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Mad Men on AMC (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter Red Apples
- Start date
Ilov80s
Footballguy
I think she played Betty so much and Betty hit so close to who she really is that she just got stuck in that mode. Her IG account is basically if Betty Draper was born in 1980.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
It' tough not just binge-watching episode after episode like I did with Band of Brothers, The Boys and Parks and Rec. At least providing a little write-up is slowing me down a little, which helps savor them, just like the scotch I'm starting to dabble in. Going to at least watch episode 6, "Babylon" later on tonight, maybe with some Sir Edwards...
OrtonToOlsen
Footballguy
Great episode.
Roy: How do you sleep at night?
Don: On a bed made of money.
Keep an eye out for David Carbonara, the show’s musical composer, as the guy playing the zither(?) at The Gaslight.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
A zither? Really? The dad of one of my old neighborhood friends played the zither. My friend was somewhat embarrassed about it, although TBH his dad embarrassed him a lot of different ways.
I've started it but I'm also obviously watching at a leisurely pace. Just past Roger and Joan in the hotel room. Reason #84735987 I don't like Roger. Not liking Don right now, either, after the way Betty was talking about how much she wanted him.
bentley
Footballguy
Have you rewatched Soporanos? Because that aged really, really poorly for me. Definitely way behind BB and Mad Men on the TV list.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
It's a shame I haven't poured a drink yet. Joan just said "The medium is the message" and then waked away from the camera. Definitely have to drink to that.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
@OrtonToOlsen, that's an autoharp, not a zither.
Good tune. Haunting. Wanted Don to punch the hippie in the face, but getting the better of him verbally was better.
Good tune. Haunting. Wanted Don to punch the hippie in the face, but getting the better of him verbally was better.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I think I'm finally starting to get Peggy. It's like she understands everything going on around her and is confused that everyone around her doesn't.
Still not sure if 'basket of kisses' was intentional on her part or not, but if it was, then she's playing 3-D chess while everyone around her is playing checkers.
On to episode 7...
Still not sure if 'basket of kisses' was intentional on her part or not, but if it was, then she's playing 3-D chess while everyone around her is playing checkers.
On to episode 7...
OrtonToOlsen
Footballguy
Ahhh...thanks. I knew it was one of those string thingies.
And the dude who played Roy is now on that “Yellowstone” show. He plays a cowboy.
OrtonToOlsen
Footballguy
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I just rewatched the episode. I think my impression of Peggy and Pete having known each other before she started working for Don was that she seemed so unsettled by Pete's behavior in the office but then was so easy when he showed up at her apartment. Also the way Pete talked to her at her door. Granted he was drunk and wanted to close the deal, but him saying that he had to see her that night just didn't make sense to me unless they already had a relationship. I'm probably just trying to reconcile what seems like bad writing and contradictory behavior by both people happening in such a short period of time.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I'm up to season 2, episode 2.
Peggy really IS bat#### crazy. Would it be a safe bet to say we are going to also learn about a suicide attempt in her past? Or is it just implied by her sister that told her the state of New York and the doctors didn't think he was capable of making her own decisions? I had to re-watch that part 2 more times after the initial shock.
Peggy really IS bat#### crazy. Would it be a safe bet to say we are going to also learn about a suicide attempt in her past? Or is it just implied by her sister that told her the state of New York and the doctors didn't think he was capable of making her own decisions? I had to re-watch that part 2 more times after the initial shock.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
might be covered in eps you aint seen yet, so...
cant be certain, but i believe the she underwent a psych eval because she wouldnt look at her baby
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Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
You know how sometimes a writer inserts himself into a story? I think I figured out who's representing Matthew Weiner--Glen.
Aerial Assault
Footballguy
Brunell4MVP
Footballguy
I liked Mad Men. But by season 64 it felt like the same exact show I watched in season 1. Like being stuck in time.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
If you mean Ginsberg, I disagree; I think Ginsburg is Weiner's take on Aaron Sorkin. Plus, the kid that plays Glen is Weiner's kid.
