MARK DAVISON

Mad Men Season 4, Episode 12 – Blowing Smoke: A Review

2nd December 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

The penultimate episode of the season and all hell is breaking out at SCDP, much like it did about this point in previous seasons. With news about Lucky Strike leaving getting out, the future for the agency is looking increasingly bleak. Although I think we can assume that the agency will survive in some form or another - after all what's the point of a workplace-based show if the characters...

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Mad Men Season 4, Episode 11 – Chinese Wall: A Review

22nd November 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

It looks like all the plot machinations in last week's episode are already paying off (a surprisingly quick turnaround by Mad Men's standards), and as an added bonus Peggy was back as well this week (apparently the previous episode is the only one not to feature her in it). Well, not much happened with Lane as he was still over in London - but he was included in events thanks...

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Mad Men Season 4, Episode 10 – Hands and Knees: A Review

16th November 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

After last week's morbid hi-jinx, it was time for a much more plot driven episode of Mad Men, especially as we're rapidly approaching the end of the season and the finale's events need to be set in motion. The odd thing about Mad Men is that the more eventful an episode is, the less interesting it is to write about and analyse - it may bore some viewers rigid but...

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Mad Men Season 4, Episode 9 – The Beautiful Girls: A Review

8th November 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Poor Miss Blankenship! That cataracts operation was unfortunately a bit of a waste of time and money it seems. The death of Don's secretary may well be this season's lawnmower incident, being that it was an unpleasant event that was later wrung by the writers (and the other SCDP staff) for laughs, fortunately this was a much less gory affair, with the longtime Sterling Cooper employee keeling over at her...

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Mad Men Series 4, Episode 8 – The Summer Man: A Review

1st November 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Don Draper may be an advertising genius, but he's a terrible writer if his journal is anything to go by. I don't think anybody will be rushing to publish his memoirs as a novelty book just in time for the Christmas market (incidentally, I wonder if he was inspired to keep a journal by discovering Roger’s efforts in last week’s episode?). There may have been a few character details sprinkled...

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Mad Men Season 4, Episode 7 – The Suitcase: A Review

22nd October 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

So, best episode of Mad Men ever? I might have already asked that before in one of these recaps, but as the series seems to be getting better and better I may well have a new favourite.
That's not to say that the episode was completely flawless, for one the big Liston-Clay boxing match was mainly an opportunity for a lot of casual racism - which may be historically accurate, but can on occasions...

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Mad Men Season 4, Episode 6 – Waldorf Stories: A Review

15th October 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Move over Joan, there’s a new Queen Bee at SCDP and she goes by the name Miss Blankenship, icon of disaffected and incompetent secretarial staff everywhere. I’m not sure which of her moments I liked the best – her greeting new applicant Danny (AKA Jonathan out of Buffy The Vampire Slayer) with ‘I don’t work for you’ was hilarious, as was her discussion with Don over his lost award statue...

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Mad Men Season 4, Episode 5 – The Chrysanthemum and The Sword: A Review

8th October 2010 | 1 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Betty Francis is history's greatest monster!

Maybe that's going a bit far, but I think we can all agree that she's a ghastly human being, what with her perma-scowl, her passive aggressiveness and the not-so passive aggressive child abuse. Of course Sally isn’t the easiest of kids to handle, particularly not in this week’s episode where she occupied herself with an impromptu hair cut... and masturbating (which is making me shudder...

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Mad Men Season 4, Episode 4 – The Rejected: A Review

30th September 2010 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Did you get pears? I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves asking that very same question at some point in our lives. Or maybe it was just an example of Mad Men at its most deliberately obscure - I’m not sure if it was a brilliant moment, or just a cynical attempt at faux-profundity. But enough about that for now, we’ve got a whole episode to get through first.

The episode began...

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