Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Melrose Place- "Cahuenga". Yup, that's what it's named. "Cahuenga". Really.


I can't even talk about these terrible episode titles anymore, so I'm just going to try to move on here.

Picture this. You are an attractive twenty-something living in LA. You move into an apartment building. For some reason, the owner of this apartment building, an attractive forty-something, seems verrry interested in all of the residents of the complex. Then, she's horribly murdered. Suddenly, all these other people who used to live there come out of the woodwork, and a good portion of these people actually profess the desire to make your life hellish. What's your plan here? Mojitos by the pool? Or, I don't know, maybe you should MOVE?

I think the contrast of the old Melrose Placers to the new ones is quite funny actually. I mean all of the old people seem pretty much insane at this point. They are girlfriend murdering, young people sexing, life destroying maniacs! They make art thieves, hookers, and teachers turned models seem like the sanest most normal people in the world. Even Auggie, who has actually killed someone, seems measurably more sane than say, Jane when she showed up and just started blackmailing people willy-nilly.

I don't know if I want the young people to become more crazy (and therefore less boring) or the old people to become less crazy (and therefore more logical). Maybe a little of both?

So what even happened last night? Well:

Amanda Woodward returned! She's here, she's blonde, and she's bitchy!! And Riley pissed her off by not using a fake bio (which was a ridiculous plan because someone could just google her and find out the truth...but okay.),so she RUINED HER. Watch out Melrose Place kids, this lady has no problem taking away your teaching job. Riley and Jonah celebrate before Amanda Woodward RUINS them.

She also fired Caleb (cute gay boss of Ella), has some kind of weird interest in Ella so she sent some hot lesbian chick to try and seduce her away as a test, and tried to force Ella to do the Riley ruining, which Ella would not, because she is not twisted and evil from too much Botox. YET.

We did finally get some girl on girl action from the "supposedly bisexual but usually just pining for Jonah" Ella, so score another one for Amanda Woodward!

Amanda is looking for something that Dead Sydney has hidden from her, so maybe that accounts for her interest in Ella, as Ella and Sydney were once friends, before they were bitter, bitter enemies.
I have to agree with Amanda on one thing, the amount of PR these people were doing for this dude's denim line did seem to be a bit much.

So Amanda's return was pretty good I would say, and next week she's gonna RUIN everybody's life, just for kicks.

I guess other, non-Amanda things happened too, including:

David decided he was totally into Lauren (the hooker) so he created Fall in her apartment and got her chili from her hometown. I don't really know where his sudden intense romantic interest in her came from, but they did have some intense making out before she decided that she "just couldn't". (She hates being reminded of work at home!) I kind of like these two together I have to say!

Everyone turned on Auggie in a matter of minutes after he was arrested in Mexico for Sydney's murder (hey, he did flee to Mexico), besides David, who thinks it was Michael and seems to have found evidence of that, and Violet, who is crazy and always sleeps with Auggie whenever he is upset about anything. She's probably the real killer, right?!

Because of that whole RUINING thing, Jonah has to get a job now that Riley is unemployed. I do love that they actually had an argument about which one of them should get a job. I've got a bright idea guys, why don't you both get jobs, like normal people!

The show comes back Dec 1, and Amanda introduces herself to the rest of the gang and promptly RUINS them all. Or at least starts making plans to do so.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

My 100th Blog post is about Heroes! That's kind of sad really...

Heroes-Matt-Sylar.jpg

So I watched the last two episodes of Heroes one right after another last night. Kind of like a movie. Or a some kind of torture. "Shadowboxing" was so terrible that I don't even want to talk about it. I'll just list the ways it was awful.

-It had Parkman and Sylar arguing constantly, even though they are the same person. And Matt actually said to Sylar, who is let's not forget a remorseless serial killer "This is ridiculous. Just give me back my body." An ineffectual argument from an ineffectual man.

-They faked it like they totally killed Matt! It made me happy for like five minutes, until I realized it wasn't his firing I'd been reading about all week...then it made me angry because you shouldn't give someone something beautiful and then snatch it away.

-They made me root SO HARD for a character who randomly murdered some nice old man who was trying to help him. I actually yelled "In your face Parkman!!!" at that point. Heroes is making me a sick, sick person.

