For the week of June 1, 2022, because the Chief Couch Potato is taking a break in honor of her upcoming anniversary of birth; in light of the unofficial start of summer; and in honor of the gangbusters release of the long-awaited Season 4 of “Stranger Things,” we offer a rerun of this episode, originally published in May 2020. In the meantime, two Wednesdays from now, we will resume regularly scheduled episodes with the publication of our recap and review of The Good Doctor, Season 4, in Episode Four of that Catching Up Series. Stay tuned!
—Original Synopsis—
A new podcast episode of Couch Potatoes Unite!, which is based on a blog of the same name hosted at couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com. In this episode, recorded in April 2020, our “stranger” panel of frequent CPU! panelists and TV fans – including moderator Kylie, Hilary, Kyle, Michael, Sarah, and Jeremy – is Around the (Quarantined) Water Cooler and discussing Season 3 of runaway hit and Netflix original Stranger Things. If you have not watched any of Stranger Things, be aware that there are 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
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, our zany to the max panel of toon-loving television viewers – moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Nick, Christian, and Ryan (one panelist had an unavoidable conflict) – gathered together to continue a new, ongoing CPU! panel, one in which we Look Back at and reminisce about the final three seasons, i.e. the WB seasons, of beloved nineties cartoon Animaniacs (1993). This is the second part of an ongoing CPU! podcast series charting the lifespan of all versions of the Animaniacs via both the original series and the new Hulu-based reboot. This particular episode was recorded in January 2022, and, as always, if you haven’t seen any of the original Animaniacs, be aware that there are 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: “Animaniacs,” an animated comedy-musical series that aired first on Fox (during the Fox Kids block) and then on the WB for five seasons (1993-1998) before being rebooted in 2020. It now streams on Hulu.
What: Created by Tom Ruegger for Fox Broadcasting Company’s Fox Kids block, Animaniacs is the second animated series produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Animation after Tiny Toon Adventures; the series initially ran a total of 99 episodes, along with a feature-length film, Animaniacs: Wakko’s Wish.
SYNOPSIS
Animaniacs is a variety show with short skits featuring a large cast of characters. While the show has no set format, the majority of episodes are composed of three short mini-episodes, each starring a different set of characters, and bridging segments. Hallmarks of the series include its music, satirical social commentary, pop culture references, character catchphrases, and innuendo directed at an adult audience.
The headlining characters, the Warner siblings, live in the Warner Bros. Water Tower on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California; however, characters from the series appear in different episodes in various places and at various periods of time. The Animaniacs characters interact with famous people and creators of the past and present as well as with mythological characters and characters from contemporary pop culture and television.
When: Season 3 aired on the WB network from September 9, 1995, to February 24, 1996, with a total of 46 episodes. Season 4, comprised of 22 episodes, aired on the WB from September 7, 1996, to November 16, 1996. Season 5 aired from September 8, 1997, to November 14, 1998, with a total of 23 episodes.
Where: The show is a cartoon. It can be set anywhere and at anytime, and this cartoon particularly exploits that conceit.
Why: Listen to the podcast episode below for the panelists’ individual stories on how they came to watch Animaniacs.
How – as in How Much Do We Love this Show?!
We Looked Back at Seasons 1-2 of Animaniacs (1993) in March 2022. To listen to the episode, click the link below or find us via our audio feeds at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, and Amazon Music:
The Animaniacs “Once and Future Namey” Series, Episode One: The Original Series, Seasons 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 get zany to the max by waxing nostalgic about perennial animated favorite Animaniacs. Thus, herein we offer the second episode of CPU!’s “Animaniacs: The Once and Future Show’s Name-Y” Looking Back to Look Forward Series, in which we Look Back at and discuss Seasons 3 through 5 of the OG Animaniacs and, specifically, the WB seasons of this classic cartoon. Nick, Michael (K), Christian, and Ryan (a previous panelist had an unavoidable conflict), along with your very involved moderator, reconvened “Around the Water Cooler” to “Look Back,” with slacks full of baloney, at this beloved cartoon from our respective youths, joining the Warner Brothers, their Warner Sister Dot, and every kooky character spawned by this acclaimed animated series in every zany to the max adventure they have ever had – past, present, and future.
This podcast episode was recorded in January 2022, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS (in a cartoon-ish type way), as we cover all of the wacky hilarity presented in the original Animaniacs series. 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 DCTU Series panel triumphantly returns to the CPU! Water Cooler, after a year’s hiatus, to begin their annual marathon of Arrowverse (or “CWVerse” or “Flarrowverse”) recaps and reviews by discussing the final season, Season 4, of Black Lightning and to, in turn, Look Back at the show, which (SPOILER)…they never really liked one bit, at any time, in any moment. Stay tuned for the next round of DC-related snark from CPU!’s spiciest panel!
RECOMMENDATION
Animaniacs is indubitably, enthusiastically, and vociferously recommended by tonight’s entire panel to anyone who loves cartoons/animated series in general but also to anyone who enjoys intelligence as well as uncompromising creativity and unflinching willingness to experiment comedically along with their helpings of animated television. The panelists universally agree that the pioneering Animaniacs – which would later influence other animation geared toward both children and adults on networks like Nickelodeon and Comedy Central – is well written, incomparably well-performed/well-voiced, and never panders for the sake of the target audience, which is generally children, though it, as a result, garners a loyal following of fans of all ages and from all generations who happen to appreciate the sometimes erudite and always outrageous humor of this show. Animaniacs is the type of ‘toon that the panelists believe should have the broadest appeal, as the series readily and frequently parodies pop culture – including film, television, and musical theatre – as well as satirizes everything from politics to trends from that golden decade, the nineties. Though some recurring characters, such as Katie Ka-Boom and the Hip Hip Hippos, leave something to be desired for some of our panelists, all panelists agreed that each episode of the original seasons of Animaniacs provides a little something for everyone and is endlessly rewatchable because, though the moments in time from which the material is drawn might have, in some instances, become truly dated, the characters are so vivid, so hilarious, and so absurdly rendered via the brilliant writing and voice acting, most anyone, of all ages, can find a path to laughter with this sublime exemplar of animated TV. While none of our panelists engaged (yet) in comparing the original to the reboot in this episode – stay tuned for that! – all panelists agree that the original (OG) Animaniacs offers heavy nostalgic appeal but also enough inherent cleverness that even a brand new, modern viewer would find something to love here. Will the same be true for the rebooted version of this show? Stay tuned for our next episode in this podcast series to find out what our panelists collectively think about that subject.
A new podcast episode of Couch Potatoes Unite!, which is based on a blog of the same name hosted at couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com. In this episode, our magical panel of TV-watching witches and warlocks – moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Sarah, Jessica, and Michael (DA; former panelist Jeremy jumped the shark) – reconvenes Around the Water Cooler to continue our ongoing CPU! panel, for which we have Looked Back to Look Forward at all shows named Charmed. This is the fourth episode of an ongoing CPU! podcast series examining the various iterations of the Power of Three; this episode continues ongoing “Water Cooler” coverage of the reboot CW series and discusses Season 3 of Charmed (2018). This particular episode was recorded in April 2022, and, as always, if you haven’t seen any of either version of Charmed, be aware that there are 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: “Charmed (2018)” is an American fantasy drama and reboot of the 1998 series of the same name, which currently airs on spring Fridays at 8:00 PM on the CW.
What: Developed by Jennie Snyder Urman, Jessica O’Toole, and Amy Rardin, Charmed (2018) is a reboot of the WB series of the same name, which was created by Constance M. Burge and which originally aired from 1998 to 2006 on the CW and its predecessor network. The series follows the lives of three sisters—Macy (Madeleine Mantock), Mel (Melonie Diaz), and Maggie (Sarah Jeffery)—who, after the death of their mother, discover that they are the Charmed Ones, the most powerful trio of good witches, destined to protect innocent lives from demons and other dark forces. Each sister has an individual magical power, which is noticeably stronger when all three sisters work together as the “Power of Three” to defeat their enemies. The sisters are aided by a Whitelighter, Harry Greenwood (Rupert Evans), an advisor who protects and guides witches.
SYNOPSIS
The series begins with sisters Mel (Diaz) and Maggie Vera (Jeffery) living with their mother Marisol, who is attacked and killed by an unknown dark force. Three months later, Mel and Maggie discover that they have an older half-sister, Macy Vaughn (Mantock), who was kept a secret by their mother for years but who recently moved close by to accept a new job at the local university. The sisters unexpectedly start exhibiting new magical abilities the first time they are together in the same room: the eldest Macy receives the power of telekinesis, middle sister Mel can freeze time, and the youngest Maggie can hear others’ thoughts. Soon afterward, their Whitelighter Harry (Evans) gathers all three sisters together and reveals to them that they are witches, as was their mother, and that Marisol bound her daughters’ powers when they were each born to protect them and to let them live normal lives but was in the process of unbinding their powers on the night she was murdered. The sisters ultimately accept their new destiny as The Charmed Ones, the most powerful trio of good witches, who protect innocent lives from demons and other dark forces.
When: Season 3 aired from January 24, 2021, to July 23, 2021, on the CW with a total of 18 episodes.
Where: In Season 3, the show is set primarily in Seattle, Washington, though the sisters have access to a magical portal that can take them pretty much anywhere.
Why: Listen to Episode 2 linked below for the panelists’ individual stories on how they found Charmed (2018).
How – as in How Was It? – THOUGHTS
Couch Potatoes Unite! has been around for a while now; listeners are finding us a bit more and becoming more comfortable reaching out with all sorts of feedback, which we highly encourage and welcome! A few years ago, a listener by the name of Marcel recommended that we launch a Charmed panel, particularly in light of the then-upcoming reboot that ultimately premiered in 2018 amid much rancor and backlash from members of the original series cast as well as from the devoted Charmed fandom. We started this series by Looking Back at Charmed (1998) in 2020. We subsequently Looked Back to Look Forward at the first two seasons of Charmed (2018) that same year. To catch up on those prior episodes, listen here:
The Charmed Series, Episode One: Looking Back at Charmed (1998)
The Charmed Series, Episode Two: Charmed (2018), Season 1 + Charmed (1998) Vs. Charmed (2018)
The Charmed Series, Episode Three: Charmed (2018), Season 2
This week, our Charmed Series panel – namely Sarah, Jessica, and Michael (former panelist Jeremy jumped the shark and departed the panel) – returns to the Water Cooler to continue its magical journey by resuming our Look Forward “Around the Water Cooler” at new seasons of the reboot. Tonight, we offer the fourth episode of our series covering the various trios of sister-witches, wherein we recap and review the decidedly more frustrating and less well-liked (on average) Season 3 of Charmed (2018). Thisspecific series’ fluctuation in quality leads one to consider the trend (and costs) of rebooting and reviving older properties to capture and capitalize upon nostalgia, for better or for worse. The jury’s still out as to whether Charmed (2018) is “better” or “worse,” but after tonight’s discussion, the consensus of our panel seems to be leaning toward the latter category.
