The Top TV Moments of the Year and the Best Shows We Missed

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Speaker 8 Yet, Dr. Kumugai found that she died around 10 p.m.

Speaker 9 He's wrong. I would put the time of death between 1 a.m.
and 3 a.m.

Speaker 8 How could he have missed by that much?

Speaker 9 No idea. For her stomach to be empty, it would need to be at least four hours after she ate.

Speaker 8 What if she never consumed the rangoon?

Speaker 2 Hello and welcome to the Prestige TV Podcast Dean. I'm Joyna Robinson.

Speaker 1 I am Rob Mahoney.

Speaker 2 And here we are at the end of the year with an extended rangoon cut for all of you.

Speaker 2 Preston TV. What a gift.

Speaker 1 What a gift you.

Speaker 2 Who have been with us all year and know how fondly we cherish the crab rangoon moment in Presumed Innocent, a show we covered this summer.

Speaker 2 Listen, what are we here to do today, Rob Mahoney? We're here to do a lot of things. What are some of the things we're here to do?

Speaker 1 We are here to talk about the things we missed, the things people told us to cover, but we didn't,

Speaker 1 our favorite moments in TV,

Speaker 1 maybe who the most effective TV channels or streaming networks were this year.

Speaker 1 Is there anything I'm missing? What else we got?

Speaker 2 Oh, we got to rank our email addresses.

Speaker 1 That's the most important part.

Speaker 2 It is.

Speaker 2 It's a smorgasbord of delights for you here at at the end of the year rob and i have a few things to accomplish before the year is over we're doing this sort of like what we miss best moments check-in holiday uh year-end review episode we've got a couple squid game episodes that we're covering for you before the end of the year and then we have if all goes according to plan and the wheels don't fall off the bus uh one more agency check-in before the end of the year i'm sorry you're supposed to have another one last week but i got sick so uh that is on me but we will have got sick you got silenced is what you got by by the powers that be, by some insidious organizations.

Speaker 1 Who's to say who did it?

Speaker 1 I just know we were supposed to talk at a certain time. You got a blow dart to the neck and never showed up.

Speaker 2 Is it a coincidence that Richard Gere was in the studio before

Speaker 2 I had to miss a recording about the agency? I don't think so.

Speaker 1 I don't believe in those kinds of coincidences.

Speaker 2 Just a reminder to you, if you're listening to this, you can also watch this

Speaker 2 and most of our prestige episodes and certainly the watch episodes up on the new Ringer TV YouTube channel. Exciting stuff.

Speaker 2 If you're listening to this on the Wednesday that this episode dropped, later today at 12:30 Pacific, Chris Ryan and I are experimenting with a YouTube live lunch mailbag.

Speaker 2 What could possibly go wrong, Rob Mahoney? What could go wrong?

Speaker 1 I didn't know it was a live experience. I knew you guys were answering questions, but this is a whole different ballgame.

Speaker 2 Today I learned.

Speaker 1 So here we are.

Speaker 2 Things we do for love and content.

Speaker 2 So if you have any questions for Chris or myself, you can email us, ringertv at spotify.com.

Speaker 2 Or I assume there's going to be some kind of like comments section that you can weigh in on.

Speaker 2 And then, also, alternatively, if you have any questions, comments, concerns for us about squid games, about agencies, about

Speaker 2 our best moments of the year that we're about to pick that are totally subjective and you can't argue with us because they're our opinion.

Speaker 2 You can email us, pressustv at spotify.com. That is where all of our press ECTV emails are now going.
Rob, why are you shaking your head?

Speaker 1 It's just so weird to not be John Ham's nipple rings, to not be grief cardigan, to not be Scottish Malt Carpet.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm just so used to all of these rotating emails that having one, I don't know what to do with myself now that we have one stationary home.

Speaker 2 I mean, the thing that I that I wonder is if in the new year we can have why not both?

Speaker 2 I feel like we can still have our like fun eccentric email addresses, but for for those folks who find it too complicated, we can have the one

Speaker 2 strong, steady press CTV.

Speaker 1 I'm inclined to agree with you, but last week, I think it's just in a rash moment, I outlawed it and said I would not participate it anymore.

Speaker 1 So I don't know if I'm allowed to double back on that or not.

Speaker 2 I, you know, it's a new year. It's a new year, Rob.

Speaker 2 You can do whatever you want in 2025. From the emails, we should mention, we got a lot of suggestions from people.
You know, when we played the Robert Downey Jr.

Speaker 2 game for Ben Wishaw and Kira Knightley on the Black Doves episode, a bunch of people had some suggestions of things we should check out if we haven't.

Speaker 2 For Ben Wishaw, folks recommended checking out two television series, The Hour and This Is Going to Hurt.

Speaker 2 And I just want to say with love and respect to our listeners, do you think this is amateur hour?

Speaker 1 Do you think I haven't seen

Speaker 2 The Hour and This is Gonna Hurt? But

Speaker 2 the wonderful shows, The Hour especially is one of my favorite things I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 And then for Kira Knightley, Silent Knight and Official Secrets, two films that I haven't seen, but do both look like kind of fun.

Speaker 2 So, you know, we'll, I will put them on the list this holiday season to check out. Thank you so much for those recommendations.

Speaker 2 In the vein of emails, for the things we missed in 2024 segment, we have drawn from your emails.

Speaker 2 our personal sort of like favorites that didn't necessarily make the cut, but are things we want to talk about anyway.

Speaker 2 And then maybe some critics lists just to make sure that we're not missing any of like sort of the big things that happened this year that we could not clone ourselves and cover every single thing that happened on television this year.

Speaker 2 Rob, when you, before we get into sort of specifics, when you look at this list of titles that we've collected, do you feel like this was a robust year for prestige television or a spotty year for prestige television?

Speaker 2 How are you feeling?

Speaker 1 I think it was a robust year for pretty good prestige television. A lot of pretty good out there.
And frankly, not a lot to be super passionate about.

Speaker 1 I think there are some inclusions here that are very clearly favorites of a certain kind of fan.

Speaker 1 And you can feel people like reaching out for the community that they would hope would gather and rally around their show.

Speaker 1 And because everything is so diverse right now and because the market is so splintered, it's getting harder and harder to find those things, which I don't know how you feel about this show makes me even more appreciative of the very few times this year.

Speaker 1 It did feel like a lot of people were watching one thing at a time or one big show at a time.

Speaker 1 It's a vanishing feeling these days,

Speaker 1 but I can feel us all longing for a certain sense of community, which warms my heart.

Speaker 2 No, the monoculture, bring it back. It was good, actually.

Speaker 2 I think the year started a lot stronger than it finished,

Speaker 2 is sort of my assessment. Some of my favorite stuff happened at the beginning of the year, and I was sort of really excited about where things were going to go.

Speaker 2 And then things got a little bit wobbly. Tell me about it.

Speaker 2 Later on, for all of us, personally, Impressed TV, whatever you want to say. So

Speaker 2 let's get to send listener emails. Our listener, Corey,

Speaker 2 recommended the second season of Shrinking.

Speaker 2 Corey said it was great and for extra credit features both Cougar Town and How I Met Your Mother reunions. Cougar Town, a show I watched all the way through.
I just want to put that on the record.

Speaker 1 How about How I Met Your Mother? Did you watch that regrettably all the way through? I did.

Speaker 2 I did. I did.

Speaker 2 How about you? Are you How I Met Your Mother?

Speaker 1 I tapered off and then checked in to rubberneck the finale a little bit.

Speaker 1 Tough, tough times all around.

Speaker 2 That sounds right.

Speaker 2 Shrinking is a show that I liked but didn't love in its first season and have heard good things about the second season, but nothing that's going to sort of like put me over the edge necessarily.

Speaker 2 Where are you on your shrinking feelings?

Speaker 1 I mean, to what I was saying about just the general TV landscape, there are days that I wake up and remember that Harrison Ford is on a TV show and I am not watching it.

Speaker 1 And I'm just like not sure how to process that information. And not only Harrison Ford and Jason Siegel and Jessica Williams, who's a favorite of mine.
Like, this should be my thing.

Speaker 1 I don't anticipate me personally watching it. I appreciate the recommendation from Corey.
For me, my hesitation is I usually struggle with the drama side of the Bill Lawrence dramedy formula.

Speaker 1 And this feels like it might be a little too much of that for my particular taste, leaning a little too much into its earnestness.

Speaker 1 If I'm off base on that and you have watched Shrinking and love it and you're out there like yelling at us, also, I mean, I want your opinion too, Joe, but

Speaker 1 that's literally what we do here is get specifically your opinion.

