The Romanoffs 1.4: Expectation: Unfulfilled

I thought The Romanoffs 1.4:  Expectation, on Amazon Prime this past Friday night had great dialogue, tip-top New York scenery, and fine acting.  But the weakness of its plot, and the in-media-res ending made it feel like much ado about nothing, and thus the weakest of the four episodes so far.

I liked the slight connection to 1.3.  It was fun getting to meet the guy who wrote the script of the television series about the Romanovs that lead to the death of its prime actress last week.  As always, John Slattery gave a good performance.  So did the other Jon - Tenney - as the assumed grandparent of the Romanov heir, when Slattery's character was the real one.  But that's pretty much the long and the short of this little story.

Well, Olivia's struggles were of some interest, too.  But the way the story was told in flashbacks, which works when the plot structure is strong, didn't in this frozen-in-time photograph in slight motion.   Not to mention that we didn't even get the payoff of seeing the baby born, and the reactions of all the characters.

Not to make too much of the title - which works as a double entendre - but I was expecting a little more in this episode.   As I said in my review of the first episode, there's a lot in The Romanoffs that reminds me of Woody Allen.   Expectation shows that that's a two-edged sword.  Because, although some of Allen's movies are brilliant, some are just great dialogue, scenery, and acting, which, without a commensurately strong plot, don't add up to anything close to great.

But I'll be back here next week with a review of episode 5.

See also: The Romanoffs 1.1: The Violet Hour: Compelling, Anti-Binge Watchable Comedy of Manners ... The Romanoffs 1.2: The Royal We: A Walk on the Dark Side ... The Romanoffs 1.3: House of Special Purpose: Ghost Story ... The Romanoffs 1.5: Bright and High Circle: Music and Abuse ... The Romanoffs 1.6: Panorama: The Royal Disease ... The Romanoffs 1.7: End of the Line: The Adoption Racket ... The Romanoffs 1.8:  The One that Holds Everything: Writer on a Train

  
It all starts in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn walks off the set
of The Misfits and begins to hear a haunting song in her head,
"Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Adjustment Bureau: What Do Mad Men and Fringe Have in Common?

Philip K. Dick has had an amazing run of superb and near-superb movies made out of his science stories - far more than any other science fiction author, including such greats in the pantheon as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke.   Blade Runner and Total Recall from Dick's roster of work were superb.  Minority Report and Paycheck were near-superb.   The others were not quite as good, but that record is still some pretty fine movie shooting.  And The Adjustment Bureau was in between those first  two categories - superb and near-superb - which is pretty good indeed.

The Adjustment Bureau also connects to another creative nexus which has nothing to do with Philip K. Dick.  The movie represents the second foray into major science fiction by an actor from the Emmy-winning Mad Men.   Jon Hamm had a supporting role in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and John Slattery (Roger Sterling) has a supporting role in The Adjustment Bureau.  It's been a good 2011 for Roger, now showing up in Lincoln Towncar commercials as well an excellent movie.  And, as icing on the cake, The Adjustment Bureau is far far better than the new Day the Earth Stood Still.

It has whimsy, romance (in fact, it's billed as romance in some places) as well as Dick's patented what is really reality theme.   Matt Damon (who is always outstanding) plays Congressman David Norris on his way to being Senator and (if the Adjustment Bureau has it way) President of the United of States.  But if he's allowed to be with the woman he loves - a ballerina (Elise)  fetchingly played by Emily Blunt - he'll lose his edge and never make it to the White House.   The Adjustment Bureau's job is therefore to keep them apart.

A particularly nice plot touch is why David and Elise are so drawn together.  I sorta suspected this, but was glad to hear that a whole bunch of earlier plans had the two of them together, and remnants of those plans were driving the principals, much to the Adjustment Bureau's consternation.

Also enjoyable was the Adjustment Bureau's history with our species - they guided us from the hunter-gather stage to the Roman Empire, then adopted a hands-off policy which led to the Dark Ages.  So they came back again and gave us the Renaissance and the Age of Reason, bowed out in 1910, and left to our devices we got involved in two world wars and nearly destroyed the planet.  So they're back again, to help us, but to cause David and Elise lots of pain.

