Mad Men on AMC (1 Viewer)

[Raider Nation]

Title of tonight's episode: "The Rejected"Who spurns Don's advances this time? Joan?

Why are you posting before you read Alan Sepinwall's take on the whole thing?

It's just speculation at this point. I would never presume to give an educated opinion until he hangs his review after the episode airs.

 

[McJose]

Title of tonight's episode: "The Rejected"

Who spurns Don's advances this time? Joan?

Why are you posting before you read Alan Sepinwall's take on the whole thing?

It's just speculation at this point. I would never presume to give an educated opinion until he hangs his review after the episode airs.

I think I'm going to hold off on watching tonight's episode until after I read his column...so I know what's going on.

 

[Premier]

I heard Hamm won't even act until he reads Sepinwall's review of the script.

That's how good he is

 

[McJose]

I heard Hamm won't even act until he reads Sepinwall's review of the script.

That's how good he is

Sepinwall travels through time every week back to the early 1960s just to make sure there's no anachronisms.

 

[Raider Nation]

Roger

Incidentally, Dr. Faye Miller was played by Cara Buono, who also played Christufa's wife on The Sopranos.

 

[Premier]

That was a powerful shot of Pete and Peggy at the end.

 

[Raider Nation]

- LOL @ Don's new girl.

- What was the significance of the old couple at the very end when Don was entering his apartment?

- Line of the night: "My father-in-law is a bus driver. The only place he can take me is to the moon."

 

[Premier]

- What was the significance of the old couple at the very end when Don was entering his apartment?

I just took it to show a couple that grew old together. Something it appears Draper will be unlikely to do.My favorite scene was Draper starting to type up an apology letter, and then realizing he doesn't care enough to apologize. Awesome.

 

[Raider Nation]

My favorite scene was Draper starting to type up an apology letter, and then realizing he doesn't care enough to apologize. Awesome.

Heh, yeah. He looked like an old-time gumshoe in that lighting. Hat, smoke, whiskey bottle...

 

[Hellfire Snail]

- What was the significance of the old couple at the very end when Don was entering his apartment?

I just took it to show a couple that grew old together. Something it appears Draper will be unlikely to do.My favorite scene was Draper starting to type up an apology letter, and then realizing he doesn't care enough to apologize. Awesome.

Loved that scene. "Right now my life is very " Didn't know what else to type. Favorite episode of the season so far. Am I the only one who thinks Elisabeth Moss is a solid actress? I thought she did a great job tonight. Her conversation with Don's secretary, peeking over the divider into Don's office, loosening up at that weird party, her uncomfortable interactions with Pete. Her character has no idea what she wants and is still unsettled by what has already happened. I thought the final scene was very interesting. The look Don gave the old couple was hard to decipher. I didn't really interpret it as him envying them.

 

[Raider Nation]

Am I the only one who thinks Elisabeth Moss is a solid actress? I thought she did a great job tonight. Her conversation with Don's secretary, peeking over the divider into Don's office, loosening up at that weird party, her uncomfortable interactions with Pete. Her character has no idea what she wants and is still unsettled by what has already happened.

She is a fine actress, and she's gotten better each season.

 

[Tiger Fan]

solid episode.

Really like what their doing with Peggy's character.

 

[Major]

One of my favorite episodes to date.

:crossesfingers: that Sepinwall agrees

 

[McJose]

I peed a little when you could see Peggy peek into Don's office in the high window.

John Slattery directed tonight's episode.

 

[McJose]

solid episode. Really like what their doing with Peggy's character.

Watching it with my wife tonight and twice she said "way to go, Peggy". Once when Allison suggested that Peggy had slept with Don and Peggy gave it to her. And then when she told the lesbian "no but he's renting it" or whatever.

 

[Major]

solid episode.

Really like what their doing with Peggy's character.

Watching it with my wife tonight and twice she said "way to go, Peggy". Once when Allison suggested that Peggy had slept with Don and Peggy gave it to her. And then when she told the lesbian "no but he's renting it" or whatever.

That line was :money:

 

[badmojo1006]

- LOL @ Don's new girl.

- What was the significance of the old couple at the very end when Don was entering his apartment?

- Line of the night: "My father-in-law is a bus driver. The only place he can take me is to the moon."

