Grid Effect

In case your life is so void of any source of enjoyment, responsibility or a career that lets you out of work in a timely fashion on Fridays, here are some links to close out this week. And yes, much like all of you, we are taking Monday off.

So apparently it is still news when someone famous agrees to a cameo on 30 Rock, and this time around it is Jennifer Aniston. We like and respect Miss Aniston (though we seem to be in the minority with that), but really couldn’t care less about her or anyone else going on Tina Fey’s hit series. It has reached a point now where it wouldn’t surprise us if Obama pops up on that show.

Just to be clear, we're not complaining about the selection.

Michael Phelps is set to host SNL (which will be a trainwreck) and make a cameo on Entourage. This isn’t surprising but still disappointing. The sooner he’s done with all his interviews and cameos and endorsements, the sooner we can all forget pretending to be interested in swimming. His accomplishments are impressive, but just the fact that there is swimming terminology occupying our brain is enough to question our internet surfing at work. Also, I bet there is about a 99% chance someone on Entourage (probably Ari) says something along the lines of, “hhhheeeyyy, the real life ‘Aquaman’”, to Phelps in his cameo. In fact, his entire cameo will be solely for that purpose.

Apparently perceived camaraderie from democratic politicians between them and the staff of The Daily Show has made it difficult for Jon Stewart’s minions to do their jobs. Their jobs being mocking politicians. Apparently they are under the impression that since Jon Stewart is a widely recognized as a democrat (and is most of the time), he doesn’t find them ridiculous. All I want to point to is this clip from Jon Oliver asking DNC patrons about the Clinton speech to disprove that theory. Anyhow, they are airing a Friday episode to cover all the histrionics from last night, we definitely recommend watching.

Nikki Finke wonders why NBC newsmen like Aaron Sorkin so much. Why she gives a shit, I have no idea. But without reading her paragraph about it I would guess that since The West Wing was on NBC, and they currently work for NBC, that they have met at wrap parties or whatever work related functions these people would meet at, befriended, and now they like each other. I know it sounds crazy, but it is this thing called forming platonic friendships that an awful lot of us sentients learn when we are three or four. We commence doing so for the next twenty years, then stop until we are married and platonic friends are the only moral outlet for human contact away from our intolerable spouses and professions.

So apparently it wasn’t official — which means we could have done something to prevent it and never did, which pisses us off to no end — but Chuck was just renewed for a second season. And thank God for that. We don’t have enough emasculated nitwits portrayed on television. Only on every sitcom and reality series. And most network dramas…but that is about it.

And finally, It’s Always Sunny now has a blog, and they recommend that you be over eighteen to enter. I would say require, but all they do is ask you to enter your birth date with three drop down boxes. Don’t get me wrong, teenagers are ridiculously stupid, but they are computer savvy. And while you or me and everyone over fifty might have trouble with this concept, your average teen can probably put the pieces together of clicking on the arrow, selecting a birth month, birth day and a fictional birth year to gain access. There are roughly ten posts there right now, we recommend all of them without having read a word of it.

That’s it for now, we’ll be back next Tuesday with a synopsis of everything that didn’t happen in television over the next three days.

We’ve always wondered when watching Mad Men, how do Mathew Weiner and the rest of the writers decide when to make these series altering revelations? It seems to appear that the fifth episode is a favorite location during the season, if you remember the episode “5G” we were introduced to Adam Whitman and it was finally made clear to us that Don was someone other than he claimed to be.

This time around, even though we knew of Peggy’s bastard child, we didn’t know the details of who was covering for her at Sterling (though we assumed, quite rightfully, I might add), what exactly were the details of her institutionalization and how she recovered. Well, it is simple, really, the answers to all three were: Don, she was heavily medicated and unable to cope with the notion that she had a child, Don.

It was Don by her bedside assuring her to move on, “It will be amazing how much this never happened”. Why he takes such a liking to Peggy is beyond me. maybe he sees her potential? She certainly has a lot, but it doesn’t seem like Ken, Paul or even Pete are lacking in it. Maybe this is his swan song, to promote a woman through the ranks. Or maybe he just likes how reserved and stoic she can be.

Whatever it is, we now have two people hiding three enormous secrets from everyone else in their lives, two of them are between Don and Peggy (only Pete and sort of Bert are aware of Dick Whitman). Ah, so that’s why he was by Peggy’s bedside, to curry favors with the leverage of being her confidante. Peggy, in so many ways, was full of one-liners. Most notably about Don and more specifically, “You never expect him to be any other way than he is”. With Bobbie’s invasive ass asking entirely too many questions, all she could do to retain a semblance of sanity was fend her off with non-committal claims.

A lot of speculation has been made about Bobbie’s parting advice, whether she was advising Peggy to sleep with coworkers for professional gain or simply use a sort of feminine charm (no idea) to her advantage. In this humble writer’s opinion, while I think she meant the latter is effective, I doubt Bobbie has ever ruled out the former. I mean, she is in the predicament because she is sleeping with the married Don Draper and sustained injuries during a car accident which she is partly responsible for. And now she is hiding out from her husband at Peggy’s apartment so he doesn’t get suspicious. So unless Bobbie said, do as I say not as I do, then I kind of have to assume she wasn’t suggesting Peggy approach the edge and not cross it, she was saying do whatever it takes to, “get the corner office”.

Peggy made small steps into treating Don like an equal. I mean, asking for money that he owes you isn’t exactly pinning his lapel to the floor, but it is a start. the much more significant step to treating him as an equal was referring to him as “Don” as opposed to “Mr. Draper”, which even made Don do a double take. Women with confidence, and even a suggestion of arrogance (as evident by Bobbie) are who Don seems to be the most attracted to, if Peggy ends up being a sex partner for Don it would be an interesting dynamic for the series. One which they would handle appropriately and with the delicate nuance this series is famous for…but lets just say we are hoping this doesn’t come to fruition. Most great television series’ are ruined when the main characters begin fucking each other, Mad Men (much like Sopranos and The Wire) is probably above that, but we don’t want to see the risk taken.

One subplot we loved this weekend was the continued evolution of Joan, who couldn’t pretend to be more proud of that ring on her finger. This marriage seems to lack so much sincerity that she might as well have her hand bronzed and placed on a trophy case, because that would symbolize the extent of the bond she has formed with her new doctor of a husband. Her schooling and disapproval (at least for her “decolletage”. Sweet) for Jane, Don’s new secretary (the new Peggy, but probably without the Peggy-ness) was palpable, but certainly not unforeseen.

"You might have everything I want, but you definitely want what I have."

Jane is what Joan once was, and longs to still be. She can be, but over thirty and unmarried seemed to carry a certain social stigma in 1962 that even though I am sure Joan is comfortable with it, she’s uncomfortable with everyone else being uncomfortable. So why not force yourself into a marriage you don’t want? Ahhh the good ol’ days. At least Roger sees what a mistake it is, even if it’s out of his own self interests.

And lastly, Pete is very much fertile and, much like we all were, completely understanding of his fertility. His inflection for the word “absolutely” was probably the funniest line of this season, a season filled with funny lines. It was like he hit every syllable but emphasized the wrong ones: Ab-sol-ut-ley. Or something. Whatever it was, it is why we tend to think Vincent Kartheiser gives the stand out performance on this series, which is saying something.

