Top Five Favorite "MAD MEN" Season One (2007) Episodes

Below is a list of my top five favorite Season One episodes of AMC's "MAD MEN": 



TOP FIVE FAVORITE "MAD MEN" SEASON ONE (2007) Episodes



1. (1.12) "Nixon vs. Kennedy" - In this superb episode, Sterling-Cooper's employees have an all-night party to watch the results of the 1960 Presidential Election. Also, Pete Campbell discovers that Don Draper's real name is Dick Whitman, who had been officially declared dead during the Korean War.





2. (1.10) "The Long Weekend" - During the Labor Day weekend, Roger Sterling decides to cheer up Don over the loss of a client by arranging a double date with twins. During the date, he suffers a heart attack. Meanwhile, Joan Holloway has a double date with her roommate and two out-of-town businessmen.





3. (1.05) "5G" - In this poignant episode, Don receives an unwelcome visitor in the form of his half-brother, Adam Whitman, whom he had not seen since the Korean War. And when Ken Cosgrove gets his short story published in a magazine, a jealous Pete asks wife Trudy to convince an old boyfriend to publish his story.





4. (1.01) "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" - The series' pilot episode introduces Manhattan advertisement executive Don Draper and his co-workers at the Sterling-Cooper agency, as he struggles to maintain Lucky Strike as a client for the agency.






5. (1.09) "Shoot" - A larger ad agency tries to lure Don from Sterling-Cooper by hiring wife Betty Draper for a modeling job. Meanwhile, Pete devises a strategy to help the Nixon campaign.

"MAD MEN" SEASON ONE (2007) Photo Gallery

Below are images from Season One of AMC's "MAD MEN". Created by Matthew Weiner, the series stars Jon Hamm:

"MAD MEN" SEASON ONE (2007) PHOTO GALLERY

"PUSH" (2009) Review

"PUSH" (2009) Review

When I first saw the 2009 science-fiction thriller, "PUSH", I had assumed that it was based upon some novel, comic book series or graphic novel. Several years passed before I discovered that the movie's plot was actually the brainchild of the screenwriter, David Bourla. 

Directed by Paul McGuigan, the movie is about a group of people with psychic abilities, who band together to stop a government agency from using a dangerous drug to enhance the abilities of others like them. The story began with a boy named Nick Gant and his father Jonah, two "Movers" (or telekinetics), who are on the run from Division, the government agency established in 1945 to hunt down and experiment on psychics. Before one of the Division's operatives, Agent Henry Carver, can catch up with them, Jonah tells Nick that he had received a vision from a "Watcher" (seer) about a young girl that Nick must help in the future in order to take down Division. Jonah helps his son finally escape as Carver arrives and kills him.

Ten years later, Nick is hiding in Hong Kong, as an expatriate. A young girl named Cassie Holmes arrives at his apartment, claiming to be a Watcher. She needs his help in finding a mysterious case that she believes will bring down the Division and lead to the release of her mother (another and more powerful Watcher) from prison. The case that Cassie seeks contains a power boosting drug developed by the Division. Agent Carver has used this drug on several test subjects who have ended up dead. The only subject to survive the drug is a Pusher (telepathic manipulator) named Kira, who was an old love of Nick's. Kira manages to steal a sample of the drug and place in a case that she had hidden upon her arrival in Hong Kong. Not only are Cassie and Nick looking for the case, but so are members of the Pop family, who have formed a psychic Triad and of course . . . the Division. 

I could go into more detail about the movie’s plot, but right now, that is all I am willing to disclose. Overall, I liked the plot. It struck me as a very interesting twist on the whole topic of those with psychic abilities at war with each other. And the movie even featured a surprising twist in the end. I also enjoyed how the movie handled the visual effects. Mark Meddings did an excellent job in supervising those effects that featured the characters' abilities. And these visual effects were enhanced by Peter Sova's colorful cinematography. Sova's photography also enchanced the movie's views of Hong Kong and other parts of China. 

