`Todd TV' a new low in reality
Midway through last night's premiere of "Todd TV," FX's first foray into reality event television, Todd is standing in his bathroom addressing America. "Here's my toilet right here," he says, pointing, "and here's a camera right here. How unsettling is that?"
Very, Todd. Unsettling, not to mention symbolic.
"Todd TV," in which cameras follow a 30-year-old slacker 24/7, is a mundane new reality stunt, a camcorder-style series juiced up with bouncy editing, direct-to-camera chatter, and a cheesy soundtrack. It's an hourlong waste of time, unless you think you'll be stimulated by watching Todd drinking too much, Todd flirting up girls in bars, Todd overdrawing his checking account, Todd doing his laundry, and Todd mugging and whining. The show, airing weekly at 10 p.m., makes "The Real World," with its seven strangers and its half-hour length, seem eventful.
The twist in "Todd TV" is that viewers will vote on what Todd Santos, a waiter-musician who sleeps until after noon, does with his life over the next few weeks. We're charged with trying to improve his prospects, to make him into more than just a lost boy with a cute haircut who's trying to become famous by starring in a reality show. We will be his own Fab Five Million (if FX is very, very lucky), voting by phone on how to make him over. Last night, for example, we were asked whether he should take his mother or his therapist as his roommate -- options far too psychologically disturbing to deal with here.
Can we vote to cancel "Todd TV"? Alas, host George Gray, the "Weakest Link" host who now sports an irksome little soul patch, did not present us with that option.
When Ron Howard's movie "Edtv" opened in 1999, the idea of a man allowing his life to be filmed and manipulated by the public was outrageous. Since then, of course, hundreds of real people and celebrity wannabes on shows such as "Big Brother" have given over their privacy for our scrutiny and judgment. And "American Idol" is letting us choose recording stars by phone. Despite FX's claims that "Todd TV" is something radically new, since Todd is giving up his free will, it's really a pretty stale concept. Reality players have been letting strangers make choices for them -- about who to date, who to marry, which animal organs to eat, which nose to buy -- for years now.
FX is building an impressive reputation for itself with the heavy-hitting dramas "The Shield" and "Nip/Tuck." That's two steps forward for this one step backward. 