MAD MEN on AMC - Season 6

ignore the hed, it's actually not THAT creepy (as fan fic involving one character we only know as a child so far)(she is not a child in the fan fic) - http://www.vulture.com/2010/02/selections_from_jack_donaghysa.html

i'd link directly to it but apparently livejournal makes you have a login to look at their crap now

About that illustration (and the illustrator)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/11/arts/television/brian-sanders-creates-mad-men-poster-for-new-season.html

I loved the story and the illustration. I kind of want a copy of that poster for my office.

is that Peggy over his shoulder?

New promo photos. Megan looks as though she is becoming Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2013/03/mad-men-season-six-photos-fashion/_jcr_content/par/cn_contentwell/par-main/cn_blogpost/cn_image.size.mad-men-season-6-rich-sommer.jpg

(cue "Sunshine of your Love")

fingers crossed, hoping someone dramatically makes a phone call

Did they recast Bobby again? I hope so, lol

Also, baby Gene is weird looking.

yeah i think that's a new bobby

nice sideburns on pete

Agreed. Don't like Megan's new hair though.

Rory Gilmore & Pete Campbell are engaged irl wtf!?!?

?!

god the late sixties were horrid for formal wear.

Sterling Cooper Draper Whatever wouldn't know how to market items sending such mixed signals`

What I was referring to

most cherubic couple ever

season five is up on netflix instant now

HAMMACONDA

Almost recognize him--oh which one is he, the guy who is the TV specialist at the agency, also talked (and funded) the other guy into taking his Star Trek script to Hollywood, leaving Hare Krishnas? http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2013/03/mad-men-season-six-photos-fashion/_jcr_content/par/cn_contentwell/par-main/cn_blogpost/cn_image.size.mad-men-season-6-rich-sommer.jpg

Harry Crane

found him the least interesting/most totally unsympathetic character until that Trek episode

you can not let go of that guy

there's to be a 'significant time jump' this time supposedly. i wonder if that means the final season will be set in the 1970s?

final season to be set in the 2070's

would be pretty amazing if it was set in like, 1987

1991 and it opens with Draper walking down the street to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efJZDJTACes

But then Bert would have to be 110 or something.

FEEL IT FEEL IT

predict Bert will die this season when he accidentally strangles himself with his own suspenders

his whole face will invaded by his eyebrows

Jon Hamm would like everyone to stop talking about his nether regions. After a report surfaced claiming his manhood had become a distraction on the set of "Mad Men" due the show's tight '60s-era trousers, the actor is speaking out about the matter to Rolling Stone. "Most of it's tongue-in-cheek, but it is a little rude," he told the mag. "They're called 'privates' for a reason... I'm wearing pants, for f***'s sake. Lay off." The actor admitted that his life in the spotlight (and online shenanigans regarding his crotch) are not the worst thing in the world to deal with. "I mean, it's not like I'm a f***king lead miner. There are harder jobs in the world," he said. "But when people feel the freedom to create Tumblr accounts about my c***, I feel like that wasn't part of the deal." But is there a silver lining to having your goods talked about so much? "But whatever, I guess it's better than being called out for the opposite," he added.

looking forward to the "John Hamm's Cock Looking At Things" tumblr...

I like how he specifies pants but not underwear

Jon Hamm's cock could not be reached for comment

Christina Hendricks' Boobs to John Hamm's Cock: "Not so much fun, being the center of attention, huh?"

1991 and it opens with Draper walking down the street to this

http://www.youtube.com/v/efJZDJTACes&fs=1&hl=en

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, March 27, 2013 7:59 PM (2 hours ago

Otoh, 70 year old Roger Sterling dropping ecstasy...

don puts on loveless, we get a montage to 'soon', takes it off - he doesn't get it.

haha

Haha!

hope Pete murders someone

hope Pete murders Don and then assumes his identity

Mad Men is a prequel to Face/Off

I could talk a pitch for hours.

^^^

SCDP produces informercial that's just 30 minutes of Peggy riding a Rascal around in circles

sally draper is the best

She looked great -- like a Mannerist painting.

Almost stopped watching with Draper reading Dante on the beach.

that was a little much

also betty just now

god she and Jones are like dust settling on a table

somewhat traumatized by this cooking show promo showing all kinds of dead fish/animals just now

amc, walter white just doesn't belong in the inspiring, uplifting version of the ad for your network

anyway, i'm so glad peggy is still in the show a lot. she sounded a lot like don talking to headphones guy at that meeting

god the period 1967-1978 was terrible for formal wear.

This episode's laying it on thick.

did that scene just now happen in a russian novel

this show does v well-timed pukes

i know it's way premature, but this is feeling a bit off - not as confident in itself or something.

betty is so odd, i love it

I've in love with David Eisenhower, er, Ken Cosgrove.

i also love how pete acts like being diplomatic in these meetings is v essential to the process here. i suppose we don't find out what's happening with trudy until next week at least?

any theories on how the lighter switcheroo will pay off? does it somehow lead to blowing his assumed identity? or just another red herring that goes nowhere?

i had assumed that the identity thing as a matter of concern/interest had gone away some time ago? it doesn't feel that important but idk, it might just be my perspective on it

maybe - just couldn't think what else would be so significant about the kid getting his lighter, possibly with a name and unit number on it? though it would be pretty crazy for don to carry around a lighter with his real name on it

pete blew the cover on don's identity in season 1 or 2 and nobody even cared iirc?

yeah nobody cared, i'm kind of hoping it doesn't come up again

i thought that was midge at the end of the episode, by the way - i'm guessing they just look somewhat alike?

but the army doesn't know - they would presumably care more than the ad men about a GI going awol and stealing a dead officer's identity - but yeah, you're right it has been a dead issue in the show for a long time

but all it will probably end up being is the secretary tries to get the lighter to the kid but they find out he's already been killed in vietnam

Besides, it's just a lighter. Hardly definitive proof were it to show up that a man is walking around out there with a stolen identity.

i thought that was midge at the end of the episode, by the way - i'm guessing they just look somewhat alike?

That was Linda Cardellini. I'm always happy to see her in anything.

High vs. Drunk.

you guys, Mrs. Hazel Tinsley

Abe looks a lot like my dad did circa 1973

ugh I'm such a sucker for this fuckin show.

would be kindof amazing if this show had the stones to have don commit suicide

http://www.theonion.com/articles/mad-men-premiere-features-group-of-actors-who-are,31960/

''Mad Men' Premiere Features Group Of Actors Who Are Scared To Death Of Never Making Transition To Film'

1) Li'l Carmine!!!
2) I assume the ref'd Tonight Show routine was a real thing, does anybody know who the actual comedian was?

this was great. reveal that Don had been boning the doc's wife for months was a real :0

don't stick your dick in those holes, don

That was Linda Cardellini. I'm always happy to see her in anything.

I thought that looked like her, but it seemed insane to me that she would be cast as someone old enough to be the mother of a kid in college.

that was not Linda Cardellini guys come on

hmm Bill Geerhart's twitter sez:
the comedian referenced in tonight's Mad Men episode is Milt Kamen. He was on with guest host Phyllis Diller on 12/22/67.

That was Linda Cardelllini, she just had a ton of make-up on.

the comedian referenced in tonight's Mad Men episode is Milt Kamen. He was on with guest host Phyllis Diller on 12/22/67.