-It had Emma in it, and she admitted the reason that she quit medical school (death of her nephew), got over her fears about it and pretty much decided to become a doctor. So her story's over now, right?

-Peter's powers are making him weak. Remember when he used to be awesome?

-Claire's lesbian roommate left. She was pretty likeable and it lamely isolates Claire AGAIN. I wonder if Hayden Panettiere gets bored of playing the exact same story line over and over over.
-Clarie met the Carny, and of course, kind of liked what he had to say.

-Claire was forced to hear another person's boring monologue about how evil her father is. Did you guys know that HRG operates in world where everything is just shades of gray? SHADES OF GRAY! ARE YOU GETTING IT YET?

-Emma and Peter work in a hospital where they just throw sick children into supply closets! Someone report that place!

-Peter and Emma's romance seems to be progressing. Ugh.

Three great things happened:

-The Haitian came back, and we learned that his name is Rene (maybe we already knew that...LOVE him though!)

-There was a cute HRG/Claire-Bear scene (Sniff. Those two always get me)

-And...Peter took his shrine to himself down! Why? I don't know! Maybe because he can't use powers very well anymore? Or because he wants to invite Emma over for dinner and even he has to admit that the shrine thing is pretty weird? Because he wants to ponder the one clipping not about himself, which happens to be about Samuel? (Newspaper clippings are inordinately important to Peter Petrelli's life.) I don't know why he did it, but I'm pretty glad he did. "Hero Paramedic Takes Down Creepy Shrine to Himself!" Now that's a clipping worth saving Peter.

Heroes-Nathan-Matt-Sylar.jpg
Okay then, on to "Brother's Keeper" which I have to admit was a much better episode. It wasn't what I would call good, but for Heroes, it was kind of compelling. Kind of.

So the last episode started at the end of the one two weeks ago, and I guess Hiro's been sitting around the carnival pouting about Charlie and staring at her nametag for god knows how long at this point. The timelines of this episode make absolutely no sense to me. I know we haven't seen Mohinder in awhile, but I still don't think it has been long enough for him to get a new teaching job, develop an amazing rapport with his students AND get a new hot girlfriend that he has made a home with, all the while giving up on researching people with abilities, even though he has one now. (The fact that he is super strong was never mentioned or acknowledged in any way.) I mean Mohinder got a new job and a new woman before Nathan's body could even begin to decay!

So basically Hiro has to go back in time to stop Mohinder from burning a film that is evidence that Samuel can "increase his power one thousand fold" when surrounded by a certain number of other people who have powers. Or something like that. Samuel of course didn't even know about this until Mohinder came strolling into the carnival like an idiot, letting him know about how he could become powerful beyond all belief and basically rule the world. Why would you give anyone, anyone, that kind of information? Sometimes it physically hurts me how stupid Mohinder is. Samuel's brother Joseph agrees with me on this one, and tells Mohinder to get the heck out of the carnival. Of course Samuel heard, probably killed his brother, went and killed Mohinder. So Hiro gets the film, saves Mohinder, and then in a particularly sadistic turn on Hiro's part, hides Mohinder in a mental institiution (complete with padded cell and straighjacket!) to keep Mohinder from hindering Samuel's plan and not saving Charlie. Or something. It really seems like these two could have figured out a way to work together against Samuel but, blah blah blah, they are stupid, you know the rest.

So we learned some good things there, like all of this is Mohinder's fault, why Samuel is trying to gather the heroes and who probably killed Joseph. (Samuel). So that was good.

Also good? The brothers Petrelli, together again! From the almost inappropriate reunion hug to the final "Tell me it isn't true" moment, something about the chemistry of these two actors really makes all the scenes they are in together really pop! I mean contrast Peter and Nathan scenes to any scene with Peter and and any of his love interests and you'll see what I mean.
Heroes-Peter.jpg
Pasdar and Ventigmiglia are good together! Also, they are super hot, so everyone wins!


Besides smoking hot dudes with chemistry, this episode also brought us a few refreshing things including:

-People talking about their issues/weird things that are happening to them etc., instead of just acting cagey and then doing something rash. (Nathan told Peter about waking up in the carnival, Tracy confided to Claire about her out of control powers.)

-Cute bonding between Tracy and Claire! (First time I've liked any of Ali Larter's characters in forever!)

-The Haitian! I mean, Rene!