Even more memorable was his celebration over his wife’s barren womb. I’m sure that’s not how he meant it, but it is certainly how it was received. The callous ignorance seems to cause more of a rift between married couples on this series more than any social arrangements (though those are certainly not helping). In an off way, this brought me back to the “Long Weekend” episode in which after Roger had his heart attack, he called Betty to inform her of the details and to vent a little, but before he can get a word out she goes off on a tangent about some trite incident with her dad’s girlfriend. Much like Betty was preoccupied with her own problems, Pete was overcome with joy that his tadpoles were still eager.

Even when he is being an asshole, Pete provides some progressive wisdom that everyone else in his office seems to be lacking. This time in the face of the assumption that everyone married has to have kids. I kind of loved that explanation he had in the middle of his prickery, and it would have went over better if his Trudy didn’t legitimately want kids, and then we immediately felt bad for her and being married to Pete. Just a tremendous writing and a tremendous scene between Kartheiser and Alison Brie.

Side notes:

-Seeing Rachel married to her Dad’s protege was somewhat surprising. After the roller-coaster she went through with Don, someone a little more conventional was probably a relief.

-We didn’t mention it before, but second to the argument between Pete and Trudy, the scene with Don at the hospital with Peggy took us back to when she was crying in his office over the two building employees that were fired over her complaints about her locker being raided.

-January Jones got limited screen time compared to the last couple weeks, but I’ll be damned if she didn’t utilize it well. Fucking Draper, his infidelity has cost him so much and now he can’t even get salt on his roast beef.

-We loved the cop taking a hard line with Don, kind of wish he had been a little more stern to be honest.

Probably their best effort of the season, if not the series. There is so much set up for the next seven episodes that it will be hard to cover thoroughly in these reviews without notes (something we haven’t done for at least twenty months). We’ll probably never figure out why they randomly decided to have a car accident (something utilized quite regularly in The Sopranos) this episode and have everything spiral out of that, but we are certainly not complaining.

Back with some links to finish the week.

We feel like the links are getting rather stale around here so we’re opting to liven things up…with a nightly preview? Huzzah! Not that we’re going to watch any of this shit with college football kicking off tonight. Who needs ABC reruns when I have Vanderbilt-Miami (OH)? That is some grade A irrelevant football (unless you have money on it).

NBC

8-11pm: Preseason Football: Jacksonville Jaguars @ Washington Redskins

This is the type of football game that dreams are made of if you’ve been to Vietnam or have some other traumatic experience that would wake you up in the middle of the night. Its the fourth preseason game of the season for both teams I am assuming, so enjoy watching Colt Brennan go head-to-head with Cleo Lemon…I fucking hate you, Redskins fans.

ABC

8pm: Ugly Betty

A synopsis on the website reads: “An increasingly delusional Renee (guest star Gabrielle Union) becomes convinced that Betty is in love with Daniel and therefore is her rival for his affections.” With all due respect to America Ferrara, I’m fairly certain Gabrielle Union is comfortable with her significant others hanging out with any woman, much less the Ugly Betty star. Or maybe I just don’t know anything about women and this actually makes sense. Or maybe this is all fiction and I shouldn’t really care.

Here's the evidence. My apologies for alienating female readers. Again.

9pm: Grey’s Anatomy

Speaking of chauvinism, the only way I am ever watching this series is if they move it to Cinemax. Otherwise, they’re just going to have to settle for everyone else in the country. Anyhow, I think tonight’s episode is about the moral dilemma between which operation takes priority: a homeless man with a potentially fatal gunshot wound or a really, really cute puppy that desperately needs spayed. The debate between you and your girlfriend should last until the wee hours of the morning.

10pm: “Vote ‘08″

I put it in quotations because the title sounds too simple to not be sarcastic. My guess is Obama is speaking tonight? I’d be lying if I said I knew. But from what we’ve seen from the convention so far, I can assure you that at least 40% of the people in the Pepsi Center will be in tears regardless of who is on stage. They could put the Michelin Man up there and people would be bawling uncontrollably. Also, it’s nice to see that the 4th quarter of a Preseason football game takes precedent over historical moments in politics for NBC.

FOX

8-10pm: Moment of Truth

We always love previewing FOX in the summer because it is usually two hours of one special before local news airs, and tonight is no exception. Nice, two full hours of dramatic pauses and commercial breaks. I can hardly contain myself! In case you have forgotten, Moment of Truth is the show where they put you on a lie detector and ask you really invasive questions about your personal life. It reached critical outrage/acclaim (depending on the moral compass of whoever you are talking too) when one woman wrecked her marriage by confessions of adultery, then later lost all the money she had “earned” when lying about something later in the game. Obviously she was too good for this show. FOX, it appears, deems this worthy of a two hour stint, supposedly they aren’t going to be happy until someone murders everyone in the studio.

CBS

8pm: Big Brother 10

We’ve made our feelings on this clear and it is just riveting television. In tonight’s episode, they make the cast run through Times Square naked before forcing them to rape a tourist. It’s reprehensible, but “their not there to make friends.” That’s right, this is serious business, Big Brother.

9pm: CSI: Criminal Scene Investigation

Can anyone think of any other title that is an acronym, when what the acronym stands for is actually spelled out in the title? I’m sure there are many and posing the question will make me look like an idiot, but this sort of typifies everything I hate about this series, and every Law & Order wannabe on CBS. That, and the dialogue, the direction, the pacing, the acting, etc. You know in the entire series a cop only used his firearm twice on The Wire. Both times it was Prez, once was an accidental discharge in office, the other time he shot an undercover cop. I guess I’m being unfair when I hold CSI: Criminal Scene Investigation to the same standard.

10pm: CBS News: DNC

Now that titling is a little more specific. If I watch any coverage from the DNC tonight, it will definitely be on CBS. You decide, America!

There are your options, if your not a political junkie or a fan of the Redskins or Jaguars, we recommend seeing Dark Knight again or reading a book of some sort.

Maybe back later with a Survivor preview, which we’ll get to eventually if not later today.

Why the fuck do Denis Leary and Evan Reilly think anyone tunes into these shorts for slow motion vignettes that depict the lifestyles of these guys, whether it is professional or social? Generally speaking, while many of them are tragic in how self-destructing they can be, they also have a comedic side that we prefer to see rather than them running out of a burning building in slow motion with kids in their hands then smoking cigarettes in recognition of a job well done. Additionally, I don’t think the mini-episode was even four minutes long. Why even bother? And what an awful one to go out on. They should have closed strong with the steroids in baseball installment.

In case you didn’t watch it, the entire three and a half minutes was a shot down a hallways of a burning house, the a couple fireman running down a flight of stairs, with LEary following them holding a little girl in his arms. They eventually put a camera on the front of the building as he exits, hands her off to an EMT, then stands by a firetruck with Lieu, Franco, Mike and Garrity, as they revel in their heroism. All to some church music at about a fifth of the frames per minute they usually use.

We usually enjoy shit like this in the series, mainly because firefighting is an admirable profession, and the closest we’ll ever come to being able to do what they do is watching Rescue Me. But there has to be some sort of backstory, and watching characters I know fairly well relegated to silence in the name of faux-high art just feels lazy.

Anyhow, that is the end of the Rescue Me mini-episodes. What a glorious run it was. By our count, we got five that were great to good, two that were pedestrian and three that were bloody fucking awful (All three were virtually silent). We appreciate the effort, but glad the stunt is over. I have to imagine there are others in my camp on this one, particularly the stagehands.

Anyhow, as is traditional with our mini-episode commentaries, here are some links. Enjoy being loosely informed on innocuous TV news.

This article ponders why there is such an abundance of rich characters on television when there are so many people with modest household incomes. The simple answer is escapism: People watch television for a distraction from how miserable there lives are, not to be constantly reminded of it. Its the same reason Cinderella Man was did so terribly at the Box Office despite being Howard, Giamatti and Crowe at their peak. Another contributing factor is that 99% of the people responsible for what gets on television have nary a clue about what it’s like to live below the poverty line. Ever hear the phrase, “write what you know”? Well, virtually none of them know financial hardship.

How did "The Wire" make it on television anyways?

E! has canceled Denise Richards “reality” series It’s Complicated. Some say it was due to low ratings, some say its because she was too narcissistic even for E! execs, and others say it was a culmination of both. Either way, whether it was E! viewers or E! execs, if you are too self-involved for either of them to stay on the network, then it’s probably time for some self-reflection.

ESPN is rumored to be shopping a late night series and already Jason Whitlock and Colin Cowherd have turned down an offer. God, what exactly are they offering in terms of salary? Do they even get access to the lunch hall in Bristol? Lord knows that would be a tipping point for Whitlock. Cowherd might not be a terrible choice, but I don’t need an hour of him lambasting about how big city people are better than small town people, if I want that, I already get it for two hours a day on his radio show.

Entourage has teamed with some airline to offer themed flights. Because everyone knows that twenty-something guys who pine to befriend someone famous are loaded with dough. We suspect this will get the airlines out of the gutter. Personally, I would rather have an It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia themed flight, in which the flight crew drunkenly berates me for something irrelevant, then put me in some awkward predicament with potentially humiliating consequences.

We’ll try to come back with something refreshing today.

Well, well, well, look whose suddenly developing a conscious. We enjoyed last night’s episode somewhat, but we still can’t get on board with rooting for Nancy like we did in seasons one and two. I guess we are supposed to be concerned with her well-being now that she wants to cease feeding from the gutter. At least she is giving Shane some action if she is going to completely fuck over those that provide for her financially.

This is what I mean about this series trying to sell us on the virtues of Nancy Botwin. One minute she is sleeping with a corrupt politician, involved in a (literal) underground cartel which enables them to smuggle anything through. The next she is putting the guy who was generous enough to give her everything she has through the ringer with the CIA. “But they told me it was only marijuana” she so readily complains. Oh, well, that’s legitimate. Who would think MS-13 would lie about their practices? Fucking idiot.

Obviously it is noble that she objects to human trafficking, the bulk majority of the civilized world doesn’t support sexual slavery. It’s a bold stance, I know. But she doesn’t seem to mind the gun or drug trade. Those are legitimate for some reason. It is fine if you present her decision making as self-serving, entitled and not to be defended when it is so deplorable. But it is sold to us as just some predicament forced upon her. Like she had no choice but to join a Mexican drug gang, sleep with the kingpin after being offered every opportunity otherwise, then go and run to the feds after taking some herbal peyote or whatever the fuck that was last week.

At least in the wake of her fake epiphany she is giving Shane some action. I mean, does she not remember discovering pictures of her virile, naked twenty-something self in her son’s sock drawer? I can’t imagine she would begin spanking him with a rolled up newspaper if she did. Anyhow, he looked a little weirded out at first, but he’s totally going to be thinking about that during his next three-way. Seriously, what the fuck is going on with this show? At this point one would assume it was created by Larry Flynt.

There are still a couple running subplots that keep our attention. Mainly Doug struggling to get Mermex to find anything redeemable in him (though it was completely predictable that she would fall for Andy). And Silas attempting to sell weed out of her middle-aged girlfriend’s cheese store. Something that was only touched on in passing. We miss those days. Remember? When this series was about selling harmless recreational yet illegal drugs in an upper-middle class suburban community? That was great. Now instead of fun, satirical and fast-paced storytelling we are privy to overbearing plots so they can make generic talking points about health care. Talk about branching out of your element. This is like if The Sopranos suddenly cut to a black and white scene of Chris dancing the Charleston to everyone’s amusement at the bing.

Actually, I think Paulie would have loved to seen this.

I know a lot of fans of this series love Elizabeth Perkins as Celia Hodes. But we are entirely sick of her eating up 7-8 minutes an episode. Boo-fucking-hoo, you’re addicted to drugs after campaigning against the usage of them. And its not that we can’t feel empathy for her. We can. Just not in a comedic setting when you are trying desperately to be funny but still aren’t. And especially when she has been so fucking miserable when the series has wanted to portray her as admirable (making her all the more detestable). Before the end of this season we guarantee there is at least one Rush Limbaugh joke. We suspect it will come from either Dean or Isabelle.

Anyhow, we found little promising about this episode, And with only two left, we are getting less and less optimistic about the likelihood we’ll have any motive to watch season five. We know they will leave it on some massive cliffhanger, because that is generally the only point in which the plot significantly moves in this series.

Back in two weeks. Showtime, much like HBO, always takes Labor day weekend off to bring us an original movie.

“Bomb In the Garden” really had everything. Half political, half personal, as frustrating as it was relieving and was akin to The Wire in as many ways as it contrasted it, and even a literal bomb in a garden. We were just completely and unnecessarily hooked by this episode, and even rewatched it immediately afterwards, putting Mad Men on the back burner. Read previous write-ups for the past six installments here.

What was amazing about the storytelling, especially from the political/tactical side of things, is that you knew what kind of state they would leave Baghdad in, but we were still captivated in seeing it develop/devolve. You knew the Marines would wind up in the heart of the city being its at least temporarily ruling class, while everything around them fell to shit without having the power to do anything about it. But seeing an interpretation of it from ground zero is something that has been sorely lacking.

A telltale sign of things not going according to plan was every time they ventured away from the friendly confines of whatever building they were held up in (Saddam’s sons cigarette factory for most of it), their safety was always in question. People could be hiding in any building, in any alcove dressed as everyone else and you would have no idea. The entire landscape was entirely too tenuous to actually consider it safe or conquered or liberated. Though we did get to see Evan Wright’s ridiculous Serpentine run from the sniper.

If the marines or the US’s entire foreign policy was ran by people like Nate Fick, Brad Colbert, Doc Brown and the like instead of Encino Man and his superiors, the outlook might be a little more sustainable. They might have more than one, indifferent and untrustworthy translator, for instance. While things are improving now, we can understand why it was such a long time coming: people like Encino Man dolling out absurd orders and Captain America types following them. At least we got to see Encino leveled by Patterson under the guise of a football game. How can someone be so fucking oblivious?

It wouldn’t have been Generation Kill if we didn’t get one more needless tragedy, this time two of the marines, one losing a limb and the other an eye on the pointless marking of a mine field at Encino Man’s orders and Captain America’s complacence. The bottom lime is, EM is in over his head as a captain and CA is unfit for command. Of course this is all only one man’s opinion (Evan Wright) filtered through another’s (Simon), but considering how untenable the situation was for about four years after the fall of Saddam’s army, we are inclined to believe it.

Ultimately it is better for people like Colbert and Fick to be out of active duty. Or rather, better for themselves, not necessarily for the world. If they weren’t present to counterbalance the utter fuck-uppery that makes up so much of Battalion, all of the ill-advised orders that were altered by the capable underlings without Battalion’s knowledge would have been carried out as requested, just doubling up on the tragic scale. Look at the bomb Colbert detinated in the garden. He does it cautiously yet hastily, and accomplishes it successfully but does so at such risk that it is out of frustration as much as it is out of a sense of obligation. He isn’t Doc, his specialty is reconnaissance. But since the war and command is such that those skills are rendered useless, he is in a garden playing EOD (what our best friend from high school is trained in and currently putting to use in Iraq.)

