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I'm still catching up with my tv shows.

After watching tthe finale of The Good Wife, I was left with the feeling that the show's best days are definitely behind us and I might drop it next season...*sigh*

As for Doctor Who, I'm usually a fan of Moffat's writing but I wasn't as excited by "The Name of the Doctor" as others were, even though I enjoyed the word-based twists it had, from beginning (when the characters misunderstood a certain message) to ending (when the viewers realised that the title of the episode didn't mean what they were led to believe it meant). I don't know, maybe you have to be British and to have grown up with the old DW series and the whole DW mythology to fully enjoy it.

I'm also all caught up with Mad Men. After a few strong episodes, "Crash" looked all over the place and poorly executed. It is as if the show itself has become the epitome of advertising: selling crap or poor quality stuff, either wrapped in an apparently good-looking package or sold thanks to a weird ad that is supposed to be the top of originality. But a good pitch, or good ideas on papers, or mere eccentricity don't necessarily make a good episode.
Besides the show often lacks subtlety, and sometimes the obvious is just so obvious (as Ruppert Giles would say "I believe the subtext here is rapidly becoming, uh, text"!) to the point that it seems that the writers are just lazy and taking the viewers for granted, ready to buy anything they would sell.
Now, writing this, I wonder whether Weiner and Co weren't simply making a meta episode about themselves and the process of writing Mad Men! Of course, Don Draper is Matthew Weiner. BTW I second everything that Alan Sepinwall wrote on the episode.


So far, The Borgias is actually the tv show that is giving me the most satisfaction, especially "The Banquet of Chestnuts" that I have just watched and which was excellent. Jeremy Irons is simply magnificent, the supporting cast is good with memorable characters (Caterina Sforza!), the photography is often fabulous, the writing is clever, and I totally want to steal Lucrezia's earrings!

The series is, in my opinion, much better than Game of Thrones, no matter some historical inaccuracies (or rather the liberties it takes when it comes to historical accuracy and that I tolerate in the name of poetical licence!).

I find the latter entertaining at times, for sure,  -- and definitely better than the books it is based on (I read the first four books on kindle and the writing turned me off)--, mostly thanks to a few characters and the actors who play them (Tyron, Jaime, Brienne, Margaery, Stannis...), but there's a problem of structure, focus and pace that has been there from the beginning and has not been fixed. Besides I often find the Wall/Jon Snow stuff boring while it's obviously there for the long run...It's probably the most overrated tv show of the moment, along with Homeland.

I miss Justified, its terrific dialogues, unforgettable characters and handsome hero.

Now bring me Copper and Longmire! While waiting for the best of all to come, for its final and most-expected eight episodes....

I've been enjoying Mad Men for years but I have always considered it to be overrated, and frankly last season was so-so, apart from the brillant "The Suitcase".
But this season has kicked ass BIG DAY. I still think that subtlety isn't Mad Men's strongest suit, but the show did deliver in its fifth season – especially when it comes to my favourite character Pete Campbell (I know many viewers hate Pete, but I think that no matter how weasely he can be, he's a heartbreaking character, the most tragic of the show, and the Pete-centric episodes are often the best, along with episodes centred on the Don/Peggy relationship)– , and last night's episode, "The Other Woman" was a killer.

Sadly, as I'm leaving for Rome on Friday, I won't see the finale. I will probably get Wifi in the library of L'Ecole Française de Rome, but I don't think I'll have it in the building where I'll live.


"The Other Woman" is a well written – although again not subtle at all with its message and parallels– and, above all, poignant episode, mostly focusing on Joan, Pete, Don, Megan and Peggy.

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Looks like nobody had something to say on the death and The Wire entry, that or very few from my readership (if I still have one) have seen the series (which is a shame) and some of those who have seen The Wire were too busy with RL to spend time on LJ (I know for a fact some are), and others prefer not leave comment on my journal for various reasons.

Well, it happens.

Over the years I have come to realize that people read but don't necessarily comment – which is okay per se (I don't leave comments on every post I read myself), but weird and a bit rude, in my opinion, when they mention your post on their own journal, or, which is worse, when they don't mention your entry but past and copy your meme including your own answers –, but the fun part of the Internet is the interactions it provides, so it gets really lonely and cold when posts remain sans comment. That's the reason I've always favoured boards over private journals.

So what did happen since that last post?

I have worked a lot, but I also found the time to watch some tv and to go to the hairdresser.

