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Reviews
Tour of Duty: War Lover (1987)
Noting an anachronism and more
Tour of Duty was a difficult series to present and I salute those involved. Please remember the foregoing as you read on. Whether the conflict in Viet Nam was ever officially classified as a war is a point I'll leave to others. On this point I'll say only it didn't begin with alleged fire upon Desoto patrol destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy.
Reference is made in earlier episodes to both ground and air support unavailable to the platoon because of heavy activity in "the Ashau". The Ashau valley saw a lot of combat through out the war but the tone implied Operation Apache Snow, assault on Dong Ap Bin, Hill 937, which took place May 10 - May 21, 1969. (All too similar therefore to the time setting of this episode is in that approximation.
During this episode, 4 of Season 1, the character Pvt. Ruiz speaks the phrase, later, meem, "Up Close and Personal". Not until the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo did NBC Features reporter Jack Perkins popularize the expression. Perkins filmed, yes filmed, features highlighting particular athletes, events, or occurrences anticipated in advance of the games. Pvt Ruiz could not have utilized the phrase as it was yet to become known, approximately three years later.
Doubly regrettable about the 1972 games were both the massacre at Munich and Jack Perkins never receiving credit for originating the phrase. Not to equate a reporter's meem to be with another association of Munich with antisemitic murders.
The nation was at war with itself exemplified by Emmitt Till in 1955, Little Rock in 1957, Selma in 1965, Chicago and Miami in 1968, May 1970 massacres at Kent State and Jackson State universities et al. The foregoing should indicate similar strife amongst ground troops in Viet Nam and the sanitized version portrayed for television in 1987 - 1990, another anachronism. One must agree though, the series portrayals of several real events still merit a tip of the cap.
Mad Men: The Benefactor (2008)
The Benefactor(s)
The episode's title and my review title are analogous, in title anyway, and to the writers. I won't speculate about the ages of Matthew Weiner, Rick Cleveland or Robin Veith but wonder how at least one of them could remember a particular episode of The Defenders. The episode's title was identical to this Mad Men broadcast on April 28, 1962; 16, 907 days before August 10, 2008.
The subject of The Defenders episode was a greatly controversial medical procedure. In Mad Men the title's subject is even less obvious than the predecessor. Obnoxious TV comedian Jimmy Barrett has insulted his show's sponsor. Don must convince Barrett's wife / manager to compel an apology from Jimmy. Fiercely independent and mercenary Bobbie Barrett has been enjoying encounters with Don but at the ritzy French restaurant, site of expected apology, demands a bribe in exchange. What Don provides is an astoundingly unexpected hair grab and fingering drawing a nearly orgasmish ohh from Mrs Barrett and Jimmy's apology. Now prepared to order dinner Mrs Sponsor, subject of Jimmy's insults, makes a comment which Jimmy all-to-obviously opens his mouth to again spout-off but turns his head away and bites his knuckles. Subtlety is an undiscovered element in this Barrett universe.
Later in the Mad Men episode Bobbie Barrett drops in on Don at his office. She wants Don to endorse her idea for a show not unlike future TV of home-movie scenes gone wrong with unkind commentary. Don first demurs until Bobbie locks the door and drops her coat for a knee rest.
The Jimmy Barrett character reminded me of a Jerry Lewis character in a Martin & Lewis film where Jerry's antics incur mobster's ire, smoothed over by Martin. Other reviewers compare Jimmy to Lenny Bruce but, I'm not old enough to remember Bruce except for the Dustin Hoffman portrayal and can't get past actor Patrick Fischler's resemblance to the notorious David Ferrie.
So, who is the benefactor? The judge or physician in 1962 or Don, Mrs BJ or Mrs Sponsor in 2008? There is probably more in the Mad Men episode but Melinda McGraw has the power to cloud men's minds as do all of Don's lovers and wife. Jon Hamm may well hold equivalent zipless mesmerism for women. In conclusion, a shout-out / citation is due to IMDB for availability of so much arcane information.
The Burning Plain (2008)
An emotional rollercoaster of a flick
When characters share one or more similarities it's not unusual for me to have a difficulty distinguishing one character from another on TV and in movies. It's true IRL for me as well. This movie adds to the above on multiple levels. Now that I've written about myself it's difficult to find a place to start discussing this labyrinth, uhh, movie.
Two women, Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, both exceptionally attractive blondes, suffer PTSD. The reasons are different but, strangely, originate in the same part of the country. On top of that, there are time shifts which take significant concentration to realize. Only after about half of the movie was I sure they were not the same woman at different points in time and location.
Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder affects other characters, too, but are easier to recognize. The origin of one's was fairly well telegraphed as, I thought, was the other's but the astounding "full monty" of it multiplied it many times. PTSD, though, doesn't fully explain Gina's (Kim Basinger) infidelity - to me, anyway. Perhaps the movie attempts to illustrate unmet desire in scenes of the family together. Some later foreshadowing and "reveal" fail to explain her betrayal of her children and loving husband (Brett Cullen) despite absences as a long-road trucker.
