

Extra Hot Great: This Week In TV
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 7, 2020 โข 1h 28min
323: Doing A Tight Five On The Comedy Store
Showtime's latest docuseries is a deep (maybe too deep) dive on L.A. comedy club The Comedy Store, and first-time guest Brandi Brown -- herself a comic -- is joining us to talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through Emily In Paris, Polar Bear's Cafรฉ, and Paramount's doc I Am Richard Pryor. CoreyAH challenges us to cast the Hallmark Christmas movies of tomorrow, today! Then, after her successful pitch of "Senegal," Franรงoise goes back to the Parts Unknown well to pitch us the "Houston" episode. We crown the week's Winner and Loser; then it's on to a Game Time that takes place in front of an unadorned brick wall. Join us -- but just so you know, there's a two-drink minimum!
GUESTS
๐ค Brandi Brown
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐ The Comedy Store
Around The Dial: ๐ฅ Emily In Paris
Around The Dial: ๐ปโโ๏ธ Polar Bear's Cafรฉ
Around The Dial: ๐ฅ I Am Richard Pryor
Extra Credit: ๐ค Counting Down To The Countdown To Christmas 2035
The Canon: ๐ค Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
Winner & Loser: ๐ Ryan Murphy
Winner & Loser: ๐ GLOW
Game Time: ๐ง My Name Is [Blank] And You've Been Great
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 323 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
๐ฆ Brandi Brown on Twitter
๐ Brandi's mentor Tracey Ashley's episode of They Ready
๐ A profile on Ashley at Forbes.com
๐ง Ashley's album on Spotify
๐ง Minnesota comic Cy Amundson on Spotify
๐ญ Astronomy Club on Netflix
๐ฅ Tara's review of Emily In Paris at Primetimer
๐ฆ Brandi's Twitter thread on Succession as Gritty Family Circus
๐ฆ Brandi's Twitter thread on every 2020 Democratic primary candidate and who they'd be on Law & Order
๐ง A Very Special 90210 Book, the audiobook
๐ด Deleted scenes from the book in the Again With This podcast feed
๐ The Shangri-La Plaza pilot
๐ด A Very Special 90210 Conversation with Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting, presented by ATX Festival

Sep 30, 2020 โข 1h 58min
322: Should You Search For Utopia?
We're thrilled Devindra could step over from Engadget and Slashfilm to talk to us about Utopia, Gillian Flynn's reimagining of a belovedly culty UK original. Sarah was less thrilled by the show itself, which she's probably bailing on after only two episodes, but the rest of the panel had good things to say about the story, the acting (especially John Cusack), and how fundamentally weird it is that Amazon chose to release Utopia anyway during All Of This. After a trip Around The Dial with Enola Holmes, Julie And The Phantoms, The Legend Of Korra, 30 For 30's new Oscar Pistorius deep-dive, and Dave's long-awaited Cobra Kai review, we took the correct train to Coney Island for Whitney's Canon presentation on the Mr. Robot pilot. Christine Baranski won, tight pants lost, and Game Time put a song in our hearts. Put down those raisins and cue up an all-new Extra Hot Great!
GUESTS
๐ค Devindra Hardawar
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐ท Utopia
Around The Dial: ๐ Enola Holmes
Around The Dial: ๐ธ Julie And The Phantoms
Around The Dial: โ๏ธ The Legend Of Korra
Around The Dial: ๐คพโโ๏ธ 30 For 30
Around The Dial: ๐ฅ Cobra Kai
The Canon: ๐ค Mr. Robot
Winner & Loser: ๐ Christmas On The Square Netflix
Winner & Loser: ๐ Family Feud Kathie Lee Gifford's son-in-law
Game Time: ๐ง The Man From Simon & Garfunkel, Vol. 3
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 322 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
๐ฆ Devindra Hardawar on Twitter
๐ค ATX Festival
๐ง The Korra cast on Fighting In The War Room
๐ป Devindra at Engadget
๐ง Engadget podcasts
๐ง The Film Cast (fka Slashfilmcast) on Apple Podcasts
๐ช The Best Evidence newsletter
๐ด The Again With This podcast
๐ The video of Kathie Lee Giffords's son-in-law and his too-tight pants

