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May. 8th, 2009 07:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightThe Guardian loved the new Star Trek movie and gave it five stars. This is almost unprecedented in my experience for something sci-fi/fantasy related, unless it was a Tarkovsky film. I was feeling fairly meh! about this movie, not being a big 'Trek fan, but now I really want to see it (yes, I know - sheep, fence-sitter, whatever).
This post is not really about that, though. I wanted to say a few things about the second series of Mad Men, which ended in the UK on Tuesday. Boy, that was wonderful stuff!
I'd been puzzling earlier in the season as to why this program was being talked about as 'girls' telly'. I hadn't thought the first series was that at all, given that was all about the men, and they behaved very badly indeed, especially towards the women in their lives. However, I guess I can see now what people were getting at. However, I think it's too facile a description. Surely, it's just 'good' telly, isn't it, like The Wire, and as such should appeal to anyone who cares about the quality of what they watch.
That aside, this second series focused a great deal on the women, especially Betty Draper, Joan and Peggy, while never losing sight of Don Draper as the main character of focus. Draper continues to be one of the most fascinating and complex characters I've ever seen on a TV show. Just as you think you know what he's like, he changes again. The scene where he returned to Sterling Cooper and was greeted almost as a saviour not only by Peggy and Joan but also by Peter Campbell, who is desperate for Draper's respect and in this episode finally got it, was a very, very telling scene. This is not to say Draper is a 'nice' man - far from it. But I think he genuinely meant his apology to Betty and he really does have respect for women that the other male characters just don't share - though it's fun to see the way Peggy has almost become 'one of the boys' at the copy writers' meetings.
The other characters have also been fleshed out enormously this season - from Betty, who came more into her own and gained some much needed confidence, at the same time as showing a distinctly unpleasant side to her personality, to Peggy, who continued her single-minded pursuit of her dream apparently indifferent to the wreckage in her wake (poor Peter - and I never thought I'd feel sorry for him - being her latest victim), to Joan whose vulnerabilities were laid bare - I feel so sorry for her, even though on the surface she's hard as nails. You even ended up feeling something for poor old Duck Philips, who just so spectacularly shot himself in the foot.
I could go on and on, but maybe I'd better stop before I run out of superlatives. This show has done everything right IMO, and I can't wait to see the next series and see how the changing world - because it is definitely changing fast, though we still only get subtle hints of it - affects the characters. Someone - was it![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shipperx? - told me that each series will be set two years after the previous one. So that means series three will be set in 1964 - Beatlemania! Mary Quant! etc etc. Can't wait.
There will be a third series, won't there? I've looked online but can't find any information. :crosses fingers:
This post is not really about that, though. I wanted to say a few things about the second series of Mad Men, which ended in the UK on Tuesday. Boy, that was wonderful stuff!
I'd been puzzling earlier in the season as to why this program was being talked about as 'girls' telly'. I hadn't thought the first series was that at all, given that was all about the men, and they behaved very badly indeed, especially towards the women in their lives. However, I guess I can see now what people were getting at. However, I think it's too facile a description. Surely, it's just 'good' telly, isn't it, like The Wire, and as such should appeal to anyone who cares about the quality of what they watch.
That aside, this second series focused a great deal on the women, especially Betty Draper, Joan and Peggy, while never losing sight of Don Draper as the main character of focus. Draper continues to be one of the most fascinating and complex characters I've ever seen on a TV show. Just as you think you know what he's like, he changes again. The scene where he returned to Sterling Cooper and was greeted almost as a saviour not only by Peggy and Joan but also by Peter Campbell, who is desperate for Draper's respect and in this episode finally got it, was a very, very telling scene. This is not to say Draper is a 'nice' man - far from it. But I think he genuinely meant his apology to Betty and he really does have respect for women that the other male characters just don't share - though it's fun to see the way Peggy has almost become 'one of the boys' at the copy writers' meetings.
The other characters have also been fleshed out enormously this season - from Betty, who came more into her own and gained some much needed confidence, at the same time as showing a distinctly unpleasant side to her personality, to Peggy, who continued her single-minded pursuit of her dream apparently indifferent to the wreckage in her wake (poor Peter - and I never thought I'd feel sorry for him - being her latest victim), to Joan whose vulnerabilities were laid bare - I feel so sorry for her, even though on the surface she's hard as nails. You even ended up feeling something for poor old Duck Philips, who just so spectacularly shot himself in the foot.
I could go on and on, but maybe I'd better stop before I run out of superlatives. This show has done everything right IMO, and I can't wait to see the next series and see how the changing world - because it is definitely changing fast, though we still only get subtle hints of it - affects the characters. Someone - was it
shipperx? - told me that each series will be set two years after the previous one. So that means series three will be set in 1964 - Beatlemania! Mary Quant! etc etc. Can't wait. There will be a third series, won't there? I've looked online but can't find any information. :crosses fingers:
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Date: 2009-05-08 07:33 am (UTC)My favourite part of this episode was Betty’s way of saying she wanted an abortion. "It’s not a good time" - no dithering, no question of whether or not she should be able to know what effect another child would have on her life, just "it’s not a good time".
