Mad Men 4x12

Due to Roger Sterling’s ineffectiveness, the firm has lost Lucky Strike, and now they may be on the brink of bankruptcy. Don has pressured Faye for a meeting with a Heinz executive, who shows interest and is excited about Don’s ideas, but remains reluctant going into business with a firm that may not exist anymore in six months. How are they to attract new clients and remain financially solvent like this? Then they are offered an exclusive meeting with Philip Morris for their new brand of women’s cigarettes. They have everything in place for another cigarette brand, so it seems like their best shot. Still, Lane Pryce remains worried and implores they reduce staff and office space. He also requires a substantial collateral contribution from all the partners. Pete Campbell panics, because he doesn’t have the required $50,000 (even if that’s only half of what the senior partners’ share). Everyone at the office is nervous about losing their jobs. When push comes to shoves, it turns out Philip Morris was just using the pitch meeting as leverage with another firm. The deal goes up in smoke, so to say. Don understands they look too desperate.

Then my girl Peggy reminds Don of what he used to say, “If you don’t like what they’re saying about you, change the conversation.” Once home, he tears out his old journal entries (another interesting comment on that lone episode with Don’s voice-overs) – and starts writing a note, “Why I’m Quitting Tobacco.” He admits it’s addictive, causes illness, never gets better, but earned him big money when they were working for Lucky Strike. What is he doing? Is he seriously quitting? No, he changed the conversation by putting in a full-page ad in the New York Times, without consulting his partners, mind you. The next day the office is all abuzz, phones ringing everywhere, everyone unsure what Don was thinking, and his partners furious they weren’t included. Bert Cooper walks out and resigns. Don’s secretary Megan tells him she admires his guts. It’s like “he didn’t dump me, I dumped him,” she explains. Something good came out of it, too, because the American Cancer Society wants to go into business with SCDP. At the end of the day, Pete also learns that Don paid Pete’s share (no doubt to keep him quiet). He’s grateful for not having to go against his wife’s demand that he won’t lose their savings in the firm.

Meanwhile, Sally is trying to make nice with Betty and Henry. Not because she is no longer mad, or because therapy is helping, but because that weird kid Glen told her to kiss her mom’s ass. Betty doesn’t really believe Sally’s making progress, but Sally’s therapist thinks they may reduce their sessions to just once a week. Sally keeps seeing Glen secretly, until Betty catches them together. Mind you, Betty knows better than Sally what a weird little freak this kid is. During dinner Betty tells Henry she wants to move. Typical – if you don’t know how to handle a situation, walk away from it. For his part, Don bumps into an old flame, Midge (back from season 1), who we learn tracked him down to sell him a painting. She’s become addicted to heroin and needs money. Don’s appalled but offers her some money and walks away with one of her paintings. It seems like a lose thread in the plot. Are we going to hear from her again next week? At any rate, what a marvelous show! I am very impressed how this season keeps us on the edge of our seats wondering what is going to happen next. Almost imperceptibly Don has found his center of gravity again, taking the reins even if he cannot know whence he is going.

Mad Men 4x11

Lucky Strike, from the start, was the account on which our Mad Ad Men could count to remain financially solvent. Now American Tobacco wants to consolidate their business and take it elsewhere. Through the grapevine Ken hears about it from someone gloating that their firm is getting Lucky Strike. Ken calls Pete, Pete calls Don, Don calls Bert, Bert calls Roger. That same evening, Bert Cooper, Don Draper, Pete Campbell and Ken Cosgrove ambush Roger Sterling in his office about Lucky Strike, the sole account he had to look after. Losing it may financially ruin their firm. Roger feigns surprise and fakes a call to Lee Garner Jr., with his thumb on the receiver, acting shocked. He offers to fly to North Carolina to convince the board to change their minds. The next day, Roger continues the charade calling in to inform his partners it’s useless, the board has already made their decision, all the while sitting in a hotel room downtown.

Meanwhile, Peggy returns from a weekend on the beach with her hip friends. She takes Abe home and they make love. The next morning, she convinces him to stay awhile longer and they get it on again. When she comes into work late, the office is in a state of nervous energy. Don ensured their employees that nothing will change, that this is going to be an exhilarating challenge. No one knows how serious the loss of Lucky Strike is until Lane Pryce returns from London. Privately Don tells Peggy he’s counting on her. She has to give a Playtex presentation tomorrow, and with her amorous encounter fresh in her mind, she changes the course of the commercial to a more sensuous approach – how Playtex gloves preserve a woman’s hands for the things she really wants to touch. Then Abe arrives, pretending to be a delivery boy, and they have a go at it again in her office. Roger calls Joan from his hotel room, desperate, confiding like a little boy who confesses to his mommy that he knew for weeks that the account was lost. Joan responds with appropriate fury. Ken and Pete call clients to assure them the firm will remain viable. Then Don receives news that Glo-Coat is dropping the agency.

While they are in the hospital waiting for Trudy to deliver, Pete’s father-in-law suggests he should abandon ship. Pete even gets courted by a rival firm and is offered full partnership. Faye consoles Don that he is the most hirable man in the business, but he wants none of it. When she notices how tense he is about losing clients, she mentions that she has encountered enough unhappy clients in her consultancy. They get into an argument when he pushes her to arrange meetings with them. When Roger shows up at her apartment, Joan turns him away. “I can’t do this anymore,” she repeats over and over. The next day, Bert berates Roger that “Lee Garner Jr. never took you seriously because you never took yourself seriously.” Stan hopes to take advantage of Peggy’s nerves by kissing her, but she rejects him once again. In retaliation, he lets her walk into her presentation with lipstick smudge on her teeth. Nevertheless, the executive adores the new approach. At the end of the work day, with everyone gone, Don’s new secretary Megan throws herself at him. Good thing Don just had a fight with Faye. After the sex, Don goes home, only to find Faye in his hallway. She arranged a meeting for him with Heinz, because he means enough to her that she’ll bend her own rules for him.

Mad Men 4x10

Finally the moment I have been waiting for, Beatlemania! Sally shrieks with happiness when Don got her surprise tickets for The Beatles concert at Shea Stadium. (It is now August 1965.) When Joan tells Roger she is pregnant and he must be the father, his response is typically condescending and chauvinist. Joan, though, is such a strong woman, she tells him she will take care of it herself. They visit his doctor for a referral; he reprimands Roger for taking advantage of Joan; but recommends a clinic in Morristown, NJ. Roger toys with the idea of keeping the baby, he’ll support her, but again Joan remains strong and tells him she will handle the situation – on her own. Later Roger has dinner with Lee Garner, his contact at Lucky Strike. Roger’s firm has represented them for thirty years, but now the board is terminating their relationship. He begs and pleads for thirty days to convince them and eventually Lee caves in, even though he is certain the decision has already been made.

