The Strange World of Thomas P. Coombe

The Best TV Shows of 2010

It was a pretty good year for TV, but for me, a bad year for TV watching. I spent the second half of 2010 buried in work, which meant I didn't have much time for this blog. But with the year winding down, it's worth remembering the cream of this year's TV crop, whether I wrote about them or not.

1. AMC -- At least one of this network's program's -- Breaking Bad -- was an obvious contender for the top spot before the year was halfway over. Then came Mad Men's fourth -- and best -- season, followed by Rubicon and The Walking Dead, and by the time November arrived, it became clear AMC was TV's new king of quality TV shows.

No network has had a year like this since 2005, when The Wire, The Sopranos and Deadwood (not to mention Rome, Carnivale, Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm) were all part of HBO's line-up.

The Walking Dead proved to be the network's biggest hit so far, a comic book-inspired horror/drama that managed to transcend its roots by the time its six-episode season was over. 

 Rubicon's low ratings, slow pace and complicated storyline pretty much doomed it early on, but it was still fascinating to watch, and heartening to see AMC take this kind of risk, even for just a season. In the end, the show's conspiracy plotline wound up being less interesting than its characters -- the fascinating, funny villain Truxton Spangler justly inspired a fake Twitter feed -- and it's those people, rather than the answers we did/didn't get, that makes me sorry Rubicon won't be returning.

I'd been a little underwhelmed by Mad Men's second and third season, but its fourth was brilliant, taking us deeper into the mind and soul of protagonist Don Draper while also giving us a compelling look at an ad agency struggling to keep its head above water. But put all that aside, and Mad Men rises above most of its contemporaries on the strength of "The Suitcase" episode alone.

The king of the AMC mountain this year, however, was Breaking Bad. In three seasons, it's gone from "interesting" to "must-watch" to "comparisons to the Coen Brothers are not unwarranted."  

In the article I linked to above, TIME's James Poniewozik ties Coen movies like No Country For Old Men and Fargo to some of Breaking Bad's larger themes. It's an apt comparison, but I'll take the connection in a different direction: just as the Coens can jump from No Country to Burn After Reading to True Grit, Breaking Bad can be a different kind of show every episode. One week it's the most tense thriller you've ever seen, another it's a tragic-comedic "bottle show." And it does all of those things well, helped along by a brilliant cast and the most beautiful cinematography on TV. The finest show in production now.

As for the rest...

Mad Men Season Finale: Don Pops the Question

 Last season Mad Men ended with the heist-movieish thrill of Don, Roger, Pete, etc. basically stealing Sterling-Cooper from its new British owners and starting their own firm. The home stretch of this season offered a different sort of thrill, as we saw SCDP struggle to survive.

 Cheers to Matthew Weiner for not offering any easy solutions, either for the company or the people in it. There was some speculation on-line -- based on the fact that the finale was called "Tomorrowland" -- that Disney would swoop in as a new client and rescue everyone. Thankfully, that didn't happen. No big victories here, just small ones like Peggy scoring the pantyhose company and Don (maybe) winning over the American Cancer Society and its well-connected board. 

 And no easy answers for anyone else, either, least of all Don, who sacrifices an honest, loving, adult relationship with Faye to be with Megan, his secretary/lover/nanny pretty much the moment he sees that Megan doesn't turn into Medusa when Sally and Bobby act up in public. 

 You know, the way Betty would.

 (For some good thoughts on Betty's role in this episode in particular and on the show in general, I'll direct you to the always astute Amanda Marcotte, who disliked this episode for a variety of reasons, including Joan's decision not to have the abortion. "On TV, 99% of women who enter abortion clinics have a change of heart and leave," Marcotte writes. "In reality, I’m guessing the numbers are reversed.") 

It's a baffling decision; I expect most of the audience reacted the same way Don's colleagues did. I know I left the season -- which I'm ready to call Mad Men's best -- feeling a bit off-kilter. I made a Groundhog Day joke on Twitter last night about the finale's choice of closing song: "I Got You Babe." But the more I think on it, the more the use of the song seems intentional. Don's just as stuck as Bill Murray.

