Up Fronts: Fox

It's not been a great year for Fox, what with American Idol ratings falling and not much of the new stuff catching on with viewers. So how are they going to try to recapture the Fox Attitude?

Who's Staying? Who's Going? - Odds are if you like a Fox show it's going to be on air again, which is interesting given that Fox is slumping. About the only surprise on the cancellation list is The Cleveland Show.

What's Coming?

Monday - the year will start with Bones, followed by Sleepy Hollow, a contemporary take on the Ichabod Crane tale, except that Crane is resurrected and brought to the present day to help solve a mystery dating back to his own time so as to save humanity. Wait, what?

Mid-season brings Almost Human (think Robocop meets Blade Runner, with JJ Abrams lending his name), leading into the second season of The Following, which I've enjoyed, even if I find it hard to buy into all of the successes that Joe Carroll and his plucky band of psychopaths have had against the FBI.

Tuesday - Brings two new sitcoms. One is Dads, where a pair of video game creators (Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi) have to deal with taking in their dads (Marin Mull and Peter Riegert). Generic, but will hopefully use the cast to good effect. The other new sitcom, and possibly the most promising new show, is Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a police comedy starring Andy Samberg as the hotshot detective and Andre Braugher as his new captain. They had me at Andre.

New Girl and The Mindy Project finish the night.

Wednesday - gives us The X Factor in the fall and the Randy Jacksonless American Idol in the spring. I wonder how much longer Fox is going to try to make The X Factor a thing.

Thursday - results shows for the two singing shows lead into Glee in the fall and new show Rake in at midseason. Rake stars Greg Kinnear as a defense attorney who lives on the edge and takes on the unwinnable cases, addicted to the challenge as much as he's addicted to anything else. I assume there will be no singing.

Friday - leads with Junior Masterchef, a version of Masterchef for kids. American Juniors was apparently not enough of an object lesson on why this is a bad idea. It's followed by reruns of Sleepy Hollow (because, huh?). Later in the fall, Bones moves here along with Raising Hope and new comedy Enlisted, a military comedy set at an Army base in Florida.

Saturday - sports and reruns

Sunday - Animation Domination, unchanged.

As for unscheduled stuff, the big announcement is the return of 24 for a special 12 episode run. Not much info besides that, but bringing Jack back will boost ratings. The only other unscheduled show that looks interesting is Gang Related, about cops taking on gangs in Los Angeles, but that's mostly from a casting perspective (Terry O'Quinn and RZA, together at last).

The Verdict?

Fox has a really good looking Tuesday, and Monday could work out for them once Sleepy Hollow gets out of the way. Sunday should be fine, too. They've got a burgeoning hole in the middle of the week with the reality shows, especially if they can't figure out a way to shore up AI). A more consistent and coherent Glee wouldn't hurt either. And while Friday nights are typically low risk, I have no idea what they're trying to do there. They'd better hope some of their returning shows stay strong or even build.

Up Fronts: NBC

It's that time of year again, when the broadcast networks put their 2013-14 schedules into shape in the hopes of selling lots of ad time. First up this week is NBC.

Who's Staying? Who's Going? If you liked a first season show on NBC this season, I hope you didn't like it too much. Only two new shows made it to a second season, Revolution and Chicago Fire (which is getting a spin-off). Perhaps the only surprising cancellation was Rock Center with Brian Williams, which wasn't doing all that well but gave the network a chance to fill time with some news-entertainment synergy.

As for what's staying, I have to give the network kudos for renewing Community. It seemed like a goner after Dan Harmon left and the season premiere was bumped from October to February, but between the critical support, small but intense fanbase, and the retirement of 30 Rock and The Office, there's a sensibility in keeping it around.

The other surprise renewal for me was Parenthood, though being on the same night as The Voice must have helped.

What's Coming?

You schedule for the week starting in the fall:

Monday - The Voice takes two hours and leads into The Blacklist, about a long-time figure on the FBI's Most Wanted List (played by James Spader), who turns himself in with an offer to catch a terrorist, with one condition: he will only work with newly-trained FBI profiler Liz Keen.

To me this sounds like a combo of 24 (rogue government agent, super bad guys) and The Following (the one on one relationship between criminal and agent with a heavy dose of mystery), which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I do wonder how quickly they'll catch the terrorist and this will become a bad guy of the week procedural. Depends how long Spader's blacklist really is.

Tuesday - All returners, with The Biggest Loser, The Voice results show, and Chicago Fire. At midseason we jettison The Biggest Loser for two sitcoms. The Family Guide is told in flashback form (Jason Bateman filling in for Bob Saget), recapping from a son's perspective how his parent's divorce let the members of the family discover who they really are. The parents are a pair of eccentrics played by J.K. Simmons (he's blind but still does all the dad stuff, with Bateman's 11 year-old character as his wingman) and Parker Posey. Curious, but the description makes it sound like it's trying too hard.

The other show is About a Boy, which is based on the Nick Hornby book and ensuing movie. It might as well be called One and a Half Men.

Wednesday - Revolution starts the night (which I think is a mistake, it's not strong enough to start an evening, and the earlier hour will likely dial back the action), followed by Law & Order: SVU, and finishes with Ironsides, a remake of the Raymond Burr original about a paralyzed police detective (played now by Blair Underwood) who, with the help of a hand-selected team, takes on the tough cases and puts the bad guys away.

I'll admit to loving the original show (I love old cop shows), but am leery of how this will go given the fate of other remakes in the recent past. I'm also wondering how well the show will work outside of the backdrop of the 1960s, where having a woman and an African-American in detective roles was pretty rare.

Thursday - opens with Parks and Rec, and then comes the onslaught of family sitcoms. We have:

* Welcome to the Family, where two recent high school grads find out they're expecting. One family is white, the other Hispanic. Cross-cultural hilarity ensues. I'd like to call it a remake of Condo but I think I'm the only person who remembers that show. It would explain why networks keep trying to make a sitcom with this premise. Too bad, too, as I like the cast.
* Sean Saves the World, where Sean Hayes plays a divorced gay dad who has his teenaged daughter move in full-time. Life-work balance hilarity ensues. There's also a pushy mom played by Linda Lavin. Snore.
* The Michael J. Fox Show has its namesake playing a news anchor set to return to work after taking time off to be with family and fight Parkinson's Disease. Work-life-incurable neurological illness hilarity ensues.

I'm hoping Fox's show pans out, for obvious reasons.

The night ends with Parenthood, which confirms that NBC isn't looking to rebuild its Thursday night ratings juggernaut. It seems like a fine show - I've seen an episode or two - but carrying Thursday night is beyond its powers.

Friday - it's fantasy night on NBC, starting with Dateline and Grimm and leading to the new 10 pm show, Dracula. Which, as you might imagine, is about a vampire. In this case, Drac has moved to London in the late 19th century to find the people who made him undead and make them pay. He's also into science and stuff, apparently.

At midseason the blood sucker moves aside for Crossbones, which stars John Malkovich as Blackbeard. This is really going to be awesome or horrific. Or awesomely horrific. Too bad it's been put in the sci-fi/fantasy ghetto.

Saturday - repeats

Sunday - football, then at midseason we get American Dream Builders (aka Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 2.0), Believe (a show about a kid with all sorts of supernatural mental powers and the group that protects her from those looking to exploit her powers), and Crisis (the kids of various DC power brokers are kidnapped while on a school trip, forcing their parents to cross wits with the mastermind of the kidnapping).

Unscheduled at this point are Community (which I assume will fill in for whatever Thursday night show first gets the axe), Chicago Fire spin-off Chicago P.D. (which, in Dick Wolf style, will eventually spawn Chicago EMT, Chicago Health Inspector and Chicago Sealer of Weights and Measures), a very generic-sounding dude sticom (The Undateables), a very generic-sounding medical drama (The Night Shift), a cross between Millionaire and Big Brother (The Million Second Quiz), and a show that might as well be called Master Top Chef (Food Fighters).

The Verdict?