But there were moments when I found the plot a bit convoluted and confusing, despite Dakota Fanning’s voice over. Judging from what I had revealed in the previous episode, one would find my comment confusing. But honestly, there were moments when it seemed that the movie was so caught up in revealing new characters and new psychic abilities that I almost lost track of the plot. If I must be brutally honest, Paul McGuigan's uneven direction did not help. I had no problems with McGuigan's handling of some of the action sequences - especially the prologue sequence featuring Nick and his father, Kira's escape from two Division agents, and Nick's encounters with Carver and the latter's henchman, Victor Budarin. But his non-action sequences - especially in the movie's second half - tend to drag. Sometimes, the cast manages to rise above his lethargic direction and sometimes, they cannot.

I had no problems with the cast. Chris Evans made a first-rate leading man. He also did a great job in developing his character from the embittered and self-involved young man hiding from authorities, to a more strong-will character willing to toe the line for others. Evans had two leading ladies - Dakota Fanning and Camilla Belle. I have already expressed my dissatisfaction with Belle. Fanning, on the other hand, gave a very spirited and skillful performance as the strong-willed and sardonic Cassie, who seemed more than determined to bring down the Division and help her mother. More importantly, both she and Evans had a very strong screen presence . . . which did not bode well for Belle. There are times when I find myself wondering if Djimon Hounsou is underrated as an actor. His performance as villain, Agent Henry Carver, is one of the best aspects of this movie. Hounsou can do ambiguity like nobody's business and more importantly, his Carver is not some mustache twirling villain or one-note block of ice. The movie also featured excellent performances from a supporting cast that featured Joel Gretsch, Ming-Na Wen, Nate Mooney, Corey Stoll, Scott Michael Campbell, Maggie Sif, Kwan Fung Chi and Jacky Heung. I have to give special kudos to Cliff Curtis' charming and colorful portrayal of a former Division agent named Hook Waters and Xiao Lu Li as the sly and malevolent Pop Girl, a Watcher for the Pop Triad.

Overall, I have mixed feelings for "PUSH". It featured a pretty interesting premise, thanks to David Bourla's screenplay. The movie also featured some first-class visual effects supervised by Mark Meddings. Unfortunately, Paul McGuigan's direction struck me as slightly uneven. If it were not for the screenplay, the visual effects and excellent performances from the likes of Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning and Kjimon Hounsou; this movie would have sank to the ground . . . at least for me.

A Letter to Matthew Weiner

A LETTER TO MATTHEW WEINER

Dear Matthew Weiner,

I just watched the latest episode of "MAD MEN", (7.13) "The Milk and Honey Route", and discovered that Betty Francis was doomed for a quickie death from lung cancer. And all I can say is . . .

FUCK YOU.

Fuck you for this piece of contrived writing that came out of the blue, due to your neverending desire to surprise the viewers. It's bad enough that you wasted Betty's nearly decade-long character development with impending death. But you decided to kill her off in the same manner as Don's former mistress, Rachel Katz. How unoriginal can you be?

This whole story arc disgusted me, because it seemed as if you had pulled it out of his ass and dumped it on the viewers without warning. I guess a quick death by lung cancer was your idea of Betty "developing" into a mature character. I should have known better, considering you are a man who found it realistic that a 21 year-old secretary with no college education can be promoted to a junior copywriter after EIGHT MONTHS of work experience, but found the idea of a black copywriter or accounts exec in the 1960s unrealistic . . . despite the fact that such people actually existed. This was a supreme example of your inability to create complex minority characters. And your idea of a FBI background investigation (in Season Four) was so ridiculous that I am still shaking my head in disgust.

After the contrived writing that surrounded Peggy Olson's original job promotion in (1.13) "The Wheel", the dumb ass FBI "investigation" of Don Draper in Season Four and your inability to create and write complex minority characters, I realized that I had enough. So again . . .

FUCK YOU.

"PUSH" (2009) Photo Gallery

Below are images from "PUSH", the 2000 science-fiction thriller. Directed by Paul McGuigan, the movie starred Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle and Djimon Hounsou: 


"PUSH" (2009) Photo Gallery