424: Is American Gigolo Doing It For Us?

Forty-two years after Paul Schrader's American Gigolo pioneered the sex-worker neo-noir micro-genre, Showtime's limited series of the same name is trying it again -- and returning guest Sarah Baker joins us to talk about tone problems; weird directing choices; pervasive misogyny that's even more tiresome than usual; MVP Rosie O'Donnell; and whether Jon Bernthal should have gotten better writing to work with. We went Around The Dial with Monarch, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Animal Kingdom, Cobra Kai, Severance, Big Brother, and Rings Of Power before Baker screwed up her courage and asked the Canon to PEN15's first-season episode, "Dance." Lee Jung-jae won, Dick Wolf lost (while John Oliver won), and a non-regulation Game Time about TV sex work was NOT considered especially heinous. Slow that disco standard way down for extra poignancy; it's an all-new Extra Hot Great.
GUESTS
👤 Sarah Baker
TOPICS
Lead Topic: 🕺 American Gigolo
Around The Dial: 👑 Monarch
Around The Dial: 💼 The Dick Van Dyke Show
Around The Dial: 👒 The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Around The Dial: 🐷 Animal Kingdom
Around The Dial: 🐍 Cobra Kai
I Am Not A Crackpot: 🍕 Cobra Kai Locations
Around The Dial: 💍 The Rings Of Power
The Canon: 🍆 PEN15 S01.E10: Dance
Winner & Loser: 👍 Lee Jung-jae
Winner & Loser: 👎 Dick Wolf
Game Time: ☎️ Call Them
NOTES
🗒 Full episode notes can be found on the episode 424 page on ExtraHotGreat.com
🎙 Tara's Rosie O'Donnell interview at Vanity Fair
👀 Watch Sarah Baker in The Kominsky Method on Netflix
🎞 Kominsky's third-season trailer
🧭 The Great North on Hulu
🌳 Central Park on AppleTV+
🪫 Tara's Mark Proksch interview at VF
❌ Tara's Decider piece about current primetime soaps, ALL of which ended up getting cancelled
🤰 Tara's The Handmaid's Tale S05 review at VF
🎶 The #LilithFair40 season finale on MASTAS
💄 Listen To Sassy
📷 Photo: Warrick Page / Showtime