Grid Effect

Ahh, it’s good to be back. Or rather, it’s good to have a second comedy we watch back on television. After watching some reruns on TBS, we realize we might have taken this show for granted before the strike. It was getting to the point where we were almost dreading Thursday at 8:30 or 9pm to roll around. But as the strike continued and we were left with fewer and fewer comedy series’, the absence that seemed the most noticeable was The Office’s. In other words, we were really looking forward to last night’s half season premiere.

And then….Well, then we remembered why watching three and a half seasons of this my grow wearisome: At times it makes us extremely uncomfortable. Obviously not in any real tangible way, bu when you are watching people, even characters on a television show embarrass themselves for twenty-two minutes, regardless of how funny it may be, it can take it’s toll on you after three or four years.

This isn’t to say that last night’s episode was a complete letdown. Have of the humor is in the awkwardness. But “Dinner Party” was exceptionally cringe-inducing. Between the little couch, the multiple vasectomies, the horrifying love ballad by Hunter, the Pam-Jan confrontations and everything else in between, we felt like we should have gotten up and left to save us any further embarrassment. Except we were being subjected to this through a little box in our living room, not at an overpriced condominium in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

If given the choice of being locked into a room with Bigfoot, Jan or the Loch Ness monster, we’d need ample time to weigh our options.

We’re not sure if that makes this good or bad comedy, but for as much as we were squirming it was definitely effective. One thing we will say is it did seem a bit prolonged, like maybe they could have had a subplot with Dwight and Mose (though it was great situational relief when he showed up with his old babysitter, reminded me of Buster and Lucille Osterro) or some of the supporting cast to provide a little levity. It probably wasn’t necessary to have as many scenes as they did with Jan humiliating Michael and vice-versa. Though the level of dysfunction was captured perfectly, it just seemed redundant and predictable, because we all knew there would be some sort of boiling point for the two of them.

The obvious and probably appropriate comparison seems to be too Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. But in a way, and probably because it’s more recent, it reminded us of The Sopranos second half of season six premiere at Jan and Bobby’s lake house. Both were premieres in the middle of a season, both were “couples only” gatherings and both revolved around dinner, drinking and games. The only real differences were the number of couples and Jim never ended up kicking the shit out of Michael. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t want to. Certainly there lies a seething disdain underneath all the ubiquitous horrified looks at the camera.

Some highlights:

“It has an oaky afterbirth” -Michael

“I’m beginning to think there wasn’t any work emergency.” -Jim, after realizing Michael had duped him into attending dinner at his condo.

“Snip, snap; snip, snap; snip, snap! Do you have any idea the toll, three vasectomies takes on your body!” -Michael

“I can just stand here and watch television for hours” -Michael, referencing his mini-plasma

“Our relationship is purely carnal.” -Dwight, referencing his dinner date/former babysitter

-Andy snagging a bite off of Angela’s ice cream, and her pounding what’s left of it into the side of his car.

It’s good to have it back, though we were expecting something a little….lighter, to be honest. But at this point we’ll take what we can get.

Some links or something later.

This was an odd episode if not an enjoyable one. Since we didn’t see much in the way of plot development that seems to be a minority opinion, but at least we saw one of the more pathetic or heartfelt farewells ever, depending on either your level of gullibility or suspicion of Ami.

It’s a shame she had to leave too. Between the crab hunting and the intimidation of Erik with the machete, I really thought we might see the first ever Survivor castration. If her tears were even remotely sincere they seemed more out of anger than genuine sadness. But there was an abnormal amount of knife play in this episode. Seriously, I felt like I was watching 300 again.

As opposed to eating like rats, Airai is now eating the rats themselves. In a scene accustom only to this season Jason is rather impressed himself when he catches one and wants so desperately for the favorites to like him, but I’m assuming no one ever told him that Amanda wrestled a shark to shore. Just so I’m somewhat incensed by this whole scene, Parvati calls him a loser during a camera interview. And she is in a position to deem who is a loser and a winner, being a foxy boxer grants you such privileges.

One thing that was almost clumsily good play was Parvati approaching Natalie about her and Alexis forming an alliance post-merge, but they do it in the most nauseatingly conceited way possible. Natalie looks like the girl that sleeps with her friends boyfriends when they’re hammered. And somewhat coincidentally, I imagine Parvati just sleeps with whomever is hammered, regardless of relationship status.

