February 13, 2010
Tina Fey on Vogue Cover
And Other Comic Conundrums
It's hibernation weather in the South. We just can't make ourselves move in all this cold! The good news: that's perfect for catching up on my TV and entertainment news after my LA trip. It also gives me time to consider a serious moral dilemma. Tina Fey is going to grace the cover of Vogue magazine. Normally I don't buy Vogue because I think it's Anna Wintour's personal vendetta against normalcy. Worse yet, the magazine uses its intellectual articles to justify a celebration of crazy-skinny models and outfits that real people can't afford.
Case in point: there have already been comments about Tina Fey's disappearing scar. It's barely noticeable anyway, but I guess facial scars just don't fit in with Vogue's aesthetic program (Hmmm, maybe the infamous Cornell sorority guidelines should add this one too). But I do love Tina Fey, and one way Vogue justifies its ridiculousness is by occasionally including truly awesome pictures (see right).
I'll probably cave and buy the damned thing, but then I'll feel compelled to donate to a worthy charity that addresses eating disorders, just to restore the cosmic balance. Speaking of Tina Fey, "30 Rock" and the rest of the Thursday shows did a Valentine's theme this week. I really dig theme nights, maybe because here's something very "high school dance" about them.
"Community" started with Britta's drunk dial to Jeff, which upset the order of the sitcom universe. Luckily, Abed was there to navigate a solution: he and Jeff got drunk so Jeff could make a believable drunk dial to Britta. Unfortunately, they also got so drunk that Abed was forgetting his movie references the next day (oh, the humanity!). Pierce and Troy looked supercute in the pantsuits, and we learn more and more about the mysterious Señor Chang with every episode.
"Parks and Rec" was surprisingly sweet, and got Hulu's vote as "Valentine's Day Pick." I love the show's powerfully subtle moments, such as Ron's look at Leslie's beau while he was telling stories. Later Ron elaborated in his characteristically brusque way: "He's a tourist. He's in it for the stories. He's selfish. You're not." Looks like there may be trouble on the horizon for Ann and Mark, but April is just getting more and more awesome -- I loved it when she told her shallow boyfriend(s) that "everything doesn't have to be covered in, like, fifteen layers of irony." She stormed off to watch Andy's band playing golden oldies, stopping to tell an old couple how cute they were. Awwww.
"The Office" threw in an interesting twist when Andy's latest play for Erin made Kelly think he making a move on her. Kathy Bates was interesting, and it's also good to see a recognition of the fact that we all like Jim better as a salesman. To be honest, I'm kind of dreading the baby episode next week. If it's a "very special" episode, I'll totally puke. "30 Rock" was also only OK, doing its usual meta- job of deconstructing Valentiene's day neurosis. It was really fun to see Liz go nuts under anesthesia, though. And I do love Elizabeth Banks, so I hope we see more of her in future episodes.
"The Daily Show" and "Colbert" had their work cut out for them -- or not. The GOP's "trap" defense is so asinine that there was hardly a need to write jokes; simply showing the footage spoke for itself. In fact, it's so depressing that I can't keep writing about it. I will note, however, that once again the "Colbert" and "TDS" writers synched up, and the monologues contained some pretty funny overlaps (especially the use of Admiral Akbar).
And last but not least, there's a Facebook campaign to make Betty White the host of "SNL" (basically before she dies, but no one wants to admit that). Now that's a political stance I can get behind!
