No Season Two

(Recorded on June 9th, 2024) We’re officially back and kicking off our second season with Firefly’s pilot episode, ‘Serenity’ (not to be confused with the movie ‘Serenity,’ which we were close to doing). There’s a lot going on in this too long 90 minute episode. We meet the crew of the firefly ship Serenity with little to no backstory causing our wikipedia senses to tingle. Mal is cosplaying as Han Solo, Zoe still calls him ‘Sir’ (in front of her husband and pilot of the ship, Wash), Kaylee, our ‘is she a child or is she an adult’ engineer, and of course Jayne someone you’d rather hurl into space than travel in space with. They pick up a few passengers in Persephone, a preacher, a guy with a not at all suspicious crate, and Ramon from Seinfeld. We get an awkward dinner, a ‘what’s in the box?’ moment, a shoot-out in the space equivalent of Arizona, and Reavers (they’re super bad, okay?). This episode is jam-packed but still makes us go, how did we get here?Also,George and Meaghan discuss some highlights of Adam Baldwin’s film career; George is here for the world building; Meaghan is worried that Firefly fans will come after her if she doesn’t like the show; and we delve into the accusations portion of Joss Whedon’s wikipedia. (Original network air date December 20, 2002)

We’re back with another season of No Season Two (complicated, we know). This season we’re dropping out of high school and headed to the 26th century to discuss the space western Firefly. Each week we’ll be breaking down the episodes, sharing our favorite action sequences, and as always picking our winners and losers. So join us as we reminisce about early aught’s CGI and try our best to separate the art from the artist.

(Recorded on January 30th, 2024) We did it, we finished My So-Called Life! As George likes to say, it’s been a journey. There have been highs (Rickie), lows (Brian) and more lows (Graham). We’re closing out the season with one last episode to unleash our final thoughts. We’ll be letter grading our main cast of characters along with some members of the supporting roster. We’ve got our list of favorite and least favorite episodes. George and Meaghan will be sharing their top five needle drops. And finally, we’ll answer the question that started this whole podcast in the first place: should My So-Called Life have had a second season?

(Recorded on November 19th, 2023) Well, we’ve made to episode nineteen, the series finale of My So-Called Life, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities.” Jordan is trying to get Angela back and much like in her dreams, he seems incapable of apologizing. He enlists the help of Brian and we get “Cyrano De Bergerac: Liberty High” (sadly not added to abc’s Fall ‘95 lineup). Brian does his best to feed Jordan some lines he can remember and Angela buys it enough to tell Jordan that now they can have “a serious talk.” Jordan, who lacks the capacity to take accountability for his actions, convinces Brian (it wasn’t a hard sell) to write the world’s worst love letter to Angela. Since Angela is in high school, the letter makes her forget that Jordan had sex with her best friend. Angela only realizes that Brian wrote the letter in the last few minutes of the show (come on girl! This guy couldn’t even spell your name right!) but still drives off with Jordan. The investors of the restaurant want Graham out of the picture but Hallie thinks that if can just cook for them, they’ll be blown away enough to forget that he’s never run a professional kitchen in his life. It works, because this is not reality. Graham and Hallie embrace for a second too long for it to still be considered a friendly hug. Patty invites her high school boyfriend, Tony Poole, to the house under the pretenses of him having restaurant experience. He’s a no show, but the 1995 version of him (Jordan) shows up and proceeds to drink every ounce of milk they have in the house. Patty, forgetting that this 30 year old sophomore slept with her daughters best friend, says that it’s “clear [he] didn’t mean to hurt her.” Like WTF, Patty!?! Rickie comes out with the help of Delia and this is really the only story line that matters to us. George gives us a very hot take on who he thinks the show is actually about. Meaghan rejects that very hot take. And we discuss the importance of LGBTQIA+ representation in media in 1995. (Original network air date January 26th, 1995)

(Recorded on November 5th, 2023) This week, we’ve got the eighteenth episode of My So-Called Life, “Weekend.” Patty and Graham are headed to the saddest inn this side of the Allegheny River with Uncle Neil and his surprise girlfriend, Cheryl. While packing for the trip, Camille offers Patty her handcuffs—let’s hope she sanitizes after each use. When Graham comes into the room, Patty ends up hiding the handcuffs underneath the 500 decorative pillows on her bed. Patty finally learns that Hallie is no longer engaged and you can hear her screaming internally. At the inn, Patty wants to do activities and the rest of the crew want to get drunk and abandon her to find alcohol, since they are staying at the only dry inn in the western hemisphere. Instead of ice skating, Patty spends her afternoon sitting on a couch in the common area and annoying Warren the inn keeper, a man not suited for the hospitality industry. At dinner, Patty deals with her abandonment issues by getting drunk on contraband ginger flavored brandy to prove to everyone that she’s not a stick-in-the-mud (it only sort of works). Back at the Chase house, Rickie is spending the weekend with Angela and Danielle. While he’s there, Rayanne drops by under the guise of trying to collect $6 from him (but we all know she wants to see Angela). Of course she finds the handcuffs and and proceeds to handcuff herself to the bed. Too bad Patty accidentally brought the key with her to the worst inn in Pennsylvania. Angela, Rickie, Danielle, Sharon, and eventually Brian spend the rest of the weekend trying to free Rayanne from the headboard; all that’s missing is the Benny Hill theme. We have some wildcards for our biggest winners and losers; and we are treated to a quintessential 90’s needle drop. Meaghan and George discuss the Milli Vanilli documentary (love!); Graham licking Patty’s jaw (definitely don’t love); why there wasn’t any alcohol at this inn (Warren is a buzzkill); and how we would have preferred if Uncle Neil was played by Jon Lovitz. (Original network air date January 19th, 1995)

(Recorded on October 29th, 2023) Up this week we are digging into episode seventeen of My So-Called Life, “Betrayal” and boy is it a doozy. Angela is totally over Jordan (whatever you say girl), Rayanne is auditioning for the school play, Sharon gave Brian a camcorder (big mistake), and Corey Helfrick is back with a brand new look (#basic). Sadly Corey’s style change is the not the only betrayal in the episode; Rayanne and Jordan finally go big in the messing up department and hook up in the back of his car. And we wish we could say that’s the worst part of the whole thing, but it was caught on camera (not accidentally!!!) by Brian. This leads Angela to have a bit of a breakdown and do her best Rayanne impersonation. In the process, Angela freaks Corey out and hurts Rickie’s feelings (unforgivable). Rayanne shows up at the Chase house and tells Patty (for some reason) what she did. Patty is unfazed by this because she too had a bit of a hoe era and slept with one of Camille’s crushes. Elsewhere in adult land, Graham, a man who has only ever cooked for his family and Hallie, a woman who can’t remember where she’s supposed to meet her business partner, are still somehow doing this restaurant together. Hallie’s inability to remember where she’s supposed to meet Graham gives Camille an opportunity to instantly hate her on behalf of Patty like a real friend (and not like one who sleeps with their bff’s crush). Patty suggest another couples date not knowing that Hallie is now Brad-less; because why would Graham tell Patty anything? There’s obviously some runaway nominees for biggest loser in this episode, but will they win? George and Meaghan (neither are legal scholars) discuss the legality of filming two people (underage!) doing it in the backseat of a car in 1995. George has a bone to pick with Hallie and her restaurant etiquette. And Meaghan asks the important question: What’s in Rayanne’s flask. (Original network air date January 12th, 1995)