Speaker 2 You get plenty of it.

Speaker 1 I want all of the opinions as to whether this is the wrong take, but based on the footage I've seen, the trailers I've seen, it feels like this one is probably not for me.

Speaker 2 I think the, my, my general sense, and people, again, can email us. They know where to do so if they disagree.
But like my general sense is that the second season is leaning a little bit funnier.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 But I could be wrong because I think the premise is a sad one. And as we are like working our way through,

Speaker 2 it could be because this is a show based on therapy as we're therapeutically working our way through the sad premise. Hopefully we're getting closer to comedic lateness.

Speaker 2 I will say that the one person who like more than Harrison Ford, oddly, the one person that is really tempting me to dive into shrinking is Ted McGinley,

Speaker 2 who people might know from Married with Children or Happy Days, and who is just sort of like reliably

Speaker 2 great and always funny. And I'm just sort of like, I kind of miss, I kind of miss Ted McGinley.
Like I wouldn't mind having him in the in a sitcom space week to week.

Speaker 2 All right, Eve and TJ both recommended the TV show Rivals. Evie, sorry, Evie wrote, I was very sad that you didn't review the extremely British rivals this year.

Speaker 2 Apart from everything else, I would be so curious to hear an American view on the absolute apex of 1980s Britishness.

Speaker 2 Jillie Cooper's novels of this era are loved by many, even those of us who are lefty, vegetarian, anti-hunting gays. Jilly is unapologetic, a Tory.

Speaker 2 It's basically Jane Austen with bonking, a cast to die for, and more biting social satire, and bon months than you could stuff in a figgy pudding.

Speaker 2 Yes, we do actually consume this on Christmas Day after setting fire to it, though we call it Christmas pudding.

Speaker 1 This is a very informative email in many respects. Although I have to push back on Jane Austen with bonking.

Speaker 1 Right. Jane Austen has bonking.

Speaker 2 Tell me about the bonking in Jane Austen that you want to talk about.

Speaker 1 Oh, you're right. Sometimes the bonking.
Well, first of all, sometimes the bonking is literal. Also, sometimes the bonking is a metaphor, my guys.

Speaker 1 You know, like sometimes the bonking is the friends we made along the way. It's just a mere handhold.
It's the mere handhold. It's the brush of a sleeve.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. So it has its bonking.
It's just portrayed a different way.

Speaker 2 Listen, Rob Mahoney comes out in defense of Jane Austen as a treat we all deserve here at the end of the year.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and also sometimes people are sort of like, you know,

Speaker 2 having assignations outside of wedlock. That does happen in Jane Austen.

Speaker 2 Rivals, I did watch. Rivals, I did talk to Chris Ryan about a little bit on the watch.
So if you want like a little, a little

Speaker 2 taste of that, it's not like a full episode, but Chris and I did get into it a little bit on the watch.

Speaker 2 This was like pure unadulterated soap, just like really, really soapy stuff that was like quite fun to watch. I wouldn't call it great television.
I would call it really enjoyable television though.

Speaker 2 Evie

Speaker 2 mentioned,

Speaker 2 yeah, Jane Austen with bonking.

Speaker 2 The phrase that I learned when I was doing like a little bit of research into Jilly Cooper's books and rivals is that the book was called a a bonk buster like a blockbuster but with bonking and i'm like so you would call like bridgerton a bonk buster 50 she's a great a bonk buster and I'm just like, wonderful, wonderful phrase that has somehow gone out of our language that we need to bring back.

Speaker 1 What was the last great bonk buster movie?

Speaker 2 It's a great question.

Speaker 1 A real dry spell for these sorts of things. Like, I guess,

Speaker 1 yeah, on the TV front, absolutely. I was going to say, like, is anyone but you a bonk buster?

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 no.

Speaker 1 Then

Speaker 1 that's more like a missing comedy.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So it's got to be more steamy than funny. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Okay. I think so.
Rivals, extremely soapy, extremely British, David Tennant,

Speaker 2 Danny Dyer, like a bunch of, just like a wild assortment of Brits in this show. Had a great time with it.
Everyone is a Tory. Even the good guys are Tories.
That is true.

Speaker 2 We are in Thatcher's England and everyone's a Tory. Fascinating.

Speaker 2 Rob Mahoney, what's your familiarity with rivals or interest in rivals?

Speaker 1 It was very little before this,

Speaker 1 not just from Evie and TJ, but a clamoring of emails, I would say, of response, both as we were covering Black Doves, but I would say it's been kind of trickling into the various emails over the course of the year.

Speaker 1 People really excited about this show, really asking us to look into it. I have to say, if not for those emails, I don't know that this show would be on my radar in literally any capacity.

Speaker 1 And some of that is,

Speaker 1 am I mistaken or is this a Disney Plus series?

Speaker 2 It's a, I saw it on Hulu,

Speaker 2 but you can obviously watch it on Disney Plus. Yes.
And apparently, like in the UK, it was just on Disney Plus. Like, you know, the way because there, Disney Plus is even more.

Speaker 2 No, though, now I guess here in the U.S., everything's on Disney Plus. Anyway, yes.

Speaker 2 It is a Disney Plus, but it's also just a Hulu thing as well. I think.

Speaker 1 I think it just flew under the radar for me, but it makes sense that you have seen it. I mean, you are the most British-American person that I know.

Speaker 2 I don't know. You're pretty close.

Speaker 1 No. Oh, there's Chris.
You and Chris are on a different level. Like, you know, I'm I'm not Brit Box level.

Speaker 1 There's tears to this stuff. Okay.

Speaker 2 Do you and Brit Box bro is a good question.

Speaker 2 John wrote in about two shows, one of which I am shamed that I haven't seen and one that, again, I watched the first season and haven't caught up with the second season. So John wrote,

Speaker 2 hi guys, love your show. I think almost everyone I know is unaware of two fabulous Max shows.

Speaker 2 John, let's just call it HBO. We don't have to kowtow.
We can call it HBO. My Brilliant Friend and Somebody Somewhere.

Speaker 2 The latter reminds me a little in tone of Better Things, another frequently ignored but classic show that still resonates with me. Would love to hear you touch upon any combination of these shows.

Speaker 2 Rob, you brought up my brilliant friend recently on the video we did with Chris. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, I mean, especially thank you, John, for the opportunity. John himself, my brilliant friend, I have to say, for teeing me up in this particular way to talk about a show that...

Speaker 1 As you said, Joe, you're not necessarily caught up with. To be frank, I am not caught up on the most recent season.
That is something I am embarking on shortly.

Speaker 1 I cannot recommend the first three seasons of this show enough. And I have tried at various points in the show's run to even drum up some enthusiasm in the ringer slack.

Speaker 1 I'm like, is there any hive at this company for my brilliant friend?

Speaker 1 Crickets. Crickets? Crickets? An occasional pipe, like maybe one person in the DMs being like, actually, I am the brave soul watching a My Brilliant Friend with You.

Speaker 2 Like a Kate or a nobody, nobody.

Speaker 1 You know, it's really not.

Speaker 2 Tough, dry out there.

Speaker 1 Flummixing to me, because this should be one of the biggest shows on TV.

Speaker 1 it is gorgeous it is sprawling it is one of the most well-drawn friendships i've ever seen in the medium in any kind of series my brilliant friend is so good and

Speaker 1 it also brings to mind for me you know in this in this most recent season we're getting yet another time jump within the show uh are we in a golden age of time jumping on tv joe you got my brilliant friend you have say nothing which we praised the actor parallels that they were able to drum up for that house of the dragon obviously yellow jackets obviously i i gotta say i think we're doing this stuff better than maybe we ever have before.

Speaker 1 I love that.

Speaker 2 I hadn't thought of that as a trend, but I think that's really smart. My brilliant friend, again, I said this on the video that we did.
I don't know why I never got into it.

Speaker 2 I think I'm...

Speaker 1 I'm going to love it.

Speaker 2 I know. I think I'm one of those people that, like, if the book exists, I feel like I should read the book.
And then I just never got around to reading the books. Then I never watched the show.

Speaker 1 I like how you're exactly opposite in this particular way. No, no, I will not be reading the books.

Speaker 1 All All due apologies to Lena Ferrante, but you know what? I have nothing but admiration for the show.

Speaker 1 And I will say, as far as recommending the show, I want to say one structural thing that I really admire about it, which is it's the story of these two girls who become women who are kind of like lifelong friends, frenemies.

Speaker 1 It's complicated. There's stuff going on.
There's political intrigue.

Speaker 1 There's a lot that happens. But it's mostly tethered to one of those two girls and later women.

