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John Podhoretz
70,000 people are here and Bob Dylan is the reason for it.
Abe Greenwald
Inspired by the true story.
John Podhoretz
If anyone is gonna hold your attention on stage, you have to kind of be a freak. Are you a freak? Hope so. And starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan. He defied everyone. Turn it down.
Abe Greenwald
He lied to change everything.
Christine Rosen
Make some noise.
John Podhoretz
BD Timothee Chalamet Edward Norton El Fanny.
Abe Greenwald
Monica Barbaro A complete unknown only in theater's Christmas Day.
John Podhoretz
Rated R. Under 17. 90 minute without Parro.
Matthew Continetti
This is the sound of your ride home with dad after he caught you vaping. Awkward, isn't it? Most vapes contain seriously addictive levels of nicotine and disappointment. Know the real cost of vapes brought to you by the fda.
John Podhoretz
Expect the worst Some preach and pain Some die of worse. No way of knowing which way it's going. Hope for the best Expect a waste.
Abe Greenwald
Hope for the best.
John Podhoretz
Welcome to this holiday edition of the Commentary Magazine daily podcast. I'm John Pod Horiz, the editor of Commentary Magazine, joining you for a series of podcasts during the week around Christmas and New Year's, where we are going to offer you some of our 2024 Best of Picks and then answer some of your questions on future podcasts. And by we, I mean Executive editor Abe Greenwald. Hi, Abe.
Abe Greenwald
Hi, John.
John Podhoretz
Media Commentary columnist Christine Rosen. Hi, Christine.
Seth Mandel
Hi, John.
John Podhoretz
Washington Commentary columnist Matthew Con Netti. Hi, Matt.
Unknown
Hi, John.
John Podhoretz
And senior editor Seth Mandel. Hi, Seth.
Christine Rosen
Hi, John.
John Podhoretz
So we thought we'd start today by acknowledging the fact that basically nobody goes to the movies anymore and everybody watches TV and streaming. And so while I have seen enough movies to maybe make some kind of a top 10 list or pick a couple of my favorites, I'm not sure that my fellow panelists can say the same outside of Moana 2 and the wild Robot and Wicked. So we're gonna go with today, we're gonna go with TV and streaming, and everybody's gonna offer you one. Maybe we'll see. Maybe, maybe it'll be more than one. But, but, but one favorite of the year. If you haven't seen it and you may have heard us talk about these shows before, since we do recommends, you know, 250 days out of the year. But so I don't know who wants to go. I'm gonna, gonna do a spin. I'm gonna figure, okay, Abe Greenwald, you go first with your TV pick of the year.
Abe Greenwald
I'm going to open with a curveball. Because my TV tastes are strange and fluid, I am somehow unable to watch scripted TV for any length of time anymore. I think this has to do with the fact that when I was home during the pandemic, I juggled so many scripted shows at once throughout the course of the day and nights that I OD'd and never want to see any of it again. I have recently found a non scripted show on Animal Planet. I'm a animal, a modest animal lover, not any type of fanatic. I have dogs. We all, we are, we all are. We are all pet people on the podcast here. Hopefully we have a lot of pet people among our listeners and viewers. And it is a delightful show called Dr. Jeff, Rocky Mountain Vet. I love this show. It stars Dr. Jeff Young, veterinarian, who looks exactly like Joe Walsh did when he was in the Eagles. His wife is a vet. It covers their whole team. Each episode. People bring in their sick dogs, their sick cats. He also goes out and, you know, spays a cheetah at a wildlife sanctuary or something. But people bring in their adorable animals. You're immediately sucked in because your heart goes out because the dog is throwing up or the cat is limping. And then you're engrossed in a bit of a medical mystery. Let's get the X rays and go from here, says Dr. Jeff. They get the X rays, you go, I see must. It looks like he was hit by a car. It's not bothering. If it's not bothering him too much, we'll leave it. Oh, that looks like it's causing problems. We'll fix it. They remove things that the animals have swallowed and then you watch the recovery and then you see the follow up a month later. Usually everyone's very happy. There are tears of appreciation.