This podcast episode was recorded in April 2022, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as we cover major plot points of the third season of the rebooted Charmed series. 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 Animaniacs: the Once and Future Namey Series panel triumphantly returns to the CPU! Water Cooler, prepared to Look Back at and to compare and contrast Seasons 3-5, i.e. the “WB seasons,” of the acclaimed animated mainstay’s original run to its first two Fox seasons. Stay tuned!
Questions, Impressions, and Future Considerations
Old Questions
1) Will there be a huge battle to preserve the viability of magic between magical creatures and mortal humans, as panelist Michael hopes, wishes, and predicts?
ANSWER: There are some small battles in Season 3 but nothing of the size and scope for what Michael was hoping – and certainly not for the viability and sanctity of magic.
2) Who is the Conqueror and/or the leader of the Faction? Is it Julian (guest: Eric Balfour)? His once dead sister Rosemary? His Aunt Vivienne?
ANSWER: Deemed “the last Conqueror,” Aunt Vivienne Laurent was the Conqueror in question. She also led the Faction along with Julian; however, he defected when he realized what she was ultimately attempting to do (and in light of the feelings he nursed for Macy).
3) Will Julian’s sister Rosemary wake up/come alive and have magical properties, qualities, and/or identity since she has been given doses of Black Amber?
ANSWER: Rosemary wakes but only temporarily.
4) What happened to Godric? Where did he go after Parker gave up his demonic magical abilities?
ANSWER: Unknown at this time.
5) Will Macy get more power expansion in the coming season, as panelist Michael hopes? Maggie seems to have experienced the most magical evolutionary progress, at least in Season 2.
ANSWER: Yes, in the sense thatMacy successfully regains the demonic powers with which she was born after an evolving and somewhat reformed Abigael (Poppy Drayton) decides to return them to her as a means by which to make amends. Listen to tonight’s podcast episode for brief discussions about these events.
6) Will there be a musical episode, which seems to be all the rage on the CW these days and since Mantock and Jeffery can sing?
ANSWER: So far, there has been no musical episode.
7) Will one of the Charmed Ones die in this coming season, per the Ghost Elder’s (as Chief CP Kylie has dubbed her, though we now know her as “the Guardian”) prognostication when discussing the ledger of past Charmed Ones found in the Elders’ Command Center? If so, who would it be, and would she be replaced, similar to Paige’s storyline on the Original Charmed?
ANSWER: (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) Yes. Macy dies this season, and given that there is a Season 4, we expect a replacement Charmed One to appear in this subsequent season. We do not know yet how it plays out because none of us have started watching Season 4. Listen to the podcast episode for discussions, theories, and rants.
8) Does the Ledger of Charmed Ones list Charmed Ones that have existed in this universe? Wasn’t there only one set of possible “Charmed Ones,” as asserted by the Original Charmed? Or, does the Ledger suggest that there are parallel universes with different sets of Charmed Ones, as panelist Michael theorizes? Are the Halliwells and Paige listed in that book? Will we see their names listed?
ANSWER: Unknown. The Ledger was not revisited in Season 3.
9) Is Abigael somehow distantly related to the Veras and Macy? Panelist Jeremy said he was kidding, but now we can’t help but wonder if witches are all distantly related to each other.
ANSWER: We are safely betting not. It would be weird if she was, particularly since Abigael seems to have a thing for Mel.
10) Does the discussion of lay lines and of the existence of magical places imply that there are more sources for Black Amber or other mystical substances that fuel magic? Are there nexuses elsewhere around the world in this Charmed?
ANSWER: Unknown. Lay lines, magical sources, and magical nexuses were not revisited in Season 3.
11) Will the house and, therefore, the sisters move again since they were magically transported from Michigan to Washington State in Season 2? Are they drawn to where they are needed, or will they stay in Seattle for a time? If they don’t stay, what will happen to Safe Space, Jordan (Jordan Donica), and some of the other relationships that the sisters started in Seattle?
ANSWER: No. The sisters and the house remain in Seattle for Season 3.
12) Whatever happened to spells used for personal gain in this Charmed? Are they allowed without consequences in this series?
ANSWER: Unknown and unclear. Fortunately, the sisters did not seem to lean into spells for personal gain this season, so there was no way to really meditate upon this question.
13) If Julian is the Conqueror, how is he stopped? Will it require Macy to sacrifice her budding relationship with Harry to save him, since Julian still appears to be very much in love with Macy?
ANSWER: Julian is not the Conqueror.
14) Will Parker return in Season 3? Will Jordan? Or, is Maggie destined to be on a love-related carousel?
ANSWER: Parker does not return, but Jordan does; however, a magical “allergy” preventing the sisters from being close to each other or others precludes Maggie from further exploring her feelings for Jordan throughout much of the season. Only in the end do they contemplate a future together, which is teased in the final moments of the season finale.
15) What happened to Mel and Maggie’s special gifts, namely Mel’s bracelet and Maggie’s staff, left for them by their mother to channel their magical abilities?
ANSWER: Apparently, according to panelist Michael and at least in Maggie’s case, Maggie stopped using her staff because she lost the ability to be an empath when she gained her powers of persuasion/mind control/mind manipulation, thereby rendering her staff useless. Since Mel lost her freezing powers, at least for a time, and since she does not seem too preoccupied with jewelry, we assume Mel made a similar decision, since neither of these trinkets has been seen since Season 1.
16) Was there a spark of a little something-something between Mel and Abigael, as Chief CP Kylie noticed? Similarly, are Mel and Ruby done forever?
ANSWER: Mel and Ruby are still going strong, but Abigael definitely seems to have potent feelings for Mel as well. Mel does not seem to return them, and in some ways, it mightbe Abigael’s way of filling a void, a need for validation, but Abigael certainly expresses a type of respect for Mel that looks quite a bit like love in the end. If Abigael returns in Season 4, it will beinteresting to see how this plays out.
New Questions
1) How will the show (theoretically) replace Macy, since she was already a secret half-sister to Mel and Maggie and in order to reconstitute the Power of Three? The related magical beings have typically and always been sisters of some type. What will the show do to ensure its longevity, to the extent that any exists?
2) Will Abigael return in Season 4 since she left at the end of Season 3 to stay with her sister, with whom she had newly reconciled?
3) Will there be a truly “Big Battle,” as panelist Michael hopes, and would Abigael return to help the sisters in that event?
4) Will the show revisit the storyline in which a future Mel asks the “present-day” Mel to house an unborn fetus until the future Mel returns to claim the near-term baby? The panel all concludes that this was the show’s way of incorporating Melonie Diaz’s real-life pregnancy, but are we to assume that this is a future that may yet come to pass? Or, are these events associated with the future where Macy was still alive and using her demonic powers almost exclusively? Honestly, the future meets past/present storylines are fairly confusing to all of the panel, and we hope that the show attempts to clarify these pieces; otherwise, the lack of explanation might motivate a “jump the shark” decision.
5) Is there still a coming apocalypse-type event, and, if so, how far into the future does it occur? The time travel/visions of the future are not handled well or presented clearly this season.
6) What powers or benefits do the “Guardian(s)” in the magical tree below the Command Center under Safe Space actually provide to the Charmed Ones or to witch-kind generally? How many Guardian(s) are there, or does Macy’s spirit replace the one we’ve met already? How is the Guardian(s) different than the Elders that no longer exist on this version of the show?
7) If the third to-be-likely-replacement Charmed One is not a sister, who can she be, and how can she fit into the “Charmed One” aesthetic that has informed every version of this show since the original series premiered in the nineties?
PARTING SHOTS
All in all, our Charmed panel generally regards Season 3 much less positively than Season 2 and much more in line with how the remaining panelists regarded Season 1, which was not a favorable review (listen to the episode linked above). In particular, the panel feels that Season 3 is incredibly repetitive in terms of story structure while incorporating mechanics, such as the “allergy” – likely due to the influence of COVID-19 on production schedules and safety protocols – that ultimately undermined the serviceability of the plot as well as the entertainment value of the story, particularly as formerly appealing elements, like the “will they or won’t they” dynamic of Harry and Macy, lost the tension or urgency or novelty of their Season 2 introductions. In that vein, the story beats lost much of the heart and emotion that seemed so prevalent and so enticing in that second season. The panelists also opined that the season pacing and plot progression appeared to regress to something disjointed and lacking a forward evolution, at least for every character but Abigael, in this third season.
Thus, to that end, Charmed (2018) continues not to be recommended by any member of our panel currently, especially not to anyone older than younger Millennial viewers or Generation Z. The panelists unanimously see the rebooted Charmed as an entirely inferior product compared to its predecessor and adamantly believe that to the extent that Charmed can be recommended to anyone – and it would have to be the type who generally enjoys the magical, the fantastic, and the formula so often found on shows produced for the CW – the original Charmed is the only way to go in good recommending conscience, even as all four remaining panelists appreciate the modern context and the inclusive casting and concepts underlying the reboot. The panelists continue to unanimously believe that this reboot suffers from some drastically uneven performances, with some players (Mantock, Evans) being more convincing than others (Diaz); inconsistent writing; and poorly executed special effects. Still, every one of our Charmed panelists views Charmed(2018) as more of the same pure candy fluff representative of the superior original version. With the problems presented by the reboot, however, in terms of the production and performance quality as well as an unusual number of growing pains for a show that was controversially rebooted from another established series that ended relatively recently, our panelists are not so sure that this new iteration of the Power of Three will set you free. Take that for what it is worth, gentle listener, even if what it’s worth is but a casual mention in your personal TV-related Book of Shadows.
LOOKING AHEAD
The CW renewed Charmed (2018) for a fourth season, which premiered on March 11, 2022. No decision regarding renewal for a fifth season or cancellation has yet been announced. CPU! will next return to our Charmed Series following the finale of Season 4! Until then…stay tuned!
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 September 2021, our panel of (surgical) resident Couch Potatoes – moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Eddy, Micah, Jessica, and Jared – reconvenes around the CPU! Water Cooler to discuss Season 3 of the popular ABC medical drama The Good Doctor, in this, Episode Three of our four-part “Catching Up on The Good Doctor” Series. As always, if you have not watched any of The Good Doctor, 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: “The Good Doctor” is a medical drama series that airs on ABC, currently fall to spring Mondays at 10:00 PM.
