
Extra Hot Great: This Week In TV
Join Tara Ariano, Sarah D. Bunting, David T. Cole 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.
Latest episodes

Feb 26, 2025 • 1h 17min
551: Extra Hot Great v. Suits LA
After Suits became a surprise streaming hit a couple of years back, of course NBCUniversal couldn't resist going back to the well, and that's how we got the spinoff Suits LA. Is it facing contempt charges? Kari Race returns to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through The Baldwins, Ladies & Gentlemen...50 Years Of SNL Music, Dear Child, America Undercover and A Thousand Blows. Kari makes the case for inducting an episode of Kroll Show into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that could spell doom for some. Take your suit off -- or put another one on -- and listen!
GUESTS
👤 Kari Race
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 👔 Suits LA
Around The Dial: 🇪🇸 The Baldwins
Around The Dial: 🎸 Ladies & Gentlemen...50 Years Of SNL Music
Around The Dial: 👧🏻 Dear Child
Around The Dial: 🇺🇸 America Undercover
Around The Dial: 🥊 A Thousand Blows (AKB)
The Canon: 🚽 Kroll Show S03.E05: The In Addition Tos
Winner & Loser: 🏆 Martin Short
Winner & Loser: 🌃 Saturday Night Live
Game Time: 👤 Guess Who?
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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🦋 Kari Race on Bluesky
👋 "Alec Baldwin: Good-bye, Public Life" at New York magazine
😬 Richard Lawson's review of The Baldwins at Vanity Fair
😥 Kathryn VanArendonk's review of The Baldwins at Vulture
🎙️ Tara's interview with Anthony Michael Hall at Cracked
🏠 Charlie's 80s Attic
🤔 Hey, Remember The 80s?
🥶 "The Ice Man: Kuklinski, Soprano, and an unjustly forgotten doc series" at Best Evidence
📷 Photo: David Astorga / NBC

Feb 19, 2025 • 1h 22min
550: Getting Back Into The White Lotus Position
The White Lotus is finally back, and so is novelist and Variety columnist Dan D'Addario to talk about a new locale for familiar hateful-richies storylines. We also talked about who we think gets killed, the most and least successful guest storylines, David Lynch, and what happens when a pandemic lark breaks big for premium cable, before going Around The Dial with Cobra Kai, Yellowjackets, and Lorne Michaels. Dan couldn't help but wonder if his And Just Like That... Canon pitch would succeed; Queens won and Ray Romano lost (guess everybody DIDN'T love him back in the day); and a familiar Game Time had us flipping through the PICI-to-English dictionary. Before you pass out at the dinner table, have a listen!
GUESTS
👤 Daniel D’Addario
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🪷 The White Lotus
Around The Dial: 🥋 Cobra Kai
Around The Dial: 🌃 Lorne (A BOOK!)
Around The Dial: 🐝 Yellowjackets
The Canon: 💅 And Just Like That S02.E03: Chapter Three
Winner & Loser: 🕵🏻♂️ Jamaica Bay, NY
Winner & Loser: 👨🏻 Ray Romano
Is This Worse Than Jazz?: 📺 Netflix + Apple
Game Time: 🗣️ Lost In Translation 2025
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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
📕 All things Dan D'addario
🏆 Read Dan D'Addario's forthcoming novel, The Talent, available at Bookshop!
📺 Variety's 100 Best TV Performances of the 21st century
✍🏻 The New Yorker's recent Mike White profile
🥋 Tara's Cobra Kai review at Cracked
🦅 Tara's Jacob Bertrand interview
📚 True-crime reading recs at Best Evidence
📷 Photo: HBO

Feb 12, 2025 • 50min
549: Kinfolk Kerfuffle
Family Feud is a game show that has delighted audiences for decades by challenging teams of related players to guess answers supplied by randomly selected survey subjects. Completely unrelatedly, our latest special episode, Kinfolk Kerfuffle, has contestants trying to match poll answers submitted by our Discord members. Dave presides as chosen family Tara, Sarah, Adam Grosswirth, and Kim Reed take on handpicked tribe Taylor Cole, Dan Cassino, Larra Morris, and Nick Rheinwald-Jones. It's time to play the Feud Kerfuffle!
GUESTS
👤 Dan Cassino
👤 Taylor Cole
👤 Adam Grosswirth
👤 Larra Morris
👤 Kim Reed
👤 Nick Rheinwald-Jones
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🤬 Kinfolk Kerfuffle
SUPPORT THE SHOW
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🛍️ Shop our merch store!
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🗳️ The results of the survey in Google Sheets
CLUB-ONLY NOTES
🔥 EHG Club Perk Links & How-To
💬 Get On Our Community Discord