It is interesting to say the least to learn about Lane Pryce’s relationship with his father. Lane was expecting his son to visit him from London. Instead his father arrives to bring him to London, which Lane declines politely. He does invite his father to dinner and asks Don to join them. Afterwards Lane takes them to The Playboy Club, and introduces them to an African-American waitress Toni, his Chocolate Bunny. He is infatuated. Later he tells his father he will not return to London because of her. His father hit him on his head with his cane, steps on his hand and orders Lane comes to London.

Meanwhile, the North American Aviation account, which Pete brought in three years ago when Don went missing in California, is promising to bring in more revenue as the executives wish to promote their cutting-edge defense technologies. Then two FBI agents show up at the Francis residence, claiming to perform a background check on Don who has applied for a security clearance. For forty-five minutes they drill Betty about his integrity, military history, loyalty to the country, allegiance to political clubs, and so on. Distraught, Betty calls Don complaining he did not warn her in advance. He breaks out in a nervous sweat but is grateful she did not break his cover. His past and his fake identity are catching up on him.

Don’s new secretary Megan explains she filled out the application with the standard employment information and had him sign it. The only other person alive who knows Don Draper really is Dick Whitman is slimy Pete. When Pete explains the application is part of their new NAA project, Don panics and even suggests he will leave the firm. Snailface Pete is actually supportive and offers to speak with a contact in the defense department. Later that evening Betty tells her husband about the interview with the agents. She says she does not want any secrets between them, but she does not reveal Don’s real identity to Henry. The next day, Pete wonders out loud why he needs to protect Don’s secret. But Don demands he cancels the $4 million account. What’s in it for Pete and how long until he will blow Don’s cover?

Then Faye stops by Don’s office and notices he has a fever, she takes him home. Don gets an outright panic attack when two men approach him in the hallway. He confides he is tired of running and briefly tells Faye how he came to adopt Don Draper’s identity in Korea. At the next meeting Pete informs the partners that he has made an incorrigible error that lost them the NAA account. Roger bursts out in anger. Cooper tells him to apologize. Lane announces a leave of absence. Then Joan asks about the shape of the current accounts and Roger gives a “thumbs up” for Lucky Strike. Just as we thought things were getting better with Don and the firm, they throw us these incredible curve balls! Hence the episode’s title, “Hands and Knees.”

Breaking Bad 3x13

Walt and Gus have agreed to meet in the New Mexico desert. Mike has had to do a lot of cleaning up after Walt plowed his car into the two dealers. Gus is incensed that Walt intervened to save Jesse, “some worthless junkie.” Walt offers Gus two options: kill him and Jesse, or continue their business arrangement as if nothing has happened. When he returns to the superlab, Walt is unpleasantly surprised that Gale is back as his assistant. At some warehouse, four Mexican gangsters are holding the owner at gunpoint. Mike the goon outmaneuvers them all. Apparently the owner supplies chemicals for manufacturing the meth – and the Mexican cartel is trying to find a weakness in Gus’ business. For his part, Gus visits Gale to inform him that Walt is dying of cancer and, in the event of his death, hopes Gale can take over the lab. He urges him to learn Walt’s system for cooking crystal the next day. The next morning Mike probes Saul where he can find Jesse. Saul pleads he cannot tell him that, but that he might have accidentally left a note with his whereabouts, some trailer park in Virginia.

Saul then drives with Walt to an arcade, allegedly to talk about some money laundering scheme, but really because at least that place won’t be bugged. Jesse is already there. In very few words, Walt explains they need to get rid of Gale. Jesse suggests going to the DEA for witness protection. Walt intimates without Gale, they are the only one who know how to manufacture the pure blue meth. All Walt needs from Jesse is Gale’s address – with Gus’ men continually trailing him, Walt cannot be seen following Gale home. Later, Jesse calls Walt with the address, but again begs him to go to the police instead. Just when Walt is leaving his house, one of Gus’ men drives up telling him to come to the lab. Mike’s already there – and Walt knows this is the end. Panicking, he tries to wrangle his way out of the situation to no avail. Walt offers them Jesse. He calls Jesse, but instead of arranging a meeting, he quickly tells Jesse he has a twenty-minute lead. “They’re going to kill me,” he explains, “Jesse, do it now!” Now held at gunpoint himself, Walt tells them Gale’s address – enough for them to know his plan. “Your boss is going to need me,” he proffers. Jesse reaches Gale’s house, he shoots his gun and the screen goes black. We have to wait until the next season to find out if Jesse screwed up again or if he did kill Gale. What a cliff hanger! And what an astounding season finale!

I have been having some difficulties figuring out when the dramatic events are supposed to take place. There was a reference to Fanny-Mae in the first season, to the subprime mortgage crisis in the second; Skyler was several months pregnant in the beginning and gave birth to Holly in season two; Combo was killed in season two also, and in the third that was just two months ago; later Walt asks Skyler what she imagines has been paying for all the bills for the six months. So, while we have been watching the series for three years, only a little more than half a year has passed in dramatic time. Thus, the events must all take place in 2008.

It was clear from the beginning of this season that Tuco’s cousins were going to play a big role in this season’s story arc. At first I found their cartoonish appearance bothersome, but the shootout with Hank offered a highpoint in terms of nerve-racking action. The failed assassination also provided a marvelous twist in Hank’s plot that started with the panic attacks about his promotion in El Paso. In the aftermath, his wife Marie became a more well-rounded character than she had been so far. The supporting cast including Gus, Mike and Saul were excellent as well. Skyler’s gradually shift, from a complaining, cheating mother and wife, to a more involved and understanding partner was immensely rewarding. Nevertheless, the real kudos go to Walt and Jesse. Obviously the show revolves around them, first and foremost, but it is because their characters are so engrossing what makes Breaking Bad one of the best drama series of the moment. It is going to be a long wait for season four. (Mind you, I finished this season early in July!)

Mad Men 4x09

Mad Men, your Chirping Cricket contends, is the best drama show on television this past decade. For that alone the show deserves all the Emmy’s they can get. The buzz is that the episode “The Suitcase” (4x07) is certainly worth nominations for Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss for their stellar performances. That episode was intense and the interaction between Don and Peggy phenomenal. But this week’s episode, to me at least, was so very much more fulfilling emotionally. It satisfies on all levels, the writing, the acting, the directing, the cinematography, the subtle score – and let’s not forget the costumes and the sets, which are always pitch perfect. If there was any hesitation in your mind that Mad Men isn’t the best show on tv, this one should cast all doubts aside. After an episode that was about men, this week’s title is “The Beautiful Girls,” and that’s obviously for a reason. It’s all about women: Peggy and Joan, Faye and Joyce, Betty and Sally, and poor Miss Blankenship – and interestingly it is not about Bethany. Let’s review.

