Mad Men and a fun link

Mad Men is not a show I typically think of as funny. I mean, it has its moments (many involving Roger Sterling), but lawnmower antics aside, most of the humor is pretty dry. Not really laugh-out-loud funny, you know?

But sometimes it just hits it dead-on.

OH DEAR GOD Pete Campbell is going to be a father.

"What the world needs is another Campbell." Ken, honey, I ROFL'd. Literally. I didn't think that actually happened in real life. I thought it was just a funny internet expression.

Also making me LOL - Don pretending there's a fire to get off the phone with Lee Garner, Jr. and Peggy peering over the divider to see into Don's office.

Speaking of which, holy shit, Allison! Don so had that coming, but I was extra amused because I just watched the Six Feet Under episode where Claire's school counselor encourages her to throw stuff to release tension and she trashes his office. :) And again, I LOL'd at the replacement Joan found - an old lady that Don won't try to sleep with (...oh, God, I hope not. There's not enough "Oh, Don" in the world for THAT).

On a more serious note, I like how they are doing things with Pete and Peggy's relationship, but it's all very subtle. I've never had any desire to see them together (plus I love Trudy too much), but I enjoy the little ways in which they relate to each other.

Also, If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses. HILARIOUS.

All by myself...

My boss is on vacation (again!) so I'm all alone in the office for the rest of the week. So, I am making baby announcements.

Well, just one. David Boreanaz and his wife Jaime have a baby girl named Bardot.

More good news - Mad Men has been renewed for a fourth season.

Not so good news - bad Superman actors are descending on Chuck. Brandon Routh (who I thought made a horrible Superman) and Kristin Kreuk (the worst actor on Smallville, which is an impressive feat) will both guest star next season.

Let's use some of those tags I've got there...

Remember when I used to post TV news here? Well, it's been a long, slow summer, but we're starting to get more interesting things to talk about again.

First up, HIMYM tidbits for next season. Two words: musical episode.

Also, David Anders will be on next season's 24. He is, like, my second favorite blond, immortal misunderstood TV villain with a fake British accent. (On Heroes, anyway. No word on whether he'll be doing the accent on 24.)

And finally, in honor of the season premiere Sunday night (omg I love this show), Which Mad Man are you? I'm apparently Salvatore, which cracks me all up.

Oh, and for those of you who might be jealous, Megan and I will be in New Jersey this weekend, as James Marsters has decided to come visit our Garden State again. :)

More stuff!

Took a time-out from work to watch the Inauguration ceremony, and now I'm back with a whole bunch of TV news (since I know that's what you really care about).

Interviews with both the final Cylon and the character who died in Friday's episode. (I'm not spoiling because I want you all to watch the show!!) Also, Tahmoh Penikett talks about BSG and Dollhouse.

Good news on the Mad Men front - Matt Weiner's contract issues have been resolved, so he'll be back at the helm for season 3.

Rob Thomas is writing the Veronica Mars movie!! Which puts them one step ahead of the Dr. Horrible sequel, which is still in the "everybody wants to do it, but Joss hasn't actually written it yet" stage.

And finally, more casting news: Ted is getting a new girlfriend, but she's probably not the Mother.

TGI Friday

Man, it is deader than dead today. Here's hoping this lasts through the holidays.

A couple sorta-good reviews for Leverage, which premieres on Sunday, as well as a sorta-good review for Dollhouse, which to be honest is exactly what I've expected from the show all along. (I don't care how many times Joss says Eliza Dushku is a brilliant actress. I've seen her in plenty of roles by now, and I'm not convinced she can do the "different person each week" thing very convincingly. There are at least six actors from the Buffyverse alone who could do that better than her.)

Also, really interesting interviews with Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss on Mad Men.

Stuff!

Would you believe it, Cobie Smulders is pregnant? Must be something in the water at that HIMYM set. Whatever it is, Craig Thomas is willing to capitalize on it. Also HIMYM-related, the 50 reasons to have sex napkin from last week's episode and Neil Patrick Harris answering some questions.

Also, a summary of every episode of House ever. I admit, I totally lost it at "patient poops a lung." LOL!

A really good review of Leverage, an interview with David Tennant, and OMG Joan paper dolls!!

Hump day!

We're halfway, guys! And Friday is Halloween - anyone have any good costumes? I haven't gotten dressed up since... freshman year of college? It always seems like too much effort.

Anyway, TV stuff - Joss makes a list of happy things, and Tahmoh Penikett talks about BSG and Dollhouse.

Also, another post-season 2 interview with Matthew Weiner, and also the WTF? news that he may NOT be the showrunner for season 3 of Mad Men. That's absolutely ridiculous. That'd be like Joss not doing Buffy or Aaron Sorkin leaving the West Wing (and we all know how that turned out...). Bad move, people! You don't want to lose Matt Weiner - he IS Mad Men. Work it out!

