‘30 Days’ and more on ‘The Hills’
When 30 Days premiered on FX last summer, I tuned in and loved it. And yet for some reason, I only watched three of the series six episodes. This wasn’t because it became worse over time (if anything, the opposite was true), but more due to the fact that the show aired its “hook” episode right off the bat leaving the casual viewer little reason to remember to tune back in– which is exactly what happened, I just forgot to tune in. Morgan Spurlock, creator of the series (based not so far from his highly entertaining documentary Super Size Me) takes part in one of the episodes each season. Last year he and his girlfriend lived on minimum wage, this season he goes to prison. The big difference (aside from the possible anal rape) is that his episode is airing last this season. This slight programming adjustment has no impact on how good or bad this series is, but it does do a better job of holding the viewers– especially since the other five episodes may not be as entertaining as Spurlock’s but they’re certainly more important socially. But wait, there’s more (click below)…
This past week, the show took a California minuteman and had him live with a family of illegal Mexican immigrants, and yes, based on that sentence the show couldn’t seem more hokey (FOX does own the FX Network). To its credit, however, these highly conceptual setups lead to not only good drama, but learning. And that’s just it. 30 Days seems to be one of the few shows on television (network or otherwise) where the audience gets to see a character actually learning. It’s that level of participation (or activism) that I feel needs to be commended.
30 Days isn’t the type of show that hopes to turn a minuteman into the nations number-one advocate for immigration rights. Like any good documentary series it puts “issues” into context that isn’t as black and white as most of the mainstream media would make us believe. 30 Days is here to paint with shades of gray.
This Wednesday’s episode sounds promising as well: a man whose job was outsourced to India goes there to get it back.
I think I finally figured out why The Hills doesn’t work for me. I’ve tried to get hooked by this show for more than two months, and it just isn’t happening. Having never seen Laguna Beach I can’t really compare the two, but you can’t capture lightening in a bottle (from what I read). The Hills was an attempt to take the salacious magic of that show and move it to the world of L.A. fashion and parties. Teen drama was suppose to be transplanted with work drama, but it didn’t seem to pan out like that.
Storylines were dropped. Others added. Time advanced so quickly we were left wondering just what was happening over all those months, and that’s when it hit me: nothing. Nothing was happening. In the current television era, a fan has a lot of material at his or her disposal, not the least of which being un-aired pilots appearing on YouTube. What’s interesting is that we have yet to see (or hear about, really) anything from what has to be landfill of reality shows that never saw the light of day. For every Nanny 9-11 imagine all the series that were never picked up or scrapped halfway through filming. The difference between these and the now-surfacing pilots for comedy or drama series is the story. A reality show is hardly reality, but there does become a point where you either have something or you have nothing. The Hills seems to be the type of show that cost way more than most in the genre, but which yielded so little drama the production team didn’t know what to do. You can’t just scrap it, and yet there’s nothing there. There’s no story.
So you try to fix it in post.
This isn’t saying there aren’t any good episodes. There are. The problem is in the story arcs– they don’t exist. It’s like watching fifteen different series that all have the same cast and production team.
I’ll ride out the rest of the season (there can’t be more than a couple weeks left). Plus, once it ends, Laguna is coming back for a third year (though something stinks of ‘retooling’). We’ll see how it goes.
August 3rd, 2006 at 1:40 am
watched the one about outsourcing….meh.
I am enjoying Dog Bites Man….mucho.
August 3rd, 2006 at 1:51 am
ok, AND every episode I see of Pee-Wee’s Play House (thats now on Adult Swim…!) makes me want to chase a dog around the yard and dangerously speed down the slip and slide so hard I crash into the muddy water-grass at the end, then I have to put my legs under the alligator’s hoop to get the grass and mud and dead bugs off my legs and torso. Then later when I take off my swimming suit, somehow, grass and mud and dead bugs have managed to stick to my cold clammy stomach and nether regions, so I take a shower and I sing “la, la, la, connect the dots”, then I drink grape soda. A lot of it.
My Point?
A. Pee Wee = Good Energy
B. so is this the wrong strand?