Also in Baghdad, we finally got to see a recon mission. Albeit it was to break into a building to spite some other marines only to turn some random executives office like only a team of frustrated marines could, but it wasn’t until that scene that we realized what Brad Colbert was pissed off about. He is as effective as hell in traditional battle, can you imagine what he is capable of if put in his trained environment?

Evan’s final conversation with Godfather (Ferrando) was quite an eye-opener but still ambiguous. We think Godfather brings up an interesting point in terms of responding to complaints from his unit, but at what point does a complaint actually warrant attention? Does Captain America have to kill someone? When Evan suggest he considers his sources, is he supposed to value one soldiers distress over another’s. In the scope of the series, obviously Fick was capable of managing and any complaints about his were done out of personal animus rather than actual issues with command. But how is that supposed to be addressed, particularly when the majority of those who have Godfather’s ear are like-minded in that they are nothing like Fick.

His revelation that he enjoys the thrill of being fired at were kind of disturbing. If something like that is so appealing to him, it seems like his judgment can be considerably altered to the point that he is putting his division in harm’s way. I mean, if you enjoy the thrill of being shot at and actively seek it out, then obviously when everyone is following your lead, they will be under fire as well. And being that he is Battalion commander, he isn’t literally on the front line like all of his command is. Evan Wright, appropriately, looks disgusted.

The last twenty minutes of this episode are really what put it over the top from a great episode to maybe the episode of television we’ve watched in the past season. After the conversation between Wright and Godfather, we are privy to all the camaraderie and frustration from all of the soldiers. The football game kind of tipified that on both the personal and professional levels.

Patterson clocking Encino Man for being a dipshit was obviously on the professional, considering EM’s orders had cost one soldier a leg and another an eye just minutes earlier. And his enthusiasm and success in the pickup football game I think got to Patterson more than the incompetence itself. Encino Man would be an ideal corporal, he rivals Rudy in physicality and he certainly seems capable of doing grunt work, but putting him in charge of people like Patterson, who sees every angle like Encino Man could only dream of, is insane. Basically, EM’s height as a marine is a rich man’s Manimal.

But Ray attacking Rudy in a pent-up form of aggression stemming from his high school years was done out of a sense of lost identity. If he isn’t the stud CPO for Bravo Platoon’s 2nd team, then what is he? Or rather, what does he think he is? It seems the only other identity he’s ever assumes is as the eccentric high school kid who used to get picked on by the meathead jocks, who don’t necessarily act like Rudy but at least look more like him than Ray. In about a thousand ways we felt bad for him, because you can’t do what he did in the past three weeks for a lifetime and expect to live a long, happy life. And he most certainly did not look forward to going back home.

Person on the left, Ransone on the right. Nothing pithy. I just thought you would want to see the uncanny resemblance.

And the final scene, with the ongoing story of Lilley making his movie about the war finally airing it for Bravo two was just high art. As great as all those season ending montages were on The Wire, they had nothing on this. Mostly because this was contextual (a video made by one of the soldiers). We couldn’t figure out if there was a reason the soldiers left in the order they did, as they all seemed to file out of the mess hall either out of boredom or disgust. But naturally Colbert isn’t interested in seeing a millisecond of it and Trombley’s lunatic ass was still sitting there till the credits rolled, because nothing excites him as much as death, destruction and carnage as Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” Chillingly plays over the video. We would kind of like to hear a follow up on Trombley. As well as the rest of them for that matter.

Other notes from “Bomb In The Garden”:

-Speaking of Trombley, his “see, we do kill dogs in Iraq” after asking Colbert if he could shoot any strays for the past three weeks was meant to be amusing, it was also somewhat troubling. As in, what rules aren’t made to be broken.

-Also in Baghdad, we finally got to see a recon mission. Albeit it was to break into a building to spite some other marines only to turn some random executives office like only a team of frustrated marines could, but it wasn’t until that scene that we realized what Brad Colbert was pissed off about. He is as effective as hell in traditional battle, can you imagine what he is capable of if put in his trained environment.

-The letters from home really seemed to dictate the behavior of the soldiers for the rest of the episode. Person fell into a mild depression after not getting any letters, and Manimal pissed all over a stranger’s office after the callous divorce letter he got from his either horrible or horribly vindictive wife.

-Espera’s letter was just brutally honest and sad. For the first time since Colbert’s exposition on his relationship with his best friend and ex-girlfriend we saw a lot of vulnerability amongst any of the soldiers.

-All of the interactions with the civilians brought something to the table. Either they were funny (bartering for valium) or depressing (all the despair, the sick children and the people stealing candy from them) or interesting (everything with the translators).

-Fick discussing writing a book with Wright seemed a little too meta for a series that is already heavy on it. But since we tend to believe the conversation actually happened, it worked.

While we thought this miniseries was utterly depressing as many ways as it was interesting, we are disappointed that our Sunday nights will be cut in half. We will probably end up reading the book now just for a deeper understanding of everyone involved, as we’ve been lead to believe that the book goes into much greater detail.

But if the first six episodes felt a little meandering to you without a point, they really gift wrapped it last night. Our only complaint was much like with The Dark Knight, it seemed to venture into being too heavy-handed at times. But since this series is portraying real people and real soldiers, I like the notion of acknowledging what they went through with some hyperbole, especially when so few people in this country seem to acknowledge it themselves (as pointed out in the final conversation or forum or whatever it was that rolled over the credits).

Back tomorrow with posts about unicorns and ice cream to lighten the mood.

That was some fucking night of television. We got the best Mad Men of the season with huge stakes for all of the characters, but as great Mad Men was, it couldn’t even hold a candle to what David Simon gave us with the finale of Generation Kill. We got into work late and need to collect our thoughts before doing a recap, so we will just offer up some links this morning. But still, it warrants mentioning every hour, on the hour how great that was.

If you are in college and actually know of some obscure comedy on FX called It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, then chances are you aren’t doing it right. On the other hand, the news that the cast is doing a ten campus tour to promote the new season might interest you. Fact is, this series is catered to spoiled, entitled college kids with a twisted sense of humor, so it is probably a good move. If you are in college though, and use your domicile for anything more than sleeping, we still maintain that you are doing it wrong.

You know our countries priorities are askew when Johnny Fairplay is privileged enough to meet Barack Obama in a personal setting. While I am sure the guy who took a shit in a housemates bed once has some enlightening perspectives on foreign policy, this seems like a waste of everyone’s time except for the two people who agreed to it. I suppose if you are a fame whore, you are a fame whore in every aspect of the public eye. Just on principal we hope this photo costs Mr. Obama some votes and Fairplay some money that he so clearly, desperately needs.

More healthy news for teenage girls in America: MTV is set to produce a new “reality” series in which abhorrent amounts of weight. At least they give the person who loses the most $100,000, that way she can pay for college and all the physical and mental therapy she will need afterwards.

Here’s an article asking why television stars do not watch television. My best guess is they are bitter they are not in movies, other than that their reasons would vary just like any other non television actor: simply do not like the medium or are preoccupied for with other areas of life. One of the strangest cases of this to me was finding out that Wood Harris never watches The Wire (Looked for the link, read it in a rap publication awhile ago). Considering it is a masterpiece, he was an integral part of it for three seasons, and he is an aspiring musician (and all rap musicians seem to watch the series), I was actually taken back by this revelation.