What: Based on the 2013 South Korean series of the same name, the series stars Freddie Highmore as Shaun Murphy, a young autistic savant surgical resident at the fictional San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. In Season 3, Hill Harper, Christina Chang, Richard Schiff, Nicholas Gonzalez, Antonia Thomas, Will Yun Lee, Fiona Gubelmann, Paige Spara, and Jasika Nicole are also part of the regular cast.
SYNOPSIS
The series follows Shaun Murphy (Highmore), a young autistic surgeon with savant syndrome from the small city of Casper, Wyoming, where he had a troubled past. He relocates to San Jose, California, to work at the prestigious San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital.
When: Season 3 aired on ABC from September 23, 2019, to March 30, 2020, with a total of 20 episodes.
Where: The action in Season 3 primarily occurs in San Jose, California, with one trip to Casper, Wyoming.
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
This is Episode Three of our “Catching Up on The Good Doctor” series. You can listen to Episodes One and Two here and at our audio feeds (Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, and Amazon Music):
Season 1
Season 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 long-yearning (surgical) resident Couch Potatoes surprisingly suggested The Good Doctor, a previously passed series for show coverage at CPU!, and subsequently encouraged meticulous season-by-season coverage of the whole shebang in short order. It was surprising because medical shows are very much hit and miss here at CPU!, but our roster has grown, and it is possible that so too has the appetite for medical shows and the willingness to discuss them. Ch-ch-ch-changes! Thus, herein we offer our Season 3 recap and review of The Good Doctor, in which our panel – consisting of Eddy, Micah, Jessica, and Jared – remarks upon the success or lack thereof of the series as we catch up, season by season.
As such, tonight’s episode is the third episode of a four-episode series in which CPU! gets caught up on this show, which premiered on ABC in 2017. In this chapter, our panel reflects upon and recaps Season 3 of The Good Doctor, in which we follow Shaun’s continuing adjustments to his job, to the cast of supporting characters, and to the rotating parties in charge of surgery and the hospital itself, which leads to some lessons in what not to do, particularly in love and in life. The panelists’ Season 3 reviews are overwhelmingly positive, with few qualms to dissect, which we do thoroughly in tonight’s episode – though, notably, our panel universally regarded Season 3 as the best of the seasons so far.
This episode was recorded in September 2021, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the second 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, a new, one-time CPU! panel convenes upon our virtual couches to lovingly Look Back at one of our collective panelists’ all-time favorite comedies and, really, shows of all time – we are finally sitting around our Water Cooler, er, our kitchen table, enjoying a slice of cheesecake, and reminiscing about the high and lasting value of The Golden Girls. Picture it – and stay tuned!
RECOMMENDATION
The Good Doctor is (more or less) recommended by our latest CPU! panel but not necessarily to those who enjoy other medical dramas, as the panel largely agrees that, medical drama though it is, it does not quite fit the mold of similar ilk, such as Grey’s Anatomy, ER, and others. Conversely, the panel does cautiously recommend this series to those who like and are looking for something different; to fans of Freddie Highmore, whose resume continues to expand at an impressive rate; and to fans of other David Shore properties, like House, as the tone of the show is not dissimilar to that auspicious predecessor, even if the subject matter and main character of both greatly differ.
Ultimately, the panelists’ opinions about this show vary widely. Some panelists, such as Micah and Jared, see the show as accessible and entertaining without requiring one’s full attention while simultaneously rewarding those who do devote their full engagement to the viewing proceeding. Panelists Eddy and Chief Couch Potato Kylie are more tepidly interested in the show, enjoying its quirky aspects and its lofty goal of depicting a surgeon on the spectrum and how he copes with such a high-intensity profession but also struggling with some of the more manipulative aspects of the story, including the series’ almost slavish devotion to the discussion of whether or not Shaun is capable of acquiring the technical skills required to be a surgeon when his skill is demonstrated fully in the pilot, even if not to rest of the characters’ particular satisfactions. The panel especially praises Highmore’s performance, deeming him the biggest draw and the most satisfying reason to watch. The panel also proffers some love for the supporting cast, particularly Thomas as Claire and Schiff as Dr. Aaron Glassman, whose father/son dynamic with Shaun provides much of the series’ heart.
Contrary to the panelists’ opinions about the first two seasons, the panel, in tonight’s episode and in a rare show of overall consensus, opines that the writing of The Good Doctor vastly improves in Season 3. The panelists note that not only do the medical situations in which Shaun and the other residents and attendings at St. Bonaventure find themselves oftentimes seem to be more nuanced and more thoughtful than the situations depicted in Season 1 and even in Season 2 episodes, but the drama central to Shaun’s life, his (multiple) romances, the interconnections and dynamics between characters, and, most of all, the shocking two-part season finale, left our panelists with an altogether rosier view of the show than had been previously described, even by the hitherto less impressed moderator, Chief Couch Potato Kylie.
To that end, the panel continues to regard The Good Doctor as an easy, pleasant, and now, as of Season 3, more frequently riveting watch that offers interesting and more holistically engaging, if not necessarily awe-inspiring, characters and situations by which to be entertained. Though there might not be a consensus as to whether The Good Doctor constitutes “great” television, there is still plenty to entice even the most skeptical of our panelists (still the Chief CP on this panel), though the median of the panel’s collective reaction to the third season leans further toward vociferous enthusiasm than in the discussions of the first two seasons. The panelists remain committed to the universal belief that there is an audience for this show, so long as the potential viewer in question walks into the experience with an open mind and a willingness to watch a hospital drama with a new and different spin on what is typically understood as the medical drama motif. To wit, all of our panelists remain steadfastly open-minded enough and more than willing to continue catching up on Season 4, which we will discuss in Episode Four of our “Catching Up” Good Doctor Series very soon!
THE FUTURE OF THE SHOW
The Good Doctor, Season 5, premiered on September 27, 2021. CPU! will next visit The Good Doctor for the final episode, Episode 4, of this “Catching Up” Series in December 2021 (or January 2022), during which our The Good Doctor panel will focus upon Season 4. 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 The Good Doctor 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 July 2021, our panel of legal (or criminal?) minds who like to break bad – including moderator Kyle, Nick, Hilary, Julianne, Nate, and Chief Couch Potato Kylie – reconvened Around the (Virtual) Water Cooler to continue Catching Up on the sequel/prequel spinoff of the all-time acclaimed television drama Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, by discussing Seasons 3 and 4. This is the fifth part of a seven-part CPU! podcast series, our “Breaking Better Series,” in which our panel of morally ambiguous Couch Potatoes delves deep into the crystal blue purity of all shows and properties within the universe of Breaking Bad. If you haven’t seen any of Better Call Saul or any of the original five seasons of Breaking Bad, be aware that there are 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!
*Please note, this episode has some audio issues. Sometimes, technology can be a swing and a miss.
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: “Better Call Saul,” an American crime drama television series created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould that is a spinoff, a prequel, and a sequel of Gilligan’s previous series, Breaking Bad, and which airs on cable network AMC in its first run.
What: “Better Call Saul” develops Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), an earnest lawyer and a former con-man, into a greedy criminal defense attorney known as Saul Goodman while also depicting the moral decline of retired police officer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), who becomes closely affiliated with the Juarez drug cartel to support his granddaughter and her widowed mother.
SYNOPSIS
Better Call Saul follows the transformation of James “Jimmy” McGill (Odenkirk), a former con artist who is trying to become a respectable lawyer, into the personality of the flamboyant criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (a play on the phrase “[it]’s all good, man!”), over the six-year period prior to the events of Breaking Bad, spanning from approximately 2002 to 2008. Jimmy is inspired by his older brother Chuck McGill (Michael McKean) to leave his Chicago-area conman past, when he was known as “Slippin’ Jimmy.” He initially works in the mailroom at his brother’s Albuquerque law firm – Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill (HHM) – where managing partner Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) becomes his nemesis. While at HHM, Jimmy befriends Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), a fellow mailroom employee who completes law school and becomes one of the firm’s associates, and their friendship later turns romantic. Jimmy is motivated by Chuck’s success to finish college and complete a Juris Doctor degree through a correspondence law school, The University of American Samoa.
After attaining admission to the bar but being denied employment at HHM, Jimmy’s pursuits focus on public defender work and earnest attempts to fight for justice. His life and career begin to intersect with the illegal narcotics trade and feature characters and story arcs that continue into Breaking Bad. As his interactions with criminals continue, Jimmy takes on the persona of the flamboyant, colorful Saul Goodman, and he starts to draw upon his conman past while his work as an attorney goes from questionable to unethical to illegal.
The show includes flash-forwards to the events following Breaking Bad at the start of each season’s premiere. These scenes show Jimmy living as a fugitive under the identity Gene Takavic, the manager of a Cinnabon store in Omaha, Nebraska.
When: Season 3 aired from April 10, 2017, to June 19, 2017. Season 4 aired from August 6, 2018, to October 8, 2018. Both seasons contain ten episodes each.
Where: The series is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the early-mid 2000s, i.e. roughly the years predating the starting timeframe of parent series Breaking Bad.
Why: Listen to Episode 1 of this series, linked below, for the panelists’ individual stories about how they found Breaking Bad and, as a result, Better Call Saul.
How – as in How Was It? – THOUGHTS
Tonight, Couch Potatoes Unite! continues our Looking Back to Look Forward set of episodes discussing a series of properties related to and spun off from one of the most highly requested shows by our Couch Potatoes, Couch Potatoes adjacent, and by some of our listeners – of all CPU! time – given that it is also one of the most highly lauded series of all actual time. That show is Breaking Bad, and tonight, we continue CPU!’s “Breaking Better” Series by dissecting the middle two seasons of prequel/sequel spinoff Better Call Saul in Episode 5 of this series. If you missed the first four episodes, in which we Looked Back at the show that started it all while Looking Forward to sequel film El Camino (which we discussed LIVE on Facebook), we conveniently provide the links below (though the episodes are also still in our audio feed at Stitcher, Spotify, Google, iHeartRadio, Castbox, and Amazon Music, as they were released earlier this year):
Looking Back at “Breaking Bad,” Seasons 1-3
Looking Back at “Breaking Bad,” Seasons 4-5
Looking Forward to “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie,” Live on Facebook
Catching Up on “Better Call Saul,” Seasons 1-2
Your friendly neighborhood Chief CP moderated the Breaking Bad portions of this multi-part series; in the Better Call Saul episodes, panelist and new moderator Kyle takes up the moderating reins. To that end, panelists Nick, Hilary, Julianne, Nate, and the Chief Couch Potato, happily settling into panelist status, reconvened “Around the (Virtual) Water Cooler” to continue Catching Up on Seasons 3 and 4 of Better Call Saul. Tonight’s episode is, therefore, the fifth part of our seven-part “Breaking Better” Series in which CPU! Looks Back at Breaking Bad while Looking Forward toward El Camino and Better Call Saul. This particular CPU! episode was recorded in July 2021, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the middle two seasons of Saul! 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 The Good Doctor panel returns to the CPU! Water Cooler to continue our Catching Up Series reacting, season by season, to the popular ABC medical drama by discussing Season 3. Stay tuned!
