Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 346

The Killing 3.3: Hitchcockian Scene and More

My favorite scene in The Killing 3.3 last night was a quiet moment in the police station in the wee hours of the morning, when Linden walks into a room, finds Holder working, and joins him at the table.    The scene with a soft elegance shows the two drawing close to each other - professionally, at this point - and speaks to how good they are together as a team in the investigation of depravity.

The other compelling scene in the show depicts just the opposite - the searing depravity itself, in the form of Tom Seward, who has a razor on his person courtesy of it being secreted to him in a bar of soap.   Leaving aside for now the question who gave him the loaded bar - this will no doubt be an important part of the plot in future episodes - we find Seward in his cell, taunting prison guard Becker (played by Hugh Dillon, who was superb in Flashpoint) to get close enough so Seward can cut his face or throat.   This Seward is one creepy tough customer.  We saw him last week pound the priest's head through the cell, so we know what Seward is capable of.   Becker is called away at the last moment and saved - this time - but we've been treated to a great moment of Hitchcockian suspense (knowing a bomb is ticking on a bus, much better than than the sugar-slap of a surprise explosion).

Whatever Seward's guilt or innocence of the crimes under investigation - including the one he's on death row for - he is certainly a darkly, deeply charismatic character, and a couplet and antithesis in many ways of the guy released from death row on the brilliant new series Rectify.  After Becker leaves the scene, we find Seward choking on the razor, getting lacerated by it, and discovered by the prison guards.  Suicide attempt, accident, or some deliberate move to escape?

Like so many other things on The Killing, it remains a tantalizing mystery for now, with Peter Sarsgaard as Seward a fabulous addition to the tip-top cast.

See also The Killing 3.1-2: Poe Poetic Po-po

See also The Killing Season Two Premiere ... The Killing 2.2: Holder ... The Killing 2.11: Circling Back ... The Killing Season 2 Finale

And see also The Killing on AMC and The Killing 1.3: Early Suspects ... The Killing 1.5: Memorable Moments ... The Killing 1.6: The Teacher ... The Killing 1.8: The Teacher, Again ...The Killing 1.9: The Teacher as Victim, Again ... The Killing 1.10: Running Out of Suspects ... The Killing 1.11: Rosie's Missing - from the Story ... The Killing 1.12: Is Orpheus the Killer? ... The Killing 1.13: Stretching Television

                                                      


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Game of Thrones Season 3 Finale: White Walkers vs. Dragons

The Game of Thrones Season 3 finale ended with a gradual build-up to the ultimate confrontation which has not happened yet even in the books: the white walkers beyond the wall versus the dragons beyond the sea off the island completely.  Or, if Game of Thrones were situated in our world, an ultimate battle royale between the living dead north of Hadrian's Wall in Britain versus the dragons in Europe.

All the battles on the island itself pale in comparison, including Robb and Catelyn Stark's terrible deaths last week.   The fire woman realizes this, and advises her King to take the ultimate battle seriously.   Everyone south of the wall has been warned by the Maester at the Wall - Maester Aemon - who sent messages to the south to everyone who matters on the island.

But who will take his call to action seriously?  Not very likely Tywin Lannister, who's understandably aglow with his victory over the Starks - seven people slaughtered at a dinner is well worth thousands killed in battle - aglow, that is, for Tywin.   But with Jaime finally back in the fold, the collective, contentious Lannister intelligence might yet awaken to the truest danger.

What's not clear is whether Daenerys will get the message, and this raises the question of who will win the ultimate confrontation.  Not the humans, who have no supernatural powers, but either the white walkers or the dragons, who abundantly do.   Daenerys wants back her thone, and she's spent all this season handily raising armies sufficient to win it back - from humans.   But the last thing she would want would be power in her hands only to be taken away by the white walkers.

Indeed, the fact that Maester Aemon is himself a Targaryen like Daenerys suggests that his defense of the Wall and the south against the white walkers is ultimately not so much an act to defend the people now on the island but Daenerys and her claim to the island from over the sea.

We've already seen that a white walker can be killed, and the dragons are not invulnerable either.   This should make the ultimate battle interesting indeed.  But, first, we have the continuing human affairs to sort out, the preludes to preludes of the ultimate confrontation with a tableau full of colorful, intriguing characters that I look forward to seeing more of next season.

