Television Obsession

2007-02-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry, Cobie Smulders, you're actually not that bad. I recently watched a bunch of repeats of How I Met Your Mother featuring the back story on the Ted and Robin relationship, and she is actually fairly likeable. I think it was the part where she has about 15 dogs as pets that really sold me on her.

How I Met Your Mother actually is genius, for two reasons: 1. There was an entire episode on "Crazy Eye." My friend first told me about Crazy Eye several years ago. It's essentially the look of insanity/desperation in the eyes that reveals someone might be a bunny boiler. Many girls at business school have Crazy Eye. It's creepy. 2. There was a bit in one episode about the show on NY1 where the newscaster just reads the morning paper to the viewer. I can't really describe how amusing this is in words, but if you live in NYC you must check this out. The show did an excellent job of portraying the phenomenon accurately, and having hilarious commentary on it to boot.

2006-12-29T11:58:00.000-08:00

To close out 2006, here's a list of some of my recent favorites in the world of television and other entertainment:

Veronica Mars: This is a really fun, gripping and intelligent show. I am constantly amazed at the ability of the series to deal with real issues in the context of high school and college (the last three seasons have featured: rape, teenage pregnancy, corporate scandal, infidelity, teenage athletes behaving badly, etc.) Veronica is one of the best female characters on television with her wit, charm and ability to dominate almost any situation despite her short stature. I don't know why she keeps dating such losers, but hopefully when the series returns we will see some progress in her love life. The transition to college was remarkably seamless, which is an impressive feat for a teen series. Veronica Mars replaces the newly terrible Gilmore Girls in my CW fav list.

The Office: It's simply the best sitcom on television. Hands down. I was recently able to watch the entire first season and most of the second season on DVD (my sister is a big fan as well and received season two for Christmas) and I am now completely convinced it is superior to the British original. Well, at least for the American sensibility. It's very American. There is a pretty good article about the show in the December 1st issue of the New Yorker.

The New Yorker: My new favorite magazine. Although it's embarrassing how much that immediately identifies me as a wannabe intellectual yuppie, they have me pegged and I love it. I don't care if Malcolm Gladwell's arguments may not be entirely legit, that the fiction is often boring, and that the calendar is New York-centric. I have even developed an appreciation for the comics. The endless ads for luxury goods suggest that I am a "starter" New Yorker demo member, but I'm sure I'll be interested in buying investment watches and jewelry soon enough.

Bankers Ball Blog: www.bankersball.com pure hilarity if you are a banker, went to school with a bunch of them, or read American Psycho or Liars Poker. They are definitely a unique culture, and this blog gives you the window into their interesting little post-frat boy minds.

Heroes: The standout series of the Fall 2006 Television season. One of the few new series that anyone seems to watch, and the obvious successor to Lost. Unlike Lost, Heroes is reliably entertaining, mysterious enough without being too mysterious, and won't lose you entirely if you aren't watching with 100% attention. This is quality television.

How I Met Your Mother: Though the Class is a complete disappointment, I am grateful to CBS for marketing it enough that it led me to catch it's neighbor sitcom, How I Met Your Mother. I never would have watched this show due to the really lame title, and now it is a close second to the Office in my sitcom favorites list. If The Office is the new Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother is the new Friends.

The Holiday: It's a chick flick, but a completely entertaining and adorable chick flick that actually makes you happy in the end. Kate Winslet is an excellent actress in any context, Jack Black is charming, and the old man is amazing. It has the secondary bonus of making you fall in love with Los Angeles. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law are a little painfully good looking, it's like looking at the sun with those two, and their story is pretty boring. See it for Kate. (See the Notebook if you want to cry for two hours)

2006-12-29T11:55:00.000-08:00

I recently saw an episode of "Pants off Dance off" and it is exactly as bizarre as you might imagine. I also wonder if it's legal? They repeatedly throw viewers to the website, where they claim you can see video of the contestants dancing naked. I find that very hard to believe, especially for a network supposedly targeting young teens. If there were any viewers, I'm sure the FCC would be policing that one.

2006-09-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

Is there a new "pants free" movement in entertainment? Check out the following two items recently reported:

From Cynopsis today:
Boomerang is going commando, so to speak, with the launch of No Undies Mondays launching Monday, October 9 at 4-5p. No Undies Mondays will highlight some of most popular animated characters that are, well, simply pant-less, beginning 10/9 with Yogi Bear, Peter Potamus and So So, Squiddly Diddly, Breezly and Sneezly and Huckleberry Hound. Subsequent weeks will include Top Cat, Kwicky Koala and Wilfred Wolf, and The Hair Bear Bunch as well as Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey, Augie Doggy and Doggy Daddy, Sherriff Ricochet Rabbit and his deputy, and Punkin Puss and Mushmouse among many other pant-less characters.

From MultiChannel News yesterday:

Fuse Takes Pants-Off Again

The second season of Pants-Off Dance-Off will debut on Fuse Tuesday at 10 p.m. (EST).

Hosted by Jodie Sweetin (Full House), the new season will add face-to-face competition and live audience participation, including allowing the audience to use their cellular phones and vote live.

Season one debuted in April.

2006-09-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

Yay, it is the start of the new network television season. And there are a million shows I want to check out, which is new and exciting. I don't remember ever anticipating the new season this much. I am attempting to DVR essentially every new show, but so far have only watched a few.

I was planning to watch The Class (only caught about 5 minutes so I have no idea how it was) and The New Adventures of Old Christine, and in the middle I accidentally caught How I Met Your Mother. It's good! I was very surprised. Jason Segel (Of Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared fame) plays Marshall and is awesome, as usual. And I saw him at a restaurant the other night and was caught doing the celebrity stare at him. So embarrassing. The other characters are well cast and engaging, with the exception of the horrendous Robin (Cobie Smulders, what a terrible name!) who I also saw at the restaurant, but she was wearing about a million pounds of makeup and was not awesome. I have to admit she was strikingly pretty in real life. And Neil Patrick Harris as Barney is a stroke of genius. He's actually funny. I just looked at Cobie Smulder's IMDB page (how else would I have any idea what her name is?) and the first line was: "Amazingly, newcomer Cobie Smulders never gave much thought to acting" Ha, not amazing at all. We can tell.

The New Adventures of Old Christine was average. That show had promise, and then they decided it was funnier to make Christine a loser who can't actually keep a relationship or understand herself, instead of making the difficult choice to have character progression on a sitcom. It's kind of sad, a real waste of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' talents.

The Office was awesome as usual. Brilliance. I love that Pam and Jim didn't work it out, even though you know they will down the road. I like more sexual tension rather than less. Adding the new office that Jim works at into the mix is also fun.

My Name is Earl was mediocre, and is getting very boring to me. Bring in some new characters or something!

The only real new show I watched so far was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and I wasn't terribly impressed. It has a lot of buzz because of the West Wing producer aspect, but I think a serious, very dramatic and actorly treatment of the White House is appropriate, while a serious, very dramatic and actorly treatment of Hollywood, and specially a show about a sketch comedy show, is completely inappropriate. I mean, you imagine comedians are occasionally funny in real life, right? Well, they often aren't, but at least they are self-depreciating in real life. Amanda Peet is nails on the chalkboard. Her acting is abysmal, and I can't imagine what casting misstep gave her that role. Is she supposed to be Jaime Tarses? I have always liked Matthew Perry, even in his dumbest Friends moment, so he is a breath of fresh air, and it's nice to see him in a dramatic role. This show may come off my DVR list if it doesn't lighten up a bit. I mean, the promos make it look funny, must be based on something...

Grey's Anatomy continues on the road set last season. It's still over dramatic and manipulates the emotions, plus makes doctors look like high schoolers, which they don't appreciate. I enjoyed the self-referential line when Callie says "it's basically high school with scalpels." So true. And I love it. I cannot get enough of that show. The music is great as well. I've noticed an overall trend towards better music in TV shows, which is good to see.

2006-09-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

Check out a very cool use of the web: http://www.wefeelfine.org/

2006-09-05T17:06:00.000-07:00

My car is in the bodyshop, where it has been for several weeks. Some lady just backed right into me in a parking lot, clearly not even bothering to look in her rearview mirror. I'm sure her insurance company is thrilled to be paying basically the entire value of my mid 90s Honda on the repair of the minor dent and my rental car. It seems like a waste of valuable resources somehow, but it does seem like cars are essentially one big drag on resources. Which is why my next car will be a VW TDI and I will use biodiesel for fuel.

Driving is everyone's biggest issue with LA (by "everyone" I mean all of my friends who don't live here). While I concur that you do have to drive everywhere, I can't say I find it too painful. I have a manageable and generally traffic free commute to work, which is the crucial part of LA happiness as far as I can tell. Also, I live at the beach, which means most people are driving the opposite direction than me at all times, since they live in really hot valleys somewhere. I also enjoy driving to some extent. Yeah, sometimes it's stressful and you do have to pay attention. People in LA are also notoriously aggressive and bad drivers, and they keep running into me through no fault of my own. That's all somewhat bad. The cool thing about driving is that you can listen to the radio, of which LA has some stellar examples, most notably Indie 103.1. Generally you can just control your own environment. Temperature is under your control, radio, volume of radio, choosing to stop for a mcmuffin on the way to work - it's all under your control and it's all about you. As a selfish and picky person I find it much nicer than being squashed against some creepy guy on the subway as I am subjected to inane upper east side chatter, the smell of someone's fried chicken dinner and the capricious nature of the subway schedule.

Note on Indie 103.1: someone told me that it's owned by the evil Clearchannel corporation, which is disappointing. Also when I googled Joe Escalante who is my favorite morning show host I discovered that he is an evil member of the Vandals who tried to cheat all of his bandmates out of money and fame (well, according to Wikipedia at least.) I also find Jonesy's Jukebox kind of irritating despite the novelty of listening to Steve Jones philosophize.

