Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 351

Mad Men 6.3: "Good Company"

Mad Men is almost always good company, but some weeks it's better company than others.  Last week's two-hour season six premiere gave us an interesting, meandering episode with a powerful punchline.  Tonight's 6.3 was taut and powerful throughout, with punches that connected in every scene.

The main theme was infidelity - mainly Don's with Dr. Arnold Rosen's wife Sylvia, and some memorable scenes with the arch loser Pete as well.  Don and Sylvia arrange to have a foursome dinner with their spouses - who are "good company" in Don's words - but for a variety of important reasons, this doesn't happen.   Megan is upset about the miscarriage she revealed she had - upset because she was apparently considering an abortion and didn't tell Don she was pregnant.   This is only the second time we've seen abortion as an issue on Mad Men - Joan was close to having an abortion but decided against it (in the first season, Peggy doesn't know she's pregnant until she goes into labor, and gives up her baby for adoption).  Megan only hints that that's what she was thinking about - in an excellent conversation with Sylvia - and her miscarriage made the option moot, but it's important and realistic to see the women of Mad Men beginning to deal with this problem.

Back to the story ...  Megan is too upset about her miscarriage to go to the dinner, which leaves Don with Arnold and Sylvia, but then - of course - Arnold is called away to see a a patient, which leaves Don and Sylvia alone at the table.  Sylvia's uncomfortable for all kinds of reasons, including that Megan told Sylvia that Don didn't know about Megan's pregnancy.  But in another series of fine intercut scenes Don gets Sylvia to see how much she enjoys sleeping with him, and the two end up in bed together, once again, back in Arnold & Sylvia's apartment in the same building as Don & Megan.  Don's charmed extra-curricular life continues - but I'm guessing that it won't survive this season.

Pete - who as I indicated above is the perennial loser on the show - is already running into problems with his affair with a neighbor, and before the hour is over his wife throws him out of the house.  It's amazing she put with him for so long, but Pete serves as a perfect Don wannabe character on Mad Men, in business as well as pleasure, aspiring to have what Don has, but never getting it and never understanding why.

And rounding out the episode tonight is a return of the beans, beans, the musical fruit theme, with a Heinz Beans vs. Heinz Ketchup rivalry that pulls in Peggy, and the zhlub who got to sleep with Joan last year (so SCDP could get his company Jaguar's business) back for more and Don applying his acumen to make sure he doesn't get it.

Mad Men is back firing on all cylinders.

See also Mad Men 6.1-2: The Lighter and the Twist

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

                                              

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

Mad Men 6.1-2: The Lighter and The Twist

Matthew Weiner has always taken his time with Mad Men - a whole episode, a whole season, to get to the bottom of a mystery, to answer a question, that was posed for us at the beginning, or maybe even earlier.   Along the way, we get all kinds of vignettes, charming, witty, provocative, that have little or a lot to do with the central question.   Tonight's two-hour premiere of Mad Men's 6th season had all of that, par excellence.

The big unanswered question from the very end of season 5 is whether Don will stay faithful to Megan.    It seems as the debut double-episode of this season progresses that Don is doing just that.  The two are happy together on an SCDP-hotel-client-paid vacation in Hawaii.   Don seems completely relaxed about Megan's career as an actress.   And yet ...

Don strikes out badly in the campaign he proposes for the hotel - his mystical talk about losing yourself in the hotel makes the hotel people think he's talking about walking out in the water and literally losing yourself, i.e, checking out of this world.   And Don's loss of a cigarette lighter he's had since his Army days is a papercut metaphor for Don's perpetual struggle to hold on to his own identity.  The lighter likely had Dick Whitman's name or initials engraved on it - the sole remaining evidence of who Don used to be.

But the big clue to the big reveal at the end comes from Dr. Rosen, who lives in Don's building, and whom Don keeps running into, and even pursuing, throughout the episode.  Don insists on the doc coming over to his office so Don can give him a free camera.   Don is over solicitous of Rosen in every scene they're in.   Why?   Is Don suddenly concerned about his health and mortality?   When Rosen receives a call at one in the morning on New Year's eve, as he and wife are wrapping up the quiet festivities at Don and Megan's apartment, Don insists on going out into the snow to help the doc find a cab.   What's going on?

We find out at the end of the double episode, with a twist that harkens back to the end of the first episode of the very first season:  Don's having an affair with the doc's wife, and rather than getting the pack of cigarettes he told Megan he was going for, he goes for a New Year's Eve roll in the hay.  The hanging question from last season is answered.

