Falling Skies 3.3: The Smile

Falling Skies episode 3.3 last night had lots of good parts, but the most significant, in terms of long-range consequences in our story, concerned Tom and Anne's baby girl.

Last week, we see Anne noting and worried about the baby's way-too-rapid development.  As I mentioned in my review, the human-alien hybrid is something we've seen before on television, most effectively in V.  What was most interesting about Tom and Anne's child is where the alien came into the equation.   Since neither is an alien - as far as we know - the only way I can see alien DNA entering the baby's genome is via something implanted in Tom, when he was whisked away on the alien ship.

Last night, the focus shifts to Anne, and the possibility that she is imagining the unusual behavior of her baby, in some kind of post-partum blues or even psychosis.   Neither Tom nor Lourdes has seen any evidence that the baby is progressing in anything other than a human way - and Lourdes says her tests show the same - so the pressure's on Anne, who steadfastly denies that she's imaging the baby standing up and talking, just a week after her birth.  Of course, if Anne is indeed losing her mind, that's exactly what she would do.

But in an excellent last scene, with bad-alien ships flying over the Charleston compound, we catch a glimpse of the baby looking up with a distinct smile on her face.   It's a chilling and effective scene, and suggests that the baby is exercising significant intelligence indeed, to hide what she really is from everyone other than Anne.   This in turn raises the interesting question of why the baby is signaling Anne about its identity.

The other nice reveal last night is that the original President of the United States - when the aliens attacked - is still alive and still in office.   Not only does this create good competition for Tom, but opens up all kinds of possibilities - and another parallel between Falling Skies and Revolution.

See also Falling Skies 3.1-2: It's the Acting

And see also Falling Skies Returns  ... Falling Skies 2.6: Ben's Motives ... Falling Skies Second Season Finale

And see also Falling Skies 1.1-2 ... Falling Skies 1.3 meets Puppet Masters ... Falling Skies 1.4: Drizzle ... Falling Skies 1.5: Ben ... Falling Skies 1.6: Fifth Column ... Falling Skies 1.7: The Fate of Traitors ... Falling Skies 1.8: Weaver's Story ... Falling Skies Concludes First Season

                                        

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Magic City: Yiddish, Cuba, Bathing Suit Excellent

I caught up with the first season of Magic City and the first episode of the second season in the past few days, and was impressed indeed.  It takes place a tad before the start of Mad Men - in late 1958 into 1959 - but it has almost nothing else in common with Mad Men.   Instead of high-rolling Madison Avenue advertising, we get beach-front Miami Beach, where the main high-rolling depicted is among gamblers, mobsters, and hotel owner Ike Evans.   The mob - in the person of Ben Diamond - contributes murders - and the women, from prostitutes to girl friends and wives, are sassily bright and beautiful.   There's plenty of nudity of all kinds, making Magic City much more like Rome than Mad Men.

The plot is pretty good, too, with some genuinely climatic and touching moments, and a few over-the-top situations and resolutions, which are ok by me.   Ike - well played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan - is struggling to keep his hotel successful and even afloat.   He seeks the help of Diamond, ends up with a murder of union head on his hands, who also happens to be an old friend.   To make matters even more tense, Ike's son Stevie is sleeping with Diamond's wife, and Ike's other son Danny wants to work in the DA's office - the very DA who is out to get Ike and Diamond at any cost.

A lot of the first season was devoted to Stevie keeping polaroids of him and Diamond's wife out of Diamond's hands.   When Diamond finally does get a look at them, however, he kills neither his wife or Stevie, because he rather watch them making love.   Not completely believable, but I guess there are crazed mobsters like Diamond around somewhere, so why not in Miami Beach.

The show has a Yiddishe tahm - look it up if you don't know the language - which makes it especially welcome and appealing.   More than just a Yiddish word is thrown in every now and again.  Magic City is thoroughly steeped in Jewish customs and attitudes.  And among the characters who are Jewish are not only Ike and his kids (though not his second wife, who is Cuban), but Ben Diamond (far more brutal than Meyer Lansky), the late union leader, and even the obsessed DA.   And Cuba indeed plays a significant role in this story.  As does JFK, not yet seen, but on his way to becoming President.

In short, Magic City is zesty, refreshing, pounding, and sexy - I'll be an avid viewer from now.   And my wife really likes it, too.

