Simon Boccanegra

It's my favorite series of all time, and I loved all the seasons, but I would go with 3-4-1-2-5 if pressed. I think of 5 as a coda of sorts, all the other seasons being fully worked out movements. I enjoy 5 as a wrapping-up of stories we had lived with for a long time -- Bubbles, McNulty/Beadie, Omar , all the rest-- more than I do for the elements that were entirely new. But those were not that bad, and we did get McNulty's Quantico profliing, Lester being totally on board with the serial-killer fraud, and other great moments out of those stories. I also appreciated callbacks such as the reappearance of a couple of characters from the dock story of three seasons earlier, even more worn down by the years. And of course, the saga of Deedee came full circle (from upscale-restaurant hostess to nervous Hamsterdam first-timer to cigarette-buying hooker to recovering addict). The show just could no longer better its own highs; it was still damn fine television. I wish it had gone on another year. That proposed "immigration-themed season" might have been fascinating. Favorite theme songs are a little different: 3-2-5-1-4. I wish I had a full recording of the Neville Brothers' version; I love its swampy, rattling ambiance. Following that, I have to give it up for the author, even though Waits's vocal approach is not for everyone. Earle's cover is "cool," in the laid-back, easy sense, and it's nice to hear it from a real cast member. The one by the Blind Boys seemed great until I heard the later ones. I liked the idea of having actual Baltimore youth performing the one for a youth-themed season, but I didn't think the result was very good. It's the only one I always skipped after the first episode when I watched the series on DVD.

I know what you mean, but I loved that character. I thought she and her father were among the great successes of the first two seasons. Everything was so clear, or it ultimately became so clear. She really was a "better" Jesse when we met her -- another illustrator, another doted-upon child from a stable family, another veteran drug user. The tragedy was that instead of raising him up to her level, she came down to his...and then took him even lower. But it all made sense; this is why she gave him a break in the first place despite his radiating shiftiness when he came to look at the apartment. A little at a time, he was wearing her down...not even him, really, but him as an embodiment of a world that still had a powerful hold on her. Just as her illustrations were more advanced than his, so were her drug skills. It was chilling, the practiced assurance with which she shot up, after 18 months or however long it had been. Using, too, seemed to be her "art." She did it beautifully.

Tuco's Grill, by the way, will be the name of my Mexican restaurant. Obviously, burritos will be a specialty (no chili powder). The tables will all have a little bell to ring; one ring means you want something else, and two means you're ready to pay.

Marie already had the kleptomania in the first season. The shoe theft was really early, and then the Great Baby Tiara Caper was later in the season. But maybe you mean S2 is when they actually identify it as problem for which she's seeing someone. I'm only to the one in which Hank is having delayed stress reactions to the gunfight with Tuco. I must have been having a slow moment, or several -- the episode starts with the guys finding the thing in the lake, and then we see it later on Hank's desk, and it took me to the end of the episode to realize I was looking at Tuco's grill. I thought it was the baby tiara! In other season two newbie news, I wish someone had gotten a picture of my wince when I realized Badger was going to be a recurring character and I was going to have to listen to his voice more. (The actor is good, though.)

I'd say yes, absolutely. There is something about the way he commands Walt to unlock him when Walt hesitates -- my read was that he thought he had taken control of the situation by that point, and Walt was on very short time. One of them wasn't getting out of the basement.

I had never seen an episode of the show, and I had heard here and there that the main character's wife was much disliked, but I always make up my own mind and sometimes I love "hated" characters (such as Pete Campbell and Betty Draper/Francis on the other big AMC drama). I disliked Skyler from her first scene. Usually I can see her side, intellectually, but not with much sympathy, because she is consistently characterized in ways that emphasize the negative. I always ask now, "Why is this being shown? What are we supposed to infer? Why does this character say this, and say it this way?" and putting her through that test, I assumed we weren't supposed to like her. Of all the ways to introduce the character, the veggie bacon micromanaging thing is her big launch? She might as well have been wearing an apron that read "nag." I assumed Marie was there to take some of the heat off of Skyler, because she was even worse. But the actresses are good, and the characters are realistic, so I'm fine with it. That's what it's about, right? I did think Hank went through a bit of shading-down from the pilot to the subsequent episodes of the first season -- where I still am, so check back with me in a month or two. I may love all of these people by then. But Pilot Hank was such a boor, and then he really isn't like that in the other ones I've seen. He's actually okay.