But there are lots of other good new situations aborning in this new season.  Peggy's tough and creative and impressing her new boss.   Roger's mother dies, but he's far more broken up by the death of his shoe-shine man.  Sally is more adult than ever, with a voice that's now verging on sultry.  And Betty - in a twist of her own at the end - has become a brunette.

All in a double-hour in this one-of-a-kind series.  And we haven't gotten started with Joan, Pete, Harry, and all the rest.

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

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

Mad Men 6.1: The Lighter and The Twist

Matthew Weiner has always taken his time with Mad Men - a whole episode, a whole season, to get to the bottom of a mystery, to answer a question, that was posed for us at the beginning, or maybe even earlier.   Along the way, we get all kinds of vignettes, charming, witty, provocative, that have little or a lot to do with the central question.   Tonight's two-hour premiere of Mad Men's 6th season had all of that, par excellence.

The big unanswered question from the very end of season 5 is whether Don will stay faithful to Megan.    It seems as the debut double-episode of this season progresses that Don is doing just that.  The two are happy together on an SCDP-hotel-client-paid vacation in Hawaii.   Don seems completely relaxed about Megan's career as an actress.   And yet ...

Don strikes out badly in the campaign he proposes for the hotel - his mystical talk about losing yourself in the hotel makes the hotel people think he's talking about walking out in the water and literally losing yourself, i.e, checking out of this world.   And Don's loss of a cigarette lighter he's had since his Army days is a papercut metaphor for Don's perpetual struggle to hold on to his own identity.  The lighter likely had Dick Whitman's name or initials engraved on it - the sole remaining evidence of who Don used to be.

But the big clue to the big reveal at the end comes from Dr. Rosen, who lives in Don's building, and whom Don keeps running into, and even pursuing, throughout the episode.  Don insists on the doc coming over to his office so Don can give him a free camera.   Don is over solicitous of Rosen in every scene they're in.   Why?   Is Don suddenly concerned about his health and mortality?   When Rosen receives a call at one in the morning on New Year's eve, as he and wife are wrapping up the quiet festivities at Don and Megan's apartment, Don insists on going out into the snow to help the doc find a cab.   What's going on?

We find out at the end of the double episode, with a twist that harkens back to the end of the first episode of the very first season:  Don's having an affair with the doc's wife, and rather than getting the pack of cigarettes he told Megan he was going for, he goes for a New Year's Eve roll in the hay.  The hanging question from last season is answered.

But there are lots of other good new situations aborning in this new season.  Peggy's tough and creative and impressing her new boss.   Roger's mother dies, but he's far more broken up by the death of his shoe-shine man.  Sally is more adult than ever, with a voice that's now verging on sultry.  And Betty - in a twist of her own at the end - has become a brunette.

All in a double-hour in this one-of-a-kind series.  And we haven't gotten started with Joan, Pete, Harry, and all the rest.

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

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

Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge

A really funny bones Bones tonight - funniest show this season - with not one but three top-notch stories, almost all interconnected.

The best involves Christine, accused of biting another little girl in day care.  Just about everyone other than Bones tells her a bite or two at that age is normal.  But Bones won't accept that Christine did the act without evidence, and certainly won't accept that Christine is "normal" - she's far better than normal, obviously.  Lots of great exchanges on this between Bones and Booth - and some excellent facial expressions from Booth, too - but my favorite part of this storyline comes when -

The judge - or, to be more precise, the Judge Judy character in a mock courtroom for television - is questioned by Booth and Bones about the murder victim, who was the producer of the courtroom show.   After the questioning is finished, Bones asks the faux-judge on last quick question - would you find someone guilty of biting someone else without evidence?  There's also some good body language in this series of scenes, with Booth almost shyly showing his FBI ID to the television camera - after he assertively uses it to stop the mock television trial so he and Bones can question the judge.

Bones's question to the judge is just a piece of her whole campaign tonight to prove Christine innocent - not only to the world but in her own mind.  Part of this of course also involves the folks back at the Jefferson, who from the outset of the case get treated to Bones interjecting questions about the day care bite to anyone who will listen.  At one point she defends her action as what motherhood calls for - good for her!

But also at the lab we get the minor story of Hodgins' eating the last of Finn's beloved late grandmother's catfish sauce, and Hodgins vowing to "Opie" to recreate the sauce.  The master of chemical compounds of course does this, and in a satisfying concluding scene we see how this could lead not only to Finn's happiness but Hodgins's recouping some of his lost big money - you can't get a much happier ending than that.

And, just for good measure, we get a pretty neat crime and solution story, with the motive being the ill treatment  of a dog, which is an understandable motive.  

