TV Question Qorner: Goodbye Walkers, Hello Fleissmore
Brothers & Sisters. Did y’all bail out on it weeks ago? Just wondering if I’m the last one out the door on B&S, which at very long last I have kicked to the curb. The reason is a casting spoiler, which is after the jump in case anyone still cares.
I can’t explain why it took so long for me to dump the show, not when I’d already complained last season about characters keeping critical information from one another, but found myself sitting through it again in Season 4, and not just once, either. Kitty has cancer, but doesn’t tell her husband. Rebecca is pregnant, but doesn’t tell her fiancé. Justin is flunking out of med school (and taking forever to do so), and doesn’t tell anyone. To go back to that well in an attempt to portray genuine shame or indecision is fine, but it seemed like straight-up stalling.
I kept watching, though, even when Kitty’s cancer basically got cured in ten minutes, via a bone-marrow transplant the family blackmailed out of Ryan, the least likely match candidate; even through Kevin unrealistically hijacking Paige’s science project to point up the “Kevin and Scotty have doubts about child-rearing” plot I didn’t care about in the first place; I saw the Simon endgame coming weeks in advance, and I don’t understand why it is only just now occurring to anyone that Justin might have a learning delay, but I guess I figured I’d stick with the show until it inevitably got cancelled at the end of the season.
Then Couch Baron tweeted the other day that Rob Lowe doesn’t like the way the writers have used his character, so he’s out. Good for him; he’s absolutely right. But the reason that particular straw broke my DVR’s back is that, no matter what out-of-nowhere, out-of-character horseshit Lowe’s gotten handed in the last year or so, he’s played the hell out of it. McCallister and Kitty renewing their vows in the hospital read as a cheesy waste of time, but Lowe committed to it fully. I can’t count how many scenes he’s bailed out in S4 so far, and the rest of the cast is good, but I’ve stopped liking the Walkers even a little bit, and because the other characters continue to associate with the Walkers, I have no respect for them. Scotty: he’s your husband. Make him get a haircut. Make him get two haircuts.
The show always had problems, but it used to feel thoughtful and like it had some affection for these people, and the actors struggle heroically to give the contrivances depth, but it’s too big a job for them, or for me. Adios, B&S.
Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Who would have thought I’d like Heidi Fleiss so much? I didn’t have much of an opinion about her before, except that she had a Hall Of Fame bitchface.
And I find myself really pulling for her. For starters, her face is…it’s amazing. It is so ruined that it has a beauty to it, nearly, the same way the northern stretches of the Jersey Turnpike are so unforgiving that they attain an ugly majesty. And no attempt is made to leaven it, either. She doesn’t comb her hair, she doesn’t wear clothes that fit (and often her clothes appear not to be clothes at all, but furniture covers or — sails? of some sort?), she doesn’t use lip balm.
Her willingness to present as completely broken and unsightly — or her apathy as to whether she does — ties in to what I’m liking about Fleiss. She just puts it out there: “I sit around my house in the middle of nowhere, I do my drugs, I talk to my birds, and I don’t have anything or anyone and I can’t do it anymore.” Most of the addicts try to tell Dr. Drew that it’s fiiiiine, they’re maintaining, everything’s cool, and then he has that genuinely horrified reaction to the abuse they relate from their pasts, and only at that “wow, that must have sucked for you” face do they finally come out of denial to start forgiving themselves. Fleiss skipped all that and went straight to “my life sucks, you gotta help me.” She feels like hot buttered shit, but she comes to group; she’s not messing around.
I want it to work out for her, but my next question is who thought it might be even a little bit awesome to throw Tom Sizemore into the mix there. I can maybe see it if the master plan for both Sizemore and Fleiss is to get them to see that their relationship was a symptom of the larger addiction and/or codependency issues that brought them to this point, but I don’t think that’s been said explicitly, and I also don’t think that’s a point you want to try to make until they’ve each got at least a couple weeks of sobriety working. Otherwise, it just plays like deliberate shit-stirring.