Milt Kamen might have been on that episode, but he didn't tell that joke:

The Tonight Show episode that the characters reference on the episode is very real: A quick look through TV Guide Magazine's archives proves that Phyllis Diller did indeed guest host for Johnny Carson on Friday, Dec. 22, 1967. "Johnny does not host during the holidays," Weiner notes. "We actually had a line, cut for time, in which Peggy asked her co-worker if Phyllis invited the comedian to sit over on the couch." Weiner wanted to stress the cultural impact of The Tonight Show at the time and why a joke on the show would cause Peggy's client to freak out. "I can't even explain it to young people what a universal experience it was [when] people watched [Tonight]," Weiner says.

But here's the creative license: Weiner says he doesn't actually have evidence of a comedian on that Diller-hosted Tonight Show making such a joke about the war. "I hope it's not disappointing to people," Weiner says. "This is based on reality but the scenario is not real. The court martial really happened and there really was this event. And there were quite a few instances of comedians talking about the war on The Tonight Show and clients being very upset."

that was not Linda Cardellini guys come on

I didn't recognize her at all, but her name was in the credits.

She's also 37 IRL, so kid-in-college isn't inconceivable.

it was totally linda and she was gr8

wow that is crazy

funny how we were just complaining about her shitty post F&G career

pretty good episode. man 2 hours is a lot to take in. loved the scene where they asked the SCDP creative guy (Stan?) whether the Hawaii ad made him think of death: "Yeah man, that's why it was so AWESOME."

what was with that scene between Betty and Henry in bed after the girl played the violin?! just go hold her arms down and put a rag in her mouth. wtf was supposed to be going through Betty's head when she said that stuff

yeah that was pretty jaw dropping, Betty's bizarre-o rape fantasy

was I the only one thinking of this ridiculous movie during Betty's search for violin girl

thought it was clever structure that the opening quick flash of the heart attack made you think "is Don dead?" during the first part of the Hawaii sequence (plus he didn't speak for like the first 15 minutes). then he presents the ad and you see that while he was in Hawaii Don was thinking "am I dead?"

"I smell creativity in here"

Betty's weirdo rapey chat with Henry notwithstanding, I thought the creepiest bit was Harry perving on Roger's daughter.

roger in analysis is a gold mine for lols this season

it made me wonder why Roger would even begin analysis in the first place, absent somebody browbeating him into it

but yeah it does bring the lolz

otm to daria way upthread -- totally getting major Don vibes from Peggy's input with the creatives

yes I love Rog in analysis

a gif of Peggy's underlings doing their "Three Ideas" needs to happen.

lol

this bob fellow

what is his deal

can't decide if he's just a sad kiss-ass or if his ambition will make him do something really nasty to someone

thought it was interesting that, after Ken browbeats him in front of the secretary, he doesn't lash out at her to try and regain his dominance like, say, Pete might have back in the day.

I spent most of the episode thinking that Bob was pretending to work for SCDP

loved betty in the big city.

i know it's way premature, but this is feeling a bit off - not as confident in itself or something.

Agreed, the writing didn't seem as sharp as usual.

also yeah I could not get over Betty's insane rape comment, she just kept going and going with it! look forward to someone trying to do a thorough analysis of it as it relates to the rest of Betty's plotline this ep.

i know it's way premature, but this is feeling a bit off - not as confident in itself or something.

Agreed, the writing didn't seem as sharp as usual.
― DavidM, Monday, April 8, 2013

And a real paucity of new ideas; lotta retread miles now. I imagine quality is gonna veer from meh to wow as it did last season.

Yeah, a lot of the scenes in this opener seemed very familiar; they're just spinning the wheels at this point. I did like the Hawaiian prologue, though.

the doc skiing through the streets of Manhattan was a nice little weird scene

I thought it was weird that they'd introduce all these new characters...like there weren't already enough that could be developed? I kept yelling "I don't care about sally's violin playing friend, isn't there more growing sally needs to do?"

sally was on fire though, love her whole surly teen thing

well they can't have Sally running away in the first episode of the season

what year is it?

Presumably xmas 1967.

Yes.

That was Linda Cardellini. I'm always happy to see her in anything.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, April 7, 2013 11:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Looking forward to Don singing Styx' "Lady" to her.

lolol

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-Royal-Hawaiian-Hotel-A-Sheraton-Hotel-Waikiki-HI-Honolulu-Co-Postcard-/200719212104

Don takes Linda Cardellini down to the basement to show her his amazing Neal Peart drumkit

loved the scene where they asked the SCDP creative guy (Stan?) whether the Hawaii ad made him think of death: "Yeah man, that's why it was so AWESOME."

Stan is becoming my favorite character.

Stan and Ginsberg are so good, I love them

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-Sheraton-Hotels-Hawaii-Bikini-Girl-on-Beach-Ad-/400456845355?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d3d16882b

curious about the new woman in the creative room tbh

I spent most of the episode thinking that Bob was pretending to work for SCDP

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, April 8, 2013 10:09 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I never legitimately thought this was what was going on, but I sure thought it would be hilarious if it were.

Sally on fire otm. Did she have any spotlight time in s1 that suggested she'd become a central character, or did it all just grow out of Kiernan Shipka being pretty great at this?

Surprised nobody's complained about how "on the nose" using the opening lines of Inferno was.

Roger in therapy was brilliant and fits his character arc.

Betty rape thing was wtf but pretty funny too. I felt it was a bit of a stretch that Betty's new man would fancy such a young looking person, maybe badly cast if she was meant to be at the cusp of adulthood.

And agree about Glen. Really funny.

The whole pitch Don made was funny too.

Good return IMO, I don't expect much to happen and it didn't.

Is there some gay subplot coming with Don's doctor buddy?

the bobby swapping in this series is becoming hilarious

I hope they start doing it mid-episode

Jew doctor basically looks like Matt Weiner, wonder if he wanted to cast himself

I felt it was a bit of a stretch that Betty's new man would fancy such a young looking person

this is a guy who perved out on pregnant Betty so I dunno, him being into it seemed more natural than Betty being into some rape-play

the bobby swapping in this series is becoming hilarious

I hope they start doing it mid-episode

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, April 8, 2013 2:52 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They should do it mid-shot. Have another actor tap "Bobby" on the shoulder and switch places.

I mostly felt Betty's rape thing was an ill-advised joke, but I suppose they were trying to tell us she's insane.

Betty in the city had a bit of a fanciful cartoonish element to it, like a kind of unlikely and brief subplot.

I guess that storyline is reminding us that Betty is a child herself and needs children as friends, yet again!

the bobby swapping in this series is becoming hilarious

?? Mason Vale Cotton is still Bobby:
http://instagram.com/p/X01y1_HrCy

The dialogue in this episode may have been the most stilted and heavy-handed since the pilot.
Don's reactions during his failing pitch were also out of character.

I hope the rest of the season isn't like this.

idk, Don didn't seem out of character inamuch as Hawaii and the soldier really threw him for a loop, I mean, he seemed very much like that vaguely haunted Don of the first season reading his Frank O Hara and going to movies by himself

Yeah I agree, plus his shitty pitch was evidence of further decline. Puking at a funeral was out of character too but this is Don as of now.

agree about the heavy-handedness and clunkiness - Roger going to a shrink for no reason but MONOLOGUES!, Peggy's bearded boyfriend saying, "It's about time commerce was interrupted by this unjust war!" just in case you didn't get it yet. Or Betty's visit to the hippie squat from "Go Ask Alice". Half-expected someone to jump out the window high on acid thinking they could fly in that joint.

guy carrying a stolen tv down the street was a little much

At first I thought she'd stumbled onto the East Village Motherfuckers, but they were far too placid.

