Donna Freitas: November 2007 Archives

While adults on TV seem to be romancing each other with nary a kiss, high schoolers on the other hand, are hopping into bed left and right on the CW's new smash hit "Gossip Girl." Oh, and doing burlesque night club strip teases. And having sex in limos. And having more in the back room on bar stools. All while wearing fabulous, couture designer clothing!

When these kids aren't having sex? They're drinking champagne and ordering designer cocktails at New York City's fanciest bars and hotels. And their parents are snorting cocaine.

Chastity may be the new cool among adult television series, but it certainly isn't among those series catering to teens. "Gossip Girl's" message seems to be the following: the quicker and the more often you can take it all off for the boys, the more popular you'll become! Who needs romance when you can simply have unfullfilling sex with dark-haired rich boys you hardly know? Who needs morals anyway? Morals are so passe! Why save yourself for something special when you've already got all that life has to offer: money, money, clothes, and more money!

To grasp what I am about to say and not think I am totally bonkers, you need to first understand: I have not have a day off in, oh I don’t know, four months maybe? I mean, not a single day off. Not even on the weekends. Physically, emotionally, and especially, spiritually, I feel as though I’ve been wrung dry.

So the day after Thanksgiving, I got up and went to my favorite Manhattan coffee shop, Tarallucci E Vino, a little Italian place with great pastries in the best espresso in the city (I think) that, in simpler times, I frequented on a daily basis. I walked in the door, one of the women who works there greeted me like an old friend, told me to have a seat, she remembered my regular order. And she did.

My coffee arrived—an Americano, very strong, with steamed half and half—an almond croissant on the side. I pulled out the House & Home section of my New York Times from Thanksgiving day (I didn’t read the paper on the holiday), and happened to start reading Jancee Dunn’s inspired “With the Grace of Liberace Go I,” about her collection of 1950’s -60’s, and -70’s entertaining guides by the likes of Joan Crawford and Helen Gurley-Brown (from Cosmo).

If Walt Disney's latest fairytale film "Enchanted" isn't a star-making vehicle for actress/singer Amy Adams, then I don't know what is. Not only does Adams shine as Giselle, the cartoon princess turned "real life" princess in this clever, very tongue and cheek take on the classic "some day my prince will come" story, but she is absolutely, positively, hilarious.

Chastity seems all the rage this season on most of my TV series favorites—both old and new. So much so that I wonder—what has sparked such a trend? From where does this loving-from-afar inclination stem? Are viewing audiences simply tired of the “we like each other so let’s hop into bed” motif to which we’ve become so accustomed? What is it about those long, loving gazes that keep viewers coming back, week after week?

1. Pushing Daisies. How could Ned and Chuck—TV’s quirkiest new couple—not top my list? Though the consequences for consummation between Ned and Chuck may indeed be deadly, this doesn’t stop them dabbling with a flirtation from afar that’s not only sweet but seriously sexy. The love and desire is so potent it makes the space between them thick as the honey Chuck cultivates with her beekeeping. Talk about making abstinence sexy.

2. Bones. Will Bones and Booth ever kiss? Well into season three of this offbeat crime procedural (Temperance “Bones” Brennan is a forensic anthropologist—she finds killers via bone remains; Seeley Booth is the CIA agent who calls on her expertise often), this is a series that has crafted the kind of partners-in-solving-crime not seen since the likes of Scully and Mulder on “The X Files.” Supposedly, Tuesday’s new episode finds Bones and Booth under the mistletoe. They’ve near-kissed so many times at this point that I’ll only believe when I see it.

While I am glad that my fellow blogger Kris Rasmussen has offered additional commentary (and commentators) on Philip Pullman, "The Golden Compass," and the question of God and atheism in the book/movie, I'd like to respond to her implication that (a) I am somehow offering an extreme position about Pullman (her post title is "A More Moderate Point of View"), and (b) that I think all Christian critics of Pullman are extremists.

My position about Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is moderate. I am basically advocating that people:

(a) read the books cover to cover;
(b) not boycott movies because they might lead to kids reading wonderful literature; and
(c) not ban these books from school classrooms and libraries out of fear.

How is that not moderate? Because I say these things passionately?

Two weeks ago Christians across the United States were abuzz about accusations that British author Philip Pullman allegedly is selling "atheism for kids" (or so says Bill Donohue of the Catholic League) through his multi-award winning, fantasy trilogy "His Dark...