MAD MEN Season Premiere

[strummergirl]

I'm trying to figure that out, too. He, Joan, and Pete tried that 'going public' for the agency move that Don wrecked by firing Jaguar and I think his acceptance of Don's identity crisis got exhausted by the events of last year. He's more on Cutler's side but I can easily see Cutler swiping the carpet from underneath Bert's feet without a blink. It's a very delicate alliance forged. Also, I am wondering if Bert is even going to make it to the end of the series. Him passing would probably lead to all hell breaking loose in terms of control.

[SonofRobbieJ]

I had the exact same thought about Burt reuniting with Blankenship up in the sky.

Peggy has to win something at some point, right? Like...it's always two steps forward, one step back with her. Though, I guess she's won the real estate game without even knowing it yet.

[strummergirl]

I definitely see Peggy having payoff. I really hate to play the prediction game with a show that has less secrets coming out of its creative team than Fort Dix, but I think Peggy is going to go to the LA office.

I am pretty certain the SC&P people will expand and add muscle there and Pete is the only person there currently who wants to treat it truly like SC&P West. But I still think the partners just consider LA a place to put their, 'talented but problematic assets' of people. Peggy currently fits that bill, as does Don. At this rate, I think both would rather work with Ted again than Lou, especially if Pete is there. Plus, Peggy wants to dump that West 80s building in a hot minute.

Next episode's laughably vague summaries include 'Pete underestimating Peggy' and Roger family drama. The former is great because, yay, character interaction, but the latter is juicy. What is up with Margaret and will she find out about her father's hippie girlfriend who I am pretty certain is younger than her? Also, I keep picturing Cherry or whatever her name is as Don's drug trip vision of Megan he had at an LA party from last season (the one where he passed out in the pool) and now I am wondering if there was another little Sterling bun left in the oven.

[EricMontreal22]

Another terrific episode.

I have Mad Men on my FB (the official Facebook feed, I guess) but rarely read the comments. I made the mistake of doing that this time, and regret it. What most surprised me was how *strongly* people seem to hate not just Peggy but Joan now. Very few people (on the feed) seemed to realize why Joan (and Peggy) might not be thrilled with Don suddenly coming back. I dunno if it's just the power of Don's charisma, but it struck me as pretty ridiculous.

[strummergirl]

Considering how much people went to bat for Walter White, who actually killed people, along with Tony Soprano, Don seems much easier to defend, I suppose.

But even Matthew Weiner noted that Don, without even mentioning Sylvia (Seriously, can you imagine if he admitted to cheating and with whom to Megan?), said enough to get Megan angered. Weiner doesn't seem to feel like Megan is in the wrong at all for how she reacted. Hell, he wrote her like she has been putting things together to know that he is up to something and hates that he either does not want to live with her or that he is not allowing himself to be open with her. Weiner is showing the consequences of the damage done. With Joan, considering she was behind the go public move and Don's whole Jaguar plot largely involved being disgusted with both Jaguar and her actions, I think she has every right to never fully trust him again, regardless of his talent. Plus, Joan has known Don for too long to not find him playing morality police a very rich notion.

[EricMontreal22]

Well, I didn't wanna bring up the Game of Thrones rape-thing but some of the facebook complaining did sound VERY similar (even though of course the situations really are not, at all.) I also noticed to my surprise many of the people who seemed so angry at Peggy and Joan especially were women, but I probably shouldn't read too much into that either way.

I didn't think about Sylvia/Don actually at all, but you (and Weiner) are completely right. I actually felt pretty proud of her decision, even if even I admit I felt a bit "Poor Don..." And yes--Joan also has been pretty good at not putting up with BS, even from Don, in the past. As she said, the company was working (although as a viewer I might question that--there were no major hiccups just office politics,) she's now financially invested in it more than ever, etc. Why should she want to risk that for Don (who didn't even make any contact with them--directly anyway--to try to show remorse.

My big question is how will he get through a day by himself in his office without a drink? :P

[strummergirl]

And Betty, too!! Although, I am still not convinced the events that transpired between Betty and Don at Bobby's summer camp wasn't a dream. It was certainly dream-like, at the very least.

