  There are a number of things I'm seeing that sort of weird me out. On a few American cable networks, they've tried to enhance the viewer's movie-viewing experience with a separate 'show' that airs during commerical breaks. Sometimes it works, and sometimes you're left going, 'WTF? ' I was watching 'Die Hard' last night on F/X and it was one of those 'DVD on TV' type things where we have 'hosts' (male and female) to talk about the film during commercial breaks. I think TBS' Dinner and a Movie started this trend and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. DVD on TV is cool because they show a lot of deleted scenes and extras from a particular movie as it plays out and sometimes they come out with little tidbits about the film that aren't even on the DVD.
I think that's cool. Dinner and a Movie on TBS... sort of works because the phrasing goes together and has been around for a while, if you know what I mean. People have been going out for dinner followed by a movie for years. The format of this is a couple of hosts (again, male and a female) prepare a meal, usually one that's got a clever name related to the film they're showing, during the commercial breaks.
There's witty banter, sometimes a guest chef or maybe even a no-name supporting actor who never really made it big. This is all fine and dandy. But Movie and a Makeover? I think that's on Lifetime or Oxygen or something, but the hosts - yet again a male and female - 'makeover' someone, or something, like a room, during the breaks.
What the hell? That's an odd combination. And why always a male and female host? Covering their bases? Why - and this is what I really wanted to blog about - why is it always a dorky and/or dumpy guy and a hot girl? That's the weirdest trend I've seen lately and I've seen comments and articles about it. The hosts of DVD on TV consist of a hot blonde chick and a geek she wouldn't be caught dead with in a club. Why can't the guy be hot as well? Or better yet, hot guy, dumpy woman. Ok maybe not necessarily dumpy, though I'd have no objections about that, but at least a more realistic, natural woman instead of a tower of silicone, with a fake-bake tan and voluminous blonde hair.
Then there's the sitcom 'According to Jim' - Jim Belushi and... Courtney Thorne-Smith? Eh? I suppose the question is, are the execs at the Networks trying to help break down the stereotype of beautiful women only seeing beautiful men? Or is it just more like wishful thinking on their parts? You know those execs are all short, squat, George Costanza types dreaming of dating the hot chicks :) If they can't get one, they create a show that they can live vicariously through.
Now, don't get me wrong (and here's me covering *my* bases), I think it's great to have a TV show like Belushi's that breaks the stereotypes perpetuated by your soaps, your OC's etc. But it does seem like it's one extreme or another. Hot guy, average wife/girlfriend/host or vice versa. Let's have a little equal opportunity averageness/hotness. The perfect example that I can think of right now that's still on the air is Malcolm in the Middle. Okay the family's a bunch of nutters, but you're not going to find Jane Kaczmaerek working the runway (she's far too elegant for that) and the show's a big hit. 'Roseanne's another show where the stars were far from supermodel material and yet the country embraced it with open arms. I'm rambling now and don't really know where I'm going with this so I shall stop that thread :) The only other thing that sort of had me dumbfounded last night was watching an ad for Denis Leary's new firemen show on F/X and in one of the clips from the show, a character says the word 'shitload. ' I nearly fell out of my chair. 'Shit' is a BIG no-no word according to our censors so I was gobsmacked to hear it would be part of that show, *and* used in the advertising for it. Granted, F/X isn't one of the Big Three networks; it's a cable network, but one that comes with every basic cable package and therefore more accessible than say, HBO.
So I'm wondering if censoring for those channels has relaxed at all or what's going on. I'm confused :) It's the same with another cable network, TBS which is showing Sex and the City now complete with a little nudity and the use of the word 'asshole'. Normally 'asshole' has 'hole' bleeped out. I did find it amusing that F/X was showing a heavily edited version of 'Die Hard' where the 'God' in 'Goddamn' was bleeped out, yet let 'shitload' be uttered during a commercial :) 
