A new podcast episode of Couch Potatoes Unite!, which is based on a blog of the same name hosted at our website: couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com. In this episode, recorded in November 2021, our panel of would-be midwives and nuns – moderator Krista, Sarah, Gina, Vicki, Allison, and Chief Couch Potato Kylie – reconvenes Around the CPU! Water Cooler to discuss Series 3 and 4 of the BBC-produced period drama that airs on PBS in the United States, Call the Midwife, in this, Episode Two of our five-part “Catching Up on Call the Midwife” Series. As always, if you have not watched any of Call the Midwife, be aware that there are, most definitely, MAJOR SPOILERS! Tell us what you think, and/or if there are other shows you’re interested in CPU! covering, below; email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com; or check out our Guestbook at the website, our Facebook page, our Twitter (@cpupodcast), or our Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite). Until next time, until next episode…buh bye!
Executive Producer/Chief Couch Potato: Kylie C. Piette Associate Producers: Krista Pennington and Selene Rezmer
Editor: Kylie C. Piette Logo: Rebecca Wallace Marketing Graphic Artist: Krista Pennington
Theme Song: Written by: Sarah Milbratz Singers: Sarah Milbratz, Amy McDaniel, Kels Rezmer Keyboard: Kels Rezmer Bass: Ian McDonough Guitar: Christian Somerville Engineer/Production: Kyle Aspinall/Christian Somerville
Who: “Call the Midwife” is a period drama series, originally produced by and airing first on BBC in the United Kingdom, about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s and 1960s. It typically airs in the UK on BBC in the winter; the most recent series currently airs on PBS in the United States Sundays at 8:00 PM.
What: Created by Heidi Thomas and originally based upon the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, who worked with the Community of St. John the Divine, an Anglican religious order at their convent in the East End, the series stars Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart, Helen George, Bryony Hannah, Laura Main, Jenny Agutter, Pam Ferris, Judy Parfitt, Cliff Parisi, Stephen McGann, Ben Caplan, Max Macmillan, Emerald Fennell, and Victoria Yeates in Series 3 and 4. The show, starting in Series 4, has extended beyond the memoirs to include new, historically sourced material. For the most part, the show depicts the day-to-day lives of the midwives and those in their local neighborhood of Poplar, with certain historical events of the era having a direct or indirect effect on the characters and storylines.
SYNOPSIS
The story follows newly qualified midwife Jenny Lee (Raine), as well as the work of midwives and the nuns of Nonnatus House, a nursing convent and part of an Anglican religious order coping with the medical problems in the deprived Poplar district of London’s desperately poor East End in the 1950s. The nuns and midwives carry out many nursing duties across the community; however, with between 80 and 100 babies being born each month in Poplar alone, the primary work is to help bring safe childbirth to women in the area and to look after their countless newborns.
The third series, set in 1959, depicts cystic fibrosis, polio, caring for the terminally ill, and midwifery in a prison context. The Child Migrants Programme, the threat of nuclear warfare (including emergency response guidelines issued by local Civil Defence Corps), LGBTQ+ rights, and syphilis among sex workers are depicted in the fourth series, set in 1960.
When: Series 3 aired on PBS in the USA in 2014 with a total of nine episodes, including the preceding Christmas special (precise air dates unknown). Series 4 aired on PBS in 2015 with a total of 9 episodes, including the preceding Christmas special (precise air dates unknown).
Where: The action in both series is set in Poplar, East End London, England, United Kingdom in the 1950s, with Series 3 transpiring in early 1959 and Series 4 occurring in 1960.
Why: To find out why individual podcast panelists started watching this show, listen to the Episode 1/Series 1-2 podcast episode via the link below!
How – as in How Was It? – THOUGHTS
This is Episode Two of our “Catching Up on Call the Midwife”series. You can listen to Episode One here and at our audio feeds (Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, and Amazon Music):
Seasons/Series 1 & 2
Frequent CPU! contributors and panelists often suggest shows for CPU! to cover in our podcast episodes – loyal listeners should have picked up on this particular trend by now. As the podcast has been underway for several years now, many of our resident and seasoned Couch Potatoes and some of our adjacent and freshly peeled Couch Spuds enthusiastically requested to talk about British period drama Call the Midwife. Thus, herein we offer the second episode of CPU!’s Call the Midwife Catching Up Series, in which we recap and discuss Series 3 and 4 and in which our panel – consisting of Sarah, Gina, Vicki, Allison, and Chief Couch Potato Kylie as panelist – joins moderator Krista in remarking upon the success or lack thereof of the next two seasons in the series, as we catch up two seasons at a time, and in so doing, to ruminate in-depth upon the production values, performances, and other aspects of this program.
