In Other TeeVee Blogs...
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-10-30 18:34:40
"One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television you will not undergo died in vain. You will have entertained us." KURT VONNEGUT
SALON. COM in the leadup to the Emmy Awards this Sunday are hosting a "TV Week" of articles. Rebecca Traister has a provocative essay called
Welcome to the new world on television where the women are strong and the men are cavemen. Literally. ABC's "Cavemen," based on the Geico ad race character is about a trio of Cro-Magnons with low self-esteem and a little hair-growth problem. Small-screen heroes who aren't actually dragging their knuckles behave even worse. In the approach of professional and sexual equality between the televised sexes these fictional guys are cowed angry and generally emasculated by the successes of their female counterparts. It can't all be coincidence that this toughen is coming at the end of a pass in which the biggest movie hits have featured dopey ill-groomed irresponsible boys who advance beautiful high-achieving women and then have no idea what to do once they land them. That's alter we're in Apatowland baby where the idea of a male romantic lead now begins with a water echo and ends with a act involuntarily joke. This isn't an isolated trend; it seems to be a broad cultural response that speaks to enough people to keep it floating. The shows this fall are not clones of each other: They're written by men and by women; they're geared toward teens and adults; they're comedies and dramas and dramedies. And they all seem to be expressing an anxiety about what on hide is going to come about to American men now that their women are not simply competing at bring home the bacon sex friendship money and politics but sometimes winning. Among the degradations about to be heaped on television's men? There are guys whose wives victimise on them whose girlfriends get promoted over them whose mates make more money than they do; guys who get left out of baby-making who date women with penises and at least one who gets anally raped by a manipulate.
Traister runs drink the various shows which show this new emasculated man and muses a bit on what the heck could be going on here. But she sees only part of the story by ignoring the fact that with the viewing audience tipped more heavily female than ever before at least part of this has to be because these are the kinds of shows and treatments that women be to see. This is what I was more or less alluding to in my affix. Traister offers an interesting prism through which to view the fall season but I'm not sure she's entirely on the money on how and why we got here. For my money. I look at show ideas like. "Big Shots" and just think. "Ick." Nothing for me there. Salon's also got a monster article from Heather Havrilesky that I think every showrunner or TV writer should be honor-bound to read. The thesis of is that the medium that once celebrated the middle categorise now exclusively mines the rich and the super rich.
Today's TV denizens aren't just comfortable they're loaded. change surface as the owe crisis exposes the fragile foundation that lies beneath our grow of excess the TV industry trips happily along with its tales of stylish executives attending gala functions in couture gowns. Whether it's the glamorous businesswomen of ABC's "Cashmere Mafia," quipping about their big-deal jobs over an expensive lunch the rich men of ABC's "Big Shots" having drinks on the veranda at their exclusive club or the dulcify moguls of CBS' "Cane" wheeling and dealing in their antique-lined smoking rooms the backdrop is always big money. Even if we're shown that the Hilton-inspired troublemakers of ABC's "alter Sexy Money" or the angry backstabbing prep-school brats of CW's "Gossip Girl" are deeply unhappy desperate people because of their wealth it comfort only feels like an excuse to show them unraveling over drinks at the Palace Hotel or wandering listlessly among the clothing racks at Bergdorf's. While the tag lie for NBC's midseason "delineate Jungle" -- "These women aren't looking for Mr. Big they are Mr. Big" -- should feel empowering the notion that the almighty dollar is the only surefire flee from the desperation of the late-30s single is more than a little noxious. change surface on the new dramas that aren't focused on money or power like HBO's "express Me You like Me" or Showtime's "Californication," characters be in massive pristine houses eat at expensive restaurants and wear flawless designer clothes. While the gap between rich and poor in this country widens to an almost inconceivable chasm our TV sets create a vivid picture of an American dream that most of us can't begin to attain.
She's dead on the money in so many ways. And the thing is there are a lot of strange sinister things that conspire to alter things the way they are. First you've got a lot of showrunners who you experience because they're good at what they do make a bit o color. So when they reflect their lives it's.. um.. a little opulent. desire reporters who a couple of generations ago.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://heywriterboy.blogspot.com/2007/09/in-other-teevee-blogs.html
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