Ready for some randomness? Three members of Digital District are TV recappers for The Baltimore Sun this fall. Um, weird. Awesome, but weird. How did three people from the same organization land recapping gigs for a publication in an entirely different city? Are we plotting world domination, starting with the Sun?
Relax, we’re no evil masterminds — promise! But to get to the bottom of this, we did what recappers do best: overanalyze and nitpick every little detail. We asked each recapper what it’s like to recap, how Digital District ties into it all this randomness and what they (mostly) agree is the best TV show of all time.
When did you join the Digital District team?
LACY BAUGHER: Oh, goodness, this is a question, isn’t it. I want to say that I (think) I joined the team in late 2012, but I’m not 100% positive on that. I’m terrible with dates.
MYKL WU: I joined DD in the fall of 2012.
KARMEN FOX: Just recently in September 2014 after attending DD’s summer happy hour.
What’s your position in Digital District?
LACY: I’m part of the Digital team, though I’m currently on a bit of a hiatus, since I broke my foot earlier this fall. Hopefully by the time the new 2015 term starts, I’ll be back in the saddle again, at the very least in a street team capacity. I miss you guys!
MYKL: Digital Team Member
KARMEN: Content Campaign Manager
What show do you recap for The Baltimore Sun?
LACY: American Horror Story: Freak Show. Or, as I like to think of it, “Jessica Lange Doing Badass Jessica Lange Things.”
MYKL: Top Chef.
KARMEN: Right now I’m recapping Gotham. I’ve also recapped Mad Men and Arrested Development. I’ve even interviewed a few celebrities, most recently . Still have to pinch myself for that one. Squee!
How does being a Digital District team member help you as a recapper?
LACY: I think everything I do that involves writing on a deadline helps with being a recapper, so thank you to the DD blog for that! I also blog regularly as part of my day job — if you can call things like recapping Downton Abbey actual work at any rate — so that’s been a big help. In fact, it’s been a lot of fun recapping something that isn’t period drama!
MYKL: I think writing blogs for DD definitely helped me recapping the show. Although you can put a little more of your own voice into a recap. Overall I think having deadlines gives me the discipline to turn a piece in a time crunch.
KARMEN: Aside from making deadlines, staying obsessively in the know is crucial for both roles. For DD, you need to keep on top of the latest digital and tech trends. For recapping, you need to soak in any stories related to the show, whether it’s news, interviews or other site’s recaps. Do your homework, kiddos.
How did you land the recapping gig?
LACY: All due to the intervention of Digital District’s own Karmen Fox, actually! I tweet about AHS a fair bit (okay, a lot) and Karmen connected me with the Sun’s editorial team when their recap gig for the show came open.
MYKL: I reached out to Jordan Bartel (editor of the b, the Sun’s free weekly) on Twitter and he took a look at my previous recaps of Top Chef and the rest is history. It helps that Tom Colicchio himself gave me a shout-out on Twitter about my very first episode recapped.
KARMEN: Old Bay. No, seriously! In an episode of Mad Men, I saw a tin of Old Bay in Betty Francis’ (Don Draper’s ex) cabinet and I came up with an article idea: , since series creator Matthew Weiner is from Baltimore. Plus, I used to live in Baltimore, so it helped that I know the local culture so well. I pitched it to Jordan Bartel, and that was my first piece with the Sun.
Soon after that, he emailed me asking if I wanted to take over writing recaps for him. I did a happy dance (you think I’m kidding, but I’m not), composed myself and replied of course I would, even though I didn’t — and still don’t — have a TV. Comcast sucks.
As a huge Arrested Development fan, I pitched recapping that to him. A few months ago, I saw his tweet that the Sun was looking for a Gotham recapper. I LOVE Batman, so I threw my hat in the ring for that and got it. Yup, it pays to be a fangirl.
Old Bay’s on the bottom shelf. We see what you did there, Matthew Weiner.
Do you watch the show on cable or live stream?
LACY: Cable. As much as I want to be a cord cutter, I’m addicted to a handful of networks — FX being the main one, but also BBC America and AMC — who don’t offer much in the way of live streaming options. (Though FX Now is a pretty great app-based catch-up tool.) TL; DR: I’m too afraid of getting spoiled for AHS or The Walking Dead to risk it. But I’m definitely waiting for a la carte cable/channel-based options, just to put that out into the universe. Get on it, digital marketplace.
MYKL: I watch the show on cable. I usually DVR it as well.
KARMEN: I watch my shows on live streams and download the episode in case I miss anything. Oddly enough, that’s been more reliable than when I did have cable for my first season of reacapping Mad Men. Not sure if you know this, but Comcast sucks. Once I actually drove from D.C. to Ellicott City to watch Mad Men at a friend’s house because the cable crapped out on me the day before a new episode. Like I said, Comcast sucks.
Do you write the recap during or after the episode?
