Mad Men & Other TV Notes

I only have a few (late) comments on this week's Mad Men:

First, Roger continued to be the king of one-liners and of course lord of inappropriateness. What was Roger’s most offensive comment:

1) Referring to Don’s new secretary as “it’s always darkest before the Dawn?”
2) Commenting to Peggy about Michael, the new copywriter, “everyone has one these days”?
3) Or saying in response to Don’s news about Betty’s illness, “well that would solve a lot of problems”?

Oh, Roger.

This week’s episode seems to have had two divisive issues that I’ll address:

First is what I’ll refer to as the Michael Ginsberg issue. For whatever reasons, in many of the comments I’ve read people sure do hate the new Jewish copywriter. For my part I think he’s got real potential and I enjoyed his scenes with Peggy. I envision the two of them having some fun (and not so fun) conflicts. The main criticism seems to be that his personality was over the top and possibly playing into a stereotype. But I think that’s the point. He’s acting like one person in the office to impress everyone and stand out, but as we see when he goes home he’s much more reserved. In this respect he’s not unlike Don (who’s not only playing a part at work, his whole life is playing another person) or even Peggy (who’s playing the role she has to in order to succeed in a man’s world). And let’s not forget this is a TV show and you need interesting characters. It’s like complaining that Omar on The Wire is too over the top because his character's not true to life like the rest of the show. But you need Omar to keep it interesting. Anyway, would these people rather have Joey back from last season (or Jane’s cousin for that matter)?

The second is the Betty issue, or more appropriately the Fat Betty issue. I’ll admit the fat suit may have been a bit much, but it didn’t bother me nearly as much as others based on what I’ve read. Betty has never been a sympathetic character, and she’s not a fan fave, but the hate still surprises me. I think it’s perfectly within her character to let herself go, in some desperate cry for attention. And if she really had a thyroid problem I imagine that would contribute to the weight gain (although I'm not a doctor). My understanding is that we won’t see much Betty this year anyway because of January Jones’ real life pregnancy, so hopefully this isn’t much of an issue.

And that leads me to a comment I read about whether Betty was lying to Henry when she told him the doctor said she was fine (after the phone call). This would have been foreshadowed by her friend who said she would rather have not told her family and then just died one day. On one hand I don’t think this is the case because after the call she went back into the whole “I guess I’m just fat” routine and wolfed down Sally’s ice cream. And they're not going to kill off Betty, right? On the other hand this could be a fascinating plot line throughout the season, and it’s not like the show to raise an issue in one episode and have it resolved by the end of that episode. Along the same lines, going back to the premiere, I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of the owner of the wallet that Lane found. Could that be like Don meeting Connie in Season 3 at Roger’s country club party? Who might the mysterious wallet man be and what can he do for the firm or just for Lane? And I’m still wondering where Faye is, or have we seen the last or her, like we apparently have Sal? Is she going to be like Midge and pop up in another season or disappear like Sally’s teacher that Don had an affair with?

A few other TV notes:

Sunday has suddenly become a busy TV night in our household. In addition to Mad Men, Mrs. and I have also been watching Frozen Planet on Discovery. From the makers of Planet Earth and Blue Planet (the former we both enjoyed and although we haven’t seen the latter I’m sure we’d love that as well), it’s a documentary on life in the Artic and Antarctic regions starring penguins, whales, wolves, bison, polar bears and more. If you’re into nature shows we highly recommend checking it out.

Also Sunday nights, immediately preceding Mad Men, The Killing is back for Season 2. Even though we both wanted to quit the show after last season’s disappointing finale, we couldn’t help ourselves and ended up watching the two-hour premiere. It was ok at best, pretty much what you’d expect given what’s happened on the show so far. We’ll probably keep watching (although likely On Demand on some other night when there's nothing else on we want to watch), but I can’t escape the feeling that there is virtually no chance the show comes to a satisfying conclusion. It seems like no matter what happens it will be a let down, and that’s too bad for a show that had a ton of potential.

And one more Sunday show, Season 8 of Food Network Star premieres Sunday, May 13th. We’ll probably make this an addition to the watch list. On a related note, we’ve watched Jeff Mauro’s show (the Season 7 winner) a few times, and although I wasn’t initially on the Jeff bandwagon like Mrs., I have to admit the man has personality and does make a mean sandwich. He’s welcome to come prepare lunch for us anytime.

And last but not least, Hulu is once again having its “Best in Show” contest. It's been going on for weeks, but it’s now down to the final two – Community vs. The Walking Dead. They've each taken down some formidable competition to get to the finals. I’m obviously all for the Community victory and I'm hoping a big win might even convince NBC to renew the show (fingers crossed). So go to hulu.com/bestinshow and vote.