Missing Mad Men
The idea of depicting the 60s through the lens of the advertising industry was pretty brilliant. Not that the show was meant to be a historical assessment by any means. Let’s face it, most of us watched to see what would happen to the characters.
– Miria Ioannou
Tale of a Serial Addict
Everyone seems shocked that five million of us have downloaded and listened to what is essentially an old-fashioned weekly radio series. Everyone seems shocked that five million of us have downloaded and listened to what is essentially an old-fashioned weekly radio series. “How can that be?” they marvel. “In this day of 140-character missives and nano-second attention spans?”
– Miria Ioannou
HIGHRISE
Here’s a little context for the condo boom in Toronto. An Award-winning interactive documentary covering 2500 years of living vertically. Watch online free courtesy NFB Canada
TOWER BAWHER – NFB films online
Short by Theodore Ushev in the style of Russian constructivism. Simple geometric shapes cohere into machines, marching figures and towers which thrust themselves rhythmically across the screen. Music by Russian composer Goergy Sviridov propels frenetic piling into precarious structures, bound to collapse…
– Schuster Gindin
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
Here is something to watch that will make you want to stay up all night. The Story of Film: An Odyssey is a series of six visually stunning and surprising film essays on the history of film. It says (and shows) that film is not just about money…
– Jody Berland
Mad Men
I first started watching Mad Men when a good friend who had worked in advertising urged me to. Although his professional experience had been Canadian, he swore that the show’s depiction of the ad business was beyond authentic – not just the clothes and the furniture but the attitudes and the social conventions. Even though these were great hooks, it was the characters and the story lines that transformed me into a fan. And not even the interminable hiatuses between seasons put me off.
Continue reading…
– Miria Ioannou
The Thick of It
I recently came across a British series called The Thick of It. This documentary style political satire is about the inner-workings of government. It originally aired in 2005 and ran for three short seasons with two specials in 2007. There were a couple of additional seasons afterwards that ran on a different BBC channel.
Continue reading…
– Minda Sherman
Jazz on the Tube – free video archive of jazz greats
See everything you’ve ever heard.
Robin in the birdbath.
What are you staying up late to watch? Tell us about it.
LIVING TORONTO 
