Trying to get some money’s worth out of a new online Netflix subscription. Mostly watching South Park, but O.D.ed on it briefly. So it’s been Mad Men and 30 Rock over the weekend.
My big problem with Mad Men is that it’s Sad Men. Wussies. The protagonist, Don Draper, isn’t bad. He’s mostly stoic despite the epic backstory. But otherwise…holy crap. Even the WWII vets are whiners. Was the word “metrosexual” in vogue in 1960? I don’t think so. Bleh. This show makes me think I could kick the crap out of a company of Normandy assaulters. In their prime. That doesn’t seem historically accurate.
30 Rock is pretty good. Politically, they’re extremely unfair, which makes them vastly more fair than I expected. Tina Fey is good. And Alec Baldwin…alas…remains a tremendous performer.
Actually, I don’t really mean the “alas”. Talent is not relevant to morality. Richard Wagner was a legendary composer and a malevolent anti-Semite. If I’d seen Pablo Picasso deal with his women I’d have probably broken his hands and become the most hated person in the history of art.
Boo-hoo.
Anyway, I won’t pretend Baldwin isn’t immensely talented just because he’s reprehensible. But he does seem to be trending to become the William Shatner of his generation. His percentage of “ham” is ever-rising, but it’s always entertaining.
Alec Baldwin is an awesome performer. This is the job most folks cite:
Sure. But I found him to be even better in The Edge. Holding your own with Anthony Hopkins can’t be easy. And he matched Sean Connery in The Hunt For Red October. Most impressive of all, he made The Shadow watchable. Not good…but watchable.
Oh yeah. Since I’ve been crushing on Japanese actresses lately, extremely Caucasian acress January Jones deserves actress props for Mad Men. I only knew her as Emma Frost. She was good (meaning HOT!) but the part didn’t ask for Shakespeare.
World's Only Rational Man 
Man, I have to check the byline now. I can’t tell anymore if it’s Edo or Worme writing. Your personalities are merging!
Do either of you find that scary? I personally find it terrifying.
What I find terrifying is that anyone could confuse me and Edo. I’m a totally sweet and innocent invertebrate (blink blink) and Edo is a blood-crazed warmongerer.
So, while I think both you and he need destruction, I’m only calling for your eradication right now, so that he opens up and reveals his weaponry. Then I’ll take care of everything.
Thank you for volunteering.
Well, thanks for straightening me out.
My mind works in such simple categories. I just see “guy writing a lot and with multiple clips about some tv stuff he does and doesn’t like and why.” Then I think, Who? Edo? Worme?
By the way, in the few Mad Men episodes I watched, I got into Peggy. Tortured Catholic guilt? Oh, yeaaahhhhhhhh, baby. Give to me. Give it to me. Ugn!
I usually don’t post clips.
Worme Bear Pig!
I’m a bear, duh!
Working as planned.
January Jones is okay, for white bread. But she’ll never be as smoking hot as Kuriyama Chiaki. Or Nakama Yukie. Or Suzuku Anne. Or Shiraishi Miho. Or Takeuchi Yuko. Or Nakatani Miki. Or heck, Amami Yuki. Or The One.
Alec Baldwin is a good performer. Heck, so’s Matt Damon, usually, and old Glover too. But this is why I prefer Japanese showbiz. People don’t make dumb political comments in it. They have a job, that is to entertain. And they do it. If they stray, well, take Yamamoto Taro. He has started crusading against nuclear power (shows every time he’s a lying sack of pig feces, he’s been praising the German Gorleben protests, where thousands of uneducated Krauts go batsh*t filled with the classic German nuclear angst and usually end up demolishing the railroad tracks and attack the police with firebombs) and is now jobless.
For what it’s worth, here’s my limited take on current Japanese dramas. RIsou no Musuko was a disappointment (which Edo probably would have predicted) after the second or third episode. Hayami san to Yobareru Hi has the best acting and casting but has started to get boring because of the writing (after great initial promise). The suprise best drama (among the few I actually watch) is Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi, with KyonKyon, of all people. The comic banter and personality clashes raise it heads and shoulders above the rest. Whatsisface who plays the male lead salaryman dude is a fantastic actor (I’m dating myself, but he goes all the way back to Fuzoroi Ringotachi), and KyonKyon really stepped up to the plate in her role, probably because the rest of the cast was so good.
