Synopsis
Join David T. Cole, Tara Ariano, Sarah D. Bunting and their valued guests each week for discussion of what's new on TV plus our hall of fame roundtable segment called The Canon, listen as we appoint Winners and Losers Of The Week and of course our ultra competitive TV trivia quiz: Game Time.
Episodes
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142: Does Hunted's Good Idea Make For Bad TV?
25/01/2017 Duration: 01h20minMonty Ashley on The Amazing Fugitive, home movies, podcasts, and more! TOPICS Lead Topic:
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141: Making Deductions About Sherlock
18/01/2017 Duration: 01h35minNick Rheinwald-Jones returns to talk about what may be 'The Final Problem' for real. TOPICS Lead Topic:
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140: Getting Our Nick-ers In A Twist Over The Bachelor
11/01/2017 Duration: 01h51minIt's a new year for EHG, and a new journey for The Bachelor. Jeff Drake returns to talk about the special madness of Corinne, plus we pick our winners and wonder whether watching UnREAL has enhanced our experience of the original. The Blotter Presents caught us up with the Menendezes and OJ, and we debated whether Dave would hate Canadian outlaw period drama Frontier before going around the dial with One Day At A Time's reboot, The Young Pope, Sleepy Hollow, and games we play with Siri on Apple TV. Caroline tried to Psych us out in the Canon; the CW lost and NBC News won; and Game Time put us all to work on the chain gang. Can we steal you for a second -- for an all-new Extra Hot Great? TOPICS Lead Topic:
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139: Who's The King Of The Man In The High Castle?
20/12/2016 Duration: 01h33minChris Huff returns for a discussion of The Man In The High Castle -- what works (set design; Smith); what doesn't (Juliana; Joe); and whether we'll finish out the season. The Blotter Presents tipped us to Unsolved Mysteries streaming online, plus the '16 crime shows to marathon over the holidays, before we went around the dial with Rectify, The OA, Fuller House, and Intervention. Chris hoped we'd Just Say Yes to a drugs-are-bad ep of Family Ties for the Canon, and we declared a winner (TV queens) and loser (the County of Kings) before getting on a first-name basis with another Rob Hartmann Game Time. It's the last all-new full-size Extra Hot Great of the year, so dig in! TOPICS Lead Topic:
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138: Filling Our Plates With Top Chef
13/12/2016 Duration: 01h46minTV's most famous cooking competition returns for a new season set in Charleston, South Carolina, so we've brought back our official Top Chef correspondent to talk about the rookies vs. veterans format; the problematic setting; and also, oh right, the food. Dave explains why he is not a crackpot for thinking that TV home buying shows should always end with people actually buying homes. Around The Dial takes us to Divorce, Fleabag, and Pitch, before we consider the submission of the Sopranos episode "Funhouse" to the Canon. After naming the week's Winner and Loser, we kick off a new Game Time season with a game that may prove...popular. Choose the right wine pairing and listen! TOPICS Lead Topic:
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137: Going All In On The Family With This Is Us
06/12/2016 Duration: 01h45minAllison Lowe Huff is back to talk about This Is Us, the lovably imperfect tearjerker that's occupying the Friday Night Lights lane in our hearts. We bid farewell to The Killing Season, wondered how Noel Crane fit into a true-crime classic, and celebrated a Tiny Twitter Triumph involving poo before going around the dial with Gilmore Girls, Below Deck, Search Party, and Westworld. Listener Matthew submitted a rageful Nonac candidate, the HIMYM finale, and we declared satire a winner and sex a loser (for Showtime) before juggling a hilarious Hot Potato Game Time. This is EHG -- an all-new one. Listen now! TOPICS Lead Topic:
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136: Stuffing Thanksgiving TV Episodes Into The Canon
22/11/2016 Duration: 01h09minIn anticipation of America's favourite bird-based holiday, we're serving up an all-Canon edition of the podcast, with the focus on episodes taking place around Thanksgiving! Dave presents "Homecoming" (The Incredible Hulk); Sarah presents "The Wheel" (Mad Men); and for the Nonac, Tara offers "Freefall" (ER). Then there's a quick stop to name the week's Winner and Loser before a non-regulation Game Time that's murrrrrrrrrrrder (among other crimes). Load up your plate and listen! TOPICS The Canon:
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135: The EHG Crime Omnibus: It's Killer
