Mad Men Season 4

I ask this with no cynicism or opinion, I just really want to understand: Can someone explain to me the importance of Sepinwall and why his name is consistently invoked on these TV threads?

 

Is that what we think is going to happen? I took from that conversation that Lee was giving Roger a month to prepare the firm for the blow before he drops the hammer, not that he was going to give them a chance.

And 21, for me Sepinwall is just a very thoughtful, very thorough critic who is interested in a lot of the same shows as I am and writes for people who want to look at television intelligently. He "gets it," in the same way I feel like Ebert gets it for film.

 

That's what I thought, too. If it's announced suddenly that American Tobacco is leaving SCDP, a bunch of other clients might flee as well, and they'd have trouble getting any new ones. This way, they can let all their other clients know personally and have half a chance to keep them.

As for Sepinwall, he first rose to prominence with his blogs and print reviews of The Sopranos. He was at the Star-Ledger then, and I've always wondered if he got special access because of the paper's relationship with that show (Tony picked it up out of his driveway at the beginning of several episodes).

But go back and read some of his in-depth reviews of The Wire some time. He's incredible.

 

21, Alan Sepinwall was one of the first television critics to really "get it" in terms of how people started watching modern television -- breaking down each individual episode, obsessing over tiny details, symbolism, literary allusions, the fact that it could be as much of an art as film. (It's kind of the anti-approach to the attitude that is, "Sometimes I just want to watch TV and be entertained and not think about it too much" which is why he doesn't bother with the CSI shows or NCIS or Two and Half Men.) As mentioned, his Sopranos episode recaps/analysis were so insightful, the Star-Ledger became the go-to spot for people all around the country who understood The Sopranos was not just a show about gangsters. Showrunners like David Chase, David Milch and David Simon respected his work so much, they began to grant him more access, more interviews and more insight than more widely-read critics. When he started his blog "What's Alan Watching?" it quickly became a destination spot for anyone who really liked to discuss individual episodes of television and see them intelligently and critically broken down. He was such a champion of the show "Chuck" that NBC more-or-less admitted they based their decision to renew it (despite low ratings) in part because of a campaign he started to save it. He's widely regarded as one of the most influential critics working. John Hamm admits that even he loves to read Alan's blog and see what he says about each MM episode.

I think the most impressive thing is he's able to watch an episode of Mad Men and, in a very short time period, help break down the connections between each of the story lines, or show you stuff you might otherwise not have seen. His review/analysis of "The Beautiful Girls" episode was a really good example of this.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/mad-men-the-beautiful-girls-blankenship-down

There are other critics out there who are in his league. Todd Van Derwerff of The Onion A.V. Club is excellent, and I thought had a better grasp of what was going on in "The Suitcase" better than Sepinwall did. But Sepinwall is able to be a consistently good, if not great, read on something like 20 different shows. It's somewhat remarkable. Give him a read. Very much worth it.

 

I honestly don't feel like I've seen "Mad Men" until I've read Sepinwall's reviews. His analysis is so insightful and so much better than my own.

 

i'll echo all, 21. alan is the best and most prolific. i worked with him at the star-ledger for 14 years; in fact, our first-day meeting with h.r. was at the same time. alan was right out of college, i believe, and had an entry-level job in features. worked his way up from there. when i stopped traveling as a sportswriter and worked in the office for a couple of years, alan's nose was always glued to his dvd player. his work ethic is unreal.

 

Thanks to all for the Sepinwall posts. Generally I'm the kind of viewer who doesn't like to be told what I just saw (whoa, having a Jack Buck moment there!), I always figure if the writer/director did it right, I should get his/her point without further analysis. Same for book reviews, I want to get the message from my own reading, not by having it explained to me.

But I suppose that's a hypocritical stance, since we expect sports fans to read our accounts of what they just saw in a game/match/race, etc.

I asked because it's rare that a writer receives such universal reverence around here. I'll give him a look.

 

Apparently, each episode this season takes place about a month apart. Someone figured out that if the Beatles concert referenced was the August 15, 1965 show, with 3 episodes to go, and each episode in a different month, that the last episode would be November 1965. The Great Blackout of 1965 was November 9, 1965.

Could make for a hell of an episode. Where were you when the lights went out?

 

Great catch.

From Wiki...

October 17 – The NY World's Fair at Flushing Meadows, NY, closes. Due to financial losses, some of the projected site park improvements fail to materialize.

October 30
Vietnam War: Near Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack by Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas. A sketch of Marine positions is found on the dead body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.
In Washington, DC, a pro-Vietnam War march draws 25,000.

November 7 – Pillsbury's world-famous mascot, the Pillsbury Doughboy, is created.

November 9
Northeast Blackout of 1965: Several U.S. states (VT, NH, MA, CT, RI, NY and portions of NJ) and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13½ hours.
Vietnam War: In New York City, 22-year-old Catholic Worker Movement member Roger Allen LaPorte sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in protest of the war.

November 27
Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters picket the White House, then march on the Washington Monument.
Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned major sweep operations to neutralize Viet Cong forces during the next year are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam will have to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.

December 9 – A Charlie Brown Christmas, the first Peanuts television special, debuts on CBS, quickly becoming an annual tradition

 

Yeah, good call. And I was gonna say, before Devil beat me to it, that the first major ground battles in Vietnam (including the one the Mel Gibson movie "We Were Soldiers" was about) took place in late 1965.

Also, the first major student-led protests --- draft-card burnings --- began that fall.

Surely the Dr.-Greg-in-Nam storyline will gain some traction in the coming weeks ...

 

I'm unfamiliar as to just how exposed Greg would be to combat in Vietnam if the show gets its history correct.

Is he going to be traveling with troops in the jungle or is he working in a hospital in Vietnam? What would be the most real-to-life experience for a doctor headed to Vietnam?

 

funny story (i think). i was 8, and my best friend and electronics wiz was over for dinner in our brooklyn apartment. he had brought over his latest electronic creation (damned if i knew then or now what it was but it was shoe-box size). no sooner did he plug it in and flick the switch to turn it on did our lights go out.

mom looks out the window -- no lights in the other apartments on the street.

"you've done it now, david!" mom yelled. "that thing blew out everyone's fuse box!"

classic story retold to both our families for years -- heck, by now decades.