Salon.com > TV http://www.salon.com Tue, 02 Jul 2013 11:15:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 “The Killing’s” breakout character is a butch teenage girl http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/the_killings_breakout_character_is_a_butch_teenage_girl/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/the_killings_breakout_character_is_a_butch_teenage_girl/#comments Mon, 01 Jul 2013 15:54:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13347199 AMC’s “The Killing” is halfway through its third season, and so improved that I find myself in the unfamiliar position of wanting to give it a compliment. (It’s not so improved that I only want to give it compliments: On last night’s episode, detective Sarah Linden made a major breakthrough in a case she had worked three years ago— a case she had cared so deeply about it had driven her crazy, but one in which she'd apparently neglected to identify the one eyewitness.) This season’s case has detectives Linden and Holder trying to catch a serial killer who preys on street girls and has already sliced the throats of more than a dozen of them. This crime has given “The Killing” entrée into the lives of Seattle street kids, homeless teenagers and runaways who are moving from shelter to squat, but are not — and this is the great part — just trying to survive, they are also navigating the robust social world they have created for themselves. These kids have lives, feelings, generous and selfish instincts, an entire social web. They are not just cautionary tales, though they are that too. Their world is bleak, but it’s not just bleak.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/the_killings_breakout_character_is_a_butch_teenage_girl/feed/ 11 “Ray Donovan” creator Ann Biderman: “I’m not interested in weddings and dresses and dating” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/ray_donovan_creator_ann_biderman_im_not_interested_in_weddings_and_dresses_and_dating/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/ray_donovan_creator_ann_biderman_im_not_interested_in_weddings_and_dresses_and_dating/#comments Sun, 30 Jun 2013 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339826 "Ray Donovan," which premieres Sunday night on Showtime, is another antihero drama. It stars Liev Schreiber as the titular character, a Boston-born man whose entire family — his wife, kids and two brothers — has been transplanted to Los Angeles, where he works as a fixer, solving problems  — dead bodies in bed, blackmail, stalkers— for the rich and sometimes famous. In the first episode, Donovan's father, Mickey (Jon Voight, with a raging Boston accent), is released from prison, immediately goes and shoots the priest who molested one of his sons, and then heads out to L.A., where his son wants nothing to do with him. "Ray Donovan" is the creation of Ann Biderman, a lively, blunt-talking woman who also created and ran the great, recently ended, TNT cop show "Southland." I spoke with Biderman about "Ray Donovan," "macho" subject matter, and writing whatever the hell she wants.

With “Southland,” you made a cop show, and, obviously, there have been a lot of cop shows before. With “Ray Donovan,” there are lots of elements and tropes — Boston, boxing, gangsterism — that we’ve also seen before. Do you think about how to use these elements and address these genres in original ways? 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/ray_donovan_creator_ann_biderman_im_not_interested_in_weddings_and_dresses_and_dating/feed/ 13 I was raised like Paula Deen http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/paula_deen_is_and_will_always_be_a_racist_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/paula_deen_is_and_will_always_be_a_racist_partner/#comments Sat, 29 Jun 2013 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13340116 PajibaPaula Deen is a racist, and like a lot of racists in the South, she honestly doesn’t believe she is a racist. In a Today show interview this morning with Matt Lauer, Paula Deen insists that she believes “all of God’s creatures should be treated equally” and that she “wasn’t raised” a racist. I believe she believes that, though it is obvious that she’s lying when she says that the only time she’s ever used the N-word was when a black man held her up at gunpoint.

“It’s just not a part of who we are,” Paula Deen asserts, which is also a clear lie, and rather than apologize for who she is and make an effort to change, Deen insists that she has never “in her 66 years” used that word but once, and that she’s offended by others’ use of it. Anyone who grew up in the South knows this to be a lie, and while many of the people who know she is lying are winking right along with her tear-streaked face, the rest of us know.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/paula_deen_is_and_will_always_be_a_racist_partner/feed/ 200 Must do’s: What we like this week http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/must_do%e2%80%99s_what_we_like_this_week_4/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/must_do%e2%80%99s_what_we_like_this_week_4/#comments Sat, 29 Jun 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339855 BOOKS

