Mad Men: Signal 30

Do you people realize that Mad Men is consistently amazing?  It is tough for me to decide which is a better show:  Mad Men or Breaking Bad.  I could probably make an argument for both.  For those of you not watching either show, well you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Please, someone buy me Don's jacket

This week's episode had a pretty simple premise:  dinner party at Pete's house in the suburbs and a night on the town with a new client.  This should be one of those episodes where you go "oh, this is boring, nothing really happened."  Instead, we get fantastic insight into the relationships of the different characters.  So cool.

-Pete and Don:  Campbell continues to look up to and want Don's approval.  He basically says so when Don actually shows up at the dinner.  There was a certain amount of jealousy when Don took off his shirt and fixed the sink.  Also, did I hallucinate, or did Pete say "Dick, I'll get the toolbox"? 

-Don and Megan:  Don does not want to go to this party.  He tells Megan to call Trudie and let her know they cannot make it.  Megan is not Betty.  She tells Don that if he wants to cancel, he has to call himself.  Betty would have said "Yes, Don" and then been miserable about it.  Good for Megan.  The best part was Don actually calling Trudie and she pretty much cuts him off and says that his excuses will not work. 

Last week we saw that Don fears that he will slip up and cheat on Megan (also, he fears that he could snap and murder someone).  This week, he really does want to please his wife.  Also, he passes up a chance to cheat on her.  At the whorehouse he passes on the girls and continues to drink.  The madam even offers him a discreet gentleman (which got a chuckle out of Don, which she asks if he has ever gotten that before).

-Trudie and Pete:  They seem like such a happy couple.  Hell, even Don seemed jealous of them with their beautiful child.  Yet, all Pete ever does is bitch about her.  All he does is yearn for some high school girl at the driver's education class (also, does any show on TV have more finger-banging scenes than this one?), then at the whorehouse he has sex and does it in the creepy Pete way.  Did anyone else think that Pete might rough the girl up a bit and end with Don having to help smooth things over?

On the drive home, Pete has a hissy fit about Don judging him.  Don drops a knowledge bomb on him, by letting him know that yes he used to cheat on his wife all the time, but maybe if he put in the work and cherished what he had, it would have worked.  He does not tell Pete to stop being an idiot, but the implication was there.

-Pete and Lane:  The new business comes from Lane's friend, who works for Jaguar.  Lane wants to handle the account himself, but is not really an account man.  He goes to Roger who gives him some pointers.  Needless to say, he fails and has to call in the big guns.  Roger, Pete, and Don take the guy out, who does not want a nice dinner, but instead wants to party.  They take him to the whorehouse.

Apparently, the dude is a moron and gets caught by his wife.  The wife found chewing gum in his pubic hair, hahahhahahahahahaha!  Yes, that is the reaction by everyone at the partner's meeting.  Lane is furious and feels that it was their fault, until they mention that it was the guy's idea.  Lane scoffs at this, but then Pete says "he didn't want to go with you because he thinks you're a homo."  Lane then challenges Pete to a fight.

They get into a boxing match in the room and Pete loses.  We all knew this day would come, someone would smack Pete around.  I figured it would be Roger (he challenged him a few episodes ago), or maybe even Don back in the first season.  Hell, I even suspected Peggy at some point.  Two things happen from this.

First thing is that Lane and Joan have a moment.  They are such a good friendship pair, but then Lane makes the mistake of kissing her.  It was awkward for everyone.  Luckily, Joan saves the moment, by opening the door and pretending like nothing happened.

Then, Pete and Don share an elevator ride.  Pete breaks down and cries about his life.  Don should probably just strangle him and put him out of his misery.  As soon as Pete realizes that he is not Don Draper and he is never going to be Don Draper, the sooner that he will be a happy individual.

Great Television Sunday

There was plenty of great stuff on TV yesterday.  Where should I start?

The Killing
I know that plenty of people did not like this show last year, but it was just good enough to keep me interested to watch it this season.  It turns out that Richmond did not murder Rosie.  In fact, Linden thinks the whole thing might be a huge frame job.

The best aspect of the premiere has been the way Holder seemed to be the bad guy.  It then turns out that he was duped just like Linden.  A great moment was him switching backpacks and then hearing the lieutenant say it contained Richmond's prints.

