Why Do I Like 'New Adventures of Old Christine' But Not 'Cougar Town?'

That's the subject of this week's pop culture & politics column over on Mommy Track'd: How I can find Julia Louis-Dreyfus' kooky, desperate, fortysomething divorced mom on The New Adventures of Old Christine charming but be repelled by Courteney Cox's kooky, desperate, fortysomething divorced mom on Cougar Town. (I also looked at how other divorced moms in their late-30s/40s are portrayed on TV on Brothers & Sisters and Private Practice.)

I think part of the problem is that when I watched the satirical Cougar Town pilot episode (other than loathing the name), I felt as though this was a show about a man's perspective on what life is like for a divorced woman in her 40s, and that she's mocked for being in her situation. Old Christine, on the other hand, takes a woman's perspective and frames Louis-Dreyfus' oddball behavior into a Lucille Ball-type depiction of slapstick humor. Put more simply: When I watched Cougar Town I cringed. When I watched Old Christine's premiere, I laughed.

This clip from the Old Christine premiere reminded me of something you might have seen on I Love Lucy. Christine (Louis-Dreyfus) couldn't get comfortable on an airplane and the airline attendant wouldn't give her a pillow, so she took matters into her own hands:



When I saw this scene from Cougar Town (which came after a scene where Cox was examining her body in the bathroom mirror and finding it lacking in the sexy department), I wasn't laughing.



What do you think of depictions of divorced, fortysomething moms on TV? About Cougar Town, New Adventures of Old Christine?

Talkin' Fall TV Premieres on Manic Mommies Podcast

I chatted up the Manic Mommies at the end of last week -- we recorded our discussion before I'd seen the Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives premieres -- and the subject was fall TV.

Shows discussed included: Mad Men, The Good Wife, Cougar Town, The New Adventures of Old Christine, House, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Parks & Recreation, Glee and FlashForward.

You can listen to the podcast by going to iTunes, then looking up the Manic Mommies page. The fall TV interview is their latest one, number 185.

‘Army Wives’ Monday: Shrapnel and Alibis

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Army Wives.*
Pamela and Chase fought. Roland didn’t tell the now-deployed Joan that Sarah Elizabeth was in the hospital with pneumonia. Roxy and Trevor clashed over his work.

Pamela and Chase Fought

So about this “helicopter mishap,” as Chase likes to call it, Chase isn’t going to tell Pamela what happened when he was captured and tortured after the chopper crashed. He just wants to slap some whitewash on everything – the scars down his back, the bruises, the broken bones, the crutches he needs to use – and tell his wife that everything’s fine and he doesn’t need her help.

In the meantime, he’s lying to her about where he’s going at night with his buddies and skipping out on family time, leaving his wife with all the responsibility. And Pamela, the former cop who once lectured Army wives on her old radio show about having to come to terms with the fact that the Army comes first in their spouses’ lives, blew her top:

“You come home, something terrible happens to you and you lie to me about it and then you act like it’s nothing. I don’t know what to do with that. Then you’re goin’ on about Delta being the best of the best . . . It’s freaking me out because I think you like it like that. You can’t tell the little woman anything because she’s not in the big boys’ club. I’m your wife, Chase, and you actually think that I wouldn’t understand.”

When Pamela caught him in a lie, Chase never apologized for it, just pushed the blame back onto Pamela (a la Don Draper) because she had the nerve to ask questions. Apparently a wife asking a husband what’s wrong with him is considered obtrusive and controlling.


Roland Kept Mum About Sick Baby

Was it wrong for Roland to not tell the newly-deployed Joan that their baby daughter came down with a 105 temperature and had to be rushed to the hospital? Should he have told Joan that Sarah Elizabeth was kept overnight in the hospital after she was diagnosed with pneumonia?

Michael thought Roland should’ve kept Joan in the loop and was shocked when Claudia Joy told him that he hadn’t. “We have the right to protect our soldiers from distractions,” Claudia Joy said, telling him that that’s what the left-behind spouses do, withhold information which’ll just worry the soldier.

How could Roland tell Joan, knowing how hard it was for Joan to leave her “little angel?” I think that Roland made the right choice. He’s going to have to get used to doing a whole heck of a lot more of this independent parenting decision-making, without checking in with Joan.

Roxy and Trevor Clashed Over Work

Yes, Roxy knows she should feel lucky that Trevor’s working stateside trying to find new Army recruits and that he’s not over in Iraq, getting shot at. But his new job isn’t always as family friendly as she thought it would be.


Trevor had to repeatedly miss out on family events and -- unlike with Chase who did so because he wanted to go hang with his Delta buddies – Trevor did so to help a new, promising recruit overcome a large number of obstacles, like having to take care of her niece and nephew when her sister, their mother, ODed. After he got her through the enlistment process, Trevor got his first taste of recruiting success. But if he keeps getting so personally involved in all his recruits, Roxy will start to grow tired of the recruiting business.

What’d you think of “Shrapnel and Alibis?”

Image credit: Lifetime.

'Desperate' Mondays: Nice is Different Than Good

* Warning: Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Desperate Housewives.*

Welcome back Lynette Scavo. I really missed ya. After several lackluster seasons which took a once, razor-sharp send-up of suburban motherhood in the person of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) and made her a silly, grating joke, the Lynette from Desperate Housewives’ first, award-winning season is back . . . or at least she made an appearance in the sixth season premiere.


Pregnant with twins with four kids already at home, fortysomething ad exec Lynette is distinctly ambivalent about the pregnancy. When she was getting her ultrasound – for which her husband Tom took the day off from his university classes to attend (he's going back to school) – she could’ve cared less about seeing the grainy gray and white images of her unborn babies on the screen. “When are you going to start getting excited about our kids?” Tom asked, incredulous about her disinterest.

“I don’t love them,” she said, looking ashen as she confessed that she didn’t feel this way when she got pregnant with her other children, all by accident. “None of them were planned, but I loved each of our kids the moment I knew they were coming. It’s different this time. I don’t love these babies.”

“Stop saying that!” Tom said. “When you hold them in your arms, you will care about these kids just as much as the others.”

Having a lead character be so blasé and indifferent about her pregnancy, to admit that she’s concerned that she isn’t feeling the love, is brave and risky. “Do you realize that when these twins finish high school, I’ll be in my 60s?” she said, lamenting the fact that they’d already gotten past all the sleepless nights and diapers and she didn’t want to go back “. . . At their graduation I’ll be a crazy old lady with oatmeal on her chin.”


In addition to Lynette tapping into something that’s usually not discussed without fearing being tarred and feathered for being an unfit, undeserving mother, the season premiere gave us the return of the quick-witted Lynette, particularly when she let the happy, shiny first-time mom-to-be in the ob-gyn's office hear some ugly truths about motherhood that she said mothers are reluctant to share with one another: “Your children will hate you and steal from your purse. Your husband will begin to buy your birthday presents at the car wash, and the kicker, for the rest of your life there will be so many moments when you’ll feel lonely but you’ll never be alone.”

She held up the cover of a magazine with a woman in a bathing suit. “You see this? You’ll never wear a bikini again,” Lynette said, adding that while she might look good with her clothes on, “you haven’t seen me naked. My stomach looks like Spanish stucco. And my breasts resemble two balloons you’d find behind the couch a week after the party.” As if on cue, the young mom-to-be wept.