 Other thoughts:

•  How great was that scene with Peggy and Joan? It lasted like a minute, if that, yet told us so much about far these characters have come.
• Another nice moment: Don falling face down on his bed, then telling the kids "pick me up and move me to my bed." We hardly ever get to see him doing goofy "dad" stuff like that.
• No Sal this season. In retrospect, there was never really a good time to reintroduce him.
•  I missed the previous two episodes, so a lot of this is running together, but I can't let the season end without saying how cool Don's full-page ad was.
• And that's it for this season, and Mad Men. The blog's going dark for the rest of the month, as I transition from my current job to my new one, and then travel to Florida for my brother's wedding. I'll return next month to talk Walking Dead. See you then.

  Tom Coombe

What I Haven't Been Watching, and Why

I have no idea what's going on at Dunder-Mifflin these days. Same thing goes for Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Price. 

I have no clue what the boys of SAMCRO have been up to the last two weeks, or what godawful stuff Kenny Powers has gotten into south of the border, or how Hank Dolworth's fledgling detective agency is doing.

 In short, all my plans for writing about TV shows this fall -- not to mention actual viewing -- have fallen apart these past few weeks.

 But I have my reasons. First, as I've said before, my job eats up a lot of my time. Secondly, my friends and I have started the "Dracula 2012" project, which you can follow on Facebook and Twitter. So far, it's been a lot of fun.

 Also, I've been preoccupied, because I'm about to start a new job. Starting October 25, I'll be in the employ of Patch.com, AOL's local news service, covering Easton, the city I've called home for the last decade. I doubt I'll be working shorter hours, but at least I won't be commuting to New Jersey anymore. Hopefully, I'll be running at full steam here by year's end.

Mad Men: Make It Go Away

 "Mel Gibson was nicer to Jesus than the Mad Men writers are to these dudes." 

 Joe Warminsky, to me, on Twitter during this episode

 And yeah, "Hands and Knees" was a particularly brutal hour for the folks at SCDP, as many of the characters struggle under the weight of knowledge they'd rather not have. Forget Dexter and Boardwalk Empire, this was the most violent hour of TV Sunday night, even without Lane's cane thumping at the hands of his father.

 Sure, it was mostly emotional violence, but it was still quite devastating. By the end of the episode, we've seen:

•  Lane chastened and humiliated by his father (cheers to Jared Harris -- newly cast as Moriarty to Robert Downey Jr.'s Holmes, by the way -- for making this character so sympathetic).
• Joan learn she's pregnant, with Roger's child, and undergoing an abortion.
• Roger discover that the company will lose Lucky Strike, and therefore 70 percent of its business.
• Don on the cusp of going hobo yet again when the FBI starts digging into his past.

Heavy, heavy stuff. The firm is pretty much fucked* if it can't change Lucky Strikes' mind/land a client of equal/greater value, and Joan is suffering through yet another traumatic situation with a smile on her face.

 Only Sally -- of all people -- seems happy, unleashing a moment of Beatlemania when Don tells her she's going to see them at the famous Shea Stadium show. (Note that he tells her this before he has the tickets.) Even Betty seems happy here. That should've been our tip off that bad stuff was to come, both in this episode and the rest of the season.

 Tom Coombe

 *I tend not to drop casual profanity -- in writing or in real life -- but in this case, I think it's called for. 

Mad Men: Here's to You, Ida Blankenship

  Matthew Weiner wrote "Kennedy and Heidi," an episode of The Sopranos that contains what I'd argue is -- in it's own quiet way -- the show's most shocking death. 

 As creator of Mad Men, he's maintained that ability to provide us with subdued surprises, like Miss Blankenship's sudden departure this week.

 It was a beautifully played turn of events, and I like how it moved from funny  -- the scene with Joan and Pete moving the body while Don continues his pitch was priceless -- and to melancholy as the episode went on.

