And now I'm sad!!! Awwww, he's like the guy you want to be your granddad and Santa Claus and your boss and mentor, etc.!

But then what should be done with him? I don't know. I DO know that he will get a lighter sentence for killing his wife in the heat of an argument than he would if he had planned it out, because common law assumed that the heat of an argument was a form of insanity.

It's SO CLOSE to being a good show.

My entire perspective on this issue changed after I read Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry And Controlling Men. Thanks, Persia.

Part of me agrees with you, another part is concerned about labeling domestic abusers as "mentally ill." They need psychiatric intervention, I am positive. But I wouldn't say that everyone who needs to see a psychiatrist is crazy or incapable of understanding their own actions.

The problem is that the motive for domestic violence is so impalpable. Control? Power? Lack of self-esteem? Existential vacuum of love?

Well, I felt pretty terrible because I didn't remember who Michael Jace was, but as soon as I saw that someone from The Shield had murdered his wife, I assumed it was the actor who played Julian. I remember reading that he would get angry on set and that the writers wanted to do more with his character but that Jace…

I have read before that machetes killed the most people of any weapon in 1994 or so, because they were used as the genocidal weapon of choice in Rwanda. Apparently machetes are fairly efficient killing weapons. Very sad situation, indeed.

Awww, he was in DS9, too? This is truly sad news. He's been in some of my favorite programs, and rewatching some episodes of The Shield in particular will be hard, now.

Falling Skies isn't canceled yet!!! Even if it should be. But I was disappointed with his role on Falling Skies—he did a good job, but my God!—was his character inconsistently written.

The problem with O'Quinn is that he made me want to keep watching shows that I should have given up on much earlier, like Alias and Lost.

Trudy isn't keeping Pete from his daughter as much as Pete simply doesn't care about seeing his daughter. He was in town for a week and only went to see his daughter for one afternoon. I doubt he's fighting too hard for custody in their divorce.

Absolutely. Then he'd go back to treating her like furniture, which is exactly why (as you correctly assess), she will not take him back.

That's what I loved about this episode. It was all about letting go of some image of "perfection" that the 1950s/early 60s forced on people. Instead, these characters have the ability to make their own lives in their own ways. I loved it.

That was what was so fantastic about that scene—they explicitly invoke 1955, which was just before Mad Men began. To these characters, the 1950s really weren't that long ago, and yet so much has happened to them and in the world that it is hard to remember that time. And neither one of them seems particularly…

It's possible that they wanted that scene to be generic and sparse. It made it so that any "family" watching today could relate to that scene. Also, it put all the emphasis on the faces of the characters, rather than the background.

I actually thought it was really useful. Todd was drawing a parallel between Peggy's feminist angst and Plath's. Since Plath is a little older than Peggy, I sort of see your complaint, but they encountered such similar resistance and difficulties that I thought his quoting her was apropos. Certainly, Peggy is…

I can't believe I've never noticed that! It's an idea that needs fleshing out. Like, Peggy is trying to establish an identity out of Don's shadow by allying herself with Don's enemies (which doesn't work because she and Don are so similar?). Or, rather than treat men as adversaries, she sleeps with them/is turned…

Yes, glad you highlighted that (and I loved that Pete immediately got Peggy's reference! A reminder that Pete had an expensive education, considering I doubt Pete is reading short stories for fun as an adult). The scene also made me think of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, which features two men in gray flannel suits and…

Agree. I felt like Tammy was cautious of Pete just because kids her age are often scared of strangers…and Pete is pretty much a stranger to her at this point. As Trudy said, "You've visited your child once this year, go back to LA."