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Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 136: 'Louie,' 'Anger Management,' 'Episodes' & more

Dan and Alan also review 'Twenty Twelve,' 'Weeds' and the latest 'Buffy' season 1 episode

By Alan Sepinwall Monday, Jun 25, 2012 5:13 PM

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It's a comedy-heavy week at the Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, as we review the return of "Louie," Charlie Sheen's "Anger Management" comeback, BBC America's "Twenty Twelve," and the return of Showtime's "Weeds" and "Episodes." We also hit another episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" season 1, and finally dip back into the mailbag after several weeks away.

The line-up: 

"Twenty Twelve" (00:01:20 - 00:07:45)
"Anger Management" (00:07:50 - 00:21:30)
"Louie" (00:22:00 - 00:32:00)
"Weeds" (00:32:00 - 00:40:05)
"Episodes" (00:40:10 - 00:53:00)
Listener Mail - Comedies ready for The Leap (00:53:20 - 01:02:20)
Listener Mail - Wives of Anti-heroes (01:02:25 - 01:12:45)
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (01:12:45 - 01:25:00)
 
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.
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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, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Louie, Anger Management, Charlie Sheen, Episodes, Weeds, Twenty Twelve

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    Ed K

    It's worth noting that Twenty Twelve was written by John Morton, who had pre viously written the great People Like Us, a mockumentary in which The Thick of It's Chris Langham played a hapless behind-the-camera documentarian detailing a different profession each episode, which actually pre-dated The Office and the Christopher Guest films.

    For me Twenty Twelve was gently amusing, but its satire was undercut somewhat by the presence of Sebastian Coe, the former athlete and Conservative MP now overseeing London 2012, as himself. Plus sometimes the real thing has managed to out satirise this satire, and the whole idea isn't exactly novel, there was an Australian mockumentary, The Games, in the run-up to Sydney 2000! Jessica Hynes is great though.

    June 25, 2012 at 6:09PM EST Reply to Comment
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      nic919 I liked the second set of episodes more than the first set. It focused less on the officials and more on the interplay between the bureaucrats. (Although there is a video conference scene that slays me even though it involves real life players)

      I have also seen the Australian The Games, and it was sharper in its satire, but I don't think I picked up on the references as much as I did for Twenty Twelve. Mind you I adored The Hollowmen, which is a great comedy about Australian politics. It puts Veep to shame.

      June 25, 2012 at 10:37PM EST
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    evolution1085

    To go a little more into the "insufferable wife" question, I'm one of the people who can't stand Skyler. After listening to the podcast, I've tried to think so I can succinctly explain my vehement dislike of the character, and this is what I came up with. In the beginning of the series, she just wasn't used particularly well/interestingly, and on some level I think we're supposed to sympathize with Walt because he's in this relationship where he feels emasculated. As the series goes on though, and especially after she finds out about Walt, its just infuriatingly bad decision after bad decision. I understand the parallels that are supposed to be similar to how inept Walter and Jesse were in season 1, but Skylar's mistakes have the added problem of just being less INTERESTING than Walt's (the whole Benake thing only paid off with Bill Burr's face when he dies). I think Anna Gunn does good work, but just having Skylar on the screen makes me want to go "ugh", and it's probably mostly due to Dan's point about her function being antangonistic/as an impediment... but in the end she ends up doing those things quite mundanely.

    June 25, 2012 at 10:23PM EST Reply to Comment
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    alf

    Angel's older, somewhat handsome, mysterious, around so infrequently that Buffy's curious to learn more about him, and he knows her secret. I get why she'd be attracted to and interested in him. And I even understand why she acts more interested in him when he's *not* around than when he is. It's also possible Willow has talked her into it a bit. Willow likes him vicariously.

    June 26, 2012 at 5:15AM EST Reply to Comment
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    SLB

    Re: Skyler White, my problem was never that she failed to "appropriately" support Walt's drug career; rather, I found her to be insufferable because of how the show deals with her paradoxical behavior. Even early on, when she suspected that Walt might be having an affair with Gretchen, this seemed like the worst thing that he could do (to Skyler, to the family); however, when she decides to punish Walt—whether to drive him out or just to retaliate—she herself has an affair; not with just anyone, but with someone that she knows is just as guilty of cooking [the firm’s books] as Walt.

    More importantly though, Skyler is so utterly disgusted with Walt’s illegal behavior (whether because of the dishonesty with her, the risk to Hank's career, or just the inherent nastiness of manufacturing/dealing drugs), that she wants to drive him out of his home—paid for by the same drug money of which she claims to want no part—and out of the lives of his children. Putting aside the question of whether Walt deserves such a punishment, which amounts to exactly the same stripping of Walt’s life as would result from criminal prosecution, all of the underlying judgment seems conspicuously absent when she practically leaps at the chance to finance her Hank’s medical bills. Somehow she seems to forget about the potential fallout should it be discovered that a DEA agent’s medical bills are being financed by drug money until after she makes the commitment to Marie that they can and will foot the bill. But lest we mistakenly draw the impression that Skyler has come around to Walt’s level of acceptance (which is never particularly high) that the ends justify the means, she immediately makes clear that her motivation was, at least in part, another attempt to punish Walt (this time for his suspected involvement in Hank’s attack) by commandeering “his” ill-gotten riches, which again were too deplorable to use to finance her own husband’s bills.

