Recent and Random TV Thoughts

INCLUDED: Survivorman, Rock of Love, The Office (on TBS), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and this year's Must-See-TV in the Rusty household.

Survivorman
I've broadcast my general disdain for Survivorman's Les Stroud, and my general preference towards Man vs. Wild when choosing survival TV. I've also been aware of, and discussed, the recent discovery of Man vs. Wild's more, shall we say, produced nature in putting together a broadcast. And, in the interest of on-going integrity (and filling bored late-night hours with whatever's free On Demand), I've taken the opportunity to re-review Survivorman, particularly with an emphasis towards his new season and how things are going with his show now.

I have to say, the show is much, much better this season. I credit that to a couple of things. First, Survivorman is branching out to new places (most of his shows in the past were in the colder areas of North America), including African deserts and his very own "Lost at Sea/Deserted Island" episode (which, it seemed to me, was an attempt to out-do Bear Grylls' similar show which was on a deserted Hawaiian beach and later took to sea upon a pre-made and re-constructed raft).

Stroud still talks too much about lugging his cameras around, the pain of dealing with filming his own work, and issues with camera performance (such as discussing how humidity is affecting them, and so on). If I have to hear again how he has to lug around 60 pounds of camera gear, I'm going to scream. They should just do a little intro bit at the beginning of every show with some deep-voiced guy talking about Stroud, how he goes out alone, how he's his own cameraman, and how sad his life is having to carry around 60 pounds of camera gear. Then the rest of the show could be about survival, as opposed to the crappiness of his chosen profession.

One good thing about the more varied climate are more varied food options. I'd complained in the past that Survivorman was focussing a lot of effort on not much eating, failing to ever catch any prey and instead eating grasses and berries. In newer episodes, he does manage to eat the occasional animal, although he still doesn't do much raw bug eating, which is always enjoyable on MvW.

He still plays that stupid harmonica. I hate that.

All in all, in terms of entertainment value I still prefer MvW, but I'm starting to see Stroud as an improving option and, if I needed to choose someone to get me through a week in the wild, I'd probably end up taking Stroud (as long as I got to throw his harmonica and his 60 pounds of cameras down a cliff).

Rock of Love
I have general disdain for reality TV. Which is not to say I don't watch it. I admit to passing dalliances with the Danny Boner-douchey show, with Joe Millionaire, with that Boot Camp thing that was on Fox a few years back, and with The Real Gilligan's Island. I also tend to enjoy watching some celeb-reality shows, like Scott Baio, The Surreal Life, and the Adrianne Curry/Peter Brady show.

Strangely, I'm one of very few people I know who can't seem to get into Survivor, American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, or many shows of that ilk. In rather typical hypocritical fashion, I end up looking down on those people as mouth-breathers of the lowest order, even as I turn to my new reality obsession, Rock of Love.

The show is simple. It's the Bachelor on meth, basically. Instead of taking some relative unknown and trying to hook him up with a nice girl, you take a has-been rock star and hook him up with a bevy of slutty party girls. It's Flava of Love for whitey.

The rules at that point are simple. Every week someone gets voted off the island, and there are various Machiavellian schemes in play, alliances formed and broken, and lots of getting drunk and naked, all designed to help Bret Michaels (formerly of the band Poison) find a girl to "rock his world." Presumably, in the end the "winner" gets to be Bret's girlfriend, at least until he hits the next town to visit whatever girlfriend he has there.

The show is impossible to ignore. The girls are all ridiculous in their own way. They all have issues. They are almost all smoking hot. And they know that to win, you have to give it up to Bret, so they are all basking in eachother's sloppy seconds, thirds, fourths, ad infinitum.

Only one of the girls is likeable. Her name is Jesse. She's a hairdresser from Chicago. She's made it to the final two, and she continues to impress me by being just a little bit too classy to be involved in all of this. And, yet, here she is, vying to be Bret's honey, and I find myself alternately rooting her on and praying for her downfall.