But .... is Christine guilty of the bite?  Well ... probably ... there's a better than 70%  chance that she is according to Angela's computer models and Christine does also bite Bones on the neck, much to Booth's amusement ... But ... is she guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?  All I can say is, were on the jury, my verdict would be: not guilty!  Certainly not without better forensic evidence.

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

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

                                                                          

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

Vikings 1.5: Freud and Family

A good personal Vikings 1.5 last night, which no big historical events or tie-ins, but plenty of crucially important developments for Ragnar and his family.

We saw the beginning of this last week, when Haraldson, unwilling to let Ragnar get away with the killing of Knut, sends a group of his Viking goons Ragnar's way.  They're back in force this week, slaughtering anyone they can get an axe on in Ragnar's homestead.  This sets in motion a heart-pounding escape piece in which Rangar's combination of mental acuity and physical dexterity gets him and his family out of harm's way.

We also get some valuable insight into Haraldson, and what makes him such a vicious, paranoid leader.  He talks to Siggy about the loss of their two sons, and the brutal way in which they were killed.  His animus towards anyone who challenges him is a transference - that chestnut of Freudian analysis - of Haraldson's inchoate hatred of the killer of his sons.

There's good treatment of women and their relationship to men in this culture as well in this episode.  Haraldson's giving of his daughter's hand - and body - to an ugly old Swedish lord for political reasons is a story we've seen a thousand times.   Far more interesting is what we've seen in a previous episode, when Ragnar and Lagertha invite their captured priest to join them in bed.   In episode 1.5, we see another version of this erotic generosity, as one of Ragnar's crew visits him at Florki's home, where Ragnar is recovering from the serious wounds he received from Haraldson's raiders.  When Floki's woman flirts with Ragnar's man, Floki's first response is "she's taken," hands off.  But later that evening, with the hearth warmly blazing in the cold night, Floki invites  the visitor to join him and his woman.   I tell ya, those Vikings were not just plunder and pillage - they had some really enlightened qualities.

Vikings continues to be one of a kind series on television, providing a lens onto to a little known culture, and offering a riveting story in the bargain.

See also Vikings ... Vikings 1.2: Lindisfarne ... Vikings 1.3: The Priest ... Vikings 1.4:  Twist and Testudo

                                      


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

Game of Thrones Season Three Premiere

There used to be a much-bandied about principle of information theory that the greatest number of components the human brain could keep in mind at one time was seven - hence, for example, the seven digits or less of original phone numbers.   The great strength of Games of Thrones is that it usually manages to do this with even more than seven simultaneous components in motion in its plots.  Like the gears we see appealingly spinning under the opening credits, Game of Thrones juggles a lot of balls.  We got a pretty good rendition of this in the season 3 premiere tonight.

Most appealing for me was the very first piece, at long last a little more about the world beyond the northern wall.   We began getting a little of this in season two, but with John Snow now firmly ensconced there, it looks as if we're in store for a good cold, ghostly edge to the season.  Here in reality, I've had more than enough of winter in the northeast.  But in Game of Thrones, it's ever in demand.

As always, this is balanced by the fire-breathing dragons, and Daenerys's inexorably building quest to get back the throne.   Tonight one of those young dragons provides my favorite scene - diving into the sea to get a fish, then throwing the fish up in the air and flame-broiling it with a breath a fire - and it looked delicious, a high fantasy version of hibachi.   And there's a good addition to Daenerys's arsenal of loyal-to-the-death, highly accomplished supporters.

Probably the best segment, as usual, is the story of Tyrion.  He's understandably grieved about not getting due credit for his saving of the city and the kingdom and the Lannisters.   Without the green fire, the city would have fallen long before his arrogant father arrived on his horse.  And when Tyrion goes to see his father, to demand what he's due, what he gets is a scathing put down about what an embarrassment he is to the family, on account of his whoring and his being a waddling dwarf.   I was getting to grudgingly like Tywin a little last season, and it's good to see he's as vicious a head of family as ever he was.

The rest of the segments were done too lightly or quickly to have much impact.  Robb was barely on the screen as he contemplates his next move, the scenes with Joffrey and his would-be queen were ok (though it's always good to see Natalie Dormer), Littlefinger's scene was minimal, and Stannis and his witch are still not clearly comprehensible.

But if you think of these as just nods to much bigger stories - which they are - we have in them along with the white riders, dragon, and Tryion a good opening chapter to a fantastical political saga this season.