LACY: In my dream world, I write the recap before the episode even airs, but, sadly, not every installment is offered as an early screener for press. Womp womp. (Seriously, it makes such a difference!) When that happens, I usually do a rough sketch or bullet point list of hot topics while the episode’s airing (I have to leave myself time to tweet after all) and take an hour or so to pull it all together afterward. AHS airs pretty late, so Thursday mornings usually require a lot of coffee when this happens.
MYKL: After. I usually watch it live and jot down notes or points of interest. Then when I start my recap I’ll fire it up again go through the show segment by segment.
KARMEN: After. During the show, I take notes on main plot points, commenting on what I think what works, what doesn’t work, what the characters are up to and what it all means. Once the show’s over, I’ll review my notes, focus on two or three of the episode’s strongest themes and write the recap.
Gumbo, one of chef Mykl’s homemade #foodporn dishes on Instagram, .
Do you live tweet?
LACY: I try to! Sometimes between watching and note taking, my tweeting suffers a bit if I’m working on pulling a recap together, but I do try. AHS has a very active fan community online so it’s a lot of fun to be involved in that conversation.
MYKL: Sometimes. Usually I’m concentrating on taking notes. However, I do keep an eye on the twitter feeds in case one of the chefs or judges tweet something interesting out. And that would go into the recap as well.
KARMEN: Only during the commercials. I’m too scared I’d miss something important if I tweeted during the show. People get pissed if you get something wrong in the recap.
The recaps are due the morning after the show. How much sleep do you get the night you recap?
LACY: I will say that sometimes I do wish AHS aired just a little bit earlier! I try to make sure I’m done by 12:30 a.m. or so, but if it’s an “extended” episode that seldom happens. I prefer to have the whole thing done, dusted and sent before I go to bed — I’m useless in the mornings — so I’d rather just stay up and finish it rather than try to get up early. Plus, the episode is fresher in my mind that night, particularly if I’m watching and writing at the same time.
MYKL: None. For me recapping is a process. Some peeps out there basically summarize the show and call it a day. I go through the show minute by minute and try to add additional insights and information to the show. So a lot of the time is spent on researching and finding fun facts to add into the recap.
In a way my recaps are almost like a “companion piece.” The past couple of seasons I have had people telling that they don’t even watch the show anymore. They just read my recaps.
KARMEN: Ha, if I’m lucky I get to bed at 4 a.m. But usually I send my recaps right at the deadline around 7 or 8 a.m. So yeah, more like zero hours of sleep. Turns out those all-nighters in college were preparing me for the real world, after all.
Hello darkness, my old friend.
What do you look for in a good show?
LACY: Compelling characters and good actors. I can forgive a lot in a narrative if the characters are people I care about and are crafted in a realistic way. I love shades of grey — not the awful book, but the idea that no character, no matter how noble or horrible, is 100% good or bad. And seeing where that line is — what’s redeeming about a terrible character, or the hidden darkness in a “good” one, well, that’s a great story to me.
MYKL: I recap Top Chef because of my relationship with food/cooking. At this point, I wouldn’t call Top Chef a particularly good show. But it’s interesting to see the guest judges/chefs and always interesting to see what Tom Colicchio has to say about food.
KARMEN: I like shows that make me think, since I tend to overthink everything anyway. Plus, anything that needs to be spoon-fed makes me gag. And of course, the same stuff everyone else likes in a show: good premise, good writing and good acting.
What’s the best show of all time?
LACY: I have to cheat and give a two-fold answer here. IMO, The Wire is hands-down the best show ever done on television. It isn’t my favorite show, only because it doesn’t trip that OBSESSIVE gene in me that makes me seek out every snippet of information about it ever created and/or dress up like Baltimore detectives at conventions. But from a purely critical and technical standpoint, The Wire is simply incredible.
Doctor Who is my favorite show of all time, for all of those reasons (I have a TARDIS dress and, I’m not kidding, it’s like a ballgown) and because it trips a lot of purely emotional buttons for me, about hope and love and the meaning of humanity.
MYKL: The best drama of all time is…The Wire. Like many have said it IS The Canterbury Tales of television. I would say Sherlock is a close second, but those BBC shows are more serial movies than television shows.
Best comedy is Seinfeld. I hope you don’t need an explanation for that one.
KARMEN: For comedy, I’d have to say The Simpsons in its heyday in the ‘90s. No other show captures familial, cultural and social dysfunction so astutely and hilariously as they did.
As for drama, Breaking Bad. The writing, directing and acting are phenomenal. The Wire is a close second, but Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul’s performances take Breaking Bad over the edge. I’ve never watched a show that made my eyes tear up and my stomach drop in the same episode. So many feelings!
Lacy in her badass ballgown at Comic Con 2013, via
For recaps on your favorite shows (including ones from DD’s own recappers), check out the Sun’s entertainment blog at bthesite.com.
Want to live tweet with the DD recappers during the shows? Or just geek out with them about all things TV, digital or the District? Follow them on Twitter:
Lacy Baugher:
Mykl Wu:
Karmen Fox:
