What I Watched

TV Theme Songs

Mike and I have a different attitude about TV theme songs. He would prefer to fast forward through them. They are one of my favorite parts of a television experience. I could eat them for breakfast over crunchy granola, easily. That's how delicious this music to me. Here are some thoughts on some that I currently demand to hear:

Iron Chef America: It's orchestral, majestic. It's bombastic. It says, "Big Event." It suggests that you will see grand undertakings or perhaps a thunderous takedown. It primes you for a special event.

NCIS: This is music to listen to while you're on an elliptical machine. It's speedy and cheery. It reminds you that this show runs like a Swiss watch.

30 Rock: It's frenetic and dramatic. It's weird. It has a bunch of energy. It has notes that work as side commentary. If Liz Lemon were a string of notes, this would be it.

Justified: This is my current favorite. It's bluegrass; it's rap. It starts off with this pounding sound like "This show is knocking on your door, and you know you have to answer it." It's full of attitude. It's contagious.

It made me think of songs that I've loved in the past, particularly two:

Terriers: What made me sad for a moment was that I couldn't immediately recall this tune. I could only remember that I loved it. Then it came back to me, the spunk, the optimism, the feeling of adventure of this music. It didn't always fit with the tone of the show, but wasn't that part of the problem? First the name doesn't work and the music might not have been the best indicator of what was yet to come. Regardless, I loved them both, and I miss that show a lot.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: This is my favorite theme song ever. It's ragged and emotional. It has the proper amount of pathos in it. It suggests an ongoing battle. It gets you fired up to face the apocalypse once again.

Chopped All Stars, Episode 4

This Chopped All Stars was unexpectedly poignant. In this episode, a panel of Chopped judges had to judge their colleagues and determine who would be their representative as the Chopped judge who would compete in the Chopped All Stars finale. The feelings of comaraderie seemed heartfelt and the competition was fierce. It made for really good television.

It was an episode that reminded me a) that people are multifaceted and b) that perhaps television brass have different agenda depending on the show. I had seen two of the contestants, Amanda Freitag and Aaron Sanchez, on different Food Network programs previously. Amanda Freitag had battled Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America, and I had found her to be presumptous, not giving Iron Chef Flay the respect he had earned, and I was not sad when she was defeated. I had watched Aaron Sanchez on The Next Iron Chef and had thought him to be rather petulant, a poor loser.

On this show, both Freitag and Sanchez came across as highly gracious people, both very complimentary towards their colleagues, and very humbled to be in this competition and to be judged by their peers. Sanchez became actually very emotional during the proceedings. In one of the evaluations, the judges asked the contestants questions about their personal history, and Aaron spoke of the influence of his mother, a divorced woman who worked hard to support her family and who inspired and taught Aaron how to cook. Speaking of his mother, Aaron burst into tears. It was an unexpected moment on a show that was often surprisingly tender.

There was the obligatory trash talk that is often found in these competitions, and as is often the case, the competitor who spoke the worst about his colleagues is the one that eventually went down. Geoffrey Zakarian was a bit dismissive of Aaron and his food, calling it a moment "lower East Side." He didn't know how to cook a plantain, the inference being that this type of "common food" was beneath him to understand. He had moments where he shone, but there were these blips where at least I as a viewer then wanted Aaron to win.

The fact that the winnings of this competition goes to the charity of the contestant's choice has also made the proceedings seem more special. It has been very interesting to see who the contestants are cooking for and why. It has been a very fun, effective spin on the show. I hope that it will become a tradition, and next year with the other judges taking their turn.

Chopped All Stars

I have always been a fan of Chopped, but this level of competition, where Food Network personalities and very well-known chefs are the competitors, take it to a whole other level. The first thing that quickly becomes clear is how difficult this competition actually is. Several of these contestants have competed in Iron Chef America. They have all agreed that this is a much more difficult competition. As Beau MacMillan put it, you could make a mistake on Iron Chef America and still make up for it, but it is very difficult to make any sort of slip here and make it to the next round.

It is rare in these proceedings that a dish is a disaster. At this level, the chefs don't make technique mistakes. There hardly seems to be any gaps in their knowledge. So the elmination factors become much more granular. The balance of flavors was a spot off. The ratio of elements on the plate weren't quite right.

