Disclaimer

I am an unabashed fan of television and movies. Would my life be more productive and possibly more relaxing if I avoided the muck and unnatural drama of these audio-visual media? Maybe. Maybe not. Television might be rotting my brain, but I have fun in the meantime. Its alluring chore-avoidance nature sucks me in quite regularly (our precious TiVo doesn’t really help, I know). But getting hooked on any one show is unlikely; if I get to liking a program then it’s sure to be canceled. Movies are a less and less diverting escapist treat simply because the offerings (especially in a multiplex-only town like Beaumont) tend to be so ridiculously dumb. I enjoy a good blockbuster as much as the next person, but I appreciate a teensy bit of plot and character development, maybe actors who can act the part, and a story I haven’t heard, oh, five or fifty times before. Please?

Message to CBS

October 29, 2004

Dear CBS and Producers of The Amazing Race:

I love The Amazing Race; it has been my favorite reality show by far. I love the challenges, views of the world, and ostensible fairness of the competition. But I grow weary of it. At age 33 I'm a bit old for The Real World, but it's more of a real world than CBS reality television is. Amazing Race team types have fallen into tired cliches of themselves and the casting seems to be getting whiter and whiter; I understand that on other network shows that don't associate themselves with "reality" television. Even in East Texas I see Asians and I definitely see African-Americans and hispanics. The show's team demographics certainly do not reflect national trends, although they might reflect casting preferences for ratings and/or who is applying. If CBS is not getting a diverse applicant pool, why not say that? Maybe it will encourage a broader range for the next round. If the choice is for ratings, then I fear a backlash is on the horizon. Grow with the times or step aside. Why should I continue to watch a show that looks like so many others, especially its own reruns? I hate watching a good thing grow old.
Sincerely,
ML Eugeni
 

Now playing * 6/10/05

Gilmore Girls Consistently clever character development and pop culture references built around an unconventional mother-daughter relationship (WB). So far this season: Rory sulked and then inadvertently broke up Dean’s marriage. Now she’s enamored with a cute rich kid at Yale and is getting into a much more amusing and privileged collegiate existence. Luke and Lorelai got together but typically looney obstacles have continuously thwarted their time and then Lorelai’s mother (with Christopher’s drunken cooperation) pulled them apart. Lorelai’s parents separated then got back together. Lane started dating her bandmate (who seemed truly undeserving of her). Paris continues to be annoying. And Rory has--oh my--dropped out of college due to a crisis of confidence inspired by boyfriend’s rich-as-all-getout dad and is now living in the Gilmore’s pool house because Lorelai said she couldn’t just laze around at home. Yikes! Prospect is for more drama, less fun with that set up. I wait with bated (sp?) breath for next season. And what the heck was up with that snafoo on the broadcast schedule length of the finale--I nearly had a heart attack when episode’s Tivo recording cut off a minute short. Trust me, I was not alone in this trauma.

David watches SciFi stuff, like Stargate (now with Farscape’s deserving-of-more-work Ben Browder!) and Stargate: Atlantis. It’s been a while since any new scifi show caught his devotion. Farscape is gone, Buck Rogers can be viewed only so many times. The new Battlestar Gallactica series does not appear as silly as last year’s TV movie. David particularly likes that Starbuck is a woman this time around. No other amusing new sci fi on the horizon.

Alias and West Wing played opposite one another on Wednesday nights. Bummer. Both amuse us, but in entirely different vicarious ways. Alas, timing for Tivo is off because ABC (purposefully, I’m certain) made Lost 1:01 instead of usual 59 minutes or one hour, thus we consistently missed intro for West Wing last season. Annoying. West Wing took an (deliciously) unexpected turn into romanceland with an achingly will-they-won’t-they episode that put a Josh-Donna romance on the brink of something splendid...and then  ignored it ever since. At the same time Alias seems to have gone into a time warp, putting out a series of plotlines that remind us of the show’s beginnings. Ugh! in the end, West Wing definitely won my interest. Waiting patiently for next season.

Speaking of spy shows...check out MI-5 on A&E. It’s best viewed from the beginning, I think, to attach to characters. A British drama, sort of like a dour Alias. I got a bit lost second season, though, as they replaced two of the three central characters. But one of them turns up in the next big sreeen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice as Mr. Darcy so I forgive him leaving MI-5.

Degrassi: The Next Generation: Waiting and waiting for new episodes. A whole lot of drama in 30 minutes. I’ve become addicted to this Canadian teen show that updates the afterschool-special messages of my childhood and turns them into a richly-cast dramatic series with a lot of heart. (The N, cable network).

Kumars at No. 42 aired new episodes on BBC America in the winter. It’s an odd mix of scripted dramedy and real life talk show. Each episode has a special guest, just like a talk show should. The one with Tom Jones cracked me up, especially Jones’ story of being mistaken for black because he’s a soul singer; and, well, the host points out, maybe people were confused since Welshmen (coal miners, stereotypically) are black in the face. Makes me giggle even now. Maybe you had to be there.

