To modern audiences it's Tom Cruise's big action franchise, but for us it's time look at Mission: Impossible's '60s TV origins, and all that entails: Espionage! Cool dead drops! Anti-Communism! Brownface!

Apologies for the janky audio in this one, there was a file issue so we had to use the backup.

Mission: Impossible

Last time out we covered a show that became a beloved action franchise, but how about a beloved action franchise spawning a TV show? The short-lived Sarah Connor Chronicles ask the big questions: What if there was a hot Terminator (please ignore T3)? Or a Scottish accented one? Are these changes enough to make it better than all of the 21st Century sequels? This episode also has Ian and Travis getting in the weeds on the state of modern television, because why not.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

We could not find the British cop show Heartbeat, so we pivoted to discuss Travis's favorite comedy of all time: Curb Your Enthusiasm. We get into the ups and downs of a show that ran for a quarter of a century while staying mostly the same, the inherent confusion of having some celebrities play themselves while others play fictional characters, and the genius of ending your show the same way you ended the previous one in spite of all the haters.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Remember when Mozart in the Jungle won a billion Golden Globes for its first season and nobody knew what it was? We're investigating the Amazon Prime original, which ran for three more seasons after that! Did you know orchestral musicians have sex? That's more or less the premise.

Mozart in the Jungle

The South got something to say...but we only have a little bit to add about classic sitcom Designing Women, about a group of interior designers in Atlanta sniping at each other (and the showrunners, it turns out). Like all discussions of shows we didn't find to be rich texts, we do start talking about Hideo Kojima.

Designing Women

We're going to continental Europe for the first time in a minute to talk Danish enfant terrible Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom. It's Twin Peaks meets ER but really mostly trying to be the former. There's a lot of Danish-Swedish beef that we don't really understand. And a lot of unrelated talk about a certain move that improv comics are way too fond of doing.

The Kingdom

The last show we discussed ended with demons being released from Hell and encroaching on the greater Copenhagen area, so we thought we'd lighten the mood with a bizarre sitcom about dinosaurs and how they're just like us. Except that it ends with the world ending and the implied death from starvation/exposure coming for every character, including a catchphrase-spewing baby. Not the mama! Gotta love me!

Dinosaurs

Stephen debuts a new character as we discuss Jason Momoa's post-apocalyptic fantasy series about a world where almost everybody is blind. This somehow existed for three seasons but you have probably never heard of it! Baba Voss

Good evening, ladies and ghouls, it's spooky season so we are taking a look at the classic HBO anthology series Tales From the Crypt. We debate many important questions, like "Should the Cryptkeeper be canceled?" and "Why is the last episode of this an animated twist on the Three Little Pigs?"

Tales From the Crypt

We're off to Puppetland as we try to explain the phenomenon that was Pee-wee Herman, one of the most inexplicable great comedy personas in history. Would you move into a house where every object is alive? Can we do any of the various Pee-wee voices? And can Ian make it through the podcast without saying the Word of the Day?

Pee-wee's Playhouse

A podcast that gets to the important part of TV shows: the beginning and the end

Dinosaurs

As You Know

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