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
178: Wigging Out With The Trixie & Katya Show [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32:22
Two ex-contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race see their web series graduate to a half-hour weekly comedy show on Viceland, so Mark Blankenship is here to help us spill the tea on The Trixie & Katya Show! Around The Dial spi…
177: Is SMILF A Problem Child? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:38:16
Frankie Shaw's new Showtime sitcom about a single mom in South Boston shows some promise, but did it make most of the panel -- including guest Stephanie Early Green -- too uncomfortable too continue? We discussed that, c…
176: Getting Locked Up With Alias Grace [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:24:34
As yet another Margaret Atwood novel gets a TV adaptation, Allison Lowe Huff and Extra Hot Game Time impresario Rob Hartmann join us to talk about Alias Grace, Netflix/CBC's period prison drama. Tara and Allison discuss…
175: Does Too Funny To Fail Succeed? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:30:18
Our esteemed colleague Jeff Drake is back -- and so is our esteemedest producer, David T. Cole -- to discuss Too Funny To Fail, Hulu's documentary on the much-anticipated The Dana Carvey Show and its ignominious end. Aft…
173: Soft-Soaping Dynasty's 2017 Reboot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:51
In our first-ever EHG without David T. Cole, Tara and Sarah recruited Fug Girls Heather and Jessica to help them dissect the Dynasty reboot. Do the kids today care about these iconic characters? Should the show have gone…
172: Getting A Forking Forkful Of The Good Place [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:46:01
As The Good Place's second season jumps off from its game-changing freshman finale, Kristen Bell expert John Ramos of the Go Pirates podcast on Veronica Mars returns to talk about how Good it actually is! Around The Dial…
171: The Orville Crashes And Burns [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:16:36
We're glad Omar Gallaga returned to Extra Hot Great; we just wish we hadn't inflicted Seth MacFarlane's limp and self-indulgent The Orville on him (and ourselves). Fortunately, things perked up a bit when we went around…
170: Staying Hooked On Narcos [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:44
Narcos reboots for a third season (minus Murphy, not that anyone's complaining), and first-time guest Melissa Locker joins us to discuss all the addictive action! We ask Will Dave Hate This? about ITV's new gladiator-cos…
169: TGIFF: Thank Goodness It's Friday Forcenings [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:41:31
Monty returns during the deadest week on the TV schedule, and Tara proposed a TV forcening that had us all pick episodes from the week's deadest night -- Friday -- for each other to watch. We caught up with House Hunters…