The question is, how many pictures can we find of Jason not staring at Eliza’s ass.

Kind of a peculiar decision by Malakal to have Alexis sit out the challenge, though it’s indicative of why they keep losing even with the superior camp life. I mean, the other team is “feasting” on rats while they have Ozzy pulling his “Lord of The Flies” impression out there and killing anything that breathes and is edible within a 300 yard radius. Some people have faulted them for not going with Jason given that he coaches gymnastics and all, but to be fair I’m not entirely certain they were aware of his history. Still, to go with Alexis, the girl who’s never talked or demonstrated any real challenge ferocity, regardless of what they assume it consists of, is flummoxing. It’s a shame they picked these two considering that during challenges there isn’t two people I’d rather be staring at. I mean Ozzy was obvious, he’s like Cirque de Soleil on Survivor, but Alexis? Why the resident eye candy left this season? Throw me a bone, Malakal. You fuck ups.

And the immunity challenge itself must have been a tough one for Malakal to endure, because had Ozzy been available it would have been a shoe in. The god overseeing this game for them is clearly a vengeful one. Maybe it’s positive karma for Airai after the Penner departure. During Malakal’s weekly failing, Ozzy and Alexis went looking for the idol. Alexis, because she’s genuinely without a clue, and Ozzy, because he wants to see if his bait is still fresh. Surely enough, it isn’t.

In the seemingly least effective strategic move in Survivor history, Erik approaches Amanda and Cirie about Ami’s back alley dalliances with some of the departed fans. He is being honest but comes across so unconvincing, which I always thought was impossible to do, but he is so eager to please. In this scene, Erik reminds me of the kid who would let you play with all his toys just so you’d hang out with him. It’s essentially ninety seconds of Amanda and Cirie failing to control their laughter.

Ami’s sneering fuck off towards Erik after she seemingly aligned with Amanda and Cirie was probably one of the more distasteful things of the series, and certainly of the season. Which in both instances is saying something. That’s like being the shortest keebler elf. But it does take some stones to be so condescending.

Given that it’s their forth tribal council everyone seems a little discouraged. Basically it devolves into Ami sobbing, then everyone trying to ascertain why she seems so isolated. Then everyone voting for her and not caring. Sorry Ami, while we appreciate your attempt at redemption, those tears only work for Hilary Clinton. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the above confrontation with Erik, we might feel differently. But it happened, so we don’t. It seems worth noting that when he was casting his vote, Erik says, “this game’s hell”. It might seem a little dramatic, but when someone is voted off, they do have to spend the next couple of weeks in what’s probably a secluded tropical island luxury resort. Brutal.

Pretty much a ho-hum episode but provided some oddly memorable moments. Which might say more about us than we’re willing to admit. New episode of this and The Office returns tonight. Enjoy!

One thing about South Park is that I use posting titles that never in a million years would I have thought necessary. And the title isn’t even half of it. I watched last night’s episode during the midnight rerun, so maybe my judgment is off, but I can categorically say that as far as the American landscape is concerned, that was probably the most offensive episode they’ve ever aired.

It really seemed to cover everyone: Latinos, black people, white people, gays, lesbians, abortion, the Patriots, high school melodramas, etc. In a way it all evens out. How can anyone be offended if everyone else is being raked over the coals? No one was selectively persecuted, so getting all in a tizzy over it would seem pointless, Not that anyone is still offended by South Park.

But we personally weren’t all that infatuated with this episode. Even though we said it could be deemed offensive, it wasn’t that. Our sensibilities are delicate, just not when it comes to cartoons. And again, we watched the midnight rerun so maybe our judgment was off. But the only laughs we remember having were Cartman’s throwaway line to the class when chasing down a student who took off, “Look class, just review that chapter of all the sportcaster’s saying Bill Belichick cheating wasn’t a big deal and I’ll be right back”, the subsequent conversation about rich white girls having abortions and the Mr. Garrison’s mouse singing to the moon. While we thought the latter was odd, we love the reference to Fievel Goes West.

The role-model for cheating….According to Broncos fans.

