Where would movies and TV be without the barbarous ’burbs to regale us with their baroque frights of bad taste and human-waste disposal? If America has a libido for the ugly, as H. L. Mencken proclaimed, the ’burbs are where that libido flies its freak flag. Used to be, sensitive characters with aspirations for something finer in life than eight coats of shellac on their bouffants and living rooms that resemble the Italian Renaissance on acid couldn’t wait to flee the outskirts and seek fulfillment in Manhattan, preferably Lower Manhattan, where people speak nice, appreciate cultcha’, and go easy on the leopard prints. [read more]