Of the seventh season of Doctor Who the finale, The Name of the Doctor, has undoubtedly been the best so far. That should be the case for any show but for Doctor Who and this season it has been particularly true. Taking just this latter half of the season, the episodes have ranged from the good (Cold War, Nightmare in Silver) to the dull (The Rings of Akhaten) to the incomprehensible (Journey to the centre of the TARDIS) and everything between. The episodes have also been the most diverse, dipping their toes into genres such as war thrillers, paranormal ghost hunts and Victorian high society, almost to the point of seeming unfocused. However, Doctor Who has always been the type of show that builds towards an exceptional finish and this year was no exception.
The pacing and structure of the episode felt right and, although it could be argued there was a lot of exposition, I was on the edge of my seat awaiting each new piece of information. There was a lot to take on board throughout the episode but I think the episode allowed ample time for each slice of information to sink in before it fired out the next. There was a good, sustained threat throughout as well. The Great Intelligence and his Whisper Men goons were introduced early, subduing the Doctor’s allies and demanding his presence on the mysterious Trenzalore. And it wasn’t simply a physical threat but the tears cried by Jenny and especially by the Doctor added an emotional weight to the severity of the situation. It was extremely good storytelling.
At Trenzalore is the Doctor’s final resting place, marked by a giant, monolithic TARDIS. The size manipulator leaked when they grow old apparently. But it isn’t the physical body that The Great Intelligence is after but rather the time stream. Held within the TARDIS, which could only be unlocked by the Doctor’s name, was the Doctor’s time tunnel, an open wound of time representing all that he had done, is doing and will still do. It’s interesting that Steven Moffat decided to actually give the Doctor a grave considering that he may not even be around when the Doctor finally dies. They will probably never show that anyway.
The TARDIS is all grown up.
Perfect it wasn’t, but it was a very interesting episode and there was a great atmosphere and tension throughout that really made me anticipate each new scene with renewed vigour. The show had a certain power, thanks to both the writing and the acting. The new villains, the Whisper Men were intimidating, although they could have been better utilised. An early rhyme about not wanting to hear them didn’t actually seem to have any bearing on how they hunted their prey and didn’t explain their sudden appearance. It would be interesting to have them reappear in a later episode where their existence could elaborated upon.
How the Great Intelligence discovered Trenzalore is never explained, nor is it ever really explained why a time traveller should never travel to their final resting place. I have to assume that it does not apply to companions, since Clara walked right past the resting place of an earlier self at the end of The Snowmen, and both Amy and Rory were standing in their final resting place in The Angels take Manhattan. It’s probable that by time traveller they mean Time Lord but even at that, it must only be Time Lords who have travelled extensively through time. The Time Lords, before the Time War, had a strict policy of non-interference and opted not to affect the time lines, yet the time tunnel is explained by the Doctor as scar tissue caused by his time travelling. So, the Doctor should really be one of the few Time Lords to even have a time tunnel, or at least one with scars. The Master might have one too.
There is also a failure to explain why exactly there is a paradox killing the Doctor. Is it like Schrodinger’s cat in that time is confused because is both dead and alive? The paradox also seems to render the Doctor into a fit before the Great Intelligence even does anything but yet after Clara saves him, he’s able to stand up and kiss River Song without any trouble. I get that Doctor Who is soft science fiction but it wasn’t even abiding by its own rules there. That being said, I can look past those inconsistencies because the show did manage to answer some pretty major questions without making me weep.
Tell me where it hurts?
Clara, the Impossible Girl, turned out to be simply a human, scattered throughout the Doctor’s time stream by the time tunnel, saving him from the Great Intelligence (somehow), although it took him eleven incarnations to even notice. Talk about ungrateful. The time tunnel, or perhaps the psychic link with River, must have given her the power to override the Great Intelligence, such as was seen in The Snowmen. Thankfully, the bigger question of the Doctor’s name was never actually revealed. As I said way back on October 2, 2011, his true name must remain hidden. There is no name that they can append to the Doctor that would adequately encompass all that he has been over the course of both the old and current series.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Doctor Who if it answered all the questions without leaving us without a few more, such as; if the Great Intelligence went into the time tunnel to kill the Doctor and Clara followed to save the Doctor, what happens now that Clara has left? Probably nothing but it could come up again. However, the biggest question is what the hell kind of role John Hurt is going to play. I know he was introduced as the Doctor but we already have a Doctor and at the 50th Anniversary, we will have a third. Hurt mentioned in an interview that he, Smith and Tennant will be a kind of trinity in the 50th anniversary episode but the Doctor’s comment that he’s the one that broke the vow seems more similar to the Dream Lord, a manifestation of the Doctor’s darkness and self-loathing that appeared in the fifth season episode, Amy’s Choice.
