Three New 'Mad Men' Promos

AMC has put together three new Mad Men promos for season three (starts in August). The promos don't contain any new scenes, but instead are culled from the first two seasons.

The dramatic promo:



The romantic:



The comedic:



The third season begins Sunday, August 16 at 10 p.m. I need a new Don Draper fix.

'Army Wives' Monday: Incoming

*Warning -- Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Army Wives.*

Denise got the boot. The Holdens officially moved back to Fort Marshall. Joan decided to go to Iraq while Roland got a full-time job.

Denise Got the Boot

I don't know why this particular storyline bugs me so much. Maybe it's because I feel badly for a character who mustered up the courage to try to follow her own path after dedicating most of her adult life -- since she was 19 -- to her family. The last two decades were about them. And with her husband serving overseas and her grown son also in the Army, Denise decided to make the rest of her life about figuring out things for herself. Sure, she made plenty of mistakes along the way, mistakes she now regrets, particularly the brief fling with a former patient (which got her fired from her nursing job) when she and her husband were separated. Denise was changing and her husband Frank didn't like that she was no longer the same woman he married when she was a teenager.

Frank -- who you might recall kissed a female colleague during his Iraq deployment -- has been humiliated by the fact that everyone found out about Denise's fling. And that seems to be all that matters to him: His pride. When he walked through the front door of his Fort Marshall home after being sent stateside to repair the wreckage that is his marriage, Frank said, "All I need to know, is it true?"

"It was a mistake," Denise said evenly, slowly. "And it's over and I regret it more than you can know. But, yes."

"In that case, I don't see any reason for you to stay here," he said brusquely, businesslike, as he told her he'd be calling his lawyers in the morning, presumably to start divorce proceedings. The woman who dedicated her adult life to her husband and son was kicked out of the house.

On top of that, Claudia Joy was insufferably sanctimonious when she ran into Denise in the PX parking lot. When Denise admitted that her feelings were hurt when Claudia Joy shut the door in her face the day Denise was fired, Claudia Joy shot back, "Denise, you are not the victim here . . . You brought this on yourself. You can't blame everyone around you for not knowing how to react. I've been trying to make some sense of what you did, but for the life of me, I can't."

"Well, I guess that makes two of us," Denise replied.

Make that three of us. The way all of Denise's so-called Army wives "friends," with the exception of Roland, have abandoned her in a moment of personal crisis still befuddles me. I can understand Frank feeling humiliated and taking it out on Denise (though I hope he comes to his senses), but for Claudia Joy to be so holier than thou? That, I don't get, particularly when Denise has admitted she made a mistake and wants to, for lack of a better word, atone.

The Holdens Officially Moved Back

The return of Brigadier Gen. Michael Holden back to Fort Marshall seemed awfully contrived. It didn't seem to make any sense that, after less than a month, Michael was booted from NATO and reassigned to SAME Army base and could keep the SAME house, even though another family had been preparing to move in. Clearly the whole "the-Holdens-are-moving-to-Brussels" was simply a season finale stunt that didn't quite work out in the long run.

Meanwhile, as Emmalin walked around like a ticking time bomb -- which her father is conveniently ignoring, wishfully thinking that her bad attitude and acts of rebellion (like attempting to elope at age 16, coloring her hair pink) will go away if he simply takes a firm paternal mien -- Claudia Joy is back in her crisp attire and spending all of her time unpacking. I, frankly, liked Claudia Joy a whole lot better when she was home without Michael, coping and advocating for Emmalin. I'm waiting for Claudia Joy to step up and deal with Emmalin, in other ways than simply serving tofurkey for dinner.

Joan to Go to Iraq

This was the most potentially dramatic story, I thought, of this fourth episode of the season. Roland had been feeling underused professionally while working part-time at night at the Army hospital in order to take care of his daughter during the day when Joan went to work on the base. He was talked into taking a full-time job, which has daycare, in order to partner up with a psychologist who's working with folks who've been traumatized after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and who aren't necessarily getting the care they need through the Army. Roland is clearly setting himself up for a clash with Army officials when he eventually advocates for a patient to get treatment which the Army denies. I think it could provide a great jumping off point for a larger discussion on soldiers' post-deployment health and mental/emotional care.

Then there was his wife Joan, who passed up the chance to remain on base with her family and work with Michael, in order to assume a battlefield commander post in Iraq. While turning down Michael's offer, Joan said: "As a wife and mother, I really appreciate the chance to stay with my family, but as a leader of a brigade, I feel obligated to lead my soldiers in Iraq and to get them home safely to their families. Sir, I am requesting the privilege to deploy."

I wonder how many parents -- dads or moms -- would make the same choice? Will Roland be as understanding as the Army wives are about their husbands' call to duty, like Trevor Leblanc's openly stated desire to return to Iraq? Or will this story play out differently because she's a mother instead of a father?

What say you, Army Wives fans? What'd you think of this episode?

Image credit: Lifetime.

'13 Going on 30' 'Thriller' Scene

In my blog post about Michael Jackson's death, I invoked my inner teenager who grew up on Jackson music . . . which got me to thinking about Jackson's music and the Jennifer Garner movie, 13 Going on 30. (It was like Tom Hanks' Big, only with a girl.)

Garner played a 13-year-old girl named Jenna Rink, circa the mid-1980s, who was at an awkward time in her childhood and imagined that when she turned 30, she'd have it all together. Then, through the magic of movies, her teenaged mindset was transported to her 30-year-old self in 2004 and she found out that she'd become a cut-throat, heartless editor at a fashion magazine who made poor choices in her life.

The scene below portrayed a party thrown by Jenna's magazine which was completely bombing. Techno music had been playing and the whole soiree was so self-consciously "cool" that it was practically Arctic . . . that is, until Jenna, with her 13-year-old perspective, asked the DJ to play "Thriller." And it eventually warmed up the crowd and brought folks together, listening to the music of their formative years. (I must confess, however, that I never learned the "Thriller" dance myself, though the song was played at my wedding reception which occurred on Halloween night lo so many years ago.)

Mixed Feelings About Michael

When I think about the death of Michael Jackson, I do so with mixed feelings.