This is something of interest for the upcoming Entourage season: Watch Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips (from the New York Times, I think), fire off on “Medellin” in the season premiere on Ebert an Roeper. That is actually a nice swan song for the PTI-esque film criticism show, especially considering Mr. Roeper is such a fan of the series and with them airing their last episode two Sundays ago and saying nary a word about it. One last hammering of some awful, pretentious, (fake) indie-film crap before the show goes quietly into the good night.

...Two hours later, the statue was missing.

Wire alums news: In news that shocked nobody Felicia “Snoop” Pearson (played Snoop, obviously) was arrested on drug charges. When she was fourteen she went to jail for man-slaughter, so if you look at it from that angle this isn’t so bad. Also, after five seasons of The Wire, Lance Reddick (Cedric Daniels) will be starring in Fringe, a much lighter-hearted series on FOXl and he is thankful for the change in tone and pace. I can imagine, I cry myself to sleep everytime I watch The Wire, if I actually had a hand in making it, I’d probably adapt too much to my surroundings.

Margaret Cho, in a feeble attempt to create some buzz about her new series, the unfortunately named Cho Show, has compared it to Curb Your Enthusiasm. I didn’t watch it on Friday night, mostly because it stars Maragaret Cho, is on Friday night and is on VH1, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that anything airing on VH1 is nothing like Curb Your Enthusiasm. Please inform us otherwise if we are wrong, but unless anyone says something in the next ten seconds, we’ll know we are right…Then it’s settled.

DMX, the one time hip-hop phenom, is now getting a reality series based on his legal trouble or something. I don’t know. By my estimation he is about fifteen years ahead of schedule. If you are using the Flava Flav model at least. DMX still isn’t donning a giant clock around his neck or any other novelty accessories, but then again his is set in prison and not some Hollywood owned mansion packed with trashy, desperate women with no worldy skills hoping to scorn the Earth with Flava Flav’s progeny.

That is it for now, back with the review/recap of Generation KIll later today.

Sorry we are so late with this today. We were halfway done when a coworker needed a ride to get his car from the mechanic and everything went to hell from there. On the bright side, we got to watch the USA-Argentina game. Anyhow, it turned from being halfway done to 2/3 done. So enjoy the mailed in recap.

I guess tinkering with the format in any way is ill-advised because it seems a decent number of viewers were dissatisfied with this episode. This episode was much more sprawling than the two that preceded it and we enjoyed it as much as any of first three this season, but will admit that no plots were really advanced. Throughout the course of the series (not this season specifically), it will be interesting to see how much Don lets his family know about his past, particularly his son if Betty is going to continue being such a raging bitch towards him. Which I suppose is partially Don’s fault.

For all his absentee dad-ism and borderline neglectfulness, Don does seem to care immensely about his offspring. Betty does as well, but manages to play favorites in what I’m sure is a common 1962 manner of doing so. Since she is constantly preoccupied with them and their primary caregiver, the damage she is doing to Bobby will likely be fleshed out in some Woody Allen like therapy session, and I’m sure it will be hilarious.

The fight — and this was the second time it got lightly physical, but with Betty as the aggressor — was mounting for some time. If Betty had one iota of what Don’s childhood was like she probably wouldn’t be recommending that he beat his son as a disciplinary tactic. But she is clueless. I mean, she usually is, but this time its her husbands cryptic, concealed past that’s at fault. I think as Don continues to get older and his kids begin to develop independent thought, more and more will be revealed to them and everyone else. Some are indifferent (Bert Cooper) and some are curious and spiteful (Pete Campbell). In other words, it is impossible to understand how Betty and their kids would take the news.

Bobby wasn’t the only Draper kid under the microscope last Sunday, Sally — and she was certainly elated about the prospect — got to accompany her dad to work on a Sunday after her brother donated his lip to the cause. And did she ever put her time to good use. Talking cup size with Joan, interracial relationships with Paul (Did the “Do you lay on top of her?” inquiry stem directly from busting in on her parents the previous Sunday?), eavesdropping on Pete and his band of cronies (something no little girl should ever hear) and getting soused off someone’s unattended half full glass of scotch. See, being Daddy’s personal bartender teaches you to enjoy the glory that is a glass of scotch neat early in life. At least she was to passed out by the time they left to see Dad’s disappointment.

Someone is a little too excited to be head of TV.

To the naysayers of this episode, we will also admit that the failed courtship of United was inevitable. If they are going to make Don an impotent, cheating prick, they have to at least make him business savvy. But at least they aren’t turning Duck into some caricature of an antagonist. He had some redeeming scenes, keeping the minions in line when they complained about Don’s scatterbrained decision making, and assuring the woman with the gum that she wouldn’t be fired (”how can it be my gum? My gum’s in my mouth”, was probably one of the oddest takes of this series, I couldn’t tell you why.)

Peggy’s storyline is quite tense, and bitter, and typical of this show. We can fully understand where her sister is coming from, though. She probably grew up being jealous of Peggy’s petite figure with everyone constantly reminding her about it. She does as she is told: Gets married, has kids, is a devout member of the church; and even the priest seems to favor Peggy over her. I like how her sister took it upon herself to confess her sister’s “sins” along with her own, that was some creative vitriol.

Speaking of the priest, he was aptly played by Colin Hanks, who we were once worried about being a distraction. We mentioned it before and we’ll mention it again, despite his likeness to his father, we didn’t really recognize him at first. Well done by the makeup team. Or our idiocy.

Other notes:

-We like how Roger is buying his extra-marital affairs just like he doesn’t smoke anymore, but constantly bums cigarettes from his employees. The actress playing Vicki was stunning, to say the least. And quite fashionable for a call girl. Very Tony Soprano-esque going back to cheating on his wife after supposedly a long stint of not doing so.

-So, is Bobbie going to be around for the extent of the series in random, miscellaneous scenes that seem to have nothing to do with the episode? We absolutely loathe that character, so if she is going to constantly be seen, we hope it is to an avail.

-Intertwined with the gum scene was Bert Cooper acting as loopy as ever. Is he supposed to be growing senile?
We had to cut this short due to work issues. We’ll try to get some links out but can’t make any guarantees.

We didn’t watch Hard Knocks last night. Well, we tried to, we got about fifteen minutes into it and our computer started to draw more and more of our attention to the point we weren’t paying any attention to the documentary series. We had high hopes for this one, but with the Cowboys, it’s almost like we know the people involved to a point that anything they do that is generally away from the public eye either doesn’t surprise us or feels forced. The Chiefs are an organization that usually toils away in anonymity. We might get on the bandwagon later, but for last night at least we were happy to be off of it.

Also, it feels like this is as good of a time as any to mention that we are writing over here now as well. I’m not sure how large the crossover audience is for a television blog to a fantasy football blog, but this shameless plug is worth the effort regardless.

A few news items to kick off the morning.

Some guy that was rejected on The Bachelorette will be the new bachelor for The Bachelor. Oh boy! I can’t wait to see how he reacts with the shoe being on the other foot, they’ve probably only done this a couple dozen times now. One good piece of news from this story is that there are so few people willing to do these shows (or at least this franchise) they have to keep dipping into the same pool. Or else they think a recognizable face will help bring in an audience. Whatever, we are feeling optimistic today.
Mad Men: still down a million viewers from the premiere. I don’t know why this is still reported on given that we already covered it after the second episode, but there it is. Either the New York Post was late in covering the non-phenomenon that is sinking ratings after a premiere, or they were completely unaware of it two and a half weeks ago. Bang up job, NY Post.