'Mad Men' Monday: Seven Twenty Three

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Mad Men.*

This episode threw me for a loop. When I saw three flash-forwards -- whose mysteries were unveiled by the end of the episode, including one with Don Draper face down in a motel room with blood caked all over his pretty face -- I thought, “What is this, Lost?” Prior to the latest episode, Mad Men hasn’t done flash-forwards, just flashbacks.

I was surprised to see Don, who has spent the last half dozen episodes seeming like he had gotten his act together by being supportive and kind to his wife, soothing his daughter’s fears and cradling his newborn son in awe. However the Don we saw in “Seven Twenty Three” provided a glimpse of the old, pre-thrown-out-of-the-house Don, the one who drove drunk, slept with Bobbie Barrett, who violated Bobbie Barrett as a business negotiating tactic (after she’d done the same to him), and nearly ran off with a pack of jet setters to aimlessly tour the globe to do nothing but eat, drink and have sex. I guess the bad boy, the one who doesn't think he's worth anything, was simply lying dormant beneath the veneer of the all-American success Don. All it took was for the folks at Sterling Cooper to press hard to get him to make him commit to a three-year contract, to “tie” him down and make him, in his estimation, give up his power, and Don’s carefully reconstructed façade collapsed.

He was back drinking and driving. He responded irrationally to Betty’s legitimate questions about his employment status by storming out of the house for the night. He picked up two hitchhikers, took their drugs (when they could’ve been anything) and sat in a cheap motel room watching the couple mess around like a pathetic lost soul after failing to charm the girl, unaware that they were scamming him and planning to steal all his money as soon as he passed out. He started thinking about his father again (during the episode when Gene died, he pulled out an old snapshot of his father) and imagined him telling his son that he was nothing but a worthless bum who was “up to his old tricks” and wondering how a powerful man like Conrad Hilton could be taken in by the lie that is Don Draper.

Don’s discomfort during this episode started when Hilton surprised him by showing up at his office unannounced and then chastising Don for arriving to work at 9:30 and for having neither a Bible nor any personal effects in his office, criticisms to which Don took umbrage, particularly given the fact that Hilton was sitting in Don's chair. That was before Hilton asked Don to work on his New York properties. 

To make matters worse, when Don continued to hedge at the notion of signing a contract with Sterling Cooper, Bert Cooper pulled the “I-know-who-you-really-are-Dick-Whitman” card in order to get him to cooperate, while going into Don’s office early in the morning, like Conrad Hilton, and sitting in Don’s chair waiting for him to arrive. “Would you say that I know something about you, Don?” Cooper asked, indicating he knows he’s not “Don Draper.” “. . . After all, when it comes down to it, who’s really signing this contract anyway?” he asked, stocking the embers of Don’s fear that he doesn’t really belong where he is and that he'll someday be outed.

Meanwhile, Betty’s not altogether comfy with her new detente with Don as evidenced by her coffee shop meeting with Henry Francis, the aide to the governor (the one who flirted with Betty and lasciviously touched her pregnant belly) regarding the water tank project in order to lobby on behalf of the Junior League to put the kibosh on the proposal. She seemed thrilled with her assignment, which gave her an excuse to contact Henry again and be flattered for a while. Dressed to the nines, Betty seemed disappointed when Henry said he could only meet with her for an hour and wasn’t going to take that hike to the reservoir where the water tank was proposed as he’d promised. Was Betty hoping for a sexy afternoon in the woods, possibly leading to another quickie like in the angry one she had in the bar at the end of last season?

The way Betty went out and purchased the fainting couch -- and the location in which she put it -- seemed to indicate she was interested in more than a mere conversation about a local political issue. “That’s the hearth darling, that’s the soul of your home. People gather around a fire even if there isn’t one,” the decorator had told her. What kind of fire was Betty experiencing when she was caressing herself while lying on the sofa Henry said she should have placed where the “soul” of her home is?

Which Season Premieres Have Gotten Your Love (or Contempt) This Week?

There have been so many TV premieres this week that, despite the fact that I write about pop culture for a living, I haven't been able to see all of them. Sitting on DVR awaiting my attention are: FlashForward (pilot episode), Heroes and Curb Your Enthusiasm (actually I'll watch it On Demand). Medium, which will be dealing with the impact of Allison DuBois' brain surgery, premieres tonight on a new network, CBS.

I WAS, however able to watch a slew of other premieres, some of which entertained me, others which made me bored to tears.

Among the best:

The House season premiere was two hours long. And it used every minute, well, in a very un-House-like way. It wasn't your typical medical procedural episode (patient comes in with medical mystery, House & Co. argue over how to treat the person, they try a few things, they don't work, then something triggers a brainstorm in House's head and, five minutes before the episode ends, he figures it out). This was a purely character-building two hours, not simply seeing the dramatization of House's diagnostic capabilities, but of his internal emotional terrain as he spent weeks in a mental institution into which he voluntarily committed himself. We saw many different aspects of his personality: The scheming House, the wise-acre House, the good friend House, the rapping House, the besotted then heartbroken House, the scared House. Will this insightful trend continue or will the show return to a medical procedure next week?

Modern Family was kooky and fun in its pilot episode. (Favorite part was the dad shooting the kid with the BB gun, then accidentally shooting his daughter's boyfriend.) While some parts were over-the-top and a wee bit forced feeling, I think this has the makings of being a staple in my house. My fingers are crossed.

I hope that The Good Wife with Julianna Margulies as the cheated-on political spouse who gave up her job to support her husband's career and raise her family, which had a strong pilot, doesn't devolve into a legal procedural, a la a Law & Order. I'd really like to see a genuine peek-behind-the-curtains view of the lives of high profile women whose political husband have publically humiliated them. When I read in New York Magazine that Silda Spitzer recently threw her husband a birthday party, despite everything he's put her and their family through, I was intrigued about why she stayed with him. This show could provide a plausible explanation. Unless it becomes a ripped-from-the-headlines legal show, in which case, I'll be sorely disappointed.

The New Adventures of Old Christine premiere was silly and made me laugh out loud. All I could think of as I watched Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Christine attempt to fly to the Bahamas in an unsuccessful bid to help her friend Barb and, in the process, cause a series of scene on the airplane, was that Julia Louis-Dreyfus has become Lucille Ball.

Among the worst/mixed bags:

While I'm working on a column about Courteney Cox's Cougar Town, I have to say that, putting aside the odious, predatory "cougar" dating references, I found this show unfunny and painful to watch. If it weren't for the fact that I was going to write about it, I would've turned it off after 10 minutes.

Eastwick. Saw and liked the movie, The Witches of Eastwick. Never read the book. The pilot episode of the TV show only elicited a lukewarm response from me. However I'm willing to give it one (maybe two if I'm feeling generous) more episodes to establish whether it's going to be fun and light, or whether it's going to just be another mindless, crappy show.

What did you think of this week's premieres? Any favorites? Any ones you hated?

Image credit: Fox via this web site.

How Many Days of Mourning on the Too-Long 'Grey's' Premiere?

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy*

Yes, I sniffled while watching Callie's reaction to her ex-husband's death. I also teared up when each of George's friends -- in his or her own time and in his or her unique way -- came to terms with his passing. I'm not one who shies away from five-hankie TV shows (or else I would've stopped watching not only Grey's, but other shows like Private Practice a long time ago), but the two-hour Grey's season premiere, primarily focused on two hours of mourning, was too long and seemed to drag.