There's the 13-year-old girl in me who fondly recalls dancing (or what I loosely called "dancing") at junior high dances to Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" albums. Listening to tunes from those albums now, as an adult, brings me back to a time in my life when I was an innocent, gawky girl who whiled away many hours listening to pop albums and 45s on her very own record player in her room while wearing Bonnie Bell lip gloss and reading Tiger Beat.

Then, that 13-year-old girl faces off with the 40-year-old cynical adult me who can't shake from Jackson's story the chapters on child molestation, the stories about him sleeping in a bed with little boys and the scene of him dangling his baby over a hotel balcony in Germany. When he was on trial in 2005 after being charged with molestation, I clearly remember having to vaguely explain to my then-6-year-old twins what the folks on the radio were talking about, and that the singer Michael Jackson had been accused but found not guilty of doing "bad things."

The two versions of Michael Jackson clashed in my head yesterday when I learned that he had died. I showed my kids videos on YouTube of the songs that provided the soundtrack for my formative years ("Thriller," "Billie Jean," "Beat It" and "Jam" . . . because my kids like hoops, not because it was a classic Jackson song) and said, "THIS is why people are talking about him." Then, later, I had a frank conversation with them saying that in his later years, Jackson was accused of doing bad things to kids. He's both of those guys in many people's minds, particularly if they belong to the so-called Generation X: The brilliant musician and dancer to whom they grew up listening and who had an enormous impact on American music and popular culture, AND a man who was repeatedly accused of sexually preying on children.

In this moment, I'm remembering the Jackson of my youth and posting one of my favorite Jackson songs, "Billie Jean," below.

Michael Jackson MTV Music

Introducing: Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week

I've always been interested in the weekly feature on Whitney Matheson's blog Pop Candy called "This Week in Pop," in which she tells her readers what things, pop culture-wise, she's reading/watching/listening to, etc. It tends to generate some discussion amongst her readers about their pop culture consumption.

So I've decided to do my own version of a weekly list here on this blog. I'm, cleverly enough, calling it, "Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week." (I know. Title stinks. However if I come up with something with a little more pizazz, you'll be the first to know.) My list will include stuff I'm watching/reading for both business and pleasure.

TV:

-- Watched the latest two episodes On Demand of Edie Falco's Nurse Jackie on Showtime. Her storyline, particularly when it comes to her oldest, anxious daughter, is becoming insidiously nuanced. Three episodes in, I'm hooked.

-- I set the DVR to record TNT's second episode of HawthoRNe (with Jada Pinkett Smith and former Alias hottie Michael Vartan) but it didn't record the show for some reason. Maybe it's the 2,000 episodes of Sonny with a Chance, Jonas episodes and repeats of the Clone Wars cartoons that are clogging up the DVR queue. I'm going to have to watch the new episode online to see how the tone compares to the pilot.

-- Rescue Me. Man, this show is getting as dark and sticky as molasses . . . that's when it's not being interrupted by odd musical numbers starring Sean Garrity in top hat and tails. More on Rescue Me and Tommy Gavin's return to the bottle in a separate blog entry.

-- Da Sox. As in, the Boston Red Sox. You might as well consider this an omnipresent entry on the list. The Sox. On NESN.

Books:

-- I'm working on a column about Hollywood moms so I'm in the middle of reading Tori Spelling's Mommywood. (Seriously, it's for a column . . . to which I'll link in this space later.) I'll also be re-reading a book I read a few years ago, Motherhood and Hollywood by Patricia Heaton for comparison's sake.

-- Although I've got the Mad Man-inspired book of poetry, Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O'Hara on my nightstand waiting to be parsed, I went to the movies this weekend with the kiddos (see next item) and saw the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I read the book last summer and am a bit fuzzy on the details as I zipped through it fairly quickly, so in preparation for the big movie release on July 15, I'm re-reading it.

Magazines:

-- Just read a piece about Jada Pinkett Smith in Redbook about how she and husband Will keep their sex lives spicy. (Key: A change of venue.)

-- Am waiting for a good time to thoroughly read the "Living by the Numbers" package of stories in Wired.

-- Perused Entertainment Weekly's "must list" for summer pop fare. Meryl Streep's new movie about Julia Child looks promising.

Movies:

-- Went to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian over the weekend with The Spouse, the kids and my parents. It was just okay, though the kids laughed, some belly laughs. We'd visited the Air & Space Museum in DC a few summers ago so they remembered some of the exhibits and monuments which were shown in the film. Afterward, they actually asked questions about General Custer and Teddy Roosevelt. If anything, at least the movie sparked a discussion about American history, albeit a minor discussion.

-- The Netflix DVDs sitting by the TV: The Bourne Ultimatum and Frost/Nixon.

-- The Spouse and I caught the last third of Little Miss Sunshine on cable TV over the weekend. I've forgotten how good that movie is. The ending was truly a surprise the first time I saw it.

What are you watching/reading/listening to this week?

Image credit: Scholastic.

Salon's Satirical Spoof of the 'Jon & Kate' Debacle

Saw this video on the Salon web site by Scott Bateman and laughed, in spite of myself. (Contrary to popular opinion, I feel badly for everyone in the Gosselin family about what's happened to the Gosselin marriage.)

However, this is great satire, particularly the line about the sextuplets possessing nuclear weapons.

Kate: 'The Show Must Go On' . . . Despite Divorcing Jon

There was a stark black screen with plain white lettering which said the following:

"On Monday, June 22, 2009, legal proceedings were initiated in Pennsylvania to dissolve the ten-year marriage of Jon and Kate Gosselin."

We knew it was coming. We knew they'd be calling it quits, but Jon and Kate kept it under wraps until the night the episode, "Houses & Big Changes" aired. They didn't even file their divorce papers until very late on the day on which the episode was slated to air in order to preserve the surprise and boost the ratings. But nonetheless, there was something deeply sad about watching the one-hour "special" episode of Jon & Kate Plus Eight where Jon and Kate confirmed that they were splitting up.

