It’s Not Buffy Without Joss Whedon
Also Under Review: HBO’s latest sports show fiasco, RuPaul’s pride performance, Future of the Left’s new album, and Afghanistan’s American Idol.
By Jake Blumgart, Matt Zeitlin, Emily Rutherford, Ned Resnikoff, and Kay Steiger
June 19, 2009
No, Sarah Michelle Gellar won’t be in it, either.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Redux
Release date: Unknown
Right now vampires are so in. From the beatific night walkers of Twilight to the decidedly less savory vamps of True Blood (apparently there is a “particularly juicy” artery in the groin), Dracula’s spawn are everywhere. But as I mentioned in another Under Review, there can be too much of a good thing. We’ve reached that moment. Yes, a remake of Buffy the Vampire Slayer may be in the works.
At first glance, this sounds like great news until you get to the bit about Joss Whedon’s absence from the project. What made the original television series worthwhile wasn’t the concept, which wasn’t particularly original, but the way in which it was executed. Whedon artfully subverted the genre, embraced the cheesiness inherent to the idea, maintained dramatic impetus, brought the funny, and topped it off with women in strong, leading roles—an attribute which shouldn’t be extraordinary but really is. (He may be the only man in Hollywood I’ve ever heard describe himself as a feminist.)
Chances are slim that a remake sans Whedon will do any of those things, let alone all of them. The original film, which only tangentially involved him, was stunningly awful, delivering all the cheesiness of the series with none of the redeeming value. While a re-make wouldn’t be crap in the same way, I have little faith in Hollywood’s ability to preserve any semblance of what made the original series great.
0 out of 10 undead capitalizing on the latest fad
-Jake Blumgart
This man is a boring. His television show is, too.
Joe Buck Live
HBO
Premiered: June 15, 2009
Sports announcers tend toward the colorful: from Tim McCarver’s countless gaffes to Gus Johnson’s trademark screaming. But Joe Buck is almost impossibly dry. He doesn’t just look like a boring tool, he announces like one too. When Randy Moss, then of the Minnesota Vikings, mocked-mooned Green Bay Packers fans after scoring a touchdown, Buck got his schoolmarm on and sternly called the display a “disgusting act.” So why would HBO give him his own 30 minute talk show? I have no idea, but Joe Buck Live premiered this past Monday. Buck’s show replaces Costas Now, which was famous for portraying the diminutive NBC announcer Bob Costas talk with crazy old men.
Most of the show was expectedly boring. Twice-retired, washed up, ex-Jet/ex-Packer Brett Farve hemmed and hawed about the possibility of returning to the NFL. Buck managed to keep an already unexciting interview just that. He also turned to a segment on sports and crime with two of the biggest personalities in professional football history: Ochocicno (formerly known as Chad Johnson) of the Cincinatti Bengals and Michael Irvin, the Hall of Fame Dallas Cowboy who went to his grand jury hearing for cocaine possession decked out in a full length mink coat. The segment was a snooze fest.
The last bit was a panel discussion among Jason Sudekis of SNL, actor Paul Rudd, and comedian Artie Lange. Lange, a regular guest on The Howard Stern Show, ambushed the panel and spent ten minutes calling Joe Buck gay, Tony Romo gay, and Jessica Simpson fat. The panel, I guess, was supposed to be funny, but just ended up making the audience feel awkward and uncomfortable.
0 out of 10 awkward laughs
-Matt Zeitlin
RuPaul is fabulous.
RuPaul
Capital Pride, Washington, D.C.
June 14, 2009
My familiarity with and great love for RuPaul is—like, I suspect, that of many people my age—a relatively recent phenomenon, spurred by the release of his newest album this year and his (Wikipedia informs me that RuPaul doesn’t have a gender-specific pronoun preference, though its article uses male pronouns, so that’s what I’m going with) new Logo TV show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. My fangirlishness may have developed quickly over the past few months, but it reached its peak when I saw RuPaul perform at DC Pride last weekend.
