Tommy Lee

So I just got done watching the first two episodes of Tommy Lee Goes to College, and while it's always nice to see your alma mater on television, I'm afraid it just doesn't work.

Obviously, it's intended to be a "fish-out-of-water" show, but they just didn't think it through. Tommy Lee is a painfully nonfunctional human being in any situation. Much like Ozzy and Anna Nicole, just following him around on any normal day would be liable to produce scenes of utter absurdity. Putting him in a college setting is just plain confusing, like you'd asked the bear riding a unicycle in a tutu to also escape from an underwater straightjacket while he's at it.

So is it entertaining? Occasionally, vaguely, and seemingly in spite of itself. I'll probably watch it anyway for the "I know that guy!" factor, but I don't expect any Emmys. Other random observations:

• They more or less managed to match the correct exterior and interior shots together, which is kinda impressive, since of course they didn't have to. The major exception being...
• Neihardt? My ass. I wish there'd been a room that huge when I lived there. I could almost believe it was some room I'd never seen, right up until the kegger. Uh huh. Funny how they glossed over the dry campus bit.
• The staff in general, and the professors in particular, come off shockingly well. They obviously managed to ignore the cameras and hullabaloo far more than I'd have expected.
• Did they take any of their own exterior/aerial footage, or did it all come straight from the recruiting office? The campus has never, never looked so good.
• Three full hours of free, primetime, network television commercial is a pretty good deal, but I bet they're not entirely happy about the timing. Classes start next week; by the time people are actually applying for next year, the show'll be long forgotten.
• The show is also a commercial for Tommy Lee's new album, but I wonder if that'll backfire. Above and beyond the unfamiliar equipment and styles, it doesn't seem too wise to depict your star as a man whose drug habits have obliterated any musical talent he might have had.