Mad Men

[Lord Garth]

I guess I'll be the one to break the ice. Skip the rest of this post if you don't want to be mildly spoiled.

.
.
.

They really handled the JFK assassination well, from the reactions down to work, family, and Roger's daughter's wedding.

Beyond that, Betty's feelings about Don have been the slow burn that I've expected them to be. It can be overwhelming to find out out you've been lied to for 10 years and, rawness or not, it's something that'll take time sink in and process. Not everything's going to come to Betty's mind all at once.

 

[thedude]

I can't say enough good things about this latest episode. I had been worried about how they would handle the assassination from day one... you can read my earlier posts regarding Mad Men, especially this season, and see that my main concern was how they were going to show it, and deal with it... and I think they did great. Everyone reacted exactly how I expected them to... Don was calm, cool and collect... Pete didn't know what to do... Peggy went to work (eventually ;-) ), and ignored it... Betty freaked out and over exaggerated... every character responded exactly as they should.

What I didn't expect was how *I* would respond to it. I'm 27. I didn't go through those events... but I was noticeably moved during the show. I don't know if it was how the actors were responding, or the use of actual news footage shown on period TV's... but whatever it was, I was almost moved to tears during the episode. The whole combination of the actors performances and the atmosphere created by the production was one hell of a thing. I have no doubt in my mind this is the best show on TV. I could NEVER imagine a show like Dexter, Lost, House Damages, or whatever (keep in mind I watch all of those) inflicting that kind of emotion on a viewer. Not only could I relate to the actors in the show, but I empathized with anyone who lived through those events - especially in the manner which they depicted them, which I'd imagine is exactly how most people lived them.

Well done, Me. Weiner, and may you enjoy your many awards to come.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Your post sums of my thoughts exactly, thedudesrottingcorpse.

No other show can do what this show does. I felt like I was witnessing history tonight. Experiencing events that happened 15 years before I was born. While I am very knowledgeable of this day's events I never could feel the emotion of that day.

While other films and tv shows have covered this event, none have used a pre-established group of characters. Over the course of 3 seasons we have lived in the world of these characters. A world that has been forever changed.

 

[Maab of the Ten Tribes]

I loved this latest episode "the grown ups". What a great name for it! Everybody had some more growing up to do and the assassination brought a lot of things in light for some of them.

Don truly looked distraught at the end. I wonder if he will go back to the teacher? Not to mention the fall out of the sale of SC. I cant wait until the finale!

 

[Warped9]

I'm feeling so robbed not being able to see these episodes.

I'll just have to wait for the season set now.

 

[sidious618]

Man, it was good. I have a feeling that we're going to have a bigger finale than in the past but at the same time I don't want to set my hopes too high.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

A very dramatic episode, but the drama was largely provided by real historical events instead of anything very interesting or dramatic generated by who these characters are. They are far too shallow and mindless to generate dramatic heat on their own, which is why when JFK isn't being assassinated, the story stalls out. It's like watching a drama enacted by department store mannequins. Maybe that's Weiner's intent, but it doesn't make it any more interesting.

So next season jumps three years into the future? 1966. Damn, still not quite up to the hippies, but at least there's some counterculture ferment. It's obvious that the real dramatic oomph to this show is provided by external events that are acting like heat lamps to melt the glaciers that the characters are embedded in.

Here's hoping that poor forgotten Sal makes a reappearance next week. And I hope the Drapers really do get a divorce, so Betty can be booted from the show. She's the most lifeless of all these mannequins.

 

[sidious618]

And here I find Betty one of the most interesting characters second only to Don.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Betty seems to be making the same mistakes again. What does she really know Henry Francis? Not much more than she really knew about Don when she married him.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Here's hoping that poor forgotten Sal makes a reappearance next week.

Fuck Sal, I don't know why I should feel any sympathy for him.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

I'm extremely interested in what happens to Betty. She's ready to kick Don to the curb, but not quite ready for independence. It'll be a long process. It's a huge step for her considering how divorced women are looked down upon in her social group.

 

[Checkmate]

Fuck Sal, I don't know why I should feel any sympathy for him.

o.O

He was fired simply because he -- as respectfully as he could -- refused to fuck a client, and because that client was embarrassed by his own actions and wanted to discredit Sal just on the off-chance Sal might say something.

