Week in TV: September 12-18

True Blood

I watched this finale twice, and I still feel like I don't have anything coherent to say about it. I guess it's partly because the past two seasons have had arcs that went more or less from episodes 1 to 12, with one major cliffhanger at the end, while this one ended with multiple stories that all feel like they're only at the halfway point. Don't get me wrong, I'm intrigued to see what happens with Jason as the new...king? mayor?...of Hotshot and Hoyt and Jessica in their new house and Sookie in Fairyland, but it was kind of a manic sprint to the end right there. I hope the writers will use Sookie's time in Fairy Limbo to give the show a solid time jump - the pacing could use some shaking up.

Mad Men

- It's interesting to see various online takes on the Joan storyline, as far as determining whether Joan or Peggy was ultimately "right" in how they handled Joey's all-encompassing asshole behavior. Personally, I think that they're both right for themselves and wrong for each other. Joan's assertion that Peggy will now be seen as a humorless bitch is probably correct, but I'm not sure that Peggy cares about being seen as a humorless bitch. As much as she's listened to Joan's advice in the past, I think at this point, after 3.5 seasons in real time and 5 years in show time, she's accepted that she is not going to be the same kind of workplace woman as Joan. It's not exactly like the whole winning friends and influencing people thing has ever really been her bag. I also think that last week's episode demonstrated that she's only interested in dealing with one man's issues at a time, and for now she's picked Don.

- I don't know that I'd like to see the voiceover continue over into other episodes, but it worked as a dramatic structural shift at least as a one-time deal. I also liked the use of "Satisfaction"; it's probably the most popular period song that the show's used since "Let's Twist Again" in the second season premiere - they usually go more subtle - but it worked as a symbol of Don clearing his head a bit and cluing into what's going on around him. Other reviews I've read have touched on the placement of the lines regarding advertising; I was struck on second viewing how directly they evoked campaigns within and around the show - Lucky Strike ("cigarettes") and Clorox ("how white my shirts can be"), respectively.

- I'm continually fascinated by Betty's lies, omissions and general lack of perspective where Don and her past with Don are concerned. Given the amount of time over this season that we've watched Don be decidedly not okay post-divorce, her view of him living the high life in the city frequently comes off misguided and hyperbolic. I think, though, that it's important to the show and its construction of Don to understand that there's real emotional wreckage for Betty underneath all the childish, manic hostility. However, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have a little hope that one day Betty will encounter Faye - the doctor would likely size her up in a minute, and have fun doing it, too.

Gossip Girl

- Nice to see Katie Cassidy getting more work, as she was easily the best thing about last year's Melrose Place update. I guess "Nate's New Girlfriend" is the CW's "Sorry Your Last Show Didn't Work Out, But We Still Love You" consolation prize. I'm intrigued to see where her seeming stalkerdom goes - she might turn out to be totally legit or the One True Gossip Girl or something, but the character who is straight-up crazy is a beloved soap staple.

- I probably would've been in a bit more suspense if my cable guide hadn't listed the episode blurb as "Chuck arrives in Paris," but whatever. The show's great at setting up good season-ending cliffhangers, but it usually takes them a few episodes to get the ball rolling plot-wise on the new season.

90210

I have to confess, when I originally heard that 90210's premiere was going to open with an earthquake, I was kind of hoping for something like the series-culminating earthquake in Sweet Valley High, where dozens of characters gathered together to celebrate the twins' birthday and then Olivia Davidson got crushed to death by the Wakefields' fridge and various other tertiary characters met their tragic untimely deaths. (As teen fiction goes, it was extremely dramatic.) And sure, some bad stuff happened, but if you're going to use an earthquake then I think you should really go all in. Otherwise, why are you on the CW?

Life Unexpected

- Probably not one I'll keep writing about, and it'll probably be early to move to the backburner if I get overwhelmed with work or bored (or even go unwatched altogether - of all the networks, the CW's online player is the one I've always had issues with). A lot of the CW shows seem to start their new seasons introducing new characters in a sort of "throw them all at the wall and see who sticks" way that is unfortunately reminiscent of the early second and third seasons of The O.C. and I think that last season showed that the core group of characters could reliably create drama amongst themselves without bringing in too many other people. This was just a very busy premiere.