It's not horrible, especially by recent NBC standards. Sunday (during football season), Monday and Tuesday look like they'll do well, though I'm worried NBC is running The Voice into the ground. The problem day for me is Wednesday, especially if Thursday and Friday trade in ratings for critical/genre success. I like Revolution but don't think it's at the point where it can lead off a night.

It's also hard to say without having seen any of them, but it feels like NBC is still trying the "broader" sitcom approach, albeit not quite as broad as, say, Animal Hospital. Michael J. Fox's show is the wild card here, I think.

Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "Man With a Plan"

Three Up

1. Ted Chaough. We're mid-merger, and Ted gets to both show Pete Campbell up by giving up a seat in a meeting to a secretary and leads a very non-Don meeting about a new account. This leads to some friction with Don, but they smooth it over with some drinks and Don doing his thing. They maybe smooth things over too much as Ted passes out. He does get his back when he flies Don up to a meeting with Mohawk and is obviously more comfortable with traveling by single-engine plane. He also has a good chat with Gleason that helps to get Ted less concerned about understanding Don. It's not a big win, but it goes a long way to helping Ted find his way.

2. Joan Harris. She spends most of the episode feeling twinges and getting sick, and it turns out that she has an ovarian cyst. This makes her worry about what would happen to her son if she were to die. She also has a couple of nice Joan moments, one where she puts Ted's secretary in her place and the other when she saves the job of...

3. Bob Benson. Bob's smarminess apparently has a level of compassion, as he takes it upon himself to see Joan to the hospital to get checked out. He then drops by Joan's apartment the next day with a present for Kevin and to check in. Joan's mom likes what she sees, but Joan thinks he's too young. We'll see if Joan comes around to her mom's point of view.

Honorable Mention: Bud Campbell. As part of the subplot with Pete and Bud's mom, Bud gets to give Pete a ration for both not keeping tabs on their mom (who is clearly losing her mind and has pushed Bud's wife to the edge) and for not coming to him for SCDP's IPO underwriting. Bud gets to push mom on to Peter and put in first dibs on the IPO of the merged firm.


Three Down

1. Pete Campbell. Pete sees trouble at work with the merger, as not having a seat at the partners' meeting represents to him a looming lack of position. This isn't helped when Don and Ted go to take the meeting at Mohawk without him. They do that because of Pete's new personal problem - his mom. She shows up at the apartment thinking it belongs to Pete's dad (who is dead), and is clearly in the early stages of mental decline. He tries to have her stay with him at the apartment, but it's problematic, as her attempt to make tea leads to a fire that Pete has to respond to, which is how he misses the Mohawk meeting. Things just keep getting better for Pete.


2. Don Draper. He overhears a fight at the Rosen's (it sounds like Arnie is getting a job at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota is mentioned), which is followed shortly by a call from Sylvia. They meet at a hotel, and then Don goes into creepy dominant mode, from ordering Sylvia to crawl around and find his shoes (which she does not do, exactly) to sending her a dress just so she can get undressed for him. But as much as Sylvia seems to want him, a dream leads her to break it off, which visibly upsets Don and leads to a certain despair at his domestic situation (a conversation with Megan fades to nothing, for example).

3. Sylvia Rosen. Marital troubles are compounded when she starts to play into Don's games, and it's pretty clear that she'd have stayed in that hotel room doing naked cartwheels if Don ordered it. Which is why it's surprising that a dream leads her to end the affair entirely. Not that there weren't signs of this before; it could just be that Sylvia's conscience needed time (and creepiness) to get her to that point. She may be unhappy with her husband, but she'll apparently take that over the disaster that would come from having to continue the facade (though I think Sylvia versus Megan would be a pretty epic fight).

Honorable Mention: Burt Peterson. Canned twice by Sterling Cooper, it was pretty entertaining to see both Roger getting so much pleasure at firing him twice and Burt getting all in a snit again (albeit less physical than the first one).

Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "For Immediate Release"

Three Up

1. Don Draper. It's kind of a miracle win for Don, as he started out by firing Jaguar - Herb wanted a kid who writes fliers for him to review Don's work, so you can imagine how that went - which put the firm's plan to go public in jeopardy (Don was unaware of the plan) and pissed of Joan, who now feels like she slept with Herb for nothing (as she noted, she was able to deal with him, so Don should have been able to).

But there are two things that saved the night for Don. First, he gives Al Rosen some decent advice about making one's own opportunities, which puts Rosen's long term needs ahead of Don's short term desire to nail Al's wife. Second, Don come up with the idea that landed the new Chevy account - the merger of SCDP and CGC.

2. Roger Sterling. Roger proves he can still work accounts by using a spy - an airline club room hostess who he's also bedding - to find out when executives are traveling so he can chat them up. This is how he meets a Chevy exec - in town to meet with other agencies about a new car - and lands SCDP a shot at the account. He also proves adept at the spycraft himself, ordering a fake Gibson - water and an onion - while plying the Chevy guy with Jim Beam.

3.Marie Calvet.  In town for Mother's Day, Marie continues to be implacably French - offering up her Mother's Day flowers to Al Rosen when he needs to come up with a gift to Sylvia from their son and talking smack about Herb's wife during the abortive Jaguar dinner (in French, thankfully). This is more entertaining than how it reads on the page. She gives Megan some sexist but apparently successful advice about reconnecting with Don (provocative dress) and gets to give Roger the business when he calls after blowing off the Jaguar dinner.  Very entertaining.

Honorable Mention: Spy music. The music on the show is usually great, and I have to admit to having much love for the spy/wacky plan music that's been showing up. Pretty much anything Roger does should get this for a soundtrack.

Three Down

1. Pete Campbell. Pete is playing a central role in the public offering, and even gets nice words from Cooper about how his work laid the foundation for things. He even appears to be in line for a rapprochement with Trudy, who has him over for the weekend and is taking note of his renewed interest in her.

But then things get all Campbelled up when, at a whorehouse to celebrate looming IPO riches, he runs into his father in law in the hall. Awk-ward. While Ken says nothing will happen - the only way for both men to come out of the encounter unscathed is to not say anything - turns out that Pete's father in law pulls Vick's account because he is not right for his daughter. This leads Pete to tell Trudy about her father, which wrecks any progress the two of them has made (though Trudy may be coming around to thinking Pete is telling the truth).

Oh, and Pete manages to spill the beans on the IPO during a very public confrontation with Don, which starts with Pete tripping on the stairs. Pete's right to be mad, but he looks like and idiot, as usual.

2. Peggy Olsen. She and Abe have bought their building in a transitional neighborhood, and Peggy's not buying into it thanks to Abe's attempts at renovation, their junkie tenant, and kids who apparently live on their stoop. Her disillusionment turns into actual illusionment when she starts picturing Ted Chaough when getting down with Abe. She also expresses a distaste for change which blows up in her face when she finds out about the merger and that she'll be working for Don again in some capacity. And they ask her to write the press release about the merger with almost no guidance.

Oh, and she mentions that she loves Bobby Kennedy. It's going to be a tough 1968 for Peggy.

3. Ted Chaough. First, he learns that Gleason - the pessimistic artist partner - is dying of pancreatic cancer, and that buying his share out after his death will probably lead to the end of the firm. Any hope of rescuing things is wiped out when he learns that SCDP is pitching Chevy, as two small firms will cancel each other out. And then he has to swallow the idea of merging with the enemy, which is really the only way to both land the account and keep both firms afloat (SCDP having lost Jag and Vick's at this point). In between all of this he also manages to kiss Peggy (he's at least tipsy when he does so), which isn't going to help his marriage.

Honorable Mention: Trudy Campbell. Learning that your husband went to a brothel while he explains to you that your father was also there will not be a highlight of Trudy Campbell's life. That she may be giving the idea fair consideration rather than sticking with the denial she gives Pete might be worse, give how it will change her relationship with her father forever. I'd have bumped this up to the bottom three except the revelation also put her relationship with Pete back on the skids, which is good for her.

Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "The Flood"

Three Up

1. Peggy Olson. It doesn't all go her way - she doesn't win the local ad award she's up for, and the apartment she wants to buy goes to someone else - but in talking about the apartment with Abe she learns that he has envisioned a future with her, with kids, living somewhere more diverse than the Upper East Side. Betty is visibly moved by this, not that Abe notices (he's working on article related to the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination, which frames the episode).

