1. The Apprentice.
Did I mention I’m always sucked into this show? I did?
OK. Well, it’s somewhat cathartic. The show crams all these overachievers into one space and the lack of common sense anywhere and constant backstabbing makes me, as everyman, feel good about myself. (Seriously, I didn’t pay a crapload of money to take the Mensa test, then use my admittance only to remind everyone I meet every five minutes to take me seriously because I did well on a wholly impractical entry exam.)
Watching it, I actually feel OK about my shallow professional life — I possess enough common sense, practical experience, and big-picture understanding to hold my own with these walking initials , and I certainly wouldn’t be done in by my ego, propensity to suck up, or tendency to overachieve. What’s more, I’m not currently making a fool of myself on TV.
(I wouldn’t win, of course. It’s not that I’m lazy, I just don’t care.)
However, the show’s entire shallow four-season run was best summed-up by the opening few minutes on Monday, in which Donald Trump offered some half-assed affirmative-response-inducing question, which elicited a chorus of “Abso-LUTELY.”
Arrgh! My No. 1 all-time pet peeve. You’re ALL fired. I completely hate the use of absolutely in place of the word ‘yes.’
It reeks of patronization, subjugation, and sounds completely and utterly phony. In business culture, for example, you’re pretty much deemed to be totally lacking ambition unless you spout ‘absolutely ‘back to each and every superior you have at all times. Completely bogus. Appalling in all uses. Abso-fucking-lutely.
2. Scrubs
I touched on the show’s beginning descent last night. I do feel that even the best shows can only operate at their peak for a maximum of four seasons before becoming old hat or caricatures of itself.
Actors begin (sometimes subconsciously) mailing it in, writers run out of ideas, and the general freshness dissipates. Sure, sometimes in the later years some episodes can still stand out, some gags still resonate, and the actors still smack one occasionally out of the park.
On the whole, though, when the quality declines (Ahem, jumps the shark), it declines fast — and there’s no going back. For Scrubs, it may have partially been the long layoff, it may have been the immediate success and fame of certain once-hungry actors, or it may just seem a little played.
That didn’t keep it from two standout episodes last night. It also seemed they stopped trying as hard last night and perhaps settled back into their groove. So far this year, they’d been reaching a little too far with flashbacks, fantasies, and occurrences.
Anyway, one quote stands out, and validates totally an opinion I have about the New Official Mind-Numbing Show of Ms. Faded Glory.
Elliott: JD, I really don’t want to do this. Can’t we just go home, put on our PJs, and watch Grey’s Anatomy?
JD (wistful): Ah, Grey’s Anatomy. I love that show! It’s as if they’ve been watching our lives for five years and have put it RIGHT on TV!
Elliott: (sighs.) Yeah.
JD: (sighs.) Yeah.
See what I mean? It is a rip-off! Someone agrees.
Yes, it’s the little things. Back for more later in the week — reviews of Walk the Line and Good Night and Good Luck before Oscar Night, and we’ll move closer to an actual baseball preview.