The Marianna (Jennifer Lawrence) - Sylvia (Charlize Theron) character(s) is the real reason for the "spoiler" alert. Alluded to in the above paragraph, an action, typically not fully thought through by a 15 year old, here by Marianna is no less than a hum-dinger. Framing it another way, I knew people who saw the towers come down. The human mind isn't designed to process trauma on those levels.
The writer / director, Guillermo Arriaga did a marvelous job of visual presentation of this maze. Writing it with filming in mind probably made the process a bit easier. Perhaps the scene selections came first thus clarifying the story / script. One particular portion of the script makes no sense at all. Writer - director Arriaga may have thought that part of the movie - story needed filling out but he was wrong. This time, Daedalus didn't escape. Sophia may be the only one to come out of the puzzle better than she had been.
I'd be less than honest to not admit part of choosing this film were the adult female leads. Personal reasons, though, erased the ability to enjoy this on any sexual level. Many other viewers may share the reactions for myriad reasons. The last three paragraphs may partially explain why rollercoaster was used to describe this film. Additionally, don't assume more than about a 5% similarity to a Farrah Fawcett movie.
Mad Men: Mystery Date (2012)
Foreshadowed and foreshadowing
In a series with almost countless subtle foreshadows it's difficult to discern each in any given episode. Some foreshadows or hints are given seasons in advance making multiple viewings a necessity.
Mystery Date offers some foreshadowed events like the prior episode's "gypsy" tea leaf reader telling us Betty would be alright. Stan is seen wearing a stocking mask, a common criminal device, just prior to Joyce appearing with leaked photos of Richard Speck's murders. Speck, btw, didn't wear any mask and wasn't apprehended until 4 days later, despite a call to Chicago P. D. on the 15th. Minutes later Stan's mask becomes a "gypsy-type" headband which foretells another event in a dream hallucination recreation of a nurses apartment on E. 100th St in Chicago. The survivor in Chicago hid under a bed, the hallucination victim was shoved under a bed, not to mention being murdered in another brilliant series.
I'm never sure if Mad Men writers make deliberate errors like poetry misspellings or e.e. Cummings, a living contradiction. Noted by another commenter here, Capt. Greg Harris wears an outdated uniform at dinner and doesn't correct a Private for saluting indoors. He wears a RVN Gallantry Cross Unit Citation not authorized for U. S. personnel until 1968 (retroactive to 1961). He also wears a Bronze Star ribbon something I find unlikely particularly since no mention is made of it or the action by either him or Joan. His other Unit Citation ribbons (gold framed) are Army Meritorious (service) and RVN Civic Action Honor With Palm. On his left below the Bronze Star are National Defense Service ribbon, Vietnam Service ribbon and RVN Vietnam Campaign ribbon. Above, is Army Combat Medical Badge 1st Award, now worn by Army Medics, just some FYI. Anybody open to correcting my stones vs glass house grammar and sentence structure here?
The episode concludes with Joan exorcising Greg from the baby's life and hers. Playing as the credits roll is the contrary logic He Hit Me It Felt Like A Kiss by The Crystals, a metaphor of Leo Durocher's "Nice guys finish last'.
The episode would have won a 10th star from me but for so much attention to Richard Speck's crime spree and actor Ben Feldman's near imitation of Eddie Deezen. Contrarily, it was Feldman's Ginsberg character who calls others out for ogling Joyce's leaked photos.
The West Wing: The Long Goodbye (2003)
A personal connection in this episode
This episode occurs in Dayton, OH with C. J. giving a speech and visiting her ailing father. She bumps into old friend / boyfriend Marco Arlens (Mathew Modine). The speech is made at a restaurant I immediately recognized in the external establishing shot as (the former) Kirie's in River Grove, Illinois. Aaron Sorkin's dad, or uncle, Dan (a Chicagoan) must have considered it a favorite and taken the family there. I was guested there by family as a child and can still remember the delicious fried chicken every time we dined or drove by. Kirie's was too small to have a stage as depicted in the episode as the kitchen occupied the widest (north) portion of the restaurant. The restaurant has been misidentified elsewhere as Horvath's, a restaurant on Harlem Ave in Elmwood Park, Illinois.
Long before this restaurant aired, the Kirie's site [41.930550 (N) -87.835961 (W), 41º 55' 49.9794" N 87º 50' 9.459" W] had been sold and existed as a variety of bars and taverns before being razed. The latest incarnation at 2826 Thatcher Ave is River Cafe & Bar, according to the Apple Maps app. The River Cafe & Bar does not sit on Kirie's footprint on this triangular parcel.