Why would I want her to lose? Well, note I put the word "winner" in quotes above. I genuinely like this Jesse girl. I want her to be happy in life. I think she's better than all of this. So, as my wife and I were discussing her prospects with Bret the other day, I realized that winning, in this context, isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Who wants a washed-up, has-been rock star who wears a bandana and eye make-up wherever he goes, drinks constantly, thinks himself wise, waxes philosophical in stupid ways, and certainly believes that he's required, as a rock star, to bone any girl who'll throw her panties in the ring? Why would I wish him up on a person I like? Why shouldn't I root for Jesse to lose?

And it's made all the easier by the competition. The sole remaining hope for Jesse's downfall is a stripper from Vegas named Heather. To quote my friend D, Heather has been "ridden hard and put away wet." She's got a smoking-hot body, but she's a mess. She's crass, mean, vile, and unlikeable. And she's pathetic. She actually loves Bret, she actually sees this show as her way to get him to marry her, and she actually showed her devotion by getting his name tattooed on the back of her neck.

Pathetic.

But impossible to turn away from. Going into the final week, this show is the ultimate train wreck. I cannot advise you strongly enough to avoid investing your precious minutes of life in watching it, but if you do so, you'll be happy you did. Just like eating a Twinkie, there's nothing remotely valuable about the experience, but you never walk away wishing you hadn't done it.

The Office (on TBS)
Finally, NBC's The Office has hit syndication. All well and good. The Office is among my favorite shows of the century.

My only complaint? It doesn't appear that TBS cares about presenting the show in any sort of chronological order. Of course, I've only actually been up late enough to watch it once, but we're still (I believe) in the first week, and I don't think we're still in the very first few episodes. If I'm wrong, that's fine. If I'm right, for shame.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
I'd never seen this show until I went to Italy. My friend, JoeD, brought his video I-Pod, and during plane flights and train rides ended up forcing me to watch seasons 1 & 2. And the show is freaking hilarious.

It follows four friends who are running a struggling bar in Philadelphia. They get in all sorts of ridiculous situations and engage in all sorts of half-baked shenanigans, very few of which really relate at all to running a bar. The bar appears to be a way to explain how they can afford anything, and is a device to give them a job and a common string while still leaving them lots of free time during the day to discover Nazi paraphernalia, speak at unknown dead guys' funerals, pick up on coffee chicks, discover and abuse firearms, get kids drunk, and so on.

The new season just started. I've missed the parts of the earlier season where Danny DeVito joined the cast (he was already one of the producers), and was afraid the show would suck. I like Danny, but his name is not, to me, always a sign of excellence.

However, the first two episodes of the current season premiered last week, and it was comedy gold. This show is very smart, is well-written, is intriguingly dim-witted and easy to get into (you don't have to watch earlier seasons to get into the story line), and is just all-around fun. I'm sad I'm leaving cable next month (unless I can con Comcast into a shiny new discount), because this is one of those shows that makes cable nigh-necessary. (Others are Battlestar Galactica, Entourage, The Sopranos, Mythbusters, Survivorman, Man vs. Wild, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and most anything of a funny nature on Adult Swim)

This Year's "Must-See TV"
What does the Rusty family have to watch? Well, there are very few shows that require my viewing. Unfortunately, 98% of them are on Thursdays.

Here's my list: The Office, Smallville, Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, 30 Rock, CSI, Family Guy, and (maybe) Heroes (I think I need to rent Season 1 to get myself primed for Season 2). Without a TiVo, On Demand, or about 80 DVR's, there are some tough choices to be made.

The cable must-see will become hard to deal with. Particularly, the two survivor shows, Battlestar Galactica, and Always Sunny. I've never had HBO or Showtime, so I've avoided an Entourage addiction. But if JoeD comes up, I'll expect him to bring his iPod and his DVD's so that I can catch up into the wee hours.

TV really shouldn't take up so much of my life, or of my thoughts. That said, it is what it is. And, this season, it's a whole week of waiting for Thursday, and then a whole night of scrambling to get my shows in.