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I started watching Mad Men over the summer, and I found this thread while looking for some kind of a discussion thread (and I can't say no to a Jerusalem thread after The Wire). I'm about halfway through season 5 right now and working through the write-ups in the thread but I just wanted to pop in and say a couple funny things that occurred to me watching for the first time in 2023. This is now the 3rd series with Ben Feldman I've been exposed to over the pandemic (the previous two being Silicon Valley and Superstore) and I am actually quite astounded by how dynamic of an actor he is. Ron LaFlamme, Jonah Simms, and now Michael Ginsberg are all vastly different people with their own idiosyncrasies that I am not used to seeing with actors across shows. I'm not saying that actors like Jared Harris aren't also very good, but there's a certain energy actors like him bring to characters they portray and they do kind of blend together, but again, in a good way. I can't help but snicker whenever Ken Cosgrove is on screen because I played L.A. Noire a LOT, and so he's just Cole Phelps. I'm sure there will be more things as I continue working through the series but man, man I cannot get over how much drinking happens in this show. Is this actually what functional alcoholism looks like?
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Nov 17, 2023 19:40
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 08:11 |
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Just wrapping up season 6 now and Jesus loving CHRIST, I found myself rolling my eyes for most of Don's poo poo for the first 5 seasons, but this season is a whole other level. This loving guy. I feel like there's a special place in hell waiting for him for all the bullshit he says and pulls in the back half. I have no love for Herb, but the things Don says to Joan about it, just gently caress you very much!
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Nov 23, 2023 05:38
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I will say this, his actions don't make me dislike the show. I can think of a lot of other shows where something like that would make me go "why am I still watching this?" but I am still intrigued by everyone else in the show. I guess the difference is that Don's actions do have consequences? Sorta?
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Nov 23, 2023 16:29
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Season 7 is...kinda violent. I was super worried for Ken, and  to MichaelSo far, it is nice to see Don finally eat some poo poo, but I almost feel it's too little, too late for all the crap he's put people through over the years. But hey, that's life for a rich, white man. You get a dozen or so chances, even if you didn't deserve a third or even fourth.
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Nov 26, 2023 18:51
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I just finished episode...5 of season 7, so still got a decent amount to go. though as I am also working my way through the thread itself, I also read the wired article that got posted for the season 6 premier. I found myself nodding along with parts in it which made me realise something about my reaction to the show. I'm watching it with 2023 eyes and also coming at it with preconceived ideas about the characters and show that have been influenced from cultural osmosis. I don't deny that Don doesn't have his issues, I mean holy poo poo does he have a lot of them. But for most of the run time of the show he hasn't, in my eyes, really done anything to actively get better. I mean, I get it, I never said that this was a horrible show and I was going to stop watching it, just that some of his actions get a very visceral reaction from me, something I view as a very good thing when it comes to art. In my own art I always want to get strong emotional responses from my audiences, so I like it when I get that from movies, tv, music, etc.
