A jones for “Bones”

Michaela Conlin as Angela Montenegro and Emily Deschanel as Dr. Temperance Brennan in “Bones.”

The best thing about DVDs is the opportunity to fall in love with television shows a season or two, or even more, after they’ve already been on the air. Erin and I are currently hooked on “Bones,” a Fox series starring David Boreanaz, who paid his dues in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the spinoff show “Angel.” In “Bones,” he plays an FBI agent, Seeley Booth, who works with Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), a forensic anthropologist/murder mystery novelist from the “Jeffersonian Institution” (a loosely fictionalized version of the Smithsonian Institution) to identify victims and causes of death from bones — rotting, slimey, decayed corpses.

The kneejerk reaction is to expect that “Bones” is a warmed-over version of “The X-Files” with that series’ professional camaraderie and sexual tension between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, FBI agents who track down cases of paranormal phenomena. But as much as I loved the first seven seasons of “X-Files,” “Bones” is a first-class show of its own. It doesn’t hurt, either, that the series features my new favorite Asian American character on TV: Angela Montenegro, played by half-Chinese actor Michaela Conlin. Continue reading

Sanjaya’s “Idol” journey

I don’t watch “American Idol” (“Dancing with the Stars” is enough reality TV for me), but I’ve been mildly curious about this 17-year-old kid, Sanjaya Malakar, who managed to squeak through week after week of elimination on “AI” with his breathy singing voice, toothy grin and bizarre variety of hairstyles.

Well, he finally got voted off the show last week, but over the weekend he got a consolation prize as a guest at the annual White House Press Correspondents’ Dinner, a big deal in DC.

Malakar interested me because he’s Asian American; his parents immigrated from India, and he identifies himself as an Indian American, hoping to be the “next” Indian pop star in the U.S. (was there a previous Indian pop star in the U.S.?).

Unfortunately, Indians don’t seem to share his enthusiasm for Sanjaya. The Indian media seemed relieved when he lost last week. One South Asian I know pointed out that the name “Sanjaya” went against Indian convention because ending a name with “a” is a female signifier, and though his name should be “Sanjay.” Continue reading

Apolo kicks butt

It’s silly, and I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but Erin and I are addicted to “Dancing with the Stars” this season. We hadn’t watched it at all in the past, but began tuning in because 1) it began during the down time for new episodes of “Heroes” on Monday nights and 2) it features dancer/choreographer Carrie Ann Inaba, who’s Japanese American, as one of the judges and 3) this season one of the stars featured in the competition is Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, who’s also JA. Continue reading

Book ’em, Danno… all over again

One of the cool things about traveling to LA is getting to watch KDOC, a local station that unearths old TV shows and airs them. For some reason, whenever I’m in town I get to tune in to old episodes of “Hawaii Five-O.”

The show is fascinating to me for several reasons. It fit my early attraction for TV action shows (“Dragnet” just didn’t cut it) with its tire-squealing car chases and gun fights, and the cool, noir-hero cop Steve McGarrett, played by the square-jawed Jack Lord. It had one of the all-time greatest theme songs, which was recorded by the pioneering instrumental guitar-rock band the Ventures. It’s a cultural snapshot of a transitional time in post-war U.S. culture, when the generation gap produced by the baby boom was bulging into college age, and pop style was evolving from ’60s mod to ’70s avocado and harvest gold. Most of the men still had Brylcreemed hair, and the women had big poofy hairstyles when the show debuted in 1968 (it ran all the way to ’80). Continue reading

“Heroes” on the tiny screen

We don’t have cable TV — at least, not at the moment — and don’t have a TiVo or other digital video recorder. We also don’t watch much broadcast TV. Instead, we catch up on TV series on DVD, thanks to Netflix. We’ve burned through entire seasons of “24,” “Alias,” “X-Files,” “Smallville,” “Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under” and more in just a few evenings of crazed viewing. That’s just the TV shows — we also watch way too many movies, thanks again to Netflix.

OK, so it’s not healthy. But it means we control our movie and TV consumption. WE control the remote, not “The Outer Limits.”

Until now, all this controlled viewing still required a television. Now, there’s another way: the PC. My laptop not only plays DVDs, it can also play a number of TV programs, because increasingly, television networks are streaming content on the Internet.

I love all this access, because it extends my control, and allows me to watch TV when I want, or when I can. I’m currently catching up on “Heroes,” because I’ve missed a few of the episodes. Continue reading