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Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 122: 'Magic City,' 'Scandal,' 'Nurse Jackie,' 'Mad Men' & more

Dan and Alan also review NBC's 'Best Friends Forever,' talk Dan Harmon vs. 'Community' and the 'Shameless' finale

By Alan Sepinwall Monday, Apr 2, 2012 5:34 PM

The

"Mad Men" season means the Firewall & Iceberg Podcast will continue running long for a while, especially when we have a week filled with so many premieres, from shows we both like ("Scandal," "Nurse Jackie" season 4) to shows we're both apathetic about ("Best Friends Forever") to shows we're very much split on ("Magic City"). Plus, we delve into all the recent reports of a "Community" feud between Dan Harmon and Chevy Chase.

The line-up: 

"Best Friends Forever" (00:02:15 - 00:12:00)
"Scandal" (00:12:00 - 00:25:20)
"Magic City" (00:25:20 - 00:41:10)
"Nurse Jackie" (00:41:10 - 00:50:55)
Listener Mail: "Community" vs. Chevy Chase (00:51:15 - 00:59:45)
"Shameless" finale (00:59:45 - 01:10:45)
"Mad Men" (01:10:50 - 01:31:45)
 
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 questions for the podcast.
Alan-sepinwall-sm
Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
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
Related Searches: Firewall & Iceberg, Alan Sepinwall, Mad Men, Magic City, scandal, Nurse Jackie, Best Friends Forever, Shameless, Community

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  • Harry_lime_talkback_profile

    odessasteps

    As a non-weekly episodic watcher of Mad Men, I wish that Game of Thrones could get a regular weekly slot on the podcast.

    April 2, 2012 at 8:58PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Coolsid Yes!!!! At the very least, some discussion on the premiere...

      April 2, 2012 at 11:15PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      ed w GoT is at this point a higher quality series than Mad Men. If it was one or the other I'd rather they cover GoT.

      April 3, 2012 at 5:50AM EST
    • Default-avatar

      nic919 Can`t we have both? They are only 10 episodes each, so it would not be for that long.

      April 3, 2012 at 9:42AM EST
    • Harry_lime_talkback_profile

      odessasteps Not to make it an "either or" argument, But I see from Daniel's post that GOT's season premiere was almost 500,000 viewers higher than Mad Men's preimere and double it based on cumulative Sunday airings.

      I don't know if there's a way to demographically find out (or that it really matters), but I wonder how many podcasts watch one or the other but not both?

      April 3, 2012 at 2:42PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      micguar No, Mad Men works better for regular discussion. It's subtler, and relies less on plot, and more on themes and character development, meaning there's more to talk about and analyze. Much of Game of Thrones is watching the plot unfold, so there's less to say other than, "So that happened. What happens now?" Not a statement of quality, I love both shows, just a statement of characteristics.

      April 3, 2012 at 3:47PM EST
    • Midnight_run_mca255950_talkback_profile

      sepinwall And among the many, many other reasons we're not going to do it is that Dan's read the books and I haven't (and don't want to know), which makes discussing the plot tricky. We spend a lot of time in the Mad Men segments speculating on what might come next. Dan can't do that with GoT. The discussion would wind up even more one-sided than Dan's Reality Round-Up.

      April 3, 2012 at 4:21PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Viginti I would rather that the pair recorded their podcast in my lounge room per and post viewing of every decent show, perhaps with special guest appearances by the creative teams behind them. We would sit and laugh, Beer in hand, I imagine it's what having friends must be like,

      Unfourtunately though this show isn't a democracy, though if it were none of us would be happy because the show would be entirely made up of constructive non-criticism on CBS's sitcoms and why their latest fart joke subverted the norms of the genre. Take Mad Men as a compromise and be happy to have it.

      April 3, 2012 at 6:08PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Nathan B

    I am mostly exited for The Avengers movie because of Joss Whedon.

    April 2, 2012 at 10:21PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Levi Benjamin

    Just wanted to say about Dan Harmon/Chevy Chase, who is the frog who is the scorpion:

    Dan Harmon is a scorpion that can swim, and Chevy Chase is a poison dart frog. Dan Harmon's bringing him along because even though he knows he can swim, most people think you need a frog to get across, so he brought him anyway, knowing he was poisoned. Only question is do scorpions succumb to poison from dart frogs? I hope not.

    Regardless I agree the show can survive without Chevy.

    April 3, 2012 at 10:47AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Lorisavatar_talkback_profile

      scoopie77 Sounds apt to me.

      I think 'Community' will be okay. NBC would have to like the cut in costs.

      April 6, 2012 at 2:33PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Kenya

    Mack the Knife was recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1956. So they could use his version and be accurate.

    April 3, 2012 at 12:36PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan Kenya - There are recordings of "Mack the Knife" dating back to the '40s, but the Bobby Darin version is the iconic version that gets played in every movie set in the early '60s...

      -Daniel

      April 3, 2012 at 12:42PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Dante Kleinberg

    Regarding who could replace Chevy Chase on Community if needed:

    BUD CORT.

    That is all.

    April 3, 2012 at 2:04PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Harry_lime_talkback_profile

      odessasteps I presume it's too easy to say "Bill Murray." (not listened to podcast yet in case Alan or Dan made the joke already)

      April 3, 2012 at 2:45PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      NJMark In the same vein, I'd have suggested Charles Rocket, had he not offed himself.

      April 4, 2012 at 2:45PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    ed w

    Due to Chevy's bad reputation, I'd almost automatically assumed Dan Harmon was more in the right in their feud. But in reading Chevy's actual points about the show, his complaints (over at HuffPo) a lot of them made sense to me. He may not have put them as diplomatically as possible but I think he was not out of bounds with his perspective.

    I remember when Chevy was on Chuck. He was very good in his guest appearance, and seemed better used and understood by that show than on Community.

    April 3, 2012 at 3:57PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Pizpot Gargravarr It did help that he was on Chuck at their creative peak and was their best villain in the run of the show. Chuck was also mostly excellent at utilizing their guest actors.

      April 4, 2012 at 12:33AM EST
  • Madmen_icon_talkback_profile

    LJA

    Dan Harmon's statement:

    http://danharmon.tumblr.com/post/20430020654/not-that-it-helps-but

    April 3, 2012 at 6:33PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    tag8833

    Shameless has really had some tonal shift problems especially in the last two episodes. They went so dramatic followed by going so cartoonish. I felt like it really undercut the drama.

    It is one thing for Frank to do terrible things when the tone of his scenes are normally undercut by humor. Karen and Monica's terrible acts are played completely straight. That is fine, but then you can't have Joan Cusak running around like she belongs on the Simpsons 1 second after a deep dramatic moment.

    April 4, 2012 at 1:09AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    tonya

    Matt Weiner said in the NY Times chat that Jane Siegel is Jewish, so I'm guessing her cousin is, too.

    April 4, 2012 at 2:14AM EST Reply to Comment

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