2006-08-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

I saw Kiefer Sutherland at a concert the other night, and people were acting crazy!! They were surrounding him. I doubt he could even breathe. That behavior is one of the huge differences between NYC and LA. NYC people would just walk on by...

Here are the differences I have observed in my three months here:

1. People just don't care about your pedigreed education. I really don't mind (unless it's a job interview) because it saves me the embarrassment when someone goes "oh my god, that's like, the best school, like ever, right?!?!" And I have to say, "yeah, pretty much." Status in the east coast sense is not a high priority. I think there are other measures of status, like a brand new Mercedes, but a name brand education is not one of them.
2. There is a lot more physical activity. People are running. People are biking. People are perfectly comfortable wearing work out clothes anywhere. It's pretty cool.
3. People are more pleasant, but also less likely to just tell you things about themselves openly. Again, not a bad thing, because sometimes you just don't want to hear personal things about someone the minute you meet them.

2006-08-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

Let me elaborate on my week at Creative Artists Agency. You may be wondering why an MBA from one of the best business schools in the world (yes, that's me shouting out to my alma mater and being super arrogant) would decide that it would be a good idea to register with an entertainment temp agency. Well, I'm easily bored. And I was getting very broke. And I thought the temp agency was so incredibly amusing (especially the part where the woman had no idea what an MBA was, and definitely no idea what Wharton is) that I couldn't help agreeing when they called and told me I had this amazing opportunity to work at CAA. Of course, the minute I accepted I regreted the decision deeply. But, I have always been curious about the allure of the agency life. We visited William Morris during a career trek, and they told us that even MBAs had to start in the mailroom. Everyone thought that was insane, and I doubt there is anyone would would even consider such a stupid idea. They had an argument around "learning the business and the players" and I have to say I was curious to see this bizarro world system in action.

You walk into these places and it's just a long hallway of twenty somethings sitting in front of offices. They are terrified. They are wearing headsets. It's either creepily silent, or someone is yelling something incredibly innapropriate. The job of an assistant at an agency is to help their agent develop a massive ego that will dominate any other agent. This is accomplished by: listening in on all of their phone calls so they don't have to actually ask for anything, handling all of their personal dinner reservations, doctor appointments, and lunch plans, telling them when they have a meeting to go to, and never leaving the desk when they need you. It's the devil wears prada, basically. I found it shocking that anyone has a job like this, because in corporate america executives (with the exception of very high level people) are generally expected to schedule their own meetings in outlook, call people themselves, and know where they are supposed to be at any given time. I can't imagine what cognitive disability has caused agents to lose all capabilities of a normal adult, and expect someone who makes about 10% of what they do to handle the most boring aspects of their job and life.

2006-08-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

Pinky nice juice is back. Check it out: http://www.pokeythedog.com/pinkynicejuice/blog.html

Josh is now traveling the world and writing about it, so hopefully his link still works. I'm too lazy to check right now.

I am now gainfully employed, which is fabulous. I have my own office. My commute is not bad at all. And I get to look out the window onto some Fed Ex planes. I'm still in TV, because honestly I can't imagine there is another product I like more (well, perhaps my Apple computer, but I already tried to work for those geniuses without any luck.) I'm no longer on the "creative" side in any way, instead I help sell DIRECTV. Though I was trying to work in one of the studios here in fabulous Los Angeles, I think this is actually about a million times better. First of all, because I am so obsessed with my television I actually know quite a lot about all of the user interface parts of it (refer back to my many discussions about the various benefits of each DVR, interface, remote etc earlier in this blog.) And, this company has none of the horrible parts of entertainment which involve plastic surgery, stupidity, and massive egos. Well, not that you can entirely avoid massive egos anywhere people congregate, but I can say for sure that the contrast between working here and spending the worst week of my life at Creative Artists Agency is quite dramatic.

2006-07-07T16:12:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles is one big advertisement against plastic surgery. I have never seen so many oddly ageless, bleached blonde, skinny and deformed looking women in my life. My feeling is that it might be dangerous to make your own decisions about what you want to look like. For most women it seems to result in puffy and lumpy lips, tight shiny skin, and pointy noses. Overall the effect is disorienting. I know that what I see in the mirror is distorted, because I rarely have the same opinion about how I look day to day. Some days I think I'm fat, other days I look skinny, sometimes my skin is glowing, other times it's horrendous. I clearly have no perspective. Therefore I think it would be terrifying to make some sort of lasting medical impact based on my self assessment of what would make me look better. It's also incredibly creepy not to have any idea how old someone is.

2006-07-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

I take it all back. Los Angeles clearly dominates New York City in the celebrity viewing face off. But, you apparently need to be invited to a Hollywood party before the sight of so much celebrity interacting together will be revealed to you. I was lucky enough to be invited to a premiere party last week, and I saw one of my all time favorite celebrity hotties - Keanu Reeves. Keanu is extremely good looking in real life. And I think he is aging very well - adding a little rough and tumble to the pretty boy looks. In addition, I really freaked out at the sight of Adam Brody. He's shorter and skinnier and wears tighter jeans than I would have hoped, but it was still pretty exciting. Other celebrities in attendance were Woody Harrelson, Parker Posey, and... Prince.

2006-06-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

I saw the break-up on Sunday with some girlfriends. It was almost last on the list of movies I wanted to see, but since I've basically seen everything else that's out right now, we decided to check it out. If you're thinking about going to see this movie, especially on a date, don't. I read something about how the director wanted to make a movie about a break up, because there aren't any movies that specifically deal with that phase of a relationship. After seeing this horrendous movie, I think there is a very good reason no one has made a movie about a break up before. There were several major problems with this film. The pacing was very off, both with specific comic set ups, and with the entire story arc. Instead of showing anything that would cast the characters in a sympathetic light early on, the director chose to tell the story of their entire relationship up to the start of the movie with a photo montage. While we all got the point, we didn't get to know or like the characters through the photos. Then the movie immediately launches into a painful family dinner party scene and very familiar type of relationship fight. The fight scenes made me physically sick to my stomach, because we've all had that fight. And no one wants to re-live it with some popcorn in a movie theater. After the film takes us through this entire painful break up process, absolutely nothing redeeming happens. Not to ruin the ending for anyone who plans to see it, but really, nothing good happens at all. We were so depressed after the movie that we immediately went to a bar and had a drink. Awful.

2006-06-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

Apparently being jobless and aimlessly hanging out in Santa Monica results in some good celebrity moments. I saw Chad Lowe again this morning. He either lives or is working near where I live. Then I saw Kristin from Laguna Beach at a surf shop down the street after lunch. I had coincidentally just been discussing the LC vs Kristin debate - basically either people think LC is hot, or Kristin is hot. I am firmly in the LC camp, Kristin just looks totally average to me, and LC is very pretty. LC does seem to be more low key and somewhat depressive, whereas Kristin has some charisma going for her, but if we're talking looks only, LC wins hands down. In real life Kristin is even more average, someone you would never look at twice. And she's short. She's got a nice even tan though. Perhaps fake?

2006-06-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the ads. I don't have a job, so even though no one actually reads this blog, I decided google ads were an idea to make me feel productive. And, going to business school pretty much screams "sell out" so I feel like any subsequent selling out activities are just expected from me, right?

2006-06-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Rescue Me is doing well in the ratings, which is great. What's baffling is that the Office doesn't do better, especially with all the critical acclaim. It's Arrested Development all over again. Although I have to admit that Arrested Development started to bore the hell out of me, I think it was the point when they knew it was not going to live on and they just got crazy. The whole British storyline was honestly retarded. Oscar winning movie stars couldn't even save that plot direction.

Whenever I read ratings reports and comments in the trades, there is always one or two shows that have incredibly huge ratings and the critics hate, or vice versa. When I worked in production the conventional wisdom was "Americans are stupid." Producers basically dumbed down absolutely everything thinking that TV watching fat Americans would prefer it that way. Of course, these were people producing pretty unsuccessful television. You can tell if the creators of a show think the audience is idiotic, because they make absolutely no effort to throw in cleverness anywhere. Sitcoms are the worst offenders. For some reason they are generally one or two joke stories, with a serious lack of funny off handed one liners. The Simpsons has been on the air literally forever because the writers just say stuff that they are fully aware will only make sense to about 1% of the audience. And that 1% thinks it's so hilarious that they die laughing, and then repeat the joke 1 million times to their friends. Great viral marketing.

Back to stupid Americans, I think what is going on is that TV serves a very specific function for people. TV is a very passive medium of communication, and you are generally watching it on your couch, with some snacks, in your house, at night after a full day of working. Almost no one wants an intellectual exercise at that point in the day. It's the time of the day and the situation where you really want to just be entertained. Whether you're smart or dumb, various people like different forms of entertainment. I personally am a mystery junkie, so I love procedurals. I also like to laugh, so I enjoy funny shows. I'm bored with almost all sitcoms and almost all reality shows at this point. But I don't think people are dumb if they want to sit aorund and watch the King of Queens, or So You Think You Can Dance. Whatever, if you like it, go ahead. Where we get truly bad TV is when the people making the TV think the audience is really stupid for wanting to watch a bunch of aspiring dancers humiliate themselves on TV, and they make poor creative decisions because they just don't understand the audience.

Why people don't like critically acclaimed TV like the Office... I think it's an acquired taste issue. Everyone I know really likes it (including my 10 year old nephew) but a lot of people are somehow completely unaware it exists, or would need to watch 3 or 4 episodes to get it (or to realize it's actually almost as good as the British version). For instance, much more popular My Name is Earl is much easier to immediately understand.

