Parabasis

One More Thought on Mad Men

Did anyone else catch exactly how childish Betty Draper's idea of what constitutes being in love with someone was in this week's episode? It's an interesting moment, with her summing up not feeling anything when she kissed Don to being in love with him reminding me of Don's completely childish reasons for loving and wanting to marry Betty in the LA flashback sequence last season. 

I read on some blog or another how frustrating they found it that Betty wanted more independence and power but didn't seem to want it for anything and wasn't a very self-actualized person. But to me, that's part of the power of the portrayal of her character. You can't argue simultaneously argue the patriarchy is infantalizing and be upset when some people end up childish as a result. And what we've seen this season is a lot more information about how Betty was raised, and how conflicted she is about breaking out of essentially being a Pretty Thing That Gets Taken Care Of By Men. She wouldn't let her father treat her as anything else ("I'm your little girl"), even as she was angry at him for not respecting her house, and clearly her pseudo affair is based (on both people's parts) on basically adolescent longings and fantasies about what the other person is going to turn out to be.

Meanwhile, with Roger Sterling, we're getting a glimpse into exactly where basing an adult relationship on adolescent longing gets you. 

Mad Men Blogging

Well, I was wrong last week at least in part... this episode makes it clear that they didn't want to drop the Peggy/Duck or Pete/Cosgrove plot lines so much as relegate them to an almost-nonexistant background and then bring them up abruptly in the end.  Which is fine, clearly neither plot needs much more development then it got, although I would've liked (a) more Peggy this season and (b) more of Pete and Ken's competition rather than them suddenly jumping from point B to point E in the plot.  This is a minor quibble.  A good episode. I'm glad they didn't save JFK's death 'til the final final episode because I think that structure for a season would've gotten a little old.

Anyway, just a couple of quick points:

(1) The use of the camera this season is really masterful. Much more so than in previous seasons. It's always been a good looking show, but now I feel like the camerawork is often providing some great commentary simply through how shots are framed.  An example: Remember when Betty throws the cocktail party where they talk about Civil Rights while Carla remains in the center of the frame the entire time, but in the background taking people's coats? Awesome. Similarly, in this episode-- directed, oddly enough by Barbet Schroeder, who helmed both Reversal of Fortune and Single White Female-- as Betty approahces Don at the end of the wedding, Henry Francis is framed in the shot with him, and it becomes unclear who Betty is deciding to approach to go home with.  It's the episode's one true moment of suspense, and it's heart-stopping.

(2) I'm glad that Don did not save his marriage simply by explaining everything to Betty.

(3) I really, really, dislike the move towards using more and more underscoring on the show.  In the first season, they seemed to be setting up a world where all music was diagetic with the exception of Really Big Moments of Rock Music, like the using of the Deceberists in the episode Maidenform of season two or the use of Bob Dylan at the end of the first season. Every now and then they let a little vague melancholy string music creep in, but largely, those were the rules. This season, they've gone for a much more conventional use of music, but the music they use is extremely vague and mildly cheesy. It doesn't really do anything in any of the scenes its in besides provide some lightweight (and unnecessary) emotional manipulation.  

(4) Pete Campbell's character development is really fascinating this season. One moment he's a rapist, the next he's the compelling symbol of the screwed over loyal footsoldier.

(5) John Slattery FTW!

Mad Men Blogging (All Spoilers)

So it seems to me that I was right at the beginning of this season when I said it felt like they had no idea where they were going and what they wanted to do this year.  The question is... is this a bad thing?

 Let me explain... this season has progressed thus far through three different movements.  For two or three episodes in the beginning, they basically treaded water, with the characters doing... not that much important and, as we can see now the writers setting up... very little for later on in the season.  It was just kinda dull.

Then we moved into a second act that was Balls Out Insane.  Every week seemed at least as strange as the Don In LA plotline, and you began to see a real David Lynch influence begin to suffuse the series. There were strange incongruous moments, shocking gore, suburban creepiness, the whole bit.  

Now we've moved through a final phase where they have to set up a big season finale.  And so they've decided to pull the pin on Betty finding out about Don's hidden past. To me, this feels like the writing room admitting defeat. It's a moment of "fuck it, we didn't really know what we wanted to do with year three, so let's go to plan B".  We've always known that Betty would find out about Don at some point.  They've been keeping that one on the back burner since the end of Season 1.  

So why deploy it now?  It doesn't really flow from anything else that's gone in this season. It doesn't have that feeling one gets from a well plotted work where things feel simultaneously surprising and inevitable. It just feels like they needed to do something to raise the stakes and finish off the year and they were sick of waiting around for Betty to discover The Box so they just did it.

In the meantime, they've set up other plot lines that they've discarded so swiftly they've become red herrings.  What happened with Duck? And with the competition between the two accounts men? And with Peggy's newfound sex-drive? They have two more episodes to go, and Sterling Cooper is secretly on sale and it's completely unclear what this year's season is even about which is kind of a big deal when you are doing a serialized realistic TV drama. 