Tonight’s episode is the second episode of a five-episode series in which CPU! gets caught up on this show, which premiered on PBS in the United States in 2012. In this chapter, our panel reflects upon and recaps Series 3 and 4 of Call the Midwife, and the reviews continue to be nothing short of generally glowing, with only a few qualms to dissect, which we do thoroughly in tonight’s episode.
This episode was recorded in November 2021, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the third and fourth series of the show. Listen at your own risk, and let us know what you think by commenting below!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@cpupodcast), Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), Pinterest (@cpupodcast), or email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com – or subscribe to this blog, the YouTube channel, our Apple/iTunes channel, our Stitcher Radio channel , find us on Google Play, on Spotify, on Castbox, on iHeartRadio, and on Amazon Music to keep track of brand new episodes. In the meantime, let us know what you think! Comment or review us in any of the above forums – we’d love your feedback!
Remember, new episodes and blog posts are published weekly! Next Wednesday, our slightly-smaller Charmed Series panel triumphantly returns to the CPU! Water Cooler, after an eighteen-month hiatus, to discuss Season 3 of the controversial reboot of the much (more) beloved nineties series of the same name. Stay tuned for this magical panel’s latest review and recap!
RECOMMENDATION
Call the Midwife is enthusiastically and unanimously recommended by our latest CPU! panel to fans of period dramas; fans of British television shows; and fans of dramas that explore historical context against the backdrop of character studies, since Call the Midwife is chock full of colorful and endearing characters in which to become invested as the seasons/series and years depicted therein progress. Additionally, this program will probably appeal most to those who enjoy mid-twentieth century motifs, including fashion palettes and hairstyles, as the show is fastidiously accurate with its costumes and makeup, and to mothers, who might find something to which to relate vis-a-vis memories of their own labor experiences. In keeping with other shows produced in the UK and for the BBC, both series are short, with a focus toward quality over quantity, and the ensemble cast is built from natural chemistry evolving from the “who’s who” of new faces and seasoned veterans staffing it from Britain’s rote pool of thespians. Our panelists particularly laud the producers’, writers’, and production staff’s attention to deal with respect to not only the historical backdrops but the art direction and other visual aesthetics that allow the audience to readily suspend disbelief and to immerse themselves in a period and location that feels distant, even as the episodes explore social, political, familial, and gender-related issues that reverberate decades into the future and continue to resonate today, since some of these issues endure, even if in different contexts and forms. Because of the program’s accessibility and relatability to anyone interested in its subject matter, our panel (of women supporting women) highly recommends Call the Midwife and remains only too eager to catch up on the next two series, 5 and 6, which we will discuss in Episode Three of our “Catching Up” on Call the Midwife series in May!
LOOKING AHEAD
Call the Midwife was renewed for Series 11, which is currently airing on PBS in the USA, having premiered on March 20, 2022. In the meantime, CPU! will next visit Call the Midwife in Episode 3 of this “Catching Up” Series next month, during which our panel will focus upon Series 5 and 6. Like, follow, and/or subscribe to the website, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, Amazon Music, or our social media accounts to stay abreast of new episodes regarding Call the Midwife as well as new episodes for all of our podcast panels! And, if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Thank you!
A new podcast episode of Couch Potatoes Unite!, which is based on a blog of the same name hosted at our website: couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com. In this episode, recorded in March 2022, our panel of Pearson-loving resident Couch Potatoes – moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Kristen (L), Spencer, Emily (S), Kristin (T), and Jared (one of the prior panelists temporarily departed the panel for lives behind the podcast) – reconvenes around the CPU! Water Cooler, cheering “Big Three!” all the while, to discuss Season 5 of the critically-acclaimed and widely popular NBC family drama This Is Us. As always, if you have not watched any of This Is Us, be aware that there are, most definitely, MAJOR SPOILERS! Tell us what you think, and/or if there are other shows you’re interested in CPU! covering, below; email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com; or check out our Guestbook at the website, our Facebook page, our Twitter (@cpupodcast), or our Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite). Until next time, until next episode…buh bye!
Executive Producer/Chief Couch Potato: Kylie C. Piette Associate Producers: Krista Pennington and Selene Rezmer
Editor: Kylie C. Piette Logo: Rebecca Wallace Marketing Graphic Artist: Krista Pennington
Theme Song: Written by: Sarah Milbratz Singers: Sarah Milbratz, Amy McDaniel, Kels Rezmer Keyboard: Kels Rezmer Bass: Ian McDonough Guitar: Christian Somerville Engineer/Production: Kyle Aspinall/Christian Somerville
Who: “This Is Us” is a romantic family drama series that currently airs on NBC, winter to spring Tuesdays at 9:00 PM.