Unknown
How long are the episodes?
John Podhoretz
I don't know.
Abe Greenwald
Short.
Unknown
Okay. You know, you're making it seem like.
John Podhoretz
It'S an epic half an hour. It's a half an hour.
Abe Greenwald
I don't know. I actually don't know.
John Podhoretz
But you consume a lot of them. So hypnotized by it.
Abe Greenwald
Well, I pause a lot and come back to it. So, you know, it's like it's an ongoing thing, you know, to catch up on these animals. But it's just delightful because the pet owners are delightful, the animals are adorable, the veterinarians are doing good things. Nothing's political, no one's going crazy. And it's somewhat medically interesting as well. I love it.
Christine Rosen
Have there have been any crazy pets, like, any crazy animals?
Abe Greenwald
Oh, yeah, they're exotic pets. Kid came in with his snake named Scales. Scales hadn't eaten in, like, six months, which for a snake is bad, but, like, not fatal, apparently. So that was resolved by changing the lighting and the heating in scales tank.
John Podhoretz
Or whatever you said that was. This is a scripted show. This is like.
Abe Greenwald
No, no, no. Not a script.
John Podhoretz
Oh, you said. Okay, I totally misunderstood. I thought you were like, watch script. Oh, no. After a long period of time, I've now found a scripted show.
Abe Greenwald
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
John Podhoretz
And then I thought, who, I wonder is. Is, like, Jane Seymour playing Dr. Jeff.
Abe Greenwald
Oh, no, no, no, no.
John Podhoretz
Woman. But no, apparently not. Okay. Frontier veterinary. So Dr. Jeff, Rocky Mountain vet.
Abe Greenwald
Oh, yeah. On Animal Planet.
John Podhoretz
Great way to start.
Seth Mandel
Ape just won the recommends. I'm sorry, that.
John Podhoretz
That way. Great way to start. Okay. All right. Well, Christine, if you think that he won the recommends, you got to go second.
Seth Mandel
Okay, well, I'm going to be boring, and I refuse to limit myself to only one choice because these. Actually, both of these shows. I loved the first, obviously, Slow Horses, the most recent season. I have a Gary Oldman obsession. Truly. I've seen everything he's ever been in, even the terrible Dracula movie, and still love him. I would listen to him sit and read the phone book. But in this most recent season, although he's a little less front and center, he's still the sort of moral core of the show, which is just really well done. They go right up to the edge of sometimes becoming a little over the top on the plot, but then pull back. So Slow Horses, the most recent season, and then also the most recent season of Hacks, my other favorite show, with Jean Smart playing a sort of aging comedian who reinvents herself with the help of a young and quirky writer. And the show in this season has traced the arc of their relationship and their friendship and some related family members in the Jean Smart character's life. But it's still well done, and its settings are in, you know, not just dive bars where she's doing her standup and testing out new material, but also, you know, Vegas.
Unknown
It's.
Seth Mandel
It's a wonderful portrait of the excess of Las Vegas and also la. So those are my two recommends. The most recent seasons of Hacks and Slow Horses.
Christine Rosen
The best Gary Oldman, by the way, is when he played Sid Vicious.
Seth Mandel
Very good in that.
John Podhoretz
Well, that was his. That was his. That was his breakout performance. That was in the late 1970s.
Seth Mandel
Creed in everything. So I.
John Podhoretz
Well, okay, I gotta talk to you about a movie called Tiptoes. Gotta talk to talk about a movie called Tiptoes.
Seth Mandel
Yes. Yeah.
John Podhoretz
Well, the worst movie ever made, which I saw on an airplane where he plays Matthew McConaughey's Ishtar was the worst movie. He and Matthew McConaughey. He's 11 years older than Matthew McConaughey. They're twin brothers, of course, Gary Oldman from Britain and Matthew McConaughey from Texas. And McConaughey is in love with a girl. He brings a girl home to his home and all of his family are little people. And Gary Oldman is playing a 3 foot 8 inch tall little person who is the twin brother of Matthew McConaughey. This was made in 2003, but he acted the headline. Some of us thought that maybe we had seen the back end of Gary Oldman, that he had lost his very important Gary Oldman politically good for everyone who wants to listening to this podcast. I know, I just think it's fair to say he and his producer, his partner Doug Urbanski, they are, they are political friends of ours. I don't know Doug Urbanski and I don't know Gary Oldman, but I do know that they are sort of, they're neoconish. So it makes it even more wonderful to love love Gary Oldman.
