When it was reported that Darren Aronofsky was in talks to helm Superman, Natalie Portman was getting thrown around as a potential Lois Lane. Well, when Zack SLOW MOTION TITTY FUCK Snyder took the helm, I dismissed those reports. Well, apparently all is not lost as far as those rumors.

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Although she’ll stay on as producer, both Natalie Portman and director David O. Russell have both left Pride Prejudice & Zombies due to scheduling conflicts. Thus escalating the rumors that Portman will be Lois Lane in Zack Snyder’s Superman.

Well then! Cool enough. I really like Portman, so much so that I forgive her for participating in the Holocaust of my Childhood. While I don’t exactly see Lois Lane when I look at her, I also consider two things. First, I have no idea what constitutes “looking like Lois Lane” anymore, but I know that Kate Bosworth wasn’t particularly it. And secondly, she’s a great actress, and whatever inexplicable visceral reaction I have can be dissuaded through her performance.

[This! Is! Mad Men! is a recap of the newest developments of Don Draper and his lovable gang of capitalist sleazeballs. Sometimes it’s liveblogged, sometimes not. In the spirit of the show, the post itself will often be sexist and drunk. Apologies ahead of time.]

Last week the shit hit the fan. And Don Draper’s going to have to listen to some Kanye to find out if “Everything I’m not made me everything I am.”

Yikes. Weak reference. PULL IT TOGETHER, KRUEGER!

SCDP is in shambles. Part of the downfall can be attributed Roger hiding the fact they’re losing the Big Tobacco account on which they’ve survived. Lucky Strike is out and SCDP is going to be SOL.

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About a year ago I saw David Cross in Boston. The show was hilarious and made even more special by the fact that it was taped for release. But what was especially memorable was the fact that Cross previewed five minutes of a new series. He said that the project was being developed for English TV but that he was hopeful it would hit this side of the Atlantic via DVD.

Well, a year later and we’re only a couple weeks away from The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret‘s premiere on IFC. Reunited with fellow Arrested Development alum Will Arnett, Cross plays a hapless sap who falls into the (in)opportunity of moving to England to champion sales for his company. The product? ThunderMuscle – an energy drink of unprecedented strength.

The full pilot has been released online by IFC and I’ve embedded it below for your convenience. Check this shit out, it’s some of the funniest TV I’ve seen in a damn long while. Highlights include Todd Margaret’s experimentation with ThunderMuscle, a caffeinated experience that leads him to the following self-description:

“I’m like Rocky and Rocky III – combined! I’m like, if Rocky II fucked Rocky IV – BOOM! – Rocky V!”

Enjoy.

Fuck to the yes. Click the image to enlarge this sexalicious promo poster for the upcoming television adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead comic book. Word, that’s an enormous sentence. Anyways, I am one of the legion of dorks awaiting this premiere. AMC screams quality. Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Rubicon are three of my favorite television shows, and I’m pretty sure I can already chalk this up to joining the list.

[This! Is! Mad Men! recaps the newest developments of Don Draper and his ragtag group of cohorts. In the spirit of the show, it will often be sexist and drunk. Apologies ahead of time.]

Pre-Show Expectations:

I’m really curious to see what goes down tonight. If last episode is the beginning of a trend, its seems as though Don Draper might be on the upswing – boozin’ less, treating women with respect, and just generally throwing his life together.

The online preview hinted at some potential lesbian action from Peggy. I’m not dying to see this, but it would an interesting evolutionary step for her to experiment sexually. We already know that she’s embodiment of the more socially conscious, self-aware woman of the 1960’s. Maybe the Mad Men crew is going to spice this up further with girl/girl love. Who knows though?

What I’m hoping to see is some more Pete Campbell. He’s been on the back burner lately, which is a damn shame. He’s a smug, self-righteous rich-boy and I can’t get enough of him. Maybe he’s going to continue to develop into something worthwhile; or maybe (as Don’s foil) he’ll just backslide.

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[This! Is! Mad Men! recaps the newest developments of Don Draper and his ragtag group of cohorts. In the spirit of the show, it will often be sexist and drunk. Apologies ahead of time.]

Ok, here we   go again – my unedited, stream-of-conscious thoughts about this week’s episode of Mad Men:

So we start with Draper reflecting on the fact that he never finished high school, has been drinking too much, and has never managed to pound out more than 250 words at a time. Is this the beginning of the upward swing we’ve all been waiting for? God I hope so.

Oh shit – John Draper’s smoking a butt in his sunglasses while the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction plays. As a straight male with a fulfulling relationship, nothing has ever been more homosexually tempting. This guy is a fuggin’ stud through and through.

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Oh, Donny. I know things are rough for you right now. The American Dream is vomiting up all over itself, and so are you. Alcoholism, blackouts, prostitutes. Dying loved ones. Things may seem like they suck, but hold on tight to the beauty in the world! It’s there! Underneath your cigarette butts and empty vodka bottles. And in the sky, too! Double rainbow, Donny! Double rainbow!