- Also, I don't buy that an allegedly "best-selling" author would elect to take a job as a local radio personality in Portland, Oregon as opposed to, say, doing a syndicated or satellite show. This past weekend I saw Going the Distance, and one of the things I really liked about the movie was that it was relatively realistic about the characters' jobs, which is something Life Unexpected needs a bit more of regarding local radio.

Sons of Anarchy

- I love Paula Malcomson (SoA is getting Deadwood-tastic!) but I'm starting to need some more clarity on the whole Irish situation. Like, a glossary and a flow chart and maybe some closed captioning.

- I would almost definitely watch a show that was just Gemma and Tig running from the law and imposing themselves on people.

Parenthood

- I'm sure everyone has some Parenthood moment or another that evokes specific memories of growing up; Haddie's driving lessons with Kristina took me back. I learned with my dad, I think at least partly because I'm pretty sure that learning with my mother would have had the "imminent homicide" tone they captured so well here. As much critical acclaim as his shows get, Jason Katims still doesn't get nearly enough credit for his ability to realistically capture teenagers and all their emotions.

- Dirty Sexy Money reunion! Can we have Glenn Fitzgerald and Seth Gabel too?

New Shows:

Top Chef: Just Desserts

Mmmm...sugar. I'm going to use this show as a motivator towards finishing my masters thesis - I've been promised a KitchenAid mixer when I'm done, and watching chefs whip up pastries in this show made me want to throw my hand mixer out the window.

Outlaw

Adjectives fail me as far as this show is concerned. "Implausible" doesn't seem to quite cover it; there are so many factual omissions and implausible plot machinations that I kept wishing I could turn my brain off just so I wouldn't have so many questions. How long has it been since Garza was a trial lawyer? (Someone warns him at one point during this pilot that he'll be disbarred - by which bar?) Are we really supposed to believe that in this celebrity journalism/political blog culture that only Politico would be interested in a Supreme Court justice with a gambling problem? How did this guy get confirmed in the first place? I'm willing to give some leeway with a lot of shows as far as the way things are in "the real world," but the show stating that Garza was appointed by Bush suggests that they should be held to a standard that's not currently being met.

I guess I'm partly disappointed because the central premise, though unlikely, could be handled much better. I couldn't help but wonder what a writer like David E. Kelley or Aaron Sorkin would do with a concept like "Supreme Court justice retires on ideological grounds." At the very least, they'd likely engage - at length - the philosophical question of the efficacy of representing cases on the ground versus continuing to establish and affirm legal precedents by staying on the court. It was only within the past ten years that NBC was airing The West Wing - we can't have moved so far past having network shows that are both intellectually grounded and a reasonably accurate reflection of how the system functions, can we?

Also Watched: Rubicon, Hellcats, Top Chef, Terriers, Nikita

Clear Eyes...

This one's going to be hard for Ms. Cody and crew to top.

Why is he so awesome?

Week in TV: September 5-11

Rubicon

- The structure of this show is starting to remind me a bit of the first season of Mad Men. No, not because they're both on AMC. Remember how in the early episodes of Mad Men all the different twenty-something guys at Sterling Cooper seem like interchangeable shmucks, and then as the season moves on you start to really get a sense of what distinguishes Pete from Ken from Paul from Harry? We're moving out of the interchangeable shmuck phase for the folks at API. I'm particularly growing attached to Miles - Dallas Roberts infuses him with so much twitchy paranoid energy - and Kale, whose verbal smackdown of Will's less-than-fully-thought-out snooping in Spangler's office was a highlight in an episode full of great two-person scenes.

- In the spirit of what's probably Annie Parisse's best-known role, she has to be more than a silent neighbor, right? I'm pretty sure she's too well-known an actress to play someone negligible.