2. Henry Francis. He goes with Lindsay to Harlem, and while he's invigorated by being on the front lines of unrest, he's not happy with how the mayor laid the groundwork for limited unrest by previously cutting deals that allowed for police corruption and giving breaks to thugs. His growing distaste with this sort of dealing leads him to a potential state senate run (with an eye to becoming state attorney general). Betty is pleased, as she says its what she's always wanted for him.

3. Bobby Draper. It doesn't start easy for him - Betty discovers he's been peeling wallpaper and gives him a week without TV as punishment - but between some kind words to a movie theater usher and concern that Henry will get shot (which Don typically dismisses saying Henry isn't important enough to get shot), we see some unexpected empathy from Bobby. God know where he got that from.

Honorable Mention. Megan Draper. She actually does win a local ad award, not that anyone cares at that point, but things get tough for her between the actual assassination and the responses of both her father (who comes up with some sort of Marxist interpretation that infuriates her) and Don (who ditches her, Sally and Gene to keep an eye on "sick" Bobby, meaning they go off to the movies and Don has a few). She has the strength to confront Don on this, and in return gets a pretty stunning revelation that helps Megan understand Don better (and help Don understand himself in the process). That's better than some Lucite-encased plaque.

Three Down

1. Don Draper. His lover is stuck in DC with her husband, Betty forces him to bring his kids into the city (regardless of the danger), and Megan calls him out for letting alcohol create a buffer between him and those he loves. Don suggests Megan is better with the kids, but after further prodding Don admits that he doesn't love his kids, but acts as if he does. He lays the blame here on his childhood, which we've seen was not great, and questions about his father having the same lack of feelings for him. He does mention that Bobby did something to help melt the ice, but Don still has to deal with this reality.

2. Betty Francis. Her Parent of the Year campaign continues with her overblown reaction to Bobby's peeling of wallpaper (not so much in the actual punishment but in her description of his behavior) and her demand that Don drive up, get the kids and bring them back into the city through the riots. She is pleased to hear that Henry is entering politics, but has doubts at the end as she compares dresses to her larger frame, fearing her role in Henry's potentially public new career.

3. Michael Ginsburg. He returns home from work to find a young woman sitting with his father. Turns out his dad plays chess with the woman's dad, and he's trying to set them up (she was told Ginsberg knew, which he clearly did not). Their date is awkward (Ginzo admits to being a virgin, for example), and ends abruptly when news of the assassination breaks. But there was some small glimmer of headway there, which is a good thing considering Ginzo's dad is apparently fixated on finding his son a wife. Ginzo says he can find his own women, but hasn't quite demonstrated that yet.

Honorable Mention: Harry Crane. Harry and Pete comisserate over the lack of secretaries,but things quickly goes sour when he talks to Pete about how business is being effected by the assassination. Pete calls him racist, and while Cooper get the two to shake and "make up" (though that's an abject failure), there's something sad about not being able to take the moral high ground against Pete Campbell. This should have landed him in the bottom three, but then you remember it's Harry Crane, and figure this may be the best he could have done in the circumstances.

Bombedshell

In case you missed it - and based on ratings, pretty much everyone has - NBC moved Smash to Saturday nights a few weeks back. Not surprisingly, ratings have not improved and the move is pretty much a burn off. So how did a show that premiered with much acclaim in the coveted post-Super Bowl slot tank so quickly?

1. Too much too soon. For every character we were given a full professional and personal story, shoehorned into whatever space wasn't involved in a musical number. For every giggle we got from Eileen throwing another drink in Jerry's face, we had to suffer through Julia's interminable family dramas and Karen's boringly doomed relationship with Dev. Better to have focused on the relationships with a more direct tie to the show: Eileen and Jerry's divorce (which put Eileen's ability to produce the show in jeopardy) and Derek's pursuit of every leading lady he encounters.

2. Do you know how long it takes to get a show to Broadway? No? Neither does the show. We've heard on more than one occasion that it takes years to get a show to Broadway, but somehow Bombshell is violating the laws of space and time to get to its premiere. Even though it's had three different actresses in the leading role, has had a rewrite of its book, two different producers, and was shut down for a time during a Federal investigation. But if Karen could learn a new song in five minutes while the show was testing in Boston, anything is possible.

3. Lousy new characters. I'm thinking here of our Hit List duo, one who is so tormented by his art that he's a complete dick, and the other a total wuss. I have less of a problem with the latter (countless careers have been cut short due to a lack of confidence), but the former, yikes. To be that much of a jerk, and to have almost no explanation as to why he's that way, is a recipe for creating a character that has zero appeal. And then to have the show's one remaining romantic story line be between him and Karen? I was kind of hoping that when he went missing that time that he would never come back.

4. Ellis. Just because.

There are certainly other problematic things to point out - Ivy's sudden and out of character turn to pills, for example - but it would get to piling on fairly quickly. Smash should have been a smart, adult alternative to Glee (itself an example of "who needs a coherent plot when we've got songs!"), and it showed that promise in the pilot, but couldn't keep things going. Maybe it takes years to get a show about Broadway to the small screen?

Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "To Have and to Hold"

Three Up

1, Harry Crane. A surprisingly positive episode for Harry, who comes up with a solution for Ken's problem with Dow Chemical (a one hour special Dow sponsors of stars singing Broadway tunes, starring Joe Namath), a couple of bold statements about deserving a partnership, and successfully countermanding Joan when she tries to fire his secretary. And while Cooper and Sterling aren't looking likely to add Harry as a partner, his threat of leaving is taken at least semi-seriously. Harry will find a way to screw this up, but it's a good moment for him.

2. Sylvia Rosen. We don't see much of her, and in what we do see she's either planning an assignation with Don or carrying it out, but her statement at the end that she prays for Don so he'll find peace is much more insightful than what we've heard from Don's other side pieces (or either of his wives, truth be told). As much as she wants to be with Don, she sees that it's more important that he calms the turmoil that's causing him to step out.

3. Stan Rizzo. He gets to work on the secret Project K (the firm's secret pitch for Heinz Ketchup), which allows him to work in private in a locked room, which allows him the peace to work and the ability to smoke pot whenever he wants (he even gets to share a toke and a smile with Don). And when both SCDP and CHC get beaten out for the account, he even gets to give Peggy the finger for spilling the secret (though it seems like he wasn't completely pissed at her).

Honorable Mention: the late 1960s. We got spy music for Project K, the Electric Lounge, swingers and Harry's secretary in go-go boots. Groovy.

Three Down

 1. Don Draper. On the personal front, Don's winds up being too traditional to handle his wife kissing as part of her job, and compares it to being a prostitute. He continues to have his affair with Sylvia, but can't handle that she's praying for him. And at work he not only fails to land Heniz Ketchup, he may have lost the beans account. Probably for the best that he doesn't know that his secretary almost got fired.

2.  Megan Draper. The good news is that she's getting a larger role on her soap. The bad news is that she now has love scenes, which means kissing and stuff. Don't not wild about the idea, and is even less happy when he watches a taping. This leads to a fight where Don basically calls her a whore. And in the middle of this, she and Don get hit on by the soap's head writer and his wife, who are swingers. Work has never been so awkward.

3. Dawn Chambers. Speaking of awkward, Dawn gets caught punching out for Scarlett when the latter is out of the office for the afternoon. She tries to make amends for it later, but Joan responds by giving Dawn what appears to be more responsibility, but the additional tasks may very well make Dawn less liked by her colleagues. We also learn that Dawn is a friend's maid of honor, and in their meetings we hear more from Dawn about her work - she likes it and wants to keep her job, but she's troubled by the amount of sadness in the office, and the amount of drinking.  I was happy to see that Dawn was getting a story line, but wish for her sake it had been more positive.

