Who is Don Draper?

Posted on Wednesday 28 July 2010 by Hazel

Mad Men “Public Relations”

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.

Betty looked like Margaret Thatcher with her helmet hair, pearls and matronly dresses.

There was yet another Don and Peggy conversation in his office. Her manner has changed, she has more confidence and called Don “spiteful” which seems about right.

Why is Betty still living in the house she had with Don? Is this believable or is it just to create tension (and to make all the Betty haters feel even more justified)?

Overall, the episode didn’t appeal to me. I can’t really remember that much of it i.e. there was nothing outstanding.

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Sherlock: A Study in Pink – some notes

Posted on Wednesday 28 July 2010 by Hazel
I loved this.
Benedict Cumberbatch was instantly and charismatically just right as Holmes while Martin Freeman quietly became perfect as heroic Watson.
Three caveats:

  • The bit about the wedding ring sounded like nonsense to me. Wedding rings are generally made from gold which doesn’t tarnish and they clean themselves every time you wash your hands.
  • Phil Davis’s turn as the sinister taxi driver didn’t work for me partly because the concept reminded me too much of the way that serial rapist Warboys operated. I also felt that he was a little actorly (is that a nice way of saying hammy?).
  • Unfortunately a taxi driver being a villain was totally obvious from the second victim.

However, none of these stopped me from enjoying it tremendously, For example, Mark Gatiss was perfection as Mycroft while his assistant was great too. Her blankness at meeting Watson again and his resigned reaction was just one of the very many hilarious things about the programme.

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30 Days of Buffy: Day 23

Posted on Wednesday 28 July 2010 by Hazel
Day 23: Two Characters You Wanted To Get Together That Never Did

I got nothing for this one.

I liked the magic induced glimpses of Joyce/Giles and Anya/Giles but also liked that what we saw was funny and perfect and didn’t need to be taken further.

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30 Days of Buffy: Day 22

Posted on Tuesday 27 July 2010 by Hazel
Day 22: Best Xander-centric Episode

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

“The Replacement”

Snoopy dance.

Doesn’t revolve his attractiveness to the ladies and resulting skeeviness.

Makes sense.

References “Doppelgangland”.

Anya’s “disturbing sex talk”.

Xander is a “bad influence on himself”.

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30 Days of Buffy: Day 21

Posted on Sunday 25 July 2010 by Hazel
Day 21: Best Willow-centric Episode

This I will find simultaneously both harder and easier than Day 20's Spike question. Easier because it's straightforward for me to conjure up Willow episodes I particularly like and harder because I have to chose one.

It's not that hard actually but I'll get to that.

It could be "I, Robot…You, Jane" because she was funny when she was angry and except for the laughable computery stuff it wasn't that bad an episode.

It could be one of the episodes where her partner is as important to the story as she is such as 'Wild at Heart", "New Moon Rising", and "Tough Love". It could be a pissed off Willow episode like "Something Blue" except for me it's Buffy and Spike that make that episode outstanding.

As you know Crack Willow doesn't do anything for me so I can't even consider any episodes from S6 but I do like "Same Time, Same Place" from S7.

It's obvious what's missing and it's one of my favourite episodes of the entire show and it's the one where Alyson Hannigan is awesome: "Doppelgangland".

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30 Days of Buffy: Day 20

Posted on Sunday 25 July 2010 by Hazel
Day 20: Best Spike-centric Episode

"Lovers Walk"?

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Inception

Posted on Friday 23 July 2010 by Hazel
This film was certainly certainly interesting. I enjoyed hearing some people in a very well attended Wednesday afternoon showing groan at the final shot. I am going to see it again when we take Adam at the weekend and I will write more after that but there is something that bugs me about it.

If you have seen the film and have siblings and/or are the parent of children please answer the following question(s).

Continue reading →

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30 Days of Buffy: Day 19

Posted on Friday 23 July 2010 by Hazel
Day 19: Character You Like That Everyone Else Hates

I'm not keen on this question because I don't know who this mysterious everyone is. However, I'll make a stab and suggest that we are talking about characters like Riley, Dawn, and Kennedy.

I'm sticking with that trio and out of them I'll say that I like Dawn. I thought Michelle Trachtenberg did a pretty good job despite having to struggle with situations written too young for her and with a role that trod water in S6 and 7. How great would it have been to take her origin and develop a storyline for her using that. Or how about Dawn becoming a watcher? Or how about Dawn being something more interesting than a klepto?

I liked her introduction to the show and thought the Key was a great idea which led to one of the best season finales.

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30 Days of Buffy: Day 18

Posted on Friday 23 July 2010 by Hazel
Day 18: Character Who Didn’t Get Enough Screen Time

This question is tantalising. If only it was asking another but closely related question! I can't think of many characters who didn't get enough screen time but I can think of plenty who didn't get enough decent dialogue or plotlines. I can also think of one or two who got too much screen time…

However, these one episode only characters came to mind quite easily: Marcie and Sunday. Marcie Ross was played by Clea DuVall and for that reason alone I would have liked to have seen her again. Sunday was a fun villain who may well have become tiresome but I would have liked to have seen that happen rather tha her single appearance.

But the character I would have liked to have seen more of is the towering figure of Miss Kitty Fantastico:

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30 Days of Buffy: Day 17

Posted on Thursday 22 July 2010 by Hazel
Day 17: Character You Relate To The Most

Gosh, this is going to seem really lazy but I don't think I relate to any character in the identify with sense of the phrase. Maybe I lack self knowledge. Sorry.

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