Sterling Cooper: a Mad Men poll

and uh not just saying that 'cause the romanovs had it coming

it's hard to say what it looks like considering weiner is famously opaque when it comes to previews. in the mad men days, he tried to pack as little information as possible into the "next week" teasers, to the point that it just showed something like roger saying "that's impossible" and don saying "what?"

I thought the trailer looked okay--they went with a concept, and, you know, it's a trailer. I liked seeing Corey Stoll from House of Cards.

I've only seen the second episode, but if it's supposed to be the better of the two openers, then yikes.

It cycles through such an eclectic variety of badness in 80 minutes: it starts off merely interesting-but-bad, but the middle section is straight-up mediocre, and the ending is holy-shit-who-paid-for-this awful.

Two leads are good though. I felt sorry for em

1st ep was ok-ish idk id watch more~

Yeah, I'll watch a few more.

my recollection is that the best stuff in the early episodes is generally the pitch scenes. it takes a bit for the other elements to coalesce.

joan is really people's favorite character? she is sympathetic and admirable in a way but i never thought of her as the heart and soul of the show.

I'm not sure I could pick a favorite tbh

I can tell you who my least favorite was

when was there a poll for heart and soul of the first two seasons of the show?

solid critique of my post

(NB I mean The Romanoffs, not Mad Men! I pretty much dug every season of MM.)

yes same

i didn't know there was a show called the romanoffs. just googled it -- sounds like an awesome premise and good actors

weird thing is after this thread, ilxors became fervent supporters of the peggys irl

how the world has changed

joan's a feminist character too. in the beginning she advised peggy to go along and not question the order of things but that changes by the end.

honestly, the storylines of both peggy and joan are really bleak.

i really disliked the episode where joan was made to sleep with that disgusting client. i know it gave her lifetime financial security but it was awful.

I agree making her into a literal whore was a bit over the top

and Don being too late to come to the rescue was such a knife-twist

It wasn’t over the top when you consider this isn’t something that rarely happens

Plus there had to be some controversy to keep people on the edge

advertising executives regularly prostituted lower level staff to clients in the 60s?

maybe you know something I don't idk

I know that happened to ballerinas in 19th century paris. Not sure about secretaries. It seemed over the top to me too.

Sometimes I think the core group of actors in this are so well casted and finely conceived + written that some of the peripheral sub-plots look really ordinary to bad in comparison and descend into soap opera tedium at times, but it is worth sticking for the good stuff. Well that is my haven't seen it in years take.

Salvatore Romano actor puts in some really good shifts, he brings genuine pathos to that trying to be one of the lads repressed gay role. Every scene he is in feels quite loaded. I'd have probably voted for Bert Cooper. A complete old world evil cunt with a Rand book in his desk and a Rothko on the wall that he can't stand the sight of.

I didn't realize this thread revive was about the Romanovs fwiw, that should probably have its own thread imo

XP...and has no balls.

but yeah agree w calzino that Don, Betty, Bert, Pete, Joan, Peggy, Roger, Ken and Sally were all just pitch perfect

xp

Οὖτις
Posted: October 12, 2018 at 3:00:49 PM
advertising executives regularly prostituted lower level staff to clients in the 60s?

maybe you know something I don't idk

You’re thinking too narrowly here and literally

Men in power constantly pressure women into things that are belittling, especially women who are vulnerable or feel helpless and act out of desperation when men typecast them

I feel like the joan arc is a little more complicated as opposed to the peggy arc in some ways

I don't disagree with that at all, but what bothered me about that turn in her arc was that it *was* literal prostitution, with the management as pimps, Jaguar as the john, and Joan as the whore. It was very, very explicit and heavy-handed. Otherwise I thought the show did a really good job of portraying the dynamic you describe.

I mean Lane literally calls Pete a "grimy little pimp" a few episodes later, and he is not exaggerating.

I'm actually just finishing up a re-watch of the entire run and frankly the whole thing was kind of incredible from start to finish. There's just nothing close to this well written and performed on tv anymore and I really miss it. Even the often circular plotting (despite the resolution of immediate conflicts no one ever really seems to resolve their central problems nor does that seem like a possibility) starts to seem like a commentary on TV plotting in general as a kind of endless purgatory.

Also, I think it's probably important to place that Joan plotline within the context of the firm trying to get their first car account. It's repeatedly noted as a dirty business: "Well, you said you wanted a car."

Finished rewatching recently, would not have been a worse show if Don had died in a car crash around the beginning of S4 IMO. Every other character had become so well developed returning to his misery over and over distracted from them.

Re Joan being sold and stuff that happens to women generally, I’ve reached the point now where I think, just because it hasn’t been talked about, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It probably did happen, just women weren’t able to/didn’t want to talk about it publicly. I mean, agents have been letting this happen to actors very recently so why shouldn’t it have happened in other types of job 50 years ago?

^^^^^

On the other Romanoffs not great so far.

it looks/sounds awful

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

Luckily they're incredibly and pointlessly long

I really hated myself by the end of the Corey Stoll ep, and the performances were both pretty good. Eckhart was wooden as usual in the first.

is anybody else watching the romanoffs besides you three dudes who hate everything by default

^^
Tom's way of saying anyone who doesn't like Top Gear and comic book shite!

I loved Mad Men!

You're right, you do like some stuff. Simon doesn't though. Chuck likes some stuff - eventually.

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.