The exact of role John Hurt’s character and whether it will be a benevolent or villainous role will likely be kept a tight lipped secret until the anniversary episode, much like Clara appearance in Asylum of the Daleks and his own appearance in this episode were kept hush-hush. That means we have a lot to look forward to but unfortunately means we also have to wait until the 23rd of November. Six months will pass in no time at all…won’t it?
Location, location, location; That is usually the mantra of property sellers and estate agents but for the past two nights it has also been the deciding factor in the preliminary tasks for this years The Apprentice. On Tuesday, Jaz Ampaw Farr was fired when she decided to walk the streets, attempting to sell lucky cats to anyone who would give her the time of day, and on Wednesday, boyish Tim Stillwell failed to put the foot down and instead gave in to popular demand. Indeed, The Apprentice is back and this year’s bunch of hopefuls brought the crazy by the bucket load.
For once, however, it isn’t the females who are loud and backstabbing. It is the men who have proven to be the most derisive and haughty this time around. Truthfully, I was actually rather impressed that so many of the girls actively leapt to Tim’s defence when the failure of their beer brewing task was pinned on him. If that had been the men, they would have thrown him under the bus before he could apologise, no matter how rapidly he speaks. The award for arrogance definitely goes to Neil Clough, whose every other breath is him taking credit for something, no matter how small or trivial. I realise this is a competition and that you not only need to make yourself heard but also need to make Lord Sugar aware of your contributions, however, he doesn’t need to tell the group or the camera what he did or did not come up with. We already know. We saw it happen. And ‘A Bitter This’ is nothing to be proud of.
Coming in close second to Neil for arrogance though was Kurt Wilson. He was so narrow-minded that he refused to even listen to the side team on two separate occasions. First, he ignored complaints that the manufacturing team that none of them actually liked or drank beer and secondly, rather than listening to their suggestions, he dictated the ingredients to them. There wasn’t any consideration at all for what they were saying; he just completely shut them down. Also, he should have accepted some responsibility for not sending samples with the sub-team. They probably should have asked but as manager it was his role to make certain they had samples.
Which crazy person will Lord sugar invest in this year?
Honestly, I am completely surprised that the male dominated team as managed to win the first two tasks in a row. Miles Mordaunt, Welshman Alex Mills and Zeeshaan Shah are all extremely loud and aggressive. It is fair enough to assume that, in this kind of competitive business situation, one might need to speak up in order to be heard but these guys, along with Kurt and Neil, are rather two-faced. They will say one thing and then conspire with the others that such and such is a terrible candidate or a horrible leader. Usually, we have to wait until a team loses and heads into the boardroom to hear what they really think but the men are so vindictive that as soon as Lord Sugar asks a question they are already zeroing in on who to target.
It seems as though a lot of the men are playing a long game in this show but I have a feeling that will only last as long as they keep winning. When it comes to the boardroom, Lord Sugar, Karen Brady and Nick Hewer can usually sniff out when someone is playing a game and those kinds of people never win this show. In fact, if season seven’s Tom Pellereau is anything to go by, Jason Leech may be a dark horse. I’m kidding because I really won’t be surprised if he will be the first to go when the men finally lose a task. Partly because everyone will throw him under the bus but also because, as Ed Byrne stated on the after show The Apprentice: You’re Fired, he has good business ethics but no actual business skills.
Despite the Endeavour’s horrible team, they have managed to not really work together and still pull out two consecutive wins. It is easy to see where Evolve went wrong in the first task. They didn’t sell all of their stock and the main team, led by project manager Jaz Ampaw Farr, failed to pre-decide locations where they could sell their wares. The second task is less clear. Location was undoubtedly a major part of it, as Rebecca Slater certainly did press the idea of the Kent Beer Festival but no one really spoke out against her and not strongly enough. And the beer festival is an honest mistake. I would have chosen it over the fresh fruits festival and it was simply unfortunate that the festival was smaller than anticipated. However, Evolve was able to sell their kegs to bars and other such establishments for almost twenty pounds more than Endeavour did. One must wonder that, if Francesca Macduff hadn’t fluffed the numbers twice, would have had more kegs to sell? Of course, the blame can’t fall entirely on Francesca. There was an entire manufacturing team in the room and if Tim Stillwell assigned her to the figures then perhaps he should have checked that she was actually capable at maths beforehand.