Hey, you should totally watch Ending Planner….
if you want to throw your remote at the TV and rage about three utterly useless leads. Yama-pi is so overrated, it’s creepy. All the fangirls swooning over how pretty he is. Well, pretty doesn’t make one good at acting, and he certainly isn’t. Eikura Nana is a cutie, but that’s about it. And AKB48’s Acchan can’t act to save her life.
But I agree, Hayami san is pretty good and Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi is really the biggest surprise in the bunch.
Does Yama-pi actually have fans? Does he actually get high ratings? To my knowledge, he hasn’t done anything good since Nobuta, but what promise in those distant days . . . Atsushi was a fascinating character. Mrs. Xpat adored him back then and now harrumphs at the mere mention of his name. Kamenashi is much bigger (for the most part he has earned it) but back then I would have predicted the opposite bifurcation for the Yama-pi/Kamenashi duo. Kamenashi was credible in Yokai Ningen Bemu–with better effects and stage direction it could actually have been seriously good. If you missed Kaseifu no Mita last season it’s too bad. It became a major cultural phenomena and some of the hooks became memes.
“Akira” not “Atsushi” Brain dead.
He has a solo career now from what I remember and there are too many girls over there swooning over him, for no reason whatsoever. The ratings aren’t high, as expected. I think Code Blue was the last “success” he had, averaged out at around 15%. I’m not really paying attention though, I have my favorites and he certainly isn’t one of them.
I have Kaseifu loitering on my dorama drive. I’m 20 or so series behind. There’s just too much to watch. Even if I just watch the first episode, it’s still a load of stuff.
I forgot, one drama that just ended a few weeks ago, Tightrope no Onna (Woman on a Tightrope). Really excellent, totally serious “human interest” drama. No chuckles, but not one second of bad acting or writing. That was really good, but a bit heavy.
This is it:
http://www.nhk.or.jp/drama10/rope/
Super high quality all the way, without a false note. I hope it gets some award. There probably won’t be anything else as good in 2012.
Yeah, it’s really good. Though, you know how it goes. Some crappy idol vehicle will probably win something. Heck, Acchan got best newcomer for Moshidora in the critics award, a movie that really had to live off the rest of the cast and I’m still somewhat pissed that she got the lead, I heard the story was written with Minegishi, another AKB48, in mind (Acchan got it because she “had more experience”, not because she was the better actress, it’s clearly not enough that she’s everywhere, you can’t even throw a stone without hitting a poster or other stuff with her on it, and, the really funny thing is, she’s still not CM queen, despite being everywhere.)
I have to watch Alice in Liar Game. Ashida Mana. Oh yessssssssss!
Though, let me explain this a bit more.
There are plenty of beautiful women. Even Heidi Klum is beautiful, as long as she keeps her trap shut. But see, there are also beautiful dogs, horses, cats, flowers, paintings. Mona Lisa is beautiful, I guess (I never understood the hype myself). But well, there is beautiful and there’s attractive.
Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was I. And across the years I had three girlfriends. The first one was Dutch. Blonde, blue-eyed, proper Aryan. I almost married. Almost. I managed to get away in time. *phew!* Yeah, she was somewhat of a slut as I found out eventually. The second was local. Brunette, blue eyed, actually a very beautiful young woman. And she loved me oh so much, but that wasn’t good, and I had to change this, and that, and she really didn’t like what I played on my PC, and the movies I liked were bad. Plus me being an atheist, oh the noes! That totally required missionary work. Needless to say, it didn’t last very long. And then the third one, that was Naoko. The Japanese.
So, it’s now 2012. With which of the three do I still have contact? Not the Dutch horse fetishist. Not the Austrian Bible-thumper. No, the Japanese, who’s now married and has a little girl. We’re actually very good friends. The other two, good riddance!
Humans learn from experience and my experiences with the blue-eyed, fair-haired, racially proper, Aryan female are abysmal. Interestingly I don’t even find them attractive, so I have no idea why I went for them in the first place. Well, I guess I was young and stupid. Now dark haired, dark eyes… oh yes please. Bonus points if she’s Asian, but it’s not a requirement. Take Karen David for example. Now that’s a woman.