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Finished s4. I had to quit reading recaps for now and just blaze through the last few episodes. I simply could not stop. During this marathon there have been a couple of times when I did nothing but watch Mad Men for 5-10 hours in a row. I’ve only now realized that there is at least one other person watching it for the first time, so I will start spoilering things. The show once again shocked me, when Don proposed to Megan. During that scene I could sort of see it coming but still couldn’t believe it. It felt like watching a car crash in slow motion, and when it happened my only thought was oh, Don… no. It remains to be seen how this will work out for the two of them, but I feel a lot of trepidation about it. It certainly felt to me like the moment he decided, or at least started to think really seriously about it, was when Sally knocked over the milkshake. Don and the kids are so conditioned to Betty’s normal reaction to that kind of thing, but sweet Megan just smiles and jokes, and starts cleaning it up. Very anti-Betty. And I mean, I get what a welcome change that is. But is that a good enough reason to decided to marry her, especially while he’s still carrying on with Faye? No way. Very strange how Megan sort of came out of nowhere, really only emerging as a character midway through this season. At least, as best as I can remember, that’s how it was done. I’m not saying it was poor writing, or a bad thing, it was just unexpected. I did expect Bert’s exit to be short-lived, but then we don’t see him in the season finale, and I’ve got to wonder: was “I’m no longer a part of this agency” his last appearance? Is it now just Sterling Draper Pryce? I felt seasons 1-3 were sort of like a big buildup, culminating in the end of 3 where they go off to form their own agency, and there has been so much wild poo poo in s4 that it felt almost like a different show. And not in a bad way. I loved s1-3 also, it’s just really going in some different directions now. There has been more humor in s4. Also, everybody has been going through changes, and it seems like that’s been the main theme of the season. I need more time to collect my thoughts on all this. I realize this is a little e/n type of poo poo so I’ll keep it brief, but I’ve been in a period of my life where I’ve been doing a lot of self-analysis, and I see a lot of myself in some of these characters. Mostly in Don, but in other characters also. Now, I’m not a womanizer. At all. I do sometimes have problems with relationships and with selfishness. With self-loathing. I also drink too much. Not like I’ve seen Don drink this season (holy poo poo was a lot of that difficult for me to watch), but still. I’m not a bad person, more like a regular person, with good and bad points, just like the people in this show. I am also going through a divorce as we speak, and due to that situation I’m facing *extreme* life changes right now, and I have never been the type of person who enjoys or welcomes change. So in a way I think my deciding to finally properly watch this show came at a good time. It’s given me a lot of things to think about. I think most of the really great TV and movies do that. Perhaps all the introspection it’s caused is helping me to become a better person. And to get over some of the poo poo I’ve carried around with me for years. I am continually amazed at how beautifully written all of these characters are. Little bits of everyone remind me of myself, and of other people I’ve known. They all just seem so, so real, and at levels or realism most other shows never quite reach. Pete and Peggy are still my favorites.
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Nov 30, 2023 10:49
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I had the exact same reaction, as someone who also struggles with self-centredness, drinking, and relationships in general, and I was in a particularly bad spot at the time I finally got round to watching it. It's a profoundly therapeutic watch overall and throughout, and I'm really looking forward to hearing your reactions regarding the next three series.
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Nov 30, 2023 11:08
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MrMojok posted:oh, Don… no. I said this a lot watching this show for the first time!
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Nov 30, 2023 11:51
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Oh man I just knew the clothing was going to get interesting since were approaching the late 60s now, but I was not prepared for this e: also I now have Zou Bisou Bisou stuck in my head MrMojok fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Nov 30, 2023 |
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Nov 30, 2023 12:15
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Sash! posted:I've always had this weirdly sympathetic look at Pete that he was how he was because he thought that's what he was supposed to be doing, not because that's who he actually was. Like he was being the sort of guy that he thought he was supposed to be because that's how other people in his position were and that's how his dad was and so on. But, in the end, he figures this out and, quite literally, leaves that world behind. This was my read on Pete, too. There's that great episode where he, Don and Roger go on an epic bender even by their standards and when Pete goes off with a sex worker Don's like "buddy, why are you doing this? I do this because I'm deeply traumatised and irreversibly broken as a human being, Roger does this because he's terrified of the fact that he's getting older, don't you genuinely love your wife and daughter?" and Pete looks rattled. He also seems to run his mouth a lot less after Lane beats him up.
