Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia

Fringe returned for its 3rd season on Fox last night with a just perfect gem of science fiction.

As you'll recall from the Season 2 finale, Walter and Peter have made it back to our universe with Olivia, but she's alt-Olivia, badder than ours, who's now embedded in our universe as per Walternate's (bad Walter's) plan.   In last night's story, we find out what Walternate has planned for our Olivia, now trapped in the alternate universe.

Walternate is having a med-tech deliver an injected treatment to Olivia, designed to replace her mind, memories, loyalties, etc with alt-Olivia's.   It has apparently not worked, and Olivia escapes.

She's determined to get back our universe, but that's not easy.  The portal used by Walter, Peter, and alt-Olivia has been amber-sealed.  The alt-Fringe unit, in which Charlie is still one of Olivia's partners, is in hot pursuit.   We get more delicious glimpses of the differences between ours and the alt-universe, in which President Obama appoints former Pres-JFK to head a commission (JFK had been UN Ambassador), daily flights go to the Moon, and Martin Luther King and Eldridge Cleaver worked together ("we had a dream").   As I mentioned in my reviews last season, it's in many ways a better universe than ours.   But Olivia, of course, does not want to stay there.    As long as she continues to be our Olivia, that is ...

In a fine, classic kind of science fiction twist, it turns out that Olivia's very attempts to get back to our universe have changed her into the alternate Olivia - given her the talents, memories, etc of alternate Olivia.   As the med-tech explains to Walternate at the end of the episode, the adrenalin pumping through Olivia as she made her escape pushed the treatment already in her blood stream past the blood brain barrier, where it could do its work of replacing our Olivia's mind with alt-Olivia's.   Our Olivia is now a sharp shooter like alt-Olivia, happy to hug her mother (who died when Olivia was a child in our reality), welcomed back in the fold by alt-Charlie, etc.  (See my novel, The Consciousness Plague, for more of what you can do with the blood brain barrier in science fiction.)

Only one person, other than Walternate and the med-tech, now knows something of the truth about our Olivia, trapped now not only by the alternative universe but by her own transformed mind in the alternate universe.   The cab driver, first forced by Olivia to drive her when she she still had her right mind, eventually helping her of his own accord, has seen the true Olivia.   He's played by Andre Royo, who brings the same power and sensitivity to the cab driver that he did as Bubs on The Wire.  It will be fun to see how he helps get our Olivia back to her senses and universe this season (or whenever, eventually).

Fringe has now set itself up for what could be a break-through season, just as last season's was in contrast to the first.  The differences between the same characters in the two universes - especially Walternate and Walter, and alternate-Olivia and Olivia - have been drawn in a way that calls for the unexpected.   Evil Walternate, after all, hates our universe because our Walter stole his Peter all those years ago.   Does this mean that there is some good in Walternate - some of our Walter - which could come through at a crucial moment?

I'll be watching ...

See also Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ...  New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22:  Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch

See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best

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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 

Bones Back in 6.1: The Linchpin

Bones was back with Season 6 tonight, the perfect pick-me-up after the Yankees horrible loss to the Rays.   The team's back together - after 7 rather than 12 months - and brimming with the usual heart, soul, humor, mystery, and brilliance.

The occasion for the reconstitution is Cam, in trouble when her political enemies jump on her inability to solve a missing child case - what they're really after is stopping her public concern about brain damage in veterans from IEDs.   Caroline the irrepressible Federal prosecutor realizes that Cam needs help, which can only be given by her former team.

Everyone's soon back in business, more or less the same, with these significant differences:  1. Booth is having an affair, as a serious as a "heart attack" (Booth's words) with a hot blond reporter who's now in Iraq.  2.  Angela's pregnant.   This will be a great, fun addition to show (actually, the reporter as well as Angela's baby).

I'm not listing Sweets and Daisy as different because, although Sweets attempts to end it, they kiss and clearly they've got some kind of good future ahead.   Sweet!  (I say this even though I didn't give them much hope in my review of the Season 5 finale last Spring.  My being right is less important than their happiness.)

Lots of good lines in the show.  My favorite:  Booth talking to Caroline about Bones not finding her missing link to humanity (he means in Indonesia).   Caroline's response: "We'd all like to find that" (she means it about Bones in general).

My favorite scene:  Bones and Daisy with the guerrillas in Indonesia.

