It's yet another expensive-looking and ambitious limited series from Apple TV+ -- this time, Franklin, starring Michael "Gordon Gekko" Douglas as the flatulence-forward inventor of electricity. Is this limited series focused on the wrong thing? Is Franklin as a colonial weirdo better in smaller doses? And why isn't there more farting? Later, we wen…

Tom Ripley, a Talented character we already saw on screen in his namesake movie in 1999, is back, now in a limited series on Netflix; Dan Rogge joins us to discuss how this version compares to Anthony Minghella's film, what we thought of its use of black and white, and how it works to age up the character so he can be played by Andrew Scott. Around…

AMC's latest prestige drama, Parish, features Giancarlo Esposito as a retired wheelman trying to do former associate Skeet Ulrich a favor, and we're thrilled Omar Gallaga is parking it on the panel to talk about the show. Does the show do anything with 2010s crime-show cliches? Who has notes on car-chase credibility? And on a scale of one to ten pl…

Doug Liman has taken Rowdy Herrington's glorious 1989 feature Road House and remade it for Prime Video with Jake Gyllenhaal as a Dalton for the 21st century; Taylor S. Cole joins us to discuss whether it's a hard slap in the face to our memories of the original. Around The Dial takes us through Girls5eva, Lost, Homicide: New York, and Chicken Nugge…

Time was, the Extra Credit segment regularly appeared in the main episode. But with the expansion of the Patreon-exclusive Friday bonus episode, a lot of them snuck over there. We also just fell behind. So we're catching up: in this very special episode, we're addressing not one, not two, but NINE Extra Credit submissions with answers as considered…

Guy Ritchie's 2019 movie has spun off a vaguely related drama series on Netflix; Will Leitch returns to discuss where it ranks in his filmography. Around The Dial takes us through Animal Control, The Curse, and As We Speak: Rap Music On Trial. Sarah makes the case for the Law & Order episode "Trophy" to be inducted into the Canon. Then, after namin…

The Good [X]-verse returns to network television with Elsbeth, a procedural starring Carrie Preston's capital-Q Quirky Elsbeth Tascioni -- and Adam Grosswirth returns to EHG to talk about how the show is trying to have it both ways with the character's historical anti-establishment attitude; whether these creators should have moved this set of show…

James Clavell's doorstop of a novel Shōgun was already adapted as a network miniseries when your three regular panelists were all kids. Now it's getting a cable and streaming take, and you know what that means: beheadings and boobs! Variety TV critic Alison Herman returns to join us in describing everything ELSE that's also going on. Around The Dia…

When we threw a Zoom game night over the holidays for our Patreon supporters (hop down to join them!), Dave decided one was too good to play once. So we invited three of our Patreon supporters who hadn't made it to play it again. Listen to hear Taylor, Lucy, and (Bezoar) Laura try to decipher TV theme songs slowed WAY down; then, Dave hops in for a…

This year, Super Bowl home CBS gambled its coveted post-game time slot on a brand-new action drama called Tracker; David J. Roth joins us for a conversation on, among other things, how it stacks up to the similarly-named Reacher. Around The Dial takes us through The Amazing Race, This Fool, Kings From Queens, and Griselda. Tara pitches the Primo ep…

Mr. And Mrs. Smith is back, in TV form, on Amazon Prime, and Sarah Baker is back, in fine form, to talk about it: whether it improves on the movie, how we feel about leads Donald Glover and Maya Erskine's chemistry, how many Brooklyn landmarks Sarah D. Bunting zoomed in on for confirmation, and what the Phoebe Waller-Bridge iteration of the show mi…

With Masters Of The Air, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have, once again, teamed up to tell a story of troops in the Second World War; Jeff Drake returns to discuss whether it soars, or never quite leaves the runway. Around The Dial takes us through a midseason Married At First Sight check-in; Season 1 of The Traitors; Bluey; and an Edgar Allan Poe…

