Simon Fernandes

Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 12–The Quality of Mercy

“You’re a monster.”

Not long ago, my friend Chris Hart posited that, insofar as it has one, Don Draper has become the ‘villain’ of Mad Men. Rarely has that seemed so true as this week. Lost in his constant existential turmoil, Don has always been self-centred, so intent on his own bitter self-discovery that those around him always take second place. This week, though, Don’s actions towards those around him seemed like they could have been motivated by nothing more than pure malice.

Continue reading “Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 12–The Quality of Mercy”

Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 11–Favors

“Not all surprises are bad.”

Oh really, Roger Sterling? Not all surprises are bad? In the real world maybe, but this is Mad Men, where everything that happens to everyone is bad. If you really think some surprises here are good, just ask Don Draper. Or Sally Draper. Or, for that matter, Pete Campbell.

Continue reading “Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 11–Favors”

Game of Thrones: Season 3, Episode 10–Mhysa

“You really think a crown gives you power?”

After the tumultuous events of last week, this week’s season finale of Game of Thrones felt more like an epilogue than a climax. True, it was still a highly charged, and often tremendously violent piece of drama. But it also had the tall order of providing a capstone to just about all of this year’s multifarious plotlines, in preparation for next year. Benioff and Weiss’ script accomplished this with some aplomb, catching us up on just about every major character – the ones still alive, that is.

Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 3, Episode 10–Mhysa”

Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 10–A Tale of Two Cities

“I’m in charge of thinking of things before people know they need them.”

Rarely has an episode of Mad Men been so light and fluffy, and (almost) devoid of the usual gloom and portents that characterise the show. And rarely has an ep had a title so literal, as this week saw Don, Roger and Harry jet off to LA on business, while back in New York, Joan tried to get more involved in the business herself – as opposed to just office admin.

Continue reading “Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 10–A Tale of Two Cities”

Game of Thrones: Season 3, Episode 9–The Rains of Castamere

“The wine will flow red, the music will play loud – and we’ll put this mess behind us.”

Wow. What is it about penultimate episodes of this show? Last year’s episode 9, Blackwater, was undisputedly the best ep of the season. Now, with this week’s action-packed Game of Thrones cutting down on the jaw-jaw in favour of the war-war, it looks like that might become a standard thing. There was violence, action and revelation aplenty as much of the previous scheming came to fruition; along the way, there was still time for a few heart-rending character moments. Oh, and another of the recently frequent weddings. Only this one decidedly did not go as expected.

Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 3, Episode 9–The Rains of Castamere”

Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 9–The Better Half

“We’re both two halves of the same person. We want the same things.”

“The Better Half” – a self-deprecating phrase often used by husbands in the 60s to describe their wives. Ironic, really, considering the second place wives always took to the ‘Master of the House’. Here, it meant that and more in a thoughtful, incisive episode of Mad Men that examined the characters’ relationships with their families and their partners, and asked, just who is the ‘better half’?

Continue reading “Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 9–The Better Half”

Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 8–The Crash

“When you start something like this, it takes a lot of convincing. It’s all about whether or not the other person has as much to lose as you do, because you want to be able to trust them when it’s over.”

This week was one of those rather surreal episodes that Mad Men does so well, with a disjointed, hallucinatory feel that mirrored the perspective of the protagonists in its main plotline. Having found prestigious new clients Chevrolet to be demanding and impossible to satisfy, the staff of… whatever the newly merged agency is called pulled an all-weekend brainstorming session. OK, we’ve seen them do that before, usually with the aid of prodigious quantities of alcohol. This time, though, at the urging of new partner Jim Cutler, they were doing it with the aid of some pretty hardcore stimulants. The results were as messy – and as entertaining – as you’d expect.

Continue reading “Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 8–The Crash”

Game of Thrones: Season 3, Episode 8–Second Sons

“We do not choose our destiny. But we must do our duty now. Great or small, we must do our duty.”

With dozens of intermingling plotlines and enough major characters to fill a small army, Game of Thrones rarely gets to linger on any one setting or group of characters in much detail. When it does, as with this week’s episode, it’s always a treat, allowing the treacherous characters and their Machiavellian schemes greater depth. And despite the fact that not a one of them can be trusted (except perhaps poor, naive Sansa Stark, who somehow still doesn’t get it) I can happily watch this lot showing us more of themselves.

Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 3, Episode 8–Second Sons”

Doctor Who: Series 7, Episode 14–The Name of the Doctor

“I’m Clara Oswald. I’m the Impossible Girl. I was born to save the Doctor.”

Steven Moffat loves to engage with the fans of Doctor Who. And he particularly loves to bait some of the more humourless fans whose presumed ownership of the show makes their gorges rise in anger at the thought of anyone doing something with it that they personally don’t like. He’s got form, provoking them with titles like Let’s Kill Hitler and The Doctor’s Wife (which turned out not to be literal), then having the Doctor seemingly actually get married – or did he?

Continue reading “Doctor Who: Series 7, Episode 14–The Name of the Doctor”

Mad Men – Season 6, Episode 7 – Man With a Plan

“I need you. And nothing else will do.”

Not surprisingly, this week’s Mad Men concerned itself with the aftermath of last week’s surprise merger between Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and Cutler, Gleason and Chaough. Like any merger, it meant that suddenly there was much duplication of work, and fear of redundancy stalked the offices of… what should we call it now? Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Cutler Gleason Chaough? That’s a mouthful even as an acronym – SCDPCGC. I think Lane Pryce’s memorial namecheck may be first for the chop.

Continue reading “Mad Men – Season 6, Episode 7 – Man With a Plan”