Retreating From Jury Duty

Dave 0:13 This is the Extra Extra Hot Great Podcast, episode 401 for the March 21st, 2026 weekend. I am Wasabi Octopus Potato Chips, David T. Cole. And I'm here with book cooker Tara Ariano. Tara 0:33 Never been audited, but I can recall. We'll be right, Welcome to Extra, Extra Hot Great for another weekend. Thank you so much for your support. Thank you for your messages of love and care and optimism to our departed Sarah. She will be back. Dave 1:04 She's not departed. Tara 1:05 She's not departed. She's departed from the podcast. Dave 1:07 Right. In the sense that we are an airplane terminal. Tara 1:11 We are here today because Netflix screwed us over by releasing Peaky Blinders colon The Immortal Man to theaters two weeks before it was going to be on Netflix. It is, as you're listening to this, on Netflix now, but it was originally going to be our topic, and now it's not because we went and saw it in the theater and it was old to us. Instead, that's how Dave got roped into watching Jury Duty Season 2. Back in 2023, Jury Duty, which was created by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stepnitsky, former writers on The Office, was a sensation on freebie for essentially making a real-life Truman show about Ronald, a solar panel installer who had been called up for the titular civic service. At the end, the actors who had spent days deceiving Ronald the whole time they were around him, explained how they did it, and then rewarded him $100,000 for being so nice. And probably so that he wouldn't sue them. Ronald was signed on to an overall talent deal with Amazon NGN Studios, which does not seem to have amounted to anything. And the show was nominated for three Emmys, one for writing. Tara 2:20 One for James Marsden's performance as himself, and one for outstanding comedy series, which I'm sorry to editorialize in the intro is preposterous. There was no way Amazon would not try to keep a success like this rolling. But how? Well, by changing the format. In season two, Jury Duty presents Company Retreat. Anthony Norman is the chump hired to temp for Rockin' Grandma Hot Sauce just before its staffers all head into the woods for some professional development. All eight episodes dropped on Prime Video March 20th. theoretically we may talk about events for many of them. Chen check-in time. Dave, should our listeners watch Jury Duty Season 2? I move for a bad court thingy. You mean a mistrial? Yeah, it's a no for me as well. And I think I'm in the minority of people who didn't like season one. Let's get into it. Dave, other than my ongoing suspicion about the show being faker than it admits to be, you did not have any exposure to season one. And so having sampled season two, how desperate are you to go back and see where it all began? Dave 3:24 Boy, this show, and assuming the first season follows the same general format, seems foundationally broken to me. And it's incredibly unsatisfying to watch. It's a shame that two weeks in a row we're dealing with shows that genuinely may be angry how poorly they're constructed. Scarpetta and now Jury Duty, two very similar shows, by the way. Tara 3:48 Yeah, get your shit together, Amazon. on. Dave 3:50 So the setup is everyone but our point of view character, Anthony, is an actor and they are in on the conceit. But also, and here's the real puzzler for me, they are always in character, even when the clueless POV character is in the next state over. So what you get is a lot of Diet Crystal, Pepsi, The Office, where there are these actors that are putting on this facade, But then they're also doing like mockumentary bits outside of the actual day-to-day filming of this guy trying to interact in this new job he has and then going on the company retreat. Tara 4:31 Yeah. Dave 4:31 It's unsatisfying and it's neither cringy or funny. I just found it completely flat and just, as I said, foundationally broken. Yeah. Tara 4:41 Yeah. So my theory about season one, and I wrote about it for Cracked, I did not put this part in it because it made me seem crazy, but I will tell you. Dave 4:49 Okay. Tara 4:49 Because right from the beginning, similar in season one to season two, they establish what the premise is, which is there's only one guy who doesn't know what's happening here. Right. But because of the way they tape people in their like talking heads, still in character, like you said, in this first episode of season two, we see a guy in his car alone still being in character, like for whom? To what end? which is what made me think at the whole time I was watching it that originally there was another idea of like the the show would not reveal to the viewer what was happening until the end because why else have the illusion continue when the mark isn't there yeah. Dave 5:28 I can see that. Tara 5:29 You know what I mean like that that was going to be like the surprise twist or that there was like Ronald was going to reveal that he was in on it all along because otherwise that's the name of the guy in of season one. I don't know why it was constructed the way it was. And I don't know why anyone would not be more weirded out by the stuff that happened. And the problem with season two is also because something like this has to be a sort of a boiling a frog scenario, right? You have to ramp up to the craziness. And that's even more true when you're dealing with a fake workplace, because if anyone is like super duper weird, then the mark is going to be like, why has this person not been fired yet, how are they still part of this corporate team? More so than in Jury Duty, where everyone could be a freak and that's what you expect, basically. So this one has to start even flatter before it ramps up to anything. And it's such a slow burn that whatever outrageousness people, I assume, liked about season one, we don't even get there yet. And the other problem with Jury Duty season two now is that in the intervening time, because it took so long to, I assume, come up with a concept to do for season two that didn't just repeat the first one. Tara 6:39 We've had a whole new season of the Joe Schmoe's show, which is the same kind of thing as well. And that one, it does show you behind the scenes. You go into the control room and you see how producers are in people's ears telling them what to do to react. It's not a great show. It's better than this. At least it shows you how you make something like this in a more compelling way. Dave 7:00 Yeah, I don't understand why they