Warm Glowing Warming Glow

I Hate Anna Nardini

Am I the only one who's actually sort of enjoying this season of Gilmore Girls?  Most of the commentaries I've read have suggested that the magic has gone.  I couldn't disagree more, and I think that last night's episode was an example of all that's going right this season.  We had some very funny throw-away bits, such as Paris and Doyle's hip hop dancing and the 2002 party.  We had an unusually palatable Liz/T.J. subplot.  The Knitathon subplot was a surprisingly deft bit of Stars Hollow wackiness (about which more in a minute).  Most importantly, we finally, finally, finally got to see Luke stand up to that dickslap Anna Nardini.

Anna has been a nightmare from the beginning.  She's basically all of Lorelai's worst qualities, only sanctimonious and joyless.  This week's  passive-aggressive (and then aggressive-aggressive) douchebaggery was just the latest atrocity and thank God, we finally got to see Luke get angry with her.   So that was fun.

I also wanted to say some more about the Knitathon.  I thought that that story, in fact the entire Christopher/carpetbagger plot, really sums up Stars Hollow.  Stars Hollow is very tolerant of certain people -- Lorelai, Luke, Kirk, Taylor -- but that tolerance is not extended beyond a certain point nor to everyone.  I think that Lorelai is exactly like this as well -- note her rules for film-watching, for instance.

Also last night was the finale to the rape mystery on Veronica Mars.  I thought it was pretty inept.  As with the entire arc, there were things I liked, but it felt rushed and a little predictable.   I'm hoping the next arc is better.
-- Peter

Ballad of the Urban Cougar

Dear Jenny,

Last night's O.C. was the best in years.  I loved the whole thing.

Yeah, the Summer-in-therapy scene at the beginning was a little too gimicky.  Also, I think they botched the "2. Anger (again)" joke.  All they had to do was show the "2. Anger" card and we would have gotten it.  Using the "rage issues" line again is pandering and it's lazy and most importantly, it's self-congratulatory.  Otherwise, the scene was funny, because Rachel Bilson committed to it fully.  Also, as a plot device, it's not horrible.  I like that the writers are having it both ways: Summer's campus activism is smothered grief and it's legitimate.

Speaking of smothered, I enjoyed Sandy's courtship of Spitzy.  I'm optimistic that we're finally going to get a good storyline for Peter Gallagher.

It was a good week for Taylor.  I have no idea why she's living with Julie and Kaitlin (or, for that matter, why Neil let them keep the house), but I thought the breakfast interactions among the three of them were brilliant.  The Ryan subplot was funny and well-executed.  The torte scene was heartbreaking.  This is what we like about Autumn Reeser: yeah, she's funny, but she can also play Taylor's vulnerability.  There was a second where you saw how relieved Taylor was that Ryan wanted the torte that really got to me. 

Not a bad week for Julie and Kaitlin, either.  Like so many things, the urban cougar subplot only worked because of Melinda Clarke's commitment.  Without that, this would not have added up to much and actually would have been fairly depressing, in part because Taryn is such a depressing character.  Good non-verbal work from Willa Holland, too, particularly in the one Taylor-Kaitlin-Julie scene.  I don't understand how Holland can be so good?  No one seems to be talking about it, either: are we the only ones seeing this? 

What's going to happen to Kirsten?  I feel like she hasn't left the house since the first season. 

What did you think?  Did you even watch or were you distracted by the "super-size" episode of The Office?  ("Take a picture, it'll last longer.")

Love,

-- Pete

Oh My Gawd! You Guys!

I thought I could handle the end of the season of Laguna Beach, but it turns out I can't.  I miss them all, already, except Chase of course.  Even Kyndra grew on me, by the end.  In last night's episode, she and Cami were actually a little endearing.  I thoroughly enjoyed their two-minute-long tennis match, particularly because it ended in physical harm for Kyndra.

Right now, I'm watching the post-show.

It's pretty sucky: no Cami, no Tessa, a lot of Breanna and Lexie.  Good news: even though Open Air Radio performs, it's only for about a minute. -- Peter

Graduation Day

Laguna Beach is over already?  I don't think I can handle that.  Am I the only one who totally loves the new class?

Glass half-full?  The Real World Denver premiere is just one week away.  -- Pete

P.S. Here's an unrevealing but adorable interview with Raquel/Rocky:

http://www.tvgasm.com/shows/movies/clipgasm/2006/november/rocky111406.php

Dulce de Yeche

Dear Pete,

I still haven't managed to watch any of this week's O.C. or Top Chef episodes. I sort of think you know this, and are just teasing me by doing completely fictional recaps. Gay marines? Camp Glucose? Cheeto-litter appetizers? I wish.

I probably should have made time, though, because I am trying to cook a Mexican fiesta dinner and things aren't going so well. You're a good cook. How can I make my dulce de leche apple tart look less like an open diaper filled with steaming baby runoff?

Maybe I should give up and just serve this:

Doesn't it look dreamy?

Bon appetit,

Jenny

Turkey? Yes. Cold? Not Sure.

So maybe it was a bad idea to title this episode of The O.C. "The Cold Turkey": Do the producers really want to put the idea of quitting into viewers and -- more importantly -- Fox executives' heads?  I'm just saying. 

Overall, a slight improvement over the previous week's day's episode: slightly better deployment of Taylor (although it's still pretty clear that no one knows who she is, exactly), some resolution to the Volchok story, plenty of Sandy, good forward movement in the moribund Julie-Dr. Roberts non-romance.  As always, the meta-stuff fell way flat.  I actually physically cringed at the Grey's Anatomy reference.

