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Mad Men - Season 6 - Sundays on AMC

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smokeymicpot

smokeymicpot

Beat EviLore at pool.
Just watched it. Glad to have Mad Men back. Plus good old Don is back. Sally gets better and better it seems. Loving the new hair styles too.

The previews are great so random and pointless.
 
C

Cake Boss

Banned
The Peggy scenes were fucking terrible, the story line is very week and the scenes didnt feel like Mad Men at all, they just felt weird.
 
N

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
Yeah, you went astray from the straight road, Don. Fucccccckkkkk

Good episode, but I think I liked last year's premiere better. I feel like the base touching wasn't as deft here as it was then, but it was still good. It was interesting how Don was silent for the first ten minutes or so aside from the voiceover. I was assuming that that was just showing his distance from Megan at the time, so maybe that was right? Really liked the Peggy scenes, showing how she's learned from Don and how she still talks to Stan, and Roger's eventual breakdown.

So good too how all the scenes with Don and the doctor have more meaning when you watch them again after learning that he's fucking his wife. Also liked the contrast between the start in Hawaii and the end in the snow in New York. Kind of reflects the representation of Don: at the start, things are bright and perfect and he's with Megan, at the end it's cold and bleak and you realize he hasn't changed. So glad to have one of the best shows on TV back again.

Also:
distantmantra said:
Where's that damn comic strip?!?
Click to expand...

Here you go: http://i.imgur.com/L8ZthmN.png

Also so great to have the best comedy on TV back in the form of the next episode previews lol
 
A

Artemisia

Banned
I am now stanning for The Lord, Sally Draper.

May she bless us with her wit and youthful radiance.
acj35.gif
 
V

VanMastaIteHab

Neo Member
So tonight was the first episode of this show that I've watched live. So I've never seen the "On the next episode" until right now.

I feel like I've missed out on a crucial portion of this show.
 
E

EleventhDoctor

Banned
VanMastaIteHab said:
So tonight was the first episode of this show that I've watched live. So I've never seen the "On the next episode" until right now.

I feel like I've missed out on a crucial portion of this show.
Click to expand...

"what do you think you're doing?"

"look-just listen to me."

"That's not at all what I said."

"I can't believe this."

FOR A CLOSER LOOK...GO TO AMC.COM
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
VanMastaIteHab said:
So tonight was the first episode of this show that I've watched live. So I've never seen the "On the next episode" until right now.

I feel like I've missed out on a crucial portion of this show.
Click to expand...
they're always hilarious to watch again after you've actually seen the episode they are promoting. Hilariously trivial.
 
F

firen

Member
"People will do anything to alleviate their anxiety."

Oh Don. Just to be clear, they are implying that thing with the doctor's wife and Don has been going on already right? *sigh*
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
Episode was quite morbid and at times weird.

Felt like the Sandy storyline should have been a few episodes in, not the first. And not sure how much I bought Don with the doc's wife at that specific moment. Seemed weird that "going out for cigs" could lead to Don being away that long without Megan noticing.

Roger was the best part the episode, tonight. Loved his whole storyline ending with him breaking down as the shoeshine died.
 
B

bean breath

Member
Something useless I noticed watching the first few minutes of the encore:

The machine gun the soldier describes and the Leica Don gives the doctor have the same model name, M2.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
A bit of a polarizing episode for me, loved Roger and Don's plots, but wasn't quite thrilled by Betty and Peggy's (Although Peggy and Stan talking was possibly my favorite scene). I'm not worried though.

Holy shit at some of the facial hair this ep lol. Stan and Ginsburg bringing it with the epic beard and porn mustache.
 
P

PartlyCloudlike

Member
Aww Don why'd you have to go sleep with the Dr.'s wife. This season I wanted to see him struggle with his faithfulness. And I thought he usually preferred a girl with the opposite hair color to the one he was in a relationship with.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
PartlyCloudlike said:
Aww Don why'd you have to go sleep with the Dr.'s wife. This season I wanted to see him struggle with his faithfulness. And I thought he usually preferred a girl with the opposite hair color to the one he was in a relationship with.
Click to expand...
considering what he said, I think that's what we'll be getting, except it won't be struggling with staying faithful, it'll be struggling with trying to become faithful.
 
