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

Later seasons are more accomplished than the first, but it's my favourite cos it seemed so fresh at the time, and because it has the most traditional narrative structure (I'm quite conservative about storytelling in some ways).

3 > 5 > 2 > 6 > 4 > 1

didnt begin to watch this show til a year ago. So good. Last season was a slowburner but really great and weird and inexplicably spooky.

Part of the fun of 6 was all the online Megan conspiracies that ultimately resulted in nothing. It was the most fun of that nature I'd had since LOST.

JF so otm. I've noticed I am impartial to MM being drawn out over more years. It will hopefully prolong the fun for longer, because at this rate, after season six, I will not care about MM a whole lot after it ends I think.

Incidentally, I only watched the last three episodes of Lost last weekend. For the first time, having seen all the episodes, all seasons when they first aired, being hugely engaged in it all. But then love happened and I forgot about Lost for... Years. The final episode was a bag of cock. I enjoyed anticipating watching it way more than actually watching it.

Yes! In general, the internet-fandom has been so fun these last few years. In general, Mad Men still has a reputation as being this really slow, dour, self-important show, but it's also an endless gif-generator and morbidly funny show. Like, for all the heavyness there is this really big joy to the show and it's fanbase.

otm. it's just so weird and off kilter and dreamlike. could watch a whole season where barely anything happens.

Absolutely. And it's something I haven't completely reconciled with, for I want to love the show for the show alone. But for me, in the case of Mad Men, that internet buzz only heavily started in season 3 or 4, which makes that I'm not sick of it yet, it is at its prime. And I don't mean checking buzzfeed or whatever. Reveling in the MM thread right here is enough to add to the enjoyment.

(That was an xp, but Ryan otm)

frederik otm, one thing about mad men i didn't expect before watching it was how hilarious it is.

what's the season where the secretary runs over the guy's foot w/ the lawnmover

3

that was a good one

this is cliche but it's so funny in a really satisfying why because the characters are so richly drawn--so much of the humor comes from a very careful build up of motivations and tendencies. and it's great because the show does a great job of placing each episode in the timeline of that character's development. the whole history of the show seems to weigh on every scene.

lawnmower foot vs. Ken face-shooting is a tough call for me

dude on the other side of the translucent glass squeegeeing the blood off coupled with ashen-faced harry and roger's jokes was an all-time great MM moment.

"and just when he got it in the door"

"the doctor said he'll never golf again"

That might be the funniest episode ever.

MM supercuts on YouTube are the best.

Oh god, remember when Miss Blankenship died? Driven out covered by Harry's blanket.

Well, this is interesting. Robert Towne has joined the writing staff:
http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/screenwriter-robert-towne-joins-writing-staff-of-mad-men-exclusive-1200615261/

!

wait

I don't really speak tv behind-the-scenes --- what does 'consulting producer' entail exactly?

From what I gather as someone who just reads websites and stuff, titles like that vary from show to show and may be based on the terms of one's contract more than one's actual duties. It looks like everyone who's been a consulting producer on Mad Men has also been part of the writing room, and most have been credited with writing (or cowriting) at least one episode.

predict MW will give himself two writing credits on every episode

partially-ordered season rankings:

3 > {1,2,4,5,6}

2 < {1,3,4,5,6}

4 > 5?

I dunno.

They picked up a new scribe

http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/screenwriter-robert-towne-joins-writing-staff-of-mad-men-exclusive-1200615261/

She's my secretary! She's my copywriter! She's my secretary! She's my copywriter!

surely I'm the first and only person to make that joke.

who's doing the slapping in this scenario

Don:"I fucked 'em! I fucked them all!"

"I am the motherfucking senior partner, motherfucker!"

Small talk @ the '69 Clios:

Peggy: You must be a very important executive.

Cutler: Well, whatever I am, I could get you whatever you want.

Peggy: Hm?

[points to Ted Chaough*]

Peggy: Well, what I really want is to suck his cock.

when does this happen

in like 6 years probably

"Spring of 2014"

god dammit, for some reason i thought it def began in january

i think i had a dream that it started january 14th??? ive been acting like that was a reality

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/GlenBishipGif.gif

(I just wanna post this all the time)

agree but this is my favorite

http://img.pandawhale.com/81256-Peggy-I-really-dont-care-gif-M-ZQOa.gif

oh i meant the spring 2014 premiere date, not your dream.

haha i know!