2006-06-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

Another installment in the historical record of my celebrity sightings:

Ed Norton is one of my favorite actors for so many reasons. One of the main ones is that he is totally hot, but not in perfect and unapproachable way. He seems like a guy who could be your boyfriend and wouldn't be arrogant or self absorbed. I saw him near the same movie theater of the Vince Vaughn sighting and he was not incredibly tall, nor incredibly short, but looked exactly like himself and was very cute.

One actor who is way better looking than you can actually believe is possible is Jude Law. He's like a luminous gorgeous person. He is totally intimidatingly gorgeous. My friend had a "moment" with him while he was shooting a really crappy movie on our block, but that's her story to tell.

It would seem from the last few postings that I am completely celebrity obsessed. I sort of am, but really just because I enjoy gossip quite a bit, and it's much nicer to gossip about very public people you don't actually know than to gossip about your friends. I'm trying to avoid the latter. And, all of those gossip magazines are a serious amount of entertainment for $2. It's the best entertainment bang for your buck in my opinion. Nothing in the whole magazine is the slightest bit boring, and sometimes you are totally doubled over laughing at the "Celebrities, They're just like US!" photos of Liv Tyler pumping gas or whatever. My favorite was the photo of Britney Spears eating bread with the caption "They eat carbs!!"

I've met a few people who are creepy celebrity obsessed, like they find out you work in entertainment and they ask you if you've worked on a show with anyone famous in a overly interested way. I get the feeling that these people would make a big scene if they actually met anyone halfway famous, and would feel both awed by the person in an inappropriate way, and feel some sort of personal connection to them, which is equally creepy. I think the correct way to deal with a celebrity encounter is to not stare at them too much if you can help it, and then just write about it in your blog later. No autographs, that's horrendous. (I mean, obviously there are special cases. I have an autograh from Lars Ulrich, but we are potentially related. And I also got an autograph from Sonia Thomas, a competitive eating champion, but that's funny.)

2006-05-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

I am really on a roll today. Anyway, Brad and Angelina obviously just had a baby, which still seems like the craziest turn of events in the world to me. I have no idea why, it just is somehow shocking. Read this funny post on the Superficial about it:

http://www.thesuperficial.com/2006/05/29/brad_pitt_and_angelina_jolie_g_1.html

I think the DNA of hotness that went into creating this baby is going to result in some sort of massive cosmic joke and the child will grow up to be much less attractive than average. It sort of has to happen. Not to mention, what kind of crazy childhood do you think Bragelina will provide? I'm sure they are both lovely people, but I think I would rather be Madonna's kid. Although Michael Jackson's kids are probably quite jealous of Shiloh.

2006-05-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

More on the topic of celebrities. One of my favorite celebrity sightings was when I walked out of "Old School" with my friend Heather and we were discussing whether Vince Vaughn was cute or not. She loves him completely, I was neutral. She had just said "you know, he's incredibly tall" and then we saw him, in the movie theater, presumably either about to go watch his own movie, or just walking out of it. He was incredibly tall, and extremely attractive. Much more attractive than I had thought he would be. I had to concur with Heather that yes, he is good. I have been a big fan of his ever since.

2006-05-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

I just moved to Los Angeles. Which kicks NYC's ass completely. Now while I search for a job I get to spend time driving around in my rented convertible by the beach. In NYC I just spent a lot of money on nothing while doing my half assed job searching.

I still am of the opinion that essentially the same people live in both places. I probably have a completely skewed idea about NYC people though, because everyone I am friends with there (at least pre-school) worked in entertainment or was an artist. So far that's essentially who lives in LA too. And I am hoping that a lot of my NYC friends move here. I think they actually will, so it's not an idle hope.

I'm curious about celebrity sightings here, because it's so much less compact than NYC so the celebrities are not roaming free quite as much. On the other hand, there are probably more of them here than in NYC on any given day. I have seen three celebrities in LA since I first started coming here all the time. The first one was Cuba Gooding Jr at the W bar in Westwood. Sort of exciting I guess. The second one was thrilling beyond belief, because it was Benjamin Mackenzie at a Starbucks in Santa Monica. He was a little short, but besides that totally cute. I'm not completely positive it was him though. He had no entourage whatsoever, which is somewhat atypical. I have almost never seen a celebrity just walking around alone. In NYC sometimes, if you catch them basically on the block they live on just getting a coffee or something (I was pretty excited to see Molly Ringwald in that exact situation). Usually celebrities are surrounded by a group of absolutely the most boring or lame looking people ever. And you wonder why would a celebrity choose such bad friends? But then again, cool people probably prefer not to hang out with celebrities. I'm embarrassed if I even notice them. But that's a NYC thing I think. Anyway, my third celebrity sighting was this morning and it was Chad Lowe in Santa Monica. I've seen him about five million times though, so it wasn't super exciting, only exciting in the sense that I had sort of forgotten that this was a celebrity sighting locale because I hardly ever see them. Oh, I did see one of the Beastie Boys at Fred 70 or whatever that place is in Los Feliz. But again, those Boys are all over NYC all the time, so not exciting. The last time I saw Chad Lowe was an extended viewing because we were at the same event and Hilary Swank was with him, so it was a little more exciting. He's interesting though, because he's one of the few celebrities who actually looks exactly like himself. There's no "oh, I thought he'd be cuter/uglier, taller/shorter" he looks exactly as you would expect.

2006-05-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

I graduated. And now I have time to obsess about TV once again. Yay. I was just reading the Television without pity round up of the last OC episode, which I misssed, sadly. The OC has really deteriorated badly. Seth and Summer are the last residual of goodness left, but this season even they have been tedious and horrible. Seth's whole lying and pot smoking thing is not charming. Summer is still great, but it's tough for her to carry the acting for everyone in every episode. I hope Rachel Bilson gets some good projects after this. She deserves it far more than Mischa Barton. I dislike Kaitlin immensely and have no interest in her storylines at all. I'm sure next season will be the last for the OC, but it does sadden me that it will go out on such a low note. This is kind of a funny article about how Mischa Barton is glad she was killed off: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1992388

2004-12-11T09:36:00.000-08:00

I really want to like the CSI spinoffs. CSI Miami I do like, in the "it's so cheesy it's great" kinda way. It also has the advantage of the Miami scenery and David Caruso being uber vigilante guy, that is very amusing. However, CSI New York is not winning me over. Part of it is that I have actually lived in New York, so I can see how glaringly fake everything is. I don't think there has ever been a New York City CSI with bleached blonde tips, architect glasses, model looks and a really thick New York accent. The tone that they film the show in is also way too blue for me - it makes New York look even more depressing than it looks in real life. I still prefer Law and Order for a New York cop show. I mean, I'm sure the characters are too attractive in that show too, but at least they look a little more rough and tumble. Um, and I just can't get behind a show that opens with Gary Sinise looking off into the distance and saying "Someone's missing a wife."

2004-11-05T18:31:00.000-08:00

The OC is back!! Thank god. Every time I hear the theme song, I am immediately fifty times happier. It's a bittersweet sound, because I miss the OC crew so much. OK, so season 2 promises to be non-stop fun. I am so happy they managed to undo all of the bad decisions everyone made at the end of season 1 - although there might be an issue with the baby thing... like in five years Ryan's going to find out he has a kid somewhere. Um, I can't wait for next week, when alkie Marisa sees Ryan, and bitter Summer sees Seth. What's going to happen?!? Note to the producers: I don't know where Luke and his gay dad are supposed to live in Portland, OR, but when I lived there people didn't walk around in bikinis. Portland, unlike the OC, isn't on the ocean. Where exactly is Seth teaching sailing? Are Luke and his gay dad summering on the coast? I don't know what's going on. And the girls in Portland are not all that cute. Well, if you like dirty hippies, maybe they're cute. (side note: How many f-ing movies is Jude Law in this fall? Damn.) What's up with Jimmy's rough-n-tumble facial hair? I didn't recognize him until the 3rd scene he was in. I'm confused, are we supposed to think that Ryan and Theresa weren't having sex? I love the tantrum Marisa had, that was classic.

I will not watch the North Shore ever again, despite Fox's repeated attempts to promote it during every minute of the OC. Leave my OC alone - North Shore sucks. Cancel it.

Is Tru Calling coming back? I thought so, but then I heard not. Tell me if you know.

2004-08-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

I went to the big Wharton kegger. I mingled. It turned out to be fun. I think my low expectations, and the strange experience of setting "goals" for the party (meet 10 people, don't stick with one person, mingle), actually helped me enjoy the experience. Because "fun" was not one of my goals. Fun just kind of happened. I wasn't even ready to leave when my new friends were. I am not socially incompetent. Although I did seem to piss off one guy by asking where the bathroom was in the middle of him interrogating me about reality TV. I honestly needed to go to the bathroom, I wasn't trying to get away from him. Oh well, I will hopefully pick up some ettiquette lessons along the way here.

Week 2 (now on day 5) is having the effect of making me feel like I suddenly fit in. A big part of that is that I have started to make real friends. So far I've always had at least one person to have lunch with. I had two people to go the party with. I have people to do weird campus errands with. I am not bored and lonely at school at all. My social anxiety is starting to diminish. I do need to learn to be as friendly as the people around me - it's astonishing how much everyone wants to meet each other. People in Philadelphia in general are insanely friendly. I love it, but it's an adjustment to take that guard down and start randomly talking to strangers.

Yoga may start to be a problem. I went to a pretty good class today, but I have serious fitness needs from my yoga since it's the only physical activitiy (besides walking as a form of transportation) that I do. Philly does not have the wide range and depth of yoga offerings that NYC has. Especially within a five block radius of my house. Whatever, I will stop writing about this since no one but myself could possibly care.