Two outsiders to the world of Shakespeare criticism have penned “Stay, Illusion!: The Hamlet Doctrine,” a slim volume on that well-known dark prince of Danes. Laura Miller deems it as "such a treat:"

The authors — a philosophy professor and a psychoanalyst who are married to each other — claim no special expertise and argue no ironclad theory. They investigate, speculate and propose. “We are outsiders to the world of Shakespeare criticism,” they write, and the thinkers they have chosen to respond to (Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Hegel, Freud, Jacques Lacan and Nietzsche) are (arguably) peripheral to the field as well. The result is a slim volume on “Hamlet” that this reader found more invigorating than many a more rigorous work. All you need to engage with it is a modest acquaintance with the play and an open mind. Each of the short chapters in “Stay, Illusion!” is a springy diving board poised over a deep pool of thought. Find one you like the looks of, bounce a bit, then plunge in.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/must_do%e2%80%99s_what_we_like_this_week_4/feed/ 0 Why are TV serial killers so sexy? http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/why_are_tv_serial_killers_so_sexy/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/why_are_tv_serial_killers_so_sexy/#comments Fri, 28 Jun 2013 14:36:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337416 Handsome, dangerous, mysterious men with an unquenchable thirst for blood have never been more common on television, and I am not talking about vampires. Serial killers are having a moment.  “Hannibal,” “The Following” and “The Fall” star a trio of genius dreamboats who easily elude the more frail humans trying to catch them. “Dexter,” featuring the semi-sympathetic serial killer par excellence, returns to TV on Sunday night. On “The Killing” a pair of detectives are looking for a man who has murdered over a dozen teenage girls, slicing their throats and chopping off a finger, while on FX’s forthcoming “The Bridge,” another pair of detectives will look for a killer who has meticulously planned murders that also speak to pressing social issues. “American Horror Story” featured a guy who skinned people and wore their faces. NBC just premiered “Crossing Lines,” about a team assembled to catch the worst international serial killers, while on CBS, the FBI profilers on “Criminal Minds” do the same for domestic maniacs. And procedurals like ‘The Mentalist,” “Criminal Intent, SVU,” “NCIS,” “CSI” and “Bones” collectively offer up multiple murderers on a nearly weekly basis.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/why_are_tv_serial_killers_so_sexy/feed/ 20 Aero heads to Chicago http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/aero_heads_to_chicago_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/aero_heads_to_chicago_ap/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 23:23:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339442 NEW YORK (AP) -- Aereo, a startup that is trying to challenge cable and satellite TV packages with an $8-a-month offering over the Internet, says it will expand to Chicago in September.

The service started in New York last year and expanded to Boston and Atlanta this spring. Service in the Chicago area will begin Sept. 13 and will come with several Chicago-area broadcast stations plus Bloomberg TV. Eligibility is limited to 16 counties in Illinois and Indiana.

Aereo converts television signals into computer data and sends them over the Internet to subscribers' computers and mobile devices. Subscribers can watch channels live or record them with an Internet-based digital video recorder. Viewers can pause and rewind live television.

Broadcasters have sued Aereo for copyright infringement, but Aereo has won key court rulings.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/aero_heads_to_chicago_ap/feed/ 1 15 predictions for Mad Men’s final act http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/fifteen_predictions_for_mad_mens_final_act/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/fifteen_predictions_for_mad_mens_final_act/#comments Tue, 25 Jun 2013 15:31:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13336292 After all the speculation about "Mad Men," two deaths marked the end of season 6. The first was an example of pure Weinerian  irony: Pete’s mother fell (or was pushed) from the SS Sunset Princess into shark-infested waters. But Weiner also apparently knows his Aristotle — we begin in comedy and end in tragedy — and  we know that Weiner enjoys doubles: the main death here came in the second half of the show and was that of Don Draper's carefully constructed persona. Who is (or was) Don Draper? He’s Dick Whitman, and this season’s dark night of the soul ended in a most Jungian way with his confession and his journey to his childhood home, a house of prostitution.

