This show, that show...

[selenak]

Another hotel, another expensive internet connection. (Ah, Los Angeles, where they gave me one for free...) Today I'm in Osnabrück, which is always somewhat odd to me. It's my father's and paternal grandfather's hometown, and yet I hardly know it. My grandfather who moved to Bamberg after the war because he couldn't bear the sight of bombed cities anymore and Bamberg hadn't been bombed as opposed to Osnabrück always planned to come back after his retirement, because he did love his old hometown. But in the end, he didn't; he had grown too much rooted in his new hometown. When I was a child, we used to visit since we still had family there then, but today everyone has either moved elsewhere or died. Still, when I listen to the local accents I remember my grandfather and his transplanted northerness in the south, his stories and passions for long walks during which he told those stories, and I miss him.

Considering my online time is limited, some thoughts on shows I watch but don't review nor do intend to.

Mad Men: has the rare distinction of being watchable to me despite my disliking every single male character in the cast, especially the leading man. (The women, by contrast, grew on me, and I do like them all in varying degrees.) The thing is, my appreciation for it is almost purely intellectual, and I don't connect with it on an emotional basis. You'd think with my penchant for screwed up characters (which every single one, male or female, on this show is), I would, but no. I also can't shake off my suspicion that while with the rest of the guys we're meant to see them as flawed as they are, we're not in the case of the lead, or rather regard his flaws as completely understandable and endearing. Mind you, he has one advantage over that other leading man I loathe do not much like, Jack Shephard on Lost: he's not boring. (Jack only became interesting in the last two episodes of s3 to me, though now I actually want to know how his storyline continues, very much so.) Still. I loathe Don Draper the way everyone else loathes the show's closest thing to his antagonist. Which might be why I have such trouble connecting with Mad Men on an emotional level, considering Don really is the central lead, much more than Jack Shephard is on Lost.

Pushing Daisies: is very cute. rozk recommended the pilot ages ago, and honorh reminded me the show now started, so I watched the second episode. However, it's like candy - I get the sense that one can easily overdose on the sweetness and quirkyness. In a way, it and Mad Men balance each other. All acid versus all adorability. But Mad Men ends soon and then I shall see whether I can keep up with the twee-ness without feeling the overdose.

Lastly, a link:

Heroes:

Via katemonkey, some incredibly cute icons.

Comments

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Today I'm in Osnabrück, which is always somewhat odd to me.

Why, it's practically like you're just around the corner! (Well, as much as you could say Osnabrück is around the corner to Bremen, but relatively speaking...)

Mad Men always gets recommended to me, and it's On The List, so to speak, but I admit that what I've heard about the male characters so far has kept me from it. Of course it's laudable that they behave like men in the sixties would likely have behaved, but it's probably more easily to swallow on an intellectual level rather than an emotional one.

However, it's like candy - I get the sense that one can easily overdose on the sweetness and quirkyness. In a way, it and Mad Men balance each other. All acid versus all adorability. But Mad Men ends soon and then I shall see whether I can keep up with the twee-ness without feeling the overdose.

My problem with PD is not only the adorableness, it's the contrast between all the twee details and the cute characters and the colours and the musical numbers on the one side, and the extremely grotesque details considering death, eating disorders and horror film motives on the other. The former is just too much, and the latter, instead of giving a sharp, but levelling contrast, adds a level of weirdness to it that makes the whole world-building break apart for me. It's not only a surrealist world, it's one I find frequently creepy and disturbing, and I'm pretty sure that's not the desired effect at all.

Speaking of cute overload, those icons are to die for.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And on Wednesday I'll be in Stuhr (or Stuhr-Brinkum), which as I understand from my train schedule is close to Bremen. Maybe we could meet? (Mail me?)

Of course it's laudable that they behave like men in the sixties would likely have behaved, but it's probably more easily to swallow on an intellectual level rather than an emotional one.

Oh, it's not just the period-accurate sexism; after all, my favourite character on DS9 is Quark, who despite falling in love with tough women is as sexist as a Ferengi comes in his every day life. And I did love watching Deadwood, which is set in the Wild West, hardly a more advanced period when it comes to the treatment of women. (Which is also accurately depicted.) Still, somehow Deadwood manages to make me care about female and male characters alike, and in Mad Men it really breaks down on the gender lines, plus even with the women it took a while.

