September 21, 2007

What to Watch: Coming Up on Cable

On the heels of cable diversity week in New York, Seth Arenstein appreciates the diverse perspectives on The N's South of Nowhere and D.L. Hughley's latest HBO comedy special.

Tube Stake: Programming Reviews by Seth Arenstein

D.L. on the D.L.: Hughley scores in 4th HBO special.

• FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21

South of Nowhere, mid-season finale, 8pm ET, The N.

Cable’s Diversity Week, with events all this week in New York, has nothing on The N’s teen drama South of Nowhere. In fact, South of Nowhere has a few things that are lacking from Cable’s festivities.

Although less so in this second season, the raison d'être for the series was that a corn-fed, white family from homogenous Ohio, the Carlins, moved quickly to the more diversified environment of urban Los Angeles. But even the Carlin family had a diverse element. Ma and pa Carlin had adopted an African-American teen son, Clay (Danso Gordon), complementing their two biological teens.

While seasons one and two were filled with interesting plot lines involving Clay and his girlfriend Chelsea, whom he made pregnant, Clay met his end as a result of a shooting at the high school prom.

Still the series strikes a strong diversity note, involving ethnic and racial diversity as well as something cable's Diversity Week unfortunately omits—sexual diversity. Tonight’s episode, the mid-season finale, involves the Carlin’s teen daughter Spencer (Gabrielle Christian), who seemed to be in a perpetual pout in recent episodes. Besides being maudlin, the shame of it is that Christian has one of teen cable’s best smiles (okay, for purists, Christian is not a teen, but she plays one on television).

At any rate, Spencer, a lesbian, is ready to confront her mother on her sexuality. She wants mom to join her at the Gay Pride parade. One of Spencer’s friends, Ashley (Mandy Musgrave), convinces mom to join Spence. In appreciation, Spencer shows up at Ashley’s that night wearing nothing but a raincoat and a smile. Ah, those innocent teen years.     

Human Weapon: Marine Corps Martial Arts, 10pm ET, The History Channel.

A pair of macho men learn from Marines hand-to-hand combat and bayonet skills to kill enemy soldiers (you take the bayonet and penetrate two inches into your opponent’s skull near the eyeball, then you use your bayonet to “tickle his brain,” the Marine Corps instructor says).

At the end of the show one of our two hosts, former football pro and wrestler Bill Duff and welterweight fighting champ Jason Chambers, take on the Marines in a no-holds barred fight called "Last of the Mohicans." This must be Spike TV, right? No. OK, could it be that new TBS show, House of Pain? Wrong, again (that’s House of Payne, a comedy).

In fact, there’s an historical element presented, so that qualifies the series for inclusion on the History Channel. Heck, tonight we learn the history behind the origins of this Marine Corps Martial Arts Program known as McMAP.  Indeed, the history of this program, which incorporates 182 moves, is interesting. Some of the moves came via China, when Marines in the 1920s and 30s learned kung fu from police in Shanghai.

There’s  bit more history presented, but it’s presented and dispensed with faster than you can say "jiu jitsu." Leaves more time to show how you can destroy your opponent with a blackout-inducing choke or how certain kicks can really lead to a bad day. Incidentally, we are shown how the Marines learn jiu jitsu moves to break an opponent’s joints. Now that’s history, isn’t it?

• SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

Match Game: Tribute to Brett Somers, 9am-4pm ET, GSN.

The good news is GSN is doing an all-day tribute to gravelly-voiced Brett Somers, who, besides Mr. Magoo, was the foremost exponent of nearly face-covering glasses.

The bad news is, of course, that Ms. Somers, an actress and singer best known for her work on Match Game for more than a decade, had to die to merit this tribute. Of course, Somers isn’t really gone since viewers can watch her in action M-F on GSN at 11am and 2:30pm ET; on weekends Match Game runs at 11 am.

Somewhat appropriately, Somers quickly followed her long-time Match Game buddy Charles Nelson Reilly to the afterlife. He passed on May 25.

