Extra Hot Great

Pretend we made a witty "third and taking-too-long" pun, because that's what we -- and guest Kim "Best Thing" Reed -- thought about Glen Powell vehicle Chad Powers. It isn't bad, but between the first-drafty jokes and getting stuck between two tones, we're not sure you should watch all the way to the end zone. Okay, let's ditch the football puns to go Around The Dial with On Brand With Jimmy Fallon, Kim's recent-reality overview, and Sarah's High Maintenance rewatch; and let's see if the panel respected "Authority," Sarah's L&O: SVU Canon pitch. Nicole Beharie won, Mid-Century Modern lost, and we juggled a hot potato of HBO series "lifers" in Game Time. Pair your podcast app with your Cybertruck's sound system and join us! GUESTS

Reservation Dogs creator Sterlin Harjo has reunited with his S03 guest star Ethan Hawke for The Lowdown, a shaggy Tulsa neo-noir. Should you put it high on your list of priorities? We discuss. (Spoiler: yes.) Around The Dial takes us to Caleb Hearon: Model Comedian, The Great Pottery Throw Down, and Lynley. Tara pitches the Regular Show episode "Sleep Cycle" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we finish up with a Game Time on various TV actors' personal and professional histories. Give yourself some rudimentary first aid and join us! GUESTS

The Morning Show is back to bring us its version of 2024. Can any of us possibly be ready to go back there? Maybe not, but we don't have the strength to resist gorging on The Morning Show's baloney, either. Morning Show-ologist Christina Tucker returns to talk about it. Around The Dial clicks through Futurama S13, Rivals, and Celebrity Weakest Link, then takes a trip to the cinema for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Margaret pitches The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air episode "The Big Four-Oh" -- yes, the one where Aunt Viv slays a dance audition in a clip you've probably watched at least once if not 20 times -- for induction into the Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close on a Game Time everyone should swipe right on. Get yourself the strongest coffee commercially available and join us! GUESTS

Will Leitch, sportswriter and newspaper journalist, is back to talk about The Office-verse sitcom The Paper -- and whether you should bother with the season that just dropped in its entirety on Peacock. Has the world moved on from the TV mockumentary? Does this show understand what it is to love reporting? And does any of that matter if the show's not quite funny enough? Later, we went Around The Dial with Only Murders In The Building's fifth season, 30 Rock's YouTube channel, and Love Con Revenge before Will tried to find room in the Canon budget for Dept. Q's premiere episode. Going Dutch won, Selena Gomez lost, and we found out who skips the closing credits in Game Time. Take a break from lining that birdcage and have a listen! GUESTS

We are off this week but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 324: This Week In Historical TV: September 4-10, 1991. Earlier this year, our Patreon supporters unlocked a new milestone, and with it a new annual BONUS bonus episode: This Week In Historical TV! Since we've gone with September 4-10, 1991 and chosen as our lead topic Cast A Deadly Spell, an HBO TV movie that combines classic hard-boiled detective fiction with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, we had to invite Dan Cassino, a fan of both, to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through some highlights of our week in programming: the series premiere of Herman's Head; an all-timer Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode on Gamera vs. Guiron; Parker Lewis Can't Lose; and the Merlin Olsen-hosted Fantastic Facts. Tara pitches the S09 Cheers episode "Days Of Wine And Neuroses" for induction into The Canon. Then, after plucking a winner and loser out of the September 6, 1991 issue of Entertainment Weekly, it's on to a Game Time that has us asking many

We haven't heard much from creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg since BoJack Horseman ended in early 2020, but he's back with a new animated family dramedy, Long Story Short, which has already been picked up for a second season. Are we excited to lengthen our time with it? New guest Eli Yudin joins us to talk about it. Around The Dial clicks through Peacemaker S02, Zach Galifianakis: Live At The Purple Onion, and Smoke. Mlle. Caroline pitches the Andor episode "Who Are You?" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close up with a particularly fraternal Game Time. Grab some kugel and join us! GUESTS

