MAD MEN on AMC - Seasons 7(a) & & 7(b)

the sideburns aren't doing him any favors either.

pete's contentment in this episode reminded me of the ending of madame bovary, where the narrator relates that in the wake of doctor bovary's downfall the sleazy, opportunistic pharmacist achieved major success and added that it was his type -- the schemers of the world -- who are posed to inherit the earth. or something.

cad otm

i can't believe i'm going to keep watching this

― call all destroyer, Sunday, April 13, 2014 8:25 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this just seems like a chore tbh

This really needed to be a 2-hour ep, just to get the rhythm going and the characters more in motion than what we got. Loving California Pete & Drug Orgy Roger already tho.

I shall celebrate this, my post 11,000, with some Vanilla Fudge:

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

Off to a brisker start than last year's filler season, even if the "meaningful" moment (disheveled Don's final moment on the balcony) felt forced as usual and the camera lingered a bit too long on the young man in bed with Roger and his tryst.

Man I can't believe they are stretching this thing out over two "seasons" when does season 7b begin?

Oh and this was awesome

man it's amazing how much these older guys look like Nixon men

I was thinking about something I saw on Pawn Stars (!) when Don was riding the people mover with his hat on. The old man in the pawn shop said Kennedy never wore hats and by doing so pretty much killed off the trend of men wearing hats by the early 60s. So here's Don, in 1969, still wearing hats like a throwback to another time.

so does Megan not know that Don isn't working?

Sorta get the sense Megan doesn't really care much what Don's doing, period. So it's not too hard for him to keep her in the dark about his not-job.

she's gonna die

7(b) is spring 2015 iirc

ugh

I am pretty dense when it comes to symbolism, but last night even I understood how that damned door to the balcony is just like Don Draper's life right now: It's broken, the pitiful effort he is giving cannot fix it so he deals with the misery it causes him starkly alone.

Draper for all of his faults always at least had sex to fall back on but now even that doesn't work for him anymore: His hot wife lays back and thinks of England and he rejects his emotionally vulnerable, cooing co-pilot, using the same lie about having work to do to explain brushing both of them off.

If the show was taking place now, Don would either be self-medicating himself into a coma (Roger Sterling has morphed from an anachronism to a man ahead of his time in this regard) or breaking down (Peggy Olson is going that route, but in private since the times mandate that she - and Joan Holloway for that matter - cannot dare show weakness).

Don is either going to hit rock bottom and start to fight to regain all of the things he has lost (which is pretty much everything when you get right down to it - he symbolically can't get it up and his advertising brilliance is relegated to trading pitches to Freddy Rumsen for sandwiches) or the fall will continue and then it's only a matter of whom he takes down with him.

I hope it's the former since, for all of Dandy Don's faults, which have seemed to be exacerbated every season, I still liked him best when he was he was able to pull the wool over everyone's eyes (including his own) but a case can be made that watching his character implode would make for even more compelling viewing as the season and series winds down.

I think this 1/2 season will be his rise up and then the next one he will head down again--

Neve Campbell was good enough to survive her character saying her husband "died of thirst."

that scene was so bad

I think it was supposed to be? One critic suggested in might have been a Don fantasy/daydream

Really good description here of the whole (Don)-Freddy-Peggy-Lou dynamic, re the way Peggy, "improves" the proposed Accutron slogan and then pushes it (acting first in reflexive self-protection, also like "doing it because I can" male manager reflex, then with self-righteous inadvertant self-parody of her signature professionalism/idealism)---also the shit Joan has to deal with, though I followed that better while watching: http://www.vulture.com/2014/04/mad-men-recap-season-7-premiere.html He doesn't mention that this is probably the first time Draper's ever turned down a proposition---does the fact that the woman's the one putting the moves on him, rather than the other way around, tip the scales, turn him off? Especially since, as this recapper enumerates, Megan's been tossing off a bunch of house rules for her hunka-hubby guest. Of course the world's *still* grooving past him...

they seem to be treading a lot of water thematically (what, Don's down and out AGAIN? how many times have we seen this arc w him by now) but it's still a joy to watch. genuine lolz at Ken's earring toss. and enjoyed the Don/Rumsen front reveal. That "conversation piece" tag is from a real ad, isn't it? sounded familiar.

Cosgrove gets hotter every season.

I appreciate that Cosgrove doesn't get overused, but I do wish they'd use him a little more often than they do.

He's kinda one note though

Stan is too, but I feel like they use Stan just the right amount.

Yep.

Don seemed different--more restrained. Did we actually see him take a drink? Remember when he lived in that apartment by himself and wrote in a journal? Hope he returns to that place and finds some peace--seems like he's testing himself next week with the grease pencils on the bottles?

"One note"? Well, he was never the same after riding the storm in that Buddy Holly plane with those "WHEEE is my Co-pilot" maniac Motor City clients (where he lost his eye, right?) Remember when he was having so much fun, riding the mini-John Deere over the newly crowned UK boss's foot, and writing science fiction short stories (incl. at least one inspired by a visit to Pete's homebase, plausibly enough). Hope he gets his mojo back, but looks like he's going to be the third office casualty, most likely by stressed-out spontaneous combustion.

remember the time he rode one of those girls like a horse

I just don't think he has much depth as a character--Harry's way more interesting (because he's a dope).

No depth, but as a good MM supporting tool must, he makes himself useful, plot-twist-wise: cutting off feet, refusing to meet, etc.

dancing kinda sweet

http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2013/05/20/itsmyjob.o.jpg/a_560x375.jpg

Miss Sal hitting on Cosgrove :(

stressed-out eyepatch ken was one of the few things i liked in this episode

Surely everyone here pissed themselves laughing at Pete just sauntering in wearing that outfit?

Did Don call Pete a hippie? I thought that was weird.

his clothes looked hamptons or newport, not cali, i guess that was the joke?

He said you talk like a hippie but you dont dress like one

And I hope Pete ends up ok

These guys are gonna go ham(m) in 1975, like every thirty and fortysomething for whom the sixties were too late.

Also who do we think is going to die

What do we think Roger's daughter told him at lunch?

Sounded like she was twelve-stepping or something similar.

gonna be interesting how they handle Manson, seems inevitable w Megan's proximity

also lol at her sub-Paul Lynde agent

agreed the 12 stepping

also, man, is Megan gonna die? I think so. I don't know.

Surely everyone here pissed themselves laughing at Pete just sauntering in wearing that outfit?
― Matt DC

poor old one-eyed ken cosgrove

This has mutated into a very odd show. Two seasons ago I adored it, now I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. The tone of this episode was some weird midpoint between madcap and elegiac.

^^ odd show otm, but I love it for it, how it is getting more undefinable, fleeting. Dust in the wind.

If the episode itself doesn't do it for you, there's always Molly Lambert's exquisite reviews. I kind of love her just for her Mad Men recaps.

Roger's daughter sounded like she's been going to Al-Anon

Megan in the LA hills certainly had a Manson family vibe to it but I'm not sure.

this show is seeming pretty muddled and boring

but boy is neve campbell looking good