2011-2012 Television Season Review Part I

Some years it’s almost a relief when the TV season ends. It all depends on how much I am enjoying the season this year and the quality of television that is being produced. It also depends on how well the Tigers are doing at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, this year they have been a bit of a letdown and now I don’t have any excuses not to watch their continued decent into misery. But lets take a look at what the 2011 – 2012 television season gave us.
Sunday Nights – Sunday has become one of the busiest nights of television for me. There is way to much on that I enjoy watching. In addition to the network shows, cable shows great stuff on Sundays as well with “Sherlock,” “Mad Men” and “Game Of Thrones.” But I’m going to stick with the network stuff for this review.
Fox Animation Block – Another year and another decent season. All of these shows are starting to blend together. Particularly the Seth McFarland block of “The Cleveland Show”, “Family Guy” and “American Dad,” in fact these three blend together so much that “The Simpsons” stands out more as something original. Not bad for a show in its 23rd season. They get a C for the season.
The Amazing Race – To be honest I barely remember the fall race. But I do remember the winter/spring race. It was a good solid race and the team that won was a powerhouse. I didn’t feel like anyone else had a chance and it was difficult to like a lot of the racers since there was so much negativity this year. They’ve earned themselves a B-.
Once Upon a Time – The big freshman hit of the year. I was worried about this show when it began. After all, how long could this curse thing hold our interest? Fortunately, the writers recognized this and gave us a few other storylines that we could invest in apart from the curse. I was pleasantly surprised though when the curse was lifted at the end of the first season. It looks like next season will focus on whatever Gold did at the end of the season combined with Snow and Charmings fight to take back the kingdom in flashbacks. It should make for a fun season. An A- for the freshman year.
Monday Nights:
The Voice – I enjoyed the second season of “The Voice” about as much as I did the first season. In which I started out really liking it and then got bored with it by the end. It would be nice to see them change things up a little for the next round. But with it being in the fall, I’m not sure I really want to watch another round by then. I give them a C.
How I Met Your Mother – The show has really begun to show its age. Every once in a while it has a few moments of genius, but right now I’m watching it for the plot, not the comedy. But they may continue to run the show for as long as they can since it still brings in great ratings. They get a C+.
2 Broke Girls – Another freshman hit. This is probably the most offensive show on TV, but it sure is funny. I don’t really care too much about cupcakes here, I just want more inappropriate joke. That is what will keep me coming back. Both girls bet a B-.
Smash – I was really looking forward to this show all year. It started out great, but then it stalled for a while before picking up again at the end. I’m happy to see that a lot of the really bad subplots have been dropped and I am interested to see how it will be retooled next year. Hopefully it doesn’t stray to far into “Glee” territory. The strong end gets them a B.
Tuesday Nights:

Glee – Sigh, I must be a masochist, otherwise why would I still be watching this show. For every great number that they do, they perform 20 bad ones. The plot makes no sense and I hate the two leads. This season ended with a lot of closure. I have yet to decide if I will be back. It might just be to check out how they plan to handle the story now. I don’t know, maybe it’s best to just cut it. This season gets a C-.

New Girl – Probably the best new show this year. And a show that learned to evolve. It started as a way to just look at the cuteness of Zoey Dechenal. But it evolved into a great and very funny sitcom. I loved the arc the characters took and look forward to seeing if they can repeat it again next year. For Schmidt alone it gets an A.

More to come so stay tuned!

The French Connection - The Oscar Project Part XLIV

The 1971 film “The French Connection” is most remembered for the car chase that happens at the end of the movie. The chase movies of today are not known for being typical Oscar bait, so I was curious to see what else this movie would bring to the table. What I got from it was a good, solid police story, but nothing that would really stand out in today’s world. It would be filed alongside Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys now. So the importance of this movie comes from it starting a genre instead of being a movie that has stood the test of time.