GSN’s tribute will consist of 14 of Somers’ best Match Game shows, including the one where Somers, who not once in her life was mistaken for the firm-thighed Suzanne Somers, was the subject of a question: "When Bret went  streaking, everyone ________ed."

Adding to the fun, which is what Match Game and GSN are all about, the network for games will run a special, The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank, right after the Somers’ school lets out, at 5pm. Then on Monday morning (3:30am ET), GSN will run an ep of Password from 1971 when Somers appeared with her then-husband Jack Klugman. With that duo the password should be hilarity.

[A clip of Somers' tribute highlights can be found at GSN.com]

D.L. Hughley: Unapologetic, 10pm ET, HBO

Hughley is a rarity. He’s laugh-out-loud funny.

In his fourth HBO comedy special—taped before an audience in Washington, D.C.—he also shows he’s a keen political satirist, with many of his jokes fitting the axiom that “many a truth is said in jest.” There’s a problem with Hughley (more on this below), but his being terrifically talented isn’t it.

Riffing on the presidential election, he asks in a deep, serious voice: “Is the country really ready for a black president?” (Back to his normal voice) "After the motherf**ker we got now? Come on." Following on: “How bad could WE f**k up? What are WE going to do?" (Speaking rapidly) "Steal an election, start a war, and give our friends jobs we know they ain’t qualified for?”

And then, “But with a black president they’re a few questions that were never asked before.” (Back to his serious, deep-toned voice) “Ah, Mr. President, we love dogs, too, but pit bulls are illegal in Washington, D.C….Ah, Mr. President, the first lady asked for hot comb. We don’t know what the f**k that is….We asked Condoleezza Rice, and she didn’t know either.”

On immigration, Hughley’s wit continues sharply. “It was immigrants that built this country,” he says. “All of us took a boat here … some of us willingly.” And he’s indignant and skeptical about talk of building a wall to keep Mexicans out. “Who the f**k do they think’s gonna build it?” He then launches into a nice recitation of some of Emma Lazarus’ The New Colossus, which sits on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, he wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Hughley’s take: “If we don’t mean that anymore, let’s scratch that sh*t off…or at least put a P.S.—except Mexicans.”

The thing about Hughley, and some will feel this is not a problem, is that between jokes, and sometimes during them, he peppers his monologue with expressions like "f**k" and "f**k that sh*t." These words don’t make the show any funnier. There’s also a bit of his show that features jokes based on a highly offensive racial epithet that refers to African Americans. But some of the jokes he makes about that word are hilarious, too.

• SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

The Business, 11pm; The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, 11:30pm, IFC.

If you don’t have a DVR, here are two excellent excuses to come to work bleary-eyed on Monday morning.

IFC’s offbeat comedy series — both more or less related to life in the movie biz — wrap up their second seasons tonight.

First up is the season finale for The Business, the vehicle for Kathleen Robertson, who plays serious movie exec Julia Sullivan who’s forced to exist in the inhospitable and plain weird environment known as Vic’s Flicks, a company that formerly made adult films.

That’s followed by the equally zany The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman with Laura Kightlinger and the devilishly sensuous Nicholle Tom as a pair of 30-somethings striving hard for acceptance but who, naturally, fall far short.

• TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25

Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later, 8pm, HBO.

As we learned at Cable’s Diversity Week in New York this week, diversity is many things, but it’s not easy.

That point is clearly made in this brilliant documentary by Craig Renaud and Brent Renaud about Little Rock, Arkansas’ Central High, on the 50th anniversary of the school that was at the center of the nation's desegregation debate.

As in their previous work such as Discovery Times' Off to War doc, the Renaud brothers, Little Rock natives themselves, let their subjects do the talking.

Where they succeed so well is in their editing of interviews so the result is more than just talking heads. They pit various points of view against each other in rapid succession, letting viewers reach their own conclusions about whether integration has worked in this school, and if not, why.

If you miss the premiere, catch it starting Wednesday on HBO on Demand.

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