Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

They have totally shown Don interacting with Dawn onscreen - they haven't given her much to do though.

I wonder if they'll get new offices. nobody likes to work where people have died.

also, while I don't think anyone here has voiced this particular criticism, I am perplexed by other comments floating about ye internet that this season has been "too predictable". What with the acid, the suicide, the whoring, Ginsburg, Peggy leaving - this seems like it's been one of the more unpredictable seasons imo.

Ida Blankenship has already died in the office. Two deaths in three years is just careless though.

d'oh yr right how could I forget

this was pretty good

oh man, the scenes between Sally and Betty ;_; *picks up the phone, calls Mum*

I was surprised by Lane, but at the same time not really. The moment when Don says to Lane 'after this it gets easier' and Lane just looks at him with this 'orly fuck you' look on his face, I had a feeling it would go badly. Not THAT badly, but it becomes yet another one of those instances for Draper where he's being let down by the people around him. Or where his own view of himself and right vs wrong is just completely removed from the realities of other people's lives, or something.

And I really liked that last moment between Don & Glenn, letting him drive.

feel like Don's genuinely done the right things re: Joan and Lane and yet both times it turned to crap - as Glenn would say

;_; at shots of Joan crying

yeah maybe that's it. his efforts to help people are thwarted by the people themselves not...well, not being him.

feel like Don's genuinely done the right things re: Joan and Lane and yet both times it turned to crap - as Glenn would say

shakey otm

last shot/scene was truly great. one of my fav endings so far.

fascinating

What did other cast members say to you once they found out about Lane? Do they try to console you? Keep things humorous?
It comes out slowly. Jon Hamm knew about it from the very beginning. Before each season, apparently, Matt and Jon go out for a dinner and he discusses his ideas for the season with Jon and it was one of the stories that he wanted to build up to. But everyone else, no one knew.

http://www.vulture.com/2012/06/mad-mens-jared-harris-interview.html

so much redemption for Glen with

"What do you want to do?"
"Are you kidding? The museum's right across the park!"

great interview w Harris - thx

The kid who plays Glen is a bit rubbish really, worst character in the series.

What did he say?
"I wanna talk to you in my office." And then he offered me some extremely expensive brandy, and that’s how you know you’re fucked. Yep. But there was talk around base camp from the pre-shoots that something was gonna happen to somebody. We kind of felt it in the air.

oh my god, Matthew Weiner telling Jared Harris his character was gone was just like Don firing Lane.

nah I think Glen is great. he nails the awkward stiffness of that age, particularly when it comes to relating to the opposite sex

Agreed. I don't get people saying Glen is creepy, a bad character or a bad actor. He perfectly portrays a kid of his age. I don't think I'd hang a whole series around him but he's a good character and has had alot of good moments for a minor player.

shakey and sparkle otm re: glenn

Was it just me or was the whole Glen subplot in this one a kind of ham-handed (but great) Holden Caulfield hommage? Boarding school, train stations, calling up girls he knew years ago out of the blue... "Everything you think's gonna make you happy just turns to crap..."

haha wow that didn't occur to me but makes total sense

did he call anybody a phony

no but sally did!

but yes brio otm. down to the prep school getup.

Isn't there a Natural History Museum thing in Catcher in The Rye too, or am I imagining that? Been awhile.

the actor is Weiner's son, and his middle name is Holden. Someone on Reddit pointed out that one of the very first times we met the little guy he was wearing a red hunting cap:

http://tvrecappersanonymous.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/creepy-glen.png

also from Reddit: Holden wants to see Phoebe, and he goes to look for her in the park because he remembers that she often roller-skates there on Sundays. He meets a girl who knows Phoebe. At first, she tells him that his sister is on a school trip to the Museum of Natural History, but then she remembers that the trip was the previous day. Nevertheless, Holden walks to the museum, remembering his own class trips. He focuses on the way life is frozen in the museum’s exhibits: models of Eskimos and Indians stand as though petrified and birds hang from the ceiling, seemingly in mid-flight. He remarks that every time he went to the museum, he felt that he had changed, while the museum had stayed exactly the same.

I did notice the CITR themes on my own since that's one of my favourite books, but I am lazy about researching :)

Excellent call on Catcher.

omg I didn't catch that at all

now I want to go read the book again again again

when I went to NYC with ENBB I took a picture of the pond & the ducks :) It made me so happy. Ditto with the skating rink. One day I'd like to try and do the whole trip he takes - haven't read the book for a while so not sure how many locations are namechecked, but I want to go!

I haven't read it for a while either but I remember loving the awkwardness of him hanging out with the 3 girls at the Edmont, when they go dancing (?)

also everything between him and Stradlater

the whole book just makes me want to quote and reminisce and draw hearts <3 <3 and of course erase the word Fuck from anyplace I might find it

omg I didn't catch that at all

pun intended?

hahah if I say yes I will be crediting myself with far more cleverness than I have, lol

Lane's greatest moment, RIP:

http://cdn.wg.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/PETE-CAMPBELL-KTFO.gif

I could watch that all day.

pete punch v. crotch steak

ppl like characters on this show? TV is weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01hfwQL1QUg

"It shall be too late to run!"

and the way he puts up his fists, Marquis of Queensberry style is AWESOME

More Lane awesomeness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31cCUWDyyrQ

I just remembered that Don's brother also hanged himself after Don tried to wash his hands of him. Has he killed anyone else?

good christ, i'd completely forgotten about that

a friend of mine speculates that the series is driven by an Ayn Randian ethos, and Don is a Randian hero.

Burt Cooper is a Randian hero

in his mind

iirc

a friend of mine speculates that the series is driven by an Ayn Randian ethos, and Don is a Randian hero.

interesting speculation. "i owe you nothing because i can take care of myself" seems to be a big part of don's operating philosophy.

Dick Whitman (and N.Korea) are responsible for the death of the real Don Draper.

Don would have to not be miserable all the time to be a Randian hero. You're supposed to ENJOY the fruits of your principled capitalist labor.

randian thing doesn't really scan to me.

randianism has appear specifically as a fascination of cooper's and he's a bit buffoonish.