Craig Ferguson—who, despite years of flirting with gorgeous starlets on his late-night talk show, has so far managed to escape the wave of sexual-harassment scandals currently sweeping the nation—retired from the talk-show life a few years back and has been attached to this or that project ever since, with no huge projects aimed at re-inserting his star into the firmament. I recently discovered, however, that the Scots-American (he bragged about becoming a US citizen in the latter years of his talk show) has been working with a company called GANT to produce a series of videos collectively titled "Couple Thinkers." The concept is this: Craig and his wife Megan begin each show with a question/issue, then seek out some expert to help answer the question or settle the issue. As you might imagine, the issues discussed are never really settled definitively; the joy of the series lies in the discussions. Craig is, of course, his usual jokey self; his wife Megan brings her own unique wit to the table, and the experts we meet are charming and informative. The show leans decidedly leftward, for those who care about such things, but if you're a rightie viewer, and you have your principles in place, then there's nothing here that will shake you from your ideological tree.
Here are the questions that the Fergusons have taken to the experts:
1. Can real food feed the world? (feat. Kimbal Musk, brother of Elon)
2. When do we have to leave this planet? (feat. Neil deGrasse Tyson)
3. Can we stop aging? (feat. Dr. Daisy Robinton, who has done a TED talk)
4. Can you spot a psychopath? (feat. Jon Ronson)
5. How do you dare to follow your dreams and visions? (feat. Jo Nesbø)
6. What is a successful life? (feat. Arianna Huffington)
If I have any complaint about the series, it's that it's so painfully Californian. I'm an East Coaster, and we East Coasters tend to be a bit less airy-fairy in our worldview. This series is all sunshine and West Coast idealism, but if you can look past the unicorns and rainbows, you'll have fun watching Craig and Meg do their thing.
I couldn't look past all the water wasted in the desert that is Los Angeles by Craig and Musk, or the fact that they place the entire blame of obesity on so-called processed foods instead of the sedentary lifestyles most of us lead while working on our rears, using social media/the Internet on our rears, watching TV on our rears, and playing computer/video games on our rears instead of exercising like jobs of yesteryear (farming for example) forced people into doing on a daily basis. And it gets even worse, as eSports (the sports of playing video games on your rear) are about to be added to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. It also didn't help that there was no rebuttal by anyone on the processed food side of the aisle, so it was way too one-sided, pie-in-the-sky idealist for my greasy, hamburger-loving tastes.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree with your greasy, hamburger-loving tastes, and I further agree that it would have been nice to see the issue treated with more balance, but you know going into the experience that this is going to lean pretty far to one side of the political spectrum, so I'm sure none of the show's content comes as a surprise.
ReplyDeleteJust wait'll Episode 2, in which we hear a lot about climate denialism.