Identity, the Internet, and the Dollar Movies

It seems that a couple of strong themes have run through most of the TV, books, and movies I’ve consumed this fall, and I think they’re related to some of our current societal anxieties, as is usually the case.

One is identity, and how it relates to society at large. How do we define ourselves in a world where we know better than ever that all we are is DNA and firing synapses? It would seem that we’re more able to let others know who we are than ever, but at the same time there’s this fear that we have no control, that someone else is pulling our strings. Maybe this is part of the fear that the Glenn Becks and Michelle Bachmanns of the world tap into, that we have no control over our lives. And to an extent it’s true: never before has every detail of our lives been visible to our bosses, our government, and our enemies in the way it is now. This is the price we pay to make the world traversable in an instant, to have friends and business partners on other continents, to live in a world where anyone can be instantly famous.

Which brings us to another theme, that of our relationship to the media and the internet. Something is reaching critical mass, I think, and we’re now quite literally in Andy Warhol’s future, at least in America and Europe and a few other places. At the same time, we’re seeing objectivity disappear in our news media, replaced by opinion. This may not be a good thing, but what I think this environment of blogs and Fox News has given us is one huge conversation, a huge town hall meeting about everything all the time, rather than speeches by talking heads at set times. What does that mean? And is fame, more easily attainable for the average joe than any previous time in our history, one of the only ways to make your voice count more than someone else’s? And what is the price for that?

This is all brought on by a handful of stories, some of which are spectularly good and some of which are pretty awful. I’ll write about some more of the books I’ve been reading another time. As for TV, there are a large number of shows on right now, but I think the one that makes me think the most is “Dollhouse”. The show is not going to last beyond its current 13 episode Second Season, but that is fine, and it is worth enjoying while it is here. The show, which I’ve reviewed here before, had the best episode of its season so far this past week, focusing on Dichen Lachmann’s character, Sierra.

The episode, and to a certain extent the show itself, is about rape, and what it does to us on a personal and societal level. There is a scene near the beginning where the man we met in “Needs” who put Sierra in the Dollhouse prepositions her. She refuses and tries to leave. He physically prevents her. The entire party (which is mostly made up of Dolls) stands around and does nothing. The Dollhouse is (metaphorically) about how society inexorably “programs” us to take on certain roles… in a way are we all responsible when things like this happen? Of course, there’s more to the episode than this, it’s full of spectacular performances and feels like a step forward for the show’s mythology. io9 has a detailed review here: http://io9.com/5389040/rape-is-one-tick-short-of-armageddon-on-dollhouse

At the dollar movies, where movies usually appear not long before they go to DVD (a window which closes a little further every few months), I saw two SF movies this week. The first was “District 9”, which gives itself a sense of reality by appearing at least part of the time to be some sort of documentary. The story is about a group of aliens (refugees?) that appear above Johannesburg, and are settled in a camp known as District 9. Those familiar with South Africa will notice strong parallels with apartheid and the more recent influx of refugees to the country from Africa’s more impoverished areas, which has led to some violence. The film is cast almost entirely with local South Afircan actors, with unknown Sharlto Copley cast in the lead role, a petty bureaucrat who gets involved in events beyond his control.

The film’s biggest strength is Copley’s character, Wikus van der Merwe, who, as one “talking head” notes, “took the choices available to him.” He’s not really a good guy by choice. When we see the aliens, they’re a lot like people, subject to depravity, violence, and pointless addictions. There are good aliens, but they seem to be few and far between… the implication is that we are the same way. The film observes all this dispassionately, helped by the documentary format. Except it seems to really want us to hate Nigerians, for some reason.

The issue of identity comes up because (POSSIBLE SPOILER) van der Merwe finds himself infected with an alien “fluid” that is gradually changing his own DNA from human to alien. He finds himself fitting in nowhere, both a pariah and incredibly valuable in the view of the both “sides”. (END SPOILER) The media is omnipresent throughout the film, as it seems to me it now is in most people’s lives.

The movie is extremely well made, with the CGI aliens completely photorealistic with distinct personalities despite a budget of “only” $30 million (the film made this back and then some on its first weekend). The “documentary” style is used to serve the story rather than distracting with overly swirly shots. However, the film’s villains (especially the Nigerians) can be a little too over the top at times. Also, the third act turns into one long action sequence, which is not really what I was looking for from such an intelligent film.

Tonight’s film was “Gamer”, a fitting cap to a week where the two really memorable stories for me were “The Hunger Games” and “Dollhouse”, as the film strongly contains elements of both without managing to be nearly as good as either one. In the near future, the big popular media phenomenon is games where people control other real people. A weird southern guy played by Michael C. Hall (chewing large bites of scenery throughout) invented “Society”, which is essentially “Second Life” if your avatar was a real person. As Hall’s character, Castle, notes, people pay both to be controlled and to control, though it seems that at least some of the “I-Cons” are there because they’re desperate and they’re getting paid. Now Castle has invented “Slayers”, in which gamers control death-row inmates in pitched “battles”… a FPS with real deaths. These battles are incredibly popular just to watch, and the top gamers make millions.

And that’s pretty much it. The movie is from the writer/director team that gave us “Crank”, and it has the same feel of gratuitous sex and violence being presented in a way that shouts “Look how gratuitous this is!” I enjoyed “Crank” because it was so ridiculous and completely unexpected. “Gamer” has more there there, so to speak, but not that much, and while here the boobs and blood seem to actually have a further message behind them, the movie is still an exploitative violent media offering of nearly the same kind it is critiquing.

The action sequences are presented with the camera shaking crazily, completely preventing us from having any sense of the geography of any of the action sequences. Perhaps fortunately, this took away some of the effect of the violence for me. The movie feels like an extension of this, presenting its concept so frenetically we are prevented from caring or even being impressed. There are, however, two sequences I will remember for a long time. One is the opening minute or so, in which we get a sense of this future world, with “Slayers” advertisements writ large across skyscrapers, even on the Great Pyramid, all set to Marilyn Manson’s cover of “Sweet Dreams”. (“Some of them want to use you/Some of them want to be used by you.”) The other is the climax, which (SPOILER) includes a completely random musical number just when we’re expecting a big showdown. I’m not sure it was a good idea, or even well executed, but by that point I was very happy that they tried it.(END SPOILER).

Interestingly, both “Dollhouse” and “Gamer” deal with the concept of the powerful literally reprogramming the less powerful, and both of them come to the conclusion that this means the end of everything. Of course, since both take the concept literally, both show it leading to the literal apocalypse, when, at least today, this takes place more in a figurative way, so what these are both really saying is that what this does is rob our lives of their beauty and meaning.

