Won Over By Makeovers
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: Making Over America with Trinny and Susannah
Topic: TV: The Soft Blue Glow

I love televised makeovers. I loved them when they had stylists remake audience members on the Ricki Lake and the Jenny Jones shows. So when the makeover became a whole genre of reality television, I was right there with the exception of Extreme Makeover. TLC has cornered the market on making folks over although I do get a kick out of Jay Manuel's celebrity look-alike makeover show on the Style Network (Style Her Famous). I'm very loyal to The Learning Channel and there's not a Friday night when I'm not watching What Not to Wear. I was also big fans of 10 Years Younger (with all their hosts); and Cover Shot. Now, TLC has added a new contender to the stable. It’s Making Over America with Trinny and Susannah.

 

Some may know Trinny and Susannah as the hosts of the original What Not to Wear, which they created in the United Kingdom. Over the years, they have created quite a styling empire with books and television appearances. Now they are taking a stab at their first American stateside series, where they travel from state to state in a trailer to help those trapped by bad fashion choices.

 

After just watching the first episode, I am convinced that this is now my favorite makeover show even above What Not to Wear with Clinton and Stacy. Trinny and Susannah may come off as intimidating, but they show us they are as real as you and I by the end of the show. They reveal their stretch marks, lumps, and bumps to those they are trying to help to prove that anyone can look great with the correct foundation garments, confidence and well-fitting clothes.

 

Along with fashion advice, Susannah and Trinny give a good dose of tough and body confidence-building lessons. There are no hidden cameras, there’s no one making fun of you, and there are no flights to major metropolises. Trinny and Susannah encourage the women to look at themselves in a new light, and to dress in a way that’s flattering at the stores in their area. 

 

The only thing that is slightly off-putting is that Trinny and Susannah are very touchy-grabby. In the premiere epi, they grab makeover contestant Jennifer’s bottom to show her how voluptuous and sexy it is. They also cup one of her breasts to demonstrate how poorly her bra is fitting. I’m sorry. I don’t want two strangers grabbing my bum on national TV no matter how great they think my ass is.

 

I will be setting the DVR for this show, though. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Try As I May, I Can't Love the Mad Men
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Thoughts on AMC's Mad Men
Topic: TV: The Soft Blue Glow

AMC's Mad Men is a drama set in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and it is about advertising in post-World War 2 America. There's the Cold War, Jim Crow Laws, sexism, racism, and the demonization of sex. It is a very buttoned-up United States. It is a show that causes very hard feelings in me, and it is preventing me from enjoying the show as much as I can.

Within the first three episodes, the audience is clearly shown the role of women in the men's lives. They are vessels for their penises. They are objectified. They are their nursemaids, their underlings, their whores, but not their equals. Women are the butt of open sexual harassment, and are expected to take the heavy flirting as a compliment. The women are judged as neurotic or hysterical for wanting more out of life then being tucked away in the suburbs with the children and gossip-mongers. Single women who work or are divorced or are sexually active (with contraceptive) are judged harshly. When head ad-exec Don Draper realizes the best way to market a men's deodorant is to market to women who buy these products for their men, he brainstorms with his boss about how to market to women. He doesn't know how women think, and his boss says quite pointedly "Who cares what women think?"

 

 

Racism is abound in Mad Men. African-Americans are seen as just bathroom attendants, elevator operators or the sandwich guy. There aren't racial slurs or demeaning comments made about the Blacks servants on the show, but there a few slung around about a family of Chinese people who have been hired for a practical joke. There's even some anti-Semitism.

Mad Men is not a bad show. It is a good show, and Don Draper is one of the smoothest and most complicated characters on television today. Taking the behind the scenes look at the golden age of advertising is fascinating but Mad Men is a bitter pill to swallow for me. I can't stand the era it represents, which are straight WASP men ruling the world without much thought of the others who live in it.

How to Look Good Naked
Mood:  hug me
Now Playing: How to Look Good Naked the TV Show
Topic: TV: The Soft Blue Glow

How to Look Good Naked is another makeover show, but tries to provide much more than just a simple closet and beauty re-do. The eternally chipper and Carson Kressely, of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, is the host of this happy and helpful show. It comes on every Friday night on the Lifetime Channel, and features woman who has a mild case of dysmorphia. In other words, the makeover participants hate their bodies. The ladies are lumpy, slightly frumpy, and hide behind their clothes (like your slightly lumpy and frumpy blogger, here). In the end, however, Carson gets the ladies to appreciate the positives of their figures, to stop focusing on their so-called body flaws, and to pose naked in front of the camera. Like Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style and TLC’s What Not to Wear, I want to be on this show for the free clothes and the self-esteem shot in the arm.

