Enjoy. I will.
Television
Far from the Madding crowd
I haven’t been keeping up with the various “Mad Men” blogs since I missed a few episodes and just now caught up (I hate reading the discussions before I have seen the show). What’s going to happen tonight? I’m worried about Roger.
If you’re not interested in “Mad Men”, you can discuss this New Yorker article about how Glenn Beck is bringing John Bircherism to a wider audience. I’m not sure how seriously to take any of it, because it’s by Sean Ayers Wright Willentz and it has one of my least favorite fables, the story of how William F. Buckley cleaned up the Republican party (I’m not even saying it’s not true, but I don’t like facile recitations of the myth/historical happening).
Update. In order to show my support for Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Price-Holloway-Campbell, I am drinking Canadian whiskey tonight. Are there any decent ones? I drink Forty Creek right now, but it’s only so so.
Update update. Are Don’s sportscoats as psychedelic on your tv screen as I mine? It is so true what they say about solids on tv.
Politics as ‘Reality’ Show
Tom Junod at Esquire has a Modest Proposal for the Democrats to garner the votes of “independents”, under the title “How D.C. Became Hollywood for Semi-Attractive People“:
… But right now what’s most interesting about Christine O’Donnell — and the other candidates like her — is what her candidacy says about the opposition:
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The Democratic Party is boring. And its women are either old or unattractive.
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This is not a superficial problem in a country that has embraced superficiality. The Republicans, left for dead, are on the verge of taking back power because they of what they learned from Sarah Palin in 2008: that the values Americans care about are not family, but entertainment. Sure, it’s the party of no; it’s also the party of fun… Now the Republican Party has not so much remade itself as remarketed itself, its familiar cast of corporate shills learning to speak the language of populist outrage from the Tea Party, and its Tea Partiers rallying behind women attractive enough to allow them to forget their own grotesqueries.
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Christine O’Donnell, like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann and Nikki Haley before her, might not be the most beautiful woman in the world, but she has enough sex appeal for a turn on Dancing with the Stars, or for a contract with the Fox News mothership, or for a few contentious seasons on the Real Housewives of the Republican Party, if such a show ever existed, and if O’Donnell ever married or raised a family. The reality-television baseline is becoming the standard of beauty in this country: If you can say really crazy things or lead a really crazy life and become a star, well, then you must be beautiful. The Republicans have cornered the market on beauty because they’ve cornered the market on crazy, and if they’ve failed to produce a “candidate” in Delaware, they’ve succeeded in producing a star, and have made all the tut-tutting pundits look as behind the times as the newspapers they serve. Wherever populism reared its head, there used to be sweaty men; now — in country music, at Fox, and in crossover “Islamaphobe” bloggers who get their picture pasted on the Sunday Times — there are at least semi-sexy women.
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The Democrats didn’t think they had to worry about any of this. They weren’t looking for stars because they had the biggest star in the world as their president. He didn’t have a populist bone in his body, but he was a deeply thoughtful man and a galvanic speaker both, and he promised to transcend the bone-grind of American politics. With his promise of one-man racial reconciliation, he was transfixing, but the independents who were transfixed by him needed to keep being transfixed, and on this, he couldn’t deliver…
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… And the Democrats… deeply misjudged what the American electorate wants and is capable of. They thought that after the trauma of the Bush years, we would want a no-drama president; a regal First Lady; endless pages of necessary legislation, achieved at a political cost that proves the party’s commitment and courage; and a few more women on the Supreme Court who prove the party’s emphasis on excellence and ethnicity over eros. They didn’t realize that what we want is drama and nothing but, and so the Democrats became the CNN to the Repubican Fox, clueless in their competence, bewildered by their own best intentions…
You’ll have to click the link to read Junod’s tongue-so-firmly-in-cheek-as-to-protrude-from-the-vulgar-bodily-orifice solution, but I’m afraid he may be correct in his argument that a certain percentage of our fellow citizens may have given up on citizenship (hard) in preference for entertainment (easy).
“Even the Invisible Hand Doesn’t Want to Pick Beans”
Goddess bless Stephen Colbert, this time for testifying in support of the ‘guest workers’ who are one step ahead of the rest of us on the Invisible-Hand-of-the-Market’s escalator to hell:
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And while blessings are being distributed, may suitable judgements also befall the two people in the next clip:
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Rep. Steve King, of course, holds the coveted Wonkette ‘Biggest Asshole in Congress‘ award, for being the lone vote against putting a plaque in the Capitol Visitors Center mentioning that the Capitol was built by slaves. Perhaps Rep. King is afraid that, given Republican wetdreams, his status in the only category at which he’s ever liable to be considered a winner might be threatened by a wave of incoming Teabaggers even more racist, narrow-minded and intolerant than himself?
Jim Newell at Gawker has the best anecdotes about the Colbert / King smackdown.
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Open Thread: New TV
Didn’t expect this, but the new television show that’s impressed me the most so far is Detroit 1-8-7. The pilot, at least, has a very Wambaugh-esque feeling. Not as gritty as Homicide, but I’m a fan of the sort of dark humor where the jaded veteran, near the end of a successful shift, tells his newbie partner “Book ’em, wipe the board, get ready for the next [murder]. We might be the last assembly line in Detroit.”
I had high hopes for The Whole Truth, because I really adore Maura Tierney, but I’ve been reminded how much I loathe Rob Morrow. The first episode was beautifully put together, and I like the format, so I’ll keep watching. The big disappointment, for me, was The Event… I wanted to love a ‘speculative fiction’ series that involves Laura Innes, Blair Underwood & Jason Ritter, but the frenetic jumpcuts gave me a mild case of vertigo. Hopefully, it’ll settle down a bit now that the dramatic! worldshaking! premiere! has gotten all the trailerrific bits out of the way.
Probably not going back for more Raising Hope — Martha Plimpton is no Roseanne, and the whole story was just antic. I hate antic like a cat hates total immersion. Watched the first episode of Mike & Molly for Melissa McCarthy (yeah, my tv preferences are mostly actor-driven), and it was just as sweatily ‘tolerant’ as I feared, so that’s another 20 minutes a week I’ll be saving.
Only other new series I’m curious about are Terriers, which I’ll have to catch on Hulu, and Blue Bloods.
What are y’all watching, this Fall?
Chuck Open Thread
Hoping for a hot performance from Jeffster.
Three Hours Left
Pretty much the only thing getting me through today is that there is a new Chuck in three hours. Felt really good this morning when Rosie woke me up at 5:30, and thought I was over this cold, but now I have a sinus headache and feel crappy. At least the congestion is mostly gone.
Think I’m off to have dinner and watch last year’s season finale in preparation.