Mad Men.

What's not to like?

HanRABome men, fabulous clothes and sets, great writing and well acted.

I love the fact that everyone smokes at the drop of a hat. The misogyny is shocking, but very apt for the era
 
I see it as part of a general decline in Joan's fortunes. At the start of Mad Men she was the all-powerful office manager, able to boss/bully the other women around, mistress to the boss, Roger, and able to give Peggy a run for her money.

However, over time her influence in secretarial politics has waned, with even the upstart Jane being a potential threat.

She showed that she has brains as well as beauty when she was given the chance to work on the TV script/advertising slot material, which was then unthinkingly denied to her.

Her partner was clearly unsupportive of her work when they were shown eating together, and he thought nothing of ordering her to get him a drink of water.

And in the latest episode there is that dreadful sex scene in the office.

At the end of the episode Peggy is shown moving into her new office and musing how to have the name on the door changed, and Joan just says she will attend to it, without any fight or cant or spirit. It seemed to me that Joan had transited from all-powerful woman in the office to someone who'se hopes and dreams had been cruelly crushed on several fronts, and who had had all the fight knocked out of her.

Which is incredibly clever scripting and acting. At the start I rather hated Joan for being such a hard bitch, whereas now I'm really sorry for her. Nicely done.
 
You are welcome.

I am just relieved that Matthew Weiner was talking about the same thing (more eloquently than me :o) in that terrific link tortoiseperson very kindly posted ...
 
My other half didn't seem to notice it, but....

Wasn't Don supposed to say "I wouldn't want to lose YOU"? Not, "I wouldn't want to lose ALL THIS", like he did?

That's what caused Betty to walk away in disgust and decide she didn't want him back.
 
I hope it will come as two channels, one HD and one non-Hd.I also hope the channel will be available to non-Sky customers. We're on Virgin. When we couldn't get the Sky channels I really missed seeing the Simpsons, even the repeats we've seen hundreRAB of times.
 
So *that's* why Peggy was thin all of a sudden. I thought I'd missed something!

Sorry but I love this show and I'm thoroughly enjoying my Tuesday night ritual of a glass of JD an Mad Men at 10.
 
Ah, I can see that, yes. It may have been just the final decision which was taken out of his hanRAB by the other agency getting rid anyway. I thought it was a really telling little scene when he got home that day and neither of them were admitting what they really thought.

I get the feeling that one day Don is going to blow like a volcano. Not once have we seen him out of control and he has a lot of pressures on him. There is very little about Don and his real feelings that we can be sure of so far.
 
The Region 2 DVD is out on 30/6

I've just pre-ordered it at Play for a VERY good price!

I think this is one of the best things I have ever seen on television and I too was born in the '50s
 
I'm very relieved you posted this as I got very confused ...

It was kind of hinted previously that Roger was interested in Jane - but Roger's wife referred to 'Margaret', didn't she? Does that mean Roger lied about the name of the woman he was leaving his wife for? :confused: Or am I just being thick? :o

Great stuff, as ever, but maybe not quite as brilliant as the previous week's. Loved Betty's story, though, Roger finding Joan in his office and Peggy dressing down Pete. :cool:

And Don may be a bastard but he was looking hot last night ... :D
 
Well that was just amazing. Like everybody else I can't wait for series two and am going to make sure I get the DVD's. Can hardly ever see the point of that when it comes to TV but I can this time! They have left themselves some wonderful storylines to play with and plenty of other new possibilities too.

Thank you for all the comments on here. It's been great reading them. :)
 
No chance, marital meltdown coming, in parallel with death of JFK which surely has to be the background to the last two episodes, given that it's going to happen on the day of Roger's daughter's wedding.
 
Does he know about the baby, though? He knew she was in the hospital, but I'm not sure he knew why ~ Peggy seemed unable to accept the fact that she'd had a baby, and was in complete denial about it.

Interestingly, Peggy's sister was heavily pregnant in the hospital flashbacks, but in the second episode when Peggy looked into the children's room there was only one baby, with two older children ~ so was that baby Peggy's, or her sister's, and where's the other baby as between them they should have two ? :confused:

Anyone else wondering if Joan has made up her engagement in response to the comments the other week about the shame of being 31 and unmarried? When she was being kissed by some bloke I'm assuming to be the dcotor-fiance in an earlier episode she looked bored to death, rather than in love. And she didn't waste much time telling the new girl that it would be fine to discuss her engagement in the office as her fiance didn't work there. For someone usually very discreet about her personal life she seemed very keen for this engagment to be discussed as much and as openly as possible.
 
Watching this got me thinking, as we get older thirty years ago does not seem that far in the distance . . .


I immediatley calculated that the Black face routine would be the same as throwing a party today and someone arriving in an Adam Ant or Boy George costume - some would have a laugh and think it was cool while others would (to coin a modern phrase) think he was on crack :D



In the sixties, we still had Black-face routines on tv on a weekly basis and most thought it was acceptable but now watching a show portraying the 60's which includes a routine we feel uncomfortable.


I felt this was a clever bit of programe making, just to get you thinking and was so typical of why Mad Men is such a good show. :)




Raven
 
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