won't show us the process in this show. That is the most interesting part of this. How are they getting away with this? What are they doing when Anthony starts sniffing in the wrong place or some actor overextends their performance and it just seems weird? Tara 7:16 Yeah. Dave 7:16 Little things like that. And they have to deal with in real time. As you say, it's like the control room and they're dealing with a live award show. And just how do they keep everything sane and organized? Tara 7:27 Yeah. Dave 7:27 That to me is the hook of this. And just when it is a show, except one of the actors got there at the last minute and didn't have the script, that's what it feels like. Tara 7:37 Yes. Dave 7:38 And that just doesn't really work for me. I don't really understand the appeal of that setup, but I guess some people do because the first season was kind of a hit. Tara 7:47 Yeah. The other problem about this concept for season two is like you're taking someone. He's a temp, right? He's hired for this job. He's obviously hoping eventually like, oh, if I do well, they'll hire me full time. This is the dream of every temp. And so he's naturally predisposed to roll with whatever weirdness happens because he doesn't want to lose out on the like the opportunity. so it already has sort of has its hand on the scales already with that and i also feel like this season more so than last season it's more obvious when like a storyline that has been predetermined is being deployed like in the first episode we have a proposal that as soon as there's you see the guy and he's telling anthony oh i'm really excited i'm gonna propose to amy it's gonna be great obviously you know the only reason they're doing this is so it can go wrong right Yeah. And then in season in the second episode, rather, there's another thing where it's like, and now we have to go look around the whole property and see who stole the chips. And it's like, it just seems so ham handed that the more you watch Anthony, like the more you first of all feel bad that he's fallen in with this weird company at this time. But also just on the upper metal level, it's like, he's so hopeful that he's going to be part of this, like, we're a family kind of a company. And you know, he's not. Like, even if he's getting a big cash payment, like, okay, well, I'm sure he'd probably rather have a job. Dave 9:14 Yeah, there's going to be 45 seconds of terror for this guy between the moment where they tell him what's going on and then they give him some sort of consolation prize. Tara 9:24 Yeah. It just feels much more mean-spirited than the first season. Dave 9:27 Okay. Tara 9:28 So that's the show. I mean, it's like none of these characters, they're not weird enough on their face. Like there's the accountant that's drunk. There's the IT person who works remote and is scared of the sun. There's like the son who's about to take over for his retiring dad as CEO of the company, who's like store brand Connor O'Malley, who's trying to do a lot. He lived in Jamaica for four years. So he keeps lapsing into like a Jamaican accent. And one of the black employees of the company keeps telling him to stop. Dave 9:56 Yeah, he's the guy from Superstore. Marcus. Tara 10:00 It's a bummer. I'm sure that like people who really liked season one were looking forward to this. And it's such a comedown. And the fact that it took them three years to bring it out, too, is also like we waited this long for this. Like this is not going to get nominated for Emmys. Dave 10:15 Yeah, maybe a little angry. Not going to lie. Tara 10:17 Yep. Dave 10:20 You know what doesn't make me angry? It's this theme to ask EAHG, recently nominated for 2,000 Emmys. And a humanitarian award, which is great. Tara 10:36 Oh. Dave 10:46 All right, this is an advanced tape, so we're just going to skip judgment. We'll be back soon and we'll catch up. So first question is from Pizza Carrie. Hi, Pizza Carrie. Remember the summer of 1989 when everyone went nuts for Batman? What was up with that? Tara, what was up with that? Tara 11:03 Yeah, that's a great question. Dave 11:05 Wait, before you get into it, did you shave the Batman logo into your head? Tara 11:08 Of course. Dave 11:09 Okay, yeah, we all did. Tara 11:10 But enough about me. My best answer is everything was different. In monoculture time, Like in any given week, we had four things that we could become obsessed about. And if it wasn't going to be baby Jessica in a whale, in a whale, in a whale, in a whale would have been more interesting. Dave 11:24 In a whale, in a whale. That would have been great. Tara 11:27 Season two of baby Jessica. You would pick a thing and then that would be the thing everyone knew about for months. Dave 11:33 Okay. But there's monoculture. But the thing I think maybe she's getting at is there was a whole bunch of like, there was a news ecosystem around the launch of Batman. because Batman had that really, for its time, unique marketing push where they just had the fucking logo on the poster, unheard of, that the name of the movie wasn't on some of the posters. And then that carried through to where people were, yes, shaving the logos into their head, breaking bus stops apart to get to those posters. There's a lot of foo-froa going on culturally around the movie, not actually speaking to the movie. And there was this mass delusional bat mania happening amongst the populace that was different from, say, like, there's a new Star Wars coming out in 1983, you know, so I'll go see it. This seemed different where there's like some sort of, like I said, mania involved. Yeah. And I'm not quite sure what caused it. Tara 12:26 Well, I think in advance, people were dubious about it. They were like, Michael Keaton is Batman? What the fuck? Mr. Mom? Dave 12:35 Yeah. Tara 12:35 And then it was a great movie. I mean, it's not great. It was a fun movie. it's enjoyable to watch it's a Christmas movie put it on your Christmas movie list is it? Dave 12:43 The second one is. I didn't know the first one was. Tara 12:45 I'm pretty sure the first one is, too. But I might be wrong. Dave 12:48 And with an E-E-E, which Lucille Bluth quote resonates with you the most on a spiritual level? I don't understand the question. I won't respond to it. It's pretty high up there. And Tara's is, what could a banana cost? $10? Tara 13:03 You're correct. Dave 13:04 All right. Tara 13:04 That's the one. Me saying, it's not that expensive. Really, how much is that, Ken? I don't know. I didn't