Bad luck Tim; wants to start a drinks company, can’t sell beer.
One of the most impressive candidates so far has to be Leah Totton. Originally from Northern Ireland but now living in London and working as a Doctor, Leah was the sub-team leader for the first task and efficiently organised the team into different roles. Thanks to that strategy, Evolve’s failure in the first task wasn’t a complete disaster. She also impressed in sales during the beer task although she didn’t quite match Rebecca. Another candidate that I think could end up stealing the show is Luisa Zissman. Sure, she is the loudest and most catty of all the females but she’s also a real dark horse. A lot of people seem to underestimate her but she has proved on both tasks that she can sell. I’ll be interested to see if she can lead when she becomes project manager because that will tip the scales.
And with that The Apprentice is back with a bang. Reports are that this season’s premiere is down in ratings but these two episodes have actually been the most enjoyable within recent memory. Not since Susan Ma’s ‘Do the French love their children?’ has it been this much fun to watch people torpedo their careers on national television.
P.S. I was rather surprised that it was Angie who was eliminated from American Idol this week but I’m also glad Kree Harrison remained in the competition as I think, out of those two, she has the most potential for world wide success. Candice Glover is still the favourite to win. It was no surprise that Randy Jackson is leaving, though I hope rumours that the entire panel is to be replaced are false. Let Mariah Carey go and keep Nicki and Keith.
Iron Man Three is an extremely fun film. Let’s get that clear from the start. It is fun in a way that the other two films just aren’t. Of course, Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark like a more highly intelligent and functioning version of himself, so there are plenty of gags from him as there were in previous two. However, while the other films toned down the gags as the plot got more serious, Iron Man Three is more likely to throw out a joke or some hilarious physical humour to lighten the mood.
For instance, Tony Stark is texting the Mark 42 Iron Man suit which can be controlled remotely via biochips implanted in his arm. Furthermore, he can also remotely summon the suit to his body over long distances. The humour from this is two-fold; first, Stark looks like an utter fool when he’s trying to summon the armour and secondly, the suit never arrives as it should. Whether it’s being knocked to the ground by the ass plate or half the armour arriving late, Tony Stark never seems to suit up properly in this film. It makes sense because it is a prototype but I expect to see a fully operational upgrade in The Avengers 2.
Maybe this sounds cool but you’re worried that all the humour ruins the drama and the suspense of the film? That is a valid concern and honestly in the third act, there were times that I wanted them to cut the jokes and just let the action play out. But it was only a minor irritation and even afterwards, outside of the cinematic atmosphere, I can’t say that it wasn’t highly enjoyable to watch. Furthermore, the film isn’t terribly dramatic anyway. There is are a couple of characters who are not what they seem or more than they seem but neither is terribly surprising. What is more surprising is the portrayal of The Mandarin.
Few men can say they build powerful robotic suits to relieve stress.
Unfortunately, there is little to be said about the Mandarin without spoiling the film. So if you haven’t seen the film, you can skip this paragraph until you have seen it. Basically, the Mandarin isn’t really a villain at all. At least, not in the traditional sense. The movie leads us to believe that Aldrich Killian is selling the Extremis formula to the Mandarin, who is using it for terrorist attacks. It is very easy to see why this film was postponed in light of the Boston Marathon bombings. However, the Mandarin as comic book readers know him isn’t actually the Mandarin. Ben Kingsley’s character, Trevor Slattery, is just a figure head for Killian’s entire operation. Slattery is just a drunken junkie with some stage acting experience hired by Killian. Killian actually far more accurately represents the Mandarin with his advanced athleticism, genius level intelligence and plot to overthrow the government and assert himself in control. Killian has none of the comic book Mandarin’s honour and he has no alien technology rings.