I think what it comes down to in the case of the lead at least is that I see him as essentially hollow in the way Robert Altman's characters can be. I don't know whether you've seen The Player, but that's the film Mad Men reminds me of in terms of tone and characters. I care about Al Swearangen, who is a murderous brothel-owner spending a part of the first season trying to keep a woman addicted to opium so she gives him what he wants (a claim to a gold mine, not sex). I do not care about Don Draper, who, military service aside, hasn't killed anyone in his life, and considering he doesn't do so when he's being blackmailed, probably never will. I think the difference is that Al is Shakespearean while Don is Altmanian...

It's not only a surrealist world, it's one I find frequently creepy and disturbing, and I'm pretty sure that's not the desired effect at all.

Hm, I think they did want a Tim Burton effect. But it's interesting to compare this with Bryan Fuller's earlier effort, Dead Like Me, a show that I liked very much indeed. (Not that I dislike PD!) Which also has quirkyness and the mixture of death and horror combined with comedy; if you haven't seen it, the premise is that the disaffected teenage heroine dies right at the start of the pilot (hit by a toilet seat falling down from the sky, don't ask) and becomes a Reaper, i.e. someone whose job it is to transfer death via touch, but according to a schedule they get in a great parody of bureaucracy. After some years of this, they have the options of moving on to whereever the souls they constantly take from their bodies go, but that's up to them, basically. There is also the ensemble of misfits in the form of George' (our heroine, another girl with a male nickname)'s fellow Reapers who hail from different periods, her human boss (she still has to work for a living, err, so to speak, the Reapers aren't paying her or providing apartments), and the family George left behind which against all advice she can't help but spy on occasionally.

One of the most glaring differences is the tone - imagine PD narrated by Emerson, the private detective, and you get the point. (George, being a disaffected teenager, has the appropriate sarcasm.) It's also that we're not supposed to find George immediately endearing, on the contrary (see: teenager). And the first time she refuses to kill someone, the horror of the consequences are presented as genuinenly shaking both for the audience and George alike.

The icons: I really have to fight myself not to use one of these....

[veritykindle.livejournal.com]

I also can't shake off my suspicion that while with the rest of the guys we're meant to see them as flawed as they are, we're not in the case of the lead, or rather regard his flaws as completely understandable and endearing.

I've listened to interviews about Mad Men, and from what the show's creator said, I think we are supposed to see Don as being just as fallible and screwed up as the rest of the characters. Definitely a product of his time, mostly in bad ways, just like the rest of them.

I watched a few episodes of Mad Men after that, and I found Don somehow much more bearable when I realized that I was *supposed* to be annoyed by him. It's the writers' intentions that bother me in these situations, and not so much the characterizations themselves.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Irony. I love Mad Men, can't wait to see the finale this week. (I've heard good things.)

I think we're supposed to find Don deplorable. If we hadn't before last week's episode, we certainly do now, because there's nothing honorable about his past or how he clawed his way into this buisness.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I have to admit Rachel telling him he was a coward and that he didn't run away with her, he just wanted to run away was a big relief to me, as the earlier Rachel/Don hook-up had increased my distrust as to whether we were to see Don as a romantic Byronic figure.

Mind you, I checked on the TWP board, and the reaction to the last episode seems to be largely "oh, poor Don!", so....

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Well, you know. TWP.

Although I will admit to being relieved that Rachel saw through his bullshit as well. She seems to be the only character besides Peggy who has a clear vision of the world, and I think they're essential to not getting completely lost in the lies and deceit.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I only watched the first couple episodes of Mad Men, despite finding it very well made and well acted, and loving the time period that the story is about. Based on the first few, anyway, I think the lack of emotional connection is the reason. If this wasn't actually intentional on the writers' part, at the very least they intentionally deprived us of an obvious way to get at the characters' interior lives. After watching this, I suddenly understood why Six Feet Under had talking ghosts, Tony Soprano had a shrink, etc. I'm not really convinced it's possible to make a compelling television show where all the characters are so guarded and everything is so external. If this were a film or short story, or even a shortish novel, I'd probably love it, but I'm not sure it works on TV. I'll probably watch the whole thing when it's on DVD and I may develop a different opinion. (I can't comment on Don versus the rest of the characters, as I didn't really stick with it long enough to pick up on subtleties).

[selenak.livejournal.com]

We get some backstory (for Don) and some fantasies and confessions to a psychiatrist (for Betty) later on, but I agree that the externalness, which remains, makes a difference, and still dominates. It comes down to Robert Altman (specifically, The Player, as I have seen an Altman film where he handles it differently), and the clinical way of storytelling...

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a good comparison. I like The Player, but again, it's a 3 hour movie, not a 12 hour tv series.