Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Perception Returns to TNT Tonight



Perception returns to TNT tonight. If you missed the first season, Eric McCormack plays a schizophrenic college professor/crime fighter. I know it sounds far fetched, but it really is great.

Here's a little peak behind the scenes of the show.



Scott Wolf is also joining the cast this season, if you need an extra lure.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Mad Men Season 6 Season Finale


Huge episode squeezed into just an hour tonight. Mad Men Season 6 season finale IN CARE OF resolved a lot of things but also opened up a whole new set of issues. Don has finally completely outed himself. Even though many knew he wasn't who he said he was, it wasn't until this episode that he owned the entirety of the bleakness of his childhood. Spilling the childhood in the brothel to the people from Hershey was stunning. Followed up by taking the kids to his childhood whorehouse.

Don is making another run at sobriety and when he does that he gets truthful. Last time that didn't hold out more than a year, we'll see next season if he's still on the straight and narrow. But just in this episode he seems to have ended his marriage and be put on leave from his job. It's a bit like the poster for this season, with him leaving the one self behind and Megan out of the picture.

In other stories there was a game of musical chairs for moving to LA. First Stan, then Don steals it from him, then Don gives it to Ted ( to save him from Peggy) and then Pete gets roped in too. Which leaves Peggy in charge in New York, we even see Peggy sitting in Don's office toward the end of the episode. Peggy who seems destined to be alone, now that Ted is moving to the other coast to escape his fixation with her.

Pete's story is a wild ride this week too. First he's going to Detroit, but he tangles with Bob( which he knew better than to do last week) and Bob gives him the full treatment, making him drive a stick shift in the lobby of Chevy. It was Don getting Roger to vomit oysters and martinis in front of clients, all over again. Pete crashes the car and Chevy wants no part of a guy who can't drive stick. Goodbye Pete! If all that weren't enough, Pete's mother seems to have married nurse Manolo and fallen off a cruise ship. Which Pete is furious about initially, but then once he sees that Manolo can't get to their mother's money and the expense it would cost the family to find him... Long story short Mom liked the ocean, do we really need justice???

Lastly, Don gets the Fred Rumsen brush off by the company. Ted is not there but Roger and Joan tell him to his face, he needs time to regroup. Don runs into Duck on his way out of the office, which is extra brutal. Duck loves it of course.

This and That:
Two great Roger zingers this week
-(Detroit) it's all fun and games till they shoot you in the face
-Joan has lots of buddies, she goes fishing with them.

Peggy telling Ted that he should go home before her neighbors kill him.

Uncle Mac telling the preacher I'd tell you to go to hell but I don't ever want to see you again.

Sally on the phone with Don re: the burglar. She doesn't want to make a statement and tells him "why don't you just tell them what I saw. ( like he did when she caught him with Sylvia) ouch

And the perfect end credit song Judy Collins singing BOTH SIDES NOW



For all my Mad Men posts (from season 2 to today)

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Knott's Berry Farm New Boardwalk


Knott's Berry Farm has been our favorite theme park for awhile. It is the perfect step between Disneyland and Magic Mountain for the adventurous roller coaster lover. Also did I mention the delicious chicken dinner and PIE.

Knott's has just opened up several new rides on their Boardwalk and they are all great fun.The Coast Rider roller coaster was so much fun, that when my family was invited to an early opening last week, the kids rode it 6 time in a row. You know they love it when they run off the ride and right back into the line to go again.

The Boardwalk has also added a Scrambler, which is just a traditional favorite of everyone's, and The Surf Side Glider that kids can steer themselves while circling 28 feet off the ground. In addition to The Boardwalk, Knott's has also done a little updating to their Timber Mountain Log Ride. It's still the same great ride, with great new human figures and scenery. Very snazzy!


My daughter and nephew are running a major lobbying campaign to get an over night trip with one day at Knott's Berry Farm and one day at Knott's Soak City. They're pretty persistent and I'm pretty willing so stay tuned. Knott's Berry Farm Hotel here we come.


For more Knott's posts

Friday, June 21, 2013

Ray Donovan Premieres on Showtime June 30th


Last Summer I told you about Ray Donovan coming to Showtime this summer and here it is,Sunday, June 30 at 10pm. Liev Shreiber stars as a kind of fixer for big Hollywood types, if not himself. JonVoight is Donovan senior, recently released from prison. There is no love lost between father and son. Ray also has a family of his own that is coming apart at the seams.

