This article will also be published at blogcritics.org. By Heloise
Genre: Review and opinion on Emmy Award 59th
While it may seem like the whole world is watching the 59th Emmy Awards and Al Gore and Hyatt get an Emmy for interactive Current TV, which I know nothing about, that the big elephant in the room is TV itself. Because, if you checklist what it takes actually to watch the winning shows: well, it’s downright damn unfair. First, it helps if you are white, have a TV, have upwards of 200 bucks for regular, cable and premium channel bundles that include the likes of HBO, and have either the time or the TIVO to catch the shows worth watching. Now, absenting those options you could troll the mall and hope to window-watch a big screen TV that just happens to be channeling The Sopranos.
The toughest part to override, for me, would have to be the white-bread factor. Besides the Spanish TV channels, there are but a few sidelined (token) series that feature black stories and black people. But there is NO black TV channel. That brings me back to my original premise: TV is pretty damn white. I mean goddamn white. I guess I shouldn’t use that word because that’s what Sally Field was about to say when the television monitors immediately cut her off and panned to the ceiling, mid sentence, while she finished saying something like…mother’s would not have allowed this goddamn war to kill our kids. Just guessing that’s about what she said, based on what she was saying at first. Then she looses her train of thought, regains it, and comes back with a bleeping zinger. All that from little Sally Field! Can you blame FOX? Because in the age of lip reading, when someone is saying something really offensive with lots of consonants it is best to cover their lips (read: CYA) and/or pan away from them entirely. Sally, you should be ashamed!
Sally’s cute. I’ve been watching her since the early TV Gigdet days, and her many fine movies. I know that being nice really sucks sometimes Sally; but take my advice: save it for your husband or singing in the shower. Being nice helps, especially if a) you want to keep your job, b) you are not independently wealthy and c) have a some kind of boss (gay or straight). Being part of the far-Left-kook-fringe wing is not easy these days, we feel your pain. The Right simply wants to know why the Left just can’t be nice. The old "can't we all just get along?" Hell no, we can't. But, what I really want to know: does throwing a few choice curse words, a venial sin, trump throwing sorties that kill, maim, and light up the Arabian night?
Italian night…really The Italians took the night and most of the awards. I thought Boston Legal the best bar none. But what do I know? I am probably the only person in America who has not watched a full episode of The Sopranos. Why? Too gory for me. I don’t want to spend my emotional capital not watching what I am supposed to be watching. So, we’ll leave the reviews of this now-defunct; I mean final-episode series to someone who knows it well. Those in contention with The Sopranos must have been biting their hankies, because those wise guys won too many awards to count. They even won the big fish of the night "Best Dramatic Series." Its Emmy recipient was about to say something about America being run by gangsters, but he seemed either to run out of time or had a change of heart. At least someone I recognize won something I could relate to: James Spader of Boston Legal won for best lead actor in a dramatic series!
Well, that’s sums up my little tirade. Another season, another 365 nights of not watching what everybody else is watching on regular TV (too white) 120-channel cable TV (too expensive) and HBO (too bloody). But before I sign off, in case you missed IT: the HBO series Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, the real winner, buy it, rent it, steal it, but don’t miss it, it’s the best.