So for the past few weeks I’ve been live blogging Mad Men. This has resulted in adventures such as being three minutes late due to a thunderstorm with sheet lightning while driving in a tiny car behind police officers and walking in on scenes that gave me the impression that Peggy, in those three minutes, had some how gotten married, and in other adventures like 80 billion people Googling “Ted Shaw” after the last episode when really they all meant Ted Chaough and winding up here ’cause I screwed up too. Blogging stuff: It is exciting, is where I’m going with this.
But now, I have completed my internship at UTP, and have returned to boozy Montreal for what snarks should feel free to call a victory lap, one result of which is that access to a television (along with in-house laundry and ant-free cupboards) has vanished into the ether/ my parent’s living room eight hours away.
My expression, upon realizing that I would not be able to watch Mad Men live and blog about it, was tragic. So tragic that to illustrate it, I need to use Mad Men Yourself, which is a fitting tribute in addition to adequately capturing my level of devastation. It was this:
But then, I remembered the magic of the Internet! If by magic, you mean “sites of dubious legality with live streams.” Also: the fact that I am not alone in my live blogging, and could probably figure out what was happening more or less in real time, by careful scanning of Twitter feeds and guessing based mostly on the 20 second sneak previews posted online in advance. After this moment of realization, my expression was this:
I also realized that the paradox of live blogging a show before I had actually seen it doesn’t exactly make sense, particularly since it would be No Fun.
The result of which is: Live blogging Mad Men will continue. Eventually.
Some weeks, it will be less delayed than others! These are the weeks I find friends to bribe in return for their televisions. Other weeks, I will see you Tuesday! Which is historically about how long it takes to (ahem) find and watch the episode by alternative means. These weeks, I will try to add to the hilarity by quoting from various analyses and/or including actual facts about what might have happened in the episode (also known as the art of the recap), but only time will tell whether this will actually happen. If history has shown us anything, it’s that the answer is, probably.