Archive: June 2009 (1-10 of 68)

Jun 30 2009 04:33 PM ET

'NYC Prep': What is the worst reality-TV show now on the air?

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So tonight we’re in for a second week of the lousy, spoiled-brat claptrap called NYC Prep, and I say that as someone who does not by any means dislike other Bravo reality shows: give me a Top Chef Masters or a Housewives of New Jersey or an episode of the surprisingly-refreshed new season of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and I’m happy for the minutes of pleasure they afford.

But NYC Prep, with its privileged nobodies flaunting their self-perceived hotness and their my-perceived inarticulateness, is actively annoying. Which leads me to ask: What’s the worst reality-TV on the air this summer?

I’m not asking about junk versus quality. I’m asking, what are the series that strike you as pointlessly ignorant, arrogant, and assaultive to your senses? Is it the dumb, recycled concept that is ABC’s The Superstars? Was it NBC’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here? How about E!’s screechy Kendra? Or is it CBS’ soon-to-premiere Big Brother? (Confession: I always get hooked on this, for a few weeks at the very least.) And is anyone besides me bored with, and just ignoring, the TV dance competitions?

Time to rage out or confess; thanks.

Jun 30 2009 02:22 PM ET

'The Colbert Report' confirms Jeff Goldblum is dead... not

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With most of the other talk shows in reruns this week, it was left to The Colbert Report to do the hard-news celebrity reporting required of the past busy weekend. I speak, of course, about the rumored death of Jeff Goldblum:

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jeff Goldblum Will Be Missed
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

Well, thank heaven that’s settled. And so eloquent a self-eulogy as well. Characters welcome.
Jun 30 2009 11:36 AM ET

The creepy TV special that haunted Michael Jackson

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Last night, NBC ran a cut-down version of the 2003 TV special that did more than any other piece of media “reporting” to turn Michael Jackson into a punchline and worse. Living with Michael Jackson is a documentary overseen by the British journalist Martin Bashir, who now co-anchors ABC’s Nightline. In 2003, however, Bashir’s biggest claim to fame was interviewing Princess Diana in 1995 about her failed marriage.

Grinning at Jackson in their face-to-face encounters, sitting cozily next to Jackson on a Ferris wheel on the singer’s Neverland estate, or holding the hand of one of Jackson’s children, Bashir was the very picture of fawning unctuousness. But when he got into his editing room, he started playing the concerned tough-guy: “Jackson’s behavior was beginning to alarm me,” he says in a voiceover Jackson would hear only after the documentary aired. “Confronting him wouldn’t be easy, but now it had to happen,” Bashir describes himself with heroic determination.

Yeah, right: But only after making sure he had footage of Jackson spending gobs of money buying garish home furnishings in a Las Vegas store. “That’s only $275,000 each,” he says loudly, smilingly, as Jackson chose two items, among many others. Bashir wanted to make sure we thought the singer was a no-taste spendthrift.

Having secured scenes that would make for maximum salaciousness — “What else would he beat you with?” Bashir prodded, after reducing Jackson to tears amid tales of father Joe Jackson’s cruel punishments — Bashir went in for the money-quotes. He brought up the 1993 allegations of child molestation and let Jackson talk about how his relationships with minors were “not sexual.” Bashir made sure we heard that Jackson had made a “financial settlement” with his accusors.

Jackson was so upset with how Bashir portrayed him in the original, two-hour version of Living that he produced his own special, The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant To See, which aired on Fox and showed some of Bashir’s wheedling and manipulations. The harm had been done, however.

It’s safe to say Living with Michael Jackson was, at the least, one reason Jackson withdrew from the media, and the world, even further in his remaining years. And you can watch it six more times on MSNBC over the next two weeks. What a way to honor the dead.

Jun 30 2009 02:34 AM ET

The last 'Jon & Kate Plus Eight' (for now): sweet and bitter, plus a sneak peek at the new episodes

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This week’s Jon & Kate Plus Eight — the last new episode before a hiatus, returning Aug. 3 — reminded long-time viewers why we were so fascinated by the show, and educated anyone who’s started watching since The Scandals that this was once a lovable family unit. 

