With the final season of Mad Men returning at an undetermined date in April, I will re-watch the first four seasons and watch the following two-and-a-half seasons for the first time. After each season, I will share my thoughts on the show.
Season 1
Season 2
As I expected, Mad Men has taken a step back from character arcs in the third season. The characters aren't changing as much from the beginning of the season to the end of the season like previous ones. Betty Draper makes the move towards becoming an independent woman, Peggy Olson keeps trying new things to different results, Pete Campbell grows up ever so slowly, and Don Draper stays the same mostly.
Yet again, the Draper marriage takes up a large portion of the season. Three months after the end of the second season, they appear amicable with Don mostly trying hard to please Betty to little avail. It doesn't last of course - not only does Don initiate an affair with Sally's teacher - but Betty has a small affair of her own (albeit with no actual sex.)
The marriage is less interesting than one of the defining moments of the season: when Don opens up to Betty about who he really is. She's the first person he reveals the mostly complete truth about his past as Dick Whitman with very few omissions. (Naturally, he leaves out his extensive list of woman he's cheated on her with). And then after he's opened up with her, she leaves him. Don Draper is sure to go back to his old self if there was any hope before. (And really there wasn't that much hope.)
Meanwhile at Sterling Cooper, they are bought out by the British ad agency, PPL, with Lane Pryce serving as a liaison. His tactics prove effective and crude when he purposefully plays Campbell against Ken Cosgrove. Campbell proves his own usual, whiny self in his reaction to the admittedly underhanded move. This of course is concluded when Pete calls in sick to interview for another job and he finally gets validation from Don Draper that he wants Pete.
Speaking of the that, "Shut the Door, Have a Seat" is the best Mad Men episode so far and second place isn't close. Mad Men rarely allows for thrilling and exciting episodes, but that episode is one of the most awesome they've ever done. The characters rush to make a new company and it's basically a "bring the team together" episode, which I unapologetically love. My opinion of Mad Men in the annals of classic TV rose solely due to this episode.
Roger Sterling spends the third season deluding himself into believing he's happy with an inferior replacement for Joan, who he really wants to be with. He has this sense of uselessness pervade throughout the season, culminating in his decision to ultimately help start a new company. Joan marries a rich doctor, or at least that's what she thought she married. Unfortunately, her husband proves incompetent and Joan is forced to go back to work. Although, the new company is a blessing in actuality as its clear she doesn't really want to quit her job (despite attempts to convince herself). Her husband's financial failures are less of a problem than that he's an abusive asshole.
It's actually funny in hindsight that the writers seem to come to a narrative endpoint with most of its characters. Joan would never have worked for Sterling Cooper again, Roger was essentially useless in his role, Pete and Peggy seemed to be on his way out sooner rather than later, and Lane was forced to move to a new country if kept at his position with PPL. Hell, even Don was in the much-feared contract that he was forced to sign which was ironically how he was able to get fired and start the new company.
For the third season, Jared Harris was a great addition, providing a character longing for stability who is the classic company man. He does everything they want him to do, which means they give him all the positions that nobody else wants. His wife wants to move back to England, but he just wants to stay in one place so he can have a life.
Ultimately, I don't have a lot to say about this season. I couldn't say whether this was my favorite season - this show is remarkably consistent if nothing else - but it featured my favorite episode by far. Ever so slightly, my opinion of this show is rising and at this rate, I may actually consider it one of the best shows of all-time.
Playlist
1. "To Be Loved" - The Pentagons
2. "Bye Bye Birdie" - Ann-Margret
3. "Memories of You" - Ben Webster
4. "Me Voy a Morir de Tanto Amor" - Alberto Iglesias
5. "Song to Woody" - Bob Dylan
6. "Sixteen Tons" - Tennessee Ernie Ford
7. "Dominque" - Singing Nuns
8. "Where is Love" - Oliver
9. "The End of the World" - Skeeter Davis
10. "Shahdaroba" - Roy Orbison
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Rewind: Supernatural S2
WARNING: IT MAY SEEM OBVIOUS, BUT DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SHOW. SOMETIMES I CAN WALK AROUND SPOILERS, BUT I DEFINITELY CAN'T AVOID SPOILERS HERE. SPOILERS IMMEDIATELY.
The other thing All Hell Breaks Loose manages to accomplish is make everything that happened before make sense. I seriously doubt creator Eric Kripke had the entire two-seasons planned out before he started this show, but it couldn't have worked out better. Why did the mother die? She was in the way. Why did Sam's girlfriend from the pilot die? She was in the way. What previously seemed horribly contrived now was all a part of the master plan. If all this demon had to do was get a human to unlock the gate, it's a little confusing why he doesn't just... do that instead of making a 23-year plan. Whatever, it doesn't matter everything else works well.
To begin the season, Sam and Dean's father sells his soul and at the end Dean sells his soul. Now, this I'm fairly certain was planned and it makes for a nice bookend to the season. It also makes it interesting how against Dean was on bringing back things from the dead - surely more to do with his father being in hell for him than an actual moral reason - and how ultimately he does it anyway. What makes this work is that never for a second would I doubt Dean would actually do it. Supernatural also nicely set up Dean's eventual soul selling in "Crossroad Blues," an episode that didn't seem that important in future events, but certainly worked in establishing Dean's feelings about his father trading his life for Dean's.
This second season introduces and promptly destroys the Roadhouse, a place for fellow hunters. I don't think the Roadhouse was a bad idea or that it failed in any particular way, but something tells me they had different plans for it that ultimately didn't pan out. I like Jo and Ellen as characters so in that sense, it certainly worked. But the fact that the show didn't do anything with the "fellow hunters" maybe influenced their decision to scrap it.
