Ironic Muppets and Horny Houseplants: SESAME STREET’s Dual Address

Sesame Street's 30 Rock parody. This is Liz Lemon. Get it?

This week I was two-timing my blog by posting on another, far more critically incisive site, In Media Res. If you are not familiar with this site, here is its basic mission:

In Media Res is dedicated to experimenting with collaborative, multi-modal forms of online scholarship.

Each day, a different scholar will curate a 30-second to 3-minute video clip/visual image slideshow accompanied by a 300-350-word impressionistic response.

We use the title “curator” because, like a curator in a museum, you are repurposing a media object that already exists and providing context through your commentary, which frames the object in a particular way.

The clip/comment combination are intended to both introduce the curator’s work to the larger community of scholars (as well as non-academics who frequent the site) and, hopefully, encourage feedback/discussion from that community.

Theme weeks are designed to generate a networked conversation between curators. All the posts for that week will thematically overlap and the participating curators each agree to comment on one another’s work.

Our goal is to promote an online dialogue amongst scholars and the public about contemporary approaches to studying media.

In Media Res  provides a forum for more immediate critical engagement with media at a pace closer to how we typically experience mediated texts.

This week’s theme is “Kids TV” and several wonderful scholars are curating clips including: Michael Z. Newman (on The Wizards of Waverly Place), Heather Hendershot (on Ernie and Bert slash), Elana Levine (on Aaron Stone), and Jason Mittell (on Yo Gabba Gabba). My clip and curator’s note, entitled “Ironic Muppets and Horny Houseplants: Sesame Street‘s Dual Address” can be found here.

Sesame Street's parody of Desperate Housewives. They really need some water. Get it?

I hope you’ll check it out and possibly join the conversation!

Musings on the Mad Men Premiere or, is Don Draper really that hot?

I’ll admit it. I am a Johnny-come-lately to the Mad Men party. When Mad Men first premiered in 2007 I was deeply ensconced in my first viewing of the Buffy the Vampire series (I came even later to that party). My husband tried to divert me to Mad Men but I was wearing Buffy-goggles and all I wanted was Sunnydale and Spike and teenage angst.

This summer, however, there was time. With my DVR schedule suddenly cleared of commitments to Lost and Desperate Housewives and Big Love, there was time enough for Mad Men. And I fell deeply in love. But there’s something curious that happens when you consume a television show, intended to be seen in individual servings, as a smorgasbord of episodes. You start to notice things. And what I noticed during my Mad Men binges was that Don Draper (Jon Hamm), no matter how hard the show tries to convince me otherwise, just isn’t that hot.

Don’t get me wrong, Jon Hamm is very attractive: strong jawline, defined muscles, winning smile. I would not kick the man out of bed. But, in episode after episode, women throw themselves at Don Draper like they are under some mystic spell. At times it’s almost funny (and indeed 30 Rock based an entire story arc around the power of Jon Hamm’s good looks). But I can’t tell if Mad Men, a show that is rarely self-reflexive, means for this to be funny.

Last night’s season 3 premiere (“Out of Town”) seemed to poke fun at Don’s overpowering sex appeal in the scene in which Don and Salvatore (Bryan Batt) flirt with a young, blonde stewardess on their flight from New York City to Baltimore. After the woman shamlessly throws herself at Don, Sal remarks, “I’ve flown a few times but I’ve never actually seen a stewardess that game.” Don, eyeing Sal with a mixture of surprise and pity, replies, “Really?”

I greatly enjoyed this exchange since it seemed like a nod to me personally (these are my daydreams, that my favorite TV shows speak directly to me). I may have also fixated on it because I didn’t love last night’s episode. In general, I am finding Don Draper’s ability to cause every woman in a 100 foot radius to swoon and bare her breasts like a Girls Gone Wild recruit to be increasingly unbelievable. I will accept that in a comedy like 30 Rock but not in a show that thrives on complex storytelling and characterizations. Truly, this is my only Mad Men complaint.

But maybe I’m just crazy? Is there is anyone else out there who isn’t drinking the Jon Hamm Kool-Aid? If so, let me know…