Just a little preview on what I’ll be talking about in my next post.

Hehehe, so many kilig moments!

One of my favorite scenes  in the episode!

Doesn’t it seem like a picture taken out from a  nice fairytale?

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 8 Episode 12 – Bulletproof?

Episode Synopsis:

Clark discovers John Jones was shot while working as a police officer, so Clark dons the uniform and goes undercover to find the culprit. Meanwhile, Lana confronts Tess and tells her Lex isn’t the man she thinks he is. Lana’s shocking news forces Tess to reevaluate her position as the head of Luthorcorp.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 7 Episode 12 – Fracture?

Episode Synopsis:

Clark is convinced that he can find his cousin’s whereabouts if he can get into Lex’s mind, who’s just been shot by the man holding Kara and Lois prisoner.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 6 Episode 12 – Labyrinth?

Episode Synopsis:

Clark enters a parallel environment in his subconscious where he is powerless, no one believes the truth about him, and things have turned out much, much differently.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 5 Episode 12 – Reckoning?

Episode Synopsis:

Clark reveals his secret to Lana, Jonathan and Lex learn the results of the senatorial election, and there is a tragic car accident on the highway that takes the life of someone Clark loves, forcing Clark to appeal to Jor-El for help.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 4 Episode 12 – Pariah?

Episode Synopsis:

When Lana is attacked in her apartment and Jason in his car by an invisible being, everyone believes that Alicia Baker was responsible, except Clark. However after a series of circumstances, Clark begins to doubt Alicia’s innocence to the mysterious attacks. Alicia tells Clark that she’ll offer to prove her innocence if Clark reveals his own superpowers, but Clark refuses. So, Alicia secretly shows Chloe the abilities of Clark, expecting people to leave them both alone. But elsewhere, Lois discovers that the real culprit of the attacks is the deranged Tim Westcott who’s jealous of Alicia’s abilities which leads to him murdering her, and then goes after Clark. Meanwhile, Genevieve Teague arrives back in Smallville and approaches Lex Luthor to get his help to separate her son Jason from Lana.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 3 Episode 12 – Hereafter?

Episode Synopsis:

Jordan Cross (Joseph Cross) is a new transfer student to Smallvill High School who has a frightening ability: when he is touched by another person, he immediately sees how he or she will die. When Clark saves the suicidal Coach Altman (Greg Kean) from death, the future of other people changes, including Lana’s. Jordan also learns Clark’s secret after he physically bumps into him. Meanwhile, Chloe finds that Adam is injecting himself with some kind of experimental medication, while his increasingly erratic behavior troubles Lana. When Jordan touches Adam, he tells Lana that Adam had already died. Also, Lex continues to investigate his past to regain his memory.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 2 Episode 12 – Insurgence?

Episode Synopsis:

When Lex Luthor loses a $150 million contract to Luthor Corp, he finds that his mansion was bugged by his father. He hires a team to bug the offices of Luthor Corp expecting to find the building empty since it is Sunday, but Lionel Luthor assigns Martha for work in his office with him. Jonathan becomes very upset, since it is their wedding anniversary, and he was planning a picnic with Martha. Lex calls off the action, but the leader of the group of industrial spies is killed by a member who wants to steal the contents of Lionel’s safe. Martha and Lionel become hostages of the criminals, and when they open the safe, a great secret is disclosed. Meanwhile, Lana schedules a meeting with Mr. & Mrs. Small in the Talon to get to know Jennifer Small, who warns Lana about her husband.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 1 Episode 12 – Leech?

Episode Synopsis:

Clark and a classmate, named Eric Summer, are both struck by lightning when Eric is holding a piece of meteor rock. The electrical surge takes Clark’s powers away and transfers them to Eric. As Eric gets used to his new powers, Clark has to deal with being a normal person for the first time, with all the advantages and disadvantages. But Eric’s abusive and domineering father wants to have him examined in Metropolis for his strange powers and in response, the mentally unbalanced Eric goes on a rampage. Meanwhile, Sir Harry Hardwick, Victoria’s father, and rival of Lionel Luthor, try to recruit Lex for their business in Metropolis and almost succeed in buying out Luthor Corp. But Lex turns the tables against them. Reporter Roger Nixon continues to investigate Lex’s car accident and begins to close in on Clark’s secret. Also, Lana becomes more distant when Aunt Nell announces her plans to sell her florist shop.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Gossip Girl: Season 2 Episode 12 – It's a Wonderful Lie?