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/culture_test/ted%20aviators.gif

YES

I have almost completely forgotten the last season of this show

is Don still married to Freddie Mercury

this last season i thought was incredible, kind of haunting. once i felt the particular rhythms of where it was going i plowed through it.

freddie mercury?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EuCENfyqLlY/Ue6wwoV9uWI/AAAAAAAACpY/c5ou6U54VA4/s400/freddie+mercury+jessica+pare.jpg

huh. anyway i think she's really good. quite touching in the role, somehow.

You just need to turn off Auto Play under 'Settings' (Gear Icon) then 'Player' from your Prime home screen on a browser xps

do you guys follow january jones on instagram?

Thanks, I'll try that.

The other answer--the one I had--is that that's the pseudonym Don uses the night they go to the after-hours place with Freddy Rumsen, the episode where they fire him: Dick Dollars, Mike Moneybags, and Tilden Katz. I didn't realize he got that from Rachel's husband until I googled the name after I posted. You've got a better memory than I do--never would have got that in a million years if I hadn't just watched the Freddy episode.

it's a cool name.

anyway, though, the actress who plays betty draper has been bludgeoning rattlesnakes in her back yard in order to protect her dogs.

reminds me of when she shot her neighbor's pigeons with an air rifle in season one

That moment, shooting the pigeons, is probably the first stunning moment in S1 (ninth episode). There's been lots of great moments up till that point, but that comes out of nowhere; with the show's timeline just moving into the '60s, it's like the close-up of Janet Leigh's eye in Psycho.

Anything I post here I very likely posted above already, so I kept it to a minimum this time. Two things that killed me (again, I'm sure) in the last couple of episodes: Duck's final exit--wonder if it was scripted or improvised--and Joan's reaction the news of Roger's marriage to Marie.

Is that where Duck tries to take a poop on a chair??

No, that's in S5 or S6. He visits Roger about a meeting he's set up, and Roger sends him on his way: at the doorway, just before he leaves, he quickly looks to his right, then looks to his left, like he's lost--he is, and also drunk. It's the perfect summation of Duck the whole way.

Visits Pete, that should say, not Roger.

Duck trying to poop was in "The Suitcase" back in S4 iirc.

Right, right--such a famous episode. I mentioned in the Mr. Robot thread that the guy who plays Duck showed up for about two minutes in one episode.

I think I’m going to rewatch

https://dirt.substack.com/p/dirt-the-mad-men-rewatch

I looked around a bit online for an original copy of Meditations in an Emergency, but was quickly jolted into reality re the price.

S5, not S7, but I'll ask the question here: any thoughts on the way Don handles Lane's forged cheque? I think it's one of the more interesting ethical dilemmas of the show's entire run. I can see arguments on both sides. Doing some Monday morning quarterbacking, you can say it was awful that Don didn't smooth that over--Lane did help save the company, including the money of his own that he chipped in, and the $8,000 or whatever it was almost surely would have been paid back before long. On the other hand, as he explained to Lane, it could have destroyed the agency if word got to the clients, and subsequently he never let anyone else know about what Lane had done.

It's not an ethical dilemma for Don...it's some kind of dilemma.

Just finished a run through of this, great fun.

In response to above. I thought Don’s approach was very jarring, and one of many moments where suddenly SCDP went all clinical business relations over the normal free-breezy and deeply personal relations that had been the standard to that point. Very weird to see Don take what seems to be an ethical stand as well.

I was thinking about Mad Men yesterday when this came on the radio. So many perfect episode-ending songs, but this might be the one that got away for S5 or S6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ByJ1C0iR4

https://people.com/movies/jon-hamm-and-anna-osceola-are-engaged/

Celebrity news, yes...but this detail...

Osceola, 34, appeared in the series' final episode, where she had a small role playing the receptionist at Esalen, a spiritual California retreat that Hamm's character (Don Draper) attended. At the time, Hamm, 51, was in a long-term relationship with Jennifer Westfeldt. The couple split months later after 18 years together.

Such a Draper move!

Was it her who was made to look like a double for the woman in the actual Coke commercial?

https://joycemillman.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/screen-shot-2015-05-18-at-12-48-07-pm.png

that's her:

https://publish.purewow.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/don-draper-and-anna-osceola-cat.jpg

I didn't really follow that show after the initital season, but I made sure to watch the finale since I'd heard it has some Esalen/Nepethe/Big Sur thing going on, I wanted to see how they handled it

XP OMG, that's too perfect!