Author: Alex Doenau

“Family/Affair”

Oh, Ugly Betty. You’re one of those TV shows where the titular heroine/ostensible lead character has the least interesting story. That said, with only one villain running amok and possible redemption for Bradford, things are looking up!

Betty Spoilers!

I think that Batrock is slightly less ugly now (albeit too orange!), but if anyone would like to design me a wordpress template that is maybe easily customisable or something, I wouldn’t sneeze at that.

Will dance for code.

Tumbleweeds, stand by.

“Lizards”

You know how most episodes of Heroes can be subtitled “Parkman is stupid”? Well, add “Claire is stupid” to that continuum! I watched this episode with Ajay and he said “I’m not sure that I can watch this show if you’re just going to be shaking your head all the time.”

Spoilers!

“The Gangs of Camden County”

If you’ve seen this episode, you’ll know that I immediately realised I had to mention it. Yes, it’s another gay episode of My Name is Earl.

Earl is given a week off his sentence for his services in the previous episode, and is offered a month off if he can calm down the “Ebony and Hispanic” tensions in the prison yard. Eventually, Earl realises that the two gang leaders have fallen in love with each other and instigate fights just so that they can spend a few seconds together. Meanwhile, Randy can’t get himself thrown in prison to join Earl, so he applies to become a prison guard.

I don’t know much about prison homosexuality, save for all of the lame “don’t drop the soap” perpetuations. What we have in My Name is Earl is a legitimate relationship between two men, albeit one littered with fellatio popsicles and kissed knuckles. This episode has nothing to do with karma and more to do with Earl cleaning up the messes of the thoroughly incompetent warden. It also involves the anachronism of someone being sent to work in 2001 for playing Guitar Hero in his underwear – a game that patently did not exist in 2001!

But that’s beside the point. The point is that this is interracial homosexual tenderness and a heckfire of a lot of kissing for the kind of show that Earl is. It surprised me, and tended to indicate that the series is going to steer clear of the sort of blind, easy to “write” prison humour. That and Joy is getting smarter simply because Randy needs to survive. I still miss Camden at large, but My Name is Earl continues to be grande.

“Alone”

Just weighing in to say that, while House III had the best non-medical serial stories of the show so far – which isn’t that difficult given that it had almost always been entirely episodic without much care for the characters in the first two series – this new season hasn’t wowed me yet.

Bring back Foreman, Chase, and Cameron, I say! (and they’re still in the opening credits, so I don’t really have to say that) Also, make me give a care for the case in question, although that’s not so much of a worry. I’m not convinced that House can carry the show by himself, although Doctor Buffer was some good stuff.

“My Name is Inmate 28301-016”

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t expect to talk about My Name is Earl every week. Comedy is always the hardest thing to analyse for me, and while Earl has serial aspects it’s largely episodic.

This episode is worth mentioning because, if you’ve been watching the show, you may recall that Earl confessed to a crime that he didn’t commit so that Joy wouldn’t be sent to prison for life, and was consequently given a two year sentence himself. It’s interesting to see how a series about a community can possibly work when the man who’s supposed to be giving back to that community is in jail. I’m not sure that Earl in prison can be sustained for an entire series, but it certainly looks like it can last for a little while yet.

What really compelled me to write about this episode was Sonny, who provided the sort of meta laughs that this series thrives on. As soon as I saw him, I thought “that’s the guy from the first episode!”. When I rewatched the first series last year, I thought “man, that guy was never in it again!” and, indeed, Earl said to Sonny “We wondered where you went! For a couple of weeks … then, life goes on.” Nothing, of course, will ever compare to the forum joke, but damn! I love that this series rewards you for paying attention.

The only bum steers that Earl has ever taken are dropping the Randy Marriage Visa plot, and possibly the “Earl’s birthday disaster” episode – and even that was heroically saved by Nescobar A-Lop-Lop. I have great faith that it will continue to rock and that, unlike Randy, it will never be a spider ball.

I watched the original Hairspray tonight, having snapped it up on the cheap just the other day (in fact, the movie itself was cheaper than its soundtrack). What was a fairly straightforward movie, rather like the musical but with teeth, slowly degenerated into something approaching insanity. Pia Zadora came on screen, talking about ironing your hair and smoking the reefer, and all bets were off.

This was plainly evidenced by John Waters showing up as soon as they left Zadora’s house (which I assure you was swellegant) and stealing the movie. “Look at the disc!” he implored, and Penny had no choice but to listen. I was so disoriented I almost managed to miss Sonny Bono putting together a bomb and hiding it in Debbie Harry’s hair. There was actual evidence of racial tension featured in the movie, the romance on offer was the traditional “taken for granted instant going steady” variety, and altogether it felt more gritty. It came completely unstuck before the curtain fell (“Tracy! Tracy!!!!”), but was mightily entertaining for all of that.

Waters apparently told Adam Shankman that, in making the musical movie, to make it unlike Waters’ own, or like the stage version. I’m convinced that this was a successful approach to take. Shankman’s musical is more polished, but Waters’ movie is rather more bizarre. Different movies to fit different moods; it’s the new frontier.