Amanda Knox's arrest for murder in Italy became a sensational true crime story...so of course it is now the subject of a scripted true crime series. Did we find it sensational? Eve Batey joins us to discuss it. Around The Dial lands on North Of North, The Yogurt Shop Murders, Back To The Frontier, and The Fixer. Tara pitches the Friends episode "The One With Russ" for induction into The Nonac. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that knows: triples is best. Put down your old cell phone and your platter of pasta and join us! GUESTS

The Alien-verse has landed on TV with Noah Hawley's re-imagining (or pre-imagining) of the xenomorphic worlds of the film series -- and Andrew Cunningham has landed back in the guest chair to talk about telepathic blackmail, when hearing is scarier than seeing, and acting choices that don't make sense. Is this essential viewing, or should you jump in a shuttle and bail? Later, we went Around The Dial with War Of The Worlds 2025, The Gilded Age, It's Always Sunny, and American Prince: JFK Jr. before the panel stared into the abyss of Sarah's Sopranos Canon pitch. The Yellowstone-verse won, the Sussexes lost, and we kicked off a new Game Time season with a real facehugger. Skip that cryo-nap and listen to an all-new Extra Hot Great instead! GUESTS

Fifteen years after its series finale on Fox, King Of The Hill is back with its fourteenth season, now at on Hulu. Is it worth yelling from the mountains about? We discuss. Around The Dial stops at The Yogurt Shop Murders and S21 of Project Runway. Tara pitches the Close Enough episode "Secret Horse" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close with a Non-Regulation Game Time that's on the level. Grab a can of Alamo and join us! TOPICS Lead Topic:

Critic and podcaster Mark Blankenship returns to The Blankenship Chair to discuss Hitmakers, a reality show about songwriters that needs less contrived drama and more process -- but did appeal to a couple of our panelists as eye candy. Should you give it a try, or wait until one of its pop creations comes on in an elevator? We went Around The Dial with Happy Gilmore 2, Million Dollar Secret, The Challenge 41, and The Gilded Age spoilers before tapping our toes to a Canon pitch for Buffy's musical episode. A nepo Beatty won, Resident Alien lost, and Non-Regulation Game Time struck a chord with another round of Tube Tunes. We don't want to call it "fire," but it IS an all-new episode of Extra Hot Great! GUESTS

Well, we all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone -- even Billy Joel, who has decided to take his out for Billy Joel: And So It Goes, a two-part HBO docu-series about his life and work. Should he have kept it to himself (it's his life)? Daniel Blau Rogge returns to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through S02 of Digman!, The Comeback, and Billionaire Boys' Club. Dan presents the Hacks episode "The Roast Of Deborah Vance" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to Game Time, in which we're listening…to celebrity Frasier callers. Say Goodbye To Hollywood and hello to a new episode! GUESTS

Lena Dunham is back with Netflix romcom Too Much -- and so is Maris Kreizman, to discuss Dunham's return to the discourse, whether we can separate the creator from the show, and what the panelists who didn't care for it still think it did really well. We went Around The Dial with American Horror Stories's third season, Veronica Mars's FIRST season, and Ballard, and Tara hoped we'd come to praise AND bury "the Giamatti episode" of Black Mirror for the Canon. Richard Gadd won, Today's Craig Melvin lost (while letting Rick Springfield also win), and getting "home free" proved a challenge in a tagline-based Game Time. Throw a nightie on your favorite pet and join us! GUESTS

In the grand tradition of our drafts for Law & Order and the Star Trek franchise, we're using this special episode to draft teams of staff, patients, loved ones, and inanimate shows from ER -- and who better to join us than Laura Hampton, a PA known to us from our Discord as an ER superfan who recently completed a full rewatch of the entire series? No one, which is why she's here picking a team AND organized the draft with the correct number of each category of character for us to choose from. Now we're going to need YOU to vote for which team reigns supreme! Laura also presents Doug saving Ben from a flooding storm drain in "Hell And High Water" for induction into the Hero category of the Tiny Canon. Finally, we close with an on-theme game about body parts in the names of TV shows and actors. Get listening, STAT! GUESTS

