Yes, it's January in November. At least in the November issue of GQ. While I'm a firm believer that the print media is as dead as the skeletons that everyone hung up yesterday for Halloween, there's still some magazines that I pick up on a regular basis. Men's Health is one of those. GQ, on the other hand. Well, let me just say that I usually wear a comic book T-shirt and jeans. So my fashion sense isn't as good as the next guy who reads GQ for the articles. Remember, I'm here to push the agenda of hot pictures.
So anyhow, January.. in November. Yes, her name is January Jones and with a name like that, I'm sure she grew up with a lot of stupid James Bond level jokes. Hell, I don't think "Christmas Jones" would be a worse name than January Jones. I guess the whole "Christmas comes only once a year" would be annoying. Then again, April is also pretty bad of a name.
But I come to you with this post with news that Madmen will reach the season finale later tonight. For a network that I would have otherwise never watch, because really, what was the last Classic Movie you've seen on AMC? Add in commercials and I'd rather just make it a Blockbuster night.
AMC now has a couple of my favorite shows. I personally can't wait for the remake of The Prisoner and I'm excited as to when Breaking Bad will return and I can't wait for The Walking Dead to get produced. Especially interesting how they can take 2-3 shows and rotate them around for a whole year's worth of shows. Especially to have them be so high in quality.
On to specifically Mad Men. To watch this show is to take a trip in a time machine back to the 60's. It has the feel of the Sopranos. You can consider this to be a megamovie in that it should be watched together. So those of you who will discover this on DVD and have a marathon of a viewing, you should consider yourself the lucky ones. But for those of us who are plowing in episode after episode, we may be on the edge of our seats as this slow paced story fleshes itself out, but we're certainly not minding it.
So far e have about 26 hour long cycles of this intelligent and exquisite portrait of life in the 1960's for ad men and women around them is a bit overwhelming as it protarys the ideology. I would relate it to Revolution Road. In that, it shows how fucked up life was for women in that day and age (again, I'm a pure feminist, yo)
Each story gets stretched out for long periods of time. Especially since this is only a 12-13 episode season, it does mean that a lot of stories being told get some very extended telling. And it's not without its faults. There are times when story development takes place and yet it seems to have never happened by the next episode. I don't mean the little stuff, but major plot developments that are just dead ends. For example.
Pete declaring his love for Peggy/Baby confession- This was two whole seasons of story and yet was wrapped up, never to be spoken of again, in a very brief conversation at the end of season 2. This should be a major development, Pete especially should be kinda fucked up by it but isn't. Yes I know he doesn't want kids and I know he has the one line in season three "your decisions effect me", but the dude has a baby and it's not even worth a slight mention?
Betty's steamy/illegal/awkward relationship with the creepy kid down the road and his wacky mom- I guess these people must have moved away after Betty found the kid living in her backyard. No mention of these interesting characters, no further exploration of what Betty was thinking when dealing with the kid. This was a story line that I actually wanted to see more of because it seemed like it would explain more of Betty, but we get nothing. Another loose end just left flapping in the breeze.
The British are coming! Don didn't get the promotion and now has a new bo---oh wait NEVER MIND, he just got run over by a tractor- Probably the biggest yet hilarious moment I've ever had in a TV show. But this is not the first time that "major changes are coming to SC" has resulted in "really nothing has changed, continue on." By this point in the show I was a prepared for the writers to throw something into the mix to prevent anything from actually moving forward. Another example of a strong character being introduced that could challenge and put Don in a new situation and yet we have a Deus Ex Machina roll in and put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I have low expectations that anything much will change with SC despite all of the talk of SC being sold.
But that's not to say it's not worth viewing. I really like the show, even if they decide that it's so unnecessary to not tie some of the aspects up. Then again, The Sopranos left a lot of stuff open ended that will never have any closure. Hell, we still don't even know if Tony lived or died at the end of that episode. So don't take my harsh criticism as anything more than a little venting.
The characters are key here. And in this little highlight you've seen a lot of Betty, played by the before mentioned January Jones. Seriously, that's her name. Her husband, the show's main focus character Don Draper, isn't the most loving to her. He means well but clearly is not being all that faithful. Her response, and really a well written act of trying to find her own footing as a person, really does have a lot of women empowerment to it. So don't take the whole idea of the show out of context. It may have a lot of boys club feel to it, but there's a lot of female empowerment in the series.
So while we wait for the season to end tonight and hopefully some stories to get wrapped up, enjoy these pictures of January. I'm sure you wont complain about the view. They are.. rather.. yeah.. they're something. Though, I have to say that there was one image of January Jones from an older GQ magazine that I think beats the shit out of all the new ones. It's very simple and yet is very much hot as all hell;
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