*Please note, this episode has some audio issues. Sometimes, technology can be a swing and a miss.
RECOMMENDATION
As Breaking Bad – if you haven’t already watched it – already comes highly and unanimously recommended by our “Breaking Better Series” panel to anyone who loves crime dramas particularly but also to anyone who can appreciate well-crafted TV, the panel echoes more of the same enthusiastic praise for its prequel/sequel spinoff, Better Call Saul. In fact, because the panel agrees with the general societal consensus, i.e. that Breaking Bad is one of the more “perfectly” executed serial dramas of all time, worthy of its hype and acclaim, and represents some of the topmost tier of “peak TV” of the last couple of decades, the panel opines that Saul continues more of the same thoughtful and excellent production values that characterized its progenitor program. The panel deems BCS equally well written, performed, and beautifully directed, with a further clear, meticulous attention to detail; a devotion to well-observed continuity (where earlier developments and introductions play into later events); breathtaking cinematography; and well-paced action. As we discuss in tonight’s episode, Breaking Bad clearly influenced so many other television series, especially serial dramas, to follow, not to mention Saul, and while the panel believes that Better Call Saul is strong enough by itself to stand on its own, even potentially for a viewer hitherto unfamiliar with the original series, the spinoff can only be all the more impactful, all the more enjoyable, if one was to start by watching Breaking Bad in the proper sequence before viewing Saul, as it was designed to be digested. The panelists cannot more enthusiastically reiterate that the whole universe represents a timeless, magical fusion of ensemble cast chemistry, out-of-the-box creativity, and excellence in the crafting of television. Though our panel acknowledged that these seriesmight not be for everyone, they should, based upon the quality of the underlying production alone, provide some genuine appeal to most television fans, regardless of any individual fan’s personal predilection toward genre or type of TV. If you have somehow missed this series, you should make time for Breaking Bad – provided that you can stomach it – and then for the prequel exploring the origins of Jimmy McGill aka Saul Goodman and Mike Ehrmantraut. The panel unanimously agrees that the entire undertaking is a more than worthwhile television viewing exercise.
Four of the five aired seasons of Better Call Saul (contrary to what the Chief CP says in the end credit tag of tonight’s episode); all five seasons of Breaking Bad;and the sequel film El Camino are currently available to stream on Netflix. In the meantime, the CPU! “Breaking Better Series” panel will return next month to recap, review, and react to Season 5 of Better Call Saul, in the third episode moderated by panelist Kyle as well as Episode 6 of this series. Stay tuned!
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 May 2021, our returning panel of stoic hosts and wide-eyed guests – moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Samantha, Jeremy, Ben, and new panelist (new to the panel, not to the podcast) Jana, as two prior panelists jumped the shark and departed the panel – returns to the CPU! Water Cooler to welcome you (back) to Westworld by discussing Season 3 of the HBO science fiction western series based upon the movie of the same name. As always, if you have not watched any of Westworld, 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: “Westworld” is a science fiction western based upon the 1973 film of the same name (written and directed by Michael Crichton) and to a lesser extent, the film’s 1976 sequel Futureworld. It is currently on hiatus.
What: “Westworld,” created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, depicts a fictional, technologically advanced Wild West-themed amusement park populated by android “hosts” called “Westworld.” The park caters to high-paying “guests” who may indulge their wildest fantasies within the park without fear of retaliation from the hosts, who are prevented by their programming from harming humans.
SYNOPSIS
In an unspecified time in the future, Westworld allows guests to experience the American Old West in an environment populated by “hosts,” i.e. androids programmed to fulfill the park guests’ every desire. The hosts, who are nearly indistinguishable from humans, follow a predefined set of intertwining narratives but have the ability to deviate from these narratives based upon interactions they have with guests.
The hosts repeat their multi-day narratives anew each cycle. At the beginning of each new cycle (typically following the host’s “death”), each host has its memories of the previous period erased. This continues hundreds or thousands of times until the host is decommissioned or re-purposed for use in other narratives. For guests’ safety, hosts’ programming prevents them from physically harming human guests; this allows guests nearly unlimited freedom to engage without retribution in any activity they choose with the hosts, including rape and murder. Staff—situated in a control center called “The Mesa”, which is connected to the park through vast underground facilities—oversee daily operations, develop new narratives, and perform repairs on hosts as necessary. Unbeknownst to the staff, members of a small group of hosts have retained memories of their past “lives” and are learning from their experiences as they gradually start to achieve sentience.
When: Season 3 aired on HBO from March 15, 2020, to May 3, 2020, with a total of eight episodes.
Where: The action in Season 3 is set primarily in the fictional “real world” at some unknown future time.
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
We have been discussing Westworld since the beginning; we caught up on the series in 2019! To listen from the start, click the embedded links below or search our archive here at the website!
Season 1
Season 2
As you might recall, by popular request, though notably by several established CPU! panelists and viewers, Westworld became a new show panel at the CPU! Water Cooler in 2019. Somewhat sadly, however, our cadre of hosts and guests experienced something of an algorithmic changeover since last we covered this series. Two panelists – Kyle and Hilary – jumped the shark, as they became too frustrated with the new direction of the show in Season 3. The rest of our adventurous Westworld panelists – namely Samantha, Jeremy, and Ben as well as a panelist new to the panel but not to the podcast – were still willing to reconvene “Around the Water Cooler” to talk about the “New World” order of this lush and complex drama, and in so doing, to ruminate in-depth upon the production values, performances, writing, and densely plotted mysteries of this show hailing from seeds planted by Michael Crichton’s creative brain in the seventies. In this review, our new reconstituted panelist bodies, pearls in tact (and not cloned, as far as we know), dissect the most mixed reactions we have ever had as a panel to this program, as some panel members were more engaged, others were less engaged, and still others if not the entire panel yearned to recapture the magic of the series’ first season, as panelists continued to struggle with series story direction and with what was perceived to be story development that “missed the mark” by the third season finale.
Thus, in this episode, our panel reflects on and recaps Season 3 of Westworld, in which we learn about the fates of some of the Delos parks, the Man in Black aka William (Ed Harris), Dolores’ (Evan Rachel Wood) plans for the New World, and the existence of a new artificial intelligence that seems to predate the AI embedded within the Delos park attractions. We also meet a new character in Caleb (Aaron Paul), who appears to be more than he seems as well as emblematic of what this so-called “future world” has become. In the meantime, the show continues to explore humanity, consciousness, and conscience as well as the the definitions and boundaries of love and freedom, as defined by existence and/or by the individuals bound to that existence.
This episode was recorded in May 2021, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points – very key plot points – of the third 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, on Amazon Music, and now on Patreon(!) 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 boldly going Star Trek 50+ Series panel returns to the Water Cooler to lovingly discuss the final season, Season 7, of Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as to present their Top 10 Best and Bottom 10 Worst Episode Lists for the entire series. Stay tuned!
Questions, Impressions, and Future Considerations
Old Questions
1) At what point did/will William aka the Man in Black become a (SPOILER) host version of himself? How does he reach that point, and was that all part of Robert Ford’s plan? Does William figure into Dolores’ machinations for the wider world?
ANSWER: William aka the Man In Black (MIB) is cloned and made into a host in the third season finale by the Charlotte/Dolores clone (Tessa Thompson), who is hellbent on revenge after the many events that occur to bring her to that breaking point (listen to the podcast episode for details). We think it is safe to say that aside from Robert’s dream for the evolution of his AI, most of these events are far removed from whatever he initially intended when he created the host intelligence staffing the Westworld park. The last question above is somewhat tricky to answer, as Dolores Prime initially attempts to remove William from her larger scheme by having him committed to a deprogramming facility, yet her Charlotte/Dolores clone is an evolved offshoot of her original programming, a version of Dolores that has lived Charlotte’s life and walked in her “real world” shoes. This (presumably) new Dolores further decides to have the William host/clone (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER)kill MIB prime and assume his existence. What this all means for the future is decidedly a Season 4 question.
2) Did William aka the Man in Black actually murder his own daughter, Grace/Emily? Is she actually dead? Aside from the flashback to Emily’s mother’s suicide, were we watching Grace/Emily in a chronology contemporary to Dolores’ insurrection? Was Grace/Emily initially hunting in one of the other Delos parks? Will we see her again?
ANSWER: Yes, William actually murdered Grace/Emily, and it is his internal reaction to this act with which he grapples during his institutional stay in the third season. Grace is actually dead.We see her again when William hallucinates a vision of her, with which he converses, in this season, but her life chronology as depicted in Season 2 is not further clarified. It is safe to say that what we see in Season 2, when William mistakenly takes the life of his own daughter, is in every way real, and that Grace/Emily was in the Delos parks when it happened. Since reality and fantasy frequently blur in the parks, particularly for William, who struggles the most with the blurry line throughout the series, the nightmare and its consequences become very real to him in Season 3.
3) What character will Aaron Paul be playing in Season 3? How will he fit into this picture?
ANSWER: Aaron Paul plays Caleb, who seems to be a military veteran down on his luck when we first encounter him. He becomes a key component of Dolores’ larger plans as someone who (SPOILER) is able to assert free will and break through deprogramming/brainwashing treatment he receives from another AI/entity insidiously governing the world order. Listen to the podcast episode for details.
4) What is Dolores’ true endgame – is it truly “kill all humans,” or is she looking for a way that hosts and humans can coexist, even if hosts hold the power or control over humans? Will Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) stop her if it’s the former? Will killer robots take over the world?
