Salon.com > Television http://www.salon.com Sun, 27 May 2012 16:29:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Ernest Hemingway made silly http://www.salon.com/2012/05/25/ernest_hemingway_made_silly/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/25/ernest_hemingway_made_silly/#comments Fri, 25 May 2012 18:20:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12927026 Here’s something you should consider doing before watching HBO’s inadvertent comedy “Hemingway & Gellhorn,” a disastrous two-and-a-half-hour CliffsNotes on the passionate, dysfunctional love affair between Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen) and his third wife, the war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman), which airs Monday night. Find some Hemingway — take it off the shelf, download it to a Kindle, load a page of “The Sun Also Rises” onto your computer via Google books — and leave it within arm’s reach. You are going to want to read from it at fairly regular intervals to remind yourself that though he may have been a drunk, a brute and a womanizer, Ernest Hemingway was not a complete and total idiot. And then you can also use it to shield your eyes from the movie’s myriad crimes against sepia, its extensive use of what appear to be Instagram photo effects, the hot pink blood, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich in a beret, and the scene toward the end of the film in which Kidman’s face is superimposed over real footage of emaciated bodies at Auschwitz and Dachau.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/25/ernest_hemingway_made_silly/feed/ 38 “American Idol”: Riveting despite itself http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/american_idol_riveting_despite_itself/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/american_idol_riveting_despite_itself/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 11:51:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12926627 The final episode of any season of “American Idol” is always a smiling show of force, a confetti-laden massacre of time. After a nearly 40-episode season, along comes the gargantuan finale, an enormous spectacle that contains exactly one minute of real content — when the winners are announced — and two-plus hours of filler. Last night’s episode was nominally about who would be declared the winner of the 11thseason of “Idol” -- Phillip Phillips, the humorously named yet handsome guitarist with a twang in his voice and shirts cut to display exactly the appropriate sliver of chest hair, or the huge-voiced, personality-less 16-year old Jessica Sanchez. But sleepily good-looking white guys (and Scotty McCreery) have won the last four seasons of "Idol," and Phillips was pretty much a lock before the night even began. And so it is a commendation to the near-military professionalism of “Idol” that somehow, for the last half-hour or so, I was riveted to the screen.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/american_idol_riveting_despite_itself/feed/ 6 More sex and disasters, please http://www.salon.com/2012/05/23/more_sex_and_disasters_please/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/23/more_sex_and_disasters_please/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 15:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12925481 There are a few times of year when network television can typically be relied upon to be as interesting as cable: The fall, when the networks vomit out dozens of new programs; February, when the networks cough up a dozen or so more; and May, when all the series that have survived the year try to end in spectacular fashion. During this last period, season-finale time, couples couple, get married and have babies; characters quit, get fired and die; disasters occur; buildings explode; guns blaze; hatches are discovered and protagonists are left dangling off cliffs, both actual and metaphorical. It’s the TV equivalent of blockbuster season, and like blockbuster season, it can and should be fun. Though in recent years cable shows have been responsible for a disproportionate number of the “Holy crap, did that just happen?!” finales (hello, Gus Fring and his brand-new face!), network shows are usually good for at least some insanity, some drama, some transcendent event that will get people talking around the storied watercooler. Not this year. Nope, this year, season finale season has been a bust.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/23/more_sex_and_disasters_please/feed/ 13 As Kristen Wiig departs “SNL,” what’s next for women? http://www.salon.com/2012/05/21/as_kristen_wiig_departs_snl_whats_next_for_women/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/21/as_kristen_wiig_departs_snl_whats_next_for_women/#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 15:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12923844 What, you didn't get to dance with Mick Jagger, hug Jon Hamm and be serenaded by Arcade Fire the last time you left a job? I guess you're not Kristen Wiig.

After seven years on "SNL," Wiig said goodbye on Saturday night's season finale that will go down as one of the sweetest, most choked-up moments on the show since Steve Martin said goodbye to Gilda Radner on the day of her death almost exactly 23 years earlier.