Happy Monday!

I seriously considered calling in sick to work today, but I'm a honest sort of girl, so here I am. My weekend mostly consisted of cleaning the apartment and writing myself recommendation letters, but I did (finally) watch "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." And OMG, guys. Why did no one tell me about the puppets?? Everything about that movie was all "Jason Segel's penis" blah blah blah... PUPPETS, guys. Dracula puppet musical. There are no words for how much I love Jason Segel right now... it cracks me up that he actually wrote that as a for serious musical.

I was also blown away by the Mad Men season finale last night. Holy wow, this is the best show on television right now (thank goodness this and Battlestar Galactica aren't on at the same time, or my head might explode).

Joss Whedon posted to explain the situation with Dollhouse, since rumors of shutdowns and tossing out episodes have caused fans to freak out. Seriously, Whedon fans get waaaay too worked up about this shit. Calm down, crazies. I know you've all been burned with Firefly, but seriously? The show's not even airing for another two months. And it's going to get terrible ratings if you've all had heart attacks from freaking out for six months straight. Trust me, all this panicking can't be good for your blood pressure.

Also from the Whedonverse, Alexis Denisof got a job, possibly prompted by a need to provide for the impending baby.

Life is getting its third new timeslot of the season, which I guess is good because this one's better than Friday nights at 10 when no one watches TV. Also, it nicely plugs the hole in my Wednesday night schedule, between Bones and Dirty Sexy Money.

And finally, you may have heard that Barack Obama purchased 30 minutes of airtime this week on the major networks, back before he had a humungous lead in the polls and this whole exercise seemed unnecessary. Various people give tips on what he should do with his airtime.

Hi!

Lots of stuff today. Since Mad Men's season finale is this week, here are two interviews with its creator, Matthew Weiner. In Mother-land, no decisions have been made about whether Alyson Hannigan's pregnancy will be worked into the show. Dominic Monaghan (who was on Lost, but will always be known to me as Merry the hobbit from LOTR) will be guest-starring on Chuck, and - this makes me happy - Jason Dohring will be starring in Washingtonienne, a new HBO series about three women working on Capitol Hill. And finally, watch Barack Obama dance on Ellen.

Remember when I watched TV?

Before I went on vacation, that is. I've spent the last few days catching up on the hours and hours of fall TV that I've missed, so here's a quick rundown:

HIMYM: Love it, even though Ted totally dissed New Jersey last night. But Marshall's hilarious rant about being too big for New York completely made up for it. Plus, I didn't think it was possible to love Barney even more, but OMG how cute is he being in love with Robin while still being very, very Barney. (Also, I think my Dr. Horrible love is bleeding through.)

Heroes: Holy God. I didn't think these characters could get any stupider, but wow, did I underestimate them. With Peter, we now have double the stupid (and sadly, Future Peter shows that he only gets MORE stupid as time goes on), Hiro almost won the stupid-off hands down when he opened the safe, but Mohinder once again reclaimed the lead by injecting himself with superhero juice. HRG still rocks my socks, and I like the speedster chick (though I question her judgment being married to Parkman in the future). Also, Sylar as a '50s housewife totally makes up for the rest of the Four Years Later plot totally sucking. I can't wait for Elle to show up again (she IS coming back, right?) and OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG Adam!!!!! I can't tell you how much I love him, mostly because he's always trying to kill Hiro.

Fringe: I'm still into it. My love of Joshua Jackson is strong, even though the show itself isn't as compelling as it thinks it is. Anna Torv bothers me, though (she reminds me a lot of what's her name, who played Kate on 24).

Bones: Started off shaky (much as I love London, that season premiere was weak), but I am LOVING Sweets this year. I was so happy to see Zack back as well, even though he creeps me the fuck out. The revolving door of assistants has been hit or miss. Hodgins and Angela just need to get back together - the reason they broke up was stupid in the first place. And is it just me, or have they been focusing on Seeley's "Cocky" belt buckle an awful lot lately?

Dirty Sexy Money: So far, I've only seen one episode, and this show is kind of on the bottom of my list of shows I care about. I do love Peter Krause and Donald Sutherland, but it seems to have gotten more soap opera-y and less funny.

The Office: Again, only one episode, but at least they seemed to be better with the pacing on the hour-long ep than last season. Still funny.

Mad Men: OMG I love this show. Watch it. That's all.

I still haven't caught up on Chuck, but I'll probably do that tonight. I'm also working on season 1 of Life, which so far seems good, but probably not must-see. I may just wait for the second season to come out on DVD. Ditto for House and Brothers & Sisters. I also started watching Arrested Development. I only got in a couple episodes before I left for vacation, and so far I'm finding it funny, but not nearly as brilliant as everyone's made it seem.

I'm just trying to acclimate you...

