Mad Men, Recap the Recappers, “The Crash” [TV Recap]

Posted on May 20, 2013 by JJH
Pop quiz, hotshot. This was me after (a) watching this week's episode, (b) sifting through reviews. (Michael Yarish/AMC)

Pop quiz, hotshot. This was me after (a) watching this week’s episode, (b) sifting through reviews. (Michael Yarish/AMC)

This week’s installment of Recap the Recappers really gets exciting!

Sunday’s unconventional hour rivals Synecdoche, N.Y. as nonsensical art that’s a complete and terrific mess, and may in fact be terrible. However, it’s my prediction you’ll still find plenty of TV critics rushing to hail its genius, pathetic attempt to demonstrate their superior intellect. When, in fact, “The Crash” was an abject mess that didn’t sprinkle symbolism as much as bash your skull. In fact, it may have earned its title.

Spoilers ahead, though nothing happened, so don’t worry. But who reigns supreme? Who has a Schenectady-sized petard sticking from their gut? On to Recap the Recappers!

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Saturday Night Live, Ben Affleck, Sailing or Submerged? [TV Recap]

Posted on May 19, 2013 by JJH
Affleck joins the "five-timers club," and (sigh) yes, this would come up.

Affleck joins the “five-timers club,” and (sigh) yes, this would come up.

We eagerly awaited Saturday Night Live‘s season finale, and the sendoff to cast stalwarts Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, and Jason Sudeikis. For all, it was time. Representing a combined fortysomething years on the show, Saturday Night Live must reinvent itself every five or six years. In Meyers’ case, he’s been anchoring Weekend Update solo since 2008, and he’s been head writer for just as long. It’s time. Despite what panicky blog posts surmised, SNL could use the breath of fresh air, and certain cast members have earned the chance to sink or swim on their own.

So what would we get? A greatest hits of sketches past? Herb Welch? What Up With That? Alan Alda? Nick Fehn, the Headline Comedian? Jeff the Shouting Technician? I wrote down a checklist, expecting cameos from Jimmy Fallon, Amy Poehler, Matt Damon a return shot from Kristen Wiig, and even an outside chance for Alan Arkin. Let’s go to the rundown, and see if SNL stuck its landing. (Spoiler: No.)

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Mad Men, Recap the Recappers, “Man With a Plan.” [TV]

Posted on May 13, 2013 by JJH
"Yes, that's what he is. He's a sidler." (Michael Yarish/AMC)

“Yes, that’s what he is. He’s a sidler.” (Michael Yarish/AMC)

It almost seems unfair that we’re more than halfway through Mad Men’s penultimate season. However, last week’s crackling, rollicking, snappy episode didn’t just snap the show from early-season doldrums – it awakened the best from our gang of recappers. Shaking off the cobwebs, downing a tumbler of Canadian Club, donning that old-school soft-plaid grey jacket, why, they almost looked like the TV recapper they were in season one, guffawing at Don’s game of drunken chicken with Roger. So do they still have it? Does Don? Does the show?

Let’s find out, with the Internet’s best and brightest recap roundup. Because you need Recap the Recappers. And nothing else will do.

 

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Saturday Night Live, Kristen Wiig, Sailing or Sunk? [TV Recap]

Posted on May 12, 2013 by JJH

who the fWho doesn’t love a good, ol’ fashioned, witty romp down memory lane? A reunion with one of Saturday Night Live’s most talented, infectious stars? A plunge through glory days and ground traveled with cheers and salutes and new laughs and memories? Here’s to the times we’ve had, SNL gang, even though you weren’t sure if I was being sharply funny or decidedly weird!

Who couldn’t love it?

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Mad Men, Recap the Recappers, “For Immediate Release.” [TV]

Posted on May 7, 2013 by JJH
"We've shut the door. And now we're having a seat."

“We’ve shut the door. And now we’re having a seat.” (Michael Yarish/AMC)

The crackling energy can mean only one thing. Yes, that’s right, a caper! The zips, the quips, the frantic sound of clattering means even the most erudite of Mad Men‘s army of armchair critics found themselves swept up in the gang’s latest scheme. Thrills! Surprises! And somewhere, a poor, deluded twelve-year-old dreams of a career in advertising. Sigh, am I right? Spoilers after the jump, plus who reigns supreme in our latest edition of Recap the Recappers.

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Mad Men, “The Flood,” Recap the Recappers [TV]

Posted on April 29, 2013 by JJH
605 roger don

“Honestly, Mad Men? Somebody point me to the recap of the season finale of The Following!

Sometimes historical fiction must deal with, you know, actual history.

Which is what Mad Men attempted to do in its fifth episode, The Flood. Reactions differed up and down the board, and how you felt about the show’s substance may have been a byproduct of how you feel about history. Or symbolism. Maybe, like some, you’ve grown fatigued by this season. Does it feel like running in place because we’re in season six? Is it intentional? Or are we all just so jaded from spilling a metric ton of ink on the show’s inner meaning that we can’t truly love anything?

Don’t answer that. Spoilers ahead. Which recapper reigned supreme?

