mic'd properly? After we considered those questions, we went Around The Dial with BoJack Horseman, The Outsider and other HBO Sunday-night offerings, the end of The Good Place, and Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet. Eve screened an episode of Home Movies for the Canon; then Tim Robinson won and Terry Crews lost, before we filled in the blanks -- in pen! -- in a history-making Game Time. Grab a light meter and go undercover for an all-new Extra Hot Great! GUESTS

CBS All Access has chased Star Trek: Discovery with Picard, picking up with everyone's favourite retired Starfleet admiral as he...well, to be honest, he's probably not going to be spending much time tending to his French vineyard. What is he getting up to? Maureen Ryan joins us to talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through The Goop Lab, Shrill, The Expanse, Veronica Mars, and Flack. We discuss whether Doctor Who's "Heaven Sent" should be inducted into The Canon, and then it's on to a Game Time that will leave you starry-eyed. Cozy up with a beloved pit bull and listen! GUESTS