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Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 164: 'Downton Abbey,' 'Justified,' 'Cougar Town' & more

Dan and Alan also review NBC's 'Deception' and the returns of 'Bunheads' and 'The Joe Schmo Show'

By Alan Sepinwall Thursday, Jan 3, 2013 2:41 PM

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Happy New Year from your friends at Firewall & Iceberg Podcast! On our first show of 2013 — and our last before the start of the mid-season TV critics press tour — Dan and I review a bunch of new and (mostly) returning series, including "Downton Abbey," "Justified" and "Cougar Town." The lineup: 

"Downton Abbey" (00:02:08 - 00:18:45)

"Bunheads" (00:18:47 - 00:26:27)

"Deception" (00:26:28 - 00:33:20)

"Justified" (00:33:28 - 00:44:53)
"The Joe Schmo Show" (00:44:54 - 00:55:20)
"Cougar Town" (00:55:22 - 00:1:04:00)

 

 

 

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.

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, Justified, Downton Abbey, Cougar Town, Deception, Bunheads, The Joe Schmo Show

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  • Default-avatar

    ed w

    You could probably get a podcast segment out of discussing which had the worst season 2's, FNL, Homeland or Downton Abbey, and what makes for a bad or good season 2. Where shows go wrong and right.

    January 3, 2013 at 5:22PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      joel Ed W, that's an interesting point but it seems like this is a new development. It seems like up until the last few years that most good shows typically improved in their second season, and I could rattle off some well-heeled shows where to me their second seasons are amongst their very best overall (Buffy, West Wing, Breaking Bad off the very top of my head). I guess bad second seasons just don't seem that common to me historically.

      January 3, 2013 at 6:57PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    joel

    Great commentary on Justified, and I agree with Dan that is really painful to enter season four of this show and "Sniper Marshall" and "Black Marshall" are the level of depth I've attained for two supporting characters.

    At one point I sort of assumed Breaking Bad would never develop Hank and Marie beyond being caricatures and yet now I can't imagine what the show would be like if Hank were just spitting out meathead remarks while Marie was only hectoring her sister.

    And then thinking about this made me disappointed, because I feel like Justified is hampered by how little effort it has invested in developing the marshalls. Sad.

    January 3, 2013 at 7:02PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan Joel - I think Hank and Marie are a terrific comparison. "Breaking Bad" introduced Hank as a caricature and Marie as a nothing, but both of them had strong characteristics by the third season, at the latest. I think Yost and company just didn't want the Marshal's office to be a ghost town, but I can think of two or three supporting lawmen/women -- Rick Gomez, Carla Gugino, etc -- who got more character traits in a two-episode miniarc than those two regulars have gotten in three full years. Pity.

      -Daniel

      January 3, 2013 at 8:44PM EST
  • Harry_lime_talkback_profile

    odessasteps

    haven't listened yet, but based on the rundown, disappointed to see there is no memorial segment for Jack Klugman, Charles Durning and/or Gerry Anderson.

    January 3, 2013 at 9:06PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan OdessaSteps - Sorry.

      -Daniel

      January 3, 2013 at 9:09PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Mark S.

    With all the new shows and the TCA press tour next week, I was wondering if you guys were going to review Continuum on SyFy (brought over from Canada). I loved it when I viewed it this past summer (http://www.whatmarkread.com/2012/08/continuum-season-1-review/).

    January 4, 2013 at 11:46AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Carmichael Harold

    The irritation at spoilers for Downton Abby because of its earlier airing in the UK makes sense (in fact, I'm too spoilerphobic to even check whichever UK broadcaster airs it), but the anger at PBS for sharing the first window seems misplaced to me.

    I don't know what the specific circumstances are in this case (and I don't know how easy it is for journalists to figure it out), but (a) getting a shared first window would almost certainly be costly (at least it is for most other programming with an international reach), and (b) PBS's own funding/budgeting situation would likely make it difficult for them to be able to afford to spend that type of money on a single program, even if it is its highest rated program.

    I understand all the frustration, but haranguing PBS about it (and, of course, it's not just you guys who are doing this) without more information on the context doesn't sit right with me, as I'm not sure there's much they can realistically do to fix it.

    January 5, 2013 at 1:02PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Jim Tucker

    Dan Feinberg is an *ss. He talks and talks and talks about not spoiling Downton Abbey series 3 in podcast 164, but then nods and winks and leans toward a great number of plot points, making reference to the "five listeners" who haven't already watched it all. Come on, Dan! Either come clean and declare a spoiler alert, or else steer fully clear of anything that hasn't officially aired on these shores!

    January 6, 2013 at 3:56AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan Jim - I don't recall any serious nods or winks towards anything that would have spoiled anything. And hinting around spoilers to discuss things one liked or disliked about a show is what reviews do.

      I'm sure I'm a "*ss" for many reasons, this ain't one of them.

      -Daniel

      January 6, 2013 at 1:19PM EST

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