Feb 5, 2025 • 1h 13min
548: RSVP-ing To You're Cordially Invited
After NBC screwed up Charles Star's booking by dropping The Hunting Party series premiere weeks early, it's fitting (?) that he should, instead, join us for a Prime Video original movie about a scheduling snafu: the Nicholas Stoller-written and -directed You're Cordially Invited, starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon at war over a wedding venue. Did it leave us wanting to toss rice, or toss our cookies? Listen to find out. Around The Dial takes us to Clean Slate, The Hunting Party (Charles watched it so he might as well warn the community about it), Band Of Brothers, and just a whisper about the imminent third season of Reacher. Sarah pitches "Forks" from The Bear for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that tests our TV and movie knowledge SAT-style. Grab a slice of cake -- hope it's not too dry -- and listen!
GUESTS
👤 Charles Star
TOPICS
Announcement: 📢 Patreon Update
Lead Topic: 👰♀️ You're Cordially Invited
Around The Dial: 🫧 Clean Slate
Around The Dial: 🏹 The Hunting Party
Around The Dial: 🪖 Band Of Brothers
Around The Dial: 🧱 Reacher
The Canon: 🍴 The Bear S02.E07: Forks
Winner & Loser: 🐲 James Norton
Winner & Loser: 🗯️ Dumb fans of Insecure
Game Time: 🎬 Adaptation Aptitude Test
SUPPORT THE SHOW
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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🦋 Charles Star on Bluesky
💍 Tara's You're Cordially Invited review at Cracked
🫧 Tara's Clean Slate review at Cracked
🏳️⚧️ Donate to Trans Lifeline
⚖️ Donate to the Transgender Law Center
✊ Donate to Advocates For Trans Equality
👨💼 The ALAB Series podcast
🏈 The City Saint/Country Saint and Hostile Witness podcast
⚾️ Baseball Prospectus
🎶 The Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs Grammy episode
💰 Sweet Relief Musicians' Fund
📷 Photo: Glen Wilson / Amazon

Jan 29, 2025 • 1h 23min
547: Will You Find Any Trouble In Paradise?
Sterling K. Brown takes the lead in Paradise, and in the investigation that drives Hulu's new paranoid thriller -- and Rolling Stone's lead TV critic, Alan Sepinwall, is back to discuss both. Do the layered flashbacks work better for this material than for Brown's previous Dan Fogelman project, This Is Us? Does the dumb world-building outweigh the watchable acting? After we talked about how this underground/domed world stacked up against others on TV, we went Around The Dial with Common Side Effects, Mythic Quest, and the latest documentary from the Ken Burns Industrial Complex before Alan carefully constructed a Canon pitch for a Better Call Saul episode. Jennifer Garner won, Don Lemon lost, and what hark through yonder earbud breaks but a Shakespearean Game Time. Pack a bag for Colorado and join us!
GUESTS
👤 Alan Sepinwall
TOPICS
Announcement: 📋 Form URL Changes
Lead Topic: 🏝️ Paradise
Around The Dial: 🍄🟫 Common Side Effects
Around The Dial: ⚔️ Mythic Quest
Around The Dial: 📜 Leonardo da Vinci
The Canon: 🕳️ Better Call Saul S06.E07: Plan And Execution
Winner & Loser: 💁♀️ Jennifer Garner
Winner & Loser: 🍋 Don Lemon
Game Time: 🪶 Shakespeare TV Dinner Theatre
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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
📚 Buy Alan Sepinwall's book, Saul Goodman v. Jimmy McGill: The Complete Critical Companion to Better Call Saul
🐉 Tara's review of Mythic Quest S04 at Rolling Stone
🍄🟫 Tara's review of Common Side Effects at Cracked.com
💰 Save on newly-minted books at Exhibit B.
📷 Photo: Disney / Brian Roedel
CLUB-ONLY NOTES
🔥 EHG Club Perk Links & How-To
💬 Get On Our Community Discord