Episode Synopsis:

The teens prepare for the annual Snowflake Ball, a charity event for prep school seniors.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Gossip Girl: Season 1 Episode 12 – School Lies?

Episode Synopsis:

Serena, Blair, Nate, Chuck and their entourage break into the school swimming pool for a night of fun, but when a member of their group nearly drowns, the school threatens to expel the person responsible for the break-in. Everyone agrees to keep a secret pact and say nothing, but it ultimately creates major tension between Serena and Dan, who isn’t sure he’s ready to take the fall for someone else and risk his future. Meanwhile, Vanessa is working on a documentary project about private schools and accidentally captures Blair and Chuck discussing their affair. Also, Lily contemplates telling Rufus how she really feels about him.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Desperate Housewives: Season 5 Episode 12 – Connect! Connect!?

Episode Synopsis:

Dave bunks in at Mike’s after being thrown out by Edie, who ends up locked in a basement with Susan. Meanwhile, Katherine puts Mike on the hot seat by mentioning her offer to move away. Bree’s future “son-in-law” Alex, defends Orson when she belittles his purchase savvy. Lynette finds out where her son, Porter, is hiding, which brings her face-to-face concerning the issues between her and her estranged mother Stella. Also, Gabrielle seeks to control her two unruly daughters when Carlos’ new job keep him away long hours.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Desperate Housewives: Season 4 Episode 12 – In Buddy's Eyes?

Episode Synopsis:

Lynette gets a surprise when a person from her past shows up at the pizzeria.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Desperate Housewives: Season 3 Episode 12 – Not While I'm Around?

Episode Synopsis:

Bree freaks about the security of her home life when she learns Orson’s ex-wife, Alma, is moving in down the street in the old Applewhite house. Meanwhile, Gabrielle freaks about her own home security when she learns she has a stalker, and goes even further when she learns the identity of her secret admirer: the natty and unbalanced-as-ever Zach Young, who has inherited Noah Taylor’s entire estate, while Carlos is just plain amused by Gabby’s new admirer. Elsewhere, Tom becomes angry when he learns Lynette helped him secure the liquor license after he told her that he did not want any help to open his restaurant. In prison, Mike is approached by Paul Young (whom he does not remember), who tries to get on Mike’s good side by pretending to be an old friend so he can seek revenge. Also, Susan freaks when she learns that Julie has secured birth control pills to consummate more her growing romance with Austin, who finally gets caught with Danielle by Susan and Edie.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Desperate Housewives: Season 2 Episode 12 – We're Gonna Be All Right?

Episode Synopsis:

After a bad blind date, Susan meets and flirts with a handsome doctor, named Dr. Ron McGreadie, but she takes a wrong approach by feigning a terminal illness. Meanwhile, some old pictures of Gabrielle turn up on the Internet, and she asks a reluctant Carlos to get them back from an old photographer boyfriend. Tom is alarmed when the kids come down with chicken pox, because he’s never had it; Lynette thus learns more about Tom’s fear of being sick, as well as being sterile. After Bree asks Detective Barton to make a background check on the Applewhites, she happens to get arrested by the police detective himself for DUI after a lunch date with him. During Wisteria Lane’s annual blood drive, Zach learns that he has the same blood type as Mike. After months of silence, Mike’s former father-in-law, Noah Taylor, now bedridden with terminal cancer, asks him for information about his case, in which Mike resorts to lying to protect Paul and Zach Young.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen Desperate Housewives: Season 1 Episode 12 – Every Day a Little Death?