Joan looked like she was about ready to really lay into Don after Alison stormed out. And Don's new girl was Joan telling Don to knock that s*** off. And a bit of revenge

 

[Christo]

Favorite episode of the season so far. Am I the only one who thinks Elisabeth Moss is a solid actress? I thought she did a great job tonight. Her conversation with Don's secretary, peeking over the divider into Don's office, loosening up at that weird party, her uncomfortable interactions with Pete. Her character has no idea what she wants and is still unsettled by what has already happened.

Best scene in a show full of great scenes.

 

[Major]

I'll take a PM when Sepinwall posts his review

 

[McJose]

I'll take a PM when Sepinwall posts his review

You don't have it go directly to your cell phone? And you call yourself a fan.

 

[chet]

Meagan is hot. Almost JJ hot.

We need to see more of her.

 

[Raider Nation]

SEPINWALL'S REVIEW

(The cool guys can just skip it.)

"You can't tell how people are going to behave based on how they have behaved." -Don

So who are "The Rejected" of this episode's title? Obviously, there's pretentious artist Davey Kellogg, whose nude photos were rejected by Life. Peggy's concept for the Pond's campaign is rejected by Faye Miller's focus group testing. Allison continues to feel rejected by Don, and in turn rejects him (and throws a projectile at him on her way out the door). Joan finds herself too "old and married" to be eligible for the focus group (and gets kicked out of her office during it, since the room doubles as the observation lounge). Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is on the verge of rejecting one of Pete's biggest clients due to a conflict, but newly-expecting papa Pete manages to turn that rejection on its head and leverage Trudy's pregnancy into landing the entire Vick's empire but Clearasil.

And perhaps most importantly, Peggy spends the hour caught between the life she rejected when she gave up her baby and the one she wound up with as a result of that choice.

Pete and Peggy's affair, the baby it produced, and her decision to give it up without telling Pete, was one of the series' very first stories, and one that's been dealt with intermittently ever since. Peggy used the news to shut down Pete's advances during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and that revelation was an obvious source of tension between the two in their few scenes together in season three. Mostly, though, their circumstances have forced them to bottle any feelings on that. Pete has realized - spurred in part by Peggy's confession about the baby - that he really does love and need Trudy. (Had Peggy kept the baby, Pete might have left Trudy, or at the very least its presence might have driven a wedge in that marriage.) Peggy thrills at the professional and personal freedom she has as a single woman with no familial responsibilities. And the close quarters and scrappy dynamic of the new firm means they have to work together and leave their other issues behind.

Every now and then, though, they have to confront things. Peggy loves who and what she's become - a respected and influential part of the firm, someone who's comfortable smoking pot at a downtown happening and politely fending off the advances of her new lesbian friend while a man with a grizzly bear head walks past - but she admitted to Freddie that she'd like to be married some day, and can't resist trying on Faye Miller's engagement ring during the focus group. And when she hears the news that Pete is finally expecting a baby with Trudy, it knocks her for a loop. It's not that she regrets the choice she made, but that the emotions of that time, suppressed for so long, can't help bubbling up to the surface again.

Pete never wanted to adopt, and wasn't sure he wanted a child at all - in part because of his own dysfunctional upbringing, in part because of the hurt he felt from Peggy's news - but when he learns that against the odds of contemporary medical science, he's gotten Trudy pregnant, he realizes that, like the wife he eventually learned to love, it's something he wants. And after a tense lunch with Ken Cosgrove, Pete recognizes that he can use Trudy's pregnancy (and his firm's performance on the Clearasil account) to do what Ken fears he can't with Mountain Dew and use the small piece of Vick's to gain control of the whole pie. It's not an unfair move, since his father-in-law was always using Clearasil as a carrot to get Pete to give him a grandchild, but Tom is still shocked that his daughter's weasel husband has the spine and savvy to finally call him out for it. He calls Pete a "son of a #####," and (in one of the most charming moments Vincent Kartheiser has had on the show) Pete just shrugs. After the maneuever he just pulled off - and considering the woman who raised him - is he really in a position to deny the charge?