Mad Men

- And this is why AMC should continue to shower Matthew Weiner with cash. At least once a season Mad Men pulls out an episode that, like this one, is so riveting that I end up watching the 11:00 repeat too just because I feel like I can't bring myself to move from the couch once it's done. It's a show that's always had a good handle on thematic and plot continuity, but this episode managed to pull together so much about Don and Peggy and their respective histories and their relationship with each other and their relationships with a multitude of other characters that it'll probably stand as one of my all-time favorite episodes of the show. It's redundant at this point to say that Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss should submit this episode for Emmy consideration next spring (and, who knows, I wouldn't rule out there being another amazing episode in the pipeline for either one of them; it's been a good season) but: seriously.

- Gorgeous, quiet goodbye for Anna Draper. Her appearances were rare, but I'll miss her.

- For the emotional wallop this episode packed, it was also unbelievably funny. I particularly loved Pete's fleeting look of panic as he saw Peggy and Trudy exiting the bathroom together. As if Peggy would just suddenly lose all sense of discretion and be like, "Well, I know when I was pregnant with Pete's baby..." Also, Roger's memoirs are comedy gold.

- How great is Mark Moses? Seriously, I'm one more quality Mad Men episode away from being talked into picking up Desperate Housewives again.

Sons of Anarchy

- The first episode I've watched live and unspoiled, and shaking for an hour afterwards was totally worth it. So, RIP Deputy Sheriff David Hale (I assume. I mean, I guess anything's possible on television, but that head wound looked pretty grisly and this isn't a show that's afraid to kill people off.) and a round of applause for Tayler Sheridan. He was a unique presence on the show, not only as the rare law enforcement official both dedicated to taking SAMCRO out and to using legitimate means to do so, but also as a Charming-bred contemporary of Jax, Opie and Tara. I was always intrigued by that part of Hale that couldn't seem to completely let go of the image of the kids he grew up with. It's a credit to the writers and Sheridan that I ultimately feel sorry for Hale, that he'll never get the chance to even try to implement change in Charming.

- It's a small continuity detail, but I love that Jax's patches still look all wonky. It's a subtle reminder of the fact that from "Balm" to "So," we're only talking about days, not weeks, and that there's a lot of remaining emotional fallout yet to be fully dealt with. This season's got a lot of rich veins to tap into, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.

New Shows:

Hellcats (CW)

Fantastically manic pilot, that seemed to cycle through the plots of what most shows would use to constitute their first four or five episodes. There's a decent number of actors I like in this, and I think they elevate the material just enough to make it appealingly cheesy/campy, rather than straight-up terrible. (Todd VanDerWerff's A.V. Club review really hits the nail on the head there.) I love to have a few CW shows sitting on the DVR for when I drink my coffee on the weekends, and this show seems ideally suited to that purpose.

Terriers (FX)

I never watched The Shield, so I come at this one as just a curious viewer, rather than as a Shawn Ryan evangelist. (It seems to be one of those things where critics in the know can't resist making comparisons, like The Wire and Treme, but hopefully that impulse will dissipate as the season progresses.) I liked it a lot, especially the easygoing chemistry of Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. It seems like Terriers will have a lot of the same charm that the first season of Veronica Mars had, simply in sitting back and watching slightly unorthodox PIs do what they do.

Nikita

A solid, enjoyable pilot. The winning presence of Maggie Q in the title role and the genuinely surprising twist ending lifted it a few steps above "generic spy show" and convinced me to tune in again, at least for a few weeks. (However: Can the Alias pilot be required viewing for anyone planning a young-lady-spy show these days? Normally, the similarities are easy to write off, but Nikita had a doomed fiance named Daniel whose tragic untimely death at the hands of her nefarious employers turned her into their sworn enemy? Come on, people. At least call him "Steve," or something.)

Books Read: August 2010

August 6: One Day by David Nicholls

August 10: Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

August 13: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

In the past, before each new Harry Potter volume came out I would re-read all the preceding books. It became sort of a soothing summer ritual; it also means that I've read the first four books (Goblet of Fire became the division point because it's my favorite) many more times than the final three. I missed that old ritual, and the film of Half-Blood Prince has entered that endless loop of HBO play, so I decided to pick the book up again. It'll be interesting to see whether the Deathly Hallows movies pick up on any of the dropped themes or plot points from the book; I understand why they condensed the Pensieve memories, but the book places a bit more emphasis on the similarities between Harry and young Tom Riddle, which in turn could have lent more emotional heft to the film.

