Getting this business back on track after the schedule-warping time drain of my Valentine's Day party last week.
- A Grantland piece on Skins upon the beginning of the sixth series in the UK - I particularly like that this essay credits the show for its unique handling of a played-out soap trope in Tony's recovery from his accident in the second series. I'm hoping that the fact that the fourth and fifth series have reached these shores without making a pit stop on BBC America means that it won't be too long before the sixth is available on Netflix or iTunes or somewhere. I wonder if they're sticking with the penultimate episode death for this generation of characters - the arc works with Chris' story in the second series, but Freddy's death in the fourth is one of the more absurd TV twists I've ever seen.
- An A.V. Club retrospective on Homeland - after I saw that the whole season was still available On Demand while I was home for winter break, I ended up watching all twelve episodes in about three days and loved it. I picked the interview segment with "The Weekend" because it was easily one of the best episodes of TV drama I saw all year. This is the first show that's ever made me want to subscribe to Showtime instead of just recording Showtime shows on my parents' DVR and watching episodes haphazardly whenever I'm home. (I'll also include a link to the fourth part of the interview because it has such a great picture of Carrie's rainbow timeline on her conspiracy wall. Maybe I'm over-identifying with her crazy self, but I think there's probably an apt comparison to be made between academics and fictional characters attempting to unravel major conspiracies. Like, I've never had a corkboard wall, but I definitely have enough paper to fill one.)
- And another A.V. Club piece from Todd VanDerWerff on the pacing of watching seasons of television - particularly in speeding through shows versus watching week-by-week. Looking ahead to March, I started intermittently watching Mad Men over again from the beginning and on this rewatch I've become convinced both that Adam Whitman is more important to the show's mythology than most fans give him credit for, particularly in how Don relates to his kids in wanting to remain an active presence in their lives (which in turn is a major factor in the whole "Why is Betty still around when she's such a horrible person?" debate), and that he's also an easy character to overlook if you're watching the show too quickly.
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