The movie revolves around two cops, Popeye and Cloudy, as they investigate the smuggling of narcotics from Marseilles to New York. As the plot moves along, we see the criminals attempt to bring the drugs in while the two police officers get closer to finding them. Soon a high speed chase ensues between Doyle and an assassin that has the killer hijacking an elevated train and killing a police officer. Eventually they cops realize the drugs are being smuggled over in a car. The movie ends with a shoot out between the police and the smugglers.



The story tries to show the human side to the police officers and Gene Hackman and Roy Schieder both put in decent performances. But I have seen better from both of them since this performance. The movie itself tells a nice story that is good popcorn fun. But there are better cop movies and better heist movies that you can see. Having watched those movies over the past 30 years before seeing “The French Connection” makes this movie nothing more than a novelty for those who want to know where the drama got its big break from.



It really is a decent movie, it just doesn’t hold up in today’s world. I give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Mad Men S5E9 Dark Shadows

It seems mighty convenient that this weeks Mad Men titled “Dark Shadows” aired the same week that a movie with the same name was released in theatres. But, it is a fairly harmless product tie in and it works with the time period, so good for Mad Men. This week lets start with Roger. After being asked to help bring in a Jewish customer for the company by Bert, he turns to Michael since he is Jewish, but it isn’t enough and he also has to bring in his former wife Jan. Both of them he is forced to pay off to convince them to work with him. Which says something about his relationship with people; everyone knows him as the money. Even though the dinner goes great, he does manage to upset Jan by sleeping with her at her new apartment, which ruins the new place for her. I think this really upsets Roger as he sees himself as a changed man after his LSD trip. If he hasn’t changed as people are suggesting will he take another trip to try and change again?



We also finally got to see what Betty has been up to, and we find out that she has grown a little and is now in Weight Watchers. I’m a little disappointed here, because last we saw her she was eating Sally’s ice cream. What changed and drove her to diet? Where is that story? Anyways, she is using the Weight Watchers meeting as her own personal psychiatry session. She expresses to them about her difficult time when she had to pick up the kids from Don and saw they’re great apartment with the great view, and got a view of Don’s young, thin wife and then watches her kiss her kid’s goodbye. Betty tries to extract her revenge by telling Sally about Anna Draper. This at first drives a wedge between Megan, Sally and Don. But Megan acts as the adult and explains to Don what Betty is trying to do. Sally overhears this, and once Don explains who Anna was is okay. But not before exacting her revenge on Betty by telling her how Don and Megan told her all about Anna. It seems Sally has some claws to match her mother’s and may be more like Betty than she realizes.



Finally let’s check in on Don, after realizing that Michael has been producing a lot of work and has a funny pitch for his next idea, he finally returns to trying to write a tagline. Try as he might it was Michael’s pitch that everyone agrees to go with. That doesn’t work with Don though and he sells the client on his Devil idea after leaving Michael’s pitch in the cab. This makes Michael upset and when he tries to confront Don about it; Don just puts him in his place by letting him know how little Michael means to him. After all he’s Don Draper, he doesn’t need Michael Ginsberg, Michael Ginsberg needs him. There has been a lot of talk about people wanting to leave SDCP this season, I think Michael is pretty high on the list of soon to be former SDCP employees.

Mad Men - S5E8 - Lady Lazarus

This week’s “Mad Men” was entitled “Lady Lazarus,” which also happens to be the name of a Sylvia Plath poem. The poem describes a woman that is continuously brought back to life even though she wishes for death. Her first death was an accident, but her second death was something that she brought on herself. After she is brought back, she is determined to take control of her life from then on. It’s not hard to see how this relates to Megan’s journey in this episode. Megan wanted to be an actress, but that life ended up dying. She was brought back to life through Don’s proposal but she was unhappy in what she was doing. So she commits career suicide and comes back determined to live her life the way that she wants, as an actress.