Even without an official announcement, Wiig's twirly, teary departure is enough to make even the most casual fans of the show crank up the Adele and mainline a tub of Edy's Grand. It doesn't matter that fellow castmates Andy Samberg and Jason Sudeikis have reportedly moved on from the show as well. They leave behind established male cast members like Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen and Bill Hader. Wiig, on the other hand, blows a gaping hole in the show's female lineup. The 24-year-old Abby Elliott, who moves up the rung to the show's senior lady cast member, is now its biggest female star. But she's yet to display that versatility or command the clout that Wiig has. Kate McKinnon may yet bust out into full-blown "SNL" stardom, but she's only been on the show for five minutes.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/21/as_kristen_wiig_departs_snl_whats_next_for_women/feed/ 20 What’s “Community” without Dan Harmon? http://www.salon.com/2012/05/21/whats_community_without_dan_harmon/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/21/whats_community_without_dan_harmon/#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 15:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12923830 A recent episode of NBC's “Community” floated the possibility — debunked by episode’s end — that the seven main characters had not spent the previous three years navigating life, each other and paintball fights at Greendale Community College, but instead, had only been imagining them. In the episode, the recently expelled Greendale Seven found themselves in a group therapy session with a nefarious shrink, keen to keep them away from their college using any psychological means necessary. The therapist temporarily convinced them they had spent the previous years in a mental institution and that everything they remembered happening at school, except their friendship, had been a collective fantasy, a “shared psychosis” dreamed up in the asylum.

As I was watching this episode, "Curriculum Unavailable,” I remember calmly thinking something like, “Huh. That would really explain Leonard.” The possibility that “Community” might be about to “St. Elsewhere” its audience ("St. Elsewhere" ended on the reveal that everything that had happened in the series had all taken place inside the mind of an autistic boy) was not particularly alarming to me. Group psychosis explained a lot about the show's extremely dark psychology, and, anyway, on “Community,” stranger things had happened.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/21/whats_community_without_dan_harmon/feed/ 9 TV’s coming attractions http://www.salon.com/2012/05/17/tvs_coming_attractions/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/17/tvs_coming_attractions/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 15:24:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12921999 The four major networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, trotted out their new fall shows this week. All of next season’s new comedies, dramas and reality shows, the vast majority of which will be flops, got shiny trailers, two to three minutes culled from the first episode of the series, which is, for now, the only episode that exists. These trailers were made to entice advertisers into parting with some of their money, but they are also an occasion for TV obsessives to behave like fashion police, i.e., to make rash, bitchy, wildly subjective judgments based on very little information. I love this week so much.

This year, about 20 new shows will premiere in the fall, with another dozen waiting in the mid-season wings. There are dramas about haunted luxury apartments, islands armed with nuclear arsenals and the making of Vegas. There are procedurals starring Sherlock Holmes, Jersey girls turned lawyers and a Mob Doctor. One show has Mrs. Coach playing a country singer, one has Kelly Kapoor falling into a swimming pool while riding a bicycle, and another has Kevin Bacon chasing serial killers. There are two sitcoms starring gay people, one about a family who lives next door to aliens, and others featuring Matthew Perry, Lily Tomlin, Dane Cook and a screeching monkey. If each network had at least one show last year about a sexually active, provocative, sassy woman — the lady sitcoms — there is no such equivalent trend this year. There is just a lot of TV, some of which will be good, and most of which will be bad. Here are my thoughts on what look to be the best and worst shows of the upcoming season, network by network.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/17/tvs_coming_attractions/feed/ 8 Risk-free Internet TV http://www.salon.com/2012/05/16/risk_free_internet_tv/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/16/risk_free_internet_tv/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 15:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12921453 At the Fox Upfront on Monday afternoon, the head of programming “welcomed” Hulu and Netflix to the original programming game, with all the threatening good cheer of an amped-up high school senior getting ready to pound on an incoming freshman’s face. Sure, the more good original programming the better, Fox suggested, but making hit TV is hard and developing an audience is even harder -- these online upstarts should expect to get demolished by their network rivals for a long time to come. Or as the head of programming put it, “Welcome to the NFL.”

