Mad Men Review- Two Is Company

Spoiler alert...Below are some thoughts on last night's episode of Mad Men, 'The Suitcase'. So watch the ep, solve the problem with a flask, then read what I had to say.

Don: It's your job. I give you money. You give me ideas.

Peggy: But you never thank me.

Don: That's what the money is for!

Although most of the time I disagree with what everyone else thinks about an episode, this week I'm on board with everyone who thought Mad Men was fantastic. This was my favorite episode of the season, which proves once again that I no longer hate Peggy Olsen. Both Elizabeth Moss and Jon Hamm gave stellar performances that should be unrivaled come next year's Emmys. The yelling match alone, between the two characters, was enough to make this episode great. I reviewed 'The Suitcase' over at TV Fanatic last night and you can check out the rest of my thoughts there.

On last week's podcast of Talking TV With Ryan and Ryan, one of the two Ryans, or maybe James Poniewozik, said that Mad Men is one of the funniest shows on television. While that is a completely ridiculous statement, it doesn't have its moments. Any drunk Don laughter gets me to laugh right away. This week it happened when he was listening to tape four of Roger's memoirs, Sterling's Gold. "Sometime in the summer of '48...no 1932...no 1939." Don can't get enough of it, and frankly, neither can I. More memoirs!

By the end of the ep, Don seems to come out of his at least five month drunken stooper. Hopefully the final six episodes will have him fully revive himself and do something great with SCDP.

Mad Men 407 - 'The Suitcase'
Review
Recap
Quotes

NFL 2010 Predictions

I'm not in the business of blogging about sports, but since the NFL is some of the best television out there, I'm gonna throw out my predictions on the upcoming season. Things get started when Brett Favre and the Sidney Rice-less Vikings travel to the reigning Super Bowl champion Saints on Thursday night.

NFC West
49ers, 13-3
Cardinals, 6-10
Seahawks, 5-11
Rams, 3-13

NFC South
Saints, 12-4
Falcons, 9-7
Panthers, 8-8
Bucs, 4-12

NFC North
Packers, 13-3
Vikings, 10-6
Bears, 7-9
Lions, 5-11

NFC East
Cowboys, 10-6
Giants, 9-7
Redskins, 8-8
Eagles, 7-9

AFC North
Ravens, 11-5
Steelers, 9-7
Bengals, 6-10
Brown, 2-14

AFC East
Jets, 10-6
Patriots, 10-6
Dolphins, 9-7
Bills, 3-13

AFC West
Chargers, 12-4
Raiders, 8-8
Chiefs, 6-10
Broncos, 3-13

AFC South
Colts, 13-3
Texans, 11-5
Titans, 10-6
Jags, 4-12

Wilcard Round
Saints over Falcons
Cowboys over Vikings
Ravens over Titans
Texans over Jets

Conference Semis
49ers over Saints
Packers over Cowboys
Chargers over Ravens
Colts over Texans

Conference Championships
49ers over Packers
Colts over Chargers

Super Bowl
Colts over 49ers

MVP: Drew Brees
Defensive PoY: Mario Williams
RoY: Ryan Mathews
CoY: Mike Singletary

Is there a chance that I don't pick the Colts to win the Super Bowl while Peyton is still on the team? Probably not. Also, for picks by guys that watch way more NFL Football than I do, go over to The JRP and Solomons Lines.

Camp Rock 2- We Be Jammin'

Spoiler alert...Below are some thoughts on the Disney Channel Original Movie, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jame. So watch the movie, switch over to Camp Star, then read what I had to say.

Jason on being a lead singer- "You are gonna need to buy tighter pants and learn how to play the tambourine."

Here's what was so good about the first Camp Rock: There was a nice emotional story line about Demi Lovato's character getting noticed as a good singer and falling for Joe Jonas's character. There were a few fantastic musical numbers that tied into the emotional content. And there was some God awful acting, music and writing, which made for great unintentional comedy.

Camp Rock 2: The Final Jame didn't live up to my expectations as a sequel to the original. The story line of a rival camp has been done so many times before (see HeavyWeights) and it just didn't pack the same type of punch. Because of that, the musical numbers didn't have nearly as much weight, and I was hardly moved by the final performance. Conversely, on average the music and acting was better so there wasn't as much to make fun of. To get to the point, there was no "Too Cool" song and dance to laugh at for hours on end.

