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TV Slut Strikes Again
Nov. 22nd, 2008 07:16 pmI should make dinner, but not hungry - possibly due to the chai tea and gluten-free almond sugar cookies I'd made earlier, while watching ER and The Starter Wife.
Ah Television. Yes, I am a bit of TV slut. I admit it. Always have been. Also have incredibly ecletic taste, which veers towards the off-kilter, cult half of the time. Plus, a huge weakness for serials - that requires committment, as opposed to episodic or anthology stories that don't.
Told Wales at Dinner last night, eating a nice steamed talipia with shrimp, artichocks and snow peas, with broccoli rabe, while she consumed her gnocchi, that Grey's Anatomy had without question "jumped the shark".
"Jumped the shark?" Wales asked. "What does that mean?"
"You're obviously not a tv geek," I replied to her bewilderment. "Jump the Shark as cjlasky once explained to me ages ago, is a term that is used to describe a show that has sort of jumped out of the range of logic into the neverland of mindboggling stupidity. The term was derived when Fonzi of the hit TV show Happy Days, donned a pair of skis and literally "jumped" a "real live shark" as a stunt to get ratings. Evil Knieval was a hit back then and they were copying his stunts - except to my knowledge even Evil didn't try to jump a real live (or animatomic shark). "
Grey's has done this. It came close to doing it last year with the Izzy/George/Callie storyline, but redeemed itself at the last minute. This year, alas, after a decent start, it did it. The writing now makes little to no sense. And you feel the actors and characters looking up at the writing gods and asking the time old question - "what's going on? Are you really stoned? Because this is ridiculous."
( Grey's has jumped the shark - cut for spoilers )
Ugly Betty on the other hand, got better. ( cut for spoilers )
ER has also been relatively good this season. Less over-the-top and more like it was in the early years, when I loved it. I gave up on it for a while - when they kept going to Africa and kept doing weird shoot-outs. (What is this ER or 24?) The focus on Neela, Dr. Banfield,
Gates/Sam, and Morris - with the old series regulars, Dr. Green, Romano, Weaver, and Luca/Abby popping in, has worked. It's writing matchs House's as far as medical dramas go.
It was always more realistic than the other ones out there. I'm loving Neela's storyline this year. Sort of identify with her, in an odd way.
House has also been good, I usually watch it live or the very next day. The dynamic between Wilson/Cuddy/and House continues to evolve and enhance the series. Helps that the three actors are so good and complement on another so well. Also enjoying the interaction between supporting characters - Thirteen/Forbes(Omar Epps character), Cameron/Shane. It's a medical drama that does a good job of using each case as a means of describing a problem with the main character or exploring one. Consistently and tightly written. Unlike Grey's.
The best written show that I'm currently watching or rather the one I'm enjoying the most at the moment and am reluctant to delete from the old DVR is surprisingly enough Supernatural.
I adore this show. It's pure horror noir. Tightly written. Consistent in its thematic structure and mythology, not to mention the rules of its verse (unlike Grey's). Yet at the same time unpredictable and rather imaginative. Tough to do, four years in. Most shows start to crumble around this point. This one just continues to improve. There was only one episode this season that I thought was less than stellar. Also the characters continue to change and evolve. Sam has lost his innocence. Dean has lost his self-righteousness, he's filled with guilt and remorse. He no longer sees the world in black and white and he no longer believes the rules make sense. The show like most good noir is questioning the morality of the universe in which it inhabits, a relatively skewed version of our own self-righteously angry and religious mythos. It questions what it means to be human, what it means to be good or evil. And whether the line is as neat as one might think. Who are the good guys? Are we doomed? Or does our salvation lie in our ability to forgive and love and hope and help one another? Including ourselves? It's not politically correct - true noir isn't by the way, it tends to be pretty sexist and racist, which is why a lot of people abhor it and it rarely hits mainstream. Too dark and controversial. If you look deeper at the art form, you will notice that it is critical of its own racism and sexism, but doing so requires looking deeper at our own societial structure and our own world and realising that noir is at times just a dark mirror of it, emphasizing the bits and pieces we don't want to see, that lie in wait, for us in the shadows.
