smokeymicpot
Beat EviLore at pool.
Wouldn't it be cool if the series ended with Don committing suicide
Exactly like the into credits. Yes it would.
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Mad Men - Season 6 - Sundays on AMC
- Thread starter Cornballer
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Exactly like the into credits. Yes it would.
smokeymicpot
Beat EviLore at pool.
Makes sense for Dons character.
Discotheque
Banned
Carmela was much much much better written than Skylar, and also more tolerable too. and a better actress.
tony soprano i both liked and hated. he did some deplorable things but the writing for him was so in depth that i don't think i could paint him as black and white as i can with walter white.
oh is this the mad men thread?
uhhh..don draper is miserable. he looks flashy and everybody envys him but deep down he seems so bored with life.
tony soprano i both liked and hated. he did some deplorable things but the writing for him was so in depth that i don't think i could paint him as black and white as i can with walter white.
oh is this the mad men thread?
uhhh..don draper is miserable. he looks flashy and everybody envys him but deep down he seems so bored with life.
Trent Strong
Banned
Wouldn't it be cool if the series ended with Don committing suicide
Honestly, yes.
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
Ninja Scooter
Member
I wonder if someone will kick Pete's ass again this season.
brianjones
Member
the other thing was megan brushing her hand across don's eyes and closing them like you would a dead person
Really? Examples?
Looking through (sorry) the TV Tropes page: Lost, Homicide: Life on the Street, Seinfeld, ER. Just to name a few. It's fairly common for a show to loop back around in some capacity.
War Peaceman
You're a big guy.
My interpretation too. Even the rape joke shows the freedom in her marriage - she feels comfortable enough to make an edgy comment intended to discomfort her husband. I like where she is going, as opposed to her 'recent' appearances which have been boring.
By the way, are we really supposed to infer Don totally ignored the question and it wasn't explained later? He just kept going through the pictures and everyone kept watching, so at that moment I assumed they didn't go into it so they were finished with the album first and could turn off the thing without getting sidetracked.
I mean, Megan didn't say anything either and she would obviously have no problems explaining what happened since she's not an ass, and I'm fairly sure Don explained the situation to her in Hawaii after the wedding. I don't know, outright not answering something like that is some anime-style shenanigan and it would be weird of Megan to not answer.
I mean, Megan didn't say anything either and she would obviously have no problems explaining what happened since she's not an ass, and I'm fairly sure Don explained the situation to her in Hawaii after the wedding. I don't know, outright not answering something like that is some anime-style shenanigan and it would be weird of Megan to not answer.
BertramCooper
Banned
Something has definitely changed with Betty.
Seasons 4/5 Betty would have followed up those creepy rape comments with a glare and a lecture, not a smile and cuddling.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
She groks what's down with the kids today
bodine1231
Member
I love this show when it focuses on the office/business end. Dons home life after season 3 has become incredibly boring.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
I find it incredibly moving and well rendered.
It's hard not to totally fall for every aspect of the show after watching Weiner's commentaries. Dude is non-stop "Oh my god, I love how they did this," and "Here's what this means," and "This is where I love the show we get to make" and you're like
HOLY SHIT, YEAH
THIS SHOW REALLY IS THE BEST, MATTIE
BertramCooper
Banned
That would certainly explain Henry's nonchalant reaction to the rape comments.
What sorts of antidepressants were available in those days?
sixteen-bit
Member
Stranger in a Strange Land slang was really that pervasive, huh?
GoldenEye 007
Member
He did look flabbergasted, though in the final shot.
And as far as I know, the state of mental health care back then was even worse than it is today. So I imagine any medicated treatments probably didn't have the most pleasant of effects.
sixteen-bit
Member
Wouldn't it be cool if the series ended with Don committing suicide
next scene *jumps*
Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
Don is really losing it lately with his office game and I expect his home life to follow shortly. Megan might be a busy girl but she isn't stupid. Pete, Cosgrove and most of everyone else has caught onto him as a fading relic along with Roger (who is my #2 pick to die this season, right behind 'Pete's hair'). Don doesn't even bat an eye now with Pete brazenly talking about how he just tries to push due dates and go into his office to take naps! He would never have let Pete talk to him like that in the past.
One thing I didn't understand was the significance of Cosgrove and the scenes with the random accounts kid. Can anyone offer a meaning?
Don reading Dante's Inferno was very telling. Wonder how many levels of sin he would personally be entitled to. I was mad that he has cheated on Megan and fucked over his doctor friend on multiple occasions with the affair, but honestly I'm not fully surprised. His transformation after Lucky Strike fell apart when he wasn't able to pin his happiness on having a work wife and his and Megan's personal life became fractured by Megan's new career. He also lost Peggy, which although hasn't received much screen time, I expect has affected him majorly at work as well. Speaking of which, Peggy is doing brilliant at her new place and I'm really glad for her.
