Academic

So I was on TV yesterday . . . .

By Tung Yin

I forgot to mention for local readers that I was going to be on TV on Sunday morning, as part of a panel on the "Ethical Perspectives on the News" program that airs on KCRG.  The topic of the panel was the Supreme Court's recent decision in the Seattle and Louisville school district cases.

I've gotten two comments so far.  The first was, "Wow, talk about the camera adding 10 pounds!"  The second was from a student who "was kind of disappointed that [I wasn't] pointlessly aggressive and argumentative like so many talking heads on round table discussions."  The student also "mused at [my] continued skill to dodge questions about where [I] personally stood on such controversial issues as affirmative action."  I wrote back, "As for being pointlessly aggressive and argumentative, that's what class is for, no?"

Speaking of TV, I've been vastly disappointed at how bad this new fall season has been.  I had tagged only three shows to try out: "Reaper," "Bionic Woman," and "Moonlight."  After watching the first episodes of each, I deleted my season pass to "Reaper" and kept the other two, but only after feeling underwhelmed.

"Reaper" is probably the best show of the three, but just not my taste.  It's about a slacker who learns on his 21st birthday that his parents sold his soul to Satan, and now Satan is collecting.  Instead of taking him to Hell, though, Satan wants him to track down escaped damned souls, using a  . . . Dirt Devil vaccuum.  (ha ha)  I liked the concept better when Fox ran it as "Brimstone" with Peter Horton; the difference is that "Reaper" is a mixture of action, horror, and comedy, with Sam and his slacker buddies taking on powerful baddies, while Satan (Ray Wise) takes on a fatherly role.  Kevin Smith of "Clerks" fame is involved, and it shows.  The program is witty, but I guess twentysomething slackers just don't interest me all that much now.

"Bionic Woman" was okay in the premeire.  I liked the much darker tone that it exhibited compared to the cheesy Lindsay Wagner version.  But it's curiously unexciting so far, and the characters have not been consistent to themselves thus far.  This is on life support in my view.

"Moonlight" is basically a ripoff of the mid-1990s late night "Forever Knight" about a vampire detective who wants to do good and who loves a human woman.  The problem with "Moonlight" is that the vampire, Mick St. John, is too stupid to care about.  I mean, if you became a vampire 50 years ago when you were 30, I think you'd take care to move around the country periodically so that people don't notice that you never age.  And if you didn't do that, I think you'd at least "backstop" your story about being the son, not *that* Mick St. John, with your former police partner, so that he wouldn't blow your cover to that peskily intrusive female that you have the hots for.  This one is on life support too . . . .

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on October 08, 2007 (boomark / email).