Peggy and Pete do have a bond beyond the absent child - note that Pete rests his head on the obtrusive column in his office while dealing with the Clearasil news, while Peggy raps her forehead against her desk after congratulating Pete on his news - yet they're headed in different directions even as both their stars rise. The episode ends with them on two sides of the glass entrance to SCDP, Peggy with her bohemian creative friends, Pete surrounded by old money men in suits. Their office is the same, but their worlds are not. But Peggy can still catch Pete's eye through the glass and exchange a look with him that makes it clear that wherever their futures may take them, their shared past means they still understand each other on a level no one else does. Pete's not going to leave his pregnant wife to go running back to Peggy, and Peggy's not going to give up wild nights to have a family with Pete, but there's still something there, and there always will be.

Peggy's memories of her own office romantic history, and of the clumsy, failed pass she made at Don when she was his secretary, and her feelings about their complicated, intimate but decidedly platonic relationship all came into play in her hostile, defensive reaction to Allison's assumption that Don had drunkenly slept with all his secretaries. ("Your problem is not my problem, and honestly, you should get over it" was about the last thing Allison needed to hear in that moment.) And the funny thing is, as loathsome as Pete was in the early going of the series, and as much as we were geared back then to root for Don and hate Pete, Pete never treated Peggy as badly as Don treated Allison the morning after their quickie on his sofa, nor as badly as Don treats her here when she attempts to get some closure while resigning. Backed into a corner, Don does at least acknowledge that they had sex, but when she asks him to write her a recommendation, he behaves just as obtusely as he did when he threw the envelope of cash at her. The idea of asking the recommendee to write whatever they want the recommender to sign is a fairly common practice, but in this particularly instance, involving two people where one has made it abundantly clear that they just want the other to recognize their value in some way, it was a bad, bad move, and one that understandably drove Allison to hurl a heavy object at her soon-to-be-ex-boss.

Allison's very public rejection of Don as her boss was the latest example this season of a Don Draper who isn't very good at being Don Draper anymore. The drinking continues to be a problem - as is his smoking, in times of stress like the Lee Garner Jr. phone call or the possibility of Allison confessing during the focus group - but even worse is the fact that so much of his dirty laundry is being aired for the world (in this case, the world=the firm) to see. If Joan doesn't know exactly what went down there, she has a pretty good idea when she punishes Don by assigning the doddering Miss Blankenship as Allison's replacement on his desk. The Don Draper we met at the beginning of the series hated above all else for other people to know too much about him, and now his life is an open book, whether he's the star of SCDP's media campaign or just making a fool of himself repeatedly inside those glass walls. The episode ends with Don coming home (and looking entirely sober for once on that walk) and noticing the elderly couple across the hall having an argument because the husband wants to know if the wife bought pears at the store, while the wife insists on keeping even the most mundane detail of their life hidden behind closed doors. If Don actually had someone willing to buy him pears (we haven't seen his maid in a few episodes, have we?), I doubt he'd be able to keep even that a secret.

In arguing for Peggy's vision for the Pond's campaign over Freddie's, Don tells Faye Miller that past behavior is not necessarily predictive of future behavior, and he's living proof of that. So are Peggy, and Pete, and Ken, and most of the other significant characters in this episode. They have changed, right along with the world. They do things in 1965 that their 1960 selves would not believe possible. They've rejected parts of themselves from before, whether for good (a more mature Pete, a bolder Peggy) or ill (a pathetic Don, a tense Ken).

When Don gives up on typing an apology letter to Allison, the sentence he can't finish is "My life is very..." Very what, Don? Complicated? Depressing? Mortifying? Whatever it is, his life, and that of the important people in it, is very much not something he had planned to be living when we first met him.

Some other thoughts:

[*]A few guest star notes: That was Jessica Pare as Megan, the tall, striking receptionist Joyce kept coming around to gawk at. She popped up briefly in the Christmas episode, and is worth mentioning because she co-starred with John Slattery and Matt Long (Joey) on the WB's short-lived "Jack & Bobby." Meanwhile, Miss Blankenship is played by Randee Heller, probably still best known as Daniel Larusso's mom in the original "Karate Kid." And Peggy's new friend Joyce was played by Zoisa Mamet, daughter of David Mamet and Lindsay Crouse, who was Marshall's weird quasi-girlfriend this season on "United States of Tara."

