ROSEANNE'S NUTS
JULY 13, 2011-SEPTEMBER 16 2011
What will happen when Hollywood has exhausted reality television? What will happen when Hollywood does not develop new talent for the big and small screen? The audience that has already begun to slip away will soon vanish and advertising dollars will shrivel and dry up.
Admittedly, I watched the first few seasons of "Roseanne", finding it refreshing I was sucked in to the realism the show offered. The days of shows like "leave it to beaver" and "The Donna Reed Show" by then seen only in reruns on stations thriving on children like myself glued to after school television had long since left prime time.
The list of 1988 premier shows is short: Empty Nest, Quantum Leap, Dear John, China Beach, The Wonder Years, Midnight Caller, In the Heat of the Night, Murphy Brown, American's Most Wanted, and 48 Hours. With America's Most Wanted recently wrapping up its final season and 48 Hours Mystery still a strong Saturday night staple, viewers now find themselves choosing between new reality shows and reality shows with entertainers from the past. There are very few reality shows that are real and even fewer that we follow but I was willing to give Roseanne’s Nuts a try.
I liked the concept and since Roseanne is able to dish it out and take it in return this was going to be funny. That is anything but the case with her son, son-in-law and sometimes even her man trying to make her crazy and pushing her to brinks of anxiety. Who are these people and why does she even have them in her life, because they come off as more hating and diabolical than loving. They look down on her and want their own 15 minutes of fame on television that can have nothing but harmful effects on her. This is sicker, sadder television than any reality show I have seen. The people who are giving it high ratings are critics who in the past have scorned the actress time and time again. They want to see her suffer and be humiliated while being a puppet to the people surrounding her.
What was the purpose of her son (Jake Pentland) being there other than to instigate and manipulate Roseanne? He hates it there and states over and over again he would not leave California, well son, go! Surely you are doing your mother no good. Vengeance is his role on the show and it is clear the film editors love when he speaks and they can beguile the footage repetitively to make her seem more than she is. The things he says about his mother and the hatred that festers in his eyes are just vicious.
The son-in-law has no concept of Hawaii or the pigs and boars that run ramped throughout the islands. Showing the potential killing of an animal is reflective of out of control producers just looking for great television footage. Which daughter married this guy? What a clinger of fame. He claimed to Roseanne that this is a farm and that’s what they do: "kill animals." Wake up dude, it’s a nut farm not a slaughterhouse. Just another wannabe television star that could not even get his 15 minutes of fame without being married to the daughter of a famous person.
This show is reality's version of the Jerry Springer show but it is sad that Roseanne, with the exception of her son, has surrounded herself with these people. The only person who stands side by side with Roseanne is Greg Cipes, a friend who lives on the grounds in a tent. He seems to be the only one not looking for his due in the public eye.
This is a sad departure from the true humor that makes Roseanne… well, Roseanne. There are moments when she is talking to the camera during the producer interviews when she cannot help but laugh, which brings the light of what makes Roseanne alive again.
RUSTY
7/13/11
