Having not watched TV drama since Veronica Mars fell apart, I half-heartedly begin to catch up
The first half of the first episode of Mad Men: The initial minutes get over Draper’s slick douchiness while demonstrating the fact of sexism and racism in 1960. The next bunch of minutes do this over and over. All that’s missing is a Family Guy-style wink at the fourth wall. It gets better, I take it.
The first three episodes of Breaking Bad: Now that’s in media res. This leans a bit too hard on the suburbia-in-hell cliche and its idea of masculinity is as regressive as Don Draper’s, but the bedroom scenes are inappropriate and funny in a way I can’t imagine Mad Men being. The buzz of the premise tails off by the third episode and I won’t watch every episode (I never do), but I’ll watch a lot more.
The first episode of Friday Night Lights: This is edited to the point of unwatchability, but you can just listen until the game starts. Breaking a character to open up the plot is distasteful but effective. Would I rather watch more of this or non-fictional high school football? Further research required.
The first fifteen minutes of Grey’s Anatomy: Shanghaiing loved ones into watching this doesn’t seem nearly as sadistic as the Shanghaiers of my acquaintance make it out to be. Mitigators: medical fallibility to drive the episode plotting, adorably deep-ended characters who I’m sure DEVELOP! over the arc, a decent approximation of the female gaze.
The first ten minutes of Big Love: This is well-shot and well-acted, but feels so artificial I want to hang it in on a white wall in a gallery.
The first six minutes of Dexter: ”Why am I watching this” triggers: the highly meaningful boys’ choir, the mutilated corpses, the suit guy’s acting, the cut to Dexter on a motherfucking boat. I like to think that David Fincher saw this, realised his entire career up to that point was worthless if it inspired this, and decided to make good movies.
