MAD MEN Season Premiere- Page 2

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/15/14 at 9:28pm

Sounds like they just write the preview material from watching those oh-so-Weiner episode previews...

[wonkit]

Posted: 4/17/14 at 7:00pm

Watched the new season premier. I think Peggy had the best part of her story arc in the first two seasons. Now it all seems kind of tired. I do like Neve Campbell - I assume she will be back for more screen time? Sally Draper is going to steal this season (again).

[sally1112]

Posted: 4/19/14 at 10:38pm

Thanks for this thread! It answered many questions I had. I love this show.

[romantico]

Posted: 4/20/14 at 11:13pm

What an episode. Don and Sally's relationship has really come a long way. I got sort of teary eyed towards the end.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/20/14 at 11:23pm

Oh, Peggy. Somebody on Twitter said she took a hard turn into Hannah Horvath this episode and I must agree.

Also, Joan and Dawn getting their upgrades. I knew when Joan was offered upstairs that she would put Dawn in her office. Joan using her powers for good, unlike the other partners.

Pete found his a woman who thinks like him but looks like Betty. Pete, be happier. Bob's in Detroit. Detroit. The GM guys shot the last SC&P man in the face in Detroit.

Don is so going to tell Megan the situation and he should not be shocked if she doesn't take it all well.

[wonkit]

Posted: 4/21/14 at 10:02am

Sally Draper is indeed stealing every scene. Clearly the writers know how to use her. Compared to the major disservice they are doing to Peggy. I was kind of embarrassed to see how they have been taking Peggy down so many dead ends over the last two years. If anyone is going to turn into the "new" Don Draper, it should be Pete, not Peggy, who has had enough professional and personal experience to know better.

[east side story]

Posted: 4/21/14 at 10:24am

I was elated when Dawn got her own office. And the look on her face? Heartwarming.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/21/14 at 10:45am

What a gut-punch of an episode. The scene with Sally and Don in the car took my breath away...but it did not prepare me for Sally's goodbye to him when she exited the car. It felt so real and so earned.

Dawn calling Shirley 'Dawn' and Shirley calling Dawn 'Shirley' will rank as one of my favorite moments from the show.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/21/14 at 11:50am

I feel like both Pete and Peggy are their own reflections of a Don Draper type, just born into different circumstances, different struggles, and different secrets they would rather not have anyone know. I think for Peggy, let me just say Seasons 3-6 Peggy is infinitely more interesting than the 'I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant'/Let Me Hang Out with the Local Priest Peggy, it is very much like Season 6 Don. Knocking her down for a requiem and realization to ultimately move forward, albeit with the various imperfections we associate with the character.

Betty's mentioned in the synopsis for next week so she is definitely going to be seen then.

It seems like such a carousel of people in the ensemble coming in and out because of cost for the show but there is sure a lot of office plot being burn through this show, but I still hope for more Dawn and Shirley. Also, second consecutive Bob Benson mention. This better mean we are seeing him soon.

Also, Cutler is so running things right now and, I think pretty subtly, he put Joan on his good side which feels like an undermining of Roger. Roger has given Joan a lot of things, but never thought to let her be an account man or at least move her out of the personnel office when she got a partnership stake? Lou Avery was also a definite Cutler hire given that Roger and Lou before his hiring had a tepid relationship, that continues, and, of course, Bob Benson's survival in the agency has depended on being well-liked by both Joan and Cutler.

Anyway, with the way plot is moving in the office politics side of the show this season, I wouldn't be surprised for another crazy move agency-wise by Cutler's doing.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/22/14 at 7:20pm

I thought that was one of the best episodes the show has ever had. I admit, I'm kinda enjoying Peggy being a mess, though not for too much longer I hope. And the Sally/Don stuff was great, as was all the Dawn related things. Not much else to add, and I loved that ti was capped by "This Will be Our Year" from my fave 60s band, The Zombies. (Strange, I know the album it's from, Oddyssey and Oracle has sorta become a hip/cult album, but the song wasn't much of a hit or anything and yet popped up here, and even more randomly was covered on an episode last year of Smash.)

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 3:48pm

Did anyone feel that the Don Draper we saw in Episode Two is different from the Don Draper we've seen up to now? He seems a lot warmer, a lot more expressive than previously, especially in that diner scene with Sally. It felt like I was watching Dick Whitman more than anything else.

[BobbyBubbi]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 5:14pm

Where's the mysterious Bob Benson!?!?!???!! Updated On: 4/23/14 at 05:14 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 5:37pm

He's in Detroit. And on a terrible Robin Williams sitcom As Strummer said, I'm heartened though that they keep bringing him up.

Roscoe--I agree, but isn't that in fitting with the last episode of last season? It seemed natural to me that he would continue to let more of his guard down with Sally.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/23/14 at 10:05pm

I think after that car argument of Sally saying, 'I am so many people...' (after her father calls her Betty, what a line, btw) we see him open up to her and consider how much he has probably told her in that Thanksgiving trip to his childhood home. I get the sense that she is the first person, since Anna died, where he can be comfortable with being himself, the Dick Whitman side more or less.

I think it is no coincidence that the lie he was keeping from her was in trying to keep the Don Draper intact for work, a place where cannot be that way. Even when keeping up appearances for maybe two minutes with Dawn bringing him up to speed at his apartment earlier in the episode. I think the show is asking, maybe he should not think about going back to SC&P even if he is, admirably, a workhouse who has probably never been this interested in work since the Chevy deal or, even the Jaguar deal.

