What’s better than some juicy gossip? Juicy gossip out of context. By the time they get to the ultimate showdown (spoiler alert: I kind of let the cat out of the bag already), I felt I already had a dog in the fight. From the stuffy members of the wine club and fellow residents of the Elliott Bay Towers to Lilith Sternin to Bebe Glazer, the episode does a nifty job of letting us know a lot about these many characters. (Moose, Martin Crane’s Jack Russell terrier, doesn’t count since he was a regular on the show.) Heller leaves some open spots on the bracket for Flores to fill out, and the two spend the better part of an hour letting the characters duke it out. Heller comes to the table (or the Zoom) with an already crazy fleshed-out bunch of recurring characters to kick things off, from Frasier Crane’s exes and loony neighbors down to Baby the cockatoo. I’m not a fanatic about the Kelsey Grammer–starring NBC sitcom, but the deep dive that Flores and her guest take into the show’s characters made me want to start binging immediately. It’s a reference to the bracket-style battle royale among minor characters from Frasier that guest Emily Heller fills out along with host comedian and No. Despite the title, this episode of I’m Listening dropped in April.
