WEBVTT

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a lack of something to watch.
The#
choices are ne

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Jeffrey Brown consults some
critics as part#
of our arts and culture series,
Canvas.

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JEFFREY BROWN: And to help
guide#
us through this year's best
shows,##

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I'm joined by Lorraine Ali, the
news#
and culture

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and Jen Chaney, TV critic for#
Vulture and "New York Magazine."

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And hello to both of you.
Thanks for joining us.

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Why don't we start with new
shows?

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Jen Chaney, you want to start?
Give us two.

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JEN CHANEY, "New York
Magazine": Sure.

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One of the b

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was "The Last of Us," which was
a big#
HBO series based on a

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enduring video game, also
telling a story of#
a pandemic, but a different
kind of pandemic,##

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but certainly shades of that
catastrophic#
situation that people have to
endure through.

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I thought it was a wonderful#
series with two terrific
lead##

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performances from Pedro Pascal
and Bella Ramsey.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Connected with
people#
because of

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JEN CHANEY: Yes. So, I thought#
that was a terrific show.

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Another really great new show
that I feel#
like not enough people watched
is "

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Davis." It was on Peacock. It
was created by Tara#
Hernandez and Damo

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and "Watchmen." And it's so
hard to explain#
this show in a brief manner,
but it's about a##

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nun who is opposed to this
algorithm that is --#
everybody's kind of using to
guide their lives.

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And the algorithm challenges
her that if she finds#
the Holy Grail, the algorithm
will delete itself.

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ACTRESS: The Holy Grail?

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ACTRESS: The what now?

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JEFFREY BROWN: A nun, an#

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JE
N CHANEY: Right. I mean,#
we have seen

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but it's really good in this

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JEFFREY BROWN: I got it.
(LAUGHTER)

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LORRAINE ALI, The Los Angeles
Times: My#
first one is one that

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a lot of people saw. It's
called#
"The

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it is a dark comedy kind of
along#
the lines of a "Sweeney Todd"
urban##

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tale mixed with horror. And it
takes#
place in a gentrified
neighborhood##

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in New York. And this woman
gets out of#
prison. She's played by Justina
Machado,##

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who you might know from "One
Day at a Time,"#
the reboot, and also from "Six
Feet Under."

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She gets out of prison, returns
to her old#
neighborhood, only to find that
it's totally##

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been gentrified. How does she
survive? She moves#
in with the only person that
she still knows,##

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who runs an empanada shop.
Murders#
begin to happen. And then all
of a##

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sudden there's this new mystery
meat#
in the empanada that everybody
loves.

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(LAUGHTER)

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but funny series is that it#
looks at gentrification as a##

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form of cannibalism. And then
it kind#
of turns it on itself. It's
brilliant.

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JEFFREY BROWN: All right. You
got another one?

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LORRAINE ALI: I do.

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(LAUGHTER)

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My other one is "Poker Face."
And that is a#
series. It's kind of like a
detective se

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starring Natasha Lyonne. And
she really takes#
the grid of the old series
"Columbo" and turns##

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her own character out of that.
And so she is#
kind of like the female
Columbo. Each episode,##

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she is in another place in the
country solving#
a crime. She just plays this so
wonderfully.

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Natasha Lyonne, with her
gravely voice, chomping#
on a cigarette in this old late
model car,##

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it's just fantastic. And
there's#
something really charming
about##

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taking that old network idea of
a#
detective show and modernizing
it.

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JEFFREY BROWN: How about, Jen,
two older#
series? There were a number of
big ones##

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this year, including some that
came to an end.

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JEN CHANEY: Well, when I had to
make my#
list of the top 10 shows and
decide w

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number one was going to be, I
had a#
long debate internally with
myself,#

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and then I was like, you're
lying to#
yourself if you don't put
"Succession"...

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JEFFREY BROWN: At the top?

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JEN

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I mean,

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JEFFREY BROWN: You and a lot of
people.

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JEN CHANEY: And a lot of people.

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JEN CHANEY: I just thought they
ended that#
series perfectly. There was so
much tension,##

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just so many great
performances.#
I mean, the death of Logan
Roy,##

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sort of the patriarch of the
family,#
that episode alone where the
ki

04:11.600 --> 04:15.933 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
finding out that their father
died was#
just an incredible hour of
television.

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So I'm sad that it's gone,#
but a perfect way to go out.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Another one?

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JEN CH

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This is -- was only the second
season,#
but it had such a strong first
season.

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It's about a man in Chicago who
loses#
his brother and has to take
over the

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family restaurant business. And
in#
the second season, he's trying
to##

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do something totally different
and do like a#
more elevated, s

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it's just so much fun to watch.
You#
fall in love with the
characters. I

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literally miss these characters
every day that##

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that show is not on. I can't#

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JE
FFREY BROWN: Lorraine, do you
have a couple#
of older or perh

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LORRAINE ALI: "Reservation
Dogs."#
It was its third and final
season.##

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And this series did so much to
kind of#
open up the everyday life on
reservation.

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And the characters are
indigenous. And#
they're playing kids that are
kind of facing,##

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do we leave the reservation? Do
we stay here?#
This final season wrapped up an
incredibly##

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nuanced and quirky series with
tons of heart,#
but also this magic surrealism,
and then also##

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wrapping a lot of the history,
painful history, of#
Native Americans and what they
have gone through##

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into a modern tale. And I love
that series so#
much and those characters will
stay with me.

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My second pick would be
"Barry," which also#
wrapped up. The entire show
wrapped up. This is,##

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of course, the
hit-man-turned-actor. It's#
Bill Hader's HBO show. And I
thought the##

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ending of this would not be
easy to#
wrap up, but they really nailed
it.##

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And they nailed it in a way
that this hit#
man kind of comes off looking
like a hero.

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And it just so speaks to our#
times of like everything
being##

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upside down and not what it
should be morally.

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(LAUGHTER)

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JEFFREY BROWN: You know, just
in our last coup

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The -- can't really talk about
this here without#
thinking about the strike. What

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te
rms of any impact? Or, maybe
more importantly,#
what are you looking toward?
What will happen?

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JEN CHANEY: My concern going
into 2024 is#
that, in the wake of the
strike, there was##

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already a little bit of
reticence to take risks#
in Hollywood, both in film and
in television.

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And my concern is that it's
going to be even more#
stark, that people are going to
be I.P.-focused##

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and not necessarily as
interested in original#
stories. I hope I'm wrong, but
I'm getting the##

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sense from people in the
business that that#
is kind of the direction, at
least for now.

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And I think we're going to see#
constriction. We have so many
platforms,##

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so many TV shows. Everyone's
saying#
peak TV is over. And we'

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going to have as many shows,
which#
is probably better for my
sanity.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

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that aren't represented on TV
to have#
a place where they can be
represented.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Lorraine, what
do you see?

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LORRAINE ALI: Much the same.

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And I also see, when I'm
looking forward to#
ev

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it's looking pretty stark. It's
just there's#
not a lot there, and which
makes me really##

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grateful for what came out in
2023, because#
we have always complained, at
least over the##

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last five or six years, I'm
never going#
to have enough time to watch
everything.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Right.

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to be -- it's going to be kind
of, like,#
scarce and scant pickings for a
while.

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And I do -- I'm also concerned
about the idea#
that we're not going to get as
much creative##

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programming, but that's yet to
be seen.#
Just go back, find what you
haven't seen,##

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which there's probably a lot of
it. You will have#
plenty of time to binge in the
beginning of 2024.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Lorraine Ali and
Jen#
Chaney, thank you both very
much.

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JEN CHANEY: Thank you.

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LORRAINE ALI: Thank you.