[*]Pardon the pun (it's 2 a.m. as I write this), but John Slattery had a pretty sterling directorial debut with this one. Slattery has a playful personality that's evident in the way he plays Roger, and "The Rejected" had a very playful tone throughout, whether it was all the interplay during the endless Lee Garner call ("Ohmigod, there's some kind of fire!"), or Roger busting Don's chops about Miss Blankenship, or the screamingly funny scene where Peggy's head popped into frame through the transom to peep on Don as he poured a drink after Allison's noisy exit. As usually happens when actors from ensemble shows direct an episode, the hour was light on Roger Sterling himself, but his spirit was everywhere. He's directing another one later this season. Can't wait to see it.

[*]That column in Pete's office did give Slattery a lot to play with, as it will future writers and directors. Whether it's Pete being surprised to find Harry at his desk or Lane awkwardly entering, exiting and re-entering around that monstrosity, there's ample comedy there.

[*]Anna sends Don a photo of the two of them in their younger years. She's not gone yet, thankfully.

[*]Note that Bert Cooper isn't there for the "informal partners' meeting," and in an earlier scene is hanging out in the reception area, shoes off, just reading. Now that the transition from the old firm is done, is Bert any more relevant here than he was during the final days of British rule at Sterling Cooper?

[*]Note that Harry keeps using Yiddish, here confusing Pete with his mention of "goniffs."

[*]Interesting that Faye specifically reminds Don he's the client. Even though I think he's correct in taking Peggy's side in this argument, and even though he wasn't the one who wanted to hire her in the first place, he's still acting like as much of a diva towards her as his clients often do towards him. In fact, much of his animosity clearly stems from the fact that Allison broke down in the middle of her focus group.

[*]Other than the timing of these reviews (more on that in a moment), perhaps the biggest adjustment I've had to make since AMC cut off the screener supply is seeing how random the placement of the commercial breaks seems. Shawn Ryan once told me that on "The Shield," he instructed his writers to write every scene as if it could be the lead-in to an act break, so he would have the ability to move the pieces around in whatever order he wanted, which in turn had the side effect of making that show feel much more exciting from scene to scene. "Mad Men" is clearly a different animal that moves at its own pace, but there are only occasionally scenes where it feels logical that the story is about to stop for a few minutes.

 

[McJose]

Earthshattering.

 

[Premier]

It's actually a pretty insightful review.

/ducks

 

[McJose]

It's actually a pretty insightful review./ducks

 

[Major]

SEPINWALL'S REVIEW

(The cool guys can just skip it.)

"You can't tell how people are going to behave based on how they have behaved." -Don

So who are "The Rejected" of this episode's title? Obviously, there's pretentious artist Davey Kellogg, whose nude photos were rejected by Life. Peggy's concept for the Pond's campaign is rejected by Faye Miller's focus group testing. Allison continues to feel rejected by Don, and in turn rejects him (and throws a projectile at him on her way out the door). Joan finds herself too "old and married" to be eligible for the focus group (and gets kicked out of her office during it, since the room doubles as the observation lounge). Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is on the verge of rejecting one of Pete's biggest clients due to a conflict, but newly-expecting papa Pete manages to turn that rejection on its head and leverage Trudy's pregnancy into landing the entire Vick's empire but Clearasil.

And perhaps most importantly, Peggy spends the hour caught between the life she rejected when she gave up her baby and the one she wound up with as a result of that choice.

Pete and Peggy's affair, the baby it produced, and her decision to give it up without telling Pete, was one of the series' very first stories, and one that's been dealt with intermittently ever since. Peggy used the news to shut down Pete's advances during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and that revelation was an obvious source of tension between the two in their few scenes together in season three. Mostly, though, their circumstances have forced them to bottle any feelings on that. Pete has realized - spurred in part by Peggy's confession about the baby - that he really does love and need Trudy. (Had Peggy kept the baby, Pete might have left Trudy, or at the very least its presence might have driven a wedge in that marriage.) Peggy thrills at the professional and personal freedom she has as a single woman with no familial responsibilities. And the close quarters and scrappy dynamic of the new firm means they have to work together and leave their other issues behind.

