Reel TV: The Worst in Television This Week

By The Reel Pretty Staff

CREATED on Nov 20 2009

Roman Polanski:Wanted and Desired (HBO)

Filmmaker Marina Zenovich made this highly disturbing documentary about Roman Polanski. Polanski is a much admired film director whose motion pictures many Hollywood stars clamor to appear in. He is an Oscar winner, a husband and father of two. He is also a man who admitted to drugging and having sex with a 13-year-girl years ago here in the U.S..

It’s not that this documentary isn’t skillfully done, because it is. My problem is that it is so well done as to be manipulative, in terms of getting those watching it to actually see a perpetrator as a victim. It focuses much more on the so-called “legal” issues surrounding Polanski, how he was “railroaded” by a headline-grabbing judge into being given a possible harsher sentence than they believe he deserved.

If one isn’t careful, you could actually get so caught up in the claims by this guy’s high-paid attorneys and supporters in the film industry that you lose sight that he drugged and molested a child, then fled to Europe to avoid the risk of too much prison time.

Roman Polanski may indeed be a masterful and celebrated director, but he is no hero we should admire. Would an average garden variety of pedophile have been allowed to travel outside the country to finish a professional project after being charged with a serious crime? Certainly not. They would be treated like a social pariah.

Roman Polanski:Wanted and Desired seems to want us to feel sympathy for him, as though he should be excused for his actions because he is somehow a “better class” of child rapist.

While this documentary is well made, it is, otherwise, totally irresponsible.

Fox News Misrepresents…Again

After the embarrassing revelation from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show last week about Fox News Network’s Sean Hannity showing video footage that misrepresented the real number of people present at an anti-health reform rally, you’d think they’d be extra careful.

Not so! This week, Fox News again showed video footage that appears to have made it look as though there were more people at a Sarah Palin book signing than there really were.

Get it right next time, folks!

Real Housewives of Orange County (Bravo)

After the wild ride of Real Housewives of Atlanta, Real Housewives of Orange County is somewhat of a letdown. There is nothing earth-shattering or surprising about a bunch of self-absorbed blonde, sun-kissed women in California who are Botoxed, tummy tucked, suntanned and shamelessly materialistic.

I got bored watching the most recent episode, which included Jeanna’s revelation that she was finally dumping her hubby , Gretchen getting the urge to be domestic with new boyfriend Slade and Vicki making her usual self-righteous proclamations over her peers.

This show needs to get its own version of a NeNe-type female to take things up a few notches, otherwise Real Housewives of Orange County will be much too predictable and tame to hold viewer’s interest.

Parking Wars (A&E)

Why do they insist upon revolving reality shows around professions that would otherwise be considered to be dead-end jobs?

Parking Wars basically focuses on the lowest end of the law enforcement food chain, the individuals who give out tickets for illegal parking and running out of time on meters.

This week, they ran several episodes back-to-back, each one more tedious than the other, as people were written up, wheels were locked and ticked-off people stood in line to pay fines, only to be told they needed additional paperwork before their cars could be turned back over to them.

About as exciting as trimming my dog’s toenails.

Airing of “The Best Little Whore house in Texas” (CMT)

Burt Reynolds in a musical.

Need I say more?

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