It does for the very best shows: this, The Wire (which is my "best-ever" show), The Sopranos, possibly The West Wing, I am sure Breaking Bad (I have not "done" that one yet, but I plan to), Lesser shows, one enjoys in a different way. TV has grown up a lot. Some of the classic comedies still have a lot of charm, and maybe we have had better periods in the past for comedy; but in my opinion, we have hit a new plateau for drama in recent decades, mostly thanks to cable but also to some envelope-pushing shows in the "late network" era. (Twin Peaks, uneven and full of missteps as it was, was an important series. So many people making TV now seem to have seen it when they were younger, including Weiner. It brought a cinematic texture to television.). I don't know if I ever would have wanted to discuss, in the offseason, the dramas of an earlier age that were quality work for their time. The internet was less of a factor, of course, but I don't know if I would have had as much to say in any case. Revolutionary Road is required or at least strongly suggested reading for Mad Men fans. I was disappointed in the Kate/Leo film version.

Oh, no. "Enjoy the dancing beans" was only his parting line in that scene. We see him later in that episode giving Peggy her new hairstyle, and he was still around until the new agency was formed and some characters got left behind.

"The Jet Set" came up in Don's thread in a discussion of homosexuality on Mad Men and how male and female characters have reacted to it. Kurt mentions dancing beans in that episode, three seasons before the Heinz plot. What a trailblazer. It's his parting line after he comes out as gay in the break room and leaves everyone speechless. "Enjoy the dancing beans," directed at Smitty. Presumably this was an idea for Martinson's Coffee; that was their project at the time. Did the idea get lodged in Peggy's subconscious? (After writing this, I saw that Basket of Kisses got there first, while S5 was actually airing. Good catch.)

I will admit, when I saw "died unexpectedly" at 35, that was not the first cause to which my mind went, but it does happen (a deep venous thrombosis, I assume, in the med-speak). I lost a friend that way a few years ago, just a day after his thirtieth birthday. We found out late at night, and everyone was posting "RIP"-type social-media comments, and some people thought it was a joke -- everyone must be doing a gag that he was "dead" because he was 30 now. But, sadly, no. What a compromised vein is capable of doing, even to a young person, is pretty scary. I liked some of Johns's performances very much. His highlight, for me, was a duet with Carly Smithson in the finale. Edit: Was Michael one of the alumni who reappeared in 2010 for Cowell's sendoff? I have some memory of him being in the lineup for the "Together We Are One" number and getting some camera attention.

In "Mystery Date," Don strangles Andrea (Mädchen Amick), who is hovering over him, pushing herself on him over his objections, while he is sick in bed with a fever. Even though this is presented as a nightmare, were we supposed to think of that later with the revelations about Aimee and the young Dick Whitman in "The Crash"? There are several similarities in the scenes.

Now I want a T-shirt with the Mad Men "back of Don's head" graphic and the caption: "I'm the 46 percent." Because...not even.

He would also be a superficially eager-to-please new employee of the firm, who secretly wants to destroy Pete and Peggy because he was given up for adoption. Bob Benson should have been Pete and Peggy's son! Heh.

In S3's "The Arrangements," three of the office guys (some combination of Sal, Kenny, Paul, and Harry) stop at Allison's desk to get an idea of whether this is a good time to talk to Don about something, what his mood is. Her response (lightly delivered) is that she's never right about him. Foreshadowing! (Probably not. Still.)

Kartheiser's commentary on "Red In The Face" was very funny. Apparently the Chip 'N' Dip was Weiner's mother's, and everyone had to be very careful of it. He talked about how it had its own trailer, support staff, and key light, or something -- it's been a while. I am sure I am not doing justice to VK's deadpan hilarity. You all have the DVDs, I am sure.

