TV Diary
1. "American Idol"
After a couple years of following "Idol" pretty faithfully but hating the gimmicky early audition episodes, I skipped them almost entirely this time around, with the intention of jumping back in for Hollywood week. But even once they finally got to that, my enthusiasm was at a low, partly because of the bad ratings and general lack of excitement, and have only caught parts of episodes so far. I'm not as up in arms as some people are over the Carly Hennessy/Smithson scandal, probably because, like the music industry, I'm willing to give a hot girl with an Irish accent more chances to fail than she probably deserves. I don't really have any favorites yet, though.
2. "Ninja Warrior"
Thought it was pretty stupid the first couple times I caught it, but now kinda getting hooked on it. So much cooler obstacle courses than "American Gladiator." Or "Double Dare," for that matter. Great narration, too.
3. "The Price Is Right"
This is pretty much my favorite game show of all time, but I'm not quite as outraged as a lot of people about anyone but Bob hosting it, and I like Drew Carey more than any of the other names that were tossed around. It's still pretty weird, though, having caught the new version a couple times, to see the show with a new host now. I hope the Game Show Network gets rights to Barker-era reruns sometime.
4. "Rock Of Love 2"
So far I haven't been sucked in by this as much as I was by the first season, but this is still pretty much the best thing out of the whole cursed 'Celebreality' franchise. Nothing quite like a shameless slut parade for entertainment. What really hurts the show for me, though, is the realization is that I can not only read Rich's recaps instead and feel like I didn't miss anything, but am often more entertained than if I had watched it.
5. "Celebrity Rehab"
Here's a nice refreshing flipside to all those shows, though. I've always been kind of uneasy with the fact that pretty much every season of "Celebrity Fit Club" or "The Surreal Life" features one person whose issues clearly go way deeper than a weight problem the delusions of minor fame, and that those people are usually treated as wacky outrageous people who do something crazy that gets repeated in clip shows over and over instead of the troubled drug addicts they usually are. So hey, VH1 might as well foot the bill to try and help out some of the people they've been enabling and ridiculing the last few years, even it's still done in a kind of exploitative way that feeds into their need to be in front of a camera. This really does get pretty harrowing sometimes, though, I haven't even been able to watch it too much.
6. "Free Radio"
As bad as most of VH1's reality shows are, their attempts at scripted programming are usually even worse (except for "Acceptable TV," which I'm still pissed about being cancelled). This one is just unfathomably bad, taking a thin premise and stretching it thinner and thinner: a dumb, naive intern somehow replacing a morning radio host and ending up popular for being an idiot who knows nothing about the obscure minor celebrities he's interviewing. It seems like it might be improv-driven, like they didn't come up with any real material and hoped for some Christopher Guest/Larry David-style inspired awkwardness, but it just falls completely flat. In a way, it has the same fallacy as "Studio 60," because it keeps driving home that people want to actually listen to this show and are entertained by it, but it's just impossible to believe.
7. "Rob & Big"
I never really watched this much or understood its appeal, even after Darkroom Productions started doing music for the show. It's one of those reality shows where all the scenarios are really transparently scripted and contrived to some degree, like "The Hills" or "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," except the aim is less about drama and romance than about two guys being goofy and travelling around doing weird stuff, like trying to build a time machine or recording ironic R&B songs. But just like those shows, there's this weird lethargic quality to the pacing, like the problem isn't that it's scripted but that it's not scripted enough, and you have no idea why these people are famous or have their own show. Apparently Rob is a professional skateboarder/extreme sports dude and Big is his bodyguard, but it's not like he was Tony Hawk famous before the show, and he has possibly even less charisma than Tony Hawk. I mean, I hate Bam Margera, but he's obnoxious enough that I kind of understand why people will watch him on TV. But my friend Mike was talking to me about it this week and trying to explain in really weird terms why he likes it and thinks it's good, something about how he likes the way nothing happens and it's really dry, but I still don't get it. I remember someone else trying to say this show is racist, and I don't know if I agree with that per se, but it was funny when I saw it recently and MTV2 had a "Black History Month" box flashing in the corner, while Big was wearing an afro wig and doing some dumb shit.
8. "The Moment Of Truth"
I liked the idea of this show's premise, amoral exploitation and all, to begin with. But the execution is pretty disappointing to me, mostly for reasons other than the slow pacing that a lot of people have complained about. It'd be one thing if they just took some shots in the dark and asked the contestants questions that might reveal ugly truths, and run the risk of a disappointment for the payoff of a big shocker. But as usual, Mike Darnell works too hard at stacking the deck, and the contestants and their questions are so obvious pre-screened that it's hard to even believe that it isn't all completely planne and everyone knows the answers, whether that's the case or not. There's just zero suspense because there's not the slightest hint of spontaneity. Thank god the strike's over, I can't handle more reality shows and game shows.
