MTV has a new show that airs in the lucky slot after The Hills on Monday nights. It's called The Paper and it follows the leaders of the high school newspaper at the largest high school in America, Cypress Bay High School. It's kinda the anti-Laguna Beach in theory. A group of high school kids centered around an academic focus who clearly aren't the traditional popular kids who spend 85% of their time at the beach (like the Laguna kids).
The Cypress Bay Circuit's first issue of this school year in PDF
The show does a pretty good job dealing with the mechanics of the paper and that is somewhat interesting. Where the show really succeeds is portraying the painful cruelties that exist in all levels of high school/teen culture. I think we tend to think that is reserved for just the "shallow" popular kids.
The star of the show is Amanda Lorber, who is chosen Editor in Chief in a stiff competition in the first episode. She is a intense overachiever possible goody two-shoes. She is a real life Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon's character from Election), but the thing about Amanda that makes her such a star is she is not just a overachieving goody three shoes she is absolutely bursting with personality. Amanda is unabashedly a ham, dorky in very joyful ways, and neurotic is hilarious ways (writing self motivating post it notes, picking her outfits for the next week).
Amanda is also the target of the vast majority of the cruelty of The Paper. She's a total outcast from the main social crew. They are always always always talking crap about her. It has to be because of her overachieving and they seem to simply think they are cooler than her. It's a real shame because Amanda is the real deal. She's not trying to hide who she is and she is being punished for it. She actually seems to deal with it pretty well consider.
Amanda and her BFF singing The Facebook Song. I actually found them singing a different Facebook somewhere else on the internet! TWO FACEBOOK SONGS!
Some more Amanda Lorber love:
Four Four
Videogum
Here's one from her personal youtube channel where Amanda parodies youtube talking heads:
Boy do I love the reality television. Love love love it. Watch a lot of it. Enjoy it. Pretend that I am able to glean important things about society and my place in it from watching it. The Hills, Survivor, Beauty and the Geek, Top Chef, LA Ink, Ax Men. All kinds. Don't get me wrong, I do have standards. I have stopped watching both Flavor of Love and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.
So, I'm always on the lookout for new delicious nuggets of my favorite kind of television fruit. Somewhere I saw the description for this somewhat new show, Curl Girls on the LOGO network. A Laguna Beach/Hills style show following 6 lesbian surfers. BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE. I mean, seriously folks, that is a truly good idea for a reality show. It has something for everyone. All lesbian cast! An interesting focus (so cal lesbian surf culture) so it's not just all about interpersonal drama. The beach! I immediately told my TiVo to tape an upcoming mini marathon of the show.
When I sat down to watch this eagerly awaited beautiful artificiality reality quickly set in. This show was all idea and no execution. It seemed to be formed in a brainstorming session without any idea how to really pull it off. My main beef is really that some of the girls had like ZERO surf experience. Like they found one lesbian who could surf and asked her "do you know other surfing lesbians" and she was like "ummmm....well i know one lady who lives by the beach." It's also clear that both of the girls who had zero surf experience were clearly chosen for their drama potential. They are the 2 cast members who are focused on the most because of their cheap and easy romantic and arguing dramas. It felt cheap. Instead of focusing on the characters who actually had ability and love for surfing those characters weren't developed at all and were just used for legitimacy.
The show barely kept my attention through its 6 episode run. I think the lesson to be learned is that just because The Hills is successful with its vapid drama that doesn't need to be the focus of shows with similar formats. Utilize the possible intrigue in your own good ideas (lesbian surf culture). Don't get me wrong, I won't look away if you keep pumping out middling reality shows cause I'm easy!
I watched the end of some fantastic television this weekend. First was the end of the epic four and a half hour tennis match between Roger Federer and Janko Tipsarevic. Tipsarevic was the unknown underdog (ranked 49th) going against the reigning Lord of Tennis and the match was an epic back and forth battle down to the wire. There is a full review on the New York Times.
Next was the last few freezing minutes of the NY Giants vs. the Green Bay Packers. The game was tied 20 to 20, and the Giants were attempting a field goal in the final four seconds of the game. If they made it they'd be going to the Super Bowl. They missed.