Here are a few observations:

-- It seems as though Jon is psyched to move on to a new phase of his life, noting that he's only 32 years old. Why else would he say, "I'm excited and hurt." Excited? Excited to have to live elsewhere and swap custody of eight kids? He said he was proud of himself for standing on his "own two feet" and not letting Kate "rule the roost" any longer.

-- Kate, by contrast, seemed deeply devastated. "Jon has a lot of anger toward me and I'd love to discuss it with him but he won't discuss it with me," she said, adding that she'd recently sobbed harder than she'd ever sobbed. Denying that this reality program and their careers associated with the show played any role in the disintegration of her marriage, Kate said that their "goals are different now."

-- "We've always done the show for the kids to be able to provide for them . . . The show must go on," Kate declared. Viewers will now get to see what it's like to be a single parent caring for eight kids. If we thought it seemed tough caring for eight kids when there were TWO parents at home, imagine how much more difficult it'll be for Jon on his own or Kate on her own, even with a babysitter. "I know there are many families out there going through this," Kate said.

-- Other assorted questions: Are the cameras going to follow Jon and Kate into divorce court? Are they going to follow them on dates? How will they handle the kids' reactions to seeing Jon move out?

What'd you think?

Image credit: TLC.

'Army Wives' Monday: Moving Out

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Army Wives.*

Roland actually DOES still work as a psychiatrist. Denise pined. Claudia Joy seemed to have lost her on-post cache. And Pamela ran into a former listener whose life she'd changed for the better.
See Roland Work

Last week Roland was distinctly unhappy and disillusioned, feeling as though he was wasting his professional life and expertise ("I wrote books, damn it! I had a career!") by being an at-home dad married to someone in the Army who could be deployed at any moment.

This week Roland was a hero during one of his shifts at the hospital. Roland stuck his neck out for a patient who needed someone at the hospital to take that extra step and advocate on his behalf. After helping a patient who'd experienced brain trauma following time in combat, Roland was so pleased by his professional achievement that he was actually humming as he was making dinner for his wife. It was refreshing to see him striking his own kind of work-life balance. Of course it didn't hurt to have Denise around to babysit for free.

See Denise Pine

Speaking of Denise -- who's still socially ostracized and has no friends other than Roland who are reaching out to her in the wake of the incident where Frank went missing while on a dangerous mission -- she had a dream that she called Frank, apologized to him for the fling and said, "It's over. I don't know what I was thinking," as she professed her love to him and how much she wanted them to make their marriage work. He agreed. Then Denise woke up. And reality wasn't quite what she expected it to be.

Frank was informed that he was being sent back to Fort Marshall to run war game exercises on the base and to expressly repair his fractured family life. Humiliated that his commanding officer knew about Denise getting fired from the Army hospital for having an affair with a former patient, Frank called Denise only to inform her he was coming home but specifically said he didn't want her to pick him up. I think Frank would've been willing to patch things up before everyone knew about Denise's love affair, but now that everyone DOES know, I think the likelihood or their reunion has greatly diminished. I think Denise had best start looking for another place to live. Maybe there's an available unit in Claudia Joy's new building.

See Claudia Joy Try to Exert (Non)Influence

The big surprise of the episode was seeing Michael back home with Claudia Joy -- previews indicated he was back to stay, but what job he'll take is an open question as the post commander spot is already taken. However the more interesting storyline to watch unfold is Claudia Joy's. Here's a woman who devoted her adult life to following her husband's career, helping bolster it through volunteer work, and taking care of her children. When her husband was in Brussels and she was in the States on the post, she discovered she lost some of the cache of her husband's title.

While weathering a stream of sarcastic jabs from her angry teenaged daughter, Claudia Joy realized that she was no longer the post commander's wife anymore when she attempted to help Pamela move up a few notches on the wait list for a three-bedroom house at Fort Marshall. She was met with blank stares when she invoked her and her husband's name, and her husband's rank, and told that the contact she had in the office had just retired. Claudia Joy's influence on the base: Greatly diminished to non-existent.

See Pamela Inspire

Pamela hasn't been given a whole lot to do during the first two episodes of Army Wives other than be a judgmental meanie who blew off her "friend" Denise. But in this recent installment Pamela learned that, although she'd been on Fort Marshall's wait list to get a three-bedroom house, she'd actually fallen down the list in the past year because higher ranking officers' families had moved onto the post. She was getting nothing but lip from the gal behind the counter and Claudia Joy proved useless. It was a housing office employee, who was a former listener of Pamela's on-base radio show, who wound up saving Pamela's day. The listener -- who was having immense difficulties in her marriage when she learned she was pregnant -- told Pamela that Pamela's encouraging on-air words for Army spouses to tough it out and find their inner strength eased her and made her feel supported through a challenging time.

How this affects Pamela -- whether she feels the calling to return to radio to help other spouses cope, seeing that she was unceremoniously axed from her radio show at the end of last season -- is unclear. I'd like to see more of the butt-kicking version of Pamela. The one we're seeing right now seems muted, only letting her passion seep out in the form of judging her former friend.

What did you think about episode three?

Image credit: Lifetime.

Suburban Mom's Political Fix: Obama as Superhero (& Suave Fly Killer)

Okay, so it doesn't involve killing a fly with a single, vicious, ruthless slap, but the new JibJab satire which spoofs President Obama taking on everything that's wrong with the world with his superhero powers is sharp. And pretty cool. Like the superhero Obama, with an Obama campaign logo on his chest where the super "S" should be.

Entertainment Weekly's Fatherly Flicks

In honor of Father's Day this weekend, Entertainment Weekly is out with a list of the top 24 movies to watch with dad.

I'd already been thinking about dads and movies when I read this online because, just last night I bought my father three DVDs of films I thought he'd really like: Field of Dreams, Bull Durham and Hoosiers. (Yes, we're a sports-fan family.) I've watched all of these films, albeit a long time ago, with my dear old dad, and to me, they have a special meaning. (No, I'm not worried about revealing my father's Father's Day gift in this space because he doesn't read anything that's online unless my mother prints it out for him. Mom, please don't print this one out, 'kay?)