Unknown
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Matthew Continetti
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John Podhoretz
Seth, what do you got?
Christine Rosen
So I'm actually going to go with some recency bias, but it's genuine. It's not because of recency bias. I'm going to go with Netflix's series Black Doves. This is a. It is as good as the reviews all say it is. This was a very pleasant surprise because the, you know, tomatometer. I don't know how we pronounce tomatometer, tomatometer. You know, all that stuff was saying everybody loved Black Doves. It's a spy series. That is the. They are spies for hire. They are mercenary spies and so they are not necessarily to governments, but they can be in London. And Keira Knightley is the protagonist. She is the main sort of spy. This is the group called the Black Doves. And Ben Whishaw is so good in this show. Everybody's very good. But Ben Whishaw played Paddington, okay? And in this show he is a trigger man, a murderer for hire. And the contrast is hysterical. But he's phenomenally good in the show. Keira Knightley is very good. And then you have some real treats. You have Katherine Hunter, who, you know, usually plays some short little wizard or something in Harry Potter type movies.
John Podhoretz
Well, Catherine Hunter was played the three witches in the Joel Cohen tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington Which I think was a failure. But this creative decision to have one actress, and she's kind of a contortionist. Catherine Hunter, she can do weird things with her body. Play the Witches was an absolutely inspired choice and sort of introduced her to a new career. She's this. She's an American who lives in London and is a sort of like an avant garde theater actor who is now like in her 60s. Suddenly become like a streaming favorite.
Christine Rosen
But yeah, she's wonderful. Andrew Buchanan is, you know, from Broadchurch. He's very good. And we get some brief time with Tracy Ullman, who is always wonderful to see.
John Podhoretz
Also good politically. Tracy Ullman, big supporter of classical education.
Christine Rosen
There's a few. There's a few reasons why I really.
John Podhoretz
I only do this because we need to know if there are like three people in show business who tend to hold political views that we would.
Seth Mandel
We shouldn't out them though, John. We shouldn't.
Christine Rosen
Also, we should note that we're not picking these because we knew that this is just right.
John Podhoretz
No, we're not. I just, I'm just saying it could.
Christine Rosen
Be that people who are good politically are better. We're not saying that, but it could. I like the show for a few reasons. First of all, beyond the obvious, it's a fun spy show. First is that it is not based off a book. This is not a. An adaptation of a spy novel. It's original. It's an original screenplay. It's fantastic. And the writing is wonderful. And so there's an originality to it. This is a genuinely great spy miniseries. And it is not. You know, the last great spy miniseries I remember seeing was probably the Night Manager, which was John Lecrae adaptation. Probably the best Lecrae adaptation. We don't need to get into a thing on that. But. But miniseries, the way that they have.
John Podhoretz
Not good politically. Go ahead.
Christine Rosen
Right. They have the. They have room to breathe. And this is six episodes. So it doesn't go on too long.
John Podhoretz
It's.
Christine Rosen
That's fewer episodes than miniseries often are. It's just everything. They just, they just, they stuck the landing. They hit it perfectly. Another reason it's really good is because these are mercenary spies. And the show never becomes an anti capitalist agit prop project. They never, they never allow themselves to doze off into the easy because there they say, the leader says, we, we. We go to the highest bidder. And you could very easily see them jumping off from there into a kind of western capitalist decadence and whatever. And they don't, you know, the criminals are real criminals. The bad people are real bad people. And the other thing is that the spy, because Keira Knightley, she is the main character who obviously lives a double life. Her husband is a British politician and he, they never, and he is a genuinely good person and there's never any sort of like, well, we need to make the man, we need to sort of even out the score if the woman's going to be, you know, have a secret life and lie to people and whatever, maybe your husband can't be, you know, perfect and whatever. And they don't fall into that trap either. They fall into zero politically convenient traps that are very easy to fall into. And so they just, they nail it. It's, it's very good. It's not terribly predictable and I don't think it's too, I don't think it's very confusing. So. Yeah.
