From outrage over Don’s decision-making in the season finale of Mad Men to the debut of a new Real Housewives series, you had a lot to comment on this week. We picked out our favorites: Did you make the cut?
Mad Men
“When [Betty] laid down on Sally’s bed (taking comfort in a child’s place, again), my girlfriend said, ‘Poor Betty, she looks like a broken doll.’ Perfect description.” —77BC
“Don says it himself at the Cancer meeting — ‘it was an impulse.’ Everything in the episode was. Don feels the most successful when he goes with this gut - look how much lighter he felt after he wrote the ‘I quit tobacco’ letter. I suspect that he thinks this is the best strategy for finding happiness — hence the proposal to Megan (where I was actually [yelling] at the TV ‘NO! NO! NO!’).” —AddLib
“I’m a little surprised that no one has commented on the interactions between Peggy and Ken as they got the Topaz account. I think that story line was my favorite of the episode. From start to finish it was great to see Peggy working with a male coworker who respected her and her work. During the pitch Ken makes an off remark and Peggy shoots him a look and he promptly shuts up for the rest of the meeting so she can do what she does best. Then there’s that enthusiastic hug they have after getting the account (he picked her up off her feet!), followed by them both telling Don about the new account together. There’s no subtle power plays between them, just pure good teamwork. It’s also great to see that Peggy finally has a person in the office whom she doesn’t have a complex relationship with (like Don and Pete).” —thatbeingsaid
“Also left hanging is whether Don will get American Cancer. The woman in charge of the meeting did not seem impressed. And Don is so wrong about what teenagers want. Still, they might go with it because, for all the American Cancer’s monied campaign, teenage smoking rates soared in the late sixties, so obviously they didn’t have a successful program. As a teenager during that time, I can’t say their campaign meant anything at all to me. Once we got past the only-bad-kids-smoke stage and into the all-the-cool-kids smoke stage, we were deaf to anything the old guys said. And old guys were anyone over thirty.
Don could not be more wrong about kids mourning their childhood! We couldn’t wait to be away from out parents and be cooler than they. Mourning your childhood is a delusion of middle-age, not young adulthood.” —Mary Lee
30 Rock
“Something is just off-putting about seeing a studio show filmed live. I enjoyed the episode, but I found myself relieved during the last line of the show (when they returned to the normal format). That being said, I thought it was one of the better, if not the best, forays into live that a sitcom has done.” —robacough
Modern Family
“What do you know? The most poignant moment of this season so far occurs in the same episode where they scrap the super sappy voiceover at the end. Coincidence? I think not…..” —KD87
Glee
“It was a bit ridiculous when Quinn tells Sam, ‘the worst is when [the slushie] gets down your pants.’ Yeah… like Quinn has ever worn pants to school. She has to wear the stupid cheerleader outfit everywhere (even to dinner out?) lest we forget she is one!” —mchz
The Good Wife
“Oh, and there were always minor hints of tension between Kalinda and Cary in season 1, but we generally paid more attention to her sexual ambiguity. For some reason I feel it would be too pat for something to have happened between those two, though it would be typical of the show to let something like that have played out offscreen with nary a mention by anybody until now.” —apathyonmyside
Bored to Death
“This show is Entourage for people (like this viewer) who hate Entourage: A few chuckles, tidy plot resolutions and aspirational professions/real estate.” —blinker
Community
“The only thing this episode was missing was an Abed voiceover detailing what happened to each member of the crew after the flight. ‘Troy Barnes worked for NASA for fifteen years. He never made it to the Buttermilk Galaxy. None of them did.’” —stepliana
Rubicon
“If for no other reason, Rubicon was important in that it reminded us that AMC is not infallible. After introducing two of the greatest programs in the history of the medium (seriously, can anybody argue that Mad Men and Breaking Bad aren’t classics of the form?) they had to stumble at some point. Maybe the real issue was that there wasn’t a single creative driving force a la Weiner or Gilligan.
Anyway, here’s hoping the Walking Dead sets AMC back on track (not coincidentally, driven by no less a creative force than Frank Darabont).” —apathyonmyside
“I am mortified that Katherine died while waving the disk in Wills face and HE STILL DIDN’T TAKE IT. This guy is as dense as my last mammogram. There is no way this is the same guy from the first few episodes. As a protector, I wouldn’t want Andy watching my garbage can…. Ultimately I spent the season hoping against hope that just one thing would go right for these people. Just ONE thing. Yes, Will managed to not get killed. Scoreboard wise that’s kinda a positive/negative so they balance each other out.” —maryfrances1
How I Met Your Mother
“I liked the episode, but remember when Marshall slaps Barney and Barney says, ‘Your hands are so big’ and Marshall replies, ‘C’mon you’ve seen my penis.’ (it was in season 2 so you probably don’t remember) but it doesn’t seem to bother anyone that they’ve seen marshall’s penis. But this all of the sudden bothers all three? It was funny but that bugged me the entire time.” —jo13450
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
“Doesn’t this just make you nostalgic for the quaint, subtlely botoxed gals of the OC? They almost seem normal now that the rock has been pulled away to reveal this crew. Ah, Vicki I miss you. I’d give anything for more footage of boat parties on Lake Havasu … ” —fortysomething
“I live in Beverly Hills — and until I read this blog, I thought these women seemed the most normal of all the Real Housewives franchise. I now realize that maybe I have just lived in Beverly Hills for too long.” —chelseafan888
Eastbound & Down
“For my money, “Eastbound’s” move to Mexico is the most radical narrative switch since ‘The Wire’ moved the plot from the projects to the docks in season 2. And it might just end up replacing ‘The Wire’ as HBO’s bleakest show to date.” —NLM77