look. Dave 13:12 That's right. Price tags are for chumps, says Tara. And she opens her purse and a moth flies out. Jovial Jen, I saw a title for a 30 Rock compilation called Jack Donaghy Quotes I Sent to My Therapist. So what's another TV character quote you would send to your therapist? Tara. Tara 13:31 There is an episode of Friends, of course, everyone knew I was going to say this, when Chandler and Monica are first dating and he has to finally admit to her that he doesn't like it when she gives him massages because she does it terribly. it's too hard and too pointy and it's just bad. Dave 13:45 Yeah. Tara 13:46 But he has to couch it to her so she doesn't get too heartbroken by saying she gives the best bad massage. And so she's asking, if there was ever an award for the best bad massage, he says it would go to you. And she says, so maybe they could call the award the Monica? And that's what I would send to my therapist if I had one. Dave 14:04 Dave. I'm going to go with an Al Swearshan quote from Deadwood. The declining years spare us no fucking indignities. Tara 14:12 Thank you. Dave 14:13 Milsnack, if you knew that tomorrow you would start a Groundhog Day loop for a full year that's time-based, not outcome-based, if you're there for the whole year, what would you do today to prepare for that? First of all, clean clothes. I just realized if you have to wear the clothes and somehow they're like a little stinky or sweaty or something like that, you'd be caught in those. Or you'd have to spend a good chunk of your day going to get clean clothes every day and putting them on, blah, blah, blah. Especially if we're in a Bill Murray-esque out-of-town one where it's Groundhog Day, but you're not at your house. That's very important. But if we're in another town, you need to, the day before, buy all the snacks you may think you would want over a year, considering that you need more than one level, more than one type, because you will get bored if you're eating dill pickle chips every day, as much as I like them. You're going to want something for week three that's different. So you have to plan that out, spend some time, get a Gantt chart. Plan out all your snacks. Tara 15:09 Yeah. Dave 15:10 And third thing, a lock picking kit. Tara 15:13 That's good. I didn't think of the snack thing. That's really smart. I just put clear my schedule. I wouldn't be out of town. If I knew it was coming, I would come home. Dave 15:24 Wow. Tara 15:25 Well, I was just thinking like. Dave 15:26 Practical and tidy. Tara 15:28 And boring, I know. But, you know. Dave 15:31 I would pre-make my oatmeal that was waiting for me. Tara 15:35 I don't want to have to like go to the doctor. every day for a year. You know what I mean? Dave 15:41 Yeah. Diatho, they have brought back Limp Sync Battle, but it's just for podcasters. What do you sing? Tara 15:48 I don't sing anything. It's a lip sync battle. Dave 15:52 Twist! The boring lady nobody liked just won the question Super Bowl. Tara 16:01 In the spirit of the question, I would perform Dancing Queen. So a song that's popular, it's a crowd pleaser. I know it inside out. I would not have a problem remembering what my lips are supposed to be doing. Dave. Dave 16:14 Yeah, if I caught that little gotcha, I may have not picked this song because I think it would have to be sung terribly in order to be a great experience. Because I can't sing. First of all, no thank you to this scenario. You can sing. Tara 16:25 You can. Dave 16:26 No, I can't. No. Tara 16:28 I've heard you. Dave 16:28 No, it's because you love me, Tara. You think I can sing, but I'm terrible. I know it. Anyways, the song of choice would be The Devil Went Down to Georgia. That would be fun to sing. Tara 16:37 Yeah. Dave 16:37 In theory. Raphael, what's the show that you absolutely love but would never have found on your own? What was the source that directed you to that show? Their example is Lodge 49, talking about it on this show. Tara 16:50 Yep. Dave 16:50 I am going to go with Garth Marenghi's Dark Place. I think it was somebody on the Discord or... Tara 16:57 I think it was a canon pitch before we watched the whole thing. Dave 17:00 Was it? Tara 17:00 Yeah, I think Jeb Lund pitched it for the canon, and then we watched them all. Dave 17:04 That makes sense, and I'm remembering that to be true now. Okay, great. So it was actually from this podcast, but not from us. And here's a little taste of Garth Marinki's Dark Place. It looked like I was going to have to spend the night in Glasgow. Jesus Christ. A, My aunt lives in Scotland. She says it's quite nice. All right. We got your time. Tara 17:42 I think it was Emily Ishida, past and future, hopefully guest, on Grantland's Girls in Hoodies podcast that I first heard talking about Black Mirror. Dave 17:50 Oh, yeah. Tara 17:51 Okay. It wasn't you? Because then I was like, did Dave read about it on Reddit or something? Dave 17:55 No. Tara 17:55 Okay. So let's give Emily credit for that one. I think we also got flying to England from her as a euphemism for how you find things. I'm pretty sure. and I had also checked out on Happy Endings I watched the pilot and then it like didn't grab me and so I dipped and then when season two came out I believe it was Mo Ryan tweeting about it another past and future guest that it was good in season two so I went back and watched it and she was right it is good all right. Dave 18:20 E.C. Fallon, in honor of Survivor Season 50, when did you quit watching current long-running shows, Survivors, Grey's Anatomy, The Simpsons, Various Laws and Order, American Idol, etc.? Are there any of these type of shows you're still watching? Darn. Tara 18:35 Do you want to just go back and forth on each show? Dave 18:37 Sure. Tara 18:37 Okay. Survivor, I stopped in 2007. Dave 18:40 Okay. I don't remember, but the last one I remember a lot of things from is Season 8. That was the All-Star season. Tara 18:46 Mm-hmm. Dave 18:47 And I think it dipped pretty soon after that. Tara 18:48 Yeah. Grey's Anatomy, I know you never watched it. I quit on the season two finale. Like I watched it and then I never went back other than for when demanded to. The Simpsons, somewhere between 2012 and 2014. I just know we were living in LA at the time. And at some point we were like, this is not fun anymore. We can stop. Dave 19:07 Yeah. I went through the episode list because I know in my head I stopped enjoying it in season 11. But we did keep trying, giving it the college try for some reason. God