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Extra Hot Great


David T. Cole
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Since the concept of the Nonac was introduced on EHG mark 1 I have been waiting for "Isaac and Ishmael" to be inducted. It seems to me the epitome of the "terrible episode of a great show" idea.

 

"Isaac and Ishmael" is the nadir of the Sorkin-era episodes, but if there's a West Wing contender for the Nonac, I'd go for S5's "Access," the mockumentary episode.

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Personally I'd rank Access and Posse Commitatus below Isaac & Ishmael. I&I was an immediate response to 9/11, written in a day or two and comes across like a 45 minute PSA. Access and Posse Commitatus were PLANNED to be the way they were, which is why I'd put them lower. (OTOH, Posse Commitatus led me to TWoP, which in turn brought me here, so clouds, silver linings & all that).

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I'm just impressed someone got an episode of the West Wing into the cannon since for every Butterball hotline there are Indians in the lobby and the Bishop of Rome. It's hard to find an episode with enough good to balance out the overwrought portions. I thought the Isaac and Ishmael episode would be in the Nonac first.

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I would love to hear you all have a discussion about that post-9/11 Sorkin West Wing episode sometime. I think your perspective on it would be really interesting (and potentially funny in its scathing-ness, LOL).

I'd like to know what Joe thinks the worst episode is. I&I is the worst I've seen since, as I mentioned, I pretty much bailed after that one.

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For a while the Hotel ads were super focused on Lady Gaga, and would alternate between American Horror Story: Hotel and American Horror Story: Lady Gaga.

I admit, I kind of want to see American Horror Story: Lady Gaga.

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Surely the West Wing Nonac episode has to be the Lemon Lyman one, just out of principle.

 

I kind of would like to see a skirt made out of dildos on the grown-up version now. It'd be the best interpretation of "avant-garde" (avant-hard?) ever.

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Still holding an admiring grudge/grudging admiration against "Butterball Hotline" for knocking my King of the Mountain "Batman: The Animated Series" entry out after only three days, but what can you do? That scene is pure gold, and much as Sheen carries the dialogue, Schiff is the one carrying ALL the water. He's just magical in it.

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(To the tune of the Flintstones)

 

Firstly,
There's a plane crash,
And a lot of strangers must survive:
Landing,
On an island,
With the Others they must learn to strive.

 

What are,
Those six numbers all about?
Is it,
Possible to figure out?

 

When you're,
Lost among them,

Have a "White or Black?" time,

A "Locke or Jack?" time
It's Faith or Science you see!

(WAL-TER!)

 

ETA: Version 3, because I'd forgotten how the theme song actually ended!

Edited by John Potts
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Hey I've been thinking: it might make Game Time slightly easier on Dave if you just use the same rotation every week--say, Tara-Joe-Sarah-Guest. You could still let PICCI randomize who starts, but if you then proceed from there into the standard rotation it'll soon become second nature and you won't have to think about who's up next.

(That particular rotation also groups people by location and nicely alternates Girl-Boy-Girl-Boy when the guest is a boy. I've thought about this too much.)

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When I saw Martin Sheen give a talk, he said the Butterball Hotline was his favorite scene on the series. I personally love that Abbey scene just as much - every time Stockard Channing was on, she made that show better - she and Sheen were so great together.

 

If I ever get around to doing a Nonac, I was absolutely planning on Access, but that would mean I need to watch it again. I think it definitely belongs in there, especially coming after one of the few watchable Season 5 eps, The Surpremes. It's awful. I'd rather watch I&I 40 times than watcb that. The other one I absolutely hate is An Khe. I used to run through the entire show every time I watched, but now I skip almost all of Season 5.

 

Joe Reid, please come over to TWW forum and tell me what your top eps are. I posted a roughly-ranked favorites list over there a while ago, in one of the threads. So hard to pick an actual favorite!