Yeah. No sympathy there.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Yes, but he was living a lie his whole life, and don't tell me he didn't hurt people left and right because of that, starting with his wife. He's a hypocrit, and I don't care for him at all.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

I've only seen a few episodes so far, so my understanding of the characters is bound to be somewhat incomplete at this point. Has Betty shown any signs of strength or independence in earlier episodes? Because the picture I'm getting of her, based on the last few episodes, is that she's a perpetual little girl who is only willing to face the possibility of dumping Don now because she already has a replacement father figure in her sights.

 

[Top41]

I hear you, Top 41, it's just that he'll make nice with Betty and then he'll do it again and get caught cheating with someone else. Don never learns. Yes, he had a fucked up childhood in the extreme, but we expect people like alcoholics and whatnot to help themselves even if they're sick. Don could have a wonderful life if he'd just take it....but he won't.

Agreed, but I think that's the tragedy there--he doesn't feel worthy of it. He's always going to be that little boy looking for love, and when he finds it, figuring there's something wrong with the person who loves him because really... who could love him? It doesn't excuse his behavior, but I think it explains it.

I guess I'll finish out the season but after that, I'll probably bail on this show. Don's Big Secret was outed and it was a big fat nothing. This show has the dramatic oomph of a deflated balloon. All these people are annoying, creepy and/or stupid. Maybe we can turn this into alt-history sci fi and have the Russians nuke NYC and wipe them all out. Go get 'em Krushchev!

I gotta say, I hear you on the slow build, but I thought the revelation of the secret was nothing short of amazing! I was so surprised that it all came out the way it did, and that Betty just confronted him like that. I thought it was great. It's a slow moving show, but then stuff will happen all of the sudden--like the British guy's foot getting cut off--and you take note all the more because the show usually does move slowly.

I will say this--outside of Peggy and Pete (and Sal and Joan before they left), I'm not really interested in any of the junior Sterling Cooper workers/supporting cast. I can barely keep them straight--beard guy, TV dept. head and blonde guy. None of them really grab me.

Oddly enough, I'm liking Pete Cambell better than Don (as a person) because Don is such a dick to him all the time. Not to say that Pete has been a shining knight these first six eps, but he is just a kid with eyes bigger than his stomach.

I like Pete better than Don. It's not so odd. Some folks can really identify with how awkward Pete feels, especially when the older guys mock him for being a rich man's son. Kartheiser is extremely talented at projecting Pete's feelings of unease, while Don is handsome and slick with so many gifts. I think it was Matt Weiner who called it a "vulnerable yet slimy quality" that Pete projects.

I love, love, love Kartheiser, but I'm a bit soured on Pete since what he did to the German maid. Outside of that, I generally find him sympathetic even when he's being something of a weasel.

I am the only one who thinks Pete's wife Trudy is the hottest woman on the show?

Then you should check her out in NBC's community. This last week's Halloween episode had her in a skin tight black outfit.

Last week's episode of Mad Men was probably the best the series has given us so far. The show has been building up to Betty learning Don's secret for over 2 years now, and they did not disappoint. Great job writing the sequence, and excellently executed by Jon Hamm and January Jones (this ep will be the clip they both give for Emmy consideration I'm sure).

I'm really looking forward to see how they handle the JFK assassination. They've been alluding to it all season long (Roger's daughter's rehearsal dinner is scheduled for the day of the assassination). It seems like they may be setting it up that Kennedy's death will play out metaphorically as Don's fall from power.

Thoughts?

First of all, fucking a--where'sSaavik?!

I loved the way the Kennedy assassination played out. I haven't been alive for a presidential assassination--and hope that one never happens in my lifetime--but the way it unfolded on screen made me realize how awful it must have been. It's shocking and scary and tragic.

I can't say enough good things about this latest episode. I had been worried about how they would handle the assassination from day one... you can read my earlier posts regarding Mad Men, especially this season, and see that my main concern was how they were going to show it, and deal with it... and I think they did great. Everyone reacted exactly how I expected them to... Don was calm, cool and collect... Pete didn't know what to do... Peggy went to work (eventually ;-) ), and ignored it... Betty freaked out and over exaggerated... every character responded exactly as they should.

What I didn't expect was how *I* would respond to it. I'm 27. I didn't go through those events... but I was noticeably moved during the show. I don't know if it was how the actors were responding, or the use of actual news footage shown on period TV's... but whatever it was, I was almost moved to tears during the episode. The whole combination of the actors performances and the atmosphere created by the production was one hell of a thing. I have no doubt in my mind this is the best show on TV. I could NEVER imagine a show like Dexter, Lost, House Damages, or whatever (keep in mind I watch all of those) inflicting that kind of emotion on a viewer. Not only could I relate to the actors in the show, but I empathized with anyone who lived through those events - especially in the manner which they depicted them, which I'd imagine is exactly how most people lived them.

