critical television watching

casting: you know you're looking at an african scene shot in the us when many of the black actors are light skinned.

commercials: men looking for lawn care supplies pick up chain saws. i'm thinking, what? then, as i write this, i think about people like harriet whose yards contain trees. still, it seems like a good idea to hire a professional to do anything that requires a chain saw. and who is the audience of this show, anyway?

weight issues: on alias, substantially overweight male actors get to portray attractive, smart, active characters, e.g. the actors greg grunberg and victor garber. they do so convincingly; both characters are quite appealing. greg's character suffers a bit from the nice guy/fat guy conflation, but no one thinks victor's character has anything soft or kind about him. the actors get the full-on flattering treatment in camera angles, haircuts, and wardrobe. it would be nice if female actors had those kind of roles available in general and on this show in particular. there have been some great established actresses on the show, but as far as i can remember they've all had knockout bodies. i'm thinking of lena olin and patricia wettig in particular. i can't think of a heavy women who has been on the show.

lethal methods: on alias, an assassination was carried out using a method similar to the one i used on a mouse today. it's not the part where they wrap the wire around the guy's neck; it's the cervical dislocation. i wasn't happy about the mouse killing today.

bribery: also on alias, information is sought in exchange for a dvd. based on the bribee's reaction, the dvd presumably contains some kind of pornography. based on the audio from the brief clip the bribee is shown, it sounds like it involves airplanes. i'm thinking, airplane related porn? yeah, that's obscure, but probably not illegal, except in alabama. don't take the bribe!

trends in old 4x4's: since season one (it's season four now), alias has occasionally used old toyota landcruisers. while i gave them props for it originally, it's not so fashion forward now as it was then. after the article in the nytimes special fashion section, i'm declaring it played out for now.