That said, there are moments in the film where the film is serious and dramatic. There are no jokes made about the bombings or terrorism in general. Given how quickly this film came out after the Boston marathon attacks, I doubt Marvel had time to edit anything, so I imagine that would have come across either way. And when the explosions cause Stark personal loss, he becomes intensely serious about his regret for those involved and his intent on rectify things. The events of The Avengers film is also shown to have given Stark sleepless nights and anxiety attacks. So it isn’t that there is zero drama to be found in the film but rather that the main problem lies in the intensity of the threat. The film begins with a fairly high threat towards America and its presidency. Then the threat becomes directed towards Iron Man as well. And then Pepper Potts is targeted.
That seems like a steadily mounting threat but there is actually no danger at all. Though, they attack Tony Stark a number of times and gain the upper hand, on more than one occasion, it is revealed that Stark is piloting the suit remotely. So, there was never any danger towards him at all. It is understandable why they wrote the script that way because everyone knows Iron Man will appear in The Avengers 2, so no one is really going to believe that he might die in this outing. Not to mention, if he can survive an alien invasion of New York, losing to a bunch of gun totting terrorists and scientists is going to make him seem a little weak. Showing Stark remotely piloting the suit from a safe distance undermines the threat though. That said, he does spend much of the final fight without his suit so maybe the fact that a misstep and fall could have killed him was expected to balance things out.
Forget S.H.I.E.L.D., this will be CBS’s newest comedy next season.
Stark isn’t the only one to get out danger free. Killian’s master plan for motivating Stark into stabilising the healing factor of the extremis virus is to inject in into Pepper Potts. This, of course, gives Pepper a mild ability to heal herself, although nowhere near the level of say Wolverine. There is the potential that she might explode but there at least a dozen minions running around with same ability that aren’t exploding so the plan does seem kind of flawed.
Despite these criticisms though, I really can’t say that I didn’t like the film. I did like the film. It was funny and the action was thoroughly enjoyable. The remark about the current suit being the forty second model has an impact upon the third act which is especially pleasant to watch. Though it seems more like a comedy at times, the comedic format is well fitted for Iron Man in the same what that Captain America is a more traditional good guy verses bad guy comic book action film and Thor is more spiritual and mystical compared to Iron Man’s tech savvy characters.
This is one thing that I hope DC picked up on for Man of Steel. Just because a grounded, realistic style worked for Batman does not mean the same needs to be applied to Superman. Some characters and films require different approaches. The approach to Iron Man is unlike Captain America, Thor or even The Avengers but it works and because of that Iron Man Three is an incredibly fun and distinctive movie.
For this twelfth season of American Idol, Fox have been pulling out all the stops in order to boost ratings. From a whole new panel of judges to changing the structure of how contestants get to the live stages, American Idol has been dramatically altered to appeal to more and more people. Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban have been welcome additions; Minaj for her bluntness and hilarious facial expressions and Urban because not only does he understand music but he explains the technical aspects in a way that it easy to grasp. He is obviously passionate about his craft. Mariah Carey is clearly passionate too but she is entirely far too long winded and doesn’t even know what she is trying to say at times. Randy Jackson, on the other hand, was once the most charismatic and interesting of speakers but has essentially devolved into a Simpson’s character, spending most of the episodes waiting for a opportunity to spout a catchphrase.
In seasons past, American Idol has generally presented thirteen top finalists, twelve from the Hollywood round and one wild card voted in by the public. This year we got a top ten instead, with the show effectively taking two weeks of voting away from the viewer. After Hollywood, the unusually high sum of forty contestants remained, so the show had a ‘sudden death’ round, with ten females competing one night and ten males competing the next night, and vice versa for the following week. Only five from each group progressed, depending on the judge’s choice. Then the top twenty performed, with a public vote eliminating ten and leaving us with our top ten. It seems like Nigel Lythgoe wanted to prolong the Hollywood stage, without giving up the atmosphere of the live stages but it felt like it dragged on for aeons until we got to the week by week live shows and public vote. And those are really the best parts of the show and I don’t think a sudden death round added anything to the show, especially if it takes power away from the viewer for an extra two weeks.
Hold up, Mariah needs to talk, uninterupted, for the next five to ten minutes.