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Nov 30, 2023 12:34
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MrMojok posted:Finished s4. if I were you I wouldn't try to read the most current pages of this thread because I'm terrified of spoilers, but in any case, I truly look forward to your thoughts on the series when you've finished it
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Nov 30, 2023 17:09
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yeah, I wonder if I should go back and tag my season 6 and 7 musings. I wonder what my interpretation of the show would be like if I had watched it from first release. I was in the middle of high school when Mad Men started and wasn't as much of a cynical person then. I honestly think that after 2016 (and certain events during the pandemic, such as the trucker convoy crap here in Canada) my tolerance for a lot of the bad behaviour shown in Mad Men is way lower than it would've been back in 2007/08. It's a mix of "wow, can't believe how loving awful people were back then" with a "wow, it's been 50+ years and a lot of this poo poo still happens" and it's not that it keeps me from connecting with the show, it's more that I don't have as much of a good time with the show. Then again, maybe that's the point and I should just be happy that I still have a strong connection with it 
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Nov 30, 2023 17:41
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Aces High posted:I wonder what my interpretation of the show would be like if I had watched it from first release. I was in the middle of high school when Mad Men started and wasn't as much of a cynical person then. I honestly think that after 2016 (and certain events during the pandemic, such as the trucker convoy crap here in Canada) my tolerance for a lot of the bad behaviour shown in Mad Men is way lower than it would've been back in 2007/08. It's a mix of "wow, can't believe how loving awful people were back then" with a "wow, it's been 50+ years and a lot of this poo poo still happens" and it's not that it keeps me from connecting with the show, it's more that I don't have as much of a good time with the show. This is similar to me. I think I needed a decade or so of life experience in order to truly enjoy this show, like take away the 1960s stuff and NYC and advertising and, like I've said before, I've known a version of every single character in the offices I've worked in, so the dynamics, character decisions etc make perfect sense to me and it amazes me how little has actually changed over the years.
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Nov 30, 2023 21:02
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kalel posted:if I were you I wouldn't try to read the most current pages of this thread because I'm terrified of spoilers, but in any case, I truly look forward to your thoughts on the series when you've finished it I am really only reading direct replies to my posts and staying away from everything else, just in case!
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Dec 1, 2023 00:25
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Adrianics posted:This was my read on Pete, too. There's that great episode where he, Don and Roger go on an epic bender even by their standards and when Pete goes off with a sex worker Don's like "buddy, why are you doing this? I do this because I'm deeply traumatised and irreversibly broken as a human being, Roger does this because he's terrified of the fact that he's getting older, don't you genuinely love your wife and daughter?" and Pete looks rattled. I actually think there are two big things that helped Pete grow. The first is his affair with the guy on the train's wife and seeing her after electric shock. I think that is when he realized there was something in him that was wrong. I think it's also important that out of all the characters in Mad Men, Pete drinks the least (besides Ted). While Don drowns himself in alcohol, Pete faces his unhappiness sober and without escape. So when he is told they will both end up unhappy again and that comes true, he starts facing it. He admits in that last scene, he doesn't know what is wrong with him. The second part that is big is living in California. He gets a taste of being happy in Cali because he is away from his triggers. So when he implodes after returning home, I think the stuck with him. He has a contrast between what he normally feels and what he could feel.
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Dec 1, 2023 07:48
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I'm on Season 5 now. Just finished the episode where Harry and Don try to speak to the Rolling Stones for the Heinz commercial. I'm thinking... the Who have an album cover called The Who Sell Out where one of the band members (I think Ted) is bathing in a bath of Heinz baked beans. That album came out in '67 and right now in the story it's 1966. Will the firm be responsible for that album cover in the fiction of Mad Men? EDIT: Oops, got the name wrong. Fix'd DoubleCakes fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Dec 2, 2023 |
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Dec 2, 2023 02:16
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God, the thought of that exact same episode happening but with Henry instead of Harry is cracking me up  Henry sitting in the car outside his Addams Family Mansion, scoffing burgers as Don tells him he has to go home.