John Podhoretz
Okay, so that's Black Doves on netfl. Netflix.
Christine Rosen
On Netflix, yeah.
John Podhoretz
Okay, Matt, what do you got?
Unknown
Thank you, John. The best show I watched today this year was Shogun, the adaptation on FX Hulu. It won the most Emmy awards, I think in history, this past award show and they were all deserved. It is just an incredible, incredible production from the writing to the cinematography to the production design to of course the cast and the acting to the sound and music. I highly recommend you watch Shogun if you have not already. I've of course sung its praises before in the show. I will also make a note, it's not the best television I've watched this year, but one of my favorite all time comedy series, what we do in the Shadows is ending and we're now in the final season of what we do in the Shadows. What we do in the Shadows is an adaptation of a movie that came out almost a decade ago about three vampires living in a home together. In the FX Hulu TV show which premiered in 2019, there are four vampires living in an abandoned mansion in Staten Island, New York in the present day. One from the 14th century, Nandor the Relentless. Two from the 19th century, from Britain, slash, a Greek country that they made up. And then the energy vampire Colin Robinson, my favorite who, it's clear where, where his origin is, but he's just basic kind of early 21st century American. It's gone on now for I think this is the seventh and final season. The show is just as the New York Times put it, I think recently it's like the last Gafaw show on tv. Like it's genuinely funny show. And the reason is when you read about it, you learn that the four main characters, these comics, whether it's Matt, Matt Berry, who can make literally any word in the English language funny simply by pronouncing it, or whether it's Kayvon Novak who plays Nandor the relentless, the oldest one, or Mark Prokosh who plays the energy vampire, or Natasha Demetria who plays the wife of Matt Berry's character, Nadia. They ad lib all the time and it's just hysterical. So I will just end by saying for those of you who've never watched the show, there's some gore. It is a little bit adult at times because they're vampires, they've lived forever. They're pretty nihilistic, but they're laugh out loud funny. And I would just recommend that you try an episode from the current season which is one of the funniest episodes of the show. It's called Sleep Hypnosis. Just watch that episode and if you found it as funny as I did, you're going to like this show.
John Podhoretz
What we can we quickly explain the concept, the genius concept of the energy vampire. So of course they're vampires. So they suck blood. But that is not what Colin does. No, Colin sucks the life of the body by being unbelievably boring and he's like the guy at the water cooler.
Unknown
Everyone knows everyone has an energy vampire in their life. And fascinating when you learn a lot about vampire rules over the course of what we do in the shadows. And unlike the other vampires who are what you, you know from, you know, Bram Stoker's Dracula, you know, they suck the blood, they can't go out during the day. The energy vampires can go out during the day and can eat human food unlike the others. So they're essentially humans. But they also have this power where they, they drain your, your, your spirit, your social, your, your social energy. And the way in which Prokash plays it is just unendingly, unendingly funny.
John Podhoretz
Absolutely.
Abe Greenwald
Wait, are they immortal? The energy vampires?
Unknown
Well, yes, but you know, I don't want to spoil things.
Abe Greenwald
Don't. Okay.
Unknown
Yes.