You see different sides to chefs. You can see how Anne Burrell would be Mario Battali's secret weapon as his sous chef in all of his Iron Chef battles. You see the rivalry, perhaps one-sided, kind of an older sister-younger brother dynamic, between Robert Irvine and Anne Burrell, and you hope that someday there will be a rematch. You see that Robert Irvine perhaps has redeemed his reputation. You see that Nate Appleman seems to have gained some humility since his Next Iron Chef days. You wonder if perhaps that was editing that made him appear that way then.

It's a really fascinating show, full of things to ponder. I will be sad when the competition is over.

Inside the Actors Studio - Bradley Cooper

This episode was a reminder of how unpredictable Inside the Actors Studio can be. If I had looked at a program guide and imagined this episode, I never would have thought Bradley Cooper would spend much of the time in tears, but he did, and at the beginning, it was hard to understand why. At first I thought someone iimportant in his life must have just died, he was that broken up. But then, as the conversation went on, you learned that Bradley Cooper had graduated from this school. He had gone to these seminars, filmed and then broadcast on television, all the time. James Lipton had been his dean.

As is often the case with this show, I ended up with a very different view of this actor. I saw him as someone who took acting very seriously. He seemed like someone who was very loyal and very proud of his school. He seemed like a person who was very humble about his craft, someone who still goes back to his teacher for script consultations, someone who takes joy in his work, but feels that he has a lot to learn. It was a very sweet episode.

"Morning Glory"

I had heard that "Morning Glory" was a smart romantic comedy. It stars Rachel McAdams as an ambitious young woman whose dream is to be successful as a television producer of a morning news show. Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton star as the on-air talent.

As the movie went on, I kept thinking of "Broadcast News." In that movie, Holly Hunter played a television producer of an evening news show. She is ambitious and driven and passionate about the news. The crux of that movie is that she fell for a guy who she thought  cared as much as her about the news and about getting it right, and it turned out that he wasn't the real deal, that he had to use tricks to be effective. He wasn't all about the news after all.

"Morning Glory" is all about fluff. It's about numbers.It's about tricks. It's about stunts. We are supposed to want Harrison Ford, as the old-time newscaster, to abandon his ambition to cover real stories and to relax and show us his fun side. It is what morning news is all about, and that is the reason why I do not watch morning news. In that way, the movie is what is advertised. It is a film about a young woman  being successful in this venue.  It is probably better than most romantic comedies out there, and that is a sobering thought.

As we watched, we debated whether Rachel McAdams was annoying or endearing in her earnestness. We chose the former. I decided she reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore, and, in this role, Diane Keaton reminded me of Paula Dean. It's always bad when while watching a movie, you become involved in a discussion of what actor reminds you of who when.  Diane  Keaton did remind us that she is a natural comedienne. I wish she had been featured in a better movie.

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives

This is not set to record in our household, but we seem to come across it all the time, and I'm always happy when we do. I like it, because of Guy Fieri's personality. I like the way he seems to naturally engage with people. I like his seemingly overall enjoyment of life. I like the fact that this show pays tribute to independent eateries, and that most of these owners seem to be self-taught entrepreneurs. I like watching their pride in what they do. I like seeing the ingenious ways they come up with to prepare a dish.I like the creative, independent spirit that is represented here. It makes me want to take a road trip.

America's Next Great Restaurant

I first watched it because of Bobby Flay. And then, because I'd seen him battle Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America and had been impressed by his manner, I wanted to watch it because of Curtis Stone. I found myself liking it as an exercise on how to have a successful business, to think about the pitch, to figure out the niche, to be able to execute, to know how to delegate, to know how to find and impress people who could help you.

One thing that was wonderful about this show was that everyone's pitch was only a few minutes.I liked it that the panel would actually be investors in this project. You could see them assessing the idea and evaluating the person, as they decided whether this would actually be a good place to put their money. They had something on the line, too, and that seemed to make the process more thoughtful and more honest. You could also think about what made a pitch successful or not. Where did the person go wrong or succeed? The answers varied across the board.

In reality shows, it seems you have to you have your champions. I spent my childhood in Michigan, and so I am behind the man from Detroit. I admired his humility and his perserverance. I would like to see him win.