Margaret choosing blindness while watching Love is Blind
In today's episode, we talk, of course, about Netflix's terrible, wonderful new reality TV show Love Is Blind because Margaret's brainworms demanded it, and Andrew indulgently complied. THEN, we move on to discuss the unusual-- and excellent-- standalone episode of Apple TV+'s new video game development sitcom, Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet (aka Mythic Raven: Banquet Quest) and how different kinds of standalone episodes function narratively within the runs of their respective shows. For, as Andrew points out, the absolute, first-ever time.
Kathryn had, predictably, written a number of great pieces on all of the above subjects for Vulture. Please enjoy her essays on:
- on the gorgeous-- perhaps un-replicable-- messiness of this first season of Love Is Blind
- the questionable hosting levels of Obviously, Nick Lachey and his wife Vanessa, who looks like she was famous before she was her wife, but for what, we will never recall nor research.
- and, last but not least, standalone episodes within the runs of High Fidelity and Mythic Banquet: Questlove's Raven
And, for the true diehards: when Craig claimed our wheels were up and when our wheels were, in fact, up.
This week’s episode is our recent live show crossover event with Overdue at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. The Appointment Television and Overdue crews gather together to discuss the recent TV adaptation and compare it to the book from which it (and the film, and the ill-starred musical) sprung. Whether we figure out the relative superiority of books or TV as competing artistic formats is left up to the listener.
In a truly impressive and unusual turn of events, Margaret does a startling amount of homework to bring us a glimpse at some of the most interesting queer TV out there right now. Sadly she insists on calling this the "queer TV qorner" even though "qorner" is an objectively unlovely word to look at. We give particular focus to Showtime's Work In Progress, which is new and especially great.
This week we revisit CBS’s Evil, the Good One/Bad One entrant that has burrowed into our brains this year. Then, continuing down the CBS All Access rabbit hole, we talk about the first episode of Picard and how it will and won’t please fans of The Next Generation.
SHOW NOTES:
THIS WEEK, we have some special treats for you!
First, as our improbably long bumper will inform you, we have a live show in Ohio coming up on Thursday, February 20th! Andrew, Kathryn, Margaret, and Andrew's other podcasting family Craig Getting (with whom he makes the exceptionally popular book podcast for teens, Overdue) are going back to the college that made us (summoned, perhaps, by a calling bell*) to debate the all-important question: which is better, TV or books? The show will start at 7:00 PM and end at 8:30 PM and you can find all further information right here: bit.ly/booksortv
Now with THAT out of the way, our second surprise! Andrew is only to be found in the first 6 minutes of today's episode, after which he is replaced by our beloved pal Christina Tucker of The Unfriendly Black Hotties, Pop Culture Happy Hour, and Autostraddle to discuss her deranged darling, The Morning Show. Is it good? Why does it think UBA sounds like a real TV network? Why is Christina so obsessed with Jen Aniston??? How would Christina rank all of Jen's breakdowns in this first season? Tune in and find out!
*(Andrew is in this video, 5 points to Gryffindor if you can spot him)
This week, the first order of business is a rundown of shows ending in 2020, and a plea to any listener who actually knows what's happening on Supernatural to please tell us about it. (Very briefly).
Then, inspired by shows like Watchmen, Succession and with a gimlet eye cast toward The Witcher, we talk about weekly release schedules in the time of the Netflix binge. Weekly releases: we like them! And not just because we don't have time to binge shows on the weekends anymore!
Andrew’s baby started throwing up on him mere minutes before we were supposed to record so we present to you: Margaret and Kathryn’s BONNET WATCH. It’s about period shows where people wear bonnets. Certainly, this makes it easier to appreciate what Andrew adds to or subtracts from the podcast.
SHOW NOTES:
Sanditon: https://www.vulture.com/2020/01/sanditon-review-jane-austen-pbs-masterpiece.html
The Good Lord Bird: https://www.sho.com/the-good-lord-bird
Bridgerton: https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/bridgerton-shonda-rhimes-netflix/
Fun facts about John Brown: https://npg.si.edu/learn/classroom-resource/john-brown-1800-1859
This week, we bring our discussion of Lodge 49's first season to a close, talking over episodes 7, 8, 9 and the complete and utter collapse of capitalist structures they represent. In the process we also touch upon: Bruce Campbell's most famous film role (his cameo at the beginning of the movie Congo, of course), the two types of people you find in corporate training seminars, the questionable efficacy of suicide threats as a debt reduction strategy, and the undeniable elan of flinging a silicone boob push-up at your former manager. We hope you've enjoyed hanging out with Ernie and Dud as much as we have.