-Tracy AND Claire going to see HRG independently! (I just don't want him to be lonely.)

-Disgustingly funny severed foot jokes!

-Forward motion of the plot! Nathan and Peter find out Nathan is a) dead and b) Sylar. Sylar got out of Matt Parkman's head!

-Maybe less Parkman now that Sylar isn't in his head anymore?

-Everyone, including Mohinder himself, seems to be able to acknowledge that he is an idiot and only bad things happen whenever he inserts himself into any situation. I mean his girlfriend's prediction that he would go all crazy over his father's research came true in a matter of hours!

So at the end of this episode, I was kind of intrigued and excited about what might happen next week! There IS a casting spoiler I would like to discuss that kind of takes the wind out of my sails and squanders the tiny bit of goodwill that I now have towards this show but...that'll have to wait.

Next week:
Where's Sylar? Inside his Sylar/Nathan body or what?

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A Window in Your Heart: Mad Men, Season 3, Episode 13, Shut the Door, Have a Seat.


There was so much awesome in this episode I don't even know where to start. The episode almost felt like two, one with an incredibly depressing and dramatic tone, and one with a fun, jaunty tone. My favorite part was most definitely the creation of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce which was like watching the best caper/ heist movie I can think of starring my favorite actors in the world. It was that good. Highlights include:

-Don got out of his contract, cut and ran, yet got everyone awesome to go hobo with him!

-The way Roger snapped his hand up when Don asked if they should vote. He doesn't even need dialogue. John Slattery is a genius.

-Roger: "Join or die?! That's your pitch?"

-Roger on Jane:"The most interest that girl has ever had in a book depository."

-Bert on Jane: "You sold your birthright so you could marry that trollop!"

-Pete in his pajamas. That is the nightmare man. You are faking sick and your bosses come to your house! I kind of loved Pete again that scene. Oh show, why do you want me to love all these horrible people so much? I don't know why, but I do.

-Trudy as Pete was losing his temper "Oh Peter, can I speak to you for a moment?" Despite their obvious problems, I always feel like Trudy and Pete really do match each other well. She knows his rhythms and how to respond to them.

-Peggy to Don: "I don't want to make a career of being kicked when you fail." Even though I really wanted Peggy to come with him, I was also really proud of her for standing up to Don. I'm pretty sure he was as well.

-Pete, completely freaked out that Harry isn't supposed to be in on the plan, yelling so obviously as they walk in "Hey everybody! Harry Crane is here!"

-Harry Crane (Luckiest bastard in the world by the way. They wanted him? Hopefully Joan will be running media within the month.): "Are you kidding?" Roger, in that perfect deadpan: Yes. Yes we are. Happy Birthday."

-Bert Cooper threatening to tie Harry up and throw him in a closet for the weekend. That guy is so great.

-Roger making the call! Of course we knew it was Joan!

-Joan striding in triumphantly and saving the day. Don: "Joan. Of course."

-Roger and Joan sniping at each other like an old married couple. "I can't read your writing. What does that even say?!" "It's very clear, it says 'correspondence." ROGER AND JOAN 4EVA people! 4eva.

-Don awesomely breaking down the door to the art department. How can you not love his guy?!! Oh right, there's that whole total liar thing.

-Don showing up, hat in hand, to make things right with Peggy. It was great to see him admit to her how important she was, and how much he valued her work. "I will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you." It was great for him to tell her that he sees her as an extension of himself because it shows you how important she is to him. They really are so much alike, and they are both amazingat their jobs because work is the only thing either of them feels safe putting all of themselves into. Don needs Peggy as a mirror, but I think she needs him just as much.

-Pryce's look of jubilation as he was fired from PPL. "Very good! Happy Christmas!"


-Joan helping Don get a new place. "Furnished?" "Yes." "I'm sorry." My friend Eric said it best, she's so discreet, she's like a spy. Love Joan. So glad she's going to back with the gang next season!

The fun of the creation of a new agency by all the old players we love (except Sal! Sadness.) was a stark contrast to Don's home-life scenes. Watching Don and Betty tell Sally and Bobby that they were going to separate was gut-wrenching. I thought both child actors did an incredible job there, and was especially impressed with Jared S. Gilmore as Bobby, who we haven't seen a ton of this season. The way he threw his arms around Don and begged him not to go brought even ice queen Betty to tears. It was like we were watching Sally be forced to grow up right there on screen. I think Kiernan Shipka has been great this season and I loved her line to her parents "You say things and you don't mean them and you can't do that!" Both Don and Betty would do well to learn that lesson.

