Blogulator Radio 60: The Newsiest Newsroom Of All

New episode! Here! Quick, before Will McAvoy lectures you!

In this week's installment of Blogulator Radio, Brigitte and Qualler discuss the merits and demerits of Aaron Sorkin's latest "Hey Everybody, Shouldn't You Be As Smart As Me Cuz I'm Awesome And A White Guy Who Probably Know Better Than You, Internet Girl?" (okay, that was a bit harsh) television program The Newsroom, based solely on the pilot episode and the buzz surrounding the series in general, cuz that's what they do. In addition, they talk about the first few episodes of the similarly auteur-led series Bunheads, written by Amy Sherman-Palladino. (They're still waiting for a YouTube video similar to the Sorkinisms video that made the rounds yesterday. Palladinoisms, anybody?) They also have a few words for Lifetime's latest in its unofficial Dangers Of The Internet, Mostly To Do With Affairs Your Husband / Son / Male Figure In Your Life Is Having Because Of It film series talhotblonde, which was directed(!!!) by Courtney Cox. Finally, they have a few words for the newest seasons of the multiple iterations of Real Housewives. You get to hear Qualler's version of The Countess Luann's hit single "Money Can't Buy You Class." (Minus the heavy, heavy vocodor, unfortunately.) You get to hear Qualler talk about how awesome Homeland and Enlightened are, two shows from 2011 that he's catching up on. And it's all topped off by the theme song to Garfield and Friends, because that's how they roll.

Guilty Pleasures and Guilty Feelings: GCB (by Sam)

I think the phrase “guilty pleasure” gets tossed around a lot, so much so that now it means “I pretend to ironically like such and such a show because it makes me feel better about the fact that I actually like it.” But I honestly feel guilty that I enjoy watching GCB, that I laugh out loud at Kristen Chenoweth, that I view each of the show’s plot points as a logical progression from the previous one, that I turn off my capacity for critical thinking and just enjoy. I mean, take my other guilty pleasures: True Blood, Teen Wolf, Skins. I can tell you why I love each (Sookie is so sassy and Eric is so gross and hot! It’s puberty and sexual realization in a werewolf metaphor! They make bad decisions but they really care about each other!) and I can tell you why each is trashy and trite. But when asked what I think about GCB, I can list a litany of things that I hate about it—it’s misogynistic, it’s formulaic, it’s one-dimensional—with only a few things I like—it’s funny and the men are hot. And yet, I keep watching! WHY?? Is this what it’s like to enjoy television without ruining everything by deconstructing it? What a terrifying world we live in! No, but really. I’ve spent as many weeks as the show has been on thinking about what I’m going to write about this show. I have a Word document full of half started paragraphs about how anti-woman the show is, about how Texas is apparently filled with painfully fit men that all have the same tan color-tone with varying levels of hairiness, and about how the show challenges the hypocrisy in Christianity without challenging Christianity itself. I even tried to compare it to Mad Men, friends. It went something like this:

 “Man Men is also condemned as being horribly sexist, that it romanticizes a horribly oppressive time for women and minorities. But Mad Men is inspired in its representation of women because it never at any point implies that any of the female characters could break out of the horribly constricting constructions that society places them in if they’d just try harder. Even in the forth season, when Peggy is talking to the hippie guy about African-Americans and she says, ‘Maybe if they worked as hard as I did, they’d be where I am’ (I’m paraphrasing), it emphasizes not how far Peggy has come from her hard work, but how far she hasn’t. Despite the fact that her brains and gumption have gotten her this position in the firm, she is still asked to get the men their drinks, she is still judged by the size of her breasts and the shape of her legs, she is still referred to with the pointedly sexist language of “frigid bitch.” By portraying complex, strong, intelligent female characters painfully constrained by unconscionable gender roles, being infantilized and exploited, it doesn’t glorify the system that put them in those roles; rather, it forces the viewer to ask, ‘What kind of sick world do we live in if even women that incredible are seen as weak, stupid, or somehow unworthy of respect?’ If we transfer that lens to a show like GCB, can’t we see these misogynistic creations as symptomatic of a world that created the Real Housewives and…ummm…pity them?” 

See how that didn’t quite work out? The fact of the matter is that every time I sit down to write something thoughtful or even just funny about GCB the insipid subject matter leaves me with nothing. I can talk about how Kristen Chenoweth is hilarious as always, or how I think Annie Potts plays a fantastic matriarch (though now I’m thinking about Reba and liking it more). But then I’m just ignoring the terrible misogyny running rampant throughout the show. But the worst part is, I ignore that very thing every time I tune in. It’s soulless, mindless entertainment without the redemptive catch-all of irony. So I’m not going to encourage you to watch it. Just know that, if you don’t, I won’t judge.

 If this is what having a real guilty pleasure is like, I gotta say, it’s pretty rough.