knows why. Just it was a habit. We've been watching it for nine years, and it was just hard to give up. Season 11 is the Saddlesword Galactica season, aka the Panda Rape episode. Tara 19:27 Oh, yeah. Dave 19:28 So that was the last season I think I watched in full. And after that, it starts tapering off. It wasn't appointment television anymore. Tara 19:36 Mm-hmm. Dave 19:36 Mm-hmm. All right. Laws in order? Tara 19:38 Yeah, you never watched any of these. Dave 19:39 Not religiously. I've seen enough through this podcast and just the A&E block. Remember? Tara 19:45 Oh, yeah, of course. Dave 19:46 Law and Order Northern Exposure news radio block. So it would sort of be on, but I wasn't paying attention to it. Not my type of thing. Tara 19:53 I watched Law & Order first run. I probably stopped sometime between 2007. Again, I'm carbon dating all of these from where we lived at the time. So that was when we were in New York. I had stopped before the series finale because there were seasons with Anthony Anderson and Jeremy Sisto, whereas I don't remember any of that. Criminal Intent, don't remember. Definitely it was before the finale. Like SVU, I quit in 2018. It was right after we moved here. I was just like broke the habit. American Idol, I don't think either of us really watched it. Definitely you didn't. I didn't. And do not watch any of them now. Dave 20:31 Nope. Tara 20:31 Considered coming back to Survivor for season 50, but I have not. It's funny that Amazing Race is not on this list because that is one that I stopped for like probably 20 seasons and then went back to it and now I do regularly watch it. Dave 20:44 Yeah, I don't think I have any. I like to quit a show and then leave it in the desert to watch their bones bleach. Tara 20:49 I do feel that way. Sometimes when I see a show that I've quit and it's still going, I'm like, why do you bother? I'm not watching anymore. I am, of course, the main character of existence. Dave 21:01 You just lost yourself a customer. Tara 21:03 Would they call it the Monica? Dave 21:06 Seekent, how long does it take to do all the pre-air prep for a typical episode? Clips, discussion questions, game time and clips, etc. Well, you're talking about two different people here because Tara does the discussion questions, which takes you how long? Tara 21:20 Like a half hour. Yeah, this is not counting watching the show. Right. Dave 21:24 Not counting watching hours, which can be anywhere from an hour, hour and a half to like eight hours. Tara 21:30 Nine hours with the pit. Watch every last second they gave us. Dave 21:35 First of all, identifying and then cutting the clips. Figuring out game time sometimes is quick, but sometimes takes all day because it's me doing it. And I have a BMI bonnet about doing something with clips. And so typically it takes me a working day to prep for something. If I'm really lucky, it'll be like four or six hours. And then about two or three hours in post per episode. Takes a long time. Beezo or Laura, aside from Dave or Tara or Sarah, do you know who has successfully gotten the most things into the canon or the known act? Tara 22:07 No, next question. Just kidding. I don't know, but I think probably Will Leach has the highest hit rate. I don't know if that correlates to actual numbers, but his percentage is high. Dave 22:17 That's true. And I didn't track that info. There's a lot of things I would have tracked knowing how people love statistics like this. Tara 22:24 Yeah. Dave 22:24 If I had the knowledge back in the day. But I'm going to guess, because he's been on the show, I think maybe the most or very close to the most, and that he usually presents, I'm going to say my bet would be Nick Reinwell-Jones. Tara 22:37 Yeah, I thought that too. Dave 22:38 Here is your question to answer, listeners. It comes from Vandy. What series do you want to see do a Renaissance Festival episode? Put your answers in our Ask Ask EHG channel, or you can email me, david at cole.fyi. And we'll be back soon with Judgment on that one too. Dave 22:57 It is time for the extra, extra hot, great tiny canon presenting this week. It's Catherine. They say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is. Boy, that line. Tara 23:59 Parthenon is. They say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is. They say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is that they... Tara 24:40 Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Go out of your house, Stephen. This better be good. do they say? What do they say? He's going to say, he's going to say, he's going to say, he's going to say, he's going to say, he's going to say, he's going to say, Oh, no! How can I write it down? Read it, it says it there. You've got to tell us now. Tara 25:59 APPLAUSE, Do they? Yeah. Whatever. LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE. Tara 27:59 Other viewers, quote, I don't think I'll ever forget what they say about the Acropolis where the Parthenon is. So if this outtake is new to you, I hope that I've introduced you to an enjoyable, Acropolis where the Parthenon is, there are no straight lines. Thank you, Catherine. This was new to me. What a delight. Laughed watching it, laugh just listening to it a joy to see all of the like phases that it goes through in such a short time you can see steven fried he flubs the line and then he does reset it so the editors can get it clean because he's a professional but then like the panelists are so funny they can't help jumping on doing a riff and he lets it happen because he knows it's too funny to stop and also what's the point if he was like all right quit it it would just make them do it more Mark. Also, because he's a professional. The Spontaneous Song is great. The song repeats, hilarious. Stephen Fry laughing at himself until he cries is so cute because, you know, this is like one of the most erudite men who's ever lived. And even he can flub a line every now and then. Pobody's nerfic, Dave. Dave 29:21 I know. Tara 29:21 But weirdly, my favorite part of it is when the laughter finally dies down and he gets the line out and then Jimmy Carr just goes, do they? Like, just throws it away. I know Jimmy Carr is a terrible man, but he's also extremely quick and that made me laugh. So this was great. Every part of it is great. Thank you for bringing it to us, Dave. Dave 29:39 Oh, the part I don't understand. And granted, Catherine didn't seem 100% on it. How did this not make it into the actual show, if that's the case? That