We haven’t watched The Apprentice in a couple seasons, and we probably watched if for four more seasons than any intelligent person would have, but with Dennis Rodman scheduled to be on the next Celebrity Apprentice, we’ll probably make this appointment television. Finally, The Dancing With The Stars concept (that is, throwing C-listers into a random competition that they have no background in, and watching the minions flock to their TV’s to feel superior), offers something enjoyable for Grid Effect.

If he doesn't show up looking like something out of "Demolition Man", we're going to be very disappointed.

Jermaine Clement, who plays a dimwitted version of himself on Flight of The Conchords, got hitched this past week; crushing the dreams of progressive twenty-something women all throughout the burrows of Brooklyn and Manhattan. ‘Tis a sad day, for the tragically conforming non-conformist women of the tri-state area. Also, we need to stop with all the marriage announcements on this website.

Italy, with all their gorgeous coastlines, delicious food and spirits, history and nightlife, has seemed to forget how much natural entertainment they have in their country. What’s my evidence? They’ve taken to protesting American hospital dramas, most notably ER and Grey’s Anatomy. One, who the fuck watches these shows for realism? I once went out with a girl that consisted of me watching an episode of ER so long as she watched an episode of The Sopranos. In short, the portrayal of a hospital in ER was closer to that of a nightclub than a medical facility. I swear to God, at one point they were listening to some Bob Marley knock off and a couple of them were dancing around.

And two, the complaint from one protester went, “These programs are teaching viewers inaccurate views on medicine”. Um, I hate to be the one to inform him, but this makes his career much more valuable in his country and the world over. If no one knows what they are talking about and you are an expert in it, especially something as vital as health care, then you are virtually indispensable. Sit back and enjoy it, and quit concerning yourself with Katherine Hiegl performing surgery in a bikini on some absurd ABC melodrama.

Might watch Hard Knocks at lunch. Jury’s still out.

Rescue Me’s mini-episode last night was funny, also a different kind of sarcastic humor for them (one in which the characters might not see it but the viewer does), with them anxiously patronizing the ice cream truck. The initial shot of them all huddled around the window with Leary screaming, “I’m first! I’m first!” was probably the funniest thing they’ve done in these shorts.

Even glowing men with scoliosis love ice cream.

With that said, we hope they are about over. They are becoming tedious to talk about every single week to the point that we willfully skipped writing about last weeks episode (though it was funny in its own right with the mindful distractions while the bathroom is occupied). By our count last night was nine, next week should be ten, which means they are done. Anything more would exceed the boundaries of our agreement to write about these things, and I don’t want the cast and crew over exerting themselves.

Onto some links…

Remember that guy from The Office who plays Dwight’s abnormal cousin Mose? And you just assumed he was a friend of BJ Novak’s that they brought onto set? Well, turns out he’s a writer and executive producer on the series. Not only that, he just signed a seven figure deal over the next two years with Universal Media Studios. What I’m trying to say is, everyone involved with The Office will at some point have a personal driver. So fret not, Brian Baumgartner.

Chris Kattan, the former SNL cast member who we could never determine was funny or not (steadily inconsistent is probably the best way to describe his tinier there), has separated from his wife after eight weeks of marriage. Why? The heart wants what it wants.

Speaking of horrifying, ill-advised marriages, Beth from the second season of The Real World and countless spin-off challenge shows, has married a real-estate developer seven years her junior. What is going on in the world? If Beth from Real world - LA was going to wait this long to get married, I would have assumed it would be to a homeless man or something equally desperate. But as far as I can tell from that little article we linked to, this guy is by all accounts normal, level-headed, and at least moderately successful. Our only explanation is that she is a beard. Of course, it is a shotgun wedding, so if it is a beard that is some thick scruff.

And finally, so this doesn’t come across as a gossip site to whoever stumbles onto it, Harvey Keitel is currently cast in a series called Life On Mars. It warrants mentioning because we can’t remember the last thing we saw Keitel in, and he has always been one of our favorite actors. Of course, according to his IMDB page, the last thing we saw him in was Red Dragon, which was released in 2002. And the last thing he was in, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, came out last summer. So a culmination of poor acting choices and my aversion to fluff have caused this non-newsworthy entry into our links.

Probably it for today, we are feeling mightily lazy. Back with more tomorrow.

So we’ve accused Rescue Me of making it up as it goes along, but this strikes me as ten times worse. Like, do they write these episodes after the previous one airs? Everything just ends abruptly and there are virtually no consequences from past actions. The only exception seems to be with Celia, and we are tired of the tone of acting with her and her family.

Everyone in the Hodes family seems to hate each other, except for one scene about every three episodes (we are ten episodes in, and those three so far have been Isabelle leaving Dean, Celia taking in Isabelle & Isabelle getting help for Celia). Mind you, this episodes scene took place after Celia grabbed Dean by his tie and slammed his head into a nightstand. God I hate that bitch.

But whatever, she doesn’t want to take responsibility for any of her actions, something of a running theme on this series. While I don’t mind such prevailing wisdom to be depicted on a series, I certainly don’t want the show runners to be defending such a mentality, as they seem to do on Weeds. We will give them credit where it is due though, Nancy did seem to own up to her shortcomings last night. All it took was a nice does of liquid peyote and seeing Guillermo again.

Speaking of which, could that scene have been any more unnecessarily long? This isn’t Fear and Loathing, I don’t need to see a five minute tripping sequence. Whatever, between that and the trafficked teenage girl, it brought us to the inevitable conclusion that Nancy’s guilt would eventually catch up with her and she’ll end the relationship with Esteban. She has an itneresting set of morals. It’s A-OK to run an illegal drug cartel while claiming to be a public servant, involved in probably a countless number of murders. But how dare you deal in human trafficking, that just crosses the line. Anyhow, her break up will probably put her in some sort of jeopardy, which I imagine she will be saved from by Andy’s loyal illegals.

The show took an...interesting turn last night.

Maybe Shane’s goth minions will come through with some assistance beyond a proposed three-way. My God that whole escapade was creepy, particularly when they were talking about positioning. We are kind of relieved in that they didn’t seem to go through with it, which none of them appeared to really want to. But why even present it? Especially if it ends up moot from here on out like so many other story arcs on this series?

Silas actually provided sound, if nonchalant advice. I guess you need to be able to do such things in lieu of a mother. Nothing like a high school dropout telling his 13 year old brother how to handle a three-way with two girls containing multiple piercings. We hope they drop the storyline with the cheese woman eventually. Are they still dealing out of her ridiculous store, or did that end with their monogamy? Also, did you like how she completely dodged answering the question about her husband? That was classy. I mean, the implication is probably yes, but Silas is no doubt going to cling to that ambiguity for the answer he finds most convenient.

Remember when this series used to be a comedy? Those were the days. We laughed once the entire episodes when Andu and Doug picked up Mermex and the other illegals. Everything from the hug who “thought it was part of the protocol”, to Doug’s impotent shove of him, to getting busted and offering up the guy who hugged Doug, that was a comedic sequence. It looks like the coyote angle is on a standing ten count, hopefully they can squeeze a couple more episodes out of it, because it has been a highlight of this season.

In short, Nancy got a migraine, Celia’s chained to a hotel bed in rehab, the coyote’s are over and done with and the Botwin boys are all sorts of confused. And this will all be resolved in a couple weeks. Not exactly riveting, but what else are we going to do on Monday nights?