This year there wasn’t even a wild card selection. The only addition vote that the viewers were given was between two people and it was to decide who would go on tour. What was the point in that? Most people will never see the American Idol tour and will have no idea who Audrey Cleland. Now the big shocking twist is that there is an additional week. It is a pitiful twist compared to last year where American Idol fixed Jessica Sanchez almost elimination. Perhaps that is why they have been more careful with the judge’s save this year. Or perhaps it is just because this year has been more predictable. Candice Glover and Kree Harrison (or Rose, as I call her, because of her uncanny resemblance to Melanie Lynskey from CBS’ Two and a Half Men) have stood out from the very beginning, Amber Holcomb has been consistent throughout and continues to improve and Angie Miller fills the niche market of mainstream alternative rock with a peppering so Christian rock. The only contestant that even seemed likely to be saved was Janelle Arthur but by that point the competition was so stiff that Janelle wouldn’t have lasted another week even if she had been saved.
One of the better improvements for this season has been the decision to reveal where everyone is ranking on a weekly basis. The X Factor USA, also shown on Fox, began listing contestants rank week by week just to show how close your favourite contestants were to going out and now American Idol have begun to rank them similarly. There is no scoreboard for American Idol but I do enjoy knowing who the bottom two and top two are, although some might argue that it takes away the suspense of know might win because we can clearly see Candice Glover has been consistently high in the rankings. In fact, this previous week marks the first time that she had been in the bottom two for the entirety of the live shows. It is good as well as the votes for this non-elimination week will carry over to next week. On the one hand, Candice and Amber will have to work harder to pull themselves up but I also expect the majority of voters to come back and vote Candice out of the top two. So then, who is in danger of leaving?
Oddly, it seems that Amber Holcomb is the most likely to leave at this stage in the competition. I can see Angie or Kree falling down into the bottom two to accommodate Candice’s rise but I don’t foresee Amber’s position changing much. Amber is probably the most diverse of the current four and both her voice and style have the potential for international success. Despite that, she has ranked in the bottom three times since the start of the live shows this season. Audiences and viewers just aren’t taking to her despite her strong vocal skills and legs that could rival Stacy Keibler.
Drake looks like a pimp in this photo.
At this stage, it seems as though Candice Glover and Kree Harrison are the most likely to win the competition. Candice has an extremely powerful voice and has a good sense of what kind of songs she can sing and that viewers will enjoy. As Randy and Nicki said on Wednesday’s performance show though, sometimes she does tend to over use the technical skills of her voice. Impressive as they are, it sometimes detracts from the song. Conversely, Kree also has a very strong voice but she is much more likely to just sing the song. She just sings it so well that you forget it isn’t her song and this is a singing contest. However, despite usually selecting good songs, her choices in this past week were drab and uninspired. Hopefully, this week is a return to form.
If audiences continue to bore of Candice’s power and skill, or Kree misses any more steps with her song choices, Angie Miller could be the dark horse in this competition. Rock, even alternative rock and Christian rock singers have often done well in American Idol but don’t usually win. She strikes me as this year’s version of Colton Dixon, although she has managed to outlast Dixon by three weeks. Personally, I think Angie has the weakest voice of the four and is the most niche in terms of style. She doesn’t have the power or range like Candice and she isn’t quite as diverse as Kree. I think she will survive another week but I think the road to overall victory is just too steep for her.
And that is the top four for American Idol’s twelfth season. It is an interesting bunch because although I can only realistically see two of the group having any chance at winning, any one of Candice, Kree and Amber could win and I wouldn’t be terribly upset. Not that I get upset over reality TV shows. Honestly.
Britain’s Got Talent has only been back for two weeks and already it is getting a lot of criticism for numerous reasons, such as scheduling and apparently inappropriate acts. It is all of the same obscenity that the show is criticised for year after year, and yet it continues to get high ratings that mean year after year people continue to enjoy or at the very least watch the talent show. While it might be true that ratings are lower than when the show first started or that the show may have seen better years, it was still the highest rated show on launch night. That would seem to indicate that it isn’t simply that less people are watching Britain’s Got Talent but that less people are watching television on a Saturday night overall.
The criticisms of the show appear rather baseless anyway when you really look at it. Many media outlets reported that ITV were actively attempting to compete with BBC One’s The Voice UK by moving the show forward to seven o clock in the evening despite having always been shown at eight in years prior. In this age of television on demand, I’m not sure that moving a programme earlier in the schedule should really constitute as competing. I guess there might be a certain matter of pride involved in saying that your show was watched on the television screen on the night rather than a couple of days later.
Are the BBC trying to hide away Doctor Who?
