Mad Men

[The Shire Voice Of Reason]

If you're going to post before it's on UK TV put it in a spolier!!

Ever since Murdoch bought it I do everything I can to undermine his channels. Basically, Mad Men is never going to appear on my UK TV.

[T_S_A_R]

Did don smoke any fags in that episode?

[Haters Gonna Hate]

Move over Glen, Ted Chaough is my new favourite character.

Edited May 19, 2013 by Haters Gonna Hate

[The Shire Voice Of Reason]

I don't know how to do spoilers, so let's get this weeks episode watched quickly so that someone can explain WTF happened there to me.

[Haters Gonna Hate]

I don't know how to do spoilers, so let's get this weeks episode watched quickly so that someone can explain WTF happened there to me.

[The Shire Voice Of Reason]

That's just one of the things I'm talking about. WTF? And can someone explain the opening 20 seconds?

[T_S_A_R]

the start was ken in detroit with te chevy execs who are a bunch of bams.

The rest was due to that doctor injecting them full of speed.

The only bit that confused me was the old black granny knowing bobby's name.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

The robber had been getting information from Sally when she asked her who else was in the house.

I thought it was a fun episode with Don going off the rails. After he eventually collapses and the intruder stuff he seems to focus on his job and his family again. There is a costume design blog which has a large focus on colours and I haven't read it this week but the lack of red (infidelity) on Don's tie at the end seems like the end of his affair, he had been wearing red in his ties for a few weeks. His trip seemed to be a lot of self examination and self indulgence with dialogue call backs to previous episodes but afterwards he finally apologised for his behaviour even if it was only to Sally about the door.

What he does next is the question. I don't think he wants Megan but will stick with her because he likes being married, or at least the idea of it according to Faye Miller. She will need to end it like Betty did. I think they are plotting a storyline with Don and Henry clashing in some fashion. We know he is running for office, shoved in our face this week, and there was talk of a contract for the agency with New York State.

I really hope we see a almost procedural type episode where a client has a problem > Don doesn't care > the creatives work on new stuff > miraculous idea solves problem. There hasn't been that kind of episode for a while and Don is losing his lustre. What was the last winning campaign he came up with? The merger for Chevy was Ted's idea, he just made Don think it was his. The Hawaii hotel, Heinz have been losers. The company needs a hit soon and a name.

Where was Megan? A casting couch like Betty said. We know she is manipulative and doesn't mind selling herself for work.

Peggy's life just gets more complex, her and Abe are over at this point. Will she tell him or will she escalate things with Ted and hide it like Don does.

[The Shire Voice Of Reason]

the start was ken in detroit with te chevy execs who are a bunch of bams.

The rest was due to that doctor injecting them full of speed.

The only bit that confused me was the old black granny knowing bobby's name.

I got all that. It just seems to all be coming out of nowhere.

I'm giving Weiner the benefit of the doubt, and assuming all this sudden shit this season is to represent that everything is getting out of control for Don?

[T_S_A_R]

I got all that. It just seems to all be coming out of nowhere.

I'm giving Weiner the benefit of the doubt, and assuming all this sudden shit this season is to represent that everything is getting out of control for Don?

i think they enjoyed doing roger's acid trip last season so this time they went with a group experience with amphetamines. it was inspired by this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Jacobson

i said at the start of the season that don was in a very dark place and i think that the chevy deal and the merger will prove to be too much for him. the chevy guys are maniacs and chaogh and cutler are more than he can handle at the moment.

my theory is that don will be leaving the agency soon. also megan was looking immense, i suspect betty might be right about her whereabouts.

Edited May 23, 2013 by T_S_A_R

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Don can't leave the agency or we will be leaving the agency too. Even in his period of extended absences everything at the agency has been focussed on him an what his impact is on what is happening. There has been some focus on Peggy but not enough to justify continuing being involved with Ken, Stan and maybe even Joan if Don is no longer part of it.

There were a load of in your face references to death, Don coughing (past and less past) with worries about him dying. It was a clear shout out to the audience to think he has lung cancer with Gleason dying as Don coughs his way along the corridor. The doctor asking about heart conditions when the season opened with a man having a heart attack (which could still fold over and close the season with Don having a heart attack in the lobby). His collapse in the apartment. They weren't exactly subtle with Lane's death either.

