What a cracking episode of Mad Men. It was most satisfying and had me directing two thumbs up towards Allison in her tremendous confrontation with Don ("I don't say this easily but you are not a good person").

It had absolutely everything from the ensemble cast including fabulous dialogue, hilarious scenes, heartbreaking scenes and great character moments.

Loved Joyce ("sweetheart") and loved her even more when I found out she was Lindsay Crouse's daughter (Zosia Mamet). Her scenes were very funny and managed to make Peggy less awful than usual because her scene with Allison was spot on in showing her cluelessness with people.

The scene as Peggy and Pete's eyes meet each other as they both acknowledge they are truly happy going their separate ways was lovely. Pete is comfortable and very successful as part of the old guard while Peggy is looking for fun and excitement with the bright young people of the future.

Via

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It made no sense (why the graffiti? why were these Chinese people using A to Zs? why was that Chinese circus act so poorly attended?), it was nonsensical (the doctor who whacked somebody on the head made no attempt to overturn her chair when her life depended on it and even Holmes never thought of knocking her over) and it failed to update 19th century attitudes into something less, um, stereotyped.

The doctor must have fancied Watson a lot to put up with him falling asleep at work when sick people needed to see him and with him yelling he wanted to get off with her in a desperate sort of way.

The two leads are still fine in their roles but Sherlock needs to stop treating that mortuary woman like shit.

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The opening line of the show asked “who is Don Draper?” and I’m pretty close to not caring. I’m beginning to feel like one of those people who watch Buffy for anybody other than the title character. Don is the lead and I don’t like him. Almost nothing about him is pleasant, not even his face which looked older and flabbier. His lifestyle is catching up with him and it is skeevy.

I saw Jodhi May in something today and suddenly got an urge to watch her in the TV version  of Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet. I bunged in the DVD and starting watching it from when Florence (played by May) tells Nan (Rachael Stirling) about her relationship with Lilian (Cyril’s mother). The next morning, Florence suggests they go out together. Nan takes her to a pub where she has to tell Florence that some of the clientèle of the spacious pub are not, in fact, men. Subsequently, they overhear a conversation which puzzles Florence who has to ask what “tipping the velvet” actually means and Nan explains in words and mime. They then walk home and, in scene of astonishingly awful cheesy CGI, they kiss on a bridge over the frozen Thames while a man skates on the river below them. By this time I’m going “something isn’t right” (and I didn’t mean the terrible effects) so I rush upstairs to grab the book.

Anyway to cut a long story short, in the book the scene when Flo tells Nan about Lilian is pretty much the same sans the politics but it is Flo who chooses the pub (actually, a small room in a pub), it is Flo who informs Nan that not all the blokes are blokes (“to think…that I might have worn my moleskins, after all”), and much more importantly, it is Flo who tells Nan what “tipping the velvet” means to Nan’s great confusion.

What was the thinking of Andrew Davies here? Why did he swap the dialogue around? Maybe if I reacquaint myself with the adaptation I’ll understand what he was trying to do but otherwise it removes Nan’s essential naivety and places it on the sensible and straightforward and quite frankly wonderful Florence who doesn’t deserve that.

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Dollhouse S2 went through a glorious patch with “The Attic” being the pinnacle and then it crashed to Earth. I’ve already written about what I have liked and disliked about it but I will add that Mellie/Madeline/November’s death was shoddily done and dismayed me immensely.

Carnivàle S2 began with an episode that cleared up any lingering doubts that this series is bonkers. I couldn’t stand Libby at first and now her sadness is so heartbreaking. Amy Madigan has become more and more compelling as Iris. I’m going to miss Professor Lodz.

*Community On maurinsky‘s recommendation, we started watching this and after three episodes we are hooked. The seven main characters are all interesting, and funny, and rounded. And I ever thought I would ever write this but Chevy Chase is hilarious. Joel McHale has something of the Anthony Head about him (but not in this cast photo).

Nurse Jackie I still like this a lot but after 10 episodes I don’t understand the following point about Jackie. Why did she start work at All Saints and conceal her marriage? Do we find out? Also, I didn’t believe for a second that she couldn’t get that ring off. Also, minor thing but she whacks her middle finger – should have shot that again. But I simply love Edie Falco and Eve Best and Merritt Wever. They are all awesome in their own ways.

And Edie Falco is hot with that butch cut.

The Good Wife I started watching this on a whim on 4oD and I hooked but I don’t really know why! It’s a legal drama and I don’t particularly like legal dramas (not since Crown Court anyway) and she always wins. And yet… It’s quite amusing that both this and Nurse Jackie are vehicles for actors coming off big, big shows and presumably for most folks the actors come with a lot of baggage. Luckily for me I am oblivious.

I am always aware that I almost exclusively comment on American programmes which suggests I don’t watch British productions. However I do but they are mostly documentaries like (and this is from the past year only): A History of Christianity, The Art of Russia, Games Britannia, Shooting the War, Life, The Victorians, How Earth Made Us, etc. All made by or for the BBC and they are why I gladly pay my licence fee.

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer life-changing and worthy of a blog post or two

I, Claudius the best British drama, completely studio bound yet full of vigour and gripping stories; the acting is astonishing and it was clever, sexy, violent and funny

Edge of Darkness yes, it is dated in many ways but the story is what matters (as well as Bob Peck’s mesmerising performance) [oh my, while looking for clips of this I have found it has been remade (by the same director) with Mel Gibson as Craven]

Mad Men best show on TV, it may be more style than substance to some but not for me and for the moment I am in love with it

Fortunes of War oh, Ken and Em, how did I love you? a lot and this very expensive drama was worth every penny

The Jewel in the Crown it’s the characters that make this particularly Daphne Manners, Sarah Layton and Ronald Merrick although the backdrop of the Raj is always fascinating

Dead Like Me I have only seen this once but it was an instant classic to me; I adore the characters

Survivors I rewatched this recently and it was slow and frankly boring in parts but Carolyn Seymour as Abby simply owned the series and for that, thank you!