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Mad Men, Recap the Recappers, “To Have and To Hold.” [TV Recap]

Posted on April 22, 2013 by JJH
Lot of scenes with characters leaning against bars in this episode. Anyone notice that?

Lot of scenes with characters leaning against bars in this episode. Anyone notice that? What’s that symbolize? Drinking? Try again.

Do you remember “Beyond Blunderdome,” a 1999 episode of The Simpsons, guest starring Mel Gibson? Anyway,  Homer’s pitching a script to Hollywood with Mel, because of course. Homer is adamant they cast a dog, and the dog have “shifty eyes.” Mel goes along with it, and at the meeting, the studio suit asks, “What’s with the dog? Why the shifty eyes?”

Homer recoils. Then angry, he clenches his teeth and barks. “It was SYMBOLISM. He was MA-A-AD.” (shakes fist.)

Anyway, that’s where we are as season six of Mad Men completes its fourth episode. Recappers have shaken the cobwebs. No more rehashing the old or trying out new styles, we’re knee-deep in symbolism and psychology and allusions and literary asides, and there’s no going back. Theories abound. No comparison is too farfetched. And the best recaps are filled with as many predictions and pet postulates as they are by-the-numbers recounts of the night before.

So off we go, to recap the recappers! As alway, spoilers ahead! Which recapper reigns supreme? Did another AMC drama tackle ketchup symbolism just last year? And best of all, here’s an RTR spoiler: a longtime countdown entrant reaches their first time at number 1! THE DRAMA CONTINUES.

 

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Mad Men, Recap the Recappers, “The Collaborators,” [TV]

Posted on April 15, 2013 by JJH
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) at a table with all the people who know nothing about his past.

Don Draper (Jon Hamm) at a table with all the people who know nothing about his past. Photo courtesy AMC.

Last night’s Mad Men relied on 1968 news imagery and commentary of the growing Viet Nam saga as backdrop for unease and depression within its characters’ lives. Monday, of course, we suffered through a day filled with other heartbreaking news, the bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Recap the Recappers is glib, because it always is, but we understand if there’s no time for it this week. Consider it a distraction, because our own thoughts are with the participants, spectators, Patriots’ Day celebrators, and Boston itself. Read on for some levity. We hope. Spoilers after the jump.
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Mad Men, Recap the Recappers, “The Doorway.” [TV]

Posted on April 8, 2013 by JJH

don jacket 601Welcome back, my friends, to the English paper that never ends, the continuing study of flowing, lustrous, literate, and hopelessly erudite Mad Men recaps.

Last season, Todd Van Der Werff from The AV Club likely reigned supreme in our informal power ranking of Mad Men pundits, though we didn’t actually comb through results. Runner-up might have been Mark Lisanti’s unflappable, awesome, hilarious Mad Men Power Rankings, although he punted on the season finale. Hm. I guess, then, by definition, they were flappable.

Some other changes to our ranking subjects: Slate now has a free-for-all Facebook chat transcribed into next-day content, and by my arbitrary ruling, that crap is permanently “out.” Also out is Uproxx, because they loaded the recap with a wall of gifs that crashed my computer with impunity. Go away.

Nelle Engoron has been replaced by Heather Havrilevsky at Salon, which is too bad. We always liked Nelle. Also, Rolling Stone enters the fray. (LET ME GUESS: THEY LIKED IT.) In addition, many critics screened the episode and posted reviews prior to air. I included VanDerWerff’s pre-show review and Tim Goodman’s pre-air review, but I didn’t include James Poniewozik or Andy Greenwald, because life is unfair, you know?

But that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to soak it all in. The ennui. The boiling pots. The bon mots. Let’s get to it. Continue reading →

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Saturday Night Live, Melissa McMarthy: Sailing or Submerged? [TV Recap]

Posted on April 7, 2013 by JJH

vannah mccarthy You’ve all been wondering, what’s the appropriate comedown after five-plus hours of gripping, heartrending NCAA Tournament Final Four games? Is it, in fact, an episode of Saturday Night Live featuring the second star turn from Melissa McCarthy? In a daze, we tuned in to find out. So how did it go?

 

 

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The Walking Dead, “Welcome to the Tombs.” [TV Recap]

Posted on April 1, 2013 by JJH

darryl-time-to-shineSo that was a good episode.

But we knew it would be. The Walking Dead is built for season finales, mid-season finales, and the occasional season premieres. It’s the stuff in between all the cataclysms that trips our struggling heroes up. Read on, for the weekly report, who’s up, who’s down, who’s here, and who’s departed, after the season finale of The Walking Dead. Spoilers after the jump, you’ve been warned. Now cue those violins.

 

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The Walking Dead, “This Sorrowful Life.” [TV Recap]

Posted on March 25, 2013 by JJH
Merle, dreaming of dirty work. Always dirty work. Dirty work. Work that is dirty. (Courtesy AMC.)

Merle, dreaming of dirty work. Always dirty work. Dirty work. Work that is dirty. (Courtesy AMC.)

I was in South Carolina for most of last week.

