(2 out of 5)

Last Man Standing

In a world of television sit-com men there is a definite need for good male role models. We need men who are masculine, without being caricaturized as machismo – men who aren’t effeminate, pathetic, or aloof. We need to see men who can be funny but not at the expense of others alone or not JUST funny because they are idiots. We need to see men who love their families, work hard, protect their kids and give them values – yet are not just two dimensional.

Since we can’t have all of that – one of the best attempts is the new show called, "Last Man Standing." Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it for families as it continually deals with issues of sexuality in ways that are inappropriate and not dealt with in even a close approximation of redemption. In a few cases it is handled well – for example, store models who are dressing inappropriately are sent home when the main father figure thinks about his own daughters: success! Then, in another episode we see his daughters cyber-bullying an ex-boyfriend by singing about their “pie-rack.” And, I don’t exactly know what that means – but it doesn’t sound right: Fail. The father’s daughter has gotten pregnant before the show begins, and there are jokes about it – but you can see that she is working hard to care for the baby and the family is helping – it is clear she made a mistake, but that the result was a beautiful child that they would care for: success! The issue of teen pregnancy probably looks like this in many homes in America today and it is a topic worth dealing with & yes, probably in a sit-com. But, then two lesbian girlfriends are invited over for dinner for a few “yucks,” and a shock factor – and then the father goes on motor-cycle dates with the “masculine,” of the two girlfriends – because “she’s not into guys,” anyways: Fail.

In this show, the female character seems to be more of a lead in a way – and the male figure comes across as Tim the Tool Man Trainer. Even though it has been done before – it is still nice to see men who like doing men things, if that is all we can get. In one episode he insists his family goes to church: success. It is a start! But, you would like to see him have hearts to hearts more with his kids to see the laughter mixed with serious concern. It doesn’t happen:  Fail.

So, for trivial masculinity stereotypes and the occasional redemptive analogy – and plenty of short-comings it is interesting.

Television Shows Review: 2011

Pawn Stars:

Gist: Grandfather, Father, Son have pawn shop in Las Vegas. Cool, rare stuff walk in the door – they assess it, buy the stuff or pawn it – and then fix it up and sell it for more. Similar to antiques road show but more fun.

Schtick: Son and co-worker named Chub learn the business and get ribbed by father and Grandfather. Chub is like Shakespeare’s Falstaff or Mikey from Orange County choppers. If you are a boy and liked collecting matchbox cars when you were a kid then you will love this.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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American Pickers – History:

Gist: Two guys who were friends since they were kids travel around the country looking for house properties where hoarders or collectors might have old stuff stuck in barns.

Schtick: They have to help “break the ice,” with people who are hoarders and don’t want to get rid of their stuff. They look for honey-pots: places where there are just loads of cool stuff that they’d like to buy and resell. They are both kinda dorky – and you wonder if they are secretly sweet on each other.

Rating: 3.0 stars: If you like finding old cars, cool motor-bikes and cool big ceramic signs and see through gas pumps then you will enjoy this show.

Storage Wars:

Gist: The latest on collector shows. When people don’t pay their storage bill for more than three months then storage facilities let people come in for an auction to buy and remove all the junk that has been left there. There are 3-4 groups of people who compete to buy a storage shed after only looking at it (no touching) for 3-5 minutes. It is a gamble.

Schtick: One group who is bidding is a dude and his girlfriend. Another is a father and son team. Another is a dicey looking swindler dude who brings in a midget with night vision goggles. Sometimes they find some really cool stuff like an Isetta car or a bunch of collector coins. Sometimes they get a bunch of junk. The best part is the beginning of the show where they try to make the groups of people larger than life.

Rating: 3.5 stars: This show is produced in such a way it is really funny. Immediately addicting to a person who likes to see people either find really cool stuff or get totally tricked with a bunch of crap. Kinda reminds me of a gumball machine with prizes. You have no idea what you are going to get.

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Undercover Boss

Gist: CEO’s and Owners of large companies go undercover to work in their own companies to learn the ropes and see where their company is working well or where they are needing help.

