Sappho Speaks: The Fall Television Season

What Would Sappho Say?

Lectori Salutem! or L.S. (Greetings to the Reader!)

OK. OK. I KNOW I SAID I UNDERSTAND MY BLOGS ARE TOO LONG… BUT… this is a subject worth a few extra minutes. It’s TV! Let’s talk a little television now that the new Fall season is in winter hiatus for those of you who still use the screen in your home from something other than renting movies. Actually, with the advent of series developed outside of the banner of the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) and thus not requiring the high network rating numbers to stay afloat, some great alternative shows have shown up in the last few years on some of the second tier networks such as TNT, FX, and even the WB on occasion. Of course the best of television right now in my opinion is happening on the pay channels like Showtime and HBO and I’ll give you a taste of what I consider the best of NEW NETWORK TV on the air RIGHT NOW and will return to this subject for the pay channels at another time and on occasion as the shows ebb and flow and new flavors enter and leave the arena. Most of you will have already heard of these shows unless you’ve been living under a rock but I’ll just give my added perspective if you don’t mind listening.

Let’s just get it out of the way that I consider myself a pseudo-intellectual and will plug all the news magazine shows (Dateline, 20/20, 60 Minutes) as they enrich the mind and give you a taste of what’s going on in the world from a perspective that most often links back in some form that connects to the human condition. SO EDUCATE YOURSELVES LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. It will expose you to events and people you would otherwise know little about and though sometimes a bit frivolous, I always feel a good 52 minutes was spent watching (DVR time, of course – I don’t watch anything in real time anymore).



First, I’ll dissect the comedies out there worth 24 minutes of your time. There are two new standouts coming that couldn’t be more different. Lucky for ABC they run back to back on Wednesday nights starting at 8 PM. The first one is a very quirky, mockumentary style comedy about a misfit group of three “normal” families all intertwined by family relation called MODERN FAMILY. Their individual stories always overlap with hilarity. Ed O’Neill from MARRIED WITH CHILDREN shines as the family’s unemotional patriarch with a heart. Playing some of the best comedic moments is his son-in-law inspiring without shame to be “down with that” and parent on a friend basis with his teenage daughter. This one shows some real genius in the writing but could go the way of “Arrested Development”, a quirky, brilliant, ingenious show from Ron Howard’s production team. Let’s hope it gets the audience it deserves. Next is the Courtney Cox driven COUGAR TOWN about an anxiety-ridden, 40-something divorcee re-entering the dating world when she never really had that wild and crazy period in her youth to begin with. As the name suggests, she starts seeing a younger man and her comedic timing is spot on. The supporting cast is full of gems from other hit shows and I expect this one to be renewed for another season quickly.

Now we’re going to look at the networks and their new dramas. Basically in this department I have seen only one home run and a double. Then there is something completely off the grid and unexpected. A brilliant piece of television with all the gloss of paid television appealing to the younger audience and anyone who really loves music and dance – something utterly unique and certainly a guilty pleasure worth owning up to. I know, why all these sports metaphors? I don’t even watch baseball but things come as they come. We’ll just attack them in order of suggestion.

The home run is definitely THE GOOD WIFE. Julianne Margulles from ER fame is at the top of her game playing a Hillary Clinton-esque, District Attorney’s wife who stands by her formerly well respected and deeply esteemed husband after he is taken down amidst charges of impropriety while in office and a huge sex scandal, video and all. While he is in jail fighting the charges against him professionally, she must put her family back together in full public view and go back to work as a lawyer to put food on the table. The writing is superb and her portrayal of the contrast of what a woman in that position must go through is riveting. “Mr. Big” Chris Noth of Sex in The City fame plays her disgraced husband to a tee and is unyielding in his convictions and forgetful that she is not ready to forgive his indiscretions. THE GOOD WIFE airs Tuesdays at 9PM on CBS.