We are bored, as a result we present you with these links. Why? Boredom is a great motivator.

It is official, Laurence Fishburne agrees to join the cast of CSI. I think this is a great move all around: Fishburne gets his payday, and fans of CSI get to hear one of the better actors on the planet regurgitate virtually identical lines in varying contexts for and undisclosed number of seasons. They can only hope this turns out as well as David Caruso.

A new book is coming out detailing past casting decisions and non-decisions that have probably altered careers one way or another. For the purposes of this blog, the one most relevant is Jenna FIscher almost being cast as Jennifer Garner’s character on Alias. We never watched Alias, but we know it was about a woman running around beating and killing everyone she comes into contact with. A female led 24, without the novelty premise. Maybe we have a deep, unwavering preset notion about what Jenna Fischer can and can’t play because of her very familiar role on The Office, but she doesn’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of men with The Finer Things Club. To the contrary, we want to win her a teddy bear at a fair or something whenever she shows up on our television.

Since she was never cast in "Alias", here's Jenna Fischer in some sort of under-garment we do not have the name for. It's only fair.

Skins, the raunchy teen drama on the BBC, has dumped its entire cast after two seasons in an effort to keep the focus on high school. And perverted men everywhere rejoice! I wonder if FNL is planning on doing something similar. Because if so, why watch it? For most series’ (good series’ anyways), the characters are there to represent something on a larger scale. After awhile, you tune in to see them as they grow and evolve/devolve. This isn’t like The Wire, where characters absence or death from the series can represent something in and of itself. If they are going to dump the entire cast every two years, then why not just watch The Real World or some other reality series? At least you will see a litany of real life bar fights. And that’s only in one season.

Colin Hanks was apparently quite persistent in forcing his way onto Mad Men. It must be nice when your father is one of the more powerful men in showbiz and you can do such things. That isn’t to say he was bad on it. We mentioned before how someone with such a high profile might be distracting, but to be honest, we didn’t even recognize him at first. And he excelled in the role. This might be a new line of work for him: ambiguously intentioned men of faith.

Hey, remember Master P? Yeah, I didn’t either until I clicked on this link, which explains that he is looking to launch a better, presumably blacker, BET. Apparently you can make a lot of money by throwing remarkably inane catch phrases over erratic, base heavy melodies. I’ll have to remember that in my next life. Still, we hope he gets the rights to Wire syndication and they actually rerun the series periodically. BET currently has rights to it and it runs at random, maybe once a month. Bang up job, BET. You might have been able to branch out your audience to snide, white, over-privileged liberal arts majors such as myself, and you completely miss the boat.
And finally, the Emmy’s, desperate for an increase in viewership since deciding to unjustly nominate the same shows year after year with no recourse until recently, are getting interactive. In honor of their sixtieth show, they are letting fans vote on what were the twenty best dramatic and the twenty funniest scenes in the history of television. I hope they are prepared to have American Idol account for at least a quarter of these moments.

Weeds recap and maybe something else tomorrow.

The penultimate episode of this miniseries was brilliant as always. Read about part five here.

For the great majority of the time we have been watching this, it has been apolitical. There have been suggestions of bias here and there, but it is recorded material from a non-fiction work as documented by an embedded Rolling Stone reporter and adapted for television by a man staunchly opposed to the effort. In other words, a little bias is fine and expected. I think at this point most people would concede that the invasion was a mistake. Even Bill O’Reilly admitted that if we were able to do things over, there’s no way we go into Iraq. “Too costly” were his exact words.

And while this episode was still as exceptional as always, all the backhanded comments seemed really distracting. Let’s run them down:

-The Iraqi woman venting to Brad, followed by the fellow soldier pretending to agree with him so she will smile at her or something.

-Evan’s speculating as to why we went into Iraq if there weren’t any WMD’s (something we’re still trying to wrap our heads around), followed by Trombley’s insane retort, “because we get to kill people”. Which makes since to him since he’s under the impression he is playing Grand Theft Auto.

-Espera recognizing that if they were civilians in the states, they would be going to prison based on what they did in Iraq.

I don’t think Simon is putting all this material in to be partisan. It serves an actual narrative purpose about the tragedy of war and the untenable situation all of these marines were put in by their superiors. But when the only people still supporting and fully on board with the effort are Trombley (lunatic), Encino Man (nitwit), Godfather (kiss ass) and Captain America (spaz), while the people showing trepidation are everyone we are supposed to admire (from Fick to Kocher to Patterson), the point is glaring.

Again, this is all documented and verified information from the people being portrayed, but Simon selectively edited plenty from the book I am sure, but left all of this in. I’m sure his point could have been made without alienating viewers. Then again, how do you document an ongoing war without alienating some sort of ideology?

Okay, onto the episode itself. Which we’re doing in bullet point form to save time:

-This episode focused primarily on the partnership (or lack there of) between Iraqi civilians and American military. Establishing any sort of rapport or building up any foundation is difficult to do when people like Captain America feel threatened every time and Iraqi makes eye contact with him. But every situation from helping them leave Baghdad to stumbling onto the robbed farmers, they did everything they could, even if it wasn’t enough. This, much like everything else, is a criticism of the command and whoever else above them, in that we invaded a country with little preparation or thought as to how we maintain the civilian trust over there.

-Seeing Ray cover for Walt about the Whopper Jr. reference was a great recognition from Ray of what line not to cross with someone. He can rag on any of them for just about anything, but Walt is almost too normalized to be out there. Everyone else seems to think he should just take the situation with the civilian and brush it off, but he’s clearly having a hard time coping. When this episode wasn’t about communicating with civilians, it was about the camaraderie between servicemen.

-I say servicemen, because any woman they come into contact with is immediately berated. I don’t know how any one couldn’t feel sympathy for the female marine on the back of the truck, it was like watching the new kid at school try to adapt. But she wasn’t new, and had probably been tolerating similar “advances” since she enlisted. If you can make Sixta look admirable, then I can only imagine what you had to deal with.

-Seeing Colbert finally letting loose after five and a half installments was unsettling and refreshing all at the same time. He is such a machine while in combat you almost began to wonder if it had gotten the better of him. But no, watching him run around like he’s at a Dead concert with that monstrosity of a tattoo radiating off his lower back, then fetching chef boyardee and porno mags for everyone might have been the most surreal experience to date. We wonder if he is still in the military, but with Fick getting his MBA we suspect many of the careerists were turned off by this experience.

Pretty much it for now, this episode had a more linear focus than the ones that preceded it. The finale is next week and we are kinda, sorta looking forward to it. It is difficult to watch such great filmmaking about something so tragic, at least if it was awful we could just ignore it, but this is David Simon’s wont: brilliant devastation.

Maybe back with more later.

A few links to close out the week. We’ll try to make this a weekly installment as it keeps us up to date on recent news items and is usually an easy read. We doubt we’ll have the discipline to actually stick to this, but whatever. It’s a pleasant thought to think we’d follow through with it.

Entourage is stockpiling cameos, which tends to be in lieu of quality. In other words, this season might suck hard. But the list includes Ben Silverman (he has to find some other line of work when NBC cans him), Richard Roeper (he has to find some other line of work after being replaced by some rich guy’s kid) and the “cast” of The View. This is in addition to cameos that have already been announced. Not a bad lineup, but hardly enough to redeem a series.

