Sep 04 2008
And, that's a wrap.
After two weeks of partisan presentations -- first by Democrats, then by Republicans -- TV coverage of America's two biggest political parties wrapped up Thursday with U.S. Sen John McCain accepting the Republican presidential nomination a week after U.S. Sen. Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination.
Despite the perception of some that conventions are merely P.R. spin sessions, these two weeks produced plenty of grist for the mill, particularly the surprise nomination of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the vice presidency on the Republican ticket.
Her acceptance speech Wednesday night -- watched by 37 million viewers, just 1 million less than Obama's speech last Friday -- was firey, bullying and spiked with petty snipes at Obama. It was red meat to the GOP base but will it play with the independents McCain-Palin need to win? I'm doubtful. Ironically, Palin's negative, attack-dog approach was more style than substance, the exact criticism conservatives have made of Obama.
Palin brandished the words "elitism" and "media" like weapons that again riled the partisan crowd. And while there have certainly been excesses in the Palin coverage, it's not really fair to lump the tabloid press or bloggers in with the mainstream media. They're not the same thing. And many of the questions have had legitimacy.
Maybe Palin's unwed daughter's pregnancy shouldn't be open to scrutiny, but seeing as Republican Dan Quayle went there first by chastising the fictional, unmarried TV character Murphy Brown in the '90s, it's not hard to see how it becomes relevant. It's also relevant as a policy question with regards to Palin's stated opinion that abstinence-only sex education is the only kind of sex ed that would get her support.
The broadcast network anchors -- ABC's Charles Gibson, CBS's Katie Couric and NBC's Brian Williams -- even defended the coverage of Palin on ABC's "Good Morning America" Thursday, pointing out it wasn't sexist to question McCain's vetting of Palin and whether or not it was thorough enough. Their bosses also took on a defensive posture, calling the complaints a cynical marketing ploy.
While the media narrative this week was all about Palin, pregnancy and vetting, during the Democratic convention the talk early in the week was of a lack of oomph to propel Obama. That evaporated by the end of the week when Obama gave a powerful address.
Obama entered the enemy's den Thursday night with a trip to Bill O'Reilly's so-called "No-Spin Zone" on Fox News Channel. As usual, O'Reilly was rude and interrupted his guest's answers but no one can claim that's a partisan approach. O'Reilly does that all the time, regardless of his guest's political stripes. The exchange was frank but not overly testy and Obama was respectful to the little toad, taking the high road of polite but firm response. O'Reilly only played a small portion of the interview and announced plans to dole it out next week on "The O'Reilly Factor."
But last night was McCain's big show, replacing Obama's tittered-about "Greek columns" with a giant video monitor displaying amber waves of grain and an American flag. Showmanship knows no political identity. Where Palin's speech was mostly about fearmongering and nasty attacks, McCain's address did tackle the economic distress facing many Americans. Although, oddly, Republicans in the hall started chanting "USA!" twice when McCain tried to talk about the economy. (Two protestors also interrupted McCain's speech.)
McCain's speech was less vicious than Palin's, saying of Obama supporters, "you have my respect and admiration." He also noted, "Americans want us to stop yelling at each other, OK?"
Predictably, he also played the prisoner card, saying, "I have the scars to prove it. Sen. Obama does not."
But perhaps the biggest surprise was McCain's acknowledgment of Republican missteps, including valuing "power over principles."
"We're going to return the people's trust," he said. "The party of Roosevelt, Lincoln and Reagan is going to get back to basics."
It's a necessary attempt to hit a reset button on the Republican party but is it too little too late? Time will tell.
Even though broadcast networks only covered the 10 p.m. hour of the conventions, there's still so much more coverage than ever before thanks to the cable networks and online spin-offs.
Some of what's found on the Internet is intended for public consumption, including CBS's Web-only coverage that aired immediately following the network's TV coverage. Wednesday night Katie Couric welcomed comic Mo Rocca, who revealed his obsession with the Palin family, calling their soapy story, "Alaska, 90210."
There have also been moments not intended for public consumption, like the open mic comments by Peggy Noonan that were interpreted as contradiction of the opinion she espoused in print, something she later attempted to clarify.
But there was no better place to go to see the pomposity of both political parties punctured than Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Whether it was revealing hypocrisy or simply mocking Obama hype, Stewart and company teased, mocked and spoofed the proceedings of both parties with intelligence and glee. And we're all the better for it.