 She wasn't a pivotal character, but she was funny as hell, and wound up imparting some wisdom ("In this business, you're either a sadist or a masochist...") before she passed.

  Other thoughts:

•  Peggy continues to be my hero, even if I don't totally buy her equating her struggle at work with the plight of black Americans circa 1965. As Alan Sepinwall pointed out, it's really cool that she and Joyce are comfortable with each other despite Joyce's failed pass at Peggy. 
• Don't Not a TOTAL Dick moment of the night: Telling Ken to stop making fun of the stuttering auto executive.
• Best part of the "hide the body scene": Harry's "My mother made that!" when he sees her afghan being used to cover poor Ms. Blankenship.
• Two questions before I go: How much worse can things get for Sally? And has there ever been a show with less useful "On the next..." previews than this one?

 Tom Coombe

What I've Been Watching: So Much TV, So Little Time

 This has been one of the busiest weeks I've had in months, so I've had to -- yet again -- scrap plans to write about Mad Men, the True Blood finale and Sons of Anarchy. 

 I actually had a bleak moment earlier in the week when I thought about scrapping the blog altogether, but it passed quickly enough. Still, if my readership drops much beyond what it is now, and if I continue to remain as busy as I've been, I may have to go dark for a few weeks.

 And that would be too bad, because there's so much out there this time of year that I want to write about. (Putting aside TV, the fall is a great season for movies, music and books, not that I've ever reviewed the latter two here, but still...)

 So maybe the best bet is to take things a day at a time, and write about what I can whenever I can. For tonight, that means brief thoughts on a lot of things:

Mad Men, Breaking Bad and AMC's Amazing Year

  Maybe I'm still reeling from last night's amazing Mad Men/Rubicon double-bill, but it's unreal, the year AMC is having.

 I don't think any network has had a line-up like this since 2005, when HBO had The Wire, The Sopranos and Deadwood in production -- if not on the air -- all at the same time.

 (Not to mention lesser but still top-quality programming like Rome, Carnivale and Six Feet Under.)

I'm always updating and revising my mental list of the best TV shows of any given year, and for the last three months, Breaking Bad has been firmly planted in the number one spot. It managed to take a phenomenal second season and built upon it. Each week was like a little movie: sometimes a dark, Coen Brothers-style comedy, some times an action movie (watch it again. I'll wait.) and sometimes a slow-moving character study. But always excellent, anchored by the justly-praised Bryan Cranston, who was backed by great supporting players like Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn and Dean Norris.

 But now I'm thinking it should share that spot with its sister shows: Mad Men -- which is on its way to its strongest season since it premiered, aired one of its best episodes ever last night -- and Rubicon a paranoid thriller that gets better each week as it focuses more and more on its supporting cast.

 (Although with each week that passes, I'm straining to see why we need Miranda Richardson's story at all. She's probably the most recognizable name in the cast, but there's just nothing interesting about the plotline. I'd rather spend that time with Will's team, or with Spangler and Kane, his frightening -- for different reasons -- superiors.)

 Hell, I'll even throw in The Walking Dead. It hasn't actually premiered yet, but you need to give AMC credit for trying to adapt such an ambitious comic book series, and for giving it a second season before the first one even airs.

 But it's Mad Men I'm most impressed with these days. I still think it lacks the punch that makes Breaking Bad so strong, but other than a stumble a few weeks back, season four with Don Draper and company has marked the show's best run since the first season. 

 And last night's episode really was among Mad Men's finest. It's what an episode like "Walkabout" or "Ab Aeterno" was to Lost. (I don't use "The Constant," because, frankly, it just doesn't do it for me. Sorry, Lost fans.)

"The Suitcase" has a simple premise: Don and Peggy stay late at the office working on an ad for Samsonite. It's pretty much just them for the entire episode; we see a bit of Pete, Harry, Joan, etc., and Roger has two brief, hilarious cameos, but most of this hour's weight falls on Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss.

