Thank the powers-that-be for a new TV season. The repeats were really starting to wear on us. Oh wait, that was the news. Never mind.
Seriously, with Labor Day came the blitzkrieg (or is it anschluss? ) into nonstop TV punditry about the November elections. Which are, need we repeat, not until November.
While Iran's crazy President Ahmadinejad was at the UN on Sept. 23 waving a Bible and a Koran and spouting anti-Semitic rhetoric that would make Mel Gibson blush, the Democrats were sussing out which way they want to lose their Congressional majority come November.
It's always educational to see where TV lands on pre-election debates. Pretty much everyone seems to have decided that the only race worth watching and talking about on the TV talk shows and late-night shows is the senatorial race in Delaware. Delaware is the second smallest state in the nation, is more blue than purple, and doesn't tend toward an extremist bent. It is not, for the record, Idaho or Utah, nor does it seem to have a plethora of weird religious sects worthy of an HBO TV series. What it did have was a resounding upset in the recent primary, which gave the Tea Party candidate a landslide win over the incumbent Republican.
Christine O'Donnell, who puts the P in perky and, to hear her detractors tell it, the C in crazy, took down 10-term congressman and former two-term governor Mike Castle, cutting the establishment Republicans off at the knees – or maybe a little higher up. The story was all over the tube because next to the wizened Castle, the pretty and peripatetic O'Donnell was just too telegenic for words. A veritable clone of her mentor Sarah Palin. (BTW, check out Mama Grizzly on ET, visiting for Wasilla Day on the Sept. 24 show, at CBS.com. It's something to see. Get your moose snacks ready.)
It was O'Donnell's telegenetics that had brought her to the tube before, more than a decade earlier, where she appeared on more than two dozen episodes of Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, as the perky, pretty voice of ultra-conservative America. On PI, O'Donnell delivered the lines that have given late-night comedians grist for the past two weeks, and caused Craig Ferguson to opine that he hadn't been so happy with comedic material from a politician since Dick Cheney. On PI, O'Donnell acknowledged having dated someone who took her to a satanic ritual, dabbling in witchcraft and ending up on a satanic altar. (Virgin sacrifice?)
This all occurred in what was obviously a misspent high school youth, but hey, in an election year. a great sound-bite is a great sound-bite. Karl Rove immediately dissed her (since apparently he is still Satan, and was offended). O'Donnell countered by quipping that if she were really a witch, she'd have turned Rove into a supporter. Game, set, match. Anyone who thinks Delaware is the state to watch really needs to get out more.
Meanwhile in other news: nation and world going to hell in handbasket. Fortunately, the antidote to the news has been the new fall season. One of the best shows this season is (surprisingly, given other farewell tours) Oprah's farewell season. She has been absolutely amazing. In two weeks, she's done some fabulous shows, including taking us back 25 years to the scene of a public AIDS hazing of a young gay man (now dead) in a small Southern town, and grilling the people who wanted to quarantine him then on what they think now. It was devastating but very illuminating.
Oprah eviscerated the state of education in America with Bill Gates and David Guggenheim, the director of the spectacular new documentary Waiting for Superman, while giving away the final six million dollars from her Angel Network on Sept. 20 . On Sept. 24, Oprah showcased Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, giving $100 million to the school fight she had depicted in heartbreaking detail. Also on the show, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Wow.
Oprah had the first interview with the female hiker hostage Sarah Shourd, released on bail from an Iranian prison. Also the first American interview with Ingrid Betancourt, released after six years of being held in the Colombian jungle by terrorists.
Oprah's Sept. 21 show with Jon Stewart was fabulous. He discussed politics, and his proposed Rally to Restore Sanity on Oct. 30. Stewart described his event as "the million moderate march." Oprah asked, "Who's going to be at the rally?" and Stewart said, people who think, "I'm not crazy about paying taxes, but I like having sewers."
Stewart told Oprah, "Crazy gets on television, but normal has to make dinner. Normal is busy. There's more sane, good people in America than not. This country is not a fragile country."
On the mosque and Koran-burning controversies Stewart told her, "If God had not wanted us to burn holy books, would he have made them so tantalizingly flammable?"
On the Arizona law Stewart told Oprah that illegal immigrants are transmitting the Mexican hat dance song (it's a fantastic visual as he hums the song) and infecting the nation.
Stewart's bottom line: "Crazy is the problem." (Check out the entire smart and hilarious interview at Oprah.com.)
Crazy isn't the only problem, of course. Discrimination is rampant in many arenas, and TV is, regrettably, one of them. We were shocked by details in an episode of Nightline last week. The subject: "Are Networks Biased Against Women's Sex Drive?"
The answer was an unequivocal yes. While every network and cable outlet shows ads for men's sexuality products like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, the women promoting Zestra, a product to enhance women's sexual pleasure, explained how not one in 100 networks would air commercials for the product. Yet women are three times as likely to suffer from sexual dysfunction than men. What's up with that? Watch the entire segment at ABCnews.com, click on Nightline.
