No TV for Babies Please!

Years ago I read Four Arguments for the Elimination of TV by Jerry Mander and then immediately went and bought ten copies to give away. Mander eloquently gave voice to my existing niggling concerns about television watching and I have vigilantly monitored my own and Bella’s TV watching ever since. (We don’t have cable – but we all pick shows that we want to watch during the week and find ways to watch only those specific shows – usually with minimal or no commercials.)

And now I read in Nov-Dec 08 Mothering Magazine (great magazine – nice gift for a new mom), that France is so convinced of the negative effects of television watching that they are actually banning TV shows with a target viewing audience younger than three years old. YES!

According to the High Audiovisual Council: “Television viewing hurts the development if children under three year old and poses a certain number of risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition, overexcitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration as well as dependence on screens.” These detrimental effects are the same that Mander pointed out over thirty years ago.

And I didn’t know this, but the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has a similar view and recommends that children younger than two years should not watch television.

If you want more information, you can check out www.turnoffyourtv.com. They have a funny banner that reads, “Do you like reality TV? Then GO OUTSIDE!”

 

Truly Bloody

I am pretty hooked to my small stable of TV shows this season: Heroes, Sarah Connor Chronicles; and soon, Battlestar Galactica and Lost will be starting too.

But the show I can’t get out of my mind is a new HBO show called True Blood. I hate to admit it, but yes, I am part of this national vampire frenzy – although there is much much more about this show than vampires that is interesting. To begin with, the guy behind the production is the same guy who did Six Feet Under, which means lots of sly humor, a strangely contemporary syncopated scene rhythm, smart dialogue, well-developed characters, and creative filming techniques. Secondly, the show is rests on the solid shoulders of some great acting; Anna Paquin plays the Sookie Stackhouse, the thinking girl with pert breasts and a flouncy ponytail. The other actors are strong as well – Sookie’s studly sex-crazed brother is a hoot (he dances in his underwear with a Laura Bush mask on in order to pay for his first foray with the drug, “V,” which is vampire blood). And lastly the whole thing takes place in the deep south – deep, deep south.

I find it fascinating that there is such a focus on vampires at the moment. This HBO series is based not on the Stephanie Meyer Twilight Saga, but on the best-selling (very) adult Southern Vampire Mysteries (the first one is called Dead Until Dark) by Charlaine Harris, which has been around for some years now. The Japanese have invented a synthetic blood called TruBlood, which allows vampires to come “out of the closet” and “mainstream” with regular human folk if they so choose. What ends up happening is that the vampires become a resented, feared, but decidedly powerful minority – this show deals on many levels with stereotypes and our tendency towards suspicion of the strange. The story line mostly revolves around Sookie (Paquin) and her romantic interest, who happens to be the new vampire in town. Did I mention that Sookie hears other people’s thoughts? It comes as no surprise that she is has few friends and no boyfriends as most of the time she is purely sickened by the thoughts she hears.

I don’t recommend this show for everybody, because of the blood, sex, and gore. If you wonder if this show is for you, just try watching the opening credits, which are some of the most inventive, creative opening titles I’ve ever seen. Between clips of a southern-style baptismal, a rotting fox, and a stripper’s undulating torso humping the dance floor, there are almost subliminal shots of film stock melting and burning, as if the film stock itself can’t handle the subject matter. I watch that exact same opening avidly every time and each time I catch something new. Excellent.

And don’t worry, we watch this one only when Christian is well and sound asleep!

 

I aim to do some misbehavin’

Just finished another whirlwind tour of a TV series, which seems to be the thing to do these days. The show is called Firefly and it aired for just one season in 2002. I’ve just now discovered on IMDb that it was (is) actually pretty popular according to the user voting scale: a 9.5 out of 10.0 at this writing. That’s unheard of! Most of the time I consider any movie rating over a “7″ to be probably worth watching.

Watching Firefly has cushioned the blow of catching up to this season’s Battlestar Galactica (another much-loved show that ranks above “9″ on IMDb). I hate catching up to shows I’ve been watching on DVD. I know I’ve said this before, but the feeling is so apt that it bears repeating. I feel like I’m on a moving sidewalk and I’ve suddenly hit the end. You’re gliding along and suddenly the world slows painfully down. The waiting from week to week to watch a new episode diminishes the pleasure of watching a series for me – I like them in big breathless gulpfuls.

Firefly was originally recommended to me by George Bures Miller, one of the artists I wrote my master’s thesis about – at the time, he said that if I loved Deadwood that I would love Firefly – that it was about cowboys in space.

