Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.

Giles ,'Conversations with Dead People'


Spike's Bitches 44: It's about the rules having changed.  

[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.


Trudy Booth - Jun 26, 2009 6:13:12 am PDT #14107 of 30000
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

Real Housewives of the OC being crazy wealthy sort of makes sense. I think the area is commonly regarded has well monied.

New Jersey, however... its a whole state. Some parts have crazy money but Real Housewives of Essex County or Bergen County just doesn't have the same ring to it. They could have named it Tacky With Cash (And Just Enough Mob Connections That We Can All Say, "Ooooooooh!" But Not So Many That We Risk Loosing Fingers When We Exploit Them).


Gudanov - Jun 26, 2009 6:18:59 am PDT #14108 of 30000
Coding and Sleeping

Roseanne and Malcolm in the Middle were more reality shows. At least in my housewife experience.

I was going to mention Roseanne. I didn't watch a lot of it, but it seemed remarkably grounded in actual life.


Fay - Jun 26, 2009 6:26:01 am PDT #14109 of 30000
"Fuck Western ideologically-motivated gender identification!" Sulu gasped, and came.

But how many people would watch a show like that? Most people want to watch people with idealized lives, or else shows like Cops, where they can watch people who are bigger fuckups than they are...

Hee! And right here we have the difference between US telly and UK telly: US telly tends towards rich people with glamorous jobs, exciting lives, swanky cars and posh houses; UK telly tends towards working class people with no jobs, miserable lives, knackered old cars and rented flats.

American Soap

British Soap


billytea - Jun 26, 2009 6:27:13 am PDT #14110 of 30000
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Hee! And right here we have the difference between US telly and UK telly: US telly tends towards rich people with glamorous jobs, exciting lives, swanky cars and posh houses; UK telly tends towards working class people with no jobs, miserable lives, knackered old cars and rented flats.

And in Australia it's about comfortable middle-class families with high school kids that live near the beach.


Hil R. - Jun 26, 2009 6:27:46 am PDT #14111 of 30000
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

New Jersey, however... its a whole state. Some parts have crazy money but Real Housewives of Essex County or Bergen County just doesn't have the same ring to it. They could have named it Tacky With Cash (And Just Enough Mob Connections That We Can All Say, "Ooooooooh!" But Not So Many That We Risk Loosing Fingers When We Exploit Them).

Even Franklin Lakes, the town where most of them live, isn't all like that. It's a fairly well-off town, but I had plenty of friends who lived there whose mothers were not at all like the people on this show. And one of the Housewives lives in Wayne -- I was cracking up last night when the Franklin Lakes ones referred, somewhat derisively, to "Your Wayne friends."

And all of them, while insisting that they have no mob connections whatsoever, keep coming out with statements like, "You do that to me again, and I'll show up at your doorstep -- and I won't be alone," or "Let me tell you something about my family -- we're thick as thieves, and we protect each other to the end." (Well, three of them that there have been accusations about deny it. The fourth, when directly asked about whether she was involved with a Colombian drug cartel, replied something like, "Of course I'm not answering that. Do you think I'm an idiot?")

Then there's the fifth one, who hasn't been questioned about any mob stuff on the show, but has been shown quite a few times buying about $100,000 worth of furniture or something and paying for it in cash, which seems suspicious, though I'm not quite sure what it's suspicious of.


Hil R. - Jun 26, 2009 6:30:28 am PDT #14112 of 30000
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

I mean, how many of them show people having to actually work at a job (not something exciting, but the boring kind most of us have), deal with finances, cope with commutes, deal with children who have meltdowns and aren't constantly spouting off sassy one-liners, etc.?

First season or so of Jon and Kate. First episode had a rather memorable scene where two-year-old Hannah, who was in the middle of potty training, pooped in her underwear (and all over her crib) while taking a nap, and then Kate had to try to clean her up, give her a bath, and change the linens on her crib while Jon was at work and five other two-year-olds were screaming.


Tom Scola - Jun 26, 2009 6:34:42 am PDT #14113 of 30000
hwæt

Yeah, Franklin Lakes is pretty damned Preppie.


Trudy Booth - Jun 26, 2009 6:36:00 am PDT #14114 of 30000
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

Even Franklin Lakes, the town where most of them live, isn't all like that.

For an all rich town I guess you'd need Real Housewives of Essex Fells or Real Housewives of Mountain Lakes. But who wants to hear about lacrosse scores and "My GOD, how could she buy that Mercedes SLR in an automatic?"


Glamcookie - Jun 26, 2009 6:38:08 am PDT #14115 of 30000
I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say I am like no one in the whole world. - Anne Lister

This pregnancy crying thing has to stop. I'm crying watching the Thriller video. I mean I'm sad about MJ, but not THAT sad. Shit.


Aims - Jun 26, 2009 6:39:53 am PDT #14116 of 30000
Shit's all sorts of different now.

It will be easier to hie thee to CostCo and get scads of Kleenex. It doesn't stop. At least, IME.