Schtick: Almost always you see employees who would make any owner proud. At the end of the episode the owner usually has one or two things they want to do to improve the company – and often the owner or CEO ends up blessing their employees for their hard word. I was getting misty eyed from the very first episode. Definitely a fell good tv show.

Rating: 3.0 stars: Really good show. Helps us all remember that we should never forget what it’s like to be one of the little guys actually getting the job done.

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Cake Boss

Gist: A cake company makes fancy cakes for different people, companies, and special events.

Schtick: Family business and relations are touching. Cakes occasionally get dropped or fall over – always interesting to see how they come together.

Rating: 3.5 stars: My whole family enjoys it from age 4 to 40.

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American Choppers – Season 7

Gist: Paul Senior and Paul Jr. have parted their ways. There is now two companies developing bikes.

Schtick: Past seasons dad and Paul Jr. fought face to face. Now they fight from a distance by doing their own business. You can’t help cheering for the underdog (Paul Jr) because Paul Senior acts like a jerk, one time launching a dummy effigy of his son on a bike. Paul Senior motors past Paul Jr’s shop but won’t contact him. I’ve been praying for their relationship to be mended.

Rating: 2.5 stars: Still pretty interesting if you like watching bikes being made and you are stupid enough to hope for their relationship to mend.

(4 out of 5)

Premise of Show: People go through a hilarious "Youth-camp-like" obstacle course striving for the best time.

Who will this show appeal to? Besides me and my 11 year old son and my 6 year old daughter, I am not sure. If you enjoy watching people getting beat up, smashed in the head, falling into mud, and bouncing into obstacles - then this show is for you. It is a non-gross "fear-factor," show. It reminds me of what we used to do at Christian youth camps - only on steroids. This show is about cheap laughs - and yes - at the expense of others - but all people on the show are volunteering for these bumps and bruises.

I haven't laughed so much in a long time. The best parts of this show are the comments from the narrators. Once again - many of these shows are free on hulu.com - so kill your cable bill in these tough economic times. The worse part of this show is the "bleeping," out of swear words. If that is not too annoying - then enjoy, but not too much. It would be better if you were out exercising with the kids and hanging out with your neighbors - being a living example of God. Once again though, for cheap laughs and enjoying people getting beat up - watch this show, it is not as violent at Ultimate Fighting and you will have more "whoas!!!!" for your dollar.

~Pastor Ben

(4 out of 5)

Romans 12:3 - For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned...For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function...

Seeley Booth is a catholic ex Army Ranger that has faith in God and an ability to accurately analyze interpersonal relationships as he works with the FBI. He works regularly with Temperance Brennan - who is a forensic anthropologist who thinks logically and rationally, does not believe in God, and is socially awkward. Together they help work through murders by observing human remains (bones mostly) and analyzing the facts surrounding the case as well as the social relationships surrounding the person's remains that have been discovered. In every episode there is a cast of characters who fall in to one of two categories: 1) The socially awkward, logical, fact-based thinkers who are sometimes unwittingly insensitive in their comments and the 2) The socially-savvy set who are less able to see the small pertinent facts because they are more focused on the relational aspects of the case - they are often biased by their feelings and emotions. In each case the characters find themselves dependent upon each other in order to find the answer to the reason why certain people have died.

Just as the word tells us we need one another because we each have special and unique gifts - so we see the different characters in this show come together to help solve problems.

This show harkens back to detective shows in the 1980's like Remington Steele, Hart to Hart, and Moonlighting. Sometimes cheesy, sometimes far-fetched - but almost always gentle spirited. The script writing is a little more mature then those older shows, the science a little bit goofier and hard to believe, but the film-production is beautiful in artistic renderings of science labs and in the various locations they find themselves. One unique feature of the show is what I call the "leave it to our imagination," feature. There are often climatic scenes that are truncated so that we are left to guess for ourselves how the character will respond. For instance, we see Temperance at the end of the show opening a present for the first time in her life (she was abandoned by her parents) - and part of us wants to see her actually open it - but instead we see her just about to open it - and then the scene is cut. If we saw all of the resolutions that lay at the scene's climatic moment we would find it to be actually anti-climatic or cliché. They leave the clichés out - so that we have to imagine how the individual character would respond- because our imagination of the resolution of a personal inter-struggle is much richer than what would happen if they just painted the picture for us. Christians could learn a thing or two about this in regards to evangelism. We need to learn to speak the truth with our lives and how we work out our faith - so that we don't need to preach every detail of it - they will see it by our lives.

