- It's time to pull the cord on both the "What is Sookie, really?" story and the "What's the deal with Jason's girlfriend and her weirdo relatives?" story. They passed suspenseful a few weeks ago, and we're heading into "audience impatiently twiddles their thumbs" territory. Having read the books just means that I'm that much less interested in the overplayed mysteriousness of it all. It's answer time.
- I understand why, narratively, there's no incentive for the characters to all go to therapy, no matter how much they may need it, but I was glad to see Tara going to the rape survivors meeting this week. I like that the writers have imbued her with a new sense of perspective in the aftermath of last season and the Franklin debacle. Heaven knows, someone in this story needs to make strides towards consistently embracing logic.
- Denis O'Hare's agent must've clapped their hands with glee upon the conclusion of this episode - that last scene is one for the reel.
Mad Men
- A great episode, well-directed by John Slattery. I particularly liked the way he utilized the show's set to give a sense of layout to the new office - Pete's office, Peggy's office, the setup of the focus group, the shot down the hallway as Allison finally snaps and yells at Don, the hilarious shot of Peggy peeking into Don's office after the fight, the final shot of Peggy and Pete looking at each other through the glass wall. SCDP is finally starting to approach the familiarity of its predecessor. Slattery also got the best tandem performance from Elisabeth Moss and Vincent Kartheiser since "Meditations in an Emergency."
- There's something very satisfying about seeing Peggy make friends with other people her age who work in creative fields. Where it was once a radical step for her just to be a woman copywriter at her firm, now she has to decide whether she wants to become a radical woman in her 1965 milieu. Weiner willing, this will coincide with a decreasing interest in tolerating Don's shifty bullshit. I hope we'll see more of Joyce - I really liked Zosia Mamet in United States of Tara and The Kids are All Right. I'll also say that I loved Joey's "yeah, duh" reaction to Peggy asking if he'd heard about Malcolm X being shot. She's still got a ways to go.
- So, a Gen-X Campbell in the pipeline. I can't be the only one imagining a St. Elmo's Fire-style preppie nightmare, right?
Rubicon
A good episode, in that it stepped back from the conspiracy a bit to tell the audience more about the analyst group - a necessary, but deftly executed expository episode. The discussions among Will's co-workers reminded me a bit of The West Wing in the pure wonky delight of watching a debate play out.
Huge
- After watching the pilot weeks ago, something prompted me to dive back into Huge with a Hulu/On Demand mini-marathon. I'm glad I did - it's in the same camp (no pun intended) as other well-written, well-acted ABC Family shows like Greek and 10 Things I Hate About You. It's refreshing to see a show where the writers understand how teenagers speak and interact with one another, and that features a varied ensemble of characters without valorizing or demonizing any out of proportion.
- One of the best things about the Twilight phenomenon? Satiric fake Twilights in teen shows. The girls-bunk hysteria over "Phantasma" (about a girl who moves to a new town and falls in love with a mysterious boy...who's a ghost from the 1700s. They can never touch! It's so romantic!) was pitch-perfect and completely hilarious.
- I'm pretty sure me as a tween is encapsulated by some combination of Becca from Huge and Alex from Modern Family. As someone who once got called "that girl who reads" by a contemporary, I identify so much with the shy girl who keeps her head in a different book every day. True Confessions of Nerdy Youth: Once upon a time, like Becca, I went through a period where I wrote my journal in runes as an extra privacy safeguard. I know.
Also Watched: The Big C, Top Chef, Degrassi: The Boiling Point
Ongoing:
Deadwood, Season 3, Episodes 8-12
- A good run up to the end, though you could see the effects of the show being written without its creative team initially knowing that they weren't getting a fourth season. However, the episodes did a beautiful job of showing the sense of community that grew around the characters of Deadwood. There was something oddly touching about the scene of Al's men standing sentry in the street as Alma completes her walk to the bank post-shooting in "A Constant Throb," and the sense of grief around Ellsworth's death in "The Catbird Seat" made up for the loose ends remaining in the finale.
- I've got other shows in the pipeline, but I wouldn't be averse to someday taking on John from Cincinnati. Certainly this new acquaintance with the David Milch oeuvre makes me more interested in checking out Luck when it comes along.
Rewatched:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2, Episode 17, "Passion"
- Now that I've finished my month-and-a-half race through Buffy's entire run, I can pick and choose among the reruns aired daily on Logo. In retrospect, this may be my favorite episode of the series. I had enjoyed the show up until this point, but this was the first one that I watched where at the end I couldn't wait to start the next. The episodes I liked best were the ones that clearly demonstrated the stakes involved in challenging whatever villains were at hand - a necessary part of building tension over a 22-episode season is talking (a lot) about the threat, but the moments where that threat really lands are the best. "Passion" is an exquisitely tense episode - it's clear that the newly de-souled Angel is going to do something terrible, just not where or when. The episode's use of a particular piece of vampire mythology - the need for an invitation into a home - only heightens the sense of creeping menace. (It's in episodes like this that you can really see what Stephenie Meyer lost in discarding traditional vampire mythology for Twilight - if I were doing work on either one, I'd definitely try to remark on the polar opposite ways the whole "vampire boyfriend watching you sleep" thing works in this episode and that universe.) The scene where Giles discovers the horrifying tableau set up at his house is one of the series' best. By adding a familiar face to the list of Angel's terrible deeds, the show dramatically underscored the stakes involved in him losing his soul, which would resonate through both Buffy and Angel.
- I'll probably talk more about Bones once the regular season starts, but I will say that watching Buffy and Angel has made me appreciate Bones more. Bones managed to find the happy medium between David Boreanaz's performances as good Angel and bad Angel - Booth is driven and principled, but also has the joie de vivre that makes Angelus kind of fun, even when he's being evil.
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