Mad Men Season 6 Episode 5: "The Flood"

A sad and somber episode, which is appropriate given the historical material that the show is trying to tackle.  I sometimes forget that Mad Men is a show set in history, but then an event like the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. finds itself intersecting with the Mad Men plotline, and I’m reminded that this is a show woven into America’s history.  This was an interesting episode, in which it dealt with the reactions of the characters to the assassination and how it molded each of their personal dramas. 

For Don, the news of the assassination made him reevaluate his relationship with his children, as he was unsure on how to approach the topic with them, primarily Bobby.  I think for the first time in Mad Men history, Bobby gets an actual story arc as a character.  Their scene at the movie theatre was the most important scene in the episode, with Bobby communicating to the janitor that he feels his loss and sympathizes with him.  The scene is followed by a drunken Don, explaining at first horrifically that he sometimes feels like he is faking love for his children, only to have it be proven real and true.   

For many of the other characters, news of the assassination found its way changing their personal lives.  Pete actually wasn’t a despicable and annoying character this episode, reacting to the news as a tragic event and reaching out to Trudy to see if she was ok.  Their exchange was caring but distanced, it seemed as Trudy was almost about to give in to Pete’s offer to come over but had to remind herself not to at the end.  He followed that by almost getting into an office fistfight with Harry, who viewed the news through a business standpoint and feared that it may affect the airing of his television commercials.  Burt’s attempt to make the two apologize to each other was one of the only comedic parts of the episode. 

Overall, a solid and quietly compelling episode about national tragedy and how individuals may connect and cope with it.

Observations:

- The first real characteristic we learn about Bobby is that he is not a fan of mismatched wallpaper. 

- Don seemed overly interested in where Sylvia and Arnold were going, to the point it was even joked about.  Not smooth Don, not smooth.

- SCDP’s only two nominees at the awards, Peggy and Megan, no longer work there.

- That girl Ginsberg was setup with was way out of his league.  She also talked like Peggy.

- Joan and Don comforting Dawn was uncomfortable, seemingly making her feel more like an outsider despite them trying to be compassionate towards her. 

- That sideways hug Joan gives Dawn was hilariously awkward.

- I like the fact that Don and Bobby enjoyed Planet of the Apes and seemed blown away by the ending.

- “Everybody likes to go to the movies when they’re sad”.  Well said, Bobby.

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 5: "Kissed By Fire"

Hard to believe but we’re already halfway into Season 3.  Things are definitely heating up (literally, there’s fire everywhere this episode), with important developments all around.  This episode focuses on the relationships of the characters more than usual, which I enjoyed and thought was needed.

As the episode starts off, we get right into action with the Hound’s battle against the Lord of Light soldier.  Arya has kept her bloodlust for the Hound and all those involved in her father’s execution, still reciting their names every night.  Next, Ygritte finally makes a man out of Jon Snow.  They somehow manage to find a romantic waterfall to do it near and have pillow talk after.  I’m glad Jon and Ygritte finally get this moment, even though Ygritte had to make all the moves.

Meanwhile, Robb’s army is facing hard times.  His execution of the “traitor” reminded me of Ned’s execution of the deserter in Season 1.  Stannis comes back to check on his home life, revealing he has a somewhat crazy wife and a scarred but cute daughter.  Jaime and Brienne take a bath together and Jaime tells a harrowing story about how he got his nickname.  This is Jaime at his most vulnerable; his story is tragic and adds another dimension to his character.  At King’s Landing, there’s a matchmaking power struggle going on.  Tywin delivers two bombshells when he proposes that Tyrion wed Sansa (whaaat) and that Cersei marry Loras (whaaat).  The episode ends with Stannis’s daughter singing over the end credits.

This episode, in many ways, felt like a soap opera, but a good one.  Although there wasn’t as much action as the previous two episodes, there was a lot of development with the personal lives of the characters.  Overall, I found it to be a refreshingly emotional and character driven episode. 

Observations:

- Booty booty booty rocking everywhere in this episode (Ygritte, Jaime, Brienne, Loras’s lover).

- Ygritte and Jon’s foreplay involves her “stealing his sword”.

- “I don’t know, I just wanted to kiss you there is all.”

- Jorah seems to still be in love with Danerys. 

- Danerys is trying to run a democracy within her army.

- Sansa is smitten with Loras, she falls too easily.  Remember when she had undying love for Joffrey?

- Littlefinger’s advances on Sansa were pretty creepy and had a creepy uncle vibe.  “Call me Peter”.

- Tywin is not a good matchmaker.  Or is he….

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 4: "To Have and To Hold"

It’s a busy day at Sterling Cooper Draper Price.  Mad Men gets to business in an eventful episode that brings the excitement of the show back to the office.