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 quote about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.

                                                              
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Da Vinci's Demons Season 1 Finale: History, Science Fiction, and Time Travel

A classic cliffhanger ending to the season one finale of Da Vinci's Demons last night.   The Pope's soldiers and other enemies of the Medicis blast through a door, behind which is Lorenzo, badly wounded, in Leonardo's arms.   Now we know that Leonardo must have some other scientific trick up his sleeve, but he looks pretty desperate.  He'll have to survive, to keep our history straight, and the same is mostly true for Lorenzo, though this series can take more liberties with his life than Leonardo's.

Giulino de Medici's fate, alas, was sealed in history and in the finale.  He survives his encounter with Lucrezia's knife which left him floating and looking dead in the water last week, only to be assassinated by the knives of his multiple enemies in the same last scenes that featured Leonardo's last-minute rescue of Lorenzo from a similar fate, prior to the blast through the door.   So Guilino dies as history records, but he leaves behind an unborn son, which history also records will become Pope someday.

As I've indicated before, I think this series is at its best when it deals with the real scientific discoveries and inventions of Leonardo, and the dicey politics of this age in Italy.  I'm fine when the history is jugged a little, but I find the mythical, magical stuff a distraction, and I hope we'll see less of that next season.

Time travel, however, though likely not scientifically possible because of the paradoxes it engenders - see my Tricky Business of Time Travel - has been a welcome bulwark of science fiction since H. G. Wells.   In fact, it's my favorite kind of science fiction, as an author as well as a reader.   So I don't mind seeing it all in Da Vinci's Demons, even if it comes as part of the mystical rather than the scientific package.

Leonardo has at least once talked about meeting his older self, and the old guy whose face we finally saw in the Pope's prison last night - I don't know, I thought he called the Pope his brother, but I'm wondering if this somehow isn't an older version of Leonardo?  He sort of looks like him ...

We'll no doubt find out more about this in the second season, which I'm very much looking forward to.

See also Da Vinci's Demons:  History, Science, and Science Fiction ... Da Vinci's Demons 1.7: Leonardo Under Water with a Twist



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Revolution Season 1 Finale: Good Pivot

The Revolution Season 1 finale on Monday was a piece with the excellent second half of this season - which was fine indeed.

The pivot was satisfying, and promises a good season 2:  the power is not only turned back on, but so is the United States of America, which we find has been holed up in Guantanamo during lo these many years of the blackout.   And we find out that the US government will not necessarily be the good guy in  the season ahead.   Its representative in the tower, a self-styled patriot, unleashes ICBMs at Philadelphia and Atlanta - two of the black-out state headquarters - before he shoots himself in the head.

I'm hoping these missiles are stopped somehow before they reach their targets, because, well, I'm a fan of both cities.  But it's good to see the alliances reconfigured, with Monroe and Miles now having some common cause, and Tom now moving into control of what is left of the Monroe Republic.  Tom's a great, evil-good character, and always gets off a good line or two.   On Monday it was telling Monroe that he has "borderline erotic fixation" on Miles, followed by a "there, I finally said it."  Good arch-funny dialogue.

I was sad to see Nora die - I liked her - but her time has been close to coming for a while now.  And her expiration means that Miles can now get together with Rachel in an unconflicted way.   Her death also served the purpose of putting Charlie at even greater odds with her mother, and that's good for the next season too.

So Revolution looks like will be moving into more of a literal revolution against the United States, which is actually more original than the Revolution we saw this season, and certainly more politically charged.

See also Revolution: Preview Review  ... Revolution 1.2: Fast Changes ... Revolution 1.14: Nanites and Jack Bauer ... Revolution 1.15: Major Tom and More 24 ... Revolution 1.16: Feeling a Little Like the Hatch in Lost ... Revolution 1.17: Even Better Nanites ... Revolution 1.18: Whodunnit? ... Revolution 1.19: Cheney's Bunker




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Game of Thrones 3.9: A Critique

Lots has been written about the stunning conclusion of Game of Thrones 3.9.   One thing they all have in common is none were disinterested - the ending evoked powerful reactions in everyone.   Here, then, are mine -