It was definitely a plus to have bigger roles for Nick and Kevin Jonas this time around, but in the end it wasn't enough to make up for the lack of interesting story. Nick's song in which he shelled out a bunch of random information about himself to his new crush was extremely entertaining though. Kevin came on strong early with his patented dumb act, but it ran out of gas after the first 20-30 minutes. The addition of Frankie Jonas helped nothing, per usual.

Maybe I'm forgetting some of the unimportant numbers from the first movie, but it seemed like there were a bunch more random musical numbers in this one. A very musical-esque style of working songs in that I didn't think they had as much in Camp Rock. They were always singing at their various "jams" so they didn't have to have random singing break out where everyone knew the lyrics. It was a bit annoying at times.

To take a note from the B.S. Report's 90210 Awards, I'm going to award the Camp Rock Biggest Leap of Faith Award to the outright inability for others to recognize that Connect 3 is a hugely successful band. Honestly, Camp Star thought they would beat Camp Rock when they had this ridiculously popular boy band at Camp Rock. It's like if we were watching a random show on MTV where they had a contest of high schoolers against each other...and the actual Jonas Brothers were on one of the teams!!! Would the other camp get a single vote? No. I don't care how much marketing Axel did, every person would be voting for the big stars over some random people they never heard of.

Beverly Hills, 90210- The Holiday

The cast early on their long run of greatness

It only comes around once every hundred years, but yesterday was 90210 Day all across the country - September 2, 2010 is 9/02/10. The city of Beverly Hills threw a big bash and people all over the interwebs are posting stories to honor or sometimes tarnish the best teen drama of all time. It's a shame that I didn't think of this type of thing five years ago, because we could have had the party of century in my home town of Falmouth, ME on 04/1/05. Or my first year of college in Poughkeepsie, NY on 12/6/04.

Anyway, Alan Sepinwall, over at HitFix.com, did his best to degrade the great Beverly Hills, 90210 based on the fact that all of the characters were juniors for both the first and second seasons. Now I love this show as much as anyone, but that was the least of its problems. He quietly slid in that Friday Night Lights, a critically acclaimed series, maybe sorta had a grade issue, and then continued to rip on 90210 for the horrendous error in the series. My thought is at least they got rid of the problem in one fail swoop. FNL continued to have issues with its grades throughout the seasons. Riggins, Lyla and Tyra were seniors for three seasons! By the end of season three we are also told that Landry is a year behind Saracen?!? A much worse way to handle grades of high school students than what happened after season one of 90210.

And then there was my brother, Jack Thomas, who is still trying to figure out where to go with his new blog, and posted his top 10 lists of best male and female characters on the original Beverly Hills, 90210. A couple of good lists by all means, and unlike Bill Simmons, thank you that he didn't put Bruno the limo driver ahead of John Sears and DeShawn Hardell.

Speaking of Simmons. I commend him on the effort to do this two hour special podcast on the series. I listen to most of the Sports Guy's podcasts even though I can't stand him much of the time. I'm half way through his awards and although it's mostly enjoyable, I still get so mad that him and Matthew Berry have such little knowledge on the series. The number of names and details they screw up is amazing. Noah Drake?!? Was it "he's one of those Drakes"? No it was "he's one of those Hunters". He's Noah Hunter and he's one of the best characters of the later years.

The fact of the matter is that this was one of the first shows I grew up on, and it will always have a special place in my life. I remember when I was in third grade I used to watch repeats of 90210 and Saved by the Bell over and over again. Probably why I grew up fast, and probably why I got out of the tv game for a while. It was hard for anything else to measure up. So Happy 90210 Day everyone, and here's hoping the new series can turn things around and be half as interesting as the original was.

Bi-Monthly Power Rankings- Top Ten

The Gang from Sunny on Tricycles

And on to the top ten. This time last year we had a couple of shows that now go unranked in here (30 Rock and American Idol). We've got a couple of newcomers, but the top few all stay the same since none of them have aired since the last rankings. Once again, these are the shows you should be watching people.

