I think we have to be a bit patient. The writers are laying the groundwork and dropping clues about what may be happening next.
What did Don mean when he told his wife that when his stepfather beat him up, all he could think about was killing him? Is this a clue or a deliberate false direction? Do we know why Don changed his name? As others have pointed out, there are a lot of gaps in the timeline of Don's life.

I agree to a point that this season's story lines seems to be all over the place. But this last episode left me with a much better feeling about the potential for the rest of the season.
Peggy's story line could be phenomenal. The conflict between family/church and work/career for a single woman in 1962 has tremedous potential for a long, involved fanscinating story line. They could cover dozens of different topics.

Randall651 and MJD46,
Thank you for your explanation of why, but what I don't understand is that every single original character is having muc thrown in their faces and are not looking good. There are many new characters taking credit. I want the original characters to grow and develop and have some kind of connection to the big dangling story line of last Season! I only found this out as I was watching last Season again recently and wished that the whole story would at least be address. As it is now it's just going in every direction. Though, it's been entertaining and I have enjoyed all the great actors, I just think it's time to reaveal something about the gap from last season to this.

You have to realize that season one was an introduction and now they are building on that introduction. I think that is one thing that is wrong with all this dissection we're doing, it confuses the story.

Haven't you fallen in love with a musical group and when you buy their latest album, it doesn't sound the same? The group is trying to spread their wings, grow as artists, etc. The same thing can be said for many artistic endeavors, no one wants to repeat themselves.

Mad Men is a phenomenal TV show and maybe we should just appreciate it for what it is.

I kinda think that M. Weiner and Co. are now just throwing out all these neat "threads" in all directions in these first few Season 2 episodes and that he will do all the "gap filling" during the balance of the season. JMHO

Deliegirl,
You're right to an extent,but we are here to pick out the good,bad and in between of the show. And I would like to find out what happened from then until now.

scfan,
"gapfilling" for me is not good enough. I guess I'll watch the "Sopranos". Sorry Mr. Weiner, I never watched this show because of the violence. But, I may just see how he handled loose strings. Why heck, as I remember the final episode never went anywhere either now that I think about it. It was so very criticized as I remember. o.k.

Any good story has a set-up.....if the writer(s) didn't give us any back story, we wouldn't care about the characters enough to react when the REAL action starts....

Come on!...hang in there with me!....

Hi greytone,
I'm a hangin'! I'm just worried about the show, it's down 45% viewership and a lot of complaints coming in and some that I totally agree with!
To all,
I MUST SEE THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS TAKE CONTROL again with their own stories. Look at their expressions! Don is disgusted with Bobbie, Joan looks fat to some and has to reprimand the new girl's decolletage, Arthur is coming in as a bully, "you know you want it" (Bully Biff in "Back to the Future") and makes Betty weak and oh so "sad" (the "sad" here is getting overused and it's not effective), Peggy looks bad because the priest is now after her, Duck is lame, Roger is doing "nothing", and on and on. When are they taking their positions again, they were so interesting and it all went to pot with them. Does anyone see this?

Again, I'm hopeful for the 5th episode.

Yes, I had to go back to Season 1 DVD to try to understand what's going on now because I've missed a few.

Loved Don's reference to Ratazzi's restaurant (even though he pronounced it Ratahzzi). I loved Dick Ratazzi & also Pete. It was, indeed, the place to go when you worked on Mad Ave.

I haven't gotten to the episode where Peggy is promoted to copywriter. Promoting a secretary to a copywriter in a big ad agency in that time would have been virtually impossible...unless she was a Mary Wells type, which she isn't. Doesn't ring true to me.

Wish they'd mention the names of some of the ad icons of the 60s.

Fun to think back to those times, but also difficult to remember how women were treated--on the job & off.

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