I understand that the writers were attempting to dramatize how long it takes for some people to give themselves permission to feel something as awful as the loss of a friend. In Cristina's case, it took 40+ days and she only let herself react after she and Owen slept together. For Meredith it also took several weeks and her emotional reaction was triggered by the cleaning out of George's locker. And I understand the writers were likewise trying to illustrate how Izzie's near-death in Alex's arms on the same day that George died, had a lasting impact on Alex, chiefly that he was trying to protect himself from losing the woman he loves by pushing Izzie, now an out-patient (and living in Derek's TRAILER?!) away.

Ditto for Lexie and Mark, as Lexie, initially rebuffed Mark's invitation to live with him, to shield herself from being hurt. Only the repeated appearances of Callie, Mark's neighbor, in various states of undress and walking in on Mark while he was showering, prompted Lexie to get with the program and bring some of her belongings to his apartment.

All of this, I thought, could've been handled more succinctly.

The woman who George heroically saved was sitting on the bench outside the hospital, every day, day after day. Did we really need all those scenes? I say, "No," unless she was going to somehow be folded into the show as a regular character. I was more interested in the grieving the regular characters were experiencing.

Beyond George's death, there was the business about the Chief being ousted in a potential coup by the hospital's Board of Directors. This was interesting and has potential, but the tension between Derek and the Chief didn't warrant several curt scenes that did nothing to move the story forward: Derek was offered the Chief's job, said he needed time to think about it as a strategy to get the Chief more time to strategize about how to stave off his firing. The twist at the end of the episode, where it was announced that Seattle Grace would be merging with Mercy West -- the place where Callie, filled with grief and rage, abruptly secured a new job in short order -- has long-term dramatic potential, especially in this economic climate where not only are people losing their jobs, but health care costs and the impact of cuts on patients is being debated in Washington. Could provide excellent topical commentary, should the writers choose to go there.

What did YOU think of the Grey's Anatomy season premiere?

Suburban Mom's Political Fix: Actors Take on Health Care Reform, Backed by MoveOn.Org

Will Farrell, Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Masi Oka (Heroes), Olivia Wilde (House), Jordana Spiro (My Boys) and other celebs have made a razor-sharp, satirical public service announcement spoof where they pretend to be shilling for insurance company executives, saying that they need to be protected from any potential federal public health insurance option that the president is pitching.

They're rather pointed in their commentary, particularly when they say that the insurance company execs need to hold onto their billions of dollars of profits so they can afford mini-zoos for exotic animals in their backyards, multiple homes and private planes. In one quip, an actor says, "If my kid falls off his bike and breaks his leg, he should have to pay that money out of pocket, out of his allowance." Another adds, "How else is he going to learn not to fall off that bike?"

In skewering insurance companies which reject a health care claim because of something like a typo, Farrell said, "If you spell something wrong, do you really deserve surgery? I don't think so."

The ad, which is on the Funny or Die web site, is funded by the liberal group MoveOn.org.

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Think this video is an effective contribution to the health care insurance reform debate or not?

After Getting Its Second Emmy, AMC's Trying to Lure New Fans to 'Mad Men'

On the heels of its back-to-back best dramatic show on television Emmy win, AMC has decided to try to lure new fans to Mad Men as it's about halfway through the third season.

One way to pull in some new eyeballs is to have a season three marathon which the network has slated for this Sunday, September 27 starting at 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. (See the AMC schedule here.)

Another is to produce a video explaining the "story thus far," kind of like a CliffsNotes for the entire Mad Men series.

It makes for an interesting parlor game to examine which clips the show's creators decided to use in this nearly five-minute summary. The video starts off with scenes from Don's affair with the odious Bobbie Barrett, Peggy's affair with Pete, the birth/adoption of Peggy and Pete's baby, Peggy's confession to Pete and Betty kicking Don out of the house and letting him return. Roger's infidelity and subsequent marriage to Don's secretary was also touched on briefly, as was the British invasion of Sterling Cooper. The remainder of the third season episodes, including the death of Grandpa Gene and the birth of Baby Gene (though not Sally's reaction to all of this), made the cut.



After watching it, do you think the video offers any clues to what might unfold in future episodes, especially given that it included the scene of the man who works in the New York governor's office openly flirting with a very pregnant belly?

Image credit: Dyna Moe/Nobody's Sweetheart.

'Army Wives' Monday, er, Tuesday: As Time Goes By

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Army Wives.*

I’m all for taking a show and putting a new, unexpected twist on it. But if you’re going to be moving viewers out of their normal comfort zones or employing a technique not usually used on the show, you’ve got to make sure it’s executed well. If you’re thinking about having your show’s characters, say, go back in time, maybe have them play people from another era, there should be a reason for it, shouldn’t there, maybe to progress the overall series plot a little?

An example of this done well was the season two premiere of thirtysomething, “We’ll Meet Again.” Hope and Michael were debating whether and when to try to have another baby while Hope was mulling whether/when she should return to work and how a second baby would factor into that. While working on a piece about household Radon levels for an environmental magazine, Hope discovered a trunk filled with photos, letters and a journal, kept by her home’s previous owner. She became obsessed with the love story between a young woman, who had lived in the house with her family, and a soldier with whom she met, fell in love with and married, in short order, before he went to serve in World War II. Hope read in the journal that the woman had a miscarriage not too long after finding out that her husband had been declared MIA. Once the husband returned, they planted roses in the backyard, which were still thriving.The poignant flashbacks to the World War II era featured other actors -- not actors from thirtysomething -- and were linked to Hope and Michael’s current situation, as the stories intertwined beautifully at the end of the episode.


This is my long-winded way of saying that while I laud the effort and notion of having a show about Army spouses pay tribute to the Greatest Generation, Army Wives could’ve done a much better job at folding the tales of the Fort Marshall World War II Army spouses into the episode. Despite the great costumes and music, "As Time Goes By" felt, to put it bluntly, ham-fisted. Having current characters in flashbacks playing OTHER characters whose life situations don't have any relation to the current characters made for somewhat muddled TV.

Pamela and Roxy met two World War II Army wives, Elsie and Virginia, and struck up a conversation about the older ladies’ experiences, which led to tales about the women's friends and spouses circa the 1940s. All of which was fine until the flashbacks to the women’s younger days, dramatized by the current cast of the Army Wives. (I'm betting it was better on paper than in reality.) While the tales of the World War II Army wives were compelling, because there were so many cast members to whom they had to assign stories, the portrayals wound up feeling shallow, like little CliffsNotes nuggets about the World War II era. And there was little that these flashbacks did to illuminate the current characters' stories.

It was as if they tried to do too much, with too many characters in a single episode: Tackle racial discrimination in the military, wounded soldiers coping with their post-war injuries, pregnant war brides losing their husbands, the rise of Rosie the Riveter and women in the military. They had Claudia Joy, complete with head scarf, working in a production plant while her husband became wheelchair-bound due to war injuries. Pamela played the pregnant war widow who'd been a newspaper photographer. Roxy, incongruously, was a New York socialite married to a soldier and was initially viewed as a lace-wearing snob. Denise was serving in the women’s branch of the Air Force, while her husband, former Air Force, ran a bar, what would later become the Hump Bar, the scene where her husband was knifed to death. Joan was a waitress/dish washer at the bar and was married to a perpetually angry Roland who was serving in the Army.

