Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 53: 'V,' 'Southland,' 'Episodes,' 'The Cape' and more
The first podcast of 2011 finds Alan and Dan reviewing a whole lot of new shows
Happy new year from your hosts at the Firewall & Iceberg Podcast! Get ready for a busy month of podcasting, thanks to one of the more hectic mid-season slates I can remember, as well as the impending start of the Television Critics Association winter press tour later this week. We may be doing multiple podcasts per week while I'm out there, or maybe not, but today we reviewed a bunch of stuff, and also found time to dip into the ol' mailbag for the first time in a few weeks. The run-down:
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.
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About This Blog
All through his childhood, Alan Sepinwall's relatives told his parents, "All that boy does is watch television! How's he going to make a living doing that?" His career as a TV critic has been 15 years and counting of his attempt to answer their concerns. "What's Alan Watching" is a blog whose title is self-explanatory: Alan watches TV shows, then writes about what he watched. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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January 3, 2011 at 8:30PM EST Reply to CommentLong Beach Dub All Stars, the band that formed after Sublime (and also the theme for "Joey"). One of my favorite bands
Dante
January 3, 2011 at 8:59PM EST Reply to CommentSounds like of the six shows you discussed I only need to try Bob's Burgers. Thanks for doing this, guys! I always look forward to it.
Are you guys planning on reviewing Young Justice? I'm not sure how you guys feel about the DC Animated Universe stuff, and I don't know if this new show has any connection to the older classics, but the commercials look neat and I'm thinking about checking it out.
M
January 3, 2011 at 9:31PM EST Reply to CommentOkay, this is like the millionth time I've heard a critic say NBC is clearly going to scapegoat the failure of Undercovers on the show having two African-American leads and how its failure means we'll never get minority leads ever again. On what exactly is everyone basing this? I'll agree the networks don't have the greatest track record with diversity, but nowhere has anyone from NBC gone on record as saying audiences didn't tune in because the show had black leads. Nowhere is there evidence that networks will be skittish to cast black leads again (next years pilots won't begin casting for another few months.) I'm not saying the failure of Undercovers didn't necessarily hurt the chances that we'll see a show with black leads again soon, but the way everyone keeps talking about this issue with such absolute certainty is ridiculous. I know networks are short sighted and stupid, but I doubt even NBC thinks the show failed because the leads were black. Do you think that if the show had been successful they'd have credited it to the show having two black leads? The show's success or failure likely had nothing to do with race. Critics all recognize this. Why do they think the networks don't? If Undercovers had been a success do you think we'd suddenly be inundated with shows with black leads? I doubt it. In fact, everyone was convinced last season that we'd see a million clones of Glee and Modern Family this fall and we didn't get a single copy of either show.
Shitegeist
January 3, 2011 at 10:19PM EST Reply to Comment(Posting this on both Dan and Alan's blogs)
It pains me that you dislike Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan in Episodes. I haven't seen that show yet, but I'm a huge fan of their UK TV work.
Seek out 'Green Wing', one of the funniest, weirdest, most inventive shows I've ever seen, which happens to star both of them.
Also seek out 'Black Books' for Greig, and 'Free Agents' for Mangan (also seek out his guest appearance in a particularly lengendary episode of Steve Coogan's 'I'm Alan Partridge').
They are genuinely two of England's best comic assets and it's a real shame that apparently isn't being reflected in Episodes.
M
January 3, 2011 at 10:36PM EST Reply to CommentI don't care how awful Episodes is since it now has given birth to the quote "Even Matt Leblanc doesn't look like he's getting any real pleasure about talking about how big his dick is."
GMan
January 4, 2011 at 12:53PM EST Reply to CommentAh, Long Beach Dub All Stars. It was when that album came out that I knew Bradley Nowell was truly dead.
LesIsMore
January 4, 2011 at 3:32PM EST Reply to CommentThe podcast has ads now? Well, I guess THAT'S WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR!
Muz
January 4, 2011 at 10:21PM EST Reply to CommentNot that I've seen a second of it, but the reaction to Episodes' portrayal of Hollywood and the TV industry seems, at least in part, like the reaction the typical American portrayal of Australia gets in Australia.
sepinwall Except that, despite the two British main characters, "Episodes" was created by two American TV veterans. They know this town - maybe know it too well to have a clear view of it.
January 4, 2011 at 11:13PM ESTMuz It's a fair enough point I guess. I watched a couple of clips though and it made me laugh at least. Perhaps it's aiming a bit lower than the great satires of Larry Sanders and the others mentioned, but seems promising to me at least (the vibe of the clips I saw made it seem like a less improv Curb Your Enthusiasm, with horrified English people instead of Larry David)
January 5, 2011 at 3:14AM ESTThe other thing is Tamsin Greig and Steve Mangan. I've not seen the last thing they did together but I'm familiar with their work. Greig's in particular. Going by the clips she's again doing her tweaked version of politely brittle middle-class Englishness. Which I find funny, particularly the way she usually does it. It doesn't seem like a branch of English comedy that most Americans are familiar with or likely to relate to very easily.
Kevin
January 5, 2011 at 11:10AM EST Reply to CommentI wonder if it would kill Dan to sell Alan's jokes a little more. Alan keeps making 'em, and Dan just keeps on stepping on 'em. If it's any consolation, Alan, I laughed at the "stay gold" C Thomas Howell joke.
January 5, 2011 at 7:05PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, now that the podcast has advertisements, I'm curious how that will affect yours and Dan's objectivity. I don't question your integrity as a journalist at all, but I'm wondering if that means that you'll have to screen any potential advertisers and determine whether you're going to give a positive review before accepting them as a sponsor. Because it would certainly be bad business if a show like "Mr. Sunshine" were to sponsor the podcast and then in the podcast, you and Dan were to pan the show.
So I guess I'm just curious how that's going to work logistically, when you have TV shows sponsoring a TV critic podcast.
January 5, 2011 at 9:39PM EST Reply to CommentWrite a comment...
January 5, 2011 at 9:40PM ESTKujo
January 5, 2011 at 11:12PM EST Reply to CommentWhy the Californication hate? Just curious.
I thought the first two seasons were very funny. 3rd was OK, but not as good. Regardless, it hasn't declined like "Weeds". I think it's one of the better comedies.
Ed W
January 5, 2011 at 11:39PM EST Reply to CommentIf you have to have ads, can't you make a rule that it won't include ads for tv shows for obvious reasons?
PS, on a side note, Alan was asking about movies he might want to see in another blog post and after seeing True Grit and knowing his love of Midnight Run and Terriers, I have no doubt he'd enjoy that movie.