Of course, each season finale has been like a little death for viewers, and discussions have already begun about the seventh season. Will Dick/Don redeem himself or least move on from the Inferno to Purgatorio? Will the company and show go bicoastal? Will Peggy ever make a wise dating choice? Here are some possibilities:

1. It’s 2014. A late-middle-aged Sally, played by Susan Sarandon, stands in the doorway of what is obviously a home office. The camera pans the room, ending with a manuscript on the desk. The cover says "Mad Men: A Memoir," by Sally Draper Bishop.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/fifteen_predictions_for_mad_mens_final_act/feed/ 27 Stephen King’s “Under the Dome” is just the right amount of naughty http://www.salon.com/2013/06/24/stephen_kings_under_the_dome_is_just_the_right_amount_of_naughty/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/24/stephen_kings_under_the_dome_is_just_the_right_amount_of_naughty/#comments Mon, 24 Jun 2013 17:48:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13335468 When I was a teenager, in the '90s, Stephen King miniseries were even more of a TV staple than they are today. Between 1990 and 1997, event adaptations of “It,” “The Tommy Knockers,” “The Stand,” “The Langoliers” and “The Shining,” among others, appeared on the major networks. Though I don’t remember all the plot details, I do remember how watching them, even just parts of them, felt: like the exact right amount of naughty.

For a teenager, these adaptations were perfectly illicit. Perverse, seedy and creepy, they had enough sex and violence to feel like something you didn’t want to watch with your parents in the room, but weren't so mature as to be totally overwhelming. (King’s books hit this balance too, which is why they are such a frequent entry point into adult fiction for teenagers.) This all flooded back to me with the power of a sense memory when I started watching CBS’s 13-episode adaptation of King’s “Under the Dome,” which premieres tonight and is absolutely going to make some 15-year-old’s summer. It's hard to say about the rest of us.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/24/stephen_kings_under_the_dome_is_just_the_right_amount_of_naughty/feed/ 18 The suprisingly hopeful “Mad Men” finale http://www.salon.com/2013/06/24/the_suprisingly_hopeful_mad_men_finale/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/24/the_suprisingly_hopeful_mad_men_finale/#comments Mon, 24 Jun 2013 03:59:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13334945 This season of “Mad Men” made 1968 palpable. It filled viewers with a tremendous sense of uneasy mood, made us paranoid, encouraged us to expect the worst, and, most of all, had us awaiting some climactic, horrifying event — that never arrived, or at least not in the form we expected. 1968 was a year of extraordinary upheaval, but sitting here, more than four decades removed, we know what the people living through it could not: The revolution did not arrive. The center held. The chaos was, ultimately, bound. Sally Draper will be 26 years old in 1980: she is more likely to be a yuppie than a radical — though maybe a feminist too. Change comes, fast and fierce, but not fast or fierce enough to wash everything away. Not fast or fierce enough to wash away a man's past. When the huge, show-changing event the season had been leading up to finally arrived, it was all psychological, not physical. It was not menacing, it was promising. The heavy weight hanging over this season was not 1968, it was Don Draper, and now he's free — or freer than we've ever seen him.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/24/the_suprisingly_hopeful_mad_men_finale/feed/ 18 “Naked and Afraid” producer: “We didn’t develop the show to be exploitative, ever” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/23/naked_and_afraid_producer_we_didn%e2%80%99t_develop_the_show_to_be_exploitative_ever/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/23/naked_and_afraid_producer_we_didn%e2%80%99t_develop_the_show_to_be_exploitative_ever/#comments Sun, 23 Jun 2013 21:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13333442 "Naked and Afraid," Discovery's new reality show premiering Friday, follows two different people each week as they are deposited in a taxing, remote wilderness environment where they have to survive for three weeks without food, water, shelter or clothes. When the first clips of "Naked and Afraid" hit the internet, the show got a lot of attention, as shows with naked people tend to do. It seemed like the latest series to push the bad taste envelope: "Survivor," but nakeder.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/23/naked_and_afraid_producer_we_didn%e2%80%99t_develop_the_show_to_be_exploitative_ever/feed/ 30 Must do’s: What we like this week http://www.salon.com/2013/06/22/must_do%e2%80%99s_what_we_like_this_week_3/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/22/must_do%e2%80%99s_what_we_like_this_week_3/#comments Sat, 22 Jun 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13332915 BOOKS

Neil Gaiman's novels are covers between which mythical creatures and beleaguered protagonists live and interact amid supernatural plots often dealing with youth and struggle. The fairy tale-esque character of his modern adult fantasies lightly masks "the intelligible message that can be derived from it," writes Laura Miller.