Mostly a series of clips, It was so carefully edited that TLC managed to show the family’s last-season trip to Hawaii without revealing what we fans knew was the purpose of that trip: for Jon and Kate to renew their vows! This episode was subtitled “The First 10 Years,” and began with a very different-looking Jon and Kate (he, pudgier; she, brown-haired) on their honeymoon at Disneyworld. There were character sketches of each child with the original voiceover comments by both parents. They describe Alexis, for example, as “sweet and funny” and “the loudest”; Joel: “an unending fountain of whine”; and poor, doomed-to-therapy Mady is “manipulative and controlling all the time.” 

Missing from the evening, however, were some of the elements that made Jon & Kate fascinating television. Kate’s phobia about germs; her insistence that the kids eat organic food and avoid sugar, which of course only made the gang crazy for sweets; and Jon’s deadpan humor in the face of Kate’s clever sarcasm. I say this without sarcasm myself: those were the days. 

There was, though, a short version of the great, harrowing airplane trip (or as one of the little ones call it, a “hair-pain”) in which flight delays and re-routing frayed tempers and reduced Kate to a sobbing wreck. 

We re-witnessed “family movie night” and “family camping night” (the latter in the back yard), which Kate described back then as “a family bonding-uniting experience.” As with any family undergoing the trauma of divorce, all these memories were both heartbreakingly sweet and bitterly ironic. There was a brief flurry of “all new episodes” coming up, which seem to consist of a lot of trips that solo-Jon and solo-Kate each conduct with the kids.

I hope Jon and Kate were watching Jon & Kate this night; the memories could only do them both some good as they go their separate ways. 

Jun 29 2009 12:27 PM ET

'Hung' premiere last night: Did you watch? Did you listen?

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So what did you think of the first episode of Hung last night? Me, as you can read here, I thought it was kind of ehhh, but I liked the performances of Thomas Jane as Ray and Jane Adams as Tanya the baking poet.

But what I really liked were the opening credits. Yes, once again, HBO has come up with one of the best opening sequences in television, in this case courtesy mostly of the Black Keys’ fine, stomping blues-rock music, which you can see/hear here.

So what’d you think? Of the show, of the opening?

For more on Hung:

Hung: Ken Tucker’s review

Jun 29 2009 02:06 AM ET

'True Blood': Eric: 'Perhaps I will grow on you'; Sookie: 'I'd prefer cancer'

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This week’s True Blood picked up exactly where last week’s left off: Sookie, Bill, and Jessica in car, squabbling. Then: Sookie leaves car, is chased by what Eric will later refer to as “this bull-man,” is attacked and left with supernatually poisonous, bleeding scars on her back. That shut up Jessica for a few minutes, didn’t it? (“Petulant, dangerous, afraid,” Bill describes Jessica, as who among us is not?)

Loved Dr. Ludwig and her grumpy ministrations. Loved Sookie going to Fangtasia, reading Ginger’s mind, and finding Lafayette. (In fact, it was good in general to have a Sookie-centric episode this week, wasn’t it?)

Did not understand why Sookie now owes Eric a favor for helping save her and Lafayette. I mean, going to Dallas to hunt wayard vampires? Who does Eric think Sookie is, Buffy Summers? All suggestions/obvious reasons I’m missing in this regard are most welcome. (Seems like she should have prevailed favor-free, given the righteousness of her argument plus the back-up strength of Bill, who really should have stepped up and supported her, but was curiously, wimpily passive in this scene with Eric. What’s up with that?) But, but: best exchange of the night: Eric to Sookie, “Perhaps I will grow on you.” Sookie to Eric, “I’d prefer cancer.”

Meanwhile, Jason got a revealing earful from Light of Day boss Steve: “Hate is good” when it comes to vampires, he asserted. I haven’t read beyond the first Charlaine Harris novel, but this season’s religious-camp scenes are very much in keeping with series mastermind Alan Ball’s view of organized religion as we know it from Six Feet Under.

