TV Stuff

This is for Bill Crider.

Even when I'm on the exercise bike and watching tv I can't handle those entertainment news shows. I look for mindless stuff but not THAT mindless. I did however catch forty seconds or so of a Paris Hilton "interview" in which she was asked if she presently had a boyfriend. Her reply (verbatim): "Not right now. I've decided to focus on myself for awhile!"

The Office

Several of the tv blogs I read have dumped on the last two episodes of The Office and I have to agree. Part of my irritation comes from the fact that they set up this battle between Dwight and Andy for the cold witchy heart of Angela in this season's first episode and the following episode doesn't even refer to it. I know they want to keep the suspense going but I don't think it's kosher to do it by avoiding the subject entirely. And the Steve Carrell storylines the last two times out have been miserable.

The Real Housewives of Orange County

So there I was on my exercise bike...I started watching an episode after a long abscence. I know this will sound sexist but so be it. These are greedy women. All but one of them has made the point that they wanted rich husbands who who pamper them and that's what they got. However if I was a rich husband and was forking over the kind of dough these babes are spending...I would want a much higher caliber of greedy woman. The two newbies are good looking in a beauty paegent way but the regulars have had so much plastic surgery (which they talk about frequently) that you wonder what they looked like to start with. The husbands (who put up with amazing bullshit) have paid for new cars but gotten used cars for their dollars. I'd push for a Porsche. They've settled for a Kia.

The show has also taken a nasty turn. The best looking of the newbies is mucho younger than her fiance who is likely dying of cancer. In the episode I saw she goes to a party with the other housewives and gets loaded and flirts with a young man all the ladies say is "hot." If this kid is hot Dick Cheney is a hunk. Anyway, she is encouraged to get drunk by the other newbie who hates her apparently because she's jealous of all the attention the other one gets. There's a sad creepy call from her to the dude'ss hospital bed. The guy's having massive chemo infusions. He is depressed and barely able to speak. I think this was put in to show (as she insists) that she really cares about the guy. And maybe she does but man she keeps telling the other housewives "not to judge me" and while I agree that they've been pretty hostile to her getting smashed at a party isn't a good way to present yourself to the camera. I felt a little sorry for her. She's not very bright and she likes to party and in her way she probably does care about the guy who could (I think) be her grandfather...but man this whole party number was nasty nasty shit. (The one exception is this former hippie-surfer whom none of the other women like but who seems to be bright and decent and of course you're wondering what the hell she's doing with these ciphers.)

The first two seasons were fun. All these nit-wit money-grabbers wanted was stuff and more stuff. Even the family problems were minor (no heroin as yet). But this isn't fun. I'll be interested in the ratings. You watch these women to feel morally superior to them. You don't watch them to suicidal when the credits come on.