Still holding out hope that one of the characters will run into John & Yoko on Bank St.

Yeah! It should have ended with Betty jamming with the Fugs.

what if violin girl was a lost shagg

She sold her violin, but became...PATTY WATERS!

Roger going to a shrink for no reason but MONOLOGUES!

roger going to a shrink is perfectly in line with how things have been going for him. it's the same reason he did acid and was doing yoga naked at the end of s5, cos he's trying anything and everything to get a new perspective on his spoiled and increasingly boring existence.

sure but it's also perfectly in line with the Sopranos already did that

it's the same reason he did acid and was doing yoga naked

p sure that was him doing acid naked

guy carrying a stolen tv down the street was a little much

oh this got a lol from me

it's the same reason he did acid

he's not married to Jane anymore

xp me too, Shakey.

Mad Men: Nothing happens, twice eighty times

the other thing Betty-in-the-city reminded me of was Fritz the Cat lol

they shoulda gone all Bakshi live+animation combo for that haha

sure but it's also perfectly in line with the Sopranos already did that

yeah i mean it's true, roger sterling and tony soprano are almost identical as characters.

btw couldn't help thinking peggy's bf is now like steve coogan with a tash

I was thinking Zappa

Ditto re: Zappa

yeah i mean it's true, roger sterling and tony soprano are almost identical as characters.

mommy issues, serially infidelities, near psychopathic commitment to materialism/acquisition of wealth eh I can see some parallels

They're not at all identical - but they are both amoral, id-driven, selfish leaders who seem completely self-assured and acting on instinct, so it's the same premise to put them in a shrink's office and force them to give introspective monologues...

Besides it just feels familiar - especially as Weiner worked on The Sopranos. I can totally imagine the "you open doors and cross bridges there's nothing but more doors and bridges" coming from Tony's mouth.

Sterling doesn't have a psychopathic commitment to materialism! He already had plenty to begin with. As he remarks at some point (s3e13?) he acted his whole career like he started a business, when really he inherited it. The Grey buyout and then the Lucky crisis were the things that made him hungry.

and the hostility/attempts to personally engage the shrink

(which just made me think, why is he there if he doesn't want to be?)

xp

anyway Sopranos and Mad Men both have magical realist tendencies, which is where I think stuff like Betty visiting the hippie squat comes in. Have long thought that the oft-cited attention to detail/accuracy in Mad Men is a red herring that distracts from the show's more hyper-real stylistic efforts.

what I mean is the show will end with baby Gene getting eaten by ants.

Was wondering when people were going to find out that Don choked that woman to death in his own bedroom last season.

roger's shrink is the guy who hosted the lsd party. roger loves acid now, this is well-established

It's so easy to get acid now, you can get it anywhere.

what year would coke have hit Madison Avenue?

roger's shrink is the guy who hosted the lsd party

ah

totally did not make this connection but makes sense

For me the tone of Roger's shrink trip is totally different to Tony Soprano's. I guess I just disagree it's out of character or tacked on, his dissatisfaction has been a theme for a good while now, but it's very different to Tony's.

I think Tony is painted as someone with genuine mental problems, whereas Roger is unhappy but also rambling narcissistically cos that's part of the appeal of the shrink for him.

Roger is enjoying the session as far as I see, Tony didn't seem to.

what year are we at, '68/'69? definite subtle 70s vibes beginning to seep into the clothes and hair (lengthening sideburns eg)

the therapy sessions in the sopranos were a main structuring element and the therapist a major character. this isn't the case in mad men. plus psychotherapy in '67 was a very different beast.

I presumed it was New Year's Eve going into 1969.

At the turn from 67 into 68 right now. xp

literally no one cares about this but they neglected to CGI-out a big movie screen frame in the background on Waikiki beach that did not exist in 1967.

yeah it's NYE '67

funny that they skipped "the summer of love"

Premier started in mid-Dec 1968. Skipped ahead 18 months or so from end of last season

it is NOT mid-Dec 1968 wtf guys

ugh, nope sorry - 1967

"world bids adieu to a violent year, city gets snowfall" was times headline new years day 1968. show skipped ahead just a few months.

i got a vague nostalgic enjoyment seeing the Hawaii slideshow replete with upside down slide

also Don clicking past the wedding and the question without comment was classic Draper

he's such a douche but I think I love him kind of

~carousel~

betty going to st. marks totally reminded me of the xmas episode of my so called life w/ juliana hatfield

Glad to hear it. Seems there's so much more terrible IRL shit for the show to ignore for them to have skipped totally past '68.

series finale will heavily feature moon landing, ilx will complain it is "on the nose"

Linda Cardellini's character will run off to follow the Dead.

lol silby

For me the Sopranos reminder was in the Hawaii section, how it was reminiscent of the surreal experiences whenever Tony left the Northeast. Also reminiscent of the Tony-coma season opener and all its trippy travel dreams.

Thought the late-night drinks was going to turn into a key party.

xpost They bring back Alexis Bledel so she can leave Pete again and get a job following McGovern on the campaign trail.

Thought the late-night drinks was going to turn into a key party.

― cougars and sneezers (Eazy), Monday, April 8, 2013 4:35 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha I definitely thought that's where that was going myself, the third couple seemed into it.

yeah I was hoping! especially the flirty non-Linda wife

Don's not into sharing

He's just generous with his cock.

key parties weren't a thing until the 70s right?

Not a "thing", no, but they existed in the '60s - Malcolm X wrote about 'em in his autiobio

roger sterling still my spirit animal

Joan is still mine. We've both faded off into the background despite our ginormous breasts.

http://www.thingx.tv/articles/mad-men-poetry-recap-season-6-premiere-2335/

WHY ARE YOU IDIOTS EVER SURPRISED
WHEN IT TURNS OUT I'M CHEATING
WITH A LUSCIOUS OLD BRUNETTE???

Was wondering when people were going to find out that Don choked that woman to death in his own bedroom last season.
Ha!

She reminded me a bit of Ollie, as in Oliver J. Dragon.

I wasn't quite following the timescales with the doorman collapsing, was he literally back at work the next day or had they chopped up the narrative in some way? When Don arrived back at work they made it sound like he'd just got off the flight but there was that whole episode with the doctor and the doorman in the middle of all that.

I guess the lighter thing will tie in in some way to the kid who got married on the beach who I would imagine is not long for this world and that may precede some kind of major Don breakdown. The worse it gets in Vietnam the more unlikely it seems that it wouldn't be having some kind of effect on Don, given what we know. It seemed to take about five minutes for Don to say anything and they kept us guessing as to what he was actually thinking for the entire episode.

I'm not sure why Don would go for the doctor's wife other than through some kind of grim compulsion at this point.

Betty/violinist storyline was pretty enjoyable in that it gave that character some sort of purpose other than wallowing in constant sour self-preoccupation.

No idea where they're going with the try-hard accountant type. Enjoyed Peggy laying into her creative team like Don in his prime - I hope she beats him on a pitch at some point soon.

That said this was a bit of a slog in its entirety, don't think it really needed to be two episodes back to back.