First of all, I love this insight. Second, if I learned that Weiner does see himself as anything like Arnie realistically, I would retreat to my room and I would laugh and laugh into a pillow until some people came to get me. I know they cast an actor one may find unremarkable-looking on the street, but he was written so showily Down to Earth (despite the advertised medical brilliance) and filled with Perspective and Humility -- none of the first words I think of when I hear or read Weiner speak. If he were intended as an alter ego, it was "rich" in both senses: fascinating to unpack, and amusing for how hard Weiner tried to present a talented but otherwise ordinary man and ended up with someone arguably more idealized and self-flattering than the Don version. "But he's bald and Jewish and not a chick magnet! This is me as I truly am!" Third, I do think he mostly existed to get us to the Sylvia relationship and to give us a Don mistress with a different twist. Except for Bobbie, we had never really seen Don involved with a married woman, and Bobbie and Jimmy read more as a business relationship between people who stayed together because they benefited from and needed each other -- it was hard to see them as affectionate in a traditional-family way. Right on schedule, Don got unrealistic about the Sylvia affair, seizing on an overheard shouting match and Sylvia's expressed and understandable fear of discovery as an opportunity to play white knight ("Are you afraid of him?"), as if Arnie were abusive, which was actually pretty funny. Don often seems to do something like that with his women on the side. However briefly, he inflates these tawdry, furtive episodes into love (asking Rachel to run away with him, planning a vacation with Suzanne) and tries to write a next chapter without seeing that even if he does get the woman to go along with him, it's hard to imagine a next chapter beyond that one. Then when it crashes and burns, he is upset for a few minutes. I don't think I'm especially easy to please in the sense of thinking writing is good just because it's consistent, but the Don consistency, even within the different parameters, is much of what made the Sylvia relationship interesting to me. I had never realized until now that "Arnold" is another of the show's paired names. It was the first name of the aloof, duplicitous Freudian whom Betty went to see in the first season.

For me, it was the other way around. Arnie never came into sharp enough focus for me to find him interesting. The actor was good, but they only had him on screen enough to establish an outline of decency and hard work. I thought Cardellini was exceptionally good as Sylvia, who was tricky to play, one of those characters full of contradictions and mixed messages that can make you check out on them, but somehow she pulled it together and I really liked that character. The episode that did it for me was the one early on in which Megan confides about the miscarriage. Intellectually, I knew I should have had sympathy for Megan in that scene. She was the one crying, and it was pretty awful that she was confiding this in her husband's mistress, and the mistress even laid Catholic shame on her for daring to consider abortion. But Cardellini was so much fuller and subtler than Paré that she made me feel Sylvia was the protagonist of the scene.

It seems to me that the occasional roach/mouse sightings are part of a larger "decline of New York" thing that started in season 4 and has ramped up. Not, of course, that one never saw roaches or mice indoors prior to 1965, but it all seems of a piece to me: more crime incidents and references in S4-S7 (Roger and Joan's mugging, "Grandma Ida," Megan's bisexual soap-queen pal defiantly walking through the park at night despite the danger, Peggy and Abe's neighborhood), more references to pollution (Megan screaming at Don not to let the poison into their apartment), of course more social unrest...just very different from the shiny '50s-hangover world of S1-S3. Seasons in order of preference, with a preliminary ranking for the not-completed one: 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 7 > 6 > 5.