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Hey I've been thinking: it might make Game Time slightly easier on Dave if you just use the same rotation every week--say, Tara-Joe-Sarah-Guest. You could still let PICCI randomize who starts, but if you then proceed from there into the standard rotation it'll soon become second nature and you won't have to think about who's up next.

(That particular rotation also groups people by location and nicely alternates Girl-Boy-Girl-Boy when the guest is a boy. I've thought about this too much.)

 

Making things easy for myself is not in my stupid nature.

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Okay, they were all great, but the Quantico theme had me giggling pretty hard, thanks, Joe, and thankfully, I was exiting the highway just as Sarah started the L&O: SVU one, because that would have been a hard accident to explain, and this way, I just lurched into the lane while crying tears of laughter....

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From Extant comes a story about Mali Woods, a "cousin" of Ethan Woods. She and her programmers, after hearing and seeing  the insanity Molly was kicking up, quietly go underground and live in the 'burbs of Houston. She and her pet armadillo meet friends and try to help out neighbors and other school kids. Molly's programmers, a divorced couple, negotiate living under the radar and trying to keep Mali's Humanichs-ness quiet with working in the field in which they are also trying to be low-key. Maybe Ethan can run away to come stay.  Leslie Jones reoccurs as  Lenore Keystone, a.k.a. Lenoir Rock ,a performance artist, and neighbor.

 

Mali Woods:  Leah Jeffries (Lola, Empire)

Denali "Denni" Flint: Irene Bedard

Perry Steele: D.B. Woodside

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American Horror Story: Retirement Village

 

It explores not only aging in the US, and the billions of dollars spent in denial and then shunting folks off, but  also how the Stepfordesque "villages" are advertised as sprawling acreage away from everything.  So aging, isolation, seeming powerlessness, and reminding folks that old folks are not to be trifled with in general.  Nasty people get out-nastied by the more experienced and long-adapted residents could be wonderfully satisfying.

 

Kathy Bates would have to be brought on in some capacity so we can get her to tell someone " 'Night, Mother."

 

Cast to come...

 

PS: I'd also watch Western time-toggling!

Edited by Actionmage
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Great podcast! I listened to it while unpacking Christmas decorations.

I really liked Jessica Jones but agree with Sarah that maybe it went on too long. I think it might be because they were kind of noticeably setting up things for down the line.

Great raisins ad and game time. So many great fictional book titles.

Really loved the canon submission. Well deserved. Though I am surprised it got in as it is, one in a series of recurring plots. I suppose that makes it typical of the show but also a great episode of the series.

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I'm enjoying "Jessica Jones" so far, but I agree with Alan Sepinwall's article today about recent TV relying too much on serialization. I was hoping for "JJ" to have individual cases each episode in addition to the overall plot, like "Veronica Mars". But instead it was so fixated on the A story that some episodes went by with only incremental progress or incident.

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That game time was tough. I did get the one from The Affair, but only because this week's episode had a load of shots of the cover/poster for the book.

 

I enjoyed Together too. Not great, but I liked it, and Alex MacQueen, who played the lead's father, is always welcome.

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Like Dave I went "The Simpsons!" in response to "To Serve Man" and thought Tara was harsh in not allowing it (since even though I knew it referred to a Twilight Zone episode, it WAS on The Simpsons) until I realised that although the episode is entitled "To Serve Man" (well, the segment of Treehouse of Horror it was on) the book there is actually entitled "How to cook for Forty Humans", with a series of partial reveals that keep flipping the meaning. Pretty tricksy there, Tara!

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Like Dave I went "The Simpsons!" in response to "To Serve Man".

 

That wasn't me, I'm the jerk who stepped in with the correct answer.

I'm enjoying "Jessica Jones" so far, but I agree with Alan Sepinwall's article today about recent TV relying too much on serialization.

 

Jessica Jones? Sure, like I said the Alias stories PI cases were fun and could have been in a 13-episode season. TV in general? No way. I'm old enough to remember when everything on TV was procedural and it suck-dilly-ucked.

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