What: Created by Dan Fogelman, the series follows the lives and families of two parents and their three children in several different time frames and stars an ensemble cast featuring Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan, Jon Huertas, Eris Baker, Faithe Herman, Lyric Ross, and Asante Blackk in Season 5.
When: Season 5 aired on NBC from October 27, 2020, to May 25, 2021, with a total of eighteen episodes.
SYNOPSIS
This Is Us follows the lives of siblings Kevin (Hartley), Kate (Metz), and Randall (Brown, known as the “Big Three”), and their parents Jack (Ventimiglia) and Rebecca Pearson (Moore). It takes place mainly in the present and uses flashbacks to show the family’s past. Kevin and Kate are the two surviving members from a triplet pregnancy, born six weeks premature on Jack’s 36th birthday in 1980; their brother Kyle is stillborn. Believing they were meant to have three children, Jack and Rebecca, who are white, decide to adopt Randall (Brown), an African American child born the day before and brought to the same hospital after his biological father William Hill abandoned him at a fire station. Jack dies when his children are 17, and Rebecca later marries Jack’s best friend Miguel (Huertas). Randall becomes a successful finance professional and marries college classmate Beth (Watson); they raise two daughters (Tess, played by Eris Baker, and Annie, played by Faithe Herman). Kevin becomes a successful actor while struggling to be taken seriously. After lacking direction for much of her life, Kate meets Toby (Sullivan).
Most episodes feature a storyline taking place in the present (contemporaneous with airing) and a storyline taking place at a set time in the past, but some episodes are set in one time period or use multiple flashback time periods. Flashbacks often focus on Jack and Rebecca in and around 1980, both before and after their babies’ birth, or on the family when the Big Three are children or adolescents (and played by two sets of younger actors); these scenes usually take place in Pittsburgh, where the Big Three and their parents are born and raised. As adults, Kate lives in Los Angeles, Randall and his family are in New Jersey but relocate to Philadelphia in Season 4, and Kevin relocates from Los Angeles to New York City and back again.
Where: The action follows the core family members – two parents, three children, and their eventual spouses – who are originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but who later move and spread, particularly in the present/future timelines, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, California; and New York City, New York.
Why: To find out why individual podcast panelists started watching this show, listen to the Season 1 podcast episode via the link below!
How – as in How Was It? – THOUGHTS
In 2021, we launched our This Is Us panel, caught up quickly on the first four seasons, and now continue this series as a Water Cooler entry. You can listen to our first four episodes in this series below; the second, third, and fourth episodes are still part of our audio feeds at Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, and Amazon Music:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Panelists Kristen L, Spencer, Emily, Kristin T, and Jared triumphantly reconvene with moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie (one of our previous panelists temporarily departed the panel due to lives behind the podcast) Around the Water Cooler after almost one year’s hiatus to pick up where our This Is Us series left off in 2021 when we last discussed the family Pearson and those who love them. In tonight’s episode, CPU! continues forward-looking Water Cooler coverage of This Is Us with ourpenultimate Season 5 recap and review, in which our panel remarks upon the success or lack thereof of this gripping and layered family drama, and in so doing, ruminates in-depth upon the production values, performances, writing, and, in the case of this panel, the music of this acclaimed program. In this chapter, our panel reflects upon and recaps our continued learning about the Pearson family in several different eras of the family’s story and in pieces and parts, providing clues to a larger mystery around how the family survives hardship while remaining centered and grounded in the face of life’s greatest challenges. The enthusiasm from our panel remains truly palpable, as this series has become one of the highest-rated shows (by review of our panelists) that we have covered on the podcast.
This episode was recorded in March 2022, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the fifth season. Listen at your own risk, and let us know what you think by commenting below!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@cpupodcast), Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), Pinterest (@cpupodcast), or email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com – or subscribe to this blog, the YouTube channel, our Apple/iTunes channel, our Stitcher Radio channel , find us on Google Play, on Spotify, on Castbox, on iHeartRadio, and on Amazon Music to keep track of brand new episodes. In the meantime, let us know what you think! Comment or review us in any of the above forums – we’d love your feedback!
Remember, new episodes and blog posts are published weekly! Next Wednesday, our Call the Midwife panel returns to the CPU! Water Cooler to continue our Catching Up Series reacting, two seasons at a time, to the popular BBC/PBS period drama by discussing Series 3 and 4 in Episode 2 of our Series. Stay tuned!