Not much to say, otherwise.  Um, the homeless stuff was both a little awful and kind of refreshing: no one seems to have learned or grown from sharing a meal with Those Less Fortunate.  I think the gag about soup kitchens turning away Thanksgiving volunteers was funnier when Gilmore Girls did it.  I liked the stuff with Kaitlin's dog a lot. 

I guess the main event was the final showdown (we hope) between Ryan and Volchok.  What to say about that except gayer than ever?  Volchok's whole explanation of the crash really read like he was hurt about losing Ryan, not Marissa.  I used to think that this was a show about an embattled upper class fighting off the encroachments of the working and criminal classes.  That stuff is all still there, but now it seems to me that if there's a single thread running through all four seasons, it's that there are dire consequences to repressing your sexuality.  -- Peter

Down Mexico Way . . . Again

Another somewhat flat episode of The O.C., albeit with some bright spots.  The writers are really just going through the motions, I think.  We've already done the thing where Seth inexplicably tags along with Ryan in order to stop him from doing something incredibly stupid more times than I can count.  (I'm not sure what to say about the Marines who got Seth drunk and gave him a tattoo with a "gay vibe."  How are we supposed to read that?)

There was a different problem with the Brown stuff: it was desperately unfunny.  There's that feedback loop where desperation just makes jokes less funny, which makes writers and performers more desperate, which makes them less funny . . .  It's a shame, because I think that most of the cast is really rising above the material and you get flashes where they're actually able to take the material with them.   Chris Pratt, for instance, had some nice non-verbal business. 

I'm beginning to be sorry that I was so enthusiastic about Autumn Reeser joining the cast.  She's still really great, but so far this season, no one seems to know what to do with her.  Especially unfortunate was the slutty roommate conversation.  Not only was it offensive and weird, but it ran false to the character: Taylor was coming off terribly prudish for someone who banged the dean of discipline (oh God!) at her old school and -- am I remembering this correctly? -- engaged in a three-way on prom night with her date and a Korean pop star.  The pay-off -- the off-hand exchange with Summer at the airport -- was good, but not worth the crappy set-up.

The clothing drive subplot was easily the best of the night.  Melinda Clarke is one of the performers who manage to elevate the material and Willa Holland seems to deflate all the wacky! rich! people! business happening around her by refusing to engage.  Half the time she appears to be half-asleep.  Tia Carrere's presence  was really jarring, though.   

Camp Glucose

Dear Jenny,

What did you watch last night's Top Chef?  I did, in the middle of the night somewhere, after The O.C. (about which more later), Lost and Jericho.  (Jeez.  No wonder I never get anything else done.)  What were your favorite parts?   Mine was the girls at Camp Glucose (!) wanting to marry Sam, the "hot diabetic."  I also really enjoyed Michael's crappy amuse bouche.  Do you think a Cheeto stubbed out in a smashed up Snickers would be tasty?  It sure didn't look very appetizing. 

I'm not sure what to say about the final 10 minutes, in which the week's judging devolved into a cross between The Crucible and the Cultural Revolution, only with Splenda.   On one level it was amusing, particularly because I can't stand Betty, at all.  On another, though, it reminded me of how much I prefer Project Runway, where you don't usually see those sorts of antics -- at least not on screen -- and when you do, Tim Gunn cleans them up efficiently.   

What do you think?  Would the Salem Witch Hunt have occurred had Splenda been invented 300 years ago?  Would it have been worse, better or about the same?

Love,

-- Pete

Is It Good?

Dear Peter,

You should probably always ask "Is it good?" The Traigs don't mean to mislead, but sometimew we can't help ourselves, Vicky especially. Two cases in point:

Holidays, 2004, dinner at my sister's restaurant:

Me: Is the soup vegetarian?

Vicky: Yep!

Me: This is awful.

Vicky: You asked if it was vegetarian. You didn't ask if it was good.

Holidays, 2005, renting DVDs.

Me (holding Be Cool): You’ve seen this. Should we rent it?

Vicky: Yep!

Movie is so unwatchably bad we manage only thirty minutes of slack-jawed horror before turning it off.

Me: What the hell?

Vicky: You asked if it you should rent it. You didn't ask if it was good.

Anyway, I said you should read it. I didn't say it was good. I liked it, though. My two favorite parts: when the six year-old boy is in line to see the midnight vampire movie, smoking, and puts his cigarette out on his mother's derriere; and when the middle school principal acknowledges they've made some progress by getting the children to understand they can't smoke in class. As Vicky used to say: Quel Swayze!

-- Jenny

Dirty, Thieving . . .

Dear Jenny,

Last week, you recommended a book to me, Little Money Street: In Search of Gypsies and Their Music in the South of France by Fernanda Eberstadt.  I feel now that at that time, I should have asked a few questions.  For instance, "Is the book good?"

The first thing that struck me about the book was the shoddiness of the writing.  Eberstadt can barely string a sentence together.  There are many agreement problems.  She can't seem to stick to a single tense.  She sometimes seems to be inventing words.  Organizationally, the entire thing is a mess: both chapters and paragraphs begin and end seemingly at random.   She jumps back and forth through time without explanation.

These problems would be forgivable if she had a real story to tell, but unfortunately she never seems to have gotten all that close to her subjects.  She spends much of the book bragging about her friendship with a Romany family, but she never manages to cough up very many stories about them.  She visits an hypermarché with them, she has Palm Sunday dinner with them.  That's about it.  Her observations, furthermore, are not particularly revelatory.  In the end, it seems like for Eberstadt, what's really strange is not a matter of culture but of class.  She seems thunderstruck by the vulgarity involved in being poor.  Ultimately, I found myself relating more closely to the Meziani and Espinas families than I did to Eberstadt, my supposed guide to their world.

What did you think, though?  Am I being too harsh? 

Love,

-- Pete