The show has the feeling of a 70s film along the lines of POINT BLANK or BULLIT both thematically and cinematically. Ray Donovan is a hardened detective type but with a soft spot for the damaged people he come across in his "work". There's even a boxing gym owned by his brothers.

The show is pretty rough, with plenty of altercations between family members and seedy characters. There's also a fair bit of nudity and sexual activity, not to mention Voight dancing around in a towel.

I've seen the first two episodes and I think it's a safe bet we'll have RAY DONOVAN to kick around for some time.

RAY DONOVAN on Showtime
Sunday June 30th 10pm

You can also catch the first episode free on youtube

Monday, June 17, 2013

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 12 The Quality Of Mercy


Tonight's episode debuted the new SC&P logo (pictured above). I love it, definitely looks like the time period. Is it safe to say the 60s and 70s was all about the ampersand? Now that we know Don's name and the company's name all that was left is to find out about the mysterious Bob Benson. Turns out our eager young man is not who he pretends to be. He never went to Wharton, and though he did work at Brown Bros. and  Haraman. it was as some kind of valet. Bob is stunned that when Pete confronts him with all this information and follows with "I've learned not to tangle with your kind of animal". Bob's only orders are to leave Pete out of it and get Manolo away from his mother.

Don betrays his pact to stop sabotaging Ted when he (and everyone in the office) sees that Ted is completely gaga over Peggy. First, I thought Don was just jealous that Ted is with Peggy. Harry calls from the coast with a big account from Sunkist and Don says absolutely not but after finding out about Peggy and Ted he calls Harry back and presents it to the partners. When that doesn't dampen the affair Don dampens the aspirin account Ted and Peggy are running. After which Ted confronts Don and Don straight out tells him he isn't thinking with his head, repeatedly. Ted can't argue that. The whole thing ends with Peggy calling Don a monster and Don in the fetal position on his couch. There isn't a woman in Don's life at this moment who doesn't hate him, at least a little.

Sally of course is at the top of the Don hater list. She's off to boarding school to get away from him and her mother too, probably. I can only imagine what it will be like when she is enrolled. On her trial one night her room mate hosts insist she provide them with cigarettes and alcohol. Ever resourceful Sally calls Glen and he turns up with a buddy, weed, and booze. It gets interesting though, when Glen goes off to a room with another girl, leaving Sally alone with his friend. The friend gets a little handsy with Sally and she gets Glen saying his friend was trying to force her. Glen reminds the guy that Sally is like his little sister and when he doesn't apologize starts beating him up. This is the interesting part, Sally is kind of smiling like she likes the fighting. It reminded me of when Betty set up her friend with the guy at the stables. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Or maybe has decided she does like Glen like that....

This and That

Roger's line about Lee Garner Jr making him hold his balls. I want the rest of that story...was Sal there?

Chevy actually shot Ken in the face, and Pete can't wait to take over for him.

The Rosemary's Baby aspirin ad 

Ted saying Peggy has "juice" experience.

Betty giving Sally a cigarette. It really was another time.

Don telling Betty both she and Jackie O. married well twice.

"You finally found a hooker who takes traveler checks" Don to Harry







Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Magic City Returns to Starz June 14th


Magic City is returning to Starz Friday June 14th. It looks like the new season will be taking us to Cuba and giving us a lot more screen time with James Caan (Sy Berman).

Based on this first look at Season 2 clip Ike is feeling pretty guilty about the damage he has caused but isn't even considering throwing in the towel. Things are sure to heat up with Ike Evans (Jeffery Dean Morgan) trying to not only disentangle himself from the tentacles of Ben Diamond (Danny Houston) but also taking over at least some of his business.




Monday, June 10, 2013

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 11 Favors


Last night's episode, Favors, seemed like maybe it should be called, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished..