I have a weird thing about Don and Megan. It's like, they never really had a clean slate in their marriage. I thought that was the case when she found out about his real identity but no, he is rankled in self-loathing and guilt of his past, not to mention a control freak even if it was partially in benevolence. I kind of want them to work out and yet, there are so many reasons why it might not and should not. Most of that requires Don to really change as well for Megan to also find stability in her own way. I think maybe they'll not quite achieve either but maybe they have some meeting point. Or, Megan dumps him for another man, which I am fine with her doing. But, it is really tragic that she tells him she is fine with the Dick Whitman aspects of who he is and he still feels incredibly insecure in telling her what it is up with him.

Maybe Don's next step is AA. Matthew Weiner noted that Don is never going to see a therapist but maybe AA is the next closest thing.

I also think at some point he will have an actual health crisis because all that booze and smoking is bound to catch up with him.

[JerseyGirl2]

I took a nap this afternoon and had a Mad Men dream. Betty kept catching me having sex with Don, but we convinced him that I was a sex therapist trying to cure his addiction. She didn't care all that much because she was busy playing World of Warcraft. Yeah, it was a dream after all.

You're welcome.

[strummergirl]

Matthew Weiner on Fresh Air with unabashed Mad Men stan, Terri Gross. If you haven't watched the first three episodes of the season, you should probably catch up and then listen:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=3&islist=true&id=13&d=05-01-2014

Summary:
Currently writing episode 12 of 14 and shooting episode 10. He makes it abundantly clear that the network made this choice about the split but also notes he is actually finds there is quite a lot packed in story.

Unlike some fans of the show, Weiner is, thankfully, cognizant that Don's path for self-improvement and redemption is going to suddenly lead to characters on the show cheering him on. Damage was done and bridges were burned.

Cites his close friend and screenwriter Frank Pierson, who wrote 'Signal 30', as a man who had 3 marriages who was helpful in shaping the Season 5 Don and Megan marriage by stating what his mindset and reflection was in his second marriage. Don's narcissism, to be seen the way he wanted to be seen, was challenged the moment she expressed independence, Weiner noting Megan is no longer the young secretary who fell head over heels for Don. She grew up and is a modern woman, which seems so far away from Don. When Terri Gross asked if their breakup is irreconcilable, Weiner said that Megan is asserting herself and Don's being exposed as lacking intimate honesty that goes back to Betty but wouldn't go further.

Don owes people apologies but the reaction to him possibly changing can easily hinder his development and journey because his damage was too severe. Weiner gets why Don lied in certain instances but it is not really helping him currently as the episodes show.

It should be noted the little talk of Lou notes Lou's ideas have become national campaigns. He is an effective, comfortable, safe ideas guy but to the audience lacks audacity, modernity, and guts.

When Gross calls Don accepting the terms a punishment for misdeeds, Weiner holds his guard as whether or not the SC&P going to be this miserable, punishing experience for him. What 'Okay' means, is the story of the season/show from here on, according to Weiner. It is a humbling experience and in some ways he has changed.

[JerseyGirl2]

My anger at Peggy stems from Don being there for her after she had the baby. I feel like that was the biggest, most dramatic, traumatic event of her life and he was the one person who was there for her. Maybe too much has transpired since then, but I think, to an extent, she should always have his back for that reason alone.

[SonofRobbieJ]

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with that. All he really did was show up and giver her the WORST ADVICE IMAGINABLE. The fact that she we have never seen her truly deal with her decision to do whatever she could to pretend it never happened makes me thing she's beyond damaged when it comes to that. He put her on the path of becoming another Don Draper, which didn't actually work out so well for him.

There's talk on blogs (TLo) that she's angry at Don for taking Ted away. I think she may, in fact, be angry at Don for making her who she is.

[JerseyGirl2]

Oh yeah, the advice was HORRIBLE. I had forgotten that. I just remember him being there when no one else was. He told her to forget and move on because that's what he always did. I binged watched a few years back.

Admitting my brain is faulty.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Oh no...I don't think it's faulty. I think we're meant to look at that as a major bonding moment for those two characters, and it was. It was perhaps even the best advice to be given in 1960...who knows? But, it definitely put Peggy onto a path of career success at the expense of any kind of healthy emotional life.

