Mad Men - Season 4 - Page 15

Yes. Yes, you are.

So bad in fact, that you make Don Draper cry.

Anyways, any episode was going to feel lighter after last week, but I dug the back-to-work feel. And I'm really starting to hate the Mad Men inspired commercials. They don't seem to get the point that the series isn't so much about 60s!Glam!&Swagger! It's....kind of funny.

Joan's becoming Blankenship slowly and surely. I want her to be free!...But this is not going to end well, unless there is a major shift in her outlook. She's worked the 50's Bombshell bit down to an art and can't break out. Even her clothes are starting to reflect that sort of outdated mode of beauty. It makes me sad.

It wasn't as good as last weeks episode but what really could be? The opening shot with the Stones was clunky but I enjoyed the voice over as a device to get in Don's head while he's trying to better himself. I just hope it's not going to become anything more than an occasional device, and would be happy if it never came back. I know Don's struggles with sobriety seemed on the nose but there isn't anything particularly subtle about and alcoholic cleaning themselves up. Hopefully Don getting sober and back on track leads to the end of Mrs. Blankenship soon, her bits this week were annoying.

hehehe...heh

HEH. Missed that.

HI everyone!!

I'm all caught up and love the show. Been following the thread for a week or so.

Here's my thoughts:

I don't blame Betty for anything that has happened. Don was a lying bastard and a coward when it came to facing the consequences of his actions. and I probably would have divorced him also. On the other hand, I just plain don't like Henry Francis. I don't like him and I don't trust him. To me, he's the enemy. I think Betty just would have jumped to any ship after Don. Not that I don't think Betty has played every card right. Especially with her kids. Her parents (mother in particular) fucked her up and now shes gonna fuck up her daughter.

Her look at Don at the end didn't seem with malice intent like some people on her are constantly trying to prove. It recalled what her neighboor told her about how she has everything and to watch out for Don because he has nothing to lose. Her look at him seemed to be a self-assuring look like, "That's right I still have this." now if you want to take that farther and say it was a "I feel good because I can take this away from you" look....I just don't buy it. I need more evidence of malicious intent. She doesn't think of things clearly enough to have mal intent all the time. That's why I'm not a Betty hater.

The Suitcase was a great episode eclipsing this past one. Though I did like it. I found Don's voice over more jarring than the 'Satisfaction' scene, which I enjoyed with no complaints. I like to see Don struggling with his alcoholic thirst. I think the voice-over can only be used in the short term though. Didn't think the dialog was very clunky.

anyway. more thoughts later.

First of all, how fucking cute did Joan look in her pajamas?!

Also, I think she is pregnant.


EDIT:



GOOD NIGHT SWEET PRINCE

She was an astronaut.

I just want to hug Sally, and then eat pizza with her. AND MEGHAN! Joan! Peggy calling out Abe on women's rights was nice.

I like Abe, it must be said.

A step up from last week, I think, but there were a few things that were still a little off. Nothing serious, overall it was a pretty solid episode.

I get really annoyed by off-camera sex scenes. I find them incredibly awkward and juvenile for some reason.

RIP Blankenship. I wonder if Weiner anticipated that she would divide the audience so much.

The stuff with Abe was interesting, I thought. I liked the direction they were going with there. And the Joan and Roger thing was beautifully acted, even if a little contrived. They sold it.

I am loving Sally. Her smile after saying she would never do it again was fantabulous. I am now thinking about making Rum Toast for breakfast. Roger makes a mention of suicide falling off the building and Blankenship called it a day! Otherwise, this was a strange episode, I thought. While I appreciated all four stories, Peggy, Don, Blankenship, and Joan's, I felt like it was too much. Cut one and focus on the others.

How did I fail to mention the Women of Mad Men screenshot with Peggy, Joan, Faye, Megan, Betty, and Sally in the lobby.

I loved the episode. And it just proved what many of us were saying since last season. Sally is one of the best characters around, and the actress is simply fantastic. Her scenes with Don are a joy to watch. Don has a completely different aura around her.

Yeah, the shots at the end when Don hands Sally to Betty, he's got 4 different, strong and beautiful women behind him like protectors.