However only one of the classic films I bought made it onto Entertainment Weekly's dad-kid movies list: Field of Dreams, which came in at number 17. My father's all-time favorite flick, The Godfather -- which he watches every, single, time he stumbles upon it on TV -- only made it to number 15.

The EW list is eclectic and unconventional. Here's the top 10:

1. Paper Moon (Starring the father-daughter combo of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal.)
2. Revenge of the Nerds
3. The Champ
4. Father of the Bride (This came out at the same time I was getting married, so it reliably makes my dad teary-eyed.)
5. Elf (One of my new favorite Christmas movies.)
6. Return of the Jedi ("Luke, I am your fa-a-a-theeer." I know, Darth Vader uttered that line in The Empire Strikes Back, but in the last final Star Wars movie, Luke and Darth made amends, hence it landing on this list.)
7. Say Anything (Have boombox, will travel.)
8. Wall Street (I don't get this one. Seriously.)
9. Rudy
10. Full Metal Jacket

If you were going to make up a top 5 list of the best films to watch with your dad, which movies would be on it?

Image credit: Entertainment Weekly.

TLC Using Gosselins' Marital Turmoil for Ratings: Monday's 1-Hr Special

This just in . . . TLC will be giving Jon and Kate Gosselin -- the parents of sextuplets and a set of twins who all star in their own reality show, Jon & Kate Plus 8 -- a whole hour of primetime TV. For a Jon & Kate Special. And they'll make "an announcement."

As I've written before, I feel badly for the Gosselins, who clearly didn't bargain that their marriage would collapse in front of national TV cameras. They likely needed the money the show affords them (plus the new house, the ability to snare book deals, etc.) to pay for the care of eight kids under the age of 10. (I don't know the details of their contract with TLC and whether they have the ability to get out of this show if they wanted, given the turmoil in their home.)

But what I do know is that many media outlets, like TLC and Us Weekly (which put a Gosselin-related story on the cover for seven consecutive weeks) have been reaping the benefits while this family is falling to pieces. What will happen during Monday night's Jon & Kate special? One thing's for sure, TLC will likely pull in monster ratings while the Gosselins' hearts, and marriage, are breaking. (Link to TLC promo here.)

Suburban Mom's Political Fix: Iranians Protesting Election Results

The events which are unfolding in the wake of the disputed Iranian presidential election are being documented by a multitude of web sites, from streams of tweets from Twitter, videos from YouTube and stories from news organizations which are struggling to adhere to the recent Iranian crackdowns on the media's transmission of video from the streets. It is, in a word, stunning.

I've been watching coverage of the five days' worth of election protests on cable news, on video feeds from news web sites and have read stories from newspapers, as well as tweets from Iran. Several things about this historic struggle to grab hold of democracy -- and a vote tally that actually bears a resemblance to an accurate count of the ballots -- struck me:

Silent Protest

Imagine people walking through the streets -- thousands and thousand of them -- there to protest an election they believe has been taken from them. And they walk in silence, holding their hands up in the peace sign, trying not to raise the ire of government riot police with whom some protesters have violently clashed over recent days. The video below captured the silent protest:



Years Ending in "9"

While reading a column in the Boston Globe by Jeff Jacoby today -- which compared the reaction of President Obama to the unrest in Iran, to President George H. W. Bush's muted response to the democratic protests in China 20 years ago ("In reacting to the recent Iranian election and to the protests that erupted after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway victor, the Obama White House seems to be taking a page from the elder Bush's 1989 playbook.") -- I found it oddly intriguing that the Chinese uprising was in 1989 and the previous unrest in Iran occurred in 1979.

"The Revolution Had Begun."

The Boston Globe has on its web site a dispatch from Tehran from a participant of one of the large protests. It's riveting reading:

". . . [T]he crowd did not consist of young men, but housewives, seniors, businessmen wearing suits, even children. There was blood on many of them. They were walking downhill towards the Interior Ministry, determined and in force. The wave that had taken over Iran and partied in the streets into the morning for the last few weeks was now an army on the move. As I stood in place trying to figure out what I was seeing, I noticed shopkeepers shutting down and joining the flock. People were also chanting on the sidelines, 'down with the dictator,' referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, while the crowd chanted 'join us proud Iranians, join us, join us.' The crowd was growing by the moment."

The Daily Show Goes to Iran

Further blurring the lines between news, entertainment and journalism, Comedy Central's The Daily Show is sending the same guy who cut the New York Times to shreds last week, to Iran in a series of reports called, "Access of Evil."

Jon Stewart had a brutal take on how CNN has been covering the breaking news in Iran, given the restrictions placed on American journalists by the Iranian government. Mocking their reliance on "unverified material," Stewart also skewered the Iranian government's election tallying techniques.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Irandecision 2009 - CNN's Unverified Material
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Image credit: Getty images via the Huffington Post.

Suburban Mom's Political Fix: Obama vs The Fly

President Obama took on a pesky, interloping fly (insert a snarky, put-down of an annoying pol) during a taped interview with CNBC. And Obama won. It was a literal smack-down.

Then, as the CNBC camera folks trained the lens on the fly's carcass lying on the White House rug the President said, "I got the sucker."



'Twas an odd, albeit amusing bit of video. But not, apparently to PETA, if the gossipy celeb-centric web site TMZ is to be believed. The group reportedly issued a statement which took the presidential fly killer to task for summarily executing the insect. The statement said in part, "He isn't the Buddha. He's a human being and human beings have a long way to go before they think before they act."

Good grief.

Letterman Doesn't Get It

So David Letterman has now formally apologized to the Palin family for the joke he made about a Palin daughter getting "knocked up" by A-Rod. During his show last night, Letterman went on and on about how people just didn't seem to get the joke he told. He kept saying that he didn't realize that the daughter who appeared at the New York Yankees game with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was the Palin's 14-year-old daughter Willow. He thought the girl accompanying Gov. Palin was her 18-year-old daughter Bristol, the one who had the baby and who has appeared on People Magazine's cover offering herself up as a cautionary tale to other teens. (She told the magazine, "Girls need to imagine and picture their life with a screaming newborn baby and then think before they have sex. Think about the consequences.")