Jan 22, 2025 • 1h 16min
546: Does SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night Actually Go Far Enough?
With Saturday Night Live about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its series premiere, Peacock has assembled four documentary specials about how the show is made. Do any of them really advance our knowledge about this comedy institution? Omar Gallaga returns to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us through Severance, A.P. Bio, Playing For Peanuts, and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Omar pitches the Shōgun episode "Crimson Sky" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time about who stayed standing from series premiere to finale. Finish that bowl of Colon Blow and join us!
GUESTS
👤 Omar Gallaga
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🌃 SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
Around The Dial: 🗂️ Severance
Around The Dial: 🔬 A.P. Bio
Around The Dial: 🥜 Playing For Peanuts
Around The Dial: 🏴☠️ Skeleton Crew
Around The Dial: 🤠 American Primeval
The Canon: 🏯 Shōgun S01.E09: Crimson Sky
Winner & Loser: 👨🏻🦰 Conan O'Brien
Winner & Loser: 🦊 The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin
Game Time: 🎭 Survivors
SUPPORT THE SHOW
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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🦋 Omar Gallaga on Bluesky
🤩 "Lorne Michaels Is The Real Star Of 'Saturday Night Live'" at The New Yorker
🗃️ "Adam Scott Goes Back To Work" at GQ
🗄️ Tara's Severance S02 review at Cracked
🏚️ "Don't Take Home-Buying Tips From 'No Good Deed'" at Book And Film Globe
📷 Photo: Peacock

Jan 15, 2025 • 1h 30min
545: Should You Wade Into The Pitt?
Various legal proceedings aside, The Pitt is ABSOLUTELY not ER...but if you liked ER, Fug Girl Heather Cocks agrees with the panel that you'll like Max's new and extremely gnarly medical drama. It has all the ingredients that make a doctor show (versus a soap with doctors in it) compelling: solid casting; elegant world-building via medical students; and just enough jargon. We're going Around The Dial with Switching Gears, The Breakthrough, and comfort TV scripted and non- in the form of The Traitors and The Summer I Turned Pretty. We're also interrogating The West Wing's ill-advised 9/11 response episode, "Isaac And Ishmael," to see if it belongs in the EHG Nonac. Sanrio won, the Chrisleys lost, and Dan Cassino brings us below the line with a crazy-credits Game Time. Roll your gurney up to a speaker and listen!
GUESTS
👤 Heather Cocks
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 👨🏻⚕️ The Pitt
Around The Dial: ⚙️ Switching Gears
Around The Dial: 🔪 The Traitors
Around The Dial: 👙 The Summer I Turned Pretty
Around The Dial: ⛓️💥 The Breakthrough
The Nonac: 🏛️ The West Wing S03.E00: Isaac And Ishmael
Winner & Loser: 😸 Sanrio character My Melody
Winner & Loser: 😤 Chase Chrisley
Game Time: 🎬 Where Credit Is Due
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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
💃 Go Fug Yourself
🧯 The Anti-Recidivism Coalition's firefighter fund
🧑🚒 The L.A. Fire Department Foundation
📚 Exhibit B. Books's L.A. County Library fundraiser
🚗 Tara's Switching Gears review at Cracked
⚖️ In August, Michael Crichton’s estate sued The Pitt for revamping a proposed ER sequel into The Pitt
🤷♀️ In November, Warner Bros. claimed it was NOT derivative of ER
🍓 Ramy S01.E04, "Strawberries," on Hulu
📷 Photo: Warrick Page / Max

Jan 8, 2025 • 1h 16min
544: How Long Will We Remember Doc?
Amy is a hard-charging doctor who's alienated almost everyone in her life. Then amnesia following a car accident erases the last eight years of her life from her memory. Can she start over and fix what she broke during that lost time?! Sarah Baker is here to discuss whether Fox's new drama Doc imprinted on her memory at all. Around The Dial takes us through Going Dutch, The Circle, Somebody Somewhere, and Everwood. Mlle. Caroline pitches the Ghosts (UK) episode "The Thomas Thorne Affair" for induction into The Canon. Then, after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time about VERY useless keywords. Tighten up that head bandage and join us!
GUESTS
👤 Sarah Baker
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 😶🌫️ Doc
Around The Dial: 🫡 Going Dutch
Around The Dial: ⭕️ The Circle
Around The Dial: 🍣 Somebody Somewhere
Around The Dial: 🪵 Everwood
The Canon: 👻 Ghosts (UK) S02.E05: The Thomas Thorne Affair
Winner & Loser: 🏆 Joey King and Cooper Koch
Winner & Loser: 📰 CNN
Game Time: 🤷♀️ Decidedly Unhelpful
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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
📸 Sarah Baker on Instagram
🪖 Tara's Going Dutch review at Cracked
🧭 The Great North on Hulu
🔦 Sarah D. Bunting at Best Evidence
📷 Photo: Fox
CLUB-ONLY NOTES
🔥 EHG Club Perk Links & How-To
💬 Get On Our Community Discord

