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June 26-July 2, 2003
naked city
Rating the week in TV.
Anyone? Anyone? Busey? Nothing proves the superiority of MTV's original programming better than other channels' attempts to tread the same ground. Take I'm With Busey, Comedy Central's new reality sitcom that owes its existence to the success of The Osbournes. But the producers seem to have missed a crucial point: Ozzy isn't acting. Gary Busey, on the other hand, never stops hamming it up for the cameras that follow him and a young friend around as they hang out, engage in paintball battles and dress Gary as a woman and go dancing, all while Gary holds forth on "symbology," quadrangles of verbs and the mystery of sunsets occurring only once per day. It was grating by the end of the first episode. If the intent was to find the next lovable wacko, I'm With Busey fails; if it was to promote motorcycle-helmet awareness, it's a smash. (Reality Wrap-up, a Talk Soup-like recap show on VH1, put it best: "Watch as Gary Busey tries to take the comedy out of Comedy Central.")
Over on the SciFi Channel, Scare Tactics, a hidden-camera show hosted by Shannen Doherty, relies on actors even worse than Busey to scare the bejesus out of unsuspecting mooks set up by their friends. At least that's the plan. Most marks, however, look more befuddled than scared, and the scammers almost always end the prank too early, as if worried about scaring anyone too much. SciFi should ditch Doherty and hire Dax -- Punk'd gets more emotional responses by moving people's cars.
Back in Style
Why do they show Melrose Place reruns on the Style Channel? The mid-'90s gems Allison, Billy and pals are sporting certainly don't qualify as stylish. But we're not complaining -- it's hard to beat old-school MP for trash-talking and bed-swapping. Early eps reveal a distinct lack of heat -- in one poolside yakfest, Billy and Michael "I'm going to turn into such an asshole" Mancini engage in a debate over people who don't pay back their student loans (guess 90210 was already covering drugs and STDs that week?). But by now Style's nightly 6 p.m. reruns have gotten to the best of the series, with Sydney at her sluttiest, Michael at his craziest and Kimberly, well, dead (not for looooong). Seems like MP is back in style in more ways than one, with E! starting up MP reruns again and a recent MP E! True Hollywood Story (where we learned fun things, like that in real life, psycho hooker Sydney is married to earnest gay Matt).
Probably the best part of watching MP on Style, though, aside from being able to mock Andrew Shue's pathetic attempts at emoting, are the commercials. No big-sponsor channel, Style just has lengthy ads for as-seen-on-TV products like nail polish pens that can be used to make hideous designs (that commercial must break some kind of record for misuse of the words "classy" and "elegant").
Speaking of Style …
The ladies of Sex and the City returned this week, and the results look promising. Last season the formerly perky show sagged to the point of being maudlin, with the fantastic four each undergoing various crises. Season six kicked off with the witty conversation and cringe-inducing awkward moments that make the show great. It may have been a little over the top when Carrie's date, played by Wallace Langham, was attacked by pigeons and fell cursing to the ground, but the sentiment of the crappy-first-date scene still resonated. This episode had its emotional moments, like Charlotte telling her nebbishy boyfriend, Harry, that she can never have children or Miranda having her confession of love for the ever-adorable Steve pre-empted by Steve's announcement that he is no longer in love with her. But these moments were much more powerful as a break in the hilarity than as fodder for entire episodes, as was the case last season. And, thank the lord, this episode was nearly entirely free of Carrie-stops-on-the-street-and-poses-like-she's-in-some-sort-of-photo-shoot-that-only-she-knows-about moments.
A is for Awful
Not that any of us watched the Brian A. Green (no more Austin, please) TV movie This Time Around on ABC Family, but if we did, we might have a few things to say about it. Like, for example, pointing out the excellent reconstruction of junior high circa 1990, complete with New Kids posters, clear braces and bolo ties (one pair of high-heeled sneakers seemed suspiciously 21st-century). We might also note that this tale of two nerdy girls getting revenge on the hot boy who made their lives miserable in junior high is predictable and insipid, not to mention decidedly un-Family-friendly (the nerdy-turned-hot female protagonist is urged by her chubby sidekick friend to go "soft-core porn" with her outfit for a meeting with mean hottie; the movie bears the vaguely disturbing tagline, "Never break a girl's heart unless you're sure you're done with it"). But we'd also probably have to admit that it was something of a guilty pleasure. Someone told us it's on again this week, not that any of you care (Sat., June 28, 8 p.m., Sun., June 29, 5 p.m.).
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