I can’t say I really felt sorry for Pete - I find him really immature, not at all wreckage in Peggy’s wake (to me she’s dealt with everything fine). As a side-note, I really want that grey dress she had with a shirt underneath it with the sailor-flap at the back...
Poor Joan. :(
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Date: 2009-05-08 09:58 am (UTC)I also don't feel sorry for Pete, he was a nasty piece of work in his season 1 interactions with Peggy; he deserves everything he gets.
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Date: 2009-05-08 10:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-08 02:57 pm (UTC)*fangirls*
There were one or two things I didn't care for, but the over-all quality was refreshing and felt like, well, like someone finally made Star Trek what it was supposed to be....
That, and this Dr. McCoy can come examine me any time he wants! :P
.. okay not what you were posting about, but I haven't SEEN Mad Men.
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Date: 2009-05-08 04:13 pm (UTC)This month is an amazing month for movie releases:
May 1 - Wolverine
May 8 - Star Trek
May 15 - Angels and Demons (not my fic unfortunately :-D)
May 22 - Terminator OMG!
I am a full on, almost crazed, Terminator Fan!
So this month I will be busy with the movies.
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Date: 2009-05-08 04:14 pm (UTC)*iz annoyed by that*
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Date: 2009-05-08 06:51 pm (UTC)Oh me too! I'm prepared to wait, though, if they keep up the quality. Did you get around to watching season 1 yet?
Yes, the scene of Betty at the surgery was masterful. So understated and yet it said everything that needed saying - something this show does consistently.
Pete is definitely very immature, and mostly I don't like him at all. But I did feel sorry for him this time because of all the problems he and Trudi have had this season with having a baby, which I'm sure Peggy didn't know about. I'm not saying I think Peggy should have encouraged him, though I also think he does love her in his childish way, but she dealt him such a devastating blow, without realising it, and that after he'd done the honourable thing and warned Draper what was going on, that I did feel for him.
I think that's one the best things about this series - that you can feel sorry for characters that most of the time you can't stand. I think so far, Roger Sterling is the only one I've felt nothing but dislike for, and even with him you have to bear in mind that he's a WW2 veteran. Layers.
Brilliant stuff.
And you'd look good in that dress.
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Date: 2009-05-08 06:55 pm (UTC)I agree. That was horrific. At least Spike knew he'd done something wrong. Joan's Dr Kildare (more like Dr Killanything) obviously thought what he'd done was just fine. I think Joan accepted it because she had no choice. Women didn't then, did they? I don't think most people even thought you could be raped by your husband.
Pete was a nasty piece of work in season 1, but I think he's improved. He's silly and immature, but no longer seems to be actively malicious. At some point, he seems to have taken Draper as his role model, and though that's hardly ideal, in this show he could do a lot worse.
We'll see how he shapes up next season.
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Date: 2009-05-08 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-08 06:58 pm (UTC).. okay not what you were posting about, but I haven't SEEN Mad Men.
Well, it sort of was, and you should! I think/hope you'd love it.
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Date: 2009-05-08 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-08 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-08 07:43 pm (UTC)Yes! I did! Everything suddenly started making a lot more sense. It's all sort of blurred together now, but definitely enjoyable.
See, I was just glad to see Pete realise that he could never treat Peggy the way he treats Trudi - that she isn't just the fantasy of a competent woman (who would eventually become a proper little wife for him), but is actually in control of her life. But then I have quite a disconnect when it comes to issues of babies...
Stirling, on the other hand, I find myself feeling an odd sort of affection for because I like Cooper. I'm not sure how that works, considering he's an arse.
Brilliant stuff.
It really is. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, what with Dollhouse ending as well this week.
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Date: 2009-05-08 07:46 pm (UTC)That's because "good telly" is telly that boys watch. Mad Men has a shortage of explosions, fist fights, and general violence. "Girls telly" has to do with people's lives and relationships.
I'm feeling rather "meh" about the Trek movie myself. It sounds like it's basically another big budget thrill ride. While I don't feel original Trek was short of big confrontations or action scenes, to make it devoid of any kind of greater meaning makes it not-Trek to me.
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Date: 2009-05-08 07:57 pm (UTC)And a decided majority of the reviews of the new Star Trek seem to be positive. I've never been a "Trekkie" but when I stop to think about it, I think I have seen most of the canon material (not the last two -- I hear dreadful -- movies, and not "Enterprise" or most of "Voyager" but I've seen pretty much all of the original and even TNG) I find myself rather hopeful for the reboot. Reviews have made it sound like a fun bit of sci-fi to start the summer.