We finally check in on Joan, who seems to be doing the same secretarial duties she's had the last couple of seasons even though she's been technically made a partner.  The dark circumstances of her partnership gets brought up in a cringe worthy scene where Harry disrupts a partners meeting to unfire his secretary and demand a promotion.  Joan may have made it to the top, but how she got there will always haunt her. Her promotion also has effects on Harry and Kenny feeling underappreciated, which makes sense.  His line "I'm sorry my accomplishments happened in broad daylight and I can't be given the same rewards" was pretty harsh.

More office drama unfolds with Dawn, who gets her own storyline in a subplot that highlight's the office's pettiness.  It's refreshing to get a different perspective on SCDP, even if it's through the lens of secretary drama.  I did not like Harry's assistant though.  In the only non-office story, Megan gets a love scene, which is great for her career, but angers Don.  His scene in bed with Sylvia at the end mirrored Megan’s sex scene in her soap opera.  I don't know if this was meant as a commentary on the hypocrisy of his character or if we were meant to interpret it as Don acting out what he saw intentionally in real life, maybe both.

Finally, we get the eventual showdown between SCDP and Peggy’s new firm.  Don listening in on Peggy's presentation was my favorite scene of the episode.  It showed a mentor checking on his protege as well as a rival eavesdropping on his competition.  Don continues his streak of trying to sell ads without actually showing the product (he also did this in the season premiere with the Hawaiian hotel chain).  He fails, losing both the potential Heinz Ketchup account as well as losing their long time Heinz Baked Beans account, to Ken’s dismay and anger.

Overall, an enjoyable episode that gives us some more time with Joan, Harry, Ken and Dawn, the side characters that keep the office running and who I would like to see more of.  It’s nice to see what’s going on at SCDP while Don ponders life and cheats on his wife. 

Observations:

- Secret Ad Agent Stan was pretty funny, I enjoyed the spy music playing while he went to his secret office, as well as him and Don sharing a joint.

- Harry's secretary's excuse for being gone is that she was in the ladies restroom.

- Poor Dawn, she got caught in drama at the office when she was clearly trying to lay low.

- “How are things, Don?”- Newcomer Bobby to Don, followed by Don’s eyeroll.

- Another good line: “You know how important I am to this company Burt.  Burt, you were me.”  Burt’s response: “I was different than you Mr. Crane, in every way.”

- From a business standpoint, Peggy’s pitch was better than Don’s.

- I guess Peggy and Stan aren’t going to be phone buddies anymore =[

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 4: "And Now His Watch Has Ended"

An exciting and well rounded episode, with important developments for almost all of the characters.  For those that complained the first three episodes were lacking in plot and action, this episode undoubtedly kicks the show into high gear.  Not only do we get promising build ups (Tywin promises to put Joffrey in check, the Hound will fight for his life), we get some delicious ends to two vile characters (the slave trader and Craster, finally).

The episode starts off with a shot of Jaime's cut off hand.  Things have gotten worse for Jaime, we've never seen him this bad before.  Having been tied up and in chains since Season 1, he's always maintained his cleverness and sense of humor, but not anymore.  Somebody needs to give him a hand (hah, couldn't resist).  At King's Landing, Margaery convinces Joffrey to address his people, much to Cersei's behest. Theon still had daddy issues and realizes his mistake, proclaims Ned Stark to be his real father, then gets betrayed.  His helper dude is crazy.  Lord Varys is onto Littlefinger's plans.  Arya tries to get revenge for her friend back in Season 1, Episode 2 against the Hound.  We see some of Sansa and Margaery being girlfriends, with Margaery trying to hook her up with her brother.  Like, totally!

Finally, we see Craster get what's coming to him.  Good riddance.  Too bad about the leader of the Knight's Watch though, that was uncalled for.   In an episode with a lot of exciting plot developments, the best was saved for last.  I'm glad Daenerys didn't have to lose one of her dragons and am glad she gave the city revenge against its slave owners   Although many people expected something like this to happen, it was still damn epic.  "A dragon is not a slave!"  

Observations:
- Theres a lot of shit in this episode, literally (Jaime in a pile of it, the Knight's Watch shoveling it).
- Bran is involved in some Matrix/Inception stuff.
- Joffrey's idea of romance involves going to see tombs.
- I enjoyed Brienne telling Jaime he sounds like a "bloody woman".
- "Good, I wished you knew how to manipulate you him." Tywin to Cersei. Burnn.
- Also, "You are a bastard.  A daughter fucking wilding bastard".  About time.
- My preseason wish of Sam going back for his girl happens, check!
- The Brotherhood Without Borders have a batcave and a Batman-like philosophy.'  Too bad they they're in with that God of Light religion.
- The Unsullied reminds me of the soldiers from 300.

