TV Eye

Byron Hurt

When Tipper Gore offered her criticism on rock & roll, the response ranged from polite silence to exasperated accusations of stifling free expression. But when someone like Byron Hurt comes forward to criticize rap, he's hard to ignore. A former college football player, a "hip-hop head," and now a filmmaker, Hurt found himself in a unique position to ask "what up?" of the artists he had long admired. It's one thing to write off Tipper Gore as a well-meaning but out-of-touch suburbanite. It's harder to write off a brother, asking some hard questions about the sexism, homophobia, and images of hyper masculinity in music that he himself once embraced, which Hurt does in his excellent and passionate documentary, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, the next film in the Independent Lens series (PBS).

Mos Def, Fat Joe, Chuck D, and Busta Rhymes are a few of the rappers Hurt approaches, along with such cultural critics as Michael Eric Dyson and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, to get to the root of why violence and misogyny prevail in rap music. The result is a deeply troubling examination of history, the music industry, and racism. Hurt's questions are often met with discomfort, but he can't be ignored (though one interview subject walks out on him). Confronting the status quo is never easy, but Hurt does so tirelessly, with bravery and a good deal of heart.

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes airs Tuesday, Feb. 20, 10pm on PBS.

What Else Is On?

Real Time With Bill Maher returns Friday at 10pm on HBO... Extreme Makeover: Home Edition features the O'Donnell family of Austin on Sunday, Feb. 18, at 7pm on ABC... Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier premieres on Monday, Feb. 19, at 8pm on the History Channel. Using the 2006 auction of Star Trek props, costumes, set-pieces, and other memorabilia as a backdrop, this affectionate documentary features interviews with past cast members, producers, and writers who address the impact of Star Trek on popular culture.

After a prolonged holiday hiatus, Jericho returns Wednesday at 7pm on CBS.

In Development

While most of us now have our TV viewing on autopilot, in TV land, they are already looking to the next big thing. It's development season, meaning several new series are in the early stages of, well, development. However, a lot can change before the next TV season is announced. Titles change and some series make it to pilot season while others go belly-up long before the new season is announced. In the meantime, it's interesting to see what the networks think viewers will want to watch. Here are a few trends:

1) Dead people. Apparently, the dead are enormously chatty, and there has to be someone around to listen to them. Also prevalent are fantasy series that feature extraterrestrial spies, time traveling, and vampires.

2) Popular films repackaged for TV, old TV series brought into the present, and series inspired from the BBC original. Examples include The Bionic Woman, Sarah Connor Chronicles (from Terminator), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (as spies instead of assassins), and Marlowe (Phillip Marlowe placed in the present). Borrowing from the BBC are U.S. renditions of Footballers Wives and Life on Mars.

3) Chick-lit on the small screen or trying to rekindle the Sex and the City magic. At least two series feature a foursome of ambitious and powerful friends living and working in the big city.

The truly new and unique can be counted on one hand. Among them, Wild at Heart (CW), about a New York vet who relocates his family to a South African game reserve, and K-Ville (Fox), about cops in New Orleans trying to keep the peace in post-Katrina conditions.

For a full rundown of what's in development where, check out the Feb. 5 issue of Broadcasting & Cable.