Aside from the personal anamnesis the episode shows aspects of C. J. only shown here. Her father's Alzheimer's is painful for her and balanced by making love with Marco, hardly a spoiler.
Mad Men: Person to Person (2015)
People finding themselves
Exactly how Stephanie and Don end up at Esalen (has an organizational site today) escapes me. However it is, Stephanie makes off with Don's Cadillac and he is both alone and adrift. He telephones Peggy at McCann collect, a technologically artifactual term meaning the receiver of the call pays for it at premium rates. No one born after about 1975 could grasp the concept.
Anyway, after Don speaks and confesses to Roman Catholic Peggy he collapses into a conscious but "brain dead" shell. Sitting beneath the coin telephone for some time in this state a woman comes along and not wanting to enter her help session late and alone invites him to sit in. Taking him by the hand she helps him up and to a chair in the circle.
Don listens emotionlessly to the first speaker and equally as before with Leonard, the second speaker. Leonard's story of feeling ignored and even invisible at work and at home and as if an unchosen object in a refrigerator touches Don. Leonard begins to sob and Don walks over to him, kneels, embraces him and also sobs. Personally, as a male, crying doesn't come easily but can be a remarkable emotional release when it can be induced.
The session appears to have had a positive effect on Don as the next day we see him outdoors, crosslegged with a meditation group. The group's calming and quiet sound of the Hinduistic Oom brings a remarkable notion to him as revealed on his sunshine illuminated face.
Today, no one younger than about 50 years of age could understand what happens next. However, on Youtube there are videos of the original participants and a recreation with them and their children in the same location.
Mad Men: The Milk and Honey Route (2015)
Episode timeline month
Based upon the way Betty is addressed at the hospital (Mrs. Robinson), the calendar on Sally's dorm room wall the date and the Flip Wilson Show the episode's month is September 1970.
The Graduate reference is a bit antequainted but hung on for many years. Another hanger-on from that film "Just one word..plastics. That's it, one word, plastics."
Looking for Diana in Racine is one thing but find Don's need for a cross-country spree hard to believe. Their emotional histories are so similar, filled with disappointment and pain, they genuinely belong together and heal each other. Maybe he is a soul searching for its body or vice versa.
Based upon Greek, Roman and Latin mythologies Diana Baur is a perfect name. Baur, Bauer, farm in German and Diana related to solitude, fertility, the hunt and Wicca. Not evil, just sort of lost and alone.
Btw, in the photo gallery look at the photo pf Vincent Kartheiser at the restaurant. Over his right shoulder at the adjoining table doesn't the facing woman look like Elizabeth Reaser with her hair combed the other way? No wonder Don couldn't find her in Wisconsin.
In Plain Sight (2008)
The opening tile sequence
Ten stars for the opening sequence beauty. Seven for the series.
Now that I've signed up I'm able to ask about the breath taking ravishing brunette beauty in the sixth opening tile arrangement. Whether she's really wearing a pleated skirt and yellow sweater is immaterial, as it were. Even ten to fifteen years removed, she is so pretty my heart thumps. Any suggestions for reaching her representation would be gratefully received.
Her beauty makes Mary McCormack's Mary Shannon / Mary Sheppard almost bearable. I know this is a scripted series with the actors speaking words other than their own. Still I often can't understand how Frederick Weller's Marshal Marshall can tolerate Mary's inability to accept anything new. I know, don't say ravishing or immaterial.
Mad Men: The Color Blue (2009)
Countless poetic meters of writing and acting skill
Utilizing Richard Feynman's simplicity Miss Farrell's 3rd grade school student rather brilliantly poses the perception question which everyone should consider about everything. The color and the frequency 450 nanometers to 485 nanometers, is perceived differently by everyone. Colorists are trained to recognize panel samples and refer to them in a uniform language. Therefore the assumption everyone sees the same thing. Slightly off topic is the fact when a rainbow appears, everybody sees a different one.
This episode has so many references to "blue" integrating them is task for a literary expert, a group not inclusive of me. The mood blue could describe Rebecca Pryce and her dress when bemoaning NYC is not London. Not exactly news on either side of the Atlantic as emphasized by Magnum's J. Q. Higgins longing for High Tea and, no doubt, Cricket.
Paul was probably listening to Bill Evans' Blue In Green from Miles Davis' Kind of Blue although difficult to discern from the partial bar audible to me. The music augured Paul's forgetting his terrific idea of the previous night.
Don was wearing his blue robe when accessing his locked desk drawer containing key documentation to his past as Dick Whitman. His attention was distracted away from his desk, remembering to lock the drawer but not removing the keys from the robe. Betty finds them and uncovers Don's deepest secrets.