So it's overtime, where the first team to score wins. There is a coin toss, which goes to the Packers. Things are looking grim. A interception and a beautiful redeeming field goal and the Giants made it! Epic sport moment.
Finally was the final episode of Amazing Race, which sucked me in as they ended their around-the-world race in Anchorage Alaska. The show is edited to build tension, which you just have to accept, but it was clear that the Ron and Christina were the early favorites. It came down to one roadblock where they had to complete an overly complicated puzzle. This was where "the hippies" (TK and Rachel) took the lead and went on to win the game. Reality Blurred makes a great point: "Alaska's a beautiful place, but the best location the producers could find for the finish line was a dirt airport covered with weeds? Seriously?"
All three of these were incredibly satisfying and tense ends of things I don't normally watch. I'm sure it was just happenstance that I was able to see three good endings (imagine only seeing the last episode of Lost), but it seems especially remarkable that all three were unscripted events. The Tipsarevic/Federer match felt like watching tennis history. The Giants/Packers game was not as important to the whole of football, but was huge to Giants fans. Least important was the win by TK and Rachel, but even that reinforced the "Never Give Up" theme of The Amazing Race.
It reminds me of Marshall McLuhan recommendation to decide if you want to read a whole book by just reading page 69. By watching just the ends of these events I am much more inclined to watch Federer and much more inclined to watch Tipsarevic. I will be rooting for the underdog Giants in the Super Bowl, and I'll check out next season of the Amazing Race.
Kottke.org sometimes blogs about HBO's The Wire and while I haven't read all of it (still watching Season 4), I thought people who are up to date would enjoy checking it out.
Originally posted on North
When people find out I'm from Alaska, there are some expected questions that I can readily speak to -- Is it really light/dark all the time? Have you seen the northern lights? How cold does it get? -- but there's one question that has come up regularly for which I haven't had an answer: Is Alaska like the TV show "Northern Exposure?"
After watching the first few episodes of season one on DVD, I'm beginning to formulate an answer.
The Premise
The first task was to take on the show's premise. Joel Fleischman is a Jewish doctor from New York who agrees to work in Alaska because the state will repay his school loans.
Joel: I mean do you have any idea what it costs to go through medical school? I mean, a lot! I know what you're thinking, scholarship, right? Let's face it, Jewish doctors are not exactly an endangered species. ... So, seventy five scholarship applications later, seventy four turn-downs, only one comes through. Alaska... [T]he state agreed to finance my medical education to the tune of one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, and in return? I agreed to be their indentured slave for the next four years.
Joel has signed a contract to practice medicine in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city. The state does have a student loan repayment program for medical personnel, but it looks like it is currently limited to students participating in the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (WWAMI) medical education program. The Alaska legislature considered a bill to establish loan repayment programs for a wider range of students, but it looks as though it died in committee.[1]
The National Health Service Corps, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has a loan repayment program for medical personnel who agree to work in under-served (mostly rural) communities. They have many opportunities in Alaska, but the few in Anchorage are scored low, meaning the loan repayment is less.[2]
Verdict: The show's writers appear to be ahead of their time. As of the show's air date, Alaska did not have a loan repayment program for med students outside the WWAMI program, but the state appears to be considering one. There is a federal program, which I assume existed as of the air date, so it's plausible that Joel's service in Alaska is tied to a med school loan repayment program.
Where is Cicely?
Now that it's been established that Joel's motive for going to Alaska is at least plausible, let's examine where he might be. Cicely, Alaska, is fictional, but through clues given throughout the show, we can try to locate where in the Last Frontier it may be located.
Our first clue is that it's a "bus ride from Anchorage." This may not seem very helpful for people outside Alaska, but since most of the state is inaccessible by road, it's actually very helpful.
When Joel gets off the bus, the road is paved, which is also helpful, as it eliminates pretty much everything north of Fairbanks as a possibility.
Later in the first episode, we get another important clue. Maurice mentions that folks traveled from Ninilchik, "300 miles away as the crow flies." Though Maurice is a former Astronaut who is presumably accustomed to precision measurements, I'm guessing this statement is a casual estimation, so we'll give him a 25-mile margin of error on either side. If the actual distance were beyond that, I think he would have rounded to 250 or 350 miles. This helps narrow it down, but not as much as one would think.