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Dec 2, 2023 04:05
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DoubleCakes posted:I'm on Season 5 now. Just finished the episode where Henry and Don try to speak to the Rolling Stones for the Heinz commercial. I'm thinking... the Who have an album cover called The Who Sell Out where one of the band members (I think Ted) is bathing in a bath of Heinz baked beans. That album came out in '67 and right now in the story it's 1966. Will the firm be responsible for that album cover in the fiction of Mad Men? This would rule, wish I had thought of this
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Dec 2, 2023 04:45
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I've just finished rewatching this, through the lens of someone who has now spent a decade in the advertising industry. What strikes me the most (other than the fact that the three-martini lunch is long gone), is that Jim Cutler and Harry Crane won in the long term. Fancy computers buying media space, while taking a cut, has become a far bigger business than actually creating the ads, while that whole department was a minor footnote in the first episode. McCann is still kicking around as the biggest creative agency, valued at around $10bn. The biggest media agency is more than double that, and the 'media industry' has five players at around that size. The really telling thing is that biggest platforms (e.g. Google) are worth ten times that again. The Don Drapers still exist, but that's mostly because terrible people can still be great at their job. It has been really interesting to watch a slice of what the industry veterans would have considered the 'good old days', especially in the love/hate relationship with David Ogilvy, who still pops up everywhere.
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Dec 3, 2023 15:35
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Getting towards the end of Season 5 and towards the end of 1966 in the story's timeline. You can feel 60s counter-culture take over the environment with the Beatles' Revolver getting featured in one episode the Hare Krishna thing in "Christmas Waltz". The story has largely been about tradition and how the character's handle tradition so it's going to be interesting seeing how the characters react to the stuff that's going to happen in the lack leg of the 1960s.
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Dec 9, 2023 23:50
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On a different note, I decided to start watching The Handmaid's Tale, because of Elizabeth Moss, and I have to wonder if there's something I can watch her in where she can just, I dunno, be happy.
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Jan 8, 2024 05:13
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Aces High posted:On a different note, I decided to start watching The Handmaid's Tale, because of Elizabeth Moss, and I have to wonder if there's something I can watch her in where she can just, I dunno, be happy. Not really, no.
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Jan 8, 2024 14:58
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DoubleCakes posted:Getting towards the end of Season 5 and towards the end of 1966 in the story's timeline. You can feel 60s counter-culture take over the environment with the Beatles' Revolver getting featured in one episode the Hare Krishna thing in "Christmas Waltz". The story has largely been about tradition and how the character's handle tradition so it's going to be interesting seeing how the characters react to the stuff that's going to happen in the lack leg of the 1960s. I might be misremembering the facts on this, but I'm pretty sure their usage of The Beatles with Don listening to hardly any of the song before taking the needle off the record was a really excellent way to get away with the Fair Use policy without having to pay for the rights to the track.
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Jan 8, 2024 15:21
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Admiral Bosch posted:I might be misremembering the facts on this, but I'm pretty sure their usage of The Beatles with Don listening to hardly any of the song before taking the needle off the record was a really excellent way to get away with the Fair Use policy without having to pay for the rights to the track. You are misremembering. Matthew Weiner actually paid out of his own pocket to use the track as AMC refused.
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Jan 8, 2024 15:36
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The usage rights were allegedly in the realm of $250k, but more importantly, Weiner had to share the story context, episode outline and actual script pages with Apple Corps to get approval.
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Jan 8, 2024 15:40
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I recently saw that episode. Don just didn’t get “Tomorrow Never Knows” at all, did he. His face had that “what in the world am I listening to” look.
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Jan 8, 2024 18:57
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I think it was more of Don thinking, "I don't get it" and tying onto the season's theme of the old guys like Don and Harry losing touch with culture.
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Jan 8, 2024 19:08
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Aces High posted:On a different note, I decided to start watching The Handmaid's Tale, because of Elizabeth Moss, and I have to wonder if there's something I can watch her in where she can just, I dunno, be happy. Well she is a Scientologist.
