Mad Men

The White Tuxedo wrote:

In the end I look at MAD MEN as simply damn good television. It's very well written, produced, and acted. I find it very engaging, but not everyone will. It's not a show about the 60's, but it's a show very much steeped in that culture.

Very true, though the series seems so inextricably tied to the 60's in my mind that it's hard to fathom it progressing much further. I almost think New Year's Eve 1969 would be the perfect time to end the show.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

For what it's worth, I'd rank the seasons...

5
1
3
4
2

Fair rankings. 1, 3, & 5 would probably be just about tied for me.

It was a pretty bad idea in hindsight to watch S2 first. I didn't really have much of a choice as I'd missed out on S1 when it was playing on free-to-air TV here. S2 is good, but markedly weaker than what came after. I'd have been roped into Mad Men sooner if I had a faster internet connection back then and could LEGALLY DOWNLOAD S1 and whatever other seasons were out.

CJB wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

In the end I look at MAD MEN as simply damn good television. It's very well written, produced, and acted. I find it very engaging, but not everyone will. It's not a show about the 60's, but it's a show very much steeped in that culture.

Very true, though the series seems so inextricably tied to the 60's in my mind that it's hard to fathom it progressing much further. I almost think New Year's Eve 1969 would be the perfect time to end the show.

You mean '69 into '70? That's basically what I'd want. As I posted, I'd love to see this as the last song on the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN9n1bAahg4

Jack Wade wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

The first episode is okay, but they turn everything up to 11 in terms of sexism, etc.

I think that's my biggest issue. Not the sexism specifically, but the whole "things were different in the '60s" thing. I know things were different then. I F***IN' get it.

I'll give the rest of it a chance if you guys promise it gets better from there.

Yeah, let it grow on you, it took a bit for me to really get into the groove of the show.

I can't say I was totally hooked until the 3rd season, but I enjoyed seeing the first two seasons. I watched them at a slow pace. By 3, I was just running marathons.

Jack Wade wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

The first episode is okay, but they turn everything up to 11 in terms of sexism, etc.

I think that's my biggest issue. Not the sexism specifically, but the whole "things were different in the '60s" thing. I know things were different then. I F***IN' get it.

I'll give the rest of it a chance if you guys promise it gets better from there.

I thought the same at first and dismissed it and then begrudgingly watched it. It starts to improve significantly in episode 6 (that was the first one that got me to stand up and pay attention), and by the ninth episode it finally starts to come together and get over that 'Hey it was the 60s!' thing, at least besides fleeting moments here and there or where it truly is important to the story.

Quote :

And she doesn't like that it didn't get into race or the youth culture. MAD MEN isn't the final statement on the 1960's and I wish people wouldn't treat it as such. It's a show about a specific time and place and a group of people within it, and about their comfortable world collapsing around them. It's only going to get worse, and I can't wait to see it.

It never ceases to amaze me the over-importance many of the idiots who watch this show place on minor characters. You'd visit some boards and think Carla and Dawn were the main fucking characters.

I don't have much time for TV critics, especially this day and age where social media tend to pressure them into conforming their view of a show to the most vocal internet freaks with no time on their hands. This view is largely reinforced by the Maureen Ryan article:

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Most people stewing most of the time about not getting what they want. Disappointment, frustration, jealousy, petulance, fear and anger. It's not wrong for a top-tier show to explore the many permutations of those emotions; in fact, it's more or less required. But it becomes a bit of a chore when those emotions are suffocatingly pervasive, along with hazy feelings of disgust and a sense that life was better (and cleaner) in the past. Sure, Peggy got her moment of triumph at the elevator, and the firm won Jaguar, but the latter victory was a hollow one, and the former event broke up the best partnership on the show.

The point of the fucking show? (and where the fuck was she for the past four years?)

The one point I agree with, is that they could've built up a bit more to the climax of Joan and Lane's storylines. A little bit more to develop how worried Joan was about her security as a divorcee and a bit more establishing Lane's finances were terrible earlier on would've gone a long way to service those storylines, I think. The story beats were there, but I think they were crammed within episodes 10, 11 and 12 instead of carefully doled out over the course of the season.

Makeshift Python wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

They've even had modern music on the show for end credits.

I don't recall that, what modern music in which episodes?

"Maidenform"


IIRC, there've been cover songs of older ones on the end of the credits as well. And of course season 1 ended with 'Don't Think Twice It's Alright' when it wasn't released yet as well.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

I don't think I'd want to see the Mad Men cast in the backdrop of the 1970s, but seeing Don and Peggy in the 1980s (if Don lives that long) would be cool.

Completely agree.

Finale was a bit underwhelming, though Mad Men finales usually are (the exception being series three). It did feel more like a series of scenes than an episode though.

Not sure how I think of the season as a whole or in the scheme of the others yet. I never really come to a conlcusion on it until I see it again on DVD.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

I don't think I'd want to see the Mad Men cast in the backdrop of the 1970s, but seeing Don and Peggy in the 1980s (if Don lives that long) would be cool.

Didn't Weiner say the series would end with Draper in modern times? That'd put him in his late 80s.

Kind of wonder if they could do a scattered across time last year, like CHINA BEACH. Not saying it would work, but trying to get a notion about the ways they might surprise us.

trevanian wrote:

Didn't Weiner say the series would end with Draper in modern times? That'd put him in his late 80s.

