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For reasons I don't understand, I've been avoiding "American Idol", after being a semi-steady viewer every season. At first I got it: I hate the stinky would-be singers that the producers stick into every episode of the city-to-city auditions. I was sure I was going to dislike Jennifer Lopez and miss Simon Cowell too much to make the transition.
Then I watched parts of a few early episodes and got a small shock. J-Lo wasn't being a diva; even more important, Steven Tyler, Jennifer and senior judge Randy Jackson were bonding. The chemistry seemed great. I felt delighted relief.
I avoided watching again for another three weeks at least.
Tonight I tried AI again, during one of the Hollywood Final 24 hours.
The chemistry between the three judges has gotten even richer.
I still miss Simon Cowell's smart frankness, but each judge is clearly trying not to be a kissy-huggy sentimentalist. The singers being pared down sound at least okay, if not excellent. (One heartfelt plea, however -- don't sing "I'm Not Going" or any Whitney Houston oldies, okay? Please??) It looks like I might be back on the American Idol track again after all.
The bad news this week comes with the debut of "The Real Housewives of Miami". The culture of argument and gold-star meanness has just plain worn me out. When Simon Cowell got mean and argumentative, he had points to make. These women simply lack adult filters, signs of grown-up psyches that can handle impulses to say cruel things. Other than checking Bethenny Frankel's second season as a solo ex-housewife, I am done with this franchise.
Remind me not to be "Real" when I grow up.
I hate to admit that I can't watch something. My ego likes to think that I can view all TV, no matter how pea-brained, strange, cliched, etc. I draw the line at porn and gratitous violence. That's it.
Supposedly.
I couldn't watch "Sarah Palin's Alaska" (TLC), whose first season ends this week. I tried. Politics wasn't the issue. There's something about Ms. Palin that makes my skin crawl. I felt it the first time I saw her on the news during the 2008 Presidential race.
Bristol, by contrast, has some inexplicable charm and authenticity that kept her on "Dancing With The Stars" this past season. Still, every time the camera grabbed a quick shot of Mama Sarah, applauding her girl, I recoiiled.
Betcha she'll be back for a second season on TLC. As the woman herself says, don't retreat. Just reload.
Every blizzard I've ever been in -- from Chicago to Fargo, North Dakota to Minneapolis to New York -- has its Snow Soldiers. These TV reporters get sent by their editors to various locales around the city in question, for the express purpose of standing outdoors in blizzards.
They bring rulers and yardsticks with which to measure the deluge.
They collar passers-by and hope for a great blizzard yarn. What they usually hear: "I went out to get some milk and diet soda and then you called me over."
The colder and more encrusted by ice and snow the reporters get, the more they're enjoyed by their bosses. I'm not sure if we learn much about the weather from them. It seems to be the same lesson every year: standing out in a blizzard doesn't feel good at all. That's why the only people who do it are police officers and television reporters.
If you happen to befriend a television reporter, give them long underwear from someplace that specializes in outdoor toughness, like Patagonia. Hope that your friend doesn't suffer too telegenically -- otherwise, they'll get called upon to play human windsock or human snowcone. Or human yardstick.
"The Good Wife" is having a jaw-dropping second season. The episode first run on October 19th nearly boiled over with crucial character and plot development. Just when hissing and spilling was almost reached, however, the writers and cast pulled back and gave us a moment or two for cooling off and relishing some small, tasty detail -- a character's glance here, an exhale of relief there...
I hope the show brings back Mamie Gummer as often as possible. She's so subtle and funny and intense -- all at once -- you forget that she's Meryl Streep's daughter. Gummer deserves to be watched and cheered for, period.
Don't worry if you missed Season One, or the start of this season. Just jump in when you can. If needed, episode recaps can be found on the CBS site. "The Good Wife" is so well-written and acted, though, that you'll learn about the series' past from jumping in to the present. As for the good wife herself, Juliana Margulies? I try to find weaknesses in her work from time to time -- but usually I'm too busy just enjoying the heck out of her genius.
I love Tim Gunn on "Project Runway". I'm going to love his two books, once I buy and read them. I love the man's honesty about his celibacy, about being bullied as a kid, about trying to take his own life at age seventeen and how happy he is now that said attempt failed.
If I were a handsome, well-educated single gay man, I'd try to find a way to ask Tim Gunn on a date.
In lieu of a date, I'll settle for Lifetime giving Mr. Gunn his own show in addition to "PR". Bravo's effort, "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style", taught me a lot about fashion, self-esteem, wry humor, and life. Sir Gunn got thoroughly annoyed with Bravo when they tried to cast a second banana with whom he'd clash and create drama; if Lifetime promises not to pull such unreality stunts, I wonder if he'd consider it?
Besides being well-mannered, droll, kind, smart....Tim Gunn has a lot of life from which to draw genuinely interesting show content. As for fashion, few in the business know as much about helping people to look as good as their God-given faces and bodies will allow. That alone is more than enough for a broadcast.
Happy first year anniversary to Joy Behar on HLN (9 p.m. and 1 a.m.). Yes, it's the Joy Behar from The View, flying solo and sitting in the pilot's seat.
On just about any topic this hour show hits, count me in. It turns out to be a lot of counting: She loves to hit a thousand topics per episode, the more diverse the list, the better.
Behar is a comic by trade, but she has a strong streak of the PhD. in her. That's how she manages to be a semi-expert on everything from reality television to Millenium feminism to celebrity culture to civil rights law -- the list is as long as your imagination can imagine.
This is a commentary/interview/comedy show with a compulsive's need to learn.
Not only does Behar avoid boring her viewers, she manages to edify in bite-size units. No wonder she's increased HLN's viewership by 14%. What a piece of work.
Before the 2010 Emmys dim completely in the pop culture memory bank, I have to lift an imaginary glass of the beer I don't drink to Jimmy Fallon. Yeah, I've seen his late-night gig, but never forced myself to concentrate and truly give the guy a chance.
I was concentrating last Sunday during the Emmy opening sketch/musical triumph. It turns out that Jimmy Fallon can play a very mean guitar and brilliantly sing like a lot of people, including (for that blazing opener) Bruce Springsteen. Fallon and an oddball crew of surprising talents, plus the wizard leads from "Glee", knocked out one of the very the best openings of an awards show I've seen in the bazillion years I've been watching awards shows.
For three hours, the whole affair levitated every time Fallon stepped on the stage.
I will never ignore Jimmy Fallon again. Neither will millions of other people who saw the Emmys, and really saw Jimmy Fallon, finally.