The more interesting journey in this episode belonged to Pete. Roger dumps off a sporting account on him at the beginning of the episode, I’m curious is Roger is trying to implement some sort of plan here, to bog Pete down with enough day to day work that he bungles it all and can’t handle it, much like he couldn’t handle taking the skis out of his office. On the way home that day he meets up with the wife of one the people that he regularly rides the train into the city with. Pete knows that the man is in the city cheating on his wife and gives her a ride home. They of course end up doing it. Pete sees this as an opening to have something that he doesn’t have yet, someone that he can meet up with on the side and be in control of. This of course isn’t what happened. She denied him in several situations. It was once again showing Pete that he wasn’t in control. She kissed him first and now she is ending it. Work is the only place that he has some semblance of control and even that is barely there after he was taken out by Pryce a few weeks ago. We know that Pete has a loaded gun in his office, and this episode took the chance to point out the suicide clause in his life insurance policy. Signs are pointing to a possible early exit for Pete coming soon.

The Megan situation from the episode was really about how it affected Don though. Don was happy at work. He enjoyed working with Megan and that was very evident by the banter the two of them demonstrated for the Cool Whip commercial. While that showed Don’s joy at working with his wife, it also demonstrated how happy Megan would be with acting. Eventually Megan does quit though and Don must deal with the ramifications. He tries to perform the Cool Whip bit with Peggy for the Head of Desserts, seriously that was his title, but it doesn’t go well. Why? Because both he and Peggy are upset for Megan leaving and without Megan, Don just doesn’t care about his work again. Don’s world is changing and he is starting to be out of touch with what is popular. The biggest evidence of this comes in the final scene. As Don comes home to his wife leaving, a major change for him, Megan has him listen to the Beatles song, “Tomorrow Never Knows” from Revolver, the album and song that signaled the evolution of the Beatles. Don can barely listen to the song, shuts it off and heads to bed, signaling that he, for one, is not ready to evolve.

Patton - The Oscar Project Part XLIII

The 1970’s starts with a film that reminded me a lot of one of the early films of the 60’s. “Patton” tells the story of General Patton and his command during the second World War. The way the story plays out is very similar to the way that “Lawrence of Arabia” plays out. Both feature strong military leaders that end up being ignored by the government by the end of the film. Except this one featured an American leader as opposed to a British one.

“Patton” of course opens with his famous speech in front of the American flag. It is meant to be a version of his pep talk that he would give the third Army. We then learn about his command and his harsh rules. Eventually we also see how effective he is at his command. He leads his army across Africa and is able to make quite a bit of headway in Sicily before he is relieved for threatening a soldier suffering from shellshock. However it is shown that Germany is so afraid of Patton that they believe that he will lead the invasion. He is given a dummy command to distract Germany while the invasion of Normandy takes place. Eventually he does get a command in Europe and is able to drive it as far as he can go. But he constantly says the wrong things to the press and upsets leaders from other countries, and is quietly removed from command again.

This was another actor driven movie. It was George C. Scott’s performance as Patton that really sells this movie. Director Franklin Schnaffner did a good job of directing, but since I couldn’t help but compare the film to “Lawrence of Arabia” I can’t help but feel that he came up short compared to the excellent job that was done with that film. Making the film live and die by the performance of Scott. And he nailed that performance. History buffs complain that it is not completely accurate to Patton. But I contend that it is how Germany and the United States viewed Patton. I think that it was more critical to meet that image than to try and fit what the man was precisely, given the context of the movie.

Overall I think “Patton” makes for a pretty decent biopic. My only complaint is that it doesn’t tell a complete story. I would have liked a more complete ending. Still I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Mad Men - S5E7 - At the Codfish Ball