ANSWER: Column B. She sees beauty in humans, she claims near the season’s end, and she becomes aware of the larger AI controlling the flow of money and human decision-making in the world. This is the largest subject of tonight’s episode discussion, as this plot direction might have been the source of the most confusion for our panelists. Bernard does not intervene directly with Dolores this season, except in one failed attempt, but we do not necessarily bear witness to the once and future fate of Dolores, based upon the season-ending events, because of the clone complication and in light of the basic knowledge that the AI of this world can reconstitute itself (Dolores being one of the most adept at this skill). Listen to the podcast episodes for details.Notably, killer robots do not take over the world; humans regain control of their own faculties and wherewithal, but the season ends in chaos as humans wake up to what their lives have been under the control of the AI that dictated those lives and to what it means to again have free will.Listen to the podcast episode for all of the related discussion.
5) Does the Delos Corporation still exist? Are any of the parks, Westworld included, still open? Is someone still searching for the Valley Beyond/the satellite matrix containing the hosts’ consciousnesses? Will that someone or something be after Bernard? Does he still have the encryption key?
ANSWER: Delos was hostilely taken over by a rival company, Insight, in Season 3. In addition, Charlotte/Dolores takes out the Board of Directors near the end of the season. Where does that leave the company? It is hard to say.
We know that Westworld itself is closed, but WarWorld was operating as a prison for Maeve (Thandie Newton) and as a repository for AI that the rival company’s CEO does not want to deal with as the Westworld AI and hosts emerge from the so-called “massacre” of Season 3.
The panelists believe that Bernard accesses Sublime, the satellite matrix contained within the Valley Beyond, at the end of this season, and thatBernard innately possesses or obtains the encryption key this season that accesses that matrix. What he finds is the subject of the major cliffhanger of the third season’s end; we do not expect to learn the results of his journey until the airing of Season 4.
6) What other hosts did Dolores smuggle from the park?
ANSWER: She only smuggled bodies, and not all of them initially belonged to hosts, as the pearls she took were clones of her pearls that she secretly produced while still in the Westworld park. She places pearls in Charlotte, Musashi from Shogun World, and Connells, a man on the outside. Yet, other former hosts appear. The panel is unclear whether Clementine and others we see are Dolores clones or were revived by Maeve or Engerand Serrac (Vincent Cassel) in their effort to stop Dolores.
7) Where is Maeve right now? Is she one of the hosts’ core matrices that Dolores smuggled from the park? Or, did Lee (Simon Quaterman) accomplish that feat and how?
ANSWER: She begins the season imprisoned in WarWorld, which is operated as a sort of cage for errant AI from Westworld, including her. Neither Dolores nor Lee are responsible for placing her there; Serrac claims it was he who did so near the end of the season.
8) Will we see any of the other parks beyond Shogun World, such as Medieval World, to which panelist Kyle alludes in this episode?
ANSWER: We see only WarWorld this season, though we also revisit the empty and unpopulated Westworld.
New Questions
1) Will Caleb return in Season 4? If so, what will his role be?
2) Where is Maeve? Where does she go after Season 4?
3) Is Dolores truly dead?
4) Was the Dolores in Evan Rachel Wood’s body the actual Dolores – Dolores Prime – or is Charlotte/Dolores (or some other clone) hiding the real Dolores or the original Dolores pearl?
5) Will the show ever explain how Dolores was aware of Rehoboam?
6) Is the William/Man in Black clone/host that takes out William Prime in the season finale the same version of William that we saw in the post-credits series finale tag for Season 2?
7) How far into the future does Bernard wake up from his visit to Sublime, and is he in the same general time period or era that we find William/Man in Black in the post-credits series finale tag for Season 2?
8) How many Dolores clones remain, if any, beyond Charlotte/Dolores?
9) What does Bernard learn from Sublime? How can this world be rebuilt in the wake of divorcing the Rehoboam AI from humanity’s collective consciousness?
10) What is the state of the Delos parks in the world in which Bernard returns from Sublime?
11) Does Maeve still care about the whereabouts of her daughter?
12) What is Charlotte/Dolores’ endgame? Does she want to marry AI matrices with human consciousness? Or, is she truly bent upon world destruction?
PARTING SHOTS
Westworld continues to be recommended by our CPU! Westworld panel, unanimously anew but somewhat tepidly all around, to anyone who enjoys an ambitious story, with exciting action coupled with cerebral, intelligent mysteries to titillate and to ponder; to fans of science fiction and/or westerns and/or mysteries in general; and to music lovers who enjoy auditory Easter eggs, as the person responsible for the score, Ramin Djawadi, is both clever and prolific with his use of music, original and adapted, in this series. The panelists universally agree that the production values on this series remain remarkable, with particularly breathtaking cinematography, costuming, and visual effects representing the series’ crowning achievements. The panelists also continue to unanimously praise the performances by this noteworthy cast/ensemble, especially those of Jeffrey Wright as Bernard and of Ed Harris as the Man in Black.
The panelists’ reactions to the third season, however, are decidedly mixed in tonight’s comprehensive review. Some of our panelists appreciated the more linear storytelling and streamlined pacing of the third season. Some are not altogether in support of how potential details and story/plot points depicted on screen may have been sacrificed overall in an effort to achieve said linear storytelling and streamlined pacing. Some panelists struggle with Episode 5, “Genre,” seeing it as mostly a filler episode with no real bearing on the overarching plot arc and, therefore, time wasted that could have been better spent on table setting in the first half of the season. The panel proves further and markedly split with respect to how each individual panelist received the overall reward for the redefined story build and tonal shift of Season 3: some easily suspended disbelief, happy to be along for a ride that seemed to lose much of the distracting and perplexing ballast of the previous season, while others saw this third season as considerably less gratifying in terms of its punchline than the mind-bending twists of the preceding seasons. In fact, half of the panel believes that Season 2 was more engaging and enjoyable, while the other half found Season 3 to be a vast improvement over the confusion and uneven pacing wrought by the preceding season.
Our panelists, though, continue to (strongly) suggest that any would-be viewer be prepared for an engaging puzzle of a tale that should be actively watched and processed without distraction, like the “multi-screen experience,” and possibly with a notebook or journal at one’s side to keep track of the story information. They also opine that the story continuity and complexity remain intermittently clunky in Season 3, despite the aforementioned streamlining and redefinition, and that the show does not adequately build upon the momentum of the endpoint of Season 2’s finale in a satisfying way, particularly since the viewer must begin Season 3 with the somewhat tedious task of reestablishing bearings, given the ending events of the second season and how Season 3 begins with Caleb as the point-of-view character. Still, all panelists consider Westworld’s third season to be worth the watch, so long as potential viewers abandon most preconceived notions (and forget much of Season 2’s seeding plot) in order to adequately engage and to suspend disbelief for any length of the viewing experience. Furthermore, though our panel remains committed to watching the future fourth season, one panelist has all but lost interest in the show, regarding Season 3 as far less satisfying and less worth the watch than prior seasons, but, at least, panelist Jeremy intends to give Season 4 a chance, as do all the rest of the panelists, with varying and oscillating levels of interest, engagement, and enthusiasm going forward.
LOOKING AHEAD
HBO renewed Westworld for a fourth season, which is expected to release in 2022, though no tentative premiere date has yet been announced. CPU! will next visit Westworld at some point following the Season 4 finale. 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 Westworld as well as new episodes for all of our podcast panels! And, if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Thank you!
This week, because we have other TV to watch and fireworks to festively fire off (in the US) and summer vacation to attempt to take, we offer a rerun of this episode, originally published in 2018, in line with our CPU! Recommends social media feature launched this week (check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!). In the meantime, next Wednesday, we will resume regularly scheduled episodes with the (delayed) publication of our fifth Outlander Catching-Up Series episode, covering Season 5. Stay tuned!
—Original Synopsis—
A new episode of Couch Potatoes Unite!, which is based on a blog of the same name hosted at couchpotatoesunite.wordpress.com. In this episode, recorded in April 2018, our panel of some of our most frequent CPU! voices – including Moderator Kylie, Kristen, Nick, Hilary, Kyle, and Krista – are Around the Water Cooler and discussing Series Three of British mystery/crime drama Broadchurch as well as Looking Back at the series as a whole. If you have not watched any of Broadchurch, be aware that there are 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
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 February 2021, our supersized panel of Pearson-loving resident Couch Potatoes – moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Kristen (L), Spencer, Eddy, Emily (S), Kristin (T), and Jared – reconvenes around the CPU! Water Cooler, cheering “Big Three!” all the while, to discuss Season 3 of the critically-acclaimed and widely popular NBC family drama This Is Us, in this, Episode Three of our four-part “Catching Up on This Is Us” Series. 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), our Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), or our Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/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, fall 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, as well as Melanie Liburd and Lyric Ross in Season 3.
When: Season 3 aired on NBC from September 25, 2018, to April 2, 2019, 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, an African American child born the day before and brought to the same hospital after his biological father William Hill (Jones) 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 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, 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 Alpine, New Jersey; 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
This is Episode Three of our “Catching Up on This Is Us” Series. You can listen to Episodes One and Two here and at our audio feeds (Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox, and Amazon Music):
Season 1
Season 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 long-yearning Couch Potatoes and This Is Us devotees called repeatedly for a This Is Us panel and subsequently encouraged meticulous season-by-season coverage of the whole shebang. Thus, herein we offer our Season 3 recap and review of This Is Us, in which our panel – consisting of Kristen L, Spencer, Emily, Eddy, Kristin T, and Jared – 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..
As such, tonight’s episode is the third episode of a four-episode series in which CPU! gets caught up on this show, which premiered on NBC in 2016. In this chapter, our panel reflects upon and recaps Season 3 of This Is Us, in which we continue 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 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 February 2021, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the third 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, on Amazon Music, and now on Patreon(!) 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 “Star Trek 50+ Series” returns to the Water Cooler to continue their mega-sized Retrospective Series covering all shows under the Star Trek franchise banner. Next week’s episode will talk the penultimate Season 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stay tuned!
RECOMMENDATION
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 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 – or to re-watch – Season 4, which we will discuss in Episode Four of our “Catching Up” Series next month!
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); Season 5 is currently airing, and a Season 6 premiere date has not yet been announced. It was widely reported as of today’s publication, however, that Season 6 would be the series’ final season, to which our panel will react when they recap and review Season 5 later this year. CPU! will next visit This Is Us for Episode Four of this “Catching Up” Series in June 2021, during which our panel will focus upon Season 4. 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 September 2020, our panel of like-minded sassenachs – moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Kristen, Samantha, Laurie, Karan, and Anna Laura – reconvene around the CPU! Water Cooler (or are we at the standing stones of Craig na Dun?) to discuss Season 3 of the epic Starz fantasy romance/historical drama Outlander, in this, Episode Three of our five-part “Catching Up on Outlander” Series. As always, if you have not watched any of Outlander, 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: “Outlander” is a historical drama series based upon the novel series of the same name, written by Diana Gabaldon. The series airs on premium network Starz in first run.
