Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, January 2nd, 2025

My TV Critic Rule Book

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, January 2nd, 2025:

MY TV CRITIC RULE BOOK
I was going to write a piece discussing the role of TV and media critics in the complicated world of 2025. But honestly, I don't think I can improve on this piece from last year:

Don't Insert Yourself Into Your Writing. Unless You Do.
Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel influenced an entire generation of movie writers and you can see their influence in the industry several generations later. And some of their rules are also seen as bulwarks in the television writing business. One of which is that you don't insert yourself in the story. That belief is so ingrained in the industry that doing so is seen as unprofessional and the mark of someone who isn't a "real" journalist.

But I didn't grow up reading Siskel and/or Ebert. I grew up reading the great 1970s-era rock writers from Creem, Circus, Hit Parader, and Bomp! These writers infused their writing with a dizzying combination of passion, anger, and self-expression that formed the way I write. And given the chance, that's the type I review I most enjoy writing.

Most reviews I write are fairly straightforward. But when the moment is right I'm not afraid to make my feelings the core of the review and I think it works out pretty well for the most part. But it's not something most editors would allow and I try and make sure that when I break such a cardinal rule of TV criticism, I do it to make the piece more relevant and compelling.

SPEAKING OF BEING A TV CRITIC
I've posted some reviews over the past couple of days and in case you missed them:

* A "reimagined" version of Extreme Makeover Home Edition premieres tonight and while I tried to hide my feelings, I didn't much care for it:

The new hosts are Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, co-founders of the "global lifestyle brand" The Home Edit. Yes, the duo have three NY Times best-selling books as well as an international line of home products. But when it comes to hosting a television series, their style can best be described as the unusual combination of being both lightweight AND awkward. A problem which should have been obvious to anyone who bothered to watch their short-lived Netflix series.

* I decided to review a couple of New Year's Eve specials and they were as clunky as might imagine. Fox News Channel had the one-hour special A New Year With Kay & Tyrus, and if nothing else, it illustrated the surprising revelation that it apparently takes a certain level of feral talent to be Greg Gutfeld:

And then, oh good, there is a pre-recorded bit in which they sent Kat out to "banter" with people on the streets of New York. If you consider walking up to a stranger and asking them if they plan to start smoking in 2025 as banter and not borderline harassment. It's just painful to watch and each interaction is even more uncomfortable than the previous one. By the end of the segment, I am convinced that if you walked up to Kat and said "hello," she'd need a cue card and some rehearsal time to respond with "Hello, how are you?"

* I also reviewed the NBC two-hour clip show pretending to be a New Year's Eve special, entitled A Toast To 2024. The network promised this was Hoda Kotb's "last chance to co-host a New Year's Eve special and that provided me with the optimism I needed to ease into the new year:

And since it's 2024, it's a necessity to do a "what's with the phrases these kids say today" segment, a version of which I think was originally rolled out on NBC by Steve Allen in 1958. There are a bunch of increasingly more cringey clips of random NBC universe personalities trying to decipher some hot new Gen Alpha word. And if you think that nothing can horrify you anymore, try watching a clip of Dateline's Josh Mankiewitz and Keith Morrison attempt define the word "rizz."And if nothing else, Carson Kressley illustrates once again that there is no subject he cannot turn into a vaguely creepy sexual reference.

Then it's time for Tik-Tok, with segments on kids asking their parents to dance on camera like they did in the 1980s. Or making fun of their parents for not understanding technology. All of which makes me suspect producers were aiming for the "retired and just booked another vacation to Branson" demo that is so prized by advertisers.

I also posted two "Deep Stream" reviews of global television shows you might enjoy.

Samurai Gourmet is a gentle and weirdly soothing show on Netflix about a retired Japanese businessman who spends his days mostly enjoying a quiet meal and thinking about the memories the food invokes:

In each episode, Takeshi is faced with some small personal crisis that I suspect resonates much more with Japanese salary men than it does with an American audience. He's faced with a decision of whether or not he should complain about poor service or whether he should ask some loud customers in the booth next to his to lower their voices. As he considers his options, he imagines himself as a "Samurai Gourmet," a wandering samurai who answers to no master but himself. Takeshi takes pleasure from imagining how a stronger, more confident version of himself would handle the situation.

Part of the reason why I enjoyed Samurai Gourmet so much was that these imaginary scenes didn't result in Takeshi suddenly developing the ability to take control of the situation. In fact, in most episodes, while he dreams of a universe in which he would have the confidence of a samurai, he ends up shrugging and accepting the situation.

I also took a look at the French-produced Netflix original La Révolution, which premiered several years back. It's an inventive and action-packed series that somehow manages to a zombie-like infection of France's upper class with the onset of the French Revolution:

I don't know enough about the current political and cultural climate in France to hazard a guess about how La Révolution will feel to French viewers. But as an American, the show's themes of a dismissive and corrupt upper class, a lack of upward mobility and a deck stacked against the working class seems painfully contemporary. While there aren't a lot of factual similarities between pre-Revolution France and the United States in 2024, the feel and emotional weariness of fighting what seems to be a hopeless battle against the powerful resonates deep into me.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

THURSDAY, JANUARY 2ND, 2025:
Animal Control (Fox) - (photo gallery: 01/09/2025)
Conspirators Series Premiere (ALLBLK)
Cunk On Life (Netflix) - (first look video)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Series Premiere (ABC) - (review)
Fugitive Hunters Mexico Series Premiere (A&E)
Going Dutch Series Premiere (Fox) - (photo gallery: 01/02/2025)
Hell's Kitchen Season Premiere (Fox)
Isadora Moon Series Premiere (Max)
Lockerbie: A Search For Truth (Peacock)
Momentary Lily Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
Small Town Setup Series Premiere (Hallmark+)
Southern Hospitality Season Premiere (Bravo)
Stranded With My Mother-In-Law Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
Swamp People Season Sixteen Premiere (History)
Swamp People: Serpent Invasion Season Five Premiere (History)
The Rig Season Two Premiere (Prime Video) - [first look video]
Vera (Britbox)

FRIDAY, JANUARY 3RD, 2025:
Bandidos Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
Dateline NBC Spring Premiere (NBC)
Dressed To Kill (LMN)
Happy's Place Spring Premiere (NBC)
I'm Getting Married To A Girl I Hate In My Class Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
Lopez Vs. Lopez Spring Premiere (NBC)
Love Is Blind Germany Series Premiere (Netflix)
RuPaul's Drag Race Season Premiere (MTV)
Selling The City Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Way Home Season Three Premiere (Hallmark+)
They Call It Late Night With Jason Kelce Series Premiere (ESPN)
Umjolo: My Beginning, My End! (Netflix)
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix) - [first look video]

SEE YOU ON FRIDAY!