Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

No I think Joan understands both of their basic motivations pretty well (esp. Don's) but what I don't think that Joan understands or is interested in is copy-writing and why someone would or would not find it fulfilling work on a creative level.

this is OTM. think she nailed Don + Megan's relationship apart from the creative angle.

Megan otm imo. They've been building her up through various performances (Zu Bee Zu, that last pitch with Don, even roleplaying w Don) and people in general being entranced with her as she is a natural performer or something. I think the show will definitely have her get into that world professionally, it's not just a dumb childhood dream, and good for her stepping aside when there are probably plenty of aspiring copyrighters that are not married to a wealthy Ad Exec that affords them the opportunity to pursue such a career.

it's totally a dumb childhood dream, she's trying to break into a career that at best will offer her, given her current age, maybe a decade's worth of work.

the odds that she's gonna leave Don seem pretty high to me

she doesn't respect what he does, he's going to get older and out of touch, he can't tie her to him with children - eventually she's going to just treat him like a piggybank and they're both going to resent the other

right, don't need to watch the rest of the season then

the miracle whip run-through with don & megan was so great, it was a real "mulholland drive audition" scene

good ref

right, don't need to watch the rest of the season then

haha well this show makes a habit out of confounding expectations so I could be totally wrong - at this point in the show though, the long-term chances of their marriage seem pretty slim to me

the miracle whip run-through with don & megan was so great, it was a real "mulholland drive audition" scene

wait, they were taste-testing mayonnaise? gross.

haha what's it called? cool whip.

hey they're both the same color

megan leaves don or don drives away megan; betty is sick and needs some sort of succor that weird hank can't provide her, don and betty arrive at some kind of understanding.

the phrase "weird hank" is kind of grossing me out

but otherwise sure I can see that

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRngTZUMjfeI3Q6-jQLNk5nvyghYesrHEbMt-FLOHBbQfXCmaaDqtCD8DmM6Q

Why would the ever prominently feature Betty again? People hate Betty.

Oh right, that's how tv works.

lol @ "copyrighters"

I think they're setting us up for Don and Joan.

that will never happen. they're both too good looking for each other.

I'm predicting the season's teaser poster (Don inna chair facing a naked mannequin) presages Betty chemo baldness & nude Megan onstage. Don is/will be "embarrassed" by her openness abt. sex, I think?

― et tu, twinkletoes? (remy bean), Wednesday, May 9, 2012 7:38 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think they're setting us up for Don and Joan.

― America's Mobile, Wednesday, May 9, 2012 1:09 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both u dudes are nuts!

yeah a) Betty doesn't have cancer (also chemo not particularly common or well-formulated in the mid-60s so wtf) and b) Don and Joan will never get together. Don doesn't want Roger's sloppy seconds, and Joan obviously is not into Don.

the chemo formula for non-hodgkins from the '60s is basically the one used today, iirc

yeah wiki says late 60s

i don't think it's been indicated that megan "does not respect" what don does; it's simply that she doesn't derive any personal satisfaction from it.

exactly

also lolz at shakey's prediction that she will fail at acting, which seems to be related to the weird compulsion in this thread to insist that all of the characters in this show are bad at their jobs

where did I say she would fail?

well... you DID imply that she would only have a decade's worth of work. haha.

that's a commentary of how shitty the industry is to actresses, not on her ability

ON how

She said failing at acting meant more to her than succeeding at advertising.

success in acting seems pretty difficult to achieve even if you are really talented. I'm thinking that maybe Joan's prediction will come true despite neither Megan or Don really wanting it to.

well maybe Don wants it to a certain extent

Why would the ever prominently feature Betty again? People hate Betty.

― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, May 9, 2012 10:32 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i do not hate betty

it's funny i remember an interview with Weiner where he seemed a little perplexed by the popular idea of Betty as villain. I guess he sees the show in a Renoir-esque "everyone has their reasons" way.

I think Betty is/was one of the more compelling creations of the show.

i don't think they spend very much time showing us betty's "reasons"--or at least many of her scenes in recent seasons have been comic in nature, which make her more an object of fun than potential sympathy.

It's funny thinking back to s1, when I hated Pete. Everyone has their reasons, yes, and some of them can do the Charleston.

I am totally sympathetic to all the women in this patriarchal hell. I want to look after them all.

getting down to the important matters - had there been colour photos of earth from space in 1966?

A short history...

1946. The first photo (of any kind) is taken of earth from space.

In 1954, an Aerobee sounding rocket takes the first color pictures of Earth from space. Maddeningly, NASA publishes the mosaic as B/W so subsequent researchers just assumed that the rocket was loaded with b/w film. As far as I know, the color version didn't surface until 1999.

By 1966, American and Soviet astronauts had taken plenty of pictures from low earth orbit. Gemini 11 late in 1966 took pictures from 1300km up (the highest manned orbit ever excluding lunar flights), but they still wouldn't have been able to take a single-frame "earth in space" photo. Geosynchronous satellites were already orbiting and Lunar Orbiters were on their way, but there were no public plans plans to take a full-frame picture. Stewart Brand heard that there were rumors of photos, so he started running around selling buttons that said "Why haven't we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?" NASA finally decided that it would be a good p.r. move, so in August 1966 they instructed Lunar Orbiter 1 to take a single black and white picture of the Earth. Only that wasn't the first full-frame picture... the Soviets had already done so in May 1966 with Molniya I.

The first full-frame color picture did not come along until Sept. 1967 - taken by a defense department satellite called DODGE.

Apollo 8's famous "Earthrise" picture was taken in 1968 and the "Blue Marble" picture comes from 1972.

It's strange, because these pictures were such obvious p.r. moves that NASA continually bollixes up. Even now, picture taking is considered to be frivolous to some mission scientists. The recent Juno launch to Jupiter only had a camera added to it at the last minute to "facilitate education and public outreach. " As outrageous as it might seem, a camera was never in Juno's original design specs. Never forget that this is also the same organization that lost the original first generation Apollo 11 TV tapes.

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"I'm sorry, you can't smoke in here."

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The thing that threw me a bit in that episode was the shot of Don looking down the lift shaft, they really lingered on that and I found myself wondering where it was going.

it's totally a dumb childhood dream, she's trying to break into a career that at best will offer her, given her current age, maybe a decade's worth of work

so all female actors are murdered by the state at 35? even in the 60s this was hardly true.

Megan really likes Don for the moment but iirc the only ref to Dick Whitman in the series so far is when she said "Nobody loves Dick Whitman. I love you – that's why I threw you a party."

I thought she said "I love Dick Whitman", but I'd need to watch that again.

The thing that threw me a bit in that episode was the shot of Don looking down the lift shaft, they really lingered on that and I found myself wondering where it was going.

down

Thanks for that potted history, Elvis Telecom - fascinating.

so all female actors are murdered by the state at 35? even in the 60s this was hardly true.

even in the 60s, actresses past the age of 35 who got a lot of roles tended to have started much earlier than megan. she's starting late, in a career path that prizes youth and discards middle-aged women. I don't really see how this is arguable, particularly in film.