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

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

Tom and Lorenzo say:

As for the woman in the scene, there seems to be a lot of confusion as to who she is and what she meant. We think there was meant to be. First off, she’s not Anna Draper’s niece, although both actresses resemble each other quite strongly. Second, Roger didn’t send her. When Don went to Roger’s place, it was clear he wasn’t expected. To our way of thinking, either the guys from Wells Rich Greene were lying and she was, in fact, a call girl they hired, or Don’s giving off good mojo now that he’s trying to put things in order and she’s just another lady who found it irresistible.

ah so it wasn't just me with the niece thing. i forget about her straight away anyway as i was too busy enjoying The Don And Roger Show.

Count me as not confused here; the chance of an episode of Mad Men featuring a random woman hitting on Don Draper is pretty high.

i loved that scene--typical mad men weirdness. the whole nearly lynchian field trip--where for whatever reason i was convinced something crazy was gonna happen--was great too.

i can't believe we have to wait another whole year to find out what becomes of everyone. despite everything i'm hoping for a happy ending for Don and Megan, either that or he walks off into some kind of sunset with Rachel Menken.

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

― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, April 30, 2014 12:52 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha otm

does this show have shippers?

it would be weird if it didn't

i would like to be a miss farrell shipper. i don't care who she's with, as long as that's who the show ends up being about, her and whoever. she can still make a comeback.

I liked Dr. Faye.

what's a shipper

no idea

I liked her a lot too, but can't really see them bringing her back.

Similarly, during the whole tense "what do we do with Don" thing I didn't know if he was going to make it back to the firm but it seemed patently obvious he wasn't going to take the other job offer - there's no way they were going to introduce a whole new office of characters with just half a season to go.

if you introduce a Draper in the first act he must go off in the third

what's a shipper

It's slang for "relationshipper," the loons online who obsesses about couples on tv shows and give them dumb names like "Jam" (Jim + Pam from The Office, etc).

ugh

Most Mad Men viewers want each and every one of these characters to die alone and miserable.

no they dont

Just Pete.

obviously pete should be with crazy rory gilmore, but there will inevitably be peggy + pete shippers out there somewhere

stop talking about shippers

the point of this show is not who gets together in the end. it's about who can make real changes in their life

really?

I thought it was "Let's see who can best survive this decade with his or her dignity intact before catching HIV at the Anvil."

that's a different show

shippers are not about what the show is actually about, but it would be interesting if the show proved to be resistant to them, because it is otherwise a show that attracts all the trappings of online commentary-community

the show is resistant to them because no one really cares if peggy and pete get together or if they do they are insane

there's no way they were going to introduce a whole new office of characters with just half a season to go.

― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, April 30, 2014 2:37 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they kind of did that once already!

Yeah but over a longer timeframe. Ted appeared pretty early iirc

i didnt think it was gonna happen and clearly neither did he, it was pretty obv leveraging

"they did a good job of not making it look like a demotion!"

Photos from the set: http://imgur.com/a/uyZxh

I have no idea why, but I thought they were filming out in the real world and not on a soundstage. Those backdrops are super convincing.

I went through the complete "Crime Story" last year, and was surprised how hard it was already by the 80s to do real locales+'60s period settings.

so cool