Mad About You

So I finally decided to see what all the hype is about and checked out AMC's Mad Men.

Where the hell have I been?! It's...oh so good.

Now, on the bygone era front, I admit I didn't really give Swingtown a chance, and maybe I should've. But in that first episode, every Tab, every mustache, every bell-bottomed move seemed contrived to me.

For some reason, on Mad Men, it's the opposite. I want to deep inhale every unfiltered cigarette they smoke, come along on every non-seatbelted car ride they take, and, quite frankly, I'm a little jealous of the multi-martini lunches.

I'm comforted by the clacking of the typewriters. I want to run out and buy a bullet bra. I wanna go to one of those restaurants with the teeny weeny lamps on the tables and drink a gimlet. I'll call the restaurant and make the reservation on my rotary phone.

And now the best part. I'm only on episode 2 of the 13 on demand before season 2 starts next Sunday.

Finally, something to do this summer that won't make me hot and bothered...well except when I think about Mad Men star Jon Hamm.

Up the Dosage

*Spoilers*

Did you see Hopkins?

I asked that question to a lot of different people, and no one I asked had heard of it. I was about to say, "sorry ABC marketing folks", but as it turns out, Hopkins kicked Swingtown's ass in the ratings, so I guess they managed to hook in more than I thought.

Anyhoo, they did manage to get to me, and I watched on Thursday night. If you haven't seen it (and if you fit with my random sample, you haven't), it's a prime time 'real life' medical drama set at Johns Hopkins, complete with doctors' personal lives.

I want it to be good. I want it to be great. And not just because there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING to watch. I've resorted recently to stockpiling old Friends and Sex and the City episodes on my DVR just to have something to do.

(Perhaps now might be a good time for me to come up with some sort of a hobby.)

Hopkins is basically your typical TLC doc-style series, but with way better music. It's trying hard to be the real life Grey's Anatomy, but has way less attractive people and uses what I imagine are low-paid camera people doubling as producers to shoot the thing. Just a hunch.

It's entertaining. It's not awesome. I think it might get better. Please, if your story about the poor guy with the brain tumor is going to be your major cliffhanger, can'tcha go a little more for the jugular with the resolution? I know you tried. Try harder. I want to cry, dammit!

Now, the cute doctor who may or may not be going for a divorce is for sure their Central Casting McDreamy. His story is seriously mc-good. I felt his angst. I'm stressed for him. And somewhere, some casting person is super psyched they got this hot doc to agree to talk about his marriage woes on national television.

And so I'm going to keep watching. I want to love it, and I have a little Chicago hope that it's going to be worth leaving Grant Show and his swingin' porn-mustache in the dust.

Swing Out Sister

I finally got around to watching the premiere of Swingtown that had been beckoning to me from my DVR. If you hadn't heard, CBS just rolled out this new series about swinging couples in the 70's.

It's so nice to have former Melrose Placer Grant Show back on television. I was wondering what he had been up to, and a quick spin through Wikipedia revealed that a few years ago he married someone named Pollyanna Macintosh. This sounds to me ironically like one of those porn names you come up with by using a Disney character and your street name.

Or whatever that game is.

Anyhoo, Swingtown didn't really excite me, but I did notice the following random, and not so random things:

1. The creator of this show realllllly likes Boogie Nights. So much so that he borrowed some of the soundtrack and cast fake-Julianne Moore, Molly Parker, in one of the leads.

2. Sometimes, it was so self-consciously trying to pepper this pop culture-palooza with little reminders that we are in the 70's that it was distracting. She's drinking a TAB. I GET IT.
.
3. And sometimes, I suspect some writers with a bawdy sense of humor wanted to test the limits of what they could sneak past the censors. Like when someone ordered a Harvery Walbanger. Or when one of the characters was watching $20,000 Pyramid...and the clue was "Things that are Spread".

Ahem.

There was also a montage at the end that lingered on a fried egg image just long enough for me to wonder if perhaps it was yet another pop culture homage, this time to the famous "This is your brain on drugs" PSA's. Then again, that was an 80's thing, so maybe it's just me.

Well, Swingtown won't fry your brain, but it might show you how to be over easy.