                                                                    

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Mad Men 6.12: Rosemary's Baby, Dick Cheney, and Sunkist

What do Rosemary's Baby, Dick Cheney, and Sunkist have in common?  They all played significant roles in tonight's Mad Men 6.12.   Dick Cheney because Ken Cosgrove gets shot in the the face on the hunt - literally and figuratively - by client General Motors.   Sunkist because Harry lands them as a client, which allows Don to stick it to Ted and Ocean Spray.   But the best story concerned Rosemary's Baby, the 1968 supremely creepy movie by Roman Polanski about a guy a who drugs out his wife so the devil can sleep with her and bear the devil's baby.

No one is drugged in this episode of Mad Men, but Don is certainly a devil.   Peggy has a brilliant idea for a St. Joseph's Aspirin ad - do a take on a Rosemary Baby's scene which culminates in the pitch for the aspirin from the baby's perspective.  It's a wonderful ad, which had me laughing, but it comes with a big price tag, much more than St. Joseph's expected to pay.

Joan realizes this, but Don runs with it.   He and Megan earlier bumped into Ted and Peggy in a movie theater, where all were seeing Rosemary's Baby, for different reasons.   Ted and Peggy tell Don they needed to see the movie again to be sure about a scene, but Megan instantly realized there's something going on between Ted and Peggy, something more than business.

Don figures out a way to get St. Joseph to go for the expensive ad - at least with part of the cast - but in doing so manages to embarras Ted and Peggy.   His real agenda, of course, is not only to sell the ad to St. Joseph, but indeed to embarras Ted and Peggy.   Why?   Don has been in competition with Ted since the merger, actually before as well, and whatever he may say (including to himself) to the contrary, the last thing he wants to see is Ted finding happiness with Don's girl Peggy.   It's not that Don wants Peggy himself, it's that he doesn't want to Ted have her.

Peggy realizes some or most of this, and in one of the most satisfying verbal thrashings in the series, calls Don a "monster".   In the pendulum of Don swinging from admirable to despicable, which is more  often than not on the despicable side, Don achieved some pretty impressive lows tonight.

But the season is at some kind of high with the advertising and personal hardball it has been serving, and the season's finale is on cue for next week.

See also Mad Men 6.1-2: The Lighter and the Twist ... Mad Men 6.3: Good Company ... Mad Men 6.4: McLuhan, Heinz, and Don's Imagination ... Mad Men 6.5: MLK ... Mad Men 6.6: Good News Comes in a Chevy ...  Mad Men 6.7: Merger and Margarine ... Mad Men 6.8: Dr. Feelgood and Grandma Ida ... Mad Men 6.9: Don and Betty ... Mad Men 6.10: Medium Cool ... Mad Men 6.11: Hand in the Cookie Jar and Guy de Maupassant

See also Why "You Only Live Twice" for Mad Men Season 5 Finale ... Mad Men Season Five Finale

See also Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party  ... Mad Men 5.3: Heinz Is On My Side ... Mad Men 5.4: Volunteer, Dream, Trust ... Mad Men 5.5: Ben Hargrove ... Mad Men 5.6: LSD Orange ... Mad Men 5.7: People of High Degree ... Mad Men 5.8: Mad Man and Gilmore Girl ...Mad Men 5.9: Don's Creativity  ... Mad Men 5.10: "The Negron Complex" ... Mad Men 5.11: Prostitution and Power ... Mad Men 5.12: Exit Lane

And from Season 4: Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback  ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ...4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking!  ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -

And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ...Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ...Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

                                              
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Star Trek Into Darkness: Echoes, Resonances, and Great

Tina and I just got back from seeing Star Trek Into Darkness - at a theater on Cape Cod on Enterprise Road, no less - and just loved it.  We both think this second J. J. Abrams Star Trek outing is a lot better than the first - which was excellent - and I think this movie is one of the very best of the twelve Star Trek movies made thus far.

Our central characters were more natural and confortable in their skins than in the first movie, in which they sometimes verged a little too close to caricature.  This time, not only were Kirk and Spock superb, but Bones, Scottie, and Sulu were outstanding, and played crucial roles in the story.   Chekov was still and likely always will be a little ridiculous with his Russian accent - I bet the average person who speaks English in Russia today speaks with less of an accent - but that's part of what makes him endearing.   My wife Tina wanted to see more echoes of the original Uhura in this movie, but I liked this Uhura just fine.

Bear in mind, as the old Spock explained to us in the previous movie, that what we've been seeing in this and the previous movie is an alternate reality of Star Trek - alternate, that is, in contrast to what we saw in the original and subsequent Star Trek television shows and the first 10 movies, which we can now identify as pre-JAbrams.  In most ways, the characters are the same.   And most of the original characters are in this rebooted universe.  Hence Nurse Chapel from the original series is mentioned in Into Darkness.

