Life (the TV show, that is) – new season

October 3rd, 2008 by Brianna

Why is this cop show called Life, anyway?

I guess it refers to the whole Zen thing that the lead character does. People seem to think that the Zen thing is really interesting and unusual for a TV show – or at least for a cop show.

Whatever. I don’t get Zen, anyway. Although, I read Zen and the Art of the Trumpet once, and it didn’t improve my playing – so maybe I’m just bitter.

Back to Life, nobody (or nobody cool, anyway!), cares about the Zen cop guy, because Sarah Shahi is on the show, playing the Zen guy’s partner. Shahi, of course, is one of the most beautiful women on earth, and an awesome actor, who makes any show she touches better. (And yes, I still miss Carmen…)

Seriously (as one can be about a TV show, anyway), though, Life is pretty cool. I usually hate cop shows. All those CSI shows, etc., or whatever, they all seem to be the same. Life is not really about the cop procedure thing, though. Charlie (the Zen guy) is trying to find out who framed him, Dani (Shahi’s character) is having drug problems – I suppose most shows try to do that, but Life actually gets you to care about the characters. That’s something most shows of any sort don’t manage.

But the coolest part of Life?

Dani sits on tables. And on the backs of chairs. All the time. Who sits on the back of a chair in an office? That’s something that sports jocks, and other people who hate chairs do. Not office dwelling people. I guess that it’s supposed to show that she’s less formal and uptight than the other cops, or that she’s nervous or something. (And after writing that, I realized, wouldn’t those two be mutually exclusive?) Or perhaps TV cops sit on tables all the time, and I just never noticed, because I don’t watch cop shows.

It just looks cool. Seeing Dani sit on a table just gives me this warm feeling, as if the world must not be too awfully bad if some people don’t feel the need to actually sit in their chairs.

That was a weird thing to say, wasn’t it?

Sarah Shahi rocks.

Afterellen vs. Maxim – round n

July 23rd, 2008 by Brianna

Apparently, a last year Maxim published a list of the “World’s most unsexy women”, or something like that, and the list included Sarah Jessica Parker. Now, Maxim decided recently to name her the unexpected crush o’ the month, or something. So afterellen publishes an article about the sillyness of the whole situation.

And so, the great AE vs. Maxim throwdown continues. I suppose Maxim doesn’t really care, and in the end AE is just talking to people who agree with them anyway. But hey, I don’t mind. The AE hot 100 list came out of the shouting match, and it rocks, so the whole thing is cool, I guess.

Here’s the problem, though. Everybody always acts like Maxim (and other similar publications) is somehow written by sexist pigs that go out of their way to ridicule women and promote impossible standards of beauty. I don’t believe it is that simple.

The article above compares Maxim to Perez Hilton. Now in my opinion, Perez is a loser. He apparently like to spew garbage just for the fun of it. But I’m pretty sure that it is just him. The writing process for Perez Hilton’s blog consists of:

  • Hear gossip
  • Exaggerate
  • Post to blog
  • Laugh at ruined reputation, etc. and repeat.

Maxim is different. Sure, the writers might come up with ideas in a similar way, but then each idea passes through a whole system of editors, marketers, and executives with the simple goal to try and sell more magazines. The month they printed that SJP was the least unsexy woman, somebody said, “Hey guys, marketing says we need more controversy is this issue! It’s too boring the way it is.”

At least that’s my guess. I’ve never worked at Maxim, of course, so I don’t know for sure, but I’m willing to bet that everything that Maxim prints is a calculated decision to sell more ads and magazines. It’s just not a bunch of fat, angry guys who hate women sitting around talking trash. Rather, it is a corporation cashing in on the existing sexist culture.