

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

Aug 14, 2019 • 1h 42min
263: Pinning Down Season 3 Of GLOW
GLOW returned to Netflix for its third season last weekend, and Adam Grosswirth returned to EHG to discuss the action's move to Vegas, the realism of a long run, whether a more serious tone worked, and where a possible Season 4 can go from here. We went Around The Dial with The Family, Wu Assassins, So You Think You Can Dance, and Last Tango In Halifax before Erica challenged us to create Tony-winning musical episodes from TV shows of yore. We got out the paddles for a Canon submission from Sean on Schitt's Creek, then declared a dead Confederate a winner, and LiLo's antics a loser, before sampling a rollercoaster of a musical Game Time. Hike up those leotards and join us for an all-new Extra Hot Great.
GUESTS
👤 Adam Grosswirth
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🤼♀️ GLOW
Around The Dial: 👨👩👦👦 The Family
Around The Dial: 🩰 So You Think You Can Dance
Around The Dial: 💃 Last Tango In Halifax
Around The Dial: 🥷 Wu Assassins
Extra Credit: 🤑 When The Emmys Meet The Tonys
The Canon: 🏆 Schitt's Creek S01.E06: Wine And Roses
Winner & Loser: 👍 HBO
Lead Topic: 👎 Lindsay Lohan
Game Time: 🧠 Would You Care To Try A Sample?
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 263 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
🚀 Sarah's Quaid In Full podcast on Twitter

Aug 7, 2019 • 1h 34min
262: Burying Four Weddings And A Funeral
Noted romcom fan Mindy Kaling has been tasked by Hulu to bring the world a series adaptation of the 1994 feature film Four Weddings And A Funeral, and noted romcom fan Linda Holmes is joining us to talk about whether this ever should have happened! Around The Dial has us discussing HBO's A Black Lady Sketch Show, the series finale of Jane The Virgin, and the end (we hope) of Big Little Lies. Linda makes the case for the induction of The Good Place's "Dance Dance Resolution" into the Canon; then after naming the week's Winner(s) and Loser, we move on to a Game Time that soars. Get out of the rain (or hadn't you noticed?) and join us!
GUESTS
👤 Linda Holmes
TOPICS
Lead Topic: ⚰️ Four Weddings And A Funeral
Around The Dial: ✍️ A Black Lady Sketch Show
Around The Dial: 👧🏻 Jane The Virgin
Around The Dial: 🤥 Big Little Lies
The Canon: 🏆 The Good Place S02.E02: Dance Dance Resolution
Winner & Loser: 👍 Nico Tortorella (and Auli'i Cravalho)
Winner & Loser: 👎 Gabrielle Carteris
Game Time: 🧠 Pilot Test
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 262 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
🐦 Linda Holmes on Twitter
⚰️ Linda's review of Four Weddings And A Funeral at NPR.org
🤼♀️ Vulture's coverage of GLOW
🎙 The Sweet Smell Of Succession podcast
🏝 The Again With This podcast
🦞 Linda's book, Evvie Drake Starts Over
🍸 Pop Culture Happy Hour
🎙 Linda on The Maris Review podcast
🎯 Linda on Bullseye
⚾️ Linda on the Effectively Wild podcast
🚀 The Quaid In Full podcast on Twitter
👵🏻 The Gabrielle Carteris tag on Deadline.com