Speaker 1 But in a a way that is like

Speaker 1 can be very judgmental. I think a lot of shows have that problem where when there's one point of view character, you are tethered to their perspective and everything that they do feels right.

Speaker 1 You have all of the understanding, all the justification. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I promise you, you will love and admire and hate and loathe and respect and be jealous of basically both of these two people at varying times in their lives and friendships.

Speaker 1 And the way they oscillate is just unlike anything I've ever seen before.

Speaker 2 Now that's going on my two watch watch list along with the

Speaker 2 Kira Knightly movies that I haven't seen. It's dangerous asking people for recommendations on the internet.

Speaker 1 Very much so.

Speaker 2 They're often great. Somebody Somewhere, which went up really high on a lot of critics lists this year, is a show on HBO that I really enjoyed the first season of.

Speaker 2 And again, just haven't gotten to the second season.

Speaker 2 Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller play these sort of like mismatched

Speaker 2 outcast-ish type people who find common cause and friendship um in the like very sort of small town that they live in and i was trying to think of like how to do how to pitch this to people how to pitch this show to people and i was like it's like if you took shit's creek perhaps and brought it to sundance and it was like a just a like a much indier realer

Speaker 2 gritty but not gritty in a bad way it's just very gentle very uplifting very funny um

Speaker 2 i know you talked about like sort of that bill lawrence Lawrence drama. I don't, I don't, but it's not like earnest.

Speaker 1 Earnest can work. I think it all depends on the product.
It all depends on the tonality. There's some things that are so earnest and I love them.

Speaker 1 Shit's Creek is actually one that for me just like never quite

Speaker 1 clicked into place. I think my problem with that show is that it starts off in such a meaner place and then gets into this like feel-good earnestness that.

Speaker 1 if you ask me it doesn't feel particularly earned it's just like a dramatic tone shift in the middle of the show um but

Speaker 1 something like this, you know, I think the better things call out is a good one. Like, that is the kind of dramaty I can really appreciate.

Speaker 1 Something that's a little bit tighter, that's a little bit more focused. That,

Speaker 1 and frankly, with all due respect to the things Bill Lawrence does well, like, I just don't think that's his best speed.

Speaker 2 And I, some, somebody somewhere, along with, yeah, a show like Better Things are the kind of show that we really want to exist. And

Speaker 2 actually, at this point in Warner Brothers' strategy, I'm surprised still exists. So, um, that's on me for not uh supporting season two.
I would like this kind of show to keep existing.

Speaker 2 Um, so I will add it to my list. We do have an entire week off.

Speaker 2 You got, you can't imagine what I can accomplish with an entire week off of podcasting, how much I could chip away at my look, uh, my list.

Speaker 2 But yeah, somebody somewhere is a show I'd recommend, even though I am a season fine.

Speaker 2 And wrote in to recommend Pachinko, which, along with my brilliant friend, is another show I think that you brought up on the video probably did with Chris, or maybe Chris brought it up.

Speaker 1 That was actually a Chris. Yeah, Chris brought it up as one that I believe he cited wanting to catch up with Pachinko in the new year.

Speaker 1 I took this recommendation very seriously from Ann, and I think the My Brilliant Friend comp is a good one as far as these sorts of like cross-generational, cross-decades, like personal epics.

Speaker 1 International. International, absolutely, which appeal to me on a pretty deep level.
I, you know, I put my money where my mouth is on this one, Joe.

Speaker 1 Like, I took this recommendation and I have begun my journey. I've officially started my Pachinko watch.
Uh, granted, I'm literally one episode in, so I'm not patting myself on the back too hard.

Speaker 1 But you know, long journeys begin with single steps, and uh, I'm already hard-hooked on this show, incredibly impressive, right out of the gate. Seems like exactly the kind of thing I would be into.

Speaker 1 And honestly, when season two came out, I remember looking, we were looking for a new release around that time, and it was one that, like, yeah, I hadn't seen season one.

Speaker 1 There were some other promising shows that we were engaging with.

Speaker 1 Disclaimer, you

Speaker 1 Only the best here on the first THTV podcast.

Speaker 1 Some mistakes were made. Maybe the wrong Apple shows were prioritized at certain points in the calendar.

Speaker 1 But this is one I would like to remedy and one I really want to dig in hard because the production value, the cast, the scope of the story that they're trying to tell, like the kind of personal story that's really about everything is something that really is my speed.

Speaker 2 Shogun star Anna Sawai, I know, is in the cast. Is she like there from the jump in episode one or is this something we get to wait for?

Speaker 1 So she's not on screen in episode one as far, at least as far as unless she's like lingering in the background somewhere, but this is also like across four generations and multiple timelines.

Speaker 1 So maybe she has, she's probably just like yet to be met in one of these workplaces or villages or whatnot.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 2 And then last but not least, on the listener front, we got a

Speaker 2 handful of recommendations of shows that seem a bit more genre focused. The question is, like, what is prestige? That's a great question.

Speaker 1 Please tell us.

Speaker 2 You know it when you see it, I guess.

Speaker 2 A lot of the genre stuff we do save for like Ringerverse or House of R,

Speaker 2 though there are exceptions, of course. We've covered like Yellow Jackets or The Last of Us over the Prestige feed.
So you'd be forgiven if you're like, what belongs where? It's a great question.

Speaker 2 But we got emails about things like Doctor Who, Silo, and I've gotten so many emails about from

Speaker 2 and texts and tweets and everything across many platforms.

Speaker 2 An MGM Plus show from

Speaker 2 that I am told is incredible. So again, that's on the list.
But Rob and I did cover season two, episode one of Silo over in House of R. So if you want to listen to us talk about that show,

Speaker 2 at least for one episode, that exists over in the House of R feed. And then Rob and I are.
both Doctor Who fans. So Rob, I don't know if you, where are you on the current season of Doctor Who?

Speaker 1 I'm not.

Speaker 1 This is, this is the issue for me. It's like, I mean, Doctor Who in particular is a show that's very easy to lapse on based on how you're locked into the current doctor and the current storytelling.

Speaker 1 And honestly, like, Shudigatua is absolutely delivering for me in the bits that I have seen, especially in the specials and his kind of initial introduction.

Speaker 1 What I bump against with Doctor Who now is more like there's a bunch of different versions of Doctor Who, clearly, not just the doctors, but the types of stories that they like to tell within the the show.

Speaker 1 The one that I like best, which is spooky, singular adventure across space and time,

Speaker 1 is not really the priority of the current administration, I wouldn't say. Like, am I wrong about that? Is there like a midnight or a waters of Mars kind of like lurking in this bunch?

Speaker 2 There is. I was going to look up the name of it and recommend it to you.

Speaker 2 This was a really mixed season for me. I really liked Chidigatwa

Speaker 2 in the specials, as you mentioned. I thought he was amazing.
I think he's fantastic.

Speaker 2 I think the show this season is in a real mixed bag. This is a return of Russell T.
Davies, who is the showrunner for the Ecclesiaston and Tenant era.

Speaker 2 So we moved away from sort of like the more Moffat-y mystery box storytelling.

Speaker 2 I had a little problem with the performance of Millie Gibson, who plays Ruby Sunday, his adorably nicknamed

Speaker 2 or named companion. But eventually, she actually,

Speaker 2 I really ended up enjoying her

Speaker 2 but it's a very mixed season the episode that you might want to watch as a standalone actually does not have very much shitty gah in it at all this is this is also a doctor who trends sometimes but it's called 73 yards and it's a very clever little

Speaker 2 what's happening and one of those doctor who episodes where we like go through years and years and years and years of a story inside of an episode but it all still feels like it um it works.

Speaker 2 That's the one that I'm like, if you're like curious what the best of the season is, I would say that was the best. That felt like classic who to me.
So yeah, shooty gotwa,

Speaker 2 I'm all in on Doctor Who this season. I'm a little mixed on, but we're about to get another special.
Right. And then there will be another season.
And so I'm still going to be watching.

Speaker 2 And if I end up liking that season more, I'll probably cover it over on House of R, probably not over here on Prestige.

Speaker 1 And on the new Christmas special, Nicola Cogelin, no? In that special?

Speaker 2 that's uh that's that's a dream bit of casting very much looking forward to that a dairy girl uh a star of bonkbuster bridgerton fame nicola cochlin will be on and it looks really fun it's like a time-traveling hotel i don't know i'm excited i'm into that uh that's doctor who okay so that's that's sort of like genre stuff again

Speaker 2 We are constantly trying to figure out what prestige is on this channel. I feel like Rob and I have similar sensibilities about what it is, but there's some other stuff,

Speaker 2 like some Netflix offerings or whatever, that wind up on on the feed that like a lot of people watch and a lot of people want to discuss with people and completely does that fit under the prestige umbrella why not i guess before we get to like our personal um things that we want to talk about i guess i want to take a tour through the critical consensus lists um

Speaker 2 of publications that i already have subscriptions to so i didn't have to uh go behind a paywall sorry the atlantic i could not get to you um Joanna Robinson against journalism.

