DVR: Week Seven

Mad Men: The Better Half

In the least-surprising Draper dalliance, Don hooks up with Betty.   In the most-surprising dalliance, Duck has returned -- again -- from advertising purgatory to see if an unhappy Pete will jump out of the alphabet soup.   Though Pete's been unhappy as far back as his fistfight with Lane, it feels sudden to have him actively looking for an exit now, so late into the season.  Still, I'd prefer a little more office-side stories before the end; maybe Connie Hilton will ride in to town?


Revolution: Children of Men

 With its previous and numerous Stephen King references, Revolution already has suffered greatly in comparison.  Throwing this title on an episode of this mess of a story is trolling at the very least.  Not that the series title of Revolution means a whole lot at this point in the series.   It's wise that they have dropped the opening-credits narration, as the series has no interest in telling that story and has instead burned through what was its core concept in less than a season.  We're not "hoping someone will come to light the way," we're watching the people responsible for the mess in the first place belatedly get off their ass and clean it up.  Aside from the arbitrary start-point, there's no reason any of this has taken fifteen years to happen.  Why did Randall sit in the tower that long before moving, and then only to hook up with a disintegrating Monroe?  It's poor convenience plotting, the kind I continually hope is a dying species.

It's tempting now to think of a Revolution that would be truer to its original mission statement; maybe with a stronger lead actress (...) and a move away from the Lost-ish flashback-heavy structure the concept outlined in the opening narration could have been a compelling adventure series, with a lead without direct ties to blackout puts the pieces together.  We'll never know.

And unless the next-episode teaser is also trolling the audience, the power goes back on next week in the season finale.