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Listen: Firewall & Iceberg Podcast No. 45

Dan and Alan talk 'Conan,' 'Sons of Anarchy,' 'Burn Notice' and more

By Daniel Fienberg Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 5:27 PM

The

 

Happy Tuesday, Boys and Girls. It's Firewall & Iceberg Podcast time!
 
We delayed this week's podcast by a day so that we could discuss Conan O'Brien's TBS show with the benefit of having seen at least one episode of "Conan."
 
So we talk "Conan," the return of USA's "Burn Notice" and, after I spent the whole weekend catching up on "Sons of Anarchy," we talk about the third season struggles of that FX show.
 
We also answer reader mail questions about good and bad accent work and good and bad TV series pacing.
 
The breakdown:
 
The premiere of "Conan" -- 01:40 - 11:15
The return of "Burn Notice" -- 11:20 - 16:20
Reader Mail (accents and pacing) -- 16:30 - 32:25
"Sons of Anarchy" -- 32:30 - 49:20

As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. [Or you can always follow our RSS Feed.]

 
And here's the podcast...

Firewall & Iceberg - Podcast 45

Dan-feinberg-sm
Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor
A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.
Related Searches: Firewall & Iceberg, Podcast, daniel fienberg, Alan Sepinwall, Conan, Sons of Anarchy, Burn Notice, The Vampire Diaries

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  • James Marsters (Spike on Buffy) is an American actor that a lot of people think is British.

    November 9, 2010 at 7:26PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan Nicholas - Indeed he is. Simply forgot to include Marsters, who fits into that Anders/Denisof category of actors who confuse me when they speak with their American accents. I've become a bit more accustomed to Marsters' American accent, perhaps?

      -Daniel

      November 9, 2010 at 7:29PM EST
  • Chew_talkback_profile

    Shitegeist

    The first thing I ever saw Gwyneth Paltrow in was Sliding Doors, and as an Englishman I assumed she was, in fact, English. Then when I heard her speak with her real accent I was totally thrown.

    November 9, 2010 at 7:48PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Madmen_icon_talkback_profile

    LJA

    Dan - Jon Hamm is going to be a guest on Wednesday.

    November 9, 2010 at 8:34PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Madmen_icon_talkback_profile

      LJA ...on Conan, that is.

      November 9, 2010 at 8:35PM EST
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan LJA - You're correct. Hamm was always Wednesday. The first night was "Special First Guest," Rogen and White. In my mind I knew there were three guests and I originally just assumed that the Special First Guest would be a real guest, as opposed to a joke walk-on... And the Lea Michele was just added after-the-fact to fill time.

      -Daniel

      November 9, 2010 at 8:37PM EST
  • Madmen_icon_talkback_profile

    LJA

    Glad you guys mentioned Matthew Rhys as having a great accent. He nails a Southern California gay male.

    November 9, 2010 at 8:49PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    EdithKeeler

    One of my problems with the Abel story on SOA is the basic lack of tension in the concept on a TV show - ie, there is no way they are actually going to kill that baby or even make him disappear forever and so the pacing, acting, writing etc have to work a bit harder to generate uncertainty or tension.

    Obviously It can be done, for instance, in Breaking Bad when Walt had a few scrapes with death last season (don't think its too spoilery to say the main character in a show about the drug trade is sometimes in jeopardy ...) I was still engrossed even though I knew Bryan Cranston was not gonna die in episode 3 of the season. Just leaving the baby Out There vaguely and expecting us to continue feeling horrified week after week of no progress is not good enough. Abel's disappearance could have been a really emotionally intense two or three episode arc but dragging it out the whole season has taken all the wind out of it. Just get the kid back already, sheesh.

    Couldn't agree more with Dan re incest fake outs too. Ugh. I AM interested in John Teller's backstory in Belfast but have been frustrated at just being thrown crumbs all these weeks. Oh an I don't know exactly what Sutter said on Twitter but I'm a woman so it's not just the blokes.

    And as an Aussie it was fun hearing you talk about accents. I gave up half way through the first episode of House because, being very familiar with Hugh Laurie's long career before that, I thought his American accent was just dreadful but if real Americans think its flawless who am I to judge ... ;-)

    November 9, 2010 at 10:26PM EST Reply to Comment
  • 5728_710177611307_9626188_40733457_7959788_n_talkback_profile

    joedela

    Though Still Standing is not on the air any longer, I think Mark Addy deserves some credit.

    November 10, 2010 at 2:29PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Dan Addy definitely deserves credit. When he was announed as the King in a Song of Ice and Fire, I thought I misread it...I didn't know until I looked up his bio then (years after Still Standing had gone off the air) that he wasn't American!

      November 11, 2010 at 1:54PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    ideemo

    no love for idris elba on the wire?

    November 10, 2010 at 3:52PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Kujo I mentioned Idris Elba on Alan's blog link to this podcast. It wasn't until years into the The Wire that I learned he was British.

      November 10, 2010 at 4:09PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      ideemo Indeed. I feel there have been a lot of people who figured out Dominic West and the guy who plays Carcetti are British because nobody from Maryland or America talks like that. They kind of over-annunciate certain words. Elba's accent is nearly flawless I think. Nobody ever hears him and thinks "Hey, that's a fake accent!"

      November 10, 2010 at 4:18PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      ideemo *or anywhere in America

      btw, I say nobody in Maryland because I'm from Maryland.

      November 10, 2010 at 4:18PM EST
  • Hitfix_talkback_profile

    Ricardo

    "You'd get insulted if you tried calling it one of the best shows on tv."
    I know there's a lot of prejudice about vampires and about The CW, but isn't that your job? I mean, telling your reader (and listeners) what's good tv and bad tv? Your opinion, I mean.

    I think The Vampire Diaries is one of the best shows on network tv and I'm not afraid of saying it. Saying things like "effective", "fun" and "entertaining" is just a way to dodge the issue.

    And, by the way, saying it will run out of gas is unfair. I hated when you (and mainly Alan) said that about Lone Star. I mean, you should evaluate things by what they are, not by what you think they're gonna be.

    Sorry for my English. Good job on the podcast. I really like it.

    November 10, 2010 at 6:47PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Paul C

    Kind of surprised neither of you mentioned Tim Roth who is in the bizarre scenario of being an Aussie playing a Brit in an American show.

    Had to skip the SoA chatter because the new season hasn't started yet with us. Per above it seems to be a bit of a drop-off which is a little disappointing (though in fairness last year was incredibly good). Though I think it is a safe guess that you rightly criticise whatever Irish accents they had on the show. Hearing my native tone being butchered made my ears bleed last year, so I'm sure it'll be far worse when they are in Belfast.

    I read the show notes on the RSS feed and thought Conan was actually referring to a 'Conan The Barbarian' remake.

    You also need to randomly say "Wheeeeeeeee!!!" more. It caused me to laugh out really loud in the library, although in turn caused folks to look and glare at me.

    November 10, 2010 at 7:27PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      ln uhmm tim roth? not aussie, which incidentally is pronounced 'ozzie', with a zzzz sound

      November 11, 2010 at 8:37AM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Paul C Damn, how the hell did I get that wrong? I don't know what/who I was thinking. Ta very much for the correction.

      November 12, 2010 at 8:00PM EST

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