TDH

It is officially TDH (too damn hot) on the east coast. I got back to the safety of my garret hostel, and found that it was 96 Fahrenheit (about 35C). I've had the artificial cold maker (AC) going for about an hour, and it's creeping down to a slightly more tolerable 88F (31C). And this isn't just some freak heatwave: it's like this for months on end. Then, in the Winter, it's more like 20F outside for months. You'd have to be mad to live here.

Anyway, onto other distractions. A few months ago, Trixie cried out for help in finding "fun, silly things to watch" on TV. This was in the context of a discussion of Veronica Mars, the least silly thing you can possibly imagine, so it took me a while, but I've recently discovered a new show that might just fit the bill.

It's called Kyle XY, and it plays on the family-friendly ABC Family Channel in the states. The premise is awfully cliched: a teenager with no history suddenly appears. What is his background? Where did he come from? Where did he go? This latter day Cotton Eye Joe begins by knowing nothing of the world around him, as if he has fallen from the stars, but very quickly learns English, proves himself an idiot savant and a supreme athlete, and so on.

If this all sounds familiar, it should do. It's pretty close to John Doe, the FOX show from 2002 that I was briefly obsessed with. (that is also worth seeking out, if you can tolerate the quite frankly dire closing shot). In fact, the opening scene of Kyle XY is pretty much a shot for shot remake of the opening scene of John Doe, as the camera zooms in on the naked torso of the protagonist in the foetal position in the middle of a verdant forest. The difference is that, while JD was mostly a mystery solving show (the one mystery he couldn't solve... is who he was... ahhh... do you see?), KXY seems mostly to be about solving lifes mysteries (although, the one mystery he couldn't solve... etc. etc.).

For a show on the "Family" channel, it's quite racy. It has features nudity, sex in a tent, teenage drinking, pornographic magazines, vomiting, heavy petting, evading arrest, juvenile detention and more... and that's just the first episode. All jolly good stuff.

And each episode features small clues to where Kyle came from. The biggest of these is, he has not belly button. So, he was never born, but instead is a genetic experiment of some morally dubious scientific corporation. Obviously. Problem solved. Next?