Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 280

Mad Men 7.10: "Fast Girl"

"She's a fast girl," Don says to his daughter, Sally, taking him to task for responding as a man to Sally's 17-year friend at dinner, and this struck me as a good shorthand for this episode, 7.10, one the last few in the series, to be exact.

Betty goes through much the same thing with Glen, almost grown up now.  He comes to visit on the eve of his going off to Vietnam, but the real purpose of his visit is to, well, declare his continuing infatuation for Betty.   That in itself is not surprising.  But Betty, although she resists, is clearly taken by Glen's teenage passion for her.   She primps her hair, and looks at him in that Betty way.

So what's going on with Don and Betty in their separate interactions with teenagers?   Their response is symbolic of what the series has always been about:  fantasy gratification, which you could say is the basis of most advertising, certainly the kind we've seen under development for years on this show.

Also significantly, we do get one interaction which is not fantasy, and not out of line, and which may hold a happy ending for one of our main characters.  Joan meets a man on the West Coast, when he accidentally walks into her office, looking for his optometrist, and can't believe his eyes or his luck when he sees Joan.   It's not easy going, but at the end of this episode, it sure looks as if love will conquer all.   And, by the way, it's good to see Bruce Greenwood in this role.

The one major character we haven't seen very much of so far in these final episodes is Pete.  His hair looks bad, he still feels like he's getting the short end of some stick, as we saw tonight, and it will be fun to see where he winds up when the series ends.   His sleeping with Peggy was probably the most shocking development in the first season, to bring this back to maybe the ultimate fast girl in this series, but also so much more than that.

-> 20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) in 2007 at Light On Light Through

See also  Mad Men 7.1: Vignettes and Playboy ... Mad Men 7.2:  Flowers and the Hung-Up Phone ... Mad Men 7.3: "Lunch with Rod Serling" ... Mad Men 7.4: Computer! ... Mad Men 7.5: Retrofit Paranoia ... Mad Men 7.6: The Dance ...  Mad Men Mid-Season 7 Finale: Telescope vs. Television ... Mad Men 7.8: Don, Rachel, and the Waitress ... Mad Men 7.9: Fast Ride

And see also Mad Men 6.1-2: The Lighter and the Twist ... Mad Men 6.3: Good Company ... Mad Men 6.4: McLuhan, Heinz, and Don's Imagination ... Mad Men 6.5: MLK ... Mad Men 6.6: Good News Comes in a Chevy ...  Mad Men 6.7: Merger and Margarine ... Mad Men 6.8: Dr. Feelgood and Grandma Ida ... Mad Men 6.9: Don and Betty ... Mad Men 6.10: Medium Cool ... Mad Men 6.11: Hand in the Cookie Jar and Guy de Maupassant ... Mad Men 6.12: Rosemary's Baby, Dick Cheney, and Sunkist ... Mad Men Season 6 Finale: Beyond California

And see also Why "You Only Live Twice" for Mad Men Season 5 Finale ... Mad Men Season Five Finale

And see also Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party  ... Mad Men 5.3: Heinz Is On My Side ... Mad Men 5.4: Volunteer, Dream, Trust ... Mad Men 5.5: Ben Hargrove ... Mad Men 5.6: LSD Orange ... Mad Men 5.7: People of High Degree ... Mad Men 5.8: Mad Man and Gilmore Girl ...Mad Men 5.9: Don's Creativity  ... Mad Men 5.10: "The Negron Complex" ... Mad Men 5.11: Prostitution and Power ... Mad Men 5.12: Exit Lane

And from Season 4: Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback  ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ...4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking!  ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -

And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ...Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ...Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

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Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel

Outlander 1.11 was a perfect episode - love, tenderness, moving the story along in profound and sea-changing ways, all keyed to time travel.

The first inkling I had that something was up with Geillis was when she said "barbecue," but it turns out that the word has been in parlance since the 1500s.   But "1968" has not, and opened the door to one of the big revelations in the story: Geillis is herself someone who traveled through time, more than 200 years back to Scotland.   She would make a great continuing character in the series, and my one regret in this episode would be if she was really burned at the end.   True, she murdered her husband - but she's pregnant, and too good a potential ally of Claire's to kill.  (I should mention, again, that I haven't read any of the novels, because I want to enjoy the television series on its own terms.)

In any case, Geillis's revelation raises the possibility that there may be other time travelers afoot in this crucial time in Scottish history.   And this in turn raises further, intriguing questions:  Do the stones always bring people back from the future to this very time in the past?  Are the only time travelers women?