These instances alone made it the second most watchable episode of the five this season. And it’s not that it was inherently bad or anything. It just seems that with such a great premise, the episode didn’t follow through as well as it should have. That seems to be the running theme for this season. For the majority of the time, we felt like we were waiting for a enormous payoff (and you could argue the hallway conversation was it) that never came to fruition.

The whole over-emphasis of the women standing on the tables seemed odd at best and cheap at its worst. I don’t really understand the process to developing an animated episode of television, but was that even worth the legwork? It was like a cross-reference to the Curb Your Enthusiasm mockumentary where Larry David is contemplating getting back into stand-up and the friend he is consulting has some sage advice for him, “Two words: dick jokes”; and the Nip Tuck episode where Rosie O’Donnell’s character pays to have an ear genetically engineered on a mouse.

And while we appreciate the whole parody of Stand and Deliver, it could really be mistaken for about twenty other “teacher infiltrates inner-city school and redeems the students capable of redemption” motif since 1988. In that respect it was probably just confusing for people who haven’t seen that particular movie, and thought they were watching a parody of Dangerous Minds or something.

We’ve seen much worse episodes but we’ve seen plenty better. At this point we’re just waiting for this run of episodes to end so we can quit struggling with something to say about them. Because right now we are running on fumes.

Survivor recap later.

We went to bed around 11pm last night, so there wasn’t much television viewing taking place. We did, however, catch Beauty and The Geek. And the content of the show really doesn’t interest me. What interests me, mainly, was the cross promotion they took part in with the latest remade horror movie, Prom Night.

It was your typical product placement, featuring a snippet of a trailer, some of the contestants claiming to want to see it, and even “prom tips” from the actress who plays the female lead. Now, none of this bothered me, what bothered me was during the trailer, they had one of the characters from the movie voicing over the montage, and the voice sounded familiar to me. Like someone from the recent past. So I went to the IMDB page and sure enough…there was Idris Elba listed as Detective Winn. But that wasn’t it, while perusing the cast, I noticed that James Ransone was listed as the 7th lead.

If you’re wondering who these two actors are, then you probably don’t read this website all that often. But Elba played Stringer Bell on The Wire and Ransone played Ziggy Sobotka during the second season of the same series. And really, going from The Wire to this Swill is kind of like going from POTUS to PTA president in the span of two weeks. We’d say it’s tough being an actor if not for the most often undeserved wealth and recognition, but we will say that it’s embarrassing in many ways, and in Elba’s case morbid. In his two most notable jobs he’s died twice. We’re giving it about a ninety percent chance he dies in Prom Night as well. I mean, at least if he was doing porn he’d get to make it to the end credits.

We are looking forward to the next James Ransone vehicle.

We’re glad Wire alumnae are getting work in movies as retroactive pay for a limited budget on the greatest series of all time. But isn’t there something a little more respectable available? We saw Fruit in a McDonald’s commercial during the tournament, and we find that less humiliating than playing tenth fiddle to Brittany Snow. I can’t imagine this is what he had in mind when coming over from England.

We should mention that Scott Porter, who plays Jason Street on Friday Night Lights is the male lead in this movie. And it seems like more appropriate work for him. Primarily because we’re already used to seeing him play a high schooler, and he also has a lead role. That’s money one can live off of, even if it’s for something as degrading as Prom Night.

The only thing we find troubling about this is Elba’s presence in it, Ransone and Porter are both young and white, this is what’s generally available for them. That isn’t to say Elba hasn’t gotten other work — including about twenty minutes of screen time in American Gangster — but for what he did on The Wire I guess four years after the fact we assumed he’d be landing some lead roles here and there. This might explain why we’re not running Hollywood.

But when we say television is in many ways better than film, this is what we mean. Television, and maybe it’s a result of a higher volume of roles, seems to reward better actors with appropriately more sought after work. At least this appears to be the case in critically acclaimed series’.

South Park & Survivor recaps tomorrow.

My apologies for neglecting the site yesterday, but it’s not as if I was off in the Caribbean getting drunk with models or anything. But rather had to pull a Jason Kidd and sit out the one day. The only difference being that we actually had a migraine. We could have posted yesterday, but it would have been even more incoherent than usual, and that doesn’t do anyone any good. This post is later than usual because we are trying to catch up on some work and varying after effects. Never the less, we are still TV-less on this television website, so here are some more links. We are happy to mail it in everyday, migraine or otherwise.