August 13: The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer

I read Niederhoffer's previous novel, A Taxonomy of Barnacles, a few years ago, and when I saw in the trailer below that this novel had inspired the film, I decided to pick it up. Reading descriptions of the book made me wonder if it was set in the present day; indeed, though it is, it has what felt to me like a very retro take on white ethnicity, setting up conflict between Jewish Laura, Catholic Tom and WASP Lila. The characters' strong sense of social divisions generated from these backgrounds felt at times like a relic from Erich Segal's heyday.

I still feel like I'm not sure whether I liked this book or not. I'm genuinely unsure about whether Niederhoffer intended for her characters to come across as such horrible people. "Friends" usually connotes even a minimal degree of mutual affection, but I never believed that any of the characters ever liked each other. More like the kind of enmity-disguised-as-friendship that prompts normal people to abandon the relationships once they've left whatever school/employment that temporarily forces them into close proximity. As I'm sure is obvious from the television shows I like to watch, I like stories about unsavory people of all sorts as long as they're made with clarity, skill, and self-awareness. I just never felt like I could get a firm handle on assessing those qualities (particularly the last) in the book.

Can I rant for a minute? My personal rule of thumb in fictional depictions of Yalies is: if the author mentions secret societies more than residential colleges, it's a no-go. Normally I hate to be a nitpicker, but the inaccuracies made it difficult to tell whether Niederhoffer was intentionally making her characters seem like idiots. (I'll just cite one example: Laura remembers meeting Tom for the first time as a freshman on the Old Campus, where he asks her how to get to Linsly Chittenden. Now, if this is a serious question, he's an idiot. For 5/6 of the school's freshmen, this would indicate that one has walked out of the front door of the building in which they live and immediately misplaced a building that is more or less directly in front of them. There are buildings on the campus that are difficult to locate; LC is simply not one of them. If it's not a serious question, then she's an idiot for finding such a lame ploy charming. And I'm going to stop now, because I sound like an insufferable elitist just like this book's characters.) Wikipedia indicates that Niederhoffer went to Harvard - I don't understand why she didn't just utilize the environment with which she was already familiar. I'm pretty sure the characters would still be snobs either way.

August 14: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

August 28: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay is a slow starter, with too much time devoted to the specifics of life in District 13, but once it gets going it provides a haunting conclusion to the Hunger Games trilogy. Collins deserves a lot of credit for being unwilling to pull punches - Mockingjay often depicts a brutal, violent world and never shies away from the consequences of the war at its center - the post-traumatic stress that lingers over each of the Games' "victors" throughout Mockingjay gives the book an emotional heft that wasn't quite present in the previous two books. The end isn't so much "and they lived happily ever after" as "and they lived, for whatever that's worth."

Word is that the film rights have (unsurprisingly) been picked up - it'll need a director and screenwriter with a sensitive touch and a flair for nuance to really pull it off. Hollywood seems to like these things a bit more cut-and-dry than what Collins offers - it's not good vs. evil so much as evil vs. lesser evil, and is there really such a thing as a "lesser evil" anyway? - and the relative mishandling of The Golden Compass doesn't necessarily portend great things for another trilogy rooted in ambiguity and the kinds of questions about life that many don't think need to be asked in works that are ostensibly "for children." With a sense of gravity and a good cast, a film could well capture the world of the books, but without it risks replicating the exploitation that the book critiques. We'll see.

Quoted X

"You can't show up and watch True Blood with the same criteria you'd show up to watch The Shield. Style, theme, pace, rhythm, all those things are never arbitrary in good shows. To judge all shows by the same set of expectations is ridiculous."

- Kurt Sutter

Mood Music XXXVI

Last night I was driving home from class and this song came up on the shuffle. Warm night, windows rolled down; it was kind of a perfect moment.

Week in TV: August 29-September 4

Primetime Emmy Awards

- I may or may not have watched the opening number ten times since Sunday.

There are many things I love about this, including but not limited to: the "prize" for the competition being $1205, Joel McHale's huge, super-fake smile in the segue into the dressing room sequence, and Jon Hamm's unflagging commitment to the whole thing. I don't think it's possible for him to be overhyped - just when you think the awesomeness has hit the roof, there he is, shimmying with Betty White.

