No departures from reality
TELEVISION
"Human kind cannot bear very much reality," wrote T.S. Eliot in "The Wasteland," but as regards the television kind we have apparently not yet reached our limit. This first full week of the 2009 winter TV season brings a riot of new unscripted series, in a variety of fundamentally familiar flavors. We love reality shows because we see ourselves there in a way we don't in, say, "CSI: Wherever" -- at least, one hopes not -- and because it is easier to love or hate or root for or against real people, even when you know you're being manipulated, than it is to love or hate the completely invented kind.
"Superstars of Dance," which premiered Sunday night on NBC (Mondays at 8 p.m. is its regular time slot), is the latest in a slew of terpsichorean throw-downs -- we like watching people dance, it seems, even more than we like hearing them sing. Coming on in a flood of hyperbole -- host Michael Flatley, whose name roughly describes his hosting style, is "the most popular dancer in the world" -- it is strictly a battle of professionals, with a nationalist twist: Eight countries (Argentina, Australia, China, India, Ireland, Russia, South Africa and the United States, boo-ya!) put up dance teams, duos and soloists, versed in native and imported styles. At the end of the night, based on cumulative, Olympic-style scores from a panel of judges (one from each country, and enjoined from voting for their own), one whole country goes home. Dances can be ridiculous or relatively sublime, but I like the international flavor.
Last night brought ABC's "True Beauty" (10 p.m.), from the desks of Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher has previously given the world "Beauty and the Geek" and "Punk'd," whose themes and methods his new show combines. Here, 10 good-looking people, male and female, are gathered together in what they believe is a contest to be named "America's most beautiful person," their fitness to be determined by the typical trio of relevant experts, including Cheryl Tiegs, and the prizes to include $100,000 cash and a spot in People magazine's "Beautiful People" issue. What they're actually being tested for is character. (Banks and Kutcher are themselves, of course, hot.) From the preview clips I've seen -- this is being written prior to air -- we are in for an orgy of misplaced self-love.
"Homeland Security U.S.A.," which starts at 8 tonight on ABC, follows the agents of various forms of border patrol, including the virtual borders that exist inside every international airport and main post office terminal.