One of the incredible things about Jon Hamm's performance as Don Draper as that even when you are completely repulsed by the character, you are inexplicably drawn to him, and in my opinion, rooting for him. Even though Don has lied to her for their entire marriage and cheated on her constantly, I still found myself completely outraged and saddened by Betty's treatment of him. Maybe it is because she dangled the hope of the two of them finally getting to live an honest life together in front of him for awhile. Maybe it's because she's "built herself a life raft" in the form of Henry Francis. (Can't believe Roger knew about that! I loved his, "I was going to tell you. No I wasn't.") Maybe it's because Don is right about one thing, she is a snob, and when she learned about Don's lies about his life, she couldn't abide living with the son of a whore when she had the chance to live with a real man of wealth and power. I don't know, but when Don told Betty he was going to take the kids because "God knows they'll better off" I really wanted that to happen! And when he called her and told he wouldn't fight her, I couldn't help but feel a little sense of defeat.


I think the fact that the writers have been giving us glimpses of Don's absolutely horrific childhood is one of the reasons he remains sympathetic. The scene where Don remembers himself as little Dick Whitman seeing his father killed leads him to realize something that Archie never could: You can't handle this world all on your own. It's taken Don Draper a long time to realize that he actually needs people, (Roger: You're no good at relationships because you don't think they're important.") and though he used this realization to fix things at work, it was too late for his marriage.


I am left wondering where this leaves Don and Betty for next season. After this episode and the interview creator Matthew Weiner gave in The Daily Beast this week it seems pretty clear that there will be no getting back together for the Drapers. But will Henry really be the knight in shining armor he claims to be? And if he's not, will we get to see that play out next season at all? Their entire relationship, from him hitting on her while she is heavily pregnant to his proposal after having spent no more than a few hours total with her has been very strange, and I can only assume that he isn't exactly all he claims to be. Unfortunately for Betty, she seems to be attracted to men with that quality.


In the end, it's Don Draper's show, and I guess that's why we can't help rooting for him despite some of the awful things he's done and said. The look of pride and triumph that he had as he surveys the tiny Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office just made the episode for me. He is ready to value the people he works with, and he is ready to build something that is his. You can tell from the look in his eyes that he can't wait to see how it all turns out, and I can't either. August can't come soon enough.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Melrose Place- "Gower" The CW needs a new episode namer ASAP. That isn't even a real word!!!

Melrose-Place-Lauren.jpgFriends don't let friends...whore themselves out?


Okay there is just one thing I have to get off my chest after seeing last night's Melrose Place. Maybe I'm a meddler, maybe I'm a fixer, maybe I get too involved in other people's lives, but I have to say, if I found out my "bestie slash roomate" had become a high class hooker I am pretty sure I would not be able to tell her, as Ella did "I'll never mention it again, unless you want to talk about it." Um, WHAT?!!! Your friend has become a whore because she can't afford med school. There is really a host of problems that come with that, especially since you are her roommate!! You should get her a second job, loan her money, bring her to a freakin' loan officer, I don't care what you have to do, it will be beneficial for both of you if she STOPS being a hooker. So that's where I stand on that. I mean at least try Ella. Even one "are you sure this is the right choice for you?" conversation would be nice.

Other mind boggling choices made by on Melrose Place:

Auggie decided to sleep with crazy Violet. That was after she infected the chef with her serious case of "sexy face" by sharing a fork with him. Lord knows what Auggie's going to get form her. I have heard that "ass chin" can be sexually transmitted...

Jonah and Riley decided to be on the show and be boring. And kiss other people. Ugh just break up already.

David buried the knife he thinks he murdered Sydney with (no way was it him) at a construction site, where it would surely be disturbed but all the construction going on. I can see how this guy is some kind of art thief, he is super great at being a criminal.
Melrose-Place-David-Syd.jpg"You're not really the kind of person moms are proud of, David."


Both David and Ella think they could possibly be responsible for Sydney's death, which really does not speak well of either of them.