When your world is falling apart, how do you know when you cross from lubricated to morose? Joan seems to know – and Roger has crossed that point. She’s not amused that he keeps flirting with her at work. Roger needs to hear from his secretary that Joan’s husband Greg is being shipped off to Vietnam. He has always regretted he didn’t marry her, that he let her go. He gets her a full massage, manicure and pedicure at home, but expects to take her out for dinner in return. “You’re incapable of doing something nice without expecting something nicer in return,” Joan retorts. Nevertheless, she agrees, and he confides that all his good memories are with her. On their way back home, Roger and Joan get robbed at gun point – a poignant reminder of the plight of the poor, and of the civil rights movement – because the mugger is black. In their nervous excitement, Roger and Joan have sex under a stairwell. He tries to apologies the next day, but she tells him she’s not sorry, yet reminds him they are both married.

Peggy’s counter-cultural friends, lesbo Joyce and Abe, the self-righteous artsy-fartsy leftist, are back in the picture. Peggy is worried about hiring new copywriters, because it will bring in more men to compete with. Abe, ironically, is a writer, but he is merely trying to convince her that the corporate world is killing her creative soul. When the subject turns to the civil rights movement, Peggy replies that women face discrimination in the workforce, too. Abe doesn’t get it and jokes they should have “a civil rights march for women.” She admits she feels criticized – and he defends himself by saying, “This is discourse!” (Sorry, Abe, but you can’t say that to your date.) He later stops by at the office to show her an article, “Nuremberg on Madison Avenue,” eager to hear her thoughts about it. He’s pushy and abrasive. When he realizes that he insulted her, all he can say is, “I guess I read you wrong,” and sighs, “you look so earnest.” How can you come up with dialogue like that, it’s amazing!

Don finally has a mid-summer afternoon tryst with Faye – and he is much more clear-headed and sober than before. He even allows Faye to stay in his apartment when he heads back to the office. He gets called out of a meeting, because his daughter Sally ran away from home and took the commuter train all by herself (until some lady saw her and brought her to Don). Not willing to go through the trouble of picking up her daughter, Betty agrees to stop by the next day – when she happens to be in the city anyway – and so she doesn’t have to deal with her rebellious daughter for a day. No sooner does he return to the meeting then he is called out again, this time because his secretary Miss Blankenship has died in her office chair. Don then asks if Faye can look after Sally for the rest of the day. Perceptive as she is, Sally later asks her father if he is going to marry Faye and he implies that they may see each other again. She wants to stay with her father, she hates it there, with her mother and that Henry Francis. At night, Don wants to write in his journal, but closes it – an interesting commentary on last week’s overbearing voice-over diary entries. (Not that again, please, we don’t need voice-overs to inform us of the subtext; we’re smarter than that, thanks.)

Next morning, Sally makes Don French toast in the morning – accidentally using rum instead of maple syrup. He takes the morning off to go to the zoo with her, but when Betty arrives to pick her up, Sally has one of her fits again. She is so much like her mother – and still, or rather precisely because of that, I love her to pieces. I also love the implicit ambush by Faye, Peggy, Joan and Megan in the background, when Betty is confronted with her lack of parental skills. Don is not faring much better and even asks Faye to talk to Sally. What his daughter wants to know is that her father still loves her, even though he is no longer living with her mother, but he cannot say those words. He is incapable of expressing his feelings – at least not verbally. That, in fact, is the great irony of the show: the man who knows what everyone wants and who knows all the right words to convince them into buying it, that man cannot communicate emotionally. Still, for Don and Betty, the divorce is hitting home – on all fronts. “Jesus, what a mess,” Don sighs. Even Faye is upset. She feels Don put her through the test, and she failed. She just isn’t good with kids, but he soothes her it wasn’t her fault what happened with Sally. The episode ends with the elevator doors closing on “The Beautiful Girls,” Joan, Peggy and Faye – the women of Don Draper’s professional life.

Breaking Bad 3x12

The third season is slowly drawing to its close – and to drive home the point how awful crystal meth really is, we’re shown Wendy the whore turning tricks outside “Crystal Palace.” After she’s given enough guys head in their cars she buys her meth from the dealers who had Combo killed by Andrea’s kid brother Tomas. From his car nearby, Jesse is plotting his next move. He’s seething with vengeance. Now that Jesse’s found out his friend Combo was killed on orders of rival drug dealers by the kid of his new girlfriend, he’s seething with desire for vengeance. They’re even selling the same blue meth, so they must work for Gus, too. Jesse asks Walt to give him ricin, a slow-acting, untraceable poison, but Walt tells him they are not murderers and that their death will accomplish nothing. Without Walt’s help, Jesse tries to employ Wendy in his plot. After Walt inform Saul about Jesse’s plan, Mike the goon pays him a visit and urges him not to take any half-measures when it comes to Jesse.

Meanwhile, Skyler is willing to go ahead and help launder Walt’s money with their car wash scheme, but he keeps shooting holes in her plans. He is trying to use it as a means to move back in with his family. If she gets involved, they must seem reconciled, he argues. They agree on four family dinners a week. At the hospital, Hank still grumbles that he won’t leave until he can walk again — implying that everyone who can’t use their legs should be hospitalized. Unwittingly he insults Walter Jr. Marie bets that she can arouse him with a hand job, and Hank agrees he will return home if he gets an erection – sure that nothing will happen. Later, she wheels him out of the hospital, smiling victoriously. These human moments make this show truly emotionally gratifying. This season especially, it seems a lot of thought went into character development. Still, it’s the main plot involving Walt and Jesse that offers the dramatic action of the show.

Before Jesse can get to the rival dealers, Mike orders him to come to Gus. Walt is already there – and so are the dealers. Gus intimates that he would have killed Jesse, if it wasn’t for Walt. Jesse refuses to budge because Combo’s death wasn’t just turf war, they use kids. To keep the peace, Gus agrees they cannot use children anymore. Jesse shakes hands with the two dealers. That night, Andrea gets a call from her grandmother. She rushes with Jesse to a playground where they find Tomas dead body! The next day, unable to catch Jesse on his cell phone, Walt hears the news on TV. He rushes out without saying a word. Jesse’s already waiting for the dealers to show up at their usual corner. High on meth, he grabs his gun, and walks up to them when they arrive. They pull their guns too. Right when the shootout is about to start, Walt plows his car into the dealers and kills them both! “Run,” Walt says. Unbelievable!