Honorable Mention: Ken Cosgrove.  After a weekend of listening to his father in law complain that no one likes Dow Chemical (and thinking that it's a dig at Ken and the firm), he gets help in that department from Harry of all people. And then he has to put out a fire with Heinz beans because they learn that the firm pitched to the ketchup division, which he'd expressly forbade. Ken's walking a bit of a tightrope with his father in law (having put his fate in the shaky and slightly clammy hands of Harry Crane) and may lose an account because other people at his firm went behind his back. Ken would have ranked higher if any of this was a a surprise.

Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "The Collaborators"

Three Up

1. Trudy Campbell.  Her bookend appearances run the gamut of the Campbell experience. It starts with Trudy flirtatiously fending off some of the neighbors (while their wives are just flirtatious with Pete, who can score them tickets to Hair). One of the wives shows up at Pete's Manhattan apartment and sees a little too much of a future with Pete, and her husband finds out. She tells Trudy, who has a short but highly effective confrontation with Pete the next morning: she knew all along what the purpose of the apartment was, but is now made foolish by his using it to bed women from the neighborhood.

So while Pete counters with divorce, Trudy fends that off, saying he's exiled unless called for and any further transgressions will lead her to destroy him. Seriously, she says destroy. Pete tries to make some comeback about her sleeping alone, but he knows he's in treacherous waters. And if you didn't know it before, be assured that Alison Brie is awesome.

2. Don Draper. On the personal side, he's still juggling Megan and Sylvia Rosen, made especially tricky when Megan confesses to a miscarriage and Sylvia tries to blame Don for their affair and how it makes their spouses look. Don's is gracious with Megan, saying she should have told him about the pregnancy and miscarriage, and calls Sylvia's bluff, saying that she's what he wants and that whatever she's feeling isn't about him. They, of course, are still a thing, though Don does push things a bit by showing up at the Rosen apartment while Dr. Rosen is home. At the end Don sits down in the hallway in front of his apartment door; he's managing things, but for how long?

(We also get some young Don, where he and his mom move into a whorehouse run by his aunt after Don's father dies, giving us some idea of how Don formed his approach towards women as well his mindset of keeping his assignations compartmentalized.)

On the professional side, Don has to deal with Herb the Jaguar dealer, who wants to move most of their ad money to local radio to drive sales. Don hates the idea, but in the meeting with Jaguar oversells the idea so as to sour the top brass on it. It's Don Draper using his powers for evil.

3. Ted Chaough. So much for his marriage retreat, Ted's back in charge and finds that he can exploit Peggy's friendship with Stan as a way to get an account that SCDP is nominally in the market for. Getting a win over Don and company, even when they're not really competing, may be Ted's favorite thing.

Honorable Mention: Roger Sterling. He's only in the episode for a couple of minutes, but they're a good couple of minutes. From his smirk during the Jaguar meeting to his having to explain the Munich Accords to Pete to misquoting Churchill, it's vintage Roger.

Three Down

1. Pete Campbell. Poor dumb Pete. He thought he was being so suave with the Manhattan apartment, but his plan to be the Don Draper of accounts was doomed to fail from the start as he never realized that Trudy is smarter than him. He also can't choose a mistress for beans. His divorce threat is baseless, given the potential payouts to support Trudy and Tammy combined with losing his father in law's business. And then he tries to back Herb's plan for Jaguar's ad campaign and doesn't see Don coming. I'm having a hard time figuring if Trudy's evisceration was worse than Lane punching Pete out; the latter was awesome as a stand-alone incident, but the threat of Trudy lowering the boom has delicious anticipation, as you know it's going to happen eventually.

2. Peggy Olsen. Peggy realizes (or maybe just vocalizes) that she has no friends at work, and her attempt to buck up her staff is horrible, leading them to put a can of feminine powder on her desk with a campaign mock-up that more or less equates her with that not so fresh feeling. She also accidentally sells out Stan when she tells Ted about the Heinz meeting, which Ted wants to use to try to get the ketchup account. Peggy's learning some tough lessons about her profession, which she either didn't or couldn't learn while working for Don.

3. Don Draper's Women. Megan has a miscarriage and feels guilty because (a) she's kind of glad it happened and (b) she never told Don she was pregnant. Sylvia wants to call of their affair, but finds she can't after Don bluntly explains his desire for her and why she's full of it when she tries to put the burden on to him. Joan (here as Don's only female friend) has to deal with Herb during his first visit to the office, which puts Don's hackles up even before hearing Herb's stupid radio plan. You can even throw Don's mom into this, as she has to move her son into a brothel, which rankles her Christian sensibilities and makes her fearful for Don's moral well-being. And rightfully so.

Honorable Mention: Bob Benson. Still smarmy, but kind of getting the points that he needs to reel it in a bit. Though at the end of the episode he seems to be hitching his star to Pete, which at this juncture seems like a really poor idea.

Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "The Doorway"

So if you're someone who never quite associated depression with holidays, this episode probably took care of that. Glad it's April, honestly. Anyway, back to determining what three characters had the best episode and which three the worst.

Three Up

3. Megan Draper. Things are working out for Megan. Since we've last seen her she's landed a role on a soap opera, and she enjoys the hell out of taking a working vacation to Hawaii with Don. She continues to be a breath of youthful fresh air for Don and their neighbors (she hosts a New Year's Even fondue party), but there's trouble lurking that she doesn't know about, which puts her current state of contentment at risk.

2. Betty Francis. Betty begins to break away from the path she was put before matriculating at Bryn Mawr, but in perhaps the most Betty way possible. A friend of Sally's who is supposedly going to Julliard admits to Betty that she was rejected, and plans to move in with squatters in the East Village. Both the friend and the squatters have some harsh words for Betty and how she's lived her life based on others, and in the end this strikes a chord, and Betty stops looking for Sally's friend. She also decides to let her hair go to its natural brunette color, a small but significant step in claiming her own life (I'm wondering what's next: abandoning the battle of the bulge or a blow out with her mother in law; I'm hoping for the latter).

I was toying with giving Betty the top spot, but I don't think you can win if you're taking life lessons from 15 year olds. She also had this scene where was talking to Henry about Sally's friend and gave him permission to sleep with her (she actually says rape at one point), a little uncomfortable.

1 Peggy Olson. Peggy finally gets the validation for her work she never got from Don when an ad campaign for headphones gets caught up in news from Vietnam ("Lend Me Your Ears" isn't a great tag line when there's news that GIs are taking ears as trophies from dead enemy troops). She has her Don moment when Abe is using the headphones during a dinner visit, reminder her of outtake footage from the TV ad they shot for the Super Bowl.

We do get to see that she's still Don's protege in some cases - she's very rough on copywriters and has most of the team in the office on New Year's Eve, when she already has a solution in hand. Perhaps these will smooth down as she gets more independent.

Honorable mention: facial hair. Pete has grown out his sideburns a bit as part of his ongoing campaign to distract people from noticing he's going bald. Harry has even longer sideburns as part of his ongoing campaign to be as douchey as possible. Roger seems to be growing a bit of a pompadour, Stan has a beard like Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover, Abe looks like Paul Rudd in Anchorman, and even Ginsberg gets in on the act. 

Three Down

3. Bob Benson. Benson is a relatively new accounts guy at SCDP, and he's very aggressive about trying to make contact with the higher-ups. He "runs into" Don on the elevator and gives him coffee. He sends food to the memorial to Roger's mom. He hangs around in the outer areas of the office trying to cadge time with others. On that last trick Ken sends Bob back to his office, and with no love lost. Bob's clearly trying to move up quickly, and while his moves here generally backfire, it's only a matter of time before he figures out how to play the game. 


2. Don Draper. Don's trip to Hawaii, already a business event, takes on an uncomfortable personal dimension when Don meets a drunken GI at a bar and, after some discussion about being veterans, winds up giving away the bride when the GI gets married the following morning. The GI bears a passing resemblance to Adam, and Don spends the rest of the episode trying to forget the occasion, even throwing away the GI's lighter, which he apparently swapped for his own. 

The stink of death more or less follows Don throughout the episode, from the near-death of the doorman at Don's building (pre-Hawaii, seen in flashback) to the memorial to Roger's mom (at which Don shows up drunk and throws up), to the ad campaign for the Sheraton Hawaiian Village that reminds one of the hotel execs of suicide (most of the SCDP don't see this connection, except for Stan, who thought it was cool). 

