Mothers and daughters were never so opposed as in this episode. Look at how different, and yet how similar, these two are. | Photo via AMC.

This week’s episode of Mad Men explored the relationships between parents and daughters and the inevitable conflicts that arise when the daughters grow up.  The episode was on point and right on time—it was time that Sally finally put on her big girl shoes, it was time we met Megan’s elusive parents, and it was definitely time Peggy and her mother finally had it out.

Sally had a stunning, albeit brief, Cinderella moment this episode. | Photo via AMC.

Sally Draper has undergone major character development in Mad Men‘s most recent seasons. As the child of the dysfunctional marriage of two extremely dysfunctional people, Sally was destined to have a difficult time growing up.

Sally has managed her circumstances admirably with the help of her wise therapist (who saw that her mother was the one who needed the most help), learning to prioritize her frustrations and define herself as an individual. Sally carries the coldness of her mother and the smooth manipulativeness of her father within her—she’s able to spin a situation or shut an enemy down at the drop of a hat (see how she stole five dollars from her grandfather and blamed it on the maid a few seasons back, or how she subtly blamed baby Gene’s toys for Pauline’s fall in this episode).

We’ve seen her growing exponentially over the course of this season, and in this episode we finally saw the “a-ha!” moment; Sally is now a young woman, not a little girl. As she glided into the room, graceful and confident in her adorable and completely 60′s-fabulous getup consisting of a glittery halter top, miniskirt, bouffant, eyeliner, and white go-go boots for her daddy’s big awards dinner, she was never more different than the innocent Sally of season one, with her cupcake dresses and pin curls. Of course, this was no fairy tale, and there was no time wasted between her time as a child and her new identity as a sexual object in the 1960′s. “Soon your daughter will spread her legs and fly away,” Megan’s father Emile said, in a line as biting and terribly funny as the show has ever had.

Sally’s Cinderella moment was, as predicted, sundered quickly and shockingly, when she unwittingly walks in on exactly the type of behavior that Emile sneeringly warned of. Sally returns silently to her chair and eats the fish that she refused as a child. She is a woman now, and does what is expected of her, even when it does not go down easily.

The Calvet family dynamic is, appropriately, devastatingly academic and very, very French. Despite the fact that they are Canadian, the Calvets are continental and fabulous in a way that no one else on Mad Men is. Marie enters the room dressed in head-to-toe magenta with a matching hat and chunky gold jewelry (a bold ensemble even today), then changes for dinner at home in a chic little black dress worthy of Audrey Hepburn. She falls asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand and her shoes on in a wine-induced haze. Her husband Emile is every inch an academic, with quirky little round black frames and tweedy plaids.

Marie and Emile Calvet’s marriage is crumbling and sarcastic, all romance and passion gone, and they take their frustrations out on one another using sex, alcohol, and money. Marie’s dress at the awards dinner (black with a low neckline, sheer netting, and a bold jeweled neck piece) is the height of style, but extremely risque for the time, signifying both her wealth and her reliance on her sexuality as a tool. The tension between Megan and her parents is clear throughout the episode, not only in dialogue (“You’ve changed,” her father tells her) but in apparel. When Marie is in pink, Megan is dressed in green, opposite each other on the color wheel. At the ball, Megan wears a gorgeous and modest coral, while Marie wears daring black. Megan is on her game the entire episode, showing that she is not only a gifted professional, but that she and Don make an excellent team. “Some things never change” is a brilliant tagline, and, not coincidentally, echo the themes of the episode perfectly—family tension will never change.  Her outfits often coordinate with Don and their apartment , but always clash with her parents. They don’t like that their daughter is gifted and happy at what she does, a fact which brings them all down.

Busy patterns clash in this tense relationship. | Photo via AMC.

Peggy’s life has reached a satisfying stability, both personally and professionally. As Abe and Peggy sit together in the office in subtly coordinating outfits (grey, high collars, slashes of red) we know that they are a good match—he likes her for who she is, and respects her role as a modern professional woman.

Joan smartly advises her that Abe may propose when he insists upon dinner at seven one night, and Peggy falls into an old-fashioned tizzy. She goes out and buys the most obviously feminine outfit in the world, a hot pink cupcake of a dress (take note, Pegs: pink is not your color) but, lo and behold, Abe’s request is much more modern than all that. Peggy hesitates, her traditional Catholic upbringing weighing on her, but accepts and is overjoyed when she gets Joan’s honest (and heart-warming) approval.

All is not well, though—Peggy decides to tell her mother, and it does not go smoothly. She dresses in her most traditional 50′s silhouette, but still clashes with her mother, their busy patterns fighting one another. Katherine Olsen is horrified by the news, taking away the delicate cheesecake she brought (“I’m not giving you a cake for living in sin!”) and suggests that Peggy should have let her live in ignorance. Projecting her own loneliness on her daughter, she says “You’re lonely? Get a cat. They live thirteen years, and then you get another one, and then you get another one, and then you’re done.” Of course this was not going to go well. Peggy needed to finally hear her mother’s disapproval after years of tacit silence. They needed to have it out. Peggy’s all grown up now, however, and her mother’s disapproval can’t change her mind now.

The ladies of Mad Men are all doing all right for themselves, forging their own personal and professional identities and celebrating their earned successes, but there is no success without some force pulling them back. In this episode, that force came in the forms of mothers and fathers. We saw hints of true sisterhood among them this week, real steps forward, but the creators of Mad Men know that there will always be a struggle for these women, some insurmountable test for them to defeat.

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Maybe you were just lounging around, having way too much of a nice day. The sun was shining, your classes have just ended, and you managed to get a booth during lunch at the George Sherman Union.

Suddenly, you though “Dagnabbit, I’m in way too much of a good mood. I wish I could somehow fix this and be more miserable.”

Fear not, my friends, for this week’s episode of Glee will make you feel like you did in high school: depressed, confused, and really uncomfortable.

Overall Story

There’s no way to discuss this week’s themes without getting too depressing, so let’s just dive right into the individual story lines.

Thanks to popular demand, Puck has finally received another plot line! This time around, his story revolved around him, amidst singing popular rock songs, trying to uncomfortably seduce a teacher for his own ulterior motives! Wait, that sounds an awful like his lost story line that dropped completely off of the face of the Earth.

In this slightly modified version of this story, Puck needs to pass his European Geography in order to graduate high school. At first, he’s unmotivated because he’s Puck. Then he gets motivated because his dead-beat father comes around looking for money.

After hours of studying with the New Directions dudes, he fails the test.

On a brighter note, NYADA auditions have rolled into town for Kurt and Rachel. Rachel chooses to sing her go-to song “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” and Kurt initially elects to sing “Music of the Night.” That is until Whoopi Goldberg (really) gives him a staredown and he decides to rip off his pants and sing a completely different song. This impresses Whoopi.

Then Rachel tanks her song and ruins her chances at attending NYADA. I lied about that “on a brighter note” bit.

The final, and by far most impressionable, story is that of Coach Beiste and the New Directions girls. After Santana makes a domestic abuse crack about Coach Beiste’s shiner, Sue and “Black Sue” punish the girls by making them sing empowering songs. After the ladies’ performance of “Cell Block Tango,” Beiste storms out of the auditorium, revealing that she actually was the victim of domestic violence.

In response, Sue orders Beiste to get out of the house, live with her, and break away from Cooter (her husband). The girls serenade Beiste. Despite everything, it is revealed (through montage) that Beiste has taken Cooter back.

Just gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling.

We wish you the best, Coach Beiste. | Photo courtesy of FOX TV

How to Abuse a Character Respectfully

The “Character” section this week has been eschewed in favor of an educational tutorial intended to guide novice writers, both professional and amateur, on “How to Abuse a Character Respectfully.”

A strong writer has to be an absolute monster to his or her characters. They will be bruised, beaten, dumped, disabled, psychologically tortured, killed, and even intentionally be put in bad wardrobe. It comes with the territory of quality writing.

Being a literary sadist, however, is not the key to writing effectively. It’s about treating your characters and their stories with dignity, all while being a literary sadist.

Coach Beiste is the perfect example of when this is not handled well.

Her only major story line this season has been her relationship with Cooter. Over the course of three episodes, she meets the guy, gets dumped by the guy for Sue, and gets married to the guy. In season two, there’s an entire episode dedicated towards teaching the audience not to make fun of people for their appearances by making the audience laugh at Beiste’s appearance.

Then, after many months of story hiatus, the Glee writers haul Beiste back out to get emotionally and physical knocked around.

Giving a character nothing but fleeting and shallow story lines over the course of two years does not justify pulling her out of character purgatory to use her as a prop for another episode’s themed PSA.

If carried out effectively, the domestic abuse segment would not come off as rushed. Over the course of 17 other episodes, there has been nothing to indicate that this was going to happen. There has been no discussion of domestic abuse before, there has been little time dedicated to Beiste, and there has been no screen time given to her actual marriage before this episode. A topic as serious as domestic abuse should have been thought of long in advance. Glee’s quick turnaround with a Whitney Houston-themed episode shows how little advance planning there is.

Case and point, the Real Housewife of Atlanta has gotten more screen time this season than Coach Beiste has.

That being said, Dot Jones did a stellar job acting in a very difficult part.

Songs

“School’s Out” by Alice Cooper: Segueing from a student aggressively hitting on a teacher to an upbeat rock song is, and was, clunky and strange. Opening aside, the song was pretty decent. The non-challenging vocals were handled well by Puck, and the visual performance was moderately entertaining. That’s about all.

“Cell Block Tango” from Chicago: Watching “high school” students dance around in their underwear and quite visibly doing the “spread eagle” (I’m looking at you, Tina) is pretty darn awkward. The vocals were strong, but they were unfortunately not quite as powerful or nuanced as those in either the original Broadway version or the movie version. Tina’s voice acting was mediocre, as was the general performance.

“Not the Boy Next Door” from The Boy From Oz: “Then the underage boy ripped off his pants to reveal his gold, sparking, skin-tight trousers. Performing for an audience that included his teacher and brother, he proceeded to gyrate those hips like he’s never gyrated before” should NEVER accurately describe any high school performance. Ever. That being said, the vocals were impressive and well-suited for his voice.

“The Rain in Spain” from My Fair Lady: My Gleecap notes summarize this well enough (picture them in all caps): “What is going on? Where am I? Drugs? Are these what drugs feel like? This is like Schoolhouse Rock, but on crack. Who will buy this song? Help me. I’m in an alternate dimesion.”

“Shake It Out” by Florence + the Machine: This is, by far, the most impressive song of the episode. Both Santana and Tina’s voices carry the song beautifully, each carrying their own version of soul and sweetness. The Beiste montage was terrifying, yet touching.

“Cry” by Kelly Clarkson: The show needs to give up on the “Rachel Singing a Solo While Sobbing” bit. They’ve done it a thousand times and it’s the same story each time. Her voice is impressive, she makes a particular crying face, and there’s little variation.

One-Liners

“Sure I might not graduate, but gowns are for ladies and tassels are for strippers.” – Noah “Puck” Puckerman

“And yes, I have fantasized about slapping each and every one of you across the face with a sturdy, wet fish.” – Sue Sylvester

“You girls are cray cray. You were supposed to pick a song that gave women the self-esteem and courage to get the hell out of an abusive situation, but oh no, you pick a song about crazy women, in their panties, killing their men for chewing gum!” – Coach Roz Washington

Overall Score

Take the always-uncomfortable Puck story line, mix it with a wonky handling of domestic abuse and a bunch of mediocre songs and strange performances to get an ultimately disappointing episode. Credit is deserved, however, for “Shake It Out,” Dot Jones’ acting performance, and Rachel Berry’s hysterical opening facial expression montage.

“Choke:” C+

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HBO's Veep | Promotional photo courtesy of HBO

But cleverly positioned curse words aren’t all that Veep has to offer. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (do I even need to mention her past work?) returns to TV as Vice President of the United States Selina Meyer. Selina tries haphazardly to keep her office in order despite political squabbles, underlings with cutthroat ambition, and general incompetence. Alongside Selina is her trusty chief aide Gary (Arrested Development alum Tony Hale), chief of staff Amy (Anna Chlumsky), and press secretary Mike McClintock (Matt Walsh).

Veep, like its British predecessors does a fantastic job of humanizing characters with careers that often make them seem like robots. Dreyfus is as strong as ever, keeping her character sympathetic even when accidentally letting slip a wisecrack about one of her staffers being a “retard.” Dreyfus has a great charisma that adds a lot to her character. Iannucci’s fast-paced script certainly helps as well. He keeps the jokes flying by the viewer with no discernible attempts to circle what should be funny and what shouldn’t.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Veep fleshes out its characters in meaningful, personal ways. From the first episode alone, we know that Selina is a recently divorced mother of one and has already run for President and failed. Characterization flies by almost as fast as jokes on a comedy like this. This is the nature of premium cable programming, especially on HBO. Veep merits multiple viewings—there’s always something new to discover the second time around.

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In my time here at the Gleecap, I have said the following quotes regarding Blaine:

• “The Blaine and Rachel Show”
• “The Cult of Blaine”
• “Mr. Pirate”
• My favorite: “Gay Darren Criss, the Stepford Husband”

And I stick by every single last one of them. He’s often been very poorly written, comes off as one-dimensional, and shares one too many hip thrusts, bow ties, and weird hand motions with the audience.

That being said, Blaine’s Eyes of Sadness were like Adele and Sarah McLachlan serenading blind, amputee orphans and homeless corgis on a sinking ship in the middle of the cold, chasmic Antarctic Ocean.

Now excuse me as I rob City Convenience of all its Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Story Overview

Using the death of Whitney Houston as a catalyst for the evaporating high school experience, the kids of New Directions begin to realize that they are about to depart from school and the sad consequences of this.

Kurt, neglected by a distant Blaine, resorts to texting a flaming fellow gay in order to get attention. Blaine catches wind of these texts (“You must have been Cleopatra in a past life, because you have a great asp”) and is utterly devastated. The couple dukes it out over song, and eventually resort to awkward couples’ counseling with Emma. There it is revealed that Blaine has been distant due to the growing realization that Kurt is leaving and that there’s nothing he can do about it.

Flaunting his usual level of questionable judgement, Mr. Schuester suggests that he and Emma move their wedding from November to this coming May. After several arguments and the return of Serial-Killer-Face Schue, it is revealed that he’s worried his New Directions students won’t come to his wedding.

After an insanely awkward physical therapy session with “Teen Jesus” Joe Hart, Quinn finds herself despondent towards her increasingly frustrating circumstances. Not only has she stopped making progress in therapy, but she lost an intimate moment with Joe due to what she perceived as him seeing her as disgusting. It turns out that Joe is simply struggling with his faith and sexuality.

Eventually, much reconciling takes place. Blaine and Kurt reconcile their differences. Quinn and Joe reconcile their confused relationship status. Schuester reconciles with the fact that his students will go to the moon for him. Even Santana and Rachel reconcile their long-enjoyed rivalry. In the end, everyone reconciles both Whitney Houston’s death and the end of their high school careers.

Santana Lopez, reluctant softie for the Rachel Berry fan club | Photo courtesy FOX TV.

Characters

Blaine— The Gleecap’s melodramatic introduction more than covered this, but Blaine proved to be much more complex than he has ever been. Don’t get me wrong, Blaine’s Eyes of Sadness are about as trademarked as Rachel’s Lone Tear, Schuester’s Serial Killer Face, and Finn’s Constipation are, but they were used much more for the Forces-of-Good Writing this time around.

Quinn— For once, the writers wrote Quinn as less-than-perfect without making her psychotic. Her “beat-up actress” level of despondency in the girl’s bathroom was chilling. All of her other conflicts in the show spawned anger, resistance, or backlash. Quinn finally seemed like she’s given up all hope. And then that one final perceived rejection from Joe crushed her. That is, until it didn’t. My past season Post Traumatic Stress Disorder towards Quinn is going away.

Kurt— Although the idea that Kurt would ever cheat on Blaine sounds like utter blasphemy, it makes sense in the context in which it was done. Kurt, upset at being ignored by his “Alpha Gay,” finally got some attention. He didn’t cheat in a major way, just in a manner enough to still really injure Blaine.

Rachel— Her moral convictions about Kurt’s questionable activities and her desire to be friends with Santana makes sense. And she would want Santana to have a picture of her in her locker.

Songs

“How Will I Know” by Whitney Houston: A song in a cappella is a beautiful thing. A song in a cappella by Whitney Houston sung by Mercedes, Santana, Rachel, and Kurt is an extraordinary thing. The resonating emotion between the curiously well-blended voices set an emotional tone for the rest of the episode. Visually, the gender asymmetry was striking.

“I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” by Whitney Houston: How Brittany sang this song without a continent’s worth of autotune is utterly beyond me, yet she did. The performance’s dancing was incredible, and the vocals, especially when Santana started harmonizing, were impressive. My favorite facet, however, was how Glee changed the song’s lyrics for the story. Brittany sang about a woman she loved: Santana. No “straight-washing” lyrics here.

“Saving All My Love For You” by Whitney Houston: All things considered, this performance was nice. It showed off Joe’s voice very well, and it was pretty decent for Quinn. Her “classic” voice was a bit awkward in this song, but there’s nothing to really complain about.

“So Emotional” by Whitney Houston: Rachel/Santana duets have historically been entertaining, and this one does not break the mold. Rachel’s silky smooth singing ability and Santana’s spicy kick made for quite the tango. Also, the Kurt/Blaine drama throughout was heart-wrenching.

“It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” by Whitney Houston: Holy lack of bow ties, Batman. I can’t figure out which I’m more enamored with: the song or the visual performance. The fast pace, the focused range, and the vengeful anger all look new on Blaine. Visually, the simple cinematography, the dancers, and New Directions were incredible. Everyone’s “what-the-hell-Kurt-cheated-on-Blaine” face was hysterical, and the Choir of the Damned was haunting. I swear that Rachel was scorn-voguing and it truly terrifying.

“I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston: Kurt, like Quinn, has a lovely voice in certain contexts. This song wasn’t bad. Unfortunately, all I could think of was how Mercedes or Santana would sound singing it. Womp.

“My Love is Your Love” by Whitney Houston: Although it was not quite the powerhouse performances that were present in the episode, it was an excellent denouement to both the episode and the seniors’ journey over the past few years. Seeing each of them stroll, or roll, in to join the larger group was touching. Even Schuester’s watching from a distance was a nice throw-back to the series’ pilot episode.

One-Liners

“And Quinn, you can still dance in my dreams. And you can fly and breathe fire.” – Brittany S. Pierce

“Finn sends me cutesy text messages all the time, they’re usually puns about my boobs but I still appreciate the effort.” – Rachel Berry

“Joe is really pretty but I heard she doesn’t shave her armpits.” – Brittany S. Pierce

“Oh crap, I think I just realized I’m going to miss you. Quick. Say something irritating so I cant get the taste of this out of my mouth.” – Santana Lopez

“You’re the love of my life and I’m pissed off.” – Blaine Anderson

Overall Score

When I go into watching one of these episodes, I usually enter with a stone-cold disposition and am left with indigestion and possibly a song stuck in my head. After last week, I went into this episode with more than just indigestion. And then I left with more emotions than I knew how to handle.

When a show can make one of my least favorite characters in the history of existence into the gatekeeper of all my feelings in under an hour, I have to concede at least some skill. Or witchcraft. One of the two.

Again, some of the songs were some of the best across the entire season. Most of the story lines (read: not Schuester’s storyline) were emotionally touching in some way (physically touching for Quinn/Joe too). It was both an excellent tribute to Whitney Houston and the series itself.

“Dance with Somebody:” B+

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Yes, this week’s episode was chock full of trips—physical, metaphorical, and psychedelic. The characters moved from place to place, in and out of reality, and in and out of themselves. As Jane Sterling’s therapist urged, each of the characters experienced “living together in the truth,” although this new-found truth was only positive for some. We saw glimpses of these characters’ hearts this week, and some of what we saw was bleak and horrifying. This was one of the finest episodes that the show has produced in a long while, with incredibly on-point writing, unique art direction, and of course, truly fabulous styling.

Peggy's siesta in this episode was a clear throwback to Don's nap in the show's pilot episode, both in framing and in apparel. Screenshot by Sharon Weissburg.

This episode, more clearly than ever before, shows that Peggy has evolved into Donald Draper, 2.o. She is high-functioning in the office–brilliant and talented the way Don is–and all over the place at home, lashing out at her well-meaning boyfriend and doling out sexual favors to strangers in darkened movie theaters. In a meeting with an unresponsive client, after giving a gorgeously written and emotional pitch, she looks the client dead in the face and tells him off for his dullness. “Do you know how often people come in here and look at work and feel something? Almost never. You have to run with this. It’s young, and it’s beautiful, and no one else is gonna figure out how to say that about beans.” It’s a spellbinding scene, a dose of Don brilliance in the vein of his “I’m not here to tell you about Jesus” moment in season 1, but because Peggy is a woman, it doesn’t go over well with the client. Peggy is up against a whole other set of obstacles (her gender and youth being the foremost examples) that reduce her to a haughty little girl in the eyes of her clients. She exits the meeting and takes a nap on her office couch in a shot clearly referencing the show’s pilot, in which Don falls asleep on his couch, awash in his own mind. She runs off to a dark movie theater, as Don was likely to do back in the day, and has a drug-hazy sexual encounter with a stranger. This is a shocking act for Peggy that only serves to draw an even more defined connection between her and Don. She is dressed sharply and masculinely in a beige, black. and white ensemble with clean square lines—a costume choice that recalls men’s suiting and especially Don’s particular smoothness.

The episode then shifts to Roger Sterling’s marriage, which is deteriorating faster than we can keep track. Jane, dressed in one of the most fabulous outfits the show has ever seen (an I Dream of Jeannie-inspired white pantsuit with cutouts, plentiful diamonds, and big hair) takes him to a dinner party that quickly becomes an LSD trip. Their trip is brilliantly photographed, with subtle special effects that thankfully avoid any technicolor cliches. They discover that both of them know that their marriage is over. Roger wakes up happy and relieved, quickly ending the marriage with his shocked and unsuspecting wife.

Jane and Roger went on a real trip--dressed fabulously, of course. Look at those earrings! Photo via AMC.

Perhaps the episode’s most disturbing plot line, however, concerned Don and Megan and their trip upstate to Howard Johnson’s. Megan’s mind is clearly at the office with Peggy, where her work is being presented, but Don is still deep within his honeymoon mindset and whisks her away on a road trip for orange sherbet and one big, messy fight. Megan’s coral and white ensemble, which she has worn before on the show, clashes unpleasantly with Howard Johnson’s bright orange, showing her discomfort in her setting. Megan’s biting retort to Don’s embarrassed lash-out (“Why don’t you call your mother?”) provokes a typically Don reaction, and he drives away, leaving Megan alone to fend for herself. It seems as though Don’s new happy-go-lucky persona is not bone-deep. After frantically waiting for her upon his sheepish return, Don returns home to a locked door and a furious Megan. What follows is a disturbing scene: Don kicks the door in and chases Megan around the apartment at a dead sprint, destroying their possessions and knocking her down in a tackle before apologizing. Both Don and Megan are dressed starkly, in dark darks and white whites. The lines between them are drawn; the truth is clear. Don’s demons are still alive and well, and may be even worse than we thought. He struggles against them, reconciling the fight with Megan, but it’s clear that the honeymoon is over. When Bert Cooper berates Don for his poor performance as of late, we see just how far Don has fallen on a professional level. The entire office passes by him, alone in the glass-windowed conference room, Megan and the creative team walking one way and Peggy walking the other. Is Don’s way of things becoming outdated? What does this mean for SCDP?

And where the heck is Betty this season?

Megan's coral clashes with Don's orange in this tense scene. Photo via AMC.

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Justified, originally based off of the short story “Fire in the Hole” from popular writer Elmore Leonard, takes place in Harlan county Kentucky, where federal Marshall Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) tries to keep a lid on a formidable criminal element. Olyphant, who also carries a producing credit on the show, brings an undeniable charisma to his lead performance here. Raylan is an emotionally stunted cop with an old-fashioned sense of police work, making Justified a sort of cop procedural with a twist.

Promotional photo courtesy of FX

Justified’s strength is in its colorful characterization. The show manages to give even minor characters something interesting to do that fleshes them out while still rolling with what works. Case in point: co-star Walton Goggins’ character Boyd Crowder (one of Harlan’s top criminals) was originally intended to die in the pilot episode, but Goggins’ magnetic performance won the writers and showrunner Graham Yost over and led to basically a second lead role.

The third season of Justified crammed in a ton of plot into its 13 episode run. New criminals enter Harlan, like Neal McDonough in an unnerving performance as Robert Quarles, a Detroit businessman coming to Harlan to exploit what he thinks are dumb southerners. The show has both highly serialized arcs and unique stand-alone episodes. Justified often strikes the perfect balance between self-contained episode stories and long serialized story arcs that come to a head at the end of the season.

For prospective viewers of Justified, start at the beginning. The show has one of the strongest pilots of any show on TV right now and only builds on its world from there. By drawing from the source material of Elmore Leonard, the writers create finely textured characters who even appear sympathetic when they are doing terrible, terrible things. If you’re looking for a new drama to get into, no show is more deserving of your attention than Justified.

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It was a canine catastrophe.

Over the course of one hour, mayhem broke out across the country as every single dog burst out onto the streets in a desperate attempt to flee from some initially unnamed menace. Humans everywhere were left bewildered; there were bulldogs on buses, Airedales on airplanes, Bichon Frises on bicycles, Shar Peis on subways and mutts on the MBTA.

After some careful investigation by the authorities, there was only one possible explanation: Glee did disco.

The male falsetto from Glee’s latest episode reached an earsplitting pitch that sent the hearing-sensitive doggie populace into Marathon Monday levels of mass hysteria.

Story Overview

Sensing that the end of the year is truly near, Mr. Schuester realizes, with the aid of a creepy diorama, that some of his New Directions students are lacking in direction regarding their future. So what does he do? You guessed it, he turns to song. But not just any genre of song, disco.

After “winning” a rigged dance competition, Finn, Mercedes and Santana learn that they are the students Mr. Schuester is most worried about. All three angrily stumble off into their own self-realization storylines.

Mercedes, whilst performing Disco Inferno, is secretly video taped by Sam who then takes the video and puts on Youtube without permission. After seeing the Internet’s usual dose of love and support, she’s inspired again to fight for her dreams.

Running with the theme of exposed videos, Brittany sets the Interweb on fire with her sex tape with Santana, which she uploaded to help make Santana famous. After loads of emotional consequences nothing, the viewers also find out that Brittany sent in an application for Santana to college, where she was eventually accepted. Because that’s how college applications work.

Finn, after a conversation each with Puck, Schuester and Rachel, decides he wants to be an actor in NYC.

I’m just going to leave that there.

Lastly, there was one final storyline where Kurt and Mercedes assist their lovechild Wade, a transgender student in overcoming adversity within Vocal Adrenaline. Thanks to the encouragement from a fine pair of footwear, Wade transforms into her drag alter ego “Unique” and slays the performance and a hyper-critical Jessie St. James alike.

That unicorn is giving Brittany some inappropriate ideas. | Photo courtesy FOX TV.

Characters

Brittany — We all know Brittany has been portrayed as being a little bit slow and dull at times but publicly releasing a sex tape? What?

Generally speaking, an episode with eight songs will be a bit short on character moments. Mr. Schue was a concerned teacher, Finn was confused and awkward, Mercedes…sang, and everything else was par for the course.

Songs

“You Should Be Dancing” by the Bee Gees: My first note for this song was “not a fan of the falsetto.” Poor, ignorant boob I was. Overall, the singing was pretty mediocre. The dancing was exciting but not nearly enough to carry a performance to open the episode.

“Night Fever” by the Bee Gees: Mr. Schuester, as evidenced by his old performance of “Fix You,” has a nice falsetto. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea where that falsetto went because this performance was horrendous. Any entertainment value came from the musical portion of the song and Sue’s dancing.

“Disco Inferno” by The Trammps: Thank the disco gods for ear palette cleanse that is Mercedes Jones. Her gale-force pipes bleached the area of its previous vocal atrocities, and the performance had enough kinetic energy to send McKinley High School into space. Mercedes and her backup ladies worked that dance floor classroom.

“If I Can’t Have You” by Yvonne Elliman: Santana Lopez. Not-falsetto. A classic song. Nothing should go wrong, but, unfortunately, it did. Santana should only do songs laced in barbed wire. Whether it’s Adele or Amy Winehouse, her songs should exude pain, bitterness or, at the very least, sass. This song had none of the above, and it came out boring.

“How Deep Is Your Love” by the Bee Gees: The problem with Rachel Berry is that she has sung approximately 1.3 zillon (22 actually) solo songs on this show. The bar is set high and this performance wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t her normal level of impressive. She does, however, handle the Bee Gees better than the guys do.

“Boogie Shoes” by KC and the Sunshine Band: Wade, played by Alex Newell of The Glee Project, proved his implicit heritage to Mercedes in this viciously talented performance. In fact, he proved that he’s even more of a powerhouse than Mercedes. Between the city-leveling power vocals, the energetic choruses, and the madcap dancing in heels, Wade put every other of the show’s performances to shame.

“More Than a Woman” by the Bee Gees: Let’s be honest here, every single person gets a little bit afraid when Finn’s about to bust out a solo. Last night, the fear was justified considering Finn probably has the worst falsetto of that entire glee club. At least the backup vocals were pleasant.

“Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees: By this eighth song, the show became a serious hostage situation. Part of what makes the Bee Gees unique is how insanely difficult their songs are to pull off. No reviewer likes besmirching classics like “Stayin’ Alive,” but man was this vocally strenuous. Again, at least the dancing was fun.

One-Liners

“Two dudes in one bed is like, confirmed gay.” – Noah “Puck” Puckerman

“She gets an idea once every couple of years and, lucky for us, this was a pretty good one.” – Sue Sylvester referring to Brittany.

Overall Score

In addition to vocal performances on the verge on being criminal, the entire episode lacked anything organic and felt like one large laundry list of chores the Glee writers needed to accomplish despite glaring plot problems.

• Introduce the last The Glee Project winner? Check.
• Deal with Santana’s future, throw in Lord Tubbington and close with cute Brittana moment? Check.
• Deal with Mercedes’ future and incorporate the Sam storyline? Check.
• Deal with Finn’s manic future plans in a way that gets both Rachel and him happily in NYC? Check.
• Sing a zillion songs? Check.

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Joan and Peggy fit right in at SCDP. | Photo from AMC.

Megan’s continuing understanding of Don and how to influence him, Trudy’s persistent harping on Don, Joan’s rediscovered power and independence in the office, Peggy’s savvy with Ken–all the show’s women experienced a bit of power in this episode.

Empowerment was visible not only in their demeanors but also in their wardrobes–often, the women were dressed to look harmonious with their surroundings, a technique that costumer Janie Bryant has been known to use to indicate the relationships among characters. In the office, Joan and Peggy’s outfits’ color schemes pick up and echo the turquoise and gold tones of the SCDP offices. At the Campbell house, Trudy, Megan, and Ken’s new wife Cynthia are all dressed in warm colors that mirror the home’s interior.

Of course, attention is paid to the individual women’s styles, with Megan dressed in the latest groovy fashions, Cynthia in a sprightly yellow shift, and Trudy in a slightly out-of-style but cheerful early 60s floral with a full skirt. These women fit in where they are and hold the power in their positions, whether that is in the office or at home.

Warm colors and personal style abound in the Campbell kitchen. | Photo from AMC.

The men, however, were subject to all manner of humiliation and emasculation, chief among them Pete Campbell, who experienced these feelings not only professionally, but also socially and within his own family. He is incompetent at home (for example, Don’s Superman-like fixing of the kitchen sink while Pete fumbles for unfamiliar tools), floundering in the office (even culminating in an intensely satisfying exchange of blows in the conference room with Lane Pryce), and only successful at seducing a prostitute, rather than the teen beauty he obsesses over. He is far from the young, snarky ad rookie we met in Season 1 in his narrow blue suits and lightness of foot. Pete Campbell is visibly aged, his hairline thinning and his waist expanding. He is costumed fashionably (Pete has always had style) but his clothes are unflattering and not very masculine; we see him wearing pastels and clashing colors in sloppy, loose fits.

Pete is dressed in un-masculine colors and unflattering fits to highlight his aging and emasculation. | Photo from AMC.

The other men (Don, Ken, Roger, Lane) all experienced some cutting down. Don, unbelievably the happiest person on the show now, is cut down to size by his new wife who understands him better than Betty ever could–a fact that was not Betty’s fault, per se–but Don grows from it, maintaining his potency and passing on his new self-knowledge to Pete, who seems to be attempting a Don-like existence. Don is dressed attractively and in the now quite popular plaid sport jackets, but we see his real power when he whips his shirt off and fixes the sink in his white tee, recalling when Francine and Betty used to watch him fix up the house and sigh, “that man.”

Ken Cosgrove’s ambitions of becoming a great writer are cut down by Roger and Pete when he reveals that they sometimes interfere with his work, to which he responds by not-so-subtly painting an invective-filled picture of the two in the final moments of the episode. He is dressed, like each of the men in the episode, to clash with his surroundings in a brilliant blue plaid. Lane experiences disappointment when his foray into accounts fails because of Pete’s indiscretion (“there was chewing gum on his pubics!” remains one of the funniest lines the show’s ever had), but quickly regains his power when he beats the stuffing out of Pete Campbell, giving the audience a moment for which they have waited for five seasons. This triumph, however, is again diminished when Joan quietly shoots him down. Lane’s stuffy British tweeds and touches of red in this episode highlight how out-of-place he is in this area of the SCDP work environment (all modern sleekness and blue tones). Lane retains his dignity, but experiences disappointment and emasculation the same as the rest of the men.

Lane's Saville Row tailoring and British reds clash with the modern SCDP offices. | Photo from AMC.

Not much has been done in this episode to advance the plot of the show, but it has accomplished a summing-up of many of the themes of the season. As the wide-eyed teen beauty of Pete’s dreams says, “Time feels like it’s speeding up.” This is very true of New York in the 60s, which declined rapidly from shining metropolis to filthy crime capital in the span of a few years–a process we are already seeing in the increase of violence and depravity discussed.

The idea of “every man for himself” is also being explored, with Pete’s betrayal, Peggy’s surprising alignment with Ken, and Roger’s marked departure from the activities of the company displaying themselves all too clearly. At a time when SCDP desperately needs cohesion, each character is focusing in on themselves. This episode gave us a clear view of where each character stands–or perhaps more appropriately, where they should stand, and the consequences of when they step outside of those lines.

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Some comedies in recent years have shaken things up in terms of writing the sitcom. Curb Your Enthusiasm’s run was literally groundbreaking in the world of TV comedy. A strategy of outlined scenes with improvised dialogue brought fresh and authentic comedic voices to the fore, and shows like The League on FX (a show that also features improvised dialogue) have followed in those footsteps.

Now running on NBC is another comedy with an improv-oriented writing approach: Best Friends Forever, from creators and stars Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham. Parham and St. Clair are graduates of the renowned improv programs at the Upright Citizens Brigade, a comedy troupe based out of New York that has launched the career of what seems to be every great comic actor out there (most notably Amy Poehler, who co-founded the theater).

Promotional photo courtesy of NBC

Best Friends Forever, like Curb and The League, has improv in its DNA. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Parham and St. Clair explain that the two tape-record themselves improvising scenes and then transcribe the recordings by hand. They pick out their best takes and compile them into what will eventually become an episode script. Though Best Friends Forever does have a writing team to help break stories and edit the scripts, Parham and St. Clair basically fuel everything with improv.

The pilot episode, much like any improv show, has its ups and downs. Jessica and Lennon’s chemistry is undeniable. There’s an ease to their friendship that is hard to find among the female relationships on network TV. Their rapport is fast-paced and very funny. The only thing that seems to be holding the comedy back on BFF is traditional sitcom structure. Because this is a network show, the story goes through the motions of very clichéd sitcom fare. In the pilot, Jessica is served divorce papers and moves back in with Lennon—who now has a live-in boyfriend (played by Luka Jones). What ensues is the time-tested formula of the wacky friend coming in and causing problems for the central couple. The plot structure is predictable, but what saves this is the chemistry and the rhythm that the leads create. This is a type of humor that is hard to find on TV, let alone on network TV.

Like any sitcom before it (except maybe the now-infamous Arrested Development), Best Friends Forever will need some time to work out its kinks, but in its nascent stages, it’s showing a lot of promise.

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Warning: The following section can be read in either in a genuine voice of excitement or a voice of grating, dry sarcasm. Choose wisely:

Hooray! After an incredibly long sabbatical of seven weeks without our regular dose of high school musical drama, Glee is back! This past season was controversial to say the least, and I know that everyone is super-excited that this glorious show is back!

Piled on top of that already squeal-worthy news, it was recently announced that Glee was renewed for Season 4! The Television Gods of Quality smile brightly down upon us today.

Story Overview

In the last episode, there was this little, insignificant event that happened that you may have missed if you sneezed at just the wrong moment. It’s not really that important of a plot point anyway. Quinn just got into a life-scarring car accident on the way to Finn and Rachel’s wedding. No biggie.

That’s explored here. All throughout the episode, Quinn and Artie (Quartie) race through the halls singing uplifting music about overcoming adversity and friendship. Artie coaches Quinn on the fine art of wheelchair navigation, and Quinn shares several character-building moments with Rachel, Artie and Joe Hart, aka “Teen Jesus.”

Cooper Anderson (I see what you did there), Blaine’s older brother, comes barreling out of nowhere like the last episode’s flat-bed truck. Hot off commercial (literally) success, Cooper joins his brother and New Directions to teach acting lessons SVU style. This does not settle well with Blaine since his egocentric sibling is a jerk.

Now for the storyline that none of has truly realized is still real. Sue is pregnant! She, alongside Will and Emma, finds out that her child is a girl. She also finds out that there is some unknown complications with the baby’s status.

Sue called her Barbara Gordon, therefore she is the cover for the week. That, and I'm running out of photos. | Photo courtesy FOX TV.

Characters

Quinn— For a character who’s endured such sudden tragedy, Quinn has really proven that she’s been able to get right back up on her feet got a strong head on her shoulders after this year. For many seasons, her personality has wavered between “mature” and “serial killer.” This episode manages to make her complex and relatable, but not a caricature. Her joyful, goofy humor with Artie and wisdom with Rachel was uplifting all throughout the episode and made her short moment of weakness both real and not demonizing.

Blaine— Usually left alone with his bowties, hair gel and hip thrusts, Blaine rarely gets the characterization he needs beyond being Kurt’s plus-one. This episode, thanks to the sudden introduction of his brother, changed that. Blaine was insecure, angry and perturbed enough to receive one of Glee‘s signature angsty naked shower scenes. Regardless, this episode turned Blaine from a two-dimensional character to a 2.5-dimensional character.

Rachel— Her sudden burst of guilt mid-episode made a lot of sense.

Songs

“I’m Still Standing” by Elton John: For over half a season, I never completely understood why Quinn never really had a major part in a song. Here we learn why. In order to sing a song, Quinn needed to lose her ability to walk. Fortunately for viewers, this terrible tragedy paid off because her duet with Artie was quite impressive. Combine Quinn’s distinct lower range with Artie’s innate soulfulness and a lively beat to create a pleasant re-introduction to the series.

“Hungry Like the Wolf/Rio” by Duran Duran: This song was so cheesy that it made the entire state of Wisconsin blush. Blaine was cheesy. Cooper was cheesier. Duran Duran was cheesiest. Fortunately, it fit perfectly with the song. Sure, the unnecessary auto-tune was so thick that it deserved a place in the ending credits, but it was quite entertaining.

“Fighter” by Christina Aguilera: Most of the time, dramatic song changes work in Glee‘s favor. In this scenario, it did not. “Fighter” is a song that needs a very specific type of power vocal. Blaine can belt for some songs, but not this one. He needs an Adam Lambert voice, which he does not have. On the plus side, the financially impossible TV-screen wall was intriguing from a creative point of view.

“Up Up Up” by The Givers: This performance is very much like the earlier Quartie duet. Upbeat, great range for Quinn, suited for soulful Artie, and it makes you want to skip down Commonwealth Avenue in a sundress and a parasol. The cinematography between the skate park and Six Flags was impressive.

“Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye (feat. Kimbra): As mentioned earlier, Blaine’s voice can belt very specific kinds of song. This is the epitome of that kind of song. This may very well be the most well-suited and well-executed vocal performance since the Santana/Mercedes Adele mash-up. The Anderson boys’ voices are perfection in this recent hit and the acting actually wasn’t terrible. One of the best performances in this show’s history.

