Life, my friends, is not like television; nay, not even a long-form, decompressed version of television. Television is television, and I am generally disenchanted with this mysterious medium that so many consume rapaciously. I doubt, who hoped to champion! Is there value to be found in lessons viewed? How does the low art interact with immediacy? Can it be better than sheer escapism?
Explorations best left for another day, because right now is time for the lowest low-down, the skinny, the truth summarized and pre-packaged (individually wrapped) as it emerges coyly from my current viewing queue, which these days is not the average bag. I am consuming piecewise, bite-sized instead of dvd-ified episodic intake, because my netflix is canceled just like Pushing Daisies (and good riddance. as a result of that show I have added the word "twee" to my vocabulary).
The Office. A rare example of a good show staying good. Sure, they mix in a clunker every now and then, but I can not call to mind a show that creates more moments with staying power. I still remember the warehouse basketball game, Dwight and Michael and their secret powow at Staples, the bat, Pam alone in the office calling her mother over the whole Jim thing, the first time we met Andy Bernard... you get the picture. Goddamn does this show have characters. And they keep being flawed and themselves, and they keep coming in to work every day. This is a goddamn television show.
Heroes. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shitty shit shit pile of shit shit. Shit. I watched only a couple episodes of season 1, and then I stopped because there were lots of characters, none of whom possessed consistent traits or motivations. Also, nothing ever happened. Caught the tail end of season 2; it was minimally exciting. There were some good eps in season 3, I swear, but you can see the network brass in the background stoking the fire hot so that the "canceled" brand burns extra hard. Every scene is second guessed. Every character is interchangeable, and even though the actors retain the same faces from one episode to the next, I swear to god they are playing different roles every time I boot up nbc.com. I don't quite understand, because nobody's TRYING to make a really fucking terrible piece of television and I honestly don't give a fuck about the insane plot logic. They're just so confused in trying to cater to ratings and pack as much watchability as is possible into every moment, and as a result, we the viewers get no development or continuity. There is the scattered cool moment--it was AWESOME when Peter's father stole all of his powers and we witnessed evil ascendant, the extent of arthur petrelli's assholedness, familial betrayal... good stuff--in a huge mire of shitty shit shit shit shit.
Mad Men. Baller. Best drama on television bar none.
Chuck. hehehehe! There is nothing to this show but attractive people, a modicum of heart, and a truly foolish gimmick, yet it makes me giggle. Curious.
hoopah! power chords! intercostals!
Showing posts with label Mad Men. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mad Men. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Crazy Show
airing on the MYLIFE network is entering syndication for at least a month or so! Reruns and no stress, this news coming from the suits upstairs and if there's anything I've learned in my life, it's always trust the man in the suit.
Now, I've been thinking a lot lately. Deep, deep thoughts, resonating from my most internal depths which I have PLUMBED--at great personal effort to myself, and with mighty tolls and tribulations on my person--and I have RECEIVED and calmed them. Let me tell you, these thoughts, as they perch here retrieved and resigned in my pretty head, they are in fact DEEP.
I am thinking, "all I ever do in this blog is write something when I get excited about a TV show." And the next thought, which follows the first, is "THAT IS OK! YOU ARE EXCITED BY A TV SHOW!" But not that way. No, no, no, not that way.
MAD MEN. Oh, season 2 has been a landscape of gently rolling disappointment spotted with the occasional "oh yeah that's kind of cool" copse. Until now. Episode 7 was an EARTHQUAKE but one that is not dangerous just delicately and awesomely terrain-altering.
Just the final moment of the show and we can be done. Betty and Don for the first time confronted by the consequences/horror of their success, or maybe more accurately, their belief in it as corroborated by all observers. So artfully done. Questions by the child: "Mommy, are we rich?" "It's not polite to talk about money, sweetheart." Purchase of an exorbitantly expensive and sweet-ass caddy as in Cadillac, baby. Don just got invited by his boss into the "people who get to decide what happens in this world" club. And then BAM, Jimmy Berrett hits on Betty like crazy and tells her Don is fucking his wife. And she knows it might be true. And then Jimmy tells Don what a shithead he is. And HE knows it might be true.
Then they sit in the brand new caddy--the one they won't let kids in unless the rugrats have washed their hands--just looking terrible, and not talking, and you, the viewer, are wondering what the hell are they going to say. AWESOME FACES OF DISCOMFORT.
Betty pukes. Cue Brenda Lee... "Break it... to me gently..." roll the credits. I loved it. I am just so tickled.
Headstands!
Now, I've been thinking a lot lately. Deep, deep thoughts, resonating from my most internal depths which I have PLUMBED--at great personal effort to myself, and with mighty tolls and tribulations on my person--and I have RECEIVED and calmed them. Let me tell you, these thoughts, as they perch here retrieved and resigned in my pretty head, they are in fact DEEP.
I am thinking, "all I ever do in this blog is write something when I get excited about a TV show." And the next thought, which follows the first, is "THAT IS OK! YOU ARE EXCITED BY A TV SHOW!" But not that way. No, no, no, not that way.