[EricMontreal22]

And the advice was over five years back in show time. Peggy does not owe Don, IMHO, anything at this point in her life. She should have had his position--instead Lou does. I would be doing more than complaining about flowers if I were in her shoes.

[strummergirl]

I now find that advice extremely cold given Don's own maternal issues. It feels as though that is how he reconciled something like that. Like she was a whore, perhaps not the first time she gave birth but she immediately dies after he is born- like that connection he is supposed to feel never happened and it won't happen for Peggy and her baby.

Oh yeah, that reminds me, I let out the biggest gasp last season when Peggy had that interaction with Pete's mother last season where it appeared for a brief second that she knew that Peggy and Pete had a child.

Peggy and Don are complicated. I feel like they'll be back on better terms at some point. They have to. I don't feel like one owes the other a little more. To me they're even in the way each have bailed out the other but I guess Peggy's end of the bargain feels uneven because she worked for Don and was a protege- except I think it is Freddy who had as much of a role in putting her foot in the door as a creative. Maybe Freddy is the third party to have them sort it out?

I think Peggy is just mad at Don for the fact he feels like her own working life's Svengali. Work was always a much better option than her personal life. So he ropes her back in by being the driving force to merge the agencies, not to mention Ted, and, not to mention that she is pretty much under-appreciated and marginalized even further when he imploded. No Don-Hershey meeting, no Lou Avery.

BTW, Elisabeth Moss noted that in the latter episodes of this part of the season she has a major moment with another character, a positive development that goes in her favor. Apparently it was important enough for Matthew Weiner to tell her before the season what was going to happen. Moss said it was with a character she had both both personal and professional relationship with that was at the center. People at TWoP earlier on were trying to figure out if it was Pete/Don/Stan/Joan she shared it with. Moss, this was a Rolling Stone interview, said she cried when he told her what was going to happen.

**SPOILERS, BUT NOT REALLY**
Episode 5 is called "The Runaways"- Brief descriptions on the DirecTV guide note that Peggy helps out Ginsberg with a problem and also that Stan embarrasses a superior. I loved Peggy's last really serious Ginsberg interaction when he told her about the fact he is apparently a Holocaust survivor but I am not sure if it **that** moment that Moss Noted. It will probably be comedic like Ginsberg tends to be at this stage. But the terms 'Stan embarrasses a superior' makes me think that Stan acts a fool toward Lou and it gets him in real trouble. Stan had Peggy's back in last episode's pitch meeting saying the sketch he did cost him no real time. I think Peggy would take a bullet for Stan were he to get in trouble. But that is just my theory and the fact I ship Peggy and Stan as a romantic couple hard- may they have a non-drug fueled moment of intimacy on this show. Plus, Stan also hates Don for the fact he stole the LA idea and then bounced it to Pete and Ted. They can unite in love from their Don hate.

[east side story]

Loved this episode! Seeing Don realize that Peggy is now his boss was terrific. Elisabeth Moss was fantastic here, as she has been in any other given episode of this series. Such a shame that she would very well go Emmy-less for this character.

Three episodes left this year!

[strummergirl]

That episode pandered to so many of my sensibilities: Cults/Upstate NY communes, the Mets, hiding alcohol in Coke cans, Peggy being Don's boss, Freddy Rumsen, drunk Don, Mona F*CKING Sterling, and drunk Don singing 'Meet the Mets'

So glad Elizabeth Rice got a juicy arc. I always liked her since she played a young Natalie Wood in that semi-trashy Natalie Wood TV movie by Peter Bogdanovich.

These, btw, are the Not to be Trusted Episode Plot Summaries for the final 3:
Episode 7.05 - The Runaways
Don receives a visitor from his past; Stan embarrasses a superior; Ginsberg gets help from Peggy with a problem; Harry finds a new ally.

Episode 7.06 - The Strategy
Peggy collects research for a pitch; Pete receives an invitation to an exclusive club; Joan is eager to spend time with her friend.

Episode 7.07 - Waterloo
Don is troubled by a letter; Peggy may seek a new future on a risky venture; Roger receives a phone call; Pete and Cutler butt heads.