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 3: "The Collaborators"

A strong episode that centers on the complicated relationships of Don and Pete, while also highlighting their characters' similarities and key differences.  After the bland season premiere, I'm glad to see Mad Men back and raising the drama.

In the episode, Don and Pete are two men dealing with similar situations very differently.  Both are in affairs with their friends' wives, yet both respond to the challenges of their affairs with varying degrees of success.  Don is smoother and smarter about his adultery, he even makes it look more meaningful.  When Sylvia gives Don the cold shoulder at a fateful restaurant dinner, Don turns it around on her and makes her fall for him even more.  When Pete's mistress shows up at his household, he does everything wrong and shows that he does not care about her in the slightest, dooming his marriage.  Don succeeds, Pete fails. We also get more insight into Don's screwed up psyche, with some interesting flashbacks to his childhood that we haven't seen since the early Mad Men seasons.

My favorite scene of the episode was Trudy's speech to Pete, ending their marriage and telling him what was going to happen from there.  Trudy may act happy and oblivious but she knew what Pete was up to all along.  She even tried to make it easy for him by letting him have his own apartment in the city, yet Pete still managed to screw that up.  He was a trainwreck waiting to happen, sleeping with their neighbor was a new low Trudy couldn't overlook.  Good for her.

Meanwhile, Peggy is successful at her new job but not very popular.  She is the Don Draper of her new firm, but without the coolness to make everyone like her.  She vents to her buddy Stan, who tells her about the Heinz ketchup situation to cheer her up.  Her mistake is that she relayed this intel to her new boss, who wants to act on it and steal the Heinz account.  She may lose her only friend because of this.  I look forward to seeing the eventual face off her firm will have with SCDP over the account.

Overall, this was an episode that increased the stakes with Don and Peggy's storylines, while resolving Pete's.  The end of his relationship with Trudy was in the making since the first episode.  Don is getting in deeper than he should and Peggy is about to start some trouble with her old firm.  I can't wait to see where this all leads.

Observations:
- That Jaguar guy oozes sleaze.  I'm glad Don ultimately circumvented his plan by acting cheesy and fake.
- Apparently all the guys on Mad Men spending their morning hours before work cheating on their wives.
- "If you so much as unzip your fly to urinate, I will destroy you"- Trudy to Pete.
- Don seems to love the woman he's with.  In almost back to back scenes, he embraces Sylvia and consoles Megan.
- Child Don spying on his mom through the keyhole was creepy though.  His excuse: "I dropped a penny!"
- Hopefully Stan doesn't get fired for telling Peggy about the Heinz account.

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 3: "Walk of Punishment"

A good, busy episode with a crazy ending.  This episode was impressive in that it checked in with almost all the characters, and almost each of their story arcs had something interesting about it.  It feels like big things are going to happen, and some already have.

The episode starts off with Robb and Catelyn going to Catelyn's father's funeral.  We get to meet Catelyn's brother Edmure, who is running things and comes off as an idiot, and her uncle Brynden who knows Edmure is an idiot.  Next, Tyrion and Cersei play a funny game of chairs at their meeting with Tywin, which summarizes their positions relative to him.  Arya gets a quick scene when her and Gendry say goodbye to Hot Pie, who finds his place in the universe as a baker's apprentice.  He gets a nice moment where he gives Arya a bread wolf that was childlike and sweet, something we don't get enough of in this show.  Daenerys is thinking about trading one of her dragons for the 8,000 soldiers.  Barristan and Jorah are now both of her advisers and I'm getting the feeling that they don't like each other.

The best story arc of the episode belonged to the captured Jaime and Brienne.  Things don't look too good for either of them, especially Brienne, because she is seen as expendable and because she is a woman.  Jaime shows his compassion when he makes up a lie about Brienne being valuable, trying to save her from being raped and killed.  I liked this scene, as it shows a side of Jaime we haven't seen before.  Maybe Brienne has grown on him?  Too bad for him, he gets his hand cut off in the last scene.   What the crazy!  I did not see that coming.  I was surprised, Jaime's sword fighting was one of the attributes he was most known for, I was looking forward to see more of it.

Observations:
- I enjoyed the opening scene with the arrow shooting.  I'm a sucker for any scenes involving people doing archery (ex. the archery scene in Brave, the archery scene in The Hunger Games).
-  "Close your eyes and pretend they're Renly"- Jaime to Brienne.
- Arya is sure it is "Winterfell", not "Winterhell".
- That bread wolf thing Hot Pie gave to Arya was very "awwwww".
- Robb eats children when there is a full moon, according to children.
- Theon Unchained, look forward to seeing more of the Greyjoys.
- Stannis is horny to make more shadow demon babies.
- Danenerys is giving away a dragon, I don't like this.  It's like her giving away one of her babies.
- Being loyal to Tyrion has it's perks.

