Let's Fold Scarves

I had a great idea and I lost it

Mad Men – “The Color Blue” (Kater Gordon* and Matthew Weiner)

I was surprised with all the love that this episode got online. It was good but it felt very much part of the build up to the conclusion of S3. Only Mad Men could have someone make a huge discovery and then make us and them wait to do something about it.

Many people find the domestic scenes dull and want more Sterling Cooper machinations. Since Betty is the most intriguing character for me then I am happy for the show to spend time with her. I am less happy to spend time with Don and Suzanne. I think her brother is more important. Don saw Adam in that boy and tried to help him which he failed to do for Adam. I think the money and card are going to prove important but I don’t know how. Many people think Suzanne is nuts which I find eye-rollingly irritating (just as people were so utterly determined that Don was Jewish in S1). I thought her following Don onto the train was unbelievable (she should be doing her job, for heaven’s sake) rather than sinister. Her morals are lacking, that’s true. And she make that phone call.

I liked the short scenes leading up to Betty’s finding of the keys but I do wish they had shown Betty going through the box more thoroughly. I think the focus on the divorce papers was distracting but I do wonder if she is going to California soon. My favourite moment in the show was when Betty sat down in the chair and her face was caught by a patch of sunlight: she was illuminated. The gut wrenching moment in the show was Don telling Betty that he wanted to show her off at the dinner: ouch, that sums up what he thinks of you, Betty.

Peggy was awesome throughout. She was funny, kind, thoughtful and brilliant. Paul’s face was full of astonished admiration rather than anything sinister when she pulled that idea out of the bag.

It is a bit of a cheek to want a writer to tell a different story from the one that he or she is determined to tell. However, I can’t disagree with the point of view of Donny Brook over at Basket of Kisses:

There are so many intriguing ideas and characters they’ve just left lying around while we obsess on Don’s same old boring behavior. I mean what was the point of PPL – how can the Brits just leave before the Beatles arrive in the states? How can MW have wasted such a delicious character as Moneypenny? How come Ken still doesn’t have a backstory? Was Peggy’s dalliance with Duck just a one night stand? Is the Ken/Pete war just a red herring? Are they ever going to flesh out Carla and Hollis, or at least introduce one AA character that is like a real human being? I know, let’s make Pete rape someone and then don’t have him on for 3 episodes! Let’s write out Sal and push Joan out to the side, nobody cares about them!

*now off the show: I thought this and “The Fog” were fine work

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You really do think you’re better than we are

Cheer up Sarah, it's nearly over.

Empty Places (Drew Z. Greenberg)

Everyone is leaving Sunnydale. Buffy has a cold. Willow uses the force. Willow cries. Caleb is boring. Faith goes dancing. Buffy reiterates how freaking marvellous Spike is. The First has a cold. Amanda gets drunk. Spike and Andrew have chemistry as they talk about onion blossoms with Andrew’s arms wrapped around Spike’s waist.

The empty places in this episode are in the writers’ heads. I don’t actually mind the notion of a revolt against Buffy’s cold leadership but this is so forced and stupid; Buffy’s closest friends betray her and her own sister kicks her out of her own house (and without a toothbrush and a change of clothes).

But you didn’t earn it. You didn’t work for it. You’ve never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn’t make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us.

What a load of tripe. That’s right, seven years of not earning and not working, that’s our Buffy.

Aargh, if I hadn’t already reached the rough part of my Buffy relationship then I would probably loathe this as much as “Dead Man’s Party” and “Into the Woods” but…

Three to go!

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I want a Hilton on the moon

Mad Men – “Wee Small Hours” (Dahvi Waller and Matthew Weiner)

In a series full of great scenes, the scene when Don fires Sal is up there with Betty shooting pigeons and Peggy telling Pete that she had his baby. Don may be damaged and a wee bit stressed about living a whopping great big lie but he isn’t actually very nice (which damaged people can be). I understand why he fired Sal (sort of) but how he did it was cruel and appalling. “Don’t shake his hand!” I shouted several times at Sal. I am devastated for Sal but I think the scene in the phone box in the park with a leather boy in the background was a wee bit too much.

As was Pete’s coughing fit. However, most people would have left the room.

Harry is sweet but useless. I reckon Sal would been sacked anyway but by doing nothing, Harry ensured that was the case.

“Reject him!” I shouted at Suzanne. Not that I care about her at all. I can honestly say the only thing I can remember her saying in all her appearances is that she was going to talk about Martin Luther King to her pupils. She doesn’t engage me at all. Is it the actor? Poor characterisation? (And what is it with the jogging in the middle of the night and the staying up late drinking? She must get about two hours sleep.) All I care is that with her so close to home, Don is bound to get caught.