Sydney continued her streak of meeting a distraught young man at a difficult place in his life and sleeping with him almost instantly.

Lauren decided that certain kind of integrity were more important than others. For me, very little is more important than me not having to be a prostitute, but we all have different priorities I guess.

The worst detective ever continued his murder investigation.

Rick Fox decided to do a 30 second cameo as a jerk.

A woman at the wedding Riley and Jonah were videoing wore a ridiculously ugly hat.

Ella wore an INCREDIBLY weird and hideous white pantsuit.

Melrose-Place-Violet-Auggie.jpgOUT!

So before we move on to the "next week" bit, we do have something to talk about here. Casting news is NOT spoilers, and there has been some BIG casting news for MP. Specfically it looks like Heather Locklear will be back as Amanda Woodward (working with Ella!) and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz (eee!) and Colin Egglesfield will be exiting the show soon as Violet and Auggie. Any bets on how those two leave? Murder-suicide? Romantic getaway that never ends? Jail? What do you guys think?

Next week: Ella kisses Jonah. I don't really get those two.

90210- "Women's Intuition" Who is naming these episodes?!!


So, since I already uploaded that horrific picture of Annie and Jasper, let's just start there. They are just so awful I cannot even describe it. Shanae Grimes was 'facing it up' (copyright me, 2009) so much that I couldn't even begin to ignore it. The episode started with some horrible 'acting' (and there were some crazy faces made my friends, let me tell you.) and just went downhill from there. She was mean to Navid but yet still kind of believed him that Jasper was a drug dealer, confronted Jasper BEFORE lunch, causing the loss of some delicious looking hot dogs, and then showed up behind the Hollywood sign and pathetically begged for forgiveness. When these two kiss, all I can say is "Eww."

(There were so many women begging men for forgiveness on the CW last night that it started to make me feel a little squeamish. I think we should have only one woman balling and begging a night. Maybe I could get behind a one-per-show type of limit, but I don't know.)

While we are discussing awfulness, we might as well talk about Jen, who is queen of awfulness. (I cannot believe Pharell was nice to her at that weird adult/teenager party with famous-ish people like Samantha Ronson they were at. Why do the adults on this show sleep with/go to the same places as/spend any time with all these teenagers? I mean even when you were 22, would you really want to sleep with a high schooler? It's weird. Though someone who shall remain nameless did say last night, "Seriously though, if high schoolers looked like Liam, I would sleep with them." Which is totally understandable and not weird, because the guy who plays Liam is 26, so don't get all uptight about it people!!) Anyway, she was terrible, being mean to chicks Ryan was trying to date, ruining Ryan and Liam's adorable student/teacher relationship (he called him "One of my favorite students"!! Aww!") and just generally being awful. PLEASE let whatever Liam has under that tarp be a freakin' Jen killing machine. PLEASE.

So those were the terrible things! Awesome things coming up!

Deb totally knew Sasha was faking that pregnancy from moment one! Go Deb! Now you just have to parent that other kid who is a bum killing booby flasher that dates a drug dealer!

Oh Dixon, I almost kind of liked you and felt bad for you for five minutes tonight. You're still kind of a jerk though, let's be honest.

I'm kind of with Harry on the "We should tell Dixon that crazy woman was faking a pregnancy to keep him" thing. Not having that info could be a problem in the future I think.

Liam and Ivy! Super cute! They might not want something serious yet, but I want them to be together forever, get married and have little surfing babies. Yeah, I said it.

Teddy, Liam and Ivy- best group of BFF's ever. I like every single one of them better than any of the original cast members from last season. Well everyone besides Navid. That dude is pretty cool.

Liam always looks at blueprints when he's sad. Blueprints of a JEN KILLING MACHINE perhaps?

Poor Adrianna. Her serenading Navid and falling deeper and deeper into depression really got me. I would have taken her back in a second! Navid is so much more mature than I am.

I'm actually getting kind of excited thinking about when Ryan finds out what a sociopath Jen is. I am sure he will be totally self-righteous about the whole thing. I just hope he feels REALLY stupid about not seeing through her.

Liam loves N.E.R.D.! Cute!

Liam is always too slow too react. Whenever someone is mean to him he never explains himself he just stands there staring. I really want to believe he's planning his revenge, but I'm not so sure... Now we know why he and Teddy get along so well.

