Appointment Television

This week we take a dive into Donald Glover's Atlanta, a show which is currently running its first season on FX. It's the latest in a vein of odd-yet-deeply-personal comedies, very much in the vein of Louie and Master of None (and you can also see hints of it in shows like FX's Better Things, a Pamela Adlon-Louis CK joint).  From there, we move into fall TV shows that we're excited about—there are some returning champions and some fresh faces. And then each of us picks a pretty-bad-looking fall TV show that we'll be making the others watch and discuss in the coming weeks.

We tackle some tough issues in this week's episode, beginning with a deep mourning for the loss of Mel and Sue from the Great British Bake-Off. We talk about what they mean to that series, the larger upset at the BBC generally, and how tragic it will be if the Bake-Off takes a sharp turn towards the commercial.  Our second segment is in response to a note from a listener, who wrote in to ask about a portion of our live show episode. It's a tricky and important question, and we take some time to try to unpack our relationship with shows like The Bachelor, our "liberal art hazmat suits," and some of the many ways TV inflects issues of class and audience. Kathryn gets a little too mired in current politics, Margaret has a metaphor about buggy whips, and Andrew longs for an alternate universe where rather than the Bachelor, we were all members of a Joe Millionaire Nation. 

This week it's all about kids, starting with the TV kids who make us roll the eyes and go "ugh, TV kids" the most. Then we wrap up our Stranger Things edition of TV Book Club, talking about everything we liked and a handful of things we wish had been handled differently. Here's looking forward to season two!

This week's episode is a recording of our live show at the 2016 Philly Podfest, where we had a fabulous time talking about TV bars inside of Philadelphia's great Tattooed Mom Bar. We unpack the role of bars as "third spaces" on TV. We consider the ways that bars bring together different segments of the population, act as meeting places and entries to civilization, and are good places to watch TV. We talk about our favorite TV bars, and also pick what fictional bar we'd most like to be a real place.   For our second topic, we bring in special guest and familiar ATV voice Craig Getting to adjudicate the first ever TV vs TV vs TV. In deference to our live audience, the issue before the TV court is the best variety of live TV audience. Margaret creates a fictional audience member named June to support her argument, Andrew talks about the audience as judges, and Kathryn dispenses trivia about Lucille Ball's mother. 

Our friend Kate Racculia joins us this week to talk about why teens and kids are such good detectives, and to weigh in on all things Stranger. We talk about Veronica Mars, Scooby Doo, and Nancy Drew, and we try desperately to stop Andrew from reading Inspector Gadget fanfic out lout. In the third installment of Stranger Things TV Book Club, we go deep on representation in fiction and The Cult of Barb. Margaret admits her love for Hopper, we all swear unending fealty to Dustin, and Kate helps us keep our Curiosity Doors open. 

The underwater episode of BoJack Horseman prompts our opening discussion this week, but you'll want to STAY TUNED because AFTERWARD we talk about TV theme songs so much that you'll never want to hear another TV theme song again! Or maybe you will, because TV theme songs are wonderful. 

For our first segment, we start out with the intention of discussing the currently airing season of Great British Bake-Off as a follow-up to our previous TV Book Club. We do that, but we also stray through several other topics, including Kathryn's TV hookup and Margaret's TV crushes.  Our second segment is the second installment in the Stranger Things TV Book Club, covering episodes 2-5. While we do eventually get to some deeper discussions about the show's influences, its depiction of gender, and the role of Eleven, we have to dig through some conversational quarries to get there. 

On tap for this week: Thorough examination and praise of the boozy antics on ABC's Alec Baldwin-hosted Match Game reboot. Then, a discussion of Auteur TV based on the alleged behind-the-camera turmoil at Netflix's Baz Luhrmann-helmed The Get Down. Also, Margaret is just tipsy enough for it to be funny.

For our first segment this week, we pick apart the new teaser for the Netflix revival of Gilmore Girls. Topics include: Amy Schumer's celebrity timeliness, nostalgia, smartphones, teaser editing, and corpse flowers. The bulk of our episode, though, is a look at the first episode of Netflix's Stranger Things, our newest selection for TV Book Club. We talk about its movie influences, its popcorniness, the celebrity persona of Winona Ryder, and Dungeons and Dragons. There is also a moment when Margaret and Kathryn sing Toto, and we'd like to apologize for that. 

This week is all about our favorite reality show hobby horse, The Bachelor/ette franchise. This is Andrew's first season watching, and the gang talks about the way their Rose Buddies-inspired fantasy league has affected their viewing.  Then we fire up the ol' TV vs TV cannon to settle that age-old debate: which is actually a better show, The Bachelor or The Bachelorette?

