Wait, Walt wasn't the one who lab-brewed the best coffee...
We didn’t really have a solid plan for this week’s episode, but we are so dedicated to consistency that we forged ahead anyway and ended up talking about Breaking Bad for half an hour. Timely! But seriously, it’s on Netflix Canada now and so Jenny’s watched the first three seasons and it turns out Cynara was up to date all along. If you haven’t watched the series yet and plan to, don’t worry — we keep it SPOILER-FREE (or very, very, very spoiler-lite), talking about the themes of the show rather than the plot points.
Also on this week’s show:
-TVtropolis, home of the Roseanne rerun. Has any other sitcom in the last 25 years so deeply explored topics of class and real-life money concerns?
-On the flip side, today we have Up All Night, which has an amazing cast (Will Arnett, Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph) but puts its new-parent comedy in a highly-privileged, wealthy setting.
-The Talk is unsurprisingly disappointing. Sharon Osbourne says troubling things. Cynara resembles every fat woman you know. Guess what?? there’s a double standard between the genders on aging for TV news anchors! BREAKING NEWS.
Nearly Shirtless Shane and his buddies run for it. (Photo: AMC)
Previously: Sophia ran off, Rick talked about finding her, Darryl actually looks for her but finds only flowers, Lori wants a pregnancy test, Maggie and Glenn get it on, Lori gets her pregnancy test and it’s POSITIVE.
A backed up roadway, full of cars and people and car horns blaring. Flashback? Shane is scanning the radio bands. Sophia and Carl play checkers, sitting on a tailgate. Helicopters are heard. Sophia’s Angry Abusive Dad (AAD) is there, too, so definitely flashback, because he’s dead from zombie now. Sophia asks if they can go soon. Carl is hungry, Lori says they all are. Carol says AAD is a survivalist, so they have tons of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat, per the US Armed Forces). She goes to get one for Carl, but AAD is not OK with this, or even with Carol mentioning the MREs, because now everyone knows they have them! AAD goes on about “operational security” and Carol folds like a card table.
4:25 – Mindy Kaling’s first book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? Sadly, Jenny cannot offer a ringing endorsement of the book because it’s front loaded with a lot of body/weight talk that’s somewhere in the same zip code as the place known as Trigger Town, USA (at least for those of us who prefer not to hear their comediennes define obesity as “unhealthy overweight.”) Which isn’t to say the book isn’t worthwhile. Just that you might want to skip the first couple chapters.
14:30 – A detour to talk about the specific pressures faced by actresses who are not Hollywood-standard size 0. Christina Hendricks most recently, but also Buffy‘s Amber Benson back in the day.
18:30 – Sidetrack: the difference between being the 20s and 30s; how age affects the way you perceive yourself and how strangers interact with you. ~It gets personal~ Also, Jenny draws a parallel with the Dog Whisperer, LET HER FINISH. Plus: an hilarious Cynara blue hair anecdote.
40:20 – A nice show on Discovery called Oddities, about weird people bringing weird stuff to a weird shop in Manhattan. Books bound in human skin, anyone? How about a “horaffe”?
58:15 – Jimmy Kimmel’s YouTube challenge where he got parents to convince their kids that the parents had eaten the kids’ candy. The kids do not react well. We explain why (it has to do with the economics of childhood), and also explain why lying to kids is NOT COOL, OK?
PLUS: Why hasn’t Amy Poehler written a book? What is the name of Tina Fey’s baby? Why does Cynara tell weird iguana stories?
Links:
YouTube Challenge – I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy [YouTube]
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns by Mindy Kaling [Random House]
Oddities [Discovery Channel]
[podcast]http://www.fattiesonice.com/foicast/foi_ep21.mp3[/podcast]
Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori and Steven Yuen as Glenn in The Walking Dead
Watching The Walking Dead this week, I was overcome with an urge to write a recap of the episode. This is probably because The Walking Dead is currently balancing on the fence between quality dramatic television and paint-drying dullness, so a viewer has to fill in the entertainment blanks on her own. Episode four is a weird place to start recapping, I know, but we’ll see how this goes.
Previously on AMC’s The Walking Dead: Carl got shot, Sophia wandered off, people looked for her, Shane shot a good guy to save his own ass, Carl was OK, Shane shaved his head.
