MAD MEN on AMC - Season 6

I liked Bob talking to Ginzo re:"having too many 'funny' cigarettes".

they also made a point of emphasizing that he doesn't do drugs which I thought was meant to hint that he's actually losing his mind.

I wouldn't read too much into this (altho it's true) - Woody Allen famously drug-free too and he is like archetypal tightly-wound neurotic NY Jew

i think he is too good of a character to turn into a mental illness plotline.

and yeah this

I do not think he just acts like an archetypal tightly-wound neurotic NY Jew. He definitely says slightly crazier things. Not making anything of that, just that I don't think of that behavior as that of a neurotic NY Jew. Speaking as a neurotic NY Jew.

the Mars thing/concentration camp orphan is probably the craziest, have wondered if they'll ever shine any more light on that

I wouldn't read too much into this (altho it's true) - Woody Allen famously drug-free too and he is like archetypal tightly-wound neurotic NY Jew

it's a totally unimportant detail though. you can already tell that he's not very hip. but if they did want to show a character who was mentally ill without the help of drugs, they would definitely need to point that out or else it would get lost among everyone else's acid and speed induced hallucinations that seem to happen every episode now.

the Mars thing/concentration camp orphan is probably the craziest, have wondered if they'll ever shine any more light on that

that could have just been a joke. ranting about transmissions into your head while your down on the floor having a fit is sort of a different level imo.

I don't remember the "transmission into my head" line tbh but maybe I missed it

"I can’t turn off the transmissions to do harm. They’re beaming ‘em right to my head"

- Woody Allen

LOL @ the sixties. Yes there were parts in here where Joan was watching the Chicago footage or these suits are standard around awkwardly at a hippie party and I was flashing back to seeing those kind of scenes in that 60's miniseries or Forrest Gump or a million other period pieces. Not that it isn't good to revisit that stuff and think about it from new perspectives. Hearing about the 60's when I was a teenager during the Beatles Anthology and hearing about them now when I'm in my 30's, it's interesting to consider the things that have happened since then in light of whatever world-turning events went on in the 60's. Like that one CEO guy pretty much said the same thing about Chicago demonstrators that I've heard a number of 'hip' youths say about Occupiers. I'm glad the show doesn't do this all the time though.

That was a super frustrating episode for almost everyone involved! I wonder if Megan is pregnant or if Don is just going more and more into Imaginationland. Feels like the main theme of this season for Don has been Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out (let everyone else clean up after you).

Think Megan is defo preggers. However oblique the 'next week on Mad Men' trailer is every week, we saw Megan holding her tummy yet again, in addition to the clues in the episode.

Though they might just play that angle just to screw with our heads, it didn't have any other, or counteractive, meaning in the episode and got underlined by the 'next week' bit. Just a hunch.

Still gathering my thoughts on this episode, but what a great one it was, yet again.

the inclusion of the soldier from ep1 was genuinely freaky/disturbing, especially the line about what Don would find in the afterlife

"I can’t turn off the transmissions to do harm. They’re beaming ‘em right to my head"

who's "they"?

DUTCH REAGAN

I doubt Megan's pregnant so soon after the miscarriage - saw it more as Don wanting her to quit her job & raise babies & devote her life to him, Betty style.

xp i rewatched the episode right now. i think he meant that being in the ad world had naturalized capitalism/branding/corporate culture for him, made it second nature, and he feels this to be a violation.

Really hating this season overall. Part of me really wishes this show had stayed in a permanent 1960 and avoided all the "topical" bullshit. The first two seasons were so much better than anything since.

If they stayed in permanent 1960, they'd have been through so many different Sallys by now, but, ironically, the same number of Bobbys as they have anyway.

pffft xp

xp i rewatched the episode right now. i think he meant that being in the ad world had naturalized capitalism/branding/corporate culture for him, made it second nature, and he feels this to be a violation.

Yeah, this comes after Cutler calling him out. He feels compromised and too weak to not be part of the machinery of oppression, etc.

http://www.buzzsugar.com/Bob-Benson-Mad-Men-30649888

i think he is either a corporate spy or a government spy -- because he is always lurking around -- but that he believes in what he is doing so the earnestness is not disingenuous, even though he is being dishonest all the time about his real motives. in any case, cutler's interactions with him are amazing. "i don't mean to interrupt"... "but that's what you're doing."

Bob Benson will sabotage the Vega!

definitely like the 'G Man' theory. although also the 'he's just nice! leave him be!' theory is pretty OTM too.

He and Ginzo will create the beloved advertising icon "Juan Valdez".

Don's "are we done yet?" after just sitting down was the biggest lol of the entire series for me.

Pete's "moment" at the end is tough to read, but he sees the corporate writing on the wall much more clearly than don or roger do.

In retrospect, I'm kinda amazed at how naturally Pete toked up considering he's the one character that doesn't smoke anything.

He didn't appear to be inhaling.

Campbell/Benson '92!

I don't buy any of the conspiracy theories surrounding Bob Benson. That's just not this show's style.

He just seems like a prototypical wannabe ladder-climber type to me.

he's the show's best character not appearing in season 1 as far as I'm concerned

i dunno about that, i like stan a lot.

i like the Bob-is-Don's-son theory for sheer creativity & appeal as a soap opera angle. I don't buy it. But I can dig it

Also love Henry's Mom and Joan's Mom.

i dunno about that, i like stan a lot.

― monotony, Tuesday, June 4, 2013 7:43 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah hm.

do you remember how odious stan was in his first major episode?

I do, heh. The beard might be a mind-controlling alien parasite.

I actually feel guilty liking Stan now because I LOATHED him so much at first why bcz misogyny/chauvinism, entitlement, dismissiveness, etc. It's hard for me to reconcile the fact that he's kinda likable (and also attractive) now

I've never rewatched previous seasons, so I don't remember many details about how we got where we are. That being the case, it's easy to forget Stan's old characteristics because it's like they never happened.

I almost kinda resented Peggy for putting up w/ his disgusting sexist bullshit and being buddy-buddy w/ him after how horribly he treated her, but maybe that's just indicative of the era, idk.

The relationship between Stan and Ginsberg is kind of sweet actually. Also Stan and Peggy. But it does feel like they've dialled the obnoxiousness of that character back a lot over the last few seasons, but hey that happens as people progress through their 20s.

Yeah after the intro of the beard i was kind of wondering if it was even the same guy

it does feel like they've dialled the obnoxiousness of that character back a lot over the last few seasons

Ditto x 100 for Ted Chaough.

Ted was only obnoxious when he was actively competing with Don though. Stan was actually an obnoxious person.

Well yeah. Back then, people LIKED Don.

Dunno, Ted kinda looks like a dick.

Would totally watch a Norman Lear-type Stan & Ginsberg sit com.

Megan Draper is already dead