Posts by category
Posts by author
DishPronto navigation
|
Who knows TV better than us? As America's largest online DISH Network dealer, we've got the inside dirt on the channels, shows, and events that keep you tuned in.
 It was "Makeover Week" on this week's The Biggest Loser (NBC, DISH Network 241, Tuesdays, 8 PM), a welcome herald which signals that the season is drawing to a rapid and blessed end. The seven remaining contestants were trotted to Macy's (a show sponsor? Naaaaaaah. Oh wait, let's get one more shot of the entire cast standing with full-size Macy's shopping bags at their feet, purportedly necessary to hold... a Macy's gift card.)
It wasn't just haircuts and shaves. Standing near the makeup counter to greet everyone was... reality television star Tim Gunn! Gunn, a reality world double dipper who has both Project Runway and Tim Gunn's Guide to Style to his IMBD name, was on hand to dress the contestants for their rapidly shrinking bodies.
What would have been truly outstanding was for Gunn to wander from contestant to contestant, mildly asking “How are we doing here?” as the cast member stood dejected amidst piles of accessories and cotton- polyester blends. But as he wasn’t in Runway mode, Gunn settled for nodding at a weeping contestant who was fitting in a regular women’s size for the first time in years and saying, “I’m going to help you with this.”
The addition of Gunn was a wise move on the part of producers; last year’s contestants were offered the services not of the progam’s voice of fashion authority, but those of a recent Project Runway winner, Christain “Fierce” Siriano. While Siriano is quite the designer and made for some snarkilicious viewing during PR’s fourth season, his talents lie on the drawing board and on the mannequin rather than as a makeover maven.
As for Gunn? Elegant, tactful, and kind. And also responsible for putting one male contestant in a mauve velvety pimp jacket, and another still-plus-sized woman in horizontal pleats. Well, there’s only so much you can do within the confines of a Macy’s shopping bag.
Last month I posted on BBC America's Top Gear, DISH Network 135, various times) "the best in vehicular chaos, fast celebrities, and top gear jackassery," The mighty Brit-cult that could recently rebroadcast a dashing 75 minute program which took the show principles on a motor bike tour from South to North Vietnam. This single episode, first broadcast in 2008 and just released on DVD last month, captures the many strengths of the program.
It was an exquisitely well-balanced show. Top Gear's patented cheekiness is well on display, with host Jeremy Clarkson stuck on a tiny-wheeled scooter in the rain ("There's no human being as miserable as I am right now!") and sidekicks Richard Hammond and James May motoring along on an ancient Soivet Union jobbie and a rickety Honda Cub.
Most impressive was the deft way in which the team and the production handled the politically loaded issue of the West's past involvement with Vietnam, which is... straight on. There was more than one jibe at US military action, a conversation with a Vietnamese man who was in the war, and a stop at Citadel of Huế, which simply involved the three briefly expressing some honest, human reflections on the monument. Oh, and a threatened back-up of a motorbike which was festooned with American flags and a tiny sound system which blared "Born in the USA."
But the episode wasn't without the wonderfully ridiculous: The three hosts presented one another with large, unmanageable gifts, such as an enormous model of a Spanish warship, which they then toted along with them. The episode ended with a challenge to somehow make their bikes amphibious in order to carry them to a limestone islet bar.
Since the majority of Westerners-- thanks to an overwash of sixties culture--tend think of Vietnam as a dastardly jungle, the program has us at an advantage: Some of the scenery in Vietnam is unexpectedly spectacular, with unspoiled lagoons, dramatic mountains, and cliff after cliff of green vistas. Inquisitive locals, game to put up with the odd Brits, were also often featured.
A US version of Top Gear with Adam Corolla is now in "save" mode on a Netflix queue near you. But without the British hosts in the driver's seats, it's tough to imagine pulling off the same charming blend of snark and awe.
This month marks the anniversary of the Battle of Concord and Lexington, the opening shot of the Revolutionary War. If you’re in the Boston area, you might have a chance to drop in on a re-enactment of the event—one which goes far beyond a live tourist attraction.