The FCC is suing FOX over Married By America. I can understand the FCC intervening in shows like 24 or Desperate Housewives or something similar. I don’t condone it, but I can see the logic. Suing a reality show that’s participated and determined by the very people the FCC is supposed to be sheltering…then what’s the point?

Well, on Friday we suggested this might be the case, and you are not going to believe this but, John McCain indeed lied about watching The Hills. I know, I know, it’s shocking. It’s not as relevant as some of Clinton’s gaffes, but it is no less embarrassing. Actually, the situation would probably be all the more alarming if a presidential candidate was actually watching anything on MTV.

If we had any interest in trying to parlay this pedestrian blog into an actual newspaper gig, then we might be shit out of luck. Why? Because like The Wire taught us, newspapers are more interested about their ever depreciating bottom line. And while TV critics might bring in a certain audience the paper wouldn’t otherwise get, they are certainly not the lifeblood of a city publication.

So it looks like the writer’s strike gave networks plausible deniability about some of their series’, and as a result fewer than usual are going to be canceled. Maybe that was the hidden agenda of the writers strike? I mean, if you work on October Road you’re probably getting the boot after a few episodes anyways, right? Might as well encourage a strike, use it as an excuse for unemployment, then if you’re lucky, you’ll have a series to return to work on in the summer. It’s genius, actually.

Is there anything about this series that isn’t wholesome?

According to Jason Katims, there won’t be any significant changes in style or theme for the upcoming season of FNL, just format. Well, you can attempt to cover it all you want Mr. Katims, but we heard differently. Obviously he’s a tool for the corporate machine. Man.

HBO is taking the summer off. Partly as a result of the strike, and partly because they can. So, um, Mad Men will still be around, right? Maybe It’s Always Sunny? God, this site can only become so unappealing before the internet swallows it whole.

And finally, NPR pays tribute to the South Park character least likely to ever listen to an NPR broadcast. At least they acknowledge the series still exists. I figured after the “Smug Alert” episode they were dead to National Public Radio.

Back with something equally bland tomorrow.

This has been a long week here at Grid Effect. The last four days have taken us to task between work hassles, posting hassles and a lack of quality material to post about, the fact we haven’t gone any sort of rampage has been sort of surprising. Even to us. But at least Survivor gave us a decent episode last night, even if it was one of the more depraved things we’ve seen on the series in awhile it restored our faith in the concept of justice on a reality show, despite the fact that Cirie is still there. So here is a fresh batch of links as you prepare for what is sure to be a long day of work or not going to classes.

Proof that politicians will do anything for a vote, John McCain actually put on airs that he watches The Hills, although I’m 90% sure he isn’t aware of how ludicrous that his, since he has no idea what The Hills entails. This is like the time in the fourth grade some classmate asked me if I spit or swallow and I had no idea what the hell he was referring too. The only difference is, I abstained from answering.
We suppose he did so for the “endorsement” from one of the cast members (I’m not even going to do her the favor of writing out her name), but if he ever watched the show he would know that the only people who take this person seriously aren’t old enough to vote or are college-aged girls who claim to hate this girl but watch The Hills every week.

Friday Night Lights is officially coming back to NBC, but not until 2009 and the episodes will air after Direct TV airs them in the fall of 2008. Jesus, talk about getting pwned. I mean, I like the series and all, but for the sake of NBC, I’d probably just pretend I didn’t want the series anymore and then cry myself to sleep every night.
Alan Sepinwall speculates that since so many people use cable over Direct TV, if their will be a spike in illegal downloads for those too impatient to wait for the NBC debut. And in fact, he is absolutely correct, whatever limited support the series gets is going to be spread too thin from everyone watching at different times and paces. Now call me crazy, but I think we’ve encountered something like this before.

So We can either wait to see these two on NBC, or download new episodes on Rip Torrent as they air on Direct TV? Seems like a question that answers itself.

First Mad Men announces their pilot season release on DVD, and now The Wire announces their DVD’s will be made available in August. We will most certainly be splurging for both, but we’d love to see a spinoff series that involved characters from both shows. Everyone would be so confused!