What: Developed by Ronald D. Moore, the show stars Caitriona Balfe as Claire Randall, a married former World War II nurse, who in 1945 finds herself transported back to Scotland in 1743. There she encounters the dashing Highland warrior James “Jamie” Fraser (Sam Heughan) and becomes embroiled in the Jacobite risings.
SYNOPSIS
In 1945, former World War II nurse Claire Randall (Balfe) and her husband Frank (Tobias Menzies) are visiting Inverness, Scotland, when she is carried from the standing stones at Craigh na Dun back in time to 1743. She falls in with a group of rebel Highlanders from Clan MacKenzie who are being pursued by British redcoats led by Captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall (also Menzies), who turns out to be Frank’s ancestor. She marries a Highlander, Jamie Fraser (Heughan), out of necessity, but they quickly fall in love. The Clan suspects her of being a spy and retains her as a healer, preventing her from attempting to return to her own time. Knowing that the Jacobite cause is doomed to fail, Claire tries to warn them against rebellion.
When: Season 3 aired on Starz from September 10, 2017, to December 10, 2017, with a total of thirteen episodes.
Where: The action in Season 3 is primarily set in the following locations and time periods: Boston, Massachusetts, in the years 1948 through 1968; the Highlands region of Scotland, United Kingdom in 1746; Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom in 1765; at sea between the British Isles and Jamaica (1765); and finally in Jamaica in 1765.
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
This is Episode Three of our “Catching Up on Outlander” 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):
Season 1
Season 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 long-yearning Couch Potatoes and Outlander devotees called repeatedly for an Outlander panel and subsequently encouraged meticulous season-by-season coverage of the whole shebang. Thus, herein we offer our Season 3 recap and review of Outlander, in which our panel remarks upon the success or lack thereof of the series as compared to its wildly popular source material.
Tonight’s episode is the third episode of a five-episode series in which CPU! gets caught up on this show, which premiered on Starz in 2014. In this chapter, our panel reflects upon and recaps Season 3 of Outlander, in which we further follow the show’s expansive conceit of a woman, married and in love, being shuttled back in time 200 years to find (controversially) her apparent soulmate, with whom she also falls in love.
This episode was recorded in September 2020, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the second 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, on Amazon Music, and now on Patreon(!) 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 M*A*S*H Retrospective Series panel triumphantly returns to the Water Cooler to Look Back at Seasons 4-7, i.e. the seasons featuring the arrivals of Colonel Sherman Potter and Captain BJ Hunnicut and the departures of Lt. Colonel Henry Blake and Captain Trapper John McIntyre as well as the subtle but notable shift from comedy to comedy drama in the long-running, all-time acclaimed series. Stay tuned!
RECOMMENDATION
Our Outlander panel continues to recommend the epic fantasy to anyone who enjoys watching historical dramas with a bit of something extra or a bit of “flair;” to fans of all of the genres that Outlander touches, including fantasy, historical drama, action and adventure, romance, and book-to-screen adaptations; to fans of other sweeping fantasy epics, like Game of Thrones; to those interested in the history of Scotland and in the country’s role in the overall history of the United Kingdom as well as (later) of the United States; and to anyone who is willing to suspend disbelief for some of the more astonishing plot points, which are less evident in Seasons 1 and 2, according to our panelists, but which become more prominent in later seasons as the television series begins to deviate from the enumerated story progression in the source novels. The panelists do not believe that those who are easily squeamish, especially those who might find it difficult to watch unfiltered sex scenes and particularly the depiction of sexual assault (consider this CPU!’s Official Content Warning), might entirely enjoy this series. The show does not flinch from depicting such assault, regardless of participating gender and as derived from the source material, though the panel unanimously agrees that, at least in Season 1, the most graphic scene of this nature was delicately and effectively filmed and admirably executed by the involved actors. Ultimately, the panelists, by and large, enjoy what they describe to be somewhat of a guilty pleasure, even as most if not all of the panelists struggle with occasional plot points or identified potential pitfalls with either the premise or with the onscreen historical accuracy as well as with the faithfulness of the adaptation from the Outlander books. Notably, most of our panelists regarded Season 2 as slightly better in all facets than Season 1, even as they view the first two seasons as one continuous story arc, with a defined beginning, middle, and end. In any event, our entire Outlander panel continues to exude concerted enthusiasm for the series and proves eager to continue watching – or to re-watch – Season 3, which we will discuss in Episode Three of our “Catching Up” Series in April!
LOOKING AHEAD
Starz renewed Outlander for a sixth season at the same time that the show received its fifth season renewal; however, the Season 6 premiere date has not yet been announced, with the start of production delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. CPU! will next visit Outlander for Episode Three of this “Catching Up” Series in April 2021, during which our Outlander panel will focus upon Season 3. Also, though tonight’s recording indicates that only three seasons are available to stream on Netflix, the fourth season has been made available on the streaming service since we recorded tonight’s 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 Outlander 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, our brand new panel of enthusiastic breakers of bad – including moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Nick, Kyle, Hilary, Julianne, Nate, and new panelist Devon – gathered together Around the Water Cooler to Look Back at the first three seasons of all-time acclaimed drama Breaking Bad. This is the first part of a seven-part CPU! podcast series in which our panel of morally ambiguous Couch Potatoes delves deep into the crystal blue purity of all shows and properties within the universe of Breaking Bad, beginning with a two-part Retrospective focusing upon the titular series that started the whole shebang and moving into a Look Forward at prequel series Better Call Saul and the Netflix sequel film El Camino. This first “Breaking Better Series” episode was recorded in August 2020, and, as always, if you haven’t seen any of Breaking Bad, be aware that there are 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), our Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), or our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/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: “Breaking Bad,” an American neo-Western crime drama series created by Vince Gilligan, which aired on cable network AMC from 2008 to 2013 for five seasons.
What: “Breaking Bad” tells the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an underpaid and dispirited high school chemistry teacher who is struggling with a recent diagnosis of stage-three lung cancer. White turns to a life of crime, partnering with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), by producing and distributing crystal meth to secure his family’s financial future before he dies, all while navigating the dangers of the criminal underworld.
SYNOPSIS
Breaking Bad follows Walter White (Cranston), a meek high school chemistry teacher who transforms into a ruthless player in the local methamphetamine drug trade, driven by a desire to financially provide for his family after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Initially making only small batches of meth with his former student Jesse Pinkman in a rolling meth lab, Walter and Jesse eventually expand to make larger batches of a special blue meth that is incredibly pure and creates high demand. Walter takes on the name “Heisenberg” to mask his identity. Because of his drug-related activities, Walter eventually finds himself at odds with his family, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) through his brother-in-law Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), the local gangs, the Mexican drug cartels, and their regional distributors, putting his life at risk.
When: The show aired on AMC for five seasons: 2008-2013. Season 1 consists of 7 episodes, Seasons 2-4 consist of 13 episodes each, and the final season Season 5 consists of 16 episodes and aired in two parts.
Where: The series is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico; the time spans the years between and including 2008 and 2010.
Why: Listen to the episode linked below for the panelists’ individual stories on how they found Breaking Bad. Word of mouth and critical acclaim consistently factored highly here.
How – as in How Much Do We Love this Show?!
Couch Potatoes Unite! has existed in podcast format now for almost six years, and while we are not gangbusters huge, like, say, Michelle Obama’s podcast, we are holding our own enough for listeners to find us, join us, and/or request series and shows for us to cover in our proprietary panel format. One of the most highly requested shows by our Couch Potatoes, Couch Potatoes adjacent, and by some of our listeners – of all CPU! time – is one of the most highly lauded series of all actual time. The show is Breaking Bad, and tonight’s episode launches a new Looking Back to Look Forward Retrospective meets Water Cooler panel, which, naturally, a TV show of this caliber, an undisputed classic, certainly merits and which will also explore the universe begot by this noted example of so-called “Peak TV.” Your friendly neighborhood Chief CP returns to moderate the Breaking Bad and El Camino portions of this multi-part series, after which one of the panelists will take up the moderating reins, eager to suggest we Better Call Saul. To that end, I am joined at the Water Cooler by requesting CPU! panelists Nick, our second most involved panelist as well as a member of our Moderating Team; Kyle, our fourth most involved panelist, most likely to be found on our superhero adaptation panels and TV nerdy fare of all types and who will be moderating the Better Call Saul portion of this panel; his wife and my sister Hilary, who appears on many panels with Kyle but who also appears by herself on noted entries like our Friends series; Julianne, who is active on our Altered Carbon panel and who also contributed to our Mr. Robot panel; Nate, who is active on our Riverdale panel; and one brand new panelist! Our newly constituted panel of breakers of bad, therefore, gathered “Around the Water Cooler” to Look Back at one of the most critically acclaimed shows of all time as well as one of the most masterful exercises in television creation ever to grace the small screen – and you know we don’t say that idly.
Tonight’s episode is the first part of a seven-part miniseries in which CPU! Looks Back at Breaking Bad while Looking Forward toward El Camino and Better Call Saul. In this episode, our panel reviews the first three seasons of the series that started it all. We discuss our favorite and least favorite episodes in these seasons as well as our general impressions of the long-term success of the series as a whole.
Plus, Breaking Bad constitutes another entry in our “Best Of!” series. To wit, herein be the list of Breaking Bad’s Best Of!:
#9 on TV Guide’s list of 60 Best Series of All Time
#2 on Empire‘s “50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time” in 2016
#2 on The Hollywood Reporter‘s “Hollywood’s 100 Favorite TV Shows”
#3 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
In addition, Breaking Badranked #13 on The Writer’s Guild of America’s Best Written TV list in 2013, as it is also considered one of the best written (scripted) television series of all time.
This particular CPU! episode was recorded in August 2020, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of Seasons 1-3 of Breaking Bad! 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, on Amazon Music, and now on Patreon(!) 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 “Breaking Better Series” panel returns to the Water Cooler once again for Episode 2 of our series, in which the panelists discuss Seasons 4-5 of the show of the moment, Breaking Bad. Stay tuned!