Editor's Note: This topic replaces the old Mad Men forum. Original Post from User: Sometimes I watch an old episode and I see something that in retrospect seems telling. The first time we meet Stephanie, "The Good News" in S4, she is a student at Berkeley. She goes out to dinner with Don and Anna, and she is displeased to hear that Don works in advertising. She calls it "pollution." He tells her, "So stop buying things," and she replies, "Don't think that's not possible." Did Weiner have in mind that three seasons later we would see her living this grimy countercultural fringe existence, eating outside "all the time," et cetera? In the same episode, in what turns out to be their last scene together, Anna tells Don to swim as much as possible, because it clears the mind. I had not remembered that by "The Summer Man," the first episode after her death, in which he is swimming and writing in his journal. (Not simultaneously, but you know.) In the first private scene Don and Faye share, in "Christmas Comes But Once A Year," she tells him something like, "You should know I learned everything about you I could." Right there, we might have suspected their eventual relationship would be short-lived. Indeed, their conversation is prickly throughout, and it ends with her jab about people not wanting to hear they're a "type," and him wishing her Merry Christmas with obvious irritation.

Twice this season there was a duet of "It's Only Love," and both times they cut arguably the most memorable part of the song, the long pause coming out of the bridge ("Over and over and over again," dead air for several seconds, and then the guitar riff coming back). Not that Jena and Caleb would have been able to recreate the electricity of the original performers.

The flashback clips made me realize that I missed Audition Harry. I don't know whether he was getting producer notes to be nicer or he just found it harder to be Harsh Harry when he spent weeks with the same kids and developed fondness for them. I hope it was not that embarrassing "intervention" they did on a results show.

This was a drag to watch, and it was not only that I had no interest in who won. In some of the past final results shows with the all-star guests, there have been surprises. You would see someone who had been eliminated long before the finale and think, "Wow, that person is much better than I remembered/suspected." I remember Paige Miles, who had had some awful performances in competition, just killing a Christina Aguilera song, and maybe it was the first time I had heard her healthy and with appropriate material. I remember Michael Johns and Carly Smithson in a duet a couple seasons before that, seeming good enough to be the final two themselves. Here, there was none of that. Emily Piriz has a nice voice, and she came out of the all-female number the best, but it wasn't much of a showcase. Also, I didn't think any of the Idols met the pros on level ground, as has happened sometimes in the past. There was nothing electric like Crystal Bowersox and Alanis Morissette stalking each other around the stage and trading tough-girl attitude. All of those numbers felt like charitable acts. John Legend himself was smooth as silk, probably the best guest performer of the night, but poor Malaya needed that key to come down at least a whole step.

God, that was boring. I at least thought one or both of them would put on a show. "Dog Days Are Over" was in theory a good pick for Jena, because she's shown an ability to whip up enthusiasm with barn-burner songs, and the Florence woman has similar affected pronunciation. It surprised me that Jena didn't do much with it. It was middle-of-the-road karaoke, plus she had those short-winded mishaps in the middle. Caleb offered no surprises in "Dream On," but at least his was top-notch karaoke. It was disappointing to get more reprises right after we got "Facebook-chosen reprises" last week. Reprises don't need to be retreads. Elvis Costello sometimes does "Spinning Songbook" concerts, where audience members come up and spin a Wheel of Fortune-type wheel with the name of a different EC song on every part of the wheel, and if the same song gets landed on twice, he and the band do a totally different arrangement the second time. But reprises are usually retreads on AI, and these were. "Can't Help Falling In Love With You' was, in my opinion, the only good performance of the night. It was approximately as good as the first time she did it, and she's worked out some nice choices. "Maybe I'm Amazed" was a good song for Caleb the first time, but this time it seemed to me to plod. It needed to come up by a tempo of about 5 beats per measure, and his phrasing was stiff. Also, last time around he got credit for changing the ending -- nah. That's essentially the concert ending McCartney sings on Wings Over America and elsewhere. Beyond that, it's a standard-issue way of bringing back to home base a song that fades out on the studio recording. I have nothing to say about either original song, or the performances. Caleb was a little better. I never need to hear either song again. They're in the vast wasteland between "No Boundaries" and the heights of "Home." The winner tonight? I'm tempted to say the judges for their deft synthetic enthusiasm. Would they pay to see either contestant, I wonder? If you put a gun to my head and made me vote for one or the other? Jena. Caleb's lane is narrower, and while he took two rounds, she had the only performance that made me wake up a little.