And while we never do learn if Don took that woman up on her offer at the end of last season, we do learn that he's reverted back to form with the wife of a neighbor, the cardiologist who saved the life of the doorman (and who appears to be as close to a non-work friend as Don has). He does have the self-awareness to realize their affair needs to end, if nothing else.

1. Roger Sterling. He's apparently traded in LSD for therapy, as we get a number of scenes where Roger is trying to work out his issues, which mostly center around his lack of purpose and a fear of death. It doesn't help, then, that his mother dies, and at the memorial he starts yelling at Mona's new husband. So throw into his other issues new (or newly articulated) feelings that he's let every woman in his life down. He does make partial amends in agreeing to invest in a trucking company his son in law is starting.


Roger doesn't hit the wall until he learns his shoeshine man has died, and he's inherited his shoebox as he's been the only person to call to ask about him. Roger breaks down while going through the box, probably realizing that he's shown more interest in a shoeshine guy than his family.

Honorable Mention: Sally and Bobby Draper. Sally spends pretty much the entire episode in some sort of teenaged snit aimed at Betty, while Bobby goes from having an obvious crush on Sally's friend to hating Betty's new dark hair. I expect Sally will continue acting like a teenager, but I can't begin to predict what Bobby's deal will be going forward.

Flipping Around

Figured I should get at least one post in before the first quarter of the year is done.

* I wasn't particularly sad to see Private Practice go, but I did find it funny that the show ended with all of the doctors in the practice's kitchen, which is pretty much the only room we've seen on a consistent basis for the last couple of seasons. As much as it tried to serve as a coda to the series (with the debate if the show's title was a good title for Violet's new book), it also reminded me of how far the series had strayed from its original idea.

* And while it's not related, I will take the karmic trade-off of Private Practice for The Sing-Off any time. The a capella competition is back next season, and back in its short-run format during the holidays, as it should be.

* Finally got around to watching the first episode of The Following, liked it quite a bit, even if the Joe Carroll's minions seem a little too perfect at carrying out their deeds without being detected.

* While I'd not have used so much profanity, I would have hit on most (if not all) of the same reasons why Chuggington is awful.

My new least favorite TV character

The two or three of you who read this with any sort of regularity know that Amelia Shepherd from Private Practice is my least favorite TV character.  Well, was my least favorite TV character. Part of this is based on changes to Amelia's character and the fact that Private Practice is down to its last few episodes. But mostly it's because the character sucks. I am talking about Kitty, the new Cheerio introduced this season on Glee.

Kitty is supposed to be the replacement for the Quinn and Santana we first knew, bitchy and sent to New Directions to take it down from the inside. The plan for Kitty, apparently, was to give her as many words to deliver as Quinn and Santana would per episode, but only do it in the average amount of time a supporting character would usually get. The result is a hasty mishmash of catty, overly written putdowns delivered with almost no pace or nuance.

Kitty was also forced upon us on day one with no real exposition as to who she was or why she's so disagreeable. She's bitchy for bitchiness' sake, an automaton in Spanx who pushes buttons to get a reaction from characters and viewers alike. We've been given no reason to care about who she is or why she does what she does.  She is not helped by being surrounded by other new characters that were also hastily thrown at the viewers, albeit with a smidgen of background.

I don't know how much of this to lay at the feet of the actor - maybe her delivery has always been a rushed mess - but I really think it's a symptom of the writing and planning for the show, which more or less lurches from plot point to plot point while distracting us with song and dance. I will say that Kitty can at least do that to the appropriate Glee level.

I should also add that, while not a character, I would also be happy if Marley (another of the new characters, who I think is intended to be the new Rachel, just without her drama, interesting character traits, or voice) never appeared wearing that newsboy hat again.

Lost Resort

The early round of TV cancellations got a jolt from ABC when they axed both Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue. I'm not that broken up about the latter; as much as I enjoy Terry O'Quinn, I never warmed to the show's premise.  I am more broken up about the former, which has done well with a pretty high concept and, of course, features Andre Braugher.

My favorite part of the linked story is the reference to ABC's "difficult" 8 pm Thursday slot. How difficult is it?

2012: Last Resort cancelled at 13 episodes.
2011: Charlie's Angels, which aired only 7 of its planned 13 episodes.
2010: My Generation, cancelled after two episodes.
2009: FlashForward, managed an entire season before being cancelled.
2006-08: Ugly Betty, the rare success in the time slot.
2005: Alias, in its final, peripatetic season.
2004: Extreme Makeover, non-home edition
2003: Threat Matrix, cancelled after 14 episodes
2002: Dinotopia, six episodes.
1999-2001: Whose Line Is It Anyway, back-to-back episodes
1998: Vengeance Unlimited, 16 episodes
1997: Nothing Sacred, 20 episodes but Peabody Award!
1996: High Incident, which got a second season at 10pm Tuesday, then cancelled.
1995: Charlie Grace, 9 episodes.
1994: My So-Called Life, 19 episodes and cancelled en route to endless MTV airings.
1993: Missing Persons, 17 episodes.
1992: Delta/Room For Two, a sitcom paring that didn't survive the season.
1991: Pros and Cons, James Earl Jones not enough of a draw.
1990: Father Dowling Mysteries, in the last of its three seasons.
1989: Mission Impossible, in its second, shortened and final season.
1988: Knightwatch, a summer series that made it to fall thanks to a writer's strike.
1987: Sledge Hammer!/The Charmings, both in their second - and last - seasons.
1986: Our World, a news/history series that was well reviewed but little watched.
1985: The Fall Guy, in its last season.
1984: People Do the Craziest Things/Who's the Boss?, the latter in its first season.
1983: Trauma Center, cancelled before Christmas.
1982: Joanie Loves Chachi/Star of the Family, the former tanked when moved to Thursday at 8.
1981: Mork & Mindy/Best of the West, the latter in its only season.
1980: Mork & Mindy/Bosom Buddies, the latter in its first season.

I hadn't planned to go that far back, but looking at the last 32 years really gives an appreciation of the dumpster fire ABC has going at this time slot. It took them 26 years to come up with a scripted show that could hold the slot for more than a season. The shows you've heard of in the time slot were either moved after debuting or moved there to die.

How to explain such long-term suckitude? I have some ideas.

1. 8 pm is too early for drama. Most of the failures on this list are hour-long programs. What successful shows have appeared on this time slot are half-hour shows (Mork & Mindy, Who's the Boss? and Whose Line). I'd guess the preponderance of this was done to counter-program other networks' sitcoms, but that did not seem to work with any regularity.

The exception here is Ugly Betty, though I think it's easy to make the case that the show wasn't a typical hour-long drama. It also was more female-friendly, which fit its pairing with Grey's Anatomy and ABC's programming in general.

2.Conceptual difficulties. Of late, at least, the shows in this slot have been pretty high concept (rogue nukes! seeing the future!), while other times the shows have been decidedly low concept (Charlie's Angels and Vengeance Unlimited come to mind). In fact, the few times show have worked in this slot they've been pretty easy to deal with, concept-wise. Not too stupid, and not too challenging. Just right. Call it the Goldilocks Zone.

3. Tough competition. NBC owned Thursday night for years, which could lead to some quick hooks when shows weren't able to match up. And for every two or three shows that probably deserved the hook, you get one - like Last Resort - that probably didn't.

Here's an interesting comparison. Grey's Anatomy moved to Thursdays at 9 in 2006. For the three years it shared the night with Ugly Betty, the lowest it finished in seasonal rankings was 12th. Then in 2009 it finished 17th, and slumped to the 30s in the following two seasons. All three of its lead-ins were given quick hooks. This year it's up to 19th, but Last Resort hasn't been as successful. So off it goes.

