A Monday Media Fiver

Today, we will begin with classic literature and work our way down to American Idol. Start where it suits you best.

And for the record, I am only watching the Oscars because of the hotness that is Hugh, and also I just gained EVEN MORE love for Meryl Streep who basically just all but said on the red carpet, "I really didn't give a shit about what dress I was wearing tonight."

1. Heroes and Gender
I read this lovely, lovely section of American Pastoral this weekend.

"But to wish oneself into another glory, as a boy or a man, is an impossibility, untenable on psychological grounds if you are not a writer, and on aesthetic grounds if you are. To embrace your hero in his destruction, however -- to let your hero's life occur within you when everything is trying to diminish him, to imagine yourself into his bad luck, to implicate yourself not in his mindless ascendancy, when he is the fixed point of your adulation, but in the bewilderment of his tragic fall -- well, that's worth thinking about."

Well, yes, it is worth thinking about. And I don't pretend that this is a fully flushed thought, because I don't have time for fully flushed thoughts these days. But I do find it some precise writing that it is pointed out that this is a phenomenon specific to "a boy or a man", though I suspect largely that that is driven by the fact that Roth's book is quite specifically a book about a journey that could only be had by a man. But women, oh how different. We would almost prefer to embrace our heroes during their descent to the human level. Oprah gets fat and we love her all the more. Princess Diana is cheated upon and becomes twice our hero for surviving it. Michelle Obama appeals to us because she is both strong and weak (we love her stories of the struggle of being a wife of Obama). The most popular girl in school, no matter how great her perfections, is secretly hated until we see her fall. Isn't it odd? Women want our heroes when they are becoming closer to human. Men do not. I think the steroid explosion is an example of this. How quickly those indescretions are overlooked in order to keep the "hero" alive. Even in the heart of the exposure of just how badly he abused steroids, the male population (and I speak generally, not specifically please) followed his quest to be the all time home run leader as though it weren't happening. Men want heroes. Women want comrades. Why is that?

(editoral note: Dear Hugh Jackman - I'm not sure you entirely had me with your Oscar opening number until you bellowed "I'm WOLVERINE at the end of the song.")




2. Dollhouse = Yawn House
I've watched both episodes. I want to like it. I *really* want to like it. I don't want to hold it up against other Joss Whedon creations and say "Yep. Not as good."

I don't like it and it's not as good as "Buffy", "Angel" or "Firefly".

Here's the straight up thing. This is an action show with a heavy element of conspiracy (see: Terminator the Sarah Conner Chronicles. See Dark Angel. See The Pretender. See X-Files. See 24 (though without the sci-fi element). See a long, long list of shows). The fact is, there are people who write those types of shows much better than Joss Whedon. Should the guy be stuck writing ensemble cast, relationship-driven, clever dialogue sci-fi forever? No, of course not. But if he's going to come out of his box, it needs to be with something better than this if he doesn't want to hear the comparisons. Between cable and network, there are at least a dozen shows in action right now that do what he's trying to do, but better, and if this show didn't have a Joss Whedon tag on it, it wouldn't even be in consideration to get an order for the back set of episodes. I love Eliza Dushku too, but for her to carry the series, she'd have to have a character. A character that has no personality of her own is going to be hard to build a series around. What's the anchor there, you know? And I also just want to say that I said before even seeing episode one of this show that though I loved Dushku, I'm not sure a situation that required her to show acting RANGE would just not work.

Will I keep watching? For a while at least. Because it's Joss Whedon and I expect for this show to get good at any moment.

But while I'm at it - an episode about a person being used as human prey by a crazy hunter in the woods? Ice T has done the definitive version of that. Don't mess with it. Yours won't be better. Seriously. It's like trying to cover a Michael Jackson song, which Simon Cowell will tell you never to do.

(editoral note: I mean, I love Meryl Streep too, but did the Oscars need to be the Meryl Streep tribute show? Enough already.)

3. Speaking of Joss Whedon...
My bedtime DVD watching this month has been Buffy, Season 4. And I am reminded that there have been few hours of tv better than Hush. People always speak of seasons 3 and 5 of Buffy as being the superior seasons. Season 4 has its issues. It's a show trying to find itself again after losing Angel and Cordelia and leaving the structure of an adventure that happened within the universe of high school. It doesn't hold up as well as a full season cycle as well. But I think it has some of the best individual episodes. How talented to you have to be as a story teller, a director and a cast to make an hour of television with only 10 minutes of dialogue hold a viewer enraptured? And Wild at Heart, Something Blue and Super Star? Those are great episodes.

(editoral note: Yep. 9pm and I'm bored of the Oscars already. But I do REALLY miss the anual San Francisco Oscar party. Hi, guys.)

4. A Life Without Football ...
Is only being saved by college basketball. But I'm in my annual post-Super Bowl Funk. I actually turned my phone off for an entire weekend (hope all those texts weren't urgent!). And yes, it's really a "turning 35 funk," but we'll call it a post-Super Bowl funk. It's really both and we know it.

(editorial note: Steve Martin should guest star on Thirty Rock).

5. American Idol - But where are the hotties?
There's nobody for me to stalk yet. It's like the year of the nerd. And I'm usually hot for nerds, but not during Idol. Oh, okay, even during Idol (see Ellion Yamin). I'm still hoping though.