Arrested Development like Friends not appealing TV shows; Star Trek fans are crazy, and The West Wing rocks

A funny thing happened on my way to the forum. Not actually a forum, but as I sat down at this iMac to begin tapping out a story.

It appears New York City and San Diego have a lot in common. Well, maybe not a lot, but enough. Both are port cities, both have diverse ethnic populations and both are beset by very public and growing sex scandals. And all things being equal, I think San Diego’s trumps New York’s.

What happened though was that I decided to catch a little TV, via Netflix. There in a section I rarely peruse when locked on to Netflix, TV shows, was my drug, my compulsive obsession.

One of the promo photos for the fourth season of Arrested Development.
One of the promo photos for the fourth season of Arrested Development.

To be honest watching TV via Netflix just seemed … wrong. The TV shows I really like I’ve already watched — several times in some cases — and ones I haven’t seen, but heard a lot of things about, well — eh — not that interested.

One of my colleagues here at the Baltimore Post-Examiner wrote a review of the fourth season of Arrested Development. She didn’t really like it. But the idea the show had such a devoted cult following willing to post 50 or more comments to her review had my curiosity piqued.

When AD first came out I watched a couple episodes because Jeffrey Tambor and Portia de Rossi were in the cast. Tambor had been the sidekick Hank Kingsley on the Larry Sanders Show with Gary Shandling and Rip Torn. That was an HBO show in the 1990’s if you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of it. Hank Kingsley and his rotating restaurant — That was funny.

Portia de Rossi was in the 1993 indie film classic, Sirens, with Hugh Grant, Sam Neill and Tara Fitzgerald. And Elle McPherson — Oh My Lord … I should check to see if it’s on Netflix.

It is … Sirens is about the meeting between a young church official, and his wife, with noted Australian artist Norman Lindsay. Apparently Lindsay often created art that was considered profane, blasphemous and pornographic.

So anyway, Arrested Development never caught my attention when it first came to television, but since so many people like the show I decided to watch it on Netflix. Didn’t much care for it the second time around and in the interest of full disclosure, I only watched six episodes.

Has it been 20 years since the hit TV show Friends debuted? Some people still don't like it. (NBC promo photo)
Has it been 20 years since the hit TV show Friends debuted? Some people still don’t like it.
(NBC promo photo)

Someone might suggest you should watch a full season of a show, just in case you need to warm up to the material. Well if a new TV show doesn’t pique your interest in the first two episodes it never will. When it comes to television, first impressions are almost always correct.

For a long time I had friends who kept insisting I watch the show Friends because at some point, they surmised, I would like it. Twice I endured four (or more) consecutive episodes to satisfy their demands for my approval. Now they just assume I refuse to like it out of spite, even though I am a big fan of Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston. And Lisa Kudrow.

Rabid fans of certain television shows don’t understand why other people don’t share that same interest and often resort to creating fictional and often insulting reasons why other people don’t like Friends or Arrested Development (for example). It can’t be a reason as simple as, “It just didn’t appeal to me.”

So there I was, pondering whether to watch another episode of AD when “it” caught my attention: Netflix has all seven seasons of The West Wing. That was July 26th. Since then I’ve been voraciously watching one episode after another, once watching 12 in a row, getting as far as episode nine of season five.

For the record, I do not judge the rabid fans of other TV shows because here I sit, watching one of my favorite shows to the exclusion of many other more important activities. But, if you do not like The West Wing I will not implore you to watch a few episodes just to see if your opinion changes. It most likely won’t.

A fan photo of the original season of Star Trek, with Leonard Nimoy as Spock and William Shatner as Captain Kirk. (Fan photo from Tumblr)
A fan photo of the original season of Star Trek, with Leonard Nimoy as Spock and William Shatner as Captain Kirk.
(Fan photo from Tumblr)

With one exception though: I do judge Star Trek fans. Please.

Once, while traveling on the #15 bus here in San Diego on my way to work, two groups of Star Trek fans got on the bus, both going to Comic-Con. One group was dressed in Next Generation costumes while the other were in the original series costumes.

Then they started arguing about which TV show was more realistic. OK … a science fantasy TV show, mind you, set hundreds of years in the future.