We start with Silvia's son, Mitchel who is 1A (first up on the draft list) asking Megan if she can help him get into Canada. Don scratches that quickly, and though he tells Megan to stay out of it, starts trying to find his own solution. First Don goes to Pete, who is not helpful at all and points Don toward Chevy with their government contracts, but not without getting in a jab about his not being on the account so he can't help. After taking Chevy's "temperature" to see if they can help our draft dodger at a client dinner with Ted, Jim Roger, and a couple Chevy guys doesn't go well Ted comes to the rescue. But Ted's favor isn't free, he wants Don to stop competing with him, like in this episode with OceanSpray and Sunkist. Don seems like maybe he isn't even aware he is doing that, but agrees to cut it out and genuinely thanks Ted for his help. How this will effect the company is yet to be seen.

Ted's favor does lead to Don and Silvia reconnecting. Silvia is of course moved that he has saved her son from being drafted, but I think mistakenly assumes he did it for her, I think he did it for Mitchel to save him from what Don experienced. We don't know how but Don and Silvia end up back in bed, which really isn't good for either of them.


In another story line we have Sally and her friend staying in the city at Don and Megan's meeting Mitchell and thinking he is cute, like Mark Lindsay lead singer of Paul Revere and The Raiders according to Sally friend Julie. The two girls make a list of all the things they like about him, his smile, shoulders, ass etc... Julie decides to sign Sally's name to it and slip it under the Rosen's door. When Sally is, understandable, upset by this she tells Sally she'll thank her for it. Another favor? Sally goes back to her father's apartment to get the letter, asking the door man for the building keys, as she has earlier. This time she goes to the Rosen's apartment and opens the service door. When the letter isn't right in front of the door she steps in and sees it on the opposite counter. She walks across the room to get it which allows her to see into the maids room, where she sees her father and Silvia having sex. 

All these good deeds, some definitely better than others but it all leads to pain and destruction anyway. Don chases after Sally and ultimately gives her a lame excuse about "comforting Mrs. Rosen and it being complicated." Sally seems to say OK that's the story we'll try to tell ourselves about this. But unlike so many things in Mad Men characters lives this happened and I don't think Sally will ever be able to forget it. Basically, she will never be surprised by how much this didn't happen. Don knows he's completely blown it too based on how awful he looks.

In yet another story line the nurse that Bob referred to Pete for his mother appears in this episode and seems to have started a physical relationship with her. Pete is not happy and wants to fire him. When he calls Bob on the carpet to confront him about his referral, Bob tells Pete he doubts it because the nurse is gay. Pete calls him a degenerate, which you can see makes Bob flinch. Then Bob launches into a long speech about how if someone took care of your every need couldn't Pete see developing feelings for that person and it not matter who they were. All topped off with placing his leg so it touched Pete's. I have to say I was surprise they had Bob call this one so wrong. Is he really suppose to have thought that Pete would go for him??? Still it is another example of favors not paying off for anyone. Pete's mother isn't going to be happy with the loss of her nurse and Bob just lost an ally in Pete. I wonder if Joan know Bob's gay?

This and that:

Poor Peggy in her scary apartment. She tries to get Stan over to help her with her rat problem even offering to "make it worth his while" which he doesn't believe. The closing scene finds her eating dinner in front of the TV with a cat. Feels like foreshadowing of a lonely life alone.

Peggy and Pete together again. When Peggy tells Pete about his mother's relationship with her nurse. They have a very close moment where Pete says Peggy is the only person who really knows him and she agrees. When Ted comes back to the table he can sense their closeness and doesn't like it. I still don't know what Ted's intentions are toward Peggy, maybe he doesn't either...

When  Henry comes home and is calling through the huge house and finds Sally and Betty in the kitchen saying why do we have a  mansion when we are always in the kitchen.

I felt like we saw a lot of TVs on in the scenes in people's homes, more than usual. Maybe just a nod to the fact that media is changing and people have really embraced it.



Stan has a poster of Moshe Dayan over his bed. He is such a poser.

Sally's Disneyland silhouette over her bed at Don's house

Peggy's face when Pete's mother start talking about their child.

Ted gets Mitchel into the Air National Guard which I believe is how George W. Bush avoided Vietnam.

Monday, June 3, 2013

20th Century Fox Back Lot Tour


I got to go on the 20th Century Fox lot today for a screening of Percy Jackson: Seas Of Monsters (which looks quite good by the way) and I took the opportunity to wander around the lot a little. There was nothing going on in their back lot area so I got lots of picture and I thought I would share them with you. Hope you enjoy them.



