The Emmy's Nailed It

It's very unusual that anything in Hollywood happens with few critiques. This year's Emmy awards did just that, keeping the viewers entertained and successfully avoiding any dragging moments in the entire broadcast. The night went without controversy and celebrated television in a way that only focused on the beauty of television itself. Andy Samberg came out strong in his first experience as host, keeping everything moving quickly in a light and fun way, setting the tone for the entire night. The award show was filled with beautiful moments, along with speeches that didn't make you fall asleep during those two minutes. Game of Thrones took home a record number of awards, to everyone's delight and no one's surprise. And this year we finally got to see Jon Hamm receive an Emmy for his performance in Mad Men, after 7 years of nominations. It was a touching moment that even the actor couldn't wrap his head around, saying over an over "This must be a mistake." Now if only Leonardo DiCaprio can finally get his Oscar....

The night held a few more touching moments, including ones from Viola Davis and Tracy Morgan. Davis, who won best lead actress in a drama, accepted her award with a speech that moved everyone in attendance. She spoke fiercely about how colored women are only as successful as their opportunities, and those opportunities being the only thing that separate them from anyone else. Samberg followed by saying "Hollywood fixed racism! Don't fact check that." Towards the end of the night we witnessed a touching moment as Tracy Morgan returned the stage for the first time after his car accident. He addressed his past year with both tears and laughter, warming the hearts of everyone.

The night's only major fault was their decision to tribute the shows that just ended by showing clips of their finale. Hello, major spoiler! Don't they know no one watches anything live anymore? While the intent was good, it was a bit unnecessary and the Twitter world was not happy about it.

Yet, overall, this year's Emmy show truly killed it. It was entertaining, funny, heartfelt, and never felt like it was dragging. The stage was futuristic and beautiful, and the host was a perfect choice. Great job, Emmys, you nailed it.

Weeding Through Gender Roles

Weeds is a dark, suspenseful American comedy-drama series that aired on Showtime on August 7, 2005. The show was created by Jeni Kohan and produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television. The show earned Showtime their highest ratings and has received numerous awards including two Satellite Awards, one Golden Globe Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, a Young Artist Award, and two Emmy Awards.

The show is most known for its central character, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a widowed mother of two boys. After her husband dies of a tragic heart attack, Nancy struggles raising her two children and supporting their current lifestyle in Agrestic, California. Agrestic, which is the main focus in the show’s popular title sequence, is famous for its similar tiled-roof houses and over-involved soccer moms. Nancy goes against the stereotypical designer wearing, child caring mother when she decides that the only possible way to maintain her families’ upscale lifestyle is to deal marijuana. This, of course, plunges her and her loved ones into pure chaos and a long, complicated string of illegal activities. Throughout the show’s eight seasons, Nancy goes through the complex drama associated with growing and selling marijuana as a high-end competitor. Her drama includes that of an ordinary housewife. She packs lunches for her kids and deals with common teenage angst. At the same time, she goes through the drama of being a dealer, such as life-threatening arguments with competitors, the risks of smuggling substances, and taking a bullet to the head by a DEA’s revengeful son.

Despite the drama, the most fascinating aspect of the show is the role of a woman heroin who is constantly failing her family. Nancy Botwin has pushed the boundaries of most mother characters that star in comedy-dramas. In most series, if a mother character is rebellious and involved in illegal matters they are usually foiled or show guilt. In the past, mothers have merely shown assistance to the main male character. In modern day television, mothers are most often displayed as heroines with a fault, able to take care of their families but often messing up in a humorous and relatable way. However, Nancy Botwin breaks all of the stereotypes used to form woman characters on television. Nancy, to say simply, is a 40-something girl in a woman’s body, allowing greed to steer her decisions and avoiding every possibility to display responsibility. Often showing too much skin, wearing shorts too short, guzzling too much iced coffee, and cursing way too much, Nancy has mastered the ability to change the image of woman and make a badass image of herself in the drug business.

Nancy’s character has often been critiqued as “the worst mother on television”. When one of her sons becomes a major drug dealer at only 16 and her even younger son kills her main competitor, it’s easy to see how she earned this title. However, what makes her so much different than famous, popular television characters like Tony Soprano? What makes her a less suited parent and a less-liked individual? Ultimately, it is her gender that makes her parenting more surprising to viewers. Although characters such as Tony Soprano have made equally questioning decisions that have endangered their loved ones, Nancy’s actions have built her an unmistakably negative reputation as a poor role model rather than a simply entertaining, misunderstood individual. Specifically, Nancy’s gender makes her character a challenging concept for audience members to comprehend. Although she is a maternal character who truly loves her children, she is not relatable like other woman on comedy-dramas. Instead, Nancy’s problems do not revolve around what will be placed on the dinner table or how she will help her children with their homework. Instead, her life is filled with decisions surrounding drug trades, dangerous enemies and other issues that are difficult for almost every mother to relate to. In the end, Nancy proves that being a strong woman does not pertain to a man's common portrayal of what a woman should be. Instead, Nancy proves that a woman can be portrayed as any image of her choosing, no matter how impossible or how little society approves of it. Her choices may be far from ethical but playing dirty is not specifically a man's approach to life, but a human one.

