July 11, 2008 2:52

TV Weekend: Centre of the Action

Blame Canada. / Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS

Besides Generation Kill, this weekend sees tonight's debut of Flashpoint, a CBS crime drama—about a police special task force—notable mostly for the fact that it's a rare Canadian import on U.S. TV,* having been ordered partly as insurance against the possibility that the writers' strike would last until the end of time. I found the pilot eminently bland and skippable, but as they say, your kilometrage may vary.

* Update: Make that U.S. broadcast TV. Degrassi's been on the air for a long time, of course, and HGTV et al. repurpose so much north-of-the-border TV I think they may run out of homes in Canada to renovate.

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July 11, 2008 1:35

H.R. PufnSpace

Krofft Kwikies - Lidsville "Escape From HooDoo"

It's been something of a Sid and Marty Krofft Week here at Tuned In, what with the multiple references to The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, so what better way to cap off the week than the news that the Kroffts have launched a MySpace page, as part of the walk-up to the 2009 movie of Land of the Lost? (Sidebar: There's going to be a movie of Land of the Lost?) The World of Sid and Marty Krofft is intended to be the only place online that you can—legally, anyway—watch the Kroffts' '70s vintage product, cut down here to "Krofft Kwikies" of several minutes.

And why would you do that, exactly? The Kroffts may never go down in TV history in the ranks of the Bochcos or Lears, but in their own way they were pioneers, creating some of the most surreally trippy low-tech entertainment that small children's chemically sensitive brains were ever exposed to. (Please do yourself a favor and watch the minisode of Lidsville, above, the epic credits for which alone will give you a contact high.) Among the other sources of high-grade, mainlinable Gen-X nostalgia are clips of The Bugaloos, H. R. Pufnstuf, Sigmund and the Seamonsters, Electra Woman and DynaGirl and, obviously, Land of the Lost.

Please do not drive or operate heavy machinery for two hours after watching any of these videos.

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July 11, 2008 12:33

Dead Tree Alert 2: Tim Gunn Endorses Obama

Michelle Obama, that is. Also in the current print edition of TIME, Tim Gunn escapes the suspicious Bravo fortress of silence surrounding Project Runway to take 10 Questions from the readers of the magazine. None of which have to do with Project Runway itself. (I'm told, though I haven't listened, that at least some Runway questions made it into the additional set included in the podcast—they just didn't make the cut for the print issue.) But he does weigh in on the presidential election, in a way:

Michelle Obama or Cindy McCain? Sharlin Aldao MIAMI LAKES, FLA.

Michelle Obama. Absolutely. She looks so comfortable and relaxed in her style, in her fashion, and she exudes that. She has a presence that gives you confidence in her.

Read the other nine questions (or listen to the podcast) here.

[Update: And here's the video, with different questions—including some about Runway—and the full, bitchier version of his Obama-McCain answer: "Cindy McCain looks like someone has twisted her ponytail into a knot and tried to give her a facelift." As a bonus, you get to hear my Australian colleague Belinda Luscombe render some of our silly American place-names.]

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July 11, 2008 11:39

Dead Tree Alert: Generation Kill

PAUL SCHIRALDI / HBO

In this week's Time, I review HBO's Iraq War miniseries Generation Kill, which debuts Sunday night. From what I've read so far elsewhere, is looks like the praise for the series will be effusive, and that praise will be justified:

Kill's strength comes from focusing not on why we fight or how, but on who fights for us: volunteers, many from broken homes and troubled 'hoods, who take being lied to as a given and were raised amid low expectations. "Not a whole lot was expected of this generation," Wright says in his book, "other than the hope that those in it would squeak through high school without pulling too many more mass shootings in the manner of Columbine." Suddenly they're heavily armed, charged with executing U.S. foreign policy and expected to kick ass but stop short of atrocities.

They come from all races, religions and regions. Some support the war, some don't. What they have in common besides their mission is that they are bred-in-the-bone products of American pop culture. They quote South Park while rolling through the blasted countryside. They sing along to Avril Lavigne, compare combat to Grand Theft Auto and recite N.W.A. lyrics for inspiration. One of them--in a twist on a famous theory of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's--suggests American consumerism will pacify Iraq. "How else we going to make these hungry motherf___ers want to stop killing everybody? Put a McDonald's on every f___ing corner. If we gotta blow up the corner, then put in the McDonald's, so be it."

I'm considering doing a Generation Kill Watch on Mondays over the summer, although I'll be honest: the problem is that I've already watched the entire thing, and it's always a little hard for me to muster up enthusiasm (and spare time) to re-watch and blog something I've already watched once, even a show I love. So I'll post about it Monday and see what the level of morning-after enthusiasm is. In the meantime, what's your Friday-before enthusiasm like?

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July 11, 2008 9:05

The Morning After: TCA Roundup

In yesterday's news from the TV critics' press tour:

* HBO plans to combat its programming slump with a novel strategy: creating new television shows. (Also, in what is becoming a ritual announcement, those Deadwood movies are still never gonna happen.)

* Speaking of HBO, let's not forget the upcoming, and oxymoronic, American Little Britain, as well as those vampires. Meanwhile, the boys of Entourage will face tough times in season 5 this fall, and not just because season 4 sucked.

* Professor Sepinwall explains it all.

* Greensburg—the outstanding Planet Green docu-series that does not star Adrian Grenier—is getting a second season. Also, dawggies!

* The international media are as Obamamanic as their American counterparts. Though not as much as Spike Lee. (Incidentally, I suspect Peter Ames Carlin of blood doping. His TCA blogging rate is superhuman.)

* You would not think that Natasha Bedingfield could not sink lower than to have to play a gig on The Bachelorette. But you would be wrong.

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