Pretty great episode. Betty did come out in uber bitch mode. Though I think that she had a good point when telling the child specialist why she had to get a divorce. She might be a cunt but it's not like Don wasn't fucking everything that blew by and lying through his teeth about it. I think both parents do truly love their kids but are just too dysfunctional to ever raise healthy kids together. With the parental turmoil and hyper sexuality, if this show went into the 70s you'd see Sally staring in Deep Throat. I thought Coopers antagonism of Cambell as well as trying to sabotage the Honda account was really well done. Don's handling of his rival was great too, but I too think it would have been nice to draw this out longer in the series. Who knows maybe the other firm won't shutter their business.
Fixed that for you. This article is pretty interesting as the guy breaks down how Betty is turning into Livia from the Sopranos. I hope they can pull something out with her. She definitely needs to talk to that psych.
Yeah, but how good were some of those Roger Sterling insults though? I guess PTSD makes for a sharp wit. For the second week in a row, "Mad Men" gave us a Peggy Olson sight gag, this time on a motorcycle in an empty studio. But the scene stealer of the episode was Mrs. Blankenship. Give that old coot a raise.
It was alright but getting a little tired by the end. Honestly, this show seems above a running gag like the batty old secretary.
Normally I'd agree, but it's funnier in its entire context and not just as a gag. Don is saddled with Mrs. Blankenship because he can't be trusted with a younger, more fuckable secretary - and he knows this, too, which is why he's probably not complaining. If he's masochistic enough to pay hookers to slap him, I guarantee he's got more than enough guilt to put up with Blankenship's poor phone skills. Besides, she also serves as an extenstion of Bert Cooper's eccentric nature and that gag has been running forever.
I thought it was interesting that the turning point in this episode came when Don was in the middle of his date and was interrupted for the business shit-talking. The first half of the episode he is still the loser that can't take care of his kids, struggling to keep his company afloat, his date is going awkwardly. And then he gets threatened at the restaurant and he sharpens up, and the first thing he does after that is turn up the charm on his girl. Maybe I'm extrapolating a bit too much, but clearly he's at his best when his back is against the wall. He can hustle up a storm but has trouble maintaining a steady keel to maintain a long-term vision. Hopefully this season has more examples of that, because his hustler mentality is one of his best traits.
Not that I want the show to go on for ten more seasons or do a lame spin-off or something, but I would love to see Sally as a teenager. She'd be the greatest character. As I was watching the "playing with herself" scene, all I could think about was "oh my god, how did they direct that?" That must've been a damn uncomfortable day on set. I'm not sure why, but I loved Roger in this episode. I don't mean that I loved what he did, but I thought this part of him was so interesting. It was completely believable. I loved how natural it felt, like I wouldn't doubt Roger's been doing stuff like this for years and we just never saw it on camera because it was always in the other office. I agree, the batty secretary schtick feels like it belongs in another show. And the scene of Peggy on the motorcycle was perfect.
Another strong episode for Pete, although sometimes his eagerness was pretty funny ("It's a cantaloupe!"). But one thing kind of annoyed me...Red Label? Really? SCDP couldn't spring for a couple of bottles of blue or black at the least? I know its a small thing, but offering clients bottles of Johnny Walker Rotgut is not the way to go.
There was no Blue, Green or Gold label in that time period. They were introduced in the 90's. Only regular bottles available at the time were Black and Red. Not too much difference in my opinion between Black and Red. Red averages 6 years, Black 12. But, they are both still blends, so I don't think it matters too much. Both harsh straight. I'm guessing that it probably didn't matter much to them back then either as they were giving it to people who probably wouldn't know the difference regardless. Why spend the extra money as it was really just a small gesture. It was at least period correct. What was strange is that they chose to give something that wasn't American in origin. It's Scotch. It's western, I guess, but I would think that they would have given them a bottle of Jack Daniels or Jim Beam which are American whiskies and around at that time. EDIT: I just found this article about the alcohol in the show. Interesting. Canadian Whiskey seems to be the popular whiskey at that time in the US based on that article. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/dining/12don.html?_r=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/dinin ... .html?_r=1</a>
So wait? What was so awkward about Sally on the couch? Was she really all out masturbating or were the mothers just being dramatic? I don't expect the show to actually SHOW her doing anything, but she had her hands on her knees for god's sake, and we were supposed to think she was masturbating because they did a close up on her face? Seriously, I can't tell if the women were just being prudes or if they were just being conservative with the filming.
