Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Triple Sunday

Here's an overview of three hourlongs on Sunday.  It's really too much to watch, much less write about.

Mad Men:

I really don't know what to make of "Far Away Places."  Good or bad, though, it reminded us that Mad Men does stuff no one else even attempts.

This week we followed Peggy, Roger and Don and the troubles they have with relationships.  Since Roger took LSD, the episode did some time-tripping of its own.  Also, each story had two characters lying back and looking up, and had one being woken up and asking what time is it.  They all left us wondering where these characters are going.

We start with Peggy. She's got the big Heinz re-pitch today and is fighting with her lover.  She gets into work and just before the pitch Don informs her he and Megan are taking off upstate.  Peggy feels a bit blindsided, but it's Don, who does what he wants, and no one can tell him otherwise.

The pitch doesn't go well--still not college-y enough.  Peggy tries to pull a Don by telling the client he actually likes it, and only succeeds in getting herself fired from the account. (Peggy must be getting tired of Heinz because I'm already tired of it and she's been on it longer than I have.)  She goes off in the middle of the day to watch a movie (her boyfriend had wanted to see The Naked Prey but she checks out Born Free).

At the cinema she borrows a joint from a patron. (Was New York that hip in '66?) He sits next to her and tries to put the moves on.  She says no, but instead gives him a hand job.  There's something you don't see too often.  She returns to the office and meets Ginsberg's annoying Jewish father.  She falls asleep and is woken by Dawn (not the dawn) and answers a call from Don about Megan.  What's up with that?  Guess we'll find out later.  Peggy then finds out from Ginsberg that he was born in a concentration camp, which she has troubling processing. She realizes she needs some reassurance.

Roger is going to a party with Jane, though clearly they're unhappy.  It's Jane's smart set, arguments about beauty and truth.  And just when you think the party's about the end, someone announces it's time to turn on.  This was the point of the party, but Roger didn't really pay attention.

Anyway, he's not the type to turn down an easy high, so he goes along with Jane and takes the sugar cube.  As much as we love Roger, he's probably the one most in need of a personality change, and if anything can do it, it's LSD.

We have a calm but trippy sequence. (I thought playing some of Pet Sounds was maybe a bit on the nose.) Roger and Jane get home, still under the influence, lie on their carpet and discuss what's going on.  She admits she knows it's over but is waiting for him to say it.  Next morning, he feels enlightened and is ready to leave.  Jane isn't sure at first that they should listen to what they said while high, but it seems, now that it's out in the open, they both know it's going to happen.  And it'll be costly, but the new Roger doesn't seem to mind.

Don's story has Roger suggesting they go on an upstate romp to meet the Howard Johnson's people, but instead Don takes Megan out of work (just before the Heinz pitch).  She's moody and ultimately quite unhappy he undermined her at work and treats her like she's a wife rather than a worker.  Especially when he starts thinking up work ideas once they get to the Howard Johnsons.

(Two unrelated points:  1)  I don't usually get nostalgic for things on the show, but it does't seem that long ago that Howard Johnson's was simply a part of America, like McDonalds or Holiday Inn.  What happened?  2)  I once was driving from New York to Montreal, took a wrong turn, had my car break down and got stuck in Utica.  It was actually a nice weekend.)

So Don and Megan have a big fight in HoJo's, and he walks out and drives off.  He comes back but she's gone.  (In-between we have an odd little flashback to when they're driving the kids back home after summer vacation, while Don whistles "I Want To Hold Your Hand," which has grown on him.) After a lot of worry and searching, he finds her back at their place.  They get over it, but you wonder if their relationship will change.  (I wouldn't mind.  This more domesticated Don isn't as interesting.)  Back at work, Bert tells Don it's time to get back to work for real.  I guess someone can talk to Don that way.  (Robert Morse doesn't get that many lines, but he makes the ones he does get count.)

So another episode, where a lot happened and nothing happened.  And one of the trippiest since Don took off with the Jet Set.  No Betty, which is fine.  No Joan or Harry, which is not so fine.

Game Of Thrones:

"Garden Of Bones" was a dark episode, but still a lot of fun.

We start with another surprise victory for Robb Stark, who's so noble he's almost as priggish and dull as Stannis.  He meets another one of GOT's strong women, Talisa, tending to the wounded.  I thought last week maybe we'd met all the main characters for this season, but you never do on this show.  She and Robb have a very modern conversation on the wisdom of war, and that's it for Robb this week.  Nice to see you.

