Indeed, what is the appeal?

Back when The Real Housewives of Orange County premiered in 2006, NPR's Andrew Wallenstein mused upon this same question. Why would people tune in for yet another show about Orange Country? The OC on Fox and MTV's Laguna Beach were extremely successful, so perhaps producers of Real Housewives decided they would go with the same location and a different age group. The show, now in its fourth season in Orange County, has also aired two seasons each of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Real Housewives of New York. Each season focuses on a group of catty friends with exorbitant sums of money and, apparently, free time. Wallenstein says the women are a lot like their mansions - - "impeccably maintained facades." But watching the show reveals that these women are flawed. He says this leaves viewers with feelings of "revulsion, fascination, and yes, envy."

I think this is why I watch the show. Isn't this the appeal of any show? Seinfeld, for example, though not a reality show, focused on the lives of a group of callous New Yorkers. I don't think I, or anyone really, aspired to be like them. Their disdain for pretty much every other person was enough to invoke revulsion in the audience - - how can live such a self-centered life - - as well as fascination and envy - - apparently the characters were at peace with doing whatever they liked, whatever the consequences for others.

Any successful show has a component people can relate to (Real Housewives' family matters, Seinfeld's everyday mundane storylines), as well as a component that is harder for audiences to identify with (Real Housewives' silly wealth, Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer's self-centeredness and their obsession? with social norms. (Do the characters mock the norms or do they strive to uphold them, whatever the cost? They certainly discuss their ideas of the "norms" to a great extent.)) Thus Real Housewives remains on air, with a third season of The Real Housewives of New York premiering on February 17th, and audiences ashamedly addicted.

teeeeeeeveeeeeeee

I've been reluctant to post on this blog, because I lack a consistent format. I've been trying to think of a good way to do it, but really, if I am posting about seasons of shows that are already over, it's kind of tricky. I don't think anyone wants to read posts about individual episodes (speculating on winners) when the shows are already over. It is not very likely that anyone is watching these things at the same time as me. However, I would still like to share my enjoyment of shows with people. And at the very least, collect my thoughts for myself. And now that new shows are actually airing weekly!!! maybe I can write about those!

Now, if I may tell you about my new favorite show: Top Chef!!!

I saw some of Season 3 when they were playing marathons last year, at my father's house. But my enjoyment of those few episodes was sort of disrupted by my father's and brother's vehement dislike of the show. I also didn't know any of the contestants, as I was entering it midseason, so I had no background.

But! I started watching Season 4 recently, and so enjoyed it that I began watching Season 2 when I had no new episodes of 4 to watch(which kind of confused things), and now I feel like I am a well-seasoned (no pun intended) viewer. I know what the judges are looking for, what molecular gastronomy is all about, the sins contestants must never commit... I feel like I could just jump right into the kitchen with them! But I will settle for my own kitchen and my own, pitifully basic, though very delicious, creations.

I think I am just excited for a different type of elimination reality show; after 9 cycles of ANTM, I am beginning to tire of the formulaic episodes and lack of surprising curve balls. Plus, I do love food, but these chefs and judges have so much knowledge of, and appreciation for, foods and cooking methods that I would never have known existed. Sadly, it seems that I could never be a Top Chef and a vegetarian, because there is so much meat involved in the chef world. Oh well.

Meanwhile, as I write this, I am also at Bravo's Top Chef website, and I accidentally saw who won Seasons 1 and 3!!! I just wanted to give some examples of my favorite recipes and some photos, but noooo. Way to ruin it for me, Bravo. Thanks.

I'm down to one of four of my original ANTM favorites for this cycle: Katarzyna. Claire and Allison both got sent home. Allison very early on, for her unjustified ego, and Claire, just recently, for her lack of ability to be anything less than high fashion. Whatever. Fatima, one of my four favorites, became one of my least favorites as soon as she started talking. She is beautiful, but farrrrrr to arrogant (and too skinny), and believes herself to be above the other girls in every way possible. When she is, in my opinion, an inferior model to other contestants who just began their career.
I really don't care for any other girls left on the show, besides Katarzyna, and Whitney, the plus-sized model. And while she may get to the top three, I really doubt that she they would choose her as the next top model.
My realistic guesses for top three: Anya, Katarzyna, and maybe Lauren? As the awkward underdog. Or Whitney in her place, because no contest, she has a better walk. I really disliked Anya at first, because she just sounds obnoxious and says stupid things, and her alien-like makeover didn't improve the matter. But when she stood up to delusional (devoted to speaking in the 3rd person) Dominique, siding with (apparently CRAZY) Lauren, it made me her seem so much more bearable.
This show is full of crazies! Dominique lives in a delusional world where no one but Dominique exists in. Lauren goes from being a meek, awkward girl, to a manic lunatic who yells at her roommates. And Fatima lives in a world where her scowl is pretty, and she is the only educated girl in the house. (Which reminds me: I expected the editors to focus on clips of Katarzyna talking about her Ivy League educated and being all snobby like they did with Yaya in Cycle 3, but so far, no mention! Perhaps they're saving that for a time when they want the audience to hate her so we're okay with her getting voted off.)