Favorite riff:  Who is the "linchpin" who keeps the team together?  Bones thinks she is.  Booth is sure he is.  Angela thinks the essential glue is Angela and Hodgins.   My vote: they of course all are, not to mention Hart Hanson, who wrote this fine, coming home episode.

See also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ... Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ... Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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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 

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Criminal Minds in 6th Season Premiere

Criminal Minds returned for its 6th Season debut on CBS last night, in a typically searing episode that picked up right after the brutal Season 5 finale which had Derek bested by twisted, ingenious serial killer Billy Flynn.

Derek has thus undergone psychological (Flynn got away, and kidnapped his victim) as well as physical trauma, and this shows in his uncharacteristic brusqueness with Garcia.   She handles this well, however, and Derek soon has his piercing focus back.

We learn that Billy has kidnapped the girl because he wants her to be his partner, that is, help him in his killing spree by having her open doors, literally,  to his victims.   He's attracted to her because she's intelligent and shows no fear, and these qualities help her divert some of Billy's plans.

J. J., who will (alas) be leaving the show soon, also has an excellent role, when she talks Billy into letting the girl go.  J.J. has no experience as a hostage negotiator, so this is a major moment for her.   She brings to the show a humanity, even a lightness of being,  if that's possible, and Criminal Minds will be a little poorer without her.

Derek has the best line, telling Hotch that they (the team) were there for Hotch when he needed them, and now Derek would like Hotch and the team to do the same for him.  Which they do, and all turns out as well as can be expected in these harrowing circumstances.

Never soft on on the eyes or the soul, Criminal Minds continues as one of the most intense, intelligent crime shows ever on television.

See also Criminal Minds 5.22 and the Dark Side of New New Media

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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 

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NCIS Back in Season 8 Action

And NCIS - the most viewed scripted series on television - was back in action on CBS last night, too.  It was a strong show, with both Gibbs' father and Mike Franks on hand, DiNozzo doing a good Canadian accent, and Vance more in evidence than usual.

Picked up right at the point that the Season 7 finale ended - Paloma (daughter of the killer of Gibbs' wife and daughter, in turn killed by Gibbs years ago) makes good on her threat to take out Gibbs' father, or at least try to.  But Jackson Gibbs is obviously no fool, and escapes her attack unscathed.

Paloma then proceeds to draw Gibbs out with a series of murders, while her brother does his best to confound NCIS with his lies.   He was able to pull the wool a little over Abby's eyes last year, but no one at NCIS is about to be fooled twice.  By the time the episode is over, Paloma's dead, and all accounts are settled, including Vance burying Abby's file that incriminates Gibbs in the killing of Paloma's father.

So NCIS can pretty much start with a new, clean slate this season.  I missed a major role for Ziva last night, but the good news on that score is that Vance seems to have some important business with Ziva's father - that is, probably at least dangerous news for Vance and therefore NCIS, but good news for us because it gets Ziva back front and center.

As I've mentioned before, I always like the continuing, deeper stories.  If NCIS can keep those in some kind of prominence this season, I'll be happy.

See also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution

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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

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Hawaii Five-0 Back on CBS

Hawaii Five-0 was back on CBS Monday night - tougher, leaner, funnier, prettier than the original.

To be honest with ya, I mostly enjoyed the classic as unintended humor.  McGarrett was a strong, almost brooding character, but his 1956-hair-style in the late 1960s through the 1970s was laughable.  Dano was something of a nebish.   Chin Ho Kelly was likely to too heavy to really be a effective field agent.  Kono was ok.

The new McGarrett and Dano are much more equal, more like Starsky and Hutch than the original McGarrett and Dano.   Their repartee is enjoyable.   Daniel Dae Kim as Chin Ho is a lot better and more believable than the original, and it's good to see the actor back from Lost (and its disastrous ending).  And one of the best changes is Grace Park as Kono, who brings  her beautiful, dangerous Cylon from Battlestar Galactica to the new Hawii Five-0 team.

Judging from the first episode, it looks as if the bad guys will be even more international than they were on the original show.  One of the best villains in the classic was Wo Fat - Chinese spy and McGarrett's arch-enemy.   It'll be interesting to see if he crops up in the new version, but, even if not, the current world and our battle with terrorists will no doubt provide a lot of suitably serious villains to follow along with those wet bathing suits that  move more brightly than ever on the new show.