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Jan 8, 2024 19:29
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JethroMcB posted:The usage rights were allegedly in the realm of $250k, but more importantly, Weiner had to share the story context, episode outline and actual script pages with Apple Corps to get approval. would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for this meeting, especially if mccartney himself was there (probably not but I can dream). he might have gotten a kick out of a lennon-penned song being treated so disrespectfully by the text lol also in researching this post, I learned that lennon was inspired to write it after reading the psychedelic experience, which itself was based on the tibetan book of the
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Jan 8, 2024 19:49
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i’m in my 40s now and would definitely had that same face if someone made me try listening whatever this apathetic mumble music the gen Zs are into these days. [grandpa simpson voice] and it’ll happen to you too
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Jan 8, 2024 20:18
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I'm with Don on this one, not a huge fan of the Beatles' psychedelic stuff.
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Jan 8, 2024 21:44
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Kemper Boyd posted:Well she is a Scientologist. Hmm, well, that's not the end of the world. Also, as someone who does like trippy music, that's a Beatles song that didn't jive with me either. I dunno, I wasn't ever a huge fan of The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. Absolutely love The Who and Pink Floyd, though
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Jan 9, 2024 01:56
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I never liked "Tomorrow Never Knows" much until that episode. That episode made it cool for me for some reason.
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Jan 9, 2024 02:07
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The good parts of Sucker Punch sold me on it. Although that wasn't the Beatles.
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Jan 9, 2024 04:24
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I was gonna say the best part of the Beatles episode is Ken desperately trying to pretend that the 30 year old song they're listening to is totally hip and with it like the Beatles, but then I remembered what the ACTUAL best part of that episode was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iw0euc4qDk The look on her face after she hangs up just loving kills me every time
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Jan 9, 2024 05:08
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Jerusalem posted:The look on her face after she hangs up just loving kills me every time It's one of my favorite single moments from the entire series, along with "the king ordered it", "not great bob", and...poo poo probably a handful other pete lines and roger's LSD experience
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Jan 9, 2024 13:45
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You GRIMY LITTLE PIMP
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Jan 9, 2024 19:19
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ulvir posted:i’m in my 40s now and would definitely had that same face if someone made me try listening whatever this apathetic mumble music the gen Zs are into these days. [grandpa simpson voice] and it’ll happen to you too Somebody redub that scene so that Don's listening to 100 Gecs with a pensive look on his face
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Jan 9, 2024 19:22
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aBagorn posted:It's one of my favorite single moments from the entire series, along with "the king ordered it", "not great bob", and...poo poo probably a handful other pete lines and roger's LSD experience THE KING ORDERED IT! is an incredible moment, because up until that point the headmaster is just some weirdo dude with a bizarre grudge that both Pete and Trudy are the normal people being weirded out by.... and then all of a sudden it turns out that Pete is not only fully aware of, but equally as fired up about, the same bullshit grudge
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Jan 10, 2024 00:42
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"That's what the money is for!" pops into my head all the time maybe a little more mundane but I also think about Roger's "you hosed UP!" to Pete after Pete kills the DoD contract to save Don
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Jan 10, 2024 03:31
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also pretty much every line of dialogue from the last episode
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Jan 10, 2024 03:31
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"Boohoo they need more wrenches or something" randomly pops in my head from time to time
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Jan 10, 2024 04:48
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Jesus was probably just trying to save the fishes and loaves account
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Jan 10, 2024 12:42
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I'd ask my secretary but she's dead.
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Jan 10, 2024 17:07
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Jerusalem posted:THE KING ORDERED IT! is an incredible moment, because up until that point the headmaster is just some weirdo dude with a bizarre grudge that both Pete and Trudy are the normal people being weirded out by.... and then all of a sudden it turns out that Pete is not only fully aware of, but equally as fired up about, the same bullshit grudge It's also fun because it's the ONLY TIME someone cares about the Campbell name Also, for happy elizabeth moss watch The One I Love. She plays two people and one of them is happy
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Jan 11, 2024 08:43
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