Daily Archives: May 12, 2015

May 12 2015
2 Comments
TV

Upcoming Mad Men Finale – Spoilers and Predictions

REPEAT – SPOILERS AND PREDICTIONS

Mad Men.  It’s a historical drama at a time when history doesn’t translate well into big bucks, yet somehow it’s stayed afloat since 2007.

I picked it up around 2010 and have been a fan ever since.

Sometimes I wonder why.  Here’s a breakdown of the show:

DON:  Business business?

PETE:  Business!

ROGER:  Play play! Who cares about business?!

DON:  Business schmizness!  Women!

PETE:  Family?

DON:  WOMEN!

PETE:  Yes.  Women.

ROGER:  Me three women!

VARIOUS OTHER ADMEN:  Did you business up the business?

DON:  Business business.

PETE:  60’s reference.  Business.

PEGGY:  Women should get to be in business too!

JOAN:  Hot women should also get to do business!

PEGGY:  Say, what’s that supposed to mean!  I thought we were in this together!

In other words, the advertising deals these “Advertising Men of Madison Avenue” or “Mad Men” make are half the story line, yet I just don’t have the strength to follow who messed up the Sunkist account, or who’s pitching a proposal to General Motors or who made some executive at Phillip Morris angry it’s like…come on.

On the other hand, often the business talk is just a setup to discuss historical issues, explain how things today got the way they are, and have the characters interact with one another, often in sad ways.

DON DRAPER – As the series leading man, Draper (Jon Hamm) does horrible things, yet you usually end up feeling sorry for him.  He cheats on first wife, Betty and loses her.  He remarries second wife, Megan, an aspiring actress and at that point you’d think he has it all but he just can’t stop cheating.

You (ok let me stop saying ‘you’ because I don’t know what you think.)

I don’t approve of Don’s behavior, but the show takes us inside his mind and ever so subtly explains why he’s such a notorious philanderer, who can’t stop himself even though he actually wants to.

It’s all about life, or rather, the fact that it’s in short supply.  Don grew up in “a house of ill repute” the son of a random lady of the evening.  No one wanted him.  His life pretty much sucked.

Flash forward years later (and after some chicanery in the service that we won’t mention) he’s a big shot ad executive, raking in money hand over fist, hobnobbing with rich and powerful people.

His first wife Betty (January Jones) is beautiful and would make most men happy.  And true enough, Don loves her and his kids but – life!  It’s like there’s this little voice that tells him “It’s all going to stop any minute, better scoop up all the women you can!”

So he does.  He gives in.  Then he feels bad because the dalliances are fleeting and meaningless.  Depressed and lonely, he searches for another relationship only to ruin that when he cheats again!  He’s constantly torn between the “get as much drinking and partying and womanizing I can before I’m dead” vs. “Gee I’m lonely I sure wish my family didn’t hate me so I could spend time with them.”

Food for thought – we all say we’d never be a Don.  Keep in mind though, there are few Dons in the world.  You don’t know what you’d do if women were constantly flinging themselves at you.  In Don’s defense, it’s kind of like he just walks outside in the morning and has women rain down on him.

So that’s what I learned from Don – that we need to balance the need to live life to the fullest vs. the need to live life on a day to day basis.

BETTY DRAPER (AND LATER, FRANCIS) – Forget the history text books and documentaries, everything you need to know about the women’s right movement you can learn from watching Betty.

Betty isn’t without faults but she’s a top notch wife.  I wouldn’t mind a Betty.  When Don cheats, you, as the viewer realize the predicament 1960’s women found themselves in:

A)  They’re unemployed and have no money, so they can’t hire a lawyer.

B)  Therefore, they can get divorced if they want, but losing the man=loss of only source of financial support.

C)  Since man has the money, he’ll hire a lawyer and therefore present a better case ending up with him getting the kids (which he’ll probably just have a maid watch them because back then it was ok to just hire a random lady to watch your kid for 3 bucks an hour).

D)  Woman’s choices are 1) Remain in bad marriage, be a cheated on doormat 2) Leave, lose your kids and be destitute or

E)  3)  Find another man!  That was Betty’s only option.  She found Francis, an older man who treated her better.  Betty basically moves from being supported by Don to being supported by Francis.  He’s a better husband by far, but had he not come along she probably would have just had to put up with being cheated on till the end of time.

You heard it here first.  You can learn everything about the history women’s rights by watching Betty

PREDICTIONS (AND SPOILERS)  – Betty’s dying.  Sigh.  Has to end on a sad note.  Don, after working his whole life to finally get to the top of the ad man game, walked out of a big meeting, putting his career on the line to go on some kind of odd existential cross country road trip.

I assume this means that after Betty passes, he’ll collect his sons and raise them in his retirement, finally realizing that it’s better to put permanent family over fleeting fancy.

Then again, he might stick them in an orphanage because he’s kind of an ass.

Personally, I think they should have a flash forward to the 90’s where all the Mad Men are old as dirt, say, “Internet advertising?  That’ll never take off!” and then they all croak.

Thanks Mad Men.  It’s been interesting.

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May 12 2015
3 Comments
Project X

Mickey Finn

Mickey Finn, Hatcher's Ex-Partner

Mickey Finn, Hatcher’s Ex-Partner

Hatcher?

Yeah I know him.  Hell, me and that sonuvabitch go way back.  He’s my old partner, for Chrissakes.

