I don’t need the money. Not needing the money puts me in a magical place because I can say no. I like the idea of having good movies made or having no movies made.
Neil Gaiman on The Anansi Boys, black characters, white Hollywood and ethics.
Mad Men -”A Night to Remember” (Robin Veith & Matthew Weiner)
Mad Men is getting better and better. I don’t think there is a part of this episode I didn’t like even the news that Sally had been cast as Piglet seemed appropriate.
Betty spoke up at last and Don lied to her. Utterly convincingly. It’s what he does. For years Dick Whitman has been lying. Don works in advertising where people are sold lies about the products they buy. I was so scared Betty was going to cave because we, the viewers, know that he is a cheat whereas she doesn’t and despite her looking and looking for evidence there was none. However, she is finally convinced as she watches a commercial on TV in which the funny comedian (who is horrible in real life) sells crisps. She realises everything is probably a lie and despite her lack of proof (just the word of Jimmy and her suspicions) decides it is definitely true.
January Jones was superb although she has a tendency to look thoroughly modern when her hair isn’t curled. Actually, the entire cast is superb.
Talking of Joan, it’s about time we had a Joan storyline (and it was as good as last season’s lesbian flatmate storyline). I was quite surprised that her fiancé was young and good-looking. For some reason I assumed he’d be a mousy fellow. Joan is unlucky because unlike Peggy she doesn’t have a champion and I would be deeply resentful of everything right now.
There was a point when the show reached observational perfection. Joan removes her bra and fingers the deep red marks indented into her skin by the bra and that moment was a “yes! moment”. Many women will recognise that imprint on their skin after a long tiring disappointing day and then might wonder when they have ever seen anything like that on TV.
The musical priest is an interesting character and I like all his interactions with Peggy (even if Peggy doesn’t so much) and his singing at the end was one of those moments that could go either way but it worked very well indeed. Mad Men certainly knows how to close an episode.
Apparently Terence Stamp turned down the role of Montag because he thought he would be overshadowed by Julie Christie. Well, to this set of eyes and ears he needn’t have worried. I am at a loss to understand the attraction of Julie Christie. She doesn’t seem either talented or compelling or even that good looking.
Andy and I started thinking about who was good-looking in the sixties and seventies and we had a problem thinking of anybody. I suggested that Terence Stamp himself was beautiful and maybe that was the problem – the era was full of beautiful men like Stamp, Hemmings, Beatty and McDowell. The women couldn’t get a look in.
Fahrenheit 451 is almost a great film but it suffers from its limited locations (making it look like a TV programme), its disconnected continuity, its lacklustre lead and from any sense of urgency. It failed to make Montag’s wife at all interesting when I think in the book she was clearly depressed and repressed and not simply shallow.
I did like the locations they did find especially the Alton Estate and the SAFEGE Monorail.
The most powerful sequences were in the old woman’s house with the increasing tension between the Captain and Montag and the old woman’s suicide along with her murdered books.
The spoken opening titles were fabulous and Bernard Hermann was the Danny Elfman of his day: instantly recognisable.
I was just writing another blog post while listening to a free CD that came with Word magazine and the sweet vocals of Ben Taylor (son of Carly Simon and James Taylor (and you can tell)) came to my attention as he sang “Wicked Way”:
I just want to take you out and get you drunk so I can have my wicked way with you
I’m just being honest cause I know the other guys are thinking just the same way too
And I’m not gonna lie and say that I will take you out to dance there’s just no chance cause I don’t even like the same music you do
I just wanna have my wicked way with you
So don’t you fight it cause I know you’re gonna like it
Show me some skin I might bite it
I wanna have my wicked way with you
Thanks Ben for a song that is obviously amusing and sweet and not at all offensive.
Dollhouse – “Haunted” (Jane Espenson & Maurissa Tacharoen & Jed Whedon)
Eliza Dushku has a limited range has an actor (that’s okay, so did Doris Day) and that was quite evident in “Haunted”. Dollhouse isn’t a vehicle that suits ED but I am struggling to see what actor could manage it.