Jul 31, 2019 • 1h 18min
261: The Boys! The Boys! Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come For You?
John couldn't make it last week for our Veronica Mars discussion, but he fired a baby's laser-beam eyes at Amazon's latest original, The Boys, which we all quite liked. Does Jack Quaid look more like his famous parents, or like a Bill Heder/Pacey Witter hybrid? How will the show diverge even further from its graphic-novel parent in Season 2? And does Butcher swear more than Buntsy? We went Around The Dial with Sherman's Showcase and South Side, John's belated take on Veronica Mars S4, Animal Kingdom, and Pennyworth before descending into a boring, disturbing sex fog with Dave's presentation of TNG's "Sub Rosa" for the Nonac. Nickelodeon slime won the space race, Diddy became a Loser, and Dan Cassino merged shows old and new for a Before & After Game Time. Don't get sent to Sandusky for missing this all-new Extra Hot Great!
GUESTS
👤 John Ramos
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🦸🏻♂️ The Boys
Around The Dial: 🎪 Sherman's Showcase
Around The Dial: 📺 South Side
Around The Dial: 🕵🏻♀️ Veronica Mars
Around The Dial: 🦁 Animal Kingdom
Around The Dial: 🪙 Pennyworth
The Nonac: 🤮 Star Trek: The Next Generation S07.E14: Sub Rosa
Winner & Loser: 👍 Nickelodeon slime
Lead Topic: 👎 P. Diddy
Game Time: 🧠 Before & After
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 261 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
🧡 Tara's Primetimer post on OITNB
🎙 Tara and Dave Chen's Succession podcast
🦁 Sarah's Animal Kingdom power rankings at Primetimer
♣️ Bridge champion John Ramos
🛸 This weird and wonderful Star Trek on a theremin video

Jul 24, 2019 • 1h 36min
260: Discussing An Explosive New Season Of Veronica Mars
Hulu dropped Veronica Mars a week sooner than anyone expected, but Kathryn VanArendonk was ready to leap into action and join us in a VERY SPOILER-FILLED discussion of Season 4! Around The Dial takes us to Frankenstein's Monster's Monster, Frankenstein on Netflix; a spoiler-free farewell to the imminently-ending Jane The Virgin; Last Chance U; and a potpourri of TV-adjacent remarks from Dave (including an update on the original book version of The Rook). Leanna cashes in her Extra Credit to get us to pick TV characters who deserve theme songs. Then Tara makes the case for One Day At A Time's "Strays" to be inducted into the Canon. Then we name the week's Winner and Loser, and kick off a new season of Game Time with Sitcom Keyword Search. Post up on the couch with Pony and listen in!
GUESTS
👤 Kathryn VanArendonk
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🕵🏻♀️ Veronica Mars
Around The Dial: 🧌 Frankenstein's Monster's Monster, Frankenstein
Around The Dial: 👧🏻 Jane The Virgin
Around The Dial: 🏈 Last Chance U
Around The Dial: 😑 FMK Korrection Korner
Around The Dial: 👶 The Rook
Around The Dial: ☕️ Big Little Lies
Extra Credit: 🤑
The Canon: 🏆 One Day At A Time S01.E05: Strays
Winner & Loser: 👍 Sarah
Winner & Loser: 👎 Crybaby Game Of Thrones alums
Game Time: 🧠 Sitcom Keyword Search
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 260 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
🐦 Kathryn on Twitter
📺 Kathryn at Vulture
🎙 David Chen's new podcast, Culturally Relevant
📕 Tara's Handmaid's Tale post on BN.com
🦴 The Bones Zone podcast
🎄 Dave And Jeb Aren't Mean
🧀 Cheddar Cheese Song
🏥 Clínica De Migrantes on HBO

Jul 17, 2019 • 1h 22min
259: Here We Are With Our Rickets Problem On An All New FMK Special
TV-based F*ck, Marry, Kill is back, and so is famous original panelist Joe Reid, as we decide whether to bone, betroth, or bash in the heads of Mad Men items, Handmaid's deaths, episode types, trains, fonts, and unkillable robber barons of yesteryear. From Aquarius to Zoo and every Sophie's choice in between -- but this time we've added our own brainteasers for our fellow panelists. Cool off with an extra-hot Extra Hot Great!
GUESTS
👤 Joe Reid
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 💍 F*ck, Marry, Kill
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 259 page on ExtraHotGreat.com