See also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Games 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

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Games of Thrones Season Three Premiere

There used to be a much-bandied about principle of information theory that the greatest number of components the human brain could keep in mind at one time was seven - hence, for example, the seven digits or less of original phone numbers.   The great strength of Games of Thrones is that it usually manages to do this with even more than seven simultaneous components in motion in its plots.  Like the gears we see appealingly spinning under the opening credits, Game of Thrones juggles a lot of balls.  We got a pretty good rendition of this in the season 3 premiere tonight.

Most appealing for me was the very first piece, at long last a little more about the world beyond the northern wall.   We began getting a little of this in season two, but with John Snow now firmly ensconced there, it looks as if we're in store for a good cold, ghostly edge to the season.  Here in reality, I've had more than enough of winter in the northeast.  But in Game of Thrones, it's ever in demand.

As always, this is balanced by the fire-breathing dragons, and Daenerys's inexorably building quest to get back the throne.   Tonight one of those young dragons provides my favorite scene - diving into the sea to get a fish, then throwing the fish up in the air and flame-broiling it with a breath a fire - and it looked delicious, a high fantasy version of hibachi.   And there's a good addition to Daenerys's arsenal of loyal-to-the-death, highly accomplished supporters.

Probably the best segment, as usual, is the story of Tyrion.  He's understandably grieved about not getting due credit for his saving of the city and the kingdom and the Lannisters.   Without the green fire, the city would have fallen long before his arrogant father arrived on his horse.  And when Tyrion goes to see his father, to demand what he's due, what he gets is a scathing put down about what an embarrassment he is to the family, on account of his whoring and his being a waddling dwarf.   I was getting to grudgingly like Tywin a little last season, and it's good to see he's as vicious a head of family as ever he was.

The rest of the segments were done too lightly or quickly to have much impact.  Robb was barely on the screen as he contemplates his next move, the scenes with Joffrey and his would-be queen were ok (though it's always good to see Natalie Dormer), Littlefinger's scene was minimal, and Stannis and his witch are still not clearly comprehensible.

But if you think of these as just nods to much bigger stories - which they are - we have in them along with the white riders, dragon, and Tryion a good opening chapter to a fantastical political saga this season.

See also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Games 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

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The Walking Dead 3.16: Kill or Die, or Die and Kill

That's pretty much what the Governor said at the beginning of The Walking Dead season 3 finale - kill or die, or die and kill - and it pretty much typifies this powerful, literary season, the best of the three of The Walking Dead in my opinion.

There was more than one superb thread in this finale -

Andrea vs. Milton is another pathologically brilliant creation of the Governor:  Leave Andrea bound in a chair in a room with the mortally wounded Milton, who will eat her flesh and kill her as soon as he turns.   But Milton manages to leave a pair of pliers on the floor near Andrea before the Governor fatally wounds him, and he takes a little longer than expected to die.  Andrea finally gets the pliers in her hands, but not before Milton has indeed turned and attacks her.   Two ways in which this devastating scenario could have been improved:  One, Andrea could have talked a little less to the dying Milton, which would have given her a little more time.  Two, Milton's life's work in Woodbury was to prove his hunch that a little humanity might survive in a turning.  It would have been nice to see Milton, even after he turned, perhaps struggling a little against his walker carnivorous self.
But, even so, the Andrea-Milton scenes, and the scenes with Andrea dying, were among the best in the season and series.
The other punishingly powerful thread is Carl's killing of a kid, a few years older than him, one of the Governor's attack party, handing over his weapon to Carl and Hershel after the Governor's force is routed at the prison.  Hershel is upset - horrified - and tells Rick just what happened after Carl tells his father that kid "drew on" him.   What's extraordinary about this segment is how we can find Carl both wrong and right.  By our standards, not living in a walker world, Carl is definitely wrong - not in his right mind after the loss of his mother (in part by his own hand) and everything else.   But by the standards of the walker world we see on the screen - including precisely the loss of his mother and the other events Carl has had to bear - what he did to the kid makes a terrible kind of sense.  As Carl later says to Rick, he (Carl) has to protect the group, after Rick did not (Rick didn't kill the Governor when they were in their peace pow-wow) and all the other examples of inaction - not killing - leading to death.   The safest way to live, or, the best that you can do to live, may indeed be to kill anyone who poses the slightest potential threat.
It's tough to argue with that in the world which Carl now inhabits.  And, just to make the future even more harrowing, the Governor and two of his henchman are still at large.  I was half expecting to see the Governor come out shooting from behind of the towers in the prison at the end.   Had that happened, more of our people would have likely died, but the Governor would have died, too.
As it is, he's alive, which lends even a bit more credence to Carl's reasoning, and bit more reason to await even more the 4th season of The Walking Dead.
See also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.10: Reinforcements ... The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch ... The Walking Dead 3.12: The Lesson of Morgan ... The Walking Dead 3.13: The Deal ... The Walking Dead 3.14: Inescapable Parable ... The Walking Dead 3.15: MerleAnd see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale
And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season


