Mad Men Season 4

[Imakeholesinu]

Wow, last sunday made me want to fall into the bottom of a bottle. What the fuck?

[Mully]

I know. I really like Don when he is Dick Whitman and that one woman was the only thing left of that world.

This season looks really down-trodden, but I'm glad they got away from the Draper Family, but it's almost a new show altogether with them letting all the staff go and focusing only on Don (Kinsey, Cosgrove, Sal are all gone(although i think Sal is coming back)). They're also not focusing on Peggy or Pete Campbell's personal lives. It's all about how far Don will fall (just like in the opening credits).

I thought I was the only one to watch it.

[Imakeholesinu]

Well last weeks episode definitely put a damper in the second to last sentence in your post. All they did was focus on Peggy and Pete basically and how Don is a complete dick to his secretary. I'm wondering if Peggy will become even more progressive with the group of young people she is hanging out with. I thought the exchange between Pete and his father in law two nights ago was great and somehow he came out on top. Cosgrove did make a cameo as well.

I swear if I could I would propose marriage to Christina Hendricks, I'm not sure what it is about her but she is just amazing with her delivery and the way she carries herself.

I do like how they moved away from Don's family drama (Sorry January Jones, you couldn't act your way out of a paper bag), though it looks like they make a return next week and the Ex-Mrs. Draper wants to "Kill Him".

[Mully]

Well last weeks episode definitely put a damper in the second to last sentence in your post. All they did was focus on Peggy and Pete basically and how Don is a complete dick to his secretary. I'm wondering if Peggy will become even more progressive with the group of young people she is hanging out with. I thought the exchange between Pete and his father in law two nights ago was great and somehow he came out on top. Cosgrove did make a cameo as well.

I swear if I could I would propose marriage to Christina Hendricks, I'm not sure what it is about her but she is just amazing with her delivery and the way she carries herself.

I do like how they moved away from Don's family drama (Sorry January Jones, you couldn't act your way out of a paper bag), though it looks like they make a return next week and the Ex-Mrs. Draper wants to "Kill Him".

Yeah, well there goes my theory. I find it hard to look at Peggy, I fell you on the more progressive stance with her, especially now hearing Pete's wife pregnant (she didn't sign the card).

Now to an important issue.

I swear if I could I would propose marriage to Christina Hendricks, I'm not sure what it is about her but she is just amazing with her delivery and the way she carries herself.

OMF!

Her cleft chin is even sexy!!! She is sooo curvy. DITTO DITTO! I forgot for a while she play Saffron in Firefly.

[Mully]

I've deliberately left out huge, important chunks of the episode that don't take place in the office -- but had to include Pete's magnificent shrug (with mirror, bar, decorative screen, and the unseen room down the hall), to contrast his apartment with his office, and the small framed mirror with the wall-sized observation mirror at work. The episode is mostly about Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) and Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) going in different directions, discovering new ways to open or close doors between their work and personal lives, contrasted with Don Draper (Jon Hamm), who begins the episode chain-smoking and drinking during a four-way phone call, his office a tangled web of coiled cords. Notice all the cross-sight-lines communication going on (horizontal, vertical, diagonal) -- people watching other people, exchanging glances or sight-unseen, through various frames in their separate compartments -- culminating in Allison staring the wrong way through the two-way mirror and looking Don right in the eye, seeing him for who he really is.

Both Pete and Peggy find themselves banging their heads against work surfaces in frustration/resignation, but the episode gives them a moment of grace, through glass doors in the reception area, in a brief, wordless coda I've included almost in its entirety. Peggy is leaving for lunch with some of her new boho friends; Pete is standing around with some suits ("new" clients, including his father-in-law), waiting for Don so they can have a business lunch. (BTW, I couldn't squeeze it in, but the shot of Pete knocking his forehead against the post in his office is followed by a shot of Peggy getting into the elevator -- much like the last shot here -- in which she first meets the LIFE photo editor who introduces her to the Village crowd who come by to get her at the end.) Man, what a terrific movie this is!

[Imakeholesinu]

The sun and I are on the same page then. I liked the way the episode ended. Maybe that means they are moving on, even if they are in different directions. Could it mean also some type of closure to their own relationship now perhaps or is there too much baggage?

[Mully]

Looks like closure. Peggy hasn't brought anything up to Pete in a LOOONG time (that I can remember). Pete moved on a long time ago. I think they both found out each other had closure (the nodding, smiling glance from Pete at the end).

...and then Mad Men could make me look like a total fool again.

[Imakeholesinu]

A little off topic but here is an article about our lovely red head (with video) doing a photo shoot for some rain coats.

http://gawker.com/5621652/mad-mens-chri ... -look-sexy (Content may be too hot for work)

[Mully]

Ah, the latest episode, "The Suitcase" episode, may have been the best episode of the entire series.

[Imakeholesinu]

Yeah, I thought it was inevitable that things would come full circle with Peggy and him. I guess we'll see what happens. Has he finally hit rock bottom? I don't think so. I still think he'll get a shot at bedding that blond, but that's just me.

[Mully]

It's pretty low. Showing the viewers Don's vomiting (off camera) then on his shirt, then drunk fight Duck. Then spending the night at work, which now his apartment isn't that far away. Pretty low.


He does clean up well.

[Imakeholesinu]

It is called functional alcoholism, and from what it looks like a lot of the 60s big wigs were all the same.

