In My View

When I say I like a celebrity, what I mean is, I like their work. I have liked their work, and that leads me to expect good things from them in their upcoming projects. It doesn’t mean I want to know what’s going on in their personal lives because, honestly, I couldn’t care less. But some people might, and it’s for them that shows like Rickey Smiley For Real (Vuzu AMP, channel 103, Wednesday, 6pm) are made. Smiley, pictured below, is the star of his own self-titled sitcom The Rickey Smiley Show, which ran for three seasons, and a radio host and businessman. He’s clearly done very well for himself as the opening flyby of his palatial house shows. He can also afford to raise five kids, two of which aren’t even his, if I heard him correctly — he talks fast. Some of his kids have already moved out but they seem happy enough to swing by for free dinner. Seems pretty standard in that regard. Over all this footage, Smiley talks quite candidly about who the troublemakers in the family are and what kind of problems they have. Probably fascinating for people who can’t mind their own business.

EXPECT THE EXPECTED

Oh, and real quick, at 9pm on the same channel you can catch Schalk Bezuidenhout: Second Language, a new show by the local comedian I don’t know much about — but hey, it’s Schalk, I think we all know what to expect here: lots of jokes about Afrikaners, the kind of thing you can only get away with saying if you are one. I can’t remember which show it was, but I recall him saying that Steve Hofmeyr’s highlights are applied with milk tart.

I haven’t looked at the Sundance TV channel (108) in a while, and while I was skimming through their rather average selection this week I came across this interesting title: Ginger Snaps, Friday, 8:30pm. It’s a Canadian indie horror with a dash of comedy about sisters Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle, below) who are fascinated with death and make a pact to die together — then Ginger becomes a werewolf and starts killing people. Ginger snaps, you might say. Very profound.

It was a box-office flop in 2000, but did well on DVD and is considered above average as far as teen meat grinder horror goes — but that’s not the most interesting thing about it.

The movie got a bit of stick because while it was being made, the Columbine High School massacre took place. You know how it goes: a tragic high school shooting occurred, so anything even tenuously related — in this case high-school students dying in a cheesy horror — cannot be depicted in any kind of media for the next eight months or the Yanks will bitch and moan and call it insensitive or exploitative.

Apparently some feminists also weighed in, saying how the story linking Ginger’s werewolf transformation to menstruation was a good metaphor for puberty, the uncomfortable change, the mood swings, the killing people. I’m going to assume their comparison was hyperbolic. At least I hope it is.

PAINT IT BLACK

I haven’t watched a crime documentary for quite a while. I almost don’t want to, for fear it might set off a binge — but here’s a new show I can’t find info about, Murder Online (ID, channel 171, Friday, 10pm). Searching for the name “Murder Online” turns up video links to some bizarre, East European online multiplayer PC game that seems to have its fans — but nothing for the crime doccie. The little episode writeup does mention that the episode is about the case of Seath Jackson, a guy who disappeared after a social media flame war with his ex-girlfriend and her new man. He was found dead and chopped up to fit in a paint can for transportation to a lime quarry. Damn.

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