Extra Hot Great

We couldn't decide which was the week's most important TV premiere -- the second season of Netflix's QEII drama The Crown, or Syfy's dark Chris Meloni comedy Happy! -- so we decided to cover both! Joining us from Go Fug Yourself are our official purveyors of Epic Old School Recaps of The Crown, Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan! Around The Dial takes us to quick mentions of Married At First Sight: Jamie & Doug Plus One, Encore!, The Mindy Project, Vanderpump Rules, American Vandal, and Norsemen. We consider inducting into The Canon Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's fourth episode, "I'm Going On A Date With Josh's Friend!" Then after discussing the week's Winner and Loser, we close things up with 2017's star-crossed final Game Time. Gather your corgis and listen! TOPICS Lead Topic:

Jim Durr joined us for the first time (on this pod, anyway) to talk about Knightfall, the new medieval drama on History, and while all its trebuchets, extreme helmet cams, and campy popes can't quite_make us care whether they ever track down that crusty old Grail. We went Around The Dial with _GBBO, Netflix's weird but compelling Stranger Things: Deutschland offering Dark, and the best (and family-friendliest) of recent stand-up specials before Jim sent us back to the late '90s with a Futurama Canon submission. Dave treated us to a very little The Littlest Hobo audio recap, Tara faced off against the Pickle & Peanut theme song (...for the last time???), and Dr. Phil won while just about every other man in television lost. And finally, Game Time got meta as the panel tried to guess the TV-show-based videogames. There is no Benson videogame. Go write your reps about that, and on your way to the mailbox, have a listen to the latest all-new regulation Extra Hot Great. GUESTS

Daniel MacEachern visits from the Two Spotted Dicks podcast to join Dave and Tara for a special winter-themed all-TV forcening episode of the Extra Hot Great podcast! Whose picks are cool and who would have preferred being left on an ice floe? Listen and find out! GUESTS

Kevin O'Keeffe and Kim Reed join us as we head into America's favourite eating holiday by gorging on more than two dozen FMK matchups! It's gonna rock you! GUESTS

Two ex-contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race see their web series graduate to a half-hour weekly comedy show on Viceland, so Mark Blankenship is here to help us spill the tea on The Trixie & Katya Show! Around The Dial spins to the series finale of The Mindy Project, Season 2 of The Girlfriend Experience, ABC's new high school musical special Encore, and Rolling Stones: Stories From The Edge, before Tara gets another chance to master the Pickle And Peanut theme song. Mark presents Insecure's "Hella LA" for The Canon, and then after calling out the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that'll have you whipping off your bra and/or breathing fire. Tease up your wig and join us! GUESTS

Frankie Shaw's new Showtime sitcom about a single mom in South Boston shows some promise, but did it make most of the panel -- including guest Stephanie Early Green -- too uncomfortable too continue? We discussed that, cute TV toddlers, and protagonists who don't learn before going around the dial with Rosehaven, 90 Day Fiance, a Netflix doc on Joan Didion, and The Pickle & Peanut Challenge. Tara took us to Detroiters with her Canon presentation, and Jordan Peele was this week's Winner, while our banned-men Loser list got rull long. Who was the odd man out in this week's Game Time? Listen to an all-new Extra Hot Great (while doing your Kegels?) and find out. GUESTS

As yet another Margaret Atwood novel gets a TV adaptation, Allison Lowe Huff and Extra Hot Game Time impresario Rob Hartmann join us to talk about Alias Grace, Netflix/CBC's period prison drama. Tara and Allison discuss whether Mike Rinder has become The Pierce of Leah Remini: Scientology And The Aftermath, or if Remini and her nails are already an unstoppable team without him. Around The Dial takes us to At Home With Amy Sedaris, Shetland, Stranger Things, and Pickle And Peanut(and to a mea culpa regarding recent episodes of Little House On The Podcast). We ponder whether "Missing Time" is a Nonac-worthy episode of Miami Vice, and then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that knows its worth. Curl up in your coziest cell and join us! GUESTS

Our esteemed colleague Jeff Drake is back -- and so is our esteemedest producer, David T. Cole -- to discuss Too Funny To Fail, Hulu's documentary on the much-anticipated The Dana Carvey Show and its ignominious end. After a Robin Williams-ectomy was proposed, Dave got the blues in his I Am Not A Crackpot segment, and then we went around the dial with Mom, American Vandal, Chance, and The Deuce. Tara hoped an episode of Better Things would be better enough for the Canon, Kardashians and Benson fans were winners and losers, and there was once a man from Nantucket...who wrote Game Time. Sort of. Alphabetize those network notes: it's time for an all-new Extra Hot Great. GUESTS

With Dave still in the field, we've invited Monty Ashley back for a very special episode. Will the "Michael's Gambit" episode of The Good Place and "Parker Gail's Location Is Everything" from Documentary Now! make it into The Canon? And will My So-Called Life's "The Substitute" be inducted into The Nonac, The Canon's evil twin? Listen in and find out! GUESTS

