Word: subtext
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...hard to figure out what Parker and Stone are using their show to say beyond the fact that eight-year-old boys are silly and the world is filled with many useless celebrities. Unlike The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-head, South Park is devoid of subtext--it isn't really about the emptiness of suburban life or the ugliness of youthful nihilism or the perniciousness of popular culture. Nevertheless, it can deliver many funny moments, and Parker and Stone may very well grow up someday to be a Judge or a Groening...
Cage revels in revealing Middle-American desperation, the panic at knowing one has to get through the day. Even when he plays the sweetest people, he creates a roiling emotional subtext. There is odd stuff going on inside; he's wild and weird at heart. So he will furrow his brow and gaze doggily at the speaker, as if he's trying hard to listen to your problems so his head won't explode from all of his. Yet he can see the humor in himself. Says Shirley MacLaine, his co-star in Guarding Tess: "Nic winks...
...played catch with one of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and in this particular show, Vinnie, Richie and Louie from St. Bernadette's got to work out for Robinson. The kids enjoy an easy rapport with Robinson as they toss him questions and he tosses them grounders. There is no racial subtext. There isn't even a gap between fan and star--they are just ballplayers of different sizes. As Jackie gently admonishes the kids, "Stay on it, stay right on it now," you realize that we didn't listen to Jackie. We didn't stay...
...Profit (Fox) A heinous antihero (named Jim Profit), who made J.R. Ewing look like Bob Saget. A corporate empire shrouded in mystery. A wry subtext that attacked the evils of techno-culture. Profit had it all--except a decent-size audience. This mesmerizingly original corporate thriller was canceled after just a few outings, and yet we will never forget the chill of star Adrian Pasdar's insidious whisper...
...time evangelism was ready to make the leap to television, however, that resentment had dissolved. In the 1950s a new generation of media-savvy ministers--Bishop Fulton Sheen, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts--started directing their crusades at the TV audience. And if the subtext of the awesome Catholic liturgy had always been God's immutable power, the plot of these TV revivals was tailored for the medium of Father Knows Best. In broadcasts from million-dollar sets-cum-cathedrals, TV evangelicals preached not just about the miracle of Jesus but also about the blessing of communications technology. Religion...