A

Artemisia

Banned
suaveric said:
That was the doctor's wife. Don walked back to his apartment afterwards without even putting his shoes on. What I don't understand is how Megan didn't seem to mind or notice that he was gone all night.

And couldn't Don do better than the doctor's wife?
Click to expand...

Right? She looked plastic. Don is a fucking mess.
 
G

GremlinFool

Member
I read the AVClub review, which mentioned that the episode revealed Draper's extramarital affair with the doctor's wife. After skimming through the episode again, I can't recall this ever being made explicit or even implicit (perhaps the last scene of the episode?). Can someone pinpoint for me when this reveal was made?
 
H

Hours Left

Member
PartlyCloudlike said:
What did he say? I had to watch the show on low volume and must've missed it.
Click to expand...
"I don't want to do this anymore."

Or something like that.

GremlinFool said:
I read the AVClub review, which mentioned that the episode revealed Draper's extramarital affair with the doctor's wife. After skimming through the episode again, I can't recall this ever being made explicit or even implicit (perhaps the last scene of the episode?). Can someone pinpoint for me when this reveal was made?
Click to expand...
He was in bed with her at the end of the episode, right before he went back to Megan.
 
A

Axiology

Member
I really liked the episode, though I would say the Sandy storyline was by far the weakest for me. It picked up when Betty went off looking for her, but its overall significance was neutered by the fact that we obviously didn't know the girl well and her storyline was awkwardly displacing the ones we actually came to see. The fact that she had a long conversation with Betty before we even got to see SCDP was strange. It wasn't so bad, but at the same time, it couldn't be expected that we would be that attached to her when she left. Still, I feel like those scenes were just the beginning of a larger arc-- either with Sandy or with Betty's motherly behavior (it's important to note, for instance, that Sally is an adolescent at this point and Betty is loosening her reins quite a bit on her now. She might need some place to dispel all that motherly guidance)

Roger's story was for me the star of the night, with his longterm arc really brought into focus by this episode. Everyone around him is dying and although he doesn't claim to, he feels horrible about his life, which seems to be trapping him. He talks about the endless doorways to his doctor and how life never changes and you can definitely see it looking at where his character has been going for some time. He's been acquainted with 4 notable women in his recent life (Mona, Joan, the one he just divorced and Megan's mother) and other than his financial support in some instances he really doesn't mean much to any of their lives. They continue going on whether he's around or not and he is left with no one who really understands him or is at his side daily. His importance at his job is rapidly diminishing and each day is a monotonous grind of wittily greasing the wheels of business associates. He really is an embodiment of the sad clown, and it's clear he feels death creeping ever so slowly towards him.

The only time he seemed to have escaped the miserableness of his life were those times he took LSD, which doesn't bode well for him given that I believe he will soon realize that his only joy in life is drugs and may eventually spiral into addiction :(

Don's also facing somewhat of an existential crisis, because whether he understands it or not, the subconscious symbolism of death in his ad treatment was unmistakable. This isn't to say he wants to die, per se, but maybe he's on his way to taking a step forward in his life that he had never imagined. The desire to break his habit of sleeping around reinforces this idea, given that it represents his need to change his life around.

While the story of him returning to his cheating ways was spruced up a lot better than i thought it would be (I definitely didn't see that twist coming), I do feel like any attempt this show is going to make to make Don's journey back to faithfulness interesting will be undercut by the fact that he already went through that process multiple times throughout the show. Most recently throughout the entire last season! Of course, I'm sure the show runners are aware of the fact that this is at least the 4th time we've traveled down this road (off the top of my head The Carousel, following that whole business with Bobbie Barrett, The Summer Man and then his marriage with Megan) so they'll find some way to make it work.

