Ditchdigger's Rant: Working Men and Women

I grew up with a father, step-father and two grandfathers that told stories about hard workers and hard work with reverence that I always sensed. It left me with a respect for hard work and hard jobs that I will never lose. It is nearly unhealthy, because I have always been drawn to those jobs that make most people turn away, even now, as I try to get out of the hard work, construction field. I love coding, and using my mind instead of my back, but there is a part of that will always be a ditch digger.

Today, my battery ran down. There in the parking lot of the big black glass tower amongst the imports and giant SUV's, I needed a jump. I didn't even consider asking anyone I am working with, I wished that the crew that poured the front sidewalks was still there, and thought about the window washers. Because these are people that I can relate to, and tend to know their way around some jumper cables.

Don't get me wrong, I drive by the guys doing roadwork on the interstate every day, crews I could easily walk on and know what I was doing, maybe a step slow for a week or two, and think, "Wow am I glad I don't have to do that every day, right now." I don't miss it, and I'm going to code, blog, network, and every other damn thing I need to do not to go back, but I respect it. And I respect the people that do it.

Is CBS Blowing Up Shark?

I thought CBS had a good thing going. James Woods, Jeri Ryan, in a lawyer drama that had a little bit of an edge, a little bit of slick CSI style, and an actor in James Woods that can turn a phrase and stick a line like no other on television. Sometimes popular film actors look cramped on the small screen, sometimes they diminish to nothing, and sometimes like Woods, they take it over.

Woods took the standard star vehicle and drove it like a Ferrari on Top Gear, and it was a fun ride for everyone. I enjoyed the show for the first season, and thought it did very respectably in the ratings. Apparently, I missed something, because I think that they are blowing it up. There are all the classic signs, the changes of venue, the drastic changes in cast structure, bringing in new characters. This is all normal fare in the Law and Order and CSI franchises, but they let themselves build a following first.

Add to all of the constant changes in time slot, things just aren't looking good for this show, another sign that I know nothing about what people are watching. At least Reaper is getting renewed.

Two and a Half Men - Dancing on the Shark

Sometimes a show thinks it can get away with too much. Two and a Half Men gets a lot of passes, because of the likability of it's star, Charlie Sheen, and it's safe little time slot where nobody notices the raunchy tone of it. Well, people notice, but dialog and content now normal at later time slots is tolerated in the family oriented time slot of Two and a Half Men.

Making light of Charlie's previous public solicitation troubles and womanizing is old fare, dating back to Spin City, and why not, it's fun. This week, in a long plot string, the show took a dump on a much wider spectrum, trying to be high farce and ending up just being crude and insulting.

Back Story: Charlie's much-widowed mother is getting married to Robert Wagner, who's daughter, Jenny McCarthy has taken Charlie a couple different times for money. Wagner was fun on the show, and his turn of character and abrupt departure makes you wonder what they are thinking on this show. The ensemble needed some tweaking, and he could have fit in nicely. Jenny McCarthy, before this show, also had a nice plot string going. And was not hard to look at, either.

I'm spoiling it all right here, because I think it was a cheap shot of a script and plot turn anyway. If you actually care about Two and a Half Men plot strings, sorry. Last night could have been nice. The writers stepped out and tried to mock their network franchise, CSI. From the beginning, with the Who in their opening credits and throughout, using the CGI graphic style to explore Jake's stomach, and a Marg Helgenberger clone to interview all of them, also collecting ridiculous evidence samples, and with a real belly laugh as they used the black light semen detector in Charlie's bedroom. "It looks like a Jackson Pollock painting," was one great line.

Lets get this straight, NO sitcom worth watching is high art, and especially not this show, that's not why I watch it. I watch it because it's funny, but they can dance all over the line of acceptability. Last night, as they open the show with Robert Wagner dead in Charlie's bedroom, while his new wife was downstairs at their reception, the running joke is that he has lipstick on his hoo-hoo.

Then they go thru the mock interviews, and with nearly no pretense, McCarthy and Wagner are declared to be grifters, solely after Charlie's and his mother's money. He died while Jenny was giving him a BJ at the reception. This show can be hilarious, and gratingly raunchy, this was one of those low moments.