But just mentioning Netflix and Hulu, two companies that have thus far rolled out exactly one original scripted program each to not much fanfare, is a compliment of the “It's better to be talked about than not talked about at all” variety. Hulu and especially Netflix, which will begin airing new episodes of Fox’s former show “Arrested Development” sometime later this year, are on the playing field. Since one of the major distinctions between Hulu and Netflix and broadcast TV is that there’s no proper time to watch their shows, now seemed as good as any to catch up on the two existing series and see if Fox and its brethren have anything to worry about.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/16/risk_free_internet_tv/feed/ 8 Can Britney pass the Paula Abdul test? http://www.salon.com/2012/05/15/can_britney_pass_the_paula_abdul_test/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/15/can_britney_pass_the_paula_abdul_test/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 15:58:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12920647 Rumors have been swirling for weeks that Britney Spears would join Fox’s “X-Factor” as a new judge, and yesterday it became official. At the Fox upfront, the annual presentations underway this week in which the major networks sell their new shows to advertisers, and then ply them with alcohol and vast buffets, Britney and Demi Lovato were introduced as the reality competition’s new judges, joining L.A. Reid and Simon Cowell, who appeared on the show last year. Lovato, the 19-year-old former tween star who has already had her own public difficulties with drugs and eating disorders, excitedly told the crowd she was “psyched” to be joining the show. Spears, in a smokier voice than the one she used to have, also expressed her excitement, capably delivering the line that had been written for her. Spears was onstage for all of two minutes, but it was enough to spark my imagination: What is an entire season of Britney Spears talking going to be like?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/15/can_britney_pass_the_paula_abdul_test/feed/ 5 Please don’t cancel my favorite show http://www.salon.com/2012/05/11/please_dont_cancel_my_favorite_show/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/11/please_dont_cancel_my_favorite_show/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 19:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12919196 It’s that time of the TV year, when I find myself humming “Dayenu” all day.

“Dayenu,” the official anthem of Passover, is a song of gratitude, one thanking God for all that he did to free the Jews from slavery. The lyrics make a list: Each line enumerates something awesome and imperative that God did, before ending with “Dayenu,” which means “It would have been enough.” However, “paradoxically” (as my Haggadah puts it), the Jews really needed God to do many more awesome and imperative things, one example of which is then mentioned in the next line of the song. If God had gotten the Jews out of Egypt, “it would have been enough,” except, actually, he then had to part the Red Sea, which “would have been enough,” except, actually, he then had to provide food, “which would have been enough,” except, actually, and so and so forth until the Jews are safely tucked away in Israel with the 10 Commandments and a temple.

The Dayenu I’ve been humming this week has the same tune, but slightly different lyrics. They go like this: If NBC had aired just one season of “Community,” Dayenu. If NBC had aired the missing pen bottle episode, Dayenu. And the Christmas claymation episode, the my dinner with Abed episode, the Dungeons & Dragons episode, and the paintball sequel, Dayenu. If Inspector Spacetime, day-day-enu, day-day-enu, day-day-enu, dayenu dayenu.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/11/please_dont_cancel_my_favorite_show/feed/ 21 TV’s creepiest corpses http://www.salon.com/2012/05/10/tvs_creepiest_corpses/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/10/tvs_creepiest_corpses/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 21:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12917678 The network TV season ends this month, and with it a significant amount of carnage. There are currently 10 network shows — "Bones," "Criminal Minds," "The Mentalist," "Castle," "Body of Proof," the three "CSIs," and the two "NCISes" — that typically begin with a murder, the expected first beat in any crime procedural. This amounts to approximately 200 corpses a year, 200 dead bodies intended to entertain, to be prurient but not too prurient, disturbing, but not too disturbing. How do these shows make murder not only palatable, but a thing that millions of people want to watch after a long day's work?  In contravention of common sense, avoiding the dead bodies altogether does not seem to be an option.