Also, feel really bad about Sal and don't like how his last appearance went.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Every agency on Madison Avenue is defined by the moment they got their car.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I've liked TV shows before and watched them ad nauseam, but this show is a whole different level of addiction right now. I'm on either my 4th, 5th or 6th time through in less than a year since my first go-round. I've been watching sometimes 2-3 episodes per night with maybe a night or two off and maybe a few days off before starting again once I've reached the end. I even went back to the beginning of this thread to pore over your comments and insights to broaden my perspective on the show. Many things were said that I'm still trying to catch up with, especially the internal struggle to reconcile **** Whitman and Don Draper. All I can say is that it's probably a good thing I didn't get into the show when it originally aired because I don't think I would have dealt as well with the time between episodes. I'm currently near the end of season 3 and even though I've been here 4-5 times before, I look forward to seeing new details.
Also, I have a ton of random thoughts about the show and just feel the need to get them out of my head. I don't expect them to be earth-shattering, just more thoughts about a show most of us in this thread followed and/or liked...
1. The Barbie that Betty gave Sally after Gene was born looked like Meagan to me.
2. When Don is at the beatnick bar with Midge, as the song 'Babylon' progresses, I'm positive I saw the look on Don's face ever so subtly change to anger of all things, as if the sorrow portrayed in the song was his alone and no one else had the right to it.
3. Speaking of subtle facial expressions, Christina Hendricks is no doubt is a master. There were countless moments she got to to do this, but when they were meeting with Jim Hobart and he enticed all of them except her with big name clients, I felt she gave an entire soliloquy using only her eyes and facial expression. It was apt that she got to say 'The medium is the message' way back in season 1.
4. It wasn't until this 4th/5th/6th viewing of the series that I finally saw nuance in January Jones' portrayal of Betty. On one hand, Betty was set up early in the series that her mother's death shortly before the series began had a profound effect on her (I remember Don telling the therapist "she wasn't always this way"), so it should have been a concession from the beginning that she was 'damaged'. Where Betty came alive for me were the times she was able to get out of the house, mainly when she got to dress up and go to fancy places, Rome, etc., and I thought she hit her 'peak' in season 3, during the arc where she starts getting involved with Henry, through her confrontation with Don about his past. Not saying that means Jones is a great actress, more that there was more going on with her character than how she portrayed it, which I think was less accidental than she gets credit for.
5. Sal's exit from the show still doesn't sit well with me, mainly because the scene behind him when he's on the phone talking to his wife is not supposed to lead to any other conclusion than that he's at some sort of place where men hook up with each other. I think I don't like it mainly because I've been so conditioned by pop culture over the last 20 years to not assume anything, yet that's exactly what we're basically forced to do here. I think a great ending for him would have been that in the last episode, when everyone was getting their send off, that one of the guys that went to McCann would have had a pitch meeting with Belle Jolie, and the guy that hit on Sal back in season 1 would have been promoted and he would introduce Sal as their creative director.
Anyway, there's more, but these are some of the thoughts that have come to me via multiple re-watching. I doubt I would have had most of these thoughts if I had watched the show as it was originally aired, but there they are.
Also, I have a ton of random thoughts about the show and just feel the need to get them out of my head. I don't expect them to be earth-shattering, just more thoughts about a show most of us in this thread followed and/or liked...
1. The Barbie that Betty gave Sally after Gene was born looked like Meagan to me.
2. When Don is at the beatnick bar with Midge, as the song 'Babylon' progresses, I'm positive I saw the look on Don's face ever so subtly change to anger of all things, as if the sorrow portrayed in the song was his alone and no one else had the right to it.
3. Speaking of subtle facial expressions, Christina Hendricks is no doubt is a master. There were countless moments she got to to do this, but when they were meeting with Jim Hobart and he enticed all of them except her with big name clients, I felt she gave an entire soliloquy using only her eyes and facial expression. It was apt that she got to say 'The medium is the message' way back in season 1.
4. It wasn't until this 4th/5th/6th viewing of the series that I finally saw nuance in January Jones' portrayal of Betty. On one hand, Betty was set up early in the series that her mother's death shortly before the series began had a profound effect on her (I remember Don telling the therapist "she wasn't always this way"), so it should have been a concession from the beginning that she was 'damaged'. Where Betty came alive for me were the times she was able to get out of the house, mainly when she got to dress up and go to fancy places, Rome, etc., and I thought she hit her 'peak' in season 3, during the arc where she starts getting involved with Henry, through her confrontation with Don about his past. Not saying that means Jones is a great actress, more that there was more going on with her character than how she portrayed it, which I think was less accidental than she gets credit for.