Some guy at the Times wonders why HBO doesn’t remake a series like Skins, a supposed dark teenage series on the BBC. We’re not certain or anything, but we’d like to think that despite HBO’s run of failures as of late, they still have a modicum of decency and standards. Of course, Tell Me You Love Me would suggest otherwise.
Besides, HBO has never been in the business of lifting ideas or series’ for other networks, so it really isn’t terribly surprising they haven’t gotten desperate enough to go for anything like Skins. And am I missing something, or isn’t this eerily similar to Kids, the beyond retarded movie made in 1995 that caused all the fuss over at MTV. Yeah, if it’s still hard too determine, I’m unimpressed with Skins.

See you Monday, kids. Enjoy the final four.

This Survivor recap is going to be eloquent in its brevity, or rather just really fucking short because we haven’t watched the episode since it aired over two weeks ago and we didn’t write any notes then. The manner they went into a fifteen day hiatus was pretty dull. Then again, nothing all that groundbreaking can really take place this early in the game, so it was just sort of victim of circumstance. But still, is this the best their editing team can do?

Anyhow, I suppose the highlight (or one of the few things I can still remember) from the episode was Kathy taking her leave. She did seem genuinely distressed over the environment. I mean, To be honest, sleeping in that cave does seem more severe than some of the other things I’ve seen on this show (I might rather sleep in the rain), but she is on this show supposedly as a result of her fanaticism with it. I know no one can really grasp the conditions, regardless of how legitimately trying they may be until they are there. But if you watch the show so feverishly and passionately, then why the hell would you be going apeshit because it continues to rain? I can’t decide if she’s crazy, stupid or both. But right now she just seems regretful, so whatever tickles her fancy, then. So long Kathy, I’m glad you got off the show before you started developing imaginary friends. Best of luck.

But with her departure, it doesn’t seem to matter that her former tribe continues to win challenges. That is now two (or three?) that Airai has won since the mix up, but the team numbers are still even. So, I’m having a difficult time discerning whether or not Malakal should have followed through and voted off Ozzy instead of Tracy. Given, if they vote off Ozzy in this situation, their dismal challenge performance will only depreciate, but if the merge is happening sooner rather than later, then getting rid of the best challenge player in the history of the game is probably a wise move. But, if they merge at eight instead of, say, ten, then they are putting themselves at risk. To play it safe and to give themselves a fighting chance in the upcoming challenges, I think they made the right move. But when exactly do they plan to vote him off? Even Amanda is beginning to come around on him.

Look at him. As he goes to collect supplies for the rest of his team, he thinks he’s sooo cool. Clearly he’s subjugating Amanda.

Speaking of which, was she actually falling for Cirie’s weak power play of the conceited Ozzy? Or was Amanda just conceding everything to end the conversation quickly. Why the fuck was him going out to the reef, to go fishing and feed all of you fucking people so out of line? Because you actually had to contribute in a minimal way? She really, really needs to get over herself if she wants to be redeemed from this website (whatever that is good for). Because right now she is on our shit list.

It seems this is almost a situation where one is so contributive and helpful that everyone else is beginning to resent it. Given Eric, who was gun ho about voting off the challenge demon two weeks ago, was overselling his importance a little too much (might be why so many of the women resent him), but when someone provides that much in way of sustenance and competitiveness, it seems odd to hold him accountable for every little foible.

That was the episode in a nutshell. I think. It’s been fifteen days and though my life is rather hollow, remembering the nuances of a Survivor episode from two weeks ago is something I don’t occupy with my cerebral cortex. So long Tracy, so long Kathy. The former deserved better and the latter got better than she deserved.

Links tomorrow, as much has happened since I stopped posting them.

Now that was vintage South Park: Topical, satirical, undermining; all the ingredients that generally culminate into a great episode. We were beginning to think Terrence and Philip were done for this world, and we would have little complaints should that have been the case, but they were resurrected brilliantly last night. When they first appeared on screen we were almost hoping that the four boys had grown tired of the cartoon, but alas, that wasn’t the case. It was a nice callback to the “Cartoon Wars” saga.