Speaker 1 Refuses.

Speaker 2 I pay for a lot. I just can't pay for them all.

Speaker 1 Just not for the Atlantic, you know, it's tough.

Speaker 2 I support journalism at some of these outlets.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 2 Alan Sepamal, our pal over at Rolling Stone. He has Your Fave, Ripley, Fantasmas, and Man on the Inside, the new Mike Shurted Dance and Show on his list.
I know you love Ripley.

Speaker 2 Anything else you want to mention about the ones that Alan picked that we did not?

Speaker 2 touch on?

Speaker 1 Not as of yet. I think I got to circle back to some of these.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 Inku Kang at the New Yorker picked We Are Lady Parts, which is a show, again, that I loved the first season of and just have not watched the second season of, but it's about an all Muslim female punk band, and it is delightful.

Speaker 2 And I really loved the first season, and I haven't gotten to the second season. This is like a trend.
Joanna hasn't gotten to the second season of a lot of things.

Speaker 2 It's hard, you know?

Speaker 2 But that is a Peacock show. And I think the only time Peacock shows up in this entire like document that we've assembled here today.
So that's noteworthy.

Speaker 2 Vulture has Evil season four and the Old Man season two. Anything to weigh in there, Rob?

Speaker 1 Just blind spots upon blind spots. You know, we're feeling dereliction of duty here on the Prestige TV podcast.

Speaker 2 We're doing a lot. The old man is a show that I love.
I've got some pals who work on it. So maybe conflict of interest.
That's a show I love. And a show that should actually definitely count.

Speaker 2 We definitely did some coverage of season one

Speaker 2 with Bill

Speaker 2 when it premiered on on this feed.

Speaker 2 And then Evil is just one that people really like and it showed up on a couple different lists, critics lists, but

Speaker 2 I never got into personally. And it probably would be more House of R than anything else.

Speaker 2 Vanity Fair, my old pal Richard Lawson, someone, maybe Maureen Ryan, actually, someone on the Vanity Fair list picked One Day, which is a Netflix show I did watch.

Speaker 1 This one I haven't even heard of.

Speaker 2 This is

Speaker 2 based on a very popular book, and there was an Anne Hathaway film based on that book just really a few scant years ago. Wow.
Very long ago.

Speaker 2 But they, I think rightly, the premise of the book is: this is a story of, it's sort of, I think they're chasing, they're definitely chasing normal people here.

Speaker 2 It's a story of friends who have romantic tension over the course of their life.

Speaker 2 And you check in with them on the same exact day, like every year. So, and so St.

Speaker 1 Patrick's Day.

Speaker 1 We, we, list of the day.

Speaker 1 What day is it? Don't keep me. Don't keep me waiting.

Speaker 2 It's literally Arbor Day.

Speaker 2 We, the listener, we, we, the viewers, are trying to like scrambling for, where are we now? Are we fighting? Are we friends? Are we in love? What are we doing? Um, it's, it's good.

Speaker 2 I would say that Leah Woodhouse, who is the male lead who

Speaker 2 was also in White Lotus season two,

Speaker 2 um, is like tremendous. Like, I thought it was like a Paul Meskel-worthy, like,

Speaker 2 like, announcement of what a young actor can do.

Speaker 2 So one day is one that I would I would definitely recommend if folks haven't checked it out. Good to know.

Speaker 2 And then my pal Dan Feinberg at THR had nothing we hadn't already covered or wasn't covered on these lists. So that's what the critics have to say.

Speaker 2 Without further ado, listeners, thank you for your contributions. Critics, thank you for your watchfulness.

Speaker 2 Rob Mahoney, what did we not cover that you want to make sure we talk about on this end of your podcast?

Speaker 1 I just thought this show and this episode in particular was not quite British enough yet.

Speaker 2 We can fix it.

Speaker 1 We can fix it. And I want to fix it first and foremost by talking about rivals and figgy pudding and Doctor Who.

Speaker 2 We're not quite there yet.

Speaker 1 This is me lighting the figgy pudding.

Speaker 1 We have assembled it. We have made it.
We poured the brandy. We poured the brandy.

Speaker 1 Everything is ready to be flambéed

Speaker 1 with Taskmaster, specifically series 17 is the one that I want to highlight, which I think.

Speaker 2 That's so you know, Rob pays attention. He said series, not season.
He knows.

Speaker 1 The Taskmaster lore is very complex and people, I have to say, get very personnikety about what is ultimately a very silly competition show.

Speaker 1 But I love that people take Taskmaster so seriously, even though in this case, it seemed like reception for the season was pretty divided.

Speaker 1 I think it didn't have the fullest chaotic energy of what Taskmaster can be.

Speaker 1 But in particular, the one-two punch of Joanne McNally and John Robbins, I think is like one of my favorite sort of pairings within the show within what we have to say are just like one of the most regularly, amazingly assembled casts in recurring television.

Speaker 1 They obviously have to completely turn over their panel of five contestants every season of Taskmaster. They always manage to find a nice balance that takes on a personality of its own.

Speaker 1 And in this case, I will say like John Robbins might be the most purely effective Taskmaster contestant I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 He's very Mahoney-coated. Is he? I think.
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 By which you mean he's watched a lot of Taskmaster and clearly thought a lot about how to engage in these particular tasks. That's right.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I just, I enjoy that he takes it so seriously. I enjoy that everyone else straight up makes fun of how seriously he takes it over the course of this season.

Speaker 1 And as far as like singular tasks go, Joanne McNally's approach to the task that was just create tension, in which she puts Alex Horne on her lap and then sits on his lap and just like finds new and escalating ways to make him uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 It's a riff on a time honor Taskmaster tradition of torturing Alex Horn, but one that makes the show go in a lot of ways.

Speaker 2 Have you caught any of the

Speaker 2 Taskmaster Junior that's like currently airing? No.

Speaker 1 Are you aware of this? No. There's a junior made eyes.
Oh my God. There's a junior and follow-up question: is that legal? Are you allowed to do this to children?

Speaker 2 Please brace yourself. It is hosted in the Taskmaster Master chair is Rose Matafeo.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 And the Alex Horn is Mike Wozniak, who's one of my all-time favorite players from Taskmaster.

Speaker 1 This is that's a wonderful duo, too.

Speaker 2 And Mike is Mike's dad, so he like knows how to deal with kids. So he's out there on the tasks.
Them. My understanding, I've only watched clips, I haven't watched full episodes.

Speaker 2 My understanding is they have different five kids for every episode. So it's not like it's not, they're not, you know, enduring the long-term burden that is Taskmaster.
It's just like,

Speaker 2 and it's pretty cute because the kids are just making fun of the hosts, essentially, and

Speaker 2 they're just taking it. And that's pretty charming.

Speaker 2 I love Taskmaster. If folks haven't watched it,

Speaker 2 this is,

Speaker 2 I don't even know how to describe it to you at all. It's like survivor meets something else with clever little puzzles and games.

Speaker 2 We got a question about this for the mailbag that I'm going to do with Chris. So I will be going more into someone asked me like my favorite season or my favorite players or like whatever.

Speaker 2 I will definitely be getting more into talking about Taskmaster on the mailbag uh that is happening later today if you're hearing this episode but um

Speaker 2 but yeah i loved this season i think joanne mcnally was wonderful really really good um and yeah i mean like every season of taskmaster is is can be hit or miss um but i usually find there's more hit than miss and there's always just like if you stick with it just like the person that you first think is like wise on the show is winds up being the most delightful thing you've ever experienced so yeah

Speaker 2 Um, what else do you want to talk about, Rob?

Speaker 1 I think let's hear one of yours, Joe. I want to know where you're bringing to the table.

Speaker 2 I will, yes, Sandy, and say, um,

Speaker 2 I've been, you know, as I mentioned on the, on the video that we did with Chris, um, I love a British panel show.

Speaker 2 Um, I watch them for comfort on YouTube all the time, and you can watch all of Taskmaster on YouTube.

Speaker 2 I used to have to like freaking uh bootleg that thing, but now anyone, anyone can watch it, and that's great.