Brigitte's TV Teaser

A rare moment of grace in the ugly, ugly world of pre-teen dance competitions and the moms who support them.

Hello Blogosphere! It’s good to be back in print. I’ve been busy lately, but still had time to get in some quality television viewing. Some things I’ve been watching lately and that you can look forward to hearing about:

Dance Moms, or, the more easily digestible Toddlers and Tiaras

I cannot help myself. I LOVE this show. It pretty much combines all things I love in a reality television show: dance, pointless drama, questionable parenting, and normal situations that become super high stakes for no reason than to feed into the pointless drama. And unlike Toddlers and Tiaras, the kids on this show are talented. Crazy talented. And they seem to enjoy what they’re doing, for the most part. I could watch this show for hours. Maddie is so awesome, but I think she’s starting to get a little too comfortable at the top of that pyramid. Chloe is, and always has been, my favorite, and I think that she’s finally starting to outshine Maddie. When she won the Joffrey Ballet School scholarship, I almost cried. I was so proud of her! And now, with Dance Moms: Miami, I can. Thank you, Lifetime! If you like pointless reality shows like Toddlers and Tiaras but you feel a little too icky watching 5 year olds parade around in makeup, give Dance Moms a try. There’s still lots of makeup, but also they’re athletes. And they’re more like nine instead of five so it’s way more age appropriate. Kind of.

Real Housewives: Doesn’t Matter Which City

I don’t have much to report, except that the newest season of New Jersey starts soon and I CANNOT WAIT. Lately I’ve been watching Atlanta and The OC, and while I enjoy having it on in the background and casually glancing up from my work to see why Kim and Nene are fighting or who of the OC crew is having something reduced, none of these ladies can hold my attention like the crazy bitches from Jersey. I hope Theresa and her family get along better this season…or do I? I always feel so conflicted while watching this show, because on the one hand, I actually sort of care about these women and I want them to stop acting like children and just get along with each other, but on the other hand, that’s no fun, is it? During last season’s reunion episode, we learned that something really awful goes down this season between Theresa and Jacqueline because Jacqueline wouldn’t even appear on the reunion since filming for the new season had gotten so tense; so I do look forward to finding out what that’s all about. And for those of you who don’t want to waste a precious hour of your week, you can watch it vicariously through me! You’re welcome.

Justified, season one: aka the show to make me shout “what!?” most frequently as I’m watching it.

I just finished watching season one with Qualler and it was awesome. Raylan Givens is one of the most amazing characters on TV, ever. I want to have his gun-toting, smooth-talking, angsty babies. I cannot wait to watch season two, and I’m not sure how it took me so long to get into watching this show. The end of season one SHOCKED me. I actually gasped out loud, and I almost never do that (OK, I do it all the time, but never as often as when watching this show). Look forward to more in-depth reviews from me as I attempt to figure out and articulate just why this show is so amazing.

Game of Thrones: Not Just for Nerds!

I don’t make time for many things these days, but I will ALWAYS make time to watch Game of Thrones. After the second episode of the new season I’m as hooked as I was last season. I watched season one in about three days with Chris and Qualler, and that will always go down as one of the best weekends in my life (sorry, wedding weekend.) My favorite character is still Daenerys, and while I’m disappointed that she hasn’t had much to do but wander through the desert, I’m sure that her character’s just being set up to do something awesome…right, Qualler?? (Editor's note: You'll see!) Her dragons have also hardly gotten any screen time, but I look forward to seeing more of them. I also really enjoy what’s happening to Arya so far, and I hope she isn’t caught before she makes it home! I’ve found that, although there is a lot of soft dialogue and a lot of characters to keep straight, this show is best enjoyed with others. Here are some notes I took, as well as some standout quotes I noted, as I watched episode two with some friends.

Daenerys is a total badass.

Littlefinger is MEAN!

Tyrion is good!

“I’ll not have my honor questioned by an imp!”

“I’m not questioning your honor…I’m denying its existence.”

“There’s so much positioning in this show, I love it!”

@TimothyOleksiak

“I’m watching.”

@rhetoricqueline

When asked whether she likes it she said “I feel cooler” and after a pause “I’m about two episodes away from being hooked.”

“They’re gonna get married! I want them to do it so I can see him without his shirt on. Okay, in season four then.”

@TimothyOleksiak, on Arya and Gendry.

“She’s wearing pants! Like a man!”

Weird molestation scene on horseback…

So much incest! Hard to keep track.

First black person in the series alert!

“Mother gone because of you. There’s no bigger joke in the world than that”

--uproarious laughter from @rhetoricqueline

“it could be an hour long episode of them shitting in chamber pots and I’d be like ‘omg, this is the shitting episode, this is so good!”

--@timothyoleksiak

Look forward to my musings on these and other shows this…season?...on the Blogulator!