It got heated, so much so the bus driver had to stop the bus and tell these yahoos to settle down or get off the bus, many blocks from the San Diego Convention Center. Apparently it had to do with the costume designs or something and Worf was a more realistic depiction of a Klingon than the Klingons in the original series. I don’t know, but I think Christopher Lloyd was a pretty good Klingon in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Promo photo for the TV show, Star Trek: Next Generation.
Promo photo for the TV show, Star Trek: Next Generation.

There are fans of Star Trek that may wish to lend a defense to the Trekkies in question, but it doesn’t matter. I think you all are effin’ crazy. Well, except for my friends and family who are Trekkies.

Anyway, for most of the past two weeks I’ve been engrossed in my own television fantasy addiction: The West Wing. My apologies to everyone who has been expecting something worthwhile in this space, only to get a treatise on popular television shows and the rabid fans that watch them.

  •  I am also a rabid fan of The Wire so any apparel from that show, or all five seasons on DVD, would make a wonderful holiday gift!
West Wing cast in a promo photo. (Photo from Tumblr)
West Wing cast in a promo photo.
(Photo from Tumblr)

But watching a TV show like that, non-stop, episode after episode, is an addiction, sort of like the thrill of taking pictures of your pee-pee and sending them all over the Interwebs via Twitter.

Even after he got busted in 2011, Anthony Weiner went back to tweeting his sack, clothed and unadorned, to some willing recipients, one of whom came forward when Weiner decided to run for Mayor of New York City and it looked like New Yorkers were preparing to elect him.

When Weiner announced his candidacy he told us there would be more revelations about his Tweeting prowess. What he didn’t tell us was the extent of it and how long the penis tweeting was taking place, after he was forced to resign from Congress.

That took people by surprise. You’d think, with his wife standing by his side, speaking for him at a press conference to let the voters know she trusted her man, he would have come completely clean and got it all out there. But he didn’t.

For the past two months it’s been a steady drip of Anthony Weiner penis news; when did he stop these online relationships? Did the women he exposed himself to reciprocate with photos of their genitalia? Okay, maybe I’m the only one asking that question, but I have to imagine some did. Twitter is a two-way communication my friends.

And that is relevant because it was one of Weiner’s Twitter GF’s that spilled the beans on Weiner. Whatever you may feel about Weiner’s behavior, the idea that a willing participant in his little sexting-capade outed the candidate just seems … opportunistic.

Once she made a name for herself by dropping a dime on Weiner, the woman in question, Sydney Leathers, came out to L.A. and signed a deal to make porn movies with Vivid Entertainment. The first one has her masturbating, in case you’re interested.

Anthony Weiner when he was a Congressman for New York City. (Photo from Wiki Commons)
Anthony Weiner when he was a Congressman for New York City.
(Photo from Wiki Commons)

Personally, it wouldn’t matter to me if my mayor were engaging in consensual sex with half dozen or more adults. I don’t care, as long as it doesn’t interfere with his or her ability to do the job.

We know we’ve had presidents that had affairs; Kennedy, Clinton and Eisenhower to name three of the most recent. All three were quite capable of performing their duties. So why care if a mayor is carrying on with someone who isn’t the spouse? There’s no reason really.

We should be electing people based on their abilities to do the job and their public policies, not their private peccadillos. Hell, every Republican that’s got caught up in a sex scandal has gotten either a pass or was allowed to make a comeback, so why not Anthony Weiner? Should Democrats hold themselves to a higher standard?

  • Well, one Republican didn’t get a pass: Former Florida Congressman Mark Foley. He was caught hooking up with underage Congressional pages. Although he paid a political price for his actions, he never faced criminal charges.
  •  The best part of this story though is Weiner’s alter ego, his online screen name: Carlos Danger. Oh man! Thank you Anthony Weiner for all the comedy.

Mark Sanford was just elected to be the Congressman for South Carolina’s First District, three years after lying to everyone about hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was really in Argentina playing house with his mistress. He was governor at the time and married with four children.

After resigning as governor, he and his wife Jenny got a divorce and Sanford went about the business of spending time with his new squeeze. And then he decided to run for his old seat in Congress. So there he was, campaigning with his fiancé Maria Belén Chapur at his side.

Congressman and former Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, in his latest official Congressional portrait. (Wiki Commons)
Congressman and former Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, in his latest official Congressional portrait.
(Wiki Commons)

Republicans love to talk “family values,” but only as it pertains to others. Not one Republican politician publicly denounced Sanford when he decided to run for Congress. Every one that spoke out about Sanford before and after the election was either congratulatory or encouraging. The GOP has no problem electing and re-electing the worst their party has to offer.