I'm getting a DVR!!! It turns out that Comcast does actually have them, although they did not tell me this when I first signed up for cable service. Because it's lame ass Comcast, they do not have a "dual band" DVR, which means that I can only record one show at a time. And that sucks, but I think I can work it out since almost every show on cable repeats at least once. This will mean some creative scheduling on the DVR - recording the entire season alone is not going to cut it - but I am up to it if it means not missing shows I want to see anymore. And, conversely, not watchiing every repeat of Law and Order because it's the only thing on when I want to watch TV.

Some of you may wonder why I don't buy a TiVo and am instead totally devoted to the DVR. This is why: 1. TiVo requires a phone connection, which is dumb. 2. TiVo means a whole other item to put in my TV stand. There's not a lot of room there. 3. TiVo means yet another remote (although I imagine there must be some way to use your TiVo remote for your cable and DVD player too, so maybe that's a dumb reason) 4. The biggest reason - you have to buy the TiVo box, which most importantly means a big cash outlay, and less importantly means you own this piece of technology that may become outdated within a year or two. With the DVR you just rent the box, and can upgrade when they finally get a dual band DVR at Comcast without buying anything new. Plus when you calculate monthly fees + buying the TiVo box, the DVR is a lot cheaper.

I am becoming a crazy Time Warner cheerleader - I spent like five minutes telling my Comcast customer service representative that I really loved Time Warner and that Time Warner was fantastic. I am a TV junkie. It's sick.

2004-08-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

So far business school is overwhelming. Mostly in the social sense. Imagine being suddenly plopped into a space with 819 other people you'll be spending the next two years with, and imagine that all of them are pretty good at mingling and introducing themselves to you, no matter what you do. Imagine also that you have only met about 10 of them prior to this "meet and greet" session. It's not a scenario that would be pleasant for anyone with any social anxiety issues. I don't consider myself to have much social anxiety - especially in the professional arena. Working freelance will remove any of that type of anxiety pretty quickly. But, even though I consider myself fairly friendly and generally find it easy to meet people and make friends - the sheer numbers of new people I was surrounded with on Day 1 made me want to run and hide. After having superficial conversations with about 20 people, and then finally running into someone I had once spoken to for more than a minute, once - we were all herded into our welcome address from the Dean. He was a very suave and entertaining kind of guy - which is what you would expect from a business school Dean. Then we were treated to an incredibly entertaining lecture from a magician and memory expert who taught us all tricks to remember each other's names. (I'm not being sarcastic, it really was very entertaining). My two thoughts on that were pleasant surprise that they picked that topic, since I had been thinking before I started school that I better figure out how to remember people's names better, and following that thought, extreme relief that professional school means they feel some pressure to entertain us.

Later on Day 1 we had another huge eating and drinking thing featuring all 820 of us - which again, made me really uncomfortable. I also had the pleasure of speaking to the first unfriendly person I had met there, which sent me right back to memories of the first day of middle school. I have generally liked all of the French people I have ever met, but this woman was the totally stereotypical rude frenchperson. I will remember to never speak to her again. Then I spoke to a group of interesting people, then couldn't handle it anymore and went home to have a big headache. I have realized that my comfort threshold in encountering a new group of people is way exceeded by 820.

On Day 2 we started "math camp." It's basically designed to review math concepts for all of us who have been working in non-math oriented jobs so that we can pass this qualifying exam. The professor started off by saying "almost none of you have never taken calculus. It would be a fluke if you were admitted without calculus, so it's probably only about 20 of you." Ha, I am that fluke. I have never taken a calculus class. After that scare, I was pleasantly surprised that the material we covered on that day was all very familiar. Day 3 got into some stuff I don't know, but I was glad that almost the first 6 hours of class seemed easy. The other big event of Day 2 was that we met our Cohorts. Cohorts are basically just like your elementary school class. We take almost all of our classes together, we elect Cohort officers, we have parties with each other, and it's a manageable social size of 60 people. I was relieved to finally have a reasonably sized peer group. I was also relieved that several people I'd met before, and who seemed cool, were in my Cohort. I'm in a "health care management" Cohort, which basically means that there are lots of people in my Cohort who are studying health care management, which is a specialization of Wharton's. That also means that several people in my Cohort are MDs, biogeneticists, and other insanely brilliant science types. My general impression of my Cohort (and, by extension the whole student body) is that everyone is incredibly smart, very friendly, is either from an exotic country or has worked in an exotic country, and, despite all of these impressive qualities, they all seem basically normal.

Day 3 was today - which consisted of math camp again, and a microeconomics class. Math had been leading me to re-examine my presence at business school. I had several thoughts like, "How the hell did I get into this school?" and "Is this really what I want to do?" Oddly enough, it was microecon that made me feel like I was doing the right thing. I had one of those experiences where your brain suddenly wakes up and starts being interested in what the professor is mumbling incoherently - and even starts having its own independent thoughts about the subject matter. It's a big relief, because I was getting nervous about the next two years.

Tomorrow night is my first Wharton party as a Wharton student. I'm attempting to approach it in the right way - as an educational experience to improve my mingling skills.

2004-08-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing that I really like Law and Order. And that TNT plays episodes of it all day long, one after another. Otherwise I might lose my sanity while attempting to put together IKEA furniture with names like Bekvam.

2004-08-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

I start school tomorrow. Other than that, everything is pretty much the same. I continue to be very upset that I missed both "Amish in the City" and "Trading Spouses" both times that both of them aired. I really cannot function without the DVR. Now that I don't have one anymore I realize anew that TV watching is totally different with and without the DVR. With the DVR you think things like "I should take my dog out for a walk now, I'll just pause this show I'm watching and do that." Without the DVR you think: "I should take my dog out for a walk now. Shit, that means I will miss 15 minutes of Joe Schmo. Hmm, dog happiness or Joe Schmo?" It's really annoying. I don't enjoy being a slave to the TV. As compensation for missing "Amish in the City" I should get "Devil's Playground" from netflix tomorrow, although I will probably be too busy networking or something to watch it.

2004-08-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

I now have Philadelphia cable, with Comcast. I miss Time Warner. The guy who installed my cable not only showed up an hour late, but then took like two hours to figure out how to make the cable work. Besides the obvious lameness of not offering DVR, Comcast has the worst interface. Time Warner digital cable has a very easy to use guide that gives you lots of info, and lets you scroll around while still watching tv. Comcast has some crappy looking guide that doesn't let you still watch your show, and barely gives you any information. I think it's sponsered by TV Guide, because the stupid TV Guide icon keeps popping up when you change channels and look at the guide. And there are ads on the guide!!! It sucks. Not to mention that the feature that allows you get more info about the show you are watching is nice and discreet on Time Warner, only taking up about a quarter of the screen. Comcast pops up some full screen bullshit, again, with ads and the TV guide thing. Not to mention that the cable box looks like it's straight out of the 80s. I didn't really know that the aesthetics of my cable box and interface were so important. It's kind of weird, but true.

2004-07-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

Moving sucks. Deeply. I am currently sitting in a starbucks taking advantage of their wireless internet access because I didn't bother to get any at home until today. I got cable too - just because it's so cheap here. So that's exciting, even minus the DVR. Netflix seems cool, but it could never replace real tv for me. Philadelphia is very cute. My street is super cute. My apartment is insanely cute. I do find myself severely missing my friends. It's horrible. I feel totally bored, even though there's tons of stuff I have to do. Classes start on Tuesday. I saw some guy walking around carrying the Wharton guide we all got in the mail - it seemed kinda geeky to so obviously identify yourself. Luckily I think I am the last person people would automatically pinpoint as Wharton material. I should be able to blend in with all the Penn undergrads if I want.

2004-07-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

There is a dark side to the DVR. I think it is the greatest television invention since cable, but unlike cable, it's really impossible to go back to regular tv. I just can't settle for something I vaguely want to watch, it has to be something I really want to watch. I can no longer watch any episode twice. My standards have become very high for my TV. And I don't think TV can really deal with it. During the regular TV year, when there was plenty of good original programming and I could barely keep up with all the shows I wanted to watch, the DVR was awesome. It was a world of plenty. Now, when I could really use some good TV to pack by, there are literally 3 shows a week to watch. (right now they are Joe Schmo 2, the 4400 and Six Feet Under.) Now that I am going to school and will be broke, I am ditching cable entirely and joining Nexflix. That whole rating movies thing is really addictive - I spent about 2 hours rating yesterday. I've realized that the next best thing to the DVR is DVDs.

2004-07-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

On the TV and movie front: I saw "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" with Jessie and Robert the other day. It was fantastic, despite the fact that it really had no particular narrative thread, and that it was apparently 2 1/2 hours long. I am particularly interested in Lars Ulrich since I imagine he is some relative of mine. My roommate once met him and got his autograph for me. It said "Amy - Keep on Rocking! Lars Ulrich." And I lost it. Anyway, go see the movie. Especially if you like Metallica at all - for me it was a total reminder that I actually secretly love them.

2004-07-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

Oh, well, it turns out that (at least according to Television Without Pity) "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan" is a hoax. It did seem extremely lucky that A. The filmmaker decided to film all of the behind the scenes and B. The filmmaker got such great shots of everything (including alternate angles when there was supposed to be only 1 camera) and C. That Johnny Depp would agree to be interviewed and D. That M. Night Shyamalan wouldn't sue Sci Fi for defamation. I have to say that it actually seems like an even better documentary as a mockumentary. It convinced me.