One of the people featured in the Nightline segment was Dr. Laura Berman, the Chicago ob-gyn and sex therapist who has developed sex clinics and sexual aids for women, and has been featured regularly on Oprah. Berman is to women's sexuality what Kinsey was in the 1950s. Every woman should check out her suggestions for sexual enhancement at bettersex.com/Berman_Center, since they can't get the info on TV!
Under the 'Boardwalk'
Sex isn't the only drama on the tube, however. The best new show on TV is HBO's Boardwalk Empire, which is intoxicatingly, claustrophobically beautiful. With Martin Scorcese executive producing and the spectacular Steve Buscemi as the star, with period costumes, tremendous sets and stellar storytelling, this tale of booze-smuggling and gangsters in Prohibition Era Atlantic City – where the guys and dolls could have wiped the sawdusted floors with the likes of The Situation and Snooki – is just fabulous. It's not The Wire, but it is the best HBO series in years. With co-stars Gretchen Mol, Michael Kenneth Williams and Dabney Coleman.
The next best show: NBC's much-touted The Event. It may be too confusing for some, as it is a melding of Lost and FlashForward, but it has a stellar cast and a really intense plot. Starring Blair Underwood as Elias Martinez, the Cuban-American president Laura Innes as Sophia Macguire, leader of some possible terrorist group being detained indefinitely in Alaska, Jason Ritter as hero Sean Walker, and a host of other veterans of great TV like ER, Homicide and The Shield. This is definitely a show to watch. National security is very much an issue on The Event, but not in the 24 kind of way, rather the opposite. The President wants to free the Guantanamo-style detainees, but then something happens. Macguire knows something, but what?
Another new show that got a lot of (apparently bad) promotion is ABC's The Whole Truth. Promos for this show made it look cheesy and like warmed-over Law & Order. It's not. From the powerhouse Jerry Bruckheimer, it has an edge to it that is surprising. The debut show had more twists and turns than the Pacific Coast Highway. Starring Maura Tierney (ER ) as the lead prosecutor, Rob Morrow (Numb3rs ) as the defense attorney par excellence, and the gorgeous Eamonn Walker (Oz) playing the senior ADA (once again with the flawless American accent). Oh, and it even has a gay secondary character who, true to network placement of queer characters, is also Latino: Anthony Ruivivar. Definitely worth watching.
The jury is still out on ABC's much-hyped crime drama Detroit 1-8-7. It has some compelling elements, but is not nearly as gritty as it could be; The Shield set the bar really high for gritty crime drama. Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) is good, but he's always good. As are James McDaniel (NYPD Blue ) and Aisha Hinds (Invasion ) good. The material they have to work with: more old L&O than The Shield.
And what is with the bleeping of bad language in these new shows? Southland did this also, and it sounds incredibly stupid and certainly detracts from the grittiness factor. Detroit even pixilated the mouths of those cursing. Please. Nearly 20 years ago, NYPD Blue had Andy Sipowicz using terms like "prick" and "dicked over" with no bleeping. This show is on at 10 p.m. and if little kids are watching it, we guarantee they're already using the words being pixilated.
The new season also means the return of all our guilty pleasures. And for us, none is more guilty a pleasure than Grey's Anatomy. On the Sept. 23 return (post shootout at the end of last season), Callie asked Arizona to move in with her in one of the sweeter lesbian moments on TV in recent memory. We love this couple – they are so adorable, yet also sexy. Meredith finally acknowledged the depth of her relationship with Yang. She said to Yang, "Derek is my husband, but you are my soulmate." Ta-da! We've tried not watching, but we can't stop. There is no 12-step program for this.
Date with Nate
Since there's no 12-step program for guilty pleasures, you can go ahead and watch the back-to-back queer hours on NBC daytime, Nate Berkus and Ellen. We love seeing America embrace the openly queer daytime host. It makes us feel all cozy inside. Nate Berkus is another Oprah discovery, and his new show (The Nate Berkus Show ) is an interior decoration dream, a must-watch for anyone interested in sprucing up the nest. Berkus has tricks galore. And he's incredibly cute.
Speaking of queers we love, comedian Margaret Cho managed to escape being voted off Dancing with the Stars, but only just. Meanwhile, Bristol Palin was pretty good. But we'll be truly surprised if Jennifer Grey doesn't win. She's elegant, a spectacular dancer, proof that the new 50 doesn't look a day older than 35, and really, really nice besides. Remember you read it here first.
Finally, Craig Ferguson, who was lamenting the announcement that the Liberace Museum was going to be closing in October, fairly swooned over Liberace's dazzling outfits. He noted that he always liked to dress up for the first day of autumn himself in "something shimmery. I call it the Sequinox." Not actually gay, but more gay-friendly than some of our self-described "fierce advocates."
It's happening fast and furious this autumn on the tube, so be sure to stay tuned.