The 4400: A USA original miniseries that this month returns as a series. It’s kind of like a really long X-Files case. Story centers on the strange powers and societal fear of alien abductees suddenly returned to earth. The first two “episodes” (complete with 2005 “original air dates”) are actually the end of the TV movie aired in the fall.

Our regular TV viewing includes...

Arrested Development - My favorite comedy. This offbeat family show is fantastically funny and smart; I especially love the Ron Howard narration. If you have not yet watched this show--what is wrong with you?!?! It’s fabulous. Each member of the cast is a gem, perfectly delightful and weird in their own way. Miraculously renewed for a second (and hopefully third) season and winning awards. Woo hoo! (Fox)

Lost: This was my favorite new series. A plane crash stranded passengers on a remote island populated by out of place creatures. A decades old distress signal led to a crazy paranoid Frenchwoman. During the pilot, David was able to predict every event, but the show has proved compelling. What I like about Lost is that it metes out mystery and answers in consistent doses. Drug-addicted has-been, escaped prisoner and her injured, wary marshall, ridiculously angry guy, creepily controlling Korean man and his woman, kind-hearted hippy guy, immature princess-type, and their default leader, a troubled doctor who was haunted by the missing body of his recently deceased father. In the end a group attempts escape from the island at the same time those remaining behind await attack. Crazy woman goes AWOL and creepy-vision child is taken by pirates.

Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers and Frontline and Frontline/World It’s never too late to get to know the world around you. Alda does scientific knowledge. Frontline is primarily US politics and policy (domestic and foreign). Frontline/World is shorter segments focusing on events in hotspots around the world. Apart from the dozens of war-on-terror focused episodes of Frontlie, all are compellingly good viewing, week in and out.

The Amazing Race - Around-the-world race with challenges, alternative challenges, and personal dynamics up the wazoo. Competition always includes cheer-worthy and villanous teams (see my letter to CBS above). My favorite reality show, bar none. David and I ponder each challenge and how we’d do. I am SO glad Colin did not win AR5. He scared me. And I’m not too happy about Kendra winning AR6 (her partner was not quite as bothersome). And may I add finally, I am SO glad Rob and Amber did not win AR7.

Desperate Housewives: A primetime soap opera starring, among others, Teri Hatcher as a sympathetically-insecure, sexy single mom and Felicity Huffman as Lynette, the harried, former-executive mother of three hellions and a baby girl. There’s also a bored, cheating supermodel wife, an icy cold perfect housewife/wavering divorcee, a nice-maybe-naughty love interest for Hatcher’s Susan, and one recently deceased narrator. The whole show was cute initially and has recently dragged down to moments of cuteness and a feeling of dread about contrived storylines-to-come. Lynette’s is the only storyline that really annoys me. Like if it kept going, I would definitely stop watching. Writers seem to have cleared out enough of the annoyance-inducing stuff to get me back for season 2.

Nip/Tuck - another odd show, this time on FX, about a playboy and a family man who are best friends and partners in plastic surgery in Miami. Second season is over. Often too painful to watch in regular speed with eyes open. TV-MA 2005 Golden Globe winner for TV drama!

The Sopranos and Curb Your Enthusiasm - one focuses on a murderous neurotic (James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano) and the other is a murderously funny (and very strange) neurotic (Larry David as himself). Also TV-MA (HBO).

Reno 911: If you’ve never seen Reno 911 you are truly missing out. A spoof of cop shows, this Comedy Central series is consistently hilarious. The finale last season was extremely crude, not necessarily the show’s typical brand of humor.

We’re suckers for the reruns of...

My So-Called Life - I love good adolescent angst. MSCL created a remarkably insightful show about teen life.

Hill Street Blues and St Elsewhere - awesome casting, powerful storylines, drama, humor, class.

The West Wing - like uplifting political movies except events are more real here, if very biased.

Seinfeld - I imagine no show could produce as many quotable laughs as this one

Farscape - creative sci fi show with romance, action, and humor. However, the four hour TV movie back in October 04, The Peacekeeper Wars, was overdone and underdone at the same time. Too bad this stellar sci fi series went out with such a whimper. Still it was nice to see the characters given proper endings.

Law and Order - the formula is a solid one. Not a PC show, more a classic mystery cop show. Neither of us is much attached (me: not at all) to any of the spinoffs.

Keen Eddie - this British-American cop show was quirky and compelling. And canceled. The stars have moved on to bit parts (guy) and Jude Law (girl).

Sex and the City - it took me a long time to warm to this then I became utterly and completely addicted. Even the cleaned up TBS reruns are good.

Muppet shows - who can top Kermit? And cute Gonzo? I could live without Miss Piggy. Recent Muppets Wizard of Oz had some very good moments (sorry, we “FF’ed” through the songs bits). Ohmigosh the Spanish crawfish was fabulous.

Mystery and Masterpiece Theater - Prime Suspect, Inspector Morse (now retired), Inspector Dalgliesh, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, and Tony Hillerman stories; loved MT’s rendition of The Buccaneers ten years back or so. Oh dear, so long ago? Feeling old.

Frontier House and Manor House - modern people play period lives in these PBS reality shows. Alas, the latest, Colonial House and Regency House Party irritated us in various ways. Next up is a life on the range, Texas style.

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