What Are You Watching

[kinuta]

The perfect and beautiful conjunction of The Crescent Moon, Jupiter and Venus.

Brilliantly clear here, I even managed some photographs.

[jazzbo]

The watching last night was the Mad Men premier. Interesting premier episodes. I like how they establish a tone for the season, as has been the case in the last few season's premiers.

Interesting take on the civil rights issue. I liked that the advertisement they put in the paper to further humiliate a competing agency came back to bite them in the arse. Showed how full of shit they are, "equal opportunity employers" indeed.

I hope Don enjoys his little bubble of bliss as I have a feeling it is going to burst. It was fun to see Pete in his newly revitalized whiney ambitious boy role. Personally I hope he crashes and burns, I've never liked him . . . but he's responding to the power vacuum Don's dialing back from dominance at the office and Roger's waning importance has created, and it's going to be an important plotline for the season.

I enjoyed the Joanie segments. I really felt her work anxiety and her frustration with her mother, as well as her loneliness. Well portrayed and acted.

Re-watching Seasons 4 last week was instructive to me, there were a number of subplots and themes nicely, delicately handled. . . and I especially enjoyed the way they showed Don and Faye almost coming together, and showing how her challenging Don to deal with his problems, and her lack of skill with children, led to the end of their relationship, and facilitated his leap into Megan's life. Last season was a better one that I thought at first. Perhaps this year will be as well.

Edited March 26, 2012 by jazzbo

[jazzbo]

The song Megan sang

[Shawn]

[jazzbo]

Some funny stuff! Though I'd probably watch it just to see Alison Brie.

[Shawn]

Some funny stuff! Though I'd probably watch it just to see Alison Brie.

Yeah, I can definitely understand that! Yowza. I also realized that Gillian Jacobs was in "The Box" playing the babysitter, she's lovely as well.

I think the show is hilarious, I love the style.

[mikelz777]

I'll watch Community if it is on but I didn't miss it at all when it was on hiatus. I can't stand Chevy Chase. Annie is indeed one of the highlights.

I'm watching the first season of The Killing on On Demand. It was one of those shows I was curious about when it first started but I never ended up watching it for whatever reason. I'm enjoying it a lot and really like being able to watch the entire season over the course of several days. This is one show I'm definitely going to keep following. I only have 2-3 shows of the first season left so I'll be caught up when the new season starts in April.

[jazzbo]

This show explored grief in a way I've rarely seen explored on tv or film. Very poignant and respectful. I really enjoyed Season 1. Less than a week til Season 2. I watched the show on broadcast, but agree that it is very effective if watched episode after episode, back to back. The Blu-ray set is wonderful, great picture and atmospheric sound. A step up from the broadcast in both.

[mikelz777]

I agree with you on the show's approach on greiving. Very well done.

I love being able to watch the episodes of a series back to back over the course of several days rather than over the course of months with the regular broadcast. That's how I had to watch The Sopranos. I don't have HBO and watched it for the first time when the show was already into the 4th or 5th season. I couldn't get those DVD sets from the library fast enough!! I just devoured those shows! There was a lot of demand for the series so sometimes I had to wait a month or more for the next season to become available. The wait was always well worth it. I had to do it the same way with Boardwalk Empire. I can't wait for the 2nd season of that show to come out on DVD so I can request that one from the library and watch the entire season in a couple of days. I'll have to try and find another series I've never seen and get hooked on it. Maybe The Wire? Rome?

Edited March 26, 2012 by mikelz777

[jazzbo]

I've been avoiding Sopranos because I hate Mafia stuff and hate the sort of glorifying of it which may not be what goes on in that show but I just won't watch Mafia stuff. Haven't gotten to see Boardwalk Empire yet, but it's probably very good. Nor the Wire. But I can recommend Rome, a very good show. If you haven't seen Damages, you should try Season 1.

[jlhoots]

The Wire is better than Rome IMHO.

Damages is also very good.