Not sure why ABC continues to balk at trying comedy or unscripted programming here. I suppose they're trying to counter-program against the sitcoms at CBS and NBC, but with their lack of success this might be a case of if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Bring Out Your Dead 2012: The Ted Marshall Open

Another TV season, another attempt to win the Ted Marshall Open, the greatest TV dead pool in the land. You pick 10 shows, get points if they never air after this season, most points win. My ten, in order of preference (show #10 gets me 10 bonus points if shut down, show #9 gets me 9 points, etc.):

10: Gossip Girl. A no-brainer, as it was already announced that this would be its last season. Using the same reason led me to choose:

9: The Office
8: 30 Rock
7: Fringe

6: Private Practice. while it's not the show's official last season, Tim Daly didn't return for the current season, and Kate Walsh announced she'll be leaving at its end. Seems a little daft to keep a spin-off going once the character it was built on leaves. Also, it only got a 13 episode order, which suggests a winding down.

5: The Neighbors. This is the ABC sitcom where a family moves into a gated community which is populated by aliens.

4: The Mob Doctor. Besides having what sounds like a temporary title, there's not been much positive to read about this show, mostly having to do with the implausibility of the set-up (doctor does things for Mob to repay previous favor). I also think it's likely to struggle against Dancing With the Stars and the CBS comedy block.

3: Animal Practice. The standout performer on this show is a monkey. I say fire all the people and let the monkey run the hospital, Lancelot Link-style. Heavy Olympic promotion may help, but given how stupid the promos were, maybe not.

2: Guys With Kids. Mostly because it's the 28048th attempt at a guy-centered family sitcom, but also a little bit because it comes from Jimmy Fallon, who does nothing for me.

1. Malibu Country. Reba (where did her last name go?) more or less plays herself, a country musician who moves to Malibu to focus on family. It's on Friday nights on ABC, so there's a bit of a TGIF vibe here, but what little I've read about it suggests it's nothing to write home about. A calculated risk, as the threshold for this to hang on is probably not that high.

I actually matched up pretty well with conventional wisdom this year, as eight of my picks were in the consensus top 10 (it helps when you have four shows already announced as ending). The two shows I didn't pick that made the top 10:

Oh Sit - it's extreme musical chairs hosted by Jamie Kennedy and one or two other people. It seems like a parody TV listing from The Onion, but as a summer series I fear it may just be stupid enough to come back.

Whitney - I violated the first rule of dead pools (once on a list, the only way off is to die) by leaving this off, but given my multi-year run of picking According to Jim, only to see it come back year after year, I'm gun shy about sitcoms that I pick and are subsequently renewed.

I should also note that I did not re-pick Unforgettable, the CBS "cop who remembers everything but her sister's murder" drama that was cancelled and then renewed a few weeks later. That's the sort of karma I'm not going to mess with.

Leaving the Lane

We finally got through the last episode of Desperate Housewives last night, and can't say that I'll miss it. I did like how the very last scene referenced the major theme of secrecy (and like even better that it's not leading to some sort of reboot), but was hoping for more resolution with older characters (especially the kids, who were largely absent in the final season). Though I should give kudos to Kathryn Joosten for taking her real-life lung cancer battle and playing it out through Karen McClusky. I can't even imagine what that was like.

In any case, we did learn how each of the main characters filled out their years away from Fairview, which I will rank here in descending order of plausibility.

5. Renee Perry and Ben Faulkner got married and were never heard from again. I know this character was in the supporting/special guest Housewife role, but it wouldn't have hurt to at least make a reference to the happy couple's future.So to me, the idea that nothing happened to them is the least believable result of the bunch. I'd have written them in as the ones that stayed on the lane for the rest of their lives, a twist on Renee's early disdain for the suburbs.

4. Bree and Tripp move to Louisville, where she becomes a state legislator. I have no doubt Bree would fit in with the moneyed class in Kentucky, what with her twin sets, traditional family values, and arms cache. But ten minutes on Google would give any opponent the information that Bree is an alcoholic, was once the Fairview town pump, was on trial for murder, has a gay son, and a daughter who makes a living selling sex swings on the Internet. That might be OK in Texas or Louisiana, but I'm sure the Bluegrass State has an even more self-satisfied prig with an eye for public office that would put up quite a primary fight.

3. Susan moves to wherever Julie is going to school to get a new start. The implausible part of this is that Susan didn't run anyone over or suddenly need a heart transplant while driving away. Or that she didn't actually see the ghosts who were all standing around watching her leave and drive into a telephone pole. Otherwise, the idea that she'd move off the street where both of her husbands died makes a lot of sense.

2. Gaby parlays her personal shopping into a website and TV deal, moves to a California mansion. I don't know how you'd actually do that (moving to online and TV would make her more of an impersonal shopper), but if you can create a sitcom based on a Twitter feed, what happens here is entirely plausible.I also like how Carlos was critical to getting things going, in that it (a) breaks the pattern that one of the pair would be too busy in business to be a good spouse, and (b) that for as much as Carlos wants to do something meaningful, at his core he's about success.

Also fully believable: that they'd buy some gaudy monstrosity of a house and spend all their free time yelling at each other while having drinks in the pool.

1. Lynette and Tom move to New York so she can run the US division of Mayfair's Microwave Mangerables. The only problem I have with this ending is the reveal that the couple only has six grandkids. Does fecundity skip a generation?  Can the male kids only reproduce by accident? Are all the kids scarred by their family life and swear to not have kids, leaving only Paige to make up the difference? Yeah, the last one.

The most plausible part, of course, is that Lynette spends her quality time with the grandkids yelling at them. Why should that ever change?

Three Up, Three Down: The Killing

Three Up


3. Darren Richmond. Ladies and gentlemen, your new mayor of Seattle: Darren Richmond! Don't expect to hear a few words from him, though, as he's with one of his staffers, who is confessing to murder. And once that's over, he's going to break the heart of another one by "moving on" into politics as usual, as his first post-election meeting is with Chief Jackson and Michael Ames, who are recently sprung from jail and ready to talk about the waterfront. So while the man has won, his ideals have lost, badly.

2. The Larsen Family. OK, not a complete win given what happens the last time we see them in Rosie's room, but they are also moving on, literally, moving into the house that Stan bought. But before that happens they get a mystery movie in the mail, and it's Rosie's last film, where she tells them that she's taking off to see the world, but that she loves all of them and will return. It's a tearful yet positive bonding moment for the family, knowing that no matter what Rosie did love them.

1. Sarah Linden. She makes the final connection to what actually happened at the lake, and gets Terry to admit to what she did. She earns her badge back, but when the call comes in to her and Holder to pick up a new case she gets out of the car. She's also moving on, choosing something other than homicide, which is very much to her benefit. The last shot is of her walking, heading hopefully to get her life back in order.

Three Down


3. Rosie Larsen. Avenged, but still dead. Plus we get to see just how things went down the night she died, and it's pretty grim, especially when the car slips into the lake, and we hear screaming - until we don't.

2. Jamie Wright. As Jamie's drunk grandfather tells Richmond that Jamie lied about the story with him and his leg, old grandad also mentions that Jamie wasn't with him on the night of the murder. Jamie takes Richmond back to the office, and admits that he killed Rosie. She was on the 10th floor of the Wapi Eagle when Jamie met with Jackson and Ames about the bones buried on the waterfront, and Jamie beats her when she can't explain why she's there. He drives her out to the lake thinking she's dead, only to learn otherwise when the car goes in the water. He says he did it - did everything - to get Richmond into office. When the cops finally show up he aims a gun at Linden, and Holder shoots him dead. But as Richmond goes ahead and meets with Jackson and Ames, Jamie's result-oriented approach apparently sunk in.

1. Terry Marek. Now here's the twist. Turns out that Terry was with Ames the night of the killing, picking him up from the ferry. She drives him out to the lake when Jamie calls, and as Jamie and Ames argue, she hears Jamie say that taking care of this problem guarantees the waterfront deal, giving him his own money and a chance to break away from his wife. Ames doesn't want to be party to this, but Terry, seeing her chance at happiness slipping away, gets out of her car, goes to the campaign car, and puts it in drive. She has no idea it's Rosie... until the next day. Linden figures this out when in the Larsen's garage, as she sees Terry's car and figures out that she was the mysterious "cab" with the missing taillight. They get Terry to crack just as Stan and Mitch come back from the house. That's an ugly scene, but Holder manages to get Stan calmed and Mitch, as shattered as she looks, still manages to hug her sister. But where Rosie and Jamie are at peace, Terry gets to live with the knowledge that she put Rosie in the lake. No amount of hugging will clear that up.