Unlike most television characters that indulge in rebellious activities and then realize the negativity of their actions, Nancy fails to recognize her wrongdoings. Instead, she never considers obtaining a real, steady, legal occupation or dedicating all her time as a housewife who serves her family. Instead, Nancy seeks out danger and finds absolute comfort in doing illegal and unexpected activities. The lure of the financial aspects that come from dealing marijuana keeps her from leaving the game and doing what is the safest for her family. Her spontaneous hookups with drug dealers, her on and off relationship with the law and the fact that she sells weed to young college students hints at a missing maternal attribute that almost all other mother characters have. All in all, Nancy creates a new face for mothers everywhere, suggesting that being a simple housewife and striving to complete maternal perfection is completely overrated. Nancy reveals the adventurous attributes that most housewives often keep hidden away in order to restore their good-natured reputation. It is refreshing to see a woman on television whose moment of weakness is greater than simply ruining dinner or forgetting to sign her child’s permission slip for their field trip. She may not be relatable in her drug-related actions, but it’s her moments of weakness and her frustration that make her fascinating to female viewers.

The series finale of Weeds correctly displayed how the consequences of Nancy’s actions effected her family. In the series finale, the show sped ahead a few years to reveal that Nancy had establish a well-received, famous, legal product, marijuana cigarettes known as Puff Dragons. In fact, the product is so successful that Starbucks gives Nancy an offer to buy her product. The rest of the episode focuses on her internal debate on whether or not to sell. Although the offer seems impossible to turn down, it is evident that all these years later, after failing her family time after time again, Nancy’s family has left, abandoned her to go their own ways. In fact, even her youngest son, Stevie, who was merely a baby last time we saw him, has begged to be sent to boarding school, fed up with the constant drama associated with his mother. In the end, Nancy sells the business, allowing everyone who has not been able to sever their ties, free. She’s achieved the goals she’s focused on the entire series. She became the most prominent dealer, she became rich, and she became successful due to the growing and selling of marijuana. However, as the show ends with a shot of her smoking a pot-cigarette on a stoop during a wintery afternoon, it is evident in her loneliness what she has given up.

It's Always Interesting in Philadelphia

Having just watched my 100th episode of the strange, hilarious, and disgusting "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia," I thought that I'd write a post about it while things were still fresh in my mind. If you've seen It's Always Sunny, you probably know that it is almost exclusively nothing but terrible people doing terrible things; the tagline used to be "it's Seinfeld on crack." If you haven't seen it, here's all you need to know: a group of five people (the "gang") own a bar called Paddy's Pub, which is basically their home base for coming up with awful ideas and just generally being shitty people. I've seen every episode of the show, and I'm proud of it.

Which brings me to tonight. Normally, Sunny has no particular artistic value; the shots aren't interesting or well thought out, character development is basically nonexistent, and the show's main laughs mostly come in the form of shock value or the sheer stupidity/horribleness of the characters. Tonight's episode, however, was a little different. By celebrating their 100th episode in a way that only the cast of Sunny could, each member of the gang was posed with the question of what they would do while in a convenience store that was being robbed.

The episode is split up into five parts; one for the daydream of each character. It's really interesting to dive into the psyche of characters that can tend to seem so one dimensional, and while the episode had plenty of laughs, it was also somewhat thought provoking. Mac's dream is first, and in typical Mac fashion, it involves him karate chopping away at not only the robber, but also an army of ninjas that come out of nowhere. Interestingly enough, he dies in his own dream and eventually rises into Heaven, where he takes the right hand seat next to a very shirtless and very buff God, which is a weird way of reaffirming how twistedlly religious (and possibly gay) Mac really is.

Dennis and Dee, the two siblings on the show, each had two equally elaborate and weird daydreams. In Dee's, she befriends the gun man (who is actually a woman), shoots every single member of the gang, and then goes into the witness protection program. She eventually fulfills her life goal of becoming an actress and ends up marrying Brad Pitt, showing how even in the most dire moments, Dee is thinking of nobody but herself. Dennis, in his own dream, is shot in the head. He survives (seemingly due to his own extreme ego and creepy self confidence) and is nursed back to life by an extremely busty nurse. It's twisted, but you see some of Dennis' rationale behind why he's a bit of a pervert (to put it lightly).