After a bumper crop of responses to our segment on animated TV shows, we talk about some of the comments we received. We highlight a few listener suggestions for other animated shows to check out.  Our big segment this week is a spoiler-filled discussion of Orange is the New Black's fourth season. We talk about some of the controversies surrounding the last handful of episodes, about the difficulty of negotiating OITNB's interest in the Black Lives Matter movement, about TV's troublesome Bury Your Gays trope, and about whether we think the season works as a whole. To no one's surprise, Piper is still a huge bummer. 

Nielsen ratings—the things we use to determine how many people watched a given TV show, not reviews of TV shows by families named Nielsen—are still widely used and Netflix just gave us a rare peek at its ratings for the season four premiere of Orange is the New Black, but how useful are they, really? Then, using OITNB as a springboard, the gang talks about how characters on TV (and TV shows themselves) use references to movies, music, books, and other TV shows. When is it useful character development? When is it lazy writing? When is it just played for laughs? And what current TV shows would your favorite Star Trek characters be REALLY into? 

For our first segment this week, we talk about half-hour animated TV shows, and why we don't spend much time talking about them. Andrew, with some assists from Margaret, tries to explain to Kathryn why animated TV shows are worthy watches, particularly shows like Bob's Burgers, Home Movies, Clone High and Venture Brothers.  In light of Kathryn's animated TV reticence, we turn to a consideration of our TV dealmakers and dealbreakers. What things about a TV show will make us tune in, regardless of any other aspect of its production? (For Margaret, is it a costume drama? Then yeah, she's there.) What things about a TV show will make us tune out and never look back? Andrew lets loose some Joss Whedon feelings.

In this week’s show, things start innocently enough. Kathryn and Margaret talk about ESPN’s O.J.: Made in America, which is a documentary that we talk about as a companion piece to the fictionalized American Crime Story about O.J. Simpson that wrapped up earlier this year. Then, the gang moves on to the final stretch of The Great British Bake-Off, where things rapidly become surprisingly sexual. You’ve been warned.

Summer is upon us, and we talk about some of the summer programming we're most looking forward to watching. Margaret's interested in the new Baz Luhrman show The Get Down, Andrew's thinking about catching up with Mr Robot, and we all wonder why TBS won't let us watch Playing House in some easily accessible streaming place. Our main discussion this week is about the secondary television market - recaps, post-show discussions, series-specific podcasts, and all forms of immediate TV criticism. We talk about what works and what doesn't, why we like TV criticism, and what kinds of recaps we seek out. Margaret and Kathryn are wistful about the late, lamented Television Without Pity, and Andrew tells us how TV recaps are like a tree.  

We revisit several old stomping grounds this week—first it's back to Nashville, which hadn't been revived when we recorded this but has been as we write this. Then, we gush a bit about the latest season of The Americans, which we covered in our last TV Book Club. And finally it's on to our current TV Book Club, the still-charming, pastry-filled world of the Great British Bake-Off.

It's spring, the time when a young man's fancy turns to cancelling television shows that have been underperforming for quite a while, but which had survived until now because no one really understands the current TV paradigm. We run through several of the recent TV cancellations, and discuss whether or not they'll really be missed. After chiding Margaret for being part of the Agent Carter problem, we move on to a discussion of trailers for new network TV series in the fall. Spoiler: some of them are very, very bad.

Kathryn and Margaret attended Vulture's panel on season two of UnREAL, which arrives this month. Then we move on to the next part of our TV Book Club segment on The Great British Bake-Off (or "The Great British Baking Show" to Americans). We are, for better or worse, not quite as nice as the people on the show.

CBS is suggesting that the only way to access its new Star Trek series will be through its streaming service, and we talk about why that seems like a terrible idea. At some point, we'll no longer be willing to sign up for new streaming services whenever they debut, and CBS All Access might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back.  We then turn to the main task of the day - another TV vs TV lightning round, this time on the topic of procedurals. We pass around the judge's wig to consider such questions as: which is the best procedural premise? Who's the best side character? Do will-they-won't-theys make procedurals better or worse? And thanks to Andrew and Kathryn's deep knowledge of a particular series, TV v TV becomes a Bones-a-palooza. 

The gang kicks this week's show off by talking about their favorite reality show tropes—when the shows start making your root for or against certain characters, when people are or aren't there to make friends, and when you know in your bones that someone is about to be sent home. They then move over to the first episode of the only (easily, legally available in the US) season of The Great British Bake-Off, listed on Netflix as "The Great British Baking Show" even though we refuse to refer to it by its legally mandated name. Needless to say, we are completely done in by its charm, even if some of the contestants give us the weirds.