"You took me by the hand, made me a man, that one night, you made everything alright..."

At last! The first of 6 remaining new episodes of The Office aired last Thursday! I am a bit delayed in writing anything about it, I know, but better late than never, right?

"Dinner Party" focused on the office relationships, including Jim/Pam, Andy/Angela/Dwight, Michael/Dwight, and, most excruciatingly, Jan/Michael. Oh, and Pam/Michael. Hahaha, how amazing was it that Michael not only told Jan that he and Pam had any kind of relationship, and that Jan believed him? It was so ridiculous, and added so much more tension to the party. Many episodes of The Office have been extremely awkward, but they often provided some sort of relief in the form of a parallel storyline. "Dinner Party" held us captive in Michael's condo.

I loved all of the little details, like Pam's reaction when Dwight showed up ("Awesome!"), Jan's attempt to dance with Jim (was it maybe to make Pam jealous since Jan "knew" about Michael and Pam?), Jim's apartment being flooded, the St. Paul's girl beer light, the liberal use of "babe"... yeesh.

Some people I talked to felt that this was not the episode they had been waiting for after all this time, with the strike and all. That the episode should have been filled with outright hilarious moments, with alllll of The Office gang, rather than a select few. But it was the episode they had been planning to film right before the strike began, so why should they have changed the course of the show? I think it showed the genius of the whole cast and crew, to be able to pull off the awkwardness and still make it funny.

I wonder where Jan and Michael will go from here. We knew Michael was miserable, and Jan had gone crazy, but not quite this far. I hope something happens soon, because I can't imagine living in a condo filled with the smell of Serenity by Jan. Remember how excited Michael was, in "Office Olympics," to be a homeowner? How sad is it that he is now relegated to a bench at the foot of the bed, surrounded by eggshell colored walls and photos of Jan with other men?

PS: I read online that there may be a spin-off, also created by Greg Daniels, coming in 2009. This worries me, because spin-offs are generally... not so good. I wonder who and what the spin-off would be about, and where it would take place. I don't want to think about anyone leaving the show for a spin-off, because then the show would not be the same. What would make it a good new show? I don't know.
PPS: According to the writers of this episode, the song by Hunter, Jan's former assistant, is about Jan. Ew? (Office Tally q&a)

I really need new episodes of The Office

I could use new episodes of any of my favorite shows, actually. These include, in this order: The Office, Dexter, Entourage, Weeds, and Flight of the Conchords. Plus The L Word, I think, and there are only two upcoming new episodes (the season started in January) due to the Writer's Strike. Bah. I also love The Wire, and have seen the first two seasons, but I watch it with my roommates, and we haven't had much shared downtime in the last month to watch it! So we still have several new (for us) seasons of that to watch.

But meanwhile, I have continued watching shows like Lipstick Jungle, which has improved only a little since the first episode. I still think there is something lacking in the show. And I still don't like Brooke Shields. But if I may compare the show to Cashmere Mafia again, I find that the link between the three main characters in LJ is just not based on something as strong as the link between the characters in CM. In CM, the four women went to college together and have been tight ever since. In LJ, they just happened to become friends... which is all well and good, but it seems to me that the college bond is just a little stronger, and even gives audiences a little more background on the characters.

Luckily, since I got a job, I don't have as much time for TV watching, so I haven't been going through seasons of shows as fast. Which is nice. You know, to live a little in the real world.

Gossip Girl in the New Yorker - Books vs. TV

The most recent issue of The New Yorker reviewed Cecily von Zeigesar's Gossip Girl (series), which made me think to look back for a review of (the television show) (I found one written in November).
The reviewer of the books quite liked them, I think, for von Zeigesar's clever and witty writing, and the ease with which she connects to her intended audience.