5. Sal's exit from the show still doesn't sit well with me, mainly because the scene behind him when he's on the phone talking to his wife is not supposed to lead to any other conclusion than that he's at some sort of place where men hook up with each other. I think I don't like it mainly because I've been so conditioned by pop culture over the last 20 years to not assume anything, yet that's exactly what we're basically forced to do here. I think a great ending for him would have been that in the last episode, when everyone was getting their send off, that one of the guys that went to McCann would have had a pitch meeting with Belle Jolie, and the guy that hit on Sal back in season 1 would have been promoted and he would introduce Sal as their creative director.
Anyway, there's more, but these are some of the thoughts that have come to me via multiple re-watching. I doubt I would have had most of these thoughts if I had watched the show as it was originally aired, but there they are.
I still haven't been able to get through the whole series. I think I am in season 3 but I haven't watched in a few months. It is great acting and interesting story lines but It is easy for me to not go back to it. For some reason it isn't as "binge-y" as some other lesser shows. I am not sure why.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
dang, now you've made me homesick...
i miss my two-eps-a-wk since they took it off Prime (which is precisely when i took Prime off, tho only part of why) and left me without existential mileposts for guidance. lightning in a bottle, to be sure - nobody from the show cept maybe Peggy (havent see Handmaid's yet) has done anything close since.
i dont atomize my media unless i have a special reason to - my subconscious does it better and leaves me with more room for wonder - but your notes make note of perhaps Mad Men's greatest aspect: its two living dolls.
there will never be another Betty or Joan, thank goodness, but that's the key to the show's magic - revealing who we were just at the point we began to wonder who we were. before the glass ceiling was the gilded cage and either one of these portrayals would be the best-ever capture of the plight of the songbird, so the double miracle of nailing Cool Blonde & Big Red in one story is epic. and to find two actresses who could both physically match the point of envy they were and aware of all the telling points of that level of attractiveness makes me swell with admiration. dang, i miss that show....
i miss my two-eps-a-wk since they took it off Prime (which is precisely when i took Prime off, tho only part of why) and left me without existential mileposts for guidance. lightning in a bottle, to be sure - nobody from the show cept maybe Peggy (havent see Handmaid's yet) has done anything close since.
i dont atomize my media unless i have a special reason to - my subconscious does it better and leaves me with more room for wonder - but your notes make note of perhaps Mad Men's greatest aspect: its two living dolls.
there will never be another Betty or Joan, thank goodness, but that's the key to the show's magic - revealing who we were just at the point we began to wonder who we were. before the glass ceiling was the gilded cage and either one of these portrayals would be the best-ever capture of the plight of the songbird, so the double miracle of nailing Cool Blonde & Big Red in one story is epic. and to find two actresses who could both physically match the point of envy they were and aware of all the telling points of that level of attractiveness makes me swell with admiration. dang, i miss that show....
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
the closeted gay art director, whose "secret" was exposed to Draper during a fire alarm on a bidness trip
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I think part of the reason I passed on it the first time around was that I wasn't interested in that time period and the stereotypical associations we have with the 60's. However, as clips of the show appeared on youtube and I watched them, I got the feeling of something deeper resonating with me, and I think that's why I keep going back again and again: the tone and writing for this show speaks to how I view the world as well, not 100% but in ways I didn't expect.
Funny you mention Prime, as that's how I'm seeing it. IMDb is one of the channels Prime carries, albeit with commercials, but I've been watching it pretty steady for the last 10 months.
As for Betty and Joan, I've gone full circle on both of them.
As I was reading through this thread I saw a lot of disdain for Betty and January Jones' acting ability. I admit that was how I felt as well and why I'm glad I have the luxury of watching her story in a more accelerated yet leisurely pace, meaning I didn't have to stew on my first impressions for a week before getting the next snippet but rather I've been able to watch her for longer stretches with the ability to make sense of her character and the portrayal of it. Yes, JJ was the perfect actress to play the part, but that also didn't mean she had to portray a great range to nail the performance. In a way, she was like the Rothko painting in Cooper's office, mostly one color but with an array of shades and depth on display yet still just one color.
