3 posts tagged “tv”
One of my favorite movies, 'Being There,' includes a short TV segment called 'Basketball Jones.' Now, I knew this was Cheech & Chong, but Kellye didn't believe me. 15 years ago, what were my options? Tonight she types two words into YouTube's input field and presto! Instant flashback.
Now, consider this source. Cheech and Chong. Would this offend anyone today?
Ah, nanny shows, thank you for lowering the bar to the sub-basement of humanity. Tonight's episode of Nanny 911 had a bonehead dad... While there wasn't a lot of anger in the house (kudos to the almost creepy eternal positive attitude), the "man" of the house kept ordering his wife around. Get him a beer, football is on! Get the laundry done! He had his son eventually barking orders at mom, and generally treating her like crap.
The best part? They have 3 boys and ONE girl. A little girl who is learning all about how women should be treated as animals-- a lesson she will never unlearn. And when daddy-O wonders why his little girl parades a string of losers before him during her dating years? Well, he has only to look in the mirror for the man to blame there. Wake up Mr. Bully, you're teaching your kids a lesson that will likely land them in divorce court or (if they marry a strong woman by accident) a shallow grave.
Wow. 'Studio 60' just keeps getting worse. I have a love/hate relationship with the show. On the one hand, I find Sorkin's abilities questionable at best, his motives suspect. I also think he interjects a certain level of thought into his product, which counts for something...
Then there's the show itself. After succumbing to the easy jokes-- poking fun at religious extremism, easy as shooting fish in a barrel-- '60' is now just repeatedly jumping over sharks to stab at jellyfish.
I quit tuning in regularly after Jon Goodman appeared. The whole "we're stuck in the stix where no one appreciates our liberal humor" bit has been done for ages. Since, like, forever. I'm serious. This is a play off the city mouse/country mouse, or fish-out-of-water stories that made the careers of folks like The Marx Bros. and Abott and Costello. Here it was ham-fisted and ugly. One actor shoring up an entire show? Gimme a break. Only maybe Eddie Murphy in his last season on SNL would this have happened. Certainly not today... But I guess I should suspend my disbelief.
So I tune in tonight because there's really nothing else on... Now they are heaping it on. All the writers have quit. There's a storm. Everyone gets sick. Peet's character is still getting her come-uppance (quit with this angle, OK Aaron? we get it, glass ceiling, harhar, OK, stop)... [SPOILER ALERT] and Peet's character winds up preggers.
Eh wot? That's so lame. Aaron has turned '60' more into Soapbox 60, and, as always happens when entertainment finds a conscience, the end result is neither fun, thoughtful, or provoking. Please funnel all this studio money into '30 Rock,' which is a genuinely funny show, in the spirit of classic sitcoms, and conjures up thoughts of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' to me.
