Better Than Life Podcast

[Spare Hand One]

Probably not right or fair for the main G&T gang to write about this on the blog, but we can talk about it in the forum, right?

Anyway, it’s pretty good. I like the hosts and the general concept: two hosts (one who loves RD actively and another who just remembers it fondly from back in the day) interviews a different comedian about RD each week. Great theme tune. There’s a “recast the cast” segment I’m not generally fond of but it does sometimes result in interesting takes on what exactly makes our characters who they are.

Stuart Goldsmith and Gemma Arrowsmith were particularly good guests: knowledgeable and keen. RD clearly means a lot to Stuart. Gemma works as a screenwriting teacher and she cites RD as examples/exercises in her class; her insight/analysis in this capacity was really interesting as well as her general fan voice being keen and delightful.

Bec Hill, Tom Price, Will Duggan were quite shit.

Anyway, it’s episode-by-episode and in order. They just did Bodyswap. New episodes drop on Fridays.

Very few guests seem to like VII-VIII so I’m looking forward to hitting those episodes to see what happens.

Anyone else listening to this?

[Jenuall]

I’ve been listening to these as and when I find the time. There’s definitely been a varying quality of guest – both in terms of the general levels of entertainment they bring and their knowledge of the show which has been kind of all over the place.

Is it too much to ask that people being brought on to a Red Dwarf podcast to talk about an episode of Red Dwarf actually know things about that Red Dwarf episode and the show in general? I don’t think so! Even if people get things wrong in the spur of the moment it would be nice to have some kind of “fact checking Santa” equivalent to drop in during the edit and tidy things up a bit.

It’s clearly a more mainstream effort than a Dwarfcast so it’s never going to be as anal and full of details as the sort of thing that us gimps like to listen to, but it serves a purpose and something decent enough bringing more attention to the show now that it is potentially a going concern again is nice.

Some of the suggestions for alternative castings have really made me question whether the people involved actually “get” the show and characters at all…

One thing that also frustrates me a bit with this podcast, and plenty of others are guilty of it, is that the two hosts sound too bloody similar to my ear! Plenty of times I’m not actually sure which one of them it is that’s making a point!

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

We (well a couple of us) in the Discord listened to / still at times listen to this podcast and basically spend every week listing all the things they are wrong about 

I got so infuriated with it that I stopped. Others continued and regularly confirm it hadn’t gotten any better. 

I wouldn’t mind the guests not knowing their shit, or the guy that hasn’t seen the show in “decades”. But there’s a host who is a self confessed fan who regularly just repeats rumours and speculation that’s been circulating as fact and mostly silent producer who seems to know a bit more than the others but never corrects anyone. 

It’s fine as a fun and dumb rewatch podcast but it’s strays far too much into “here’s what we know from behind the scenes” and then is wrong 

[Spare Hand One]

It’s clearly a more mainstream effort than a Dwarfcast so it’s never going to be as anal and full of details as the sort of thing that us gimps like to listen to, but it serves a purpose and something decent enough bringing more attention to the show now that it is potentially a going concern again is nice.

That’s a very good point and I feel the same way: I genuinely open my mind and accept that they won’t be as obsessive as we are, I genuinely think that’s fine. I don’t want to be a gatekeeping prick about it. But why can’t they just be honest about their level of involvement/love for the show? They come in all “I’m Red Dwarf mad, me” but then they don’t know what the Polymorph is.

Not all guests, of course! The ones I liked were very good.

[Spare Hand One]

One thing that also frustrates me a bit with this podcast, and plenty of others are guilty of it, is that the two hosts sound too bloody similar to my ear! Plenty of times I’m not actually sure which one of them it is that’s making a point!

Also true. They obviously can’t help it but I’ve given up on knowing which one is talking. It doesn’t matter but the dynamic of expert vs casual fan is out the window.

