Second Best

So you all know I love television. And there's plenty of lists floating around with the best episodes of the best shows. But I thought it might be nice to spend some time talking about the runner up episodes of my favourite shows...that are finished. I don't think you can adequately answer the best episode question until a show is wrapped and done, one of the reasons I have a problem with this list by The Hollywood Reporter. If I was counting shows that are still running then Doctor Who, Grey's Anatomy and The Americans would most certainly feature, but for now I'm going with the following seven iconic series. 

PLEASE NOTE: this post contains MAJOR spoilers for all the series discussed. 

SPOOKS

Best episode: 4.10 - 'Diana'

Second best: 7.8

Written by Neil Cross, directed by Sam Miller

Lucas and Ros escort Connie on a mission underground, while Harry offers himself to the FSB in an attempt to help stop a nuclear attack. The frantic pace of this episode ratchets up the suspense to a breaking point, and the claustrophobic scenes underground make for compelling viewing. What really makes this episode is that everyone is heroic in their own way: Malcolm and Jo stoically helming the Grid, Lucas and Ros holding off the Russian gun squad and Harry braving the lion's den and offering himself up to save London. Does Connie gain a measure of redemption? I think so, and her sacrifice has the ring of truth to it. 


FRIENDS

Best episode: The One With the Embryos (Season 4, Episode 12)

Second best: The One Where Everybody Finds Out (Season 5, Episode 14)

Written by Alexa Junge, directed by Michael Lembeck

I had to have at least one comedy on the list! This fantastic episode pits Chandler and Phoebe against each other in a game of sexy chicken as Phoebe and Rachel attempt to make Monica and Chandler come clean about their relationship. As with just about every episode on this list everyone gets a few good moments, with laughs a plenty before Chandler finally admits that he loves Monica, and she says she loves him too. (There's also an excellent moment with David Schwimmer jumping up and down.)

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Best episode: Always (Season 5, Episode 13)

Second Best: The Son (Season 4, Episode 5)

Written by Rolin Jones, directed by Allison Liddi-Brown

This episode belongs to the superb Zach Gilford, who plays the mixed emotions of Matt Saracen upon hearing of his father's death in Iraq with such dignity and empathy that one can only marvel at his technique. There are light hearted moments: Matt's friends take him to drink beer on their old playing field, and Tim gets an amusing phone call from Becky at the wake, but nothing prepares you for the moment when Matt demands of the undertaker that he see his father in his casket, all blown to pieces from an IED. The episode closes with Matt shovelling soil onto his father's coffin, his hands bloodied as Julie watches him fall apart. One of the very best episodes of a solid show that really only had one major misstep in its five years on the air. 

THE WEST WING

Best episode: Two Cathedrals (Season 2, Episode 22)

Second best: Institutional Memory (Season 7, Episode 21)

Written by Debora Cahn, directed by Lesli Linka Glatter

This is a fairly unorthodox choice, I suspect most people would have gone for another Sorkin-penned episode. But this fabulous, penultimate episode of the entire series (written by Debora Cahn) gave closure to the character of C.J. Cregg. Arguably the heartbeat of the show from the very beginning, C.J. ultimately decided against staying in Washington to work for President Santos and instead chose to start a new life with Danny in Santa Monica and run a multi-million dollar not for profit. What I love about this episode is how beautifully the dilemma of the working woman is summarised, but also how perfect the solution for this particular character is portrayed. Lots of touching, beautiful character moments across the board make this a pleasure to watch, even for the umpteenth time. 

THE SOPRANOS

Best episode: Whitecaps (Season 4, Episode 13)

Second best: Employee of the Month (Season 3, Episode 4)

Written by Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess, directed by John Patterson

Lorraine Bracco does the heavy lifting in this one, her portrayal of a woman brutally raped is harrowing. Melfi is no longer the decisive, intelligent doctor, but a woman stripped bare as her attacker goes free. And so she is faced with a choice: does she stay silent or does she tell Tony? In the end her silence is heroic, one of the few morally sound decisions on a show of bad choices. It's a messy hour of television, but ultimately one of the most satisfying in a show full of amazing episodes. 

BREAKING BAD

Best episode: Ozymandias (Season 5, Part 2, episode 6)

Second best: Gliding Over All (Season 5, Part 1, episode 8)

Written by Moira Walley-Beckett, directed by Michelle MacLaren

This was a really hard one, picking the second best from such a solid show. I could have run with Four Days Out (when Jesse and Walt are stranded in the desert), or One Minute (which ends in the shoot out that almost kills Hank), but ultimately I went with the supremely elegant Gliding Over All, which is the mid season finale of the show's final season. This episode is famous for two of the finest montages in a show that used them very effectively, one culminating in the deaths of Gus' remaining men on the inside, and the other condensing three months of meth lab work and money laundering into a few minutes of very fine TV. The whole episode ends with Hank finally putting the pieces together and fingering Walt as his Heisenberg, with Walt Whitman being his downfall. Beautiful, albeit very violent, stuff. 

