Monday and Tuesday TV

Most of shows are still on their winter hiatus, so it's been pretty light so far this week. Gossip Girl and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (yay, Monday Night Food Porn) were our only new shows Monday night. GG demonstrated one of the things I like most about it in the first few minutes of this episode. Chuck Bass, recently having been orphaned, didn't just decide to dull the pain by getting wasted at home in New York, even though I'm sure drugs and alcohol are available in NYC -- no, he headed straight to a Bangkok opium den. Who does that? Chuck Bass, that's who. His grief is so overwhelming that he needed to go all the way to Thailand to smoke opium with hookers! I guess he's not sold on the whole "buy American" thing. I love how even though everything is outrageous bordering on nonsensical, many of the characters are drawn well enough that the audience can connect with them emotionally. Blair and Chuck would be outright villains on any other show, but they're my favorites. I can relate to Blair's emotional makeup way too easily (and Leighton Meester does abang-up job every week), and Chuck is just delightful. It's so wrong.

The one thing I can't figure out about GG is how the writers want us to feel about the Humphreys, especially Rufus and Dan. They're so awful most of the time. It's tough to get behind either of the epic on-again, off-again romances they're supposed to be involved in when you just want Lily and Serena to run far, far away from those creeps. During the holidays, the History Channel was running a Band of Brothers marathon and I watched some of it. There's a real cognitive dissonance watching Matthew Settle playing bad-ass supersoldier Spiers in that now that I'm so used to him as Rufus.

Last night's 90210: The New Class is still unwatched on the TiVo; I'm sure we'll get around to it eventually. I'm only marginally interested in it, but I understand they brought in some new writers and it's supposed to get better soon. Jeremy never had watched 90210: Original Flavor back in the day, and SoapNet runs two episodes a day. The first season rolled around towards the end of last summer, so we started TiVoing it. We're about halfway through Season 7 now. That's a LOT of 90210 to watch in a few months, but it's been more enjoyable than either of us expected. The nostalgia factor is high: every questionable fashion trend and hairstyle from my high school and college years; topical references stuff like the Whitewater investigation; tons of forgotten '90s singers like Donna Lewis playing their one hit at the Peach Pit After Dark. Yes, lots of it is stupid and ridiculous, but the members of the cast who stuck around for years and years make it worthwhile. They all seem like people who really have known each other forever and get along and horse around and have fun. I'll be glad not to spend 10 hours a week on it anymore when the series run concludes sometime in march, but it's been fun to watch.