Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 77: 'Twin Peaks,' January Jones in 'X-Men,' 'Switched at Birth' & more
Dan and Alan also answer your mail
This week's Firewall & Iceberg Podcast is a first of a sort: the first podcast recorded with Dan and me in the same room that didn't involve Comic-Con or TCA. I'm in LA for a couple of days on business, so Dan and I sat down to begin our summer rewind of "Twin Peaks," review ABC Family's "Switched at Birth," randomly segue into a discussion of January Jones' performance in "X-Men: First Class," and more. The run-down:
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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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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupGrammar Gramma
June 7, 2011 at 1:26AM EST Reply to Comment"the first podcast recorded with Dan and IÂ in the same room"
It's "Dan and me," not "Dan and I," I'm sad you don't know that.
goodhorse Are you sure mate? I was always taught "Dan and I"... but I am no Fulbright scholar.
June 7, 2011 at 1:48AM ESTdan Nah. She's right. But it's sad that a wee grammatical error in the early moments of an hour-long podcast would make somebody else sad.
June 7, 2011 at 2:00AM ESTSo much sadness from what should be a happy podcast!
-Daniel
Alf Goodhorse, read http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/myself.html
June 10, 2011 at 9:29PM ESTgoodhorse
June 7, 2011 at 1:46AM EST Reply to CommentHi Alan (and Dan) - Alan... just wondering why no Doctor Who write ups from your good self the last couple of weeks (as far I can see anyway)? Would love your thoughts on the latest developments.
MatthewL Well, Doctor Who didn't air in the US last week, so it wound up being a week behind.
June 7, 2011 at 3:35AM ESTAs for this week (which was The Almost People in the US), Alan posted this on Twitter:
"Likely won't review tomorrow's BBCA ep of Dr Who, due to boredom with ep and UK/US spoiler disparity. Back for midseason finale."
goodhorse Thanks MatthewL - not on Twitter and didn't realise US was a week behind now (for Australia myself - we are also a week behind). Personally thought it was an average-to-good ep with a great twist ending, perfect set-up for mid-season finale.
June 7, 2011 at 8:56PM ESTMatthewL And that's the other complication - as Alan also commented on Twitter, the main point of interest for him with the episode was the twist ending, which would have been dangerous to discuss because so many would have already seen the resolution to that ending, so real spoiler risk.
June 7, 2011 at 9:32PM ESTLJA
June 7, 2011 at 2:27AM EST Reply to CommentI think Judy Greer is a showkiller. Sarah Paulson definitely is. Donal Logue might be, too, though it pains me grievously to say it.
LJA Oh, another showkiller... David Walton.
June 7, 2011 at 2:29AM ESTPatrick I think Judy gets a pass because Archer got renewed for a third season - unless we're restricted to live-action showkillers.
June 7, 2011 at 3:42AM ESTI miss Miss Guided, darn it.
sepinwall Grounded for Life ran far too long for Logue to be consigned to showkiller status. All you need is one long-running show that you were the star of to escape the label, no matter what happens before or after.
June 7, 2011 at 6:46AM ESTLJA Thank you for redeeming Logue for me. I just love him. I'm not familiar with Grounded for Life at all, is it worth Netflixing?
June 7, 2011 at 2:24PM ESTTausif Khan Summer Glau...NBC did not even know they were airing The Cape and when they did stopped production.
June 7, 2011 at 10:00PM ESTTausif Khan Also behind the camera Tim Minear his Twitter handle kind of gives it away...CanceledAgain
June 7, 2011 at 10:01PM ESTmrbilliam Well, Terminator: SCC did get a second season, but Summer Glau is so darn good that it's weird to think that she's never been involved in an actual hit.
June 7, 2011 at 11:23PM ESTStormshadow4life
June 7, 2011 at 10:06AM EST Reply to CommentI don't know...I thought January was better then Jennifer Lawrence in First Class. As did my wife.
BennyMcBenBen
June 7, 2011 at 12:22PM EST Reply to CommentCan Dan sit closer to the mic next time? I kept turning the volume up/down when Dan and Alan talked.
sepinwall We were actually equi-distant this time. I'm just louder by nature, and was half-deaf from the plane flight, so I may have shouted more than usual.
June 7, 2011 at 12:24PM ESTSeth Still, it was almost impossible to hear Dan. I had to adjust the sound output on the file just to hear him at all on my iPhone. This podcast almost made me wish you were both back in the car. Just horrible.
June 8, 2011 at 10:09PM ESTdan Hear that, kids? Seth wants another car podcast.
June 8, 2011 at 10:38PM ESTIt's not *that* hard to hear me. Yes. I'm quieter. But comparing it to the car podcast is just crazy talk.
-Daniel
jenfullmoon
June 7, 2011 at 12:40PM EST Reply to CommentCan I ask a Twin Peaks question? Is the show SUPPOSED to be set in the 1950's? Because yes, the kids are totally out of Rebel Without A Cause or something, and between that and Cooper's very square look, I was seriously wondering if I'd just not noticed that back when the show was on.
June 7, 2011 at 2:07PM ESTJREinATL You wouldn't have had video cameras and pocket mini cassette recorders in the 50s. (Or color TV for that matter.)
