Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

Bob Benson - Cuban refugee?

Wrong thread. Damn.

Accidentally posted some stuff about the first few episodes on the Season 4 thread...Finished last night. The last three episodes were very dark--convincingly so. (Peggy quitting, Joan's partnership, Lane.) Arguments between Don and Megan aren't as interesting as arguments between Don and Betty. Kinsey's return was less than what I'd hoped for. Sally and Greg continue to be compelling. There was a scene that I thought might have been the worst yet: Don's meeting with Dow chemical, where he tries to rah-rah them into wanting 100%. (I would think any client would have laughed him out of the room, yet even Leland Palmer seemed impressed.) Loved Peggy's little smile at the elevator as "You Really Got Me" started up at the end of the one episode--resurrected the song for me. The Lovin' Spoonful were great too; didn't know "Butchie's Tune" at all, had to look it up.

"Tomorrow Never Knows" was, of course, spectacular. I really regret not following the show when that first aired. (Hearing about it was possibly the first thing that made me decide I had to watch the show eventually.) I'd looked briefly at a YouTube clip already, but the sound was low, and I didn't know any of the context. "When did music suddenly become so important?"--that set everything up. I think Don meant the question purely in an advertising context, but the Beatles answered it in a much deeper way.

And Roger. If I could have chosen anybody to drop acid, he would have been my first choice by far. The way he asked Megan's mom "Would you take LSD with me?", he was like a little kid on Christmas morning. And the final shot of him naked at the window was brilliant.

Kinsey's return was less than what I'd hoped for.

aw c'mon this episode was incredible. the star trek script! Harry unable to resist the sexual wiles of hippie chick!

I don't know, I just didn't care for him in that guise. I liked the woman, and I thought Harry's gesture of sending him off to California with $500 was one of his better moments.

Kinsey being a Hare Krishna is one of the best jokes the series has ever done.

Buried in one of the episodes was one of my favorite lines yet (Roger, of course): "Joan wanted to have baby...I figured, why do that to anybody?"

(Jane, I meant, not Joan.)

Harry's gesture of sending him off to California with $500 was one of his better moments

I generally hate Harry, such a schmuck, but agree about this bit

harry's an interested character, like you can see him morph over the seasons from this somewhat put-upon nice guy to this careerist slickster who at his core remains a nice guy, but he's covering it up with this strained douchebaggery, like this effort at being a don or a roger but only copying their worst surface qualities that he's learned from their nights out or something, but never developing as he's aged their genuinely decent qualities. and i like how his success is happening in the background and everyone is missing the boat he seems to have caught. he's basically the type of guy who runs listicle sites in the 21st century.

he's not a nice guy

well he started off as one but the thing is that core of a nice guy is shrinking rapidly with every season and now he's becoming more and more this empty douchebag, but in the first season or two he was a "nice guy" but in the way we talk about those creepy indie rock nice guys who end up being assholes. seems to me he wasn't exactly a natural asshole, he has decided to become one.

creepy indie rock nice guys who end up being assholes

haha yeah this sounds about right

Shakey's rabidly anti-Harry stance still bemuses and delights me

it's true, I want to see him run over by a bus full of hippies or something

just recalling that Wire-style montage at the end of Season 5; that was great. actually i wonder if it's fair to say The Wire 'invented' that particular style of montage at the end of seasons of TV, sorta feels like they did.

"Butchie's Tune" is an old favorite that I didn't realize anyone else cared about, it put that episode over the top for me, totally devastating.

I go back and forth on Harry. He's been rotten at times, other times an okay guy just trying to do his job.

I was playing "Butchie's Tune" in class, found the whole scene posted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IUyhEr8dFk

Glen really deserves a spin-off show. Once an episode at a key moment, he'll turn to the camera, smile, and deliver his beloved "See? It all turns to crap" catchphrase.

ugh I hate that recap montage style - surely other cop shows did that before the Wire?

"Butchie's Tune" previous fit of exposure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8ArHxmELYg

Antonioni had some English session guys do these two Spoonful covers.

Didn't Sopranos do a similar style of montage at the beginning/end of a coupla seasons?

def

this thread is really funny

like I was just scanning it because I've been rewatching s5 and there are a lot of genuine lolz

my posting style 6 years ago is kinda setting my teeth on edge

I saw a post from 15 years ago saying I loved potlucks. I fucking hate potlucks.

so, is it me or does this show skip almost the entirety of 1967?

Season 5 ends a few months after Christmas 1966 - Lane forges the check around Xmas and then a couple episodes later he's dead. The last episode seems to take place in maybe spring of '67?

And then when season 6 starts I think we're already in 1968?

Yeah. IIRC, they completely skip over the Summer of Love. Cagey.

The way the finale drew Don into real-life events, they could have started that in 1967: Don goes back to see Anna's niece, she drags him to Monterey, clip of Janis Joplin singing "Ball and Chain," and instead of a stunned Mama Cass, you instead cut to a stunned Don Draper.

...and then he hooks up with her.

Lol

Won't try to open this whole thread to see if there's a similar post, but beautiful images near the end of "Tea Leaves" where the kids chase fireflies on the front lawn.

https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/fireflies1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iw0euc4qDk