reviewing Black Doves; Dark Matter; Dept. Q; Detective Hole; Dexter: Resurrection; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; Memory of a Killer; MobLand; Outlander; Paradise; Presumed Innocent; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Smoke; Star City; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Tehran;The: Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Last of Us, Night Agent; Your Friends & Neighbors +books, films, music, podcasts, politics
George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.
Chuck Todd interviews me about alternate histories
I noticed that Unknown, a 2011 movie, is on Netflix's top 10. My wife and I saw it a few nights ago, and very much enjoyed it.
Liam Neeson plays a professor (Martin) who gets separated from his wife Elizabeth (Mad Men's January Jones) and then loses part of his memorable when he's in a car accident. He has enough of it to know he is married and to whom, but when he meets up with his wife, he finds she's with another man, who has Martin's name, and the couple claim to have no idea who the Neeson Martin is.
That's a good set-up for an action adventure, and Unknown follows through very well. The action takes place in Germany, and Martin, wanting to find out what's going on with his wife, stays one step ahead of being killed. Diane Kruger plays Gina, who becomes an ally of Martin's, and the narrative is peopled with oddly memorable characters, including a hotel factotum and a former East German member of the Stasi.
[spoilers ahead]
Unknown also does a good job of sprinkling in clues which are foundations for the surprise ending. For example, Martin seems to be a very sharp fighter and driver for a professor, and that's because ... as revealed at the end, he's a secret agent not a professor.
The action is non-stop and effective, there's no telling who will live or die, and I very much recommend Unknown.
Hey, a series about ice skaters is probably close to the last thing you'd expect to find me reviewing here. But ice skating is the favorite and often the only part of the Winter Olympics my wife and I watch, and we wanted to see how January Jones, last seen (I think) by us in Mad Men, was doing on the screen, so we gave it a shot. And I liked it, sometimes a lot.
More than my wife did, but that's ok. A lot more than the dyspeptic, myopic critics did, but who cares what they think. I thought the series, which focuses on a mother (Carol, played by January Jones) and her two daughters (Kat, in her early twenties, played by Kaya Scodelario, and Serena, 16, played by Willow Shields) who in one way or another all have a life on the ice, and two of whom (Carol and Kat) suffer from bi-polar disorders, was often pretty good and occasionally really excellent. The plot had some surprises and the acting off the ice always sufficed. The skating was great (some of it was done by doubles), and though there were a couple of annoyances (which I'll get to below) - SPOILERS AHEAD - they were no big deal.
Here's what I most liked: the sheer difficulty of succeeding in skating competition, even if you have ample talent. (That is, I liked the way that difficulty was portrayed.) The ephemerality of success, and the vulnerability that even the winners can't avoid. And when you add to this the burden of the bi-polar disorder, and the medication that keeps you in balance in everyday life but can dull your senses just enough to make you sometimes lose your edge in the rink, you get an especially interesting, even riveting, story.
Kaya Scodelario gave a sensitive and compelling performance. January Jones seemed like another version of Betty on Mad Men, and that was fine. Willow Shields was good as Serena. In some ways the best performance was Evan Roderick as Kat's partner Justin in more than one way - we've this character many times before, but Roderick gave him a surprisingly fresh and authentic presentation.
My main annoyance was too many rabbits out of the hat, like the abusive doctor who suddenly became a villain in the final episode or two. For that matter, there were too many subplots. I could have done without what Justin's father and stepmother went through, or without the coach's true love story, or without some of Marcus the bartender's story, or at least one fewer of those. And some of the life-and-death crises, like the coach's eye surgery, were way too quickly resolved.
But, as I said, those problems were relatively minor compared to the soaring high points of the series, on and off the rink. I'm up for a second, more streamlined season next year, and my wife will probably watch it, too, so I hope it's renewed.
It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...
"Hei-i-inze is on my side," is the client Heinz's idea for an ad campaign, replete with The Rolling Stones, who sang "Time's On My Side," doing the jingle. The Heinz guy's daughter loves The Stones, Megan's knows their music, and that's enough for Don to give it a shot - try to get The Stones, who will be performing in NYC, to do the spot.