Notes from the Dan Sessions: A New Era Begins

It's been some time since I've posted, and that's because I've been incredibly busy, and when I haven't been busy I've been exhausted. And when I haven't been exhausted I've been trying to squeeze in as much self-entertainment as possible. But I want to keep this up, and I had the very strange idea to post these. "These" are notes I make, as a track listing as much as anything else, for the mix CDs I like to make. Most people listen to their MP3s on their headphones, but I'm perfectly happy with my portable CD player and an album of my own devisement. I call these CDs "The Dan Sessions", and each ends up with a pretentious subtitle. Think of these as a strange chronicle of my life in song, or as simply music recommendations. And I don't have to come up with them, because they're already written!

A New Era Begins

This disc was made during a period of change in my life that ended a sort of bout with despondency, which was also a period in which I didn't make any mixes. It immediately became a staple of long bus rides and quick-paced walks down wide, empty, condo-lined streets.


1. Saliva – “Ladies and Gentlemen”
And the “New Era” begins with a song that’s one three-and-a-half minute proclamation of forthcoming awesomeness. It’s silly and ludicrous in its brashness (“Your ears and your eyes may be bleeding”), but it rocks and somehow it makes it believes that whatever’s coming will deliver on the anticipation. Saliva isn’t anybody’s favorite band; usually they produce generic rockers, but this time they went with their instincts and delivered a genuine pick-me-up that uses phrases like “explosion of catastrophe.”
2. Fujiya & Miyagi – “Collarbone”
Every once in a while we meet something genuinely different, and it’s love at first sight. Or listen. What is this? Alternative Rock? A strange cousin of rap? Low groove jazz? A children’s rhyme? Who the heck are these guys? Their names sound Japanese. There’s a weird moment in the middle where he rolls the heck out of an “r”. There are sections whispered over bass and claps, mixed with pseudo-beat boxing. And then atonal guitar craziness. What really matters is that the first time I heard it I knew it was something special, and this ended up as one of the most-played tracks on my dearly departed radio show. Try walking down the street to this one.
3. Foo Fighters – “The Pretender”
The Foo Fighters, more than almost any band today, are capable of creating albums full of mainstream rock hits while still appealing to those who like to think of themselves as having discerning ears. This song rocks hard, but it also has a soul. “What if I say I will never surrender?” Was well onto my playlist before it showed up over the first “Dollhouse” trailer, which of course it was perfect for.
4. Vampire Weekend – “Oxford Comma”
I recently read someone, not really in a derisive way, proclaim Vampire Weekend “the Whitest Band in the World.” And yes, their biggest hit to date is about commas… sort of, anyway. It’s also about butlers and chap-stick. This is a song that seems laid-back and angry at the same time, barely contained behind the vaguely calypso rhythm. “Why would you lie about something dumb like that?” Another song that introduced me to something genuinely new.
5. PJ Harvey – “Down By the Water”
What the heck is this song even about? It’s like a low growl, wretched and lonely. It gets under your skin like an itch. PJ Harvey can do that. And it ends with a stretch nobody who hears it ever forgets, that whispered chant: “Little Fish/Big Fish/Swimming in the water/Come back here and give me my daughter.” There are strings here, guitar, drums, but they all seem under Harvey’s hypnotic spell, barely alive. A work of amazing power.
6. Matchbox Twenty – “How Far We’ve Come”
Rob Thomas is one of the greatest songwriters living. Yes, Matchbox Twenty has become so mainstream they get played on easy listening, but that’s hardly their fault, and this is a candidate for best song of the year. It’s been used in every trailer, ad, montage you can think of, but that’s because it the kind of song that genuinely works on myriad levels. It’s driving, it’s urgent, and it delivers its intended feeling with surgical precision: This is the end of this, and that is worth being sad about, but the ride delivered, and we should be dancing.
7. Flobots – “Handlebars”
I heard this song one day on the radio and it was probably the highlight of that week. It’s a song about the sin of pride, and not just that it’s a sin but why it’s a sin. It dramatizes the loss of innocence. This is a song that explains Hitler from Hitler’s perspective. That’s a lot to ask of a short piece of music, but somehow it manages it. Some people will hear it and say “there’s rapping on the radio,” as my mom always likes to. They’ll be missing something transcendant.
8. Sea Wolf – “You’re a Wolf”
For a relatively low-key song, this is one that sure gets stuck in my head a lot. There are about five lines in the whole song, but between the song manages between the quietly insistent guitar and the loping cello to keep itself feeling fresh. It pulls you in, like the semi-mystic encounter with a gypsy woman that its lyrics seem to describe. An indie gem.
9. Cold War Kids – “Hospital Beds”
This is a weird song. Cold War Kids are high-pitched and sparse, and the piano bits seem more to twinkle than play an actual tune. Much of the song seems like a sort of chant, a plea for help, but other times a strange joy seeps in. Somehow it feels to me like something out of World War I, with scenes from Atonement, though that would seem contradictory because it possesses the DNA of alternative rock, and makes no particular effort to be retro. It brings us into something so well that we’re almost startled when we’re let out of it five minutes later.
10. A Fine Frenzy – “Almost Lover”
There is no song that can bring me to the edge of tears so easily. It is almost ridiculous, how emotional this song can make me despite having no particular event in my life to tie it to. There are production pieces shimmering occasionally in the background, but it’s essentially just the singer’s voice and her fingers on the piano keys. I love sometimes just to feel; it brings me out of my life and into a place of startling beauty and sharpness. This song, especially in the startling crescendo of a bridge, does that as well as anything I’ve run across.
11. Scissors for Lefty – “Ghetto Ways”
Strategically placed to bring us out of the previous song’s mood, we have a weird, nearly incomprehensible piece of dance music. It’s like listening to a party through the wall. The chorus seems to just be a strange sort of heavy breathing… but it’s infinitely relistenable. It’s minor key enough not be jarring, but it’s still reminiscent of The Killers… after they dropped acid.
12. Rufus Wainwright – “Going to a Town”
A song written and performed with anger, sadness, and longing by an openly gay artist, this is an extremely slow build of piano rock that makes us really feel the repeated line “I’m so tired of America.” When I first heard this song, Obama was barely a blip on the radar screen, and it seemed like we were living in the last days of Rome, overrun with prejudice and malaise. Even before Wainwright starts singing about “bathing the body of Jesus Christ in blood,” he’s captured that feeling better than any other artist I’ve heard.
13. The Swell Season – “Falling Slowly”
This is a sweet little tune that somehow becomes, over the course of its length, about nothing less than everything. Male and female voices swoop over plaintive strings, lamenting how little time we have. It was from the soundtrack for the film Once, but it became much bigger than the little-seen movie it came from, and ended up winning an Oscar and putting its indie-darling creators squarely on the mainstream map. Glen Hansard makes us believe he’s falling in love and it’s making him cry, without irony and with total conviction.
14. Gomez – “How We Operate”
I discovered this song about a week before it went mainstream, largely due to an appearance on “Grey’s Anatomy”. Its main instrument is a banjo, at least for the opening minute or so, and the voice is almost country, but this is unmistakably a rock song. A rock song not quite like any other rock song. It’s like a night drive in the desert, gradually gaining momentum, adding layers, while something truly meaningful twinkles just out of reach. There are ghosts here, and sweeping strings.
15. Maximo Park – “Books from Boxes”
Maximo Park is one of those ice-cold bands with a low, melodic voice, like Longwave or Idlewild, and like most of those that are successful they somehow manage to be catchy, at least on this track. This didn’t make my collection for any special reason other than that I think it’s really good, and don’t seem to tire of it. In the first verse we hear “We can beat the sun as long as we keep moving.” And I for one believe it.
16. The Wombats – “Let’s Dance to Joy Division”
First of all, there’s a band named The Wombats. Second of all, someone wrote an entire song about listening to “Love Will Tear Us Apart” with an ironic ear. It’s peppy and fast, the single punkiest song on this disc. It made my regular playlist, and then somewhere in there it took on several more layers. This is my song about making the best of it in today’s economy. “It can all go so wrong, and we’re so happy.” It ends in laughter.
17. Fleet Foxes – “White Winter Hymnal”
This is the unlikeliest of indie hits. Time recently named it the third best song of 2008, and called it “choral roundelay.” It feels like the Beach Boys through a glass darkly, and it’s very very pretty. In only a few minutes, we’re once again in another world, this one snowbound and quiet. For all that, there’s a surprising amount of rock here, and I would hardly characterize this as a “slow song.”
18. IAMX – “President”
I never heard of IAMX before this song, but I have to seek out more of them. Like “Going to a Town”, this is a minor-key epic of piano rock. But unlike that tune, this one is post-Obama, and comes off more as an insistent proclamation of hope, a march to victory for the little guy. In a year where I found myself vaulted into politics, this song feels like where I’ve been and where my twisted dreams are going. With a circus-organ thump thrown in for good measure. It ends like a foreboding of the future.