That being said... I'm not actually sure that I mind and of this.  I think this season has been clumsily plotted and kind of haphazard, but this week's episode was really outstanding and having Betty discover the box has really raised the stakes (my heart was beating so fast I could feel it) and the fucking crazy episodes in the middle of the season were really bracing and exciting. 

It does, however, worry me for seasons ahead. It was clear watching (for example) both The Sopranos and Six Feet Under than they had no idea what they wanted to do with the shows after their first seasons. Both shows flailed around with the success rate declining steeply each year  until their final seasons, where the first went completely off the rails and the second brought it home brilliantly.  It's not clear that Matthew Weiner and his writers have figured out why we should still be watching Don Draper and Co. And by removing Joan from the Sterling Cooper offices, they've taken out some of the key dynamics (Joan + Roger, Joan + Peggy, Joan + Men, Joan + Women) and haven't replaced them with anything yet.

Ricky Gervais and Elmo Get Naughty

by Guest Blogger Prince Gomolvilas of Bamboo Nation

Speaking of Ricky Gervais, who honed the comedy of discomfort on the U.K. version of The Office and on Extras, he somehow managed to finagle his way onto the set of Sesame Street, in an episode that will air in November. Associated Press got hold of the show's outtakes, which features Gervais antagonizing Elmo and playfully pushing the boundaries of good taste. This is hilarious mostly because, believe it or not, Elmo is game:

[h/t The Bilerico Project]

Michael Showalter Takes on One-Man Shows

by Guest Blogger Prince Gomolvilas of Bamboo Nation

Comedy Central's Michael & Michael Have Issues, featuring the comedy duo of Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter (The State, Wet Hot American Summer), is a hit-and-miss sitcom/sketch show hybrid that completed its first season several weeks ago. One of the programs most memorable bits is "Michael Showalter's Skip to the End," a one-man show parody that's comprised entirely of closing lines from other one-man shows. It's pretty funny stuff, and it features such awful (albeit made up) solo show titles as "The Arrow of My Ways," which is about an archer. Skip ahead to the 1:40 mark to see the sketch:

Michael & Michael Have Issues
Skip to the End
www.comedycentral.com

[Crossposted on Bamboo Nation.]

Still Not Ready To Be Post-Racial

Meet Discovery Channel's latest documentary series: 

The show offers unrealistic and simplistic explanations about why killings happen, who the people in the community are and what would make things better. It's time for Oakland, and the rest of America, to dump the myths that have lead to ineffective approaches to safety -- and that means calling out this show that feeds on our worst fears of the poor and of people of color....
...If the show was your sole point of reference, you would get the impression that Oakland's response to crime involves mostly white police kicking down doors, conducting dangerous high-speed chases and stopping AC Transit buses in mostly black Oakland.
Gang Wars: Oakland would have us believe the myth -- as the voiceover in the show says -- that law-abiding citizens have only one hope, which is more and tougher policing. The reality is far more complex -- with the community itself taking a central role in creating peace.

The Best Moment from This Week's Mad Men

Was not Roger's blackface routine, although that was shocking and brilliantly handled. Nor was it Peggy's experimentation with dope. Nor was it Joan's placesetting argument.

The great moment of this week's episode was most definitely Pete Campbell and his Wife's absurd, needy, creepy and technically brilliant dance routine. It's a wordless sequence, but one in which Vincent Kartheizer and some really amazing choreography make entire reams of backstory clear... that Pete thinks that learning some elaborate dance moves will impress everybody and help him in his ongoing competition with... well... everybody. The he's still a desperate reptile no matter how much humanity he layers on top. The way he starts looking around at people with a smile that needs reinforcement as people politely clear the dance floor, all of them kind of faking-amazement but finding him repugnant at the same time... masterful. 

There was a lot in this episode about the need for other people's approval/desire.  Betty and the creepy old guy who wants to do pregnant chicks. Roger's blackface routine. Roger's wife's drunken moment with Don. Joan wanting to emilypost her way to social acceptance. Heck, even the texan at the bar wants Don's approval. And in the midst of it, Peggy deciding she doesn't need her secretary's approval and Don, who is both so desperate to be Part of a Crowd that his entire life is a lie and so filled with loathing for himself and others that he can barely fit into his own skin.

Mad Men Ep. 3 Blogging

Now that's more like it.

Mad Men has always been a slow burn, as Josh was quick to point out in the comments. But the issue for me over the first two episodes was not the lack of plot-- in a way less happens in Episode 3 than in either episode 1 or 2-- but rather the lack of focus and, frankly, the lack of balls. This week's episode really went for the jugular. From Kinsey's pot-dealer buddy (whom I've dubbed Low Rent Tom Cruise) to Roger's blackface stunt to the evolving relationship between Don's horrible father in law and his horrible daughter, the episode felt like it had a reason to exist.

