Best Week of Television Ever!

Well, maybe not. But I was so in love with most of my shows last week I have to gush!

MAD MEN

It was the season finale of this excellent show and I was immensely satisfied. It took place against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and most of the characters felt like taking risks and deciding what really mattered. In this vein there were 3 really entertaining and important developments:

1) Don more or less admitted his infidelity and disrespect to his wife Betty in an attempt to get her back. Don is a pretty awesome character but he has struggled this season to own up to his shortcomings and be honest, so this was an important first step towards repairing his marriage. He also got the upper hand in the Sterling-Cooper merger allowing him to finally put Duck in his place. Which brings me to number 2...


2) Duck boils himself in a stew of his own making. After setting up a risky but extremely lucrative merger for the company (which will land him a position as President, finally giving him seniority over Don) Duck makes a pretty grand faux paux. First, the alcoholic has started drinking again, leading to some cutting comments and yelling in the big meeting. But second and most entertainingly, his supposed triumph over Don was entirely contingent on Don being forced to stick to his contract, giving Duck control and the upper hand. The kicker is that Don doesn't have a contract and is free to quit and work for rival companies if he doesn't like the way Duck runs the office. So now Duck has made a fool of himself and completely overestimated his hand, landing him in deep, deep water with the senior partners. It was a great scene.

3) The most touching scene was the long-awaited reveal of the fate of Peggy and Pete's love-child. We've known all season that Peggy gave birth to Pete's child at the end of last season, but we weren't sure where the baby ended up and we've been waiting for Pete to find out that his casual dalliance with Peggy resulted in a child. A buzzed Pete finally sits Peggy down and honestly admits that he's in love with her and wants to be with her, his marriage be damned. And Peggy sadly and kindly informs him that she had his child and gave it away because she wanted more for herself. She wanted the big career which she has pretty much achieved and she no longer wants Pete the way she used to. He is so devastated in this scene and both Elizabeth Moss and Vincent Kartheiser were fucking amazing in the scene.

GOSSIP GIRL

This was definitely one of my favorite episodes of the season. I liked just about every development and really cheered on a few characters that I have never cared for. Like Jenny - usually a spoiled brat wannabe, but tonight, while still being a baby, she was at least an interesting baby. Fought Eleanor Waldorf for control of the dresses she designed and almost got into some trouble with a shady model and her annoying photog boyfriend, but then! NATE TO THE RESCUE!!! While the attraction between Nate and Jenny seemed kinda sudden (not to mention Chace Crawford is 23 and Taylor Momsen in only 15, eww?) I like their chemistry, we need to see more half-naked Nate, and I liked their kiss. Can't wait to see what Blair thinks about this! Jenny screwing over Blair's mother, then picking up with her ex, ooohhh, can't be good.


In other news, I finally liked Dan! Really, really liked him! I want to, and God knows Penn Badgely is adorable, but Dan is just such a judgmental ass most of the time I just can't get on board. But this week he genuinely tried to see others as actual human beings with feelings and really helped Blair out. I really like Dan and Blair scenes together - they have a great chemistry. I don't want them together romantically because I love her with Chuck too much, but I like them interacting. Even when Dan reverted to sanctimonious jerk for 5 minutes (Damn you, Vanessa!) I at least understood why, and he faced down Chuck Bass to make it right! Bravo!


Also, yay for Chuck and Blair pretty much admitting they are in love with each other. It's about time! Totally my favorite couple, they actual got all vulnerable with each other and decided they don't want to risk a relationship because they're afraid they'll screw it up. It was tragically and beautifully sad (oh, they way they held hands!) but here's hoping they get back to some friendly scheming together now.


Oh, and Serena's got a new love interest and I find him intriguing, plus he totally reminds me of pretentious smarties with boho looks like Blake. This could be interesting!