But if you wanted to know where Parker and Stone stood on the writer’s strike, well, there it is. When the president of the “WGA” had this exchange with other national leaders:

CPM: We want more money.
Random diplomat: We don’t understand. Money frommmmmm where?
CPM: (paraphrasing) I don’t care you greedy fat cat just give us more money!

I though that summed up their stance quite nicely. Truth be told, however, animation writer’s aren’t covered by the WGA, so to the best of my knowledge they weren’t effected by the strike (at least not professionally, though undoubtedly they lost sleep at night). In other words, it’s easy and convenient for them to take this stance. We still believe that regardless of internet revenue and whether or not any actually exists, writer’s are still underpaid for their contribution in entertainment. Never the less, it gave us the hilariously technical morality lecture from Kyle on the issue. It’s a shame Canada had to be the surrogate for a South Park whipping boy. Again.

We’ll gladly admit that we are rarely fond of the Canadian themed episodes. Not that it’s offensive or anything, we’re not really certain of their beef with the North American country. Whatever it is, the material is always heavy-handed and bewildering more so than it is funny. But last night, tied in with the youtube subplot and the fruitless and non-threatening national threat for more money made this episode redeemable.

We thought the mocking of Canada’s financial situation was somewhat ill-timed, because at the very least Canada’s dollar is virtually equal to ours. Given, we are not up too speed on global economics like we should be (imagine that!). I mean, our understanding is a little more refined than the antagonist’s was in this episode, but it seems like a pot-kettle situation for anyone to disparage another countries economy. Vilifying the Canada’s fake president was apropos, given how reluctant most national leaders are to cope to a mistake, we particularly loved the pleading with the UN (was that supposed to be the UN?) and their apathy towards his plight, and Kyle’s intervening.

I guess we’re part of the problem now.

The scene with all the “infamous” youtube characters was probably the highlight. We tend to think most of those people are accidentally famous and didn’t really set out to be the laughing stock of American culture, but the subsequent quest for theoretical money is something we find believable, especially with the “leave Britney alone!” guy. The notion of him scavenging for any type of income from his hysterical ramblings doesn’t seem likely, but rather probable. I can’t imagine anyone engaging in such a practice if he isn’t about his bottom line. One thing I like about South Park is how unaffiliated and indifferent they are with everything. Two weeks ago they mock the paparazzi and the American public for hounding Britney Spears, two weeks later they mock her most ardent defender.

Oddly enough, and probably not a coincidence, the Root of All Evil episode that followed pitted porn against youtube. And several of the entities mentioned in the South Park episode were also referenced on Lewis Black’s new variety show. I guess comedy central is trying to defend the decision to keep all of their copyrighted property off the viral video site. If that’s the case, that the network influenced one or both of these series’ to lecture us on the perils of youtube, they have something to learn about subtlety.

Not their best episode ever, but the best this season by a mile. We’re still holding out for a parody of the democratic primary, but they might stay away from electoral politics until the general.

Survivor recap later.

Still haven’t watched anything all that riveting. We shamefully tuned into Beauty and The Geek last night and it was essentially an hour long string of people crying, so we’ll probably steer clear of that unless it picks up its game. So, when in doubt, here are some links (as is our montra).

Jay Leno was forced to apologize for his persistent gay jokes while McCain hassles Letterman for regularly mocking his age. To avoid any scarring anyone deeply, eventually these guys will be forced to stand on stage in a nondescript full body suit and mutter to themselves while staring at the ground. I think this is where we are ultimately heading.

For whatever reason, Britain is importing The Hills, probably to indoctrinate their youth with conspicuous consumption. I don’t know. It’s beyond me why anyone would want to their own version of the worst aspects of American pop culture, but at least Kevin Spacey has a legitimate cause now.

Hey, speaking of conspicuous consumption, the series that sort of popularized it is now responsible for establishing a $24,000 NYC tour. That’s right, a tour company will show you New York the same way you saw it on Sex and The City. If I lived in such a fantasy world, I always imagined myself going on a murderous rampage. Can I be held responsible for my actions should I choose to take this tour? I think not. Not for twenty-four large.

Don Draper, mingling with the Bohemian set.

Some great news for this website, Mad Men is slated for DVD release on July 1st. This way the boomers can relive their horrifying childhood’s over and over again. Seriously, it must be a nice retrospective for them, because it is for me and I wasn’t alive until twenty-five years after the fact. I need to know when they are coming back for a second season. With virtually all good dramatic television off the airwaves right now, this is more anticipated than ever.