During his "apology" last night, Letterman said, "There's no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18." He added that after seeing a PBS commentator complain about the joke he thought, "Oh boy, now I'm beginning to understand what the problem is here. It's the perception rather than the intent." (Link to video here.)



Beyond the incompetence of Letterman's staff -- they didn't know which daughter was in Yankee Stadium, fact-checking always bites you in the behind if you don't do it -- there's the notion that, at the root of this, it's funny and okay and acceptable to mock an 18-year-old girl for having a baby, to shame her because of her mother's conservative politics and polarizing public persona. It's amusing to make sport of a life-altering mistake for which Bristol is trying to atone by telling fellow teens that life's no picnic now that she's a teen mom.

Letterman is not alone in using the teenaged Bristol Palin's pregnancy as a punch line. A writer at The Washington Post did some digging and discovered that other late night hosts used Bristol's pregnancy more often than Letterman:

"Through mid-March, Leno had made 15 jokes about the Palin daughter's pregnancy, Stewart had told four on 'The Daily Show,' and Letterman checked in with eight, according to an analysis of late-night humor by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonpartisan research organization affiliated with George Mason University.

The comedian most likely to bash Bristol Palin? O'Brien, with 20 jokes at her expense."

Telling a joke that uses the offspring of a politician -- a teenager to boot -- as the butt of a joke, leaves a trail of slimy residue behind. The children of politicians shouldn't be fair game. Do all the jokes you want to about the politicians and celebs who make their living off of garnering public attention, but somewhere, there should be some boundaries which protect the children. (True Bristol's 18, but she can't even drink legally yet.) I'm all for cutting, edgy humor, but maybe the late night comics should choose their targets more wisely. Bottom line: Letterman's protestations and intent aside, he told a joke about a 14-year-old, not the 18-year-old. Not cool.

Ball-Breakin' Nurses -- Falco & Pinkett Smith -- Takin' on Primetime

Two medical shows. Two distinctly different leading ladies playin' ball-breakin' nurses. Takin' on primetime. Move over McDreamy docs. These two would kick your overly-coiffed behinds.

On Showtime, Edie Falco from The Sopranos dissolves into her character on Nurse Jackie (Mondays), as Jackie Peyton, a morally flexible nurse addicted to Percocet who's cheating on her husband, the father of her two adorable little girls. Believe me, you won't think about Carmela after the first scene.

On TNT's drama Hawthorne (premieres Tuesday) Jada Pinkett Smith stars as Christina Hawthorne, a tough nurse in mourning, grieving the loss of her husband a year ago, and coping with her angry teenaged daughter who blames her for her father's death. Plus she's got an openly hostile mother-in-law who serves on the hospital's board (Joanna Cassidy) AND works alongside Dr. Tom Wakefield (Michael Vartan of Alias), the chief of surgery and Christina's late husband's oncologist.

I compare and contrast Falco and Pinkett Smith's shows in my Pop Culture column this week, and explain exactly how Falco's character is nothing at all like the Vicodin-addicted doc, Gregory House. With both new programs, I conclude, ". . . [Y]ou've got the makings for two smart, brave role models, the anti-Meredith Greys. No whining or indecisiveness allowed."

Image credit: TNT.

'Army Wives' Monday: About Face

Roland's unhappy about being an at-home dad and harbors regrets about abandoning his prestigious career. Claudia Joy's adrift, rudderless. While Denise is unemployed and unsure where she fits in anywhere. Three Army spouses, all feeling, to one degree or another, lost in Army Wives' season three's second episode, "About Face."

Roland Burton:

Set off by seeing a former colleague lauded in a professional magazine for his work, Roland started feeling restless. Then, when surrounded by Army wives, he felt even more like the odd man out. True, he always knew that being an Army husband made him usual on an Army base filled with Army wives, but this episode amplified Roland feeling out of place, even though he's the one who advocated becoming an at-home parent instead of putting his baby into daycare.

I seem to recall that, at the end of last season, he was offered some kind of part-time, evening work so he could keep current, but somehow that seems to have been overlooked, or simply not mentioned this year. Am I missing something here? Regardless, something needs to change before Lt. Col. Joan Burton is deployed to Iraq or else there'll be some big daddy track issues with which to contend.

Claudia Joy:

I used to be annoyed by Claudia Joy's Wisteria Lane perfect life as she gleefully served as the hub of Fort Marshall life. But seeing her on the base -- homeless, without the title of "post commander's wife," with her husband on another continent, and with a daughter who's recalcitrant -- was fairly depressing. Here's a woman who gave up a promising career (hmm, spotting an Army Wives trend?) in order to freely follow her husband's fast-climbing military career. As he rose, so did her social stature among the Army spouses. But now with him in Brussels working for NATO, and her at home with an angry daughter but not really having a home or an official position, it's just damned sad.

Denise:

Poor Denise. She was tarred and feathered by her so-called "friends" on the post, even though the affair in question happened when she and her husband Frank were separated. This little fact didn't seem to matter to the Army spouses who don't seem inclined to give her the time of day, don't even want to hear her side of the story (except for Roland who had a fling when he was still married). So much for friendship.

So, whaddya think of the way the Fort Marshall gals are treating Denise? Of Claudia Joy's unmoored life? Of Roland's daddy/career issues?

Image credit: Lifetime.

'Mad Men' Season 3: Spoiler Photos

For those of you who can't wait until August 16 to see a peek of new Mad Men season three goodness . . . you can whet your appetite by going to this web site to see some a few photos of Don and Betty Draper (Jon Hamm and January Jones) that provide a few clues about third season developments.

Meanwhile, E!Online has a few hints about what's in store for Sterling Cooper, courtesy of an interview with John Slattery who plays Roger Sterling.

Suburban Mom's Political Fix: All Media Smackdown Edition, NYT/Daily Show, Stewart/Scarborough, Letterman/Palin

NYT Gets Slammed on Daily Show

Did the New York Times staffers who agreed to participate in a recent Daily Show segment about the future of the dying newspaper industry realize that the Daily Show is all about SATIRE? Did they not expect wacky questions? Sharp hey-dude-you're-so-toast darts to be thrown their way?