But there are differences, which account not only for Uhura - and her romantic relationship with Spock in the J. J. Abrams movies - but other characters including Christopher Pike.   In the original series, he ends up in a wheel chair, face disfigured, on a world in which he can live his dreams (Kirk and Spock help get Pike there).   In the new movie, he ends up dead - killed by Khan's attack.   My wife wondered why he couldn't have wound up disfigured in a wheelchair in the new movie, too.   It would have made a nice closing of the loop between the original and current Star Trek realities, and I would guess that J. J. Abrams and his producers and writers didn't want it to close quite so neatly.

They're probably right.   What we want are glimmering reflections of the original Star Trek, not a more intense, constant search for similarities and coincidences with the original.   Khan, for example, who was a crucial character both in the original TV series and the original movies, was a Khan who in this movie bears only some resemblances to the original.   But Old Spock tells Spock about the essential similarity: Khan is a highly lethal danger to Kirk and Spock and the Enterprise.

In the end, people who have seen every Star Trek ever made will have to decide if they think the similarities are too little, too much, or just right.   My wife wanted more of the original Uhura - especially because other characters resonated so well with the originals - but I didn't really miss her in this movie at all.  But such differences in taste are akin to whether you prefer this touch of spice or that in a great dish.   What's undoubtable is Star Trek Into Darkness was one great movie indeed.

See also Star Trek: Reborn, Reset, Resplendent

                                        

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Falling Skies 3.1-2: It's the Acting

Falling Skies was back with its two-hour Season 3 premiere on Sunday.   The show continues to be an appealing amalgam of trite parts that somehow add up to something pretty good.

The Earth attacked by superior aliens is of course a trope most made famous by H. G. Wells more than a century ago.   The addition of aliens fighting amongst themselves, with some allying with us, is also something we've seen before.  So are the mechs, recently seen to best effect as the toasters in Battlestar Galactica.   A new component in this season's Falling Skies is the star child, a human-alien hybrid who grows more quickly than humans and has superior powers - last seen in the late lamented V on ABC-TV a few years ago.

The child in Falling Skies is Tom and Anne's, which raises the question of where she - the baby girl - is getting her powers.  Possibly this has something to do with the time Tom was on the alien ship, in between seasons 1 and 2.   Meanwhile, Tom's relationship with his three sons also continues to be well depicted, with Ben, the middle son who was freed from alien harness, still of greatest interest, though Hal's relationship with his former girlfriend, now a bad-alien leader, has potential.

The locus of the action has shifted from the road and make-shift headquarters to something more substantial in Charleston, where Tom has been elected President of a fledging United States.  This makes for a refreshing touch with Weaver, now a Colonel, calling Tom "Sir,"  but the move to genteel Southern cities is also something we've seen in other post-apocalyptic dramas, including Revolution and even a bit in The Walking Dead.   And a resurgent United States after the apocalypse also popped up in Revolution's season 1 finale.

So what makes Falling Skies appealing?  It's the acting, most notably Noah Wyle as Tom.  And with Gloria Reuben as Tom's aide and House's Robert Sean Leonard as an eccentric scientist (what else?) this season, I'm definitely in for the run.

See also Falling Skies Returns  ... Falling Skies 2.6: Ben's Motives ... Falling Skies Second Season Finale

And see also Falling Skies 1.1-2 ... Falling Skies 1.3 meets Puppet Masters ... Falling Skies 1.4: Drizzle ... Falling Skies 1.5: Ben ... Falling Skies 1.6: Fifth Column ... Falling Skies 1.7: The Fate of Traitors ... Falling Skies 1.8: Weaver's Story ... Falling Skies Concludes First Season

                                        

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The Borgias Farewell: Sneak Preview Review of Series Finale

The cancelation of The Borgias with its Season 3 finale was announced last week.   Borgias creator Neil Jordan, who had previously said he wanted to make a two-hour movie to properly complete The Borgias, pronounced himself satisfied that this season's finale completed the essential story he wanted to tell.

I just saw the season 3 finale On Demand - where Showtime occasionally puts up a programs a week in advance of their air date.   I thought this and last week's episode - which I also saw a week before its air date - were superb, in fact, the best of the season.   But I have to strongly disagree that the Borgias story, as presented in this series, has been completely told.

                                                         =====SPOILERS BELOW=====

Rodrigo and Cesare have to come terms - Rodrigo would like to see his son inherent his position as Pontiff.   We of course know this didn't come to pass in reality, and I would very much have liked to seen why it didn't in this series.