That said, the type of show generally affects who watches what when. Britain’s Got Talent is a entertainment programme that you can imagine groups of people gathering around to ridicule the hilariously bad performers and watch with awe at the genuinely talented. Given The Voice UK’s more serious approach to singing and the contest as a whole, it is harder to imagine people gathering around to do the same thing. It feels like the type of show that you would watch later when you might be alone and capable of focusing.
However, I have to say that ITV’s scheduling makes a hell of a lot more sense than BBC’s. In past years, Britain’s Got Talent hasn’t always been preceded by other entertainment programmes such as Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. It certainly wasn’t last year. This year Ant and Dec’s show had returned and was rating well, even beating the second season premiere of The Voice UK on launch night. It makes sense that ITV would follow through with that and place Britain’s Got Talent in the exact same time slot. In that case, if someone tunes into ITV at seven o’ clock, even if it is purely out of habit, ITV will have given themselves a vital opportunity to engage the viewer and draw them in. It does seem slightly hypocritical because Simon Cowell previously stated that it was a ‘silly game’ and he preferred when reality shows didn’t overlap. That said, we don’t know how much of the decision to move the show forward was up to Cowell or whether it was ultimately made by ITV.
On the other hand, BBC’s programme organisation and scheduling has been much more sporadic. Doctor Who returned at 6.15 on Saturday 30th of March, with The Voice UK airing directly afterwards from 7 until 8.35pm. The following week was the same, although The Voice UK ended five minutes earlier. Last Saturday, however, Doctor Who aired at 6 pm rather than 6.15 and ended at 6.45pm whereupon The Voice UK aired until 8.20 pm. Although I had read about the change, I tuned in at 6.15 pm out of habit and was one of the unfortunate viewers who missed the beginning of Cold War. Last night the schedule changed yet again. The Doctor Who episode Hide aired at 6.45pm until 7.30 pm and wasn’t immediately succeeded by The Voice UK. Instead the national lottery separated the two programmes by almost an hour, moving The Voice UK almost completely out of Britain’s Got Talent air time. If nothing else, ITV is much more consistent.
Sing for your Nan…on national television.
The BBC recently condemned the clash, suggesting that ITV wasn’t acting in the best interests of the viewer when they moved the programme forward. I guess the BBC thinks that they are acting in the viewer’s best interests by moving their programmes around constantly. Honestly, I just find it frustrating. As previously mentioned, this is the age of television on demand. Networks should have the confidence to place their shows on the schedule that best suits them with the assurance that even if a few people choose to watch a different programme it will all be made up with on-demand ratings. The Voice UK obviously got enough ratings on demand last year to warrant a second series since the programme bombed once it hit the live stages. That will be the real test for this second season and that’s really what the BBC should be focused on if they are more concerned with what the viewers want.
Conversely, ITV because they are funded differently, probably aren’t quite so concerned about criticisms and complaints that viewers have made. One such example would be that the programme is constantly admonished for allowing strippers to be shown when the show airs pre-watershed. Really, though the strippers are barely risqué, I saw part of Keri Graham’s performance and it was really quite tame. Another act, Arisxandra Libantino got a lot of flax for singing ‘One Night Only’, a song from Dreamgirls. It was called inappropriate but if anyone has seen Dreamgirls they would understand the context and, furthermore, the song was meant to demonstrate her vocal ability. It was not a declaration of her personal beliefs or actions. Some news papers called it controversial but a week that includes the Boston Marathon explosions, and the capture of dangerous suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, really puts that into perspective.
So far my favourite acts have been Attraction and MC Boy (not MC Roy, as many thought) . I particularly liked Attraction’s shadow dancing performance as I thought it was uniquely creative and powerfully emotive. It is still a little early to say if there have been any winning acts. Some are good but in this show, as with many things in life, consistency is vital. The acts not only have to perform well at the audition but will have to improve and inspire again at the live voting stage. It is a hard road but for one talented, not lucky, act it will be life changing.
Tis the season for disappointing premieres it would appear. In recent weeks, Doctor Who brought us a good, action orientated episode but it definitely felt lacking in the science and villain areas while Game of Thrones returned with a good episode that seemed unusually unfocused. This week it was the turn of AMC’s Mad Men to deliver an interesting but ultimately unsatisfying viewing experience. Unlike, Game of Thrones, which didn’t make the most of its valuable screen time in the premiere, Mad Men really just seemed to have too much time to fill.