This episode was the Dollhouse meets Miss Marple. Jane Marple was always being parachuted into people’s homes to undercover a possible crime. I missed the part when Echo was invaded to stay in the dead woman’s bedroom. Rich people with large houses often find they have to accommodate strangers this way even with wills of introduction.
Oi, you two, be quiet
The funeral service scene was awful. I fully expected the other mourners to turn round en mass and tell these people to stop being so bloody rude and shut up.
I enjoyed the Topher and his best friend who is just like him for one scene but otherwise I find Fran Kranz hard to watch for more than a few seconds.
The problem with MOTW eps like this is the challenge to get you to care about the characters in the “mission” storyline who you are never going to see again. Neglected daughters, loser sons, and young husbands – it’s hard to care about such cardboard characters. Dead Like Me did MOTW (where the M stands for mortality (noun)) episodes much better – the gay couple episode called “The Bicycle Thief” was deeply moving.
“Haunted” was redeemed for me by the compelling Paul/Mellie storyline which was full of disturbing and revelatory things:
[If you want a more considered analysis of Dollhouse, then Charles over at Heartache with Hard Work is doing a great job.]
Miracle Laurie seems to be the Amber Benson of Dollhouse – in lots of episodes but not in the opening credits.
Somebody in the costuming department has a stiletto heel fetish.
Mad Men – “The Gold Violin” (Jane Anderson and Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton)
The Don flashback was intriguing and tantalizing.
Has Joan met her match? Jane won that bout but there’ll be sticky times ahead.
Have I mentioned before how much I detest Roger? He is so creepy and always looks as though he is going to make a pass at any woman.
Sal’s behaviour at dinner toward Ken was a little OTT. And would Ken not have missed his lighter quite quickly and guessed where he had left it?
I loved Sal’s wife, Kitty. She was instantly likable in a way that I can’t think that any other character has been (except, maybe, Rachel). I wish Ken behaved as nicely as he did in this and “The Wheel” because generally I find him rather sinister.
God, not more of the Barretts I thought when Jimmy phoned Betty. However, I am willing to put up with more of “you people” if it leads to an awesome Don smackdown. The silence in the car journey home would have been a brilliant way to the end the episode (like “Hush“) but Betty vomiting was perfection (and I can’t stand vomiting scenes usually).
Obviously people littered in the sixties but would people like the Drapers be such bad citizens? It seemed a rather clunky way to make a comparison between a lack of concern for their surroundings versus a desire for a pristine car interior.
There quite a lot of Betty hate on the TWoP boards – TWoP is the only place guaranteed to be spoiler free in episode discussions – which I am puzzled about. [I also don’t like the new use of the word “hate” to mean “criticism”.] Some of the criticism centres on Betty’s alleged shallowness that I do appreciate is a valid concern but in general the complaints are about Betty being a bad mother. First, I dispute that she is a “bad” mother. She may not dote on her children but seems attentive and engaged enough, e.g., she doesn’t have to sit down and eat with them. Secondly, why should she dote on her children? Children she had because that was expected of women in her position. A modern Betty, a woman in her late twenties, has the real choice of not having children if she doesn’t want to have them. The criticism is also gendered. She gets called on her parenting while Don gets a pass. She may not have finished her game of chequers with Sally but at least she was playing with her daughter unlike Don. I also see that people can look for reasons to see her as bad mother. When Jimmy phones her, she shoos Sally out of the kitchen and that was seen as bad by a couple of posters. I can’t say that not wanting a potentially noisy child near you when you are on the phone is a symptom of poor parenting!
This is the first episode in a while that has gone me itching to see the next one as soon as possible.
Angel – “Deep Down” (Steven S. DeKnight)
I’m not a big fan of Angel but I am a completist* and I’ve started so I’ll finish and so we are watching S4 to accompany Buffy the Vampire Slayer S7.
