By Dean Robbins
The sitcom dad takes a walk on the wild side with ‘Strange Days’
Bob Saget inspires a surprising amount of hostility. For years, he’s been a punchline for viewers and snarky TV critics because of his stint as a goody-goody dad on the sitcom “Full House.” I always considered this unfair, given the comic skill with which he played the role. Saget must consider it unfair, too, since he’s tried so hard to run away from his squeaky-clean image in the years since.
The latest attempt is “Strange Days with Bob Saget” (Tuesday, 9 p.m., A&E), a reality series that submerges him in unconventional and even dangerous subcultures. In the premiere, Saget spends a week riding with the rowdy motorcycle club Iron Order. He enters their clubhouse wearing his nerdy glasses and an ill-advised smirk, then makes nonstop wisecracks — including one about his bar mitzvah — that do nothing to mask the fact that he’s an ironic outsider in a world of long gray beards and stringy hair.
You expect him to get beaten up — and many Saget-hating viewers will relish the prospect. But against all odds, he wins over the motorcycle toughs. They laugh at his nervous jokes and consider him a good sport for riding 1,500 miles with them.
By the end of the episode, I bet, even most viewers will lose their desire to see him beaten up. For a despised figure like Saget, I’d count that as a small victory.
‘Bridalplasty’
Sunday, 8 p.m. (E!)
This reality competition features brides seeking a dream body for their wedding days. “Bridalplasty” allows them to assemble it piece by piece, with the help of celebrity plastic surgeon Terry Dubrow. The winner of each week’s competition will be granted one of the plastic surgeries off her “wish list.” The winner of the entire competition gets a total plastic-surgery makeover, along with a wedding where she can reveal her new look to the man she’s about to marry.
Do you, Larry, take this mannequin to be your lawfully wedded wife? CV