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

Bones 8.20: On Camera

Ever see yourself in a video?  Usually takes some getting used to - meaning, at first you think you look and sound far worse than you imagine yourself to be, and you really are.  In Bones 8.20 we get a good treatment of this reality, as Andrew comes calling at the Jeffersonian with a video camera strapped to his head.   The Jeffersonian is having him do a documentary about the great work done on its premises.

Now, the actresses and actors on the show of course have seen themselves on camera many times, and no doubt have a lot of well warranted confidence about they look on screen.  But the characters they play ... well that's of course an entirely different story.

Most of the characters are chuffed.   Hodgins in fact is thrilled and Cam is pretty happy at the prospect of being a star in the Jeffersonian movie.  Bones, of course, is not.   She uses the shield of saying she doesn't want anything interfering with her and the team's important work, but she's really insecure about how she'll come across in the movie.   In a self-fulfilling loop, Bones indeed comes across as a little haughty, and Edison is brought in to give the Jeffersonian team a more engaging face.   Edison's a natural, and just about everyone ends up happy - including Caroline, who instantly clicks with Andrew, off as well as on camera.

But not Bones.  Looking at herself on camera at the end of the episode, she laments that she looks "mean".   Earlier, the best that Cam can say when Bones asks her if she (Bones) is likable is ...  likability is  "subjective," Bones is "brilliant," she (Cam) likes Bones.   A bunch of faint praise - which at least gives Bones an opportunity to get off the best line of the night - "Pol Pot couldn't have been likable" - submitted in evidence that likability is not just subjective.

But let's cut to the nitty gritty.  Booth, at the end, reassures Bones that she is indeed likable - a "nice person" - just as he every week provides evidence that she's lovable.  And I'm with Booth on this.   So what if Bones speaks her mind and doesn't just go along with all the daily mind-numbing routines?  She's nice in the ways that count - loyalty to those she cares about, loyalty to the pursuit of truth in her profession - and that makes for an eminently likable character on television.

Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up ...

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

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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The Walking Dead 3.15: Merle

The penultimate episode of The Walking Dead this season  - 3.15 - packed some good punches and surprises.

First, Rick is proceeding with his plan to give Michonne up to the Governor.   I wasn't shocked that Rick was telling Hershel he would do this a few episodes ago, but it does seem a little hard to believe that Rick was still moving ahead with this.  Therefore the least surprising event tonight is when Rick changes his mind.

But tonight was not really Rick's story.  It was Merle's.   Daryl's older brother brother has been a pretty poor excuse for humanity throughout the series.  About all he is good for is killing walkers - and he's one of the best when it comes to that - and fighting alongside of Daryl.  So it's no surprise when Merle enthusiastically - enthusiastic for Merle - signs on to selling out Michonne.  Unlike Hershel who's against this but goes along reluctantly in support of Rick's leadership, and Daryl who feels and does the same, Merle says yeah let's do it, and adds only that Rick likely won't have the stomach to follow through and turn Michonne over.

And Merle's of course right about Rick.   But when he takes it on himself to deliver Michonne, without Rick's knowledge at first, we get one of the best segments in this or any season of The Walking Dead.  Michonne, loquacious and eloquent since her trip to town with Carl, says all kinds of true and significant things to Merle as his prisoner.   And it works ...

And Merle the racist unexpectedly lets Michonne go and proceeds to almost take out the Governor with a savvy plan.  He's just a bullet away from succeeding, but the Governor's luck holds out and he shoots Merle dead.   My wife mentioned that if Michonne had accompanied Merle on this mission - not as his prisoner but his partner after he let her go  - they might have succeeded.  But, as it is, Merle the lowlife dies a noble death, and, just for good measure, Daryl arrives on the scene and has to kill Merle a second time as a walker.

As I've said earlier about this season of The Walking Dead, its presentation of family conflict and angst - especially father and son, brother and brother, son and mother - make this series the 21st century equivalent of Shakespearean drama.


See also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.10: Reinforcements ... The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch ... The Walking Dead 3.12: The Lesson of Morgan ... The Walking Dead 3.13: The Deal ... The Walking Dead 3.14: Inescapable Parable

And see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale
And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season


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