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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

House and Cuddy on the Other Side in Season 7 Premiere

House and Cuddy were finally together at the end of the emotionally harrowing finale of Season 6.   Where will they go from here?

That's one of the many questions House asks Cuddy in the fine premiere of Season 7 of House on Fox last night.   Cuddy asks why he has to analyze everything, but before the day's over, she's asking questions, too.    In other words, House and Cuddy are being true to themselves, which is to the good for their future, or at very least, likely most of this season.

Other good news - in addition to this being really really real - is they're good in bed together, Cuddy has already said she loves House, more than once, and by the end of the episode, he says the same about Cuddy.   They're trying to keep this secret, but that's not likely to last too long, and it only lasts to the extent it did last night because neither as at their posts in the hospital.

Speaking of which, there was a pretty good hospital story last night, too, with Thirteen as usual providing the spark for the solution.  She seemed to be leaving at the end of last year, but was on fine hand last night.   And her secret is discovered - she's not really going abroad for a possible cure, that is, she may be going overseas, but the hospital facility there has no record of her being in the special program.

So the season's off with a genuine new turn.   Can House and Cuddy make it together and continue to effectively perform - that is, brilliantly perform their jobs - as they have all of these years at Princeton‑Plainsboro?   It should be fun finding out.


See also House Reborn in Season Six? ... 6.2: The Gang is Back and Fractured ... 6.3: The Saving Hitler Quandary ... 6.4: Diagnosis vs. Karma ... 6.5 Getting Better ... 6.6 House Around the Bases ... Four's a Crowd on House 6.7 ... House 6.8 and the Reverse of Flowers for Algernon ... House 6.9: Wilson ... House 6.10: Back in Business ... House 6.11: Making Amends, Mending Fences, and a Psychopath  ... House 6.12: The Progression to Mensch ... House 6.13: Cuddy's Perspective ... House Meets Blogger in 6.14 ... House 6.15: About Taub ... House 6.16: Revealing Couples ... House 6.17: Socrates on Steroids ... House 6.18: Open Marriage

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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

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Boardwalk Empire on HBO

Boardwalk Empire opened on HBO this Sunday Night.  With Martin Scorsese and The Sopranos' Terence Winter behind it, Boardwalk Empire had to be good.   Judging by the first episode, the series is a lot better than good, and promises to be another superb HBO vibrant slice of history, a successor, in its own way, to Rome, which was one of the best series ever on television.

The history of Boardwalk Empire is the onset of Prohibition in 1920.  The place is Atlantic City.   Steve Buscemi, who is never less than riveting in anything he does (including Tony Blundetto in The Sopranos) plays Nucky Thompson, Treasurer in Atlantic City and a racketeer.   As his rebellious protege Jimmy Darmody tells Nucky, however, "you can't be half a gangster."

Nucky's trying to move a boatload of now illegal booze, meaning dangerous but much more profitable.  His buyers are Arnold Rothstein and young Lucky Luciano, both from New York City.  Lucky's played by Vincent Piazza, who looks at lot like Michael Nouri, which makes sense, since Nouri played Lucky on The Gangster Chronicles a few decades ago.   Young Al Capone and his Chicago boss are also on hand, as are the Feds, who are revving up to combat exactly what Nucky and his associates are trying to do.

Before the episode is over, Al will be driving the booze to Chicago, where he kills his boss in his ascension to power.   As Scorsese remarked in one of the promos for the show, one of its great pleasures is seeing iconic gangsters we know well from their later escapades - notably Luciano and Capone - in their earlier years.   Meanwhile, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson is based on the real-life Republican political boss (sweet!) and gangster Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, who held forth in Atlantic City from 1911-1941.

I hope the series runs that long.  It has great color and flavor, fine music, and full-frontal nudity (though, in the first episode, it was confined to a young woman on an autopsy table with a bootleg still in the back).


5-min podcast review of Boardwalk Empire
 

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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

The Event Debuts on NBC

The Event on NBC looks like a keeper.

The new series starts off with a complex plot - ala 24 - of bad guys, terrorists, whatever intent on taking out the President (always good to see Blair Underwood back on the screen).   The apparent bearer of a bomb (or whatever) on to a plane turns to be a good guy, whose almost fiance is presumably kidnapped by the real bad guys.   Sean Walker finds himself caught up in a sleight-of-hand of his reality worthy of Hitchcock.