MemeWatch: The Twilight Backlash

Ah yes, the backlash. The movement-ized rejection of something that has already achieved great cultural popularity. The backlash as a phenomenon predates the internet... I'm sure there were plenty of people who thought that "Gone With the Wind" wasn't, y'know, that great, but the instantaneous, interactive nature of it has allowed backlashes to gain a much higher level of notoriety. If a huge cultural phenomenon isn't quite up to snuff these days, a backlash is all but inevitable. (the wikipedia article on "backlash" can be found here)

The new film "Twilight" had a better first day on Friday than either "Quantum of Solace" or the most recent Indiana Jones film. It's less than all but one of the Harry Potter movies, and not even close to what "The Dark Knight" did earlier this year, but it's still far and away the most successful opening for a movie directed by a woman (Catherine Hardwicke). For those who have been either living under a rock or in a completely teenage girl-free evironment, "Twilight" is the first in an incredibly popular series of books by Stephenie Meyer that center around the passionate-but-chaste romance of a high school everygirl, Bella Swan, and a particularly hunky vampire, Edward Cullen, mostly set in a small town in Washington state. The thing about "Twilight" that has struck me the most is that the backlash was in full swing before the "frontlash" was even really up to speed. This backlash has the most lash I've ever seen. Okay, I'll stop that now.

I'll be honest here. I haven't read any of the Twilight books, and I almost certainly won't see the movie until it shows up the discount theater, if at all. I know more than one person whose opinion I trust who absolutely loves them. But the critical consensus seems to be one of understanding-at-best (There seem to be two types of reviews, ones that talk about how it might appeal to teen girls and ignore the actual quality and those that are critical of the actual quality), and the internet... well, the internet does not seem to be willing to tolerate it.

A big part of this, I think, is that the Twilight fandom (my favorite term I've seen so far is "Twi-hards") is almost entirely female. It consists of teen girls, from tweens to college age, along with a decent sampling of their moms, the sort who like romance novels. I like to fancy myself a bit of a geek anthropologist, so to speak. I enjoy the inner workings of various fandoms, even for works I myself am not that into. And this is perhaps the most monolithic major geek fandom I've ever seen. Even "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Xena: Warrior Princess", probably the two most female skewing of the major geek fandoms I've previously looked at, had fairly large male bases, as well. This shows it's not just the female protagonist that's at issue, it's the content. "Xena" was an action show at heart, and "Buffy" was at such a high level of quality that it attracted connoisseurs of all types... plus there was karate and stuff. "Twilight" is a romance, through and through.

Also at issue is how good it really is. Twilight is often compared to the Harry Potter novels, another fandom based on a YA book series that seems to have at least slightly more girls than guys. But general consensus seems to be that the Twilight series isn't even in the same league ("USA Today" was roundly mocked for making the suggestion this week). I've never been afraid to criticize JK Rowling's prose, and "Deathly Hollows" drags way too much for what it is, but Rowling does have an intuitive grasp of how to build excitement and when things are happening in the Potter novels, there's nothing like it. As the backlashers are quick to point out, Meyer's prose has at least as many issues, her content has a strong potential to be laughable, and the plot of "Twilight" doesn't really get going until at least 300 pages into the book (It apparently takes over 200 for Bella just to realize that Edward is a vampire). The Harry Potter books and films have, for the most part, manages to avoid a full-fledged backlash despite their gargatuan popularity because most people who read them are hooked.