Patriots Day, a recent American Experience documentary on PBS (DISH Network 249, various times) explores the day jobs and weekend tri-corner hat wearing participants who make historical re-enactment a way of life. While at first the program has its fun showing its subjects wearing both a British officer’s red coat as well as the seatbelt of a Honda Civic, the documentary settles into the drama of the day the closer it gets to the battle itself.
Because these people are serious. One man shaved a mustache which had been his companion for twenty years for the sake of historical accuracy; another was willing to take on a slave’s role to take part. And these people don’t just show up to create a few drum lines, fire off a blank or two, and go home; this is a year-old commitment which requires uniform building, monthly drills, and long hours of travel. Reenactment of the event itself starts at dawn with a Paul Revere-playing participant on horseback, alerting the countryside as minivans splash through traffic signals in the background. Viewers are shown the events of the entire day; the battle is merely the climax.
However, just like watching the re-enactment itself, just as the documentary really starts to suck in the viewer, the twenty-first century intrudes. As British and patriots alike fall to the ground, the SUV gliding past on the street beyond undermines the moment. It’s well worth a watch, however, if only to see what it takes for an American dentist to become one of King George’s finest.
You wouldn’t think that BBC America (DISH Network 135, various times) would be home to one of the fastest-growing cult car shows around, but then… this is cable.
Top Gear (self-description: “The best in vehicular chaos, fast celebrities, and top gear jackassery”) is hosted by If you’d like tickets to the studio audience, they’re free—but there’s also a waiting list of over twenty years.
Part car-talk show, part racing homage, part Jackass, and part comedy series, Top Gear is brimming with the same dry, off-the-wall Brit humor that marks Monty Python. Hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May, both broadcasters, do their best to make the show accessible to non-car enthusiasts.
The footage is gorgeous and so is the scenery, and the program occasionally films in London for such delights as a fast car in rush hour traffic racing against a fast human running without a red light to hinder him (the human won.) Another episode pitted tractor-trailers against one another --“lorries,” to use the proper terminology from the show--and included built-in dangers: One truck was hauling a wedding cake, and another was stocked with hay on one end and a heater on the other. (This, predictably, resulted in my two young nephews running around in circles and shrieking. The two-year-old had a particularly fine commentary to offer: Laying a small hand on my leg, he said urgently, “Truck on fire!”) It’s fun for the whole family, this one.
Top Gear has already won an International Emmy and quite the fan base. It’s by no means an everyday car homage, and those with a Brit-friendly sense of humor will pass a pleasant hour.
When most people think of a National Historic Landmark, the first images which come to mind tend to run towards museums, forlorn field trips, and wretched, endless family trips in the back of a Vega. But these days (and, for some of us, this is a horrifying statement of age) NASA sites are finding themselves on the list of history’s greatest hits.
The rooms containing Mission Control in Houston during the earliest days of the space race, for example, have received National Historic Landmark designation. And as the History Channel’s Apollo: The Race Against Time (DISH Network 120) reveals, the same care is going into preserving the spacesuits worn by original Moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Although an unused Saturn V rocket—the enormous monster of a booster which sent astronauts to the Moon—sat exposed to Florida’s coastal sea air for decades at the Kennedy Space Center, the complex restored it and housed the rocket in a gorgeous air-conditioned hanger. Johnson Space Center in Houston, where a Saturn V was similarly left to the humid elements (“like an enormous beached whale,” in the words of one astronaut), followed suit in 2006.
But not all of NASA’s history is so scrupulously safeguarded. Although the Kennedy Space Center’s Saturn V is safe, the gantry which supported it is not. When the Apollo program was cut and the launch site turned to the Shuttle, the top halves of the gantries at the two launch pads were lopped off. The top swing arm from the gantry—the one which provided access to the spacecraft itself—was taken to KSC’s Visitor Complex to provide visitors with the opportunity to walk in the footprints of Armstrong and Aldrin. The rest? Sits in a heap behind KSC’s headquarters building.
Lots of good work highlighted on this program. Lots of good work still to do.
|