Sep 23, 2020 โข 1h 16min
321: Coming Clean On Filthy Rich
Fox's newest soap opera places Kim Cattrall at the head of a televangelist family that -- and you're never going to believe this -- are not as polished and pious as they appear on TV. First-time guest Meredith Haggerty joins us to discuss whether this is a good use of La Cattrall's many talents! Around The Dial takes us through Sing On!, Just Shoot Me!, and Netflix's videogame docs-series High Score. Lauren presents the "Co-op" episode of Documentary Now! for induction into the Canon; then after naming the week's Winner(s) and Loser(s), it's on to a Game Time that could buy and sell you. We hope you'll find it in your heart and in your spirit to join us!
GUESTS
๐ค Meredith Haggerty
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐ Filthy Rich
Around The Dial: ๐ถ Sing On
Around The Dial: ๐ธ Just Shoot Me
Around The Dial: ๐ High Score
The Canon: ๐ฝ Documentary Now!
Winner & Loser: ๐ The Emmys
Winner & Loser: ๐ Quit
Game Time: ๐ง More Filthy Riches
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 321 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
๐ฆ Meredith Haggerty on Twitter
๐ป Meredith at Vox
๐ถ Tara's review of Sing On! at Primetimer
๐ด A Very Special 90210 Book in hardcover
๐ง A Very Special 90210 Book, the audiobook
๐ด The Again With This podcast
๐ธ Again With This on Patreon
๐ง Charting TV theme songs of the '90s at Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs
๐ถ MASTAS ranks songs called "Hold On"
๐ฝ MASTAS on "Co-op"

Sep 16, 2020 โข 2h 15min
320: Zooming In On Home-Shot Reality TV
Reality-TV vet Andy Dehnart has seen a LOT of unscripted crap in his decades in the field, so we're glad he brought his expertise to our discussion of this unprecedented time in the genre's history: the home-shot, socially-distanced versions/spin-offs of some of our old "favorites," plus some new DIY unscripted stuff tailored to pandemic "set" safety. We talked about the challenges facing reality competitions in the Zoom-show era, then drilled down on a few specific shows like Dr. Pimple Popper: Before The Pop, Ghosted: Love Gone Missing, Design At Your Door, and Amy Schumer Learns To Cook. What works for these shows and what doesn't? What innovations -- or filler-busters -- should they keep when quarantine's over? Later, we went Around The Dial with Challenger: The Final Flight, Get Organized With The Home Edit, 16 And Recovering, and The Great Pottery Throw Down, and Tara shared a Tiny Tessitoriumph. We petitioned a reality-competition court to overthrow legendary injustices in the day's Extra Credit, and Andy argued to OUR jury that the first-season Survivor finale acquitted itself well enough to join the Canon. Sam Elliott won, the English language lost, and every night is Saturday night at Game Time. Set up that ring light: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great.
GUESTS
๐ค Andy Dehnart
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐ฉบ Dr. Pimple Popper: Before The Pop
Lead Topic: ๐ฃ My Feet Are Killing Me: First Steps
Lead Topic: ๐ป Ghosted: Love Gone Missing
Lead Topic: ๐ Love After Lockup
Lead Topic: ๐ช Design At Your Door
Lead Topic: ๐ฅ Amy Schumer Learns To Cook
Tiny Triumph: ๐ Holey Moley Joe Tessitore tweet
Around The Dial: ๐ Get Organized With The Home Edit
Around The Dial: ๐ 16 And Recovering
Around The Dial: ๐บ The Great Pottery Throw Down
Around The Dial: ๐ Challenger: The Final Flight
Extra Credit: ๐ค The Peopleโs Appellate Court
The Canon: ๐ Survivor
Winner & Loser: ๐ Family Guy Sam Elliott
Winner & Loser: ๐ CBS All Access rebranding as Paramount Plus
Game Time: ๐ง Ready For Primetime Players
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 320 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
๐ฆ Andy Dehnart on Twitter
๐ฆ Joe Tessitore tweets at Tara
๐ธ The Home Edit on Instagram
โพ๏ธ Defector
๐ป Reality Blurred
๐ง Andy's Newsletter
๐ช Best Evidence

