The Fourth Wall

Adult Swim has been the home for many influential pieces of alternative comedy, but Childrens Hospital is a series that helped the fledgling network establish their brand. The Dadaist comedy helped bring live-action to the programming block as well as an enviable cast and crew of comedic talent.Childrens Hospital was a jewel in Adult Swim’s line-up for the seven seasons that it ran. However, the series has decided to gloriously return in the form of a police procedural parody series on Netflix, Medical Police. Medical Police retains the absurdity of Childrens Hospital, but gives it a glossy action makeover and makes Drs. Owen Maestro (Rob Huebel) and Lola Spratt (Erinn Hayes) the series’ driving forces. The result is one of Netflix’s silliest series in ages and a very worthy follow-up to Childrens Hospital.We got the opportunity to talk with Rob Huebel and Erinn Hayes about their return to the characters Owen Maestro and Lola Spratt, how Medical Police differs from Childrens Hospital, and their favorite moments from subverting action tropes.

Even though violence, gore, and sex fill Adult Swim’s airwaves, there are still wholesome rays of positivity that shine through the nihilism. Joe Pera Talks With You is almost anti-comedy in how simple and genuine it is. Spun off from his popular infomercial specials, Joe Pera’s series looks at his various mundane passions as he tries to give the audience a brief education on these topics of his choosing. Pera’s unique, gentle personality and the unusual comedic sensibilities of the show’s creative team, Conner O’Malley and Jo Firestone, result in a program that is truly like no other.The first season of Joe Pera Talks With You made a strong impression, and season 2 only continues that goodwill and pushes Joe to more unexpected places. With the show having returned on December 6th, Den of Geek contributor Daniel Kurland had the opportunity to talk with Joe Pera about what’s ahead, the powerful majesty of lighthouses, and what his dream episode would look like.

Writing the score for an adult animated comic-based property like Harley Quinn is probably far from the typical experience for a composer, but Jefferson Friedman is equal to the task. Having already scored for DC's short-lived live action comedy, Powerless, Friedman knows his way around this particular universe. He's also composing music for NBC's New Amsterdam, which couldn't be more opposite to Harley Quinn, but even there Friedman finds some similarities that he shares with us. He also talks about the process he uses to create the different themes and how he got an opportunity to actually create new music for the DC Universe logo animation in addition to the score of one of its most successful animated properties, Harley Quinn, which just aired its second episode as of this podcast publication.

Maybe it was the timing of Limetown as a podcast, coming out a year after Serial made the audio medium a commodity, that made it a viral success in 2015 in addition to the compelling nature of the story, but it was undoubtedly that strong narrative that helped the sci-fi mystery make the transition to television so successfully. Season one of the adaptation recently wrapped up on Facebook Watch with millions of views per episode and plenty of rabid fans begging for more, and we took the opportunity on The Fourth Wall podcast to ask creators Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie what made the show a hit in both formats.

The best superheroes in comics lore have inspired readers for decades, so it should come as no surprise that when Disney+ launches its streaming service with plenty of new and existing Marvel content, it will seek to lift our hearts with stories of real life heroes in Marvel’s Hero Project. This non-fiction series will tell the stories of kids who have overcome adversity to make a difference in their communities and become their own kind of superhero to those around them. We spoke with executive producers Sarah Amos and Stephen Wacker about the new feel-good docuseries premiering on November 12, 2019.

The Fast and Furious movies have always capitalized on over-the-top action and stunts that defy the laws of physics, but a sense of family among the major players in the saga, even between those who don’t always get along like the title characters in Hobbs & Shaw, has always been at the core of the drama.Chris Morgan has been the screenwriter for the franchise since Tokyo Drift, and as each sequel expanded the world beyond street racing, it was clear that a cinematic universe had been born. On this edition of the podcast, we talked to Morgan about Hobbs & Shaw, which is coming to 4K UHD Blu-ray and DVD on November 15, and how this spin-off opens up all sorts of possibilities for reaching new audiences.

Ben Smith is no stranger to Jason Bourne and his associated movie adaptations from the Robert Ludlum novels, having produced a number of the theatrical versions of the tale of sleeper assassins. Now, along with Universal Content Productions, he is presenting a prequel of sorts on television in the form of Treadstone, coming to the USA Network on October 15, 2019. The TV series will explore the origins of the black ops initiative that turned ordinary people into deadly assassins that could be activated at any time. With storylines taking place in the 70s as well as in modern times, Treadstone appears poised to give us an action-packed international romp worth of Ludlum and (ahem) the Bourne legacy.

Jake Kasdan directed and produced the wildly successful Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and now he and his wonderful cast is coming back for Jumanji 2: The Next Level, premiering in theaters December 13, 2019. This interview was conducted just as the first movie was released on DVD and Blu-ray, but it still feels relevant today as news trickles in about the sequel, which finds Danny Devito and Danny Glover inside the game playing Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart's characters. Join us as we reflect with Jake Kasdan on what makes this adaptation different from its predecessors and from any other video game based narrative.

David Schwartz has given us some of the most memorable television themes in modern times, from his very first gig as the composer for Northern Exposure with its signature creole sound to the final seasons of The Good Place and Veep in coming months. Schwartz spoke to us about the unlikely start of his career and the twists and turns along the way, including an interesting story about how a trip to Bora Bora led to the very distinctive opening music for Arrested Development. We gain a bit of insight into how Schwartz puts together a unique combination of instruments for his themes and why having producers that have musical talent themselves can be a blessing and a curse in his profession. The Good Place season 4 begins on September 26, 2019.