Mad Men

I liked it. Some bits were heavy-handed, and in a lot of ways it was repetitive of past "Don gets sick, shit gets weird" episodes, but I still liked it. There were good things all the way through it.

Any clue on dates? Stan says it's about three months after March 4th, which would mean we're still in June and not much later than "Man with a Plan". It's obviously over a weekend, Friday to Monday. The second episode of "The Prisoner", "Free for All" is on TV but other than the fact that it was on CBS I can find basically no info about the US airdates of that show.

This week's episode was a mess. I'd like to think everything prior to last week was just taking the roller coaster up that first hill, with last week taking the plunge down it. This week, the train just crashed.

The bit where the apartment got burgled was lazy and almost offensively bad. Didn't help that the rest of the episode went nowhere.

This season is an enigma to me.

S6 is on its way to the bottom of my rankings ladder.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Any clue on dates? Stan says it's about three months after March 4th, which would mean we're still in June and not much later than "Man with a Plan". It's obviously over a weekend, Friday to Monday. The second episode of "The Prisoner", "Free for All" is on TV but other than the fact that it was on CBS I can find basically no info about the US airdates of that show.

Apparently "Free for All" was the fourth episode to be aired in both the UK and US. The show began airing on June 1, so this would put the airing on possibly the 22nd. If it's Friday to Monday, that makes it June 21-24, 1968. Which would be Gene's fifth birthday. I don't recall any mention of it. I have to see the episode again anyway.

1/2. "The Doorway" - December 21, 1967 - January 1, 1968
3. "The Collaborators" - January 30, 1968 - February 1, 1968
4. "To Have and to Hold" - March 12-15, 1968
5. "The Flood" - April 4-6, 1968
6. "For Immediate Release" - May 11-17, 1968
7. "Man with a Plan" - June 3-5, 1968
8. "The Crash" - June 21-24, 1968
9. "The Better Half" -
10. "A Tale of Two Cities" -
11. "Favors" -
12. "The Quality of Mercy" -
13. "In Care Of" -

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Any clue on dates? Stan says it's about three months after March 4th, which would mean we're still in June and not much later than "Man with a Plan". It's obviously over a weekend, Friday to Monday. The second episode of "The Prisoner", "Free for All" is on TV but other than the fact that it was on CBS I can find basically no info about the US airdates of that show.

Apparently "Free for All" was the fourth episode to be aired in both the UK and US. The show began airing on June 1, so this would put the airing on possibly the 22nd. If it's Friday to Monday, that makes it June 21-24, 1968.

That's at least something. So far I had it as June 7-10, but June 21-24 sounds better if you've got that Prisoner thing. Now that I think about it, didn't Don have a line about Chevy rejecting so many campaigns in so many weeks, and we could date from when they got Chevy on May 17 or so?

EDIT: Just checked. They rejected seven ideas in six weeks, which might put it Friday June 28 - Monday July 1, although I'm inclined to treat "The Prisoner" airdate as hard evidence more than Stan's temporal guestimates while high or Don's rounding while frustrated....

Six weeks starting from mid-May?

Six weeks from May 17 or abouts yeah. Like I said since the June 21 weekend works just as well as the June 28 weekend I am inclined to say the former based on The Prisoner.

Finding is the US airdates is a pain in the ass. But as I said, they were apparently nearly identical to the UK ones except for maybe one episode late in the series. And if you have the right episode picked, it was aired fourth.

Yeah I know the episode. It's like if they had showed a TOS clip.

Great episode tonight. A great dramedy almost. Bob and Joan threw me for a loop. I like it when this show can surprise me.

Well, I loved that episode. May be my favorite thus far of the season. Of course, I also liked last week's episode and almost everyone else seems to have hated it.

I was hoping Don and Betty would frak. I saw that coming from the scene where Betty got propositioned by that guy in the white tuxedo. Who wears a white tuxedo? Seriously.

Peggy stabbing Abe. Jesus. I liked the ending. As Peggy said to Ted that he and Don could be the same sometimes.

This show is my writing class.

To add on. I expect we'll see Don, Roger, and Harry in LA soon. Or somewhere with palm trees as the set photos reveal. The next episode of "A Tale of Two Cities". ??? I didn't pay attention to Harry's hair this week, so I can't compare it to the set photos and judge whether it could be soon. Hey, I enjoy playing detective.

The finale title, "In Care Of", is certainly intriguing.

I won't render judgement on this season until I can see it in it's entirety. So far I will say that I don't think it's a bad season. Maybe not hitting a perfect score, but I'll wait and see how it continues.