Sep 9, 2020 โข 1h 33min
319: Should Away Be Tossed Away?
Netflix's latest space drama takes a mother, played by Hilary Swank, to Mars, to try to balance work and family; Inkoo Kang of THR joins us to talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through The Boys, 90 Day Fiancรฉ, and For All Mankind. We ponder whether The X-Files's "Humbug" should burrow into The Canon; then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a Game Time that reads us all for filth. Put on your space suit and join us!
GUESTS
๐ค Inkoo Kang
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐ฉโ๐ Away
Around The Dial: ๐ฆธโโ๏ธ The Boys
Around The Dial: ๐ 90 Day Fiancรฉ
Around The Dial: ๐ For All Mankind
The Canon: ๐ฝ The X-Files
Winner & Loser: ๐ Andre Dawson
Winner & Loser: ๐ The Venture Bros.
Game Time: ๐ง Like TV But Silent And Boring
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 319 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
๐ฆ Inkoo Kang on Twitter
๐ฉโ๐ Inkoo's review of Away at THR
โ๏ธ Michael Baumann at The Ringer on what makes a good space show
๐ฆธโโ๏ธ Tara's review of The Boys at Primetimer
โณ๏ธ Tara on Holey Moley at Mel
๐ง The Quaid In Full Podcast

Sep 2, 2020 โข 54min
318: Premium Filler
We're off this week but we've glued together three listener-suggested topics from our Patreon supporter bonus podcast Extra Extra Hot Great.
EEHG 055: Series Starter Kits
Nicole tasked us: Each of you pick a show and then give your 5 most essential or favorite episodes from that show and discuss why they are in your top five.
EEHG 059: The Can'tnon
Seth White figured since this feed is a little looser than EHG Prime, that we should talk about our favourite episodes of a show that, for some reason, would never make it into The Canon and why they have that connection.
EEHG 064: Three With Mustard
With theaters temporarily shuttered, diction and pronunciation in television is more important than ever. Make a short list of the greatest word pronunciations in TV history, and which characters felt the need to add that extra "bit of mustard" to their speech.
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐บ Series Starter Kits
Lead Topic: ๐ช The Can'tnon
Lead Topic: ๐ญ Three With Mustard
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 318 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

Aug 26, 2020 โข 1h 45min
317: Appraising Lifetime's Ruthless Realtor
Podcaster and Lifetime-movie-ologist Brandon is going deep on not just Ruthless Realtor (we would give you a plot summary, but it's...that, with a dash of Bad Ronald) but the evolution of Lifetime movies and the cultural anxieties they reflect; whether we'd ghost a weirdo who brought us a brisket; and why nobody seems to get a second take, or any direction. Then we staged an Around The Dial with stops at Love In The Time Of Corona, vintage Amazing Race, and Below Deck Med before Doug made an animated Canon case for Avatar: The Last Airbender's Empire Strikes Back episode. Dan Mallory won, Drunk History lost, and you won't believe who got re-cast at the pilot stage during Game Time. Don't change those locks: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great.
GUESTS
๐ค Brandon
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐ Ruthless Realtor
Around The Dial: ๐ท Love In The Time Of Corona
Around The Dial: ๐ The Amazing Race
Around The Dial: โ๏ธ Below Deck Mediterranean
The Canon: ๐ฌ Avatar: The Last Airbender
Winner & Loser: ๐ Dan Mallory, subject of a limited series from Janicza Bravo, in which he'll be portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal
Winner & Loser: ๐ Drunk History
Winner & Loser: ๐ Tosh.0
Winner & Loser: ๐ The Other Two
Winner & Loser: ๐ South Side
Winner & Loser: ๐ The Society
Winner & Loser: ๐ I Am Not Okay With This
Game Time: ๐ง Ch-ch-ch-changes
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 317 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
๐ฆ Brandon on Twitter
๐ฉโโค๏ธโ๐โ๐จ Tara's Singletown review at Primetimer
๐ง The Discourse podcast
๐ค Sarah's review of The Vow at Primetimer

Aug 19, 2020 โข 1h 23min
316: Booking A Trip To Lovecraft Country
TV Guide senior editor Malcolm Venable is here to talk about Lovecraft Country, HBO's series imagining of Matt Ruff's novel -- and why everything from the show's look and feel to the acting to Jonathan Majors's believable charisma drew us in. Then we drove our woody wagon Around The Dial with stops at Ted Lasso, Little Voice, and The Great Heist before Rebecca's Extra Credit tasked us with casting reality-competition shows with our favorite TV characters. Sarah then filed a Canon motion on behalf of a latter-season Law & Order Mothership episode. The British Empire won, the DC Universe lost, and we mashed up actor names and fictional reboots in Game Time. Grab a wooden bat and an illustrated map: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great.
GUESTS
๐ค Malcolm Venable
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐ฃ Lovecraft Country
Around The Dial: โฝ๏ธ Ted Lasso
Around The Dial: ๐ Little Voice
Around The Dial: ๐ธ The Great Heist
Extra Credit: ๐ค Be Our Host
The Canon: โ๏ธ Law & Order S15.E13: Ain't No Love
Winner & Loser: ๐ The Crown Jonathan Pryce, Elizabeth Debicki
Winner & Loser: ๐ DC Universe
Game Time: ๐ง Name Above The Title
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 316 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
๐ฆ Malcolm Venable on Twitter
๐ "How Lovecraft Country Reappropriates H.P. Lovecraft's Notoriously Racist Creations" at Slate
๐ฆด The Bones Zone podcast
๐ Malcolm at TVGuide.com
๐ง The Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs podcast
๐ The Great American Pop Culture Quiz Show podcast
๐ถ "2 Are Charged In Killing Of Jam Master Jay, Hip-Hop Pioneer" at NYTimes.com
๐ Rap On Trial at TheNewPress.com
๐จ "A History of Violence: Why I Loved Cop Shows, and Why They Must Change" by Alan Sepinwall at RollingStone.com
๐ฎโโ๏ธ "Cops Are Always the Main Characters" by Kathryn VanArendonk at Vulture