I wasn't quite following the timescales with the doorman collapsing, was he literally back at work the next day or had they chopped up the narrative in some way? When Don arrived back at work they made it sound like he'd just got off the flight but there was that whole episode with the doctor and the doorman in the middle of all that.

i was just going to bring this up. it was very strange.

they make it very clear that don is going back to work the day after he gets home from hawaii.

and yet... it seems that when they arrive home, the doorman has the heart attack, then there's a cut to him all better and thankful and giving don a present.

so was his heart attack a flashback to something that happened before they went to hawaii? iirc megan says something about not being glad to be back in the cold weather right before he has his heart attack though.

so what exactly happened there?

It seemed incredibly sloppy to me.

naw, that would be sloppiness on a level i can't imagine m-weinz, or... anyone else... really allowing to happen on a major show. or any tv show. it was WEIRD.

It was elliptical for window dressings' sake.

don is now in the multiverse, experiencing all things at all times

pretty cool having your season premiere be all about death

what do u mean by window dressing?

wiki - Megan and Don return home from their trip and Megan asks their doorman, "Jonesy," (Ray Abruzzo) how he's feeling. In a sudden flashback to a few weeks earlier in the same location, Don and Megan watch Jonesy collapse from an apparent heart attack. Another building tenant, a doctor, begins applying chest compressions, as is shown in the opening shot of the episode. Flashing forward again to the present, Jonesy is apparently healthy and back at work, joking that his wife "couldn't wait to get [him] out of the house."

what signified the flashback?

The confusing thing, then, is that Megan is constantly going out to California to shoot her scenes, I presume. It made it seem like they came back from the same vacation in parallel universes.

So, yeah, not sloppy but needlessly confusing.

maybe they did. that poster for the season looks like it's Don passing Don on the sidewalk, right?

spooky

i loved the technique they used with the jolting flashback

what signified the flashback?

― zero dark (s1ocki), Tuesday, April 9, 2013 4:39 AM (2 minutes ago)

different clothes, for one

it does feel like the pt of it was how close u are 2 dying at any instant i guess

i like her violin case; it looks like a coffin

I wouldn't rule out Don having a heart attack or some other kind of major health collapse this season, there seemed to be a lot of foreshadowing.

Like we were meant to think the very opening scene was through the doorman's eyes but... why would they shoot an opening scene through the eyes of a character we've never seen before? Could well be misdirection.

i read it as don's preoccupation with death/everything falling apart at a moment's notice

the scene when they're dragging him in drunk later in the ep reveals he's been curious as to what the doorman's experience was like

I feel like they really portrayed awkward drunk questioning pretty well, there

jon hamm is consistently v good at looking v drunk.

Also drunk on looking good.

i love don when he's a sloshed mess, so childlike

weird episode, pleasing to watch but yeah unusually sloppy and none of the themes seemed to quite work right. was sort of annoyed in advance at all the thousand word blog posts i imagined were being written disagreeing with this and doing the show's thinking for it

don's suicide pitch was hilarious, roger piping up with the film the dude was trying to remember killed me

became really obsessed with the number of times don got away with totally blanking questions people asked him. i guess that was a big contributor to the dream sequency feel

betty i dont even know what she's supposed to be any more

where do you think they're going with this creepy bootlickin bob dude

he's going to go postal on the office

until cosgrove shot him down i was half expecting bob to be a running figment of don's imagination

cosgrove going hard on that guy was awesome

I remember him as the guy from Lone Star, that got cancelled way too soon.

My favorite bit with that guy is that Pete took his other cup of coffee without a word.

Being shot down by Kenny, who's seemingly consistently chipper with everyone, really cemented that dude's place on the pecking order. Only a slapdown from Harry would be worse.

I like Bob.

He was born 10 years too late.

His goofy smile in the elevator reminded me of the flashback of don in the elevator with roger.

http://i45.tinypic.com/25psh80.png

• Daytime TV Star
• French Canadian
• Did not get mad when theh milkshake spill.
• Runs out to get weed for Weird husband Don

<3

otm

too perfect for Don, have to cheat

You only have one chance with Lindsay Weir.

SCDP having a closet with a bunch of Leica cameras in it

"here, you can have this, I think it's the best one"

On one hand, Don Draper is screwing his wife. On the other hand, Leica M2.

On one hand, Don Draper is screwing his wife. On the other hand, Leica M2.

Totally fair.

the biggest blow wrt to don cheating was not being disloyal to megan, but that don seemed to like and respect dr. rosen so much, and he doesn't like and respect many people. it was nice seeing them interact, then heartbreaking.

kind of made me want to drink a lot and vomit in an umbrella stand

It's overrated.

whoever upthread said that scene was like a russian novel otm

You’re totally making me want to watch it all again right now.

I don't get how we know Don was fucking the doctor's wife. Was my download missing a scene? I didn't even really notice that character. I might have been drunk.

You missed a scene

you were drunk

rewatch :)

There Is a version out there with seven minutes missing I heard.

yeah there is, had the same issue as did some friends (wives)

Oh okay. That may make sense. I could try and get to watch it on Sky tomorrow when it shows properly for the first time in the UK. It's the first time I've had anything like this issue.

Cheers (wives)

yeah the first scene release was missing the last few scenes, look for links that say "proper" at the end

mad men not having don sleeping with someone's wife is a serious breach of the supply of goods and services act

the doc is skiing outdoors while don is sexing er indoors

sliding down those OTHER slopes

sorry

I like how Roger said "where's Skeezix?" which is a weird little affectionate nickname type deal that I've never heard anyone other than my dad say.

where's skrillex

Skeezix is from the comic strip Gasoline Alley

^^^

I totally lol'd at this, such a bizarre throwaway joke that 90% of the audience won't get

Skeezix is from the comic strip Gasoline Alley

Also a character in the Uncle Wiggily stories:
http://burgee.com/skeezicks.jpg

haha waht

I'm not suggesting that was the actual reference; I don't remember Roger saying it.

There Is a version out there with seven minutes missing I heard.

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, April 9, 2013 5:06 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Probably the same as these:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rDwMnDV9vwg/UM4NuxB30rI/AAAAAAAACH8/cIoI2DELOqQ/s1600/svnmnts2.jpg

Roger says it to his daughter but I'm not sure who he's referring to (her husband Brooks? her new stepdad?)

Her son

boy print ads sure used a lot of words then

here let me tell you for a really long time about this oven cleaner zzzz

wait Sterling is a grandfather? I forgot that somewhere along the line evidently

Wow y'all thanks for the tip, i had always wondered where he got that.

I don't think they ever addressed his daughter having a kid before. I mean, when was the last time she was onscreen? S3 or something?

anyone get a Lindsay Lohan vibe off her?

Yes, I did!

Just saw this. Awesome. I suppose it was a bit sloppy, but I'm not bothered by that.

Roger was killing it this episode. Seeing a shrink seems so perfectly normal for him I wonder now why he didn't see one in the previous seasons. He'd pay anyone to listen to his stories all day, it's perfect Roger self-indulgence and narcisism. He's probably just trying it for the sake of it, because he doesn't have a single clue when it comes to emotions and feelings (as he admitted freely).

I do agree with whoever up here said that by now, there seems little reason for Betty to be in the series at all. She's not 'connected' to Don anymore. She doesn't hold a big secret hanging over his head, they barely interact. I find it difficult to engage in her story line by now, when it mostly, and only, about Sally anyway (who was awesome).