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 1 and 2: "The Doorway"

“Midway through our life’s journey I went astray from the straight road and awoke to find myself alone in a dark wood.”  

The sixth season of Mad Men begins with Don reading a line from Dante Alighieri's Dante's Inferno.  The quote sets the mood for the rest of the episode, which is mopey and obsessed with death.  I was disappointed with the season premiere, which felt overlong and underwhelming, despite some highlights from the main story line that I'll get into.

My main issue with the episode was with Don.  The episode starting out strong, I liked the scenes of him in Hawaii and his interactions with the young soldier.  It was a nice way to callback to Don's past life and gave us some insight to the way he might be feeling.  However, that stopped there.  Since Don doesn't talk about his feelings, we're left to wonder why he is so mopey and out of it for the rest of the episode.  Is he fearing death?  Having a mid life crisis?  Roger seems to be in the same place Don is in but is more vocal about it, at least in his scenes to his psychiatrist.  We get a little more insight at the end with the big reveal that Don is cheating on Megan, but the episode spent too much time for me on Don standing around being unhappy for no reason.

The stuff that I missed about the old Don Draper seemed to be present in Peggy, which for me, was the best part of the episode.  I liked that her work in this episode shows that she learned from Don all those years she was working for him.  Her no-nonsense attitude to her coworkers reminded me of the the way Don used to treat her back in the old days of Sterling Cooper.  Her headphones pitch idea was also more exciting and fresh than Don's Hawaiian hotel pitch, which was again, about death.  I'm looking forward to more of her story lines this season, since after she left SCDP, I was worried we would stop seeing more of her.  It's good to know that won't be the case.

Some of the other scenes I enjoyed:  I liked Ken dressing down that brown nosing new guy who was hanging out in the lobby trying to suck up to people.  Betty and Henry Francis's bedroom conversation about raping Sally's friend was disturbing and weird, but also hilarious and entertaining.  I'm not sure how I feel about her story arc of trying to track down Sally's friend.  I think I liked it, it showed a nice side to Betty that we haven't seen in a while.  Roger's mother's funeral was a highlight, both funny and sad at the same time.  

Overall, an uneven episode and an unimpressive season premiere.  It didn't contain the excitement or freshness of the other Mad Men season premieres and felt more like a contemplative mid season episode. I remain optimistic the best is yet to come in the next couple of episodes.

Observations:

-  Besides the voiceover, Don didn't speak until about 7 minutes into the episode. 
-  That new guy came into the elevator with two coffees.  One was for Don and the other one went to Pete, which I thought was hilarious.
-  Betty's idea of "spicing things up" is dirty talk about tying up and raping Sally's friend.
-  Megan seems happier than ever.  Apparently she plays an evil maid in some tv show?  
-  There's a lot of weed in this episode.  Everyone except Don and Roger also seems to have a new haircut or a new mustache.  
-  Looking forward to see more from Pete, Joan and Sally.  Sally's in full teenager mode now.
-  Blonde Betty> Brunette Betty.  And I usually prefer brunettes.

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 2: "Dark Wings, Dark Words"

Episode 2 of this season feels similar to the Season Premiere, by which I mean we're still catching up with characters from last season who weren't covered last episode.  This time, the focus of the episode is on the two youngest Stark siblings and the dynamic duo of Jaime and Brienne.

The theme of the episode definitely seems to be "travel".  We get Jon Snow travelling undercover with Mance Ryder, Bran travelling and meeting a pair of siblings, Arya travelling and meeting some swordsmen, and Jaime and Brienne travelling and meeting some foes.  The only significant non-travel plot line is Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell, who are getting to know each other better and bond through the idea of killing someone with a crossbow.

Although I did like this episode, I admit that that there were parts of it that felt like filler where not a lot happened to advance the plot.  Half of the episode seemed to be about people traveling and meeting new people while the other half was about people talking while putting on and taking off clothes.  I don't mind it too much, since it gave us time to get to know the characters a little better.  For instance, I like the idea of Gendry questioning Arya about how she used her three free kills, because I would have asked the same.  The highlights were definitely the end, with Jaime's battle with Brienne and Arya being discovered by the Hound.

Observations:

- Bran looks noticeably older, like a missing Jonas brother.
- Hodor is back. Hodor!
- "We don't get to choose who we love"- Jaime.
- Joffrey isn't a fan of floral designed shirts.
- Speaking of clothes, I like the way Margaery Tyrell dresses, in her dresses.
- Joffrey wants to make being gay punishable by death, can he be more evil?
- It wasn't a good episode for Arya or Jamie's sword skills.