Word: planetful
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...timing is right, as movies from M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening to Pixar's Wall-E rap viewers' wasteful ways while selling huge tubs of popcorn. But Planet Green's ecotainment is also a study in what kind of Hollywood activism works and what's just noise pollution...
...Planet Green's most promoted--and most vapid--shows is Grenier's Alter Eco, in which the HBO star and several fashion-plate friends bring eco-consciousness to the deprived world of upscale Los Angelenos. They visit organic restaurants and sip biodynamic cabernet sauvignons. They build a home compost bin for a chef from Spago and work on a "green" mansion large enough to dry-dock an aircraft carrier. And they cap off each episode by sitting down to cocktails or dinner and telling one another how awesome they are. ("Why are you such a mensch?" Grenier asks...
Each of these shows believes that environmentalism will sell only if it's made glamorous. But Planet Green's better celeb shows take just the opposite approach. In Living with Ed, Begley offers tips from his home, no pimped-out eco-pad but a modest Studio City bungalow where he fusses with a solar oven and plugs in his electric car. Self-deprecating and charmingly nerdy, Begley is no dilettante, having immersed himself in low-impact living long before anyone was devoting cable channels to it. Yes, the show's concept is hokey--Begley's Green Acres bickering with...
...best show on Planet Green, however, succeeds in part because it has so little of its celebrity in it. Greensburg, produced by DiCaprio, is a documentary series about a Kansas town that decides to rebuild to green specifications after being nearly obliterated by a tornado. DiCaprio introduces the first episode, then steps out of the way as the show tells the story of the culture clashes, setbacks and moments of redemption that happen when a town decides to give back after losing everything...
...Hollywood name draws viewers in, Greensburg quickly deposits them in the real world of commerce and compromise--where, after all, any meaningful change will have to take place. If you want to see that world on Planet Green, look not at the glamorous celeb shows but at the commercials--including ads for chemical bathroom cleansers and processed, nonorganic snacks. Which points out something that the channel's upscale shows could stand to remember. It's one thing to live on Planet Green when you're a star. The rest of us have to get by on Planet Earth...