Sterling Cooper: a Mad Men poll

http://www.newenglandfilm.com/files/images/big-crosswinds_0.jpg

Joan's a good character but she's not a patch on Don/Pete/Peggy.

think ppl voted w/their willys tbf

i literally used my dick to press the keys on the keyboard

didnt notice this in time but wouldve voted roger - don is sort of the best but he has an unfair advantage

I voted for Roger, but really you could make a case for any of them.

I'm glad Sal got a few votes, surprised he beat Pete though.

Pete's a tricky one - very well conceived, but deeply unlikeable. Salvatore's one of the nicer characters, on the other hand.

It might be interesting to have a dick for a day, I suppose.

I still love Roger and Don's conversation over oysters in S1.

Roger: "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster. [Waves oyster around] I believe that was Jonathan Swift."
Don: "Are we naming them now?"

Followed by Roger being violently vomitous all over the office carpet.

someone lied about voting for harry ohno

Roger: "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster. [Waves oyster around] I believe that was Jonathan Swift."
Don: "Are we naming them now?"

Love it when Don and Roger are just hanging out trying to make each other laugh. Wonder how Layne would fair in an updated poll.

I just started watching this show. Yeah, wow, I am completely in love with Joan.

I guess this was taken after Season 2 or 3. I'd like to redo it once 7b finishes. Reasonable choice early on, but I can't see that she'd ever win now, unless the writers are especially kind to her in 7b.

I'm sure I'll vote Pete if this comes up again.

I will spearhead the Anybody but Pete faction.

I never believed that Pete would be successful in the ad business. he's vile but doesn't seem to have any actual intelligence, talent or nous to make up for that. I just never believed the character at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaeZr3HgzX4

I've only seen the first 7 episodes. At this point Joan seems closer to a caricature who's stepped out of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying than any of the others, what with the swaying walk, Machiavellian juggling of men, etc. I presume there'll be layers later on, fortunately or not.

*tiny spoiler*

There's a scene in which she sits in the bed, pulls a bra strap off her shoulder and rubs the welt underneath. Perfectly done, never forgotten it.

btw it was driving me crazy where i've heard Betty's/January Jones' vocal rhythms before, and then it hit me: Shelley Duvall.

oh yeah, Robert Morse's scenes are always a treat. And the Wellesian copywriter with the pipe.

whoah the Duvall comparison never occurred to me before but that is very true

really glad you've continued with the show, Morbs

And the Wellesian copywriter with the pipe.

Kinsey is consistently a hoot

I'm extremely ambivalent. The production design is the steadiest element, but there's enough wit and desperation, usually.

"Our" Pete Campbell at my first agency was the boss' son. I heard him trying to joke his way through a phone call with his wife in the next cubicle, and ten seconds after his last snorting laugh he quietly hung up, for she had given him The Big Click.

Did they have Peggy dally with Pete in s1 (i hope not after) just so we would hate something about her? cuz ewwwww.

She'll do worse in the coming seasons.

that sortas makes me want to abandon it.

since my childhood memories of pop culture wd begin around season 4, i am perversely curious tho. also from what i've heard about Jared Harris (and Zosia Mamet, right?).

Jared Harris is very good!

both are v good, Harris has the more substantial part

that sortas makes me want to abandon it.

I wouldn't recommend dropping the show, but WARNING: Peggy's just not good at relationships, and--not to get too spoiler-y--when a seemingly good and lasting one comes along she blows it in spectacular fashion.

It's endearing in a strange way.

so women CAN'T have it all, eh?

in this show nobody gets it all

every character is either stifled or self-sabotaged in some key way

The season 1 pan linked in that LRB piece is very funny, tho i disagree with it about Hamm's performance for starters. It places the show in the "We Know Better" genre.

i definitely think the series gets better as it goes on - 3 & 4 are gangbusters iirc

I think the writers listened to a lot of the criticisms of the first series. That "we know better" feeling fades considerably.
Season 1 is undoubtedly the weakest. Season 3 and onwards is gold.

I like season 1, on rewatch it was very very good. Can't remember season 2 at all. 3-5 is highpoint upon highpoint. 6-7 is very good, but not peak.

Season 1 is great.

I didn't mean to say season 1 was bad, I just find all the later ones much more enjoyable. Although in season 2 I find that holiday with the rich eccentrics a little nauseating even though it was interesting.

1 is a little better than both 2 and 3 imo. 4 and 5 are probably the best.

this is why i don't do TV series, goddammit

Finished s1, I will now be proceeding to the second season... of The Sopranos.

Man, Peggy in denial over her pregnancy til she popped proved that she is from Bay Ridge!

(she's kind of a drip, at least in 1960, tbh)

also the prosthetics on Moss' neck occasionally looked bad

excerpt of Matt Z Seitz critical guide: s1 e1

http://www.scribd.com/doc/289257859/Excerpt-From-Mad-Men-Carousel-by-Matt-Zoller-Seitz

i've restarted with s2... the "Flight 1" ep made Pete the dick more interestingly pathological by jumping onboard the pitch for American Airlines right after his dad bought it in their crash.

lol'd at Roger Sterling dissing John Glenn: "throw ticker tape at me when i drive my car around the block three times."

btw the Irish Catholic Queens vibe of Peggy's mom and aunt: PERFECT

"so-and-so was askin' for ya"

Peggy's family is fantastic, I was bummed that they basically disappear after season 5 iirc (altho it made perfect sense plot-wise)

At the moment, I'd say it's Weiner's 1941, but there six eps left so it may improve?

Every TV auteur has his John from Cincinnati, etc., etc.

We’re loving The Romanoffs so far. I normally find anthology series insufferable, but here the format holds up. Deserves its own thread, but I’m too tired atm.