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Mad Men

 
 
EvskiG
19:07 / 24.08.07
So is anyone else watching this on American Movie Classics?

It's 1960. Cool means sharp suits, cone bras, Brylcreemed hair, Sinatra, and JFK. Counterculture means beatniks performing at a smoky coffeehouse in Greenwich Village. And our protagonists work at a second-tier ad agency in Manhattan, or go quietly mad in the Connecticut suburbs.

Don is an ad exec with a perfect blond wife in the suburbs, a beatnik mistress in the Village, a crush on a wealthy Jewish department store heiress, and a mysterious past. Betty is his Seven Sisters-educated wife, rotting in the suburbs and curious about the local divorcee -- the Feminine Mystique embodied in a person. Pete is a young man from old money, trying to prove himself and failing at every turn. And Peggy is a secretary because no other options are available to her.

Cigarette smoke is everywhere. Executives have bars in their offices. Pregnant women drink and smoke. Racism, sexism, and antisemitism are so thick you could choke. No one looks twice when a neighbor smacks your kid. And homosexuality is so far off the radar that no one even suspects the one closeted character.

It's brilliant beyond words.
 
 
MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!
19:26 / 24.08.07
I work in advertising, and I'm dying to see this. Unfortunately -- no TV. Might torrent it...
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
16:30 / 25.08.07
I've only watched the first episode so far and celebrated by opening a big can of 'I can't believe it's so bland'. I'm certainly going to watch a few more episodes before making a final decision but the fact that there didn't seem to be anyone who was either sympathetic or so nasty that they grabbed your attention was a big problem. This is the show of one of The Sopranos writers right?

The main reason I want to see the second episode is to see why Zoey Bartlett decided to sleep with Connor from Angel as that seemed to come from nowhere, she doesn't like him, he doesn't have the power to make her life at work difficult (and I think she's aware of this) so it would appear to be a male writer (note to self: go check this) awarding a male character with sex for acting like a complete shit to a female character.
 
 
EvskiG
13:41 / 26.08.07
I think she slept with him more-or-less on a whim -- because he showed up at her door, because (as a single woman newly arrived in New York) she suddenly had the freedom to do so, and because she wanted to break in her new birth control. (Although not a good idea on the first day of a birth control pill regimen.)

Sometimes people do things like that.
 
 
MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!
21:08 / 08.09.07
Watching and processing, but I think this is my second-favorite TV title sequence ever, right after Carnivale.
 
 
EvskiG
21:52 / 09.09.07
The Mad Men animation really evokes classic Saul Bass credit sequences like The Man With the Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder.
 
 
PatrickMM
01:02 / 28.09.07
New episode tonight, in three minutes. I really respected the show from the first few episodes, but the past three have turned it from respect to addiction, in the way only the best TV shows can. I love the gradually revealing neuroses of Betty Draper, and the shading given the other characters as we progress. Watching a show like this next to the network pilots, even the highly acclaimed ones is just no contest. With the occasional exception, those shows are just "TV good," this one is just plain great.
 
 
PatrickMM
04:48 / 15.09.08
Anyone else still watching this? The second season's about halfway through, and right now it's easily the best show on TV, and lining up to be one of the all time greats. Tonight's episode ended with an interesting montage where everyone strips off their 'fiction suits' and has to confront their true selves beneath the illusion put on for society. The show feels so effortless in building its world, it's the most complex, artistic show out there.
 
 
MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!
23:43 / 15.09.08
I'm still watching the first season (box set with commentaries this time around) and waiting for the second series to conclude before I pick it up, again on DVD, and dig in. It's now my favourite way to consume great TV, and I find it's easy to avoid forums and spoilers etc. and save myself for the experience.

First season was definitely up there with Dexter and The Wire in "best TV" of recent years, though.
 
 
FinderWolf
15:31 / 18.09.08
I have heard many great things about this show and will Netflix/DVD it soon. Interesting to note for Whedon fans on here, that Christina Hendricks (the femme fatale Saffron from FIREFLY) and Vincent Karthesier (Connor, Angel's grown-up son, from ANGEL) are leads in this show. Quality actors finding a quality home; always good to see. Love the revival of the 60s business/their-version of yuppie (as opposed to 60s hippie) style/aesthetic that this show's success has brought...
 
 
Yagg
23:00 / 01.11.08
Great show, although it has very deliberate pacing that discouraged me at first. I'd suggest starting from the start and watching the first few episodes in one gulp to get a taste for it.

My Lady Friend and I have formulated a "Mad Men" drinking game. Drink when they drink, drink when someone makes some horrible early '60s sexist/racist comment, drink when someone cheats on their spouse, etc. Try it: You still won't put away as much booze as the average Sterling Cooper exec does during his workday.

Nor can you smoke as much as they do! You'd drop dead by the first commercial break!

Here's my question for MM fans: At the end of season two, it appears that Don Draper has turned over a new leaf. Well, has he or hasn't he? Can he stay on the straight and narrow? Theories?

Wouldn't it be a nice turnabout if he cleaned up his act while Betty started running around on him instead?

Also: Season one took place in 1960. Season two skipped ahead two years. When will season three take place? Moving ahead to 1964 as expected? Just wondering.
 
 
PatrickMM
02:34 / 03.11.08
I don't see Betty running around on him next year. I think she has an internalized moral compass from the time, such that it took the combination of her being furious at Don for just running out to attend to his extisential issues, him admitting that he cheated on her, her pregnancy and desire to hurt herself, and the world nearly ending to get her to finally step out on him. The sad part of her getting pregnant is that it comes at a moment when she was finally asserting her independence. She was proving to herself she could live without Don, then all of a sudden, she's put in a condition where she has to depend on him again.

As for Don's new leaf, he did have that baptism/rebirth experience in the two penultamate episodes, he passed through various identities before choosing to return to the Don Draper fiction suit. I'm not sure where he goes from here, a Don who doesn't rebel against his place in the world is a less interesting Don, but how can you have him step out without just retreading previous storylines?
 
  
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