Here at Appointment Television, we want you to ring in the new year the best way we know how: by making sure you've turned off motion smoothing on your and every other television you have access to. Accordingly, Andrew does a deep dive into what exactly motion smoothing is, and we all talk about how unexpected it was to find Tom Cruise as our guide to this question. Then it's time for a festive holiday book club: Killing Eve!! We talk about the first two episodes this week, and spoiler, we really like them.
This week, Margaret watches some television! And tells Kathryn and Andrew about it. Then, we go through a list of the winter 2019 shows that we’re the most excited to see.
In the long-awaited follow-up to our recap of A Christmas Prince from last winter, we bring you a full episode of coverage on A Christmas Prince 2: The Royal Wedding. We were deeply concerned that the Netflix Christmas movie would fail to live up to the, um, glories of the first one. But never fear - it is just as silly and awkward and nonsensical as the original.
This week, we finally hit the last of our good and bad fall TV shows: Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and the NBC medical drama New Amsterdam. We don’t come away loving either of them?? But that’s how it goes sometimes.
SHOW NOTES:
On Nick Bakay, fellow Kenyon alum and voice of the original Salem: http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x1071.html
New Amsterdam sucks: https://www.vulture.com/2018/09/new-amsterdam-nbc-review.html
New Amsterdam still sucks: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/11/new-amsterdam-nbc-show-physician-distrust-bellevue/576712/
We sweep toward the ignominious end of our book club of the first season of The Newsroom! No one is particularly happy to be here, but we are *extremely* happy it's done.
Happy Thanksgiving! Please enjoy this entry from our archives, an episode where we discuss standalone episodes and our favorite TV theme songs.
In this week’s show we complain for exactly as long as we want about the terrible bewildering interfaces we all need to use to watch TV right now, and then we talk about some good shows you should watch: Samin Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat, and Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act.
SHOW NOTES:
Samin Nosrat’s “beauty uniform”: https://cupofjo.com/2018/10/samin-nosrat-beauty-uniform/
The Patriot Act/Queer Eye Crossover Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFhRONeopbQ
How Hasan Minhaj fits into our culture of performative dunking: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/29/661624301/hasan-minhaj-breaks-through-dunk-fatigue-with-patriot-act
We're joined by guest Christina Tucker this week, who covers from Kathryn (who got very sick on that recording day) and bravely subjects herself to watching three episodes of The Newsroom. Before we talk about that, though, Christina, Andrew and Margaret chat about their earliest TV crushes, a discussion that involves Christina waxing rhapsodic about Angie Harmon on Law and Order. Then its... you know. The Newsroom. Again.
Kathryn battles through illness as we answer our way through YOUR most pressing TV questions! What TV tropes do we love? Which TV parents would we choose as our own? And what were our favorite shows a decade ago? All that and more, during a wonder respite from The Newsroom!
SHOW NOTES
All of our questions, laid out in order! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G31R0Urzme9gtocIq8qqaoIwsY-rptWMlyod7GHRHQk
Lest we sully any other TV topic with proximity to a discussion of The Newsroom, this week our entire episode is dedicated to episodes 2, 3 and 4 of season 1 of Sorkin's disastrous work. There is much yelling, and gnashing of teeth.
This week we come back for another GoodOne/BadOne, in which we debate the parameters of The Purge TV series and are... surprisingly OK with God Friended Me, as dumb as it is.
SHOW NOTES
The Purge: http://www.usanetwork.com/thepurge/episodes?cid=ps_ThePurge__S1Launch_2018Q3_
God Friended Me: https://www.cbs.com/shows/god-friended-me/
It's an episode full of ups and downs, as we discuss the delights of the second season of American Vandal (and also its few detractions, none of which are seriously troubling), and then turn to kick off our Newsroom book club with a discussion of the pilot episode. Gradually we begin to wonder why we have done this to ourselves, and Margaret goes on a glorious rant about "McKenzie McFucking McHale."
This week, we watch two of our new fall premieres for an old segment newly christened Good One/Bad One. The Good One is The Good Cop, a Netflix show which is vaguely pleasant and generally inoffensive. The Bad One is Manifest, a vaguely Lost-flavored high-concept drama with an interesting premise and bad execution. Also, Kathryn does a Tony Danza impression that shows that when you shoot for the moon, even when you miss, you land among the stars.
SHOW NOTES:
The Good Cop: https://www.netflix.com/title/80157073
Tony Danza on The Good Cop: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8475886/tony-danza-the-good-cop-theme-song-josh-groban-interview
Manifest: https://www.nbc.com/manifest?nbc=1
The Bad Fan Theory Internet Strikes Again: https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/Reactions-Manifest-Season-1-Premiere-45311040
It's a bevy of badness this week, alas. We talk about the recent upheaval at CBS after Les Moonves's MeToo moment finally arrived, and point out some recommended reading for this era of revelation and anguish. We also have a recommendation for other guys who've been the subject of MeToo allegations who are now trying to creep back into the public sphere, which is: don't!
From that cheerful topic, we move on to some more lighthearted yelling about TV journalists, namely, terrible depictions of female journalists on TV. Because it's a fest of awful, we also introduce our next TV bookclub... THE NEWSROOM.