 

I do have two caveats when it comes to How to Look Good Naked. I think it would be more effective to the women in the show and the women watching the show if the host were a professional straight man (or straight professional man). It would be so much more reassuring if a straight man like George Clooney (rumors aside) or Johnny Depp told me how beautiful my legs were despite any wobbly areas. (Although, I admit to none!)

 

My second problem is the opinion poll taken at the reveal of the naked picture as a billboard on Santa Monica Boulevard. When the participant walks up to a random man, asks him “Do I look good naked?” and gestures toward the billboard, the man looks like a deer caught in the headlights. He looks like every boyfriend or husband that has ever been asked “Do I look fat in this?” So, when he answers affirmatively to the question, I don’t believe him. I am positive that he is secretly thinking: If I answer this incorrectly, I’m never getting laid again.

Fashionable Taping
Mood:  special
Now Playing: My Mini Preview of the new Stacy London show
Topic: TV: The Soft Blue Glow

Next post: The names of the products that were in the gift bag!

Yes It's Been A Long Time
Mood:  rushed
Now Playing: Shut Up! It's Stacy London
Topic: TV: The Soft Blue Glow

First off, this is my first entry since giving birth to my youngest daughter nearly seven weeks ago. She's a cute, fat faced little peanut and her big sister, the Munchkin, loves her dearly. Well, almost too dearly. She's damn near made herself the second Mommy. On a beauty note, I will say that there is no amount of beauty products one can use to help them feel better after a C-section. Who knew something that would be so small in your arms to hold would cause so much pain coming out of a six inch incision? And any beauty product you use while taking care of a newborn and an energetic two-year-old better be a fast acting multitasker.

Speaking of mulitaskers, did you catch the pilot episode of TLC's Shut Up! It's Stacy London? on Friday, April 6th? The host of the new weekly fashion and style show is TLC's What Not to Wear co-host and fashion critic Stacy London. The show's title comes from London's trademark remark of surprise and glee, Shut up! 

Shut Up... will be a weekly night time talk show feautring shopping trips, interviews with beauty and fashion gurus, giveaways, and makeovers (of course!) airing on TLC beginning in the fall. (Why make us wait for so long?) Stacy's solo gig is terrific--like a fashion and beauty magazine come to life on television. My current goal in life is to be a studio audience member on that show. The gift bags she doled out were insane--make-up, jewels, bags...! Also, she gave certain audience members the jewels right off her body--a jeweled lucite bracelet and a broach. Okay, so they weren't personally hers, but damnit she was wearing them and giving them away.

 

 

You Bettah Work..Sashay...Shante
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Project Runway
Topic: TV: The Soft Blue Glow
Let's make it clear, I normally dislike reality television shows aside from TLC's What Not To Wear, Amish in the City, Celebrity Fit Club and Flavor of Love. For awhile, I dug Blind Date but that was a long time ago. I find competitive reality shows very insulting to the participants. Eating cow testicles? Living with 7 people you loathe? Mucking through the jungle? Not really for me to do or to watch. Yet, I found myself drawn to Bravo's Project Runway, Season 2 on the observed President's Day holiday marathon. This show was good.

Project Runway is about 16 wannabe fashion designers of all ages, genders, and races. Each aspiring designer is given a weekly design challenge--create a dress or an outfit based on a theme. It is really something to watch the creative process at work. Cutting, sewing, thinking, and working. These folks are creating something tangible. You can really see how determined they are to prove themselves. Somehow, I admire that more than seeing people compete for a recording contract. In the end, the winner gets $100K to start their own fashion line and gets a designer job at Banana Republic. Not a bad way to start.

I was intrigued by the three episodes I saw. The criticisms were concrete, and more constructive than a personal attack. The best thing is that all of these designers were talented. Even the worst dress was still pretty damn good looking. I'm definitely going to rent season 1 on DVD.

I could really do without Heidi Klum. She seems terribly stiff and ill-at-ease. All in all, I give this show 4 out of 5 stars.

Everyone Else Does A Wrap-Up
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: My Top Ten Favorite Television Moments of 2005
Topic: TV: The Soft Blue Glow
Every year, television provides me with countless hours of entertainment. This is the first time I've decided to honor my favorite television moments. Welcome to the first annual Kiki-TV Awards.

