Mad Men Season 2 (Warning: some spoilers)

I watched the last three episodes of season 2 of Mad Men yesterday, and all I can say is: wow. That, and poor, poor Joan.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m a girl that the fate of the women on this show touches me so, but whatever the motivation, I laud Matthew Weiner for writing such well-rounded, different characters. They might be confined within their 1960 and then 1962 surroundings, but he never sees them as simply as the men in that context do. Even the simple secretaries with a secondary rule such as Lois and Hildy are real characters, and you can feel that each of them interacts with the limited options presented to them in their own way.

Fall Pilot Review: Fringe

I’m not much one for mystery/conspirary shows. I was never into the X-files, I’ve watched a few episodes of Lost without getting sucked in, and the same goes for Alias. Even in my teenage drama years, I might have watched Roswell for a bit, but I lost interest pretty soon. So why would I even bother with J.J.Abrams’ latest effort, Fringe?

Well, the main reason harkens back to those same teenage drama years. Fruitstand confession (TM): I used to watch Dawson’s Creek religiously. Oddly enough though, it wasn’t Dawson, the wannabe filmmaker, that I watched it for (he was dull, as evidenced by his rather predictable choice of idol: Steven Spielberg). No, the boy I drooled over, the boy who I imagined in my daydreams kissing and reforming, was Pacey.

Over the years, Joshua Jackson, who played Pacey, descended into ever worse thrillers and horror movies, his face getting doughier and less bad-boy every time. But he’s back now, it seems, as one of the leads on this strange show. So, to humor my fifteen-year-old self, I had to at least watch the pilot. Right?

Fall pilots: True Blood & 90210

Ah, it’s that time of the year. There’s a constant drizzle outside my window, and there’s also a steady stream of new shows raining down on us. Some of them will survive for a season or two, some of them will be cancelled and forgotten by this time next year, and somewhere in the bunch there might be one that turns out to be a long-running classic.

I don’t think either of the two shows discussed here will ascend to the classic level, even if one of them is a remake of a show that does kind of fit that moniker. But neither will, I think, suffer a premature death.

Gossip Girl: Summer Kind of Wonderful (S02E01)

I know, I know, when it rains, it pours. But I just watched last night’s episode of Gossip Girl, and while I don’t think any comment I might make will have the entertainment value of the Daily Intel recap, I’d like to indulge in a little OMFG!!! and assorted thoughts.

Beware: there be spoilers

Blogging Buffy – Wrapping Up Season 2

According to the WordPress sign-in window, I am “already hip”. Good to know. In any case, I’m sitting here with a very hip, very cute little laptop my dad bought for my mom, which can almost fit in my pocket. All typos are due to the fact that the keyboard is 85% as big as the one I’m used to.

The reason I’m finally writing up the fourteen (14!) episodes I’ve seen since the last time I wrote a Buffy post (that’s the entire rest of season 2) is partly because I want a clean slate before starting on season 3, the DVD of which I bought today. But it’s also, and mostly, because Noel Murray’s catching up with us. My Buffy-watching buddy is sick right now (get well soon, Evan!), but as soon as he’s better we’ll start racing Noel to the finish.

Mad Men – Season 1 (spoiler free)

What’s this I see? A new post at the fruit stand? Yes, indeed it is. And get used to it: I just handed in the pre-final version of my thesis, and in a mere two weeks I will be officially and unambiguously graduated, which means the blog should pick up steam again. I’ve got a lot of grand things planned. But first…

The back of Don Draper’s head is a fascinating thing. Or rather: it’s fascinating how Mad Men manages to keep you mesmerized, trying to guess what’s going on in that marvelously shaped head. It’s not just that Draper has a secret – though it’s obvious that he has many, and watching them floating to the surface is part of the appeal. But he’s a man you want to figure out, even if he doesn’t always seem to have figured himself out yet. He’s a true mystery: an asshole but not without feelings, seductive but truly messed up, complex and flawed in a way we luckily see more and more in the protagonists of TV shows (see also: Dexter, House, The Sopranos, etc.)

Dexter Season Two (Spoiler Free)

The FWB (I’ll let you figure out what that stands for) and I are taking the night off, and instead of dedicating my free time to some lofty goal, like my thesis or my continuing cinematic education, I’m walking around restlessly, cursing how many clothes I have (the hanging part of my closet collapsed and I had to find new spots for each and every one of my two dozen vests), and watching In Plain Sight, which really isn’t one of the strongest things TV has to offer nowadays.