This region includes all of Highway 1 from Fairbanks to Tok, the northern half of the Richardson Highway as well as a good chunk of Highway 3 near Fairbanks. We're going to need a little more information.
The fictional town is located in Arrowhead County, which would be helpful in any other state but Alaska: There are no counties in Alaska. The state is divided into regions called "boroughs," and none of them are named "Arrowhead."[3] Not to mention about half of the land is outside any of the 16 boroughs.
In the DVD menu, Cicely's welcome sign places the elevation at 6,572 feet -- or about 1.25 miles. Unfortunately, in our range of possible locations, the highest elevation accessible by road is about 1,200 meters, or about 4,000 feet. So we'll ignore this criteria.
Other clues that might help pinpoint the possible location of Cicely have been scarce. I haven't watched beyond the sixth episode, though, so perhaps I'll run across some more clues. For now, I'm inclined to believe Cicely is somewhere between Tok and Delta Junction. Depending on how much credit you're willing to give the writers, this ambiguity may be intentional. If it were easy to pinpoint exactly where the town was, it would be easy to say there should/shouldn't be a mountain/river/lake/road/etc. Since we don't know exactly where the town is, it's a little easier to take those details on faith and focus on the story instead of the details.
Other items
Weather: In the first episode, Joel says "The median temperature [of Anchorage] is only five degrees lower than French Lick, Indiana." I'm not sure which almanac he was using, but he should consider buying a new one. The chart below shows the range between the average low and average high temperatures throughout the year for French Lick, Indiana, and Anchorage, Alaska. Even if you use the Celcius scale, Anchorage's temps are colder by more than five degrees.
Daylight: In episode two, Dr. Fleischman visits Maggie to give her some pain medication. It's 11 p.m., according to the dialogue, but the sky is pitch black. This doesn't track. If they are as far south as Tok, sunset in July is around 11 p.m. -- if they are closer to Delta Junction, sunset in July is 20-30 minutes later -- according to this sunrise/sunset calculator. (Note: We don't for sure that it's July, but we do know that it's summer. The days are a bit shorter in August, but longer in June, so I picked the middle.)
On the more accurate side, Joel is seen drinking an Alaskan Amber in the bar. Though most self-respecting bars would have it on draft, it's nice to see a local product included in the program.
Conclusion
Despite some inaccuracies and ambiguities, the overall feel of the show is right on. Northern Exposure is one of the best representations of Alaska life available in a fictional TV show or movie (that I've seen). We'll see if there are any changes as I watch more episodes.
[1] This summary of SB 32 says the bill would "establish a loan reimbursement program for registered nurses and doctors who are trained outside the WWAMI program." I take that to mean there is currently no state-sponsored reimbursement program for students outside the WWAMI program. Status of SB 32.
[2] Thanks, Fiona, for the NHSC links.
[3] This is a common factual error in movies and TV shows set in Alaska.
I was watching the Colbert Report last night and he mentioned that it was TV Turnoff Week and everyone watching was a hypocrite. I've been aware of TV Turnoff Week in the past, but I always thought it was some Adbusters campaign. Turns out it's the Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness, a Washington D.C. non-profit led by Robert Kesten.
Robert Kesten says, "Excessive use of screens has led, in the West, to obesity, illiteracy, antisocial behaviors and violence." And yet, we is also a documentary filmmaker and the president and founder of The Director's View Film Festival.
To be fair, TV Turnoff Week is directed towards kids. But they have expanded the "TV" to include computer screens, and it seems like in this age of DVR and the time-shifted viewing we are no longer the captives to television that we were back in 1995 when this crazy idea started. And this idea is crazy! Kesten says, "Doctors recommend no more than 1-2 hours of overall screen-time per day... we think everyone can live with that." (Remember he is including computers as screens!)
Robert Kesten needs to specify that this is about the kids. The website says that TV Turnoff Week is for "Children and adults." Limiting screen time for kids, sure, who is going to argue with that? But for adults... Sorry Kesten, I work on the computer and I have a filmfest to attend this weekend and Heroes is back on and LOST is really good and I have some great NetFlix waiting for me and I still need to play Super Paper Mario. I don't consider these things a waste of my time or antisocial. The warm glow of the screen is a creative inspiration and canvas. I think rather than demonizing TV we need to teach kids how to use it better. Screw TV Turnoff Week, what we need is national "Create TV Week".
