The Great Couch Detectives

Shaking hands with Frank Sinatra.

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If you’re obsessed with pop culture but can’t stand Rob Long and John Podhoretz, today’s Remnant may be the weird, wonderful, and interruption-free GLoP alternative you’ve been waiting for. Jonah’s joined for the first time by Christopher Scalia, former academic suit turned scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Their paths recently crossed during an AEI panel on the legacy of cultural critic Paul Cantor, where they offered some exceptionally square-eyed geekery on TV shows both obvious and obscure. Jonah felt the event raised a number of urgent questions, so today, they provide answers: What happened to P.I. shows? Does The Godfather glamorize the mafia? How is wokeness influencing television? And is Chris really related to a famous justice? (Spoiler alert: Yes.)

This episode is sponsored by our friends at FIRE. FIRE’s mission is to safeguard and uphold the right of all Americans to freedom of speech. Be a part of the front line of a growing movement by joining the FIRE Update.

Show Notes:

–Chris’ page at AEI

–Jonah and Chris discuss the life and legacy of Paul Cantor

–Joan Biskupic’s American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

–Chris: “‘Tom Jones’ Is No Masterpiece”

–The Remnant with Bret Devereaux

–Paul Cantor’s Gilligan Unbound

–Paul Cantor’s The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture

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Comments (45)
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  1. Cbailey348

    Fabulous Podcast!

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    Shannonrobertson903

    Super conversation! So much fun to listen to a literary mind ranging widely and freely. Allusive. Enriching conversation. Just flat out edifying. And yes, bring on the Shakespeare experts! I understand that you are worried about feeling a little bit out of your depth, but hey, many of us feel that way about lots of the interesting uber-geekery so regularly on offer here.

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    AndreaLeane75

    I really appreciated the Simon and Simon shout-out, and I'll put my vote in for Psych as an outstanding, funny, quirky PI show from USA.

    There's just something about PI shows and procedurals. They just scratch some kind of itch for some of us. They're escapism, they can be cozy comfort (Psych, Midsummer Murders and Murder She Wrote), and they can simply be fun for us mystery buffs to figure out whodunnit. I think on some level there is a secret yearning that the world really was that simple that the bad guys get caught and justice is done. We may not always get that in real life, but on TV or streaming, Shawn and Gus, and Jessica Fletcher and Magnum always get their man.

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  4. Sam19952005

    Great episode. Fun and nice to reminisce not ruminate. One that is more literary and only one movie is Easy Rawlins. The LA cultural insights are great. Unfortunately Burke never made it to the screen he was a great anti hero his cause there is no more righteous. And the original and movie version of the Equalizer great stuff. The bad guys have to go. And although JD has mentioned it before Homicide Life on the Street. Get it on dvd. They brought new life with the handheld camera and many great personalities.
    Did I mention a great show and guest. Made the audience want to participate.
    Thank you!

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  5. Pohl

    I’m mostly with Mrs Goldberg on Mafia movies. Scorcese, a one-man factory of them, tends, as in most of his violent movies, to get distracted by the cool factor of criminals, and the tales are not nearly as cautionary as he sometimes explains. An example of the observation, which, pace Cantor, has been around since before he was born, that artists are often muddled in their aesthetic philosophies and the interpretation of their own work. They understandably confuse what they were thinking with what they actually made. The work speaks for itself, or it doesn’t.

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    Sarah’s Buckets

    CSI destroyed the detective genre. Who needs to have keen observation of human behavior when a DNA test tells us who handled the knife. You’ll note all the current shows (mostly British) are period or fantasy pieces—removing the “CSI” effect.

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    Ben Connelly

    This was great! Definitely have Chris back. Paul Cantor will be missed.

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    Ceich62

    Jonah, I disagree that drama requires villains. So did Chesterton, who wrote “The Surprise.”

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    Gibby

    I know a dispatch listener who will enjoy the gi joe reference as much as I did!

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  10. Randall Briggs

    I haven't seen the HBO Perry Mason show, so I can't comment on it other than to say that reading the concept did not make me want to watch it. I watched the original "Perry Mason" TV show as a child. My wife and I now stay up late and watch the reruns on MeTV. I have read some of the original Erle Stanley Gardner novels. I do not agree that the HBO Perry Mason (as I understand it) is more like the original character as written by Gardner. The literary Perry Mason IS somewhat rougher, less careful about staying within the law, than the TV version that was broadcast on CBS.

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