A Spring TV Preview

Summary

Podcast Summary: All Of It – "A Spring TV Preview"

Host: Matt Katz (filling in for Alison Stewart)
Guest: Catherine Van Arendonk (Vulture TV Critic)
Date: February 28, 2024
Episode Focus: A comprehensive preview of the most anticipated Spring TV shows with guidance on what to prioritize from an expert TV critic, including listener recommendations and tips for all tastes.

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Overview of the Episode

This episode of All Of It dives into the packed Spring TV schedule, helping listeners navigate an overwhelming array of new series and returning favorites. Host Matt Katz welcomes TV critic Catherine Van Arendonk to break down big, buzzy shows as well as under-the-radar gems, offer genre-spanning recommendations, and respond to live listener questions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. "Shogun" (FX/Hulu) – A Grand Reimagining

• Premise & Context:
  • Based on James Clavell's novel and the legendary 1980 miniseries, "Shogun" follows an Englishman shipwrecked in 1600s feudal Japan.
  • “The majority of appeal and the sort of approach and promise of a new Shogun is to take that same story and to still include that ... English sailor ... but a lot of the rest of the story comes at it with a more Japanese-centric approach.” (Catherine Van Arendonk, 02:06)
• What’s New:
  • Moves away from the original’s Western-centric lens; Japanese characters are more fleshed out and central.
  • Shifts from a "fish-out-of-water" story to a multi-POV, political-intrigue ensemble, akin to "Game of Thrones."
• Vibe & Content Warnings:
  • Lush, immersive production; costumes and performances praised.
  • “It is very violent ... there are going to be scenes you might want to cover your eyes a little bit.” (Catherine Van Arendonk, 04:16)
• Memorable Moment:
  • “It is much more from their [Japanese characters'] point of view ... all of these different relationships between families that will remind people of something more like ‘Game of Thrones–’ or ‘Succession, maybe.’” (Matt Katz, 04:01)

2. "Three-Body Problem" (Netflix) – Prestige Sci-Fi with a Twist

• Premise:
  • Adaptation of the critically acclaimed Chinese sci-fi novel, revolving around a scientist’s first contact with extraterrestrials, and the complex consequences that reverberate through human history and a video game universe.
• Adaptation Challenges:
  • The novel is highly philosophical and abstract; TV adaptation aims to make it more character-driven while preserving big ideas.
  • “I have to say I was very dubious about how you would actually do this because the novel is very slow ... The Netflix adaptation has thought through a lot of those adaptation problems in ways that are pretty smart.” (Catherine Van Arendonk, 05:11)
• Comparison to Other Adaptations:
  • Netflix’s take focuses on character embodiment of ideas; a Chinese adaptation (now on Peacock) is more faithful but 'soapier.'
• Violence Level:
  • “It is much less violent ... it is a different kind of adaptation challenge.” (Catherine Van Arendonk, 05:11)

3. Listener Call-In and Rapid Reviews

– "Masters of the Air" (Apple TV+)

• Listener Praise:
  • “It's fantastic ... If you like ‘Band of Brothers,’ it's the next part of the World War II epic miniseries ... engaging, interesting, spectacular to watch. It's gory, it's emotional. It's everything. Love it!” (Betsy, 08:31)
• Catherine’s Take:
  • “Peak dad television ... Dudes in airplanes ... doing the best that they possibly can in very strenuous circumstances.” (09:05)

– "Manhunt" (Apple TV+)

• For Fans of Prestige & History:
  • “If you are looking for something that is a little bit less big global disaster ... but still in that kind of prestige space, Apple is really owning that whole vibe right now.” (Catherine Van Arendonk, 09:55)
  • Historical drama about the search for John Wilkes Booth, starring Tobias Menzies.
• Tone:
  • Features “true crime rhythms ... but without that exploitative sense of a lot of the true crime documentaries.” (Catherine Van Arendonk, 10:56)
• Authenticity:
  • Based on James Swanson’s well-researched book; “It’s close enough” to historically accurate. (Catherine Van Arendonk, 12:23)

– "Girls5Eva" (Netflix, formerly Peacock)