Speaker 2 Um, but I've been wondering why is it so hard for Americans to capture what is so fun about a british panel show um i'm like surely we can be as smart and witty as they are

Speaker 2 anyway there are uh three things on uh right now that i think kind of get as close as i've ever seen uh probably the most well-known is after midnight um which i i think is wonderful i think is so fun have you checked out after midnight at all only in passing it's a classic like this is on at a friend's place when we're just kind of like hanging out uh background viewing and every single time I'm like why am I not watching more of this yeah Taylor Tomlinson is a wonderful host and like they've done a really good job of getting

Speaker 2 rotating panels that are I think just the right level of like

Speaker 2 only kind of famous. And so that's that's what the Brists do really well.

Speaker 2 They have these they have this class of comedian that like just appears on panel shows and that's how they like make their name is on panel shows in the UK.

Speaker 1 Now that you say that it makes me sad to realize that the American version of that like almost famous comedian, we just like put on TikTok. Like that, that's just social media fodder.

Speaker 1 And otherwise, we don't really know what to do with them.

Speaker 2 And what I will say is that After Midnight like draws from the TikTokers for sure, but also, and another, another thing in that vein is Dropout TV, which is

Speaker 2 a non-traditional,

Speaker 2 it came from the people who were working at College Humor. College Humor Shuttered.
Now they have Dropout TV. And Dropout TV

Speaker 2 is just

Speaker 2 wall-to-wall. It's it's a subscription and I just like resisted for a long time.
I was watching clips and then I just like said F it and got a subscription and it's the best decision I've ever made.

Speaker 2 Um no no free ads, but um I have so much fun with the show. Make some noise is a, this is a lot of like

Speaker 2 they do uh dimension 20, so like the very like well-known uh D and D

Speaker 2 games, but I watch those sporadically because I'm not like the hugest D and D nerd as you and I have discussed, but like makes some noise, uses some of those same people.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 it's just like there's a ton of content always. And I think one of the real, my favorite discoveries this year was very important people hosted by Vic Michaelis, who is my favorite.
I love you, Vic.

Speaker 2 And it's a show where they take a comedian, one of these wrapout comedians, they put them in costume and makeup that they're not aware of, and it's revealed to them how they've been costumed and like heavily prosthetics or whatever.

Speaker 2 And then they have to create a character and then they walk in and do sort of like a chat show with Vic as the host where they have to like be in character and it's just like an improv back and forth chat show.

Speaker 2 And it is really, really good.

Speaker 2 And last but not least, have I got news for you, which is

Speaker 2 a sort of like, you know, the Brits have mocked the week. That's like a long-running panel show that they've done.

Speaker 2 Also, there's a UK version of Have I Got News for You, but the US version hosted by this is from CNN,

Speaker 2 but I think you can find it on, I want to say, Hulu.

Speaker 2 But Roy Wood Jr.,

Speaker 2 Michael Ian Black, and Amber Ruffin are like the mainstays. And then they've got rotating other panels where they basically play

Speaker 2 games around the news of the week. And I think it's wonderful.
And I just think we're getting closer and closer to that magical criteria panel show energy.

Speaker 2 So this is what what I've been doing instead of watching season two of a lot of great shows.

Speaker 2 Ron Mahoney, what else is on your list?

Speaker 1 Joe, I would like to talk about a show that was covered on the Prestige TV podcast, but not by us.

Speaker 1 And in particular, I want to talk about the bear.

Speaker 1 And really, I just want to get one take off, like a singular take, because it's very important to me to get this on the official Prestige TV record because I love Van and Charles, who covered the show for us.

Speaker 1 I think they did a great job rifling through, let's be honest, a really stilted season of the bear. I don't think it's going to be anyone's favorite season.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But Kai, I need you to roll the tape on what they said about the eighth episode of the season, which, if you don't remember, was called Ice Chips.

Speaker 1 Like, as a piece of art in a vacuum, the episode is beautiful. But in terms of my turning into the show, I'm like, what are we doing?

Speaker 1 Ice Chips sucks. Yeah.
All right. I was trying to do the like very TV critical.
I know. Like

Speaker 1 he was just like, come on, keep it real.

Speaker 1 They tried it. It didn't work.

Speaker 1 My guys, this is an insane take.

Speaker 2 Well, I did not know that we were throwing other prestige, other prestige hosts under the bus, but here we are.

Speaker 1 Only when it's

Speaker 1 tradition, Love,

Speaker 1 we're airing grievances to speak on the prestige TV podcast.

Speaker 2 Prestige feuds. Okay, go for it.

Speaker 1 This is beef I feel comfortable starting.

Speaker 1 This is not only does ice chips,

Speaker 1 which if you don't remember, is the episode where Natalie goes into labor and out of desperation has to have her mom accompany her to the hospital.

Speaker 1 Not only does it not suck, like it's just one of the best episodes of the bear. So the idea that we're throwing it under the bus,

Speaker 1 I can't stand by.

Speaker 1 I had a really, again, like I am kind of twisting in my seat, like not sure what to do with this season overall, like not having a good time with where this season of the bear tried to take us and the feelings that it tried to get us to sit in.

Speaker 1 This episode, though, I think locates something so, so precise in terms of a mother-daughter relationship. And it just like needles it for the better part of an hour.

Speaker 1 But most importantly, and something that maybe the season of the bear could learn from, it lets up mercifully a little bit at the end. It lets like a little bit of air back into the room.

Speaker 1 And for me, it was just like one of the most tense and surprising episodes that I saw on TV all year. So I needed to correct the record for the prestige TV audience that Van and Charles, I love you.

Speaker 1 You were very wrong about ice chips.

Speaker 2 What if I told you that I didn't really like ice chips?

Speaker 1 Sorry, Van and Charles and Joanna Robinson, you were all very wrong about ice chips.

Speaker 2 Okay, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 I'm going to hit you quickly with my other two.

Speaker 2 And I will say, I've already talked a lot about Interview with the Vampire, but since you had an individual episode on your list, I just want to mention that I thought the Interview with the Vampire Season 2 finale, Van and I covered a little bit of Interview with the Vampire Season 2, but like the Interview with the Vampire Season 2 finale is one of the best things I've ever seen in my life, and I just don't know how to better encourage people to watch this show.

Speaker 2 I have already heard from people after I recommended it on our

Speaker 2 episode with Chris that people have started it and they're loving it. I've never heard from a person that they've started it and haven't loved it.
Season one is on Netflix, you can watch it anytime.

Speaker 2 The season two finale was just like an absolute masterclass of a lot of things coming together and a really emotional sort of

Speaker 2 crescendo for some of our main characters. And I just thought it was one of the best things I saw on television this year.

Speaker 2 All right, you got one more on your agenda here, Rob Mahoney.

Speaker 1 Also one that we talked about on kind of our binge concierge pod with Chris, which is Ripley, the aforementioned, featuring, you know, popping up on many year-end lists for good reason. Yes.

Speaker 1 Speaking of a little bit of cringe, or I think in this case, like a little bit of just like discomfort, like it is a breathtaking work of discomfort.

Speaker 1 I did not think I I needed a retelling of a story that's already a great movie. This isn't an Anne Hathaway one-day situation.

Speaker 1 This is a great movie that's in the canon.

Speaker 2 This isn't a classic Anne Hathaway one-day situation.

Speaker 1 We're literally going to start to referring to all remakes as an Anne Hathaway one day.

Speaker 2 Oh, they totally one-day it. You know what I mean? God.

Speaker 1 Can you believe how they hathaway that thing? Yeah, they really do.

Speaker 1 But if you're going to do it, this is how you do it, which is the tonality of the movie is like, in a lot of ways, almost too glamorous for the story that it's trying to tell.

Speaker 1 Like, it's, it's obviously, if you're not familiar with the talented Mr.

Speaker 1 Ripley, like a story of great opulence of, you know, spending money abroad in lavish, specifically Italian, but really across Mediterranean locations.

Speaker 1 You know, it's a great like travelogue kind of twisty narrative. Within the thriller, you can just enjoy like beautiful Italian vistas or beautiful Mediterranean vistas.

Speaker 1 What the show presupposes is like, what if you did all of that, but also made you feel really uncomfortable the whole time?

Speaker 1 And I think especially if we're going to make a show about like a con artist, basically a compulsive liar, how do we emulate that like very specific unsettling feeling when you know someone is lying to you, but you can't prove it?

Speaker 1 And what if we just made the whole show feel like that all the time? I have.

Speaker 1 I don't know how they did it. Like, I don't know how they keep the line that taut for that long.
But I think Ripley is an incredible achievement. I recommend everyone check it out.

Speaker 1 A warning, it is black and white. I guess if that's a warning that you need in your life, but it's a beautifully shot show.

