Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

hamm's reactions to the fight were killing me.

These sportcoats are killing me. Make it stop.

god yeah, don's jacket at the party. hoped that he, at least, might be spared the indignity.

he got laid w/e

starting to hate don's "love has made me new man" schtick, though noose doodles are promising

I kind of dig it, at least as its presented to people on the outside.

I also like his newfound sense of openness, as in telling the madame that he grew up in a whorehouse. It's all gonna go wrong, I'll bet.

the "things feel like they're speeding up" dialogue between pete and the high school girl has got to be the worst passage in this show yet.

all of her little soliloquoy was cringeworthy actually

i covet pete's giant stereo system though, damn.

good episode. lots of weird hard cuts between scenes and odd graphic matches and stuff.

More ammo tonight for whoever it was that thought Pete will be the falling man.

?? people really take it that literally ??

I thought it was in this thread! Then where was I reading someone's conspiracy theory about Pete jumping out a window?

"good episode. lots of weird hard cuts between scenes and odd graphic matches and stuff."

there was a cut from someone leaving a door in the office to someone else opening another door in the office which was obviously intentional but also confused my brain for a split second

I was a bit overwhelmed by all the match cuts. Think Slattery had too much fun directing.

But otherwise yeah great ep omg.

there was a cut from someone leaving a door in the office to someone else opening another door in the office which was obviously intentional but also confused my brain for a split second

yeah, this annoyed me. too self-consciously clever for the fact that it just didn't work, plus meaningless.

totally. we need less of those and more star wipes.

12 hours and still no one has popped in to grumble about Cosgrove's story at the end? ilx losing it's edge!

okay I like Ken a lot more now

for some reason, i figured he was gonna be a sci-fi writer from the moment the idea was introduced

I like Ken a lot, but I don't know how much of it is the character and how much of it is from playing a lot of LA Noir.

he was too much of a non-entity before - between this and his "pact" with Peggy and his refusal to exploit his family connections for business he's become a lot more well-defined

i don't agree. they p much fleshed him out when the fact he was a writer came up originally. and when sal was in love with him because he realised that unlike the others he actually was intelligent and had an appreciation and understanding of art.

that episode (The Gold Violin) was pretty much the most screen-time Ken ever had in the series and it was in, what, the first season...?

season 2 apparently

I think it sort of comes down to the series/MW not having as much interest in Ken precisely because Ken is a guy without any super-crushing issues.

yeah - the writer-thing was a characteristic but it didn't generate any kind of conflict. now Ken's being set up as a guy who's a bit torn between work and his desire for a personal life outside the office

Still weirding me out though that instead of descending further into Roger-like decrepitude Don may have actually kind of sort of started figuring out what makes him happy. WTF mad men, what happened to the misery and squalor

Pete crying in the elevator wasn't enough for you?

Don should've peed on him

lol

this episode was amazing btw

amazed that anyone finds anything to like in pete, other than the skill with which he is made to seem completely insufferable and horrid

"i thought we were supposed to be friends"

FUCK YOU

The best thing about Pete is that he can make you turn your feelings about him right around on a dime.

which this episode did in spades

yeah - the writer-thing was a characteristic but it didn't generate any kind of conflict. now Ken's being set up as a guy who's a bit torn between work and his desire for a personal life outside the office

― Jilly Boel and the Eltones

ken is a fairly minor character and mainly operates as a foil to pete campbell. first season they're usually together, do the same job, and both equally obnoxious. ken however shows some growth, and generally is like pete campbell but with more substance and less connivance. when it was originally revealed he was a writer its main consequence was pete's pathetic attempt to compete with him. they then are competing again as joint accounts directors, tho pete takes it a lot more seriously than ken.

ken is also loathe to use family connections, while pete owes his job to his family connections, and happily exploits his father-in-law as well.

now they've brought his writing up again, and again it shows him as different from pete. pete coming home from the whorehouse to the darkened house. ken sitting in the bright cosy room with his wife asleep by his side writing a story (about pete). i think ken's writing may come up again in the show, but i don't think it will be a major plot point.

agree in general that the whole high school girl soliloquoy was stiffer than it should have been. otoh I have literally had teenage girls ask the "doesn't it feel like time is speeding up?" question so I dunno... also seemed to call back to Don's conversation with the girls at the Rolling Stones show.

xp

Ken will probably end up having authored the book this whole show is based on.

The best thing about Pete is that he can make you turn your feelings about him right around on a dime.

see, i don't get that. he's always been exactly the same arrogant, thankless, self-aggrandizing scumbag. this episode just underlined it.

well at least he's not a racist

talking about don's conversation with the girls at the stones show. is it just me or is that going to come up again? he gave the girl his business card, she was going to go and try and get them in using it, but she never came back. the client, heinz, had said his daughter was crazy for the stones. no, as i say that that sounds too fucking stupid and coincidental for them to run with.

Don gives out lots of business cards

yeah i know i already feel dumb.

still waiting for that epileptic drifter dude from S3 to come back somehow

well at least he's not a racist

lol

For some reason it felt like there were a lot more stylized transitions in this episode.

Awesome ep, that whole fight scene was hall of fame, also everything Roger said.

Can't work out who I felt more sorry for, Ken or Laine. But yeah Jim otm about Ken as foil for Pete.

What was Ken and Peggy's pact again?

not to bring in any business without the other