I blame it on cedar fever. After spending several sunny days in California (before the relentless rains came) we (Papi Chulo and I) returned to Austin and got decked by allergies. Besides watching the neighbors shoot off a paycheck’s worth of fireworks, we welcomed the new year hacking and sneezing, teary eyed. After a quick toast, we fell into bed. To sleep.
Maybe that’s why I don’t feel like it has been much of a new year. It just seems like an extension of the last. This seems to be the case on TV. Some old favorites (24, Alias) and not so favorites (Life as We Know It) have returned to the small screen, while some new shows have made their midseason debut (The Road to Stardom With Missy Elliott, Medium, Point Pleasant). So far, nothing has dazzled like the current critical darlings, Lost or Desperate Housewives, yet that doesn’t mean there isn’t something new in the old offerings.
The Road to Stardom With Missy Elliott (Wednesdays, 7pm, on UPN): Unlike other reality shows attached to a star, this new reality show featuring 13 young adults competing for a record contract, a released single, and a cash prize has a likable grand dame in Missy Elliott. She isn’t a parody of herself like Donald Trump in The Apprentice (or like her early music videos, for that matter). Like Trump, Elliott’s camera time is brief and well-placed. Yet, when she offers words of wisdom regarding life in the music industry, she appears sincere, sage, and her comments are useful. Aside from making the Road to Stardom contestants ride in a ragged tour bus, there are no uppity outbursts of self-importance by Elliott or any of her crew, such as when Sean “P. Diddy” Combs sent some of the Making the Band 2 contestants in a cross-borough hunt in the middle of the night for his favorite cookies. Of course, the way Mizz Elliott sucks down those lollipops, maybe someone will be sent out on a late night errand to satisfy her oral fixation. From what I’ve seen, she’s worth the effort.
Medium (Mondays, 9pm, on NBC) and Point Pleasant (Thursdays, 8pm, on Fox after a series premiere Jan. 19). In Medium, Allison Dubois (Patricia Arquette) solves crimes by seeing into the future and talking to dead people, while Christina Nickson (Elisabeth Harnois) is Rosemary’s baby with telekinetic powers, all grown up in Point Pleasant. Both interesting premises, built on the tried and true “I don’t know how I do it, but I wish I could stop” angst that we’ve seen in previous supernatural heroines like (early) Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sara Pezzini in Witchblade. However, I wish these two characters could morph into one. Arquette brings a maturity and elegance to the genre. Unfortunately, she operates in yet another crime drama, this one focusing on unsolved violent crimes, the answers to which are held beyond the grave.
Tying the child of the world’s infamous fallen angel to the classic mommy abandonment trope is an interesting narrative marriage in Point Pleasant. The problem is Harnois, as the unbeknownst spawn of Satan, is as compelling as melting ice cream. After she literally washes ashore in Point Pleasant, N.J., strange things begin to happen to Christina and those around her (she sets a car ablaze when she sees the boy she has a crush on with another girl). Oh, and did I mention that Christina’s long-lost mother was born and raised in Point Pleasant? Issues!
I like the idea of a character sensing there is something bigger than herself she needs to seek. I only wish Christina were as nuanced as Medium‘s Allison, and that Medium were not hemmed in by the crime drama form. Other than that, both shows are watchable, if not entirely spellbinding.
What Else Is On?
Jonny Zero: Franky G (The Italian Job, Wonderland) stars as Jonny Calvo, an ex-con trying to make a fresh start after his recent release from prison. Premieres Friday, Jan. 14, 8pm, on Fox.
Tsunami Aid Benefit: NBC pre-empts regular programming Saturday night for a benefit to raise funds for tsunami victims. Tentative start time is 7pm. Check local listings.
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson: Ken Burns‘ newest documentary on the Texas-born boxer who became the first African-American Heavyweight champion. Airs Jan. 17 and 18, 8pm, on PBS.
This article appears in January 14 • 2005.