Mad Men 4x08

“They say, as soon as you have to cut down on drinking, you have a drinking problem,” Don intones, while we watch him dive in a pool for a swim. It is a healthy rebirth, like a baptism in the River Jordan. Still, his health is poor and his mind a jumble. It is June 1965, and the Rolling Stones score a hit with “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction).” (For you history freaks, yes, that single was released in the U.S. in June 1965.) The song is an interesting choice, what with its blatant frustration over commercialism on the radio and on tv. The lyrics, too, remind us of Don’s white shirt, his cigarettes, and his failure to get “girl reaction.” But times are a-changin’ for our mad ad man.

At the office, Peggy feels like (the famous anthropologist) Margaret Mead, observing the boys club’s odd behavior around the candy bar vending machine. When Joan demands that they keep it quiet, the new kid Joey tells her off, calling her a Shanghai whore walking around like she is trying to get raped. He later draws a sketch of Joan and Lane having sex and sticks it to her office window. His sexism is unnerving. Joan is already on edge because her husband Greg (the man who raped her in the office to vent his own insecurities) is leaving for basic training before being shipped out to Vietnam. She has no friends and no one else to talk to beside him.

Since Ken Cosgrove brought in Mountain Dew, Don wants to bring in more creative talent, especially after their ad concept was rejected – and he asks Joan to hire Joey full-time. She tries to tell him about Joey’s inappropriate behavior (generalizing her own experience as if it is office-wide, which only Peggy notices), but Don brushes her off with the old “boys will be boys.” Joan, as always, wants to fight her own battle at the office, but Peggy feels drawn in as she has long been upset by the boys club’s misconduct. Don encourages her to get some respect for herself and she demands that Joey apologizes to Joan. When he refuses, she outright fires him. Joan is none too pleased, “All you’ve done is prove to them that I’m a meaningless secretary and you’re another humorless bitch.” There is truth to that, but what is really going on is that Joan feels outmaneuvered.

Betty informs Don that he cannot have the children this weekend, because it is Gene’s second birthday. When her husband is having a business diner with a political aide at some fancy restaurant in the city, he brings Betty along, who notices to her great consternation that Don is sitting there with his date Bethany van Nuys (the actress Anna Camp who also played the wife of Fellowship of the Sun freak Steve Newlin on True Blood). Only now does it dawn on me how similar their names are, Beth and Betty. Betty cannot hide her distress seeing Don with another blonde, while Beth cannot help smiling about their resemblance. It is awfully gratifying seeing Betty argue with that Henry Francis of hers in his car on the ride back home. Don is taking too much space in her life, he worries. And then the scene cuts to Don and his pretty blonde Beth kissing in the back of a cab. She even goes down on him!

It does not take long before Don is kissing another blonde in a cab! This time it is Faye Miller. He had asked to discuss her research over dinner, but she pushed him for a proper date (although that is strange, because she has been pushing him off all this time). Earlier, he overheard her breaking up with a man. So, he confidently suggests dinner on Saturday. Meanwhile, Henry called Don at the office asking him to collect his boxes still stored in the garage – on Saturday, because it is Gene’s birthday on Sunday (an implicit way of saying Don is not welcome at the party). At his date with Faye, Don shares his run-in with Betty and Henry, and that he feels unwelcome at his son’s birthday. She encourages him to go nevertheless. Their cab ride home is in marvelous contrast to his ride with Beth. They kiss, but he drops her off with a cool, “that’s as far as I can go right now.” Of course, his rejection only makes him more attractive to Faye. Next day, Don does attend his son’s party, literally bringing a plush elephant in the room. Betty stares at him, and it is unclear whether she is confident that she is better off now, or if she is wondering if she should have stayed with him.

Breaking Bad 3x11

Hank, who cannot take a single step in the electromechanical lifter, is going to need a whole lot of medical treatment to revalidate and Skyler is more than happy to foot the bill – with Walt’s illicit income. Skyler even joins Walt to the law office of sleazy Saul; she is a bookkeeper herself after all; plus she hasn’t signed the divorce papers, so she cannot be forced to testify against her husband. She isn’t impressed with his laundering schemes. Instead she suggests Walt buys the car wash where he used to work, a believable story. But Saul explains they need someone inside who they can trust as an accomplish in the scheme. Back in the hospital Hank tells Marie he won’t leave until he can walk out himself – it isn’t up for debate.

Jesse was planning to turn his Narcotics Anonymous session into his new market, but his buddies cannot get themselves to sell to recovering addicts. Jesse wants to show them how it’s done and approaches Andrea, the latest addition to the group. But when he learns that she is living with her grandmother and her five-year old son, he, too, cannot bring himself to pitch his meth. Andrea also has a younger brother, who she refuses to talk about. But later she confesses her brother Tomas got involved with a gang as a kid and was required to kill a rival dealer as an initiation. Jesse soon enough realizes what has happened: Tomas killed Jesse’s buddy Combo! The next day, Jesse checks out the corner where Combo was shot, finds Tomas on his bike, asks him for some meth, and spots the black car with the dealers inside.

This episode was simply astonishing. I barely breathed, afraid to miss any detail. The second half of this season is definitely making up for the subdued beginning. Seeing proud and manly Hank incapacitated and embarrassed in the hospital, while his wife wants nothing but to care for him at home, is heart wrenching. Meanwhile Walt keeps hoping against all odds that Skyler will come round and understand his intentions. He sees signs everywhere and she disappoints him every time. Yet step by step, she is coming to terms with the situation. Jesse is such a trouble magnet! The revelation who Tomas is, one of those intangible and inexplicable coincidences – like Walt happening upon Jane’s father the night she died, the day before the airplane collision – is yet another example of the stellar writing of the series’ team.

Mad Men 4x07

Despite the backdrop of the rematch of Cassius Clay vs. Sonny Liston (May 1965), this was a rather quiet episode, focused almost entirely on Don and Peggy. It is difficult to tell, though, if it was a good or bad one. Don did not like the proposed Samsonite commercial Peggy and the guys from creative acted out for him. He sends Peggy back to the drawing board, while the office empties out to watch the fight. It is her birthday, her boyfriend Mark is waiting for her at the Forum of the Twelve Caesars restaurant, and she finds a birthday present from Duck Philips – business cards for “Philip-Olson Advertising.” He got fired and is hoping she will start up a new company with him. “I’m falling apart,” he concedes after she asks if he has been drinking. Don decides to skip the fight and asks Peggy to stay so they can work on the Samsonite commercial. She calls the restaurant to tell Mark she will be late. Don does not like Peggy’s revisions and comes up with an idea to tie in the commercial with the fight, but he doesn’t yet know how. Then Mark calls Peggy again, upset that she keeps him and her family waiting. Not knowing it is her birthday Don says she should go, but she hesitates. She was expecting a romantic dinner and instead she accuses Mark of trying to “score points with a bunch of people who drive me crazy.” She cancels on him and they break up. It did not feel right to her anyway and work is more important to her.