It doesn't appear as though those thoughts crossed their minds when they decided to partake in the piece. Judge for yourself by watching the segment below, a scathing portrait of out-of-touch editors, though Executive Editor Bill Keller's comment about how the Huffington Post can't and doesn't have bureaus in far-flung and dangerous locales because it doesn't have the money to do so was interesting, but only to a limited degree because you know what, the NYT shouldn't be bragging about having more money than anyone else right now, particularly when they're threatening to shutter the Boston Globe (which already eliminated a lot of its foreign bureaus because of costs) because of red ink. That last joke, about what's black and white and red all over: Killer. (Link to the video here):

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
End Times
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

Stewart and Scarborough Go Mano-a-Mano . . . Through Their TV Shows

I've been monitoring this (manufactured?) controversy between the Daily Show's Jon Stewart and Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough. (For the record, I'm a fan of both guys and their shows.) In a nutshell, Morning Joe recently decided to team up with Starbucks as a sponsor, seeing as though the anchors, Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are conspicuous consumers of Starbucks products during their news casts. This made them big, fat, irresistible targets for spoofing. Cue: Stewart. This resulted in the anchors going back and forth was various and sundry sniping.

Yesterday, in discussing Stewart, Scarborough called him an angry man and suggested he had a Napoleon complex. Stewart responded last night by calling Scarborough "watered down and stupid" and then did a skit which I'd venture to say was funnier in the writers' room than in its execution. Stewart brought out all manner of faux-branded coffee products -- like a box of "Taster's Choice" tissues -- had mascara running down his face while he pretended to cry, fled the stage, asking for his Napoleon hat and coat as he climbed on top of a small horse. When he was "talked back" into returning to the stage, he did so shouting, "Rage on! Rage on!" (Link to the video here.)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jon's Napoleonic Complex
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

Did Letterman Go Too Far?

That's the question du jour regarding Letterman's jokes about Sarah Palin's recent appearance at a New York Yankees game, where she brought her 14-year-old daughter along with her. Letterman made jokes about a Palin daughter, including about A-Rod knocking up a Palin daughter during the game, and about keeping a Palin daughter away from disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Why do I keep saying, "a Palin daughter?" Because the 14-year-old daughter was the one in New York at the game with her mom but, apparently, Letterman thought it was the 18-year-old daughter who recently had a baby, the one who was on the cover of People Magazine with her infant. Last night, Letterman explicitly said that he wasn't talking about the 14-year-old. He said he was talking about the 18-year-old. But that's not exactly how it came across when he told the jokes.

Palin got ticked. Told him off indirectly by spouting off to journalists and issuing a statement, which resulted in Letterman issuing a caustic clarification last night which, I guess in a comedian's world, constitutes an apology of some sort. During Morning Joe this morning and later on The View, the question was raised by Brzezinski and by Elisabeth Hasselbeck as to whether Letterman would've gone after Palin's teenaged kids if she were a Democrat instead of a very conservative Republican. Barbara Walters added during The View's discussion that politicians' children should be off the table as far as lampooning goes, unlike panelist Joy Behar who said that because the Palins "traipsed" her pregnant daughter out in public, the family deserves what it gets. (See The View debate here.)



UPDATE: While listening to various folks discuss the Letterman/Palin situation this afternoon, I heard a local radio commentator make an interesting analogy: Invoking the suspension of MSNBC's David Shuster in 2008 after he suggested that twentysomething Chelsea Clinton was being "pimped out" by her mother as she went out on the campaign trail talking up Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy, the commentator asked why Shuster was suspended for making a comment about an adult and used the words "I apologize," while some folks are brushing off Letterman's comments about a 14-year-old daughter of a Republican vice presidential nominee.

'In Treatment' in Danger of Being Canceled?

What the heck is wrong with the folks at HBO?

In the past few years they've lost The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under. They've attempted to buck up their roster of shows with the fabulous Big Love (one of the most unique shows on TV right now) and True Blood (although I don't do vampire). But Curb Your Enthusiasm has been AWOL for eons and Entourage has been wildly uneven, though I still tune in like a bad habit.

HBO's once cutting-edge programming is facing stiff competition. On FX in the form of the pitch-black Rescue Me. On Showtime in the form of the brand-spankin' new Edie Falco-driven Nurse Jackie and Toni Collette's United States of Tara, along with other shows such as Dexter, Weeds and Californication. HBO famously took a pass on the award-winning buzzy Mad Men when Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner pitched it to the premium channel. Now Don Draper is seen on AMC, not HBO.

And here HBO has this wonderfully complex, emotionally wrought drama, In Treatment, for which its lead actor, Gabriel Byrne, has won a Golden Globe for his role, which has also been lauded by TV critics. It just completed its second wonderful season and, in the wake of unimpressive ratings (about 1.6 million on average, Broadcasting & Cable reports), HBO execs have placed the therapy drama on the bubble. The announcement of whether the show will continue for a third season will be made this week.

Fans of In Treatment -- perhaps learning from Medium's experience (an NBC exec said there hadn't been any outward expression of love for the program, so it was axed, only to have CBS snap it up) -- aren't taking the precarious situation that faces the fictional Dr. Paul Weston sitting down. According to Newsday, fans are encouraging fellow In Treatment supporters to send boxes of Irish Spring soap (seriously) to HBO's HQ. Why soap? Because Byrne's Irish, I guess. Folks who enjoyed NBC's Lipstick Jungle recently tried to save the Brooke Shields show from cancellation by sending tubes of lipstick to NBC, but didn't succeed. (Television Without Pity had a good piece about fan campaigns to save shows, some which worked, some which didn't.)

As far as In Treatment goes, HBO execs would be foolish to let the exquisitely executed, intelligent drama go, especially with Byrne -- and several of the other supporting castmates from this season -- poised for near-certain Emmy nominations. I thought HBO was supposed to be just the right home for that kind of show. Isn't that why I subscribe to it?

Image credit: HBO.