Harry and Don go to the concert, get back stage, and it seems for a brief while that Harry has actually gotten The Rolling Stones on board. Alas, it's The Trade Winds, a group I vaguely but likely you never heard of, and Harry consoles himself with a whole bag of White Castles. One of the better threads on this episode, but I was hoping we'd somehow get a look at someone playing the young Mick Jagger.
Otherwise, Mohawk Airlines is back with our firm, and Peggy is tasked with hiring a new copy writer. Enter young Mike Ginsberg, who has the worst New York Jewish accent I ever heard. (Actually, I'm sure I never heard an accent like that from a real person, and I've lived in New York all of my life.) But Mike has a crazy spark - he irritates Peggy, doesn't antagonize Don, and gets the job.
The most serious story tonight is Betty's. First, actress January Jones is pregnant, and has put on some weight. Rather than have Betty pregnant, Mad Men decided to give her a tumor on the thyroid, which is causing her weight gain. It could be malignant, and before she and Henry and Don learn that it's not, we see some rare glimpses of humanity. Betty's worried about what will happen to her kids, Henry is loving and supportive, and even Don can't quite do business as usual. But when the good news arrives, and Don calls, Henry tells Don that Betty's ok but deliberately neglects to let Betty know that Don called. Henry's not such a decent guy after all - at least when it comes to keeping Don out of Betty's life.
As I often find myself thinking, there's not a thoroughly or even mostly nice person on Mad Men, and that's part of the show's charm.
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
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Skeeter Davis's The End of the World played under the closing credits of Mad Men 3.12 tonight, and it came pretty close to that in many, but not all, ways...
We knew it would be coming. But the logical time was the Season 3 finale - which will be on next week. Instead, Mad Men surprised us with a kick in the heart tonight, which started as a cold day with no heat in the offices of Sterling Cooper, proceeded to too much heat being pumped out, and soon showed us the television in Harry's office, which told us it was November 22, 1963.
It was painful to see those news clips again - worse than painful, as it always is, but also always instructive. Don's says everything will be fine, but of course it won't. In many crucial ways, our country has still not recovered from the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I know that some of the tears I quietly shed as I watched the funeral of Teddy Kennedy this summer were for JFK.
And, yet, incredibly but not surprisingly, that wasn't the worst of it for Don. The assassination and the emotional cauldron it creates makes Betty realize she no longer loves him. Significantly, it's not just what Betty found out about Don's assumed identity - in a crucial scene the night before assassination, she still looks with love at Don as he takes care of their baby in the middle of the night. But after the assassination and Don's reaction to it, Betty gives Henry an incandescent smile that's the happiest we've seen from her in the three years of the series. Another brilliant performance from January Jones, and Jon Hamm, too.
What will become of Don now? What does the finale have left to tell us? If I could imagine that Mad Men could continue without Don, I'd almost see suicide as his next move.
But maybe not. Don still has some reserves of strength. People land on their feet in strange ways on Mad Men. The same terrible end of November that split Don and Betty have pulled Pete and Trudy closer.
What an episode. I'm looking forward to watching Dexter now - I could use a breather from the angst - a contest of serial killers would be relaxing.
But what an episode ... in addition to all of its other superlatives, it may well be the best fiction ever on the screen about the impact of November 22, 1963 on a stratum of Americans, influential and otherwise...
And I'll be back here next week, after I've seen the Mad Men finale.
Well, Betty finally brings it all up to Don on Mad Men 3.11 last night, in an evening's confrontation that puts her in the superior, stronger position, and may well change everything in the series.
With Suzanne waiting in the car outside for a week away with Don - Betty doesn't know this - Betty at last confronts Don about the secret life he left behind. Don tells her who Dick Whitman was, how he came to be Don, and most wrenchingly and even pathetically, about his brother - the little boy in the photographs Don had kept out of his life and in his locked drawer.