The 10 aforementioned murder series can be divided into two general categories, crime-solving shows and the corpse-studying shows. Both activities take place in both, but with a different emphasis. Programs in the first category, like "The Mentalist," "Castle," "NCIS" and "Criminal Minds," have forensic scientists in the cast who can and do deliver helpful deductions about any cadaver, but the main characters mostly interview living people. On programs in the second category, like "Bones," "Body of Proof" and the "CSIs," the main characters mostly examine dead ones. The bodies in the crime-solving shows tend to be significantly less gruesome and graphic than the ones in the corpse-studying shows: The corpses may be a major plot point in both, but they're only a major prop in the latter, where they have to look the part.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/10/tvs_creepiest_corpses/feed/ 15 The “Daily Show” guide to my enemies http://www.salon.com/2012/04/27/the_daily_show_guide_to_my_enemies/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/27/the_daily_show_guide_to_my_enemies/#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12911095 For two years I was a field producer for “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” The field producer is the person who guides the creation of the pre-taped segments, the ones where the correspondent travels somewhere to interview and heartily agree with some person who holds, uh, fascinating ideas about the world. This meant I spent a lot of time with people whose causes or philosophies I found blecchy -- the sort of folks who would fit nicely in the overlap of a Venn diagram whose circles included Bachmann supporters, fans of Rush Limbaugh, and people who wear tricorn hats and exercise their Second Amendment rights at Tea Party rallies.  You know – assholes.

Now, I like to loathe people. It just feels so good. I particularly like to loathe the sorts of people described above, and when I see them on TV or read their blogs I sigh contentedly and say, ahhh, it is now morally permissible for me to loathe this person. So imagine how irksome it was to have to deal with persons like that on a constant basis and discover that those persons, in person, generally weren’t loathsome persons after all. In fact, to my great consternation and disappointment, I often liked them.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/27/the_daily_show_guide_to_my_enemies/feed/ 104 “Shameless”: TV’s dysfunctional sweethearts http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/shameless_2/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/shameless_2/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12781591 Showtime’s shaggy family drama “Shameless” finished its second season last night, and just like the semi-abandoned siblings the show focuses on, it deserves more love than it receives. The series, based on a British one of the same name, follows the Gallagher clan, six kids approximately ages 2 to 22 who are left to raise themselves while their alcoholic, malignant father, Frank (William H. Macy), does as much as he can not to help them. “Shameless” is maybe the most purely entertaining series that is fundamentally a tragedy I’ve ever seen: Try as they might — and they try so, so hard — the Gallagher kids have been saddled with too much. Their lives are dozens of Jerry Springer episodes strung together ("My father had sex with my underage girlfriend!” “I think my uncle is my dad!” “My mother attempted suicide in front of me!” “I’m an African-American whose two biological parents are white!” “My boyfriend has a secret identity!”), and while their day-to-day experiences have the sort of intense circus energy that suggests, they also have the hollowed-out darkness that comes from being stuck in a life most people cackle over and then have the luxury to flick off.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/shameless_2/feed/ 14 Aaron Sorkin’s right-wing fantasy http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/aaron_sorkins_right_wing_fantasy/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/aaron_sorkins_right_wing_fantasy/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12779991 The trailer for HBO’s “Newsroom," Aaron Sorkin’s forthcoming drama, set behind-the-scenes of a cable news program, debuted last night. In it, the well-respected news anchor Will McAvoy's (Jeff Daniels) long-held political neutrality is finally exploded when he is hectored into explaining “Why America is the greatest country in the world.” His answer is an exasperated “It’s not the greatest country in the world.” McAvoy continues in the most condescending tones to address the blond college student who asked the question: “Just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there’s some things you should know,” he says, before unleashing a barrage of statistics about America’s relative incompetence. In other words, it's classic Sorkin — rapid-fire, dense, smart, patronizing and morally outraged — except for one thing. Will McAvoy is a Republican.

Over the course of his career, Sorkin has tapped into a liberal fantasy of politics more regularly than probably anyone. In "The West Wing" Sorkin created the dream Democrat, President Josiah Bartlett, not just an erudite and morally impregnable man, but one who wielded his intelligence like a sword. When pushed, Bartlett pushed back, with logic and truth, righteousness and all the Bible quotes he needed.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/aaron_sorkins_right_wing_fantasy/feed/ 31 “Mad Men’s” generation gap http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/mad_mens_generation_gap/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/mad_mens_generation_gap/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12779651 Bill Murray's brilliant existentialist comedy “Groundhog Day” proposed that life consists of the same day lived over and over again with only minor variations, but that the key to happiness is finding a way to make the most out of the mundane. “Tea Leaves,” the third episode (the second to air, but the two-hour premiere was labeled as two episodes) of “Mad Men’s” new season, suggests something grimmer: Life is like waiting all night in a crowded concrete hallway thinking you’re about to meet the Rolling Stones, only to find out that you’ve signed a deal with the Trade Winds instead.

