Cannes Film Festival 2013

Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 126: 'Sherlock,' 'Mad Men,' 'Smash' & more

Dan and Alan also review 'The Good Wife' finale and answer your mail

The

It's a very long Firewall & Iceberg Podcast this week, but a good chunk of that comes with our irregular sports talk segment at the end, so if you don't care about that, it's only slightly longer than normal! And that's with only one new show — and "new" should be in quotes, since "Sherlock" already debuted in the UK ages ago — to review. To keep ourselves busy, we revisited the trainwreck that is "Smash," we reviewed "The Good Wife" finale, and we of course talked about "Mad Men." 

The line-up: 

Monday's breakdown:
Corrections (00:00:45 - 00:03:50)
"Sherlock" (00:03:50 - 00:19:50)
Listener Mail: "Smash" (00:20:10 - 00:37:40)
Listener Mail: Walton Goggins Performances (00:37:45 - 00:43:00)
Listener Mail: Jon Hamm in comedy (00:43:20 - 00:51:00)
"The Good Wife" finale (00:51:10 - 01:01:05)
"Mad Men" (01:01:30 - 01:16:30)
SportsTalk (01:16:30 - 01:32:30)
 
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

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  • Default-avatar

    timothymcn

    I hope I'm wrong, but it's funny if I'm not.
    Didn't NBC get Sunday Night Football from ABC, and ESPN get Monday Night Football?

    April 30, 2012 at 5:54PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Midnight_run_mca255950_talkback_profile

      sepinwall Prior to the most recent NFL deal, ESPN aired a Sunday night package of mediocre games, while ABC had a Monday night package of premiere games. NBC bought the Sunday package with the understanding that *that* would now be the premiere package, while ESPN got the prestigious "Monday Night Football" name but the same craptacular array of games. It's very complicated/confusing/stupid. I should've left it alone.

      April 30, 2012 at 6:03PM EST
    • Harry_lime_talkback_profile

      odessasteps And, when the package was originally created, ESPN and TNT shared the Sunday night package, with TNT having it the first half the year and ESPN the second.

      April 30, 2012 at 7:05PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      rugman11 Alan's right. There's a whole long thing in the ESPN oral history "These Guys Have All the Fun" about how ESPN kind of got screwed because they paid a ton of money for the "Monday Night Football" name, but didn't get the games (or the flexibility) that NBC got with the Sunday Night package. They also didn't get the Super Bowl, which ABC had previously gotten with the Monday Night package.

      So the old ESPN/TNT "Sunday Night" football games are now aired on ESPN as "Monday Night Football" while the old ABC "Monday Night Football" games are now aired on NBC as "Sunday Night Football".

      May 1, 2012 at 10:20AM EST
  • Default-avatar

    alf

    I believe that Kalinda is still legally married. I only mention it because I'm sure it will be important somehow.

    April 30, 2012 at 7:01PM EST Reply to Comment


  • Little surprised alan didnt know mark gatiss. In addition to co creating sherlock and playing mycroft, he has also written a bunch of the new dr. Who episodes, starred in one of them and is thought by many to be moffats heir apparent. He also made a fantastic history of british horror for the bbc, which sadly never make it to the usa because of rights' issues.

    April 30, 2012 at 8:37PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Midnight_run_mca255950_talkback_profile

      sepinwall I know who he is. I just keep blanking on his name.

      April 30, 2012 at 8:55PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    alamble

    FYI guys, Jon Hamm has hosted SNL three times, not twice.

    April 30, 2012 at 10:08PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    marmad

    re: Mad Men - It seems to me, after having just re-watched season 4, that there is a crystal clear arc that began last season and now has been continued into season 5.

    Unlike the old Sterling Cooper, where Don was certainly an asset, the new SCDP has seen Don become rather a millstone to the agency he help start. It began in the first episode of s4 with his temperamental throwing out of the Jantzen company - and continued on to his cause of the loss of the $4 million National Aviation account (the same day that SCDP lost the Lucky Strike account) - and then to his writing of the anti-tobacco letter. Now we see the chickens come home to roost for that action in this latest episode.

    I wonder, how much Don Draper can SCDP really afford?

    May 1, 2012 at 5:53PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Harry_lime_talkback_profile

    odessasteps

    Great picture on the net today of Cumberbatch and Moffat visiting Marvel Comics. There's something for Alan to ask them about.

    May 1, 2012 at 11:21PM EST Reply to Comment

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