MAD MEN

Best episode: The Suitcase (Season 4, episode 7)

Second best: Shut The Door, Have A Seat (season 3, episode 13)

Written by Matthew Weiner and Erin Levy, directed by Matthew Weiner

Who doesn't love a caper? In my favourite show of all time, it had to be this hilarious but still very touching episode. The best scene has to be Don's eating crow at Peggy's place, when he tells her they are more alike than she knows. If I don't do what you say, she replies, you'll never speak to me again. Don rejoins with the heartbreaking 'I will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you.' In other news Roger and Don make up, Betty and Don split up for real,  and Joan makes a highly anticipated and welcome return to the team. Roy Orbison sings the season out as Don braves the world outside his marriage and starts the new firm of SCDP. 

So what do you all think? Did I pick well or have I blatantly left out a show or episode you love? Let me know. 

My Favourite Things

Hey! Long time, no blog. 

I thought I'd ease back into things by talking about some of my favourite things from 2015. Some of these I'm going to talk about in more detail in other posts, but I wanted to write a little about the things that kept me going this last year. 

Favourite TV show

You all know my favourite show is Mad Men, probably my favourite show ever (which is really saying something). The back end of season 7 was wonderful and made me feel really good about saying goodbye to a show that has been a great comfort to me since I first starting watching it in 2008. 

But as great as it was, Mad Men was not the best television I watched this year. That honour has to go to the criminally underrated The Americans and its third season.  

For those who don't know the premise, The Americans is the story of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, Russian spies working deep undercover in the States in the early 80s. Running complex missions while pretending to be travel agents and actually being parents to two children is nothing less than complicated, made trickier by their living across the street from an FBI agent who works in counter intelligence. 

The writing on this show is deft and subtle, the acting some of the best on display right now, and the production slick and clean. I highly recommend getting your hands on season 1, if you're like me, you won't be able to stop watching. My only real regret with this show is that I kind of wish the 80s clothes were more flashy and fun, but then I like it kitschy.


Favourite experience

A few years ago I wrote to the Sydney Writers' Festival and begged them to get Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman out to Australia. In 2015, the powerhouse couple of publishing made it out to Sydney and Melbourne to give joint presentations (read: chats in front of an audience and then answer questions) as part of each city's respective writing festival. 

Did someone read my letter and think maybe it was a good idea? I don't know, but I do know that the evening was marvellous and I want to write more about it in a separate post. 

Favourite purchase

This beautiful print by Angela Stasio at The Paper Apartment on etsy. I'd link to her shop but she seems to have closed down,  at least for now. Meanwhile this gorgeous picture has pride of place on my wall. 

Favourite beauty product

I bought some seriously good makeup this year, most of it from Too Faced. But my fave beauty purchase was the Nars Audacious lipstick in Natalie, a truly unusual but very flattering shade of pink.

I've bought this product in other shades and it's a fantastic formula, I will continue to re-purchase.


Favourite meal

The morning after spending all night on a train to Melbourne I visited Fandango in North Melbourne for the fourth time and it was even better than I remembered. Here's what I had:

Pesto scrambled eggs with bacon, and yes, it was every bit as good as it sounds. This cafe is one of the best places to eat I have ever found, love it to bits. 

Favourite record

I couldn't decide between two records for this, so you get them both.

In May 2013 I went to a Something for Kate concert in Canberra with my favourite gig buddies. The support act was an unknown quantity, a very young looking girl with a guitar that dwarfed her and an attitude that rolled off the stage into the eager crowd. My friend, being the music aficionado that he is, immediately purchased the young singer's EP. As we went home that night we excitedly discussed the support act who had blown everyone away. 

Two years later and everyone knows who Barnett is now. For my money she is a storyteller in the same vein as Paul Kelly or Paul Dempsey (the singer of the band she supported on that tour). She's not to everyone's taste, but she doesn't need to be. The fans she has are plenty.

The last few years have seen some seriously great R & B artists hit the charts, the latest of which is this twenty something from Canada. The Weeknd, or Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, released his sophomore record, Beauty Behind The Madness, in 2015 and immediately I latched onto it. It's his voice, it's his forlorn, pleading falsetto, that draws you in. It's the type of record you need to spin a few times to really get into, but boy, does it pay off. He has the magic, that's all I can say.

So there you go, these are the things that helped me along the way last year. What were your favourite things of 2015?

