The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio
The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio |
| Posted: Jackson Galaxy helps viewers avert more cat-astrophes in another season of My Cat From Hell. WITH 15 years of experience in pet psychology, cat behaviourist Jackson Galaxy is not fond of the term "cat whisperer". The host of Animal Planet's reality show My Cat From Hell thinks what he does – communicate with cats – is not exactly the stuff catnip is made of. "I really want to show people that they can appreciate and communicate effectively to cats, too. I don't think being a cat listener is something only a 'selected' few can do. I believe we can all do it," says Galaxy in a phone interview from Los Angeles, California. You can hear faint sounds of cat meowing in the background during the phone interview. It makes Galaxy – who looks intimidating with his long goatee and full-sleeve tattoos – sound endearing on the phone. In My Cat From Hell, Galaxy goes from door-to-door to help couples in crisis over their pet cats. The felines he meets display some typical unruly behaviour like refusing to do their business in the litter box to more aggressive ones clawing their owners. The cat's misdemeanour then leads to a breaking point in the couple's life; ultimately, they have to decide whether to keep the cat or end their relationship. Luckily, some cat owners decide an animal intervention is needed and this is where Galaxy comes in. Armed with a proven training method and his signature guitar case filled with cat toys, Galaxy makes it his mission to help his clients overcome their cat-astrophe. Galaxy admits he gets "bloody all the time" from his job but it's the way the owners behave that really gets to him. "It's the people's reaction from cat's behaviour that really surprises me. It ranges from blaming the cat for breaking up their marriage to not having babies until a cat problem is fixed." Whenever things go wrong in life, some pet owners' first instinct is to blame the cat. "It's so intriguing to me when couples blame a cat for their relationship issues," reveals Galaxy. When it comes to sorting out bad kitty behaviour, Galaxy says it starts with understanding your feline friend. "You need to get into the cat's head and understand its mojo or why it behaves the way it does. If you get what makes them tick, then you will – at the very least – sympathise with what they are doing. If you're able to keep your frustration level down, then you won't give up on your cat so quickly." He cites an example like scratching furniture as a classic nasty cat behaviour. Believe or not, Galaxy says it's simply a way for the cat to say "we belong together" to its owner. "Cats have scent glands between each of their paws. By scratching, they are scent-marking their territory. They also do that to exercise the upper part of their body and to remove the dead nail parts. And if you sit on the couch, they scratch to complement their scent with yours," he shares. The furniture-scratching happens when the cat does not have any other means to exercise its animal instincts. "If you're going to say 'no' to cat, then you have to give them an alternative. You can start by putting double-sided tape or something on the couch. Then right next to it, provide a scratching post. You have to put something else that says 'yes, you can scratch on this'," Galaxy offers. Since My Cat From Hell first aired in May 2011, Galaxy feels the show's success has allowed "cat lovers to come out in the open". "It's funny because most animal programmes are centred around dogs. I was just on a book tour recently and a lot of people came up to say it's great to be able to celebrate that we all have cats! I feel like we've made it cool to admit that, hey, we love cats," he says. Galaxy who owns six cats, describes bonding with them as satisfying because "they insist you release a little bit of your ego". However, unlike a certain Mr. Lagerfeld, he ruled out the possibility of ever marrying one. "Leave it to (Karl) Lagerfeld to say something like that. I mean, I adore all animals. I've never met an animal I didn't love... but in the marrying sense, I think I'll stick to the two-legged kind," he says, laughing. Season Four of My Cat From Hell premieres tonight at 9pm on Animal Planet (Astro Ch 556). |
| Posted: True Blood has been lacking bite for a while ... Here's hoping the sixth season injects new life into its veins. I'M going to go ahead and say it: True Blood has become predictable. Somewhere between its fourth impending apocalypse and fifth guy making googly eyes at Sookie Stackhouse, the show lost the gutsy edge it displayed when it first began, and became instead a sort of Desperate Housewives (post-first season) with supernatural creatures – you know, the kind of soapy show where you want to scream at the characters: "Just exactly how many awful things have to happen in your creepy town before y'all decide to get the heck out of there?!" What started off as a sexy commentary on complex matters like bigotry, desire and power when True Blood premiered in 2008 has devolved into endlessly messy storylines that hardly get resolved before another complication is thrown into the pile. Yes, Season 5 ended on a shocker, with Bill (Stephen Moyer) drinking the blood of Lilith, the original vampire, and emerging as her reincarnation. The sixth season starts off exactly there, with Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) fleeing from a Bill who seems to have developed terrifying new powers, not to mention lost all resemblance to his former benign self. But this being True Blood, you already know a few things: Sookie will decide yet again that her relationship with Bill is over (she tries to stake him in the season opener, so they want us to believe it's for good this time, but I ain't buying it!); her twin Jason (Ryan Kwanten) will get himself into ridiculously dangerous situations thanks to his stupidity; Sookie's (former?) best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley) will continue to be angry at everything and everyone; and, breasts will be exposed and bottoms – not to mention fangs – will be bared (though safely snipped by our local censors, of course). Three episodes in, the show has, however, introduced a number of absorbing plot threads. TruBlood is in short supply, causing open conflict between humans and vampires, and Louisiana governor Truman Burrell (Arliss Howard) has endorsed open persecution of the undead, leading them to be interred in camps where they are tortured and studied. Bill is trying to figure out exactly what Lilith wants of him: is he the messiah meant to save vampire-kind, or the harbinger of their doom? Sookie, though, is hardly free from problems. The mysterious vampire that killed her parents, Warlow, is after her, and her only real protection is a surprise fairy grandfather, Niall (an enjoyably deranged Rutger Hauer). She also meets handsome half-faerie Ben Flynn (Rob Kazinsky) in the woods (come on Sookie, has that ever ended well for