Your TMZ is NOT a Wonderland

Ah, summer TV! There's something about summer re-runs that is really comforting and entertaining at the same time. Especially when you catch some obvious temporal indication that it's a re-run, such as watching Christmas episodes in July. It's kind of like having breakfast for dinner - out of place, yet yummy and satisfying. It does make me yearn for fall, though, where hopefully watching Dr. House relearn a valuable lesson about the spirit of giving while solving the mystery behind another rare and outrageous disease is not the least bad option on a Monday night (as compared to Nashville Star or One Tree Hill). Then again, I think Monday night might just be destined for guilty pleasure TV, no matter what time of year. Summer has a way of making you forget what you used to watch and on which nights. Tonight, on House, we learned that apparently you can develop breast cancer in your knee pit, and that breast cancer cells are really just a milk build-up that can be removed with a syringe and is totally ok to drink. Disgusting. And unsanitary, I'm fairly sure!

But I'm not really writing to recap old episodes of House that I have now twice had on for background noise on Monday evenings. I'd really like to talk about recent episodes of the TMZ TV show, which is exactly the opposite of comforting and entertaining. It is jarring, horribly unfunny, and uncomfortable to watch, even for the purposes of critical analysis. I sense an "Angry Amy" coming on!

Whereas House re-runs have some redeeming entertainment qualities that keep you engaged for the hour - high production values, some semblance of a plot, (albeit formulaic), and characters we're remotely interested in - TMZ TV is basically a You Tube video of a team of douche bag, one-liner comedians who don't understand the concept of a punchline and all work in the same office. I know they're different styles/genres of television show, but the basic makings of a TV program, i.e. being somewhat interesting, are totally lacking in TMZ. And I think they've realized that filming a staff pitch meeting isn't very entertaining, which is why they have recently attempted to mix it up a little by including the shameless John Mayer as a guest host. Here is a clip:

Oh, boy! I should mention that this is the highlight reel - meaning that worse stuff made it to air. If this actually was an attempt to make the show better by changing things up, I think they got the wrong idea of what "better" is. First of all, John Mayer is simply not funny. People not recognizing a popular singer on the street in New York is just plain sad. Second, we can all see the flashes from fans taking pictures behind the camera. If the joke is that no one recognizes you, MAKE SURE THE FAN CAMERA FLASHES ARE OUT OF THE SHOT! Finally, the sound is kind of like a modern day version of the scene in Singing in the Rain where Lina Lamont can't figure out how to talk into the microphone. Similarly, John Mayer goes from on-mic to off-mic with just the turn of his head. "Talking pictures" have been around for quite a while. In this day and age, anyone should be able to work a microphone! And what's with the faux sports strap on your sunglasses, John? You know who else wears a sports strap? My dad! It's not hip! Grrrrrrrr....John Mayer makes me so angry!

I honestly didn't think the TMZ TV show could possibly get any worse than it already was, but in their attempt to improve things, they just demonstrated a whole different kind of terrible. I think I'll stick to House re-runs from now until September.

This entry was posted by Lady Amy, on Monday, July 28, 2008. You can leave your response.