Questions, Impressions, and Future Considerations
1) Who does Kevin end up with in the future? Is it Sophie (guest: Alexandra Breckinridge)? Is it Cassidy (guest: Jennifer Morrison)? Or, is it someone entirely new? Will we get a chance to meet her in any sort of meaty or flushed-out way with the limited amount of airtime real estate left in this final season?
2) Why do Kate and Toby officially end their marriage since it is clear from the fifth season finale that Kate marries Phillip, the teacher she comes to assist at the music school for the blind? How does that love affair even come to be?
3) Are the producers/network really considering making a movie of any type and/or with an alternate storyline in mind, exploring what might have happened had Jack survived the fire?
4) Will Rebecca see Jack as she inevitably passes away in the future/flash-forwards as a result of the progression of her Alzheimer’s Disease, either as an actual vision of him or by mistaking, the vigilantly watching and patiently waiting, Nicky (guest: Griffin Dunne) for Jack as he sits by her bedside?
5) What happens with the farmhouse inherited by Randall and Beth from Randall’s birth mother Laurel, who survived long past what was understood to be her death, so we learn in Season 5?
6) Will the show reexplore some of the side stories they have seeded, such as the depiction of the inventor of email?
7) Will we see adult Nicky and Franny, Kevin and Madison’s children, in the future?
8) Will we see a big family reunion far into the future, following Rebecca’s death and focusing on the children of Kevin, Kate, and Randall?
9) Who will inherit Rebecca’s crescent moon necklace?
10) What happens to Miguel? Does he die before Rebecca? Or, does Rebecca “release” him from marriage with her, so that he will not have to witness her Alzheimer’s-influenced decline?
11) Where are Miguel’s kids from his first marriage? Will we see them at any point in Season 6?
12) What sort of Kate will we see in the end? A happier one? A thinner one?
13) What happens to Tess, Annie, Deja, and Malik in the future?
14) Will we see Kevin, Kate, and/or Randall’s grandchildren? Will the show invest in a Six Feet Under type of projection or time jump in any of the final episodes?
15) What will Nicky do in this not-too-distant future?
16) What happens to Toby in the end?
PARTING SHOTS
This Is Us continues to be wholeheartedly and boisterously recommended by our CPU! panel to “almost anyone” who enjoys watching television – full stop – but particularly to those who enjoy family dramas like Parenthood, Brothers & Sisters, and The Council of Dads and to those with some years of life experience behind them that would make some of the more difficult parts of this series, in terms of the challenges that the characters face, resonate more fully on an emotional level with would-be watchers. Our panel believes that this show will appeal most to people who appreciate some reality in their fiction, as opposed to pure fantasy, because the creator and writers have infused their story with an undercurrent of wisdom and a concentrated sense of genuineness that renders the show a fulfilling and emotional viewing experience that keeps one wanting more, as the story is told non-linearly, with meted out clues and parallelisms connecting well-meaning, three-dimensional characters with whom it quickly becomes easy to identify. The panelists universally describe This Is Us as well-written, well-performed, and well-directed, with expertly plotted, interweaving storylines that both tease the mind and fill the heart and are executed by earnest and genuine performers who breathe a comfortable vitality into smart, relatable, and emotionally complex characters. Our panel notes that a decision to watch this NBC drama should be one made with a firm commitment, a preparation for an investment that requires full concentration for the watch without the “second screen experience” and other distractions, as there are glimpses and hints of story revelations in early seasons that ultimately play out masterfully in later seasons. The panel further praised the casting, lauding the seamless ensemble of this drama and its effortless cast chemistry. In the end, the panelists unanimously enjoy this series, Season 5 as much as the seasons preceding it, and enthusiastically recommend it to any would-be viewer who would be enticed by it to start, without hesitation; in fact, our supersized panel proved all too eager to continue watching Season 6, which we will discuss following the airing of the (gulp) series finale later this year, at which point we will also Look Back at the whole darn show. Stay tuned!
LOOKING AHEAD
NBC renewed This Is Us for three additional seasons, including a sixth season, at the same time that the show received its fourth season renewal (May 2019). In May 2021, it was announced that Season 6 would be the show’s final season, which premiered on January 4, 2022. Our panel will visit This Is Us one final time to discuss Season 6 following the airing of the series finale on May 24, 2022; we will Look Back at the entire show in that same episode. Like, follow, and/or subscribe to the website, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, Amazon Music, Patreon, or our social media accounts to stay abreast of new episodes regarding This Is Us as well as new episodes for all of our podcast panels! And, if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Thank you!