A lot of what happened in The Doorway felt like meaningless distractions and catch up. One by one we were reintroduced to the characters and their lives. Megan Draper is now a television sensation on a daytime soap, happily signing autographs and gleefully relating scenes where she pushes men down stairs. Bert continues to shuffle around the offices. Joan is as buxom as ever. Pete is still as cocky as ever and trying to be everyone’s best friend. They have some new employees, as one might have expected, and a second floor. Harry Crane is clearly becoming weary of how he’s treated in the office as he climbs the stairs amidst a photo shoot and tells them to keep it down. Peggy is as brash and cold as she ever has been. Sally has a new friend. Betty has a disturbing new found sense of humour and Roger is in therapy. All interesting little facts but really it all just seems like a distraction. Perhaps Matthew Weiner was intentionally trying to lull us into a deep sleep just so that we could be shook awake.
Has Don abandoned all hope of love?
Honestly, the entire gist of this episode could be captured by watching the first twenty minutes and the last ten. That might be a little facetious but in terms of plot there wasn’t really much going on. Enough to fill a single episode but not a two hour premiere. Sally’s friend confides in Betty about not getting into Juilliard and then promptly runs away. Betty heads off to find her, doesn’t find her and dyes her hair. There might be something in there about Betty letting go and accepting herself or realising just how well off she now is but it was really hard to care about those scenes because I had only just met Sally’s friend two scenes ago. Even then she was rude and disrespectful to Betty, who was only being helpful, so the character wasn’t particularly likeable or relatable. It feels like that storyline was meant to be more profound but it just fell flat.
Another major storyline involved the death of Roger’s mother. I don’t believe we ever met her but it was a progressive step in Roger’s increasing irrelevancy within the company and even in life. His family and friends are leaving him, he doesn’t really have any clients at the firm anymore and between two ex-wives and financing his son-in-law’s schemes his money is probably dwindling too. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if Roger was revealed to be bankrupt this season given that he spent most of last season shelling out money to Harry and Peggy. However, Roger’s story this year seems to be, like Don, more existential. He is directionless and without purpose, much the same as this episode.
In fact, Roger’s story ran parallel to Don’s in these episodes. In therapy, Roger says that life is a bunch of bridges and doors and windows which people go through and expect to be changed. But at the end they look back and all they see are the doorways and nothing has changed. Roger hasn’t changed much from the beginning of the show. This episode basically displayed just how much Don hasn’t changed or has reverted since the efforts he made in season 5. He is still deeply conflicted about who he is, he still gets drunk and throws up at important events and, spoiler, he is still cheating on his wife.
Betty takes the black.
Do I really need to put a spoiler before I declare that Don is cheating anymore? Don has been cheating with women since the beginning of the series and it was more surprising last season when he was exclusive. It would have been a biggest shock in this opening episode to find out that Don wasn’t having an affair. I guess that Don was feeling lonely with Megan always being away. Roger warned him last season to go home and remind her that there was a routine but it’s Don that needs the routine more than anything. It certainly isn’t a creative thing. Don did some of his best work last year when he was with Megan, although in fairness it was undermined by pimping out Joan. The creative concepts in this episode weren’t his best but they were interesting. Everyone else was just able to see what he couldn’t: it was about death. For Don, death will be a release from anxiety and the pressure of constantly being someone else.
Though it had some interesting themes and the structure of the episode felt very artistic, most of the episode felt dull and didn’t engage with the viewer. It was two hours of build up to a rather disappointing twist. I don’t mind that it was a very theme heavy episode. Weiner has done thematically heavy episodes before but they have always come out smoother and have been more interesting.
This episode set up good foundations for the rest of the season but it didn’t really satisfy my appetite for Mad Men. Season 5 had a two hour premiere and it was a stronger, more focused episode than The Doorway, even though Betty didn’t even appear until the third episode. It was like going into a restaurant and ordering something which sounds amazing but when you get it and taste it, it is bland and unfulfilling. That said, both Doctor Who and Game of Thrones improved with their second episodes The Rings of Akhaten and Dark Wings, Dark Words respectively. Both were more focused and polished experiences. Perhaps Don Draper and co. can follow suit.
Winter has come and went and finally the time that we have all waited for has arrived. The hugely anticipated premiere of the third season of HBO’s Game of Thrones hit screens on Sunday, or Monday for those of you in the U.K., and though it was only a year the wait has felt like much longer. Now we can go back to cursing the weeks for being so long because it is a whole seven days before the next dose is due.