I particularly enjoyed the pairing of the blackface scene with the scenes of Carla dealing with Gene, Betty's father. The way she basically knew that he thought she stole the money from him and wasn't going to have any of it. The overt racism paired with the covert racism. It was really quite elegant.

To me, the only false note in the episode was Peggy's monologue to her secretary.  It falls into that weird "Let's Get A Character Fucked Up So We Can Be More Writerly In Our Speeches" category, and felt like it. 

All in all a really good episode. And even though it didn't seem to further an recognizable plot arc (it's totally unclear where this season is going on a kinda profound and unsettling level) I'm looking forward to next week's.

Mad Men Episode 2

My mom sent me a one word e-mail about Love Among The Ruins, the pretentiously titled second episode of Mad Men's third season.  That word? boring. Not even capitalized! That's how boring it was!

I beg to differ a little bit from my mom on this one.  The first episode was boring in the sense that nothing really seemed to be happening (outside of the fire drill). In the second episode... plenty happened... I just didn't find it all that involving or compelling. It got me thinking... perhaps I'm over this show. Wouldn't be the first time. I was pretty much done with the Sopranos at the end of Season Four.

There's two real chinks in Mad Men's armor, and this episode was rife with both of them. The first is a kind of ham-fisted faux subtlety in their evocation of period. They largely got beyond this problem after the first few episodes of the show, but it rears its ugly head now and then. In this particular episode, it manifested itself in the writers' obsession with showing Betty draper smoke and drink while seven months pregnant.  We get it, guys. It was a different time back then! With different mores! Oooooo. 

The second problem is writerly contempt for character.  This is the problem that eventually sank the Sopranos (it was also part of what made the show interesting to watch in the beginning). And here we must return again to Betty. Has Betty draper uttered one line this season that wasn't (a) Childish (b) Bitchy (c) Petulant (d) Inappropriate or (e) Conceited? Not that I can think of. Betty was never a super-likeable character but at least in prior seasons she was interesting and complex. Remember when she fixed her friend up with the guy she wanted to fuck and then was a total asshole about it? That was not very nice or good. But it was interesting! And mysterious! I'm not asking that Betty Draper be suddenly a good person. I just want her to be interesting. Now she's just kinda a dick. (Contrast that with the level of humanity the writers give characters they clearly like Pete or Peggy and what I'm talking about here might be a little clearer)

I must admit that literally as soon as Betty showed up in the episode i actually thought "oh, who gives  a shit, really?" so it might just be my own boredom with Don's personal life.  Similarly, actually, to the Sopranos, now that Don has been thrown out of his house and taken back, his personal life is much, much less interesting. They've pulled the pin on that particular aspect of their show, and no amount of John McCain as Betty's Crazy Father is gonna put it back in. 

Speaking of Peggy, it's nice to have a show partially centered on someone so weird, played by an actress that opaque. 

Don Draper and Creativity

Part of what makes Don Draper such a compelling character is his creativity.  There's something immediately sympathetic about a creative person, probably because our culture mistakenly views creativity as a rare and elite skill as opposed to something nearly-universally possessed to differing degrees. Don Draper shows both the positive and negative side of the creative spirit. He is self-created in a way that is increasingly not-sustainable... his entire life is a lie that he tries to maintain through sheer will power. In both season one and season two, we see him confronted with two different aspects of that lie (his manufactured past and his fake idyllic present) and manage-- for the time being-- to hold on. In both cases, confronted with the limits of his creativity and willpower to shape his world, he completely panics and nears total-self-destruction. I can't help but think that if it weren't for the fact that he was the lead actor on a television show that was renewed, the destruction might have been completed.

We already know that this cannot last.  Don makes a promise to his wife at the end of the second season that we know he honestly wants to believe himself capable of  and then breaks that promise immediately in the season premiere of season three.  Furthermore, despite his insistence on his new identity, the old self creeps back in in the form of the frequent flashbacks to his past.  

We also see the positive side of his creative powers in the first episode of season three (and throughout the show in general).  He takes the raw materials of the world around him and creates a brilliant ad campaign. Whether you think advertising is good or evil, the fact of the matter is, Don is a genius at his job, the White Knight of his company called in to swoop down and save the day.  He's so effective at it that it causes resentment and an eventual breakdown on the part of Duck Philips in season two.

At the top of season three, Don takes the uncloseting of Sal and his own covert life and translates that into the cheeky "Limit Your Exposure" ad campaign. He's able not only to solve the problem his company faces but also communicate to Sal the information that Sal needs on a personal level simply through his own creative ingenuity. It's this double-sided creativity that makes Don fascinating to me even while he remains, objectively speaking, a fairly loathsome human being.