- Other highlights: that shot of Jesse Tyler Ferguson weeping in the audience as Eric Stonestreet gave his acceptance speech; Temple Grandin enthusiastically embracing the producer of the biopic based on her life (it's kind of the perfect epilogue to the movie; they should make it a DVD extra or something); Matt Weiner pointedly taking exception to his being cut off earlier in the show when he accepted the Best Drama Emmy - I know some people find him annoying, but I love what a control freak he is.

- Jimmy Fallon did a respectable hosting job, and the show moved at a fairly quick pace. The structure was a little shaky - the show felt like it ground to a halt once they moved into Variety, even though they were still efficiently moving through awards. This is TV, and it's 2010; there's no need to give Al Pacino free range to ramble at will near the end of the show. I'd go Comedy, Miniseries/Movie, Variety, Drama, Reality, but that's just me.

- New winners! Just when you think the television academy is the stodgiest of all the awards-giving bodies, they pull out a slate of first-time winners across the board. This doesn't fully negate the argument that they are stodgy - their blind spots around shows like Sons of Anarchy, Treme and Friday Night Lights (sure, Chandler and Britton got nominated this year, but Zach Gilford not getting nominated - which, don't get me wrong, he still would've lost to John Lithgow, I'm not crazy - shows that there are still apexes of talent and quality left unrecognized) show that there's still room for marked improvement.

- Some interesting food for thought from Regina King - I really shouldn't be surprised by misidentified black actors anymore, but seriously? Identifying Rutina Wesley as Regina King? Seriously? I wish she wasn't so reluctant to engage the central conceit of her argument - for all its relative improvements in diversity in recent years, there is still a lot to challenge and question in television. Not asking the questions doesn't make the problems go away.

True Blood

- It's interesting watching this now after watching the final season of Deadwood and learning about their cancellation woes. (HBO didn't let them know until right before the season started airing that they wouldn't be renewed, so the season was left with plotlines that didn't quite neatly wrap up.) It remains to be seen with the season finale how things are left, but a lot of this show is feeling very disjointed, and several of the stories are feeling very "theater troupe"-esque. That is to say, would seem pointless if there was no season four.

- If there's anything we've learned from this season, it's that Bill and Sookie are much more interesting apart than they are together. Their drippy discussion about what they would do if their lives were "normal"? I can't be alone in thinking that Bill would be the worst third-grade teacher ever.

Mad Men

- I've always wanted to see a flashback to Don's storied fur-selling days, and this episode didn't disappoint. Jon Hamm seems to have such a clear sense of the differences in personality and physicality that distinguish Dick Whitman from Don Draper, and it was nice to see comparably nuanced work from Christina Hendricks and John Slattery.

- The drunken interludes leading up to this episode's blackout have cast alcohol consumption in a decidedly different light than previous seasons, but I think it's also interesting to see the way that they've put vocal criticism of that lifestyle in the mouths of the younger characters. SCDP is starting to build up a stable of new talent, but one comprised of people who see Don not as a suave role model, but as a shambling drunk.

Rubicon

Just when I'm ready to table this for the remainder of the season, they pull out an episode that grants depth to some of the supporting characters and subtly advances the conspiracy narrative. Though the conspiracy-deconstructing advancement wasn't big, I think it was important for Rubicon to show Will and Katherine getting the same information (Atlas MacDowell? That's a conspiracy-mongering corporation name if I ever heard one) at roughly the same time. It made it feel for the first time like their storylines could organically converge, where before Katherine's tie to the other plots felt very shaky.

Huge

A wonderful finale to a wonderful show. I hope ABC Family renews it, but it could easily remain as a time capsule of ten quality episodes (much like co-creator Winnie Holzman's lauded My So-Called Life). The finale was filled with finely-executed, low-key scenes - the conversation between Becca and Chloe in particular was painfully true to life. And I think it says a lot about the quality of the show that I actually felt surprised when Will, Ian and Trent's band came together - they managed to make me forget, temporarily at least, Nikki Blonsky's previous musical work. If Huge is through, I hope that the actors find good work in other projects; their work here should stand as a strike against flat characterization and typecasting.

