Meerkat Manor

In some ways, watching Meerkat Manor, Animal Planet’s wildly popular documentary series about a pack of furry little mongoose critters roaming Africa’s Kalahari Desert, is not too far off from subjecting oneself to an exercise in mild psychological torture. The meerkats, complete with their own names, personalities and storylines, are so cute and adorable and OMG don’t you just want to take them home as pets?! But then the next thing you know they go and do something like heartlessly abandon a member of their pack or eat their companions’ young. Those horrible meerkats!

Nevertheless, we couldn’t help but choke up a little when we read this story in the L.A. Times today about Chico, one of the African meerkats’ cousins, who lives in the Los Angeles Zoo. Thanks to the success of the TV show, real-life everyday meerkats like Chico have become quite the celebrities in zoos across the country. But poor little Chico—he’s all alone!  read more »

Monday

Is the impulse that drives viewers to A&E’s reality series Intervention charity? Or what the newspapers used to call "human interest"? Or is it just Schadenfreude? Either way, the show, which chronicles those confrontations between self-destructive people and their families and friends brokered by "intervention" specialists, certainly doesn't play for laughs. What you’re seeing is usually pretty horrific, and the train wrecks it picks through can actually become pretty touching stories. Methamphetamine and OxyContin addictions are common fare here; and the success stories, which are not guaranteed, are definitely the more edifying programs. So maybe it is charity after all? Tonight we meet Chad who, like most of the show's subjects, had a pretty troubled childhood—he ended up in juvie for felony arson. At age 15, Chad’s father introduced him to cycling, and he went pro and even cycled on the same team as Lance Armstrong. When he got kicked off the team for “personality conflicts,” however, he turned to drugs. He's homeless and spends his days drinking, panhandling and smoking crack. Can an intervention save his life? The show airs at 9 p.m. Of course before reality programs there were nonfictional programs about science and nature and history. The History Channel takes a break from reconstructing Hitler's last hours in the bunker to trot out an hour-long program about the origins of life on earth at 9 p.m. At any rate switch to Bravo at 10 and watch Clueless if you haven't seen it a few too many times already, or fire up the fourth season premiere of Weeds at 10 p.m. on Showtime.  read more »

Sad news in Meerkat-land. The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes is reporting that another star of Animal Planet's breakout series Meerkat Manor, has died.  read more »