Skipping over Frank's dream - he runs off and eats all the hot dogs in the store while the cops catch the thief - we get to Charlie's. I knew that Sunny would save the best dream for last, and I was not disappointed whatsoever. Charlie Kelly is the oddest member of the gang, and it only makes sense for his to dream to be a cartoon. It was perfect. Charlie saves the Waitress (his longtime crush) and then ends up running off with her and starting a dream life. In a very Pixar-esque (like, very Pixar-esque) sequence of events, the two get married, have kids, and live out their lives. I kept thinking that the whole thing would end with a deranged twist, some sort of horrible turn of events, but I was wrong. The two grow old together, and eventually the waitress dies. All of this was absolutely beautifully sentimental, showing a Charlie that we rarely see; one who, at his most innocent, wants this girl to fall and love with him.  It almost made me rethink his entire character.

Of course, the episode actually ends with everyone grabbing an armful of marshmallows and running out of the store, but for one shining moment, Sunny proved that it could do more than be the show that's consistently getting snubbed for Emmy's. This show has been around for 100 episodes, and while it may be crass and extremely rude, it knows it's characters as well as any other show (in part because the show's creators and writers, Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerston, play Mac and Dennis, respectfully). That was an eye opener for me, and I believe that this episode will earn some of the attention that It's Always Sunny really deserves.

The Doorway

This Sunday season 6 of TV's brilliantly mod drama Mad Men premiered.  I'm a bit of a fan.  If by "bit of a fan" includes owning 3 seasons on DVD and dressing up as Don Draper for halloween.  I think AMC's 4 time Emmy winner is the smartest, sleekest, and best TV show ever.  Taking place in the 1960's Mad Men follows the advertising world of New York City's Madison Ave.

The show's creator Matthew Weiner didn't just suddenly appear with a hit drama, he served as producer and writer on the HBO hit The Sopranos for 2 years prior to taking his talents to AMC in 1960.  The stories are elegantly told, with brilliant cinematography and a cast of characters that really make you wonder who is a good guy and who is bad.

One of the things I love about this show is it's historical accuracy and it's depiction of a totally different world than we live in today.  Other shows attempting to set their drama in the 60's era (The Playboy Club and Pan Am) seemed to use minor details to convince audiences of the world around them such as hair, clothes and cars.  Mad Men gives the look and the feel that you have literally time traveled for an hour and stepped into the world of social change and cultural phenomenas.   One of my favorite scenes from season 1 that really shows you how the world has changed is during a birthday party for one of Don's children.  A child who is attending the party is running around the house playing and accidentally knocks over a drink.  A man who is not the child's father immediately slaps the boy across the face as punishment. The real father of the boy then comes over and asks the child to apologize to the man who slapped him.  He then scolds him and tells him to run along and says "and tell your mother to come clean this up."

The show brings up very topical issues but puts them in a completely different context and shows the struggle with these issues from a different decade.  It deals with African-American rights and equality in the workplace.  Women's rights and a woman's struggle to enter into a career path.  It discusses divorce, homosexuality, single parenting, and adultery.  But it shows these topics how the 1960's handled them. I really feel like it's a history lesson every week when I watch.

The characters are what really keep the show going, and all actors give equally compelling performances.  Overall between the 6 acting categories at the Emmy's the cast of Mad Men has earned 25 acting nominations yet has not won a single one.  Jon Hamm and John Slattery are always nominated, as well as continuous nominations for Christina Hendricks and Elizabeth Moss.  Although the show it's self has won Best Drama Series 4 years in a row (Only to be beaten my Homeland just his year) It's actors have not gotten the full recognition they deserve.

I will continue to watch Mad Men and hope to show my children this utterly phenomenal show because I think I've learned more about the 60's watching an episode of this show, than I ever did in my high school US History class.

Best show on television

Hands down, the best show on television at lest in my view, is AMC's Mad Men. it really isn't even close. Before we get to Mad Men, it's pretty incredible what AMC has managed to do over the last five years in terms of picking up and airing critically acclaimed shows. Whether it's the walking dead, breaking bad, or mad men, the quality of AMC's shows are on par with those of HBO, Showtime, and the major networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC. Moving onto Mad Men though, what an amazing show. For those of you who haven't had the good fortune of seeing it yet, the show, which will be entering its fifth season in March, follows the lives of advertising executives in New York City in the 1960's.The show is witty, dark, mysterious, and the most well put together show on television. I began watching the show with father and he said it was like a time machine back to the 1960's. The show has won outstanding drama series at the Emmy awards the last four years, no small feat by any measure. The show is available from start to finish on netflix, but I must warn you, once you start, it is nearly impossible to stop. Enjoy, an get hooked, just like I did.
Here is the promo for season season one.