2014 TV Weekly Recap (May 25 - May 31)

CURRENT SHOWS AIRING

Sunday May 25

Mad Men (AMC), Episode 7 "Waterloo"

EPISODE GRADE: A

SEASON GRADE: B

Brief Description: HBO has consistently refused to air episodes during the Memorial Day break, so there's no Game of Thrones or Silicon Valley this week. That's perfect, because it will give me more time to discuss Mad Men, both Sunday's episode and the season as a whole. First, the good with "Waterloo"

"No man has ever come back from leave, not even Napoleon. He staged a coup, but he still ended back on that island." -Bert Cooper-

For some reason other TV critics have been using "Bravo" as the Bert Cooper line to describe "Waterloo." While Bertram Cooper's last Mad Men was an excellent episode with some lovely parting words (and a weird as hell song in the end. I don't care what everyone else says, that song was out of place and not right), this show has always been about Don Draper. As much as we want to make it about Peggy Olson, we still compare her amazing Burger Chef speech to the one Don Draper gave during "The Wheel". Don's marriage has officially ended (although we all know that wouldn't last. "Does she know you only like the beginnings of things!") but his professional career in New York is thriving, alive, and well. For now. This will only end one way for Don Draper, and it won't be good. Whether you want to Sunday's episode a "mid season finale" or the end of Mad Men in 2014, we'll just have to wait one more year to see how this incredible show ends and how the 1960's officially has affected everyone we love.

However, as great as "Waterloo" was, that doesn't make up for just a sub par season Mad Mad has had this year. The show ended on two excellent episodes, but that doesn't make up for the other average episodes in aired earlier in the year. The reason "Waterloo" and "The Strategy" worked so well was because it gave us character moments from the characters we actually wanted to see. Now Matthew Weiner has said the first half of every season is just meant to set up the second half, so maybe this first season will be good in the sense that Season 7b in 2015 will be amazing. However, you have to call a spade "a spade", and Season 7a was fine, but boring and dull at most points.

2014 Weekly TV Recap (May 18 - 24)

CURRENT SHOWS AIRING

Sunday May 18

Game of Thrones (HBO), Episode 7 "Mockingbird"

GRADE: B+

Brief Description: "Mockingbird" is the bridge between the excellent "The Laws of Gods and Men" (aka the Trial of Tyrion Lannister) and whatever bombshell the show decided to drop upon us soon during the Season 4 penultimate episode. So as a result, there was no reason to expect "Mockingbird" to be as great as it was. Was it as good as last week's episode? Not at all, but it doesn't have to be. While this episode mainly exists as a set up to the Trial By Combat between Oberyn Martell and The Mountain, we still get many fantastic moments like the two scenes where Jamie and Bronn visit Tyrion, the monologue why The Hound is afraid of fire, and, oh yeah, the scene where Mayor Carcetti drops Lysa out of the Moon Roof. 

Mad Men (AMC), Episode 6 "The Strategy"

GRADE: A

Brief Description: The very ending shot of "The Strategy" was just brilliant. Don and Peggy are sitting on one side of the table acting as the de facto Mother and Father while Pete Campbell sits on the other side of the table, getting sauce all over his face, acting as the de facto child. The camera then pans away from this "family" and the shot looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. This shot was so incredible because for all the talk about family in this episode and considering the nuclear family for each one of these characters is either failing (Don) or already dead (Pete) or non-existent (Peggy), these characters are a family. These characters are why we (or at least I) tune in every week. Peggy discusses (over drinks of course) about the idea of what exactly a family is and how it doesn't exist anymore. In 2014, we think back to this area and probably think about Leave It To Beaver. But the family that the advertising world portrays (both then and now) never truly existed. Each family is different and unique. That's what makes Mad Men so unique as well. The 1960's aren't a cliche and they certainly didn't happen the way we think it did to every single person. The counter culture certainly affected many people, but there's always been people like Don Draper who will never change as the culture does. By far and away "The Strategy" was the best episode Mad Men has done this season.

Silicon Valley (HBO), Episode 7 "Proof of Concept"
GRADE: C+

Brief Description: I have the firm belief that no matter how good a final episode is, it can't change the way I feel about the season as a whole. A great season can have a terrible finale (i.e. Season 1 of Homeland) and a terrible season can have a great finale (i.e. Season 2 of House of Cards). The last episode is irrelevant because you watch a television series as a whole, not just for one episode. It's about the journey, not the destination. With that in mind and having watched 7 of the first 8 episodes of Silicon Valley, I have decided that I will no longer be watching the show anymore. I have seen what the show is and how it works, and it's frankly not for me. I can't stand the main character and there's just not enough jokes to make me want to come back to it. I'll watch the finale of Silicon Valley, and it could be great (in fact, I hope it is), but that will be the last episode I watch.


Tuesday May 20

Fargo (FX), Episode 6 "Buridan's Ass"
GRADE: A

Brief Description: Buridan's Ass is a paradox about free will. In the paradox, a donkey is dying of both hunger and thirst. It is placed equidistant between a bundle of hey and a pale of water. Since the donkey can't rationally choose which foodstuff to go towards first, the donkey dies. While this week of Fargo doesn't even remotely make it clear how this scenario relates to the show, I'd like to think that there's just a greater force in this fictional universe that no matter what you think you can do, your fate is already decided for you and you're going to die anyway because of it. However, after thinking about it for four days, the only conclusion that I can come up with is that Molly is Buridan's Ass. She's the only character that has to choose between two needs, in her case, being a damn good cop and making sure Lester Nygaard gets brought to justice. Last week we saw Molly illegally break into Lester's place in an attempt to find the hammer Lester used to kill his wife, and I think that was the last straw. Therefore, with Molly's inability to choose between her two needs, she dies. In terms of storytelling, Molly needs to be the hero to bring both Lester and Molvo to justice. And actress Allison Tolman strongly insinuated to Grantland earlier this week that Molly lives, but I worry that my worst fear has come true, and Gus Grimly did kill Molly.