Ah Television. Yes, I am a bit of TV slut. I admit it. Always have been. Also have incredibly ecletic taste, which veers towards the off-kilter, cult half of the time. Plus, a huge weakness for serials - that requires committment, as opposed to episodic or anthology stories that don't.
Told Wales at Dinner last night, eating a nice steamed talipia with shrimp, artichocks and snow peas, with broccoli rabe, while she consumed her gnocchi, that Grey's Anatomy had without question "jumped the shark".
"Jumped the shark?" Wales asked. "What does that mean?"
"You're obviously not a tv geek," I replied to her bewilderment. "Jump the Shark as cjlasky once explained to me ages ago, is a term that is used to describe a show that has sort of jumped out of the range of logic into the neverland of mindboggling stupidity. The term was derived when Fonzi of the hit TV show Happy Days, donned a pair of skis and literally "jumped" a "real live shark" as a stunt to get ratings. Evil Knieval was a hit back then and they were copying his stunts - except to my knowledge even Evil didn't try to jump a real live (or animatomic shark). "
Grey's has done this. It came close to doing it last year with the Izzy/George/Callie storyline, but redeemed itself at the last minute. This year, alas, after a decent start, it did it. The writing now makes little to no sense. And you feel the actors and characters looking up at the writing gods and asking the time old question - "what's going on? Are you really stoned? Because this is ridiculous."
( Grey's has jumped the shark - cut for spoilers )
Ugly Betty on the other hand, got better. ( cut for spoilers )
ER has also been relatively good this season. Less over-the-top and more like it was in the early years, when I loved it. I gave up on it for a while - when they kept going to Africa and kept doing weird shoot-outs. (What is this ER or 24?) The focus on Neela, Dr. Banfield,
Gates/Sam, and Morris - with the old series regulars, Dr. Green, Romano, Weaver, and Luca/Abby popping in, has worked. It's writing matchs House's as far as medical dramas go.
It was always more realistic than the other ones out there. I'm loving Neela's storyline this year. Sort of identify with her, in an odd way.
House has also been good, I usually watch it live or the very next day. The dynamic between Wilson/Cuddy/and House continues to evolve and enhance the series. Helps that the three actors are so good and complement on another so well. Also enjoying the interaction between supporting characters - Thirteen/Forbes(Omar Epps character), Cameron/Shane. It's a medical drama that does a good job of using each case as a means of describing a problem with the main character or exploring one. Consistently and tightly written. Unlike Grey's.
The best written show that I'm currently watching or rather the one I'm enjoying the most at the moment and am reluctant to delete from the old DVR is surprisingly enough Supernatural.
I adore this show. It's pure horror noir. Tightly written. Consistent in its thematic structure and mythology, not to mention the rules of its verse (unlike Grey's). Yet at the same time unpredictable and rather imaginative. Tough to do, four years in. Most shows start to crumble around this point. This one just continues to improve. There was only one episode this season that I thought was less than stellar. Also the characters continue to change and evolve. Sam has lost his innocence. Dean has lost his self-righteousness, he's filled with guilt and remorse. He no longer sees the world in black and white and he no longer believes the rules make sense. The show like most good noir is questioning the morality of the universe in which it inhabits, a relatively skewed version of our own self-righteously angry and religious mythos. It questions what it means to be human, what it means to be good or evil. And whether the line is as neat as one might think. Who are the good guys? Are we doomed? Or does our salvation lie in our ability to forgive and love and hope and help one another? Including ourselves? It's not politically correct - true noir isn't by the way, it tends to be pretty sexist and racist, which is why a lot of people abhor it and it rarely hits mainstream. Too dark and controversial. If you look deeper at the art form, you will notice that it is critical of its own racism and sexism, but doing so requires looking deeper at our own societial structure and our own world and realising that noir is at times just a dark mirror of it, emphasizing the bits and pieces we don't want to see, that lie in wait, for us in the shadows.
