Seventh Heaven

A few reasons why MTV's upcoming remake of Skins sounds like a really really bad idea;

1. It's a remake
2. Judging from the previews the first episode is a scene-by-scene remake. Gus Van Sant's Psycho, anyone?
3. The original premiered in the UK less than 4 years ago. It's not like watching it makes you feel like you're staring into a time capsule. OK, so Twitter was a non-entity back then, but this show isn't one to name-drop tech trends anyway (why do I feel like the US version will be different...)
4. The MTV-casting looks severely underwhelming. No Hannah Murray in that group, for sure.
5. At no point so far has there been confirmation in previews that the fantastic theme song by Fat Segal will be re-used. Granted, the garage and DnB musical elements on the UK version might go over the heads of most viewers on this side of the pond, but one would hope they still manage to re-use the opening song, which by the way is one of the all-time greatest ways to start your day when you wake up feeling exhausted.
6. There's no way MTV will allow the same level of cussing as on the British version, creating yet another sanitized offshoot while supposedly going for maximum edginess.
7. Because I said so

throwaway

among the many human innovations of the 20th century, television advertising is certainly one that deserves its fair share of criticism. So many billions spent every year to make people buy more stuff (they don't really need), in a cycle that keeps getting more pervasive year after year. In that game, Nike has always been at the forefront of savviness, using the medium to its full capabilities to extend its brand from a little-known athletics apparel and shoe maker in Oregon to a behemoth of world renown.
The thing with advertising is, when it's well done, it's very hard to not be affected. Especially for a company like Nike that knows how to play on the basic human emotions that are exposed to the core during sporting endeavors. Their latest campaign, simply titled "Courage", uses images of athletic feats spliced together with seemingly unrelated images to create a spine-tingling montage. The overall effect recalls what Foo Fighters did in their "Best of You" video (including an insanely badass scene of a she-lion attacking a condor in mid-air). Because the direction behind the images is clear without being overbearing, it is hard not to feel thrilled, even when your cynical side knows the whole thing is just designed to shill for shoes made by underpaid workers in god-awful conditions. Thankfully most advertising sucks a lot, so it's not very hard to feel turned-off, but ads like this one make it harder to disengage. At least until you've see it 27 times in a week.

shameless

on the guilty-pleasure-o-meter, MTV's sorta-reality show "The Hills" has got to rank a very strong 9 banana splits out ot 10. A sequel of sorts to the drama-tastic Laguna Beach, The Hills follows Laguna Beach alum Lauren Conrad as she starts her life in the Los Angeles fashion world, as a FIDM student and intern at Teen Vogue magazine. But LC's fledgling career is merely a pretense to follow her love-life and friendship, with plotlines worthy of the best Beverly Hills, 90210 episodes.
The main ongoing story concerns LC's relationship with her former best friend Heidi, who has now become her nemesis, mostly because Lauren can't stand her boyfriend (now fiance) Spencer. Which isn't surprising considering the guy is pretty much the mayor of Weaselville and has been trying to figure out a way to get Heidi to ditch Lauren ever since meeting her. This has led to some momentous scenes worthy of the most intense Gaza Strip standoffs, including Lauren's memorable observation about her friend's beau that "he's a sucky person. He's a sucky person". The use of this adjective to describe Spencer is so brilliant I have literally nothing to add to it, other than that once you hear it, there is absolutely no way you will not eventually use it in some sentence or another.
There's also Lauren's on-off boyfriend Jason, with whom things invariably ends in tears, generally for no particular reason to the outside eye. Yes, he does seem a bit more distant than usual and, yes, a tad douchy at times, but overall it seems like the breakup happens because the drama is just meant to be. The fact that he's almost the most redeemable male on the show says a lot about the type of people encountered. My favorite is Justin, also known as Justin-Bobby (why? he just wants his friends to call him that. I wish I were making this up), Audrina's (Lauren's roommate) ex-future-whatever boyfriend. Even in the sea of clueless guys the girls encounters, he stands out by his amazingly casual behavior. And I don't mean casual in a good way. From wearing combat boots to a beach party to talking about his other girl to Audrina during a date, this guy is the king of uncomfortable random. Which is to say that every scene he is in manages to heighten the already deliciously-high unintentional comedy factor by at least 250%.
Confirming popular stereotypes about young Hollywood, most of the people on the show are as attractive on the outside as they are unappealing from the inside, and in the end what you see on the screen manages to reach a point of superficial ridiculousness that you can't help but watch. As the trekkies say, resistance is futile.