Rarely do so many of my interests combine into a single piercing point of light like the laser that is the just announced MySpace/Mark Burnett political reality show concept for Independent. The catch is brilliant: While there is a $1 million cash prize, the winner can't keep the money. The prize has to be used to fund a legitimate run for the White House or be given to a PAC or political cause. Contestants in the show interact with the public via MySpace.
While there is no TV Network partner yet, being that MySpace is owned by FOX I'm not sure that isn't much of an issue. Television, reality show, politics, Mark Burnett, social networks... I'm very excited about this show, and I can think of only one man who needs to enter:
Rich Rodgers
Remember Rich Rodgers? He is the man who said, "I challenge Kyle Chisek to a cage match. We can decide who the strong mayor should be." I think now is the time for Rich Rodgers to stand tall and show America what he is made of. I am urging Rich Rodgers to enter this competition and jump start his political career! (Note: Rich Rodgers now has a mustache, and looks somewhat like the man in this photo.)
When asked about his potential application, Rich Rodgers responded, "Would I challenge all 25 Democrat & Republican 2008 Presidential Candidates to a Winner-takes-the-Presidency $49.95 Pay-Per-View Battle Royale? Yes. My Prediction? Pain."
Clearly this is a man who understands not just the intricacies of the political arena, but also the ever-fickle terrain of the modern media landscape. How is it that Rich Rodgers is the name on the tip of everyone's tongue? As you might expect, Rich Rodgers has the answer, "The groundswell of support is awesome. Sure, I'm pretty pumped, but I'm not surprised. Violence and sex sell, which pretty much explains my appeal. I think it has something to do with a reaction against what Max Weber termed the 'iron cage', wherein we are culturally constrained by various manifestations of innerweltliche asceticism, yet physically and emotionally yearn for satisfaction of our impulses and our will to power. In a nutshell, America has an appetite for destruction, and I'm the man to satisfy that appetite."
The mysteries that swirl around Rich Rodgers are fading, and he credits his family for teaching him the values of being a superstar. "I was raised by my parents to always put my fans first. My pop always told me, 'When you see a million faces, rock them all. Don't live a life of regret like me'. You see, when he was my age, he only rocked a little more than half of them. Opportunity doesn't always knock twice. It's painful when he gets that far off look in his eye."
Grounded in family values, politically sharp, and a media darling, it doesn't seem like there is much that could stop Rich Rodgers from attaining victory. "The timing is good. I just turned 35, yet I still have all my teeth. I remember some of what I learned in college, but not so much that I'll get bogged down considering different sides of a complex issue. I run fast, and at 250 lbs, I'm heavier than ever, and force equals mass times acceleration," he said. "Ultimately, though, I need to have a conversation with my family. Which is tough, because I can't understand a word my four month old daughter says."
At UrbanHonking we are fond of saying, "Television is dead." By that we mean "the system of television", not the content itself. With iTunes, TiVo, bittorrent, DVDs, and tv-links.co.uk the idea of sitting down to see what is on is an antiquated way to . But TV? TV has risen like a phoenix from the laugh-track ashes of "Must See TV!"
And so we revive Warm Glow, the blog about about TV, because TV is more important and interesting than it has been in a very long time. We start with a round-table wrap-up of some of the shows that UrHo is watching.
30 Rock
Curt: This is one of the funniest shows on TV.
Steve: Everyone knows what this show is, right? Tina Fey (former head writer/weekend update host on SNL, writer and star of Mean Girls) has a sitcom now on NBC about the backstage life at a sketch comedy show. I watched an episode or two and enjoyed it but wasn't fully hooked. This show unfolds and gets better and better with each episode. It is very possibly the smartest show on TV and sometimes DUMB TOO! The greatest combo ever. Everyone has probably heard that Alec Baldwin is great on this show, which is 100% true, but I am equally pumped up by and excited every week to see Tracy Morgan. What a star. He's such a weird awkward actor in a way that is mind breakingly funny to me. Tina Fey is a genius and actually a talented actor. I love her. I leave you with 2 words: Dr. Spaceman.
