By Steve Rhodes

Readers may have noticed that I have a strange fascination with The Hills. Watching last night’s episode, I was struck once again by the odd fact that I actually sort of like Lauren Conrad, who isn’t at all someone I normally would befriend or choose to spend time with at all. But – and yes, I realize this is a TV show and she’s been edited into a character – she seems well-grounded (especially compared to everyone else on the show, with the possible exception of wise Whitney) and . . . she has integrity.
At least this is my theory. Lauren has standards. She’s not mean or manipulative like those around here, but those around her being the kind of people they are, well, they tend to let her down. Will any friend be true to Lauren?
That friggin’ Audrina.

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Posted on November 25, 2008

By Kathryn Ware

Our look back on the debut season of Ironside continues.
Episode: The Monster of Comus Towers
Airdate: 16 November 1967
Plot: It’s a dark and stormy night when thieves break into a corporate art exhibit on the umpteenth floor of a high-rise office building to steal a rare and valuable religious painting. An infrared security system, one murdered security guard, and a suspicious candy wrapper (“Chocolate Charlie – a meal in a mouthful”) lead Ironside to the simple deduction that this was an inside job.

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Posted on November 20, 2008

By Marilyn Ferdinand

These pages have dealt with TV theme songs from time to time. It’s time to add another strong, new entry to the body of proof that those of us who treasure these recurring music videos with meaningful lyrics have a lot to celebrate: True Blood.
What do you say about a television series set in the Deep South that stars a Canadian by way of New Zealand, an Englishman, an Australian, and assorted other people who not only didn’t grow up south of the Mason-Dixon line, but may never even have heard of it? You say, it better have someone around there who knows what they’re talking about.
It does. True Blood, the HBO series that premiered this year, is the brainchild of Alan Ball, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of American Beauty (1999) and director of the acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under. Ball came upon Charlaine Harris’ The Southern Vampire Mysteries, a series of books set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, and decided they would be a great basis for a TV series – one to which he could bring his Southern and gay sensibilities. The Atlanta native managed to snag Canadian/Kiwi Oscar winner Anna Paquin to play Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress who falls in love with Bill Compton (Englishman Stephen Moyer), a Civil War era vampire in an America in which vampires are now recognized citizens with legal rights and protections.

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Posted on November 18, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

Often I spend at least a certain portion of my Saturdays watching really bad TV – as opposed to the slightly bad TV I watch during the week. One difference is that I often watch retread movies on Saturdays that I never ventured out to the theater to see in their day – and never would have even if I had the chance. It’s a way to numb my brain over the weekend – sort of like alcohol.
So that’s how I found myself watching Patch Adams and The Break-Up within hours of each other. Go ahead, make fun of me. I don’t have much of a defense. Both movies were pretty bad. At the same time, both movies could’ve worked. Let’s take a look.

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Posted on November 17, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

It’s quite possible that the second season of Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew is the greatest thing ever aired on television in all of human history. Let’s run down the patients.
1. Gary Busey. Dr. Gary, as his castmates have taken to derisively calling him, is under the illusion that he is here as a “participant, not an addict,” meaning that he thinks he’s a counselor, not a patient. Not only is he a patient, he’s a whack job – Jeff Conaway times ten. Watch him play alpha male politics with the guys and creep out the women. His Buseyisms (first spun on I’m With Busey) are actually pretty good, but bear in mind that he has “angelic interventions.”
2. Jeff Conaway. Back for a return engagement and, really, not that funny anymore. Not that he was someone to laugh at, but he was at times a figure of comic relief in the first season, even as he was tragic. Now he’s just grating and, at times, obviously mugging for the camera. “911!’ he’ll yell when he claims he’s being held against his will. His girlfriend is even more aggravating, and it turns out that whatever degree of gold-digging she is up to is transcended by her own demons.
3. Steven Adler. The original drummer of Guns ‘n’ Roses whom the band fired for being such a drug-addled fuck-up. “I just want my friend back” he wails in the opener, looking at a photo of him and Slash. Adler is far, far gone and makes a life-saving visit to the emergency room before we even get started at the Pasadena Recovery Center, but a couple episodes in and he seems to be not only cleaning up nicely but surprisingly cooperative, humorous and insightful.

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Posted on November 11, 2008