Comments (0) |

Dave on Demand: The television week in review

By DAVID HILTBRAND The Philadelphia Inquirer

Have you seen the new version of "The Insider"? It calls itself "the breaking news with the opposing view."

The infotainment show was due for a format change. For five years, it's served up the tepid celebrity leftovers from its sister show and lead-in, "Entertainment Tonight."

As of this season, "The Insider" delivers a series of gossip items, after each of which a panel, moderated by host Lara Spencer, argues vociferously whether it is true or not.

How zeitgeisty! TV has turned into a nasty debate club. Opinions are the new facts. It doesn't matter if you're right; it's how adamantly you insist on your point of view.

This week's "30 Rock" had a recurring gag about an apocryphal show, "Sports Shouting." On a quartered screen, four sports commentators yell simultaneously at and over one another.

Of course, satire only works if it mirrors reality, and this "30 Rock" bit certainly did.

The hot formula on TV is to put people with antithetical views on camera, and let them go at it. Usually at the top of their lungs. It's employed everywhere from MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" to "The View" to Oprah's "Friday Live" show.

"The Insider" is a perfect example. Armed only with rumors or paparazzi photos, Spencer, Samantha Harris, Chris Jacobs, and drop-in panelists such as Niecy Nash and Star Jones will argue until the cows come home whether Josh Duhamel was unfaithful to Fergie or whether Jon Gosselin is endangering his kids.

Remember that old "Saturday Night Live" sketch in which Dan Aykroyd would dismiss the opinions of his fellow mock newscaster Jane Curtin with "Jane, you ignorant slut," and she would respond, "Dan, you pompous ass"?

Who would have imagined how prescient that skit would turn out to be?

The tube is now a cage match for empty and angry argument. The operating principle: Whatever you say, I'm against it.

-Nice duds. I love "Glee," but can somebody please explain something to me? If these kids have to go to extraordinary measures to raise enough money to travel to vocal competitions, how do they afford all those matching outfits they use for performances?

Hat-to-boot rhinestone cowboy getups don't come cheap, pardner.

-The jokes are familiar. It's been bugging me all season. Courteney Cox's sitcom "Cougar Town" reminds me of something? But what?

Finally last week, it hit me: It's "Scrubs." Same scabrous sense of humor, same rat-a-tat rhythm, even some of the same character models.

Welcome to "Cougar Town," the suburban "Scrubs."

-Snooze alarm. "Gossip Girl" is like a bad acting seminar. But Hilary Duff has taken the cake this season as a young movie star from a "Twilight"-like film franchise who is just trying to lead a normal life in an NYU dorm.

How bad is your technique when you can't even pretend to wake up in bed convincingly?

-A light read. This week on "Desperate Housewives," Susan (Teri Hatcher) was thrown in the slammer. At the close of the episode, a prison guard wheels by a book cart and Susan plucks off a copy of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment." The skinniest edition of Dostoyevsky's classic I've ever seen. It was about as thick as a driver's manual.

Maybe it was abridged?

Hey, Susan, if you don't make bail by tomorrow, you can probably get through the collected works of Thomas Mann.

David Hiltbrand: dhiltbrand@phillynews.com