"Mad Men" on AMC (US) - (Spoilers Within)

[MrBern]

I was at the Roosevelt Hotel for the MM season premiere party & missed a bit of the dialogue & so many subtleties.
So I rewatched last nite.

I was amused to hear the StMarksPlace Squatters used the term 'grok' with Betty. " What you dont grok is...."
That was an alien word from Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.
I cant rememebr that era well, but in th 70s there were plenty of nerds enjoying the slogan " I Grok Spock"

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

mad-men-costume-designer-janie

 

[flat-top]

[video=youtube;GIX8gI21jGw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIX8gI21jGw[/video]

 

[Doctor Strange]

I liked last night's episode MUCH more than the season premiere. The show didn't feel like it was firing on all cylinders last week, but this one was full of interesting developments and great moments.

And: Go, Trudy!!!

 

[tonyb]

Go Trudy indeed.

Just loved her exit interview with her POS husband. What she said, in effect, was that by playing along with our fiction about why you really have that apartment in the city doesn't give you license to humiliate me by bopping the neighbor woman (the neighbor!) stuck in a miserable marriage of her own.

Contrast Pete's adventures in infidelity with Don's and a viewer is left concluding that certain things are best left to the professionals.

The Pete Campbell character is just soooo smarmy and self-serving and phony that I sometimes think the writers lay it on a bit too thick. The guy is about as appetizing as the instant macaroni and cheese stuck to the bowl the kid dropped in the sink the day before yesterday, so I'm at a loss as to why anyone of any persuasion -- male, female, marsupial, whatever -- would find him attractive.

 

[AmateisGal]

Agree on Pete's character. He is just a jerk all around. I also can't see how ANY woman can find him attractive.

And Don...I really loathe him right now. I thought he was getting his act together, but no. I feel sorry for Megan (I know some viewers don't like her, but I do) and if she finds out, she's not going to handle it well AT ALL.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

There was goods and bads with the last episode. Obviously, like everyone else I'm not happy with Don. It was nice to see Pete put in his place a bit, though.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I'm also among those sympathetic to Megan. She will have a rough time when she realizes her marriage is kaput, but will ultimately walk away with a good settlement... and her time with Don will have taken her from being a receptionist to a soap opera star. Not bad! She belongs with somebody closer to her age anyway.

And it's awfully hard to still root for Don at this point. I mean, he's always been a half-scum antihero at best, but he did seem to be making some progress in getting his demons under control in the 4th and 5th seasons. Now he's fallen again - he's not reading Dante's Inferno for nothing - not to mention rapidly becoming an old fogey as the sixties hit full force...

 

[flat-top]

Is the rare glimpse to Don's/ Dick's past being raised in a brothel suppossed to make us understand and excuse his views toward women and sex? I'm not saying it does or doesn't, but we're clearly being shown how ****ed up his childhood was....

 

[Doctor Strange]

You know, while I have been fascinated by all of Don's earlier flashbacks, I didn't like these. We don't need any further evidence that Don's childhood messed him up big-time - not at this point in the series.

I hate to say it, but this is the first time I thought, "Gee, if Don's backslid that far and the show's going to largely be about his self-destructive infidelities again, maybe *this* should be the last season." I've been a huge fan of the show since the night the first episode aired, but this plotline seems redundant. Isn't there plenty of drama to be mined from everything that went down in 1968 that doesn't involve Don cheating on his wife?!?

 

[tonyb]

There's something to be said for holding true to one's own self, but not when doing so involves such a willful disregard of one's own character weaknesses. Don Draper and Pete Campbell come to mind.

I'm still chewing over what Betty's, um, odd bedroom conversation with Henry in the season premiere was all about. A bit of foreshadowing, I suspect. What order of creepiness will we learn about Betty's childhood? (The dyed hair thing was a tad too obvious.)

Like the good Doctor Strange, I've been a fan of this show from the start. But I'm among what I suspect is a significant percentage of the show's millions of fans who fear the writers might be veering a bit too close to the shark tank. Here's hoping those fears turn out to be unfounded.

 

[AmateisGal]

You know, while I have been fascinated by all of Don's earlier flashbacks, I didn't like these. We don't need any further evidence that Don's childhood messed him up big-time - not at this point in the series.

I hate to say it, but this is the first time I thought, "Gee, if Don's backslid that far and the show's going to largely be about his self-destructive infidelities again, maybe *this* should be the last season." I've been a huge fan of the show since the night the first episode aired, but this plotline seems redundant. Isn't there plenty of drama to be mined from everything that went down in 1968 that doesn't involve Don cheating on his wife?!?

I COMPLETELY agree with you. There's a lot of other great stuff they could have done. I think they're backsliding.