Aug 12, 2020 โข 1h 9min
315: Taking Aim At Hitmen
Before they were the original co-hosts of The Great British Bake Off, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins were comedy partners, and their new project Hitmen, imported from Sky to Peacock, returns them to their roots. Did it slay us? We'll talk about it! Around The Dial takes us through An American Pickle, Hard Knocks, and Star Trek: Lower Decks. For his Extra Credit, Taylor Cole -- inspired by The Great -- asks us to create our own heightened, quasi-comedic bio-series about a world leader of yesteryear. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, it's back to school for Game Time. Pop an extra-strong mint and join us!
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐ช Hitmen
Around The Dial: ๐ฅ An American Pickle
Around The Dial: ๐ Hard Knocks
Around The Dial: ๐ Star Trek: Lower Decks
Extra Credit: ๐ค World Leader Pretend
Winner & Loser: ๐ C.S.I.: Vegas
Winner & Loser: ๐ Taskmaster
Winner & Loser: ๐ Succession
Game Time: ๐ง It's All Academic: Second Semester
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 315 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
๐งข Defector
๐ Joe Reid on Hard Knocks at Primetimer
๐ Sarah on Surviving Jeffrey Epstein at Primetimer
โ Sarah on Storm Over Brooklyn at Primetimer
๐ Tara's Star Trek: Lower Decks review at Primetimer
๐ค The Great American Pop Culture Quiz Show podcast

Aug 5, 2020 โข 1h 49min
314: Unraveling Frayed
The latest British Commonwealth addition to HBOMax's library is the BAFTA-nominated Frayed, and Christina Tucker joins us to discuss whether its riches-to-rags protagonist is as compelling as the world its star-creator, Sarah Kendall, has built around her. Around The Dial takes us through Immigration Nation, Coroner, Desert Hearts (now streaming on Showtime!), the Happy Endings Zoom reunion, and a brief re-plug for Taskmaster now that it's come over to The CW. Francoise uses her Extra Credit to ask us about TV series that revolve around the wrong protagonist, and who would have been the right one. Tara presents the Feud episode "And The Winner Isโฆ (The Oscars Of 1963)" for induction into the Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, we kick off a new Game Time season with a game that takes us deep into the history of various stars' TV careers. Pour yourself a glass of Moet (how you pronounce it is no concern of ours) and listen!
GUESTS
๐ค Christina Tucker
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ๐ฆ๐บ Frayed
Around The Dial: ๐ Immigration Nation
Around The Dial: ๐ Coroner
Around The Dial: ๐ Desert Hearts
Around The Dial: ๐ Happy Endings The reunion
Around The Dial: ๐ Taskmaster
Extra Credit: ๐ค Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are On TV
The Canon: ๐คฌ Feud S01.E05: And The Winner Is... (The Oscars Of 1963)
Winner & Loser: ๐ The Bachelorette Tayshia Adams, Clare Crawley
Winner & Loser: ๐ The Simpsons Harry Shearer
Game Time: ๐ง Humble Beginnings
NOTES
๐ Full episode notes can be found on the episode 314 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
๐ฆ Christina Tucker on Twitter
๐ง Christina's podcast, Unfriendly Black Hotties
๐ The Google Images tab for Coroner co-star รric Bruneau
๐ฆ๐บ Tara's review of Frayed at Primetimer
๐ The Happy Endings reunion
๐ถ Mark And Sarah QUIZ About Songs
๐ The Deadline report on Harry Shearer with the VERY bad photo of him