Don: I loved how vulnerable he was this episode. He really was caught off guard when everyone clearly saw his add referenced death and suicide, he did *not* see that coming. And knows that Pete and the others did see this sudden flaw or weakness in him. Just like they had to drag him home after the funeral. I've not seen him so vulnerable. And we can leave it to Pete to exploit that, I think.

Tl;dr: great episode.

great episode. don's pitch was next level hilarious, loved seeing stan stifling laughter.

i really am fond of ennui-Don. he feels more Draper walking around in a daze pondering the big questions in life & blowing off the world, lol

yeah, it's funny that w/ the end of last season some ppl (just dudes dudes i guess) going 'yeah, we're finally gonna get the old don back!' and it should be clear to everyone we're not getting the old don back, we're just getting old don. loved pete not even bothering to humor don's 'cancel the meeting'. loved the hair also though w/ the short gap between seasons wonder if there was a week where first ginsberg comes in w/ the stache, then stan grows the beard, then slowly all of sales grow sideburns, until one day harry comes in w/ that hair and everyone in the office dies laughing.

The funny thing abut Harry was that back in the early SCDP days, he was the first to stop slicking his hair and he had a shaggy natural thing going for a while.

so weird to remember that in season one he's the nice decent guy at the office. also, probably way too specific and obscure for a general audience but the next time jon hamm hosts snl those ridiculously vague and meaningless 'next week on mad men' spots would be a good thing to parody.

yeah i love how Harry's now the default office pervert. And the way he barged up the stairs during Joan's photo shoot :)

Pete's receding hairline with the 'burns is such an A+ look. A lot of my friends are complaining that they don't like the look this season, idk I think they find it all tacky or whatever but I am FEELING it

I hope we get to see Pete get punched in the face sometime soon.

A lot of my friends are complaining that they don't like the look this season, idk I think they find it all tacky or whatever but I am FEELING it

That seems like such an odd thing to gripe about, it's accurate to the period! We're out of the stylish part of the sixties and into the ugly earth tones Brady Bunch part of the sixties.

also, this ep was @ christmas, so extra garish against that backdrop

re Don's preoccupation with dying etc - how much time has passed since Lane's death?

One season.

One episode, actually.

(Y)

loved the hair also though w/ the short gap between seasons wonder if there was a week where first ginsberg comes in w/ the stache, then stan grows the beard, then slowly all of sales grow sideburns, until one day harry comes in w/ that hair and everyone in the office dies laughing.

Terry Valentine: Did you ever dream about a place you never really recall being to before? A place that maybe only exists in your imagination? Some place far away, half remembered when you wake up. When you were there, though, you knew the language. You knew your way around. *That* was the sixties.
(pause)
Terry Valentine: No. It wasn't that either. It was just '66 and early '67. That's all there was.

I feel Betty may have a redemptive arc this season. I actually quite liked her in the episode, she appears to have started treating Sally with some degree of respect.

Brunette = not evil anymore.

She looked so much like Henry's mother with her hair dark.

By the way, my housemate who's never seen it before watched the first half hour with me and thought it was the most boring show ever. I was hard pressed to explain to him why it's not (I didn't find the episode boring in the slightest).

i think it's pretty invested in subtle nuances of character that only really seem meaningful after you've spent a lot of time with them. i feel like i'd be content to watch these characters do all kind of normally banal things.

Well yeah, I often am.

enough with fucking fat betty already unless the actress is gonna gain the weight; that prosthetic chin is ridic

Yeah, Betty is becoming her mother-in-law.

I feel like part of the time bump between seasons has been to take advantage of the cyclical nature of style trends re: men's suits, hairstyles, etc. Not that some things ever change, but with the exception of some of the garish formalwear, Don's creative team wouldn't look that out of place if I saw them at the bar.

"mother-in-law" transformation is, like most of this stuff, so blatant a motif/metaphor as to be text not subtext, i am just stunned by the bad sfx makeup choices for jones. she doesn't look heavy, she looks like she has gout

with the exception of some of the garish formalwear, Don's creative team wouldn't look that out of place if I saw them at the bar.

Was just thinking that some of them would totally pass for today's hipster.

how long have you concentrated on this woman's neck

those ridiculously vague and meaningless 'next week on mad men' spots would be a good thing to parody.

― balls, Tuesday, April 9, 2013 11:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its kind of comforting how this hasn't changed over all the seasons

i don't see the brunette thing as betty turning into her mother in law. she has been rebelling in petty ways against her immediate family situation since the early seasons, this feels more like another instance of that. anyway, betty's whole corny hobo odyssey started with her rejecting the mother in law's claim of privilege to the cop.

ok re the confusion over the heart attack flashback:

don & megan (wearing a leopard print coat) enter the building, greet jonesy and megan says how sorry she is to be back in the cold. then, cut, jonesy falls and megan (wearing an orangish jacket) runs panicked toward him. so the time cut is meant to indicate don's flashing back on jonesy's near death immediately after returning from hawaii.

That was either clunky as hell or its misdirection of some sort.

well yeah it was supposed to be a shocking open that made you think Don was dying

not sure how effective it was, though

i thought it was very creative and executed skillfully

i thought that new hairdo was a small gesture towards betty turning into violinist tearaway girl, the don draper to her dick whitman

this episode does cohere nicely thinking about it in retrospect tbf

how long have you concentrated on this woman's neck
― I, rrational (mh)

more than the makeup team apparently

january jones was pregnant last season and they decided to treat it as 'betty fat', continued this season (though she's lost weight) cuz it's not that long after last season (lane killed himself in february, it's december here) and nobody's invented jogging plus 'betty fat' fun way for writers to humiliate and torture betty. thought betty came off well here (even the bizarro wtf 'why doncha just rape her' line was meant teasingly, past few seasons she would've meant it), enjoyed her dealing w/ mother francis. somewhat wondering if she went brunette cuz she somehow was a bottle blonde like that hippie asshole accused her of or if cuz liz taylor is the role model for thick women at this point or just going to st marks made her want a change and token breaking free (sally - 'what happened to you?') and for betty that means hair and there was no way the writers were gonna leave 'she looks like his mom now' on the table. contrary to ppl above i actually liked heart attack misdirection and flashback, puts you in the mind of don death obsessed but doesn't dilly dally around for long w/ some 'who had the heart attack' twist.

re my friends whining about the look this season -- I think it's not so much the way Mad Men is executing the look as much as they're all mid-century modern spazzes and so the late 60's for them is just too much tastelessness to bear apparently

...

rmde

Roger says it to his daughter but I'm not sure who he's referring to (her husband Brooks? her new stepdad?)

yeah, Roger's talking about his grandson, and his daughter continues the reference by calling her husband Walt, the name of Skeezix's adoptive father in the comic strip.

i thought it was very creative and executed skillfully

the cold opening making you think it was Don having the heart attack worked fine but the time difference between them getting back from Hawaii and when the heart attack actually happened was weird.

agreed, but weird in an effective way imo

we have to skip it back a couple of times to figure out exactly what was going on. on reflection, it was really good.

also, initially we had a version with the last 7 minutes missing. those seven minutes proved kind of essential.