At the very least Don seems to really hate his cheating more than ever saying "I don't want to do this anymore" for his New Years resolution, though I'm not sure if he's just talking about having affairs or perhaps meaning living the life he has in general. He's miserable and he knows affairs won't fix anything but he can't escape it seems as he needs that and late night drinking just to cope and relieve the massive amount of anxiety he has.
That lost lighter is going to come back to fuck him in the worst way, I can already tell.
- - - - -
To touch on the opening scene speculation, I would be surprised if Weiner ran with that in a final season in a tangible way ala exact recreation of the opening. However I think the closer we get to the end the more we seen it for what it is, the end of Don's world. Don steps into what looks like his office, drops his suitcase and immediately appears to suffer a breakdown of his life. Items start dropping like pieces of a scene (his life is a sham, a moving play and he is simply an actor going through the motions of advertisement), he starts falling down, down, down, passing ads of his past and the symbolic sets of his lifestyle (cigarettes, women, giant glass of alcohol) until he reaches the end, cutting to black and showing him sitting there with a cigarette in his hand...
Though I don't see him committing suicide, I am 99% certain Don will have a breakdown of this magnitude sometime between now and the end.
One thing I didn't understand was the significance of Cosgrove and the scenes with the random accounts kid. Can anyone offer a meaning?
Don reading Dante's Inferno was very telling. Wonder how many levels of sin he would personally be entitled to. I was mad that he has cheated on Megan and fucked over his doctor friend on multiple occasions with the affair, but honestly I'm not fully surprised. His transformation after Lucky Strike fell apart when he wasn't able to pin his happiness on having a work wife and his and Megan's personal life became fractured by Megan's new career. He also lost Peggy, which although hasn't received much screen time, I expect has affected him majorly at work as well. Speaking of which, Peggy is doing brilliant at her new place and I'm really glad for her.
At the very least Don seems to really hate his cheating more than ever saying "I don't want to do this anymore" for his New Years resolution, though I'm not sure if he's just talking about having affairs or perhaps meaning living the life he has in general. He's miserable and he knows affairs won't fix anything but he can't escape it seems as he needs that and late night drinking just to cope and relieve the massive amount of anxiety he has.
That lost lighter is going to come back to fuck him in the worst way, I can already tell.
- - - - -
To touch on the opening scene speculation, I would be surprised if Weiner ran with that in a final season in a tangible way ala exact recreation of the opening. However I think the closer we get to the end the more we seen it for what it is, the end of Don's world. Don steps into what looks like his office, drops his suitcase and immediately appears to suffer a breakdown of his life. Items start dropping like pieces of a scene (his life is a sham, a moving play and he is simply an actor going through the motions of advertisement), he starts falling down, down, down, passing ads of his past and the symbolic sets of his lifestyle (cigarettes, women, giant glass of alcohol) until he reaches the end, cutting to black and showing him sitting there with a cigarette in his hand...
Though I don't see him committing suicide, I am 99% certain Don will have a breakdown of this magnitude sometime between now and the end.
Just setup for the new character I think, ass kissing Don and then getting called out by Cosgrove for trying to "look busy" outside of his office. His smarminess will most likely play a bigger part in another episode.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
next scene *jumps*
I hereby nominate Phil Noto to be The Official Illustrator of All of the Things.
BertramCooper
Banned
Do we know which name is on his lighter? (Maybe I missed something in this ep or a past ep.)
If he's been carrying around a Dick Whitman lighter for the past 15 years, he's even more reckless than I thought he was.
Cornballer
Member
- Tom & Lorenzo's post is up: Mad Style: The Doorway, Part 1
Much, much more via the link.
There was much discussion as there would be about Bettys shocking rape joke. This is an instance where we dont think over-analyzing it serves much purpose. Its fairly straightforward, as all of Bettys emotional responses are. She has always liked to rebel against the restrictions of her life by occasionally being shocking in some way. This is a woman who shot the neighbors pigeons, picked up a guy in a bar during the Cuban Missile Crisis and fucked him in a back room, manipulated a good friend into adultery because she didnt have the nerve to do it at the time, and dressed up like an Italian prostitute in a neo-realist film and flirted with a bunch of Roman lotharios. She likes to be bad, and Don helped fulfill that side of her. Henry; solid, traditional, unflappable Henry, just doesnt turn her crank that way. So in order to get a rise out of him (so to speak), she went to the blackest kind of humor she could dredge up. You have to remember how differently people saw rape at the time. It was under-reported and under-prosecuted to a sickening degree, and most of the population thought on some level that it was simply about sex that got a little out of hand.
Its not a coincidence that her joke involved raping a young girl she sees as a stand-in for herself. Its also not a coincidence that shes dressed in the same pink that girl wore in the previous scene, with a similar bow prominently placed on the front. Its feminine (to a coquettish level) and youthful and its meant to be jarring in the context of the scene.
