On Television

Well, we´re off to Munich tomorrow morning…it feels like the amazing race minus the 1 million dollar prize.

Another day for me to party hard before Semester 3 commences but neh, probably just stay at home and watch TV to kill time. I managed to finish both seasons of One Tree Hill in a week and now I’m feeling remorseful having done so. The finale for Season 2 is total killer and now we’re left dangling on an inconclusive conclusion. Can’t wait for Season 3!

But ironically, in the information age, there is apparently too much information. Too much distraction. Stories lack the resonance they once would of had. Perhaps people are not dumbed down, so much as suffering from a cultural attention deficit. Hmm, the president was up to something bad ... now what was it? Wait, it's time for Desperate Housewives. How else to explain the lack of reaction?

It was announced almost two months ago, and now it’s coming to pass: OLN and GSN will commence showing reruns of “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race”, in what amounts to a litmus test for the business of reality TV repeats.

9/21 One Tree Hill (Does anyone still watch this? I mean, I don’t, and I’m something of an everygirl when it comes to WB teen dramas.)

Hello… welcome back to the cruel and boring reality after I spent around 1 and a half months long holiday. This could be my final holiday throughout my life as a student, and I just did not utilise it, damn! I spent most of my times watching tv, though there are really my favourites tv programmes, such as American Idol (Carrie rocks yeah yeah), The Apprentice, C.S.I., and more… For a sport freak like me, of course I did not miss out those live shows - EPL surviving Sunday, English FA Cup Final, UEFA Cup Final and the biggest turn-around UEFA Champions League Final.

On a non-related note, I saw Ty from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition shed a tear for the first time. There have been moments that he could have cried, but didn’t. Anyways, he shed a tear because he helped a deaf couple who had a son who is blind and also autistic. Their eldest son, who is 14 years old, is the only one without impairments. He naturally had to take up a role to help his parents and his little brother. He wishes to go to college after highschool, but is afraid to leave his family. So Extreme Makeover built a new house with all the accomadations that extremely helps the family from being dependent on the eldest son. In the end, he was given a $50,000 check to go to college. It was a good one. Well, it was divided into two 1 hour episodes in a row - since they needed to make special coverage on the family’s situation..

I also wanted to add that we love watching the Amazing Race on the GSN channel. It plays every night so we’re not waiting around a week to see what happens. The first season is proving to be interesting compared to this past season. The rules are a little different. For example, they pace the Fast Forward now whereas in the first season, they had Fast Forwards in every leg of the race. Also, they didn’t have prizes for the 1st team arriving at the Pit Stops. I tell you, Sheldon and I are reminded every night on how we would not make a good team for the Amazing Race. Both of us would have refused to go into the underground sewer pipe in Paris like they did in the first season. We’re both chickens and couldn’t have gone into the sewers due to the hygiene issues alone! We’re wimps!

Herndon Davis describes his landmark series as “a one-hour long, black gay/lesbian focused, empowerment news program--a cross between The Chris Matthews Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

I’m so bummed that the gay couple in season one are little “Survivor-esque.” I didn’t realize they were poor sportsmen with reprehensible tactics like at the airport in Tunis as they tried to block the three other teams so they would miss their flight. I normally enjoy and support the gay couples, but I’m so disappointed that I can’t wait for them to get eliminated. I sure like the mother and daughter team. However, my favorite team is the fraternity brothers who at first annoyed me. I thought they were too rough around the edges, but I like the fact they are “gentlemen” after all. They’ve created a wonderful alliance with the mother/daughter team. It’s refreshing. I’m digging the GSN channel. I love that they play Amazing Race every day, no wait times and we can catch up on earlier seasons.

It's a good thing I gave up TV (at least until Smallville starts up in the Fall...)

If I could pay for just one channel to exist in my perfect reality, it would be Comedy Central. They really have just a smashing lineup. I watch it at work at the clinic while I am waiting on and folding the laundry. I am a HUGE fan of standup comedy/comedians - my favorites include Eddie Izzard, Ellen Degeneres ("Here And Now" is far better than "The Beginning"), Mitch Hedburg, Robin Williams... Tons of others.

Only Sheldon would TIVO the Amazing Race on GSN. If I have the channel wrong, it’s the game show channel. Last night they started the first season of Amazing Race. I’m always shocked at how poorly people treat each other under stress and in competitive situations. I don’t know what couples are thinking when they decide to do the show while they’re evaluating if they should marry, live together, or get back together. There are three couples who are doing this. It’s crazy.

Howard Stern's Donald Trump interview just aired on E! last week. Looks like Jeannette Walls at MSNBC just transcribed something she heard in a 3-month old interview and published it in her gossip column.

The contestants are the usual assortment of muppets and dilettantes – the main difference is that the production of the US version just comes across as really cheesy and juvenile – like at one point the male team were “brainstorming” and whenever they came up with a lame idea there was a comedy “boinngggg!” noise on the soundtrack. Hello, are we watching Rainbow here or something? Also, the editing is a lot more soapy, i.e. in the title sequence the Apprentices are all named and there is a shot of eacjh of them smiling or answering the phone or pointing at a flow chart or something. It is like the beginning of “Dallas”!

Stewart has two TV shows planned for the fall season — a one-hour daytime talk show “Martha” and a version of the NBC reality show “The Apprentice.”

From 18th Century Christian Revivalism to Television, the technology has been refined and implemented. If it bothers you too much, just stare glassy-eyed at the next “American Idol” and repeat “I do not believe in Mind Control… I do not believe in Mind Control.” Your masters will be pleased.

James and I have yet to find a single one of our friends who has discovered the absolutely fantastic Boston Legal - the inspired US legal drama currently showing over here on Living TV. Having seen one of the best ever episodes the other evening, I feel compelled to enthuse about it to you all because I truly believe it to be one of the finest exports from the US to arrive on our shores in recent years.

They again relied on the kindness of strangers, and then thanked the people that gave them anything. And to people who said, "Begging isn't the way to go," they said, "I understand. Thank you anyway." Meanwhile, Rob and Amber, CBS Survivor winners notorious for underhanded game playing, were getting so close that they could see Uchenna and Joyce just outside the gate. It looked as though after all they'd been though, Uchenna and Joyce would lose because they had too much integrity to break a promise. Finally, someone gave them the last $10, and the cabbie told them, "Enough! You're free to go." Uchenna and Joyce made a run through the gate. They not only won first prize, but they did so with integrity.

i cannot imagine why anyone would romanticize the kind of slavery women endured pre womens liberation movent. the religious right and destiny’s child are seem to be on the same page. i feel sorry for young girls growing up today; i remember looking up to women like ani difranco and ellen degeneres as young as middle school. i think the 90’s had signifigantly more positive (or at least strong) female role-models, we had… alanis morissette, kathleen hanna, four non blondes, kim gordon, tracy chapman… now the closest thing popular culture has to a feminist is, dare i say, paris hilton, who makes no apologies about sexual promiscuity and has yet to get breast augmentation.