She confronts him with a prosecutor's precision eliciting admission, tears and 10 to 15 seconds of the finest silent acting since Steve McQueen and Yul Brenner loaded up before reining the horses to pull the hearse up to "Boot Hill" early in The Magnificent Seven. Facial expressions by both Jon Hamm and January Jones were worthy of a classical portraitist. The session proves to be the final straw, sucking the remaining portion of love for Don from her. Needless to say both feel moods of blue. There's probably a more elegant way of writing the above and honest criticism is welcome.
Poker Face: The Stall (2023)
Brisket is worth a stall but Donner Party foreshadowing?
The attack of the barking dog was an unlikely episode opener. Was the dog's appearance many miles from the BBQ restaurant explained? I can't remember. The escalating response and accusations brought on by the dog's appearance by the antagonist brother (Larry Brown) was not unexpected. Once pit master Lil Rel Howray revealed he wanted out of the business it was easy to read the brother's mind. Particularly when the brother / partner aversion to an independent audit was rather over-played. No doubt Mr. Howray's fate was to be served to diners shredded or sausaged, only to be foiled by Charlie's intervention. In the flashback, it's too bad Charlie didn't also have a dog-eared paperback of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle along with the DVDs.
Speaking again of dog-(eared) I think it unlikely an adult dog's tooth would pull out in a tug-of-war with a stick or anything else. The dog was again found mysteriously injured on the highway. I don't get how this hybrid mutt managed to teleport around forwarding the storyline. BTW, the Dr / Vet Nancy Lamenger was good although minor. Also in a very brief role Brian Soutner was a terrific typical teen. Does anyone else wonder how many iterations this episode went through before broadcast finalization? A scripted comment about the brightest star in the northern hemisphere (Canis Major) must have gotten axed.
I must admit being amused by murder's unpleasant surprise at the nearby EV automobile missing an exhaust pipe. Reminiscent of Christopher Reeve's / Clark Kent's inability to utilize a telephone booth. Frankly. I'm not sure the BBQ smoker's exhaust via garden hose could transmit sufficient pollution to poison Lil Rel Howray's Air-Stream trailer. Another Easter-egg perhaps?
Yet another canine related event comes when Charlie is tasting the several BBQ woods, each accompanied by a single musical insturment. Who else caught it from Prokofiev 's Peter and the Wolf?
The radio tape alibi, first seen in a Perry Mason by Daniel Travanti then in a Monk(?) was expected. Another commenter's observation of a sixteen minute "gap" would have been a better Easter-egg if it was 18-and-a-half minutes long plus a mention of Rosemary Woods. Rosemary as a potential BBQ seasoning and wood, obviously for smoking.
There are other as yet unmentioned detectives to which Charlie could be compared: Nick (or Nora) Charles and Jessica Fletcher. Years of watching Jessica Fletcher appear in a town only to be confronted by another local murder. Someone should have posted unwanted posters of Ms Fletcher just as wanted posters of Charlie are inevitable. BTW, was dog supposed to be an Asta stand-in?
Poker Face: The Night Shift (2023)
Can't wait to see what's down the road
The automobile breakdown wasn't hard to foresee as the episode starter. I agree with other commenters about the Columbo connection. A bit to much of it though. It takes time for a TV actor to find their character and affectations. Thinking about Jason Isaacs in early Star Trek: Discovery episodes.
To Commenter geopictures: You're paraphrasing Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, well done.
Have to add stuff about the meteor shower. If it happened every 33 years it would be Comet Tempel-Tuttle which does have Leonid associated meteors. But the year would have to be either 1998 or 2031. The Leonids happen every year in mid-November. The meteors in this episode move in the wrong direction, shooting up toward Constellation Leo. They should begin atop the "Lion's head" and fall towards earth. The angle of meteor movement indicates a time of about 1:30am. All-in-all a foreshadowing of Charlie's arrival?
John Ratzenberger was completely masked until late in when his voice revealed him. It was a pleasant surprise when he stepped into the frame as garage owner.
Jed burning the lottery ticket took me by surprise, first thinking he could have used the money to hire a lawyer. Then, duh, as the police came screaming up the road he knew it would be extra evidence against him.
Have to add this too: Sterile Super-Glue is most often used in Europe for suturing shallow wounds in hospital. The gash on Jed's leg and Charlie's through-and-through GSW would probably become pocketed infections due to sealing them prior to disinfection. So, don't try this at home.
Kudos to each of the principals, Hong Chau great as Marge, Megan Suri, Colton Ryan's very creepy Jed, fun to watch Brandon Michael Hall and Lincoln Castellanos.
The Benjamin Bratt character will become tedious if he appears in every episode. Even Inspector Gerard wasn't in every Fugitive, maybe one-in-five(?).
I liked the hyper-active Charlie in the first episode. It made her vulnerable like Monk, Will Trent and even Sherlock Holmes. Looking forward to more dilemmas for Charlie to fall into.