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?"