The agent of the three deaths, though logically motivated, was too minor a character to support this kind of extraordinary change.  At least with the death of Ned, it was carried out by his highest profile enemies, the Lannisters.    In the case of Robb, his mother, and his wife bearing his child, the hand of death is a lord's who hardly mattered in the story until his execution-ordering moment.  True, Walder Frey is apparently in some sort of league with the Lannisters, and the motive of revenge against Robb for breaking his vow to marry Frey's daughter makes sense, but this combination of motives is insufficient, I think, to carry so huge a burden as the death of such crucial heroes and heroines in our story.   Maybe the narrative is trying to tell us that big-ticket horrible things can happen for relatively minor reasons, which you don't pay enough attention to - but, if so, that's not as satisfying in a story as big horrors happening for big reasons.Once again, as with Ned, the good are shockingly slain.   I like to think of the world, even in fantasies, as a place in which unexpected bad things can happen to both the good and the bad.  The Lannisters so far have all but escaped unscathed.  Over in dragon land, there seems to be a more equitable distribution of deaths meted out.   But in the war that has been the central theme of our story since Ned's killing in Season One, the bad surprises continue to beset the heroes much more than the villains.There were, nonetheless, some admirable touches in this brutal episode.   Jon's leaving Ygrette is aggravating but warranted - he correctly realizes that he's most needed elsewhere.   Arya's struggle has all but reached Homeric proportions - just on the verge of being reunited with her family after all of these years and travels, she arrives just in time to witness a destruction of the Starks that cuts even more deeply than the killing of her father.   And the ascent of Bran's mental telepathic powers is awesome, for want of a better word.

So I'll continue to be a devoted Game of Thrones viewer.   But I'll yearn for a better way that Robb, Catelyn, and Talisa could have died, until the series convinces me otherwise.
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 JaimeAnd 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 quote about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.

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

The Killing 3.1-2: Poe Poetic Po-po

The Killing was back in fine brooding, mysterious form for its third season on AMC last night.  The series was almost killed itself, by carping critics unhappy that the first season's murder was not resolved at the end of that season.   I actually enjoyed the twist of no resolution at the end of the first season, and thought the first two seasons were understated quiet masterpieces of television.

Season 3, based on the first two episodes, promises to be the same.   The skeleton of the story is familiar - the M.O. of a brutal guy on death row seems to be repeated, at least in part, by a brand new killing.  Sarah Linden was one of the arresting detectives on the death-row case, and the new homicide is being investigated by Holden and his new partner.    This would be provocative enough, but, in typical Killing fashion, the clues are not at all clear, and, even more intriguingly, seem to point in different directions.

The easy conclusion would be that the guy on death row didn't do the killing for which he was sentenced to death.  Linden has been haunted by the this possibility since the first season, but she tried to put it out of her mind so she could focus on Rosie Larson's killing.   With that finally solved at the end of the second season, Linden is attempting to live an easier life out of downtown Seattle, on her island.   But Holder comes a calling, and she's drawn back into the horrific death row case.

Before the two hours are over, we see we're being treated to a serial killer case of some sort.  And, if the death row guy isn't involved, how come his son keeps drawing pictures of a stand of trees behind which is a pond with a bunch of wrapped dead bodies?   Drawings and memories, I'm glad to see, will continue to be play a crucial role in The Killing.

Holder's pseudo-hip banter, and his interaction with witnesses who call him "po-po," continues in enjoyable form - meaning, I like it, even though I know the grunge demeanor is contrived.  The whole show works as piece of Poe poetic narrative - and it occurs to me that The Following, which I also enjoy, owes a lot of its ambience to The Killing.   But The Following explicitly works the stories of Edgar Allan Poe into its storyline, and The Killing picks up only Poe's cadence, which makes me look forward to The Killing even more.