15/11/2016 Duration: 01h37minEve Batey returns for a comprehensive look at crime TV past and present: Brooklyn 99, The Jinx, foreign-language series, trashy ID shows and even COPS. We went Around The Dial with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rectify, American Horror Story, and an apology for covering a certain business-reality program. Rosie was the winner, SVU was the loser, Tara tried to smoke out our votes with a High Maintenance Canon pitch, and we all played poet in an IMDb-keyword-haiku Game Time on an all-new Extra Hot Great. TOPICS Lead Topic:
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134: Going Long With Saturday Night Live
07/11/2016 Duration: 02h11minOn the eve of the election, Omar Gallaga returns to talk about Saturday Night Live's political comedy, Benedict Cumberbatch's hosting début, and each panelist's personal SNL superlatives! The Blotter Presents a brief (and dismissive) look at Lifetime's scripted movie Who Killed JonBenét?. Around The Dial stops at Ancient Aliens, Planet Earth II, The Crown, and People Of Earth! Omar presents the BoJack Horseman episode "Fish Out Of Water" for submission to The Canon, and then after we address the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that's in a family way. Set aside 90 minutes (and then...some more time after that) and join us! TOPICS Lead Topic:
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133: Looking Into The Black Mirror
25/10/2016 Duration: 01h54minOur esteemed colleague Danny MacEachern is back on Extra Hot Great for a dystopian good time with the newest season of Black Mirror, from obsessive "like"-checking to robot bees and everything in between. Buntsy updated us on future true-crime programming before we went Around The Dial with Jane The Virgin, Halloween on TV, Bull, superheroes, startups, and Negan. Everybody wants something, and Danny wouldn't give up on his Degrassi Junior High Canon submission, plus Nev Schulman actually picked out a half-decent kid name and Sarah's sure NBC's going to lace its Sneakers up wrong. What's the best use of a drone on TV? Why didn't Dave cry at "San Junipero"? And what kind of greasy kid stuff did we get up to in Game Time? Enter the Extra Hot Greatrix with an all-new episode and find out! TOPICS Lead Topic: ⬛️ Black Mirror The Blotter Presents:
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132: The Listener Game Time Finals
12/10/2016 Duration: 57minGet ready for the knock-down, drag-out, final face-off of all our Season 1 Listener Game Time champions, as they battle to be the ultimate champion! TOPICS Game Time:
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131: Is Luke Cage Bulletproof?
04/10/2016 Duration: 01h26minOur esteemed colleague Nick Rheinwald-Jones returns to talk Luke Cage, from the acting to the soundtrack to whether the 13-episode season felt like (or should have been) two shorter seasons. After a debate about whether David T. Cole will hate the distaff Magnum, PI and a Blotter review of Netflicumentary Amanda Knox, we went Around The Dial with Pitch, Timeless, Westworld (heard of it), and a Rachael Ray-meets-Look Around You web series from Australia before Nick hummed a few bars of Garfunkel & Oates for the Canon. A bunch of fall series won, Dr. Phil and Steven Avery lost, and Game Time tried to get between us and our Calvins. TOPICS Lead Topic:
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130: The Extra Hot Great Fall 2016 Preview
20/09/2016 Duration: 01h54minIt's the pumpkin-spice latte of autumnal programming overviews! ...Unless you hate those. Eve Batey's back to look at the best, worst, and meh-est of new and returning shows. TOPICS Lead Topic:
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129: Snatching Wigs With RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars
13/09/2016 Duration: 01h35minWith the best of RuPaul's girls returning for another chance at the crown on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, Mark Blankenship returns to the podcast to talk about the twists, turns, and tucks! The Blotter Presents a true crime twofer: Sarah's assessment of the latest in JonBenét Ramsey investigations, and a survey of coverage on East Tennessee catfisher Jenelle Potter! Around The Dial stops at Son Of Zorn, the Creative Arts Emmys, an update on how Sarah liked Better Things, and Narcos. Mark makes the case for The Real World's Season 1 episode "Julie In A Homeless Shelter?" to be inducted into the Canon, and then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we get into a Game Time that's double trouble. Zip up your ball gown and listen in! TOPICS Lead Topic:
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128: Voting Early And Often On The West Wing
