Random TV Stuff - 6/5/13

AMC's MAD MEN - This season's been nicknamed "Sad Men." It's 1968, and the SCDP folks are living their lives while Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy get assassinated, drugs are on the rise, and Don Draper looks like a man getting passed by.  Only three episodes left, and next season is the last, and I picture that's the one where we see Don gone to full seed.  I'm still enjoying it, but I've enjoyed previous seasons more.  I do like Harry Hamlin's dapper partner as a different ingredient to the management mix.

A&E's BATES MOTEL - Watched the season finale the other day, and I think this show is great.  It ended with a cliffhanger that showed Norman apparently having killed his teacher, but I think we're going to learn in Season 2 he didn't actually do it.  Very interested to see where the show goes from here.

TNT's THE AMERICANS - Still have a couple episodes to watch, but I really enjoy the chemistry between Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys.

Killer Shows on TV

I'm behind on all of these but I have been watching them.

THE FOLLOWING (FOX) - This show succeeded for me when we got to see Kevin Bacon's character taken hostage. The way he took control of the room was great stuff, and it signaled that this isn't just going to be a show where his forlorn detective gets outsmarted week after week.  At worst, it's a cross between The
Mentalist and Prison Break, if Red John outsmarted Patrick every single week with his small army of Teabags.  It's one where I probably won't watch the last three or four episodes until the summer.

BATES MOTEL (A&E) - This is an odd one. It's a prequel to Psycho, showing teenager Norman Bates and his mother first move into the motel, but it's set in modern times. And yet it has an old-fashioned look to most of the costumes and set design.  Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) and Freddy Highmore (Finding Neverland) are both great in their roles, and I like the "dark underbelly of a tranquil town" feel to it.  We see the beginnings of Norman's psychosis, but he's a sympathetic person.  He's just a couple tragic events away from being tipped over the edge.

HANNIBAL (NBC) - I've listed these in the order I like them, and this is the best of the three.  Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) is very good as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and he hasn't revealed himself yet. This is a prequel where we first see Hannibal meet Will Graham (Tom Hardy), an investigator so good at getting into criminal minds, it's a fight for him to retain his own sanity.