Place. Show- (last time)...red=moving down, green=moving up

10. It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia- (11) Thursdays on FX
It's Always Sunny should make the list for 'Dennis and Mac Break Up' alone. Just re-watched it and it gets better every time. You really can't beat the gruesome twosome of Charlie and Frank.

9. Dexter- (10) Sundays on Showtime
Lithgow has already won the guest actor emmy, and as I write this on Saturday, I fully anticipate Michael C. Hall to win the lead actor emmy on Sunday. It was a great fourth season and I'm looking forward to seeing where they go next.

8. Big Brother- (12) Summers on CBS
I've been writing about this season all summer and I have yet to have little to talk about. Every season brings me so much love, yet so much hatred. With only five contestants left, I only hate one of them, so the final weeks might not be as interesting. It's more fun to root against people than to root for others.

7. Breaking Bad- (7) Sundays on AMC
To paraphrase Alan Sepinwall, Breaking Bad looks really sweet on screen. Each episode has it's own lulls, but they continued to end the hour with a bang, and that will get you every time. It's sad that they're taking an entire year off before the next season.

Any excuse to post this picture

6. Community- (6) Thursdays on NBC
There's something nice about knowing that a cast of a show really likes each other. Sure they might say it in interviews and whatnot, but by following the actors on Twitter, you notice how much fun the Community people have with each other. That's pretty sweet.

5. Friday Night Lights- (5) Wednesdays on DirecTV
One season to go. I'm hearing faint rumors about a great finale. A lot of our old favorites are returning for the big going away part. I'm both excited and sad.

4. Modern Family- (4) Wednesdays on ABC
Again, writing on Saturday, here's hoping that Mod Fam took down some Emmys on Sunday night. If Glee tops them in all categories, like so many are conjecturing, it will be a real shame.

3. Sons of Anarchy- (3) Tuesdays on FX
Pumped to be writing about Sons this fall for TVFanatic.com. Ireland here I come.

2. Curb Your Enthusiasm- (2) Sundays on HBO
Aside from Parks and Recreation and Community, this was my favorite comedy of the season. Wait What? No I'm not Alan Sepinwall. This WAS the best comedy of the season as proven by the 2010 Poolie Awards. It's no surprise that it is the top ranked comedy in the Power Rankings.

1. Chuck- (1) Mondays on NBC
It's still the king of the triple threat, and now that Lost is off the air, Chuck holds on to the number one ranking until somebody makes a push for the title.

Big Brother- Strategy Sesh

Oh Ragan

Spoiler alert...Below are some thoughts on the eighth week of Big Brother. So watch the eps, shun a penguin, then read what I had to say.

Britney- "If you guys don't slow-motion what happened, I'm not talking to you anymore."

She's so great, isn't she? Of course she was talking about Enzo, who finally won a competition after laying out for the final cd in the PoV. It's the one he needed to, and now he's in the final four.

That's right Ragan was eliminated even though he did some of the best convincing I've seen on Big Brother. His convos with Britney and Lane were two of the best strategy sessions I've watched on this show ever. I might not like Ragan, but darn it do I completely respect his play after viewing that.

Everything he was saying made complete sense and it's a shame that it didn't work. Because of the editing it's tough to realize how much more chatter there was on this topic. If that was it, maybe I can understand why Lane didn't come around on the idea to go against Hayden and Enzo, but why would that have been all there was? If you're Ragan don't you belabor that point to no end? It's your only hope. It's a great hope, but it's your only one. Should have hammered it harder than that.

But I can't continue to praise Ragan without completely ragging on him for his Wednesday night performance. He cried and complained about being alone in the house for hours on end. "Oooo there's an all-guy alliance and a Brit-Lane alliance. I have no one." (I'm paraphrasing). Well maybe if you had made any attempt early in the game to get any kind of alliance, you wouldn't be alone right now. You backed your way into being friends with Matt, but that wasn't even an alliance, since he sold you down the river. Do something if you want to have people that are loyal to you. As Rachel would say, "floater, grab a life vest!"

We're down to the final four: Lane, Britney, Hayden and Enzo. Easily the best final four of the past four years. I would enjoy seeing any of them take home the trophy. It looked as if Hayden was going to win HoH. If he does, does he put up Britney and Lane? I'd guess so.