2004-07-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

This guy I used to work with sent me an email about a documentary that aired on the Sci Fi channel called "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan" that was kind of intriguing. Basically Nathaniel Kahn (who made that documentary I haven't seen, but heard was good, "My Architect") made a documentary on M. Night that was supposed to be a straight forward bio thing to promote "The Village." Luckily Kahn is the kind of documentary filmmaker who likes to keep the camera on all the time, and he started filming the process of making the documentary essentially from the start. And that's what the documentary turned into - a crazy journey on making a documentary about M. Night Shyamalan. I sort of idly started watching the documentary because I happened to be home when it was on, and then got totally sucked in. It's the kind of thing you rarely see on TV - complicated and interesting. I don't want to give away the buried secret - but I have to say that the filmmaker makes a good argument for his crazy theories. He's definitely kind of an asshole - he lies to almost every single interview subject, and basically has no respect for M. Night's privacy or personal feelings. At the same time, I was glad he was being an asshole, because he was getting such interesting stuff out of people. M. Night is famous reclusive, and he has this insane presence that is very intense and somewhat creepy - so even though I'm not a huge fan of his (although I've really liked the films I've seen) I was totally fascinated with him. I don't know if Sci Fi is re-airing the show, but if so, I would suggest that everyone see it. It's definitely the most interesting piece of TV I've seen so far this summer.

2004-07-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

I should mention that I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 this weekend. Overall I think the film is going to appeal largely to people between the ages of 14-22 who will get really fucking pumped about hating the government and the military. I know that if I had seen this film at a formative age, I would have accepted absolutely everything he says and been totally blown away by the whole thing. Being slightly older and wiser, I can see how manipulative he is in his arguments. But, honestly, it doesn't really bother me. This is why: 1. Michael Moore is the left's answer to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. And the left desperately needs an answer to all the right wing exaggerators out there, because the left generally attracts people who like to think in shades of grey, and can't bring themselves to make a strong and decisive statement. 2. Politics has always been at least 70% about propaganda. Fahrenheit 9/11 is clearly propaganda, but again, the right is always hurling propaganda at us, so why can't the left take a turn? 3. By it's nature, propaganda should affect people on an emotional level to really convince them. I think Fahrenheit 9/11, far more than any other Michael Moore film I've seen, is emotionally intense. I was literally in tears through at least three parts of the film. 4. The film is a pretty impressive piece of non-fiction filmmaking. Almost every shot is perfectly chosen, it's fast paced, tasteful when it needs to be (notably the 9/11 recap) and visually wrenching when it needs to be. I can see why the film got a standing ovation at Cannes. The whole "controversy" over the film is just kind of stupid to me - I mean, everyone's like "it's not truth, it's just his opinion, blah, blah blah" Duh, of course it's his opinion! It's Michael Moore, and he's never been known for an unbiased take on a subject. And it's clear in the film that he's making an argument - which is quite different from just presenting unbiased facts. I think that he really did an excellent job in making his argument - a far better job than the democratic party does, so I'm really glad he's out there getting attention and making so much cash at the box office.

2004-07-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

We finally started the My So-Called Life marathon. I can see why critics were obsessed with the show. It has this (mostly successful) artsy component that critics always love. And the acting is almost entirely excellent. I wish there were a few more funny moments, since it's a pretty dark portrayal of high school, and it gets a little depressing. All that aside, the main reason to watch this show is the insane chemistry between Jared Leto (as the incredibly hot Jordan Catalano) and Claire Danes (Angela.) Jordan Catalano is a character that you totally remember from high school, but you hardly ever see in TV or movies. He's that guy that mostly ignored you, and everyone else, and walked around in his own pothead daze. And you thought he was really deep and romantic because he was kind of dumb and quiet. It's actually my favorite thing about the romance - that Angela's really smart and borderline geeky, and yet she's totally obsessed with this guy who's clearly kinda dumb. Having dated hot dumb guys over and over again, I definitely get it.

2004-07-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

Joe Schmo 2 is still good. North Shore is getting crappier and crappier by the week. It now feels like a big waste of time when I try to watch it. The writing seems to be declining every episode, the acting is horrendous (See the previous post when I said that Hailey from the OC is the best actor on the show. Still true.) and the show just lacks any sense of complexity or irony. Every character always behaves stereotypically, and every dramatic situation is highly unrealistic and contrived. It does make me realize that the OC really is a gem of a nighttime soap opera. The OC goes over the top, but knows it. Anchored by Peter Gallagher's expressive eyebrows and Seth Cohen's quick wit, the OC is free to have drunken catfights that end up in the pool. It's a multilayered joy of a show. Not to mention that teenagers are just more fun than adults with jobs. Especially when the North Shore tries to create some sort of weird working class vs leisure class argument with its characters. It's bad, stay away.

2004-06-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

I geeked out last night with a midnight showing of Spider Man 2. I really shouldn't say anything about it, since it was a total battle to stay awake and I think I need to see it again more alertly before I have any sort of opinion. I learned several interesting things at this midnight showing: first - UA at Union Square has very lax security. We decided not to get in the huge Spider Man line and instead opted to just go straight into the theater. No one stopped us - apparently the ticket taker guys weren't told about the massive line outside. We got there about an hour early and snuck into the theater as Harry Potter's credits were rolling, and we picked out the perfect seats and just sat there until Spider Man started. Some kids who obviously worked at the theater were in there with us for a while, but they seemed to think we belonged there and didn't say anything. Second - lots of people think it's a good idea to bring small children to midnight movies. I think it makes the kids totally psyched - but it seems like kind of a weird thing to do. Third - Apparently Union Square is the theater where people yell at the screen (and some weird kid dressed as spider man pretends to throw himself off the balcony). And apparently Battery Park theater is a very quiet nice theater - this is according to my friend who actually instigated the midnight showing thing, and had accidentally hit Union Square when he meant to hit Battery Park in the excitement of online Spider Man 2 ticket buying - and then every time some annoying kid yelled something at the screen - he was like "Battery Park" under his breath. So, my only advice to all of you is to see Spider Man 2 at Battery Park and to see it when you aren't really sleepy.

2004-06-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

There's not much good tv happening in the summer. I have no material to write about. Is that why no one wants to give me comments anymore? I think the focus of the summer is really movies, so maybe I should see some and comment on them. I did see Dodgeball this weekend. It was very amusing, sort of a poor man's Zoolander, except featuring Vince Vaughn's perfect little nose. Of course the big event of the weekend is that Fahrenheit 9/11 made 23.9 million dollars. That not only puts the film in the top box office slot for the weekend (with White Chicks as a distant 2nd with 19.7 million) but that breaks Michael Moore's own record for top grossing documentary of all time. And this is just the opening weekend. Insane.

2004-06-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

If you want to see David Cross every day, just hang out in my neighborhood. Sighting number four last night.

2004-06-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

Subliminal message: notetakingpizza. Todd Barry is so fucking funny. Will someone in the know tell me what this job at NBC is that has something to do with "comedy development" and involves spying on comedians and taking notes? I saw Graham Norton perform live on stage last night. I knew that he was going to be at this show, and I was not looking forward to it. He's so irritating on TV, and the billboards for his new comedy central show just make me want to never, ever watch it. But then he got on stage, and he had this fantastic presence that made me want to be his friend. Yes, he was super hyper, flamboyant and seemed interested in being as gay as possible - but somehow it was all so charming. I think because there was this major undercurrent of "I really don't give a fuck what you think of me" running under his performance, and basically anyone who gives me that vibe is immediately someone I give a fuck about. Plus he was wearing the best jeans ever, and this shirt that looked kinda torn up and vintagey but probably cost ten million dollars.

2004-06-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm reading the most incredible book - Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. I might be the last person in America to be reading this book, (I guess it's a bestseller?) but I also just finished reading the Da Vinci Code last week, so I am clearly not on the pulse of the New York Times bestseller list. I read a lot - yes, I have time to not only watch an obscene amount of TV, but also to read at least one book a week - so I never really buy books. I usually go to the library and pick up random books based on their covers. I've read every book by every author I like (more or less) and I'm too lazy to go out of my way seeking new authors. The fact that most modern literature is depressing and boring might have something to do with my literary laziness. But, this Augusten Burroughs I am really into. The basic plot of Running with Scissors is that Augusten Burroughs' mom goes crazy when he's about 9, his parents get divorced, and he is handed over to his mother's insane psychiatrist. Literally - the psychiatrist becomes his legal guardian. Every horrible thing that could happen to this kid happens - and yet somehow it's totally hilarious. Part of the greatness of the book is that Burroughs has so much ambiguity about it - on one hand you can tell that he's kind of horrified as he writes things down, but then at the same time he has a bit of Stockholm Syndrome and kind of likes the total insanity of his life - because at least it's never boring.

2004-06-22T13:16:00.000-07:00

The North Shore still intrigues me in concept, but I'm going to have to agree with the naysayers that the writing is incredibly crappy. Hailey from the OC has now joined the cast as a strangely niave con artist. One of her best lines of the last episode was: "No one's ever given me a chance, and you gave me a chance" - believe me, it was totally ridiculous in the context. So, I really want to like the show, but the writers keep getting in the way. Hailey is actually a pretty good actor, I have to say, since she was the most convincing actor of the episode, even with her cheesy lines.

2004-06-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

I forgot to say the funniest thing about Joe Schmo 2 - in the "pearl necklace eviction ceremony" the bachelor says to the contestants: "May I give you a pearl necklace?"