Another thing that has been on my mind for several episodes... We're seeing young Don in the whorehouse. I think his dad died when he was 10, so that'd be 1936. So we're seeing the late 30's, despite the actor looking older and all that. I'd be curious to see if they can show teenage Don in S7. He has said he ran away to join the army, and it might be interesting to play that off of what is happening in S7. At the end of S3 we saw young Don at the time he and his stepmother left Illinois played with Don leaving his agency and marriage. I'd love to see WHY Don left in the late 40's. WHAT made him leave. He volunteered, and he's not a patriot. Casting an actor could be a challenge. But it may play off of S7 well, especially if Don were to try to escape his life as Donald Draper.

To add on further, running through my head is an ending where we leave 1970 Don in some situation analogous to when we'd go to 1950 Dick leaving. Maybe with Adam almost doing a "Shane, come back." And fading to black as Dick is literally running away. But casting that could be a challenge. There is always subtle facial CG stuff if Hamm can't me made up perfectly.

Bob Benson seems to have scored the ultimate ass-kissing prize. What a hilariously awkward scene. This show always does "uncomfortable" comedy really well. I can't believe Joan's taking that relationship seriously though. Strikes me more like an older woman who is just appreciated having attention paid to her by a younger man.

Also I feel like the episode titles haven't been as on-point this season. Like, some of them have been really tight, like "The Doorway", "For Immediate Release", but a lot of them feel either purposelessly vague or matched to the wrong episode. Why was this story called "The Better Half"? I mean, Peggy, Betty and Joan all had storylines, but it didn't feel like a "girl's episode" the way some other Mad Men episodes have felt.


EDIT: How awesome was Duck Phillips showing up?? I loved that he seemed all together, in a sad, past-middle age kinda way. I loved his line about regret and not realizing the "wellspring of his confidence" came from his family.

That Abe is one unlikeable pinko. If only Peggy knew how to handle that spear.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

EDIT: How awesome was Duck Phillips showing up?? I loved that he seemed all together, in a sad, past-middle age kinda way. I loved his line about regret and not realizing the "wellspring of his confidence" came from his family.

I saw "Mark Moses" in the intro and waiting for him to pop up. I almost wish his name had been saved for the end. As for his attitude, Weiner seems to be taking that course with the main characters, so to have it voiced by Duck of all people is great.

Based on Megan's reference to the Central Park shootings, I'm calling "The Better Half" for July 5-8, 1968.

Well.

Danny comes back and punches Roger in the balls. Pete smokes a joint. Jim Cutler steals the business. Joan: Account Mam?

Good times @ Sterling Cooper & Partners. People taking the initiative seems to be a theme.

Episode starts August 26. I didn't track the days.

Enjoyable episode. Highlight was Napoleon using Roger's balls as a punching bag and Don getting high as fuck. Oh, and Joan's tits in that blue number.

Really think this show has become a parody of itself at this point.

Vesper wrote:

Really think this show has become a parody of itself at this point.

I'm not seeing that. I think the show is as well-written as ever, if it's not quite as dynamic as ever. I went through all of S6 thus far over the weekend. It reminds me a little of S2; well-written, not as dynamic.

I thought the latest episode was good. Curious to see how the business goes. I really like the addition of Jim Cutler and Bob Benson to the show. Cutler is like a snake. He's like an empty vessel. But he's obviously gunning for Roger and Don, and even Ken. It would be quite interesting to see Don and Pete have to rely on each other a lot more.

I did like the latest episode, although it seemed mostly like a "move the pieces on the board" episode. But you need to have those.

The classic SCDP gang need to realize what's going on or they're all screwed. As usual, Pete sees what's coming before anyone else but no one will listen to him because he's so unlikeable. Joan is so busy protecting herself that she seems oblivious to what's really going on (which is unusal for her), and Don and Roger have both more or less checked out for years with sporadic occasions of motivation, usually petty.

Agree with you on all points. They don't even have Joan in Don's office when the new name is decided upon. She'd pick up on what's happening.

I'm eager to see if the rug will be pulled out from under Don and Roger. I see a very possible (more like probable) fracture coming. If it does, it'll be interesting to see who winds up with who. I'd love to see Pete come into more power.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

It reminds me a little of S2; well-written, not as dynamic.

I think the problem is that that doesn't quite cut it at this point in the game. We're almost in the home stretch. There should be a lot of momentum here.

Yeah I was thinking that too harms. Stuff IS happening, but it all seems to be in the background while the characters spin their wheels and meanwhile the time period itself has come more to the front which is a definite shift. It feels like we have had four or five episodes worth of events stretched over ten.

Well, three more episodes to go. I'm interested to see if things at least play better based on how the season ends.