Gaiman’s first novel for adults in eight years, “The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” would seem to follow this pattern; most of the action, recounted in the first person, describes the experiences of a nameless 7-year-old boy. But “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” does feel different, and not only because of its framing device. The novel begins and ends with the narrator, now an adult, returning to the English village where he grew up, for a family funeral. (The deceased is never identified, but there are hints it is the man’s father.) We learn that he’s been married and separated, that he is a working artist, that he has grown children. When he looks back on the strange events of his childhood, it is through the mellowed and slightly melancholy lens of middle-age. What the story sacrifices of the sweet, glassy purity of a child’s view, it compensates for with the complex sepia of maturity; it’s the difference between a bright young white wine and a well-aged burgundy.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/22/must_do%e2%80%99s_what_we_like_this_week_3/feed/ 0 Male Fox News guest to female Democratic consultant: “Know your role and shut your mouth” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/male_fox_news_guest_to_female_democratic_consultant_know_your_role_and_shut_your_mouth/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/male_fox_news_guest_to_female_democratic_consultant_know_your_role_and_shut_your_mouth/#comments Fri, 21 Jun 2013 22:59:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13333807 A finger-pointing political argument on Fox News Channel boiled over when a male conservative talk show host shouted at a woman to "know your role and shut your mouth."

The man, Bill Cunningham, later asked Fox contributor Tamara Holder, "Are you going to cry?"

Fox on-air personalities on Friday were talking about the exchange on Sean Hannity's prime-time show the night before. Commentator Juan Williams concluded that Cunningham "obliterated the line" of civil discourse in his argument with Holder. The two had been brought on by Hannity to discuss whether Attorney General Eric Holder — no relation to Tamara — had committed perjury.

Cunningham, sitting next to Tamara Holder in a New York studio, called her "one of the stooges of the left that will always be there to excuse away criminal behavior." He said she had the "incurable fatal condition of liberalism that caused people like Eric Holder to be the consulary of Barack Hussein Obama."

He was jabbing a finger at Holder, who returned the favor.

"I really hope that when you speak to a judge, you don't point your finger in the person's face the entire time," she said. "Your finger does not make your point."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/male_fox_news_guest_to_female_democratic_consultant_know_your_role_and_shut_your_mouth/feed/ 113 “Devious Maids” skewers the one percent http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/devious_maids_skewers_the_one_percent/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/devious_maids_skewers_the_one_percent/#comments Fri, 21 Jun 2013 19:41:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13333265 I was recently having a conversation about working class people and television, and how it has become nearly impossible to find the former on the latter. Sitcoms used to have a blue-collar tradition, from “All in the Family” to “Roseanne,” but in recent years that's been all but abandoned. People on television are usually rich, nearly so, or becoming so. They are typically untroubled by financial practicalities or only marginally bothered by them. Into this desert of class diversity comes Lifetime’s cheeky new melodrama “Devious Maids,” premiering Sunday, which features five working class Latina women, but still just flickers in and out of class consciousness.

“Devious Maids” comes from Marc Cherry, the creator of “Desperate Housewives” and a man who clearly believes in sticking to certain naming conventions. Tonally, the shows are very similar: comedic super-soaps about a group of women with a central murder mystery, crazy plot turns, and a knowing, winking tone. The stars of “Devious Maids” are not housewives but Latina domestic servants, all working for crazy rich people in Beverly Hills. In the first minutes of the pilot, a maid, Flora, is murdered by a person unknown. When her employer, a camp character on the order of Cruella De Vil, breaks down, it’s not because of the death, but the mess: “My maid was murdered! Who is going to clean all this up?” she screeches.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/devious_maids_skewers_the_one_percent/feed/ 7 “Naked and Afraid” not nearly as sexy as it promises http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/naked_and_afraid_not_nearly_as_sexy_as_it_promises/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/naked_and_afraid_not_nearly_as_sexy_as_it_promises/#comments Fri, 21 Jun 2013 15:52:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13333005 “Naked and Afraid,” the new reality show that premieres Sunday night on Discovery, would more honestly be titled “Cynical and Earnest.” The show takes two trained survivalists, a man and a woman, drops them into an extreme, unpopulated environment without food, water or shelter, and leaves them there for 21 days. The twist — or rather the reveal, pun intended — is that the participants are also naked.