[mikelz777]

I'll have to keep Rome and Damages in mind. I'm going to have a go with The Wire first because I have heard a lot of good things about it. I hope the library copy isn't too hacked up. I hate it when they are so scratched up they start to freeze, pixilate and skip. I guess I don't understand how people can be so careless. I have CDs/DVDs I've listened/watched dozens of times that still carry a spotless mirror finish.

[jazzbo]

I'm with you, I've had cds and dvds for years and years blemish free.

I've watched a few episodes of The Wire. . .didn't hook me.

[kinuta]

Scott & Bailey .

The Boss

A very good, well crafted episode. I think the dense, rapid Manchurian dialogue, especially 'The Boss' might prove too much for non Brits !

[mikelz777]

I just finished the last episode of season 1 of The Killing. Wow! A very nice cliff-hanger! This show is nicely layered and has me hooked. I'm really looking forward to the 2-hour season 2 opener. I really like the actress playing Sarah Linden, the lead detective. I think she's really embraced her character described as a, "silent watcher, taking everything in without ever revealing her hand. Outside of work, she's a distance runner, an emotional "lone wolf," and a single mom to whom motherhood doesn't come naturally." The actor playing her shady partner does a very nice job as well.

[kinuta]

The White House Blues Concert on PBS, ended up watching the Motown Gig and parts of the Latin bash. All very enjoyable.

[jazzbo]

Touch on Fox. It's a bit cheezily contrived, but I love the way it shows the connections between persons, and I love to see actress Gugu Mbatha-Row, she's so lovely and she's also a pretty good actress in my opinion.

[kinuta]

Touch on Fox. It's a bit cheezily contrived, but I love the way it shows the connections between persons, and I love to see actress Gugu Mbatha-Row, she's so lovely and she's also a pretty good actress in my opinion.

Indeed, she's a real doll

[Shawn]

Finished up Life season 2 (too bad the show didn't last longer, I really liked it).

Now moving on to:

[jazzbo]

Re-watched Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, now on to Season 4 again.

[kinuta]

Fringe

Flying mutant porcupines.

[kinuta]

Mad Men

I've followed the show since the start and have never made any comments but fat Betty just took the wind out of my sails.

I'm also wondering just when Roger is going to keel over again. In literally every scene he has a glass or a cig in his hand. The general gluttony is striking, Harry ate 20 hamburgers and Betty had no qualms about finishing two ice cream parfaits.

Edited April 2, 2012 by kinuta

[jazzbo]

They sure went for the surprise factor: we don't see Betty for a double episode and then we see her fifty pounds heavier! Interestingly, I believed the transformation and am glad that the thyroid cancer scare was just that. Also that she isn't yet on diet pills.

It was interesting that there's Dawn the receptionist now, glad that the firm followed through with hiring one of the surge of applicants from the end of the last episode. And it seems one recurring theme this season will be the growing exposure of the generation gap, evidenced quite clearly by the Rolling Stones portions of the show, and Don's growing alienation from the changing marketplace and possibly the gap in age between himself and his new wife.

Going to be an interesting season.

[jlhoots]

They sure went for the surprise factor: we don't see Betty for a double episode and then we see her fifty pounds heavier! Interestingly, I believed the transformation and am glad that the thyroid cancer scare was just that. Also that she isn't yet on diet pills.

It was interesting that there's Dawn the receptionist now, glad that the firm followed through with hiring one of the surge of applicants from the end of the last episode. And it seems one recurring theme this season will be the growing exposure of the generation gap, evidenced quite clearly by the Rolling Stones portions of the show, and Don's growing alienation from the changing marketplace and possibly the gap in age between himself and his new wife.

Going to be an interesting season.

I agree with all of that.

Also watched The Killing 2 hour episode last night.

I liked it well enough that I'm going to hang in there with the show.

[jazzbo]

I watched The Killing premier this morning on DVR. A good kickoff to the new season, and I really enjoyed last season.

Both Mad Men and The Killing. . . I've been watching the Blu-rays and the step down in quality to my cable's broadcast version is not subtle. Will be enjoying watching these new seasons on Blu-ray when they come out.