I suspect EW readers who’ve complained about the unbelievability of usually skeptical Tara falling for Maryann’s blandishments did not find comfort in the way Maryann soothed Tara with more positive-life-coaching (“Value yourself”). Me, I think Tara has struggled to overcome her usual dubiousness because, after all she’s been through with her mother, she wants Maryann’s affection and interest in her to be good and real. Poor Tara, eh? Besides, by the end, when she witnessed yet another near-orgy at Maryann’s place, the seeds of doubt have definitely been planted in her.

And finally (oh, hell: spoiler alert!) we got a literal glimpse of what’s behind the heretofore-just-silly Daphne: the final shot of the hour was of the scars on her back. Looks as though she is truly poisoned/possessed by “this bull-man,” whatever that means. What do you think it means? Where are things headed?

Jun 27 2009 03:39 PM ET

James Frey to Craig Ferguson: 'I'm happy to be notorious,' plus what he said about Tom Cruise

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James Frey gave a rare and revealing interview to Craig Ferguson last night on the Late Late Show. The author, whose 2003 memoir A Million Little Pieces brought a hailstorm of criticism for charges of inaccuracy, most notably in a 2006 TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, has apparently come to terms with his reputation. Check it out: 

Due to his various addictions, “I didn’t remember [various details] so I just made it up,” was how Frey summarized his Pieces experience to Ferguson. “I’m perfectly happy to be notorious,” he said. He was put at ease by Ferguson, who has spoken openly about his own struggles with drugs and drink, and will himself publish an autobiography in September called American On Purpose.

Frey was promoting the paperback release of his novel Bright Shiny Morning. At one point, Ferguson asked whether the Morning character Amberton Parker, whom Frey described on the Late Show as “a gay movie star with children,” was modelled on Tom Cruise. Frey agreed that he “thought Tom Cruise” while writing the character. Strikingly, the studio audience laughed and clapped at this. 

Frey made no reference to a deal announced this week, in which he will collaborate with another, unnamed writer on a six-book science-fiction series, the first of which, I Am Number Four, has been optioned by director Michael Bay.

For more on James Frey:

Michael Bay and DreamWorks to partner on James Frey sci-fi project

Jun 26 2009 02:49 PM ET

David Letterman, Megan Fox, and Johnny Depp, who claims he never sees his own movies

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Last night on the Late Show, Johnny Depp and David Letterman played a little game of cat-and-mouse: Depp isn’t the gabbiest guy, but Dave respects him and likes his new movie Public Enemies. So Dave let the star get away with brief answers and the claim that he never sees his own movies. (“Once I’ve done my job on the film, it’s really none of my business,” he said.) 

Still, Depp was pretty entertaining in unlikely areas. Such as his friendship with Elizabeth Taylor. Whom he called “a liver-and-onions broad.” 

Never heard that phrase before, have you? But we know what he means: earthy, unpretentious. 

In a double-header of summer-movie stars, Letterman also ushered in Megan Fox:

Saying she’s only had “three crushes in my life: Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien, and you” set Dave up for a perfect response: “What do the other two do?”

I wonder if she’ll use the same line if she Transformer-promotes on The Daily Show and The Tonight Show… 
Jun 26 2009 03:48 AM ET

A jarring tone: TV grapples with the same-day deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson

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The deaths on the same day of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson made the TV networks scramble. NBC decided to combine the two and broadcast what it called a Dateline Special: Two Legends. This was expedient but misguided. With all due respect to Fawcett, her contribution to pop culture could not approach Jackson’s innovations and artistry. On the other hand, Fawcett’s life story seemed saintly when juxtaposed with the scandals Jackson attracted in the latter part of his life. The result was a jarring dissonance of tone in TV news coverage.