Jul 9, 2019 • 1h 30min
258: Yelling About The Loudest Voice
Showtime has turned Gabriel Sherman's Roger Ailes book into a seven-part miniseries, and Will Leitch has returned to talk about what it is, whom it's for, and how it compares to recent-history HBO docudramas like Game Change. Around The Dial takes us through Divorce, the triumph of the USWNT, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Rook. Will Leitch presents "Pt. 5" of (the masterpiece) O.J.: Made In America to the Canon. Then after naming the week's Winner and Loser, an old favourite returns to Non-Regulation Game Time. Put on your shortest skirt, sit down behind a transparent desk, and join us!
GUESTS
👤 Will Leitch
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 📢 The Loudest Voice
Around The Dial: 💔 Divorce
Around The Dial: ⚽️ The US Women's National Soccer Team
Around The Dial: 🤦♀️ The Handmaid's Tale
Around The Dial: 👶 The Rook
The Canon: 🏆 O.J.: Made In America Pt. 5
Winner & Loser: 👍 Stranger Things
Winner & Loser: 👎 Amber Portwood
Game Time: 🧠 Tube Tunes 5
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 258 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
🐦 Will Leitch on Twitter
⚽️ Will on the USWNT, for New York
🏀 Will on Kevin Durant, also for New York
✉️ Will's (free!) TinyLetter
📺 The Will Leitch Show
🎙 The Grierson & Leitch Podcast
💔 Ben Travers on Divorce
⛳️ Tara on Holey Moley

Jun 26, 2019 • 1h 31min
257: Is Holey Moley A Summertime Viewing Champion?
Try as we might, we couldn't get that "putt down the remote" joke to work, so we'll just say we're happy Daniel MacEachern is back on the pod, and we're even happier to be talking about Holey Moley, the "Wipeout meets mini-golf" summer offering from ABC that finally found a way to use Kenny G's talents properly. From hosts to holes to gimmicky guest get-ups, it's fun for the whole family -- really! Later, we go Around The Dial with Years And Years, Animal Kingdom, Bosch, Lethal Weapon, Collateral, and Dave's non-crackpot theory on TV knockout drugs, before contemplating a universally despised Golden Girls episode that closed out that otherwise-great show's second season. Michael Sheen (not in character from The Good Fight) was a winner, execs trying to step to Buntsy's girl Roma Torre were losers, and someone got a helping hand on this week's Game Time. This is our windmil-lieu: an all-new Extra Hot Great.
GUESTS
👤 Daniel MacEachern
TOPICS
Around The Dial: ⛳️ Holey Moley
Around The Dial: 📆 Years And Years
Around The Dial: 🔫 Lethal Weapon
Around The Dial: 🦁 Animal Kingdom
Around The Dial: 🌒 Bosch
Around The Dial: 💰 Collateral
I Am Not A Crackpot: 🤪 Using Chloroform
The Nonac: 🤮 The Golden Girls S02.E26: Empty Nests
Winner & Loser: 👍 Michael Sheen
Winner & Loser: 👎 NY1 execs trying to step to Roma Torre
Game Time: 🧠 Chums And Helpers
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 257 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
⛳️ Carl Carmoni and Quebecois putt-putt
👗 Pose
⚖️ The Best Evidence newsletter
🥼 How chloroform actually works
✍️ Michael Sheen takes up for fan-fic
🤺 NY1 anchors sue Charter Communications for marginalizing them

Jun 19, 2019 • 1h 30min
256: Exorcising Our Demons With Los Espookys
Comedy writer/performers Ana Fabrega and Julio Torres have brought HBO a new sitcom about a "horror group" that creates practical horror effects for ridiculous reasons (Fred Armisen's hardly in it, we swear!), and Omar Gallaga has returned to discuss it with us! Around The Dial clicks through Younger, Comedy Central's new sketch show Alternatino With Arturo Castro, the upcoming Amazon series Undone, and the third seasons of Claws and Jessica Jones. For her Extra Credit topic, Corey asks us each to choose a title from the AFI's top 100 films and turn it into a TV series. Omar presents the Atlanta episode "Teddy Perkins" for the Canon. Once we've recovered (barely), it's on to the week's Winner and Loser and a Game Time with a lot of cipherin'. Put on your werewolf teeth and join us!
GUESTS
👤 Omar Gallaga
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 👻 Los Espookys
Around The Dial: 👶 Younger
Around The Dial: 🎤 Alternatino With Arturo Castro
Around The Dial: 🤪 Undone
Around The Dial: 💅 Claws
Around The Dial: 🦸♀️ Jessica Jones
Extra Credit: 🤑
The Canon: 🏆 Atlanta S02.E06: Teddy Perkins
Winner & Loser: 👍 PoseQueer Eye
Winner & Loser: 👎 Bill Cosby
Game Time: 🧠 I Was Told There Would Be No Math
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 256 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
🐦 Omar Gallaga on Twitter
👻 Omar's post on Los Espookys on Primetimer
🛣 The Washington Post's By The Way travel series
🩸 The Blotter Presents podcast
🍿 The AFI 100 Films list
🙅♀️ Bill Cosby's Father's Day tweet

