Us Womens 'N' Our Monthlies
I just saw a commercial (a rarity in the world of TiVo) for Commander In Chief.
Now, I've never seen the show, so I'm going off the ad, which could be totally misleading.
I just have one question:
Why is the show about a man president and his staff (The West Wing) about rapier-sharp wit, creative problem-solving and cameraderie, while the show about a woman president is about sex and D.C. gossip?
posted by Kat Coble @ 11:28 AM
31 comments
31 Comments:
You can't use "rapier sharp wit" and The West Wing in the same sentence. The wit on that show is as sharp as a wet tampon. People walking down the hall repeating what each other are saying isn't witty, it's annoying.
After reading that Teddy Roosevelt bio, they should come up with West Wing 1901. Use real world events, and show how actual history was made as well as the consequences of the President's decisions, not allegorical Martin Sheen-history. Plus, it could show just how crooked the electoral system was and how it is the model of efficiency today as compared to a hundred years ago.
I'd just want to see a show about the Taft Whitehouse and his fat-man bathtub.
I do think that some of the episodes of tWW in its early seasons brought the funny pretty well. Of course, they've killed it since Sorkin left.
There is a great anecdote in the TR book about Taft. The SecofState gets a cable saying Taft went on a 25 mile horse ride, the Secretary cables back "How's the horse?"
The Sorkin era did have its moments, but it could get irritating and ripe for parody after a while.
The Fall of the West Wing was one of the reasons we ditched our TV. In its heyday we wouldn't miss Wednesday night. Even though the politics got spewworthy a few times (castigating a ridiculous parody of Laura Schlessinger and thinking they're really Stuck It To The (Wo)Man, for instance), the stories were still well written and engaging, with something you don't see often enough in modern television: permanent character change.
Reminded me of ER when it was really rolling, but that's another sad tale of overstaying your welcome; we haven't watched that show in years.
Jason
TWW was one of those shows I loved. Even though it disagreed with me politically 99% of the time, it was still obvious that the other side of the aisle loved the country and was motivated by seeing it succeed.
Absent Sorkin it is garbage.
TWW is going to have a live debate in a few weeks.
We're in the Tivo time warp, so we've only seen the first ep of CiC, but it seems to be pretty good. Essentially, you have independent (read: Hollywood Liberal) Geena Davis who was the token female on a conservative ticket ascending to the presidency after the former president unexpectedly kicks the bucket. Her first address to the senate is schlocky, and Donald Sutherland's sabotage is goofy, but it's fun to watch Kyle Secor being referred to as FLOTUS.
And, it looks like it's on hiatus for a couple of weeks while they find a new commander for it.
I like this show, but as I said on Broadcasting and Cable's blog, the producers will kill it, if they dwell on the "family" aspects (The poor first gentleman, White House children, a woman as President). That will turn it into a family drama instead of smart political animal it can be.
I guess, after doing some pavement pounding earlier, that Bochco is going to be the new show-runner. Not that that bodes well for the shift away from "family" aspects, but it IS interesting.
Patrick, did you see that they were having trouble getting episodes written and filmed on time? I read that on the AP wire today. The ad I saw today was during Grey's Anatomy and showed a series of people kissing, undressing and arguing all with a VO announcing that "this is not your typical ...." something or other.
Patty Duke had that show where she was the female president. It was a sitcom, if I recall correctly. It was the same thing. Haha funny her husband is the first lady. Just once I would like to see it acknowledged that a woman can be the leader of a major nation and be whip-smart good at her job. I've seen enough VaginaTV to get that our jobs are always at odds with our private lives. I'd like a show that says " you know what, I can be a woman but I can also do this job as well as anyone else. " I'd frankly like to see a show where her gender was secondary to the political drama. And by political drama, I mean "how do we deal with Inventistan?" not "how sleazy can Donald Sutherland be?"
I don't care if her politics are liberal or conservative. I'd just like to see it acknowledged that they are more important than how beautifully she undresses for Kyle Secor.
What I heard was that there was an issue with the First Daughter making the sign of the two-backed beast with a Secret Service agent. Evidently, the boys at the network got a little nervous in the service and decided that they might want to change course.
Expect this show to get canceled by the end of the year.