All youthful dreams die, and adult life is the long, slow accommodation to the way things actually are versus the way we not only hoped but believed they’d be. (As Henry puts it later in a more hopeful context, “This is what it could be, but it’s not gonna be.”) “Tea Leaves” draws a bright line between those who are still young and optimistic enough to have dreams – like sunny, yellow-outfitted Megan, back-to-connivingly-striving Pete, our plucky career gal Peggy, and even the new gaffe-a-minute copywriter Michael Ginsberg. On the other side, the middle-aged realists who are in the process of giving their dreams up, including the superannuated Roger, the always-doubtful Don, and the model-turned-matron Betty.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/mad_mens_generation_gap/feed/ 75 What PBS owes the public http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/what_pbs_owes_the_public/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/what_pbs_owes_the_public/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:41:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12726261 Neither of us is old enough to have been fooled by the Trojan Horse (see Wikipedia). But we each have been working in public television decades enough to remember the days when distribution was handled by physically transporting bulky 2-inch videotapes from station to station -- “bicycled” was the word -- and much of the broadcast day and night was devoted to blackboard lectures, string quartets and lessons in Japanese brush painting: The old educational television versions of reality TV.

Yet it also was a time of innovation and creativity. As the system evolved we saw bold experiments like "PBL -- the Public Broadcasting Laboratory" and Al Perlmutter’s "The Great American Dream Machine," each a predecessor to the commercial TV magazine shows "60 Minutes" and "20/20."  The TV Lab, jointly run by David Loxton at WNET in New York and Fred Barzyk at WGBH in Boston, nurtured and encouraged the first generation of video artists — Nam June Paik, Bill Viola and William Wegman among others — and the early documentary work of such video pioneers as Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno of the Downtown Community Television Center, Alan and Susan Raymond, and the wild and woolly, guerrilla camera crews of TVTV.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/what_pbs_owes_the_public/feed/ 24 TV’s black sitcom problem http://www.salon.com/2012/03/15/tvs_black_sitcom_problem/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/15/tvs_black_sitcom_problem/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:55:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12678551 High hopes surrounded "Da Brick," a TV series partially inspired by the youth of boxing legend-turned-entertainer Mike Tyson, which promised to offer a glimpse into what it means to be a young, black man in a purportedly post-racial America. HBO issued a pilot order for the show, which included Spike Lee, John Ridley ("Three Kings") and Doug Ellin ("Entourage") as executive producers. When I interviewed Tyson last week, he didn't know much about the show’s fate, but expressed lots of enthusiasm – saying he was ready to go “with two guns and blast two steams ahead.”

So much for that. Deadline Hollywoood reported earlier this week that HBO officially passed on the show. The former heavyweight champ certainly understands that you can't win them all, and this certainly doesn't mean the project won't resurface on another network. But that reality is nevertheless disappointing to anyone who cares about racial and class diversity on television.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/15/tvs_black_sitcom_problem/feed/ 67 Wolf Blitzer can’t get enough cheesy grits http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/wolf_blitzer_cant_get_enough_cheesy_grits/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/wolf_blitzer_cant_get_enough_cheesy_grits/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12676471 Cable news pundits might have the largest gap of anyone in the world between "think they're funny" and "actually funny."

Usually it's easy enough to roll your eyes when Lawrence O'Donnell -- as he did last night on MSNBC -- grabs onto a "three-way" reference to describe the Republican campaign, and then makes the joke again and again and again (hey, three times!), like a very naughty child who is very pleased with himself.