Sep 04 2008
Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" coverage from both political conventions has been quite pointed and funny, perhaps none moreso than Wednesday night when Stewart hoisted Republicans by their own hypocritical petard.
Stewart played a clip of conservative Fox News Channel analyst Karl Rove praising Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as "mayor of the second largest town in Alaska." Then he juxtaposed it with a clip of Rove discussing the possibility of U.S. Sen Barack Obama choosing Virginia's Gov. Tim Kaine, castigating him for his background as mayor of Richmond and claiming that such a pick would be political and evince a lack of "concern about is this person capable of being president of the United States."
Oops! Rove speaks out of both sides of his mouth. Who knew?
Then Stewart moved on to FNC's Bill O'Reilly, who claims the Palin family is doing their best with regards to daughter Bristol's pregnancy and pleading for them to be left alone and not judged. This is juxtaposed with a clip of O'Reilly discussing the teen pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears, which he blames on Spears' parents, who are labeled pinheads.
FNC commentator Dick Morris cries sexism over media coverage of Palin but is shown saying U.S Sen. Hillary Clinton, if she wants to be president, "shouldn't complain based on gender" and claims she "retreats behind the apron strings."
McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer calls coverage of Palin "outrageous" and full of "double stanards" but earlier derided Clinton for playing the gender card.
Finally, even Palin is shown in a clip saying "any kind of perceived whine about excess criticism" is unbecoming of female candidates -- even though that's how one could characterize the Republican response to coverage of Palin this week.
Watch Stewart's brilliant dissection of hypocrisy here.
Sep 04 2008
This should be rich: Noted rude windbag Bill O'Reilly will interview Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama tonight at 8 on Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor." It will be Obama's first interview on "The Factor," as its host loves to call it.
Will O'Reilly tell Obama to shut up? Will O'Reilly interrupt Obama's responses like he so often does with guests? We'll find out.
Not to be outdone, O'Reilly's rival Keith Olbermann will host Obama on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" Monday at 8 p.m.
***
There's something depressing and vulgar about watching Republicans chant, "Drill, baby drill!" as they did last night during Rudy Giulani's introduction of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. It's a little too close to "Kill, baby, kill!"
Palin came off as feisty and determined in her speech but I'm still trying to figure out her accent. It sounds almost "Fargo"-like. Or maybe there's an Alaska accent I've simply never heard.
Also, for all the Republican talk of style over substance, Palin's speech was largely style (mocking Obama as often as possible) with little substantive talk about the issues facing America today. Pot-kettle-black?
The talking heads on Fox News Channel still don't understand that the columns behind Obama at Mile High Stadium last week, mocked by Palin, were not intended to be "Greek columns" but columns like those at the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. And why would the Republicans mock Obama's staging when every political convention has staging? Why are his columns any worse than their Jumbotron? It's all the same hocus-pocus, Hollywood magic that knows no political bounds.
Funniest election comparison to date here. Best faux re-creation here.
***
The premiere of The CW's "90210" will be rebroadcast tonight at 8 on WPCW. So if you missed it the first time and are curious, set those DVRs/VCRs.
***
On this week's Tuned In Podcast, columnist Tony Norman and I discuss FX's "The Shield" and "Sons of Anarchy." Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/podcast.
Sep 03 2008
The ratings are in: The premiere of "90210" performed well for The CW, earning a 3.9 rating/6 share, 34 percent better than "Gossip Girl" on Monday, according to The Programming Insider.
The only bad news: While No. 3 in its time slot for its first hour, "90210" dropped to No. 4 in its second hour as ratings declined. Clearly there was a curiosity tune-in, but will that hold up as the weeks go on? We'll see.
Sep 02 2008
"90210" has had a few nips and tucks in its transformation from a 1990s teen classic beloved by the people who now write for and run entertainment magazines, hence all the cover stories, but The CW's updated version premiered tonight revealing a series with more humor but largely rooted in the same themes: Family, friends, teen melodrama, relationships, etc.
It's not a great show but it's not a terrible teen drama, not by a long shot. And that's a bit of a surprise given The CW's unwillingness to send it out for critics to review in advance of air (Perhaps as a dare to critics, the first dialogue heard is new Beverly Hills kid Dixon declaring, "This sucks!"). The new "90210" turns out to be a solid sequel with plenty of shout-outs to fans of the old "90210":
Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth): Kelly has a son and keeps in touch with his father by phone. Later in the episode Kelly mentions talking to Brandon (Jason Priestley) by phone. Hmmmm.
Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty): Brenda reconnects with Kelly at the new Peach Pit. In a parallel of Doherty and Garth's real-life relationship, Brenda and Kelly discuss how they haven't seen each other much in recent years and they ought to reconnect and let the past (e.g. fighting over Dylan McKay, played by Luke Perry) stay in the past.
Erin Silver (Jessica Stroup): A series regular, Erin is the half-sister of Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), born of Kelly's mom and the father of original series regular, David Silver (Brian Austin Green, not in the new "90210").
Hannah Zuckerman-Vazquez (Hallee Hirsh): The daughter of the original's Andrea Zuckerman and Jesse Cazquez is now an anchor on West Beverly Hills High School's closed circuit news show. But I'm not sure it works out time-wise that she'd be in high school by now.
Linda Gray: The "Dallas" star who played Sue Ellen Ewing popped up in the "90210" pilot as Mrs. Brewer, grandmother of jock Ethan (Dustin Milligan). As if the presence of Rob Estes, who had a role late in "Melrose Place," didn't violate the physics of the Spelling universe, then the presence of Gray surely does. She played the mother of Amanda (Heather Locklear) on "Melrose Place" and then got spun off into the short-lived "Models Inc."
Nat (Joe E. Tata), proprietor of The Peach Pit: Nat runs the new Peach Pit but it's no longer a diner. Now it's a coffee house and Nat can't get used to how the cappucino machine works, muttering, "I'm never gonna learn to work this machine. Whatever happened to regular coffee?" Brenda tells him, "Brandon is good. He told me to tell you that every time he thinks of you, he craves a mega-burger."
Easily the best thing about the new "90210" is Tabitha, the alcoholic grandmother played with grande dame relish by Jessica Walter ("Arrested Development"). Tabitha's alcoholism is one of the reasons the Wilson family moves to the famed zip code. Dad Harry (Rob Estes) takes the job as principal at WBHHS while photographer mom Debbie (Lori Loughlin) keeps tabs on Tabitha, who clearly dislikes Debbie but loves her grandchildren, aspiring actress Annie (Shenae Grimes, well cast for her resemblance to Loughlin) and adopted jock Dixon (Tristan Wilds).
While the kids may be watching for the soapy stories -- the lead in the school musical is a drug addict! Annie gets grounded! -- others will be watching for more of Tabitha's bon mots.
"Never worry about being fair," she tells Dixon after he's in a fight with another guy on the lacrosse team. "Just grab onto those jewels and twist like they're a garbage bag."
Or this one: "I need to finish writing my memoirs before my friend Virginia does," says grandma, a former actress. "We've slept with all the same people."
At WBHHS, the Wilson kids encounter all the types, including the mean girl Naiomi (AnnaLyne McCord), who is dating jock Ethan (Dustin Milligan) as the show begins. Naomi's mom (Christina Moore, "Pasadena") has a history with Harry and it turns out they have a kid together that she put up for adoption. Harry only learned that after taking the teaching job and learning that Naomi cheated on an English paper. Drama!
New technology is all over "90210," from Silver's vicious blog ("That's what a blog is supposed to do, cause problems," she says) to text messages to YouTube videos. The producers definitely get the tech-savvy aspects of teen life right. And it's also nice to see some of the emphasis that's been put on families. The original "90210" once had that but gave up the family franchise once Brenda fled to London and Ma and Pa Walsh moved to Hong Kong. Having parents present on this "90210" grounds it and keeps the "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" aspect from overwhelming the plot.
There are some ridiculous aspects of "90210": Kelly Taylor seems to pop up out of nowhere at Harry's side. Is she a person or an apparition? And the school musical is "Spring Awakening," which remains a Broadway hit so it's probably not realistic for it to be performed on the high school level just yet (then again, we got to hear a snippet of the show's awesome score, so it was worth it, realistic or not).
And then there's the more graphic nature of the show: The first hour included a scene of Ethan receiving oral sex while sitting in his SUV parked in front of BHHS. It was more implied than shown, of course, but still it was more graphic than the old "90210." Oral sex in the parking lot is the new necking in a stairwell!
"90210" isn't likely to win any awards -- other than the Teen Choice Awards, of course -- but it has more compelling characters than one might expect. The performances aren't terrible. The dialogue is more clever (see Tabitha's lines above) than painful ("I'm breaking up with us," Ethan told Naiomi). And the theme song remains the same. Welcome back to Beverly Hills.
What did you think? Leave your comments below. (To comment you must login or register.)