Don’s Midas touch as an ad man is deserting him. Awful people like Connie Hilton (nobody likes your hotels, well, okay, my mum wasn’t impressed anyway) and his lunatic demands aren’t helping Don (not much sleep going on in the Draper house) but I loved Don’s humiliation when Connie told him how disappointed he was in him.

I could not stand being in a job that demanded my attention outside normal hours, which, of course, explains why I have been in the same department for nearly 21 years.

I thought the writing for Betty during the fund raising scene was dreadful. I can see Betty being put out that Henry didn’t turn up but she would not have been so rude to the woman and certainly wouldn’t have stomped across the room like a twelve year old. No well bred person who cared as much for appearances would behave like that not even fan favourite (/sarcasm) Betty Draper.

I did like her coming to her senses in Henry’s office. I think the turn of the key in the lock was the trigger for her; the moment she realised that an affair may only be a fling for him (maybe not) but whatever she definitely wants more than that.

Betty was seen being nice to her children and to Carla. It really did happen folks; there is no need to be so blind about her character.

Mad Men is the best thing on TV. I look forward to it each week but each week I feel a little bit deflated; a little bit as if it isn’t quite as good as it could have been. For example, I do think we don’t know enough about the internal business of Betty, and this makes her seem, to many people, to be fickle and shallow. I’m not sure that she is but in the first season, I used to get irritated when people thought her childish because I never thought she was. However, in TV series time, it is three and a half years later and she now does behave childishly at times. She hasn’t changed enough and it is, dare I say, a little tedious.

As an aside last night, I said to Andy that Don was the Spike of Mad Men. By that I meant, I don’t, in my heart, give a toss about his past or about his interactions with anybody (notable exceptions are Betty and Peggy) but unlike Spike in Buffy, Don is the lead character. There was no way I could ever enjoy “The Jet Set” because it was all about him. And I desperately don’t care about his affairs, which is sort of a huge chunk of what Mad Men is about.

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Damn. I never knew you were that cool.

Dirty Girls (Drew Goddard)

I hate Caleb and not because I’m supposed to. I am also immune to the charms of Nathan Fillion so there is nothing in the human embodiment of an anvil that I can appreciate.

I was aghast after the opening sequences spluttering and saying with a little indignation that I wasn’t happy. Andy told me that I had been like that the first time we watched it but I had expunged that from my memory. And Xander’s dream had also disappeared – yuck.

Still, it was an absolute joy to have Faith back in Sunnydale and Eliza Dushku is not playing Faith in Dollhouse. She isn’t a great actor (but few folk are) so she can’t disappear into a role but her great strength is that she is very funny. Her delivery of “Are you protecting vampires? Are you the bad slayer now? Am I the good slayer now?” was hilarious.

Another racist joke involving Chao-Ahn that wouldn’t be out of place in the lowliest sit-com is desperately unworthy of this show. And this was made after Firefly and the fuss made of its lack of Chinese characters; the consciousness raising was unsuccessful.

I enjoyed the Faith montage which was a reminder of happier times and SMG with a fuller face.

Buffy has always gone into battle half-cocked but she usually doesn’t fail this unsuccessfully. I feel bad that the English slayer is dead and as for poor Xander and his eye! Wow, that was nasty. Still, he was always going to be okay because he’s got balls.

Posted in Buffy Season 7, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Television | 1 Comment »

The other day, I gave an inspirational speech to the telephone repair man.

Lie My Parents Told Me (David Fury and Drew Goddard)

I don’t care enough about Spike to get over involved in this episode. Anya nails it when she says “Spike’s got some sort of “Get Out of Jail Free” card that doesn’t apply to the rest of us.” However, I also find that sort of meta-commentary a little too conceited for my liking.

By the way, Buffy, Spike can be triggered at any time and you have unequivocal proof but just let him go because people with souls are never ever bad. It will be okay.

I am disappointed that they decided to have Robin beating up Spike rather than getting on with it because that’s just irritating.

Spike tells Robin that Nikki didn’t love him but his own mother did. The nasty things she said were because he had set loose a demon and it wasn’t his mother speaking. However, Angel hinted more than a little strongly in “Doppelgangland” that the vampire personality wasn’t entirely divorced from the human self (“That’s me as a vampire? I’m so evil and…skanky. And I think I’m kinda gay.” – oh happy days).

