Can someone please gin up a good narrative music video for Ms. Britney Jean Spears?

The efforts to prove she still has her dancing chops aren’t really working. And it’s worth remembering that arguably her best music video isn’t primarily a dance video at all:

It’s totally okay to tell stories, especially in a format where even if your main or only acting tools are big sad eyes and a surprisingly gratifying smile, that is completely enough.

It’s not that reality television is over, far from it. But I think it’s telling that both Ryan Seacrest (who tops the Hollywood Reporter‘s power rankings for reality TV in a fascinating profile that fingers radio as the key to his pop culture savvy) and Bravo are making big turns to scripted television, while maintaining their core focus in reality shows. I think there’s a sense that while reality is lucrative, scripted shows maintain more prestige, so it makes sense for Seacrest in particular to prove that he can play in that arena. It’s a bit of an odder move for Bravo, given how heavily the network has invested in high-end reality and how well it’s succeeded in that very particular segment of the medium.

But I think longer-term, the more interesting question will be not reality television’s persistence—after all, the genre’s been around since 1973, and while it’s ebbed and flowed to a current high-water mark, it’s likely to continue to be compelling—but how scripted and reality television influence each other. Certain things, like the use of confessional spaces or shots, are certainly firmly embedded in scripted shows from The Office to Modern Family. But does reality television make it more likely that we’ll see fights on scripted shows? Random hookups? Catchphrases?

I’ll be down at the courthouse today doing my civic duty. I debated what I should bring to read—should I go a Nicholas Easter-like non-discript in hopes of getting seated? Be meta and obnoxious and bring something by Grisham, maybe The Street Lawer*? I decided I’d make the day a test of how much of Palomar I could get through. I promise I’ll report back. I’ve got bits and pieces scheduled throughout the day, but if things are a little thin, forgive me.

*Incidentally, The Street Lawyer is a lot of fun. It’s actually based, with a fairly deep attention to detail, on the District’s poverty non-profit community, and it’s an oddly great chronicle of how much DC has changed in the last 13 years. I’ve always loved that the main character’s fall from grace is illustrated by his defenestrated from his Georgetown townhouse to the block I first lived on when I came to Washington. It’s also oriented towards social justice in a much more systemic and profound way than Grisham’s novels usually are. That doesn’t make the prose any better, but it’s got an animating spark.