Why I put the line there, I don’t know. That the rehab is televised, I can live with; that they show that one guy’s barf collection, I can live with (barely); that it’s only 21 days, that they don’t do it onsite at a hospital, et cetera and so on, all of that weirds me out somewhat, but for whatever reason, I feel like Dr. Drew knows what he’s doing, but then he throws Sizemore and Fleiss in together, and then I’m like, “Too far”?
Tags: barfing bitchfaces Brothers & Sisters Celebrity Rehab Couch Baron DVR Break-Up hairdon'ts Heidi Fleiss Rob Lowe thickened plots Tom Sizemore TV
See, whereas McCallister was always a huuuge problem for me on Brothers & Sisters. Not because of the way Rob Lowe played him necessarily (though even going back to The West Wing I don’t think Lowe has done for me what he’s done for others). But McCallister and Kitty were always such a terrible match, and the show kept acknowledging it, because how could you not? She wanted kids, he didn’t, they had a kid anyway; he wanted to run for office, she didn’t, he ran anyway. I kept waiting for them to have the come to Jesus where they realized their life goals were too irreconcilable for them to stay together, and it would be sad, and you could end up saying a whole lot with that kind of storyline. But I think the show ultimately decided they were the show’s central couple and thus kept them together because CANCER that’s why.
And then of course, Kevin’s hair, Saul’s adriftment (word?), the Justin/Rebecca thing that never stopped weirding me out, the constant dinner parties that went from winking self-reference to sad self-parody, and their constant undercutting of Holly pretty much every time she gets interesting (Patricia Wettig has moved mountains at times but they don’t seem to have any interest in her beyond antagonist), all add up to me giving up about 3 episodes ago.
Forget the drugs and the non-taking-care-of-oneself. Hanging out with Sizemore for any reason or duration has got to be the #1 reason she–or anyone–needs intervention. I mean, it has to start with how or why anyone would want to share a hemisphere with him, and how that puts the funk in “dysfunctional”. Otherwise, it’s sort of like putting your head to one side and squinting sympathetically at someone who is at that moment playing Russian roulette, and saying “You may want to check into some tweezing, there.”
“Scotty: he’s your husband. Make him get a haircut. Make him get two haircuts.”
Hee. Oh, yes. In fact, I should probably just say “Yes! THIS!” to you whole post. Because you’re not the last one out the door. I should have given up weeks ago, but I watched up to the last episode, and still nobody communicates anything real to anyone else. I still care, apparently, but WHY? My shame is somewhat lessened because I’m not alone in this.
The sad part is, nobody but you is going to give Lowe any credit for walking before Kitty rips her wig off and makes the Walker Manse blow up. No, it’s going to be “prima donna” this and “arrogant” that, and I think that’s unfair. It’s not Lowe’s fault the show doesn’t know what to do with its actors.
But I’m done now. No, I am.
So much word on B&S. I finally gave up after the first episode of this season.
Oh, I’m still firmly in the B&S camp because it so mirrors my family. Someone gets cancer and doesn’t tell their spouse? Why yes, yes, I totally feel you on that – grandma who didn’t tell her husband until my aunt was forced to explain why she was in surgery.
I could go on for days… it’s like therapy for me, honestly. I was hoping they’d get to a story arc about how one of the Walker kids completely disowns mom (almost had it there with B. Getty’s character) but then they resolved that crap and I got pissed. Because man, I need pointers! And now that Nora is somewhat redeemable, it looks like I’ll never get them. *sigh*
And if Rob Lowe is leaving the show, I’m not sure if I *will* be able to continue watching…
Oh I thought I was the only watching B&S! I too was very bummed out about the Rob Lowe news, I always felt like he should just be a guest star and then I’m always happily surprised when he sticks around, but you just know they’re going to KILL him and I am mad. Also why would anyone ever go to one of those dinner parties ever again? They’re all kind of jerks.
Brother and Sisters lost me when Rebecca got pregnant and didn’t tell Justin. All of what you said is right on about all the ways this show has gone wrong, but that was what finally got me to stop watching. I love Emily Van Camp from her days on Everwood and that was got me watching in the first place, but I’m done now. Everyone has become a caricature of themselves. Plus, the constant need for person #1 to say, “I need to have a serious talk with you” and person #2 to interrupt to say something to change #1’s mind and keep their secret is ridiculous and just shows lazy writing.