Top Chef

Is it wrong if Tiffany being dismissed this week makes me not want to watch the remaining episodes in the season?

Ongoing:

Sons of Anarchy, Season Two

- Retroactive entry for the Dream Emmy Ballot! Katey Sagal was robbed, y'all. The narrative balance that the show maintained between its normal testosterone-heavy plots and the subtle handling of Gemma's feelings post-rape is a mark of how good this show truly is. "Balm" and "Service" are just a great, great duo of episodes. Entertainment-world nepotism would never have gotten such a bad rap if it was all as good as the material Kurt Sutter's written for his wife over the past two years.

- Beyond the fine dramatic beats Sagal got to play, the best part of the post-rape storyline was Gemma taking Tara under her wing and schooling her in the fine art of being a totally fierce shitkicker. Tara should've gotten her own Prospect vest, for all the Head Bitch in Charge training she got this season. Speaking of Prospects...

- Half-Sack! Noooo! I knew it was coming, but I still cried. Something always feels so incomplete about character exits dictated by actor dissatisfaction, but I guess those are the most like real-life deaths in that way. It's not difficult to see where Johnny Lewis might have felt unfulfilled by his second-season storyline. The testicular implant subplot never quite seemed to gel, though it did give us that excellent scene where he shows it to Tara, and she starts to address him but can't quite get the second syllable out, like she's physically incapable of saying the word "sack" in the presence of his grotesquely infected scrotum, plus Kim Coates' amazing spewing double-take. Broad comedy, but hilarious broad comedy nonetheless. (Can you tell that I'm in love with this show now? I'm so excited for Tuesday, you guys.) I still wish we could've seen Sack get patched in, though.

- I'm totally fascinated by Sutter's decision to put himself in the role of Otto. The writer-actor is something you see more frequently in comedy, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a drama that's featured one of its own writers, much less the showrunner, in a role that prominent. It seems to speak to a sense of camaraderie that Sutter feels with his cast, the kind of "us against the world" relationship that you see in some shows that have a strong ensemble, take place in a very unique universe and/or have a cult following (Joss Whedon and Firefly, Dan Harmon and Community).

- In the commentary for "Balm," Sutter jokes in discussing the introduction of Titus Welliver's character that he'd like to get all the actors from Deadwood on the show eventually, then says something slightly unintelligible about Ian McShane. Can I just say that McShane on SoA would probably be more awesomeness than the world could handle? I'd flip my shit if that happened.

So...

The Emmys technically mark the delineation between the television seasons past and present, though the increasing cable presence in the summer means that there's no hard-and-fast line between the two. There's sort of a breather here, but the new season of SoA starts on Tuesday, and the next three weeks have season and series premieres coming down like falling dominoes. Every year I think about trying to watch all the new pilots - we'll see how that all shakes out. I've got actual academic shit to do, so technically I shouldn't have time to tackle it all, and I already know that making myself watch some of them will be like pulling teeth. Like I said, we'll see.

Screened: August 2010

August 1: Star Trek

Screened: At home, from personal collection

It'll be a small miracle of blockbuster cinema if we get to the summer of 2012 without Star Trek 2 and The Avengers both collapsing under the weight of their own hype.

August 5: Dear John

Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix

Okay, but not great, though I think part of my reaction was due to the way the movie was marketed. The ads pitched it as being more in the vein of The Notebook or A Walk to Remember, which it decidedly isn't. That in and of itself is not a problem, but accompanied by the flat, personality-free way Amanda Seyfried's character was written, which made it difficult to understand why anyone would be so angst-ridden over her, it was kind of deadly.

August 6: The Kids are All Right

Screened: In the theater

I kind of feel about this like I felt about Up in the Air this past year: I can understand why it's accumulated early Oscar buzz and I think the performances were great, but it'll probably only ever stay in the "good" column for me. I liked it, but it didn't rock my world. I will say that each successive performance I see from Mia Wasikowska just makes me that much more excited to see her Jane Eyre.