'Army Wives' Monday: Best Laid Plans (Season Premiere)

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the season three premiere of Army Wives*

Teenaged angst that almost led to teenaged matrimony. Seeing your spouse move across the globe while you stay behind, unsure of where you and your kid are going to live. Losing one's job in a scandalous manner which causes you to become socially ostracized. Almost getting scammed out of your business. That's quite a lot o'drama for one episode of Lifetime's Army Wives . . . unless it's the season premiere, which is typically front-loaded with drama. So let's dive into the melodrama of the first installment of season three:

The Holdens: Gen. Michael Holden went to Brussels to work for NATO, sans his family after showing a stunning level of cluelessness as to why his 16-year-old daughter was acting out, running away with her boyfriend just as the family was supposed to head to the airport to leave Fort Marshall permanently. Almost getting married at age 16 isn't simply a minor incident. Clearly something deeper is going on with Emmalin, but to Gen. Holden, it just seemed like an inconvenience. He headed for the plane while Claudia Joy, who refused to leave as he wished, was left to deal with the mess.

With the exception of the death of their daughter Amanda and how Claudia Joy has handled her grieving (last season's scenes of packing up of Amanda's room and visiting the cemetery were tear-jerkers), I normally find Claudia Joy one of the dullest characters on the show. In a way, she reminds me of those perfect Wisteria Lane suburbanites who -- at least surficially -- look like everything's just peachy in their picturesque homes filled with delectable eats. But to see Claudia Joy (who possesses one of the most awkward names on TV) uprooted, searching for a home for the first time since her law school days and dealing with an irascible teen is providing Kim Delaney something more meaty to do than furrow her brow. Which is a good thing.

Denise Sherwood: I genuinely felt badly for her. She'd separated from her husband -- they were even staying in separate quarters before he left for Iraq -- and she's the one who's portrayed as a modern day Scarlet O'Hara. Booted from her job for violating the code of conduct (something she should've thought about before plunging into an affair with an injured soldier to whom she tended as a nurse) and then dumped by her lover, Denise returned home to find that her so-called friends give her the cold shoulder after heartily encouraging her to evolve into her own person and pursue her own interests . . . which is what led to her marital estrangement in the first place. For Claudia Joy to simply close the door in her face, man, that was just icy, and unnecessary, particularly given how frequently Denise had been there for her friends when they've been in need. I'm wondering if the writers will explore the possibility of Denise getting booted from base housing if she and Frank remain estranged.

Roxy LeBlanc: Thankfully, Roxy is friends with an ex-cop, or else she would've been taken in by a slick con man because, from Trevor's perspective, quick money for her half of the bar is better than none at all. Of all the stories in the premiere, I thought this one was wrapped up a bit too quickly and cleanly. (I find it hard to believe that the prints would've been processed that swiftly.) It would've been more dramatic for an awkward business partnership to have been drawn out more, but I got the feeling that a decision has been made to emphasize Roxy's conflict with Trevor over having a baby and his growing distaste for her long work hours as the bigger story, not ownership of Betty's.

Roland Burton: Aside from his bad boy extra-marital fling in a previous season, Roland is consistently portrayed as the good guy who's always there for all his gal pals, his infant daughter and his wife, who's going to be deployed to Iraq in a few months. He wasn't given much to do during the premiere other than counsel Claudia Joy that Emmalin is coping with unresolved grief, but, as with Roxy, I see future conflict over his role in the Burton household being his central theme.

Pamela Moran: The fiery Pamela didn't have much to do in this episode either except for sleuthing for Roxy. I was waiting to see her cope with the abrupt loss of her radio gig at the end of season two, a job from which she literally and figuratively regained her own voice. Seeing that Pamela adored doing the show -- and was even courted by radio stations -- to not even really address it seemed like a glaring omission. I'd love to see the writers have Pamela explore the possibility of joining the Charleston police force. Could provide compelling work/life tension, and pump some much needed cash into the Moran household.

Overall, I thought the premiere set the stage for some potentially interesting stories this season, though I hope all the problems faced by the Army spouses aren't wrapped up as tidily as was the con man/Betty's plot.

That being said, what were your thoughts on the Army Wives premiere? Were you surprised to see Denise fired and Claudia Joy shut the door in her face? Be sure to read my Pop Culture column on Army Wives at the Mommy Track'd web site.

Image credit: Lifetime.

'Lost Untangled:' The Long-Awaited Satirical Explainer for the Season Finale

I now understand why we've had to wait weeks for ABC to finally release the season's last Lost Untangled video online. They've apparently decided that the low-keyed, low-tech use of plastic action figures, cardboard character cut-outs and goofy voices was insufficient. They had to go with some "special effects" (i.e. -- fires and explosions). And add music.

While the season finale version of Lost Untangled did contain a few amusing moments, it wasn't as funny or clever as the bulk of the Lost Untangled videos we've seen throughout the year. The best part about them was the fact that they were so low-tech and silly, explaining the twisty, off-kilter Lost plots succinctly while simultaneously entertaining us with shtick. The gentle-mocking-while-explaining technique was effective. However this Lost Untangled finale -- with its own music and a dancing statue -- simply didn't do it for me, though seeing the Locke action figure inside the box and showing Phil getting killed, twice, did make me chuckle. (Link to the video here.)

What do you think of the season finale wrap-up?

'Army Wives' Starts Season 3 Sunday, Come Here Monday for Recap

The third season of Army Wives on Lifetime TV commences Sunday night at 10. After the cliffhanger season finale last year which had: The Holden family preparing to ship off to NATO in Brussels only to find that their 16-year-old daughter has gone missing, Denise Sherwood having a fling with a former patient now that she's separated from her husband, Pamela Moran being fired from her radio job, Roxy LeBlanc worrying about losing the bar and Lt. Col. Joan Burton heartbroken that she's going to be shipped off to Iraq and have to leave her baby and husband behind, there are a whole lot of issues that need tendin'.

As I've been busy working on my Pop Culture column for next week -- which'll be all about Army Wives -- I decided to start doing a recap/review here on Mondays called, Army Wives Monday. Hopefully any fans of the show -- as well as its critics -- will join me here on Mondays to offer their comments and observations.

