What was on TV? Sun, Dec 19, 2004

20 years ago, America was closing in on two years in Iraq with no end in sight and the mission very much not accomplished. Let's see what was on TV.

4pm: Record Kurt Browning's Gotta Skate on NBC

8:30 Arrested Development on Fox

2x06 "Afternoon Delight"

Available on Netflix

I'm not quite so enchanted with Arrested Development on this rewatch. Maybe it's been tainted by what I now know was happening behind the scenes. Maybe the show's joke-a-minute style and cutaway gags, so revolutionary at the time, have been done better by shows that followed its example. Maybe the freudian jokes are starting to get repetitive.

I think that last one is actually a big part of it. So it's a testament to the brilliance of the "Afternoon Delight" karaoke scene (scenes!) that it make me laugh, and laugh, and laugh. This episode also gives us the marvelous visual gag of Buster using his claw machine skills to pull Gob out of the banana stand, and we also get to watch Jessica Walter play a stoned Lucille. So this episode? This one holds up.

This episode was written by Abraham Higginbotham and Chuck Martin. Higginbotham later wrote for Ugly Betty and spent a decade in the Modern Family writer's room. Martin worked with Jerry Seinfeld (writing additional material for Bee Movie and producing The Marriage Ref) and had also written jokes for several award shows. Most recently he supervised post-production on several Marvel cartoons.

This episode was directed by Jason Bateman.

9:00 The Wire on HBO

3x12 "Mission Accomplished" (record Malcolm in the Middle and King of the Hill on Fox and Desperate Housewives on ABC)

Available on Max

I guess it's a crazy world we're living in, because this episode made me feel...hopeful? Everything falls apart. The investigation closes without accomplishing anything, everyone goes back to work, Hamsterdam gets bulldozed. And yet! Bubbs is clean and he made some new friends, Cutty built a new life for himself on the outside, Carv found something to believe in. You can say Hamsterdam was all for naught, but tell that to all those guys. Tell that to Justin! (Love you, Justin). It's a message I needed to hear right now: that it's worth trying crazy ideas even if they don't work, and that it's always worth it to reach out and try and connect to the people around you.

The Wire is a very cynical show. This episode hammers that home not only with the developments in its own story, but with the parallels to the war on terror, which can be seen in the episode's title, its epigraph (in which Slim Charles points out they have to continue the gang wae even if Marlo didn't kill String), and in so much of its imagery and language. Everything trickles down. People at the top create the world order and we're doomed to help them. It's bleak! But The Wire is also believes in humanity, in our capacity for kindness and community and redemption and growth even in the face of all that bleakness. It's almost sappy, and I love it.

This episode was written by series creator David Simon and Ed Burns.

This episode was directed by Ernest Dickerson. Dickerson is most famous for being Spike Lee’s longtime cinematographer, but he has also directed films himself, including 1992’s Juice and Never Die Alone, release the same year as this episode. He has also directed plenty of television, including six episodes of The Wire, The Vampire Diaries, The Walking Dead, and Bosch.

10:00 Desperate Housewives (recorded)

1x10 "Come Back to Me"

Available on Max

There's a lot of crazy stuff in this episode. Rex sees a dominatrix, Lynette spies on her nanny, and Gabrielle destroys evidence and is probably guilty of obstructing justice. But what stays with me is a conversation that Susan has with Mike, in which she muses that she's been treating Julie like an adult, like a best friend, and she has to stop. But now she has Mike, and she can tell him everything.

To which I say: what about your friends! I have a lot of criticisms of Desperate Housewives: the conservative politics, the sloppy mystery plot, the flat and boring supporting players, and so on. But what annoys me most about this show is that the titular housewives do not seem like friends. At all!

A big part of series creator Cherry's pitch was that these women weren't like the women of Sex and the City, who told each other everything. These women kept secrets, the way that so many women do. I can get on board with that! But even if these women don't tell each other everything, they need to tell each other some things. Every conversation these women have is purely plot-driven. It's there to move the mystery plot forward. Or it's there to kick-start another plot, like the conversation in this episode where Bree gives Lynette the idea to buy a nanny cam. These women's relationships have no texture. Why do these people like each other? What is their history? How is Lynette's relationship with Bree different from her relationship with Susan? Who knows! I hate it, and it's the main thing that tells me this show was mostly written by men.

This episode was written by Patty Lin. She has written for Freaks and Geeks, Friends, and Breaking Bad.

This episode was directed by Fred Gerber. He has directed episodes of China Beach, Reign, and Cop Rock.

TiVo Status

The three-hour Masterpiece Theater miniseries The Lost Prince and The Office Christmas Special from across the pond (2 hours), plus a Kurt Browning skating special and one episode each of Malcolm in the Middle and King of the Hill. 8 hours with 20 hours of space left.