Bi-Monthly Power Rankings- 20 Through 11

Rick Moonen guest judges on Top Chef

Here we go with some of my favorite series currently on television. Here we have numbers 20 through 11 on the Quiet Pool Perspective's September Power Rankings. We have one new edition and a couple of big slippers. Enjoy.

Place. Show- (last time)...red=moving down, green=moving up

20. Top Chef- (HM) Wednesday on Bravo
This is just quality reality television. The contestants don't get as in depth a look as some of the other greats, so I haven't loved or hated any of them as much as Big Bro or Survivor peeps, but the challenges are great. Each week it's something new. Through two seasons of watching, I have never gotten mad at this show, which is the main reason it took American Idol's spot in the top 20.

19. Treme- (18) Sundays on HBO
Treme came out with a good first ten episodes last spring. I wasn't left that excited, but I enjoyed every hour that I watched. I'm looking forward to seeing if they introduce anyone new after the major character that we lost at the end of the first season.

18. Sonny With a Chance- (19) Sundays on Disney Channel
Without a doubt my current favorite on Disney. Demi Lovato has shot up the charts for best leading ladies on television. Her comedic moments are so much better this season. Add that to Sterling Knight and the improvement of fat Grady and you got yourself a ridiculously fun sitcom.

Hank Moody doin' work

17. Californication- (17) Sundays on Showtime
A pretty long hiatus for the David Duchovny dramedy. I'm looking forward to the appearance of Rob Lowe next season. There's no way he'll be as funny as in Parks and Rec, but he could just be in a groove right now.

16. Parks and Recreation- (16) Thursdays on NBC
Speaking of the NBC comedy...Parks won't be back until mid-season because they needed to leave room for the God awful looking Outsourced. The addition of Adam Scott and Rob Lowe have me extremely excited for its return.

15. Survivor- (14) Wednesdays on CBS
A couple of great seasons last year keep Survivor near the top. Can they continue this run? Will some people tune in just to see ex-Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson? I know I'm looking forward to seeing the hair get messed up in Nicaragua.

14. Justified- (15) Tuesdays on FX
Justified had a great first season, with the second half picking up steam to what was a fantastic finale. Timothy Olyphant, as Raylan Givens, has created one of my favorite characters on tv.

Russell with a beautiful vase

13. True Blood- (8) Sundays on HBO
And so we get to the biggest faller of the September Power Rankings. As Larry said to me a week or so ago, "they think that good tv is just the craziest sh*t you can think of." I mean I'm a fan of crazy, but to a certain point. When that's basically all you're giving me, I get fed up with it. My biggest problem with this season of True Blood is that every episode just runs together. I can't pick out a single episode by name, number or even event. Russell has been on and off for me, and in no way a decent replacement for Maryann as the big bad of the season.

12. The Office- (9) Thursdays on NBC
Another big dropped even though it hasn't been on since the last rankings. I'm having some residual bad feelings towards the last season of The Office. Maybe I didn't like it as much as I thought, or maybe it's because Alan Sepinwall and company repeatedly tell me that it was an awful year for the NBC comedy. Either way, this next season should be interesting as we watch to see who will take Steve Carell's place as the main man.

11. Mad Men- (13) Sundays on AMC
Mad Men is a show that can be extremely boring for some. As it was for me when I first started watching. Now whether it's because I'm writing about every episode, or it has just gotten significantly better, Mad Men is now so very interesting to me. There's something about writing about every little detail of a show that will cause you to either love it or hate it. In this case it is the former. The other thing is that after three and a half seasons, it's much easier to get involved in the goings on of these characters.

Bi-Monthly Power Rankings- Honorable Mentions

E vs. Vince take one

It's that time again. The Quiet Pool Perspective's Bi-Monthly Power Rankings are back for its second September version. I can't believe I've kept this up for an entire year. Before we talk about our honorable mentions, let's take a look back at where my head was in September of 2009. I obviously wasn't watching as much tv, because I only had six honorable mentions. Now I have to just rotate who gets a mention in this first post of the power rankings because there are too many that deserve a nod.

