DYNASTY

Since Mad Men is off air and won't be returning for a 5th season till at least next year I needed a regular dose of early 60s American drama, machinations and private struggles. Que The History Channel with The Kennedys - the closest thing ever America came to a Royal Family. Despite an outrageous budget the show's critics have been far from nice and many have called the 8 hour Ode to the (in)famous clan, historically inaccurate, badly scripted and staid.

My biggest qualm with the show, for it is watchable seeing as GLEE! is on Easter hiatus, is that they cast KATIE HOLMES as Jackie Kennedy-Onassis (Jackie-O). Before Michelle-O and Carla Bruni made First Ladies fashionable there was Jackie. Holmes struggles with the broad and nasal Boston-Irish accent and brings a girl-like vulnerability to the role which I find unnerving (coz this aint Dawson's Creek anymore) and Jackie comes off as weak-willed, infantile and less than glamorous.

Bitch fit aside, the show which some may take to be the gospel truth, paints a very damning picture of the Kennedy's. That they steal elections, are ruthless, carnivorous womanisers and have no hubris. Joe Kennedy, the family's patriarch and JFKs father comes of as Darth Vader by way of Winston Churchill; cold, calculating, ruthless and ferociously ambitious - pushing his sons to the highest offices in the great US of A.

I'm about half way through the series, all I need now is Marilyn Monore and trip to Dallas in an open top limo and I think I'll call it a day. Needless to say, the show does not make any shocking revelations. All in all a clever way to learn misguided history while killing time.

Now if only GLEE could get back on air!

Favourite Things: Mad Men

The Fourth Season of Mad Men aired this year and once again we the audience were plunged headlong into the stifling world of 1960s advertising. This year among other things, we saw Don cry which flet like seeing my own father cry, absolutely gut-wrenching and touching at the same time. Don also started his own agency to mixed results and the 1960s swept us buy in cloud of smoke. Of intrest was the role of the show's women in the Cock Fest that was advertising back then. Peggy and Joan put up with a lot of bs this season.

As we gear up for the 5th Season, it has been announced that Season 6 will be the final season of the show. Much like other critically acclaimed shows (Lost and The Sopranos come to mind) seems a good place to stop. Meanwhile The Simpson ploughs on through its 23rd Season telling us it is possible to ruin a pretty solid formular for success.

Favourite Things: Skins

Skins is one of those shows like the Sopranos that you know are bad for you but you can't help yourself. The British drama now famous for its unabashed portrayal of Youth in Excess is now gearing up for it's 5th season. The show is also famous for changing up its cast every two seasons keeping the story lines fresh and perhaps a tad realistic,something their saccarine American counterparts (ahem One Tree Hill) can learn from. The show is also renown for the its large ensemble of young amateur writers which reinforces its relevance and Pop culture credentials.

Since I first watched skins I've seen the kids, for they are real kids, battle drugs, depression, homosexuality. drugs, sex, death and abortion with real human passion and feeling. Problems are not quickly solved with a text to Gossip Girl nor are petty rumours and that new dress integral to the show's plot. All in all, a good effort though the constant profanity and delinquency raise the PG rating of skins way above the PG-13 of most teenage dramedies. Plus the show has a cool indie Brit soundtrack.

Generation 1: The pioneer cast from Season 1 & 2.

Generation 2: The Cast from Season 3 & 4

On a sad note, an American remake of the show is in the offing. Needless to say it will be bland and tastelessly adapted for American television.

Favourite Things: Lost, The Final Season.

It's been 6 years, dozens of episodes and scores of arguments on philosophy and the Dharma Initiative but this year we said goodbye to one of the most enigmatica and iconic shows on television. 

Papa Was On Rolling Stone

Following their two Emmy nods on Sunday -including Outstanding Drama Series-, Mad Men takes on Rolling Stone in it's October issue under the title MAD MEN: Inside The Best Show on TV. All photographs are by the talented James Minchin II.

The show's protagonist, Don Draper played by Jon Hamm is flanked (from left) by the lovely Elisabeth Moss, January Jones and Christina Hendricks


An elegant juxtaposition of fiction and reality, the casual present and the elegant but not so distant past.


In character: The perennially dapper Don Draper


And we're rolling...


Ice Queen: The beautiful yet austere Betty (Draper) Francis


The delightfully voluptuous and irresistible Joan Harris neé Holloway

Credit: © 2010 Rolling Stone

The first Season of Mad Men airs on KTN on Tuesday nights at 10.05

Ad Men

I've been gearing up to write a huge piece on Mad Men for a while now. Words (at least mine) cannot do the show justice. Mad Men is the greatest show currently on TV bar none. The show was conceived by Matthew Wiener whilst still a writer on the most critically acclaimed and most commercially successful show ever, The Sopranos - until now.

Mad Men has done for men what Sex and the City did for women. For one thing men all over the world are dressing better -and smoking is cool again-. Men in the 60s or at least the men of Mad Men are always impeccably dressed, ties to the office with pocket squares, tie bars and hats are their staple. The women wear pencil skirts to work and -for the women of leisure- dresses influenced by Christian Dior's New Look. Nobody looked as stylish as they did during that era. It is easy to get lost in the show's near perfect facade but underneath lurks politics, personal struggles and triumphs and stereotypes that ultimately makes Mad Men a human story - the chronicle of a decade!

Wiener and his crew have worked hard to create the most stylish show on television. The props and sets are as immaculate, the clothes sophisticated and chic and the script tight and carefully measured , everything is hinted, nothing is stated implicitly which is lovely. Finally television for grownups who like to dress up!

Mad Men is undoubtedly a television show about men, for men but the women can hold their ground even in the lascivious and chauvinistic confines of a New York ad agency (and the American 60s). So here's my salute to Ms. January Jones and Christina Hendricks, the Power Women behind their Mad Men.

January and Christina for GQ. The world's most stylish magazine meets the sexiest women on television.

Credit: © 2009 GQ.com

Credit: © 2010 GQ-magazine.co.uk