The vaccination as a telling "Devil's Mark" was one of the best details of this sort we've seen in the series.   (But why does Claire call it a "vaccine" rather than a "vaccination" when she's explaining it all to Jaime?)   I love pivotal little details like this in time travel stories - any time traveler from the age of vaccination could be identified as a time traveler by those in the past who were also time travelers, or who, like Jaime, knew that time travel was possible and real.   (Hmm ... maybe that's what's motivating some of the anti-vaxxers in our own time ... but I shouldn't be joking about that.)

Fine food for thought.  But the emotional payoff in this episode happens in the last few minutes. After Claire tells Jaime "the whole story," he privately decides to bring her back to the Stones and her avenue to her life in the future.  He spends a tender evening with Claire, leads her to the Stones, and leaves her.  She has every reason to want to get back to Frank and the 20th century, having just come this close to being burned as a witch in the 1700s,  but Claire decides that her home - at least, for now - is with Jaime, in Lallybroch.

Outlander continues as time travel on television with heart, savvy, and soul, and it's getting more of that with each episode.

See also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox


 
Sierra Waters series, #1, time travel

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American Crime 1.7: The Truest Love

Amidst all the lies, half-truths, betrayals, incompetence, and just plain evil that populates so much of American Crime - and in the case of the evil, especially some of the authorities - the one relationship that increasingly rings true and reliable is Aubry and Carter.

And never more true than in episode 1.7.   Carter is increasingly pressured by his sister to quit Aubry. But he just can't seem to do it, even though, as we've just seen, her instincts aren't the best, to say the least, for keeping the two of them out of trouble.   But Carter tells his sister that Aubry saved him. And, in his recollection, we see that was literally the case.

Meanwhile, Aubry is getting similar pressure to leave Carter from everyone around her.   In her case, there's a motive that the police are dangling in front of her: if she testifies against Carter, that would be her ticket to freedom.   For a moment, in the hospital, it seemed that she might be turning against Carter, though I couldn't believe it.   And I was gratified with that last scene, in which her horror story of what was done to her turns out to have her brother as the perpetrator.

So Aubry and Carter are the improbable rock of Gibraltar in this story, holding firm, for now, against the cesspool tempest of deceit that is daily hurled against them.  The question is how long can they endure it.   Optimist that I always am, I'm hoping they can, to the end - but the forces arrayed against them are powerful, indeed.

Although it's still not clear who committed this American crime, it's very clear that the police don't have a creditable witness against Carter.   Hector's obviously a complete liar, and the detectives know it.   The question is whether they'll allow the prosecutors to go ahead and use it.   Chances are they will - which is part of what I meant earlier about the authorities being reprehensible.

Not reprehensible, and indeed superb, to switch gears here, is the acting in this series.  Caitlin Gerard as Aubry and Elvis Nolasco as Carter are just outstanding - and, in episode 1.7 especially, delivered Emmy-worthy performances.   Richard Cabral as Hector is excellent, as is Regina King as Aliyah Shadeed (born Doreen Nix, Carter's sister), and I haven't even mentioned the big names such as Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman, who are putting in what will counted as among the best performances of their careers.   The other related stories, such as Alonzo and his family, are also searing and well acted.

John Ridley's American Crime is television at its hard-hitting, truth-searching, very best.

See also: American Crime, American Fine


a different kind of crime
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Bones 10.14: Meets La Parure

A charming Bones 10.14 last night, in which the best part of the episode was Wendell's, which riffs on one of my favorite short stories of all time, "La Parure" by Guy De Maupassant.

The story - translated as "The Necklace" or "The Diamond Necklace" - was first published in 1884. A woman borrows a beautiful diamond necklace from her friend for an important event.  She loses it, and, honorable woman that she is, goes heavily into debt to buy a replacement, which she gives to her friend.   The two run into each other ten years later.   The woman who borrowed the necklace is a mess - she and her husband struggled all of these years to pay off the debt.   She finally tells the truth to the original owner, who replies, "but the original diamond necklace was paste" - i.e., it was just inexpensive costume jewelry!

On Bones, Wendell is desperate to fix or replace his girlfriend's clock, an heirloom from her grandmother, which Wendell thinks he broke while winding it.   Those old clocks are indeed easy to break. He enlists the resourceful Hodgins, who figures out a way to get the clock working.   When Wendell gives the clock back to his girlfriend, admitting that he broke it but did the right thing and got it working, she tells him it was broken to begin with.