Three Up, Three Down: The Killing

Three Up


3. Stan Larsen. With Mitch back, he finally gets a chance to call her out her leaving and the position in left him in. Getting that off his chest, he does try to talk Mitch into moving to the house, but she wants to stay. Mitch seems aghast at the idea that Stan is moving on, but Stan does not have such issues. He also hears on the radio that Janek was killed, so that's a nice bonus for him.

2. Darren Richmond. His speech about his suicide appears to actually be helping him, and on that surprise he finds that he's very much in the race. For all the good he feels about his speech and the possibility of becoming mayor, the mood is tempered when he has to drive out to meet someone. That turns out to be Jamie's grandfather, who appears to have both his legs. Richmond is not amused.

1. Sarah Linden. While she has some concern about going crazy again, she shows her investigative prowess by getting a deal with the mayor to call off the dogs so they can solve the case, then uncovering various leads, and finally making the connection between the Chief and her abusive past to get to the camera footage that was withheld. From there, she and Holder discover their main suspect is Jamie Wright, who was in the casino and going to the 10th floor for the meeting with Jackson and Michael Ames. Things are looking very poor for him indeed, thanks to Linden's dogged pursuit.


Three Down


3. Mitch Larsen. Her husband calls her out for abandoning the family at time of need. Terry calls her out for similar reasons. Tommy can barely look at he. Welcome home, Mitch! And thanks for wallowing rather than following Stan's lead to move to the house, which is bigger, brighter, and will give your troubled sons their own rooms.

2. Nicole Jackson. Not only does Roberta give the withheld footage to the cops, but Linden sees an old photo where the previous security chief was sporting cast. Turns out Jackson is physically abusive, and then likes to hang her lovers out to dry when problems arise (the woman in the photo is doing 20 for something I did't quite catch). Turns out Jackson was dating that security chief, too, but let her take the fall for something. Not the best way to treat your girlfriends. This leads the police to see that the City Hall attendee to the 10th floor Wapi Eagle meeting is...

1. Jamie Wright. While the episode title suggests that it's him or Gwen who did it, the pendulum swings Jamie's way quite a bit. We learn that Jamie got a company owned by Michael Ames expedited approval to bid on city projects. He also appears to have not completely truthful about his grandfather, who still has both legs. And when Jamie shows up on the withheld footage, he quickly becomes the lead suspect. Except Linden has an idea that Jamie and Gwen committed the crime together. which doesn't get followed up but is a tantalizing idea. Assuming Jamie's apparently guilt is explainable.

1.

Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men

Three Up


3. Peggy Olsen.  She's in place at CGC and riding her copyrighters hard, expecting better work. She does get saddled with some work to test and name a new woman-focused cigarette (what will become Virginia Slims), but rolls with it pretty well. She has a chance meeting with Don at a movie, and while their talk is a little strained, you do get the sense that he's proud of her and that she's proud of herself for taking the step she did. And while she doesn't get to go to Paris to film that Chevalier Blanc ad, she does get to go to Richmond - where her hotel view is a couple of dogs going at it. So, yeah, not all wins.

2. Megan Draper. There is a lot of difficulty here - she continues to have the argument with Don about her choice of acting and her "hate" of advertising. She also has issues with her mom, who is frank in her assessment of Megan's chances. But when she asks Don to get her a part in a commercial, he declines but later relents when he watches her reel, which appears to make him fall in love with her all over again. She gets the ad and is incredibly happy, especially with Don. We'll see how long that lasts.

1. Roger Sterling. He hooks back up with Megan's mom, and builds up enough courage to try LSD again, this time on his own (which includes standing in his hotel window naked, which really dashed the hopes of what was to come when the nudity warning came up at the start of things). And with the money rolling into the firm, Roger's in as good a place as he can be considering where he was to start the season.


Three Down


3. Beth Dawes. Beth and her husband run into Pete on the train, and they say she's going to visit her sister. Turns out, though, that she suffers from depression and is getting electroshock therapy, which she tells Pete during an assignation at the same hotel Pete had planned for earlier in the season. She also mentions it's not her first time, and she's hoping their coupling will persist through the "fog" that the therapy causes in her brain. Turns out it doesn't, as when Pete visits her afterwards she has no idea who he is. Which may be for the best, as remembering that you had sex with Pete Campbell may not be the best thing for long-term mental health.

2. Don Draper. Don has a bad tooth, and lets it go until it gets to the point where he can't bend over without it causing pain. When he goes to get it extracted, he has a vision of his brother Adam. It's not his first for the episode, and the parallel with Lane is clearly playing tricks with his head. Don and Adam talk briefly, with Adam saying he'll see Don again, as he'll be "hanging around." It's not helping that Don met with Rebecca Pryce to give her money that Lane had previously put into the firm. She's hostile, to be charitable, and gives Don an earful. Don also squabbles with Megan and Marie over Megan's career, and while he continues to be resistant his work to get Megan a role after watching her reel is promising. That is until he's at a bar and a blonde asks him - for her equally attractive brunette friend - if he's alone. The episode ends on Don's face, and while he's not answered the question his past suggests he's going to give the answer that we got used to in earlier seasons.

1. Pete Campbell. Things are typical for Pete - what with his reacquaintance with Beth and his continuing desire to not stay in Cos Cob with his wife and child - but it's when he visits Beth in the hospital that he really exposes his despair, as he says the friend he's visiting (a construct to explain to Beth why he's at the hospital, as she doesn't know they know each other) is losing this great thing, but has also discovered that his permanent life also isn't right, that the "friend" is stuck and failing fast. All of this comes out as resentment towards Beth's husband, with whom Pete fights after he suggests they get off the train and go find women. When Pete throws the hospitalization in his face they fight, and the husband says Beth always winds up sleeping with someone when she gets out of the hospital. A conductor breaks up the fight, but winds up having to punch Pete as well when Pete starts getting physical with him (which built up from the conductor saying Pete needed to apologize to Beth's husband). Pete manages to pass of his injuries as a result of a car accident. and Trudy takes this as the final sign that yes, Pete does need an apartment in the city so he doesn't kill himself driving home. So Pete finally gets his love nest, just with no one to love in it. Seems fitting, really.

Three Up, Three Down: The Killing

Three Up


3. Lt. Erik Carlson. He's not done much on the show except be a by the book pain in the ass for Linden and Holder, but when pushed to choose if he'll support them to find Rosie's killer or continue to play along with the mayor (who dangled a promotion if Carlson would get Linden off the streets) and the other powers that have stymied the investigation, he chooses the side of the angels. Good to see that, even if we still didn't get much screen time for Mark Moses, a shame in its own right.

2. Stan Larsen. Things start to come up for Stan a bit, as he finally gets an offer on the home he bought as a surprise. With that debt off of his shoulders, he hits a bump in the road when Janek threatens the boys if Stan doesn't take out Novak (the guy who broke into the waterfront development and told Holder about it). Stan decides to play along - until he sees the baby in Novak's car. He gives Novak a bit of a beating, tells him Janek knows, and tells him to get out of Seattle and never return. Having avoided falling back into Janek's trap, Stan goes home and finds Mitch has returned. Which I guess makes it win-win-win, though we'll see what Mitch has to say for herself.

1. Sarah Linden. Still fragile from her hospitalization (she retorts that Holder is on "their" side when he suggests she take a nap), she does manage to talk Gwen into using her father to get a federal warrant to search the Wapi Eagle. That search appears to have turned up nothing, but we later learn that Linden found the key card and held onto it, fearing that Seattle PD or County would make it disappear if it entered official channels. She notices that she and Holder are being tailed, allowing them to shake it and head to Seattle City Hall. Once in she tests the card around, and surprisingly discovers it does not open the door to the mayor's office. It does, however, open the door to Richmond's office. Which explains why the upcoming episode is called "Donnie or Marie," as this makes the main suspects Jamie and Gwen.