Dunno how I'd feel about seeing Octogenarian Don shaking his fist at a no smoking sign. :)

trevanian wrote:

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

I don't think I'd want to see the Mad Men cast in the backdrop of the 1970s, but seeing Don and Peggy in the 1980s (if Don lives that long) would be cool.

Didn't Weiner say the series would end with Draper in modern times? That'd put him in his late 80s.

They later said they were joking, and they knew how the series would end, but that wasn't it.

RE: Lane's storyline. There are a couple little bits of his financial woes here and there that I picked up on while going through a bit of the show recently. I just regret that he was absent for a few episodes this season. Maybe he was shooting a movie, I know he's playing Grant in LINCOLN.

As for ending the show in modern times, thankfully they're joking. I don't want to see that.

And I mentioned the theory that I've seen popping up that we'll get a St. Elsewhere ending that this is all a book written by Ken Cosgrove. If that were to happen, I'd hunt down Matt Weiner and punch him in the privates.

Yes, I'd plant one right in his namesake.

I just finished the first season.

I like the show for the same reasons I liked it after the first couple episodes. It's incredibly well crafted and all the parts really seem like they were perfectly cast.

I dunno. It just seems like the writers of this show need to get laid or something. There is a lot of despair, I suppose, as Harms said, but something to lighten the mood every once in a while would be nice.

The Nixon campaign kind of bugged me. Maybe they're trying to make a point here, but it never really seemed like the stakes were that high for the company. It's almost as if it was just another campaign for them ... but should it have been? When they announce Kennedy won, nobody even batted an eye.

I don't really buy how they sold Peggy's pregnancy, either. I mean, it wasn't that hard to see coming, but she goes from normal weight to double-chin in one episode, then realizing she's pregnant and having the baby in one episode, too. OK.

So Don Draper is really Dick Whitman, and he changed his name to get out of the war, thus leaving behind a brother. Maybe I need to wait to see how this arc plays out, but it just seemed like melodramatic stuffing.

Maybe I'm just nitpicking at minor things here. Like I said, it's an extremely well put-together show and I'm going to keep going because of that, but the first season didn't do a whole lot for me, though to be fair, that's how a lot of shows are, I guess.

I wrote a bit more about it on my blog here if you feel compelled to read.

Jack Wade wrote:

I dunno. It just seems like the writers of this show need to get laid or something. There is a lot of despair, I suppose, as Harms said, but something to lighten the mood every once in a while would be nice.

Oh, I was just talking about this season. I think the first four seasons had a great deal of humor.

Jack Wade wrote:

So Don Draper is really Walt Whitman, and he changed his name to get out of the war, thus leaving behind a brother. Maybe I need to wait to see how this arc plays out, but it just seemed like melodramatic stuffing.

You just have to put up with stuff like that. MAD MEN at its worst gets a bit DALLAS. The best moments tend to be quieter and simpler.

Walt Whitman's in MAD MEN? Blimey.

Harmsway wrote:

Jack Wade wrote:

I dunno. It just seems like the writers of this show need to get laid or something. There is a lot of despair, I suppose, as Harms said, but something to lighten the mood every once in a while would be nice.

Oh, I was just talking about this season. I think the first four seasons had a great deal of humor.

I'd like to see more humor than just some throw-away lines of dialogue. Something more than the "I'm a man, here's my stereotypical man joke!" that a lot of the characters seem to bounce off one another.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Walt Whitman's in MAD MEN? Blimey.

Oops.

Jack Wade wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Jack Wade wrote:

I dunno. It just seems like the writers of this show need to get laid or something. There is a lot of despair, I suppose, as Harms said, but something to lighten the mood every once in a while would be nice.

Oh, I was just talking about this season. I think the first four seasons had a great deal of humor.

I'd like to see more humor than just some throw-away lines of dialogue. Something more than the "I'm a man, here's my stereotypical man joke!" that a lot of the characters seem to bounce off one another.

The first three seasons all bleed together for me, but there are a lot of funny moments that aren't at all along those lines.

Roger's serenade...

Just got done watching the finale. Loved the final scene, very Bond-esque. Looks like Don's getting back to his old tricks.

And John Slattery has one great arse.

I'm halfway through season two. I don't see as many flaws as I did in the first season, and I'm really starting to warm up to the show, though I do wish we got to see more of the advertising stuff -- more of Don and his crew brainstorming ideas for campaigns and such. I think that stuff is more interesting than the soap opera aspects of the show.

S2 is still fine television. S2 has one of my favorite lines, when Pete introduces himself as Peter Dyckman Campbell. I dunno, it tickles me.

Glad to hear you're sticking with it. S3 is very strong stuff.

And you'll meet Connie.



He's fantastic.

Watched the pilot. Pretty funny to watch because everything is cranked up to 11 as said above. Even Pete is more slimy than he is these days.

Odd that they show a picture of his wife and it ain't Alison Brie. Was it gonna be someone else or did they just never plan on bringing Mrs Campbell until the show pilot got picked up?

The pilot was shot a full year before the rest of the season, and in NYC as opposed to LA. They had no idea if the show would ever happen, so there was no casting thought for Pete's fiance. I think it's a pic of Weiner's mom.

Yeah, it's a period picture of Weiner's mom.