Karen Townsend
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The second season of Showtime’s Dice opened Sunday, August 20th with the episode titled “It’s a Miserable Life.” As you might gather from the title, this episode is a parody of the classic movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. Comedian Andrew Dice Clay dreams of what life would be like for him and those near and dear to him if he had not created his stage persona The Diceman.
In the August 13 episode of Comedy Central’s Legends of Chamberlain Heights, the absurdity of mandatory niceness to gays in order to support their social agenda is mocked and explained. It’s Homecoming Weekend at Duncan High and the Legends see a chance to get dates with popular girls.
In the August 9 episode of TLC’s I Am Jazz, an invitation to interview Jazz and the co-author of "her" book, Jessica, is accepted by Tomi Lahren (from back when she was still with TheBlaze.) The episode’s title, “In the Line of Fire” implies a battle ensues but viewers expecting fireworks between the outspoken conservative host and the transgender teenager will be sorely disappointed.
There was a theme going on with Wednesday night programming on TLC this week: it was all about transgender teenagers. The hour long special Growing Up Evancho premiered August 9 following I Am Jazz and it, too, features a teenage boy who wants to live as a girl. It is a show about celebrity teen Jackie Evancho, who gained celebrity status from her singing performance on America’s Got Talent, and her older "sister" who goes by Juliet and is transgender. The family hopes this special will launch them into their own full series.
Remember when college campuses were supposed to be places of free speech and enabled young people to form opinions based on hearing different points of view? In today’s world, that is only a fond memory. The August 8th episode of Freeform’s The Fosters titled “Telling” perfectly illustrated how liberal students no longer accept the First Amendment rights of conservative students on campus.
What do you get when former presidents are used in a weird plot meant to bring old friends together and teach them some lessons in friendship? You get Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, released on August 4, 2017. The bizarre story was told in eight 30-minute episodes and, along the way, former President Reagan was depicted as a diabolical nuclear warhead thief and involved with several poop jokes for good measure. Yes. Really.
The most obnoxious segment of Netflix’s Chelsea airing on August 4th involved two liberal California Democrats and the glimpse they give into the minds of the far left in the early days of the Trump presidency.
The season finale of VH1’s Daytime Divas goes ugly against the token conservative host and her right to lawfully carry a concealed weapon. In the July 31 episode titled “Whose Show Is It Anyway?” the hosts of “The Lunch Hour” discover that Heather (Fiona Gubelmann) conceal carries a gun in her purse. The predictable liberal angst over an American constitutional right ensues.
Just when you thought Netflix’s Chelsea could go no lower on the lame scale, Chelsea Handler proves you wrong. In the July 28th episode titled “The Future Is Now,” Handler calls President Trump “our brainless monkey in the White House.” Ugh.
The TLC show I Am Jazz went out of its way to smack non-transgender viewers in the July 26th episode titled "Face Your Demons." The highlight was a Facebook Live chat with Jazz and two other transgender teens which was made in the name of education and support for others.
As you might expect, former Obama staffers turned podcasters now gleefully attack the Trump administration as incompetent and those working in the White House as liars. In the July 21st episode of Netflix’s Chelsea titled “When Chelsea Met Harry”, President Trump was referred to as the “asshole in office.”
The two major plot points in the July 23rd episode of Comedy Central’s Legends of Chamberlain Heights, titled “Confederate Flags of Our Fathers,” disrespects police as murdering pot smokers and compares the Confederacy to Al-Qaeda.
For the first time to my knowledge, a network television show has brought in a sexual relationship between a transgender woman and a man. Real life transgender actress Laverne Cox plays attorney Cameron Wirth in CBS’s legal drama Doubt and in the July 22 episode, titled “Top Dog/Underdog,” she agrees to sex with her boyfriend, a District Attorney.
On VH1’s Daytime Divas, the first transgender host of the fictional daytime talk show “The Lunch Hour” was introduced, played by real life transgender actress and activist Janet Mock. Her appearance was used as an opportunity for the Christian host, Heather (Fiona Gubelmann), to confess that her child is transgender.
Netflix debuted Friends from College on Friday, July 14. The eight half hour episodes revolve around a group of six friends that were Harvard classmates and are now struggling to come to terms with turning 40.
Season three of TLC’s I Am Jazz began with the episode titled “Bottoms Up” airing on June 27. Jazz Jennings was born a boy but wants to be a girl and has been living as one for years. The teen is turning 16 years old and is ready to complete "her" physical transition. But she soon realizes there is a self-made obstacle in her way.
In the episode airing June 25th, Comedy Central’s Legends of Chamberlain Heights struck a blow against white appropriation with a smack at Rachel Dolezal along the way. “Chocolate Milk” deals with the white character Milk’s obsession with appropriating black culture and he looks for a way to become black – at least on the outside.
The June 23 episode of Netflix’s Chelsea, titled “A Handler-maid’s Tale” continued on with the ever-present theme of name-calling and dramatically criticizing President Trump and Republicans, this week using the show The Handmaid’s Tale as inspiration.
Airing on June 25, the 2017 BET Awards were hosted by comedienne Leslie Jones and mostly featured live musical performances. Otherwise, the focus of the awards was a message of encouraging Black Lives Matter social justice warriors, although, without the long preachy political sermons delivered in many other awards shows. References to people killed in police-involved shootings - including the acquittal last week of the officer who shot Philando Castile - were present throughout.
During the June 16 episode of Netflix’s Chelsea titled “Tear Down These Walls,” CNN anchor Don Lemon let slip a bit of real news – he thinks that Trump Derangement Syndrome is alive and well among progressives in America and he thinks it is dangerous.