A family has a drink to mull over wedding plans.

I have been mulling over something I watched on TV a few months ago. At the time, I felt uneasy about it a scene from the amazingly good “Mad Men” on AMC. Aside from showing us this country on the perch of real, painful change, this show delves into class disparity, gender disparity and race disparity using not conflict per se, but general acceptance. The nonchalant way people deal with these issues while working out other plot points is creepy and effective.

The primary character of the show is Don, on who my wife has an admitted crush, and he is as compelling a character as I have ever seen on Television. In the scene that bothered me, Don goes with his girlfriend(not his wife) to a house where beatniks are getting high and discussing what is wrong with the world.

Don is in a suit, and the lines are clearly drawn around who has status, who has a “real” job, who has credibility, who is lying to themselves and who is lying to everyone esle. I fealt at once like I was watching a scene from inside my psyche. Different aspects of my personality fighting for control and my internal monologue finding my future.

It was unnerving.

I loved it.

If you want to see cutting-edge television, watch an episode from the beginning with TiVo. From the intro to the credits, I promise you not only a visual feast (pause at least once during every scene, you will know when) but a writing and acting orgy. At no point, if you are truly paying attention, will you be disapointed.

Norman Rockwell it ain't - but it looks nice.

Meet Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency

Don and wife discussing his abusive father.

We live in the Second Golden Age of Television, at least according to JJ Abrams, a producer of Lost. I believe it, TV has never been more clever or interesting. However, I was reminded of a show that I loved and checked it out… again.

I didn’t watch this show when it aired orginially, but I believe that I would have liked it then. Often the people from that show crop up in other TV, as the show was Canadian in origin and lots of media is produced there and has been for the last 20 years. Indeed this show had much in common with some of my other favorite shows, including some things that I didn’t remember; ghosts of dead parents, snarky one-liners, a tendancy towards fantasy, humor with heart.

While watching the episodes, it is easy to notice the difference between the earlier shows and the later. The first set could have been any 70s episodic character-centric dramedy, but the last two seasons smack of modern TV, about 5 years early. Oh, yeah, with Mounties.

In case you missed it, that show was Due South, the first TV show that I loved as an adult. I can’t watch Battlestar or CSI: New York without thinking about it.

Thanks.

I have many good intentions. One in particular was to write about Vampires in western culture, maybe even a comparison/contrast of ancient slavic blood-sucking demons and the fang-free, Dawson’s Creek vampires of Twilight. But I neither have the back-ground, nor the time to do either justice. Instead, I will illustrate in one run-on sentence why there has been a very steady stream of the undead coffin-jockeys enjoying the  UV-free spotlight since at least the late 1920’s.

Writers love vampires for many reasons, mostly to use well-worn plot devices in new ways; such as flashbacks to much earlier times, addiction metaphors, obsession, a almost universally accepted set of bylaws, brooding internal monologues, simultaneous immortality and vulnerability, and gobs (and GOBS) of sexual tension, to name a few.

As I am not an expert, I will just take the rest of the space to mention that not all western renderings of vampire lore are that bad. For instance, after years of thought, I am prepared to say that “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” did not suck, despite the Oscars. Not completely. Despite Keanu’s, criticly accaimed performance in “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey,” he didn’t live up to my expectations and Wynona’s pre-”Reality Bites” angst didn’t satisfy at all.

However, the other performers came straight from Chapter One of “How to Cast a Film.” Gary Oldman as Dracula even now give me goosebumps, if you haven’t seen “The Dark Knight,” he plays Jim Gordon… magnificently. Anthony Hopkins. Cary Elwes is one of Lucy’s suitors, and great even with a crappy accent. A red-headed Sadie Frost as Lucy. Awesome. Tom Waits as Renfield, but unfortunately no music.

Oh yeah, if you are paying attention, Monica Bellucci is also in it, but you have to rent the R-rated version.

These should just be Numbered so that when the promo airs, a little number in the corner tells us which to expect.

1. Oh Crap, We’re on the Titanic
2. Oh Crap, We’re on Trial
3. Prison Break
4. Ambiguous Enemy
5. Sleeping with the Ambiguous Enemy
6. Long, Lost Celebrity Cameo
7. 20th Century America

Hey folks,
I am a bit of a Potter Buff, so please, if you aren’t interested…don’t read any further.

Thanks,
Mike

Harry Potter and The Tarot of Destiny (more…)