Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

remember season 1 harry, who, upon cheating on his marriage for the first time, did (what i interpreted as) all the 'right things,' ie demonstrating seemingly sincere remorse and waiting patiently and humbly to be let back home? what happened to that guy? when exactly did harry become so... lecherous?

paul's line about no one liking him was amazing. story wise there wasn't a lot to his arc that demanded he specifically be brought back; the whole hare krishna thing could technically have been done with any "former sterling cooper employee x, now down on his luck." but there were echoes of his old pathos and ill concealed desperation to be well regarded that made the whole thing more meaningful.

i've always understood it to be a meta joke that don and joan haven't ever hooked up because it would be too obvious? and i'm fine with them dancing around that, as they did in this episode, but i really don't want to see an actual romantic arc between them...

also i can't tell what they're building up to with don and megan. but i like that megan is making don consider how he wants to balance his life, whereas previously if, for example, he became frustrated with his home life, he would throw all his eggs in the career basket and wait for that to fulfill him. (and that sort of behavior, of course, is betty's m.o.)

i'm fine with them dancing around that, as they did in this episode

I never get a WILL THEY/WON'T THEY feeling from scenes with Don and Joan, but I also didn't expect Lane to impulsively kiss Joan a few weeks ago. So yeah, I hope Weiner don't throw that curveball. He's probably smart enough to ever even think about it.

*never even

I thought Lane's impulsive kiss was a pretty great moment.

The Lane kiss was great, kind of like he was completing the act--he defeated the enemy and now was getting to kiss the girl THE END.

So last season when Megan said that her mother's skin care regime was just to splash cold water on her face.... we saw all the make-up her mother wears a few episodes ago. So was that just a lie? There is no way splashing cold water on her face will get all that stuff off. So was she being a bit strategic then?

Her mom seems like a "do as I say, not as I do" sort.

i bet when they wrote that line of megan's they didn't even know where the character was going, let alone that her mother would turn out to be famous actor julia ormond

that or megan is a stupid lying bitch i hate her!!!

Of course she was lying--wouldn't you if you came from such miserable stock?

But really, goole otm.

I'd choose Megan's mom over Megan solely for animalistic reasons.

megan is a stupid lying bitch i hate her!!!
megan is a stupid lying bitch i hate her!!!
megan is a stupid lying bitch i hate her!!!

julia ormond vs freddie mercury

In a real soap opera, the main character's marriage would not have taken place off-screen between seasons. It would have been milked for all it was worth onscreen.

of course, of course. this is fauxp opera.

what kind of wedding did don and megan have, anyway?

a soapy one

what kind of wedding did don and megan have, anyway?

― phantompenguin, Sunday, May 27, 2012 1:25 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a fictional one.

just rewatched this, Megan's quote is "i think you've seen most of it" which I am definitely taking as:
1) "since you just walked in without being invited"
2) "but you'll never see the bedroom"

Why "you will never see the bedroom"?

Creepy, creepy Pete.

I want him to be disemboweled slowly and painfully.

Can we go back to that "sociopath" discussion?

this thread is going to be 'fun' this week

"you will never see the bedroom" because you ain't never gonna have that man ever again and i will

When this show _is_ soap opera, it is terrible shitty soap opera. This was bad pretty much start to finish this week.

Are we ready to dub this the best season yet? Because I am.

This was bad pretty much start to finish this week.

?!

ehhhh my initial reaction to that ep was....not good

I must obviously want different things from this show than other people.

maybe. this really rankled.

this thread is going to be 'fun' this week

Yeah I should probably peace out of this thread, I have a bad feeling about this.

god that ep left a bad taste in my mouth
that sentence is not an invitation for in appropriate puns

I know why Ginsburg would hate Megan so much, but why does Ginsburg hate Megan so much?

"car guys are a bunch of creeps"
"they're all a bunch of creeps"

i know no one is talking abt this now but i thought the soap opera thing was more about 'lets just admit a huge part of our enjoyment in this is about getting caught up in the dramatic emotional lives of people portrayed, and isn't really about some high-minded subversion of anything'

Ugh this was the worst. I mean a fine episode but eurgh.

I had a hard time watching it. Except the Peggy stuff was great.

really wanted a conversation this week between Joan and Peggy where they said "I'm so MAD at these MEN!"

Peggy interviewing and resigning was so good

I was thinking two things during Peggy's physical exit:

"Is Joan going to slip out and actually say goodbye? Nope, guess not."
"OH NOES THAT ELEVATOR DOESN'T ALWAYS WORK. DON'T DIE! Okay, whew."

what did lane call pete earlier this season? a "grimy little pimp"? and now he really is, and lane's no better. you could argue that lane is worse, since he essentially needed the jaguar deal to go through to cover his embezzlement and he talked joan into a deal that only benefits her if the company is solvent, which might still be questionable even though they got jaguar.

ha ha i was worried about peggy plummeting to her death too! every time someone uses the elevator now it's very stressful

With two episodes left, I'm wondering a) will Lane get caught? and b) will Don cheat?

Lane might get caught, but I think this will be the only season that Don doesn't cheat (look for that to begin happening next season).

Lane is on suicide watch imo

lane and pete can jump off the roof holding hands afaic

Poor Ken Cosgrove doesn't have anyone to be in a pact with now.

joan's "meeting" while don pitched jaguar was one of the saddest things i've ever seen on television. horrible, depressing episode, but great, too. loved peggy smiling at the elevator as the kinks kick in.

Sometimes I wonder how Vincent Kartheiser even sleeps at night.

by not owning a toilet iirc

I felt nauseous throughout, and at the beginning I thought it was so ham-fisted and silly that this would genuinely be the worst episode in the show's history, but even as the cross-cutting between the pitch and Joan's night with that creep featured a speech that was so bloody on-the-nose (DRINK!) it still worked and kind of devastated me. Even that reveal that the conversation with Don in her apartment had already happened should have irked me a lot more than it did. The ending was great though, and I can't stress how awesome the Peggy stuff was, even though I loved having her in that office.

figure she'll be back before too long. there's always next season...