Again with the drugs. Sigh. The Joan/Peggy subplot was excellent; the rest was........forgettable. Ginsberg needs to chill the ******** out.
The Bob is amassing power. Soon . . . . The Peggy / Joan stuff was fantastic. I dunno why, but it's really great to see Joan out of her depth and nervous. The tension during the lunch was great, but the best was the post-mortem in the office, with typically great Mad Men dialogue that was both direct and confrontational, yet also slippery when it comes to true motivations or desires. Meaning, it was great to hear Peggy air out her pain over Joan's attitude when she was leaving the secretary pool, yet it was still a bit vague as to how she wanted things to play out with Joan and Avon (until the end). But The Bob v. Ginsburg scene was incredible in the way they worked through a crisis and to a resolution with two people who had zero idea or connection to what the other person was saying. It was as if they spliced two wholly different conversations together that just happened to end at the same time. EDIT: Just to underline that last point: Ginsburg: "Are you gay?" The Bob: "There's that sense of humor!"
I will probably try to pick up where I left off for Mad Men this Summer. I stopped after season three. How would you say the seasons after that compare to those three?
Seasons 3 and 4 were the best, but the show is still excellent. The "American epic via character exploration" remains top notch, even if there are occasional stumbles when they get too far away from advertising and go too far down the personal demons rabbit hole. Why did you stop after 3?
There was no particular reason to be fair. I watched those three seasons on DVD. Season four wasn't out yet at the time. Then I never quite got around to starting again even after the DVD releases. Should be able to catch up on 4-5 over the Summer months.
I'll agree with Matrim, seasons 3 and 4 were top notch, but I even liked the first half of season 5 as well. For me it's been getting a little weaker, where as in the past you had a lot of episodes that stood out overall now you'll have little stories that stand out while the rest of an ep can be ho hum.
Haven't weighed in a little while--last week we didn't find time to watch the episode until Thursday, then went out of town for the weekend and just finally watched the latest episode last night. C&C & Matrim kinda already hit what I liked about the episode from two Sundays ago--the aftermath of the stabbing was just...it was just brilliant. Whoever played the ambulance driver deserves kudos for playing the body language just right. And the door motif...I caught that too. Really liked that episoide. This week...seeing Joan flounder was uncomfortable given that we know what she went through to become a partner, but it was also instructive. Recently, my wife mentioned to me how much of a cipher Joan is, and the scene at the restaurant with Peggy and the client was a rare glimpse of Joan betraying a glimpse of her inner life. That moment of doubt when for just a moment, she questioned whether or not she's pushed past her own envelope was both touching and telling. Roger and Don in LA...the "previously on Mad Men" clips are always a clue, and Don in the pool has to be tied to his earlier death-wish ad campaign. Given that he dived in after "seeing" Megan and the dead soldier at the party, and after telling the blond that Don isn't his name...yeah. He's at his limit, existentially. More prosaically*, Don and Roger show themselves to be out of step and falling behind. Like two Rat Pack wannabes at Woodstock. *is this a word? Too lazy to check.
He totally is, though, right? Think about it. The Bon & Joan thing is a total fake out. Yes, he cares for her, but has there been any hint of anything beyond platonic? A middle aged mom (who is still married btw) going to the beach with a younger man that's not her boyfriend? Some of my friends have even suggested that, in fact, he's already out to Joan. That situation makes a lot more sense to me than "Joan is maintaining a perfectly platonic relationship with a heterosexual guy who often comes over to her house and they go to the beach together."
True! Although, if my knowledge of that event is correct, a Bob Benson type would be the last person to actually be involved in something like that. Maybe we can check back in with Salvatore?
They're going to the well too many times with the drug induced dream sequences. That party scene really didn't work for me. Who was the guy Roger was beefing with? It's almost as if the audience was supposed to know. Besides, people don't hallucinate on hash.
The short guy had actually been in the show before-- two or three seasons back. He was hired to be on the creative staff as a favor to Roger's family member, and was not very good, and annoyed people. He did come up with a couple lame ideas, one of which Don inadvertently stole while he was drunk. He was fired soon after. However-- I didn't remember any of this at the time he appeared in the party scene-- I had to be reminded of it later by a friend. So, on that note, I agree with you that it didn't really work. As for the hallucination-- I agree the device is a little hacky but I actually kind of liked the way it gave us a view into Don's deepest feelings and concerns. The whole "my name's not Don" thing, I think, foreshadows that the Dick Whitman problem is going to come back. Same with seeing the ghost of the GI from Hawaii-- he was missing an arm suggesting he died in an explosion-- just as the real Don Draper had in Korea. I'm just taking shots in the dark here.
Really? Like you, I had no memory of that character. Why not put Kinsey in that party? That would have made more sense. Going back to what Belgian guy asked, for me the series has been in a slow decline for the last 2-3 seasons. Just not as compelling. I still watch because every now and then there is an amazing scene. Like Don and Betty back in the sack a few episodes ago.
Wow, for me that was the best episode of the season and the last 15 minutes or so were the best I've seen from this show since the early days.
How anyone could be attracted to Pete Campbell is beyond me -- but The Bob wants what The Bob wants. Peggy / Stan = Always great. Don's completely consistent obliviousness to anything of import going on in the office is still a bit of a stretch ('When's the meeting.. now?' 'Since when do we have Ocean Spray... Which one's bigger?') But it paid off with the Don / Ted dynamic, where Don pulled a genuine blank face to Ted's request to stop sabotaging him -- when he was really just being the usual irresponsible, immensely selfish, self-destructive Don. But I just have to applaud the writing -- how they linked up the Don / Sylvia / Arnie affair with a side order of childhood trauma and dash of social history, just excellent. And Linda Cardellini was immense.
You definitely knew it was going there between Bob and Pete when Bob was defending Manolo. It was practically telegraphed.