The characters are all flawed but kind hearted. Half of the logical thinkers are almost autistic-like - and bring a socially awkward innocence that is refreshing in our current age. The show unfortunately (but rarely) gives into the need to occasionally pander to sexual bizarre-behaviors that the show CSI seems to have perfected. These episodes should be passed on for the next one - and if you watch these shows on demand on www.Hulu.com for free you can do just that. Just click on the next episode and skip over those that are offensive to you.

In our Christian faith we have those feelers (the charismatic, social and emotional ones) who tend to place people above facts and truth about God. We also have those thinkers (those evangelicals, logical, defenders of the word of God and fundamentalist-leaning types) who can easily end up bashing you over the head with Truth - killing the patient with the sharp scalpel of what is "right." The fact is this: we need each other and we need to learn to respect the individual skills and talents that we each bring to the table while recognizing that our limitations and awkwardness in one area is what brings us a special gifting in another area. This show gives an example of a family of professionals who are not putting one another down even though each person has a clear weakness. Where other shows use individual weaknesses for cheap laughs - this show used the weaknesses to build empathy and helpful dependence on one another. This is a good model for how we should work as Christians. We should bear with one another, not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to - but instead work together to help solve the problems of our age. We are working with dead people, bones - and our task is to breathe life into those dry bones - and part of that entails worshipping the Lord in spirit and truth, respecting one another's individual gifts, and showing a unity of love for one another that will help prove we are his disciples.

~Pastor Ben

(5 out of 5)

Mythbusters is a perfect show for fathers and sons (aged 9-adult). My daughters who are nine and under don't seem as interested as we are in the whole thing – and our youngest son (two years old) is mostly into doing body slams from the top of the headboard on our bed . The hosts of Mythbusters have good humor, have fun, know how to use their brain and are focused on busting myths and/or proving facts. This show does for science what Harry Potter did for kids reading literature: makes it interesting.

Critical thinking skills and paying attention to detail are big components in this show. The show teaches viewers about "control" groups and "experimental" groups while making "hypothesis," about what will happen in certain tests. Then the tests are actually executed to find results. This show is probably more educational than most science classes, and a lot more fun. Home School parents should have all five seasons on disc – because cable television is mostly crap – and this show is on the Discovery channel.

Then, after parents watch individual episodes with their kids they should do some of their own myth-busting about spiritual issues. Hypothesize about whether mankind is really depraved or basically good. Make observations by reading CNN online and googling "corruption in the local church." Then they should take a concordance and read what the word of God says about sin, sinners, those who have sinned, and those who are fallen, wicked, and evil. Once the myth of humans being "basically good" is busted, then move on to the idea of "grace." Hypothesize about whether we earn grace or whether grace is bestowed on us regardless of our "will," "desire," or "exertion." Start by having them do case studies on Noah, Joseph, Abraham, Moses, & Paul. Have them use Strong's Concordance to look up the Hebrew and Greek word for "grace," and "favor." Do the same myth-busting regarding whether Jesus was just a man, whether we can be "saved by works," and whether we are really called to do world missions.

Part of us thinking critically requires us busting various spiritual "myths." Does God want us to all be healed? Then why do we all die? Does God want anybody to have to "suffer," in this life? Then why does God allow so much suffering and what about Job and innocent suffering? Does God want us all to be rich? Then what about Jesus and Paul? Can we become sinless? Then why did we need Jesus to die for us? These are just a few of the "countless," myths that many Christians espouse on a regular basis.

Do your kids a favor. Let them watch Mythbusters. And, when they ask you why God allows bad things to happen to good people – be ready for a little investigation into the word of God. And remember, the answer is not as simple as: "Because he gave people free-will."

~Pastor Ben