January Jones was superb, Jon Hamm was unbelievable, in his best performance in the series. I know he had this coming, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. This complex state was rendered perfectly by Hamm.
What will happen from now on? Don's back at the office the next day. He clearly still has strong feelings for Suzanne, but tells her he can't see her for the time being. I don't think she's out of the picture just yet, but it's also obvious that things will never be the same in Don's life.
Betty is a different person, too. She is finally out of her shell and Don's dominance, and won't be going back. This was cleansing, for her and us. I don't think she's likely to leave Don, but their marriage will be something else, far more equal in power distribution, from now on.
Last night had some good scenes with Roger and an early love and client, too. She ostensibly is shopping for an ad firm to help with the dog food business she inherited - "I'll tell you what I am telling the Avenue," she says to Sterling Cooper, which is, she's looking for the best ad company - but what she's really looking for is the company of Roger, and even a more lasting reunion. But Roger, either out of loyalty to his young wife, or because he prefers his women young, or both, says no. In either case, it was a great performance by John Slattery.
Two more episodes to go this season. And with Halloween over, we're knocking on the door of November 1963.
Almost nothing took place in the office of Mad Men 3.8 tonight, which only makes sense, since it's August 1963, and everyone is literally or figuratively on vacation.
Betty Draper is actually on both, and given a tour-de-force performance by January Jones. She lets Rockefeller's assistant kiss her - after he comes through (at least, for a short time) on the reservoir - and the look on her face was priceless. A hint of self-reproachment, a flash of satisfaction, and much more in the mix of conflicted attraction that's Betty vis-a-vis men other than Don. But we've rarely seen that mix so clearly.
And this is only warm-up for her trip with Don to Rome, on Hilton business. She has the Italian men eating out her hand, as she segues into play-acting with Don as an "ugly American" who succeeds where the Romans have failed. It's like a brief scene out of Fellini, capped off with her half undressed in black with Don in their hotel room - in their most erotic interlude of the series - and their making love not only that evening, but the next morning when Don says he has to get to work. Betty's at the height of her power as a woman whom every man, including Don, spins around.
But the bubble bursts when they're back in Ossining, no Rome in any way. Betty doesn't want to be that wife, and now that we've seen what she can be, now that she has seen it, we can understand a little better why it's so difficult for her back in New York. But the trip has made her a better mother, as she gives good counsel to Sally (and herself) about kissing and boys.
Meanwhile, Pete has an instructive adventure in the warm evenings of August, too. With Trudy away, he makes a play for an au-pair down the hall in his building, helping her replace a gown she ruined. She resists, but, typical of Pete, he gets his way with her anyway, all but against her will. Her employer has to subsequently warn Pete, Trudy's back, and after a day or two of brooding, he tells from now on he'll accompany her when she goes away with her family.
Lots learned by most concerned on these summer excursions, and the momentous Fall of 1963 looms ever closer in this season of Mad Men...
About as wrenching and Sopranos-like Mad Men - Episode 2.8 - as has been on so far, as Don and Betty start going the way of Tony and Carmella in the middle of their series, the priest gives more than a sermon, and Joan gets used - professionally - by Harry.
Betty could not have just absorbed what Jimmy told her last week about Don and Bobbi and done nothing. Tonight it came to a head, in a great performance by January Jones, as Betty goes through controlled fury, confronting Don, perhaps trying to live with his lie and his denial, but seeing Jimmy on her television in his Utz ad and deciding to throw Don out.
Yeah, Don is getting what he deserved. But it's hard not to feel a little sorry for him, just as with Tony Soprano.
Meanwhile, Father Gill - well played Tom's son Colin Hanks (who looks like Pete Campbell, doesn't he?) - is coaxing Peggy to tell him her secret. Is he attracted to her, and she to him? I'd say so. And in the last scene, he pulls out a guitar and plays a rocking gospel song all to himself and us.
Back at the firm, Harry is being expected to do more than he bargained for as head of the new TV division. Roger refuses to let Harry hire some extra help to read scripts, so Harry gets Joan. She does a great job, the client is thrilled with her and her analysis and ... Roger rewards Harry with a new guy from the outside to give him the help he needed.