[This! Is! Mad Men! recaps the newest developments of Don Draper and his ragtag group of cohorts. In the spirit of the show, it will often be sexist and drunk. Apologies ahead of time.]

Right off the bat, I’m going to apologize for the brevity of this week’s recap. While I usually use This! Is! Mad Men! as my excuse to wax philosophical, today is Labor Day and I’ve been tasked with addressing some pressing issues. Like sitting around in my boxers, eating junkfood and trying to enjoy my last day of freedom before returning to work. Ahh, what a mission to accomplish!

But how am I feeling after The Suitcase, episode seven of Mad Men‘s fourth season? Optimistic. I’ve made no reservations about the fact that I see Don Draper as descending into a point-of-return in which he’ll lose both his professional status as well as his few personal ties. And while I think Draper is still sinking, this episode tosses him a life preserver. Through his relationship with Peggy Olsen, Don Draper has demonstrated that he is still a human with a beating heart, capable of compassion and understanding.

Throughout The Suitcase, Don puts off phoning California as he knows the news waiting for him on the other end of the line is that Anna Draper has died. In an attempt to ignore this unfortunate duty, he coerces Peggy into staying late at the office. As she puts in overtime, Ms. Olsen misses a surprise birthday dinner thrown by her boyfriend, which finally ends in the dissolution of their relationship. Peggy and Don have a screaming match – she accuses him of co-opting her ideas whilst downplaying her input, he tells her she owes him her entire life. Tears are shed.

At this point, I really thought that Peggy was going to take Duck Phillips’ offer to start a new agency. He might be lonely, irresponsible and even more inebriated than the folks at SCDP, but he still represents an alternative. After having her emotions trampled on by Don yet again, I could envision Peggy jumping ship. I was worried.

But she doesn’t – righteous! Instead, the Madison Avenue’s dynamic duo get their shit together and talk it out. They share a laugh while listening to Roger’s ridiculous memoirs-on-tape; highlights include the fact that Bert Cooper’s testicles have been removed and that Ms. Blankenship was once a sex fiend. At dinner they discuss Peggy’s baby and Don’s affair with Allison. Don reveals that he never knew his mother and watched his father die. Peggy also watched her dad croak, so they have that in common. They head back to the office and Peggy assists Don into the bathroom so he can yak. Then, she breaks up a fight between Draper and the interloping Duck Phillips. After a long day, Don and Peggy fall asleep on the couch in his office.

When he wakes up, Don makes the call to California and hears what he already knows to be true – Anna is dead. He breaks down crying and Peggy consoles him. He tells her that the only person that really knew him died, but Peggy disagrees. It’s a genuinely touching moment, even if it isn’t completely true. Peggy doesn’t know about Dick Whitman, but she knows more about Donald Draper than anyone else. Maybe now that Anna’s out of the picture, more will be revealed. Or maybe not.

In this hour of television, I could see so many different scenarios beginning to unfurl and it made me nervous. Hell, I don’t want Peggy to leave SCDP! Fortunately, Draper has shown that he’s a redeemable character by treating Peggy as a true friend. Sure, she bears the brunt of some of his grief, but then he rights the wrongs. By taking her out. By revealing intimate details of his shrouded past. By defending her honor when Duck Phillips calls her a whore. There’re laughs and shouts and tears and arguments and confidences. And at the end of it, they’re both better for it.

The Suitcase ends with Peggy asking Don whether he wants the door “Open or closed?” as she leaves his office. Don wants the office, just like their relationship, to have an open door. There is room for more growth and maturation, the possibility that they will both allow the other to play a larger personal role. Don’s been a reprehensible drunkard this season, so it’s nice to see that he can still wear his heart on his sleeve. Peggy, by dedicating herself to work and casting aside the boyfriend she never really loved, secures herself a position in the newest wave of Women’s Liberation.

What the hell am I saying with all this? What’s the long and the short of it?

Don Draper and Peggy Olsen are totally BFFs.

Source: Jerrod Maruyama via Super Punch

[This! Is! Mad Men! recaps the newest developments of Don Draper and his ragtag group of cohorts. In the spirit of the show, it will often be sexist and drunk. Apologies ahead of time.]

I’m worried about Don Draper. He’s always bent the elbow liberally, but never before has alcohol been such a destructive force in his life. Sure, there’ve been plenty of drunks in Mad Men — Freddy Rumsen and Duck Philips spring to mind — but Don’s supposed to be the exception to the rule!

Isn’t he?

When we first learnt of Don’s exploits in season one, there was a certain charm to them. He drinks? He philanders? He steals identities? All right…That’s not too cool but I guess I can see where he’s coming from. He was sympathetic – coming from nothing, he sought solace in the pursuit of the American dream. And just like Gatsby and Willy Loman and Hunter S. Thompson, Don Draper found out the hard way that the dream is dead.

How do know that that Don Draper has hit rock bottom? He gave away his secret identity.

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