Its only lightly signaled in this episode and barely signaled at all here but Abe and Peggy are clearly worlds apart. Hes obviously getting more entrenched in the counterculture and liberal causes and it is, of course, all over his clothing. Peggy, on the other hand, is the stylish, go-getting New York career girl of the period, with her knee-socks and beret. We may look at this outfit and see Velma from Scooby Doo, but this really was NYC-stylish in a Marlo Thomas in That Girl kind of way.
Peggy wears a lot of blues and greens in this episode, possibly signaling a new set of power colors to replace her old, mid-Century, mustard yellow power color. The blue-and-green color combo was extremely popular during this colorful period, as was the pink-and-orange one. They come back in and out of style, but theyre fairly strongly identified with the late sixties. As was purple, for that matter, which were already seeing a lot of.
Yay! Was waiting for this.
The lighter coming back to end everything he built for himself would be totally ridiculous. That is a storyline that can't be shoehorned into the show. Its totally unrealistic. There are too many assumptions for it to unfold.
For example, the lighter is known to be Don's. That is why his secretary returned it to him because it obviously has his name on it. Additionally, he smokes like a wood burning oven so he is always using that lighter to light his cigarette. So how is him losing the lighter going to come back to haunt him?
Will someone with a military background find it and personally make it their mission to return it to him? Will that person go to such lengths as to contact the department of defense to collect information about Don to track him down to return the lighter? It just seems implausible.
I do think the scene is symbolically important. Perhaps the lighter represents something about Don that we lack the insight to for deciphering its symbolic message. It may very well be the beginning of a new character revelation for Don, or perhaps a new fracture that is arising due to his increasing levels of anxiety. It is certainly a clue for what to expect from the remainder of this season.
Man, I love this show. Roger is my favorite character. The man speaks with so much charisma and his words laced with wisdom makes watching him incredibly enjoyable. Don remains as scandalous as ever by returning to his former ways of infidelity. However, he is preparing for a drastic change it appears. I think we are going to see very interesting character development from Don either for the good or bad this season.
For example, the lighter is known to be Don's. That is why his secretary returned it to him because it obviously has his name on it. Additionally, he smokes like a wood burning oven so he is always using that lighter to light his cigarette. So how is him losing the lighter going to come back to haunt him?
Will someone with a military background find it and personally make it their mission to return it to him? Will that person go to such lengths as to contact the department of defense to collect information about Don to track him down to return the lighter? It just seems implausible.
I do think the scene is symbolically important. Perhaps the lighter represents something about Don that we lack the insight to for deciphering its symbolic message. It may very well be the beginning of a new character revelation for Don, or perhaps a new fracture that is arising due to his increasing levels of anxiety. It is certainly a clue for what to expect from the remainder of this season.
Man, I love this show. Roger is my favorite character. The man speaks with so much charisma and his words laced with wisdom makes watching him incredibly enjoyable. Don remains as scandalous as ever by returning to his former ways of infidelity. However, he is preparing for a drastic change it appears. I think we are going to see very interesting character development from Don either for the good or bad this season.
Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
I think it's Lt. Donald Draper. Earlier in the episode I noted with confusion 'how did that guy know Don was a lieutenant?'. I'm guessing he recognised the lighter and read the inscription when he got closer.
GoldenEye 007
Member
If it's Don Draper, though, and that private looked him up or something out of general curiosity, wouldn't records show he was KIA? That certainly would raise some red flags and cause issues.
Of course, the private could be KIA himself and there is no issue if he didn't have time to look it up.
Edit: Actually, I guess I got the war stuff reversed. Can't remember lol.
Betty is your grandmother.
Were all military issued lighter's engraved? Or are people just assuming that Don or Dick is on the lighter?
I took the switcharoo of lighter's with Dinkins as a one off thing. Something that resonated with Don for him to never forget his checked past.
I don't know, I don't think anything will come out of it other than Dawn saying that Dinkins was killed or something. Then Don can ponder his existence a bit more.
I took the switcharoo of lighter's with Dinkins as a one off thing. Something that resonated with Don for him to never forget his checked past.
I don't know, I don't think anything will come out of it other than Dawn saying that Dinkins was killed or something. Then Don can ponder his existence a bit more.
Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
Thanks to Don's actions, it was Dick Whitman that was KIA not Draper. If someone looked up Draper to return his lighter, they would probably find him. Though I can also see it leading to some tension and difficulties for Don along the way as it will bring military attention to his life once again.
Yeah, this is how I read it. In a larger sense, this is supposed to tell you just how successful SCDP has been -- far from the old "startup" days where they lied about Cooper's office, they're now successful enough that they have their own generation of backbiters. Remember Roger and Don slapping down Pete for being a climber way back in the first season? Everything old is new again.