Image credit: Lifetime.

Re-Watching/Re-Reading Movies, TV Shows, Books: Just My Style

It was with tremendous pleasure that I read a recent column in the New York Times extolling the virtues of re-reading books. Columnist Verlyn Klinkenborg, who said he's fond of re-reading some of his favorite books rather than instinctively moving on to new material, wrote:

"Part of the fun of re-reading is that you are no longer bothered by the business of finding out what happens. Re-reading Middlemarch, for instance, or even The Great Gatsby, I'm able to pay attention to what's really happening in the language itself -- a pleasure surely as great as discovering who marries whom, and who dies and who does not.

The real secret of re-reading is simply this: It is impossible. The characters remain the same, and the words never change, but the reader always does."

This was a wonderfully simple, yet insightful observation. We readers change all the time, influenced by our life's experiences. The books don't. I re-read The Scarlet Letter last year in preparation for a column and found Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic to be nothing at all like I remembered from my earlier readings of it while in high school and college. From my new perch -- as a married mother of three -- it almost seemed like it was a new book altogether. The story held more meaning for me than it did for me when I was 15, or 20. Ditto for Gatsby, which I recently read again. As with Letter, it seemed like a fresh literary experience because I have a more experienced point of view than when I first met F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby.

As for Klinkenborg's comment that when you're re-reading something you're no longer distracted by finding out key plot points, the same reasoning applies to re-watching movies or TV shows, particularly complex programs with layers of allusions like Lost, Alias and Mad Men.

Take the densely written drama Lost. When I watch a new episode for the first time, I focus almost exclusively on the plot, how the storylines fit into the meta-story of the show and whether they jive with past episodes and character backstories. Once the major twists and turns have been dispensed with, I can dive back into the episode during a later viewing and comb for hints, layers and connections while reveling in the subtleties I missed when I was busy obsessing about the storylines.

On this practice, I differ with The Spouse, who believes that once he's seen something he moves on. Been there. Done that.

Over the weekend, the movie American Beauty was on cable TV. I first saw it in the theater in 1999 with a friend. When it came to VHS (when everyone was still watching tapes), I got a copy and watched it with The Spouse who thought it was just "okay." In the years since, whenever I've suggested that we re-watch the movie, The Spouse has declined. However when we watched the last quarter of it this past weekend together, we noticed new things mostly due to our different perspectives, particularly because we're both in our 40s and the lead character, Lester Burnham is 42. (The experience didn't convince The Spouse to re-thinking his stance against re-watching TV shows and films.)

As far as the books I've read in the recent past which have thoroughly entertained me (such as The Time Traveler's Wife and the Harry Potter series I read last summer), I know that if I allow myself the luxury of re-reading them -- having already satiated my greediness to know what happens -- I will be able to, as Klinkenborg said, "pay attention to what's really happening in the language itself."

Are you a re-watcher/re-reader? If you're a fan of a complex show like Lost, how many times do you re-watch something? Is once enough?

'The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien' & the Pressure of High Expectations

Best line from the premiere of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien last night was the one about how O'Brien said he'd picked a fabulous time to assume the reins of the show: When it's on the third rated network, when he's living in a state that's bankrupt and when GM (now known as Government Motors) is a sponsor.

I always feel badly for the comedians on the first night of a new show because they're clearly not totally comfortable yet and the audience isn't sure what to expect. It's rough terrain to trod and typically leads to unevenness. And there were indeed awkward moments last night, particularly during O'Brien's overly long monologue which seemed laden down with things like pre-taped videos. Excluding the introductory video showing O'Brien running coast to coast -- a la Forrest Gump (link to video here) -- I would've loved to have seen a current affairs-oriented monologue, preferably with contemporary stuff. (The Sotomayor bit seemed dated already.) I wanted more breezy comedy, fewer video and forced moments, but I must admit that seeing O'Brien hijack the tour group was amusing.



What did you think of O'Brien's premiere?

'Mad Men' Season 3 Promo: No New Scenes, But Plenty of Drama

August seems like such a long way away to wait for my Don Draper/Jon Hamm fix . . .

AMC is out with a new Mad Men season three promo which doesn't use any new scenes -- they're from the sophomore season -- but it's plenty good to remind us of how gripping this show can be. (Link to the "We All Get a Little Mad Sometimes" video here.)

I just watched the season two finale again the other night when it repeated on AMC (and saw this promo for the first time) and the episode, "Meditations in an Emergency," still takes my breath away.

New episodes don't start until August. AMC hasn't provided a specific date yet. The web site still says, "August 2009."

'Medium' SEASON Finale Tonight, Season Six'll Be on CBS in Fall

Regardless of the promos you might have seen on NBC for tonight's season finale of the Patricia Arquette drama Medium (like the one from YouTube above), it's NOT the end of the show. Medium will live on in the fall on CBS.

In case you haven't heard . . . there was quite the hullabaloo last month when NBC decided to cancel the five-year-old show in which Arquette plays medium Allison Dubois who helps the Phoenix district attorney solve crimes by talking to the dead or dreaming about stuff that helps folks nab the bad guys. Calling the show "aging," an NBC exec (on a network which, by the way, renewed the nearly 19-year-old Law & Order) said Medium's fans were not vocal enough in their support of the show.

So I dedicated my Pop Culture & Politics column this week to Medium, whose season ends tonight, and why I've recommended it to others. There's Arquette's character Allison who provides one of the best working mom role models on TV as she and her husband Joe Dubois (Jake Weber) balance careers, three children and the crazy-busyness of the lives of families with young kids. As the family has coped with a layoff, the successes/failures of entrepreneurship and having to take a job that requires one spouse to live away from the family for a few days a week in order to feed said family and keep the house, Medium has offered a solid depiction of a middle class American family, except for the talking to ghosts/nabbing criminals angle. Then there's Allison and Joe Dubois, who an Entertainment Weekly writer dubbed "TV's best married couple." (Plus Joe is "without question, one of the outstanding husbands and fathers to ever grace television," according to E! Online's Jennifer Godwin.)

As I say in the column: What's not to love?