Let's take a look at other recent phenomena:
-"Star Wars" eventually created its own backlash with the terrible "prequel" movies. I had a friend who at one point was a hardcore Star Wars guy, but mostly dropped it circa "Attack of the Clones" when he "found out that Jar-Jar Binks created the Empire." Many universes grow richer with continued exploration... Star Wars, not so much. The Spider-Man film series probably also fits this model, as it was riding high after the first two films and nearly completely destroyed its own fandom with the failure of the climactic third film.
-"Star Trek" did get richer with continued exploration, but eventually seemed to run its course. The times, it seemed, had passed the mostly-utopian future it depicted by. Plus there was a lot of mismanagement by Paramount... "Enterprise" would sputter on for a few more strange seasons, but the "Trek" franchise as we knew it seemed to end when "Nemesis" opened opposite a Harry Potter film and tanked. People didn't hate "Trek", they just weren't huge fans. But now the new trailer for the JJ Abrams "Star Trek" film has gotten startling buzz, and it's like the franchise never went away.
-"Lord of the Rings" has its detractors, but the books, and especially the films are so seminal and high-quality that there doesn't seem to have been much of a backlash, at least not within the fandom community.
-"Buffy" and "Battlestar Galactica" are probably representative a group of works that were never quite popular enough to create a backlash, but attracted a strong, loyal following due to their high quality. Both have large numbers of online fans who insist that they should be considered for the best TV series of all time... period, and are very influential within the current "geek" community. But they remain relatively lesser known in the world-at-large, and that seems to have helped.
-"Firefly"'s hardcore fans created their own backlash, not the work itself. It would probably be in the above group, except for the fact that an early cancellation created a strong evangelical streak in the fandom. This got them "Serenity", as well as several comic book miniseries, but it also resulted in everyone else on the internet getting really annoyed.
-"The Dark Knight" is probably the biggest geek phenomenon of this year so far, even more so than "Twilight". At first it appeared it might be among that elite that is so good it's just impossible to hate. But as people thought about it more, and it became even more widely seen, it began to be criticized for its relentless gloom. It's a great movie, but the staying power is in question. It recently showed up at our local discount theater, and I haven't gone to see it again yet, and I'm not sure I will until it shows up on DVD.
-"Pirates of the Caribbean" was totally unexpected, and was driven, yes, by young women. Guys liked pirates in the same way they like ninjas and zombies and all those things, but it was hard for them to participate in a fandom where the main debate was immediately whether Depp or Bloom was cuter. Then the second two movies had interesting bits but were overlong and all over the place, and the fandom did not appear to withstand the backlash. Comparable might be "Transformers", which came out of nowhere with a movie (by Michael Bay!) that was really hard not to like. And, Megan Fox and all, it seems to be more male-skewing. But it has the strong potential to have that luster taken off by subsequent sequels, we'll see.

These, of course, are only some of the geek-related examples recently ("Doctor Who" may have so far miraculously managed to be the most backlash-free of all). There have of course been many other kinds of backlashes, but this is where I like to think my "area of expertise" lies. ;) So "Twilight" has the disadvantage of being a female-oriented fandom based on material that already seems to be showing cracks. io9 has been nice enough to round-up some of the most blatant and hilarious examples of recent online "Twilight"-bashing here. Whatever side you're on, this should be good for a laugh. It certainly cracked me up.

Bits: Wildflower Decapitation Edition

Awesome.

-A video from a random episode of the old Batman series has been making the rounds of the YouTubes because it appears to offer commentary on the 2008 election... 40 years in advance. There are several parallels that can be seen in this clip alone, which features Batman and the Penguin engaging in a debate prior to an election for Mayor of Gotham City. Of course, this campaign has become such a caricature of itself that it's no wonder it reminds people of a campy 60s TV series.



-Unsettlingly, anecdotal evidence increasingly suggests that early voting sites across the country are being targeted by angry protestors, specifically anti-Obama protestors. This article describes an incident in North Carolina, and features video. So... you're protesting voting? Why not protest Obama by going into the early voting place and voting against him? And I especially like the comment that "Sundays are for church, not for voting"... by the person who's spending her Sunday protesting instead of in church.



-All over the news today... the discovery on the Arizona/Utah border (within Vermillion Cliffs National Monument) of what is being termed a "Dinosaur Dance Floor." How did it get this name? To quote Newswise.com:

“Get out there and try stepping in their footsteps, and you feel like you are
playing the game ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ that teenagers dance on,” says
Marjorie Chan, professor and chair of geology and geophysics at the University
of Utah. “This kind of reminded me of that – a dinosaur dance floor – because
there are so many tracks and a variety of different tracks.”

The find apparently includes thousands of dinosaur tracks in a very small area, in some places a dozen per square yard. There are least four different species represented. The scientists are theorizing that the tracks were formed at an oasis in what that time was a huge area of sand dunes, larger than today's Sahara. I have to throw in one more quote here:

Seiler envisions the dinosaurs were “happy to be at this place, having wandered
up and down many a sand dune, exhausted from the heat and the blowing sand,
relieved and happy to come to a place where there was water.”

Ah, yes, poetical scientists.



-Rather interesting news from Switzerland today, a nation always on the cutting edge when it comes to government. A new law bans the humiliation of plants. Recently, the Swiss Parliament asked a special committee of philosophers, lawyers, geneticists, and theologians to determine the meaning of dignity as it pertains to plants. They have issued their report, which says that it is morally wrong to participate in "the decapitation of wildflowers at the roadside without rational reason", and it appears that parliament is acting on those guidelines. However, one wonders what the actual extent and/or enforceability of such a law would be. More here.



-Free TV On the Internet: Check out this past week's new Family Guy episode, "The Road to Germany". It's already infamous because it has Nazis wearing McCain/Palin buttons, which seems like an unlikely thing to have fixated upon in an episode that revolves around a port-a-potty time machine (which I suppose makes as much sense as a phone box) and a baby dressing up as Hitler.

Bits: Epic Fail Edition

-MemeWatch is spreading! I was seriously considering doing an installment of our favorite feature about the sudden mainstream acceptance of the netspeak "Fail." But Slate beat me to the punch, with this great article.

-Former Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama this morning on NBC's Meet the Press. If nothing else, this should help Obama win the news cycle and allow him to continue to keep his lead.

-McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer stood by remarks this week that McCain is winning in the "real Virginia." Apparently this means the more southern parts of Virginia that aren't suburbs of Washington D.C. I'm sure this will help them win over voters in Falls Church and Arlington.