I enjoyed this but I've recently gotten into Battlestar Gallactica and the thrill of waiting to see what happens next on Mad Men kind of pales atm. Then again it's sort of a slow burn show, so two or three more eps and I'll be back on the edge of my seat. The second half was WAY better than the 1st.

don, haunted by death while vacationing on several active volcanoes in the middle of the ocean, returns to new york around the winter solstice, and upon seeing his doorman remembers when said doorman dropped apparently dead of a heart attack in front of him, but was revived, and continues to live and work, what does it mean.

weird editing but effective storytelling imo

loving stan w/the beard. and peggy realising she's really good at this shit. and meghan is so beautiful it hurts.

Yeah feel like Peggy is going to be great this season. Loved her shooting the breeze with stan on the phone.

Going to miss Lane though.

Can't wait for Don to yank the needle off "Revolution 9."

They should get a contract for a record company this year. Would be awesome to see Don coming up with the "The Man Can't Bust Our Music".
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tBqi5ja-dgs/S9bsBdANCxI/AAAAAAAAC-A/OoeUAHZUgI4/s320/the_man.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tBqi5ja-dgs/S9bsBdANCxI/AAAAAAAAC-A/OoeUAHZUgI4/s320/the_man.jpg

There was a point when Peggy was talking w the exec about the 'Lend me your ears' problem where i was thinking "Peggy aren't you supposed to be coming up with the ideas here? Isn't that what an ad agency does? Why aren't you guys going into this meeting with a dozen different ways to spin the problematic Super Bowl spot?"

the way they did meghan's makeup in Hawaii, where she's standing outside the hotel room looking slightly ruddy from the sun (in that still someone posted way upthread)... v v well done

There was a point when Peggy was talking w the exec about the 'Lend me your ears' problem where i was thinking "Peggy aren't you supposed to be coming up with the ideas here? Isn't that what an ad agency does? Why aren't you guys going into this meeting with a dozen different ways to spin the problematic Super Bowl spot?"

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, April 10, 2013 12:41 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

cuz they established they didnt have time for a reshoot

But the final solution didn't call for a reshoot either, just some new voice overdub.

yes... that's... exactly... the... point...?

They weren't going into the meeting with a ton of ways to spin it because she didn't know what the real problem was until the obnoxious dudes at the office walked her through the jist of the Tonight Show routine, and by that point it was just a couple hours before the Koss people were in for their meeting?

point of meeting was to convince guy to stay w/ campaign, that there was no real crisis. she came prepared to spin this - pointed out that news story re: war trophies had been in the news for awhile so tonight show joke really presented no new information, no new crisis. client didn't buy it and suggested just scrapping slogan and having dull boilerplate copy about how koss headphones work. peg pointed out this would solve 'ear' problem but leave horrible ad that also had a non sequitor in it. you would have a dull ad that also didn't make sense. not sure if peggy just assumed green bay would beat dallas or if the ice bowl was earlier in the day than the afl championship but either way super bowl is too soon to conceive and shoot whole new campaign so they have to jerry rig something from the old campaign. even now i'm not sure how easy it would be for an agency to conceive and shoot a super bowl ad a week or two before the super bowl (though tbf a super bowl ad means more now than it did for super bowl II), ppl's minds were blown when oreo's twitter account was able to whip up a topical macro during the blackout at this year's super bowl.

(though tbf a super bowl ad means more now than it did for super bowl II)

I wondered about how big a deal an ad would've been then:

It was the first time a Super Bowl was televised live on only one network, which has been the case for all following Super Bowl games. While the Orange Bowl was sold out for the game, unconditional blackout rules in the NFL prevented the live telecast from being shown in the Miami area.

Kiss the south Florida market goodbye, Koss.

you know the funny thing is the day i watched this ep is the day my koss headphones broke :/

worst co-branding stunt ever :(

my leica cheated on me with an advertising person

on the ther hand, my doctor rollerskated to work.

i kinda spaced out during the scene where roger's daughter is pitching him on the fridge idea but she was talking about purchasing the patent for trucking fridge tech? bc that seems like a huge moneymaker

Investing in a fridge truck line. Still seems good, but a thing many people may be working on.

An Internetfull of fan-fic writers out there just created a new file titled "MAD MEN - SOPRANOS CROSSOVER.doc"

http://www.happyplace.com/23042/mad-men-facebook-recap-season6-episode-1

bad

it is bad but i laffed anyway. as opportune a moment as any to remind ppl that mad style is back also: http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2013/04/mad-style-the-doorway-part-1.html

from that intro they saw room 237

why would anyone spend that much time creating something that bad? like 1/8 of the way though wouldn't you realize how terrible the idea was and just like... stop?

fake facebook walls of big tv shows are pretty popular

that's no excuse.

There were a few old ones for entire tv shows, but I saw one for Game of Thrones last week, so I guess the fake FB episode recap is becoming a thing?

I don't need that in my life

It ws something you could definitely do a lot better, but it's a shit idea.

I liked it.

was not really into this episode at all--maybe there's a decent directors cut where weiner can freely ignore the limitations of programmed television

i thought it was a good episode. the scenes with betty were really grim. it's interesting that her and don are both spiraling, but like, they inhabit different genres (horror and tragedy, respectively).

also i thought roger's reaction to his mother's death -- his repression of his sadness, eventual breakdown, as well as the pithy existentialist remarks he made to the psychologist -- was really compelling.

"It's my funeral!"

funny, I was just thinking after this ep how Betty seems remotely happy for the first time in a while, in general.

Really, what made you think that? I thought the whole tenor of her scenes - both in that dark suburban mansion and in that st marks place dive - was really ominous, not to mention her left field rape comment.

she was totally enjoying her little rape joke

it was still a bleak joke, told within a bleak marriage, in a bleak and dreary mansion, idk

a crushing bore so far

trudy bitches

and eggplant stromboli or whatever

rollatini

another thing i don't care about - besides whether anyone else finds out don draper's former identity - is why don draper is always stepping out on his wife
really don't care why, not interested.

what is eggplant stromboli? that doesn't sound appealing

era infamous for dressing up dishes to give them an erotic veneer

does this season in general feel more heavy-handed than it was previously? or do I deliberately forget these things from previous seasons because I adore all the supposedly minor stuff? like jaguar guy being gross, low class and skeevy.. plus very entertaining & probably a better businessman than the owners of the company right now

era infamous for dressing up dishes to give them an erotic veneer

like Don Draper

this bob benson guy, he works on k street right now, doesn't he. i know this guy. he used to work on the hill and then he went to law school, spent some more time working in big law for a while, joined a lobbying firm. he's training for a half marathon this fall and is a nationals season ticket holder, he just sold his condo and bought a house near H St.

i like those colored glass partition things in pete's apartment.

I remember my uncle's house used to have those type of glass partitions, I thought they were very stylish as a kid.

they're really neat. i'm a sucker for colored glass though.

Occasionally I forget what a low low low person Peter Campbell can be. Then I get reminded.

"What did you say to him?"

Really, Pete? That was your primary concern?

Anyway, Trudy wins.

