MAD MEN on AMC - Season 6

http://video.vulture.com/video/Epic-Rant-By-Pete-Campbell-Of-M

So great: http://madmenwiththingsdrawnonthem.tumblr.com/

https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/c4965f674e7e734f67baa24a9bde5784/tumblr_mor5v2nRJi1qdbluio1_500.jpg

otm

Slate has a theory that the Chevy account is an extended metaphor for Vietnam. I don't totally buy it, but it's rather compellingly argued:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/06/25/mad_men_vietnam_video_essay_how_season_6_s_chevy_storyline_reflected_a_violent.html

I just re-watched seasons 1-4 and I think one thing that became clear to me was that the show is almost always, in one way or another, addressing its historical context but very rarely is there any kind of direct or 1-to-1 relationship between the lives/business of the characters and the historical events around them. It's not even a typical kind of dramatic irony where we know more than they do. Instead, it's almost like the relationship between history and the show's "present" is more oblique and impressionistic, rather than causal. They keep enough verisimilitude to make sure that characters are aware of and respond to major events (as in the episodes with the assignations) but more often history is this amorphous thing going on outside their walls and then refracted into their lives. The episode with the fog of pollution seems interesting in retrospect because it's a moment where those two approaches (the surreal/oblique and the factual) seem to meet.

So I sorta DO buy the Chevy = Vietnam thing, since it's exactly the way the show seems to operate. Excerpt that the "=" is a lot less direction than a simple equation.

assassinations, I meant! Though for once auto-correct is strangely appropriate.

I like this one:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/3afa2bd31b2fe92e5bb853016a31592b/tumblr_mnvg1oGtCE1qdbluio1_500.jpg

Clues to the ending of ‘Mad Men’ have been embedded within the show since its very beginning

https://medium.com/sterling-cooper-draper-pryce/e96804523838

thats good

the more I think about this the more I think that yeah it doesn't end with Don's death (too trite and too pat) but with his abandonment of the Draper persona entirely

I hope it ends well.

don kills skyler

Making Ad.

'80s Don Draper

Not all of us were raised in a cushy cabbage patch. Some of us had to crawl our way out of a garbage pail.

From Mad Men Screenshots with Things Drawn On Them:

http://31.media.tumblr.com/837eefc1274b67aad7b9096104b38b07/tumblr_mowvjlR8HW1rkdtsao1_500.gif

lol

bob benson's on that robin williams sitcom about advertising. i think if i pretend he's the same character, like orlando or something, that show won't be completely fucking unbearable.

They're doing a Breaking Bad (only with fewer episodes):

http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2013/09/mad-men-serves-seven-and-seven/

Seems a little stingy to only give us one extra episode out of the deal, but there you go.

New thread: MAD MEN on AMC - Seasons 7(a) & & 7(b)

(Also this be my 10,000th post. Yay me)

Five or six episodes in. The MLK episode was straightforward and very good. Not sure about the merger yet--seems like a narrative contrivance, may get better. In the RFK episode, two things bothered me: 1) Pete Campbell losing his temper (with his mother, with his secretary) is sometimes plain bad acting; 2) Don's control stuff with his neighbour's wife was really silly and not worth whatever point was being made (one that has probably been made countless time already anyway). I was starting to feel music was disappearing, but "Love Is Blue" worked surprisingly well, I liked the Mitch Ryder song (think I knew it, but never associated it with him), and Friend & Lover's "Reach Out in the Darkness" as a backdrop for RFK was perfect.

The Doctor Robert, Quack M.D. episode--bizarre. But first "Reach Out in the Darkness," now Mama Cass; the people who made this, they're 100% in sync with me again.

"Reach Out of The Darkness" might be the show's greatest music cue--so perfect in contextual nastiness & irony.

The Doctor Robert, Quack M.D. episode--bizarre.

And very funny.

This season is where the quality started to wane for me.

I'm so invested in the characters at this point, I'm still immersed in everything, and there are still great moments and sequences. On the whole, though, I agree. Three problems: 1) there are so many characters, some of them are by necessity falling by the wayside--they don't really seem to know what to do with certain people (e.g., Bert Cooper; even Peggy's in a rut). 2) Don's philandering isn't that morally interesting anymore, just repetitive. When he's in the middle of his affair with the neighbour's wife, and he has a fit about Megan's kissing scene, you'd think even he'd be aware of the irony. 3) The increasing...irrelevance of the campaigns? When Don or somebody gets really excited about a campaign now, I'm often thinking "You still think stuff like this has anything to do with what's going on in the world?" Not always, but often.

It isn't as good as the previous one but I think this is the funniest season. All the stuff with Pete and his mother is hilarious.

I think most people (including me) lost patience with Don's cheating; perhaps the writers thought it necessary for him to get to that point but I thought it was boring to spend as much time as they did on it.

not to give anything away for clemenza but the neighbor-cheating thing has a payoff that's central to Don's character, and which wouldn't have made sense to happen as part of his earlier affairs

Appreciate that. I know it's weird to be responding to comments about something in progress that you've seen--I'll try to be clear where I am.