I believe the conspiracy starts with the Mayor's assistant, but how far does it go?  And what is the big secret that Rosie knew?  I am intrigued.

Mad Men
The second episode of the season was fantastic.  We see what Betty has been up to since we last saw her.  She has put on a few pounds.  It honestly could not happen to a nicer person.  Sorry, that was sarcasm.  I think I have mentioned before that I think she is a terrible mother/human.

We then got to see that she could have cancer.  The first person she calls is Don and all she wants to hear is him say "Birdie, everything is going to be alright."  This causes Don to be worried about her for most of the episode.  It turns out that she does not have cancer and when Don calls to check on her, Henry answers the phone.  Henry informs Don that everything is fine, but as Henry hangs up, he is clearly pissed that Betty told him.

Another great storyline has been the Pete/Roger showdown.  Roger was able to convince Mohawk Airlines to come back (although Pete initiated the meeting).  Pete calls an office meeting and basically says that he did the work and that he is saving the company.  Roger is not pleased. 

Peggy hires a new copywriter to do Mohawk's weekly ads.  The dude is a little out there.  Roger tells Peggy that he has her back if Don does not like the hire.  Peggy is a little afraid that if this kid is too good, he could replace her (although, she does not say this, you can sense it).  Roger admits that he made a mistake hiring Pete and basically defending him when Don wanted rid of him.  Hmm, could we see Roger taking a more active role in the day-to-day operations?

Game of Thrones
I loved how they used the red comet as the segue to a new character.  What were some of my favorite moments?
-Robb talking to Jaime.  I love how Jaime tries to taunt him, but Robb gets the final taunt by bringing his direwolf into the cage and allowing Grey Wind to almost bite Jaime's face.  Jaime shows no fear until that moment.
-I still love seeing little dragons. 
-Tyrion's arrival at the Small Council meeting.  This is the beginning of him being even more awesome.  Cersei does not seem to be pleased by this turn of events. 
-Speaking of Cersei.  She slaps Joffrey, which almost causes him to snap.  He lets her know that if she ever does it again, she will die.
-Joffrey is still pretty damn crazy.  He wants to kill some drunken knight, but Sansa convinces him to make the knight his fool instead.
-Melisandre was cast perfectly.  The poisoned drink scene was pretty good, although, in the book it was much better because you get the Maester's point of view and all his thoughts going into it.
-Joffrey sends the City Watch out to murder all of Robert's bastard children.  The scene where Janos slits the babies throat was pretty hardcore.
-And then Cersei shows her power by threatening Little Finger.  He mocks her by saying that knowledge is power, she has her guards seize him and almost cut his throat.  She then has them release him.  She says "power is power."  This is not something Little Finger will forget.

Obviously this episode was just a set-up for things to come.  It was still pretty awesome, but I cannot wait for the coming weeks.

2010 In Review

Instead of recapping the entire year, which is never any kind of fun, I will just go over some of the highlights of 2010.  It was a pretty damn good year.

-I finally bought a laptop, which has pretty much been the best investment ever.  Sitting on the couch while writing these posts is much better than sitting at a desk.  Speaking of posts, 2010 was my busiest year with over 300 posts.  That is kind of exciting (or lame depending on your POV).

-I went to a bunch of sporting events this year.  A few in Pittsburgh, a couple in Altoona, and one over at State College.  I also got to enjoy tailgating for the Blue/White game and the Temple game.  I even made a trip to Washington D.C. to see the Nationals and Pirates play.  Speaking of awesome sporting events, I experienced two firsts:  my first Pens game and my first regular season Steelers game.  I also got to see Stephen Strasburg make his minor league debut against the Curve.

-This was also a very sad year since two of my favorite TV shows ended:  Lost and 24.  I actually did a couple of special things to commemorate such great shows (even though 24 constantly pissed me off with some of its stupid story lines).  My Best of 24 was pretty cool (at least I thought so), yet none of you jerks commented on it.  Also, I was so impressed with my Lost GOTW and the amount of work I put into it, and again, no one really noticed.  I think it caused me to die a little inside that no one said how awesome it was...

