DVR: 2013 Week Two and three

Too many deadlines, too many shows, not enough time.  Just getting this out.



Game of Thrones: Dark Wings, Dark Words


Many more introductions this week, and the one that's getting the most out of an expanded role for her granddaughter is Olenna Tyrell, oh-so-perfectly cast with Diana Rigg.  Though she rules every scene she's in, the show giving Margaery a huge role in the taming of Joffrey is the key to making the Tyrells seem as if they've always been central to the story.

The series continues to have no idea how to utilize Bran, however.  Delaying the Reeds until the third season -- and nice mention of Howland, for what that's worth -- has shorted his progress to nearly nothing.  Even knowing where it's all hopefully headed isn't nearly enough to keep my frustration level down, I can't imagine how bored new viewers are whenever yet another dream of an archery lesson or a three-eyed crow appears.  I feel your pain, new viewers.





Game of Thrones: Walk of Punishment



Very cool to get a belated walk-on by the Tullys, both of whom are cast according to GoT's impeccable standards.  But going forward from here, I'm more and more concerned that the changes made to Robb's storyline are without a purpose; nothing substantial has been gained by Talisa not being Jeyne Westerling.  It would have required maybe one minor action scene of Robb being wounded to carry off, and would have done double-duty by advancing his war campaign in the west.   I think there's not enough development of him, or really of Cat, to justify a true, Eddard-level tragedy at the Twins.   It's one of the shows few, macro-level missteps.

And then there's Jaime. Shame to lose Vargo Hoat's singular mode of speech, but this was a highly effective adaptation of one of book three's major moments.




Game of Thrones: And Now His Watch is Ended



On the micro-level, Varys' interactions with Ros and his seemingly apropos-of-nothing exposition to Tyrion felt initially like awkward fits for information dumping, but ultimately moved some pieces around. If Ros is remaining a permanent piece in the game, it's good to establish her as a double-agent in the Littlefinger/Varys rivalry.  It does seem somewhat far-fetched that Varys' torturer was even still alive, much less within even the spider's reach.    And then for gravy we get Olenna/Varys...

Both macro- and micro level changes for the Astapor climax (the sibling, to be sure, of the Mereenese Knot) worked perhaps best of any scene in the series so far.  Excellent visual effects -- and more importantly, visual scale,   raw charisma from Emilia Clarke, and a kick-ass speech in High Valyrian, no less; just wow.  Goosebumps, edge of seat.  Loved it.  And there's so much left in the season. And the book.


Mad Men: The Doorway

Starting at season three, the audience started to know what to expect from Mad Men premieres, and the early episodes of subsequent seasons have settled into a comfortable routine.  With the show constructed to expressly avoid cliffhanger stories, the first episodes of any season are relaxed affairs. A later pattern for the season to come may emerge, but on the surface it's simply meat-and-potatoes television: reintroduce the returning cast, meet new faces, and play everyone's favorite Mad Men side game: figure out how far ahead the compulsively spoiler-averse Matt Weiner has pushed the calendar between seasons.*

With the brief jump, much of last season's post-Lane status quo remains intact.  Roger is quippy, Don is straying, Peggy is thriving with Teddy Chow-guh-guh**, and Betty remains adrift somewhere in the margins.


Mad Men: The Collaborators

Everyone with recent infidelity gets to see it come home to roost this week.  Don gets the narrowly-dodged bullet of a Megan miscarriage (giving lie to his "we're not so close" approach to poor Lindsay Weir).  Being Don, of course, he repairs the damage and continues on course. Pete gets caught in his affair with the neighbor, hopefully freeing Trudy from him forever.  That he was caught so easily and further, so stupidly -- the neighbor, Pete! Geez! --  illustrates for the nth time that he will always be the poor man's Draper on this show.***   A lesson Don himself rubs Pete's nose in during an attempted coup by player-to-be-named-now Jaguar dealer.  Though in the latter, Pete's mere collateral damage; Don was going to burn the dealer for his use of Joan last season, this was just an opportune moment.

We're now three weeks into the season and there's little indicator where we're headed as the show enters 1968.  In this way the early game feels like season four more than five.

* This year is especially vague, with general references to Vietnam and "violence," and set around New Year's; surprisingly it's still 1967 when the Doorway begins.

** And there's a mark of my attachment to these characters: feeling happy that Peggy's boss is warm and appreciative of her work.

*** Kartheiser is fantastic in the scene where he is effectively caught, though,  visually gnawing through his leg to get out of this trap but trying, in a Pete Campbell way, to play it cool.


Revolution: The Song Remains the Same

With Danny gone, we now rid ourselves of another troublesome Matheson. I wish it were Charlie, but I'll settle for Rachel.  She simply can't work as a regular, full-time presence; she knows far too much about the blackout and is too sought by everyone's enemies to be used in the  battle-of-the-week stories that are an action-adventure series' bread and butter.

 I'm less thrilled with her remaining on the show at all, especially taking Aaron with her on a clearly foolhardy quest to "the tower" where she can somehow reverse the electric-jamming nanobots that caused the blackout.  Yeah. Nanobots.



Best of the week: Almost unfair, but the Astapor scene is probably the best thing I've seen on television this year.