The six series were (in alphabetical order) The Amazing Race, Entourage, Gary Unmarried, Gossip Girl, Mad Men, and Rules of Engagement. Right off the bat I notice that the Jay Mohr comedy has been cancelled. Next there are those that I still watch but aren't on this month's edition; The Amazing Race, Gossip Girl and Rules of Engagement. Gossip Girl is the only one of the three that I feel got considerably worse over the course of last year. And Mad Men, as is noticeable by many of the previous rankings, has moved up the chart since this time last year. But that may be because I've catered to the masses.

Anyway, these are some of the shows that you might want to think about watching.

Honorable Mentions

Show- (last time)...red=moving down, green=moving up

American Idol- (20) Tuesdays on FOX
This time last year Idol was 10th. Just two months ago it was still in the top 20, but with the departure of Simon Cowell and the unknown of who will be judging come January, I can no longer rank this in the top 20. It is now out of my current top three for reality competition series. Which is that third series you may ask. Find out tomorrow.

Covert Affairs- (-) Tuesdays on USA
I posted on the new spy series last week, but I think it deserves another mention here. It's light but fun. The characters are great. There is definitely less serialization than I thought there would be at the start, but it's still worth it during the summer.

Entourage- (-) Sundays on HBO
Since it's my job to review Mad Men and Hung on Sundays, I have yet to speak about this season of Entourage. It has definitely been a marked improvement. Steven James Snyder wrote a nice piece over at TIME about how the story lines were much more interesting, and I couldn't agree more. Finally seeing Vince get punished for his foolish actions is a nice change. In a Don Draper-ish fashion we're watching to see how far he can sink this season. The addition of Scott Caan and the evolution of a much less irritating E has made for a good season overall.

Hannah Montana- (-) Sundays on Disney Channel
I didn't go out and buy The Last Song on Blu Ray, like some other people I know, but I love me some Miley Cyrus. Both the rise in effectiveness of Emily Osment's Lilly and the loss of Mitchell Musso's Oliver have been an added bonus to an already stellar comedy.

Hard Knocks- (-) Wednesdays on HBO
One of the best fringe benefits of getting six months of free HBO. I would have downloaded True Blood, Entourage and the like, but I probably wouldn't have gotten around to Hard Knocks. Having it on my DVR? Great! It's just a great inside look at the sport I love to watch most. It doesn't hurt that Rex Ryan is loud and cursing all the time, Antonio Cromartie can't remember his kids' names, and Mark Sanchez acts like a little baby during practices. All good stuff.

Ron and Sam fight

Jersey Shore- (-) Thursdays on MTV
As Bill Simmons and the Czar of Reality TV Dave Jacoby talked about, it's hard to find someone who watches a bit of Jersey Shore and doesn't like it. When I first heard about it, I was like "ehhh another reality show where the people are ridiculous but uninteresting. No thanks." Well after my boys in NYC talked it up, I started watching, and began to really enjoy it. Most of these people actually are interesting. My only problem with the second season so far is that every episode has dealt too much with Ronnie and Sammy. No matter what Simmons says, Situation is the MVP. Always has been, always will be. The dude is awesome and he needs to be the focus of every episode.

The League- (-) Thursdays on FX
With the start of football season coming up, The League needs to get mentioned here. A show that improved over its first season, I wouldn't be surprised to see it take another step forward. If it has more fantasy football plot in the second season (as is rumored by Alan Sepinwall) then I will be much more happy with it.

Rubicon- (-) Sundays on AMC
Here's a show that has taken advantage of the situation. It's the third original series on AMC. Coming after the critically acclaimed Mad Men and Breaking Bad, everyone assumes this is automatically going to be fantastic. I'm intrigued so far, but not overly excited about it. It's slow and none of the characters are interesting at this point. James Badge Dale is great, but he hasn't shown me anything good thus far in Rubicon.

Spartacus- (-) Fridays on Starz
Now that Mo Ryan and Ryan McGee have admitted to loving this show, I feel that I can actually write that I watched and enjoyed the first season. It is now socially acceptable. By no means is it great television, but there are moments of action and drama that are extremely watchable.

Ultimate Catch- (-) Sundays on VH1
I am not one to enjoy a reality dating show, but I'll make an exception on this. As a football fan, I'm enjoying watching Chad Ochocinco do his thing with the ladies. His taste and decisions are extremely suspect at times, but it's still interesting to see what he thinks in every situation.