2004-06-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

Joe Schmo 2 is pretty awesome. I'm afraid they may have even gone too far - since it's so crazy that one of the Schmos (the girl, of course) already said "I feel like I'm on the Truman Show or something" This week we see if she blows the cover after one day or not. It didn't help that some dumb model who was hired to be one of the minorities voted off in the first elimination ceremony told Ingrid (the female Joe Schmo) that she got to the show through her agent... oops. It was kind of funny that they immediately elimated almost all of the minorities - as the producer said "those dating reality shows always eliminate the minorities first so we wanted to parody that" or (in real reality shows) - they keep them around to appear non-racist, while the bachelor or bachelorette seems very uninterested in them. You'd think no one in America ever dated anyone outside their race. Well, at least no one in reality show land.

2004-06-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

I'm really glad Spike TV decided to do another season of Joe Schmo. For those of you unfamiliar with the show - it's the best idea ever, basically a real person gets thrown in with actors who stage a fake reality show. Joe Schmo (and in season 2, a Jane Schmo) are the only ones who don't know it's fake. Last season the fake reality show was called "rags to riches" and it had these crazy portraits of all the contestants on plates that were dashed on the fireplace when they were voted out. And there was some weird fuzzy costume the people who had gained "immunity" had to wear. It was so great. I did feel kind of bad for Joe Schmo last year, since he was such a nice guy. Then when they told him they'd been tricking him the whole time, they tried to spin it as "it was all for you!" instead of, "it was all to humiliate you on national tv!" He did win some money and vacations though, so he seemed ok with it. And when he realized the girl he'd had a big crush on was an actor and not a christian virgin having an affair with the "rags to riches" host, he was actually pretty psyched about that. I haven't seen this season yet, but the fake show this time is a dating reality show - complete with "pearl necklace eliminations" (who could be dumb enough to think that's real?)

2004-06-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

I was just out of town shooting for a few weeks, there wasn't much tv watching, and there definitely wasn't a dvr. We all watched the season finale of the sopranos that someone from the office fed exed to us. I wasn't too impressed. Basically now that Adriana is gone, I don't feel the need to watch the show. Well, I guess I'll probably watch the last season, but I haven't loved the sopranos for about two years. It just became so self important at some point. I did some random hotel room tv watching and discovered two shows I never would have stumbled upon. One was Lenny vs Spenny on the game show network. It's basically two loser guys from Canada who challenge each other to various useless competitions. Spenny is a straight arrow, and Lenny always cheats. And somehow it's really compelling. And hilarious at moments. I also discovered that one of my favorite people ever, Andrew WK has a very strange show on MTV2. It's mostly videos, being MTV2, but then there are random emails from people that Andrew WK responds to, and then Andrew WK goes to people's houses and helps them with their problems. I actually got pretty bored by the show, because I really just wanted to watch videos. But there is something so great about Andrew WK that might be enough of a draw for me to watch his show again. I also watched the North Shore, which is the OC replacement for the summer. It's not anywhere near as witty as the OC, and the characters are all a lot older. It's more like the Love Boat, which is its own kind of good thing, I think. And a lot of funny gossipy things happened on my shoot, which I will not discuss here since this blog is all about tv.

2004-05-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

I saw Troy yesterday. It is possibly the worst movie ever made. Brad Pitt was really, really hot in it though. I can't even get into all the ways that movie sucked because I would be writing this post all day. But I think everyone should see it so we can talk about the ways it sucks next time I see you.

2004-05-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

I saw Vincent Gallo yesterday. Last time I saw him I was waitressing and he came into my restaurant for brunch. He asked me if my tattoo said his name. I see why he has a reputation of being really into himself. But honestly I thought that was a more charming comment than the usual: random creepy person: "what does that say?" me: "nothing, it's just a design" random creepy person: "really? it doesn't say anything?" me: "yep, really." This is a departure from TV, but what is it about tattoos and cute dogs that just invites everyone to start talking to you? I was walking my dog one time and talking to my really good friend long distance at the same time - and some crazy lady comes up to me and starts asking me all the dumb dog questions. I was like, "I'm on the phone" and she totally glared and me and got all pissed.

2004-05-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Arrested Development will be airing on Sundays again, but Fox has made one concession and moved the show to 8:30 (I usually aired at 9:30, directly opposite Curb Your Enthusiasm for the first few months it was on, and now directly opposite the Sopranos. Basically trying any new show on Sunday nights in the 9-10 slot is suicide. Hello, Sundays are HBO.) Set your Tivos, Arrested Development will be airing June 2004 -January 2005 in that timeslot. The question is, are they airing new episodes starting in June? I'm thinking not, since I saw Jason Bateman on the Daily Show not that long ago saying he didn't know if it would be renewed for a second season. Well, it's your opportunity to catch the first season, since no one was watching it the first time.

2004-05-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

I just saw Courtney Love stumble out of the fashion showroom in my building. Normally I never notice celebrities that I see around - but lately there has been a plethora of them in my orbit. Last night I saw David Cross for the third time this month. Granted, he does live in my neighborhood, but I just keep running into that guy. The first time he was hanging out with a pal at a bar, the next time he was flirting with a young girl, and this time some crazy man was yelling "dude, you're that guy!" at him and he was cracking up. I wanted to say, "hey, I'm so glad Arrested Development is back" but I didn't want to be that person who talks to celebrities as if she knows them. I did have a very intense dream about David Cross where I just kept asking him if he knew whether Arrested Development was going to be renewed for a second season. (the anxiety had seeped into my dreams, very sad.) Yesterday I was eating at Cafe Habana, which is the biggest hotspot for celebrity sightings in this city I think, and I saw that guy Sam from Extreme Makeover who gives the people fashion advice and some new clothes. He was looking like he needed a makeover himself, starting with wiping off some of that fake tan. Last time I ate at Cafe Habana I ran into Luke Wilson as I was leaving the bathroom and he said "thanks " to me.

2004-05-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

I claimed at one point that I would say things about music and film. It turns out that only discussing TV is enough to keep me busy. And it also turns out that I have absolutely nothing to say about music. At one point in my life it was my supreme obsession (although I still never managed to match a boy-level encyclopedic knowledge of any of it) but I really don't have much to say about it these days. Probably because I don't really enjoy going to shows anymore. My patience for sitting through a bunch of crappy bands has departed in my old age. And in the last few years I realized that standing up in one place for a while is really tiring. I did see a movie recently though - "Super Size Me". The main thing I took away from the film was that even though I rarely eat McDonalds, I do eat a lot of crap and rarely eat vegetables. I guess I knew that on an intellectual level before, but now I feel compelled to actually try to eat better. The day after I saw the film I bought some kale. I also learned from the movie that when I have kids they are only eating organic food and are not allowed to drink soda or eat fast food. Yes, I will be that kind of parent. What a bummer that is to learn about oneself.

2004-05-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

Yes! Fox ordered more episodes of Arrested Development for next season! Now everyone has to start watching it. Hopefully they'll put it in a better time slot. My hopes for the future of TV have been raised slightly. Although I'm nervous for the potentially disastrous American version of the Office. They'll probably totally f it up.

2004-05-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

I love Best Week Ever on VH1. If you get cable and aren't watching it, please start. There was some VO (voiceover for those of you who aren't in the business) in the last episode that actually said something like "Best Week Ever: who needs book learning?" Love it.

2004-05-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

On the Gilmore Girls this week, Jess was pretending to read an issue of Punk Planet, while actually reading some self help book about love. Those Gilmore Girls writers are so clever. There was one weird thing about the episode, which was that Jess confronted Rory about how he's in love with her, and wanted her to run away with him or something, and she acted like she totally hated him. And she's acting all excited about Dean, who is married, all of the sudden. As a longtime Gilmore Girls viewer, I know that Rory dumped Dean for Jess, and was totally obsessed with him for a while. Therefore I found it odd that she seemed so repelled by Jess in this episode. Then I learned some backstory, which is that the actor playing Jess wants to leave Gilmore Girls to be in plays or something. That explains it.

2004-05-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

I accidentally saw my second episode of the wretched Swan last night - it was playing at the bar I was at. If possible, this episode was even more disturbing than the first one I saw. One of the women was actually pretty before she went under the knife, with a little mascara and some regular workouts she would have easily been above average looking. After the knife she looked like a Miller Lite Girl. Which I guess was her goal. It's all so creepy and Stepford Wives-like. It's this insane Maxim magazine ideal of beauty - and it's disturbing that these women are so eager to discard any individuality in favor of being seen as a sex object. I think being relatively attractive makes your life easier, but anyone I've known who is beautiful in that Maxim way has other problems. Like the fact that the only guys confident enough to try to date them are complete assholes. I can't help but wonder what the Swan team of surgeons would do to someone like Uma Thurman... make her look like Pamela Anderson?

2004-05-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

The OC Posse finally watched the last two episodes of this season last night. My only thoughts are that they kinda overdid the drama for those last two episodes - hookers, vegas, catfights that end up in the pool, and a pregnancy - (not to mention Ryan moving to Chino suddenly) it all makes my head spin. The big question is what's left for next season? And how can we all wait until the fall? it's so far away...

2004-05-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

Fox has decided to bring the Swan back for a second season. It is truly a sad day in television. I think they are going to renew Tru Calling as well, though I haven't heard for sure yet. The show, while still suffering from terrible dialogue writing, has gotten a lot more interesting plotwise, so I don't think it's a disaster to bring it back. But, of course, the show I am most desperate to see return for a second season is Arrested Development. I hope that Fox can see beyond lackluster ratings and renew the show based solely on its incredible critical acclaim. If they would just move it out of the 9:30 on Sundays slot, and actually air an episode every week, that would probably improve their ratings within a few weeks. But hey, I'm not a Fox programming executive, so what do I know. I know the show is wicked funny and I want to see more episodes, that's what I know.

2004-04-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

When Luke (of the OC) moves to Portland, they can start a spinoff called The PDX. That would be hella rad.

2004-04-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Best Week Ever on VH1 is really, really good. It's the same style as I love the 80s, but I find it about a million times more interesting.