is gold. Tara 29:50 It is. Dave 29:51 Like, I gotta believe it was in the show. Tara 29:53 I would hope. Dave 29:54 Yeah. The only other thing I have to add is it may be a little angry, just because I like to be angry about stupid things, that they have their series letters. Tara 30:03 Oh, yeah. Dave 30:04 Series A, B, C, D, E. Apparently, it's like thematic to the letter, the stuff they do in that series. Tara 30:10 Okay. Dave 30:10 But still, come on. Tara 30:13 Yeah. Be normal. Dave 30:14 But this was really funny. And watching people break that really don't have that reputation, of course, is fantastic. It's one thing when Jimmy Fallon does it 20 times on Saturday Night Live, an episode. Tara 30:26 That's right. Dave 30:26 Something else entirely when Stephen Fry does it. So I thought it was really great. New to me as well. Super fun. And yes, I will never forget about the law of the lines. Tara 30:36 Never. Dave 30:36 Shall we put this to the boat? Tara 30:37 Sure. Dave 30:38 All right, Tara, let's say you. Tara 30:39 Yay. Dave 30:40 Me too. So. Acropolis fun fact from QI. You are hereby inducted into the extra hot, great, tiny, flubbed line cannon. Tara 30:50 Woo! Dave 30:52 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Sometimes your brain and mouth are cooperating, sometimes they are not. Tara 31:05 And no one knows that better than Stephen Fry. Dave 31:07 Today we are dispensing with not-quite-winners and losers of the week and shifting to not-quite-top-11 lists. I will start off with the not-quite-top-22 TV show titles that sound like either a ham, a cheese, or a pasta shape. Are you ready, Tara? Tara 31:26 Uh-huh. Dave 31:27 Number one, Forbidelson. Number two, Fowda. Fauda, Fauda, Fauda. Number three, Rizzoli and Isles, but mostly the Rizzoli. Number four, Felicity. Number five, Archer. Very strong. Tara 31:41 Sharp. Dave 31:42 Number six, Yellowstone. Number seven, a nice slab of Wallander. Tara 31:47 Ham. Dave 31:48 Number eight, Shetland. Tara 31:50 Cheese. Dave 31:51 Number nine, Samurai Jack. It's a little spicy. Treme, yuck. Daria. Number 12, Black Adder. 13, MacGyver. 14, mmm, Brockmire. Delicious. Number 15, can I interest you in a spoonful of Ripley? Number 16, Beretta. Number 17, oh no, a swelling froggit. Why is this cheese got green stuff in it? Number 18, American Gigolo. Number 19, a little bit of Murphy Brown. Number 20, Alf. And coming in last, 21, is Kolchak, the Night Stalker. It's all three. Tara 32:39 Oh. Dave 32:40 Tara, what do you got? Tara 32:41 Well, inspired by Jury Duty Season 1, I've got the not quite top 11 funniest moments from legal hearings on TV. And these are in the order I thought of them. Clip one. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, who do you find more attractive? Ooh, he's gonna win. Mr. Hutz. Number two. Now, my caddy chauffeur informs me that a bank is. Dave 33:22 A place where people put money that isn't properly invested. Tara 33:26 That one wasn't on the list. Dave would have made me sleep on the lawn. Dave 33:30 Yeah, that's from Futurama. Tara 33:31 Sure is, from Futurama. Yeah, next one is from Friends, and a couple of these need a little setup, so this is one. Ross agrees to let Rachel fill out the form for their marriage annulment because he lied to her about having done it several episodes earlier because he was just, you know, hoping they could just stay married and it would be fine. So she goes a little overboard with her japes and jests in her paperwork in clip three. I'm not addicted to heroin I'm not gay And there is no problem. Tara 34:31 We uh we got married in vegas and uh and the names i think i've just always thought in the names i think was very funny clip four is from seinfeld well would you tell this jury exactly what you saw at the corner of 83rd street in columbus. Tara 35:19 About her! the uh brenda strong episode as sue ellen mishke who elaine gives a bra as a passive aggressive gesture and she just wears it like a top and causes a car accident this next one is from the curb your enthusiasm series finale slash seinfeld series finale do over clip five. Tara 36:39 Job at a library. No, I think the infirmary. Maybe something in reception. Hello, jail, can I help you? Say this. This next one is from Succession. It is Greg testifying before the Senate. Clip six. Gregory Hirsch, executive assistant to Tom Wamsgans, correct? Tara 37:19 No, thank you, sir. So I shall. No wonder he's nervous. He's testifying to a vampire. This next one is from recent Extra Extra Hot Great Topic Strip Law. In this episode, Glem, played by Stephen Root, makes like Aaron Brockovich for a town in Nevada that has had its water supply contaminated with liquor He drinks eight glasses before his closing, which goes like this. Your Honor, my best friend is a little kid, and she motivated. Tara 38:31 Help me. I just want pants. Oh, yes. Hi. Can you open it to the guy? Dave 38:53 Against nature. He's right. That one went on for a while. Tara 39:00 Yeah, it did. Well, you know. This next one is from Going Dutch. Colonel Quinn wants to fire his Dutch employee Jan for running over Private Chapman on a bike, and he makes attending the proceedings mandatory for everybody on base, and his daughter is basically defending Jan, so let's hear that. Sir, would you prefer he worked nonstop and became a terrible. Tara 39:52 Proud of me? I did the job. Answer the question. I'm very proud of you. Felt even better than she imagined. And the last two are, of course, we're going back to The Simpsons. Let's hear them. Your Honor, even though I've proven my client's innocence, I'd still like to call Freddy. Dave 40:36 Especially those of you in the jury! They're guilty. Tara 40:41 Finally. Well, what about that tattoo on your chest? Doesn't it say, die, Bart, die? Dave 40:55 No one who speaks German can be an evil man. Classic. Tara 40:59 Thank you. Tara 41:07 Welcome in, grandpas. You've missed us both getting real mad about Jury Duty Season 2. We talked about QI for the tiny flub line cannon. We've done a lot. So if you can, go to extrahotgreat.com slash club, kick up that pledge to the $5 level. You will get the full episode. You'll get all the full episodes that we have done ever. Tara 41:30 This topic is from me. It is Power ranking Charlie's love interests from Two and a Half Men. This month marks the 15th anniversary of Charlie Sheen getting fired from Two and a Half Men. So we're turning our focus to the women who are all better off. Without him, some are