Angels, Housewives, Wonderfalls, Teen Tips & Quick Takes
Do Angels Exist?
DH’s Nosy Neighbor: Murder, She Solves?
Wonderfalls: Too Good for TV?
Do Taffy's Tips Still Fly?
Happy, Happy, Joy! 5/1/09…There's a new show coming that will entertain you, lift your spirits, and make you think. And it’s on Fox! (I know, I know.) It's GLEE, debuting May 19, and it revolves around a teacher — Will Schuester, played by Broadway's Matthew Morrison (Link, Hairspray) - who has regrets about abandoning his own musical past and decides to reinvent his school's glee club. He wants to take glee club (which he optimistically names New Directions) to the national championship. But the only ones who sign up are four talented misfits. Against his better judgment, Will blackmails a popular football jock into “joining” (and how he obtains the stuff to do it is hilarious). Guess what? The jock has hidden musical talents he's been aching to unleash. GLEE takes all these show-biz dramedy clichés and puts a totally fresh spin on them. The music - and there's plenty -- fuels the plot and propels the action. The actors are all standouts, especially Morrison and the glee-club wannabes. GLEE is that rare show that lives up to its title: it fills you with pleasure, joy and satisfaction, and makes you, yup, GLEE-ful!
DESPERATE for More 4/24/09…It's always hard to say goodbye to someone you love, and when you feel that way about a character on a TV show, it usually means the writers and actors have done a superb job. Such was the case when DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES' Marc Cherry pulled out all the stops to say farewell to the complicated character of Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan). Despite the bad karma reported in the media — Cherry blamed Edie’s death on budget cuts, while Sheridan was openly critical of the decision — DH did everything right. It was largely a flashback episode, showing how Edie affected all her neighbors positively in various, occasionally life-altering situations (getting Lynette to fight her cancer, for example, instead of giving up)…despite Edie's notoriously abrasive personality. Framing the episode was a trip by the other residents of Wisteria Lane to deliver Edie's ashes to her son at college. It was funny, dramatic, comic, sad and sentimental, but never overdone — a rare accomplishment. So long, Edie; you were a great dame.
Orson Hodge (Kyle MacLachlan) has done some pretty awful things in his four seasons on DH, the worst of which was, no doubt, running over neighbor Mike Delfino (James Denton) and framing him for murder. He did atone for that with jail time, though we missed it thanks to the series' flashing five years into the future at the beginning of its current (fifth) season. DH remains TV’s top scripted drama, and it's characters like Orson that keep viewers coming back. He returned to Wisteria Lane and slipped into some bad habits, culimnating in accidentally causing Edie Britt’s car accident, which led to her death. Bree loves him, but her tightly wound and moral persona will only give Orson so much rope, so she’s decided to divorce him (albeit without telling him and behind his back). This makes for lots of upcoming good, soapy drama for the pair. I'm glad, because there's something appealing and vulnerable in Orson despite all his misdeeds, due largely, in part, to his nuanced portrayer, MacLachlan.
Tony, Tony, Tony
4/17/09…Can 24's Tony Almeida get any more conflicted? I doubt it. He was supposed to be dead at the end of season five (2005-'06). But on 24, corpses have a way of reanimating. So Almeida showed up very much alive at the beginning of this season. Was he a good guy, or a bad guy? Well, kinda both. He was a rogue agent working against the government. Then he was a good guy helping out Jack and his old CTU buds, Chloe and Bill. Almeida disappeared for few episodes, and then came back at Jack's request. So, still a good guy. But once Almeida saved the country from a potentially horrific biotoxin threat, the FBI took him into custody (that pesky mercenary past); when they were attacked, instead of trying to help, Almeida choked agent Larry Moss to death. Bad, bad guy. I love 24; it's one of the few series left for me that remains appointment television. But one more flip-flop and I'm going to find and terminate Almeida myself!
