The Images We Give Our Girls

My View

I admit it, I watch "The View". I watched back when that idiot Debbie Matenopolous revived the argument for "dumb blonds" being more than a throw away term. I watched back when Star Jones was fat. I watched and adored Meredith Viera. I watched Lisa Ling bring intelligence and congeniality to the 'youth voice' and I took my mom to see the show live when Barbara Walters was there. I departed The View when Meredith did and stayed away more often then not as Star 'lost weight' and became Bridezilla. I was gone the full year Rosie was there. But in a casting move that quickly brought me back to the couch, I have rarely missed an episode with the landing of Whoopi Goldberg. Yes, Elizabeth annoys the crap out of me, yes Joy can be nuts in her liberalism, and yes Sherri is the equivalent of the 'dumb blond' at the table now, but Whoopi brings a thoughtfulness to the conversation that while opinionated is reasoned and willing to look at the other point of view. She allows for Elizabeth to meander to her point of view but is quick to call out the disparity. True, my view is often similar to that of Whoopi's, but what can I say, I have been a fan since the day Fontaine sauntered across a Broadway stage. In this election debate season when all sorts of conversations are going on, I find this group of individuals have provided entertainment and their points of view in a forum that I have enjoyed.

So YEAH, I admit it -- I enjoy The View.

In Eli Stone, I Trust

Here is a show that didn't know what it was going to be when it grew up. It came out of the gate in the year of a writer's strike and varying television fits and starts. Always appealing was the cast led by the great Victor Garber and Jonny Lee Miller even as it walked the fine line between being a hybrid of Ali McBeal, Highway to Heaven and Touched By an Angel. Last week, Eli Stone began the season six months from where it left off. For those of you who missed the opening season of this little gem in the rough here is a quick synopsis. Eli Stone is a cut throat attorney who shortly after the death of his father begins experience visions - mostly set to George Michael songs. He begins to listen to the visions as premonitions and along the way discovers he has an aneurysm that he believes is what is prompting the visions, as opposed to a divine intervention that would make him a prophet. It sounds heavier than it actually was and while at times convoluted the show was often quite funny, charming and poignant. The season ended with Eli making the decision to have his aneurysm removed and having a chance at the life he had before the visions. He decided it was a burden he did not want and wasn't certain he believed in the divinity of what had happened.

Now here we are surgery successful and Eli attempting to have his license reinstated to practice law. He has been vision-less since his surgery and the season premiere shows us that his free will has altered the fate of those he loves. The clip above provides insight to the decision Eli and the show have made with regards to what his journey is going to be. The stage for the reluctant prophet has been set. Watch the clip because it will give you some insight to just how good Miller is as Eli Stone as well as the great cameo and writing provided to Sigourney Weaver.

Faith is not a necessary leaning to enjoy this show. It speaks to a bigger reality, how our choices, sacrifices and love drive us as people to influence those we surround. Eli Stone has the potential to be that show, I hope for my Tuesday night viewing, it like so many before it is not ahead of it's time.

Spend an hour with Eli Stone and don't be quick to judge the musical visions. And if you chose to tune in this week -- forgive the appearance of Katie Holmes, while not a choice I'd prefer, she and the shows creator got their start together on Dawson's Creek and you can't blame him yet for the stunt casting.

It's just an escape...

TV need not elevate me to a higher sense of purpose, but I minimally need to be entertained. It is why I continue to give shows like Private Practice a chance. Here is a group of actors that embody the parts being worth more than the whole. If for no other reason, I would like to have good things to say about Private Practice because Tim Daly deserves a great show that succeeds. After the witty "Eyes" and poignant "The Nine" Daly has earned a hit. Sadly this isn't it. He isn't the only one suffering in the inadequacy that is this show. Audra McDonald, Taye Diggs, Kate Walsh and Amy Brenneman lead a cast of wonderful actors who are attempting to navigate sluggish plot lines and erratic character development. It's a lethal combination when looking for an escape of entertainment.

Another guy who deserves a hit from ABC - Peter Krause, whose brilliant turn in Sports Night still makes me laugh at just the idea of some of the content. A show ahead of its time for certain. Yet after a successful run on "Six Feet Under" Krause has returned to ABC in Dirty Sexy Money a show that has quite decided what it wants to be when it grows up. Here's another interesting cast that is part mystery, part nighttime soap. It dances, not always successfully, between the two and that push/pull can easily distract from the core of the show. I think it is at its best when it doesn't take itself too seriously. The mystery works because it allows for twists and turns in the plot that are made plausible by the elite wealth of the characters. I will use this comparison from the 80s. What made nighttime soap Knots Landing beloved was that it had an emotional core established in its main characters regardless of the chaos of the plot surrounding them. Dynasty on the other hand was simply absurd. It was flash and glitz and cotton candy. The silliness of the plot devices simply came to be expected. I suspect Dirty Sexy Money is trying to land with the former rather than the latter. As of today, they haven't been successful.