All valid stories, yes, but the way in which they were executed on Army Wives made them feel extremely uneven to me, which was too bad, because that era has so much potential which Army Wives could’ve mined more in depth. In fact, I could see an Army Wives-World War II spinoff (think of the wardrobe) really getting into these meaty issues, similar to the way in which Mad Men is a dramatic time capsule for the 60s. Considering that the networks have spun off NCIS, CSI and a bazillion Law & Orders, why not a 1940s Army spouses drama?

Next week, according to the previews, Army Wives will be back to the 21st century and the contemporary gals’ woes.

So what was your take on the Army Wives' time traveling back to the 1940s?

Image credit: Lifetime.

U2 in Foxborough, Mass.: Magnificent

After having seen them in concert three previous times, you would've thought that seeing the fortysomething band for a fourth time would've seemed like old hat.

It didn't.

With a delightful mix of new material from No Line on the Horizon ("Moment of Surrender," an "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" remix & "Magnificent"), to tunes I enjoyed when I was a teenager back in the Stone Age ("Where the Streets Have No Name," "With or Without You") and some other favorites ("One" and "Elevation"), the members of U2 proved to be consummate entertainers, even if they don't quite have the agility they did back in the "Sunday Bloody Sunday" days. (I joked with The Spouse that some of the band members looked like soccer dads I see on the sidelines of my kids' games.)

I was surprised that Bono leapt into the arms of a young woman who he'd pulled up on stage and see her walk around carrying him. All I could think of was, "She's gonna drop Bono."

The Irish band Snow Patrol opened for them and played a greatly satisifying set, the best of which were their Grey's Anatomy-kingmaker tune "Chasing Cars" (even though some folks think the song's been overplayed), as well as "Open Your Eyes" and "Crack the Shutters."

Image credit: U2.

Emmys: What Did Ya Think?

My apologies for the delay in posting this . . . I was busy writing up this column for Mommy Track'd about last night's Emmys, writing my Mad Men recap/review, caring for two sick kids and then callously leaving them in the care of an uncle while I dashed off to Foxborough (MA) to see Snow Patrol and U2 in concert. (On a side note. . .  my Army Wives recap/review will be live soon.)

Sooooo . . . the Emmys. Thought the show, overall, was rather dull. The acceptance speeches, relatively vanilla. There was little oomph to keep me glued to the screen, despite Neil Patrick Harris' melodic plea to not touch the remote control. I did, however, like the new genre-based format where they grouped all the awards by category, so when the reality show category came up, I had plenty of time to go to the kitchen and eat some left over apple crisp and do a few other things before returning to the show, notebook in hand. (I'm not a reality show fan.)

How did I do with my who I thought SHOULD win list? My desires were satiated in three categories: My beloved Mad Men won for best drama for the second consecutive year. Ben Linus, er, Michael Emerson got some props for his work on Lost. And the Generalissimo -- a.k.a. Alec Baldwin, 30 
Rock -- got more Emmy love. On all the other major awards, I got smoked, per usual. Told you that I stink at trying to predict these things.

My Pop Culture column this week looks at some of the winners -- and losers -- in particular the shocking Toni Collette win for best actress in a comedy for her work in Showtime's United States of Tara.

What did you think of the Emmy results?

Image credit: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters via The Guardian.

‘Mad Men’ Monday: Guy Walks Into an Advertisting Agency

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Mad Men.*

“I’m afraid of what’s going to happen when you turn off the lights.”
-- Sally to Don.

This episode opened and closed with Don and Sally, in the shadows of Sally’s bedroom, with Don trying to comfort Sally who is actively mourning Grandpa Gene, who recently died. And Sally’s unable and unwilling to embrace Baby Gene, who has just come into the world.

From the dimly lit Draper bedrooms the bright light of the overhead projector in Sterling Cooper’s conference room was also used as a metaphor, projecting the new Sterling Cooper flow chart graphically demonstrating just how much the wreckage that is Roger Sterling’s personal life has extinguished the light of his career.

Then there was Joan, asleep on the sofa, cloaked in darkness, waiting for her drunk husband Greg to come home after spending all afternoon and evening sulking in a bar, mourning what he thinks is the death of his surgical career, at the same time telling Joan that she has to either get back her old job, which she just left, or get a new one, putting Joan in the uncomfortable position of being powerless and having to grovel to the Brits to get her job back.

While the episode was heavy in its use of the word "light," as well as the physical presence or absence of it, “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency” seemed to use light as a mechanism to address how the characters are handling the oftentimes abrupt and unexpected detours life throws their way.

Sally: She wanted a nightlight to cut through the darkness that’s hovering over her like a cloud. But, as much as she wanted the light, it provided her with no solace. Neither did Betty’s transparent attempts to get Sally to warm to her baby brother by saying that “Baby Gene” conned some fairies into buying Sally a Barbie doll, which Don later found in the shrubs in front of the house. The final scene had Sally shrieking in the middle of the night after seeing that Gene’s Barbie had returned to her room. As she cried into her father’s shoulder, she told him, “Grandpa Gene, he’s not supposed to be here anymore. He’s called Gene. He sleeps in his room. He looks like just like him and I bet when he starts talking he’s gonna sound just like him too.” To which Don said, “He’s a baby . . . There’s no such thing as ghosts.” Don brought her with him into Gene’s room and, while holding them both, said, “We don’t know who he is yet or who he’s going to be. And that is a wonderful thing.” (This makes two weeks in a row for a tender, heartwarming Don-Sally scene.)

Sterling Cooper: The British “invaded” on the eve of July 4 to gum up the works of Sterling Cooper some more. “We took their money and we have to do what they say,” Bert Cooper said resignedly to Roger after Roger complained he wasn’t on Putnam Powell and Lowe’s new Sterling Cooper flow chart. And, how sad was it that poor Lane Pryce got “promoted” to Bombay (much to his horror) and then, in the wake of the John Deere riding lawn mower accident, got his job back? “I feel like I just went to my own funeral. I didn’t like the eulogy,” Pryce said.

Loved the quote from Pete Campbell on the new “reorganization,” “One more ‘promotion’ and we’re going to be answering phones.”

Meanwhile, Don trod carefully when he was summoned to the Waldorf-Astoria by the head of the Hilton Hotels, the same man for whom Don had mixed a drink at Roger’s horrifying Kentucky Derby soiree, and who was now soliciting Don’s opinion on a Hilton ad campaign. I found it interesting that Don didn’t seem to flinch when Hilton pressed him for free advertising advice, particularly after Don said that this was his profession and that Hilton wouldn’t be in the presidential suite if he gave his work away for free. When Hilton said, “What do you want?” and Don said “a chance for your business,” Hilton told him to “think bigger.” Don’s reply was in the form of an adage about not being suffocated by the opportunity that he can’t see the clear picture, “One opportunity at a time.”