Tenko this was compulsive viewing when I was a teen, character driven and all those characters were women; I loved Louise Jamieson, Veronica Roberts and Stephanie Beacham

Firefly one series of highs and lows: “Out of Gas” is among the best episodes of anything of all time

Battlestar Galactica I do wish the Cylons really had had a plan but putting nitpicking the entire series aside, parts of this were flipping brilliant

Blake’s Seven I last saw this when I was a teen but it has stayed with me and I do think I should revisit it just to see how it stands up dramatically and to see if I can work out the reason why Avon was attractive (I don’t want to think about the special effects)

(wow, that looks, um, well…the theme music’s good)

Tutti Frutti Emma Thompson again and I remember loving this very British drama

The Life and Loves of a She-Devil this was outrageous and although I enjoyed the majority of it, I always hated the ending which probably means I missed the point

Taking Over the Asylum Ken Stott is magnificent in this and the setting is certainly unique

When the Boat Comes In we really used to make brilliant lengthy historical series like this, Poldark, The Onedin Line and The House of Eliot and make them seem effortless

Carnivàle okay, I have only seen eight episodes but I think this has potential to be very high on my list (if it was in any order)

A Very Peculiar Practice I thought this was fabulous when i was young, I was less enamoured with it when it was repeated relatively recently but Barbara Flynn was the business as Dr Rose Marie

Testament of Youth seen once but I remember it made me cry a lot

Therese Raquin this was filthy, I remembered that very well but on rewatching I appreciated even more the performances of Brian Cox, Kate Nelligan and a very youthful looking Kenneth Cranham

A Very British Coup this felt like a documentary and the ending is so tragic

[I think I had a rather odd crush on Alan MacNaughtan who was also in To Serve Them All My Days]

The Crow Road great stuff, thoroughly Scottish with a standout perfomance by Bill Paterson

Fanny and Alexander, Berlin Alexanderplatz I am shamefully putting these together but both are examples of great foreign TV series directed by people better known as film directors, both were gripping and both were more mature than anything on British TV at the time

A Kind of Loving my forgotten gem in this list

A list of other things I watched when I was younger: To Serve Them All My Days, Upstairs, Downstairs, Angels, Juliet Bravo, The Gentle Touch, All Passion Spent, Driving Ambition, The Beiderbecke Affair, Jonathan Creek, Chandler & Co, Bergerac, Shoestring, Between the Lines – bloody hell, telly was good in the old days!* What I think is interesting is that I didn’t watch many American imports (notably The Rockford Files and Cagney & Lacey) when I was young because they were all rather rubbishy. How things have changed.

*Of course, it wasn’t. This is a list from approximately forty years of TV and I don’t think I have even listed one series a year. And I’m sure Spooks or Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes are to other people as good as, say, The Gentle Touch…

In addition, there were also cans of Irn Bru and Tizer, a packet of digestives and a bottle of Dettol on the shelves.

Someone enjoyed dressing that set.

I may start “reviewing” Buffy in January when we start rewatching it with Adam. He has only seen a handful of episodes from before S4 and maybe by the time we get to S6 he’ll be able to stand Spuffy. Though…I don’t see why he should when I can’t, but at least he may be physically able to watch it rather than giving up in dismay when Spike and Buffy started snogging regularly (and anyway, there were episodes in S6 that a 12 year old shouldn’t watch).

We finished Angel and thank you, Andy, for struggling along with me as we negotiated the final season. I may have fallen out of love with Joss Whedon and coupled with the unravelling of Dollhouse, I have become increasing more estranged from the fandom which adores all that he does (and I thought I was one of them too…). I see terrible dialogue, awkward exposition, two dull leads, fine actors struggling with their lines, illogical plotting, a villain motivated by jealousy (which, admittedly, was good enough for Shakespeare but bores me in the ‘House), fake out deaths, etc, and I don’t like it very much. I do love Enver Gjokaj (and his hilarious turn as Topher did reveal it is Topher I can’t stand not Fran Kranz so apologies to him) and Olivia Williams (but even she falters over the poor dialogue at times and her costuming is unflattering and makes her look like she frequents Bhs) and I am grateful that I get to see them on my screen.

We have started watching Carnivàle and, despite the nagging doubts I have over what is unresolved at the end of S2, I do like it a lot. Nick Stahl is a little lightweight as Ben but the rest of the cast are wonderful. I particularly like Patrick Bauchau as Lodz, Michael J. Anderson as Samson and Clancy Brown as Justin, and I have liked Clea DuVall since “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” and it is refreshing to have a leading lady who looks like somebody you might meet in real life. The last episode we watched “Pick a Number” had a devastatingly horrible ending with Dora Mae being left in Babylon to be raped for eternity. The photography is stunning, the music superb and the theme is most unusual. I like the fact it is a period piece and the atmosphere of the carnival is well presented.

There you go.

ETA: Mad Men! What a show. Love it. Read and absorbed too much to write about the final episodes with any degree of originality but best show on TV by far. It wasn’t always satisfactory (Miss Farrell for a start) and a few characters were neglected but always gripping.