She scolds Don, though, for never appreciating her work. He shouts angrily that “that’s what the money is for!” Still, he takes her out for dinner, and later they listen to the fight in a bar. She’s self-deprecating that everyone believes she slept with Don. They make jokes, she sighs, “like it’s so funny because the possibility was so remote.” Even her mother thinks Don was responsible for the pregnancy she aborted. They return to the office, where they find Duck wandering around drunk. He gets into a fight with Don – believing like everybody else that Don and Peggy are having an affair. Peggy tries to encourage Don to drink less. “I have to make a phone call, and I know it’s gonna be bad,” he says by means of an explanation. Earlier, he had received an urgent message from Stephanie in California, but he is afraid to return the call. He knows what it means, Anna passed away. Don falls asleep in Peggy’s lap. When he wakes up he makes the call and cries when his fear is confirmed. Peggy is staring wide-eyed at him. He can only say that someone close died, “the only person in the world who really knew me.” She tries to console him, but he insists she goes home to sleep. Instead she takes a nap in her office. Later that morning Don shows her his concept, based on Clay’s victory over Liston, predicting that the photo on every newspaper will become iconic. “It's very good,” she admits. They briefly hold hands and then Don tells her to “Go home, take a shower, and come back with ten tag lines.” While the whole episode takes places over the course of less than a day, much has happened: Don lost Anna and Peggy lost Mark, but they have gained a sense of trust sharing their loss; they have grown closer, but without the sexual tension that normally surrounds Don Draper; he has had an idea that may become their next big advertisement. In short, this has been the pivotal moment of the season.

Breaking Bad 3x10

Jesse continues complaining about the working conditions in the state-of-the-art underground laboratory. They have to clean and maintain their own equipment; they have to bring in their own food and drink; and relative to the street value their income is low. Jesse’s been talking to his buddies about dealing on their own again – and skimmed half a pound of meth at the lab. He thinks he found a new market: his rehab group meetings. Right away Walt notices their net total is off by half a pound. After Jesse leaves, Walt gets all worked up about a fly in the lab. He breaks a lamp, balances on the outer rail of the catwalk, and – you guessed it – falls off, nearly breaking his neck! When Jesse returns the next morning, Walt’s gone compulsively obsessive about it. He’s been chasing the fly the whole night, he has reversed the air ventilation, and refuses to cook until they’ve dealt with the “contaminant.” Jesse points out they are making poison for “people who don’t care.” Still, the situation goes completely out of hand. Walt even locks Jesse out and Jesse turns the power off in retaliation.

Eventually, Jesse goes to the pharmacy and buys every possible insecticide and fly swapper he can find. Walt settles on the fly strips. Jesse also bought sleeping pills which he later puts in Walt’s coffee. Jesse starts talking about his aunt who also had cancer, which leads Walt to reflect that he’s lost the perfect moment to pass away, before Skyler found out. Finally, finally, after climbing atop a ladder stack atop two steel carts, Jesse finally kills the fly. Walt’s already fallen asleep. So, Jesse cooks on his own. Before leaving the lab, Walt warns Jesse he won’t be able to protect him, if Gus ever found out about the missing meth. Jesse responds that he never asked him to. Ironically, when Walt goes asleep that night, there’s a fly in his bedroom. Even though this episode has the feel of filler to postpone the season’s climax, the writing is so stellar I was glued to the screen. It’s clear that Walt fears for his live now that he’s learned how ruthless Gus is (who’s been responsible for the deaths of cartel lord Bolsa and at least one Cousin, and for the shootout that nearly killed Hank) – one more mistake and Walt may end up dead, too.

Mad Men 4x06

Don is at the height of his career. His Glo-Coat commercial is nominated for the ad industry’s Clio Awards. Although he denies it, he is clearly nervous. It is the perfect moment for flashbacks to the time when Don was still a fur coat salesman and first met Roger. He is intrigued to learn that Roger is in advertising and wants to show his own work, but Roger is not interested. Don encloses his portfolio with a coat Roger bought for his first date with Joan. Don persists, offers Roger lunch, keeps showing up at the office, until Roger budges. Unfortunately, we hear nothing of late about Peggy’s hip friend Joyce. Instead, we see her struggle for recognition. Everyone knows she is Don’s favorite, but he did not thank her for her contribution to the Glo-Coat ad. She is not even invited to the ceremony; the guys are taking Joan to charm potential clients. When she complains that her new art director Stan is lazy, Don brushes her off with “Learn how to work with him.” Stan flirts with two secretaries, talks about nude photography, but treats Peggy as one of the guys. They spend the whole weekend brain storming.

At the award ceremony in the Waldorf-Astoria, one of Ken Cosgrove’s clients drops a hint which Pete misinterprets that their firms are merging. Duck Philips drunkenly interrupts the emcee. Don and Roger joke that they have already won. Naturally, Don gets his award, but they have to leave the ceremony to give a presentation for the executives of Life cereal. They find Don’s “Eat Life by the Bowlful” campaign too sophisticated. Still drunk and excited about the award, Don starts running a few other slogans. They like the tagline, “The Cure for the Common Breakfast” – except that he plagiarized it from Jane Sterling’s cousin who has been trying to get a job at the firm. Peggy tries to warn him, but he scolds her for not producing any ideas for the Vicks campaign. When he finally gets a chance, Pete confronts Lane about the merger. Lane replies that actually Ken is joining the firm. “We can’t have you pulling the cart all by yourself,” he explains – since he is the only partner bringing in clients, and Ken will come with Mountain Dew. Returning to the after party, Faye spurns Don’s attempt to hit on her. He goes home with some other woman and wakes up two days later with another. He missed his weekend with the children. He sends the woman out, has another drink, and falls asleep on the coach.

The contrast between Don and Peggy is poignant. While he gets the recognition of the Clio award, he hardly performs at work, his life is a mess, he sleeps around, and drinks the emptiness away. It’s sad to see. Peggy for her part is working as hard as she can in a man’s world, without getting the gratitude she wants from Don, she feels like an outsider at the office. And that, too, is sad to see. Roger half admits that his only job is to find guys like Don. He threw his wife’s cousin in his lap, perhaps to remind Don of his own small beginnings. But Roger would not have hired Don if Don didn’t buy him drinks. If Mad Men is trying to get across that the state of inebriety at the firm is unhealthy – as it clearly has become for Don – then are we to assume Don is going to bring them down? Is Don going to slide farther and farther into this drunken stupor or is something or someone going to pull him out? Faye is painfully aware of Don’s mess. Peggy is too busy getting recognition. We are halfway through the season with this episode, the story arc, it seems, can go both ways, up or down. I am still rooting for Don, and for Peggy, that something good is going to happen.