• Premise:
  • Comedy about an early-2000s girl group attempting a comeback as adults.
• Why Catherine Loves It:
  • “It is a show for people who like ‘30 Rock’... created by and written by Tina Fey ... snappy, super referential, very fast, very sly sense of humor, very silly gags.” (Catherine Van Arendonk, 13:23)
• Family Viewing?:
  • “I think that you can. There are some jokes that you will have to explain ... it is my almost-10-year-old daughter's favorite thing.” (Catherine Van Arendonk, 14:38)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Game of Thrones vs. Succession Heads to Heads:
  “There are fewer beheadings in succession.”
  – Catherine Van Arendonk ([04:03])
• Violence Advisory for "Shogun":
  “There are going to be scenes where you might want to cover your eyes a little bit. But it is just a beautiful, beautiful production.”
  – Catherine Van Arendonk ([04:16])
• Describing "Masters of the Air":
  “Peak dad television … Dudes in airplanes … doing the best that they possibly can in very strenuous circumstances.”
  – Catherine Van Arendonk ([09:05])
• On "Girls5Eva":
  “I am ready for Girls5Eva to just take over.”
  – Catherine Van Arendonk ([14:23])
• Historical Accuracy in Dramatized TV:
  “It’s based on a well-researched book by James Swanson ... As to whether his American accent is fully accurate, I mean, you know, we’re all doing the best we can out here...”
  – Catherine Van Arendonk ([12:23])

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Additional Spring Recommendations (Rapid-Fire)

([15:07-15:50])

• For Fans of "Our Flag Means Death":
  • The Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin (Apple TV+)
• Procedural Lovers:
  • Elsbeth (CBS) – “A kind of Columbo style procedural show, but it is full of all of the sort of specific quirkiness and flavor of those earlier [Good Wife/Good Fight] shows ... maybe network TV is finally going to come back.” – Catherine Van Arendonk ([15:50])

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Episode Flow & Engaging Moments

• Friendly banter and pop culture references (comparing violence levels in "Game of Thrones" vs. "Succession").
• Direct listener engagement with call-ins and texts, keeping picks practical and personalized.
• Balanced critique: Catherine gives both content warnings and programming enthusiasm.
• Light-hearted moments (family viewing recommendations, banter over dad TV, love for silly comedies).

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Time-Stamped Segment Guide

• [02:06] Shogun—Premise, difference from original, style, violence.
• [04:44] Three-Body Problem—Novel to screen adaptation, American vs. Chinese versions.
• [08:31] Masters of the Air—Listener review; Catherine's take.
• [09:55] Manhunt—Prestige, historical drama, accuracy.
• [13:05] Girls5Eva—Revival, humor, suitability for kids.
• [15:07] Rapid-fire picks: Dick Turpin, Elsbeth.

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Conclusion

Catherine Van Arendonk delivers a lively, thoughtful, and genre-spanning guide to Spring's biggest (and sleeper) TV shows, helping both prestige aficionados and comfort seekers find something new to add to their queue. From lush Japanese epics and cerebral sci-fi to riotous musicals and punchy procedurals, her expertise highlights a season bursting with options. The episode is essential listening for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the ever-expanding TV universe.

“Katherine [Van Arendonk] is the Vulture TV critic and she often joins us here on All Of It to tell us what we should be watching.”
– Matt Katz ([15:50])

Transcript

[Lewis Capaldi]

I' ma put you on, nephew.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

All right, unc, welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?

[Lewis Capaldi]

I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back. Listener supported WNYC Studios.

[Matt Katz]

This is all of it. I'm Matt Katz filling in for Alison Stewart. So the temperature is in the high 50s today and maybe mid-50s. It's quite warm and it's looking like spring is on its way. And with a new season on the calendar, that means a new season of tv. And there's so much TV out there. So joining us for a spring TV review preview to make sense of all the programming that's available is Vulture TV critic Catherine Van Arendonk. And Catherine, hi. Welcome to all of it. Welcome back to ALL of it. I should say.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Hi. Thanks so much for having me.

[Matt Katz]

Listeners, what TV are you looking forward to this season? What have you watched recently that you loved? Call in to shout it out. Talk with Catherine about what you're watching. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Or you can reach out to us on social media at all of it. Wnyc. Katherine, as I was prepping for this, I mean, it is, there's, there's so much, so much to watch. And it is overwhel. So I want to talk about some of the big name stuff that's out there and you can give us a sense of how to, like, prioritize our nightly viewing here. So let's start with the show that premiered, I think, last night. It's been the talk of our producers here at all of it. Shogun follows an Englishman shipwrecked in feudal Japan, takes place in 1600. It's based on a book from several years ago by writer James Clavell. Can you tell us about the premise and what the show feels like and whether we should be tuning in?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Absolutely, yeah. So it is based on a book by James Clavell and it is also one of the most famous TV miniseries from this big miniseries boom in the 70s and 80s. And so for anyone who watched that original miniseries, you might be thinking, like, how is that different? In part because you might be wanting it to be different because the original Shog, although it is about feudal Japan, comes at it with a very western centric point of view. The main character is this shipwrecked English sailor who has managed to get to Japan the first English sailor ever to do so. And then he kind of has to surf the political fortunes of a lot of Japanese politics that he does not understand. And so the majority of appeal and the sort of approach and promise of a new shogun is to take that same story and to still include that there is still that backbone of the. Of the English sailor. He's played by Cosmo Jarvis, who's very charming and sort of bumbling and doesn't exactly know what he's doing. But a lot of the rest of the story comes at it with a more Japanese centric approach. Those characters have a lot more storyline. It is much more from their point of view. And so what you get is less sort of fish out of water story and more multiple POV political intrigue kind of drama. It's very violent, which is absolutely part of the genre of this kind of story. But it is also about all of these, you know, who is going to rise to power, who is going to betray who, all of these different relationships between families that will remind people of something more like Game of Thrones.