But Bones comes up happier than De Maupassant, because the experience brings Wendell and his girlfriend closer together.   And speaking of happiness, we get a good Max episode, too, with a happy ending, in which his new round of secretiveness was all to retrieve a ring she loved and lost as a child.  We also learn why he left the family, and the reason brings him and Bones closer together.

And the murder in the episode?  It concerns a miniature golf course - not the most profound story in the world - but who cares, when we get a modern retelling of De Maupassant.


Bones 100 and 200 podcast reviews

See also Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes ... Bones 10.2: J. Edgar and the DNA Confession ... Bones 10.3: Meets Rush and a Dominatrix ... Bones 10.4: Brennan and Angela on a Bench in the Playground ... Bones 10.5: Two Jokes and Three Times ... Bones 10.6: A Thousand Cuts ... Bones 10.7: The A-Word and Quarks ... Bones 10.8: Daisy's Doula ... Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds ... Bones 200: 10.10: Just like Bogey and Bacall ... Bones 10.11: Life after Death, and Sweets in Wonderland ...Bones 10.12: The Digital Revolution ... Bones 10.13: The Almost-Serial Killer
And see also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ...Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck ... Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom ... Bones 9.10: Horse Pucky ... Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations ... Bones 9.12: Fingernails ... Bones 9.13: Meets Nashville, and Wendell ... Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away" ... Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe ... Bones 9.16: Lampreys, Professors, and Insurance Companies ... Bones 9.17: Spartacus in the Kitchen ... Bones 9.18: Meets Day of the Triffids ... Bones 9.19: The Cornucopic Urn ... Bones 9.20: Above the Law ... Bones 9.21: Freezing and Thawing ... Bones 9.22: Promotion ... Bones 9.23: The New Intern ... Bones Season 9 Finale: Upping the Ante

And see also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

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

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Vikings 3.9: The Conquered

Another superb episode - 3.9 - of Vikings.  Another close call for Paris, which again manages to hold on against a Norse onslaught.   Maybe it's unsuccessful because Ragnar isn't with them, in the throes of the wounds from the previous battle or maybe the illness that's wreaking havoc.   And, in the end, it's he who is conquered - at least, in part, spiritually.

Because, much to his people's horror - especially Floki - Ragnar is baptized by the reluctant French bishop.   Ragnar's motivation is clear and understandable.  He thinks he may be dying, and wants to be in the same heaven as his friend, Athelstan, whose conversation Ragnar so very much values.

The French bishop thinks Ragnar will go to hell, even if he is baptized.  But the immersion is a good move for the French, because it at least gives them some sort of common ground with the leader of the military demons who have been attacking them.

The indomitable Count Odo also sees that Rollo is the man to beat if Paris is to be successfully defended.   Rollo nearly reached Odo and the Princess last week, and in episode 3.9 he single-handedly stops a fearsome rolling engine of spikes that was literally chewing up the Vikings and obstructing their attack on the city.   I'm still expecting to see some kind of relationship between Rollo and the Princess before this series is over.  She looks at him with hate, but the intensity of that emotion could at some future point go a different way.

Meanwhile,  speaking of hate, Ecbert in Wessex is getting more hateful by the hour, now taking his son's wife as a mistress after allowing her ear to be chopped off several episodes ago.  I can't recall the last time a character who seemed so decent turned bad so quickly.

The Paris action has been the best on the series so far, and I'll be sorry to see this season end so soon.

See also Vikings 3.1. Fighting and Farming ... Vikings 3.2: Leonard Nimoy ...Vikings 3.3: We'll Always Have Paris ... Vikings 3.4: They Call Me the Wanderer ... Vikings 3.5: Massacre ... Vikings 3.6: Athelstan and Floki ...Vikings 3.7: At the Gates ... Vikings 3.8: Battle for Paris

And see also Vikings 2.1-2: Upping the Ante of Conquest ... Vikings 2.4: Wise King ... Vikings 2.5: Caught in the Middle ... Vikings 2.6: The Guardians ...Vikings 2.7: Volatile Mix ... Vikings 2.8: Great Post-Apocalyptic Narrative ... Vikings Season 2 Finale: Satisfying, Surprising, Superb

And see also Vikings ... Vikings 1.2: Lindisfarne ... Vikings 1.3: The Priest ... Vikings 1.4:  Twist and Testudo ... Vikings 1.5: Freud and Family ... Vikings 1.7: Religion and Battle ... Vikings 1.8: Sacrifice
... Vikings Season 1 Finale: Below the Ash

 
historical science fiction - a little further back in time

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The Americans 3.12: The Unwigging

The powerhouse developments on The Americans this season, threatening to unravel the very basis of the series, have been Paige's discovery of most of the truth about her parents, and Martha in the cross-hairs of the FBI.   Both received fine treatment in last night's episode 3.12, but Martha's story was especially dangerous and traumatic.

