Unfiltered with Renee Young’s second season is back after a mid-season break. And while the debut episode won’t air until later, Wednesday, November 16th, WWE Network News were lucky enough to be able to get an advanced screening of the first episode back! And the guests were fairly big ones, with Jon Stewart and Chris Jericho appearing on the program.
While I won’t be able to avoid spoilers altogether, this isn’t going to be a recap of what took place. Instead, I’ll gloss over the highlights and the flaws if applicable, and then recommend if you should give the show a watch or not. Naturally, a show like this isn’t for everybody but chances are you likely know going in if you like the concept of the series. So does this episode hold up? Let’s take a look.
This episode of Unfiltered with Renee Young is about nineteen minutes in length, with the Jon Stewart portion of the interview along with any other hi-jinks and intros lasting for under five minutes. This means that the bulk was obviously given to the main guest, Chris Jericho. In the first season episodes would generally last under ten minutes, so the main interview lasting almost one hundred and fifty percent of the old interviews is certainly a good thing as many felt the show was too short in the past.
But before we got to the bulk we saw Renee sit down with Jon Stewart, which was at Summerslam of this year. She put Stewart on the hot seat asking him a number of questions and his wit was definitely evident. However the thing that I enjoyed most here was that unlike so many celebrity guests who either have no knowledge or wrestling or extremely limited, you can tell Jon is a fan. It is fairly well known he’s attended a lot of shows and back when he hosted the Daily Show he’d mention it here and there, but its always nice to see someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
Aside from the questions with Jon Stewart, a theme for the early portion of the episode was Renee attempting to get Chris Jericho to appear on the show. This involved some goofy acting, very similar to stuff done in the JBL and Cole Show, but it was fun. Some people might not enjoy it, but I like some goofy comedy and hey, it brought us Emma being Renee’s enforcer. Any time Emma is on screen is a good thing, in my eyes.
Additionally, it led to some very funny Chris Jericho moments. I think most people these days are back on the Chris Jericho bandwagon. He has been a highlight of RAW for months now. And here he was his usual funny self, before eventually transitioning into a more normal Chris Jericho for the remainder of the interview.
Once Jericho settles in to being relatively normal Chris Jericho, the interview picks up steam. First, Jericho expresses his jealousy that Harrison Ford was interviewed on the show previously, before Renee discusses how little he wanted to appear on the show. This then showed some amusing clips of Harrison Ford being, well, less than enthused. Which goes back to how refreshing it is to have Jon Stewart on. Additionally, I’m glad celebrity interviews are now only a small part of the episode as opposed to a full individual episode. Those were tough to get through, sometimes.
Anyway, they also discuss Jericho’s love for music and some of the shows he’s been to including an amusing Iron Maiden story. This eventually leads to his favorite cover songs he does with Fozzy and then after they get into Canadian talk. Canadian cool is a thing thanks to guys like Jericho, and its pretty amusing. And near the end, the two bury the hatchet for their little rivalry with Renee giving Jericho a gift. Fun stuff.
The only real flaw I have with this interview is not much wrestling discussion actually took place. Then again, the show isn’t really about wrestling. A show like the Stone Cold Podcast or Legends with JBL focuses on the career of the talent, while Unfiltered seems to cater more toward their personal life. Still, as a big fan of wrestlers talking about wrestling, I can’t help but wish it had a bit more of that.
Overall, I thought this was a really good episode of Unfiltered. Both of the main guests were very entertaining. One thing this show highlights, much like Talking Smack, is Renee Young’s charm. No matter who the guest is she does her best to make it entertaining, so when we have guests with the charisma and personality of Jon Stewart and Chris Jericho, it becomes a breeze to watch.
At almost twenty minutes, the show is relatively short and a quick watch. It doesn’t reveal anything huge. You won’t see anything from this episode as a headline on a wrestling news site. But regardless, it was a fun look at several different people with big personalities. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, it had Emma. What can go wrong?
VERDICT: Recommended
As always, stick to WWE Network News for the latest WWE Network news, rumors, reviews, and more!