But then there's a meme like "cheesy grits" -- the new breakfast of choice for Mitt Romney when he's in the South. The race to air the awkward Romney clip the most times is still ongoing, as is the battle to make the most tortured metaphorical connection between cheesy grits and the former Massachusetts governor's failure to connect with Southern voters.

More embarrassing is the fact that each pundit who attempts the metaphor seems to think that he or she is super-clever and the first one with the idea -- proving that even the people who produce news 24 hours a day aren't watching this stuff.

Here are some of our favorite cheesy discussions of cheesy grits from coverage of the Alabama and Mississippi primaries. And yes, there are doozies from Wolf Blitzer and Chris Matthews.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/wolf_blitzer_cant_get_enough_cheesy_grits/feed/ 40 Where have you gone, Mister Rogers? http://www.salon.com/2012/03/13/where_have_you_gone_mister_rogers/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/13/where_have_you_gone_mister_rogers/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12670431 One of the most radical figures of contemporary history never ran a country or led a battle. He was not known for his fiery speeches or his daring action. Instead, he became a legend by wearing a cardigan and taking off his shoes.

Fred Rogers would have turned 84 next week. In honor of his birthday, why not take off your jacket and cozy up to the intimate documentary "Mister Rogers & Me"? Brothers Benjamin and Christofer Wagner's worshipful ode is certainly no match for anything Rogers himself ever created; it's a meandering, not-quite-finished-feeling work that too often veers toward the "me," when Rogers ought to remain front and center. But it does offer the firm reassurance to generations of viewers of how truly fantastic "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" was and why his legacy endures via books and DVDs. And it reminds us how today, nine years after his death, the world needs Mister Rogers more than ever.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/13/where_have_you_gone_mister_rogers/feed/ 42 The religious zealots we visit on vacation http://www.salon.com/2012/02/28/the_religious_zealots_we_visit_on_vacation/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/28/the_religious_zealots_we_visit_on_vacation/#comments Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12440151 How do Americans deal with religious zealots?

In the case of the Amish, many take bus tours through their compounds, buy their goods, take snapshots of their kids from afar and make a weekend trip out of watching their spiritual direction.

There are 250,000 Amish in America in hundreds of different communities, the beautifully made and instructive film “The Amish” points out, in its Tuesday premiere on PBS’ “American Experience.” But they are visited by nearly 20 million Americans annually.

Some of the Amish wonder if this is particularly good idea, since they have to rub shoulders so much with “the English” --  as they call the outside world -- with their excess weight, leisure time and unusual questions.

Surrounded by the supercharged evils of modern America, they live in rural settings of hard work and simplicity that must not be so different from life 200 years ago. But it's different enough to make some striking images: Bands of one-room school-bound kids in bonnets and straw hats but carrying matching new red mini-coolers lunchboxes; a scene of potato pickers at dawn that seems right out of a Corot painting; kids playing outdoors in their old-fashioned clothes but on a new-fangled trampoline.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/28/the_religious_zealots_we_visit_on_vacation/feed/ 49 “American Idol’s” niceness problem http://www.salon.com/2012/02/27/american_idols_niceness_problem/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/27/american_idols_niceness_problem/#comments Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:38:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12435191 Two big things happened on “American Idol” last week. First, the top 24 contestants were chosen. They were a largely bland, unsurprising bunch, selected by one of the most toothless panels of judges on TV, but they’ll still be the ones viewers will vote on for the rest of the season.

More significantly, perhaps, “Idol” was usurped (just barely) as the top show on TV by a fresher-feeling copycat, “The Voice.” There's actual enthusiasm for the biggest hit on NBC in years and waning excitement around “Idol,” whose tired format in its 11th season is undermined further by judges who have been sweetened into acting all nice, all the time.

Throughout this season and last, the three “Idol” judges loved just about every audition home audiences were allowed to see. Nobody was terrible, or awful, or the worst thing anybody ever heard, to use the phrases of Simon Cowell, whose brutal honesty made the show in the first place.

That left with Cowell, leaving the teddy bear Randy Jackson as the meanest of the three, of all things. And the worst he’ll ever say is, “Dawg, singing is just not for you.” But mostly all he, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler will ever say to the rare reject is “You’re not quite ready, sweetheart” or “Come back next year.”

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