We are off this week due to a family emergency but we bring you a couple choice cuts from the EHG Club archive. EEHG 223: Tara Forces Dave To Watch Alice S06.E10: The Wild One Remember the 70s and 80s when our greatest collective fear was that bikers would just grab a waitress from a diner and make her join their gang? EEHG 216: Dave Forces Tara To…

Mon dieu: Dashiell Hammett's legendary P.I. Sam Spade is back on AMC -- and because he's now noiring it up in the south of France, legendary Gallic guest Mademoiselle Caroline is back to talk about it. Is the limited series too long, or not long enough? How well does star Clive Owen contend with the character's, and Humphrey Bogart's, legend? And s…

AppleTV+'s latest very polished drama, Criminal Record, is about race and corruption in London's Metropolitan police force; Brandi Brown takes a break from cozy mysteries to discuss whether this copperganda is worth watching. Around The Dial takes us through Grimsburg, Julia, The Gilded Age (including a Tiny Triumph from Brandi), Break Point, and T…

Some of you might have made a New Year's resolution to watch less bad TV. Couldn't be us: we've decided to face bad TV head-on with this special all-Nonac episode. Sean pitches an infamous Survivor about sexual harassment among players. Erica dares us to watch a Monty Python's Flying Circus that breaks from both standard episode structure and good …

It's about to be a new year, so what better topic could there be for a Thunderdome than...the new? With that in mind, we've assembled a list of 27 TV people with "new," "neu," or "noo" in their names, and are subjecting them to mortal combat in rounds of three contestants at a time -- standard Thunderdome stuff -- to see which of them will survive …

We are off this week but we bring you three great presents in the form of three Extra Extra Hot Great episodes from the club vault. EEHG 212: Christmastalgia Sequels to The Santa Clause and A Christmas Story have come to TV this week, so we're sharing the holiday programming of yesteryear we want to see reimagined for TV, and how. EEHG 216: Tara Fo…

We made some of our Valued Guests stick around after their tapings and muse about TV in our version of a What If? Find out where their imaginations took them in this very special episode! TOPICS Lead Topic: 🧠 Guest Thought Experiments SUPPORT THE SHOW 🔥 Join the EHG Club for bonus episodes, no ads, community Discord and more! 🛍️ Shop our merch stor…

Do you know what time it is? It's Non-Regulation Game Time, courtesy of our friend Nick Rheinwald-Jones! Get out your No. 2 pencils, because Nick found a vacant high school gym, sat your co-hosts down, and administered The TV SATs. Whose scores will qualify them for consideration at prestigious Hillman College, and who's going to have to settle for…

For years, you've heard us sing the D.B. Cooper song; now you're going to hear us talk about him. Just because no one knows what actually happened to Dan Cooper after he jumped out of that plane with a bag full of cash doesn't mean TV writers can't speculate about it in their entirely fictional shows. Three shows -- Leverage, Prison Break, and News…

The Crown is back with the first half (or so) of its final season; as it sends off Princess Diana, Heather Cocks joins us to discuss whether the season had to happen at all. Around The Dial takes us through The Real Housewives Of New York, Killing It, the second season of Julia, and the latest episode of Opera Wars, aka The Gilded Age. Heather make…

Our esteemed colleague Alan Sepinwall is back, mate(y)! An Australian spin-off of an already banal cop-show franchise is maybe not the best use of his time, but we talked about NCIS-franchise stock characters, unmemorable TV for aging parents, and what happens when English actors try to play ugly Americans. Later, we went Around The Dial with The C…

AppleTV+'s new dramedy is a series adaptation of the famously unfinished Edith Wharton novel The Buccaneers; Margaret H. Willison joins us to discuss how it compares to the many other current and recently past entires into the thriving genre of corset TV. Around The Dial takes us through Married At First Sight, Beckham, and Get Gotti, with just a l…

Showtime's new limited series, Fellow Travelers, takes us back to the 1950s AND the 1980s via Matt Bomer's closeted Don Draper-esque life and loves -- and the great Joe Reid is back in the guest chair to talk about whether the whole is less than the sum of a few very good parts; what Roy Cohn content might do a better job with midcentury context th…