WATERLOO. The finale's name is WATERLOO.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Can we for a second discuss the genius use of the song On a Carousel as Don started typing his tags? Was it a comment on the fact that he just keeps going round and round, or was it telegraphing that he's about to rediscover his creative genius that was at its height in the season 1 finale, The Wheel, which was the pitch about the Kodak carousel? Both? Neither?

My breath was truly taken away. After last season's dreariness (which I thought had a massive payoff in the end), this season is packed. So dense...filled with so much tension. It's magnificent.

[strummergirl]

I thought my rose-colored glasses were on during first viewing but re-watching, this episode was really excellent and worthy of that AV Club 'A' grade.

I am so fed up with the kvetching as the episode unfolds and instant analysis/making fun of analysis of the episode. People were caught on the fact it had 2001 references and everybody went all Room 237 and make fun of Room 237 mode. To me the computer stuff and whatever felt like such a small bit of the episode, in fact, it felt like tying up last week's business so I was not really paying that much close attention to it.

I really liked the portrayal of Don's alcoholism and I actually think Margaret at the commune was not nearly as broad as people insisted. Her case she made to her parents about her lack of choices and jobs actually felt like the first instance where a female character on the show was directly quoting second-wave feminism and sorry, I never saw that coming from Margaret- so good job, show. I like that the show makes note there is a huge double-standard against her because she is a mother and somehow her son is more in danger of her being MIA while his Dad is blowing family savings and being a real cad. Not to mention, this feels pretty small in the scope of Roger Sterling transgressions.

Plus, Peggy and Don might actually.... make it. As a cohesive creative unit, at least. They really do need Freddy as a buffer.

I am really concerned about Michael Ginsberg. Why does he have tissues in his ears next week? There is off-beatness and then there is the legitimate speculation that he might be mentally ill.

[EricMontreal22]

Ginsberg seems to be slightly losing it (yes, he's always prone to outburts, but...)

I'm glad I hadn't read any comments until watching tonight--I didn't even spot a 2001 reference.

AV club gave it an A *-* btw

*edit* Oh I see they changed the rating from an A. I can't believe I missed all the 2001 stuff. Sigh.

[strummergirl]

OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Ginsberg development was so upsetting but has been theorized of who the character actually was for years. I just felt so bad for Peggy.

Loved Stephanie's return. She's still Don's family. Sorry, Megan. Don not being into a threesome is also a shocking development.

Don seems to know the agency is expecting him to fail his terms and conditions to get the tobacco. He has a plan. I don't know what it is, but he is making the pivot.

YOOOOOO Betty got politicized.

[Roscoe]

They've been setting up the Ginsberg development for a while now. There was that awful moment last season when he was huddled in his office, before a big meeting with Manichewitz, absolutely terrified of the "transmissions" being beamed into his head.

[SonofRobbieJ]

The show still has the ability to present something absolutely absurd (nipple in a box) in a way that becomes really heartbreaking. I thought I was going to lose it when Stan's voice broke as he said he was going to ride with Ginsberg. Ugh.

And can we, for one second, take a moment to acknowledge Peggy's most healthy relationship with a member of the opposite sex thus far? Let's hear it for Julio!

[EricMontreal22]

Ha I love how the implication was that every Saturday night she stays in and watches TV with Julio.

I admit, I actually kinda screamed when I saw the nipple. Wow.

"I'm not stupid! I speak Italian."

[SonofRobbieJ]

My new favorite dynamic duo inspired me to create my first meme!

[strummergirl]

So, I actually saw this episode earlier than 10 pm because the Hong Kong answer to Hulu had the episode up much earlier and I watched it and I had to stop for a good moment or.... 15 minutes after the nipple thing. I actually saw spoilers on fan sites that included the threesome but absolutely nothing about Michael's behavior.

I love Julio. Somebody mentioned that Julio is probably around the same age as Peggy and Pete's lovechild. Despite the fact I do not think Peggy is in maternal mode with Julio, she probably loves the idea of younger non-protege who can keep her company and not have to be too responsible around.

Also, I am 90% we are having a Bob Benson sighting next week. We see a shot of Joan approaching a man, looking quite chipper and her mother putting flowers in the pot. Now, I am sure Joan knows about Bob, but her mother probably doesn't.