What you think they are going to show a ten year old girl digging at her snatch? I really didnt get what was going on until the tv noise started to fuzz out. I think they were going for tasteful.
Her eyes got all dreamy, her nostrils started flaring and she was biting her lip. It couldn't have been any more obvious if she'd started moaning! She played it so perfectly that her husband will always be guessing.
Well, in 10 years when she gets a husband. I have to agree. That was Mad Men's subtle way of showing a underage girl flicking the bean.
What's the general consensus on Joan's husband? Is he a shitty doctor that just gets to practice because the army needs warm bodies or is he actually a good surgeon? He stitched up Joan real simple-like. Is he still an abusive prick?
Was it just me or was this episode fucking amazing? Peggy going all Peggy on that new guy and making fun of his small dick until he wanted to put his clothes back on. I loved that look she gave him that could have gone either way. The flashbacks were just fucking golden. Especially Don lying his way into the agency. For once the preview actually gave us a hint at something, Peggy and Don are going to get into it.
Was it just me or was the acting by everyone seem to be stunted and abrupt, but most of all unnatural? It is too much of a coincidence for all of the actors to start being that campy? I felt like I was listening to an old time radio show. Intentional or not? '
I thought it was a great episode. Sterling having realized his work life is defined by "finding" the talent that makes the business successful but in reality Don didn't actually show real potential and basically snuck into the company. Don really came off the hinges with the drinking and blacking out. I wonder if his hand holding and open mouth kiss with Joan at the awards will go anywhere or be left untold like so many plot points in this series. I guess having Cosgrove come back makes sense so that he can be a rival/underling of Pete's but I never really thought he was that great of a character. I wish theyd have brought Kinsey back, I like him more, and he was given some better stories than Cosgrove ever did.
I disagree a little bit, since Don's talent was pretty obvious from the beginning. I thought the whole point of that retrospective was to show that Don is well on his way to turning into Roger Sterling: a washed-up and divorced relic with more stories than ideas that Don may like but doesn't necessarily respect. The parallels between Roger hiring Don while shitfaced and Don blacking out for an entire weekend were pretty heavy handed, as were the slew of examples we got this week that Don is losing the creative magic touch he's famous for; we learned that Peggy was responsible for the Glow-Coat idea (I guess we'll have to take her word for it) and we watched him absentmindedly steal a young hack's idea while he was pitching an idea after drinking. There was a time when Don Draper took principled stands and said things like "I sell products, not advertising", but lately all he's been doing is taking credit for other people's work. Pete Campbell (character-wise) is really back in top form now, so re-introducing Ken Cosgrove could be an interesting development since most of the friction between the two exists only between Pete's ears. Vincent Kartheiser is having a great season, so I'm excited to see where this could lead.
Seriously what ever happened to the "It's not a wheel, it's a Carousel" Don Draper? He's really going off the rails. Does blacking out, banging a diner waitress in a pink dress, and telling her his real name count as hitting bottom for this guy? I doubt it. He looked like a petulant hack during the Life cereal meeting- rosy cheeks, over enthusiastic grin, campy as all hell. Then we get a flashback to when he was slyly working his way into Sterling Cooper, conning Roger into giving him a job. I'd like to see more of what happened to him during those early years in the agency. Clearly something corrupted him along the way- it seemed like he was doing fine living his lie before he got into the ad biz, but when we first saw him in Season One he was already cheating on Betty, missing Sally's birthday party, etc. I enjoyed this episode, and I'm starting to really feel bad for Don. Soon we will find out that the REAL Mrs. Draper is dead, and he will have nothing left. All of the things I used to respect him for are gone, I had hoped after getting the divorce and starting a new agency he would pick his life back together and live happily like Dick Whitman does when he is in California, but with a different name. Not so much...