Previously I never thought much of the opening scene/closing scene speculation, but this is actually a pretty insightful breakdown, I think.
Don has a serious staffing problem. As Tom and Lorenzo note, the new woman was clearly hired to be the new Peggy, and she's very obviously no Peggy. The scene with the two new writers basically shows that neither of them understand Don at all, and Stan makes very clear in the Hawaii scene that, while he has the perception of Peggy, he doesn't have the values. The Peggy scenes actually do a good job of showing exactly why Don has this issue -- she's obviously better at handling clients than Don is, but she still handles her employees exactly the way Don always did, and doesn't yet understand why that's wrong.
GoldenEye 007
Member
Right, but if I remember correctly, Don switched the dog tags. So on the remains were Don and in his possession was Dick. So officially, Don was killed and Dick was sent home.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Maybe I read it wrong but I just assumed the kid called Don "Lt." because he was older. Anyway I don't think the lighter will be a plot device in the future, other than maybe Don finding out the kid died in action.
I loved Harry and Ginsberg's new looks. Harry's was the most authentic to me.. I was like yeah, nailed it IMMEDIATELY when I saw him.
Yeah, totally disappointing. I honestly don't ever like it when he cheats.. it felt natural to me when Tony did it on The Sopranos, because that's kind of the lifestyle he lived and he was always surrounded by sex and it was all implied and known to Carmella when she got into the thing. But with Don, his wife is oblivious to it and on top of that she is such a beautiful and sweet girl. It's frustrating. It frustrated me when he did it with Betty too.
Speaking of Megan, when she was on top of him, naked, I was completely wide-eyed. What a body.
p.s. Was probably mentioned while it was on, but I was surprised that Betty was still "fat." I figured they'd be over that storyline by now.
Cornballer
Member
I think it nails him as a character, sure. I liked costume designer Janie Bryant's explanation:
Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
I don't think that's right. I'm not sure about the tag situation but do you remember the train scene where Don is coming home and the Whitman family is waiting to receive Dick's casket? Dick-now-Don is supposed to offer condolences to the family but he flips the final switch on his new life by chickening out at the last second and leaving the train. His brother is the only one who saw him there.
I didn't think of it this way but you guys are right. SCDP has grown a lot and is now a major firm it seems. Thanks for the feedback on my opening analysis by the way, pige.
Yeah I immediately recognized that broad as being a very underwhelming and unattractive replacement for Peggy. Her placement seems half-hearted and almost comical. I definitely agree about the employee situation and Stan, he's perhaps the only one there with any brains for advertising that 'gets' Don, but he doesn't really give a shit about selling to the customers and would rather relish in the morbidity of the Sheraton pitch than brainstorm on how to fix it. I think you are spot on with the analysis of Peggy's scene with Ted Chaw in that she shows naive misunderstanding about valuing the holidays and the employees not realizing they could go home. But she's a damn great copywriter and has the same drive and eye as Don did in his heyday and Chaw does a good job of recognizing that in her while subtly pointing out her flaws.
Harry is awesome. Its unfortunate he can't play the game as ruthlessly as Pete. Harry is unlikely to ever receive a partnership because of his nice guy persona. It frustrates him but he has found his way into a career rut, I think. I wonder if he will remain with SCDP or leave for a new company, Hollywood perhaps.
I need to watch the premiere again because I feel like I missed out on so much stuff from being purely engrossed.
GoldenEye 007
Member
Ah, that is right. Got them reversed, whoops! Forget Don is the assumed identity lol. So yeah, then should be much of an issue.
Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
The lighter may end up being only symbolic and not as much of a catalyst as I initially thought, but I really think this isn't the end of his military past coming back to mess with him.
Harry's temper-tantrum at not being included in the pictures is pretty hilarious. I love his character because it is so desperate for meaning and yet very cemented in futility. His very being exudes wannabe douchbag, as that costume designer pointed out. I think regardless of his future standing in SCDP he'll be grateful for it though considering his absolute slavery to the ridiculous fashion trends of the time.
Harry's temper-tantrum at not being included in the pictures is pretty hilarious. I love his character because it is so desperate for meaning and yet very cemented in futility. His very being exudes wannabe douchbag, as that costume designer pointed out. I think regardless of his future standing in SCDP he'll be grateful for it though considering his absolute slavery to the ridiculous fashion trends of the time.
Hah, that's funny. I thought it not only nailed him as a character but just nailed the era perfectly -- it was the most striking to me. He looked like a Beatle or something. Totally believable look. Ginsberg took me off guard for a moment initially. I barely recognized him for the first second or two.
When do we think Peggy and Cha are gonna hook up?
I hope not.
Anyone have a source for this?
I remember that but I don't really believe him. Maybe it's like 1 scene
Cornballer
Member
Here's the source on that Weiner quote via Grantland. Scroll to the bottom.
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