The despicable Joffrey is not happy with Stark's march.  He has Sansa at court and plans to hurt her (it not--yet--kill her) when Tyrion comes in an stops the nonsense in his clever way (by noting the deficiences of his nephew without directly contradicting him or threatening him).  Bronn suggest maybe the idiot-king needs something to take his mind off things, so Tyrion sends a couple of whores to his chamber. He has one hurt the other to fling it into Tyrion's face later.

Lord Baelish travels to Renly's camp.  Renly is no fan of Littlefinger, of course, but that's nothing next to Cat, who believes (correctly) this is the man who betrayed her husband.  He tries to explain there was nothing to be done, and if she's willing to be sensible, perhaps a trade can be arranged--Jaime for Sansa and Arya.  (He's lying about Arya, but she doesn't know that.) He brought back the remains of Ned as a peace offering.  Tyrion is behind this, as he's behind so much, but Baelish, who loves Cat but is also very subtle, is clearly the man for the job.

Out in the Red Waste, Dany hears good news--that the greatest city ever, Qarth, will let them in.  Good to see her again. Meanwhile, Arya, Gendry and the rest are marched to the cursed Harrenhal.  Every day the Mountain chooses some lucky lad to be tortured for information and then killed.  (Arya tries to hide--he might recognize her.) And that's life at Harrenhal.

Stannis and Renly, with their seconds and thirds and so on, have a powwow. Doesn't go well, since Stanis will never yield (to be fair, he has to best claim to the throne) while Renly is more popular and has more soldiers.  Too bad, since if they could work together, and join with Robb, they could easily take King's Landing.

At Qarth, Dany doesn't get quite the greeting she hoped for. The place is run by the head merchants, the Thirteen, and while they'd love to see her dragons, they're not that disposed to letting Dothraki in.  (Which is why the land outside is called the Garden Of Bones.)  Luckily, one of the merchants, who's a bit of an outsider himself, is willing to vouch for them.  Wow, Dany and her small band will be able to raise her dragons.  Watch out!

At Harrenhal Gendry is picked, but before he gets the treatment, no-nonsense Tywin rides in (a day early) and puts an end to such foolishness. They need bodies to fight, not to torture.  He also easily sees Arya is a girl disguised as a boy.  He takes her on as a cupbearer. Interesting.

Tyrion gets a warrent from Cersei to release Pycelle.  Tyrion figures the Lannister messenger is Cersei's lover and so he controls him--let Pycelle out, he's now harmless, while Tyrion (who goes from strength to strength) now has a spy with the Queen Regent.

Stannis has Davos do some smuggling again, taking the Red Woman to his brother's side, where she lays down, pregnant, and deliver something spooky. (This is the fantasy part of the story which I find least interesting). Is Renly ready for this?  Could anyone be?

So no Jon Snow, no Greyjoys, which are both fine with me.  No Jaime or Cersei, though no doubt they'll be in play soon.  Everyone is manevering around, but all eventually moving toward King's Landing (even at the Wall, I bet).

Once Upon A Time:

The show returned to new episodes, but now playing the same night as two really good shows, you see how weak it is.

We find out more from fairyland--that Rumpelstiltskin bailed on Bae, his son, who got a spell from the Blue Fairy to send them both to a land with no magic so dad would stop being so creepy.  In Storybrooke, Gold searches out August and suspects it's his son.  There's a tearful reunion, but soon after we discover August is a guy who's sick in the other world (he claims) so he wants Rumpel's power.  Too bad you can't get it in this world.

However, we discover (in another one of countless silly twists) that that's why Rumpel got this curse going that the Evil Queen used--so he could get to the land where his son was sent.  Meanwhile, Regina has Sidney falsely admit he's behind setting up the fake crime, and Charming and Snow (in the real world) continue to have boring relationship problems.

I guess things are changing a bit, but with a few more episode, I don't know if things are compelling enough to make me return.

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now that Thursday has all the comedies back on NBC, watching TV is becoming a full time business.

5:30 PM, April 24, 2012  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HoJo's was such a permanent part of the background that it was in 2001 A Space Odyssey. They sure got that wrong.

8:43 PM, April 24, 2012  
Anonymous Lawrence King said...