I wish that after I went through a terrible break-up, Samantha Ronson had been there to tell me to go and flirt. I think really gave Navid the boost he needed there!

Jasper bought a cool car with that drug dealer money, I will at least give him that.

Next week:
Annie wants to sleep with Jasper. Gross.
Jasper deals to Adrianna and Navid wants to take him down! Yay Navid!

Heroes-Reminding me why I liked this show...


Remember Charlie, and how cute she was?

Remember how cute Hiro and she were?

Remember when we thought that Future-Hiro was going to be awesome and tough?

Remember when Sylar was all cool and scary?

Remember when HRG was bad-ass and not a pathetic shell of a man?

Well I kind of forgot about all these things, mostly because so much insane crap has happened on this show in the past 3 years, and so many timelines have been changed that I have no idea what really went on and what didn't anymore. For example, I totally forgot that Hiro actually believes that Sylar is dead when he was telling him about how he would die.

So basically we learned that 3 years ago HRG almost cheated on Sandra with Elisabeth "Is this because I'm a lesbian" Rohm, but decided not to because he loves Claire. Poor Sandra. I mean maybe I am being unrealistic, but no one wants her husband to tell the woman he was about to cheat on her with "I can't because I love my family". Cause let's be honest here, he was about to cheat on her, so that doesn't say much for how he's feeling about Sandra, and no one loves Lyle, so it was obviously just about Claire-Bear. Well thanks Heroes for showing us that HRG is a multifaceted, complex man whose actions are often morally ambiguous. It's not like you don't show me that EVERY OTHER WEEK. So thanks again then.

The thing is though, this week was kind of enjoyable (minus most of the HRG stuff, I have to say.) I liked the Hiro figuring out how to preserve the time-line AND save Charlie, and I even felt like the ending, if thoroughly unsatisfying (poor Charlie!), was a pretty good twist. BUT I feel like I was into the show because it was the show from 2006, and every time the 2009 part of the show intruded (I'm looking at you, Carny guy) I was disappointed we couldn't just stay in this time-line forever. I think I would watch a show about Charlie and Hiro on vacation in Otsu every week if it would keep me from EVER having to watch the Parkman/Sylar comedy hour ever again.

Things I am actually interested in:

Will anything have changed in the present for Hiro or any of our other characters?

Will we ever see Charlie again (remember Peter's girlfriend that got stuck in the future!?)

Now that he and Sandra are divorced, is HRG going to hit it with the other agent that liked him so much she Hatianed her feelings for him away?! (If she's still alive. What happened to all the people who worked for The Company anyway? I am not saying it wasn't explained at some point, but I literally have NO idea what went on.)

Um, the Carny killed Mohinder?!!!! Okay, I'm kind of intrigued by that.


Will I ever find out more about Lydia's daughter from those Sprint, "Slow Burn" commericals?!! (Just kidding, no one cares about that.)

Can we just all get to the carnival already, if that is where this is leading?

Next week:
Parkman's on. Great.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

It's Never Over: Mad Men, Season 3 Episode 12, The Grown-Ups


The Kennedy assassination has hung over Mad Men like a spectre this season. As soon as we saw the date November 23, 1963 (the day after the assassination) on Margaret's wedding invitation we knew there would be an episode dealing with this huge event in history. Matthew Weiner had actually said at one point during the second season that he didn't feel like he had anything to add to the story of the Kennedy Assassination, but a man is entitled to change his mind, right?! And change his mind he did. The entire season was building to this moment, and even though I feel it was a slow (and oh my god so depressing) episode, it was a major game changer plot wise for many characters.

The Don and Betty storyline just broke my heart in so many ways. When Betty looked at Don and told him "And then you tried to fix it. But there's no point anymore...", it just killed me. The Don of this episode was almost an entirely different person than the man we had come to know, and honestly he seemed entirely better. His face looked open, hungry and full of love for his wife. When he tells her 'everything is going to be okay', it's because he believes it. He believes that she loves him for who he really is, something he never though possible. He is stretching out and getting comfortable in this new life, this life without lies, just trying to gloss over all of the damage he has done to Betty. He is a master at forgetting, and he is ready to forget all the pain he has caused with his lies and his cheating and start a newer, more honest life with his family. And even though that is ridiculous, selfish, and even a little crazy, I just couldn't help wanting it for him as well.