A first for the ol' ATV crew this week! We chat briefly about Dickinson, which is far away the weirdest, funniest, strangest, best thing you can watch on Apple TV+. And then we're joined by its creator Alena Smith, a TV veteran who talked to us about the show's juxtaposition of period setting with modern vernacular, the experience of making a show for Apple, and about the big Dickinson-Cats crossover happening in Season 2. (Kidding! Or are we??)
Happy 2020, everyone! We're taking a week off, but just in case your resolution involved listening to more of us, we've dug up a classic episode from our archive! In episode 90, our first listener Q&A, we A some of your most pressing Qs (from 2017). Most of these answers are probably still applicable! Most of them.
It’s a Boxing Day miracle! As we do every year, we revisit the kingdom of Aldovia (now with much more about its history and geography revealed) to spend time fixing the simple and improbably Christmas-oriented problems of its royal family. This year, Aldovia needs to ratify a treaty with a neighboring fictional kingdom to avert war, and Queen Amber gives birth to a bouncing baby four-month-old.
SHOW NOTES:
Christmas Prince 3: The Royal Baby on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81029841
Our first Christmas Prince episode: https://atvpodcast.com/post/168783737692/episode-121-a-christmas-prince
And our second: https://atvpodcast.com/post/181075876090/episode-171-a-christmas-prince-2-the-royal
Because we received some feedback on our Perfect Harmony segment, we dedicate the first part of this episode to discussing exactly what we mean when we say "bad one," and also we chat about Margaret's southern accent. (We do not celebrate Margaret's southern accent as anything other than "very entertaining to listen to.")
Next, it's Lodge 49 book club! This week: crushing debt, anxiety about the future, capitalism, socialism, parasites both metaphorical and literal.
These WILL make sense in context.
This week, you get exactly what's on the tin as we, first among our kind in this novel approach!!, mark the decade's end by reflecting on the decade's #content. Which means:
- We talk a lot about the challenges of novelty New Year's Eve sunglass design in the 2010s
- We talk about how TV technology has changed with time!
- Andrew shares helpful charts and infographics about how TV size has changed and how size and distance from the TV correlate.
- We share some of our favorite shows of the decade, and why!
- And Margaret cries, OBVIOUSLY!
We hope you enjoy it, pals. We love you guys.
We return to The Mandalorian, because when we first discussed it, none of us knew about the great gift of Baby Yoda. The problem with this discussion is that Kathryn is the one who wanted to raise it, and then she leaves to deal with a childcare issue, and neither Andrew nor Margaret have seen The Mandalorian. Nevertheless they persist!
Following that situation, we return to Lodge 49 for a lively conversation about what happens when you find a corpse in your lodge that is *definitely* not a mummy.
Hello everyone! To mark Thanksgiving, we your intrepid TV podcast hosts have gathered to discuss our final round of good one/bad one. This week it's Andrew's picks. We start with the good, HBO's Watchmen, and then continue on to the TURKEY (get it!!) of NBC's Pitch Perfect Harmony. No pauses indicating our inability to remember that show's actual title have been edited out. Come, join us, and find out why Jesus is the TRUE Eye of the Tiger. Discussed in the show:
We come to you with some fall TV updates, which you should probably note are less updates than they are "things we were thinking two weeks ago and it turns out we'd probably have different things to say about them if we recorded it last night but we didn't!" The reason this segment is still coming to you is so you can hear Kathryn have an absolute meltdown over the word midichlorian.
Then, it's the first installment of our Lodge 49 book club! We're discussing the pilot, which is dreamy and sad and funny and perfect.
A fun thing you might not know about our *process* is that, as we record the episodes, we're supposed to pop notes into a thread in our Slack that contain, say, links to articles we mention in the podcast or notes about audio issues like "For some reason in the last two minutes of the podcast, Kathryn's mic cuts out almost entirely and like you can do your best to fix it, but there's really no way to, IDK." But this week's show notes thread contained only the following:
So here we all are together, just hanging in there, trying to make it better. Tune in this week for nothing pertaining to Weird Al, but much pertaining to: the progression of Andrew's baby's cuteness, babies who are worried about their social security, what a difference truly great actors make to the quality of your puzzle box mystery show, what age and wisdom can teach YOU, and oh so ever so much more. Please do @ us with any suggestions for lyrics to "Syndicated," and get ROLLING on our new TV Book Club: Lodge 49, which AMC cancelled the VERY DAY we recorded.