As I said when Martha first confronted Philip earlier this season after the bugged pen in the office was discovered, I was surprised that Philip didn't kill her right then and there.   He knows as well as we the audience that Stan could intersect with them at any time, and Stan would see right through Philip's disguise with Martha.

And indeed that's just about what nearly happens in a great scene in 3.8.   Fortunately, Philip's warned off by the new KGB agent, who's keeping an eye on Martha's residence.   But, even so, let's say Stan had opened that drawer with Philip's picture.  Again, Stan would have seen right through the wig and glasses in the photograph.

It's also been slightly surprising to me that the sketches of Philip and Elizabeth on the FBI wall didn't look even the least bit familiar to Stan, nor to Martha, who might have seen something reminiscent of her mysterious husband in that drawing of Philip.   But none of that matters now, because Philip has taken off the wig himself, right in front of Martha.

Doesn't this have to be prelude to his killing her?   I would say yes, but the coming attractions show Martha still alive.

Meanwhile, although Paige wasn't in any such life-and-death scenario last night, her arc did have a good resolution - Elizabeth will take her to see ailing grandma in back in the USSR.   I'm hoping we'll get to see them in Moscow next season.

And I'm looking forward to see what happens with Martha in the season finale next week.   I suppose Philip could still maintain that he's some kind of American agent under deep disguise and cover, but it's hard to see how Martha could accept that.

See also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ...The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear ... The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2 ... The Americans 3.10: The Truth
And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

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Justified's Finale and Future Possibilities

Justified concluded its 6th and final season tonight with about as perfect a show as you could want, which touched all the bases and then some.

Raylan goes down in an old-fashioned gun fight, but lives because the bullet went through the top of his hat and just grazed his head.   Meanwhile, he killed the gunslinger who drew on him - not Boyd, who was never as fast as Raylan with a gun.

Indeed, Boyd had earlier declined to draw on Raylan, when Raylan goaded him, because Boyd was too smart for that.  He knew Raylan would kill him in any quick duel.   So Boyd played the only card he had, telling Raylan he would have to kill Boyd in cold blood if Raylan wanted him dead, Boyd betting that Raylan was too decent deep down to do that, and Boyd figured right.  He goes off to prison instead of a grave, and Raylan gets to do the right thing by Art.

Back to the old-West-like draw in which Raylan is grazed:  Ava uses the opportunity to escape from Raylan yet again, and she stays out of his sight for four years.    When Raylan catches up with her he learns she has a boy - Boyd's boy - but even before that it's pretty clear that Raylan wasn't there to bring Ava in.  He just wanted to show her he could find her.   A great ending for these two characters.

And Raylan does one last thing for Ava: he goes to see Boyd in prison with a convincing story that Ava is dead.  Boyd apparently believes him, and that's where this great series ends.

But does it?  Is the story really over for these characters?   Well, Boyd is if nothing else preternaturally clever, and I'm thinking he'll sooner or later see some kind of hole in Raylan's story and realize Raylan was lying.   Meanwhile, we've seen that Raylan's not with Winona in Florida, and I'm still thinking he has some love for Ava, so - well, he can always go back out to California to be with her.

Who knows what the future will bring.  As for the past, Justified can be counted as one of the best shows in our current golden age of television.  I didn't review it here as often as I should have.   I'll miss it.

See also Justified 6.1: Low-Flying Duck ... Justified 5.1: Finest Words Around ...  Justified 4.1: Literate Boyd Quotes Asimov and Keynes



crime involving squirrels

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Game of Thrones 5.1: Unsetting the Table

The single most important line in Game of Thrones 5.1 is spoken by Daenerys, when she tells us she cannot control her dragons.   That one statement sets up all that will follow - or puts all that will follow in jeopardy.   If she could control her dragons, then her winning over everything other than the supernatural north would be assured.  But if she cannot control them ... well, then anything, including a Lannister victory, and certainly a Stannis victory, is well within the realm of possibility.

Speaking of the north, the death of Mance Raydor (so well played by Rome's Ciarán Hinds) was a sight to behold and more than regrettable.   But beginning with the death of Ned Stark, the loss of appealing characters has become a staple of this powerful series.   The only Game of Thrones novel I've read so far is the very first, so I'm as struck as you by deaths of major characters if you haven't read the novels, either.

