Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

but the whole "sick fever dream of cheating/murder" was a total Sopranos rehash

well yeah. that's why it sucked. sort of been done to death.

the "I am so irresistable, even when totally sick" thing telegraphed it a bit

nice character bit: michael's moral revulsion when others found the murders exciting didn't prevent him from exploiting that excitement in his "dark" cinderella pitch.

that was pretty well done.

the attempts to allude to the murders and make it a theme through the rest of the episode, I didn't think it really added up to anything. "she escaped by hiding under the bed" --> Sally sleeps under the couch, Don stuffs a corpse under his bed

that's the ongoing "all this stuff means something; see the connections?" show-and-don't-go madmen trademark

because I still envision a horrible future for Sally, that shot where she looks at the bottle of pills felt like it should have been underscored with a DUN-DUN-DUNNNN musical sting.

Anyone wanna give a wiki link to the murders? I don't know much about American history of nurse killers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Speck

Here's the lurid version that Henry's mother would be a fan of:

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/speck/index_1.html

was familiar with but had largely forgotten about Speck.

o_0 at the prison video ref'd in the wiki tho

I remember seeing the part of that video aired by some Bill Kurtis program in the 90s.

btw what did Dawn's note say...? All I could make out was "thanks for your generosity" or something

"sorry for putting you out", I think?

would just like to say the bit where Peggy got up on the couch and folded her legs under her, with hands in her lap, ready to confess = A+

i did NOT know about speck, what a fucked up story.
also wtf wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_rapists

American rapists
Stay away from meeee

aaaanyway we all know about this already right

by my count Roger's tally for bribing people in the office into doing things for him is up to $1410 so far this season

More than that! $50 to the secretary in the debut, $1100 to Harry same ep, and $410 to Peggy last night

Just wanted to point out that the show must have a product placement deal w/Bugles, as Mother Francis was eating them while watching tv just like FatBetty.

there's always been tons of product placement on this show

ha i though the bugles was a nice link between Betty and Mother Francis (as was "your mother is obsese.")

Bugles: Fat People Like 'Em!tm

anyone else feel robbed of at least a season's worth of potboilery baby daddy drama by joan's dumping the motherfucker already?

you misspelled "saved from"

anyone else think that the show's treatment of betty is sort of shabby/creepy and indicative of certain issues on the part of its creator(s)?

xp lol, i guess so

and yes, i agree with you

I think you could definitely make a case that this show has "mommy" issues... in contrast to Don (who's shown more or less being a dad who at least loves his children), pretty much all the mothers on the show have been portrayed in a pretty negative light.

Betty
Peggy's mother
Henry's mother
Joan's mother (altho in the last couple episodes she doesn't come off so badly...?)

Mona Sterling seemed to have her shit together, I guess

Campbell's ice-cold mother too

how are the daddies in general, besides absent? the only ones coming to mind are pete's dead one and lane's violent one.

Betty's dad was pretty cool.

Don's drunk, violent one

Trudy's dad seems manipulative but not entirely evil. at least responsible and caring towards his daughter.

The women on the show are just pretty faces or they are Joan, Betty, Peggy, Sally and now Mother Francis This is why I was hoping Megan has some major character development. Hate that Betty's just sort of stagnated with a lame weight issue so far. Would have appreciated more Sally time instead of the Don dream.

The women on the show are just pretty faces or they are Joan, Betty, Peggy, Sally and now Mother Francis

mmm no. Trudy, Megan. Wouldn't exactly call the LIFE mag woman a "pretty face" lol

oh you ref'd Megan - sorry. Trudy isn't major but I do think she's past the "pretty face" accusation

trying to reach out but really making everything about herself.

yes--it wasn't just peggy glancing at the purse. dawn looked uncomfortable with much of their conversation, esp the latter half. i think part of this may be peggy's self-centeredness but also a reaction to what i think might be perceived by dawn as a kind of uncomfortable intimacy. not sexual intimacy, just.... well just as peggy probably doesn't have much experience hanging out with black folks, i wonder if dawn has much experience hanging out with white folks. and by going from 1 to 11 on the relax-o-meter peggy probably made dawn pretty uncomfortable. the purse thing was just the capper.

Peggy was doing a lot of projection/nervous white person stuff. Eager to spotlight their similarities without actually talking about race etc

that's the ongoing "all this stuff means something; see the connections?" show-and-don't-go madmen trademark
― wrapped sausage stylus (forksclovetofu), Monday, April 9, 2012 11:37 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, this. sometimes it comes together nicely just on the level of patterning, sometimes it actually means something, other times it seems like they are trying too hard to signal their "quality" status by hitting you over the head with this meaningless parallelism. i think this last episode fit more in category 1 but YMMV. the worst instance of this had to be that "beautiful girls" episode.

Peggy was doing a lot of projection/nervous white person stuff. Eager to spotlight their similarities without actually talking about race etc

― Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, April 9, 2012 5:15 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, the moment peggy shifted from "i know what it's like to be the only one of your kind" (OK, sure) to "and i know all about your ambitions and concerns" (uh..) dawn began to look uncomfortable.

"Pretty faces" as in featured extras. I would love to see more Trudy.

Don is totally useless at being anything more than a weekend parent, think of the episode from last season where Sally threw a tantrum in his office. If the mothers come off worse on this show it's usually because they carry the greater burden; they're simply in proximity to the kids more, without many (or any) other outlets, so their arbitrariness and cruelty stand out.

Betty is this but with the added challops of being relentlessly immature. The show's refusal to let her grow up or learn from experience like, at all, is its worst part imo, if it's just gonna be Fat Morticia this season I'd rather they write her out altogether.

If the mothers come off worse on this show it's usually because they carry the greater burden

lol what "burden" did Betty carry - Carla did everything

I dunno about the "burdens" borne by the parents on the show whose children are already grown (which is all the other mothers I listed)

would say the show is more broadly about dysfunctional families, rather than dysfunctional moms

Wow, whoever brought up the sociopathic stuff a few weeks ago was otm with this whole dream sequence!

i felt very otm in that moment, though it was veggie girl who first called don a sociopath itt

ah c'mon who among us hasn't dreamed of strangled an ex amirite

lol

tbrr tho... if Don had actually murdered her that would have been evidence for his being a sociopath. But dreaming about it just means that he's anxious about reconciling his past and his libido with his relationship with Megan. It has zero bearing on whether or not he's a sociopath (which, in case it isn't obvious, I don't really think is supported by the series - his relationship with Anna and, to a lesser extent Joan and Peggy, suggest otherwise)