May 2013
2 posts
6 tags
6.7: I Hope You Can Still Look Up To Me
Much like Dan, I like Mad Men best when our characters are in the office and doing whatever is considered “work” in the booze-and-weed-filled advertising world of the 1960’s. And while we ventured out to see Joan and Pete’s deteriorating domestic situations, it fit in the context of their unsteady situation at work, so this follow up to last week’s reset felt...
6 tags
6.6: SCDPGGC
Plot! Creative agency capers! Hilarious non sequitirs! (“Each one with its own nipple! // Gosh, I love puppies.”) This episode had all my favorite Mad Men episode elements, plus the awkward — and layered — reunion of Don and Peggy.
It’s not quite believable that suddenly these longtime rivals — and polar opposite personalities — would decide on a whim to combine agencies and...
April 2013
8 posts
7 tags
6.5: Heart Exploding Love and Awkward Hugs
Just last week we were lamenting how this show emphasized a stagnant Don Draper over the other compelling characters. This week, not only did Don immediately get more compelling when placed against the backdrop of the MLK assassination and paired with his young son, Bobby, but the other characters got some important screen time, as well.
I have been wanting Mad Men to tackle the riveting racial...
4 tags
6.4: Has The Don Draper Character Arc Run Its...
Jason, when I read your post following Sunday night’s episode, it hit on a theme that I think many of us Mad Men fans have been feeling this season: That we’ve already seen this sad sack of a man before… in season three. Homeboy is still gorgeous and troubled and in possession of all the complexities that made him compelling in the first place. But where is this going? It’s...
6.4: Ugh
Watching Don Draper this season is like watching a once-great baseball player become mediocre. He looks the same in his gray uniform, but he’s lost his swing. His dalliances, his hypocrisies, and even his pitches are faint imitations of the player he used to be. It’s just no fun, and worse, it’s disappointing.
-Jason
9 tags
6.3: It's All About What It Looks Like, Isn't It
Every time I think of you I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue It’s no problem of mine But it’s a problem I find
-New Order
I named this post after a line from Pete Campbell, since it seemed to sum up the theme of the episode — appearances. Marriages seem to look good and the war looks like it’s being won, at least if you’re sitting in that New York restaurant.
...
4 tags
6.1/6.2: On That Inscribed Zippo Lighter
Dan, to your question about the inscribed Zippo — Slate found a photo of a similar Vietmam era Zippo with the “not our bag” inscription. Some more background, by David Haglund:
“In life we often have to do things that just are not our bag.” That’s the inscription on the Zippo that Don Draper inadvertently takes from a soldier on leave in Hawaii. Inscribed Zippos were...
5 tags
6.1 I solved Don's problem
No, I can’t make Don stop cheating on his awesome wife. No, I can’t make him live his life instead of escaping from anxiety. No, I can’t make him wake up and remember that he has children who need him.
But last night I solved his Royal Hawaiian problem. Two sets of clothes, a suit and a dress. Two sets of footprints, his and hers. Then we’re not thinking about death. Then...
4 tags
6.1: Infernal affairs
As I post just outside the 24-hour review cycle, I imagine that last night’s two-hour premiere has already been combed over like Roger Sterling’s silver swoop. Like you, Elise, I tried my best to keep away from reviews, but Sepinwall’s recap roped me in as usual. I will offer up a few outside observations, and I’d love to see if any of them resonate with you as they do with...
11 tags
6.1: I Don't Feel Anything/It Makes Me Feel So...
(Note: I apologize for the later-than-usual posting since I usually try to write some thoughts immediately after the East coast airing. But I was traveling and missed it, so I spent all day avoiding all tweets or writeups about the episode so I could watch it fresh and unaffected by what the critics saw/noticed. Now that I’m done I can’t wait to hear/read your takes, and the...
June 2012
3 posts
7 tags
5.13: Temporary Bandage on a Permanent Wound
“Not every girl can do what she wants.” -Megan Calvet’s Mother
In the finale to a melancholy season five, showrunner Matthew Weiner writes and directs an episode in which business is doing better than ever, but that’s about the only thing looking up.
The times change, but do people ever change? Weiner was a head writer on The Sopranos, the sweeping mob drama whose primary...
2 tags
NYT: ‘Mad Men’ Creator Matthew Weiner Reflects on... →
On Sunday afternoon, he spoke to ArtsBeat about everything that’s happened on the series this season prior to the finale. (And he has sworn on a box of Bugles that he’ll call us back on Monday to talk about the finale itself.) These are excerpts from that conversation.