Pastoral countryside. There is an old barn. Near the farmhouse, everyone is gathering firewood or something near when up drives a caravan that consists of Darryl on his motorcycle, plus a car and the RV. At Carl’s bedside, Hershel assures Lori and Rick that Carl’s fever has gone down. Carl regains consciousness; asks about Sophia. Rick lies and says she’s fine.
Everyone greets the newly-arrived caravan. Dale asks after Carl, and the Grimeses report that he’s fine, thanks to Hershel and, of course, Shane, who heroically retrieved the needed supplies. Carol, T-Dawg, et al. are relieved; Shane is guilty in the corner.
There is a funeral for Otis. It turns out they weren’t gathering firewood earlier; they were gathering stones, which they have put in a huge pile, presumably as a cairn to substitute for the fact that they don’t have Otis’s body (given that Shane left him to be torn apart by zombies in one of the worst death scenarios possible).
Hershel is the ersatz preacher now, with the funeral God talk. Shane is flashing back to Otis’s death, and then everyone insists that he say a few words because he was with Otis at the end. Still flashing back, Shane concocts a complete fiction about Otis offering to take up the rear and dying as a result. The strains of Bear McCreary’s Ominous String Orchestra rise as Shane puts a final stone on Otis’s cairn.
Title credits. Which I think are quite eerie and cool, actually.
Prancing Gosling
This episode is mostly about Ryan Gosling.
1:00 – Drive. The new Nicolas Winding Refn film starring Ryan “Hey Girl” Gosling. Jenny liked it, Cynara looooooooved it. Of course, that might be because she read Ryan Gosling’s character as a lesbian.
24:00 – The Ides of March. Cynara is not pleased with the film that shares a name with her birthday.
32:00 -TV Talk: Once Upon a Time and Grimm — two new network series mining the public domain. One is slightly better than the other.
37:00 – In brief: Jenny’s adventures in Netflix — Agora, Unstoppable, No Strings Attached.
50:00 – New Muppet movie! Jason Segel!
References:
End clip: “Pass It On,” from  A Muppet Family Christmas.
Feminist Ryan Gosling [Tumblr]
[podcast]http://www.fattiesonice.com/foicast/foi_ep20.mp3[/podcast]
And we’re back! Sound quality is not so great on this episode. We apologize.
1:30 – Community! Rough start, strong third episode.
12:30 – Blink and you missed it (and not a moment too soon): The Playboy Club. But we talk more about how muscled arms are “in” for women these days, or at least “in” as long as you’re femme.
15:20 – Rosie O’Donnell has a new show. Cynara realizes she basically blocked out everything Rosie has said and done since the end of her ’90s-era daytime talk show. Also, Cynara is not really impressed with how Oprah now goes on TV and analyzes people who were on her old show in the past, but this time they’re not there to defend themselves!
25:05 – Zooey Deschanel. Jenny actually likes her new sitcom.
31:00 – The Eli Gold Show, um, we mean, The Good Wife. Jenny is bored of Will/Alicia. Also, did you know there is at least one person on this planet who thinks Hugh Laurie’s American accent is crap? There is!
40:00 – Jenny and Cynara need D/s lessons for friendship. This branches into a discussion of Don Cherry and Ron McLean and how Ron defended bullying as a practice on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. And how neither Cynara nor Jenny is a hockey fan, yet we speak conversational hockey-talk. This is Canada, for you.
[podcast]http://www.fattiesonice.com/foicast/foi_ep19.mp3[/podcast]
Tina Fey in a promo shot for her May 2011 hosting appearance on Saturday Night Live
00:52 – Fabulous girl-driven action flick Hanna. We discuss all the reasons we loved it, while trying not to spoil it too much because you might not have seen it and we want you to!
16:00 – Tina Fey’s memoir Bossypants. Again, we give all the reasons we like it and also some advice as to whether you should pick up the hardcover, ebook or audiobook.
37:12 – Chaz Bono embracing the role of most famous transperson on the planet with a documentary, book and mainstream media experiences – specifically a two-segment one with David Letterman. Talk of how much we (surprise!) admire Chaz and also, via David Sedaris, talk about how scripted Letterman’s interviews really are.
53:20 – Nardwuar the Human Serviette, National Treasure. If you didn’t know  about him before, it’s probably because you’re American and it doesn’t matter anyway because now you DO know.
