The TV Gods give and the TV Gods taketh away. That’s right, it’s time for upfronts, which means the networks are in the midst of announcing their renewals and cancelations for the coming year. Fortunately, after we recorded, they reconsidered one of the hardest hits of the recent announcements, with NBC picking up Brooklyn Nine-Nine for a sixth season. However, that’s only the start of the conversation this week, with lots of shows delivering compelling, emotional, and fun episodes.
First up, Noel and Kate dive in with the comedies and reality, including the (series?) finale of Atlanta, the finale of Mom, The Last OG, a dramatic Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Then we move over to drama and genre, including the premieres of Vida and Sweetbitter, super tense episodes of The Americans and Killing Eve, character-redefining episodes of Timeless and Agents of SHIELD, and an alternatingly beautiful, sad, and shocking Steven Universe two-parter. Afterward, we round out the podcast by spotlighting the interesting and funny documentary series Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas, currently flying under the radar on HBO on Friday evenings.
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Spotlight: Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas (1:32:54)
Our Week in Comedy and Reality
Atlanta finale (14:19)
Mom finale (22:45)
The Last OG (25:41)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (28:07)
RuPaul’s Drag Race (32:44)
Our Week in Drama and Genre
Vida premiere (44:16)
Sweetbitter premiere (48:09)
The Americans (53:17)
Killing Eve (56:14)
Timeless (1:00:42)
Agents of SHIELD (1:03:58)
Steven Universe (1:10:05)
Music Featured: “I Shall Be Released” by Nina Simone; “That Distant Shore,” performed by Jennifer Paz in Steven Universe’s “Can’t Go Back”
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I didn’t think there was any chance Atlanta as a whole was coming to an end (rather than taking a break, as they did between the first two seasons). Glover has basically complete creative freedom to do what he wants, and I think he still has plenty of experimentation left in him. Furthermore, the show has good ratings for cable, so FX would want it back even aside from the prestige factor.
I didn’t think the audience was supposed to be surprised that the gun showed up again, even if the character of Earn was distracted enough to forget. And since he got it in the first episode of the season and was supposed to have gotten rid of it long ago, I can definitely believe that he genuinely forgot rather than intended on planting it on Clark County (who could have passed TSA ahead of them, given how worried Earn was about being late).
Minor point of pedantry: Stan is with the FBI rather than CIA.
Philip should have told Stan about the problems in his marriage, which would have been true and something Stan could relate to.