'Magical Mystery Tour' vindicated

I’ll miss Glam Fairy after this week’s season finale. But, to be honest, it might be nice to have some peace and quiet over the holidays. My nerves need a rest.

The Voice (8pm Tue, NBC)
This singing competition outdoes American Idol with better contestants and more exciting production numbers. The judges, however, are incapable of making a perceptive comment about the performances. Christina Aguilera, in particular, is arguably the most inarticulate celebrity on reality television. Her contributions usually boil down to: “Um, yeah, it’s like, I mean…”

That said, I am looking forward to seeing which talented singer prevails in tonight’s live season finale. With luck, Aguilera will be moved to utter a complete sentence.

The Iranian Americans (9:30pm Tue, PBS)
This documentary focuses on the tens of thousands of Iranians who’ve fled to the United States. The majority of them arrived after the Iranian Revolution brought the repressive Ayatollah Khomeini to power in the 1970s. The interviewees movingly describe their dreams of the U.S. before they got here. One woman remembers having a Barbie Dreamhouse as a girl and imagining life in America to be similar to Barbie and Ken’s.

The Iranian Americans chronicles the bumpy road to assimilation. The Iranian expatriates faced tremendous hostility, especially while Khomeini held Americans hostage. They endured “Iranians Go Home” graffiti and bricks thrown through their windows; many began referring to themselves as Greek or Italians to stave off disaster.

Such is life in Barbie’s Dreamhouse.