As for Joan, by the end of the show's run, I no longer felt pity for what she had been through, but rather sadness over her hubris, which was actually on display from her first interactions with Peggy all the way to her exit from McCann, where she only used women's rights/sexual harassment as a threat for her own financial gain and not for the 'greater good' of the women's movement.
identikit
Footballguy
Leeroy Jenkins
Footballguy
I wanted to re-watch during the pandemic and was sadly surprised that it was no longer on Netflix. Is it streaming anywhere at all??
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I'm watching it on Prime, by way of their IMDb channel. They have the show with commercial breaks.
identikit
Footballguy
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
i took a lot of flack at the time for failing to recognize that Miss Jones' talents might not be all that convertible. i had also just seen her in Tommy Lee Jones' Three Burials, where she has an almost perfect scene where she's trailer trash leaning on a kitchen counter, watching her stories when her husband crosses behind, just has to have datass, and does so with the camera rarely leaving a one-shot of her reactions (or lack of same) thruout. nailed it.
but they both just absolutely got "trapped", the trophies who showed us their case
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Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
The thing is about JJ, if she had any menace to her, she'd be her generation's Christopher Walken.
As for Christina Hendricks, her build unfortunately overshadows her acting talent. She had so many memorable scenes that took place from the neck up yet most only remember the ones from the neck down. TBH, her face/smile at times impressed me more than her curves.
Zegras11
Footballguy
I watched it for the 3rd time at the start of the pandemic. Might have to fire it up soon again.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Miss Hendricks just flat dominated that role - the bravado & insouciance, the outer flair & inner life, the GalFriday & HeadHen, the casuistry & resignation of being a woman around whom it was then socially acceptable to bite one's knuckles, fall to the knees & groan over in passing.
And she is otherwise talented - as on display in a version of my all-time favorite musical, Company, which she did w a bunch of TV stars for PBS a few yrs back. i have a running dialogue with my famous director cousin (Chicago, Mary Poppins Returns) because i've been trying to get him to make a movie of it for twenty yrs (my concept of it is to do it on four split-screens throughout - the non-musical outer life of the singing characters being flashed on the extra screens during their numbers. he says he'll look at it if i storyboard the entire thing, but i'm not that talented) and we've had long disagreements over which couple in the original we'd change to a gay couple in an adaptation (which i won when a recent WestEnd production picked my choice). very crisp in a difficult role. the rest of her post-MadMen work as entirely unremarkable as with the rest of em, however.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I had to look up Company. I was surprised to see the name George Furth attached to it. Only knew about his acting. If you need storyboard help, you should see if Sal is still working.
She was only in two episodes of Firefly but stole the show in both (especially her first appearance.) Heck, she stole the show with just a few minutes of screen time as a bar wench in Angel.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
So I'm watching the scene where Ginsberg is talking about being born in a concentration camp, and I never noticed before that the only way we see his face through the whole thing is via his reflection in the mirror. I don't know if that detail was talked about when it first aired, but it really hit me this time.
Man, I love this show...
Man, I love this show...
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I'd like to revise this thought. I now believe Matthew Weiner inserted himself at the very end of the series, in the form of the guy in the encounter group who shares the dream he has of being in the refrigerator. I don't think it was coincidence that he was balding like Mr. Weiner, and the sense of loneliness he imparts with his story encapsulates the entire theme of the show such that it can't be a coincidence. Also, the more I've watched this scene, the more impressed I am with that actor's performance and would rank it up there with any single scene of the entire series.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Congrats to you guys who picked up on most things the first or second time through and moved on from this show; I'm on about my 10th time through and it's still a revelation after this many times.
In this case, I think the record needs to be set straight about January Jones.
