October 30, 2008

CableFAX Program Awards: Most Unrealistic Scene That Was Most Entertaining

Winner: 10 Items or Less: Mooshi, TBS

Let’s face it — sometimes you’ve just got to buy in to a program’s premise to reap the entirely entertaining rewards it will shower on you as the plot unfurls. It is with that mind-set that we bestow top honors on the "Mooshi" episode of 10 Items or Less, that changed the way we look at our ribeye. It’s not just that indie grocery store owner Leslie Pool (played by series co-creator John Lehr) has come up with yet another uniquely inane way to compete with the big chain across the street — it’s the bizarre method to his madness that had us in stitches. Figuring that some shoppers like to select their own lobster, Pool concocts a promotion to bring a cow in to let customers select the section of the animal they’d like to take home. He even comes up with a sushi-grade of beef he terms Mooshi. Grab the barf bag. Call the SPCA. But by all means, catch this one on the Internet.

Honorable Mentions:
Californication, Turn the Page, Showtime: A wedding continues despite unhinged relationships, and an underage character pretending to be a book’s author gets a break because her agent knows she’s a fraud, but can’t say so for fear she’ll reveal her one-nighter with the real author (whew!) — that’s unrealistic entertainment.

The Sopranos, Episode 78, HBO: What’s this? Bobby gets into a fistfight with thug-in-law Tony, and the big man not only doesn’t order an immediate hit on Bobby but declares Bobby beat him "fair and square"? While we admire the familial consideration and soak up the high drama, this one didn’t quite add up.

Return to 2008 CableFAX Program Awards table of contents.