    The crux of the problem is that in exploring the way that both Walt and Skyler navigate the journey from innocent victim of circumstance to morally flexible self-defining actor, the writers have chosen to show Walt continually struggling to reconcile his “decline” with the responsibilities and values of the man he started out as, all the while holding himself ultimately accountable for all of his own choices (as is befitting the show Vince Gilligan has reportedly set out to make); however, Skyler has consistently been allowed the luxury of righteous indignation to distance herself from any accountability for her own journey.

    June 26, 2012 at 1:26PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Nicole Well, if I found out my husband was involved with the drug trade, I would want him as far away from myself and my kids as possible. Sorry if that makes me a screw.

      June 26, 2012 at 8:01PM EST
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      Nicole *shrew...

      June 26, 2012 at 8:11PM EST
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      SLB I don't think that makes you a shrew at all. To be clear, I never took issue with Skyler's reaction to finding out about Walt's activities. I only mention her reaction as a reflection of just how deplorable she found Walt's involvement with the drug trade to be. Understandably, she wouldn't want her children associated with any of the risks involved (drug use, interaction with users, violence, police/state intervention, etc). The problem arises in that the audience isn't privvy to any internal struggle attendant to her own involvement with Walt's activities.

      As I think Dan alluded to in the podcast, one stark difference between a character like Walt and a character like Vic Mackey (or Skyler), is that we get to witness Walt's trajectory from good to bad, and, more importantly, we get to witness his struggle with his increasing darkness. (For this reason, the audience remains loyal to the character so long as it appears that his motivations remain the same as those of the man we first met.) Conversely, Skyler never takes ownership of her own actions, choosing instead to try to steer the vehicle while loudly proclaiming herself to be an unwilling passenger and continuing to blame Walt for their being on the road in the first place.

      June 26, 2012 at 10:38PM EST
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    Nicole

    I think a lot of the hate has to do with the fact that she dare not support her husband. I mean male characters can cheat again and again and the audience seems fine with it, but a female cheats and it's "whore" and "bitch"

    I have no doubt that if Skyler was the one who made meth, people would hate hate hate her and have nothing but sympathy for Walt.It would be "that bitch should have just taken the money" bitch,bitch,bitch....

    Sorry for the ranting, but I get annoyed that there are people out there that will NEVER like a female character for no other reason then she is female. oh, unless the female character is a tomboy and/or hates other female characters, then she is super awesome!

    June 26, 2012 at 8:12PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Hudders

    Terri Bauer is the least likeable TV wife, in my opinion. Just let Jack save the world, woman! You're just getting in the way!!

    June 27, 2012 at 8:42AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Tom Huffman

    I listened to this extremely negative assessment of "Episodes" and didn't think much of it. I really enjoy the show but as they pointed out humor is very subjective.

    However, then I actually watched the first two installments of the show. Then I got angry.

    In their zeal to say something, anything, negative about the show Dan and Alan just made stuff up. For example, one of their criticisms was that the bad reviews the characters discuss about Pucks does not concern what every reviewer would write, which is that Hollywood took a good British show and then screwed it up. There are two problems with this criticism. First, Sean and Beverly's discussion of the bad reviews is confined to reading a few titles and pithy putdowns. They don't summarize the reviews in depth. Second, one of the reviews they comment on DOES remark on how Pucks ruined such a good British show!

    Also, another criticism of Dan and Alan is that it made no sense for Sean and Beverly to stay with the show to save their relationship. Why not just go back to Britain and everything will be fine? Again, this doesn't accurately describe what happens in the show. Beverly says to Sean (this is a paraphrase) "You have basically told me that when we get back home that everything is over for us, so why should I look forward to that?" Thus, they are NOT staying the US to save their relationship. They are staying because Sean has announced that the only thing holding them together is the work they do on the show so Beverly wants to continue this as long as possible.

    My point is not that either of these incidents are terribly important or say much one way or the other about the quality of the show. My point is that it is unprofessional to let your enthusiasm for criticism overcome your ability to report accurately and fairly on the show you review.

    Alan's great reviews of "The Wire" captured that show in great detail and with fairness and accuracy. You owe as much to the shows you don't like as to the ones you do. This is not to compare "The Wire"--arguably the greatest TV drama ever--with Episodes, which is merely a light comedy of no great significance.

    July 4, 2012 at 2:54PM EST Reply to Comment

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