Neither reviewer, however, was a big fan of the TV show. The reviewer of the books pinpoints her major problem with the show:

Among the many errors that the TV series makes, perhaps the most glaring is its promotion of the books’ parents from their status as emblems of parental inadequacy to that of characters in their own right. In the TV version, we are asked to follow the stories of the parents in tandem with the stories of their children... What makes classic children’s literature so appealing (to all ages) is its undeviating loyalty to the world of the child.

I certainly agree with her opinion on this. Watching the show, I was always ready to get up and get a glass of water, or whatever I needed to do, whenever the parents took to the screen.

The reviewer of the TV show discusses the circumstances that should have made Gossip Girl a hit CW show: the gossipy best-selling series, the over-privileged teenagers at the center of the stories - "Because this is a world open only to the few, it’s of great interest to the many." - and Josh Schwartz's part in creating, writing, and producing the show. After the success of The OC, obviously his next project would be popular.

But the writer dislikes the generic drama, the Abercrombie and Fitch-worthy actors, and the lack of center in the show:

(Hilariously, the Brooklyn of the TV show is so benign and “Dawson’s Creek”-y that a friend of the family habitually enters the apartment through an unlocked window.) Given these types of characters, there is a lot of soap opera, but there’s no center to the show, and no sense of life as it’s actually lived. There’s rarely a moment of quiet in “Gossip Girl”—perhaps because its content seems to be secondary to its primary purpose of marketing pop songs, which are heard throughout.

In my opinion, the pop music is often obnoxious, especially after the success The OC had with introducing its huge audiences to lesser known, small bands. That worked with the types of characters in The OC, but I think it would work equally well with Gossip Girl. The characters in Gossip Girl are the elite, fashionable, trend-setting, popular kids in their public spheres. So would they really be listening to Timbaland's "Way I Are" and Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around/Comes Around" (both of which were played in the Pilot episode) months after it was new in the viewer's world? I doubt it. They ought to be trying to find the newest, coolest, music, and spreading that around.

This reviewer goes on to say that The OC
"was a much richer show than “Gossip Girl” seems to be so far — more serious and also more fun..." Her review was ritten for the November issue of The New Yorker, before the last 4, and I think the best 4, episodes aired. Perhaps she was pleased to see the show pick up its pace and become richer - more fun, and more dramatic.

Most Guilty Pleasure

Last year, I was home over spring break, and found myself in front of the TV when nothing was on but The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll. And I watched it. When I went back to school, I downloaded the next episode, because I was a little bit curious to see where the competition went... but then I got sucked in! THEN I found a friend who also watched it, so the two of us got together every week to watch it. But I wouldn't discuss it with her in front of people, or name the show in front of people, because I was embarrassed. I would be like, "Hey, do you want to watch... that show later today?" or, "You wanna hang out and find something... to watch?" Which I suppose is sketchier than simply saying what it was.
It is a guilty pleasure because:

• I do not like the Pussycat Dolls, or appreciate their singing talent
• I think it is bizarre that a musical group has a so-called "creator," as if it were a new software or car... or something
• The show is predictable, and filled with so much... filler
• Cheesy Mark McGrath is the host
  
• I HATED the winner of last year's show... so I have little respect for the judges (including Lil Kim...)
  

And finally, I am most guilty because:

• I am now watching the second season, which is called... The Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious
• When they tell the unlucky girls who are voted off, "I am sorry... you will not be a member of Girlicious," I have to laugh. Because if I was a part of something called Girlicious, I would feel silly and ridiculous, and therefore relieved to be sent home

Anyway, it is fun because:

• The girls can dance (though not necessarily in a way I would want to myself), and some can sing
• And I like to see their progress
• I guess... I like to see the funny girly fights? ("I'm just a better singer than her!" "How can she say that about me??? How dare she! When I am so much more experienced!!!) It is amusing. And filler.
• They sing fun (pop) songs, from different decades...

I am not sure what it is that draws me to it every week. But I am still as ashamed as ever to admit that I watch it, and am currently downloading the most recent episode as I type this.


Hilarious? No? Note the creator's (Robin Antin's - the woman who is not Lil Kim) reactions. They do not seem... shall we say... deeply moved or real. IMO.
My roommate after seeing a bit of the show: "Do they all dance with their butts?"