See also The Killing Season Two Premiere ... The Killing 2.2: Holder ... The Killing 2.11: Circling Back ... The Killing Season 2 Finale

And see also The Killing on AMC and The Killing 1.3: Early Suspects ... The Killing 1.5: Memorable Moments ... The Killing 1.6: The Teacher ... The Killing 1.8: The Teacher, Again ...The Killing 1.9: The Teacher as Victim, Again ... The Killing 1.10: Running Out of Suspects ... The Killing 1.11: Rosie's Missing - from the Story ... The Killing 1.12: Is Orpheus the Killer? ... The Killing 1.13: Stretching Television

                                                      


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Mad Men 6.10: Medium Cool

Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool from 1969 is a gem of a cinema verite movie, with real footage of Mayor Daly's out-of-control cop riot at the 1968 Democratic national convention in Chicago.   I was recently interviewed by Paul Cronin for the extended version of his superb "Look out Haskell, It's Real": The Making of Medium Cool - see the transcript here - and as fate would have it, that same outrageous police trampling on the First Amendment was the opening theme of last night's Mad Men 6.10.   It provides a great tableau for the responses of Don, Megan, and Joan who see real footage of the police attacking the demonstrators on television.   Megan has the best line.  When Don typically comments that it's no big deal, the cops didn't kill anyone in Chicago, Megan sagely says that a cop cracking open your skull can nonetheless change your life.

We also get a good depiction of McLuhan's global village circa 1968 when Don later in Los Angeles watches the same television coverage of the convention as Megan in  New York.   The two talk about what they see on the phone.   Although they were just two, and the telephone connection was national not global, this is the closest we could get to a real global village in 1968, before the Internet literally allowed anyone watching television anywhere to instantly talk to anyone anywhere else in the world on a moment's notice, just as people can do with neighbors in an in-person village.   Mad Men continues to have the resonance with McLuhan it displayed in the first season - explicitly in episode 1.6 -  as befits a show about advertising.

Meanwhile, Don in California - with Roger and Harry - gives us yet another alternative dimension bizarro California Mad Men story.   In Mad Men, California plays the role of an alternate universe, with Don its primary denizen.   Drugs result in Don floating face down in a pool - like the beginning or ending of a California noir movie - but he's not dead, and Roger fishes him out.   While he's unconscious in the pool, we get another one of Don's fractured dreams - or nightmares.

Don also coughs on the plane back from California, and this is a worrisome reminder that lung cancer may be in Don's future, not in a dream but in reality.  I hope this doesn't happen - a more surprising resolution would be to have Don coughing for other reasons.

Back in New York, it's a pleasure to see Joan exert her will and get face-to-face to reel in a client, Avon, by cutting Pete out of a decisive meeting.  This violates company protocol, but as I realized as it was happening, the company cares more about money and clients than it does about protocol.  So, if Avon signs up with our gang, Joan will be fine.  If not - well, I still can't see Roger and Don allowing any punitive action to be taken against her.

The power battles between the two former companies now united continue to simmer, but the big step forward is nice to see: the company will now be known as Sterling, Cooper, and Partners.   This actually helps Pete and Joan, where were partners but not in the company name, and - somewhat surprisingly but maybe not - Don has no problem with the loss of his name in the title.   Actually, definitely not surprisingly, because, apropos California, Draper isn't even Don's name.  "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."  But no one in Mad Men comes out smelling like a rose, certainly not Don, and that's part of the dark, quirky charm of this series.

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

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

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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Da Vinci's Demons 1.7: Leonardo Under Water with a Twist

I've been enjoying Da Vinci's Demons on Starz, though the narrative has been a bit too fantastical for my more science fictional tastes.   All that was rectified tonight in 1.7, an episode that brought science front and foremost into the story, and had a great twist at the end for good measure.

The science was Da Vinci under water - in what we would today call a diving suit, of his own invention of course, pressed into service so Leonardo can get access to some of the secrets of the Vatican.  Since the Holy See if so well guarded, the only way Leonardo can get in is beneath via the water.

He sees some striking things there, including a page from the mystical Book of Leaves, whose written letters change before his eyes.   This, in other words - and here we move from Renaissance science to science fiction - is the what we would call an iPad or any computer screen today.   I like seeing the future in the past.

But there's also a palpable political twist that has nothing to do with science or science fiction, and packs a real wallop.  Lorenzo's brother Guilini has been a major player in the series, and one of my favorite characters.  He starts off the episode well enough, with a nice night spent with a comely wench, or whatever the translation of that is in Italian.   But at the end, we find him in battle with some Roman henchmen, bent on killing beautiful Lucrezia.   Guilini dispatches them handily - as we would expect him to - but when he realizes that Lucrezia is the trator, and he tries to apprehend her-

She stabs him, fatally, with her knife.  The only reason I'm not even more aggravated is Lucrezia is also one of my favorites, and in fact I like her even more than Guilini.