MAD MEN. Oh, season 2 has been a landscape of gently rolling disappointment spotted with the occasional "oh yeah that's kind of cool" copse. Until now. Episode 7 was an EARTHQUAKE but one that is not dangerous just delicately and awesomely terrain-altering.
Just the final moment of the show and we can be done. Betty and Don for the first time confronted by the consequences/horror of their success, or maybe more accurately, their belief in it as corroborated by all observers. So artfully done. Questions by the child: "Mommy, are we rich?" "It's not polite to talk about money, sweetheart." Purchase of an exorbitantly expensive and sweet-ass caddy as in Cadillac, baby. Don just got invited by his boss into the "people who get to decide what happens in this world" club. And then BAM, Jimmy Berrett hits on Betty like crazy and tells her Don is fucking his wife. And she knows it might be true. And then Jimmy tells Don what a shithead he is. And HE knows it might be true.
Then they sit in the brand new caddy--the one they won't let kids in unless the rugrats have washed their hands--just looking terrible, and not talking, and you, the viewer, are wondering what the hell are they going to say. AWESOME FACES OF DISCOMFORT.
Betty pukes. Cue Brenda Lee... "Break it... to me gently..." roll the credits. I loved it. I am just so tickled.
Headstands!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The Sounds of Your Own Voice
A wop bop a loo-mop, a wop bam boom!
Tutti frutti, my friends. Tutti frutti. I'm dancin' these days, and man do the days get longer, the breaths deeper, and the abyss more terrifying as you approach SHOWTIME. No need for all that really, but it happens nonetheless. Between all the working and drinking--by working I mean hopping lifting and swaying, in time; by drinking I mean to excess--there just ain't no place for nothing else.
Well I am a liar. I have also re-entered Oblivion (god help me i am prideful fool i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry) and watched more WEEDS and MAD MEN. I was checking out at the grocery store the other day and lo and behold! on the magazine rack resteth the TV GUIDE MAGAZINE. Now, I hate TV Guide for their Fox news-like stand against the writer's strike, but on the cover of this dirty rag was the following headline:
MAD MEN. THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION?
And the first thing that popped into my head was a "yes," the kind with the brow crunch and "obviously" intonation. There is something so gd... HILARIOUS about their protagonist. He is just REALLY serious all the time that it's like, all the other stilted period dialogue is set into theatro-surrealistic-comic relief. It's brilliant and compelling and seems extra real for being so fake. If there are any Alice Munro fans out there, it reminds me of how lasting her characters are even after you close the book. Really, it's not just Don that has that effect. Also Betty and Peggy, these actors are in no way fucking around. I don't know what it is, maybe being "period" allows you to be serious and theatrical without being Six Feet Under. If you like some of your fiction televised, you have every reason to be watching this show. Man, and they dig in deep with the advertising. The reach of media was beginning to be understood back then (in a codified, marketable way) and is STILL a burgeoningly relevant issue today. The writers never forget that the theme is what makes the show so interesting to watch, and that we can deal with Don being such a brooding alcoholic because of it: what speaks to us, what lies, and how do we sell it?
There is a bunch of who is sleeping with who in the first season (also fun, and handled in a not distracting way) but so far season two is sticking with a slightly less compressed reality and the actors are just hitting their stride.
Buzam!
Tutti frutti, my friends. Tutti frutti. I'm dancin' these days, and man do the days get longer, the breaths deeper, and the abyss more terrifying as you approach SHOWTIME. No need for all that really, but it happens nonetheless. Between all the working and drinking--by working I mean hopping lifting and swaying, in time; by drinking I mean to excess--there just ain't no place for nothing else.
Well I am a liar. I have also re-entered Oblivion (god help me i am prideful fool i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry) and watched more WEEDS and MAD MEN. I was checking out at the grocery store the other day and lo and behold! on the magazine rack resteth the TV GUIDE MAGAZINE. Now, I hate TV Guide for their Fox news-like stand against the writer's strike, but on the cover of this dirty rag was the following headline:
MAD MEN. THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION?
And the first thing that popped into my head was a "yes," the kind with the brow crunch and "obviously" intonation. There is something so gd... HILARIOUS about their protagonist. He is just REALLY serious all the time that it's like, all the other stilted period dialogue is set into theatro-surrealistic-comic relief. It's brilliant and compelling and seems extra real for being so fake. If there are any Alice Munro fans out there, it reminds me of how lasting her characters are even after you close the book. Really, it's not just Don that has that effect. Also Betty and Peggy, these actors are in no way fucking around. I don't know what it is, maybe being "period" allows you to be serious and theatrical without being Six Feet Under. If you like some of your fiction televised, you have every reason to be watching this show. Man, and they dig in deep with the advertising. The reach of media was beginning to be understood back then (in a codified, marketable way) and is STILL a burgeoningly relevant issue today. The writers never forget that the theme is what makes the show so interesting to watch, and that we can deal with Don being such a brooding alcoholic because of it: what speaks to us, what lies, and how do we sell it?
There is a bunch of who is sleeping with who in the first season (also fun, and handled in a not distracting way) but so far season two is sticking with a slightly less compressed reality and the actors are just hitting their stride.
Buzam!
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