Escape the Heat

Last night, I dreamed my TV was stolen. Devastated, I woke up in a panic. Between the latest heat wave and a stressful work month, I am tempted to just lay on the floor like these bunnies and play dead. Good thing TV was there for me, soothing the stress away - despite the slim pickings this month.

*Brothers & Sisters (Season 1) - It's overacted, overly dramatic, overwritten - definitely something to watch while updating your blog or knitting or doing something else productive so that you do not end up feeling like you wasted several hours. It's like Six Feet Under (including Rachel Griffith!) without the quirkiness or depth. It almost felt like homework at times, yet somehow, after slogging through so much Calista Flockhart in the first season, I'm sucked in. If I can manage another season of the mother, maybe I will post about this show again.

*Project Runway (Season 1) - Season 9 won't come out until the end of the summer, and sounds like it may be followed by an all stars a' la Top Chef style (I hope!). In the interim, I revisited the season with Jay McCarroll; Austin Scarlett; and the original Gretchen Jones, Wendy Pepper.

*American Experience: Freedom Riders - History has a way of humbling us - whatever our struggles require our courage, it pales in comparison to the radicals that banded together to simply ride the bus South to force the civil rights issue. The freedom riders faced firebombs, beatings, and hard labor jails. The diverse individuals involved, many who went against the grain of civil rights leaders recognized by history, makes the story even more remarkable. Sometimes nonfiction is the most startling of them all.

*Frontline: WikiSecrets - I did not follow this story very carefully, but wow - there is so much more to it than I realized. The hacking of the PBS site afterwards drew my attention back to watch it. It's ironic that a group based on transparency feels so uncomfortable in the limelight. Secrecy and confidentiality provides a rich moral grey background to this story.

*CoolTV - Turning on digital basic cable the other day, suddenly I was transformed back to summer of '98 - you know, back when mtv still played music videos rather than just flashing the name of the song being played during the credits.