And that's the least of it.  His fiance's (Leila's) mother is killed before her father's eyes, and their younger daughter is kidnapped to boot.   And it turns out the father is piloting the plane, with an eye towards crashing it into where the President and his family and his advisors are all in attendance.   He's apparently a good guy, too, though, and is doing this because the real bad guys have his younger daughter - and I guess Leila, too - and are threatening to kill them.

Now this would be a series worth watching with just the above as a plot.   But the payoff at the end of the premiere episode pulls us into something much more.  For just as the plane nears its executive target, it's sucked into something that looks like it came out of The Philadelphia Experiment, and disappears into thin air.

Sophia (Laura Innes - Kerry on ER!) tells the President: "they saved us".   Who are the "they"?  Sophia explains that there are "some things I haven't told you".

What we do know that is that Sophia is part of some group which is being held in Alaska, and the President wants to free them (contrary to the strong advice of his advisors, including Blake, played by Zeljko Ivanek, who is once again playing a hard-assed a-hole).

And we're off to a brand new series, riveting, complex, frothy, more reminiscent, actually, of FlashForward than Lost, and a good dose of 24, too, as I mentioned above.  Hey, if it stays away from purgatory as an ending,  The Event could end up better than Lost in the end.


5-min podcast review of The Event

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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

Mad Men 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists"

Miss Blankenship had the best line in Mad Men 4.9 tonight - our gang's in a "business of sadists and masochists" - and the very close second is a line from Don about her.   It was the most comedy - hilarious at times - I can recall ever on Mad Men, and the episode managed to still work in a lot of serious, poignant punch as well.

Blankenship draws the ultimate blank right at her desk - that is, she drops dead - just a few minutes after Sally has shown up at the door.   Don asks Dr. Faye to take Sally back to his apartment - where the two were in bed just this morning - and when Faye objects, Don gets off that second best line:  "I would have my secretary do it, but she's dead."  That line felt so good, maybe it's actually the best.

This was also the best Sally show so far, with a really outstanding performance by Kiernan Shipka.  Sally wants to get away from Betty, colder than ice, and getting more despicable as a mother with every episode.    Who can blame Sally for wanting to live with Don.   I would have liked to have seen Don say yes to Sally, and maybe that will happen by the end of this season.

Meanwhile, the other big story in tonight's show, not funny at all, but winning, is between Joan and Roger.   The two love each other, no doubt, but at this point only Roger is willing to admit that.   He sends a pair of masseuses of to Joan's home as a present, and has dinner with her the next night.   As they're walking back to Joan's apartment - through a neighborhood Joan says she's not that comfortable with any more - the two are accosted by a stick-up man.   In the aftermath, robbed only their possessions, Joan passionately kisses Roger.  She's in shock because of the gunpoint robbery, and her true feelings come out.   I was glad to see them together.

So this rare episode with some laugh-out-loud humor at Blankenship's expense also had some read tenderness and depth - a fine, refreshing mix for Mad Men.

See also Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..."  4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback  ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women

And from Season 3: 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 ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World

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

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Mad Men 4.8: A Tale of Two Women

A relatively low key but provocative Mad Men 4.8 on AMC this past Sunday, focusing mostly of Joan's treatment in the office, and Peggy's response.

I was a student in the City College of New York in 1965 - a far cry from being an ad man, I'll admit - but I found the crude sexism exhibited by Joey (a freelance ad writer) in the office perhaps a little over the top (as in not fully believable) for that time in history.   He shows sheer contempt for Joan (and obvious attraction to her), at an early point asking her "what do you do around here besides walking around like you're trying to get raped" and continuing with a "pornographic" cartoon of Joan (as she puts it).   Men back then (and, for that matter, now) no doubt could and do think that, and maybe crack wise about it to their friends, but actually say that to the target's face?

Be that as it may, Peggy's response, compared to Joan's response, and then Joan's response to Peggy, make for an important Mad Men story.   Joan tells Joey that she hopes he goes to Vietnam and dies.  Peggy speaks to Don about Joey - Don tells Peggy to fire Joey, if she's upset by his behavior.  And Peggy does just that, after Joey takes a beat too long to agree to apologize to Joan.