 

[tonyb]

Having re-watched the most recent episode today (gotta put something in front of my eyes to alleviate the tedium of my daily exercise regimen), I'm left impressed by the writing and performance of Herb, the Jaguar-peddling jerk of Northern New Jersey.

He's something of a caricature, but still, I see in him pieces of people I've had the displeasure of knowing.

He's but a fictional character, so I suffer no guilt in wishing he falls over dead from "the big one." And soon.

 

[Worf]

I personally am amazed that Don's as stable as he is!!! I grew up poor and what I didn't experience I SAW. Personally if I was the son of a whore, raised by a skinflint thru the Great Depression, raised in a whorehouse and god knows what else BEFORE I wound up in Korea I think I'd be smokin', drinkin' and f-ing my way to oblivion as well. His whole life, near as we can tell, has been NOTHING but trauma, mental and physical, what do you expect. Trauma don't leave you... it just rolls around inside you for a while but eventually... it comes out... physically or emotionally. Pete... sigh... that boy's gonna wind up a pathetic, divorced, old man WITH NO HAIR, who's kids are going to hate his very guts. Still I'm amazed how these folks are just plain oblivious to events around them... the Tet Offensive is raging and they can't even be bothered to take a look. Amazing..

Worf

 

[tonyb]

... Still I'm amazed how these folks are just plain oblivious to events around them ...

Astute observation there, Worf.

Has me pondering just what of real importance I (and we) may be ignoring.

 

[Lily Powers]

I personally am amazed that Don's as stable as he is!!! I grew up poor and what I didn't experience I SAW. Personally if I was the son of a whore, raised by a skinflint thru the Great Depression, raised in a whorehouse and god knows what else BEFORE I wound up in Korea I think I'd be smokin', drinkin' and f-ing my way to oblivion as well.

I'm glancing at this while finishing up the work day and totally skimmed over the word you wrote after "Personally." So I'm reading along, thinking, "Wow, this Worf guy had it rough! Raised through the Great Depression... wait, how old is this guy anyway?" Then I went back and noticed my eyes totally omitted the word "if." Had me going.

Still I'm amazed how these folks are just plain oblivious to events around them... the Tet Offensive is raging and they can't even be bothered to take a look. Amazing..

Wasn't Vietnam considered the first war to be "televised?" Maybe Don just doesn't want to revisit the experiences he had in Korea and ignores the news. I'm also wondering if the flashbacks of his childhood and the current state of the world in 1968 is a set up for his eventual demise, downfall, craziness, or whatever the writers have in mind for the Season 7 series finale.

 

[Worf]

I'm glancing at this while finishing up the work day and totally skimmed over the word you wrote after "Personally." So I'm reading along, thinking, "Wow, this Worf guy had it rough! Raised through the Great Depression... wait, how old is this guy anyway?" Then I went back and noticed my eyes totally omitted the word "if." Had me going.



Wasn't Vietnam considered the first war to be "televised?" Maybe Don just doesn't want to revisit the experiences he had in Korea and ignores the news. I'm also wondering if the flashbacks of his childhood and the current state of the world in 1968 is a set up for his eventual demise, downfall, craziness, or whatever the writers have in mind for the Season 7 series finale.

LOL! My life was no summer picnic to be sure but it can't compare to mind snapping tragedy of Don Draper's. I had a mom and a dad, which put me ahead of most in my neighborhood, and while mom worked as "The Help" and Dad drank and smoked in excess I didnt' have to wonder where my next meail was coming from or stepping over Johns in the hallway. I did step over my share of junkies (living and dead) though...

Worf

 

[tonyb]

What's the deal with the maid Megan fired?

Will this little thread get picked up later? I can't imagine the writers inserting the character just to give Megan someone to fire. Sure, there's that class difference, which I suppose adds another layer of intrigue. But still, I gotta wonder what the maid knows. As one who in his early years had worked in something of a servant capacity (caddy, taxicab driver), I can testify that sometimes our "betters" behave as if we aren't even there, or at the very least, that the impression their behavior might leave upon us is of no significance. I'd think that the Don character would be hip to that, coming from such humble beginnings himself. But Megan? Hmmm ...

 

[AmateisGal]

An episode all about cheating - in business, in a marriage, in life. Don Draper's hypocrisy really knows no bounds, does it? Beginning to truly loathe him.

 

[tonyb]

Yeah, he's a real empty shell of a human being, at least the version of him we've gotten over the past three weeks. An attractive empty shell, but still ...

I've long been fond of the Harry character, dorky flaws and all. But it's good to see him assert himself. He may get canned, but at least he can exit with his integrity intact, which is a good deal more than can be said for the lead character, and a few of the lesser ones.