3 tags
5.12: Bert Checked The Books?!
“What is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness.” -Don
As his young daughter becomes a woman, Don mans up to Dow, and Lane mans up in the way he knows how. And the macabre irony there — that Lane wanted to go peacefully but he couldn’t because the unreliable Jag wouldn’t start — that is some heavy shit.
And of course, it’s all ultimately...
May 2012
11 posts
3 tags
NPR: 'Mad Men': Ruminations On The Buying And... →
“The Joan storyline, that was a failure for me.”
I totally agree with my NPR colleague Linda Holmes on the incredulity of the Joan storyline, reasons for which she outlines quite well in this blog post. So I don’t even need to go there. But I’m still waiting for you boys to weigh in with what YOU thought of this girl-centric episode.
-Elise
5.11 Some things aren't for sale
I can’t write anything about that episode that Elise and Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker haven’t said better, though I lean heavily toward Nussbaum’s thesis that prostitution has always been a theme of Mad Men. What struck me was how normal the proposition sounded inside the office. In the bar, the request to have the B-52 sent to his love shack came across as an affront. Inside...
4 tags
5.11: Girls Just Wanna Have...
Team, I’m going to ignore the fact that I find the Joan storyline to be incredulous for a second to focus on Peggy, who has been, for the length of this show, both a protege and a female mirror of Don. Last season’s “The Suitcase,” when Don really hit the bottom of the Plath Bell Jar and found himself sleeping on Peggy’s lap after losing Anna Draper is one of the best...
5 tags
5.10: Hare Hare, Hare Krishna
Ugh, this is the 10th episode of the season already? I can’t believe we have so few episodes left. But these seasons tend to work like Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit — build, build, build, climax somewhere in the third act (or the penultimate episode), bring on the resolution in the very end (or the season finale.)
Lane Skimmin’
How many storylines do I say “This...
2 tags
5.9: Weights and Measures
“I’m thankful that I have everything I want. And that no one else has anything better.” -Betty
On this Mother’s Day, we pause in our celebration of loving moms to watch perhaps the most irritating television mother of all time, Betty Draper Francis.
What’s the measure of a man? His professional life, we think. What’s the measure of a woman in the sixties — or...
4 tags
5.8: In Which I Had To Look Up Modernism Versus...
After our resident professor-blogger Walton expounded on Pete Campbell’s reading of Thomas Pynchon and suggested that Pete’s ethos is a hybrid of modern and post-modern, I looked up the differences and found a handy chart.
So, modernism aligns with realism and post-modernism is literature that’s aware it’s literature, or art that’s aware it’s art. You could...
5.8 - It Is Knowing, It Is Knowing...
“People want to be told what to do so badly that they’ll listen to anyone.”
In Season 1, Episode 6 (“Babylon”), Don Draper visits the Village to check out some beatnik poetry. During an exchange with an artist, Don finds himself coolly and confidently defending his profession. He says to the artist, “people want to be told what to do so badly that they’ll...
5.8: Entropy and Lady Lazarus
Pete Campbell is reading Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 at the beginning of the episode. This is important on two counts: 1) Pynchon’s protagonist, Oedipa Maas, believes she’s uncovered a world wide conspiracy that begins between two rival mail distribution companies. This give us some indication of Pete’s ridiculous claim about the female sexual conspiracy against men. 2) It also allows...
2 tags
5.8: An admission
(Submitted by MadMenConvo member Jason)
I am the master of my domain. I won’t go so far as to say that I’m the Don Draper of my office, but it’s my name on the door, and there aren’t many doors in my industry. And in my office, there’s no Lane, no Bert Cooper, and, sadly, no Roger Sterling.
But there is a Megan. My Megan is not Canadian, but she is a second wife...
4 tags
5.8: Just Taste It, or, Pizza House!
I realize this was a serious episode exploring identity, fidelity and what makes us alive or dead inside but it was also one of the funniest episodes of Mad Men all season. It’s actually surprising it was so funny, considering how little Roger “One Liner” Sterling appeared in the episode. Between Peggy’s avoidance of Don by yelling “Pizza House” when she...
2 tags
In Defense of Megan
Let us now praise Megan (Calvet) Draper (Jessica Paré). She’s taken a lot of heat from the Mad Men community on both sides of the camera, and it’s time for it to stop.
Yes, she a shade more than half her husband’s age, and yes, a bit of premarital counseling and a longer courtship might have been wise. But let’s first place this in context. It was the ’60s, and...
