Season 5 Episode 11 - Open Thread

Mad Men Episode 11, "The Other Woman," airs Sunday night at 10/9c.

Season 5 Episode 10 - Open Thread

Talk about Episode 10, "Christmas Waltz"

Should the series have ended after Season 3 or Season 4

Watching Mad Men with friends and family and one of the things that comes up is should the series have ended after season 3? after all you have the whole Betty and Don collapse of the marriage, the new SCDP, and an air of change (the impending social issues such as civil rights, women's rights youth culture and the growing involvement in Vietnam). I get the sense that the era of the mad men (Don and Roger et al) pretty much ended in 1963 (some may say 1960)?. I like Season 5 (its no season 3) discuss

Everyman for himself versus the moral compass

While the message of this season maybe "Everyman for himself" (sorry I totally don't see it), one of the things that I see when I watch the episodes is how each characters wrestle with their inner moral compass and how the circumstances or events in their lives steer them away. Pete and his search for respect at work and his slow alienation from his family now that he is "isolated" in Cos Cob and away from the city he loves, For Lane its keeping up a charade of the stable and even keel tight wad money man, when in reality his money troubles and tax issues are about to snowball (no pun intended). Next we have Roger who through the help of "chemistry" has realized that what he thought was the truth (the younger trophy wife, his fading role in the agency) no longer holds water. We have Don who in some ways has a working woman's dilemma - the more he focuses on wife - his work suffers - the more he focuses on work the more his home life suffers. And Finally we have our former Greek Chorus character - Peggy who is as she gains the things she wants at work - the more she realizes that she is moving away from her life in Bayridge..
I really believe that this season has been about getting what you want but wanting more because what you wanted is never enough (but isn't this the point of advertising?)

PAMALA

OT:

Trailblazers and the tamed

While watching Christmas waltz episode I made the realization that its not necessarily Peggy who is the trailblazer or Megan for deciding to become an actress after her stint at SCDP. The person who is a trailblazer is Joan.. when we think that she will stay with Greg - she decides that his choice of volunteering rather than coming home to be with his family is the last straw. She is a working mother who decides that she and her baby are gonna make it (without Roger's financing) after all. Motherhood may have softened Joanie a bit but as she showed in that last episode.. not entirely.
And that brings us to Don who was something of an outcast - a man who hit rock bottom last season. Megan may have tamed Don but the rift between them "generational/ work.. next season maybe rocky. Another thing I have noticed is that Don is all of a sudden shelling out advice to everyone (Joan, Pete, Roger). Perhaps all those years of living like the Devil has made him empathetic to the unhappiness around him.

Baby Gene

Many episodes ago there was speculation that Gene might still wet. Then when Glenn was talking to Sally he pointed out she no longer needed to change Gene's diapers. The discussion of delayed toilet learning started again.

Peggy's a whore? They all are;-)

One of the great things about MM is that they are not just doing one thing at a time, they are often doing 7 or 8 things at a time. When Peggy had a rough day in "Far Away Places", she ended up smoking a doob with a stranger in a movie theater. When that turned sexual, her choice to service the guy shocked a lot of viewers; I understood in context she was already implicated in the pot smoking and probably saw that solution as one of the least complicated.
In the next episode, "Codfish Ball", Pete explains what he does all day to Megan's dad Emile in a manner that reprises Peggy's hands on approach at the movies. In effect, he "services" Emile's ego, and says "THAT'S what I do all day!" to Papa chuckle in response.
In the next episode, "Lady Lazarus", Roger gives Pete "Head"; that is, he calls Pete into his office and gives him the gift of Head skis because the company has heard he's the new hotshot on Wall St.

Those of you who claim to be bored, watch these episodes again. I have my little Cliff Notes Stream of Consciousness observations of the last 5 shows on my blog (and there are plenty of other great observations out there):

http://www.johndoherty.com/hiawp.html

Look again, closer this time!

Blade Runner director Ridley Scott on Advertising

You started out in advertising in the 1960s. How has that affected your career as a filmmaker?
I was pretty good at advertising and am still in it, actually. My company [Ridley Scott Associates] is now in Hong Kong, New York, L.A. and London, and there's, like, 60 directors and all that.

What do you think of Mad Men?
As the show goes, fantastic. But, you know, when I was starting out, I wasn't the agency, I was the guy who carried out the agency's wishes. It was very, very competitive, because it's all about cost against creativity against "what are you going to deliver?" The hot agencies would go after these so-called hot directors, and I was one of them for 20 years. That was my film school.

Verizon FiOS viewers--any knowledge

Why they haven't posted the latest episode On Demand? And why they also pulled Ep. 509? I usually watch each episode twice and they usually post the latest episode on the next day after the show.