Later, in the elevator, Joan is not only not appreciative of what Peggy did - Joan's annoyed.  Why?  The answer, I think, gets to the different kinds of women that Joan and Peggy now are.  Joan is still one of the girls, however powerful she may be in the office.   Peggy, in contrast, has become much more of an equal with the guys - her firing Joey seems as natural as if Don had done that himself.   The portrait of Joan and Peggy in this episode thus provides a good representation of the evolution, before and after, of women in the office.

Meanwhile, it was good to see Henry on the edge of getting involved in John Lindsay's first (Republican) campaign for NYC mayor.    Not that I like Henry.  But Lindsay was one of the most courageous and clear-thinking politicians in this period of time.  His early opposition to the Vietnam War, his standing up to transit and teacher's unions, made him a rarity in New York City and for that matter national politics.

See also Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..."  4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback  ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials'

And from Season 3: 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 ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World

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

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True Blood Season 3 Finale: Concrete and Bubbles

A reasonably good Season 3 finale for True Blood on HBO last night, with some satisfying resolutions and surprises.

We last saw Eric and the King bound together, by Eric's hand, in the killing sun.  Godric makes an appearance as a vision to Eric, pleading with his creation to save the King and himself.  To no avail.   But Sookie first pulls Eric and then the King into indoor safety.  Both are seriously charred.   But Eric carefully feeds on Sookie - under Bill's watchful eye - and he soon looks much better.

All of this does cause Eric to reconsider what he wants for the King, but Eric's new plan is even worse for the King:  rather than truly ending him now, keep him alive, impotent, and suffering for a least a hundred years, during which he can do nothing but grieve over the loss of Talbot.   To do this, Eric inters the King, bound in immobilizing silver, in concrete.

And now comes the first surprise:  Bill looks on as the concrete pours and throws the still weakened Eric into the pit - apparently killing, or imprisoning, two vampires with one stone tomb.

Sookie and Bill may now finally have a chance to spend some quality time, back at Sookie's place, and they draw close to each other,  but ... here comes the second surprise:  Eric's at the door.   He wasn't bound by silver, and his smart-talking creation was able to save him.   None too happy with Bill, uninterred Eric now unearths some important truths about Bill to Sookie:  His meeting Sookie was no coincidence.  Bill was on the Queen's business.   More important, Bill allowed Sookie to almost get killed in Season One, so he could be the hero and save Sookie with his compelling blood.

Sookie is once again furious - at both Bill and Eric.   She dismisses both of them, in a torrent of tears and fine cursing, and eventually winds up somewhere down the road with the faerie people, and seems to ascend into some sort of bubbly space craft.

As for the other characters ... Tara's leaving town ... Hoyt and Jessica are finally together, but Hoyt's mother has a gun ... and it sure looks as if Sam shot his brother ...

All in all, a pretty good season, but not as strong as Season One.   But I'll be back with more recap slaps for Season Four next summer.

See also: True Blood 3.1: Oxygen vs. Phone ... True Blood 3.2: King and Wolves ... True Blood 3.3: Rolling Eyes and Spinning Heads ... True Blood 3.4: Running Hot, Winning Names ... True Blood 3.5: Square, Love, Crown, Power ... True Blood 3.6: True Life and Death ... True Blood 3.7: Lorena and the Magister ... True Blood 3.8: Break Up to Make Up ... True Blood 3.9: The King and the VRA ... True Blood 3.10: "Medieval on TV" ... True Blood 3.10: Here Comes the Sun
 
See also from Season 2  True Blood Pours Back In and  Love and True Blood in the Air and Likes Coming Together in True Blood and True Blood Boiling and Godric, Eric, and Sookie on the Roof and Maryann vs. the Good in True Blood and Illusion, Eisenhower, and Texting and True Blood Season 2 Finale

See also from Season 1  True Blood Calling ... Penultimate True Blood ... Last Bite of the Season

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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

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Sneak Preview Review of Dexter Season 5 - No Spoilers

I had the pleasure of seeing the first three episodes of Dexter Season 5 last night - courtesy of a Showtime screener DVD.   The season is set to premier on September 26, and let me tell you, you won't be disappointed.   The metaphysics, torment, black humor, and vivid characterization of a serial killer who preys on other serial killers is more powerful and wrenching than ever.