Joan: Once the sage woman who wielded power in Sterling Cooper with her wisdom and powerful use of her own sex appeal, on paper Joan now has “everything,” the wife of a doctor who quit her job to be a full-time wife, something she once described as the lucky dividend of women’s work, as Peggy aptly reminded her. (“I’m really happy that you got what you wanted,” Peggy said. Just, not so coincidentally, like Roger Sterling’s new bride, Jane Sterling, who was a secretary for a blink of an eye before landing a married man, the one Joan couldn’t quite get.) In her dark living room, Joan saw that her transformation from being a full-time working woman to being a full-time wife wasn’t exactly what she thought it’d be. “I wish you caviar and children and all that is good in your new life,” Sterling Cooper’s short-lived chief operating officer Guy MacKendrick said to her in front of the staff, bringing her, uncharacteristically, to tears.

Other noteworthy moments:

-- The lawn mower incident was gory, theatrical and ballsy. To have the shiny new penny of a PPL chief operating officer lose his foot (and his job?) via Ken Cosgrove’s trophy? The subsequent scene where blood was squeegee-ed off of Harry Krane’s office window, to his great consternation, was brilliant. Sterling Cooperites did have a base urge to spill some of the imperialist British blood (though not literally), didn’t they?

-- Notice how warm Betty and Don have been with one another lately? The argument over “THAT” name notwithstanding, the two of them have seemed cozier, more comfortable. The scene where Betty gave Don a can of beer, a bowl of chicken salad and a sleeve of Ritz crackers while Don let her see that he was excited about the prospects of a potential London-based promotion, had a much different feel to it than any of the scenes between them in season two.

-- This exchange:

“I’m bored,” Bobby said to Betty who was holding Gene while lying on her bed.

“Go bang your head against a wall,” she said.

“Mom!?”

“Only boring people are bored.”

-- It’s becoming clear that Betty’s going to favor Gene, as a way to mourn her father (and, by extension, her mother?). How will that affect the increasingly belligerent Sally?

What’d you think of “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency?”

Image credit: AMC.

The Emmys: Who I Want to Win

I’m really bad at predicting Emmy winners, as I oftentimes allow my own personal preferences to cloud my judgment. Plus, it’s so very subjective this whole picking of winners thing. It’s really based on what you watch and what kinds of shows you like personally.

If you're not into sci-fi, for example, you won't give a hoot about Lost. Some people hate the slow-moving, subtle Mad Men and think it's overhyped. (I know, it's hard to believe, but the haters are out there.) You really don't know how many of those folks are Emmy voters. That’s why I think it’s difficult to prognosticate, with any degree of accuracy, for whom the folks in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will vote.


So this is not a list of predicted winners. It’s my list of who I think SHOULD win. Totally biased. Based on my preferences alone. An academy of one:

Best Comedy Series: The Office. I know, conventional wisdom says that 30 Rock’s a shoo-in, and I do love the Divine Ms Fey, but I thought that the Michael Scott Paper Company story arc, where Michael left Dunder Mifflin, was fantastic and rejuvenated a show that’s been around for a while.

Best Lead Actress, Comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock. The Academy loves Fey, as do I.

Best Lead Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock. Hands down. He’s wickedly funny in this role. Last season, his scenes with Salma Hayek ("El Generalissimo") were hilarious.

Best Drama Series: Mad Men. This is the toughest category of them all. Seriously, it’s loaded with so many stellar entries. My heart wants Lost, as last season re-oriented the series around a new premise (moving from "Let's get off this island" to "We gotta go back") and was wonderfully steeped in religious and literary references -- even the time travel thing grew on me, but given that the voters base their votes on only one or two episodes (I can’t remember if it’s one or two), I don’t think Lost fares well when viewed out of context and seen by people who don’t already understand what’s going on. A stand-alone episode of Mad Men, however, is much more relatable. Mad Men was indeed extremely strong and smart in its second season. Plus there's Jon Hamm and January Jones goodness to enjoy.

Best Lead Actress, Drama: Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men. This is a category for which I have no real clue as to who the Academy voters will chose. None. But I’m rooting for Moss who has played the complex Peggy Olson character so very earnestly and believably.

Best Lead Actor, Drama: Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment. I have my favorites – Hamm and Hugh Laurie from House – but based on what I saw, Byrne was exceptional in the second season, particularly in the episode where his father died. Byrne provided a raw performance for which he deserves to be rewarded.

The only other category in which I’m very interested is the Best Supporting Actor, Drama for which I’ll pulling for Michael Emerson from Lost who plays the exquisite personification of evil that is Benjamin Linus. Go Ben!

For what shows, actresses, actors are you rooting to win on Sunday night?

Image credit: ABC.

NBC’s Thursday Night Slate Made Me Laugh

*Warning, spoilers ahead from recently aired premieres of NBC comedys*

I didn’t have high expectations when I turned to NBC last night. Didn’t expect to laugh out loud. But laugh I did. Hope it’s not an aberration.

Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation dramatized an awkwardly twisted parody of how penny-ante political scandals can spiral out of control in short order. Sure, a penguin marriage ceremony at the Pawnee Zoo is silly stuff with no substance, simply a shallow PR attempt to lure foot traffic. But it’s really not that unrealistic to have something as innocuous as a zoo event morph into a scandal. Such as when Leslie Knope inadvertently married gay penguins (she thought it was a male/female pair), making her a target of a conservative family organization that wanted her to annul the marriage, then resign and, simultaneously, a hero to her local gay community. Poehler absolutely pulled this off with aplomb.

I think that broadening the subject matter with which Leslie deals will only help. The first season was a bit bogged down in Leslie’s singular quest to transform a dirt pit into a park. (Hulu now has the season two premiere on its site.)

Speaking of Poehler, she also appeared on Saturday Night Live’s Update Thursdays and did a “Really!?! With Seth and Amy” segment on the recent spate of public incivility. Spot. On. Best line: Seth advising Kanye West about what to do if he sees an older woman holding a “World’s Best Grandma mug” and he thinks some other nana is a better grandma.



I likewise was laughing at The Office’s bizarro first scene. Parkour anyone? Seriously? There’s such a thing?



Community was kind of snappy and kept a running Gilmore Girls-ish loop of pop culture references throughout. Wonder if they’ll be able to keep up the meet-cute conceit and give this show some legs for the long haul.

Anyone else catch the 8-10 NBC slate? Thoughts? By the way, am I the only one who hasn’t heard of Parkour before?

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Parks and Recreation, Curb Your Enthusiasm & the Emmys

TV

Aside from watching New England sports (Red Sox, Patriots), I’ve finally caught up on the HBO show Hung and watched the season finale, which, I must say, didn’t thrill me, season finales rarely do. The show, overall, has proven interesting enough that I’ve bothered to keep up with it.

I’ve been thoroughly bored by the Jay Leno Show which premiered this week – otherwise known as “Hey-Let’s-Put-the-Writers-Out-of-Work-and-Hog-Up-Five-Hours-of-Primetime-a-Week-with-Lame-Crap-That’s-Really-Cheap-to-Make.” The set looks like NBC invested exactly $247 in it. The two blue chairs where the interviews are conducted appear to be placed on what looks like a dance floor. The whole show seems awkward and weird to me because when I see Leno, I think that I should be getting to bed because I’ve been trained to think that it must be past 11:30 when I see his face. Maybe he was funnier later at night. Maybe that’s it. Or not.

Despite the Leno mess, I am planning on tuning in tonight to NBC’s slate of Thursday night humor, particularly to see if one of my favorite comedians, Amy Poehler, can make Parks and Recreation work this season.