This, of course, is no reward to Joan, just another confirmation of the rampant male chauvinism that she both parlays to her benefit but cannot help being stung by, just like any woman, whatever her savvy, in 1962.
Grim, unrepenting, unrelenting, all around. Well, here's one thing - at least no one on Mad Men is likely to get shot - I hope.
A superb Don and Betty Mad Men last night - one of the best of the series - with an important story that not only taught us more about their relationship but also showed us things about each, individually, that we didn't quite know before.
The catalyst is Don being offered a job by a McCann-Erickson exec, Jim Hobart. Don's tempted by access to a world bigger and more exciting than what he can get at Sterling Cooper. But Hobart, seeking any additional leverage he can get, offers Betty an assignment as a model.
Betty (January Jones) does look like Grace Kelly, and was a model before she married Don, so Hobart's offer certainly makes sense on the face of it. But, clearly, Hobart is hoping that Betty's good fortune at McCann-Erickson will be the icing on the cake for Don.
It proves to be just the opposite. Don, more complex, as always, that anyone around him realizes, abruptly ends the McCann courtship when Hobart sends him the first photos of Betty. She looks radiant. So why does this lead Don to say no to McCann?
Two possible reasons. One, maybe Don doesn't want Betty to have a career. He knows that if he doesn't go with McCann, Betty's modeling there will disappear, and that's exactly what happens. Two, maybe Don doesn't like being manipulated by Hobart in this way. I'm leaning towards Two, but reason One could have contributed, too...
Meanwhile ... we learn that Betty really loves getting back to modeling, and doing more than being a housewife. However happy she tells Don she is at the end, we now know, for sure, that she has a drive that goes beyond taking care of the kids and cooking great meals for Don.
And back at the office, a good Nixon-Kennedy discussion, Peggy's gaining a little weight ... which leads to another high round of male chauvinism from Harry-Asimov (Rich Sommer) and the guys, some delightfully rendered advice from Joan, and ... well, my wife has been saying almost since day one that Peggy got pregnant on that first night with Pete...
Not much plot motion in the second episode of AMC's Mad Men tonight, but that's ok, because the show's unique ambiance continues to shine...
Where you else can you hear people talking about People Are Funny, and a guy in the office (Paul played by Michael Gladis) doing a "submitted for your approval" riff on The Twilight Zone, and lamenting that CBS might be cancelling it?
The show is such a trip to the '50s (pardon the '60s expression) that even some of the real ads - when the show stops for commercials - are integrated into the Mad Men mix. In addition to providing historical tidbits about various aspects of advertising history, Mad Men also provides a tidbit about Orkin, the exterminator company, before showing an actual Orkin ad (the tidbit: Orkin's first TV ad dates to 1954).
And the smoke and sexism reign supreme. As I mentioned last week, I was a kid in 1950s, and I remember the television all right, but not people smoking this much. On the other hand, I wasn't in the advertising world.
On Mad Men, smoke is a common denominator, shared by just about every adult. Men hitting on women in the office are ubiquitous, too, but some women, notably new girl in the office Peggy (played by Elizabeth Moss) are just beginning to confide their objections to other women. Why are we always the dessert after men take us out to lunch, Peggy asks office manager Joan (played by Christina Hendricks).
Fair enough - but, I gotta admit that, as much as I like Peggy, it's a little hard for me to sympathize after she indicated to Paul - about his Twilight Zone routine - that she doesn't like science fiction! Apostasy!
There is one bit of worrying action: Don's wife Betty (January Jones - that's the actress's name - a name from the 1950s if ever there was one) is having trouble with her hands, as in they're not working quite right. She's off to the shrink - they were probably at the height of their trendiness then - but I have a feeling this is something more serious...
More next week ... it's good indeed to be back in the late 1950s, again -- especially since the smoke doesn't go through the screen...
20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) - in which we discuss what Harry and the characters are really smoking on Mad Men - at Light On Light Through