ANTM
Liz: Half of me loves this show for the show itself, and half of me loves it for the brilliant recaps FourFour does. I fully expected to be disappointed this year, because how could the show get any better? But then they pull out some fantastic shit like Russian mail order brides and trotting girls out on Salvation Army runways and I fall in love all over again.
Best Week Ever
Steve: Avoid the gossip blogs, and just watch this show instead. It recaps pop culture for the week with talking head comedians saying funny stuff. As a description it sounds pretty dumb to me, but IT'S ACTUALLY VERY FUNNY. Some really good comedians, this show has been somewhat of a launching pad for talented folks in the last year or so (Rachael Harris has gone on to be in For Your Consideration and the brand new TV Show Notes from the Underbelly. Aziz Ansari, Rob Heubel, and Paul Shceer all now are in the new MTV sketch comedy show Human Giant). I really love Mr. Show alumni Paul F. Tompkins and Doug Benson (who has a pretty funny podcast called I Love Movies). It's a really great way to catch up with all the TV you missed, memes that slipped by you, and gossip not worth reading but maybe worth hearing jokes about.
The Dog Whisperer
Steve: Cesar Milan is powerful. Cesar Milan saves (dog) lives. Cesar Milan is The Dog Whisperer. This show is the most uplifting on television. It's totes feel good, and nothing is better to put on when you are just feeling sorta blah. Cesar is an incredibly kind dude who rehabilitates problem dogs. He makes the dogs and the owners happy with a striking power he has over these animals that is awe inspiring. So much good talk of energy, also the strength of a pack.
Friday Night Lights
Curt: I admit to having preconceived notions about how I would not like this show because it's about high school and football -- two things I don't much care for. However, it's less about those two things than characters and relationships in general.
Heroes
Liz: Great characters with great pacing, what's NOT to love? I am constantly comparing it to Lost because while I like the shows for a lot of the same reasons, so far Heroes is doing a much better job of answering mysterious questions and keeping the plot moving right along. This is the best possible show to start the week with. I credit it entirely for making me look forward to the end of the weekend.
Curt: This series premier didn't grab me like I was hoping, but it certainly has grown on me. I consistently look forward to it every week -- well, not any more since it's on a break until April. I'm really drawn to the characters of Hiro/Ando and the Petrelli brothers. I like the dichotomy of how both pairs have someone who is impulsive and almost blindly devoted to their "path" and another who is more cautious and pragmatic. I think everyone struggles with maintaining a balance between those two characteristics.
High Stakes Poker
Josh: Through the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour, poker fans have gotten to know the best and the most entertaining players in the poker world, but they're usually mixed in with plenty of random scrubs. High Stakes Poker gets these players together at one table, and has them play for huge amounts of cash money. It's not a tournament, where the chip values are basically meaningless. It's a cash game, one in which fifty or a hundred thousand dollars is a perfectly reasonable bet. It's occasionally intense, but also frequently easy-going and jovial. The commentary stays out of the way whenever possible, allowing the players' banter to carry the show.
The Hills
Steve: A true guilty pleasure. This is a spin-off of Laguna Beach. It's a reality show focused on people in their early 20s in Los Angeles, trying to figure out their lives, love and business. The first season on The Hills was pretty okay, but not special. The just completed second season was FANTASTIC. RICH BEAUTIFUL YOUNG PEOPLE TV DRAMA the way it is supposed to be. There was a villain like never before seen in Spencer Pratt, the boyfriend of one of the stars Heidi, who was creepy in every possible way. He was creepy to look at with weird very fake looking veneers on his teeth (although, I think he is the son of The Dentist to the Stars, so he might just have supernatural oral health). He is always scheming in an evil evil way. He is manipulative of everyone around him, and maybe the fakest seeming human ever. This season was the epic tale of Lauren trying to let her best friend Heidi know that she was dating a total creep, and Heidi pulling away from her friend for the love of a weird creep. Plus some other really amazing things like Lauren's lovable co-worker Whitney falling on a live national TV show the first time she models. GREAT TRASH!
Lost
Liz: In spite of my aforementioned irritation at the show for dragging its feet and getting lazy with all the plot points they spent so much time setting up in the first seasons, I am still a Lost loyalist. For now. I've invested so much time and energy into the show already, I have to stick around for the payoff! But if Lost fails me the way Alias failed me, so help me, Abrams is OFF the Christmas card list.