Episode Synopsis:

The residents of Wisteria Lane finally learn Martha Huber’s fate when her body is discovered, and the truth has unexpected consequences for Susan. After learning that Mrs. Huber left behind a journal, Susan is forced to confess to Edie about her role in the fire that burned down Edie’s house who takes her to a location to scatter Mrs. Huber’s ashes. Meanwhile, Bree finds her new beau, George, getting a little too close for comfort, leading him to shoot himself in the foot. While taking yoga classes, Lynnette takes advantage of Parker’s shaved head and uses it to play on the symphony of the no-nonsense receptionist who thinks that Parker has cancer, and allows Lynette’s children in the day care center. Carlos returns after making bail, but his homecoming isn’t quite what Gabrielle had in mind for he is under house arrest, making it difficult for either of them to make money. Also, Mike’s employer, the shady Noah Taylor, terminates Mike’s services at Wisteria Lane. But Mike refuses to give up for it’s revealed that both are searching for a certain ‘Deidre’, Mike’s ex-wife and Mr. Taylor’s daughter, who disappeared over 10 years ago and Mr. Taylor suspects someone on Wisteria Lane is responsible.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

“The Grown-Ups”

November 1st, 2009

There’s been an ongoing debate amongst Mad Men viewers about how the show should ideally be handling the intersection of its fictional characters and the historical events that happen around them during the 1960s. Some have argued that the uncontrollable impact of history is almost too powerful for the show, overwhelming its characters and distracting from the more interesting elements of the show, but others have indicated that the cultural upheaval is integral to understanding how these characters are acting and how this decade is changing them. If I had to place myself within these two camps, I’d probably place myself into the latter, although admittedly I take the point of the former group in regards to the third season’s penultimate episode.

Harmed both by our prior knowledge of the episode’s central tragedy, young Margaret Sterling’s wedding falling the day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and by a lack of a connection between that tragedy and the character motivations on display, “The Grown-Ups” works perhaps too well to capture the chaos that surrounded these November days. Rather than the chaos disrupting a clear sense of order, it came amidst a false sense of stability that crumbled suddenly, yes, but not as subtly as it needed to. This isn’t to suggest that the episode was a failure, or that it didn’t offer a stark depiction of these tragic days, but the combination of an oft-dramatized moment in history and a lack of character actions that felt distinctly of this show’s universe ended up making this one a bit less exciting than perhaps it seemed in theory.

Alan Sepinwall and I are pretty much on the same page with this one, and since he has a lot more experience with the Kennedy assassination than I do (I swear that’s me emphasizing my youth, not his age) he’s probably influenced some of the way I’ve responded to the episode when sitting down to write about it. However, what’s interesting is that the episode places the characters as ultimately subservient to the events at hand, a position which seems counterintuitive for a penultimate episode like this one. Duck unplugs the television in order to keep the event from getting in the way of his personal satisfaction, and it was a logical instinct: this event changes people in a way that the show is almost unable to deal with. It’s like the characters are supposed to be in one place dealing with their issues but instead they’re sitting at home on the couch watching TV. And while a number of characters make important decisions in that setting, they seem more arbitrary than they should. There’s something almost cheap about Kennedy’s death serving as the straw that broke the camel’s back, the added pressure that makes Pete grow a backbone and makes Betty throw away her and Don’s peace of sorts from last week and run off to Henry Francis.

The show has always loved hidden motivations, so I’m not suggesting that the characters should be wearing their hearts on their sleeve. I loved the scene where Peggy’s roommate learns that Duck isn’t married, and then immediately questions why Peggy is with him. It’s both a logical question, one that we as the audience have been asking, but it’s also one that Peggy (and the show) have kept close to the vest. However, it’s a question that we can trace back to her actions this season (her bedding of the college boy to prove that she could) and in previous seasons (overcoming what happened with Pete to emerge stronger and more mature), constructing a sketch of how this character came to be on a nooner with Herman Phillips. And while we could perhaps say the same about characters like Pete and Betty, those characters have always been far more erratic (both being immature with some serious issues of entitlement) and thus seem like they need more time to come to their conclusions.

The tragic death of JFK was a source of many things in the episode, including comedy (Jane’s drunken ramblings as Roger carried her to bed), but I feel as if it would have been more interesting to establish a broad atmosphere rather than serving to escalate particular storylines. Pete’s was perhaps more natural, as losing the job as head of accounts just so happened to have coincided with JFK’s death and thus drove him to decide to put Sterling Cooper behind him. But Betty was in a point of relative stability last week, and either that episode failed to show how close things came to falling apart before Don came clean or else this episode failed to demonstrate how JFK’s death made Don’s honesty more problematic than it was three weeks earlier. Betty, like Pete, tends to be impetuous, but the episode shouldn’t take on those qualities at the same time. We didn’t even see Betty and Don until more than 10 minutes had passed in the episode, and it made it feel like the episode was more about JFK’s death than about its strangely drawn impacts on these characters.