[Matt Katz]

Or Succession, maybe.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Or succession, yes. Although there are fewer beheadings in succession.

[Matt Katz]

Yeah, that's true. At least not literally. Right?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Yeah.

[Matt Katz]

Okay, great. That. And have you watched that whole. Have you watched the whole series?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

I have. I have watched it. I enjoyed it very much. I will say for people who are squeamish about violence or who, particularly when the violence is very stylized and that bothers you, Shogun is going to. Is going to be a little. They're going to be scenes where you might want to cover your eyes a little bit. But it is. Is just a beautiful, beautiful production. And a lot of the performances are stunning. The costumes. It is a very lush, immersive experience.

[Matt Katz]

Cool. All right. I don't know if this. I don't know if the. The next show I was gonna ask you about is any. Any lighter in terms of the. The content three body problem from Netflix comes out March 21st. It's an adaptation of the Chinese science fiction novel of the same name. What's this story about? And I know the Game of Thrones creators are involved in this too. So what's the story about? What's the violence level there?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

It is much less violent. And it is a different kind of adaptation challenge. Shogun is very Game of Thrones, ironically, the one made by the Game of Thrones guys is much less game Game of Thrones. It is more of a. It is a lot of big philosophical ideas in this original novel. And there's a Real challenge in how you bring something that's very theoretical and often pretty abstract into a sort of lived, embodied script. And I have to say I was very dubious about how you would actually do this because the novel is very slow. It is immersive, but in a way that is about these really big ideas and less about character. And I do think that the Netflix adaptation has thought through a lot of those adaptation problems in ways that are pretty smart. The story, for people who kind of want a sense, is about a mysterious signal that is received by a Chinese woman that is probably from extraterrestrials, although she doesn't entirely understand who they are or what they want. And then as it unfurls over a long, long period of time, this encounter between Earth and this. This alien species becomes very complicated and challenging and is played out through a video game space, largely. So a lot of it is, you know, gets to take advantage of the fact that television has such incredible VFX technology.

[Matt Katz]

And this was also. There was a different version released on Peacock, is that right? I mean, this is a three body problem is a Netflix show, and it was adopted by a Chinese media company for a series that was released last year, which Peacock just added to its platform. Are there. Is there another adaptation there?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Yes. So the. The Chinese version, which you can go watch right now, is a much closer adaptation of the book. It follows the beats of the book much more carefully. But it also, because the book is written in the. It reminds me a lot of the problem of foundation, which is a pretty successful Apple show and is also an adaptation of an essentially unfilmable science fiction work that are about these vast spans of time. And so the Chinese adaptation approaches the problem of how you deal with this big theory by turning it into a more soapy structure. The American one is a little bit closer to the ideas, the sort of theoretical sense of the novel, but it does that by creating a lot more characters who can embody different viewpoints.

[Matt Katz]

Got it. Let's go to the phone lines who have some. Some questions and recommendations, I think. Betsy in Manhattan. Hi, Betsy. Thanks for calling in.

[Betsy]

Hi. I just want to let you guys know that I am watching Masters of the Air on Apple. It's fantastic. If you like Band of Brothers, it's the next part of the World War II epic miniseries that they've done. It's so good. It's very Keoghan. It's Austin Butler. Fantastic, engaging, interesting, spectacular to watch. It's gory, it's emotional. It's everything. Love it, love it, love It.

[Matt Katz]

Thank you very much, Betsy. Great. Have you seen that, Catherine?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

I have seen. I have seen Masters of the Air. It feels. And I promise you that I mean this in the most complimentary and also gender inclusive way, like peak dad television. Like, it's like dudes in airplanes and, you know, like, they are. They are just doing the best that they possibly can to be as competent as they possibly can in very strenuous circumstances, you know.