Megan is getting a lot of screen time. And she's gorgeous.

Line of the night goes for Cooper.
Absolutely lovely.

Roger's mvp moment =

She ought to win an Emmy! I'll miss you Ida Blankenship.

I actually agreed with Abe.

Very odd episode. I didn't feel the emotion some of you did with the eulogy, but it was a great line.

The Sally subplot continues to be heartbreaking. The scars of being a child of divorce are real, and the show makes you feel the pain.

Funny how more mature Sally is compaired to Betty. For being so young, Sally carries herself so well. A younger female version of Don.

And because they had a history together. Remember 2 episodes ago.

I HOPE ALL YOU BLANKENSHIP HATERS ARE HAPPY NOW!!!

Anyway. Pete's pantomine way in the background going "Why do I have to move her?" fucking killed me. Then Harry: "My mother made that for me!"
The show managed to make her passing simultaneously hilarious and kind of sad.

Love that last shot of the three women in the elevator.

Blankenshit's dead? Hooray! Though I still need to watch the episode (about to do it right now).

That was the high point for me. You walk a fine line when you're trying to be humorous with a dead body. Fawlty Towers did it brilliantly, and it's no small compliment coming from me to say that Mad Men did it just as well.

She has a temper tantrum in Don's office.

But Sally had a temper tantrum about going back to a home she hates. Betty has a temper tantrum about the wind changing direction.

I thought this episode was kind of genius. To express in one episode basically every shitty role a woman plays in this society is pretty amazing. And in the middle of it is poor Sally being abandoned by her father, being let down. That's what is on the face of every woman around Don when she falls: disappointment because that's where it all started for all of them, with their fathers.

And then we have our Peggy at the end in the middle between Joan and Faye --- hoping she can strike that balance in her life and not be a Joan nor a Faye (who's revealed to represent the struggle woman have between choosing family and career).

Quite beautiful.

Also great was how Peggy seemed content between the clearly rattled Faye and the somewhat confused Joan, further underlining her balance between the two.

It was a bit of a throwaway line, but my favorite Blankenship moment happened in this episode, when Cooper is working on a crossword puzzle:

Cooper – A three letter word for a flightless bird?
Blankenship – Emu
Cooper – No, it starts with an "L."
Blankenship – The hell it does.

Very good point. The hope on her face when winning the pizza round, that look of everything is gonna work out fine, contrasted with the anguish of the tantrum and the resigned defeat while walking away with her mother is a crushingly heartbreaking arc for one episode.

Anyone else things Harry is a wasted character at this point? They haven't really delved into the TV world much. I thought they were gonna transition there this season. But Harry turned into a small comic relief character.

What really gets me about that scene is Betty's air of superiority when it was her bad parenting that allowed Sally to disappear and hop a train to the city. She's so oblivious to what the real issue is there.

She was really also pissed at having Joan, Peggy and Faye looking at her. She probably things Don slept with all of them.

Damn this show. Bert's astronaut line was so damn good.

And yes, this was an episode all about the women. Lovers, wives, political, professional, mothers, friends, daughters, needy or independent, young or old, triumphant or defeated and everything in between. Watching the fallout occurring during such periods of huge social change is always extremely fascinating. Everyone maneuvering this way and that trying to find a place for themselves.

I did think it was kind of odd that, in an episode where not hiring black employees was a focus, the one black actor in the episode was kept as a shadowy, almost faceless presence.

I am racking my brain trying to think of who you're talking about. Is there a regular black actor on the show?

Are you just talking about someone in the background?

Yup. Don will certainly move in his place. He was responsible for the Glo-Coat ad, you know.

Right, duh.

Any predictions on how Joan's husband being sent to Vietnam is going to turn out? Death? Crippled? Shellshock? MIA? This seems like a tough cliche minefield for the show.

Unless he comes home fine. "Never felt better, Joanie!"

"You haven't been screwing Roger while I've been gone have you? Where's a sandwich?"

I disagree with that.