[Imakeholesinu]

Wow, did not see any of that coming this week. Don Draper's Taxi Cab Confessions. Really really great episode. I actually enjoyed the scenes with Betty this time around. I thought it really made the show last night. Don's musing also and him just taking a look at himself and his health, sort of a coming-of-age and realizing he's not as young as he used to be and that he should enjoy the little things, like sleeping alone. Bethany or Faye? I personally like Faye better, but then again they went back to peggy almost at the beginning of the episode in his office.

I <3 Joan.

[Mully]

I hope they keep the voice over; I think that's been missing the entire series. Yeah, Betty wasn't annoying in the end (at the beginning, hells yes).

Joan is unbelievable.

[Mully]

Ugh, no VO in this episode (I think).

Joan and Rodger again...I dislike her husband. Hopefully they kill him off in Vietnam.

It was a funny episode with Don running around with his head cut off with his daughter who ran away (ugh) and he keeps sending the blond in there to help, Miss Blankenship dying (hahahaahahahahahaha) and Peggy just outright annoying the piss out of me trying to play the "black" card and the guy she met at the party...double lame.

[Imakeholesinu]

Yeah, this past episode kind of fell flat with the exception of the Joan and Rodger moment. I could see her dying during some episode this season coming. I don't think the writing staff knows what to do with Peggy yet. She has so many different story lines with her family, the new "friends" she's made, and then her office struggle, and her relationship status with Don. But maybe that is how here character is supposed to be, tortured and torn between different drama in her life while Don just has to focus (now anyways) on being divorced and getting to see his kids.

[Imakeholesinu]

So, they left last night's episode with Don fantasizing about the new girl at his desk as she put on her makeup to go out. Proof that brunettes are way better than blonds, right after he spent all that time with Dr. Faye. He really is a sociopath no? But a likable one at that. Did they end the show with a Beatles song? I would have thought they would have tried that.

Damn you writers for being so silly and nixing our hopes of Joan and Rodger hooking back up again. Oh wait she's late? Isn't this her 3rd abortion? That was pretty awkward moment in the waiting room also but she took it like a champ. I get the sense now that Rodger really wants her now. Not only that but I thought it was a real testament to the times in the doctor's office. Makes you wonder about how the same thing is going on with EC and pharmacies not wanting to fill scripts for it and that whole debate.

Not only that but everyone pretty much lied to everyone in that partners meeting. Pete took the fall for protecting Don, but you know what, I was impressed by how he took it. It was interesting to see Rodger come unhinged after the conversation with Lucky Strike. I'm sure Pete will have his revenge when they leave.

Lane certainly got himself in some shit and beat down at that. I've always liked Lane but he certainly has fallen down the Draper rabbit hole as far as women. While Don likes to fuck about at the office Lane definitely does not like to bring his work home with him. He's dating the cocktail waitress who is very lovely and has an established relationship where he is going to leave his wife and children. But then Daddy comes and smacks some sense into him. I don't like where this is going because I liked it when Lane was making everyone anxious and now we see him getting a bit anxious himself. Will there be a Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce to come back to once he returns from sabbatical?

Was Peggy even in this episode?

I think this entire episode focused on Rodge and Don and how they live in a glass house but the bricks aren't theirs and they are hoping that the throwers aren't very accurate or strong.

[Imakeholesinu]

Rome is officially burning now. Don's controversial move in the Times has put everyone on edge and the ax has fallen. What a blast from the past also? We see Don's first fling again. Will Maggie Siff be the next woman to come calling again (much like she did in season 2)? Not only that, look at the times now for her, the drug game has changed. I always liked how the show established the time period with certain anecdotes like these (the man on the moon, Kennedy's death etc). I think Burt's exit is premature. Sally and her Mother's arguments are like the comedic relief for the show. I like how Sally has essentially played her way out of therapy but it is too bad that (can't remember the boy's name) has been run off by her mother again, even though he is weird in his own little way I like their interactions. I really liked the resolution at the end between Pete and Don when Lane tells Pete about what Don did for him since Pete's wife went all ape shit.

[Mully]

I thought this was another great episode. I don't think Rome is burning, Don did what he thought was best. I hate that he sat around and was all like "this isn't creatives concern"...it is, it's everyone's concern. Don just used his creative powers in a way no one thought. The morning after the letter when the board stormed in and accused Don of, like you said, burning down Rome, but if I were Don, I would drag them out to the hallway and say, "LISTEN...nothing but telephones ringing."

[Imakeholesinu]

That is true. And Non-profits have to spend money and they do make a lot of money (look at hospitals, they take all of those "profits" and just expand). I thought that was kind of odd that they didn't want to talk to the American Cancer Society.

[Mully]

Hopefully all will be revealed in next weeks episode. Same MAD time, same...........nevermind.

[Mully]

Season Finale!?!? Snuck up on me.

What did you think? Why did Don do that?

[Imakeholesinu]

I saw it coming. Brunettes do it better!

[Mully]

It seemed like the finale had more to it, like it should have been 2 hours long. It felt like it was cut short.

[Imakeholesinu]

Yeah, and it wasn't much of a cliff hanger either. We see that the company is going to be alright pretty much. We see Don gazing out the window at the end from his bed with his new fiance. It is almost as if "God is in his heaven, all is right with the world" kinda feeling. Maybe they were trying to allude to the more subtle things like Joan apparently not going through with the abortion and trying to pass it off as her husband's kid, or Peggy going to Don and being all like "WTF???".