TV-Giving

Before I sit down to my favorite meal of the year, here's what I'm thankful for, at least where TV is concerned.

• Returns to normalcy for Desperate Housewives & Prison Break. Thanks for finding your niche and settling in again. I'm glad I held out hope.
  

• The Writers Strike is a blessing in disguise. It's high time the writers get what they deserve, plus it clears the schedule for some ridiculous reality shows that I can rant and laugh at for years to come. Stay tuned for my diatribe on Clash of the Choirs.
  

• Again, I'm thankful for my DVR and iTunes for ensuring I never miss a moment despite late night meetings, boring banquets and priceless moments with friends.
  

• To Showtime & HBO for always raising the bar. The Sopranos finale made people believers again. New shows on HBO (Flight of the Conchords, Tell Me You Love Me) and dark hits on Showtime (Weeds, Dexter) are carrying the torch. They owe it to the Sopranos to continue to develop intelligent beautiful television...and they are.
  

• And before I forget, I'm thankful for all of the great blogs I ran into this year, mostly while writing for this one. Scanner, and Reality Blurred to United Hollywood and Best Week Ever. I learn and laugh my way through work everyday. Thanks for bringing up to date pop culture news to the masses.
  

A Very Happy Thanksgiving to all five of our readers, wherever they are. Here's to lots of turkey, awkward family moments, the best naps of the holiday season and great sales on TV on DVD.

Tell Me (Dramatic Pause) You Love Me: I love you and I’m not sure why…

Recently I was skimming through the 500s on my living room TV and I came across the last twenty minutes of a show called “Tell Me You Love Me” on HBO8 or HBO45 or whatever. I clicked on the show and watched for two reasons. I needed a study break and the scene was an awkward dinner party.

Let me just say I LOVE awkward scenes that move along only by dialogue. I love dialogue. I crave witty dialogue. Once I took a screenwriting class and was crushed to hear that dialogue is only an added bonus to the action of the scene, that a writer must lead with action and then add dialogue. WHAT? I want dialogue! I’d take well written dialogue over any well thought action in any form of TV or film. Silence is deadly to me.

So I come across this awkward dinner scene between four attractive young adults in their mid 20s. This was probably another reason I was drawn in… hmm, this could be me in five years! How thrilling! So I watched the remaining twenty minutes of the show. The final fade to black with music and the menacing neon-royal blue “TELL ME (drop a line space) YOU LOVE ME” appeared.

Alright, I think. What is this? It wasn’t a movie, that was certainly no final scene; that was the end of an episode. So I go to OnDemand and find that “Tell Me You Love Me” is a new HBO Series. I then go to IMDb, duh, and find out everything about everyone who is in the show. Interesting.

Then over the next week I ended up catching up with every episode of the new drama series and for some reason finding myself invested in the characters and the problems. The dialogue between the two youngest female leads, Jamie and Mason could not be more accurate, honest, and seductive. As I watched each character develop episode to episode I found myself really drawn to their stories and their lives. I felt invasive, but at the same time I could relate. Well done HBO, well done.

I haven’t felt this way about a drama in a long time. “Tell Me You Love Me” is our decades “Thirtysomething” only a little more raunchy, hip, and definitely more sex obsessed. The show actually only revolves around sex. Which is kind of a shameful thing for me to say after admitting that I’m hooked. But either way, the characters are different and raw and all decently well played. I think this is my new guilty pleasure.