RECOMMENDATION
Breaking Bad – if you haven’t already watched it – comes highly and unanimously recommended by our “Breaking Better Series” panel to anyone who loves crime dramas particularly but also to anyone who can appreciate well crafted TV. In case you haven’t heard the general pop culture buzz to this effect, this series is one of the more “perfectly” executed serial dramas of all time, worthy of its hype and acclaim, and certainly represents some of the topmost tier of “peak TV” of the last couple of decades. In fact, this series probably fueled that “peak TV” moniker, in that it’s well written, masterly performed, and beautifully directed, with a clear, meticulous attention to detail; a devotion to well observed continuity (where earlier developments and introductions play into later events, sometimes several seasons on, seamlessly); a notable and intriguing music selection; breathtaking cinematography (has Albuquerque ever looked so good?); and even clever costuming, given that each character sports a consistent color palette or set of palettes signifying the persona or arc they follow or experience throughout the show’s five seasons. As we discuss in tonight’s episode, Breaking Bad clearly influenced so many other television series, especially serial dramas, to follow, not to mention the also highly critically acclaimed prequel spin-off Better Call Saul and sequel film El Camino. Breaking Bad, then, represents a timeless, magical fusion of ensemble cast chemistry, out-of-the-box creativity, and excellence in the crafting of television. The program has much to offer, even as the subject matter is graphic, intense, and can be dark to the point of being off-putting – indeed, our panel acknowledged that Breaking Bad might not be for everyone, but it should, based upon the quality of its production alone, provide some genuine appeal to most television fans, regardless of any individual fan’s personal predilection toward genre or type of TV. If you have somehow missed this series, you should make time for Breaking Bad – provided that you can stomach it. Our panel advises watching the first six episodes before making your final decision regarding whether or not to continue/finish the series, and, if you, gentle listener and viewer, are prone to feeling squeamish, bring a blanket or pillow to cover your face during the more graphic parts of the proceedings. It is worth muscling through even the most grotesque and disturbing scenes to reach the gut-wrenching and masterfully executed payoff of this superb series.
All five seasons of Breaking Bad are currently available to stream on Netflix. In the meantime, the CPU! “Breaking Better Series” panel will return later next week with Episode 2 of this series, in which we talk Seasons 4-5 of Breaking Bad. Until then!
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 December 2020, our panel of comic book and superhero enthusiasts – including moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Kristen, Nick, Hilary, Kyle, and Spencer – reconvenes Around the (Quarantined) Water Cooler for the twenty-sixth episode of our DCTU ongoing series. In this episode, the panel concludes the process of catching up on a show that has existed mostly separately from the so-called Arrowverse (recently redubbed the CWVerse) since its subtly auspicious beginnings but for the universe-collapsing events of the “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” The show is Black Lightning, and our spicy DCTU expert group reviews Season 3 in DCTU Series Episode 26. If you have not watched any of the DCTU/Arrowverse (through March 2020), be aware that there are 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), our Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), or our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/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: “Black Lightning” is a superhero drama centered on events and characters inspired by the comic of the same name from the DC Comic Universe, which airs on the CW, though it is currently on hiatus.
What: “Black Lightning,” a series developed by Salim Akil that is based on the DC Comics character Black Lightning, created by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden. The series sees the retired Black Lightning (Cress Williams) return to his life as a superhero and follows the effects that his vigilante activity has upon his professional and family life.
SYNOPSIS
The series centers on Jefferson Pierce (Williams), the principal of Garfield High School in the city of Freeland. Nine years prior to the start of the series, he was a superhero called Black Lightning, but he retired after the effect his double life had on his family. Jefferson is forced to become Black Lightning anew when the 100, Freeland’s most feared criminal gang led by Tobias Whale (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III), begins taking over the city.
When: Season 3 aired from October 7, 2019, to March 9, 2020, on the CW with a total of 16 episodes.
Where: The action is set in the fictional city of Freeland, as set in the DC Comic Universe. This city appears to be a DC equivalent of Atlanta, Georgia. Some of Season 3’s story lines also occur in the fictional country of Markovia, as set in the DC Comic Universe.
Why: To find out why individual podcast panelists started watching this show, listen to the Season 1 and 2 recap and review episode via the embedded link below!
It should be noted that CPU! Chief Couch Potato Kylie previewed Black Lightning during the 2017-2018 network pilot season with a portended pick up for the podcast and this potential review. Back then, I noted:
It’s a comic book show. CPU!’s comic book core (or corps?) will likely step up to the plate for this one, particularly if it is folded into the crossover potential of the Arrowverse, making it a likely additional entry for our DCTU panel. The trailer shows some influence by Marvel’s Luke Cage but also the broader, moodier tones of the DC film franchise as a whole, ringing with more gravitas than even Arrow when it first began. How will it all come out in the wash? We’ll be there to find out.
Sometimes, I just know how to call them. Sometimes.
How – as in How Was It? – THOUGHTS
This is the twenty-sixth episode in CPU!’s long-running DCTU series but only the second in the series to discuss Black Lightning. The last five episodes in this series are linked below (to find the whole series, find the dialog box at the top right of the header, with the picture of the couch full of TV watchers, to search for any prior podcast episode or blog/website entry):
DCTU Series, Episode 21, “Supergirl,” Season 4
DCTU Series, Episode 22, “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” Season 4
DCTU Series, Episode 23, “Crisis on Infinite Earths – LIVE!”
DCTU Series, Episode 24, “Arrow,” Season 8 and Looking Back
In our last episode, our cheeky and feisty DCTU panel – namely Kyle, Hilary, Spencer, Kristen, and Nick – met “Around the Water Cooler” to continue our annual review of the most recent full seasons of each of the “Arrowverse” programs in order of the airing of each season finale by recapping and reviewing the first two seasons of Black Lightning, after finding themselves with the sudden need, following the events of the 2019 mid-season crossover mega-event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, to catch up on a show that has existed mostly separately from the so-called Arrowverse (recently redubbed the CWVerse) since its subtly auspicious beginnings but for the universe-collapsing events of the “Crisis” in question. Tonight’s episode finds the panel returning to the Water Cooler to conclude their process of catching up on Black Lightning, as our spicy DCTU expert group discusses Season 3, in this, the twenty-sixth episode of our DCTU series.
How did our rather critical panel of comic book aficionados and adjacent adorers regard the most recent season of Black Lightning, now the fifth show to be covered by our DCTU Series? Unfortunately, what began as a decidedly lukewarm to not so good at best review of the first two seasons has descended to something just north of scathing in tonight’s discussion, noting that the show has failed to identify and improve upon writing, directing, and continuity problems, and, in some instances, middling performances in its time on air. While the panel acknowledges that representation is key and applauds the thought behind the concept, the formula behind said concept is too well-worn and has not, in any way, been tweaked for the current property, making it play like a hollow and messy copy with a cultural twist. Listen to tonight’s episode and judge the panel’s reactions for yourself but brace for the impact – Black Lightning does little to shock our panel’s collective comic book consciousness, especially at this stage in the series.
This particular episode was recorded in December 2020, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of Season 3 of Black Lightning. 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, on Amazon Music, and now on Patreon(!) 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 DCTU Series returns to the Water Cooler once again in a continuation of their annual marathon with a recap and review of the most recent season, Season 6, of The Flash in the twenty-seventh episode of their series. Stay tuned!
Questions, Impressions, and Future Considerations
1) What exactly is LaLa’s spirit-based tattoo power, and why does he have one, while Lady Eve, who also seems to have been resurrected with aid from the water of a Lazarus Pit, does not appear to have an enhanced ability?
2) Is Lynn (Christine Adams) developing an augmented or more permanent meta-ability due to her ongoing addiction to Green Light, which she is seen taking in the final moments of the Season 3 finale? Or, is she now addicted to the serum that allows her to have meta capabilities for a temporary time interval, since it appears she also uses such abilities following her final showdown with Grave Digger (guest: Wayne Brady)?
3) Will we see additional crossovers between members of the casts of Black Lightning and the other Arrowverse/CWVerse shows? Or, will the now final season of Black Lightning premiere too late or be too far removed to be included in any future crossovers, either this season or in any remaining seasons of the existing CWVerse series? Similarly, will potential crossovers be affected, limited, or eliminated by the effects of ongoing COVID-19 quarantine?
4) How often does Gambi (James Remar) use his scanner that can see through topsoil over graves? Panelist Kyle expressed wonderment at this curious and macabre device.
5) Will David Ramsey, the erstwhile John Diggle on Arrow, appear in the final season of Black Lightning, since he is rumored to have signed a contract to potentially appear in all of the Arrowverse/CWVerse shows?
6) Is Grave Digger still alive? Did he survive the Season 3 ending events? Where did the government take him? Will he appear again in Season 4?
7) What possible story can seed the Pain Killer (Jordan Calloway) backdoor pilot, and why do the show runners and/or the network feel that this pilot and/or a potential spinoff series is a good idea, when Black Lightning is one of the lowest rated series on the network and is facing its own series-ending season/series cancellation? Will Jennifer (China Anne McLain) and Khalil reunite romantically before and/or during this backdoor pilot?
8) Will Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and Grace finally be married? Should they be, given the mixture of their individual abilities?
9) How is Jennifer so powerful? Will the show ultimately explain Jennifer’s powers and how they continue to outpace her father’s abilities as well as those of others around her? What destiny awaits her?
10) Will Jefferson/Black Lightning join the “Legends” of Tomorrow following the end of his series?
11) Is the Council in Gotham City really the Court of Owls, and did Agent O’Dell succeed in installing Lady Eve on the Council? Are we going to be intermingling with Gotham City and/or the Court of Owls next season?
PARTING SHOTS
Our feisty, spicy, and admittedly judgmental group of DCTU Series panelists – though they might say that they have reasonable standards and high expectations for comic book adaptations given their specific interests and expertise – continue to, somewhat vehemently, not recommend Black Lightning to anyone, even to comic book fans or to, specifically, DC Comic fans. In tonight’s review of Season 3, our panelists persisted in singing a refrain from their prior Black Lightning review, reiterating similar observations that pockmarked their discussion of the first two seasons: Black Lightning recycles elements, formulae, and themes from other Arrowverse shows and even from other comic book properties without incorporating something original or fresh to set it apart. Several panelists recalled similarities to Marvel’s Luke Cage, which might be an obvious comparison point for this property on the one hand but on the other hand somewhat hampers the creative direction of this particular DC story, as panelist Kyle reminded us that the same comic book writer was behind both properties’ page source. Therefore, it proves difficult for our panel to abandon the exercise of comparing both shows, regardless of the cultural/representational similarity; however, our panelists ultimately asserted in tonight’s episode that Marvel’s Luke Cage is, in the end, a superior television series.
