It’s time to get Emily Nussbaum a podcast.
I only trust three TV critics, and now two of them – Andy Greenwald and Matt Zoller Seitz – have their own podcast. Greenwald has been holding court for a couple of years now on Grantland’s network of podcasts, and last week, Vulture launched The Vulture TV Podcast, which features Seitz, Gazelle Emami and Margaret Lyons.
The Vulture TV Podcast covers the broader TV landscape, while also honing in on specific episodes and discussions with showrunners. In its first episode, the podcast touched on ‘Girls,’ ‘House of Cards’ and network TV’s latest successes (‘Empire,’ ‘Jane the Virgin’ and ‘Fresh Off the Boat’).
Following the premiere of Episode 1, LostRemote spoke with Seitz about podcasting, social media and why summer TV is so bad:
LostRemote: Why did you decide that now was the right time to start a TV podcast, and why does discussion about TV lend itself well to the format?
Matt Zoller Seitz: We just thought it was a good time! The podcast is a nice format because it allows you to have a back-and-forth and interrogate each other a little bit, which can give you a more fully rounded sense of what a TV show is.
LR: ‘Empire’s’ following continues to build rapidly. Why do you think the show resonates with viewers?
Seitz: It’s basically Nashville but with hip-hop and soul instead of country and western, or Dallas with songs, which is the Nashville model. And the storytelling is brash and big. It’s about as much fun as a show can be.
LR: We focus on the social conversation surrounding shows, while you focus on the show’s content. How closely do you pay attention to a show’s social chatter? Do you think we’ll reach a point where the two are inextricably linked?
Seitz: I’m on Twitter a lot, so I keep track of what other critics and fans are saying about all the big scripted shows. I definitely keep tabs on conversational trends and topics with an eye towards addressing them. The ideal is to stay ahead of them, actually, but things move so quickly now that sometimes that’s hard to do.
LR: How will the Vulture TV Podcast differ from Grantland’s TV podcasts or Talking TV With Ryan and Ryan?
Seitz: Our podcast has Margaret Lyons, who’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.
LR: Why is summer TV so bad? Are we ever going to get past that point?
Seitz: Summer TV has gotten slightly better, now that a lot of major cable channels are debuting interesting new series, and the networks have gotten into the act as well, with limited-run shows with a more blockbuster bent. But it’s still kind of a down period for the medium. I don’t mind that, though, because the rest of the year is so intense.