tv news and reviews...

The Amazing Race premiered last night. Looks pretty good. One dysfunctional snippy couple to hate already. One disabled person who preaches "I can do anything I put my mind to" one minute and then pulls the "Please, we need this taxi - I HAVE AN ARTIFICIAL LEG" card the next. (Reminds me of the rude little little-person from a few seasons back.) Two competing groups of dumb perky blondes* (beauty queens versus cheerleaders!!) and one group of former-drug-addict male-model mimbos. And the white-trash Kentucky coal miner couple who yell at each other a lot. (And whose hick accent frequently requires SUBTITLES... a bad sign.) Actually, oddly enough, I was finding Team Kentucky surprisingly endearing by the end of the show.

The first team to go was the Black Muslim Guys. I'm kinda disappointed. I was entertained by how smoothly they moved back and forth from hip-hoppy dialect to Arabic. And curious how long before their constant "Allah al akbar"s were going to get them detained at an airport or beat up by the redneck coal miner. Alas, it was not to be. The second couple to go was the non-descript Indian couple. Anyway. It seems to have all the ingredients of a good season.

Survivor didn't really live up to the hype. Nobody really stood out to me much on the first episode except for Cao Boi (**) with his crazy Medicine Man crap. When I saw the reaction of his tribemates to the weird forehead ritual he performed on the guy with the headache, I told my wife - "Man, they are gonna get tired of his crazy Mr. Miyagi bullshit REAL quick." It'll be interesting to see how they conduct things with 4 fairly small teams... the race teams can't last long before they have to start merging. It'll also be interesting to compare the alliances after the merge. My early prediction - the racial alliances will quickly redistribute along gender lines after the merge. Just a hunch. It'll also be interesting to see how the Secret Immunity Idol plays out this season, as last time it was in the hands of somebody who didn't really need it for the whole season. Anyway... it usually takes Survivor 5 or 6 weeks to really get rolling, so... the verdict is out.

Tonight is Studio 60. I'm sure I'll watch the premiere, even though I've already seen it. Grey's Anatomy starts this week also. After seeing the previews, the wife is already excited about some romantic scene with the Robin Boy Wonder/veterinarian guy. I'm already excited about Sandra Oh in her lacy red undies. See... SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE! Perfect television.

Yay, September!


(*) ok, only 3/4 of them are blonde
(**) Yes, it's pronounced "cowboy". Ick.