Every now and then, though, they have to confront things. Peggy loves who and what she's become - a respected and influential part of the firm, someone who's comfortable smoking pot at a downtown happening and politely fending off the advances of her new lesbian friend while a man with a grizzly bear head walks past - but she admitted to Freddie that she'd like to be married some day, and can't resist trying on Faye Miller's engagement ring during the focus group. And when she hears the news that Pete is finally expecting a baby with Trudy, it knocks her for a loop. It's not that she regrets the choice she made, but that the emotions of that time, suppressed for so long, can't help bubbling up to the surface again.

Pete never wanted to adopt, and wasn't sure he wanted a child at all - in part because of his own dysfunctional upbringing, in part because of the hurt he felt from Peggy's news - but when he learns that against the odds of contemporary medical science, he's gotten Trudy pregnant, he realizes that, like the wife he eventually learned to love, it's something he wants. And after a tense lunch with Ken Cosgrove, Pete recognizes that he can use Trudy's pregnancy (and his firm's performance on the Clearasil account) to do what Ken fears he can't with Mountain Dew and use the small piece of Vick's to gain control of the whole pie. It's not an unfair move, since his father-in-law was always using Clearasil as a carrot to get Pete to give him a grandchild, but Tom is still shocked that his daughter's weasel husband has the spine and savvy to finally call him out for it. He calls Pete a "son of a #####," and (in one of the most charming moments Vincent Kartheiser has had on the show) Pete just shrugs. After the maneuever he just pulled off - and considering the woman who raised him - is he really in a position to deny the charge?

Peggy and Pete do have a bond beyond the absent child - note that Pete rests his head on the obtrusive column in his office while dealing with the Clearasil news, while Peggy raps her forehead against her desk after congratulating Pete on his news - yet they're headed in different directions even as both their stars rise. The episode ends with them on two sides of the glass entrance to SCDP, Peggy with her bohemian creative friends, Pete surrounded by old money men in suits. Their office is the same, but their worlds are not. But Peggy can still catch Pete's eye through the glass and exchange a look with him that makes it clear that wherever their futures may take them, their shared past means they still understand each other on a level no one else does. Pete's not going to leave his pregnant wife to go running back to Peggy, and Peggy's not going to give up wild nights to have a family with Pete, but there's still something there, and there always will be.

Peggy's memories of her own office romantic history, and of the clumsy, failed pass she made at Don when she was his secretary, and her feelings about their complicated, intimate but decidedly platonic relationship all came into play in her hostile, defensive reaction to Allison's assumption that Don had drunkenly slept with all his secretaries. ("Your problem is not my problem, and honestly, you should get over it" was about the last thing Allison needed to hear in that moment.) And the funny thing is, as loathsome as Pete was in the early going of the series, and as much as we were geared back then to root for Don and hate Pete, Pete never treated Peggy as badly as Don treated Allison the morning after their quickie on his sofa, nor as badly as Don treats her here when she attempts to get some closure while resigning. Backed into a corner, Don does at least acknowledge that they had sex, but when she asks him to write her a recommendation, he behaves just as obtusely as he did when he threw the envelope of cash at her. The idea of asking the recommendee to write whatever they want the recommender to sign is a fairly common practice, but in this particularly instance, involving two people where one has made it abundantly clear that they just want the other to recognize their value in some way, it was a bad, bad move, and one that understandably drove Allison to hurl a heavy object at her soon-to-be-ex-boss.

Allison's very public rejection of Don as her boss was the latest example this season of a Don Draper who isn't very good at being Don Draper anymore. The drinking continues to be a problem - as is his smoking, in times of stress like the Lee Garner Jr. phone call or the possibility of Allison confessing during the focus group - but even worse is the fact that so much of his dirty laundry is being aired for the world (in this case, the world=the firm) to see. If Joan doesn't know exactly what went down there, she has a pretty good idea when she punishes Don by assigning the doddering Miss Blankenship as Allison's replacement on his desk. The Don Draper we met at the beginning of the series hated above all else for other people to know too much about him, and now his life is an open book, whether he's the star of SCDP's media campaign or just making a fool of himself repeatedly inside those glass walls. The episode ends with Don coming home (and looking entirely sober for once on that walk) and noticing the elderly couple across the hall having an argument because the husband wants to know if the wife bought pears at the store, while the wife insists on keeping even the most mundane detail of their life hidden behind closed doors. If Don actually had someone willing to buy him pears (we haven't seen his maid in a few episodes, have we?), I doubt he'd be able to keep even that a secret.