Jan 1, 2025 • 1h 4min
543: Taking A Journey In The World Of David The Gnome
We are off this week for EHG Prime but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 313: Taking A Journey In The World Of David The Gnome.
It's time again for us to submit to the wishes of listeners like you, which is how we've ended up watching the series finale of The World Of David The Gnome. What was clearly conceived as a sweet story about gnomes and animals living harmoniously together in nature takes a WILD turn for its very last episode, so: thanks for exposing us all to that, Matt! Then it's on to your answers to our last Ask Ask EHG question, and our answers to your latest Ask EHG questions about Bryan Fuller's career, whether we are brat, and more. Some Not Quite Winners and Losers get their time in the sun and shade. Then we welcome in the grandpas for cartoon crossovers. Hop onto the fox that transports you around the forest and join us!
TOPICS
15s Of Fame: 🍔 Rax
Forcening Pool: 🌳 The World Of David The Gnome S01.E26: The Mountains of Beyond
Ask EHG: 🦴 TV Theme Boning Pitfalls
Winner & Loser: 🤣 Jimmy Fallon
Winner & Loser: 🐴 My Lady Jane
Winner & Loser: 💤 The Acolyte
Winner & Loser: 🔫 The Sopranos
Winner & Loser: ⚖️ Andy Cohen
Winner & Loser: ⛳️ Owen Wilson's untitled AppleTV+ golf comedy
Winner & Loser: 😑 An NBC executive who was wrong about Friends
Extra Credit: 🖖 Those Old Something Elses
15s Of Fame: 🍔 Rax
Mini: 🪓 Cartoon Version (Jun 2016)
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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🦊 The World Of David The Gnome S01.E26: The Mountains Of Beyond on YouTube
🧠 Mojo Jojo after getting absolutely wrecked by the Powerpuff Girls
CLUB-ONLY NOTES
🔥 EHG Club Perk Links & How-To
💬 Get On Our Community Discord

Dec 25, 2024 • 53min
542: Showing Proper Deference To Star Maidens
We are off this week for EHG Prime but present you with this EHG Club unlock of EEHG 296: Showing Proper Deference To Star Maidens.
We're in the doldrums of mid-May. None of the week's TV premieres lit us with a fire of passion. What better time for Dave to make us all watch Star Maidens, a mid-70s British sci-fi show about a CRAZY planet where women are in charge and men are their bitter servants. What could go wrong? For Ask EHG, we solicited your DUMBEST questions, and you came through with queries about, among others, how our pets would get in trouble if they went to school and which of the three of us would win in an EHG Thunderdome. We bring you some all-new Not Quite Top 11 Lists in lieu of the week's Winner and Loser. Then we close up with Anthobuzz's Extra Credit submission on updating a Rodman's World Tour poker segment for the decade of our choice. Get in the Hypnomat and join us!
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 👸 Dave Forces Everyone To Watch The Series Premiere Of Star Maidens
Ask EHG: 🤪 Your dumbest questions
Not Quite Top 11: 🚐 Saturday Morning Programs Whose Titles Could Double As Basic Cable Shows In A Different Genre
Not Quite Top 11: 🎀 TV Portrayals Of Jackie O
Not Quite Top 11: 🍁 Canadian Snacks To Enjoy While Watching TV
Extra Credit: 🃏 Rodman Flush
SUPPORT THE SHOW
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NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
👸 Star Maidens S01.E01: Escape To Paradise on YouTube
🤴 Sexy King Vitaman
🃏 "Dennis Rodman plays poker with Kelsey Grammar & Pat Smear (1997)" on YouTube
CLUB-ONLY NOTES
🔥 EHG Club Perk Links & How-To
💬 Get On Our Community Discord