This week we evaluate the new era (in the US, at least) of the Great British Bake-Off, which is still at the very least a Good British Bake-Off. Then we try to talk about other reality television shows but mostly end up yelling about the Bachelor again.
SHOW NOTES
Where to find all of Noel Fielding’s shirts: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/great-british-bake-off-2018-noel-fielding-shirts-where-how-to-buy-them-ranked-a8534251.html
The New Jersey Life of Macaroni Rascals: http://travel.cnn.com/tokyo/none/macaroni-rascals-mtvs-jersey-shore-comes-japan-490032/
The Great British Baking Show on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80063224
Andrew, compelled by a patron’s dollars, watches an episode of professional wrestling; Margaret and Kathryn learn a lot about someone named Joey Ryan and also that wrestlers can be like the Dred Pirate Roberts. We then have a chat about what makes for a good TV narrator, in which Kathryn gesticulates for a while about the new Lifetime series You, and we debate the relative merits of Carrie from Sex and the City versus JD from Scrubs.
This week, a return to a time-honored tradition: we run down a bunch of fall TV shows and we each pick a good one and a bad one to watch. Enjoy! Or don't!
SHOW NOTES:
Whiskey Cavalier: https://abc.go.com/shows/abc-new-shows/news/shows/whiskey-cavalier-coming-soon-to-abc
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: https://www.netflix.com/title/80223989
The Purge: http://www.usanetwork.com/thepurge/cast
My Brilliant Friend: https://www.hbo.com/my-brilliant-friend
New Amsterdam: https://www.nbc.com/new-amsterdam
You: https://www.mylifetime.com/shows/you/about
God Friended Me: https://www.cbs.com/shows/god-friended-me/
Manifest: https://www.nbc.com/manifest
Making It, the new reality TV show starring Nick Offerman and Amy Poehler, is exactly what we needed this summer, and we talk about it, its small growing pains, and how America finally figured out how to do a decent Great British Bake-Off rip-off. Then we yell, quite a bit, about how dumb it is to make a television show based on the song “Hey There, Delilah,” before pitching our own TV shows based on songs. Every single one we pitch would make a better TV show than “Hey There, Delilah.”
This week we talk about the EXTREMELY EXCITING NEWS that Patrick Stewart is returning to TV as Jean-Luc Picard in a new Star Trek series, then we wrap up the last three episodes of our TV Book Club on Pamela Adlon's Better Things.
SHOW NOTES
The new Trek announcement: https://www.npr.org/2018/08/05/635809156/patrick-stewart-is-reprising-his-role-as-captain-picard-in-new-star-trek-series
Better Things: https://www.hulu.com/series/better-things-70d330d1-cb23-403f-b3b6-f8f392c4ce5e
Kathryn brings some new Patreon recommendations in this episode, this time for someone in search of some queer leaning scifi/fantasy shows. Then we talk about the extremely strange NBC sitcom Trial & Error, a true crime parody romp that made us laugh a lot.
This week, we take another trip to Kathryn's deep deep well of TV recommendations. Then, we continue our journey through episodes 5, 6, and 7 of Better Things.
SHOW NOTES:
Recommendations!
Dear White People: https://www.netflix.com/title/80095698
GLOW: https://www.netflix.com/title/80114988
Playing House: http://www.usanetwork.com/playinghouse
Black-ish: https://abc.go.com/shows/blackish/news/updates/stream-blackish-all-seasons-on-hulu
Better Things: https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/better-things
Because Kathryn couldn't convince Andrew or Margaret to immediately drop all of their responsibilities and watch all of Superstore, and because Margaret felt that neither Andrew nor Kathryn could do justice to a discussion of Sex and the City, we have a guest who can help with both of those things!
As is sadly inevitable for podcast guesting, we had some issues with Kamille's audio later in the episode, so there's a bit less of her than we'd like. Obviously you need more Kamille than this in your life, so please make sure to listen to an episode of the podcast she co-hosts, The Unfriendly Black Hotties, to get the proper Kamille dosage.
This week we climb into a figurative car and discuss the deal with Jerry Seinfeld's brand of comedy in 2018, and then we hit the next three episodes of Pamela Adlon's Better Things.
SHOW NOTES
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee may not be made for these times: http://www.vulture.com/2018/07/comedians-in-cars-getting-coffee-season-10-netflix-review.html
Better Things: https://www.hulu.com/better-things
It was a frustrating and strange week in television news, so we cover the two topics that drove us the most bonkers: HBO's alarming town hall and the brief not-quite existence of a branded set of Handmaid's Tale wines. Please note that in spite of what Margaret suggests in this episode, we are no longer subjecting Andrew to copious alcohol consumption beyond whatever he chooses to consume for himself.
This week, we dust off our ol' inbox to respond to a lot of comments-not-questions, and then we dive into our new TV Book Club segment on Pamela Adlon's Better Things.
SHOW NOTES:
Raising Hope: https://variety.com/2014/tv/news/fox-cancels-raising-hope-after-4-seasons-1201128773/
The Rundown with Robin Thede: https://www.bet.com/shows/the-rundown-with-robin-thede.html
Better Things: https://www.hulu.com/better-things