As a guy in my late 20s, I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be the target audience for this sort of stuff, but I'll be damned if I've missed a single episode of the show's 3 seasons. And unlike other candidates to the guilty pleasure tag like, say Desperate Housewives or The OC, this one only requires you to switch off your brain for 20 short minutes. More than that would be unbearable but as it is, it makes this highly recommended viewing. Or not. But either way it behooves us to realize that this is Lauren Conrad's (and MTV's) world, and we're just living in it.

Got To Get You Into My Life

here's a few facts about what may be the best TV show ever:

• lasted just 19 episodes in 1994, when it was cancelled due to middling ratings
• was later broadcast on MTV, which means it was shown 47 times per week at one point, which is how I came across it
• starred a then unknown skinny and unconventionally pretty actress, who became a style icon in the post-grunge world
• had one of the more realistic portrayals of marriage on a TV show (some good, some bad, a lot in between)
• featured one of the first non-cliche gay characters on a TV show
• had a terrific theme song by the TV composer, WG Snuffy Walden
• included the presence of a heartthrob character so emblematic, millions of women everywhere will forever refer to Jared Leto as "Jordan Catalano"
• is now available on DVD as a wide release in the UK, after years of online petitions
• is the TV show equivalent to Death Cab To Cutie to me: it gets sad and emo at times, but never pathetic, and more importantly, feels pretty true to life. Which isn't what I generally associate with TV programming

throw away your television

it is an inescapable fact that television is now THE main source in entertainment in any household. Sure, people still go out to plays, read books and sometimes might even play some Hungry Hungry Hippos, but in most houses TV is just turned on all the time now. Not having one currently, probably for the first time in my life, I have realized that not only do I not mind, I don't really miss it. Despite never having been a huge TV watcher, I've done my fair share of it over the years. But the truth is that nowadays I have a perfectly acceptable substitute in my computer. Sure it's only got a 13-inch screen, so I'll never be able to plop down on a couch eight feet away and enjoy a movie, but in my room, it's great. Pretty much all of my video-watching needs are covered, and it should only get better in the years ahead:

Movies:
with online DVD-rental services, movie lovers have thousands of titles at their disposal, generally much more than at their local rental spots. Personnally I use lovefilm, with a service plan that allows me unlimited rentals, with 2 DVDs out at any given time. I've thus been able to watch a mix of never-seen classics and new releases. The monthly price of £12.99 seems even more worth it when you consider that that's what a weekend seat at a Leicester Square movie theater costs. I'm not joking, I went to see 300 this Saturday and the seat was £13.
But the real future of this area is in the offering of movies through online stores. Lovefilm offers the service, with the possibility to rent for £2.99 (meaning a download which allows you to view the movie for a 24-48 hr period) or buy for £9.99 (you keep the download forever). Other sites have different formulas, but the common problem with these services is the DRM which prevents some users, say those with a Mac OS, from using them. For my part I'm waiting for iTunes to offer movies on its store, as it does in the US, although there it's only buy-to-own for now.

TV shows:
As a huge fan of certain shows (Lost, The Office...) and having lived in the US, I have never liked the long delays that it takes for these shows to be shown abroad, if they are at all. In France it was ever worse as many times they were dubbed. And we all know dubbing is one of the deadly sins. So for this I had to use the Internet to "acquire" my favorite dramas and comedies in a timely fashion. That way I can watch them when I want, even where I want since I do so on my laptop.
Again, TV shows can be bought in the US iTunes store, but not abroad, seemingly for rights issues. When they will, I would love to get a season pass for my favorites, and keep watching them on my computer.