Having said that, Peter Krause and Blair Underwood are always worth an hour of my time. I have no shame in my love of the eye candy.

TV vs. My iPod

It's a tough score card to compare. Last night I sat down to watch a commercial free Amazing Race (because it was DVRed) and I realized that I still had all of Wednesday's line up of shows to get through, not to mention the Sunday news shows. In a beautiful busy weekend spent outside, I realized I spent Friday night fiddling with my iPod settings and an entirely new library of music that needed to be vetted and divided into playlists. The only comparison I can make to what this process felt like is when I was in Junior High and my summer job was to convert the school libraries over to the Dewey Decimal system. Laugh if you must, but for a 13 year old kid it was a great summer job! The tedious nature of getting my music organized sucked away half my weekend 'free time' after my daughter was asleep. It meant I didn't write in my journal about a week of interesting stories and milestones for my daughter. It meant I didn't finish a blanket project for a friends baby, it meant I didn't make a dent in the laundry that is piling up and it certainly meant I didn't get around to watching Wednesday nights TV season premiere lineup. It's hilarious to me the vortex that technology can sometimes suck us into when we least expect it. I like to think I walk the walk of technology being around to make my life simpler but every now and then I get caught in the trappings -- which is a long way of saying, I will be watching and posting tonight on last week's TV. Besides, this blog is more art than science.

ABC usher's in it's Sunday line up

Yes I realize it is Wednesday, but life often gets the better of me and Paul Newman died this weekend, I needed a moment for perspective. So the scripted season is officially up and running and Sunday brought about a return of an old favorite for me and the chance for two shows that I am once again on the fence about -- ABC has a theme going in this.

First, The Amazing Race kicked off. Seriously, even if you don't watch reality TV as a regular course of your television repertoire, you should spend a couple of hours with The Amazing Race. It's travelogue on crack. Think the HGTV meets the Food Challenge with better scenery. What is not to like about a dozen couples (be it friends, couples, siblings or parents and children) racing around the world in the biggest 'treasure hunt' of a lifetime. The show spans all continents and tracks over 30,000 miles in the course of a month. You get to see world famous destinations along with remote locales you'd never consider, let alone heard of all the while getting a cliff notes glimpse into cultures. From a contestant point of view, it brings out the best and worst in people for sure, but for those who take it for what it is - an experience of a lifetime the voyeuristic at home can just simply enjoy the ride.

In addition to the above, my lone appointment TV at the moment ABC ushered in the season premieres of Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. The former has had a bumpy road since it's breakout initial season, mainly because it has underestimated the power of the friendships they established among the women at the core of the show and focused on the antics and mystery components to varying degrees of disastrous failure. Last season, didn't quite bring Desperate Housewives back to full season one form, but with storylines surrounding Felicity Huffman's character's cancer and the poignant episodes that were built leading into and out of a tornado disaster Desperate did get some of its groove back, enough to create an inspired final five minutes of the season cliffhanger that had fast forwarded all of Wisteria Lane five years juxtaposing the characters into spaces where we often wouldn't imagine they'd land. This season picked up where that final five minutes left off, partially living in real time and partially filling in the back story of the last five years - including Bree losing custody of her grandson who she was raising as her own son, Gabriela having given birth to two daughters and embracing her inner sloth, Lynette cancer free and trouble filled with wild children becoming deviant teens and Susan, have yet again separated from Mike over yet another conflict. Susan is the greatest loss on Housewives, what started as a quirky insecure funny character has become a ball of twitches and irrational behavior (think Monica on Friends after about 5 seasons). That said, the episode failed to go beyond establishing this season. I will likely keep an eye on it, much like Grey's Anatomy, but my love of Felicity Hoffman may not be enough to keep this on the DVR list. P.S. - Edie's new husband (WHO is my LA LA LA from Boomtown)- here's my prediction, he's after either Susan or Mike for the woman and child who died in the accident they were in during the flashback.

Now, Brothers and Sisters has left me troubled. I love the actors on the show, really, there isn't a bad one in the bunch. The writing and plot lines are killing this show. For me B&S has always been a bumpy ride, it came out the gate rocky and then settled into a nice rhythm and last season again went off the ranch. The season ending discovery that Rebecca was not the long lost sister and Star Wars moment of "There is another" brother - mystery Ryan is recycling at its worst. It's a turn off for a multitude of reasons and at the top of the list is, that it takes these characters on a journey we have already seen them make! Save for a delicious scene between Patricia Wetig and Sally Field where Field reveals to Wetig she wasn't the only lover of patriarch William the opener did little but chip away at the credibility and moreover, the likability of these family members, the most disturbing of which is that of oldest sister Sarah played with voracious depth by Rachel Griffiths. Shame on the writers, your actors deserve better. I will miss these actors, but I am pretty much done with this one.