For me, parody music videos are the very best thing about television shows finally paying attention to the online audience. Sure, it’s nice NBC and other networks let us watch episodes whenever we want, but we could do that with a DVR. What we couldn’t do, until the shows began to offer online-only content, is watch Kelly Kapoor dancing through The Office’s Scranton branch, wearing an eye patch and singing about how Ryan’s her Male Prima Donna. How very Lady Gaga of her.
Read the full post at my pop culture blog, As Seen From a Red Ikea Couch.
Introducing Subtle Sexuality at ‘The Office’
October 30, 2009
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An open letter: Why I’m breaking up with ‘The Hills’
October 2, 2009
Dear The Hills,
I’ve sensed this was coming for a while, and with the premiere of new episodes this week, I realized the time for this conversation has arrived. The truth is, I am completely and utterly done with you.
Don’t get me wrong, you’ve been fairly good to me. I really appreciate that you’ve always been up front about who you are; I’d seen Laguna Beach, and I knew what I was getting into from the very first episode. More importantly, when I moved to L.A., you introduced me to one hipster hangout after another. I may never have eaten Caffe Primo’s delicious fig and goat cheese panini if it weren’t for you.
The problem is — well, there are many. I thought a list might be helpful.
Read the full post at my pop culture blog, As Seen From a Red Ikea Couch.
Photo courtesy of MTV.com, where you can watch full episodes of The Hills, if you’re still into that.
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‘Mad Men’ mania
August 16, 2009Update: I’ve written about the Mad Men women and how I think their roles will change as we wind through the ’60s at TheLoop21.com. And didn’t you love Sunday’s premiere episode? I tweeted about it several times, and Breaking Tweets Entertainment included one in a list of Mad Men tweets. Now I wish I would’ve been wittier, although to be fair, it was the first thing I did Monday morning. Can’t wait for the next episode.
If Mad Men fans ever wondered just how many people are obsessed with the show, we now know the answer: a lot, and they’re all working in media. They must be, since the estimated 1.8 million viewers per week couldn’t keep the show alive on network television, according to the critics. The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, even Double X — they’re all as ready as we are for more of the undeniably sexy Don Draper and his web of complex Mad women. (I’ll write more about them soon.)
Meanwhile, here are a few of my favorite Mad Men pieces in the last couple weeks:
- Don and Betty’s Paradise Lost, Vanity Fair
I haven’t read Bruce Handy’s piece yet, although I plan to before the premiere. It’s on this list because of Annie Leibovitz’s stunning photographs, which absolutely nail the power struggle of a relationship between Don and Betty. My very favorite is the gorgeous one of them in the red car (on page 3 of the story).
- Drama confronts a dramatic decade, The New York Times
With this piece, it’s as if Fred Kaplan sat down and asked Mad Men creator/writer/executive producer Matthew Weiner everything I’ve been dying to know. Most importantly, how will the show handle the Kennedy assassination? Does he already know how long and how the show will progress? (All of the smartest shows know where they’re going early on.)
Highlights:
“What I always wanted to do,” (Weiner) said in a phone interview from his office in Los Angeles, “is to take this classic American archetype of the late 1950s, with all the trappings of that time, and see how he ends up in 1970 or ’72.”
But when asked if the season will touch on, say, the Kennedy assassination, he hesitated, then replied, “We’re going to handle everything.”
Exactly what I was hoping to hear!
- Mad Men set decorator searches for period furniture in Pasadena area stores, Los Angeles Times
Unless you live in Los Angeles, you probably won’t enjoy David A. Keeps’ piece as much as I did. For me, it was a lot of fun to read about Amy Wells browsing for pieces of the set at stores I pass all the time. I even felt a little inspired to add a more retro feel to my own place, because let’s be honest, the characters and the dialogue are only part of the reason we watch.
Photo by Carin Baer, courtesy of AMC.
Cool video of Don and Betty by YouTube’s Allure75.
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Finally, the “Mad Men” Season 3 trailer
July 11, 2009I’d been frustrated that my absolute favorite show these days, Mad Men, took so long to announce a premiere date for the new season. For a long time, AMC just said it would be in August, which wouldn’t matter so much if they didn’t make us wait, oh, a year between seasons.
They’ve since said Mad Men will be back August 16. And after watching the Season 3 trailer — mostly scenes from Season 2, as far as I can tell — I forgot all about being indignant. I just want more of this show asap.
This is why I could never be a Lost fan, just wouldn’t be good for my emotional health.
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Recent riffs on pop culture
June 13, 2009Here are excerpts from some of my latest posts at TheLoop21.com, most of which are about pop culture.
MTV’s ‘16 and Pregnant’ as sex education
The new MTV show, 16 and Pregnant, finally gives us an answer to the question of how to teach sex education in schools — tell the truth. Simpy offer accurate information about the consequences of sex, especially unprotected sex.
To me, Beverly Hills, 90210’s Donna Martin got it right in her speech about how you can tell kids to stay out of a pool all you want, but you’d better teach them to swim just in case they don’t listen. (In case you didn’t see it, Donna’s monologue was really about condoms.)
VH1’s ‘Charm School’ plays the race card
Toss the mostly black cast of VH1’s dating show Real Chance of Love and the all-white (except for a few token members) cast of VH1’s Rock of Love Bus into one show, and you’ve got its latest offering, Charm School with Ricki Lake. It’s the kind of show that makes you wonder “who does that?” several times each week, the kind where you suspect the stars don’t ever think about what they’ll look like to people watching the show. So it was only a matter of time until race became an issue, or at least you can tell that’s what the producers hoped.
The real victim in the Rihanna nude pics scandal
You might think it’s Rihanna who’s suffering most after nude photos of her, well, supposedly of her, leaked last week.
Now anyone who wants to see her naked only has to type her name and “nude” into Google, you know, just whenever they feel like it. I feel violated for her.
But no, Rihanna’s not the real victim, and neither are black women or even women in general. (I bet you thought that’s where I was going.)
The real victims are all women out there in an abusive relationship on the verge of getting out of it, smack in the middle of deciding whether they should come forward about what they’re going through. The message they’re getting from Rihanna’s experience, as her every move has been painfully and publicly scrutinized, is clear: the victim becomes the villain in these scenarios.
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