if i invite a boy some night to dine on my fine finnan haddie

fact: when it comes to television, i'm a sucker for anything that vaguely resembles a plot. even if every other aspect of the show is subpar, all i need is a bit of sexual tension or dangling threat of scandal to keep me tuning in indefinitely. gossip girl lost its luster seasons ago, how to make it in america arguably never had any to begin with, and don't even get me started on pretty little liars, but until each and every character's conflicts are resolved, i will stick with these shows like captain edward john smith and the rms titanic.

i should never have watched the playboy club in the first place. aside from the setting, nothing about the buildup to the show really sparked my interest. i'd already planned on using pan am as my period piece placeholder to tide me over until the return of mad men, but when hulu basically offered up the playboy club pilot on a scrolling main menu platter, i took the bait. expectations weren't exactly high, but the visuals were surprisingly lackluster. in fact, my aesthetic lust radar only flared up during one scene in the entire episode: the bunny meeting in which the girls are seen in their street clothes. i'm pretty sure i saw some orange ladypants in there, but with nothing but tight shots to work with, my interest dissipated pretty quickly.

between the eerily similar voices of nick dalton and don draper and the hearty sprinkling of quaint, pointedly un-pc remarks just to drive the whole "back in the day" thing home, i've gotta say - the whole thing was pretty meh. who am i kidding, though? what they lacked in costumes and script, they made up for with a big old mob boss murder and a gay liberation subplot. i guess i'm in it for the long haul, unless of course, the bunnies have anything to say about it.

[via time]