Anyway, I have decided to blog Angel from now on.
I am watching S4 with low expectations so it was a pleasant surprise how much I enjoyed this. It was really sad to see Andy Hallett resplendent in his greenery because it is terrible that he has died so ridiculously young. He also played one of my favourite characters. Cordy is also one of my favourites so it was disappointing to see so little of her (though storywise it made sense).
Fred and Gunn are a tiresome couple. The Fluffy dialogue started off being amusing but degenerated into tastelessness and unfunniness. It was painful.
Taking a Fluffy joke a little too far
The sex scene between Wes and Lilah was notable for Alexis Denisof’s chest, for Wesley doing something weird with his tongue and for Lilah licking his neck. The latter two things I wish I could forget.
Stephanie Romanov looked rather lovely and her character has indisputably moved to the right of the dark side with her beheading of Linwood. Linwood had a point, mind you, about her shortcomings, she is generally useless particularly if she did think Wesley didn’t know anything.
I like Vincent Kartheiser as Connor. I like the actor so much in Mad Men that I may be predisposed to like Connor but then I do like Dawn too.
Angel’s chat with Connor asking him what he deserved (a second chance, clearly) worked quite well considering the whole champion thing and using the comparison of what Buffy did to him (for more noble reasons, it must be said!) was excellent.
Since everything I write about seems to come back to Dollhouse, here is another observation. My problem with DH is that if you are going to deal with “difficult” subjects like prostitution, trafficking, etc, then you need to deal with it well. Dealing with it crappily isn’t acceptable. So if Angel isn’t that great, it really doesn’t matter because it doesn’t usually deal with difficult real-life issues. Which is why “Billy” is one of my least favourite episodes along with “I Fall to Pieces” (stalking), “Hero” (Nazis) and “Expecting” (forced surrogate pregnancy).
*I’ll probably one day finish Astonishing X-Men and I won’t stop watching Dollhouse if it’s renewed just like I didn’t stop watching Heroes at the end of S2. I have stopped now. The murder of Elle was the final straw for a show that has next to no idea of how to write female characters of any interest at all.
Mad Men – “Maidenform” (Matthew Weiner)
Sometimes I watch Mad Men and wonder what the hell the characters are doing and why.
This should have been a brilliant episode but it seemed to miss the mark for me too many times.
Four examples:
The irony of excluding the people who actually wear Playtex (and probably buy most of it) was sad. I thought Peggy was excessively passive throughout which made her transformation seem even sillier. Just who is she going to listen to next?
Poor Pete. He has absolutely no idea what an arse he is. He tries so hard to chat amiably with Peggy but is rebuffed. He makes friends with a girl dog who’s a boy dog. He then shags a model (who failed to get the part) in the living room of her apartment with her mother next door. His self awareness is pitiful. He actually thinks he isn’t a loser.
Fucking Don – take that in all its meanings – he is such a horrible character at the moment. I’m glad he took a moment to think at the end. He needs to get a grip and soon. He has all he needs at home if he would just look.
I’m itching for Betty to tell Don where to shove his patronising hypocritical attitude. I suspect I have a long wait.
I guess we have seen the last of Bobbie unless her next appearance is to take some sort of well deserved revenge on Don. I don’t like the character at all but Melinda McGraw plays her brilliantly.
The Jackie/Marilyn/Madonna/whore thing was interesting and I have no doubt the assvertising industry would love to have two such strong models to divide modern women into such day and night categories. I see Peggy as a Joanne Woodward.
I’m not the brightest of people so I didn’t get that Don was a bit of a Jackie/Marilyn/Madonna/whore himself and missed the symbolism of the mirror at the end but I really don’t understand how people could query his discomfort at being celebrated as a hero on Memorial Day.
Mad Men – “The New Girl” (Robin Veith)
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