We’re back together at the Water Cooler this week to review the newest season in an old favorite. Andrew Jarecki’s The Jinx first aired in 2015 and provided an amazingly in-depth and compelling look into the life and mysterious deaths surrounding millionaire Robert Durst. As the series ended with a seemingly shocking confession, audiences have since clamored for behind-the-scene details about the intersection between crime-solving and documentary filmmaking. Now, Jarecki returns to the Durst...

We’re still one down this week, and this week it’s Megan! Never fear, Joey and Clarence carry on with a discussion of film and television. On the film side, they review Alex Garland’s divisive box office winner Civil War. Then, on the TV front, they cover Netflix’s gorgeously photographed Ripley and the “high-class trash” that is Starz’s Mary and George. As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week. Thanks for listening and thank you,...

Investigation Discovery’s Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV has been the talk of social media for the last few weeks. By confronting the long-buried secrets of several sexual predators on set during the Golden Age of Nickelodeon, the series, directed by Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz, made us all look back at our favorite Nickelodeon shows with a completely new perspective. In a surprise move, the series returned with a fifth episode to look back at the reaction to the first four...

The 2024 Summer Movie season is just around the corner. To prepare, Clarence has constructed an epic Summer Movie Preview quiz for Joey and Megan. Who will wear the trivia crown for the upcoming season? As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week. Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!     Music from https://filmmusic.io “Cheery Monday” by Kevin MacLeod...

This week at the Water Cooler, we’re springing (we love a pun) into the final gasp of the 2024 Emmy season. Late February / early March typically emerges as the prime window to launch television series. It allows voting members of the Television Academy to absorb newer series and keep them fresh in their minds ahead of voting in June. Believe it or not, there’s a science to launching Emmy contenders — and high-profile winners typically don’t launch in May. So, this week, we look at the latest...

We’re saying goodbye to the 2024 Oscar season this week at the Water Cooler. Megan just returned from attending the 96th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater, so we thought it would be an interesting experiment to compare experiences watching at home and watching in the room. We review the highlights and lowlights of the show and talk about the surprising day-after ratings. As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week. Thanks for...

This week, we dive into the eagerly anticipated HBO limited series The Regime. Starring Kate Winslet, the Stephen Frears-directed satire takes the audience into an unnamed European country in the grasp of an unstable authoritarian regime. The series seems to have polarized both audiences and critics alike on its tone and performances, so we weigh in and take stock of its 2024 Emmy chances. As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming...

We kick off the podcast with a look back at the weekend’s big guild awards – the Producers Guild Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. What do the winners tell us about the 2024 Emmy race? Then, we launch into our first analytical look at the 2024 Emmy season, starting with the Limited Series categories. What that has premiered so far will be remembered when Emmy voting begins in June? And what upcoming Limited Series will we need to look out for as we evolve our predictions? As always...

Megan rejoins the Water Cooler to give us an update on her recent trip to the SCAD TV Fest. Then, we revisit this weekend’s best Super Bowl commercials and the buzzy movie trailers that debuted during the game. Finally, Megan leads a conversation about Peacock’s Ted, a prequel (limited?) series to the 2012 film of the same name from Seth MacFarlane. As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week. Thanks for listening and thank you, in...

We’re talking cats and swans this week at the Water Cooler but sadly without Megan. First up, Joey and Clarence briefly discuss the Grammys ceremony and the online aftermath where the claws were most definitely out. Then, we take a look at Matthew Vaughn’s latest film Argylle, featuring a bevy of stars including Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, Catherine O’Hara, Bryan Cranston, and more. But do all the famous faces engaged in this trippy international...

This week, the full roster of Team ADTV joins the Water Cooler to review the 75th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony. We talk about our favorite moments, our disappointments, and whether or not three series should dominate the entire evening.Plus, we look forward to the 2024 Emmy season and hypothesize what will start to fill the vacant slots left by the WGA/SAG strike. As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week. Thanks for...

This week, we dive into our favorite films of 2023 as they stood when we recorded (more on that in the podcast). We also quickly predict what we think will win the television categories at the 2024 Golden Globes, airing Sunday on CBS. Programming note: we will not record next week. Look for our latest edition on Monday, January 15. As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week. Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for...