Ironically, the panel continues to regard Black Lightning as generally better paced than Luke Cage, but the panelists also note that Black Lightning lacks the polish of any of the Netflix Marvel shows and even of some of the CW DC entries, as it is plagued by erratic writing choices likely owing, as panelist Kyle repeated, to the fact that the original comic book run of Black Lightning amounted to eleven total issues. The panel also universally struggles with the series’ primary villain, Tobias Whale (Jones), either seeing him as an amalgamated ripoff of other characters, such as Marvel baddie Kingpin or DC gangster Brick (who was already used on Arrow), or as a villain with some intrigue or potential due to his origin story but without the caliber of actor or the quality of writing to make him more than a two-dimensional mustache-twirler who doesn’t feel worth Jefferson Pierce’s particular angst, despite the trauma of his own history. The panelists also commented on how it seems that other “bad guy” characters in this series are criminally underused to the point of feeling almost comedic in ways that are likely unintended and/or so vastly unexplained or lacking dimension, our resident viewers cannot maintain engagement or the will to care about them, which only serves to underscore the panel’s consensus of opinion around the idea that Black Lightning doesn’t know what it wants to be in the end. Still, the panelists continue to praise the performance gravitas of particularly Williams and find that the show shines brightest when the story is focused upon Jefferson’s efforts to balance his family life with his superhero pursuits from the vantage point of having an “established” normal life that he adopted after having retired his super suit for a time, while remarking upon the observation that Season 3 departed from this construct in several episodes and suffered for it, as the showrunners attempted to shoehorn Black Lightning into the larger Arrowverse/CWVerse in light of this past season’s mega crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths. Unfortunately, the panel, on average, also struggles with the more “cookie cutter” comic adaptation aspects of Black Lightning, which render watching the series a “more of the same” activity, to the point of vocal frustration and exasperation that it is even part of this television universe – and, therefore, part of the panel’s watch assignment – rather than something unique or even minimally entertaining.
Finally, our panelists announced feelings of validation and vindication when describing how little interweaving Jefferson Pierce and his meta-family into the Arrowverse framework helped the quality of his underlying story. As such, our panelists expect little to no improvement for what will now be the fourth and final season of Black Lightning, since no panelist believed that the show experienced any kind of noteworthy improvement in entertainment quality in this third season – no matter how good some of the technical elements, such as the cinematography, are and no matter how much the soundtrack might continue to slam (and slam it does).
LOOKING AHEAD
In January 2020, the CW renewed Black Lightning for a fourth and final season, which is slated to premiere on February 8, 2021. In the meantime, our DCTU Series podcast panel will next convene around the CPU! Water Cooler next week to review and recap Season 6 of The Flash. Until then! Stay tuned!
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, our panel of resident CPU! MASHed Potatoes and fans of wartime dramedies – including moderator Nick, Sarah, Michael (K), Jenn (K), Josh, new CPU! panelist Mary, and Chief Couch Potato Kylie – gathered Around the Water Cooler to Look Back at Seasons 1-3 of M*A*S*H. This is the first part of a three-part CPU! Retrospective podcast series in which Couch Potatoes Unite! reflects upon one of the most lauded, most well regarded, and most highly rated situation comedy-dramas in television history. This first episode was recorded in May 2020, and, as always, if you haven’t seen any of M*A*S*H – if that is even possible – be aware that there are 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: “M*A*S*H” is an American war comedy-drama that aired on CBS for eleven seasons, from 1972-1983.
What: “M*A*S*H” follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the “4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital” in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War (1950–53).
SYNOPSIS
Developed by Larry Gelbart as the first original spin-off series adapted from the 1970 feature film M*A*S*H, which, in turn, was based on Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, M*A*S*H is an ensemble situation comedy drama revolving around key personnel in a United States Army Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in the Korean War (1950–53). Episodes were both plot- and character-driven, with several narrated by one of the show’s characters as the contents of a letter home. The show’s tone could move from silly to sobering from one episode to the next, with dramatic tension often occurring between the civilian draftees of the 4077th – Captains Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda), Trapper John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers, Seasons 1-3), and B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell, Seasons 4-11), for example – who are forced to leave their homes to tend the wounded and dying of the war – and the “regular Army” characters, such as Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit) and Colonel Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan, Seasons 4-11), who tend to represent patriotism and duty, though Houlihan and Potter could also represent the other perspective at times. Other characters, such as Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson, Seasons 1-3), Major Charles Emerson Winchester II (David Ogden Stiers, Seasons 6-11), and Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger (Jamie Farr), help demonstrate various American civilian attitudes toward Army life, while guest characters also help further the show’s discussion of America’s place as a Cold War participant and peace maker.
When: The show aired on CBS from 1972-1983; Season 1 aired from September 17, 1972, to March 25, 1973, with a total of 24 episodes; Season 2 aired from September 15, 1973, to March 2, 1974, with a total of 24 episodes; and Season 3 aired from September 10, 1974, to March 18, 1975, with a total of 24 episodes.
Where: The show is set in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War (1950–53).
Why: Listen to this episode, linked below, for the panelists’ individual stories on how they found M*A*S*H.
How – as in How Much Do We Love this Show?!– THOUGHTS
Couch Potatoes Unite! has existed in podcast format now for almost six years, and while we are not gangbusters huge, like, say, Michelle Obama’s podcast, we are holding our own enough for listeners to find us, join us, and/or request series and shows for us to cover in our proprietary panel format. One of the most highly requested shows by our Couch Potatoes, Couch Potatoes adjacent, and by some of our listeners – of all CPU! time – is one of the most highly lauded series and situation comedy/dramas – of all actual time. The show is M*A*S*H, and tonight’s episode launches a new Retrospective panel, which naturally a TV show of this caliber, an undisputed classic, certainly merits.
In addition, as Chief CP Kylie watches a lot of TV around this here couch and Water Cooler, and while I am always interested in watching TV that other generations found to be the bees’ knees, I think I lack some passion for this situation dramedy, at least as compared to tonight’s moderator, who has decreed M*A*S*H to be one of his favorite shows. Therefore, frequent panelist and Moderator Team Member extraordinaire Nick, who abounds in some passion of this nature, returns to the Moderating Microphone ™ for this series.
For now, your friendly neighborhood Chief CP participates as a regular old panelist to celebrate the quality writing and unprecedented longevity of this wartime satire. Nick and I are, in turn, joined at the Water Cooler by requesting CPU! panelists Sarah, Nick’s wife and our third most involved panelist as well as a member of our Moderating Team; Michael K, who most famously appears on our Star Trek 50+ Series with Sarah and Nick but who also is currently active on our Stranger Things panel and whose podcast forte most certainly resides in Looking Back and Retrospective episodes, since he’s also appeared on our Futurama, That 70s Show, Glee, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend panels; Jenn K, who is currently active on our Supernatural and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina panels but who has also Looked Back at Galavant and Sabrina the Teenage Witch; Josh, who is currently active on our Schitt’s Creek panel; and one brand new panelist! Our newly constituted panel of so-called “MASHed Potatoes,” therefore, gathered “Around the Water Cooler” to Look Back at a show with a legacy that has only expanded as the years have passed, particularly when one reflects upon how ahead of its time it was in light of some of the subjects that it addressed.
Tonight’s episode is the first part of a three-part miniseries in which CPU! Looks Back at M*A*S*H. In this episode, our panel reviews the first three seasons, otherwise known as the Colonel Blake/Trapper John years, which aired long(ish) before any of our resident panelists were born. Fortunately, we have some cool surprises planned and attached to subsequent episodes in this CPU! series that we hope to be more generationally all-inclusive.
Plus, M*A*S*H constitutes another entry in our “Best Of!” series. To wit, herein be the list of M*A*S*H’s Best Of!:
#25 on TV Guide’s list of 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
#8 on TV Guide’s list of 60 Best Series of All Time
#47 on Empire‘s “50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time” in 2016
#13 on The Hollywood Reporter‘s “Hollywood’s 100 Favorite TV Shows”
TIME Magazine’s All-Time 100 TV Shows
#16 Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
In addition, M*A*S*Hranked #5 on The Writer’s Guild of America’s Best Written TV list in 2013, as it is also considered one of the best written (scripted) television series of all time.
This particular CPU! episode was recorded in May 2020, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points, situations, sight gags, and jokes of Seasons 1-3 of M*A*S*H! 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 now 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 week, a new panel gathers at the CPU! Water Cooler to begin a five-part Catching-Up series wherein we take a First Look at the first season of wildly romantic historical Starz drama Outlander, a highly requested show for Couch Potato-led discussion here at the podcast. Stay tuned!
RECOMMENDATION
M*A*S*H – if you haven’t already watched it – is recommended to anyone who hasn’t somehow seen any portion of it in the over 40 years since it first premiered and who enjoys well-written, thoughtful situation comedies and/or anyone who considers themselves a TV connoisseur, because one could hardly adopt such a label without taking a look-see at one of the longest-running comedies with the most watched series finale of all time, an honor that has never been surpassed in the Nielsen ratings. M*A*S*H, in many ways, pioneered and perfected the ensemble comedy formula that has become a staple of everything from Cheers to Friends to The Office to Modern Family, but that also elevated its own contribution to the craft by injecting satire and piercing social commentary into the usual slapstick and farce situations that made for contemporary popular television. As we discuss in this podcast episode, M*A*S*H clearly influenced so many other comedies and dramedies to follow, not to mention spin-offs of its own, though none of them could match the success of the parent show. M*A*S*H continues to be a timeless, engaging fusion of ensemble cast chemistry and poignant social subtext that no doubt managed to push the boundaries of network censors, at least in the early years we Look Back on tonight. If you love trying something new, and if you have somehow missed this series, you should make time for M*A*S*H. The panel universally “seems to really like this show,” as Moderator Nick observed, and can only imagine that others, of any age, generation, or sensibility, would probably feel the same if they gave the show a real shot – gun, rim, or otherwise.
All eleven seasons of M*A*S*H are currently available to stream on Hulu. In the meantime, the CPU! M*A*S*H Retrospective Series panel will return later this winter with Episode 2 of this series, in which we talk Seasons 4-7. Until then!
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, our panel of resident CPU! Trekkers – including moderator Chief Couch Potato Kylie, Nick, Sarah, Kyle, and Michael – reconvened Around the Water Cooler to Look Back at Season 3 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is the seventh part of a multi-part CPU! podcast series – the biggest multi-part series we have ever undertaken – in which we venture into space, the final frontier, by covering each season of each series of the entire Star Trek franchise (the movies too)! This seventh “Star Trek 50+ Series” episode was recorded in September 2020, and, as always, if you haven’t seen any of Star Trek, TNG or otherwise – if that is even possible – be aware that there are 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 Sprague Keyboard: Kels Sprague Bass: Ian McDonough Guitar: Christian Somerville Engineer/Production: Kyle Aspinall/Christian Somerville
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