What was on TV? Wed, Jan 19, 2005

20 years ago, George Bush was sworn in for his second term in office. And no one lived happily ever after, except for many Jenna Bush, I guess? Let's see what was on TV.

8:00 Lost on ABC

1x14 "Special"

Available on Hulu and Netflix

Lost is in the middle of a serious rough patch. This is the fourth shoddy episode in a row (and there's another real stinker coming up next). But the other episodes had fun sub-plots and oddities and pieces of lore at the margins. This episode is just boring and bad.

It doesn't help that this is a Michael and Walt episode. Michael and Walt really exemplify so much of what makes the show frustrating, There's the meandering mysteries and mythologies, since we now know that Walt's "specialness" doesn't really go anywhere. But they also exemplify the show's issues with race, and its inability to grapple with those issues. The show seems determined to subvert the stereotype of the absentee Black father, making sure you know that Michael tried to be part of Walt's life and was thwarted at every turn. And it all feels so self-satisfied, they're breaking ground and fighting the good fight! Meanwhile, sitcoms like The Bernie Mac Show and One on One had been exploring Black fatherhood for years at this point. Lost wasn't even breaking new ground in the sphere of early aughts TV! The dads on those sitcoms were complex characters who wrestled with their roles as fathers and with their identies as Black men. Michael pales in comparison. He's passive and boring character in his backstory. Things aren't much better on the island. He's very determined to leave, which is understandable, but it leaves him with few ties to meaty stories on the island. It feels like the show doesn't know what to do with him, so they leave him with one foot out of the door at all times. You can just feel that the writers have no ideas, you can feel their disinterest. It's ugly stuff. Also ugly? That polar bear. Probably the single worst special effect in the entire show.

9:00 Alias on ABC

4x04 "Ice" (record Project Runway on Bravo)

Available on Disney+

Season four has been taking a back-to-basics, classic spy show approach. And I haven't been a fan thus far. But that changed this week! Because this week, the case of the week emphazized what I like about the espionage genre. Not crazy missions and sexy outfits, though I enjoy those too. But what really turns my crank is someone using pieces of their own personal life to manipulate an asset while also processing their trama. In this case, Vaughn uses his history with Melissa George to try and turn the sister of an IRA terrorist. It's a great scene, and the great Kelly MacDonald kills it.

This episode also shows us how Hollywood will start portraying terrorists in the future. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, terrorists were mostly scary Brown people (see: 24, the Abu Gharaib episode of Law and Order starring Sarita Chowdhury, etc.). But as the war on terror continued and started going very badly, people started yearning for a different approach. And so you started to see "good" Brown people who tried to rebel against the scary terrorists and paid the price. This episode is about the IRA, so no one is Brown. But Kelly MacDonald's character feels like a dry run for this new approach, which came with its own rainbow of problems.

10:00 Project Runway (recorded)

1x06 "Making a Splash"

Available on Tubi

This episode is gross! The assignment is to design a swimsuit for a model. Many of these girls are underage, at least one of them is 16. So seeing them in thongs and garments that probably required butt glue to remain on TV is already icky. Then they send them to a cocktail party (in the swimsuits) so they and the designers can schmooze a skeezy Page 6 columnist. Everyone gets really into slut-shaming a literal 16-year-old model. No one looks good in this episode. Kara is the only one who escapes unscathed.

TiVo Status

The Masterpiece Theater miniseries He Knew He Was Right and The Lost Prince, and one episode each of Carnivale, Everybody Loves Raymond, and King of the Hill. 10 hours total.