A new podcast episode of Couch Potatoes Unite!, which is based on a blog of the same name hosted at our website: couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com. In this episode, recorded in April 2022, our slightly smaller panel of peppy River Vixens and tough-as-nails Southside Serpents – moderator Sarah, Emily (S), Micah, Jessica, and Chief CP Kylie (one of our previous panelists departed the panel) – convenes for the fifth time around the CPU! Water Cooler (or are we at Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe?) to discuss Season 5 of the CW teen drama series Riverdale. As always, if you have not watched any of Riverdale, be aware that there are, most definitely, MAJOR SPOILERS! Tell us what you think, and/or if there are other shows you’re interested in CPU! covering, below; email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com; or check out our Guestbook at the website, our Facebook page, our Twitter (@cpupodcast), or our Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite). Until next time, until next episode…buh bye!
Executive Producer/Chief Couch Potato: Kylie C. Piette Associate Producers: Krista Pennington and Selene Rezmer
Editor: Kylie C. Piette Logo: Rebecca Wallace Marketing Graphic Artist: Krista Pennington
Theme Song: Written by: Sarah Milbratz Singers: Sarah Milbratz, Amy McDaniel, Kels Rezmer Keyboard: Kels Rezmer Bass: Ian McDonough Guitar: Christian Somerville Engineer/Production: Kyle Aspinall/Christian Somerville
Who: “Riverdale” is an American teen drama based upon the characters of Archie Comics, which currently airs fall to spring Sundays at 8:00 PM on the CW.
What: Adapted for The CW by Archie Comics’ chief creative officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, “Riverdale” features an ensemble cast playing the traditional “Archie Comics” characters, with series regulars KJ Apa as Archie Andrews; Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper; Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge; Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones, the series’ narrator; Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom; Casey Cott as Kevin Keller; Charles Melton as Reggie Mantle; and Vanessa Morgan as Toni Topaz as well as Mädchen Amick as Alice Cooper and Mark Consuelos as Hiram Lodge.
SYNOPSIS
The series follows Archie Andrews’ (Apa) life in the small town of Riverdale and explores the darkness hidden behind its seemingly perfect image.
When: Season 5 aired on the CW from January 20, 2021, to October 6, 2021, with a total of 19 episodes.
Where: The action is set primarily in the fictional town of Riverdale, the comics-based home of the “Archie Comics” characters, though this season branched into New York City, New York as well as to an unspecified war location. The time is contemporaneous present day, presumably, but also seven years from when the main characters graduate, which occurs this season. Frankly, we are not really sure when this series is supposed to be taking place.
Why: To find out why individual podcast panelists started watching this show, listen to the podcast episode covering Season 1 via the link below!
How – as in How Was It? – THOUGHTS
In 2020, we launched our Riverdale panel, caught up quickly on the first three seasons, and then continued this series as a Water Cooler entry later that year. You can listen to our first three episodes in this series below; the fourth episode was rerun last week into our audio feeds at Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, and Amazon Music and is also below:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Panelists Emily (S), Micah, Jessica, and Chief CP Kylie triumphantly reconvene with moderator Sarah (one of our previous panelists departed the panel) Around the Water Cooler after an eighteen-month hiatus to pick up where our Riverdale series left off in 2020 when we last discussed this dark, soapy, and twisty Archie Comics adaptation. In tonight’s episode, CPU! continues forward-looking Water Cooler coverage of Riverdale with ourSeason 5 recap, and the Chief CP once again steps aside from the moderating microphone, so that Sarah may serve as the main moderator once more; if you recall, Sarah was a college roommate of Sarah Habel, who played Geraldine Grundy on the series for the first two seasons.
As such, our panel continues to remark upon the realness of Riverdale compared to its idyllically drawn source material in talking about the fifth season of this sudsy soap-opera-like teen drama, and in so doing, we ruminate in-depth upon the production values, performances, writing, and dark mysteries of this show – with a continued, and unmistakably plummeting, veritable variety of results and even more so in reaction to Season 5 and its seven-year time jump into the respective adulthoods of our four main characters. In tonight’s episode, our panel reflects upon and recaps Season 5 of Riverdale, in which the town, the teens, some of their parents, and the various villains pockmarking this wry study of human nature, where real clashes with the ideal, grapple with saving the titular wicked little town from Hiram Lodge’s (Consuelos) efforts to de-incorporate its charter, resulting in even more new forms of darkness as well as new rounds of attempted murder, kidnapping, torture, and suicide, all of which definitely leave our panel confused and without proper suspension of disbelief as we try to puzzle through what is passing for the plot of the series in this fifth season.
This episode was recorded in April 2022, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points – very key plot points – of the fifth season. Listen at your own risk, and let us know what you think by commenting below!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@cpupodcast), Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), Pinterest (@cpupodcast), or email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com – or subscribe to this blog, the YouTube channel, our Apple/iTunes channel, our Stitcher Radio channel , find us on Google Play, on Spotify, on Castbox, on iHeartRadio, and on Amazon Music to keep track of brand new episodes. In the meantime, let us know what you think! Comment or review us in any of the above forums – we’d love your feedback!