I do feel like Don's life-changing experience in Hawaii, his pensiveness regarding the lighter, his focus on death and passing on (he was also obsessed with asking the doorman what death was like, as well as transfixed by the eulogy at Roger's mother's funeral) and his desire to move on from his cheating ways are all leading to the mystery of the Mad Men season 6 poster. The second Don-- dressed in white and without briefcase, may be the one that awaits on the other side of his possible coming transformation. Keeping in mind the greater themes presented in this episode I felt it was actually a very well made episode. I liked how they interwove Don's and Roger's stories without ever having them touch, and it was fun to see the whole cast in full on "groovy-mode". Those 60's, man.
 
R

royalan

Member
Don's also facing somewhat of an existential crisis, because whether he understands it or not, the subconscious symbolism of death in his ad treatment was unmistakable. This isn't to say he wants to die, per se, but maybe he's on his way to taking a step forward in his life that he had never imagined. The desire to break his habit of sleeping around reinforces this idea, given that it represents his need to change his life around.

While the story of him returning to his cheating ways was spruced up a lot better than i thought it would be (I definitely didn't see that twist coming), I do feel like any attempt this show is going to make to make Don's journey back to faithfulness interesting will be undercut by the fact that he already went through that process multiple times throughout the show. Most recently throughout the entire last season! Of course, I'm sure the show runners are aware of the fact that this is at least the 4th time we've traveled down this road (off the top of my head The Carousel, following that whole business with Bobbie Barrett, The Summer Man and then his marriage with Megan) so they'll find some way to make it work.
Click to expand...

I think that was the problem with Don this episode for me. I know it's just the first episode, but it was two hours, and in that entire time I couldn't shake the feeling that we've seen this Don before.

We've seen Don do the "angsty, quiet, existential crises culminating in an affair that teaches him something" thing before.

Most of the other characters seemed to be growing and entering new phases in their development, while with Don it just seemed to be the same old shtick.
 
G

GremlinFool

Member
Watched the last few minutes of the episode finally.

I think it's becoming clearer with every passing season that Mad Men is an elaborate reprise of the fatalistic, cynical themes of The Sopranos. Both seasons begin their sixth seasons in almost identical fashion.
 
H

Hours Left

Member
royalan said:
I think that was the problem with Don this episode for me. I know it's just the first episode, but it was two hours, and in that entire time I couldn't shake the feeling that we've seen this Don before.

We've seen Don do the "angsty, quiet, existential crises culminating in an affair that teaches him something" thing before.

Most of the other characters seemed to be growing and entering new phases in their development, while with Don it just seemed to be the same old shtick.
Click to expand...
I think Don is doomed by his lack of willpower. Perhaps his story is destined to be a cautionary tale of a squandered life.
 
M

Mononoke

Banned
Axiology said:
I really liked the episode, though I would say the Sandy storyline was by far the weakest for me. It picked up when Betty went off looking for her, but its overall significance was neutered by the fact that we obviously didn't know the girl well and her storyline was awkwardly displacing the ones we actually came to see. The fact that she had a long conversation with Betty before we even got to see SCDP was strange. It wasn't so bad, but at the same time, it couldn't be expected that we would be that attached to her when she left. Still, I feel like those scenes were just the beginning of a larger arc-- either with Sandy or with Betty's motherly behavior (it's important to note, for instance, that Sally is an adolescent at this point and Betty is loosening her reins quite a bit on her now. She might need some place to dispel all that motherly guidance)

Roger's story was for me the star of the night, with his longterm arc really brought into focus by this episode. Everyone around him is dying and although he doesn't claim to, he feels horrible about his life, which seems to be trapping him. He talks about the endless doorways to his doctor and how life never changes and you can definitely see it looking at where his character has been going for some time. He's been acquainted with 4 notable women in his recent life (Mona, Joan, the one he just divorced and Megan's mother) and other than his financial support in some instances he really doesn't mean much to any of their lives. They continue going on whether he's around or not and he is left with no one who really understands him or is at his side daily. His importance at his job is rapidly diminishing and each day is a monotonous grind of wittily greasing the wheels of business associates. He really is an embodiment of the sad clown, and it's clear he feels death creeping ever so slowly towards him.