 And dear lord, do they carry it, fighting, bonding, marching each other through emotional mine fields. It's a great showcase for both of them and one of the show's best uses of a product as metaphor for the characters. In this case, the tough Samsonite suitcase, which symbolizes Peggy and Don's hard outer-cores, and Don's hobo code past. When their long, hard night -- which included a break-up for Peggy, some vomiting and almost-fight with Duck Phillips for Don -- is over, they seem closer than ever. 

  Other thoughts:

•  This show does small moments beautifully. One that caught my eye last night: the very brief look of fear on Don's face as the phone rings. One that I wish I'd caught: Don taking Peggy's hand as a call back to the pilot, where she tried to do that to him and he rebuffed her.
• Here's a measure of how good "The Suitcase" was: my girlfriend hasn't watched Mad Men since maybe midway through the second season, and she was enamored. I think Ms. Blankenship helped with that...
• ...as did Don and Peggy listening to Roger narrate his memoirs. That could be its own spin-off.
• Harry to Danny: "You're such a Jew." It's still very much 1959 for Mr. Crane.
• Note that Pete seems to be the only person at SCDP who thinks Clay can beat Liston, just as, years ago, he saw JFK defeating Nixon.

 Tom Coombe

Mad Men: The Lost Weekend

 I'm already late with this post, so I'm going to take the lazy, bullet-pointed way out, and just list what I liked about this episode. There was a lot. If we ignore "The Good News" from a few weeks ago, and the show keeps on this streak, season four may shape up to be Mad Men's strongest yet. Here are 6 things that made this episode great:

•  Don's drunken downfall. Sure, he drinks. A lot. It's like a running gag. But in "Waldorf Stories," Don's alcoholism -- we can call it that now, right? -- takes a rather frightening turn as he loses an entire day (in which he apparently introduces himself as "Dick," at least to the waitress he brings home). It's pretty impressive how the show shifts from funny, ebullient Don -- his one-after-the-other pitch of possible Life cereal slogans was hilarious -- to surly, shattered Don.
• All things Peggy. I love how she's come into her own in her relationship with Don this season, and her undressed game of chicken with the obnoxious new art director was one of the highlights of the episode (but not for the reasons you'd think). 
• The Don/Roger parallels. We spend part of this episode flashing back to the 1950s, when Don still sold fur coats...to people like Roger Sterling (who was buying one for Joan). At first, it seems like this is a story of how Don impressed Roger with his initiative. In the final scene, we learn that he only got the job because Roger hired him during a bender...just as Don would, several years later, be forced to hire the inept copywriter Danny for similar reasons. 
• Odds and ends: The shot of Joan holding both Roger and Don's hands before the award was announced. Duck Phillips heckling the emcee, then being booted from the ceremony, prompting Don to say "I feel like I already won."  And Ms. Blankenship, who like every other character on the show, has her own Twitter feed. 

 I'm going to try to start posting on Mad Men much earlier than I have been starting this weekend. The show is too good these days to get a short shrift.

Tom Coombe

Mad Men: Darling Don't You Go and Cut Your Hair

 A few weeks ago, Todd VanDerWerff of the AV Club wrote an essay comparing Betty Henry/Draper to Livia Soprano, the most frightening mother figure in television history.

 And while Betty hasn't put a hit out on Sally -- not yet anyway -- she's slowly becoming more monstrous. The more time we spend with the new Mrs. Henry, the more those comments about how Mad Men is actually the aduly Sally Draper's recollections in therapy seem on target.

 Actually, this week's episode -- which was almost as strong as last week's "The Rejected" -- finds 10-year-old Sally on her way to therapy after mom and dad decide she's out of control. The evidence against her: she chops off some of her hair, and is caught -- to borrow a phrase from Dr. House -- "marching the penguin" at a sleepover party. (Everyone else is asleep, and she's caught by a friend's mom. For obvious reasons, it's kind of a jarring scene.) 

 What's interesting here is the time Betty spends with the therapist, "Dr. Edna," before Sally has her first session. We've spent the episode -- and most of this season -- horrified by Betty's behavior towards her daughter, but with Dr. Edna, she's more sympathetic. (Note that she tells Betty to call her that, because it's "what the kids do." A telling line, although I doubt the therapist has had enough time to glean what we already know: Betty is herself still a child.)

