PBS (Thurs., July 2, 10 P.M. ET)
C+
This installment of PBS's summer arts series Alive TV (formerly Alive from Off-Center) purports to examine the cultural influence of MTV over the last decade, but it displays no point of view, no critical perspective, no narrative. It seems more like one of MTV's constant on-air promotions.
The program merely re-creates MTV's frantic visual environment with a torrent of sound-and-sight bites taken from the channel. Disjointed, feverish, hypnotic and empty, this video collage mimics MTV perfectly, with one important failing: You don't gel to see Duff, MTV's pulchritudinous prime-time VJ.
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