Here's what I can tell you:  the new season picks up right where the last season ended.  After finally dispatching the Trinity killer, Dexter comes home to find his baby Harrison sitting in a pool of Rita's blood.   She's been killed, apparently by Trinity, before Dexter got to him.   Although Dexter was a few years older than Harrison when Harry rescued Dexter from his own mother's pool of blood, the parallels between the father and son are compelling.

Dexter is shattered, and, as always, must juggle keeping his own secret from Deb and those around him, as he struggles to come to terms with what has happened to him and get back to a "normal" life if possible.  (As part of what we see of this struggle, there are also some great scenes of Dexter and Rita first meeting.)  The other cops at the precinct are as trenchant as ever, and this especially includes Quinn, Laguerta, and Batista.   As always, they not only are struggling to stay out of or dive into the vortex of the central murder case - that now being Rita - but they have commanding subsidiary stories of their own.

I was thinking, as I was watching these three episodes, just where I would be put Dexter in the pantheon of all-time great television shows.  The heart strings the show pulls, the adrenalin it gets going, the intellectual concentration it requires and rewards, put it at the very very top.


See also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ... Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ... 4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

See also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ... Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter

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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 

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Mad Men 4.7: "No Credits on Commercials"

Don tells Peggy that there are "no credits on commercials" as she finally begins to bring it to him - calling him out on Don's getting the CLIO for "his" Glo-Coat ad, based on Peggy's idea, and for which he gave her no public thanks - not to mention Don's running with Roger's nephew's idea last week, for Life Cereal.   The product de jour this week is Samsonite luggage.   But episode 4.7 gives us the best Don & Peggy episode of the entire series, so far.   Both are more vulnerable than usual.   Anna is dying and it's Peggy's birthday.

Before the day and night and day we see are over, Don will pass out and sleep the night on Peggy's lap in his office.   He'll lecture Peggy, put down her ideas, more or less insist that she stay in the office on this evening of her birthday, and break down and cry when he gets the news that Anna has died.  Peggy will storm out of the office, stand up Mark in a restaurant, accept his breaking up with her, and console Don when he's crying.   It's the closest we've ever seen these two, and makes it impossible to put aside the possibility that they may end up at some point in the series as a couple and more.

In one of the many best exchanges of the episode, Peggy asks Don about Anna.  He replies that she meant so much to him because she was the only person in the world who really understood him.  Peggy softly replies that that's not true.   She of course does not know the facts that Anna knew, but she has seen more of the "real" Don Draper than anyone else in the office - as the sociologist Erving Goffman might have put it, Peggy has seen more of Don's "back region" behavior.

Peggy is also keenly aware of everything Don has done for her and to her.   She remembers that Don came to see her in the hospital after she had her baby.   She appreciates that Don promoted her from secretary to junior copywriter, whatever his motives.  She resents that Don has never tried to sleep with her - and doesn't fully accept his answer that he doesn't sleep with with his secretaries, and Allison was a mistake.

All of this makes, somehow, for one of most heart-warming episodes of a series in which hearts are more often torn than warmed.   Don and Peggy have a powerful, complex, ultimately winning chemistry, which we could well see more of.

So, yeah, there are indeed no credits on commercials, and I often tell my students that if you like seeing your name out there, stay away from advertising and public relations (egotist that I am, I never write anything unless my name is attached).    But there are credits for television writing, and credit and kudos go to Matthew Wiener for writing this superb episode.

See also Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..."  4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback

And from Season 3: 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 ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World

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

True Blood 3.11: Here Comes the Sun

Well, we all know what sunlight does to vampires, including those on True Blood.  The most vivid, touching, wrenching example came last year, when Godric used the sun at dawn to commit a noble suicide.    We've seen Bill brave the death of the sun to save Sookie.   But this year we've seen something a little different.

Bill seems immune to the sun's death rays, at least for a minute or two, after he gorges on Sookie's blood, which turns out not only to be sweetest blood he's ever tasted, but also conveys some powerful properties.  This is because Sookie has fairy or alien blood in her veins, being a human-fairy hybrid.

This gives Eric a brilliant idea which he seeks to implement in episode 3.11.   If he can make the King think that the sun-resistant effect of Sookie's blood is permanent, then the King will be tempted to see if he can attain the age-old vampire dream of walking in the sun, or being a "dew walker," as he poetically puts it.  But the King is a crafty vampire.   He'll only try this if Eric demonstrates the Sookie sun tonic's effect first.