Loved Don's downmarket pitch.

pete's a slimeball, it's true. glad trudy is getting herself out of that marriage.

daaaaamn Joan zinging Herb tho

otm

very very very soap opera-y this week; watched it with someone who had never seen the show before but works in theater (go figure). her first reaction was "i thought the acting on this show was supposed to be good"

Good acting is never an accusation one could make about Mad Men in general. From time to time, a particular character will turn in a riveting performance (often that character is Joan), but it's always been stiff.

kinda agree with that, but i'd say often that character is peggy

Peggy too, yes. Roger as well, though I think most of that is just John Slattery being John Slattery.

i always thought january jones brought a unique pathos to the character of betty.

we all have to readjust every season to the show being soapy, melodramatic, "on the nose", etc

Maybe, yeah. I'd like to have better reasons to force that stuff down than "theres likely gonna be a good ep near midseason"

I keep thinking "Oh, [that detail] will probably mean something later on in the season" even though that's almost never the case. This show has so many dangling, never revisited, threads that it's almost comical.

Pete just can't win at infidelity. Even Harry is pwning his ass.

HARRY I SAID!

pete's terrible sexing preamble. god.

food?
drinks?
music?
...
are you...*waggles eyebrows*...hot enough?

i have no idea how he gets play ever.

It's the business cards, and the free "Hair" tickets.

Plus I think him having an apartment in NYC makes him seem very glamorous to the ladies in the suburbs.

a sideburn for each domicile

Pete Campbell's bachelor pad reminded me of Greg Brady's attic room

Don bringin the lolz in the jaguar meeting too

I was really confused by those flashbacks. so he was born in a brothel — mother died in childbirth — dropped off at his father's house — father dies, and he's raised by father's wife and her new husband... then what? where does this scene of tween don in the other brothel come from?

or rather tween dick

he's ref'd his uncle mack before. after his dad dies at the farm, him and his mom move in w/mack at the brothel

not, stepmom I guess

for some reason I remember uncle mack being a preacher or something. did they show them living in a brothel before?

not that I recall. altho yeah I do think Mack has appeared before? can't remember.

Last season he mentioned to the madame of the place they took the first Jaguar guy to that he "grew up in a place like this."

don't like poochie bob benson

I don't think you're meant to, though.

right, but he strikes me as lazy writing, and I want to think that MW is a better show runner than that but MM is a soap opera, and with full creative control comes the opporotunity for sloppy storytelling

I was really confused by those flashbacks. so he was born in a brothel — mother died in childbirth — dropped off at his father's house — father dies, and he's raised by father's wife and her new husband... then what? where does this scene of tween don in the other brothel come from?

― wk, Monday, April 15, 2013 9:11 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dick Whitman was born to a prostitute (not his father's wife) on a dirt farm somewhere, mother died in chidlbirth, raised to adolescence by drunk, violent poppa Whitman and his god-fearing wife on the farm. Mrs. Whitman gets with child (Adam), poppa Whitman is kicked to death by a horse, the awkward family moves in with uncle Mac in the brothel. Uncle Mac is married to the pleasant looking woman we meet him with. He screws his dead brother's (?) wife, Mrs. Whitman, as Dick watches through a hole.

He contains multitudes.

Dick Whitman was born to a prostitute (not his father's wife) on a dirt farm somewhere, mother died in chidlbirth, raised to adolescence by drunk, violent poppa Whitman and his god-fearing wife on the farm. Mrs. Whitman gets with child (Adam), poppa Whitman is kicked to death by a horse, the awkward family moves in with uncle Mac in the brothel. Uncle Mac is married to the pleasant looking woman we meet him with. He screws his dead brother's (?) wife, Mrs. Whitman, as Dick watches through a hole.

I think MW finds way to make Whitman's backstory more sordid and convoluted as time goes on. The moving in to a brothel seems like it was tacked on later on.

maybe he's trying to explain away his philandering

I don't usually complain about "on-the-nose"-ness, I usually like it, but the old "grew up w/ whores and now I give my mistress cash" is a bit pat, no?

That was a real eyeroll inducing moment for me.

yep

yeah feel like that scene of Don giving her money after sex would have worked better without the brothel flashbacks

definitely

being haunted by ghosts is Don's whole thing though, we gotta see what's on his mind

series finale: Don has a conversation with Anna in a featureless limbo between worlds, she tells him to believe in himself

that's like traditional TV making where you have to assume that everyone is just tuning in and watching the show for the first time and "quality nu-cable" tv should be above that kind of thing.

Now that they've used both "Just a Gigolo" and Tobacco Road", I'm half-hoping that "Yankee Rose" pops up over the credits soon.

David Lee Draper

I needed a DLR fix after this episode. Just a Gigolo video > this episode.

Come to think of it, Just a Gigolo video > everything else.

I'm starting to wish more shows would take longer hiatuses between seasons - I think that was the key to season five's success.

Don Draper, flying through the air on a wire, in assless chaps.

LETS MAKE THIS HAPPEN

loved Peggy's attempt at morale boosting btw

is that pete's actual hairline

ah

He asked you to change your hair?
Yeah, I shaved my hairline back this season.

I was wondering about that. It looked different.
Yeah! Especially that last episode, they were really prominently displaying my bald spot.

I didn’t want to ask if your hairline was receding.
No, it’s not. Most of my friends were like, Dude, don’t do that, it might never come back in! But luckily I have a good head of hair.

I couldn't what purpose the flashback serves.

i never her

Don's done alot of things, but "he never her" ain't one of them. He always her.

Poor episode imo - the flashback brothel scenes / giving the doctor's wife cash to get by was terrible, as someone said above.

Loved Peggy - can we just see more of her and her boss and Stan? The Pete / Trudy story was ok, if depressing and kinda unrealistic - why would these women throw themselves at him?

I'm disappointed so far.

everyone in that room (except trudy who just disgusted and grinning until it was over) was horny and desperate to fuck someone who wasn't their spouse

It seems the writers are struggling to come up with anything more interesting to say about Don. Unrelated, kind of, but some more light relief would be welcome. Less who's fucking who.

xp balls yeah I guess you're right. But why?

The times? Isn't good enough.

cuz monogamy's a trap?

They're out in the burbs, dying a little everyday until the advent of Key Parties.

figure that the best eps will come midseason when Peggy, Joan, and Sally get some spotlight time.

for me Pete is the gaping hole in the show. no one would ever like him ergo he would never get ahead in advertising. it's not believable it's just badly conceived and bad writing, imo.

will never understand what universe these 'but this guy's an asshole, he'd never get ahead in sales' ppl live in

unlikeable ppl in advertising sales is precisely why pete is great

pete is totally likeable if you're a client

cf procurement

if anything i'm more skeptical of cosgrove's success, guy is way too centered and decent to succeed on his own wits (luckily he's got the dow account thru marriage). this bob benson guy looks to have what it takes though.

yeah feel like that scene of Don giving her money after sex would have worked better without the brothel flashbacks

I thought the brothel scenes were there mostly to shed light on Don's weird conflicted horror about what they'd done to Joan.

yeah that was my thinking

Still trying to get a handle on who Bob is. In the first episode it looked like he worked for some other company in the building but now he's in on the client meeting?

Stan is totally going to get fired by the end of the season.

Still trying to get a handle on who Bob is. In the first episode it looked like he worked for some other company in the building but now he's in on the client meeting?

He's in finance or accounting or something. Desperately wants to find a way into creative.

Bob is a jr-level accounts striver.

it looked like he worked for some other company in the building

His office is on the second floor of SCDP.

Pete is so lame

also not believable

if we're to trust the "next week..." clip, there's some serious Stan action in the next episode.

Would be awesome if Bob works for Ted Chaough

Just about to say, Bob seems like a spy.