I will post it again for your enjoyment, only in a slightly smaller version.  Do not strain your eyes too much trying to enjoy all the hotties.

-There were plenty of great TV shows in 2010.  In fact, this year was a much better television than movie year.  Mad Men, Always Sunny, Justified, Boardwalk Empire, Treme, True Blood, Sons of Anarchy, Archer, The Walking Dead, and The League.  Also there were plenty of enjoyable shows like Warehouse 13, Eureka, White Collar, Human Target, and Supernatural.  I am sure I am forgetting some.

-Speaking of movies, what all did I see this year?  Iron Man 2, Inception, Kick-Ass, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Social Network, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sherlock Holmes, The Chronicles of Narnia:  Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Daybreakers. I really feel like I went to the movies more than this, but I guess I did not.  I think there were a few movies I saw that were just crappy and I did not care about.

-I will not list all the books I read over 2010.  It was not nearly as many as years past, I think my total was only thirteen.  Granted, five of those books were around 1000 pages each, so it was probably about the same amount of reading as previous years.

-The biggest thing to happen in 2010 though was the changes in my life.  I met Lindsey and we moved in together up here in New Germany.  She makes me incredibly happy and I feel like a better person because of her.  If she is reading up to this point, I hope she knows how much I love her.  Sorry to the rest of you for having to read a little personal stuff.

-Now on to the best of list...

Best Movie:  This is a tough one, it comes down to Kick-Ass and Inception.  Many people will say The Social Network was the best movie, and I definitely thought it was good, but I look at it from the stand point of which movie will I watch more than once?  Which of those movies will I stop when I see they are on HBO and watch them from wherever they are in the film.  I would have to say that award goes to Kick-Ass.

Best TV Show:  All those great shows listed above, yet it comes down to two:  Mad Men and Sons of Anarchy.  I could not wait every week to watch these two shows.  And I usually watched the episodes again during their reshowing.  SOA was great, but did not compare to last season and at times I felt like the Tara storyline was dragging on.  MM does not have the action, but it just holds you in it's thrall each week.  It is hard to explain to people why it is such a good show.  Anyways, that was the best show in my opinion.

Best Book:  Only three of the books I read this year actually came out in 2010.  I think the best one of that small group was Are We Winning?  It was a great book and I pretty much recommend it to any baseball fan.

Best Comic Book:  I will not lie, I have not read many comics this year.  In fact, I stopped getting individual issues and decided just to get trades.  Of everything I read, I would say that The Walking Dead is still the best on-going series I read.  Maybe 2011 will be a better year.

Anyways, that is my thoughts on 2010.  Who knows what 2011 will hold for me...

Previously on Sons of Anarchy

I know most of you are dying to know what I have thought about the last few weeks of Sons of Anarchy.  The season has been mostly awesome, minus a few parts.  Everything about the group being in Ireland has been cool, most of the stuff dealing with Tara sucks.

Remember how I said that Jax almost had sex with his half Irish sister?  Well they came ever closer, luckily Maureen and Gemma walked in on them.  Gemma then delivered the great line of "unless we want a three headed grandchild, we better share some family history."  Jax seemed to take it well.  In fact, last night Trinity says that she is embarrassed because she almost shagged her brother and Jax responds with "and you say that like it's a bad thing."  What?  Is Jax more turned on now that he knows Trinity is his sister?  Weird.

Yet again, Jax will stray from his father's manuscript.  He had that moment where he thought maybe this lifestyle was wrong, but then the gay family that adopted Abel ends up dead and Jax comes back to reality.  Jax and Clay will have their confrontation, but it is not time yet.

I thought she was hotter on Mad Men...

Back in Charming, Tig and Lem (I cannot remember his name, so I will call him Lem because that was his character on The Shield) continue their pissing match and act like the village idiots when it comes to running the MC.  Lumpy:  dead.  Tara:  missing.  Alvarez:  almost breaks the truce.  Christ, Clay is going to be pissed when he gets home.

Speaking of idiot Tara...she has been a worthless story all season.  Whining and crying about Jax.  Debating about an abortion.  I knew she would not get one, that would have been something interesting for Jax to deal with.  Instead she is kidnapped by Salazar and now that Jax is home, he will have to deal with him.