August 8: Step Up 3-D

Screened: In the theater

Gorgeous dancing, inventive use of 3-D, aggressively cliche-riddled script. Sequences like the water-drenched middle battle and the Donen/Minnelli redux of "I Won't Dance" suggest that with a solid script, director Jon Chu could have a truly great dance movie (or musical) in him.

August 11: Kick-Ass

Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix

The film wears its claims to geekiness a bit self-consciously - slapping a pair of glasses on Aaron Johnson and telling us what a nerd he is doesn't magically make him not hot. (Though it is kind of refreshing to see that tactic attempted with a male actor for once.) While I didn't think Kick-Ass was bad, after seeing this and Wanted I'm not quite sure that I "get" Mark Millar's whole ethos. There's something very...Nice Guy about his protagonists. Anyway, between this, Watchmen, and Scott Pilgrim, can we all agree that the fans of graphic novels are really, really great at creating hype disproportionate to their actual numbers and buying power, and start having realistic expectations of how these movies are going to perform at the box office?

August 11: 12th and Delaware

Screened: At home, DVR from HBO

A fascinating, nuanced portrayal of the fight over abortion rights. I love a lot of HBO's original dramas, but the documentaries make me feel like the twelve dollars a month is really worth it.

August 11: Death at a Funeral (2010)

Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix

I feel like my primary interest in this movie, which has to do with work I did in the past year thinking about race and the concept of the commutation test for film acting, is a little too dense to go into here. I'll just say that while neither is exactly my particular flavor, comedy-wise, I found this one slightly funnier than the British version. (I know, sacrilege!)

August 13: The Women (1939)

Screened: At home, from personal collection

August 19: Where the Wild Things Are

Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix

August 20: The Lake House

Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix

Because sometimes you just want to curl up with a Chipotle burrito and a beer and watch something that you know is not going to tax you intellectually in any way, shape or form. I liked that this movie didn't even attempt any sort of pseudo-scientific explanation for the time-traveling letters; Sandra and Keanu didn't waste time asking questions, just accepted the situation and moved on.

August 21: The Way We Were

Screened: At home, from personal collection

August 25: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Screened: In the theater

Good, but I ultimately find myself disappointed that Universal decided to put all six books together in one movie. It was insanely well-cast, but the super-fast pacing meant that we only got a few minutes at a time with each of the exes. I wish they'd done three and three, mainly because the third book is my favorite and I wanted more time with the Clash at Demonhead. I love Envy, and I was kind of bummed that the movie made her seem like such a huge bitch; I mean, she's totally a bitch, but she's so much more! The flashbacks to her relationship with Scott give such great background!

Reading reviews before I saw the movie, I was surprised by how many critics seemed to think that liking Scott Pilgrim meant that you had to like Scott Pilgrim, but it makes more sense now. Focusing on the Evil Ex battles means that a lot of what the books do in addressing Scott's need to grow up, or his past with girls like Kim, Envy and Lisa, got shuttled to the side and really drained some of the emotional resonance from the story. It felt sometimes like the whole thing was taking place over the course of a week, shifts in Ramona's hair color nonwithstanding.

Anyway, I don't want it do seem like I didn't like this movie, because I really did. I love Edgar Wright's work, and I don't think anyone else could have realized the visual and referential world of the books with so much panache. I liked the way that the movie nudged music a bit more to the forefront, particularly in the literalized battle of the bands with the Katayanagis. (Though I have to say, I would've kind of liked to see the "Come Watch a Robot Kick Scott Pilgrim's Ass" flier, but I digress.) Very good. I just find myself wanting so much more.

Mood Music XXXV/Check Out This Awesomeness Right Here!

New template! I'm very excited! (Props to Hanna, whose redesign prompted me to just go ahead and change it up already.) Doesn't it look beautiful and spacious?

In celebration, some of my recent favorites. I keep a sort of rotating playlist of whatever's piquing my interest at the time (the track that's currently been on there the longest is "Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf" by the Killers), so these are just the ones that got added in the last couple of months.

Week in TV: August 22-28

True Blood

- Annual exposition dump! Sookie's part fairy! (As she so succinctly put it, "fucking lame." Hopefully, the inclusion of this plot point so early on in the series relative to the books means that the writers want to bring in those storylines where *spoiler alert!* fairies are less "fucking lame" and more "psychotically violent" and "doing terrible things to everyone, but especially Crystal.") Crystal's a were-panther! Hoyt loves Jessica and Jessica loves Hoyt!