John Podhoretz
Yeah. All right, well, I am, I am going to go with Landman the show on Paramount. Plus our January commentary cover story is an article about landmines. Writer, Director, creator, producer Taylor Sheridan, the anti woke king of Hollywood, as Rick Marin calls him in the COVID story. Landman is his either seventh or eighth series since Yellowstone which premiered eight years ago. So just to give you a sense, he's done Yellowstone, he's done mayor of Kingstown, he's done 1883, he's done 1923, he's done Tulsa King, he's done Lioness. And now he has done Landman. And Landman is a, I think, is the best thing that he's done, aside from his screenplay to the magnificent bank robbery movie Hell or High Water, which really put him on the map in 2016. It's the story of the project manager of a wildcat oil company in and around Midland, Texas. It's not Chevron, it's not Exxon. It is a small but profitable company working in the Permian Basin. And Billy Bob Thornton plays Tommy the Landman in one of what appears to be, after six episodes, one of the great television performances that has ever been given. And it is a highly realistic. Unlike Yellowstone, which is actually kind of a fantasy. It's kind of weird merger of Western myth and the Sopranos and, you know, sort of real estate development and all this. This is an actual story about an industry that is extremely dangerous to work in, that has its own rules and. And regulations, that is in this very interesting relationship to the federal government, to state governments, and that has to maneuver around not only an atmosphere in which liberal Washington is hostile to the industry and was looking for ways to destroy it, but also the cartel, Mexican drug cartels, which are using the same roads and using the same places and stealing planes owned by oil companies to transmit to transship drugs to America from Mexico. And this absolutely havoc of a personal life that Billy Bob Thornton has with a sort of crazy sexy ex wife and his two kids, one of whom is sort of like the Lolita of mid. Of Mid. Of. Of Midland. And the other is the boy who wants to follow in his footsteps, drops out of Texas Tech to learn how to be a landman, an oilman, and gets himself crosswise of the class divisions between the Mexican workers and the big guys who run the firm. And it is sensationally good. And that's my. That's my pick for the. For the best show of the year. So to recap, we have Dr. Jeff, Rocky Mountain Vet, not starring Billy Bob Thornton on Animal Planet. We have Landman starring Billy Bob Thornton on Paramount. Plus we have Shogun, which is on Hulu or now Disney on Hulu, if you are a Disney subscriber. And what we do in the Shadows, which is also on Hulu or on Disney, on Hulu or on fx. On Hulu, on Disney, on fx, on Hulu, on Disney. We have Black Doves on Netflix and we have From Christine Hacks on Max and Slow Horses on Apple tv. So Those are our recommendations for your viewing pleasure during this holiday season.
Unknown
We will be back tomorrow.
John Podhoretz
So for Matt, Christine, Seth and Abe, I'm John Podwortz. Keep the camel bur.
The Commentary Magazine Podcast: "Best TV of 2024" – Detailed Summary
Release Date: December 23, 2024
Host: John Podhoretz
Participants: John Podhoretz, Abe Greenwald (Executive Editor), Christine Rosen (Media Commentary Columnist), Seth Mandel (Senior Editor), Matthew Continetti (Washington Commentary Columnist)
In this holiday edition of The Commentary Magazine Podcast, host John Podhoretz and his panel of esteemed colleagues delve into their top television and streaming picks for 2024. Acknowledging the shift from traditional movie-going to binge-watching serial content, the discussion centers around standout shows that have captivated audiences this year.
Timestamp: 03:09
Abe Greenwald opens the discussion with a surprising choice:
“I'm going to open with a curveball. Because my TV tastes are strange and fluid, I am somehow unable to watch scripted TV for any length of time anymore... I have recently found a non-scripted show on Animal Planet called Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet. I love this show.”
Overview: Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet follows Dr. Jeff Young, a compassionate veterinarian, as he treats a variety of animals, from household pets to exotic wildlife. The show is lauded for its heartwarming narratives and medically intriguing cases.
Notable Highlights:
“It covers their whole team. Each episode... people bring in their adorable animals. You're immediately sucked in because your heart goes out because the dog is throwing up or the cat is limping.”
— Abe Greenwald [05:48]
Unique Appeal: Greenwald appreciates the non-political, uplifting nature of the show, providing a respite from more contentious programming.
Timestamp: 07:15
Seth Mandel presents two favorites, refusing to limit himself to a single pick:
Slow Horses
“I have a Gary Oldman obsession. Truly. I've seen everything he's ever been in... In this most recent season, although he's a little less front and center, he's still the sort of moral core of the show, which is just really well done.”
— Seth Mandel [07:10]
Overview: Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman, is a spy thriller that blends intense plotlines with deep character development. Despite occasional over-the-top scenarios, the series maintains a gripping narrative.
