Movin’ On Up

I know everyone is getting excited about the new season of Mad Men. The Onion’s AV Club has a great article about 10 episodes that get to the depth of a character or theme. There’s one paragraph to note particularly:

Where other shows attack the character arc as a linear progression, both Mad Men and The Sopranos consider it a thing that happens in dribs and drabs. People don’t change, until they abruptly decide to, then just as abruptly decide to reverse it. A storyline may seem to have ended until it abruptly resurrects itself. Characters may retreat to mostly supporting roles for long stretches of the season, then abruptly be revealed as hugely important to whatever story happens to be most pressing at that moment. In addition to these other similarities, Mad Men has a similarly inventive tone to its filmmaking. It uses the gorgeousness of its production design as an asset, and is filled with shots that lay out the characters’ relationships and power dynamics with a pleasing simplicity that nonetheless has incredible levels of depth.

Note that link. It leads you to the work of some character known around here as “SEK.” Who is now better than the rest of us with a link like that.