-This comes after Gov. Sarah Palin, while campaigning in Greensboro, North Carolina this week, saying she enjoyed coming to "pro-american parts of the country." Of course, Barack Obama's campaign immediately began asking "so, which parts of the country are anti-american?" And the Republicans have run into a problem trying to make talking points out of this stuff. Rep. Michele Bachmann caused a stir when she attempted to defend Palin on MSNBC's Hardball and ended up calling for an investigation into which members of Congress were "unamerican." McCarthy, anybody? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/17/gop-rep-channels-mccarthy_n_135735.html

-In more positive(?) Sarah Palin news, she appeared last night on Saturday Night Live and didn't really do much. Most thought this would put the spotlight on Tina Fey's Palin impersonation, but it was Fey's sometime partner-in-crime, the very pregnant Amy Poehler, who stole the show during Gov. Palin's appearance on the "Weekend Update" segment. Check this out: http://www.hulu.com/watch/39808/saturday-night-live-update-palin-rap

-Today's Free TV on the Internet: You read my review of the Crusoe pilot, "Rum and Gunpowder." Now watch it for yourself: http://www.hulu.com/watch/39786/crusoe-rum-and-gunpowder

TV Is Back: My Own Worst Enemy & Crusoe

Oh, NBC, there was a time when you were the most exciting channel on TV. That's still true to a certain extent. You have "30 Rock," and "The Office," which are far and away TV's two best live-action comedies. You have "Heroes," for whatever it's worth (given the current popularity of super heroes, imagine how many people would watch it if it was GOOD), and "Chuck," which is still so much fun, even if no one's really watching. You have "Saturday Night Live," which isn't as biting as "The Daily Show" these days but has its own loopy place (McCain: "Sen. Obama, my invisible friend Simon can't be appointed to the Cabinet. He's a Unicorn. I think you know that.").

But now you've put out an entire new slate of shows, and every single one of them's a dud, without exception. "Knight Rider" is incredibly awful, and I ended up watching most of the last ten minutes of "Kath & Kim" the other night against my will and there wasn't a single laugh in that entire time. This week came the debuts of "My Own Worst Enemy" and "Crusoe".

"My Own Worst Enemy" is, as a concept, about identity. It's billed as a sort of modern-day Jekyll & Hyde story mixed with James Bond. That probably sounds good to you, but the show simply fails to deliver. Its biggest problem is that it's hard to tell its Jekyll from its Hyde. This is a show whose fundamental premise is that two distinct personalities share one body, that of (very) poor-man's Tom Cruise, Christian Slater. One is supposed to be a cool, dark secret agent who can kill people with his feet, and the other is a normal guy who works in an office. But we're not left thinking the two of them are that different, which is fatal.

The first problem is that Slater is horribly miscast. Some actors could have a field day with dual role. Slater is definitely not one of them. As a secret agent he's stoic, and as a regular guy he's... pretty stoic, actually. He's not really capable of anything else. When he figures out he's two different people, he seems mildly perturbed. Then there's the other issue, which is that the normal guy's life is actual a very Hollywood version of a normal guy's life, which makes it almost as glamorous as secret agent guy's. Secret Agent Guy sleeps with hot women, Normal Guy sleeps with his hot wife. Secret Agent Guy drives a cool new sports car. Normal Guy drives... a cool new car given to us by our friends in the product placement department. Secret Agent Guy hangs out in spectacular hotel rooms. Normal Guy hangs out in... a spectacularly large, nice house.

I am normally good with suspension of disbelief. You want me to believe that we're on the rings of Saturn fighting the aliens with laser beams coming from the eyes of the space whale we're riding, I'm good with that. But I need the actions of characters and groups within the story to make sense. The explanation of why our Secret Agency would go through all the trouble of creating Double Personality Action Christian Slater isn't really there here. And without any basis in reality, we're left with nothing but Christian Slater failing to give us two separate people.

On to "Crusoe," which was probably the best of the NBC bunch so far, though that's saying oh so little. The pilot gives us Sam Neill and Sean Bean, but both are in flashbacky guest roles. The star is supposed to be one Philip Winchester, who spends most of the opening episode showing us his chest muscles, which are certainly impressive. He has his sidekick Friday (Tongai Chirisa), who is a lot like Crusoe, in that he seems to be good at everything and also has nice chest muscles. In any case, I was mildly entertained for about 45 minutes. I soon discovered to my horror that the opening episode was actually two hours long. The plot involved pirates who happen to wash up on shore, many of them ending up killed by Crusoe himself (which I think we're supposed to think is funny), except for the hot sword-fighting chick.

These guys come off as the "Pirates of the Caribbean" understudy company, and that's the whole point of the show. I wondered when the schedules came out where the idea for a Robinson Crusoe series could have come from. Surely it wasn't an extremely late attempt to rip off "Lost"? Thankfully, that's not the case. Just as the original "Battlestar Galactica" was a blatant attempt to capitalize on the "Star Wars" phenomenon, "Crusoe" is a blatant attempt to capitalize on "Pirates." I suppose you can't blame them for trying, though it's so blatant we're left thinking about that rather than the what's going on on-screen.

Neither Crusoe nor Friday end up as much of a character. They're just sort of good at everything. Robinson seems to have some ability with ropes and pullies and inventions. He has a contraption that squeezes five lemons at once. Because you need to do that all the time. He has a bridge over pirahna infested water (go to the NBC website to learn how to build your own!) that consists of a very strange wheel mechanism and a complex series of ropes. I was left wondering why he didn't just build a regular rope bridge. As scruffy pirate guy says, "Seems like you've had too much time your hands."

The series is also pretty much robbed of any sense of reality by its crappy production values that reminded me of nothing more than a Halmi miniseries, or maybe "Hercules"/"Xena" type syndicated shows (which, I was not surprised to find, Halmi was also involved with). So what we end up with is a sort of stilted stageplay on a tropical island that plays like kids making up a story based on all the crappy movies they've seen lately while wearing halloween costumes. It's only really worth sitting through if they're your kids, chest muscles not withstanding.

Bits: Shark Jesus Edition

Pic courtesy of the-amazing.com

-According to NewScientist, Turkish creationist Adnan Oktar is offering $7.5 trillion dollars to anyone who can produce an intermediate-form fossil proving evolution. Um, haven't we already found those? I mean, the creationists have an argument ready against them, but we've already found, you know, fishes with legs. No sources have said where he would get that much money. Oktar recently sold 10,000 copies of a book denying evolution, and successfully campaigned to have Richard Dawkins' website banned in Turkey.

-San Francisco TV station KTVU reports that they're going to put a net under the Golden Gate bridge to prevent suicides. I'm trying to picture the thought process here... "You mean I can't jump off the Golden Gate? I'll have to use a less famous bridge, or maybe take a lot of pills? I dunno, maybe I'll just go on living then..."

-Shark Jesus! Scientists at an aquarium in Richmond, Virginia have reported that a female blacktip shark conceived without any male input... a virgin birth. The fetus was discovered during a necropsy on the mother shark after it had died of "complications." It contains no genetic material from a male. This is apparently not the first time this has happened, as there is much discussion in the linked article about "parthenogenesis," which apparently does not mean what Willow Rosenberg led me to believe it meant.

-In other news, the world economy continues its drain spiral. The Finance ministers from the G7 nations are meeting in Washington DC. Will they come up with a solution? Is the devil on the doorstep wearing galoshes?