I’m still watching for some reason, even though I’ve been referring to them as “the loathsome Walkers” for two seasons now. And every time someone suggest a dinner party — “It’ll be great!” Why do they think that?! Why??!! The dinners are always awful. I’ve gotta stop.
Jaybird: best comment ever.
@elissa: They obviously go for the wine. And to see who in the family is next up for drama. At least, that’s why *I* still go to family dinners…
Er. “Your whole post,” I meant to say. Sorry. Also: … barf collection? I could never watch that. Talk about putting the “ew” in “Dr. Drew.”
@Sandman: Right? And they didn’t even make him clean it up. I’m sorry your kick is hard, guy, but: bucket. Look into it.
I had one foot out the door of B&S when they introduced Ryan and let Justin and Rebecca hook up. But I was finally able to firmly close the door when they gave Kitty cancer. Who thought it would be a good idea to give Calista Flockhart a cancer storyline when the queen of the cancer storyline, Patricia Wettig, is on the show? It is a pity. I like almost all the actors on the show and I was sorry to have to call it quits but the writers have really struggled trying to find their way. Life’s too short (and my TiVo’s hard drive too small) to waste time on tv shows that I don’t fully enjoy.
I had to back up and revisit that last paragraph. A collection. Of barf. If you’re even capable of putting those words together, and thinking “viable idea”, why bother with rehab? Why not just slam your head in a car door until you forget how?
Good for Rob Lowe. No you’re not the last one out the door. Still hanging in there, waiting for it to be good. I bet Rob Lowe dies just before his Senate term is up, so Kitty as his wife gets to take over his seat (for what reason in America this is a logical next-step to a politician’s death is sort of beyond me) and then she doesn’t have to actually do the campaigning but gets to have his Senate seat anyway. And then she gets to have her ‘dream’ for a little while, but then decides not to go on because she has to be there for the baby (and obviously Walker family dinners).
The whole “Saul is Mad” storyline was really gallactically stupid. Along with “Sarah Thinks One Argument Ends a Relationship.” My favorite part of the most recent episode though was how they slipped in there that “Robert’s Other Children Are Never Around Because They Go To School In DC.” Which is a place Robert is surely unfamiliar with. He’s in DC less than any Senator I’ve ever heard of.
I was also really surprised that they didn’t make puker clean up said barf-fest. Then they pan to him and he states that “yeah I puked and I’m not cleaning it up either”. C’mon! Rodman can’t be the only one there made to do chores. And Rodman…whoa…the police have come to your house 70 (yes 70!!!!!) times and you don’t have a drinking problem? Wow. I hope Dr.Drew can crack this nut and get him to admit he has a problem other than “being famous”.
Dr. Drew has been taking a lot of shit in the media for CR lately, and I sort of feel like, “… just now?” I mean, I love that show, but I don’t understand how people feels like it’s worse now than it ever was. Except for the Sizemore thing, which just seems like a bad idea no matter how you slice it. I do think Heidi and Tom were aware that the other was going to be at PRC, because Drew mentioned that he was supposed to arrive with everyone else. And whatever you want to say about Drew, he’s not THAT evil.
Anyway, the major criticism seems to be that it’s so exploitative to put this on TV (again – just now, you’re saying this?). But my argument is that I’m sure that the TV aspect of it is THE reason that a number of these people would agree to any kind of treatment in the first place. Should they actually be getting treatment for their obvious fame addictions? Yes. But they only have 21 days, likely because that’s as long as they can get celebs to commit to staying, and the substance abuse issues are the top priority. I think Drew understands the celebrity mindset and dysfunction pretty well, and that some treatment is better than none at all.
Wow, am I the only one who enjoyed Kitty’s cancer storyline? It..well didn’t quite redeem the show for me, because Justin/Rebecca are still the most chemistry free/hideous couple in the history of television and because Ryan exists, but I think Calista Flockhart has been knocking it out of the park. And Lowe is right there with her, first time his character has EVER been interesting. But I really thought this season was a significant improvement over last year.