What made Betty realize that she was done? Was she done already, and just letting the whole Dick Whitman thing blow over before she left? Was it the death of the president, seeing the Oswald shot or feeling the despair that came over the nation after these events? Or was it simply seeing someone she wanted more, and having Henry Francis tell her he just wants to take her to see her favorite movie (and MARRY her?!! speaking of crazy...). Even though it is hard not be sympathetic to a woman who has been cheated on and lied to throughout most of her marriage, there is still a part of me that feels like Betty is a petulant child, not making any kind of measured decisions but just deciding on a whim that she doesn't love Don, that even with him trying, she can't make it work.


It doesn't help Betty that Jon Hamm has been playing Don with an openness we have only rarely seen from this character. That look of fear on his face when Betty tells him she is going out for a drive, and the look of love he gives her at the wedding just had me melting. You know a guy is good when he can make you feel bad for a lying womanizer like Don.

This episode also brought big changes for Pete. He is ready to move on from Sterling-Cooper it seems. Oh Pete. Hated him, wanted to like him, kind of started to like him, hated him again and now...kinda had some affection for him again. That is a long winded way of saying that he is an incredibly complex character, and I think Weiner and Co. as well as Vincent Karthheiser do a great job bringing him to life. I really love that Pete's downfall is being too attentive to his clients, because he is such a weird robot human that of course that's what it would be! As we see when he is fixing the secretary's heater, Ken is just a naturally, genuinely nice guy, whereas it is just so hard for Pete to figure out how to be nice, how to be likeable, and he just reeks of trying to hard. I thought the scenes of he and Trudy were interesting because they showed their relationship as it is (she's poor little Petey's Mummy most of the time) but how on some level that works for them. Pete does need someone to take care of him and Trudy doesn't seem to mind doing it. At least for now. He might want to leave Sterling Cooper for Gray, but he won't do it until she suggests it. Maybe that is how Trudy can abide by his cheating (what she knows of it), because she holds the true power in their relationship.

And then there was Roger. The Roger story got me on a lot of levels. Roger was in it, for one, so I was pretty happy about that. I just loved the speech he made his daughter's wedding. Roger Sterling is a man who knows how to make toasts, you have got to say that for him. I like that he made going on with the wedding feel like a triumph instead of an act of stubbornness, or apathy towards the national tragedy. That guy is such a charming rogue! I can't help but love him. And of course, his call to Joan, his need to talk to her and his acknowledgement that "No one else is saying the right thing about this." Call me a romantic, or a fool, but I still love the idea of Joan and Roger together. She had his number right away. She knew he had found something that he just didn't know how to deal with by himself. "Because there's nothing funny about this." It is interesting that when talking to Annabel about Jane Roger said "I finally found a girl who doesn't care about the future." He loves Jane because she's not a grown up and doesn't expect him to be one. He can't have that with Mona or with Joan, but maybe now that he's carrying his drunken child bride out of his daughter's wedding, he realizes that he doesn't want it as much as he thought?

Stray thoughts:


-Loved Margaret's temper tantrums, and the fact that she was crying "It's all ruined" after the assassination.


-I think I'm in love with Mona, and I cannot believe Roger would leave her for Jane. Joan, sure.


-I hope Harry Crane does die unnoticed in that office! This season has certainly shown us what a complete dolt that guy is.


-Sometimes this episode was a little slow, having us watch people watch people watch TV and react to a situation. There were a few great moments pulled from that though, I especially liked Carla sitting down next to a sobbing Betty, taking out a cigarette and crying. A little of the facade she keeps up at work went away there.

-Henry Francis- Is he going to be as disappointed as Don when Betty can't live up to her "perfect woman" image?

-This was definitely an episode about the end of an era. The world is passing "The Grown-Ups" by, Roger, Don, etc. and they don't even know it yet.

-It was really sweet when Sally comforted her crying mother after the President was declared dead. Another instance of the children taking care of the grown-ups.

-There is always a lot of talk about how Betty and Pete are parallel characters, both overgrown children. I'll be interested to see if either of them keeps to the decision they made in this episode.

-I'm pretty sure that Peggy was just as disturbed as I was at the fact that Duck kept the news of the president's assassination from her until after they had sex. That's real class.

Next week: Season finale! I'm ready.