It's like he's read How to Succeed in Business by trying much much too hard. Maybe he'll take the fall for the ketchup thing in the end.

jaguar meeting was amazing.

Don sandbagging like a champion

xpost interesting speculation about bob. something is going to happen with him later in the season... something bad. this show telegraphs things like that too directly.

omg yes Don waxing lyrical about farmers driving jaguars as the britishers almost vomited in their teacups

A+++

Pete is so lame

― Dr. Adorbius (mh), Monday, April 15, 2013 7:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha he is such a baby

gonna love it if every episode this season has don horrifying a client in a meeting

his patheticness is his ultimate bargaining tool - so often he gets what he wants because it's the only way to get him to leave, lol

pete's

don draper just takes out his dick and starts smacking clients with it

sweet

kinda sad if that's the last or next to last time we see alison brie, good for trudy though obv. don's 'here's what's going to happen, i'm going to fuck you and you're going to like it' pitch also not as smooth as it once was (and it wasn't that smooth then). not much w/ ginsberg yet either.

xpost lol

It's like he's read How to Succeed in Business by trying much much too hard.

Not really trying certainly worked for Burt.

http://tikiloungetalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/robert-morse-succeed-in-biz.jpg

the interesting thing about this thread is how so many ppl can be so many different flavours of rong about the same thing

haha okay s1ocki what's your take

what am i wrong about s1ocki you sonuvabitch

because of threads like this and twitter etc i am at the point where w/ every episode of mad men i think 'ok so this week we get the nothing happened complaints' or 'this week we get the soap opera complaints'. i can get the 'nothing happened' complaint, i know some weirdos watch this show for plot apparently, but the ppl who complain 'soap opera' should watch revenge or downton abbey sometime to see what soap opera looks like.

they have an urgent need to feel like their expenditure on 'quality tv' isn't for nothing tho

'why don't i feel as sophisticated as i wanted to??'

lol, the reason i don't watch soap operas is because i don't like them
and i am so fucking sophisticated that's why i argue on the internet

don't worry forks nobody was talking about you

*scratches balls*

*(in a sophisticated manner)*

s1ocki does his Amityville horror disembodied voice shouting "YOU ARE ALL RONG" and then bails

i love it

because of threads like this and twitter etc i am at the point where w/ every episode of mad men i think 'ok so this week we get the nothing happened complaints' or 'this week we get the soap opera complaints'. i can get the 'nothing happened' complaint, i know some weirdos watch this show for plot apparently, but the ppl who complain 'soap opera' should watch revenge or downton abbey sometime to see what soap opera looks like.

― balls, Tuesday, April 16, 2013 1:40 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

yes it is the worst complaint ever

that said the best joke this episode was when the cardster thought megan was still talking about her show when she brought up her miscarriage - "ok, ok, i'll watch it!"

This show is still really well shot, i love the costumes, the actors are all great (and some of them genuinely stunning people to look at), classic editing, cool music choices, etc. I'm at the point now where I'm interested in the plot but it really is like 4th or 5th in line for things that keep me watching the show. Last episode I spent more time noting every time someone was framed in a doorway or walking through a door and what that meant thematically than thinking how the plot could be better.

omg yes Don waxing lyrical about farmers driving jaguars as the britishers almost vomited in their teacups

A+++

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, April 16, 2013 12:12 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My favorite moment of the whole episode was Roger's knowing smirk during Don's "pitch."

Pete was bound to get caught cos in that tryst we see he and the woman are both "framed" with the doorway directly behind them (for a good 30 seconds or so) in the shot. Every time it looks like Don may be getting dangerously close to getting caught, he's behind closed doors, so you know he's safe. And at the end he's sitting down in front of closed doors, indicating dude is kind of getting tired of the philandering ways.

Last episode I spent more time noting every time someone was framed in a doorway or walking through a door and what that meant thematically than thinking how the plot could be better.

*scratches balls philosophically *

^^As will Harry in next week's ep.

yes don's pitch was great

when he started going into how it would help sell OTHER brands of cars oh man

When that woman asked him "Are you alone?" at the end of last season, that wasn't Linda Cardellini was it?

no

friend of mine had this to say about last ep

great piece

balls otm as ever

and this: i like those colored glass partition things in pete's apartment.

― Pat Finn, Monday, April 15, 2013 4:16 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my childhood home had amber glass sliding doors between the living room & the entry, with the same circle pattern

omg maybe pete is rly your dad

btw lol @ people in this thread thinking pete's being a rich jerk means he wouldn't have women throwing themselves at him. HE IS A RICH JERK. historically, rich jerks attract women.

remember the sideburns-less days

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5py2pbJqX1qakzr4.gif

oh shit was that the episode where pete had the mumps?

my dad had sideburns too!

omg s1ocki

miss you lane :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM_88FfHcIo

grimy little pimp

i'm not even going to try to articulate this that well but...

there's something about this season, and much of last season, that rubs me the wrong way. i think the show (or its "creator") seems to have been infected by a sense of self-importance (no doubt due to its enshrinement as the cardinal example of contemporary "quality TV"). the result is that too many scenes feel either/both ponderous or/and portentous. too many sequences, lines of dialogue, odd shot combinations feel like they are too obviously angling for exegesis. i wonder what someone coming into the show fresh (although weiner has all but said he's not making the show for such folks) would make of it.

minor note: was surprised that the pete thing came to a head in a single episode.

what is creator in scare quotes?

JHVH

what what what

TBF the portentous quality of some scenes made part of the season premiere very hard to watch.

re. jon hamm's directorial effort: there were a LOT of mismatched shots and continuity errors. watch people's facial expressions, hand positions, etc. between shots. it was distracting. reminds you it ain't easy to direct.

what is creator in scare quotes?

― balls, Tuesday, April 16, 2013 4:19 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

weiner is the "creator" of mad men in most accounts. i put it in scare quotes b/c given all the other input this show has, that job description sometimes feels a bit grandiose.

ARTIST: Any performer, of whatever ability.

weiner's said a few times that one of the things the show is about is the coarsening of american life and that any on the noseness or whatever is deliberate, whether that excuses or not is another question but change in tone toward less subtlety is deliberate.

I liked most of last season's episodes: the good ones were quick and trashy. But I'm either bored of Don Draper's schtick or Weiner is. As for these first two episodes, amateurist is right about muddled the scenes and writing are.

i'm assuming affair w/ lindsey weir will end esp disastrously but do find myself hoping it doesn't take til the end of the season.

leaving his job to follow Grateful Dead on tour?

lol just realised lindsey weir's daughter goes to michigan, i wonder if that's deliberate

"coarsening of american life"

what does he mean by this

foreigners, women in positions of power swearing

"coarsening of american life"

what does he mean by this

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist)

The fallacy of cutting NPR funding.

boy if you don't know what he means by that maybe the show is too subtle

'men don't wear hats anymore'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiP1z9qfojA

re. jon hamm's directorial effort: there were a LOT of mismatched shots and continuity errors. watch people's facial expressions, hand positions, etc. between shots. it was distracting. reminds you it ain't easy to direct.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, April 16, 2013 5:20 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is more of an editor thing

I didn't notice a thing

I think the show's specific appeal lies somewhere in between an exegis-demanding portentousness (and is it really so bad to find that element pleasurable?) and a rather lynchian approach to melodrama. I don't think I've ever seen anything that's quite like it.

sopranos on occasion is the only thing i can think of