TASTY MASHIES!
Media Watch Twenty Years: Stuff Ups, Beat Ups and Barneys (Thurs May 7, ABC- 8:30pm)-‘Everyone loves it, until they’re on it’ is the tagline for one of Australia’s most infamous TV shows (and some sage advice for those people contemplating Jason Priestley’s legendary endowment, but that’s a story for another day). Yes, twenty years ago today, Journalist/Lawyer/Media Boogeyman Stuart Littlemore fronted the first episode of MEDIAWATCH, in which he skewered various dodgy or mistaken pieces of Aussie journalism- and he wasn’t above skewering the journos, either. The show is still going two decades and 7 hosts later- time flies when you’re watching Ray Martin squirm!
Plushies and Furries (Thurs May 7, Crime and Investigation Network, 8:30pm)
-Documentary about the titular folks, who enjoy dressing up as anthropomorphized animal characters (bears, wolves, dolphins etc) and interacting. It’s not wholly a sexual thing (although that plays a part) and certainly no-one is harmed by it, which is why the doco’s place of airing is odd (Crime and Investigation? Did a Coyote furry finally catch a Roadrunner furry?), and its air of ‘these bizarre people ain’t like us!’ is annoying. If I was a Furry, I’d be a lamprey; that way I’d get less restraining orders from trying to attach myself to Hugh Jackman’s torso…
Mad Men (Thurs Mat 14, SBS-8:30pm)-Not a series about a group of sociopathic lunatics, but a drama set in the competitive world of Advertising (same difference!) Vincent Kartheiser has grown up nicely from when he played the titular vampire’s ill-conceived (in all senses of the word) son on ANGEL, and Bryan Batt (JEFFREY) excels as the closeted ad man so desperate to appear straight to his clients he marries and has kids.
Life on Mars (Thurs May 14, Ten-9:30pm)-The US version of the cult BBC series in which a 2009 cop has a near-fatal accident that propels him back into the 1970’s is inferior to the original British version, with everything subtle about the original (is Sam actually in the Seventies, or comatose in a 2009 hospital?) now blatantly spelled out for us by Hollywood (surprise!). However, Jason O’Mara as Sam *is* cuter than the original John Simm and the show is highly gay inclusive, featuring an episode set around a murder in a gay bar that shows just how hard Pre-Stonewall life was for Seventies GLBT….
STALE CHIPS!
Scrubs (Fri May 29, Seven- 11:30pm)-For a program that’s supposed to have been diagnosed as a comedy, this medical sitcom presents D.O.A for laughter all too often. Despite hunky star Zach Braff (THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB) I recommend an immediate transfusion of better and funnier gag writers before the network is forced to perform a Ratingsectomy. Stat!
HOT POTATOES!
Bones (Sun May 31, Seven- 9:30pm)-I’m in two minds about this Post-CSI forensic science cop show. On the one hand, the continual Forensic science errors (current favourite- mealworms used to denude a body of flesh; an act impossible unless the body is that of the Gingerbread man) make this show basically a comedy to me (I’m a Forensic scientist in real life- makes sense that after all the years of stalking David Duchovny, I follow in his career footsteps) on the other hand, the show has an openly gay character played by an openly gay actor (TJ Thyne as Dr Jack Hodgkins) and major-league beefcake under the (electron) microscope in the form of BUFFY alumni David Boreanaz as Agent Booth, who seems contractually obligated to get stripped down to his underpants every episode…
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