Black Sheep Does TV: MAD MEN Season 5

I am one of those people who only watches certain shows when they are released on Blu-ray or DVD. They air on television all season long and I play a fun little game trying to avoid all spoilers and the like, while they are dissected by the masses on Twitter and message boards. And in the meantime, I wait. I wait for months to go by in between releases and in the case of MAD MEN Season 5, I realized that I had waited a total of a year and a half to feast upon its brilliance once again. Having missed their original production start date for the fifth season of the AMC series, the four time Emmy Award winner for Best Dramatic Series was forced to make fans wait to find out the happenings at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The question is, was it worth the wait?

This year marks the first year since MAD MEN debuted in 2007 that it did not take home the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series. (That honour went to the fledgling season of HOMELAND.) The suggestion of course is that the series, created and still run by Matthew Weiner, is slipping. In the fourth season, we watched what felt like a very slow build that culminated in some very shocking and significant moments for the oh so fashionable cast. This fifth season was as stunning as always, as diligently performed as always and as poetically written as always but somehow, just not as memorable as always. There just weren't as many moments to mark the series this time around. Of course, this might be because a good chunk of the characters are depressed most of the way through the season. Pater Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) can't get comfortable planting roots in the suburbs, while Betty Francis (January Jones) gets too comfortable in the suburbs, putting on a noticeable amount of boredom weight. Meanwhile, the man at the helm, Don Draper (Jon Hamm, who has incidentally and questionably never won an Emmy for this role), doesn't even see that his new marriage to his former secretary, Megan (Jessica Pare), has distracted him from the fiery drive that once drew everyone to him.

MAD MEN Season 5 consists of 13 episodes and, even though I was thrilled to have everyone back in my living room, whether to watch Roger Sterling (John Slattery) go off on an LSD inspired enlightenment journey or just to see what Peggy Olsen (Elizabeth Moss) and Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) would be wearing each week, it felt as though I had episodes to get through to get to the end rather than my usual desperation to get to as many episodes as possible and inevitable depression when I realized there were none left. I will now have to wait another year or so to see how the series concludes (as the sixth season may be its last) and I'm sure by the time that time rolls around, I will be just as ravenous for more. The great thing about MAD MEN is that even if it falters just a little bit, it is  already so brilliant to begin with that it still remains a cut above everyone else.

MAD MEN Season 4

I do not ordinarily review television shows but when the show in question is as filmic as MAD MEN is, it is pretty hard to resist. Now I, like many of you, are surely disappointed to hear that the highly anticipated fifth season of the AMC program will not be returning until 2012 but all is not lost. First of all, showrunner, Matthew Weiner was able to secure a deal that will allow for the core cast and creative team to stay in place, ensuring at least two more seasons of television's most poetic and pristine drama. Furthermore, the fourth season was just released on DVD and Blu-ray, so at least we have that to keep us busy in the meantime.

When we last left Donald Draper (Jon Hamm) and "friends", he had orchestrated a coup to take back the company that had previously been sold to a British parent conglomerate. The newly formed Sterling Cooper Draper Price was setting itself up in a hotel suite and was ready for business, with only the best of the former Sterling Cooper firm still on board. This season follows the firm's inaugural first year in business. With some months behind them, SCDP has moved into fancy new office digs and is rolling smoothly despite its modest capabilities. Still, their business is tentative as it consists mostly of one client, everyone's favorite tobacco manufacturer, Lucky Strike. The ad men have to scramble to generate new business and we've never really seen them squirm quite like this.

Meanwhile, Don's home life was nothing short of ruined. At the close of the third season, Don and Betty Draper (January Jones) have split. They are now divorced with Don living in the city and Betty already remarried to the handsome governor's aid, Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley). Their older children shuttle back and forth between them while baby Gene is inevitably learning to see Henry as his actual father, given that Don is never around. Don spends the first chunk of this season stupefied, almost as though he doesn't think any of it is real. Pity surrounds him everywhere he turns at first but Don is a smart man, as you well know. He figures before long that he is truly on his own now. While that does mean he has to deal with his past more directly, it also means that Don Draper is single, ladies.

Everyone who jumped ship with Don is back for more this season as well and there is plenty more to be had. Prodigious copywriter, Peggy Olsen (Elizabeth Moss) continues to find herself, exploring both relationships and drugs (nobody is more funny stoned than Peggy.) Office manager, Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) deals with a husband going off to war and an old flame returned during his absence. Older partner, Roger Sterling (John Slattery) must face his past while he contemplates his memoirs and ignores his current clients. Meanwhile, new partner, Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) celebrates new milestones in his personal life while trying desperately to juggle the egos in his professional life. And there is also a new addition to the cast - Montreal's own, Jessica Paré, catches the eye of a senior member of management, making her a permanent fixture in the far off fifth season.

MAD MEN Season 4 is a 13-episode exploration of uncertainty. Don Draper has forever been trying to run away from himself and he simply cannot do this any longer. The image he created of himself is collapsing and given that Don is such a giant force of nature, he seems to be dragging everyone else around him down with him. In his abandon though lies great catharsis so follow him down. You will feel lost and empty at first but you will soon be shocked into a state of presence and satisfaction that is synonymously associated with MAD MEN now. That said, the one drawback to the fourth season is how much it will have you longing for the fifth.

(Maple Pictures)

2009 Golden Globe Nominations

Here are the Golden Globe nominations for film and television from the official Golden Globe website

All the usual suspects are there - film: Avatar, Inglorious Basterds, Up in the Air, the musical Nine, the animated Pixar classic Up.. TV is hardly changed from last year: Mad Men, Big Love, Dexter, House, 30 Rock, Entourage.. missing this year is Weeds, admittedly falling in quality since the

Slumdog Millionaire wins Producer's Guild Award

Producer’s Guild of America Awards 2009

[These pretty much echoed the Golden Globes and Critic's Choice awards]

Movie: Slumdog Millionaire
Animated Film: Wall-E
Documentary: Man On Wire

Long Form Television: John Adams
Episodic Comedy: 30 Rock
Episodic Drama: Mad Men
Non-Fiction TV: 60 Minutes
Live Entertainment/Competition TV: The Colbert Report

They should combine several of these shorter

Screen Actors Guild Awards

The SAG awards results (held on Jan 25th). They give awards only to actors (the award is called The Actor®) - and the word "actress" is prohibited. They also give awards for ensemble acting, and for both film and tv.
Can't you just hear the kids at home: "Hey, mommy won The Actor" - "Wow! Is it Tom Cruise?"

2009 SAG Winners (career totals shown)

Film
Ensemble Cast: Slumdog Millionaire
Lead