I watched the first episode and was completely turned off by the opening cheesy futuristic war scene. Plus I thought the main character, Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds had a weak face: not quite a Michael J. Fox or a Jason Bateman. That was almost two years ago. Somewhere along the way though, Chad found the time to watch the entire series and even the climatic movie, Serenity (8.0/10.0 IMDb), based on the series; and trusty filter that he is – he sat me down and we started the series again from the beginning.

In retrospect I would put Rome and Deadwood in the same category before Firefly and Deadwood. And even though Firefly mostly takes place on a spaceship 500 years from now with a renegade captain, it’s not really in the same category as Battlestar. There is the same emphasis on character – but the feeling of the show is much lighter and more humorous. Firefly isn’t a sitcom, but I might say it falls somewhere between the silliness of the British space com, Red Dwarf (ran in Britain from 1988-1999, IMDb 9.1/10.0), and the epic seriousness of Battlestar. Definitely worth a watch if you’re in the market for a new screen addiction.

(The title is a quote by Mal in the movie Serenity, which we polished off tonight. The screenwriters do an interesting thing with antiquating the language to make it seem futuristic.)

 

The Downside of the Computer Age

It is very disappointing to watch a TV show series on DVD and catch up to the season. Here we are blissfully watching several episodes back-to-back of Grey’s Anatomy every night and then, abruptly there’s no more episodes left. None! I have to wait until NEXT WEEK!

You know when you’re walking on a moving sidewalk at the airport, walking, walking walking, then suddenly you hit the end? Your legs are still moving, but you feel like you’re not going anywhere? That’s what it feels like. You’re on a roll and then you’re not.

I don’t want to catch up ever again.

 

next season last for lost?

Uh oh.

Chad sent me this blurb from this article at imdb.com:

“ABC’s Lost will become just that after another season or two — lost from the TV schedule, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson told the winter TV writers press tour Sunday in Pasadena. He said that ABC executives are currently in discussions with Lost’s producers about ways to end the series. Damon Lindelof, one of the executive producers of the series, said that the show’s creators had always planned to devise no more than 100 episodes. Thus far, 53 episodes have aired. Lindelof noted that other popular dramas were abandoned by audiences after producers began making questionable creative decisions to invigorate them. He specifically mentioned The X-Files and Alias in that context. McPherson also said that the network will not break up the series as it did in 2006 when it aired six episodes and then put it on hiatus for three months. (It returns for 16 more episodes next month.) Next time around — which could begin in the fall or the spring of 2008 — Lost will run for 22 consecutive weeks. And in yet another announcement, McPherson said that it will delay the season launch of Dancing With the Stars until March 19, when it will air on Monday nights in order to avoid head-to-head competition with Fox’s similar talent contest, American Idol”

Possible replacement shows on DVD for me to fulfill my mild T.V. obsession (none of which I have ever watched):  Grey’s Anatomy, Rome, Heroes, 24 ???? I already intend to watch Battlestar Galactica and Firefly.

 

cute mug a plus (esp for bella)

Does this guy not look like Matthew Fox?

Bella and I have been sucked into yet another whirlpool of TV series land. This one is called Wonderfalls (imdb 8.9/10.0) and is a kooky family comedy that takes place at Niagra Falls. The protagonist is a Brown graduate who is trying her best to live a life with no expections. Although the show only lasted one season, its rating at imdb is quite high (only about 700 peope voted). Bella’s dad loaned it to us.

 

Lost goes for the red-eye

I have just heard that when Lost starts up again Feb 4, 2007 that it will have a new show time: 10:00 pm !!!? What the?!

No way can it survive that late? Who will stay up? and does TiVo help Nelson ratings?

But if for nostalgia’s sake you want to read about all the loose ends going on in Lost, go to this site here. There are 50 loose ends discussed, starting with, Are the Others the same as the Dharma Initiative? (Anybody want to make a $5 bet?)

 

Laguna Beach

As Chad’s niece is actually a senior at Laguna Beach High School this year, we keep tabs on all the furor over the television show, Laguna Beach (all seven of the main “characters” in the show attend that same high school). This article from the NYTimes pretty much reflects what I’ve been hearing Chad’s sister say for the last few years. And yes, I know it’s a wealthy beach town, but really, it does feel like a hippy artistic enclave – and apparently that has been changing as of late.

Here’s an article about the old OC from the OC Weekly last summer.