Thank Goodness, The Great Pottery Throw Down Is Back

Plus: an iconic Gilbert Gottfried moment, 'Anatomy of a Scandal,' and what's making us happy!

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when the Peabody Awards recognized some television. It was the week when a library moved to make some banned books more accessible. And it was the week when a divorce announcement led to a much bigger conversation. Let's get to it.  Opening Argument: Thank goodness, The Great Pottery Throw Down is back People say there's no appointment television anymore, but I'm not so sure. I might not watch things at the same time as everyone else, the way I did when I was young, but I do save my viewings of certain shows for just the right moments.  I had a long and irritating couple of weeks as a homeowner (suffice it to say sewer pipes and tree roots are a bad combination), which I topped off with some medical adulting (your basic preventative maintenance). By the time I got midway through this week, I was exhausted, grumpy, tired, and generally annoyed with ... everything. And then I remembered: I had screeners of the new season of The Great Pottery Throw Down that I could watch while I lay on the couch and tried to un-jangle my nerves!  I was telling a friend recently that I sometimes have the uncomfortable feeling I don't remember very much about 2020 after COVID hit; that because I was alone so much and just trying to get through it, I didn't retain anything. I was mentally hibernating to conserve power, if you will. So every time I look at something that was part of that first terrible year, it's like looking at a photo album that's a lot more than a couple of years old. And one of those things was my first exposure to The Great Pottery Throw Down, the BBC-produced Great British Baking Show cousin that has, if it's possible, an even more soothing and even more nurturing vibe.  I wrote about Throw Down in 2020 after I first saw it, and my high regard for it has only grown. Where GBBS has Paul Hollywood's slightly hostile, slightly snotty vibe that throws a bit of acid on its sweetness, Throw Down has Keith Brymer Jones as the primary judge, joined by Rich Miller, who was the beloved kiln man in early seasons before being promoted to a fantastic judge. (There's now a kiln woman named Rose Schmits who handles the job of taking the works in progress out of the kiln and hiding them under cloths, so that the potters can unveil them and see whether they are now piles of rubble.)  Jones regularly tears up at the work of the contestants, seemingly because he has an artist's genuine ability to be moved by other people's work and by their progress. The whole on-camera team is terrific, but Jones' weepiness helps push the show toward a level of earnestness that almost dares you to make fun of its aggressively kind way of treating everyone.  I love it.  There is so much skill here, so much care and art, and there are so many great ideas for household items that would be fun to own. (If you are an outdoorsy person who enjoys camping, I can't imagine you wouldn't pine for the wall clock fashioned into a tent that one of the contestants creates this season.)  But I haven't even told you yet about the part that made me certain that this season of Throw Down had been specially designed to be soothing to me in my precise moment of ... not need, but annoyance. You see, the fourth season introduced Siobhan McSweeney — from Derry Girls! — as the host. But it turns out she unfortunately had an injury to her leg and had to sit out a bunch of this season. Who did they get in her place? Ellie Taylor, a comic some of you may know best for her great work as Sassy, Rebecca's friend from Ted Lasso. It's obviously a bad circumstance, and I miss Siobhan, but ... but they added Sassy! What more could I have asked? I was talking to a friend about the arrival of this season, and they reacted almost exactly as I did: They immediately started thinking about when to watch it, with whom, under what conditions. The fact that Americans who watch this show on HBO Max don't have a single appointed time doesn't mean they watch indiscriminately. Some things should be saved for exactly the moment when you most need them.  Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend I did a bunch of reading this week, and I just loved Susan Rigetti's Cover Story, which is an insightful, tense story that's exactly what you want from a twisty thriller about a hustler (think Anna Delvey) who isn't what she appears. More book recommendations from me in this thread. If you haven't taken the opportunity, in light of the death of Gilbert Gottfried, to watch the "You fool!" clip, just ... go and watch the "You fool!" clip. The series Anatomy of a Scandal drops on Netflix today, April 15th. It stars Rupert Friend, Sienna Miller, and Michelle Dockery. Created by David E. Kelley and Melissa James Gibson, it is not what I would consider "good." But there are times when it has kind of a trashy '90s thriller vibe, almost — a friend and I both compared it independently to the work of Adrian Lyne — so if you need a weekend binge and that's what you're looking for, maybe try an episode or two to see how you feel.  What We Did This Week HBO For our series of episodes jumping off NPR's Books We Love feature, I talked to NPR TV critic Eric Deggans about some of the books he recommended from 2021.  Aisha's lovely and thoughtful piece about Jerrod Carmichael from last week's newsletter is available, if you happen to have missed it. We also had an episode in which she spoke to Tre'vell Anderson and jarrett hill about Carmichael's special, called Rothaniel.  Our food-wise pal Priya Krishna was the perfect guest for a conversation about the HBO Max show Julia — and whether we needed another Julia Child project. Aisha, Stephen, Glen and I took part in a boisterous quiz about Cameo prices. And Glen talked to Laura Sirikul, Inkoo Kang and Kristen Meinzer about Pachinko. I also wrote about the Apple anthology series Roar.  What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: Kristen: Julia on HBO Max Laura: Everything Everywhere All At Once (and seeing BTS in Las Vegas!)  Inkoo: Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel on HBO Max Glen: Our Flag Means Death on HBO Max Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. 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