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

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.

Gotta admit I have no idea where this is going. . . and I like it

Is Cutler particularly outdated? He seems to be the reasonable and competent one out of the main dude partners.

Cutler's not outdated but it seems like Lou is?

I fucking hate Lou and want a comeuppance to befall him with extreme prejudice.

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.

Ah, but that would be considered constructive dismissal, and hence totally against the law! They really should have hired a lawyer to negotiate that contract...

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

Lou is a fuckbag though

I'm fond of Lou. A refreshing reminder that people don't need reasons to be dicks.

how come Ginsberg was so pleased to see Don? i thought they kinda hated each other.

Ginsburg hates whoever has the most authority over him at the moment.

mm that makes sense.

this explains who Mary Wells is by the way, i had no idea

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2002/05/real-life-peggy-olson-mad-men-advertising

Ginsberg knows that Don is more creative than Lou, thinks he might be helpful kibitzing on current work

also possibly out of general human decency, pleased to see he's alive and well

My friend has an interesting theory that Don is scheming to take the whole place down with him - hence him agreeing to all their crazy stipulations.

Well, it's a theory. I see absolutely zero motivation for Don to be that vindictive, though. He's aware of how HE ruined his own life and not SC&P and seems at least halfway eager to straight arrow it again for however long.

Yeah, I agree. But I could see him going into this with good intentions and then losing it. Esp considering how difficult his relationships w/creative, Lou and Peggy will be.

yeah he's aware of his flaws and sincerely wants to change but the question is is he capable of change? the sopranos was (among other things) about how ppl are fundamentally incapable of changing who they are, that they might recognize how and why they must change, that they can have epiphany after epiphany, but ultimately ppl are corrupt and weak and will fall back into the patterns of being themselves. mad men has shown at times a potential to be a rebuttal to this (and the emphasis on aa, beyond just being good period detail, would seem to work w/ this; if you wanted to argue 'yes change is difficult but sometimes possible' then addicts would present a good case study), we know that in many ways alot of the finale to last season was originally supposed to be in the season finale and you can debate how much of what happened there represented don being incapable of change (meg obv, alot of what happened w/ work) and what represented actual breakthrough (sally obv, and weirdly i'd argue the actual hershey's pitch), so in a way we have a rough idea of where idea of where wiener might want this to go and at the same time we can argue about where exactly that is. if i'm writing a show about how change isn't possible though i'm not sure i set it in the sixties.

was originally supposed to be in the series finale rather

really? i didn't know that?

hella amount of references to previous episodes this week; Lane's office, Ken's Carousel mention, Megan banging on about Don's behaviour when she was his secretary, Roger reminding Don he found him "at the bottom of a fur box" etc etc

plus the return of the great anne dudek!

And yet no mention of Peggy's fat period.

...or Betty's!

Or Harry's!

or gene's!

oh yeah anne dudek.

who was the blonde who came to the table by the way? do we know her? i thought for a second it was Anna Draper's niece.

I thought she was the stewardess from the plane

i still dont really understand the blonde table thing tbh, it was kind of disorienting

man all the don in the office stuff was so uncomfortable and awful

i dug how roger showed up like a total drunk asshole, almost forgetting that he asked don to come in, then just snaps to it in that first tense meeting, and is totally otm

i still dont really understand the blonde table thing tbh, it was kind of disorienting

feel like that was the intention - Don couldn't remember the girl/tell if it was a setup and neither could the audience