Pursued by a Bear »

• Mad Men

  May 5, 2009 @ 11:37 am | by Fiona McCann

  I’m always a bit reluctant to jump aboard a new TV series, partly because I hate being tied to the telly, and partly because the contrarian in me wants to find the good stuff by myself, without being dragged there by the hype and the hordes. So I missed Six Feet Under altogether, came late to Lost and was subsequently, well, lost, and arrived at The Sopranos so long after the fact that the water cooler conversations had already moved on to The Wire. With Mad Men, however, I got on board fairly lively, and I hated it. Initially at least. Too many obvious nods to How Things Have Changed since those heady days when bosses (always male) got to pinch their secertaries’ bottoms and kids ran around with plastic bags on their heads.

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• That was Nightlive

  January 8, 2009 @ 12:02 pm | by Fiona McCann

  Monday night, chez nous . . .

  Me: We have to watch this John Ryan thing.

  He (being from New York and newly relocated to Dublin): Wha’?

  Me: New spoof news show thing on the telly, with John Ryan.

  He: Like a Daily Show thing?

  Me (afraid this might be setting the bar a bit high for RTE): Er, sort of, I suppose.

  He: So who’s this John Ryan then? The Irish Jon Stewart?

  Me (now sure the bar is entirely out-of-reach): Er, not exactly. He’s like this chiselled-jawed blonde lad who had fingers in all sorts of Irish publishing pies until they all got eaten (pies, not fingers) and he went off to America and started publishing dog magazines for Americans who go in for that sort of stuff.  

  He (being an American): Dog magazines?

  Me (conscious of the fact that one should know one’s audience): Yes. Ahem. Never heard of New York Dog? Interesting. Anyway, he also did loads of other things that all went west with him and now he’s back with this show. So we have to watch it.

  We watch it. We see that John Ryan calls himself Jonny Hansom. I laugh and cringe in quick succession. It’s not the Daily Show. But the girl who plays Lorraine Keane – woops, I meane the entertainment correspondent – is hysterical. Yizzer thoughts?