<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s a puzzle, then, to find novel ways to react “new” to the daily cultural-political flood. Maybe the task can be accomplished in pieces. <\/p>\n Jigsaw Part 1: Bloodsuckers<\/strong><\/p>\n I’m afraid that our favorite TV “crossover” shows are withering. You know, crossovers, the programs that appeal to all shapes and sizes, the ones that full professors pretend to feel guilty about watching. Every season has ’em, but in television as in life, nothing good remains firm. Everything droops.<\/p>\n There’s not even a Dorian Gray attic to imagine on the inevitably jowly Desperate Housewives <\/em>premiere. <\/em>Ellen on Idol<\/em>? So You <\/em>Still Think You Can Dance?<\/em> As one of my outraged Facebook friends said when I moaned about the early dismissal of Project Runway’s<\/em> two most creative contestants, “Please, they’re being asked to choose from Macy’s Wall of Accessories.”<\/p>\n So what’s wrong with Macy’s? My late mother sold makeup in the Herald Square store, once to Joan Crawford — shades of The Women<\/em>.<\/p>\n It’s a plug. The whole show has been a multipronged plug, but now that all the compensatory elements of surprise and conflict and joy of looking have evaporated, there’s no hiding it. Didn’t someone know that you can’t move a sewing circus out of New York, New York and expect it to retain even faux credibility? Plus, that pathetic model “competition” appended to the main hour is like throwing a sweater set onto the runway after the wedding-dress finale. So I have moved to that favorite-show middle ground where I won’t lose sleep if I miss an episode — which every studio knows is the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n![\"Project](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/Project%20Runway%2C%20Lifetime.jpg\")
<\/font><\/a>I’ve never been a fan <\/strong>of purely reactive writing. Most of it banishes those errant ideas and images that have no obvious connection to the fake trend or genuine outrage of the moment, but are nonetheless a writer’s best reason to write<\/font>.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n