TV Picks for the 07-08 Season

I grew up watching a lot of tv, and for goodness sakes, it didn’t ruin my brain, so people who think TV is the problem: get off it. The problem is when everything but TV is absent! Anyway, now that we’re a couple of weeks into the new (regular) season, I thought I’d jot down a few notes on what I’ve been watching, and why it sucks/is great.

Heroes:
Just had to start with this one because it’s probably the most-watched show I am going to discuss. Last year, against my will, I got sucked into watching this show. This is despite the fact that it is a TOTAL RIP OFF of one my favourites, The 4400, which airs in the summertime on USA. Heroes does have a bigger budget, and a heavier thirst for racist stereotypes: witness the fumbling Japanese guy running around screaming “Yatai!!” (which means hooray) every five frickin minutes.

At first there was only one. Now there are many! This year we have the pleasure of experiencing stereotypes about Central Americans and Central America in the form of the characters Maya and her brother as they try to cross the American border in the hopes of finding assistance for Maya whose superpower seems, well, not so god-loving. In addition we now have Irish thieves! With their violence and their profound attachment to true brotherhood, as evidenced by shared “celtic” tattoos.

And let us not forget that our favourite Japanese character, Hiro, has been transported back in time to 17th century Japan, where the greatest hero of Japanese mythology turns out to be a drunken white dude with a working-class English accent and a penchant for needing help finding his compassion button. Hiro functionally becomes this guy’s servant, and this guy lives up to all of our stereotypes about working England.

To Tim Kring, the producer of Heroes: Dude! Expanding your racism to include classism and white people was a stroke of brilliance! A+ for fucked up effort. But you know Hayden Panettiere is hot and some of the other story lines are okay, so I’ll happily watch your show without paying for the effort

ER (Emergency Room):
Yes kiddies, this show is still on and going strong. I love this show, for a few reasons. First of all, the acting is quality. The ensemble cast is overall very strong. And some of its members are both very good actors and supppppperrrrr hottttt. For example, Parminder Nagra. Remember her? She was the brownie in Bend It Like Beckham — yeah, the lead actress who could actually act and not just alternate between cute and angry. (The other was Keira Knightley, and since she’s white and not ugly, many have been duped into giving her bigger roles than Parminder has been offered.)Other fantastic cast members include Maura Tierney of Newsradio fame, and Linda Cardellini of Freaks and Geeks fame.

The cast isn’t the only reason to watch though. If you caught any of last year’s season (yep, season 13), then you know that ER had an axe to grind with the american health care system, and they ground it well. It’s watched by enough people that they may have actually made a real contribution to the upcoming US presidential election by helping to get health care onto the agenda.

Another reason I like this show is the real, emotional drama and the mature handling of it. If any of you watch Grey’s Anatomy, then you know it’s possible to write a completely unrealistic medical drama where the asshole interns (and now residents) are allowed to put their drama-ridden love lives ahead of the health of patients. That shit would never go in a real hospital, and it doesn’t go in ER. It makes for far better drama — watching people try to figure their lives out when maybe up to 12 hours a day they are required to put the lives of complete strangers ahead of their own.

Besides, I’ve been told by a doc that it’s fairly realistic. And my own experience in the trauma bay of the ER indicates that it is.

Ugly Betty:
This show wins my award for most improved after a first season. I thought this show was okay last year, but I was mostly excited to see America Ferrera get a job, especially since her film debut Real Women Have Curves was filmed in my neighbourhood and was about a girl I could identify with. The fashion stuff was fun, but I wasn’t totally sold.

However, now that season 2 has arrived, I am totally in love. Michael Urie is just a fucking genius as Marc St. James. And whoever dresses that character – God Bless You! As the people who know me in person know, I love men’s fashion and have a subscription to Details magazine. Ugly Betty’s costume designer has been doing a good job of massaging my fashion spot this season.

Plus this show wins the award for best line I may have ever heard on television, ever. I believe it is from episode 2: “I’m Black. You’re Mexican. Let’s not talk around this like a couple of dull white people.”

You go Vanessa Williams! Vanessa is playing this role like she was born to do it.

House:
Who doesn’t love this show, starring Hugh Laurie of “A Bit of Fry & Laurie” fame? As it enters season 4, though, we have to wonder if they started to run out of quips and mean games that House could play with only three underlings. The “interview 40 doctors and insult them by not learning their names and randomly firing them” method is somewhat funny, but eh. I miss the original three assistants, who are somehow going to have roles in the show, but how? Ambiguous. Anyway, I already know which three he is going to pick, and aside (WARNING: SPOILER) from Kal Penn, I’m only excited about one of them because she’s hot.

Californication:
I don’t want to say much because it would ruin the show and THIS IS THE BEST TV SHOW EVER AND YOU SHOULD JUST WATCH IT. Starring David Duchovny, doing his funny and hot “if Mulder had had a life and a daughter and actually had sex instead of just watching lots of porn” bit. I watch this show, and every few minutes I say, “I miss home.” During the interim, I am laughing my ass off in simultaneous horror and hilarity. This show is probably one of the best ways you could spend half an hour of entertainment time, period.

Big Shots:
Okay, I decided to watch an episode of this show because I thought, “Really???” when I heard about it. The show is about the lives of four corporate CEOS – the trials and tribulations of cheating wives, keeping up with the mistress, keeping one’s job, and dealing with angry daughters.

Yes, really, they made this show, and it’s on the air. Someone save us.

Gossip Girl:
I decided to save the best for last. Okay, well, the show I am most amused at (laughing at,
not laughing with, as is the case with Californication). Gossip Girl has been correctly described as Cruel Intentions meets The OC. As in, it’s about a bunch of spoiled brats and set in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, although it’s actually based on a series of books, not just some TV producer’s money-making imagination.

If you know me, then you’re wondering how I get through this show without puking, especially since I refuse to watch The OC. Well, for one, old money people are far more entertaining than nouveau riche, if only because at least they have taste. But more importantly, watching Gossip Girl is like watching the people I went to college with before we got to college, and I am a masochist. Hence the morbid fascination with Gossip, which is like a train wreck that’s fun to watch. The sad/entertaining part is that it doesn’t seem entirely unrealistic. While the reality is far more complex, I remember seeing a lot of these types, and the behaviour, in college.

Plus the lead, Blake Lively, is really, really fun to look at.