April 2012
19 posts
5 tags
5.7: Some Things Never Change
This week we got a longer look at our characters home lives — Peggy’s “sinful” cohabitation decision, Megan’s thwarted dreams and dysfunctional parents, Sally peeking through a “dirty” looking glass. Weiner makes our relationships with our parents — their expectations versus our expectations, the way they boost us and the way they let us down — central to this...
5 tags
5.6: The End or the Beginning for Don and Megan?
One question that I’ve been chewing on is whether Don and Megan’s epic chase and fight signaled the end of our protagonist’s “love leave” or the beginning of what’s a more true relationship between Don and his young wife. I begin with an excerpt from my colleague Linda Holmes’ recent post:
There was a surprising amount of “This marriage works very...
Jane Siegel-Sterling modeling a prom dress... →
Found this randomly and thought it was amusing.
5.6: Sex, Drugs, and Orange Sherbet
This episode is about transgression, and what transgression means for those closest to us as well as ourselves. Does acting out of character—whether via an acid-inspired paradigm shift, demanding that someone eat something neon-colored, or just handing out an “old-fashioned” in a movie theater—-does this move us anywhere or just “diminish” those closest to us?...
9 tags
5.6: In the Sky with Diamonds
“Where are we? Where are we going?” -Sally Draper
I travel a good amount; nothing like those who practically live at 30,000 feet, but enough to lose a sense of place at least a few times a month, and it’s invigorating and disorienting at once. If you ask me, there’s no place quite more like purgatory than an airport. A bunch of strangers waiting to go somewhere, reliant on...
5 tags
5.5: Boys on the Slide
Ever the thoughtful writer, Ken Cosgrove’s short story voiceover that ends this episode concludes with a line like “all the beauty was too difficult to bear,” a theme that describes both the subterranean crises that brought on the social unrest of the sixties and the suffering of Pete Campbell.
It’s true that everyone in the office and the audience has been waiting for...
Can Don Draper Go Rock?
Thesis Don Draper as a character - and, thus, Mad Men as a show - needs to successfully transition from folk to rock to meet expectations and continue challenging his/its audience.
Timeline The world of Mad Men started in March of 1960. As of the end of episode 5.4, we are a couple weeks into July 1966, knowing that Don’s birthday (episodes 5.1-5.2) is on June 1, and the Rolling Stones...
5.1-3 - Can Don Draper Go Rock?, and Betty...
For Matt Weiner, the first season of Mad Men finished wrapping with it’s fate unknown. The same was true for the character of Don Draper; in the final scene he comes home dreaming Betty and the kids might still be there, only to be left alone on the stairs. When you watch that final scene you can see Don facing his rapidly deteriorating marriage with Betty.
Matt Weiner put his faith in the...
5.4: Haunted Mansion Rickets Edition
Did Halloween come early this year for Matt Weiner? This installment was a lurid, visceral delight—or would have been had Michael Ginsburg not kept my conscience in check. He was rightly disgusted with the young gang’s delight in gory details. What a way to prime us for what was to come. Elise, I think you caught onto something in the creepy and foreboding scene with Sally Draper. You...
5.4 - Caught by Monsters
As foretold by the wonderful Cinderella tale of Michael Ginsburg - aka, the new Don Draper, an idea I’ll save for another post - last night’s “Mystery Date” episode brought out the monsters for Don, Sally, Joan and Peggy. It was one of the best single-episode story constructions I can remember from any season of Mad Men. Thoughts on each of the monsters:
Don Draper -...
6 tags
5.4: Girls I Do Adore
In an episode framed by the news of systematic rape, torture and killing of eight women, the women of Mad Men learn to stand up for themselves, even while the very real specter of a different kind of damage — emotional and psychological harm — threatens them all. I’m proud we’re watching the women of the show learn to ask for what they want. But the consequences will last a long time.
...
fatbettyfrancis asked: Elise, I'm not quite sure if I can see the weight gain as a true acceptance for Betty, but I see it as some sort of a transition wanted or not. She went from living a very charmed lie w Don, to the older and more boring life with Henry. Wondering if the idea for having Betty marry a politician was inspired by Elizabeth Taylor's story. I see Betty getting old, going nuts in that huge old...
fatbettyfrancis asked: I think part of the issue with Fat Betty isn't the weight gain, or padding but the completely frumpy, and "old lady" dressing that looks so sad. More so, that someone who has spent the last 4 seasons where appearances are everything - very "what would the neighbors think?" seems to be finally coming into herself, in some way. I've always felt she was more upset that...