-Alternative artist Banksy has opened an art installation in New York City that is a sort of insane magic pet store. I cannot make this stuff up. Make sure to watch the video with the dancing chicken nuggets, and the college-age girl wondering "Are they real?"

-Surprise! Not only does Life on Mars not suck, it got decent ratings last night. But not quite as decent as CBS' anti-science procedural (and yet another foreign remake) Eleventh Hour. "It's like that scary Fringe show, but safe and boring for old people!" I think that's actually their advertising campaign.

-Free TV on the Internet: Wednesday's episode of Bones, in my opinion the best procedural on TV, was about a murder in a tight-knit religious community on Chesapeake Bay. This brings out inherent conflicts among the characters, with Brennan getting lines like "You are all united by your shared superstition" and "Do these people believe in DNA?" Oh, yeah, it's called "The He in the She." Watch it here.

TV Is Back: Pushing Daisies & Life on Mars

There's actually a good new show this season! And another, probably even better show that was already here but you're not watching!

First off, you should be watching Pushing Daisies. But you're not. The show's ratings have dipped lower than Knight Rider's, and that's a problem, considering Knight Rider is pulling down a 2.2. In previous years (or maybe just on Fox), that's been enough for instantaneous cancellation. Sure, its quirks have quirks, which is usually death on network TV. But it's just so whip smart. There isn't a single throwaway moment. It has genuine emotion beneath the cutesy/Tim Burton sheen. It's laugh-out-loud funny, all the time. And it's the only show on TV where they'll do a scene where they pull a clown car out of a lake, and have the characters watch as they pull the dead bodies of clown after clown after clown out... One of the show's nicer touches is the omniscient narrator, who uses a tone like he's reading a Dr. Suess book to describe the murder mysteries. It's like eating incredibly well-written birthday cake every wednesday, and there's never been anything really very remotely like it.

Earlier tonight, ABC debuted its new series, Life on Mars. It's named for the Bowie song, which puts in an appearance in the pilot. It's a remake of a BBC series, which I've never seen. There's a couple reasons normal US channels don't just show foreign series when they bring them over, other than that they're stupid. One, they're shot using different technology. British series look fundamentally different, technology that reminds Americans of low-rent home video, though that's mostly because of the conversion. Also, British TV works on a different business model. The original Life on Mars series is already over. I'd be surprised if they had much more than 20 episodes total. When networks in the US score a hit, they expect it to run for a hundred-some episodes. I'm not sure why those models evolved differently, but it's certainly the case.

The show itself? If you haven't been living in a commercial-free cave, you already know it's about a detective (a decent Jason O'Mara) who gets hit by a car in 2008 and wakes up in 1973, where's he's still a detective somehow, and Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli, and Gretchen Mol are working in the precinct. So the cast is very good (though his 2008 girlfriend Lisa Bonet is unbelievably horrible... fortunately she's not on-screen much). I was extremely surprised that they're basically not leaving any mystery at all... they're basically saying he's in a hospital, unconscious and making all this up. Maybe others will have a different reading, but it felt like it was pretty unambiguous. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

In the meantime, though, we have a show with a handful of interesting characters and some interesting things to say. Yes, we have big collars and big hair, but this isn't quite a 1973 we've seen before. It's not just the little things; this show gets how our very philosophy has changed in fundamental ways, and it explores that without smacking us in the face with it. And it has a scene where the hero seriously considers shooting a little kid, and we still like him afterwards. It has many flaws, don't get me wrong. O'Mara's cop acts way too crazy for this crowd to react with the relative apathy that they do. It's credulity-straining. I also have trouble buying Keitel's supervisor guy, but maybe that's because I've spent my entire life long after 1973.

Incidentally, Life on Mars is the first show I've seen to use the World Trade Center in the way that they do here. It threw me, but not in a bad way. We've had the WTC airbrushed out of films for a while now. It's nice to see it actually highlighted without some obvious heavy symbolism (a la the last shot of Munich). Anyway, it's worth watching, especially compared to some of, say, NBC's new slate.

p.s. It's not just Knight Rider... I saw the last scene of the Kath & Kim premiere tonight, and the sheer tone deafness of the writing was startling. I try not to judge the whole by parts, but I have trouble believing there's anything worthwhile there. And does anyone think Crusoe looks palatable. Somebody needs to come back from one of the 17 different apocalyptic alternate futures on Heroes and prevent these abominations from ever being born.

TV Is Back: South Park and The Sarah Silverman Program

As Tuned In's James Poniewozik exclaimed yesterday, "South Park is back, just when we needed it." And it brought its friends!

I love South Park. It has an enduring ability to savage the worst parts of our society while still actually being funny, not to mention that it's ability to deal with current events is matched only by SNL, since the episodes are sometimes produced in as little as a week. There are off episodes, of course, but no other current shows has as many "great moments per capita" as South Park.

If you were looking for one of those classics last night, you were mostly sadly mistaken. The episode involved Cartman pulling Butters into his "American Liberation Front" to save us from Chinese domination (he has nightmares about the Beijing Opening Ceremonies), which quickly ascends into a hostage crisis farce where Butters keeps shooting people in the crotch. This is the good part of the episode. Unfortunately, it also includes a stupid plot involving the boys having been traumatized by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas "raping" Indiana Jones in the latest movie, which plays on the cliches of a Lifetime-style weepie. The biggest problem for me with this isn't the way they deal Spielberg and Lucas (incredibly, ludicrously disrespectful, but half the point of these guys is they don't respect anybody... and was it any worse than what they did to Mel Gibson? Well, maybe...), but the fact that it just isn't funny. In a show like this, that's the ultimate sin. There were flashes of brilliance, though, mostly involving Cartman, and I'm confident the show will return to form next week. It's stayed at the height of its powers longer than any other show in my memory.

The Sarah Silverman Program is a showcase for the "no holds barred" comedienne who gets her unique touch from making jokes about racism and bodily functions with a wink and a smile. This works on the internet and in cut-up form, but in half-hour form it has only been really funny in fits and starts. This season premiere was probably the best episode I've seen. One of the large, slovenly, geeky gay guys across the hall (Brian Posehn), introduces Sarah to pot... and she discovers that as long as she's high, she's a genius, but she can't remember her incredible insights while she's sober. So she develops a system where she leaves her sober self voicemail messages urging her to follow her instructions. This also leads to a farcical hostage crisis (two in one night!). On a normal sitcom, Sarah would eventually go the well one too many times and learn, at the very least, that pot isn't for her. But there's no comeuppance, and high-Sarah changes people's lives and takes down a corporation with little to no repercussions. I'll probably never say this again, but it was actually better than South Park.