“Naked and Afraid” is not, however, some Playboy bunny version of “Castaway.” It’s more like an extreme version of the parts of “Survivor” in which Richard Hatch took off all his clothes. On-screen nudity has rarely been less sexual, but it’s also rarely been used as brazenly to sell a show. Anyone coming to “Naked and Afraid" for titillation — or camp or absurdity or over-the-topness, all things suggested by the title and premise — will find, instead, a focus on the difficulty and spirituality of the experience. "Naked and Afraid" decidedly does not belong in the Hugely Exploitative Reality Show Hall of Fame, and I’ll admit, that with my lizard brain, I found this a little disappointing.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/naked_and_afraid_not_nearly_as_sexy_as_it_promises/feed/ 7 Dan Harmon just can’t shut up http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/dan_harmon_just_cant_shut_up/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/dan_harmon_just_cant_shut_up/#comments Fri, 21 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13330947 When it was announced a few weeks ago that Dan Harmon would be returning to “Community,” the show he created and had been fired from, it looked like a feel-good story. A wronged auteur has his creation stolen away from him by forces that care more about money, ratings and professionalism than art, only to be vindicated when that creation flounders in his absence, and the same forces have to return his work, admitting it is nothing without him. The genius triumphed over the suits, talent over money, fans over ratings. It’s a happy ending, right? Absolutely — except for the part where, as this story unfolded, the genius auteur got more and more insufferable, a man using his self-proclaimed emotional neediness to behave like an exhausting, smug prat. Is Dan Harmon really great at making “Community”? He sure is, but boy is he getting tiresome.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/21/dan_harmon_just_cant_shut_up/feed/ 27 James Gandolfini: “No character captured the longing and melancholy of American life better than Tony Soprano” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/james_gandolfini_no_character_captured_the_longing_and_melancholy_of_american_life_better_than_tony_soprano/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/james_gandolfini_no_character_captured_the_longing_and_melancholy_of_american_life_better_than_tony_soprano/#comments Thu, 20 Jun 2013 11:45:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13331689 There's a scene from the last season of "The Sopranos" where Tony, Carmela, Janice and Bobby are playing Monopoly together and everyone's drinking too much. Janice launches into an anecdote about her dad shooting a hole in her mom's beehive hairdo, and Tony starts to look visibly sick. "I can't believe you never told me that story!" Carmela laughingly yells at Tony. "Yeah, what's the big deal?" Janice says to Tony. "Because it makes us look like a fucking dysfunctional family!" Tony growls. A few minutes later, though, after Tony insults Janice, Tony and Bobby are trading blows. And then, Tony is laying on the floor, covered in blood. (I guess the cat's out of the bag on the dysfunctional family thing, huh, Tone?)

In another actor's hands, that scene is just your typical snapshot of a hotheaded patriarch in denial, an Archie Bunker or a Rabbit Angstrom or a "Great Santini" for the new millennium. James Gandolfini, though, knew just how to tease out the storms raging inside Tony Soprano. His bullying always had this faint hint of self-consciousness to it, suggesting the vaguest whiff of guilt behind that surly mug. When Tony felt anxious, Gandolfini made us feel anxious, too. We could hear Tony start to breathe through his nose, like a bull growing agitated at the sight of the color red. His words got percussive and clipped as his heart raced faster.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/james_gandolfini_no_character_captured_the_longing_and_melancholy_of_american_life_better_than_tony_soprano/feed/ 22 James Gandolfini, gone too soon http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/james_gandolfini_gone_too_soon/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/james_gandolfini_gone_too_soon/#comments Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:58:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13331488 ‘The Sopranos” changed television forever, alerting everyone with eyes to what the medium, so often thought of as the movies' cheeseball little brother, could do. But if David Chase was the mastermind, James Gandolfini, who died of a heart attack tonight at 51, was the executor, the guy who took the challenging idea of making a show about a morally corrupt character, and made it seem like common sense. Since his performance, creating a show around a character sort of like Tony Soprano has been the ambition of nearly every person trying to make serious television.

