Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

Hamm director.

Hamm may not have directed Betty scenes tho

not all of Carla's kids were with N. Tortelli iirc (though she did fear him during separations because he could make her pregnant with a look also iirc)

Footnotes of Mad Men is back in action again: http://madmenunbuttoned.com/

And sloppy X-ray-ing. Thyroid cancer is common and relatively easy to treat.

As someone who has experienced both over and under active thyroid, I knew that's what the doctor was going to say when she asked for the pills and he went for her throat. Thyroid controls metabolism, so if it's not working due to being under active or the cancer, your metabolism slows down and you gain weight. "get the kind that makes you fat" -Betty.

Sorry about the link. Zing touch acting up.

Harry is good-natured but has a lot of weak good ol' boy-isms that he keeps trying on. It's like he is trying to look young, but already has this mentality built up so that all his jokes and references just seem dated. Kind of hilarious when he's telling a story that obviously seems pretty cool to him about Heston, and he's high and stumbling over it in a near-giddy manner, completely oblivious to the fact that he's speaking to someone who has no clue what he's talking about.

― mh, Tuesday, April 3, 2012 10:52 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

who in the hell wouldn't know who charlton heston was in 1966? that's like, i dunno, not knowing who tom hanks is now.

more like not knowing who kevin costner is now really

15 year olds? Few tv channels, no home video, if you didn't see a variety of movies, you'd possibly miss out. Or it's supposed to be a "kids knew no one over 30" thing.

yeah I took it as the latter, he was in plenty of notable stuff in the 60s, but probably nothing that Young People would care about until Planet of the Apes.

more like not knowing who kevin costner is now really

― balls, Tuesday, April 3, 2012 9:37 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no, costner hasn't been in a hit movie in... 10 or 15 years? heston was in e.g. el cid in 1961. he was also a prominent hollywood activist (for civil rights etc.).

i mean i can see her not really giving a shit or not having seen one of his movies (even the ten commandments?) but not having heard of guy is a little farfetched.

but whatever.

you know what' freaking far-fetched? the idea that folks at a major ad agency would not have thought to open a TV department in 1961-62. that's the one mad men plot point that strikes me as the most egregiously anachronistic.

didn't they put hamburgers in front of the tv dept way back when?

also, yeah, her not knowing who charlton heston is kinda suprised me. heston was an a-list star at that point. be like some kid today not knowing who george clooney is, really. which isn't all that farfetched, i suppose...

People are dumb:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/who-is-paul-mccartney

least credible thing to me abt this episode: SCDP figured the best way to enlist the rolling stones in an ad campaign would be to go to a show and try to sign the band in person. points for moxie and all, but i'm sure the stones had reps to handle such stuff, even in 1966.

People are dumb:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/who-is-paul-mccartney

― Cuba Pudding, Jr. (jaymc), Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the equivalent in 1966 honestly would be the girl not knowing who i dunno al jolson is.

liked the allen klein namedrop, but was sort of hoping harry would meet up with andrew loog oldham. or was oldham out of the picture by 1966?

Oldham sold his share of the Rolling Stones' management to Allen Klein in 1966, but continued in his role as the band's de facto manager and producer until late 1967.

I doubt Klein would have allowed people to go through anyone else but him to get to the Stones while they were in the US, and particularly while on Klein's home turf of NYC.

the equivalent in 1966 honestly would be the girl not knowing who i dunno al jolson is.

no ways! jolson was long dead in '66, dead probably the year that girl was born, and he would have been 80 freaking years if he'd lived. he hadn't been a major cultural presence a quarter century. heston, otoh, was in his early 40s and had recently starred in several big, flagship productions, one of hollywood's biggest stars at the peak of his "mature" career. not the kind of guy most teens would be flocking to see, but still...

it makes sense to me that a lot of young people nowadays wouldn't know from paul mccartney. at this point, paul's glory days are some 30-60 years distant. that's comparable to kids in the mid 60s drawing a blank on jolson. to find a modern equivalent for kids back then blanking on heston, you'd have to find someone who first showed up about 25 years back and is still getting lead roles in blockbuster oscar bait. like say brad pitt, johnny depp or george clooney.

edit: "no ways! jolson was long dead in '66, dead probably the year that girl was born, and he would have been 80 freaking years old if he'd lived. he hadn't been a major cultural presence in a quarter century."

the show isn't saying ALL teenagers didn't know who he was

I'm getting a bit tired of this show now. Also I can't stand Betty.