Hacks
“Hacks, my other favorite show, with Jean Smart playing a sort of aging comedian who reinvents herself with the help of a young and quirky writer. It's still well done... a portrait of the excess of Las Vegas and LA.”
— Seth Mandel [08:26]
Overview: Hacks features Jean Smart as an aging comedian navigating her career resurgence with the assistance of a young writer. The show is praised for its rich character arcs and vibrant settings.
Critical Acclaim: Both shows are celebrated for their stellar performances, particularly Gary Oldman’s in Slow Horses and Jean Smart’s in Hacks, as well as their ability to balance drama and humor effectively.
Timestamp: 13:13
Christine Rosen selects Black Doves, a highly acclaimed Netflix spy series:
“It is as good as the reviews all say it is. This was a very pleasant surprise... Keira Knightley is the protagonist... Ben Whishaw is phenomenally good.”
— Christine Rosen [13:11]
Overview: Black Doves centers on a group of mercenary spies led by Keira Knightley’s character. The series is noted for its original screenplay, avoiding adaptations of existing spy novels, which contributes to its fresh narrative approach.
Key Attributes:
“It has room to breathe. This is six episodes. So it doesn't go on too long... They just stuck the landing.”
— Christine Rosen [16:01]
Critical Perspective: Rosen commends Black Doves for its tight storytelling and refusal to succumb to predictable political narratives, making it a standout spy miniseries of the year.
Timestamp: 18:43
Matthew Continetti offers two diverse picks:
Shogun
“It won the most Emmy awards, I think in history... just an incredible production from the writing to the cinematography.”
— Matthew Continetti [18:43]
Overview: Shogun on FX Hulu captivates with its epic storytelling and high production values, earning numerous Emmy accolades. The show is commended for its authentic portrayal of complex narratives and superior technical execution.
What We Do in the Shadows
“What We Do in the Shadows is ending and we're now in the final season... hysterical. It is laugh out loud funny.”
— Matthew Continetti [20:21]
Overview: This adaptation follows the lives of modern-day vampires cohabiting in Staten Island, blending horror elements with sharp, improvisational comedy. The final season is highlighted for its sustained humor and creative storytelling.
Humor and Innovation: What We Do in the Shadows stands out for its improvisational style and fresh take on vampire lore, providing both laughs and engaging character dynamics.
“The energy vampires can go out during the day and can eat human food... They drain your social energy. The way in which Prokash plays it is just unendingly, unendingly funny.”
— Matthew Continetti [21:56]
Endorsement: Continetti enthusiastically recommends both shows for their unique contributions to their respective genres, emphasizing What We Do in the Shadows as a consistently funny and innovative series.
Timestamp: 13:13
John Podhoretz concludes the panel’s recommendations with Landman on Paramount:
“Landman is the best thing that he's done, aside from his screenplay to the magnificent bank robbery movie Hell or High Water... it is sensationally good.”
— John Podhoretz [21:35]
Overview: Landman, created by Taylor Sheridan, follows Tommy the Landman (Billy Bob Thornton), a project manager in the perilous oil industry of Midland, Texas. The series delves into the intricate dynamics between oil companies, federal regulations, and Mexican drug cartels, all while exploring Tommy’s tumultuous personal life.
Distinctive Features:
Connection to Current Articles: Podhoretz ties in the podcast’s January cover story on landmines, showcasing Landman's relevance and depth in exploring critical industry issues.
The panel wraps up with a comprehensive recap of their top TV and streaming picks for 2024:
Each recommendation highlights diverse genres and platforms, reflecting the panel’s varied tastes and the expansive quality of contemporary television.
“So Those are our recommendations for your viewing pleasure during this holiday season.”
— John Podhoretz [27:05]
Final Thoughts: The episode serves as a valuable guide for viewers seeking quality content across different genres and streaming services, encapsulating the essence of 2024’s best in television.
This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions and recommendations from The Commentary Magazine Podcast’s "Best TV of 2024" episode, providing insightful overviews and notable quotes to guide listeners and readers in exploring top-tier television content.