Speaker 1 And Andrew Scott is phenomenal in it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, as he is in everything.

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Speaker 2 Thank you for that. Thank you for your Royal Tenenbombs

Speaker 2 reference. We will now move on

Speaker 2 to ask the very Bill Simmons-esque question:

Speaker 2 who won the year? Who won the year in Prestige Television? So, we've assembled the main streamers here,

Speaker 2 the shows we covered, the shows prestige covered, and the shows we sort of missed. So, like, hopefully, this is capturing everything that people consider prestige television.

Speaker 2 And I'm just going to sort of like read them out for folks to listen to at home and contemplate as we sort of determine for ourselves who we think won the year. So, starting with Netflix,

Speaker 2 we, you and I, covered, are about to cover Squid Game and Black Doves.

Speaker 2 The channel as a whole covered Baby Reindeer, Nobody Wants This, Bridgerton, Eric. Shows we missed,

Speaker 2 Ripley, Man on the Inside, One Day. Okay.

Speaker 2 Apple, as you know, as we've already commented on, we were really Apple pills this year.

Speaker 1 First section of the year.

Speaker 2 Rob and I covered Presumed Innocent, Bad Monkey, Slow Horses, and Disclaimer.

Speaker 1 Apple is feeding families on this feed.

Speaker 2 Nobody else on this feed covered an Apple show. We are the Apple kids.
No one else covered an Apple show.

Speaker 2 Uh, and then shows we quote unquote missed: Bad Sister season two, Shrinking Season two, Pachinko Season two, Silo Season Two. So, um, that's what's going on at Apple.

Speaker 2 HBO, shows we covered, you and I, True Detective, shows that prestige as a whole covered.

Speaker 1 Refer to it by its given biblical name, Joe.

Speaker 2 True Detective, colon, night country.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 2 They really have to wait that one.

Speaker 2 Shows the prestige feed covered. Penguin, hacks, the jinx, red fair, industry, sex lives of college girls.
Shows we quote unquote missed, somebody somewhere, and my brilliant friend, and Fantasmas.

Speaker 2 FX, shows you and I covered Shogun, Fargo, say nothing.

Speaker 2 Shows the feed covered, the bear, and clipped.

Speaker 2 Shows we missed, what we do in the shadows. Showtime, this is the last one, Showtime and Paramount.
Shows we covered the agency. We're still covering it.
It's happening. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Shows the prestige feed covered, The Curse.

Speaker 2 That's something Fantasy and I did. And Yellowstone.
And shows we quote-unquote missed. Evil, Lioness, Landman, basically, the whole

Speaker 2 what Andy has called the Taylor Sheridan's, which is maybe the best thing that Andy has ever said. And then, etc., we've got Mr.
and Mrs.

Speaker 2 Smith from Amazon, Abbott Elementary from ABC, Interview with a Vampire for AMC, Only Murders in the Building from Hulu, Rivals from Hulu, Fallout from Amazon, We Are Lady Parts Season 2 from Peacock and From, which is MGM Plus.

Speaker 2 Rob, looking at that roster,

Speaker 2 who won the year?

Speaker 1 There's one pick. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, this is an FX year.

Speaker 2 It's an FX year.

Speaker 2 Honestly, most years for me are FX years.

Speaker 2 FX is my usual. HBO is usually more competitive, but this year, HBO got really IP pills and ceded a lot of territory to

Speaker 2 FX. And the fact that FX had Shogun, Fargo, and Say Nothing,

Speaker 2 we would agree, three of the

Speaker 2 shows that we covered this year.

Speaker 2 You know, I know you loved Cliffs.

Speaker 1 Well, see, here's the thing. You joke.
I did not love Cliffs. I know.
But even that, which is like a docudrama about a sports scandal, also takes big swings about like race and capitalism.

Speaker 1 So it's like even the things on FX that don't work, there's stuff in it to chew on. And then at the top of the card, it's just many of the best shows of the year.

Speaker 1 And down the card are things that we don't necessarily know how to podcast about. Like, I don't know how to do what we do in the Shadows podcast.

Speaker 2 But I would. I would if I could.

Speaker 1 If you just want me to do the Laszlo voice for 40 minutes, I can do my best.

Speaker 2 You can't just say that and not do it. So

Speaker 1 if that's a tease for a future episode in which I do, clearly. Okay.
All right. I won't hold you to it.

Speaker 2 It's a tough one.

Speaker 1 January, though. There we go.

Speaker 1 And in the new year, I will do the Laszlo voice on this podcast.

Speaker 1 But like the overall roster for FX is just so strong and so significant and so varied. Yeah.
It's hard to pick any other network.

Speaker 2 I would say, I mean,

Speaker 2 the problem with Apple is it's just like they have a lot of great stuff. It's just not consistent and often not consistent inside of the season itself.
Yes. They have so much incredible talent.

Speaker 2 HBO, again, I think they are really

Speaker 2 letting their own brand down recently

Speaker 2 with these IP shows, which many of which I love. The Penguin, I love.

Speaker 2 Doom Prophecy, not so much, but like,

Speaker 2 I miss you, HBO, as a serious contender in the prestige TV space.

Speaker 2 And then Netflix, I don't know what to say about Netflix. I mean, the shows that you and I have opted to cover here at the end of the year, Black Doves and Squid Game, are like fun,

Speaker 2 but

Speaker 2 I wouldn't, I'm like slightly empty calories, you know?

Speaker 1 So, but this is where prestige gets fuzzy because yes, there's those fun shows. There's Ripley, which I was just raving about.
And

Speaker 1 if it is not my favorite show, it's like 1B, right? Like it's, it's right up there. I would put it up against anything else that came out this year.

Speaker 1 And then if you want to go through the rest of the shows that came out of Netflix this year, it's just true to the platform, probably some of the most watched things in the world, or at least in the United States.

Speaker 1 And so, like, yeah, there's a definition of prestige where we're talking about baby reindeer on this feed. Like, nobody would shut up about nobody wants this for weeks upon months.

Speaker 1 Uh, like, these are shows that lock into people, even if they're not always great individual products.

Speaker 2 And similarly, like Showtime Paramount, these Taylor Sheridan shows are the most popular shows in the country. Uh, it they feel impossible to podcast about because

Speaker 2 I don't know. I mean, I don't watch them, but like, I get like mini podcast dispatches from Mallory about them, but like, I would not know how to cover a Taylor Sheridan show on a podcast.

Speaker 2 And so, like,

Speaker 2 for our purposes, I will say, in terms of quality and then, like, shows that like have so much meat on the boat, Shogun, Fargo, and Say Nothing.

Speaker 2 Actually, I don't think there's a competition. These were like the three most enjoyable shows for me to talk about with you on this feed.

Speaker 2 Um, just in terms of like things we could say, themes themes that were there,

Speaker 2 ambitious swings, all that sort of stuff. So,

Speaker 2 yeah, effects, you win. I'm going to start keeping track.
We'll do this again next year if we're all still here next year.

Speaker 2 Oh, okay, just two more segments to go on this, on this sort of like super sized end-of-year podcast from us.

Speaker 1 We're rolling.

Speaker 2 Ranking our prestige TV emails, as we mentioned at the top of the show, we have maybe retired or maybe just sort of like sharing space with the various.

Speaker 1 Here's how we eat the tail. Email us at prestigv at spotify.com if you want us to continue making arbitrary emails

Speaker 1 relevant to our future shows.

Speaker 2 We did get an email from a listener who was like, well, well, well, look who ran out of emails.

Speaker 1 Okay, that's rude. Okay.

Speaker 2 Anyway,

Speaker 2 here are the prestige TV emails that we, and by we, I mean mostly, I feel like I started it and then Rob just like really ran with it.

Speaker 1 Oh, I seized, I seized on the show. Yeah, you really did.

Speaker 2 You really did. And I love that for you.
Okay. For Slow Horses, we had Ars Teim the Pope.
For a disclaimer, we had Grief Cardigan. For Fargo, we had John Ham's Nipple Rings.

Speaker 2 For Shogun, we had Top Nuts and Man Buns. For Say Nothing, we had Nun Bankheist.
For the Agency, we had Tip Top in the Pink. We still do.
We still do. We're still covering the Agency.

Speaker 2 For True Detective, Yellow King SpongeBob.

Speaker 2 And for Presumed Innocent, it is Scottish Malt Carpet.

Speaker 2 Rob, you can vote for yourself. What do you think is the best email address that we came up with this year?

Speaker 1 How do you pick between your children, Joe? How do you do it?

Speaker 2 Using the Laszlo voice?