Curt: The third season hasn't been living up to the bar set by the first two. The pace has slowed, but the characters are still interesting and there are many questions I still want answered, so I keep watching. I don't follow all the crazy theories happening online, so I've just barely scratched the surface of what is going on with the show, but the hour of suspense punctuated by humorous moments keeps me coming back week after week.
My Name is Earl
Liz: Again, this never ceases to be funny for me. It's the perfect mix of in-your-face humor and intelligence, with just the right touch of earnestness. One of the smartest comedies out there.
The NBA on TNT
Josh: Two words: Charles Barkley. Charles tells it like it is! He is unafraid to say whatever pops into his head, and he stands by it, too. He doesn't treat NBA stars like gods in the least -- if he thinks someone is playing like crap, he says so, in so many words. Barkley usually operates from the studio, but one night he was called in to do game commentary when the regular guy was sick. That night, he was ripping on the oldest referee in the league, saying he was the guy who brought down Moses' stone tablets, and the like. Charles ended up challenging the ref to a footrace, which was accepted, and which played out on national TV during the All-Star Weekend. (Barkley carried his considerable girth to a narrow victory.)
The Office (US)
Liz: Love. I love it all. I love that Michael's character is so flawed and terrible, but then there's this added layer of humanity when he does stuff like show up to Pam's art show. The beauty of this show is in the details and the subtlety of the actors' facial expressions and their sad quirks that make them endearing. Plus, it's just funny as shit.
Josh: This show was lucky to make it past its first season, when they were running off the BBC series' scripts. But it's great fun now, and the only currently airing comedy that I watch.
Skins
Steve: As I watched the credits roll on the final episode of the first season of this new British teen drama I was already contemplating its place among the all time great seasons of television. It's such a special show that could probably never air in the US due to its language and subject matter (drugs, sex) other than on HBO or Showtime, but then again it would probably fit in with the high quality shows on those premium channels (Six Feet Under, etc.). The show is really amazing mix of Larry Clark-esque frankness but a with a lighter tone and a sharp sense of humor. It's an ensemble cast of diverse teens who are played by a really solid group of young actors (including the kid from About a Boy, who is now a hunk). This show brings some characters to television that have never been shown before like the amazing Cassie who battles eating disorders and is totally magical in her lost in the clouds vibe also Chris who is abandoned by his parents, addicted to male enhancement pills and somehow woos his psychology teacher and remains lovable while being as stupid as an 17 year old can be. Plus, the show branded itself in promos and some scenes with some music by Portland's The Gossip!
Survivor
Josh: Survivor's structure is pretty formulaic. Even the show's surprises (ooh, the tribes are merging!) are predictable. But the personalities are not, and Survivor's structure (not to mention terrific casting) allows for endless variety in the characters' behavior. I guess that is why it still on after 14 seasons.
The Wire
Josh: This is pure escapism, I guess. I don't think it's necessarily the best show ever, which seems to be the critical buzz. But I like how much it's rooted in Baltimore, a city I never previously thought of at all, and certainly wouldn't have had a sense of what's uniquely Baltimore about it. The Wire's big innovation must be the way they follow characters wherever they end up, instead of anchoring the show firmly in a particular setting.
Some Other Shows
Steve's other shows that he liked and thought about writing about:
Big Love, The Girls Next Door, Adventures in Hollyhood, Human Giant, This American Life, Great Hotels/Passport to Europe, the Bravo Reality shows Project Runway/Top Chef/Top Design/Shear Genius/Work Out, Entourage, The Amazing Race.
While HD channel searching last night I came across something that made me shout out loud in excitement--"We have ESPN2-HD!! Months ago I had contemplated spending hundreds of dollars to outfit the Hott Denn with DirecTV so we could watch every World Cup game in HD (Comcast was only carrying ESPN-HD and ABC-HD). Now I had received my wish for full High Definition coverage of my favorite television event, and I am actually impressed with Comcast for following through with this demand from my fellow football fans out there.
* Hott Denn High Def World Cup Television
Exhibit A: Bloomberg Channel
Exhibit B: Bloomberg Channel on 1/4 of the screen while planning out new things to record is still legible!