Sep 02 2008
TV coverage of the Republican convention was pre-empted by the hurricane in the Gulf states but it's also been disrupted by the surprise pick of Alaska governor Sarah Palin for vice president, particularly in light of what's coming out about her now. The revelation that her unwed teen daughter is pregnant has become of particular interest, particularly because Palin supports abstinence-only education not well-rounded sex education, which doesn't appear to have done her daughter much good.
Monday night I was surprised to hear McCain campaign surrogate Nicole Wallace claim that the campaign came forward with the news about Palin's daughter because of "Democratic blogs." Disappointingly, interviewer Katie Couric didn't bother to challenge that. The liberal blogs that promulgated rumors about the baby are as much Democratic blogs as the conservative blogs that claim Barack Obama is Muslim are Republican blogs. I noticed that by Tuesday morning Wallace had changed her descriptive term to the more accurate "Democratic-leaning blogs."
*
On NBC tonight President Bush's address to convention delegates was full of technical gaffes.
"I want to share some thoughts about our nominee, a great American and the next president of the United States, John McCain," Bush said. Then: Silence. Awkward smile. More silence. Five long seconds of silence. No applause, no cheers. Oops.
In an effort to quell liberal-media conspiracy theories that I'm sure he feared would come, NBC anchor Brian Williams apologized afterwards, explaining that the president was pausing for cheers, applause and laughter throughout his speech and assured viewers, "He was received mightily by this crowd."
The reason for the gaffe was because NBC had to air the speech on tape delay rather than live and the feed from Bush in the White House and the applause in the hall were not synced. The Republicans purposefully scheduled it to run before 10 p.m. when the broadcast network coverage began.
*
First lady Laura Bush got the Republican talking points memo: She claimed questioning Palin's experience as mayor of a small Alaska town "sounds elitest."
Sep 02 2008
Watching 
FX's "The Shield," which returns tonight at 10 for its final season, I realized that what I'll miss most after the last episode airs on Nov. 25 isn't what I thought it would be. Although I was once more invested in the story of anti-hero Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), I now find myself more interested in the police procedural stories.
How come?
Because Vic's plotting, schemes, crosses, double crosses and triple crosses have simply become too labyrinthine for me to keep track. That became especially obvious in the show's last season, its weakest entry yet. As season seven begins, the show remains as twisty as ever now that Vic views Shane (Walton Goggins) as an enemy for killing Lem at the end of season five.
Tonight's season premiere does a fairly good job of wrapping up the sixth season finale and setting the stage to move forward but there's still a fair amount of cleanup to be done. Happily, "The Shield" also finds time for some humorous tangents involving lazy cop Steve Billings (David Marciano).
Next week's episode is a stronger hour because of the procedural components, which are so consistently well written and just as surprising as the show's Strike Team soap opera. There's a wonderful guest turn by a woman playing an elderly witness who ignores the cries of "stop snitchin'" from her neighbors after a woman is crushed by a cinder block.
"My sons are in jail, my lesbian daughter won't give me no grandchildren," she says. "They want to kill me, I can't wait to see my Jesus!"
When the juvenile perp is captured, he has a tense, powerful scene with Capt. Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder), the show's most consistent character played by the series' most valuable supporting player. The boy gets under Wyms' skin with his repeated use of a racial epithet, leading her to use it, too, which gets her in trouble.
"Some crack baby tween does a triple homicide and I'm the one being held over a barrel?" Wyms says.
On "The Shield," being held over a barrel is a regular position for just about all the characters.
In case you missed it in July, here's a link to our summer story about the show.
Will you be tuning in for the final act of "The Shield"? Have you gotten lost in the twisted plot? Post your comments below. (To post, you must log in or register.)
Aug 29 2008
You know how I mentioned yesterday that I got bored watching "Gossip Girl"? Well, triple that boredom and you have how I felt watching Fox's "Prison Break" (8 p.m. Monday, WPGH), which returns Monday with a two-hour fourth season premiere. I only made it through the first hour and then I gave up.
Truth be told, I gave up on "Prison Break" after the first season. The show had a great concept, but it was basically exhausted once they, ya know, BROKE OUT OF PRISON.
"Prison Break" probably reached its nadir of sadism last season when Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies) lost her head off-camera. Her beloved, prison breaker, Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller, interviewed here in July), was understandably upset and he's in a revenge-minded mood as the new season starts.
