As You Know

We're back in the Ryan Murphy mines to talk about the most cursed show of the 21st century, Glee. Let's examine the weird clashing of earnestness and cynicism at the heart of the show, some questionable political forecasting, and a sneaking suspicion that our stars aren't actually all that good at musical theater.

We are belatedly kicking off the new year with Animaniacs, a cartoon about horrifying creatures terrorizing the good, hard-working employees of Warner Bros. with toon violence and low grade assault. Many great jokes that also have us asking "who is this for?"

Our first foray into SyFy original programming is The Magicians, a show that if nothing else was really going for it all the time. We're divided on the quality of the series, the concept, and if "railing" is a purely physical act. But we love the talking rabbits.

For possibly the first time since NGE, we covered a show that ended with a movie that we actually liked. Adult Swim's most celebrated(?) series, The Venture Bros. had a long and strange history and is a difficult to describe pastiche of 60s adventure cartoons and comic books, but remained funny throughout. This episode could just be a list of character names.

In the wake of the success of Lost, networks greenlit many of their own attempts to capture that vibe. Maybe none were more notable than Heroes, which was huge for a minute and then promptly forgotten. Let's remember some 2000s guys.