Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

thought it was pretty well done the way the "white people problems" media anxiety over the student nurse murders overshadowed the riots. bumping it off the cover of Life magazine and Peggy saying "but you're not a nurse" ... oh.

― dmr, Monday, April 9, 2012 1:21 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not that it invalidates your point, bit iirc the nurses in Chicago were all filipina, not white.

Shakey Don comes off as "more or less being a dad who at least loves his children" only because he gets to be the cool weekend escape glamorous fun parent. All the dads do. They get to flee into Manhattan, stylish offices and casting calls. They're also neglectful, alcoholic, philandering and sometimes violent. This is why I don't think the show itself has "mommy issues," except maybe in how regressive Betty continues to be.

The show is obviously about this insane level of privilege enjoyed by a very narrow sliver of society, how wonderful and glamorous and easy it is, just before it's seriously challenged. All I'm saying is the freedom to neglect your kids with impunity is one of these privileges. Despite her class, Betty and the others don't have access to this in quite the same way.

Not that it invalidates your point, bit iirc the nurses in Chicago were all filipina, not white.

some were "white," some filipina.

All the dads do. They get to flee into Manhattan, stylish offices and casting calls. They're also neglectful, alcoholic, philandering and sometimes violent.

violent?

where does this "all the dads do" come from? none of the other father characters (only ones I can think of with small children are Lane, whose family has been out of the country, and Pete, whose child is just a baby) do any of this.

and I think Don's been shown to genuinely be concerned for his children's physical welfare in a way that Betty is not

I'm talking about all of the mothers and fathers on the show, regardless of age, as people were upthread. Lane's dad was violent, as was Grandma Francis'. When did we switch to just this generation?

I agree with your second point but Don's way of expressing concern (on a fundamental, life-choices level) is "where's a woman who can handle this?"

I'm talking about all of the mothers and fathers on the show, regardless of age, as people were upthread.

^^^this, does not jibe with this:
They get to flee into Manhattan, stylish offices and casting calls. They're also neglectful, alcoholic, philandering and sometimes violent.

the only generation depicted fleeing to Manhattan's stylish offices and casting calls is Don's generation.

Don's dad may have been violent, alcoholic, neglectful and philandering but that was obviously unrelated to Manhattan lol

The show's refusal to let her grow up or learn from experience like, at all, is its worst part imo

Work with/know plenty of people in real life who won't grow up or learn from experience, and its not their writers holding them back

No way is Don a sociopath. The man's got the full range of emotional responses, plus extra kinks, but he's understandably shy about showing them given his era, his past as an impersonation of a dead man, and a man who saw nasty shit while he was in Korea 9inlcuding being blown up, which would give anyone PTSD)

I don't know Shakey, I think it's pretty heavily implied (by the show, by history) that previous generations acted this way too, whether in New York, London, wherever. Yes Don's dad was a poor, mean motherfucker -- which was kind of my point to begin with, that the show doesn't let the fathers off any easier, in general. Again, I think Don superficially comes across as a better father because of the era-sensitive social role his gender allows him, where creeping distance isn't called neglect.

He's not one of the fathers mentioned above, but Pete's new train buddy is such an obvious dickwad, and he spells out the accepted of-its-time working man's response to family life in such a methodical way... it's like a Mad Men mission statement, all our people are still shit, just different.

Work with/know plenty of people in real life who won't grow up or learn from experience, and its not their writers holding them back

yeah, but when the "people" are fictional, it's always the writers holding them back. betty can't catch a break, and the only thing it seems to serve is the writers' distaste for the character.

you have to wonder if jan. jones wonders what she's got herself into (aside from a nice paycheck of course)

new answers: a fatsuit

Gerhard Richter painting of the nurses, btw:
http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/paintings/photo_paintings/detail.php?5770

The song "The Ballad of TV Violence" from the first '77 self titled Cheap Trick album was originally called "The Ballad of Richard Speck" and is about Richard Speck. Their label made them change the track to "The Ballad of TV Violence" because they thought "The Ballad of Richard Speck" was too offensive.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m28c5i6e1r1qi0d7lo6_500.gif

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m28c5i6e1r1qi0d7lo7_500.gif

Tminus how many episodes until Peggy sleeps with Ginsberg

I said pretty much exactly this during Ginsberg's first scene. He's exactly the kind of borderline insane dick she ends up going for.

WTF that was Madchen Amick that Don strangled?!?!

She looks exactly the same!

Someone photoshop Don peeking from behind bed post a la Bob.

or comatose, sitting in a wheelchair wearing a party hat.

Put that scene, the tractor accident, and a few others together, you could make a pretty convincing fake trailer about Mad Men as a horror movie.

add:

Lane receiving a beating
Joan getting raped
any scene with the creepy neighbor kid

Betty shooting those birds

pretty much any close up on a character looking sad and desperate

Don crying after hearing about Anna's death + ghost Anna

Whitman bro dangling from the rafters

Mother Frances wielding that knife.

Don getting clunked over the head by the hitchhiker.

Pete with his gun.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bKhcK9Skhes/TMyqxLpmMaI/AAAAAAAACRw/5sdQnn-pjSg/s400/600px-mad107-rifle2.jpg

MADMEN

Sterling barfing

Don stalking the teacher in his car

The Creature from the Black Lagoon pitching an Esso ad

Don's dream was a low point for this show

might actually have been the worst episode

he was naked but they blacked out his "dick whitman".

loved the dream. spooky, bewildering, suited the episode (which i thought was pretty great overall). rewatched it with my gf last night. she freaked the fuck out @ the dream sequence and i had to bite my tongue hard to keep from spoil(er)ing it.

When Don brought the Barbie back into the house-Sally's hysterical screaming.

yeah that was wack. i thought the episode was good overall (better than the first three, anyway) and i got so excited when he killed the woman then felt so cheated. this manipulative bullshit feels old hat.

you seriously didn't realise it was a dream the whole time? that said, it would have been cool if the show turned into The Fugitive

the thing I wondered about was ... do people really have service elevators in their kitchen?

not only service elevators, but service elevators behind weird semi-concealed wallpapered doors?

i'm surprised no one else mentioned dong draper (or lack thereof), have we no libidos?

I guess the shots in which it should've shown up didn't register as such to me

xp if you had a service elevator wouldn't you hide it behind a wallpaper door?

maybe he dreamt the service elevator

i figured it was a door to a back hallway in which she would find the service elevator, not a straight-up elevator door in the kitchen

but yeah, dream sequence, who knows