GREEK

I'll keep this short(er) but in the midseason finale I gave up on Evan and Frannie. This season's evil power couple showed lots of promise as characters last season, but now Frannie is officially beyond repair. She steals half of the ZBZ house to start her own sorority, why - because she can't be president of ZBZ. What an evil wench! And she is totally using Evan for him money and connections. Which is fine because Evan is a douche! What happened to the nice guy who wanted to be more than "Evan Chambers" in those freshman year flashbacks??? He had so much potential. But this week, in the long awaited street fight between the Omega Chai's and Kappa Tau, Evan hit Rusty in the face with a pledge paddle - HARD!!! Ostensibly as payback, but please! He's humiliated Rusty plenty already, and it's RUSTY! (Just look at him) You just don't do that to Rusty - he's cuddly baby who is made of awesome! So glad Cappie punched Evan back. And hope that Calvin finally opens his eyes and sees that Evan is crap. I have decided that Cappie has to be Evan's salvation. Until those two make up and Cappie helps Evan remember how to be a human being, I have written Evan off for good.


Also, like that Rebecca wants to be Casey's friend, glad that Casey chose herself over a guy, but love that Max may be sticking around because he is a sweetie and a dish and until Casey and Cappie get back together, I'm loving Max! Can't wait for March!

SONS OF ANARCHY

Anyone else watching this? It's a new show on FX and I am officially hooked. What initially caught me was Charlie Hunnam (really cute British actor from the UK "Queer as Folk" and Judd Apatow's show "Undeclared") but I'm really starting to love everything about it. It's about a biker gang in a small town and they basically are the law. They run guns and keep the peace, but they're all fucked up. Honestly, I don't think I can explain the entire dynamic. Clay (Ron Perlman) is the leader and his stepson Jax (Hunnam) is second in command, and the rest of the club is just filled with great character actors. It's really one of the best ensembles I've seen in a while. Gemma (Katy Segal) is Jax's mom and Clay's wife, and she is a force to be reckoned with - she and Perlman are acting superstars. Anywho, love this cast, love the momentum of the last couple episodes, love the diversity of characters, the conflict, Jax reuniting with old love Tara, the Hamlet-like undertones to the Clay/Gemma/Jax relationships, the dark humor, and on and on. Definitely my favorite new show of the season. And since it's about a rather misogynistic, violent and illegal enterprise, it's gotta be doing something right to have me hooked.



All in all it was a very satisfying week of television for me. Here's hoping this week is half as good!

What I Love Right Now

"MAD MEN"


Unless you've been hiding under a rock, I'm sure you've heard some of the buzz surrounding this show. It got the most Emmy nominations for a drama this year, and coming from a show that isn't on basic cable or HBO, that's quite an accomplishment. I resisted the hype for most of the first season (it's about an advertising firm in the '60's, and I so do not care about advertising although the '60's are cool), but eventually caved and watched a few repeats and I was intrigued.

It follows the personal and professional exploits of Don Draper (Jon Hamm, really excellent, complex and smoldering), head of creative for the Sterling/Cooper ad agency in New York. He's a total philanderer (although it being the '60's, most professional men on this show are stepping out on their wives and thinking very little about it), but he also harbors a secret about his past (hint: he's not really Don Draper, a dark, twisty secret that the first season takes great pleasure in teasing). Life at Sterling/Cooper also follows secretary turned copy writer Peggy (Elizabeth Moss) who is drawn into an affair with married co-worker (and slimeball) Pete (Vincent Kartheiser, deliciously sleazy, yet funny, and it's so bizarre that I seriously love his character and acting on this show, where's he playing someone so despicable, and yet I actively loathed him on "Angel" where his character was far more sympathetic, if not a little whiny). The advertising firm also has room for fascinating characters like unambiguously gay Sal, shy, married Harry, co-partner Roger Sterling (John Slattery, an infamous "Hey, it's that guy!" I have actually mentioned here before, fabulous in this role), office manager Joan (curvacious redhead Christina Hendricks, whom "Firefly" fans will remember as the conniving temptress Saffron), and even Don's naive wife, Betty (played by January Jones, one of those ingenue actresses I didn't suspect could really act, but is just terrific in this role). Suffice to say, there's plenty of salacious drama with this crew, and a lot of it actually has to do with office politics and ad campaigns. A show that can realistically incorporate business with drama; what a novel approach.