In arguing for Peggy's vision for the Pond's campaign over Freddie's, Don tells Faye Miller that past behavior is not necessarily predictive of future behavior, and he's living proof of that. So are Peggy, and Pete, and Ken, and most of the other significant characters in this episode. They have changed, right along with the world. They do things in 1965 that their 1960 selves would not believe possible. They've rejected parts of themselves from before, whether for good (a more mature Pete, a bolder Peggy) or ill (a pathetic Don, a tense Ken).

When Don gives up on typing an apology letter to Allison, the sentence he can't finish is "My life is very..." Very what, Don? Complicated? Depressing? Mortifying? Whatever it is, his life, and that of the important people in it, is very much not something he had planned to be living when we first met him.

Some other thoughts:

[*]A few guest star notes: That was Jessica Pare as Megan, the tall, striking receptionist Joyce kept coming around to gawk at. She popped up briefly in the Christmas episode, and is worth mentioning because she co-starred with John Slattery and Matt Long (Joey) on the WB's short-lived "Jack & Bobby." Meanwhile, Miss Blankenship is played by Randee Heller, probably still best known as Daniel Larusso's mom in the original "Karate Kid." And Peggy's new friend Joyce was played by Zoisa Mamet, daughter of David Mamet and Lindsay Crouse, who was Marshall's weird quasi-girlfriend this season on "United States of Tara."

[*]Pardon the pun (it's 2 a.m. as I write this), but John Slattery had a pretty sterling directorial debut with this one. Slattery has a playful personality that's evident in the way he plays Roger, and "The Rejected" had a very playful tone throughout, whether it was all the interplay during the endless Lee Garner call ("Ohmigod, there's some kind of fire!"), or Roger busting Don's chops about Miss Blankenship, or the screamingly funny scene where Peggy's head popped into frame through the transom to peep on Don as he poured a drink after Allison's noisy exit. As usually happens when actors from ensemble shows direct an episode, the hour was light on Roger Sterling himself, but his spirit was everywhere. He's directing another one later this season. Can't wait to see it.

[*]That column in Pete's office did give Slattery a lot to play with, as it will future writers and directors. Whether it's Pete being surprised to find Harry at his desk or Lane awkwardly entering, exiting and re-entering around that monstrosity, there's ample comedy there.

[*]Anna sends Don a photo of the two of them in their younger years. She's not gone yet, thankfully.

[*]Note that Bert Cooper isn't there for the "informal partners' meeting," and in an earlier scene is hanging out in the reception area, shoes off, just reading. Now that the transition from the old firm is done, is Bert any more relevant here than he was during the final days of British rule at Sterling Cooper?

[*]Note that Harry keeps using Yiddish, here confusing Pete with his mention of "goniffs."

[*]Interesting that Faye specifically reminds Don he's the client. Even though I think he's correct in taking Peggy's side in this argument, and even though he wasn't the one who wanted to hire her in the first place, he's still acting like as much of a diva towards her as his clients often do towards him. In fact, much of his animosity clearly stems from the fact that Allison broke down in the middle of her focus group.

[*]Other than the timing of these reviews (more on that in a moment), perhaps the biggest adjustment I've had to make since AMC cut off the screener supply is seeing how random the placement of the commercial breaks seems. Shawn Ryan once told me that on "The Shield," he instructed his writers to write every scene as if it could be the lead-in to an act break, so he would have the ability to move the pieces around in whatever order he wanted, which in turn had the side effect of making that show feel much more exciting from scene to scene. "Mad Men" is clearly a different animal that moves at its own pace, but there are only occasionally scenes where it feels logical that the story is about to stop for a few minutes.

 

[Raider Nation]

It's actually a pretty insightful review.

Impossible. Nobody is as insightful as a footballguy.

 

[Masked Vigilante]

I look forward to the review more than the show.

 

[badmojo1006]

Note that Bert Cooper isn't there for the "informal partners' meeting," and in an earlier scene is hanging out in the reception area, shoes off, just reading. Now that the transition from the old firm is done, is Bert any more relevant here than he was during the final days of British rule at Sterling Cooper?

I am wondering how soon they are going to kill off Bert Cooper...

