Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

well real life provides more context, no?

but yeah you'd have to be a bit tone deaf to miss roger's joke.

loved Roger's note btw

PLEASE HELP ME

loved the cigarette - i have literally had that happen in, er... similar circumstances.

i can't remember what happened with the cigarette

He smoked the whole thing down with his first drag.

to the sound of an accordion squeeze

heh. i'm sure a gif will be along any minute now.

Yeah that was otm and awesome.

I'm mainly glad it was suddenly all fish-eye lenses and extreme close-ups and trailing effects. It still is a bit stylized but it's all maintained in the Mad Men world and I love the fun Roger seems to be having with it.

it was wasn't

there was a lot in the episode that was really stylized. the Don & Megan driving scenes (and especially the later scene of Don driving alone) had this saturated cartoony look on the scenery going by.

kind of "fake looking" but in a really specific sixties-movie way

yeah, when megan rolled down the window, i thought, "why bother? your car isn't moving."

my wife said she was hoping Megan was going to fall out of the car o_0

that's odd. why she hate a megan?

I find her to be a frustrating character tbh

I kinda hate her too tbh

i felt for her in this ep. like when she was trying to order pie and don was all "WE'LL HAVE ORANGE SHERBET." don's so used to "ordering for" a woman; god forbid she should want something for herself.

weird. what's the objection? dullness? she seems nice enough.

that was to xps

and yeah, don was being a complete ass, all through this episode. bossing her around, ignoring or ridiculing her feelings, abandoning her cuz she wouldn't get with his program, kicking in the door, physically assaulting her.

I dunno I have a kneejerk resentment against anybody who gets everything they want because of how they look. especially when I find it actively unpleasant to look at her lol

She's stuck between modern woman and cardboard cutout. Character was never properly developed as far as i can see.

like, she's just a dimbulb who married her boss. I agree that Don treated her like shit in this episode and her reactions were very humanizing (and funny, eg the sherbet) but yeah I just don't like her.

I don't think she's that dim of a bulb. My biggest gripe was wondering how she was dealing with the obvious preferential treatment at work, so I'm glad it was addressed that she feels like it's not taken seriously by Don and presumably other people. Her reaction to Harry's salacious remarks in the first ep was pretty great.

Maybe if you want autonomy don't marry your boss?

she hasn't been shown doing anything particularly remarkable work-wise, and she's been pretty dumb re: social situations as I noted upthread. jury's out imho. I don't think Don married her for intellect.

I dunno how much she knows about the dark details of don's past (I suspect lots?) but if she does know enough, that "mother" crack was really really horribly vicious.

seemed pretty clear she knew she'd gone over the line there

one more instance of her saying the wrong thing at the wrong time

I really like Megan and think she adds tons to the dynamic of the show. You guys are nuts.

Agreed, this criticism seems completely wackadoo.

I dunno how much she knows about the dark details of don's past (I suspect lots?) but if she does know enough, that "mother" crack was really really horribly vicious.

eh, vicious sure, but 100% justified imo. again, don was being a complete prick, deserved whatever she could (verbally) dish out.

and i don't know why anyone would think megan has to justify herself in the first place. so, she's pretty. not her fault, and don skates on his looks as much as anyone. so, she married the boss. no more her fault than his, people fall in love at work all the time. i think she seems like a pretty decent person, overall. not perfect, perhaps a bit naive, but not distinctly stupid or frequently cruel. she seems to take a lot more abuse than she dishes out.

She's definitely naive, and thrown to some extent by the cynicism of her co-workers. Partly this comes from the end of that Honeymoon period, where its all fresh and new and now Don is falling back into his self-expected role as Man. Don is a total jerk, but he doesn't realise it half the time, because he doesn't consider her as much as he obviously should.

I liked that it was BERT of all people who called him out (for slipping at work, natch).

yeah Cooper was great in this episode

they probably just wanted to remind us that he was still in the game (he kind of MADE the game, no?) despite spending lots of time reading the newspaper in the waiting room.

i sort of suspect that at some point there'll be a season premiere where bert's portrait is hanging on the wall of that waiting room and we'll be like o_O.

was also glad that this episode didn't end with someone successfully selling beans

looking forward to Ginsberg's Nazi-themed Heinz campaign tho

i feel like the beans thing will never happen.

but if it does, they should get the human beinz to do the music.

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

or these guys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujgM8elOeZE

http://gif.mocksession.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/PEGGY-HJ.gif

oh dear

thank you, no

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2yd8m19ZU1qgj9zpo1_400.gif

Didn't realize Peggy was, er, a southpaw.

there we go!

Cooper on money -> Cooper cracking the whip for Don

I can understand the distaste for the Don/Megan relationship but that conflict model makes some sense to me, given the dynamic in some relationships. The stupid chase around the apartment strikes true, and really, the part where Megan said something to the effect of "every time we fight it diminishes us" or whatever? I can think of a few moments in my life where that would have given me a new appreciation for what I misunderstood.

Roger is the zen master, btw

It made me remember how much of the character of Roger Sterling is about age and confidence, and how much that's been worn down in recent episodes. Hopefully this marks either a return to form or maybe the revitalizing he didn't get by marrying young.