Phew! To be honest, that was bit of slog, but I’m glad I stuck it out.
After the first four or five episodes I was a bit worried about the episode pacing and lack of any kind of story closure or even stakes. Everyone kept telling me ‘it gets better, it gets better’ and it does, but not to the extent that it solves or rectifies all the issues I had with the first half of the season.
It must be said that I was equally concerned and excited about this new Netflix commissioned semi-season of Arrested Development. I was concerned not because I loved the first 3 seasons of the show – which I absolutely do – and thought these new episodes would pale in comparison after a seven-year creative hiatus. It’s not that I thought the actors wouldn’t fit their roles after almost every actor went on to become highly successful on the big screen. It’s not that I was concerned the limitations of the 4th season’s production (actor availability, unfocused episode order, varying episode length) would ruin the show’s essence. It’s not that I thought the show would lose its looseness and sense of style and become forced and stilted. It’s not that I thought the show would be so burdened with overcoming it’s success (well critically, if not in ratings) or the cultural comedic icon it has become, that it will be relegated to 30 minutes of ‘her?’ and chicken dances until nothing new is really said and it feels like a poor derivation of itself (looking at you Community season 4).
Until now I haven’t exactly been one to jump on the VW bandwagon (if I knew anything about cars, I’m sure there’s an easy pun here). Their debut self-titled album was a consistently pleasant affair with consistently pleasant afro-pop-tinged tracks that sported relatable but tepid lyrics like ‘I wake up, my shoulder’s cold, I’ve got to leave you before I go, I pull my shirt on, walk out the door’. Their sophomore effort had a cooler, more sophisticated sound; and it was a total bore, bolstered only by fantastic singles like Cousins. But I have to say Modern Vampires of the City is kinda great. Call it third time lucky.
This is an awfully strange episode, but not quite strangely awful.
At this stage (episode 8) in both seasons 4 and 5, things really started to pick up steam and those episodes represented the best of what Mad Men has to offer. I haven’t been getting the same feeling from this season. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still one of the best shows on television and I haven’t disliked any episodes this season, but it also hasn’t built up an unparalleled level of quality that the best Mad Men seasons offer. I think that has something to do with the idea of chaos that Mad Men has been playing with recently.
I Likes What I Likes 