By the time Sunday rolls around I think my TV is going to explode. Notwithstanding the fact that The Spouse and I will be hosting a belated Rosh Hashanah dinner here for family in which we’ll engage in the age old ritual of putting the Patriots game on TV lest my eldest son’s head explode because he cannot watch it, my poor DVR is going to be conflicted that evening.

Of course, Mad Men is on at 10, as is Army Wives, both of which I write about here in this space on Mondays. Plus there’s Entourage – which I usually watch On Demand but on which I’m a bit behind. But Curb Your Enthusiasm is back with new episodes after a very, very long absence.



However the Emmys are also on at the same time. My pop culture column at Mommy Track’d for next week is on the awards show, so I’ve got to watch live. (If there are still relatives here when the Emmys start, maybe I’ll try to goad them into wagering.) Such the dilemma . . .

DVDs

Still watching The West Wing, season one. Just saw the episode where Toby pulled strings to arrange a military funeral for a homeless vet who got Toby’s coat from the Good Will. Also saw the episode where the president revealed to Leo that he had MS. I thought that happened later, not within the first eight episodes.

Books

Am still in the early part of On the Road, although my progress through it may be detoured because I have to read two other books for some articles I’ve got coming up.

I also just joined a local women’s book club – it’s been eons since I’ve been in a book club – and have got to read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa by next month.

So, what’s on YOUR Pop Culture slate this week?

A Real Life Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and Honeydukes?

When I read the news about the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park that's slated to open at Universal Orlando Resort in the spring, the kid in me felt like it was Christmas.

I gush about the Potter books, the possibility of actually ordering a Butterbeer and rub my hands together in anticipation on my Picket Fence Post blog where I talk about my and my kids' affection for all things Potter.

Is it too early to start planning to buy myself a pair of Extendable Ears at Zonkos?

Image credit: Times Online.

Fall TV Preview Plus 'Grey's' Releases First 5 Minutes of Premiere

It begins in days. . . the fall TV season.

Heroes premieres on Monday, Sept. 21 if there are folks who still care about the once sterling sci-fi drama. I'm still on board, despite the distinctly rocky roads it has traversed as of late.

Greg House will be in an asylum when House starts, also on Monday, Sept. 21.

ABC will try to hook us on a new Lost-like drama called FlashForward, with the fascinating premise: Everyone in the world blacks out and experiences a two-plus minute flash of themselves several months into the future. (Premieres Thursday, Sept. 23.)



Desperate Housewives will start its new season on Sunday, Sept. 27 with Lynette Scavo, who already has four kids, pregnant with twins, apparently trying to give Kate Gosselin a run for her money.

The Office returns to make us laugh with its uncomfortable awkwardness and news of Pam's pregnancy, as the health care debate makes us cry, on Thursday, Sept. 17. (I STILL miss the Michael Scott Paper Company.)



And then there's the Grey's Anatomy premiere on Sunday, September 24. We all know the behind-the-scenes casting stories. There are many of us -- including yours truly -- who felt manipulated by the season finale last spring when both Izzie and George coded and then met one another in that ethereal elevator scene. But, if you're like me, you're still willing to tune in for more abuse. In a surprising move, ABC has posted a sneak peek of the first five minutes of the season premiere on its web site and I've posted it below. It provocative to say the least, and I did tear up.



A couple of other new shows to which I'm looking forward to seeing include CBS's The Good Wife, the one about the betrayed political wife starring Julianna Margulies (premiering Tuesday, Sept. 22) and ABC's new comedy Modern Family, whose online clips have made me laugh (premiering Wednesday, Sept. 23).



My review of fall TV premieres which feature moms and families is up on Mommy Track'd this week.

What shows are you looking forward to seeing return this fall? Any new ones you're eagerly anticipating?

‘Army Wives’ Monday: Need to Know Basis

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Army Wives*

Pamela tried to help her injured, secretive husband. Trevor and Roxy talked about a new baby. Claudia Joy struggled with diabetes. Joan was getting ready to deploy. And Denise was in paramedic training.

Pamela & Her Secretive Husband

After the last episode where Pamela had to be an unrelenting pest in order for the Army brass to let her know that her husband was alive, albeit hospitalized, she tried to apply that same determination to her husband Chase to get him to tell her what really happened to him. When Pamela noticed burns on his back and started inquiring about his internal lacerations, she said it seemed like he’d been tortured.

“I’m your wife, I need to know the truth,” Pamela said.

“I did tell you Pam,” Chase said unconvincingly after telling her she was overreacting. “It was a helicopter crash.” He doesn’t strike me as a forthcoming kind of character, so my guess is that Pamela will have to apply massive pressure in order to learn the truth. If Chase doesn’t capitulate, seeing that Pamela’s as hard-headed as he is, there’s likely to be a standoff.

Trevor & Roxy & a Baby

Trevor found birth control pills in the medicine cabinet and was none too pleased about it. He’d thought, since he wasn’t going to be deployed overseas – he’s now a local recruiter – that they’d try to have a baby. And while Roxy said that maybe she did make that agreement, she wasn’t sure about it now. “I don’t want things to change,” she told Pamela, saying she didn’t know what would happen in their family of four if a baby were thrown into the mix. But upon seeing Trevor reading aloud to the boys while cuddling then and being an overall standout dad, Roxy tossed the pills in the trash. You just knew she'd do that, didn't you?

Claudia Joy & Diabetes

It took a young female hockey player who was relatively nonchalant about her diabetes, at ease and so down-to-earth about it, to make Claudia Joy feel more at ease with her own condition. Up until then, Claudia Joy had been hiding it, acting as though it was something about which to be ashamed.

Earlier in the episode she’d rebuffed Michael and Emmalin’s attempts to make her transition easier by picking out a “nice” Medical Alert Bracelet for her. Over dinner one night, Emmalin asked her about whether she’d done her testing that day and Claudia Joy got testy, retreated to her room, later telling Michael, “You have to let me just be sad.”

Running into the teenaged girl who didn’t let diabetes stop her from playing ice hockey was just the confidence boost Claudia Joy needed.

Joan & Deployment

Joan helped a teenaged girl put her life on an Army track – impressing her with the authority she wielded and by the number of people in her command – just when she learned she’d only have one week before being deployed abroad and leaving her baby girl behind. She learned the news while she was holding Sarah Elizabeth in the rocking chair and singing her a lullaby. Do you think the writers are really going to send Joan packing?

Denise & Paramedic Training

It was fabulous to see Denise getting back to her medical career after the affair-induced hiatus. Being a paramedic seemed perfect for her, especially when she was practicing on Frank and they got all sugary sweet and kissy. You just knew that something bad was going to happen . . . like Jeremy losing his best buddy to sniper fire in Iraq. Jeremy already had some emotional problems dating back a ways. Who knows what impact this death will have on him.

What’d you think of “Need to Know Basis?”

Image credit: Lifetime.

'Mad Men' Monday: The Fog

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the latest episode of Mad Men.*

This episode was so layered and nuanced on so many levels, that I just fell in love with “The Fog.” Liked it much more than the recent episodes.