doing better than others. The best part of this is it does not require us to have watched Two and a Half Men at all. But we're going to be power ranking them as they stand in 2026. And the ladies are Susan Blakely, April Bulby, Melanie Linsky, Jenny McCarthy, Catherine Lanaza, Denise Richards, Jerry Ryan, Jennifer Taylor, Ming-Na Wen, and Emmanuel Vaugier. These were supposed to be in alphabetical order, and I got kind of confused around the L's and M's. So never mind. This is still the order we're going to do them in. Start with Susan Blakely. She's, you know, an older person. And the opportunities for well-preserved older actresses who might be anywhere from 55 to 80 is kind of limited. Because if you don't look like an old lady, you don't get old lady parts. She seems like she's semi-retired. And with apologies to co-ed Call Girl, where I believe she played Tori Spelling's mother, she never really turned her big break in Rich Man, Poor Man into anything much. Within less than a decade after that, she was on the love boat. So sorry to this woman, but I have her in 10th place for one point. Dave 42:55 Dead last. Tara 42:55 I do have her dead last. Dave 42:57 Gosh. She was in The Towering Inferno, playing Patty, daughter to the evil capitalist overlord of the skyscraper? and did not put enough anti-fire sprinklers or whatever in his building. Tara 43:12 And then everybody died. Dave 43:13 But not a lot outside that in Rich Man, Poor Man. So I actually put her ninth because I think there's somebody has a sadder case that I will present. Tara 43:21 Oh, boy. Well, we'll get to it. I'm eager to see who it is. Next up, we've got April Bowlby. She had a great run as sexy girl guest star for a while on Two and a Half Men. She did it on Mom. She did it on How I Met Your Mother. She rode that to playing Rita Farr on Doom Patrol. She's unfortunately now in her sexy lady guest star era, and those roles seem less common, judging by her having basically no credits since Doom Patrol. There's one that's marked upcoming with Jack Quaid and Brie Larson, but it also has Meghan Markle in it. So this thing just might never, you know, be coming out. Dave 43:57 Netflix pulled the plug on funding. Yeah. Similar thinking. She was fine in Doom Patrol playing Elastigirl, whatever her superhero name was. I put her seventh. Tara 44:07 Okay. Dave 44:08 The Close Personal Friends, I believe, is happening because it is in post-production according to IMDb. So unless you're going to write it off for tax reasons, I think it will come out. And she's billed fourth, so not enough. Tara 44:19 Okay. Well, here's hoping it's real. Next up, we've got Melanie Linsky. Like so many Showtime series, Yellow Jackets, which she stars in, fizzled the longer it went on. But she was the most well-known older lady star, arguably. I guess it's tied with Christina Ricci, maybe. She's continued to do other noteworthy projects on her Yellow Jackets downtime. She was in The Last of Us, for example. And her role in The Perks of Being a Wallflower showed she's not scared to act way against type dark, dark part. And once she's freed from Yellow Jackets, I'm confident we will see her going back to interesting work again. So I have her in first place for 10 points. Dave 44:59 Yeah, I agree. I think she's a high demand character actor that can do anything, even though we tend to put her in the drama side of a dramedy a lot. But she can go all the way. And, you know, she has also in Last of Us playing a murked out city leader. Tara 45:16 Yeah, warlord of some kind. Dave 45:17 Yeah. So I also put her one because I think she is in demand and has been for a while and will continue to be. So she is just a workhorse. Tara 45:27 Next up, Jenny McCarthy. Oof. Yes. This list is roof. It is. It's a land of contrast. She's a lunatic anti-vaxxer, obviously. We would like her to go away. Unfortunately, her face name and screaming voice are all known quantities. And if she decided she wanted to do a sitcom next year, someone would hire her for it. It would be on CBS. Dave 45:52 Is she still on Masked Singer? Tara 45:53 She is. And so let's be grateful that she's fine being kept by CBS's own Donnie Wahlberg, her husband, and contained on The Masked Singer. Let's hope she does not break containment. But for now, I have her in fifth place for six points. Dave 46:09 Yeah, this list, if you see the past 10 years, 85% of it is herself. So it's one of those moves. Most recent credit is for the 2025 Fox Winter Preview. Tara 46:21 Great. Dave 46:22 Which is not a preview of winter. It's all the, which would be, you know, it's a little colder, maybe some snow, depending how far north you are. But it was all the great shows coming to Fox. It was like, this is what you're doing. First of all, they need a host for that. Tara 46:35 Right. Dave 46:35 I put her six, which is higher than I would like on a personal level, but she can still get work. Tara 46:41 Yeah. Dave 46:42 And the ones below that, I don't think they can. Tara 46:45 Next, Catherine Lanaza. Of course, we all know and love her as Nurse Dana on the pit. If you don't know and love her as Nurse Data on the Pit, I don't want to know you. Dave 46:55 What's wrong with your soul? Tara 46:56 Seriously, this is the kind of later career high point most actresses in their 50s dare not dream of. She is, by the way, 59. Looks unbelievable. Her Emmy win for this role is probably not her last, or at the very least, she'll probably get nominated for it again. I don't think she's had time to capitalize on this resurgence yet, just because it takes so much time to film the show. But I'm confident that she will Also married to Grant Show There's no bad here Right So I have her in second place Nine points You. Dave 47:27 Know she has two tickets too. Tara 47:29 Gun Show, The Grants. Dave 47:32 Fuck. Tara 47:33 Wow. Guys, this is our third podcast of the day. My brain is tired. Two tickets to The Grant Show. Of course. Of course. Dave 47:43 So she's been working for a while, but obviously The Pit has raised her profile a lot and deservedly so. She is great in it. Tara 47:51 100%. Dave 47:51 Previous to The Pit, she seems to catch a good series run every three years has been her history previous to The Pit. Tara 47:58 Yep. Dave 47:58 These titles, Deception, Satisfaction, Impostors, Katie Keene. All right, Peter, I know you like that show. Tara 48:04 I know I did. Dave 48:05 And Truth Be Told. So over the past 15, 20 years, she's been snagging some good stuff, but