Also: Another Betty-free episode. Are they always the best? I have to say that I much appreciated the deep crazy and searing awfulness of Betty Draper in years past. But her story seems further and further away. (Yet we need more Sally!)
After last weeks good episode we're back to another clunker. Overall this season has been rather disappointing.
That's cool, personally I think this has been the worst season overall. I didn't like Roger's little LSD story, felt that the ending to the Don and Megan story was un-Don like. I'm just not liking this season as a whole. They need to start focusing on the clients and work that goes behind them a bit more.
And it's been a pretty strong season thus far. The season premier dragged, but otherwise, I don't have complaints.
A very surprisingly.........clunky episode from Weiner. Using LSD as a prop? Hitting us over the head with Peggy's control issues? Odd. The last few episodes were absolutely amazing, while this was a misstep.
Definitely an intriguing episode. * Damn, Megan is agile and athletic! Either that, or Don is getting slower in his older age. * Don certainly shocked with the "Did he just do that?" moment of actually leaving Megan at the Howard Johnson's and it was her mentioning his mother in their argument that finally led to that, but what was up with him leading up to that point? He really seemed to take her not liking the orange sherbert rather personally. However, it also kinda seemed like he was using her as a focus group subject for the sherbert and all the other food they sampled there, similarly to what he did to Betty a few seasons ago with (IIRC) Heineken at one of their house gatherings. Was Don sizing up Howard Johnson's as a potential client or something? * Interesting exchange between Bert Cooper and Don. Probably because we haven't really seen Bert much lately, I'd almost forgotten that he and Don are equal partners in the agency now rather than him being Don's boss as before. * When Pete relayed to Peggy the Heinz guy's comment that "She's off the business!", was that just 1960's slang for "Damn, she's crazy!" or did he mean that she's literally no longer working on the account? As before, I can't wait until next week. -G
I'm getting the sense that people who aren't enjoying this season as much as past seasons are watching more for plot and story development. But so far this season has been much more about theme, and somewhat about character development. Personally, I'm loving this season. In fact, so far I think it's one of the best seasons of television I've ever seen. This past episode was about travel and the distances between people, specifically between couples. You have 3 couples and you watch them all during the same period of time, which makes the invitation to compare them explicit and, yes, a little clunky. Peggy is shown to be a junior Don, whose obsession with work is coming between her and her boyfriend. Of course she's using work as an excuse to avoid emotional intimacy, but in the end she can't live without that intimacy. Roger and his wife go together on a "trip" which, instead of bringing them closer, reveals the distance between them. Don takes Meagan on a literal trip, believing that because he first fell in love with her while on vacation, he can keep the flame alive by taking her away again. He so wants not to make the same mistakes with Meagan he made with Betty; he sincerely wants this marriage to work. But as Sally realizes on the way back from Disneyworld, eventually every vacation has to come to an end. In real everyday life, being and staying close to your partner isn't always easy. Don is forced to face that he can't keep running away from life, creating physical and metaphorical distance between him & Meagan and the rest of his world, in the mistaken belief that it will bring the two of them closer. He has to find a way to live his everyday life without allowing the distance between them to grow, the way it did between Roger and whatsername.
I can see why Peggy didn't want to see The Naked Prey--it would have been uncomfortably like a day at the office-- but I do wonder if there was any specific significance to her going to see Born Free. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I saw The Naked Prey a couple years ago, and it would have been really cool if they'd done more than name checked it.
Not at all. Last night was a fantastic episode. The LSD trip was playful and it worked in revealing the current state of the relationship between Roger and Jane. As Demo notes in her post in reply to yours, the episode was about issues in relationships for three of the shows principal characters. The already did Joannie and Betty in previous weeks.
She's no longer working on the Heinz pitch. This makes sense - and Weiner's been none too subtle about the themes, which adds to the polarized reactions.
Peggy has been doing this for sometime. remember a season or two back she stayed and worked late and ruined her birthday dinner. She was going to tough it out and stay to the bitter end regardless of what the consequences were to her relationship with her current boyfriend and her family. Most well balanced people would have told Don, it will have to wait until tomorrow. It was an unreasonable request. I understand and sympathize with her frustration with the guy from Heinz. he doesn't know what he WANTS, NEEDS OR LIKES. It would test the patience of anyone to deal with an idiot like him. Bert was right about Don. It will be interesting to see how work and marriage are handled by Don and Megan.
The Naked Prey was notable in having no actual dialog for the majority if not the entire film. It's a flight for survival. Can Cornell Wilde's character make it back to civilization before he is killed by the natives chasing after him. Born Free is the story of an orphan lioness raised by a couple and later returned to the wild.
I think you're pretty much right about why I'm not enjoying the season. At the same time, I think you are inadvertently diagnosing why the season actually isn't as good. In previous seasons it seemed that the show had a story and a plot, over the course of which we learned about the characters and gained insight. Watching these characters handle the movements of the story revealed who they were and what they cared about out and how they handled it. Now we have themes and character issues the writers want to accentuate, but rather than fuss with constructing a compelling narrative and arc to carry and reveal, they are forcing theme ham-fistedly. "THIS ONE IS ABOUT X! THIS ONE IS ABOUT Y!" they shout at us - as if they couldn't be bothered to write or are alas not capable of writing a well-written story that makes the same points more artfully.
I think you're mistaking the lack of a singular, obvious overarching narrative with the absence of a story. What's happening this season is that the stories aren't presented as chapters, but more as short stories. And the story is moving - just not overtly so. It's structurally different, but it's not worse in ay objective way. Oh, and disagreements about the quality of the storytelling aside, can we all agree that this episode was one of the most beautifully shot pieces of visual media in recent memory, especially, but not limited to, the final shot.
No, I get the structural difference. It is largely why I think this season is poor. If you grant the difference exists, then we can agree that I simply don't like this as compared to the other, and you do or at least don't mind. It's cool.
1. We all knew the state of the relationship between Roger and Jane ages ago. LSD was a shortcut for them to admit it to themselves, which is why it was a shortcut. As for "playful", it wasn't the playfulness I object to, but the directness of it. Hey, we took drugs and they told us exactly where our relationship stands, so let's get a divorce! Who knew drugs make everything so simple! 2. I have no problem with examining the relationships on the show. I have a problem with it not being done very well. Besides which, Peggy's story wasn't about her relationship (or, really, lack thereof), but all about her.
That's a great thematic summary of the episode. I mean that, too - I didn't pick up on quite all of that (though I don't think I watch Mad Men closely enough to do so). But part of the reason why I haven't been enjoying this season as much is precisely this - I don't want character essays each week, I want a show I can enjoy. Sometimes the "character essays" are done really well, like last week, where we basically see Pete's entire life in a miniature. This episode felt forced and, in some ways, unnecessary. Especially Peggy's, where we learn that she has control issues and puts way too much of her life into work. Which, of course, we've known for the last 3 seasons.