The episode “At the Codfish Ball” boils down to one shot at the end of the episode, a moment where everyone has a realization of where they are in life. But before we get to that shot let’s take a look at how we got there. This week I’ll start with Peggy. After a quick scene where we get a call back to a previous argument between Peggy and her boyfriend Abe, while at SCDP having beer and chatting with her fellow co-workers, Abe is instantly turned into someone that they can bounce ideas off of to see if they work instead of just treating him as an equal in the conversation. He leaves and is next seen calling Peggy and ordering her to be at dinner. Based on previous arguments Peggy believes that he is going to break up with her. But both Joan and the audience most likely think otherwise. Peggy is on a one-way trip to proposal town. It was nice to see that the relationship between Peggy and Joan that developed last season has continued. After going after each other the first couple of years the relationship feels earned. Peggy takes her advice and gets all dolled up. But “Mad Men” of course throws a curve ball and Abe just asks to move in with her. At first I think oh no big deal, but I’ve forgotten it’s the 60’s and that just didn’t happen. When asked Peggy freezes, and as you watch her face you can see the hope that she briefly had for the life every girl dreams of is shattered, and after saying yes the smile disappears and Peggy doesn’t get to complete her change and remains as she is. Of course this doesn’t mean that it won’t bring any drama. The two tell Peggy’s Mom about their plans and she doesn’t take it well. As she storms out she plants the seeds of doubt about Abe into Peggy’s mind and then compares her to a cat. It will be interesting to see how this relationship plays out. I don’t see good things in the future, I can see Peggy perhaps proposing herself one day and that probably won’t make Abe happy. Now let’s check in on the Drapers. Megan’s parents are visiting from Canada to watch Don get an award. Don also has to take care of the kids, but more on them later. It is clear that Megan’s parents are not a happy couple. Emile takes every chance he gets to insult Don and her mother Marie is hitting on everyone in sight. During this Megan has an idea to pitch to Heinz, Don loves it, even more impressive is that when Megan learns they will be dropped by Heinz, she is able to help Don turn them around and sells them on her idea. It was a great scene with a great Don Draper pitch. It’s been a while and it was nice to see that man at work. The combination of work and his wife made him happier than we have seen in a while, making him believe that working with his wife can work. But there are still 6 more episodes this season, I’m sure things are heading for a change. The next day while the men celebrate, Megan doesn’t seem to want to join in. When Peggy tells Megan that this is as good as this job gets, she seems to get even sadder, because she still hasn’t earned acceptance from her father. Later at the award ceremony, Megan asks her father why he isn’t proud of her. He tells her, in English, that she hasn’t earned anything, all this opulence and recognition she married into, she shouldn’t be taking credit for it because she hasn’t done anything. Meanwhile Don is busy meeting all sorts of people, until someone explains to him that it’s futile. They will bury his desk in awards but he won’t find any further success because of his letter against Lucky Strike. He is just as important as the award he got, he received without given a speech, not on a big stage and the other two that received the award were so old they may have collapsed of old age on the way home. This is now the limit of what Don can achieve no matter how brilliant he is. Then we had the journey of Sally Draper. After lying about how her grandmother hurt herself but taking all the credit for taking care of her, Sally is able to convince her Dad to let her go to the award ceremony. We also learn that she has been keeping in touch with Glen. Though it definitely seems to be a “just friends” thing still. She uses Glen as a way to express how she really feels. Sally is looking at her chance to go to the award ceremony like going to a ball, her coming out in other words. She makes the glamorous entrance in the apartment to the people waiting, but is then disappointed when there is no grand staircase to enter, the dinner is something she doesn’t like, her Father’s award is a non event and her date, Roger Sterling who is still on his epiphany from trying LSD, is receiving fellatio from Marie. The title of this episode is “At the Codfish Ball” a song and dance number performed by Shirley Temple, for whom the drink Roger brings her is named after. Sally sending it back just demonstrates how disappointed she is with this adult lifestyle. The final shot of the ball features everyone (except Roger) returning to the table and on each face you can see how disappointed they are with the way the night has progressed. It is a great shot that sums up the episode without anyone having to say a world. The episode continues though with another call to Glen from Sally, when he asks her how the city is, I may be mistaken but I swear I saw a look of excitement on her face when she gave her one word answer, “Dirty.”

