Pet peevishness
And now it's time to interrupt your regularly scheduled program with a short but important note to all of you second-rung cable channels out there: You know, you really wouldn't seem like second-rung cable channels if you didn't 1) have such tacky, blaring station identification graphics, and 2) cut off the ends of scenes with your tacky, blaring station identification graphics, thereby eliminating the emotional impact of the previous scene.
TNT, are you trying to look like Showtime's desperate second cousin? Because if so, it's working. Do us all a favor and watch HBO sometime. See how their promos make us like their TV shows more, instead of less? See how, whenever you're watching HBO, you feel like it's dramatic and exciting to be watching, a true privilege? That's what they call good branding. True, there are no commercial breaks on HBO, but if there were, you can bet that they'd find a way to transition to them smoothly, without reminding us that they're a station of tasteless jackasses. So, stop undercutting your best shows with crappy promos, and hire a new brand identity manager or whatever the hell you call the person who keeps you from wearing your proverbial tighty whities on your proverbial heads.
Nevermind
Now for our final big-name off-kilter antihero, featured on a show that's so touchy-feely, it belongs on Lifetime: "State of Mind," starring Lili Taylor. Oh wait, it is on Lifetime...
This show could've worked. Lili Taylor's character, Dr. Ann Belowes, is a psychiatrist who experiences a life crisis when she discovers that her husband is cheating on her with their couple's therapist. Not a bad premise. And the writing is reasonably smart, the subplots are compelling, and I loved to hate Lili Taylor on "Six Feet Under." My main beef with "State of Mind" (9 p.m. Sundays) is that Ann talks to an imagined version of herself, and the imaginary Ann appears to be suffering from histrionic personality disorder ... Either that or she's overacting.
Imagining people who aren't there went from delightful to annoying in about five short years, and it's time to put the whole device to rest unless there's a really good reason for it. Most of the time, it's an excuse to show us what's going on in a character's head, something that we'd really rather see revealed in the way they fold their clothes or fiddle with their pens.
Subtlety may be a lost art on television, with all of the voiceovers and endless explanations and psychobabble, but the really good shows embrace it. Meanwhile, the bad shows are bad because they're hopelessly obvious. I can't even tell you how many of the fall pilots feature characters sitting around together, having these gratingly on-the-nose conversations about what's going on in each of their lives. It's just lazy and boring. Have them quarrel about the wine and let us figure out what it's really about, for chrissakes.
A long talk off a short pier
Because we may enjoy crazy people, but we're tired of therapy. Talking about your feelings is so late '90s. These days, when we feel impulsive or enraged or entitled, we just eat something crunchy straight out of the bag and check out what Mr. Lee did today. This overheated big blue marble is too crowded with child snatchers and puppy drop-kickers for us to achieve some idealized healthy emotional state just by talking about it. Plus, it's a lot cheaper to eat chocolate pudding and watch "Nobody Loves Chachi" instead.
Next week: Time for your summer reality roundup, from the narcissists of "Big Brother" to the angry backstabbers of "Top Chef"!
About the writer
Heather Havrilesky is Salon's TV critic. She also maintains the rabbit blog. You can find more of her columns in the I Like To Watch directory.
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