563: Checking The Perimeter With Murderbot

563: Checking The Perimeter With Murderbot

Author: Extra Hot Great: This Week In TV May 21, 2025 Duration: 1:24:14
Vulture's Kathryn VanArendonk is back to talk about Apple TV+'s Murderbot, and whether the books do a better job of exploring questions of gender and essential humanity without Alexander Skarsgard's Ken-doll crotch confusing matters. Should YOU give it a watch? We went Around The Dial with Overcompensating, Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives, and Leverage: Redemption's third season before Anne offered another variation on the Utahn theme with a Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City Canon Presentation. Kelli Giddish won, Tom Hardy lost, and we all tried to survive the process of Venn-diagramming premiere and finale casting in Game Time. Hack into your governor modules and join us!

GUESTS
👤 Kathryn VanArendonk

TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🤖 Murderbot
Around The Dial: 🏋️‍♀️ Overcompensating
Around The Dial: ⏳ Kids Right Now Shows
Around The Dial: 🎭 The Rehearsal
Around The Dial: 🤫 The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives
Around The Dial: 🥷 Leverage: Redemption
The Canon: 🧂 The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City S04.E16: Mysteries, Revealed?
Winner & Loser: ⚖️ Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Winner & Loser: 🦴 Tom Hardy
Game Time: 🛟 Survivor Round II

SUPPORT THE SHOW
🔥 Join the EHG Club for bonus episodes, no ads, community Discord and more!
🛍️ Shop our merch store!

NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on this episode's page on our site
🦤 Kathryn VanArendonk at Vulture
🦋 Kathryn on Bluesky
🌮 The ATX Festival
🤖 Kathryn's Murderbot review at Vulture
🏋️‍♀️ Tara's Overcompensating review at Cracked
🏦 Contact Buntsy about the EHG Mutual Aid Vault
📷 Photo: Apple

CLUB-ONLY NOTES
🔥 EHG Club Perk Links & How-To
💬 Get On Our Community Discord

Ever find yourself finishing a show and immediately wanting to dissect every detail with friends who get it? That’s the feeling you’ll find each week with Extra Hot Great: This Week In TV. This isn’t just a recap service; it’s a lively, thoughtful, and often hilarious conversation that picks up right where the credits roll. The hosts dive deep into the latest episodes, standout performances, and those baffling plot twists that dominated the cultural conversation, treating television with the serious analysis and genuine passion it deserves. You’ll hear sharp reviews that go beyond simple thumbs-up or down, exploring what worked, what didn’t, and why. The discussion naturally spans the spectrum from buzzy new series to enduring film influences, reflecting a broad and discerning taste. Tuning into this podcast feels like grabbing a seat at the table with the most insightful TV enthusiasts you know, where the talk is as engaging as the shows themselves. It’s a consistent source for smart, entertaining commentary that celebrates and critiques the world of screens, big and small.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 502

Extra Hot Great: This Week In TV
Podcast Episodes
298: Run: Hot And Cold [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:50:17
Dan Rogge bought a ticket for our latest episode on HBO's Run, a "comedy thriller" about college sweethearts trying to reunite. Does the pleasure of watching Merritt Wever and Archie Punjabi at work outweigh the credibil…
297: Making A Whole Meal Out Of Quibi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:44:33
Just a few short weeks after we tested our knowledge of Quibi titles in Game Time, Quibi is taking center stage: the platform has launched, and we have selected a total of eight of its 24 launch titles to discuss with re…
296: Will Heidi And Tim's New Fashion Show Be Making The Cut? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:30:33
One half of the GFY brain trust, Heather Cocks, came back to discuss Amazon's Project Runway with a big-budget twist: Making The Cut. As much as we love Naomi Campbell's sugar-free approach to, well, life, the panel agre…
295: First-Time Shows At The Canon Ball [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:20:10
Some shows -- your 30 Rocks, your Simpsonses -- get pitched to the Canon all the time. So for this special all-Canon episode, we reached into our mailbag and chose user submissions for shows that had never been pitched b…
294: Warming Up To Little Fires Everywhere [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:40:39
Appointment Television's Margaret H. Willison put a marshmallow on a stick to talk about Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere, and whether THIS is the real "vanity-free performance" on Reese Witherspoon's recent résumé, plus K…
293: Politely Sitting Through Amazing Stories [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:27:43
Apple TV+ has brought Amazing Stories, the less-nihilistic take on The Twilight Zone, back for all the '80s kids, though confusingly premiered this anthology series with only one episode. Mark Lisanti joins us to talk ab…
292: Playing Games With Dispatches From Elsewhere [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:03:40
AMC already had a perfectly good Charlie Kaufman-esque property, but the network went with Dispatches From Elsewhere over Lodge 49 -- and while it's kind of Sarah's dream to fall into an alternate-reality scavenger hunt,…
291: Breaking Confidentiality To Talk About Better Call Saul [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:20:29
As Better Call Saul returns for its fifth and almost final season, superfan Will Leitch joins us to check in on Jimmy, Kim, Nacho, Mike, and of course, good old black-and-white Gene. Dave explains why he is not a crackpo…
290: February Forcenings [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:10
To keep you in content while Dave and Tara go on vacation, we're forcening each other to watch TV episodes! Dave forcens Tara to watch what happens when a zombie virus ravages the Smurf village. Tara forcens Sarah to jou…
289: Building Something Real With Lego Masters [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:40
Will Arnett has followed his ex-wife Amy Poehler into the field of highly meta reality show hosting with his gig on Fox's Lego Masters, and American dad (and therefore Lego Master) Jim Durr has returned to discuss the se…