Tag Archive: amc

Mad Men’s Queen Bee: Celebrating The Power of Joan

The following is an excerpt from Celebrating Mad Men, available in paperback and for Kindle. When Mad Men debuted in 2007, no one other than Jon Hamm got more press than Christina Hendricks, the buxom redhead who plays the always-in-control office manager Joan Holloway (later Joan Harris). It wasn’t just her good looks and voluptuous figure that drew attention (though neither hurt), it was the strength of her character. Her self-assurance and confidence gave viewers the sense that Joan was always in control. In an office full of women withering under the demands of their often lecherous bosses, Joan was a remarkable breath of fresh air, the very embodiment of an intelligent woman who had embraced the power of her own sexuality. Surprisingly, Hendricks, who…
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Preacher is coming to AMC, and I’m ecstatic

Preacher, the darkly irreverent and hilariously blasphemous comic series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, is coming to AMC next year. I couldn’t be happier. AMC is on a ridiculous roll in recent years. They used to be focused on classic movies, then slowly started introducing original programming. In 2007, Mad Men debuted, and it marked the dawn of a new era. The channel would never be the same after that. (I wrote a book about Mad Men. You should check it out.) For me, the big breakout show was Breaking Bad, a show that grabbed me good and never let go. I’ve watched it four or five times over at this point. The Walking Dead didn’t start out so great, but even that has…
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TELEVISION: The Walking Dead was overrated

I’m an unashamed geek and make no bones about it. I love geek stuff. Hell, I took part in co-writing a really great geek book. Proud to have my name attached to all things geek. But this needs to be said: AMC’s smash-hit television show The Walking Dead, while quite entertaining, was also highly, highly overrated by my geek brothers and sisters. Sorry, my geek brethren, but it’s true. We were so caught up in the thrill of getting something delightfully geeky that we elevated the show to a lofty status it has not yet earned. Now I’m not saying the show was bad. Far from it. I thought the casting was phenomenal, the writing was generally pretty good (though certainly not always), the acting…
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