There have been great performances on TV since Gandolfini’s mafioso king Tony, but none have been as powerful or as original: It's a performance so good it’s almost impossible to exaggerate its greatness. Gandolfini created from scratch an entire, now bedrock-seeming archetype, the character who, through the skill of his portrayer, is simultaneously charismatic and menacing, threatening and charming, winning and terrifying. His Tony was scary and pained, hulking and sometimes shockingly lithe, so brutal but so funny. Playing him, Gandolfini masterfully manipulated audiences' sympathy, held their attention, and kept their interest, sometimes against their better judgment and even, toward the end of the series, against their will. He was like a pickpocket so good you ended up just handing him your wallet, abdicating before his insane skill.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/james_gandolfini_gone_too_soon/feed/ 24 R.I.P. James Gandolfini: Where Tony Soprano lives on http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/r_i_p_james_gandolfini_where_tony_soprano_lives_on/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/r_i_p_james_gandolfini_where_tony_soprano_lives_on/#comments Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:09:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13331472 Last scene of "The Sopranos"

More than an hour of obsessive "Sopranos" highlights:

Tony kills Ralphie:

The last scene with Tony and Junior:

The death of Christopher:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/r_i_p_james_gandolfini_where_tony_soprano_lives_on/feed/ 10 On “The Bridge,” normal is dangerous http://www.salon.com/2013/06/18/on_the_bridge_normal_is_dangerous/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/18/on_the_bridge_normal_is_dangerous/#comments Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:53:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13329845 Beginning next month, FX will start airing its new original series “The Bridge,” a remake of a Swedish/Danish crime show called “Bron/Broen,” the words for "bridge" in those respective languages. With the premiere just a few weeks off, it seemed like a good time to check out the much-praised original. My interest was also piqued by instincts both generous and snarky: My last experience with a Danish drama was so euphoric-fantastic (go watch “Borgen” right now!) I was hoping for a similar contact high. Barring that, I was eager to be forearmed with enough knowledge to hate on the new version of “The Bridge” in a scholarly fashion, should it prove to be as disappointing a remake as “The Killing” has been of the Danish “Forbrydelsen.” (I have no reason to think FX’s “The Bridge” will be anything but good, but be prepared is the hater’s mantra as much as the Girl Scout’s.)  And so I dove in and binge-watched the 10 episodes of “Bron/Broen.” This turned out to be just the way to watch it, since it took nine episodes before I was won over — at which point I was irrevocably won. (Light spoilers to follow.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/18/on_the_bridge_normal_is_dangerous/feed/ 5 On “Mad Men,” Don Draper assumes the fetal position http://www.salon.com/2013/06/17/on_mad_men_don_draper_assumes_the_fetal_position/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/17/on_mad_men_don_draper_assumes_the_fetal_position/#comments Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:02:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13328667 In the second-to-last episode of the season, it looks like we've finally landed in the eighth circle of hell, Fraud. Don starts the episode curled up in the fetal position on Sally's bed, clearly undone by Sally's discovery of his affair with Sylvia Rosen ("You make me sick!" Sally says), and ends the episode in the fetal position after Peggy confronts him ("You're a monster!" Peggy says). In between, every action Don takes is fraudulent: He pours booze into his orange juice and hides the bottle from Megan, he lies to Betty about drinking and about missing Sally (when he's visibly relieved that she's not coming for the weekend), he lies to Megan about not being interested in Peggy and Ted's relationship, he calls Harry back and presumably reverses his edict on Sunkist (thereby double-crossing Ted), he lies to Jim and Ted and agrees there'll be "no more surprises," and then he surprises Ted by lying to St. Joseph's about their ad being Frank Gleason's idea. Finally, when Peggy confronts him, he lies and tells her he's just looking out for the agency.

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