30/08/2016 Duration: 01h49minTWW Marathon Diarist Sarah Hope comes to Extra Hot Great for a West Wing floor fight: our favorite characters and relationships from Aaron Sorkin's turn-of-the-millennium political drama, the Sorkiniest moments, and the stuff that hasn't aged well (paging, um, all those pagers in the premiere). The Blotter Presents watched Marg Helgenberger chow the scenery in a vintage JonBenét TV movie, and we went around the dial with new FX sitcoms, Lethal Weapon, The Night Of, and British teen coming-of-age story My Mad Fat Diary before Sarah H. held her nose and submitted Friday Night Lights's second-season premiere for the Nonac. Empire won, Dr. Drew lost, and tag we were all it for a very close Game Time. How does a bill become an "aw, man"? Find out on an all-new Extra Hot Great. TOPICS Lead Topic:
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127: Committing Mutiny With Halt And Catch Fire
23/08/2016 Duration: 01h33minAs Halt And Catch Fire boots up for its third season, Philip Michaels joins us to talk about all the best bits (and bytes) of the first two episodes. The Blotter Presents Sarah's review of MTV's new true crime docuseries Unlocking The Truth, and then we go Around The Dial with stops at Key & Peele, British Premier League soccer on NBC, Ripper Street, and an appropriate vintage Vic-20 ad. Phil presents the Simpsons episode "Last Exit To Springfield" for the Canon, and then after calling out the week's Winner and Loser, we hold our noses through a..."delightful" Game Time. Log in and join us! TOPICS Lead Topic:
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126: Big Draw: Animated Shows For Grown-Ups
16/08/2016 Duration: 01h43minOur esteemed colleague Monty Ashley is back to talk about our favorite cartoons for adults in all sorts of categories -- cartoons no kid should ever see (hey, Ren), series that work just as well for adults as for kids (lookin' at you, SpongeBob), the most beautifully drawn (and scored) shows, and much more. The Blotter managed to dig up a crime cartoon, and then we went around the dial with human cartoons on Catfish, Seeso's Take My Wife, the finale of The Great British Baking Show (get the PBS app, y'all!), and Occupied. Did Monty get whammied in his Press Your Luck Canon submission? Did a Criminal Minds star lose(r) the plot? And who's at the top of the podium after Game Time? We've got the line on an all-new Extra Hot Great, so check it out. TOPICS Lead Topic: ✍️ Adult Cartoons round-up The Blotter Presents:
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125: The Question Is Zoot
02/08/2016 Duration: 01h26minFor a very special all-'Is This Worse Than Jazz?' installment of the podcast, Dave, Sarah, and Tara invite discussion of their own possibly worse than jazz TV phenomena, and dig into questions submitted by listeners like you, grading them on an appropriately jazzy scale: Rusty Gate The Question Is Zoot Smooth Poison Atonal Omens Of Pain Scat Man Down Barrelhouse Of Horror Boogie Woogie Influenza Slaughterhouse Jive Hateful Freeform Jazz Infernal Tootling The results may...really distress you. (Trigger alert: jazz.) Sarah and The Blotter's apprentice investigator Olivia bring us a City Confidential episode about a murdered jazz musician to determine whether it is worse than jazz. Then Around The Dial stops at Married At First Sight, Netflix's Last Chance U, and another topic-appropriate vintage ad unearthed by Dave. We debate whether Everwood's Season 1 finale 'Home' deserves a spot in the Canon, and then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's a non-regulation Game Time that smells a bi
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124: Where No EHG Has Gone Before: The Star Trek Fantasy Draft
26/07/2016 Duration: 01h58minTrek Week continues on Previously.TV with an all-new Extra Hot Great featuring Maureen "Mo" Ryan and the Star Trek Fantasy Draft! David Snyder kindly shepherded this EHG enterprise (geddit?!) through the lesser science officers, 90210 Borg Queens, and Count Bakula picks the draft entailed. Who will emerge victorious with the very best Trek team*? Stay tuned! But first, go Around The Dial with us for Full Frontal, UnREAL, the Looking movie, Superstore, and a Stranger Squirrel Girl, then see if Mo's Deep Space 9 pick entered the Canon wormhole. Rita Ora won, bloodsuckers lost, and nobody contested a winner-take-all political Game Time. Make some SPAAAAAAAACE!! on your iPod, then listen long and prosper! TOPICS Lead Topic:
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123: Rebooting Mr. Robot
19/07/2016 Duration: 01h56minAs Elliot and the rest of the gang gear up for another season of hacking shenanigans on Mr. Robot, John Ramos returns to the podcast to talk about what went right, and what went otherwise. Around The Dial spins to the series premiere of HBO's Vice Principals, TNT's Animal Kingdom, last week's Emmy nominations, the pleasingly scaled-back Intervention, and Netflix's throwback suspense series Stranger Things. Tara offers up the Gravity Falls episode "The Time Traveler's Pig" for induction into the Canon, and then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we move on to a Game Time about humble beginnings. Log on and join us! TOPICS Lead Topic: