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archives 2008 » feb. 20th

The View
The View

by Craig D. Lindsey

B+

Mon.-Fri., 11am. ABC While it may not be the coolest thing in the world to admit, I find myself at home on weekdays tuning into those gals on The View (instead of, like, working) more often these days. And I gotta say, a lot of that has to do with Whoopi Goldberg. By having the comedienne/Oscar winner/former center square as the moderator for these opinionated dames, the show has a cool, level-headed sense of coherence and rationality that’s barely existed in the decade it’s been on the air. It certainly wasn’t there last season, when the panel was headlined by Sapphic pit bull Rosie O’Donnell. Yeah, yeah, I know—Rosie’s unpredictable antics made for fascinating television. But let’s be honest here: The woman’s nuts. Getting into daily tete-a-tetes with the incessantly Republican Elisabeth Hasselbeck (aka the Hasselbot) was one thing, but her erratic, over-the-top accusations made you wonder what kind of meds the woman was downing. (Remember that WTF? moment when she accused Kelly Ripa of being a homophobe because that she didn’t like it when effeminate Clay Aiken put his hand over her mouth on her show?) With Goldberg now in O’Donnell’s seat, the show isn’t as merciless to the senses as it once was. Exerting a no-nonsense attitude while still taking everything playfully in stride, she serves as a quick-witted traffic cop, making sure Hasselbeck’s conservative chirpiness, Joy Behar’s radical-feminist rantings and Sherri Shepherd’s I’m-just-a-big-bosomed-sista naivete all get equal time before she goes to the next commercial break. For the first time ever, the ladies of The View finally look like a well-oiled machine. So it’s a shame when Barbara Walters does her drop-bys and messes up the camaraderie by casting a chilly authoritative pall over the show. (After 10 years, the woman still thinks she, and everybody else, has to present things in an elegant, dignified manner. Does she even watch this show?) Walters should take a cue from her new moderator and just loosen up.