M*A*S*HCast

The year is 2025 and per usual I am late to the party. One example of this is that while I don’t remember a time NOT being familiar with the TV show M*A*S*H, I didn’t see the final episode until 2023. Anyway I’m unfashionably here now. I’m about forty episodes in and I LOVE this podcast. Thanks so much Rob Kelly!!!

Brilliant breakdown episode by episode of MASH. Insightful, thoughtful guests and a terrific host who knows the show inside and out.

It’s impossible to argue against the fact that an episode-by-episode review of MASH is a necessary part of the podcast universe. And this show delivers it, and this podcast deserves credit for the time and effort required to take on that significant task. The format is quite good, starting with intros of the guest-hosts, a high-level review of the episode, and finally a deeper dive into the episode’s details. Unfortunately, the injection of the host’s ideology into maybe a third of the podcasts often brings it down to an unlistenable level. He makes his disdain for Trump clear as the seasons go on, and I happen to share that view with the host as I have never voted for Trump and never would. So my criticism is not some-sort of knee-jerk reaction of a person who disagrees with the host; indeed, I likely agree with the host on many issues. I also agree with many of the political messages of MASH and thus, from time-to-time, its rightful for the podcast to dive into it. The problems arise when the host brings such a misplaced perspective on it; often attempting to equate MASH’s themes with today’s political landscape and the host’s particular point of view, his favorite political party and his disdain for the political party he doesn’t like. He appears completely ignorant of the fact that the anti-establishment themes of MASH are the antithesis of the modern Democratic party (his preferred party). Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, MASH’s prominent anti-war themes would place most of the characters and writers, assuming they held onto these principles, well outside of today’s pro-war Democratic Party and squarely placed in some sort of semi-right-win or libertarian political pocket instead. The host’s political party of choice left the ideology of MASH quite some time ago. Interestingly and equally disappointingly, some of the guests who were a part of the making of the show appear to be unprincipled and equally ignorant of these phenomena related to the political parties’ 180 degree change on many issues and instead seem to have followed their “team” instead of their values; which, apparently, only emboldens the host more. If one was a one-issue voter on matters of peace and being anti-war, then one would never vote for the party of Biden or Harris—it would be a complete non-starter as they have an even-worse record than Trump on such matters (not that one would necessarily vote for Trump as the antidote); which goes to show, disappointingly, that many of MASH’s stakeholders never genuinely carried at least some of these points of view and instead were just slinging arrows at their political opponents like so many values-less cable TV hosts. A curious mind is left disappointed in what could have been. If making Frank Burns, much like Archie Bunker, a Republican was primarily due to the writers’ political hackery and not based on deeper principles—or even partially so, then that is worthy of deep examination on a podcast like this. One could posit that the writers were trying to make-one swath of the political spectrum look like buffoons; however, now so much of Frank Burns’ blind obedience to the edicts of the Department of Defense or the CIA lives most prominently in the Democratic Party and not the party that Burns was assigned to by the writers. What an interesting analysis that could and should be. What’s disappointing too, is that on the podcast’s social media outlets, the host shuts down any discussion of these items—going as far as blocking not only the inevitable knuckleheads with an obvious political axe to grind, but also swaths of well-meaning, nuanced followers that wish to dive into these details with thought and enthusiasm for where such open-ended discussion could lead.

Rob and all of his guests knock it out of the park. It feels like you're rewatching and talking about the show with your close friends. Thank you for all of your hard work!