We are off this week but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 343: Should You Sign On To With Love, Meghan? It's clear the former Meghan Markle wants to do something significant with her British-royal influence; it's also clear her new Netflix homekeeping show, With Love, Meghan, isn't that. Stephanie Early Green is back to talk about why it's so dull, what might have helped, and how Martha Stewart succeeded where Meghan Sussex fails. Ask EHG wondered who would replace Noel Fielding on GBBO and which characters we'd want on our bar-trivia teams, and then Tara pitched a lyrical SNL sketch for the Tiny Canon. And after we listed our Not Quite Winners and Losers of the week, Sarah's Extra Credit polled the panel on important princesses of television. Throw on a $300 linen apron and join us! GUESTS

Like a lot of family-owned businesses, Havenport, North Carolina's Buckley Fishery is having a rough go of it lately. If they can't make their nut and pay all their employees on fish alone, maybe...smuggling cocaine will make up the shortfall? What could go wrong?! Jessica Morgan returns to talk about the ways Kevin Williamson's new show crosses over with the one we know him for best (Dawson's Creek), and the ways it doesn't but that we WISH it would. Around The Dial takes us through Season 3 of The Gilded Age, The Valley, and Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. Sarah pitches the Law & Order episode "Empire" -- aka "The Julia Roberts One" -- for induction into The Canon. Then, after identifying the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a game that's naming names -- lots of them. Grab a serving of fresh oysters and join us! GUESTS

And that truth is: none of us thinks you should bother, including returning guest Will Leitch, who agrees that We Were Liars moves too slowly; shows AND tells too fart-sniffily; wastes the talents of an impressive cast, including Mamie Gummer and David Morse; and is based on a property whose author sounds fake. We went Around The Dial with the very real The Chicken Sisters, Untold, and The Mortician before Tara's Canon pitch reunited us with Party Down's third-season premiere. General Hospital won, Doctor Odyssey (maybe??) lost, and Dan Cassino got us all a volume discount on long-running shows in Game Time. Cannonball verrrrrry sloooowwwly into our all-new episode now! GUESTS

Summer is upon us, but what are we going to watch? Robert Krut joins us to help make our traditional lists of what we're into; what we should be into but aren't; what NO ONE should be into; and what's fine for others but not for us. Dave pitches the South Side episode "Treat Yourself" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we close out with a Game Time that's pure poetry. Find a spot directly in front of a fan and join us! GUESTS

David T.'s beautiful son Taylor S. Cole is back to discuss Dept. Q, a Scottish take on a Nordic-noir book series that has the good sense not to mess with star Matthew Goode's face. Chemistry in trope-y scenes, why Scandi crime stories often have a submarine, whether the mystery needed so many episodes to solve -- we're talking about all of that AND recommending actually Nordic Nordic-noir TV if you liked Dept. Q. Then we're going Around The Dial with Mountainhead, The Rehearsal, and The Last Of Us S01 before seeing whether Taylor can do his entire The Studio Canon pitch before we lose the light. True-crime actors won, late night lost some more, and three was the magic number for one of us in Game Time. Throw on a nubbly sweater and join us! GUESTS

Matt Wolf (The Stroll) got unprecedented access to Paul Reubens, generally better known as his alter ego, Pee-wee Herman; Will Hines joins us to talk about what resulted from their 40 hours of interviews. Around The Dial takes us through Big Mouth's eighth and final season; The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox, and Magic & Bird: A Courtship Of Rivals. Sean makes his pitch for the "Long, Long Time" episode of The Last Of Us to be inducted into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that really knows the score. Put on your reddest bow tie and join us! GUESTS

Vulture's Kathryn VanArendonk is back to talk about Apple TV+'s Murderbot, and whether the books do a better job of exploring questions of gender and essential humanity without Alexander Skarsgard's Ken-doll crotch confusing matters. Should YOU give it a watch? We went Around The Dial with Overcompensating, Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives, and Leverage: Redemption's third season before Anne offered another variation on the Utahn theme with a Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City Canon Presentation. Kelli Giddish won, Tom Hardy lost, and we all tried to survive the process of Venn-diagramming premiere and finale casting in Game Time. Hack into your governor modules and join us! GUESTS