Mad Men.

Having lost track of the soap I was following this is the only programme I watch regularly now. Just Mad Men, movies and the occasional documentary or live sport.

I love how the various stranRAB in this series storyline are heading for a meeting point and melt down, like parallel lines at infinity. The tension at the phone call - I was waiting for one of them to break and ask the kid "Was it a man or a lady?", the friction and envy in the office, the backstabbing and general mendacity as the nature of the business overwhelms its internal machinations, echoing the massive changes in American society and politics of the time, the tension in the Draper home too with the 'coloured' help being the most grounded member of the household. All good stuff.
 
I expect she thinks she'll do well from the sale of her father's house. But, it's not clear that she is aware of the $half-mill. Don made from the sale of the agency. Although Betty thinks Don's "not good with money" he did have a sizable wad (incl. his $5k signing bonus) in the desk that was hidden from her, and this extra chunk could well be ferreted away in an account she knows nothing about. :) Maybe if she had known, she wouldn't be so willing to run off and leave Don.
 
I absolutely love it - and I couldn't find a thread on it either, so thank you for starting this one. It's one of only two programmes that I "must see" at the moment (the other is the Apprentice). Each episode is beautifully crafted and really whizzes along, sucking you into the characters and giving away just enough about them to make you HAVE to watch again. I'm gutted when each ep enRAB... it's been a while since I felt that way about any programme.
 
Poor Sal, I was shocked that he could just be sacked.

On another note, I couldn't believe the Draper's had a dishwasher - we didn't get one til the mid 80's !!

Mad Men is the highlight of my week, it is just simply the best thing on T.V
 
I only went there to find out more info on the actress Elisabeth Moss, and came across the Peggy spoiler !. I don't know what else happens in the finale so will still watch it.

Nothing to watch on TV after next week, no Mad Men , no ER, no Desperate Housewives !! :eek:
 
No, slow + smug he said and you don't think the characters are predictable? *drinks a whiskey, lights a cigarette, "hmm, you've got a nice arse darling*
 
I was holding my breath when Don and Pete were in the boss's office.....what superb acting from those two.

I'm puzzled how to 'Don' could take Don Draper's name without anybody questioning it ...did I miss something?

The strong, in control, Don that we have come to know throughout this series slipped away as he panicked and tried to persuade Rachel to bolt with him to start yet another new life......

Terrific stuff!
 
I think of all the characters she is the one I feel sorry for. It winRAB me up that she is being sent to the shrink when it is perfectly obvious why she is the way she is and what she neeRAB.
 
I too think the Don/Joan coupling would be wrong. However, there is so much that lies beneath the surface in this show, although it has never actually been said I kinda get the feeling that they may have had a fling in the past. But is this what we are supposed to think? The writing is so brilliant.
 
A recurrent theme of the show is the characters' various frustrations with their lives. Don has constructed this whole false identity (spurred by an administrative cock-up in Korea) in a drive to distance himself from his appalling childhood and create "the perfect family life" and yet it isn't entirely working for him hence the serial infidelities.

Meanwhile Betty, formerly a model, has settled not entirely successfully into the role of suburban wife and mother and has moments when she craves more in her life, which occasionally leaRAB her to "wig out" and behave recklessly (taking pot shots on the lawn in series 1, going to a bar and picking up a "quickie" in series 2, hesitantly venturing towarRAB an affair of her own with Henry in series 3)

Peggy, meanwhile, is the only woman at Sterling Cooper with any kind of career success or credibility amongst the creatives, even if at least some of it is down to Don's patronage, and yet her personal life is more than tragically lacking. Inside the office she more than holRAB her own, outside of it she is rather a sad creature.

Pete, initially presented (or presenting himself) as something of a pretender to Don's throne, the ambitious "Golden Boy" who theoretically had it "all there for the taking" has failed to make the headway he expects. He rather resents the rapid rise of Peggy who has slightly outflanked him, and of course he is unable to father children and his marriage to Trudi(?) is depicted as slightly soulless and empty a lot of the time.

Joan's whole working life has been predicated upon the idea of landing herself a rich and successful husband, not that she's been a complete gold-digging shark about it but there's never been much thought or ambition beyond that goal. Instead, forsaken by Roger she has wound up with a man who, it seems, is destined to be neither rich nor successful, and Joan is having to reflect and re-evaluate.

All in all, for many of the major players, life, while outwardly pretty cozy, isn't quite as complete and as satisfying as they hoped for, and it is these tensions that create great drama.
 
I love Mad Men, but it's wasted on BBC4. There should at least be a BBC2 showing that isn't on in the middle of the night. The show is perfect for Sunday nights, but I guess it's down to a lack of scheduling inspiration at the BBC, as per usual!

They should do a first look style thing with the show. BBC2 showing followed by the next episode on BBC4...
 
yes, very surreal, wasn't it?!



Didn't manage to see hwat it said but OH MY GOD do I want to know who he's meeting up with!!!! The lady from the car salesroom flashback who knew he wasn't 'Don Draper', perhaps?



There was a definite feels of 'out with the old, in with the new', wasn't there : Peggy's new hairstyle (about time! I've been hating that hair for a long time now), Roger with Jane as his new spouse (yeah, that's going to last past the second anniversary ;)), Duck's shenanigans with a sneaky take-over bid, the racial uprisings & the open sexuality of foreign adverstising blokey.

Oddly, it seems that Don went to the other way, ditching his 'new' persona as Don Draper & reconnecting with his Dick Whitman past.

Loved the scene in which advertising chap announced he was homosexual ~ poor Sal thinks 'hurrah, I'm not the only one, and if he can do it, maybe I can', only to hear everyone around him denounce 'queers' as perverts :-(





yep ~ TWA lost it (and frankly didn't take too much care of it once they found it ~ just leave it on the doorstep to get nicked, why don't you?!) . And it makes Betty's 'suitcase' dream even more pertinent ;)
 
No. As I posted earlier about the sale, my take is that Duck set it up based on his being President with creative reporting to him. Creative IS Don, no one is going to buy the agency without its partners, that's what they are paying for. So while Don is in the surf he unwittingly becomes a half millionaire and will be obliged to return to work alongside Roger with Duck triumphant overhead. I expect he will get back together with Betty and they will be rich, making it even more difficult for her to sort out what the hell she really wants to do with her life.
 
It is amazing how much things have changed isn't it. I was born in 1957 and it's still like watching history. Mind you a small Yorkshire village wasn't exactly Madison Avenue- the fifties lasted well into the sixties in our house! :)
 
Yes, I recall Betty being quite hostile when a divorcee moved into their neighbourhood in series 1 (Helen someone, remind me, is she Glen's mother?) and she and Francine had quite a bitch about it. At the time I thought it was due to the fear that a 'divorcee' was a husband stealer, but maybe I underestimated the shame attached to being a divorced woman back then, even if you're remarried.

The slap was pretty horrifying, as was her wishing Don was dead. For some reason I see Betty heading for an overdose (intentional or accidental, maybe) or a drinking problem (though how would you tell in Mad Men :D). She seems dangerously unbalanced and explosive right now.
 
I was really shocked at first when Glen and his pal trashed the house, but then I thought the same - he wants to make Betty uneasy in the house and want to move. I think Sally is smart enough to have worked that out, as well.

I found it quite touching the way he had laid the braided strap on her bed as a gift for her (was it the same one she'd admired on his knife at the Christmas tree place, or had he made her a new one?). Sally carefully put it under her pillow.
 
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