The only time he seemed to have escaped the miserableness of his life were those times he took LSD, which doesn't bode well for him given that I believe he will soon realize that his only joy in life is drugs and may eventually spiral into addiction :(

Don's also facing somewhat of an existential crisis, because whether he understands it or not, the subconscious symbolism of death in his ad treatment was unmistakable. This isn't to say he wants to die, per se, but maybe he's on his way to taking a step forward in his life that he had never imagined. The desire to break his habit of sleeping around reinforces this idea, given that it represents his need to change his life around..
Click to expand...

Well said. As I had said earlier when watching the episode, I felt a bit disoriented. I had no idea who Sandy was, and without an introduction, it felt weird how much emphasis was being put on her. I felt this way for a lot of the other new characters as well (but obviously more so with her, as there was an entire b-plot surrounding her).

Then throw in the bellhop flashback/ order. I'm not saying I couldn't follow the episode. I just mean there was a "feeling" of being disoriented throughout the episode. At least for me.
 
S

SirIgbyCeaser

Banned
Sandy is a version of Betty who is making the same mistakes. Betty was trying to save her, in a way stop her own life from going that path. I think the fact that she was a talented violinist was only for the search scene to have her find a trace of Sandy. That scene was very badly put together, the kids in the village not robbing her, or letting her seemingly get away with the violin felt so out of place. Her just walking into the right house also felt unnatural.

Don's symbolic attachment to the wrong lighter seems like a parallel haunting him about how he took another soldiers name in korea. And its this reminder he could not throw away. Him giving away the bride I think is a foreshadow to his daughter soon also going to go that path. Or someone else who will want Don as part of the wedding.

Peggy's plot is all about the switcheroo about her being the creative boss keeping people in late when she plans to save the conflict anyway with her idea. While not great, i like where its going and I think her ad idea was good.

The reference to the carousel scene was the best moment. When he pitched it he used photos of his family than, called it a time machine. When showing the pictures of hawaii he didn't even want too. He felt no connection to those pictures. And yes the suicide in his ad idea, was telling of how trapped he must feel about his wife, his home, his age.

He drinking himself sick watching his wifes show is also telling. He feels miserable that he's not dependent on him or he doesn't have her spark. Like a sailor coming off a boat.
 
M

maharg

idspispopd
Gobias said:
Why don’t you go in there and rape her? I'll hold her down.
Click to expand...

I did a double take on that one. Holy crap.

Loved the doctor skiing to work, that was amazing.

Also Peggy kicking ass and taking names. I don't think there's any positive transformation in store for Don, or they'd have gone the other way with his philandering. It's all downhill for him and his generation, and up up and away for the next, now.
 
H

hamchan

Member
Episode felt really weird to me, can't really explain why though. Certainly didn't feel like the Mad Men I've been used to.
 
M

Megasoum

Banned
Wait... How did I miss that. Where was Linda Cardellini?

Also, was I the only one who tought the lobby scene where the guy has a heart attack was fucking weird?

I don't know if it was my recorder that fucked up but the guy fell on the floor, you see Megan calling 911 but then the very next scene they are back in the lobby and the guy is back working the elevator like nothing happened.
 
C

CassSept

Member
- Why don't you go in there and rape her? I'll hold her arms down.

Hahaha.... wait whaaaat

- You can stick a rag in her mouth and you won't wake the boys

WHAAAAAAAT

Betty is so cray. Overall I liked the episode, glad this show is back. I think it was a better premiere than "A Little Kiss". Some very nice scenes (highlight being Peggy talking with Stan) even if it was just setting up future plots.

Oh and Don is cheating on Megan. Who would have thought.
 
D

Divius

Member
Whoa fat black Betty, bambalam

So glad this show is back, I missed these people.

- Peggy was fierce
- Betty suggesting rape, lol
- Doctor skiing to work, lol

Also who was this Sandy girl?
 
L

Linius

Member
My God you guys, the best show on TV is back :D

I love the new haircuts and styles. I wasn't even sure if Abe was Abe, he looks like a member of any random band from the sixties/seventies :lol
 
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