Also, I have a feeling the Freddy does Don pitches thing is going to be discovered and it is not going to look well for a firm's partner to be doing that in addition to being on leave after that incident.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 5:22am

I loved that Sally line. The irony of being called compared to Betty by Don was in the dorm scenes she seemed to be PLAYING Betty brilliantly--with the cigarette, her comment about wanting to see her mom six feet under, or whatever, etc

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 8:44am

"I agree, but isn't that in fitting with the last episode of last season? It seemed natural to me that he would continue to let more of his guard down with Sally."

Well of course -- it's clearly a conscious choice. I've often wondered about how they've worked with the actress playing Sally, whose name escapes me right now. Do they tell her to imitate Jon Hamm and January Jones? She seems to be channeling them both a good deal.

[romantico]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 11:11pm

I can not believe Don agreed to those terms. Is he that desperate or does he have some kind of plan. Everything was just awful but having to answer to Lou?

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 11:14pm

Holy crap, this season is just burning through so much story.

Poor little Bobby Draper is getting the Sally Season 4 treatment from Betty and I am not sure how I feel about that choice for either character. I guess I get Betty but gurl, get your hands on The Feminine Mystique and become radical.

The Megan-Don fight was so unexpected and she doesn't even know the half of it. Good she is keeping him at a length. The contrast is pretty clear that this was just like when Don was getting info from Betty's shrink much like he gets info from Megan's agent. Megan acted differently, she might be a mess emotionally, but she has both left him and told him to leave. Betty tried that, too, but can Megan stick with it?

Don's return to SC&P was so perfectly awkward and full of righteous anger. I do wish that Joan and Cutler were better prepared at the partnership question. Lucky for them and their terms, Don really wants to go to work. My favorite was the fact he was so unprepared for Dawn to have her own office and still treating her like his secretary. Dawn is too darn nice to draw a line.

LOL at Don watching Model Shop. He really does go all out to find anything to occupy his time.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/27/14 at 11:18pm

"I can not believe Don agreed to those terms. Is he that desperate or does he have some kind of plan. Everything was just awful but having to answer to Lou?"

Well, he was using Freddy to give pitches to other agencies which showed both desperation and made you wonder if that will ever come back to haunt him.

Also, I swear that blonde woman who insisted he knew who she is was Stephanie, Annie's niece from Season 4. EDIT: Never mind, different actress. Probably a random one-night stand. Updated On: 4/28/14 at 11:18 PM

[east side story]

Posted: 4/28/14 at 1:00am

Per usual, it took an episode or three for the season to get kick started. Tonight was that episode for me. I finally feel as though we are getting somewhere.

Very pleased to see January Jones return. Betty Draper has been a guilty pleasure of mine for years.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/28/14 at 11:39am

This season is on f*cking fire. I never have a problem with a soft opening episode to just ease you back into the world, because it sets you up for the gut punches to come. I wanted Don to walk out of that partner meeting, forging a new path, but he submitted...which is infinitely more fascinating. Lou might be the most hateful character I've witnessed on this show, and that's saying something. Roger finally came out of his fog for a second and made some cogent points. Burt is as mercenary as ever, and Jim is terrified his machinations are going to crumble. It's just so...delicious.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/28/14 at 12:32pm

Yeah, for me the season is 3 for 3 pretty easily in episode quality.

I really love office politics, which were interesting even before Don returned, and this just shot it into a different stratosphere of tensions.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/28/14 at 12:44pm

Clearly some of the partners think a trap is set for Don to be easily dismissed. How is this going to play itself out? For a second, when Don spoke with the agent, I thought he'd end up on the manager track for Megan. Nope. This is actually giving me agita.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/28/14 at 1:45pm

I am trying to keep track on who is on who's side in the office. Somebody noted when Roger spoke for Pete after hearing Jim state he was speaking for Ted, that only one was telling the truth and, in all likelihood, Pete's feelings on the matter matches Roger's feelings more than Ted's does with Jim's. I actually agree with that and find Ted too distant and divorced to really be engaged in this matter and he might be sympathetic to Don.

Anyway:

Cutler's side:
Bert
Joan
Ken
Bob- Yeah, I know. He needs to come back to have a full-on office civil war.
Ted- By default as he just sits quietly in his LA office.

Roger's Side:
Don
Pete

Weird wishy-washy area:
Peggy- She hates everyone at this moment, with possible exception to Stan. Also, didn't she have Lane's office that Don will now take and where does that leave her?
Dawn- Not that she has much say but despite still helping Don stay involved, she got that upward mobility through earning the respect of Joan
Harry- Just what the hell is he even doing? I kept on thinking Cutler was putting him straight to #1 position in his burn book. And why isn't he in LA?
Lou- Nobody likes Lou and even Lou is questioning his actual worth under Cutler. I think if he finds out Cutler just wanted a blase paternalistic figure to calm things down in creative, he is going fly the coop. But he seems to hate Roger, too, going back to last season when they interacted at the airport.
Creative- Everybody at creative is about to be so incredibly confused about the new chain of command.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/28/14 at 2:06pm

'Also, didn't she have Lane's office that Don will now take and where does that leave her?'

Holy SH*T she sure does. That didn't even occur to me. Poor, poor Peggy.

I may not completely agree that Burt is on Cutler's side. I'm still mulling that over.