Tonight I watched the episode in the 1st season when she talks to the therapist about Don's infidelity. This is her first visit after realizing that Don has been checking in with her therapist about her progress, and the first time she talks about knowing he cheats on her. She's both manipulative and looking for answers at the same time--in her case a real dichotomy--all while keeping in place the trauma of having lost her mother just before the show started. Given the lack of roles and quality of performance she has given since this show seems to indicate her limitations as an actress, but for this portrayal, she was not only perfectly cast, but also delivered a pitch-perfect performance.
Also, even though Joan has been talked about here ad nauseum, I want to say for the record that as an actor, Christina Hendricks' best feature is her face; she is able to convey so much with her expressions and the timing of how long she holds a look tells you what's going on behind her eyes that's better than words could ever do. She is so great at telling you what her character is thinking without using words that she could be great in silent movies if they ever became a thing again.
In this case, I think the record needs to be set straight about January Jones.
Tonight I watched the episode in the 1st season when she talks to the therapist about Don's infidelity. This is her first visit after realizing that Don has been checking in with her therapist about her progress, and the first time she talks about knowing he cheats on her. She's both manipulative and looking for answers at the same time--in her case a real dichotomy--all while keeping in place the trauma of having lost her mother just before the show started. Given the lack of roles and quality of performance she has given since this show seems to indicate her limitations as an actress, but for this portrayal, she was not only perfectly cast, but also delivered a pitch-perfect performance.
Also, even though Joan has been talked about here ad nauseum, I want to say for the record that as an actor, Christina Hendricks' best feature is her face; she is able to convey so much with her expressions and the timing of how long she holds a look tells you what's going on behind her eyes that's better than words could ever do. She is so great at telling you what her character is thinking without using words that she could be great in silent movies if they ever became a thing again.
Leeroy Jenkins
Footballguy
I wish this was streaming somewhere for “free”
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
tru dat - i miss it as my existential TV compassLeeroy Jenkins said:
Moe.
Footballguy
For those of you lamenting streaming options, AMC+ (I know, I know, the last thing we need) is $1.99/month for a year today. My wife has never seen Mad Men, we’ve been flirting with a rewatch for awhile now but I can’t do the ads on IMDb tv so I’m gonna pull the trigger on this. She’s never seen Breaking Bad either so we’ll go through those two and Better Call Saul over the next year for $24 - worth it.
themeanmachine
Footballguy
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
When I added that last post, I thought of you, since you were in the minority of those who got what January Jones was doing with her portrayal of Betty and praised her.
Hopefully this means this thread will see more activity. As much as I regret not seeing it the first time around, I can't help but talk about it now and hopefully others will contribute as well.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Yeah - i dont like harrangues and am usually aware enough to know where i'll get heat on a point i make, but i was out on a limb with a saw, either 86 pgs ago in this thread or one of those rate-the-female threads that FFA no longer indulges, with my encomiums about January Jones as Betty Draper.
I raved & i raved & i raved because she was really mining something there - the whole bird-in-a-cage syndrome that meant that, early in the women's movement, pretty girls were gonna be taken less seriously than average women because men were going to want them to be the last vestige of femininity and women were going to dislike them for setting many of the pins they had to knock down on the lane to being taken seriously. to understand such a large-but-fine point dramatically just HAD to connote great talent. and the only other thing i'd seen Miss Jones in was the movie Three Burials and she has a scene where she as trailertrash wife is leaning over the passthrough counter of her kitchen watching her stories on the TV and her trailertrash husband sees datass and consummates his lust without her moving a muscle, and all the shades of bimbo play across her face as it happens. well, she was perfect and so was her Betty and that's sumn so i rave & i rave & i rave.
and, for one of the few times in the 20 yrs i been a forum poster, everybody laughs & laughs & laughs. further research proves that, while JJ has a deep & complex understanding of what its like to be soooo pretty that you dont care and HATE the fuss made around and about you, she cant do much outside that wheelhouse. and i've just pimped her madskillz on a next-Streep level. good times...
but i lovelovelove the portrayal.
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Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Like with most of the actors on that show, she's not going to get a better role, nor turn in a better performance. Kind of like Larry Linville playing Frank Burns on M*A*S*H*.
FWIW, I paused my watching last night when I went to bed, and it was paused on the shot of Betty in the yellow bikini she bought at the country club auction. Her legs definitely go all the way up.
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