Don had just taken the day off to spend with his daughter and everyone at the office knew this at that point, at least the ones in that scene. His new secretary, Peggy, Joan and Faye. It also seemed quite apparent that everyone heard Sally's tantrum about hating it there at her mothers house, Faye even came in to address the situation (seeing as how she's the only one who isn't a subordinate). The look on their faces after she fell was sorrow for Don and his situation. Look at Joan and her glance at Don while Sally was hugging his secretary, that is a look of anguish for Don having to be in that situation. Their trip to the lobby was about sizing up the piece of work that is Betty Draper and to watch his back incase Sally threw another tantrum.

"How 'bout a welcome-home rape?"

Betty fights with her husband, Don and her children, but she's rarely (if ever) acted like that. And it's always for a reason, even if you disagree with the reason. I'm not saying that Sally's temper-tantrum wasn't for a reason; of course it was, and a pretty good one to boot. My point is that to claim Sally is this perfect, calm little child in light of Betty is simply not true. They're both fucked up in different ways, and this just seems to be yet another example of people being really unfair to Betty's character. Everyone seems totally unwilling to have any empathy for her.

This episode really just makes me think about what's gonna happen next.

Like, I hope they ultimately have Don take custody of Sally. Cause that will mean more Sally. She really made this episode.

Or it's sure looking like Mamet's daughter is gonna get Peggy to "experiment" with her. Whether a one night fling or something serious, who knows. Peggy will (initially at least) try it just to try it.

With Dr. Faye becoming a more complicated character with each episode, I'm starting to think she's gonna scare Don off.

You're talking about Jessica Paré? Is it clear that she's Don's permanent new secretary? Regardless, I could definitely see Don hooking up with her romantically.


And I still believe we haven't seen the last of Allison.

"Honey, I raped a lot of women in the army, but you remain the woman I want to rape more than any other. Oh, don't cry... I need a sandwich first!"

Her only contribution to this episode was refusing to pick up her daughter to spite Don, and then when she shows up her main concern at seeing her runaway daughter for the first time in two days was that he brought Sally down to the lobby 5 minutes late. The show's not trying very hard to make her empathetic.

This episode showed a multitude of very different women, and the only one with children was also the one least equipped to be a mother. The secretary showed better parenting skills in 2 minutes than Betty ever has.

Even if Betty were just an antagonist to Don, it'd be difficult to keep her empathetic. But when you make her an uncaring parent who views her children as a nuisance and competition (making her an antagonist to a little girl that makes rum toast!), it's game over. While Betty Draper isn't Livia Soprano... she's close.

This entire post proves my point. You're spending plenty of time talking about how cruel Betty is, how worse she is then the other women on the show. But not for a second do you consider why she's acting the way she's acting. You're basically doing the same thing that she's doing to other characters on the show.

Luckily, I'm not her mother!

I guess I agree. Because if you were, you'd be dead.

The best thing Mad Men does is the depth it lends to its contrast, and how it will add layer onto layer, and then pay that off with an great shot and that shot of all of them in the hall was a great pay off. And I think may begin to feel for Betty because she is never going to get a clue, because eventually she will be all by herself. I really like Mamet's daughter backing off and letting Abe have his chance, that being said I see it going either way, but Petty better at least try. I glad to see Don's handling of the good Dr. getting somewhere, I just have feeling with Sally asking so directly about what we all thought, will Wiener no go another direction.

I don't think Don will touch her romantically. It seemed pretty clear she was his new secretary. She earned the spot when she said Sally was visiting vs the truth and the guys in the conference room were joking about how long until she gets fired, quits or dies.

Thinking about this even more reinforces the thoughts I've had since earlier seasons that Don is a bit of a sociopath. A highly functional, mild one but a sociopath. It's like unless he's trying to suggest to others how they feel he constantly fails to understand how people should actually behave in a particular circumstance. I mean saying "Hey girlfriend take care of my runaway kid until I get of work" and afterwards even using her as a shield against your daughter's tantrum?

I'd agree these women all genuinely care for Don & have some sympathy for his situation but in an episode where they're all revealed to be let down by men or misunderstood by men --- that's what I think the show is going for at the moment Sally falls. Don let her fall. Sally's father failed her. Like men have failed all these women in this episode or failed them in society as a whole. Don at that moment represents every man, every father.

Don is not a sociopath.