One reason Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner is so maniacal about keeping plot points about his show secret until they air is that — well, as this week’s episode, “The Other Woman” proved, he reserves the right to explode every expectation you could bring to Mad Men, and then sets off a few extra firecrackers for the meticulously determined hell of it. READ FULL STORY »
With the last gaspings of season and series finales this week, the 2011-12 season comes to a close. And any season that gave us Homeland, Girls, a great batch of Breaking Bad, Enlightened, and what’s shaping up as a terrific run of Mad Men must be deemed a success, right? Or is the quality outweighed by the soggy awfulness of Free Agents, Two Broke Girls, The Playboy Club, and H8r (oh, let’s face it, everything on the CW except Supernatural and the attempt to bring back Sarah Michelle Gellar, who — much as I like Emily VanCamp — would have been the perfect star for Revenge, not Ringer)? READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Byron Cohen/Fox House
So much TV on Sunday night; inaugurating a new occasional feature: A round-up of mini-reviews. (All rights reserved to expand upon these thoughts later in the week.)
• Mad Men: “I got a million of ‘em,” said Michael Ginsberg, quoting Jimmy Durante and referring to ideas he has for ad campaigns. He’ll need ‘em, since this week’s theme was “every man for himself.” I know — when isn’t that a Mad Men theme? This night READ FULL STORY »
Fringe closed out its season with an hour that wrapped up some of this season’s loose ends, settled some timeline hash, quoted some William Butler Yeats, answered a few nagging Observer observations, and rang William Bell to a fare-thee-well. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS
Gotta hand it to CSI: The show went big for its 12th-season finale on Wednesday night. One big resignation (“I out!”), a triple homicide, a double kidnapping, a wife revealed — the linchpin of the CSI franchise proved it’s still the best of ‘em. READ FULL STORY »
On last night’s Mad Men, the ad agency sought to please a client by doing what was described as a “Hard Day’s Night campaign” — that is, a youth-oriented pitch that would leech off some of the Beatlemania energy that was in the 1966 air. Don Draper and colleagues faced a mop-topped fop of a client who wanted some cool music in the ad, and after he left, Don said to Megan, “When did music become so important?” READ FULL STORY »
Sherlock returned for a second season Sunday night on PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery!, and offered its take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Scandal in Bohemia” by giving you a chance to match wits with the Master in… cracking the password to Irene Adler’s smartphone. READ FULL STORY »
Sherlock returns tonight for a second season on PBS’ Masterpiece. Before the first series premiered, I had been dubious: A modern Sherlock Holmes, adapting to new technology with a Watson who blogged the Great Detective exploits? That seemed dubious. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Frank Ockenfels/AMC
This is shaping up to be the best Mad Men season yet. There are a a number of reasons for that — the bold variations in storytelling styles from week to week; the already vast shades of mood displayed by dizzy newlywed Don Draper; the saga of Peggy Olson, destined to become either an ad agency superstar or the female Freddie Rumsen, it’s her choice — but I’m going to narrow this post down to one current live wire sparking the series: Roger Sterling. READ FULL STORY »