Bits: Sheep Tasering Edition

I'm going for fun stuff today... it's too serious around here!

-I had bus drivers who wish they thought of this. Apparently a bus driver in Florida stopped their school bus on the train tracks and told the kids that unless they started behaving they would just leave them there to get run over. Hey, it falls under my definition of "fun stuff," okay?

-Controversy has developed in Australia after police tasered a sheep that was blocking traffic. I have trouble believing the sheep was enough of a threat to warrant such treatment (Hey, police officers around the world, you're not supposed to taser somebody unless they're getting violent. 'Cause I think everybody must have been out sick that day), but you have to admit, the whole thing's hysterical. I only wish there was video.

-British supermarket chain Asda, owned by none other than Walmart (shocker!) is now selling beer for cheaper than water. The article seems to imply that this means that beer is too cheap... I would read it as water being way too expensive. I'll try not to go on my rant here about the stupidity of bottled water. I remember a comedian I saw on television once, who did a bit about bottled water: "I don't want the water that comes out of the tap for free. I want to forage for water, like my ancestors did."

-The admittedly biased Huffington Post has an article about how Gov. Sarah Palin said that women who don't vote for another woman are going to hell. Because you know they totally are. Cooties hell. Or Wisteria Lane, maybe.

-I'm sorry, South Park's season premiere is on now. Cartman: "What is wrong with you, Butters? Defeating the Chinese won't mean anything if we do it by going around shooting people in the dick! Goddammit!"

-Today's Free TV on the Internet: I confess I haven't been paying that much attention, but word on the web has it that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has put together several of its best episodes in a row, which unfortunately have also been its lowest rated. (io9 has started throwing around comparisons to Drive. Never a good sign for ratings. Watch this week's episode now!

TV Is Back: Sanctuary

Sci-Fi Channel(as it still called for the moment) debuted the latest addition to its Friday night lineup tonight, "Sanctuary." It is an early example of a webseries making the jump to mainstream TV, and, with a full-season order already from a cable network, it may have a better shot of making it than such past jumpers as NBC's "Quarterlife," which lasted exactly one episode. The web roots are still apparent in this TV version, most prominently in the use of greenscreen techniques. Rather than building many of the sets, the actors play them against a greenscreen. This isn't as intrusive as you'd think, since the CGI is done well, and shows up most often in bizarre shots and angles that could only have been achieved with the use of a computer.

The series' pedigree stems largely from the "Stargate" franchise that has long been one of the corner stones of Sci-Fi Channel, as both of its executive producers, star Amanda Tapping, and cast members Ryan Robbins and Christopher Heyerdahl have their roots there. While the premise is very different, the feel of the series is actually similar. Both "Stargate" and "Sanctuary," ironically, are at their best when not being themselves, that is, when the characters are just hanging out talking rather than actually doing anything related to the plot. Those are the moments when we believe in the proceedings.

The idea of the series is that Tapping, rocking an English accent and long, brunette hair, runs, you guessed it, a sanctuary for monsters ("We prefer to call them abnormals"), dead ends or flukes or evolution and mutation that are persecuted by a fearful society. They also make it their mission to contain those that are a danger to the world. She has a hot blonde daughter (sans accent) whose job is to kick ass, as well as a resident nervous techie and a taciturn australopithecine/bigfoot/whatever. We enter their world in the premiere episode through the eyes of a young "forensic psychologist," (portrayed believably by Robin Dunne) who is supposed to be good at figuring out behavior but actually seems closer to the protagonists of "Psych" and "The Mentalist." We're shown the inner workings of his mind through a silly CGI gimmick that reminded me of that used in "The Da Vinci Code."

The premiere episode, "Sanctuary For All," suffers heavily from being one hour worth of story spread out over two hours. If we hadn't seen any of the ads (though I suppose we wouldn't be watching if we hadn't), we wouldn't have a clue what was going on until about 40 minutes in. The rest flows better, though as a coherent plot it works only in fits and starts, and we're occasionally asked to buy things that are a little sketchy. Then we get a denouement with a lengthy Jack the Ripper flashback. They really couldn't think of a more original backstory for their villain? (as one character asks, "Really? We care about this?")

I always root for web entertainment to make the successful transition to the old media mainstream, as it represents a democratization of the media in general. I wish "Sanctuary" all the best. It has a refreshing positive attitude that often gets lost in the formulaic hunger for villains on shows like this. However, it has yet to show any signs of being any more than the vaguely fun trifle the "Stargate" franchise has always been. That will probably get me to catch the occasional episode, but it won't make this appointment viewing.

TV Is Back: The Office & Chuck

Two of NBC's big shows returned this week, with mixed but mostly positive results. SPOILERS ENSUE




In the past couple years NBC has established it in the eyes of many as the most quality-laden of the big networks, though others can make the claim. "The Office," really the vanguard of NBC's current lineup, isn't television's funniest show. That honor probably goes to "30 Rock," though "South Park" and any number of AdultSwim shows have their good days. However, "The Office" is probably the best comedy on TV, and that's because it doesn't just give us jokes, it gives us a huge cast of great characters, almost all of which we care about.

"The Office" returned with a one-hour premiere called "Weight Loss", which took the novel tack of stretching an episode's story out over eight weeks of summer (defined by a weight loss competition between branches that gets, of course, a little crazy). This was probably the best managed of the one-hour "Office" eps we've seen so far, with every member of the large cast being given something significant to do.

Of course we all are huge fans of the Jim/Pam relationship, which had one of its greatest moments in this episode as Jim asked Pam to marry him. This was pulled off pretty much perfectly, in what might be the best straight romantic moment I've ever seen in a TV comedy. Does anyone seriously want to make the argument that a Ross and Rachel moment was more satisfying than this?

But the show is so diverse, there's plenty more to talk about. Michael and the new HR woman (Amy Ryan, wonderfully willing to make a fool of herself) inching toward what may be a relationship... in an episode where Michael often manages to succeed despite himself, but the one time he thinks he's succeeded he's actually probably failed. Angela and "a fiancee I very much like"... and Dwight's beeper. Kelly and Ryan... and Michael's retention of his weird need to impress Ryan. "That wasn't a tapeworm." "A 1000-year old church within the continental Unites States?" "We were fighting the power and eating whatever we wanted." "wika wika wika woo wika woo" The pay-off of the "Kevin is mentally challenged" bit. Pam trapped in a computer. And so much more. WATCH IT!

"Chuck" was one of those shows most affected by the writers' strike. It did pretty well at its debut, but has been off the air for what, ten months or so? I gave it a glowing review when it first came on the air, but how will that hold up?