Mad Men -S5E6 - Far Away Places

Well let this weeks’ “Mad Men” be a lesson to you, marijuana and LSD can be fun, but don’t you dare try the orange sherbert. That stuff will mess you up. This weeks’ episode was split into 3 different intersecting stories similar to storytelling featured in “Sin City” and “Pulp Fiction.” We first followed our favorite female copywriter, Peggy, through her day. After a small fight with her boyfriend about how she only thinks about work, Peggy learns that she must make the Heinz presentation by herself, again. Why? Because Don has pulled Megan away to a Howard Johnson’s. Peggy makes the pitch and the client isn’t sold. In past seasons Don would have sold the client on the pitch, with him not there, it’s up to Peggy to do this. Unfortunately her Don imitation fails miserably and the client leaves angrily and if they follow history they will head over to Y&R. Peggy is frustrated and heads out to go and see “Born Free” during which she gets offered some Marijuana. Since she failed being Don at work she decides to try being Don outside of work which means getting high on marijuana and giving some guy a handjob with the lioness roar signifying that Peggy finally feels triumphant. Upon returning to the office, Peggy goes to Don’s office, after all she now sees herself as Don. She sleeps in the office before she is woken up in a role reversal from previous episodes by Dawn. Lying on the couch probably made her realize that she isn’t Don. A recurring motif throughout the episode of people having epiphanies while lying down. After trying to fall on her sword and accept failure of the Heinz account to Don, Peggy learns the first unpleasant truth of the night. Ginsberg was born in a concentration camp and adopted. While it was the truth it doesn’t mean that it is good. The camera than shifts to Roger as we learn it was he who wanted to go to the HoJo with Don as two perverted single men so that he could get out of a date with his wife. After seeing just part of the agonizing dinner that Roger had to sit through, we learn the real reason for the party. Roger is going to do some LSD! What follows was a scene that is one of the most fascinating that Mad Men has ever made. We get Roger hearing music as he opens a bottle of Vodka, the only thing that gives him joy right now. A cigarette burning out to quickly, something that used to give him pleasure is now gone, since Lucky Strike has left him. A vision of himself with half white and half black hair, a way for him to see how he views himself as compared to who he is. Don, the man that has brought him to where he is now, giving him reassurance appears behind him in the mirror. Burt, the man who has helped him make all of his money, appears on his money. Eventually his attention turns to his wife, who is holding a beautiful flower. It symbolizes not only her beauty though, but his love for her. He has only ever loved her beauty, and like the flower his love was quick to wilt. Then as the two of them lay on the ground they uncover the next unhappy truth. Their marriage is over, they both knew it, just didn’t want to say it. Roger awakens and views his wife looking beautiful and draped in green, the color of his money, and says goodbye to his old life. Finally we turn to Don, we’ve already seen him abduct Megan to go to a Howard Johnson and we get to see that Megan wasn’t happy about this. She wanted to work, not just jet off with the boss. Once they get to the restaurant/hotel and Don wants to work Megan is furious. He can like to work but she can’t, before the argument continues, the infamous orange sherbet is delivered. After trying to refuse and Don believing she is just acting out, Megan really acts out by shoveling a ton of the cold treat into her mouth. This act of defiance begins the real fight with Megan landing the dirty blow of telling Don to call his mother who she knows is not a possibility. Don leaves, but comes right back to find that Megan is gone. Refusing to believe that she has done the most sensible thing and just gone home Don tries calling everywhere and then just sitting at the HoJo before finally driving back to New York. On the way he remembers the drive back from Disney and Sally wishing the vacation would never end even though she knows that it has to. Don is wishing the same thing about his relationship with Megan. Once Don gets home and breaks down the door we see their brief fight and the two end up lying on the floor just like Roger and Jane. But here they don’t want to see the ugly truth. That Don’s happy little marriage isn’t as happy as he thought it was. The two of them come to work where Don gives Megan a look that asks if they’re okay. She gives a small nod while she wipes her nose. An indication that she can at least appear okay. Then we get the ultimate Bert Cooper smack down. He scolds Don for being on a love vacation and tells him he needs to get back to work. As Don watches the employees walk by, first the team of copywriters, followed by Peggy, all on her own, he realizes that he can’t possibly work while his wife is there, but she loves working. He has no way to try and keep his vacation going. It’s over.