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Date: 2009-05-08 08:02 pm (UTC)It wasn't terrible. But, personally, I'm happy enough to forget it ever existed and was retconned away by "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (albeit, I think the new Terminator retcons TSCC so...
Well, anyway, the trailer for the new one looks awesome!
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Date: 2009-05-08 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-08 09:19 pm (UTC)Eh, dear! Do you think that's really what it comes down to? How sad. And there was me thinking that Don Draper was a character that men would find fascinating to watch. Oh well.
I just asked S what he thought, but he's not much help. He doesn't reallly like watching TV.
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Date: 2009-05-08 09:22 pm (UTC)That's good news. I can't wait to hear a little more about it. Being set in 1964 would change things enormously. It would bring us to the era when both men and women stopped wearing hats etc.
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Date: 2009-05-08 09:25 pm (UTC)I have an affection for Cooper too. He's an odd old bird. Can't say that's extended to liking Sterling, though. Also, I love the way that Sterling Cooper seem to regard being bought out by a British firm as rather a coup. I bet that wouldn't happen now.
I do know what you mean about Peggy, but I still find her smug and irritating at times.
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Date: 2009-05-08 09:44 pm (UTC)And I think that's true of a lot of men, hence the problem for TV programmers. TV inevitably requires a lot of talking because you can't run more attention-getting stuff for a full half-hour or hour, and men aren't much for talk.
Mike wouldn't be much help either. He watches a lot more TV than I do, but none of those shows are dramas. Those he watches because I watch them, which at the moment are Castle, SPN, and Chuck. Of those, only Castle is deliberately targeted at women. He liked BSG and SGA, but he wasn't as taken with the first as I was. He loved Buffy and Angel, just like me, and would have watched Dollhouse even if I didn't. He stopped watching Mad Men at the beginning of S2. He said he just wasn't interested in it.
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Date: 2009-05-09 08:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 09:32 am (UTC)I love the way that all the British people wear bow ties - is that true of the Sixties? They're not going to dinner after all, so it makes little sense.
Fair enough.
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Date: 2009-05-09 10:21 am (UTC)Was the salesman who sold Draper his dream car also wearing a bowtie?
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Date: 2009-05-09 10:24 am (UTC)He did better than S, then. S only got through half of season 1. He's not much for drama either, and in fact only watches stuff because I'm watching it. For instance, he sat through a whole 2 seasons of Ugly Betty without a word of complaint, though I doubt he'd be able to tell you what happened.
In other words, TV for him is something that's on in the background, which might be why he didn't like Mad Men. You have to concentrate, and he couldn't be bothered.
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Date: 2009-05-09 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 02:15 pm (UTC)I have to wonder what it is they see when they're looking at things because Mike tends to have a poor memory of conversations and is far less likely than I am to be able to recount an episode. He can be quite insightful about some things. I almost wonder if the point to him isn't to guess in advance what's going to happen than actually pay attention to what is happening.
He does use TV as more of a background thing but only with sports. When he's watching his shows (cartoons mostly) he does sit and pay attention to them.
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Date: 2009-05-09 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 10:05 pm (UTC)I really don't know why program makers/advertisers bother trying to appeal to men at all.
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Date: 2009-05-12 01:46 am (UTC)They managed to make the new actors as interesting and engaging as the old ones - they pulled it off somehow. And Kirk/Spock tension could be cut with a knife. :) And McCoy is perfect - even though not as prominent as in the show. Overall - great love letter to the old show, and great reboot. My kids loved it and now they want to see the original series. And I even went and rented some DVDs today.
Vow. Unexpected but pleasant revival of those fannish flames. :)
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Date: 2009-05-12 06:30 am (UTC)In total agreement with your comments on the movie, mrs_underhill; it's an absolute gem of a film. Simon Pegg was hilariously perfect as Scotty...hell, they were ALL great. Even the actor who played Chekov, while looking nothing like him (I thought he looked like Season 1's navigator Kevin Reilly), had Chekov's voice and charming personality down pat. And that surprise romance...wow. Tender and touching and, thanks to the actors, absolutely believable.
One of the best things about this Star Trek is that the plot, via time-travel and alternate realities, meshes the events of the original TV shows and movies with this new movie, so that nothing from the previous stories is negated and the characters are now cleared for all-new developments and adventures in their lives. It's a win-win situation...and like you, I'm still happy and warm-fuzzy from it.
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Date: 2009-05-12 06:28 pm (UTC)I don't mean you, btw, but I've seen so many posts, complete with pics, all outside the cut.
Anyway, I'm sure I shall it enjoy it when I get the chance to see it.
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Date: 2009-05-12 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-12 06:36 pm (UTC)Eh, plot what plot? :) It's just a setting for the characters to play off each other. And that was the best part in the movie.
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Date: 2009-05-12 06:40 pm (UTC)Hee! Like that, huh?