just not so much that she has become a name. But I think she is now. Tara 48:15 Yes. Dave 48:15 She's one of the breakouts from the pit. Tara 48:17 For sure. Dave 48:18 So I put her number two. I think she's not working as much as other people on this list you expect to be hired, but her star is ascending. Tara 48:26 Yes. Dave 48:26 So that's why I put her two. Tara 48:27 And it's a story we love to see, again, like a 59-year-old having a whole new life, really, work-wise. Dave 48:34 You know what she has two tickets to? Tara 48:37 The Grant Show? Dave 48:37 No, The Gun Show. She's a big rifle advocate. Tara 48:42 He bought her those tickets. That's nice of him. And he was like, you don't have to take me. She probably will. Next, Denise Richards. Like Jenny McCarthy, she was a famous pinup type in the monoculture era, which means she's still pretty well known. Her cameo on 30 Rock shows she has a sense of humor about herself, even though that was like 10 plus years ago at this point. Dave 49:01 And also not that funny, but okay. Tara 49:03 No, but like she didn't have to do it, but she did. Dave 49:06 Sure. Tara 49:06 Her most recent headlines, unfortunately, have been about her terrible divorce from an abusive man and her two daughters with Charlie Sheen, one of whom is Christian and one of whom is not, publicly feuding with each other. So she still has what it takes to get back into respectable acting, I think. And I think most people wish her well, more so than Jenny McCarthy. So it's sad that she is behind her, but she is. I have her in seventh place for four points. Dave 49:32 I put her ahead of Jenny McCarthy at fifth. Tara 49:36 Okay. Dave 49:36 For two reasons. One, this weird, surprising three-year run she had on The Bold and the Beautiful between 2019 and 2022. I was like, I had no idea. Three years, solid work. Go for it. But it seems like all her other credits that she's got sucked into the Hallmark Lifetime Christmas movie, Gristmill. And it's not a bad place to be. Steady work. She's been in six or seven of those things. So good for her. So I think shares a lot of traits with Jenny McCarthy as far as where she is in the acting universe age and what she was doing before and how she's trying to change things up. But she just seems to be just working more. Tara 50:12 Yeah. Dave 50:13 So I put her above McCarthy. Tara 50:14 Number five. Fair. Next, we have Jerry Ryan and someone who came up the way she did being super sexy in a cat suit on a major sci-fi show is going to be a formative crush object for a whole swath of fans who still remember how she looked then. Dave 50:32 Yep. Tara 50:32 Not that she looks bad now. She still looks good. Her role in Picard showed she can still work in that mode. So if she could like jump back into Starfleet Academy, I don't know how the timeline works. I don't I don't care. Don't tell me. Dave 50:44 She's a robot. She can do anything. Tara 50:45 That's true. Dave 50:46 She's not a robot. Don't at me. I know. Tara 50:49 There are still a lot of those kinds of shows. She's gotten her visa to work in Vancouver before she can do it again. Yeah. Dave 50:56 So the trajectory for a lot of sci-fi actors and actresses that don't sort of get the next big thing right away that's outside of sci-fi is they end up getting kicked down to the sci-fi farm team in Canada where it's like, it's got invasion now or just these terrible titles. Tara 51:13 Yes. Dave 51:14 And that's where they are for like six years at a time after they're just like, I don't care. Just give me some money. Tara 51:19 Totally. Dave 51:20 Yeah. Tara 51:20 It's another version of the getting into the Hallmark Christmas movie. It is. Like they're always making, there's always going to be another Christmas. There's always going to be another low budget sci-fi show. Dave 51:30 You betcha. Tara 51:31 Anyway, if she popped up as a recurring DA in a procedural or something, if she'd like put her on high potential in that kind of a role, it would be great. I have her in fourth place for seven points. Dave 51:42 Me as well. I wish nothing but good things for Jerry Ryan having to wear that. Dave 51:46 Cat suit for seven years or whatever. Tara 51:48 Seriously. Dave 51:49 No, thank you. I will try not to hold Picard against her. Tara 51:52 Yeah. Dave 51:53 That was a terrible series. I know people like the last series, but I had thoroughly checked out by then. Tara 51:57 Yeah. Dave 51:58 Do not care. Recently, she was in Dark Winds. Picard, as mentioned, Bosh, and something called Body Approved, which I don't know what it is, but she had good runs in all of those. And she's getting a lot of real show guest spots that run much like Catherine Lanasa, like for a nice little chunk of time, probably took like four to five months and spend that money in the other seven months of the year, I guess. Tara 52:19 Yeah. Dave 52:20 Number four. Tara 52:21 Get your SAG health insurance, buy a house, you're fine. Body of Proof was a medical examiner show, I think, with Dana Delaney. Dave 52:28 Yeah, yeah. Tara 52:29 It was an ABC thing. All right, next we have a lady named Jennifer Taylor. The only reason she is ahead of Susan Blakely is she's younger. Sorry. One of her recent credits was Crying Woman on an episode of Bookie, which I doubt is where she hoped her career would be at this point, but it was, you know, Chuck Lorre doing a favor for someone on another one of his shows because she was on Two and a Half Men for a long time. Dave 52:53 Is this the one that has some vaguely Christian-y stuff at the top of her list right now? Tara 52:57 Maybe. Dave 52:57 Some sort of company that has American and family in its incorporated name. Tara 53:01 Who, yes. She seems to be around in Christmas TV movies, which is fine, although she's playing characters like Mrs. Williams, which when you don't have a first name, not great. Dave 53:09 Yeah. Tara 53:10 So I've already tipped it. I have her in ninth place for two points. Dave 53:13 Okay. She's in something called My Best Friend the Baby Snatcher. Tara 53:16 Sure. Dave 53:17 So that's a level of either TV movie or direct-to-video things that she is currently experiencing. Tara 53:22 Sounds like lifetime. Dave 53:23 Someone, and I don't know how IMDb truly works. I know it's sort of like Wikipedia where people that are really up on it can add things. But she has a podcast appearance in 2024 on her list. One episode of the podcast. So she just came in for one episode and left, and that is on her