By the end of the first hour, he's feeling much better as Sarah, with her head intact, is returned to him. Then it's onto the next ridiculous distant goal: Stealing a black book belonging to "The Company" on behalf of the U.S. government. Why the feds need help from a bunch of prison escapees is beyond me, but making sense is not a "Prison Break" strong suit. When this motley crew heads toward an Air Force plane, the audience is told they got access to it because "this guy called in a favor." Again, not so much with the making sense.
Michael rouses the troops, saying, "We're all a long way from where this started but what I can guarantee you is if we do this thing right we'll be close to where it ends: Freedom. Finally."
If the show stays true to fulfilling that promise, this show will end. Finally.
Will you be watching Monday night? Post your comments below. (To comment, log in or register.)
Aug 28 2008
The CW's "Gossip Girl," a favorite among magazine editors and New York gossip columnists but not-so-much among viewers judging by its low ratings, returns for its second season at 9 p.m. Monday on WPCW.
The show remains an enjoyable guilty pleasure, ramping up with the close of summer in the Hamptons. Viewers are quickly reminded of where the characters' tangled love lives lie.
Nate (Chace Crawford) is dating an older, married woman (Madchen Amick) and has a steamy makeout scene with her at the start of Monday's episode.
Serena (Blake Lively) spent the summer moping about alone, missing Dan (Penn Badgley), who's making out with women he meets at booking readings.
Blair (Leighton Meester) is still angry that Chuck (Ed Westwick) stood her up and she finds every possible amusing mutilation of Chuck's name. Blair also continues to get the best dialogue.
"A hot lifeguard is like Kleenex: Use once and throw away," Blair counsels Serena.
There is much ridiculousness in the first episode of season two, including a "white party" full of drama that's both intentionally amusing and over-the-top and off-putting (Nate and a married woman? Really?), all of it accompanied by a winning music soundtrack.
By the end of the third episode of the second season there have been multiple hookups and breakups, enough to make your head spin or bore you to tears. Alas, I found myself experiencing more of the latter. I just don't care enough about any of the characters for my mind not to wander, leading me to read magazines and generally ignore the show.
Will you be watching or is "Gossip Girl" just too much for you? Post a comment below. (To post you must log in or register here.)
Aug 27 2008
In this week's Tuned In Podcast, Entertainment editor Sharon Eberson and I discuss coverage of the first night of the Democratic National Convention, an onslaught of new series and returning shows that are about to debut and the Summer Olympics closing ceremony.
Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/podcast.
Aug 26 2008
I didn't flip around a lot Monday during convention coverage but I did tonight and what was the first thing I encountered? Distortions of reality by a conservative Fox News Channel commentator. Sean Hannity, in discussing Weather Underground member William Ayers, who had some tangential connection to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama years ago, said that Ayers spoke approvingly of 1960s bombings in a New York Times article on Sept. 11, 2001. Of course, for a newspaper to be on doorsteps on Sept. 11 means it was published in the morning of Sept. 11 before the 9-11 attacks. Hannity's insinuation, of course, was that Ayers was piling on and falling in line with foreign terrorists who attacked the United States.
Worse yet, liberal co-host Alan Colmes didn't attempt to correct Hannity's misrepresentation. This is why I hate watching cable news.
***
ABC's Charles Gibson is eager to hear a "cogent, quick way" that the candidates will propose to turn the economy around.
He and his colleagues also discussed the need for Democrats to hammer away at Republican U.S. Sen John McCain. Of course, that was happening, ABC just wasn't showing it or was talking over it with its commentators. But credit ABC for at least running clips that showed speakers did go after McCain, including U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, who described McCain's voting record -- with President Bush 90 percent of the time, supposedly -- saying, "That's not a maverick. That's a sidekick!"
***
The phone rang and I think I just missed a galvanizing speech by the governor of Montana. Oops.
***
Something about the sound of Chelsea Clinton's voice in narrating the video about her mother, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, was really familiar. This is a little out there but it reminded me of Debrah Farentino's narration on "Earth 2." Yeah, totally random observation, I know.
"Whether you voted for me or you voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team and none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines," Clinton said, a broadside at the reported 20 percent of Clinton supporters who say they won't vote for Obama. "This is a fight for the future and it's a fight we must win together."
She said Democrats must unite and then launched the sound bite of the night: "No way. No how. No McCain."
Nice line: "Sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits."
Yikes, it's 11 p.m. Prime-time coverage is going long and cutting into local news time. That didn't happen last night but it is tonight. I'll be curious to see how long the networks stick with convention coverage after the Clinton speech is done. If I stay awake that long.