Is there something I'm missing? Is the daughter a small child? Why the nervousness for a show that prides itself on being supasexxxxy?!
I just think it'll die on the vine. Everything I've read today about it after the ad piqued my curiosity seems to indicate that the show has no idea what it wants to be.
ABC doesn't want to be the network that portrays the faux Jenna/Barbra as a dirty little whore. Leave that shit for FOX. The news division makes up for it.
Okaaay. Let me get this straight. They're not down with the fact that your average teenage girl is pretty horny and might have sex with a hot armed guy, but they're cool with a chick president who is the Nancy Friday poster child?
I don't know who Nancy Friday is, but there was a time when I would have stuffed you and Aunt B down an incinerator to take a shot a Geena Davis.
And by take a shot, I mean give her the best thirteen minutes of her life. And by thirteen minutes, I mean that includes the cuddling afterwards.
I would guess it also includes the drinks beforehand...
Depends. How long did we talk at the Roboto party?
Off and on--maybe 8 minutes. I can't remember. I was too busy keeping away from the garbage chute.
Good thinking, the Saucer staff gets confused easily.
Gosh. Appropriate a guy's trademark for one afternoon and see how touchy we get?!?
BTW...Nancy Friday...women's sexual fantasies. Interesting reading.
Hey! I've spent more than thirteen minutes bantering with you. Some kind of record. You tricked me.
Hey, wait a second. How is it that I'm getting stuffed into the garbage chute along with Katherine? I turn my back for one afternoon and all of a sudden people are plotting to set me on fire.
Welcome to the party, Senorita Cuervo.
The stuffing you into an incinerator was just an illustration, akin to Bill Bennett aborting all the black babies. Go back to sleep.
I'm on my way back to bed. I just didn't want y'all to think I wasn't paying attention, that you could use this one moment of weakness as an opportunity to snark on me without me noticing.
I'm still not clear on why it is exactly that we have to go down the incinerator for some guy to make time with Geena Davis. I'm sure if you asked nicely we'd just give you our blessing, a box of Ramses and wish you godspeed.
Some people might wish Nashville's best looking old man blogger well. Other people might make loud smart-ass comments so that Geena Davis would overhear.
I'm just saying, I don't know why Sarcastro thought to put me in the incinerator in the first place, but it's probably wise.
When did Bill Hobbs enter the picture?
The show was interesting. I being my typical anti-Katherine self have seen every episode.
Donald Sutherland overdoes it. He's Canadian anyway.
Geena Davis is interesting. The take is that she's an ex-academic University chancellor who got into politics and then got mixed up with the Republicans. Blah blah blah boo hoo. Now instead of letting the Knight in Conservative Armor Donald Sutherland take over, she's going to make America Independent, a maverick nightmare against the two-party system. Whoop de freakin do. The theme is basically I don't do America the way Washington does America.
The one actress from the practice as the Democrat Senate Majority Leader was interesting.
The production quality is not nearly as finely tuned as tWW. The "joint session of congress" speech looked as though it were done in an affilliate tv station's back room.
I will probably continue watching it, time permitting. But something more interesting better happen this week. Peter Cayote is new Veep. At least he's not narrating some bs documentary on PBS.
And in point of fact, they are referring to Kyle Secor as "First Gentleman."
Ah, of course, Kat, you're right. When one says "hottie middle aged blogger in Nashville," who else could it be but Bill Hobbs? He's so dreamy. Of course, Hobbs lacks the subtle clumsy charm of a man who would complain to you about a complete lack of hot Libertarian women...
Tom, your synopsis makes this show seem much more interesting than it actually is.
Oooold maaaaaan Blog-ger... that oooooold maaaan Blogger... he just keeps rantin'... and keeps on ravin'...
I take Tom's comment of "anti-Katherine" to be an application of the prefix in the same sense as "anti-matter," not "antidisestablismentarianism."
Maybe Bill Hobbs could guest on the show?
Patrick, I hope so. Otherwise it'll be a long and bitter Christmas.
Tom is actually just like me. If I refused to TiVo "LOST".
Sharon, I get that Hottie Hobbie (I like that better than B-Ho--take that Kleinheider) is gonna be too busy with his mysterious Business Ventures to be struttin' it on the Geena Davis PILF show.
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