Why?  Who’s askin’?  What’re you, writing a book or somethin’?

Hatch.    “The Boy Scout” we used to call him.  Always did quote unquote “the right thing.”  Refused to take a taste.  Never looked the other way.  Broke down doors like it was his mission in life to right all society’s wrongs.

I use to tell him, “Hatch.  It’s great you want to save the world and all but the world called and it don’t give a shit, so sit back, relax, and have a drink with me, will ya?'”

Ahh, there was nothing I could say to get that guy to take it easy.  Never saw a bigger teetotaler in all my life.  Irony is I hear the bastard drinks like a fish at happy hour now.

Oh…what?  He tell you about that thing with me and his wife?  Jesus H. Christ, is he still harpin’ on that?  For the love of God, that’s ancient history.

Hell, if you ask me, I did Hatch a favor.  If his broad hadn’t been such a shameless hussy, she never would have succumbed to my rapier wit and grandiose charms.  True, few women can resist tearin’ a hunk off this slab of beef but still.  It’s the principle of the thing.

So what? I did what any good friend would do. I gave the gal a floozy test.  She failed with a capital F.  And hey, between you and me she mighta done somethin’ else that starts with “F” too.

Get it?  Huh?  Ahh, you people got no sense of humor.  I’m Mickey Finn, damn it.  I’m the life of the party over here.

Anyhow, if you see Hatcher, tell that lousy old sack of horse manure he needs to forgive and forget.  Now that I have selflessly exposed his old lady as a trollop, he can get to work on finding himself a decent Christian woman, you know what I’m sayin’?

Let’s face it.  That’s what Old Hatch really wants.  A nice pure dame who parks her behind in the first church pew every Sunday and would slap a guy like me in the face before I could say “boo” to her.

You’re welcome, Hatch.

Not like a bum like you would ever thank me.

Mickey Finn – the guy you’ll want to slap in the face.  Coming to the as of yet untitled “Project X” on June 1, right here on the Bookshelf Battle Blog.

Guy at card table image courtesy of a shutterstock.com license.

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May 12 2015
5 Comments
Movies

In Defense of Joss Whedon

cropped-cropped-img_1543.jpgBriefly, I was sad to see Joss Whedon being accused of being anti-feminism.  I mean, the guy is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  If you were a young person in the late 90’s/early 00’s you were glued to that show.  Evil hideous vampires running in terror at the mere mention of “The Slayer.”  Willow and Tara – one of the first open lesbian relationships I remember seeing on television.  Faith the Vampire Slayer who went rogue.  Willow goes from lowly nerd to witch of unstoppable power.

Meanwhile, if you saw the latest Avengers and thought that Black Widow came across as weak then I don’t know.  I don’t think we saw the same movie.

You might have noticed that I’m a nerd.  SPOILER –  Due to said nerdyness, I cheered for the scene where Black Widow, referring to Bruce Banner, says “He’s kind of dorky.  Chicks dig it.”

In my head, there was a voice that said, “No, no they really don’t but thank you for saying that, Black Widow.  It made my day.”

If there had been some kind of effort in the film to portray Black Widow as some kind of brainless bimbo, wouldn’t she have gone for Thor’s muscles or Tony Stark’s money?  No, she went for the nerdiest member of the team.  The guy with the brain.

In reality, the nerd never gets the girl.  Capt. America, Thor, and Iron Man can walk out the front door and score a dozen women before they hit the front porch, but in his human form, Bruce Banner is a super geek.  It was nice to see a geek get the girl.

What’s the argument that Black Widow came across as weak?  Strong women can’t fall in love?  They can’t be comforting?  Hulks need love too you know.

SPOILER – The main complaint centers around a scene where Banner tells Black Widow he can’t be with her because he’s a “monster” and he can’t have children.  (I’m not actually sure why he can’t have children.  Is there a scientific reason as in the gamma radiation fried his junk or just the general safety concern that if he had a kid the kid might misbehave, piss Bruce off and he’ll Hulk out?  But I digress)

Black Widow shares that she can’t have children either because of a forced sterilization procedure she underwent during assassin training (no kids=no ties that can be exploited).  She then says something like “you’re not the only monster on the team.”

Thus the fracas is over the idea that a woman who can’t give birth is somehow a “monster” but I don’t think that was what Whedon was trying to say at all.

I mean, from a writing perspective, maybe that point could have been clarified, but in general I think she was referencing her overall past as a ruthless killer and not necessarily the sterilization.

Or, maybe she was referring to it.  Maybe she does feel down on herself because of it.  Sometimes it is possible for a character to be too harsh on him or herself.  Perhaps Black Widow needs to realize all she has to offer the world as a hero who’s now fighting on the side of good.

SPOILER – Times she came across as strong in the film:

  • That whole driving the motorcycle through the city chase scene
  • Various scenes where she fights with the men and holds her own
  • Towards the end, where, when faced with “going down with the ship” i.e. refusing to leave the “air island” while there were still people in danger on it, she nonchalantly says, “There’s worse ways to go.”  That’s a sign of leadership right there.

On top of that, you have the new character, Scarlett Witch, who forms a team with her brother, Quicksilver and is arguably the stronger/more powerful of the duo.

I don’t know.  I know it’s only a movie and I know feminism and women’s rights are important but I’m not sure I can think of anyone who’s done more to promote female characters in comic book style movies and TV than Joss Whedon.

What say you, 3.5 readers?

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