By Michelle Lerner

I’m Michelle, and I am not an expert on anything, I just love a good story, whether it’s on T.V, in a book, or at the cinema. I happen to believe that we T.V. nerds of the world have had an exceptional past several years, from THE SOPRANOS, to LOST, to BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, to THE WIRE, which is what makes writing these reviews so fun. Professionally I am a writer, which may explain my excessive wordiness- but doesn’t forgive it. Thanks for reading!







Best Surprise Hit on T.V. 2007- MAD MEN
The Golden Globe nominations came out the other day, and five years ago they would have been shocking. Nominations for shows on Showtime, FX, and, gasp, AMC? Preposterous. Yet there they were. 2007 was a year in which the puniest of basic cable channels, AMC, known for re-airing the crappy movies TMC won’t touch, picked up the fallen mantle of HBO.

DAMAGES, on FX, was a bracing, strange, ugly thriller that was almost instantly addictive and boasted a brilliant cast led by the terrifying Glen Close. WEEDS, on premium channel Showtime, pushed the envelope past the SOPRANOS, when Mary Louise Parker’s housewife truly became a gangsta. But it was MAD MEN, on AMC, that raised the bar on cable to heights last scene only on HBO. An HBO executive was quoted in the New York Times as saying that HBO had passed on MAD MEN, and was now living to regret it.

MAD MEN is a wonderful, absorbing, intriguing show that takes place in the world of 1960’s Madison Avenue, and the burgeoning advertising culture. The design is impeccable- from the gorgeous VERTIGO style opening credits to the perfect mid-century modern desks. Lips and nails are Fire Engine Red, and breasts are perky and conical. Women are shaped like women. And the show features so many lovingly puffed cigarettes and glistening glasses of honey colored scotch, that you might be forgiven for thinking it was financed by big tobacco. But what sets MAD MEN apart, and puts it into a class with the best of T.V; THE SOPRANOS, DEADWOOD, and the first season of LOST, is it’s psychological incisiveness. Don Draper, the lead, is a constructed character within the story, and he is played with menacing seriousness by Jon Hamm. Draper’s in a whole other league from everyone around him, and his intense fear, pride, and horniness keeps the world of the show orbiting around him- he is the force of gravity personified. Give him less scruples (if possible,) some henchmen and Lorriane Bracco, and you’ve got a 1960’s Tony Soprano. It’s no surprise that Matthew Weiner, the creator of the show used to write for THE SOPRANOS.

The Biggest T.V. Letdown of 2007- John From Cincinnati
I can’t decide which is worse- chucking an amazing show, with a growing audience, DEADWOOD, for an indecipherable series about some annoying surfers who speak in inappropriate Shakespearean English, or squandering a season’s worth of good will on a second season of complete dreck. Which is it? HEROES or JOHN FROM CINCINNATI.

Hmmm. I am going to choose the later, because it is a much bigger fall. We expect the networks to drop the ball. But not HBO, because by their own admission, they are not simply T.V. Or maybe they are. I was so excited for JOHN FROM CINCINNATI. And, let me just say, if I were an executive at H.B.O. I too would probably have bet on JOHN. David Milch is an actual genius, and he has a lot of experience with the whole T.V thing. But not everything can be a masterwork, or a HILL STREET BLUES, or a DEADWOOD. And what works in the grimy backdrop of the American West, does not translate to the sunny beaches of California.

I love H.B.O. shows, because you can get lost in them. They take us to places we can’t usually get to, from contemporary New Jersey, to Ancient Rome. And surfing culture with its hierarchy, beauty and glamorous danger is perfectly ripe for the H.B.O treatment; it, like the others, is a world unto itself. Milch, in trying to use the difficult rhythms that worked so well in DEADWOOD, squandered the opportunity to use surfing’s own language. Plus, the strange spiritual happenings combined with the heroically bad performances by non-actors didn’t help make the show watchable. The show didn’t lack for character; but it lacked the ability to relax and catch a wave. It wasn’t content to just tell a story, which is really the secret of any good show. It had to be inspiring, and difficult and symbolic. The thing about DEADWOOD was, it told a simple, mythic, story brilliantly.  JOHN got lost in its own intangible myths. And that is why it sadly crashed and burned.