Episode 5 - Open Thread

Talk about Episode 5, "The New Girl"?

What did Peggy need to do to leave the hospital?

Don asks Peggy if she knows what "they" (the doctors) at the hospital want, and she says no, she doesn't. Don tells her that she does, and then says to give it to them, so she can get out of there and move on. What does she need to do?

Current social conventions that will die?

One of MM's best features is how it cariactures social conventions that were unconsciously acceptable in the 60's but are viewed as unacceptable now. We, of course, suffer from the same unconscious acceptance of practices that will be rejected in the future. Anyone dare to imagine that we know what 2040 will look like and predict current conventions that we now accept but society will have discarded by then?

Brian Krause (aka Leo in Charmed)

I'm a Brian Krause fan.....it is my understanding that Brian Krause will be guest starring in an upcoming episode of MAD MEN....someone please confirm this for me!!!!!

The Peggy/Don Secret Connection

I haven't seen this discussed before but it's been touched on in other threads this episode.

Remember the first episode when Peggy comes in and gives Don papers and touches his hand? WHY would she do that? Had she had an encounter with him and he got her a job there or something?

Please send your thoughts...

It's Turning into a Soap Opera

I really enjoyed the story lines last season dealing with the advertising business in the sixties. The strategies and corporate interactions were fascinating. However, this season is one big soap opera. "Will Betts sleep with the stable boy? Why can't Don get it up? Why can't the Campbells have children. The office manager get's engaged and Sterling laments. Peggy's sister confesses to the priest in an attempt to undermine Peggy." OMG, put this show on at 1PM with All My Children. I hope the producers turn this around or Mad Men will be an "also ran" at the Golden Globes.

Don's cash

What is up with Don not having much cash in his wallet? I only notice that because it came up more than once in the last episode. His life is becoming almost schizophrenic as he balances the various compartments, but I wonder if he has another secret we don't know about, and it is taking his cash on hand. For all we know about his past, he might have fathered a child, and is supporting it. How much spending cash would a man of his career and time have carried?

Twitter

Was anyone here using the Twitter feeds before AMC had them shut down?

Second Season - A Disappointment

I like this show. I like it a lot, but Season 2 is a disappointment. Where this show has really shone is when the characters and the era they inhabit come together to tell us about what we were and by comparison illuminate what we've become. I am thinking of Don's introduction of "LSMFT" for the Lucky Strike campaign and the whole aura of cigarette smoking at that time, the shock over rumors of marital infedelity in the Draper's neighborhood, Betty's struggles to maintain sanity in a society that offers her few options, Sal's sad determination to remain safe in the closet, and Don Draper's masterful paean to the family at the Kodak Carousel presentation followed by his return to an empty house on the night before Thanksgiving. Those episodes were powerful.

Thus far, Season 2 has not offered anything comparable. Where are the early 1960s? Other than horseback riding references to Jackie Kennedy, the fact that one of the copywriters has an African-American girlfriend, and the number of scenes with TVs in them has increased, it is little changed from Season 1. Episode 5 ends in the middle of 1962. I am old enough to remember the summer of '62 when tensions between the US and the USSR were ratcheting up dramatically in preparation for the showdown in October. They were scary times compared to the sleepy '50s, but you would not know it from recent episodes of "Mad Men". These characters are still living in the year 1960, the dull part of it at that.

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At the police station and at Peggy

Don is told the fine is $150 yet tells him he'll call for a taxi and have an employee bring out the $500. Then the cop says sarcastically, "or maybe your wife has a friend". Also Don hears the heels clicking and seems almost surprised to see it's Peggy. What's up with Peggy's white gloves so late at night too, were gloves worn all the time like that?