June 7, 2011 at 2:49PM ESTDavid Lynch's "present" is rarely a realistic present, and he certainly has a thing for the 50s. For example, "Mulholland Dr." has a lot of elements of the 50s folded into what is supposed to be 2000s USA -- Betty winning a jitterbug contest, Camilla Rhodes and the other actresses auditioning for the Sylvia North Story singing 50s girl group songs, etc.
Sarah
June 7, 2011 at 12:45PM EST Reply to CommentI heard an ad on the radio the other day that said Piper Perabo's name "PAIR-uh-boh."
Sometimes I wish every show had an SNL-type intro where each actor's name gets said out loud, lol.
MatthewL
June 7, 2011 at 9:29PM EST Reply to CommentEvery time I watch the Twin Peaks pilot, I'm always amazed at how perfectly pitched the mix of heartbreaking tragedy, genuinely funny comedy, and soap opera melodrama really works. There's always a scene that really strikes me - this time, it was the Norwegian scene that you both discussed. This is a scene where a teenage girl talks about how her schoolmate was brutally and horribly rapes and murdered - and it's played as a comedy scene, complete with comedy music. Not only that, it somehow manages to be funny. I do not have any idea how it works, but my gosh does it.
The reason why Twin Peaks (at its best) works when most of these other self-consciously quirky shows don't is that it is actually a horrible dark programme. And it never forgets that. They may find comedy at times in the tragedy (the funeral scene in a couple of episodes is a perfect example), or they have quirky comedy off to the side (say, Lucy diverting the phone), but that's not the point of the show. The show is horrible and dark and disturbing (there's one scene in the second season, where Maddy sees BOB coming into the room, that is probably the scariest moment I've ever seen), and the comedy is just there to lighten the tone sufficient that the audience doesn't want to kill itself. (A lot of people criticise Fire Walk With Me for being too inconsistent in tone with the series, but it is actually very close to the tone of the core of the show - it's just that in a 2 hour film about a young woman being raped and murdered, there's no time (or appropriate way) to throw in any of the laughs that were used to make it tolerable for TV audiences.)
Regarding the Log Lady introductions - my understanding is that they were written and filmed by Lynch two or three years after the show's initial airing, when the show was picked up for reruns of some cable channel.
(And I loved the line about Audrey Horne being every one of Lynch's fetishes in a single person. I attracted stares in the supermarket when I laughed at that.)
Finally, I hate to be that guy, but I few years ago, when I was halfway through rewatching Twin Peaks, I decided to write a piece on my blog in which I tried to describe why Twin Peaks is so remarkable. It's not that well-written, but I think it's a pretty good encapsulation of my feelings about the show. In the very-unlikely event that anyone is interested, it's at http://matthewl-musings.blogspot.com/2008/03/it-is-happening-again-it-is-happening.html
MatthewL
June 7, 2011 at 9:55PM EST Reply to CommentOne other similarity between Twin Peaks and The Killing that you overlooked - with a couple of very specific exceptions, every episode covers one day. (The exceptions - episode 7 takes place on the night of the day covered in episode 6, and there's a three day gap between episodes 16 and 17.)
Ken Raining
June 8, 2011 at 11:42AM EST Reply to CommentI imagine you a Dan holding hands throughout the podcast, Alan.
The thing that bugs me in movies/shows? People that get out of their car without locking it behind them, or even taking their keys out of the ignition. They just get out and start walking. Drives me nuts.
abby
June 8, 2011 at 1:27PM EST Reply to CommentCan't believe I'm commenting on this but.... I believe the grammatical issue is as follows: It is correct to use Me when you are the object, I when you are the subject of a sentence. So since Dan and Alan are the subjects of the verb (in this case the verb is are) it is correct to say Dan and I. If Alan was saying send Dan and Me email that would be correct as in that case the hypothetical email correspondent is the subject of the sentence and Dan and Alan are the objects. I went to a very relaxed elementary school and never learned how to diagram sentences. Thus I only know this because I roomed with a grammar nazi in college and she CONSTANTLY corrected me. I certainly hope she was right! How I handle this verbal land mine is to rephrase the sentence in my head without the other person. You'd never expect Alan to say Me is in the same room eh?
grammar gramma In this case, "Dan and I" (or "Dan and me") is the object of the PREPOSITION "with," in which case you use "me," not "I."
June 8, 2011 at 2:53PM ESTAs you mentioned, an easy way to figure it out is to eliminate "Dan and" from the sentence, but you forgot the key component in this sentence, the preposition "with." You would say "...the first podcast recorded WITH me in the (same) room..." not "the first podcast recorded WITH I in the room."
Alan has already changed "I" to "me," no harm, no foul. I had phonics in elementary school a lifetime ago.
eriklk
June 10, 2011 at 12:54AM EST Reply to CommentYou should definitely watch and discuss Fire Walk With Me. Despite some unfortunate recastings and a totally different vibe and a different kind of weirdness to the show, it's seriously underrated and maybe the most frightening movie I've ever seen at the time that I saw it - my first night ever home alone for several days. I saw it before Twin Peaks because I was too young to watch it the first time it aired in Denmark, and when Twin Peaks re-aired I was a rabid fan and videotaped all the episodes. I also read the Laura Palmer Diary which was mostly sleazy, but also very effective for me at that age.