The trees are still up and decorated. Santa has come and gone. But before we head into 2024, we’re looking back at our favorite television series of 2023. What will Joey, Megan, and Clarence rank as their favorite TV series of the year? As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week. Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts!     Music from https://filmmusic.io “Cheery Monday” by...

Cue the melancholy Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson-penned song “Christmas Time Is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas because it’s almost here. Whether that sends you into shivers of glee or strikes fear in your heart (because you still have shopping to do), it’s almost here. To celebrate, the Water Cooler Podcast team gathers ’round their laptops to reveal their favorite holiday films. That includes some unexpected films they watch during the holiday season that wouldn’t traditionally be...

The Golden Globes are back, baby! Not only have actors embraced their nominations with public statements and appreciation, but the Golden Globes returned with some very Globesy nominations (we see you, The Diplomat). But they also returned to make history within their own nomination world. HBO’s Succession received a record-breaking nine nominations, and Netflix’s The Crown became the first drama television series to be nominated for all of its seasons. So naturally, there’s a lot to talk...

We’re heading toward the end of 2023, which naturally means it’s almost time to start making year-end lists! As we cultivate our favorite films of 2023, we’re catching up to one major year-end release, J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow. Retelling the harrowing story of the 1972 Andes mountain plane crash, Bayona’s film tells the story from a more authentic perspective with Uruguayan and Argentine actors making up the cast. Does the story merit another look after the early 1990s version...

Two huge awards-buzzed films will be released in the month of December, and we’ve seen them both! Todd Haynes’ May December stars Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in a camp drama that explores the aftermath of an illicit love affair between an adult woman (Moore) and a teenage boy, played as an adult by Charles Melton. Then, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro looks at the decades-long relationship between the great Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and his wife Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). We...

It’s Thanksgiving week, and of course in Water Cooler Land, that means Friendsgiving! Of course, it’s a bittersweet year with beloved Friends star Matthew Perry recently passing away. But we’re thankful for both his comic talent and the brilliance of the Friends ensemble this week. In honor of Friendsgiving, we’re ranking all 10 Friends-related Thanksgiving episodes. What are your favorites? Sound off in the comments! As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re most...

This week, we’re embracing new television! The FX on Hulu limited series A Murder At the End of the World stars The Crown‘s Emma Corrin as Darby Hart. We’ve heard this described online as “Nancy Drew and the Dragon Tattoo.” That’s not far off, to be honest. Clive Owen co-stars as an Elon Musk-type figure who invites a randomly (or ARE THEY?) selected group of people to a remote hotel in Iceland. When one of the guests ends up dead, Darby uses her crime-solving skills and hacker sensibility to...

We’re starting this week’s podcast on a bit of a down note as we reminisce about Matthew Perry who passed away this weekend. Joey, Megan, and Clarence each go around the water cooler and give their favorite Chandler Bing moments from Friends. Plus, we talk about his amazing charitable moments and how he helped so many overcome their own addictions. Then, we recap Joey and Megan’s experiences at the Middleburg and SCAD Savannah Film Festivals. As always we close with the flash forward to the...

This week, we review AppleTV+’s new limited series Lessons in Chemistry. Based on the beloved Bonnie Garmus novel, Chemistry stars Oscar winner Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott, a chemist turned local cooking show host who finds herself changing the landscape for women in the workplace. Joey went into the series fresh without having read the source novel, and Megan and Clarence brought their personal expectations after reading it. Does that change their appreciation of Lessons in Chemistry? Is...

This week at the Water Cooler, the gang looks at Chloe Domont’s thriller Fair Play. Starring Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, the film serves as a modern take on the erotic thrillers that populated the 1990s. We talk about the merits of the film as compared to its audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Plus, what are the best 1990s erotic thrillers, and can they truly be replicated in the modern filmmaking era? Spoilers follow! As always we close with the flash forward to the media we’re...

Megan’s back from her communing with Stevie Nicks (who now has her very own Barbie). That means it’s finally time to make our first-round draft picks in the 2024 Fantasy Oscar Pool! Yes, we’re a little late this year. Traditionally, we try to do this before the festivals roll out with hits and misses, but due to scheduling issues, we just didn’t get around to it before Telluride / Venice. But we’re doing it now, and we hope you’ll play along at home. We’ll try to make scoring a bit more...