- I like that the show has used past series regulars this season in sparing cameos - Michael Raymond-James (Rene) in a dream sequence two weeks ago, and then Michael McMillan this week. It was a perfect brief scene - Reverend Steve taking the opportunity to offer a televised "told you so" in the aftermath of Russell's on-air meltdown.

Mad Men

- Last week saw the return of Ken Cosgrove, this week Smitty. It's interesting that we're getting little hints that the splintering of Sterling Cooper set into motion by the events of "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." was followed by an exodus of personnel. Where did everyone else end up? I'd love to get an update on Paul Kinsey, just because you know his pompous ass had to seek out some new place to be as smug a hipster as he wanted to be.

- Lesli Linka Glatter is becoming the Queen of the Machine among Mad Men's directors, adding to the classic "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency" with this episode's Honda subplot, including the hilarious shot of Peggy riding the motorcycle in circles around an empty soundstage.

- I didn't mention it previously, but I love that Deborah Lacey (Carla) has been bumped up to recognition in the opening credits. She frequently makes Carla seem like the most responsible, competent and professional adult among Mad Men's overgrown children and functional alcoholics. Her role remains small but vital; for all of Betty's hyperbolic whining about Don, it's striking that she didn't care to find the time to accompany Sally to her first session with the psychiatrist.

Rubicon

I think I'm going to let this one move to the background until its season wraps up - I'm liking it so far, but the conspiracy feels so dense right now that I don't feel like I can offer a coherent opinion from week to week. Hopefully the remaining weeks will give me time to start to distinguish between all the different conspiracy-mongering old white men - they might as well be called Shadowy Cabal Member A, B, and C for all I can tell them apart.

Degrassi: The Boiling Point

The end of this daily summer run was a little anti-climactic - there's only so much you can do when you've been teasing a lockdown for the past two months. I think the set-up for the upcoming fall season worked well, though. Making the demand for change Snake's idea - putting it in the hands of the franchise's longest-running character - optimized the dramatic potential of it as a cliffhanger. I'm intrigued to see how the show shifts once it returns, and that renewed sense of excitement in a show is rare.

Also Watched: Huge, Top Chef

Ongoing:

Sons of Anarchy, Season 1

I've mentioned this before, that I started watching SoA when it first aired, but it fell by the wayside with the start of the school year and the rest of the tv season. Also, as an Undeclared fan from back in the day, I couldn't stop hearing this every time Charlie Hunnam does an American accent:

But I've so enjoyed the other shows I've crossed off the list in the past couple of months that I wanted to tackle another one, and with only two thirteen-episode seasons, I figured I'd have just enough time to catch up before the new season starts. And I'm glad I did, because it's my new most favorite thing ever. This season was a bit of a slow starter out of the gate, but once the insane ATF agents came into play, then everything just started clicking. One marker of a really great show for me is still enjoying it even after I've been spoiled on major plot points. (I read too many TV writers, it happens.) I was still riveted by the season's final episodes, even though I already knew about Donna's tragic fate.

- Gemma Teller Morrow may be one of my new favorite television characters. That scene with Cherry and the skateboard was amazing. Move over Cat Deeley - Katey Sagal is the new face of Things that are Wrong with the Emmys.

- I could rave about all the actors, so I'll just try to limit myself to a few: The Now-Obligatory Deadwood-related Excitement! Dayton Callie! Remains Awesome!; having grown up in Northern Virginia means that I've seen Remember the Titans approximately 50 times, and it always seemed like Ryan Hurst should've been way bigger after that movie, so it's exciting to see his work as Opie; did someone say "Inappropriate Crushes on Men Old Enough to be My Father"? Because, hellooo Kim Coates.

Mood Music XXXIV

The A.V. Club just wrapped up their multi-week series of covers, so I thought I'd share my favorite here:

Wye Oak covers The Kinks

Working on whittling down my backlog and mulling over a redesign - it's been nearly five years since I started up this thing, and I think it's time to consider the options now available to me.