[Matt Katz]

Well, I think that just moved that show to the top of my queue then. That seems right up my alley. We have a question via text from the West Village. I mostly watch prestige tv, but feel like I have not gotten a fix in months. I couldn't get into the new True Detective. It was way too dark for me. Any recommendations for something light but high quality?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Light but high quality? Well, I mean, Shogun is very high quality, but light it is not. If you are looking for something that is a little bit. A little bit less big global disaster than Masters of the Air, but I think still in that kind of prestige space, Apple is really owning that whole vibe right now. And March has a couple different things that are coming out. One of them is Manhunt. The first episode premieres the same night as the Masters of the Air finale. They are trying to keep America's dads on Apple tv. And Manhunt is a historical drama. It is about the aftermath of Lincoln's assassination and the sort of one of the earliest kind of American true crime stories, the search for John Wilkes Booth after that assassination. It stars Tobias Menzies, who plays Edward Stanton, who was the Secretary of War, and then who really became the point person for how to, you know, capture and then bring John Wilkes Booth to justice. I had. And it actually stars Anthony Boyle, who is also in Masters of the Air. Congrats to Anthony Boyle on your very, very good spring. I had a great time with Manhunt. I love a show where there's a lot of guys in mutton chops. There's so many mutton chops on Manhunt. And I love that kind of. I mean, it's. It has the true crime rhythms to it, but without that exploitative sense of a lot of the true crime documentaries that you get. So. So that's a. That's a big plus to Manhunt for me.

[Betsy]

Let's.

[Matt Katz]

Let's listen to a trailer real quick for Manhunt.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

What happened?

[Matt Katz]

President's been shot. Witnesses are saying we're John Wilkes Booth. Wait, the actor? Do you know who I am?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

I'm a symbol.

[Matt Katz]

How does a well known actor commit murder in front of an audience of 1500 people and escape?

[Betsy]

Find the man that killed my husband.

[Matt Katz]

Gentlemen, I am tasking you with the captor John Wilkes Booth.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

All of this can be broken.

[Matt Katz]

Catherine. Is it historically accurate? Do we know? I mean, close enough.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

It's close enough. It is based on a well researched book by James Swanson called manhunt the 12 day chase for Lincoln's Killer. As to whether you know Tobias Menzie who is a, he's a excellent British actor. As to whether his American accent is fully accurate. I mean, you know, we're all doing the best we can out here, but. But I think it really will fulfill that need to, to have that history buff thing going on for people who are picky.

[Matt Katz]

Let's I want to ask you one, one more show. Change directions a little bit. Girls 5 Eva why did you say yes? Tell me about this show.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

I have been waiting for five Eva's moment and I thought it would come. When this show first premiered years ago, it did not happen. Maybe that was because it was on Peacock and nobody watches anything on Peacock is what I generally have been forced to learn.

[Matt Katz]

Right.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

However, after being canceled On Peacock after two seasons, Girls5Eva was revived and it will now become a Netflix show that comes out for a third season this March. And I am very much hoping that finally the broad cultural uptake for this show was about to come. It is a show for people who like 30 Rock. There are so many people who loved 30 Rock and have been rewatching it endlessly on streamers. The premise of girl girls 5eva is it is about a a girl group from the early 2000s who crashed and burned in that era and who now much older women are trying to bring. The group, it stars Sara Bareilles and Rene Lys Goldsberry. I mean it's an incredible cast and it is created by it. And you know, a lot of it is written by Tina Fey. And so it has that exact same super snappy, super referential, very fast, very sly sense of humor, very silly gags. I just. Paula Pell is so great in it. I am ready for girls 5eva to just take over.

[Matt Katz]

Can I watch that with my 12 year old daughter, do you think?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Yes, I think that you can. There are some jokes that you will have to explain. The opening song is one of their hit songs from when they were first a group and the lyrics are like gonna be famous 5eva. Cause forever is too short and it is my almost 10 year old daughter's favorite thing. So.

[Matt Katz]

Excellent. Katherine, we're gonna we got about a minute left. Do you wanna just tick off a couple of other recommendations, top of your head for the spring season?

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Sure. Absolutely. For people who really liked our flag means death. There's a show called the Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin that is also on Apple that you should check out. And then the thing that I really was not expecting to love but actually surprisingly do is a spinoff of a spinoff called Elsbeth. It's a spin off of the Good Wife and the Good Fight. And it is a kind of Columbo style procedural show, but it is full of all of the sort of specific quirkiness and flavor of those earlier shows. It moves fast. It's set in New York. Wendell Pierce is in it. Kerry Preston is fantastic. And it's on cbs. So maybe network TV is finally going to come back.

[Matt Katz]

Amazing. Katherine Van Arendonk, thank you so much. Katherine is the Vulture TV critic and she often joins us here on all of it to tell us what we should be watching. Kathryn, thanks so much for coming on the show. Thank you.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Always a pleasure.

[Lewis Capaldi]

I'm gonna put you on Nephew.

[Matt Katz]

All right, unc.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order?

[Lewis Capaldi]

Miss? I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.

[Catherine Van Arendonk]

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[BetterHelp Testimonial Speaker]

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[Catherine Van Arendonk]

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