The best show on television

The final episode of the fourth season of Mad Men will air tomorrow night and I'm already missing it. It's so unfair that television "seasons" are so short these days. Especially for shows as good as Mad Men. And especially for a season as good as this one has been.

Mad Men proves how good television can be. Not only are the vintage sets, costumes, and props a treat, but the characters are compelling and the writing is top-notch. There were two episodes this season that just awed me with their brilliance - the one all about Peggy and Don, and the one all about the women.

Watching the show you just know that some of the character's lives can't possibly turn out well, but you root for them anyway. You hope for them. And it's fun to know what's just around the corner for all of them, perched as they are in the middle of the 1960s. It might be called Mad Men, but the show has a lot to say about the lives of women in that time period, too.

Here's a cool little music video I found. It's a mash up of the Mad Men theme and "Nature Boy" (a song made famous by Nat King Cole.)

Identical cousins

BB and I were talking about something yesterday that made the theme song of The Patty Duke show pop into my head...

"Here's Cathy who's lived most everywhere from Zanzibar to Barkley Square..."

But BB, being seven years younger than me, had never heard the song. She had no clue about the cousins who were "two of a kind." So, of course I had to Google it.



The Patty Duke Show ran from 1963 to 1966, years during which I was a pre-teen. (Whereas BB was still a toddler.) I hadn't thought about this show in years, but it was fun to be reminded of it.

I loved this show when I was a kid. I Loved the concept of cousins who looked exactly alike, and I was intrigued by the fact of one actress playing two roles. That wacky Patty was always getting into some kind of mess. But Cathy was so cultured and proper. And I wanted to be a little of both of them.

thirtysomething again

For the last couple of weeks I've been hooked on watching the first season of thirtysomething on DVD. I was a big fan when the series was on TV from 1987-1991. The characters were the same age as me at the time and I related to each in their distinct and flawed ways.

Watching this show again is like reconnecting with old friends you haven't seen in a long time. And they haven't aged a bit! What fun to see their clothes and hairstyles - not a caricature of the 80s, but the real thing. Watching this show sometimes makes me sentimental for that "simpler" time.

Not all the episodes hold up so well, but most of them do. I'll admit it took a while for this series to hit it's stride. But it was like nothing else on TV at the time. Creative and high-minded, it was more like something you'd see on HBO or Showtime now.

It was accused of being whiny, but I never saw it that way. Okay, maybe the Nancy character - she can get on my nerves. And Michael was aways a little too serious. But otherwise I thought it hit just the right blend of drama and comedy. It always seemed true.

Escape

I hate moving for many reasons, but mostly I hate the time it takes. I hate the huge disruption in my life. And I hate it even more so in this case because I have misgivings about the house we're moving into, and worry about the ways in which it will change our lives.

In the meantime I've become addicted to watching the second season of Mad Men on AMC. I've been watching it on our cable On Demand feature, sometimes two or three episodes a day, like a glutton. I watch it while packing, and then again as a reward for packing, and then sometimes again in the middle of the night when I can't sleep because I'm so anxious about the move.

I think it's one of the best series that's been on TV in a long time. And I feel lucky I have it to distract me. It's got everything: interesting, complex characters; an engaging story; great visual appeal; wonderful period details; and great writing.