2004-04-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

I love the OC. And I love the way the OC makes it easy for me to love it by having so many witty moments. And then allowing all of us to enjoy all the soapy drama. But I do have to say that Marisa and Ryan are so super boring that I can't even stand to look at them. Marisa makes all of the same lame faces in every scene, somehow hoping that they will pass for "acting." Ryan isn't as horrible of an actor, but the combo of the two of them just bores me to death. The big moment when they got back together and kissed again should have been exciting, but I'd prefer watching Seth and Summer kiss anytime. Because they are actually an interesting couple. Seth and Ryan together in a scene is much better than Ryan and Marisa, but I'm not sure if it's just because Seth is so great. I hope Summer and Seth work through their issues, because I'm totally into them as a couple. Oh, and there was a reference to "painting the ceiling" in last week's episiode that the tv club was trying to figure out - turns out Josh was right that it's a reference to masturbation. (that wasn't exactly what he thought, but close enough.) And the preview for next week's episode was explosive! Ladies punching each other, stripper firemen and las vegas. What more could we ask for?

2004-04-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

TV Land really knows how to package: (from Cynthia Turner's Cynopsis)
"TV Land will bid farewell to NBC's Friends on May 6, the night of the grand
finale, with a two pronged salute. From 6-9pm the classic tv net will air
Before They Were Friends, featuring each of the cast members on various
sitcoms long before they came together for Friends. Then at 9pm - this is
the brilliant part - for the entire hour that the Friends finale is airing,
TV Land will be closed. Instead of regularly scheduled programming, viewers
tuning in to TV Land will be treated to a room full of TV Land staffers -
purportedly watching the Friends finale -- periodically addressing the
camera to remind viewers that the Friends finale is on and that we really
aren't airing anything so there's no point staying tuned. Worth tuning in
just to see what's going on, albeit briefly. During the finale of Seinfeld
lo those many years ago, TV Land shut down for that hour as well, airing
nothing except a door with a sign that said they were closed and would be
back after Seinfeld."

2004-04-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

One thing I did manage to watch last week was the Apprentice finale. First of all, I think the 2 hour reality show finale thing is really lame. I'm totally sick of it. And the "live" thing was really overstated in the promos - it was really like 20 minutes of live and 1 hr 40 minutes of taped. That's hardly a "two hour live finale." I have to say, I fast forwarded through 80% of the Apprentice finale. I was glad Bill won, because through the whole competition he did a lot better than Kwame. But it was kind of weird how the boardroom set suddenly opened to reveal a life studio audience. Donald Trump comes across as a lot more intelligent and well spoken when he's edited, so the live thing was not so great for me. Best Week Ever really had the best things to say on this topic - about how the show creepily turned into a cheesy game show in the last 20 minutes. Oh, and there is absolutely no way Bill is really going to be overseeing the construction of the tallest building in Chicago.

2004-04-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

After my mini- Starting Over marathon I decided to watch my first episode of Keen Eddie. Keen Eddie is about a NYPD cop who moves to London to be a policeman there. I have no idea why, and even whether he is dating the British woman he aparently lives with. Keen Eddie was originally produced for Fox, who, of course, cancelled it. Then it looks like Bravo picked up the remaining episodes, including several which were never aired. I wasn't totally blown away by this show by the one episode I watched. The guy who plays Keen Eddie (the American cop) is pretty boring and bland, so the best part of the show is the British actors, who are all interesting. Even the hot girl he lives with who may or may not be his girlfriend. If she was an American actor I'm sure the role would have sucked, but with a British actor it was kind of intriguing. I'm really into foreign English speaking people though, and a total sucker for the British accent, so I am not the most unbiased observer. Well, overall I don't think Keen Eddie is a must see or must record, but I hope there's a cable channel getting ready to buy the unaired episodes of Wonderfalls the same way Bravo bought Keen Eddie.

2004-04-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry about the lack of posts, Josh, but I was on shoots all last week, and then away this weekend. So I didn't see any tv, much less have time to comment on it. Luckily when I got home last night I was so incredibly tired that I had to immediately sit down and watch four hours of TV. Though I had a wide range of options to choose from, I couldn't wait to watch the 3 episodes of Starting Over I had missed, so I went for those first. I am definitely addicted. I had been eagerly waiting for Amy's deep dark secret that they keep talking about in all of the promos, but alas, it was really nothing. Basically Erika discovered that Amy's dad is a US Senator. Whatevs. It just makes me think that Amy's bright red hair is a subtle rebellion against her fancy upbringing and Princeton education. I was really hoping that Erika would discover Amy's secret double life with a 2nd husband, or maybe that Amy used to be a stripper. Oh well. The big excitement (aside from Erika graduating) is that they have a new woman in the house who is extremely pregnant. Her name is Josie, she's only 21 and she thinks the baby's daddy could be any one of three guys. Oops. And her parents suck, and the grandparents who raised her recently died. So she's been miserable, pregnant and semi homeless for several months. It was a tearjerker. I did notice that Josie manages to have very cute clothes despite the broke and homeless thing - I'm not sure what that's about. I briefly wondered if Starting Over provides wardrobe, but I actually doubt it.

2004-04-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

There was a good article in the New York Times about the new Freaks and Geeks DVD. It made me want to buy it even more than I already did. Mike White said something about how watching Freaks and Geeksmade him want to burn up his existing show (I can only imagine he was refering to Cracking Up, and I would definitely have to agree with him.) The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is not coming back on TV next year. Mainly because of all the decency crap coming from the FCC. Not a huge loss to humanity or anything, but it's disturbing that the Janet Jackson fallout has had such an effect.

2004-04-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

I am ridiculously excited about the Apprentice finale. I gotta give it to Mark Burnett - he really knows drama. I think it would be a travesty if Bill doesn't win, because Kwame appears to have done absolutely nothing smart the whole season. Who knows what happens in the outtakes, but all they've shown all season is Kwame consistently making bad decisions in every competition. Yeah, Harvard Business School... blah, blah, whatever. I have no doubt he's really smart, but Bill seems a lot smarter in all the ways that count. I do have a theory that most of the competitions in the Apprentice have been fixed, but you know, I don't really care because it's really entertaining.

2004-04-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

A good rant about Fox putting crap like the Swan on the air:

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2004/04/08/swan/

2004-04-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

The Swan won the ratings for Wednesday night. I'm hoping that everyone else who watched it had the same sickened reaction to it that I did and will now not watch it ever again. I don't think Fox should get rewarded for exploiting sad people like that.

2004-04-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

Can we talk about the fact that the FCC has now launched a full out war on Howard Stern? And that they are starting to attack daytime soaps with their "indecency" bullshit. Don't vote for Bush. Please. I would be pissed at Janet Jackson for starting this whole debacle, but I think the FCC was ready to attack our first ammendment rights the minute they had an excuse, and Janet Jackson is clearly just a bumbling idiot.

2004-04-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

The Swan is the scariest show on the air right now. I watched it last night with some friends, and I think all of us felt sickened by the whole thing. I have many problems with it, but the worst thing is that it's not even entertaining. It's just an hour of disturbing. First of all, the two women they made over on this first episode were not that unattractive. Their biggest problems were clearly psychological. Both of them had rock bottom self esteem, which was their main unattractive feature. Their internal misery was very apparent on the outside, and was much more obvious than any imperfect features. What both of them really needed (aside from some in depth therapy) was a good haircut, to work out regularly, some nice makeup and new clothes. Instead they received the full gamut of plasic surgery and one of them came out looking like a drag queen while the other looked like a porn star. Drag queen won the right to proceed to the extra disturbing "beauty pageant" they are having later in the season. So, my imagination immediately led me to six months later in these women's lives. A complete physical transformation is not going to be enough to make either of them happy, because no matter how "perfect" you may look, if you're miserable inside your own skin you will find imperfections. Then they will start on the Michael Jackson syndrome and get more and more plastic surgery until they don't have a nose anymore. As much as Extreme Makeover is similarly disturbing, the people they choose to make over do really have serious problems. The one that immediately comes to mind is the woman who had a cleft palate and could never afford to treat it. That's the type of plastic surgery that can be justified and will actually improve a person's quality of life (I don't know if I can justify the fact that they give every woman on the show breast augmentation, but...). Being some average looking woman with 30 pounds to lose really does not justify a whole body surgical makeover. Josh really said it best when he said this show will not succeed because America will see way too much of themselves in these women. In addition to the cringe worthy aspects of the show, it's not even a very well produced piece of television. The set looks like a part of Disneyland, the makeover specialists are super creepy, and the music is directly from Who wants to be a Millionaire.

2004-04-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

My So-Called Life has been canonized as one of the best TV shows ever by a bunch of critics. I actually can't remember much of it, so luckily The N (which is just Noggin at nighttime) is re-airing all of the episodes. It's on at 8 pm on Friday nights for all you people who want to see what the hype is about.

2004-04-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

I'm watching Condoleezza Rice's testimony to the 9/11 commission right now. She seems incredibly nervous, which I guess makes sense. She is now in the position of either defending Bush's terrorism policies, or making it sound like the white house was totally inept. I am now departing from my stated blogging purpose of only discussing TV: I met someone last night who is one of those mythical "undecided voters." I was curious why someone would be undecided, and realized that maybe if you're a white male, and therefore not under attack from the Republican party, maybe the issues you're voting on are more ambiguous. I guess there are women and minorities and gay people who vote for Republicans, but that makes no sense to me. This guy was interested in tax breaks and international relations. Although I can't understand why you would see Bush as a positive force in our international relations. Well, I have a physical disgust reaction every time I hear Bush speak, so maybe I'm just being intuitive in my politics.