Remember, new episodes and/or blog posts are published weekly! Next Wednesday, our This Is Us panel triumphantly returns to the CPU! Water Cooler, ready to process all of the informative events and jaw-dropping twists of the penultimate Season 5 in advance of the beginning of the end, the currently airing Season 6 and the upcoming series finale. Stay tuned for the return of arguably CPU!’s most enthusiastic panel – next week!
Questions, Impressions, and Future Considerations
Old Questions
1) Who is creating and/or sending the videotapes, and what is their purpose? Is it Charles? Is it Chic? Is it Mr. Honey after all (guest: Kerr Smith)? What do they even mean?
ANSWER: In a bit of an unexpected and marginally lame twist, the videotape auteur is revealed – in the leftover episodes clearly intended for the end of the fourth season – to be none other than Jughead’s (Sprouse) sister Jellybean, who becomes involved insnuff and other film productions for the purpose of capturing her brother’s attention, so that he would be compelled to stay in Riverdale. Unsurprisingly, she moves back to live with her mother following the family’s discovery of this information.
2) Has Skeet Ulrich left the show never to appear again, even though the end of Season 4 did not really tie off his character? Reports in the press and impressions left with the panel most certainly conflict, as some reports have Ulrich gone for good, while others suggest that he will at least appear in Season 5 in a recurring status, if for no other reason than to provide FP with a proper sendoff.
ANSWER: Skeet Ulrich appears in the handful of episodes starting this season that was clearly meant to be those originally planned to end Season 4; however, when Jellybean’s macabre hobby is revealed to the world, he leaves with her to ensure her good future. Ulrich does not reappear in the remaining episodes of Season 5.
3) What about Marisol Nichols? Is she going to appear long enough to provide Hermione Lodge an organic departure after Nichols announced her own departure from the series?
ANSWER: Marisol Nichols recurs somewhat in Season 5, but Hermione’s life transmutes to being a “real housewife” on some show that echoes real-life equivalents. She connects with Veronica (Mendes) once this season when Hiram’s (Consuelos) history and backstory are further explored, but she otherwise seems to have departed the show for good.
4) Will Molly Ringwald become a series regular in the future since Mary Andrews decides to stick around and care for Archie in the wake of Fred’s untimely passing (following Luke Perry’s untimely passing)?
ANSWER: Molly Ringwald has not become a series regular.
5) In Season 4, the show seems to tease “Barchie,” i.e. the romantic pairing of Archie and Betty (Reinhart), when they exchange some illicit kisses and, um, some illicit make-out sessions behind Veronica and Jughead’s respective backs, but then the show seems to “chicken out,” as several of our panelists described it, by having Archie return to Veronica and Betty return to Jughead. Was this sampling of “Barchie” a tease of what’s to come? Will “Varchie” and “Bughead” lose each pairing’s respective relationship momentum in the coming season? Will the show finally pull the controversial trigger of mixing up Archie’s love life, as often occurs in the comics?
ANSWER: In Season 5, Bughead is definitely a non-entity. With the passage of seven years as part of the show’s in-season time jump, Betty and Jughead drift apart and fail to reconnect, particularly when Jughead, in a state of progressive alcoholism, drunk-dials Betty one night to give her a piece of his mind about how she is an unsupportive significant other, which only serves to alienate Betty, somewhat understandably. In the meantime, as Archie and Betty reconvene in Riverdale as adults, their decidedly adult passions are teased and explored throughout the season, even though Archie temporarily contemplates reuniting with a separated-from-the-different-guy-who-is-her-husband Veronica, only for Varchie to realize that they are two different people who have evolved past the point of being able to understand one another and/or to make their enduring love work and/or to hold similar priorities.
6) At several points in Season 4, our characters remind us that they are living through their senior year of high school. Does the show mean to follow these characters to college? How would that even work?
ANSWER: No. In light of the writers’ decision to implement a seven-year time jump, we bypass “Archie: The College Years” and go straight to a future where Betty is a budding FBI agent, Jughead is a floundering and alcoholic novelist, Archie is a war veteran with ambitions for revitalizing his hometown, and Veronica is the “She-Wolf of Wall Street” as well as a high-end jewelry/valuables trader. In light of these developments, our podcast panel comes to tonight’s discussion equipped with some of its spiciest reactions to date. Listen to the episodefor details.