Here’s a two and a half minute trailer for HBO’s upcoming series True Blood. We’ve mentioned before that it shows potential, but whenever you take a risk with a series like this, it has a deep, deep basement. Anyway, we watched the trailer without any volume, so we don’t really have any context with what we watched. But it looked amazing, let me tell you. There are few things in this world that get me going more than cold, hard stares and intermittent inaudible screaming.

It's sleek, it's sexy, it's apparently about vampires. And this kid looks like Dexter.

Some professor with too much time on his hands has gone out of his way to spin a bunch of numbers and prove that Stephen Colbert’s “Colbert Bump”, a term used to facetiously describe the increased approval ratings a politician will see if he or she appears as a guest on his show, is indeed effective. Whether or not this is actually true is irrelevant. What is relevant is that this guy is from UC San Diego, implying that he lives in San Diego and spends his time conducting this absurd research. You could live in Mystic, Iowa and figure this shit out. While you’re on the coast I suggest you get outside.

BBC America will begin airing the British teen drama Skins this Sunday, and it doesn’t sound like a television show so much as an edited soft core porn with a Trainspotting “plot”. Additionally, the show was created by a father-son team which makes it all the more horrific. I guess this is what happens when baseball isn’t mainstream where you live: Instead of “tossing the ball around”, you trade tales of sexual conquests in high school with your father. I know we in America have the stereotype that Europeans are much more progressive, liberated, etc. when it comes to sexuality, and that is not always a bad thing, but they don’t have to do everything in their power to fit the bill.

Probably it for the week, have a safe one and we’ll be back on Monday.

Oh Mad Men and your double-entendre episode titles, will you ever cease to amaze me? Aside from that, not only is it a lifted title from a classic episode of television that is used as a plot source in the series, The Benefactor was also a God awful reality series from Marc Cuban. That is quite the company.

This episode, at least relative to most episodes of Mad Men, had a much sharper focus. The story revolved basically around Betty and Don, then we got maybe ten or fifteen minutes of a lighter story with Harry struggling to but successfully communicate with his wife over the salary discrepancy between him and Ken Cosgrove. This story seemed almost innocuous (though it served as a nice contrast to the Draper marriage) but they needed something to lighten the mood after “Flight 1” and the darker 3/4ths that was “The Benefactor”.

But for right now, we might be watching one of the more tragic marriages on television. The only way it could be worse is if Don started beating Betty, she in return cut his penis of while he was sleeping, and they were both mainlining heroin. Short of that, Don is only turned on by other women and Betty clearly wants to cheat but doesn’t feel allowed due to social stigma and an image she clings to that would be jeopardized if she stepped outside of her marriage.

The final scene, even for a series that leaves it up to the viewer to figure out virtually everything for themselves, was deeply ambiguous. Several people seem to be under the impression that her tearful breakdown in the car was an honest explanation, and there is definitely a reasonable argument to be made for that perspective. We tend think it had to do more with the above dissatisfaction and feeling of inability to do anything about it. A sort of, “Is this all I have to look forward to anymore?” realization that rested heavy on her shoulders.

For the past two episodes, Betty has been snippy, embittered, and the aggressive party in her marriage.
Presented with the opportunity to betray Don in the name of gratification she holds her ground and resists the horse guy’s advances. But why? Obviously, even going back to the laundry scene in “Indian Summer” last season, Betty has fantasized about other men and on some level found the equestrian partner appealing. I guess the question is, is her loyalty legitimate or for the sake of keeping up appearances?

Meanwhile Don is off making solicitous compromises and psuedo-threatening the wife of a cuckold comedian husband. Speaking of which, both of the Barrett’s were absolutely disgusting, and its a question of your sensibilities which one you felt was more repulsive. Personally, I’d go with Jimmy. I don’t think a line has ever summarized someones entire personality more so than Roger’s about him, “A person like that has to be capable of making a charming apology, otherwise he’d be dead.”

Utz, the source of many broken homes.

Anyway, back on track. You can see that Don is emotionally and spiritually torn with his infidelity, as it seems he and Betty made some sort of agreement in the 18 months off camera that they would remain together if he stayed faithful. But the look he gives Betty when she fixes his watch isn’t one out of love, but out of admiration. It was more along the lines of, “I can’t believe I just cheated on this woman who would have my watched monogrammed without me request, what a stand up gal!”, than “Man, I feel like a total creep for cheating on this woman who I love and does everything for me, allowing me to focus on the career that I have an unhealthy fixation with”.

More often than not, it seems to be the work that creates the infidelity. First with Rachel and now with Bobbie (It was never explained to us where he met Midge, because it clearly wasn’t at a bar they both frequent). But it seems like it has been awhile since he dipped his company pen in anything, so his succumbing to a woman he dislikes wasn’t all that surprising. At least not to us. His, “I don’t think I can do this” when Bobbie jumped him was both literal and figurative.

Then came Don’s own manipulation. and with it he seemed to get some of his swagger back. If you have somehow forgotten, the scene in question came at the Leutece dinner when Don followed Bobby into the hallway where the bathrooms are located, and basically threatened her and her husband with heavy sexual overtones, all while grabbing her hair with one hand, and her uh, nether regions with the other, after she tried to blackmail him for an apology to the Schillings. This scene seems to have caused a bit of controversy on the interwebs, and everyone has compared it to Tony Soprano like behavior and the infamous “rape” scene in Rescue Me from season three’s episode, “Sparks”.

But people do seem to be giving Mad Men more of a pass than they did with Rescue Me, probably because it was contextualized a lot better by Weiner and Co. And Mad Men is just a superior series, the majority of the audience doesn’t want a reason to dislike or disapprove of it. But I looked at it more as more of a threat to Jimmy’s career and to his and Bobbie’s relationship. In short, he grabbed her out of frustration and a feeling of emasculation, but in the end he is basically whoring himself out to keep things on an even keel with a valuable client.

And sure to Roger’s and Bobbie’s words, Jimmy managed to give a charming apology without even apologizing.

Other thoughts from “The Benefactor”:

-Harry’s scrambling for a promotion led to four brilliant scenes with Sal, Roger, his wife and an ad cohort at CBS. We might donate another post to this storyline alone because there is so much to be said about it that we are leaving unrecognized. But again, it was a nice contrast to the tone and tenor of the Draper marriage.

-Lois’ firing managed to be both warranted and unwarranted at the same time. On one hand, she is a little dense and Don is probably right when he says she should stick to the switchboard. On the other, shouldn’t have to explain why her boss is never in office. Especially when the older underling whose name we can never remember is passing out drunk on the stage set where all the trouble ensued.

-For all the anxiety induced by money and women amongst the guy’s at Sterling Cooper, Ken Cosgrove seems to be the source of a lot of it. With the published story, the typewriter, the paycheck and he seems to have more success with women than Harry, Paul or Pete. In short, we are looking forward to his side story this season.

-Part of the reason we disliked Jimmy and Bobbie so much was the incredible performances from the two actors, namely Patrick Fischler. Whom we recognize from Mulholland Dr.

-Pete and Peggy were noticeably absent from this episode. Pete was completely off camera and Peggy got one choice line about “The Benefactor” episode of The Defenders. As much as we liked this “The Benefactor” (Mad Men’s, installment, we’ve never watched The Defenders), an episode without Vincent Kartheiser is a lesser episode as a result.

-And yes, we got the analogy with Betty explaining how to handle a horse to horse guy, and Don with Bobbie, and the subtext of their marriage, but we didn’t find it that interesting. Something which we seem to be in the minority on.

We tried to cover everything. For such a narrow focus, this episode had a lot of material. Did we miss anything?