Judging from the previews, it sounds like Clay is going to find out that Jax made a deal with Stahl.  I do not understand why the deal was a bad thing?  She gets Jimmy and Gemma stays out of jail, as does the club.  Yeah, that would be terrible.  I guess it would mean that Jax would be putting the kibosh on Clay's new IRA gun running operation. 

I am guessing that Jax will have to intercept Jimmy before he makes it to the Russians.  Then, instead of killing him, he will give him to Stahl, but he will tell the rest of the club that he is going to kill him, but he wants to do it alone.  Unfortunately, Gemma will do something stupid, like pull a gun on Stahl (saw that in the previews) and probably end up going to jail anyways.  Jimmy will claim that SAMCRO is the actual mastermind behind everything and the whole thing will backfire.  Okay, probably not.

I would like to see Jax arrive to save Tara too late.  Salazar just killed her and Jax kills Salazar.  It will be a moment where Jax will either realize that his father was right or that he cannot be saved and his life is too wrapped up in violence...

Don Saying What

This video is not hilarious, but it is still pretty cool.  It is Don Draper saying what.  If you watch the show, you know that is his favorite response, especially to Betty's idiotic questions.  I wonder if the character is written that way or if Jon Hamm just tosses that in there?

Mad Men Finale

Honestly, the moment Don asked Megan to go to California, I knew something awesome would happen (I was just hoping to see Megan in a bikini).  Then Don gets that engagement ring that belonged to Anna and it was apparent where things were going.

Don ended the season announcing his engagement to Megan and some of the people did not take it so well (I really thought Roger would make more jokes about Don marrying his secretary).  Dr. Faye was very upset.  In fact, she was pissed.  It may have something to do with Don telling her how much he liked her and whatnot.  Oops.

Peggy and Ken brought in the first business since Lucky Strike left, yet no one seemed to care because of Don's announcement.  This leaves Peggy very annoyed, so she goes to Joan to bitch about it.  This was a very cool moment because of the way we always see Peggy/Joan.  Peggy tries to do something nice for Joan, but gets slapped around for it.  It was good to see them bonding.

Speaking of Joan, she did not have an abortion.  Instead she lied to her husband and convinced him it was his.  He is dumb.  How is she going to explain when it pops out like a month or so later than it should?  Also, Joan did not seem too pleased with her new promotion.

Don tells Betty about his engagement.  You remember Betty:  World's Worst Mother.  After firing Carla because she let Glenn see Sally, and fighting with Henry over it, she sees Don and I think she would have banged him on the counter of their old house.  She definitely regrets marrying Henry (not as much as he regrets marrying her) and is now probably going to have to double her visits to Sally's shrink in order to cope with losing Don to Megan...

I just realized that Megan is also the girl from Hot Tub Time Machine that gets banged in the hot tub and has the huge boobs.  I like her boobs.  So does Don.  He is brilliant.

TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV

This was a fantastic week of television.  Let us start with Mad Men.

Mad Men
SCDP is failing.  Without Lucky Strike, they only have a few months before they cannot pay the employees.  They have to start downsizing.  Then they get a break.  Phillip Morris wants to create a new cigarette for women and they want a meeting with SCDP.  Unfortunately it turns out that they just want other agencies to think that and they used SCDP.

This pisses Don Draper off.  He goes home and writes a letter to the New York Times saying why he is quitting tobacco.  He writes how the tobacco companies are killing people and he was part of that.  He says that he is glad to be out of that business.  He also recommends other agencies that would be suitable to do ad work for tobacco companies.

Needless to say the rest of the partners are not too happy with Don.  They feel like he has destroyed the company.  In fact, Bert leaves.  Peggy comes into Don's office and he asks her what she thought of it.  She says "I thought you didn't like those kind of shenanigans."  Which causes Don to smile.  Peggy remembered something Don taught her.

The reason this episode was great was because of the way it felt like Don truly is happy.  His letter was an ad for the agency, yet at the same time, I truly believe he feels good about the direction his agency is going.  Also, it was cool to see Midge again.  Not cool that she is now an addict trying to use Don for money.  I guess she should have taken that trip to Paris...

Roger's great line of the episode:  "I need to go learn people's names before I fire them."  Haha, oh Roger, we will always love you.

