Post by jeffan on Dec 5, 2009 14:47:10 GMT -5
TV’s ‘Men of a Certain Age’? It’s about time
It’s not fair.
You’ve heard it before — men improve with age, while women just age.
Lines make a male face sexy and authoritative, but make a woman look craggy. And while some older guys can go casual and look sexy, a women over 30 with just one hair too many out of place looks like a bag lady. We’ve accepted this, but we’re jealous.
We’re also still attracted to these men, which makes us even madder...
TV’s filled with the ungraceful side effects of being an older woman, from Cougar Town to The New Adventures of Old Christine, but most of the men over 45 still get to be action figures (NCIS’ Mark Harmon or CSI: New York’s Gary Sinise) or be seen as attractive even when they’re Vicodin-addicted jerks (House’s Hugh Laurie.)...
For instance, Quantum Leap premiered in my freshman year in college, when I was 18. This means that I’m almost 40, and that I, too, wake up with weird moles and have high school students inquire what things were like when I was, you know, young and stuff.
The thing that I think all of us approaching a milestone with a big 0 in it will get about Men of a Certain Age is this — what if you’ve never gotten to be as beautiful as you thought you were going to be, or as rich or as successful? What if somewhere in the middle of climbing that hill you suddenly got pushed down the slope to Oldville and didn’t even know it?
Of course, when the cameras start rolling, Ray Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula are still good-looking famous men of a certain age.
One day, I hope Hollywood — heck, the rest of society — will recognize women the same way.
5 FINE FELLOWS (of a certain age)
1. Scott Bakula, 55,
‘Men of a Certain Age’
Type: The seasoned side of boyish
Why he’s hot: He jumped into our hearts 20 years ago (yes, it’s true) in Quantum Leap. Now, as aging actor Terry, he’s vulnerable, regretful, and still has that cowboy body. All of those things make him finely aged catnip.
2. John Slattery, 46,
‘Mad Men’
Type: Silver fox
Why he’s hot: Prematurely gray but somehow still boyishly handsome, we’ve had a thing for Slattery since we first saw him way back in the early ’90s in ABC’s criminally under-watched Homefront. But as philandering 1960s ad exec Roger Sterling, he’s a maddening combination of arrogance, old boy’s network entitlement, midlife crisis and often shocking genuine affection. We wouldn’t want to be married to Roger. But when he shoots that slyly dimpled smile, we’re shaky-kneed toast.
3. Jeff Goldblum, 57,
‘Law and Order:
Criminal Intent’
Type: Nerdy hot
Why he’s hot: Because, like the best of TV crime fighters such as Columbo and fellow CI-meister Bobby Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio), his Zach Nichols doesn’t blend in — he’s 6-feet-4, impeccably dressed and not a little weird. Goldblum uses every bit of that lankiness and his character’s confident genius to confound the guilty — and the audience. And it doesn’t hurt that Zach’s background hints of a secret pain. Secret pain is always hot...
Plus: Bonus guys!
6) Chris Noth (55) “The Good Wife”
Type: Sly dog and rascally rabbit
Why he’s hot: He’s Mr. Big, y’all! He’s Det. Mike Logan! He’s…a cheating cheater who got caught with his hand in the hooker jar. What’s more, his former Cook County Attorney General Peter Florrick expects his humiliated wife Alicia (Juliana Margulies) to stand by him while he’s in jail. That takes a lot of gall and a heap of arrogance, but in his approximately five or so minutes of screen time every episode, Noth flashes enough self-aware charm to show why Peter’s been able to smile his way to success, and why he fully expects to keep doing that. Also, he has pretty hair.
Full Article
www.pbpulse.com/tv/2009/12/01/tvs-men-of-a-certain-age-its-about-time/
It’s not fair.
You’ve heard it before — men improve with age, while women just age.
Lines make a male face sexy and authoritative, but make a woman look craggy. And while some older guys can go casual and look sexy, a women over 30 with just one hair too many out of place looks like a bag lady. We’ve accepted this, but we’re jealous.
We’re also still attracted to these men, which makes us even madder...
TV’s filled with the ungraceful side effects of being an older woman, from Cougar Town to The New Adventures of Old Christine, but most of the men over 45 still get to be action figures (NCIS’ Mark Harmon or CSI: New York’s Gary Sinise) or be seen as attractive even when they’re Vicodin-addicted jerks (House’s Hugh Laurie.)...
For instance, Quantum Leap premiered in my freshman year in college, when I was 18. This means that I’m almost 40, and that I, too, wake up with weird moles and have high school students inquire what things were like when I was, you know, young and stuff.
The thing that I think all of us approaching a milestone with a big 0 in it will get about Men of a Certain Age is this — what if you’ve never gotten to be as beautiful as you thought you were going to be, or as rich or as successful? What if somewhere in the middle of climbing that hill you suddenly got pushed down the slope to Oldville and didn’t even know it?
Of course, when the cameras start rolling, Ray Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula are still good-looking famous men of a certain age.
One day, I hope Hollywood — heck, the rest of society — will recognize women the same way.
5 FINE FELLOWS (of a certain age)
1. Scott Bakula, 55,
‘Men of a Certain Age’
Type: The seasoned side of boyish
Why he’s hot: He jumped into our hearts 20 years ago (yes, it’s true) in Quantum Leap. Now, as aging actor Terry, he’s vulnerable, regretful, and still has that cowboy body. All of those things make him finely aged catnip.
2. John Slattery, 46,
‘Mad Men’
Type: Silver fox
Why he’s hot: Prematurely gray but somehow still boyishly handsome, we’ve had a thing for Slattery since we first saw him way back in the early ’90s in ABC’s criminally under-watched Homefront. But as philandering 1960s ad exec Roger Sterling, he’s a maddening combination of arrogance, old boy’s network entitlement, midlife crisis and often shocking genuine affection. We wouldn’t want to be married to Roger. But when he shoots that slyly dimpled smile, we’re shaky-kneed toast.
3. Jeff Goldblum, 57,
‘Law and Order:
Criminal Intent’
Type: Nerdy hot
Why he’s hot: Because, like the best of TV crime fighters such as Columbo and fellow CI-meister Bobby Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio), his Zach Nichols doesn’t blend in — he’s 6-feet-4, impeccably dressed and not a little weird. Goldblum uses every bit of that lankiness and his character’s confident genius to confound the guilty — and the audience. And it doesn’t hurt that Zach’s background hints of a secret pain. Secret pain is always hot...
Plus: Bonus guys!
6) Chris Noth (55) “The Good Wife”
Type: Sly dog and rascally rabbit
Why he’s hot: He’s Mr. Big, y’all! He’s Det. Mike Logan! He’s…a cheating cheater who got caught with his hand in the hooker jar. What’s more, his former Cook County Attorney General Peter Florrick expects his humiliated wife Alicia (Juliana Margulies) to stand by him while he’s in jail. That takes a lot of gall and a heap of arrogance, but in his approximately five or so minutes of screen time every episode, Noth flashes enough self-aware charm to show why Peter’s been able to smile his way to success, and why he fully expects to keep doing that. Also, he has pretty hair.
Full Article
www.pbpulse.com/tv/2009/12/01/tvs-men-of-a-certain-age-its-about-time/
Patrick Roy, 2006 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame