proximoception | (no subject)

For those caught up: wha'd you make of the Mad Men? Not great, I thought. The Don strand of the next to last one sure was. I think overall it was a weirdly mixed series. Very high highs, but of uncertain duration, even in those peak middle seasons. Which I guess is the story of almost every series ever and not weird at all, but it's weird for one that could get as good as that to not stay better. Twin Peaks was swiss-cheesy, but that was explainable by network pressures and a long Lynch absence. The Wire 2 and 5 were slight miscalculations rather than lapses, and work more than fine once you adjust.

Did the ultra-short scenes come in fairly late in the run? Like season 5 or so? I think they both helped and hurt - they pulled it away from what wasn't working or was merely connective tissue, but could create the impression of mere stuff happening, seeming to suggest we weren't to take much note of what went down when we were. Do other series even use those? Live action, anyway. They must be a bitch to film.

Threaded | Flat

The season wasn't my favorite. I hated a bunch of the finale. It's actually retroactively ruining my trust in the writers and making me bitter. So many of the resolutions felt undeserved. Still processing.

I watched a bit of season one and there's something to the idea of the lie being more real, or more important, than the truth. Consumerism being just a vehicle for a necessary, life-affirming unreality that has to be fought for. But Don never struck me as empty enough to be in a show about emptiness, or rather, the things he has done to combat emptiness proved long ago that he isn't empty. And so the existential crisis Harmon was trying to epiphanize to me was solved a long time ago.

But, what I wanted to say was: Community's ending: Best ending ever?