 

[shut it down]

Meanwhile, Miss Blankenship is played by Randee Heller, probably still best known as Daniel Larusso's mom in the original "Karate Kid."

Jesus I feel old.

And Peggy's new friend Joyce was played by Zoisa [sic] Mamet, daughter of David Mamet and Lindsay Crouse, who was Marshall's weird quasi-girlfriend this season on "United States of Tara."

She did a really good job in UST.

 

[Christo]

It's actually a pretty insightful review.

Impossible. Nobody is as insightful as a footballguy.

How do you know he's not?

 

[Raider Nation]

It's actually a pretty insightful review.

Impossible. Nobody is as insightful as a footballguy.

How do you know he's not?

I'd bet my life on it. He barely has enough time to post his reviews; never mind hang out with losers like us.

 

[bostonfred]

Is it me or did the show turn a little more pg-13 this week than normal?

 

[McJose]

Is it me or did the show turn a little more pg-13 this week than normal?

They've been playing faster and looser with the s-bomb this season.

 

[pollardsvision]

The wife is tiring of seeing Draper's female escapades. She thinks it's getting boring. While I kind of agree, this show is so good, I can put up with a slow period.

I did not buy the whole steak on the British guy's crotch routine. He does a bad drunk. Excellent character, but that didn't work for me.

That's funny. I was just thinking the show is just starting to get really good and much of that is because the Draper family is out of the picture for now. January Jones is really hot, but I like the show much better with single, drunk, and pathetic Don.Many of the storylines that involved Betty really bored me. Some were highly annoying, such as her getting hit on by a creepy 9 year old.

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

Many of the storylines that involved Betty really bored me.

Totally agree, Betty taking a back seat this season has made the show that much better.

 

[badmojo1006]

Many of the storylines that involved Betty really bored me.

Totally agree, Betty taking a back seat this season has made the show that much better.

From the previews next week, she will be back with a vengeance. And it looks like she is still living in the house

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

It's amazing how Don can be so good at advertising creative and so bad at managing interpersonal relationships with the opposite sex. He always has the right thing to say when it comes to product, how come he can't do it with his own product?

He definately thought twice about how he handled the Allison situation, for him to even sit down at the typewriter and try to write something, means he was feeling remorse. But he couldn't string the right sentences together and just gave up.

There were a couple of things going on there, one he is not going to admit his shortcomings in front of the agency. Two, while coming up with creative to advertise a product comes naturally, he is completely lost at how to handle this human product. He created Don Draper to be the confident, headstrong man who cannot be questioned and he cannot bust out of that role for even a minute. Certainly he could have handled this delicate situation with Allison much better than he did but he wasn't going to make himself look bad in the process.

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

Don and Tiger Woods share a lot of similar qualities. They both built up these teflon supermen characters that they use to intimidate those in their presence.

I think Don knows he cannot let his guard down, look at what has happened to Tiger now that everyone knows his deal. The guy is a puddle of himself, mentally screwed right now and that initimidation factor that he had for so long is gone.

So if Don shows a human side and admits his faults, I think a similar detreoriation, at least at the Agency, would occur.

 

[Christo]

It's amazing how Don can be so good at advertising creative and so bad at managing interpersonal relationships with the opposite sex. He always has the right thing to say when it comes to product, how come he can't do it with his own product?

He definately thought twice about how he handled the Allison situation, for him to even sit down at the typewriter and try to write something, means he was feeling remorse. But he couldn't string the right sentences together and just gave up.

There were a couple of things going on there, one he is not going to admit his shortcomings in front of the agency. Two, while coming up with creative to advertise a product comes naturally, he is completely lost at how to handle this human product. He created Don Draper to be the confident, headstrong man who cannot be questioned and he cannot bust out of that role for even a minute. Certainly he could have handled this delicate situation with Allison much better than he did but he wasn't going to make himself look bad in the process.

I thought he was going to write a recommendation letter--kind of an apology without an apology. It surprised me to see what he did write. It didn't surprise me to see him abandon the effort.

 

[Premier]

Just watched the last episode again. I think the scene with the old money and the beatniks, and Peggy and Pete looking at each was one of my favorite scenes in the show's history. Just perfectly done. Great music to it, as well.

