Monday, March 26, 2012

WELL, WELL, WELL. THERE'S MY BABY:  It's May 1966, and Harry's still a douchebag, Pete's still ambitious and insecure (and taking it out on Roger in the most juvenile ways he can), Peggy's still underappreciated, no one at SCDP can answer an phone properly, and Don Draper is ... happy? Mostly happy? Yeah, it's disconcerting, but in the end he's still a bit Dick Whitman after all, and seemingly oblivious to what Megan's going through at work, the urgency of SCDP's financial situation, or anything other than his own immediate happiness -- though, perhaps, a better and more attentive father than before.

I still need some time to process the episode, so grab your historically accurate Goldwater '68 signs and let's zou bisou bisou to the comments.  One prediction: if you see a hunky plumber in episode one, by season's end he's going to find a drain to unclog.

24 comments:

  1. Also, was Mad Men the first non-premium-cable show to cross the "baby testes" barrier?

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  2. Adam C.11:44 AM

    Zou bisou bisou indeed. 

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  3. isaac_spaceman12:56 PM

    I'm on Pete's side here.  One senior partner does nothing but try to horn in on Pete's business, one sits in the conference room in his socks reading the paper, and one does three-hour days and doesn't support his talent.  Pete, and to a lesser extent Layne, are keeping that place afloat.  I hated Pete, but the claim he's staking is legitimate. 

    Because SF gets AMC only in standard definition (WTF, DirecTV?), everything on this show seems more authentically retro.  But that party scene came right out of an actual mid-60s movie -- the set (sunken living room), the wardrobe, the staging, the way everything ground to a halt so that the it-girl could do a french song in a go-go dress (and the sound mix completely changed during that scene, just like it would in a mid-60s movie). 

    And parties are awful on this show.  Kids get spanked by neighbors, dads disappear for days (repeatedly), Roger humiliates himself (blackface) and his wife (lechery), Joan gets hateful and racist, Peggy gets accused of being a prude or insults her boss and his wife.  If you are invited to a SCDP party, tell them you're washing your hair that night.

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  4. kd bart2:00 PM

    Love the Harry Crane/Roger Sterling scene regarding Harry giving up his office to Pete.

    Harry: "So like this will be every month?" (in regards to the $1100 Roger gave him for the office)

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  5. Also, you could lose your foot.

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  6. Anonymous4:54 PM

    On the other hand, there was a possibility you could hook up with Hildy.  That's a chance I would be prepared to take.

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  7. At Harry's "What do I get in return?" my wife and I called out, "THAT'S WHAT THE MONEY WAS FOR!"

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  8. Great to be back, though that was a hell of a Good Wife to be head-to-head with.

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  9. Watching tonight.  

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  10. Marsha7:31 PM

    Yup - that's what we yelled in my living room, too.

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  11. I found the two-hour premiere to be extremely underwhelming.  I think Weiner's miscalculating the direction of the show.  It's beginning to feel stagnant, static, and the outside world inconsequential.  Seasons 1-3 set up the characters and showed us our misguided nostalgia for late-50s, early-60s culture, but Season 4 just put up new decorations.  It's not that I care to see the Civil Rights Movement (though it's one of the most fascinating times in our nation's history) or see women moving into the first wave of feminism... I want to see how these changes affect our established characters. 

    The stage has been set.  The players are in place.  Now shake it up.  It's my fear that, even if SCDP does hire an African-American secretary, her role will still amount to tokenism.

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  12. Joseph J, Finn8:30 PM

    Highlight of the night for me was the Joan & Lane scene (the whole Lane and the wallet thing felt oddly superfluous for a show as tightly plotted as Mad Men, so I wonder if it'll pay off later).

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  13. DirecTV does (finally) carry AMC HD.  According to their web site, it's channel 254.

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  14. And it gets crazier still over the next few weeks--Game of Thrones returns next week, with Girls and Veep following in subsequent weeks on HBO.  Fortunately, CBS is running the ACM awards on Sunday, and Good Wife is wrapping for the season on April 29.  (Full order and renewed, but because the ratings aren't great, other programming is going to air during part of sweeps.)

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  15. Indeed.  I get it on DirecTV here in DC, but maybe other markets are behind for some reason (which doesn't make sense, since it's satellite, but whatever).

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  16. Tom Foolery10:30 AM

    Felt the Joan with baby scenes were just tedious by show's end. And her baby-free scene with Lane just emphasized that. I hope they don't ruin her.

    And I hope we don't have to put up with the obligatory racial stuff all season long (get it-- it's the mid- 60's! Civil rights movement!).

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  17. I thought it was extremely whelming.

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  18. Of course it will be tokenism, that's the whole point.

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  19. isaac_spaceman12:28 PM

    Guest, if you are Harry Crane, you are married, fer chrissake. 

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  20. isaac_spaceman12:30 PM

    Sara, you forget that nothing ever happens in this show until like six weeks in.  You don't notice the movement until you see where how far it had to go from where it started to get to where it is. 

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  21. Anonymous2:26 PM

    Isaac, that's a very strong counter-argument.  I suppose that, if we're looking at the series as a whole and not just looking at each season, I want to see the series progressing.  We're about "six weeks in" the series, aren't we?  

    Also, TF, yes, but I was referring to a tokenism on the show itself, not just in the office.  I'm not interested in seeing an African American secretary... and for her be reduced to a background character.  (Though, I'll give credit to this, Weiner's done wonders with his tiertiary secretaries...)

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  22. H. Crane2:31 PM

    Married, not dead.

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  23. Sorry -- Guest was me.

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  24. Carrie11:02 AM

    Given Lane's affair with the African-American Playboy bunny,my bet is on his affair with the new African-American receptionist, and her role will not be tokenism.

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