The Bureau's best weapons are reminiscent of Fringe, which is in turn a treasure-trove of 1950s golden age tropes.   The Adjustment team wear hats like my father wore - fedoras - and use these to open doors that are in all kinds of places in New York City, and lead to shortcuts that can get you across and up and downtown instantly.   These guys are powerful, but they also have an endearing bumbling quality (a little like the Eternal Bald Observers in Fringe, who also have bad hats) - one of the funniest parts of the movie is when Roger's character and another member of the AB don't duck away quickly enough from a window, with the result that David sees them.

They also have compassion, and the ending hinges on which will win, compassion verses sticking with the plan, which is all I'll say.  But Philip K. Dick has scored again with an excellent and unerasable movie made from one of his stories (and, hey, a scene was filmed at Fordham University!).

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Don's Night of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11

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.


5-min podcast review of Mad Men

See also: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Mad Men 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot

An even edgier than usual episode 3.3 of Mad Men tonight, delving into -

Racism -

1. Don and Betty's daughter Sally (wonderfully played by Kiernan Shipka) finishes reading from Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to Grandpa. She leaves, comes back in the room, and swipes a $5 bill from his table (he's "indisposed"). Grandpa Gene realizes the money is missing, and pretty much blames the African-American maid.

2. Later, at Roger & Jane's country club party, Roger sings in black face. By the way, the voice was good - was it John Slattery's?

Weed -

Hey, I'll be reviewing Weeds tomorrow, but here it is on Mad Men, and back in May 1963, as Peggy, Paul, and two other dudes partake. My typical question: Isn't this a bit early for 1963? I know, pot goes back to the 1930s and earlier, but at a Madison Avenue ad agency? And while we're on the anachronism trail, would people have been dancing the Charleston - as Pete and Trudy were at Roger's party - in 1963? Well, some really fine dancing by Vincent Kartheiser and Alison Brie, whatever the historical timing of the dance.

Sexism -

This is of course a staple of Mad Men, but did you catch those doctors at Joan and Dr. Greg's party talking about "code pink," which goes up in the hospitable whenever an "attractive, unconscious woman" is on the premises?

Thus Mad Men continues to make us uneasy by probing some of the racism and sexism of our not so distant past. But tonight's show also had some happier music as Joan sings "C'est Magnifique" and plays her accordion (and it sounded to me like Christina Hendricks' voice). And Paul gets to quote a little T. S. Eliot as he's stretched out stoned on the floor.

And it was nice to see Don and Betty kissing at the end...

See also: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through



6-min podcast review of Mad Men

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Mad Men 11: Heat!

With the early October temps in 80s here in New York City, there couldn't be a better day to review last night's Episode 11 on AMC's Mad Men which, in one way or another, was all about heat...

Peggy's asked to test out and analyze for her second ad campaign a device that is supposed to help women lose weight. The guys are trying to figure out why some women seem to really like it - it's an electric belt that is supposed to massage away fat - even though there is no evidence that it really melts away any weight.

Peggy discovers its secret: its vibrations give women orgasms. The problem is how to explain this to Don and the guys - which she does a pretty good job of doing.

Meanwhile, Betty has her own hot experience. With the temperature high and uncomfortable in this Indian summer, Betty gets a call from a traveling air conditioner salesman. (The traveling salesman is another great artifact, long gone from our culture.) Betty lets him in, she's attracted to him, but buys nothing and tells him to leave. She later tells Don, who is furious - about as angry as we've seen him - that Betty has let in a stranger. Little does Don know that later, in one of the most interesting scenes of the series, Betty fantasizes about the salesman as she enjoys the vibrations of the washing machine against her .... enjoys the vibrations a lot ... Like I said, it was a hot show.

There's no hot physical sex tonight between Joan and Roger, back in the office to put up a show for a client, even though he is still far from recuperated. But there is perhaps the tenderest kiss in the series. Joan asks if it's ok to kiss him.... He tells her a few seconds after that she was the best piece of ass he ever had.

I found this scene really winning and memorable. Joan is among my top 3 or 4 favorite characters on the show - not just because of what she looks like, but what she says. Christina Hendricks and John Slattery put in their best performances.

But Roger suffers a second heart attack, which leads to Don's getting made a partner in the firm ... as we move into next week's show, about Nixon and Kennedy, just one before the finale...

A superb series, which I'm sorry to see conclude, but I'll be looking forward to round two of next year.

See also reviews of other episodes: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad Men 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through



6-minute podcast review of Mad Men

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book