Raw Data: The Doorway

Welcome back Mad Men!  We all started watching you late in the game (at least a season in), binging on DVDs, watching one episode after another.  Now your season premiere is one of the most eagerly anticipated television events of the year.  Before I become biased by the reviews and analysis out there no more than 12 hours after the episode ends, here's some initial thoughts.  Some obvious.  Some probably outright wrong.

• Knowing Mad Men had two seasons left, I wondered if they would progress the series enough to make the 1970s as cool as they made the 1960s. 
• Speaking of, did you see Pete's sideburns?
• Mad Men season premieres have a built in game for us fans to figure out what year it is.  Time jumps between seasons have varied.  The first timeframe hints are Christmas lights and a Christmas song when Don is in Hawaii so either very late or very early in the year.  Second is a mention of President Johnson, so pre-Jan 20, 1969.  Third is a mention of Oakland and Houston facing off for the Super Bowl* berth.  That cements us at December 1967-January 1968.  I hear some stuff happened in 1968.
• Matthew Weiner provides as little to no exposition as possible, or providing it in passing like the bombshell in last season's premiere when Megan casually refers to Dick Whitman, letting us figuring things out in due time.  Betty and Henry fostering some sort of ward, as I'll refer to her, is one of a few "and who is that?" moments. 
• How did PFC Dinkens identify Don as a lieutenant?  
•  PFC Dinkins sidling up to Don at the bar made me think of the Green Beret at the wedding in The Deer Hunter, despite their opposite dispositions
• Betty looked like Henry's mom at the end.  I need to grab some screenshots.  Gross.
• Don's Carousel made another appearance, and depending how you look at it, he's feeling very similar or very different to how he did at the end of Season One
• Peggy handled the client push back in a much better and different manner than she did with Heinz
• Sally refers to her mom as "Betty" to Henry and Betty doesn't bat an eye 
• WHAT was Betty talking about with Henry?!
• A quick pan the office wall following Don entering shows it remains SCDP and not some other version including "Campbell"
• Maybe the stairs symbolize the success of the company? I wonder if we'll see more shots and scenes take place there.
• Megan does not seem to be taking the acting seriously, possibly because of her safety net, if it was a precarious time for her to go on vacation, casting-wise
• Last year's cliffhanger manages to hold off until the very end, when we're not even thinking about it anymore
• The shot of Don in his hat with the snow was almost as cool a shot as him on the film set at the end of last season's finale.
• The references to death came early and often in what I will take as painting a backdrop for further escalation in Vietnam and the Tet Offensive, until I'm told otherwise.  Even more so than last season ("you could be dead by Christmas")
• Episode opens with CPR (the guy kind of looks like Don laying there)
• PFC Dinkins talks about married guys being more likely to survive war
• Betty's ward: "My mom is dead"
• Roger's mom dies and we attend her memorial
• Roger's shoe shiner, Giorgio, dies
• Don to Doorman "You died!"
• Morbid joke about the doctor finishing surgery early
• "What's it like to have someone's life in your hands?"
• Reference to suicide in A Star is Born
• Don's sketch includes a tie that looks conspicuously like a noose
• Which we know he's fond of doodling

 * Did they call in the Super Bowl then? Unofficially perhaps?  I can't imagine they got something wrong like that given their attention to detail, so I will assume yes.

Raw Data: Dark Wings, Dark Words

These are the unprocessed thoughts and observations for Game of Thrones episode 3-01 "Dark Wings, Dark Words", bulleted out before I become biased by other re-caps, reviews and analysis.  Some items may be obvious.  Some may be outright wrong.

• For reference for you book readers, I'm on page 199 of A Storm of Swords
• A rare seemingly superfluous scene involved Tyrion and Shae, which no doubt means it will come into play in a major way down the line
• Of Robb's lieutenant bannermen, if Umber and Karstark are Pacino, then Bolton is Deniro. 
• It is only Tuesday but congrats to Theon Greyjoy for wining "Schadenfreude of the Week"
• How does one spell 'schadenfreude' correctly, while butchering 'lieutentant'?
• Joffrey had a beat when he was talking about Renley and making his "perversion" punishable by death.  The beat made me think there's a possibility he has a Larry Craig thing going.  I can't imagine the little psychopath is able to feel love or attraction beyond basic mating instinct
• Speaking of psychopathy, I wonder if there is a way to play psychologist and apply the Hare Psychopathy Test, the PCL-R, to Joffrey [notes idea for future blog]
• My guess is Cersei would test higher as a psychopath.  Joffrey is "merely" anti-social
• It was so nice to introduce us to the Dowager Countess of the Tyrells
• In the same vein, we met the Katniss Everdeen of the Reeds
• Jamie showed a moment of sincerity when he said "we don't choose who we love"
• No heads chopped off?  Not even a limb?  And complete lack of nudity.  This is, without a doubt and with zero hyperbole, the most shocking thing that has happened in the show's entire run to date.

All in all, everyone raised a lot of money for Relay for Life because they spent the whole episode walking (minus Bran!).  To Riverrun. To the Wall.  To the Fist. To an undoubtedly miserable marriage to the king...