The Strange World of Thomas P. Coombe

Mad Men: Muggers' Little Helper

I usually schedule my weekends in such a way that I don't watch Mad Men until late Sunday night/Monday morning. Consequently, I went into this episode having seen brief mentions of its brilliance on Twitter, Facebook, etc. (Actually, there is no "etc." It's just Twitter and Facebook.)

 But they were right: pretty brilliant.  Start with the use of flashforwards. Don passed out on the floor of what looks like a motel, sporting a nasty gash above his nose, Peggy in bed with someone whose name I won't reveal until below the spoiler warning, Betty lounging, looking serene, on a couch.

 Most shows would tack on a quick "48 hours earlier" with the next scene, but Mad Men knows we're smart enough to say "OK, we're going to see how these characters got to these points." It's three interconnected stories about the three characters entering into a series of risky, short-term and questionable relationships.

 It's a bleak, bleak hour, but one that's always watchable, mostly due to some great work by Jon Hamm, who has to take Don to some really ugly places this week.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: I Reject Your Hypothesis

Not a whole lot I want to say about this one, other than that I really enjoyed Larry's exaggerated version of himself, and I'm glad Leon will continue to stick around. I'll probably go into more detail next week when the Seinfeld reunion storyline begins in full.

 Also, those plastic packages that a lot of gadgets come in are just evil. Larry's rage at not being to open them is well-justified, and the bit with the Xacto Knife at the end was just brilliant.

 Tom Coombe

The Office: We Need a Bert, Not a Big Bird

At this point, I feel like we've seen a lot of episodes of The Office that have this kind of story: Michael misjudges/overestimates how much of a "family" Dunder-Mifflin really is, with disastrous results.

 But in this case, I don't mind it as much, because the end result was a new direction for the show: Michael and Jim both become "co-managers" of the Scranton branch.

 It means Michael will have to share power with Jim, Jim will have to overcome Michael's...well, just Michael. The move puts two of the main characters into new roles, while a third character (Dwight) has to deal with what I'm sure he sees as a nightmare coming true. (As evidenced by Rainn Wilson's from-the-pits-of-hell scream at the end.)

 Speaking of Dwight, I could have happily watched a whole episode that was him and Toby investigating Daryl's workplace injury, Law & Order style.

 Things that made me laugh this week:

• Michael's drawn-out comparison of Jim to Big Bird, an extended Sesame Street metaphor that grew to include "the grown-ups" like Maria and Gordon.
• Dwight telling Daryl that he wasn't living in "Communist Sweden," and Daryl's retort -- if he was in Sweden, he'd have universal health care.
• Pam's pathetic attempts to finalize her guest list. Do either she or Jim actually like anyone at Dunder Mifflin at this point? And aside from Michael, does anyone really like them?

 Tom Coombe

Flashforward Series Premiere: I've Seen the Future Brother, It is Murder

I really want to like this one. It has the most intriguing premise I've heard in a long time, a pretty nifty cast, and started off with an action/disaster sequence better than what you'd see in most movies.

 But I have my worries. For example: too much of the dialogue was explaining things we already figured out -- or worse, things other characters have just said.

 

Fringe: The Adventures of Superbaby

  Last week, I praised Fringe for revelling in its weirdness. Thankfully, the show kept it up this week, juggling a self-contained main story that could have come out of The X-Files and the on-going ramifications of Olivia's trip to another universe.

 We had more of Agent Jessup from last week (still not doing much), and I'm not sure I like the idea of the imposter Charlie if he's not going to be found out right away. Knowing more than the main characters is a bit frustrating. The typewriter in the mirror scenes are still pretty creepy.

 

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season Premiere: Empty Gestures

How many different ways did I love the return of Curb Your Enthusiasm?

That it was called "Funkhouser's Crazy Sister."  That she was legitimately kind of crazy. And hilarious, as played by Catherine O'Hara. (I'd love to know the story of how she got the nickname "Bam-Bam.") That so many of the show's regulars were present, from Susie Essman to Wanda Sykes to Funkhouser himself (who is always great).

  That I -- as usual -- sort of agreed with Larry on some things (I'd rather have the burglars than the neighbors, and I don't know that I'd be OK with someone just pouring themselves a drink from my refrigerator unasked), while cringing over other things ("I didn't know you were gay!") That the Funkhouser's took Larry's "Is there anything I can do?" literally, while he meant it as an "empty gesture." (Without that, the whole episode falls apart. Or in Larry's case, comes together.)

 I'm not sure I'm going to blog this every week, but it was a really, really enjoyable episode, from a show that in no way feels like it's in its seventh season (to be fair, in terms of a network sitcom, 61 episodes is less than three seasons). And we haven't even gotten to the Seinfeld reunion plotline yet, although the seeds were planted during Larry's meeting with Cheryl. Can't wait.

 Tom Coombe 

Mad Men: Oh, Deere...

On the same night it won its second Best Drama Emmy, Mad Men showed one of its best episodes ever.

 While I still think fellow AMC drama Breaking Bad was robbed, there's no denying the brilliance of "Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency." It was funny and sad, sweet and caustic, providing a nice showcase for nearly all of the cast (I think only Sal sat this one out.)

 It was an episode about how our expectations lead to disappointment, and about how...You know what?

 

The Office Season Premiere: Have You Heard...

I thought this one was kind of uneven. A lot of it made me laugh out loud, but it was a bit distressing to see Michael acting this immature and cartoonish, after the more grown-up version of him we'd seen last year.

 Then again, a Michael that acts like a mature, professional boss means an end to the show, which is why we had him spreading a rather vicious rumor, not to be mean, but because he was happy to finally be the first to know something.

 And yeah, some of the deflection rumors he spread later to discredit the first one were kind of funny. (My favorite was Angela dating the 81-year-old billionaire who made his fortune with a Quizno's on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.)

 But it seemed like the stuff I was really laughing at had nothing to do with the main storyline: the stuff with the interns, and -- especially -- the parkour! scene.

 Also: Jim and Pam -- still great together. Don't mess this up, writers.

 Tom Coombe

Fringe Season Premiere: The Man From Another Place

 After traveling into an alternate universe at the end of last season, Fringe returned to our reality -- well, the show's version of it -- Thursday night with a fairly solid premiere.

 We didn't learn much about the other Earth, or what Olivia did while she was there, but it was a creepy, suspenseful episode that raised a lot of cool new questions and -- hopefully -- signified that the show is off to a better start in its second season than it was in its first.

 As usual, spoilers are ahead, so this is the place where I tell folks who haven't watched yet to stop reading.

Mad Men: Put It All Behind Us

Among the many reasons I love The Sopranos is the way the show handled dream sequences. No shimmery fades with harp music or people sitting bolt upright in bed. When someone dreamed on The Sopranos, it unfolded like a real dream: perfectly logical while it's happening, unsettling and confusing later on.

 Mad Men, whose creator, Matthew Weiner, co-wrote the Sopranos episode I linked to above, hasn't done a dream sequence as warped/brilliant as "The Test Dream" on his own show yet. But portions of last night's episode came close, as we looked inside Betty Draper's fragile mind as she prepared to have her third child.