...to not having frequent updates, as I'll be away for much of the next three weeks.

But because I've been lazy the past week, I've got a shitload of pop culturey links for today. (See? I'm giving you a break from the politics.) Okay, I think lists are the way to go here.

Casting news: The Battlestar Galactica movie posts an updated cast list, including Admiral Adama and most of the Cylons, How I Met Your Mother's got a sister for Stella, and Chuck's Sarah is getting a dad played by Gary Cole (not to be confused with Gary Coleman, who just hit someone with his truck).

Shows that have been temporarily shut down and/or retooled: 24, Dirty Sexy Money, and Dollhouse, which might be causing some concern.

Interviews: John Slattery and Jon Hamm (both of Mad Men), as well as Amy Ryan and Paul Lieberstein on The Office.

And finally, a preview for 24: Exile and a review of Fringe, which I totally meant to watch on Tuesday except I was out drinking, but there's an encore on Sunday night, so I'll try to catch that.

I can do other stuff!

Just to prove to Kelly that I do care about things other than politics (and let me just point out that since the primary season ended, I have been very light on the politics, and it's just this one week, so let me have my fun!), here's a whole bunch of TV news to rot your brain. :)

If for some ungodly reason, you haven't been watching Mad Men, you're in luck! AMC is showing a marathon of the season so far, so you have a chance to catch up. Meanwhile, Chuck got a full season pick-up, and Kiefer Sutherland thinks he's paid too much (I'd be happy to take some of it off his hands, if he's that concerned about it).

Aaron Sorkin is making a movie about Facebook, while former West Wing-er Allison Janney is starring in a musical. And they keep getting my hopes up with these rumors about a Red Dwarf movie. Please let it be true!

I can't think of anything clever...

Hope you all had a good weekend. I'm still all "OMG I love Mad Men" because this week's episode was fantastic.

We attempted to go out for Danielle's birthday on Saturday, and we had a nice dinner at the Firehouse (and Cat even came, and Cat never comes out with us!), but by the time we got to bar #2, Danielle had a migraine and wanted to call it quits, so Jade and I ended up partying for her. But it's okay, because her actual birthday isn't until the 25th, so we've got time to try again, lol.

After bar-hopping for a while, we ended up at good old Zembie's, and they had the Olympics on pretty much every TV. So, despite my aversion to all things 5-ringed, I did manage to see Michael Phelps break the record for most gold medals in a single Olympics. (Sidebar: Damn. He is hot.) It was pretty funny to watch everyone in the bar get all excited about it.

In other news, the Democratic convention is shaping up (it starts next Monday). I'm trying to figure out who the likely VP is by eliminating everyone who's already slotted for a speech, lol.

Also, Russia invaded Georgia (the country, not the state), and W. went on vacation. That's the kind of leadership we're looking for. But don't worry - France has got it covered.

Really, I'm still alive

Okay, since I apparently have people wondering if I'm okay, here's an update to prove I'm still kicking. Haven't had much to say about anything lately, hence the lack of chattiness. It's not like I've missed much... okay, the Olympics started, but I don't really care, John Edwards imploded a little bit, but when is a politician having an affair news?

My mother had a birthday - but I'm not allowed to say how old she is. I went home for the weekend to celebrate it, Mom liked my presents (jewelry and hair product stuff she asked for), and my dad made a cake (which totally fell apart).

The Mole had their season finale last night, and I totally called the mole... and it only took me three tries. I have to say, Craig was the best mole ever on this show. I'm also a little relieved to hear that Nicole and Paul were deliberately being obnoxious to arouse suspicion and/or throw people off their game. I did actually like them by the end - they definitely toned down the bitchery, and even started to get along, which made me think it might be strategy rather than actual personality flaws. I even kind of wanted Nicole to win. Mark, although he played a good game, was just too psycho obsessive about it for me to really like him. I guess it's better that he won, though, because I think his head might've exploded otherwise.

I also (sort of) called the My Boys season finale, except that I didn't realize the season was only 9 episodes long, so I didn't realize it WAS the season finale. But Bobby totally had second thoughts about the wedding, and he totally found out about PJ and Jack, and all the ensuing angst that I predicted will surely happen next season (or the second half of this season... it's still unclear whether this was an actual finale or just a "summer finale." Cable's so weird).

I'm also addicted to Mad Men (which just keeps getting better and better) and Psych (omg Steven Weber as Shawn's uncle!), so my summer TV watching has been somewhat sparse, but quality.

Generally, a Heroes casting announcement elicits a groan, but I'm super excited that Seth Green might be coming on board. My life needs a little more Seth Green in it.

I think that's all I've got, unless anyone wants to give me boy advice. (Seriously, he was obviously interested in me, called me and texted me a LOT last week, and yet was incapable of asking me out on an actual date. He was busy the two times I invited him out with my friends, and hasn't returned my call since Saturday. Boys are stupid.)