 

[Major]

Just watched the last episode again. I think the scene with the old money and the beatniks, and Peggy and Pete looking at each was one of my favorite scenes in the show's history. Just perfectly done. Great music to it, as well.

yep :shedstear:

 

[Raider Nation]

Is there a chance the writers phased January Jones ( ) out of the storyline because they realize she's an atrocious actress?

 

[shut it down]

Is there a chance the writers phased January Jones ( ) out of the storyline because they realize she's an atrocious actress?

I don't think so. Weiner is such a detail-freak, I'm sure he knew what he was getting with her, and why he was getting it. I think her personality and lack of acting chops lends itself well to a character who is so awkward socially and frigid, and I speculate that it's not a difficult stretch for her to channel the kind of nastiness we saw in the first episode of this season. Was Robert Iler a ########, or was he just good at playing a douchey kid?

 

[jamny]

I avoided the thread until I caught up. I'm surprised there isn't much commentary on what I thought was one of their best episodes ever. So much goes on under the surface on this show.

Peggy is gonna be so far ahead of the rest of them as far as what "the kids" are thinking these days. She's being exposed to a lot with the crew she was hanging around with. You can tell some conflicts will come up with what she want's to do and what the "old boys club" will want. Don is so out of it he barely even listened to her ideas.

Great scene with the focus group, love Don's new secretary!

You could just feel how crushed Joan was when the other broad lumped her in with the other "old married women"

The whole beginning scene with the conference call was hilarious. Roger rules! "No, the jockey is the one who'll smoke"

 

[Christo]

I avoided the thread until I caught up. I'm surprised there isn't much commentary on what I thought was one of their best episodes ever. So much goes on under the surface on this show.

Peggy is gonna be so far ahead of the rest of them as far as what "the kids" are thinking these days. She's being exposed to a lot with the crew she was hanging around with. You can tell some conflicts will come up with what she want's to do and what the "old boys club" will want. Don is so out of it he barely even listened to her ideas.

Great scene with the focus group, love Don's new secretary!

You could just feel how crushed Joan was when the other broad lumped her in with the other "old married women"

The whole beginning scene with the conference call was hilarious. Roger rules! "No, the jockey is the one who'll smoke"

The way I saw it, that was more a function of Don trusting Peggy.

 

[badmojo1006]

Just watched last Sunday's episode again...I even more at Peggy peaking over the wall

 

[jamny]

I avoided the thread until I caught up. I'm surprised there isn't much commentary on what I thought was one of their best episodes ever. So much goes on under the surface on this show.

Peggy is gonna be so far ahead of the rest of them as far as what "the kids" are thinking these days. She's being exposed to a lot with the crew she was hanging around with. You can tell some conflicts will come up with what she want's to do and what the "old boys club" will want. Don is so out of it he barely even listened to her ideas.

Great scene with the focus group, love Don's new secretary!

You could just feel how crushed Joan was when the other broad lumped her in with the other "old married women"

The whole beginning scene with the conference call was hilarious. Roger rules! "No, the jockey is the one who'll smoke"

The way I saw it, that was more a function of Don trusting Peggy.

I could have read that wrong. He just seemed kind of "yeah whatever"but wow, could he honestly have thought that having the secretary write her own recommendation would make her feel better?

 

[jdoggydogg]

The wife is tiring of seeing Draper's female escapades. She thinks it's getting boring. While I kind of agree, this show is so good, I can put up with a slow period.



I did not buy the whole steak on the British guy's crotch routine. He does a bad drunk. Excellent character, but that didn't work for me.

I didn't either. The best part was the conversation with Don about the hooker/paying the $ he owed Don. I also liked how awkward he was with the lady of the noche when it was business time. Still at Pryce going to the kid's room first. Love Don's expression and light scold as he knows they're both suffering and looking for a temporary escape. Don wasting that great scotch as it spilled all over the carpet during the transition to the flask gave me a chuckle. I remember a buddy doing that to a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue I just got as a gift.

The subtle nature of some of the scenes in Mad Men and the scenes closing with a character performing some mundane task may be my favorite. :style: like this make it one of the best shows in TV land at the moment and probably of all-time :fingerscrossed:

 

[jdoggydogg]

solid episode. Really like what their doing with Peggy's character.

Fantastic episode. It occurs to me that I'd be quite pleased with this show if 80% to 90% was staged in the office building. Love those scenes.