Mad Men: Season 6

Well since I've read the books for GoT and this shit is two hours, I'm jumping on this tonight. I can't fucking wait. I almost want to make a homemade Manhattan to go with it.

 

Call backs on call backs on call backs. Killer acting performances and Matthew Weiner obvious got tired of people saying "Nothing happens in Mad Men." He doesn't make anything happen, but outlines it is about the experience of watching Mad Men.

 

And apparently his hairline agrees, as it seems to be racing away from his face as fast as it can.

A few other thoughts:

- It was refreshing to see that Betty has finally become a concerned parent. In typical Betty fashion, though, she directed all of her motherly love towards someone else's kid.

- Outwardly, Don Draper hasn't changed much in eight years. He (and Joan, by the way) both look and dress the same way they did in the pilot episode. Inwardly though, his age is catching up with him. The man who was once on a first name basis with Conrad Hilton is now having a hard time closing pitches aimed at lesser chains. He's losing his mojo, ya'll. Want proof? Young Don Draper used to be able to hold his liquor, not toss his cookies at a funeral.

- But you know who found some of that mojo? Lil' Peggy Olson. That Koss tagline she came up with gave me wood.

I'm definitely looking forward to this season.

 

What I referred to earlier with call backs to previous seasons. The Doorway was the perfect title and Roger's monologue outlined everything perfectly. After awhile of walking through enough doorways, you realize you're back in the same place. This premiere blended the series premiere and season 1 finale all at once. Don brought back out the carousel, with memories of his life with Megan that no longer satisfies him just like he did with Betty. The nostalgia comes back, wraps him up and he realizes that he is circling down the circles of hell. Then the episode ends the EXACT same way the series premiere does, a knock on a door, a held hand, and he ends up in bed with a woman that isn't his wife. He literally walked through a doorway knowing what was on the other side and being unsatisfied as he said he doesn't want to do this anymore.

And everything is walking back through that doorway. Pete is becoming Don (without identity theft or poor upbringing), Peggy is becoming Don, Don is becoming Roger, and Roger is decaying while also being Bert. The scene where Roger talks with the two old ladies complimenting him, not realizing that he's actually in their range now. He keeps feeling like they're way older, but they're not anymore.

Then all the imagery and focus around death is going to be extremely interesting. The focus isn't on Don losing his fastball, it is going to be on the end of Don Draper as Dick Whitman knows him to be. Don/Dick is thinking about death, thinking about going away, but which part of himself? The interesting question is who's lighter does that PFC now have? Dick Whitman's lighter or Don Draper's lighter? I think that is what bothered Don the most.

 

whoops, accidental post

 

Speaking of which, I loved how they once again showed Cooper in the background sitting in the waiting room reading a paper without anything to do.

 

Interesting article on how Koss Headphones were completely surprised to be featured in the episode...

<a class="postlink" href="http://adage.com/article/media/koss-headphones-capitalized-mad-men-role/240796/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://adage.com/article/media/koss-hea ... le/240796/</a>

It was interesting to me because Koss is just down the road from where I grew up outside Milwaukee, the granddaughter of the founder (classic gorgeous blond rich girl) and I had mutual friends and ended up at alot of the same parties when I was home from college, and the founder, John Koss (who actually resembles the actor who played him a little bit), and his sons who run the company were all members of the country club where I bartended for a pair of summers post college. John Koss was a bit of a grumpy old man, but his sons were nerdy and nice guys.

They also have traditionally awesome billboards right off I-43 above their headquarters.

 

Why is it I think Pete is a sleazy cunt but I root for Don?

No idea but fuck Pete.

 

Because no matter how successful Pete becomes, he'll always be trying to live up (or suck up) to the example set years ago by more experienced lotharios Roger Sterling and Don Draper. That's what makes his cheating more pathetic.

This episode definitely needs a re-watch. I was little distracted by the Spurs/Lakers shitshow, so I need to reconnect the dots vis a vis Don's early whorehouse memories and the Jaguar situation with Joan.

 

Something to do about keeping your eyes down and minding your own business I would imagine.

