Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 105: 'State of Play,' 'Appropriate Adult,' 'Bag of Bones' & more
Dan and Alan also answer listener mail about 'Dexter,' 'The Walking Dead' and episode titles
We were on the verge of devoting most of this week's Firewall & Iceberg Podcast to my irrational love of unheralded Knicks rookie Iman Shumpert (who has yet to play a game in the NBA, of course) when we put the call out on Twitter for extra listener mail questions, and you guys delivered. Combined with your terrific questions and some stronger material to review this week, it's a pretty eclectic podcast. So thanks!
The line-up:
"State of Play" (02:15 - 09:30)
"Appropriate Adult" (09:30 - 16:55)
"Bag of Bones" (17:35 - 27:40)
Listener Mail: The "Dexter" Twist (28:15 - 37:55)
Listener Mail: Old Cast, New Show (38:00 - 43:30)
Listener Mail: Episode Titles (43:35 - 47:45)
Listener Mail: "Saturday Night Live" (47:50 - 56:30)
Listener Mail: "Boardwalk" history (56:45 - 01:01:20)
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, download the MP3 file or stream it on Dan's blog.
And as always, feel free to e-mail us at sepinwall@hitfix.com and/or dan@hitfix.com if you have questions you want answered on the show. Please put the word "podcast" in your subject line to make it easy to track them down amid the hundreds of random press releases we get every day.
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupDAG
December 5, 2011 at 7:10PM EST Reply to CommentYa'll missed my favorite episode title of the past couple of years - Parenthood's "Do Not Sleep With Your Autistic Nephew's Therapist" was awesome!
LesIsMore
December 5, 2011 at 8:05PM EST Reply to CommentCouple thoughts on your Reader Mail:
1. As to moving casts over, I'd love to see the cast of "Rubicon" transition over to "Homeland." I think Christopher Evan Welch, Dallas Roberts and Lauren Hodges reprise their roles as Grant, Miles and Tanya and bring those characters into Carrie Matheson's CIA team. I'm sure Carrie and Tanya would bond over their shared problems with medication, David and Grant would have great office politics, and Miles and Saul could talk beard tips for hours. (And this is one I'm really hopeful happens to some degree, given Henry Bromell's role as showrunner on the former and producer on the latter.)
2. One of the best episode titles this year? "Face Off," the 'Breaking Bad' S4 finale. Great pun you didn't realize until after the episode was over. 'Breaking Bad' as a whole has been great with episode titles: using "Seven-Thirty-Seven," "Down," "Over," "ABQ" as a clue to the finale's climactic event was brilliant. I also like how 'The Good Wife' varies its episode titles as seasons go on: one word-titles in S1, two in S2, and now three in S3.
Mike As to (1), the first thing I'd bring over would be Rubicon's opening, but the cast would surely have to be following right behind.
December 5, 2011 at 9:37PM ESTHmm, now that I think about it, seeing as Carrie and Saul both suspect a mole inside the CIA, maybe they could bring the API crew in for some third-party help...
Mike
December 5, 2011 at 9:27PM EST Reply to CommentI'll second Dan's review of Under the Dome - Great beginning and body and then...yeesh, that ending. BUT, would totally recommend it to someone who felt burned by his post-car accident output. Still don't understand why they've chosen to make it into an ongoing television series instead of a self-contained miniseries or movie though.
As for episode titles, I've always liked shows that take a piece of dialog as a title. The best I can think of was an anime series called Gurren Lagann, where every character was really bombastic so you'd get fun titles like "Who Do You Think You Are, Having Two Faces!?" Based on a quick search the only show I can see that does something similar is 2&1/2 Men, and their titles go to show that you have to start off with actual good/fun writing before you can extract something for a good/fun title.
chuchundra
December 5, 2011 at 9:30PM EST Reply to CommentFor the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
anon.Z.moose
December 5, 2011 at 10:41PM EST Reply to CommentDisagree slightly with Dan re: the Dexter "Twist": I think the advent of crowd sourcing means that no matter how good the writing is once a "twist" is an expected part of a show most if not all of the possible twists will be guessed at. It's when one possible twist falls into the established "twist pattern" a show has developed over several seasons that it feels so predictable. This is the kind of shoe drop expectation that '24' labored under after season 3.
Alan- Speaking of plot turns, are you going to discuss the turn in last week's Boss by reviewing the final episode this Friday? I thought it was done well but others' mileage may vary.
J
December 6, 2011 at 10:25AM EST Reply to CommentThe best episode titles are from "Psych". Just IMDb it and you're guaranteed to chuckle, even if you haven't seen the episodes.
marc
December 6, 2011 at 10:45AM EST Reply to Commentgood twists from recent year that caught me off-guard (SPOILERS AHEAD!)
1. Fringe Season 1 finale ("Our" Peter was dead all along! There is a parallel univers! Leonard Nimoy is in it!) - aka Fringe's personal "Growing the beard"-moment
2. LOST Season 3 finale (it was a FlashForward!)
3. Breaking Bad Season 2 finale (the plane etc.)
4. Vampire Diaries Season 1 finale (Katherine!)
John
December 6, 2011 at 12:25PM EST Reply to CommentI like the idea of Lost cast joining Walking Dead. They can take the scene from Shaun of the Dead where the parallel group and Shaun's group pass each other. Just have Jack's group pass Rick's but we now follow Jack's group.
bearcouch
December 6, 2011 at 5:35PM EST Reply to CommentDexter needs new writers. I thought the guy you interviewed from SHO said things were going to be different. This is the same bad show as last season.
Some Guy
December 7, 2011 at 2:36AM EST Reply to CommentHow can you talk about great episode titles and not include Always Sunny? They may not always be funny by themselves, but the amount of times they get a laugh in the context of the episode should at least get them a mention. My personal favourite title joke- "Frank Sets Sweet Dee On Fire".
odessasteps
December 7, 2011 at 3:37AM EST Reply to CommentIsnt the simpsons the hands down winner for best episode titles, perhaps in tv history?
Id also throw in Blackadder for great episode titles, and they changed the gimmick fromseason to season.
Id also like to see the wire cast on the walking dead. Who wouldnt want to see omar kill zombies?
exiledjerseyite
December 7, 2011 at 3:54PM EST Reply to CommentI submit "Tell Your God to Ready For Blood" as one of the best episode titles ever. Even though Milch used dialogue as titles later on in Deadwood, it's Milch's dialogue so it's already got a leg up on other shows.
I'm also partial to "The Lord of War and Thunder" from the first season of Justified and I kind of want to shamelessly borrow it for a paper.
Filipe
December 7, 2011 at 8:13PM EST Reply to CommentTo bad Dan didn't grill you in your love affair of Iman Shumpert as someone who watched a lot of Georgia Tech, the Knicks fans love for the kid is really weird.
On more collumn specific stuff it's funny you mentioed your lack of interest in late King and feeling burned by reviews claiming it's King back in form as I'm pretty sure Bag of Bones was one first late King novels to get a lot of praise that way.