Dan DaranciangThe culture of American television is at an interesting crossroads. On the one hand, standards and practices are cracking down on sex more and more, while networks want the edgy new show that will be a darling of both critics and the people (like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City” or just about anything else from HBO). In these confusing times, network television struggles: they are the ones most closely watched; they have to be entertaining, clever and witty while still remaining mostly safe and benign. A few shows manage to do this (“Lost,” “Arrested Development,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Gilmore Girls”), but despite the fact that their ranks are growing, three of the shows listed were new last season. They are still very much the exception and not the rule.
As the FCC imposes harsher standards on the major networks and the almost networks of the WB and UPN, it seems to be turning a blind eye to the channels on basic cable. Some networks pounced on this early, such as Comedy Central, which has had such successes as “The Daily Show,” “South Park” and “The Chappelle Show”-shows that could only flourish in this less stringent environment.
A recent addition to this growing family of cable channels relishing in this freedom is FX. Originally started by Fox, seemingly as a way to show “M*A*S*H,” “Cops” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reruns 24 hours a day, the station was a wasteland; recently, however, the network has become the place to turn for some of the smartest and edgiest shows this side of HBO.
The turn around happened with a show called “Nip/Tuck” (and to a lesser extent “The Shield”). “Nip/Tuck” combines sexy people, their sexy albeit messed-up lives, and their messed-up albeit sexily disgusting cosmetic surgery outfit. Taking advantage of their newly gotten freedom and the drought of good television in the summer, “Nip/Tuck” found an audience and ignited a creative spark within FX. The second year of programming brought another superb drama in the form of “Rescue Me.” Following the always complicated life of Tommy Gavin (in what is perhaps Dennis Leary’s greatest role), “Rescue Me” recently finished its second season and is below only “The Sopranos” and “Lost” in quality dramas currently being shown.
This summer brought numerous new shows of merit in the form of “30 Days” and “Starved.” “30 Days” is a documentary created by “Super Size Me” star and creator, Morgan Spurlock. Following the same basic idea as “Super Size Me,” the show has a person drastically change their lifestyle for a month and grants us the voyeuristic pleasure of watching. Some of the highlights of the first season were watching Morgan and his girlfriend live in poverty; a corn-fed, conservative, white boy practice Islam with a Muslim family in a predominantly Muslim community; and a middle-aged mother follow the ways of her binge-drinking daughter.
“Starved” is another socially conscious show, but in a very different way than “30 Days.” “Starved” follows the lives of four friends and a seemingly clich‚ premise. But from this staid beginning comes something new, funny and disturbing. The binding tie between the four friends is that all have eating disorders (including anorexia, binge-eating/bulimia, compulsive over-eating/narcissism and compulsive over-eating) and attend a caustic support group. The show has some very unsettling acts, such as eating Comet-covered chocolate cakes, induced vomiting on a homeless man and pubic hair trimming that goes horribly wrong. But the true drawing point of the show is the wonderful characters that are present. The lead character, Sam (Eric Schaeffer), is a wonderful, horribly vain, ego-centric character, the likes of which is almost never the lead of anything, let alone a sitcom. The supporting characters of Billy (Laura Benanti), Adam (Sterling K. Brown) and Dan (Del Pentecost) are also fascinating, terribly conflicted people who get almost as much face time as Sam and have just as interesting storylines. “30 Days” has already been renewed but won’t be back for another year, and hopefully FX will bring back “Starved” as well, because it is one of the greatest shows currently on television. FX has made great headway and is rapidly becoming one of the biggest forces in the world of innovative programming.