Speaker 1 No, absolutely not. All right.
All right. That is a tease that will not pay off in this episode of the Prestige TV podcast.
But

Speaker 1 the one I come back to over and over and brings me great delight because of other relevant voice work on the Ringer Podcast Network is Grief Cardigan in particular. Yeah, it's just it's it.

Speaker 1 I love it that we picked out something that's like a funny, if also resonant and emotional detail in the opening episodes of a show. Uh, it paid off, it came, it came back again and again.

Speaker 1 And grief cardigan is just such a funny combination of words to say

Speaker 1 over and over.

Speaker 2 There's something very pleasing about it. Cardi G.
I feel like that wasn't that like a group effort too, because we couldn't get our original one.

Speaker 2 That's really nice that you're voting for a group effort. I will not be voting for a group effort.
Um,

Speaker 2 I'm voting, I believe this is, I'm 99.999% sure this was you because I really think John Hamps Nipple Rings is my only top knots and man buns. Topnots, which isn't even, which isn't even a good one.

Speaker 2 But that one won't disagree.

Speaker 2 But it's got to go, I got to give it to Yellow King SpongeBob for True Technical Colon Night Country. Mostly because then it started this tradition of the group chat.

Speaker 2 having SpongeBob as the icon, ever-changing depending on what show we're covering.

Speaker 2 So yeah, SpongeBob is like part of the Kai Rob Joanna brand. Just most people don't know that, but it all comes from Yellow King Spongebob from True Detective Night Country.

Speaker 2 And if you didn't watch True Detective Night Country, this all just comes down to a SpongeBob toothbrush. And that's, that's how we got here.
But Grief Cardigan is a really good one.

Speaker 2 Kai, Kai, do you want to hop in and

Speaker 2 weigh in on your favorite of our emails?

Speaker 1 Honored to do that. Just a great slew of choices here.
I think for me, it's far and away. Far and away, John Ham's nipple rings.
I just, I think that's, it's creative. It's evocative.
It's John Ham.

Speaker 1 It's just like, that, that feels like the right one to me. Let me say, this is how locked in we are.
I went ahead and ranked one through eight. Okay.

Speaker 1 And we did, we just hit with a bullet one, two, three.

Speaker 1 We're rolling. We're completely synchronized.
These are the, this is the cream of the crop. This is the elite of the elite as far as ridiculous email addresses.
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 I'm going to miss the emails. I'm going to email in to Prestige TV and then ask for more of these emails.
Please do.

Speaker 2 Here's like, I guess a general spoiler warning for the moments segment, which is

Speaker 2 I don't think any of the clips we picked are necessarily spoilery if you listen to them.

Speaker 2 But as soon as they're over, we say the name of the show and you don't want to know anything about it, I would skip forward because we're probably going to talk a little bit in depth about some of the shows that we covered this year.

Speaker 2 So let's start. Kai, stay on the line because this is our final segment of the show where we are presenting our best TV moments of 2024.
We have each, the three of us have pan-picked a TV moment.

Speaker 2 What defines a moment? That's subjective.

Speaker 1 A lot of subjectivity on this pod today. You know, everything is down to a certain point of view.

Speaker 2 No, I was just trying, like, when I picked on my moment, I was like, is this too long of a moment? Do you know?

Speaker 2 Because we didn't say scene.

Speaker 2 We didn't say line. We said moment.
So there's a lot of wiggle room there. We also didn't set the parameter that it had to be from one of the shows we covered, but um,

Speaker 2 but hopefully, it maybe it is. Um, we'll find out.
Let's start with you, Kai.

Speaker 1 Kai Grady.

Speaker 2 Oh, okay. Uh, listeners, uh, Kai is the best and is just

Speaker 2 holding this entire ship together all year. We're so lucky to have him.
Kai Grady, what is your best TV moment of 2024?

Speaker 1 Too kind. I'll play the clip.
Not as kind of a clip, I will say.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I just want you to know that me and Diana have a very healthy sex life. And I'm taking my dog back.
It's Roger, not Roger.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Vin.

Speaker 13 It's Rish, hi.

Speaker 1 Merry Christmas, Amigo.

Speaker 12 Yeah, yeah, you've got my 200.

Speaker 13 Yeah, I have your 200. Nice, nice, nice.

Speaker 1 I was thinking,

Speaker 13 let's put 50 of it on your tip. Yeah.
You know I'm good for it.

Speaker 13 I like your conviction.

Speaker 13 And I've got a feeling.

Speaker 13 A great feeling. Like

Speaker 13 fate is shaving her cunt just for me.

Speaker 1 Just an absolute slime ball.

Speaker 1 Our favorite slime ball on industry.

Speaker 1 That was Rishi. So honestly, I chose this for a few reasons.
I think chief of which, you know, never got to get y'all's takes. This is your chance to get your industry takes off.

Speaker 1 So would love to hear them. I think that it's also just like this season

Speaker 1 for me was like when it took the leap from like really good to great.

Speaker 1 And I think that this episode, specifically White Mischief, episode four of the new season, basically like his uncut gems, as a lot of people have put it,

Speaker 1 was just like their ability to take a character on the periphery like Rishi and just put him center stage like that. It's, again, a sign of a, of, of a great, of a show that's becoming great to me.

Speaker 1 And it was just, I mean, it's just an insane time. It's an insane time.
It's an insanely creative, audacious swing in the middle of a season.

Speaker 1 But yeah, what are y'all's thoughts on industry? Well, and it ends happily ever after, as we know. Absolutely.
Everything ends with a bang.

Speaker 2 I love this show. I got in early on the show.
I think probably because of Kristen Andy, would be my guess. And

Speaker 2 I agree. This season was a.
I'm so glad you picked this because we didn't really linger on industry, a show that many people consider to be one of the best shows of the year.

Speaker 2 And certainly HBO sticking true to its like prestige television Sunday night you know roots. So I'm so glad you picked this

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 a real step up, a level up this year. I think it's it's just a year that a lot of people also really got into the show.

Speaker 2 A real a real boom in viewership, I believe. And also it's proved just like a real good at a tremendous feeder team of young talent into other projects.

Speaker 2 So like if you want to keep your eye on the stars of tomorrow, I, and you haven't caught up with industry, i really recommend you do uh it's a it's a wonderful show um full of absolute scumbags um

Speaker 1 there's a lot of that no shortage yeah it's also not up and coming stars only too like ken lung is like delivering one of the best performances you're going to find on tv anywhere right now so

Speaker 1 i i like i i love this pick i love

Speaker 1 Rishi is my particular kind of scumbag. If we're talking about assholes on TV, this is a version that I could watch over and over and over.

Speaker 1 And I loved him being in the center of the frame for this one, despite the fact that I was like ready to crawl out of my skin for the majority of this episode, which is it operating on the cylinders that it wants to.

Speaker 1 I re-watched it this morning in honor of this, and I was like, this is an insane way to start my day. It's like 9 a.m.

Speaker 1 Just jittering. But it's just a fantastic episode.
Amazing performance at the center of it, too. I should also mention just like, you know, non-Shogun division.

Speaker 1 I figured one of you would come with Shogun. It's obviously like one of the biggest, if not the biggest TV show of the year.
So I was like, let me try to zag a little bit. But Shogun's 1A for me.

Speaker 1 Well, let me let the cat out of that particular bag because I did pick something from Shogun. Kai, if you could roll my clip.

Speaker 1 They believe this place is about physical pleasure,

Speaker 1 which it is.

Speaker 1 The people she meets wish for a different life or circumstance.

Speaker 1 They want to be any place other than where they are.

Speaker 1 I offer you relief from this

Speaker 1 and safety

Speaker 1 to create one perfect moment that you wish to inhabit completely.

Speaker 1 You heard Marika, one perfect moment.

Speaker 1 It's in the fucking line.

Speaker 1 This is, of course, Ladies of the Willow World, episode 6 of Shogun, in particular, the tea house scene. In particular,

Speaker 1 the perspective and tone shift as we get Mariko going from translating for Lady Kiku to embodying and delivering that line and genuinely something that, as it was happening in real time, I gasped at my screen.

Speaker 1 And like that is the power of this kind of moment.

Speaker 1 Like, I think for as twisty and scheming as shogun can be it never had me wrapped around its finger like this everything just completely slowed down for this episode and these scenes in particular all the peripheral plans like fade away completely fade out and you just get these two people who are desperate for connection and who understand how dangerous that kind of connection can be and like that's what i want out of tv

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 2 I also assumed that Rob would pick Shogun.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm happy to deliver. I'm glad you did.