In our first-ever EHG without David T. Cole, Tara and Sarah recruited Fug Girls Heather and Jessica to help them dissect the Dynasty reboot. Do the kids today care about these iconic characters? Should the show have gone to a streaming or premium-cable network? And should any show be trying to make big business interesting? We went Around The Dial with Law & Order: SVU, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team, Undercover High, and Grey's Anatomy before settling in for the snark of an MST3K Canon submission. We declared a winner and a loser...and everybody and nobody won in a non-regulation Game Time that forced the panel to make some tough choices. Before you bite the head off a cake-topper, take a listen to an all-new Extra Hot Great. GUESTS

As The Good Place's second season jumps off from its game-changing freshman finale, Kristen Bell expert John Ramos of the Go Pirates podcast on Veronica Mars returns to talk about how Good it actually is! Around The Dial stops at Broad City, Broad City, Halt And Catch Fire, American Beauty Star, and Star Trek Discovery. John pitches Veep's 'Mother' for induction into The Canon, and then it's on to a very organized Game Time. Load up your frozen yogurt and join us! GUESTS

We're glad Omar Gallaga returned to Extra Hot Great; we just wish we hadn't inflicted Seth MacFarlane's limp and self-indulgent The Orville on him (and ourselves). Fortunately, things perked up a bit when we went around the dial with Outlander, The Good Place, Ken Burns's latest opus on PBS, and vintage ads by Star Trek. Tara was Insecure about her Canon submission, The Bachelor and Zelda Fitzgerald were our Winners and Losers, and Game Time has a lot more mass appeal than we predict our main topic is going to. Set phasers to kill for an all-new EHG! GUESTS

Narcos reboots for a third season (minus Murphy, not that anyone's complaining), and first-time guest Melissa Locker joins us to discuss all the addictive action! We ask Will Dave Hate This? about ITV's new gladiator-cosplay competition Bromans. Around The Dial stops at American Horror Story, Will Vs. The Future, The Tick, Project Runway, Leah Remini: Scientology And The Aftermath, and the imminent fourth season of BoJack Horseman. Melissa pitches the Designing Women episode 'Killing All The Right People' for The Canon, and then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that really stinks. Supply yourself with the intoxicant of your choice and join us! GUESTS

Monty returns during the deadest week on the TV schedule, and Tara proposed a TV forcening that had us all pick episodes from the week's deadest night -- Friday -- for each other to watch. We caught up with House Hunters, searched for Bering Sea Gold, survived A Murder In The Family, and tasted Epic Sweets. Then we assessed whether the Animal Kingdom theme is worse than jazz before going around the dial with Ripper Street, Scientology, and the Face Off spin-off. Will Dave hate an upcoming Orlando Bloom project about faerie expats? Did Monty's MASH submission enter the Nonac? And what the helle is going on with the theme songs in Game Time? Stop searching the guide and settle in for an all-new Extra Hot Great. GUESTS

Netflix's long-awaited Marvel team-up The Defenders arrives...but given how long it was awaited, why isn't it better? Our Two Spotted Dicks pal Adam Grosswirth joins us to discuss. Around The Dial stops at the Claws finale, Episodes, So You Think You Can Dance, and Project Runway, ahead of Dave's musical question: are Netflix's trailer preview screens Worse Than Jazz? Adam boldly makes the case for inducting Smash's pilot into the Canon, and after we name the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time to die for. Put on your most bulletproof hoodie and join us! GUESTS

Tara and Dave returned from a brief vacay to the carnage of a Fuck/Marry/Kill round of Wagnerian length and scope. Robot cars, starship captains, streaming (ew) services, Debra Messing characters, Golden Girls, Dean Norris, Briscoe vs. Frisco...people, it was terrifying. And exhilarating! And we can't unknow any of it, and if you listen, neither will you. How many times did Crying Dawson get killed? Only one way to find out, in an all-new, extra-large Extra Hot great. GUESTS

Netflix drops a sequel to its Wet Hot American Summer TV series, and Adam Sternbergh makes his long-awaited return to discuss whether it's as refreshing as an Otter Pop or disappointing as a melted S'More. Around The Dial brings us to USA's new limited whydunit The Sinner, Ozark, and Intervention. Adam boldly proposes the Three's Company episode 'Up In The Air' for induction into The Canon, and after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to another sequel in Game Time. Put on some sunscreen and join us! GUESTS

It's a double-date episode (aw) (barf) as Sarah D. Bunting's husband, Dan Brady, joins the panel to discuss the Lowe family's foray into the supernatural. TOPICS Lead Topic:

Stephanie Green returns, and immediately regrets it when she finds out what Dave is going to make her watch. TOPICS Lead Topic:

TV: The Book co-author and Law & Order Fantasy Draft winner Alan Sepinwall is back to talk about Season 7 of Game Of Thrones. Should the show be moving faster, plotwise? Who's going to end up "winning" when all is said and done? Which characters are human memes? And is Ed Sheeran a big baby for deleting his Twitter? After considering these questions, we went Around The Dial with The Challenge, Friends From College, and Ozark before picking off another Canon submission with Justified's "Decoy." Talented (future) parents were our winners, The Biggest Loser was...well, that, and we played with perceptions of opening-credits fame in a hotly contested Game Time. Make sure you pick a rubber mask with holes for your earbuds: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great. TOPICS Lead Topic: