IMHO – THE WEEK IN GAY TELEVISION
It's my, um, privilege to rate the very first episode of TNT's new legal drama Raising the Bar. And if you've been paying the least bit of attention, you should be able to guess whether it is going to get an up or a down arrow. Also debuting this week is Privileged, Top Design, and, even though the first episode of Fox's Do Not Disturb doesn't debut until next week, I can't wait until then to give it a down arrow rate it. Also up this week, a very heavy Hollyoaks, Project Runway, and so much more!
RAISING THE BAR: Shrill shrieking shrew! Closet case Charlie! Mark-Paul Gosselaar with greasy, stringy hair! If that sounds like your cup of gay tea, then this Steven Bochco fiasco is for you. In fact, you can have the whole thing. Just get it out of my sight.
DO NOT DISTURB: Written and created by a gay man — check. Features a gay character — check. Gay cliches, fake jokes, and super skinny models — unfortunately check, check, check. Witty writing — um, not so much. Amusing peformances — definitely not. Hate it — double check.
GREEK: As if it isn't annoying enough that Calvin (Paul James) didn't even walk past in the background of a single scene, we had to to hear twice that Dale wasn't wearing any underwear. Haven't I already suffered enough having to watch Raising the Bar and Do Not Disturb? I guess not....
JANICE DICKINSON MODELING AGENCY: More faux-drama, more faux-conflict. More Janice firing somebody or being ourtraged over something with some silly cliffhanger. Plus, we had to watch J.P. kiss a girl. That is so not why I watch this show. Okay, I only watch it because I have to. Oh, well, at least all the skimpy outfits and male nudity are real.
HOLLYOAKS: If I'd already seen tomorrow's episode this would definitely be a down arrow no matter how good it is. Actually, I commend the show for treating its gay characters the same as its straight ones even if it means, well, never mind that. Even though I can't stand Craig, he's coming across as a good guy while Niall is the perfect superhot revenge seeking nut every soap opera needs. As for Kieron, sometimes fate — and writers — are mean SOB's.
FORBIDDEN LOVE: Want to hear something truly tragic? I haven't been able to watch FL in WEEKS! Why? Because I'm slogging through Raising the Bar and Do Not Disturb so you don't have to. Since it's my week for the column, I carved out enough time to catch the last few episodes but I felt anxious as I started to watch. Were Christian and Olli still a couple? Had the show gone off the rails? Fortunately all is quite well even if Olivia is no Sydney Bristow.
AS THE WORLD TURNS: Luke and Noah in the woods with a weird white guy. Um, haven't we been here before? I guess we do have 'shrooms and Luke's grandmother to liven things up. Still, it just isn't the same without Captain Pervy. It's also not very good. My suggestion? Stick with the liveblog.
TOP DESIGN: New host, new contestants for Team Gay, same boring result. It's probably not a good thing that I found myself hoping that Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio would burst in with butcher knives and slaughter everyone involved with this show.
SKINS: I'm not nearly ready to go so far as to say I like Skins, but after the Cassie episode and this week's Chris episode, I no longer completely loathe it. Actually, I did loathe the first half of this week's epi with people still behaving like amoral a-holes, but things turned around somewhat as Chris had to deal with being abandoned while Jal behaved like an actual human being and tried to help him out.
MILLION DOLLAR LISTING: Apparently the bigger an A-hole you are on this show, the more screen-time you get. Hence, we had hardly any of Madison this week. Which means we had that much more of Chad and Josh. (Where are Padma and Tom when you really need them?) Any show that makes me enough of a bully to want to grab an electric razor and shave off some nitwit's ridiculous hair "style" is probably not a show I should be watching. Unless someone will be shaving off Chad's hair.
2008 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION: Wasn't it something how that "maverick" John McCain bucked his own party's anti-gay convention platform to echo Barack Obama's statement at the Democratic convention last week that the American family includes gays and lesbians? And that our relationships deserve at least some legal recognition? And how about when he said he was ashamed the Republican party had used anti-gay ballots enshrining discrimination in state constitutions to whip up fear amongst some Christian voters in order to drive up turn out? Even his own anti-gay Vice-presidential nominee realized the error her ways. No wonder the Log Cabin Republicans endorsed McCain this week.
Next page! Sweden's Breakfast with Scot. Well, sort of.
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