Bad Religion

I'm pretty sure that most of you know by now that I sing at weddings (I mean, it's in my bio for crying out loud). What I talk about less is that I make my living singing at Catholic weddings. About half of them are nuptial blessings, which means they don't have a full Mass with Communion. But the other half are full blown, bells and smells, gold hat and Easter candle, kneel till it hurts, weddings. And this isn't a problem at all, except that I feel like a hypocrite for earning my living in churches where I don't belong, because the truth is I don't believe in God anymore. I don't think I have in a long time.

This wouldn't be a problem except that my family is deeply religious. I've alluded to this in this space before, but I come from the product of two very Catholic parents who take this stuff super seriously, and confirmation that I've left my faith and THE CHURCH (I have to write that in caps lock) behind me would break them. I live under their roof, they know I don't go to Mass weekly (which they pretend not to notice) but if they knew I didn't believe in God at all, they would simultaneously shun me and pray harder than they've ever prayed for anything. 

I don't know how to have a conversation with them about this one. Ironically enough the conversation probably won't happen unless and until I get married myself and have to explain why I'm only having a civil ceremony. My mother chastises me for blaspheming every now and again, and I don't know how to tell her that you can't have a concept of blasphemy when you don't have a concept of God. She talks about priests throwing their weight around and I can't tell her that in my experience that's the rule, not the exception. She yells at the news when stories of sexual abuse hit the fan as often as they do, and I can't tell her that it's not just bad guys doing it, it's the systemic cover ups the world over that tell me that the people at the top just don't care and looked the other way while it was happening. But I don't say anything, because I don't want to shove it in their faces.

I don't know when I stopped believing in God. I tried for many years to find a form of Catholicism that worked for me. But I do know the moment I walked away from THE CHURCH. It was the day when two news stories were side by side in the newspapers. One story detailed a sexual abuse cover up at the highest levels in Sydney, Australia. The other was about a 12 year old girl in Venezuela who was excommunicated after having a abortion for a conception that only occurred due to a rape. The rapist got off scot-free. 

There are always going to be things I love about the religion in which I was raised. I believe that you should perform good works, and that you can't be saved by faith alone. I believe in service and in charity that you don't shout from the rooftops. I love the music and the outlook on life that comes from living humbly and modestly. 

But it's not for me. I just wish I could be honest with my parents about that. 

Lisztomania (Take 5)

Now that the 2014 mix CDs have arrived safely (both locally and internationally), I can share the track listing with the rest of you!

For those new readers: every Christmas I make a mix CD that is usually a mix of new releases and old favourites. There are a few rules: I can't use anyone/any band I have used before, but side and solo projects are OK (for example: Glen Hansard has featured on the mix CD before but this year he appeared as part of The Frames). I usually try and include at least four or five Australian acts, although this year I failed woefully. And I try and avoid music that EVERYONE knows (let's say The Beatles or The Stones), and if I do include better known artists I try and avoid the big singles. But that's about it. 

Here is the 2014 mix CD, in all its glory:

REBELLION

St Vincent - Rattlesnake
Cold War Kids - Miracle Mile
New Order - Ceremony
Chrissie Hynde - Dark Sunglasses
Sky Ferreira - Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay)
Jungle - Time
The Frames - When Your Mind's Made Up
Total Control - Flesh War
Banks - Beggin For Thread
Ásgeir - Torrent
The Jezabels - Look of Love
Chlöe Howl - Paper Heart
Yazoo - Only You

Mix CDs from previous years can be found here, here, here and here.

No Make-up (Her Vice)

So I like a bit of makeup, and even though this isn't a beauty blog I thought I'd share my thoughts on a few great products I used this last year that I love. 

I'll start with what is probably my favourite product of the year, the beautiful Rouge in Love lipstick from Lancôme, in the shade Corail in Love. 

This really is the perfect lipstick, the formula is great and it glides on with something between a sheer and satin finish. (You can build it up if you want.) It also smells great, as well as being a product Emma Watson was the public face for when they were released about two years ago. What's not to love? At $45 AU they're not cheap, but I favour quality over quantity when it comes to makeup...when it comes to everything, really. 

A few months ago the lovely Kat from Kitsch Snitch turned me on to the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet lipsticks, and, like her, my favourite colour is Hot Pepper.

I find matte lipsticks can often be very chunky and difficult to touch up during the day, but this matte has none of those issues. If you don't like wearing lipstick then this could be the product for you, as it really feels like you're wearing nothing. These usually retail for about $27 AU, but you can get them on sale at Priceline and ASOS for a lot less than that. (I bought mine for about $13.50.)

My favourite complexion product of the year was a product I received in a Wantable subscription box: the Tarina Tarantino Hyperlight, which is basically a concealer with a touch of illuminator in it. 

This little beauty comes in a clickable pen and a little goes a long way. It feels really good on my skin and the slight shimmer it gives is very flattering. It's by far the best concealer I have ever used, for some reason I've always had trouble with them. It retails for $22 US. 