One-Liners

“So no tears. That means you, Tina.” – Quinn Fabray

“I understand that keeping bats out of your womb is an important part of having a baby when you’re older than God.” – Roz Washington

“It’s just like having a baby.” – Artie Abrams, speaking from personal experience.

“And when will someone give me a straight answer as to why they [guys] have nipples.” – Sue Sylvester

Overall Score

For the past few months, my single criterion for this show was the following: Don’t offend me into a rage.

Not only did this episode not offend me, but it managed to make me hopeful again. The Quinn and Artie dialogue was incredibly well-executed, the cinematography during songs was creative and the story lacked student/teacher sex scandals!

I wanted to crack a joke implying that Glee should take a seven-week hiatus after every episode, but with quality like this, I would be terribly sad if they did that.

Don’t make me eat those words, Glee.

“Big Brother:” A-

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The episode opens up with the moment that was distinctly missing in last week’s installment: the reintroduction of Betty Francis nee`

Betty has changed a lot since we last saw her. Photo via AMC.

Draper nee` Hofstadt. The sight of the Betty we know and love (well, the Betty we have complicated feelings about, anyway) struggling unsuccessfully to pack herself into that shiny, paisley, purple monstrosity of a dress was absolutely gasp-worthy. This is the woman whose relationship with her own mother revolved almost entirely on appearance and weight. The woman who remembered the phrase “You’re going to get stout” above anything else her mother

Betty has taken a turn for the sad in this housecoat.

ever told her. The Betty who pranced around her sparkling modern home in kicky little outfits— spouting cruelty and charm in equal measure—is no longer. She now sits in the dark luxuriousness of her ancient mansion (that house is an honest-to-blog castle, although its deep woods and high ceilings are not very cheery), eating junk food in her enormous pink housecoat. We are deliberately reminded of her long days at home in tattered maternity clothes, makeup-less and sad. Now, however, she has a devoted and supportive husband. When she receives the good news that the lump on her neck is benign and says, darkly, “Now we know I’m just fat,” it becomes clearer than ever that Betty is a woman who can not be happy with anything. As we watch her eat her daughter’s pudding in one of the uglier dresses we’ve ever seen on the show (ball fringe on the cuffs, cringe),  it’s striking how different she is now.

Megan is all kinds of hip in this kicky number. Photo via AMC.

Much of the rest of the episode’s styles serve as contrast to Betty’s physical changes. Immediately after the aforementioned dress-zipping scene, we see the new Mrs. Donald Draper zipping into her own dress with no trouble at all. What a dress it is—all swirling patterns, pleats, and bell sleeves. Megan’s heavy eye makeup, big hair, and gold jewelry are all very cutting edge, as are all of her outfits on the show. She is often shown in sunny colors and white, with ample exposed skin and fun silhouettes. She is easily the most stylish and daring of any character on the show. When she corrects an out-of-touch client that the title to a Rolling Stones song is “Time is on My Side,” the client simply responds, “Yes, it is, dear.” Her personality is equally distinct—who else could convince Don Draper to forget his bad mood and go to Fire Island? Megan may still be a mystery, but she is definitely unique.

This episode also introduced an element of the 60′s that can not be ignored: teenagers! The explosion of youth and youth culture has begun to display itself even within the world of SCDP as Don and Harry wade through a sea of hip young kids at a Rolling Stones concert, smoking joints and singing the praises of Mick and Keith. These are not the shirtless hippies of Woodstock (yet), but they bear artsy sensibilities and a distinct sense of rebellion. Don says squarely to one lime green miniskirt-wearing youngster that his generation is “worried” about hers. She promptly flees to jump onto her favorite rock star, screaming with excitement. This scene exemplified, definitively, the generational differences between Don’s generation and the baby boomers to come.

Perhaps the most intriguing development, however, came with the introduction of Michael Ginsberg—a hot shot new copywriter who is

These two are living parallels. Look at how their outfits subtly mirror one another! Photo via AMC.

in many ways similar to Peggy. He’s talented, strange, and comes from a traditional background. His work is provocative and smart, but he is ill at ease with his talent. We are, in almost every way, reminded of Peggy’s entrance into Sterling Cooper all those years ago. From the echoes of similar colors peppered through their outfits (note the red, white, and green in both of their ensembles), to Michael’s apartment at the end, which directly recalls Peggy’s mother’s apartment. They are equals in intellect and social status, a fact that puts them in personal and professional competition with one another. Could this be a potential Don/Peggy sort of relationship, nonsexual and built on mutual respect and trust? A bitter rivalry? Or could it be a budding romance? Only time will tell.

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Sunday night saw the highly anticipated return of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Given the second season’s tremendous hype leading up to Sunday’s premiere, it would have been easy for fans to be disappointed, but “The North Remembers,” excelled at the level of season one’s best episode.

Game of Thrones on HBO | Promotional Photo Courtesy of HBO

Like many classic HBO series in the past, but perhaps even more so, Game of Thrones has a massive scope, following many characters around a well-textured world. The Wire had Baltimore, the unfortunately-departed Luck had the Santa Anita Racetrack. But GoT has an expansive world to build here—and much like its opening titles, the show handles its giant world elegantly.

All of the aspects of the show fans loved in Season One are back and in many ways improved-upon. Like much of the first season, “The North Remembers” plays with the theme of shifting power. Robb Stark’s rise in the wake of the death of his father manifests itself in a tense and terrifying conversation with the imprisoned Jamie Lannister. Cersei asserts herself against the self-made whorehouse owner Petyr, responding to his assertion about knowledge being power with the cold “power is power.” Perhaps for now, but something tells me that Cersei’s influence isn’t long for this world. Her power only survives so long as the ever-slappable (and spoilers, he does get slapped again tonight) King Joffrey. Even Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) is making power moves of his own at King’s Landing.

Season two of GoT is shaping up to be a fascinating story of the struggle for power in a vacuum. With so many “kings in each corner,” to borrow a phrase from Miss Stark, serious shifts in power are bound to happen and I, for one, am excited to see it.

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