7) For several seasons, the series has discussed, and the character of Betty has grappled with, the idea that there is genetically-derived darkness within her; in fact, mysterious and possibly shady Charles informs her in Season 4 that she has the infamous “serial killer” gene, which she inherited from her father Hal. Is the show teasing a future in which Betty fully loses herself to this alleged darkness? Does that future transpire in Season 5?
ANSWER: While Betty continues to lean into that alleged genetic dark side with some choice decision-making this season – particularly during a vigilante investigation of a new serial killer – she does not fully lose herself in Season 5. Listen to the podcast episode for details.
8) Will we see Mr. Honey again since he informs our heroes that he has accepted the position as headmaster of Stonewall Preparatory Academy in the season finale and since Stonewall apparently battles Riverdale regularly in football?
ANSWER: No. Mr. Honey does not return to Riverdale. Stonewall leads itself, perhaps.
9) Josie left Riverdale to join the Katy Keene spinoff, which was subsequently canceled by the CW. Will Josie return to Riverdale in the coming season?
ANSWER: Josie (special guest Ashleigh Murray)returns in a one-off episode exploring the lives of Josie and her Pussycats post-time jump. This one-off episode has beenheavily rumored and all but confirmed to be a back-door pilot for a “Josie” spinoff. This is the only episode in which we see Josie in Season 5, though.
10) Who has access to Jughead’s story about Mr. Honey, which is played out in the series finale. It seems that the producer of the videotapes is someone who has proximity to sensitive information, particularly given the use of the masks in Jughead’s story and in the final videotape. Theory: is the videotape maker Betty? Does Betty have a dissociative identity that has started to engage in voyeuristic behavior, which she forgets when the “core” Betty reappears? Alternatively, who else could have access to the information, and why are the videotapes being made?
ANSWER: We were on the right track with our theories but were ultimately off-base, as we failed to suspect Jughead’s kid sister Jellybean in all of this voyeurism and videotape production. The child’s exposure to Riverdale was a bad influence on her, as the characters and our panelists all agree.
11) What will next season’s musical episode be?
ANSWER: “Next to Normal,” and, hoo boy, does our panel have*opinions*! Listen to the podcast episode for some strong ones.
12) Is Betty still in the FBI Junior Training Program? Or, did she quit?
ANSWER: Her length of stay in the training program is unspecified, but she’s now a full-blown employee of the FBI, so this question feels as if it’s pretty much moot.
13) Will we see Charles and Chic and/or learn more about them and their past next season?
ANSWER: Yes. Their relationship and, as it turns out, murderous schemes are, more or less, fully flushed out in Episode 2 of Season 5.
14) Is Kevin (Cott) and the others intent on restarting their “tickle ring” business? Why was this even a plot point this season? The story was universally unpopular with our Riverdale panelists.
ANSWER: Fortunately, this plot development was abandoned for Season 5, though Kevin is still cruising the woods outside the town. Poor Kevin. Giving him positive plot development seems like a challenge for this group of writers.
New Questions
1) What possible Big Bad can or will appear in Season 6? Will it actually be Cheryl (Pestch), on the warpath and determined to exact vengeance on behalf of her ancestor against the ancestors of Archie, Betty, and Jughead, who wronged her? Will Cheryl become a serial killer? Will her young, ginger protege kill for her?
2) What is the “Blossom Family Magic?” How did Cheryl seemingly manifest magical powers this season? Is she going to be the connective tissue that allows for the confirmed special guest appearance of Chilling Sabrina, Kiernan Shipka?
3) Will the show allow the relationship between Archie and Betty – otherwise known as the “Barchie” ship – to truly expand and evolve in Season 6 as Archie and Veronica and Betty and Jughead once did?
4) What will next season’s inevitable musical episode be? Guesses from the panel: Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Urinetown, Moulin Rouge, Spring Awakening (though Chief CP Kylie noted that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina already dipped into the Spring Awakening well), Rocky Horror Show, and Dear Evan Hansen?
5) Will there actually be a Josie and the Pussycats series?
6) Will Betty go “full dark side” in Season 6? Does Archie bring it out of her?
7) How effective is the town council in Season 6?
8) We assume that Archie and Betty will survive the bomb that exploded in Archie’s bedroom, having been set and activated by a disgraced Hiram Lodge. Where will Archie live now (presuming the house is destroyed), and will he and Betty go after Hiram, with or without Veronica and Jughead’s help?
9) How much of Veronica and Reggie’s (Melton) relationship do we see in Season 6?
10) Which of the supporting characters outside of the main four and Cheryl will return for Season 6?