Your post made me curious so I had to look up Howard Johnson's on Wikipedia to find out why they collapsed. I remember them from when I was young, but we rarely went there -- my folks usually took us to Bob's Big Boy or to Sambo's. (The collapse of the latter is easily explained, unlike the collapse of HJ's.)

The Wikipedia article mentioned that there are three Howard Johnson's still existing -- all former franchises. I find it fascinating how a few franchises can linger after the death of the chain. There is only one Baker's Square still in existence. There was a Naugles on the route from L.A. to Vegas until the mid 1990s. And Bob's Big Boy itself was close to death until the Burbank Bob's was rejuvenated -- and now the chain seems to be slowly growing again.

9:27 PM, April 25, 2012  
Blogger LAGuy said...

I have enough to say about this that I should probably put up a separate post, but I'll try to keep it short.

First, I haven't noticed Baker's Square in LA, but I remember it well from Chicago. It's still there, isn't it, or is it gone?

Meanwhile, other franchises come and go, and you rarely know the inside story. McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's are still huge, of course, but what happened to Hardees and Burger Chef?

For that matter, new franchises are moving into or closer to LA, like Chick-fil-A and Sonic. One of the interesting things about traveling across the country is to discover not just the local places, but how franchises rise and fall geographically.

I was just talking to a friend yesterday about Boston Market, which spread like wildfire some years back in LA. There are still a handful of them I know of, but most have closed. Not entirely sure why, though I guess there's plenty of competition in the slightly better than average fast food chicken market, like California Chicken Kitchen, which has spread. For that matter, the fastest spreading new franchise (though I don't quite get it) is Chiplotle. They're springing up like mushrooms after a rain. There's one up Vine that opened a little while ago and now they're building a new one just down Melrose. A few years ago, it seemed every time you turned around they were building a new Pinkberry (has that spread nationwide yet), but I've noticed they're starting to contract.

I could list a ton of other food franchises that seem to be popular now though I always wonder if they're just in Los Angeles.

And the biggest question of all. Why won't White Castle open in the West? Any franchise would make millions.

12:04 AM, April 26, 2012  
Blogger LAGuy said...

Also, I just noticed a Hamburger Hamlet is opening up down the street. This is odd, since HH used to be all over the place and every one I knew about had closed. Is this new management?

4:44 PM, April 26, 2012  
Anonymous Lawrence King said...

I've never seen a Hardees in California, ever. Wikipedia says they are mostly in the east and the midwest. Carl's Jr (which is only in California and the Southwest?) bought them out, and apparently they traded a few menu items after that, but they remain basically separate.

We have Chipotle out here in D.C., and their menu looks so dumb I haven't tried them. We also have Five Guys, which is good but very overrated. (Carl's Jr is cheaper and better; Red Robin is not much more expensive and you get a waiter to wait on you and a much better hamburger than Five Guys.)

I had thought that Boston Markets all died out, but there are still a couple out here. And do you remember Kenny Rogers' Roasters, which was a Boston Market clone? It died very quickly.

The east coast does not have my favorite California chains: Carl's Jr., Jack in the Box, Del Taco, Yoshinoya. Heck, even the Seattle chains like Taco Time and Dick's Burgers are better than what they have here.

9:13 PM, April 26, 2012  
Anonymous Lawrence King said...

There's a Hamburger Hamlet that has been in Pasadena all these years. Except it changed its name to just "Hamlet" years ago.

9:15 PM, April 26, 2012  
Blogger LAGuy said...

Five Guys isn't common here, but there is one about ten miles from where I live. I went there once and thought it was okay, but not worth the trip or higher prices.

Chipotle seems to be a cultish thing. The people who work or eat there seem to be on a mission to save the world.

There was a major Hamburger Hamlet in Hollywood when I moved here, where George Lucas ate and watched the lines form for Star Wars. There's also one on the Strip. One in Westwood too, I think. All closed.

At least you've got White Castle, or Castle clones, out east. Maybe not for all tastes, or all times, but it's something you simply can't find on the West Coast.

11:52 PM, April 26, 2012  
Anonymous Lawrence King said...

Maybe there are clones, but the closest White Castle (per their website) is in New Jersey. And if I were going to drive three hours for lunch, I'd go to Philadelphia and get a cheesesteak. The cheeseteaks in DC are awful -- they put mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato on them. Oh, and we're close enough to the South that you have to say "unsweet tea" to get real iced tea.

7:34 PM, April 27, 2012  

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