Jun 12, 2019 • 1h 19min
255: Telling Another Season Of Big Little Lies
We're thrilled to welcome Eve back to the guest chair...but were we as thrilled to welcome Big Little Lies back into our primetime lives? We talked about Meryl Streep's flawlessly passive-aggressive performance and loved Laura Dern because it's a day ending in Y. After Tara reported on a Kit-Kat-jingle-related Tiny Triumph, Sarah joined her to capsule-review the ATX Festival before we went around the dial with Pose, RuPaul's Drag Race, and Black Mirror. Dan Cassino tasked us with assembling our own personal A-Teams as an Extra Credit, and everyone from Villanelle to Pam Poovey got in on the act. Then we took a tour of Senegal with Françoise's lovely Canon presentation on behalf of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown. Kristen Bell is a winner, Linda Fairstein is a loser, and we all shared a bowl of alphabet soup in Game Time. Don't get stuck in a hallway marching band: it's an all-new Extra Hot Great.
GUESTS
👤 Eve Batey
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🤥 Big Little Lies
Tiny Triumph: 🎉 Tara’s Kit-Kat jingle gets a key RT
Around The Dial: 📺 ATX Festival Report
Around The Dial: 💃 Pose
Around The Dial: 💄 RuPaul's Drag Race
Around The Dial: 🪞 Black Mirror
Extra Credit: 🤑 Your Own Personal A-Team
The Canon: 🏆 Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown S07.E06: Senegal
Winner & Loser: 👍 Kristen Bell
Winner & Loser: 👎 Linda Fairstein
Game Time: 🧠 ABC TV Trivia
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 255 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
📺 The Alternatino premiere on YouTube
⚖️ The Best Evidence newsletter
📺 ATX’s TV Campfire podcast

Jun 5, 2019 • 1h 27min
254: Welcome Back To F---in' Deadwood
Shocking the world, the Deadwood movie no one dared believe would actually happen has actually happened, and our old friend Alan Sepinwall, Chief TV Critic of Rolling Stone, returns to discuss it. Around The Dial clicks through American Princess, The Handmaid's Tale, Netflix's sequel to Tales Of The City, Scott & Bailey, Good Omens, and Epix's Perpetual Grace, LTD. Alan takes a leap by submitting the Quantum Leap episode "The Leap Home, Part 1" to the Canon. Then after we name the week's Winner and Loser, it's on to a very animated Game Time. Meet us in the thoroughfare and listen!
GUESTS
👤 Alan Sepinwall
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🤠 Deadwood
Around The Dial: 👸 American Princess
Around The Dial: 👺 The Handmaid's Tale
Around The Dial: 🌁 Tales Of The City
Around The Dial: 👮♀️ Scott & Bailey
Around The Dial: 📿 Good Omens
Around The Dial: ⏰ Perpetual Grace Ltd
The Canon: ⚛️ Quantum Leap S03.E01: The Leap Home, Part 1
Winner & Loser: 👍 Vida
Winner & Loser: 👎 Bravo and Viola Davis
Game Time: 🧠 Cels From Celluloid
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 254 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
📊 The Extra Hot Great submission form
🐦 Alan Sepinwall on Twitter
🎸 Alan at Rolling Stone, including all his coverage on Deadwood: The Movie
📺 The ATX Festival
📚 All Alan's books on Amazon
🏊♀️ Sarah and Tara on Melrose Place at Primetimer
🦁 Sarah's Animal Kingdom power rankings at Primetimer
⚛️ Kathryn VanArendonk's interview with Scott Bakula about the 30th anniversary of Quantum Leap