TV - In the Motherhood and ER

If you watched In the Motherhood last night, and you've seen the online version, you were probably disappointed. Megan Mullalley and Horatio Sanz (who we didn't recognize from SNL - he's lost a lot of weight!) were great, but the rest of it fell totally flat for me. Of course, I was comparing it to this:



OMG, the Chap'stuff', the hardware store. I'm dying. If you haven't seen the series, all of it is on YouTube, and I highly recommend that you waste half the day watching it.

There were some funny moments on the ABC show last night, even a laugh out loud moment or two, but it wasn't half as funny as the online series. The online series was consistently crying-laughing get out the Depends funny. The TV show wasn't half as edgy, and was twice as predictable. And what happened to Leah Remini and Jenny McCarthy??

I'm no prude, but I also thought that the Santa part of the plot and that the whole third date = sex thing were inappropriate for a family show on at 7/8 pm. I'm not the only one, judging from the boards at ABC.com (but I have a blog, so I'm not going to register so that I can discuss it with them... They can find me here if they care what I think). I also missed the device that the online show used, where the moms spoke directly to the viewer. I thought that was cute, and I most related to those parts, where they said what they were thinking.

Kind of a historic moment, really, when the "real" TV show paled in comparison to its online counterpart. That's where media is headed - not just newspapers. All of it. And I'm excited to see the change, because I think it will greatly improve entertainment across the board - from music to TV to movies to news. Instead of having mega-stars (Michael Jackson, Madonna, etc.) who we are spoon fed for decades past the point of their relevance by record labels who can't let go of their cash cows, there will be thousands of "grass roots" type stars with smaller followings... Like Esmee, the girl on YouTube who toured with Justin Timberlake after her YouTube videos were discovered. News will be back in the hands of the people, instead of in the hands of corporations. Even movies, to a lesser extent. (Some of you who've known me a very long time might recognize someone in that trailer). They'll remain expensive, but dedicated fans and creative types will make them.

Oh well. I'll give In the Motherhood a couple more weeks, since ER is almost over and there's about to be free space on my DVR. I have watched ER for 15 years, since the first episode, and I'm going to miss it. Of course the quality, recently, isn't as good as the first years, but that's why God invented basic cable. I was really afraid they were going to kill Carter - he's been on dialysis in the past few episodes, and it would make sense in terms of the arc of the story. The series began with him starting med school. But from the preview scenes last night, it doesn't look like he's going to get killed off. I guess they're leaving it open for a reunion show, instead.

The funny thing about DVR is that I don't see commercials, and so I never know what new shows are coming on unless someone mentions something to me, or I read a blog about it (which is what happened with In the Motherhood, otherwise I would've missed it completely). Eventually all the shows I've watched since pre-DVR days are going to end, and I'll run out of TV entirely. Not that I think that's a bad thing at all. I could easily give up TV entirely. I'd rather read or talk to you all here. Certain other members of my household disagree.