Selling pussy to the everyman vs selling Jaguar to the Everyman.

 

Not going to bother looking for this article, but the summary reason is that based on what we know about Pete, he has no reason to cheat and/or be fucked up. All of his fucked-up-ness comes from within. Not like Don or Roger who are polar opposites of the poverty line showing how too much or too little of anything can ruin you. Don never had anything nice and new, so he wants everything nice and new thinking it'll make him happy, it doesn't. Roger always had everything nice and new because that's what he used to, he was spoiled. Unfortunately these things are women. Pete on the other hand was middle of the road, he got what he needed, some nice things here and there, but he has NO reason, bullshit or otherwise to be the way he is. He doesn't even have a "scapegoat" like Don and Roger.

This was a great episode. I'm chewing on it more, but it is interesting the thematic tie this episode had with the closing shot. After the premiere was called The Doorway, and Roger gives that monologue about continuing going through the door and not going through it. Don ends the episode by not going through The Doorway.

 

Well they won't be playing brother and sister and see each other all the time. Alexis won't be back on Mad Men so it isn't a big of a deal. Don't mean to shit on your dreams but YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO GET HER EVER! NEVAR EVAR!

 

The symbolism and the duality were fuckin RIFE in this episode. Pete has never more clearly tried to be Don. Don has never more clearly hated being Don (hence the Dick Whitman flashbacks).

Peggy is becoming Don at her new agency. Don now is regressing to Don first series. Sad, smoking hot wofe, but he's doing everything he can to destroy it.

That was Pete's mistake. He fucked a friend's wife (or so it seemed). Trudy (The delicious Alison Brie) is now fully fucking aware. What a fucking retard. She even said, "I gave you the apartment in the city, I thought you'd at least keep it quiet". Granted, this was not verbatim.

Pete want's to be Don, Pete even chastises Don in this episode. Pete, in his soul, KNOWS he's the new Don, in waiting.


But Pete is a slimy little shit, and that's never going to happen.


What we need to talk about for real, is who is this guy? The guy that met Don in the elevator. Sat in the waiting area til he got shut down. Sat in on a large style strategy meeting this ep, and didn't get noticed til his way out.

This guy, "Bob", he may play an interesting role in times to come...

 

I was thinking bob represents the professionalization of the work world they have been boozing around in for two generations. He is a Wharton Grad who could be setting up to make coin over the next 20 years, and instead chooses to stick around an ad agency, earnestly positioning for a seat at the table. There is always a younger crop, Don and Pete even, are just younger dinosaurs than Stirling and Cooper.

Or he's a federal investigator trying to uncover Don's past. Is Nixon president yet?

 

I half-disagree. She's definitely becoming the creative talent Don used to be, but she obviously doesn't want to become the same kind of boss. Pulling her crew in for a pep talk was something she didn't learn at Sterling Cooper (Draper Pryce).

After a solid rewatch, the differences are much more clear. Poor Lil' Dick Whitman saw sleeping with whores as expression of power and self. He wanted to be the guy his "uncle" was, the guy who humped the hens and announced the day. Rich Lil' Pete Campbell sees sleeping with bored housewives as a way to earn bonafides in his imaginary circle of peers. The two men are filling completely different holes. One thing that is markedly different is that Don never brought his skanks home, though. He would bone his girls in their own neighborhoods or neutral playing fields when he was still married to Betty. (Similarly, Roger Sterling always took care to take Joan to hotels for their trysts.) It was already made clear last season (and re-emphasized in the "previously" segment) that Don envies Pete's domestic life. Trudy is much more the desirable wife than either Betty or Megan, as Don sees it. And I think a large point of this episode was to show us how very little Pete has learned from Don despite his deep rooted desire to be just like him.

 

I still have no idea what happened in the last episode in terms of what it means. Neither did any of the reviewers really pull out anything that they could crystallize into some greater insight. Then again, there is this. Good read.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.npr.org/2013/04/25/178832854/matthew-weiner-on-mad-men-and-meaning" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.npr.org/2013/04/25/178832854 ... nd-meaning</a>