 Hearing Betty talk about her own mother -- long dead before the start of Mad Men -- we realize she's only treating Sally with the same iciness her mom had for her. It doesn't excuse things like her slapping Sally or casually threatening to cut her fingers off, but as we reflect on what we already know about Betty's upbringing, we can see how she got this way.

 Livia died as unredeemed and malignant as when we met her. Maybe there's still hope for the former Mrs. Draper. 

 Other thoughts:

•  Most of the world was in love with the scene with Peggy on the scooter, and while that had its charm, I was more taken with the fact that she had to know how long the drinking bird kept drinking.
• Don to Faye: "Why does everyone need to talk about everything?" If Betty is this show's Livia, that was Don channeling his inner Tony Soprano, who longed for the days of the "strong silent type."
• I'll never get tired of Don's new secretary -- who, believe it or not, played Ralph Macchio's mom in The Karate Kid -- even if Don and everyone else clearly has.
• I wonder if it's an accident that the head Japanese businessman was named "Saito," the same name as the honor-obsessed colonel in The Bridge on the River Kwai.
• Roger's refusal to work with Honda -- and his outright hostility towards the company's reps -- was the only part of the episode that didn't work for me. 
• But I did like Don's scheme to win the Honda contract and outwit his self-proclaimed nemesis Ted Shaw. I realize the show can't do a client of the week story where Don, Peggy, etc. has to charm some new company, but I like when the show can pull off little capers like this one.

 Tom Coombe

  

What I've Been Watching: Mad Men Charms, True Blood Goes Nuts

 "I'm a little bit in love with stoned, yelling-over-the-music Peggy," I wrote last night during Mad Men's party scene.

 I've had one of these moments at least once every season. Yes, Joan is a goddess and the Betty Draper/Grace Kelly analogies are kind of apt, but my Mad Men watching heart will always belong to Ms. Olson.

 Anyway, I was more than a little in love with the latest episode, for the way it handled Peggy's story, made me realize I've actually missed Pete -- I loved how fatherhood spurred him into action -- and then managed to tie all the plot threads together.  

 Favorite moments: Peggy peeking over the office wall at Don after Alison quits; Lane giving Pete a snarky response after "I'm going to be a father," then rethinking it and genuinely congratulating him (most other shows would've ended on a caustic line); and as always, Roger Sterling, talking to Lee at Lucky Strikes after new tobacco regulations forbid them from showing athletes with cigarettes, and how they can get around it: "Bowling's a sport...how about horse racing?...Lee, the jockey smokes the cigarette."

 Least favorite moment: This was a very strong episode, but I could've done without the shot of Peggy and her new bohemian friends literally walking away from the assembled suits. It was a little on the nose, and was saved from being even more obvious by the decision to close not on that moment, but on Don returning home to his apartment and the "Didja get the pears?" couple. Nice work, by the way, by John Slattery (Mr. Sterling himself), who directed this episode, the first cast member to do so.

                                                                               ***

 After last week's episode, I joked to my girlfriend that True Blood could retitle itself "Blood and Fornication." (OK, I may have used a slightly different word.)

 This week had far more of the former than the latter, but frankly, I'm only watching the show for the non-Bill Compton vampires at this point. Eric, Pam, Jessica, Nan Flanagan and -- especially -- Russell* are all fascinating, and any time we leave them to spend with, say, Arlene or Jason or Sam and his snot-nosed brother, the show just gets stuck in a swamp.

 *I'll confess I had no clue who Denis O'Hare was before this summer, until he blew me away as Russell, True Blood's best villain so far. If you're a Stephen King fan, it's worth tracking down the audio book of Just After Sunset, where O'Hare is one of the narrators on "N," a truly frightening short story.

 But this week, any boredom I felt watching the human characters was washed away with that amazing, completely insane final scene. Why couldn't this show just have been about the vampires in the first place?

 Tom Coombe