Telly on Telly: Fall Season Update

Hello friends and fellow tele-philes! Just wanted to drop a quick update as last time we talked about the Fall lineup I had some catching up to do.

We'll start with 90210. Ok. So I have heard a lot of bad news about 90210. Everyone's telling me it sucks. I'm getting texts from K Skell telling me she's "so 9021Over it!". My brother hated it. My grrl Soph hated it. And basically everyone's talking shit. I don't know WHAT these kids have been watching but it couldn't possibly be the same three hours of 90210 I saw. This show was chock full of intensity and ridiculousness. There is no bone in my entire body that will ever take 90210 seriously and I think this is why I liked it so much. And HELLO, people! A cameo from none other than Kelly's BOOZED UP MOTHER!! Amazing. She was always my favorite character. She was so 90s chic, totally nouveau riche! I'll always picture her with her smart little power lesbian haircut, in a white Chanel suit, snorting lines at the Mother-Daughter Fashion show. Ugh, she was such a bitch to her daughter. And it's really nice to see that things have just gotten worse for that cow of a woman. Don't get me wrong, I really like her and I think she's great. Just what a messed up character! Kudos for bringing back Jackie Taylor-Silver! Oh! And that drug addict Adrianna is also going to be gold, I can tell!

On to Fringe. I had no idea that this show was going to deal so closely with some of my favorite things (telepathy, shared dreamscapes, cloudbusting, telekinesis) . I was also unaware that these things had already been grouped together and are called fringe science which is how the show gets its name. I really liked this show. I found it kept my attention for what seemed like hours (although it was only roughly 1.5 hours) and I wanted to know more. Just like with all JJ Abrams jobs, I was intrigued! That's the key word when it comes to programming like this: intrigue. What is the Pattern? Who is this crazy scientist man and why are his studies only now becoming relevant? How much power does Massive Dynamic actually have? What do they do? What is in the past? What's in the future? You know you've got a good show on your hands if the ultimate t.j. kous is yakking on about the future! I haven't watched this week's episodes of either of these shows yet, but I will be soaking them up this weekend.

Another little gem I came across while channel surfing: (in actuality I was commissioned to watch this show by Brendan Shea who called me at midnight on Thursday, laughing like a toddler and totally stoked about the ridiculousness that is) Glam God with Vivica A. Fox! Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the most extreme hour of reality television I have ever seen. I had heard about this show as a friend of a friend happens to be a contestant (Preston, for those of you keeping track) but I had no idea it would be so absurd. It's your basic reality competition format and the skill needed to succeed is styling. What's with the new wave of styling shows in TV? There's this one, then there's The Rachel Zoe Project (which I thought was magnificent in it's train-wreck like qualities and I love her gay's vanity specs!), and also the CW's coming out with something called Stylista (whatever). Anyway, it's nice to know that America is just getting queerer and queerer.

The reason Glam God was so good for me is not the terribly unflattering outfits Vivica wore, or even the intense fervor with which she delivered each of her lines. It wasn't the alcoholic contestant who "drink Jack Daniel's for breakfast" (I'm not kidding this guy was actually drunk the whole episode, and when they went out for a night on the town, which ended up actually being a challenge because they were styling Hollywood "it girls", he decided to let Jackie Blue come along [this is his drag queen persona who wore leopard print and a giant blond wig] and he fell and he stole the spotlight and he was a big old hot mess). The reason I loved this show was because it was so, so easy to see the seams. I could tell it was cheap and thrown together haphazardly. I could see why it was difficult and also why it wasn't even really a challenge at all. I saw the desperate nature of all the characters and the ebbing career of my girl Viv. It's on Thursdays on VH1. Watch it. You won't be sorry.