When and where? premieres June 9, 11:15 p.m., on IFC
Who should watch this program? stay-at-home moms, Pee-wee Herman
So how is it? Thu Tran is in love with food, and herself, and probably drugs. That's what makes Food Party such a tasty treat: it's a campy-beyond-camp mix of absurd recipes, psychedelic art direction, and cute chick Thu. Oh, did I mention the puppets? Think Sesame Street on acid. This six-part series, airing on IFC as part of their late-night "Automat" block, typically finds cooking-show host Thu in need of an ingredient, like apple seeds she must score from her dealer or caviar she needs for an undersea nude picnic. Still with me? The concept would prove senseless if not for the colorfully detailed costumes and sets, and Thu's self-consciously silly delivery. "Your oven should be pre-heated at about 350 to 450 to 550 or so ... About 69 to 420 minutes later, your cookies should be ready." Originally created as a Cleveland art-scene parody of public-access TV, Thu's videos went viral, she moved to New York, and now she's a bona fide TV star. The only downer is that each episode is just 10 minutes, but here's hoping Thu has a feature-film version of Food Party in the works, at least in her mind.
When and where? third season premieres February 3, 11 p.m., on IFC
Who should watch this program? computer geeks, crafty Irish bastards
So how is it? I.T., that is, as in information technology. The computer guys at work. This should be funny, right? Imagine The Office taking place entirely in the cubicles of the technorati. Now forget that because this isn't it. Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd follows the wacky mishaps of three employees in the computer department of a U.K. corporation. The plots are often over-the-top enough, if you write them down on paper maybe, but the follow-through just isn't there. In one episode, after one of the tech guys gets bullied by thugs in the park, he returns to scare them off with a handgun. Ha-ha. That's it. In another, the guys try to come off manly by parroting lines from a website of Cockney-inflected phrases about sports, but end up as unwitting accomplices to armed robbery, ultimately avoiding the cops with an impromptu male-on-male kiss. That would be funny if it wasn't just so not. The real problem is that almost none of the humor has anything to do with the show's alleged premise: technology. Even Saturday Night Live's "Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy" sketches spiked higher than this show on the geek laugh-o-meter, and those barely registered. The only time I've seen these guys do anything tech-related is in the third season opener when the boss asks them for help: to open his laptop. Cue laugh track!
When and where? premieres November 18, 8 p.m., on IFC
Who should watch this program? political pundits, anarchists
So how is it? The war in Iraq is just one of the media manipulations dissected in The IFC Media Project, a six-part series that, according to the show's slogan, "reveals the truth behind the news." Not that the show claims major news outlets intentionally promoted a Bush-Cheney agenda by parroting Pentagon press releases, it's just that they just didn't ask any particularly crucial questions, like, why should I believe you? As outed CIA operative Valerie Plame notes, journalists and secret agents alike must consider why a source is giving them information: "Why is this person telling me this? What do they want from me?" And why does the media give so much attention to little white girls gone missing? You wouldn't know it from the nightly news or tabloid magazines, but plenty of other kids go missing too. "Truly interesting journalism is nuanced," says ex-Crossfire host Tucker Carlson. "Pol Pot had good points. I'm sure he was a witty conversationalist at dinner parties." In addition to having fun with quotes gone awry, the program includes recurring segments "The News Junkie" (a cartoon rant about idiocies like the suffix "-gate") and "The Media Encyclopedia" (explanations of such terms as allegedly: "a handy-dandy word you can put in front of any statement to magically make it true!").
When and where? premieres March 31, 11 p.m., on IFC
Who should watch this program? free-speech advocates, pornographers
So how is it? Perhaps it's the perpetual drone of talking heads (John Waters, Allison Anders, Kevin Smith, et al) or maybe the incessant self-righteous indignation, but IFC's This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a history of unfairness by the Motion Picture Association of America's G-through-NC-17 movie-rating system, feels like just another sour sermon. Sure, the MPAA rates explicit violence "R" and explicit nudity "NC-17" (to the detriment of marketing, distribution, and profitability), but what else is new? The one inspired element of this production is director Kirby Dick's hiring of private investigators to uncover the identities of the MPAA's secret cabal. He then submits this very documentary for an MPAA rating, with the raters' identities revealed. That's ballsy. But, while the parade of commentators make salient points (it's an arbitrary system, allegedly protecting children while "turning us all into children," says Newsweek film critic David Ansen), it's all been said before. Nobody watching this program is rooting for censorship. It's on the Independent Film Channel!