IMDb. Tara 53:41 Oh, boy. Dave 53:42 In addition to that, it looks like she's got some Hallmark stuff. But again, nothing. She's not starring in these things. So I put her eighth. Again, one over Susan Blakely, but my Susan Blakely was nine. So she is eighth. Tara 53:55 Next up, Ming-Na Wen, getting into the Star Wars universe in the 2020s. Good move. She's excellent at both the drama and action elements of those shows and movie. I think she's in the Mandalorian and Grogu movie, if I'm not mistaken. I might be wrong. Her agelessness, truly miraculous. She stuck in some kind of glorious time warp where she looks the same as when she was on ER. So I have her in third place for eight points. I think she's on a slightly higher tier than Jerry Ryan. Dave 54:24 I agree. I will say since the book of Boba Fett, she's just been doing voice work. There's not anything but voice work since then. It's been four years. I think that's cosmic punishment for the book of Boba Fett, if we're being honest. It's not her fault. She was probably one of the better things about that series, but that series was stemmed to stern garbage. There was nothing redeeming about that. It was just. So it's unfair to her, but it happened and not a lot since then. So that's why I put her below Catherine Lanasa is that I think that she is not getting the work she deserves and her level is dropping a bit, whereas Catherine's is raising a bit. So third for me. Tara 55:06 Yep. So we agree. You know, it's a shame is that, you know, Warrior was the show where it was like every Asian actor who's ever done anything action-y comes through, it's a shame it couldn't get one more season and have a part for her because she would be great. Dave 55:21 I know they're probably not going to do it because of the lawsuit, but if they could figure out a way for her to get on the pit, I wouldn't be mad. I'm sure they won't just because of this Michael Greit and the state business, but that would have been nice. Tara 55:32 I'm sure they're going to settle it any minute now. Dave 55:34 Perhaps. Tara 55:35 Finally, we have, again, a lady named Emmanuelle Vosier. She's done guest shots on virtually every show you can think of that shot in Vancouver because she is Canadian. Dave 55:45 This is the one I was thinking about with the vaguely Christian stuff at the top of the list. Okay. Tara 55:50 Fair enough. Unlike Jennifer Taylor, she's still getting cast to play ladies who are currently sexy and not historically sexy. Dave 55:57 Historically sexy. Tara 55:58 Well, you know what I mean. Dave 55:59 It's a nice way to put it. Tara 55:59 Someone who is sexy in their prime, but their prime is over. Dave 56:02 Right. Tara 56:03 But this is a huge drop off of both fame and power from seventh to where I have her, which is eighth place for three points. Dave 56:10 Wow. Okay. I had her dead last. Tara 56:12 Okay. Dave 56:13 The only credit of note going through this stuff, and there's a lot of American family values bullshit here. None more egregious than The Pot Wins, starring Kevin, rolling the dice. Tara 56:26 Uh-huh. Yeah. Dave 56:27 Gee, Sorbo. Tara 56:29 Sorbo. Oh, I'm so sorry. Dave 56:32 Manuel. You got a Sorbo. Can I read you the Potwin synopsis, please? Tara 56:37 Of course. Dave 56:37 Not only does the paint store that Nate Potwin owns require his full-time attention, but so does his crazy family. His son is always in trouble and his daughter is often a misguided social justice warrior. Tara 56:51 Oh, God. Yikes. Dave 56:53 Dead last. Tara 56:55 Fair enough. Dave 56:56 All right, Let's get the totals. Tara 56:58 Oh, let's do. Here we go. In last place with three points, we have Susan Blakely. Dave 57:07 Oh, tough for Blakely. Tara 57:08 Ninth place with four points, Emmanuel Vosier. Dave 57:13 You're lucky you got that. Tara 57:14 Go cry to Kevin Sorbo. In eighth place with five points, Jennifer Taylor, crying woman yet again because of this. Dave 57:23 When I first saw that name, I thought it was Ben Stiller's ex-wife. Tara 57:26 Christine Taylor. Dave 57:27 Christine Taylor. Tara 57:28 In seventh place with nine points, April Bowlby. She's expanding to fit whatever space she's in because that's what Rita Farr does. Dave 57:37 Sure. Tara 57:37 In sixth place with 10 points, we've got Denise Richards. Love to see that for her. In fifth place with 11 points, Jenny McCarthy. Tough, but it's the world we live in, I guess. Yep. In fourth place with 14 points, Ms. Jerry Ryan. In third place with 16 points, Ming-Na Wen. In second place with 18 points, our queen, Catherine Lanaza. But there's really no topping two tens. That's where we've ended up in first place with 20 points, Ms. Melanie Linsky. Dave 58:15 Congratulations to five of you. Tara 58:18 That's about right. Dave 58:23 Well, guys, that is it for another episode of Extra Extra Hot Great. We appeared before Jury Duty presents Company Retreat before answering your burning ass EHG questions like, how are you planning your Groundhog Day and what TV quote are you sending to your therapist? Catherine put QI's flub line into the tiny canon. We gave you two not quite top 11 lists and wrapped it all up with a power ranking of Charlie's love interest from Two and have men. Next up on EHG Prime, nothing you probably haven't heard before because we're off and we'll be devolting a couple things for you while we're off. But we're back here in a week with the March forstening on Extra Extra Hot Great Never Skipping with the David Letterman Show. That's been pre-tape with Sarah a while ago so you can hear her voice again on that one. Alright guys, remember We're listening I am David T. Colen on behalf of Tara Arellano? Tara 59:19 Do they? Dave 59:21 And the absence of Sarah D. Bunding. I thought there was more than that. Tara 59:24 No. Dave 59:24 Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time right here on Extra and then an Extra Extra Hot Great. piano plays softly. Tara 59:51 Then again, she was like a candle in the wind. Unreliable. Tara 1:00:00 This is Extra Hot, yeah okay fuckity bye yay me. Dave 1:02:47 Too so acropolis fun fact from, you win, there's a little after show thing for you, so acropolis fun fact from qi you are hereby inducted into the extra hot great tiny flub canon, nope that didn't come out right i said. Tara 1:03:20 Something wrong flub line yeah that's ironic, All right. Dave 1:03:28 Here's one. I can feel it. So, but God damn it, I hit the bike pedal twice. This is why it takes four hours. All right, shut up.