Idle GOSSIP
4/3/09…GOSSIP GIRL has me, and its plots, spinning in circles. Serena and Dan break up, then get back together, then break up. But they're still friends…I think. Dan's little sis, Jenny, wants to be part of the upper-class clique, then has a meltdown and sabotages a Sweet 16 party thrown for her by Serena to do just that. Blair, in a frenzy because she didn't get into the college of her choice, tries to sleep with Chuck, and when that fails, sleeps with Carter, abandons him, and ends up with Nate, who broke up with her at the beginning of the series. Chuck is a bad boy (anyone remember that he tried to rape Little J in the first episode?), then he's kinda okay helping out BF Nate, then he's bad, but he's sexy, so who cares? All the while, he and Blair continue their excruciating “Will-they-or-won't-they?” dance. Dan's friend Vanessa is into Nate, then she's not, then she wants him, then he insults her by changing their summer plans, then she sleeps with Chuck. But just for the sex. And to top it all off, Veronica Mars, er, Gossip Girl, puts every bit of the action on her must-read Web site. It's all-crazy, all the time. I'm old, but I still remember high school, and because I lived in a small town, there was plenty of gossip and drama. But the kids didn't suddenly change character and direction at a moment's notice. GG's writers are still trying to figure out where the series is going at the end of its second year -- never a good sign. XOXO
BATTLESTAR Fantastica
3/27/09…I've followed the ragtag group of spaceships led by the mighty Galactica since the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA debuted in 1978. Perhaps I'm showing my age, but things were a bit less complicated for Starbuck et al 20 years ago. There were humans looking for Earth, and there was an evil, reptilian race called the Cylons who created clunky metallic robots (also called Cylons) to kill the humans. And that was pretty much it. The newer version had a few more, er, complications for our human counterparts, i.e., humanoid Cylons capable of infinite replication and apparently varied loyalties. But most of the Cylon leaders still wanted to kill off the humans, and had been involved in various battles for dominance on different planets and in space. The finale erased all my doubts about where the series was headed, and ended with real closure for the patient fan. There were those who complained the religious nature of the solution to several major plot threads was too literally “deus ex machina.” For example: Was Kara an angel and is that why she disappeared at the end?” Ditto Baltar and his Virtual Six -- the ones “imagined” by the real Baltar and Six? Was God thus ultimately responsible for leading the humans to our Earth and planting young Hera there 150,000 years ago as the mother of all humans? Question for those people: Did you conveniently forget that religious themes and motifs have been prominent in both Galactica series, especially the second one, since their inceptions? The finale addressed everything I'd been waiting for all season, especially the reveal that Tory had killed the Chief's beloved wife, Cally, which I'd been bugging my fellow editors about. Not only was it revealed, it turned out to be the linchpin on which the finale's plot hinged. Frakking fantastic!
Hardly a DRAG
3/27/09…The fiercest reality show out there at the moment is not AMERICAN IDOL, THE AMAZING RACE or THE BIGGEST LOSER; it’s RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE. What could be fiercer than nine drag queens competing on the same stage (and in the same dressing room!) to be “America's next drag superstar”? Since I asked, the entire party is presided over by Drag Queen Mother RuPaul. Happy? I was. From start to finish, the show provided laughter, tears, bitchiness and drama galore; scandal, surprises, and, perhaps most surprising of all, a whole lotta touching moments. There were two that stood out, and both had to do with an issue that is still slamming the gay (and nongay) communities worldwide, but one that receives little press anymore: HIV/AIDS. One of the contestants, Ongina, revealed, after winning the weekly contest (which meant he was free from elimination the following week) that he’d been living with HIV for the past two years, and broke down. There wasn't a dry eye in the house, just as there wasn't when another queen, Bebe, talked about the devastation AIDS has wrought on his home country of Cameroon, and that he hoped, if he was the winner, to help improve the horrible situation. Bebe did win. And throughout, RuPaul, in drag and out, proved that the ethic expressed in his first hit single, “Supermodel” (“You better work!”), was not just a phrase. He worked the show, he brought in guest judges like Bob Mackie and special guests like Charo and Tori Spelling, and he was father/mother/sister/brother/confessor to all nine contestants. RuPaul and company put the real back in reality. Rumors are that Logo will renew DRAG RACE for a second season. I’ve got my acrylic nails crossed. In the meantime: You go, girls!
Text © 2009 by Michael Karol; pictures copyright their respective owners.
Here's some of the non-Lucy-related writing I've done for various magazines and newspapers over the years. Click the links to access the stories; then scroll down for some Quick takes on prime time shows. I'll add more when possible. Also, check out my blog over at soapoperaweekly.com.
This story centers on whether or not the heavenly messengers we call "angels" do, in fact, exist in our world. Plus: A Talk with Angel 'Expert' Dr. Doreen Virtue. Both are slightly longer versions of the ones that appeared in the Spirit Guide, a special digest-size magazine about spirituality that my company published, and was on newsstands in winter 2004-'05.
Kathryn Joosten is one of those solid character actors whom you see on TV or film and think, “Where did I see her before” In Joosten’s case, it could have been any one of more than 20 films and 75-plus TV series. But most people these days know her as neighbor Karen McCluskey on Desperate Housewives. Here she talks about her role as not-just-the-nosy-old-neighbor, and the series’ upcoming finale. [This is the uncut interview; a shorter version ran in the May 26, 2009 issue of Soap Opera Weekly.]
An exclusive interview with the co-creator of the late, lamented TV show Wonderfalls, Bryan Fuller, ran in my daily gig, (Soap Opera Weekly) but the full version never made it to print. Now you can celebrate this quirky, engrossing, too-quickly-cancelled TV series on DVD and explore Fullers' original vision. [Fuller is still making TV magic with Heroes.]
This story never made it to the "tween" magazine my company publishes every other month, Pixie, but it's a fun look at the way things change — or don't change — in the unique world of adults and peers giving advice to troubled, or just plain frustrated, younger teens. [Get a copy of the original book, pictured at left, if you can; it's a hoot.]
Quick Takes