Television

I was at the Lord Roberts for a bit of a Lamb Burger when I checked my phone. There's a message from my sister up in Darwin asking me if I was going to be on Dancing With The Stars next week. Almost immediately it dawned on me: DB and WB, the poster children are going to be on DWTS. When the rehearsal director pulled the couple aside just before lunch we all joked that they were in trouble (that they had to go to the Principal's office because they were naughty children, or something like that) and, because they were the poster children, they were simply required to do another publicity thing for True Stories. Nothing special.

I thought that maybe I just missed the announcement that they had this gig, I try not to think too much about work things during lunch, I rang to confirm. Maybe WB was to do Moth with DB; boy there would have been hell to pay if that was the case. But, no, they're going to be doing new choreography, which is far more appropriate considering that we're opening in Melbourne pretty soon.

Anyway, it's pretty exciting for them. And the rest of us have been fielding enquiries from friends and relatives for the last couple of days: "no, we're not all going to be on the show, just the poster children". But we'll all be down at the local pub eagerly watching twist and tangle into the various headstands, lifts and one-arm-cartwheels-on-partner's-bended-leg movements.

Oh, and why on Earth is Tim not in the final??? Him and Nat are easily the best couple in the entire series, there is no justice in the world.

Anatomy for Beginners (SBS)

Stop cutting
I said STOP CUTTING

But it was no use. After a brief segue to the live model, being drawn on to make sure that the audience knows EXACTLY what we're talking about, Doctor Gunther had completely removed the entire reproductive system from the cadaver. He had to saw through pubic bone to get it all out and even then it all came with "extra" bits, like the bladder...

What else didn't I need to see? Oh yes: the dissection of a testis, the incision into the erectile tissue, the entire long and stringy vas deferens... with the organs splayed out on the tray with the prostate and seminal vesicles exposed, it looked less human and more like something out of Alien and yet when I look down into my lap I know that that's what I've got down there...

Trust me to tune into this series when they were discussing the reproductive system. Horrible to look out but like the proverbial car crash...

But that's nothing compared to the Doctor himself. Sure there's little he could do about his accent but he could have at least ditched the black hat to try to make himself look less like a mad German scientist. And lets not mention the accusations made against him about the illegal possession of dead bodies from Siberia, Kyrgyzstan and China. So we won't. But you can read about that in Wikipedia, not that anyone would suggest that it was 100% reliable! Doctor Gunther denies these accusations in his site.

Interestingly enough this show, when first televised in the UK, was implicated for being partly responsible for the fall in the number of cadavers donated in the UK.

Funniest moment of the show: when Doctor Gunther fondled the live male model and made his testicle move up and down. A bit of full-frontal male-to-male tickle isn't a new thing on SBS but in an educational context it was quite novel. Having an artist draw vas deferens and fallopian tubes on your nether regions also earnt a giggle.

Tags: Television, Anatomy for Beginners, Gunther Von Hagens.

Previously: Tom: A National Obsession

I was so into season two. Watching a recording of last night's episode was a bit of a shock. Was it really this cheesy last time around? Were the stars really this boring? And the only couple that seems to do a decent job of dancing (as opposed to just hamming it up) is Chris and her partner, she's doing her best to be this season's Holly though not quite as sharp or as quick. As for Dicko, he's musical and co-ordinated but he looks bloody shocking and, sure, he's a bit funny but I just can't quite bring myself to liking him.

Give 'em a chance, Jhuny, give 'em a chance...

MEANWHILE I saw Mad Hot Ballroom last night. Brilliant!!! Following teams of ballroom dancers from several New York City public primary schools from dance lessons to the finals at the World Financial Centre, it was more than just about dancing (though there's some pretty good dancers in some of those schools!) It's about the social diversity of New York, it's about turning the lives around for children, turning them into Ladies and Gentlemen (as one of the teachers puts it), and the unexpected benefits of dance. It was great to see such a bright and generally open-minded bunch of kids. Kids are great. Dancing is great. Go see the movie! And watch out for the boy with the beautiful eyes...

Tags: Dancing, Dancing With The Stars, Mad Hot Ballroom.

Look, I'm not buying into all that hype, okay? I'm just going to watch Desperate Housewives and make my own mind up thank you very much. And after two episodes, I have my opinions about it; it's entertaining enough, not essential viewing but I'll watch it again, but the narrator sucks, she's always explaining the bleeding obvious and never gives us any insight so what's the point? But first and foremost, IT DOES NOT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE. And that's where it gets frustrating. Its painful to hear the plugs from other shows (like Sunrise) and how many bloody times does Seven want to play the first episode like its the greatest thing on TV ever? There were more repeats of the Housewives on Seven in one week than there were showings of True Lies on Ten in a decade (well, almost). Ditto Lost but I missed it so can't really comment on that one.

And then, tonight, Dancing With The Stars which, again, is entertaining enough and something that I most probably will watch again but the second Daryl started to plug All Saints and I was on the next channel, waiting for him to shut up and let the dancing continue. Did he not realise that had he not continually reminded us of the inevitable coming of the All Saints season premiere (which was probably stated in a screen caption anyway) not to mention the incessant cross-overs to the current *it* couple Bec and Lleyton (even more hype than a gaggle of housewives), they would not have been so pressed for time?