HoopleCast: An IntroCast For HBO's Deadwood

Amateur podcasts are always a gamble. It is truly "hit or miss" on what they will be, because all you have to go by is the subject matter. More often than not, they turn out to be flat, uninspired, and totally lacking in the qualities required to keep you listening. Every once in a while, though, you stumble across a true gem... the kind of show that, once you get past the initial unfamiliarity, draws you in like a warm hug. The kind that is so well done as to seem professionally produced, and where you find that you grow to like the people involved so much, they start to feel almost like friends. This is one of those podcasts. It is a gem (or a nugget of gold, if that is more appropriate in the context of a Deadwood podcast) It is done in "IntroCast" format, where only the host has seen the show before, with the co-hosts experiencing it for the first time. If you are a Deadwood veteran, and you probably are, if you are searching for Deadwood content, listening to this style of podcast can be very enjoyable indeed... you know where the story is going, and all of the answers to the speculations brought up by the "newbies". You are in the Catbird seat, so to speak. Let me be clear. This is a very, very well done podcast, with a perfectly balanced mix of personalities among the four regular cast members, consisting of two women and two men... there is Carol, a school teacher by profession, who brings smart and intellectual analysis to every episode, unintentionally funny at times in her seriousness... and Melanie, a ray of sunshine by profession, is bright and bubbly, sweet and adorable, funny and imaginative, with the kind of laugh that can make men fall in love... Matt H., an unassuming young man with a great "under the radar" sense of humor, comes across as just an all around nice guy... and Matt A., who serves as the host, lends a little bit of an acerbic edge with just the right amount of good-natured sarcasm and pithiness. All of them are well accomplished podcasters in their own right, mostly in the arena of television, as are most of the "secondary cast" of loyal feedback providers and guest co-hosts. As host, producer, and editor, Matt A. does an amazing job putting together every single episode. Not enough can be said about the effort and care he takes in crafting and creating the finished product. It is truly astounding, if you think about it... the in depth scene by scene recaps, the background information about the actors and the show, the historical research into the real Deadwood, the painstaking record keeping of every statistic generated by each episode of Hooplecast... all of it serves to make the structure and content of this podcast what it is-- Top Notch. With the Deadwood coverage long since done, the show still marches on, watching and discussing the pilot episodes of other HBO dramatic series, and hopefully will continue to do so long after that particular well runs dry. Lastly, let me say, to the people who felt the need to leave negative or "one star" reviews after sampling a single episode, or based on idealogical differences with the hosts and not on the content of the podcast: ...we get it. You have strong, important opinions. You have every right to express them. They're just not very well informed, and they say more about you than they do about the podcast... but, of course, that is what you intended, wasn't it.

I took the time out of my busy day to craft a heartfelt review for this horrendous podcast, but it was never posted by Apple, and I'm guessing that the reason is due to one of the algorithm-bots that now control our lives hitting on a term I used, "mental ...." with the missing second word also starting with an M, and tending to indicate, in semi-graphic manner, a person wasting their time. That happens to be the perfect description for the show. I know it's free, but it is time you will never get back. Deadwood, imho, is the absolute pinnacle of the televisual arts. To have people such as these purporting to introduce you to this show is a travesty. Only one of them has seen the show previous to the podcast, and he is the host, and tasked with doing recaps, so he tends to defer to the others for analysis (or "analysis"), which is a big mistake on a number of levels. For one thing, this is the kind of show that you are still catching things that you never noticed on the sixth or seventh rewatch. (And I don't make a habit of this sort of thing; this is the only show I have watched more than twice.) One of our panel members worries about the "limited vocabulary" on this show. Limited vocabulary. On Deadwood. I honestly don't know what she's watching. I'm thinking maybe she kinda just has it on in the background while playing Words with Friends, in order to semi-honestly go on this podcast later. Deadwood is profane and vulgar and violent, but it also has some of the most ornate language and complicated plotting that you are ever likely to encounter in a TV series. Back to that thing I was saying about watching multiple times. I think it is pretty obvious that a lot of the reviews here are plants, i.e. friends of the podcasters, or the podcasters themselves. There's really no other way to explain the five star reviews for this dumpster fire of a podcast. I know I am being harsh, and I definitely do enjoy giving good reviews when merited, but the fact is that when you take one of the handful of greatest TV shows ever made, and purport to introduce a general audience to it, with such shoddy and ham-handed effort, then opprobrium is warranted. If you are considering watching this great show for the first time, and are looking for some helpful annotation along the way, in addition to avoiding this podcast at all costs, there are two resources which I would highly recommend… but first let me back up and say that I would also recommend that you watch each episode twice before moving onto the next… At least one with the subtitles on. Then you should consider reading the AV Club recap of each episode. This might take some digging, but last I knew it was online and free. This was before the AV Club turned into a garbled mess of a clickbaity junk site. There is cogent analysis of all 36 episodes, and the writing is phenomenal. And as far as a podcast, I would highly recommend "The Ambulators" pod series by the Very Bad Wizards folks. For this you will have to pay a dollar or two every month for as long as it takes you to listen to them all, but to say that this is worth every penny is a vast understatement. Good luck Shalom

It’s impossible to respect a host who won’t bother to watch the chosen material. Even Mels fellow co-hosts call her out on it. Not great.

A++