I also loved how Pete was so upset about the money he was supposed to pay and then Lane informs him that Don paid his portion.  He sees Don in a whole new way.  I was sure that he was going to throw Don's false identity back at him since they lost the North American Aviation contract.

Sons of Anarchy
Jax is the man.  He threatens Jimmy's right hand man by saying that if they are lying about Abel he is going to kill him and then let Chibs cut Jimmy from ear-to-ear.  SAMCRO threatening the IRA?  That is why SAMCRO is badass.

Agent Stahl decides to screw with Gemma.  She takes the deal off the table unless she cooperates against everyone.  Jax does not like this and after he finds out that Jimmy was lying he pays the number one a visit.  We assume that he is going to shoot him.  Then he goes to Stahl's house, which scares her a bit.  I am sure everyone thought he was going to do something insane like kill her or something.  He throws us for a loop by wanting a deal.  He says that if she drops the case against Gemma, he will give her the IRA.  He then shows her Jimmy's number one with a whole assload of guns.

At least we now know how Gemma is going to get out of this mess.  I am also extremely excited about the idea of SAMCRO in Belfast going into battle against the IRA.  Things are about to get insane.

Boardwalk Empire
So far this has not been a show with a whole lot to talk about.  I mean, it is a fantastic show, but it is slow building.  This is not a bad thing at all.  Sometimes you have to move a little slower to really make it engaging.  The best part of the episode was Chalky telling the story about his father and then pulling out the tools.  I don't know about you, but I enjoy watching a KKK member shit his pants with the threat of torture.  Or lost a finger.

I cannot take Tommy from Snatch seriously as Al Capone.  Maybe it is because of the way Peter F. Hamilton used Capone in the Night's Dawn Trilogy.  Plus, I want Jimmy to be like "what's that in your trousers Tommy?  Protection from what? Ze Germans?"  Sorry.

The part where the Irish guy cut the hooker was pretty intense.  It made me cringe.  I wanted Clint to walk in later and say "you must be that whore they cut up."  Yes, that is right, a Snatch and an Unforgiven reference in one post.

Also, Gretchen Mol is pretty hot.  I always thought she was attractive in Rounders, but she is a pretty hot grandmother.

The League
-Jenny tries to join Russell's league, but Kevin is upset because Russell is a sex addict.  She goes over to his place and he says that she does nothing for him.  Everything else does, including Raffi.  Luckily, this ends Raffi in the league and Jenny is free to take his team.

-I loved how Andre kept saying he was a doctor and they would make fun of him.  Especially when Kevin is like "I am not a doctor Taco and I would have said the same thing."  Andre is just so ridiculous and fun to mock.  We all have that friend.

-Raffi's great line when Pete and Andre are about to fight "Bite each other's dicks off!"  What a freak.  He was like the insane Taco.

TV Week

Mad Men
The firm finds out about Lucky Strike.  Roger pretends to call Lee Garner Jr. and then hides in a hotel room.  What can Roger do to redeem himself?  Hopefully he can bring in another account.  I do not want to see Roger fall apart.

Peggy is a nympho.  Or at least Stan thinks so.  She does her best Don impersonation with Playtex gloves.  It seems like Don will continue to prepare her to take over at creative director someday. 

Speaking of Don.  He gets into a fight with Dr. Faye because she has ethics and will not give him the names of her clients who are unhappy with their ad agencies.  It seems like she broke up with him.  Later Don is working and Megan offers to help him.  He gets to know her and they have sex on the couch.  She informs him that she will not run out of the office crying.  She has no delusions about what this is, she just wants some of Don's creative input.

Don then heads home and Dr. Faye is waiting for him.  She gives him a  meeting with Heinz.  Oh now this is going to be awkward.  I hope she does not smell Megan on Don's penis.  I bet that would go over like a lead balloon.

Since it was vacation week, my brain does not really remember the other shows I watched this week.

Television Stuff

I know I have not written about TV shows in two weeks, but I figured this week would be a good one.  Where shall I start?

The Event
I have no idea if I want to watch this show or not.  Are the people aliens or something?  Do I actually care?  The jumping around got on my nerves.  Flashbacks worked for Lost, but just bouncing around with characters is not very interesting.

