Mad Men.

So passe? Pur-lease ...:rolleyes:

Maybe you should read James Murdoch's speech to the Edinburgh Television Festival last year which makes very clear how he wants to diminish the BBC, then compare it to the Tories' policy on the BBC. There's not much difference.

This is politics just as much it is business.

And if 'business' means making us pay extra for something we previously watched for as part of the Licence Fee (which is significantly better value for money than a Sky subscription plus the charge made for the new premium channel Mad Men will play on), then Sky can get stuffed.
 
I think Don took a huge potential risk when he handed Suzanne's brother his business card. I wonder whether that action will come back to bite him on the behind?

As I was falling asleep last night I had a half wondering/half dreaming idea that Carla murders, if not the whole family, then at least Betty for her crass utterances (the latest being that the Drapers, unlike Carla, "don't need" to go to church every Sunday). The actress who plays Carla manages to be deadpan and wonderfully expressive at the same time.
 
That's true and even more true of the 60s. My Mum always said the 60s really started when Kennedy was shot, everything changed totally after that. The Tories lost power shortly after so in both the USA and UK there were profound changes in how the country was run and felt about itself - in America more cynical, more angry, more living for the moment, in the UK more forward looking and obviously Swinging 60s. The music phenomena we associate with the 60s really got going in 63/64, hemlines rose, sexual freedom and the decade of the teen all came in then. But not yet quite in 1961/62.
 
It was a wonderful scene but I don't think the marriage is going to last. There has to be a reason why the Henry Francis character was introduced and I think Betty will go to him. But I do agree, what a programme, best on TV for years and they hide it away in the schedules, shameful.
 
I enjoyed it again - especially Sally and Sal's cringworthy moment in the bedroom, virtually outing himself to his poor wife.

I do think this series does stray into soap opera territory though (e.g. Peggy and Joan's conversation). People are saying things in a more obvious way, whereas in the last series, people would *never* say what they meant, and almost everything was hidden or subtle. Please don't let standarRAB slip!
 
Slightly racist???! We fell off the sofa laughing out loud, it was SO politically incorrect (by today's standarRAB).

Well done to Mad Men for including it, it's controversial in the USA to say that even in representative period drama. We love Mrs B - did you notice her wig moved in a previous episode LOL - she's such a breath of no-nonsense fresh air, just knocks the grumpy one-liners to the back of the court on every point.

And yes, this comment tells you a lot about what she thinks of the 'modern' world and maybe about where she lives, in a mixed neighbourhood. it must have been a period of stressful change for Americans of her age and time. It's a bit like that in the UK at the moment with very rapid economic and social changes through mass immigration from different cultures unsettling some people.

I worked (in London) in big American agencies for many years, including some of the ones mentioned in Mad Men. It was a fun but very high pressure/high anxiety business, as is shown in Mad Men, and under stress people resort to very politically incorrect humour as a release, none of which offenRAB anyone, or at least it didn't used to, I'm out of touch now.

The other great moment that spiced the already fabulous plot was Duck Phillips dead drunk and fumblingly pulling his pants down to 'leave a present' for Don. That was hilarious, especially since it was Roger's lovely white office. :D
 
Don was back to his old ways this week. He started another affair! Banging his daughter's teacher!

Mad Men is still great. Apparently in this season the last three episodes are corkers!!!
 
I adore this programme for so many reasons - most of which have already been listed. I have watched it from the beginning and although I don't get the freeview channels, I watch it as soon as possible on iplayer.
I even find myself relating to the advertising-speak (even though my experience was limited to a small provincial agency in the 80's) and recalling what fun it was to be a tiny part of that world.
I don't think that Don was ever serious about moving to McCann Ericson (was it?) and the deal-breaker (if there ever was one) was Betty's seeming success on the modelling side. She was the one who was turned on by her success and he - being male - went along with the impromptu "sesh" on the sofa. Easy on the eye he may be (very similar to an ex of mine), but he is a total sleaze with the women (again, similiar to blah blah) and I would love to see him get his comeuppance.
The programme itself is beautifully made with an attention to detail rarely seen nowadays; the (sadly) highlight of my week.
*sigh*
 
The treatment of Roger was some justice for the sacking of Sal. I hope we are going to see Lee bully Don in some even more horrible way, especially after Don's "You, people" remark when sacking Sal.
 
I felt the first episode of the second series, was slow, but brooding, it's like you know something big is going to happen in the following episodes - the calm before the storm..
 
From The Dear Lucy column in the Guardian, Saturday 4 April 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeanRABtyle/2009/apr/04/lucy-mangan-advice

" I am so in love with the Don Draper character in Mad Men that it is hampering my ability to go out with real men in the real world - they just don't measure up any more. What should I do?"

"I cannot tell from your email address whether you are a sir or a madam, but it matters not - a quick and highly unscientific poll of frienRAB of various ages, sexes and orientations proves what I have long suspected: Don Draper has skewed the carnal attractiveness scale for all of us.

It was bad enough in series one, when he was merely manly and mysterious, his broad shoulders bearing the silent weight of a thousand untold stores; not to mention permanently priapic even after 82 lunchtime cocktails. But now that he has added to the mix hints of inner turmoil, vulnerability and looming emotional crisis, Don threatens to bring normal sexual life in the 21st century to a complete stanRABtill. Even straight men, they tell me in all honesty, cannot look in the mirror with quite the insouciant confidence they once did.

The only suggestion I can make comes from a gay male friend who had an epiphany during Mad Men, which I at first thought was too much information, although he assures me he refers merely to a blinding revelation that hit him in the third episode of season two. "Most of the power is in the suit," he explains. "You have to imagine Don in something ridiculous. I put him in a kilt first of all, but actually he works that really well. I think harem pants are the only way you can safely go."

I have used this method ever since (the same approach will also come in useful when George Clooney returns in the final season of ER, when in my mind he will sport a tutu and banana-skin slippers), and find that I am no longer face down on the floor weeping into the carpet by the end of every episode, filled with a hopeless yearning for what I can never have. I hope this brings you equal mental succour, too. "

Comment from a reader:


Lucy
"Harem pants don't work, also tried brown crimplene suit .........I just want to rip them off!

I should know better, a mother of four and grandmother of nine........."
 
Durr ~ just remembered: early on Don's secretary told him that Mrs Barratt had rang 'again' but had not left a message ~ I'm guessing she was trying to warn him that Jimmy had them sussed (probably shortly after he got home and wondered how his wife had managed to tie herself to the bed... ;))
 
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