the week so far in television

Mad Men continues to delight. And my man Cosgrove finally got an actual storyline! Huzzah!

True Blood is a faithful (if grittier and HBO-ified) adaptation of the book series. Anna Paquin is annoying at first, but somewhere along the lines you start to believe her in this role. Like io9 says, she pulls off virginal in a way most other actresses can't. And the character is supposed to be (to quote my mother, who's actually read all the books) "awkward," so in theory she completely works. I had seen the unfinished leaked pilot a while ago and was less than impressed. But they changed the intro (for the better) and they recast the role of Tara (you're still not going to like her, but trust me: soooo much better than the original actress) and somehow the aired version comes together surprisingly well. Ultimately, I will be tuning in next week, if only out of sheer curiosity. TWOP sums it up thusly:

Sure, the books are cute, who doesn't like the books? (My favorite part of the books so far are the lack of skin-sparkles and spine-devouring devil-babies with retarded names.) [A reference to the Twilight saga.]
Mostly I just like the idea: What do you do? What would you do? Now, of all times, I'm excited about watching the story of people who are present for a cultural change of sweeping intensity. Terrifying -- the apocalypse always is -- potentially gratifying, certainly edifying. This is a story about the moment everything changes.
There's something there for everybody, because it's not really about what the vampires are, their themness, because they've got it under control: they've been vampiring around behind your back forever. It's about what happens to us when things change, which is really the only story there ever is.

Terminator, season 2, premiered with a bang last night. If memory serves, I do believe there were three major car accidents in the course of about three minutes (if that), in addition to finally getting to see the aftermath of the FBI bloodbath, having our wacky robot teenage girl from the future turn bad (due to getting blown up) and chase our intrepid heroes all over the damn place with intent to kill, the chick from Garbage (no joke) cameo-ing as a Terminator 2 style evil villain CEO/men's urinal (no joke), and said wacky robot teenage girl from the future, when about to bite the big one, declaring her love for our male lead (who, in the end, brings her back to life while holding his own mother at gunpoint in order to do so). All of this culminating in John Connor going all Keri Russell while his mom breaks down on the other side of the locked bathroom door and tells him "happy birthday." Ha. I love me some ludicrously action packed FOX shows.

And to end this on an even more frivilous note than all of the above combined, TWOP's response to last night's Gossip Girl: "In order to keep her Lord boyfriend, Blair has to blackmail his bitchy Duchess step-mom, who is conveniently sleeping with Nate. We really missed this show." Oy. Sometimes ironic trash is... still trash. But funny! Very very funny trash. And laughing makes you live longer.