October 26, 2008 · 9:00 pm

Mad Men – “The Mountain King”

“The Mountain King”

October 19th, 2008

A week after watching the penultimate episode of Mad Men’s second season, I still have more to say than I expected. There is something simultaneously disarming and welcoming about the episode. As Don Draper slides further into a life away from his job and the family that we’ve come to know, we see a side of him that in reality we like more: a man who is comfortable, open, and who finds passion in things that are not so much digressions as true directions in life. As Peggy Olsen begins to finally start advancing at Sterling Cooper based on her talent, we see that perhaps her fellow employees are starting to dig into their inner prejudice as she moves ahead of their own status.

And yet everything else we see in the episode is so comparatively vile, the unravelings of everything good in this universe in favour of what is, in fact, totally awful. Whether it’s Pete’s family life falling apart, or Betty searching desperately for some place in her life, or Joan, who I don’t even want to talk about right now in fear of becoming too frustrated with human nature, it’s hard to feel too hopeful when everything is distintegrating rapidly. I won’t have time tonight to discuss everyone, but let’s focus on at least a few key elements.

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October 23, 2008 · 10:20 pm

The Office – “Crime Aid”

“Crime Aid”

October 23rd, 2008

In what is quite definitively the weakest entry yet this season, we discover The Office falling into one of its many potential potholes (having Michael do things that are almost too on-the-nose in the obnoxiousness column) even while we get a decent glimpse at the rest of the supporting cast. There’s some funny gags in “Crime Aid,” including that the event itself is a ridiculous acronym, but it feels as if the actual plot is just a thin construct that sees the show in a holding pattern.

It’s not an awful holding pattern, but it feels as if everyone is in a rut except for Michael and Holly, who become less fun as the episode goes on and it focuses less on them and more on their stereotypical roles in the office. The result is an episode that’s going to be largely forgettable in the big scheme of things, even if we got a couple of strong little moments.

Not quite a total loss of momentum by any means, but definitely a bit of a step back from the great start to the season.

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October 23, 2008 · 7:47 pm

Friday Night Lights – “Hello, Goodbye”

“Hello, Goodbye”

October 22nd, 2008

Well, it’s good to be back. I figured that this week’s FNL episode title was as good an excuse as any to get back in the blogging frame of mind. While my week and a half off has taught me that perhaps I’ll have to cut back on some shows I review, it has also taught me that not talking about them is almost as challenging.

And, really, this week’s episode of Friday Night Lights, airing exclusively on DirecTV’s 101, is the perfect example of both why I blog about television shows in general, and why it would be darn near impossible to not blog about Friday Night Lights ahead of its more accessible airings on NBC starting early next year. When a show is this good, and is coming off of a season that wasn’t this good at all, you have an episode that demands to be written about.

“Hello, Goodbye” is an episode about the small things: the small ways people react, the small ways people make mistakes, and the small ways that decisions are thought out and rationalized without becoming overly complicated or convoluted. In short, it’s an episode about all of what Friday Night Lights such a fascinating investigation of marriage, family, and football in Dillon, Texas, and everything that they failed to do in the show’s second season.

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October 14, 2008 · 11:25 am

Cultural Hiatus

My Faithful Readership,

So, as you may have noticed, I have yet to blog any of Monday’s plentiful options that I usually review at Cultural Learnings. The scarier thing, even, is that I haven’t even watched any of them, as I spent the entirety of last evening on the first of many major projects/events of the next week.

As a result, I’m taking a brief hiatus: not from watching TV, I’ll get to most of last night’s lineup today as a break from a busy morning, but from blogging about it. I should be back for Mad Men next Sunday, as I don’t want to get behind on the show, but in the meantime no full fledge reviews. However, you won’t be entirely devoid of my (attempts at) witty commentary.

To continue following my viewing habits, you can follow my Twitter feed. For those who don’t know, Twitter is a social networking service where, if you join, you can choose to “follow” various individuals ranging from nobodies like me to TV Critics, politicians, celebrities, and everything inbetween. They can also follow you, and this begins this really intriguing subsection of conversation, opinion, and internet society.

It’s a great way for me, this week, to keep reacting to the television I’m watching in 140 characters as opposed to 1400 words, something that happens a bit too often for the sake of my productivity levels elsewhere. As an example of my recent use of Twitter to discuss my weekend-long excursion into Gilmore Girls Season One (Where I literally had to hold myself back from bringing the rest of the seasons back to school with me):

Nothing can help me stop my GG marathon than a fresh helping of Daniel-written townie-hijinx filled mayhem. Oh, Daniel. 01:54 AM October 11, 2008

So, happy TV watching everyone, and if you really want to know what I was thinking about TV at 2am, Twitter is the place to be!

Myles

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October 13, 2008 · 12:11 am

Mad Men – “The Jet Set”

“The Jet Set”

October 12th, 2008

When most people arrive at their travel destination without their suitcase, they’re angry; when Don Draper arrives without his luggage, it provides a freedom that allows him to break free into (long) uncharted territory.

“The Jet Set” follows Don on a journey of sorts, as he flees the rigidity and direness of Cold War aerospace technology and the schmoozing of pie in the sky engineers searching to create the superhuman astronaut, instead jumping in a car with a young woman named Joy who, more than his meetings, offers hope for her her eponymous emotion. As he encounters those filthy rich and adventurous individuals known as the Jet Set, he also encounters a life that is so unlike his own it nearly scares him back to safety, but then surprisingly scares him back to something difference altogether.