The show gets mad props for it's amazing attention to period detail and facts; this show isn't just drama, but full of pitch perfect period politics (tongue twister) and is almost more fun to look at because of the sets, costumes, blocking and intricate detail than because of the plot. (Almost.) Rather than pay surface homage to the period it depicts, this show is immersed in the attitudes of the '60's; the first season revolves around the Nixon/Kennedy presidential election, and season 2 (which jumped ahead to 1962) makes pointed references to the Jackie/Marilyn debate (and all it's obvious Madonna/Whore connotations), a 1962 American Airlines crash, and the rising power of women in the workplace and at home. The show can be sexist, racist, and classicist, but these topics are skillfully and subtly approached and honestly reflect the less enlightened views inherent in the early 1960's. One of my favorite elements of the show are the lengthy scenes. People talk like real people, where what is really said is often not what is actually said, and where mood and subtext play key roles, often over long 3-5 minute scenes practically unseen in modern television. (Don't get me wrong, I love the wacky, melodramatic flightiness of "Gossip Girl" and it's rapid editing, but these long scenes in "Mad Men" that are allowed to build and sit and marinate are just as good and more welcome amongst today's ADD inspired editing).

So if any of this sounds the least bit enticing, run out and rent Season One, now on DVD. :)


"GREEK"

I'm not all about the serious drama though. Which is why I've also fallen in love with this frothy little gem. It's on ABC Family Channel, and it's about sororities and fraternities, a system I have always loathed and believed every negative stereotype about, so I didn't watch this show during it's first season either. But you know how ABC Family Channel is - they play repeats of "What I Like About You" and "Full House", and of course "Gilmore Girls", which is my own personal crack, and before you know it, you've been sucked into "Kyle XY" and eventually, "Greek."

It's full of antiquated ideas about "brotherhood" and "sisterhood" and ridiculous pledge rituals and house alliances that occasionally drive me nuts. However it's nice to get an inside look at the way the Greek system actually works (as I've never bothered to read the fine print before myself) and getting to know some characters that actually enjoy the real benefits of being part of a sorority and aren't raging bitches like I'd always assumed was a pleasant surprise as well. Hidden beneath all this hoo-ha about houses and loyalty, there are some really good plots and characters. For example, the very first episode features the boyfriend of the main character cheating on her, and they don't break up! Some of the reasons for this are ridiculous, but some of them aren't, and I enjoy a story that doesn't feature infidelity as a laboriously built-up plot device, and doesn't necessarily mean the end of a relationship. Some of you may disagree with me, but I find a couple who try to fix their relationship after infidelity occurs, and maybe try to figure out why it happened infinitely more interesting than the predictable blow-out, end-of-relationship scene. Call me crazy.


Casey Cartwright (Spencer Grammar) is the cheated-on party, starting her third year in good standing at the ZBZ sorority. Her geeky freshman brother Rusty (Jacob Zachar) shows up at her college, looking to bond, and decides to rush a fraternity as well. This brings him into contact with her current (cheating) boyfriend Evan Chambers (Jake McDorman), head of the respectable, preppy frat, Omega Chi, and Casey's ex, Cappie (Scott Michael Foster), head of raucous, party frat, Kappa Tau. Of course these three (Casey, Cappie, and Evan) are involved in an angsty, complicated love-triangle, but we join it in medias rey, and many of the details of their past history have yet to be revealed, which I really enjoy. Rusty makes friends with fellow pledger Calvin, who is secretly gay, and his new roommate, fellow honors engineering major, all around geek, and straight up conservative Christian, Dale (Clark Duke), one of the funniest and best-drawn characters on the show. He could have been an antagonistic stereotype, but the interactions between Dale, Rusty and Calvin are some of the best scenes on the show. (Personally, my favorite is kind, laid-back, quippy Cappie. He is so the Pacey of this show, which is much better than "Dawson's Creek", by the way!)

Perfect for shallow, fun, addictive, sometimes wonderfully heartbreaking television!