Three Down


3. Leslie Adams. His lead is evaporating, and the success of the Richmond "viral" video coupled with Abani's revelation that Jamie is getting info on the Larsen case from his ex-girlfriend prosecutor, leads Adams to a desperation play. He gets a copy of Richmond's sealed testimony and plans to expose his suicide attempt if he doesn't withdraw from the race. Only Richmond turns it around and admits to the attempt at a rally, spinning it as a time where he let bitterness win and he discovered the will to live while falling from the bridge. Tying it into the despair that everyone feels at some point, Richmond turns his potential undoing into a humanizing moment. Adams is so busy watching this that he doesn't see Linden test the key card on his door. I expect he'd be too angry at seeing them to realize that (a) Carlson rejected his deal and (b) the card's not working means he and his staff are in the clear.

2. Nicole Jackson. She thinks the search has gone her way until her security chief shows her elevator footage where Linden intentionally shows the key card to the camera and slips it into an evidence sleeve. Jackson is enraged, slamming a door on the security chief's fingers and then calling someone to say the card's been discovered. There's a cut that suggests she's calling the mayor, but that looks like a feint now. In any case, if this plays out the way it looks like Jackson will be lucky to not be in prison, never mind still chief, when all is said and done.

1. Janek Kovarsky. He thinks he has Stan back in his clutches when he orders Stan to kill Novak, but in the ensuing discussion Stan says he killed Piotr for Janek but that was supposed to let Stan be free. Janek's acknowledgement of this seems innocuous, except that Alexei Giffords is back in the garage and hears the whole thing. Later, when Janek gets into his car, a gun is put to his head. He tries to talk Stan into not killing him, saying that Stan doesn't have the will to kill him. Only the gunman is Alexei, who is getting revenge for his father. Alexei pulls the trigger, and the Kovarsky mob has an opening at the top.

Three Up Three Down: Mad Men

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3. Ken Cosgrove. When a decision is made to go after Dow Chemical, Roger sits Ken down to talk out Ken's reluctance to involve family with business. Ken assents to the approach, but makes Roger agree to tell his father in law that, if Dow comes to SCDP, Roger forced Ken onto the account. He also requests that Pete not take any meetings with Dow at all. He also turns down a partnership with a veiled remark about how the partners pimped Joan out. Nice to see him assert himself, even if he's doing so from a weak position.

2. Don Draper. A mixed bag for Don. When Cooper discovers Lane's forged check, Don says he'll take care of it. He does so by asking Lane for his resignation, noting that it's a better path than letting the partners know. He gives Lane the weekend to plan a smooth exit, a kindness that will come back to bite him. Don takes the meeting with Dow and rediscovers his aggression, telling Dow that their current firm is using them to fund their more interesting work, and that moving to SDCP will give them a firm that will not become complacent in the face of Dow's large market share. We don't know how the meeting went, because when they get back to the office the other partners let them know what happened with Lane. Don gets Roger and Pete to help cut Lane down, and when the suicide note turns out to be a generic resignation letter, you can see the guilt on Don's face, even if it is misplaced. When Don gets back to the apartment to find Glenn there, he winds up driving him back to school. Or, more correctly, allows Glenn to drive himself back after they have an elevator discussion about good things turning to crap.

1. Betty Francis. Win-win for Betty, as she gets to dump a Sally on Don when Sally complains about a skiing weekend only to have her need her mom when Sally gets her first period. Of course, Betty also gets to use this to tweak Megan about Sally running home because she needed her mother. You didn't expect Betty to be totally dignified, did you?


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3. Sally Draper. At first it looks like she's going to win, as she gets to avoid skiing with the family and spend the weekend at Don's, which includes missing school on Monday when both Don and Megan have work. She manages to get coffee when out with Megan and her friend, and later talks Glenn into ditching school to visit on the heels of talking about boyfriends with Megan. Turns out Glenn isn't going to be her boyfriend, as Sally discovers she doesn't feel romantically towards Glenn. It's not long after saying this that she goes to the bathroom and discovers her period. She freaks out and takes a cab home, where she runs into the arms of Betty for support. She's not quite Miss Independent yet.

2. Joan Harris. Joan talks with Lane after Don asks him to resign, and in discussing a vacation has Lane suggest that she wants him to imagine her in a bikini. This winds up being their last conversation, which I think has to run through her mind when she tries to open his office door and can't, as there's a chair in the way. There's also a smell, and the combo prompts her to ask Pete, Ken and Harry to check on the problem. So in a way she's the one to discover Lane's body (though Pete is the first to actually see what happened), and given their particular relationship you can imagine how she's feeling.

1. Lane Pryce. The episode started on a good note - he took a position with a professional organization - but quickly falls apart when Don asks him to resign. He goes home, and finds that his wife has bought him a Jaguar. She might as well have bought him a noose. Not sure when he decided to kill himself, but  when he's at home catching up on errands it made me think he was tying up loose ends. Suspicions were confirmed when he went down to the Jag with towels and garden hose, and he's all set to kill himself that way until the Jag won't start. Fitting. He winds up going to the office, types out what we later learn is his resignation, and hangs himself on the back of his door. Unbelievably tragic, and very sad to think we'll not have Jared Harris on the show anymore.

Three Up Three Down: The Killing

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3. Darren Richmond. He's back on the campaign trail, and he has a good outing with his Seattle All-Stars program, which results in a viral video showing him shooting hoops. Turns out Gwen paid for the video, but he doesn't know that. He also confronts Gwen about a meeting she had with Adams, and learns about her teenaged dalliance with the future mayor. He's pretty supportive about the failed attempt, which is a good sign.

2. Stan Larsen. At the end of his rope, Stan calls Terry for help trying to figure things out. She gives him some pretty good advice about forgiving, and he does a pretty good job of making amends - he apologizes to Bennett Ahmed - even fixes a light for him, though he doesn't know it - and starts to find forgiveness for himself when he leaves a message on Rosie's still active cell phone. He also gets a dog for the boys. At the end of the episode he turns off a lamp in Rosie's room, which is a good sign that he's beginning to find a way past the murder.

1. Steven Holder. When he's not working to get Linden sprung from the psych ward, he's still working the case. He uncovers a new connection between the existing cabal - the mayor, Ames and Chief Jackson - and Kovarsky, as one of his foot soldiers was arrested the night of the murder breaking into the waterfront site to plant Native American bones on the site. He manages to turn Lt. Carlson around on the case once he comes up with this (and after telling him that the case files never made it to County). He does get Linden sprung, with the help of her former fiance, but is now in charge of her.


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3. Bennett Ahmed. In show time it's only been a couple of weeks since he got a beating from Stan and Belko, which is easy to forget given how long it's been since we've visited his character. He's still in bad shape, and isn't helped when he sees Stan Larsen skulking around his house. He's not particularly interested in taking Stan's apology (understandably). I suppose things aren't so bad for him - he's alive, mobile, and has a new child - but he still looks like hell.

2. Chief Nicole Jackson. She doesn't do anything in the episode until the end, where we see her supervising the work on the 10th floor of the casino after reassuring someone on the phone that any evidence will be gone. She apparently doesn't know about the key card, which is still sitting where Linden found it, waiting to be discovered.

1. Sarah Linden. The episode starts with Linden waking up in what looks like a hospital ward. Turns out that it's actually a psych ward, where she was put after reportedly trying to kill herself on the 10th floor of the Wapi Eagle. She denies this, but much of her recent behavior suggests a lack of mental health. She will be in lockup for 72 hours unless her new shrink finds a reason to let her out earlier. They talk about the previous case that saw Linden wind up in psych, and comes very close to connecting that case, Rosie's case, and Linden's abandonment as a child (dark, enclosed spaces play a prominent role). Before Linden can make her breakthrough, word comes that's she's being sprung. She sees Rick signing her out, but by the time she gets into the lobby he's gone, leaving her in Holder's care. As much as she's been trying to keep the case uppermost in her mind, she's got to be in a bit of a state to go back out. She did at least get some food in her, based on a brutal scene where she builds up into an eating frenzy over hospital dinner.