News:
This is a recent discovery of mine: major news organizations now provide video podcasts which enable anyone with Internet access and a podcast application, like iTunes, to receive some of their programs. Right now I've got daily podcasts from a variety of sources, both French and foreign (iTele, LCI, NBC News, BBC morning edition, M6) which give me a pretty comprehensive roundup of the day's news. Now if only more broadcasters, like Arte with their fantastic Arte News, would offer their programs this way.

president ! president !

with all the burgeoning talk of the upcoming 2007 presidential election in France, I thought I'd ease myself into a political frame of mind by watching the recent France 2 documentary about Jacques Chirac. It was the talk of the town when it was shown in late October (seriously, I participated in multiple talks about it. in bars. on a Friday night), and I felt it would give me some insight into a very complex public figure. To people my age it might seem like the guy's been there forever, and this doc does nothing to dispel the notion. Presented in two parts, one focusing on the pre-1975 years (title: "the young wolf"), the other on the period since then ("the old lion"), the object of this program was to present a complete view on Chirac's accomplishments, bungles, and overall evolution. Chirac's been a part of French political life for so long (basically since the early 50s), it's quite fascinating to see how much his staying power has owed not only to his personal ambition but also to back-room wheeling and dealing on his part by different party elders.

The major impression I got after watching the whole thing was that although the current president of France has become somewhat of a caricature today, he has been one of the more impressive figures of the last 50 years in French politics. Apart from Francois Mitterand, who had his share of shady dealings, I don't know of anyone who has managed to adapt to ever-changing conditions yet remain true to his basic commitment to serving his country. I do not mean this particularly as a compliment, but simply because that's the feeling I get from everything I've read/hear/seen about him. You definitely get the impression that corruption was never far from the surface, especially during his years as mayor of Paris in the 80s and 90s, but looking at his entire work gives a more nuanced view. After all, he did do some good things like create the national unemployment agency ANPE (now the epitome of bureaucratic slowness, but a really good idea all the same), and apart from a single incident has always made it clear that he was completely against the extreme-right Front National party, something a few of his right-wing peers have not always been willing to do in tight election situations.

But since the last 20 years of his career have been marred by so many scandals and alleged corruption stories, the global view of his career has been marred, perhaps definitely. I don't particularly like him, but after watching this documentary I definitely kind of respect and understand what he's experienced a lot more than before. Yes he is stiff, yes he is a bit too loyal, but those character traits have mostly gotten worse as the years have gone on. I still would like him to face a real inquiry into what exactly his role was in those property scandals that happened while he was mayor of Paris, but I don't believe he was corrupted in the sense of increasing his personal wealth point of view, at least not more than anyone in that position would. While that doesn't make it excusable, that view is a bit more subdued than the ultra-shady and super-controlling figure that he has been portrayed as. Also, he gets criticized a lot for not doing much since becoming president, but if people agreed with the work of his prime ministers they wouldn't care about that. In France a president is mostly there for show, and the shaking of hands (of foreign dignitaries, old people and children), an activity at which Chirac seems to be especially good at, and fond of. So if you had to criticize him as president it would be mostly for picking his government heads too much based on his personal appreciation of them and not necessarily on their merits.

Of course it is quite probable that the real truth will never emerge, since that is the way things go when it comes to French politics. In that sense it was a pleasant surprise to see that this documentary was shown on a public channel, in prime-time. Programs like this are part of a healthy discourse on the role and work of our politicians, and though I wouldn't want to watch them too often (The Life and Times of Jack Lang, anyone ?), I'm glad they're made and not relegated to the late-night time slots.

lost

in three short years the TV show Lost has become a global phenomenon. I've watched all the episodes thanks to the wonders of the internet since the very first one, and I'm hooked to its great mix of mystery, drama and action.
Season 3 is set to start in the US on Oct. 4, and to prepare myself for the event, I decided to catch up on the previous seasons. I already own the season 1 DVD boxset, and ordered season 2 (which should arrive anyday now), so my goal is to watch a bunch of "relevant" episodes to remind myself of the main plot points in time for the first ep. Last night I watched the first episode from season 1, and it's funny how many details I'd forgotten. Guess that's what these DVDs are for.
Since this is one of my top current TV shows (with The Office (US) and The Wire), I'm even considering watching it live via the Internet. Which means getting up at 4am, something I haven't done since I used to regularly do it for NBA games back when I had the energy to do so.
To paraphrase the one and only Barenaked Ladies, "sleep, who needs it ?"