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

I love the despondent way Bobby says 'I wish it was yesterday' when Henry asked what happened

Ha, that made me worried that the episode-ending song would be "Yesterday."

loved that they used If 6 was 9

the last shot was genuinely tense, felt like Don could've said "fuck you" and it would have been just as believable as his tight-lipped "ok"

I was surprised. Can't tell if he just wants to disappear under Lou and call it a life, or spend the next few months scheming and working his way back up to a real (non-neutered) partner...

Loved that scene where Don goes to the office, intercut with the flashback of him sitting alone in his room, getting the courage to leave. The music, the camera-movements.

yeah that was awesome, find myself sympathizing w/ new don way more than i should

Didn't his wristwatch say 9? I initially thought he was late, but now I think it could have been him at home day or night before or after the meeting.

felt bad for New Don and the almost spiritual sense of self-abnegation to order tomato juice from an attractive stewardess

loved that they used If 6 was 9

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, April 28, 2014 5:51 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Totally. Perfect -- and unexpected -- choice.

And yep, his wristwatch said 9.

xp

Definitely the best of the season yet, I had no idea how the Don squatting in the office situation would resolve itself.

and Don there in his brown suit with his hat really underlined that whole 'man out of time' thing that someone noticed a couple of weeks back, don in his hat striding through the airport... he looks like a relic now, where before he always looked like the most together dude in the room

where the fuck is bob benson

Why am I still watching this

^

he's in detroit smarmily doing the job he embarrassed pete out of.

Benson's arc seems done to me

except for clashing with Pete cf last week

Bobby wishing it was yesterday is a clue that Bob Benson is future Bobby who travelled back in time.

maybe bob benson is really bobbie barrett

Loved the "Model Shop" clip and "That Girl" clip last week.

In "That Girl" I don't think Anne Marie ever becomes an actress? The whole show about her pursuing this dream and getting into ridiculous situations... Was this supposed to point at Megan and how her trying to be an actress is just plain silly to Don? Maybe making too much of it. This weeks Model Shop about a doomed relationship...

I really got the sense that the partners (except Roger) were consciously putting together a package of conditions they were sure Don would reject therefore triggering his resignation.

The bit when Don knocked on the hotel door only to find Roger on the other side was lol.

The Roger/Don relationship has always been one of my favourites on the show.

Who was the blonde girl in the restaurant? I'm sure she's been in it before.

I really got the sense that the partners (except Roger) were consciously putting together a package of conditions they were sure Don would reject therefore triggering his resignation.

yep, same. lanes office was the kicker

I think that was Bethany van Neuys xp

Why is Joan so vexed w/Don? I can't remember the last series very clearly. Is it because she thinks he's going to upset the good thing she's got going there?

Love this show to death btw.

Because Don took a big dump in a meeting with a major client in a business in which she's now a partner.

Don flippantly bounced the account that she'd slept with a man to secure.

also Joan just got given an empty upstairs office & now don's back, i think she's also worried they'll bounce her back out

blew off jag business cuz of his pride (the whole 'will not be alone w/ clients' thing was due to this), general fuckup and loose cannon that she's lost her patience w/ and potential threat to stability she's enjoying.

plus her default in meetings seems to be to defer to jim and bert

yeah i feel like it's not just the hershey's thing he was checked out for a long time

I love how Bert is basically back in control of the firm, with a new japanese office and shoe-rules. It mirrors how Nixon was seen as this hopelessly backwards figure in season 1, and now the last season begins on his inauguration. I think people complaining about this show going in circles is missing the point: The sixties basically went in a circle This show took so many chances in seasons 3,4,5, constantly blowing up the status quo, mirroring the times. And now it's showing that most of that was basically window-dressing, putting it all back in order.

cf bert w/ don's tobacco letter. they're so over that guy.

except that it isn't going back in order, as Nixon's first term proved.

bert cooper is a flat circle

Well, Nixon's second term was probably even more disorderly... But the squares are back in charge.

But there is this whole glorious 'the more things change...' thing with the show. Like that great shot of the five partners on their new floor from the finale of season five, which is the five original driving forces in the firm, before Peggy and Lane shook things up. Or the fact that the big fusion in season six gave the firm it's old name back. It's so much more than the show just repeating itself.

i think there's something to that

tom and lorenzo have noted new conservatism nods in the fashion, it's definitely a theme.

Kind of hoped on some level the episode would have a "getting back to business / getting the gang back together" vibe like the episode where they started the firm. But I kind of think it's never going to get back to that bright spot, is it?

that would be pretty wrong in tone I think

the 50s conservative mentality didn't really thoroughly re-assert itself until the 80s

Nixon's "Silent Majority" speech is coming up in November 1969.

Kind of hoped on some level the episode would have a "getting back to business / getting the gang back together" vibe like the episode where they started the firm. But I kind of think it's never going to get back to that bright spot, is it?

― it definitely wasn't designed to be a pants pocket player (stevie)

can't see this happening anymore than meaghan feeling the way she felt about him when she sang 'zou bisou bisou'. my best case scenario is he doesn't get fucked as hard and easily as they're looking to fuck him, he regains his footing and in some way becomes don draper again as opposed to the guy that used to be don draper, maybe at most (and this is really stretching plausibility) becomes creative director again or something close to it. this is all unlikely but then again it wouldn't be the only miracle to happen in new york in 1969.

it would be crazy if this whole thing is just leading to the gradual degradation and humiliation of Don as he just becomes some outdated relic that the office can't get rid of, the butt of jokes, a has-been, just trying to scrape by

Don is no more outdated than Sterling, Cooper and Cutler, so that's not where this is going. The first episode of the season also showed, that he still has his old pitching magic, what with the Rumsen-pitch. The problem isn't whether or not he can get back to being Don Draper, that was what happened at the end of season five - with him going into a bar, ready to cheat - but whether or not he can commit to sorta being a bit Dick Whitman again.

Dick Whitman was a weaselly reject

he does have his pitching magic, seems they are setting up the question of whether or not that matters

Yeah, Lou wasn't that impressed when Peggy took Rumsen/Don's work to him.

Geez Mo, that's in the back of my mind too and it would just be too depressing. Though I don't want a happily ever after ending I don't want Don Draper toppling off anything and drowning in a great abyss of any kind. I would hope if he does go falling it is magestically and not so leisure suit sad.