The lack of Friday Night Lights and Veronica Mars last night gave me a chance to reflect on some of the shows I’ve been watching outside of primetime.
Ugly Betty is pretty awesome. The show’s available online at abc.com so I generally watch it on Saturday morning, when it’s not interfering with The Office and the Chef and the Subletter are watching football. America Ferrera is so lovely as Betty that I love her in spite of her complete earnestness. I generally prefer my heroines with a shot of sour bitch (see: Veronica Mars, Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me), but her poise and winning attitude in a world of fembots is refreshing. Plus Amanda and Marc fill my bitch quotient quite nicely.
The second season of Weeds may be finished on Showtime, but I’m only about halfway through. What was initially a black comedy about keeping up appearances in suburbia has been pervaded by a sense of dread. Silas sabotaging a condom to better insure that his girlfriend can’t leave him broke my heart and made me nauseated all at once. And as Nancy gets deeper into her position as a grower and her relationship with her DEA agent husband of convenience, I can’t help thinking of Heylia as the Cassandra who saw it all coming. Weeds is, in a word, compelling.
The IT Crowd… I’m still not sure if I’m supposed to pronounce it as “I.T.” or “it,” but it’s a strangely enjoyable show from the UK about the nerdy tech department of a major corporation. Though it’s set to be adapted by NBC for the US, it’s has more in common with the Fred Savage sitcom Working than with The Office. It’s over the top, surreal and pretty dead-on in its satirical portrayal of socially awkward smart people. You can find episodes online through Google Video. If asked to cast the American version, I'd go with Dave Foley (or any of the Kids in the Hall) as the blowhard boss and Christina Hendricks (Saffron from Firefly) as Jen. Ooh! And the older Pete from Pete and Pete as Roy. You know, just in case anyone cares.
Ugly Betty is pretty awesome. The show’s available online at abc.com so I generally watch it on Saturday morning, when it’s not interfering with The Office and the Chef and the Subletter are watching football. America Ferrera is so lovely as Betty that I love her in spite of her complete earnestness. I generally prefer my heroines with a shot of sour bitch (see: Veronica Mars, Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me), but her poise and winning attitude in a world of fembots is refreshing. Plus Amanda and Marc fill my bitch quotient quite nicely.
The second season of Weeds may be finished on Showtime, but I’m only about halfway through. What was initially a black comedy about keeping up appearances in suburbia has been pervaded by a sense of dread. Silas sabotaging a condom to better insure that his girlfriend can’t leave him broke my heart and made me nauseated all at once. And as Nancy gets deeper into her position as a grower and her relationship with her DEA agent husband of convenience, I can’t help thinking of Heylia as the Cassandra who saw it all coming. Weeds is, in a word, compelling.
The IT Crowd… I’m still not sure if I’m supposed to pronounce it as “I.T.” or “it,” but it’s a strangely enjoyable show from the UK about the nerdy tech department of a major corporation. Though it’s set to be adapted by NBC for the US, it’s has more in common with the Fred Savage sitcom Working than with The Office. It’s over the top, surreal and pretty dead-on in its satirical portrayal of socially awkward smart people. You can find episodes online through Google Video. If asked to cast the American version, I'd go with Dave Foley (or any of the Kids in the Hall) as the blowhard boss and Christina Hendricks (Saffron from Firefly) as Jen. Ooh! And the older Pete from Pete and Pete as Roy. You know, just in case anyone cares.
No comments:
Post a Comment