NBC bailed first, then CBS at 11:11 p.m. ABC went until just after 11:12 p.m.
Aug 26 2008
ABC Family's "Greek," the network's top series until the success this summer of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," returns for a new batch of episodes tonight at 9.
The show, aimed at teens and twentysomethings, ably captures a middle ground between the earnest "Secret Life" and the over-the-top "Gossip Girl."
Tonight's season premiere takes a page from NBC's playbook, piggybacking on the Olympic spirit as the sororities and fraternities compete in the Greek Week Olympiad. For some reason this entails the frat brothers dressing up as women and the sororities playing football. Perhaps this is normal in the greek community on college campuses, but I wouldn't know. I was not a frat boy and am somewhat flabbergasted that I enjoy this show as much as I do.
I suspect its appeal comes from how well the show handles its outcast characters, who, perhaps in a leap of faith on the part of the show's writers, are accepted and embraced. On the flip side, the show also treats its more popular characters with more dignity than one might expect. They're not all evil and have more layers and shades than you'd expect from a teenybopper series.
Guest stars in upcoming episodes include Charisma Carpenter ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), returning as national sorority rep Tegan, Max Greenfield ("Veronica Mars") and my favorite new addition, Carol Potter, who played Mama Walsh on the original "Beverly Hills, 90210." She plays "a character who is pivotal to Casey's future."
Is "Greek" a series you watch. And if, like me, you are outside the show's demo, do you consider it a guilty pleasure? Comment below. (To comment you must sign in or register.)
Aug 24 2008
Executive producer Thom Beers has made a career out of chronicling the extreme jobs of crusty characters, from "Deadliest Catch" to "Ice Road Truckers." But with NBC's "America's Toughest Jobs" (9 p.m. Monday, WPXI), he's met his match. And you suddenly realize, Mark Burnett ("Survivor") is a genius at these types of shows in a way that Beers is not.
Part of the fun of watching Beers' other shows comes from watching the guys -- and it is almost all guys -- who do these jobs going about their usual work. In "America's Toughest Jobs," Beers has to track both the contestants and their bosses, the TV tough guys who offer commentary on how horrible the contestants are at the tasks they've never done before. But so much time is spent on how terrible the contestants are that viewers don't get to know them. Where Burnett is able to slowly but meticulously build these characters, Beers doesn't make much effort. That may also be due to fact that the contestants are so busy working that they have no time for back-stabbing or plotting. But still, I couldn't help being surprised to hear the first contestant sent home exclaim, "In the short time I was here, I really did bond with some people."
Really? Viewers never get to see that.
"I wish I could have gotten to know them more," the evicted contestant says.
Me too.
Will you be watching "America's Toughest Jobs"? Are you a fan of tough guy TV, and if so, why? (To post you must log in or register here.)
Aug 22 2008
HBO's "Generation Kill" is less emotional than the landmark World War II mini-series "Band of Brothers" but it has been a fascinating depiction of the invasion of Iraq. "Generation Kill" comes to close Sunday at 9 p.m. with the final episode, which concludes with a musical montage set to Johnny Cash singing "The Man Comes Around."
It's also worth watching the end credits to hear what sounds like real Marines describing their Iraq experience. One expresses anger over Americans' indifference to the war and the Marines' efforts.
That matches the overall tone of the miniseries, which never really took a political point of view except to say that an effective military campaign requires a realistic view of the battlefield, something too often lacking in the "Generation Kill" portrait of the Iraq invasion. Those gaffes and the incompetence of some soldiers isn't usual war movie material.
"None of us wanted the reference points for the actors or anybody working on this to be other war movies," said Evan Wright, author of the book that was the basis of the miniseries. He also got a writing/producing credit on the HBO production. "We wanted their reference points to be the reality of the war that was fought."
To that end, "Generation Kill" relied on several advisers who had been there. Rudy Reyes even played himself in the miniseries.
"Few of the actors had any military experience, let alone war experience," said Wright, who was embedded with Marines during the invasion. "Our idea of war is shaped by movies and movies often get things wrong. We wanted this one to be focused on the reality that I observed during the invasion."
Aug 21 2008
Sci Fi Channel today announced the cancellation of "Stargate Atlantis."
Post-Gazette entertainment editor Sharon Eberson is continuing her Comic-Con blog and she writes about the end of "Atlantis" and the future of the "Stargate" franchise. Give it a read.
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