Review: "House", Princess Di....again, new Spike TV offering and a $25K fashion makeover. Plus the Village Voice weighs in on the Matthew Shepard murder.
Matthew Shepard Revisited
Last Week I mentioned that 20/20 was featuring a show that would delve a bit more deeply into the motives involved in the Matthew Shepard murder. Shepard was the poster child for the so- called "hate crimes" bill, a silly liberal idea that juries should not only have to decide on guilt or innocence but also on actual emotion experienced by the guily. And indeed, 20/20 did a nice job of offering different motives for Shepard's gruesome murder besides the fact that his murderers hated him because he was gay. Which motives also included drugs and money NOT the much vaunted gay hate crime so beloved by the liberals. Below, the Village Voice did an editorial on the 20/20 show that is an interesting take on 20/20's attempt to smack down their favorite gay victim as but another drug and money crime.
Matthew Shepard was not murdered because he was gay. He was killed for money. Also, he may have been suicidal. And one of the men jailed for the killing was into three-ways with a man and a woman.
So reported ABC's Elizabeth Vargas on Friday's edition of 20/20 as she sought to tear down the "mythology" that has allegedly surrounded Shepard's October 6, 1998 death.
"It is the legend, and not the complete facts, that has been printed again and again about what happened" on the night of the murder, Vargas reported.
What really happened, according to her first-ever interviews with the two men convicted in Shepard's killing, was a simple armed robbery marred by methamphetamine-induced rage.
"The reason he was targeted was not because he was gay. It's not because me and (killer Aaron McKinney) had anything against gays or any of that," said one of the men jailed in his death, Russell Henderson. Asked if Shepard's orientation was a motive, McKinney said, "No, I have gay friends. I know other gay people. You know, that kind of thing don't bother me so much." A cop and a prosecutor back up the killers' claims.
So how'd that gay bashing "myth" get started?
ABC credits two friends of Shepard's who supposedly pushed that interpretation to cops and the media hours after the killing. However, McKinney's girlfriend said at the time of the murder that hate for gays was a motive. She now tells 20/20 that she said that in a ploy to reduce his jail time. Soon after the killing, McKinney himself claimed that "gay panic" fueled his fury. Now, he says his lawyers told him to say so, hoping it would reduce his culpability.
The 20/20 piece gives short shrift to any evidence that does support the gay-bashing theory. And in an odd twist, 20/20 reports that McKinney was himself a gay sex veteran, having joined in a threesome involving a man and a woman. That's according to a local woman, the town limo driver ("the other guy") and McKinney's girlfriend. McKinney denies it.
Rest HERE
Review: I watched it and I've got an opinion
"House" and Princess Di
I n last week's TV missive, I had two shows on the suggestion list that I watched with great interest. The Dateline Princess Diana special caused me to speculate and ruminate quite a bit. As well, other pundits weighed in with interesting commentary. As such, we'll hold Princess Di pithy thoughts until the weekly gossip column.
This "House" show, a new entry by Fox, however, merits a review here. Because this show is just plain weird. After watching this first episode, I am still confused about who the characters are, where they work and their relationship with each other. I do not intend to watch this show again which, I would suppose, would make this not a good review.
Beginning with the show's namesake, Dr. House himself, an unshaven, somewhat seedy looking physician who is revered by his colleagues as a diagnostic genius. I am not sure where Dr. House works but he does hate his job.
This first show, Dr. House was interviewing a patient to diagnose. The woman was alleging some kind of pain. Dr. House noted her new glasses, the fact that her teeth were fixed, and the vagueness of her symptoms and declared that she was in danger of getting fired.
That's right, getting fired from her job, an odd thing for a diagnosing physician to, well, diagnose. Dr. House figured that the woman was getting a complete overhaul on her medical, including the new glasses, fixed teeth and now was wrangling for a full MRI by presenting with unclear symptoms. The woman broke down in tears and began to recite a litany of job problems and her assertions that she was a victim. The quirky Dr. House scheduled her for a complete physical work-up the following week, ostensibly going along with the poor woman's plan to milk her health insurance as much as possible before her evil employers fired her.
This intriguing incident was supposed to pique the viewer's admiration for such an insightful physician. So, okay, I was a bit intrigued. But the main story line, a young man presenting with a plethora of symptoms that had the doctors stumped. For the rest of the hour, besides a rather silly romantic interlude with two characters who I don't know who they were and why thy were there, was spent trying to diagnose this young kid's medical problems.
The plot took on a dimension and dynamic that began to get ridiculous in the twists and turns not to mention this viewer's complete confusion. As I witnessed, Dr. House was wrong on at least two attempts at diagnosing the young man, yet his colleagues remained rapt in their admiration. There were incorrect pills administered, rollicking sex, a concerned mother doing a little prescribing her own self, a pharmacist with mixed up vials, a sterile "clean" room to which the patient was banned and even an operation during which the patient almost died until a final diagnosis involving the drug ecstacy.
If I had written such a confusing and convoluted plot and dared to submit it to any reputable publisher I would have been handed my head.
If those show is to succeed, and right now I don't think it will, the writers have to be a bit more focused, the setting should be more evident to the viewer as well as the relationship of the characters (not to mention why the young female colleague always wears extremely low cut medical attire-I've never seen medical people on the job dress like this), and quirky Dr. House, well he's an okay character that could fly were it not for all the other mish-mash.
My barometer? I'll not watch it again.
On Monday, Dec. 6, at 10:00 pm, NBC will be showing more Princess Diana with, one assumes, more inside info on her life with Prince Charles. These are never before shown tapes and indeed, as a former casual Princess Di follower, I've never seen them.
On Tuesday, Dec. 7, at 9:00 pm, Hallmark will offer a movie titled "Once Upon a Christmas". Don't know anything about the movie, but it is Hallmark and it is the beginning of the season and the title sounds Christmas like.
On Wednesday, Dec. 8, Fox will present "The 2004 Music Billboard Awards". Might want to tune in to catch any riots. On that same night, at the same time and this is going to break the hearts of those of us without DIVO, NBC is presenting the first ever Clay Aiken Christmas Special! Indeed, former second place America Idol winner of often questioned sexual persuasion, will have his own show. Thinking about it, Aiken does have the perfect voice for this sort of thing.
On this same Wednesday night of TV greatness, Dec. 8, at 10:00 pm, Spike TV has a new show titled "I Hate My Job". Don't know anything about it except I like the title. Watch next week for a soulful review.
Hey, I got to throw it out there, On Thursday, Dec. 9, at 9:00 pm, NBC will have "The Apprentice" at it's normal time EXCEPT, it's down to four contestants, guys.
On Friday, Dec. 10, at 9:00 pm, The Learning Channel is presenting a special version of one of my fave shows-"What Not to Wear". On this episode, the person in need of a fashion make over by Stacey and Clinton will get Twenty Five Thousand dollars to spend on clothes to make them over. God Bless America and at times I wonder if this sort of thing isn't why we are sometimes not liked across the planet. What a ridiculous amount of money to spend all at one time on clothes. This amount of money could be a down payment on a house! Still, hey, I'm going to watch if just to see if such a thing is even possible.
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