I do miss it so. It was a weekly ritual. With appetites growing every week. I fully bought in. I would watch with a hearty high calorie meal. A dark whiskey to wash it all down. Mad Men in my bachelor apartment is not just a show but more of an event. We are making a meatloaf – that’s 2 hours towards the cause right there. Viewing the elite TV blogs they would have it be known that Mad Men has been on the slide for the past few years. Not to me. No siree jim bob dixie. Although to be fair to those with that opinion, I have fully bought into the sizzle. The style, the babes, the casual decadence of constant liquor and nicotine is pretty much all I need. They are like a sports team. Am I going to boo or not follow my teams just because they lose or play boring? Nuh uh. Go Joan Go! Sally Draper (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap-clap). So it really doesn’t matter much to me if the scripts are trite. I’m pretty pumped for Sunday’s season premiere. There will be a meal with gravy, there will be booing and hissing when Pete comes on-screen, and there will be bawdy locker room wisecracks when the lovely (and perhaps talented) Christina Hendricks bounces about as only her and perhaps the dark-haired Broke Girl can. Continue reading
Drama
Selfish in a Good Way
One thing fans and foes of HBO’s controversial show Girls can all agree upon is that Hannah Horvath is a selfish protagonist. In the sublime season three finale, Hannah uses this controversial trait to pull herself up from certain despair demonstrating growth and ending the season on a hopeful note.
Email Roundtable #39 – Television Sick Days
Our good pal Jane isn’t feeling so hot this week and this endless winter has resulted in more than a few sick days for most folks. That got us thinking: what do you like to watch on TV when you are stuck at home or laid up in bed? Katie and Kerri chat about Television Sick Days in this week’s Roundtable.
The Long Walk Home: The humane zombies of The Returned
OK. Here goes: I’ve become obsessed with a show about zombies.
No, not that zombie show. I’ve only seen a few episodes of that one and didn’t have much use for it. No, this zombie show is different. In fact, I’m not so sure it is a zombie show at all (I’m using the term here for lack of a better word). In this show the zombies are as equally beautiful, smart, sexy and charming as their living counterparts just as they are dangerous, manipulative and insufferable. These zombies are awfully human.
The Returned (Les Revenants) is a French drama that aired on Canal+ in France and Sundance here in North America. The show is based on a movie called They Came Back and, rather curiously, has a very similar premise (dead folks coming back to life) as an American show called Resurrection that began airing last week. Even more curious, Resurrection is based on a book called “The Returned” but has no connection to the French show. It all has the makings of a head-spinny Abbott and Costello routine.
With a Little Help From My Friends
TV and friendship are two of my favorite things. Friendship on TV is pretty much the best thing ever. Last week, in particular, TV offered up some amazing moments of TV friendship. Continue reading
The Magic Tricks of True Detective
I love mysteries. I love secret codes. I love the thought of a hidden puzzle that is just waiting, begging to be uncovered.
The real reason I think I love a good mystery is that I’m a terrible detective. Mysteries work spectacularly well on me like a magic trick where I don’t see the sleight of hand. I’ve never met a red herring that didn’t throw me off the scent. I’m as gullible as all heck and take almost anything anyone tells me at face value. I pick up on clues but usually can’t put them all together until Angela Lansbury is halfway through her crime-solving wrap up with all of the possible suspects in the same room. I’m great at pretending I was clued in all along but I promise you I wasn’t. And so, when the murderer or thief is hauled away in handcuffs I am supremely satisfied, my brain thinking back on all the little clues I missed the first time.
Rectify: The Devil and Daniel Holden
“Maybe there is a God” – Daniel Holden, after being baptized in the episode “Drip, Drip”.
My Struggle with Treme, Season 4 Episode 1 “Yes We Can Can”
I was over-the-moon-excited for the Season 4 premiere of Treme, “Yes We Can Can”. From its first episode Treme has been my favorite show on Television. I stuck with it through its ups and downs because I fell in love with the community of people David Simon and Eric Overmyer created. They are characters so well developed and lived in that they stick to your brain. Continue reading
Reign and the Joys of Communal TV Watching
Recently, this piece on Slate talked about the rise of “viewing parties”, screening TV shows with a community of like-minded fans. It seems strange to me that this is considered a “new” thing and I don’t totally buy into it. Nor do I buy into the notion that television viewing has become more solitary with the rise of Netflix and the DVR. It has changed “appointment viewing”, sure, and the way we view communally (see the explosion of tweets when a particularly popular show is on) but I don’t think viewing has become more solitary. In fact, traditionally, I think TV viewing was always considered fairly communal and family-centered. Or, at least that’s what I gather from watching The Wonder Years. Continue reading
I Never Met a Meta I didn’t like or Meta? Didn’t Even Know Her…
I love shows about shows. From Dyke Van Dyke to 30 Rock I find the manic activity that comes from putting on a show to be fascinating and fun. I find plays about plays, movies about movies, even meta music videos such as Blink 182’s Rock Show to be good times. Continue reading
The Golden Age of Television 