Salon.com > Last Man Standing http://www.salon.com Mon, 20 May 2013 18:29:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 “Duck Dynasty” is a great sitcom http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/%e2%80%9cduck_dynasty%e2%80%9d_is_a_great_sitcom/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/%e2%80%9cduck_dynasty%e2%80%9d_is_a_great_sitcom/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:58:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13266953 A&E’s reality TV show "Duck Dynasty" is one of the ratings monsters of cable, which means it is one of the ratings monsters of television. Airing Wednesdays at 10, "Duck Dynasty" focuses on the high jinks of the Robertson clan, men who worship at the sartorial altar of ZZ Top and have made a fortune selling duck calls from the wilds of Louisiana. Its third season premiere in February attracted more than 12 million viewers, which would be a great number for any network show and is double and triple the size audience NBC gets for its Thursday sitcoms. It’s the sort of up-is-down piece of ratings data that makes one worry for the future of network TV until one watches “Duck Dynasty” and realizes nothing mysterious or strange is going on: “Duck Dynasty” is just a great sitcom in reality TV trappings.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/%e2%80%9cduck_dynasty%e2%80%9d_is_a_great_sitcom/feed/ 7 A conservative show goes liberal http://www.salon.com/2012/05/02/a_conservative_show_goes_liberal/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/02/a_conservative_show_goes_liberal/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12913454 Tim Allen’s sitcom “Last Man Standing," which aired the penultimate episode of its first season last night,  is winding up with far less braggadocio than it began with. The show began as part of a triumvirate of ABC sitcoms about masculinity in crisis, men being besieged and bettered by women at every turn (the other two were the hapless-if-sweet dad sitcom “Man Up” and the all-time cross-dressing horror show “Work It,” which was canceled after two episodes). In the pilot, Allen’s character, Mike Baxter, a hunting and wildlife aficionado who helps run an outdoor equipment outlet, ranted and raved about “what happened to men?” while worrying that a touchy-feely nursery school might turn his grandson gay.

Early episodes of the series were almost all about the battle of the genders, but in a more complicated way than the pilot initially suggested. Mike has a wife and three daughters whom, because of his wife’s promotion, he is spending more time with and to whom he is gruffly devoted. Episode in and out, they exert a civilizing influence on Mike. Writing in Slate about “Last Man Standing’s” transformation into a more nuanced show, June Thomas called out an early episode in which Mike secretly voted to turn his work softball team coed; even though he is a lover of masculine bonding, he couldn’t bear to think of his own daughters being forbidden from doing anything.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/02/a_conservative_show_goes_liberal/feed/ 2