So, GOP: STFU about “family values.”

Getting back to Weiner. He now wants to know when he can start talking about the issues, instead of his sexting. Oh, I don’t know. Sex is so much more entertaining and profitable. Just ask Sydney Leathers.

Maybe I’m a twisted bastard, but I hope Weiner becomes mayor of Gotham. I just love all the jokes.

Sexual assault though isn’t anything to joke about. Here in Sunny Sandy Eggo we liberals and Democrats were rejoicing after electing the first Democrat mayor in over 20 years! Not just any Democrat either: long time Congressman Bob Filner.

He took office in January and … then we started hearing the stories. Women are claiming the mayor physically abused them and that’s no laughing matter.

In fact, so many women have claimed they were sexually assaulted by Filner the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has set up a hotline to report alleged sexual abuse from the mayor. Not all general sexual abuse, assault and rape, but a hotline dedicated to sexual misconduct by the mayor.

Mayor Bob Filner's official Mayoral portrait. (Wiki Commons)
Mayor Bob Filner’s official Mayoral portrait.
(Wiki Commons)

How many people is he suspected of having assaulted? Ten so far, but attorney Gloria Allred says the list will keep growing. Every day the local paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, has been reporting new revelations. We’ve heard of the Filner headlock, Filner grabbing breasts and buttocks; suggesting women come to work commando, i.e. not wearing undergarments.

Filner has refused to resign, but almost admitted to the behavior by publicly apologizing for it and going for two weeks of treatment. Filner hasn’t addressed any specific counts of sexual harassment or abuse, although private notes that were disclosed Tuesday indicate that Filner refutes at least one of the claims. Going in for treatment suggests Filner is suffering from addictive behavior. Maybe it is an addiction, but regardless, very few San Diegans want Filner to remain in office.

Gloria Allred represents the first of the ten women to come forward, Irene McCormack Jackson. She’s the woman who claims Filner suggested she go to work sans underwear, among other violations.

Every local and state politician is calling for Filner’s resignation, but he just won’t do it. His approval rating is about 17 percent, similar to that of the U.S. Congress. Nearly 80 percent of San Diegans think he should either resign or be removed by recall election.

Liberal and Democrat heavy weights in San Diego, who were once big supporters of Filner, are telling him to resign; people like former State Senator Christine Kehoe and former city Councilwoman Donna Frye. Both are big names in San Diego politics and have a lot of influence here. If Filner doesn’t have those two in his corner, he’s out of support.

Local Republicans are calling for him to resign as well.

Two people have started recall drives and a petition must get over100,000 signatures to get on a ballot. With nearly 80 percent of the locals saying he should resign or be recalled, it’s a really good bet we’ll see a special recall election in the not too distant future.

Gloria Allred has filed a suit against Filner and the city on behalf of her client, Irene McCormack Jackson. So in what is considered a bizarre twist, Filner is asking the city to foot the bill for his legal defense. There are actually two California State government codes that say the City of San Diego should pay his legal fees and any judgments against him, should he lose.

Then Congressman Bob Filner campaigning to be mayor of San DIego, at a rally for veterans. (Wiki Commons photo)
Then Congressman Bob Filner campaigning to be mayor of San DIego, at a rally for veterans.
(Wiki Commons photo)

Oh yeah, another bizarre twist: Filner blames the city for his behavior because they didn’t give him the sexual harassment training public employees get when they go to work for the city. But, his behavior goes back many years. Just in the last 24 hours a woman came forward and said that Filner told her he would look into a Marine Corps veteran’s V.A. issues if this woman, the veteran’s caregiver, agreed to have a sexual relationship with him.

The city council is meeting Tuesday Night to consider his request. My guess is there will be a legal battle over that issue.

  • The City Council denied his request to have his legal defense funded by the city.

Bob Filner deserves his day in court, but as mayor, he is finished.

As for me, I’m still a West Wing fan, still have more than two seasons to watch, but I’ll try to get that done by this weekend so my interest is returned to the real life dramas.

This is no lie: as soon as I wrote that previous sentence I stopped writing and watched three more episodes — didn’t even bother to type a period at the end of the sentence. I’ve got the West Wing Jones bad.

I need to start watching the news again, get caught up on Weiner and his campaign, or at least his sexting life. Who knows, maybe Carlos Danger will ride again.