Cesare sets a new assassin - with Micheletto gone - on to the task of assassinating Lucrezia's husband Alfonso.  Before that can take place, though,  Alfonso attacks Cesare, who of course defends himself successfully and gravely wounds Alfonso.  Lucrezia is deeply hurt and furious and attempts to take her own life.   We know from history that Alfonso dies but Lucrezia does not.  Wouldn't you like to know and see played out what goes on to happen between her and her brother?

Nowadays, it's easier than ever before for writers of books, and creators of movies, to publish and produce their own works.   That revolution has to come to television, however, and more's the pity.

The Borgias provided a good three years of sage and enjoyable television viewing.   The public deserves more of an ending than this season finale turned into a series finale gives us.   Maybe someday we'll see it.  If not, my enduring thanks for this unconventional peek into religious and political history.

See also The Borgias Season 3 Premiere: "Blade's Breath" ... The Borgias 3.2: Going Both Ways ... The Borgias 3.4: Incest and Debauchery ... The Borgias 3.5: Normal Love and Lampreys ... The Borgias 3.6: Plague and Belief

And see also The Borgias Season 2 Sneak Preview

And see also The Borgias Sneak Preview Review ... The Borgias 1.5: Machiavellian Politics and Marriage ... The Borgias 1.6: Beds, Leg, Cannon ... Borgias  Season One Concludes

                                               

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Mad Men 6.11: Hand in the Cookie Jar and Guy de Maupassant

Well, it probably wasn't Don's hand, and it wasn't exactly a cookie jar, but he sure got caught in last night's episode 6.11 of Mad Men - and by his daughter Sally, no less.

The season and the episode had been building up to this beautifully.   Early in the season, Sally gets a glimpse of Don and Megan in the bedroom.   Last night, we get too parallel stories that lead up to the great revelation.

In one of these threads, Sally develops an instant crush on Sylvia and the doc's teenage son.   Sally's with her friend, the two are staying over Don and Megan's apartment, and the two girls giggle and plot about the doc's son.  Near the end of the episode, Sally's friend reveals that she left a note for the doc's son, signed by Sally - who rushes back to the apartment building, and sweet talks the genial doorman to give her the key to the doc's and Sylvia's apartment.  Sally walks in, and sees-

Well, the second story also features the doc's son, who has a received a 1A and is thus in imminent danger of being drafted.  The doc and Sylvia are desperate to keep their son out of Vietnam.  Don, who tells Megan it's none of their concern, nonetheless later says the war is "wrong," and soon Don is pitching the big client Chevy's people who have some connections with the military - pitching Chevy not on SC&P's  advertising acumen, that is, but on the inequity of the war.   This leads nowhere except to Ted's chastising Don for getting political with a client - but it turns out that Ted has a connection which can put the doc's boy in a plane far away from Vietnam.   Don conveys the good news to Sylvia, the two get to talking, and-

This is how Don ends up in bed with Sylvia when Sally walks in.   It's a brilliant little short that Guy de Maupassant would have pleased to write.   Don, of course, as befits Mad Men, doesn't quite get his comeuppance but neither does he escape unscathed.   And I fear the wheels are now in motion for Don and Megan to split, which, actually, I'd hate to see because I like Megan.

But looking forward more than ever to rest of this season's Mad Men.

See also Mad Men 6.1-2: The Lighter and the Twist ... Mad Men 6.3: Good Company ... Mad Men 6.4: McLuhan, Heinz, and Don's Imagination ... Mad Men 6.5: MLK ... Mad Men 6.6: Good News Comes in a Chevy ...  Mad Men 6.7: Merger and Margarine ... Mad Men 6.8: Dr. Feelgood and Grandma Ida ... Mad Men 6.9: Don and Betty ... Mad Men 6.10: Medium Cool

See also Why "You Only Live Twice" for Mad Men Season 5 Finale ... Mad Men Season Five Finale

See also Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party  ... Mad Men 5.3: Heinz Is On My Side ... Mad Men 5.4: Volunteer, Dream, Trust ... Mad Men 5.5: Ben Hargrove ... Mad Men 5.6: LSD Orange ... Mad Men 5.7: People of High Degree ... Mad Men 5.8: Mad Man and Gilmore Girl ...Mad Men 5.9: Don's Creativity  ... Mad Men 5.10: "The Negron Complex" ... Mad Men 5.11: Prostitution and Power ... Mad Men 5.12: Exit Lane

And from Season 4: Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback  ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ...4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking!  ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -

And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ...Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ...Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

                                              
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