What was on TV? Mon, April 18, 2005

20 years ago, Adobe bought Macromedia, the developers of Flash and Dreamweaver. Let's see what was on TV.

8:00 Desperate Housewives (recorded)

1x19 "Live Alone and Like It" (record The Staircase on Sundance)

Read just one interview with Marc Cherry, and it becomes obvious that Bree Van de Kamp is inspired by his own mother. In Desperate Networks, he even recalls his shock when Marcia Cross came to audition: she was a dead ringer for his mother.

Which means that Bree's gay son Andrew functions as a stand-in for Cherry himself. Which is why it's so fascinating that Andrew is kind of the worst. In this episode, Bree brings the pastor to dinner to un-gay Andrew. You think this is going to be a conversion therapy sub-plot with Andrew as a tragic figure. But instead, we get Bree tearfully telling her son that he can't be gay or he won't get into heaven. Bree is the point of sympathy; she is the focus, naked prejudice and all. And meanwhile Andrew is some kind of cartoon villain? He goes to the pastor and tells him that he's not gay (psych?) and he plans to be good to make his mom feel safe and then do something terrible out of the blue, destroying her. Jesus.

I've never seen an author stand-in quite like this one. I guess it's fun to be the villain. But it's still strange to see the show so firmly in Bree's corner on this. Even a show as conservative as Desperate Housewives. And despite all the raciness that got it picketed in the Arrested Development finale, Desperate Housewives is a very conservative show.

9:00 Everwood on the WB

3x17 "Fate Accomplis" (record 24 on Fox and Everybody Loves Raymond on CBS

Thank god Everwood is back. My soul needs this show.

And we return with a great episode! The big Madison bomb finally drops, and boy do they torture us. We watch as Ephram catches his ex-girlfriend and secret baby mama up on his life. We see how great he's doing, and in that moment I understood why Dr. Brown kept this secret from him, and I wanted Madison to keep it too. But we see that she needs to tell it, she can't carry it alone anymore. But she leaves Dr. Brown out of it, pretending that she decided not to tell Ephram all on her own, with no mention of the doctor telling her to stay quiet. Of course Ephram is devastated. It's some of Gregory Smith's best work in the series, it's vintage Ephram angst. But Sarah Lancaster is also so great in this scene. I've missed her and Madison (I wish Everwood had been a hit so we could have gotten a spinoff about her waitressing in New York with other college dropouts). You can tell she has changed after their time apart and the baby and the move, you can see her generosity, and her letting herself be the bad guy here is just so painful when you know the truth. Which is why it's good that Dr. Brown comes clean and refuses to let it all fall on Madison. Let Ephram be mad at him instead.

Of course, I don't think Dr. Brown imagined it would end with Ephram basically quitting music and abandoning his dreams to piss him off! It's fascinating, since Ephram's decision has a lot in common with Andrew's on Desperate Housewives. And like Andrew, Ephram is something of a stand-in for a queer showrunner (Greg Berlanti, in this case). But this decision hits so much harder because we know and love Ephram. We know that he is passionate and flighty and has a lot of baggage with his Dad, so we understand this decision (and we also understand that our lead can't go to Julliard if the show is going to continue).

I don't even have time to talk about all the other great stuff in this episode! The devastating storyline about a father who accidentally shoots his son. The sadness pairs perfectly with the turbulence Ephram is experiencing; it's perfect. And the scene between Bright and Dr. Abbott in the kitchen, when father realizes that he doesn't need to be so hard on his son anymore. His son is doing fine all on his own, and their relationship can be something new, something better. And the scene between Rose and Amy, when she tells her about her abandoned plans to travel Europe, and tells Amy to own her choices and embrace life! Everwood at its finest. I love this show so very much. It always comforts me in dark times, and we've had a lot of those lately.

Later 24 (recorded)

4x18 "Day 4: 12 midnight - 1:00 AM"

24's disdain for due process is well known, but this episode is something else. Especially in a week when we've seen this country's regard for due process sink to new lows (on top of all the damage the Bush era did).

See, some dirtbag boat-owner who's in business with villain Habib Marwan ends up in CTU custody. So Marwan calls in "Amnesty Global" to represent him, buying himself some time to carry out his master plan. It barely even qualifies as a fake name; this is Amnesty International. And of course, Amnesty Global takes advantage of a brand new and very weak president and prevents Jack Bauer from Doing What Needs To Be Done (e.g. torture).

So far, they aren't implying that "Amnesty Global" is evil. The lawyer is played by Evan Handler, who reads as very earnest (if they're going to make him evil, it will be a twist). Instead, they're portraying Amnesty Global as useful and naive idiots, easily manipulated by nebulous bad guys, which is almost worse. And they're stacking the deck by presenting the least sympathetic victim possible. Like, I know how evil this all is, but it's hard to get worked up about this rich slimeball they have in custody. But most of the people whose rights we trampled over and whose lives we ruined were not powerful slimeballs but rather ordinary citizens with people who loved them. That was true in the Bush era, and it's certainly true today.

After Everybody Loves Raymond (recorded)

9x13 "Sister-In-Law"

On this episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, outsiders are just proxies by which deeper familial issues can be passive-aggressively vented about, and the best way to bond with someone is by talking about someone else behing their back. That's the show!

My favorite joke was Debra saying her best opportunity to talk to Raymond is during commercial breaks while he's watching the game. Except if the commercial has "a girl, or a truck with big wheels, or god forbid a monkey, forget it!" That order...perfect, chef's kiss.

TiVo Status

The TV movies Sucker Free City and Everything You Want, two episodes of The Staircase, and one episode of Mystery! 6 hours.

24 alternatives to 24

#4 East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman

If you watch a lot of 24 and other spy TV shows like Homeland and The Americans, you realize pretty quickly that though these stories are about white people, people of color are the ones doing the riskiest fieldwork. They're the double agents, the sources recruited under dubious circumstances, the ones with the most to lose. So why do we never hear their stories? This isn't even just a "representation matters" situation. These stories are the most exciting and interesting; not telling them is a missed opportunity.

Khurrum Rahman's Jay Qasim series is a must-read for anyone who has asked themselves these questions. The series starts with Jay as a small-time London weed dealer. He cares about his mom, his friends, and his BMW. As far as he's concerned, Islamophobia is not his problem. But when he finds himself the target of a scary drug lord, the only way out is to become a spy for MI-5. Jay gets up close and personal with both the terrifying realities of Islamic terror groups and the equally terrifying racism and callousness of MI-5. Jay is a great narrator, funny but with lots of heart. There are great twists, as well as a great arc of Jay learning to care about and for his community. It all builds to an epic finale on Boxing Day that had me on the edge of my seat. This is spy fiction at its very best.