I was thinking about Don's affair and his apology to Sally. In the episode where he was sent home with flu and hallucinated(?) murdering a woman he asked her how she got in and she replied that the back door was open, the exact same thing he apoligised to Sally for. Maybe this episode wasn't the death of Don but rather his libido and that he doesn't care about women now and will instead slowly kill himself with other vices. How many interesting affairs does Don have left as a character, the Sylvia storyline wasn't in the least bit gripping but by far the worst for him with the woman and her husband being in such close proximity.

[T_S_A_R]

When don was running about with the rich crowd in California we saw what was happening in the office. We also saw some office stuff when he was in Baltimore with sal plus we saw Peggy working at a totally different company. I think chaogh and cutler could be used as a device to allow don to leave for a while whilst still keeping the office going.

I agree that he has worked his way past Sylvia but I doubt he has changed, he'll fall back into the same patterns as always.

[T_S_A_R]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/05/20/mad_men_season_6_episode_8_the_crash_is_scdp_fighting_its_vietnam.html

a pretty mind blowing piece on slate about the most recent episode and the vietnam war.

this is why i feel that people watching mad men in blocks rather than weekly lose out. each episode needs to be given attention and thought.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Last weeks episode was definitely high concept.

Nothing on TV tonight so I went ahead and watched this weeks Mad Men. Not a high concept episode but rather being battered over and over again with the same theme. I think this episode is can be summed up by one phrase "Stuck in the middle". There was a lot of character progression and growth and almost everything was happening around pairs. No spoilers other than there was no Ken and Duck makes a return.

[T_S_A_R]

from the alan sepinwall review

It's an episode where Megan plays twins, where the sleepaway camp has five Bobbys(*), Father Abraham has seven sons, where Duck Phillips (now a headhunter rather than an office vandal) can tell Pete "I've been you" in the same hour where Bob Benson does a fine impression of the young Pete (to Pete, in fact) and Henry is alarmed to see a man hitting on Betty while he's on the phone in the same way he once hit on her while Don was busy meeting Connie Hilton. Everyone has a copy, some better than others. Megan struggles to distinguish between Collette and Corinne, while Bob's young Pete Campbell is smoother and more assured than the original ever was.

and the tom and lorenzo site points out that megan dressed like this while police sirens scream in the background

is a reference to sharon tate dressed like this( NSFW) http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6ggaddZ801qigaa4o1_500.jpg

fingers crossed they don't kill off megan but you do get the impression that things are building to a violent end. that episode was august 1968 so the democratic convention is probably coming up soon. the final season should be epic. the moon landing, the manson family murders and woodstock all happen within a month of each other.

[Haters Gonna Hate]

SC&P =shite name.

[Supras]

Started watching this on sky boxsets, think I'm on episode 4 now. It's quite an interesting show, very nuanced. Most character traits are revealed through nothing exchanges or throw away lines.

It's already pretty clear everyone is an excessively proud, self centered basket case though.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

SC&P =shite name.

Theme serving name. Don has been erased.

[T_S_A_R]

don has well and truly checked out. he looked pretty happy with megan as well but we've 16 episodes left so there's no way that it's plain sailing. i said a while ago that he i thought he might leave the company and it looks like that might be on the cards.

pete is often a distorted version of don and he seems at the end of his tether as well. guaranteed that pete whitey'd on stans weed and spent the rest of the day lying on the floor of his office.

i want to see ginsberg tell bob benson he was born in a concentration camp and for bob benson to soothe his troubled psyche.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

I had a few thoughts on this episode when I watched it but most are covered elsewhere by better writers.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the trajectories of Peter and Harry. Obviously it was done a bit in the previous episode but just the subtle things that show them as on completely opposite career paths. When Joan sits down to her dinner meeting and the client asks her about the agency she doesn't mention Don and Ted as great creators or the amazing accounts dept she specifically mentions Harry and his excellent work in TV. This is even stranger considering they have a somewhat strained relationship but because we know Joan as someone with intimate knowledge of what the important parts of the company are it is clear that TV is now the top dog.

This gets emphasised further when Roger and Don are out in LA with Harry (poor Peter is left in the office as Joan sidesteps him) and Harry is the successful one, he has connections where as the old ways of dazzling them with Don's genius or Roger's charm seem not to work, also they talk mostly about TV ads.

As Peter is being pushed aside Harry is becoming the most important player at SC&P.

I'm missing the characters do their jobs. We haven't seen any for weeks and only a snippet of the creative process behind margarine adverts.