At least Sarah Roemer is really hot.  Maybe we can just watch her in a bikini every week.  Better than nothing, right?

House
The season premiere of House was pretty good.  It picked up right where the finale left off.  House and Cuddy have sex.  He starts to over-analyze things, but by the end of the episode he says he loves her.  Awe.

It was funny watching his team try to solve the neurosurgeon problem.  Did Thirteen actually leave the team?  Or will she be back?  Is this one of those things that Olivia Wilde realizes she is super-hot and needs to be doing movies (hopefully porn).

Sons of Anarchy
Gemma and Tara accidentally kill Officer Ramirez (I have no idea what the caregivers name was, but she played Ramirez in the Dark Knight).  Tig calls a cleaner and it turns out to be Stephen King!  How awesome was that?

Jax and the club prepare to head up to Canada.  They set up a party with the Asians, Opie has his girlfriend bring some of her porn friends down, but Opie gets pissed when he sees her with one of the guys (she volunteered to help Jax).  A brawl ensues.

Cherry learns that Half-Sack is dead (she was living in Ireland with the lady who has Abel).  The Sons of Anarchy Belfast crew stop by her place and ask if she knows anything.  She says no, but she wants Cherry to get in touch with Gemma.  I guess she was going to help give them Abel.  Or maybe not, it seems like she was in love with John Teller.

Supernatural
The season premiere was pretty good.  It turns out that not only did Sam come back, but also Samuel (the Winchester's grandfather).  A couple of djinn attack Dean and that is how he learns about Sam being alive.  They reunite for a battle against the djinn. Naturally they win, but in the end Dean decides to stay with Lisa and Ben.  Good for him.  It will not last.

The best thing though is that the supernaturals are acting different.  Werewolves out during half-moons, nocturnal creatures in the daylight, and all knew creatures.  Seems like it could be pretty fun.  Also, Samuel and his boys seem to be doing something shady, why did they capture the female djinn?  She was pretty hot too.  Hope she turns up soon.
 Mad Men
Last week Mrs. Blankenship died.  Roger naturally makes this statement:  “She died like she lived, surrounded by the people she answered phones for.”  And then Bert gives this great line:  “She was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the 37^th floor of a skyscraper. She was an astronaut.”

Roger and Joan had sex after being mugged.  It was creepy and sexy at the same time.  It turns out that Faye is not a child psychologist and that Sally is constantly creepy.

This week Lane decided to be absolutely weird by taking his dad and Don to the Playboy Club to meet his girlfriend.  Roger apparently knocked up Joan and then got a lecture from a doctor.  And Don has the Defense Department looking into his past because of the aviation contract.  Don threatening to leave almost caused Pete to shit his pants.

Don's lies almost cause him to have a heart attack, but Dr. Faye saves him (or listens while he pukes).  Later he tells her the truth about himself.  I think Don may have found his equal.

Why is there a picture of Roger?  Well he learns that Lucky Strike is dropping them.  He realizes how worthless he would be without that account.  He starts calling people in his Rolodex, but finds out that one of his old friends is dead now.   Then at the partner meeting he explodes on Pete for losing the aviation account (Don told him to), he even dropped at F-bomb (they bleeped him out).  He did not tell anyone though.

The show ends with Don getting the Beatles tickets from his secretary Megan after Dr. Faye leaves.  He stares at her for a second and you can tell that he wonders if he should go for Faye or maybe after Megan.  Megan was good with Sally and did everything she could to make up for the mistake she made (she did not make a mistake, but Don treated her like she did).  Very interesting. 

Boardwalk Empire
I think this show is going to be great.  Sometimes it feels like a Coen Brothers movie.  The thing I really love though, is that it is before Mad Men.  It is funny how the country changed from that era to the 60s.  And how things did not change at all.

In the second episode Jimmy gets a blowjob by asking his wife to "do that French thing."  She responds with "oh, you want me to use my mouth?"  Hahaha.  By the 1960s, sweet coeds were going down on partners of ad agencies in the back of taxi cabs, now that is progress!

The ending was pretty great.  It reminded me of Louis CK's joke about the saddest form of sex.  That girl giving the guy a handjob was about as pathetic as it gets.  Only a half dead guy could ruin it.