The real question is whether the new episode lived up to expectations. The answer, however, really depends on the angle that you’re approaching the show from. If you have never read the books then maybe you would have had zero expectations for this episode and would have found it to be extremely interesting. Even then though, it would seem that anyone who has watched the first two seasons would have had pretty high expectations for this third season. When the show left us last June, an army of White Walkers had descended upon the Night’s Watch beyond the Wall. There was a great sense of peril instilled in the viewer at the end of the second seasons and it didn’t seem that great peril was followed up on as well as it could have been.
They grow up so fast *sob*
It was a good episode. There is little doubt about that, but in a series that has become known for great episodes, good episodes are always going to feel a little lacklustre. It isn’t that the episode required more action or theatrics. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have always understood, as George R.R. Martin does, that the politics of war can be just as exciting as the battles themselves. It is unfortunate though that they seemed to have chosen the conversations that added little to the overall story as possible. Take for instance an early scene between Tyrion and Cersei Lannister. While it is always a pleasure to watch Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey, the scene didn’t really add anything to the ongoing story other than to remind us that Tyrion and Cersei do not like each other and that their father hadn’t come to visit Tyrion once since the battle of Blackwater. The latter point was brought up when Tyrion met with his father. Conversely, that scene felt like it actually meant something. Tyrion clearly wanted his father’s respect for successfully holding the city against Stannis Baratheon but when Tywin refused him even that he demanded his rights to Casterly Rock be acknowledged.
Another example of stories falling flat would be Ser Davos Seaworths’s reunion with Stannis at Dragonstone. Something about the entire portrayal of this story just felt off to me. His being rescued by Salladhor Saan was one of the better scenes but it just felt too soon. In A Storm of Swords, the third book of A Song of Ice and Fire series, Davos spends days, perhaps even a week trying to fend for himself on the rock that he washed up on before a ship comes anywhere close. It would have created a greater sense of danger for the character had the viewer seen him sucking the last remnants of fallen rain from rock pools or attempting to fell a gull with a rock. It might even have been a little humorous to watch him scramble up the rock to avoid the tide. I would rather have seen those feeble attempts to survive and reserved the actual rescue for the second or third episode.
Unlike the book, the television show didn’t take the time to really invest in these characters in this opening episode, which is unusual. Until now, the show was great at picking up on those little character moments that really captured the circumstances that plagued the characters. Sticking with Davos, when he later argues with Melisandre and she makes some rather compelling points, his reaction is to lunge at her with a knife. Granted, it was his intention all along but it paints Davos as rash and thoughtless since he has seen others attempt to kill her before and fail. He has even seen her willingly drink poison and suffer no ill effects. Why would a knife be more effective? In the novel, he is arrested before he even gets close to Stannis because Melisandre foresees his intent to kill her. That is a much more effective way of showing just how out of his league Davos is.
Next time, don’t attempt to stab the prophetic fire woman.
It is frustrating though because Benioff and Weiss have chosen to show a lot of needless conversations that don’t add anything to the over arcing story and instead cut interesting parts out such as Davos’ Bear Gyrlls impersonation. Even the grand reveal at the end of the episode with Ser Barristan Selmy was more effective in the novel as the retired Knight had been in Daenerys’ company since the end of the second book and his true identity wasn’t revealed until nearer the end of the third. It is understandable that television is a visual medium and therefore it might be less believable that Daenerys or Jorah Mormont wouldn’t recognise Barristan Selmy. However, it was clearly demonstrated through the opening battle sounds on a black screen that the creators understand that no everything needs to be seen. Selmy reveal wasn’t really strong enough to end the episode on either. Personally, I would have save the Lord Commander Jeor Mormont’s questioning of Sam and his speech until the end. It would have been a stronger close to the show and would have left viewers in a state of unknown about the condition of the Night’s Watch throughout the duration of the episode.
Perhaps the difference this time around is that I have read the books. During the year long break I read the first three books in the series and have recently begun the fourth. However, the show has changed things before and cut scenes or added their own and never before did it feel like they compromised so much. Despite being a little saddened by the exclusion of some interesting scenes, obviously they have some of their own ideas for the show this season and I am excited to see how it will all play out. One thing is certain though; it won’t involve Warwick Davis.