"I'm texting. It's very important or I would stop."

If you still haven't been able to watch Dr. Horrible, try this link instead (or this one). It's clearly a success of internet-breaking proportions. I managed to watch it last night, and it's brilliant! As we all know, I am not predisposed to love everything Joss does (*cough* Firefly *cough*)... just most of it. If I wasn't completely in love with Neil Patrick Harris before this, I totally am now. I want to have his babies. And Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day are perfect for their roles. The music is catchy, the dialogue is witty, and the story is charming. So, what are you waiting for? Go watch it.

More on the 24 movie - I find it hilarious that they didn't realize the problems with setting part of the season in Africa until Jon Cassar flew there and it took 36 hours just to get there. I'm pretty sure I said that, like, as soon as I heard the idea. Oh, well, at least they got a movie out of it. Also, in season 7, apparently the Senate panel before which Jack is forced to testify is a stand-in for all the critics that dissed season 6. Well, good, because I've been waiting for someone to explain to me WTF was going on in that season.

Here's an interview with Jon Hamm, the star of Mad Men. If you haven't watched this show, definitely check it out (AMC is airing a marathon of season 1 on July 20th, before season 2 premieres on July 27th).

Also, it seems Amy Poehler will be starring in the Office spin-off. I'm not a big fan of Amy, so that's kind of whatever news to me. I'm still waiting to hear what the spin-off is ABOUT and whether it has any real connection to The Office before deciding whether I'll watch it.

One final funny bit - it's good to know that even J.J. Abrams doesn't know what's going on in his own shows: "I watched a few minutes and was so confused. I was like, literally, it was impenetrable. I was like: 'I know I should understand this. I read the - who the [expletive] is THAT guy?!'" That... doesn't really make me want to watch Lost.

Tequila bad

Very, very sluggish this morning. Can't imagine why.

Shout-out to Kelly, who came up to visit me yesterday with TJ and Megan, and went to our Wednesday happy hour. It was fun to catch up with them, since we don't keep in touch as well as we used to. (I'm measuring the times between when I talked to TJ and Megan in years now.) They also got to meet Chelsea, who is turning out to be very good with people. I'm so proud of her.

After the F&M gang left, Danielle called me to meet at Zembie's, which I feel is just an exercise is driving herself crazy. Zembie's is the regular hangout of the guy she was sleeping with and is now having issues because they're kind of breaking up and she's decided she cares about him and wants more than just sex. Naturally, he was there, and there was much angst and tequila shots, and then there was much drama when she decided she wanted to go home with the guy. So Jade took her outside and gave her a talking to, while I talked to the guy inside, and both groups came to the decisions that Danielle was coming home with me (although Danielle was not so pleased). We split up, and the guy walked Jade home, and I'm sure he got a earful from her, lol, and Danielle slept over. (Incidentally, Chelsea was very good with her, too, except she jumped on my head while I was trying to pull out the sofa bed, and it still hurts. Damn cat.)

Anyway, before all that happened, I did meet a nice Welsh fellow who works in the Budget office. We chatted a bit, and of course I was swoony over the accent. He was quite friendly, but as I was leaving with Danielle, that was as far as it went.

Just a random update on Mad Men - season 2 will begin on Valentine's Day, 1962, and the creator plans for the series to run for 5 seasons, ending in 1969.

Is it over yet?

Holy crap, I can't wait for the budget to be over. I've been driven to drink 3 nights this week (and that'll be 4 by tomorrow - Jenn is hosting a "Beer Fest" at her house this weekend). I have to go home tonight, because my parents decided to go on vacation and need me to check in on Patches. Someone in work said, "Don't they have any neighbors or friends who live less than 2 hours away that could do that?" which is a very good point. Eh, parents?

I do appreciate the complete disregard for my schedule. /sarcasm Setting aside the fact that I had plans this weekend (so I'm now going to be rushing back on Saturday to get there in time), this is budget week! Teresa needs us to be around. Fortunately, John could take Saturday, so I'm working Sunday. There's a reason they told us not to plan vacations for this time of year. And my mother even asked me, "We're thinking about going away this weekend. How is that for you?" and I said that it was a very bad weekend and could they please wait until July. And they said, "Tough, we're going anyway." Nice.

Anyway, I'll stop bitching now. Mad Men is coming back soon, isn't that exciting? The link's got pics from season 2, and this feature talks about the Mad women. There's also a trailer up for Dr. Horrible, which looks like classic Joss. Neil Patrick Harris was, like, born for a Joss show.

Meanwhile, the threat of an actors' strike is still looming. Weird to think that the writers' strike actually helped TV shows by facilitating early filming for next season, meaning they'll be better prepared in the event the actors do strike. Also, this is a handy feature to keep track of who's coming and going on all your favorite shows.