I do agree that the whole "you are my prisoner in this expensive hotel room" was ridiculous but I think that was kind of the point, to show how Don's tricks/obsessions are tired and outdated and stupid by this point

Finished up last night. Yes, the payoff to Don's affair with Sylvia was big. (Curious if she'll be back in Season 7--would assume so.) The last few episodes were all over the place but pretty good. Liked the way the '68 convention was integrated. I find Pete an ongoing annoyance at this point, and I'm surprised so much time is devoted to him. (I found all the stuff with his mother unnecessary.) One character who's gotten more shaded and compelling as the story moves along is Ted. Glen's return at Sally's boarding school was excellent. Joan jumping the gun on Avon (and getting confronted by the other partners--first time, really, she seemed completely at a loss, and that added some complexity to an already great character), Glen's return, and Ginsberg going off on the war were all good. Hope there's lots of Sally and Betty in 7. Lots of bumps along the way--I wouldn't call it a consistent show anymore. Reading back through this thread, I was surprised by the Megan-is-dead theory; that had never occurred to me at all. The two external realities that I would think have to play a role in 7 would be the war (even more so than what there's been so far) and black militancy--there's been a progression from invisibility (the elevator operator who was reluctant to answer a direct question) to a tentative civil-rights era presence (Dawn) to, I would assume, something more urgent and confrontational.

After wondering why music was no longer important, it came back in a back way in the last few episodes. "(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me," "Piece of My Heart," "Porpoise Song," and "Both Sides Now" all excellent.

I find Pete an ongoing annoyance at this point, and I'm surprised so much time is devoted to him.

never heard this opinion before!

Pete is a combo of broad comic relief and just, for me, a really interesting creation as a character. He's allowed to be despicable and sorta sympathetic at the same time.

like, he's basically the one character who always shows his cards. and that's endearing in this crowd.

He's unusual, for sure...His weirdness just grates on me at this point for some reason. He has the occasional quiet moment that I like, like his season-ending goodbye to his daughter. (His wife is almost as weirdly stylized as he is.)

After wondering why music was no longer important, it came back in a back way in the last few episodes. "(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me," "Piece of My Heart," "Porpoise Song," and "Both Sides Now" all excellent.

This was a good time for The Monkees on TV--One of the US nostalgia channels had recently started airing the reruns again, and "Goin' Down" was prominently featured on an S5(A) ep of Breaking Bad. I saw them on tour that summer and they played those clips alongside some other stuff ("Last Train To Clarksville" in After Hours for one) right before they took the stage.

The Monkees probably should have turned up even earlier: their backstory would make them Don's or any Madison Avenue guy's dream band. (Not a criticism, I'm a fan.)

Pete Campbell: My mother can go to Hell! Ted Chaough can fly her there.

Surely you laughed at this? Or his line about her brushing her teeth? Classics both.

i love that line so much

The scene where Pete and Peggy were cringing at thoughts of his mother having sex was funny, yes. Now and again he makes me laugh. I don't like him at all when he's shrill and argumentative.

How about tapdancing Ken?

I grew to love Ken more, you see him a lot less in recent seasons and I hope he gets some more scenes at the end.

They really missed an opportunity to get tapdancing Ken in a dance-off with Ray Wise/Leland Palmer (his father-in-law, actually). That might be the single strangest scene in the whole series thus far.

Took another look at the season-ending last couple of minutes before putting it away. Truly beautiful: Roger & Joan's son in the fedora, the short scene between Peggy and Stan ("This is where everything is," the shot that duplicates the iconic graphic), and "Both Sides Now" starting up immediately when Don says "This is where I grew up." And the look he and Sally exchange, and the little black kid on the porch. The inconsistency of Season 6 aside, I don't know if there's been a better two minutes in the whole series.

Ordered 7A today.

season 6 had some amazing stuff in it, after the lull (IMO) of 5. 7(a) is a cracker.

I'm in the middle of rewatching 6 now, really digging it. And remembering some of the giant bummers to come.

last scene of S7A is a killer.

Is 7a on Netflix yet? Might want to revisit before 7b. We rewatched s1-4 last Summerin a zombie state after our baby was born, and it was wonderful.

Not yet, dammit. From what I've heard, it's set to show up on Netflix the same week that 7b starts up. Which means, for us, yet another season we won't be able to watch in realtime since we won't catch up.

Good day to mention a line that's stayed in my mind the past few days, Roger from the MLK episode: "Man knew how to talk. I don't know why, but I thought that would save him. I thought it would solve the whole thing." The line seems dismissive at first, but--allowing that maybe I've giving the benefit of the doubt my favourite character on the show; I can't remember offhand how he is when it comes to race elsewhere--I don't think so. He says it completely unfiltered, with resignation but also with a lot of admiration, I think. He's an advertising guy to his core, and knowing how to talk is how you solve problems. He would like for "the whole thing" to be solved.

Um roger in blackface bro

That was pre-acid Roger.