TV Update
As the popular culture slowly wends its way further and further into the reassuringly simple environs of the limbic system, I wanted to revisit the TV shows I thought would be the best of the season.
So far, 24 is holding up. There were some slow parts, but basically, it looks even better than it did before. Alessandra Stanley, I think that is her name, the critic on the NYT, said that the daughter was so dumb it was aggravating. Stanley means that the daughter’s insistence to her boyfriend that he let his boss, her father, know about their relationship, is too clueless for words, given the dire circumstances. Didn’t bother me that much. She is a young girl, she is in love, give her a break. Stanley also didn’t understand why Jack was twitching all over the place, but the show made it clear that he had developed a drug problem and was trying to go cold turkey. Did Stanley actually watch the show?
The NYT critic, and others I have read, also found the preposterous sub-plotting annoying. I know what she means, but still didn’t bother me. The way the plots in 24 infiltrate the daily lives of people, providing a metaphor for the maniacal subtext of modern life as it snakes its way up the stairs into the quotidian, has something very satisfying about it, very current.
The Mexican girlfriend of the brother of the imprisoned drug dealer is very cute. I could watch a lot more of her. She has that bratty sexy thing going on. The Mexican setting is really a nice shift in locale and should be a great change.
Unfortunately Angel was not that good this week. It got too cute and jokey. As Walt Disney pointed out, you don’t try to animate monkeys because they are already funny. Most TV shows are so over the top you really don’t want them to try to be even more endearing. Too much. The reason Star Trek worked is that they took the stories seriously. Gene Roddenbury actually tried to figure out what Klingon syntax might be. That permeates a show – the creators believe in it, in the characters, and the story, so you do. Most TV shows make you feel jerked around. That is why I have often hated many of the shows created by David Kelly. He manipulates cardboard characters into preconceived tableaux that are supposed to be touching or shocking. He doesn’t seem to give a crap about the characters or credibility of the plot – it is all just cipher characters manipulated to display his cleverness – all self referring and sickly ingratiating.
Angel did have an admirable crew of spawns of Satan this week – the funniest lot of evil ne’er do wells. One emaciated slave, who provided blood to his dominant vampire demon by opening a vein – the typical employee’s lot in corporate America – finally got away in the ending melee. May he live a good life. Free at last.
