Television -- Couch Potato Musings

Too Young to watch the X-Files...it's scary!

I have not seen the David Duchovny bare boob-fest that is Californication (was BloodSugarSexMagick taken? Will Flea cameo?) on Showtime yet but Nanny fans should know that Fran Drescher's youngest charge Madeline Zima does show up sans top, bra or annoying whiny Queens-accented domestic/stepmom.
Feel dirty yet?

Too young to have David Duchovny's hands on me...he's scary!

If not check out VH-1's latest chapter in B-list celeb-ploitation Scott Baio is 45 and Single. No, for real. I ventured into this one with the same dread reserved for a reality show following the two Coreys or a dating show featuring Brett Michaels but what has actually emerged is a sweet and often very funny portrait of a deeply fucked up guy. Even more so, his crew of buddies (which includes ex-Wonder Years older bro Jason Hervey) are like Entourage fast-forwarded twenty years into the future. Baio is quite likable. Every assignment he is sent on by his life coach (a cuddle party for instance) is punctuated by an explanation to whoever he has to interact with that his life coach thought it would be a good idea, followed by a sheepish, "I know, that sounds so Hollywood..." A big part of exploring why he has commitment issues is to re-connect with a few of the trillions of women he has had some kind of relationship with, and they invariably fillet him. Scott squirms as one woman does a stand-up routine about his cheating ways and another ex describes him as an emotional "black hole".

Joanie may have loved Chachi but Scott Baio loved crotchie

To his credit he really seems to take this in and be disgusted by his own sleaziness. I have to enjoy a guy self-aware enough to know that his Brooklyn accent transforms his life coach's name from "Doc Ally" to "Dark Alley". I really have to enjoy a guy who embraces the implications of that semantic shift. Next week I'll be tackling the new season of Weeds which seems to have started by trying to tie up the impossible Mexican standoff with which they ended season two.