Well done, Me. Weiner, and may you enjoy your many awards to come.

Agreed. It really put me there in a way I can't say I ever expected it to. It made it real--not just something from a history book. Can you imagine watching TV and seeing someone shot to death like Oswald was. On live TV?? I can't even imagine. That was incredibly powerfully depicted--and it really happened.

I'm extremely interested in what happens to Betty. She's ready to kick Don to the curb, but not quite ready for independence. It'll be a long process. It's a huge step for her considering how divorced women are looked down upon in her social group.

Same here! I like Betty a lot, and I realized what an amazing actress January Jones is when I watched Betty watch Henry walk into the room and greet the young woman, and then overhear that the woman was his daughter. The range of emotions that played on her face was just incredible!!!

 

[Bad Bishop]

If you want to know how Conrad Hilton became a character in this series, here is a Wall Street Journal article for you:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703574604574500264136219696.html

 

[sidious618]

Same here! I like Betty a lot, and I realized what an amazing actress January Jones is when I watched Betty watch Henry walk into the room and greet the young woman, and then overhear that the woman was his daughter. The range of emotions that played on her face was just incredible!!!

Betty can be such a cold fish sometimes that I think a lot of people forget how magnificent an actress January Jones is.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Yes, but he was living a lie his whole life, and don't tell me he didn't hurt people left and right because of that, starting with his wife. He's a hypocrit, and I don't care for him at all.

He's a gay man who was born in the late 1920s, not the 1960s or 1970s. Homosexuality was listed as a mental defect by the American Psychiatric Association. Gay men were considered child molesters by polite society. You could lose your job legally, your kids, your life. Sal didn't neglect to come out because he's a lying hypocrite; he didn't come out because coming out would most likely ruin his life, certainly his professional life. Clients would refuse to work with him People feared gays.

I agree that January Jones is a far, far better actress than she's given credit for.

 

[ALF]

So next season jumps three years into the future? 1966. Damn, still not quite up to the hippies, but at least there's some counterculture ferment.

Really? I didn't hear about this. Where was this announced? Fascinating. I wonder how many seasons that they can keep the quality level up?

My personal predictions for the finale...

Spoiler: MM 3x13

Joan will come back to Sterling Cooper, Peggy and Peter will leave to join Duck's new venture. I'm hoping Price will stick around, I find he adds to a scene. I hope Sal gets his job back since he's "cheaper" than the new art director they wanted to hire. But ultimately I'm certain Betty is going to try and pull a Don Draper/Dick Whitman of her own... with the kids.

Having said that, I am amazing that there will be a 3 year jump ahead for S4, but I think that might work quite well. It did for Desperate Housewives... a show I found my interest in waning considerably and only watched because my wife likes it.

A quick side rant about some of the Peter remarks I'm reading: yes, Peter was a self centred, chauvanistic (sp?) asshole in the first couple of seasons, but you have to admit (rape aside) he's grown somewhat. This seaosn he's been getting along incredibly well with Trudy (when he first married her, he didn't seem to care for her at all). I'm blown away that he treats her so well recently... and yes, of course neighbour. Rape. Aside.
3x12 The Grown-Ups showed us a few glimpses of what's I'm referring to... Peter genuinely asks his wife for career advice. He snipped at his assistant for getting "instant" hot chocolate, but later apologizes and says it's hitting the spot. S1 or S2 Peter wouldn't have done that. I just find that he is growing a bit.

Now Paul... there is an uncontrollably arrogant asshole. I think it's amazing that he's still around!

 

[Roger Wilco]

He's a gay man who was born in the late 1920s, not the 1960s or 1970s. Homosexuality was listed as a mental defect by the American Psychiatric Association. Gay men were considered child molesters by polite society. You could lose your job legally, your kids, your life. Sal didn't neglect to come out because he's a lying hypocrite; he didn't come out because coming out would most likely ruin his life, certainly his professional life. Clients would refuse to work with him People feared gays.

That young Russian or wherever he's from doesn't seem to be having any problems. And it's not just Salvatore being afraid for his career, but also fucking strangers all the time.