Letters to the Editor
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wow!
Great story! I almost want to copy it so i can plagiarize it in about 10 years, except someone will probably google my (or your) story and I'd be caught.
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I Like to Read
Ha ha, my subject line is soo clever! I'm sure Heather is banging her head on the crib right now.
I can't write, but Heather sure as damn well can!
Salon, give her a raise, she's got a newborn fer crissakes. My favorite, must-read column on the whole series of tubes.
-JMan
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Is this professional jealousy?
Havrilesky has finally noticed that 24, The Next White Rapper and American Idol are exercises in sadism and masochism. That puts her only about three years behind the rest of us. I don't know what kind of lead time Salon demands of its writers, but if it could be updated, she could have added something about the gruesome spectacle of the Anna Nicole Smith deathwatch. But that much work might drastically reduce her nail-salon time.
There's also a history of this cruelty in TV, and of course she's unaware of it. The simple "joshing" kind of practical jokes played on Bob Barker's Truth or Consequences were all an early audience could tolerate. That got amped up with Allan Funt's Candid Camera, which tried to gloss over its practical jokes with the claim that it let us "see ourselves as others see us." But it had its cruelties, making fun of Texans whose pronunciations of "oil" and "all" were indistinguishable, causing arguments over a tiny car with a huge internal gas tank, and watching kids eat deliberately warmed-up ice cream and getting messy.
It was a short step to Punk'd and its in-your-face offense. Good thing that host Ashton Kutcher didn't run across any rap/hip-hop/urban music stars or NFL players who were high and carrying weapons, or that would've been a real short show.
Sadism and masochism are a game, requiring the active participations of both parties. It's a cheap and stupid game, and the real fun comes when the two parties have different rules and expectations which have not been agreed upon. The usual pattern occurs when the masochist expects to get out of the situation alive, and the sadist plans to kill the masochist. But sometimes they switch roles. I have no doubt that Simon Cowell requires every contestant entering the building for auditions to be searched, possibly physically, for weapons. Until someone manages to foil those precautions, it's comforting to know that he lives in fear. If he has the capacity to think, that is.
As for 24, it looks as if the producers aren't anywhere near as creative or thoughtful as I had hoped. They had the chance to blow open the show's concept by showing a panicked populace, facing real nuclear terrorism, and they went back to their own S&M game. The thousands of dead and dying in the background, which in a smart series could have become a major plot element, simply became background to give legitimacy to CTU's fascist mission. Well, if we're unwilling to count the dead Americans in Iraq (let alone the Iraquis) why should fictional Americans be any different? That's why S&M is a game; it's myopic. They care more about one person being poisoned and sliced up than ten thousand.
Since Havrilesy decided to drag her baby into the discussion, and describe the way she's trying to turn her child into a clone of her uncomfortable self, I feel it's only fair to request that she officially change her pen name to Mrs. Havisham. And maybe if there's someone in her entourage that knows how to read, he can explain the meaning of that name to her.
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A show can't jump the shark if it already SUCKS!
24 was born on the wrong side of the Shark.
Remember how ridiculous it was when David Palmer's own son had killed a man who had raped his sister and then covered it up? And when Sherry Palmer had recruited a campaign aid to seduce her own husband so she could make a power play on him? Or when Teri Bauer fell to the campiest of cliches, and came down with AMNESIA!!!! OR whn Nina-- the very Nina who Jack had been ordered to KILL by the bad guy-- ended up being in league with said bad guy????
All of this horrible, ridiculous, cheesy, campy, tripe happened in SEASON 1!
It started BAD-- but guess what? Season 1 is still the best season of 24 EVER!!
Season 2 featured Kim escaping a cougar only to get held hostage by a creepy survivalist, escaping that only to get held hostage in a liquor store hold up, etc.
How can anyone think this show survived a shark jump after that?
24 in one sentence?
Most over-rated show EVER!!!!!!
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24
"But "24" is the sort of show that can only thrive post-shark jump."
So true.
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"24" Jumped the shark?
Jack's brother, and now his Dad too?
Too much "Dallas" and not enough malice.
Meh.
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To Tom: Huh?
Havisham ... I don't get it. Please explain how Havrilesky is similar to Dicken's character Havisham. Seriously, I really don't understand the point you are trying to make.
Also, other than as another excuse to slam Havrilesky, please explain why you think that she has just now discovered the S/M quality to reality television when she has been writing about it pretty much since she started the ILTW column.
Cheers
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Agree with No Name, Give Her a Raise
Heather Havrilesky's column is something I depend on, an almost guaranteed source of entertainment, as likely as not superior to the programs she reviews. She cracks me up, and her style is superb.
Marktgarten,
other than as another excuse to slam Havrilesky, please explain why you think that she has just now discovered the S/M quality to reality television when she has been writing about it pretty much since she started the ILTW column.
Exactly.
Few things I can depend on around here. Zachareck writes reviews as she thinks a still-living Kael might, the whole site seems to be obsessed with Anna-Nichole Smith (thank you, Heather, for taking a pass, though I can't think of another staff writer who could do the situation justice). We get the same Iraq War-bad/Democrat victory-good editorials week after week (don't really disagree, it's just that they are so damn pointless and boring).
In such a world, the evil gleam in Havrilesky's pose is a rainbow after the rainstorm.