 

This is what the back side looks like. There are some patio railing ( if you look closely, you can see them) so I assume on occasion they dress the back sides for them, but not today.





 

I love all the facades. I wish I knew what was filmed here. If anyone knows please fill me in. The 1869 (below) if permanent might be easy to spot if I'm looking for it, which I will be now.




 This little movie theatre is gorgeous, I love the ladies above it. See below for detail of them.



And check out the creepy alley. I thought I was going to get mugged just looking at it. 


Here are a bunch of detail shot. It's amazing all the intricate work of the facades. Much of it has been painted over so many times it's beginning to loose it definition, but I still love it.







Hope you enjoyed my mini tour of the back lot a 20th Century Fox. It's sad they don't do tours because it really is one of the prettiest lots in LA.


Sunday, June 2, 2013

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 10 A Tale Of Two Cities


Tonight's episode, A Tale Of Two Cities, is representative of so many relationship on this show as well as Don and Roger's trip to LA and New York. LA and New York may be the least divergent of these. The actual story of A Tale Of Two Cities is about life before and after a revolution, with fits into 1960's America perfectly.

Seeing Don and Megan cuddling and talking about Don's trip to LA. They're being kind of sweet to one another but they're saying really mean things. She says she made the worst mistake of her life when they got together on the trip to LA with the kids. Then when she tells him to stay away from actresses, he says he hates actresses. Are they fighting??? You really see how divided they are as people while they watch both the democratic convention and the riots that followed. Their experience of both are incredible different.

The scenes between Peggy and Joan were fascinating. These are two women who are both on career paths with no way beaten for them. As much as they struggle with one another's methods they also support one another in their own way. They have so much in common as working women, even more than they know if you include the children they both have by coworkers, that they pretend didn't happen. Still Peggy has gotten a lot of help from men along the way, while Joan hasn't. She feels she has to make her own way and if that means cutting Pete out, so be it.

SCDP and CGC are one but really they are still two separate entities.  Cutler is definitely over SCDP partners and with the odd decision to change their name too Sterling, Cooper and Partners, I think he's convinced Chaough to stage a coup. Why would they cut their names out that way, willingly? I think they're setting them up in a false sense of security so they can get away with something else. 



Don and Roger's trip to LA. I'm giving Roger a pass for basically calling LA a primitive land with hill billy natives. LA and NY are represented as really different worlds. Don and Roger walk around in their buttoned up suits, while everyone around them in LA is in Nehru jackets. When Roger runs into Danny at a party he tries to belittle (pardon the pun) him, needling that once would have worked ends with Roger getting socked in the gut by now Daniel J Segal. The world has changed.

Finally there is always the duality that is Don/Dick. As soon as he took a hit of the hash pipe, I thought we were in for some flash backs, but we got an insane and almost deadly hallucination. It starts with Megan turning up saying he is free to be with other women, because we all share in LA, which by the way is where she lives. I don't know if that means he feels he left the real Megan (the one he wanted to be married to) in LA, or if she feels as though she lives on the opposite coast from him. Either way it doesn't bode well for their relationship. Suddenly, Megan morphs into Dinkins, the solder he stood up for in Hawaii. Dinkins' is missing an arm and tells us that his wife thinks he's MIA but really he's dead. Don asks when he'll get his arm back, which leads to the remark "Dying doesn't make you whole, you should see what you look like." 

We cut back to reality here and Roger has pulled Don from the pool. The last lines we hear before the Megan hallucination is Don saying he's thirsty and the woman with him saying "there's a pool full of water out there". The strange thing is when Don is looking at his body floating in the pool he is wearing white pants, but when he's pulled out they are black. Might be some good old white death imagery, or something else. Roger is wearing white pants. Does he want to kill the Roger in him and move out to LA with imaginary Megan who told him she was having his baby and they had a second chance?

This and That:

Roger, Don and Harry at the carnation meeting being served chocolate milk.

Ginsberg blowing up at Cutler, and then Cutler calling him on the hypocrisy of his politics and cashing his checks from Dow and Chevy.

Avon doesn't know whether to be groovier or nostalgic. Seems like there is a lot of that going around.

In the final scene Pete smokes the joint Stan was smoking in the art room. Was I the only one that remembered Pete can't smoke? He's tried before and has huge coughing fits...

For all my Mad Men Posts