In which I yell at you about ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘DTF: St. Louis,’ and misogyny.

by Therese Odell, posted in watch this

 A little more home from moon joy from an astronaut and her good girl.

 

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Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

It’s been quite the 24 hours for our idiot President. His pal, the authoritarian Viktor Orban, lost his reelection bid in Hungary despite J.D. Vance campaigning for him; then he yelled that the Pope is “weak on crime” right before posting a weird image of himself as Jesus which pissed off all the evangelical MAGAs; he announced we would be blockading the already closed Strait of Hormuz but NATO was like, “sure, but you’ll be doing that alone”; a judge dismissed his lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for publishing his naked lady birthday message to Jeffrey Epstein; Chicago Pope was like, “LOL, I’m not afraid of that asshole”; and then he had to take down his Jesus post after claiming that it wasn’t a picture of him as Jesus, it was a picture of him as a doctor, duh.

Noah Wylie discusses the ICE episode of The Pitt, and insists they weren’t trying to politicize the issue, but to make the point that immigration enforcement shouldn’t happen in certain public spaces.

Wylie also discussed the departure of Supriya Ganesh at the end of this season, insisting that this is the reality of emergency room personnel:

“It’s an inevitability that’s going to happen every season with this show because as writers we’re hard pressed to figure out what a lapse of time we can have and keep most of the ensemble together realistically. Emergency rooms have a high revolving door. As always, we try to bring in new characters or promote from within as we go through these cast changes and try to keep the storylines fresh, but obviously, Supriya has been a huge part of our show since the beginning.”

“Dr. Mohan is a beloved character, and I love playing with her and working with Supriya, and we wish her all the best in her next endeavors, and we’re going to miss her.”

It should be noted there has been some outcry that this is the second woman of color to leave the series, which some see as a troubling trend.

The Pitt‘s Shawn Hatosy could make Emmy history.

So could Jean Smart and Zendaya.

A whole bunch of Hollywood creatives have signed an open letter opposing the Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery deal. Paramount is like, “CALM DOWN.”

First of all, Ralph Fiennes’ suggestion on who should play Voldemort in the new Harry Potter series is genius on a purely artistic level. She’d be perrrrrrrfect. But the fact that it would also be a troll of J.K. Rowling’s transphobia on a whole other level is what makes it perfect. DO IT, HBO. DON’T BE COWARDS.

David Duchovny weighs in on the Ryan Coogler X-Files reboot, gives it his blessing, but denies knowing if Agent Mulder is a part of this new universe. (While also admitting there have been some discussions about making an appearance.)

Amazing: people (dudes) continue to not understand The Boys and root for the bad guys.

This is your reminder that Matthew Perry’s stepfather is Dateline’s Keith Morrison. 

Y’all need to stop being so weird about actors and let kids go to their proms, damn.

“Just to let everyone know, I will not be attending prom,” Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ star Walker Scobell wrote on his Instagram Story. “Please stop sending death threats to EVERY teenage girl who could remotely be associated with me based on their proximity to where I live. It’s not fair to them or to their families. Maybe also just stop sending death threats in general. That’s just not cool. Kinda weird I have to say this.”

Oh, you loved Carolyn Bissestte’s wardrobe on Love Story? OK, but is it worth psoriasis?

In case you were wondering, Dionne Warwick remains undefeated.

Again: the entertainment business is fickle and just because you landed a role doesn’t mean you were given a lottery ticket.

Even Han Solo has faced depression.

The time Dax Shepard challenged Eric Dane to a fistfight at an AA meeting.

My old employer is swatting down rumors of a Winds of Winter leak. OK, BUT WE ARE DESPERATE.

Sounds like Kim Richards is struggling again. Here’s hoping she’s OK and getting help.

Hey, Natasha Lyonne? What’s going on, honey?

Take care of yourself, Britney.

Be careful out there, Frankie Muniz.

Indulge me as I go on a feminist rant. On a recent episode of Hot Ones, Frankie Muniz and Bryan Cranston ate a bunch of chicken wings to promote the Malcolm in the Middle revival. During the show, Muniz started shit-talking Skylar White’s character on Breaking Bad, saying that he “hated her,” that “all she did was complain,” and that Walter’s life would have been “so much easier” without her. 

But Cranston wasn’t having it, pointing out how much blowback actress Anna Gunn received from the fandom based on those same (misogynistic) attitudes before adding: “Wait a minute. Let me understand this. Her husband leaves without any explanation, she’s pregnant, he’s making crystal methamphetamine and people have died. And she’s the bitch? Like, we couldn’t understand.”