Giles also pontificates to Buffy that being a general requires her to make difficult decisions but, when she does make those difficult decisions in “Dirty Girls”, he’s protesting. Make up your mind, Mr Betrayer, generals don’t often have subordinates questioning them.

“Spike is the strongest warrior we have.” – no, Buffy, you are.

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Top five Whedon characters

Five? Five!

Practically impossible but I’ll try:

1. Tara
2. Willow
3. River
4. Faith
5. Adelle oh hell’s bells, I forgot Buffy, so off you pop for a nice cuppa tea, Adelle

Please join in.

Posted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Firefly/Serenity, Meme, Television | 10 Comments »

I choose not to hear that

Dollhouse – “Belle Chose” (Tim Minear)

Tim Minear brings his ludicrous serial killers over from The Inside and decides that subtlety or indeed, coherence aren’t needed.

Make of what you will from this list:

• a college professor can afford to hire a doll
• Ballard is given the job of interrogating Terry/Victor because he used to work for the FBI but, as we have seen before, the Dollhouse usually prefers the perfection of imprinting one
• Brad and Terry/Victor escape easily
• the usual lack of physical consequences when someone is thwacked with a croquet mallet
• Echo doesn’t have her towel hooked up in the shower just so Paul could look uncomfortable at seeing her naked
• there is slow motion of Kiki/Echo looking at herself in the mirror
• having gender non-specific names makes you a perve

I am looking forward to the day when I can say I knew that Enver Gjokaj was going to a star when I saw his range, assurance, and general awesomeness in Dollhouse.

Olivia Williams as Adelle is the only thing that I positively like about Dollhouse*. I like Enver as an actor but he is playing many roles so it’s hard to like the combination.

The issues that this show is tackling bother me. Exploring misogyny is too near to celebrating it for my liking. Isn’t it hilarious when a man behaves like a woman? Shoogling his bum like that – it’s so silly and funny.

In normal circumstances, I don’t watch much that deals with serial killers or child abusers or prostitution or arms dealers or, you get the idea.

Like Charles, I find myself wondering “if Buffy and Firefly were the exception and that in actuality the real Joss is the one responsible for Angel and Dollhouse.”

I am not going to systematically write about Dollhouse anymore. I know for a fact that if this wasn’t a Joss Whedon show, I would definitely not be watching any more of it. I need to get a grip and just stop watching.

*Adelle may even be one of my top five Whedon characters.

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…of the republic of dresses

Mad Men – “Souvenir” (Lisa Albert and Matthew Weiner)

It vaguely amuses me that some people call Mad Men misogynistic when it is probably misandrist, if it is anything. Imagine if this series was written by a woman. Yikes!

Better to think of it as a study of power, privilege and entitlement, which, in this case, is exclusively wielded by men.

The men (in general) are inwardly unpleasant: if they are married, they are, to a man, cheats and liars. The women are not perfect but they are definitely more sympathetic (in general). Betty is the most problematic. For a lot of people, she is not sympathetic because they don’t understand what her beef is. This is a reason why I appreciate this show because the obvious way would have been to portray Betty’s unhappiness in simpler ways: the usual shorthand would be abuse of some nature and Don is not like that to Betty.

I am finding it exhausting reading people’s responses to anything that Betty does (that is one advantage of waiting months to watch it on British TV). There are people who take anything she does as ill intentioned. I am still waiting for the howls of outrage at Don’s scarpering at the first mention of Sally’s misbehaviour. Betty is literally met at the door by real-life and she can’t escape the way that he can and does.

Betty in Rome starkly emphasised that she is an adroit, amusing and intelligent person. I’m not sure about that hair though. She had a whale of time and Francine brought her right down to earth. Her outburst in the bedroom seemed childish to me at first but she knows her life is dull and restricted. She went to Rome after Henry kissed her and although I thought at first she had dismissed an affair with him, the ending of the episode makes that a little more likely.

Betty’s words to Sally that “You don’t kiss boys, boys kiss you.” is tragic advice. Girls are probably still taught that now that boys are active and girls are passive. And certainly it was what Pete thinks. He has no idea that he raped Gudrun. No idea at all – because he’s a boy and boys kiss girls. It doesn’t actually matter if the girls don’t want to be kissed.

Remember Pete’s outburst from “Out of Town”? “Why does it have to be like this? Why can’t I get anything good all at once?” His actions in this are a natural progression from that entitled egoistical attitude.

What bugs me most about Pete’s behaviour is how it negated the amusing scenes of him shrugging his way out of his shirt and of him watching children’s tv and laughing. Actually, what really bugs me is that I had a brief fantasy that Pete was actually just going to be nice. I suppose that is probably how he thought about it at first. He is pathetic and childish and can’t be trusted. If Trudy hadn’t been away he would never have strayed (I can’t remember if Trudy was away when he slept with the model in “Maidenform” but I bet she was).