[GlenTokyo]

My tuppence, a) I think if you’re going to do a podcast about something and it’s not very clearly stated you’re coming in fresh, then why open yourself up to being regularly wrong with an audience that is comprised of a lot of people who know you’re regularly wrong? And b) I really don’t think it’s hard to acquire a fair amount of knowledge about Red Dwarf. Maybe there’s an advantage to growing up with it and having the knowledge go in when your brain is maleable and receptive, but we are blessed with behind the scenes content that is entertaining and enlightening, the cast and crew have been pretty consistent over the entire run, there’s not that much of it anyway, and there’s an active community discussing and archiving stuff, so if you’re starting a podcast, get the DVDs out, visit a few websites, and read a couple of books/ articles and you’re going to hit all the major stuff. And c) some of the castings are absolutely batshit.

That said, I agree with the above. It’s good to have an ongoing anything about Red Dwarf that gets some attention on social media, especially with twitter being a wasteland.

[Flap Jack]

Whoa, wait, hold on, Dulcé Sloan is a Red Dwarf fan?! That’s amazing, I don’t even care if she makes mistakes about behind the scenes trivia.

You see, we assume that US TV stars are unreachable for this sort of thing, but has anyone actually checked if Conan O’Brien would be willing to guest on a Smegazine Rack episode?

[Ian Symes]

There is at least one former host of a late night American talk show that is guaranteed to be familiar with Red Dwarf.

[Ridley]

Chevy Chase, right.

[Dave]

There is at least one former host of a late night American talk show that is guaranteed to be familiar with Red Dwarf.

James Corden was in Doctor Who, not Red Dwarf.

[Unrumble]

[Dave]

[Warbodog]

James Corden was in Doctor Who, not Red Dwarf.

He had a brief cameo in Tikka to Ride:

[Jenuall]

[Ridley]

*Fallon Munchkin Song w/ Paul Rudd*

[Flap Jack]

OK, I know I’m weeks behind still, but I just listened to the Bodyswap episode.

Like I’m sorry, what do you mean that being stranded in deep space is only really a tragedy for Rimmer, and Lister is having a great time??? Marooned was just 2 episodes before this and Timeslides is just one episode after it, COME ON.

The critical flaw of this podcast might be that it feels like they’re always reaching for fresh takes on the plot and characters, and so just end up confidently speaking nonsense a lot of the time. Thinking about it, that’s probably why I’m always behind despite still generally enjoying it.

And this was just in the opening general chat too, before Tom Price added in his extremely questionable criticisms of the plot.

[Technopeasant]

The critical flaw of this podcast might be that it feels like… nonsense a lot of the time.

[Flap Jack]

I finally caught up to the Dulcé Sloan episode, and thankfully it did not disappoint. 👌

Though there was a telling moment were they remarked that Dulcé had “encyclopedic knowledge” of Red Dwarf, even though she’d already failed to remember Kryten’s series number (either of them) and had got the US pilot mixed up with Parallel Universe.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

How the hell do you mix up the US Pilot and Parallel Universe 

[Dave]

How the hell do you mix up the US Pilot and Parallel Universe 

“My Louboutins are going to be worth a fortune”

[Flap Jack]

How the hell do you mix up the US Pilot and Parallel Universe 

She thought the US pilot replaced The Cat with a dog. Don’t know how she got there mentally, but it was just that one detail.

It’s a shame, as she was being very negative about the US pilot, and most agree that Hinton Battle’s Cat was one of the stronger aspects of it. Would have been interesting if she knew of him or had any thoughts about him, given he only recently passed away, and he was the only Black cast member in that version. It could have tied into the general Cat/Danny John-Jules discussion too. If only there was someone on the pod who was a Red Dwarf obsessive and could add these details. Alas.

[Warbodog]

If only the Better Than Life Podcast was a pair of women, they would get a thread too.

[Moonlight]

Let’s start our own podcast and get everything so pedantically right we spend every episode arguing over whether it’s Series 1 and 2 or Series I and II.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Let’s start our own podcast and get everything so pedantically right we spend every episode arguing over whether it’s Series 1 and 2 or Series I and II.

It’s obviously Season One / Two

[Flap Jack]

The First Outing and the 2nd Outing.

[Formica]

TFBWCM and KBTSQP

[Author]

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