But Mance's death epitomizes the consolidation of power that is going in the north, as Stannis gathers his forces to take back the throne from the Lannisters.   Stannis's assumption is that nothing credible can attack him from behind, from the north, as he moves on the south.   But Jon Snow and we the viewers already know better, because we've seen the cold terror that the north can generate.

The ultimate battle has always been between the fire-breathing dragons south of the south and the icy spectres of the north.   That battle, still a long way yet to happen, makes Stannis versus the Lannisters pale in comparison - even with the witchcraft on Stannis's side - and will likely make any victory he achieves over the Lannisters pyrrhic indeed.

But that's getting ahead of the story, where we've yet to see how Arya and Brienne play out.

See also Games of Thrones Season 4 Premiere: Salient Points ... Game of Thrones 4.2: Whodunnit? ... Game of Thrones 4.3: Who Will Save Tyrion ...Game of Thrones 4.4: Glimpse of the Ultimate Battle ... Game of Thrones 4.6: Tyrion on Trial ... Game of Thrones 4.8: Beetles and Battle ...Game of Thrones 4.9: The Fight for Castle Black ... Games of Thrones Season 4 Finale: Woven Threads

And see also  Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere ... Game of Thrones 3.3: The Heart of Jaime Lannister ... Game of Thrones 3.6: Extraordinary Cinematography ...Game of Thrones 3.7: Heroic Jaime ...  Game of Thrones 3.9: A Critique 
And see also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Game of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion

And see also A Game of Thrones: My 1996 Review of the First Novel ... Game of Thrones Begins Greatly on HBO ... Game of Thrones 1.2: Prince, Wolf, Bastard, Dwarf ... Games of Thrones 1.3: Genuine Demons ... Game of Thrones 1.4: Broken Things  ... Game of Thrones 1.5: Ned Under Seige ... Game of Thrones 1.6: Molten Ever After ... Games of Thrones 1.7: Swiveling Pieces ... Game of Thrones 1.8: Star Wars of the Realms ... Game of Thrones 1.9: Is Ned Really Dead? ... Game of Thrones 1.10 Meets True Blood

And here's a Spanish article in Semana, the leading news magazine in Colombia, in which I'm quoted about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.

And see "'Game of Thrones': Why the Buzz is So Big" article in The Christian Science Monitor, 8 April 2014, with my quotes.

Also: CNN article, "How 'Game of Thrones' Is Like America," with quote from me

 

"I was here, in Carthage, three months from now." 

#SFWApro

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

The Following 3.8: Theo

The Following taken a great turn for the worse with the appearance of Theo, played by Michael Ealy, a psycho who's the best or most evil and dangerous we've seen on the series since Joe himself.  Theo really came into his own as a monster in episode 3.8.

He not only kills his nosy friends - or his wife's nosy friend and her husband - but driven by a keen logic and survival instinct, soon kills his own wife.   His "gift" to her, as he tells her as she's slipping into unconsciousness, is that she won't be aware when he's cutting her apart.   He tells her and us that he enjoyed "playing house" with her, but he needs to move on, as he has done so many times before.

Significantly, he spares his children, leaving them unconscious but fully alive and revivable.   Why? Well, he likely thinks that they have no information about him that can help Ryan.   But how can he be sure?   Possibly he has some scruples about not killing children, especially his own.   Maybe the thrill he gets from killing has to come from killing adults.

Meanwhile, Ryan has a good evening, insofar as he throws out the doctor at his dinner table when the doctor starts lecturing Ryan about capital punishment.   I actually agree with the doctor, but Ryan not having any tolerance for such a lecture at a time like this is very much in line with his character and good writing.   So is Gwen's frustration with Ryan, and his slowness in bringing down the wall of his thorny exterior.  Their relationship is one of the best aspects of the season.  (And I still can't help being a little suspicious that she might a someone's follower herself, obvious as that might be.)

The capital punishment discussion is occasioned by Joe, who has just a few days of life left on death row.   A part of me wouldn't mind if Joe's indeed executed, and Theo becomes the new continuing cross-season villain. But I have a feeling that won't happen.

