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July 30, 2007
What to Watch: Coming Up on Cable
Seth Arenstein hails the return of Jordana Spiro and My Boys to TBS, but doesn't flip out over Bravo's latest reality series.
Tube Stake: Programming Reviews by Seth Arenstein
THE 'BOYS' ARE BACK: Jordana Spiro & Co. return to TBS.
• MONDAY, JULY 30
My Boys, season 2 premiere, TBS, 10pm.
“I love him so much.” Those are five words we never thought we’d hear from the mouth of adorable tomboy PJ (Jordana Spiro), the main character in TBS’ light but watch-able original sitcom My Boys. But PJ is getting older and, apparently, becoming more aware of her feelings.
A version of Sex In The City in reverse, with sports, My Boys clearly is in season two, as sportswriter PJ tells us with the sports-tinged language she uses to narrate the episodes. Some players have been traded or signed with new teams, others have worked out vigorously during the off-season. Fellow sports scribe Bobby (Kyle Howard) has left the baseball beat to cover NASCAR, which would seem to end the possibility that he and PJ will rekindle their sporadic relationship (but just wait). PJ’s brother Andy, played by the outstanding standup comedian Jim Gaffigan, appears to have lost weight. Kenny (Michael Bunin) is attached to a pregnant lady, a development that threatens to break up the gang. The annoying Stephanie (Kellee Stewart), who met PJ in a series of cafes and restaurants last season, is now spending so much time in PJ's Chicago apartment she should be paying half the rent. And PJ, who made a big deal of wearing a tank top last season, has definitely been ordered to dress in a more feminine way this season.
So much for the preliminaries. The show is at its best when examining PJ’s pathetic love life. While PJ is surrounded by men—she hosts a weekly poker night at her place and hoists brews regularly at a local tavern—the baseball-obsessed blond can’t get to first base on the love circuit. Ah, but a plot device will bring PJ’s affairs of the heart to a climax this summer as she and Stephanie purchase 4 tickets to Italy with the intention of heading to that romantic rendezvous with the boyfriends that neither of the ladies has at the moment.
Of course, not every episode revolves around amour. In ep 2, My Boys spoofs cable sports shows by having PJ appear on a local sports talker, to disastrous results. But, hey, the show was on local cable. So how many people actually saw it? Bobby consoles her. “The audience consists of fantasy nerds and a few frat guys in khaki shorts.” Oh, that hurts.
NOTE: Viewers can catch up on My Boys with a 4-minute recap of season 1 at tbs.com (for Microsoft Windows only). Purists can see complete season 1 eps there or watch a marathon of all 13 season 1 episodes the old-fashioned way — on TBS, Sunday, July 29, starting at 10am.
• TUESDAY, JULY 31
Flipping Out, season premiere, Bravo, 10pm.
By now Bravo’s established itself as part of the crème de la crème of cable reality programmers.
Flipping Out, which follows the antics (and that really is the best word to use here) of a California real estate flipper, will do nothing to dull that reputation. It will be interesting, though, to see if viewers tune in, considering young Jeff Lewis is not a Hollywood celebrity.
On the other hand, he has many of the attributes that are essential to grabbing reality television ratings. He’s attractive, gay (he’ll help fill the void left by Queer Eye), unconventional (his business advisors are gurus and spiritualists), hangs with an assortment of strange characters (America loves weird) and is a Prima Donna (the producers must love his temper tantrums, which seem very believable). In short, there’s a lot of drama here.
Unlike Paula Abdul’s rather quotidian existence (as portrayed on Bravo's rare ratings flop, Hey Paula), Lewis has a lot going on each day, as he juggles multiple properties, fixing them up quickly (illegally, sometimes) so he can sell them profitably before the banks close in on him.
And for celeb lovers, his assistant Jenni is a dead ringer for Julia Louis-Dreyfus, although once she opens her mouth you know she’s not. Complicating things is Jenni’s husband Chris, a struggling actor who removes trash from the homes Lewis is renovating and has been fired by Lewis six times for incompetence.
• Click here for more TV reviews by Seth >>
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