On the tv front:

I liked the last episode of FRINGE much more than the previous one (but I kinda disliked the previous one), ( Read more... )

I also watched the first two episodes of the second season of Game of Thrones (yes second episode has leaked and is online too), which I found entertaining, probably more than last year but that's it. I'm still unimpressed by the writing, but as I said last year, this isn't an original creation, they have to follow the story in the books first and foremost while building a fantasy world, so I guess it leaves the writers less room for ground-breaking or even clever writing. This isn't obviously what they are after.

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As for my current favourite show, I know that I haven't reviewed Justified last week while there's a new episode tonight! I feel bad. There would be so much to say, as usual.I'll try to write something on both episodes tomorrow.

On the hair front. After 18 months of shoulder-length hair, I'm back to sporting my hair very short. I feel so light!

ETA: Oops I forgot to mention that I also watched Mad Men ! That omission says a lot, doesn't it?

Woohoo!!!!

Justified is getting Emmy recognition!

Nothing in the drama series category (very unfair given the list and, personally, I think that , for instance, GoT isn't that good,  Mad Men was uneven and Dexter wasn't half as good as Justified this year) but Timothy Olyphant has been nominated for the lead actor in drama series and Wolton Goggins for supporting actor and Margo Martindale for supporting actress!

I'm rooting for Timothy and Margo for sure (sorry Christine Baranski)but...I'm torn about the supporting actor category though, for I adore Alan Cumming in The Good Wife (I also love Josh Charles but this season didn't give Will Gardner much to do). And if I had to give Game of Thrones one Emmy it would go to Peter Dinklage.

It's quite open for the actors, given that my boys (Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul) can't compete this year but I can see Michael. J Fox winning for guest actor in The Good Wife and  Elisabeth Moss winning the Emmy for leading actress in Mad Men.

I guess that "The Suitcase" might also get an Emmy since it was easily the best Mad Men episode.

I won't review the season finale of True Blood because I don't have many nice things to say about it (apart from Terry is adorable and Eric looked hot covered in clay)so it's probably better to remain quiet.

Just saw Mad Men's "Summer Man" and enjoyed it, even though it wasn't as good as the previous episode.

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So Bryan Cranston got his third emmy in a row.

He's fantastic but I'm, above all, glad that Aaron Paul received his first emmy for Oustanding Supporting Actor in Breaking Bad too. I know, I know, there was Terry O'Quinn in the category too, but he already got it years ago, and Aaron Paul was terrific in season 2 and 3, he owns the show as much as Cranston to the point that Jesse looks as much a lead as Walter in the series. They couldn't break the pairing!!!!!



Me, I would have also given the emmy for best drama to Breaking Bad, because it is really the best show on tv these days (the actors are excellent but so are the writing, the directing and the cinematography), but I guess they had to give it to Mad Men after Cranston and Paul got the best actor ones.

What can I say? This is a tv summer.

Now that I have finished watching the third season of Breaking Bad, I have to catch up with the third season of Mad Men (I heard season 4  premiered yesterday!) . It's good to have a good tv show left to watch for I'm getting bored with the usually entertaining "guilty pleasure" that is True Blood.

I really like Mad Men, it's a very good tv show with moments of elliptic brilliance, and great characters(Don Draper of course but I also love Peter, Peggy, Roger and Joan) but it has soapish sides sometimes, and often indulges in what I'd call "see how good we are at re-creating the  60's" fault. I enjoy it but I can't say that I'm truly hooked. I much prefer Breaking Bad which I find more daring and more refreshing (even though many fans compare it to the Coen brothers' films). Also, I am more emotionally invested in BB because of the core 'ship that is Walt/Jesse.

Here I want to quote this extract from the review Donna Bowman wrote on the A.V Club, about the finale of season 3:

"Tonight's finale should cement this season of Breaking Bad as one of television's finest dramatic accomplishments. And what makes it so exciting -- what makes the recognition of the current golden age so pressing -- is that the season has not been, as Noel put it in another context, "television good."  The heart-in-the-throat quality of this season comes as much from the writers' exhilarating disregard for television conventions as from the events portrayed.  Every cliffhanger produced anticipation that often as not was subverted by having what came after timed at a jagged off-angle from the shape we've internalized as expectation.
(...)
That's so far from the equation that set Walter off down this road in Season 1 that it seems like we've substituted completely different elements now.  Yet Walter still thinks he's playing by the same unchangeable, fundamental rules. Breaking Bad has taken his insights and delusions to places we never could have seen coming.  And while we anticipate seeing him to his end, let's not forget how lucky we are to be in the audience."

Oh and I may have finally found a way to watch online another critically-acclaimed show, that is The Wire....