Links:
Chaz Bono appears on The Late Show David Letterman [YouTube]
Nardwuar’s talk at TEDxVancouver [YouTube]
Thee Official Nardwuar the Human Serviette Web Site [nardwuar.com]
End Audio Clip:
Nardwuar vs. Snoop Dogg 2002 [YouTube]
[podcast]http://www.fattiesonice.com/foicast/foi_ep18.mp3[/podcast]
WE’RE BACK! We’re calling this the start of Season 2 due to the hiatus between this and our last missive. We’re rewarding you for your patience with a super not timely discussion of the series finale of HBO’s polygamy drama Big Love! Take also as a consolation the handy timecodes listed below!
00:01:18 – Noting a few lulzy things from the leadup to the Royal Wedding
00:04:19 – The Big Love series finale. Do the showrunners think Bill Henrickson is a hero? Would, in fact, the show have been better without him?
00:41:00 – Miscellaneous TV talk including Drop Dead Diva, The Good Wife and some of our predictions for the forthcoming season of Mad Men
00:50:00 РJenny makes a disrecommendation for the Gaspar No̩ flick Enter the Void, and Cynara urges caution about watching Blue Valentine.
01:05:04 – In an attempt to end on a positive note, we recall the glorious moment that was the confluence of the viral hit “Friday,” Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Unfortunately, something is wonky with the iTunes feed, so it won’t appear in your iTunes subscriptions just yet. SADFACE. Working now!
MP3 Version: [podcast]http://www.fattiesonice.com/foicast/foi_ep17.mp3[/podcast]
Clockwise from top left: Ellen Page in Inception; Mila Kunis in The Book of Eli; Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit; Natalie Portman in Black Swan
HELLO EVERBODY! We’re back after an extended absence! Cynara was back in Winnipeg for the holidays, so scant days before she returns to land of plenty known as Vancouver, we recorded a podcast — and we did it when we were in the same room, my kitchen!
NOTE: This episode has what they call in the business a “cold open.” Also, the humming sound that appears intermittently is my refrigerator.
Thank you for your patience.
DISCUSSED:
-We love Ellen Page, blah blah, what else is new?
-Weird rambling about sci-fi, Minnie Driver, Vancouver-made TV, The Ghost Whisperer‘s inexplicable storylines
-Shout outs and baby stories
-Black Swan: Cynara gives her thoughts on this psychological thriller, PLUS: Tales of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet
-The Book of Eli: Jenny liked it, though the Tomatometer didn’t. PLUS: Why Mila Kunis should play an alien on Star Trek.
-Celebrity-written novels and poetry (Specifically: Macaulay Culkin and Jewel), and why rap and pop lyrics might not be poetry on their own (sans performative aspect), no matter how hard Jay Z tries to convince us.
-Winter’s Bone: Jenny’s favourite flick of the year.
-True Grit: Cynara’s got nothing but praise for Hailee Steinfeld, PLUS: Snakes!
LINKS:
Showgirls/Black Swan Trailer MASHUP [Buzzfeed]
That super cool snake pic [Tumblr]
END MUSIC:
The Tragically Hip, “Ahead by a Century.”
[podcast]http://www.fattiesonice.com/foicast/foi_ep16.mp3[/podcast]
Hello all. Just so you know, this podcast is NOT defunct. We promise. It’s just that life of late has presented certain barriers to making new episodes and we apologize for our absence. That is, if you miss us. Anyway, we will have a new episode as soon as we are able. And hey — cross your fingers that Cynara will be able to come home for Christmas and then maybe we can record a special FOI where both of your hosts are in the same room! That would be cool!
But! If the absence of our brainspew in your life is palpable, there is a remedy! Together we wrote an article which appears in the new issue of Geez Magazine – the Super Cyber Issue. It’s called “New Platforms for Old Oppressions*,” and it’s about how the internet replicates the same crappy power structures that dominate the “real” world. Like class and race and also the privileging of individualism over the product of collective work. And I can guarantee you that our article is far from the most interesting thing in this rag, so pick it up or order it on the website.
*Fun fact: the working title I gave our piece was “The New Adventures of Old Kyriarchy,” but that, as I expected, was a bit to pop culturey for Geez.