The double is ANOTHER hospital drama called MERCY on Wednesdays at 7 PM on NBC, but it is not just ANOTHER hospital drama. It has a spark that hooks you from the first time you watch it that gives you that edge over other dramas and that is great character development and plot lines that are new and different. Most of the actors are new to the television viewer but all are great at what they do. The main plot line consists of a married nurse who works at Mercy Hospital who was called up for active duty during the Iraq war. On leave she found out her husband had been cheating on her and while over there, she was left behind from her unit after working a double shift and their convoy hit a roadside bomb killed most of them, including her best friend. She leaned on a doctor she met over there and they began an affair.

After her tour was over she returned to find her husband repentant and the world she came from (New Jersey) to have stayed the same while hers had literally been blown to bits. To try and regain a bit of normalcy she put Iraq behind her, thinking she wouldn’t see anyone from her unit again, she agreed to work on putting her marriage back together. Just as she does this, a new attending surgeon shows up with a two-year contract he just signed to work at Mercy Hospital with her. It is HER doctor and the ball begins to bounce from there. Both of these dramas are done well and have something to offer the distinguishing television viewer. There are undertones of lessons to be learned, an occasional tear that turns up in the corner of your eye, and the hard work of writers who have put years of time and effort into their craft comes out in every scene. If you are an art aficionado, these show I have describeD thus far are some of the best new shows in their medium. Give them a try.

Finally, let’s talk about the best new show that is available to all who own a television. That is, the best combination of art and sass, teen drama and adult themes submitted through song and sarcasm. It is definitely the show I can see you sitting down with a group of your most sophisticated friends having a conversation on the merits of GLEE’s most recent song and dance numbers breaking each character over several bottles of wine. Will a drinking game emerge from this show for the younger set? You never know. It’s that good! This season I happily and whole-heartedly (and would even get into that conversation about this show) throw my hat off to the creators of GLEE.

For those of you who are thinking, “oh how High School Musical”, this show puts those stupid movies to shame. It has real actors. Musical geniuses that put great remixes on both current and old school songs and makes high school choir the place to be!!! Even Madonna has granted the music rights to all of her music to this show. This has got to be one of the fastest 52 minutes of the week and the credits are truly a sad sight to see. A few of the actors are standout singers and dancers with truly inspired voices. American Idol doesn’t have anything on GLEE. They didn’t need a contest to find some of the best talent in the country for this show. As for the lesbian standout, FINALLY, one of our comedic acting sisters, Jane Lynch, is a tiger as the frighteningly scary, overly competitive, she-man, hetero, cheerleading coach whose only desire is to squash the Glee Club. She is a STAR!!! GLEE airs Wednesday nights at 8 PM.

If you have actually been paying attention you’ll see that those of you that have not entered into the TIVO or DVR (Digital Video Recorder) phase of TV have a conflict. GLEE and COUGAR TOWN air at the same time. SO.. now’s as good a time as any to move into the 21st century and leave commercials behind!!! I suggest ATT Uverse. (They have internet, home phone, cell, and television packages). You can record up to 4 channels at once and sometimes they do stack the deck and put more than 2 shows on the same night (which is COMCAST’s limitation). Use the name SAPPHO if you sign up for ATT online. You might get a better rebate. ☺

Well, obviously I am too longwinded for my own good so I’ll stop here today and pick up with the other networks at some other time. I hope you’ll give some of this great art form a chance to grow on you.

Much Love.

Inspired by Sappho’s Muse


MUSIC OF THE DAY
So, the music of the music of the day is of course going to be from television and it might as well be from my biggest guilty pleasure GLEE and you can judge for yourself if this is High School Musical 4 or something worthy of a little attention!

It's My Life / Confessions, Pt. II             Glee Cast
Don't Stop Believin'                            Glee Cast
True Colours                                     Glee Cast
You Can't Always Get What You Want Glee Cast

QUOTE OF THE DAY
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.
Albert Einstein

Coincidence is God’s way of being anonymous.
Albert Einstein