Beavis and Butt-head Still Idiotic, No Longer Essential

Critics: New drama is heavy on sex and drugs, little else

(NEWSER) - MTV debuted its new series Skins last night, an American version of a British teen drama rife with sex and drugs. Not everybody's a fan:

• Richard Lawson, Gawker : It goes even further than the Brit version in pushing the idea that teens are "messy jumbles of extremes with very little shading in between, lacking in kindness, decorum, and any sense of responsibility or consequence. It's a pretty bleak and unfair characterization. Teenagers are dumb, yes, but they're not monsters (not all of them at least). I wish television and movies would stop trying to tell us they are."

Network not happy with sexed-up image

(NEWSER) - Even if you like to pretend that MTV's Teen Mom reality show does not exist, you may find this "news" item amusing: The network is not happy that so many current and former cast members have gotten their breasts enhanced, because apparently it has a classier idea of what image the show should portray. "MTV has an idea of how they want the girls to come off and big fake boobs isn’t it," a source tells Star. "They’ve even called the other girls and begged them to hold off on surgery." The cleavage-enhanced teen moms so far include Jenelle Evans, Farrah Abraham, and Maci Bookout, Radar notes. More»

Billy Crystal brings the same old stuff

(NEWSER) - Last night's Oscars, like its Best Picture, was a throwback to a different time in film history. And though the show may have topped last year's Anne Hathaway-James Franco fiasco, it was boring and tired throughout:

• "The whole night looked like an AARP pep rally," writes Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times . "For a town that prides itself on tinsel and titillation, the night was pretty tame." "It all looked very familiar," but that "is perhaps necessary when so few of the nominated films are."

And 'Dark Knight' just might end up filming them, too

(NEWSER) - Participating in Occupy Wall Street might actually get you a job … on the Real World. The New York Observer points to a Craigslist ad that showed up Monday: “MTV's Real World is seeking cast members to tell their unique stories on our show,” it reads. “Are you a part of the OCCUPY WALL STREET movement?” If so, better get your bio and three recent pictures over to Bunim/Murray Productions lickety split! But if you "appear to be" over the age of 24, you need not apply... More»

Critics not gushing, but they're mostly pleased with premiere

(NEWSER) - Charlie Sheen’s character “exploded like a balloon full of meat,” another character explained last night as Two and a Half Men premiered and finally killed him off. Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher also debuted as Walden Schmidt. What the critics are saying:

• Turns out Schmidt is “sweet, unsarcastic but—here we stay true to the show's gawping bawdiness—possessed of an astounding anatomical endowment that he soon puts to use,” writes Tom Gliatto in People . “The instant verdict: Kutcher was not at all bad. He was quite likable."
• “Fear not,” fans, declares Fox News . “Even without Charlie Sheen, your favorite show isn’t changing much." Like Sheen’s character, Schmidt is a womanizer—albeit an accidental one—and “the show’s producers barely changed gears. … With Kutcher loosely playing himself as a savant ladies’ man, it’s likely that Charlie Harper—or Sheen—won’t be missed."