One Last Look: 2010 In Review -Part 1 Of 3 - The Cultute of Pop, DVD, Movie, TV, Pop Culture Review

One Last Look: 2010 In Review -Part 1 Of 3

Posted: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 14:39:44 PST

From the heartbreak of an earthquake rattled Haiti to the bizarre weather plaguing most of the country last month, 2010 was a very strange year at times…A year in which many of us faced challenges and hardships unlike any other (mine being mostly health related). On the bright side, there wasn’t a lack of things to talk about. ..and even the most outrageous happenings proved welcome.

Since my last 12 months marked a year radically different than any other I’ve experienced in my life, this three- part retrospective follows in kind.Let’s begin with my top 10 biggest disappointments, a collection of pop culture conversation starters that either outraged, saddened or alternately bemused and amused.

Mel Gibson-It’s a shame that Hollywood doesn’t have a remake of the Charles Bronson film Death Wish in development, for this Aussie madman would be perfect for it. Despite a triple whammy of a high profile divorce, past controversial statements and an infamous drunken night out culminating in racial rants heard ‘round the world, Gibson evidently hasn’t learned from his mistakes. One would think that an Academy Award winning actor would be smart enough to realize that anything you scream into a cellular phone might just be recorded like a scene on a movie set…and what he did say was so profane that it made even Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor collectively blush in the great beyond. Add to this a potentially disastrous film chronicling a man obsessed with his puppet and you have a career that may become the equivalent of scandal plagued silent film star Fatty Arbuckle in the end.

Jesse James-Ever have a baaaad  feeling about your best friend’s choice of a marriage partner? I think a lot of us felt that way about Sandra Bullock’s hubby. But the way she was raving about him in many an awards season speech last year made some of us question ourselves.

End result? Nope. We couldn’t have been more right..and will someone please tell me why does a man cheat on one of America’s cinematic sweethearts with a pair of tattoo stained anime rejects?

Brett Farve-They say football is a game of inches. Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Farve knows that. Unfortunately, Brett’s being playing another game where inches is involved..and not the kind that endears you to prospective Hall of Fame voters or corporate executives of Wrangler Jeans.

24-When one invests a near decade of his/her life to a television series, the least the powers that be behind it could do for the faithful is provide some sense of closure or a satisfying conclusion. Instead, Team (Jack) Bauer got a finale that looked like a cliffhanger for an upcoming season that will never be.

Steve Martin/Alec Baldwin-Two incredibly funny, intelligent, smart comic minds who wound up becoming the Oscar hosting duo equivalent of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider.

They blew it.

Lost-A three year plan leading up to the finale by its show’s creators promised great things. To say they delivered is an understatement…and then the creative gas tank ran out with two and a half hours to go. Equally anti-climatic, bloated and surprisingly underwhelming at times, this curtain call joins the likes of St. Elsewhere and Seinfeld in the controversial camp of television swan songs.

American Idol-Okay, after a season featuring (arguably) the most talented and likeable cast in the show’s history (not to mention eventual champ Kris Allen and beloved runner up Adam Lambert duking it out), it was pretty much a given that a pale follow-up year would follow. But not even the addition of the usually dependable Ellen DeGeneres (increasingly ineffective as weeks rolled on)  and a newly fiery Ryan Seacrest could enliven a dull-as-dishwater season tapped off by the weakest top two finalists ever (sorry Teams Bowersox and DeWyze).

 

CBS News/Firing Of Harry Smith-Playing television programmer, I can understand the need for a show mired in ratings woes to reinvent itself and appeal to the younger demographic. What I find incomprehensible in such matters is to reward a longtime loyal team member with a dismissal. With apologies to all the great talent that have graced the program, Harry Smith IS/WAS CBS’s The Early Show, a model of intelligence, professionalism and class, qualities that are becoming less prevalent as television news continues to evolve (or so they say). Thanks to such a move, this could be the most boneheaded decision by a morning news program since Today forced Jane Pauley out the door.

Warner Brothers/Cancellation Of The Bonnie Hunt Show-Granted, weak ratings led to its demise, but I wonder if things might’ve been different had Warner Brothers did more to publicize the efforts of one of the most likeable talents in the business. In the same league as Oprah in terms of connecting with her core audience, equally quick witted as mentor David Letterman and just as effective at letting her guests shine a’la Johnny Carson, The Bonnie Hunt Show was a much needed, welcome change of pace in the daytime television talk world..and it’s such a pity that more of America didn’t realize what they were missing.

­Jersey Shore-Speaking of the above, it pains me to think that daytime repeats of this undeservingly popular piece of junk may have gotten higher ratings than the likes of Bonnie Hunt. Like gross You Tube videos more discerning people only view once, I can’t recall when I’ve been more repulsed by a television program on first sight. Not even the various tribes of “Housewifes” come off so unlikeable.

If I have one resolution for this year ahead, it’s to urge people to help speed the 15 Minutes Of Fame clock on these losers. Perhaps the anti-climatic showcasing of Snooki’s oh-how-exciting(!) New Jersey New Year’s Eve ball drop is a step toward having such a dream come true.

In part two of my 2010 retrospective, the 10 toughest pop culture goodbyes in months gone past.