And I don’t watch the rehab show, but a barf…collection?? Like, for reals? And I thought Hoarders was nauseating sometimes.
@Carrie Ann: Back during the first season of CR, Drew responded to the initial criticisms of exploitation with that very fact. Being on TV was a draw for these people. There’s also the fact that it’s free rehab. Many of the celebrities are just about flat broke by the time they’re on the show and couldn’t otherwise afford rehab.
I believe he also said the initial concept was just rehab in general, not anything to do with celebrities. He wound up arguing with TPTB that celebrities would be better equipped to deal with the camera aspect of it, and that it would be truly exploitative to put non-celebrities on camera while they were trying to recover from an addiction.
Yeah, I’ve bailed out on B&S too for all the reasons already stated and also Road Trip Sarah has been pretty much taken over by annoying, hateful Sarah.
But really, Sars, I felt I had to say a particular thank you to you for posting that outstanding St. Elmo’s Fire shot of Rob Lowe. Dude hasn’t aged much, has he?
I had to wonder if I was the only one still watching B&S. I’m so over it. I’m over how nasty they are to each other, I’m over the infighting and back biting, and the fact that there’s really nothing likeable about any of these people. And yet, I still watch it when it hits my PVR.
Curse my inability to give up a show I’ve already started watching.
And… barf collection? Really? This is why I don’t watch reality TV. Ew.
I thought having Tom and Heidi together was going to be an absolute disaster, and it may still be, but when Heidi went marching off to find him, looking for all the world like she was going to slug him, and then HUGGED him and whispered supportive words in his ear–well, I guess I’m not all cold and dead inside, because I got a bit misty. Who saw THAT coming?
I think the most shocking part of CR was learning that Dennis Rodman has a wife and children. Like, someone legally bound herself to him (Carmen Electra doesn’t count) and then had kids with him. On purpose. I just don’t know who would look at … all that and be like “Sign me up!” At first I thought “Golddigger?” but his pro basketball career has been over for a decade so I doubt he’s rolling in it. The pile of barf, while huge (whatever they’re paying Shelley, it’s nowhere near enough), wasn’t that shocking because puking is a symptom of withdrawal, but someone procreating with Dennis Rodman left me agape.
@lizgwiz: Fleiss is either some sort of saint underneath it all, or there’s pathology there the DSM never heard of. If I ever went hunting for Sizemore, I’d be loaded for bear. Drunk, stalking, sex-tape-making, skeezy bear. Ain’t no huggin’, and no Very Special Episode either.
@KG I agree. Dr Drew has also said that some of the participants don’t even think they need rehab (*cough* Chyna) so this gets them treatment they would otherwise not even countenance.
I find Dr Drew such an intriguing figure. I mostly adore him, but there’s a little bit of loathing as well. His insight into celebrity narcissism is fascinating, but he has the famewhore tendencies himself.
I used to love his daytime radio show because he kind of had this unfiltered brain thing going on where he would just weigh in on celebrity scandals with his thoughts, whether they were the sort of thing that are best left said in a more private context or not and then be all “wha?” when it blew up in his face.
I actually met Joel McHale once and since Drew had mentioned a few times that they were friends, I asked him about him and he said he was genuinely a great guy and what he see on screen is what he is like, so maybe I should just think that at least he is using his famewhoredom for good instead of evil.
I’m loving Heidi Fleiss, too. Her reaction when Shelley confessed she was once a prostitute was classic – instant respect, camaraderie and hope.
Hell, Dr. Drew’s Sober House made me actually love Andy Dick. For a minute, at least.
The abuse that these people have been through is astonishing. I suppose I started watching because of the “celebrity trainwreck” aspect, but I end up turning off the television filled with compassion for these people and a better understanding of addiction.
I don’t understand how Heidi and Tom are both on CR. He was found guilty of assaulting her, right? how could Dr. Drew possibly think it was a good idea to have Sizemore there in light of that?