What was on TV? Fri, Feb 25, 2005

20 year's ago, Paris Hilton's T-Mobile sidekick was hacked. Let's see what was on tv.

7:00 Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon

1x03 "The Southern Air Temple"

This episode grapples with the genocide of an entire race and culture and also makes time to complicate our poor little antihero and deliver least seven silly monkey gags. I think I'm going to like this show.

7:30 Miracles Boys (recorded)

1x04 "Miracle's Song"

Watching Miracle's Boys and Avatar: the Last Airbender back-to-back. Both shows ask a lot of their young audiences. Avatar is full of dense mythology and dark themes like grief, war, and even genocide. Miracle's Boys boldly fuses the wildly disparate genres of prestige literary adaptations and teen soaps. It too grapples with dark themes: grief, juvenile detention, and recidivism.

Avatar didn't receive much coverage upon its debut, the only major review laughed at the thought that kids' would have patience for its mythology and worldbuilding. But Avatar became a phenomenon. I could pretend that I'm better than that out-of-touch critic, but I'm not. I was skeptical that Nickelodeon viewers would embrace a Spike Lee-produced literary adaptation. But the comments sections for Miracle's Boys episodes on YouTube are filled with people who stumbled on the show as kids and fell in love, and who still remember these six episodes to this day. I thought this show was a failure. A welcome reminder that we usually underestimate kids. They could handle Spike Lee projects and dense fantasy shows. I can't help but pine for a world in which kids got more shows like Avatar and Miracle's Boys and fewer projects from the likes of Dan Schneider. I think we can all agree that's a better world.

Later Frontline (recorded)

"House of Saud"

This episode attempts to cover a century of US-Saudi relations, in two hours, and it does the job. I prefer when Frontline focuses on more recent events. But the subject matter is of course very relevant to current events, in both 2005 and 2025. We explore the reaction to 9/11 in Saudi Arabia, misinformation that led people to believe it was Zionists or a false flag operation or something else. We explore the ways in which the ruling class of Saudi Arabia bends toward the US on the issue of Palestine, and how that creates a disconnect with public opinion that feeds extremism. We explore US diplomats and politicians' fascination with Saudi Arabia's old-school monarchy and pageantry. Lots of fascinating stuff here for people interested in the topic.

However, one of my all-time favorite Frontline episodes uses hidden cameras to let brave activists inside Saudi Arabia tell their own stories. It's as tense as any thriller, but it will also make you cry. So if you want to watch a Frontline episode about Saudi Arabia, that's my first recommendation.

10:00 Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi

1x08 "Flesh and Bone" (record Monk on USA)

There was a Battlestar Galactica sketch on the series premiere of stop-motion sketch show Robot Chicken this week. In that sketch, the cylons were the giant hulking metal things I think of as "toasters." The sketch already felt dated. Just eight episodes into its first season, Battlestar had already redefined the series' central baddies. They're still an unknowable and terrifying enemy. But they look like us. And if they look like us, what else do we have in common?

It sounds maudlin and cliche. We're not so different, you and I, why can't we all just get along? But Battlestar never takes the easy way out, and that's what makes the show and its take on the cylons so indelible.

In this episode, Starbuck, the closest thing the show has to a moral center, tortures a cylon. On shows like The Shield and 24, torture was badass and cool. But this episode goes another route, it follows in the footsteps of shows like Homicide, which was famous for its long and heady interrogation scenes. That doesn't mean that it soft-pedals the torture (that pink water is going to haunt my dreams). And even as the cylon proves himself more manipulative than anyone imagined, Starbuck can't help but understand him and empathize with him. So the episode ends with her offering him compassion and grace. And it's truly moving, especially when you put it in the context of the Bush era and the war on terror. You should have compassion for your enemies, and there's never a bad time to start. Again, it could be a hackneyed message, but on Battlestar, it rings true.

Late Night

Shannon Elizabeth was on Conan tonight. Topics included what happens when your personal contact information is published online, getting a bodyscan for a videogame (she has to explain what a bodyscan is to Conan and everything), and the fear that your sexy pictures will get leaked. I wasn't expecting an interview with Shannon Elizabeth of all people to be so prophetic.

What Else Was On

• Luke Perry reunited with Jennie Garth on What I Like About You.
• Tonight's Special Sweeps Guest Star: Wyclef Jean on Third Watch.

TiVo Status

The Masterpiece Theater miniseries The Lost Prince, a Frontline documentary, the TV movies Sucker Free City, Lackawanna Blues, School of Life, and Ladies Night, tw0 episodes of Miracle's Boys, and one episode each of King of the Hill, Monk, and Without a Trace. 17.5 hours total.

Music, 20 years ago

Mariah Carey's comeback single "It's Like That" was climbing up the charts. It's very fun!