For a show that mostly works episode-to-episode with no need to have seen the particular episode, Supernatural is good at remembering past events. In particular, Dean gets accused of murder and subsequently killed, but they use this to their advantage when both Sam and Dean end up holding up a bank and later getting themselves arrested. Judging by the fact that they break out, and some seeds are planted in FBI agent Henriksen's mind that the brothers are possibly not that bad, this seems like a plot point they will return to.
I'm pretty sure this is the first season to feature outright comic episodes and they give us two of them. I mean if you're wondering how to fill out a season and you have a couple empty spots, there's worse ideas that making a comic episode. Both are pretty hilarious with "Tall Tales" using the brothers' exaggerated representations of themselves when telling the story to Bobby and "Hollywood Babylon" riffing on Hollywood and scary movies. (In hindsight, yeah I should have seen that type of episode coming.)
In addition to the two-part finale, I thought "Roadkill" was an exceptional episode, thanks largely to the performance of Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer. The episode helped establish the show's second season theme of "Maybe not all supernatural beings are bad" and had a pretty good twist. Also helping that theme is Gordon, a man who clearly has no qualms about killing supernatural beings and certainly represents the extreme of what the brothers do. If I had to guess, I would guess Sam killing Gordon will show Sam's deteriorating morality putting Dean's decision into question. (Well it's definitely already in question, but you know...)
Another standout episode - really the whole back half of the second season is a step up - is "What Is and Should Never Be." This is the alternate timeline if Sam and Dean's mother never died and it's depressing. It's odd that that Jeffrey Dean Morgan couldn't come onto the show considering he briefly appears in the finale, but I guess the explanation for his disappearance is as good as any. I'm probably not alone in thinking that despite how everything looks better in the alternate, Dean goes back because he's not friends with his brother at all. (I kind of wish his alternate wife had more personality than "She really knows me man")
But for the time being, I'm genuinely surprised at how there's basically no useless or bad episodes. Again, the show tries very hard to make sure every episode matters in some way - and when they don't appear to have any significance to the overarching plot, it's usually still a good episode. In essence, there is a distinct lack of filler episodes.
Due to the show's willingness to completely uproot the show in a different direction, it's focus on character, and it's incredible two-part finale, I am almost scared that the show has peaked. Of course, the finale also set up incredible potential and looks more serialized than its ever been. The limited episode list does worry me as it could have been rushed due to the writer's strike, but otherwise I'm looking forward to that season.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "Uptown Funk" - Bruno Mars (because of course)
2. "Banana Clipper" - Run the Jewels feat. Big Boi
3. "My Generation" - The Who
4. "Little Eyes" - Yo La Tengo
5. "Distortion to Static" - The Roots
This second season introduces and promptly destroys the Roadhouse, a place for fellow hunters. I don't think the Roadhouse was a bad idea or that it failed in any particular way, but something tells me they had different plans for it that ultimately didn't pan out. I like Jo and Ellen as characters so in that sense, it certainly worked. But the fact that the show didn't do anything with the "fellow hunters" maybe influenced their decision to scrap it.
For a show that mostly works episode-to-episode with no need to have seen the particular episode, Supernatural is good at remembering past events. In particular, Dean gets accused of murder and subsequently killed, but they use this to their advantage when both Sam and Dean end up holding up a bank and later getting themselves arrested. Judging by the fact that they break out, and some seeds are planted in FBI agent Henriksen's mind that the brothers are possibly not that bad, this seems like a plot point they will return to.
I'm pretty sure this is the first season to feature outright comic episodes and they give us two of them. I mean if you're wondering how to fill out a season and you have a couple empty spots, there's worse ideas that making a comic episode. Both are pretty hilarious with "Tall Tales" using the brothers' exaggerated representations of themselves when telling the story to Bobby and "Hollywood Babylon" riffing on Hollywood and scary movies. (In hindsight, yeah I should have seen that type of episode coming.)
In addition to the two-part finale, I thought "Roadkill" was an exceptional episode, thanks largely to the performance of Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer. The episode helped establish the show's second season theme of "Maybe not all supernatural beings are bad" and had a pretty good twist. Also helping that theme is Gordon, a man who clearly has no qualms about killing supernatural beings and certainly represents the extreme of what the brothers do. If I had to guess, I would guess Sam killing Gordon will show Sam's deteriorating morality putting Dean's decision into question. (Well it's definitely already in question, but you know...)
Another standout episode - really the whole back half of the second season is a step up - is "What Is and Should Never Be." This is the alternate timeline if Sam and Dean's mother never died and it's depressing. It's odd that that Jeffrey Dean Morgan couldn't come onto the show considering he briefly appears in the finale, but I guess the explanation for his disappearance is as good as any. I'm probably not alone in thinking that despite how everything looks better in the alternate, Dean goes back because he's not friends with his brother at all. (I kind of wish his alternate wife had more personality than "She really knows me man")
But for the time being, I'm genuinely surprised at how there's basically no useless or bad episodes. Again, the show tries very hard to make sure every episode matters in some way - and when they don't appear to have any significance to the overarching plot, it's usually still a good episode. In essence, there is a distinct lack of filler episodes.
Due to the show's willingness to completely uproot the show in a different direction, it's focus on character, and it's incredible two-part finale, I am almost scared that the show has peaked. Of course, the finale also set up incredible potential and looks more serialized than its ever been. The limited episode list does worry me as it could have been rushed due to the writer's strike, but otherwise I'm looking forward to that season.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "Uptown Funk" - Bruno Mars (because of course)
2. "Banana Clipper" - Run the Jewels feat. Big Boi
3. "My Generation" - The Who
4. "Little Eyes" - Yo La Tengo
5. "Distortion to Static" - The Roots
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