Hooray for good TV shows! Booo for bad TV shows! This week we're talking about FOX's Almost Family and CBS's Evil - see if you can guess which is the good one and which is the bad one! Hint: the bad one involves a show making light of medical sexual assault.
In this episode, we discuss many topics such as: how are Mystery-flavor Dum Dums made? Is it possible to misuse the word "jawn"? And which pop songs does Andrew think could most easily be transmuted into Jesus-y praise ballads? But ABOVE ALL, we dedicate ourselves to naming, as has been our ritual for lo, so many Fall TV Seasons, which shows, both good and bad, we are going to be making each other watch for your benefit.
- Kathryn's Good One
- Kathryn's Bad One
- Margaret's Good One
- Margaret's Bad One
- And the actually good Australian series it's based on
- And the probing questions it provoked at TCA
- And the many people with personal experience of its premise who really hate it
- Andrew's Good One
- Andrew's Bad One
Come with us on this journey.... if you dare!
Have you heard of this HBO show Succession? No? Then you probably are not following Kathryn on twitter, where she has been yelling about it for months. Months! Recently Andrew has joined her in this obsession, and we also invited our friend Christina to come jump on the Succession celebration train. Plus: have you heard of Disney+? They are gonna have a lot of stuff on that platform!
If you think an episode that would cause Margaret to assert “I think we’re more Appointment Friendship than Appointment TV” sounds like a good time then BOY is this week's show for you! Covered herein: The struggles of parenting and creating podcasts simultaneously! What this season of The Great British Bake-Off has to do with the sitcom What We Do In The Shadows! What on earth is going on with Apple TV! And could Quibi be... good?? A short silly episode that we hope you all enjoy.
This week we talk about the delights and dangers of music on TV - the cost of it, the value of it, and how completely disastrous it is if a show uses the wrong music cue and it destroys a scene forever. We're joined by Sophie Brookover and also the glorious return of our beloved and much-missed Andrew!!
One last push and we, our podcast, will have finally birthed a full set of Deadwood-centric paternity leave episodes. In this final episode of Andrew's paternity leave we discuss episodes 9-12 of Deadwood, S2 but also:
- Why it was funny when we called Andrew's then unborn child Axl
- How many times we have to say something in Slack before it becomes funny even if there's little to no humor inherent to it
- How windows are just God's TV
- Whether the Widow Garrett knows when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em
- Irascible matchmaking
- And, most importantly, how old your newborn infant has to be before you can show them NBC's Kings
Thanks for sticking with through all this and yes, if you're wondering, Margaret is still crying over Andrew's son, and he's even more adorable than we'd hoped. NEXT WEEK: we return to our regularly scheduled programming!
Our paternity leave episodes have almost ended! This week we're talking about episodes 7-9 of Deadwood season two, next week we'll be discussing the end of the season, and then it's back to regularly scheduled fall programming. This week, we consider: telegraphs, horses, thoroughfares, and Cosmo-style quizzes about whether you're a Farnum or a Swearengen.
This week on the podcast, we're joined by an extra (hot great) special guest: Tara Ariano, the founder of Television Without Pity (may it rest forever in peace), editor-at-large of Primetimer, podcaster extraordinaire, and personal joint hero of Margaret and Kathryn. We are, in fact, so excited to praise Tara for her many accomplishments that we barely remember to say her name!
In addition to schooling us on the parallels between Lodge 49 and Succession, Tara lets us know if the new Batman-spinoff show Pennyworth is worth it. And then the three of us dig into what we're REALLY here to discuss: the new Showtime original series Couples Therapy, with which it's safe to say we are obsessed. Join us to hear about therapist Orna Guralnik's expressive eyebrows, adorable dog, and astute insights-- as well as Margaret's strange connection to the show Married at First Sight, and what all three of us would do if Bebe Neuwirth wanted to drink our blood. If you enjoyed Tara as much as we did, you can find her any of the following places:
- Recapping classic episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place on the Again With This podcast
- Analyzing the present season of Succession on The Sweet Smell of Succession
- And being generally QUITE interesting and expert about TV at large on her general interest TV podcast, Extra Hot Great (where Kathryn appeared (and covered herself in no Game Time glory) on three episodes.)