Well, it helps to keep in mind that this is one of those shows that isn't anything more than what it is. It's a geeky guy trying to be a spy with the help of a hot chick and, well, Adam Baldwin. It's not on a level that much higher than David Hasselhoff with a cool car, or a green guy with stretchy pants. However, it's very well done, and achieves a high level of charm without seeming to try (which would make it cloying). Zachary Levi's Chuck Bartowski is a highly relatable wish-fufillment fantasy of a dweeby guy who gets the beautiful, butt-kicking girl and, under-pressure, discovers he's secretly competent. On top of this the show is genuinely funny, and that usually ends up being enough.

The premiere was titled "Chuck Versus the First Date" (all the episode titles are "Chuck Versus..." something), and mostly revolved around the NSA's (or is it the CIA... or does it matter) attempts to build a new "Intersect" which would would replace Chuck, either resulting in his "freedom" or Adam Baldwin having to kill him, or both. Michael Clarke Duncan plays the obligatory scary mercenary of the episode, who gets lines like "Do you find me imposing? I was going for imposing." As all this comes to a head, the new Intersect blows up and some ancillary characters die and the status quo is saved. Yay.

Perhaps the single most memorable moment of a strong but probably forgettable episode? "WELCOME TO THUNDERDOME!"

Coming this week? "Pushing Daisies" and "30 Rock".

Bits: Theater of the Absurd Edition

-The Machinist today has a great entry on how digitized today's entering college students are, focusing on the Amherst College class of 2012. 99% are on Facebook, 99% have only cell phones, 99% have only laptop computers...

-Michael Grunwald has a great article on Time.com... "Oh, the Drama! McCain in the Theater of the Absurd".

-Watch the Sarah Palin/Katie Couric interview on YouTube. "Saturday Night Live" hardly had to change the words in order make this hysterically awful.

-io9 tells the bizarre story of the recent Season Finale of the Sci-Fi Channel drama "Eureka"... which I recently watched most of without actually realizing it was the series finale. Sci-Fi Channel apparently repeatedly rejected entire plotlines, resulting in the finale basically being improvised by the writers as the episode was filmed... thus lending credence to all those viewers who think "they're just making this up as they go along." "Eureka" is a fun show, but in the end it's inherently "small"... something that, based on my possibly mistaken impressions of what's going on here, may have been Sci-Fi Channel's problem. In other weird news, there's a rumor going around the intertubes that the Sci-Fi Channel wants to change its name to "Beyond." Kay.

-This week's WalrusFile free internet TV pick is the season premiere of "The Office." I'll be trying to come up with a full review of it in the next day or two. In the meantime, discuss amongst yourselves.

-Overlooked News Story of the Day, from the Dayton Daily News: Chemical Irritant Empties Dayton Mosque. An apparent major hate crime not that far from where I live. Sigh.

TechWatch: Gesture-Driven TV

Toshiba has unveiled an experimental TV that allows viewers to control it just by gesturing with their hands. A sensor above the screen picks up your movements, even in different lighting conditions. You can control a cursor by using your hand or use different gestures for "play" and "stop." You can even hold up picture cards to switch the display's language or contents.

Positives: This may be the first advance in TV technology I can think of that will actually result in me getting MORE exercise. Other than WiiFit, of course, but that can't be used while watching the game. It's also great for people, like me, whose remotes often resemble Dr. Orpheus' from "The Venture Brothers" (in that they've "vanished from the material realm").

Negatives: Those using this system will really have to watch what gestures they make, and I'm sure this will lead to a lot of accidentally fast-forwarded DVDs. Also, what if you have multiple people watching? Currently if I want to claim the remote all I need to do is lie on top of it. I can't do that here!

Will it catch on?: Ehh....

Read more here: http://www.physorg.com/news141570427.html

"Mad Men" Review: The Alternate Universe That Was 1960 America

For some time now, I've been a proponent of television's qualitative ascendancy over mainstream film... if you know where to look. That's why it's a little embarassing that I haven't gotten around to "Mad Men" until now. A Golden Globe and an Emmy later, it appears I've missed a caravel-sized boat (of course, "Everybody Loves Raymond" won plenty of Emmys, and I feel quite proud of having been absent from that particular cruise). Of course, one has to remember that the series began life as the first ever original series on AMC, a channel I had previously mostly thought of as an inferior substitute for Turner Classic Movies, so there was little to initially catch my attention. In any case, after the unfortunately stultifying Emmys last night and weeks of urging from sources I trust, I set out to download the series' award-winning pilot, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."

"Mad Men" is a hard show to review. Its drama, at least in this pilot, is nearly entirely internal. We are presented with a series of characters that feel like real people, and who are placed very well-realized, well-defined world, that of New York, Madison Avenue to be exact, circa 1960. And oh, what a world! For someone like myself, a proud member of the digital generation, this feels less like a historical drama than one of those alternate universes where adventurers ride around in dirigibles. It's a culture that looks remarkably like our own, with car-filled streets and executives clad in expensive suits sitting behind desks... but it feels completely alien.

In the great recent HBO series "Rome," set in the famed formative years of the Roman Empire, the historical touches feel very authentic, but the sense we were left with was that people of all eras are essentially the same, and have essentially the same concerns. Ancient Rome is made to feel as modern as possible without sacrificing believability. In "Mad Men," we are instead repeatedly have the point driven home that life in 1960 was incredibly different than it is today.

This is a place where absolutely everyone smokes, all the time, everywhere. It's amazing they didn't all die of lung cancer by the time they were 35. This is a world where feminism is barely a shadow on the horizon, where men routinely call women "honey," where one woman says to another, without irony, that the men who designed a typewriter "made it so simple a woman could use it." A doctor prescribes birth control pills as barely an afterthought in the middle of lecturing a girl not to be a "strumpet." Businessmen are expected to drink alcohol while at work, and what looks like a closet conceals a team of busy female switchboard operators.

The milieu nearly overwhelms the story, but it never quite does. We are led with a sure hand into these people's lives, and halfway through the opening episode I was suffienciently at ease to sit back and enjoy this story, to listen to these people talk. They all come across, by modern standards, of above-average intelligence, coming from a time when conversation was still among the chief forms of recreation. Their speech isn't flowery, but after a while one starts to hear a sort of subtle poetry in it. Jon Hamm, doing a fine job as ad exec Don Draper, gets a final speech that may be the emotional center of the episode, about how the traditional notion of romantic love was "invented by people like me, to sell nylons."

There isn't a sour note in this first episode, and its Emmy for writing was well-deserved. I can tell you that this is a show worth seeking out on its obscure cable network, and that this will not be the last episode I'll be watching.