Megan is really working my nerves ... soooo whiny!

Oh I like Megan

haha i like Betty.

AA Gill in The Sunday Times wrote that Mad Men is becoming vacuous and is a victim of its own success....but never really went into reasons WHY.

Because editor asked him to.

I read that Gill piece (dunno why i do it to myself) and it seemed like his usual trolling. Also, he called Christina Hendricks "the top-heavy redhead"

Was Gill a good critic at one point or am I just imagining it?

not in my memory anyway

I'm not loving Megan. Well, I love her choppers but not much else.

I liked that weird awkwardness at the Heinz dinner. It seemed very underlined that this conversation would have gone a whole lot more smoothly with someone like Betty. Not that I am any great Betty fan but she can at least handle business small-talk. Whereas I dont' think Megan really gets the bigger picture ie dinner goes well = business goes well.

wtf, Megan totally got to agree and play the "non-business-savvy wife" role when the Heinz dude's wife was asking her "oh, this is all so boring, right?"

I thought she was just super awkward through the whole thing, especially dropping the whole 'oh he's divorced' turd on the table.

Yeah, I don't know if it's intentional or not but her character does kind of have a desperate undercurrent, like she constantly needs to prove herself in any situation. As a hip 60s youth, as a sexy Frenchy, as biz wife. Maybe not 'trying to hard' but somewhere around there...

is Megan the T-Mobile commercial spokesmodel?

how big are the spokesmodel's teeth? that's the giveaway.

i take her as some combo of really eager & curious, but naive -- like that moment of the wife asking how boring this convo is -- she figured out that of course, be agreeable & submissive to the menfolk talking business but shes really genuinely interested in advertising for whatever reason

Mordy: yes

she seems more genuine and honest than most people on the show. she's not used to playing a role which everyone else does.

Carly Foulkes is the T-Mobile spokesgirl.

yeah. I worry that her arc is going to be "Don and everyone destroy all her optimism".

!!! xpost

i had no idea.

Well, y'know...thin brunette Canadian women all look alike.

not a bad thing imo

I thought she was played by Geddy Lee.

No, Megan is the actress from s1ocki's short film and a number of lesser features.

Like Hot Tub Time Machine

i always thought conspiratorially that the t-mobile girl was debuted parasitically with megan's emergence

i had the same feeling about another spokesperson & tv it-person but i can't remember who now

it makes sense to me that a lot of young people nowadays wouldn't know from paul mccartney. at this point, paul's glory days are some 30-60 years distant. that's comparable to kids in the mid 60s drawing a blank on jolson

you misunderstood my post! that's exactly what i was saying!!!!!

xp to Morbz a bunch of posts upthread: Most of this season I've spent thinking whether Pete is more of a Bud Frump or a J Pierpont Finch. I think he alternates between the two. Also, I wonder if he lives in New Rochelle.

in re megan i don't think the various parts we've been shown of her (NO NOT IN THAT SENSE GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER) don't really add up to a very coherent whole. the fact that we very nearly ONLY see her in don's company is probably the culprit here; we have little sense of who she was before or what she is when she's with friends and not with don. so basically her construct seems like a creaky construct right now. that doesn't reflect on the actress as much as the writers.

which train line was pete taking?

i assume henry and betty live in greenwich or something.

s1ocki's movie vs. hot tube tim machine

you misunderstood my post! that's exactly what i was saying!!!!!

damn, that's a lot of exclamation points