After a couple years of following "Idol" pretty faithfully but hating the gimmicky early audition episodes, I skipped them almost entirely this time around, with the intention of jumping back in for Hollywood week. But even once they finally got to that, my enthusiasm was at a low, partly because of the bad ratings and general lack of excitement, and have only caught parts of episodes so far. I'm not as up in arms as some people are over the Carly Hennessy/Smithson scandal, probably because, like the music industry, I'm willing to give a hot girl with an Irish accent more chances to fail than she probably deserves. I don't really have any favorites yet, though.
2. "Ninja Warrior"
Thought it was pretty stupid the first couple times I caught it, but now kinda getting hooked on it. So much cooler obstacle courses than "American Gladiator." Or "Double Dare," for that matter. Great narration, too.
3. "The Price Is Right"
This is pretty much my favorite game show of all time, but I'm not quite as outraged as a lot of people about anyone but Bob hosting it, and I like Drew Carey more than any of the other names that were tossed around. It's still pretty weird, though, having caught the new version a couple times, to see the show with a new host now. I hope the Game Show Network gets rights to Barker-era reruns sometime.
4. "Rock Of Love 2"
So far I haven't been sucked in by this as much as I was by the first season, but this is still pretty much the best thing out of the whole cursed 'Celebreality' franchise. Nothing quite like a shameless slut parade for entertainment. What really hurts the show for me, though, is the realization is that I can not only read Rich's recaps instead and feel like I didn't miss anything, but am often more entertained than if I had watched it.
5. "Celebrity Rehab"
Here's a nice refreshing flipside to all those shows, though. I've always been kind of uneasy with the fact that pretty much every season of "Celebrity Fit Club" or "The Surreal Life" features one person whose issues clearly go way deeper than a weight problem the delusions of minor fame, and that those people are usually treated as wacky outrageous people who do something crazy that gets repeated in clip shows over and over instead of the troubled drug addicts they usually are. So hey, VH1 might as well foot the bill to try and help out some of the people they've been enabling and ridiculing the last few years, even it's still done in a kind of exploitative way that feeds into their need to be in front of a camera. This really does get pretty harrowing sometimes, though, I haven't even been able to watch it too much.
6. "Free Radio"
As bad as most of VH1's reality shows are, their attempts at scripted programming are usually even worse (except for "Acceptable TV," which I'm still pissed about being cancelled). This one is just unfathomably bad, taking a thin premise and stretching it thinner and thinner: a dumb, naive intern somehow replacing a morning radio host and ending up popular for being an idiot who knows nothing about the obscure minor celebrities he's interviewing. It seems like it might be improv-driven, like they didn't come up with any real material and hoped for some Christopher Guest/Larry David-style inspired awkwardness, but it just falls completely flat. In a way, it has the same fallacy as "Studio 60," because it keeps driving home that people want to actually listen to this show and are entertained by it, but it's just impossible to believe.
7. "Rob & Big"
I never really watched this much or understood its appeal, even after Darkroom Productions started doing music for the show. It's one of those reality shows where all the scenarios are really transparently scripted and contrived to some degree, like "The Hills" or "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," except the aim is less about drama and romance than about two guys being goofy and travelling around doing weird stuff, like trying to build a time machine or recording ironic R&B songs. But just like those shows, there's this weird lethargic quality to the pacing, like the problem isn't that it's scripted but that it's not scripted enough, and you have no idea why these people are famous or have their own show. Apparently Rob is a professional skateboarder/extreme sports dude and Big is his bodyguard, but it's not like he was Tony Hawk famous before the show, and he has possibly even less charisma than Tony Hawk. I mean, I hate Bam Margera, but he's obnoxious enough that I kind of understand why people will watch him on TV. But my friend Mike was talking to me about it this week and trying to explain in really weird terms why he likes it and thinks it's good, something about how he likes the way nothing happens and it's really dry, but I still don't get it. I remember someone else trying to say this show is racist, and I don't know if I agree with that per se, but it was funny when I saw it recently and MTV2 had a "Black History Month" box flashing in the corner, while Big was wearing an afro wig and doing some dumb shit.
8. "The Moment Of Truth"
I liked the idea of this show's premise, amoral exploitation and all, to begin with. But the execution is pretty disappointing to me, mostly for reasons other than the slow pacing that a lot of people have complained about. It'd be one thing if they just took some shots in the dark and asked the contestants questions that might reveal ugly truths, and run the risk of a disappointment for the payoff of a big shocker. But as usual, Mike Darnell works too hard at stacking the deck, and the contestants and their questions are so obvious pre-screened that it's hard to even believe that it isn't all completely planne and everyone knows the answers, whether that's the case or not. There's just zero suspense because there's not the slightest hint of spontaneity. Thank god the strike's over, I can't handle more reality shows and game shows.
This entry was posted
on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 11:09 PM.
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Boo! Nuh-uh.