Arguably, Pride celebrations these days are about more than drag queens in big hair and sparkly dresses appealing to a particular aesthetic associated with stereotypical gay male culture, but I don’t think the Pride organizers could have found a better artist to headline the Sunday street festival. RuPaul’s stage manner is energetic and engaging; he knows how to work a Pride crowd, walking the line between his place as a gay cultural icon and his accessibility to folks in the crowd who aren’t tuned into that culture. I don’t usually dance at concerts, but I found myself bobbing up and down; I have little interest in fashion shows, but I found myself snapping picture after picture as RuPaul strutted across the stage in yet another brightly-colored outfit.
His music is filled with so much exuberance that it’s perfect for a celebratory occasion like Pride—and if the attitude of the huge audience gathered at the foot of the stage was any clue, they agreed. There’s nothing quite like seeing an artist you love perform in the middle of a huge crowd of fans even more enthusiastic than you are—and hey, it’s also the first time I’ve actually heeded a performer’s suggestion and downloaded his album on iTunes.
10 out of 10 seriously impressive wigs
-Emily Rutherford
Angry Welsh awesomeness.
Future of the Left
Travels With Myself and Another
4AD
Released: June 22, 2009
Travels With Myself and Another may officially be Future of the Left’s second album, but it’s their first true album. Curses, their debut, was an intermediate step between the unchecked aggression of mclusky (two of the three members went on to form Future of the Left) and a leaner, more polished sound. Its experimental indulgences were entertaining, but it felt as if something of the rabid violence of the previous band had been lost.
The new album dismisses those concerns entirely. The first 30 seconds of the first track, “Arming Eritrea,” should be able to persuade even the most stalwart skeptic with its dark, grinding guitars and frontman Andy “Falco” Falkous’s characteristic unhinged yowl. It turns out that he and drummer Jack Egglestone haven’t lost any of the vitriolic energy that powered mclusky; they’ve just polished it.
The rest of the album is just as relentless, alternating between frenetic bursts like “Stand By Your Manatee” and the sarcastic strut of “The Hope that House Built.” None of this is new, of course—mclusky did it on their incredible second album, mclusky Do Dallas in 2002. But you won’t hear me complaining about yet another mclusky album—as long as people can still have bad days and need a bitter, blood-drenched outlet for their frustration, we’ll need Falco and his bass-heavy amp. Let’s just hope that this band stays together for a lot longer than his last one.
10 out of 10 Angry, Angry Welsh Men
-Ned Resnikoff
Who would’ve thought a version of American Idol would be tolerable?
Afghan Star
Zeitgeist Films
Limited Release: June 26, 2009
Nationally-televised singing contests like American Idol attract some of the most talented (and desperate) people. Afghan Star, a show in the same vein broadcast by Tolo TV, is no different. What the eponymous documentary reveals about the desperation of the Afghani people is slightly more interesting than working-class Americans trying to make it big. For Afghanistan, the idea of voting for your favorite singer is almost unbelievable after 30 years of Taliban rule, during which both democracy and singing had been banned. One viewer was willing to sell his car for $6,000 just to buy enough SIM cards to skew the vote for his favorite candidate.
But perhaps even more shocking than Afghani reactions to democracy are threats that female contestants receive after singing publicly. Setara, a 21-year-old contestant, revealed some of her hair and made brief dance moves on stage during her final song. Because Islam forbids dancing, many viewers said Setara went too far when she danced on television. She experienced a harrowing journey home, her family clearly terrified that she might be assassinated on the way. Still, in her apartment after the show, she proudly presents the outfit she wore on stage to the camera. Even though her life is in danger, she doesn’t regret her actions.
Afghan Star is a revealing look at the way people in Afghanistan deal with today’s cultural conflicts. The documentary depicts startling photos from the 1980s of men and women in Western clothing at universities. Such photographs show that the country was not always so restrictive. Perhaps a new experience with democracy, even in the form of text message votes for a favorite singer, will re-open the possibility for cultural expression for men and women in Afghanistan.
6 out of 10 Afghan Stars
-Kay Steiger
Emily Rutherford and Matt Zeitlin are editorial interns for Campus Progress. Jake Blumgart and Ned Resnikoff are staff writers for Campus Progress. Kay Steiger is an associate editor for Campus Progress.
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