John Byrne checks out the return of Mad Men (Thursdays, Sky Atlantic); a new serial killer in The Following (Saturday, Sky Atlantic); and a break from the norm in Scandal (Thursday, Sky Living)
You don't need a deerstalker and a pipe to get the distinct impression that things will not end well on Mad Men. Now back on Thursday nights on Sky Atlantic for the seven remaining episodes of its seventh season, this final segment of the show is called End of an Era, which could mean a lot more than the languid drama's departure from the 1960s.
Dreams have been a constant theme throughout this most grown-up of TV show's run. During one nap in this returning episode Don Draper dreamed about an old flame, Rachel Menken of the Menken department store, and later discovered that she had just died of leukemia.
While out with Roger Sterling (now sporting a vaudevillian moustache) and a posse of females, a waitress in a diner reminded him of Menken, and so he returned to see her and they had sex out the back while she was on a smoke break. Talk about living for the moment . . .
Back at the office, Ken Cosgrove discovered that he could follow on his wife's advice to quit work and write the book that he's been itching to complete for the guts of a decade - by getting sacked. The new owners of the company, who previously employed Cosgrove until he left in less than ideal circumstances, callously get rid of him. But their deed backfires when he returns as a customer, the new head of advertising for Dow Corning, explaining that he's very hard to please. For Ken, the desire for revenge is a greater motivator than the urge to be creative. Anger is an energy and all that.
Now on the upper sphere in work, Joan and Peggy are enjoying their lofty perch, although they have had to stomach some puerile sexism at a meeting with male counterparts at McCann. Peggy found it more displeasing than Joan, who cattily remarked about their physical differences, which was at least as offensive as the frat boy behaviour.
Mad Men has never been shy about using music to make a point and this episode was no different. Peggy Lee's version of Is That All There Is? book-ended the hour and left me wondering about Don Draper's inner demons and Lieber & Stoller's ode to disillusionment. While everyone around him seems to be trapped in their version of fateful inevitability, can Don come to terms with how life has worked out for him, gradually fading into the background - or will he take a leap off a building, like the one featured in the show's opening credits since Mad Man began?
There's only so much chin-rubbing and contemplation anyone can muster in these days of meagre introspection, and an hour spent watching The Following (Saturday, Sky Atlantic) is as good as any for subconsciously exorcising inner demons that have built up over the course of a week. Third-party violence works for so many people, it's quite scary when you start thinking about it. Game of Thrones, anyone?
And making dead bodies would appear to be the point of this show. Kevin Bacon's serial killer-hunting FBI man Ryan Hardy is something of a murder magnet, as over the course of two-and-a-bit seasons he's crossed quite a few and the body count is massive.
This episode moved things up a notch or two as we got a full blast of Theo, the latest serial killer who's quite the sociopathic poster boy. This guy is cool, calm, collected, and carving, and played with chilling believability by Michael Ely. The Following is definitely on a daft level all of its own, resting on a level of blood-soaked horror somewhere between the mildly-scary Criminal Minds and the genuinely disturbing Hannibal. That TV show treats cannibalism and serial killing as lifestyle choices, mere consumerism.
Finally, Scandal (Thursdays, Sky Living). For once it was an episode almost – I said almost – devoid of tantrum-throwing by the usual suspects. Instead there was an understandably angry black man with a gun and questions about his son. The son was shot dead in dubious circumstances by a white policeman just a few blocks from the White House. Considering all that's been going on in recent times in the USA, this is a subject that's not just topical, it's red hot.
This was also an episode that took its foot off the gas in terms of the overall arc and all that B613 stuff, so it was quite a relief as well as being hugely enjoyable, as Olivia Pope and her team went back to basics and sought to determine the truth behind the shooting.
You've got to hand it to Shonda Rhimes, the brains behind this and several other shows, including long-running medical drama Grey's Anatomy and the wilfully confusing How to Get Away with Murder. She's black, she's a woman, and extremely successful in a male-dominated, largely white environment.
Regardless of her obvious talent, she wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the position she's in now if she lived in Don Draper's time.
John Byrne
