Happy Independence Day. Celebrate America’s birthday, reflect on the troops, and pray that we’ll have a good Supreme Court justice nominee.
And in other news, the NYC 2012 delegation is in Singapore to await the IOC vote for the city selection for the Summer Olympics 2012. I remain agnostic as to whether NYC should have the Olympics (would we have tried for this were it not for 9/11/01? do we really have a shot? when will we ever have an Olympics in South America, forget bringing it back to Asia?). I find the idea of Moscow 2012 to be… not appetizing (umm, apologies to Moscow, but you haven’t casted great an impression in the international press to me).
Sunday – I attended a friend’s wedding. Beautiful weather, perfect for them. So wonderful that they shared their day with us.
And, then I got home in the evening… and watched WB network’s “Beauty and the Geek” marathon. I have to say, for an Ashton Kutcher produced reality show, it’s riotously funny and has some heart. The contestants have their low moments (such as when they’re being mean to each other: the Beauties have their moments as shallow bombshells, looking down at the Geeks that they’re partnered with; or when the Med Student Geek reamed the Stereotypical Nerd Geek in a too-nasty and abrasive manner) and their high moments (when they encourage each other; act positive as teammates and housemates; gain confidence and stop looking at each other as stereotypes: when the girls realize these are great guys and the guys realize that these aren’t total bimbos who wouldn’t give them the time of day).
As much as the show has been funny, I had to visit the website. The Beauty and the Geek website adds in the little biographical details that confirmed for me that these contestants weren’t mere “Beauties” and “Geeks” (even if they sort of were). The Geek who is Asst. VP of the Dukes of Hazard fan club is an engineer (i.e., he has an actual day job). The Asst. Boyscoutmaster’s day job is “landscaper.” Some of the Geeks weren’t bad looking (one or two were not Geeky by appearances; they were kind of cute, which may explain why the Geekier guys picked them for elimination – they weren’t nearly as disadvantaged or possessing similar low self esteem). Some of the Beauties really did seem like dimwits (sorry, they did seem a little foolish), but the Beauty Mindi (paired with Richard, the Stereotypical Geek) seems pretty smart (she’s currently in college and hasn’t dropped out yet to be an actress, according to the website) and apparently one or two other ones were either college graduates or about to be college grads. The lesson of “Beauty and the Geek” is that people are people.
Whether a season 2 of “Beauty and the Geek” will be nearly as much fun remains to be seen. But I’m impressed that I could have so much fun watching a reality show and I tried so hard to resist watching another reality show, really, I did.
Meanwhile, WB’s promos for its upcoming new fall dramatic series turn me off though. I guess I still resent how WB canned “Jack and Bobby,” and seeing promos for shows that feel like they don’t match the quality of “Jack and Bobby”‘s… well, it’s a turn off, it really is.
“The Inside” – FOX’s version of “X-Files”(hold the paranormal/supernatural/alien elements)-meets-“The Profiler”-with a doses of “Silence of Lambs” – is turning interesting. So, yeah, Special Agent Rebecca Locke has some issues to deal with (as a child crime victim who escaped from the kidnapper, she’s clearly still traumatized, and we still don’t know the details). And, so far, her co-workers just make witty quips or else act all self-righteous. But, maybe there’s something to this show. I caught last week’s episode – wherein Rebecca suspects that the murderer is a bossy spoiled 11 year old girl, but her co-worker Paul believes it the skeevy pool man. Rebecca turns out to be not off the mark in believing that the 11 year old is a psychopath after all (although she did a few dubious things to get there that no FBI special agent should do), and the ending had a scary twist. For a show that’s not terribly original, it has good suspense. Rebecca could have been just a blonde dimwit, but she isn’t; she isn’t a superstar rookie, since she makes mistakes and she learns from them. But, she has a spooky edge, since she’s still angry about psychopaths and questioning innocence (perhaps even the loss of her own innocence).
Enjoy what’s left of this holiday weekend…