Friday, January 16, 2009

Madness, Inc.

Much is being fussed over the Alabang boys case that it has now ballooned into a media frenzy with issues zigzagging here and there you feel like you're on a trip to the mountains. The only missing puzzle piece is for some opportunist to make a movie out of this, or to make it more cutesy-cutesy, spoofed by the adorable kids of Going Bulilit.

It didn't expose any social malaise, whatever the fuck you call it, because c'mon, drugs -- okay, illegit drugs -- have been snorted by kids (and I say this referring to being stuck in an adolescent nature despite age) in the 60s. Pot sessions have been conducted wherever and depressed and trouble teens have been coking themselves to kingdom come. It just that nobody really gets caught, and when there are, just little fishes in the pond. Sharks are still out there sniffing out blood. But what it does really expose though are people like Sotto who is such a laughing stock when explaining what an anti-drug czar does. When you're watching the press conference
, and you think this is the guy also topbilling Iskul Bukol, you can just shake your head with such madness.



Speaking of insanity, I can't believe that Mad Men, is one of those goddamn great shows that nobody is watching, if my colleague is right in quoting an article she read. Of course that's an exaggeration, but I can't really blame the non-lovers or even haters if there are. Because Mad Men is just it. It's so goddamn mad brilliant you can't believe it's unfolding in your eyes. The womanizing, the chauvinistic banter, the endless swirling smokes, the punchlines delivered like pitches. It's stylish and intelligently written it's delicious. If you think a period film is tough, think about making a period series. Written and produced by the team that brought you The Sopranos, allow me with the cliche, but it's unlike anything you've seen. Ok, that sounded really awfully cliche. Matthew Weiner, you are the Mafia boss.

5 comments:

rex baylon said...

hey jayclops,

you've got a great blog. I am also a huge fan of Mad Men. Without a doubt it's the best show on American television. The show is reminiscent of the novels of John Cheever, Updike, Salinger, Richard Yates, and a whole slew of, mostly male, authors from the 40s, 50's, and 60's. It's a character drama that doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator, but rather it rewards those who desire more from a tv show than just cheap thrills. Not to mention the fact that out of all the tv series on air now it is easily the most cinematic.

jayclops said...

hey thanks.

i love the past. and mad men just nailed it there for me. the character of don draper is so rich and deep, it's everything we are interested in, and the rest are great too. love elizabeth moss' character peggy olson. and every other guy has a lot of stuff going on around and inside him, like Ken who has written for The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, Kinsey who's sort of beatnik or bohemian, and the bitchy ambitiousness of Pete Campbell, even Roger Sterling is interesting. I loved that episode where he just puked. It definitely transports you into another era what with all the pop cultural references. And stylish too. Really, one of the great things that happened to TV series.

rex baylon said...

I think after Don and Peggy my next favorite character would have to be Roger Sterling. In the hands of a lesser actor the Roger Sterling character would just be a one dimensional caricature, but with John Slattery and his perfect line delivery he makes the scenes that he's in just pop out at you. Some of my favorite Roger Sterling quotes are: "Being with a client is like being in a marriage. Sometimes you get into it for the wrong reasons, and eventually they hit you in the face." Then there's: "When God closes a door, he opens a dress." And also: "It's your life - you don't know where it's going but you know it ends badly." I can't wait for season 4 to start so that I can get my weekly Mad men fix again.

jayclops said...

hehe. di masyadong obvious na gusto mo si roger. that puking thing was really way up there for me. its such a shining moment and speaks so much about power and the show's mood. actually hanggang season 2 pa ako. im about to begin with 3. but ive read somewhere of a Draper divorce. Betty is smoldering hot. If I have a wife like that... hehe

rex baylon said...

Yeah January Jones is awesome. Not to spoil too much for you about Season 3, but Betty definitely plays a bigger role on the show. One of my favorite Betty scenes happens in season 1 where she's in her night gown and she goes outside and starts shooting her neighbor's pigeons with a bb gun; a cigarette dangling from her lips.

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family, Choose a f—king big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose a three piece suit on hire purchased in a range of f—king fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the f—k you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing f—king junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, f—ked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose a future. Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?

Renton, Trainspotting