Betty Had Her Baby

Who didn’t feel sorry for Betty during this episode? We were supposed to hate the patronizingly nasty Nurse Ratchet who was insensitive and downright cruel to Betty. Nurse Ratchet literally pinned Betty down when Betty was frightened and calling for her husband who she was afraid had left. She blithely told Betty that her ob/gyn was out at a fancy dinner in the city and dismissed Betty’s concerns about having a doctor she’d never met deliver her baby. The capper was when Betty felt as though she could no longer push (I’ve been there) and, instead of offering encouragement, threatened Betty, saying, “Either you can do it, or WE will, but it’s gonna come out some way.”

It’s no wonder that in her drug-induced “twilight sleep,” Betty sought out the comfort from her deceased parents. Betty envisioned her father Gene as a janitor, swishing a bloody mop around the Drapers’ kitchen floor, while her mother Ruthie was standing beside a well dressed man who we later learned had a head wound (a reference to the recently killed Medgar Evers about whom Sally had been talking?). Indicating that "this" is what happens to people who "speak up," Ruthie, clutching a bloodied cloth, advised her daughter, “Be happy with what you have.” Gene, who made no secret that he didn't approve of Betty’s life choices, said, “You’re a housecat. You’re very important and you have little to do.”

During the birth of the child that brought Don and Betty back together, Betty’s mind revisited whether she’d made the right choice in letting Don come back home. Interestingly, we learned later that Betty “allowed” Carla, their housekeeper/nanny, to leave, telling her friend Francine that she could handle two kids and a new baby. No housecat she.

Don Was Doting

Don, whose own mother died in childbirth, could not have behaved more like the model 1960s husband than he was in this episode when his third child was born. With the exception of his dalliance with the flight attendant in the first episode of the season, he hasn’t (that we know of) stepped out on Betty.

Don remained at the hospital during Betty’s labor (when he could’ve gone back to work, as Roger wanted him to do), and bonded with another expectant dad, a prison guard who said many prisoners blame bad parents for turning them into criminals, something with which Don strongly disagreed.

Don brought Betty flowers and took the kids to the hospital, where they were only allowed to wave to Betty and the baby from the sidewalk outside as children weren’t allowed inside. Don let Betty name the baby Gene, though he clearly didn’t like it, and was very sweet to Sally during their late night snack, where Don dished up what appeared to be hash and eggs. The two sat side-by-side in the dimly lit kitchen -- the same kitchen where Betty had the vision of seeing her father -- as Don told Sally, who was still grieving her grandfather’s death, that everything would be okay.

Peggy Wants What She’s Worth

But Don’s soothing words didn’t work on Peggy, who’d had her eyes opened to the fact that she is worth more than Sterling Cooper was paying her.

Duck Phillips, about whom I’d been wondering, tried to lure both Peggy and Pete to his new ad firm, he told them they’d be “sitting on velvet pillows” if they came with him. Heaping praise upon her talents after Pete left their secret lunch meeting in a snit, Duck said, “This is your time Peggy.”

Later, she went to Don and clearly laid out the reasons why she should get a raise: Her secretary didn’t respect her because she only made $71/week more than her, that other males were doing the same job (not as well as she had been) and were being paid more and that it was becoming increasingly costly to live in Manhattan on her salary.

Here, Don’s verbal pat on the head didn’t work. He made a bad joke about finding Peggy a cheaper secretary. When that fell flat, Don then tried to brush her off with his patented line, “It’s not a good time,” saying he’s been “fighting for paper clips around here.” “It’s not going to happen, not now,” he said, as if that was the end of the discussion. “You’re going to be fine Peggy,” he added, similar to the way in which he spoke with Sally in the kitchen.

Delicately touching a pair baby booties affixed to a baby gift left on a table, Peggy bore in, “I look at you and I think, ‘I want what he has.’ . . . You have everything. And so much of it.”

As Peggy sat there, letting her words about the stark contrast between their lives linger in the air, Don invoked a classic Don line which he uses when he’s cornered, “What do you want me to say?”

Peggy called him on it. “I don’t think I could’ve been any clearer,” she said. She got up, went to leave and, with her hand still on the doorknob turned to Don and said, “What if this is my time?” He had no response.

Other episode tidbits:

-- The Civil Rights movement is seeping more and more into the white washed world of Mad Men. Betty’s daughter was talking about a slain Civil Rights leader while Pete was getting taken to the woodshed by Sterling Cooper’s bosses for suggesting to a client that they target their product to a growing African-American market. Pete’s uncomfortable conversation with Hollis, the elevator operator, made the tensions clear when Hollis pointed out that he’s "Hollis," but Pete is “Mr. Campbell.”

-- I wish I had the chutzpah to pull a move like Don did when Lane was grilling members of his Creative Department about why they spent so much money on pens and pencils. Don just got up and left the room. And no one stopped him or said a word.

-- Obviously the story with Sally’s teacher, Miss Farrell, isn’t over. A few episodes ago, Don watched with great interest as she danced around the Maypole. Then she called the Draper home to apologize for an earlier conference where Miss Farrell had questioned why Betty and Don hadn’t taken Sally out of school when her grandfather died. Where this will go, I’m uncertain.

By the way, what was with the Sally-as-William-Wallace/Braveheart snippet, wiping the blood on her cheek while Miss Farrell was talking about the incident at the water cooler?

-- One thing that was bugging me: What was the song that was played during Betty’s vision when she was holding the caterpillar and then at the end of the episode, when Betty went to fetch her crying newborn?

What were your thoughts on “The Fog?”

UPDATE: There's some fantastic discussion in the comments section about Betty's childbirth experience going on over at the Basket of Kisses. Be sure to check it out.

Image credit: Carin Baer/AMC.

I'm Going to Let David Letterman Handle the Joe Wilson Story

You've likely all heard about it by now. A U.S. congressman yelled, "You lie!" to President Obama during his health care reform address to a joint session of Congress this week. A classless move to be certain. Even my three grade school-aged kids were surprised that someone like a congressman would do something like that in a forum such as that.

But instead of saying all the things many people are already thinking, I decided to let David Letterman's Top Ten list do the heavy lifting on this one.

Watched MSNBC's 9/11 Footage This Morning, Couldn't Help Myself

I didn't want to watch it, the footage from 9/11. I sort of happened into watching it.

Morning Joe was on the TV in the kitchen and, while I was reading the newspapers and nursing my third cup of coffee, I was surprised to see MSNBC re-broadcast the original footage from Sept. 11, 2001 as it unfolded on live TV. And I couldn't bring myself to turn it off.

I gasped at the same places at which I originally gasped when I watched the Today Show eight years ago, especially the moment when my then-3-year-old son and I saw the second airplane crash into the twin towers. I got the chills and a sickening feeling in my gut as the towers collapsed and eyewitnesses told Katie Couric and Matt Lauer about the horrors they'd seen on the streets of New York.

I recalled the intense feelings of uncertainty and fear when, at one point on that fall morning in 2001, people weren't sure if there'd been bombs planted in buildings around New York and Washington, D.C., whether there'd been a bomb at the State Department and exactly how many airplanes had been hijacked. I flinched when I heard the voice of the late Tim Russert, providing updates from Washington.

I kept MSNBC on all morning while I worked and felt as though I was peeking inside of a time capsule, one we open once each year.

Above you'll see an AP photo of the location where the towers once stood. Ground Zero. Still reminds me of an open wound.

Image credit: Matt Lennihan AP via MSNBC.