And finally, here’s wishing Roger Ebert the best of luck. After three surgeries he still hasn’t regained his voice thus unable to do his review show with Richard Roeper, but is set to return to written reviews. We will most certainly be reading.

Survivor and South Park recaps tomorrow. Yay substance!

Today is April fool’s day, so I’m sad to announce that these next two news items are not a joke, but rather deftly serious. It appears Kevin Spacey believes BBC reality series set in the theater are undermining the valuable contribution actors have on society with their simplemindedness. Or something. We can’t really make rhyme or reason over what he’s taking issue with. Additionally, the coalition of Italian Americans Associations is outraged that Steve Buscemi, an upstanding model citizen with a successful acting and directing career after a ten year stint in the NYFD was invited to speak.

So here’s the issue, we have two prominent factions of two different societies upset over something most of us would consider trivial at worst and unnoticeable at best. So we’ll match up the two “oppressed” groups to determine once and for all, which action is more detrimental to their cause.

In corner one we have actors. Now, the mainstream consensus about actors seems to be their priorities are out of whack, their pretentious, spoiled, and lacking perception. But that is only prevalent in Hollywood. The truth is most actors work for peanuts because they are either extremely passionate about the art form or they have a deep desire to be famous. When Kevin Spacey started out, I think it’s safe to say that he fell into the former category. Someone who defends the integrity of theater work so vigorously certainly isn’t in it for the fast cars and even faster women.

But despite all the rigors your average actor might go through, all the aforementioned stereotypes apply. Some might say it is justified still, as the typical actor usually can afford such a lifestyle by way of his/her privileged upbringing. It’s easy to stay living in a $4,000 a month New York loft in Soho while being paid in coupons when your dad owns half the real estate in North Jersey. This again, is one of many assumptions most have for the acting community. We suppose Spacey is arguing when you cheapen the profession, it does a disservice to all working and aspiring actors everywhere. He’s like the David Simon of the acting community.

Your typical actor doesn’t get much respect outside of New York and LA, and even then they are resigned to close knit, though occasionally affluent communities. Thing is, being an actor isn’t something you’re born into, it’s a chosen career path. Italian Americans cannot say the same thing.

Season five tops our list of Sopranos in terms of artistry, Buscemi contributed significantly to that.

Italian Americans, the last refuge of European descendants who still refer to their ancestral land when describing their heritage. We believe this is indicative of their heightened sensitivity. The core issue with groups that take offense to every Italian stereotype is that they feel their culture isn’t recognized for their considerable contributions to the development of this country, but rather for Hollywood imagery that is all too quick to paint all Italian Americans with one broad brush of overweight, bigoted, murderous thugs. We believe this has some validity, and a groundswell of positive Italian/American characters is long overdue.

Never the less, The Sopranos seems to draw their ire more so than any other mafia related portrayal. And the thing is, even the murderous characters on The Sopranos are fleshed out beyond the point of caricatures. Sans Paulie and Silvio, none of the main characters really embodied any of those cliche mafioso tendencies.

Thing is, by all accounts Buscemi is a pillar of excellence with the arthouse crowd. He has always been more about his art than his wallet size, and tends to go for anything but the cheap, exploitive dollar. We do not know why this is lost on this particular Italian American group, but it appears it has.

Was The Sopranos a brutal series about brutal, narcissistic men? Yes, but I think if you took a poll of most Americans, they would quickly tell you that they are well aware of Italian Americans who are an asset to this country rather than a liability or threat. Point being, I don’t think the influence of a series like The Sopranos is nearly as significant on the national perception of Italian Americans as the influence that comes from complaining about the lauded television series. Instead of taking issue with the sub-story of the series (the overlying theme was family, not organized crime), revel in the fact that what is widely considered the greatest television series of all time was created by David Chase, himself, an Italian American.

Obviously, if forced to choose the more persecuted group would be Italian Americans. They do have a history in this country of being exploited for a myriad of reasons, none of them justified, but wallowing about a speech from someone as harmless and talented as Steve Buscemi or the aim of reality series’ both seem misguided.