television binge

Since school's no longer a priority (hallelujah?), the folks here at butterfat have been checking in on cable television. Apparently, being out of the loop for several years now has put us behind; nevertheless, after logging in loads of hours in front of the tube, we're happy to report that it hasn't gotten much better (though most cable services now offer twice the amount of channels as they did a decade ago).

First of all, though, we l o v e Project Runway. Not sure what season this Bravo "reality" (what's so realistic about fashion designers competing for prizes anyway?) program is in (update: season 4), but the contestants for the current one are sassy, sophisticated and creative. Personally, we're pulling for Kevin, Rami and Kit. We despise Christian and feel that Sweet P's talent does not equal her fellow contestants. We were sad to see Elisa go, but let's be real, that dress this past week was hideous.

But the Bravo network, on the whole, is quite lame. They feed into the consumerist/materialist machine under the guise of "good taste" (that "omg huge expensive party show," this one) without adding much, if anything, to the culture at large.

In fact, even educational networks seem to be lagging. Sure, Discovery's been showing that History of the World series, and the History Channel still indulges in its WWII fetish, but even they have a fair amount of "oohhh look at me" garbage that was hitherto absent. Further, there are now several "home improvement diy" networks; we feel a little insulted and wish that someone would do something about this mis-appropriation.

As for the big networks (ABC, FOX et. al.), we're usually smoking blunts during primetime, and we don't watch soaps, so not much to say on that front. However, we still tune into syndicated episodes of Seinfeld, Malcolm in the Middle, etc. so not all's lost.

Overall, we've come to an agreement that our brains feel dead. For about two weeks now, we've been researching the phenomenon/lazing around, but now that time is over. It's been a gay-ol'-braindead time; we don't regret it necessarily, for we will be tuning in at 10ET/9CT on Wednesday next week for PR's new episode (hopefully Sweet P'll be voted off).

Lastly, we kind-of dig this one (cringe).