2004-04-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

In a good move, Fox just cancelled Cracking Up. They do seem quite supportive of Arrested Development, though. Which is definitely a good thing. I hope people start watching it. I know, it's more work for an audience than most sitcoms, but how often do you actually laugh out loud about something on TV? It happens at least once an episode for Arrested Development. And I am deeply in love with Gob, especially in his new pastel sweatered incarnation. I mean, what's better than the scene when Gob made the family yacht disappear during Spring Break, and his geeky magician dance across the stage in a flowing shirt? I love Gob. The Segway, the magic, the macho exterior masking his deeply injured heart.

2004-04-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

There's already a petition to help save Wonderfalls: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/wonderfalls

2004-04-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

I got this news this morning in Cynthia Turner's Cynopsis (very useful TV news - subscribe at cynopsis@optonline.com): "Fox programming changes - Wonderfalls has fallen off the schedule. The Thursday 9p time period will be filled with repeat eps of Fox's newest
reality series, The Swan which premieres tomorrow." This just confirms two of my most negative ideas: 1. that my taste is not the taste of America, 2. that good TV rarely stays on the air. Keep on producing good shows, Bryan Fuller! Someone is watching!

2004-04-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

After giving up on Cracking Up, we attempted to watch Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel concert on Showtime. Wow. I have no idea what she was trying to do. Everyone is all critical of her lip-synching, and yeah, it kinda sucked, but I think it was more everything else. The creepy shirtless backup dancers in suspenders, the weird Divine-like man introducing the whole show, Britney's painful between song banter, the lounge versions of her best pop hits, and generally the feeling that the entire show had been choreographed and designed by someone who worked for Janet Jackson in the 80s. The 80s feel was weird, because it was clearly not ironic or nostalgic in any way. I mean, it couldn't really be since Britney is like 19. For me, the appeal of Britney is her cuteness, her dancing, and the bubblegum guilty pleasure pop songs she sings. Well, Britney still looks good, but the dancing was kind of ho hum, and the music was totally forgettable. Also, any attempts by Britney to be funny or have any type of soul are really embarrassing.

2004-04-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

I attempted to watch Cracking Up last night, but I couldn't even make it 10 minutes in. Somehow all of the good parts, most notably Molly Shannon and creator Mike White (who among other things recently wrote School of Rock, not to mention The Good Girl and was involved in one of the best shows ever, Freaks and Geeks.), did not come together as a good whole. Was it all of the bad close ups of Jason Schwartzman looking innocently baffled? Was it the over the top acting from everyone? Or the lack of any funny? Anyway, it sucks. Don't watch it. Watch Arrested Development instead, which is actually hilarious and good. I think we all must face the fact that Molly Shannon is actually not funny at all. She seemed funny in Saturday Night Live, but I think it was just because most of Saturday Night Live is so painfully boring and tedious.

2004-04-05T13:49:00.000-07:00

I recently watched the fourth episode of Fox's new dramedy, Wonderfalls. The pilot episode of this show was awesome, and I got very excited at the prospect of a new good show from Fox. The promise of the pilot has not been totally realized, but I still think Wonderfalls has a lot of good stuff going on. One of the creators of Wonderfalls, Bryan Fuller, also created Dead Like Me, which was a great and short lived Showtime series. I watched the entire season of Dead Like Me on Showtime on demand while painting my entire apartment this fall, and totally fell in love. Only to be heartbroken when I realized it was never coming back. So, the arrival of Wonderfalls was kind of a tv lifesaver for me. There is a lot of commonality between the two shows - totally jaded young heroines, quirky side characters, and not neccessarily happy families. The writing is great, especially when compared to Tru Calling, which has the clunkiest and most unreal dialogue ever written, and the production design and visual effects are well done. Basically both Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me are thoughtful and well crafted productions. Dead Like Me was definitely darker, which made it slightly more interesting, but Wonderfalls has a really cute bartender to kind of even the score. I'm thinking it might end up being a really great series.

2004-04-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

There's not a lot going on at my job today, obviously, so I was looking at my friend Josh's blog, which is linked to his friend Jessie's blog, so I looked there and noticed that Jessie watches Starting Over! Which is another show I record and obsessively watch everyday. It's by the same people who do Real World, but it's way better because it actually has an altruistic purpose. Or at least pretends to. 5 women live in a house together, all of them want to "start over" in their own way. 2 life coaches help them reach their goals. Usually there is a horribly bitchy one that terrorizes the rest of them. Usually the life coaches don't notice. Especially life coach Rhonda, who I think is actually insane. The last crazy bitch was named Christine, and they finally kicked her out when they realized she wasn't "ready" to start over. Usually the crazy bitches just graduate with Rhonda's blessing and get to continue being crazy with the added self esteem boost of releasing their own CD with the life coaches help or something. Check it out if you are near a tv at 11am.

2004-04-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

I love the OC. Johnny Loftus says it so much better than I could, and how does he know that Josh and I figured out the Lighthouse is the new Peach Pit?:

http://www.gloriousnoise.com/arch/001186_the_oc.php

I think Chino (Ryan) and Doe Eyed Fawn (Marisa) are both especially apt. And he's so right about Fox's evil habit of giving the OC all of these weeks off. How do they expect us to remember the intricate plot twists when they keep skipping weeks of the show?

2004-04-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

mentioning Extreme Makeover in my last post reminds me that possibly the most offensive project in reality TV history is about to be launched by Fox on Wednesday (9:00 pm, instead of the OC which is taking yet another break). The Swan is a show where women who consider themselves "ugly ducklings" are given plastic surgery to become "beautiful", and then compete in some sort of surreal pageant with each other. I don't know who is more despicable, the people who came up with this sick idea, or the contestants who agreed to be humiliated like this. I guess the contestants must feel like it's somehow not embarrassing to depict yourself as a crazy insecure freak on TV? Fox assures us all that there will be psychological counseling for the "ugly ducklings" through the whole process. I think this show could be even more of a train wreck than the uncomfortable finale of My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance.

2004-04-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

My very first comment - yay!- has led me to complete my list of TV I like quite a bit. The first list was more for shows I was feeling particularly excited about that day, but here's more: Curb your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, CSI (both the original and CSI: Miami, though I actually prefer Miami for all of the backlit shots of David Caruso staring moodily into the Florida sun.) Law and Order, Law and Order: SVU, (L&O:CI is just annoying), What Not to Wear (the british version), The Office (except that I've already seen all of the episodes and no more are coming!), The Apprentice. I also watch Tru Calling, but really just because Eliza Dushku's mom is friends with my mom, and so I am compelled to follow her career and cheer her on. Tru Calling is a horrible show, and although I am proud that Eliza has her own series, I wish she could have a better one. I mean, she's a decent actress and she's cute, give her a good show! I used to watch Extreme Makeover, but then it started impacting my self esteem in a negative way, so I was forced to stop.

2004-04-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is evil and mean spirited, but funny:

NYC's 50 most loathsome people

2004-04-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

Significant Others is an improv comedy show about couples therapy. Which sounds potentially lame. But it is actually really funny. I was immediately obsessed after I saw the first episode, but then I talked to this woman at work who is probably in her 40s and she didn't get it. So perhaps it is humor specific to certain people. I think it's very much in the style of Arrested Development, which no one seems to watch, so I'm not sure how successful the show is. But I think the fact that Bravo reruns the show constantly bodes well for its survival. And Bravo is cable, after all, which means ratings don't have to be that high for a show to be considered a hit. The Significant Others season finale is on tomorrow night on Bravo at 9:30.

2004-03-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the shows I do not think are total and utter crap, and that I am currently recording every episode of: Arrested Development, The OC, Wonderfalls, and Significant Others.

2004-03-30T18:34:00.000-08:00

I own a DVR. It's a Digital Video Recorder (I think?) and it's basically a fake Tivo that I have through my digital cable. It is so kick ass. My DVR has transformed my TV watching habits completely. Now I can actually watch good TV shows I want to see at the odd hours I like to watch TV. I can watch anything I want at any time. Since I am usually out doing something in the world during primetime, I used to hardly ever see any decent network programming. Now time and space mean nothing to me... it is totally insane. And it's going to be interesting when almost everyone in America has a similar device. Because you very quickly realize that 90% of what's on the air is total and complete crap.

2004-03-30T18:31:00.000-08:00

Just a tiny bit more biographical info: I work in TV production right now, but I am hoping to eventually get into development and/or programming. And that means I spend an insane amount of time thinking about all the TV out there. What's good, what's bad, and why. My friends and co-workers can only stand so much of my television opining, so you, the lovely reader of my blog, gets to listen. Or not.

2004-03-30T18:21:00.000-08:00

I was reading a friend's blog at work one day when my office mate said she wondered why anyone would want to write a blog. I know what she meant -- basically who would want to post lots of personal info about themselves up on the internet? I totally agree that there is something totally exhibitionistic about writing a blog. Yet, here I am starting one. My blog is going to be all about my opinions, however, with minimal biographical information (because I am definitely not an exhibitionist). And there is nothing that I am more opininated about than TV. Mostly because I work in TV production at the moment, and therefore most of my time is spent thinking about TV related matters. Like most people who work in TV, I originally wanted to be a filmmaker. I mean, everyone loves movies, right? I loved movies, I decided it was a great line of work to go into. In NYC there isn't a whole lot of feature film work, so I drifted into TV almost immediately. And then I realized - TV is awesome. I love TV almost as much as I love movies, it's just one of those things you feel kind of lame admitting to. It makes you seem like one of those people who does nothing but sit on their couch eating and zoning out. Which is, of course, one of the purposes of TV. But I'm actually a fairly social and active young new yorker, and I admit it, I love TV.