I'm still hunting the perfect mascara but this one by Benefit comes close. 

This was also a product I discovered thanks to a subscription box, this time the Australian box distributed by Marie Claire, 'The Parcel'. It gives a nice balance of volumising, curling and lengthening, so it's a great all round product. It retails $38 AU, but I'm still using the sample size so I haven't had to fork out for it yet. 

Finally, a product I bought in the last few days. This isn't a new product or anything, but I'm loving it and it's new for me! It's the NARS The Multiple in Copacabana. 

I splashed out getting this, using some giftcards I was given for Christmas - it's expensive at $52 AU. But as it works as both an eyeshadow and a highlighter I feel like I'll get my money's worth from this one. I'm a bit addicted to the rosy sheen this product gives and I love that NARS products are good to slap on with your hands. I like makeup but I'm pretty low maintenance with my routine, and I hate brushes (they irritate my skin) so fingers it is. 

So there are my favourite beauty products for the last year. Have you been using something you really love? Spill!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

('Meet me in St Louis' aired on Christmas Eve when I was about 8 and I fell in love. I think I watched it every second day all through the following month's summer holiday.)

I love this time of year. I know that's probably a bit naff, but I really do. In my experience (and that includes my years of retail and hospitality work) people are generally pretty good and friendly, trying to get into the spirit of the season. I think people want to do the right thing this time of year: buy the perfect gifts, make the perfect meals, avoid all the usual fights and arguments. Of course it's impossible. 

I actually find a measure of comfort in the imperfection of my Christmas rituals and in my wonderfully obnoxious, dysfunctional family. I know that at some point we'll fight over the lack of space in our tiny house filled to bursting with too many people, and that my older brother will eventually push my buttons so that I lose my temper, but we all love each other and that usually comes home strongly at several points throughout the day. 

I spend Christmas Eve night singing my heart out in a beautiful chapel in the inner west of Sydney. We sing beautiful music, including all my favourites: 'Lo', How A Rose 'Ere Blooming', 'The Angel Gabriel', 'The Cherry Tree Carol' and 'Jerusalem'. Christmas morning we have a new plan, as my mother and I and probably a few others from my family will visit my maternal grandmother in her nursing home. Then we'll have lunch together, all 7 of us, open presents and then let my sister run her ritual: Christmas trivia, which is what it sounds like, with questions about Christmas related subjects. Apparently this year we're introducing a new game too, called Festive Fetch, which will involve this guy:

Of course my biggest Christmas ritual is the mix CD, copies of which are already winging their way to several of you readers. It's always a satisfying moment when they're in a pile in front of me, ready to go. 

Happy Christmas, guys. Love you all heaps. 

Tomorrow

This week I had a change made to my many medications. It's too early to tell if it's helping, and it means blood tests and all sorts of unpleasant things, but my attitude to medication has always been 'whatever might help' and I trust my specialist. It was made after I had to beg my mother to drive me to my specialist's office for an appointment I was offered very last minute (when I should have been at uni) because I was having trouble leaving the house. 

This is not uncommon. I have spent the better (and worse) part of the last few weeks holed up in my bedroom, ordering home delivery food or just having sandwiches, alternately binge watching TV or curled in a foetal position. My anxiety is such that I am having trouble getting to work, the few hours I do work, getting to uni, for the few hours I need to front for, and seeing people generally. I spent my 31st birthday distressed and alone, although this was mostly because my sister bailed on me in the evening for a movie. My head is barely above water right now.

I'm being this brutally honest because it's Mental Health Week and hey, why the hell not. I write this not to attract pity, but rather to try and explain what it's like to live with a mental illness that just won't piss off and leave me alone. It's an illness that has me in its grasp so firmly that it feels like my life will always be this way, that my life will be an endless cycle of doctors' appointments, takeout food, the odd trip to uni or town for a class or a meeting with a friend, and curled up in bed just wishing to be held and loved for just a little while by the right person. It's getting worse, not better.

My new medication arrived in a heavy bottle (home delivered, of course), filled with 250 of the tablets that are meant to help alleviate this dread and anxiety which rules my behaviour so entirely. For some reason this surprised me - I had always expected this medication to be in wafer thin blister packs, in quantities of 25 or so at a time. Instead it's this substantial bottle you could whack a mole with, and one which keeps drawing my eye to my bedside table. 

For me, my illness dictates that my entire existence is predicated on the idea of tomorrow. I HAVE to believe that tomorrow will be a little easier, a little more manageable. That I can get a jump on the day and leave the house and face the world. Without this belief, the simple truth is that I just wouldn't be alive. I have to believe that if I try hard enough, that if things get just a little better, then there's a suitable job and life waiting for me, one that doesn't involve quite so much anxiety and guilt. Tomorrow it will be better. 

Because it has to be.