Suburban Mom's Political Fix: Obama Health Care Speech to Congress

On the speech last night that President Obama gave to a joint session of Congress, I'm going to quote the Washington Post's Tom Shales:

"Obama came across like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: a bright-eyed young idealist up against entrenched power, old ideas and obstructionism.

It was also a chance for Obama to go on national television and look presidential again, asserting himself in ways that helped make up for the past few months of perceived defensiveness, of appearing to kowtow to other powers, and of seeming to do more following than leading."

I think the comparison to Stewart is apt. As an event of pure political theater, Obama was blunt, eager, tough and idealistic and seemed to grab the debate by the lapels and provide overarching themes with which most reasonable people -- Republican or Democrat -- would agree. Who thinks you should be banned from obtaining health coverage because you have a pre-existing condition? Who thinks American families should be bankrupted by their health care bills? Who thinks it's morally right for folks to be unceremoniously dropped by their health insurance company -- even though they diligently paid their premiums and deductibles -- when someone covered by their health insurance policy gets sick, or whose medical bills exceed a cap the insurance company has placed upon the family? I doubt you're going to find folks willing to say that all of those things are okay with them. (And if you do, it'll likely be someone named Mr. Potter, who had a run-in with Jimmy Stewart in another film, It's a Wonderful Life.)

When the president spoke of not adding "a dime to the deficit" with this new health care reform proposal, that he'd ask for a provision to be included in a bill to implement cuts if the promised millions in savings didn't materialize as he believed they would, those are sentiments around which most folks can rally.

The problem is, that's what they are, notions. We have no idea if they're going to eventually be true, no matter how much the president may want them to be because, lest we forget, he's not the one who makes laws. That's Congress' messy, messy, horse-trading job. What if the not "a dime to the deficit" has to be sacrificed in some deal to secure a bill's passage? Then Obama will have made a promise that Democratic senators and congressmen and women couldn't keep.

I went to the US Senate and House web sites and found links to two seemingly prominent versions of health care reform bills -- HR 3200 at 1,017 pages, the Senate bill passed by the Senate Committee on Health at 839 pages -- and haven't yet plowed through them.

Simply put, I'm left wondering what health care reform would really look like beyond the sweeping statements; the outcome of such reform would be very personal because it involves my family's health care. While some people may have liked the sound of the things the president is saying in general about the overhaul of one-sixth of the U.S. economy, when it comes down to the nitty-gritty implementation people, those for and against reform, get wary.

When President Obama last night said "significant details need to be worked out," laughter could be heard, only the president wasn't laughing. What's that old adage, the devil is in the details?

Jimmy Kimmel's 'Jon & Kate' Spoof

Jimmy Kimmel Live this week featured an amusing spoof of a phony Lifetime original movie, "Kate is Enough," starring Kathy Griffin as Kate Gosselin.

For those who have chosen sides -- Team Kate or Team Jon -- this is an equal opportunity satire, lampooning both Jon and Kate.

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Presidential Address, Julie & Julia, Beatles Get Cover Treatment & HBO's 'Hung'

This, in case anyone was wondering, is a non-Gosselin edition of Suburban Mom's Pop Culture. There's only so much of Jon & Kate that I can handle in one week, thank you very much . . .

TV

Who out there is planning to watch the presidential address to a joint session of Congress tonight? I'll be there, in front of the TV -- likely tuned to NBC's Brian Williams, love Brian -- with an open mind and ready to listen. On Thursday, I'll be ready to analyze. One thing I can't stand, though, about these addresses, is the repeated jumping out of one's seating and clapping all the time. Drives me nuts.

From the commander in chief addressing Congress to a male prostitute. There's just no good segue here . . . I've been ODing on HBO's new comedy Hung, about the down-on-his-luck high school teacher/basketball coach/divorced father of two teens Ray Drecker who turns to high-priced prostitution -- calls himself a "happiness consultant" -- to pay his bills and get the funds to fix his home which was partially ruined by fire. (He didn't have the cash to pay his home owner's insurance premiums and let the policy lapse, so now he's living in a tent next to the house.)

After I've seen the season finale (airs Sunday night), I'll devote a separate blog item to the show. It's mighty quirky, in a Weeds sort of way. I love the dynamic between the main character and his pimp Tanya, a confidence-craving poet who has worked at a temp job in a law firm for more years than she'd care to admit.

Books/Magazines

I finished Julie Powell's book Julie & Julia on Monday, upon which half of the movie of the same name is based. I was entertained throughout, though the sections on Powell cooking organ meat curdled my stomach. (When I told my 11-year-old son about the chapter on cooking brains -- given, we were at the dinner table at the time -- he curtly thanked me for killing his appetite.) A great number of the events which occurred in Powell's life during the year in which she was cooking her way through Julia Child's first book and blogging about it were omitted from the film, so reading this helped fill in the blanks. Once I completed Julie & Julia, I moved on to finally cracked open Jack Kerouac's On the Road. I'm just at the very beginning though. Never read Kerouac. Have no idea what to expect.

After sitting unloved on my desk for a while, Wired Magazine's latest issue has been beckoning me. Meanwhile, I enjoyed basking in the Beatles Mania in this week's Entertainment Weekly and harassing my kids by singing tidbits of Beatles songs at random moments.

Movies/DVDs

This week I watched the first DVD in the first season for The West Wing. God did watching that show that bring me right back to the 1990s, before people were using BlackBerries or doing things like Twittering and Facebooking. It's almost charming to hear people mention faxes, which aren't used like they were when this show began. I fondly remembered Leo, Sam, Josh and C.J., and realized I'd forgotten how sanctimonious Jed Bartlett could be. The discs for the remainder of the award-winning freshman season are on my Netflix queue. Can't wait. (And no, I haven't watched Milk yet, which I've had for some time from Netflix, sitting next to the TV.)

The Spouse and I did, however, watch Flash of Genius over the weekend starring Greg Kinnear and Lauren Graham. Aside from production/film issues (the camera would sometimes move awkwardly, almost jarringly, and some of the clothing did NOT appear period, maybe I've been spoiled by the anal retentive Mad Men folks) I found the tale of inventor/college professor Robert Kearns getting screwed by the Ford Motor Company after they stole his invention, bittersweet. The drama peaked when Kearns wouldn't drop his lawsuit against Ford, even with his family, his job and his sanity at stake. If this had been made 40-50 years ago, I can imagine someone like Jimmy Stewart in the lead role, of the little guy getting taken by the big, expensive-suited power brokers.



Image credit: Entertainment Weekly.

Column in Which I Tell Jon Gosselin and Levi Johnston to "Man Up and Shut Up"

I went a little nutty this week in my Pop Culture & Politics column over on Mommy Track'd.

You see, I was more than a tad annoyed, by Levi Johnston, who dumped all over his kid's family in the October issue of Vanity Fair, and by Jon Gosselin, who has whined to ABC News' Primetime, telling the world that he "despises" the mother of his eight children and that he lost his 20s to childrearing. Cry me a river Jon. None of the pregnancies were accidents. I used to be sympathetic to you, dude. No more.



And as for Levi, the 19-year-old tattletale, what a portrait of class and chivalry, dumping all over his son's grandparents to a national magazine, dishing dirt about Sarah and Todd Palin's sex life and complaining about THEIR parenting, or lack thereof. Yeah you're gonna be a great specimen of parental excellence Levi.