PARTING SHOTS
Following the viewing of Season 5, the slightly smaller CPU! Riverdale panel reached a full consensus of opinion related to this series; at this juncture and unlike in previous episodes of CPU!’s Riverdale reviews, our five current panelists (including the moderator) do not currently recommend Riverdale to new viewers because the panel believes that anyone who has not yet chosen to watch this series will not likely be attracted to the show now, particularly as the panelists regardthe series’ already uneven quality to be at an all-time, disjointed low. In fact, several panelists went so far as to suggest that they might recommend the series instead to their worst enemy/enemies as a surreptitious means of subjecting them to torture and/or to suggest that consuming alcohol (drink legally and responsibly, kids!) could possibly aid the proceedings but for the fact that one would risk alcohol poisoning from the sheer volume of need for the dulling effects of the substance. Our most forgiving panelist, Micah, noted that the show was a tough sell from the start but would now ultimately require a phone scam to successfully foist it onto new viewers, so disreputable and ultimately trashy the show has become, at least to our current roster of panelists.
Our panelists also believe that Riverdale, if it is to appeal to new viewers, would still be most appropriate for anyone who enjoys watching teen dramas generally; for fans of noir storytelling, owing to Jughead’s overarching narration, as well as of horror and/or murder mysteries, in which this show heavily dabbles; for Archie Comics fans, with the caveat that these versions of the characters are nothing like their comic book counterparts; and for fans of CW-level standards of attractiveness, as the cast is filled to the brim with the usual types, in physical appearance anyway, that populate this network’s plethora of youth-oriented shows. To wit, the panelists spent much of tonight’s discussion focusing on how the writing remains woefully uneven to the point of nonsensical in Season 5, with most panelists regarding this season as the worst season yet. All panelists struggled with the time jump, the character choices and evolutions related to that time jump, and the repetitive nature of the storytelling despite the time jump, which only seems to heighten and emphasize the theory of many panelists that the writers have run out of ideas, despite the decades of source comics from which they can draw their perverted tales of inverted American utopia. In any event, our entire Riverdale panel, despite the panelists’ vociferously absent enthusiasm for this series (4 out of 5 panelists rate this show as 1 or 1.5 stars of 5 currently), remains committed if entirely unmotivated to watch Season 6, if for no other reason than morbid curiosity and a mild interest in a possible upcoming crossover between two CPU! panels, this one and that of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Stay tuned for all of the idyllic mischief, magic, and mayhem in our upcoming Season 6 recap and review, likely to publish later this year!
LOOKING AHEAD
In February 2021, the CW renewed Riverdale for a sixth season, which is currently airing and which premiered on November 16, 2021. In March 2022, the CW renewed the series for a seventh season as well. CPU! will next visit Riverdale at some point following the airing of the sixth season finale. Like, follow, and/or subscribe to the website, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, Amazon Music, or our social media accounts to stay abreast of new episodes regarding Riverdale as well as new episodes for all of our podcast panels! And, if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Thank you!
For the week of April 4, 2022, because we needed a spring break (lives behind the podcast forestalled our production schedule somewhat; plus we were saying farewell to that yellow brick road – that’s not an inside joke), we offer a rerun of this episode, originally published in November 2020. In the meantime, next Wednesday, we will resume regularly scheduled episodes with the publication of our recap and review of Riverdale, Season 5. Stay tuned!
—Original Synopsis—
A new podcast episode of Couch Potatoes Unite!, which is based on a blog of the same name hosted at our website: couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com. In this episode, recorded in September 2020, our panel of peppy River Vixens and tough-as-nails Southside Serpents – moderator Sarah, Emily (S), Micah, Jessica, Nate, and Chief CP Kylie (one of our previous panelists departed the podcast for life’s greater journeys) – convenes for the fourth time around the CPU! Water Cooler (or are we at Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe?) to discuss Season 4 of the CW teen drama series Riverdale. As always, if you have not watched any of Riverdale, be aware that there are, most definitely, MAJOR SPOILERS! Tell us what you think, and/or if there are other shows you’re interested in CPU! covering, below; email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com; or check out our Guestbook at the website, our Facebook page, our Twitter (@cpupodcast), or our Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite). Until next time, until next episode…buh bye!
Executive Producer/Chief Couch Potato: Kylie C. Piette Associate Producers: Krista Pennington and Selene Rezmer
Editor: Kylie C. Piette Logo: Rebecca Wallace Marketing Graphic Artist: Krista Pennington
Theme Song: Written by: Sarah Milbratz Singers: Sarah Milbratz, Amy McDaniel, Kels Rezmer Keyboard: Kels Rezmer Bass: Ian McDonough Guitar: Christian Somerville Engineer/Production: Kyle Aspinall/Christian Somerville
couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com 