Kudos to Bryan Cranston for being a good man (and a good dad), and pointing out the obvious: that it is easier for some men to identify with a murderous drug dealer than a woman who has been put through it. Even Muniz had to concede that when he “put it that way, I guess …”

But it made me think about DTF St. Louis, which ended last night on HBO. (I will attempt to avoid spoilers here, but proceed at your own caution.) DTF St. Louis has an impeccable cast, great performances, and some very good writing that toggled between funny and tragic. And yet, it left me a little cold when all was said and done, and the mystery was solved. There’s a lot of talk today about how this series isn’t about sex as much as it is about male loneliness, and I get that, I respect that, it’s an important conversation to have. But what about the women? What about the woman at the center of this story? Why didn’t we ever learn more about her?

Vulture wrote a good rant about how the show neglected Carol in favor of Clark and Floyd, and it reminded me of this now classic bit of feminist theory from Marilyn Frye:

“To say that straight men are heterosexual is only to say that they engage in sex (f*cking exclusively with the other sex, i.e., women). All or almost all of that which pertains to love, most straight men reserve exclusively for other men. The people whom they admire, respect, adore, revere, honor, whom they imitate, idolize, and form profound attachments to, whom they are willing to teach and from whom they are willing to learn, and whose respect, admiration, recognition, honor, reverence and love they desire… those are, overwhelmingly, other men. In their relations with women, what passes for respect is kindness, generosity or paternalism; what passes for honor is removal to the pedestal. From women they want devotion, service and sex.

Heterosexual male culture is homoerotic; it is man-loving.”

And that’s what this show is ultimately does: proves this point that heterosexual men reserve love for other men, and only engage with women for sex and service. And that is an interesting thing to explore in a show (even if the creators weren’t setting out to do so). To the show’s credit, the men are not unlikable, red-pilled incels. Clark and Floyd, in their loneliness, are just much more interested in each other’s internal worlds than any woman’s, which again is an interesting conversation to be had about how patriarchal societies encourage internalized misogyny, even in nice guys.

But where the show fails is that it never fleshes out the female characters; it never examines their inner lives, they are never granted the same humanity as the male characters. By never exploring Carol’s desires or motivations, by only using her as a suspect, and her nagging as a reason why Clark becomes sympathetic towards Floyd, by not even making Clark’s wife a character at all, the show becomes sympathetic to the man-loving heterosexual male culture described above; it doesn’t criticize it. Because in these good, sympathetic characters’ lives, women are still just afterthoughts.

And when women are afterthoughts, it discourages the ability of even good men to be empathetic to female characters, even on shows where they are fleshed out, like Breaking Bad.

Renewals

  • The Rookie has been renewed for a ninth season on ABC.
  • Will Trent has been renewed for a fifth season on ABC.
  • Shetland has been renewed for an 11th season on BBC and Britbox.

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendar

  • Little House on the Prairie premieres on Netflix on July 9.
  • The Boroughs premieres on Netflix on May 21.
  • Nemesis debuts on Netflix on May 14.

R.I.P.

Sid Krofft, Co-creator and producer of H.R. Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost, and others

John Nolan, Actor in Person of Interest, Batman Begins, Dune: Prophecy, and others, and uncle of Christopher and Jonathan Nolan

Dolly Martinez, Star of My 600-lb Life

Valerie Lee, Actress who appeared in Our Gang and The Wizard of Oz

Richard Donat, Canadian actor known for his role on Haven

Browning Nagle, Former New York Jet

Asha Bhosle, Legendary Bollywood singer

WATCH THIS

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins: Jerry Basmati takes revenge on Reggie in the first season finale.  7 p.m., NBC

Wild Cards: Max is kidnapped in the season finale. 7 p.m., The CW

The 1% Club: Season three premiere. 7 p.m., Fox

The Quiz with Balls: Season three premiere. 8 p.m., Fox

Boy Band Confidential: This new docuseries explores the boy band boom of the 90s, through interviews with some of the biggest names in pop music. Premiere. 8 p.m., ID

Late Night:

  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Maya Rudolph, Nick Offerman, Jeff Tweedy, Hayley Williams, Rachel Dratch
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live: Mark Wahlberg, Henry Winkler, Holly Humberstone
  • The Daily Show: Aziz Abu Sarah and Moaz Inon, host Jon Stewart
  • Watch What Happens Live: Rachel Dratch, Luke Evans

MON. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC American Idol
(new)		 The Rookie
(new)
CBS The Neighborhood
(new)		 DMV
(new)		 FBI
(new)		 CIA
(new)
CW Wild Cards
(new)		 Penn & Teller: Fool Us
(repeat)		 Local
FOX The 1% Club
(new)		 The Quiz With Balls
(new)		 News/Local
NBC The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins
(new)		 The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins
(new)		 The Voice
(new)

One thought on “In which I yell at you about ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘DTF: St. Louis,’ and misogyny.”

  1. Lately I’ve been watching Younger (a TV Land comedy that ran from 2015 to 2021) on Netflix, and Richard Masur plays a horrifying/hilarious parody of George R.R. Martin. Anyway, it’s a pretty funny show. I recommend it!

    Reply

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