Prior to my stay, I was largely unfamiliar with the lowcountry, and its neighbor, Savannah, Georgia. In fact, I’ve spent almost no time in the South at all, unless you count Kansas and Missouri, and you shouldn’t.

Packed in our rental car, we drove down two-lane highways encircled by forests, with palmettos and evergreens and a mix of proud, leafy trees drooping over the highways, and it recalled numerous highway scenes on The Walking Dead, isolated stretches of road neatly slicing through forest. On either side, woods disappeared instantly into confusing messes of trees and shrubs and blackness.  So finally, I guess I understand how it would be possible to roam through foliage for days on end, between small town and prison, no matter how close each is to the other. It’s possible that it took Andrea or the gang tons of return trips to become familiar with the jaunt.

This is neither here nor there, of course, but it beats any latest rehashed complaints about The Walking Dead’s fattened season three crippling the show’s mostly-solid, mostly-interesting, mostly-compelling stories. Tonight was exhibit D of far too many stretches of time devoted to speeches, speeches about making speeches, and more speeches about the speeches of speeches and speeches. Where were we? Spoilers ahead. Cue the violins.

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The Walking Dead, “Prey.” [TV Recap]

Posted on March 18, 2013 by JJH
Images courtesy AMC.

Images courtesy AMC.

My goodness, there was a lot going on this Sunday night.

First, it was Selection Sunday, featuring brackets and bracketology and talking heads who may have been the walking dead in some cases. Second, you know all those times we whined, “Selection Sunday should be a national holiday?” Well, here it was, and it also was Saint Patrick’s Day, so there’s a good chance you were drunk on St. Selection Day.

And finally, the season finale of Girls aired on HBO, so you can be forgiven (well, sorta) for missing The Walking Dead, because you were too busy reading critics slobbering over a full season of a show that went absolutely nowhere. Remember season two of The Walking Dead? Yeah, that was season two of Girls, where a bunch of whatever happens and by the final shot, everything’s the exact same as it was a full year ago. Oops, spoiler. By the way, to cope with the loss of Girls, the AV Club plans to run monthly 6,589-word essays informing you exactly what it meant that time someone asked if you watched Girls and you shrugged your shoulders. BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE A HATER.

Anyway, another solid episode of The Walking Dead aired among all this other stuff. Who ranked high? Who ranked low? Let’s go to this week’s Walking Dead Watch, and, as always, spoilers lurk. Don’t read further until after you watch “Prey.”

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The Walking Dead, “Arrow on the Doorpost” [TV Recap]

Posted on March 10, 2013 by JJH
Rick now wears a jacket to cover the bedraggled shirt surely fused to his skin. Courtesy AMC.

Rick now wears a jacket to cover the bedraggled shirt surely fused to his skin. Courtesy AMC.

We’ve rounded the last quarter-pole, and head toward the conclusion of the third season of The Walking Dead. By now, the refrains are familiar. Tons of people watch the show. Tons of people watch just to see zombies gutted. The gang is doomed to an existence of bouncing into new survivors, wondering if they’re good, then discovering they’re bad. What else could there be?

TV critics professional and amateur practically cry in anguish. As the third season wraps, it’s no longer super-easy to make fun of The Walking Dead. It’s just as easy, honestly, to lavish praise and metaphors and English thematic discussion atop the show. Mad Men is back in less than a month, anyway.

Regardless, departed showrunner Glen Mazzara, and an all-new batch of writers have done the show enormous favors. No matter what happens with the governor, they’ve unshackled the show just enough from its source material to please both ardent fans and weary everyman alike. They’ve moved slyly into developing characters – helping Rick, Carol, Carl, Michonne and even the Governor immensely. And they’ve positioned themselves for a final showdown, which is what The Walking Dead does best. No more does the show tell. It finally shows. Check back later, to see who’s up and who’s down (and who’s still here) after “Arrow on the Doorpost.”

By the way, doesn’t “Arrow on the Doorpost” sound like a terrible 70s song by, oh, say, Kansas? Either way, it’s on my 70s-80s mixtape right next to “Mirror in the Bathroom.”

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Saturday Night Live, Justin Timberlake & Justin Timberlake, March 9 [TV Recap]

Posted on March 10, 2013 by JJH
From Steve Martin's Twitter feed, Friday, Mar. 8.

From Steve Martin’s Twitter feed, Friday, Mar. 8.

You know it as well as I do. Certain hosts carry a level of panache and charisma onto the stage at 30 Rock that merit “event status” for SNL. Justin Timberlake is one of those hosts.

Be it the viral sketches, the commitment to gags, the hundreds of other cameos, or simply his star status, expectations rise, the kitchen sink gets brought, writers suddenly get sharper and wittier – and hands are on deck for a Timberlake episode.

This was Timberlake’s fifth host turn, and based on Steve Martin’s tweet, we knew we might get cameos. Five-timers, Dan Aykroyd, Andy Samberg, Jay-Z during the music set, Jimmy Fallon and even an outside shot for Jon Hamm, it was all on the table. So how did they do?

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