I was as surprised as Pete to see Joan in the department store. I assume it is a drop in status from her reaction after he left. It was a well-written scene with Pete asking her twice how she was doing.

Courtesy of GIF Party

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It turns out everybody loves a good goat’s tongue. Rock groups, covens and Greek cookbooks

Storyteller (Jane Espenson)

Andrew, Andrew, Andrew…

This was better than I remembered because I am more sympathetic towards Andrew and I am not spending my time being annoyed that it focused on him. It’s quite an achievement to make you care about a mainly irritating character but this worked for me and Tom Lenk’s performance helped too. Jane Espenson pulled off a similar feat in “I Was Made to Love You” and we only knew April for one episode.

However, it is far from great. The scene at the beginning when Andrew expositioned unnecessarily about the Hellmouth, the seal, the First and the Bringers felt like it was half an hour long. Jane, we know and it’s S7 and you aren’t going to get new viewers now. Dawn should have been in the scene when they discuss the knife. She’s the Slayer’s sister and she, completely out of nowhere, knows all about ancient languages.

Spike’s bad boy act was nothing compared with his posing in “Restless”. I was jolly disappointed that Robin missed his chance to off him.

I wonder if we are supposed to be persuaded that Andrew is gay when he ignores two women making out to take a close look at Xander’s handiwork. If Willow and Kennedy looked like they were really into each other then that might have worked. I am more convinced that’s he’s gay because he was completely swept up in the Xander and Anya reconciliation. He’s watched that scene so many times. (I must clarify that I don’t believe that all gay men love a melodrama but it is a handy trope.)

I was uninterested in Xander and Anya’s reconciliation. I never I really bought into them as a couple despite their years together. He was often patronising and condescending towards her. Unfortunately, the show now doesn’t know what to do with her unless Giles is around.

Ah well, we are wading to the end.

Posted in Buffy Season 7, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Television | 4 Comments »

I want to take your clothes off with my teeth and give you a go-around like you’ve never had.

Mad Men – “Seven Twenty Three” ( Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton and Matthew Weiner)

Another excellent episode. I am pleased that this show is picking up mid-season and I am doubly pleased to see some Betty scenes in S3 that I actually enjoyed.

I was oddly elated during her scenes involving Henry Francis. I know what she is doing and if she was married to a faithful husband then I would be mortified but she’s married to Don who was at his most hateful throughout this episode.

Betty highlights include being bashful about the effect of her looks (I love Francine: “It’s not adorable to pretend like you’re not adorable”), her interactions with the children (“freeze!”), trying the drawer in Don’s study, the chat with Henry in the cafe, her dismissal of Roger, and her confrontation with Don (“It’s three years, Don! What’s the matter, you don’t know where you’re going to be in three years?” and “You’re right. Why would I think that has anything to do with me?”).

I have suddenly acknowledged that January Jones sometimes gives weakish performances and I wonder if Betty’s iciness is not just her character but JJ’s rather frozen acting style.

Peggy makes terrible decisions at times. I’m not at all prepared to guess how her decision to sleep with Duck will pan out but I do hope she doesn’t end up working for him.

In another odd turn of events, I thought the scene in the morning when they began having sex again was erotic (sorry). Even so, Duck’s seduction technique made me laugh quite hard.

Peggy is young, she’s had a Catholic upbringing, she has no friends, she has nowhere to turn for advice, New Cosmopolitan hasn’t been launched yet, no wonder she makes mistakes.

A mistake she shouldn’t have made was to go into Don’s office after Roger had just left. Boy, was Don hard on her! Not all unjustified but harsh. Elisabeth Moss was awesome here.

Across the usual blogs there were many complains about Peggy being a Norwegian Catholic (as if it was impossible not just improbable) and yet Conrad Hilton was a Catholic Norwegian. I loved Don’s response to him when he was critical of his office décor: “Maybe I’m not on time because I was with my family reading the Bible.” Hilton was in Don’s chair as were Betty and Cooper.

How much do I enjoy Pete and Peggy together? They bicker beautifully.

Don is quite spectacularly nasty and it was hard to feel sorry for him when he was felled by the male hitch-hiker. I thought those scenes were the weakest part of the episode. Though I thought the grammatical error in the hitch-hikers’ note was a delicious touch (I sincerely hope it was deliberate).

Don is not the reason why I watch Mad Men. He’s very important but he’s not why I watch it with relish.

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