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Nov 27, 2023 04:17
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I like Bob. At first, I was wondering who he was and where he came from, then I kinda clued in that he's another version of Don with his own history that he wants to keep secret. Then he seemed a little like Sal 2.0, but with less repression? Again, since I'm not even at the halfway point for season 7, I'm scared he's gonna turn out to have some skeletons and he's gonna turn into a huge rear end in a top hat too  I was already bummed when he proposed to Joan and he revealed that it wasn't because he truly loved her. I totally thought he was sincere
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Nov 27, 2023 16:28
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alright, finished the first half of season 7. The back half is off to a great start, though "I want to burn this place down" same Joan, same
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Nov 28, 2023 07:03
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Huh, so Glen didn't change after all these years. It was always about Betty. Wonder if she feels flattered
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Nov 29, 2023 01:45
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well that was a bittersweet ending. Definitely feel bad for Joan. In a way, she's always going to be independent (or just want to do things) and finding someone who will just be ok with that seems like a tall order in the 60s and 70s. I was rooting for her, but she didn't compromise her career and I can relate to that. I'm honestly surprised Pete managed to turn things around in his life. I guess he finally grew up? That, and as a lot of the write-ups about him seemed to hint at, he finally accomplished something that was borne from his sweat and blood. Maybe now he deserves to be with a woman like Trudy, but I didn't feel that way for, well, pretty much the whole show. Happy for Peggy! I was kinda hoping that she was gonna go with Joan as a final demonstration of how much their relationship has flourished from the beginning. Maybe she won't become a partner, but maybe she'll do work with her in the future. The thing with Stan was sweet but felt kind of "pair the spares" to me, I think her ending would've been just as strong if she just kept chugging along and he was around to ground her. I'm also asexual, so I feel that way about a lot of relationships of convenience in media (a thing I was really bummed out about with Bob's marriage proposal). As for Don, I dunno, you can't really yell  at a man at this time, especially coming from Don's strata, so his finally engaging in the retreat is a good start. If I'm going to be totally honest, I didn't care much about the resolution to his story. If he had disappeared into the ocean, or whatever, that would've worked just as well. The dude's been actively pushing people away for so long and not addressing any of his issues that at a certain point people just give up because they've got their own poo poo to deal with. I have no real strong opinions on the Coca-Cola ad at the end, I can buy that Don comes up with the perfect pitch or whatever, but I also don't really care.I will say this feels like one of the few "prestige" shows that didn't trip over itself at the finish line. Mad Men had a strong ending that still made sense for the world it created. I'd say for the two big AMC shows of the era, it had a better ending than Breaking Bad
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Nov 29, 2023 09:33
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People were saying before that the interpretation of the Coca-Cola ad is kinda telling on themselves. I agree, in that I can look at an ad and see why it is considered a classic. But it also makes me think of stuff like the Kylie Jenner Pepsi ad and then I just think it is very hollow
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Nov 29, 2023 18:24
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I mean, Pete's working with Learjet in 1970/71. Dude somehow lucked his way into something bigger than anything he had with the ad agencies, especially since they gave him a cool million in stock options AND a private plane. Who cares if he lives in fly-over country, he can go wherever and whenever. I just hope he doesn't sleep around again. How can you even imagine doing that when you're married to someone like
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Nov 29, 2023 19:32
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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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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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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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kalel posted:the only time in history it was morally correct to spoil a work was the people who shouted "snape kills dumbledore!!" at the midnight sales of harry potter 6 No, I think the shirts that included the "I just saved you 600 some pages of reading" we're the better trolls. Also, when FYAD was titled "Han dies!" for the first month after The Force Awakens came out. That one tripped me up because, it being FYAD, I thought someone was joking. Then I'm sitting in the theatre and then Han's standing on a bridge and I think to myself "oh poo poo! they were actually being truthful!" Spoilers are weird
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Jan 12, 2024 06:51
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kalel posted:every character's ending in the last two episodes, with maybe the exception of Harry's, can be read as either good or bad and it depends entirely on your personal relationship with that character. that's the genius of it. Did Harry do anything besides trend downward after the tryst in...season 1?
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Jan 19, 2024 20:15
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I will say this about the ending, though this finale was still a few years before the thing I'm comparing it with. It shows to me that Coca-Cola has always had its finger on the pulse (outside that one time with new coke, but even then, the fact that the company did a 180 so fast shows that they do pay attention and they care) and there is a sincerity in their campaigns. My point of comparison is, of course, the Live for Now campaign for Pepsi
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Apr 10, 2024 03:49
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 08:11 |
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I'm going to be totally honest and say that I thought his Hawaii ad was great and I didn't understand why everyone was hesitant about it. After reading Jerusalem's post about the episode my thoughts were "oh, ok, I can see how it can be read that way. But what percentage of the audience would actually take away the message that a hotel chain wants you to commit suicide? Surely that percentage would be small" and then "how many loving times has this stupid A Star Is Born movie been done?! Jesus Christ!"
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Apr 10, 2024 16:43
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