As someone with access to Netflix and the Internets, I just can't justify the cost of subscribing to premium cable channels. I always meant to watch Extras some day, but I forgot about it until a recent Christmas vacation that was noticeably devoid of things to do. So thanks to some peers of mine who like to share their video material, I watched the first season of Extras in one sitting. Of course, this being a British sitcom that doesn't amount to a lot of time. It's only 3 hours long. That's standard operating procedure at TiFaux Brooklyn when it comes to watching The Wire (just finished Season 2. Excellent.). I liked season 1 so much that I decided to check out season 2 the next day. Once again my peers came in handy. Then suddenly Ricky Gervais started showing up everywhere talking about season 2 of Extras airing on HBO. Turns out the shows haven't even aired in the US yet. I was ahead of the game and didn't even know it. That's just how I roll.

But let's talk about the show. Ricky Gervais plays Andy, a struggling "actor" who can only get extra work. His best friend and fellow extra Maggie is played by the Scottish woman on Ugly Betty. In the first season they're on a different movie set each week with a different famous guest star playing generally horrible caricatures of themselves. Ben Stiller plays a predictable egomaniac who can't stop talking about how much Meet the Parents grossed while he directs a movie about a man who's family was killed in a war. His episode was broadcast first which is unfortunate; his character is the least interesting because he plays it so broadly. Much better is Kate Winslet, who apparently loves to talk dirty on the phone and is only doing a Holocaust movie because it's a guaranteed Oscar. Patrick Stewart constantly making Star Trek references that nobody gets and describing his repetitive and filthy screenplay is another highlight of the first season. 

As Gervais says in a great interview on The AV Club today, comparisons to The Office are inevitable and entirely beside the point. People are going to grumble because it's not like The Office or because it's too similar. There's still a lot of embarrassment and cringe-based humor, but it's not nearly as heartbreaking this time around. And it's not as angry as Curb Your Enthusiasm or as sadistic and unfunny as Meet The Parents.

Season 2 has our hero getting a BBC sitcom and writing and starring in a sort of Bizarro World version of The Office featuring funny wigs and an endlessly repeated catch phrase. He desperately wants to make a show like The Office, but he constantly allows his good ideas to be compromised by the producers. The show is a huge hit, but everyone who has any taste hates the show or claims not to watch television. The guest-star formula of season 1 continues as Maggie is still an extra and because the newly famous but universally reviled Andy now moves in the lower circle of celebrity so he can go to the same clubs as David Bowie, even if Bowie's arrival gets him kicked out of the VIP section.

Excuse me while I rant and tell a personal anecdote. 

I don't mean to harp on this High School Musical thing (too late!), but I just read the New York Times review of the traveling stage show, and I'm deeply disturbed. Not by the trampy costumes and the suggestive dancing. Not by the blatant marketing and the spin-off CDs. These things are gross, but in the end, I tend to side against the horrified parents in most cases. Horrified parents are impossible to talk to, and they frequently can't see reason, like republicans. Kids dressing like prostitutes, listening to swear words, and using technology just doesn't bug me, because most of the time parents are totally overreacting. 

An example: During my fabulous stint as an employee of a video store in high school (seriously, best job I've ever had, and probably ever will have, except for the fact that it went out of business my senior year), I sometimes watched movies in the store. Like I said, best job ever. I was working after school one day and put on Strictly Ballroom. If you haven't seen it (netflix that bad boy), it's about a bunch of Australian ballroom dancers who want to dance new steps. It's awesome, and it's rated PG. Then a woman came in with her kid, who was around 5-8 years old.

I don't really know what happened next, because pent-up anger about this incident has been clouding my brain for nearly ten years. Maybe it was the Australian accents. Maybe it was the colorful costumes. Maybe it was Baz Luhrmann's quick-cutting style. I couldn't really tell you. All I know is that the woman came up to me and asked me to turn it off. "My son is here. I can't believe you'd play this," she said with disgust. Instead of slapping her in the face, stealing her poor child, and running off to Canada, I turned off the movie in shock. I was only sixteen. She was furious. What could I do? (And now I'm shaking with anger again. Mustn't. Yell. At. Work.)

So immediately I'm put on guard by the NYT review's mildly offended tone. Was the concert to loud for you? CHILL OUT, LADY! I wanted to say, on behalf of Strictly Ballroom. If she'd seen High School Musical (and no doubt she had, as a parent of a female child), she would have noticed how sexually neutered all the characters were. Even the so-called romantic leads. There's no kissing. No declarations of affection. Only the occasional hand-holding, and that's only if they're in a hurry and need to run someplace.

That bugs me. 

With a show that repressed, no wonder the actors have to resort to skimpy clothes and gyrating. The house style says that ANY SEX IS BAD, but the fact is the audience still has a desire for sexiness — obviously the fans want there to be something between Troy and Gabriella — so they're forced to show it other ways.  It's Disney's mixed messages we should be pissed about. It's okay to dress like a slut, but not to be one? What does "slutty outfit" even mean when you aren't allowed to so much as kiss another person?

Maybe if Disney had a little bit of flexibility in the way they show teenage relationships — maybe if Troy and Gabriella could be allowed one little kiss, or at least be able to admit out loud that they like each other — maybe then the actors wouldn't dress up like hookers to sing in New Jersey. It's a jarring combination of repression and exhibitionism, and it's confusing. What does it mean when you look one way, but you act totally different?

Reading this over, it appears I have taken the position that there should be more sex in children's television. Not sure how I got here. Feel free to discuss.

Better than harmonicas, not as good as banjos. 

• Dave Matthews will taint House with his presence as he plays a musical savant who get seizures.  I'm surprised he's not trying to persuade House to help him with his glaucoma problem.  Wink, wink.
• It all seems a little unofficial, but Jace seems to think that Joss Whedon is going to be directing an episode of The Office.
• The newest season of The Real World will be filmed in Sydney, Australia.  It will likely be in an effort to prevent the locals from harassing the cast members.  Let them binge drink in peace!
• In other MTV reality news, Road Rules will be returning on Jan. 30. The new season will be called Road Rules: Viewers' Revenge.  Although it's not clear what they'll be avenging, home viewers will have a hand in deciding who gets eliminated.
• Kanye West will have his own reality show.  Horrifying, I know.
• Michelle Rodriguez will return to Lost via flashbacks. 
• Ruh-roh.  The guy who created Scooby Doo died. 
• Stephen Colbert and Bill O'Reilly will be on each others' shows on the 18th. 
• The LA Times talks about how people who write comedy hate Studio 60.