Looks like the Olympics drought is over and we have not one, but two shows to feature today: NBC’s new family drama series and a Nova episode about everybody’s favorite planet. To the planet, first, ‘cuz it’s a much better show.
NOVA The Pluto Files
Friendly Rating: Genuine, real family fare. Your toddler might not get the talking, but there are cool pictures.
Safety Rating: One implied threat of violence and one (appropriately used) naughty word.
Quality Rating: Excellent – who says science is boring and humorless?
On PBS, check your local listings for times.
So is Pluto a planet or not? In 200o, when the American Natural History Museum’s Hayden Planetarium decided that Pluto wasn’t exactly a planet, it eventually touched off a fire-storm aimed at the planetarium’s director and PBS regular Neil deGrasse Tyson. Media outlets took aim, angry third-graders (the grade when kids typically learn about the solar system) sent him mash notes.
And, as we find out from this whimsical little episode, even astronomers disagree, sometimes quite loudly, about whether Pluto is a real planet or an icy object out in this belt of other icy objects, the Kuiper Belt.
Tyson is taking on a serious subject here. But instead of being pedantic and boring, he approaches it with incredible humor – including one scene in the barbershop of Streator, Illinois, the hometown of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. Implied threat with a razor, but it’s done so tongue in cheek only the most humorless person would find fault. Better yet, Tyson doesn’t mind being the butt of the joke.
But what’s more important here is that you have genuine and strong differences of opinion, and yet, everybody is civil and good-humored. They joke about the conflict, but they don’t put each other down and Tyson gives everyone their say with a great deal of respect. And – wow – people respond to his opinion with respect.
So, as comedian Jon Stewart concludes at the end, it doesn’t really matter whether Pluto is a planet, a dwarf planet or an icy object. It’s all part of how our understanding of our universe changes as we learn more about it. As long as we still get to call it Pluto.
Parenthood
Friendly Rating: Young teens might enjoy it.
Safety Rating: You’ll want to watch with them – sexual themes and language issues.
Quality Rating: Little more than okay, but it has its moments.
Based on the movie (which I know I’ve seen but don’t remember it being like this), the show is about the Braverman family. With parents Zeek (Craig T. Nelson) and Camille (Bonnie Bedelia), and their four adult children, all of whom have kid issues.
The pilot has a plotline going in 30 different directions, thanks to the fact that you’ve got a huge cast and only 50 minutes to set up their primary conflicts with each other. Which maybe why the show just didn’t feel that good to me.
Safety-wise, there’s a reason this show is on at 10 p.m. and it ain’t just to fill the space left by the crash and burn of the Leno experiment. There’s a fair amount of sexual activity and talk going on. One of the teen-age daughters is smoking and mis-behaving badly, but it’s pretty clear that this is not behavior that’s endorsed.
There are two main plots in the pilot, airing tonight. Sarah (Lauren Graham) is facing money troubles and moves her two teens back home to her parents’ place. Her older brother Adam (Peter Krause) is having trouble with his youngest son Max (Max Burkholder), who is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. And, actually, it is Adam’s grief and the way he challenges his father that makes for the one really touching moment in the episode.
While the Asperger’s angle is interesting, the rest of the show just seems a little too obvious and pat. I’m willing to bet one of the adult kids is going to get divorced – my money is on high-powered attorney Julie (Erika Christensen), although next in the running is Adam.
It might provide some grist for the conversation mill – what with the teens acting up all over the place. A good conversation might be based on how the parents could behave more like parents. Or it could sink slowly into the mists of cancelled programming.
The most important point Tyson made in “The Pluto Files” is that this is an ongoing debate, and that there is no consensus among astronomers as to Pluto’s status. This is important because too often, kids are taught that something is true just because someone in a position of authority said it is true. Pluto does not stop being a planet because four percent of the IAU voted that way. Kids need to be taught the controversy, presented with both sides of the issue, and given the chance to decide for themselves how to categorize Pluto and all dwarf planets.