Breaking Bad 3x09

The underground laboratory is working in full force manufacturing the purest methamphetamine ever seen: the notorious “Heisenberg” Blue Crystal. Walt kept his word. But Jesse did the math: they’re producing two hundred pounds a week for three months; they’ll be paid a million and a half each; but the street value of 2,400 lbs of crystal is some $96,000,000! Walt wants him to just leave it at that, be happy he’ll be a millionaire, but Jesse feels cheated. Afterwards, Walt visits Gus, because he has figured out Gus’ strategy: to divert the Cousins from Walt to Hank; turn an assassination into a shootout; setting the American and Mexican governments against each other; cutting off the drug supply from south of the border; and having the Southwestern market all to himself. Walk admits he owe his life to Gus, he respects his strategy, and would have done the same if he were in his position. In return, Gus agrees to extend his offer beyond the three months, for fifteen million a year, open ended, plus a guarantee of the safety of Walt’s family. For his part our crooked fake-Jew Saul is talking to Jesse about laundering his money by using a nail salon as a façade business. But Jesse’s uninterested.

Meanwhile, Hank’s DEA partner Gomez visits the hospital to relate that the blue meth is back on the market, just as Hank predicted. But Hank’s too concerned about the state he’s in. It’s unclear when or if he is ever going to be able to walk again. Health care insurance being what it is, Marie is understandably anxious that mediocre physical therapy isn’t going to be enough. She wants the best. And that may cost them. Later, Skyler offers her sister to cover Hank’s medical expenses. To Walt’s consternation, she tells Marie that they have enough money, because after Walt was diagnosed, he started gambling, he was too proud to take money from others and he wanted to provide for his family even after his death, and so he devised a system to predict cards at black jack and started gambling in illegal back rooms. Walt plays along with the lie and admits that’s how he made seven figures. Walt doesn’t know what to think. Has Skyler forgiven him? Does she really understand that he did it all for the best? But she avoids any confusion and warns him that she hasn’t forgotten that Hank’s in the hospital because of Walt. This is such an unbelievable series! I’m continually impressed where they’re taking the story, delving deep into the human drama of drugs.

Mad Men 4x05

Thus far, Don has been drunk, distant and depressed since his divorce from Betty. He has not achieved anything in his private or professional life. Is he going to snap out of it? He seems to be on the verge of something in his battle with Faye, the market research consultant. For her part, Peggy has been dabbling in the 60s counter-culture and I am hoping that love affair is going to continue. Don has told her he needs her in the firm because she understands young people. Will he also come to “get” the new 60s? But Don also wanted Pete on the team, because he is open for new and young markets, yet Pete is more concerned now with maintaining his position and keeping up the façade of his marriage. With their Clearasil and Jai Alai accounts gone to a competitor, Pete is proud to announce they are invited to compete for Honda’s business. Roger Sterling’s World War II experience keeps him form appreciating the opportunity.

Nevertheless, the other partners are eager to take the chance and Pete recommends they read anthropologist Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. When the Japanese executives explain they have a set of rules for the competition, Roger explodes. After the meeting, Don has an ingenious idea: as Bert Cooper believes they must resign because Roger insulted the executives, Don does not want to see the business go to the competitor by default; since they do not have the financial means to break the rules and produce a finished commercial, he suggest they make it seem as if they are shooting one, so that the competitor will actually make one. On the day of the presentation, Don offers his resignation and complains that they broke their own rules. It gains him their respect, they win the account and have bankrupted the competition. Don’s stunt has paid off royally.

Meanwhile, Don’s daughter Sally is acting out against her grandfather’s death, her parents’ divorce, her father’s many affairs, her mother’s new marriage. First she cuts her hair and later she touches herself on a sleep over. Betty is angry and mortified, but Henri says punishment will not make Sally change her ways. Instead he suggests seeing a therapist. Like Don, Betty does not believe in psychiatrists. She has been in therapy years ago and it did not do her any good. Not surprisingly, his daughter’s behavior brings Don closer to Faye and as they chat she admits she merely pretends to be married to avoid male attention at the work floor. He almost asks her out for dinner. A new blonde in his life. But that’s for later. Don is starting to get his groove back. Now let’s hope we will hear more about Peggy next week.

Breaking Bad 3x08

Jesse, still battered and bruised after Hank beat the crap out of him, is leaving the hospital. Just when he’s waiting to be picked up, an ambulance drives Hank in, barely alive after the shootout with the Cousins. It makes Jesse’s day. He then visits the new underground super-lab, an Jesse realizes Walt still has no idea what happened to his brother-in-law Hank. Walt rushes to the hospital to be with his family, leaving Jesse in the lab bored out of his wits. Although Hank survives the emergency surgery, he remains too weak to receive visitors. His colleagues in the hospital lobby take Walt to see the sole surviving Cousin, whose legs had to be amputated below the knee. Meanwhile, Mexican cartel lord Bolsa accuses our secretive Gus of ordering the hit on Hank. With no meth coming from south of the border and Hank in the hospital, Gus worries about his business. Community sponsor as he is, Gus personally delivers the officers free food from Los Pollos Hermanos, and offers a $10,000 reward for any information about the shooting, but also uses the opportunity to compel Walt to return to the lab. Walt promises to manufacture 400 pounds by the end of next week. Soon after Gus leaves, the Cousin flatlines – and goon Mike slips out unnoticed. Outside his restaurant, Gus gets a call from Bolsa that the U.S. government is putting pressure on Mexico to crack down the cartel – and while Bolsa’s still on the phone with Gus, an assassination team crashes into his headquarters killing him and his bodyguards.

The episode has several scenes that are beyond believe. All the tense moments of Walt and his family sitting in the waiting room anxiously hoping for some news about Hank. Hank’s wife Marie is desperate to blame someone, the DEA for confiscating his gun, Walt for knowing Jesse. Absolutely captivating, too, is when the surviving Cousin recognizes “Heisenberg.” He pushes himself off the hospital bed and crawls towards the door before he is subdued. Walt realizes the would-be assassins must be Tuco’s cousins, but doesn’t tell anyone. The show certainly knows how to set us up for drama. The combination of tense action and human depth makes for thought provoking entertainment. The criminal world of drugs is never glorified or glamorized. Instead we’re shown the horrible damage it does to those involved – dealers and users as well as law enforcement, their family and friends alike. The main characters are all fascinating and the writing is stellar. It is easy to sympathize with Walt and Jesse, as well as with Hank. We gradually come to appreciate Skyler, we feel for Marie now that her husband has nearly lost his life, and obviously we adore Walter Jr. Personally, I found the Cousins a little cartoonish and out of sync with the tone of the show. But they’re done away with now. It remains to be seen, though, where the story arc is taking us on the last third of the series. Will Jesse do right this time? What are Gus’ plans for Walt after the three months are over? Will Walt’s cancer return?