5.3: Romney & Betty Continued
Just a clarification on my thoughts on the Romney reference: I knew Henry Francis was talking about good ol’ George, and I certainly know (or hope) that Weiner would never intentionally insert a present-day reference into his show. Still, with the current Republican race and the fact that there were dozens of other political figures to choose from (and the fact that we never really delve...
5 tags
5.3: Weighing In On Betty
First, I have to clear something up with Young Dan, who in his last post chided Weiner for a “current” reference, when really Henry Francis’ character was referring to the elder Romney, Mitt’s dad George. I think Dan is young enough to claim ignorance on the role of George Romney in American politics. Here’s Vanity Fair:
On last night’s episode of Mad Men, Henry...
5.3: Weiner & Hamm Play Fast and Loose/Betty:...
Last night’s episode fulfilled the season premiere’s promise of just how cray this decade will get. A Rolling Stones/Tradewinds backstage party! Fat Betty and Bugles! Harry eating 20 White Castles! A Jewish copywriter and a black secretary?! Jon Hamm directed this episode which, despite a lumbering Betty plot line, felt just like a woozy, careening summer ride. Elise, you were right to...
5.3: Awkward
You know what’s awkward? Laying in bed, watching Mad Men with the partner when Betty calls Don to seek comforting for a cancer scare. The partner is a spectacular spouse, loving beyond measure, surprising in her ability to restore a cynic’s faith in the world. The partner could also not be more different than the first wife.
After Don hung up the phone, the partner said that the...
6 tags
5.3: Time's Not On My Side
When is everything gonna get back to normal?, the atrophying Roger Sterling asks. The wheels of change are spinning forward, and many of the characters aren’t. It’s been a consistent theme on this show, but never as clearly as at this point, now that we’re a year out from the Summer of Love.
We watched as young, striving Pete embarrassed the white-haired, account-less Roger...
Season 5 Premiere: An essay in tweets
Walton Muyumba @wmuyumba Weiner double down from the get go #MadMen Walton Muyumba @wmuyumba Not a spoiler: clearly the things are changing and these mofos are still in 1962. Walton Muyumba @wmuyumba Word: these dudes are still cads and misogynists #madmen Walton Muyumba @wmuyumba Are the suits cut differently? Walton Muyumba @wmuyumba Fuck Duck, says Peggy #madmen Walton Muyumba ...
March 2012
7 posts
2 tags
“I always find it comes down to the two questions I have in my life, which are:...”
– Mad Men creator Matt Weiner, on the essence of the show
Animated Gifs! Peggy Dancing, Pete Crashing, Lane... →
Yes. Yes. Yes.
5.1 and 5.2: Last Night's One Perfect Moment
Elise note: This is submitted by Friend Jason in Texas, who I hope will be submitting more throughout the season.
It will shock exactly no one who knows me that I was a band geek in high school. Something Ron Jones, my stage band director, taught us keeps rattling around my head when I watch Mad Men. Jones told me that the rests are as important as the notes. In Mad Men, what is said is always...
5.1 and 5.2: or, The Lots of Megan's Side-Boob...
Tonight, my roommate and I talked about how nervous season five made us. And if we TV nerds acknowledged this nervousness, surely Matthew Weiner et. al are feeling some summer-of-‘66-level heat because of the scrutiny the show is under. We fear the show’s decline, a decline which could come from the the lack of fresh ideas, a new-found (or at least enlarged) sense of grandiosity from...
5.1, 5.2: Mad Men, Back Again
1. Anyone else think the music was a bit heavy handed?
2. Can we take a minute to look at the new environments? Don has ditched his apartment downtown for a swank Midtown pad. Pete left the UWS for… New Jersey? Connecticut? Somewhere with a train, obviously.
3. Interesting to see Roger and Jane fighting — also some of the funniest moments of the episode. But it’s worth noting that...
4 tags
5.1 and 5.2: For Every Season, Beans Beans Beans
We’ve waited 17 months for this comeback; on the show, only mere months have passed. (Season 4 took place between November 1964 and October 1965.) Instead of jumping two years in time, as we saw between Seasons 1 (1960) and 2 (1962), Mad Men head honcho Matthew Weiner starts us in June 1966, right in the middle of the fast, changin’ times.
Unlike Phillip, I deliberately decided not...
The Beginning of Things
Did you ever think of the number of things that had to happen for me to get to know you? That everything happened, and it got me here? What does it mean?
I originally was just going to watch Tomorrowland, the incredible season four finale to Mad Men, to prep for the return of Mad Men. Then I remembered what happened - Don goes off to California, brings his secretary only because his ex-wife...
