|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
My editor asked me to write a review of something. He said it could be anything as long as it followed the basic rules of criticism. I was to pick one of the new shows on the networks and write one of those basic T.V. Guide reviews of it. But now, I don’t think I’ll ever write one of those kind of reviews. Sandra Bernhard’s new show is the show I picked. After watching it, I’m in the mood to tell my editor to go screw himself.
The new show is correctly named The Sandra Bernhard Experience because I simply cannot find the words to describe it any other way. It is something one must experience rather than read about. It’s an experience, a mind-blowing, knock you out of your recliner, intellectual and sensual experience. Watch this show.
I know that telling you to just “watch this show” doesn’t quite cut it. This is supposed to be a review and reviews are supposed to follow certain rules. After watching Sandra Bernhard, however, I feel like breaking the rules. I feel like bending them until they snap and shatter into shards on the floor. I’m liberated to go off and sing something one minute and then discuss art the next. The show evokes that feeling.
And, I like it.
Television has become safe. It is a factory that churns out more of the same of what has been proven to get ratings. If a reality show makes money, everybody follows. This is not true of The Sandra Bernhard Experience. It is unlike anything else on television. In an interview, she likened her show to Dick Cavett’s. It’s a fair comparison, but she’s gone way beyond that. Cavett was establishment. Bernhard is underground. She’s tapped in. She’s the conduit for what’s out there that nobody talks about.
She’s fresh. Yeah, that’s the word. She’s fresh in the sense that what she’s doing is new and exciting. She’s also fresh in that she’s ever so sassy and naughty.
The guest list for the first show included Edie Falco, Chrissie Hynde and Steve Van Zandt. Right there, Sandra and I are simpatico. I’d love to get these three people in the same room with me. True, she talks over them. She also fawns over them. But it's good to see something like this. It's messy, it's dangerous. Later in the week there’s Gloria Steinem, Boy George, and Mo’Nique. I’m going to like this show. Nobody here is hyping anything. You get to hear what they have to say in an intimate venue with NO audience.
I don’t know what A&E was thinking when they decided to go with the show. These are the folks who give you Law&Order retreads and Biography twice a day. I know for damned sure that this show doesn’t belong on network television but A&E? Well, who cares? I applaud A&E for taking a chance on this one. They've only committed to five shows, however. Let me just say that I'M the demographic they are after. If they want to keep me, keep Sandra on the air. I hope they do. It'll find an audience. Give it time.
As for Sandra herself, what can I say? She is the experience.
That’s it. I’m done. That’s my review. I’m not going to tie it up nice and neat at the end. Nothing slick. I’m going to mimic Bernhard. My review is done and if my editor doesn’t like it, too bad.
Justin Braveman is a film student and all around slacker from the Seattle area.
Back to the MAIN PAGE