10. Joan Rivers accidently flipping the bird to America at large while showing off her line of nail polish on QVC.

9.Tyra Banks getting a mammogram and removing her bra to let her boobs sag on television talk show.

8. Evander Holyfield trying to do the two-step on Dancing With the Stars. You could see him counting the steps in his head!!!

7. Chris Rock's incredibly funny Jude Law joke at the Oscars. I agreed with him! "And who is Jude Law? Why is he in every movie I have seen the last four years? Even the movies he`s not acting in, if you look at the credits, he made cupcakes or something. He`s in everything!"


6. Terry McMillian and her gay ex-husband's interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

5. Terry McMillan's incredibly angry interview on theTavis Smiley Show.

McMillan: I paid for his college education, you get a vehicle, and if he's able--I basically paid 300 and some odd thousand dollars to get him a pet grooming business. Two days ago or three days ago, I find out he sold everything in it and split. OK? And everything he's been doing, he's been ly--he lied in his court documents, made them available on the internet. He and his attorney both are guilty of trying to spread rumors about me being a homophobe, all kinds of things. I mean, I didn't know that you could lie in court documents. Everything in his court documents are lies with one exception--two exceptions. One, that he's gay, and two, his name is Jonathan Plummer. And I resent this.


4. Reality TV darling and plus-size model Toccara's pole dance on VH-1's Celebrity Fit Club 2. Hey ya'll, it was to lose weight! ;-)

3. Tom Cruise beingthiscloseto having his head explode on The Today Show when discussing anti-depressants with Matt Lauer.

2. Mike Meyers and Chris Tucker's reactions to Kanye West's comments on a NBC telethon to raise money for the victims of Katrina.

and Number 1, drum roll please....
1. Kanye West's infamous George Bush comments:

"I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family it says they are looting if you see a white family it says they are looking for food. (...) those are my people down there.

(...) "We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war now fighting another way and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us."

[Meyers, visibly uncomfortable, reads from prompter script. Camera cuts back to Kanye, who pauses, then says]

"George Bush doesn't care about black people!"

[camera abruptly switches back to a stunned Myers, then to actor Chris Tucker]

Have a Happy New Year Everyone!

The New Fall TV Season
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Just Call Me Spud
Topic: TV: The Soft Blue Glow
Next week kicks off the new fall television schedule--Fox is early to the game. I've already checked out the season premieres of House, M.D. and The O.C. to my extreme pleasure. Desperate Housewives rolls out on September 25th. There's so much I'm looking forward to that I had to create a chart in order to keep up. Thank you Entertainment Weekly for the nifty guide.

What I'm Looking Forward to Watching
King of the Hill, Last season
The Simpsons
The King of Queens
Arrested Development
Freddie Prinze Jr’s sitcom on ABC
Everybody Hates Chris
The OC
Bernie Mac
Desperate Housewives
Curb Your Enthusiasm
House
The Office
Lost
Nightstalker with Gabrielle Union (It might be good!)

Through all of these TV shows and my trying work schedule, I still have to find time to watch my favorite Lifetime show--Strong Medicine with Rick(y) Schroeder.

TV Guide's Fall Schedule

What's With Me and Hospital Shows?
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Scrubs
Topic: TV: The Soft Blue Glow
Last night, the hubby and I rented the first season of Scrubs, the NBC show with Zack Braff. Talk about being four years behind. We has watched an episode here and there and thought it was funny, but never watched it regularly. We still might not watch it regularly during the season, but doggoneit we will be renting the other seasons when they come out on DVD. It is a funny show. It cracked me up. Also, it's nice to see Donald Faison in a good show. I feel like I've seen him in stuff since 1990.

Now I also hope House comes out on DVD before the second season starts, because I'd like to check it. That's one show that kept my interest piqued every time I saw the commerical. However, I never watched it. When there's nothing on between 8:30 and 9 p.m., I have a tendency to not remember what I wanted to watch at 9 and cede to my husband's remote control flipping.

You know what should come out on DVD? St. Elsewhere. OMG! The first three years of that show was off the chain. I'd buy that lickety split. Also, I'd rent Trapper John MD. My whole family would watch that show. My aunt and I had a crush on Gregory Harrison aka Dr. Gonzo Gates. My grandmother on Pernell Roberts aka Trapper John. (What's surprising is that I can remember both of their names yet I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday or what I spent my money on.)