Mad Men 4x04

Mad Men, the most amazing show on television at the moment, is delving deep into relationships of various kinds. Don’s secretary, Allison, is disturbed by his callous attitude about their one-night-stand. She breaks down during a focus group meeting about Pond’s facial cream when the conversation steers toward marriage. She later tells Don she is quitting and throws a paperweight at him when he agrees to sign a letter of recommendation if she writes it for him. He cannot even show her enough respect to write the letter himself. “You are not a good person,” she responds. When he comes home drunk (as usual), Don starts to write an apology letter. He tries to explain his life is in a mess, but he cannot even finish the sentence. The main reason Pete Campbell is working at the firm is because he was able to bring in the Clearsil account through his father-in-law. Now he is told they have to drop the account due to a conflict with Pond’s – and Pond’s brings in more money. Right at the moment he wants to inform his father-in-law, he blurts out that Trudy (Pete’s wife) is pregnant. The next evening at home, Pete demands that his father-in-law gives him the entire Vicks account, or otherwise the firm will have to drop Clearasil. He breaks the good news at the office next day, receiving congratulations from all, before taking his father-in-law out for lunch.

Meanwhile, Peggy meets an assistant photo editor at Life, Joyce, in the elevator. She shows Peggy some rejected nude photography that intrigues Peggy. Later Joyce invites her to a party downtown that the photographer is throwing. There’s lots of drinks and weed, and that delicious Joyce flirts with Peggy talking about vaginas. Peggy gets berated for being merely a copywriter, and the photographer is insulted she invites him to work for the firm. “Art in advertising?” the photographer exclaims, “Why would anyone do that after Warhol?” Then the police raid the party and Peggy hides in a closet with one of the writers. They kiss before Joyce calls them to flee down the fire escape. It is fascinating to see Don clash with Faye Miller, their market research consultant, about the validity of focus groups and psychoanalysis. “You stick your finger in people's brains, and they just start talking,” he chides her. Don brags that people won’t understand a new idea until he shows it to them. In other words, people won’t know what they need until advertising tells them to. They are both manipulators of consumer behavior, but he’s in for radical new ideas while she opts for the conventional. Then there’s a casual reference to race riots in Harlem and the death of Malcolm X (Feb. ’65). The countercultural revolution is about to burst at the seams!

Breaking Bad 3x07

Another saturated, oily yellow scene down in Mexico, the Cousins are still kids and Don Salamanca is talking to someone on the phone about Gus the “Chicken Man.” The kids get into a fight and one of them says he wishes his brother was dead. Uncle Tio pushes the other kid’s head down a tub of water to teach them a lesson: “La familia es todo (family is everything).” In the present, the Cousins place a photo of Hank Schrader at the altar of Santa Muerte. For his part, Hank takes out his anger on Jesse, beating the crap out of him. In the hospital, Jesse swears revenge, to press charges, to haunt Hank for the rest of his life, to return to cooking crystal, and if he ever gets caught, to give them “Heisenberg.” Later Skyler visits Walt as his new condo begging him to convince Jesse not to press charges, sensing Walt is somehow responsible.

At the lab, Walt the perfectionist complains to his new assistant Gale about putting the temperature off by ten degrees. He has to throw away the whole batch. He tells Gus he wants to replace Gale. He offers Jesse a renewed partnership, sharing equally. But Jesse gives him the full motherload of all his pent up anger and frustration. Yet by the time Walt arrives at his new place, Jesse calls and agrees on a 50-50 partnership. Hank gives his statement of events as honestly as he can. He believes his career is over. He gets suspended, without pay, badge or gun, but word is that Jesse dropped the charges. Hank goes to a shopping mall, all relieved. He gets a call from a muffled voice warning him there are two guys coming to kill him. One tense minute later and a dramatic shootout commences. Hank pins one Cousin between two cars and with the guy’s gun shoots the other Cousin in the head just before he could take a swing with his silver axe. All I can say is “wow!” This sure was pay-off for the slow start of the season. Now half-way through, the action is really picking up. Exhilarating!

Mad Men 4x03

1964 is almost over for the Mad Ad Men on Madison Ave. Financially Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is still in a precarious position, but Lane tells Don it’s been a magnificent year. Don is spending the holidays in Acapulco, but makes a stopover in L.A. to visit Anna, the widow of the real Don Draper. She knows more about Dick Whitman than anyone alive. Anna’s sister Patty is helping with chores, because Anna broke her leg. And Anna invites her niece to stay over, not only to meet Dick, but also because she got “grass.” Stephanie is a college-age, pretty girl and it is obvious Dick is instantly attracted to her. Anna steers the conversation to Betty. He’s still broken-hearted about it, but seems to think she couldn’t be with him anymore because of his false identity, not because of his patronizing and promiscuous ways. Later, Dick drives Stephanie home and flirts with her. She tells him Anna has cancer, but that they’ve decided not to tell her, because it’s terminal. Next day, instead of flying to Acapulco, he returns to New York.

Meanwhile, Joan’s relationship with Greg is tearing at the seams because their busy schedules hardly leave time for them to be together. When she asks for some days off after the holidays to be with Greg, Lane rebukes her in a most unkind way. Joan is worried Greg will be sent to Vietnam as a military physician, and all he can tell her is that they will make it. Joan’s the kind of woman who wants to be in control, who doesn’t leave anything to fate, while Greg is stumbling from one failure into the next. He wants to take care of her, raise a family, but it’s hard to picture how that’s going to happen. Meanwhile, Lane was supposed to visit his family in London. He has been arguing with his wife, and his secretary accidentally sent her the wrong apology card. She hates New York, he loves the City; you say eether, I say eyether; let’s call the whole thing off. His wife left him. Don finds Lane still at the office and they decide to have some fun together. They go to a B-rate Godzilla movie, have dinner at a steakhouse, visit a comedy club, and invite some lady friends. Lane thanks Don for the “welcome distraction.” Heading the office meeting after the New Year’s weekend, Joan says, “Alright, Gentlemen, shall we begin 1965?”