There’s a lot of people who are reverting back to older perspectives here, some in desperate search of former glory or others who are simply collateral damage in the wake of the office’s bigotry. For the most part, it’s a stark reminder that the lives of our characters are the polar opposite of the show’s airborne guests: while they fly from exotic location to exotic location, our characters are stuck in place, struggling to expand their horizons at anything close to jet speed.

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October 12, 2008 · 9:45 pm

The Amazing Race Season 13 – “Episode Three”

“Did You Push My Sports Bra Off the Ledge?”

October 12th, 2008

A Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers (I’m with Robin Cherbotsky, Canadian Thanksgiving is totally the “real” thanksgiving), but television does not rest (not that my holiday has been that restful considering my major presentation on Tuesday, but I digress), and The Amazing Race certainly doesn’t rest.

And on its third leg, the thirteenth edition of The Amazing Race has finally hits its first apex of interpersonal conflict, what will henceforth be known as “SportsBraGate” (Props to Daniel Fienberg, of Zap2it, for the phrase). There comes a time in every race where we start to come across events which make us ask questions about the circumstances: is it that these racers are just so justifiably insane that they would do these types of things normally, or is it the Race bringing out the worst in them?

For a few teams this week, this becomes quite a challenge, but for the most part it’s an entertaining one: with an extremely entertaining Roadblock, the dreaded appearance of the clue reading penalty, and the drama of SportsBraGate, it’s clear that The Amazing Race is cycling back around to where we start to identify with the racers, for better or for worse.

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October 10, 2008 · 12:26 am

Series Premiere: Life on Mars – “Out Here in the Fields”

“Out Here in the Fields”

October 9th, 2008

Over the summer, the internet was graced with what seemed like a gift: an early look at one of the fall’s most anticipated pilots, David E. Kelley’s adaptation of the British hit Life on Mars. People watched, and there was much negativity as it relates to the show’s relationship with the British original and generally what one would call a feeble opener for the series.

But then an amazing thing happened: the pilot changed. It changed producers, it changed locations, and it changed every one of its cast members but one. While I can’t speak to the British original (I know, I know, forgive me), I can say that these are, in fact, improvements across the board. It isn’t that the original cast was awful, but rather that they felt like an ensemble not quite capable enough to live up to the show’s premise. Here, we have a group of actors with some pedigree working on a show that, with some more refinement, can certainly rise to a higher level.

The biggest difference of all between these two pilots, though, is that this one has us wondering whether they can keep up this level of quality, and not whether they will be able to create any quality at all. Considering that a victory.

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October 9, 2008 · 11:00 pm

SNL: Weekend Update Special Edition – “Episode One”

An NBC Special

Well, you can’t say that Saturday Night Live doesn’t have guts. Perhaps, though, they could use a lesson or two in comedy.

In a season where Saturday Night Live is emerging as a cultural powerhouse in an election year, tonight’s special was a chance to further the show’s cause with some politically topical humour that captures the things that have made SNL work this season.

That thing, though, is Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin. And the one thing absent from tonight’s episode of SNL Weekend Update: Special Edition?

Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin.

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October 9, 2008 · 10:40 pm

The Office – “Business Ethics”

“Business Ethics”

October 9th, 2008

Any show in a fifth season needs to be able to do two things: to best utilize its long-standing character relationships, and to integrate new elements into the storyline. What we have in “Business Ethics” is fantastic examples of these two principles, using both our (and Jim’s) extensive knowledge of Dwight’s personality gives us a great opportunity to indulge in one of the show’s best dynamics, and Holly continues to serve as a fantastic introduction to this “family”…or, workplace if you will.

It’s an episode that is all about the small little moments, the pieces of scenes as opposed to any broad setups. What these half-hour episodes do that the hour-longs which started last season didn’t was to really focus on a single event and its impact on the Office. We get a lot of the Office standards (including a seminar in the conference room), but it feels like the right combination of events following the episode’s ethical dilemma – and its a combination of events that make for an extremely memorable episode.

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October 8, 2008 · 9:45 pm

Pushing Daisies – “Circus Circus”

“Circus Circus”

October 8th, 2008

In the prologue to the second episode of Pushing Daisies’ second season, Ned learns a lesson that may be all too self-prophetic for Bryan Fuller’s charming show: that “new beginnings only lead to painful ends.” Considering last week’s alarmingly low ratings numbers, joining Chuck and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles on the lists of shows bouncing back creatively if not in terms of viewership after the writers’ strike cut their seasons short, Pushing Daisies might well be headed for an end that will certainly be painful considering how much I love this show.

But as the episode progresses, what is demonstrates is that new beginnings aren’t nearly as hard as Ned’s initial lesson made it out to be: that striking out on your own, or suddenly being on your own, or hoping for a new period in your life to begin, can be both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time without having to fall into either category. While it may seem like a show shouldn’t be able to create a common thread for a pie maker who can bring back the dead, an alive again childhood sweetheart, a picture-book making detective, two eccentric Aunts, and an employee who’s at a nunnery, all while also managing to construct an entertaining circus-based murder mystery, Pushing Daisies has proven its mettle.

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