Call it procrastination, something I’m so good at that continuing my studies with a PhD probably wouldn’t be the brightest idea. But I’ve decided to at least turn it into slightly useful procrastination, and seeing how I finished season two of Dexter, I present: the review. After all, I also wrote one for Season One.

I’m drifting. I finally get a chance to kill and I can’t do it. I get a second chance and he gets away. And now all my secrets are floating to the surface. Where is the orderly controlled effective Dexter? Where did I lose him? How do I find him again? I’m drifting. But not to sleep. Dexter

Dexter – Season 1 (spoiler-free)

I don’t blame my foster parents for that. Harry and Doris Morgan did a wonderful job raising me. But, they’re both dead now. I didn’t kill them. Honest. Dexter.

As a general rule, for movies but especially also for TV shows, voice-overs should be on the “to avoid” list. Show, don’t tell, after all: it’s a difficult rule to follow, but that doesn’t mean you should give up and resort to a cheap trick. Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy… All of these shows use prominent voice-overs, and all of them would be better of without them. After all, the only use the voice-overs serve is to make themes -that usually worked perfectly well as an undercurrent- dreadfully explicit and unevocative.

However, there are exceptions to every rule. And when your show revolves around a main character who fakes all his emotions, who lives his entire life hiding who he is and what he’s thinking… a voice-over starts sounding like a reasonable thing. And luckily, in Dexter, not only is the voice-over pretty essential, but it’s also really well executed. For instance, it’s not particularly literary: it doesn’t have the pat, too rounded style many TV-voiceovers do, and it isn’t filled with cringe-worthy puns. It’s just a man talking to himself, to an audience he sort-of wished he had (and which, of course, he in fact does have in us).

Of course, I let my original thought take me on a wild rant, so let me get back to the basics: a plot synopsis (spoiler-free, as promised).

Blogging Buffy: 2.06-2.08

2.06 Halloween

Those wacky vampires! That’s why I love ‘em! They just keep you guessing! Xander

This episode is Joss Whedon at his expectation-subverting best. Some of the subversions are mostly funny: in the Buffyverse, as it turns out, Halloween is traditionally the night vampires stay in and do nothing. But the funniest thing is that in this world, confirming to gender roles is the subversion. All of a sudden, Buffy is a damsel in distress and Xander is the tough guy who has to defend here, and… it feels strange. Out of whack.

That’s why this episode had to be in the second season, after the show was established. After we’ve come to accept the show’s tenets, after we’ve accepted that in this show, girls can beat guys up. So that when it goes back to how things are in most movies and shows, it feels wrong.

2.07 Lie to Me

Yes, it’s terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after. Giles

Guilty Pleasures: Gossip Girl

One of the reasons posting had been slower here of late, is that the writer’s strike has been resolved. And apparently, all those writers came back hungry for work, and eager to show off. As a result, I’ve often been neglecting movies in favor of scripted television. It’s partly because television is lighter, requiring the investment of a mere 45 minutes. It’s partly that television is easier, not requiring as much thought and analysis – I like to be challenged, but prepackaged entertainment is nice when you’ve been challenged by #$(*$@) integrals all day. And mostly: a lot of television series have been very, very good lately, and grabbing me like they haven’t in a while.

Only last week, for instance, I watched an episode of Bones, followed by House M.D, followed by an older one of Gossip Girl. Bones had a lighthearted episode, but it ended in a totally unexpected way, leaving me with my mouth open, vaguely articulating “wha?”. House had one of the craziest episodes ever, akin to Three Stories and the season 2 finale No Reason. It was called House’s Head, and it indeed took place largely in the head of a House who was trying to remember the 4 hours he’d forgotten before a bus crash. And what’s in House’s head? Bickering with Wilson, beautiful girls with soulful gazes, his superior Dr. Lisa Cuddy doing a striptease while rattling off medical terms… He almost killed himself in the process of course, leading to a last 5 minutes with a) a death scare and b)the revelation that another major character could be dying. I love House mostly because of it’s rigid procedural structure with all its fixed elements, and the quips in between, but when they stray from the template they sometimes produce amazing episodes.

But if I thought that was it for the night…. Gossip Girl had one of its wildest episodes yet – and that’s saying something. Not only was there plenty of bitchiness going on between Blair and Jenny, but two guys were outed, and in the end, Serena confessed she killed someone! OMG!

Ok. So, if you don’t watch GG, you’re bored right now, and wondering what prompts a usually fairly rational and feminist girl like me to dissolve into a puddle of OMFG!s. Wondering whether, perhaps, all those integrals might have made me go off the deep end. Worry not, and I’ll explain my fascination below the fold.