And so the final scene shows Eric and the King, handcuffed by Eric's hand, steaming, dying in the sun.   It's a powerful end to the penultimate episode of this season.

Other goodies include Tara and rough-tough Sam together at last, Jason and the were-panther, and Jessica and Hoyt back together.  But the big story is what will happen to Eric and the King, and I'm guessing - having read none of the books and seen no spoilers - that only the King will die a true, much deserved death.


5-min podcast review of True Blood


See also: True Blood 3.1: Oxygen vs. Phone ... True Blood 3.2: King and Wolves ... True Blood 3.3: Rolling Eyes and Spinning Heads ... True Blood 3.4: Running Hot, Winning Names ... True Blood 3.5: Square, Love, Crown, Power ... True Blood 3.6: True Life and Death ... True Blood 3.7: Lorena and the Magister ... True Blood 3.8: Break Up to Make Up ... True Blood 3.9: The King and the VRA ... True Blood 3.10: "Medieval on TV"
 
See also from Season 2  True Blood Pours Back In and  Love and True Blood in the Air and Likes Coming Together in True Blood and True Blood Boiling and Godric, Eric, and Sookie on the Roof and Maryann vs. the Good in True Blood and Illusion, Eisenhower, and Texting and True Blood Season 2 Finale

See also from Season 1  True Blood Calling ... Penultimate True Blood ... Last Bite of the Season

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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 

Mad Men 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback

In a sweet feat of timing, Mad Men won a much deserved Emmy for best dramatic series tonight - against great competition - as AMC aired episode 4.6, in which Don wins a Clio award for his Glo-Coat ad.   And that was almost the least of this superb episode, firing on all cylinders.

One thread centers around Roger's memories, in flashbacks, of how he first met and came to hire Don.   The two looked just right younger, along with Joan.   Don is clearly as ambitious as he is now, but, unsurprisingly less hard-bitten.

In the present, Roger has sent Jane's not very talented cousin to Don for a job.   Don practically laughs him out of the office, but not before the cousin unfurls his one advertising idea, "[whatever specific brand]  - the cure for the common [general product].   When Don comes back pretty drunk from the Clio's to meet with the Life Cereal client - after the blond psychologist rebuffs his advance - he rapid fires a whole bunch of slogans to Life, including, "Life - the cure for the common cereal."  The client loves it.

Peggy, who was at both the initial Jane's cousin meeting and the Life meeting, wants to tell Don that he got the slogan from the cousin, in case he was too drunk to realize it.  But the weekend is at hand, and it will take Don and Peggy on two wild paths.

Don, still drinking, brings back a brunette Clio-winner to his apartment.   He wakes up two mornings later, with a blond in bed with him.   She calls him Dick, which suggests that in his stone drunkenness, Don thought of himself as Dick Whitman, or reverted to his true, original identity.  Don's memory is gone, at least as far back as Friday afternoon and the sell to Life.

Peggy has adjourned to a hotel room with a nudist ad writer.  His biggest accomplishment is a KKK anti-Goldwater ad which Johnson didn't use (the guy is aptly jealous of Tony Schwartz's masterpiece daisy-atom-bomb ad, which was used by the Johnson campaign, just once, and was already on its way to becoming a classic).   The guy taunts Peggy for her prudishness, extolling nudity.  Peggy eventually steps up, takes off her clothes, dares the guy to do the same.  Which he does, but she has now clearly reversed the power relationship, and dominates the room.

Peggy eventually shows up at Don's apartment, and tells him about the Life ad, and who was its author.  Don finally hires the cousin - you can always count on him to do the right thing in business, even if it is under duress.

And the best line in this episode?   It's in none of the above scenes, and comes from Joan, who takes her leave of Roger at the bar after Don wins the Clio, and tells Roger he's "crossed the border from lubricated to morose".

Now that's what I call fine writing - Matthew Weiner also won a much-deserved Emmy for best writing tonight - and just one of the many reasons why Mad Men is such a compelling cure for common television.


5-min podcast review of Mad Men

See also Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..."  4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ...

And from Season 3: 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 ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World

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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                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, eHarmony, eMusic, Mozy, Zazzle

---

---

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