'Mad Men' season ends, 'HSM3' scores

AMC's "Mad Men" (10 p.m. Sunday) ends its creatively successful sophomore season set against the backdrop of the Cuban Missle Crisis. It's a smart move by series creator Matthew Weiner. The characters feel like the world is about to end which puts them in a more confessional, conciliatory mood. It also helps nudge them in other less savory, more base-instinct directions, too.

Not every thread is tied up in this episode, of course. Weiner operates from a "life is messy" perspective that doesn't require everything to be tied up with a bow. But some stories that have been dangling do lead to revelations. Others are ignored completely. And still others hint at resolution but don't spell it out.

There are no real cliffhangers, just questions about how characters and their relationships may bounce back.

If there's any particular takeaway, it's that season two has been about the "Mad Men" women empowering themselves. Junior copywriter Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) now has the office next to Don and power over another co-worker. Betrayed wife Betty (January Jones) has become, cold, calculating and tough, shutting out husband Don (Jon Hamm). There's been a complete role reversal. Where once Don had most of the power in the relationship, Betty now has the upper hand.

Although it's not as emotional an hour as the first-season climax -- particularly the scene of Don pitching the Kodak slide carousel -- there are certainly some high-emotion scenes as characters pour out their hearts, hoping for a favorable response.

One odd scene on the rough-cut I saw: Early in the episode Betty is at the riding stables and has a conversation with another character. It's obvious that the first part of the scene was shot on location and all of the other character's scenes were shot on location. But when the scene cuts to Betty's closeups, its also obvious that Jones is standing on a soundstage with a green screen background that allows the production to insert stable scenes behind her.

I told my friend Legal Eagle about this shot, and he suggested that perhaps they re-wrote Betty's dialogue after first shooting the scene and opted to do re-shoots on a stage, which would be less expensive than staging another location shoot. That would make sense but I'm not sure that's right since none of the other character's dialogue was re-shot. And couldn't they just have looped in new dialogue and used reaction shots of the other character?

The other odd part of the scene comes at its conclusion. Betty crosses in front of the other character and when she emerges on the other side of that character the scene is fully on location, no green screen, but it's shot in such a way that the blond we see striding away may or may not be Jones. Her body is turned at such an angle so as to obscure her face. I have a question about this out to AMC, but so far, no response. 

***

I have a tendency to complete what I start. If I'm hooked on a TV show, I'll generally stay with it through thick and thin. Sometimes I bail but often I do not. So it's with that in mind that I went to see "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," based on the Disney Channel franchise.

It's a better movie than "HSM2," although the songs are less memorable, but I like the way "HSM3" offers echos from the first "HSM" flick, which remains the best of the triology.

Blink and you'll miss the winner of ABC's ratings disaster "High School Musical: Get in the Picture." He's featured deep in the end credits after bloopers from the set are shown. His "music video" looks like it was made with a home video camera and it's shown on a small box on the screen. If ABC's reality show had been a hit, surely the video would have been more prominently displayed.

Disney, always planning head, introduces three new characters in "HSM3" who will presumably headline the already announced Disney Channel movie "HSM4." In addition, there's a suggestion one of the original, graduating "HSM" players will be back as a teacher's aid "in the fall." Hmmm, does Disney have a deal with Ashley Tisdale for another film? I put the question to a Disney Channel publicist but have yet to hear back. The Wall Street Journal covered Disney's plan to "regenerate" the franchise this week.