In any case, Theo has breathed new nasty life into this season, the second part of which has been much better than the first, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also The Following 3.1: Miasma of Terror ... The Following 3.3: The Mellowing of Ryan
And see also The Following Is Back for Its Second Season ... The Following 2.2: Rediscovering Oneself ... The Following 2.3: Coalescing ... The Following 2.4: Psycho Families and Trains ... The Following 2.5: Turning Tides ... The Following 2.8: Coalescing? ... The Following 2.9: The Book Signing ... The Following 2.11: Lily not Joe ... The Following 2.13: The Downfall of Mike ...The Following 2.14: Twists and Deaths ...  The Following Season 2 Finale: The Living

And see also The Following Begins ... The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan ... The Following 1.3: Bug in the Sun ... The Following 1.4: Off the Leash ... The Following 1.5:  The Lawyer and the Swap ... The Following 1.7: At Large ... 
#SFWApro


Like a Neanderthal serial killer in the current world? Try The Silk Code   

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Mad Men 7.9: Fast Ride

Episodes of Mad Men - even most of some seasons - have often moved at the pace of an oil painting slowly drying.  Tonight's 7.9, as befits one of the final episodes and all they have to tell, moved at almost superbly blinding speed.  That is, the stories were superb and the speed with which they were presented almost blinding.

Take Don and waitress.  In this one episode, Don pursues her, gets her to spend a night with him, makes towards establishing a long-term relationship with her - to which she seems agreeable - and then it all goes up in tragic flames at the end.  I suppose it's possible that Don will come back and not take no for an answer, but their last scene had a finality to it.

And then there's Megan.  Their whole story now seems wrapped up, too - what more is there to do, after Don's given her a check for a million dollars, and her mother cleaned out his apartment all right, taking everything including the furniture?   And tucked into this likely final chapter in Megan's story is the delicious interlude with Harry, where he propositions her, only to get left sitting at the table, wine glass in hand.  Alas, even though I was really routing for Harry to score here, this says everything we've always known about him.

And if those two fine stories weren't enough, we get a brand new story featuring Pima the photographer, who seduces Stan and tries the same for Peggy.   Assuming Peggy's telling the truth about resisting her - you can never be completely sure of these things - this is a perfect little set piece for Peggy, another installment of what we've been seeing about her from the very beginning of the series: always being propositioned by someone, sometimes consummated sometimes not, but always by someone who is in some profound way wrong for her.   Who, then, is right for Peggy?

Not Roger, that's for sure, who gets in some good scenes with his mustache, ranging from expected conversations Don to less expected sex with Megan's mother.   All in all, an outstanding episode that cleared lots of decks as well as Don's apartment, and I'm very much looking forward to more at this pace next week.

-> 20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) in 2007 at Light On Light Through

See also Mad Men 7.1: Vignettes and Playboy ... Mad Men 7.2:  Flowers and the Hung-Up Phone ... Mad Men 7.3: "Lunch with Rod Serling" ... Mad Men 7.4: Computer! ... Mad Men 7.5: Retrofit Paranoia ... Mad Men 7.6: The Dance ...  Mad Men Mid-Season 7 Finale: Telescope vs. Television ... Mad Men 7.8: Don, Rachel, and the Waitress

And see also Mad Men 6.1-2: The Lighter and the Twist ... Mad Men 6.3: Good Company ... Mad Men 6.4: McLuhan, Heinz, and Don's Imagination ... Mad Men 6.5: MLK ... Mad Men 6.6: Good News Comes in a Chevy ...  Mad Men 6.7: Merger and Margarine ... Mad Men 6.8: Dr. Feelgood and Grandma Ida ... Mad Men 6.9: Don and Betty ... Mad Men 6.10: Medium Cool ... Mad Men 6.11: Hand in the Cookie Jar and Guy de Maupassant ... Mad Men 6.12: Rosemary's Baby, Dick Cheney, and Sunkist ... Mad Men Season 6 Finale: Beyond California

And see also Why "You Only Live Twice" for Mad Men Season 5 Finale ... Mad Men Season Five Finale

And see also Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party  ... Mad Men 5.3: Heinz Is On My Side ... Mad Men 5.4: Volunteer, Dream, Trust ... Mad Men 5.5: Ben Hargrove ... Mad Men 5.6: LSD Orange ... Mad Men 5.7: People of High Degree ... Mad Men 5.8: Mad Man and Gilmore Girl ...Mad Men 5.9: Don's Creativity  ... Mad Men 5.10: "The Negron Complex" ... Mad Men 5.11: Prostitution and Power ... Mad Men 5.12: Exit Lane

And from Season 4: Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback  ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ...4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking!  ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -

And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ...Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ...Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

If you'd like a little more surreal, step into "The Other Car"#SFWApro
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