And it was an outstanding twist.  Good job.  I'm looking forward to the season finale next week, and what the second season will bear.

See also Da Vinci's Demons:  History, Science, and Science Fiction

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Revolution 1.19: Cheney's Bunker

Revolution 1.19, in addition to being another fine, smoking episode, had a nice political punch: the tower was originally Dick Cheney's secret bunker - his infamous "undisclosed location".   We get a hint of that when we see George W. Bush's smiling face in a portrait hanging on the wall, and later we see portraits of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and other notables.   I always like it when science fiction in the future weaves little details of current and recent past political real life.

The gunplay was also excellent - most especially when Monroe saves Charlie with an electro-magnetic weapon that Rachel breaks loose from a cabinet.   Rachel's necessary alliance makes sense - she needs Monroe to save Charlie, and he comes though on his promise to do that - even though she tried to blow herself and Monroe to smithereens with a bomb at the end of last week's and the beginning of this week's episode.

Monroe explicitly declines to make such a commitment to save Miles' life, and this is significant for a bunch of reasons.  First, it makes his commitment to save Charlie more convincing - showing Rachel that Monroe is not just promising her whatever she wants in order to get the guns - and pushes Rachel over the edge of reluctance to give him the weapons.  And it also leads to a point-blank showdown between Monroe and Miles which I'm looking forward to see more of next week in the season's finale.  I'm expecting both will survive.

One thing I didn't enjoy tonight is the commandant of the tower or whoever he is burning Aaron's book.  (But it was good to see Glenn  Morshower of 24 in the role - another Jack Bauer connection to Revolution.) There was valuable knowledge in that book, and its burning means that Aaron will lose the advantage he's been carrying in his pocket ever since he got the book.  (I don't like burnings of books - one of the reasons I wrote Unburning Alexandria.)

Possibly the knowledge digitally encoded in the tower will make the book irrelevant, but if so, why did the commandant destroy it?  And why did Grace, who seems to have a head on her shoulders, not object to that?

Revolution has pulled itself up from the first half of the season into a top-notch science fiction show.  I'm looking forward to next week's season finale and the continuation of the story in season two.

See also Revolution: Preview Review  ... Revolution 1.2: Fast Changes ... Revolution 1.14: Nanites and Jack Bauer ... Revolution 1.15: Major Tom and More 24 ... Revolution 1.16: Feeling a Little Like the Hatch in Lost ... Revolution 1.17: Even Better Nanites ... Revolution 1.18: Whodunnit?

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

Mad Men 6.9: Don and Betty

Well, who would have thought I'd be writing a review of a Mad Men episode that I call "Don and Betty" after all of these years?   Well, sure, it could have been about Don and Betty having one of their caustic arguments, or about some big problem or crisis with one of the kids.  But -

This episode was about Don and Betty in bed together, on a visit to son Bobby's summer camp, and a superb piece of story it was.

We first see Betty and Don from her backside, as she's leaning over a car, and attracting the rapt attention of the gas attendant whom Don is walking up to.  I'd recognize that ass anywhere, you can almost hear Don thinking.  The two go on to flirt at the camp, and when Betty walks into her room but leaves the door open, you know something transcendant is about to happen.

The dialogue is primo.  Betty asks Don what he's doing as he kisses her, Don responds "waiting for you to tell me to stop," but that turns out to be the last thing Betty wants at this time and place.  We've seen earlier how Betty enjoys being desired, but what's surprising is how much she enjoys this now from Don.

After, as they're in bed together smoking her menthol cigarette, Betty observes how much she loves what Don looks after they make love, but how that look will start to decay as his attention drifts elsewhere.   One of the best, most perceptive bits of dialogue not only in the series, but in a conversation between lovers in any fiction I've seen or read.

Betty also makes a memorable remark about Megan not realizing that the more she loves Don the more that will push him away, and the brief magical interlude is over.   When Don comes into the dining hall the next morning, he sees Betty-  but she's with Henry, and she's laughing and presumably having a good time.

I could talk about about some of the other fine threads in last night's episode - especially Peggy's consistent poor luck in love - but I don't want to detract or distract from that moment stolen in time with Betty and Don, or let it decay.

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

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

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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