Monsters of Television

“Just because you say you’re retiring doesn’t mean you’re retiring. You could be like Jay-Z and come back like a couple of months later.”

Is this the end? The season three finale of The Boondocks could very well be the last episode of the show. Going into it with that in mind, there are many reasons why this not only felt like a series finale, but was a very appropriate one at that. Agent Jack Bauer Flowers is after Huey in connection with an impending terrorist attack in Woodcrest. What follows is an action movie inspired, 24 spoof episode utilizing characters and elements all related to our favorite ten-year-old terrorist: Huey Freeman.

The White Shadow (John C. McGinley) makes a much appreciated reappearance to warn Huey that his paranoia is finally merited. Men with guns are coming for him despite the fact that he has retired from the anti-establishment game. Huey’s planning and paranoia were a subject touched on a few episodes ago in “Fried Chicken Flu” but this put it in arenas more suited for Huey’s know-how. Instead of a zombie invasion like scenario he was finally placed right in the middle of a large conspiracy. Ed and Rummy are planning on blowing up Wuncler Plaza in connection with a new scheme by Ed Sr. and Huey is set up to take the fall for it.

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“I hate us.”

“Keep the Ends Out” is probably the dullest episode of TV I’ve seen in a while. It’s a struggle to get through and it was a struggle to write anything about. “The Outsider” is perhaps aptly name since it pushes back whatever conspiracy Will is investigating to the backburner as he and Spangler visit D.C. to shore up API’s standing with powerbrokers there. If “Keep the Ends Out” made me wonder why I was watching, “The Outsider,” at the very least, reassured me that the show can be engaging and interesting.

That said, both episodes still work through notions of grief and guilt, ideas that I feel are central to the show far more than any 4-leaf clover based conspiracy. Read more »

“That IS writing.”

Common in the threads of Mad Men are counter-culture characters who embody the changing tide of the 1960s, specifically toward the well-oiled advertising infrastructure. From episode 1, we see a whiff of hostility toward what Don Draper does, from the affair he opens the series with to the college-aged kid he fails at seducing while visiting Anna. Generally, these threads are aimed at Don, the tailored-suit-armored embodiment of that super-structure, as they try to challenge him. The counter-culture characters are generally amazed when they come face-to-face with a man in advertising, as if they’re seen a “g-man” in the flesh; the concept is bandied about so much and so elevated that any tangible evidence almost feels unrealistic. “Really? You’re in advertising?” And then come the disparaging comments representing the movement. Don quells them with firmness but charm and they either decide they are at impasse or move on to something else.

Kinsey’s party (where we meet his girlfriend) also has a bit counter-culture in it (Kinsey being an interesting figure as a member of the culture while working in advertising) but, now that the show is into the mid-60s, specifically post-Warhol, it’s interesting to see how they maintain this thread. Sure, last week they had Stephanie clumsily represent but she lacked bite and true hostility. So why not see what happens when you deeply embed Draper-by-proxy into the anti-commercial artists’ culture.

Fight my battle, Peggy.

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“You’re a star. It’s just obvious.”

Three words for you: demographics, demographics, demographics. But more on those three words in a moment.

If the entire competition essentially boils down to who has the best pilot, and it seems to have done that, I must wonder why the show just didn’t do a tournament style pilot structure, showing pilot after pilot to focus groups, with the last pilot standing being the winner. I know that past performance weighed into the decision, but I’m willing to bet that the response of the focus group gave weighed in even more. Read more »

“Did you get pears?”

This might be the funniest/most telling/allegorical/best/most fourth-wall-breaking/funniest again frame in the entire series.

WARNING: The following post never really discusses the nudity in Mad Men that probably didn’t need to be disclaimed. Reader discretion is advised.

The masks are slipping a little for Don and Peggy, more for the former than the latter, but they are quick to recover in the privacy of their own dominions. And while Don’s story with Allison is interesting, and I’m finally glad to see Pete in the line-up again, it’s Peggy that provides the most intrigue here.

I make it no secret that I have a penchant for the our gal copywriter but I’ve mentioned that, just as Don is being set up for The Big One (where Don finally falls on his face rather than his feet) that Peggy is headed for a fall herself, at the very least a tipping point. Don and Pete have big pieces of this episode but it all feeds into her. And that doesn’t even count the big L word they never even drop.

No, the other one.

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“I see unstable minds think alike.”

Burn Notice, why do you keep doing this to me? Better still, why do I keep thinking you’ll change? I know that you don’t bother devoting episodes to your seasonal arcs until the end of the season (and sometimes not even then), so why do I keep expecting you to do it before that? It’s frustrating, especially when the procedural element you elect to focus on is, well, dull and relatively stakes free.

A part of the problem is that, oddly, I bought into the USA promos, which basically showed every Simon scene (really, it did), and thought that Michael and Simon dueling for information would be the episode, not the cold open and the tag. I don’t know what caused this sudden bout of naïveté, but trust me when I tell you that I don’t have high hopes for seeing a lot of Robert Patrick next week.

…Okay, so I do, but it’s only because I love Robert Patrick. I mean, who doesn’t? Read more »

“I’m bored. Take off your clothes.”

Oh my.

The sex and violence contained in the last 10 minutes of “Night on the Sun” alone should be enough to convert any former nonbeliever. The beauty of it (besides all the naked bodies) is it’s not just for spectacle. There is shock value, sure, but there’s real story progression and character development behind it. And probably the most unbelievable part of it: it made Sookie likable. For 10 minutes anyway.

Let’s be honest: Sookie sucks. She’s whiny and stubborn and impossibly, idiotically impulsive. However, this season has managed to do a great job in getting characters and the audience alike to really want to know what the hell she is. While I too find myself staring up at my ceiling as I lie in bed on Sundays night pondering “Just what are you, Sookie Stackhouse?” it doesn’t make me like her as a character. Put a pair of scissors and a shotgun in her hands and then she gets a little more interesting.

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“I had it coming.”

Ah, the incorruptible Lane Pryce. One night with Don Draper and you’re now just one of the boys.

Lane’s relationship has been somewhat tenuous for the length of his time on the show. He started off just as much a caricature as the rest of the limeys (limies?) that took over Sterling Cooper last season, a cup of tea and an elitist football reference short of a stereotype. While he was the most willing to accept America as his home (to his wife’s chagrin) and seemed the most sympathetic character in the new cast introduced in season 3, he has pretty much held on to the stuffy, stiff-upper-lip, moneyman type.  But he’s fallen on hard times, particularly in his marriage with his cold and “severe” better half (she is English afterall — which media has taught me is par for the course unless receiving a Joni Mitchell education), and wants a break. And who’s back just in time to drag a man of scruples into the tarpit that is his own existence? Fresh off his own stint of jackassery, it’s Don Draper, expert in swallowing pain and then drowning it in brown liquor and quasi-anonymous sex.

He really should wear a cape or a pencil mustache or something, just to warn people.

In other news, Joan finally gets a storyline this season.

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“You are all my mortal enemies.”

A couple of a weeks ago, I skewered FNS for doing a supper club challenge because I don’t perceive Food Network as being a foodie channel. This week, they decide synergize their programming (this show is pretty good at it, I have to admit), with a Iron Chef America challenge. This makes sense for their penultimate episode, as well as a way to plug a new episode of ICA that follows it. However, where the super club challenge was a mistake as a branding issue, an ICA challenge is a weird challenge to throw at people who aren’t established and sure of themselves chefs.

It’s certainly a way to test someone’s mettle, but I feel like it’s a little unfair to the chefs, and it’s a poor way to decide who your final three are. Read more »