you?), who, like every other young male in the series, is immediately besotted with her. Meanwhile, with the death of his lover Luna, shapeshifter Sam (Sam Trammell) is taking care of her young werewolf daughter Emma, but also has to deal with Alcide (Joe Manganiello) and his werewolf pack, who want to claim her as their own. And speaking of girl problems, sheriff Andy Bellefleur has his hands full with his four half-faerie daughters; while they've so far only been comic relief, I suspect these rapidly-aging girls have a bigger part to play in this season's story arc. There are some things that I'm loving so far this season. The fact that Eric has stopped moping around and started being his former bad-ass self – kidnapping the gorvernor's daughter to teach him a lesson, for instance – is really enjoyable. Jessica's (Deborah Ann Woll) decision to stay with her maker Bill despite his fearsomeness is another interesting element, and develops her already fascinating character further. The two new characters, Niall and Ben, too, have a lot of potential. It's interesting to hear about the Stackhouses' faerie lineage from Niall, and I'm pretty sure there's more to Ben than just another dishy addition to the lineup. However, I'm frustrated by the treatment of other beloved characters. Alcide, thus far one of the most decent guys on the show, is suddenly an aggressive alpha male, seemingly for no reason. Tough-as-nails Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten), Eric's progeny, who was always one of my favourite supporting characters, has becoming annoyingly whiny since he severed their bond. I'm also really let down by the short shrift given to Sam's storyline, not to mention totally pushing Lafayette (the amazing Nelsan Ellis) to the sidelines. There is so much we've been tantalised with about Sam's life over the last few seasons, but the show never seems to actually let them play out. Instead, we get a lame plotline about some Vampire Unity Society members who want him to come out to the public as a shapeshifter. What all this does reveal, though, is that Sookie (and Bill) is no longer what's most interesting about True Blood. In fact, I sometimes find myself wishing there was less focus on her and more on everyone else. Love 'em or hate 'em, at least the other characters keep you guessing. Sookie has long stopped surprising me, no matter how many loops the show's writers throw her for – a dire state of affairs for a series' lead. I'm hoping this sixth season changes my mind, but if the last few seasons are any indication, I'm not sure if I'd bet my last bottle of TruBlood on it. True Blood airs every Saturday at 10pm on HBO (Astro Ch 411). |
| Posted: The Walking Dead's zombies are beneath snobbish academy. This year's Emmy nominations reflected a lot of change in TV. Netflix got creative validation; there are more female-led dramas than ever. But one rule has become calcified: No zombies need apply. Even as hordes of network executives and publicists hawked their wares at Comic-Con, The Walking Dead was once again shut out of the Emmys. On lists that ran as long as seven slots, every show and its brother seemed to get a nomination – except, you know, the show that's the No 1 scripted drama in the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Even Scandal and Nashville made lists, for heaven's sake. You would think the television academy, of all institutions, would understand the shortsightedness of genre elitism. For years, television has felt the sting of snobbishness, perpetually playing second fiddle to film and diminished by epithets such as "the boob tube" or "the idiot box". Now, of course, the tide has turned; film stars, writers and directors flock to TV, sparking a creative melee that is as rich in both promise and peril as the logistical implications of Netflix. Mad Men may have set the template for the new basic-cable-goes-scripted model that every network and streaming service is now following, but The Walking Dead made it critically acclaimed and commercially viable. Smartly written, beautifully acted and gorgeously shot, The Walking Dead tells the same intertwined tales of physical and moral survival, of family bonds, fractured passions and social collapse that have become the hallmark of our "prestige" dramas while creating a post-apocalyptic world as vivid and detailed as ever seen on any screen, big or small. But it's about, you know, zombies. And though the purveyors of awards have been forced with great reluctance to accept that warrior-based fantasy is as genuine and effective a sub-genre as, say, gangster epics or CIA thrillers, they draw the line at the undead. I understand that horror is not for everyone and popularity among young people is not synonymous with quality, but members of the television academy must take degree of difficulty into consideration. Horror is the hardest genre to sustain with depth and dignity. Even Game Of Thrones has the advantage of taking place in a truly alternate universe. Year after year, despite all its well-publicised internal drama, The Walking Dead continually transcends the confines of its own decaying flesh. It isn't even about zombies at this point. The Walking Dead is, obviously, not the only name on the "shoulda been" list. The rise of television has been slow and steady and much-chronicled by those who cover it, but this year's nominations provide the quantifiable proof of its scope. Every category is bursting at the seams, and still there are the shadow lists of those just as deserving. The female leads, in drama and comedy, were particularly gratifying. Just a few years ago, putting together a list of five was something of a chore (name a woman in a leading role who isn't Mariska Hargitay!). Now seven (drama) and six (comedy) don't quite cover it. But where is Tatiana Maslany for Orphan Black? It's an amazing show and she plays six characters, people! Where, for that matter, are Julianna Margulies for The Good Wife or Keri Russell for The Americans? Let's hear it for Laura Dern, whose excellent and revolutionary HBO comedy Enlightened got cancelled this year (please win, please win). But shouldn't Patricia Heaton have been nominated for The Middle by now? Peter Dinklage and Emilia Clarke were nominated, but Game Of Thrones could have easily filled the supporting/drama category – Lena Headey was also fabulous this year, ditto Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gwendoline Christie. I could go on, and many will, as the "what-were-they-thinking?" lists jam up new and old media. Everyone will have their top causes of exultation and aggrievement, and no doubt the category issue will be re-examined. Netflix made history, as did Kerry Washington – the fact that almost 20 years separates her from the last black woman who earned a lead actress nomination is truly horrifying. But more important, television made history too. It has become so good that even the Emmys can't keep up. – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
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