Abbreviated SURF today as I was out and about last night so I’ll be catching up on Monday night shows tonight.
THE PAPER: I mentioned this show in yesterday’s SURF and as I caught a good chunk of it when I got home last night, I have to share some thoughts. THE PAPER is MTV’s newest reality creation set at Cypress Bay high school. As usual, the MTV editors did a very good job of delineating who’s against who in the very first episode. When we meet the gang at The Circuit (the school paper), they’re readying their applications for positions on the paper. There’s much talk about who will be chosen as the new Editor-In-Chief. Only one thing is certain: no one wants ambitious copy editor Amanda to get the job. The show was only a half hour long but it didn’t take even that long to see that this vicious little crew will bring Amanda to her knees, no matter how cruel they need to be to do it. And as we all remember from high school, cruelty is a contact sport. You play hard or go home. When the staff announcement is posted and Amanda is named Editor-In-Chief, the fallout is swift and harsh. Still, at episode’s end, the goal-oriented Amanda is undaunted (see the closing moments set to the strains of Streisand singing “Don’t Rain on My Parade“). Then watch the promo for “This season on THE PAPER” and see if you cringe as much as I did. This poor girl is in for something akin to hazing. It did NOT look pretty. THE PAPER airs Monday night at 1030pm on MTV, after THE HILLS plus multiple airings during the week.
COLBERT AND HILLARY: Last night’s first show from Philadelphia had over-the-top energy and lots of laughs as usual. Colbert really feeds off an audience which I’d guess is a reflection of his improv roots. The mayor of Philadelphia was his guest last night to kick things off and tonight’s guest is Michelle Obama. This morning, it was announced that Hillary Clinton will guest on the show. Let’s hear a round of applause for Colbert’s bookers! They’re clearly working overtime.
TDS: Even though I don’t talk about it much, I still watch THE DAILY SHOW almost every night if my brain isn’t too dead from pilot reading. Last night, Stewart did a great run where he used clips of Dubya’s speeches about Iraq where he talked about predictions for Iraq only Jon would preface them by saying, “If we invade Iraq” and then noted how everything Bushie was predicting for the future had already happened. Then Jon commented, “It’s almost like he can see into the present!” Oh heck, I can’t do it justice. Click to http://www.thedailyshow.com/ and watch the segment titled “War of the Words”.
TODAY’S SURF WRITTEN WHILE LISTENING TO: It’s been a KCRW kind of day for me so a tip of the hat goes to Nic Harcourt for playing the Frank Popp Ensemble’s “Business and Pleasure”; this particular song isn’t on their MySpace page but some equally groovy tunes like “Hip Teens Don’t Wear Blue Jeans” are. Click to: http://www.myspace.com/thefrankpoppensemble
Tonight’s rundown:
ABC: According to Jim, According to Jim (R), Dancing with the Stars, Boston Legal
CBS: NCIS, Big Brother 9, 48 Hours
NBC: The Biggest Loser (2 hours), Law & Order: SVU (R)
FOX: American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen
CW: Beauty and the Geek, Reaper (R)
MyNetworkTV: Street Patrol, Street Patrol (R), Jail (2 Repeats)
PBS: 9pm – Frontline: Sick Around the World
From PBS PR: “Four in five Americans say the U.S. health care system needs “fundamental” change. Can the U.S. learn anything from the rest of the world about how to run a health care system, or are these nations so culturally different from us that their solutions would simply not be acceptable to Americans? FRONTLINE correspondent T.R. Reid examines first-hand the health care systems of other advanced capitalist democracies–UK, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Taiwan–to see what tried and tested ideas might help us reform our broken health care system.”
A&E: Gene Simmons Family Jewels
Bravo: 10pm – Real Housewives of New York (Season Finale)
Discovery: 9pm – Deadliest Catch (Season Premiere)
FX: 10pm – The Riches
Wayne gets a surprise visitor at work and it’s not a good surprise.
MTV: Rob & Big
Oxygen: Bad Girls Club, Deion & Pilar Sanders: Prime Time in Love (Series Debut)
Former NFL star Deion Sanders and his wife Pilar are at the center of this new reality show. I can’t lie to you: I can’t think of even one reason to tune in to this show.
Sci-Fi: ECW Wrestling
That’s a wrap for now.