However, I’ll say this much: a lot of this depends on how things turn out in the finale. If the finale feels like a commentary on the speed at which some of these decisions were made, and accurately depicts the chaos of these characters in an orderly fashion, then it and “The Grown-Ups” will work as intriguing companion pieces. Without such an episode, though, this feels as if the show has dropped a bomb without first establishing the preparedness of its characters, making their actions feel erratic not only as personal actions but also as pieces of narrative. Something was missing that could hold the whole thing together, as here it just felt history and fictional momentum were colliding rather than gracefully coming into conflict.

I withhold judgment, though, until the finale.

Cultural Observations

• The scene with Roger and Joan was the kind of thing that Betty’s story seemed like it needed: a nice, subtle moment where one character in the midst of this chaos turns to another that means something to them. It may just be that Hendricks/Slattery are a whole lot of fun to watch together even over the phone, but there was something there that was missing from Betty’s rendezvous with Francis.
• Interesting to see a bit more focus on Harry Crane in this one, whose rise to prominence is really quite fascinating: he didn’t ask for anyone of it, so it makes sense that Pete would resent him for lucking into a job that he didn’t work nearly as hard for as Pete did for Head of Accounts.
• Speaking of which, loved Lane’s gentle putdown of Pete’s overeagerness to please – Jared Harris has been fantastic all season, but that moment all bundled up in winter clothes was a fine piece of acting.
• I think the differences in temperature were designed to create a hostile work environment reflective of the chaos that was about to take place, but to be honest it was a bit of a weird little bit of plot: it, like some other elements of the episode, got dropped completely when JFK was shot. The episode returned to the office in the end with Peggy and Don going there as if it was home, but no connection was made to the earlier temperature shifts.
• Via James Poniewozik, whose Mad Men review is here, the New York Times caught up with some real-life Margaret Sterlings, which is why these history episodes can be really cool sometimes.

Have You Seen The Office: Season 5 Episode 12 – Prince Family Paper?

Episode Synopsis:

Michael’s conscience gets the best of him after he and Dwight go undercover to scout a family-run competitor. Back at the office, everyone else spends the day debating whether Hilary Swank is hot.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen The Office: Season 4 Episode 12 – Did I Stutter??

Episode Synopsis:

Michael tries to figure out how to respond to Stanley’s insubordination during a meeting, and Dwight buys Andy’s vehicle and immediately flips it for more money.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen The Office: Season 3 Episode 12 – Traveling Salesmen?

Episode Synopsis:

Dwight does a favor for Angela to keep her from getting in trouble. Andy finds out and uses it against him to get in tighter with Michael. Now Dwight must fess up, which will reveal his relationship with Angela, or risk getting fired.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen The Office: Season 2 Episode 12 – The Injury?

Episode Synopsis:

Michael’s “injury” from a George Foreman Grill distracts the staff from Dwight, the one with the real injury.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen House M.D.: Season 5 Episode 12 – Painless?

Episode Synopsis:

House treats a patient who’s worn out by chronic pain. Cuddy tries to do her job and take care of her new child. Foreman and Thirteen’s relationship stalls.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen House M.D.: Season 4 Episode 12 – Don't Ever Change?

Episode Synopsis:

A woman collapses at her wedding. She led a different life style before her marriage, House insists she hasn’t changed. Wilson starts dating Amber.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen House M.D.: Season 3 Episode 12 – One Day, One Room?

Episode Synopsis:

Stuck with clinic duty, House almost wishes he had the boring patients back after he encounters a young woman with an STD and the need to talk.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Have You Seen House M.D.: Season 2 Episode 12 – Distractions?

Episode Synopsis:

A patient with 40% body burns and inexplicable cardiac and neurological signs is treated by the team, while House pursues disproving an old enemy’s medical study.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.