Breaking Bad 3x06

The Cousins are back. They kill a police officer who’s investigating the disappearance of the elderly lady living in the house they’ve occupied on a reservation outside Albuquerque. Skyler continues having second thoughts about the divorce. If she goes ahead, she will be blamed for ruining their marriage. Yet she is troubled accepting Walt’s drug money, even if that’s what has been paying their bills for the past half year. Walt for his part has bought a new condo. He brings Walter Jr. to school and then goes to work in his state-of-the-art underground laboratory to manufacture methamphetamine with his new assistant Gale. Meanwhile, Hank is staking out at Jesse’s house, waiting for him to lead him to the RV (the camper van he uses as meth lab). Then his wife Marie reminds him that Walt knows Jesse. So, Hank calls Walt and asks him if he happens to know something about the RV. Walt of course fears that his fingerprints are still all over the van, thus he has to get rid of it, but also has to make sure Jesse doesn’t lead Hank to it. Naturally, disaster magnet as he is, Jesse leads Hank straight to the RV on the junk yard!

Walt and Jesse are now stuck inside the camper. Hank wants to break in, but the owner of the lot walks up to Hank asking about a warrant. With a little more time on their hands, Walt figures out a way to get rid of Hank. He asks Saul to let his secretary call Hank pretending to be an officer informing him that his wife was in a car accident. Hank rushes off to the hospital, only to realize he was tricked. At the junk yard, the RV is already crushed into a tin box. The Cousins show up at Gus’ fried chicken diner, Los Pollos Hermanos. And they won’t budge – even if they don’t order anything. Eventually, Gus tells them to meet him at sunset in the desert. There, Gus tells them it wasn’t Walt who killed Tuco, but DEA officer Hank Schrader and he allows them to satisfy their vengeance on him. The pitch is really building up now: a great episode such as this is how I enjoy the show, with the right combination of depth and drama.

Mad Men 4x02

Freddy Rumsen is back! Not only has he been clean and sober for half a year, he’s bringing the $2 million Pond’s Cold Cream account. His only request is that Pete Campbell cannot get near the account. Soon Freddy argues with Peggy over the creative direction of the Pond’s advertisement. Pond’s wants to use an older celebrity, but she suggests Elizabeth Taylor, as young women don’t respond to beauty advice from older women. It is Christmastime, 1964, Don has his secretary buy presents for his children, and the office is all a-bustle with excitement. Even at his apartment his flirty neighbor is busy preparing early in the morning for a party. Lee Garner Jr. of Lucky Strikes has invited himself to the party at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. And so, despite the firm’s dire financial situation, Roger asks Joan to turn the party into a “Roman orgy.” Back at Don’s apartment that night, his neighbor Phoebe is already cleaning up after her party and has to let him in as he’s too drunk himself. He tries flirting with her, but she tells him to be a good boy. The big office party is the next day. Lee Garner pressures Roger to put on the Santa suit, and he reluctantly agrees to please their most important client. Santa hands out cartons of Lucky Strikes to everyone, but gives a Polaroid camera to Lee. After the party, Don arrives home drunk again, without his keys. He calls his secretary, Allison, who finds and brings them. “My goodness,” she giggles after they have sex. She’s all smiles the next day at the office, but Don’s stiff demeanor sobers her up. While I sympathize with Don, he’s starting to lose his charm and becoming pathetic.

Meanwhile, that creepy kid Glen (who once had a crush on Betty), has been trying to bond with Sally over their shared experience of their parents’ divorce. To encourage Betty and Henry to move out of Don’s house, Glen breaks in with a friend and empties the fridge all over the kitchen. I’m not sure what to make of Glen’s reappearance. It seems a little contrived. Is Glen going to be Sally’s love interest? (Parenthetically, Glen is played by Marten Weiner, the son of the show’s creator Matthew Weiner.) Then there is the situation with Peggy and her boyfriend Mark. He begs her for sex. “I want to be your first,” he says. So she hasn’t told him yet she slept with Pete Campbell and Duck Philips before. He talks some nonsense about Swedes making love right away. She asks him to leave. At the office, Freddy notices she’s testy about marriage. He advices her to hold off sex, if she wants to marry Mark, but not to lead him on. Afterwards, she goes to bed with Mark. “Do you feel different,” he asks. She doesn’t even answer. I don’t know what to make of Peggy and Mark either. For now their relation is hanging in the air like an afterthought. I do not know this Mark, and thus want better for Peggy, for she deserves the best. Maybe Duck Philips wasn’t so bad after all. There was also an interesting discussion about the dangers of Medicare, entirely appropriate for the present day: “They won’t stop until they ban personal property.” Hilarious! As always, it’s the characters that make this show so enjoyable, and by now we’ve gotten to know them so well, that scenes barely have to explain anything. A gesture or glance can be enough to remind us of some previous episode. Brilliant!

Breaking Bad 3x05

In a flashback all the way to the beginning, we see Walter White giving all his savings to his former student Jesse Pinkman so as to buy an RV (recreational vehicle – i.e., the camper van they will soon use as meth lab). Instead, Jesse burned most of the money with his buddies Skinny Pete and Combo at a strip club. Early in the morning, Combo offers Jesse a quick deal for the remainder of the money. Jesse’s too hung-over from liquor, drugs and strippers, to realize they just stole the van from Combo’s mother. Back in the present, DEA officer Hank Schrader is humiliating himself in front of his wife and partner by tenaciously pursuing the “Heisenberg” figment of an investigation. He has basically searched for every single RV of the make he saw on the ATM’s security tapes. Except for one, of course, the one Jesse stole, but that Combo’s mother never reported. Now Combo’s been dead for two months – killed on the street by rival dealers. That is, in the end, what Hank learns. Plus, at Mrs. Ortega’s house he finds a picture of Combo at the strip club – with Jesse. For his part, secretive businessman Gus Fring finally has his chance to appeal to Walt’s weaknesses. He shows him the state-of-the-art underground laboratory (concealed by an industrial laundry facility) which he has built for him. And he tells him a man provides for his family even if he’s not loved, because that is simply what a man does. It’s the clincher of the deal!

Walt’s wife Skyler is starting to have second thoughts. Maybe Walt did change after he was confronted with death, maybe he did it all for the good of his family, maybe he’s a good father to their children. But then her divorce lawyer hammers in the nail. “You may not have married a criminal,” she tells her, “but you are married to one now.” And she urges Skyler to leave the house, because she is accessory to Walt’s crimes, she’s culpable. When she comes back home, Walt’s gone and signed the divorce papers. At the law office of sleazy Saul, Walt and Jesse have a confrontation. Walt hands Jesse his half of the money from the deal with Gus. Then Walt tells them he’ll be earning $3 million by working for Gus for three months. Jesse’s out of business. They have become competitors now on the same market, rival drug dealers – and Hank’s already onto Jesse. This is going to be interesting! Things have really picked up and our patience has paid off. The season has gradually built up the dramatic tension and the audience is now reaping the rewards. What is going to happen with Tuco’s Cousins? Will Hank trace Jesse through the van? Will Skyler come to accept Walt’s choices or will all his efforts be for naught? It’s impossible to stop watching this show now. You just have to know what will happen next. Excellent!