Speaker 2 Well, it would have been a travesty if all three of us were like, like, someone else will pick Shogun. I know that Chris and Annie are going to be doing some Shun stuff before the year is out.

Speaker 2 And Rob, you had said, like, well, that's not necessarily what I would go with.

Speaker 2 And so I was really excited to figure out, like, to try to figure out which part you might pick for this.

Speaker 2 And I didn't know if you would go with like.

Speaker 2 something from our vibe Fuji or your guy,

Speaker 2 you know, Yabushige or something like that. But this is, this is the perfect pick.
And I want to say, I love working with both of you guys so much.

Speaker 2 I think you're just the absolute best. Covering Shogun with you guys is one of my favorite things that we did this year or any, any of the years that I've been here at The Ringer.

Speaker 2 And Rob, something that you said when we were covering Shogun,

Speaker 2 where you were talking about the private world

Speaker 2 that these two, the Anjin and Mariko, like create between each other based on language, really just like reshaped how I thought about the whole season of television.

Speaker 1 That's an incredibly kind thing to say.

Speaker 2 It's just true. I just really like talking to you about story.
And

Speaker 2 so this is, you picked a perfect sort of encapsulation of that of like everything just blurs away for these two people, but there's like so much danger inside of that as well. It's great pick.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think the way Shogun overall like turned translation into something that could be captivating and dramatized and like the act of what is being expressed when and how is just a marvel of what you can do on TV.

Speaker 1 And for me, this episode and these sequences like you're getting the ace kind of like set design that shogun had all season you're getting the like eclipsing camera work where kiku is like slowly disappearing behind mariko as she's delivering this and yeah like anna so why we mentioned her earlier as uh for her role in pachinko but like completely layered and captivating in what she's delivering here for exactly this kind of reason.

Speaker 1 Like this is a translation scene that reads like a heart-racing action sequence to me. So great job, Shogun.
Please continue to make great TV.

Speaker 1 I have no idea what season two or the future of the show is going to be or be about, but I will be seated for it.

Speaker 2 Okay, Rob, knowing that I did not pick something from Industry or Shogun, do you want to take a guess as to which show I pulled from?

Speaker 1 I think you're going to do the Paul Rudd

Speaker 1 Conan bit and just rerun Crab Rangoon again.

Speaker 2 I almost, the fact that it was at the top of the episode means I did not pick Crab Rangoon, but I did think.

Speaker 1 Are you sure? I contemplated it. Joe beat me to it because I was going to pick that as mine as a bit, and then she sent the clip.
I was like, ah, tough.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, you did tease that you're not sure what constitutes a moment, which makes me think that this is a longer sequence.

Speaker 1 We also talked off-mic about how long an audio clip you are allowed to bring for this occasion, which makes me think it's an extended scene.

Speaker 2 Let's just roll the clip, shall we?

Speaker 1 A man's flesh was taken. Now a pound is required in return.
There you go.

Speaker 1 A man is grateful. So you from

Speaker 1 around here?

Speaker 1 Across the sea.

Speaker 1 But here a long time.

Speaker 1 From the age of the carrier pigeon and the six hundred tripes, he wanders from his post, drawn by the songs of the river.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 Scotty's grandfather took us to the Vermilion last year. Remember that, huh? I caught a cold.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, she did.

Speaker 1 It's kind of funny. Why?

Speaker 1 Why must that be paid? I understand keeping a promise, but people always say debt must be paid. Except what if you can't?

Speaker 1 If you're too poor?

Speaker 1 Or you lose your job? Maybe there's a death in the family. Isn't the better thing, more humane thing,

Speaker 1 to say that debt should be forgiven? Isn't that who we should be? We love a biscuit biscuit around here.

Speaker 2 This is from Fargo season five, the finale. Um, and I guess my moment is like the last 20 minutes of the episode.
Everything is over.

Speaker 2 And if you're me and you're constantly checking the remaining time on the episode, you have a sinking feeling because you're like, oh no, we're going,

Speaker 2 it's done. We're back home.
There's so much time left. What's going to happen?

Speaker 2 And the minute that

Speaker 1 Ole

Speaker 2 Munch, played by the great Sam Sproul, shows up,

Speaker 2 you know, Dot comes home and he's sitting there in her living room and you're like, oh no, am I watching the kind of show where this is going to end with Dot and Wayne and Scotty, the Lion family, like completely massacred at the end of the season?

Speaker 2 Is that what I'm watching? Like, Fargo is a very bloody universe. Is that what's going to happen?

Speaker 2 It can be a very morally bleak universe as well. Is this what's going to happen? Spoilers of

Speaker 2 a tremendous season of television. That's not what happens.
Instead, we make biscuits and we sit down and we have dinner. And I wanted to include this specific clip because of the

Speaker 2 moment that maybe killed me more than anything else, which is the clink of the orange pop bottom.

Speaker 1 I was about to say, if there is a moment here, that's the one.

Speaker 2 Between Wayne

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 Ola, and then also just

Speaker 2 Wayne being Wayne, a character that we loved so much.

Speaker 2 And then Dot coming in with something.

Speaker 2 And by the way, to get this under time, I severely cut down on Ola's speech, which is a lot longer than that when he's talking about all the things that he's done.

Speaker 2 And that's part of the comedy of the last 20 minutes as well, is he will give these like long, grandiose, tortured speeches.

Speaker 2 And then one of the lions will come in with like, well, gosh, this, that, or the other thing.

Speaker 2 And then Dot saying something like actually like beautiful and profound about like debt and what kind of world do we want to live in.

Speaker 2 Do we want to live in a world where we rake people over the coals for unpaid debt, or do we want to forgive and embrace and welcome people to dinner and give them a warm meal and send them home?

Speaker 2 And it's a weeknight and Scotty's got to go to bed and got homework. So, you know,

Speaker 2 the clock's ticking.

Speaker 2 I just like, it's so hard to stick the landing on a season of television. And especially, I think we had just come off of True Detective Night Country, which I think really whiffed the ending.

Speaker 2 A A lot of shows this year have really whiffed the ending for me, though. In retrospect, True Detective Night Country is now looking much better compared to some of the other things that we saw.

Speaker 1 True Detective Night Country's finale, colon, it's not that bad.

Speaker 1 It's not disclaimer. It's not a person.
It's not disclaimer.

Speaker 2 It's not disclaimer.

Speaker 2 Or Pursumed Innocent.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 yeah, this I thought was just like a phenomenal finale. I just really loved it.

Speaker 2 Any Fargo thoughts you guys want to share?

Speaker 1 I think especially for Fargo, the idea of ending a season is tough.

Speaker 1 Like Like, this is a show that has established a reputation of sudden outbursts of violence, of, as you're saying, like a certain, if not nihilistic worldview, then one where terrible things can happen to anyone at basically any time.

Speaker 1 And so, to take that framework and decide that, like, the best way to surprise people is with something like genuinely warm and emotional and violence-free in this particular case, I thought was a wonderful swerve.

Speaker 1 I thought it's just incredibly well executed. Like, we were raving about Juno Temple's performance all season.
I thought she did a phenomenal job.

Speaker 1 Uh, But Sam Spruill, like he, his presence in that episode and his menace is as important to anything as far as the execution of those crazy monologues and the sort of like unhinged balance of that dinner table that you put some Bisquick biscuits on it and like all of a sudden this starts to make some kind of sense.

Speaker 1 Like that is, that is an act of magic in itself.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Kai, any Fargo thoughts?

Speaker 1 Well, it wasn't my favorite show that we covered or even covered on this feed. I think that goes to Shogun and Industry.
I think it was like one of the more fun shows to cover in a lot of ways.

Speaker 1 And so I figured that both of you would have,

Speaker 1 would recognize Fargo and Shogun. So I'm very glad that that paid off.
Excellent. I'm glad we were exactly as predictable as we all thought we were.

Speaker 2 As excited as I am that Lamar Morris won an Emmy for this and he's great and should have an Emmy. I think David Riesdell as Wayne Lyon is one of my favorite performances of the year.

Speaker 2 I just think he was so, so

Speaker 2 good and so under-the-radar funny.

Speaker 2 I just had the best time with this show. I had the best time with Fargo, with Shogun, Industry, with the YouTube.

Speaker 1 With disclaimer. With disclaimer.

Speaker 2 Asterisk.

Speaker 2 With our listeners.

Speaker 2 So thanks, everyone, for tuning into Prestige Feed this year. And

Speaker 2 we'll be back with Squid Game.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we'll see you in the Squid Games, I guess.

Speaker 2 We'll see you in the Squid Games and at the agency. And Prestige TV at Spotify.com.

Speaker 1 Bye. Bye.com.
Bye.