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

Very good episode. If the remaining ones are as good as this I'll be happy. Very well directed by whoever did that. Very interesting multiple readings of almost every line by the actors, quite impressive.

It was directed by Jennifer Getzinger who also directed "The Suitcase" (Peggy & Don bottle episode)

Surprised anyone was reading Joan's confrontation of the polyester cowboy as serious. She was clearly being sarcastic.

otm -- it was part of her general disgust with the way men perceive and treat her. Even a guy she liked. As some kind of trophy who couldn't want anything more than to be dolled up and treated right by a powerful man, regardless of her own needs, obligations and ambitions.

couldn't want anything more than to be dolled up and treated right by a powerful man,

tbh it isn't clear to me what else she wants besides this, (and maybe it isn't clear to her either)

Feel like it wasn't entirely sarcasm either, esp in the context of that earlier scene where she says "You are ruining my life!" and it cuts to the babysitter holding her kid. The kid is a man but he is the new generation rather than Don's, and those old power structures are falling. Most of the scenes in this ep where gender dynamics were getting upending happened w inter-generational conflicts: Joan and her kid/the babysitter, Betty/Glenn, Don/Sally, etc. In a way Joan is being totally honest here, she is not going to let another man dictate her life, even if that man is her son. I don't think she would be so flippant, she has thought about this a lot.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/02d1b0618ef3f10b307bfe9a4e95190a/tumblr_nn47anXY0j1rm0qhbo1_500.gif

https://36.media.tumblr.com/193f993c4fd3dc47b29340f48c91bcaa/tumblr_nn47anXY0j1rm0qhbo2_500.png

lol

tbh it isn't clear to me what else she wants besides this, (and maybe it isn't clear to her either)

I read her character very differently. I think she has always wanted to be respected for her intelligence and abilities. She has a career that she's proud of, even if it has involved some things she hates. She wants rich-developer guy to see her as a smart and talented ad exec, not arm candy.

Ding! Ding! That was exactly my take on it as well.

Funny that this whole debate hinges on how well or not well Christina Hendricks was able to deliver those lines.

I think she has always wanted to be respected for her intelligence and abilities

as Peggy noted, the way she presents herself (and has historically been willing to exploit her physicality) says otherwise. This is the central conflict in her character imo - she wants the former, but can't resist the latter.

Peggy wants to be respected for her intelligence and abilities as well, but doesn't have Joan's er other assets to fall back on

Which makes Joan kind of Don's double -- difference being that Don doesn't have to actually sleep with clients unless he wants to.

yeah they are very much alike in that way

it occurs to me that january jones is the luckiest actress alive

also

http://postimg.org/image/4tkia2ijv/

http://s1.postimg.org/zb0d1m5wv/madmencandy.jpg

mmm Butterfinger.

i'm guessing CLARKs are like a MARS bar?

...and Snik Snak is like a Kit Kat?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpvdYA0fLyY

clark bars are more like butterfinger, i used to buy a bag of mini-clark bars for halloween trick or treaters. pretty tasty. that shot in the new episode made me so damn hungry.

what's a butterfinger

isn't a mars bar a milky way in the States or something?

apparently yes, and a Milky Way is a Three Musketeers in the US

get it together, America

butterfinger = crumbly chunk of hardened peanut buttery stuff. like a softer thicker more peanut-y DIME/DAIM. deelicious.

http://youtu.be/u0rGjmXaVrA

it occurs to me that january jones is the luckiest actress alive

you know I think Jones gets a bad rap and is a better actress than she's given credit. I'd go so far as to say that she's better actress than Christina Hendricks.

I like to think that John Slattery is playing an aspect of himself and it's all natural

It's become unwatchable, but it was neat to see Jones play a modern normie in Last Man on Earth.

agreed!

you know I think Jones gets a bad rap and is a better actress than she's given credit. I'd go so far as to say that she's better actress than Christina Hendricks.

― Darin

I think she does a good job in Mad Men, but she's been shocking in everything else I've seen her in (admittedly not much). No way is she better than Hendricks.

I feel like Hendricks over broadcasts Joan's emotions or something. Maybe I just find her character a bit poorly drawn and uninteresting in comparison with the others. I never really got the cult of Joan thing.

Yeah, I actually like January Jones on LMoE, but she's not enough to keep me watching it.

this is pretty sidesplitting tbh
http://www.clickhole.com/article/oral-history-mad-men-2329

i am the secret man who drinks at work

Yeah, very stupid but I couldn't stop giggling.

Elisabeth Moss (Peggy Olson): Even for scenes he wasn’t in, Jon would burst into whatever room we were filming in and shout, “No, I’m not Don Draper! Don Draper exploded! I’m Dick Whitman instead! Yowza!”

John Slattery: When Jon Hamm says the word “Yowza!” his voice gets extremely low-pitched, like a dragon is talking.

jones seems pretty obviously extremely limited as an actress. that "works" for betty's character half the time, but the other half of the time it really limits scenes. the scenes between her and weiner fils were notably terrible. although i blame a lot of that on the director, whose idea of staging seems to be "have your actors stand stock-still in one place for an entire scene."

i have no idea what christina hendricks is like as an actress elsewhere but she's done some impressive things as joan.

you're right this is all subjective

"have your actors stand stock-still in one place for an entire scene."

there's actually far too much of this in TV in general, as well as Mad Men in particular. actors maintain fixed coordinates throughout a scene. which is not only typically not very "realistic"... more important, it's often not very dynamic.

funny that you brought this up - I thought that scene w/Betty, Sally and Glen really suffered from this in the last episode

yeah, i was beginning to think they were glued to the carpet. i mean, especially given how uncomfortable the encounter was, you'd think at least one of them would be squirming or just fidgeting or something. the only character to move, really, was glen's date, who kind of shrunk back toward the door as the conversation got heated.

What're the odds the final scene of the series is Don throwing himself off a building in a live action version of the title sequence

I'm joking but this episode was all about Don looking to the future and seeing nothing there, so what is there left for this handsome man without character to live for?

Golf

Chicks, money

still time to pine for miss farrell

*sigh*

don should run for office

Then his war record gets investigated

Awkward staging for an awkward moment. Worked for me.

no one investigated war records back then

I think Jones is very good in quite a lot of episodes. I remember hearing that she said she was grateful to Ashton Kutcher for bluntly telling her she was a terrible actress, apparently that was a turning point for her.