ABC, which had earlier scheduled Barbara Walters’ Fawcett special for 10 p.m. ET, used the hour preceding it to run a Jackson special. It was anchored by Martin Bashir, the British TV reporter who became a Nightline anchor partly on the back of his 2003 interview special Living With Michael Jackson, a display that found Bashir grinning at Jackson’s eccentricities but then editing them into one of the most damning portraits of a materialistic man; in a clip shown on ABC this evening, Bashir followed Jackson on a shopping spree, announcing that Jackson had just spent half-a-million dollars for two lamps. During that interview, Jackson admitted on-camera to offering his bed to a child whose face was pixilated onscreen. 

Walters asked Bashir on Thursday night, “Will he be remembered for his great talent, or his scandals?” And Bashir had the gall to say piously, “His great talent.”

Walters’ Fawcett hour was, by contrast, a tidier but still moving piece of work. There was a nicely edited series of interviews Walters conducted with Fawcett over the decades, and it was striking how articulate and self-possessed she was right from the start, while still just a pop-culture sex symbol. (Those young women who’ve graduated from The Hills could learn a lot by looking at Fawcett’s tapes.)

In interviews conducted last week, Walters spoke extensively to Ryan O’Neal, who, no matter how self-congratulatory he can sometimes seem, came across as a thoroughly dedicated man, displaying a brash jocularity even in the midst of his grief. ABC had been promoting all week a clip in which O’Neal said he wanted to marry Fawcett “as soon as she can say yes.” What they didn’t show was his joke after that: “Maybe we can just nod her head.” It was the kind of endearing laughing-in-the-face-of-death humor that — by the accounts here from O’Neal, Fawcett’s friend Alana Stewart, and Fawcett’s doctor — Farrah herself appreciated.

Fawcett’s life has become a closed chapter. Jackson’s death, however, remains a series of open questions. As the days go by, TV coverage will focus more on him than her. We’ll see how televison-news balances the artistry versus the scandals.

More on Michael Jackson:
Michael Jackson: 18 key moments in the life of the King of Pop
Michael Jackson: Colleagues and friends pay tribute
Jackson on TV: A classic artist, a revolutionary
Michael Jackson: Share your memories
More coverage on CNN.com

Jun 26 2009 12:31 AM ET

Michael Jackson on TV: A classic artist, a revolutionary

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Michael Jackson altered American entertainment with his appearance on the 1983 Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever TV special. Coming at a time when Jackson was chafing to establish himself once and for all as a solo artist separate from the brother-act the Jackson 5, he made the boldest move of his career in front of a live studio audience.

Singing his hit “Billie Jean,” he flashed the moves that became known as the Moonwalk. It’s difficult to remember now, after decades of pop and hip-hop acts having copied Jackson’s choreography, how astounding a spectacle this was. The man was … moving backward while walking forward. He was updating Gene Kelly dance-steps to a rhythm-and-blues song and adding his own slinky-robotic twist to them. After this, pop-music dance would never be the same:

Jackson made a series of music videos that featured endlessly creative variations on the Motown 25 choreography. It didn’t matter whether he worked in long-form (with director John Landis on the “Thriller” monster-mash video) or short (the dazzling dance-work on songs that weren’t even top-tier Jackson songs, such as “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Smooth Criminal”).

Jackson’s videos had an importance beyond their own existence: They helped break down the barrier that kept R&B videos from being shown on MTV, which originally had a rock-only orientation.

When it came to TV, Jackson in later life did not benefit from the medium. His TV interviews after he became a reclusive, more eccentric man, such as the 2003 ABC special Living With Michael Jackson, did him no favors in reestablishing him as a mass-audience favorite.

But those early and mid-career TV appearances capture what we should remember most about Jackson: that he was an artist who was both very much in the tradition of great pop, rock, and soul legends, and a revolutionary figure who broke new ground.

More on Michael Jackson:
Michael Jackson dies at 50
Michael Jackson: Colleagues and friends pay tribute
Jackson on TV: A classic artist, a revolutionary
Michael Jackson: Share your memories

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